Preface: I am not a lawyer. What I write here is based on my best understanding of the law. ==================== Basically, anyting that is obscene falls into the realm of illegality. If something is deemed to be obscene then it is not protected by the First Amendment.
In 1973 the case of Miller v. California resulted in a three-prong test to determine if a work is not protected by the First Amendment.
The opinion, written by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Burger stated that the following three criteria must be met (note that ALL THREE criteria must be met):
if the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the material, when taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest
the material depicts or describes, in a patently offensive manner, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law
the material, when taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
Paper may be archaic, but I already spend enough of my day in front of a computer. I personally like to be able to read the hard copy.
Beyond less strain on the ol' peepers, it's nice to be able to get away from the computer. With the online version, it might not be DRMed, but I certainly can't easily take it with me wherever I go (sure, I can print things out, but that format is still less than ideal for me).
I agree that the online version might be great for some, but I'm not one of those people. And I've tried NewsStand and Zinio as well as the online versions of many papers.
Beyond what I've mentioned already... For my taste, the screen is too small a device for the display of articles. With a paper, I might have to turn a page once or twice.... with NewsStand and Zinio I found myself doing a constant 'pan and scan'. Online articles required too much scrolling and clicking of 'next'.
I'll stick with the dead tree format (I recycle, mind you), but agree that a paper specifically formatted for display on-screen might be a good thing.
that everyone knows the names of Edison, and for the most part, Tesla. But, when it comes to folks such as Tim Berners-Lee, J. Prespert Eckert, John W. Mauchly, etc. nobody has any clue who you're talking about.
Unless I'm mistaken, the revolutions that these folks spurred were arguably as important to the state of modern society as was the lightbulb, telephone, or rail transit.
The REX6000 did have a touch screen, and does accept data input (it's not incredibly easy to do, but it's not terribly hard either).
I just took mine to a local LUG yesterday, and it was described as "elegant" and "practical". The PCMCIA form factor really makes it great for folks on the go (plug it into the laptop to sync, take it and run to the meeting).
I can throw the REX in my pocket and go... it's only a PCMCIA card, so it takes up less room than my cell phone.
Additionally, the REX had better resolution than this looks to from the picture.
Too bad Intel stopped making them when they bought Xircom... just imagine how they might have progressed in the last 2-to-3 years.
I'd much rather have a small cell phone and an even smaller PDA. Granted, I only use my PDA to store contact information as well as a couple one-time-passwords, but the setup works very well for me.
And, (call me paranoid, but) do you really feel comfortable handing over your most holy information to a stranger? It's one thing if someone asks to borrow your phone in the event of an emergency, but do you really want to hand-over your PDA at the same time? I like to keep important information close to me at all times.
Now, I realize that *BSD is growing less and less popular, but I truly must say that it has always impressed me as being a good system.
I adminster a handful of OpenBSD servers, and they really are a joy to work on; they give me far fewer headaches than any of the Linux distros our clients use. Sure, there are things that frustrate me (especially lack of SMP), but for mission critial applications, I rarely use anything other than OpenBSD.
Also, if *BSD is dying, why did DragonflyBSD only start development back in June?
Maybe I'm an optimist, but I like something to actually work when I need it. (Maybe that explains why I drive a '91 Volvo station wagon)
If my observations are correct, the MPAA has come up with the perfect method for stopping people from stealing their works... and, with groups like O-Town it looks like the RIAA has begun to catch on:
If you make a shitty product, nobody is going to want to steal it.
That's like suing Mobil, Sunoco, Exxon, Hess, BP, or any other petroleum dispensing station for abetting an accident.
Moreover, most ISPs have Acceptable Use Policies/Terms of Service in place to help protect them from the legal recourse of Corporate America.
As has already been stated, Oak Ridge was a VERY unique situation.... in Dr. Richard Feynman's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, he recalls that Oak Ridge didn't even know what they were doing until well into the project, when Los Alamos got authorization to tell them.
Moreover, nuclear energy is clean... and I'm certainly not an anti-environmentalist. As long as it is handled properly, nuclear energy is a very safe and efficient (not to mention cool) method for producing electricity. [Note: calling nuclear energy 'cool' greatly adds to my credibility]
Maybe if people stopped trying to generate a stigma around nuclear power plants we could spend our efforts making them safer and more efficient, rather than simply fighting for their existence. Unfortunately, the average Joe knows only three things about nuclear energy:
1. It makes bombs go boom
2. It's baaaaad and kills everyone
2. It's just like in the movies
Slashdot Mirror
====================
Basically, anyting that is obscene falls into the realm of illegality. If something is deemed to be obscene then it is not protected by the First Amendment.
In 1973 the case of Miller v. California resulted in a three-prong test to determine if a work is not protected by the First Amendment.
