Yes, I'm aware of that. It has no effect on the end result though - a race of idiots with Jamaican(-sounding) accents. And then all the Trade federation bad-guys definitely sounded Japanese to me.
There were plenty of black actors who were willing to play 'Uncle Tom' roles in earlier Hollywood movies that would seem overtly racist today.
But I don't like Star Wars anyway... I was just trying to be funny.
You seem to have become a Troll, but I'm with you. I read it when I was a kid and even then I thought it a bit immature. And a reader should never be able to tell that the author hasn't been getting much lately.
Too much sci-fi is the result of someone having one cool idea for a technological widget and then writing a whole novel just to show-case it to people.
And sometimes they forget the cool idea.
If you're interested, you could try Richard Morgan. He's kind of the opposite. Nothing massively original in the setting, but he can write like Raymond Chandler on speed.
If you don't like the practices of a certain company you don't have to use it.
Actually, this is irrelevant at this stage. If this challenge is supported then GMail will not be able to legally operate in the manner they want whether people are happy with it or not. A contract cannot overide the laws of a nation and the EU has some fairly strong privacy laws.
Anyone who wants to point me to such a study would put my mind at ease.
Can't help you there, mate. Whether or not fingerprints and iris patterns really are unique to an individual, you're still dependent on the software that's been written to compare them. What level of similarity can it handle? What's it's error margin? How much pressure was the engineer from marketing when he was writing it?
Don't worry though, even if the current industry standard system mis-identifies you, you can always appeal years later when a new model comes out. Assuming that it was used in evidence in a trial and you weren't just dissappeared off to Guantanamo.
My position is that it's no big deal either way. But I'm a big fan of rational decision-making because it tends to lead to better decisions.
Well to make a rational decision you require good information so let me pass you a bit more.;)
This program generates an enormous amount of hostility towards the USA. The EU has just passed a resolution opposing giving passenger related information to the USA and this is represntative of the attitude here in Europe. People naturally and wisely resent giving others power over themselves. Especially when those others represent someone else's interests (such as the USA).
I think the hostility this creates is well worth considering as a factor in evaluating this measure.
Personally, I'm much less likely to go the USA again now on principle. There are also lots of luddite types (particularly the older ones) who do not want their eyeballs probed with LASERS!
Finally, consider that this will lead to the same measures against US citizens by countries other than Brazil.
Yes - I agree. I posted it mostly because this piece of dialogue (aledgedly genuine) has been passed around all over the place and I still find it funny. It's the use of 'make love' at the end that makes it so.
However, language foul language is usually the least changeable of all words. Which is interesting. Consider Chaucer's Miller's Tale:
Now, sir, and eft sir, so befell the case,
That on a day this Hendy Nicholas
Fell with this younge wife to rage and play,
While that her husband was at Oseney,
As clerkes be full subtle and full quaint.
And privily he caught her by the queint,
And said; "Y-wis, but if I have my will,
For derne love of thee, leman, I spill."
I'm not having a very good day for staying on topic here, but...
WEBSENSE! How I hated that rubbish. The last company I worked for squandered over 10k on buying it for a small department of computer programmers at the same time as cancelling overtime to save money.
Anyway, not sure why you're having trouble getting round it. We were able to use a simple proxy without problem. You could create your own with this elegant peice of work if you can't find a suitable legal one and don't have a suitable server at home. The URL you want will always be masked by the name of the proxy.
My problem with Websense was not so much that it showed the management didn't trust me (when I was working harder than they were), but that it was stupid! On my lunch break I liked to read a couple of things regularly - chess news / discussions and maths articles. Chess was banned under "online games" even when just reading strategy articles, and for some reason, several Maths sites got blocked as the same!
Sorry - I'll go back to being on-topic from now on... oh hang on - the topic is
porn. Perhaps I'm better off talking about proxies, after all.;)
"So I went to the fucking club and met this fucking girl at the bar, and like she fucking asked me to buy her a drink so I did 'cause she was fucking gorgeous and had a fucking great body... so we fucking danced and then I fucking took her home and we made love!"
--Overheard in a queue for a club in L.A.
Nggghhh... must remain... on... topic...
