Ah... nice to see the old Slashdot cronies crawl out of the woodwork.:)
I figure you're playing Devil's Advocate(tm) here.
>So what? You are lobbying against the right to >choose closed source! Is that based on the fact that ISC seems to want software with BSD license to be funded by government? BSD license would allow proprietization of the codebase. An especially lucrative proposition if the codebase was developed with federal funds. The GPL/LGPL(or a like license) would ensure an ever growing public codebase that all could draw from and that would promote interoperability.
>Of course, you won't come out and say it, because >that would reveal your hand, but indirectly I think Bruce has already said it kitten. A couple posts back as a matter of fact.
>undermining the economic viability of commercial >software amounts to the same thing. Once again, does undermining the "economic viability of commercial software" mean opposing a "go ahead and steal it if you want to" license or advocating Open-Source? Does competition amount to undermining in this context?
Public goods have just as much "Right" to thrive as corporate goods; laws should not be passed to exclusively require one OR the other. Last time I checked, corporations were members of the public - and as such would benefit from OSS too.
P.S. I feel that BSD is a great idea. They have intrinsic views of a world where we all love each other and share openly. Unfortunately, we don't live in such a world.
Yeah, I remember the Big Three. Wordperfect, Lotus 123, and Ashton Tate dBase. They were the staple of prewindows PC business.
Microsoft used a self-encrypting error message module to scare folks away from non-MSDOS DOS's such that DRDOS went from growth to death in the space of maybe a year?
Microsoft used it's Windows coupled with integration in the form of OLE to defeat the Big Three. Wordperfect tried to make a graphical wordprocessor but had hiccups. Lotus 123 survived for a while but couldn't come up with a viable WP or DB. Ashton Tate faded into obscurity - why?
Then came Netscape with it's promise of being a platform for web programs when coupled with Java. MS coopted Java (for a short time then reinvented it as C#) and almost killed Netscape by giving away Internet Explorer for free (while Netscape had just gone public and was beginning to charge for the premium Communicator suite) and then MS integrated the browser with the Explorer graphical shell when the free thing wasn't doing it.
Then came the DoJ trial, MS guilt and then republican slap-on-the-wrist punishment phase.
We are now at the present day with Microsoft attemping to copy UNIX. MS... working hard to destroy competition.
I sincerely doubt Microsoft would have been able to destroy all that competition had it not used revenue from it's operating system business to do it. Not discounting it's more illegal behaviour of course.
>You can be a normal person that has a stronger >sense of the force but isn't a Jedi, they're called >Force Adepts. Their's no real faction/alignment >choice to be one, and it requires no training..you >just are aware..you can do some small force tricks, >nothing majoir. Anyone can be one, of any trade or >temperament. But of course, a real Jedi would eat >them for lunch.
You probably have insider knowledge about the Star Wars game that I don't. I'm merely voicing ideas.
I can agree with the Force Adepts concept. There is a planet full of women somewhere... witches or something that are extremely adept at the force and are as a race force endowed.
Also, I read a book that came out just after Star Wars (the original) called Splinter in the Mind's Eye or something. Had a very powerful Force Adept woman in that one. Nice piece of work - thought it was better than what Lucas came up with for SW2.(though SW2 was good no doubt)
As I understand it, the Jedi Knights are merely a gathering of Force Adept creatures who reinforce each other and battle evil or dark force. Why could not another group of force adepts get together and reinforce each other?
>As for Sith, you can't be one. Their are only 2 >given Sith at any time; a master and an >apprentice. You can, however, be a Dark Jedi, but >only by first becoming a real Jedi and then >falling out of grace.
Ok, maybe only 2 "Sith" at a time. Why then not have some more bad guys called the "Sath", "Seth", "Soth" or "Suth"? Then they could fight each other too. Seems kinda one sided in the good guys favor if you ask me just to have 2 bad guys.:)
>As for EQ, if you think that's a balanced game I >have some swamp land in Florida to sell you.
How much?
>I can divide that game by class in a ton of >ways..those that solo, those that are forced to >group for experience...those that suck in the >beginning, those that suck in the end game. Their >is not one class that is as good solo as they are >grouped. Not ONE.
Yeah? I played an Ogre Warrior into the high 50s and know how hard it can be sometimes. Warriors tend to go down quick without adequate support when battling high level creatures. I had a dragon bite my head off in three successive attacks. Cleric stood there trying to fire off a CH. No good. Dead ogre. Warriors are group players after level 30 no question.