The opinion, written by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Burger stated that the following three criteria must be met (note that ALL THREE criteria must be met):
Paper may be archaic, but I already spend enough of my day in front of a computer. I personally like to be able to read the hard copy.
Beyond less strain on the ol' peepers, it's nice to be able to get away from the computer. With the online version, it might not be DRMed, but I certainly can't easily take it with me wherever I go (sure, I can print things out, but that format is still less than ideal for me).
I agree that the online version might be great for some, but I'm not one of those people. And I've tried NewsStand and Zinio as well as the online versions of many papers.
Beyond what I've mentioned already... For my taste, the screen is too small a device for the display of articles. With a paper, I might have to turn a page once or twice.... with NewsStand and Zinio I found myself doing a constant 'pan and scan'. Online articles required too much scrolling and clicking of 'next'.
I'll stick with the dead tree format (I recycle, mind you), but agree that a paper specifically formatted for display on-screen might be a good thing.
It's nice to see this post time and time again. I used to have problems similar to this, but they've been fixed... at least for me.
Moreover, what's cheaper than free and more stable than FreeBSD, which is hailed as being among the most stable OSs out there.
that everyone knows the names of Edison, and for the most part, Tesla. But, when it comes to folks such as Tim Berners-Lee, J. Prespert Eckert, John W. Mauchly, etc. nobody has any clue who you're talking about.
Unless I'm mistaken, the revolutions that these folks spurred were arguably as important to the state of modern society as was the lightbulb, telephone, or rail transit.
The REX6000 did have a touch screen, and does accept data input (it's not incredibly easy to do, but it's not terribly hard either).
I just took mine to a local LUG yesterday, and it was described as "elegant" and "practical". The PCMCIA form factor really makes it great for folks on the go (plug it into the laptop to sync, take it and run to the meeting).
I can throw the REX in my pocket and go... it's only a PCMCIA card, so it takes up less room than my cell phone.
Additionally, the REX had better resolution than this looks to from the picture.
Too bad Intel stopped making them when they bought Xircom... just imagine how they might have progressed in the last 2-to-3 years.
I'd much rather have a small cell phone and an even smaller PDA. Granted, I only use my PDA to store contact information as well as a couple one-time-passwords, but the setup works very well for me.
And, (call me paranoid, but) do you really feel comfortable handing over your most holy information to a stranger? It's one thing if someone asks to borrow your phone in the event of an emergency, but do you really want to hand-over your PDA at the same time? I like to keep important information close to me at all times.
Now, I realize that *BSD is growing less and less popular, but I truly must say that it has always impressed me as being a good system.
I adminster a handful of OpenBSD servers, and they really are a joy to work on; they give me far fewer headaches than any of the Linux distros our clients use. Sure, there are things that frustrate me (especially lack of SMP), but for mission critial applications, I rarely use anything other than OpenBSD.
Also, if *BSD is dying, why did DragonflyBSD only start development back in June?
Maybe I'm an optimist, but I like something to actually work when I need it. (Maybe that explains why I drive a '91 Volvo station wagon)
Christ, folks, if I didn't know better, I'd say you hate *BSD more than you hate SCO.
If my observations are correct, the MPAA has come up with the perfect method for stopping people from stealing their works... and, with groups like O-Town it looks like the RIAA has begun to catch on:
If you make a shitty product, nobody is going to want to steal it.
Last time I checked, 2001: A Space Travesty (2000), From Justin to Kelly (2003), Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (2003) and Santa with Muscles (1996) aren't exactly topping the p2p charts.
That's like suing Mobil, Sunoco, Exxon, Hess, BP, or any other petroleum dispensing station for abetting an accident. Moreover, most ISPs have Acceptable Use Policies/Terms of Service in place to help protect them from the legal recourse of Corporate America.
"...an article detailing UCB advances in desktop manufacturing..." (emphasis added)
Christ, I haven't seen the Upright Citizens Brigade mentioned in the media in ages. Who was I to know they went into hardware design?
I had intended to make the coal vs nuclear claim in my original post, but when I was looking for a link to provide, I stumbled upon this.
As has already been stated, Oak Ridge was a VERY unique situation.... in Dr. Richard Feynman's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, he recalls that Oak Ridge didn't even know what they were doing until well into the project, when Los Alamos got authorization to tell them.
Moreover, nuclear energy is clean... and I'm certainly not an anti-environmentalist. As long as it is handled properly, nuclear energy is a very safe and efficient (not to mention cool) method for producing electricity.
[Note: calling nuclear energy 'cool' greatly adds to my credibility]
Maybe if people stopped trying to generate a stigma around nuclear power plants we could spend our efforts making them safer and more efficient, rather than simply fighting for their existence. Unfortunately, the average Joe knows only three things about nuclear energy:
1. It makes bombs go boom
2. It's baaaaad and kills everyone
2. It's just like in the movies