Seriously - language changes. I just wanted to illustrate that. It's intent that matters, not the particular word.
PG: Allows children to view all the violence without any of that harmful sex or bad language.
Actually, my experience is that American censors are more inlcined to rate films like this, where as Europe is slightly more the other way around which I think is better.
One thing to note on the subject of how things got this way though is to consider the effects of sex and violence. Sex tends to be a liberating thing, and promiscuity rises with social freedom (consider how the sex and political revolutions of the sixties correlated). Violence however, is seldom liberating. In support of this hypothesis, witness that [in the UK at least], violence against police officers is frowned upon more so than violence against members of the public. Recall the outrage against the Grand Theft Auto computer game. Where was the outrage for countless predecessor games where the gamer plays the role of a cop/spy/government agent?
Now this is just my intuition as to how things got this way. Violence isn't necessarily undermining to those who identify with authority. However, People doing what they want is.
Personally, I usually tone down my language around children (I regularly supervise groups of 11-16 yr olds), but it's only the racial (and sometimes sexist) stuff that I crack down on.
we keep extending the BIOS until it's a fully featured OS in it's own right
Not sure if you were aware of this when you said that, but Pheonix has plans to incorporate a browser into their BIOS's. So it looks like that means full internet connectivity built into their BIOS.
Why is this a bad idea to me? Well first is one of principle - they are duplicating the functionality of the OS. This offends every particle of my OO code reusing, database normalising, C++ memory conserving Soul... but it might not bother you.
The manifestations of violating this principle however are clearer. How far can we cut down the functionality for the BIOS version? If we have networking capability, HTTP protocol handling, filesystem handling (neccessary for a browser to download anything for keeps, cache anything, etc.) then hadn't we better include some firewall software in the BIOS. And if our BIOS is this sophisticated then we're going to have to improve on the basic nature of BIOS virus scanners. Where do we draw the line?
So yes - you are right in that you're starting down the road of a full OS in ROM and it looks like that's what they're planning.
Now much as I liked my old Spectrum 16k with it's ROM OS, and much as I liked the way it booted in 0.5 seconds, is it suitable to modern use? No! And the reason is that that ROM could never be upgraded.
Now a modern BIOS can be upgraded, but what we're talking about here is much more than the usual upgrade. Do you really want to be getting Security Updates for your BIOS in the same way you do for your OS?
And there is one other problem with this. And to many on/. it is a very serious one. Do you trust it? When my BIOS is little and just handles the CPU speed etc. I am content. I have Linux on my box and I can see what my computer is doing if I want to. How easy do think it would be to demand open source BIOS though?
It's a whole new uphill struggle, just when you thought we'd got to the top.
Give me a simple BIOS that does the minimum. I'll have the OS do the rest.
Actually, I'm not so sure that I do. There's a whole order of complexity more required once you start incoporating features like this into the BIOS. I don't have a problem with the OS handling all the clever details of my computer. In the case of Linux, it's open source and I can see what it's doing and control it. Were the BIOS duplicating OS functionality then I lose that control / trust.
Also, does this run the risk of linking BIOS's to specific OS's? I have a Pheonix BIOS on my Inspiron 2500 and it seems more geared towards Windows than Linux. For one thing, it has no option to disable the plug and play which causes problems with the Lucent Modem on board. If it wasn't for the Pheonix BIOS I'd have the use of that for backup and travel.
Spoiler! Yeah right - who dares read/. who doesn't know the story?
it, will become another vehicle for T. Cruise.
That's likely to be the biggest problem for me. The emphasis in the original book seemed to be on mankind's helplessness. It was only and only the alien's weakness that saved us all. We could do nothing. It's hard to see Hollywood and Tom Cruise playing this up. No doubt he'll discover their weakness and sneeze on the alien commander in a climactic battle on the mothership.
The colour movie I saw also distorted Welles' original message, if not the facts, by putting them all in a church at the end, praying to God for deliverance. Suddenly the aliens start dying and the clear implication is that God did it really. *wink wink*
As I understand the GPL, it's a license. Software under the GPL does not become public domain as such in that the author retains copyright. What she does is grant the public an irrevocable right to use it.
