When you compare Microsoft to AT&T and Standard Oil you forget that both of these companies where horribly ineffiecent, bloated, and highly restrictive. The only way they could maintain their "competive edge" was to enforce a monopoly. By breaking this stuff down, especially AT&T, you have the growth of industry and cheaper prices for all. If AT&T of old was still around in tact, would you have the broadband that is highly available today? Probably not. Espcially with a monopoly in place, AT&T of old would make a ton more money forcing everyone to use old cheaper technology.
Is this the way you want your favorite, dominate software company over the world to work?
You have missed a crucial philosophical point: For everyone to have "freedom", you as an individual must give up a little of your "freedom". Slightly paradoxical but let me explain what thi really means.
In other words, the "freedom" he is talking about is the "freedom" to choose what you, as the creator of the code, want to do with the code/binaries. As a free (ie not working for someone else) coder, you should have the right to choose what you want to do with your code and binaries in your project...no more, no less. If you choose to open the code to everyone, you should be empowered to do that. If you choose to close the source, you should have just as much right to do so. If you are a person who receives the code or binaries and want to honor this kind of system of freedom then you automatically say I have no right to tell the person who wrote the code what they should do.
This is why I believe the GPL works the best. Projects that use the GPL have stated "Here is some code I came up with and I want everyone to have it. Do what every you want to it as long as you let everyone else have the code as well." BSD style protect is still "free" but doesn't offer the right kind of "freedom". BSD style gives out code for free, but it is more like you are living on the coder's good graces. It is like they are saying, "Here is some code I will loan you...I still want to control it." This has the important implication that someday, the project may pull all of the code to close source. This is why I will alwyas contribute to GPL projects but hesitate on anything less.
One thing that has constantly nagged me ever since the 1997 Oscars (why did THE ENGLISH PATIENT win over the better film FARGO?!) is the fact that the Oscar Awards are being more and more bought. Much like what happens in Congress with lobbiers, the big studios woo, charm, and lobby Academy Voters with gifts trying to make them vote for their movies.
The fact that THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, a movie that really lack a moral base(taking a stance on a contraversal issue is better than waffling over one), was nomiated over far better and more inventive films like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, MAGNOLIA, and THREE KINGS is the biggest evidence of this kind of abuse by the studios(this time Miramax). My biggest fear was that Miramax would do such a good job buying off the votes that THE CIDER HOUSE RULES would sweep the biggest awards.
My prayers where answered. THE CIDER HOUSE RULES didn't sweep the tops spots. MATRIX won the tech awards it deserves. AMERICAN BEAUTY deserved every award it got. At least this year, the winners made sense and has kept at least a little of my faith in the Academy's system.:-)
ps. Does anyone know if Dreamworks did anything like send out a bunch a gifts and promotional material for AMERICAN BEAUTY to the Academy Voters?
All art should be free? I beg to differ. I should be able to choose who I give my creations too. Without this basic IP right, you or anyone else can take a painting, a song, a poem away from my girlfriend who I expressly and explicitly created it for.
What kind of society would sponser that kind of system?
If Samba keeps with their design and coding philosophies, it would seem that Samba is destined to be ported to many platforms. This kind of wide spread acceptance seems to be in constrast in what Microsoft had in mind(ie Microsoft would rather charge Sun to support their platform...instead Samba comes along and gives them it to them). At the risk of sounding like an alarmist or a troll, have you or your team received any static from Microsoft for exposing SMB to platforms they never intended to support?
Sure on paper and in the imagination, all information should be free. Anyone anywhere should be able to unrestrictively get any information on anything. But alas, this kind of world doesn't work. "Free Information" directly conflicts with "Privacy Issues". Both topics are hot items here in Slashdot.
Beyond the obvious priviacy issues(like personal information being accessable to everyone) here are a few other examples why information isn't necessarily free:
- If I write a song for my girlfriend and only for my girlfriend, I would be extremely pissed if I found the song lyrics and MP3 up on a web page.
- If I made a family movie about a day on our vacation, I would be extremely pissed if I found this video up on a web page as a.mov without our express permission.
- If I wrote in a journal, I would be extremely pissed if I found it up on a web page.
- If I built a desk, painted a painting, or baked a cake, I should not have to tell everyone how I did it.
Any system that forces it members to do any of these is far and away "open" but highly "oppressive". One part of "freedom" is the ability to decide for yourself what you want to do with your own life and abilities. How can one do that if you know it is very easy and likely that your private thoughts and creations will become part of the public information pool?
