Are we really going to go to war to stop them (sadly, in this administration, this is not quite a rhetorical question)?
Once someone has explained to the chimp what DNS is and that it's not related to DNA, maybe, yes.
"Alpha Squad, we have the C root server secured. Area clear. Beta Squad is reporting shots fired, several terrorist technicians down, D root server within sight, but obscured visuals due to smoke. H root server has been destroyed by smart bombs. Over."
a game allows a player to virtually commit sexual assault and murder
Virtual act where nobody is harmed
alcohol, tobacco
Physical items with harmful effects
, and pornography, among other items,"
At last, the only thing that actually compares! Wow, yeah!
Now, hang on. What did we do about porn? Yes, we passed laws that allows only adults to buy them.
So we need a law that allows only adults to buy violent titles, like GTA. Say, people over 17? Hey, wait. We already have these laws, you fucking idiot!
Last I heard, most of these countries have per minute phone service, and bandwidth usuage caps as low as 6G per month.
Welcome to 2005, it's been a nice year so far, and here are the local updates:
* 6 Mbit ADSL connection * Flatrate, no limits whatsoever (and hey, on good days I pump those 6 GB in 48 hours) * free local (on-net) calls * optional (10 extra) country- or europe-wide voice flatrate
And this is very common over here (Germany). It's not a luxury, it's pretty much standard issue for anyone with serious Internet use. Casual users take a smaller package (say 2 Mbit flatrate). 56kbit exists, but is largely irrelevant. Cable is what we make jokes about sometimes.
All the states listed are pretty socialist, compared to the US anyway. I wonder if France and Canada and so-forth have subsidised internet from the government.
Don't know about them, but I live in Germany, with a 6 Mbit DSL connection, 16 Mbit coming my way this winter (ADSL2+). This is for 60,- a month, including flat rate, telephony, etc.
No, the phone company is not subsidised, it is a private company and to add insult to injury, it is profitable. I happen to know because I work there. (which also means I don't pay the 60,- thanks to an employee-special).
Sorry, but the reason everyone is ahead of the US in broadband is simply that everyone is ahead of the US in broadband, and your conspiracy theories should be better applied to the "baby-bells" than to the rest of the world.
Hold your horses. Why was he "raided"? What law did he break? Did you break the same law last week?
Paranoia is your second name, isn't it? For starters, how many of us here send out a million unwanted advertisements per hour? Every hour, around the clock?
But since this was a raid, a judge has certainly approved, and if you really care for your rights (instead of just trolling on/.), then I'm sure you can make a FOIA request to see the charges.
Yes, they came for the criminals. That's because if they don't, the criminals will come for you.
And spam is not a victimless crime. Anyone believing the opposite is more then welcome to send me a cheque for the part of my bandwidth costs that are caused by spam, plus a much, much larger one for the time it wastes.
On the contrary. How many indy titles do you find at piratebay? Pretty much all of the AAA titles are there, most on the day of launch, many even before you can get them in the shops.
And with indy titles you get more of a sympathy bonus. I don't think copying(*) is as much a problem for the indy developers. Yes, it is one, but not as huge as for an AAA title where maybe 1 in 10 people playing it actually bought it.
(*) piracy, I dare to say, is no problem at all for indy developers, because they don't need to send containers full of game boxes overseas, so there is little risk of the ship being boarded, because there is no ship.
With AAA titles consistently costing double-digit millions to develop, indie developers are pretty much the only ones who can afford (ironically as it is) to try out something completely new where nobody knows whether it'll be the next hit or just tank.
The next genre (not mix of genres, but completely new genre) will probably be started by an indie game. Of course, 5 years down the road nobody will remember that game, and everyone will attribute the fact to the first blockbuster game hopping on the bandwagon.
Indie games are where the truly exciting stuff happens. EA and Co. are tied up doing Random Game 2006 and Other Game Part 3.
Throwing all your crucial information into one basket is just asking for trouble. Doing it at an instable implementation is a "kick me" sign. Making it trivial for pretty much everything to mess with it - words fail me.
Yes, having config stuff in one place where you can find it is a good idea./etc is a great implementation for that, with almost all the advantages and none of the shortcomings of the registry. The only downside to/etc is that all the config files use different syntax.
as collecting societies in smaller European countries fear that they will lose out to larger rivals, potentially restricting the development of new music.
