Well, we've learned two lessons:
1) Maybe it would be better if the government owned telecom and companies bought easily revocable leases and
2) We get about 20 years of real capitalism between monopoly breakups.
How far do you think the Rebels would have gotten if the Empire owned all their ships?
Vonage and Skype would be a solution if we had *gasp* publicly owned broadband. Until then we're at the mercy of whatever company we have. Comcast, Verizon, SBC et al can block VoIP at will, and we have no recourse.
How is surfing the Internet affecting anyone else, or infringing on their rights? This is the standard by which we should judge governmental actions.
The Chinese Government is unjustly limiting the freedoms of its populous by restricting actions that have no effect on the rights of others. To simply write it off means that you woudn't mind if the your government took away your Internet access to keep you from "bad things."
I find it funny that most right-wingers are such big apologists for brutal dictatorships we call "allies" and yet complain about our own "big government."
Part of Apple's Human Interface Guidelines is to avoid buttons that say "Okay" or "Yes." Buttons should have verbs in them telling the user what's going to happen. So, on a Mac, it says "Install" instead of "Okay." So you can be sure what's going to happen when you click it. Quite handy.
Deja vu is the equivalent of a buffer overrun in your brain. You see things before they happen and the best thing for your brain to do is to make you think you're psychic.
First, Google Maps is in Beta, and while that may be factually true about Microsoft software, it isn't literally true. A web site that is out of beta should work with every browser.
Second, Google is well known as a good interoperator. I'm sure once Google Maps is done they'll have figured a way to make it work equally well in all graphical browsers.
1. I highly doubt judges will admit any evidence gathered without a warrant.
2. Look at the cell phone system in this country. That's owned by PRIVATE COMPANIES. It's a piece of crap compared to systems all over the world. Systems that are more highly regulated by the government.
3. The $8 that is spent on wireless is $8 that's not spent in the community. If someone in Oakland gives Verizon $8 for wireless, that $8 leaves the community.
4. RTFA numbnuts, you can choose your ISP. The city sets up the infrastructure and other companies pay the city to provide access and the companies get access for their own systems.
5. And how can this not happen with a private network? The government already has control over private industry. If they wanted to, they could restrict the Internet. And private companies have already blocked P2P systems. And a lot of them even block ports 80 and 25. So how would the government be any worse?
I'd be happy to pay tax dollars for this. I guess I trust someone I can vote out of office more than someone who is protected by the high cost of entry into the industry.
The Happy Birthday Song? Yeah, that's owned by Disney. You're not allowed to use it without their express permission. So the next time you see a birthday on TV and they sing some fucked up song it's because they didn't pay Disney enough money to use it.
Of course, god help you if you put a video of your kids birthday on the Internet. "You didn't pay Disney! Won't someone think of the set designers?"
If you really, really don't like the MPAA, don't buy shit from them. Don't steal it or whatever you want to call it; just don't buy it. Support artists outside the system who want you to get their stuff for free.
People need to get over the fact that change requires sacrifice. Yes, you will have to go without seeing Episode III. Yes, you won't be able to rent DVDs, and you'll have to find a better place to take your dates, if you have one. But if you really want the change to happen, you'll deal with these minor inconveniences.
Otherwise you're just naive children who think they can get something for nothing.
They have till 2005 or 2006 to get it up. Any network done before then isn't subject to the law that my asshat representative supported.
As for the law: There's nothing stopping a community organization from building one. I think the public broadcasting model would work for a mesh network: Like it? Donate! Get some companies to sponsor and we're cool. No muss, no fuss, no multi-million-dollar executive salaries or golden parachutes.
The law's ass-backwards anyway. I don't see anything wrong with local government competing with business. Hell, it'll make them get their shit together and offer something better than 3Mbps down/784kbps up with a dynamic IP.
A human could do in a couple days what's taken each Mars rover over a year. A human would be able to negotiate more difficult terrain and find better samples than a rover. And a human would be able to change commands in the middle of the day.
Until we have robots that are capable of the mobility and reasoning of humans, we'll have to send humans to do more than scratch the surface.
I'd add to the request the ability for the power supply to handly multiple currents automatically and protect against surges, the ability to use alkaline batteries in a battery holder, and the ability to use 12V DC instead of AC for charging, automatically, since all cars and most solar cells use this.
I'm all for a manned mission, but the orbital probes do things that humans can't in an environment where humans are at a significant disadvantage.