Only good soloers I know are rangers, druids and necros. (Now, an enchanter who knows his stuff can solo but it's a dangerous game.) They always complain when in a group. (at least alot of them do.) I love grouping with rangers, druids and necros who don't complain; I got zero probs with em. Rangers are too much of a drain on the party healers but rock when you gotta track something down. Rangers should not melee they should just plink with the bow and heal/buff folks in downtime.
Anyway, as for balance, remember the Cleric BP incident? That bp would complete heal with a click. Put that cleric with a warrior with the right gear and almost no creature in game could withstand them if the cleric could heal the warrior faster than the monster damaged him. That was IMBALANCE. They had to fix it. Pissed off a bunch of clerics but hadda be done. Gamers called it nerfing the item. Drop rates were modified to prevent permacamping like the FBBS in LGuk. They modified the original two dragons Naggy and Vox to prevent camping by hi-level players so the little guys could get a chance. I agree with these "nerfs" - they were necessary because folks were abusing thier power at the expense of the weaker players game enjoyment.
As I said, I love the game of EQ (and probably will like Star Wars too) and I expect the visioneers to try to make sure everyone has fun... life is not a challenge when it's handed to you on a silver platter.
These "Nanites" or whatever-you-want-to-call-em would need power. Where will they get this power? Solar? Derived from feul of some sort? Parasitic?
How will they store this power? Will they just go dormant while waiting for power? Or, will they store it onboard and in what form?
They will need motive capability, reproductive options, self-repair, recovery of resources, command and control(brain) etc... which would make for a not so nano nanocreature.
Biological systems are put together in such a way that a nanotech machine would have to mimic them at a molecular level to even be viable. Why mimic what we already have? Biological systems are mutatable/recombinable/breedable. Heck, we've been doing the breedable part for thousands of years with much success.
Mod me down, call me a critic but...This nanotechnology has about as much chance of becoming reality as human beings going backward in time. Aint gonna happen in yer lifetime bud... mine neither.
So, get real. Don't be afraid. It ain't a reality.:/
P.S. Hey everybody! Let's reinvent the wheel! Now there is an idea who's time has come.:P
After all, I'm on a wireless broadband connection myself. It works great - just as fast or faster than Cable. I get around 120mb/s peak download speed and around 50mb/s upload. All for about $50USD/month in an area that Cable or DSL are not available.
Wireless is a great way to bridge that last mile. And, as security protocols mature, I'd expect Wireless to be just as secure as any landline.
Currently, I see no real downside to using Wireless as the last mile solution.
So, lets see. Being a "Jedi" is nothing more than passing a midiclourian (sp?) test, becoming an apprentice and eventually being recognised as a Jedi by your elder Jedi?
Does not being a Jedi then mean you are not allowed to be endowed with the "Force"? I think not. You could be a non-Jedi force aware person or even start your own branch of the Sith. Couldn't you?:)
I fear that I have no insider knowledge of the new game but I played Everquest till my fingers hurt. I trust the Sony "Visioneers" to do "The Right Thing" for a balanced game. Some may not like it but balance in game and the force must be maintained - otherwise, it's not worth playing at all - by anyone.~ YMMV
Truly. The crackers already know so the posting of the exploit has no real negative effect. Better to let everybody know of the hole so they can be shocked into patching it.
If you look at the issue from the other side, you will see that the crackers would use the exploit and happily remain unseen. What you don't know *CAN* hurt you!
Thanks for the fun and interesting shows. From the guy sitting at the table in front of the Devil Faces fortune teller machine to the Kirk you played in Generations.
Only question I can think of is: What do you want to do next?
Re:What happened to all those tribbles??
on
Ask William Shatner
·
· Score: 3, Informative
No, actually, they multiplied and almost took over the Klingon homeworld. Ultimately, some enterprizing Klingon did some genetic engineering and created a "Glommer". The Glommer is a creature that sneeks up on tribbles, pounces and eats em. It has a voracious appetite.
>The only reason the genome project teams even got >off their asses and picked up was because of a small >group of private investors. The genome project then >invested in automation. Then hurried up to save >being embarrassed by a group of investors using less >overall money and kicking everyone's ass by 4 years >while starting up later. Only then did your precious >genome project go anywhere.
The idea, as I understand it, was to keep the genome from becoming proprietary.
>It's the scientists do not get their act together >and organize adequately into a free peer-reviewed >article/data web site (sites, web ring, portal, >what have you). If they so cared for this, they'd >put all their papers online. They don't. They want >the review, they want the selfish esteem of being >in a peer driven review process, they want to say >they were published in "Science", "Nature", or >whatever.