Because of this, copyright is essential to the GPL. Now if copyright were shortened to even six years for software, would this be a bad thing for OSS? Probably not. After six years, the industry would have moved on and unless your idea was absolutely divinely inspired, would you benefit from branching off an old source tree?
by the way, you have my permission to mayke derivative works of this comment by making your own intelligent response to it.
*L* Sorry but the part I've quoted above is short enough to be 'fair-use.';)
Actually, what you've proposed is already the case in many ways. Art is often commisioned from established artists and publishers often pay an advance to an author so he can complete a book for them. Now that doesn't mean that it isn't hard to break into one of these fields however. Still, for most of this sort of work there isn't such a huge financial outlay to begin with. You can even (with a lot of luck) get a publisher to give you an advance on the strength of a few opening chapters. For the projects that really do require money (very big statues?) there are grants available here in the UK (such as the Lottery Fund), perhaps this is less common in the USA.
Anyway, what I really wanted to say was something else: The most important art is always a break with tradition. If you're applying for a grant or whatever to produce a 'creative work,' then will the person in power
appreciate what you do? Imagine Scott Joplin or Fats Domino going to a classical conductor to ask for funding. Imagine Kurt Cobain then going to Scott Joplin. Imagine The Darkness going to... okay forget the last one, but you get my point?
Often commercial factors are bad for art in general. At least where Big Business is concerned. If the public don't want to pay to see a new band well that's one thing. But if a Major Record label has a lock on Radio
airtime and don't want anyone to compete with their current bands, you've got a problem.
Hmmm, I'm going to mod myself off-topic in a minute so I'll stop. My other posts in this thread are more relevant.;)
You make a couple of assumptions in there that could be challenged. While I agree we have the potential to free ourselves, the current model of society doesn't allow it. Consider that most in society are in the position of employees rather than owners. If they cannot provide a service that an 'Owner' (read self-sufficient
individual or group) is willing to pay for then they cannot support themselves because they have no legal rights to what they need. The rights to what they need belong to a small group and backed up by the governments powers. One example would be the water supply, another government taxes on land, housing, trade. What you are advocating (self-sufficiency) is not possible in this model.
You suggest that the big corps will go out of business due to self-sufficiency. IP and patents are a means for big business to prevent this. Consider that even food is now being patented. Google for some information
on Monsanto's business practices. It isn't pretty.
Now I don't want to distract from my main point, but there is a secondary argument and that is status. It's
perfectly possible for us all to buy good quality, locally produced shoes if we want, but Nike still does great business. Self-sufficiency is not enough for most people. Sadly, most want to emulate those in power.
So while I agree that we have now reached the level where we can support ourselves with reduced effort, our
society is structured around having to work for our daily bread, and work hard. This is becoming an increasingly big problem. Witness all the people who would like to work but just aren't needed. In the UK there are
plenty. You can find jobs here and there, but a good job that lets you achieve a good standard of living is
becoming harder and harder to get. Consider the term 'jobless recovery.'
IMO, what's happening in America is only temporary, and things'll get worse before they get better.
I think you're right that things are going to get better. I hope that they get better without too much upheaval however. My current favourite revolutionary tool is the local currency. Start one in your area and you might just get to see that three day week one day.;)
I think k_head is right in that we are moving beyond geography as the most important way of defining a community. It's willfully stupid to pretend that this isn't still a very important factor however and likely to remain so. Therefore, why can't you both be right. Have a kind of national representative that self-defining people can vote for (say the OSS fanatics can vote for Stallman;) and a local representative (so the East Texans can vote for someone to represent their community). Let people have two votes, one of which must be given to a Local Representative and one to someone standing as a national. After all everyone belongs
to both communities.
The two offices could be indentical once obtained, or there could be codified differences to reflect their different roles. Either way, you get the best of both worlds and also minority parties benefit in a way that represents national feeling.
Of course, however you set things up, you're still going to have to stop using Diebold voting machines if you want the vote to mean anything.;)
In theory, the first two Earthsea novels shouldn't be too hard to film in that the effects are low-key. The magic is rare and easily within the bounds of modern CGI. The first spell I recall is to hide a village in mist. The most dramatic is to turn into a bird (I think). And the sets are mostly mundane - tombs, simple villages. A lot of boats I think, but no flying islands or Harry Potter schools.
