A lot of innocent people have been robbed, imprisoned, tortured, and killed legally. Legal is not the same thing as right.
You have a valid point but I think your argument is misplaced. The point the parent was trying to make is that a reviewed and independantly authorized surveillance action is just fine in his world. I would have to agree. I am against government surveillance of all citizens but I am just fine with surveillance that is targetted at criminals when such surveillance is reveiwed and authorized by an external (judicial) entity.
Because, while I find myself admiring and agreeing with RMS quite often, I also feel that he fails to appreciate the merits of any opposing viewpoints. Experience beyond his catbird seat as chief agitator of the FSF might temper the fellow nicely.
So you think RMS will just shrug his shoulders, sigh, and say, "Well, it was a business necessity.", when all of the information becomes locked up? For myself, there is no justification for this to happen. Period. I could be wrong, but I suspect that RMS and others would agree.
The reaction the open source community finally arrives at as a whole will be an indication of wether or not it has matured to the point where it can function as a legitimate entity in the business world.
Your comment does not parse. Groups are not individuals. The "open source community" will never be able to "function as a legitimate entity in the business world." because as far as I can tell, the "open source community" does not particularly care about the business world. If they did, they would not be writing open source software.
If the business world sees a way to integrate open source software/practices/whatever into their business plans, great. If they don't, again, great.
I just feel dirty speaking of all of the varied interests, business and open source, as entities with goals that are common to all of the individuals that are grouped within them.
The questions of "too many choices?" implies that there is a way to limit choices...
What are they going to do? Stop us from building new software? Force us to write to their standards? Sorry, my time is my own. I can write whatever I want, to whatever standards that I want. How are they going to stop me?
WTF? By the time they get to "Bolshevik Revolution" the mods should have realized you were +1 funny, not +1 insightful. Ah well, if only they would share whatever they are smoking.:)
I think you missed his entire point: The effects of gravity make Black Holes easy to spot as opposed to planets which do not affect as much mass in their regions of space.
Oddly enough, I just got back from the Philippines. I arrived in Cebu a few days after a hurricane had passed by and all of the traffic lights were out. Traffic flowed pretty smoothly and in fact, looked pretty much like it does even with traffic lights. You must understand that they pretty much ignore the traffic lights anyways.
It was really weird. They use their horns all the time. It is for communication. Speeds were always low. I do not think anyone ever reached much more than 25mph. It took two hours to get through the city which is unacceptable for westerners on a tight time schedule. It is this tight time schedule that brings about the lack of safety that you fear.
In other words, you may have slightly more safety, however, you do waste LOTS of time.
I do not particularly mind when some of the wealth flows out of America to poorer countries. Why does it have to be my wealth though? I barely own anything as it is. Why can't the wealth come from those who have an abundance of it?
Did you write that yourself? It seems that you probably did because of how well it integrates with the topic. Your short story is quite enjoyable. Very well done. (no mod points right now, but you are at max anyways).
Your vote does not count. Why is there even any discussion about this? Is there anyone left who even slightly believes that the electronic voting machines accurately tally votes as cast?
It would seem it is time to change the discussion to what happens now that the vote has been taken from us.
So the 750$ is just the weighted average of the real potential damges, the only thing I don't understand is why the money doesn't got to the DHS.
Actually, let's go back to the stolen car analogy (as poor as it is). The thief is required to compensate you for the car (damages), however, the thief still has to spend time in jail for his crimes ($750 per song).
In other words, the $750 is not to compensate the RIAA, but rather it is to punish you. The law does state that the copyright holder gets those punitive damages so in that respect, the law is kind of odd.
If I understood all of that correctly, it is clearly conceded that the penalties are not compensatory in nature but rather they are punitive in nature. Therefore, there is no reason to lower them despite the fact that they are grossly out of line with the actual damages caused.
When I worked at... never mind which company, We were auditing the source to windows NT for the Navy. The reason why I say no as well is that we were not allowed to compile the code to do bit for bit comparisons on the binaries to verify that we had the code that were really supposed to be auditing.
It is only required to have the privilege of modifying or distributing software distributed under the GPL.
IIRC, this statement is not true either. If you change your "or" to an "and" it should fix it though. You are explicitly allowed to modify GPL software with no obligations incurred until you decide to distribute.
I do not usually reply to sigs, but yours just hit me like a ton of bricks:
"Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time." - ESR
User time is expensive, there is only one programmer but many users. If you are using machine time to save programmer time, then you are using users time to save programmer time. Notice how badly ESR's advice fails to be reasonable once all of the factors to the equation are added in?
