My uncle came to US when he was 35, working as a genitor for an office building. His networth is now in the range of several million dollars. How do you explain that? Maybe by "try" it means working hard, living below your means, and making wise investments (real estate is a good investment, $2000 gaming machine is not). Maybe, but do you want me to start going on about single mothers working 2 jobs just to stay alive, and get deeper in dept? You can always find an exception, but people like your uncle are not the rule.
Even if another terrorist attack occurs, do you think they're going to take these liberties away? No. The government won't. In fact, they can't. Because people like myself speak up and let people like you know what is going on. Because people like myself are armed and watching. And yet, we have the PATRIOT ACT, and the threat of the PATRIOT ACT II, and the DMCA, and the TCA, to name a few.
Now, I love America, but I would appriciate it if people didn't justify that love by repeating FUD taught to them in grade school. There are more reasons to love America than those. For an example of what I mean by FUD, let's look at one of the parent poster's reasons: You can actually become rich and powerful if you try. Nice wish. How many people can be in the richest 1%? Well, one percent. And those people are often (not always, as in Bill Gates, who got his through a notable lack of ethics) kids of those who were powerful before. Look at Bu$h. His grandfather, Prescott Bush made his money laundering Nazi money, then passed that to GHWB, then to GWB. W has made more bad business moves than can be believed, and keeps getting rescued by Daddy Bush's money. So, if by "try", you mean have no problem with cheating, lying, stealing, whatnot, then sure.
On Bush & Ashcroft somehow... hurry up tin-foil hatters figure out a way that this is America's fault. Um... there's a very flawed assumption here: those who oppose Bush/Ashcroft must also oppose America itself, and desire to blame America for all the world's problems. This is patently false. Rather, I hate Bush and Ashcroft because I don't hate America. Now, getting back OnT, I don't see how we, as America have caused it. You might say that I need a tin-foil hat for saying that we could be going the way of China here, but that is not the point.
Doesn't fix everything. They could say, "hey, you! You're literary style is similar to this guy's, so in you go!" That's the thing. They don't need evidence. The point isn't to catch the guy who spoke out, it's to scare those who didn't, but might have. The dissenter is already lost. Who cares about him? You want to keep more from arising.
That was part of the point... prior art has been nearly thrown out as a criteria for a successful patent these days. You know it's bad when someone literally patents a wheel.
Let's take that ball and run with it, shall we? If there is an anti-MS post that gets/.ed, and it is hosted on MS's servers, howlong do you think it would take for MSN to cite the user on violation of terms of service?
Terms of Service ... Section 42: Your rights.
Rights? You don't need no stinkin' rights! By this paragraph, if we don't like something on your site, that's it. Your account is terminated, your copy of Windows DOA is deauthorized, you get reported to Ashcroft as a dissenter, and the men in dark sunglasses pay you a little visit! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Coming up next on your worst nightmare: blogspot, livejournal, movable type, etc. get sued for infringing on M$'s upcoming patent on blogs.
Note that this is a satirical post, so please don't think that I am claiming that M$ is going to patent blogs. I no way of knowing this.
As opposed to if he charged for it, in which he would have just made blood money, and implicitly accepted the use of the technology. In this case, he/she can't say that s/he endorses the use, because they released the technology from their hands. To be sure, it is still disturbing, but not in the same way...
Uh... the 2nd Amendment says that in the need of a well-regulated militia, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Everyone loves to forget that the Amendment does not say the right of the People, but indeed explicitly limits the right to the case of a militia. Read the whole sentence. Oh, and how biased a view are you going to get from keepandbeararms.com?
He was saying, don't let the gov't take my gun because I may need it to protect myself from intruders or even the gov't. Why would you think that anyone would need to protect themselves from the gov't? Could it be because of the threat of tyranny? Let's turn this around, shall we? Couldn't this act be the very sort of thing that you claim he was talking about?
You can quote dead white men all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that in the past two hundred odd years society has changed significantly and a single individual's ability to wreak widespread havoc has been increased million-fold. First thing. 19 people killed 3,000 people. This is 157.89473684210526315789473684211 people killed per killer. If we assume that your statement about a millionfold is correct, then in Franklin's day, the same killer could have killed about 0.00015789 people. That is, no one could be killed unless 6,333 other people worked together. This is obviously wrong. There were murders without mobs of 6,333 people in the past. OK, so there may be an increase, but not as much as it may seem, I would hazard. Furthermore, if we look at the number of deaths relative to the size of the population, it would likely be lower. Indeed, on 9-11, only one in one hundered thousand people living in America died. More died in car crashes, more died from the flu, more died from alcohol than died on 9/11. Yes, 9/11 was a horrible thing, but let's keep perspective, too. For an example of perspective, consider that anywhere from 7784 to 9596 Iraqi civilians were killed by US troops since the War in Iraq started (source). Given this, how do you think that the Iraqi people should react? I leave you with these thoughts.
