Re:Explanation of The Force is A Farce
on
Episode II Rumours
·
· Score: 1
You're mystified by Yogic Flying? My ten year-old brother can 'fly' better than any student of the Maharish Yogi (a man himself claiming to fly across the room and levitate, yet never having displayed it).
The Yogic Flying school is another shot at making a buck off the transendental rubes prone to flights-of-fancy.
If folding your legs and hopping around a wrestling-mat like a decapitated goat is flying, then a wet-dream makes me John Holmes.
A better place to fisit would be the James Randi Institute. He offers more than a million dollars to anyone who can prove what they claim. --- seumas.com
Could you not draw plasma from a Jedi and inject it into, say, a Wookie? And if The Force is tangible, could you not synthetically reproduce it as modern scientists are capable of doing with the human-growth hormone?
Theoretically, The Empire could use their funding to easily replicate the biological properties needed for the Jedi ability and produce a massive army of enhanced troops. --- seumas.com
Re:Explanation of The Force is A Farce
on
Episode II Rumours
·
· Score: 1
It also produces a degree of contradiction.
Much of The Force seems to be a power culminating in and directed by the mind. Any connection between a high concentration of any type of cell and a supernatural mental ability seems small and possibly negligent.
The high-concentration of 'Jedi-Cells' may explain how a Jedi is able to manipulate his power to effect the physical world around him, but it does not address where the power itself truly originates from. An example (though perhaps not the most illustriative) is that you may have strong and powerful legs, but that does not make you an effective full-back, sprinter, or basket-ball player. If you are a basket-ball player though, those strong-legs will be very useful.
It's difficult to imagine how a bunch of plasma-cells can enable one to defy gravity on a whim and sense events far away. It also does not explain the appearence of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin in ghostly silhouttes in the last installments of the trilogy. Seemingly supernatural events.
In essence, the entire explanation lacks credability because it explains how the power can be directed from the body to the world, but does nothing to explain how the power itself manifests and why. And to completely avoid any correlation to the mind and it's incredibly un-tapped potential serves only to relegate The Force to the same importance and awe of any element in the Periodic Table.
Star Wars would have kept it's thrilling grasp without the explanation and nobody would ever have questioned its lack. Like Jar-Jar Binks, this was another example of why keeping a script as trim and uncluttered as possible is essential to exceptional writing.
Why use a thousand pages to convey what you can in five and why accomplish with ten characters what you can accomplish in four? --- seumas.com
The animosity toward Jar-Jar Binks is not because Star Wars fans dislike the inclusion of humor in the deuce-trilogy. In fact, Star Wars is filled with it.
The problem is that most semi-hard-core Star Wars fans are fairly intelligent. In fact, I would not hesitate to suggest they are above average intelligence. We want to see the dry-wit of Harrison Ford or the humor of the befuddled C3PO and his anal personality.
We do not want to see Steve Urkel. We don't want to see Jerry Lewis. Slap-Stick is a cheap and thoughtless form of humor which belongs in cheap and light films (Ace Ventura, Austin Powers, etc.). When you make slap-stick a large part of a movie such as Star Wars, you are insulting your true fan-base for the sake of marketing a few million extra action figures and Happy Meals.
Star Wars fans do not find stepping in 'doo-doo' funny. It's a low-blow to the viewer and leaves you with this strange idea of super-imposing Bob Saget's (Funniest Home Videos) face and voice over Jar-Jar.
Not only did Lucas insult many of his fans with the sheer idiocy of Jar-Jar Binks, but he prevented the character from displaying any worth to the plot. A writer knows that characters who are not integral to the plot, or the procession of the plot should be written-out. Binks was left in and any investment you might make in the character through the film is not returned. By the end of the film, the only accomplishment Jar-Jar manages is to survive.
So what could have been changed, other than writing him out completely? If he had simply had a moment of bravery in the final moments of the film, his character would have been redeeming. But his character was as flat and undeveloped at the end as he was in the beginning.
Some people suggest that Jar-Jar's worth will be realized in the second installment, but that doesn't excuse the utter lack of progression in Episode I. And it certainly doesn't explain some 230 scenes (of the 2000) in the film.
