The State really says "We won't stop you from transmitting pirated movies, illegal pornography, and bomb recipies, we'll just prosecute you when you do." It's similar to how libel/slander are illegal- they can't stop you from talking, but that can sue you and take away your home if you say the wrong things about the wrong people (and don't have evidence to back yourself up).
You make an interesting point that the ISPs are in bed with the government, and thus if they engaged in censorship it would almost be like the government doing the censoring. I don't think I've seen anyone approach the issue like that before, and I don't think it would hold up in court (unless they somehow show that the government was behind it).
Your ideas are entertaining, all they lack is understanding of the issues and factual support. There are plenty of logical arguments in favor of Net Neutrality- perhaps you could find some, or modify your argument to make sense. Try "ISPs could become a hidden means of government censorship!" or "People should be able to talk about whatever they want in any medium". These ideas are similar to yours, but are supported by available evidence. Try them out!
People believe all sorts of stupid things, but most people will learn from their mistakes once it starts hurting them. For instance, blocking software that prevents kids from accessing drug sites, hate sites, and sex sites is good, right?
For people who don't understand technology, it's not obvious that it's hard (for software) to tell the difference between a sex chat site and a breast cancer awareness site, a drug-awareness site and a drug dealer's site, and the KKK's speech with a history of the civil war. Not to mention that something like 'hate speech' is almost entirely subjective, and almost always ends up blocking all sorts of views.
You shouldn't be making fun of the politician, he made a mistake, and is learning from his error. He understands technology and censorship better than he used to, and is now on our side of the fence. If only more people in the position to make laws were hurt by them more often.
Seriously, the way people complain about being blocked or having their bandwidth thottled, you'd think they were paying money for their internet connection or something.
It's more like one car colliding at 120 mph into a stationary car. It's better than colliding at 120 mph to a wall, but worse than going 60mph to the wall.
I'm guessing that you are trying to be funny, but I wrote linked lists before I ever got to college, and CS freshmen in a halfway-decent curriculum are writing linked lists by the end of their freshman year (though not necessarily their first semester). Come to think of it, I had to write a binary tree made of structs containing 3 pointers in High School- so I would have been annoyed by this patent back then as well.
Even if they never get at much marketshare as Sony/Microsoft, they are certainly making the most profits. Who cares if your revenue is (relatively) low when your profits are so much higher?
Note that I'm talking about the better posts being detatched (though the non-detached ones can be a great read)./. is a great place for everyone who thinks he's a genius to rant.
Point 1.
SCO was flat out lying. If I run a file comparison utility over several million lines of code, and I find 326 identical lines (most of which are things like #include ) and then say that IBM stole thousands of lines of code, I'm lying my @$$ off. It's similar to me saying you owe me a million dollars because you borrowed $5 for lunch one day. Or calling you a gay prostitute because your wife dragged you to see Brokeback Mountain. Or saying I have proof Jedi are real after watching the 'Star Wars Kid' video. (Do I really need to continue? How is gross exaggeration NOT flat out lying?)
Point 2.
It is interesting to watch SCO stock. My bet is that it goes down a notch, and it seems to be doing that so far today (but just barely). Investors tend to be just as stupid and emotionally attached to things as anyone else. (Succesful investors are less so, just like some of the better/. posts are emotionally detached).
There have been more people killed by water poisoning than Vitamin C poisoning. But your point holds- everything is toxic at high enough dosages. Vitamin C was just not the best example, even eating a pound of it is unlikely to cause long-term damage (but will give you brutal diarrhea).
Changing the genetic code modifies the protiens that the corn produces. Changing genetic code can turn proteins into poison (not all proteins are digestible). Now, such a thing is unlikely- what is more probable is that the corn now produces more of a specific protein than it used to, and the higher dose of this new protein is toxic. Remember, anything is toxic at high enough dosages, even Water.
Hey, RPGs are useful frameworks to describe all sorts of behavior, since they are simplified frameworks for a world. MMORPGs are particularly interesting because you can study all sorts of emergent behavior, especially forms of economic and social interaction.