I'm so glad the last question was choosen and answered! It goes right to the heart of AI.
- Go is severly complex to a computer. To play requires a combination of looking "n" moves ahead(which a computer does well) but regonizing patterns(which a computer doesn't do so well). The combination is way out of the reach of current computer AI. - Computers can't regonize what is in a digital image without massive hardware and even then the results aren't inspiring(think abstract art or oil painting). Yet humans can easily grasp the concept around images. - Computers can't regonize the content in text either. There are spell checking programs out there that can check grammer but none can actually know what they are doing...and "spell checking" is pattern matching! Humans can easily judge whether a sentance is "clever" or "stupid" but computer can not nor can the computer tell the difference between a sonnet or a memo. - We all know how poorly game AI tends to be. A computer can easily outplayed because it can not regonize between the good time to attack/defend and the bad time to attack/defend. The best it can do is guess(I've got "n" number, they've got "m"...my number is bigger so I should attack). Position and disposition are completely lost to a computer.
I believe the Holy Grail in AI has to be real human like "recognition"**. Pattern recognition is something a computer does well but that really isn't the whole problem. Humans recognize "things" and instantly has memories associated with that "thing". Both steps seem to be compressed together. To a computer, recognition is an exhuastive, brute force search of its set of knowledge(ie a database) and the assocition is another exhuastive, brute force search through a different kind of set of knowledge(ie another database). Both steps are impossible to implement or maintain with our current methods and algorithms for pattern matching and searching. Something new has to be invented and I believe that "compression" and "hashing" will be a key to creating a true AI like sytem.
** note: for a computer to have "real human like recognition" it must also have the ability to be "mistaken".:-)
Hurm...Hasn't history shown that Microsoft is, at best, a mediocre game producer? It wasn't for lack of trying trying either. And this was on the Windows PC platform. The game console is a very different beast. Console developers probably aren't comfortable with buying new or updating their libraries or dev enviroment every quarter(read service pack).
I'm wondering if Microsoft plans to subsidize developers. No console has ever survived under heavy subsidizing and I really hope that Microsoft isn't planning to try this angle.
But then again, some of the doubts were the same when Sony decided to jump in. This will be interesting.
The other calendar that gets sighted during these quandry days in the Gregorian Calendar is the Mayan Calendar. I wonder how well that calendar holds up in the face of our orbital escentricities? ^_^
According to The Mayan Calendar, today is JOB IMOX or using Long Count: 12.19.7.0.1. *shrug* I don't know the mechanics of the Mayan Calendar at all so I'm not sure what this means. ^_^;
Bah! All of these headaches has convinced me that basing time off of the Lunar Calendar is the way to go! Basing our calendar off of the Sun means that some months are 30, some are 31, some are 28, and even rarely it is 29!? Who can keep track of it all! Should just go with the 27 1/3 day Lunar Month! Relgular as clockwork.
I wonder how tough it would be to change the real world time mechanism in Linux to report in Lunar Time? ^_^
Is anyone else a little nervous about having Office "integrated"(Microsoft loves this word...it doesn't just run) into Linux? How many macro, VBScript, and other nasty bugs and virus problems are running around in their products that can now make the jump to Linux and *BSD because they ported their core engine?
Re:Telnet is the only solution.
on
SSH v. SRP
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· Score: 1
As well a firewall shouldn't. The firewall itself has to understand how SSH works. No firewall should just blindly redirect connections.:-) Or is that not what you mean?
Seriously, for machine to machine connection, both of which have SSH clients and servers on them, it works great.
Re:Telnet is the only solution.
on
SSH v. SRP
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· Score: 2
Naw...you can get SSH to connect through any port using SSH protocol and therefore encrypting the transaction. With this feature, you can encrypt many socketed transfers, like using "fetchmail" to get your email.
I look at SSH and I wonder if the protocol is generic enough to encrypt any stream. If it is, then why not write a ENFS(Encrypted NFS) file system for the kernel? You could theoretically use SSH-like schemes to authenticate and encrypt.
Bah! Code has to be a form of personal expression and therefore should be protected by First Amendment.
The judge argues that code is not a normal form of personal expression. Works of art like books and scuplures are synthized in the same maner: an idea in the mind of a person modivates them to create. Even things like building furnature, baking cakes, etc are forms of personal expression.
Does Judge Lewis Kaplan think that some agency has rights to dictate what code a well minded individual can write? If he does, then said agency can also dictate how one can write books, make sculptures, build furnature, and bake cakes.
