Here's a source from a human rights organisation Who originally mentioned that cluster bomblets were being found, incidentally, I couldn't believe seeing them myself at the time, but I suppose they could have planted them. Yes, thats it, those vicious ungrateful civilians planted the submunitions...
How do you feel about collateral damage? Sometimes known as 'civilians', generally not warned that 'soldiers' are going to be in the area or using cluster munitions.
"I'm in Italy and i found a way to start my business online for just 20 bucks a month... and now i am my own boss, and make more than i did at my previous job."
Why am I expecting the next line to be 'Herbal Viagra really works! Here are some testimonials...'
"For example, you might have registered a machine, and given that machine, sold that machine to another MIT student," Bruce said. "Unless that person goes to inordinate lengths to re-register the machine, it's still going to have your registration."
This is getting beyond a joke. The 'registration' talked about is the @Kazaa, as far as I can see, and you can change that in seconds
"because I remember a few years ago loads of people were suing Manchester council for... tripping over the pavement and 'breaking' their ankles."
Claims are capped based on the long term damage and usually an offer comes in quickly at the lower end of the cap. I believe an ankle is 5000-15000, but again, this is for physical, verifiable damage rather than that amorphous 'it hurt me in ways that are hard to describe' and Dr Evil-like numbers.
It's like those estimates of companies that lose thousands through viruses...they wouldn't have lost the money if they'd actually invested in IT rather than buying 2 copies of Norton AV...
"means running a production-quality, bullet-proof OS"
Totally, honeybunch, whch is why you should maybe have pointed out that you're running an unstable version of FreeBSD at the moment. The 5.x branch isn't going to have a stable until 5.2...
"The parents are responsible as they most likely set up the account."
Unless America has finally relented and you issue toddlers with credit cards.
The important thing to not richochet past is the media perception of this. Sure, they love a good story, but they're rapidly noticing the wind change in terms of the large, cash-rich lobby group targetting the individuals. This might be a bit beyond consumer rights, but the public perception is the thing they're missing from these punitive strikes.
You can almost smell the burning tyres already.
The thing to watch is how they try to spin this now. If they don't try to spin it, then they're going to get tarred and feathered [more] in the public arena until even the tame Senators start to send people to have a quiet chat with them.
"No one can tolerate DDoS attacks and other kinds of attacks in this Information Age economy that relies so heavily on the Internet."
Before this goes much further, bear in mind that you're assuming that such an attack actually took place, much the same as everyone is assuming that the lone person emailing ESR was actually telling the truth.
Bear in mind that DDoS includes the word 'distributed', and anyone building a network of zombies to do this kind of stuff isn't 'our' friend.
As I said recently on Groklaw, does anyone fancy calling the FBI on McBride's behalf, just in case he's forgotten?
"I prefer Neil Postman's view on the subject in that religion is a mechanism for providing order and context to information. Religion might seem like a crutch, but to most it is a means of imposing a comforting sense of order on to the perceived universe."
Religion is the 'push' model of creating a comforting world view rather than the relative haphazard way that people build their perceived world view through experience.
Religion 'helps' people confused by the world they inhabit with a structure, even if that structure includes being in the 'family' with 'Unky Charlie' and going after people with knives.
Personally I steer clear of any belief system that wants me as a member. They really don't have a clue how bad I am.
"I now consider Scientology akin to a computer virus"
or 'meme'.
Reading the dianetics book in isolation is quite good, because it's waffle. Complete waffle. The agenda doesn't even start to kick in until you've glazed over about 30% of the way in. I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out the links between Star Trek and CoS...
"If their work is so secret that they cannot have it published, then perhaps they are consorting with Baphomet too!"
Of course, you wouldn't want to mistake those allegations with the fact that the Knight's Templar had a bit of a stranglehold on heaps of relics, and had one hell of a business model in escorting people to an from the holy land.
No! Allegations of devil worship would _never_ be used to break a power base...it's unthinkable!
