no! hahaha, more like tinfoil hat dale I guess, but I mumble like boomhauer and like babes and classic detroit hotrods.
In case you or anyone wondered, I actually *wanted* to get the stoopid catalog, so when I moved I gave them the info and once they had it I didn't care about it. Yep, dumb, I admit it. since then I either say no or give them some name made up on the spot, and I tell the clerk it's made up, but mostly I just get annoyed and say no. I tell em this data collecting nonsense has gotten way outta hand and all it does is lead to identity theft, junk mail, junk telemarketing and spam, and they should understand that and pass it on to their managers and bosses. I try not to rank the clerks, they don't got a thing to do with it and just working some cheap job.
..my favorite rerason to oppose it is that it's just stupid. I mean lame. It ain't gonna work all that well. Look at the "war on drugs" and the gun rights assaults. It's dumb, it don't work. Waste of time and effort. Alcohol prohibition was similar, restrict everyone because there was the potential for misuse. Just dumb. The old arguments prove it's overblown, the cassette recorder was going to ruin music, make them all go bankrupt. Heck the reel to reel was going to do that. The VCR was going to make television and the mooovees go bankrupt, and it didn't happen. Xerox was going to cause the collapse of the book and magazine and newspaper publishing industry. It hasn't happened.
It's nuts! Now to find a way to put that into proper legalese gobbledegook.
The other point which is very hard to get across to "them" is, it's partly, and this is legit, it's these mega cartels own fault for conspiring to jack up prices to such a ridiculous level that people consider it not only their right to copy and share, but a "payback" of sorts. People aren't stupid, they know full well that cd music is way over priced. It's like the "volume sales" concept has been lost on them. Put out your product at a more reasonable price, then it'll sell, end of story, and for that matter, isn't this what the blank cd copy tax is for in the first place?
I know there's outfits out their try to make bona fide looking counterfeits, this is a different story. There's a big difference between some outfit pumping out thousands of cloned copies to make money and individuals making copies for their own use and to share amongst their peer-enthusiasts. to me that's a more realistic dividing line, are you doing it for profit? Is it someone's illegitimate business model to counterfeit? At that point, sure, enforce the law, anything but that, nope, not seeing it.
Too bad normal "plain talk" doesn't appear to be worthy enough to send in, what the heck, I'll try both ways, can't hurt...
And if it gets hard wired into hardware, swell, I'll just keep using old hardware then, no biggee to me. Ya, it might affect my second career as a basement cyclotron builder,heh, but really, I'll just stick to old used hardware then, I won't be buying any crippled hardware anytime soon.
--true story. Been shopping at ratshack since..well, since allied electronics I guess. Anyway, I lived for years and years metro atlanta. Sometime shortly after the olympics-and the unfortunate el kaboom occurrence there, I get a personal visit from the fibbers! Now I am a little spooked, this is right after they tried to frame richard jewell. I am an internet freedom issues loudmouth, this is a duh given. This agent comes by when I'm not home but sees my girlfriend and leaves his card for me to call him back up. Of course she's freaked out, who wouldn't be? So, I call him up, shazzam! It's that stoopid radio shack taking your information. Foolish me had previous had given it to them, innocently and before I was as concerned as I am now on this merchant/information issue. Turns out I had-along with thousands of other people-purchased the same/similar battery they allege was used in the olympics blast. LUCKY FOR ME I still had it at home to show him. He came by the next day, I showed hom the batt- a 12 volt drycell I got to use for my tiny 12 volt b/w tv during storms and electrical outtages, so after that was outta the way we spent a little time talking about his job and cases he had worked on etc. I figured what the heck, might as well milk the opportunity a little, was interesting.
Anyway, I went back to the same store I got it from, talked to the manager, told her I was not amused over this incident. I mean, what if I had milked the batt dry and had tossed it?
From then on I always refuse this info when asked at ratshacks or wherever, latest was at some car parts store, I tell them it just slap ain't happening, they can enter any name or whatever to make their cash register work, or "no sale".
This data mining stuff I can see two sides of, but my default is it's too likely to be misused and as such I'm against it now.
It also happened to me once some fool at a job I worked snagged my soc sec # and used it somehow (probably gave or sold it to someone, I never found out exactly) to get some utilites turned on, like a year later I get this bill for gas service at someplace I never lived at. No amount of arguing would make them drop the bill, and the threat was pay it now or lose gas service at the place I lived. What a crock, I HAD to pay it or lose use of my hotwater heater and stove and furnace, not an option at the time.
Can of worms, society needs some sort of ID to go about your day to day business, but too many ways it can be misused or stolen. It's totally fubared now, because no solution addresses privacy concerns. Caych 22 "Danged if ya do danged if ya don't" deal there.
--design your site so it's three tiered. Minimal basic "free" stuff to see if the surfer is further interested. Second level is "more" content for viewing ads and possibly they might want to buy something from the advertisers, if you know your target audience and have actual relevant ads. Third tier is no ads, pure opt in session cookie and login handle/password paid subscription. Each step up you get more features and content. That's about the best you can do, well, that and running the site as begware, some sites actually exist this way, but the site has to be actually pretty nifty to do this..
--I see on their site the plan is to use paypal. I don't see yet if there's a provision or a scheme about the micropayment theory. I'd rather have a sort if system like that, where I could donate x-amount-cash, and then be able to login and donate a buck here a buck there to several projects, all at that same time, on that single transaction, but have the total transaction only be skimmed one time by paypal(or whomever),not every single transaction to every single project. And it should have a cap, that skimming part, and not very high, as frankly,I can't afford the minimums to make it worthwhile to the developers. I imagine a lot of people feel this way and are in a similar situation. I'd love to be able to shoot ten bucks or more to every project I'd like to support but that isn't happening. Is there a work around for this or am I reading this idea wrong?
As an aside, I'd like to support the distro releasers as well this way, and here's the rub, for my pet distro and even the distros I don't normally use, it still wouldn't bother me to send them "a buck or two" now and then if it was cheap and easy for me to do this without incurring the high transaction fee financial pain threshhold. I'd like the ability to only incur ONE fee for supporting MANY projects, so the developers get the most loot, not paypal or another middleman. I don't mind they get "some" just make it low enough so that more folks might be interested because it's cheap and easy to do so. Like, you login and are presented with an extensive menu and set of checkboxes, your cash level to donate is carved in stone at that time for that transaction, depending on how many checkboxes you check, that's what % of your loot gets transferred, within some sort of minimum reasonableness, make it a dollar maybe. The default on the checkbox can be like any shopping cart, it's zero-empty, you can manually change that if you want say 1 or 2 or 3 to go one of your favorite projects, singles to others, or whatever, up to your limit for that transaction. Some folks got no probs dropping a franklin that way, other folks can drop a jackson and still be contributing at least something, and it can get spread out better/faster/wider.
--I just checked! Ya know how google has a decent compromise business model text link sponsors list off to the right based on the keyword? I just tried generic "windows" as a search term. Yep, microsoft on the top hits, natch, but could they drop the coin to help google by buying a text link? NOPE!
*hint to alternative os distro guys, any flavor, nice place for a link there on google "Yo! Tired of Windows? Looking for a cheaper and better idea? Try Nitro-Metha*nix OS and etc, klik heir"
--good luck to you! Visa is way outta line on this one, someone in their legal department musta been bored and got their panties in a wad and needed brownie points or something, "hey, let's whack these little guys, it'll be fun!". Too bad you have to pay cash for this though, perhaps you can recoup somehow, "frivilous lawsuit" whatever.
