Really, what happened was 200, 000 years ago there was this great big war that on mars that sent all of these rocks into space eventually sending some of them to Earth! When we get there, we'll see the fossils of 200K year old super inteligent munchkins! THen everyone will finally know the truth about the big face.
Moot point - but as far as I know, linux.com was not designed by taco. From the story, he simply stated that the two companies had a common owner.
As for the supposed contradiction, I very much disagree. Credit must be given, even the GPL makes a case for that. To pass off someone else's work as your own is theft. To borrow that work with permission and give credit is acceptable.
My neighbor has a boat that was given to him. He doesn't use and it just sits in his back yard. Can I take? It cost him nothing to obtain, it will cost him nothing to lose, and he'll never miss it if gone. So can I take it? No for the simple fact, it's his.
Property is property, everything created is freely given or there's problems. Even the GPL is a choice. To make your software free is a choice, to restrict it beyond beleif is a choice. If you happen to beleive that all information is free for the taking, you're wrong in the context of 20th century United States. Maybe that'll change, but for now, you're wrong.
What's so scary about this post is not necesarily the tone, but the implication that to have free software it must be mirrored outside the US to avoid prosecution from big Corporations (or Small ones for that matter). It's like software exiles. The Dali Lama, DeCSS - two situations but remakably similar just the same.
From personal experience I work at a shop where it is 99.96% windows. The president of the company uses a mac and there are 3 linux boxes mostly for developement and server use.
We chose this route because as a call center / accounting department, the $8.00 / hour temps we get are almost born with a natural knowledge of windows apps. This of course is perpetuated by the "training" in office apps by the temp agencies.
I would guess that this is a factor in other places as well. If office were ported to linux, I could make a very strong arguement to changeover our exisiting OS to linux, but until then, it's a training expense issue and not really a technical issue at all. I would assume most small / medium businesses are in the same boat.
You paint a picture of a sys admin as a cowboy, not much more responsible than a teenage hacker.
A sys admin is responsible for uptime. The ones that I have met and hired do not fit your description. A production server is a locked server, if there's a problem, it's fixed. If there is no problem it's maintained, it's not tweaked. A server that is being tweaked is a server being built.
If one of my staff on any of my projects ever did something as stupid as tweak a kernal on a production machine they would be dismissed. There is no excuse for that level of incompetence from a person at that level of responsibility. Period.
Sir, either your logic is flawed, you have not met responsible competent sys admins, or you have spent way too much time outside of a real business environment. I refute your arguement and your logic for it and I can only hope that not too many other people view the sys admin in your light.
Although it's great that something like this has garnered this much attention and inspired this much reaction from VA, I am left wondering how bad is the QC over at VA that a box is allowed to leave without parts. Especially more so considering the grief this customer has already been through.
Even though customer service and support have been spoken for, I would have some reservation about a company that does not contact a customer regarding a delay in processing and then does not do a second inspection of all parts before delivery. That's really to say nothing of the fact it took an "Ask Slashdot" story to get something done.
This is the relative equivalent of a call-4-action story on the six o'clock news about an auto mechanic that provides bad service. For Shame.
That would be great if every user had their own sendmail server at their home doing their email.
MOre than likely as this will affect "small ISPs" you will see non-encrypted network traffic upto the ISPs mail server. If the FBI sniffs before the mail server, whether sendmail, qmail, postfix whatever is encrypted becomes a nonissue.
The only way to stop this is for each and every ISP to supply encryption to their clients so from origination to destination everything is encrypted. But then again, do we really think that in this day and age, consumer level encryption algorithims are going to stand for more than a couple nanoseconds against some of these behemoth supercomputers the government uses for code breaking. If big brother wants to see what you got, he will pursue it with all the taxpayer money and resources he can find.
Let's not forget that FBI agents are recruited from among Law and Accounting students. Do they get much more anoretentive?
