The perpetual slope already exists
on
Perpetual Skislope
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I learned how to ski as a kid riding a huge conveyor belt made out of a big rug in the bottom of a sporting goods store. It doesn't sound like much, but it was fun as a kid. The coolest part was that you could turn it on and off with a garage door opener type gadget. I always wanted to turn it up really fast and see how much speed I could get up tucking, but my ski instructor wouldn't let me. Now that I look back, tucking really wouldn't matter. There's no wind resistence to worry about when you aren't actually moving.
Please don't mod this any higher... Keep looking for something funnier than this. If you can't find a funnier post for this article, you shouldn't be reading/. for the jokes.
There is a relatively easy way to report businesses and organizations you believe to be acting unlawfully to the FTC. Here's the link: FTC complaint page.
From the page:
If you would like to forward unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) to the Commission, please send it directly to UCE@FTC.GOV without using this form.
Use with care,
PhatKat
The Ultimate Timeline already exists
on
A Loki Timeline
·
· Score: 1
(I did a quick scan through the comments and didn't see any links to my favorite new internet contraption, The Wayback Machine, so I thought I'd post the link.)
You think they'd hesitate letting in a moon rock? I doubt it. That's green cheese man! Those frenchies LOVE their cheese, especially if it is of an unusual/disturbing color.
I don't need to see his blackboard. 200,000 clicker happy slashdotters is still 200,000 clicker happy slashdotters, and there's one more broken link to prove it.
It seems that the long touted "clean fuel" of the 21 Century had some unfortunate and unexpected consequences today when the massive amounts of H2O released into the atmosphere finally caused the earth to sink (The process of continents passing below the rising surface of the ocean) due to the exhaust created by urban commuters.
"We were really caught off-guard on this one," says John Shepley, an engineer at the BMW Space Station, one of the three man made structures still in existence. "Everyone knows that the coasts have been crawling closer and closer for years. The granola eater types really started complaining when California went under, but we figured all that liberal spouting was just hyperbole. I guess we were wrong."
The engineers have been working for some time on further innovations that may make the world inhabitable once again. "Yeah. We can make a machine that uses electrolosis to turn water back into its component H2 and O2 molecules, but the only design we could come up with used fossil fuels. We figured, no, we'll stay away from that. The use of fossil fuels can get you into all sorts of trouble."
When my parents put me in to a school that I "elected to attend," I had about as much choice in agreeing with the school's policies as one does in clicking through an EULA. Maybe I did consent, but it still just doesn't feel right. You'd be screaming bloody murder if/. elected not to print articles that made negative comments about Andover.net. Of all places, one would expect a school to be even-handed and truthful to prospective students and their families. It is, supposedly, an institution of teaching and learning after all.
Despite all that, I think your post is somewhat off topic. The issue is the connection between knee-jerk reactions to school violence and their affect on geek culture, not whether or not the students should have been suspended for violating school policy.
Um, hate to break it to you man, but we watch all those shows because the people on Jerry Springer etc. are freaks. It's a freakshow featuring the fuck-ups of our society, darwin awards waiting to happen. The average American wouldn't be caught dead in the on-air audience, let alone on the stage.
I gave your system a try today, and got nothing from it. Am I doing something wrong, or is in such a fledgling phase that a search across 34 servers will yield no 200k images?
I set up the server after reading this post and went on to get a feel for how much information is currently accessible with Mojo Nation. I wanted to start with something nice and broad, nice and vague, to see what kind of information is available and accessible. So I searched for images across 34 other machines and came up with squat.
I also searched for audio, and got a whole lot of mp3 listings (predictably). But none would download. Not a single one. For every one I was left with an empty file on my machine. I tried about 10. Also, every time I tried to download for some reason, the files didn't have extentions. What the heck is up with that? And none (and I mean not a single file) had the standard "musician - song title" format. It was always just the name of the song. Can you explain why this is happening? I think I followed the instructions just as the are described. After all, I can search. I'd normally just contact you from the Mojo Nation page, but since you posted this to slashdot, I thought I'd ask you here as others might be interested too.
It doesn't really matter if he himself is going to be prosecuted. If MOD chips are downright illegal to use, why should they be legal in any sense? Why not make it illegal to manufacture and distribute them as well? Believing, as you do, that a technology's illegitimate uses negates its legitimate uses is flawed. If lawmakers follow the same reasoning, they will outlaw these things entirely. That means that the legitimate users, like my friend, won't ever have a chance to be in the situation you describe, because they will never have access to this technology.