--technically, you are entitled to a jury trial for any dispute involving more than 20$. Just another one of those pesky constitutional "theories" that "modern law" ignores in a lot of cases. As to these trademark disputes, it would have to be alleged that somehow someplace someone lost more than 20$. The evisa domain holder could assert that handily. Visa on the other hand would be hard pressed to prove they lost one penny, as evisa doesn't issue credit as a business.
"Amendment VII In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."
--I'm most likely quite a bit older than you, well maybe not, but I ain't a kid, been active in politics since the 64 election, do quite a bit of activism,the latest "outside a norm" was when I was the only person in my county to file a complaint about closed source no accountability computer touch screen voting that was foisted on us, and I don't play ANY video games, don't even own a joystick, don't eat cheese doodles, and this so called "government" just ruled that they don't have to provide medical care to world war two or korean vets anymore if they don't feel like it, once again proving more or less what lying SOB's they are in most cases. If they are doing something positive for them, great! good luck, well done! Hope ya get the job and do well!
Besides that, I truly am sorry I assumed it was that new darpa information agency you were talking about,with the ridiculous goon illuminatiesque cult symbol abomination they have, my mistake, and I apologize. I shouldn't have assumed, but that was the biggee lately in the news that they are planning on spending tons of money and hiring lotsa IT guys and etc, if you can see that. Hoestly thought that was what you were talking about, given the 'crypto" nature of the wording of the post. Got to be 20 or 50 to 1 or more lately on that coverage over the vet hospital stuff. If I had known it was to provide services to vets I wouldn't have said squat. Vets get screwed all the time.
--"get in on the ground floor" of the biggest most technologically advanced surveillance AND command AND control over it's own citizens endeavor ever attempted in the history of the planet.
Ohh boy.
You, sir, suck.
Remember this el geek-o, as you count your pieces of silver and relish your leetness, the nuhremberg defense *doesn't work*. What goes around, comes around.
---the reason someone might need an 'assault rifle". First, let's actually define it. An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle designed to be owner operated in either semi automatic fashion-one cartridge fires per one trigger pull, or in fully automatic -one trigger pull activates the rifle to keep firing as long as it's pulled, release, it stops, or in "burst" mode, which might be two or three shots per single pull.
With that out of the way- and please don't forget the technical details as this is slashdot and tech is what we discuss here and words really have *exact* meanings- actually realise although those types of rifles are still quite legal to own in most states-yes they are-, only a small % of people own them.
Now as to semi automatic rifles. The situation is this. The second amendment has NOTHING to do with target shooting or hunting. Nothing. they are ancillary issues. the ONLY reason the second amendment was written was PRECISELY for the fact that we as a nation had just fought back a tyranny,a tyranny composed of both armed soldiers of a government, armed policeman, and armed mercenaries. They were engaging in a tyrannical oppression of the people in what was to be called the united states, they were in fact still colonies and part of great britain, and the 'revolt" was against the oppression. By todays stock definition, the colonists who revolted were 'terrorists", but they were also 'freedom fighters". Just depends what side of the street you were on. The current top of the line weapons were used during this conflict, by Both sides. It was nip and tuck, but BECAUSE the colonists in rebellion had "the same" weapons-the 'assault weapons" of the age, they were able to prevail, gain independence. They were able to make the onerous government cease and desist with the oppression. Opression which included taxation with no representation. Unequal application of the laws. No redress of grievances, grievances which included murder by the "lawfuul" state, "military tribunals", theft, coercion, torture, and etc. Without having current equal level military arms, they wouldn't have been able to stop this "bad stuff". The "lawful government" at the time was in fact going to seize their arms (powder stores mostly) when the "shot heard round the world" was fired, as the colonists knew full well that without arms of equal level, they were really really really en-screwed. They noted this, and immediately after agreeing that "speech" was a born-with right, they added most clearly and directly the right-not privelege, but the RIGHT to "keep and bear" arms, arms being "current good quality weapons".
It is really that simple. We have weapons to protect ourselvesd from tyrannical government once all hope of a peaceful solution to a failure to redress grievances and/or for immediate self protection. This is a "born-with" right, not a "grant" or a "privelege". We-you if you are a USian and me-are actually required to forceably remove usurpers and traitors to our representaive republic should they seize power. This would most likely require current good quality arms no doubt. Military "styled" or whatever.
Seeking to restrict other's lawful rights is not only illegal, it's traitorus, and anyone trying to do this is in fact, guilty iof treason, which is a capital offense. anyone, be it "elected official", hired on "badged agent or officer", appointed bureaucrat, and etc. Those who restrict are breaking the law.
We have quite a few lawbreaking terrorists who have usurped powers not granted to them and theirs by our own laws. These include members of the above list. The fact that they have put restrictions on it has only come about from their ability to bring down lethal force and a willingness to do so, but it still doesn't make it lawful.
If you as a citizen choose not to keep and bear, this is your voluntary right of course, but the second you seek to restrict other's lawful keeping and bearing, you become a "terrorist", a criminal.
It's that simple, and sorry whomever that whizzes off, but it IS the truth in plain english.
Put it this way, how long would you fail to "get it" if you as one of those "irrationbal speech nuts" needed to apply to your government for a "license" to post here? Or even if no such "license" was even avaialble? What's that? It's different? No way would you do that? Uhh, no it isn't.
The first ten "amendments" are supposed to be immutable, that the so called "supreme" court has "ruled" otherwise doesn't change the fact. The others may be changed, the first ten are carved in stone. You see, we fought to not be "ruled" and as such, this court is an abomination and unlawful. The payrolled toadies who enforce or write unconstitutional laws are traitors. It's that simple.
Without "we the people" having the same or similar weapons as the current military, we open ourtselves up for enslavement. The historical parallels are clear, once any government starts down the road on disarming it's own people via fiat and force, eventually they enslave and/or murder huge numbers of it's population. And it usually doesn't happen overnight, it creeps in, then it's "too late' as the excuse makers-the sheep-usually are in a majority, as cowardice, stupidity and lack of memory are more prevalent forms of human behavior than intelligence and bravery. It takes humans with intelligence and vision to actually accomplish 'great things", the median status quo is just that-herd cud chewers. We wrote down the true laws so even the cud chewers could understand it. Below that level, well, I just don't know, but above that level failure to understand is done on purpose, and it's criminal.
Pick once, pick wisely, good luck, better skill, don't take my reply as a flame, but DO understand the thought of being in a nation where only the police and military have any "right" to modern defensive weapons is abhorent to huge numbers of aware and informed law abiding people, and it's also a dictionary definition of a "police state" whether in a semi civilized nation, a "first or second or third" world type nation,with zero or one or more "political parties" or not. The arms in the citizens hands make the only "rational" difference-the only definable line between a "free" nations and a "police state" styled nation and truly the only practical final measure "check and balance" on "too much" governmental power, and as such is the primary difference between a tyranny and a free population and nation. The vast bulk of nations on the planet earth are "police states" at this time. The US is half way there now. This is a "bad thing". It is stupid, and quite dangerous actually. Traitors, some not even knowing theyare traitors, are trying for that last step towards full bore police state. they seek to enslave themselves and others in the proven misconception they will be "safer", despite historical overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You see there's safe from day to day level street crime, then there's safe from mass huge overwhelming governmenatla crime against it's own citizens. A long time ago, "we" decided it was much preferrable to put up with the lower level of potential day to day stuff than to suffer ever again from the "government" as a "mass terrorist criminal" level of crime. It was a bona fide observation and choice made at the time, given human nature, that a 'smaller' level of crime and hardship was MUCH preferrable than day in day out enslavement and murder and incarceration and theft and whatnot being perpetrated by an entity called "government". It-the level we are currently at- should have never gotten 1/10th of the way from that point.
