Punish the right people for the right crime, or you turn into the same blind, hatred-spewing zealots you most likely despise.
Um, Sony is "the right people."
This isn't the case of Joe and Cousin Bob having the same last name. Sony Music and Sony the Buckyball Fuel Cell Makers is the same company.
If everyone goes out and buys six trillion dollar's worth of buckyball fuel cells, then Sony will use that money to fund Sony Music when everyone decides to hell with them so that they can keep pumping rootkits out to the public.
More importantly, they'll pump the profit from their buckyball fuel cells into buying more government goons who will make sure that every company puts rootkits on their CD's by law so that they can look not-so-bad in the grand scheme of things. They'll use the money to beat consumers into submission to the point where they simply resign themselves to thinking, "Well, I guess that's just the way things have to be now." In other words, it doesn't matter where you spend your money with Sony, every cent they get from you convinces them a little bit more that they were right and can do what they did again and get away with it.
No, those of us boycotting the entire company because of last month's debacle should not adjust things a bit. That's just what they're hoping you will do.
GTX Global Cognitive Robotics(TM) product schedule includes interactive banner advertising utilizing Automated Intelligence Agents for website sales and customer service...
I'm sorry, but this article just lost any sense of credibility as being "the real" anything.
I've never had a problem with Gmail! I have no viruses in my inbox (and they now offer free virus scanning of your e-mail). I don't know what the hell you're talking about with the "buggy inbox" comment. It's always worked like a charm—no, make that better than a stupid old charm—for me on Firefox, IE, and Opera.
I was very skeptical of Gmail when a buddy sent me an invite way back when. I thought, "I have to read ads to see my e-mail? Forget it," and almost deleted the invitation. I went ahead and registered for an account, though, thinking that I could at least send files to myself and use it as an online repository. In no time, I had registered another "real" account that I use for all of my e-mail. I'm even a site admin, and I have all of my e-mail from the site forwarded to a Gmail account that I use because I like the client and the interface better than any POP client I've run across. (Yes, even Thunderbird.) If they'll just come out with Google Calendar, I'll probably even dump my work e-mail account!
Being a rather proud person, I hate to admit I'm wrong about something, but I was definitely wrong about that, and I'm glad I signed up. I highly recommend to everyone I know that they get a Gmail account, and it definitely earns that number two spot on that list.
You know what's fifty times worse than reading dupe stories? Reading frickin' "This is a dupe!" posts. If I had some mod points right now, you'd all be modded down -1 as trolls. Jesus, if a story's posted twice, why can't people just fickin' ignore it!?
Oh yeah, because complaining about how a story isn't very useful or entertaining is so useful and entertaining, right?
When you're connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can't see it. In addition, we'll delete the number from our servers after a short period of time.
I guess you could always argue that a "short period of time" isn't good enough, or simply choose not to believe Google, but that statement is a heck of a lot better than you'd get from anyone else, I think.
Google has a good reputation; call me gullible, but given their history, I'm willing to believe that they're doing this to make revenue from the advertisers, not from selling your personal information.
he would not be surprised if iTunes was to continue to climb the charts, especially in the run-up to Christmas when iPods are high are many present lists.
The run-up to Christmas? Wouldn't it be more likely that it will climb after Christmas, after said iPods are opened and starting to be used?
however i would respectfully request that scientists attempting to talk in layman terms update their terminology to something after the civil war
God, that's funny.
In NASA's defense, "bounces like a cannonball" was the submitter's phrase, not the article's. The article says:
Eventually, the repulsive charges become so strong that grains are launched off the surface "like cannonballs," says Abbas, arcing kilometers above the moon until gravity makes them fall back again to the ground.
This simile, while still perhaps antiquated, makes a lot more sense.
