A US passport or state identification card should be sufficient for any identification process not involving an automobile (a driver's license can be required for the purposes of buying or renting a vehicle, for example).
If you denied someone's application for a cell phone because they tried to use a state ID card or a passport instead of a driver's license, they would have grounds to sue your company for discrimination.
Wow...what you said makes a lot of sense...but it makes some very big assumptions.
1) Terrorist attacks are the US's biggest problem.
Ok...last time I checked, roughly 4000-5000 people died on September 11. Yes, it's tragic. But due to the visibility of the event, it's importance has been blown way out of proportion. Considering that millions of people die each year in this country, this represents a *very* small percentage. Things like car accidents, gun violence and lung cancer are far more pressing issues...even malnutrition. If we devoted half as much effort to helping to feed people living below the poverty line as we do toward stopping terrorism, everyone in this country wouldn't have to worry where their next meal will come from.
2) The US needs to actively stop terrorist attacks.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but I don't think we need to take such an active stance in preventing terrorist activities. Terrorists perpetrate acts like those that happened on 9/11 because of the publicity that they generate. They ensure that the issues important to the terrorist are front-page news. And US news agencies play right into their hands. A certain part of the motivation toward committing terrorist acts is that it will occupy our entire attention for a long period of time.
For analogy's sake, try this one on for size. Back in jr high school, I was a geekish, extremely white boy who was considerably smaller than pretty much anyone else at the school. The school bullies immediately targetted me and began to pick on me. The first month of school was pretty bad...I got beat up a lot. But I never fought back, ran or resisted in any fashion. Pretty soon, the bullies came to the conclusion that picking on me was boring...and stopped. They just couldn't get a rise out of me and never saw the fear in my eyes that they needed to fulfill their reason for bullying others.
So, while it may be a stretch to cast the US into the "victim" role and the terrorists into the "bully" role, there is a parallel there. By having 24/7 updates of the events for the next 6 months, we've sent terrorists a clear message. Doing this type of thing *will* get our attention. If we had resumed normal daily routine after a couple of days, there would be less of a reason for terrorists to try this kind of thing again.
3) Our "buffalo herd" reaction was a natural consequence of the 9/11 events.
The "buffalo herd" reaction that we're currently having is a direct result of the media coverage of the events. More sensable coverage would not have elicitted such a rise out of the "herd." If the media kept things in perspective, there would be no chance of stuff like this (the story we're talking about) happening.
4) Safety is more important than freedom.
Ok...this wasn't the case for the GI's who fought in WWI, WWII or any war since then. Simply put, some things are worth dying for. Many of us are willing to accept the inherant risk in valuing our freedom over our safty.
Because USB does everything PS/2 does in a more flexable way. It's nice to be able to hook the mouse into my keyboard or the back of the computer or even into a USB hub. Computer makers like USB because it eliminates the need to color-code everything. With PS/2, the tech on the phone always has to think, "did this moron hook the keyboard into the mouse port?"
Kinda reminds me of the time someone spray painted a big "C" in front of the "Ross Dress For Less" sign in front of the store near where I live...LMAO when I saw it for the first time.
I would also like the ability to fly, bend metal objects with my mind, and understand women.
Previous attempts at adding flight functionality haven't had less than stellar results...so it'll probably be a while before we see it again.
However, I can assure you that when you choose to bang your head against after using Microsoft's new operating system against some metal object, it will end up dented.
As for your third request, it simply isn't possible. I recommend that you request that Microsoft add the "cooking", "laundry", "dishes", "sex" and "stop bugging me and leave me alone" features. That should solve your problem.
Funny...I wonder what that source I downloaded from Sun was...sure looked like Java. Java might not be GPL, but it *is* open source.
I think what you're referring to is that Java is still a very proprietary entity. The JCP is pretty much a sham for Sun to control the Java specification. Basically, anyone's free to look all they want, just don't touch.
It's a good example to illustrate Stallman's Open Source != Free Software distinction.
That means that people should not be able to fake their return address.
Agreed. But let's architect an email infrastructure that enforces this instead of passing legislation.
The multi-national nature of the internet means that the only laws that will truly be respected on the internet are ones that are technically mandated.
Re:bye bye tivo
on
PVR For Linux
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Ummm...This shouldn't really hurt TiVo too much. For the average user, it's just too complicated. The overhead of building your own linux box is a signifcant one. When you add in that it doesn't come in a pretty package like the TiVo.
I also wouldn't discount the effort necessary to build a public database of showtimes. I would doubt that entertainment companies would just give open source developers an easy way to pull this information automatically. It probably wouldn't be too hard to screen scrape from some other source, but there are legal issues with that, not to mention the hassle whenever the format of those sources changes.
In the unlikely event that this does start to threaten TiVo's business, TiVo has plenty of patents on timeshifting video and the like that could probably kill off this product.
How did the entertainment industry become so powerful?
Entertainment has always been more powerful than its bottom line. Simply because it commands our attention, it becomes a channel with which the entertainment industry can indoctrinate the population (people are sheep...just look at the current state of US elections). I wouldn't be surprised if in 2 years, 90% of the population believed that DRM is a good thing. It sounds far fetched, but just wait until Jean-Claude Van Damme is fighting against a group from Hong Kong that is supplying the US with bootlegged CDs.
During the.com era, people believed that there was value in the number of "eyeballs" one can command. People learned a quick lesson that there is very little monetary value to those "eyeballs." However, those eyeballs do have value beyond monetary. Simply beacuse you produce the content that everyone consumes, you have the ability to propogandize people. It takes a *lot* of money to offset this advantage.
Narrator 2: This message brought to you by the Council for an Evil Free America.
You meant "...an Evil Free United States." right?
You do realize that by 2004, the USA will be forced to drop the A after AOL alleges trademark infringement.
