Not quite correct, paletted PNGs with 1-bit transparency (all that non-animated GIFs do) are rendered correctly. Full color PNGs with alpha channel are rendered with the background color instead of alpha (gray might however be the default for PNGs that don't contain a background color, haven't used IE for a while).
I didn't ment to say that copying information was free, the fundamental difference lays in the fact that information is media-independant, especialy in digital form. A book contains the same information on clay tablets, paper and magnetic bits--a wooden handle wouldn't be such if made out of steel. Until the matter transformator they are fundamentaly different.
Extrapolating, we can easily imagine that sooner or later (and since we're already well into the industrial age, sooner is more likely), more and more tangible things will also become overabundant as their price falls down rapidly. Many things already are, actually - just not enough of them yet.
Or too many, recycling can't be done by applying a bit of magnetism.
To clarify, by this I mean - again - public ownership of land and all means of production, and then democratic (everyone has a voice) but centralised (once decided, it is universally implemented - all decisions have a global scope) management of those means.
That will work... Once all people lose their local identity and start having the same needs, the eartch looses climate differences and weather both in the atmosphere and magma becomes as predictable a a clockwork. I don't know the needs of people in the Sahara or Siberia, they don't know mine--global voting could lead to a huge false consensus effect.
Now, I know that this - centralised resource management - was actually tried, in the USSR, for example, and mostly failed. I believe, however, that it is in large part due to the deficient political system: people who ran it all (and who in turn appointed those in charge of specific issues) were simply not competent for the task, and there were no means to replace them with those who would have been.
What leads you to believe that large scale democracy would be any good at placing competent people on top? When people have to choose between two people they don't really know all kinds of strange things happen, see GWB. I don't think Russia will ever prosper as long as things are run out of Moscow, people are too disconnected from their leaders to care, leaders are too disconnected from people to care. I recently saw some russian news, they refered to China as beeing east...
Also, we have come a long way to understanding large-scale, distributed systems since then, and I do not see any reason why in this age of computers and networks we cannot efficiently manage, and to a large extent, automate, a system a size of a country.
If you stick all the economists in a big cage and give them swords you might even get a single answer how to do it--for a the country of Luxembourg--with a lot of unknowns.
but there's no fundamental difference between it and more traditional, tangible property
You're very wrong on this point, the fundamental difference is that information is easly duplicated while land and things are in a very limited supply. Of course this means that it's even more important to allocate if fairly and efficiently, but I don't think the it can by done by abolishing private property--way too much dispute over usage. IMO limiting inheritance and encouraging employee owned companies are most sensible aproaches to the property problem.
I call myself a communist because I believe in advantages of the common ownership of the means of production as well as personal liberties and democracy.
What about a (reaonably) free market, I believe in all three and that they are compatible (communal ownership at the state level is too high though, needs to be much closer to the people).
To extend your example further, it's like saying that Mormons are Christians after all, because they claim to follow the teachings of the Christ, even if they have a very peculiar understanding of them and throw away (or replace) half of the Bible.
Most christians throw away the old testament, but for some reason they also replace all the good bits Christ said with oppresive things from it.
Re:Cause or Risk Factor? (warning pro-smoking)
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Safe Cigarettes?
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Do you also support a national ban on parfume? Some women make it difficult to breath just by crossing my path, over parfumed people are worse then smokers (for me), but also far more accepted.
Cigarrettes on the other hand have no real benefits thus nothing is lost if people stop using them.
Speak for yourself, a cigarrette can do wonders to calm my nerves. Nicotine gum would probably have a similar effect, but then I would have to carry them around all the time instead of being able to as a coworker for a cigarette once in a month or two.
The only valuable part of high school (for example) is learning how to interact with people of all sorts - nice people, assholes, idiots, members of the opposite sex, etc. That's a very important skill, and high school does do a pretty good job of teaching that.
Learning to swim by beeing droped into deep water isn't necessary the best way. And it's all of school, not just high school.
Slashdot Mirror
No, sue the manufacturer of the film!
When almost every home in the country is being broken into you have bigger problems to worry about then if it's with screwdrivers or powerdrills.
You just have to turn the foil around. Or get the cheap stuff instead of the new expensive One Way Foil(TM).
Not quite correct, paletted PNGs with 1-bit transparency (all that non-animated GIFs do) are rendered correctly. Full color PNGs with alpha channel are rendered with the background color instead of alpha (gray might however be the default for PNGs that don't contain a background color, haven't used IE for a while).
Humans also are kill-the-other-tribe animals, that does not mean that we should.
And if Blosxom appeals to you, but you're more of a Python person there is also PyBlosxom.
Just build one and see if it works, a patent should contain all the information needed. That's what patents are for right? Right?
Raw FLAC data? FLAC is lossless compression and compresses to far less then 760 MB per CD.
Except for the 50+ year monopoly they have...
Exactly, grokster was never popular. ;)
Don't tell that somthing worked in "supply unlimited energy" if it didn't.
Why is it so hard to believe anyway?
Do you also support a national ban on parfume? Some women make it difficult to breath just by crossing my path, over parfumed people are worse then smokers (for me), but also far more accepted.
Do you mean life or tobacco?
Because the money that is currently spent on software would crumble to dust at the very moment where somone decides to go with Free Software...
Come on, where are the pro gun posters? Just imagine how safe and honest a society where everyone has an RPG would be!
How about fantasy stock?
HTTP was developed by US academic institutions?