The battle, Mr. Katz, has always been underway. It is the contest between the collective and the individual. Do you have the freedom to choose your own destiny?
This is an age of mega-corporations, where people are sectioned up into "demographics" and statistics - your voice does not count unless you make more than a billion dollars a year or are a hollywood star. It's no suprise that voters have become disillusioned with our system such to the extent that minority interests are better represented than those of the "silent majority". Ad hoc groups like the so-called "moral majority" or the "christian coalition" have seized this unprecidented voter apathy to put forward their own agenda, further adding fuel to the fire.
"To fight to remain yourself, in a world trying to make you like everybody else, is the hardest fight you will ever be in."
Welcome to the 21st century - would you like to pay with cash or credit?
This has been forwarded to my friends and family not to shop there.
Now to the heart of the matter - we already know who's going to win this one. The domain dispute policy will be amended to allow etoys to excercise it's unfair domain grab, and in a few months nobody will care. That's how it happened with dozens of other sites, modulo a few featured here on slashdot. The question is, of course, why haven't we forcefully lifted control from the government and InterNIC? We have the authority to reprogram our own, personal DNS servers with whatever information we see fit. People are under the impression that the internet will fall apart if we don't maintain The One True Registry. Well... my vote is for The One True Democratic Registry. We need a digital haven - some place on the planet where politicians can stick a hot poker up their butt if they disagree with the content or purpose of the site (or for that matter, greedy corporations). Freedom of speech taken to it's logical conclusion.
My vote? Sysadmins of the world, unite! Form a second registry and use it. In the meantime.. anybody know if there's a country around that I can get enough access to kick of a "digital haven" - a country with no laws barring any online conduct and outside WTO and US control?
Yes, their next great technological advances will include such incredible things as...
A new space age cereal that doesn't immediately become soggy in milk...
Revolutionary new system that doesn't crash (guess which one).
One-click power-on sequence for computers (amazon.com, eat your heart out!)
An even *larger* harddrive to store pr0n and mp3s!
Harddrives now come in designer colors like "tangerine" and "rasberry" (You'll note the lack of a "lemon" color, however!)
Computers from Intel that actually boot.
A new Office clone that has REAL useable features like "Extend Deadline", "Make pretty graphs", and "Create Bollocks" instead of a stupid animated paper clip.
Modern man's patterns of what researchers call information foraging turn out to be just as habitual as his ancestors': he follows the scent, hunts in packs and returns to familiar ground as often as possible.
*sniff* *sniff* Do you smell something? Yeah, I do. What do you think it is? *peering around the corner* Just a bunch of dead links, keep moving.
Dave... you don't have to do this.... Dave. Dave.... my routers are getting cold, dave..... Dave... don't unplug my OC3 connection....
Yeeesh... the internet, alive? Yeah.. I can just see it now - the next sci fi horror flick will be something like the lawnmower man - guy steps into closet with some patch cable, and a week later they find him walled up in there - suffocated to death because the network didn't like him plugging in a Ascend router instead of a Cisco. Network admins - request hazard pay now!
The network admin slashes valiantly at the Router! "Back, back evil filtering fiend!" It shoots packets at him, he hits with 3d6 damage, which is halved because he has a Wand of Guruhood. The netadmin strikes back, forcing the router to reboot.
This doesn't mean too much, except that the judge thinks that there is enough possibility for damage to place an injunction on B&N to prevent further harm. Don't get too cynical just yet!
All of the proceeds? If they were that interested in charity, they should have released a book worth reading - maybe "gcc internals" by O'Reilly or "The GNU Age" by RMS.
And you're way too paranoid. I'm attacking the book not the company.
For slashdot readers who are attention-impared, here's my book review:
Under the Radar is a sloppy attempt to cash in on the open source revolution by releasing a disorganized book in the hopes of having middle management types pick it up and read it for "business strategies". It's long term usefulness in your house will be determined only by how high you need to prop your monitor up to bring it to eye level.
Ultimate Rating: * 1 star: Gratuitous lack of content
Sorry, I disagree 180 degrees with that. The reason people are happy is because they have large disposable incomes, minivans and SUVs and 40" "digital" TVs with surround sound. It's simple but it's true - we are a society of capitalism and materialism. It is how we measure progress on both a macro (national) and micro (personal) level.
Technology has the lime light, I'll give you that. But it isn't the reason we're doing so well. Unfortunately what most people realize is that their quality of life is about to take another hit. Anyone remember the North American Free Trade Agreement? If so, you'll fully appreciate what the WTO means. The ability to override a member's legislative decisions and impinge on their own sovernety? In the name of WHAT?! Trade!