Doesn't parse. For all I know, the amount of collected money that goes to new music, i.e. startup bands, young groups, etc. is so small that for all practical purposes you can treat it as being zero.
On the other hand, the amount that stays with the collecting societies to pay for "expanses" and "overhead" is considerable.
Sounds like someone seing his protection racket, uh, sorry, "business model" being washed away, nothing else.
Ten times nothing? (Pretty much all software I use is Free Software);-)
No, but you are right, of course. The cost would be prohibitive - at least as long as the damages we all suffer (spam, exploits, DoS and other attacks...) are less...
There will always be a market for "cheaper" software that is not guaranteed to such a level
I'm not so sure. It's a question that can be solved. I don't recall there being a market for cheap airplanes that crash every so often but hey, it's 50% less for the LA-NYC trip.
This is an old discussion. As far as I recall, the main points are:
Yes, the zero liability that software enjoys is unhealthy. Like other products, there should be some liability that you can't drop by EULA or contract.
No, a general, personal liability is not the way to go, because it will be the death of most software. Software differs from other products because it is infinitely copyable.
It is a tricky thing, especially if you consider Free Software. How do you pay for damages if you didn't earn a buck in the first place?
If by "the Internet" you mean the small testing network of 1984 or so, then yes, the US military created that.
If by "the Internet", you mean the world-wide network of 2005, however, then the US military's part in that is miniscule, both in fraction of connected hosts they own and in how much of the protocols, content and software running it they created.
Your analogy is very, very severely flawed. A better one would be that just because I share my wireless with my neighbour I can't claim ownership to the software he writes just because it was me who enabled him to subscribe to alt.programming.java
(One need only look at Germany's recent election to get a good idea of why this can be a bad thing.)
Ehm, excuse me? I happen to be a german, as well as unhappy with the election, the results, etc. - but how exactly does this election show a general "bad thing"? At least we have more than two parties here, and even though the majorities are close calls, we didn't have a 49.9% vs. 50.1% stalemate the way you guys did during your last two presidential elections.
And besides, if you can read german I recommend doing some research starting maybe on wikipedia - most german governments had fairly small majorities, often in the 50-60% bracket. It wasn't a problem the other 10 or so times, it won't be a problem this time, the media is just making a crisis out of it because that sells better.
After a careful and very extensive evaluation taking almost a year, the microsoft solution was rejected by both technical and administrative decision makers, because it falls short of competitors.
As you can see from this, M$ IPTV has been on the market for over a year already.
I'm certain others will find the same results. So I wonder how much of this is just artificially created hype to create more sales, because for all I know they are barely worth mentioning so far.
I know a lot of the leftist Euro slashdot readers currently have a great disdain for America,
What you don't know is that a lot of rightish, centerish and otherwiseish Euros, Africans, Asians, South-Americans, Australians and pretty much everyone else in the world also has a very dim view of America. Some other comment explained quite well why, the point here is that absolutely everyone outside your borders doesn't know whether to laugh or cry anymore when you run around claiming that whoever doesn't totally love you must be a communist, a terrorist or just plain crazy. In fact, aside from the communist part the rest of the world thinks that pretty much describes you.
Slashdot Mirror
Are we really going to go to war to stop them (sadly, in this administration, this is not quite a rhetorical question)?
Once someone has explained to the chimp what DNS is and that it's not related to DNA, maybe, yes.
"Alpha Squad, we have the C root server secured. Area clear. Beta Squad is reporting shots fired, several terrorist technicians down, D root server within sight, but obscured visuals due to smoke. H root server has been destroyed by smart bombs. Over."
"History has proven in cases of child labor
Physical act that harms someone
and physical assault on children
Physical act that harms someone
a game allows a player to virtually commit sexual assault and murder
Virtual act where nobody is harmed
alcohol, tobacco
Physical items with harmful effects
, and pornography, among other items,"
At last, the only thing that actually compares! Wow, yeah!
Now, hang on. What did we do about porn? Yes, we passed laws that allows only adults to buy them.
So we need a law that allows only adults to buy violent titles, like GTA. Say, people over 17? Hey, wait. We already have these laws, you fucking idiot!
