Not to be a downer... I'm not telling everyone to give up on fighting the good fight or anything.
The internet is based on people like us; it uses people and buisnesses to build it's infrastructure. The government can't shut it down or anything, you're right: Our economy is highly dependant on it right now. It WILL NEVER BE SHUT DOWN. It can't; it extends beyond the jurisdiction of any government or country. What I'm saying is that INDUCE and the DMCA are the "big" people's way of dealing with threats on profit or censorship. It's not conspiratorial or anything, it's just buisness. To estabolish a bounty on circumvention software is playing it their way; but we're bringing politics into an intangible place, which is impossible. The beauty of the internet is it's inherant freedom from such economic and political constraints... For every guy they have trying to come up with ways around public copyright infringement, there are 10000+ guys around the world coming up with countermanding solutions.
But don't forget: Regardless of how extortionate the MPAA and RIAA are, infringing on the laws that protect their property is still going to be illegal! My personal favorite coutermand to this problem is opsound.org. They've got the right idea: stop stealing the trash music... download it from musicians who want you to hear it and don't care one wit about coin.
Not smart... Public statements like this will rile things up too much. They'll end up shooting themselves in the foot by pushing the government and the RIAA like that. It's like over-vaccinating diseases: While it solves a problem at hand, the disease evolves because of it, possibly into something really bad.
Look at the DMCA: that is drastic, malevolent evolution if I could ever spot it. No, no... I think that the way it's been since Napster is just fine: Slow, steady activisim that pushes authority in the correct direction without unnecessary vigor.
I've been allocating a bit of my thinking time to internet phenomina like this and something recently occured to me: The internet (to me) seems like the perfect rendition of communisim... Not evil, McCarthy communisim, but rather the way it's supposed to function; it's adacemic, ideal form. Everyone is the same. There is no perceived rule over the information that flows through it. Heck! even the physical infrastructure that makes the internet possible is just a suggestion; a group of standards that people aggree upon to make things work properly. I enjoy imagining a society not unlike the matrix, where I can patch in and exist in a digital way (I guess you can already, but this would be more profound) I would have millions of other people in the same universe, no rules, no private economy, just suggestions to live by... Look at how well it works right now... there is no problem with the internet asside from the fact that it interferes with life in the (excuse yet another matrix allusion) "real world" I sincerely hope that someday, this generation will be able to experience something akin to Neil Stephenson's "Metaverse" in his CyberPunk novel: Snow Crash... Damn cool stuff if you ask me!
That'd be sooo cool!!!
An entire nation of hackers, typing with one hand (faster than I can type) whilst the other twiddles a ballpoint-grenade...
Cool...
On the contrary: I think this weapon will be good for everything... It is a lot of money, so I suspect that the technology will be implemented on a wide basis in a few decades... Imagine this thing strapped to a battle ship/sub or in strategic locations around the country... or smaller, portable systems for tanks and infantry... they are so perfectly precise and instant. A new age high power rifle so to speak. I think that this is a good thing for the world all in all, less stray bullets and huge, meaningless explosions. More precise, calculated warfare.
Everyone keeps talking about this thing...
Do you bring it to bed with your girlfriend or something?
Someone told me that it's a mod for Half-Life 2, But the reviews are so good...
Naw! Nothing could be better than Half Life 2!
You guys are silly!
Because, Squeezer...
Slashdotters are, generally speaking, intelligent, curious people who care about the world in which they reside with a slight (if not extreme) bias for science and reasoning.
Bush cares nothing for these amazing characteristics of Homo Sapien Sapien, and is therefor, somewhat of an unpopular fellow...
Stay on topic you insensitive clod!
I bet the 2004 election would have yeilded similar results had we all submitted candidate's photographs to google and had them do a count on the image search.
Say it with me now:
"Recount!"
What I think is a big deal here is not that Bush is doing what we all knew was he going to do (whether you think it be good or bad) It's that the news is reporting to the world decisions as made by the "U.S" When in fact these decisions are made by only 50% of the population.
That means that approximately 50% of we Americans are misrepresented as individuals to the rest of the world.
Let's get one thing straight:
The U.S. does not oppose the Kyoto Environmental Treaty.
Bush and and HALF the U.S. population (at most) opposes the Kyoto Environmental Treaty.
Don't put the other half of us in that boat...
