....which is why users are being forced to endure DRM nowadays....
If the disaffection with DRM gets widepread and big enough, someone will always see an opportunity to make systems and content that allow them to earn some good money by making these DRM free. Even now there are good places where one can get pretty nice music in standard DRM free formats. Even if laws are passed against DRM free systems and materials, they will still be available to those who truly want such. The Internet is global and only a dictatorial, absolute power world government could ever hope to control it to the point of preventing anyone who really wants to get what they want when they want it from the net. The DMCA of the USA doesn't prevent anyone from downloading the tools from outside the US to decrypt and backup their purchased DVD movies for example.
The failed war on drugs and failed prohibition have shown that if a large number of people want something enough, there is no way to keep it from them. Keep old, DRM free computers and software around, for they may become very valuable some day. Users of the future may have a TC DRM enabled computer for certain needed things and another TC DRM free machine of other purposes no longer allowed by the powers that be. The content creators not only want to make copyright permanent, but also want to be able to control who uses what when and where and how often. When people realize these kinds of restrictions, many will opt to buy unrestricted content, providing these creators with a good source of income.
I am reasonably certain that if the music from the iTunes music store were not encumbered by DRM, the number of downloads from there would not be significantly less than the 500+ million done so far. As it is, that DRM satisfies the content companies and is fairly benign for most users and relatively easy to swallow because the whole experience is so good and convenient..
.... I can do any damn thing I please with it, as long as it's not restricted by law.....
You basically can. Those EULA's are not contracts nor law. Most reasonable EULA's recognize this. You can install a copy of XP on your super-computer, as long as you erase it from your old not-so-super computer first. There is nothing that MS and all their lawyers can or would do to prevent you from doing that. In the case of XP however, MS may not give you a new activation code however.
Of course when (if) this trusted computing becomes common place or required by law, copyright effectively NEVER expires. Furthermore, all of the records of our society will effectively disappear without a trace for historians to research even only a hundred years from today. There is no digital equivalent of the Sumerian clay tablets or even the dead sea scrolls. Even if the information were inscribed on a durable medium, it'll be all encrypted and the keys most likely will not be there nor the methods for applying those keys to the data. Our history basically for better or worse will be lost to the generations yet to come.
There is another element to a contract. That is unabiguously identifying who the parties or a contract are. This is why, for important contracts we have offical witnesses, called a notary, attesting to the true identity of the parties to a contract. For most contracts a signature is sufficient identification. If the ID cannot be proved in each specific case, then that contract is not valid since it is unknown who the parties to the contract are. Furthermore in most jurisdictions there are conditions as to who is qualified to enter into contracts. Any "contract" with a ten year old would likely not be enforceable. Since clicking a mouse does not establish WHO did the clicking it must be assumed that the owner of the computer did. If the owner denies that, then how can a court establish whether he is lying unless there is a witness. Unless large sums of money are involve it quickly becomes impractical to ferret out the truth. Of course when (if) the trusted computing thing becomes commonplace, along with biological ID determination, EULA's will become enforable.
....but the Constituion is not involved there at all....
I guess you don't know the American Constitution. The electoral college system is ordained therein. The Constitution does neither prescribe nor forbid any kind of political party system, so multiple parties are theoretically possible. However, the makeup of Congress by mutiple parties by itself would not make the US government like a parliamentary model. Both the electoral college and the way the US Senate are elected, prevents a tyranny of the majority in the highly populated parts of the nation against the large areas of the sparsely populated areas. Many of the state constitutions mirror this for the same reasons.
....The essence of freedom is about allowing people to do something you don't personally agree with.....
I don't personally agree with murder, robbery, kidnaping, rape etc, so in your perverted picture of "freedom" it ought to be perfectly OK for anyone to do these and any other crimes as well!.....The Christian faith (who's political wing is the Republican party) for some reason believe that sex is bad......
