"The 21st century equivilent ot the national highway system", assuming there were already many private highway systems that take you to all the same places.
Grocery stores are infrastructure too, yet few cities have municipally run, taxpayer financed ones.
The thing that many seem to be conveniently forgetting is that ending mail in rebates is going to end the ability to get certain items for free after rebate. The talk that they'll just lower the price at the point of purchase is all well and good, but Best Buy is not going to stock enough of an item to be able to give one away to every customer who wants it.
OfficeMax, for instance, often will have a whole section in their add of items that after rebate you can get entirely free. I've always gotten my rebates back from them. I can't recall the last time I paid for a CD-r. Or for disc cases.
Funny, as someone who has been using Linux systems for the past several years games was one of the selling points of the Mac. I'm starting to get real sick of Railroad Tycoon 2 and HOMM3
The US Military has been, especially in the last century, really good at mainly targeting some pretty bad dictators recently. I mean unless you think we should've sat down for a mutual wank session with Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Milosevich, or Saddam. Even Ho Chi Minh was a pretty bad dude. The US Military has also been extremely good about only going places and killing people your elected politicians have sent them to... wait a minute. I forgot, they don't do what they're told by scumbag politicians. That's not what a military does these days.
Wait... the US didn't sit down for mutual wank sessions with Stalin? The US used the full force of its military to bring down Mao?
You think it's immoral for software to be used by the military, even when the military spends most of their time NOT killing people.
The military spends most of its time either killing people or coming up with more efficient ways of killing people.
I don't even neccesarily think its immoral to let your software be used to that end, I just don't want mine to be used that way.
Once you cross that line and start putting down those arbitrary decisions based on your own little moral code, the software loses its freedom.
Call me crazy, but when it comes down to people or software losing their freedom, I'm going to side with people. Not that the two are neccesarily mutually exclusive, but since I wrote the software, it seems like its my call.
I could care less about what people say, or what email they send.
I don't want any software I write being used to murder people (or support the murdering of them). That's not an unrealistic condition to place on the free use of that software.
Normally I just BSD shit I write, but the more I think about it, I'd just as soon the military (and probably the government in general) couldn't legally make use of my code for their own purposes.
Give your government supreme control over what individual companies can and can't include in their software and you get what you deserve: inferior products and crippleware.
Now personally I haven't touched a windows system since college, so its getting to be a distant memory exactly what one even looks like (and I've never seen an XP system at all), but it seems to me that a media player is pretty much standard in every other modern operating system, and has been for quite some time.
That's a very good point... if they are keeping your fingerprints (and there's no way to opt out) that too is a big problem.
I may look into that: my parents gave the police my fingerprints when I was 5 years old (as part of some ill-conceived anti-kidnapping campaign)... I wonder if I can demand they remove them from their database (assuming they actually kept them in the first place).
If not, I can probably make an interesting lawsuit:)
The problem is that there are people who were arrested for crimes they didn't commit, and some of them aren't thrilled with the idea of the people who did it keeping their data.
Frankly the first thing that hit me when I read this story was "lawsuit opportunity". You've already likely got a case for wrongful arrest... now they're keeping seized DNA samples after you were acquitted? That's a money making opportunity if I've ever heard one.
You ever try to get a straight answer out of an IRS worker about even a simple tax question? They're completely unwilling to stick their neck out to make filing easier.
Just print a bunch of PDFs and mail them in... serves them right to get bogged down in paperwork.
Slashdot Mirror
"The 21st century equivilent ot the national highway system", assuming there were already many private highway systems that take you to all the same places.
Grocery stores are infrastructure too, yet few cities have municipally run, taxpayer financed ones.
Frankly it's a miracle anyone in this country pays for anything anymore. Surely enough people enjoy Cadbury Creme Eggs to make them an entitlement.
The thing that many seem to be conveniently forgetting is that ending mail in rebates is going to end the ability to get certain items for free after rebate. The talk that they'll just lower the price at the point of purchase is all well and good, but Best Buy is not going to stock enough of an item to be able to give one away to every customer who wants it.
OfficeMax, for instance, often will have a whole section in their add of items that after rebate you can get entirely free. I've always gotten my rebates back from them. I can't recall the last time I paid for a CD-r. Or for disc cases.
