Wow, lots of replies to that post!
Lets see, where to begin.
Doesn't bearshare still have spyware embedded?
And,
All of that is great Dave, but Bearshare has spyware in it [...]
We are releasing a new version of BearShare, BearShare Lite, that is not bundled with any adware at all. You can download the latest version here.
No adware of any kind.
As always, our 3rd party adware supported version will remain available, with slightly higher limits on the "stress" you can place on the network, in terms of query rates, etc.
And, our adware supported versions have always functioned without the 3rd party adware components. In fact, we never tried to hide this fact. Uninstall scripts are included with both of the adware components we have used.
In any case, that shouldn't be a reason not to use BearShare Lite, just follow the above link.
Don't forget he just admitted to filing for a software patent.
My personal view on SW patents != my employers view, necessarily. They see this as a valuable opportunity/asset for the business. I can't say I blame them, regardless of whether I agree with them.
I'm sure you could say the same for IBM programmers, for instance.
Hardly qualifies as spyware, IMO. Save and Weathercast IIRC. Both easily disabled with firewall and a quick trip to the add/remove CP in Windows (although repeat when upgrading).
Not to mention they're pretty upfront about it. Guy's gotta make a few bucks somehow, and Bearshare has been rock solid (thanks Dave). Wouldn't use anything else for general P2P.
Thanks a bunch!
I wish I could take all the credit, but of course I am just one of a team of highly skilled coworkers who make it all possible. They are just great, and will continue to improve BearShare daily.
I file trading is peer-to-peer (decentralized) how can some central "authority" know what's going on?
Glad you asked.
The company I work for, FreePeers Inc, faced this same problem about 2 years ago.
At that time, I invented a statistics gathering scheme that took full advantage of the decentralized nature of p2p networks.
Previously, the client/server scheme was superimposed upon networks (see Limewire's network crawler, for instance, which contacts every node it can to count them).
My invention takes advantage of the nature of the network itself as a routing/aggregation tool to gather statistics for me,and let the results "ebb" thier way to our collector.
Interesting to note is that we are running our aggregator node on a cable modem, and yet still get "round trip times" for measuring stats on the whole network of 5 minutes. This could even be reduced to about 2 minutes for our current network size.
In any case, the problem you describe (central counting of decentralized p2p info, such as network count or bytes transferred in a given time) is solved, and our company is awaiting a patent on it.
It does work well. We are running the aggregator on a 256Kbps cable modem (as I said above) but the BW usage is so rediculously low that it could be run on a dialup 56k modem, if only we had any in our office! With it we can accurately collect lots of good statistics about our network, and update it every 5 mins.
Each of those graphs in the linked to page is clickable, and will show more details.
"Abu Ghraib prisoners were abused, not tortured like they were when Saddam was in power. Their abusers should and will be punished. Their is a fine line between abuse and torture."
Please read the report that the army put out and then go check out some foreign news sources.
Got a link or are you spreading FUD?
As a Gnutella (p2p) developer, when this story first broke, and I noticed the US media was only showing a few quick pictures, and then rapidly playing down the story (after the first week or so), I decided to circumvent the general media and locate any info, pictures, movies, etc about this horrible torture.
magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:H2JZDN62ZY7VIYTU6IH567N3ZZESHI TH&dn=The%20Abu%20Ghraib%20Prison%20Photos.pdf
Sorry it isn't clickable, but slashdot doesn't like magnets, apparently. Anyway, remove all spaces then use the above.
There is a link to an extensive collection of pics showing the torture, rape, and abuse that US Servicemen/women committed with our (well, US) taxdollars paying for it.
I have since been mirroring this content on my own p2p node at home, work, and anywhere else I can.
I think that it is VERY important for Joe Sixpack to be able to see the whole picture of what happened and what they paid for, not just the "least offensive" pics shown by the media.
I am sharing TONS of info, just search for "ABU GHRAIB" on gnutella, or possibly fasttrack p2p networks.
More resources there than you could imagine.
The link I made above will work with BearShare, or most Gnutella p2p apps.
Please take the few moments necessary and download the complete set of pictures and info so you know what really happens with our dollars, when there is no general accountability.
I can only imagine what is going on in our lovely Cuban prison now.
May $DIETY have mercy on us ignorant, apethetic Americans who pay for this abuse!
We don't feed poor children in our cities because we want their votes; we feed them because we're not heartless bastards.
Sir or Maam, youa re quite correct.
I wish I had mod points for ya!
