I've just switched from them, to multiplay.co.uk. A gamer's company, mainly, but they go out of their way to point out how they don't traffic shape or limit.
Not sure if they've come out of beta yet, but they could be worth a look. Pretty much just adsl (no web space or email, last time I looked) but you do get a static ip and it's £8/mo cheaper than pipex.
How much of a shill do I sound like? Honestly, I'm not on commision:p
1) You can't take an ebook to the crapper. Yes you can. And I speak from very recent experience. Although you can't pull out pages in the event of an emergency
2) You can't lie on the couch and comfortably read an ebook.
See above. In fact, I'd suggest that a palm pilot is significantly lighter than some of the books I have on my shelf.
3) The form factors for ebook readers suck.
Not so much these days, but it's still an issue.
4) The display quality of ebook readers suck.
That's a bit subjective. I like the monochrome palms, but some detest them. I actually prefer the palm in low light to a book.
5) You can't just pull an ebook off of the bookshelf and read it. I'll give you that...
But the state has no responsibility to provide these things, merely to provide the means to obtain these things.
Once the state imprisons, this must be their duty. After all, they've been deprived of their liberty and means to earn, either legally or illegally. You should not be able to coerce a prisoner to 'get with the program' (for want of a better expression) as that will only be counter-productive. Of course, if they see that if they work then they'll get bread as well as gruel, milk and sugar to go with their coffee, a radio and other such comforts, then perhaps they're on the way. On the other hand, if the prisoner wishes to eat nothing but porridge and have one book a month for their entire sentence, than that should be allowed. Their failiure to comply shouldn't mean serious harm, but more a level of discomfort that is, should they apply themselves, easily allieveated.
I belive every human being has an inalieable responsibility to engage in useful employment. Prisoners do not undertake the former. Hence those institutions that seek to treat prisoners need to cure this problem.
Now there's a thing. When you use words like 'cure' in response to the criminal's failiure to comply, then I almost can't avoid invoking Godwin's law. Work will set you free, perhaps? Just to change direction, what if the problem we were attempting to cure was the use of P2P applications? Or downloading music, should it become criminalised? Or sympathizing with communists, or having ginger hair, or being jews? Hang on, there's Godwin again.
I put it to you (with the greatest respect) that the human condition is a funny old thing, and whilst you can cajole, scare or influence behaviour so that it conforms with society as a whole, you sure as hell can't cure it.
As a side note, I'm not a great blog reader, but one I do read on a regular basis is that of a London magistrate and on the basis of our discussion, I suspect you may enjoy reading it- it sides with my views, but far better written then I'd be able to manage. I don't know if you'll agree with it, but that's another matter entirley.
An individual who is committed to rehabilitation would not need to be broken. They would work and proove themselves capable of re-entering society. The innocent doubly so because they would show no criminal tendancies. I see no good reason for keeping people locked up who have been rehabilitated.
If committed to rehabilitation and/or innocent, why incacerate? The deprivation of liberty is one of the most serious steps a state can take towards it's citizenry and shouldn't be excersised casually.
I do not see the two objectives as being mutually exclusive. As for torture, yes I agree it is torture. But we accept that after due process we can deprive people of certain rights. I would consider locking someone up to be a form of torture.
A slippery slope. We've established that deprivation of liberty is a serious step. This shouldn't mean that because we allow imprisonment we also allow further degradation. After all, regardless of what your personal opinons may be, prisoners are still human and shouldn't be denied the basics of life. If the state is to imprison them, then they also need to feed, clothe and ensure their physical and mental welfare.
That's not to say that I don't feel that there is room for a more disciplined prison system, provided it is operated fairly and transparently.
I'm more concerned about things like the death penalty (why waste what could be a perfectly useful human being, or worse an innocent one?). Or infinite sentences which again could waste a perfectly useful human being
So am I, but for different reaons, I suspect. I worry that (and it may only be your choice of words) you are relegating criminals to the status of chattel, which is the one way you will absolutely ensure that no rehabilitation will take place. After all, I don't counsel my chair if it's uncomfortable, or reason with my cat about the course of action that led it to leaving a mouse on my pillow.
We need a system that gives people another chance by giving themselves a chance to proove themselves, coupled with a system that can crack the really hard cases. Not a system that takes 18 year old manchilds and turns them into 23 year old ruthless violent criminals trained by other inmates and carrying a serious grudge against society for offering them no hope.
No argument there, but I'll differ on the course of action in order to achieve it. First step would be to stop considering prison as the default punishment...
And that is where the failures of our prison system comes in. We should treat prison as a centre for making the useless useful by mentally breaking them to the point where they are too scared to do anything other than what they are told, and them put these people to work. Prisons should be ran in such a way that the inmate population never see eachother, to ensure they do not enhance eachothers criminal capabilities, and should be ran on a "no work, no food" basis.