Slashdot Mirror
Not to be a downer... I'm not telling everyone to give up on fighting the good fight or anything. The internet is based on people like us; it uses people and buisnesses to build it's infrastructure. The government can't shut it down or anything, you're right: Our economy is highly dependant on it right now. It WILL NEVER BE SHUT DOWN. It can't; it extends beyond the jurisdiction of any government or country. What I'm saying is that INDUCE and the DMCA are the "big" people's way of dealing with threats on profit or censorship. It's not conspiratorial or anything, it's just buisness. To estabolish a bounty on circumvention software is playing it their way; but we're bringing politics into an intangible place, which is impossible. The beauty of the internet is it's inherant freedom from such economic and political constraints... For every guy they have trying to come up with ways around public copyright infringement, there are 10000+ guys around the world coming up with countermanding solutions. But don't forget: Regardless of how extortionate the MPAA and RIAA are, infringing on the laws that protect their property is still going to be illegal! My personal favorite coutermand to this problem is opsound.org. They've got the right idea: stop stealing the trash music... download it from musicians who want you to hear it and don't care one wit about coin.
Not smart... Public statements like this will rile things up too much. They'll end up shooting themselves in the foot by pushing the government and the RIAA like that.
It's like over-vaccinating diseases: While it solves a problem at hand, the disease evolves because of it, possibly into something really bad.
Look at the DMCA: that is drastic, malevolent evolution if I could ever spot it.
No, no... I think that the way it's been since Napster is just fine: Slow, steady activisim that pushes authority in the correct direction without unnecessary vigor.
I've been allocating a bit of my thinking time to internet phenomina like this and something recently occured to me: The internet (to me) seems like the perfect rendition of communisim... Not evil, McCarthy communisim, but rather the way it's supposed to function; it's adacemic, ideal form.
Everyone is the same. There is no perceived rule over the information that flows through it. Heck! even the physical infrastructure that makes the internet possible is just a suggestion; a group of standards that people aggree upon to make things work properly. I enjoy imagining a society not unlike the matrix, where I can patch in and exist in a digital way (I guess you can already, but this would be more profound) I would have millions of other people in the same universe, no rules, no private economy, just suggestions to live by... Look at how well it works right now... there is no problem with the internet asside from the fact that it interferes with life in the (excuse yet another matrix allusion) "real world"
I sincerely hope that someday, this generation will be able to experience something akin to Neil Stephenson's "Metaverse" in his CyberPunk novel: Snow Crash... Damn cool stuff if you ask me!
That'd be sooo cool!!! An entire nation of hackers, typing with one hand (faster than I can type) whilst the other twiddles a ballpoint-grenade... Cool...
On the contrary: I think this weapon will be good for everything...
It is a lot of money, so I suspect that the technology will be implemented on a wide basis in a few decades...
Imagine this thing strapped to a battle ship/sub
or in strategic locations around the country... or smaller, portable systems for tanks and infantry...
they are so perfectly precise and instant. A new age high power rifle so to speak.
I think that this is a good thing for the world all in all, less stray bullets and huge, meaningless explosions. More precise, calculated warfare.
Yeah... There is a commercial for HL2 directly adjacent to the original post... release date in stores? 11/16/04.
Irony can be the darndest thing.
Everyone keeps talking about this thing... Do you bring it to bed with your girlfriend or something? Someone told me that it's a mod for Half-Life 2, But the reviews are so good... Naw! Nothing could be better than Half Life 2! You guys are silly!
Because, Squeezer... Slashdotters are, generally speaking, intelligent, curious people who care about the world in which they reside with a slight (if not extreme) bias for science and reasoning. Bush cares nothing for these amazing characteristics of Homo Sapien Sapien, and is therefor, somewhat of an unpopular fellow... Stay on topic you insensitive clod!
I bet the 2004 election would have yeilded similar results had we all submitted candidate's photographs to google and had them do a count on the image search. Say it with me now: "Recount!"
What I think is a big deal here is not that Bush is doing what we all knew was he going to do (whether you think it be good or bad) It's that the news is reporting to the world decisions as made by the "U.S" When in fact these decisions are made by only 50% of the population. That means that approximately 50% of we Americans are misrepresented as individuals to the rest of the world.
Let's get one thing straight: The U.S. does not oppose the Kyoto Environmental Treaty. Bush and and HALF the U.S. population (at most) opposes the Kyoto Environmental Treaty. Don't put the other half of us in that boat...