People today are stressed out, and need efficient tools to get back to themselves, from the ever-quickening world around them. With breathing excercises, yoga, meditation and knowledge about the Art of Living, Art of Living Foundation lead by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of the biggest hopes for the human race.
First you use the techniques and knowledge to become energetic, happy, relaxed, peaceful and loving. Then it will overflow and you start caring and sharing with others. We are anyways one World Family, and the most fulfilling actions we can possibly do is to do service to others.
Quotes from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Some feeling came into you, unpleasant feeling, and you said, "Should not come, it should not come!" Doing that, you are resisting it. When you resist, it persists. Just observe. See, "Oh!" Go deep into it. Dance; stand up on your feet and dance. Be intoxicated; move intoxicated. --Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Fountain of Joy.
So what if somebody recognizes you: "Oh, you are a wonderful person." So what? In that person's mind that thought came and went. It is also finished. That mind has gone. Maybe they keep an attraction for you for some days, some months, so what? That also goes it also goes. --Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Seva and the Art of Enthusiasm.
In a quarter of a century, the Art of Living and its sister organization, International Association for Human Values, have touched the lives of more than 20 million people in 147 countries. Founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the international humanitarian and educational organization strives to strengthen society by strengthening communities and individuals. The Art of Living has achieved a sense of peace at the individual and societal level through seminars for stress relief, youth empowerment, workplace development and trauma relief, as well as workshops for prisoners and prison guards, drug rehabilitation programs and sustainable rural development initiatives.
In the coming years, the Art of Living will be scaling up its projects in the following areas: peace initiatives, value-based education, sustainable rural development and women's empowerment.
Peace Initiatives
The foundation will bring the Art of Living course to many more communities mired in conflict and work with them to provide peaceful solutions. The organization is also looking forward to working with militant groups in areas such as Kashmir, Beslan and Iraq by encouraging them to pursue their goals through nonviolence rather than violence.
Educational Programs
Also, Art of Living will increase the capacity of its educational programs by building more schools that impart value-based education. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar often says that the universal human values of love, compassion and sharing need to be instilled in young minds to ensure that the world is more peaceful tomorrow. The foundation envisions a peaceful future in which youth are actively engaged in society and work to help their communities' progress and develop.
Rural Development
Aside from value-based education, the foundation will scale up its economic development projects, which provide vocational training for rural youths that allow them to make a gainful living. The 5H program will continue to help strengthen local government and make local government leaders more accountable toward their constituents.
Women's Empowerment
And lastly, the foundation believes empowering women economically and socially will help build stronger families, and in turn, stronger communities. Art of Living works with women in Asia and Africa and plans to set up more women's cooperatives, as well as help facilitate the process wherein women are able empower themselves.
It requires a visionary to come up with something new. Sure, many people, often the same people every time, will say it isn't going to work. It won't happen. It's just another blog / forum, etc, etc. Booring. Can't you come up with something new?
It's hillarious how quick people are to grab onto the negative, when everybody really wants to be happy.. So you have to fight for your cause and ignoring the negativity.
Someone who started Wikipedia.. That speaks volumes to me. I remember when I was a kid 15-20 years ago, and saw a show on Discovery how our society would turn into an "information based economy", or some such phrase.
To be short: I was completely turned off! In my mind, I thought "If we will be able to share all information with everybody, store collections of books online, meet anyone on the planet, virtual tourism, etc, etc. Why shouldn't it be free? Why wouldn't people collaborate to make up information about every concept known to man?
The show touched that subject, but insisted somehow that there had to be money involved, that our society would value information more. Brokers would buy- and sell bits of information, as if it was a scarcity. That can only happen with DRM and stifling IP-laws, and is not natural at all. I just don't understand this way of reasoning. Sharing is very natural I feel.
Jimmy Wales has clearly understood the real power of the internet and how to tame it. To take on such a project and succeed where everybody else has failed, takes talents in many areas.
Yes, information can be shared indefinately. However, doing so, increases the value of the information to humankind. While if you share a bread with everybody, everybody will die of hunger.. unless you have special connections;)
To avoid bias, ways of moderating and collaborating on changes are also needed. I'm not saying Wikipedia meets the highest vision of automatizing that, but it does a very fine job because of dilligent and serious editors (hats off). Maybe automatizing is, like K5 and/., are not optimal for that job anyways. It is more important that experts are making the calls, than voting on a topic for something like Wikipedia.
To get the project known, used and collaboration started, is an enormous feat which is hard to quantify, wether it's luck, PR or good looks;)
What immediately comes up in my mind why a Wiki for political discussions is a good idea:
Wiki's are made to make a consensus. The further in time you get, the articles should become more and more correct, brushed-up and representative.
Democracy also has an interest in making a consensus, with both majority and minority interests in mind. This is solved today by representative democracy.
Politics is today far removed from the actual people. Also, topics tend to gravitate towards the scandalous, superficial, sex or fear-full, rather than important topics.
Forums do NOT make a concensus. They have many conflicting opinions, but moves very quickly on the next topic disregarding the work that has been put in previous topics. Such a waste of time and effort, so MUCH goes into the drain!
Blogs are also limited to just one author, and the commenters. They gravitate towards news and hot topics, but are not trying to systematically cover everything.
Wiki's on the other hand are supposed to converge into one piece of information, or many collaborated articles, about the whole topic.
I am very interested in how to portray conflicting views though. Maybe each article should have links to the related discussions? Or you could use DHTML to hide much of the discussion behind every paragraph, then choose the view you want to see.
SimplyMEPIS, Knoppix, Kanotix, to name a few. And they've done it for far longer than Ubuntu has done it....in-fact, I did a Knoppix install while browsing Slashdot before Ubuntu began to exist.
These are not what I would term "distros". Forget decent support, upgrades and the huge libraries of available applications. I remember installing Knoppix some years back, and then trying to upgrade via Debian while battling many Knoppix-specific bugs and non-standard ways of doing things. Finally, 2 years back I clean-slated and went the Ubuntu-way. Haven't looked back, and it's good to hear good news about Ubuntu now.
Don't get me wrong, the Knoppix system worked great, but I felt left out in the dark after installing it to HD. No source for the kernel was to be found anywhere, packages got outdated and removed while I strived to upgrade from Debian repositories, small forums/FAQs concerning HD-install, etc.
Making a painless and auto-detecting install sounds great. Even better is if the auto-detecting can be installed too, so cloning becomes even easier (X usually craps out). I clone alot to save time.
"My swarm of sunray-reflecting mirrors has now been installed in orbit around earth. However, they are as I speak being turned TOWARD EARTH ITSELF. Global warming will be worse than ever, unless...... YOU PAY ME ONE MILLION D$LLARS!!!!!!! BWWHWHWHAHAHHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAAA.. (whisper) (whisper) Oh.... I see...... I mean: ONE FANTASILLION-DILLION-MILLION D$LLARS!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAhahaha ha ha ha...."