Absolutely. The role of the federal government as was set up in the original constitution was to provide for the common good. Common in this case refers very specifically to the states. The states were the authority for most of the populations regular activities. The only time when the federal government got involved was when something involved more than one state as in disputes, it was a matter of foreign policy, or it was a matter of absolute security. In April 1865 when Lee surrendered at Appomatix, this whole issue of states rights went down the tubes. Since that time the federal government has been on a grwoth spurt finally culminating with the Clinton administration. In the past ten years, there have been exponentially more crimes incorporated into "federal Jurisdiction" than in the past. Point in case, Hate Crimes Legislation. (how come whenever I start to rant like this I feel like I should be on a ranch somewhere in Montana?:))
""what are you so worried about if you've got nothing to hide?" what are we so worried about?"
Every person that breathes has something to hide. In this day and age noone is an innocent. An action that is now considered proper and right may someday be considered unlawful. Perception is reality for too many people in this world.
We, as a people, have been abstracted from the power base. Can we rest in our confidence when people are being arrested for "consentual crimes" or crimes that hurt no-one but the purpetrator.
Carnivor in and of itself does not matter all to much, but much the same as DeCSS, we as responsible citizens must draw the line in the sand and say, "enough". As for the Timothy McVee argument, it's invalid. Yes he killed a lot of people, but people die. Nothing that happens or that can be legislated will stop that simple fact.
Is personal freedom a price for security? It shouldn't be. Our country was founded with these principles in mind during a time when it was much worse than it is now. I still think there was some shread of wisdom that came from our Founding Fathers.
If you so want that security provided by absolute loss of personal freedom, join the miltary where you are no longer a citizen but government property. Don't think that I'll allow you to make that choice for me.
Why is this whole thing taken from the stand point of the geek? Wake up and smell the 15 year old coffee, geeks are not the sole market for computers anymore.
Just to have an alternative os that would run a directx game would advance the status of open source for the general public light years ahead.
Within my various business endeavours, I have adopted the motto, "the best tool for the job". Does that mean Linux in every situation...no. Would I recommend Linux, BSD, whatever to either a family with kids or a senior citizen who just wants surf and send email. No
Unfortunately, I've found that under few situations is linux the best solution for the desktop. Windows is a "mature" desktop system that fits about 95% of popular needs. Is it overpriced...Yes. Is it highly unstable...yes and no. Given it's shortcommings and its usage, do we as knowledgable technology prfessionals expect and demand enterprise class uptimes from a desktop OS?
I say that linux or any other OS will ever capture the hearts and minds of the general public until it can run the hottest games as soon as they come out. That, my friends, is where the money and the success lies.
During the American Civil War, Ol' Honest Abe, suspended the writ of habeus corpus and imprisoned supreme court justices based only on executive power. Since that time, the rights of the citizen has dwindled.
Whether anyone is willing to realize it or not, we live in a dangerous time that unless something is done to change it, we will all wind up in an Orwellian future. As a percentage of the most intelligent portion of the population, geeks need to take a much more active political role and be much more diligent while selecting representatives. Then, and only then, will bullshit such as this stop.
I must say that although the human dismemberment is a big issue with SOF, I must say that Redneck Rampage Rides Again was by far the best for killing digital animals
In RRRA you have pigs and cows and chickens, there's even a weapon where you shoot arrows shoved up a chicken's ass at the baddies. To me that is much worse than pumping a couple rounds into a cow, hearing a pitiful moo, and it's dead.
Now as for the game itself...I own it (my wife and daughter got it for me for father's day). It's not my bag of chips, but it's a novalty. I wanted it for the didgital pleasure of shooting a bad guy in the nuts and having a realistic:) outcome. Very theraputic after a stressful day of work.
