This sounds more like a child than a government. The logic appears to be, "It's mine because I want it."
And notice how often they say "illegal." Three times in the first paragraph.
This is incoherent because I'm outraged. All I can think of is these words, and the lizards. Outraging the citizens is not a good way to maintain a stable government.
Of course, don't be too surprised if you meet this page trying to follow any of these links. It's theirs, because they want it.
Okay, so I haven't RTFAd yet, but I was talking with one of my less-geek friends about Linux the other day, and in my opinion, Linux needs three things to really get going.
Get rid of dependency Hell. Debian's got a good start on this, but it's installation is a bit difficult. Red Hat, at least, should include apt4rpm as part of its base packaging system.
Games. idGames has a good start here, and WineX helps a lot. Bioware's getting started as well.
Television commercials. I'm guessing there are a lot of people who, if they knew about Linux, odd are they'd want it. You know, the ones who want an instant messenger, e-mail client, and Internet browser.
Once that's done, Linux will be well on its way to mainstream use.
The late Douglas Adams put it rather well:
"Those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job."
And he's right. Just look at Bush.
Naturally, I don't trust these guys. They're politicians. Here's a few bits that, assuming are valid as news, I don't trust, and why.
First up is Robert Cresanti, vice president of the Business Software Alliance, trying to keep the DMCA unaltered. That's his job, but that anyone thinks the DMCA is reasonable is bogus.
More relevantly is the DMRCA, most particularly, this bit: Among them is the Digital Media Consumers Rights Act, introduced by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., that gives consumers more fair-use rights for digital products and calls for copy-protected CDs to be clearly labeled if they include copy-proof technologies.
We all know there's no such thing as copy-*proof*. Copy-resistant, yes; but not copy-proof. If the bill in fact makes reference to copy-proof, then it really doesn't do anything but pay lip service to "consumer's rights."
Fritz rears his ugly head once more, but since he's not in charge of the tech committee at this point he's less of a threat. He still demonstrates his complete inability to understand computers, here: Backing the entertainment industry, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., may reintroduce a bill to prohibit the making and distribution of "digital media devices" unless they include government-approved copy restriction technology.
Hollings has said that he really doesn't want the legislation, but some type of compromise is needed. Various tech industry groups and the Recording Industry Association of America recently promised to fight any such mandates and work out the piracy problem.
Yeah, "compromise." I recall reading here a while ago that if I want to cut both your legs off, you don't compromise by removing just the left one. The original deal was completely outrageous. Even halfway is far too far.
Curious is the last sentence, saying that the RIAA is intending to fight such mandates? Forgive me if I'm skeptical, but if they follow through with reasonable approaches, this would be a fair compromise. They protect their revenue using traditional copyright laws, everyone else can do what they like with their IP. However, I'm not holding my breath. I find pre-dawn, kick-in-the-door, 1 48x CD-burner = 24 CD-burners much more likely.
The MPAA is a bit more up-front: The Motion Picture Association of America's solution to rampant piracy is "to run to Congress and try to force a solution there that is a dangerous, ongoing process for us," said Cresanti, who argued the tech industry is too young to be more heavily regulated. Hardly surprising; however, why is Cresanti, the BSA representative, speaking on behalf of the MPAA?
There's a large bit about giving tax credits for broadband deployments, and *not* adding new taxes to e-commerce; so those businesses that exist only online would do well to move to Nevada or other state with no sales tax and no tax agreements with other states.
I also found this part interesting, The group recently released its Tech Environmental Quality Index, which shows that government is creating an increasingly hostile environment for innovation, competition and growth in the tech industry, but can't think of how to comment on that. Rep. Chrtopher Cox (R-CA) can speak for me, "Given the continued softness in the tech economy, this is hardly the time for new taxes on the Internet," Cox said in a statement. "Rather, providing long-term certainty about tax policy is one of the necessary ingredients for a tech rebound."
Finally, it looks like we're going to have an argument similar to "Are the X-Men humans or animals?" debates (an article a while back, which was caused by different taxation rates for toys representing humans, and toys representing animals, that I can't find in the time I have), based on this final bit: "This is a very thorny thing right now," Thierer said last week. "There are amazing battles going on about what's a granola bar."