Jeez, the concept of rehabilitation pass you by? (or, indeed the possibility of an innocent person being sent down) You realise that 'mentally breaking', solitary confinement and the very real possibility of starvation is torture? (That's going by the civilised world's definition, rather than that of Bush, et al)
Try to avoid being parallel to them when they stop. Unless, of course, it's the sort of boss who blasts the whole screen apart from the thin corridor directly in front of them. In this case stay where you are.
Try:
Try to avoid being parallel to them when they stop. Unless, of course, it's the sort of boss who blasts the whole screen , apart from the thin corridor directly in front of them. In this case stay where you are. (note the comma before apart)
3. Solar collectors for power...Spend $10,000 on good panels, (which can collect even in low-light conditions)
$10,000? maybe. If you're frugal and your needs are modest. What makes you think that solar panels can do any significant collection in low-light conditions? I would love to hear about the solar panel that offers any real utility on a cloudy day.
Not as silly as it sounds- capital grants are avaliable for this in the uk, to the tune of 50% of the install price. (a local vendor's info)
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses (x) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected (x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money ( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks ( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it (x) Users of email will not put up with it (x) Microsoft will not put up with it ( ) The police will not put up with it ( ) Requires too much cooperation from spammers ( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once (x) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers ( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists ( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it (x) Lack of centrally controlling authority for email ( ) Open relays in foreign countries ( ) Ease of searching tiny alphanumeric address space of all email addresses ( ) Asshats ( ) Jurisdictional problems (x) Unpopularity of weird new taxes ( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money ( ) Huge existing software investment in SMTP ( ) Susceptibility of protocols other than SMTP to attack ( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches received by email ( ) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes ( ) Eternal arms race involved in all filtering approaches (x) Extreme profitability of spam ( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft ( ) Technically illiterate politicians (x) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with spammers (x ) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves ( ) Bandwidth costs that are unaffected by client filtering ( ) Outlook
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(x) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical ( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable ( ) SMTP headers should not be the subject of legislation ( ) Blacklists suck (x) Whitelists suck ( ) We should be able to talk about Viagra without being censored (x) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or credit card fraud ( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public networks ( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually (x) Sending email should be free (x) Why should we have to trust you and your servers? ( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses ( ) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem ( ) Temporary/one-time email addresses are cumbersome ( ) I don't want the government reading my email ( ) Killing them that way is not slow and painful enough
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work. ( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it. ( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your house down!
ah man, I'd buy it like a shot! Instead of shouting at the politcos on the TV, I could express myself more creatively. It'd be even better if it could map the 'art' so that everytime someone previously drawn on reappears, the modifications persist also...
Slashdot Mirror
Can't be, not with tha comment history ;)
Not sure if they've come out of beta yet, but they could be worth a look. Pretty much just adsl (no web space or email, last time I looked) but you do get a static ip and it's £8/mo cheaper than pipex.
How much of a shill do I sound like? Honestly, I'm not on commision :p
Once again, my mod points used up just before I end up choking on my beer. Is there no justice?
No mystery, just no rdns
Dangermouse is his own mouse...
Mod this up. And up. And up some more!
Typical. The moment I give away my last mod point is the moment at which I end up choking on my coffee....
Yes you can. And I speak from very recent experience. Although you can't pull out pages in the event of an emergency
2) You can't lie on the couch and comfortably read an ebook.
See above. In fact, I'd suggest that a palm pilot is significantly lighter than some of the books I have on my shelf.
3) The form factors for ebook readers suck.
Not so much these days, but it's still an issue.
4) The display quality of ebook readers suck.
That's a bit subjective. I like the monochrome palms, but some detest them. I actually prefer the palm in low light to a book.
5) You can't just pull an ebook off of the bookshelf and read it.
I'll give you that...
"Nothing beats the personal touch of a hired goon..."
Thanks for that link! I'm just popping out to buy a load of copper wire and new batteries for the scanner :)
Once the state imprisons, this must be their duty. After all, they've been deprived of their liberty and means to earn, either legally or illegally. You should not be able to coerce a prisoner to 'get with the program' (for want of a better expression) as that will only be counter-productive. Of course, if they see that if they work then they'll get bread as well as gruel, milk and sugar to go with their coffee, a radio and other such comforts, then perhaps they're on the way. On the other hand, if the prisoner wishes to eat nothing but porridge and have one book a month for their entire sentence, than that should be allowed. Their failiure to comply shouldn't mean serious harm, but more a level of discomfort that is, should they apply themselves, easily allieveated.
I belive every human being has an inalieable responsibility to engage in useful employment. Prisoners do not undertake the former. Hence those institutions that seek to treat prisoners need to cure this problem.
Now there's a thing. When you use words like 'cure' in response to the criminal's failiure to comply, then I almost can't avoid invoking Godwin's law. Work will set you free, perhaps?