All I can say is that meesa think Jar-Jar Binks was the biggest waste of cpu cycles in the history of man. --- seumas.com
"Aye! Enough of this pansy-arse flash-light fighten' -- let's you and me go toss us some cabers!" --- seumas.com
Television Spin-Off: Star Wars - The Early Years
on
Episode II Rumours
·
· Score: 5
I would prefer to see any of the following play the older Anakin:
Adam Sandler Drew Carey Jeff Foxworthy
"If you can crush a mans neck, simply by looking at him -- you might be a Jedi!"
==Television Pilots==
And perhaps we can begin to see Star Wars explore some more pressing issues with the central characters being so young.
In the vein of 90210, Anakin could knock Queen Amidala up while they're both underage and deal with a pending abortion, adoption, or birth. Amidala will be forced to relinquish control of Naboo to become a stay-at-home mom. And, in typical male fashion (according to Hollywood), Anakin will dump her for Brittany -- the local slut.
In the style of Blossom and Party of Five, we could have Anakin explore his new-found bi-sexual desires with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Meanwhile, Jar-Jar Binks finds himself seduced by the porn-world, producing Naboo's most impressive blue-market videos.
Queen Amidala, having become an unemployed, single, teenage mother, will resort to prostitution and fight fruitlessly to fight off her rabid drug-habit. Of course, never able to kick the habit, she is knocked up again when Anakin returns while on the rebound and talks a drunken Amidala into a little nookie (for old-times sake, of course). Nine months later, she gives birth to a crack-baby named Luke. Not wanting to own up to his responsibilities again, Anakin applies to the Navy. Unfortunately, despite their don't-ask-don't-tell policy, his carnal desires are exposed and he is booted out of the service, only to join the Empire.
In the flavor of Moesha, we learn about the danger of gangs and peer-pressure as Anakin is jumped into The Empire and exposed to violence and hate.
And in a very touching scene, derived from many episodes of South Central, Anakin picks up his first light-saber. Of course, the weapon's owner had neglected to keep it in a safe place or install a saber-lock.
And in a heart-warming ending to Episode II, Amidala succumbs to a drug-induced coma and sees dancing wookies, in a rather obviousAlley McBeal-esque rip-off.
Yes, I speak blasphemy! You must admit, though, that many of us would rather see such ideas as those previously mentioned than anything remotely similar to Episode I again. --- seumas.com
Jar-Jar Binks, Assisted By Mace Windu
on
Episode II Rumours
·
· Score: 1
Jar-Jar Binks, weilding a light-saber...
. . . Run! . ..
With any luck, Mace Windu will assist in his training.
"Meesa gonna tear yousa up! Meesa one bad mudda fucka! --- seumas.com
Actually, I didn't find much to complain about with regard to the casting of Anakin in Episode I. Casting someone to play a six or eight year-old Anakin had to be rather difficult and I'm not aware of any other male actors that could pull it off. Actually, I'm not aware of any other six or eight year-old actors, period.
I did, however, find it disappointing that they had to develop a scientific explanation for The Force. Couldn't The Force simply remain something spiritual? Sure, I'm an agnostic, but I found it more insulting that they had to create a ridiculous explanation based on a cell-count to satisfy this techno-saturated culture of ours than I would have if they had attributed The Force to Christianity and Jesus!
Star Wars lost some of it's wonder as a result, and The Force may as well be The Farce. --- seumas.com
This is as ridiculous as presidential campaigns beginning two or three years before the end of the current president's term!
Unfortunately Lucas certainly has commented that Jar-Jar will appear in at least the next sequel. Unlike many of my friends who have seen Episode I two dozen times, I found my ass sore and waiting for the movie to end before it was even half-way through. I'm not sure I'm even eager to see Episode II if Jar-Jar is in it. And I'm definitely going to be disappointed if DiCaprio is in it.
Besides, don't you want an actor who looks at least ten years-old to play Anakin? --- seumas.com
If these unethical assertions of ownership of everything continue, I will not be surprised to see the standard TOS include clauses similar to the below:
We assume ownership of and all rights to material which is linked to from our search engine or database.