That is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. Christians do not believe that sex is bad any more than they believe fire is bad. Fire in its proper place has long been useful to humanity, but when out of control and out of place is a dangerous and often deadly thing. Sex too, when done within the confines that God placed it in is a beautiful thing. Sex outside of those limits is like a fire out of control.
The A in "EULA" stands for "agreement" Since it can never be proved WHO clicked a mouse in the so called "agreement" it cannot be legally binding. An agreement always has to be able to prove who of two or more parties agreed to what. Normally this is done by means of signatures. In important agreements there is a thing called a "Notary", an offically regognized witness as to the identity of those entering into a legally enforceable agreement.
....only different on the two certificates would be a word or two....
The problem is that many advocates of same sex couples want to be MARRIED and are not satisfied with some kind of state issued paper labeled "Civil Union" or some such giving them equal legal standing. Their point is that their union is the SAME in all respects as the joining of a man and a woman and want it labeled the same. They want to legitimize something that in my opinion is unnatural biologically and socially.
....Both do good things, and both do bad things....
So who is the final authority of what is good or bad, right or wrong? You? The President? The Congress? The majority of voters?
It used to be in the US and in western cultures, that the moral precepts of the Judeo-Christian teachings were the generally accepted moral standard. This standard was thought of as an absolute thing originating with God. Human rights, according to the Declaration of Independence are "from the Creator" not from any human source. It used to be that what was moral and legal were more or less in agreement and that justice whas not tied to how much money someone has.
Why is it that these days most of us are willing to accept the laws of nature which were formulated by God, the lawgiver, as absolute conditions imposed onto our existence, but are increasingly subscribing to the idea that morality is any less absolute and equally external to our wishes and control? Just as breaking the absolute laws of physics has consequences, so also there are consequences to breaking the absolute laws of moralty. The creator of us all made both and we are increasingly seeing the consequences of the flouting of His laws as summed up in the Ten Commandments. One of these, is the subject of this thread "Thou shalt not steal". Appropriating someone else's work without payment is theft, pure and simple.
It seems that computer software makers are the only major business that are NOT obligated by law to be responsible for a defective and dangerous consumer product. They have managed to get everybody, including the government, to accept defective merchandise without undue complaining and massive lawsuits. If a car or appliance has a safety defect, the maker is obligated to take care of that, no matter how the consumer aquired the product. An operating system that allows a user's vital information to be easily stolen by hackers and crooks in distant places, is in my opinion a hazard akin to a defective tire or brakes on a car or defective insulation on a washer, subjecting a consumer to possible electrocution. Although a financial loss is not equivalent to the possible loss of life, it is a very real loss caused by shoddy workmanship on the part of the software maker. I think that they are very much obligated, at least morally, to support their crapware, no matter who has it or how that person obtained it. They ought to be held responsible legally as well.
The entire background and culture of the USA is very much different than Europe in general and Germany in particular. The Germans had emerged from centuries of feudal servdom and a upper and lower class system. The masses were used to doing what the noble ruling class dictated. The nobility system is expressly forbidden in the constitution and therefore a heredity based ruling class has never developed. The conditions of Germany was worse than the depression era US, but mainly because the American psyche has never had the subservient inclination of the Germans, the strong leadership and programs of FDR never degenerated to a Hitler style dictatorship.
Of course, the future generation of Americans, having gotten used to being sold all sorts of goods and services by the media, may buy the political goods proffered by media. In the last election though, even in spite of the best efforts of the liberal media, a majority of voters, still thinking for themselves, rejected the media blitz and voted for the candidates the media were largely against.
.....what's dumb is that they believe that they can threaten people with lawsuits to keep them quiet.....
So what else is new? You don't like the message? Revert to the age old tactic -- kill the messenger -- or in this case sue him! I suspect that even if they sue, they'll really get nowhere. The cat is out of the bag and I surely hope that nobody is ever deterred by the threat from someone with an army of lawyers when it comes to doing what is right -- namely telling the truth. If the truth is hidden, then the issues never gets taken care of, usually because of the expense to solve a problem.
