Why should we not have laws preventing someone from getting the tool necessary to commit a massacre?
It's called the 2nd Amendment.
Is there some legitimate reason that someone would need a fully-automatic weapon with a 50 round clip?
Yes. The main reason that comes to mind is an armed revolution against the existing government, should it ever become tyranical / dictatorial / etc.
It may sound unlikely, it may even BE unlikely... but fundamentally the 2nd Amendment is all about making sure that the ultimate power lies in the hands of "the people" where it belongs.
Also, you might be interested to know that legally owned / properly licensed fully automatic weapons are almost NEVER used in the commission of armed crimes. I don't have a direct link handy, but that's from the FBI's own crime statistics.
Ok, the copyright date on my copy says it was published in 2002 (must have came out **late** in 2002, or my memory is really going, as I could have sworn I haven't had this book a year...), but I didn't read it until this year... anyway, it's one of my favorites and definitely gets a vote for "Book of the Year."
Except that Minix is only licensed for free educational use, so Linux could/better not have taken any copyrighted material from Minix.
I don't any of this is particularly relevant to the SCO case, but FWIW, the above statement is no longer correct. Minix is now license under a very liberal license similar to a BSD type license.
I've had triple-boot systems with Win98, Redhat Linux and Solaris all installed on the same drive.
I've managed to make Win98, OS/2 Warp Server, Solarix x86, and Red Hat Linux co-exist together before. but I hosed the box trying to add FreeBSD to the mix...
That both sites have published this retraction, after having previously published the original stories about the DDOS being a fabrication. Many, more "mainstream" and "credible", news sites probably would not have done so, or would have published the retraction loaded with "spin."
Worse, many other sites would have tried to cover up the truth, rather than risk suffering a little "egg on the face."
To the credit of both Groklaw and Slashdot, both have said "Oops, we were wrong," and handled things in a very mature fashion.
It's a fair assumption to have, considering it's held by the states, federal government, supreme court, and basically all informed people. And good thing, too. Otherwise there'd probably be pre-1960's mandatory prayer recitals in the public schools here--if not slavery.
You know, there are limits to the power of the Federal government, and those limits exist for a reason. The Feds most certainly do NOT have the power to go around randomly passing laws that invalidate state laws. Federal courts (the Supreme Court, especially) could certainly rule a given state law unconstitutional, but I don't know anybody who I would consider an "informed person" who believes the Federal government has unlimited power.
Unfortunately, the federal Can Spam act is going to make many individual spam laws null and void, and replace it with a bad and worthless federal law.
You're operating under the assumption that the Federal government actually has the power to do that. I'd certainly say that's a debatable point.
Maybe it's time for the States to start getting serious about asserting "states rights" again. Personally, I hope they do, and I hope it starts in North Carolina. Our motto isn't "First in Freedom" for nothing, ya know.
So where are we storing all this prior art, indexed by patent number, with leagally supportable dates?
The next big Open Source challenge will come from patents. We should start now, but where?
We need some friendly corporation with deep pockets to sponsor hosting a web-based database where open source types can submit papers / code / writeups / etc. to serve a "defensive prior art" for ridiculous patents.
The quality of the papers wouldn't necessarily have to be very high, and duplicates would be fine, I think. The big thing it needs is a very effective search engine, and a way to verify the submission dates for submitted works.
Then anytime a new questionable tech patent is issued, the community can search the "defensive prior art database" for anything useful, and then notify the patent office.
It would also be nice if the tech community could establish some kind of dialogue with the USPTO where we could feel confident that we could actually get these questionable patents reviewed and (possibly) thrown out.
And the only reason I don't have earlier references is that they're so bleeding obvious!
Exactly. So many times on/. somebody will question the obviousness of a patent, and some wise-ass will say "Well, if it's so obvious then why didn't YOU think of it and patent it?" The answer is, obviously, the idea itself seems so obvious and trivial that nobody would think that it **was** patentable, or even particularly significant for that matter.