Also, a question: Do libraries assume copyright ownership and all intellectual rights to the contents of the books on their shelves? Of course not. There is no reasonable excuse for the need for these insulting clauses popping-up everywhere other than sheer greed and the hope to exploit the material, thoughts, and work of other people without compensation.
Of course, Geocities is, I believe, owned by Microsoft. I'm sure once they were acquired, they quickly learned this lesson of 'take what isn't yours and profit from it'.
I wonder what would happen if you host your site at Yahoo, Geocities, and Tripod? They all assume full ownership of your material. I'd like to see all three fight each other for the right to your content. --- seumas.com
It doesn't feel like Google. In fact, searches that I have performed often on Google show up completely differently on Netscape. On many searches, the top result is not the same, and the entire list returned seems entirely different.
Anyone out there find it curious that Google.com is 'temporarily down' today, of all days, too? --- seumas.com
Don't you guys dare pee on anything important down there in San Jose. We don't want to see you get yourself banned for a decade like Ozzy did when he urinated on the Alamo in Texas.
Although it would make one helluva Slashdot article...
As I understand it, you are correct in the charges applied. But nobody actually pays the money. From everything I've seen and read, they keep it on paper, and don't actually say to each other "Hey, look. You owe me $2,000,000".
That wouldn't be in their best interest. Instead, they collect "connections" from each other. Also, I heard that there was some manner of conflict recently because some of the lesser-known long-distance carriers (the kind that name themselves I Don't Care so that when a person at a pay phone says "I don't care" to the operator, they are charged a ton by the I Dont' Care Phone Company) have been causing trouble with the big-time companies, because all of the traffic is in one direction, and theoretically, the tiny companies could cash-in all of the connections accrued and really stick it to the AT&T's.
Actually, I should have explained myself a little more clearly in this reply. (I posted another message elsewhere in regard to this most recent article, explaining the way reciprocation works between phone companies).
While reading through messages in the original article, people seemed to get the idea that people were going to see an additional bill on their monthly phone bill. I know of nobody who has ever suggested that such a method be used (it isn't even feasible.
I should have also mentioned that the new information as of this evening changes things a bit, but I was speaking aside the current revelations.
Although I find it inevitable that those decent and ethical customer-oriented fellows at your local telephone company will come to the conclusion that the best way to handle their business is to charge ISP's for every second they are tying up a phone-line for data transfers, the recent declaration is in regard to reciprocation.
Here's how most inter-state long-distance transactions happen:
John picks up the telephone and makes a long distance call to Mary, who lives across the country. John's telephone company is getting paid by him for the service. So who is paying the company that provides telephone service to Mary?
The answer is: John's telephone company. Calls are tracked between companies, like a bar tab. Only, nobody is ever expected to pay up in cash. They pay each other in 'connections'.
John's telephone company may connect ten million phone calls every year that orignate from the company Mary uses. So Mary's company will reciprocate by allowing an equal amount of connections for John's.
I'm hoping I made sense, there.
In other words, this is all going on in the background. We aren't talking about making each other pay (or ISP's pay)... yet. We're talking about one phone company saying "Hey, look... we connected 100 million calls for your customers, made over the internet. We would like to be compensated for this."
But that doesn't mean that they won't go after ISP's and the 'little-guy' as soon as they can get away with it.
I didn't realize anyone was under the impression that the declaration of the traffic being long-distance would result in additional charges to their phone bills. That wouldn't make sense in the least, because the phone company doesn't necessarily know what the hell you're doing.
As I read it (and have always expected as a final outcome) was a charge levied against ISP's by the phone companies. In turn, that charge would be passed onto the customers-- via the ISP's service bill.
In other words, the only thing I saw as an error in the original article on Slashdot was the way some of the reader's misunderstood it.
If we're lucky, the long-distance issue will be handled much like the reciprocal "currency" that line-providers charge each other for use of each other's lines. They never exchange cash, but they exchange tabs. Sort of like carpooling: You drive me to work Monday in your car, so I do the driving, in my car the next day.
Regardless of what the FCC or any of these articles say, you aren't out of the woods yet. If the phone companies go after your ISP, you can bet your ISP will go after you. It's just a matter of when and how much.
Sure, if you don't mind giving up your privacy to email, having your email address given to spammers, and having your Internet usage and selections tracked and profiled.