Surely, you have a point about private publications. No doubt scientists want the self esteem of publishing in a prominent periodical. The idea, I believe, is to be published at all and published first to receive the credit. In times past, we didn't have an information tool like the Internet to publish papers. Now we do and things can change but not overnight. The internet has still to grow AND not all people have access to it. So, traditional periodicals still have their uses.
A periodical is purchased and set on a library wall or ultimately placed on microfilm - it's now become a matter of public record. An online website deseminating information may have a short time to live in cache after being shut-down. Also, it takes money to keep a website running just as it takes money to keep a library running. What then is wrong with government funding information sites?
I do agree we need free information portals. I'm sure business will give the public plenty of reasons to create them.
>You overestimate my cynicism. It certainly does not >extend to eliminating educational opportunities for >people based on their financial situation. I myself >grew up in a lower-middle class (if that) >household.
Overestimate but maybe not misconstrue. In saying "certainly does not extend" you also connotate that you advocate eliminating certain forms of information dissemination - not extending to educational opportunities for people based on their financial situation. But then again, I maintain you do. In removing a govt funded information site, you remove that which the common man has already paid for. You take away a freely and publicly minable information site. You put the few corporate over the many citizens.
I do not deny that corporations and commercial interests have given much in the way of technological success. I merely believe they *APPLY* more technology than they generate. They release technological advances on a predetermined profit schedule. They spoonfeed the public tidbits for cash. I don't want tidbits; I want a big hunk of marbled steak cooked rare with relish and honey barbeque steak sauce, a mashed potatoe with sweet cream butter and cold sour cream on the side. Throw in a great salad and a vintage red wine.
You see, I will not depend on corporations to do things for my benefit. They don't provide goods and services for my benefit - they provide them because I pay for em. I'm fine with that - profit is their motivator. But, I *will* depend on technological advances from academia and from the scientific community - these are the folks who generate the bulk of technology and *most* need the free and open information you advocate closing up. I'd like to have everyone be able to get online and have access to the Library of Congress, The Great Library in Alexandria, China, Japan, France, England, Austria, Germany, the Vatican, Rome, Athens, and yes governmental information sources generated using the tax dollars of the mass of taxpayers to benefit the mass of taxpayers... the sum knowledge of humanity available at your fingertips.
Ideas are born and advances made from the free and open availability of knowledge.
I understand that you don't want to pay for something twice. I understand that corporations have to make money. But, if information is to be locked up and only given out to those who can afford it then progress will surely be limited to how much money you can afford to spend doing research. Such an arrangement would mean that only those with capitol to spare would have any chance at the American Dream(tm) or any other for that matter.
P r o g r e s s w i l l s l o w d o w n.
It is the free and open exchange of ideas and data that has spurred the rapid growth in understanding and technology. Lock it up and we go back to the dark ages (a truly Replublican ideal kind of arrangement).
Corelation is the key! Not islands of information distinct and separate. A mass of intelligent people working on the same problems (with free and open access to common data) will make more progress than a few rich researchers (with access to limited proprietary data). Genome Project anyone?
What about the poor kid who has no money to pay for fee-based information services but has an abundance of intelligence? Is he to be held back? Know what a library is? Should we now shut their doors? Should we go to privatization of schools and only teach the people who start life with money? Wait! I know what your answer probably will be.
Ben Franklin would not approve - and he was a civic minded type of guy.
Yeah, to me Tom Baker *IS* the Doctor. What I really want to know is... when will he get the TARDIS' chameleon circuit fixed? Will K9 be in the show? Is the Brigadier still alive? The Master?
Care for a Jelly Baby? NO! NO! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! STAND STILL!
Slashdot Mirror
I think I remember playing this game in the early eighties. Maybe on the Apple ][ or something.
:/
Uh... was a fun game. Maybe next we'll get Flight of the Valkyrie released in source. Or Temple of Apshai?
I dunno. I kinda liked Farenheit 451. Don't judge it by today's standards. Think early Dr. Who style cinema.
Look mummie! There's going to be a fire.
Ah... nice to see the old Slashdot cronies crawl out of the woodwork. :)
I figure you're playing Devil's Advocate(tm) here.
>So what? You are lobbying against the right to
>choose closed source!
Is that based on the fact that ISC seems to want software with BSD license to be funded by government? BSD license would allow proprietization of the codebase. An especially lucrative proposition if the codebase was developed with federal funds. The GPL/LGPL(or a like license) would ensure an ever growing public codebase that all could draw from and that would promote interoperability.
