Why do you need to change the structure of the copyright laws? It seems to me that we already live in the perfect copyright world because you, as a content producer, are free to protect your content with copyright or not! There is nothing stopping you from producing your own content and releasing it under terms that allow free distribution and copying.
Why don't you do that with the fruits of your own labor rather than obsessing over the fruits of other producers labor.
Re:Most typical line ever
on
Layoffs at OSDL
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· Score: 1, Troll
I see a lot of arm chair quarter backs posting here. Why don't one of you start your own company and take on some real life responsibility for once?
Let's start with you mattmentecky: what's stopping you from starting your own company and running it exactly as you suggest here? Perhaps you can grow a company from start up to a beloved worldwide corporation and never lay anybody off!
ElMiguel, your sentiment is good hearted but naive. IBM, in this context, has several competing ethical interests. For one, IBM has an ethical obligation to the employees that survived the layoff to maintain a viable business. Perhaps if those 10,000 are not laid off, IBM will not have enough reserve cash to fight a brutal price war with their competitors. When that price war is lost then all IBM employees will lose their jobs. It's simple, lay off 10,000 to protect the remaining 100,000.
Not the web kind? The real ocean kind, like Gidget.
How are the Portugese long boarders going to hang ten, dude, if the wave energy is used to make electricity? I'd rather have brown sunsets from the power plants than give up some good waves!
I'm talking about government censorship in China and you start ripping the intelligence of the average American. That's an interesting diversion, but I won't go for it.
Blogging has not caught on in China because citizens in China have learned to keep their head down and stay quiet to avoid jail time or being murdered by army tanks. Blogging cannot work where there is government oversight and censorship. Especially not when the government in question has a long track record in stifling free expression.
Actually, I think it's being held onto by JFK and Marilyn Monroe. They are just off camera and it's their little joke after being banished to Mars by a conspiracy of Free Masons. This is the most fun they've had since JFK went limp in 1995 and they had to stop boinking.
There is not one professional reviewer that does not also have an unfinished or unsold screenplay in their dresser drawer. They all are working in their second choice for a career. Their first choice would be film director or screen writer, the very people they criticize.
You've hit on the precise problem. Laws that are difficult to enforce are only enforced intermittently. It's not much of a stretch to get 'intermittent' enforcement to be 'arbitrary' enforcement, all you need is a tyrant.
In a world where enforcement is rare, there will be a lot of violators. In that world the tyrants can begin to pick and choose who to enforce the law against.
If you heavily tax people who own more than one house, what do you think would happen to the supply of rental housing?
Your methods sure sound very heavy handed. What are the benefits we would gain by giving up so much personal freedom?
Great point! I don't like the idea of our jobs being lost to slaves in bondage to immoral governments.
But, just to create a strawman... Let's say that Country X had a stable system of laws and ethical treatment of workers who are simply willing to work for less. Do you still want to use governmental power to protect domestic jobs from going to Country X?
I see. So, in your world we have a USA where you will pay a protected worker $10 to produce a widget that will be purchasable for $12. Why am I not free as a consumer to import that widget for $7 and thereby pay a foreign worker $5? Are you going to stand in the way of the open and voluntary relationship I have with the foreign worker? It's clear who the losers are in that scenario: the consumer and the foreign worker.
Why should the domestic worker be entitled to utilize the force of government to screw over the consumer and the foreign worker?
This would be a counter productive act on the part of the business. If you exercise heavy handed prior restraint on your employees because they might do something wrong then there is a culture of management treating employees like children. Inevitably, the employees will react by ducking real responsibilities and gaming the paternalistic system that you set up. Your business will fail.
Corporations are merely voluntary collectives of individual humans. I don't see why those individuals should give up their rights just because they choose to be part of a corporation.
Will there be a solid implementation of 64 bit java to go with this new system? I see benefit in allowing java server applications to go beyond the current 2GB limit that 32 bit java applcations are faced with.
Teach Critical Thinking In Schools
on
Paul Graham on PR
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· Score: 1
I agree that we should teach strong critical thinking skills in our schools. One problem is that there are many teachers out there with a self appointed mandate to teach people what to think (political correctness) rather than how to think. They call this 'critical thinking' when it is the opposite.
Slashdot Mirror
Why do you need to change the structure of the copyright laws? It seems to me that we already live in the perfect copyright world because you, as a content producer, are free to protect your content with copyright or not! There is nothing stopping you from producing your own content and releasing it under terms that allow free distribution and copying.
Why don't you do that with the fruits of your own labor rather than obsessing over the fruits of other producers labor.