Hey, you're right. Here's a more Slashdotesque version:
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 15, @09:38AM
from the taxman-downloadeth dept. David Gerard writes "From Heese (via Mozillazine: taxpayers in the Swiss canton of Geneva are being given a CD with a French version of Mozilla 1.2.1, OpenOffice.org 1.0.1 and tax program GEtax 2002. Rough English translation from Google." This strikes me as a really cool idea. I already get the cerds that tell me to file online rather than fill out paper forms, but it stll forces me to buy tax software every year.
Initiate any telephone call
(other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice,
To any emergency telephone line, including any 911 line and any emergency line of a hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, poison control center, or fire protection or law enforcement agency;
To the telephone line of any guest room or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home, or similar establishment; or
To any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call;
Initiate any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without the prior express consent of the called party, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes or is exempted by sec. 64.1200(c).
Use a telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine.
Use an automatic telephone dialing system in such a way that two or more telephone lines of a multi-line business are engaged simultaneously.
Off-topic, but I hadn't seen that episode of The Twilight Zone, so here's a synopsis for others who haven't:
TVGuide: "March 4, 1960: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street: Total power failure in a neighborhood sparks suspicions that it was caused by an alien invasion -- and that one walks among them."
And now, on-topic: Terrorists target governments, not citizens. However, the best way to attack a government is to let other people do it for you, and the best people to do that are the citizens of that country. The IRA was after the British government. The 9/11 terrorists were after the US government. The civilians are a means, not an end. (I should, however, note that there may be some exception with respect to Israel and Palestine, but don't regard this topic too highly, as it's only here so at least some of my post is on-topic.)
I'd like to put emphasis on this part of the article: "And that's not surprising," says Oppenheim, "because everybody knew 512h allowed that. So you have to ask: Why would Verizon suddenly change their view? And, well, I have my answers. They've got an enormous base of infringers. Their view is there would be an economic hit if they started to allow this."
Isn't it widely held that the DMCA is intended to maintain revenue streams for the prosecutors in this case? So this case is essentially about whose revenue is more important: The RIAA components, or ISPs. Since I'm on Slashdot, you know which one I'd regard as more important.
On the page, there's screenshots from the game, followed by real-life reenactments of the scene.
Here is a particularly interesting one, which is followed by 1, 2, and 3. But naturally, they skipped the most interesting part of the screenshot, the opponent bursting into flames.
Well, I know one of my friends has an instructor who once said of a student named Stella, "Do you know that there is a very fine beer with your name? Whenever I say your name, I'm going to say it with longing. Longing for beer," who also claims to have been a priest, and to have learned to drink whiskey while he was training for the priesthood (where he would also smoke cigars and then go running every morning).
So I'm guessing no, there's no rule against priests drinking, or one of my associate's instructors is a tremendous liar.
And then there's the whole water into wine thing as well...
No, that's an urban legend. Fermentation is a natural process; distillation just speeds that process up. If this is badly done, it will give people a stomachache and/or headache (which may be a typical reaction anyway), but the only way it will cause people to go blind is if there are impurities (read: poisons) in it. Things like methanol (wood alcohol) or solvents like turpentine, will cause blindness, and some people put those.
Now, there's a good probability bleach was in that washing machine at some point, and that is a poison, so it's possible he'll go blind from the bleach, but not from the alcohol component; i.e., what he's trying to make.
This is the second article from news sites I read with instructions on how and why to brew your own alcohol today. Is today an alcohol-related holiday I don't know about?
The problem is for things that *aren't* included in the distro. I'm a Linux neophyte, but I do most of my installation through RPM in Mandrake 9.0. Every so often, though, finding an RPM becomes a hassle, and then it's time to drop down to the CLI. Maybe I should use a different distro, but installation would be improved if it were "click this icon, pick a directory, come back later." The details don't interest most people, they just want it done.
In all seriousness, if someone could recommend a distro where installation is typically this easy, I'd consider moving over to it.
Beowulf died because he was overconfident, believing he could defeat an enemy that he couldn't; but Wiglaf took his place and slew the dragon. There's any number of metaphors I could place here, but I wanted to note it.
Slashdot Mirror
This sounds more like a child than a government. The logic appears to be, "It's mine because I want it."
And notice how often they say "illegal." Three times in the first paragraph.