I you mean Anton LeVey's brand of satanism, then it's much cheaper than CoS, and quite fun once you get past the 'Hammer Horror' aspects.
In fact it's quite closely related to Secular Humanism.
"Their basic ideas is that you are the center of the universe, and anything you do to anybody to obtain your goals is OK."
Actually, the central tenet is that you're striving to become 'clear' to be one of those that survives the culling of the 'pre-clears' who're inherently similar to animals. It's a standard superiority clause that most religions pander to. 'Yes, we're taking all your money, but think of what it'll be like when all the other mothers are gone.'...Functionally similar to the rapture.
The major difference between Satanism and CoS is that Satanism asks you to revel in the fact that you're an animal and stop being so goddamned holy about stuff.
"The only reason for giving it a different name is that "Scientology" is able to recruit celebrities,"
I couldn't possibly go into details here, but take a look at who runs cocaine helplines in Hollywood.
"The nature of fusion makes the whole idea of "cold fussion" an oxymoron."
Not really, you're falling into the trap of considering the only way to cause fusion is by supplying a lot of kinetic/thermal energy to the whole thing. You might want to go look at the work done on cooling atoms with lasers and ask how light can cool matter.
I've been involved with the Cold Fusion crowd in the past in my capacity as a skeptic, and I honestly say that the vast majority of the supporters were professional scientists that were open-minded about what they were seeing in terms of the experiments that might have showed minute gains. That level of enquiry was true to the heart of scientific discovery, while a small coterie of very vocal, loud and quite obnoxious hot fusion devotees did the equivalent of christian fundamentalists picketing a rock concert.
Anyone interested in this might want to consider looking at scientific history and/or Robert Kuhn's 'Structure of scientific revolutions'.
Although I'm very hard science, I try not to let it become religion, simply because something like cold fusion _might_ be possible.
"No. if they offered you thins, and the renigged, the courts would just laugh at them."
The important aspect of this is what they're offering, which is nothing. If you hand over your details, then there's nothing to state that they need to 'check up' that you're not infringing in the future, and that's the important bit of this whole thing. You're essentially nailing your personal details to their wall.
As for renaging on a deal, it has to be legal in the first instance. I know that the RIAA has better legal representation than myself, and litigation history _usually_ comes down on the side of the litigant with the most ready cash.
" doubt it's a honeypot. I don't think many people would sign up for this and then continue sharing, and I don't think the RIAA would turn around and sue people who abided by their terms (it would be PR suicide). "
Dude. RIAA. In PR terms they're beginning to stink up the crawlspace. The next thing would be that people are asked to audit their own systems from a form that would just skirt legality in terms of threats and mention the heavy fines that they're trying to buy from Congress. It'll then go into a database, and you'll probably receive junk mail from these people ad infinitum.
Personally I consider them less trustworthy than crackheads and half as competent.
"They have a duty of responsibility to ensure that data of limited significance is not represented as some twisted interpretation of a coming apocalypse."
They do? I thought they were the teaser for advertising space.
Curious, your idea would have to be backed by a certain level of professional objectivity...
I think 'Wormwood' has the historical precedance and would scare the religious right silly. Please, please, please, please start referring to it as 'Wormwood'.
"I'm sure I'm not alone in expressing the sentiment this happens sooner rather than later."
Ah yes, but there are some who think that;
"he could lose the cornerstone of his international media empire.", doesn't go far enough and the words 'tackle' and 'in a blender' should be shoehorned in there.
Optionally 'nailed', 'testicles' and 'the bastard son of Mary Whitehouse and the average spammer' can be included for colour.
"And what UFO magazine did you pull "dyson spheres" out of?"
I don't know whether a UFO magazine has printed any of Freeman Dyson's work. It may be a little 'dry' for them.
"Its a pretty safe assumption that dyson spheres won't make up any of the so-called "dark matter" out there."