--most people aren't 'servers' beyond http requests (more or less). Have isps offer a 'deal" where you agree to not be a server, let casual surfers sign up for that service at a reduced cheaper rate of cash. People who want to do "more" pay more, get a server "license" in other words, and they get a detailed explanation of safe computing practices and put the onus on them to follow the guidelines "or else". The "or else" can be a variable, maybe temp loss of service, loss of email, forfeiture of a deposit, whatever for malicious virus spreading, etc. The cheaper rate has a LOT of ports and services blocked at their isp. The "server licensed" rate assumes you are more responsible and hip, and are treated accordingly. It also helps to pay for your increased bandwith needs as a 'server'.
I know this is very simplistic, but something I was thinking on for awhile, correlating various discussions about peer to peer and home web page and email hosting, etc. Let the people themselves decide how much service they really want upfront based on their skill and desires level, and with that service comes verifiable accountability, ie, they can be held aty fault as well for being part of the problem if they get caught being..well... lazy and lame.. Joe blow gets the 'server" level full package normal isp connection. Joe blow downloads hotbabe.vbs and gets nailed, his box gets owned, starts sending out a boatload of more hotbabe.vbs files. Too bad, he screwed up, loss of priveleges and/or cash deposit. Better luck next time, deposit doubles.
Just a thought..I know there's flaws in it, but everything else has flaws as well. I know too many people who downloaded some firewall and that's it, in their minds they are 'secure", just do whatever they want, click on any email, never look at anything,never bother to bcc mass emailings, no followup anything but maybe that attempt, and a lot of people don't even bother to get that far, just run the computer at random. they buy it, or get it as a gift, that's it, left to learn to drive on their own, or like being told to learn to swim by being dropped headfirst into a raging whitewater whilst shackled. It ain't never gonna work that way, modern OS's and computers are too complicated right off the bat for people and there's little incentive to learn anything for most people until something "breaks" usually from operator error. It's intimidating to a lot of people, so offer them a less intimidating isp connection, then it won't matter as much. Example, the less intimidating and cheaper isp connection only comes with a web based email account, set so it can never run an executable, it's not downloaded,it's text only, any attachments like images, etc, have to be explicitly allowed and first scanned at the isp level, they'd have to jump through hoops to do that. And etc. Make it so you have to actually be forced to honestly think about what's going on, fail to think, it's not allowed.
Of course, none of this matters if all you have to do is click on an url like is being talked about the past couple of days. There's an accountability issue there with the OS and package vendors eventually, that's the biggest problem, zero incentive to really code better in the security side. there's none, nada. Click the eula to install,and it don't matter closed source or open source,paid for or free, it's caveat emptor, no software makers are ever liable for any security flaws,they write the eulas that way on purpose,it seems to be accepted,duh, so, they'll continue to exist. There's laws against malicious hacking, swell, but sometime this century wouldn't it be nice to finally see the other side of the street where if you charge money for a product it should work as advertised and not work as not advertised because of design flaws? In meat world it's calledcontributory negligence. In cyberworld this doesn't exist, despite billions of dollars exchanging hands for 'products'. Why is this again? We as a society don't accept that with other consumer products, but with software it's the default, "it ain't my fault no matter what". This is silly really. Shouldn't there be some sort of time limit on vulnerabilities, especially for paid-for software? How long will software in general be treated as all experimental betaware with a get-out-of-jail-free card? Hasn't software in the terms of "browsers" and "email clients" whatever and etc been around long enough now so that someplace somewhere the manufacturers and distributors can be declared to be at least partially "at fault" when it's shown to be so flawed that it becomes an internet menace? Isn't this REALLY the biggest problem? When will there be a smidgen of accountability to go along with "profit"?
Was it really abandoned or did the guy have something happen to him in meatworld? I mean it could be anything, got locked up, got sick, moved to ubangiland, anything. With that said, here's one solution, you can fork it immediately,get to work on it,and if/when the original guy shows back up,contact him and either agree to rejoin efforts-or not.
geez man hope you haven't gotten owned and maybe hosting some "interesting stuff" you didn't know about. That would be my first impression finding that much unexplainable "data" in some directory or folder. I would go #@$#$7, get off the net, and really take a look at it.
--the tva had good and bad parts to it. the public observable good, hydro power and the ac electricity 'standard" to a lot of areas. downsides where it helped squash independent home electrical generation in favor of the big picture big guys, even going beyond the co-ops. Back in the 20's and 30's there was a blossoming and successful rural "alternative energy" industry, it got squashed. jacobs windpower for example. Here's a short history:
http://www.windturbine.net/history.htm
Aceytelene generators and efficient small home diesels. There where a variety of DC appliance makers to serve that industry. I'm sorta too lazy right now to go dig up a slew more links, but the gist of it was that alternative energywas reallystarting to take off, in a variety of directions, and including solar in heating at least, and, well, it got squashed. There always seems to be lurking behind big government projects a few fatcats with their hands out, and it's always sold as "good for the people". funny how it works out like that. Hmm, need a new war, who can we hire to build war stuff... wow! we got the same old cast of characters conveniently ready to go into triple overtime and build war stuff. Energy, same deal. Communications, same deal. These social government programs also helped establish this mindset and legal precedent that "the government" can just constanly kick people off their land to do "something". The something always seems to eventually become a basic subsidy, not for the little guy, but for some big international "deal". Sort of like what the stealth mega corps/greenie orgs/ government cartel does now with creating "willing sellers" in the rural areas by first using some "law" like the ESA to knock off a class of rural workers by virtually outlawing what they do for a living, usually based on extremely coercive and faulty junk science (spotted owl, klamath suckers, etc), this then bankrupts the people when they can't work, despite the fifth amendment of the constitution saying they need to be paid for lost whatever when government seizes their stuff, so they sell their properties "willingly". They even give grants to so called "not for profit" orgs, who turn around and use bogus created "laws" and sue people, who then get harassed by government.
I'm saying there's usually always payoffs going on and wheels within wheels with these happenings. Been going on a long time too.
Same deal in a lot of matters with the FCC, supposedly they serve the public good with their regulations, but sometimes it doesn't work. They go out of their way to bust micro broadcasters saying they cause "harm", but they rubber stamp the more or less very monopolistic and extremely lucrative "licenses" given to the major networks and broadcasters year after year, despite mega thousands of complaints they have received, and the harm they cause by mass propogandizing the news shows and by the social engineering they do with "entertainment" shows. Ya, you can complain,and it goes on record for public viewing in the circular file receptacle.
It's not an either / or, there's good and bad in these quasi socialistic experiments they do with manipulating how humans do their work and what happens with industry in general.
I think a better first step is to make null and void the local telcos and the cable copmpanies monopolies, and to rein in the FCC to it's constitutional limits set for the federal government, and that is to regulate interstate commerce as it pertains to broadcasting, and commerce isn't "all" broadcasting, and not all broadcasting or delivered/sent data services.
Just a few points. I sort of agree with you on some good coming from the standards and public works, but I also see the other side of the coin. Basically I want "government" in general to be put on a severe hold right now, as in a total stoppage of any "new" laws, a "cease and desist" order in other words, and a ten year or so campaign to review and remove the bulk of the "old" laws, keeping only the extremely necessary and constitutional ones. I know that's a wish, I'm just wishing is all, heh.
