Actually, the last case Alexander Hamilton ever argued (before a New York state court, concidentally) before his fateful duel with Aaron Burr was one in which he argued that truth is a legitimate defense against libel. Although he lost the case, it did eventually become law. Ironically, after arguing this point he went out to fight a duel with Aaron Burr, who wanted to duel because his honor had been offended by Hamiltons statements.
As the world moves towards one global currency and instantaneous transactions, it is only natural that the world should move towards one global government. An unfortunate development for those who cherish freedom and for those who favor peace. In the end, the globalization of the worlds economy may led to a series of unresolvable conflicts, betwixt social engineers, patriots of all persuasions, and those who just want to live without having to fear the law.
When a man fears the law, either he is evil or the law is unjust.
The problem for the RIAA, of course, is that as long as it is possible to play music, it is possible to record it. Unless there are criminal penalties for recording your own music for your own use in the near future, I can't see any copy protection scheme preventing file sharing. Of course if I can't play cd's anymore I wont buy them. Why should I pay for a cd player when I have one on my (playstation/x-box/dreamcast/computer/dvd player/etc.) This is ludicrious. Within 15 feet of me there are six cd players, and the RIAA would like to prevent me from using ANY of them to listen to the products of their industry.
Are they trying to encourage filesharing, or prevent it? I'm confused.
The vast majority of buisnessmen, universities, and companies want to throw licences around like they are candy. However they don't seem to realise that the profit motive is irrelevant when you are licensing things that are not, in and of themselves, profitable.
Those that are guilty of this stupidity at the highest levels are only shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to producing things that are good for licensing. Simply, licensing something you need to make a new product that is either broken or inefficent, hiding it from developers, and then using it to build a new product results in a product that may or may not be broken or inefficent. When the building part is unprofitable, it is simply arrogance and stupidity that results in the failure of that which it helps to create.
The english voice acting cast for Cowboy Bebop is pretty much the same as outlaws. You aren't missing a great voice actor that you haven't heard before.
Are they planning to create Open source software for no particular reason? What open source software is the government planning to develop? Why does it require government money? Whenever you add government money to something, it becomes bogged down in red tape and government requirements which endlessly delay and corrupt the project. So, the question is, why the hell are they talking about developing Open Source Software? It is not a type of software for any specific pourpose, but rather a method of developing software, which confounds the idea of randomly investing in this method to produce software, and for who?
Of course we aren't taught much history in america, we don't have seperation of School and State yet.
But I am afaraid you are incorrect, when he first got out of prison he was prohibited from speaking to large groups of people, amongst other sanctions against him, and while Mein Kampf was not censored, it didn't need to be (or so it was thought). It was not thought that it would be published by any respectable bookbinder.
It's illegal to be skeptical about certain things? Wow, thats worse than I thought.
As for a country of people which hates all things not french, I was refering to the gigantic French-Identity crisis which afflicts both Quebec and France, breaking, entering, and attacking property of lawfully run buisnesses in france (Like McDonalds), refusing to sell transportation (like Subway tokens) to people whos command of the french language is not so great, and personally i've noticed you picking up an american hand gesture to show us how you feel about the citizens of the United States. (Clearly i've made the assumption you're french, so if you're not please attribute you to 'The french')
Sir, I mean no offense but I fail to see how your ass is insightful at all.
I am speaking specifically to the circumstances, most notibly where Hitler was prohibited from speaking to large groups of people, this caused Hitler to rise in popularity so that when he was finally able to speak to large groups of people he was then able to get large groups of people (who would not ordinarily come to his speaking engagements). I wont deny that the great monsters of history will be long forgotten by the time the general populace is ever forgiven, but there were a few circumstances in which hitler was censored, then uncensored, which is somewhat of a study on using censorship as promotion, courtesy of the Pre-Hitler German Government.
Clearly the circumstances in france are not identical, however they are close.
When I said I did not think there was a concidence that there is a law against anti-semitism in a country of people which hates all things not french, I was making the implication that the government is telling the people what to think and in this circumstance, what not to think, which causes promotion of the nazi party and nazi doctrine which there is a law against.
I am perpetually amazed with Europe's ability to repeat the mistakes of the past. Hitler was silenced and censored before, but unfortunately this did not work. It did not stop Hitler then, and it would not stop a new Hitler now.