In the context of humans adapting to nature vs. adapting nature to humans, there is no fundamental difference between preventing the icecaps from melting and putting in better flood control. We are still adapting nature to our needs (i.e. controlling nature), not the other way around. In fact, preventing the ice caps from melting is an example of better flood control.
We can't even decide what will happen from the current trends. Some say we can get a new Ice Age because of global warming, others say the planet will fry. Some say the water will rise because of ice melting, others say the water will sink because of ice melting in the north pole.
Some has a timeline of 20 years, 50 years and some 3000 years.
We have no clue what could happen to the streams in the oceans, for without the Gulf stream, Europe would mostly be unhabitably cold today.
And you're suggesting we're controlling nature?
I just find it so incredible... Liken it with debugging a program. We don't know where the bug is or what result it gives. Neither do we know how the program looks like in its entirety, not even how complex it is. Heck, we don't even know if the current trend is a bug at all!! Global cooling and warming has been part of earths natural cycle for millions of years.
We don't even know what effect we're contributing: How much is caused by humans and how much is part of a natural cycle.
If we put in a counter-effect, and the twig snaps, then what?
What we do know is that it would take earth very little to shake us off, and leave civilization in crumbles, compared to what has occured in the past of earth's history. And that there's nothing we can do about it.
Humility is in order here, and trust in the order of nature.
If you ask me, the best we can do is leave earth's bussiness to earth itself as much as possible. Our CO2 and other gasses should be minimized, because we know scientifically they have an effect.
Population should be controlled, not nature.
Society should be more localized, not made more and more fragile and global just to save a few bucks now. With some forethought, we should be able to survive most calamities if not prevent them. Our society is on the brink, not because of nature, but because of us and millions of people's inaction and laziness.
Last but not least. We should trust that everything is happening as it should be. No matter what. Controlling and manipulation, everything done out of fear, will only come back and haunt us.
If God is everything, why not substitute the word God with the word everything?
People connect the word everything with Every-Thing, ie. something material. God is more than Everything in many more ways too. God is past, present and future, as well as nothing and space.
Islam is very precise on this when they call on Allah, one indivisible God (although He do have 99 names;)
The Vedic scriptures have many "Gods" or deities, making it easier to separate different aspects of God in a meaningful way. But at the core, Hinduism is still about One God - One Reality. It's funny that science is also searching for this One Reality..
Why God is of benefit to humans is because humans have the potential to embody the Godly attributes of absolute love, creativity, selfless service, understanding, power, benevolence, humility, etc, etc. All God qualities. Every religion praises and promotes this.
We are here to make God into bodies. Without us, God cannot do this!!
The point is to get people moving in the right direction, and you're free to start a religion that worships Everything as a deity. However, unless there's something extraordinary about you, I doubt people will follow..
I totally agree that talking about God raises alot of ignorance, intolerance and stances all around though. So many useless discussions.. What is needed is that everyone study what religions REALLY say, and that we can respect each others views, and maybe see that the core is always the same..
A course in Art of Living, there's probably one near you (link in my.sig). It is tools to give you more energy, courage and dispassion, to survive the next exam.
A secret lies in the breath. We're not really aware of our breath during the day, usually not. So, with breathing exercises we can unleash alot of what is holding us back, and release stress, toxins and fear from the body.
An advice on here was to not care. But I think this is not entirely accurate, because I think you naturally care. A more precise word is the ancient word of dispassion. Not being attached to the result, but just doing what you can and see what happens. It is a good attitude. Dispassion is actually caring, but not getting tangled up with lots of expectations and attachments. This makes you free from having to think about working, always feeling guilty you haven't worked enough, etc. Such thinking can tire and psyche you out alot more than the actual work itself!
You can also start attaching positive thoughts to it. Often we harp in our minds again and again about how we suck at certain stuff, that we're not "able" to handle it like the others, comparing and alienating ourselves, etc, etc. Instead, you can find the positive stuff about the subject and yourself. Ie, you have handled many exams fine before, no matter what you will still survive, people shouldn't love you for your results or for any reason, you're good at this stuff because you DO care, etc, etc..
Whenever you feel anxious again, take your focus to your breath. You have more than enough time during an exam to do this too. When the thoughts wander off the breath, just take it back. With practice this is simple and can make you go through any feelings without panic, so that they get released.
A full Art of Living course will give many tools to overcome obstacles and finally surpass even your wildest expectations.
You really believe you are here to drink Mountaindew, stare in a PC-screen, then a TV-screen and then a movie-screen and have some beers in town?
If you're going to let a bad idea win without fight, you better have a good retort when they improve and make DRM better and better, and people are content because they get doped down.
It is always easier to kill a bad sprout, than having to redo the whole garden later.
How can "be like a child" be a bad thing? You are agile, flexible, good-looks, healthy, active, humourus, spontaneous, creative, friendly, open, receptive, giving, nurturing (ever see a child nurture a smaller?), smiling, laughing, loving, caring, happy, giggling, joking, dancing, singing, playing,..., I can go on and on...
Being "like a child" when above 20-30 years old means you now have the freedom and means to do what you wanted to do when you were a child. While being what someone else tells you, can be totally unnatural. Something inside you will speak to you what is needed.
The only catch is "responsibility". If you don't take it, you will regret it, because the finest moments of life, comes from when you have taken responsibility. Doing the right thing all the time, includes taking care of yourself, your family and friends by having a good time.
So I see this as a good trend, as long as people become more conscious of the roots of their new-won freedom: responsibility. Responsibility when taken will ensure a deep happiness, not a shallow and superficial one where you can't even manage to be alone, just to avoid feeling empty. Sometimes, there will be a storm, a war, a hail or thunder, but when you are with the responsibility, you are unshakable and know exactly what to do, and grow on the circumstances.
DRM restricts what you can access, how to access, functions and copying features of data (information).
Traditionally, data is just data, but with DRM, some read-only meta-data will mandate what you can and can't do with that data. Then freedom is lost.
Using legislation to disallow DRM could have impact on security methods like: filesystem permissions, serial codes for products, SELinux, encrypted filesystems, trusted computing, etc. Some of these are very liberating and gives the user freedom to express personal ideas without being compromised, serial-codes are a practical way to sell shareware / cheap software, while trusted computing takes away freedom for the end-user, just like DRM. The point is that legislation should be clear in its goal, and not mention products or special technology, and not be too general as to wipe out the good stuff. Legislators just can't understand the whole scope, and new useful inventions should not be stopped by over-legislation.
Using legislations to mandate DRM puts DRM-technology at an unfair advantage in the market place. What is DRM anyways, and why should some method of it be legislated? It makes the law unreasonable complex, and quickly outdated.
Legislation should be used for national security, not for securing big companies even more profits, villifying the citizens or forcing people into an outdated bussiness-model. Not war on terrorism, that war should be abolished due to global security mind you..
What effort is there to make the law simpler, more rational and understandable? This is the direction we should be going.