--been following this spam problem for awhile. One of the ideas I have seen that seems to me to have a more pro active approach to it is to poison the spammers email lists on purpose by using their own robots against them. Instead of trying to build filters and generate lists of IP's to block and etc, wouldn't it be better to create masses of webpages that contain nothing but zillions of bogus but good looking email addy's? From what I understand it's expensive for the spammers to send out huge numbers of spam emails, the profit margin is slim. This idea might knock it to the mass-zero level for most of them as it would become unprofitable for them to be in that business. If thousands of websites had a page of bogus emails, and they were different, then eventually the spammers harvested lists would be filled with useless mostly emails and the bouncing would resemble superturbo flubber.
I'm not good enough to know if this would work or not, just seeking commentary on it.
--hey! Used to use your ticker, great freebie man. thank you.And your headlines were topnotch, quick as anyone's, great stuff. Sorry to see ya lose it. Next time don't sell out to the VC's, just figure out how to do it so it don't take 18 hour days..it's funny too when I was using yor stuff I was doing 18 hrs on a site and daily newsletter, for about zilch money, just doing it. Oh well....
--really! makes sense. Sounds EXACTLY what I was telling all my windows friends over the years as I was surfing and working on my mac classic and they were finding out what happened to their registry (why do you have to register everything/) or why they had bad dll pickles (dlls? why do I need to see that as joe normal user?)or whatever that stuff was. Never understood that, but you state the phenomenon so well. They seemed to equate difficult and easy to break with "cool", but, oh well......that's the tradeoff, really really cheap and customizable also equals real touchy sensitive and easy to fritz it up. Medium expensive is a little less easy to fritz up, sorta kinda easier to use,and still customizable. At the very expensive (joe consumer)level, you get it all, robust, easy to use, customizable, and hard to break unless you go way out of your way to do it.
It works, the "system" works, you get exactly what you pay for.
It's sorta like cars, some guys build hotrods from scratch, most folks drive chevhonolas, then there's mercedes and ferraris and other exotics. The "system" works, you get what ya pay for and want.
---umm, nice try, but no they haven't been all "debunked". What has happened in a lot of cases has been half assed spin efforts. Like that ridiculous cia cartoon video of twa 800 and the magical sploding center fuel tank and a plane that can zoom almost straight up all busted in chubks, that was hysterical. And the fat guy don't look nuthin like him "osama" cia video, again, hilarious. You guys never quit, the "attack" by gunboats on US destroyers in the tonkin gulf. too bad the head navy guy in theater there never heard of it. On and on, same scam, yep, it usually works because people are easily lead when they can't get to any data, but the net is sorta making that harder to pull off now, ain't it?
Just remember, the "nuhremberg defense" is not a valid excuse. Tell your boss that too.
--the dotcom boom of the 2000's is biometrics-well one of them anyway. You ask how they'll track cash purchases? Well in stores they'll use facial recognition, body language recognition, walking styles recognition, monitor your pulse rate, whatever. I've seen all these articles linked from slashdot already. could be an electronic fingerprint required to finalise the purchase. all that stuff is here already in test areas. And I'd say some huge numbers of stores have vid cameras already, might not be very hard to pass another one of those laws. They already are doing it all over in public places. No stopping that action now, the goons DIG on that big brother "command and control and surveil" action. they can't get enough or roll it out fast enough. and they got all the grunts they need wiling to do the work, from camp executioners to scientists, shell out the cash, you can hire all the goons with no conscious ya want to.
In the works for US currency soon:
Next year, the phase out of old greenbacks and new "colored" money. One of (several of the) the scams being promoted is cash that "times out". That's right, spend it by a certain date or it gradually loses a % of value down to zip.
In the works for US people soon, the implantable chip, pretty soon mandated. They'll do prisoners first, dangerous released felons on parole, "sex offenders", etc. then high risk medical patients. then normal prisoners. then "the chidrenz" so they don't get kidnapped. Proly need a few more high interest media feeding frenzy staged "kidnappings" for this to take hold. Then the military in general. The goal there is total robot cyborgs, this can just be seen now, they aren't even hiding it. Then, everyone gets the chips with no saying "no" because "we need good universal ID that can't be faked" (easily),most likely combined with a massive (again, staged on purpose for effect) bioterrorist attack so they can "keep track of who got the shots (and implants) and not.
government works on these three principles, create a problem, get the reaction you expect, off the solution. They'll have people lining up begging them for the chips(with the medical 'cure' and food and etc that will go with it), with few exceptions. Tracking cash is not going to be that hard, IMO. they don't have to track all of it, just most of it, like they track most of what happens now or have the ability to do so.
And they just voted "yes" yesterday to start doing all this stuff, more or less, I mean, they aren't being coy about it.
--I've read at least a hundred articles on this satellite thing and your's was THE most helpful workaround I've seen. REMOVE THE LITTLE PLATE. I AM going to remember that. The *&*&*^% satellite bozos got a lot of nerve. You need to get modded to five like immediately. And someone who posts at mac central(anyone reading this) should stick this over there as well.
--this is a good idea methinks. I never thought about before, but you are right!Like you I remember EXACTLY back when cable company's were granted their exclusive monopolies. They sure DID promise that cable tv would be commercial free. I remember the debates in the town council were I was living at the time, they stated as such. I don't live there now, but I bet this happened all over the US.
There's a lawsuit angle potential there I think, to break their monopolies now. Perhaps some massive punitive fines and rebates to customers as well. Their current contracts might be abrogated or declared void if it can be proven they failed to live up to their promises when they got their licenses. Hmmm. There is zero reason any more to allow them to control turf as a monopoly. Yes, expensive to rollout new cable,(or fiber?) but in some areas, it might be feasible. And anyplace the company can be successfully sued, perhaps they get auctioned off, cheap intact cable system for pennies on the dollar to some new startup? Who knows but the possibilities are there.
--sure, here ya go it's called google. Look up anything ya want, start with the "friends of bill list". On the bushes side start with prescott if ya want, how he got convicted of trading with the enemy-the nazis. It's just data. Get the data, make up your own mind. Learn how george the elder allowed in thousands of iraqis, of whom many settled in oklahoma, and the now starting to creep out linkages with the murragh building and the explosion there. Interesting stuff there. Learn how immediately after the 9-11 attacks of how after ALL civilian aircraft was ordered grounded, that shrubya allowed-ordered- the bin laden family to load up and flee in their private jet. Learn about the dumbya's ties with the bin ladens, how they used to even vacation together. Look up anything ya want to. Have fun. It's not theory if there's data to look at, but I'm not your paid search engine, the data is out there if you are really interested. Try "government prior knowledge, 9-11" in google. Try looking up uzbeikstan and taliban and oil, then check the dates and names involved. Try unocal and haliburton and carlisle group. Try "opium, cia, KLA, taliban, northern alliance". Any and all of it, have big fun. Try running "bush, drug smuggling, clinton, mena", that's another goodie. There's tons really.
And oh ya, oswald wasn't the only dude involved in kennedy's whack, "so there". Take your warren commission "report" to the outhouse with ya, it's the appropriate place to use that paper it's printed on.
Slashdot Mirror
no! hahaha, more like tinfoil hat dale I guess, but I mumble like boomhauer and like babes and classic detroit hotrods.
In case you or anyone wondered, I actually *wanted* to get the stoopid catalog, so when I moved I gave them the info and once they had it I didn't care about it. Yep, dumb, I admit it. since then I either say no or give them some name made up on the spot, and I tell the clerk it's made up, but mostly I just get annoyed and say no. I tell em this data collecting nonsense has gotten way outta hand and all it does is lead to identity theft, junk mail, junk telemarketing and spam, and they should understand that and pass it on to their managers and bosses. I try not to rank the clerks, they don't got a thing to do with it and just working some cheap job.