The reason for this is that if you cannot reach Point B from a point A that does not exist. If you allow Hate Groups to speak without government interference, then others will have reason to speak and rally against them. That is, the French should not need the help of their government to understand why Anti-Semitism and racism is ridiculious and wrong. I do not believe it is a concidence that there is a law against anti-semitism in a country of people which hates all things not french.
To elaborate, it is very possible that the very existance of these laws against anti-semitism creates anti-semitism by virtue of it's distrust of the morality and sensibility of the peoples it is enforced upon.
In america, we've always felt that Anti-Semetics and racists make themselves look like idiots without help from the government or anyone for that matter. Should Europe choose to continue this trend of censorship, I fully expect Europe to see a new Hitler.
That is a bloody awful example. This has absoloutely nothing to do with napster.
The smokers knew that smoking would cause them many health problems, there was a warning on the side of the package for crying out loud. Essentially the smokers sued the Tabacco companies for their own stupidity, and the ruling is almost sure to be struck down on appeal. (For a funny parody of the situation, check out this weeks onion, "Hersheys forced to pay $185 billion in damages to obsese Choclate eaters.)
However, Napster is not preforming a consensual act. They aren't handing out Napster sticks to the recording companies and saying that they may cause you to lose a fraction of your money from pirated songs. These two cases are incompareable.
Furthermore, gun companies do not monitor the use of their products. Napster, having a central point from which to do so, can monitor the use of it's product. The cases are simply mutually exclusive from such points.
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
I can't help being an xp whore (tm)
on
Open Grill
·
· Score: 3
Everything 2 may be weird, but at least it isn't um, a haven of your evil OREOLOGY! (Quote from Rob when I confronted him on this vast conspiracy, "Shit, you're on to me.") Seriously though, can I help it if writeups like The Bondage Perils of Supergirl get voted up to like +10 and get me 20xp? Well, then again, I am pretty much crazy according to my fellow noders.
Either way everything 2 isn't half as insane as slashdot, our flamewars are usually between liberals and conservatives! And the trolling is in voting so you don't have to read any of it because people are afaraid of losing xp! Muahaha.
Concidently this is just one of many Krull Proofing Techniques used by everything2. We prevent Krull invasions thru many, very sophisticated Krull Proofing techniques. For instance, the vast majority of e2's buttons say 'Sumbit' instead of Submit. Also, in the event of lots of krulls invading, they'll get lost in the labrynth of nodes when we shut down the cool nodes, random nodes, soft links, search capability and new writeups. They'll just be trapped, then we pour creamy oreo goodness into the nodes. Unfortunately, a little known fact about krulls is that Oreo goodness [tm] clogs up the pores thru which they breathe the solar rays of the sun, brutally killing them, so if a few noders get caught in their SCUBA gear in a vast sea of Creamy Oreo Goodness, it's no big deal.
As you can see, Everything 2, "Horny Teenagers" (Of which there are very few, I assure you.) and all, is the last line of defense against the evil, evil, evil, krull invasion force.
The constitution does not protect lies or speech that incites riots. So if you told someone that a virii was a computer game and they played it, then they could still be held accountable. If the virii caused a large number of computers to make a distributed effort to crack something (ala distributed.net) or attack something, then the perp could be legally responsible under the second stipulation.
Guys, everquest is some dangerous stuff, and I mean this in all seriousness, Mudding can ruin your life. Like, if you skip a day of school to do a trade run or run a hard new zone, or you don't go on a date because you are on a major eq run, then like, uh, turn off the game, because it's not a carrer, although if it were i'd be playing it still or something.
A much better mud than everquest (in my own opinion, obviously.) is medievia, you should check it out, it's free for the most part too, although they like donations from people and junk. And if you need a client MCL is really good, or if you happen to be a windows junkie mud master.
I don't like everquest and UO and crap because of the way high level eq is usually traded and sold with real money, which I think totally messes up the games economy.
One thing that bothers me about muds like med, Medievia is free yet still proprietary in nature for some reason, so go figure. I wish the owner would just open up the source but thats unlikely, he fears competition and crap.
It's their logo and it was intended to be their logo when the theme was made, and someone could argue that if someone saw the apple logo on someones desktop then someone might think that computer was an apple computer. Whether that is good or bad for apple I dunno, but it's probaly bad for idiots who go out and buy an apple and then don't get all the cool widgets they saw on the fake Xwin apple.