Last I heard, most of these countries have per minute phone service, and bandwidth usuage caps as low as 6G per month.
Welcome to 2005, it's been a nice year so far, and here are the local updates:
* 6 Mbit ADSL connection
* Flatrate, no limits whatsoever (and hey, on good days I pump those 6 GB in 48 hours)
* free local (on-net) calls
* optional (10 extra) country- or europe-wide voice flatrate
And this is very common over here (Germany). It's not a luxury, it's pretty much standard issue for anyone with serious Internet use. Casual users take a smaller package (say 2 Mbit flatrate). 56kbit exists, but is largely irrelevant. Cable is what we make jokes about sometimes.
All the states listed are pretty socialist, compared to the US anyway. I wonder if France and Canada and so-forth have subsidised internet from the government.
Don't know about them, but I live in Germany, with a 6 Mbit DSL connection, 16 Mbit coming my way this winter (ADSL2+). This is for 60,- a month, including flat rate, telephony, etc.
No, the phone company is not subsidised, it is a private company and to add insult to injury, it is profitable. I happen to know because I work there. (which also means I don't pay the 60,- thanks to an employee-special).
Sorry, but the reason everyone is ahead of the US in broadband is simply that everyone is ahead of the US in broadband, and your conspiracy theories should be better applied to the "baby-bells" than to the rest of the world.
Look, the guy very obviously doesn't care what people think about him.
/. just gave him free advertisement.
However, he does go on 60 Minutes. He's seeking publicity. And both PA and
Hook, line and sinker. He's a troll, people. He doesn't want to win, he only wants to annoy and be remembered by as many people as possible.
"The same grid is printed repeatedly over the entire page,"
Great. Not only do I pay extra for this feature (i.e. it's cost is added to the printer price), but I also get worse picture quality.
Thank you, FBI.
Last time I checked, it was legal to e-mail someone you don't know.
Yes, just like it is legal to gently nudge someone on the street.
Smashing his head in with an iron bar is just a slightly stronger nudge, isn't it? It's basically the same thing, right?
There's the same small difference between sending someone an e-mail, and spamming 10 million people. Per day. Every day.
Hold your horses. Why was he "raided"? What law did he break? Did you break the same law last week?
/.), then I'm sure you can make a FOIA request to see the charges.
Paranoia is your second name, isn't it? For starters, how many of us here send out a million unwanted advertisements per hour? Every hour, around the clock?
But since this was a raid, a judge has certainly approved, and if you really care for your rights (instead of just trolling on
Words fail me.
Yes, they came for the criminals. That's because if they don't, the criminals will come for you.
And spam is not a victimless crime. Anyone believing the opposite is more then welcome to send me a cheque for the part of my bandwidth costs that are caused by spam, plus a much, much larger one for the time it wastes.
They were they, they were certainly armed. Why, oh why didn't they shoot him while they're at it?
On the contrary. How many indy titles do you find at piratebay? Pretty much all of the AAA titles are there, most on the day of launch, many even before you can get them in the shops.
And with indy titles you get more of a sympathy bonus. I don't think copying(*) is as much a problem for the indy developers. Yes, it is one, but not as huge as for an AAA title where maybe 1 in 10 people playing it actually bought it.
(*) piracy, I dare to say, is no problem at all for indy developers, because they don't need to send containers full of game boxes overseas, so there is little risk of the ship being boarded, because there is no ship.
With AAA titles consistently costing double-digit millions to develop, indie developers are pretty much the only ones who can afford (ironically as it is) to try out something completely new where nobody knows whether it'll be the next hit or just tank.
The next genre (not mix of genres, but completely new genre) will probably be started by an indie game. Of course, 5 years down the road nobody will remember that game, and everyone will attribute the fact to the first blockbuster game hopping on the bandwagon.
Indie games are where the truly exciting stuff happens. EA and Co. are tied up doing Random Game 2006 and Other Game Part 3.
What's wrong with the registry?
/etc is a great implementation for that, with almost all the advantages and none of the shortcomings of the registry. The only downside to /etc is that all the config files use different syntax.
What isn't? It's a stupid idea done badly.