People need to get a clue, and we're the people / technicians who know about this and should educate as many as possible of what we know.
As a Norwegian, I think you are spot-on. People always complain a little about politicians, they have done that all my life. But those who actually DO something good to society, lift up the spirit of lesser fortunates, spread information and knowledge about issues, are far and between. I don't expect everyone to become politicians, but everyone can do something with their unique talents, however small in the beginning, and grow on that.
I can only conclude that most of the population just cares to read, bitch, moan and watch bad movies. Ultimately it's someone else's problem. News remains a perpetual depressing treadmill, so people can revel in some "reality", while themselves mostly being far-cut off from any real trouble. Easy sadness-fix, to be kept in a depressing and dull state.
Everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to fix the big problems, but who can do that without support? Politicians will come and go, giving a little fix here and there while fighting eachother, often making the big picture worse actually.
How much wealth can we amass, and to what use? That new car, new apartment, how much happiness will it bring. In a few years, they too go boring, and we spend much time hunting for new pieces of happiness. How much can we enjoy partying every weekend, and what do we do that is really fun. We spend so much time amassing wealth and trying to find happiness out in the world. Everyone seeks happiness and love, but true happiness and love doesn't come from drug-injection and superficial relationships, as they instead drain our energy.
Stretch _your_ hand out first. Happiness comes from within, but can be cultivated by doing the 'right' thing. Our inner voice always tells what to do, but it is up to us to cultivate hearing it. It's an adventure, and totally fulfilling and unique to every person. This is the steps to come forward in the world and out of self-indulged misery.
It also helps to do breathing-excercises, or similar practices, to lift the energy. It will actually feel uncomfortable in the beginning, because we're so used to deplete our energy all the time. However, isn't it time to turn around now?
Clearly the solution for stopping people finding security holes is to make distributing open source hacking tools illegal. Isn't this already covered by the DMCA or do we need a new law?
When open source hacking tools are made criminal, only criminals have access to security.
I thought the purpose was to find security holes and close them?
I can only hope this is supposed to be sarcastic, but it was modded +4 interesting. With no tags or marks, over the medium it's impossible to tell.
Inconsistency is part of making a discriminative choice. For instance take software patents. Ask experts in IT, and most informed people will say software patents are bad and hinder progress rather than spur new innovations.
But the same people will have a different opinion about patents in general.
RMS, when he was in Oslo, had a speech where he proposed different conditions of patents for different types of industries. For instance, in the IT-industry, 5-10 years should be enough since 20 years in the IT-industry is a very, very long time. But for other industries, 20 years is a better target since it will take some time to recuperate costs. The laws should be suited to solve real-life problems, not just set arbitrary limits which do not reflect the opinions of experts in the field.
I am not political correct, or demand 100% non-discrimation. Discrimination is a necessary part of life, you just have to find where it is useful to you and everybody else. Whatever you do out of compassion, love and striving to better yourself and others, can't be wrong, and if you are, it should be easy to change course.
We try to put rules down to control and understand life, but life is much more than rules, definitions or any construction of our minds..
I have this idea where everyone gets the same opportunity to shine, without regard to race, gender or age.
That is a commendable idea, and we're working towards that goal. However, think of the geniouses born in the gutter today, who have miniscule chances to develop their talents compared to the wealthy. Some people just never get the incentive or chances, that other do, and statistically and almost by definition they often belong in minority- or repressed groups.
Stipends, grants and special-selections are means to get them up from the gutter and mix with all of society. It is both a social benefit, as well as an untapped resource for society. The point being, if we do nothing, status quo will be preserved - there will be little or no movement. Minorities tend to group together, while others may look at them with suspicion and ignorance. Anything bringing the fences down is of good.
Likewise it is between genders. A male dominated industry will lack certain qualities that women bring in. I really want more women into political leadership, to bring down number of wars and power-games for instance.
The same in a "women industry", having some males will bring a balance on the oestrogen. Some more direction, less infighting and intrigues. Women and males have a bit different balance of male-female energy, and striving for a balance will improve many matters.
You are not gay for being a nurse, or being emotional. It just means you are more in touch with your "feminine side":-) Nothing bad in that, in fact, males have been getting more and more aquainted with that over the past years.
Affirmative action gives more opportunity to particular individuals because other individuals share irrelevant characteristics with them. It is ugly, nasty and not an idea that creates unity. It creates suspicion and drives people apart.
Maybe your emotional reactions to it for being "imperfect", like the world, is what disturbs your mind? A "big mind", will see the greater benefits and let it go, but if you're stuck in the "rat-race" and "every man for himself", then you will only see injustice and injury.
It is wise to save ones own mind, regardless of the world.
You are talking like there are people reading patents for gaining knowledge, instead of fearing lawsuits.
Try it sometime, I dare you..
Then we're back to the days when people hide their research to protect it
Research is rarely patented in the universities. Everybody gains from the shared knowledge, without patents. Patents stifles this process.
, and development progress grinds to a halt again where every company reinvents the wheel. Lots of unnecessarily wasted resources.
Everybody is reinventing the wheel already with closed source, and to avoid patent royalities. Now that is waste.
The cure is open standards, open science, open mathematics, open source, free software, etc.. etc.. Everybody benefits and gains value from open systems. Patents are not open systems, since it is based on fear, extortion and greed, rather than sharing a common good.
Also, if you don't enforce a violation of that patent as soon as you learn about it then you stand to lose any case you bring later. The idea that patents can be used defensively is only valid if you are also willing to use them offensively.
+4 Insightful? You are confusing trademark and patents. Trademarks you have to defend and show a product for, patents have no such requirments.
Delaying patent-claims is what is called submarine patents, just lying there waiting for a certain practice to be adopted by the industry, then BAM! 5-10 years into the fray, you claim your royalties or first-born. Remember "Burn all GIF-day", yeah, that was a submarine patent.
Submarine patents are much worse and damaging to the economy and IT-industry than patent trolls, since it will hit like lightning, stifling current practice and standards. Forcing people to reinvent the wheel..
While I agree and hate patents, its worth mentioning that almost everytime anyone here on/. asks what makes the iPod any better than other players, they always rave about how easy and smooth the control interface is and because of that Apple is the one who "really gets it", etc, etc. If it turns out Creative had and patented this first, it is certainly at least of value. I still would think its a stupid patent, but most iPod fans I know when asked why always rave about the "innovative" control interface and how easy it make things. Of course, now those same people will say its simple and no big deal. Go figure.
If you make a good intuitive interface, good for you. You can now sell it, and if people agree with it, they will buy more.
However, a patent stops everyone else from making their good interfaces. Just because something has value, doesn't mean it has to become a property.
It is important to have a clear view on the world, yes? Unless we risk going into roadblocks here and there, and feel sore and numb after a while;)
Using our mind can certainly help understanding and put things in perspective. However, too much of it, and we tend to get stuck in our own mind, instead of seeing things as they really are. With too much disturbing thoughts and emotions, we are only seeing our own mind, not the world around us.