Hey guys, here I am, posting back at the Dot. I hate to always have to be the boring guy, but somone has to steer the conversation back to the bottom line. With all this fancy technology, someone has to keep the thread focused. Someone has to stop and take a good hard look at new technologies like these and see what they really offer.
Sure, we all want faster connections. We all want to be able to stay in touch with our co-workers, we all want to make e-business ran faster and more smoothly. You and I both wish we had unlimited bandwidth available to wistfully wile away the hours sending faxes and Excel spreadsheets. I know how addictive hard work can be. I too remember that first time I sent a memo through my corporate network, the giddy high it left me with. I remember the hot rush of blood in my face and the tingle in the hairs on the back of my neck as as I did something sinful, something dirty. I too am guilty. But we've got to ask ourselves, will this new technology really deliver? When it comes down to it, the question begs to be asked:
Will this new technology revolutionize how I download pornography?
I'm sorry to have to be the one to bring up the hard questions, but as we know, Slashdot is about the facts. It's about responsible journalism. This is not the time to loose sight of that mission. If we all work together, even the really tough topics, like porn, video games, and pirated music can be discussed in an environment conducive to interesting, insightful, and informative discussion.
Good luck, and be strong. We can make a difference.
You have no right to purchase devices that facilitate stealing.
I disagree. The problem with making ROM'ing illegal is that it makes illegal more than simply the piracy itself, because lawmakers are working on the same flawed assumption you are. There are aspects of ROM'ing that are both legitimate and legal. One of my friends is really into playing import games. Nothing wrong with that. He pays for the games and then he plays them. I guess he gets a kick out of bad translations. Anyway, to do this, from what I understand, he has to modify his playstation. I don't know technically if he needs to use a ROM chip. Either way, he needs to make modifications to his playstation that aren't going to hold up in court under this law, as I understand it. And that's what the problem is.
Take napster for example. I think that for the most part, anyone with a reasonably convincing/plausible theory about the wrongs of banning napster isn't trying to argue that piracy isn't illegal and shouldn't be prosecuted as such. They're arguing that the means that napster uses to propogate pirated information is also used as a way to propogate legitimate information, and therefore cannot be shut down just to stop piracy. The same goes for ROMs.
Anyone interested in the topic may also want to read the thread over at K5. Considering how much connection there is between the/. and k5 communities, avoiding redundancy between the two would be greatly appreciated.
This is a late post. Probably no one will see it, but I feel so strongly about this, I think it's worth mentioning.
I don't like banner ads, but I think part of their limited success is that they're so annoying. Micropayments aren't even as visible as banners, and they request significantly more from the user. Right now, micropayments are an entirely voluntary way of getting money from the user. It's a great idea, but I think it's going to be fundamentally ineffective that way. What about something else:
What if the user has to watch some graphic before the site gets loaded... sort of a "hey, did you guys know we work entirely by your support"? I'd liken it to a PBS pledge drive (only it runs about 10 seconds). And to make the graphic go away fast, rather than waiting for the animation to load, the users clicks it and it brings up a page that suggests a payment and gives an easy way to make it (probably credit card). Perhaps it uses cookies also, so the graphic doesn't come up for two weeks after someone pays. Users will be able to click through and not pay, but at least in this case consciousness is raised about the issue in a direct way. It also means that the people who come to the site most are the most likely to pay, because this graphic is really an inconvenience for them, not the casual viewers.
Hey, don't worry about this! This is just an attempt to make napster seem to be keeping in line with the court's opinions. There's no way that they had enough bandwidth and processor power to do this themselves... do the mp3s ever get transferred directly through napster's servers in the first place? Even if this were possible, how could they make it platform independent? And if the layer gets added as it's being passed through, doesn't that mean it's already getting traded?
I'm convinced this is just an attempt to assuage the powers that be with some meaningless techno-spindoctoring. No worries here. Whatever it is, it sounds lame. And if it is as carelessly implemented as it sounds, it shouldn't be hard protection to sidestep.
Slashdot Mirror
You got it. Does that place still exist?
I learned how to ski as a kid riding a huge conveyor belt made out of a big rug in the bottom of a sporting goods store. It doesn't sound like much, but it was fun as a kid. The coolest part was that you could turn it on and off with a garage door opener type gadget. I always wanted to turn it up really fast and see how much speed I could get up tucking, but my ski instructor wouldn't let me. Now that I look back, tucking really wouldn't matter. There's no wind resistence to worry about when you aren't actually moving.