Any? You seem to be discounting a lot of stuff by not regarding technology as a possibility. Dark matter is simply non-radiating mass, and there's a lot of junk out there that doesn't radiate, radiates behind nebula, radiates outside the spectral bands we look at and may even radiate stuff that we can't 'see' yet. Making 'safe' assumptions usually isn't.
For the uninitiated, a dyson sphere is a theoretical construction that totally encloses a star (or massive blackhole, but that's really exotic) to harness the total output of the star and give a living surface on the inside. The technology is not trivial, but it's possible.
As an 'aside' into Fermi's paradox, I've long held that any technologically advanced civilisation starts to stop 'wasting' energy through broadband emission fairly early into it's life, but it's important for me to note that this is personal heresy.
"And anyone with common-sense can easily realise the 90% figure is used metaphorically so get a clue."
I tend to use 90% as a metaphor for nine-tenths. If you actually mean that 90% was used as a metaphor for a majority of the universe, then it might be hanging around in the neighbourhood of right, but the understanding of it appears more to be on the side of 'fortuitously lost' rather than knowledge.
BTW, I love the links. Cutting edge cosmology on angelfire and geocities. Outstanding.
Slashdot Mirror
"I believe"
Shame.
"certainly none of them were used in the overthrow of Saddam."
No?
Seems that they aren't telling you much. Here's a US military source.
Here's a source from a human rights organisation Who originally mentioned that cluster bomblets were being found, incidentally, I couldn't believe seeing them myself at the time, but I suppose they could have planted them. Yes, thats it, those vicious ungrateful civilians planted the submunitions...
Hmm. How do we explain away the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan?
Yeah, I did use the BBC heavily so here's another source and Another and Another...
Hopefully you might catch a clue.
"Often called 'soldiers'"
Ah, other people, then.
How do you feel about collateral damage? Sometimes known as 'civilians', generally not warned that 'soldiers' are going to be in the area or using cluster munitions.
"No, it's about registering the MAC address to get an IP address with MIT. the KaZaA registration is a totaly different issue."
Thanks. I'll be spending the rest of today digging egg out of my assorted facial orifices.
"I'm in Italy and i found a way to start my business online for just 20 bucks a month... and now i am my own boss, and make more than i did at my previous job."
Why am I expecting the next line to be 'Herbal Viagra really works! Here are some testimonials...'
"For example, you might have registered a machine, and given that machine, sold that machine to another MIT student," Bruce said. "Unless that person goes to inordinate lengths to re-register the machine, it's still going to have your registration."
This is getting beyond a joke. The 'registration' talked about is the @Kazaa, as far as I can see, and you can change that in seconds
This gets even sillier if they mean the IP.
"prepared to fight to the death"
Who's death?
"because I remember a few years ago loads of people were suing Manchester council for ... tripping over the pavement and 'breaking' their ankles."
Claims are capped based on the long term damage and usually an offer comes in quickly at the lower end of the cap. I believe an ankle is 5000-15000, but again, this is for physical, verifiable damage rather than that amorphous 'it hurt me in ways that are hard to describe' and Dr Evil-like numbers.
It's like those estimates of companies that lose thousands through viruses...they wouldn't have lost the money if they'd actually invested in IT rather than buying 2 copies of Norton AV...
"You have to opt out to exclude yourself from a class action suit?"
Use the handy 'remove' link at the bottom of the filing.
"FreeBSD 5.0 system"
"means running a production-quality, bullet-proof OS"
Totally, honeybunch, whch is why you should maybe have pointed out that you're running an unstable version of FreeBSD at the moment. The 5.x branch isn't going to have a stable until 5.2...
"As the law stands, she IS doing something illegal and the law is (pseudo) blind to age."
How did you get insightful from that comment?
The law for minors is _completely_ different than that of adults because of the relative difference in terms of knowledge of right and wrong.
People have already pointed out that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but does anyone actually know the law that isn't a lawyer?
