But in today's America, to try and do such a thing would likely get you labeled as a terrorist, with no legal recourse.
Indeed an interesting point. Let's see the options:
- You can camp in front of the White House with a sign that says you're unhappy. You'll look like a nut and you're utterly useless to whatever cause you are defending.
- You can organize some movement and demonstrate in the middle of a city, shouting your opinions with hundreds of like-minded people. Then you'll piss the average citizen that has to go to work, get bored, get back home and eat TV-diner and he'll end up blaming you for the traffic jams and hate whatever message you're trying to pass.
- You can wirte to your represen... Forget that, waste of time.
- You can blow shit up. But hey, look at McVeigh. Whatever the ideas behind his actions, he killed innocents. Oh, and he's dead too now. not efficient.
So, I'm asking the question: what is there to do in a democracy to change things? Does democracy exist at all, now that mass-media can select what to talk about and present the news the way they want? Do citizens have any opinion? Does it matter who you vote for?
IMO, there's no democracy. Democracy is a buzzword, and that's all there's left of it. And I feel very sad when, in another post, I follow a link to Michi Kaku's website where I read about the future of mankind and what great discoveries are waiting to be done and then, I look around me, I look at the news and I see dumb people in charge of our countries. I think I believe Mankind will get out of this mess, but I truly wonder how. How can you stop a system that controls you? How can you hope to accomplish anything great when you do not have the courage to take a walk outside? Why would you want to change things anyway when the rest of the world is shown to you as barbaric wastelands?
Until it gets to the point where a computer can actually help me drive effectively, I do NOT want one in my car.
Well, some car tuners are actualy using laptops to replace/complement the ECU's. They use them to manage the air/fuel mixture, ignition, timing and other settings one would like to improve to have either better mileage or performances. So I guess laptops CAN be useful and improve one's driving experience...
Re:So... I see your Bass is as big as mine...
on
Death Star Subwoofer
·
· Score: 1
We see bills, drafts, laws and whatnots proposed every week that all seem completely absurd. As if law-makers and the powers that be were testing us, just to see if we're still awake...
Yes, sometimes we're shocked and react and post on slashdot and comment, etc.
But how many stupid laws that have been voted can you count? How many patents are you infriging when you breathe? How many copyrights do you violate when you whistle a tune? Are we really awake?
very drole;) I think my comment stands. I was pissed off because it was akin to finding an article on slashdot entitled "Power button used for turning PCs on/off"
Glad you didn't took it too personnal. I was just kidding;)
Can you sue a witness because he remembered the facts against you during a trial the same way the Wayback Machine is being sued because it "remembers" old facts and saying and has been used in courts?....
This is what passes for a comment on slashdot these days? This isn't new. People have been re-creating flame and rant comments using CTRL-C/CTRL-V for YEARS. Shit, I remember first doing it 2 years ago, and I didn't think it was anything special when I did it.
One of the real reasons Doom3 never took off is because I needed to buy a new computer to use it. And so did everyone else.
Actually, I remember playing Doom 1 on my 486 sx 25MHz. Without a sound card. I also had to switch the graphics to "Low". Boy was I happy when I upgraded to 8Mb of RAM, DX/2 66 and a sound card.....
A lightning hit our house 2 weeks ago. All our network cards were rendered inoperative, along with one hub-switch and a router. My motherboard and/or my CPU were affected too and I've had to change them (did not yet test which was broken). Our 5 other computers were intact and, interestingly, no HD was damaged. No data loss at all.
Furthermore, even in cases where downloading a song causes someone not to buy it, it still isn't stealing.
In fact, in Canada, the moment I download a song with the intention to burn it on a CD, I am legally NOT stealing anything, and I am also moraly and ethicaly correct. Why? Because I paid a levy on the blank media I will use. This levy's purpose is to compensate such "thefts".
So, the way I see it, yes, someone does own expected revenues: the CRIA. And this is the argument to charge levies on blank medias that could be used to copy songs illegaly. However, on the other hand, because they're collecting their "expected revenues" thanks to these levies, I'm free to copy any song or album I want, as long as I paid for the media that will be used.
If the law ever passes, I will buy a large quantity of blank medias. If they ever sue me, I will demonstrate that the due levy was paid when I bought the media. Fuck them.
5. Talk about the levy placed on blank media that compensates the recording industry.
IMO, this should be the first point to mention, because this argument alone should be sufficient to either destroy completely any ambition from the CRIA to sue people or, at the very least, make the levy on blank media disappear.