These aren't conspiracy theories, they are the lines between the lines in press releases. If someone doesn't trust/believe you, they don't trust/believe you. It's really very simple in that respect.
From CmdrTaco's irritability, the way i've heard people like you from/. talk recently, it's beginning to get very, very, hard to believe you when you say 'We care about what we do.' or that the stories you post aren't at all influenced by andover and soon/now VA linux.
As much as I enjoy a good old "Love it or Leave it." Statement, I must refute you and remind you that the reason one would mention that he or she feels the quality of the stories has declined is because they care to some degree.
Yes, bots suck, but lets face it, compared to alot of sites you don't have to deal with half as much spammy DoS type crap. (I Imagine Microsoft, yahoo, and Viacom's various congolmerates get more of that crap than you guys do.) Theres no point in complaining about something that comes with the territory. That goes more for people who complain about lag to/. than to you, Kurt.
Next, you are not Authors, you are editors. There is a large diffrence, and trust me, you are not an author unless you actually write something, not just edit things people submit. By the fourth paragraph I must say that your writing has totally collapsed to a point where it is hard to understand you. Concidently there is always something a parent company can do when a media outlet spreads crap about the parent company. I find it hard to believe that there are no options on your contract that would allow andover or VA Linux to simply pay you a percentage of your contract and kick you out of the Andover/VA Linux borg.
In conclusion, Control via being your pipeline (i.e. you may be inclined not to post a story about VA Linux because that would hurt your earnings indirectly) is still control. To say that VA Linux/Andover or their money has no control over you whatsoever is a blatant lie. Theres nothing wrong with that, just don't try to pretend you're more saintly than you are.
Plain and simple. This should not be tolerated and everyone at clemson should boycott using long distance services from their university. Unless of course they wish to simply be frisked and robbed by their university.
Can you imagine if some crazy named their child Texaco or Amaco or my personal favorite, Namco. Everyday at school someone could come up to your child and be like "Hey texa-HO".
It'd suck.
I think the Child that was named Standard Oil would actually be best off.
Ok, sorry to get your attention like that, but it should be made perfectly clear to these people that if they aren't going to play by the rules, neither will we. I.e. we pull a christian gallery and give out the names and adresses of DVD-CAA lawyers, people who work with the MPAA, people who facilitated this obviously illegal action, and cross out their names when they become irrelevant, one way or another. Of course, this is only if they refuse to play by the rules.
Concidently, the rescent rash of DVD-CSS cases might require everyone who currently owns a DVD player to buy a new one, so that the industry can control who does and does not issue and license DVD players and DVD's.
If you don't have one, I wouldn't buy one until this blows over.
Silly, just because you don't know what is going to happen to you doesn't mean you deserve what you get. Not every user thinks that AOL would put in a 'simplifcation' procedure which effectively shuts off all other internet services. To Grandma who just got her new computer for her birthday and can't use her shiny new internet account her Geeky grand-kids are paying for, this is kind of mean, frustrating, and to them another example of why computers themselves are the devil.
When reading about the AOL Timewarner merger I had also then read that AOL opensourced a file server or some other AOL type utility. It caused me to write a poem that cheers me up whenever I think about the uncertain state of the world in which we live.
These are uncertain times we live,
when strong men are slain, in epoch change Castles fall and Heros fade, Ruins emerge and uncertain men sway,
Yet there is one last hope, a final prayer These are uncertain times we live.
Copyright 1999 Jacob Martinson --
Anyway, the point is that just because things look bad now it doesn't mean we are inevitably headed towards the end of open internet access as we know it.
Fear and paranoia have their place, and ideally everyone should know of perceived or real threats to their intrests. Be it Open Source Software, Linux, Freedom of Speech, The right to bear arms, or any other cause. However I do not think it is quite time to declare defeat for open internet access and choice of ISPs. You only lose fights like this if you choose to lose them. Tell people why you hate AOL 5 when they mention it, and suggest another ISP, granted they might be a little annoyed with you for it, but hey, you're a little annoyed with them for telling you how great AOL 5 is.
I got my comp with AOL 4.0 installed, I removed it from my computer after checking to see if PPP worked with my isp (mindspring). After removing it, ppp failed to work and the man at the clone store I had baught the computer from had to put in a new modem to get ppp to work again. When I ran the AOL uninstall program, it decided to remove all of the modem drivers and winsocks drivers as well. Kind of silly, but what do you expect out of America Offline?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the last case Alexander Hamilton ever argued (before a New York state court, concidentally) before his fateful duel with Aaron Burr was one in which he argued that truth is a legitimate defense against libel. Although he lost the case, it did eventually become law. Ironically, after arguing this point he went out to fight a duel with Aaron Burr, who wanted to duel because his honor had been offended by Hamiltons statements.