Why do these morons always seem to assume that I will be happy to give control of my data and programs to an external entity? There will be NO convergence of web and desktop applications. Period. Reasons:
I want total control over my data. It is private. My business data is also not to be available to others except in ways that I determine.
I want total control over my programs. I do not want to be charged for each time I use a program. I do not want my programs changing behaviour without my explicit consent. A business can not be run under those kinds of parameters either.
Again, there will be NO convergence. A few applications may benefit from it. Webmail comes to mind. Regardless, there will always be local programs and local data.
I'd go a step further and ask what benefit a 64-bit OS has unless you have over 4GB RAM.
x86 chips are register-starved. When run in 32 bit mode, the 64 bit chips are running in register starvation mode. When they are running in 64 bit mode, they have many more registers available to them. More registers == more speed*
*applies only when register-starvation is a factor
Why does it have to be an either/or proposition? Why can't the framework for a personalized GUI be made available and then allow the user to choose what size/color they want their buttons, dialogs, etc? Put whatever default is currently in vogue such as flashy graphics or whatever and then let the user change it to suit their needs... kind of like how Windows XP lets you get rid of the PlaySkool interface and go back to classic mode. (oh my god, i just complimented microsoft! i think i can fix that real quick though) Microsoft did not go far enough in permitting personalization so I bought WindowBlinds and now I can have whatever kind of GUI that I want.
In short, fooey on corporately controlled GUIs and the people who whine about them.
As an example of good DRM usage, suppose I decide to use streaming media to do technology briefs within my company. I keep employees up to date on progress on new projects via a media stream, rather than staff meeting. However this is all confidential stuff, it's works in development and for it to get out would be harmful. Well, DRM allows me to control that and make sure someone doesn't just save the file on their laptop and walk it over to a competitor.
What is to stop an employee from just remembering what was said during the video stream and repeating it to a competitor?
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of innocent people have been robbed, imprisoned, tortured, and killed legally. Legal is not the same thing as right.
You have a valid point but I think your argument is misplaced. The point the parent was trying to make is that a reviewed and independantly authorized surveillance action is just fine in his world. I would have to agree. I am against government surveillance of all citizens but I am just fine with surveillance that is targetted at criminals when such surveillance is reveiwed and authorized by an external (judicial) entity.
strike
Because, while I find myself admiring and agreeing with RMS quite often, I also feel that he fails to appreciate the merits of any opposing viewpoints. Experience beyond his catbird seat as chief agitator of the FSF might temper the fellow nicely.
So you think RMS will just shrug his shoulders, sigh, and say, "Well, it was a business necessity.", when all of the information becomes locked up? For myself, there is no justification for this to happen. Period. I could be wrong, but I suspect that RMS and others would agree.
strike
The reaction the open source community finally arrives at as a whole will be an indication of wether or not it has matured to the point where it can function as a legitimate entity in the business world.
Your comment does not parse. Groups are not individuals. The "open source community" will never be able to "function as a legitimate entity in the business world." because as far as I can tell, the "open source community" does not particularly care about the business world. If they did, they would not be writing open source software.
If the business world sees a way to integrate open source software/practices/whatever into their business plans, great. If they don't, again, great.
I just feel dirty speaking of all of the varied interests, business and open source, as entities with goals that are common to all of the individuals that are grouped within them.
strike
The questions of "too many choices?" implies that there is a way to limit choices...
What are they going to do? Stop us from building new software? Force us to write to their standards? Sorry, my time is my own. I can write whatever I want, to whatever standards that I want. How are they going to stop me?
strike
WTF? By the time they get to "Bolshevik Revolution" the mods should have realized you were +1 funny, not +1 insightful. Ah well, if only they would share whatever they are smoking. :)
strike
"give people the opportunity to learn and they will surprise you."
:/
Most will not surprise you no matter how low your expectations are...
strike
I think you missed his entire point: The effects of gravity make Black Holes easy to spot as opposed to planets which do not affect as much mass in their regions of space.
strike
Your response is certainly informative; however, it takes all the funniness/silliness out of the parent comment.
strike
Oddly enough, I just got back from the Philippines. I arrived in Cebu a few days after a hurricane had passed by and all of the traffic lights were out. Traffic flowed pretty smoothly and in fact, looked pretty much like it does even with traffic lights. You must understand that they pretty much ignore the traffic lights anyways.