Funny, as someone who has been using Linux systems for the past several years games was one of the selling points of the Mac. I'm starting to get real sick of Railroad Tycoon 2 and HOMM3
The US Military has been, especially in the last century, really good at mainly targeting some pretty bad dictators recently. I mean unless you think we should've sat down for a mutual wank session with Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Milosevich, or Saddam. Even Ho Chi Minh was a pretty bad dude. The US Military has also been extremely good about only going places and killing people your elected politicians have sent them to... wait a minute. I forgot, they don't do what they're told by scumbag politicians. That's not what a military does these days.
Wait... the US didn't sit down for mutual wank sessions with Stalin? The US used the full force of its military to bring down Mao?
You think it's immoral for software to be used by the military, even when the military spends most of their time NOT killing people.
The military spends most of its time either killing people or coming up with more efficient ways of killing people.
I don't even neccesarily think its immoral to let your software be used to that end, I just don't want mine to be used that way.
Once you cross that line and start putting down those arbitrary decisions based on your own little moral code, the software loses its freedom.
Call me crazy, but when it comes down to people or software losing their freedom, I'm going to side with people. Not that the two are neccesarily mutually exclusive, but since I wrote the software, it seems like its my call.
I could care less about what people say, or what email they send.
I don't want any software I write being used to murder people (or support the murdering of them). That's not an unrealistic condition to place on the free use of that software.
Normally I just BSD shit I write, but the more I think about it, I'd just as soon the military (and probably the government in general) couldn't legally make use of my code for their own purposes.
Not sure I entirely get what you're saying... but one thing that's always confused me is the belief that "they own the home computer market".
I've got a computer in virtually every room of the house... and not one is running an MS operating system.
Give your government supreme control over what individual companies can and can't include in their software and you get what you deserve: inferior products and crippleware.
Now personally I haven't touched a windows system since college, so its getting to be a distant memory exactly what one even looks like (and I've never seen an XP system at all), but it seems to me that a media player is pretty much standard in every other modern operating system, and has been for quite some time.
Who's tied to comedy central?
That's a very good point... if they are keeping your fingerprints (and there's no way to opt out) that too is a big problem.
:)
I may look into that: my parents gave the police my fingerprints when I was 5 years old (as part of some ill-conceived anti-kidnapping campaign)... I wonder if I can demand they remove them from their database (assuming they actually kept them in the first place).
If not, I can probably make an interesting lawsuit
Then its not a problem for you.
The problem is that there are people who were arrested for crimes they didn't commit, and some of them aren't thrilled with the idea of the people who did it keeping their data.
Frankly the first thing that hit me when I read this story was "lawsuit opportunity". You've already likely got a case for wrongful arrest... now they're keeping seized DNA samples after you were acquitted? That's a money making opportunity if I've ever heard one.
And more importantly, did they actual cover those allegations in the first place, or were they just running government created pseudo-news?
The effect on public libraries is abuse enough, IMO.
It's forced librarians around the nation to literally go around destroying records to protect their guests from anonymous, unreportable scrutiny.
That's a very "modern American" view of the definitions. Libertarianism owes much of its ideology to classical liberalism.
You ever try to get a straight answer out of an IRS worker about even a simple tax question? They're completely unwilling to stick their neck out to make filing easier.
Just print a bunch of PDFs and mail them in... serves them right to get bogged down in paperwork.
Make it clear to your family that just because you're at home doesn't mean you're not working.
Anything that someone else could extract a little enjoyment out of will get you sued.
did you try command? That's how you do it in WC2
Which is exactly why I play video games, to experience the joy of using a computer and having it be a pain in the ass.
True enough, but its no worse than playing on a two-button trackpad on a Wintel laptop. The point is, the Mac-specific criticism doesn't hold water.
I just assumed one who lugs an iBook around would have some passing idea how one simulates right clicks on the trackpad
Have you ever tried to play WarCraft 3 without 2 buttons? As far as I can tell, it's not even possible.
I'm impressed that someone can "lug an iBook around" while carpooling and whatnot and never noticed the command button on their keyboard.
Warcraft with a trackpad is a pain in the ass, but its certainly possible.
Except that there's nothing you can do with an external mouse that you can't do with the trackpad + keyboard combos.
Once you get used to it, simulating right-clicks on a powerbook isn't any less efficient than using a two-button trackpad.
This is just another example of the dangerous FUD the Betamax fanatics dish out against us poor, oppressed VHS users.
FWIW, I've got VHS tapes that old, and they're still fine.
Might be interesting to have a Slashdot poll seeing what percentage of us actually use it for legal or illegal purposes.
I can honestly say I've never done anything on IRC illegal (unless sedition counts).