Everyone has different standards for what they find objectionable. I think that it is appropriate for people to raise their eyebrows at the Kansas AG's decision. There is precedent. James Joyce's "Ulysses" was banned in America for being "obscene" from 1918 to 1933. Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" was pulled from NH schools in 1996 because it too was deemed obscene. Sure, in both cases, someone who knew what he wanted and had the determination to get it could get around these bans. That's not the point.
Also, the Kansas AG IS forcing libraries to not carry certain materials. Personally, I think that state authorities have a fundamental misconception of what a library is supposed to be. It is supposed to be a record and forum of our culture's artistic and historical expression. It should be an all inclusive mirror in which we can look at our collective output of expression. It is still a person's perogative not to borrow a certain book, tape, or CD, and state authorities should not confuse the maintinance of such an archive with active distribution and marketing. I am sure that there are things in every library that state authorites would be loathe to endorse, however, they are not being asked to.
I do agree with you that what the AG is doing isn't technically censorship. It is, however, poor judgement. Most, if not all, of the interdicted CD's have legitimate artistic and cultural merit, even if you don't appreciate it. Adopting an "Animal Farm" approach towards library administration is, I belive, a rather unwise strategy. Nothing is gained by keeping a couple foul CD's out of a library; people who dont want them won't borrow them. However, people who DO want to borrow them are being shortchanged. I think that that is the correct crux of the issue.
The Economist is a great magazine. I really appreciate it's large scope of commentary and investigative journalism, and it's pragmatic articles and authors. Definitely a breath of fresh air.
How dare you do this to the community. I am going to put this on the front page of slashdot.org and gnaa.org. Lets see if you can pay your hosting costs then.
CmdrTaco 6/15/04; 11:32:29 PM
heh.. nice one, CmdrTaco. ok everyone, go browse every page on this dick's domain until he chokes on the hosting bill.
I am wondering what the competition is for an operating system in the arab world. Is windows as big as it is here? Or do people use other operating systems (BSD, OSX, Solaris, Linux) most of the time?
Also, what is the most widely used distro in that part of the world?
you know, this wouldn't be an issue for microsoft if they actually made windows opensource. of course, hell would proboably freeze over first. that's OSS's greatest strength, project integrity is NOT compromised by project transparency. it's time software makers sold services, and not ephemeral products.
OK, I really do not want to start a flame war, BUT, what you are suggestion would pretty much remove incentive for people to play. If they get penalized for ownage, then whats the point of playing? I might sound like an ass for it, but now and again, there is nothing more satisfying than pumping less competent players full of high velocity pixels. Look at it from the other side as well.. if the n00bs never play anyone better than them, how are they ever going to learn to defend and eventually beat those good players? FPS's dont implement communism because it is counterproductive, and ends up stratifying the play levels too much.
The best solution is to practice so that you can kill that player, not to remove the challenge from your scope of gaming so you dont have to deal with it. No pain, no gain, right?
that's kinda depressing, and it is the type of thing that makes kids hate school.
the problem with the attitude that so many teachers have towards kids who are exploring their environs is that it actively discourages exploratory though. school isnt supposed to be only about rote memorization and scoring high on tests, because those arent what make up the sum of a developed intellect. imagination does. i really wish that people who were in charge of these things started to see that.
Microsoft is at another point in its company evolution where it sees a good idea and assimilates it into it's business and product strategy. It is unsuprising, given the fact that the company has in the past profitted from the innovations of others by refining and mass marketing them (i.e. Windows came from observing the innovation of Apple and Xerox's PARC, Internet Explorer came from the observing of Netscape, and the continuing development of PocketPC which came from the observation of Palm.) One can now only hope that they actually implement the philosophy of open source development that has made Linux one of the most robust and flexible operating systems, or whether they simply copy features.... time will tell.
I completely agree that closed source is the wrong way to go for such a public venture as voting, but are there any open source products vying for contracts? i mean, we cant really wait around for govt to say "yes, lets use open source universally" if there are no projects out there for them to use.