Keep in mind that the creature in #2 could be from a Universe that actually makes sense, and did not pop out of nothing. Imagine that an Intelligence in some artificial Universe (say WoW) begins trying to make sense of its surroundings- WoW has physics entirely different from our own, has creation ex nihilo on a regular basis, has no entropy, and the laws of the Universe re-write themselves with every patch. Furthermore, WoW has only been around a finite amount of time. What would such a creature think of the world? Would it see some Divine will behind the chaos of its existance? Or would it be unable to imagine a world other than its own?
Something that created our Universe wouldn't necessarily be bound by our laws of physics, but would presumably still have its own limitations.
Is that the masses consider themselves better off than the unwashed kid living in his parent's basement, simmering with self-righteous fury while posting on/.
I had the same problems back 2 years ago when I was working on my resume (I'm happily employed now). The TAB spacing is slightly off or the font is slightly off (probably both). For most things it seems to work great, but when you are making some sort of presentation/report/CV it can have problems.
Of course, the same thing can happen when you use different versions of Office, if it bothers to open them at all. I always like to joke OO is more compatible with Office than Office is.
How come WarCraft gets the series counted? Not that I don't love the WarCraft games, but why does WarCraft count as multiple games while Super Mario Bros. only counts as one?
I'm truely astounded by your wisdom. How was I to know that we didn't use candles anymore? Or that getting up earlier to avoid using candles is entirely different from getting up earlier to avoid turning on lightbulbs? Now I understand that Franklin lived before the electric bulb, and that his joke about a Daylight Savings Time-like policy has no relevance to this new, modern, era!
Expect your "+5, Insightful" moderations to come any day now.
When Benjamin Franklin was talking about getting up an hour earlier for French shopkeepers to save money on candles, no one took his suggestion up. That's because he was joking.
But hey, don't let actual facts stand in the way of your clueless ranting.
The quick way to solve it (for a 5th grader) is compare multiples of 7 to multiples of 11, looking for a multiple of 11 (55) that is 1 less than a multiple of 7 (56). Then you add 5 to the multiple of 7 and get 61, the smallest whole number solution. Then you add 77 (7*11) n times to get all possible whole number solutions. (61, 138, 215,...)
For all Integer solutions, you can subtract 77 as well. (-93,-16, 61, 138, 215,...)
If you're just looking at Revolutions (Where the French beat the French, and changed the government) you've got them all. If you're looking at attempted revolts/riots, Paris rioted in WWII right as the Germans were invading, and there's also the massvie car-burning riots that occured in 2005 (though that's probably not a true revolt).
Just looking at riots just in Paris we also have 1229, 1720, 1725, 1740, 1743, 1747, 1750, 1752, 1787, 1795, 1870, 1913 and 2006. (Not counting riots already mentioned.) So it looks like Paris has at least one huge riot every 50 years, and typically has one every 20 years.
I find your ideas amusing, all the more so because you have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Anonymous Troll. Which 'honorable' countries are you referring to?
Spain? Raped and plundered the new world, lost some wars, was never a big player again.
France? Revolted against its 'Honorable Feudal systems'- because they were stupid. Revolted agaisnt most of its other systems too. "The French are revolting" has been true at almost every point in History.
Britain? Got involved in world conquest, but probably one of the most honorable governments, because they had a system of checks and balances.
Germany? WWII demonstrated the honor of the Germans.
Japan? Japan's war crimes- the mass rapes and slaughter- all occured under a feudal system.
Italy? Not only do they have no honor, they needed the Germans to bail them out.
Russia? Communism is arguably a step up from their feudal system- which should tell you how bad feudal systems are.
You probably read to many fanatasy novels as a kid talking about the glory of knighthood and chivalry. Read some real history and you'll find that the feudal system was typically a nightmare for the average person, and certainly did nothing to discourage warfare or strife.
Me paying you to play my song is advertising. Me handing you money under the table to play the song, then you claiming that you're picking the songs 'you like best' or that 'the audience demands' is fraud, deceptive advertising, and probably tax evasion.
No one's saying they can't pay to have their songs played. We're just saying they can't lie about doing so.
Slashdot Mirror
Help competitors build products that work properly with PCs running Windows? Even Microsoft can't do that!