Just to change direction, what if the problem we were attempting to cure was the use of P2P applications? Or downloading music, should it become criminalised? Or sympathizing with communists, or having ginger hair, or being jews? Hang on, there's Godwin again.
I put it to you (with the greatest respect) that the human condition is a funny old thing, and whilst you can cajole, scare or influence behaviour so that it conforms with society as a whole, you sure as hell can't cure it.
As a side note, I'm not a great blog reader, but one I do read on a regular basis is that of a London magistrate and on the basis of our discussion, I suspect you may enjoy reading it- it sides with my views, but far better written then I'd be able to manage. I don't know if you'll agree with it, but that's another matter entirley.
If committed to rehabilitation and/or innocent, why incacerate? The deprivation of liberty is one of the most serious steps a state can take towards it's citizenry and shouldn't be excersised casually.
I do not see the two objectives as being mutually exclusive. As for torture, yes I agree it is torture. But we accept that after due process we can deprive people of certain rights. I would consider locking someone up to be a form of torture.
A slippery slope. We've established that deprivation of liberty is a serious step. This shouldn't mean that because we allow imprisonment we also allow further degradation. After all, regardless of what your personal opinons may be, prisoners are still human and shouldn't be denied the basics of life. If the state is to imprison them, then they also need to feed, clothe and ensure their physical and mental welfare.
That's not to say that I don't feel that there is room for a more disciplined prison system, provided it is operated fairly and transparently.
I'm more concerned about things like the death penalty (why waste what could be a perfectly useful human being, or worse an innocent one?). Or infinite sentences which again could waste a perfectly useful human being
So am I, but for different reaons, I suspect. I worry that (and it may only be your choice of words) you are relegating criminals to the status of chattel, which is the one way you will absolutely ensure that no rehabilitation will take place. After all, I don't counsel my chair if it's uncomfortable, or reason with my cat about the course of action that led it to leaving a mouse on my pillow.
We need a system that gives people another chance by giving themselves a chance to proove themselves, coupled with a system that can crack the really hard cases. Not a system that takes 18 year old manchilds and turns them into 23 year old ruthless violent criminals trained by other inmates and carrying a serious grudge against society for offering them no hope.
No argument there, but I'll differ on the course of action in order to achieve it. First step would be to stop considering prison as the default punishment...
Jeez, the concept of rehabilitation pass you by? (or, indeed the possibility of an innocent person being sent down) You realise that 'mentally breaking', solitary confinement and the very real possibility of starvation is torture? (That's going by the civilised world's definition, rather than that of Bush, et al)
Try:
Try to avoid being parallel to them when they stop. Unless, of course, it's the sort of boss who blasts the whole screen , apart from the thin corridor directly in front of them. In this case stay where you are. (note the comma before apart)
See kids, grammar is important.
To Chuck Norris. He's got infinite storage space, but recovering the files will almost certainly involve a roundhouse kick.
But it wasn't the four poster variant.
One man's dystopia, etc...
So 'Snow Crash' is the end result of libertarinism(sp?). Sign me up!
(x) technical ( ) legislative (x) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it
won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular
idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to
state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
(x) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
(x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money
( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
(x) Users of email will not put up with it
(x) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Requires too much cooperation from spammers
( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
(x) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate
potential employers
( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists
( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
(x) Lack of centrally controlling authority for email
( ) Open relays in foreign countries
( ) Ease of searching tiny alphanumeric address space of all email
addresses
( ) Asshats
( ) Jurisdictional problems
(x) Unpopularity of weird new taxes
( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money
( ) Huge existing software investment in SMTP
( ) Susceptibility of protocols other than SMTP to attack
( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches received by email
( ) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all filtering approaches
(x) Extreme profitability of spam
( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft
( ) Technically illiterate politicians
(x) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with
spammers
(x ) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves
( ) Bandwidth costs that are unaffected by client filtering
( ) Outlook
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(x) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever
been shown practical
( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable
( ) SMTP headers should not be the subject of legislation
( ) Blacklists suck
(x) Whitelists suck
( ) We should be able to talk about Viagra without being censored
(x) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or credit card fraud
( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public networks
( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually
(x) Sending email should be free
(x) Why should we have to trust you and your servers?
( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses
( ) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Temporary/one-time email addresses are cumbersome
( ) I don't want the government reading my email
( ) Killing them that way is not slow and painful enough
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting
it.
( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn
your
house down!
Yeah. Parking's becoming a bitch and the post office now use an 40' trailer to deliver the junk mail.
Oh god, thank you. At last. someone get what I've been banging on about all these years!
ah man, I'd buy it like a shot! Instead of shouting at the politcos on the TV, I could express myself more creatively.
It'd be even better if it could map the 'art' so that everytime someone previously drawn on reappears, the modifications persist also...
As opposed to a $1000 one which is just used by a crank...
Ah ha! Bring on the Panopticon!