Much as I would love to take Windows 98 off my machine and replace it with Slackware7, I don't have a real use for Linux. Practically all I do is play games, and with the state of Linix drivers for any graphics card, it's just not worth it. It is, however, good that Dell is breaking away from the Wintel, the only thing is it won't directly affect my life for now. When driver support improves, however...
Ok, I concede to all three of you. This was not really a hacker, but rather someone who wises he was. I have personally heard him claim he runs Netscape 5, because Communicator 5 sucks. Also, he is pretty much clueless about the difference between a Celeron and Pentium III. However, I called him a hacker because he does program and works at an ISP and generally tries. I withdraw the term and replace it with "wanna-be hacker."
Is it just me, or has this obsession over Superbowl ads gotten to the point of insanity? I know one hacker who watched just the ads, and read C++ For Dummies during the actual game broadcast. I mean, they're just ads, they're there to be viewed in order to "pay" for the actual content broadcast, and smart people ignore them anyway because effectively all are mind-numbing and misleading. Shouldn't the focus be on actual content, not ads?
I've been bugged by these metaphors about the DeCSS people stealing keys, so I came up with a far more accurate one of my own.
The DVD decoder is your own private theater, which is far enough away that you have to drive to it. The DVD is a device in the car which sends a signal to the theater to start playing the movie as you drive up to the theater. Now, the DVD-CCA only lets Fords use this device. However, some rich IPO guy wants to drive his nice new Lambo to the theater, and moves the device from his Ford to his Lambo. Thus, he is not stealing anything at all, just using a different means to view something he already owns.
Speech is speaking. Talking/yelling is a form of speaking. Therefor, crying "Fire" in a crowded movie theater is a form of speech. Threatening someone verbally involves speaking, and therefor is a form of speech. Detonating a nuclear device on the White House lawn does not necessarily involve speech, and therefor could be restricted. (However, it would probably be accompanied by some sort of speech, along the lines of "DIE SPAWN OF SATAN! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!" or somesuch.
Much fun as this sounds like, one must consider the other implications. What if someone got into a heated game of Unreal Tourney and the response gave him a heart attack? And with this technology, it must only be a matter of time until complete immersiveness is available, with all of its potential for beneficence and malevolence. As this sort of technology becomes avaiable, we must ask ourselves whether this is a wise path to tread. Regardless, I doubt any researcher will stop based on these potential fear, and the government forcibly bringing it to a stop would be, to say the least, detrimental.
There are many implications of this no one has mentioned yet. Imagine if Bill Gates underwent this, and could keep giving us copies of Windows well through 3000.
On the other hand, this could prove a godsend, at least for those who can afford it, who are watching their bodies collapse around them while their mind still works, like AIDS patients or people crippled with arthritis or blindness. For these people, this could be a wheelchair far more powerful than they could ahve hoped for.
Returning to the subject of immortality, as long as the pain/pleasure centers can also be tranferred, I would undergo this in an instant if the other choice was a crippled life. In fact, I probably would even if we couldn't transfer those, but I wouldn't be as happy about it.
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Re:Wood isn't retro ...and... Eye of the beholder.
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Retro Palm Pilot Case
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Sorry to add another pointless post, but I hate the New Beetle as much as AOL and iMacs.
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Re:Wood isn't retro ...and... Eye of the beholder.
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Retro Palm Pilot Case
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This is undeniably good news. However, representative of hackers vs. corps as it was, the issue in and of itself was minor. The DeCSS conflict, for example, is much more important. If etoy got destroyed, it would be a symbolic tragedy, but if DeCSS is destroyed, far more people will be inconvienienced. If DeCSS results in a victory for us, it will be a much more public and important victory. If this victory can be recreated in that arena, it will be much more meaningful. That said, this is extremely good news, just when things were getting worse.
In a shocking press release, Cray has announced a rosewood makeover for their entire line of supercomputers. "They didn't look refined enough," one of Cray's representatives said. "We learned that out customers would be happier if we made the servers look more like furniture than a water heater. Market research indicated that customers wanted sophistication, not power." Representatives from Dell could not be reached for comment.
You know, I often wonder about this obsession with retro looks. The new Thunderbird is ugly, and doesn't at all look like it's worth as much as Ford plans on charging. Likewise, the Palm is supposed to be modern, sleek, and high-tech. Rosewood rather destroys this appeal.
It never ceases to amaze me how sensitive people are to certain things in certain configurations, but not in others. True, Darth Vader wears black, and is evil. This is attacked as promoting racism. However, the stormtroopers are in white, and on his side. No one complains that this is causing anti-white sentiments. Negativity about a minority is not necessarily bad, just as negativity about whites is not necessarily bad. The issue is whether it's appropriate and true or whether its prejudice and hate.
As a 17-year-old, I take offense at that. Some kids are immature, but some are more responsible than many adults I know. If I was handed a gun, I would put it in a safe place. I can drive, and i wouldn't use a blowtorch irresponsibly. Don't judge all teenagers to be inferior to adults based on what you see in the media.
There are not fights several times a week and a few murders a year in each school. Those statistics are for larger areas. There is about 1 fight a year in my school and never a murder.
Ehm, I hate to disappoint you, but a 700MHz PIII will get spanked by a 700MHz Athlon, and the 700MHz Athlon is available now, the PIII isn't. Also, the Celery is the best price/performance deal out there, you seem to have mixed up the roles of the companies, that or you haven't taken a look at the benchmarks in a few months... And do we keep having to point out that KRYOTECH has the fastest and most expensive PC? Step back and take a long ahrd look at Intel and AMD before you rush out to buy a PIII-700, especially since we're due for a 750MHZ Athlon by then. Intel is no longer the clear leader in x86 processing.
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PB==Phoenix BIOS
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Apologies.
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Sorry if I double posted. :(
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The DVD decoder is your own private theater, which is far enough away that you have to drive to it. The DVD is a device in the car which sends a signal to the theater to start playing the movie as you drive up to the theater. Now, the DVD-CCA only lets Fords use this device. However, some rich IPO guy wants to drive his nice new Lambo to the theater, and moves the device from his Ford to his Lambo. Thus, he is not stealing anything at all, just using a different means to view something he already owns.
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On the other hand, this could prove a godsend, at least for those who can afford it, who are watching their bodies collapse around them while their mind still works, like AIDS patients or people crippled with arthritis or blindness. For these people, this could be a wheelchair far more powerful than they could ahve hoped for.
Returning to the subject of immortality, as long as the pain/pleasure centers can also be tranferred, I would undergo this in an instant if the other choice was a crippled life. In fact, I probably would even if we couldn't transfer those, but I wouldn't be as happy about it.
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