..my favorite rerason to oppose it is that it's just stupid. I mean lame. It ain't gonna work all that well. Look at the "war on drugs" and the gun rights assaults. It's dumb, it don't work. Waste of time and effort. Alcohol prohibition was similar, restrict everyone because there was the potential for misuse. Just dumb. The old arguments prove it's overblown, the cassette recorder was going to ruin music, make them all go bankrupt. Heck the reel to reel was going to do that. The VCR was going to make television and the mooovees go bankrupt, and it didn't happen. Xerox was going to cause the collapse of the book and magazine and newspaper publishing industry. It hasn't happened.
It's nuts! Now to find a way to put that into proper legalese gobbledegook.
The other point which is very hard to get across to "them" is, it's partly, and this is legit, it's these mega cartels own fault for conspiring to jack up prices to such a ridiculous level that people consider it not only their right to copy and share, but a "payback" of sorts. People aren't stupid, they know full well that cd music is way over priced. It's like the "volume sales" concept has been lost on them. Put out your product at a more reasonable price, then it'll sell, end of story, and for that matter, isn't this what the blank cd copy tax is for in the first place?
I know there's outfits out their try to make bona fide looking counterfeits, this is a different story. There's a big difference between some outfit pumping out thousands of cloned copies to make money and individuals making copies for their own use and to share amongst their peer-enthusiasts. to me that's a more realistic dividing line, are you doing it for profit? Is it someone's illegitimate business model to counterfeit? At that point, sure, enforce the law, anything but that, nope, not seeing it.
Too bad normal "plain talk" doesn't appear to be worthy enough to send in, what the heck, I'll try both ways, can't hurt...
And if it gets hard wired into hardware, swell, I'll just keep using old hardware then, no biggee to me. Ya, it might affect my second career as a basement cyclotron builder,heh, but really, I'll just stick to old used hardware then, I won't be buying any crippled hardware anytime soon.
--true story. Been shopping at ratshack since..well, since allied electronics I guess. Anyway, I lived for years and years metro atlanta. Sometime shortly after the olympics-and the unfortunate el kaboom occurrence there, I get a personal visit from the fibbers! Now I am a little spooked, this is right after they tried to frame richard jewell. I am an internet freedom issues loudmouth, this is a duh given. This agent comes by when I'm not home but sees my girlfriend and leaves his card for me to call him back up. Of course she's freaked out, who wouldn't be? So, I call him up, shazzam! It's that stoopid radio shack taking your information. Foolish me had previous had given it to them, innocently and before I was as concerned as I am now on this merchant/information issue. Turns out I had-along with thousands of other people-purchased the same/similar battery they allege was used in the olympics blast. LUCKY FOR ME I still had it at home to show him. He came by the next day, I showed hom the batt- a 12 volt drycell I got to use for my tiny 12 volt b/w tv during storms and electrical outtages, so after that was outta the way we spent a little time talking about his job and cases he had worked on etc. I figured what the heck, might as well milk the opportunity a little, was interesting.
Anyway, I went back to the same store I got it from, talked to the manager, told her I was not amused over this incident. I mean, what if I had milked the batt dry and had tossed it?
From then on I always refuse this info when asked at ratshacks or wherever, latest was at some car parts store, I tell them it just slap ain't happening, they can enter any name or whatever to make their cash register work, or "no sale".
This data mining stuff I can see two sides of, but my default is it's too likely to be misused and as such I'm against it now.
It also happened to me once some fool at a job I worked snagged my soc sec # and used it somehow (probably gave or sold it to someone, I never found out exactly) to get some utilites turned on, like a year later I get this bill for gas service at someplace I never lived at. No amount of arguing would make them drop the bill, and the threat was pay it now or lose gas service at the place I lived. What a crock, I HAD to pay it or lose use of my hotwater heater and stove and furnace, not an option at the time.
Can of worms, society needs some sort of ID to go about your day to day business, but too many ways it can be misused or stolen. It's totally fubared now, because no solution addresses privacy concerns. Caych 22 "Danged if ya do danged if ya don't" deal there.
--design your site so it's three tiered. Minimal basic "free" stuff to see if the surfer is further interested. Second level is "more" content for viewing ads and possibly they might want to buy something from the advertisers, if you know your target audience and have actual relevant ads. Third tier is no ads, pure opt in session cookie and login handle/password paid subscription. Each step up you get more features and content. That's about the best you can do, well, that and running the site as begware, some sites actually exist this way, but the site has to be actually pretty nifty to do this..
--I see on their site the plan is to use paypal. I don't see yet if there's a provision or a scheme about the micropayment theory. I'd rather have a sort if system like that, where I could donate x-amount-cash, and then be able to login and donate a buck here a buck there to several projects, all at that same time, on that single transaction, but have the total transaction only be skimmed one time by paypal(or whomever),not every single transaction to every single project. And it should have a cap, that skimming part, and not very high, as frankly,I can't afford the minimums to make it worthwhile to the developers. I imagine a lot of people feel this way and are in a similar situation. I'd love to be able to shoot ten bucks or more to every project I'd like to support but that isn't happening. Is there a work around for this or am I reading this idea wrong?
As an aside, I'd like to support the distro releasers as well this way, and here's the rub, for my pet distro and even the distros I don't normally use, it still wouldn't bother me to send them "a buck or two" now and then if it was cheap and easy for me to do this without incurring the high transaction fee financial pain threshhold. I'd like the ability to only incur ONE fee for supporting MANY projects, so the developers get the most loot, not paypal or another middleman. I don't mind they get "some" just make it low enough so that more folks might be interested because it's cheap and easy to do so. Like, you login and are presented with an extensive menu and set of checkboxes, your cash level to donate is carved in stone at that time for that transaction, depending on how many checkboxes you check, that's what % of your loot gets transferred, within some sort of minimum reasonableness, make it a dollar maybe. The default on the checkbox can be like any shopping cart, it's zero-empty, you can manually change that if you want say 1 or 2 or 3 to go one of your favorite projects, singles to others, or whatever, up to your limit for that transaction. Some folks got no probs dropping a franklin that way, other folks can drop a jackson and still be contributing at least something, and it can get spread out better/faster/wider.
--I just checked! Ya know how google has a decent compromise business model text link sponsors list off to the right based on the keyword? I just tried generic "windows" as a search term. Yep, microsoft on the top hits, natch, but could they drop the coin to help google by buying a text link? NOPE!
*hint to alternative os distro guys, any flavor, nice place for a link there on google "Yo! Tired of Windows? Looking for a cheaper and better idea? Try Nitro-Metha*nix OS and etc, klik heir"
--good luck to you! Visa is way outta line on this one, someone in their legal department musta been bored and got their panties in a wad and needed brownie points or something, "hey, let's whack these little guys, it'll be fun!". Too bad you have to pay cash for this though, perhaps you can recoup somehow, "frivilous lawsuit" whatever.
cool, the machine itself looks like the quicktime player to me, like a screen cap got changed into a piece of hardware.
here's list of apps if anyone is interested and hasn't clicked over.
new software
program: version:
CVS 1.11.2
Frogger 2.05
Frogger Codecs 1.4
xquiz 1.2
nettoe 1.1
mp3ai release 0
deutex 4.4.0
tictactoe 1.2.1
surfboard 1.1.5
othello 0.03
ID3ren 1.1
wget 1.8.2
Mencoder CVS 06.10.2002
SDL 1.2.5
Poseidon 1.31
ahi.device 5.29
ScummVM CVS 23.09.2002
guigfxlib 19.2
Freeciv 1.13.1
ScummVM BE 0.2.0
frogger, heh, still got that one some of my coal burning macs, heh, if it's that same frogger that is!