As the world moves towards one global currency and instantaneous transactions, it is only natural that the world should move towards one global government. An unfortunate development for those who cherish freedom and for those who favor peace. In the end, the globalization of the worlds economy may led to a series of unresolvable conflicts, betwixt social engineers, patriots of all persuasions, and those who just want to live without having to fear the law.
When a man fears the law, either he is evil or the law is unjust.
The problem for the RIAA, of course, is that as long as it is possible to play music, it is possible to record it. Unless there are criminal penalties for recording your own music for your own use in the near future, I can't see any copy protection scheme preventing file sharing. Of course if I can't play cd's anymore I wont buy them. Why should I pay for a cd player when I have one on my (playstation/x-box/dreamcast/computer/dvd player/etc.) This is ludicrious. Within 15 feet of me there are six cd players, and the RIAA would like to prevent me from using ANY of them to listen to the products of their industry.
Are they trying to encourage filesharing, or prevent it? I'm confused.
The vast majority of buisnessmen, universities, and companies want to throw licences around like they are candy. However they don't seem to realise that the profit motive is irrelevant when you are licensing things that are not, in and of themselves, profitable.
Those that are guilty of this stupidity at the highest levels are only shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to producing things that are good for licensing. Simply, licensing something you need to make a new product that is either broken or inefficent, hiding it from developers, and then using it to build a new product results in a product that may or may not be broken or inefficent. When the building part is unprofitable, it is simply arrogance and stupidity that results in the failure of that which it helps to create.
Don't get too excited. =P
The english voice acting cast for Cowboy Bebop is pretty much the same as outlaws. You aren't missing a great voice actor that you haven't heard before.
Are they planning to create Open source software for no particular reason? What open source software is the government planning to develop? Why does it require government money? Whenever you add government money to something, it becomes bogged down in red tape and government requirements which endlessly delay and corrupt the project. So, the question is, why the hell are they talking about developing Open Source Software? It is not a type of software for any specific pourpose, but rather a method of developing software, which confounds the idea of randomly investing in this method to produce software, and for who?
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
Libel
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
Of course we aren't taught much history in america, we don't have seperation of School and State yet.
But I am afaraid you are incorrect, when he first got out of prison he was prohibited from speaking to large groups of people, amongst other sanctions against him, and while Mein Kampf was not censored, it didn't need to be (or so it was thought). It was not thought that it would be published by any respectable bookbinder.
It's illegal to be skeptical about certain things? Wow, thats worse than I thought.
As for a country of people which hates all things not french, I was refering to the gigantic French-Identity crisis which afflicts both Quebec and France, breaking, entering, and attacking property of lawfully run buisnesses in france (Like McDonalds), refusing to sell transportation (like Subway tokens) to people whos command of the french language is not so great, and personally i've noticed you picking up an american hand gesture to show us how you feel about the citizens of the United States. (Clearly i've made the assumption you're french, so if you're not please attribute you to 'The french')
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
Sir, I mean no offense but I fail to see how your ass is insightful at all.
I am speaking specifically to the circumstances, most notibly where Hitler was prohibited from speaking to large groups of people, this caused Hitler to rise in popularity so that when he was finally able to speak to large groups of people he was then able to get large groups of people (who would not ordinarily come to his speaking engagements). I wont deny that the great monsters of history will be long forgotten by the time the general populace is ever forgiven, but there were a few circumstances in which hitler was censored, then uncensored, which is somewhat of a study on using censorship as promotion, courtesy of the Pre-Hitler German Government.
Clearly the circumstances in france are not identical, however they are close.
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
When I said I did not think there was a concidence that there is a law against anti-semitism in a country of people which hates all things not french, I was making the implication that the government is telling the people what to think and in this circumstance, what not to think, which causes promotion of the nazi party and nazi doctrine which there is a law against.
That may have been confusing, did you catch that?
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
I am perpetually amazed with Europe's ability to repeat the mistakes of the past. Hitler was silenced and censored before, but unfortunately this did not work. It did not stop Hitler then, and it would not stop a new Hitler now.