The State really says "We won't stop you from transmitting pirated movies, illegal pornography, and bomb recipies, we'll just prosecute you when you do." It's similar to how libel/slander are illegal- they can't stop you from talking, but that can sue you and take away your home if you say the wrong things about the wrong people (and don't have evidence to back yourself up).
You make an interesting point that the ISPs are in bed with the government, and thus if they engaged in censorship it would almost be like the government doing the censoring. I don't think I've seen anyone approach the issue like that before, and I don't think it would hold up in court (unless they somehow show that the government was behind it).
Your ideas are entertaining, all they lack is understanding of the issues and factual support. There are plenty of logical arguments in favor of Net Neutrality- perhaps you could find some, or modify your argument to make sense. Try "ISPs could become a hidden means of government censorship!" or "People should be able to talk about whatever they want in any medium". These ideas are similar to yours, but are supported by available evidence. Try them out!
People believe all sorts of stupid things, but most people will learn from their mistakes once it starts hurting them. For instance, blocking software that prevents kids from accessing drug sites, hate sites, and sex sites is good, right?
For people who don't understand technology, it's not obvious that it's hard (for software) to tell the difference between a sex chat site and a breast cancer awareness site, a drug-awareness site and a drug dealer's site, and the KKK's speech with a history of the civil war. Not to mention that something like 'hate speech' is almost entirely subjective, and almost always ends up blocking all sorts of views.
You shouldn't be making fun of the politician, he made a mistake, and is learning from his error. He understands technology and censorship better than he used to, and is now on our side of the fence. If only more people in the position to make laws were hurt by them more often.
Seriously, the way people complain about being blocked or having their bandwidth thottled, you'd think they were paying money for their internet connection or something.
I knew someone else would use that predictable, overused meme before I could!
It's more like one car colliding at 120 mph into a stationary car. It's better than colliding at 120 mph to a wall, but worse than going 60mph to the wall.
I'm guessing that you are trying to be funny, but I wrote linked lists before I ever got to college, and CS freshmen in a halfway-decent curriculum are writing linked lists by the end of their freshman year (though not necessarily their first semester). Come to think of it, I had to write a binary tree made of structs containing 3 pointers in High School- so I would have been annoyed by this patent back then as well.
If you don't believe it, just ask us!
Even if they never get at much marketshare as Sony/Microsoft, they are certainly making the most profits. Who cares if your revenue is (relatively) low when your profits are so much higher?
Note that I'm talking about the better posts being detatched (though the non-detached ones can be a great read). /. is a great place for everyone who thinks he's a genius to rant.
Point 1.
/. posts are emotionally detached).
SCO was flat out lying. If I run a file comparison utility over several million lines of code, and I find 326 identical lines (most of which are things like #include ) and then say that IBM stole thousands of lines of code, I'm lying my @$$ off. It's similar to me saying you owe me a million dollars because you borrowed $5 for lunch one day. Or calling you a gay prostitute because your wife dragged you to see Brokeback Mountain. Or saying I have proof Jedi are real after watching the 'Star Wars Kid' video. (Do I really need to continue? How is gross exaggeration NOT flat out lying?)
Point 2.
It is interesting to watch SCO stock. My bet is that it goes down a notch, and it seems to be doing that so far today (but just barely). Investors tend to be just as stupid and emotionally attached to things as anyone else. (Succesful investors are less so, just like some of the better
There have been more people killed by water poisoning than Vitamin C poisoning. But your point holds- everything is toxic at high enough dosages. Vitamin C was just not the best example, even eating a pound of it is unlikely to cause long-term damage (but will give you brutal diarrhea).
Changing the genetic code modifies the protiens that the corn produces. Changing genetic code can turn proteins into poison (not all proteins are digestible). Now, such a thing is unlikely- what is more probable is that the corn now produces more of a specific protein than it used to, and the higher dose of this new protein is toxic. Remember, anything is toxic at high enough dosages, even Water.
Hey, RPGs are useful frameworks to describe all sorts of behavior, since they are simplified frameworks for a world. MMORPGs are particularly interesting because you can study all sorts of emergent behavior, especially forms of economic and social interaction.