--technically, you are entitled to a jury trial for any dispute involving more than 20$. Just another one of those pesky constitutional "theories" that "modern law" ignores in a lot of cases. As to these trademark disputes, it would have to be alleged that somehow someplace someone lost more than 20$. The evisa domain holder could assert that handily. Visa on the other hand would be hard pressed to prove they lost one penny, as evisa doesn't issue credit as a business.
"Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty
dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a
jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than
according to the rules of the common law."
--I'm most likely quite a bit older than you, well maybe not, but I ain't a kid, been active in politics since the 64 election, do quite a bit of activism,the latest "outside a norm" was when I was the only person in my county to file a complaint about closed source no accountability computer touch screen voting that was foisted on us, and I don't play ANY video games, don't even own a joystick, don't eat cheese doodles, and this so called "government" just ruled that they don't have to provide medical care to world war two or korean vets anymore if they don't feel like it, once again proving more or less what lying SOB's they are in most cases. If they are doing something positive for them, great! good luck, well done! Hope ya get the job and do well!
Besides that, I truly am sorry I assumed it was that new darpa information agency you were talking about,with the ridiculous goon illuminatiesque cult symbol abomination they have, my mistake, and I apologize. I shouldn't have assumed, but that was the biggee lately in the news that they are planning on spending tons of money and hiring lotsa IT guys and etc, if you can see that. Hoestly thought that was what you were talking about, given the 'crypto" nature of the wording of the post. Got to be 20 or 50 to 1 or more lately on that coverage over the vet hospital stuff. If I had known it was to provide services to vets I wouldn't have said squat. Vets get screwed all the time.
--"get in on the ground floor" of the biggest most technologically advanced surveillance AND command AND control over it's own citizens endeavor ever attempted in the history of the planet.
Ohh boy.
You, sir, suck.
Remember this el geek-o, as you count your pieces of silver and relish your leetness, the nuhremberg defense *doesn't work*. What goes around, comes around.
---the reason someone might need an 'assault rifle". First, let's actually define it. An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle designed to be owner operated in either semi automatic fashion-one cartridge fires per one trigger pull, or in fully automatic -one trigger pull activates the rifle to keep firing as long as it's pulled, release, it stops, or in "burst" mode, which might be two or three shots per single pull.
With that out of the way- and please don't forget the technical details as this is slashdot and tech is what we discuss here and words really have *exact* meanings- actually realise although those types of rifles are still quite legal to own in most states-yes they are-, only a small % of people own them.
Now as to semi automatic rifles. The situation is this. The second amendment has NOTHING to do with target shooting or hunting. Nothing. they are ancillary issues. the ONLY reason the second amendment was written was PRECISELY for the fact that we as a nation had just fought back a tyranny,a tyranny composed of both armed soldiers of a government, armed policeman, and armed mercenaries. They were engaging in a tyrannical oppression of the people in what was to be called the united states, they were in fact still colonies and part of great britain, and the 'revolt" was against the oppression. By todays stock definition, the colonists who revolted were 'terrorists", but they were also 'freedom fighters". Just depends what side of the street you were on. The current top of the line weapons were used during this conflict, by Both sides. It was nip and tuck, but BECAUSE the colonists in rebellion had "the same" weapons-the 'assault weapons" of the age, they were able to prevail, gain independence. They were able to make the onerous government cease and desist with the oppression. Opression which included taxation with no representation. Unequal application of the laws. No redress of grievances, grievances which included murder by the "lawfuul" state, "military tribunals", theft, coercion, torture, and etc. Without having current equal level military arms, they wouldn't have been able to stop this "bad stuff". The "lawful government" at the time was in fact going to seize their arms (powder stores mostly) when the "shot heard round the world" was fired, as the colonists knew full well that without arms of equal level, they were really really really en-screwed. They noted this, and immediately after agreeing that "speech" was a born-with right, they added most clearly and directly the right-not privelege, but the RIGHT to "keep and bear" arms, arms being "current good quality weapons".
It is really that simple. We have weapons to protect ourselvesd from tyrannical government once all hope of a peaceful solution to a failure to redress grievances and/or for immediate self protection. This is a "born-with" right, not a "grant" or a "privelege". We-you if you are a USian and me-are actually required to forceably remove usurpers and traitors to our representaive republic should they seize power. This would most likely require current good quality arms no doubt. Military "styled" or whatever.
Seeking to restrict other's lawful rights is not only illegal, it's traitorus, and anyone trying to do this is in fact, guilty iof treason, which is a capital offense. anyone, be it "elected official", hired on "badged agent or officer", appointed bureaucrat, and etc. Those who restrict are breaking the law.
We have quite a few lawbreaking terrorists who have usurped powers not granted to them and theirs by our own laws. These include members of the above list. The fact that they have put restrictions on it has only come about from their ability to bring down lethal force and a willingness to do so, but it still doesn't make it lawful.
If you as a citizen choose not to keep and bear, this is your voluntary right of course, but the second you seek to restrict other's lawful keeping and bearing, you become a "terrorist", a criminal.
It's that simple, and sorry whomever that whizzes off, but it IS the truth in plain english.
Put it this way, how long would you fail to "get it" if you as one of those "irrationbal speech nuts" needed to apply to your government for a "license" to post here? Or even if no such "license" was even avaialble? What's that? It's different? No way would you do that? Uhh, no it isn't.
The first ten "amendments" are supposed to be immutable, that the so called "supreme" court has "ruled" otherwise doesn't change the fact. The others may be changed, the first ten are carved in stone. You see, we fought to not be "ruled" and as such, this court is an abomination and unlawful. The payrolled toadies who enforce or write unconstitutional laws are traitors. It's that simple.
Without "we the people" having the same or similar weapons as the current military, we open ourtselves up for enslavement. The historical parallels are clear, once any government starts down the road on disarming it's own people via fiat and force, eventually they enslave and/or murder huge numbers of it's population. And it usually doesn't happen overnight, it creeps in, then it's "too late' as the excuse makers-the sheep-usually are in a majority, as cowardice, stupidity and lack of memory are more prevalent forms of human behavior than intelligence and bravery. It takes humans with intelligence and vision to actually accomplish 'great things", the median status quo is just that-herd cud chewers. We wrote down the true laws so even the cud chewers could understand it. Below that level, well, I just don't know, but above that level failure to understand is done on purpose, and it's criminal.
Pick once, pick wisely, good luck, better skill, don't take my reply as a flame, but DO understand the thought of being in a nation where only the police and military have any "right" to modern defensive weapons is abhorent to huge numbers of aware and informed law abiding people, and it's also a dictionary definition of a "police state" whether in a semi civilized nation, a "first or second or third" world type nation,with zero or one or more "political parties" or not. The arms in the citizens hands make the only "rational" difference-the only definable line between a "free" nations and a "police state" styled nation and truly the only practical final measure "check and balance" on "too much" governmental power, and as such is the primary difference between a tyranny and a free population and nation. The vast bulk of nations on the planet earth are "police states" at this time. The US is half way there now. This is a "bad thing". It is stupid, and quite dangerous actually. Traitors, some not even knowing theyare traitors, are trying for that last step towards full bore police state. they seek to enslave themselves and others in the proven misconception they will be "safer", despite historical overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You see there's safe from day to day level street crime, then there's safe from mass huge overwhelming governmenatla crime against it's own citizens. A long time ago, "we" decided it was much preferrable to put up with the lower level of potential day to day stuff than to suffer ever again from the "government" as a "mass terrorist criminal" level of crime. It was a bona fide observation and choice made at the time, given human nature, that a 'smaller' level of crime and hardship was MUCH preferrable than day in day out enslavement and murder and incarceration and theft and whatnot being perpetrated by an entity called "government". It-the level we are currently at- should have never gotten 1/10th of the way from that point.