The reason for this is that if you cannot reach Point B from a point A that does not exist. If you allow Hate Groups to speak without government interference, then others will have reason to speak and rally against them. That is, the French should not need the help of their government to understand why Anti-Semitism and racism is ridiculious and wrong. I do not believe it is a concidence that there is a law against anti-semitism in a country of people which hates all things not french.
To elaborate, it is very possible that the very existance of these laws against anti-semitism creates anti-semitism by virtue of it's distrust of the morality and sensibility of the peoples it is enforced upon.
In america, we've always felt that Anti-Semetics and racists make themselves look like idiots without help from the government or anyone for that matter. Should Europe choose to continue this trend of censorship, I fully expect Europe to see a new Hitler.
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
That is a bloody awful example. This has absoloutely nothing to do with napster.
The smokers knew that smoking would cause them many health problems, there was a warning on the side of the package for crying out loud. Essentially the smokers sued the Tabacco companies for their own stupidity, and the ruling is almost sure to be struck down on appeal. (For a funny parody of the situation, check out this weeks onion, "Hersheys forced to pay $185 billion in damages to obsese Choclate eaters.)
However, Napster is not preforming a consensual act. They aren't handing out Napster sticks to the recording companies and saying that they may cause you to lose a fraction of your money from pirated songs. These two cases are incompareable.
Furthermore, gun companies do not monitor the use of their products. Napster, having a central point from which to do so, can monitor the use of it's product. The cases are simply mutually exclusive from such points.
-[ Shanoyu - wtr - planetmofo.com ]-
Everything 2 may be weird, but at least it isn't um, a haven of your evil OREOLOGY! (Quote from Rob when I confronted him on this vast conspiracy, "Shit, you're on to me.") Seriously though, can I help it if writeups like The Bondage Perils of Supergirl get voted up to like +10 and get me 20xp? Well, then again, I am pretty much crazy according to my fellow noders.
Either way everything 2 isn't half as insane as slashdot, our flamewars are usually between liberals and conservatives! And the trolling is in voting so you don't have to read any of it because people are afaraid of losing xp! Muahaha.
Concidently this is just one of many Krull Proofing Techniques used by everything2. We prevent Krull invasions thru many, very sophisticated Krull Proofing techniques. For instance, the vast majority of e2's buttons say 'Sumbit' instead of Submit. Also, in the event of lots of krulls invading, they'll get lost in the labrynth of nodes when we shut down the cool nodes, random nodes, soft links, search capability and new writeups. They'll just be trapped, then we pour creamy oreo goodness into the nodes. Unfortunately, a little known fact about krulls is that Oreo goodness [tm] clogs up the pores thru which they breathe the solar rays of the sun, brutally killing them, so if a few noders get caught in their SCUBA gear in a vast sea of Creamy Oreo Goodness, it's no big deal.
As you can see, Everything 2, "Horny Teenagers" (Of which there are very few, I assure you.) and all, is the last line of defense against the evil, evil, evil, krull invasion force.
--Shanoyu, head of "Everything Impossible".
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
It's just like when the industry was whining about how home recording was killing music. The same concept held true.
MP3's aren't killing music, bad music is killing music.
I don't even know why I need to bother on this one folks!
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
The constitution does not protect lies or speech that incites riots. So if you told someone that a virii was a computer game and they played it, then they could still be held accountable. If the virii caused a large number of computers to make a distributed effort to crack something (ala distributed.net) or attack something, then the perp could be legally responsible under the second stipulation.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
I hate anti GiS trolls, er,
oops, now that I *am* a troll,
Guys, everquest is some dangerous stuff, and I mean this in all seriousness, Mudding can ruin your life. Like, if you skip a day of school to do a trade run or run a hard new zone, or you don't go on a date because you are on a major eq run, then like, uh, turn off the game, because it's not a carrer, although if it were i'd be playing it still or something.
A much better mud than everquest (in my own opinion, obviously.) is medievia, you should check it out, it's free for the most part too, although they like donations from people and junk. And if you need a client MCL is really good, or if you happen to be a windows junkie mud master.
I don't like everquest and UO and crap because of the way high level eq is usually traded and sold with real money, which I think totally messes up the games economy.