.....As a way to protect the population from rioting, etc. the government will wage a war of control and domination in order to minimize the effects of civil unrest......
The primary purpose of any government is to keep individuals or groups from violating the rights to life and property of other individuals and groups. Any government that fails to do so is no longer fulfilling its function to protect the rights of those governed. As the declaration of independence correctly states, these rights are inalienable, given by the Creator, not by the grace of any other individual, group or government. Therefore, if some segment of the population decides to riot, thereby violating the rights of others, the charter of the government is to stop the riot. After that, the people as a whole, at least still here in the USA, may express their displeasure at the ballot box.
....defend themselves against a goverment that had spun out of control....
The military is still composed of PEOPLE, ordinary Americans who would have to be somehow be persuaded to use that awesome weaponry against their fellow citizens. If a significant number of the military pople were NOT persuaded that it was good to kill their fellow Americans, any people in Government would that would like to exterminate a sizeable number of Americans for whatever reasons would preciptate a civil war. Americans are not the obedient kind of lemmings that the Germans were under Hitler.
I thought that the X-box needs to be opened and modified in some way in order for it to run Linux and its software. Many people, other than most/.ers are afraid to even look at the innards of an electronic device. X-boxes are nice game machines though. Anyone who is serious about games ought to get a console, rather than spending a pile of money on a high performance general purpose computer just to play games.
It would still depend on what application you want the Linux for. If you already have a keyboard,mouse and monitor you can use, a Mac Mini would make a great server under Linux, running a small office. It can be tucked away in a corner and just do its thing without a lot of noise, fuss and bother, using only a small amount of electricity. However, most people will buy Mac because its OSX is unquestionably the best desktop OS presently available.
....but for the same price point I (personally) could build a superior powered PC....
So if I sent you all the bits and pieces, you would assemble and test them all and install Windows on the system, all of course for free? I think that even at minimum wages you'd barely if at all come out ahead financially. This would be especially true if it all had to fit into a box the size and quietness of a Mac Mini. Now if I asked you to build me a top of the line PC with the best components available, you might be able to equal the perfomance of a top of the line G5 and still make a few dollars, although I am not at all sure about that.
...so when finder crashes for the 50th time people...
The only time the finder on my Macs acts up is if there are hardware problems with storage or network. Even then, force quitting the finder and restarting it is trivial and only takes a second or two. MS word and other programs sometimes die without warning. Save your work often and restart the offending program. One thing I have never had is a system crash other than sleep issues with external drives connected.
.... or even have to install the OS yourself, you've just put cut out a VAST majority of the market....
Most people stick with the OS that came with the box they took home from the store. In the case of the Mac that will be OSX. I don't see that installing Windows on an Intel processor Mac will be any harder than installing Windows on a PPC G5 is today. Buy Virtual PC and with a few mouse clicks be running Windows. In fact, with VPC you'll be running Windows much sooner than when you install it on a normal x86 box today. The present emulation makes Windows and its programs run slower than on an x86 box, but that will no longer be the case on an x86 based Mac. Installing Windows on a Mac is no big deal even now, and that will only get better. With VPC on the Mac, there is no need to bother with Windows network hassles or printer problems. If the Mac networks and prints, so will Windows.
....How many people do you think would like to run Windows or Linux on a cool looking mac?....
Anybody will be able to run Windows or Linux on a cool looking Mac. Nobody will be able to run OSX on a crappy looking Dell or other white box piece of mostly unreliable junk. Apple makes the entire system, hardware and software, thereby eliminating for themselves and their users countless driver headaches and other compatibility problems.
....I very much like being able to do things which not everybody knows I'm doing,....
If everybody knew what you are doing and anybody did not use that information to your detriment, it wouldn't really matter if all your deep dark secrets are known. It is because there ARE some who will use information to their own advantage at the expense of others, that makes privacy a neccessity. In a world where everybody observed the "Golden Rule", privacy would not be needed. In such a world, only those who were up to no good need privacy.