"You could eat it and not get sick," [Russell Kerschmann, NASA pathologist] continues. "But when quartz is freshly ground into dust particles smaller than 10 microns (for comparison, a human hair is 50+ microns wide) and breathed into the lungs, they can embed themselves deeply into the tiny alveolar sacs and ducts where oxygen and carbon dioxide gases are exchanged." There, the lungs cannot clear out the dust by mucous or coughing. Moreover, the immune system's white blood cells commit suicide when they try to engulf the sharp-edged particles to carry them away in the bloodstream. In the acute form of silicosis, the lungs can fill with proteins from the blood, "and it's as if the victim slowly suffocates" from a pneumonia-like condition.
Ew.
The thing that makes moondust more bothersome that earth quartz dust is that the moondust is charged by UV rays, which causes it to be a lot more sticky than quartz dust is here. Also, the cannonball reference was to the dust flying up off the surface of the moon, which means that the astronauts' spacesuits (and moonbase, once we build one) will be covered from above and below in the stuff. It'll be hard to keep the stuff out if the astronauts come and go often, and once in, it can wreak havoc on their health over the relatively short period of time of a few months.
I think that if this study proves that moondust can be dangerous, any astronauts stationed to a moonbase should probably just stay inside. Or at least, cover their mouths while they're roaming around outside. No sense in risking your health by walking around outside on the moon without any kind of protection for your lungs.
I don't think this is the start of a new era yet. I think that will come when content providers start skipping traditional media distribution channels (movie theaters and television networks) and distributing content directly to the consumers via the Internet. All this device does is extend the reach of traditional media distribution channels.
Frankly, I see this device as merely another tool that companies like Sony can use to try to control and observe where, when, and how consumers can watch content that they and their cohorts provide. I know, it sounds cynical, but this is Sony we're talking about here. You know, the same folks that thought installing a rootkit on your computer is okay because most people don't know what it is?
I share your enthusiam an excitement for the revolution. I just don't think this is it. Yet. Godwilling, it will happen before all innovation is completely outlawed, and it will happen quickly so that we can all enjoy it for a little while before the creator(s) get sued into submission.
You're right. When I read the summary, I thought this was referring to IP TV, like television content being beamed to your PSP or laptop.
It is, but only sort of. The idea is that you have a base station set up at your house, and your PSP or laptop is a receiver for television from your base station. In other words, you're getting the IP "signal" from your base station, not from the content providers directly. The content providers are still using traditional means of getting tv to your base station (i.e. cable, broadcast, or satellite).
You have to use Sony's software (or hardware, if using a PSP) to access your base station. Frankly, I'm not so sure I trust Sony's software on my machine. Their record recently in this regard isn't too encouraging. Aren't there already open source alternatives that will let you have this kind of functionality already? I mean, maybe not on the PSP, but at least on a laptop set up as a MythTV front end or something?
And personally, Location Free televsision doesn't get me too excited, because I'm never away from my house for that long a period at a time. What I'd really like to see is Network Executive Free television.
It seems to me that it all boils down (no pun intended) to the different efficiencies between conventional electric water heaters and microwave water heaters.
If the efficiency of a resistor-based electric water heater is x and the efficiency of a microwave-based electric water heater is y, and y > x, then my math says that a microwave water heater is more cost-effective from an electricity point of view and can heat water faster. Neither of them have to be 100%, and in fact, that's impossible. All that matters is that one is better than the other.
One thing I know for sure is that there are existing on-demand water heaters, so I assume the press release means that the microwave technology is cheaper or otherwise better.
I have to admit that I lied about one thing, though: that pun was actually intended. Sorry about that, I promise I won't lie again in this post.
According to the article regarding the Sandra benchmarks:
"Part of its draw is that users receive a performance rating for their computers within seconds. Since this is a synthetic benchmark, it sometimes yields results that seem out of touch with reality."
I'm reading that as Tom's Hardware's way of saying, "Look, we know that these results don't match up with every other real-world test we conducted, and we suspect that it's the test that's wrong, not the real-world results.
The only thing that confuses me is that if AMD's processors are cheaper, faster, and run cooler, how is Intel still selling any processors at all? Are that many people diehard Blue Man Group fans?
Three mice were sitting in a bar, each trying to impress the others with how tough they were.