-dave-
Re:Study is not relevant by using observers
on
P2P Bits
·
· Score: 1
For a last proof of how the campain is not working, just fire up your P2P app and look for popular music. A recent example was the soundtrack to Shrek 2, which had about 50-60 people sharing per track when I was looking. These numbers do not seem to be declining, so while the story of your friend is interesting it's the exception rather than the rule.
However, in terms of swaying the minds and oppinions of people whom haven't yet used the technology (still, most americans haven't) they are fairly successful.
The typical person I encounter who thinks p2p isn't stealing and isn't immoral has used p2p themselves, and they are still (unfortunately) in the minority. The other group who doesn't think it is immoral or stealing tends to be those people who haven't heard anything about the technology, and thanks to TV News snippents, that group has declined to a much smaller pool, instead filling the "I only know what I saw on the news last night, and the news said its illegal" pool with bunches of people.
All that said, I don't think RIAA will win the fight (slowing growth != stopping growth) and I don't fear too much for my job dissapearing at thier hands.
Now, Orrin Hatch I see as a more significant threat, as he threatens to criminalize my work outright, to save the children of this country from "exploitation".
-dave-
Re:I may screw this up...
on
P2P Bits
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The basic instinct of anyone or anything - pig or human (or as the RIAA seems to consider P2P users pigs) - is to go the opposite of the way you're being directed.
RIAA bashing will get you your +5, despite being factually inaccurate.
I like bashing RIAA as much as the next/.er, and working at a p2p company, I have good reason.
However, the truth of the situation is that despite having reservations over being told what to do, most people merely accept instructions from authority without questioning them.
I would say that desipte RIAA attmpeting to shut down my business, that they are, in fact, going about the situation in "the right way(tm)", where "right" in this context means "likely to achieve the majority of self interest goals", if for no other reason than because most people don't question "authoritative answers" to issues they encounter.
I fairly recently had a discussion with a friend of mine, who fairly clearly demonstrated this principle. She had heard on the "FOX news" that downloading mp3s would cause you to go to jail. When I asked about this, seeking more details from her (remember, I make p2p software, so am interested in average people's thoughts on the subject) she actively avoided putting any thought into the subject, and instead rapidly retreated to the comfort of TV-delivered answers, as stated in passing moments across the "news" about it being illegal or being responsible for "starving artists" or "child porn".
To me, it just reinforced my oppinion that the average person (and this friend is truly an average American) would rather just accept the "Authoritative answer from TV" to nearly any problem or situation encountered.
What a long post to disagree with your off-the-cuff statement, eh?
Home schooling is no better either. What you get there are socially inept children who are coddled and shielded from the real world.
This is not correct.
Homeschooling does not imply this, it simply makes it a more likely situation if not addressed.
I was homeschooled for years, and I think I am fairly well socially adjusted. Not perfect, but who is?
I will admit that it required significant effort both by my parents and myself to prevent social isolation, but it was preventable.
For one thing, co-ops or other loose groups of homeschooling parents in a geographic area can collaborate.
The problem is certainly addressable, in any case, and as a result of my vastly improved education from homeschooling versus public schooling, I found myself quite ahead of all my classmates when I finally went to a public school in 10th grade. So far ahead, in fact, that the rest of High School was basically a catch-up waiting game. I didn't have to put much effort into scholastics at that point (since my 9th grade homeschool education exceeded 12th grade public school "average" performance/standards), and got to focus more on polishing any social behaviors necessary for the real world that may have been missing.
All in all I think I am much better off as a result of homeschooling, with at most only a faint hint of the problem you described.
Some of the Environmentalists are extreme idiots that use junk science to justify their own whims, or are hypocrits who do exactly what they don't want anyone else doing. Not all of them, but as long as there a few like this, I won't trust an Environmentalist, EVER.
Is everyone out there starting to get the point? Or must I go on longer? Statements like these are prejudicial. Including the one about cops. Prejudicial: To judge someone or something without fact.
I won't even argue with you over this point.
What I will argue, is "Is it wrong to be predjudicial in this case"?
In general, "innocent until proven guilty" is the standard I use on most things of this nature, from Michael Jackson, to Hiibel, to myself any my prior run-ins with the law.
However, this works (IMHO) only so long as there is a "higher-up watcher" that can ideally determine the guilt or lack thereof.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This brings up a very clear exception (for me) to the "innocent until proven guilty" rule.
That exception occurs when the party under consideration is essentially the "top level watchers" group. This group can include "police", "army/military intellegence (think Guantanimo bay or "Abu Ghraib"), or "Diebold".