But that just means the series will have to find meaning in the development of the characters. Everything they save on SFX will have to go on hiring really really good actors and a director with a lot of subtlety. I've never seen the SciFi channel, but if they put out the same sort of low-brow crap that Hollywood does then it'll be bad. The reason? Hollywood always aims to sell to as many people as possible and U. K. Guinn is really only suitable for those who like to think.
Anyway - why can't they do the Left Hand of Darkness? It's a classic, it's atmospheric, and it's filled with people who keep changing gender;)
I think you need to have some faith that the Judicial branch will see through a charge built on "Guilt by Assocation"
Hopefully that faith is justified and I'm not arguing against it. However, there are two points I'd like to raise:
1. Recent changes proposed in UK law (and I think in the USA also) allow for the possibility of secret trials. Not only that, but the defendant will not neccessarily hear/see all the evidence against him. In such a case, being able to obtain this association evidence (and cherry pick those parts that support the prosecution) could quickly make even the most innocent of people seem guilty.
2.There have been changes to the law in the UK recently, that remove some restrictions on what background information can be revealed to the jury/judge in court. As before, with this sort of information you can quickly blacken anyone's character. Have you ever known someone dodgy? Are you sure?
I guess the message with both of these is that there have been assaults on the judicial system in the UK recently and to remove one check on the governments power just because we have a backup is not necessarily a good idea.
Both of the above relate only to certain charges, but I think looking at the US constitution today, that most US/.s are familiar with the Slippery Slope argument.
This is one reason why I'd like to see anonymus digital cash take off better. Make a payment to a company for a handful of digital cash and go spend it wherever you like.
Of course, when the transition to the real world is made then there are links - if you use it to buy something that is delivered to your address for example. But it makes hiding your tracks easier if you want to. And if you think the government should have the right to snoop on you, remember that it isn't just the government who can do this. Anyone who has mates who have worked for a credit card company will know what I mean - these aren't highly paid and dedicated individuals.
Actually, now that I think about it - this would be a perfect system for porn users. Surely a porn site (or other embarrasing pay-site) would be a major proponent of this?
If anyone here hasn't heard of them, you really should have a listen. Not sure what Slashdot will do to their download link though.
Less on-topic but still relevant - I went through a phase of entering bollocks on forms to see what got through. I recieved regular letters from my ISP for Ms. Penelope Pittstop and got regular junk mail for Hugh G. Rection.
Hopefully the new tennants in my old flat are now getting some of the other names that weren't processed before I left.;)
Yep - there are certainly differences between men and women, no argument there, but I don't interpret sexism as meaning taking account of these differences, I take sexism to mean treating one sex (male or female) more poorly than the other.
Now to me, whether or not this car was designed by women, I think it is sexist. Why? Because the changes made 'for women' seem so extremely patronizing. They've sealed the bonnet because women don't know anything about engines? If Volvo had reshaped the seat to better suit a woman's arse, or made seat-belts that were better suited to a woman's chest, well then that's taking account of a genuine difference. The only thing that approaches that here however is the split for pony tails and be honest - it takes thirty seconds to untie or tie most pony tails. Not to mention that men have pony tails too.
Yes - more men than women know how to maintain a car, but not all, and it's that generalisation that makes it an ism
Of course, people do have different ideas about what sexism is. I think people are touchier about it in the USA than the UK (and in the UK more than in Scandinavia). I went on a date with an american girl once who, when I opened the taxi door for her, slapped me in the stomach for being sexist. She said I shouldn't treat her differently because she was a woman! "So you want me to hit you back," I asked?
Perhaps - but do we really want to see another technology arms race kick off?
I've heard the idea before that the
bonnet should be released by magnets or bolts that respond to an encrypted radio signal. Okay - so now you're downloading the signal from P2P and Ford is trying to prosecute and a Norwegian kid is taken to court for changing his battery?
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I'm aware of that. It has no effect on the end result though - a race of idiots with Jamaican(-sounding) accents. And then all the Trade federation bad-guys definitely sounded Japanese to me.