Keep in mind that the creature in #2 could be from a Universe that actually makes sense, and did not pop out of nothing. Imagine that an Intelligence in some artificial Universe (say WoW) begins trying to make sense of its surroundings- WoW has physics entirely different from our own, has creation ex nihilo on a regular basis, has no entropy, and the laws of the Universe re-write themselves with every patch. Furthermore, WoW has only been around a finite amount of time. What would such a creature think of the world? Would it see some Divine will behind the chaos of its existance? Or would it be unable to imagine a world other than its own?
Something that created our Universe wouldn't necessarily be bound by our laws of physics, but would presumably still have its own limitations.
Is that the masses consider themselves better off than the unwashed kid living in his parent's basement, simmering with self-righteous fury while posting on /.
I had the same problems back 2 years ago when I was working on my resume (I'm happily employed now). The TAB spacing is slightly off or the font is slightly off (probably both). For most things it seems to work great, but when you are making some sort of presentation/report/CV it can have problems.
Of course, the same thing can happen when you use different versions of Office, if it bothers to open them at all. I always like to joke OO is more compatible with Office than Office is.
How come WarCraft gets the series counted? Not that I don't love the WarCraft games, but why does WarCraft count as multiple games while Super Mario Bros. only counts as one?
I'm truely astounded by your wisdom. How was I to know that we didn't use candles anymore? Or that getting up earlier to avoid using candles is entirely different from getting up earlier to avoid turning on lightbulbs? Now I understand that Franklin lived before the electric bulb, and that his joke about a Daylight Savings Time-like policy has no relevance to this new, modern, era!
Expect your "+5, Insightful" moderations to come any day now.
I'm J. W. Booth and I approve this message.
When Benjamin Franklin was talking about getting up an hour earlier for French shopkeepers to save money on candles, no one took his suggestion up. That's because he was joking.
But hey, don't let actual facts stand in the way of your clueless ranting.
The quick way to solve it (for a 5th grader) is compare multiples of 7 to multiples of 11, looking for a multiple of 11 (55) that is 1 less than a multiple of 7 (56). Then you add 5 to the multiple of 7 and get 61, the smallest whole number solution. Then you add 77 (7*11) n times to get all possible whole number solutions. (61, 138, 215, ...)
...)
For all Integer solutions, you can subtract 77 as well. (-93,-16, 61, 138, 215,
If you're just looking at Revolutions (Where the French beat the French, and changed the government) you've got them all. If you're looking at attempted revolts/riots, Paris rioted in WWII right as the Germans were invading, and there's also the massvie car-burning riots that occured in 2005 (though that's probably not a true revolt).
Just looking at riots just in Paris we also have 1229, 1720, 1725, 1740, 1743, 1747, 1750, 1752, 1787, 1795, 1870, 1913 and 2006. (Not counting riots already mentioned.) So it looks like Paris has at least one huge riot every 50 years, and typically has one every 20 years.
I find your ideas amusing, all the more so because you have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Anonymous Troll. Which 'honorable' countries are you referring to?
Spain? Raped and plundered the new world, lost some wars, was never a big player again.
France? Revolted against its 'Honorable Feudal systems'- because they were stupid. Revolted agaisnt most of its other systems too. "The French are revolting" has been true at almost every point in History.
Britain? Got involved in world conquest, but probably one of the most honorable governments, because they had a system of checks and balances.
Germany? WWII demonstrated the honor of the Germans.
Japan? Japan's war crimes- the mass rapes and slaughter- all occured under a feudal system.
Italy? Not only do they have no honor, they needed the Germans to bail them out.
Russia? Communism is arguably a step up from their feudal system- which should tell you how bad feudal systems are.
You probably read to many fanatasy novels as a kid talking about the glory of knighthood and chivalry. Read some real history and you'll find that the feudal system was typically a nightmare for the average person, and certainly did nothing to discourage warfare or strife.
Me paying you to play my song is advertising. Me handing you money under the table to play the song, then you claiming that you're picking the songs 'you like best' or that 'the audience demands' is fraud, deceptive advertising, and probably tax evasion.
No one's saying they can't pay to have their songs played. We're just saying they can't lie about doing so.