One thing that bothers me about muds like med, Medievia is free yet still proprietary in nature for some reason, so go figure. I wish the owner would just open up the source but thats unlikely, he fears competition and crap.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
It's their logo and it was intended to be their logo when the theme was made, and someone could argue that if someone saw the apple logo on someones desktop then someone might think that computer was an apple computer. Whether that is good or bad for apple I dunno, but it's probaly bad for idiots who go out and buy an apple and then don't get all the cool widgets they saw on the fake Xwin apple.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
These aren't conspiracy theories, they are the lines between the lines in press releases. If someone doesn't trust/believe you, they don't trust/believe you. It's really very simple in that respect.
/. talk recently, it's beginning to get very, very, hard to believe you when you say 'We care about what we do.' or that the stories you post aren't at all influenced by andover and soon/now VA linux.
/. than to you, Kurt.
From CmdrTaco's irritability, the way i've heard people like you from
As much as I enjoy a good old "Love it or Leave it." Statement, I must refute you and remind you that the reason one would mention that he or she feels the quality of the stories has declined is because they care to some degree.
Yes, bots suck, but lets face it, compared to alot of sites you don't have to deal with half as much spammy DoS type crap. (I Imagine Microsoft, yahoo, and Viacom's various congolmerates get more of that crap than you guys do.) Theres no point in complaining about something that comes with the territory. That goes more for people who complain about lag to
Next, you are not Authors, you are editors. There is a large diffrence, and trust me, you are not an author unless you actually write something, not just edit things people submit. By the fourth paragraph I must say that your writing has totally collapsed to a point where it is hard to understand you. Concidently there is always something a parent company can do when a media outlet spreads crap about the parent company. I find it hard to believe that there are no options on your contract that would allow andover or VA Linux to simply pay you a percentage of your contract and kick you out of the Andover/VA Linux borg.
In conclusion, Control via being your pipeline (i.e. you may be inclined not to post a story about VA Linux because that would hurt your earnings indirectly) is still control. To say that VA Linux/Andover or their money has no control over you whatsoever is a blatant lie. Theres nothing wrong with that, just don't try to pretend you're more saintly than you are.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
Theft.
Plain and simple. This should not be tolerated and everyone at clemson should boycott using long distance services from their university. Unless of course they wish to simply be frisked and robbed by their university.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
Can you imagine if some crazy named their child Texaco or Amaco or my personal favorite, Namco. Everyday at school someone could come up to your child and be like "Hey texa-HO".
It'd suck.
I think the Child that was named Standard Oil would actually be best off.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
Ok, sorry to get your attention like that, but it should be made perfectly clear to these people that if they aren't going to play by the rules, neither will we. I.e. we pull a christian gallery and give out the names and adresses of DVD-CAA lawyers, people who work with the MPAA, people who facilitated this obviously illegal action, and cross out their names when they become irrelevant, one way or another. Of course, this is only if they refuse to play by the rules.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
Concidently, the rescent rash of DVD-CSS cases might require everyone who currently owns a DVD player to buy a new one, so that the industry can control who does and does not issue and license DVD players and DVD's.
If you don't have one, I wouldn't buy one until this blows over.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
Silly, just because you don't know what is going to happen to you doesn't mean you deserve what you get. Not every user thinks that AOL would put in a 'simplifcation' procedure which effectively shuts off all other internet services. To Grandma who just got her new computer for her birthday and can't use her shiny new internet account her Geeky grand-kids are paying for, this is kind of mean, frustrating, and to them another example of why computers themselves are the devil.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
Anyway, the point is that just because things look bad now it doesn't mean we are inevitably headed towards the end of open internet access as we know it.
Fear and paranoia have their place, and ideally everyone should know of perceived or real threats to their intrests. Be it Open Source Software, Linux, Freedom of Speech, The right to bear arms, or any other cause. However I do not think it is quite time to declare defeat for open internet access and choice of ISPs. You only lose fights like this if you choose to lose them. Tell people why you hate AOL 5 when they mention it, and suggest another ISP, granted they might be a little annoyed with you for it, but hey, you're a little annoyed with them for telling you how great AOL 5 is.
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-
I got my comp with AOL 4.0 installed, I removed it from my computer after checking to see if PPP worked with my isp (mindspring). After removing it, ppp failed to work and the man at the clone store I had baught the computer from had to put in a new modem to get ppp to work again. When I ran the AOL uninstall program, it decided to remove all of the modem drivers and winsocks drivers as well. Kind of silly, but what do you expect out of America Offline?
-[ World domination - rains.net ]-