....noting that most people don't run their CPUs to 100% load 24/7...
Apple takes advantage of that fact by relating CPU load and temperature to fan speed. When the load is light (most of the time), the fans run so slowly as to be virtually inaudible. However, even when processing audio or video, the sound level still is not up to what my x-86 boxes produces all the time it is on. Good, careful attention to details such as noise costs a little more, but is worth it in our increasingly noisy world. Last winter, when we had a power failure because of the snow, it was amazing how quiet the house suddenly became.
....to drive to the local shopping mall in their 4 mpg SUV....
Actualy, the stated goal of these "boziods" is to save ELECTRICITY, not oil consumed by SUV's. To the extent electricity is generated from oil, the will be some small savings. Instead of always messing with the clocks, why not make DST permanent everywhere all year?. Start the schools one hour later if there is worry about kids being in the dark. I wonder if that thought has even occurred to any of these "bozoids"
...that sometimes violence is necessary to stop oppression....
IF a society still has truly free elections, then the ballot box is a better way to stop oppression. There are many who hate our incumbent president, but millions of people, a majority, voted to put him in office. In 2008 there will be another opportunity to select someone, who most likely will also be hated for various reasons by many, but got elected by the majority.
One of the purposes of a constitution is to limit the power of the majority to oppress groups or individuals. Basic human rights however do not come from the graciousness of any government or any other human source, but from our Creator, as the declaration of independence states: "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". Freedom is a gift of God that can only be taken away, but never given by humans.
A Mac can wake up due to a network request. This is default behavior. To make sure it DOESN'T, turn that off in the energy saver 'options' by un-checking that selection. That has fixed the spontaneous wake-up problem for me.
Slashdot Mirror
....which is why users are being forced to endure DRM nowadays....
If the disaffection with DRM gets widepread and big enough, someone will always see an opportunity to make systems and content that allow them to earn some good money by making these DRM free. Even now there are good places where one can get pretty nice music in standard DRM free formats. Even if laws are passed against DRM free systems and materials, they will still be available to those who truly want such. The Internet is global and only a dictatorial, absolute power world government could ever hope to control it to the point of preventing anyone who really wants to get what they want when they want it from the net. The DMCA of the USA doesn't prevent anyone from downloading the tools from outside the US to decrypt and backup their purchased DVD movies for example.
The failed war on drugs and failed prohibition have shown that if a large number of people want something enough, there is no way to keep it from them. Keep old, DRM free computers and software around, for they may become very valuable some day. Users of the future may have a TC DRM enabled computer for certain needed things and another TC DRM free machine of other purposes no longer allowed by the powers that be. The content creators not only want to make copyright permanent, but also want to be able to control who uses what when and where and how often. When people realize these kinds of restrictions, many will opt to buy unrestricted content, providing these creators with a good source of income.
I am reasonably certain that if the music from the iTunes music store were not encumbered by DRM, the number of downloads from there would not be significantly less than the 500+ million done so far. As it is, that DRM satisfies the content companies and is fairly benign for most users and relatively easy to swallow because the whole experience is so good and convenient..
.... I can do any damn thing I please with it, as long as it's not restricted by law.....
You basically can. Those EULA's are not contracts nor law. Most reasonable EULA's recognize this. You can install a copy of XP on your super-computer, as long as you erase it from your old not-so-super computer first. There is nothing that MS and all their lawyers can or would do to prevent you from doing that. In the case of XP however, MS may not give you a new activation code however.
...until the copyright expires...
Of course when (if) this trusted computing becomes common place or required by law, copyright effectively NEVER expires. Furthermore, all of the records of our society will effectively disappear without a trace for historians to research even only a hundred years from today. There is no digital equivalent of the Sumerian clay tablets or even the dead sea scrolls. Even if the information were inscribed on a durable medium, it'll be all encrypted and the keys most likely will not be there nor the methods for applying those keys to the data. Our history basically for better or worse will be lost to the generations yet to come.