I'm 25, this type of rating does not affect me. Would I let my daughter play it? No. Do I recommend something this violent for children, again it depends on the children, some can handle it, others can't. I can't remember a time without movies being rated, I never raised a stink when music had labels put on it, I never raised a stink when TV became rated and I have no problem with a level-headed, rational rating of games. But I also beleive a child's innocense should be gaurded for as long as possible...call it old fashioned values.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and hapiness. Quote taken verbatim from the American Declaration of Independence - Adopted in congress 7/4/1776 When we, as people are forced to submit to such things as active dna or molecular trace inspection, we not only forfeit certain rights but our freedom to exist as individuals altogether. Every person within a clicks distance of this post should write a letter and MAIL it - not email mind you - MAIL a letter to their elected official to stop this insanity. Tyranny advances when the first man says, "Someone else will fight this one."
Here's the skinny... Don't mess with the current generation of satellite systems that deliver internet service. DirecPc is a nightmare. Installers fumble with windows installs of the stock software. Hughes, the DPC manufacturer has very little knowledgable tech support concerning the matter. Aside from that, the price is outrageous considering the return. Asyncronus Cable modems are better. I have worked for one of the hughes authorized installers of this for the last five years and have seen the nightmares from simple customer problems all the way to corporate deployments. Several other systems are out that deliver a much better product on the high end. There is a system from Tachyon.net that delivers from low 100kbs all the way to I believe 2mbs in ATM with a send via satellite limited to around 300kbs. I heard one of their executives at a conference in july and they sound very promising to the high end consumer. Another company to check into is Harmonic Data Systems. They provide a satellite based software that is specifically for Linux or FreeBSD. Again more of a high end solution. Hughes is going to, in the next duration, release what they call personal VSAT which should be a contender with the higher end satellite delivery internet providers. Probably won't support Linux though unless hughes sees it as profitable. Take this as you will, but DPC is a dead technology and there's much better on the horizon.
Homosexuallity is wrong. The old testament is full of passages judging it, Paul condemns it in Romans. There has been no scientific proof it is anything other than mental or preference. It should be swept off the face of the earth. The thought of it repulses me to no end, always has, always will. My opinion of it has no bearing on my faith other than my faith also condemns it. That being said, Homosexuals should not be killed nor harmed in any way. They should be tought about God's love and helped to see the error of their ways. Just because someone does something does not imply it is good to do nor that it should be a protected right. Liberty is acting in a way so as not to interfere with the actions of others. Homosexuality by definition is an act of consent between two partners. As we all should know, consentual actions are a crime in most jurisdictions. If you don't believe me, check your local codes to find out where oral sex is a crime, you'll be surprised. BTW, the killing of homosexuals was confined to the old testament, mostly in judgements for iniquities (Sodom and Gromorrah). Judgements are not to be carried out by men but by God. And the Lord said, "Vengence is mine"
The old testament can be compared to the articles of confederation if the new testament is likened to the Constitution. The latter was temporary in preparation for the permanent defining principles. Both testaments are valid, though. If one choses to live by the letter of levitical law, they shall gain the promised rewards. To gain the rewards of the new testament, one needs to simply believe that Christ died for the absolutions of our sins.
About two thousand years ago, a man walked on the earth that told how to achieve personal hapiness and how to find ultimate rewards even in the afterlife. He had men who thought this was such a great thing, they left off what they were doind and followed him. After he departed this world, his followers set off for all points of the known world to tell others what a good idea it was. About a thousand years ago, people, upon realizing he wasn't coming back anytime soon, fell lax in their ways and did some pretty stupid things in their distorted versions of his teaching. Crusades, Inquizitions, persecution of anyone who did not go along with the teaching of the CHURCH. Not the man mind you, the church. As human nature, we tend not to start from scratch too often and instead build upon the lessons of establishment. Case in point, over a hundred years after the first one and we are still developing internal combustion engines. People took the teachings of the CHURCH and distorted the already perverted teachings into new areas, each time loosing touch with the man who tought it first. So here we are now reading comments about what christians have done and how evil religion is. In truth, some religions have become nothing more than ceremony, a tax write off for the rich, or a good choice of profession. Most "christians" are nothing more than people who go to church on sunday. True christianity is about being like Christ. True religion is simply a gathering of true christians for the greater good. In conclusion, generalizing anything is wrong. Everything must be judged according to it's own merit. Is christianity bad? Are morals bad? Look on any denomination of Money in the United States and you'll find the answer.