In the news, there is lots of statistics every week, but we also know the world is much larger than a written report on it.
What do we really know about a person we have never met? Suddenly, we are to start to believe the statistics, to describe a person standing next to us?
That is discrimination, and the root of both that and racism. It's a trap in our mind, to be stuck in such superficial judgements.
Nobody has 1.2 kids, or 0.4 cars. It is impossible or silly. Reality is much more diverse than statistics and our crude models of the world.
To include groups and genders of people that would otherwise not join/enroll, is judged as a good thing for the whole. Because it creates opportunities for those people, _and_ shows others from the same group that it is indeed possible and they will not be alone. It is an effort to get the ball rolling, to include everyone, so that we will realize that we are all really the same.
Sure, black people usually run faster that white people in the Games, and white people dominate swimming. However for individuals, the statistical differences are negligible, and having a diversity of people in every social setting, far outweights the benefits of monoculture and speciality-breeding.
You give people an opportunity, and they will shine.
Everything that can unity us more is a good thing. You can be sure that whatever idea you have, if it will bring everybody more together, it is a good one.
Creative Commons can become what GPL is to software, something which liberates the content from the misuse and apprehension of huge corporations. Free Software Foundation and the GPL-licenses was invented as a reaction to ever increasing prices, EULAs, NDAs, copyright lengths, and every other toll-booth the corporations will impose just to squeeze the last drop of money out of our souls, for software.
With Creative Commons, we have a chance to reclaim our culture as a whole. A real, culture, indie artists, not sponsored and RIAA-breastfed brats copying the latest fad.
The irony being, that the stronger copyright becomes by lobbying from the corporations, the stronger Creative Commons and GPL also become.
In the long-term future, I believe in a reclamation of our culture on the local level too. More people will be fed up with way too many hours spent in front of a screen, and desensitized by an everlasting surge of noise in their ears. People will start to appreciate silence more and more, not in hordes, because that is a paradox in its own right. However, slowly more and more will look for alternative ways, something local. Playing in a local band, or just with friends. Meditation. Yoga. Tai-Chi. Quigong. Whatever to breathe life back into the soul.
It's called Synchronity, coined by Carl G. Jung, and describes these so-called "coincidences", that happens from time to time in our lives. One day for example, you encounter a single word 5-6 times, just by "chance". Search for Jung and Synchronity finds more information like this.
Do you even know what totalitarian means? Please read this. Until the 20th century, most states lacked both the resources and the desire to "regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior." Statist communism, on the other hand, required by definition that "nearly every aspect of public and private behavior" is regulated to ensure an equal outcome for all.
I beg your pardon, but communism was supposed to be ruled in "communes" / communities, that would set its own agenda and its own decisions about local things. Nowhere is it stated that for communism everything had to be centrally organized by a power-hungry and self-serving elite. Soviets in Russia turned into propaganda-machines and pupeteers for the ruling elite, thus negated its own function.
Communism has been functioning well in small communities, indeed, for small native village-societies it is really the most natural way to rule. Everything is shared, maximizing efficiency in a situation where not everybody has everything they need. Native Indians had little or no concept of ownership of land, animals, tools and many other things.
It is inherently connected with a deep sense of community, fellowship and trust. Something which is impossible after a bloody revolution, or just by plotting red areas on a map. Something which is ONLY possible by spiritual means and a common spiritual bond.
You have been brainwashed / misinformed about communism. No religion or ruleset dictates villaneous and predatory behaviour on its own populace, but the ego of man can justify anything to force his own will upon others, either for self-gratification or for misdirected belief in the "greater good". Usually, the ends never justify the means, it's the other way around: The means makes the end.
Unfortunately, people nowadays lack the very foundation to understand that a society can be ruled, not based on fear and force, but through trust, love and compassion.
If someone set up a site that had YOU portrayed for pushing violent games, or whatever, to children. Wouldn't YOU want the site shut down? Is it really a free speech issue when people are confused WHO put up the page in the first place, and wether it's genuine or not?
If all our politicians are crooks, what is the use of democracy? Give people a break and support your candidate, or you will be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Seems this case is either a patent or copyright-issue, but by not stating what "IP" has been violated, TFA is totally meaningless and open for speculation and confusion of the worst sort.
There is in reality nothing called "Intellectual Property".
What could be possible on the command line that isn't currently? You'd have to get into some pretty contrived piping examples I'm sure, and how many people actually want to do such things? Even then, the pipe shell should be your shell of choice rather than bash. I think we're all agreed that csh and tcsh are broken, but bash and a few others are pretty powerful.
There is power, I grant you that, but the standards are antique. What you have is:
stdin, stdout, stderr, pipes, some loose POSIX-convention for flags
Take ls and find, two of the most used UNIX-commands and I'm sure POSIX mentions them as well.
man ls man find
One problem here is that find uses one minus-sign (-name) for long options, while ls uses double minus signs (--all) for long options.
Even worse, many programs allow a single minus for having multiple flags. Eg. In grep this is legal: grep -ive
It is highly ambigous in so many ways. The semantic difference between "find -name XXX" and "grep -ive XXX" is not obvious. The find-example is one option, while in the grep-example it is three flags.
Sometimes flags can be sent in after the parameters, other times not.
Then there's the parameters to each option, which can be either separated with space or not, depending on the utility.
Strings may be sent in, but maybe the program only accepts the first character. Other datatypes are impossible (I'm not saying it is needed on the most basic level - which would break a fundamental UNIX-philosophy).
Errorhandling is not consistent either.
Input, output and error must be parsed and can break for language-specific reasons, or differences between versions. Let's say you make a utility to parse the output of ls -all, which is pretty standard for most ftp-programs, but then the dates get parsed wrong because they might be in a different language!
The whole concept of the command-line of UNIX/"Linux" is antique and should be replaced with a more modern system which is consistent and builds on the same UNIX-philosophy, but do things right in a modern way. I would suggest making input and output available in XML, as an option. This will help for programs that can be automated, like KDE-programs via "dcop" etc.
The problem with the command-line are many: 1) It is hostile to new users 2) It promotes bad conventions and inconsistencies for those familiar with the systems 3) Only humans can understand the interfaces, which makes it bad for automation
Improving the command-line is really a starting-point of a thesis or a big book. Lots of work can be done here, but the problem will be maintaining some sort of backward-compatibility, or making people jump on the wagon.. *cringe*
Slashdot Mirror
Ha ha!
:-)
:-D
:)
So it is you!
Have been wondering who have been spamming our mailinglists
Yes, BE happy NOW
Ok, then.. Gouranga!
People today are stressed out, and need efficient tools to get back to themselves, from the ever-quickening world around them. With breathing excercises, yoga, meditation and knowledge about the Art of Living, Art of Living Foundation lead by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of the biggest hopes for the human race.