These entities are in a position of essentially "unquestionable power" relative to the general population, and are generally shrouded in secrecy, which environment is almost a breeding ground for abuses.
Entities like those need to be viewed in a "guilty before innocent" light, because they can otherwise have no accountability, being in the position of "watchers" already.
This is why I don't like to see cops given new powers like this. You simply cannot trust the cops themselves to be "innocent before proven guilty" since they themselves are the "watchers".
Granted, this view is very much a result of my own personal experiences, and the expereiences of many personal friends & family. Also granted, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", however I have personally seen such horid abuse of power not just from cops, but from all forms of "watchers" such that I have no choice but to hold this view anymore.
I have been lied about by cops, beaten for protesting legally, arrested for no (real) reason other than to harrass me and intimidate my companions, etc.
It is time for this abuse to stop. "watchers" need to be held to the absolute highest of standards as far as accountability goes.
Once police are transparent enough that I (or any average citizen) can prove that said cop is misusing this authority, or lies about it (authority or specific case), and we can have his badge and run him out of town, then and only then should more powers be granted to them.
Until then, the focus (IMHO) should be on improving transparency and accountibility such that there is no "top level watchers", as they themselves would be just as wholely accountable to the "bottom level watchees", in a kind of a "circular accountability system".
Sorry to babble so much, and to butcher the Queens English so, but this is a very important subject for me, as I have been on the receiving end of police abuse far too often.
The Induce Act stands for "Inducement Devolves into Unlawful Child Exploitation"
I heard the "Act" part stands for "...And Creates Terrorism".
Sigh.
W
+5 Funny/Sad to parent! It would probably get a few more votes in the house/senate if they noticed that, eh?
Oh wait! ACT is fairly common on laws, right? =)
Here is my choice:
Prevent Ridiculous and Overt Perversion of English into Garbage that Assists Negotiating for Donatable Assets
Details of my proposed law:
Section 1) Any criminal law which uses the words "the children", "child", "patriot", or "USA" is immediately void. After PROPEGANDA ACT has become law of the land, all criminal law will immediately be frozen until a complete review and purging can be accomplished. Everyone is a criminal now, if you loko hard enough, and they shouldn't be, despite what people with (lots of) money may think.
Section 2) Any law whose "layman's title" or acronym formed MUST be in direct agreement with the law's intended purpose. USA PATRIOT act would be immediately thrown out. No more "Save The Cute Bunnies" acts which take away your American constitutional rights.
Section 3) Class 1 felony to accept any money as a politician / political office holder from any commercial entity which would be directly or indirectly affected by any law under consideration by said official. We the people pay you. If it's not enough $$$, find a different job!! Don't sell out our laws to the highest bidder! Anyone caught doing this intentionally for profit will be eligable for capital punishment (we mean BUSINESS here, and not the kind of business that donates $$$!)
Gnutella developers have complained that Shareaza's Gnutella implementation is outdated & that it wrongly sends tons of "Gnutella2" packets to clients that don't want them.
No kidding! (Disclaimer, IAA Gnutella Developer)
I myself am in the process of adding Udp support to BearShare, and right outta the gate, various Shareaza nodes begin blasting tons of unsolicited "Mike's Protocol Udp packets" at me.
Granted, there is a generic problem of random traffic when using Udp, but I don't see "random traffic", I see "lots of unsolicited Non-Gnutella, Udp MikeProtocol packets".
Grrr...
Not to mention the appropriation of the well-known name "gnutella" for a non-gnutella protocol.
No, in short, Shareaza is more a "jack of all trades" that never (IMHO) had really great support for any of the protocols it implemented.
From my own experience, at least, the Gnutella and BitTorrent implementations aren't that great, and tend to lag pretty severly behind the mono-network clients. Can't really speak from personal experience with the ED2k and MP side, though. For all I know, those implementations work well enough.
He [Feingold] was also the lone dissenter in the Patriot Act. Again, a very brave thing to do given that opponents can use that to paint him as a traitor, and they probably will try that tactic.
Do you know how many pollutants are pumped into the ecosystem to make them here versus in China? Do you know how the Chinese workers are treated?
Of course, if you did know... would you even care?
Excellant post, wish I had more mod points.
Unfortunately, most of my friends simply wouldn't care. Alas, I believe the average American more closely sides with my friends (not caring) than with myself (outraged, boycots WalMart, marched in and was harrassed during FTAA protests, etc, for instance)
I am beginning to think that emigrating from the US is the only real option at this point.