Please don't mod this any higher... Keep looking for something funnier than this. If you can't find a funnier post for this article, you shouldn't be reading /. for the jokes.
There is a relatively easy way to report businesses and organizations you believe to be acting unlawfully to the FTC. Here's the link: FTC complaint page.
From the page:
If you would like to forward unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) to the Commission, please send it directly to UCE@FTC.GOV without using this form.
Use with care,
PhatKat
here.
(I did a quick scan through the comments and didn't see any links to my favorite new internet contraption, The Wayback Machine, so I thought I'd post the link.)
Please moderators, follow the friggin' links before you mod them up. Go take a look at that and see what you get. It's goatse.cx.
Ok everyone, remember where we parked...
You think they'd hesitate letting in a moon rock? I doubt it. That's green cheese man! Those frenchies LOVE their cheese, especially if it is of an unusual/disturbing color.
I don't need to see his blackboard. 200,000 clicker happy slashdotters is still 200,000 clicker happy slashdotters, and there's one more broken link to prove it.
Now playing virtual tennis would be just like watching real tennis!
left... right... left... right... left... right...
and you're asking whether "To Z Or Not To Z"?!
The answer is, of course, "Not To Z." It's St. Patrick's Day! Have another guinness. You have all Sunday afternoon to Z.
March 17, 2005
It seems that the long touted "clean fuel" of the 21 Century had some unfortunate and unexpected consequences today when the massive amounts of H2O released into the atmosphere finally caused the earth to sink (The process of continents passing below the rising surface of the ocean) due to the exhaust created by urban commuters.
"We were really caught off-guard on this one," says John Shepley, an engineer at the BMW Space Station, one of the three man made structures still in existence. "Everyone knows that the coasts have been crawling closer and closer for years. The granola eater types really started complaining when California went under, but we figured all that liberal spouting was just hyperbole. I guess we were wrong."
The engineers have been working for some time on further innovations that may make the world inhabitable once again. "Yeah. We can make a machine that uses electrolosis to turn water back into its component H2 and O2 molecules, but the only design we could come up with used fossil fuels. We figured, no, we'll stay away from that. The use of fossil fuels can get you into all sorts of trouble."
When my parents put me in to a school that I "elected to attend," I had about as much choice in agreeing with the school's policies as one does in clicking through an EULA. Maybe I did consent, but it still just doesn't feel right. You'd be screaming bloody murder if /. elected not to print articles that made negative comments about Andover.net. Of all places, one would expect a school to be even-handed and truthful to prospective students and their families. It is, supposedly, an institution of teaching and learning after all.
Despite all that, I think your post is somewhat off topic. The issue is the connection between knee-jerk reactions to school violence and their affect on geek culture, not whether or not the students should have been suspended for violating school policy.
No, but maybe you could get out and turn the giant key on the back to imply your macho desires...
It just occurred to me after writing this that my sig is my diary. yeah yeah, I might as well beat you to the punch.
Um, hate to break it to you man, but we watch all those shows because the people on Jerry Springer etc. are freaks. It's a freakshow featuring the fuck-ups of our society, darwin awards waiting to happen. The average American wouldn't be caught dead in the on-air audience, let alone on the stage.
Call the vending machine restocker.
Oh wait...
I gave your system a try today, and got nothing from it. Am I doing something wrong, or is in such a fledgling phase that a search across 34 servers will yield no 200k images?
I set up the server after reading this post and went on to get a feel for how much information is currently accessible with Mojo Nation. I wanted to start with something nice and broad, nice and vague, to see what kind of information is available and accessible. So I searched for images across 34 other machines and came up with squat.
I also searched for audio, and got a whole lot of mp3 listings (predictably). But none would download. Not a single one. For every one I was left with an empty file on my machine. I tried about 10. Also, every time I tried to download for some reason, the files didn't have extentions. What the heck is up with that? And none (and I mean not a single file) had the standard "musician - song title" format. It was always just the name of the song. Can you explain why this is happening? I think I followed the instructions just as the are described. After all, I can search. I'd normally just contact you from the Mojo Nation page, but since you posted this to slashdot, I thought I'd ask you here as others might be interested too.