I pay more than $50 for my telephone and $20 for my ISP. The last thing I need is an additional charge for my per/minute Internet access. I telecommute and average 16 hours of connect time per day, seven days per week, every week of the year. Even a small charge would add up for me.
This is something we don't need. Unless, of course, we want to limit information and access to free speech to only those above a certain income level. Honestly, I already pay for my phone. How many times do they need to charge me for the same service?
From what everyone has told me about the movie, it sounds more like a slightly embellished documentary than a fictional comedy.
In a high-tech company where each person has been moved from cube to cube, and the team from area to area, and building to building (a half dozen times in the last 18 months), the title "Office Space" says it all.
It seems that the few cubic feet that our cubicles take up are far more worthwhile than we, the employees who inhabit them. Then again, in a company with approximately 10,000 employees, how can you be more than a number?
The site brings out warm-fuzzies from my youth. I remember not only reading thousands of those text files (had a whole massive collection of the CDC stuff back-when), but I ran a really popular BBS in the NorthWest in the late 80's and early 90's that had every text document I could possibly gather together- It was almost exactly like this new site, except of course, it was running on Major BBS (after moving up from Remote Access).
There used to be a BBS for those 18 and over in Portland called Enigma. They decided to close-up shop though after some punk-ass kid got onto the board, downloaded instructions on how to compose a bomb, and then FAXed the instructions to his father-- at work!
Needless to say, they called the FBI, and the site was apparently in hot-water for distributing such information.
And that brings me back to the days of Banished CPU... All those wonderful memories. It used to be nice when only computer-geeks were online. Now every moron with 500 bucks has a computer and treats it like a damned Nintendo.
It would be wonderful to see a cross between something like the Electronic Freedom Foundation and Slashdot to combat things like this.
A group of college students studying law or donated legal expertise from elsewhere, combined with the proving boycotting/petitioning strength of Slashdot'ers could be a beautiful thing.
I would envision a small group of people elected to review requests for assistance in defending a domain name, and if it appears that an injustice is indeed occuring, then it would be passed on to the legal-team and Slashdot readers to make an organized effort on behalf of the domain owner to retain his purchased name.
Totally non-profit. Totally non-government. Just a group of people with weight to throw-around to counter the mafia-types who try to lean on the little guy.
We Come From Ear-... er.. um.... uh... hmm....
on
Battle over earth.com
·
· Score: 1
Come now... If you have the balls to copyright 'Earth' in the early 1980's, it ought to be balanced with the wisdom to spend under $100 to register the domain.
Time after time, people who have just stumbled onto this whole "internet thing" fail to understand that this medium is more than just another chance for commercial exploitation. This used to be an intellectual medium encourage the sharing of thoughts. Now it simply encourages buying. Reminds me of the Europeans coming over to America and treating it as their own 'undiscovered' property, without regard to the fact that there was already an established civilization there long before-hand.
Now those of us who were here to enjoy the earlier days of the 'net (and thus to appreciate it) are being shoved out of the way so those who truly deserve to exploit every possible medium (businesses) take over.
I wonder whatever happened to good, honest business? I'm all for a capitalistic society, but let's try to temper it with good judgement instead of trying to patent and own everything.
Just out of curiosity, I decided to try and count everything within arm's reach of me that had a logo, trademark, or other stamp of ownership:
Not counting hardware, I have 47 items with a logo or advertisement. The only item within reach that escapes some type of claim or advertising is a blank piece of paper with a URL written on it.
Now, I'm off to patent birth as a concept and practice, the alphabet, and clapping.
IBM came up with this at least a year ago.
on
100gig HDs Coming
·
· Score: 1
Of course, none of that matters because Microsoft will soon seek to patent Life, The Universe, and Everything... Not to mention the 'idea' of storing stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
The Yogic Flying school is another shot at making a buck off the transendental rubes prone to flights-of-fancy.
If folding your legs and hopping around a wrestling-mat like a decapitated goat is flying, then a wet-dream makes me John Holmes.
A better place to fisit would be the James Randi Institute. He offers more than a million dollars to anyone who can prove what they claim.