But seriously, if the blank medias were not levied, do they even realize I would have hundreds (or most likely, thousands) of dollars in my pocket to spend on CDs, DVDs and shows I truly like. Yes, I buy a lot of blank media.
Personally, I won't purchase anything from Metallica ever since the whole napster event (well, their stuff since then has sucked but that's besides the point).
Well, if you watch Some Kind of Monster, you'll see Lars basicaly saying that this whole rage against Napster was somewhat of an error and that it wasn't the right way to treat their fans (or something like that). So I guess it's almost OK to buy Metallica stuff now.
And if you watch Some Kind of Monster, you may actualy appreciate the different stuff they did after the black album. It's not the Metallica we used to love, but after seeing the documentary about these guys, I kinda like the albums now. But that's also beside the point...
It reminds me: some grocery stores here (Canada) are selling "No Name" brand products (which are much like "President's Choice" and other home brands). And "No Name" is a registered trademark.
Please comment on my petition to prevent birth defects from uranium contamination.
What do you have something against super heroes? Do you like crime? Or just jealous you won't be getting any super powers from being exposed to uranium as a child? You are a sad, sad man.
Yeah... Opposing uranium contamination now makes you the "T" word. Sweet!
Slashdot Mirror
But in today's America, to try and do such a thing would likely get you labeled as a terrorist, with no legal recourse.
Indeed an interesting point. Let's see the options:
- You can camp in front of the White House with a sign that says you're unhappy. You'll look like a nut and you're utterly useless to whatever cause you are defending.
- You can organize some movement and demonstrate in the middle of a city, shouting your opinions with hundreds of like-minded people. Then you'll piss the average citizen that has to go to work, get bored, get back home and eat TV-diner and he'll end up blaming you for the traffic jams and hate whatever message you're trying to pass.
- You can wirte to your represen... Forget that, waste of time.
- You can blow shit up. But hey, look at McVeigh. Whatever the ideas behind his actions, he killed innocents. Oh, and he's dead too now. not efficient.
So, I'm asking the question: what is there to do in a democracy to change things? Does democracy exist at all, now that mass-media can select what to talk about and present the news the way they want? Do citizens have any opinion? Does it matter who you vote for?
IMO, there's no democracy. Democracy is a buzzword, and that's all there's left of it. And I feel very sad when, in another post, I follow a link to Michi Kaku's website where I read about the future of mankind and what great discoveries are waiting to be done and then, I look around me, I look at the news and I see dumb people in charge of our countries. I think I believe Mankind will get out of this mess, but I truly wonder how. How can you stop a system that controls you? How can you hope to accomplish anything great when you do not have the courage to take a walk outside? Why would you want to change things anyway when the rest of the world is shown to you as barbaric wastelands?
Power outage? Communication disruption? On CNN?
Hey, I'm surprised they haven't used the T word yet =)
Something tells me they've just got free advertisement...
Don't forget the BSD crowd. They're probably running it on a gramophone to be safe. :P
Until it gets to the point where a computer can actually help me drive effectively, I do NOT want one in my car.
Well, some car tuners are actualy using laptops to replace/complement the ECU's. They use them to manage the air/fuel mixture, ignition, timing and other settings one would like to improve to have either better mileage or performances. So I guess laptops CAN be useful and improve one's driving experience...
It's not a fish.
It's a beer. Duuuh.
If you want a system which isnt affected by worms/virus/security issues at all, you could always use a TRS-80.
Considering how old the thing is, there probably is actual viruses and worms living in the keyboard... More of a medical issue.
There's just no way the editors could post so many dupes within hours by mistake.
Yes there is: using Slashdot's search feature to see if there's a previous article on a given subject.
We see bills, drafts, laws and whatnots proposed every week that all seem completely absurd. As if law-makers and the powers that be were testing us, just to see if we're still awake...
Yes, sometimes we're shocked and react and post on slashdot and comment, etc.
But how many stupid laws that have been voted can you count? How many patents are you infriging when you breathe? How many copyrights do you violate when you whistle a tune? Are we really awake?
very drole ;) I think my comment stands. I was pissed off because it was akin to finding an article on slashdot entitled "Power button used for turning PCs on/off"
;)
Glad you didn't took it too personnal. I was just kidding
and it *still* likes to rock 'n roll!
:P
Mine likes to lock 'n load...