>Of course, you won't come out and say it, because
>that would reveal your hand, but indirectly
I think Bruce has already said it kitten. A couple posts back as a matter of fact.
>undermining the economic viability of commercial
>software amounts to the same thing.
Once again, does undermining the "economic viability of commercial software" mean opposing a "go ahead and steal it if you want to" license or advocating Open-Source? Does competition amount to undermining in this context?
Public goods have just as much "Right" to thrive as corporate goods; laws should not be passed to exclusively require one OR the other. Last time I checked, corporations were members of the public - and as such would benefit from OSS too.
P.S. I feel that BSD is a great idea. They have intrinsic views of a world where we all love each other and share openly. Unfortunately, we don't live in such a world.
Yeah, with this DRM stuff looming in the future, we need projects like Open/Free/Linux/BIOS.
The faster power-on times and OS on a chip stuff would be just icing on the proverbial cake.
Heh. Why not just post a link to the announcement? :)
I agree with your assessment however, I would add regardless of user interface to the definition of ease of use.
I just keep thinking... Debian and Windowmaker are there as an ace-in-the-hole.
Yeah, I remember the Big Three. Wordperfect, Lotus 123, and Ashton Tate dBase. They were the staple of prewindows PC business.
Microsoft used a self-encrypting error message module to scare folks away from non-MSDOS DOS's such that DRDOS went from growth to death in the space of maybe a year?
Microsoft used it's Windows coupled with integration in the form of OLE to defeat the Big Three. Wordperfect tried to make a graphical wordprocessor but had hiccups. Lotus 123 survived for a while but couldn't come up with a viable WP or DB. Ashton Tate faded into obscurity - why?
Then came Netscape with it's promise of being a platform for web programs when coupled with Java. MS coopted Java (for a short time then reinvented it as C#) and almost killed Netscape by giving away Internet Explorer for free (while Netscape had just gone public and was beginning to charge for the premium Communicator suite) and then MS integrated the browser with the Explorer graphical shell when the free thing wasn't doing it.
Then came the DoJ trial, MS guilt and then republican slap-on-the-wrist punishment phase.
We are now at the present day with Microsoft attemping to copy UNIX. MS... working hard to destroy competition.
I sincerely doubt Microsoft would have been able to destroy all that competition had it not used revenue from it's operating system business to do it. Not discounting it's more illegal behaviour of course.
>You can be a normal person that has a stronger
:)
>sense of the force but isn't a Jedi, they're called
>Force Adepts. Their's no real faction/alignment
>choice to be one, and it requires no training..you
>just are aware..you can do some small force tricks,
>nothing majoir. Anyone can be one, of any trade or
>temperament. But of course, a real Jedi would eat
>them for lunch.
You probably have insider knowledge about the Star Wars game that I don't. I'm merely voicing ideas.
I can agree with the Force Adepts concept. There is a planet full of women somewhere... witches or something that are extremely adept at the force and are as a race force endowed.
Also, I read a book that came out just after Star Wars (the original) called Splinter in the Mind's Eye or something. Had a very powerful Force Adept woman in that one. Nice piece of work - thought it was better than what Lucas came up with for SW2.(though SW2 was good no doubt)
As I understand it, the Jedi Knights are merely a gathering of Force Adept creatures who reinforce each other and battle evil or dark force. Why could not another group of force adepts get together and reinforce each other?
>As for Sith, you can't be one. Their are only 2
>given Sith at any time; a master and an
>apprentice. You can, however, be a Dark Jedi, but
>only by first becoming a real Jedi and then
>falling out of grace.
Ok, maybe only 2 "Sith" at a time. Why then not have some more bad guys called the "Sath", "Seth", "Soth" or "Suth"? Then they could fight each other too. Seems kinda one sided in the good guys favor if you ask me just to have 2 bad guys.
>As for EQ, if you think that's a balanced game I
>have some swamp land in Florida to sell you.
How much?
>I can divide that game by class in a ton of
>ways..those that solo, those that are forced to
>group for experience...those that suck in the
>beginning, those that suck in the end game. Their
>is not one class that is as good solo as they are
>grouped. Not ONE.
Yeah? I played an Ogre Warrior into the high 50s and know how hard it can be sometimes. Warriors tend to go down quick without adequate support when battling high level creatures. I had a dragon bite my head off in three successive attacks. Cleric stood there trying to fire off a CH. No good. Dead ogre. Warriors are group players after level 30 no question.