This is a test of emerging technology. This is not the end all be all of our missle defense system. It's nice to dream of larger things, but we have to start somewhere. Did you say, I'm not impressed, when the first developement version of Linux was released? Let's all get a grip, if we can stop one, even under controlled circumstances it increases our chance of survival dramatically.
How many self righteous linux geeks does it take..
on
CNN Installs Linux
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· Score: 3
.to screw in a lightbulb. Answer: they'd have to live in the dark because noone could give anyone else any advice on how to fix it, therefore noone would ever learn how to change the lightbulb. The attitude expressed by some of the posters in this situation amazes me to no end. Constantly belittling these people. At least the reported tried to install the operating system. As a new user to Linux it amazes me that older users would have such a pompus attitude to a person in this situation...for any reason. I've installed NT, 98, 95, 3.1 etc, etc., and must admit that with minor bumps I found my first full Linux install pretty easy, just different. If I were to have had a problem though I would like to think that there are people out there that would help and not look at my email client or my browser info or whatever else and reject me because the only computer that's currently hooked up has win98 on it. Look around people, Linux is something special as in it's an old concept reborn in new technology. If y'all can't grow up and learn to be supportive and helpful of someone who at least tries for whatever reason, ya might as well go find someother operating system to worship because Linux won't survive much less grow.
I haven't read/. that long, but what amazes me is the paranoid distrust of government exhibited by all but a few "logical" posters. For someone to suggest that the right to bear arms is out dated is amazing.
If memory serves me correctly, the right to bear arms was created with the intention of an extended national defense. It had little to do with bears or indians.
Ironically it was because of the British the second ammendment was so important. Hmmm, the original poster is British, is there a conspiracy here?!?
Slashdot Mirror
Really, what happened was 200, 000 years ago there was this great big war that on mars that sent all of these rocks into space eventually sending some of them to Earth! When we get there, we'll see the fossils of 200K year old super inteligent munchkins! THen everyone will finally know the truth about the big face.
Moot point - but as far as I know, linux.com was not designed by taco. From the story, he simply stated that the two companies had a common owner.
As for the supposed contradiction, I very much disagree. Credit must be given, even the GPL makes a case for that. To pass off someone else's work as your own is theft. To borrow that work with permission and give credit is acceptable.
My neighbor has a boat that was given to him. He doesn't use and it just sits in his back yard. Can I take? It cost him nothing to obtain, it will cost him nothing to lose, and he'll never miss it if gone. So can I take it? No for the simple fact, it's his.
Property is property, everything created is freely given or there's problems. Even the GPL is a choice. To make your software free is a choice, to restrict it beyond beleif is a choice. If you happen to beleive that all information is free for the taking, you're wrong in the context of 20th century United States. Maybe that'll change, but for now, you're wrong.
What's so scary about this post is not necesarily the tone, but the implication that to have free software it must be mirrored outside the US to avoid prosecution from big Corporations (or Small ones for that matter). It's like software exiles. The Dali Lama, DeCSS - two situations but remakably similar just the same.
From personal experience I work at a shop where it is 99.96% windows. The president of the company uses a mac and there are 3 linux boxes mostly for developement and server use.
We chose this route because as a call center / accounting department, the $8.00 / hour temps we get are almost born with a natural knowledge of windows apps. This of course is perpetuated by the "training" in office apps by the temp agencies.
I would guess that this is a factor in other places as well. If office were ported to linux, I could make a very strong arguement to changeover our exisiting OS to linux, but until then, it's a training expense issue and not really a technical issue at all. I would assume most small / medium businesses are in the same boat.
Wow, it kind of sounds like the "root" / user relationship in a unix based system - from the user viewpoint, of course! :-)
You paint a picture of a sys admin as a cowboy, not much more responsible than a teenage hacker.
A sys admin is responsible for uptime. The ones that I have met and hired do not fit your description. A production server is a locked server, if there's a problem, it's fixed. If there is no problem it's maintained, it's not tweaked. A server that is being tweaked is a server being built.