---
seumas.com
Could you not draw plasma from a Jedi and inject it into, say, a Wookie? And if The Force is tangible, could you not synthetically reproduce it as modern scientists are capable of doing with the human-growth hormone?
Theoretically, The Empire could use their funding to easily replicate the biological properties needed for the Jedi ability and produce a massive army of enhanced troops.
---
seumas.com
Much of The Force seems to be a power culminating in and directed by the mind. Any connection between a high concentration of any type of cell and a supernatural mental ability seems small and possibly negligent.
The high-concentration of 'Jedi-Cells' may explain how a Jedi is able to manipulate his power to effect the physical world around him, but it does not address where the power itself truly originates from. An example (though perhaps not the most illustriative) is that you may have strong and powerful legs, but that does not make you an effective full-back, sprinter, or basket-ball player. If you are a basket-ball player though, those strong-legs will be very useful.
It's difficult to imagine how a bunch of plasma-cells can enable one to defy gravity on a whim and sense events far away. It also does not explain the appearence of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin in ghostly silhouttes in the last installments of the trilogy. Seemingly supernatural events.
In essence, the entire explanation lacks credability because it explains how the power can be directed from the body to the world, but does nothing to explain how the power itself manifests and why. And to completely avoid any correlation to the mind and it's incredibly un-tapped potential serves only to relegate The Force to the same importance and awe of any element in the Periodic Table.
Star Wars would have kept it's thrilling grasp without the explanation and nobody would ever have questioned its lack. Like Jar-Jar Binks, this was another example of why keeping a script as trim and uncluttered as possible is essential to exceptional writing.
Why use a thousand pages to convey what you can in five and why accomplish with ten characters what you can accomplish in four?
---
seumas.com
The problem is that most semi-hard-core Star Wars fans are fairly intelligent. In fact, I would not hesitate to suggest they are above average intelligence. We want to see the dry-wit of Harrison Ford or the humor of the befuddled C3PO and his anal personality.
We do not want to see Steve Urkel. We don't want to see Jerry Lewis. Slap-Stick is a cheap and thoughtless form of humor which belongs in cheap and light films (Ace Ventura, Austin Powers, etc.). When you make slap-stick a large part of a movie such as Star Wars, you are insulting your true fan-base for the sake of marketing a few million extra action figures and Happy Meals.
Star Wars fans do not find stepping in 'doo-doo' funny. It's a low-blow to the viewer and leaves you with this strange idea of super-imposing Bob Saget's (Funniest Home Videos) face and voice over Jar-Jar.
Not only did Lucas insult many of his fans with the sheer idiocy of Jar-Jar Binks, but he prevented the character from displaying any worth to the plot. A writer knows that characters who are not integral to the plot, or the procession of the plot should be written-out. Binks was left in and any investment you might make in the character through the film is not returned. By the end of the film, the only accomplishment Jar-Jar manages is to survive.
So what could have been changed, other than writing him out completely? If he had simply had a moment of bravery in the final moments of the film, his character would have been redeeming. But his character was as flat and undeveloped at the end as he was in the beginning.
Some people suggest that Jar-Jar's worth will be realized in the second installment, but that doesn't excuse the utter lack of progression in Episode I. And it certainly doesn't explain some 230 scenes (of the 2000) in the film.
All I can say is that meesa think Jar-Jar Binks was the biggest waste of cpu cycles in the history of man.
---
seumas.com
"Aye! Enough of this pansy-arse flash-light fighten' -- let's you and me go toss us some cabers!"
---
seumas.com
Adam Sandler
Drew Carey
Jeff Foxworthy
"If you can crush a mans neck, simply by looking at him -- you might be a Jedi!"
==Television Pilots==
And perhaps we can begin to see Star Wars explore some more pressing issues with the central characters being so young.
In the vein of 90210, Anakin could knock Queen Amidala up while they're both underage and deal with a pending abortion, adoption, or birth. Amidala will be forced to relinquish control of Naboo to become a stay-at-home mom. And, in typical male fashion (according to Hollywood), Anakin will dump her for Brittany -- the local slut.