There were plenty of black actors who were willing to play 'Uncle Tom' roles in earlier Hollywood movies that would seem overtly racist today.
But I don't like Star Wars anyway... I was just trying to be funny.
You seem to have become a Troll, but I'm with you. I read it when I was a kid and even then I thought it a bit immature. And a reader should never be able to tell that the author hasn't been getting much lately.
Too much sci-fi is the result of someone having one cool idea for a technological widget and then writing a whole novel just to show-case it to people.
And sometimes they forget the cool idea.
If you're interested, you could try Richard Morgan. He's kind of the opposite. Nothing massively original in the setting, but he can write like Raymond Chandler on speed.
How in hell's name was Jar-Jar offensive!?
Well if I was Jamaican I'd probably want to kill George Lucas for sticking that accent on him.
Why the Hell did I go and see that film? Does anyone remember 'Acting?'
If you don't like the practices of a certain company you don't have to use it.
Actually, this is irrelevant at this stage. If this challenge is supported then GMail will not be able to legally operate in the manner they want whether people are happy with it or not. A contract cannot overide the laws of a nation and the EU has some fairly strong privacy laws.
Anyone who wants to point me to such a study would put my mind at ease.
;)
Can't help you there, mate. Whether or not fingerprints and iris patterns really are unique to an individual, you're still dependent on the software that's been written to compare them. What level of similarity can it handle? What's it's error margin? How much pressure was the engineer from marketing when he was writing it?
Don't worry though, even if the current industry standard system mis-identifies you, you can always appeal years later when a new model comes out. Assuming that it was used in evidence in a trial and you weren't just dissappeared off to Guantanamo.
Hope that set your mind at rest.
My position is that it's no big deal either way. But I'm a big fan of rational decision-making because it tends to lead to better decisions.
;)
Well to make a rational decision you require good information so let me pass you a bit more.
This program generates an enormous amount of hostility towards the USA. The EU has just passed a resolution opposing giving passenger related information to the USA and this is represntative of the attitude here in Europe. People naturally and wisely resent giving others power over themselves. Especially when those others represent someone else's interests (such as the USA).
I think the hostility this creates is well worth considering as a factor in evaluating this measure.
Personally, I'm much less likely to go the USA again now on principle. There are also lots of luddite types (particularly the older ones) who do not want their eyeballs probed with LASERS!
Finally, consider that this will lead to the same measures against US citizens by countries other than Brazil.
Yes - I agree. I posted it mostly because this piece of dialogue (aledgedly genuine) has been passed around all over the place and I still find it funny. It's the use of 'make love' at the end that makes it so.
However, language foul language is usually the least changeable of all words. Which is interesting. Consider Chaucer's Miller's Tale:
Now, sir, and eft sir, so befell the case,
That on a day this Hendy Nicholas
Fell with this younge wife to rage and play,
While that her husband was at Oseney,
As clerkes be full subtle and full quaint.
And privily he caught her by the queint,
And said; "Y-wis, but if I have my will,
For derne love of thee, leman, I spill."
I'm not having a very good day for staying on topic here, but...
WEBSENSE! How I hated that rubbish. The last company I worked for squandered over 10k on buying it for a small department of computer programmers at the same time as cancelling overtime to save money.
Anyway, not sure why you're having trouble getting round it. We were able to use a simple proxy without problem. You could create your own with this elegant peice of work if you can't find a suitable legal one and don't have a suitable server at home. The URL you want will always be masked by the name of the proxy.
My problem with Websense was not so much that it showed the management didn't trust me (when I was working harder than they were), but that it was stupid! On my lunch break I liked to read a couple of things regularly - chess news / discussions and maths articles. Chess was banned under "online games" even when just reading strategy articles, and for some reason, several Maths sites got blocked as the same!
Sorry - I'll go back to being on-topic from now on... oh hang on - the topic is porn. Perhaps I'm better off talking about proxies, after all.
"So I went to the fucking club and met this fucking girl at the bar, and like she fucking asked me to buy her a drink so I did 'cause she was fucking gorgeous and had a fucking great body... so we fucking danced and then I fucking took her home and we made love!"
--Overheard in a queue for a club in L.A.
Nggghhh... must remain... on... topic...