Your ticket gives your the right to watch the movie once in that theater at that time, and that is all.
No. No. No. No. I'm sick of these "implied contracts" that we've all supposedly agreed to without having seen. While I understand and agree with the idea that you shouldn't be recording the move, I didn't agree to a license of any type when I bought my ticket. I paid for the privilege of being allowed to occupy a given room at a given time. I may bring a book, stare at cute girls, or take a nap. If the theater is otherwise empty, I can even play "MST3K" with my friends and yell at the screen.
I'm tired of this "but your license says..." crap. I have yet to sign a contract regarding my rights to use a ticket, or DVD, or piece of software that I've purchased. Give me a piece of paper with clear terms and a signature line, and I'll be willing to admit that I have a business relationship with the entity I'm buying a product from. Until then, forget it.
Damn straight! =)
If I had any mod points, you would be the first recipient of them. Excellant post.
".sig: Why are the people who call Bush a dictator the same ones who want to take away our guns?"
Sorry to reply to your.sig...
I read Michael Moore's books and agree with him on nearly all points EXCEPT this one (gun control)
In principle, I agree that guns are used to hurt those we care about, rather to protect ourselves, on average. I applaud his (and others') efforts to secure our society from accidental danger by controlling guns. Never mind that more (civilian) people die from Autos then from Guns.
However, one of the big points that he (and other anti-Bush-ites) seem to miss is exactly that which you bring up, and irritates me to no end:
We don't need guns to hunt. We don't need guns to 'protect ourselves' in case of intrusion, despite what gunowners (like myself) will tell you.
We will say such things, however, because the truth is too aweful-sounding: We need them to keep Government close to reasonable! We need them to keep those Washington fools semi-open and semi-transparent. We need the constant threat they provide, the threat to our societies' foundations, the threat to dramatically alter our way of life.
We NEED them, not so we can shoot the intruder who is (apparently) breaking into our house, we need them so we can still effectively "threaten" the Gaylord Fockers who would suppress and control us, without our consent, as happened here, and will undoubtedly happen again.
This is what bothers me so much when I see comments like "If you want assault rifles, join the [US] Army, we have tons" (misquote, I know) is that the whole point of citizens having guns is the ability to overthrow that army and Take Back the control of the country.
Obviously, joining the Army and not owning a gun would have exactly the opposite effect.
Yes, a world without guns would (possibly) be a more peaceful one, but not one in which I would particularly want to live. Why? The ruling powers-that-be would be almost infintely secure.
The (presumably constant) threat of assasination is at least in the mind of current leaders, like D.Cheny, J.Ashcroft, and GWB, for instance, and hopefully serves as a constant anchor to reality for them. (emphasis on hopefully)
The ultimate problem for them is that many see a democratic process as being ultimately the one true way towards change. While I agree in principle (again with these principles) I don't think that this is the reality in which we live. Violence is sometimes the only reason things change, for better or for worse.
Will I go and start a revolution myself? No.
Would I go and join a pre-existing revolution, bent on overthrow of our current government, should they refuse to yield political power this November? Probably. However, this would be a last resort, and I am taking other (more democaratic, less violent) steps first.
Sounds exactly like when I worked at a non-PC-oriented call center.
North American Mortgage Company, a large lender (at the time) throughout the US, had God-Aweful support!!
Everything you describe, from the LED board, to the techniques used to inflate stats (self-induced calls, self monitoring of calls, etc) were EXACTLY things I used to see or do there to benefit my OWN rediculous stats.
Thee had multiple queues for various customers, that ranged (in usage) from constant usage to a few calls per hour/day.
All the queue programming (which queues took what priority for which reps) was done on the *phones themselves*, and (Hahaha) they handed out a photocopy of the "initial setup instructions" when the system was created.
Basically it was like:
##User#Ext#Queue#Priority##Queue#priority## etc...
Since (for example) queue 1234 was the "common" queue and queue 420 was the "slow" queue, simply enterring "1234#3##420#1" would place you at "priority 3" for the main queue (basically a backup at that point, as all priority 1 & 2s had to be on a call first to route one to me) guarantee a nice, slow day of calls, producing 1 or 2 calls per hour or day. Since weights of averages were discarded (did you make 1 call at 60 seconds per call, or 1,000 calls at 60 seconds per call), this worked nicely. =)
Nobody there seemed to care that individual "time-based" stats were being averaged, then re-averaged repeatedly without proper weighting! After bringing this up repeatedly, and getting just "shrugs" from non-math-ies, I just exploited it to not have to do any real work. =)
Unfortunately we don't have a choice. If the US doesn't develop weapons, somebody else will, and the chances are they are
not going to be as benevolent as the US.