This is incoherent because I'm outraged. All I can think of is these words, and the lizards. Outraging the citizens is not a good way to maintain a stable government.
Of course, don't be too surprised if you meet this page trying to follow any of these links. It's theirs, because they want it.
And Lisa said, "It's just a joke, dad."
To which Homer replied, "Oh, I get jokes. Heh heh heh."
I have this vision now of hired goons from Microsoft having the crap beat out of them by Tove Torvalds.
- Get rid of dependency Hell. Debian's got a good start on this, but it's installation is a bit difficult. Red Hat, at least, should include apt4rpm as part of its base packaging system.
- Games. idGames has a good start here, and WineX helps a lot. Bioware's getting started as well.
- Television commercials. I'm guessing there are a lot of people who, if they knew about Linux, odd are they'd want it. You know, the ones who want an instant messenger, e-mail client, and Internet browser.
Once that's done, Linux will be well on its way to mainstream use.The late Douglas Adams put it rather well: "Those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job." And he's right. Just look at Bush.
It's like every single line, "There are {no bugs|users} causing problems." "It must sell."
I mean, he sounds so ridiculous, like a cartoon villain.
That's minutae!
Where in order to explain human relationships, we use math.
Naturally, I don't trust these guys. They're politicians. Here's a few bits that, assuming are valid as news, I don't trust, and why.
First up is Robert Cresanti, vice president of the Business Software Alliance, trying to keep the DMCA unaltered. That's his job, but that anyone thinks the DMCA is reasonable is bogus.
More relevantly is the DMRCA, most particularly, this bit: Among them is the Digital Media Consumers Rights Act, introduced by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., that gives consumers more fair-use rights for digital products and calls for copy-protected CDs to be clearly labeled if they include copy-proof technologies.
We all know there's no such thing as copy-*proof*. Copy-resistant, yes; but not copy-proof. If the bill in fact makes reference to copy-proof, then it really doesn't do anything but pay lip service to "consumer's rights."
Fritz rears his ugly head once more, but since he's not in charge of the tech committee at this point he's less of a threat. He still demonstrates his complete inability to understand computers, here: Backing the entertainment industry, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., may reintroduce a bill to prohibit the making and distribution of "digital media devices" unless they include government-approved copy restriction technology.
Hollings has said that he really doesn't want the legislation, but some type of compromise is needed. Various tech industry groups and the Recording Industry Association of America recently promised to fight any such mandates and work out the piracy problem.
Yeah, "compromise." I recall reading here a while ago that if I want to cut both your legs off, you don't compromise by removing just the left one. The original deal was completely outrageous. Even halfway is far too far.
Curious is the last sentence, saying that the RIAA is intending to fight such mandates? Forgive me if I'm skeptical, but if they follow through with reasonable approaches, this would be a fair compromise. They protect their revenue using traditional copyright laws, everyone else can do what they like with their IP. However, I'm not holding my breath. I find pre-dawn, kick-in-the-door, 1 48x CD-burner = 24 CD-burners much more likely.
The MPAA is a bit more up-front: The Motion Picture Association of America's solution to rampant piracy is "to run to Congress and try to force a solution there that is a dangerous, ongoing process for us," said Cresanti, who argued the tech industry is too young to be more heavily regulated. Hardly surprising; however, why is Cresanti, the BSA representative, speaking on behalf of the MPAA?
There's a large bit about giving tax credits for broadband deployments, and *not* adding new taxes to e-commerce; so those businesses that exist only online would do well to move to Nevada or other state with no sales tax and no tax agreements with other states.
I also found this part interesting, The group recently released its Tech Environmental Quality Index, which shows that government is creating an increasingly hostile environment for innovation, competition and growth in the tech industry, but can't think of how to comment on that. Rep. Chrtopher Cox (R-CA) can speak for me, "Given the continued softness in the tech economy, this is hardly the time for new taxes on the Internet," Cox said in a statement. "Rather, providing long-term certainty about tax policy is one of the necessary ingredients for a tech rebound."
Finally, it looks like we're going to have an argument similar to "Are the X-Men humans or animals?" debates (an article a while back, which was caused by different taxation rates for toys representing humans, and toys representing animals, that I can't find in the time I have), based on this final bit: "This is a very thorny thing right now," Thierer said last week. "There are amazing battles going on about what's a granola bar."