If there is one out there, then it needs to be pointed out to the govt buyers.
yeah, but thats a characteristic of ALL fpu's. there isnt much you can do to remedy that, and the problem is prevalent in ALL computers, not just apples', so I dont see how this situation is analogus to the intel fdiv bug.
but on the whole, that IS a fairly good explanation of the problem.
of course. the whole idea is that laws WILL get passed. thats why the senate staffer asked him to write the proposal in the first place.
granted, it is very strict, but it isnt a mandate to use one particular OS or program. And, if you choose to use a program, its only fair that you should be required to patch it so that it isnt capable of inadvertantly infecting many, many more computers.
There should be a minimum standard of security.
However, that said, the blame shouldnt fall on the spreaders so much as Microsoft, which has a history of "release now, patch later" software launches. Mabey there should instead be federal mandate for software companies to at least insure a modicum of security?
HEY! You know how this whole SCO scandal works for them? It works for them because they get thier name mentioned at the top of every article!!! Now, why couldnt the article start with "Red Hat sues SCO" and then go from there? Then, for the headline readers, Red Hat would be the winner!!!
I wonder if a revolution would be needed to bring such a sensible system in to existence? Though it makes good sense, the current bureacracy that runs the power grids and oil companies would simply laugh at any idea that would take power out of thier hands. President Bush (beholden to oil execs, no doubt) still maintains that the power outage was due to an energy shortage, and not a distribution problem. His policy of supply side economics with oil and energy and his relative ignorance of the infrastructure (at least with power grids) and his sway over the lawmaking bodies will surely make any attempt to rectify the situation twisted into an expansion of drilling or more tax brakes for nuclear power stations.
good luck. mabey we should all move to mars and start over.
Slashdot Mirror
damn trolls.
to respond, and risk ridicule if he is a troll, or to hold back, and risk not debunking a moron fundie of his anachronistic worldview?
questions, questions, questions...
Everyone has different standards for what they find objectionable. I think that it is appropriate for people to raise their eyebrows at the Kansas AG's decision. There is precedent. James Joyce's "Ulysses" was banned in America for being "obscene" from 1918 to 1933. Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" was pulled from NH schools in 1996 because it too was deemed obscene. Sure, in both cases, someone who knew what he wanted and had the determination to get it could get around these bans. That's not the point.
Also, the Kansas AG IS forcing libraries to not carry certain materials. Personally, I think that state authorities have a fundamental misconception of what a library is supposed to be. It is supposed to be a record and forum of our culture's artistic and historical expression. It should be an all inclusive mirror in which we can look at our collective output of expression. It is still a person's perogative not to borrow a certain book, tape, or CD, and state authorities should not confuse the maintinance of such an archive with active distribution and marketing. I am sure that there are things in every library that state authorites would be loathe to endorse, however, they are not being asked to.
I do agree with you that what the AG is doing isn't technically censorship. It is, however, poor judgement. Most, if not all, of the interdicted CD's have legitimate artistic and cultural merit, even if you don't appreciate it. Adopting an "Animal Farm" approach towards library administration is, I belive, a rather unwise strategy. Nothing is gained by keeping a couple foul CD's out of a library; people who dont want them won't borrow them. However, people who DO want to borrow them are being shortchanged. I think that that is the correct crux of the issue.
The Economist is a great magazine. I really appreciate it's large scope of commentary and investigative journalism, and it's pragmatic articles and authors. Definitely a breath of fresh air.
its an N-Gage.
why is anyone excited?
its like holding a taco to your ear.
How dare you do this to the community. I am going to put this on the front page of slashdot.org and gnaa.org. Lets see if you can pay your hosting costs then.
CmdrTaco 6/15/04; 11:32:29 PM
heh.. nice one, CmdrTaco. ok everyone, go browse every page on this dick's domain until he chokes on the hosting bill.
I am wondering what the competition is for an operating system in the arab world. Is windows as big as it is here? Or do people use other operating systems (BSD, OSX, Solaris, Linux) most of the time?
Also, what is the most widely used distro in that part of the world?
could you elaborate more?
no no no, it goes like this... "In Soviet Russia, fist votes for YOU!"