The first one said, "When I see a mousetrap, I deliberately set it off, bench press the bar fifty times, then snack on the cheese."
The second one, not to be outdone, said, "Yeah? Well, every morning when I get out of bed, I stir in some cream and rat poison in my coffee. It gives me a good buzz that really wakes me up and gets me going."
They both look at the third mouse who, after a few seconds, gets up and says, "I don't have time for this bullshit. I've got to go home and fuck the cat."
But in a federal filing, the [State] department said that 98.5 percent of the 2,335 comments it received since it issued proposed rules last spring opposed the program.
Abraham Lincoln once said "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I don't know about you all, but I think that Abe was a pretty wise man with a great idea. I sure wish that our government was like that...
I can't help but wonder what would happen if everyone started "accidentally" microwaving their passports.
The difference with the PS2 was that people actually wanted a PS2.
I may be wrong, but I just don't see the demand for a Xbox 360 at launch as high as the demand for a PS2 at launch, so I find it hard to believe that there's going to be a massive shortage.
This isn't meant to be a ding against Microsoft; I have an Xbox and thoroughly enjoy it. And the same thing happened to Sony's PSP—lots of hype about shortages that never happened because the demand just wasn't there.
And personally, I resent these shortages. I think that a lot of times, they're foreseeable, and yes, the companies do it deliberately so that they can proudly proclaim that their systems sold out with people begging for more.
I just think that Microsoft is going to be sadly disappointed in this case because 1) it's too soon after the Xbox and PS2 launches to introduce a new game console, and 2) nothing about it is very revolutionary that will make people have to have one.
Oh well, like I said, maybe I'm wrong. I guess we'll see!
It doesn't matter what the intention is.
on
Patents vs. Secrecy
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I see classifying everything more as a "cover your ass" type policy than some high level conspiracy against the US citizens.
You may be right.
...But you may not. That's kind of the point. When everything is a secret whether there's a valid reason or not, none of us knows what kinds of motivations are at work behind the scenes.
Even if I give the people in charge now the benefit of a doubt and pretend like all they're doing is covering their ass, it doesn't change the fact that now that the precedent is set and government secrecy is the rule, not the exception, there's nothing to stop someone who is truly evil from taking power and wreaking havoc the likes of which this planet has never seen.
Imagine a modern-day Hitler. (No, I'm not comparing him to George Bush, I'm talking about a hypothetical person who's litierally—word used correctly—much more evil.) Does anyone remember that he was Time Magazine's Man of the Year of 1938? As he was working his way into power, people loved him, because he seemed like an average working-class guy who wanted to do right by the German people. They had no clue what future atrocities were to come. It's not too hard for me to imagine someone like that being elected in this country. Now imagine if this modern-day Hitler managed to get in charge of the one and only world superpower, and that once he started doing things like, well, Hitler did, there was no way to hold him accountable. No one knew because all of his actions were classified as national security secrets. Hey, wait, isn't that pretty much exactly what happened back then?
Again, I'm not saying that that is what's going on right now, but who knows? Maybe it is. But even if it's not, if we allow a political environment in which it can happen, there's nothing to stop it from happening in 2008. Or 2012. Or 2016. Because it can, it's just a matter of time before it does. Such is the nature of absolute power.
Is this what we really want?
I'm sorry, but whether they're covering their asses or trying to take over the world doesn't change the fact that what they're doing is evil, and it literally—word used correctly—has the potential to destroy any semblance of freedom in this country and maybe even the whole world.
And to the parent post, that was an excellent point about the government not letting us keep any secrets from them. I've never really thought about it before, but it's really a scary thought. Every intimate detail of my life is open to Uncle Sam, but when I ask stupid questions to try to make sure Uncle Sam's not evil, well, it's a totally different story.
People are so wrapped up in how Uncle Sam will protect us from the terrorists that they forget to ask the question that's much more important: Who will protect us from Uncle Sam?
Bit-torrent doesn't need [DNS], Google lets me find information anywhere without needing to remember domain names, and portable bookmarks make my life simple.