Hey, you're right. Here's a more Slashdotesque version:
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 15, @09:38AM
from the taxman-downloadeth dept.
David Gerard writes "From Heese (via Mozillazine: taxpayers in the Swiss canton of Geneva are being given a CD with a French version of Mozilla 1.2.1, OpenOffice.org 1.0.1 and tax program GEtax 2002. Rough English translation from Google." This strikes me as a really cool idea. I already get the cerds that tell me to file online rather than fill out paper forms, but it stll forces me to buy tax software every year.
So maybe he left to be able to spend more time reading Slashdot? Hm... I wonder if he spells Microsoft with a dollar sign.
Off-topic, but I hadn't seen that episode of The Twilight Zone, so here's a synopsis for others who haven't:
TVGuide: "March 4, 1960: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street: Total power failure in a neighborhood sparks suspicions that it was caused by an alien invasion -- and that one walks among them."
Here is a reasonably good synopsis.
And now, on-topic: Terrorists target governments, not citizens. However, the best way to attack a government is to let other people do it for you, and the best people to do that are the citizens of that country. The IRA was after the British government. The 9/11 terrorists were after the US government. The civilians are a means, not an end. (I should, however, note that there may be some exception with respect to Israel and Palestine, but don't regard this topic too highly, as it's only here so at least some of my post is on-topic.)
I'd like to put emphasis on this part of the article:
"And that's not surprising," says Oppenheim, "because everybody knew 512h allowed that. So you have to ask: Why would Verizon suddenly change their view? And, well, I have my answers. They've got an enormous base of infringers. Their view is there would be an economic hit if they started to allow this."
Isn't it widely held that the DMCA is intended to maintain revenue streams for the prosecutors in this case? So this case is essentially about whose revenue is more important: The RIAA components, or ISPs. Since I'm on Slashdot, you know which one I'd regard as more important.
On the page, there's screenshots from the game, followed by real-life reenactments of the scene.
Here is a particularly interesting one, which is followed by 1, 2, and 3. But naturally, they skipped the most interesting part of the screenshot, the opponent bursting into flames.
Of course, then you'd have to ask him "Well, how about if I just lie down in the street and die?"
"Yes, that would be acceptable."
Well, I know one of my friends has an instructor who once said of a student named Stella, "Do you know that there is a very fine beer with your name? Whenever I say your name, I'm going to say it with longing. Longing for beer," who also claims to have been a priest, and to have learned to drink whiskey while he was training for the priesthood (where he would also smoke cigars and then go running every morning).
So I'm guessing no, there's no rule against priests drinking, or one of my associate's instructors is a tremendous liar.
And then there's the whole water into wine thing as well...
Yeah, if it can withstand a slashdotting, it will be a miracle.
No, that's an urban legend. Fermentation is a natural process; distillation just speeds that process up. If this is badly done, it will give people a stomachache and/or headache (which may be a typical reaction anyway), but the only way it will cause people to go blind is if there are impurities (read: poisons) in it. Things like methanol (wood alcohol) or solvents like turpentine, will cause blindness, and some people put those.
Now, there's a good probability bleach was in that washing machine at some point, and that is a poison, so it's possible he'll go blind from the bleach, but not from the alcohol component; i.e., what he's trying to make.
This is the second article from news sites I read with instructions on how and why to brew your own alcohol today. Is today an alcohol-related holiday I don't know about?
This was supposed to be attached to "Bush Orders Guidelines for Cyber-Warfare".
"President Bush has signed a secret directive ordering the government to develop..."
Not so secret any more, is it?
"President Bush has signed a secret directive ordering the government to develop..."
Not so secret any more, is it?
The problem is for things that *aren't* included in the distro. I'm a Linux neophyte, but I do most of my installation through RPM in Mandrake 9.0. Every so often, though, finding an RPM becomes a hassle, and then it's time to drop down to the CLI. Maybe I should use a different distro, but installation would be improved if it were "click this icon, pick a directory, come back later." The details don't interest most people, they just want it done.
In all seriousness, if someone could recommend a distro where installation is typically this easy, I'd consider moving over to it.
Beowulf died because he was overconfident, believing he could defeat an enemy that he couldn't; but Wiglaf took his place and slew the dragon. There's any number of metaphors I could place here, but I wanted to note it.