In Soviet Russia, kung fu knows you!
cyberzombies. if you dont know what I am talking about, play shadowrun.
It will be interesting to see how Microsoft stock will react. Also, I wonder how this will affect MS's security patching process.
you know, this wouldn't be an issue for microsoft if they actually made windows opensource. of course, hell would proboably freeze over first. that's OSS's greatest strength, project integrity is NOT compromised by project transparency. it's time software makers sold services, and not ephemeral products.
i wonder what redmond's reaction will be?
OK, I really do not want to start a flame war, BUT, what you are suggestion would pretty much remove incentive for people to play. If they get penalized for ownage, then whats the point of playing? I might sound like an ass for it, but now and again, there is nothing more satisfying than pumping less competent players full of high velocity pixels. Look at it from the other side as well.. if the n00bs never play anyone better than them, how are they ever going to learn to defend and eventually beat those good players? FPS's dont implement communism because it is counterproductive, and ends up stratifying the play levels too much.
The best solution is to practice so that you can kill that player, not to remove the challenge from your scope of gaming so you dont have to deal with it. No pain, no gain, right?
that's kinda depressing, and it is the type of thing that makes kids hate school.
the problem with the attitude that so many teachers have towards kids who are exploring their environs is that it actively discourages exploratory though. school isnt supposed to be only about rote memorization and scoring high on tests, because those arent what make up the sum of a developed intellect. imagination does. i really wish that people who were in charge of these things started to see that.
Microsoft is at another point in its company evolution where it sees a good idea and assimilates it into it's business and product strategy. It is unsuprising, given the fact that the company has in the past profitted from the innovations of others by refining and mass marketing them (i.e. Windows came from observing the innovation of Apple and Xerox's PARC, Internet Explorer came from the observing of Netscape, and the continuing development of PocketPC which came from the observation of Palm.) One can now only hope that they actually implement the philosophy of open source development that has made Linux one of the most robust and flexible operating systems, or whether they simply copy features.... time will tell.
thats a php based site hit counter, NOT a voting system.
I completely agree that closed source is the wrong way to go for such a public venture as voting, but are there any open source products vying for contracts? i mean, we cant really wait around for govt to say "yes, lets use open source universally" if there are no projects out there for them to use.
If there is one out there, then it needs to be pointed out to the govt buyers.
yeah, but thats a characteristic of ALL fpu's. there isnt much you can do to remedy that, and the problem is prevalent in ALL computers, not just apples', so I dont see how this situation is analogus to the intel fdiv bug. but on the whole, that IS a fairly good explanation of the problem.
of course. the whole idea is that laws WILL get passed. thats why the senate staffer asked him to write the proposal in the first place.
granted, it is very strict, but it isnt a mandate to use one particular OS or program. And, if you choose to use a program, its only fair that you should be required to patch it so that it isnt capable of inadvertantly infecting many, many more computers.
There should be a minimum standard of security.
However, that said, the blame shouldnt fall on the spreaders so much as Microsoft, which has a history of "release now, patch later" software launches. Mabey there should instead be federal mandate for software companies to at least insure a modicum of security?
HEY! You know how this whole SCO scandal works for them? It works for them because they get thier name mentioned at the top of every article!!! Now, why couldnt the article start with "Red Hat sues SCO" and then go from there? Then, for the headline readers, Red Hat would be the winner!!!
ywah, but with final fantasy x, the complication was in the form of minigames, and didnt add to the story, which was just a big movie anyways.
I wonder if a revolution would be needed to bring such a sensible system in to existence? Though it makes good sense, the current bureacracy that runs the power grids and oil companies would simply laugh at any idea that would take power out of thier hands. President Bush (beholden to oil execs, no doubt) still maintains that the power outage was due to an energy shortage, and not a distribution problem. His policy of supply side economics with oil and energy and his relative ignorance of the infrastructure (at least with power grids) and his sway over the lawmaking bodies will surely make any attempt to rectify the situation twisted into an expansion of drilling or more tax brakes for nuclear power stations.
good luck. mabey we should all move to mars and start over.