As an American, let me say:
Hahahahahaha! Benevolent, you say? What USA do YOU live in?
I (american citizen) was recently attacked by my own Government's agents (funded appx. 50% through the DoHS's Anti-terrorism slush fund) in Miami, last November.
This is Benevolent? Watch what those bastards did to our own citizens, in the name of anti-terrorism, at that link. Still think the US is benevolent?
If the US cannot be trusted to not harm its own citizens, the concept of being benevolent to others is lost.
Try convincing the other 25,000 Americans who were with me that the US is "benevolent".
Hahahahaha
-dave-
Want the US to be benevolent?
Want a REAL alternative to DEAN now?
Dennis Kucinich is your man!
Check out his anti-war, pro-peace, generally pro-slashdot-views campaign here.
Slashdot Mirror
And,
We are releasing a new version of BearShare, BearShare Lite, that is not bundled with any adware at all. You can download the latest version here.
No adware of any kind.
As always, our 3rd party adware supported version will remain available, with slightly higher limits on the "stress" you can place on the network, in terms of query rates, etc.
And, our adware supported versions have always functioned without the 3rd party adware components. In fact, we never tried to hide this fact. Uninstall scripts are included with both of the adware components we have used.
In any case, that shouldn't be a reason not to use BearShare Lite, just follow the above link.
My personal view on SW patents != my employers view, necessarily. They see this as a valuable opportunity/asset for the business. I can't say I blame them, regardless of whether I agree with them.
I'm sure you could say the same for IBM programmers, for instance.
Thanks a bunch!
I wish I could take all the credit, but of course I am just one of a team of highly skilled coworkers who make it all possible. They are just great, and will continue to improve BearShare daily.
Thanks for the replies, all!
-dave-
Glad you asked.
The company I work for, FreePeers Inc, faced this same problem about 2 years ago.
At that time, I invented a statistics gathering scheme that took full advantage of the decentralized nature of p2p networks.
Previously, the client/server scheme was superimposed upon networks (see Limewire's network crawler, for instance, which contacts every node it can to count them).
My invention takes advantage of the nature of the network itself as a routing/aggregation tool to gather statistics for me,and let the results "ebb" thier way to our collector.
See the public results here.
Interesting to note is that we are running our aggregator node on a cable modem, and yet still get "round trip times" for measuring stats on the whole network of 5 minutes. This could even be reduced to about 2 minutes for our current network size.
In any case, the problem you describe (central counting of decentralized p2p info, such as network count or bytes transferred in a given time) is solved, and our company is awaiting a patent on it.
It does work well. We are running the aggregator on a 256Kbps cable modem (as I said above) but the BW usage is so rediculously low that it could be run on a dialup 56k modem, if only we had any in our office! With it we can accurately collect lots of good statistics about our network, and update it every 5 mins.
Each of those graphs in the linked to page is clickable, and will show more details.
-dave-
Use BearShare for all your p2p needs.
Use BearShare, and use that link (without any spaces)
Or just search "ABU GHRAIB" in your favorite p2p app.
-dave-
As a Gnutella (p2p) developer, when this story first broke, and I noticed the US media was only showing a few quick pictures, and then rapidly playing down the story (after the first week or so), I decided to circumvent the general media and locate any info, pictures, movies, etc about this horrible torture.
magnet:?xt=urn:sha1:H2JZDN62ZY7VIYTU6IH567N3ZZESHI TH&dn=The%20Abu%20Ghraib%20Prison%20Photos.pdf
Sorry it isn't clickable, but slashdot doesn't like magnets, apparently. Anyway, remove all spaces then use the above.
There is a link to an extensive collection of pics showing the torture, rape, and abuse that US Servicemen/women committed with our (well, US) taxdollars paying for it.
I have since been mirroring this content on my own p2p node at home, work, and anywhere else I can.
I think that it is VERY important for Joe Sixpack to be able to see the whole picture of what happened and what they paid for, not just the "least offensive" pics shown by the media.
I am sharing TONS of info, just search for "ABU GHRAIB" on gnutella, or possibly fasttrack p2p networks.
More resources there than you could imagine.
The link I made above will work with BearShare, or most Gnutella p2p apps.
Please take the few moments necessary and download the complete set of pictures and info so you know what really happens with our dollars, when there is no general accountability.
I can only imagine what is going on in our lovely Cuban prison now.