The law was never mind to do this. I certainly hope that another judge see this error and reverses this decision.
Otaku is a Japanese slang word used to discribe a person who is so wrapped up in whatever(like a hobby) that they stop doing normal socially accepted things. Like having a social life, bathing, etc. An otaku's life is so warped by their obsession that they are often viewed by others as very weird.
With that being said, how many of us would go straight off the deep end if this stuff works right?:-)
Gee...this guy is making it sound like the special features are going to blow everything away. Maybe even better than the movie.:-)
HELLO?! A good movie doesn't need special features to be sold. I have yet to hear of a DVD that sold like crazy just because of the special features. And here I was thinking that I wanted to watch a movie.:-)
A "moon" is a natural celestrial body who's orbit is primarily dictated by a "planet". What is a "planet" is a discussion for another day.:-)
The classical thought on this is that the orbit of these satelites are pretty eleptical and regular. Often times, these satelites are in "tidal lock" with their planet, just like our Moon is and most of the other moons out there with apriciable mass. In one sense, objects like this asteroid are satelites...they just don't follow a circular orbital path.
People look up at the sky and look at our Moon, especially on nights like the recent Lunar Eclipse and forget how special that thing is. No where else in this star system will you find an object that big(the Moon) orbiting an object this small(Earth). Okay...Pluto is an exception too but Pluto is special in its own little way.:-) It makes me wonder if our planet and moon are more of the exception than the rule.
One of the big strengths behind any Open Source software is that implied in the nature of having the source: you are full disclosed to any of the problems with the software. ANYONE can inspect the code and find the strengths and problems of the software as opposed to "taking the vendor's word for it".
We've seen it time and time again. Security through obscurity doesn't work. I still can't believe that there are *professionals* out there that still believe hidding how the software works is really the way to go.
Maybe One Shouldn't Pay For The OS...
on
Free Be
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· Score: 1
I've always said that basic services, like OS level software, should be distributed freely. What better way to make sure your OS is successful than to give it away at every turn? If one feels the need to make money off OS development, then charge for support and other developement projects(drivers, API, etc.).
What is the response to the UDP from the major players out there? Will Deja, AOL, etc. honor the UDP? For this UDP to have any teeth, it needs to be honored by the major ISPs and news services.
an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty
You want a device that is super useful, almost too useful to be called a "gadget"? Try a Dremel! Is it a screwdriver? Is it a drill? Is it a saw? Heck no! Its all of the above! For small jobs, the only thing you can't do with a Dremel is hammer!
The only other modern tool that could be considered as useful would be the duct tape! Where would mankind be without duct tape?!:-)
This block device can be used in conjunction your karma device(/dev/karma) into things called "posts". Still trying to fix a bug known as the "slashdot effect".:-)
On your first point: You are probably right. Quality control dictated by goverment regulation is probably more tricky than leaving it up to private monitoring. In fact the only time government monitoring works is when there is absolutely no money or disire by the private sector for monitoring. This certainly isn't the case in the lucrative pharmacy market.
On your second point: It is hard to say who is responsible for "stupidity factor", especially when it comes to stuff where others can easily be harmed by it(ie the Creeping Crud infects others if you take the wrong drugs). In the end it doesn't matter who got the drugs to the patient, in the real world they still have to take it. Unless you are in a controled hospital setting, the person may just neglect to take the medicine. It is one thing that you take the wrong medicine and kill yourself by accident, it is something else when you purposely take the wrong medicine to harm yourself(knowingly) or others(the infectious Creeping Crud).
I am also bothered by your comment about letting a person who had an accident(taking the wrong medicine) just die in the street.
On the third point: Very true. No one wants to catch someone else's Creeping Crud.:-)
I will be the first to admit that the current system of Doctor Perscriptions and Pharmacys is based on a really old system. In today's world with the huge amounts of free information, maybe the Pharmacy should go the way of the dodo.
The comment about eBay was only an afterthought. If one really doesn't believe that online pharmacys need to be at least monitored, then you might as well believe that you can sell any perscription drugs you want on eBay. Legitimately buy a box of Viagra, go on eBay and start selling like crazy. Sure this doesn't really hurt anyone but the people who buy it but I'm more concerned about other drugs like morphine, codine, and other highly adictive yet medicinal drugs. To make dangerous substances avialble so readily without some thought is like the old cigarette vending machines. Sure it is a great convience to those who can legitly smoke but these things are a bigger boon to those who shouldn't(like 12 year olds).
