At this point it just HAS to be a conspiracy, probably funded by some big evil corporation with an interest in people thinking "if I use Linux, bad things will happen." Hmm, I wonder who that is...
Let's make a deal. You give me a dollar, then I give you a dollar (a different one!) and then we will have just boosted the economy by $2, at least by your understanding.
This is not how things work at all. Workers are only good for what they produce. Employing people for the sake of employing them serves no purpose; they might as well receive welfare.
In fact, in the case of spam (and telemarketers), all they produce is a drain on the economy. We'd be better off if those fraudulent companies were all eliminated and their employees started getting welfare equal to their previous wages. At least then, they wouldn't be wasting people's time.
He said "Other than the fact that most infringers do not like to use Freenet because it is too clunky for them to get their quick hit of free music, it is no more of a threat than any of the popular P2P services."
Given the context, he had to have meant "Freenet is no less of a threat than any of the other P2P services." It makes no sense to say "Aside from the fact that X is unreliable sometimes, it's not very good." You'd be implying that X's unreliability is a good thing.
Are you serious?!?
Are you unable to distinguish between scenarios in which you "pickup prostitutes, etc." and rape? (Or is this just well-disguised flamebait?)
robbery:
: the act or practice of robbing; specifically : larceny from the person or presence of another by violence or threat
This is NOT what record companies are/were doing. Your analogy does not fit.
From m-w.com:
theft:
1 a : the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it
People who download MP3's aren't stealing either. But the RIAA likes to bend the definitions of words, so let's do that back at them.
what would be seen as the most impressive/rare/interesting XFree hardware setup could we now have with NetBSD?
The best thing I can come up with is buying a second keyboard and mouse (both USB), and using my GeForce 4 with dual VGA outputs for two simultaneous users.
Then I can have zero-ping multiplayer gaming or set up Windows inside VMware and brag that one *BSD is twice as good as Windows!
Yeah, I'm going to do this just as soon as I have FreeBSD set up on my system. I may start to feel the need for a second processor, though.
Time travel. Possible? Yes. It happens relativly speaking every day.
When you get onto an airplane you slow down in time. To say this simply. The faster you go, the slower time moves around you. This was confirmed back in the 1970's using atomic clocks. Although this isn't exactly time travel it's called time dilation which is a product of the general theory of relativity.
I'm no physicist, but I do feel pretty confident in saying that time travel is impossible. But rather than argue my reasons for that, I'd like to suggest an alternative explanation for time dilation.
I remind you again, I am not a physicist, but imagine if you calculate all the forces that act on an object, from both outside and within that object. This is before time dilation.
Now you calculate time dilation where 1.0 represents moving through time at normal speed and 0.0 represents not moving through time at all. I believe this is the reciprocal of the standard measurement of time dilation.
Now think of it this way: the magnitude of the various forces is being multiplied by this factor. The object continues to "move through time" at a constant rate, but the laws of physics affecting it are slowed down. If the time dilation was reduced to zero, rather than disappearing from the next "time frame", the object would continue to exist in the present, but would be in a frozen state.
What if time dilation became a negative value? The object would remain in the present, the past would stay unaffected, and all forces on the object would reverse. Gravity would push. Magnetic opposites would repulse.
Is there some reason I'm not aware of that this interpretation doesn't work?
I'd highly recommend Star Control 2, by Toys for Bob, as a classic game. In fact, I consider it my favorite game of all time. It has some RPG elements, a great real-time space combat system which can even be played human vs. human, instead of a lame Final Fantasy battle system, and totally non-linear storyline progression. The majority of the game is conversation with aliens.
After leaving your colony and returning to Earth in a mysterious alien ship, you find that in the 20 years you have been cut off from what's going on outside the colony planet, the Alliance lost the war, and the human race is now imprisoned by a slave shield surrounding Earth.
There is a starbase in orbit of Earth. After your first task of making contact with them, it is up to you to find out how you can defeat the Ur-Quan. Not knowing anything about the spheres of influence yet, you just look at your starmap, and plot a course in any direction, hoping the alien races you meet are friendly...
Most tasks aren't necessary to complete the game, but instead get you something that will help you out a lot, like a useful device or an alliance with a race, allowing you to build their ships and use them in combat, or even just information.
Originally created as a PC DOS game, it was later ported to the 3DO console where they added 12+ hours of speech, CG opening and ending sequences, and a few other enhancements.