May $DIETY have mercy on us ignorant, apethetic Americans who pay for this abuse!
-dave-
Someone mod parent up!
-dave-
Sir or Maam, youa re quite correct.
I wish I had mod points for ya!
-dave-
Clarification:
I will grant you that according to our own statistics, p2p usage is rising, and doesn't appear to be in immediate danger.
However, in terms of swaying the minds and oppinions of people whom haven't yet used the technology (still, most americans haven't) they are fairly successful.
The typical person I encounter who thinks p2p isn't stealing and isn't immoral has used p2p themselves, and they are still (unfortunately) in the minority. The other group who doesn't think it is immoral or stealing tends to be those people who haven't heard anything about the technology, and thanks to TV News snippents, that group has declined to a much smaller pool, instead filling the "I only know what I saw on the news last night, and the news said its illegal" pool with bunches of people.
All that said, I don't think RIAA will win the fight (slowing growth != stopping growth) and I don't fear too much for my job dissapearing at thier hands.
Now, Orrin Hatch I see as a more significant threat, as he threatens to criminalize my work outright, to save the children of this country from "exploitation".
-dave-
RIAA bashing will get you your +5, despite being factually inaccurate.
I like bashing RIAA as much as the next /.er, and working at a p2p company, I have good reason.
However, the truth of the situation is that despite having reservations over being told what to do, most people merely accept instructions from authority without questioning them.
I would say that desipte RIAA attmpeting to shut down my business, that they are, in fact, going about the situation in "the right way(tm)", where "right" in this context means "likely to achieve the majority of self interest goals", if for no other reason than because most people don't question "authoritative answers" to issues they encounter.
I fairly recently had a discussion with a friend of mine, who fairly clearly demonstrated this principle. She had heard on the "FOX news" that downloading mp3s would cause you to go to jail. When I asked about this, seeking more details from her (remember, I make p2p software, so am interested in average people's thoughts on the subject) she actively avoided putting any thought into the subject, and instead rapidly retreated to the comfort of TV-delivered answers, as stated in passing moments across the "news" about it being illegal or being responsible for "starving artists" or "child porn".
To me, it just reinforced my oppinion that the average person (and this friend is truly an average American) would rather just accept the "Authoritative answer from TV" to nearly any problem or situation encountered.
What a long post to disagree with your off-the-cuff statement, eh?
-dave-
My personal favorite, in fact.
My favorite poem by him is Nothing Gold Can Stay.
The following are also great poems by him, although choosing a subset is like picking between gorgeous swiss blonde triplets:
Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening
The road less traveled
Mending Wall
Yeah, they are all great. What a talented man! Hope you enjoy them.
-dave-
This is not correct.
Homeschooling does not imply this, it simply makes it a more likely situation if not addressed.
I was homeschooled for years, and I think I am fairly well socially adjusted. Not perfect, but who is?
I will admit that it required significant effort both by my parents and myself to prevent social isolation, but it was preventable.
For one thing, co-ops or other loose groups of homeschooling parents in a geographic area can collaborate.
The problem is certainly addressable, in any case, and as a result of my vastly improved education from homeschooling versus public schooling, I found myself quite ahead of all my classmates when I finally went to a public school in 10th grade. So far ahead, in fact, that the rest of High School was basically a catch-up waiting game. I didn't have to put much effort into scholastics at that point (since my 9th grade homeschool education exceeded 12th grade public school "average" performance/standards), and got to focus more on polishing any social behaviors necessary for the real world that may have been missing.
All in all I think I am much better off as a result of homeschooling, with at most only a faint hint of the problem you described.
-dave-
I have a nice, digital backup of this.
I remember it clearly from when I was a kid, and couldn't bear the thought of it slipping into oblivion through disinterest and lack of reproduction.
-dave-
dave (at) freepeers dash com
Dash == Dot, no morse code here!
I won't even argue with you over this point.
What I will argue, is "Is it wrong to be predjudicial in this case"?
In general, "innocent until proven guilty" is the standard I use on most things of this nature, from Michael Jackson, to Hiibel, to myself any my prior run-ins with the law.
However, this works (IMHO) only so long as there is a "higher-up watcher" that can ideally determine the guilt or lack thereof.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This brings up a very clear exception (for me) to the "innocent until proven guilty" rule.
That exception occurs when the party under consideration is essentially the "top level watchers" group. This group can include "police", "army/military intellegence (think Guantanimo bay or "Abu Ghraib"), or "Diebold".