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First you use the techniques and knowledge to become energetic, happy, relaxed, peaceful and loving. Then it will overflow and you start caring and sharing with others. We are anyways one World Family, and the most fulfilling actions we can possibly do is to do service to others.
Quotes from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Some feeling came into you, unpleasant feeling, and you said, "Should not come, it should not come!" Doing that, you are resisting it. When you resist, it persists. Just observe. See, "Oh!" Go deep into it. Dance; stand up on your feet and dance. Be intoxicated; move intoxicated.
--Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Fountain of Joy.
So what if somebody recognizes you: "Oh, you are a wonderful person." So what? In that person's mind that thought came and went. It is also finished. That mind has gone. Maybe they keep an attraction for you for some days, some months, so what? That also goes it also goes.
--Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Seva and the Art of Enthusiasm.
From the AOL website: http://www.artofliving.org/
In a quarter of a century, the Art of Living and its sister organization, International Association for Human Values, have touched the lives of more than 20 million people in 147 countries. Founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the international humanitarian and educational organization strives to strengthen society by strengthening communities and individuals. The Art of Living has achieved a sense of peace at the individual and societal level through seminars for stress relief, youth empowerment, workplace development and trauma relief, as well as workshops for prisoners and prison guards, drug rehabilitation programs and sustainable rural development initiatives.
In the coming years, the Art of Living will be scaling up its projects in the following areas: peace initiatives, value-based education, sustainable rural development and women's empowerment.
Peace Initiatives
The foundation will bring the Art of Living course to many more communities mired in conflict and work with them to provide peaceful solutions. The organization is also looking forward to working with militant groups in areas such as Kashmir, Beslan and Iraq by encouraging them to pursue their goals through nonviolence rather than violence.
Educational Programs
Also, Art of Living will increase the capacity of its educational programs by building more schools that impart value-based education. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar often says that the universal human values of love, compassion and sharing need to be instilled in young minds to ensure that the world is more peaceful tomorrow. The foundation envisions a peaceful future in which youth are actively engaged in society and work to help their communities' progress and develop.
Rural Development
Aside from value-based education, the foundation will scale up its economic development projects, which provide vocational training for rural youths that allow them to make a gainful living. The 5H program will continue to help strengthen local government and make local government leaders more accountable toward their constituents.
Women's Empowerment
And lastly, the foundation believes empowering women economically and socially will help build stronger families, and in turn, stronger communities. Art of Living works with women in Asia and Africa and plans to set up more women's cooperatives, as well as help facilitate the process wherein women are able empower themselves.
Sources:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Sri_Ravi_Shankar
AOL International website:
It requires a visionary to come up with something new. Sure, many people, often the same people every time, will say it isn't going to work. It won't happen. It's just another blog / forum, etc, etc. Booring. Can't you come up with something new?
;)
/., are not optimal for that job anyways. It is more important that experts are making the calls, than voting on a topic for something like Wikipedia.
;)
It's hillarious how quick people are to grab onto the negative, when everybody really wants to be happy.. So you have to fight for your cause and ignoring the negativity.
Someone who started Wikipedia.. That speaks volumes to me. I remember when I was a kid 15-20 years ago, and saw a show on Discovery how our society would turn into an "information based economy", or some such phrase.
To be short: I was completely turned off! In my mind, I thought "If we will be able to share all information with everybody, store collections of books online, meet anyone on the planet, virtual tourism, etc, etc. Why shouldn't it be free? Why wouldn't people collaborate to make up information about every concept known to man?
The show touched that subject, but insisted somehow that there had to be money involved, that our society would value information more. Brokers would buy- and sell bits of information, as if it was a scarcity. That can only happen with DRM and stifling IP-laws, and is not natural at all. I just don't understand this way of reasoning. Sharing is very natural I feel.
Jimmy Wales has clearly understood the real power of the internet and how to tame it. To take on such a project and succeed where everybody else has failed, takes talents in many areas.
Yes, information can be shared indefinately. However, doing so, increases the value of the information to humankind. While if you share a bread with everybody, everybody will die of hunger.. unless you have special connections
To avoid bias, ways of moderating and collaborating on changes are also needed. I'm not saying Wikipedia meets the highest vision of automatizing that, but it does a very fine job because of dilligent and serious editors (hats off). Maybe automatizing is, like K5 and
To get the project known, used and collaboration started, is an enormous feat which is hard to quantify, wether it's luck, PR or good looks
What immediately comes up in my mind why a Wiki for political discussions is a good idea:
Wiki's are made to make a consensus. The further in time you get, the articles should become more and more correct, brushed-up and representative.
Democracy also has an interest in making a consensus, with both majority and minority interests in mind. This is solved today by representative democracy.
Politics is today far removed from the actual people. Also, topics tend to gravitate towards the scandalous, superficial, sex or fear-full, rather than important topics.
Forums do NOT make a concensus. They have many conflicting opinions, but moves very quickly on the next topic disregarding the work that has been put in previous topics. Such a waste of time and effort, so MUCH goes into the drain!
Blogs are also limited to just one author, and the commenters. They gravitate towards news and hot topics, but are not trying to systematically cover everything.
Wiki's on the other hand are supposed to converge into one piece of information, or many collaborated articles, about the whole topic.
I am very interested in how to portray conflicting views though. Maybe each article should have links to the related discussions? Or you could use DHTML to hide much of the discussion behind every paragraph, then choose the view you want to see.
Just see here: http://campaigns.wikia.com/wiki/Terrorism
After reading this, don't you feel compelled to fill in the blanks, or further the argumentation. The idea is to make the articles more whole
SimplyMEPIS, Knoppix, Kanotix, to name a few. And they've done it for far longer than Ubuntu has done it....in-fact, I did a Knoppix install while browsing Slashdot before Ubuntu began to exist.
These are not what I would term "distros". Forget decent support, upgrades and the huge libraries of available applications. I remember installing Knoppix some years back, and then trying to upgrade via Debian while battling many Knoppix-specific bugs and non-standard ways of doing things. Finally, 2 years back I clean-slated and went the Ubuntu-way. Haven't looked back, and it's good to hear good news about Ubuntu now.
Don't get me wrong, the Knoppix system worked great, but I felt left out in the dark after installing it to HD. No source for the kernel was to be found anywhere, packages got outdated and removed while I strived to upgrade from Debian repositories, small forums/FAQs concerning HD-install, etc.
Making a painless and auto-detecting install sounds great. Even better is if the auto-detecting can be installed too, so cloning becomes even easier (X usually craps out). I clone alot to save time.
Obligatory adaption:
"My swarm of sunray-reflecting mirrors has now been installed in orbit around earth. However, they are as I speak being turned TOWARD EARTH ITSELF. Global warming will be worse than ever, unless...... YOU PAY ME ONE MILLION D$LLARS!!!!!!! BWWHWHWHAHAHHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAAA.. (whisper) (whisper) Oh.... I see...... I mean: ONE FANTASILLION-DILLION-MILLION D$LLARS!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAhahaha ha ha ha...."