...True or not, they are enforceable....
There is another element to a contract. That is unabiguously identifying who the parties or a contract are. This is why, for important contracts we have offical witnesses, called a notary, attesting to the true identity of the parties to a contract. For most contracts a signature is sufficient identification. If the ID cannot be proved in each specific case, then that contract is not valid since it is unknown who the parties to the contract are. Furthermore in most jurisdictions there are conditions as to who is qualified to enter into contracts. Any "contract" with a ten year old would likely not be enforceable. Since clicking a mouse does not establish WHO did the clicking it must be assumed that the owner of the computer did. If the owner denies that, then how can a court establish whether he is lying unless there is a witness. Unless large sums of money are involve it quickly becomes impractical to ferret out the truth. Of course when (if) the trusted computing thing becomes commonplace, along with biological ID determination, EULA's will become enforable.
....but the Constituion is not involved there at all....
I guess you don't know the American Constitution. The electoral college system is ordained therein. The Constitution does neither prescribe nor forbid any kind of political party system, so multiple parties are theoretically possible. However, the makeup of Congress by mutiple parties by itself would not make the US government like a parliamentary model. Both the electoral college and the way the US Senate are elected, prevents a tyranny of the majority in the highly populated parts of the nation against the large areas of the sparsely populated areas. Many of the state constitutions mirror this for the same reasons.
....The essence of freedom is about allowing people to do something you don't personally agree with.....
.....The Christian faith (who's political wing is the Republican party) for some reason believe that sex is bad......
I don't personally agree with murder, robbery, kidnaping, rape etc, so in your perverted picture of "freedom" it ought to be perfectly OK for anyone to do these and any other crimes as well!
That is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. Christians do not believe that sex is bad any more than they believe fire is bad. Fire in its proper place has long been useful to humanity, but when out of control and out of place is a dangerous and often deadly thing. Sex too, when done within the confines that God placed it in is a beautiful thing. Sex outside of those limits is like a fire out of control.
...Are you sure it's legally binding?...
The A in "EULA" stands for "agreement" Since it can never be proved WHO clicked a mouse in the so called "agreement" it cannot be legally binding. An agreement always has to be able to prove who of two or more parties agreed to what. Normally this is done by means of signatures. In important agreements there is a thing called a "Notary", an offically regognized witness as to the identity of those entering into a legally enforceable agreement.
....only different on the two certificates would be a word or two....
The problem is that many advocates of same sex couples want to be MARRIED and are not satisfied with some kind of state issued paper labeled "Civil Union" or some such giving them equal legal standing. Their point is that their union is the SAME in all respects as the joining of a man and a woman and want it labeled the same. They want to legitimize something that in my opinion is unnatural biologically and socially.
....Both do good things, and both do bad things....
So who is the final authority of what is good or bad, right or wrong? You? The President? The Congress? The majority of voters?
It used to be in the US and in western cultures, that the moral precepts of the Judeo-Christian teachings were the generally accepted moral standard. This standard was thought of as an absolute thing originating with God. Human rights, according to the Declaration of Independence are "from the Creator" not from any human source. It used to be that what was moral and legal were more or less in agreement and that justice whas not tied to how much money someone has.
Why is it that these days most of us are willing to accept the laws of nature which were formulated by God, the lawgiver, as absolute conditions imposed onto our existence, but are increasingly subscribing to the idea that morality is any less absolute and equally external to our wishes and control? Just as breaking the absolute laws of physics has consequences, so also there are consequences to breaking the absolute laws of moralty. The creator of us all made both and we are increasingly seeing the consequences of the flouting of His laws as summed up in the Ten Commandments. One of these, is the subject of this thread "Thou shalt not steal". Appropriating someone else's work without payment is theft, pure and simple.