Bittorrent is an itty-bitty part of the services available on the Internet. And if you let search engines serve as your source for finding the location of resources you need, how is that better than DNS? It seems to me that you're just swapping one directory service for another, the second being corporately owned and changeable at their whim. Besides, without DNS, how are you going to even get to Google? http://64.233.161.99? Or maybe you prefer http://64.233.161.104/ or http://64.233.161.147?
Maybe you don't use DNS a lot, but the rest of the world sure as heck does. It's a basic network service that the Internet is almost useless without. Personally, I think it's pretty scary that one country that, frankly, the world doesn't find very trustworthy right now, controls it.
But I guess that's just me. Oh, and the rest of the world. (And for what it's worth I am American...)
GREAT in the sense of successful, of course, not in the sense of "good for the people."
You all are taking note of what he's trying to do, right? He's trying to transform the gamer community's reaction to his lunacy into attacks on his cause, which is, at least in his mind, protecting innocent kids and brave police officers.
It's just a matter of time before it becomes a real simple equation:
Disagreeing with Jack Thompson = Helping to kill cops
At that point, it becomes really easy to pass laws banning the types of videogames that Jack disagrees with. (Then movies, then web sites, maybe even books...)
Yep, he may be just a lawyer right now, but he clearly has higher intentions in mind, and he's using skills that have been taught very well over the past few years to get elected. It doesn't take too much gray matter to realize that soccer moms outnumber gaming advocates by a pretty wide margin, so who would you rather have included in your base?
The crying shame of it is that given America's record of picking leaders lately, he'll probably succeed, unless at least a few people not just read Slashdot, but actually act on what they read here.
Send a message, folks, and get out and vote. And not just for the big elections every four years. Vote in your Congressional elections. Vote in your state elections. Vote for your local councilmembers. Spread the word and get your friend to vote. Don't be afraid to use that fancy gaming machine to write a fickin' letter now and then. What do you say, can we please stop the ensuing madness to come before it gets started?
Jack wants to protect children and cops. Hey, I do too, I just happen to think he's going about it all wrong. The question in my mind now is: Who will protect the rest of us from Jack?
I can't speak for the parent, but one reason I'm attracted to MythTV is because of external modules, stuff like MythGame, MythWeather, MythPhone, etc.
As for TiVo, they still (for now) have one big advantage for me: I'm a DirecTV subscriber, and TiVo is the only device that will record the digital signal instead of the analog conversion. When DirecTV starts offering their own DVRs, I'll probably start using it instead. I love my TiVo and MythTV, but the most important thing to me is seeing what I watch in its glorious original quality.
Slashdot Mirror
Um, Sony is "the right people."
This isn't the case of Joe and Cousin Bob having the same last name. Sony Music and Sony the Buckyball Fuel Cell Makers is the same company.
If everyone goes out and buys six trillion dollar's worth of buckyball fuel cells, then Sony will use that money to fund Sony Music when everyone decides to hell with them so that they can keep pumping rootkits out to the public.
More importantly, they'll pump the profit from their buckyball fuel cells into buying more government goons who will make sure that every company puts rootkits on their CD's by law so that they can look not-so-bad in the grand scheme of things. They'll use the money to beat consumers into submission to the point where they simply resign themselves to thinking, "Well, I guess that's just the way things have to be now." In other words, it doesn't matter where you spend your money with Sony, every cent they get from you convinces them a little bit more that they were right and can do what they did again and get away with it.
No, those of us boycotting the entire company because of last month's debacle should not adjust things a bit. That's just what they're hoping you will do.
I'm sorry, but this article just lost any sense of credibility as being "the real" anything.
I've never had a problem with Gmail! I have no viruses in my inbox (and they now offer free virus scanning of your e-mail). I don't know what the hell you're talking about with the "buggy inbox" comment. It's always worked like a charm—no, make that better than a stupid old charm—for me on Firefox, IE, and Opera.