Only good soloers I know are rangers, druids and necros. (Now, an enchanter who knows his stuff can solo but it's a dangerous game.) They always complain when in a group. (at least alot of them do.) I love grouping with rangers, druids and necros who don't complain; I got zero probs with em. Rangers are too much of a drain on the party healers but rock when you gotta track something down. Rangers should not melee they should just plink with the bow and heal/buff folks in downtime.
Anyway, as for balance, remember the Cleric BP incident? That bp would complete heal with a click. Put that cleric with a warrior with the right gear and almost no creature in game could withstand them if the cleric could heal the warrior faster than the monster damaged him. That was IMBALANCE. They had to fix it. Pissed off a bunch of clerics but hadda be done. Gamers called it nerfing the item. Drop rates were modified to prevent permacamping like the FBBS in LGuk. They modified the original two dragons Naggy and Vox to prevent camping by hi-level players so the little guys could get a chance. I agree with these "nerfs" - they were necessary because folks were abusing thier power at the expense of the weaker players game enjoyment.
As I said, I love the game of EQ (and probably will like Star Wars too) and I expect the visioneers to try to make sure everyone has fun... life is not a challenge when it's handed to you on a silver platter.
Heh, funny guy.
:)
It is an *IDEA* that could just as well become a MMORPG.
Jeez some people have no imagination!
Think about it.
:/
:P
These "Nanites" or whatever-you-want-to-call-em would need power. Where will they get this power? Solar? Derived from feul of some sort? Parasitic?
How will they store this power? Will they just go dormant while waiting for power? Or, will they store it onboard and in what form?
They will need motive capability, reproductive options, self-repair, recovery of resources, command and control(brain) etc... which would make for a not so nano nanocreature.
Biological systems are put together in such a way that a nanotech machine would have to mimic them at a molecular level to even be viable. Why mimic what we already have? Biological systems are mutatable/recombinable/breedable. Heck, we've been doing the breedable part for thousands of years with much success.
Mod me down, call me a critic but...This nanotechnology has about as much chance of becoming reality as human beings going backward in time. Aint gonna happen in yer lifetime bud... mine neither.
So, get real. Don't be afraid. It ain't a reality.
P.S. Hey everybody! Let's reinvent the wheel! Now there is an idea who's time has come.
After all, I'm on a wireless broadband connection myself. It works great - just as fast or faster than Cable. I get around 120mb/s peak download speed and around 50mb/s upload. All for about $50USD/month in an area that Cable or DSL are not available.
Wireless is a great way to bridge that last mile. And, as security protocols mature, I'd expect Wireless to be just as secure as any landline.
Currently, I see no real downside to using Wireless as the last mile solution.
So, lets see. Being a "Jedi" is nothing more than passing a midiclourian (sp?) test, becoming an apprentice and eventually being recognised as a Jedi by your elder Jedi?
:)
Does not being a Jedi then mean you are not allowed to be endowed with the "Force"? I think not. You could be a non-Jedi force aware person or even start your own branch of the Sith. Couldn't you?
I fear that I have no insider knowledge of the new game but I played Everquest till my fingers hurt. I trust the Sony "Visioneers" to do "The Right Thing" for a balanced game. Some may not like it but balance in game and the force must be maintained - otherwise, it's not worth playing at all - by anyone.~ YMMV
>You just gave me a Brilliant Idea (tm)! I'm going
>to make a Civil War MMORPG, but in my game, the
>South wins.
Someone has already had this Brilliant Idea albeit the south won in a roundabout way. Read the Drakka! series. Yawl come back now heah?
Truly. The crackers already know so the posting of the exploit has no real negative effect. Better to let everybody know of the hole so they can be shocked into patching it.
If you look at the issue from the other side, you will see that the crackers would use the exploit and happily remain unseen. What you don't know *CAN* hurt you!
Thanks for the fun and interesting shows. From the guy sitting at the table in front of the Devil Faces fortune teller machine to the Kirk you played in Generations.
Only question I can think of is:
What do you want to do next?
This question has my vote. Mod Parent Up.
No, actually, they multiplied and almost took over the Klingon homeworld. Ultimately, some enterprizing Klingon did some genetic engineering and created a "Glommer". The Glommer is a creature that sneeks up on tribbles, pounces and eats em. It has a voracious appetite.
You forget the green alien chick in that episode on the penal planet. She tried to skewer Kirk because she had to "Kill her lover".
Oh to be young and in South Florida. I wouldn't move either.