In the context of humans adapting to nature vs. adapting nature to humans, there is no fundamental difference between preventing the icecaps from melting and putting in better flood control. We are still adapting nature to our needs (i.e. controlling nature), not the other way around. In fact, preventing the ice caps from melting is an example of better flood control.
We can't even decide what will happen from the current trends. Some say we can get a new Ice Age because of global warming, others say the planet will fry. Some say the water will rise because of ice melting, others say the water will sink because of ice melting in the north pole.
Some has a timeline of 20 years, 50 years and some 3000 years.
We have no clue what could happen to the streams in the oceans, for without the Gulf stream, Europe would mostly be unhabitably cold today.
And you're suggesting we're controlling nature?
I just find it so incredible... Liken it with debugging a program. We don't know where the bug is or what result it gives. Neither do we know how the program looks like in its entirety, not even how complex it is. Heck, we don't even know if the current trend is a bug at all!! Global cooling and warming has been part of earths natural cycle for millions of years.
We don't even know what effect we're contributing: How much is caused by humans and how much is part of a natural cycle.
If we put in a counter-effect, and the twig snaps, then what?
What we do know is that it would take earth very little to shake us off, and leave civilization in crumbles, compared to what has occured in the past of earth's history. And that there's nothing we can do about it.
Humility is in order here, and trust in the order of nature.
If you ask me, the best we can do is leave earth's bussiness to earth itself as much as possible. Our CO2 and other gasses should be minimized, because we know scientifically they have an effect.
Population should be controlled, not nature.
Society should be more localized, not made more and more fragile and global just to save a few bucks now.
With some forethought, we should be able to survive most calamities if not prevent them. Our society is on the brink, not because of nature, but because of us and millions of people's inaction and laziness.
Last but not least. We should trust that everything is happening as it should be. No matter what. Controlling and manipulation, everything done out of fear, will only come back and haunt us.
If God is everything, why not substitute the word God with the word everything?
;)
People connect the word everything with Every-Thing, ie. something material. God is more than Everything in many more ways too. God is past, present and future, as well as nothing and space.
Islam is very precise on this when they call on Allah, one indivisible God (although He do have 99 names
The Vedic scriptures have many "Gods" or deities, making it easier to separate different aspects of God in a meaningful way. But at the core, Hinduism is still about One God - One Reality. It's funny that science is also searching for this One Reality..
Why God is of benefit to humans is because humans have the potential to embody the Godly attributes of absolute love, creativity, selfless service, understanding, power, benevolence, humility, etc, etc. All God qualities. Every religion praises and promotes this.
We are here to make God into bodies. Without us, God cannot do this!!
The point is to get people moving in the right direction, and you're free to start a religion that worships Everything as a deity. However, unless there's something extraordinary about you, I doubt people will follow..
I totally agree that talking about God raises alot of ignorance, intolerance and stances all around though. So many useless discussions.. What is needed is that everyone study what religions REALLY say, and that we can respect each others views, and maybe see that the core is always the same..
A course in Art of Living, there's probably one near you (link in my .sig). It is tools to give you more energy, courage and dispassion, to survive the next exam.
A secret lies in the breath. We're not really aware of our breath during the day, usually not. So, with breathing exercises we can unleash alot of what is holding us back, and release stress, toxins and fear from the body.
An advice on here was to not care. But I think this is not entirely accurate, because I think you naturally care. A more precise word is the ancient word of dispassion. Not being attached to the result, but just doing what you can and see what happens. It is a good attitude. Dispassion is actually caring, but not getting tangled up with lots of expectations and attachments. This makes you free from having to think about working, always feeling guilty you haven't worked enough, etc. Such thinking can tire and psyche you out alot more than the actual work itself!
You can also start attaching positive thoughts to it. Often we harp in our minds again and again about how we suck at certain stuff, that we're not "able" to handle it like the others, comparing and alienating ourselves, etc, etc. Instead, you can find the positive stuff about the subject and yourself. Ie, you have handled many exams fine before, no matter what you will still survive, people shouldn't love you for your results or for any reason, you're good at this stuff because you DO care, etc, etc..
Whenever you feel anxious again, take your focus to your breath. You have more than enough time during an exam to do this too. When the thoughts wander off the breath, just take it back. With practice this is simple and can make you go through any feelings without panic, so that they get released.
A full Art of Living course will give many tools to overcome obstacles and finally surpass even your wildest expectations.
If you stop fighting, who will fight for you?
You really believe you are here to drink Mountaindew, stare in a PC-screen, then a TV-screen and then a movie-screen and have some beers in town?
If you're going to let a bad idea win without fight, you better have a good retort when they improve and make DRM better and better, and people are content because they get doped down.
It is always easier to kill a bad sprout, than having to redo the whole garden later.
I'm lazy, that's why I'm active NOW.
How can "be like a child" be a bad thing? You are agile, flexible, good-looks, healthy, active, humourus, spontaneous, creative, friendly, open, receptive, giving, nurturing (ever see a child nurture a smaller?), smiling, laughing, loving, caring, happy, giggling, joking, dancing, singing, playing, ..., I can go on and on...
Being "like a child" when above 20-30 years old means you now have the freedom and means to do what you wanted to do when you were a child. While being what someone else tells you, can be totally unnatural. Something inside you will speak to you what is needed.
The only catch is "responsibility". If you don't take it, you will regret it, because the finest moments of life, comes from when you have taken responsibility. Doing the right thing all the time, includes taking care of yourself, your family and friends by having a good time.
So I see this as a good trend, as long as people become more conscious of the roots of their new-won freedom: responsibility. Responsibility when taken will ensure a deep happiness, not a shallow and superficial one where you can't even manage to be alone, just to avoid feeling empty. Sometimes, there will be a storm, a war, a hail or thunder, but when you are with the responsibility, you are unshakable and know exactly what to do, and grow on the circumstances.
Innocent like a baby, wise like a (wise) king. =)
DRM restricts what you can access, how to access, functions and copying features of data (information).
Traditionally, data is just data, but with DRM, some read-only meta-data will mandate what you can and can't do with that data. Then freedom is lost.
Using legislation to disallow DRM could have impact on security methods like: filesystem permissions, serial codes for products, SELinux, encrypted filesystems, trusted computing, etc. Some of these are very liberating and gives the user freedom to express personal ideas without being compromised, serial-codes are a practical way to sell shareware / cheap software, while trusted computing takes away freedom for the end-user, just like DRM. The point is that legislation should be clear in its goal, and not mention products or special technology, and not be too general as to wipe out the good stuff. Legislators just can't understand the whole scope, and new useful inventions should not be stopped by over-legislation.
Using legislations to mandate DRM puts DRM-technology at an unfair advantage in the market place. What is DRM anyways, and why should some method of it be legislated? It makes the law unreasonable complex, and quickly outdated.