I guess it is just a difference in philosophies. I don't believe one should do something just because they want too or think they want too. *shrug*
Slashdot Mirror
Because if you had to be destroyed, I guess "large firm breasts" would be the way to go. ^_^
When you compare Microsoft to AT&T and Standard Oil you forget that both of these companies where horribly ineffiecent, bloated, and highly restrictive. The only way they could maintain their "competive edge" was to enforce a monopoly. By breaking this stuff down, especially AT&T, you have the growth of industry and cheaper prices for all. If AT&T of old was still around in tact, would you have the broadband that is highly available today? Probably not. Espcially with a monopoly in place, AT&T of old would make a ton more money forcing everyone to use old cheaper technology.
Is this the way you want your favorite, dominate software company over the world to work?
You have missed a crucial philosophical point: For everyone to have "freedom", you as an individual must give up a little of your "freedom". Slightly paradoxical but let me explain what thi really means.
In other words, the "freedom" he is talking about is the "freedom" to choose what you, as the creator of the code, want to do with the code/binaries. As a free (ie not working for someone else) coder, you should have the right to choose what you want to do with your code and binaries in your project...no more, no less. If you choose to open the code to everyone, you should be empowered to do that. If you choose to close the source, you should have just as much right to do so. If you are a person who receives the code or binaries and want to honor this kind of system of freedom then you automatically say I have no right to tell the person who wrote the code what they should do.
This is why I believe the GPL works the best. Projects that use the GPL have stated "Here is some code I came up with and I want everyone to have it. Do what every you want to it as long as you let everyone else have the code as well." BSD style protect is still "free" but doesn't offer the right kind of "freedom". BSD style gives out code for free, but it is more like you are living on the coder's good graces. It is like they are saying, "Here is some code I will loan you...I still want to control it." This has the important implication that someday, the project may pull all of the code to close source. This is why I will alwyas contribute to GPL projects but hesitate on anything less.
One thing that has constantly nagged me ever since the 1997 Oscars (why did THE ENGLISH PATIENT win over the better film FARGO?!) is the fact that the Oscar Awards are being more and more bought. Much like what happens in Congress with lobbiers, the big studios woo, charm, and lobby Academy Voters with gifts trying to make them vote for their movies.
:-)
The fact that THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, a movie that really lack a moral base(taking a stance on a contraversal issue is better than waffling over one), was nomiated over far better and more inventive films like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, MAGNOLIA, and THREE KINGS is the biggest evidence of this kind of abuse by the studios(this time Miramax). My biggest fear was that Miramax would do such a good job buying off the votes that THE CIDER HOUSE RULES would sweep the biggest awards.
My prayers where answered. THE CIDER HOUSE RULES didn't sweep the tops spots. MATRIX won the tech awards it deserves. AMERICAN BEAUTY deserved every award it got. At least this year, the winners made sense and has kept at least a little of my faith in the Academy's system.
ps. Does anyone know if Dreamworks did anything like send out a bunch a gifts and promotional material for AMERICAN BEAUTY to the Academy Voters?
All art should be free? I beg to differ. I should be able to choose who I give my creations too. Without this basic IP right, you or anyone else can take a painting, a song, a poem away from my girlfriend who I expressly and explicitly created it for.
What kind of society would sponser that kind of system?
If Samba keeps with their design and coding philosophies, it would seem that Samba is destined to be ported to many platforms. This kind of wide spread acceptance seems to be in constrast in what Microsoft had in mind(ie Microsoft would rather charge Sun to support their platform...instead Samba comes along and gives them it to them). At the risk of sounding like an alarmist or a troll, have you or your team received any static from Microsoft for exposing SMB to platforms they never intended to support?
Sure on paper and in the imagination, all information should be free. Anyone anywhere should be able to unrestrictively get any information on anything. But alas, this kind of world doesn't work. "Free Information" directly conflicts with "Privacy Issues". Both topics are hot items here in Slashdot.
.mov without our express permission.
Beyond the obvious priviacy issues(like personal information being accessable to everyone) here are a few other examples why information isn't necessarily free:
- If I write a song for my girlfriend and only for my girlfriend, I would be extremely pissed if I found the song lyrics and MP3 up on a web page.
- If I made a family movie about a day on our vacation, I would be extremely pissed if I found this video up on a web page as a
- If I wrote in a journal, I would be extremely pissed if I found it up on a web page.
- If I built a desk, painted a painting, or baked a cake, I should not have to tell everyone how I did it.