The 3DO version with all the enhancements, voice included, is now being ported back to Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc, and will be released as freeware. So the freeware version isn't available yet, but you'll want to keep checking the fan site for updates.
Slashdot Mirror
In Soviet Russia, Pocket PCs imagine a beowulf cluster of YOU!
Unfortunately, no one can be told what The Grid is... You have to see it for yourself.
With the way people act, just call it a worm.
I'd like to see THAT happen in class!
What's better? Preventing murders, or letting people murder just so you can send them to jail for it?
At this point it just HAS to be a conspiracy, probably funded by some big evil corporation with an interest in people thinking "if I use Linux, bad things will happen." Hmm, I wonder who that is...
Let's make a deal. You give me a dollar, then I give you a dollar (a different one!) and then we will have just boosted the economy by $2, at least by your understanding.
This is not how things work at all. Workers are only good for what they produce. Employing people for the sake of employing them serves no purpose; they might as well receive welfare.
In fact, in the case of spam (and telemarketers), all they produce is a drain on the economy. We'd be better off if those fraudulent companies were all eliminated and their employees started getting welfare equal to their previous wages. At least then, they wouldn't be wasting people's time.
That was just an urban legend.
90 ???
100 profit
The trick is to post the information to Freenet before it gets classified.
He said "Other than the fact that most infringers do not like to use Freenet because it is too clunky for them to get their quick hit of free music, it is no more of a threat than any of the popular P2P services."
Given the context, he had to have meant "Freenet is no less of a threat than any of the other P2P services." It makes no sense to say "Aside from the fact that X is unreliable sometimes, it's not very good." You'd be implying that X's unreliability is a good thing.
He wouldn't be the only one who can't. According to CBN, Vice City is a game that simulates the rape and murder of prostitutes. (Seek to 15:20)
From m-w.com:
theft:
1 a : the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it
People who download MP3's aren't stealing either. But the RIAA likes to bend the definitions of words, so let's do that back at them.
Assuming they buy on average 5 CD's, and each one costs $12, that works out to 5*12=$60 per student. 60*100 = $6000 total.
$12000 > $6000, so it's worth it. You're looking at the new business model of the music industry.
Step 5) ???
Step 6) Profit!
I'm no physicist, but I do feel pretty confident in saying that time travel is impossible. But rather than argue my reasons for that, I'd like to suggest an alternative explanation for time dilation.
I remind you again, I am not a physicist, but imagine if you calculate all the forces that act on an object, from both outside and within that object. This is before time dilation.
Now you calculate time dilation where 1.0 represents moving through time at normal speed and 0.0 represents not moving through time at all. I believe this is the reciprocal of the standard measurement of time dilation.
Now think of it this way: the magnitude of the various forces is being multiplied by this factor. The object continues to "move through time" at a constant rate, but the laws of physics affecting it are slowed down. If the time dilation was reduced to zero, rather than disappearing from the next "time frame", the object would continue to exist in the present, but would be in a frozen state.
What if time dilation became a negative value? The object would remain in the present, the past would stay unaffected, and all forces on the object would reverse. Gravity would push. Magnetic opposites would repulse.
Is there some reason I'm not aware of that this interpretation doesn't work?
I'd highly recommend Star Control 2, by Toys for Bob, as a classic game. In fact, I consider it my favorite game of all time. It has some RPG elements, a great real-time space combat system which can even be played human vs. human, instead of a lame Final Fantasy battle system, and totally non-linear storyline progression. The majority of the game is conversation with aliens.
After leaving your colony and returning to Earth in a mysterious alien ship, you find that in the 20 years you have been cut off from what's going on outside the colony planet, the Alliance lost the war, and the human race is now imprisoned by a slave shield surrounding Earth.
There is a starbase in orbit of Earth. After your first task of making contact with them, it is up to you to find out how you can defeat the Ur-Quan. Not knowing anything about the spheres of influence yet, you just look at your starmap, and plot a course in any direction, hoping the alien races you meet are friendly...
Most tasks aren't necessary to complete the game, but instead get you something that will help you out a lot, like a useful device or an alliance with a race, allowing you to build their ships and use them in combat, or even just information.
Originally created as a PC DOS game, it was later ported to the 3DO console where they added 12+ hours of speech, CG opening and ending sequences, and a few other enhancements.
The 3DO version with all the enhancements, voice included, is now being ported back to Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc, and will be released as freeware. So the freeware version isn't available yet, but you'll want to keep checking the fan site for updates.