Can you patent an idea and then release it into the public domain or put it under a Creative Commons license (or something like it)?
IANAPA (I Am Not A Patent Attorney), but I don't believe you would even need to bother patenting your idea to establish "prior art." Just write it up as a paper, and release it on the 'Net, have it published in a trade journal of some sort, etc.
What we really need, if my understanding is roughly correct, is some kind of central repository for people to submit papers, write-ups, code, etc. that's intended for the express purpose of preventing somebody from getting a patent on the same "invention." Something that would be free to use (both submitting and searching), with a good search engine, and a verifiable system for timestamping when the submission was made.
If we could get the collective minds of all/. readers, the open source / free software community / etc., to contribute ideas to such a database, and if we could get the USPTO to recognize it (maybe even search it BEFORE issuing patents!?!?) we could probably prevent a lot of bogus patents from getting issued.
What's easier: a) learning to write better code, or b) learning how to get people to learn how to write better code?
I'm not sure there's any meaningful way to quantify that. I'm sure you could get valid arguments both ways.
see, even in the responses to my 'troll' people fail to give credit to the daunting task of management. pro'lly cause they've never had to do it, or are still in highschool.
Not that I'm dismissing the value of good managers. I've had good ones and bad ones, and a good one is a very valuable asset indeed. But then again, so is a top rate engineer.
A good manager is worth a hundred half-skilled underlings. And good managers are worht their pay because they are rare, but the there are millions of squids who can type "gcc main.c..." and hack with an open book.
So you're comparing "good" managers to "half-skilled" underlings? If there are millions of squids who cant type "gcc main.c" with an open book, there are just as many who can go out and buy "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School" and claim to be managerial material. I don't get what point you're trying to make.
Good managers still need qualified "underlings" if they want to get anything done. And even good "underlings" will perform better with quality leadership.
I was thinking of buying a nice pistol for protecting myself and my 2nd amendment rights. Currently, I'm leaning towards a taurus.38 or.357 (double action), though a taurus.44 or.45 pistol is also a possibility. I'm also looking at a berreta 1911 pistol.
Anyone have any thoughts on what they'd go with?
Conventional logic is that a 1911 is too heavy for regular carry, and too big to properly conceal, if you're going the "conceal carry" route.
A.357 or.44 is probably overkill for street self-defense. The stopping power is nice, but the recoil is a little on the high side, and when you figure in the adrenaline involved in a self-defense situation + muzzle recoil, you're probably not going to be real accurate with one of those things, unless you practice A LOT.
I wouldn't go 9mm though, too many times I've read about thugs getting shot repeatedly with 9mm and still continuing to attack. See the famous Miami / FBI shootout stuff for more... long story short, the FBI used to carry 9mm's until some crazy doped up fucker killed 2 or 3 FBI agents after getting capped several times with a 9mm.
So what would I go with? A nice automatic in.40 S&W, or maybe a.357 Mag auto, but loaded with.38 Special rounds (yes, you can safely load a.357 Mag with.38 Special rounds). Either one should be available in a size and weight that's comfortable to carry and small enough to conceal.
Other than that, I'd go with a 1911 in.45 ACP, despite the "conventional logic" stuff.
If the government feels it should prosecute writers of p2p applications because copyright infringment can take place with these, why not also go after the firearms industry, because people get shot by guns?
Please don't give these idiots any more ideas. It's hard enough being a law abiding gun owner already...
This is not a Code war, it is a PR war and the geeks are losing. PR is what is needed.
This is a war, and we are soldiers. Death can come for us at any time, in any place.
Now consider the alternative. What if I am right? What if the prophecy is true? What if tomorrow the war could be over. Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?
As much power as the FBI has been given, I'd hardly claim that they've been abusing it. If you want to get the tinfoil hats out when they start abusing these powers, fine. But until then, enough with the "sky is falling" doomsday rhetoric.
You do realize the the people most likely to be affected by this, are the ones least likely to be in a position to let their plight be known, right?