Seriously - language changes. I just wanted to illustrate that. It's intent that matters, not the particular word.
I heard a wonderful quote:
PG: Allows children to view all the violence without any of that harmful sex or bad language.
Actually, my experience is that American censors are more inlcined to rate films like this, where as Europe is slightly more the other way around which I think is better.
One thing to note on the subject of how things got this way though is to consider the effects of sex and violence. Sex tends to be a liberating thing, and promiscuity rises with social freedom (consider how the sex and political revolutions of the sixties correlated). Violence however, is seldom liberating. In support of this hypothesis, witness that [in the UK at least], violence against police officers is frowned upon more so than violence against members of the public. Recall the outrage against the Grand Theft Auto computer game. Where was the outrage for countless predecessor games where the gamer plays the role of a cop/spy/government agent?
Now this is just my intuition as to how things got this way. Violence isn't necessarily undermining to those who identify with authority. However, People doing what they want is.
Personally, I usually tone down my language around children (I regularly supervise groups of 11-16 yr olds), but it's only the racial (and sometimes sexist) stuff that I crack down on.
we keep extending the BIOS until it's a fully featured OS in it's own right
Not sure if you were aware of this when you said that, but Pheonix has plans to incorporate a browser into their BIOS's. So it looks like that means full internet connectivity built into their BIOS.
Why is this a bad idea to me? Well first is one of principle - they are duplicating the functionality of the OS. This offends every particle of my OO code reusing, database normalising, C++ memory conserving Soul... but it might not bother you.
The manifestations of violating this principle however are clearer. How far can we cut down the functionality for the BIOS version? If we have networking capability, HTTP protocol handling, filesystem handling (neccessary for a browser to download anything for keeps, cache anything, etc.) then hadn't we better include some firewall software in the BIOS. And if our BIOS is this sophisticated then we're going to have to improve on the basic nature of BIOS virus scanners. Where do we draw the line?
So yes - you are right in that you're starting down the road of a full OS in ROM and it looks like that's what they're planning.
Now much as I liked my old Spectrum 16k with it's ROM OS, and much as I liked the way it booted in 0.5 seconds, is it suitable to modern use? No! And the reason is that that ROM could never be upgraded.
Now a modern BIOS can be upgraded, but what we're talking about here is much more than the usual upgrade. Do you really want to be getting Security Updates for your BIOS in the same way you do for your OS?
And there is one other problem with this. And to many on
It's a whole new uphill struggle, just when you thought we'd got to the top.
Give me a simple BIOS that does the minimum. I'll have the OS do the rest.
We all want a ton of features
Actually, I'm not so sure that I do. There's a whole order of complexity more required once you start incoporating features like this into the BIOS. I don't have a problem with the OS handling all the clever details of my computer. In the case of Linux, it's open source and I can see what it's doing and control it. Were the BIOS duplicating OS functionality then I lose that control / trust.
Also, does this run the risk of linking BIOS's to specific OS's? I have a Pheonix BIOS on my Inspiron 2500 and it seems more geared towards Windows than Linux. For one thing, it has no option to disable the plug and play which causes problems with the Lucent Modem on board. If it wasn't for the Pheonix BIOS I'd have the use of that for backup and travel.
Spoiler! Yeah right - who dares read
it, will become another vehicle for T. Cruise.
That's likely to be the biggest problem for me. The emphasis in the original book seemed to be on mankind's helplessness. It was only and only the alien's weakness that saved us all. We could do nothing. It's hard to see Hollywood and Tom Cruise playing this up. No doubt he'll discover their weakness and sneeze on the alien commander in a climactic battle on the mothership.
The colour movie I saw also distorted Welles' original message, if not the facts, by putting them all in a church at the end, praying to God for deliverance. Suddenly the aliens start dying and the clear implication is that God did it really. *wink wink*
Bleh! I dread this!
As I understand the GPL, it's a license. Software under the GPL does not become public domain as such in that the author retains copyright. What she does is grant the public an irrevocable right to use it.
Because of this, copyright is essential to the GPL. Now if copyright were shortened to even six years for software, would this be a bad thing for OSS? Probably not. After six years, the industry would have moved on and unless your idea was absolutely divinely inspired, would you benefit from branching off an old source tree?