Throwing all your crucial information into one basket is just asking for trouble. Doing it at an instable implementation is a "kick me" sign. Making it trivial for pretty much everything to mess with it - words fail me.
Yes, having config stuff in one place where you can find it is a good idea.
Funny, but to be fair to Gates, all indications are that he was a hell of a programmer individually.
You base this bold statement on which facts, exactly?
The only software that wikipedia attributes to Gates personally was the Altair BASIC interpreter, and even that was co-authored with Paul Allen.
So, where are your "indications" ?
as collecting societies in smaller European countries fear that they will lose out to larger rivals, potentially restricting the development of new music.
Doesn't parse. For all I know, the amount of collected money that goes to new music, i.e. startup bands, young groups, etc. is so small that for all practical purposes you can treat it as being zero.
On the other hand, the amount that stays with the collecting societies to pay for "expanses" and "overhead" is considerable.
Sounds like someone seing his protection racket, uh, sorry, "business model" being washed away, nothing else.
Would you be willing to pay ten times the amount
;-)
Ten times nothing? (Pretty much all software I use is Free Software)
No, but you are right, of course. The cost would be prohibitive - at least as long as the damages we all suffer (spam, exploits, DoS and other attacks...) are less...
There will always be a market for "cheaper" software that is not guaranteed to such a level
I'm not so sure. It's a question that can be solved. I don't recall there being a market for cheap airplanes that crash every so often but hey, it's 50% less for the LA-NYC trip.
medicine doctors. There are several distinct things about them:
I think you missed the most important one:
* If they make a mistake, it happens to one person who can sue them - not to 25 million who downloaded something for free from the 'net.
This is an old discussion. As far as I recall, the main points are:
Yes, the zero liability that software enjoys is unhealthy. Like other products, there should be some liability that you can't drop by EULA or contract.
No, a general, personal liability is not the way to go, because it will be the death of most software. Software differs from other products because it is infinitely copyable.
It is a tricky thing, especially if you consider Free Software. How do you pay for damages if you didn't earn a buck in the first place?
If by "the Internet" you mean the small testing network of 1984 or so, then yes, the US military created that.
If by "the Internet", you mean the world-wide network of 2005, however, then the US military's part in that is miniscule, both in fraction of connected hosts they own and in how much of the protocols, content and software running it they created.
Your analogy is very, very severely flawed. A better one would be that just because I share my wireless with my neighbour I can't claim ownership to the software he writes just because it was me who enabled him to subscribe to alt.programming.java
(One need only look at Germany's recent election to get a good idea of why this can be a bad thing.)
Ehm, excuse me? I happen to be a german, as well as unhappy with the election, the results, etc. - but how exactly does this election show a general "bad thing"? At least we have more than two parties here, and even though the majorities are close calls, we didn't have a 49.9% vs. 50.1% stalemate the way you guys did during your last two presidential elections.
And besides, if you can read german I recommend doing some research starting maybe on wikipedia - most german governments had fairly small majorities, often in the 50-60% bracket. It wasn't a problem the other 10 or so times, it won't be a problem this time, the media is just making a crisis out of it because that sells better.
I work for a major, major telecom company.
After a careful and very extensive evaluation taking almost a year, the microsoft solution was rejected by both technical and administrative decision makers, because it falls short of competitors.
As you can see from this, M$ IPTV has been on the market for over a year already.
I'm certain others will find the same results. So I wonder how much of this is just artificially created hype to create more sales, because for all I know they are barely worth mentioning so far.
I know a lot of the leftist Euro slashdot readers currently have a great disdain for America,
What you don't know is that a lot of rightish, centerish and otherwiseish Euros, Africans, Asians, South-Americans, Australians and pretty much everyone else in the world also has a very dim view of America. Some other comment explained quite well why, the point here is that absolutely everyone outside your borders doesn't know whether to laugh or cry anymore when you run around claiming that whoever doesn't totally love you must be a communist, a terrorist or just plain crazy. In fact, aside from the communist part the rest of the world thinks that pretty much describes you.
No, it would be the end of spam!
For the rest of the world, yes. Of the top 200 spammers, quite a lot are from the USofA...
Our levels of Spam would suddenly become a fraction of what it is now. No more spam from russia and china.
Ehem...
Top 200 spammers
Psst... lots and lots from the USofA...