....but they are really not obligated to....
It seems that computer software makers are the only major business that are NOT obligated by law to be responsible for a defective and dangerous consumer product. They have managed to get everybody, including the government, to accept defective merchandise without undue complaining and massive lawsuits. If a car or appliance has a safety defect, the maker is obligated to take care of that, no matter how the consumer aquired the product. An operating system that allows a user's vital information to be easily stolen by hackers and crooks in distant places, is in my opinion a hazard akin to a defective tire or brakes on a car or defective insulation on a washer, subjecting a consumer to possible electrocution. Although a financial loss is not equivalent to the possible loss of life, it is a very real loss caused by shoddy workmanship on the part of the software maker. I think that they are very much obligated, at least morally, to support their crapware, no matter who has it or how that person obtained it. They ought to be held responsible legally as well.
...Don't be too sure of that....
The entire background and culture of the USA is very much different than Europe in general and Germany in particular. The Germans had emerged from centuries of feudal servdom and a upper and lower class system. The masses were used to doing what the noble ruling class dictated. The nobility system is expressly forbidden in the constitution and therefore a heredity based ruling class has never developed. The conditions of Germany was worse than the depression era US, but mainly because the American psyche has never had the subservient inclination of the Germans, the strong leadership and programs of FDR never degenerated to a Hitler style dictatorship.
Of course, the future generation of Americans, having gotten used to being sold all sorts of goods and services by the media, may buy the political goods proffered by media. In the last election though, even in spite of the best efforts of the liberal media, a majority of voters, still thinking for themselves, rejected the media blitz and voted for the candidates the media were largely against.
.....what's dumb is that they believe that they can threaten people with lawsuits to keep them quiet.....
So what else is new? You don't like the message? Revert to the age old tactic -- kill the messenger -- or in this case sue him! I suspect that even if they sue, they'll really get nowhere. The cat is out of the bag and I surely hope that nobody is ever deterred by the threat from someone with an army of lawyers when it comes to doing what is right -- namely telling the truth. If the truth is hidden, then the issues never gets taken care of, usually because of the expense to solve a problem.
.....As a way to protect the population from rioting, etc. the government will wage a war of control and domination in order to minimize the effects of civil unrest. .....
The primary purpose of any government is to keep individuals or groups from violating the rights to life and property of other individuals and groups. Any government that fails to do so is no longer fulfilling its function to protect the rights of those governed. As the declaration of independence correctly states, these rights are inalienable, given by the Creator, not by the grace of any other individual, group or government. Therefore, if some segment of the population decides to riot, thereby violating the rights of others, the charter of the government is to stop the riot. After that, the people as a whole, at least still here in the USA, may express their displeasure at the ballot box.
....defend themselves against a goverment that had spun out of control....
The military is still composed of PEOPLE, ordinary Americans who would have to be somehow be persuaded to use that awesome weaponry against their fellow citizens. If a significant number of the military pople were NOT persuaded that it was good to kill their fellow Americans, any people in Government would that would like to exterminate a sizeable number of Americans for whatever reasons would preciptate a civil war. Americans are not the obedient kind of lemmings that the Germans were under Hitler.
....running an Xbox that way....
/.ers are afraid to even look at the innards of an electronic device. X-boxes are nice game machines though. Anyone who is serious about games ought to get a console, rather than spending a pile of money on a high performance general purpose computer just to play games.
I thought that the X-box needs to be opened and modified in some way in order for it to run Linux and its software. Many people, other than most
.....If you just want to run Linux....
It would still depend on what application you want the Linux for. If you already have a keyboard,mouse and monitor you can use, a Mac Mini would make a great server under Linux, running a small office. It can be tucked away in a corner and just do its thing without a lot of noise, fuss and bother, using only a small amount of electricity. However, most people will buy Mac because its OSX is unquestionably the best desktop OS presently available.
....but for the same price point I (personally) could build a superior powered PC....