By that logic, you could say that http, ftp, scp, bt, tftp, e-mail, freenet, and the like are all against DMCA. This, while it may be what {RI|MP}AA want, would certianaly destroy the entirety of what we now know as the Internet.
I'll belive it when you can kill a corporation, imprision a corporation, when a corporation can stand trial for its crimes independant of a representative, when a corporation can exist as a person.
If (when?) the server goes down, will they blame "Linux"? If by "they," you mean Microsoft... maybe they should be forced to run it on GNU/Linux w/Apache and vsftpd (did I spell that right?), and appriciate how well they work. Maybe they ought to just bittorent them...
This is the illogical consequence of a society too taken with "free capitalism" and without grounds in the reality of economic greed: people will do bad things to get money, if it is the most important thing in society. How quickly we forget the lessons of the "Robber Barons."
Clippy: It looks like you are writing a death threat... let me help you with that. Who's your victim?
Me: Clippy.
Clippy: Is this a blackmail?
Me: No.
Clippy: What obsenity do you want to use to refer to your victim?
Me: !#@$%#@%!@#%%
Clippy: Ah. Brittle plucking neice of bit.
Me: No... it's @#%$%#@
Clippy: Ah. Fiddle bucking grease of nit.
Me: No... I said @#$^%@#!!!!1
Clippy: Ah. Kibble ducking lease of grit.
Me kills Clippy without the deaththreat first.
Like Dr Spock saying "computer, where is Captain Kirk now?". What, does Kirk have a RFID under his skin now? Or is there one in that funky badge of his?
...unimportant large file trees...
I'm sure that everyone here agrees that the filetrees relating to Iraq are indeed unimportant. Now, if only everyone would agree as to whether or not they are large...
This gets modded up as Insightful? I mean, the White House is routinely editing their trascripts, and if bots like Google and Wayback can go and find that no, Bush said that we found weapons, not a weapons program, then there goes Bush's latest FUD... *thud*. Just because it's a tinfoil hat worthy theory doesn't mean it isn't true... most aren't, but therein lies the issue: most.
Slashdot Mirror
My uncle came to US when he was 35, working as a genitor for an office building. His networth is now in the range of several million dollars. How do you explain that? Maybe by "try" it means working hard, living below your means, and making wise investments (real estate is a good investment, $2000 gaming machine is not).
Maybe, but do you want me to start going on about single mothers working 2 jobs just to stay alive, and get deeper in dept? You can always find an exception, but people like your uncle are not the rule.
I hated Bush long before I knew there was a /.. Oh, well. So much for that theory.
Even if another terrorist attack occurs, do you think they're going to take these liberties away? No. The government won't. In fact, they can't. Because people like myself speak up and let people like you know what is going on. Because people like myself are armed and watching.
And yet, we have the PATRIOT ACT, and the threat of the PATRIOT ACT II, and the DMCA, and the TCA, to name a few.
Now, I love America, but I would appriciate it if people didn't justify that love by repeating FUD taught to them in grade school. There are more reasons to love America than those. For an example of what I mean by FUD, let's look at one of the parent poster's reasons: You can actually become rich and powerful if you try. Nice wish. How many people can be in the richest 1%? Well, one percent. And those people are often (not always, as in Bill Gates, who got his through a notable lack of ethics) kids of those who were powerful before. Look at Bu$h. His grandfather, Prescott Bush made his money laundering Nazi money, then passed that to GHWB, then to GWB. W has made more bad business moves than can be believed, and keeps getting rescued by Daddy Bush's money. So, if by "try", you mean have no problem with cheating, lying, stealing, whatnot, then sure.
On Bush & Ashcroft somehow... hurry up tin-foil hatters figure out a way that this is America's fault.
Um... there's a very flawed assumption here: those who oppose Bush/Ashcroft must also oppose America itself, and desire to blame America for all the world's problems. This is patently false. Rather, I hate Bush and Ashcroft because I don't hate America. Now, getting back OnT, I don't see how we, as America have caused it. You might say that I need a tin-foil hat for saying that we could be going the way of China here, but that is not the point.
Doesn't fix everything. They could say, "hey, you! You're literary style is similar to this guy's, so in you go!" That's the thing. They don't need evidence. The point isn't to catch the guy who spoke out, it's to scare those who didn't, but might have. The dissenter is already lost. Who cares about him? You want to keep more from arising.