I mean, when jack-booted thugs show up in the middle of the night, haul you off to a nameless prison in the middle of nowhere, with no search warrant, no arrest warrant, no judicial oversight whatsoever, and keep you locked away until gosh only knows when... do you really think they're going to let you sign onto Slashdot and tell the whole freaking world about it???
Heh. Wish I'd seen this post before I posted my "Operation: Mindcrime" parody thread...
Now when somebody **does** have Darl assasinated, the cops are gonna come looking for me... LOL...
Then again... with all due apologies to Queensryche:
Hey Nikki, you know everything That there is to do So here's a gun take it home wait by the phone we'll send someone over to bring you what you need
You're a one man death machine boy, now make this city bleed Now I know you won't refuse There's so much to do You've got nothing more to lose..
So take my number, and welcome to Operation: SCOCrime We're an undeground revolution working overtime. Operation: SCOCrime There's a job for you in the system boy, with nothing to sign..
And did you know AMD is sending free amd64 arch manuals (4 nice books) freely to anyone in US and Canada? Did you?
Yep, mine came in yesterday!
In Intel's defense however... I could have (almost) sworn that (at one time at least) they had freely available PDF's of all their manuals available for download. Maybe that's no the case anymore, or maybe my memory is playing tricks with me... but I sure thought they used to be available...
Rush sucks. Find somebody sharing some Fog, Unholy Ghost, 137, The Accursed, Dreamscapes of the Perverse, etc., and you'll be onto something worthwhile...
Slashdot Mirror
Why should we not have laws preventing someone from getting the tool necessary to commit a massacre?
It's called the 2nd Amendment.
Is there some legitimate reason that someone would need a fully-automatic weapon with a 50 round clip?
Yes. The main reason that comes to mind is an armed revolution against the existing government, should it ever become tyranical / dictatorial / etc.
It may sound unlikely, it may even BE unlikely... but fundamentally the 2nd Amendment is all about making sure that the ultimate power lies in the hands of "the people" where it belongs.
Also, you might be interested to know that legally owned / properly licensed fully automatic weapons are almost NEVER used in the commission of armed crimes. I don't have a direct link handy, but that's from the FBI's own crime statistics.
The Art of Deception, by Kevin Mitnick.
Ok, the copyright date on my copy says it was published in 2002 (must have came out **late** in 2002, or my memory is really going, as I could have sworn I haven't had this book a year...), but I didn't read it until this year... anyway, it's one of my favorites and definitely gets a vote for "Book of the Year."
Except that Minix is only licensed for free educational use, so Linux could/better not have taken any copyrighted material from Minix.
I don't any of this is particularly relevant to the SCO case, but FWIW, the above statement is no longer correct. Minix is now license under a very liberal license similar to a BSD type license.
For more on the Minix license see:
here and here
I've had triple-boot systems with Win98, Redhat Linux and Solaris all installed on the same drive.
I've managed to make Win98, OS/2 Warp Server, Solarix x86, and Red Hat Linux co-exist together before. but I hosed the box trying to add FreeBSD to the mix...
That both sites have published this retraction, after having previously published the original stories about the DDOS being a fabrication. Many, more "mainstream" and "credible", news sites probably would not have done so, or would have published the retraction loaded with "spin."
Worse, many other sites would have tried to cover up the truth, rather than risk suffering a little "egg on the face."
To the credit of both Groklaw and Slashdot, both have said "Oops, we were wrong," and handled things in a very mature fashion.
Good job, guys.
Yeah, that's what I was referring to, not the "official" state motto.
Despite the whole Delaware / court-house fire thing, the phrase "First In Freedom" still lives in the hearts and minds of many North Carolinians...
It's a fair assumption to have, considering it's held by the states, federal government, supreme court, and basically all informed people. And good thing, too. Otherwise there'd probably be pre-1960's mandatory prayer recitals in the public schools here--if not slavery.