I was very skeptical of Gmail when a buddy sent me an invite way back when. I thought, "I have to read ads to see my e-mail? Forget it," and almost deleted the invitation. I went ahead and registered for an account, though, thinking that I could at least send files to myself and use it as an online repository. In no time, I had registered another "real" account that I use for all of my e-mail. I'm even a site admin, and I have all of my e-mail from the site forwarded to a Gmail account that I use because I like the client and the interface better than any POP client I've run across. (Yes, even Thunderbird.) If they'll just come out with Google Calendar, I'll probably even dump my work e-mail account!
Being a rather proud person, I hate to admit I'm wrong about something, but I was definitely wrong about that, and I'm glad I signed up. I highly recommend to everyone I know that they get a Gmail account, and it definitely earns that number two spot on that list.
I'm sick of THESE dupes.
You know what's fifty times worse than reading dupe stories? Reading frickin' "This is a dupe!" posts. If I had some mod points right now, you'd all be modded down -1 as trolls. Jesus, if a story's posted twice, why can't people just fickin' ignore it!?
Oh yeah, because complaining about how a story isn't very useful or entertaining is so useful and entertaining, right?
sigh... Dammit, now I'm a troll. You people suck.
From Google's FAQ about the service:
I guess you could always argue that a "short period of time" isn't good enough, or simply choose not to believe Google, but that statement is a heck of a lot better than you'd get from anyone else, I think.
Google has a good reputation; call me gullible, but given their history, I'm willing to believe that they're doing this to make revenue from the advertisers, not from selling your personal information.
The run-up to Christmas? Wouldn't it be more likely that it will climb after Christmas, after said iPods are opened and starting to be used?
God, that's funny.
In NASA's defense, "bounces like a cannonball" was the submitter's phrase, not the article's. The article says:
This simile, while still perhaps antiquated, makes a lot more sense.
/still imagining "bouncing" cannonballs...
Yes, TFA mentioned it specifically as quartz.
Ew.
The thing that makes moondust more bothersome that earth quartz dust is that the moondust is charged by UV rays, which causes it to be a lot more sticky than quartz dust is here. Also, the cannonball reference was to the dust flying up off the surface of the moon, which means that the astronauts' spacesuits (and moonbase, once we build one) will be covered from above and below in the stuff. It'll be hard to keep the stuff out if the astronauts come and go often, and once in, it can wreak havoc on their health over the relatively short period of time of a few months.
Go with the moon dust. After the PS3 and Revolution come out, the moon dust will still be cool. ;-)
Yeah.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicolunarconiosis.
I think that if this study proves that moondust can be dangerous, any astronauts stationed to a moonbase should probably just stay inside. Or at least, cover their mouths while they're roaming around outside. No sense in risking your health by walking around outside on the moon without any kind of protection for your lungs.
No, I got it, I just chose to respond to it seriously. (I thought that the "enthusiasm" comment would hint at a little bit of tit-for-tat sarcasm...)
As I said, though the parent's post was humorous, I really do think that IPtv will be revolutionary. But as I also said, this ain't it.
Well, that depends.
I don't think this is the start of a new era yet. I think that will come when content providers start skipping traditional media distribution channels (movie theaters and television networks) and distributing content directly to the consumers via the Internet. All this device does is extend the reach of traditional media distribution channels.
Frankly, I see this device as merely another tool that companies like Sony can use to try to control and observe where, when, and how consumers can watch content that they and their cohorts provide. I know, it sounds cynical, but this is Sony we're talking about here. You know, the same folks that thought installing a rootkit on your computer is okay because most people don't know what it is?
I share your enthusiam an excitement for the revolution. I just don't think this is it. Yet. Godwilling, it will happen before all innovation is completely outlawed, and it will happen quickly so that we can all enjoy it for a little while before the creator(s) get sued into submission.
You're right. When I read the summary, I thought this was referring to IP TV, like television content being beamed to your PSP or laptop.