Probably not.
by the way, you have my permission to mayke derivative works of this comment by making your own intelligent response to it.
;)
... okay forget the last one, but you get my point?
;)
*L* Sorry but the part I've quoted above is short enough to be 'fair-use.'
Actually, what you've proposed is already the case in many ways. Art is often commisioned from established artists and publishers often pay an advance to an author so he can complete a book for them. Now that doesn't mean that it isn't hard to break into one of these fields however. Still, for most of this sort of work there isn't such a huge financial outlay to begin with. You can even (with a lot of luck) get a publisher to give you an advance on the strength of a few opening chapters. For the projects that really do require money (very big statues?) there are grants available here in the UK (such as the Lottery Fund), perhaps this is less common in the USA.
Anyway, what I really wanted to say was something else: The most important art is always a break with tradition. If you're applying for a grant or whatever to produce a 'creative work,' then will the person in power appreciate what you do? Imagine Scott Joplin or Fats Domino going to a classical conductor to ask for funding. Imagine Kurt Cobain then going to Scott Joplin. Imagine The Darkness going to
Often commercial factors are bad for art in general. At least where Big Business is concerned. If the public don't want to pay to see a new band well that's one thing. But if a Major Record label has a lock on Radio airtime and don't want anyone to compete with their current bands, you've got a problem.
Hmmm, I'm going to mod myself off-topic in a minute so I'll stop. My other posts in this thread are more relevant.
*Ack* Wish I had some mod points, mate.
You make a couple of assumptions in there that could be challenged. While I agree we have the potential to free ourselves, the current model of society doesn't allow it. Consider that most in society are in the position of employees rather than owners. If they cannot provide a service that an 'Owner' (read self-sufficient individual or group) is willing to pay for then they cannot support themselves because they have no legal rights to what they need. The rights to what they need belong to a small group and backed up by the governments powers. One example would be the water supply, another government taxes on land, housing, trade. What you are advocating (self-sufficiency) is not possible in this model.
You suggest that the big corps will go out of business due to self-sufficiency. IP and patents are a means for big business to prevent this. Consider that even food is now being patented. Google for some information on Monsanto's business practices. It isn't pretty.
Now I don't want to distract from my main point, but there is a secondary argument and that is status. It's perfectly possible for us all to buy good quality, locally produced shoes if we want, but Nike still does great business. Self-sufficiency is not enough for most people. Sadly, most want to emulate those in power.
So while I agree that we have now reached the level where we can support ourselves with reduced effort, our society is structured around having to work for our daily bread, and work hard. This is becoming an increasingly big problem. Witness all the people who would like to work but just aren't needed. In the UK there are plenty. You can find jobs here and there, but a good job that lets you achieve a good standard of living is becoming harder and harder to get. Consider the term 'jobless recovery.'
IMO, what's happening in America is only temporary, and things'll get worse before they get better.
I think you're right that things are going to get better. I hope that they get better without too much upheaval however. My current favourite revolutionary tool is the local currency. Start one in your area and you might just get to see that three day week one day.
Power to the People, eh?
IANAA (American).
I think k_head is right in that we are moving beyond geography as the most important way of defining a community. It's willfully stupid to pretend that this isn't still a very important factor however and likely to remain so. Therefore, why can't you both be right. Have a kind of national representative that self-defining people can vote for (say the OSS fanatics can vote for Stallman
The two offices could be indentical once obtained, or there could be codified differences to reflect their different roles. Either way, you get the best of both worlds and also minority parties benefit in a way that represents national feeling.
Of course, however you set things up, you're still going to have to stop using Diebold voting machines if you want the vote to mean anything.
In theory, the first two Earthsea novels shouldn't be too hard to film in that the effects are low-key. The magic is rare and easily within the bounds of modern CGI. The first spell I recall is to hide a village in mist. The most dramatic is to turn into a bird (I think). And the sets are mostly mundane - tombs, simple villages. A lot of boats I think, but no flying islands or Harry Potter schools.