Can you sue a witness because he remembered the facts against you during a trial the same way the Wayback Machine is being sued because it "remembers" old facts and saying and has been used in courts?....
This is what passes for a comment on slashdot these days? This isn't new. People have been re-creating flame and rant comments using CTRL-C/CTRL-V for YEARS. Shit, I remember first doing it 2 years ago, and I didn't think it was anything special when I did it.
Nuremberg established the principle that "I was just followong orders" does not absolve you of personal responsibility.
I'd be curious to see the consequences of US soldiers taking their personal responsibilities......
One of the real reasons Doom3 never took off is because I needed to buy a new computer to use it. And so did everyone else.
Actually, I remember playing Doom 1 on my 486 sx 25MHz. Without a sound card. I also had to switch the graphics to "Low". Boy was I happy when I upgraded to 8Mb of RAM, DX/2 66 and a sound card.....
So, back then, some had to buy new computers too.
directdial.com -- ships fast, tons of items in stock and good prices (like tigedirect, I'd say). Their customer service people are nice too.
For used hardware, I like pcoutlet.com (I'm having trouble viewing products in Firefox though).
And of course, a good idea is to search through local classifieds (lespac.com comes to mind).
Any other recommended places in Canada?
A lightning hit our house 2 weeks ago. All our network cards were rendered inoperative, along with one hub-switch and a router. My motherboard and/or my CPU were affected too and I've had to change them (did not yet test which was broken). Our 5 other computers were intact and, interestingly, no HD was damaged. No data loss at all.
if linus was born 17 years earlier, i dont think we would have linux as good as it is now.
Why not? It's not like there was a big Open Source "scene" before Linux anyway... Linus made it possible. Why couldn't it have happened earlier?
Maybe Linux would run on Commodore 64? And maybe it would have become a tad more user-friendly by now...
for Linux and Mac PCs.
:)
... which people will be running on their X-Box.
Both persons should agree on something like this:
1. The blogger (in China) pretends he just sent the content of the blog in a personal email and that
2. the host published the content of said email without permission.
IANAL and IANC (Chinese), but this seems to make some sense. This or something similar...
Furthermore, even in cases where downloading a song causes someone not to buy it, it still isn't stealing.
In fact, in Canada, the moment I download a song with the intention to burn it on a CD, I am legally NOT stealing anything, and I am also moraly and ethicaly correct. Why? Because I paid a levy on the blank media I will use. This levy's purpose is to compensate such "thefts".
So, the way I see it, yes, someone does own expected revenues: the CRIA. And this is the argument to charge levies on blank medias that could be used to copy songs illegaly. However, on the other hand, because they're collecting their "expected revenues" thanks to these levies, I'm free to copy any song or album I want, as long as I paid for the media that will be used.
If the law ever passes, I will buy a large quantity of blank medias. If they ever sue me, I will demonstrate that the due levy was paid when I bought the media. Fuck them.
5. Talk about the levy placed on blank media that compensates the recording industry.
IMO, this should be the first point to mention, because this argument alone should be sufficient to either destroy completely any ambition from the CRIA to sue people or, at the very least, make the levy on blank media disappear.
But seriously, if the blank medias were not levied, do they even realize I would have hundreds (or most likely, thousands) of dollars in my pocket to spend on CDs, DVDs and shows I truly like. Yes, I buy a lot of blank media.
Personally, I won't purchase anything from Metallica ever since the whole napster event (well, their stuff since then has sucked but that's besides the point).
Well, if you watch Some Kind of Monster, you'll see Lars basicaly saying that this whole rage against Napster was somewhat of an error and that it wasn't the right way to treat their fans (or something like that). So I guess it's almost OK to buy Metallica stuff now.
And if you watch Some Kind of Monster, you may actualy appreciate the different stuff they did after the black album. It's not the Metallica we used to love, but after seeing the documentary about these guys, I kinda like the albums now. But that's also beside the point...
You could sell TradeMark(tm) cookies
It reminds me: some grocery stores here (Canada) are selling "No Name" brand products (which are much like "President's Choice" and other home brands). And "No Name" is a registered trademark.
Please comment on my petition to prevent birth defects from uranium contamination. What do you have something against super heroes? Do you like crime? Or just jealous you won't be getting any super powers from being exposed to uranium as a child? You are a sad, sad man.
Yeah... Opposing uranium contamination now makes you the "T" word. Sweet!