Legislation should be used for national security, not for securing big companies even more profits, villifying the citizens or forcing people into an outdated bussiness-model. Not war on terrorism, that war should be abolished due to global security mind you..
What effort is there to make the law simpler, more rational and understandable? This is the direction we should be going.
People need to get a clue, and we're the people / technicians who know about this and should educate as many as possible of what we know.
As a Norwegian, I think you are spot-on. People always complain a little about politicians, they have done that all my life. But those who actually DO something good to society, lift up the spirit of lesser fortunates, spread information and knowledge about issues, are far and between. I don't expect everyone to become politicians, but everyone can do something with their unique talents, however small in the beginning, and grow on that.
I can only conclude that most of the population just cares to read, bitch, moan and watch bad movies. Ultimately it's someone else's problem. News remains a perpetual depressing treadmill, so people can revel in some "reality", while themselves mostly being far-cut off from any real trouble. Easy sadness-fix, to be kept in a depressing and dull state.
Everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to fix the big problems, but who can do that without support? Politicians will come and go, giving a little fix here and there while fighting eachother, often making the big picture worse actually.
How much wealth can we amass, and to what use? That new car, new apartment, how much happiness will it bring. In a few years, they too go boring, and we spend much time hunting for new pieces of happiness. How much can we enjoy partying every weekend, and what do we do that is really fun. We spend so much time amassing wealth and trying to find happiness out in the world. Everyone seeks happiness and love, but true happiness and love doesn't come from drug-injection and superficial relationships, as they instead drain our energy.
Stretch _your_ hand out first. Happiness comes from within, but can be cultivated by doing the 'right' thing. Our inner voice always tells what to do, but it is up to us to cultivate hearing it. It's an adventure, and totally fulfilling and unique to every person. This is the steps to come forward in the world and out of self-indulged misery.
It also helps to do breathing-excercises, or similar practices, to lift the energy. It will actually feel uncomfortable in the beginning, because we're so used to deplete our energy all the time. However, isn't it time to turn around now?
Clearly the solution for stopping people finding security holes is to make distributing open source hacking tools illegal. Isn't this already covered by the DMCA or do we need a new law?
When open source hacking tools are made criminal, only criminals have access to security.
I thought the purpose was to find security holes and close them?
I can only hope this is supposed to be sarcastic, but it was modded +4 interesting. With no tags or marks, over the medium it's impossible to tell.
If not, how to you justify your inconsistency?
Inconsistency is part of making a discriminative choice. For instance take software patents. Ask experts in IT, and most informed people will say software patents are bad and hinder progress rather than spur new innovations.
But the same people will have a different opinion about patents in general.
RMS, when he was in Oslo, had a speech where he proposed different conditions of patents for different types of industries. For instance, in the IT-industry, 5-10 years should be enough since 20 years in the IT-industry is a very, very long time. But for other industries, 20 years is a better target since it will take some time to recuperate costs. The laws should be suited to solve real-life problems, not just set arbitrary limits which do not reflect the opinions of experts in the field.
I am not political correct, or demand 100% non-discrimation. Discrimination is a necessary part of life, you just have to find where it is useful to you and everybody else. Whatever you do out of compassion, love and striving to better yourself and others, can't be wrong, and if you are, it should be easy to change course.
We try to put rules down to control and understand life, but life is much more than rules, definitions or any construction of our minds..
I have this idea where everyone gets the same opportunity to shine, without regard to race, gender or age.
:-) Nothing bad in that, in fact, males have been getting more and more aquainted with that over the past years.
That is a commendable idea, and we're working towards that goal. However, think of the geniouses born in the gutter today, who have miniscule chances to develop their talents compared to the wealthy. Some people just never get the incentive or chances, that other do, and statistically and almost by definition they often belong in minority- or repressed groups.
Stipends, grants and special-selections are means to get them up from the gutter and mix with all of society. It is both a social benefit, as well as an untapped resource for society. The point being, if we do nothing, status quo will be preserved - there will be little or no movement. Minorities tend to group together, while others may look at them with suspicion and ignorance. Anything bringing the fences down is of good.
Likewise it is between genders. A male dominated industry will lack certain qualities that women bring in. I really want more women into political leadership, to bring down number of wars and power-games for instance.
The same in a "women industry", having some males will bring a balance on the oestrogen. Some more direction, less infighting and intrigues. Women and males have a bit different balance of male-female energy, and striving for a balance will improve many matters.
You are not gay for being a nurse, or being emotional. It just means you are more in touch with your "feminine side"
Affirmative action gives more opportunity to particular individuals because other individuals share irrelevant characteristics with them. It is ugly, nasty and not an idea that creates unity. It creates suspicion and drives people apart.
Maybe your emotional reactions to it for being "imperfect", like the world, is what disturbs your mind? A "big mind", will see the greater benefits and let it go, but if you're stuck in the "rat-race" and "every man for himself", then you will only see injustice and injury.
It is wise to save ones own mind, regardless of the world.
You are talking like there are people reading patents for gaining knowledge, instead of fearing lawsuits.
Try it sometime, I dare you..
Then we're back to the days when people hide their research to protect it
Research is rarely patented in the universities. Everybody gains from the shared knowledge, without patents. Patents stifles this process.
, and development progress grinds to a halt again where every company reinvents the wheel. Lots of unnecessarily wasted resources.
Everybody is reinventing the wheel already with closed source, and to avoid patent royalities. Now that is waste.
The cure is open standards, open science, open mathematics, open source, free software, etc.. etc.. Everybody benefits and gains value from open systems. Patents are not open systems, since it is based on fear, extortion and greed, rather than sharing a common good.
Also, if you don't enforce a violation of that patent as soon as you learn about it then you stand to lose any case you bring later. The idea that patents can be used defensively is only valid if you are also willing to use them offensively.
+4 Insightful? You are confusing trademark and patents. Trademarks you have to defend and show a product for, patents have no such requirments.
Delaying patent-claims is what is called submarine patents, just lying there waiting for a certain practice to be adopted by the industry, then BAM! 5-10 years into the fray, you claim your royalties or first-born. Remember "Burn all GIF-day", yeah, that was a submarine patent.
Submarine patents are much worse and damaging to the economy and IT-industry than patent trolls, since it will hit like lightning, stifling current practice and standards. Forcing people to reinvent the wheel..
While I agree and hate patents, its worth mentioning that almost everytime anyone here on /. asks what makes the iPod any better than other players, they always rave about how easy and smooth the control interface is and because of that Apple is the one who "really gets it", etc, etc. If it turns out Creative had and patented this first, it is certainly at least of value. I still would think its a stupid patent, but most iPod fans I know when asked why always rave about the "innovative" control interface and how easy it make things. Of course, now those same people will say its simple and no big deal. Go figure.
If you make a good intuitive interface, good for you. You can now sell it, and if people agree with it, they will buy more.