You know, there are limits to the power of the Federal government, and those limits exist for a reason. The Feds most certainly do NOT have the power to go around randomly passing laws that invalidate state laws. Federal courts (the Supreme Court, especially) could certainly rule a given state law unconstitutional, but I don't know anybody who I would consider an "informed person" who believes the Federal government has unlimited power.
Unfortunately, the federal Can Spam act is going to make many individual spam laws null and void, and replace it with a bad and worthless federal law.
You're operating under the assumption that the Federal government actually has the power to do that. I'd certainly say that's a debatable point.
Maybe it's time for the States to start getting serious about asserting "states rights" again. Personally, I hope they do, and I hope it starts in North Carolina. Our motto isn't "First in Freedom" for nothing, ya know.
So where are we storing all this prior art, indexed by patent number, with leagally supportable dates?
The next big Open Source challenge will come from patents. We should start now, but where?
We need some friendly corporation with deep pockets to sponsor hosting a web-based database where open source types can submit papers / code / writeups / etc. to serve a "defensive prior art" for ridiculous patents.
The quality of the papers wouldn't necessarily have to be very high, and duplicates would be fine, I think. The big thing it needs is a very effective search engine, and a way to verify the submission dates for submitted works.
Then anytime a new questionable tech patent is issued, the community can search the "defensive prior art database" for anything useful, and then notify the patent office.
It would also be nice if the tech community could establish some kind of dialogue with the USPTO where we could feel confident that we could actually get these questionable patents reviewed and (possibly) thrown out.
And the only reason I don't have earlier references is that they're so bleeding obvious!
/. somebody will question the obviousness of a patent, and some wise-ass will say "Well, if it's so obvious then why didn't YOU think of it and patent it?" The answer is, obviously, the idea itself seems so obvious and trivial that nobody would think that it **was** patentable, or even particularly significant for that matter.
Exactly. So many times on
Can you patent an idea and then release it into the public domain or put it under a Creative Commons license (or something like it)?
/. readers, the open source / free software community / etc., to contribute ideas to such a database, and if we could get the USPTO to recognize it (maybe even search it BEFORE issuing patents!?!?) we could probably prevent a lot of bogus patents from getting issued.
IANAPA (I Am Not A Patent Attorney), but I don't believe you would even need to bother patenting your idea to establish "prior art." Just write it up as a paper, and release it on the 'Net, have it published in a trade journal of some sort, etc.
What we really need, if my understanding is roughly correct, is some kind of central repository for people to submit papers, write-ups, code, etc. that's intended for the express purpose of preventing somebody from getting a patent on the same "invention." Something that would be free to use (both submitting and searching), with a good search engine, and a verifiable system for timestamping when the submission was made.
If we could get the collective minds of all
What's easier: a) learning to write better code, or b) learning how to get people to learn how to write better code?
I'm not sure there's any meaningful way to quantify that. I'm sure you could get valid arguments both ways.
see, even in the responses to my 'troll' people fail to give credit to the daunting task of management. pro'lly cause they've never had to do it, or are still in highschool.
Not that I'm dismissing the value of good managers. I've had good ones and bad ones, and a good one is a very valuable asset indeed. But then again, so is a top rate engineer.
A good manager is worth a hundred half-skilled underlings. And good managers are worht their pay because they are rare, but the there are millions of squids who can type "gcc main.c..." and hack with an open book.
So you're comparing "good" managers to "half-skilled" underlings? If there are millions of squids who cant type "gcc main.c" with an open book, there are just as many who can go out and buy "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School" and claim to be managerial material. I don't get what point you're trying to make.
Good managers still need qualified "underlings" if they want to get anything done. And even good "underlings" will perform better with quality leadership.
Here's some more info on the history of the Miami Shootout and the emergence of the .40 S&W...
I was thinking of buying a nice pistol for protecting myself and my 2nd amendment rights. Currently, I'm leaning towards a taurus .38 or .357 (double action), though a taurus .44 or .45 pistol is also a possibility. I'm also looking at a berreta 1911 pistol.