Would you use the space station for weather observations or communication systems? Of course not, you'd use a satellite. But you can't use a robot to do paleological or geological work, which is why we need to send people.
Slashdot Mirror
And how is this different from coal power plants or the oil industry or, frankly *ANY* large corporation?
Well, we've learned two lessons:
1) Maybe it would be better if the government owned telecom and companies bought easily revocable leases and
2) We get about 20 years of real capitalism between monopoly breakups.
Vonage and Skype would be a solution if we had *gasp* publicly owned broadband. Until then we're at the mercy of whatever company we have. Comcast, Verizon, SBC et al can block VoIP at will, and we have no recourse.
The Chinese Government is unjustly limiting the freedoms of its populous by restricting actions that have no effect on the rights of others. To simply write it off means that you woudn't mind if the your government took away your Internet access to keep you from "bad things."
I find it funny that most right-wingers are such big apologists for brutal dictatorships we call "allies" and yet complain about our own "big government."
Because we love freedom!
Part of Apple's Human Interface Guidelines is to avoid buttons that say "Okay" or "Yes." Buttons should have verbs in them telling the user what's going to happen. So, on a Mac, it says "Install" instead of "Okay." So you can be sure what's going to happen when you click it. Quite handy.
Beats a kernel panic, eh?
I have Apache, PHP and MySQL installed on my Powerbook. If I put it in my suitcase with a neon light, do I get a Slashdot story, too?
Second, Google is well known as a good interoperator. I'm sure once Google Maps is done they'll have figured a way to make it work equally well in all graphical browsers.
And maybe even in Lynx.
Disney, Time Warner... they all start to look the same after a while...
2. Look at the cell phone system in this country. That's owned by PRIVATE COMPANIES. It's a piece of crap compared to systems all over the world. Systems that are more highly regulated by the government.
3. The $8 that is spent on wireless is $8 that's not spent in the community. If someone in Oakland gives Verizon $8 for wireless, that $8 leaves the community.
4. RTFA numbnuts, you can choose your ISP. The city sets up the infrastructure and other companies pay the city to provide access and the companies get access for their own systems.
5. And how can this not happen with a private network? The government already has control over private industry. If they wanted to, they could restrict the Internet. And private companies have already blocked P2P systems. And a lot of them even block ports 80 and 25. So how would the government be any worse?
I'd be happy to pay tax dollars for this. I guess I trust someone I can vote out of office more than someone who is protected by the high cost of entry into the industry.
Of course, god help you if you put a video of your kids birthday on the Internet. "You didn't pay Disney! Won't someone think of the set designers?"
I can have a phone with me at all times without using a cell phone??? Where do I sign up?
People need to get over the fact that change requires sacrifice. Yes, you will have to go without seeing Episode III. Yes, you won't be able to rent DVDs, and you'll have to find a better place to take your dates, if you have one. But if you really want the change to happen, you'll deal with these minor inconveniences.
Otherwise you're just naive children who think they can get something for nothing.
As for the law: There's nothing stopping a community organization from building one. I think the public broadcasting model would work for a mesh network: Like it? Donate! Get some companies to sponsor and we're cool. No muss, no fuss, no multi-million-dollar executive salaries or golden parachutes.
The law's ass-backwards anyway. I don't see anything wrong with local government competing with business. Hell, it'll make them get their shit together and offer something better than 3Mbps down/784kbps up with a dynamic IP.
I'm jealous of Swedes.
You can do that in Windows?
and to run more than one antispyware/antivirus solution.
Until Microsoft drives commercial anti-spyware providers out of business by bundling anti-virus and anti-spyware with Windows.
Which is why we need an OSS Windows anti-spyware utility that can run on Knoppix, cleaning the registry et al without any Windows interaction.
I tried to have sex on the Internet, but I started to chafe and I broke my keyboard.
One day he'll forget his medication, nuke a small city, and NK will be a glass paved self-lighted parking lot.
Mine does that some times, but closing it or fiddling with the brightness controls seems to get it working. YMMV.
Until we have robots that are capable of the mobility and reasoning of humans, we'll have to send humans to do more than scratch the surface.
</Zoidberg>
I'd add to the request the ability for the power supply to handly multiple currents automatically and protect against surges, the ability to use alkaline batteries in a battery holder, and the ability to use 12V DC instead of AC for charging, automatically, since all cars and most solar cells use this.
Would you use the space station for weather observations or communication systems? Of course not, you'd use a satellite. But you can't use a robot to do paleological or geological work, which is why we need to send people.