That was part of the point... prior art has been nearly thrown out as a criteria for a successful patent these days. You know it's bad when someone literally patents a wheel.
Let's take that ball and run with it, shall we? If there is an anti-MS post that gets /.ed, and it is hosted on MS's servers, howlong do you think it would take for MSN to cite the user on violation of terms of service?
Coming up next on your worst nightmare: blogspot, livejournal, movable type, etc. get sued for infringing on M$'s upcoming patent on blogs.
Note that this is a satirical post, so please don't think that I am claiming that M$ is going to patent blogs. I no way of knowing this.
As opposed to if he charged for it, in which he would have just made blood money, and implicitly accepted the use of the technology. In this case, he/she can't say that s/he endorses the use, because they released the technology from their hands. To be sure, it is still disturbing, but not in the same way...
Uh... the 2nd Amendment says that in the need of a well-regulated militia, the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Everyone loves to forget that the Amendment does not say the right of the People, but indeed explicitly limits the right to the case of a militia. Read the whole sentence. Oh, and how biased a view are you going to get from keepandbeararms.com?
He was saying, don't let the gov't take my gun because I may need it to protect myself from intruders or even the gov't.
Why would you think that anyone would need to protect themselves from the gov't? Could it be because of the threat of tyranny? Let's turn this around, shall we? Couldn't this act be the very sort of thing that you claim he was talking about?
You can quote dead white men all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that in the past two hundred odd years society has changed significantly and a single individual's ability to wreak widespread havoc has been increased million-fold.
First thing. 19 people killed 3,000 people. This is 157.89473684210526315789473684211 people killed per killer. If we assume that your statement about a millionfold is correct, then in Franklin's day, the same killer could have killed about 0.00015789 people. That is, no one could be killed unless 6,333 other people worked together. This is obviously wrong. There were murders without mobs of 6,333 people in the past. OK, so there may be an increase, but not as much as it may seem, I would hazard. Furthermore, if we look at the number of deaths relative to the size of the population, it would likely be lower. Indeed, on 9-11, only one in one hundered thousand people living in America died. More died in car crashes, more died from the flu, more died from alcohol than died on 9/11. Yes, 9/11 was a horrible thing, but let's keep perspective, too. For an example of perspective, consider that anywhere from 7784 to 9596 Iraqi civilians were killed by US troops since the War in Iraq started (source). Given this, how do you think that the Iraqi people should react? I leave you with these thoughts.
Gezunteit.
By that logic, you could say that http, ftp, scp, bt, tftp, e-mail, freenet, and the like are all against DMCA. This, while it may be what {RI|MP}AA want, would certianaly destroy the entirety of what we now know as the Internet.
I'll belive it when you can kill a corporation, imprision a corporation, when a corporation can stand trial for its crimes independant of a representative, when a corporation can exist as a person.
If (when?) the server goes down, will they blame "Linux"?
If by "they," you mean Microsoft... maybe they should be forced to run it on GNU/Linux w/Apache and vsftpd (did I spell that right?), and appriciate how well they work. Maybe they ought to just bittorent them...
This is the illogical consequence of a society too taken with "free capitalism" and without grounds in the reality of economic greed: people will do bad things to get money, if it is the most important thing in society. How quickly we forget the lessons of the "Robber Barons."
Clippy: It looks like you are writing a death threat... let me help you with that. Who's your victim?
Me: Clippy.
Clippy: Is this a blackmail?
Me: No.
Clippy: What obsenity do you want to use to refer to your victim?
Me: !#@$%#@%!@#%%
Clippy: Ah. Brittle plucking neice of bit.
Me: No... it's @#%$%#@
Clippy: Ah. Fiddle bucking grease of nit.
Me: No... I said @#$^%@#!!!!1
Clippy: Ah. Kibble ducking lease of grit.
Me kills Clippy without the deaththreat first.
See who's colon?
Clippy-san wa shinde kudasai.
Like Dr Spock saying "computer, where is Captain Kirk now?".
What, does Kirk have a RFID under his skin now? Or is there one in that funky badge of his?
...unimportant large file trees...
I'm sure that everyone here agrees that the filetrees relating to Iraq are indeed unimportant. Now, if only everyone would agree as to whether or not they are large...
This gets modded up as Insightful? I mean, the White House is routinely editing their trascripts, and if bots like Google and Wayback can go and find that no, Bush said that we found weapons, not a weapons program, then there goes Bush's latest FUD... *thud*. Just because it's a tinfoil hat worthy theory doesn't mean it isn't true... most aren't, but therein lies the issue: most.
I wonder... do people say "X is going away" because they think it is, or becasue they hope it is?
Like YWindows?