Simple truth: People vote with their wallets. What's going in Seattle right now is further proof of that. Thousands die in car crashes every day and not a peep but if we lose a couple dollars extra each year in taxes (or treaties): rioting in the streets! It's a oversimplification, I know.. but I'm running late for work so this will have to do.
No, you're WRONG! Richard Stallman should be investigated by the CIA because he's a SUBVERSIVE REVOLUTIONARY who PLUGGED UP MY TOILET last week. The FBI ought to instead investigate LINUS TORVALDS because he wants WORLD DOMINATION!!!!
Nothing much I can add here, since the site has either been removed by force, or killed by/. effect.
However, I think that this has the potential to incite online "rioting". It seems alittle premature to say this, but the government hasn't convicted anyone of treason in a long time... if they did it now it'll surely make headlines and piss off a helluva lot of influential people in the technology sector. This really is 1984 - they're telling us how we will, or will not, do our own math? I'd take issue with this on constitutional grounds - math might qualify as a belief. Number *theory*.. which essentially boils down to belief. However, IANAL, and I don't want to explore that issue just yet.
Keep your eyes on this one folks... it could be almost as big as the MS v. DOJ trial if the cards fall right.
No. I mean flaming - if people flame and piss off enough people, they're going to start clammoring for accountability for those people - you can't do slander or libel offline, there's no reason for it online either.
To make accountability feasible, we have to strip anonymity away.
Okay, can we admit it now? Even geeks are not excempt from doing stupid things. We think that because we have mastered computers that we can do no wrong (not everyone, but alot of us).
Flaming is one of these things. We're used to it, it's even considered a rite of passage by some. So shame on many of these people for flaming without having all the facts - there is no excuse for this.
However, there is also no excuse for Wired and these guys posting those flames. If I posted every "bad" e-mail I got, the 'net would have run out of bandwidth long before now. We don't need to air other people's dirty laundry or our own. There's enough blame to go around the table - I would expect people to act in a somewhat grown up and professional manner when dealing with this. Yes, it hurts when somebody calls you names. But you don't go crying wolf every time somebody says something you don't like - we have enough politicians doing that as is. Grow up - all of you.
Could this post have been worded better? Probably. At the moment, I'm alittle upset - both at how people responded, and how it was handled. The 'net is anonymous... stuff like this threatens that anonymity - MY anonymity. It's stuff like this that has conservatives clammoring for additional controls on the 'net and so-called "accountability" for people's actions.
Oh yes, I agree completely with you!! I honestly don't think this guy has a good grasp of Zen. Then again, I don't have a firm grasp of it either... I simply can't describe it. You just know when you're "in it". Everything is just right there. Agggh! You know what I mean..
Slashdot Mirror
I'm the guy who writes those silly fortunes. =)
This is an age of mega-corporations, where people are sectioned up into "demographics" and statistics - your voice does not count unless you make more than a billion dollars a year or are a hollywood star. It's no suprise that voters have become disillusioned with our system such to the extent that minority interests are better represented than those of the "silent majority". Ad hoc groups like the so-called "moral majority" or the "christian coalition" have seized this unprecidented voter apathy to put forward their own agenda, further adding fuel to the fire.
"To fight to remain yourself, in a world trying to make you like everybody else, is the hardest fight you will ever be in."
Welcome to the 21st century - would you like to pay with cash or credit?
Now to the heart of the matter - we already know who's going to win this one. The domain dispute policy will be amended to allow etoys to excercise it's unfair domain grab, and in a few months nobody will care. That's how it happened with dozens of other sites, modulo a few featured here on slashdot. The question is, of course, why haven't we forcefully lifted control from the government and InterNIC? We have the authority to reprogram our own, personal DNS servers with whatever information we see fit. People are under the impression that the internet will fall apart if we don't maintain The One True Registry. Well... my vote is for The One True Democratic Registry. We need a digital haven - some place on the planet where politicians can stick a hot poker up their butt if they disagree with the content or purpose of the site (or for that matter, greedy corporations). Freedom of speech taken to it's logical conclusion.
My vote? Sysadmins of the world, unite! Form a second registry and use it. In the meantime.. anybody know if there's a country around that I can get enough access to kick of a "digital haven" - a country with no laws barring any online conduct and outside WTO and US control?
- A new space age cereal that doesn't immediately become soggy in milk...
- Revolutionary new system that doesn't crash (guess which one).
- One-click power-on sequence for computers (amazon.com, eat your heart out!)
- An even *larger* harddrive to store pr0n and mp3s!