It doesn't really matter if he himself is going to be prosecuted. If MOD chips are downright illegal to use, why should they be legal in any sense? Why not make it illegal to manufacture and distribute them as well? Believing, as you do, that a technology's illegitimate uses negates its legitimate uses is flawed. If lawmakers follow the same reasoning, they will outlaw these things entirely. That means that the legitimate users, like my friend, won't ever have a chance to be in the situation you describe, because they will never have access to this technology.
Hey guys, here I am, posting back at the Dot. I hate to always have to be the boring guy, but somone has to steer the conversation back to the bottom line. With all this fancy technology, someone has to keep the thread focused. Someone has to stop and take a good hard look at new technologies like these and see what they really offer.
Sure, we all want faster connections. We all want to be able to stay in touch with our co-workers, we all want to make e-business ran faster and more smoothly. You and I both wish we had unlimited bandwidth available to wistfully wile away the hours sending faxes and Excel spreadsheets. I know how addictive hard work can be. I too remember that first time I sent a memo through my corporate network, the giddy high it left me with. I remember the hot rush of blood in my face and the tingle in the hairs on the back of my neck as as I did something sinful, something dirty. I too am guilty. But we've got to ask ourselves, will this new technology really deliver? When it comes down to it, the question begs to be asked:
Will this new technology revolutionize how I download pornography?
I'm sorry to have to be the one to bring up the hard questions, but as we know, Slashdot is about the facts. It's about responsible journalism. This is not the time to loose sight of that mission. If we all work together, even the really tough topics, like porn, video games, and pirated music can be discussed in an environment conducive to interesting, insightful, and informative discussion.
Good luck, and be strong. We can make a difference.
You were doing so well for a second there.
You have no right to purchase devices that facilitate stealing.
I disagree. The problem with making ROM'ing illegal is that it makes illegal more than simply the piracy itself, because lawmakers are working on the same flawed assumption you are. There are aspects of ROM'ing that are both legitimate and legal. One of my friends is really into playing import games. Nothing wrong with that. He pays for the games and then he plays them. I guess he gets a kick out of bad translations. Anyway, to do this, from what I understand, he has to modify his playstation. I don't know technically if he needs to use a ROM chip. Either way, he needs to make modifications to his playstation that aren't going to hold up in court under this law, as I understand it. And that's what the problem is.
Take napster for example. I think that for the most part, anyone with a reasonably convincing/plausible theory about the wrongs of banning napster isn't trying to argue that piracy isn't illegal and shouldn't be prosecuted as such. They're arguing that the means that napster uses to propogate pirated information is also used as a way to propogate legitimate information, and therefore cannot be shut down just to stop piracy. The same goes for ROMs.
Anyone interested in the topic may also want to read the thread over at K5. Considering how much connection there is between the /. and k5 communities, avoiding redundancy between the two would be greatly appreciated.
This is a late post. Probably no one will see it, but I feel so strongly about this, I think it's worth mentioning.
I don't like banner ads, but I think part of their limited success is that they're so annoying. Micropayments aren't even as visible as banners, and they request significantly more from the user. Right now, micropayments are an entirely voluntary way of getting money from the user. It's a great idea, but I think it's going to be fundamentally ineffective that way. What about something else:
What if the user has to watch some graphic before the site gets loaded... sort of a "hey, did you guys know we work entirely by your support"? I'd liken it to a PBS pledge drive (only it runs about 10 seconds). And to make the graphic go away fast, rather than waiting for the animation to load, the users clicks it and it brings up a page that suggests a payment and gives an easy way to make it (probably credit card). Perhaps it uses cookies also, so the graphic doesn't come up for two weeks after someone pays. Users will be able to click through and not pay, but at least in this case consciousness is raised about the issue in a direct way. It also means that the people who come to the site most are the most likely to pay, because this graphic is really an inconvenience for them, not the casual viewers.
Just my $0.02 slashdot micropayment.
I can't believe that no one posted this... for chrissake:
More crack reporting at The Onion: Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs.
Hey, don't worry about this! This is just an attempt to make napster seem to be keeping in line with the court's opinions. There's no way that they had enough bandwidth and processor power to do this themselves... do the mp3s ever get transferred directly through napster's servers in the first place? Even if this were possible, how could they make it platform independent? And if the layer gets added as it's being passed through, doesn't that mean it's already getting traded?
I'm convinced this is just an attempt to assuage the powers that be with some meaningless techno-spindoctoring. No worries here. Whatever it is, it sounds lame. And if it is as carelessly implemented as it sounds, it shouldn't be hard protection to sidestep.