So if I sent you all the bits and pieces, you would assemble and test them all and install Windows on the system, all of course for free? I think that even at minimum wages you'd barely if at all come out ahead financially. This would be especially true if it all had to fit into a box the size and quietness of a Mac Mini. Now if I asked you to build me a top of the line PC with the best components available, you might be able to equal the perfomance of a top of the line G5 and still make a few dollars, although I am not at all sure about that.
...so when finder crashes for the 50th time people...
The only time the finder on my Macs acts up is if there are hardware problems with storage or network. Even then, force quitting the finder and restarting it is trivial and only takes a second or two. MS word and other programs sometimes die without warning. Save your work often and restart the offending program. One thing I have never had is a system crash other than sleep issues with external drives connected.
.... or even have to install the OS yourself, you've just put cut out a VAST majority of the market....
Most people stick with the OS that came with the box they took home from the store. In the case of the Mac that will be OSX. I don't see that installing Windows on an Intel processor Mac will be any harder than installing Windows on a PPC G5 is today. Buy Virtual PC and with a few mouse clicks be running Windows. In fact, with VPC you'll be running Windows much sooner than when you install it on a normal x86 box today. The present emulation makes Windows and its programs run slower than on an x86 box, but that will no longer be the case on an x86 based Mac. Installing Windows on a Mac is no big deal even now, and that will only get better. With VPC on the Mac, there is no need to bother with Windows network hassles or printer problems. If the Mac networks and prints, so will Windows.
....How many people do you think would like to run Windows or Linux on a cool looking mac? ....
Anybody will be able to run Windows or Linux on a cool looking Mac. Nobody will be able to run OSX on a crappy looking Dell or other white box piece of mostly unreliable junk. Apple makes the entire system, hardware and software, thereby eliminating for themselves and their users countless driver headaches and other compatibility problems.
....I very much like being able to do things which not everybody knows I'm doing,....
If everybody knew what you are doing and anybody did not use that information to your detriment, it wouldn't really matter if all your deep dark secrets are known. It is because there ARE some who will use information to their own advantage at the expense of others, that makes privacy a neccessity. In a world where everybody observed the "Golden Rule", privacy would not be needed. In such a world, only those who were up to no good need privacy.
....noting that most people don't run their CPUs to 100% load 24/7...
Apple takes advantage of that fact by relating CPU load and temperature to fan speed. When the load is light (most of the time), the fans run so slowly as to be virtually inaudible. However, even when processing audio or video, the sound level still is not up to what my x-86 boxes produces all the time it is on. Good, careful attention to details such as noise costs a little more, but is worth it in our increasingly noisy world. Last winter, when we had a power failure because of the snow, it was amazing how quiet the house suddenly became.
....to drive to the local shopping mall in their 4 mpg SUV....
Actualy, the stated goal of these "boziods" is to save ELECTRICITY, not oil consumed by SUV's. To the extent electricity is generated from oil, the will be some small savings. Instead of always messing with the clocks, why not make DST permanent everywhere all year?. Start the schools one hour later if there is worry about kids being in the dark. I wonder if that thought has even occurred to any of these "bozoids"
...that sometimes violence is necessary to stop oppression....
IF a society still has truly free elections, then the ballot box is a better way to stop oppression. There are many who hate our incumbent president, but millions of people, a majority, voted to put him in office. In 2008 there will be another opportunity to select someone, who most likely will also be hated for various reasons by many, but got elected by the majority.
One of the purposes of a constitution is to limit the power of the majority to oppress groups or individuals. Basic human rights however do not come from the graciousness of any government or any other human source, but from our Creator, as the declaration of independence states: "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". Freedom is a gift of God that can only be taken away, but never given by humans.
.... it spontaneously wakes from sleep....
A Mac can wake up due to a network request. This is default behavior. To make sure it DOESN'T, turn that off in the energy saver 'options' by un-checking that selection. That has fixed the spontaneous wake-up problem for me.