--most people aren't 'servers' beyond http requests (more or less). Have isps offer a 'deal" where you agree to not be a server, let casual surfers sign up for that service at a reduced cheaper rate of cash. People who want to do "more" pay more, get a server "license" in other words, and they get a detailed explanation of safe computing practices and put the onus on them to follow the guidelines "or else". The "or else" can be a variable, maybe temp loss of service, loss of email, forfeiture of a deposit, whatever for malicious virus spreading, etc. The cheaper rate has a LOT of ports and services blocked at their isp. The "server licensed" rate assumes you are more responsible and hip, and are treated accordingly. It also helps to pay for your increased bandwith needs as a 'server'.
I know this is very simplistic, but something I was thinking on for awhile, correlating various discussions about peer to peer and home web page and email hosting, etc. Let the people themselves decide how much service they really want upfront based on their skill and desires level, and with that service comes verifiable accountability, ie, they can be held aty fault as well for being part of the problem if they get caught being..well... lazy and lame.. Joe blow gets the 'server" level full package normal isp connection. Joe blow downloads hotbabe.vbs and gets nailed, his box gets owned, starts sending out a boatload of more hotbabe.vbs files. Too bad, he screwed up, loss of priveleges and/or cash deposit. Better luck next time, deposit doubles.
Just a thought..I know there's flaws in it, but everything else has flaws as well. I know too many people who downloaded some firewall and that's it, in their minds they are 'secure", just do whatever they want, click on any email, never look at anything,never bother to bcc mass emailings, no followup anything but maybe that attempt, and a lot of people don't even bother to get that far, just run the computer at random. they buy it, or get it as a gift, that's it, left to learn to drive on their own, or like being told to learn to swim by being dropped headfirst into a raging whitewater whilst shackled. It ain't never gonna work that way, modern OS's and computers are too complicated right off the bat for people and there's little incentive to learn anything for most people until something "breaks" usually from operator error. It's intimidating to a lot of people, so offer them a less intimidating isp connection, then it won't matter as much. Example, the less intimidating and cheaper isp connection only comes with a web based email account, set so it can never run an executable, it's not downloaded,it's text only, any attachments like images, etc, have to be explicitly allowed and first scanned at the isp level, they'd have to jump through hoops to do that. And etc. Make it so you have to actually be forced to honestly think about what's going on, fail to think, it's not allowed.
Of course, none of this matters if all you have to do is click on an url like is being talked about the past couple of days. There's an accountability issue there with the OS and package vendors eventually, that's the biggest problem, zero incentive to really code better in the security side. there's none, nada. Click the eula to install,and it don't matter closed source or open source,paid for or free, it's caveat emptor, no software makers are ever liable for any security flaws,they write the eulas that way on purpose,it seems to be accepted,duh, so, they'll continue to exist. There's laws against malicious hacking, swell, but sometime this century wouldn't it be nice to finally see the other side of the street where if you charge money for a product it should work as advertised and not work as not advertised because of design flaws? In meat world it's calledcontributory negligence. In cyberworld this doesn't exist, despite billions of dollars exchanging hands for 'products'. Why is this again? We as a society don't accept that with other consumer products, but with software it's the default, "it ain't my fault no matter what". This is silly really. Shouldn't there be some sort of time limit on vulnerabilities, especially for paid-for software? How long will software in general be treated as all experimental betaware with a get-out-of-jail-free card? Hasn't software in the terms of "browsers" and "email clients" whatever and etc been around long enough now so that someplace somewhere the manufacturers and distributors can be declared to be at least partially "at fault" when it's shown to be so flawed that it becomes an internet menace? Isn't this REALLY the biggest problem? When will there be a smidgen of accountability to go along with "profit"?
Was it really abandoned or did the guy have something happen to him in meatworld? I mean it could be anything, got locked up, got sick, moved to ubangiland, anything. With that said, here's one solution, you can fork it immediately,get to work on it,and if/when the original guy shows back up,contact him and either agree to rejoin efforts-or not.
geez man hope you haven't gotten owned and maybe hosting some "interesting stuff" you didn't know about. That would be my first impression finding that much unexplainable "data" in some directory or folder. I would go #@$#$7, get off the net, and really take a look at it.
--the tva had good and bad parts to it. the public observable good, hydro power and the ac electricity 'standard" to a lot of areas. downsides where it helped squash independent home electrical generation in favor of the big picture big guys, even going beyond the co-ops. Back in the 20's and 30's there was a blossoming and successful rural "alternative energy" industry, it got squashed. jacobs windpower for example. Here's a short history:
http://www.windturbine.net/history.htm
Aceytelene generators and efficient small home diesels. There where a variety of DC appliance makers to serve that industry. I'm sorta too lazy right now to go dig up a slew more links, but the gist of it was that alternative energywas reallystarting to take off, in a variety of directions, and including solar in heating at least, and, well, it got squashed. There always seems to be lurking behind big government projects a few fatcats with their hands out, and it's always sold as "good for the people". funny how it works out like that. Hmm, need a new war, who can we hire to build war stuff... wow! we got the same old cast of characters conveniently ready to go into triple overtime and build war stuff. Energy, same deal. Communications, same deal. These social government programs also helped establish this mindset and legal precedent that "the government" can just constanly kick people off their land to do "something". The something always seems to eventually become a basic subsidy, not for the little guy, but for some big international "deal". Sort of like what the stealth mega corps/greenie orgs/ government cartel does now with creating "willing sellers" in the rural areas by first using some "law" like the ESA to knock off a class of rural workers by virtually outlawing what they do for a living, usually based on extremely coercive and faulty junk science (spotted owl, klamath suckers, etc), this then bankrupts the people when they can't work, despite the fifth amendment of the constitution saying they need to be paid for lost whatever when government seizes their stuff, so they sell their properties "willingly". They even give grants to so called "not for profit" orgs, who turn around and use bogus created "laws" and sue people, who then get harassed by government.
I'm saying there's usually always payoffs going on and wheels within wheels with these happenings. Been going on a long time too.
Same deal in a lot of matters with the FCC, supposedly they serve the public good with their regulations, but sometimes it doesn't work. They go out of their way to bust micro broadcasters saying they cause "harm", but they rubber stamp the more or less very monopolistic and extremely lucrative "licenses" given to the major networks and broadcasters year after year, despite mega thousands of complaints they have received, and the harm they cause by mass propogandizing the news shows and by the social engineering they do with "entertainment" shows. Ya, you can complain,and it goes on record for public viewing in the circular file receptacle.
It's not an either / or, there's good and bad in these quasi socialistic experiments they do with manipulating how humans do their work and what happens with industry in general.
I think a better first step is to make null and void the local telcos and the cable copmpanies monopolies, and to rein in the FCC to it's constitutional limits set for the federal government, and that is to regulate interstate commerce as it pertains to broadcasting, and commerce isn't "all" broadcasting, and not all broadcasting or delivered/sent data services.