It is, but only sort of. The idea is that you have a base station set up at your house, and your PSP or laptop is a receiver for television from your base station. In other words, you're getting the IP "signal" from your base station, not from the content providers directly. The content providers are still using traditional means of getting tv to your base station (i.e. cable, broadcast, or satellite).
You have to use Sony's software (or hardware, if using a PSP) to access your base station. Frankly, I'm not so sure I trust Sony's software on my machine. Their record recently in this regard isn't too encouraging. Aren't there already open source alternatives that will let you have this kind of functionality already? I mean, maybe not on the PSP, but at least on a laptop set up as a MythTV front end or something?
And personally, Location Free televsision doesn't get me too excited, because I'm never away from my house for that long a period at a time. What I'd really like to see is Network Executive Free television.
I thought I remembered this article from a few days ago. It seems that even Dell is finally starting to see the light.
Could it be that Intel's days as a CPU manufacturer are numbered?
It seems to me that it all boils down (no pun intended) to the different efficiencies between conventional electric water heaters and microwave water heaters.
If the efficiency of a resistor-based electric water heater is x and the efficiency of a microwave-based electric water heater is y, and y > x, then my math says that a microwave water heater is more cost-effective from an electricity point of view and can heat water faster. Neither of them have to be 100%, and in fact, that's impossible. All that matters is that one is better than the other.
One thing I know for sure is that there are existing on-demand water heaters, so I assume the press release means that the microwave technology is cheaper or otherwise better.
I have to admit that I lied about one thing, though: that pun was actually intended. Sorry about that, I promise I won't lie again in this post.
Three mice were sitting in a bar, each trying to impress the others with how tough they were.
The first one said, "When I see a mousetrap, I deliberately set it off, bench press the bar fifty times, then snack on the cheese."
The second one, not to be outdone, said, "Yeah? Well, every morning when I get out of bed, I stir in some cream and rat poison in my coffee. It gives me a good buzz that really wakes me up and gets me going."
They both look at the third mouse who, after a few seconds, gets up and says, "I don't have time for this bullshit. I've got to go home and fuck the cat."
From TFA:
Abraham Lincoln once said "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I don't know about you all, but I think that Abe was a pretty wise man with a great idea. I sure wish that our government was like that...
I can't help but wonder what would happen if everyone started "accidentally" microwaving their passports.
Since someone wants Microsoft to sound like a tough SOB out to wreak havoc on those who would do us harm.
Would you go see a movie that is described as "A New York City architect becomes a one-man honeypot after his wife is murdered..."?
The difference with the PS2 was that people actually wanted a PS2.
I may be wrong, but I just don't see the demand for a Xbox 360 at launch as high as the demand for a PS2 at launch, so I find it hard to believe that there's going to be a massive shortage.
This isn't meant to be a ding against Microsoft; I have an Xbox and thoroughly enjoy it. And the same thing happened to Sony's PSP—lots of hype about shortages that never happened because the demand just wasn't there.
And personally, I resent these shortages. I think that a lot of times, they're foreseeable, and yes, the companies do it deliberately so that they can proudly proclaim that their systems sold out with people begging for more.
I just think that Microsoft is going to be sadly disappointed in this case because 1) it's too soon after the Xbox and PS2 launches to introduce a new game console, and 2) nothing about it is very revolutionary that will make people have to have one.
Oh well, like I said, maybe I'm wrong. I guess we'll see!
You may be right.
...But you may not. That's kind of the point. When everything is a secret whether there's a valid reason or not, none of us knows what kinds of motivations are at work behind the scenes.
Even if I give the people in charge now the benefit of a doubt and pretend like all they're doing is covering their ass, it doesn't change the fact that now that the precedent is set and government secrecy is the rule, not the exception, there's nothing to stop someone who is truly evil from taking power and wreaking havoc the likes of which this planet has never seen.