Any system that forces it members to do any of these is far and away "open" but highly "oppressive". One part of "freedom" is the ability to decide for yourself what you want to do with your own life and abilities. How can one do that if you know it is very easy and likely that your private thoughts and creations will become part of the public information pool?
I'm so glad the last question was choosen and answered! It goes right to the heart of AI.
:-)
- Go is severly complex to a computer. To play requires a combination of looking "n" moves ahead(which a computer does well) but regonizing patterns(which a computer doesn't do so well). The combination is way out of the reach of current computer AI.
- Computers can't regonize what is in a digital image without massive hardware and even then the results aren't inspiring(think abstract art or oil painting). Yet humans can easily grasp the concept around images.
- Computers can't regonize the content in text either. There are spell checking programs out there that can check grammer but none can actually know what they are doing...and "spell checking" is pattern matching! Humans can easily judge whether a sentance is "clever" or "stupid" but computer can not nor can the computer tell the difference between a sonnet or a memo.
- We all know how poorly game AI tends to be. A computer can easily outplayed because it can not regonize between the good time to attack/defend and the bad time to attack/defend. The best it can do is guess(I've got "n" number, they've got "m"...my number is bigger so I should attack). Position and disposition are completely lost to a computer.
I believe the Holy Grail in AI has to be real human like "recognition"**. Pattern recognition is something a computer does well but that really isn't the whole problem. Humans recognize "things" and instantly has memories associated with that "thing". Both steps seem to be compressed together. To a computer, recognition is an exhuastive, brute force search of its set of knowledge(ie a database) and the assocition is another exhuastive, brute force search through a different kind of set of knowledge(ie another database). Both steps are impossible to implement or maintain with our current methods and algorithms for pattern matching and searching. Something new has to be invented and I believe that "compression" and "hashing" will be a key to creating a true AI like sytem.
** note: for a computer to have "real human like recognition" it must also have the ability to be "mistaken".
Hurm...Hasn't history shown that Microsoft is, at best, a mediocre game producer? It wasn't for lack of trying trying either. And this was on the Windows PC platform. The game console is a very different beast. Console developers probably aren't comfortable with buying new or updating their libraries or dev enviroment every quarter(read service pack).
I'm wondering if Microsoft plans to subsidize developers. No console has ever survived under heavy subsidizing and I really hope that Microsoft isn't planning to try this angle.
But then again, some of the doubts were the same when Sony decided to jump in. This will be interesting.
The other calendar that gets sighted during these quandry days in the Gregorian Calendar is the Mayan Calendar. I wonder how well that calendar holds up in the face of our orbital escentricities? ^_^
According to The Mayan Calendar, today is JOB IMOX or using Long Count: 12.19.7.0.1. *shrug* I don't know the mechanics of the Mayan Calendar at all so I'm not sure what this means. ^_^;
Here is a great link that explains the Mayan Calendar and off of that set of pages is a great page with general calendar tidbits.
ps. I forgot the orbital period of the Moon(27.33 days) is different that the periods between New Moons(29.5 days). My goof.
I wonder how tough it would be to change the real world time mechanism in Linux to report in Lunar Time? ^_^
Is anyone else a little nervous about having Office "integrated"(Microsoft loves this word...it doesn't just run) into Linux? How many macro, VBScript, and other nasty bugs and virus problems are running around in their products that can now make the jump to Linux and *BSD because they ported their core engine?
As well a firewall shouldn't. The firewall itself has to understand how SSH works. No firewall should just blindly redirect connections. :-) Or is that not what you mean?
Seriously, for machine to machine connection, both of which have SSH clients and servers on them, it works great.
I look at SSH and I wonder if the protocol is generic enough to encrypt any stream. If it is, then why not write a ENFS(Encrypted NFS) file system for the kernel? You could theoretically use SSH-like schemes to authenticate and encrypt.
The judge argues that code is not a normal form of personal expression. Works of art like books and scuplures are synthized in the same maner: an idea in the mind of a person modivates them to create. Even things like building furnature, baking cakes, etc are forms of personal expression.
Does Judge Lewis Kaplan think that some agency has rights to dictate what code a well minded individual can write? If he does, then said agency can also dictate how one can write books, make sculptures, build furnature, and bake cakes.
The law was never mind to do this. I certainly hope that another judge see this error and reverses this decision.
Otaku is a Japanese slang word used to discribe a person who is so wrapped up in whatever(like a hobby) that they stop doing normal socially accepted things. Like having a social life, bathing, etc. An otaku's life is so warped by their obsession that they are often viewed by others as very weird.
