Seriously, if you can name any type of privacy that federal
courts will give constitutional protection to, OTHER THAN
ABORTION, please give us the good news.
This "right to privacy" is, in practice, a woman's right
to have an abortion, and nothing more.
Indeed. What happens if OSS becomes a huge success in
government? What happens when the US federal government
comes to depend critically on the Linux kernel, Apache,
GCC/Python/Perl/Ruby, OpenOffice, Mozilla?
The difficulty with politicians is that they mentally
translate the phrase "public property" to "governemnt
property". And the power that Microsoft wields is as
nothing compared to the power of national governments.
In summary - be careful what you wish for, because you
just might get it.
Seeing as we are coming up on April 15, the time of year
when all good Americans are called upon to confess their
income to the government, it seems odd to hear people talk
about "erosion" of privacy.
Just what privacy did you expect to retain, once the details
of your employment, earnings and savings had been laid open
to your federal, state, and (in come cases) local governments?
Yeah, but none of those fellows went before a firing squad.
Which is exactly what they would have done to their
political opponents, had their glorious revolution succeeded.
That's not Blizzard being anti-GLBT, that's a guild
being anti-straight. If Blizzard doesn't want guilds to
discriminate based on sexual orientation, then that policy
should be applied without discrimation.
I suppose if i announced that "Guild Foo is recruiting.
We're not strictly hetero, but we prefer straights!"
you would think that was perfectly OK?
I like the "French Military Victories" joke as much as anyone,
but after a while, you start to wonder whether any Slashdotters
have ever heard of Napeleon Bonaparte. Waterloo is famous, after
all, as one of the very few battles he lost.
Welcome to Marxist-Leninism 101. The "tax shelters" you refer to are undoubtedly tax-free municipal bonds, which are tax free in name only. The tax you pay is in the lower interest that tax-free bonds earn.
In Germany they have followed your recommendations - there are extensive (and until recently) ulimited benefits for the unemployed. What they have found is that if the benefits are generous enough, people have no reason to seek work. The tax burden to support the unemployed drives up the costs for enterprises, fueling further outsourcing and more unemployment, in a self-reinforcing death spiral.
Clearly, there is a delicate balance to be held, between assisting the unfortunate and rewarding the indolent.
Indeed - the 9th CCoA recently overturned federal marijuana laws (in regards to medical marijuana) thru a strict reading of the Commerce clause. Trust the 9th to suddenly (re)discover the concept of enumerated powers at the most politically convenient moment. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to do it again.
Sure - the problem is not that C++ is a ridiculously overfeatured programming language that abounds with subtle gotcha's, it's that most programmers just don't understand it well enough.;->
What's the great new feature? The same critical feature that every recent version of Office has provided - compatibility with the latest version of Office.
Windows Services For Unix 3.5 is now a free download. It includes GNU build tools (gcc etc.) and has pretty good POSIX support. You might give that a try.
It's not up to you anyway. As the years go by, the US electorate will increasingly be dominated by little old ladies. Get ready for lots more laws of the sort that little old ladies approve of.
Slashdot Mirror
This "right to privacy" is, in practice, a woman's right to have an abortion, and nothing more.
When you say "not good for the country", you don't specify what country you are referring to.
The difficulty with politicians is that they mentally translate the phrase "public property" to "governemnt property". And the power that Microsoft wields is as nothing compared to the power of national governments.
In summary - be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Just what privacy did you expect to retain, once the details of your employment, earnings and savings had been laid open to your federal, state, and (in come cases) local governments?
Yeah, but none of those fellows went before a firing squad.
Which is exactly what they would have done to their
political opponents, had their glorious revolution succeeded.
"I have seen the future, and it works", indeed.
but he is being prosecuted by the Government.
Corporations may try to rule the earth,
but governments do rule it.
That's not Blizzard being anti-GLBT, that's a guild being anti-straight. If Blizzard doesn't want guilds to discriminate based on sexual orientation, then that policy should be applied without discrimation.
I suppose if i announced that "Guild Foo is recruiting. We're not strictly hetero, but we prefer straights!" you would think that was perfectly OK?
I like the "French Military Victories" joke as much as anyone, but after a while, you start to wonder whether any Slashdotters have ever heard of Napeleon Bonaparte. Waterloo is famous, after all, as one of the very few battles he lost.
Welcome to Marxist-Leninism 101. The "tax shelters" you refer
to are undoubtedly tax-free municipal bonds, which are tax
free in name only. The tax you pay is in the lower interest
that tax-free bonds earn.
In Germany they have followed your recommendations - there are extensive (and until recently) ulimited benefits for the unemployed. What they have found is that if the benefits are generous enough, people have no reason to seek work. The tax burden to support the unemployed drives up the costs for enterprises, fueling further outsourcing and more unemployment, in a self-reinforcing death spiral. Clearly, there is a delicate balance to be held, between assisting the unfortunate and rewarding the indolent.
Indeed - the 9th CCoA recently overturned federal marijuana laws (in regards to medical marijuana) thru a strict reading of the Commerce clause. Trust the 9th to suddenly (re)discover the concept of enumerated powers at the most politically convenient moment. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to do it again.
Have to to agree - I'm totally underwhelmed by the feel of my G4's keyboard. I'm surprised that more people haven't complained about it.
"big corporations" can be "forced to pay" for free software? How?
Sure - the problem is not that C++ is a ridiculously overfeatured programming language that abounds with subtle gotcha's, it's that most programmers just don't understand it well enough.;->
Novel things do come out occassionally, like Memento, for example. But no one wants a steady diet of that sort of movie.
What's the great new feature? The same critical feature that every recent version of Office has provided - compatibility with the latest version of Office.
Windows Services For Unix 3.5 is now a free download. It includes GNU build tools (gcc etc.) and has pretty good POSIX support. You might give that a try.
It's not up to you anyway. As the years go by, the US electorate will increasingly be dominated by little old ladies. Get ready for lots more laws of the sort that little old ladies approve of.
If like me, you mistakenly upgraded an i686 glibc to the i386 version, you restart with rescue CD. Arrgghhhh!