.357 or .44 is probably overkill for street self-defense. The stopping power is nice, but the recoil is a little on the high side, and when you figure in the adrenaline involved in a self-defense situation + muzzle recoil, you're probably not going to be real accurate with one of those things, unless you practice A LOT.
.40 S&W, or maybe a .357 Mag auto, but loaded with .38 Special rounds (yes, you can safely load a .357 Mag with .38 Special rounds). Either one should be available in a size and weight that's comfortable to carry and small enough to conceal.
.45 ACP, despite the "conventional logic" stuff.
Anyone have any thoughts on what they'd go with?
Conventional logic is that a 1911 is too heavy for regular carry, and too big to properly conceal, if you're going the "conceal carry" route.
A
I wouldn't go 9mm though, too many times I've read about thugs getting shot repeatedly with 9mm and still continuing to attack. See the famous Miami / FBI shootout stuff for more... long story short, the FBI used to carry 9mm's until some crazy doped up fucker killed 2 or 3 FBI agents after getting capped several times with a 9mm.
So what would I go with? A nice automatic in
Other than that, I'd go with a 1911 in
If the government feels it should prosecute writers of p2p applications because copyright infringment can take place with these, why not also go after the firearms industry, because people get shot by guns?
Please don't give these idiots any more ideas. It's hard enough being a law abiding gun owner already...
This is not a Code war, it is a PR war and the geeks are losing. PR is what is needed.
This is a war, and we are soldiers. Death can come for us at any time, in any place.
Now consider the alternative. What if I am right? What if the prophecy is true? What if tomorrow the war could be over. Isn't that worth fighting for? Isn't that worth dying for?
v) If all else fails, vote with your feet. Canada is close by.
FUCK that... if all else fails, pick up a gun, join a militia, and let's take our fucking country back!!!
Please, mod parent up!!!
As much power as the FBI has been given, I'd hardly claim that they've been abusing it. If you want to get the tinfoil hats out when they start abusing these powers, fine. But until then, enough with the "sky is falling" doomsday rhetoric.
You do realize the the people most likely to be affected by this, are the ones least likely to be in a position to let their plight be known, right?
I mean, when jack-booted thugs show up in the middle of the night, haul you off to a nameless prison in the middle of nowhere, with no search warrant, no arrest warrant, no judicial oversight whatsoever, and keep you locked away until gosh only knows when... do you really think they're going to let you sign onto Slashdot and tell the whole freaking world about it???
Well, I didn't. Where does one sign up for the free manuals? Got a link handy?
D /0,,30_2252_875_4622,00.html
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/DevelopWithAM
Heh. Wish I'd seen this post before I posted my "Operation: Mindcrime" parody thread...
Now when somebody **does** have Darl assasinated, the cops are gonna come looking for me... LOL...
Then again... with all due apologies to Queensryche:
Hey Nikki, you know everything
That there is to do
So here's a gun
take it home
wait by the phone
we'll send someone over
to bring you what you need
You're a one man death machine
boy, now make this city bleed
Now I know you won't refuse
There's so much to do
You've got nothing more to lose..
So take my number, and welcome
to Operation: SCOCrime
We're an undeground revolution
working overtime.
Operation: SCOCrime
There's a job for you in the system
boy, with nothing to sign..
Nikki: Hello?
Mysterious Voice: Mindcrime...
Nikki: <gasp>
<later>
Dr. X: Kill him, that's all you have to do.
Nikki: Kill Darl???
Dr. X: He's a risk. And get the lawyers as well.
And did you know AMD is sending free amd64 arch manuals (4 nice books) freely to anyone in US and Canada? Did you?
Yep, mine came in yesterday!
In Intel's defense however... I could have (almost) sworn that (at one time at least) they had freely available PDF's of all their manuals available for download. Maybe that's no the case anymore, or maybe my memory is playing tricks with me... but I sure thought they used to be available...
Rush sucks. Find somebody sharing some Fog, Unholy Ghost, 137, The Accursed, Dreamscapes of the Perverse, etc., and you'll be onto something worthwhile...