However, a patent stops everyone else from making their good interfaces. Just because something has value, doesn't mean it has to become a property.
Seems common sense is very rare these days..
It hurts to do this.
;)
It is important to have a clear view on the world, yes? Unless we risk going into roadblocks here and there, and feel sore and numb after a while
Using our mind can certainly help understanding and put things in perspective. However, too much of it, and we tend to get stuck in our own mind, instead of seeing things as they really are. With too much disturbing thoughts and emotions, we are only seeing our own mind, not the world around us.
In the news, there is lots of statistics every week, but we also know the world is much larger than a written report on it.
What do we really know about a person we have never met? Suddenly, we are to start to believe the statistics, to describe a person standing next to us?
That is discrimination, and the root of both that and racism. It's a trap in our mind, to be stuck in such superficial judgements.
Nobody has 1.2 kids, or 0.4 cars. It is impossible or silly. Reality is much more diverse than statistics and our crude models of the world.
To include groups and genders of people that would otherwise not join/enroll, is judged as a good thing for the whole. Because it creates opportunities for those people, _and_ shows others from the same group that it is indeed possible and they will not be alone. It is an effort to get the ball rolling, to include everyone, so that we will realize that we are all really the same.
Sure, black people usually run faster that white people in the Games, and white people dominate swimming. However for individuals, the statistical differences are negligible, and having a diversity of people in every social setting, far outweights the benefits of monoculture and speciality-breeding.
You give people an opportunity, and they will shine.
Everything that can unity us more is a good thing. You can be sure that whatever idea you have, if it will bring everybody more together, it is a good one.
Creative Commons can become what GPL is to software, something which liberates the content from the misuse and apprehension of huge corporations. Free Software Foundation and the GPL-licenses was invented as a reaction to ever increasing prices, EULAs, NDAs, copyright lengths, and every other toll-booth the corporations will impose just to squeeze the last drop of money out of our souls, for software.
With Creative Commons, we have a chance to reclaim our culture as a whole. A real, culture, indie artists, not sponsored and RIAA-breastfed brats copying the latest fad.
The irony being, that the stronger copyright becomes by lobbying from the corporations, the stronger Creative Commons and GPL also become.
In the long-term future, I believe in a reclamation of our culture on the local level too. More people will be fed up with way too many hours spent in front of a screen, and desensitized by an everlasting surge of noise in their ears. People will start to appreciate silence more and more, not in hordes, because that is a paradox in its own right. However, slowly more and more will look for alternative ways, something local. Playing in a local band, or just with friends. Meditation. Yoga. Tai-Chi. Quigong. Whatever to breathe life back into the soul.
It's called Synchronity, coined by Carl G. Jung, and describes these so-called "coincidences", that happens from time to time in our lives. One day for example, you encounter a single word 5-6 times, just by "chance". Search for Jung and Synchronity finds more information like this.
Do you even know what totalitarian means? Please read this. Until the 20th century, most states lacked both the resources and the desire to "regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior." Statist communism, on the other hand, required by definition that "nearly every aspect of public and private behavior" is regulated to ensure an equal outcome for all.
I beg your pardon, but communism was supposed to be ruled in "communes" / communities, that would set its own agenda and its own decisions about local things. Nowhere is it stated that for communism everything had to be centrally organized by a power-hungry and self-serving elite. Soviets in Russia turned into propaganda-machines and pupeteers for the ruling elite, thus negated its own function.
Communism has been functioning well in small communities, indeed, for small native village-societies it is really the most natural way to rule. Everything is shared, maximizing efficiency in a situation where not everybody has everything they need. Native Indians had little or no concept of ownership of land, animals, tools and many other things.
It is inherently connected with a deep sense of community, fellowship and trust. Something which is impossible after a bloody revolution, or just by plotting red areas on a map. Something which is ONLY possible by spiritual means and a common spiritual bond.
You have been brainwashed / misinformed about communism. No religion or ruleset dictates villaneous and predatory behaviour on its own populace, but the ego of man can justify anything to force his own will upon others, either for self-gratification or for misdirected belief in the "greater good". Usually, the ends never justify the means, it's the other way around: The means makes the end.
Unfortunately, people nowadays lack the very foundation to understand that a society can be ruled, not based on fear and force, but through trust, love and compassion.
If someone set up a site that had YOU portrayed for pushing violent games, or whatever, to children. Wouldn't YOU want the site shut down? Is it really a free speech issue when people are confused WHO put up the page in the first place, and wether it's genuine or not?
If all our politicians are crooks, what is the use of democracy? Give people a break and support your candidate, or you will be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Are they meaning patents, copyright or trademark?
Seems this case is either a patent or copyright-issue, but by not stating what "IP" has been violated, TFA is totally meaningless and open for speculation and confusion of the worst sort.
There is in reality nothing called "Intellectual Property".
What could be possible on the command line that isn't currently?
You'd have to get into some pretty contrived piping examples I'm sure, and how many people actually want to do such things? Even then, the pipe shell should be your shell of choice rather than bash. I think we're all agreed that csh and tcsh are broken, but bash and a few others are pretty powerful.
There is power, I grant you that, but the standards are antique. What you have is:
stdin, stdout, stderr, pipes, some loose POSIX-convention for flags
Take ls and find, two of the most used UNIX-commands and I'm sure POSIX mentions them as well.
man ls
man find
One problem here is that find uses one minus-sign (-name) for long options, while ls uses double minus signs (--all) for long options.
Even worse, many programs allow a single minus for having multiple flags. Eg. In grep this is legal: grep -ive
It is highly ambigous in so many ways. The semantic difference between "find -name XXX" and "grep -ive XXX" is not obvious. The find-example is one option, while in the grep-example it is three flags.
Sometimes flags can be sent in after the parameters, other times not.
Then there's the parameters to each option, which can be either separated with space or not, depending on the utility.
Strings may be sent in, but maybe the program only accepts the first character. Other datatypes are impossible (I'm not saying it is needed on the most basic level - which would break a fundamental UNIX-philosophy).
Errorhandling is not consistent either.
Input, output and error must be parsed and can break for language-specific reasons, or differences between versions. Let's say you make a utility to parse the output of ls -all, which is pretty standard for most ftp-programs, but then the dates get parsed wrong because they might be in a different language!
The whole concept of the command-line of UNIX/"Linux" is antique and should be replaced with a more modern system which is consistent and builds on the same UNIX-philosophy, but do things right in a modern way. I would suggest making input and output available in XML, as an option. This will help for programs that can be automated, like KDE-programs via "dcop" etc.
The problem with the command-line are many:
1) It is hostile to new users
2) It promotes bad conventions and inconsistencies for those familiar with the systems
3) Only humans can understand the interfaces, which makes it bad for automation
Improving the command-line is really a starting-point of a thesis or a big book. Lots of work can be done here, but the problem will be maintaining some sort of backward-compatibility, or making people jump on the wagon.. *cringe*