In the eternal struggle between hardware engineers trying to make everything faster, and software engineers trying to make everything slower, the hardware engineers have struck yet another grave blow.
Fortunately, I'm hard at work on a new O(n^2) sort algorithm:
1) Completely randomize list.
2) In order traversal looking for out-of-order entries. If one is found return to step 1.
It's no slower than bubble sort, but it eliminates those pesky "best cases".
I'm also planning an operating system that uses an XML-based executable format, and "network RAM" protocol that uses XSLT to access memory paged over an HTTP connection.
Admittedly, it's a big project. We are going to need lots of volunteers if we want to get there before Longhorn.
Prosecuted? PROSECUTED?? Who said anything about being prosecuted??
News flash: copyright infringement is not a crime, it's a tort! Copyright infringers aren't criminals, they are liable parties. There is a HUGE difference. Calling a copyright infringer a "criminal" would amount to slander. There is no crime.
The question here is how long this country will allow the RIAA to have more power to enforce copyrights than the police have to enforce criminal statutes. As it is, a murderer has greater rights to due process than Brianna had. That's the problem: the RIAA has bought themselves extra-judicial powers of unprecedented magnitude.
I can go to a library and check out any bestseller whenever I like, and read it without the author getting one red cent from me. It is no different, from the author's and publisher's perspective, from file swapping the text of that book on the internet.
In both cases, the content is experienced by the end user without compensation to the content producer. Instead, some intermediate party pays for the media, and serves the content so that many end users can enjoy it. A noble enterprise.
If file swapping is immoral, then so are public libraries.
You know, that's an interesting point, and one that was made to Benjamin Franklin when he started the first lending library. "Now who is going to pay for books?"
Well, I happen to believe that great-great-great-great-grandpa Ben had the right idea. The benefit to society that the free exchange of ideas must be weighed against the cost to society of some measure of *gasp* copyright infringement. Hence, the doctrine of "fair use".
Wanna know why the loudest defenders of file swapping are civil libertarian groups? Because this really is about civil liberties. We shouldn't have had to wait until a group of billion dollar companies sue a 12 year old girl -- for compensatory damages -- to figure it out.
"Financially disasterous"?? Hardly. Movie theaters don't make revenue from tickets. They make revenue from concessions. And if you are trapped in a movie theater for 10 hours, they will reap a windfall.
That's 2 or 3 meals per person at something like $12 per meal. Almost all profit.
There is no statistical relationship between a poster's knowledge of a subject and the number of times they post about it.
Go google the following:
- reflexology
- 24/96 audio
- chiropractic
- Reliv
- general relativity
Can you imagine basing your daily life on advice of the average Usenet poster? Hoi!
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps SGI should sue IBM in order to get their stock price to go up.
Nah, the best thing you can do is open the CD, try it, and return it as defective (which it clearly is) for a replacement.
Repeat until there is no more defective product in stock.
In the eternal struggle between hardware engineers trying to make everything faster, and software engineers trying to make everything slower, the hardware engineers have struck yet another grave blow.
Fortunately, I'm hard at work on a new O(n^2) sort algorithm:
1) Completely randomize list.
2) In order traversal looking for out-of-order entries. If one is found return to step 1.
It's no slower than bubble sort, but it eliminates those pesky "best cases".
I'm also planning an operating system that uses an XML-based executable format, and "network RAM" protocol that uses XSLT to access memory paged over an HTTP connection.
Admittedly, it's a big project. We are going to need lots of volunteers if we want to get there before Longhorn.
Prosecuted? PROSECUTED?? Who said anything about being prosecuted??
News flash: copyright infringement is not a crime, it's a tort! Copyright infringers aren't criminals, they are liable parties. There is a HUGE difference. Calling a copyright infringer a "criminal" would amount to slander. There is no crime.
The question here is how long this country will allow the RIAA to have more power to enforce copyrights than the police have to enforce criminal statutes. As it is, a murderer has greater rights to due process than Brianna had. That's the problem: the RIAA has bought themselves extra-judicial powers of unprecedented magnitude.
I can go to a library and check out any bestseller whenever I like, and read it without the author getting one red cent from me. It is no different, from the author's and publisher's perspective, from file swapping the text of that book on the internet.
In both cases, the content is experienced by the end user without compensation to the content producer. Instead, some intermediate party pays for the media, and serves the content so that many end users can enjoy it. A noble enterprise.
If file swapping is immoral, then so are public libraries.
You know, that's an interesting point, and one that was made to Benjamin Franklin when he started the first lending library. "Now who is going to pay for books?"
Well, I happen to believe that great-great-great-great-grandpa Ben had the right idea. The benefit to society that the free exchange of ideas must be weighed against the cost to society of some measure of *gasp* copyright infringement. Hence, the doctrine of "fair use".
Wanna know why the loudest defenders of file swapping are civil libertarian groups? Because this really is about civil liberties. We shouldn't have had to wait until a group of billion dollar companies sue a 12 year old girl -- for compensatory damages -- to figure it out.
-- Free Brianna
"Financially disasterous"?? Hardly. Movie theaters don't make revenue from tickets. They make revenue from concessions. And if you are trapped in a movie theater for 10 hours, they will reap a windfall. That's 2 or 3 meals per person at something like $12 per meal. Almost all profit.
There is no statistical relationship between a poster's knowledge of a subject and the number of times they post about it. Go google the following: - reflexology - 24/96 audio - chiropractic - Reliv - general relativity Can you imagine basing your daily life on advice of the average Usenet poster? Hoi!