These entities are in a position of essentially "unquestionable power" relative to the general population, and are generally shrouded in secrecy, which environment is almost a breeding ground for abuses.
Entities like those need to be viewed in a "guilty before innocent" light, because they can otherwise have no accountability, being in the position of "watchers" already.
This is why I don't like to see cops given new powers like this. You simply cannot trust the cops themselves to be "innocent before proven guilty" since they themselves are the "watchers".
Granted, this view is very much a result of my own personal experiences, and the expereiences of many personal friends & family. Also granted, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", however I have personally seen such horid abuse of power not just from cops, but from all forms of "watchers" such that I have no choice but to hold this view anymore.
I have been lied about by cops, beaten for protesting legally, arrested for no (real) reason other than to harrass me and intimidate my companions, etc.
It is time for this abuse to stop. "watchers" need to be held to the absolute highest of standards as far as accountability goes.
Once police are transparent enough that I (or any average citizen) can prove that said cop is misusing this authority, or lies about it (authority or specific case), and we can have his badge and run him out of town, then and only then should more powers be granted to them.
Until then, the focus (IMHO) should be on improving transparency and accountibility such that there is no "top level watchers", as they themselves would be just as wholely accountable to the "bottom level watchees", in a kind of a "circular accountability system".
Sorry to babble so much, and to butcher the Queens English so, but this is a very important subject for me, as I have been on the receiving end of police abuse far too often.
-dave-
+5 Funny/Sad to parent! It would probably get a few more votes in the house/senate if they noticed that, eh?
Oh wait! ACT is fairly common on laws, right? =)
Here is my choice:
Prevent
Ridiculous and
Overt
Perversion of
English into
Garbage that
Assists
Negotiating for
Donatable
Assets
Details of my proposed law:
Section 1) Any criminal law which uses the words "the children", "child", "patriot", or "USA" is immediately void. After PROPEGANDA ACT has become law of the land, all criminal law will immediately be frozen until a complete review and purging can be accomplished. Everyone is a criminal now, if you loko hard enough, and they shouldn't be, despite what people with (lots of) money may think.
Section 2) Any law whose "layman's title" or acronym formed MUST be in direct agreement with the law's intended purpose. USA PATRIOT act would be immediately thrown out. No more "Save The Cute Bunnies" acts which take away your American constitutional rights.
Section 3) Class 1 felony to accept any money as a politician / political office holder from any commercial entity which would be directly or indirectly affected by any law under consideration by said official. We the people pay you. If it's not enough $$$, find a different job!! Don't sell out our laws to the highest bidder! Anyone caught doing this intentionally for profit will be eligable for capital punishment (we mean BUSINESS here, and not the kind of business that donates $$$!)
Ahh, sweet dreams...
-dave-
No kidding! (Disclaimer, IAA Gnutella Developer)
I myself am in the process of adding Udp support to BearShare, and right outta the gate, various Shareaza nodes begin blasting tons of unsolicited "Mike's Protocol Udp packets" at me.
Granted, there is a generic problem of random traffic when using Udp, but I don't see "random traffic", I see "lots of unsolicited Non-Gnutella, Udp MikeProtocol packets".
Grrr...
Not to mention the appropriation of the well-known name "gnutella" for a non-gnutella protocol.
No, in short, Shareaza is more a "jack of all trades" that never (IMHO) had really great support for any of the protocols it implemented.
From my own experience, at least, the Gnutella and BitTorrent implementations aren't that great, and tend to lag pretty severly behind the mono-network clients. Can't really speak from personal experience with the ED2k and MP side, though. For all I know, those implementations work well enough.
-dave-
You seem to have forgotten about Dennis Kucinich.
He voted against the USA PATRIOT Act as well!!
-dave-
Sounds like it will be as effectve as today's DRM is.
-dave-
Excellant post, wish I had more mod points.
Unfortunately, most of my friends simply wouldn't care. Alas, I believe the average American more closely sides with my friends (not caring) than with myself (outraged, boycots WalMart, marched in and was harrassed during FTAA protests, etc, for instance)
I am beginning to think that emigrating from the US is the only real option at this point.
(sigh)
-dave-
If I had any mod points, you would be the first recipient of them. Excellant post.
-dave-
[geek]
Don't suppose this is a quote from Alyson Hannigan as found in Once More, With Feeling
If you are a Buffy fan, interested in, say, collecting the episodes, get ahold of me.
[/geek]
dave_at_freepeers_dash_com Maybe a dot instead?
-dave-
Sorry to reply to your .sig...