But that just means the series will have to find meaning in the development of the characters. Everything they save on SFX will have to go on hiring really really good actors and a director with a lot of subtlety. I've never seen the SciFi channel, but if they put out the same sort of low-brow crap that Hollywood does then it'll be bad. The reason? Hollywood always aims to sell to as many people as possible and U. K. Guinn is really only suitable for those who like to think.
Anyway - why can't they do the Left Hand of Darkness? It's a classic, it's atmospheric, and it's filled with people who keep changing gender
Well, perhaps it isn't so practical. Then again, how practical were the early room-sized computers?
Try and see it as a prototype and be very very scared. After all, the one in this link is armed with heat sensors and an automatic pistol.
It can be controlled via the internet! Isn't this what every scipt kiddie dreams about?
I think you need to have some faith that the Judicial branch will see through a charge built on "Guilt by Assocation"
/.s are familiar with the Slippery Slope argument.
Hopefully that faith is justified and I'm not arguing against it. However, there are two points I'd like to raise:
1. Recent changes proposed in UK law (and I think in the USA also) allow for the possibility of secret trials. Not only that, but the defendant will not neccessarily hear/see all the evidence against him. In such a case, being able to obtain this association evidence (and cherry pick those parts that support the prosecution) could quickly make even the most innocent of people seem guilty.
2.There have been changes to the law in the UK recently, that remove some restrictions on what background information can be revealed to the jury/judge in court. As before, with this sort of information you can quickly blacken anyone's character. Have you ever known someone dodgy? Are you sure?
I guess the message with both of these is that there have been assaults on the judicial system in the UK recently and to remove one check on the governments power just because we have a backup is not necessarily a good idea.
Both of the above relate only to certain charges, but I think looking at the US constitution today, that most US
This is one reason why I'd like to see anonymus digital cash take off better. Make a payment to a company for a handful of digital cash and go spend it wherever you like.
Of course, when the transition to the real world is made then there are links - if you use it to buy something that is delivered to your address for example. But it makes hiding your tracks easier if you want to. And if you think the government should have the right to snoop on you, remember that it isn't just the government who can do this. Anyone who has mates who have worked for a credit card company will know what I mean - these aren't highly paid and dedicated individuals.
Actually, now that I think about it - this would be a perfect system for porn users. Surely a porn site (or other embarrasing pay-site) would be a major proponent of this?
"Lie about your income, your age, gender and Race,
;)
Spell your name incorrectly, so it's harder to trace."
That is the philosophy behind Three Dead Troll's fantastic Privacy Song
If anyone here hasn't heard of them, you really should have a listen. Not sure what Slashdot will do to their download link though.
Less on-topic but still relevant - I went through a phase of entering bollocks on forms to see what got through. I recieved regular letters from my ISP for Ms. Penelope Pittstop and got regular junk mail for Hugh G. Rection.
Hopefully the new tennants in my old flat are now getting some of the other names that weren't processed before I left.
Yep - there are certainly differences between men and women, no argument there, but I don't interpret sexism as meaning taking account of these differences, I take sexism to mean treating one sex (male or female) more poorly than the other.
Now to me, whether or not this car was designed by women, I think it is sexist. Why? Because the changes made 'for women' seem so extremely patronizing. They've sealed the bonnet because women don't know anything about engines? If Volvo had reshaped the seat to better suit a woman's arse, or made seat-belts that were better suited to a woman's chest, well then that's taking account of a genuine difference. The only thing that approaches that here however is the split for pony tails and be honest - it takes thirty seconds to untie or tie most pony tails. Not to mention that men have pony tails too.
Yes - more men than women know how to maintain a car, but not all, and it's that generalisation that makes it an ism
Of course, people do have different ideas about what sexism is. I think people are touchier about it in the USA than the UK (and in the UK more than in Scandinavia). I went on a date with an american girl once who, when I opened the taxi door for her, slapped me in the stomach for being sexist. She said I shouldn't treat her differently because she was a woman! "So you want me to hit you back," I asked?
She didn't laugh.
Perhaps - but do we really want to see another technology arms race kick off?
I've heard the idea before that the bonnet should be released by magnets or bolts that respond to an encrypted radio signal. Okay - so now you're downloading the signal from P2P and Ford is trying to prosecute and a Norwegian kid is taken to court for changing his battery?
Have we been here before?