It was really weird. They use their horns all the time. It is for communication. Speeds were always low. I do not think anyone ever reached much more than 25mph. It took two hours to get through the city which is unacceptable for westerners on a tight time schedule. It is this tight time schedule that brings about the lack of safety that you fear.
In other words, you may have slightly more safety, however, you do waste LOTS of time.
strike
I do not particularly mind when some of the wealth flows out of America to poorer countries. Why does it have to be my wealth though? I barely own anything as it is. Why can't the wealth come from those who have an abundance of it?
strike
Did you write that yourself? It seems that you probably did because of how well it integrates with the topic. Your short story is quite enjoyable. Very well done. (no mod points right now, but you are at max anyways).
strike
He is really John Carmack unless someone hacked his account.
strike
You are missing the point. What you are doing is likely illegal; however, I find it to be highly ethical.
strike
I don't think all of the drool falling out of the corner of my mouth hurt anything. I could be wrong. :)
strike
Your vote does not count. Why is there even any discussion about this? Is there anyone left who even slightly believes that the electronic voting machines accurately tally votes as cast?
It would seem it is time to change the discussion to what happens now that the vote has been taken from us.
strike
Excellent. Thank you for clearing that up for me.
strike
So the 750$ is just the weighted average of the real potential damges, the only thing I don't understand is why the money doesn't got to the DHS.
Actually, let's go back to the stolen car analogy (as poor as it is). The thief is required to compensate you for the car (damages), however, the thief still has to spend time in jail for his crimes ($750 per song).
In other words, the $750 is not to compensate the RIAA, but rather it is to punish you. The law does state that the copyright holder gets those punitive damages so in that respect, the law is kind of odd.
strike
If I understood all of that correctly, it is clearly conceded that the penalties are not compensatory in nature but rather they are punitive in nature. Therefore, there is no reason to lower them despite the fact that they are grossly out of line with the actual damages caused.
Correct?
strike
Yes, and no. :)
... never mind which company, We were auditing the source to windows NT for the Navy. The reason why I say no as well is that we were not allowed to compile the code to do bit for bit comparisons on the binaries to verify that we had the code that were really supposed to be auditing.
When I worked at
strike
It is only required to have the privilege of modifying or distributing software distributed under the GPL.
IIRC, this statement is not true either. If you change your "or" to an "and" it should fix it though. You are explicitly allowed to modify GPL software with no obligations incurred until you decide to distribute.
strike
I do not usually reply to sigs, but yours just hit me like a ton of bricks:
"Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time." - ESR
User time is expensive, there is only one programmer but many users. If you are using machine time to save programmer time, then you are using users time to save programmer time. Notice how badly ESR's advice fails to be reasonable once all of the factors to the equation are added in?
strike
Why do these morons always seem to assume that I will be happy to give control of my data and programs to an external entity? There will be NO convergence of web and desktop applications. Period. Reasons:
I want total control over my data. It is private. My business data is also not to be available to others except in ways that I determine.
I want total control over my programs. I do not want to be charged for each time I use a program. I do not want my programs changing behaviour without my explicit consent. A business can not be run under those kinds of parameters either.
Again, there will be NO convergence. A few applications may benefit from it. Webmail comes to mind. Regardless, there will always be local programs and local data.
strike
I'd go a step further and ask what benefit a 64-bit OS has unless you have over 4GB RAM.
x86 chips are register-starved. When run in 32 bit mode, the 64 bit chips are running in register starvation mode. When they are running in 64 bit mode, they have many more registers available to them. More registers == more speed*
*applies only when register-starvation is a factor
strike
Why does it have to be an either/or proposition? Why can't the framework for a personalized GUI be made available and then allow the user to choose what size/color they want their buttons, dialogs, etc? Put whatever default is currently in vogue such as flashy graphics or whatever and then let the user change it to suit their needs... kind of like how Windows XP lets you get rid of the PlaySkool interface and go back to classic mode. (oh my god, i just complimented microsoft! i think i can fix that real quick though) Microsoft did not go far enough in permitting personalization so I bought WindowBlinds and now I can have whatever kind of GUI that I want.
In short, fooey on corporately controlled GUIs and the people who whine about them.
strike
As an example of good DRM usage, suppose I decide to use streaming media to do technology briefs within my company. I keep employees up to date on progress on new projects via a media stream, rather than staff meeting. However this is all confidential stuff, it's works in development and for it to get out would be harmful. Well, DRM allows me to control that and make sure someone doesn't just save the file on their laptop and walk it over to a competitor.
What is to stop an employee from just remembering what was said during the video stream and repeating it to a competitor?
strike