Does everyone consult when they do everything?
"This is precious, just the kind of screw-up the RIAA didn't need."
I'm waiting for the record execs daughter...although they're probably quite careful about that...
"The parents are responsible as they most likely set up the account."
Unless America has finally relented and you issue toddlers with credit cards.
The important thing to not richochet past is the media perception of this. Sure, they love a good story, but they're rapidly noticing the wind change in terms of the large, cash-rich lobby group targetting the individuals. This might be a bit beyond consumer rights, but the public perception is the thing they're missing from these punitive strikes.
You can almost smell the burning tyres already.
The thing to watch is how they try to spin this now. If they don't try to spin it, then they're going to get tarred and feathered [more] in the public arena until even the tame Senators start to send people to have a quiet chat with them.
"No one can tolerate DDoS attacks and other kinds of attacks in this Information Age economy that relies so heavily on the Internet."
Before this goes much further, bear in mind that you're assuming that such an attack actually took place, much the same as everyone is assuming that the lone person emailing ESR was actually telling the truth.
Bear in mind that DDoS includes the word 'distributed', and anyone building a network of zombies to do this kind of stuff isn't 'our' friend.
As I said recently on Groklaw, does anyone fancy calling the FBI on McBride's behalf, just in case he's forgotten?
"I prefer Neil Postman's view on the subject in that religion is a mechanism for providing order and context to information. Religion might seem like a crutch, but to most it is a means of imposing a comforting sense of order on to the perceived universe."
Religion is the 'push' model of creating a comforting world view rather than the relative haphazard way that people build their perceived world view through experience.
Religion 'helps' people confused by the world they inhabit with a structure, even if that structure includes being in the 'family' with 'Unky Charlie' and going after people with knives.
Personally I steer clear of any belief system that wants me as a member. They really don't have a clue how bad I am.
"I now consider Scientology akin to a computer virus"
or 'meme'.
Reading the dianetics book in isolation is quite good, because it's waffle. Complete waffle. The agenda doesn't even start to kick in until you've glazed over about 30% of the way in. I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out the links between Star Trek and CoS...
"If their work is so secret that they cannot have it published, then perhaps they are consorting with Baphomet too!"
Of course, you wouldn't want to mistake those allegations with the fact that the Knight's Templar had a bit of a stranglehold on heaps of relics, and had one hell of a business model in escorting people to an from the holy land.
No! Allegations of devil worship would _never_ be used to break a power base...it's unthinkable!
"Scientology = a satanic cult."
I you mean Anton LeVey's brand of satanism, then it's much cheaper than CoS, and quite fun once you get past the 'Hammer Horror' aspects.
In fact it's quite closely related to Secular Humanism.
"Their basic ideas is that you are the center of the universe, and anything you do to anybody to obtain your goals is OK."
Actually, the central tenet is that you're striving to become 'clear' to be one of those that survives the culling of the 'pre-clears' who're inherently similar to animals. It's a standard superiority clause that most religions pander to. 'Yes, we're taking all your money, but think of what it'll be like when all the other mothers are gone.'...Functionally similar to the rapture.
The major difference between Satanism and CoS is that Satanism asks you to revel in the fact that you're an animal and stop being so goddamned holy about stuff.
"The only reason for giving it a different name is that "Scientology" is able to recruit celebrities,"
I couldn't possibly go into details here, but take a look at who runs cocaine helplines in Hollywood.
"The nature of fusion makes the whole idea of "cold fussion" an oxymoron."
Not really, you're falling into the trap of considering the only way to cause fusion is by supplying a lot of kinetic/thermal energy to the whole thing. You might want to go look at the work done on cooling atoms with lasers and ask how light can cool matter.