In the style of Blossom and Party of Five, we could have Anakin explore his new-found bi-sexual desires with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Meanwhile, Jar-Jar Binks finds himself seduced by the porn-world, producing Naboo's most impressive blue-market videos.Queen Amidala, having become an unemployed, single, teenage mother, will resort to prostitution and fight fruitlessly to fight off her rabid drug-habit. Of course, never able to kick the habit, she is knocked up again when Anakin returns while on the rebound and talks a drunken Amidala into a little nookie (for old-times sake, of course). Nine months later, she gives birth to a crack-baby named Luke. Not wanting to own up to his responsibilities again, Anakin applies to the Navy. Unfortunately, despite their don't-ask-don't-tell policy, his carnal desires are exposed and he is booted out of the service, only to join the Empire.
In the flavor of Moesha, we learn about the danger of gangs and peer-pressure as Anakin is jumped into The Empire and exposed to violence and hate.
And in a very touching scene, derived from many episodes of South Central, Anakin picks up his first light-saber. Of course, the weapon's owner had neglected to keep it in a safe place or install a saber-lock.
And in a heart-warming ending to Episode II, Amidala succumbs to a drug-induced coma and sees dancing wookies, in a rather obviousAlley McBeal-esque rip-off.
Yes, I speak blasphemy!
You must admit, though, that many of us would rather see such ideas as those previously mentioned than anything remotely similar to Episode I again.
---
seumas.com
. . . Run! . . .
With any luck, Mace Windu will assist in his training.
"Meesa gonna tear yousa up! Meesa one bad mudda fucka!
---
seumas.com
I did, however, find it disappointing that they had to develop a scientific explanation for The Force. Couldn't The Force simply remain something spiritual? Sure, I'm an agnostic, but I found it more insulting that they had to create a ridiculous explanation based on a cell-count to satisfy this techno-saturated culture of ours than I would have if they had attributed The Force to Christianity and Jesus!
Star Wars lost some of it's wonder as a result, and The Force may as well be The Farce.
---
seumas.com
Unfortunately Lucas certainly has commented that Jar-Jar will appear in at least the next sequel. Unlike many of my friends who have seen Episode I two dozen times, I found my ass sore and waiting for the movie to end before it was even half-way through. I'm not sure I'm even eager to see Episode II if Jar-Jar is in it. And I'm definitely going to be disappointed if DiCaprio is in it.
Besides, don't you want an actor who looks at least ten years-old to play Anakin?
---
seumas.com
We assume ownership of and all rights to material which is linked to from our search engine or database.
Also, a question: Do libraries assume copyright ownership and all intellectual rights to the contents of the books on their shelves? Of course not. There is no reasonable excuse for the need for these insulting clauses popping-up everywhere other than sheer greed and the hope to exploit the material, thoughts, and work of other people without compensation.
Of course, Geocities is, I believe, owned by Microsoft. I'm sure once they were acquired, they quickly learned this lesson of 'take what isn't yours and profit from it'.
I wonder what would happen if you host your site at Yahoo, Geocities, and Tripod? They all assume full ownership of your material. I'd like to see all three fight each other for the right to your content.
---
seumas.com
Anyone out there find it curious that Google.com is 'temporarily down' today, of all days, too?
---
seumas.com
Although it would make one helluva Slashdot article...
That wouldn't be in their best interest. Instead, they collect "connections" from each other. Also, I heard that there was some manner of conflict recently because some of the lesser-known long-distance carriers (the kind that name themselves I Don't Care so that when a person at a pay phone says "I don't care" to the operator, they are charged a ton by the I Dont' Care Phone Company) have been causing trouble with the big-time companies, because all of the traffic is in one direction, and theoretically, the tiny companies could cash-in all of the connections accrued and really stick it to the AT&T's.
While reading through messages in the original article, people seemed to get the idea that people were going to see an additional bill on their monthly phone bill. I know of nobody who has ever suggested that such a method be used (it isn't even feasible.
I should have also mentioned that the new information as of this evening changes things a bit, but I was speaking aside the current revelations.
Although I find it inevitable that those decent and ethical customer-oriented fellows at your local telephone company will come to the conclusion that the best way to handle their business is to charge ISP's for every second they are tying up a phone-line for data transfers, the recent declaration is in regard to reciprocation.
Here's how most inter-state long-distance transactions happen:
John picks up the telephone and makes a long distance call to Mary, who lives across the country. John's telephone company is getting paid by him for the service. So who is paying the company that provides telephone service to Mary?