:-)
With that being said, how many of us would go straight off the deep end if this stuff works right?
Gee...this guy is making it sound like the special features are going to blow everything away. Maybe even better than the movie. :-)
:-)
HELLO?! A good movie doesn't need special features to be sold. I have yet to hear of a DVD that sold like crazy just because of the special features. And here I was thinking that I wanted to watch a movie.
A "moon" is a natural celestrial body who's orbit is primarily dictated by a "planet". What is a "planet" is a discussion for another day. :-)
:-) It makes me wonder if our planet and moon are more of the exception than the rule.
The classical thought on this is that the orbit of these satelites are pretty eleptical and regular. Often times, these satelites are in "tidal lock" with their planet, just like our Moon is and most of the other moons out there with apriciable mass. In one sense, objects like this asteroid are satelites...they just don't follow a circular orbital path.
People look up at the sky and look at our Moon, especially on nights like the recent Lunar Eclipse and forget how special that thing is. No where else in this star system will you find an object that big(the Moon) orbiting an object this small(Earth). Okay...Pluto is an exception too but Pluto is special in its own little way.
One of the big strengths behind any Open Source software is that implied in the nature of having the source: you are full disclosed to any of the problems with the software. ANYONE can inspect the code and find the strengths and problems of the software as opposed to "taking the vendor's word for it".
We've seen it time and time again. Security through obscurity doesn't work. I still can't believe that there are *professionals* out there that still believe hidding how the software works is really the way to go.
I've always said that basic services, like OS level software, should be distributed freely. What better way to make sure your OS is successful than to give it away at every turn? If one feels the need to make money off OS development, then charge for support and other developement projects(drivers, API, etc.).
What is the response to the UDP from the major players out there? Will Deja, AOL, etc. honor the UDP? For this UDP to have any teeth, it needs to be honored by the major ISPs and news services.
@Home can't sue admins for controling their news feeds. That would be like suing a person to turn on their TV or radio to tune in their station.
A "gadget" is defined by The Merriam Webster WWW Dictionary as...
:-)
an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty
You want a device that is super useful, almost too useful to be called a "gadget"? Try a Dremel! Is it a screwdriver? Is it a drill? Is it a saw? Heck no! Its all of the above! For small jobs, the only thing you can't do with a Dremel is hammer!
The only other modern tool that could be considered as useful would be the duct tape! Where would mankind be without duct tape?!
This block device can be used in conjunction your karma device(/dev/karma) into things called "posts". Still trying to fix a bug known as the "slashdot effect". :-)
These are some very good points!
:-)
On your first point: You are probably right. Quality control dictated by goverment regulation is probably more tricky than leaving it up to private monitoring. In fact the only time government monitoring works is when there is absolutely no money or disire by the private sector for monitoring. This certainly isn't the case in the lucrative pharmacy market.
On your second point: It is hard to say who is responsible for "stupidity factor", especially when it comes to stuff where others can easily be harmed by it(ie the Creeping Crud infects others if you take the wrong drugs). In the end it doesn't matter who got the drugs to the patient, in the real world they still have to take it. Unless you are in a controled hospital setting, the person may just neglect to take the medicine. It is one thing that you take the wrong medicine and kill yourself by accident, it is something else when you purposely take the wrong medicine to harm yourself(knowingly) or others(the infectious Creeping Crud).
I am also bothered by your comment about letting a person who had an accident(taking the wrong medicine) just die in the street.
On the third point: Very true. No one wants to catch someone else's Creeping Crud.
I will be the first to admit that the current system of Doctor Perscriptions and Pharmacys is based on a really old system. In today's world with the huge amounts of free information, maybe the Pharmacy should go the way of the dodo.
The comment about eBay was only an afterthought. If one really doesn't believe that online pharmacys need to be at least monitored, then you might as well believe that you can sell any perscription drugs you want on eBay. Legitimately buy a box of Viagra, go on eBay and start selling like crazy. Sure this doesn't really hurt anyone but the people who buy it but I'm more concerned about other drugs like morphine, codine, and other highly adictive yet medicinal drugs. To make dangerous substances avialble so readily without some thought is like the old cigarette vending machines. Sure it is a great convience to those who can legitly smoke but these things are a bigger boon to those who shouldn't(like 12 year olds).
I guess it is just a difference in philosophies. I don't believe one should do something just because they want too or think they want too. *shrug*