I read Michael Moore's books and agree with him on nearly all points EXCEPT this one (gun control)
In principle, I agree that guns are used to hurt those we care about, rather to protect ourselves, on average. I applaud his (and others') efforts to secure our society from accidental danger by controlling guns. Never mind that more (civilian) people die from Autos then from Guns.
However, one of the big points that he (and other anti-Bush-ites) seem to miss is exactly that which you bring up, and irritates me to no end:
We don't need guns to hunt. We don't need guns to 'protect ourselves' in case of intrusion, despite what gunowners (like myself) will tell you.
We will say such things, however, because the truth is too aweful-sounding: We need them to keep Government close to reasonable! We need them to keep those Washington fools semi-open and semi-transparent. We need the constant threat they provide, the threat to our societies' foundations, the threat to dramatically alter our way of life.
We NEED them, not so we can shoot the intruder who is (apparently) breaking into our house, we need them so we can still effectively "threaten" the Gaylord Fockers who would suppress and control us, without our consent, as happened here, and will undoubtedly happen again.
This is what bothers me so much when I see comments like "If you want assault rifles, join the [US] Army, we have tons" (misquote, I know) is that the whole point of citizens having guns is the ability to overthrow that army and Take Back the control of the country.
Obviously, joining the Army and not owning a gun would have exactly the opposite effect.
Yes, a world without guns would (possibly) be a more peaceful one, but not one in which I would particularly want to live. Why? The ruling powers-that-be would be almost infintely secure.
The (presumably constant) threat of assasination is at least in the mind of current leaders, like D.Cheny, J.Ashcroft, and GWB, for instance, and hopefully serves as a constant anchor to reality for them. (emphasis on hopefully)
The ultimate problem for them is that many see a democratic process as being ultimately the one true way towards change. While I agree in principle (again with these principles) I don't think that this is the reality in which we live. Violence is sometimes the only reason things change, for better or for worse.
Will I go and start a revolution myself? No. Would I go and join a pre-existing revolution, bent on overthrow of our current government, should they refuse to yield political power this November? Probably. However, this would be a last resort, and I am taking other (more democaratic, less violent) steps first.
-dave-
This is actually a valid question, IMHO, and one which I have actually entered into a search page.
Fiance vs. Fiancee
There is a difference.
-dave-
North American Mortgage Company, a large lender (at the time) throughout the US, had God-Aweful support!!
Everything you describe, from the LED board, to the techniques used to inflate stats (self-induced calls, self monitoring of calls, etc) were EXACTLY things I used to see or do there to benefit my OWN rediculous stats.
Thee had multiple queues for various customers, that ranged (in usage) from constant usage to a few calls per hour/day.
All the queue programming (which queues took what priority for which reps) was done on the *phones themselves*, and (Hahaha) they handed out a photocopy of the "initial setup instructions" when the system was created.
Basically it was like: ##User#Ext#Queue#Priority##Queue#priority## etc...
Since (for example) queue 1234 was the "common" queue and queue 420 was the "slow" queue, simply enterring "1234#3##420#1" would place you at "priority 3" for the main queue (basically a backup at that point, as all priority 1 & 2s had to be on a call first to route one to me) guarantee a nice, slow day of calls, producing 1 or 2 calls per hour or day. Since weights of averages were discarded (did you make 1 call at 60 seconds per call, or 1,000 calls at 60 seconds per call), this worked nicely. =)
Nobody there seemed to care that individual "time-based" stats were being averaged, then re-averaged repeatedly without proper weighting! After bringing this up repeatedly, and getting just "shrugs" from non-math-ies, I just exploited it to not have to do any real work. =)
I don't usually respond to .sigs, but there IS a democratic candidate as you describe, and HINT, it's not Kerry!
Check him out here.
-dave-
As an American, let me say:
Hahahahahaha! Benevolent, you say? What USA do YOU live in?
I (american citizen) was recently attacked by my own Government's agents (funded appx. 50% through the DoHS's Anti-terrorism slush fund) in Miami, last November.
This is Benevolent? Watch what those bastards did to our own citizens, in the name of anti-terrorism, at that link. Still think the US is benevolent?
If the US cannot be trusted to not harm its own citizens, the concept of being benevolent to others is lost.
Try convincing the other 25,000 Americans who were with me that the US is "benevolent".
Hahahahaha
-dave-
Want the US to be benevolent?
Want a REAL alternative to DEAN now?
Dennis Kucinich is your man!
Check out his anti-war, pro-peace, generally pro-slashdot-views campaign here.