Just a few points. I sort of agree with you on some good coming from the standards and public works, but I also see the other side of the coin. Basically I want "government" in general to be put on a severe hold right now, as in a total stoppage of any "new" laws, a "cease and desist" order in other words, and a ten year or so campaign to review and remove the bulk of the "old" laws, keeping only the extremely necessary and constitutional ones. I know that's a wish, I'm just wishing is all, heh.
--been following this spam problem for awhile. One of the ideas I have seen that seems to me to have a more pro active approach to it is to poison the spammers email lists on purpose by using their own robots against them. Instead of trying to build filters and generate lists of IP's to block and etc, wouldn't it be better to create masses of webpages that contain nothing but zillions of bogus but good looking email addy's? From what I understand it's expensive for the spammers to send out huge numbers of spam emails, the profit margin is slim. This idea might knock it to the mass-zero level for most of them as it would become unprofitable for them to be in that business. If thousands of websites had a page of bogus emails, and they were different, then eventually the spammers harvested lists would be filled with useless mostly emails and the bouncing would resemble superturbo flubber.
I'm not good enough to know if this would work or not, just seeking commentary on it.
had no idea, thanks for the info!
--hey! Used to use your ticker, great freebie man. thank you.And your headlines were topnotch, quick as anyone's, great stuff. Sorry to see ya lose it. Next time don't sell out to the VC's, just figure out how to do it so it don't take 18 hour days..it's funny too when I was using yor stuff I was doing 18 hrs on a site and daily newsletter, for about zilch money, just doing it. Oh well....
--really! makes sense. Sounds EXACTLY what I was telling all my windows friends over the years as I was surfing and working on my mac classic and they were finding out what happened to their registry (why do you have to register everything/) or why they had bad dll pickles (dlls? why do I need to see that as joe normal user?)or whatever that stuff was. Never understood that, but you state the phenomenon so well. They seemed to equate difficult and easy to break with "cool", but, oh well......that's the tradeoff, really really cheap and customizable also equals real touchy sensitive and easy to fritz it up. Medium expensive is a little less easy to fritz up, sorta kinda easier to use,and still customizable. At the very expensive (joe consumer)level, you get it all, robust, easy to use, customizable, and hard to break unless you go way out of your way to do it.
It works, the "system" works, you get exactly what you pay for.
It's sorta like cars, some guys build hotrods from scratch, most folks drive chevhonolas, then there's mercedes and ferraris and other exotics. The "system" works, you get what ya pay for and want.
---umm, nice try, but no they haven't been all "debunked". What has happened in a lot of cases has been half assed spin efforts. Like that ridiculous cia cartoon video of twa 800 and the magical sploding center fuel tank and a plane that can zoom almost straight up all busted in chubks, that was hysterical. And the fat guy don't look nuthin like him "osama" cia video, again, hilarious. You guys never quit, the "attack" by gunboats on US destroyers in the tonkin gulf. too bad the head navy guy in theater there never heard of it. On and on, same scam, yep, it usually works because people are easily lead when they can't get to any data, but the net is sorta making that harder to pull off now, ain't it?
Just remember, the "nuhremberg defense" is not a valid excuse. Tell your boss that too.
--the dotcom boom of the 2000's is biometrics-well one of them anyway. You ask how they'll track cash purchases? Well in stores they'll use facial recognition, body language recognition, walking styles recognition, monitor your pulse rate, whatever. I've seen all these articles linked from slashdot already. could be an electronic fingerprint required to finalise the purchase. all that stuff is here already in test areas. And I'd say some huge numbers of stores have vid cameras already, might not be very hard to pass another one of those laws. They already are doing it all over in public places. No stopping that action now, the goons DIG on that big brother "command and control and surveil" action. they can't get enough or roll it out fast enough. and they got all the grunts they need wiling to do the work, from camp executioners to scientists, shell out the cash, you can hire all the goons with no conscious ya want to.
In the works for US currency soon:
Next year, the phase out of old greenbacks and new "colored" money. One of (several of the) the scams being promoted is cash that "times out". That's right, spend it by a certain date or it gradually loses a % of value down to zip.
In the works for US people soon, the implantable chip, pretty soon mandated. They'll do prisoners first, dangerous released felons on parole, "sex offenders", etc. then high risk medical patients. then normal prisoners. then "the chidrenz" so they don't get kidnapped. Proly need a few more high interest media feeding frenzy staged "kidnappings" for this to take hold. Then the military in general. The goal there is total robot cyborgs, this can just be seen now, they aren't even hiding it. Then, everyone gets the chips with no saying "no" because "we need good universal ID that can't be faked" (easily),most likely combined with a massive (again, staged on purpose for effect) bioterrorist attack so they can "keep track of who got the shots (and implants) and not.
government works on these three principles, create a problem, get the reaction you expect, off the solution. They'll have people lining up begging them for the chips(with the medical 'cure' and food and etc that will go with it), with few exceptions. Tracking cash is not going to be that hard, IMO. they don't have to track all of it, just most of it, like they track most of what happens now or have the ability to do so.
And they just voted "yes" yesterday to start doing all this stuff, more or less, I mean, they aren't being coy about it.
--I've read at least a hundred articles on this satellite thing and your's was THE most helpful workaround I've seen. REMOVE THE LITTLE PLATE. I AM going to remember that. The *&*&*^% satellite bozos got a lot of nerve. You need to get modded to five like immediately. And someone who posts at mac central(anyone reading this) should stick this over there as well.
--this is a good idea methinks. I never thought about before, but you are right!Like you I remember EXACTLY back when cable company's were granted their exclusive monopolies. They sure DID promise that cable tv would be commercial free. I remember the debates in the town council were I was living at the time, they stated as such. I don't live there now, but I bet this happened all over the US.
There's a lawsuit angle potential there I think, to break their monopolies now. Perhaps some massive punitive fines and rebates to customers as well. Their current contracts might be abrogated or declared void if it can be proven they failed to live up to their promises when they got their licenses. Hmmm. There is zero reason any more to allow them to control turf as a monopoly. Yes, expensive to rollout new cable,(or fiber?) but in some areas, it might be feasible. And anyplace the company can be successfully sued, perhaps they get auctioned off, cheap intact cable system for pennies on the dollar to some new startup? Who knows but the possibilities are there.
--sure, here ya go it's called google. Look up anything ya want, start with the "friends of bill list". On the bushes side start with prescott if ya want, how he got convicted of trading with the enemy-the nazis. It's just data. Get the data, make up your own mind. Learn how george the elder allowed in thousands of iraqis, of whom many settled in oklahoma, and the now starting to creep out linkages with the murragh building and the explosion there. Interesting stuff there. Learn how immediately after the 9-11 attacks of how after ALL civilian aircraft was ordered grounded, that shrubya allowed-ordered- the bin laden family to load up and flee in their private jet. Learn about the dumbya's ties with the bin ladens, how they used to even vacation together. Look up anything ya want to. Have fun. It's not theory if there's data to look at, but I'm not your paid search engine, the data is out there if you are really interested. Try "government prior knowledge, 9-11" in google. Try looking up uzbeikstan and taliban and oil, then check the dates and names involved. Try unocal and haliburton and carlisle group. Try "opium, cia, KLA, taliban, northern alliance". Any and all of it, have big fun. Try running "bush, drug smuggling, clinton, mena", that's another goodie. There's tons really.
And oh ya, oswald wasn't the only dude involved in kennedy's whack, "so there". Take your warren commission "report" to the outhouse with ya, it's the appropriate place to use that paper it's printed on.
neener neener
%^)