If one of my staff on any of my projects ever did something as stupid as tweak a kernal on a production machine they would be dismissed. There is no excuse for that level of incompetence from a person at that level of responsibility. Period.
Sir, either your logic is flawed, you have not met responsible competent sys admins, or you have spent way too much time outside of a real business environment. I refute your arguement and your logic for it and I can only hope that not too many other people view the sys admin in your light.
Although it's great that something like this has garnered this much attention and inspired this much reaction from VA, I am left wondering how bad is the QC over at VA that a box is allowed to leave without parts. Especially more so considering the grief this customer has already been through.
Even though customer service and support have been spoken for, I would have some reservation about a company that does not contact a customer regarding a delay in processing and then does not do a second inspection of all parts before delivery. That's really to say nothing of the fact it took an "Ask Slashdot" story to get something done.
This is the relative equivalent of a call-4-action story on the six o'clock news about an auto mechanic that provides bad service. For Shame.
I agree, discussion is needed, but how long did German'y Intellectually Elite ponder the state of affairs while Hitler ran fast and free?
That would be great if every user had their own sendmail server at their home doing their email.
MOre than likely as this will affect "small ISPs" you will see non-encrypted network traffic upto the ISPs mail server. If the FBI sniffs before the mail server, whether sendmail, qmail, postfix whatever is encrypted becomes a nonissue.
The only way to stop this is for each and every ISP to supply encryption to their clients so from origination to destination everything is encrypted. But then again, do we really think that in this day and age, consumer level encryption algorithims are going to stand for more than a couple nanoseconds against some of these behemoth supercomputers the government uses for code breaking. If big brother wants to see what you got, he will pursue it with all the taxpayer money and resources he can find.
Let's not forget that FBI agents are recruited from among Law and Accounting students. Do they get much more anoretentive?
Absolutely. :))
The role of the federal government as was set up in the original constitution was to provide for the common good. Common in this case refers very specifically to the states.
The states were the authority for most of the populations regular activities. The only time when the federal government got involved was when something involved more than one state as in disputes, it was a matter of foreign policy, or it was a matter of absolute security.
In April 1865 when Lee surrendered at Appomatix, this whole issue of states rights went down the tubes. Since that time the federal government has been on a grwoth spurt finally culminating with the Clinton administration. In the past ten years, there have been exponentially more crimes incorporated into "federal Jurisdiction" than in the past. Point in case, Hate Crimes Legislation.
(how come whenever I start to rant like this I feel like I should be on a ranch somewhere in Montana?
Every person that breathes has something to hide. In this day and age noone is an innocent. An action that is now considered proper and right may someday be considered unlawful. Perception is reality for too many people in this world.
We, as a people, have been abstracted from the power base. Can we rest in our confidence when people are being arrested for "consentual crimes" or crimes that hurt no-one but the purpetrator.
Carnivor in and of itself does not matter all to much, but much the same as DeCSS, we as responsible citizens must draw the line in the sand and say, "enough". As for the Timothy McVee argument, it's invalid. Yes he killed a lot of people, but people die. Nothing that happens or that can be legislated will stop that simple fact.
Is personal freedom a price for security? It shouldn't be. Our country was founded with these principles in mind during a time when it was much worse than it is now. I still think there was some shread of wisdom that came from our Founding Fathers.
If you so want that security provided by absolute loss of personal freedom, join the miltary where you are no longer a citizen but government property. Don't think that I'll allow you to make that choice for me.
There is a point when the idiocy of our legal system goes too far. When and how will it end? What's next?
Why is this whole thing taken from the stand point of the geek? Wake up and smell the 15 year old coffee, geeks are not the sole market for computers anymore.
Just to have an alternative os that would run a directx game would advance the status of open source for the general public light years ahead.