I see a lot of arm chair quarter backs posting here. Why don't one of you start your own company and take on some real life responsibility for once?
Let's start with you mattmentecky: what's stopping you from starting your own company and running it exactly as you suggest here? Perhaps you can grow a company from start up to a beloved worldwide corporation and never lay anybody off!
Have you ever heard of the parable of The Ant and The Grasshopper?
Only the paranoid businesses survive.
ElMiguel, your sentiment is good hearted but naive. IBM, in this context, has several competing ethical interests. For one, IBM has an ethical obligation to the employees that survived the layoff to maintain a viable business. Perhaps if those 10,000 are not laid off, IBM will not have enough reserve cash to fight a brutal price war with their competitors. When that price war is lost then all IBM employees will lose their jobs. It's simple, lay off 10,000 to protect the remaining 100,000.
Not the web kind? The real ocean kind, like Gidget.
How are the Portugese long boarders going to hang ten, dude, if the wave energy is used to make electricity? I'd rather have brown sunsets from the power plants than give up some good waves!
How many of these are hosted and posted to from inside the PRC?
I'm talking about government censorship in China and you start ripping the intelligence of the average American. That's an interesting diversion, but I won't go for it.
How about:
Tianennmen Square
Or this example
Do you think the PRC government will allow free and open expression in blogs?
Blogging has not caught on in China because citizens in China have learned to keep their head down and stay quiet to avoid jail time or being murdered by army tanks. Blogging cannot work where there is government oversight and censorship. Especially not when the government in question has a long track record in stifling free expression.
Actually, I think it's being held onto by JFK and Marilyn Monroe. They are just off camera and it's their little joke after being banished to Mars by a conspiracy of Free Masons. This is the most fun they've had since JFK went limp in 1995 and they had to stop boinking.
There is not one professional reviewer that does not also have an unfinished or unsold screenplay in their dresser drawer. They all are working in their second choice for a career. Their first choice would be film director or screen writer, the very people they criticize.
What do you mean by this? If you were mayor, would you block the move? Why?
You've hit on the precise problem. Laws that are difficult to enforce are only enforced intermittently. It's not much of a stretch to get 'intermittent' enforcement to be 'arbitrary' enforcement, all you need is a tyrant.
In a world where enforcement is rare, there will be a lot of violators. In that world the tyrants can begin to pick and choose who to enforce the law against.
I agree. Stallman is a 'true believer' in the same vein as Ted Kaczynski, David Duke, and Pol Pot.
If you heavily tax people who own more than one house, what do you think would happen to the supply of rental housing? Your methods sure sound very heavy handed. What are the benefits we would gain by giving up so much personal freedom?
How do you propose that we fight for low real estate cost? Tell me how you would lower real estate prices.
Great point! I don't like the idea of our jobs being lost to slaves in bondage to immoral governments.
But, just to create a strawman... Let's say that Country X had a stable system of laws and ethical treatment of workers who are simply willing to work for less. Do you still want to use governmental power to protect domestic jobs from going to Country X?
I see. So, in your world we have a USA where you will pay a protected worker $10 to produce a widget that will be purchasable for $12. Why am I not free as a consumer to import that widget for $7 and thereby pay a foreign worker $5? Are you going to stand in the way of the open and voluntary relationship I have with the foreign worker? It's clear who the losers are in that scenario: the consumer and the foreign worker.
Why should the domestic worker be entitled to utilize the force of government to screw over the consumer and the foreign worker?
And everyone else can eat cake! Right?
What about your moral obligation to your fellow man? Doesn't that extend to workers outside of the USA?
This would be a counter productive act on the part of the business. If you exercise heavy handed prior restraint on your employees because they might do something wrong then there is a culture of management treating employees like children. Inevitably, the employees will react by ducking real responsibilities and gaming the paternalistic system that you set up. Your business will fail.
I thought the saga had 9 chapters. We saw 4,5,6,1,2 and soon we'll see 3. What about 7, 8, and 9?
What rights to corporations have in addition to those of their members?
Corporations are merely voluntary collectives of individual humans. I don't see why those individuals should give up their rights just because they choose to be part of a corporation.
Will there be a solid implementation of 64 bit java to go with this new system? I see benefit in allowing java server applications to go beyond the current 2GB limit that 32 bit java applcations are faced with.
I agree that we should teach strong critical thinking skills in our schools. One problem is that there are many teachers out there with a self appointed mandate to teach people what to think (political correctness) rather than how to think. They call this 'critical thinking' when it is the opposite.
Is there anything wrong with PR people doing PR? Is anyone out there suggesting that some benevolent authority should intervene and saves us from PR?