Imagine a modern-day Hitler. (No, I'm not comparing him to George Bush, I'm talking about a hypothetical person who's litierally—word used correctly—much more evil.) Does anyone remember that he was Time Magazine's Man of the Year of 1938? As he was working his way into power, people loved him, because he seemed like an average working-class guy who wanted to do right by the German people. They had no clue what future atrocities were to come. It's not too hard for me to imagine someone like that being elected in this country. Now imagine if this modern-day Hitler managed to get in charge of the one and only world superpower, and that once he started doing things like, well, Hitler did, there was no way to hold him accountable. No one knew because all of his actions were classified as national security secrets. Hey, wait, isn't that pretty much exactly what happened back then?
Again, I'm not saying that that is what's going on right now, but who knows? Maybe it is. But even if it's not, if we allow a political environment in which it can happen, there's nothing to stop it from happening in 2008. Or 2012. Or 2016. Because it can, it's just a matter of time before it does. Such is the nature of absolute power.
Is this what we really want?
I'm sorry, but whether they're covering their asses or trying to take over the world doesn't change the fact that what they're doing is evil, and it literally—word used correctly—has the potential to destroy any semblance of freedom in this country and maybe even the whole world.
And to the parent post, that was an excellent point about the government not letting us keep any secrets from them. I've never really thought about it before, but it's really a scary thought. Every intimate detail of my life is open to Uncle Sam, but when I ask stupid questions to try to make sure Uncle Sam's not evil, well, it's a totally different story.
People are so wrapped up in how Uncle Sam will protect us from the terrorists that they forget to ask the question that's much more important: Who will protect us from Uncle Sam?
Bittorrent is an itty-bitty part of the services available on the Internet. And if you let search engines serve as your source for finding the location of resources you need, how is that better than DNS? It seems to me that you're just swapping one directory service for another, the second being corporately owned and changeable at their whim. Besides, without DNS, how are you going to even get to Google? http://64.233.161.99? Or maybe you prefer http://64.233.161.104/ or http://64.233.161.147?
Maybe you don't use DNS a lot, but the rest of the world sure as heck does. It's a basic network service that the Internet is almost useless without. Personally, I think it's pretty scary that one country that, frankly, the world doesn't find very trustworthy right now, controls it.
But I guess that's just me. Oh, and the rest of the world. (And for what it's worth I am American...)
GREAT in the sense of successful, of course, not in the sense of "good for the people."
You all are taking note of what he's trying to do, right? He's trying to transform the gamer community's reaction to his lunacy into attacks on his cause, which is, at least in his mind, protecting innocent kids and brave police officers.
It's just a matter of time before it becomes a real simple equation:
Disagreeing with Jack Thompson = Helping to kill cops
At that point, it becomes really easy to pass laws banning the types of videogames that Jack disagrees with. (Then movies, then web sites, maybe even books...)
Yep, he may be just a lawyer right now, but he clearly has higher intentions in mind, and he's using skills that have been taught very well over the past few years to get elected. It doesn't take too much gray matter to realize that soccer moms outnumber gaming advocates by a pretty wide margin, so who would you rather have included in your base?
The crying shame of it is that given America's record of picking leaders lately, he'll probably succeed, unless at least a few people not just read Slashdot, but actually act on what they read here.
Send a message, folks, and get out and vote. And not just for the big elections every four years. Vote in your Congressional elections. Vote in your state elections. Vote for your local councilmembers. Spread the word and get your friend to vote. Don't be afraid to use that fancy gaming machine to write a fickin' letter now and then. What do you say, can we please stop the ensuing madness to come before it gets started?
Jack wants to protect children and cops. Hey, I do too, I just happen to think he's going about it all wrong. The question in my mind now is: Who will protect the rest of us from Jack?
I can't speak for the parent, but one reason I'm attracted to MythTV is because of external modules, stuff like MythGame, MythWeather, MythPhone, etc.
As for TiVo, they still (for now) have one big advantage for me: I'm a DirecTV subscriber, and TiVo is the only device that will record the digital signal instead of the analog conversion. When DirecTV starts offering their own DVRs, I'll probably start using it instead. I love my TiVo and MythTV, but the most important thing to me is seeing what I watch in its glorious original quality.