Within my various business endeavours, I have adopted the motto, "the best tool for the job". Does that mean Linux in every situation...no. Would I recommend Linux, BSD, whatever to either a family with kids or a senior citizen who just wants surf and send email. No
Unfortunately, I've found that under few situations is linux the best solution for the desktop. Windows is a "mature" desktop system that fits about 95% of popular needs. Is it overpriced...Yes. Is it highly unstable...yes and no. Given it's shortcommings and its usage, do we as knowledgable technology prfessionals expect and demand enterprise class uptimes from a desktop OS?
I say that linux or any other OS will ever capture the hearts and minds of the general public until it can run the hottest games as soon as they come out. That, my friends, is where the money and the success lies.
During the American Civil War, Ol' Honest Abe, suspended the writ of habeus corpus and imprisoned supreme court justices based only on executive power. Since that time, the rights of the citizen has dwindled.
Whether anyone is willing to realize it or not, we live in a dangerous time that unless something is done to change it, we will all wind up in an Orwellian future. As a percentage of the most intelligent portion of the population, geeks need to take a much more active political role and be much more diligent while selecting representatives. Then, and only then, will bullshit such as this stop.
Preach on brother...
I don't own a dvd player or a dvd. I won't even think of buying one until something breaks for the open source side.
I'm not a zealot by any streach of the imagination, but somethings are worth making a stand for.
I must say that although the human dismemberment is a big issue with SOF, I must say that Redneck Rampage Rides Again was by far the best for killing digital animals
In RRRA you have pigs and cows and chickens, there's even a weapon where you shoot arrows shoved up a chicken's ass at the baddies. To me that is much worse than pumping a couple rounds into a cow, hearing a pitiful moo, and it's dead.
Now as for the game itself...I own it (my wife and daughter got it for me for father's day). It's not my bag of chips, but it's a novalty. I wanted it for the didgital pleasure of shooting a bad guy in the nuts and having a realistic :) outcome. Very theraputic after a stressful day of work.
I'm 25, this type of rating does not affect me. Would I let my daughter play it? No. Do I recommend something this violent for children, again it depends on the children, some can handle it, others can't. I can't remember a time without movies being rated, I never raised a stink when music had labels put on it, I never raised a stink when TV became rated and I have no problem with a level-headed, rational rating of games. But I also beleive a child's innocense should be gaurded for as long as possible...call it old fashioned values.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and hapiness. Quote taken verbatim from the American Declaration of Independence - Adopted in congress 7/4/1776 When we, as people are forced to submit to such things as active dna or molecular trace inspection, we not only forfeit certain rights but our freedom to exist as individuals altogether. Every person within a clicks distance of this post should write a letter and MAIL it - not email mind you - MAIL a letter to their elected official to stop this insanity. Tyranny advances when the first man says, "Someone else will fight this one."
Here's the skinny... Don't mess with the current generation of satellite systems that deliver internet service. DirecPc is a nightmare. Installers fumble with windows installs of the stock software. Hughes, the DPC manufacturer has very little knowledgable tech support concerning the matter. Aside from that, the price is outrageous considering the return. Asyncronus Cable modems are better. I have worked for one of the hughes authorized installers of this for the last five years and have seen the nightmares from simple customer problems all the way to corporate deployments. Several other systems are out that deliver a much better product on the high end. There is a system from Tachyon.net that delivers from low 100kbs all the way to I believe 2mbs in ATM with a send via satellite limited to around 300kbs. I heard one of their executives at a conference in july and they sound very promising to the high end consumer. Another company to check into is Harmonic Data Systems. They provide a satellite based software that is specifically for Linux or FreeBSD. Again more of a high end solution. Hughes is going to, in the next duration, release what they call personal VSAT which should be a contender with the higher end satellite delivery internet providers. Probably won't support Linux though unless hughes sees it as profitable. Take this as you will, but DPC is a dead technology and there's much better on the horizon.