I've been involved with the Cold Fusion crowd in the past in my capacity as a skeptic, and I honestly say that the vast majority of the supporters were professional scientists that were open-minded about what they were seeing in terms of the experiments that might have showed minute gains. That level of enquiry was true to the heart of scientific discovery, while a small coterie of very vocal, loud and quite obnoxious hot fusion devotees did the equivalent of christian fundamentalists picketing a rock concert.
Anyone interested in this might want to consider looking at scientific history and/or Robert Kuhn's 'Structure of scientific revolutions'.
Although I'm very hard science, I try not to let it become religion, simply because something like cold fusion _might_ be possible.
"No. if they offered you thins, and the renigged, the courts would just laugh at them."
The important aspect of this is what they're offering, which is nothing. If you hand over your details, then there's nothing to state that they need to 'check up' that you're not infringing in the future, and that's the important bit of this whole thing. You're essentially nailing your personal details to their wall.
As for renaging on a deal, it has to be legal in the first instance. I know that the RIAA has better legal representation than myself, and litigation history _usually_ comes down on the side of the litigant with the most ready cash.
" doubt it's a honeypot. I don't think many people would sign up for this and then continue sharing, and I don't think the RIAA would turn around and sue people who abided by their terms (it would be PR suicide). "
Dude. RIAA. In PR terms they're beginning to stink up the crawlspace. The next thing would be that people are asked to audit their own systems from a form that would just skirt legality in terms of threats and mention the heavy fines that they're trying to buy from Congress. It'll then go into a database, and you'll probably receive junk mail from these people ad infinitum.
Personally I consider them less trustworthy than crackheads and half as competent.
For those interested in the ongoing debate;
David Munns (EMI) whines about the high cost of CD Production and recieves no sympathy.
The views that prompted the panicky music exec.
"They have a duty of responsibility to ensure that data of limited significance is not represented as some twisted interpretation of a coming apocalypse."
They do? I thought they were the teaser for advertising space.
Curious, your idea would have to be backed by a certain level of professional objectivity...
Nah, it'll never catch on.
*cough*
I think 'Wormwood' has the historical precedance and would scare the religious right silly. Please, please, please, please start referring to it as 'Wormwood'.
"I'm sure I'm not alone in expressing the sentiment this happens sooner rather than later."
Ah yes, but there are some who think that;
"he could lose the cornerstone of his international media empire.", doesn't go far enough and the words 'tackle' and 'in a blender' should be shoehorned in there.
Optionally 'nailed', 'testicles' and 'the bastard son of Mary Whitehouse and the average spammer' can be included for colour.
"Can I use this?"
Sure. I'm flattered.
"And what UFO magazine did you pull "dyson spheres" out of?"
I don't know whether a UFO magazine has printed any of Freeman Dyson's work. It may be a little 'dry' for them.
"Its a pretty safe assumption that dyson spheres won't make up any of the so-called "dark matter" out there."
Any? You seem to be discounting a lot of stuff by not regarding technology as a possibility. Dark matter is simply non-radiating mass, and there's a lot of junk out there that doesn't radiate, radiates behind nebula, radiates outside the spectral bands we look at and may even radiate stuff that we can't 'see' yet. Making 'safe' assumptions usually isn't.
For the uninitiated, a dyson sphere is a theoretical construction that totally encloses a star (or massive blackhole, but that's really exotic) to harness the total output of the star and give a living surface on the inside. The technology is not trivial, but it's possible.
As an 'aside' into Fermi's paradox, I've long held that any technologically advanced civilisation starts to stop 'wasting' energy through broadband emission fairly early into it's life, but it's important for me to note that this is personal heresy.
"And anyone with common-sense can easily realise the 90% figure is used metaphorically so get a clue."
I tend to use 90% as a metaphor for nine-tenths. If you actually mean that 90% was used as a metaphor for a majority of the universe, then it might be hanging around in the neighbourhood of right, but the understanding of it appears more to be on the side of 'fortuitously lost' rather than knowledge.
BTW, I love the links. Cutting edge cosmology on angelfire and geocities. Outstanding.