I hear they need Alligator Hunters in the swamp. Too many loose gators.
There was a guy I once knew who had a great motto: "We will help you as much as we profitably can."
heh
>The only reason the genome project teams even got
>off their asses and picked up was because of a small
>group of private investors. The genome project then
>invested in automation. Then hurried up to save
>being embarrassed by a group of investors using less
>overall money and kicking everyone's ass by 4 years
>while starting up later. Only then did your precious
>genome project go anywhere.
The idea, as I understand it, was to keep the genome from becoming proprietary.
>It's the scientists do not get their act together
>and organize adequately into a free peer-reviewed
>article/data web site (sites, web ring, portal,
>what have you). If they so cared for this, they'd
>put all their papers online. They don't. They want
>the review, they want the selfish esteem of being
>in a peer driven review process, they want to say
>they were published in "Science", "Nature", or
>whatever.
Surely, you have a point about private publications. No doubt scientists want the self esteem of publishing in a prominent periodical. The idea, I believe, is to be published at all and published first to receive the credit. In times past, we didn't have an information tool like the Internet to publish papers. Now we do and things can change but not overnight. The internet has still to grow AND not all people have access to it. So, traditional periodicals still have their uses.
A periodical is purchased and set on a library wall or ultimately placed on microfilm - it's now become a matter of public record. An online website deseminating information may have a short time to live in cache after being shut-down. Also, it takes money to keep a website running just as it takes money to keep a library running. What then is wrong with government funding information sites?
I do agree we need free information portals. I'm sure business will give the public plenty of reasons to create them.
>You overestimate my cynicism. It certainly does not
>extend to eliminating educational opportunities for
>people based on their financial situation. I myself
>grew up in a lower-middle class (if that)
>household.
Overestimate but maybe not misconstrue. In saying "certainly does not extend" you also connotate that you advocate eliminating certain forms of information dissemination - not extending to educational opportunities for people based on their financial situation. But then again, I maintain you do. In removing a govt funded information site, you remove that which the common man has already paid for. You take away a freely and publicly minable information site. You put the few corporate over the many citizens.
I do not deny that corporations and commercial interests have given much in the way of technological success. I merely believe they *APPLY* more technology than they generate. They release technological advances on a predetermined profit schedule. They spoonfeed the public tidbits for cash. I don't want tidbits; I want a big hunk of marbled steak cooked rare with relish and honey barbeque steak sauce, a mashed potatoe with sweet cream butter and cold sour cream on the side. Throw in a great salad and a vintage red wine.
You see, I will not depend on corporations to do things for my benefit. They don't provide goods and services for my benefit - they provide them because I pay for em. I'm fine with that - profit is their motivator. But, I *will* depend on technological advances from academia and from the scientific community - these are the folks who generate the bulk of technology and *most* need the free and open information you advocate closing up. I'd like to have everyone be able to get online and have access to the Library of Congress, The Great Library in Alexandria, China, Japan, France, England, Austria, Germany, the Vatican, Rome, Athens, and yes governmental information sources generated using the tax dollars of the mass of taxpayers to benefit the mass of taxpayers... the sum knowledge of humanity available at your fingertips.
Ideas are born and advances made from the free and open availability of knowledge.
I understand that you don't want to pay for something twice. I understand that corporations have to make money. But, if information is to be locked up and only given out to those who can afford it then progress will surely be limited to how much money you can afford to spend doing research. Such an arrangement would mean that only those with capitol to spare would have any chance at the American Dream(tm) or any other for that matter.
.
P r o g r e s s w i l l s l o w d o w n
It is the free and open exchange of ideas and data that has spurred the rapid growth in understanding and technology. Lock it up and we go back to the dark ages (a truly Replublican ideal kind of arrangement).
Corelation is the key! Not islands of information distinct and separate. A mass of intelligent people working on the same problems (with free and open access to common data) will make more progress than a few rich researchers (with access to limited proprietary data). Genome Project anyone?
What about the poor kid who has no money to pay for fee-based information services but has an abundance of intelligence? Is he to be held back? Know what a library is? Should we now shut their doors? Should we go to privatization of schools and only teach the people who start life with money? Wait! I know what your answer probably will be.
Ben Franklin would not approve - and he was a civic minded type of guy.
Yeah, to me Tom Baker *IS* the Doctor. What I really want to know is... when will he get the TARDIS' chameleon circuit fixed? Will K9 be in the show? Is the Brigadier still alive? The Master?
Care for a Jelly Baby?
NO! NO! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! STAND STILL!