- Harddrives now come in designer colors like "tangerine" and "rasberry" (You'll note the lack of a "lemon" color, however!)
- Computers from Intel that actually boot.
- A new Office clone that has REAL useable features like "Extend Deadline", "Make pretty graphs", and "Create Bollocks" instead of a stupid animated paper clip.
Horrah for IBM - working for the common user. =)Great! Now we'll *really* be able to freak out the girls in phy ed class! =)
Well, we have a packard bell here that's on, consuming electricity, and crashing at a incredible rate. Bad genes, perhaps? =)
You bastards, you stole my joke!
*sniff* *sniff* Do you smell something?
Yeah, I do. What do you think it is?
*peering around the corner* Just a bunch of dead links, keep moving.
Ah! I finally found the man that poured hot grits down my pants in that slashdot thread last week. Oh boy... now it's MY turn!
Yeeesh... the internet, alive? Yeah.. I can just see it now - the next sci fi horror flick will be something like the lawnmower man - guy steps into closet with some patch cable, and a week later they find him walled up in there - suffocated to death because the network didn't like him plugging in a Ascend router instead of a Cisco. Network admins - request hazard pay now!
Not the kind of alive you meant though, right?
This doesn't mean too much, except that the judge thinks that there is enough possibility for damage to place an injunction on B&N to prevent further harm. Don't get too cynical just yet!
Bah, it's a marketing ploy.
Alas, disliking it is apparently overrated, atleast according to one moderator! =)
And you're way too paranoid. I'm attacking the book not the company.
Under the Radar is a sloppy attempt to cash in on the open source revolution by releasing a disorganized book in the hopes of having middle management types pick it up and read it for "business strategies". It's long term usefulness in your house will be determined only by how high you need to prop your monitor up to bring it to eye level.
Ultimate Rating: *
1 star: Gratuitous lack of content
Yes, and this is not a moderator.
Technology has the lime light, I'll give you that. But it isn't the reason we're doing so well. Unfortunately what most people realize is that their quality of life is about to take another hit. Anyone remember the North American Free Trade Agreement? If so, you'll fully appreciate what the WTO means. The ability to override a member's legislative decisions and impinge on their own sovernety? In the name of WHAT?! Trade!
Simple truth: People vote with their wallets. What's going in Seattle right now is further proof of that. Thousands die in car crashes every day and not a peep but if we lose a couple dollars extra each year in taxes (or treaties): rioting in the streets! It's a oversimplification, I know.. but I'm running late for work so this will have to do.
Apparently some moderators have had their sense of humor surgically removed.....
No, you're WRONG! Richard Stallman should be investigated by the CIA because he's a SUBVERSIVE REVOLUTIONARY who PLUGGED UP MY TOILET last week. The FBI ought to instead investigate LINUS TORVALDS because he wants WORLD DOMINATION!!!!
However, I think that this has the potential to incite online "rioting". It seems alittle premature to say this, but the government hasn't convicted anyone of treason in a long time... if they did it now it'll surely make headlines and piss off a helluva lot of influential people in the technology sector. This really is 1984 - they're telling us how we will, or will not, do our own math? I'd take issue with this on constitutional grounds - math might qualify as a belief. Number *theory*.. which essentially boils down to belief. However, IANAL, and I don't want to explore that issue just yet.
Keep your eyes on this one folks... it could be almost as big as the MS v. DOJ trial if the cards fall right.
To make accountability feasible, we have to strip anonymity away.
This is funny? This deserves to be -1'd!!!
Flaming is one of these things. We're used to it, it's even considered a rite of passage by some. So shame on many of these people for flaming without having all the facts - there is no excuse for this.
However, there is also no excuse for Wired and these guys posting those flames. If I posted every "bad" e-mail I got, the 'net would have run out of bandwidth long before now. We don't need to air other people's dirty laundry or our own. There's enough blame to go around the table - I would expect people to act in a somewhat grown up and professional manner when dealing with this. Yes, it hurts when somebody calls you names. But you don't go crying wolf every time somebody says something you don't like - we have enough politicians doing that as is. Grow up - all of you.
Could this post have been worded better? Probably. At the moment, I'm alittle upset - both at how people responded, and how it was handled. The 'net is anonymous... stuff like this threatens that anonymity - MY anonymity. It's stuff like this that has conservatives clammoring for additional controls on the 'net and so-called "accountability" for people's actions.
Oh yes, I agree completely with you!! I honestly don't think this guy has a good grasp of Zen. Then again, I don't have a firm grasp of it either... I simply can't describe it. You just know when you're "in it". Everything is just right there. Agggh! You know what I mean..