Homosexuallity is wrong. The old testament is full of passages judging it, Paul condemns it in Romans. There has been no scientific proof it is anything other than mental or preference. It should be swept off the face of the earth. The thought of it repulses me to no end, always has, always will. My opinion of it has no bearing on my faith other than my faith also condemns it. That being said, Homosexuals should not be killed nor harmed in any way. They should be tought about God's love and helped to see the error of their ways. Just because someone does something does not imply it is good to do nor that it should be a protected right. Liberty is acting in a way so as not to interfere with the actions of others. Homosexuality by definition is an act of consent between two partners. As we all should know, consentual actions are a crime in most jurisdictions. If you don't believe me, check your local codes to find out where oral sex is a crime, you'll be surprised. BTW, the killing of homosexuals was confined to the old testament, mostly in judgements for iniquities (Sodom and Gromorrah). Judgements are not to be carried out by men but by God. And the Lord said, "Vengence is mine"
The old testament can be compared to the articles of confederation if the new testament is likened to the Constitution. The latter was temporary in preparation for the permanent defining principles. Both testaments are valid, though. If one choses to live by the letter of levitical law, they shall gain the promised rewards. To gain the rewards of the new testament, one needs to simply believe that Christ died for the absolutions of our sins.
Christians are perhaps the most arrogant people on the face of the earth. Read the bible and you'll know why.
About two thousand years ago, a man walked on the earth that told how to achieve personal hapiness and how to find ultimate rewards even in the afterlife. He had men who thought this was such a great thing, they left off what they were doind and followed him. After he departed this world, his followers set off for all points of the known world to tell others what a good idea it was. About a thousand years ago, people, upon realizing he wasn't coming back anytime soon, fell lax in their ways and did some pretty stupid things in their distorted versions of his teaching. Crusades, Inquizitions, persecution of anyone who did not go along with the teaching of the CHURCH. Not the man mind you, the church. As human nature, we tend not to start from scratch too often and instead build upon the lessons of establishment. Case in point, over a hundred years after the first one and we are still developing internal combustion engines. People took the teachings of the CHURCH and distorted the already perverted teachings into new areas, each time loosing touch with the man who tought it first. So here we are now reading comments about what christians have done and how evil religion is. In truth, some religions have become nothing more than ceremony, a tax write off for the rich, or a good choice of profession. Most "christians" are nothing more than people who go to church on sunday. True christianity is about being like Christ. True religion is simply a gathering of true christians for the greater good. In conclusion, generalizing anything is wrong. Everything must be judged according to it's own merit. Is christianity bad? Are morals bad? Look on any denomination of Money in the United States and you'll find the answer.
This is a test of emerging technology. This is not the end all be all of our missle defense system. It's nice to dream of larger things, but we have to start somewhere. Did you say, I'm not impressed, when the first developement version of Linux was released? Let's all get a grip, if we can stop one, even under controlled circumstances it increases our chance of survival dramatically.
.to screw in a lightbulb. Answer: they'd have to live in the dark because noone could give anyone else any advice on how to fix it, therefore noone would ever learn how to change the lightbulb. The attitude expressed by some of the posters in this situation amazes me to no end. Constantly belittling these people. At least the reported tried to install the operating system. As a new user to Linux it amazes me that older users would have such a pompus attitude to a person in this situation...for any reason. I've installed NT, 98, 95, 3.1 etc, etc., and must admit that with minor bumps I found my first full Linux install pretty easy, just different. If I were to have had a problem though I would like to think that there are people out there that would help and not look at my email client or my browser info or whatever else and reject me because the only computer that's currently hooked up has win98 on it. Look around people, Linux is something special as in it's an old concept reborn in new technology. If y'all can't grow up and learn to be supportive and helpful of someone who at least tries for whatever reason, ya might as well go find someother operating system to worship because Linux won't survive much less grow.
I haven't read /. that long, but what amazes me is the paranoid distrust of government exhibited by all but a few "logical" posters. For someone to suggest that the right to bear arms is out dated is amazing.
If memory serves me correctly, the right to bear arms was created with the intention of an extended national defense. It had little to do with bears or indians.
Ironically it was because of the British the second ammendment was so important. Hmmm, the original poster is British, is there a conspiracy here?!?