The answer is: John's telephone company. Calls are tracked between companies, like a bar tab. Only, nobody is ever expected to pay up in cash. They pay each other in 'connections'.
John's telephone company may connect ten million phone calls every year that orignate from the company Mary uses. So Mary's company will reciprocate by allowing an equal amount of connections for John's.
I'm hoping I made sense, there.
In other words, this is all going on in the background. We aren't talking about making each other pay (or ISP's pay)... yet. We're talking about one phone company saying "Hey, look... we connected 100 million calls for your customers, made over the internet. We would like to be compensated for this."
But that doesn't mean that they won't go after ISP's and the 'little-guy' as soon as they can get away with it.
As I read it (and have always expected as a final outcome) was a charge levied against ISP's by the phone companies. In turn, that charge would be passed onto the customers-- via the ISP's service bill.
In other words, the only thing I saw as an error in the original article on Slashdot was the way some of the reader's misunderstood it.
If we're lucky, the long-distance issue will be handled much like the reciprocal "currency" that line-providers charge each other for use of each other's lines. They never exchange cash, but they exchange tabs. Sort of like carpooling: You drive me to work Monday in your car, so I do the driving, in my car the next day.
Regardless of what the FCC or any of these articles say, you aren't out of the woods yet. If the phone companies go after your ISP, you can bet your ISP will go after you. It's just a matter of when and how much.
1) Gather information.
2) Process information (ie. think)
3) React/Speak.
Reference the ZDNET article that I sent to Rob yesterday: Privacy Concerns Over TCI@Home
This is something we don't need. Unless, of course, we want to limit information and access to free speech to only those above a certain income level. Honestly, I already pay for my phone. How many times do they need to charge me for the same service?
In a high-tech company where each person has been moved from cube to cube, and the team from area to area, and building to building (a half dozen times in the last 18 months), the title "Office Space" says it all.
It seems that the few cubic feet that our cubicles take up are far more worthwhile than we, the employees who inhabit them. Then again, in a company with approximately 10,000 employees, how can you be more than a number?
There used to be a BBS for those 18 and over in Portland called Enigma. They decided to close-up shop though after some punk-ass kid got onto the board, downloaded instructions on how to compose a bomb, and then FAXed the instructions to his father-- at work!
Needless to say, they called the FBI, and the site was apparently in hot-water for distributing such information.
And that brings me back to the days of Banished CPU... All those wonderful memories. It used to be nice when only computer-geeks were online. Now every moron with 500 bucks has a computer and treats it like a damned Nintendo.
A group of college students studying law or donated legal expertise from elsewhere, combined with the proving boycotting/petitioning strength of Slashdot'ers could be a beautiful thing.
I would envision a small group of people elected to review requests for assistance in defending a domain name, and if it appears that an injustice is indeed occuring, then it would be passed on to the legal-team and Slashdot readers to make an organized effort on behalf of the domain owner to retain his purchased name.
Totally non-profit. Totally non-government. Just a group of people with weight to throw-around to counter the mafia-types who try to lean on the little guy.
Time after time, people who have just stumbled onto this whole "internet thing" fail to understand that this medium is more than just another chance for commercial exploitation. This used to be an intellectual medium encourage the sharing of thoughts. Now it simply encourages buying. Reminds me of the Europeans coming over to America and treating it as their own 'undiscovered' property, without regard to the fact that there was already an established civilization there long before-hand.
Now those of us who were here to enjoy the earlier days of the 'net (and thus to appreciate it) are being shoved out of the way so those who truly deserve to exploit every possible medium (businesses) take over.
I wonder whatever happened to good, honest business? I'm all for a capitalistic society, but let's try to temper it with good judgement instead of trying to patent and own everything.
Just out of curiosity, I decided to try and count everything within arm's reach of me that had a logo, trademark, or other stamp of ownership:
Not counting hardware, I have 47 items with a logo or advertisement. The only item within reach that escapes some type of claim or advertising is a blank piece of paper with a URL written on it.
Now, I'm off to patent birth as a concept and practice, the alphabet, and clapping.
Of course, backups would be a bitch.