While the government tried to argue that there was no chance of confusion between the two, but AOL successfully argued that due to their new NetTax(TM) initiative taxing internet transactions, there could be confusion with the governments federal income tax program.
However on most cameras speeds over about 1/200th of a second are not "real"
This is only true for film cameras as they actually have shutters. Digital cameras (well, the ones I've owned at least) don't have shutters. They usually play a little shutter sound until you find the menu to turn that off.
IIRC, they still have a large light bulb or two (of sorts) sitting behind the Liquid Crystals...I don't think OLED displays will have this requirement. While this is only a few inches thick, it *would* make OLEDs more flat than an LCD.
Murder is already actively enforced. Copyright infringement is not. If law enforcement were actively monitoring people who share content (getting their ips, calling the ISP to get their real identity and then prosecuting them) and the problem still persisted, then it might be time for new laws. This is the same argument gun enthusiasts use when talking about new handgun legislation. Enforce existing laws before passing new ones.
Assault rifle legislation was enacted also as a protection for law enforcement. Police officers put their lives on the line on a daily basis. Having officers out-gunned by criminals is a real problem. The only thing that copyright infringement affects is how many Bentleys/Ferraris Hillary Rosen buys on a given day. It's pretty clear to me that we have to be much more careful with controling weapons than controlling computers' copying ability.
Incidently, other proposals for disabling computers might be much more useful. As more important services are moved onto the web, limiting a computers ability to attack another computer could be handled at the machine level. I wonder how many people on/. would object to their ethernet card preventing them from DoS'ing another site. I wouldn't want any law to mandate that, but would consider it a feature when selecting which card I bought since it might deter people cracking into my box.
Katz bothers not with such mundane details as the location of these planets. He's more interested in the implications of the existence of such planets. He has no idea what implications those might be, but he'll definitely be sure that they will change the way we live our lives.
Get ready for articles with words such as "Earth-centric", "Extra-terrestrial Imperialism" and "Trans-globalism"
The original Salon piece highlighted the problem with this solution.
The major labels are constantly buying smaller labels. That's the business model for many small labels. So, a web broadcaster can often get consent from a small label to play their content for free over the internet. However, if that smaller label gets bought by a member of the RIAA, the content once again falls under CARP.
So it ends up being a massive headache for a web broadcaster to continually check with label who owns the content that you're broadcasting to see if they've changed their mind. One of the reasons why record companies continually buy up smaller labels is to force more alternative radio stations to pay their ASCAP/BMI fees.
Slashdot Mirror
A US passport or state identification card should be sufficient for any identification process not involving an automobile (a driver's license can be required for the purposes of buying or renting a vehicle, for example).
If you denied someone's application for a cell phone because they tried to use a state ID card or a passport instead of a driver's license, they would have grounds to sue your company for discrimination.
Wow...what you said makes a lot of sense...but it makes some very big assumptions.
1) Terrorist attacks are the US's biggest problem.
Ok...last time I checked, roughly 4000-5000 people died on September 11. Yes, it's tragic. But due to the visibility of the event, it's importance has been blown way out of proportion. Considering that millions of people die each year in this country, this represents a *very* small percentage. Things like car accidents, gun violence and lung cancer are far more pressing issues...even malnutrition. If we devoted half as much effort to helping to feed people living below the poverty line as we do toward stopping terrorism, everyone in this country wouldn't have to worry where their next meal will come from.
2) The US needs to actively stop terrorist attacks.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but I don't think we need to take such an active stance in preventing terrorist activities. Terrorists perpetrate acts like those that happened on 9/11 because of the publicity that they generate. They ensure that the issues important to the terrorist are front-page news. And US news agencies play right into their hands. A certain part of the motivation toward committing terrorist acts is that it will occupy our entire attention for a long period of time.
For analogy's sake, try this one on for size. Back in jr high school, I was a geekish, extremely white boy who was considerably smaller than pretty much anyone else at the school. The school bullies immediately targetted me and began to pick on me. The first month of school was pretty bad...I got beat up a lot. But I never fought back, ran or resisted in any fashion. Pretty soon, the bullies came to the conclusion that picking on me was boring...and stopped. They just couldn't get a rise out of me and never saw the fear in my eyes that they needed to fulfill their reason for bullying others.
So, while it may be a stretch to cast the US into the "victim" role and the terrorists into the "bully" role, there is a parallel there. By having 24/7 updates of the events for the next 6 months, we've sent terrorists a clear message. Doing this type of thing *will* get our attention. If we had resumed normal daily routine after a couple of days, there would be less of a reason for terrorists to try this kind of thing again.
3) Our "buffalo herd" reaction was a natural consequence of the 9/11 events.
The "buffalo herd" reaction that we're currently having is a direct result of the media coverage of the events. More sensable coverage would not have elicitted such a rise out of the "herd." If the media kept things in perspective, there would be no chance of stuff like this (the story we're talking about) happening.
4) Safety is more important than freedom.
Ok...this wasn't the case for the GI's who fought in WWI, WWII or any war since then. Simply put, some things are worth dying for. Many of us are willing to accept the inherant risk in valuing our freedom over our safty.
why are PS/2 ports labeled as "legacy"?
Because USB does everything PS/2 does in a more flexable way. It's nice to be able to hook the mouse into my keyboard or the back of the computer or even into a USB hub. Computer makers like USB because it eliminates the need to color-code everything. With PS/2, the tech on the phone always has to think, "did this moron hook the keyboard into the mouse port?"
Kinda reminds me of the time someone spray painted a big "C" in front of the "Ross Dress For Less" sign in front of the store near where I live...LMAO when I saw it for the first time.
30 pounds is actually $43.16 at today's exchange rate...their scam is better.
I would also like the ability to fly, bend metal objects with my mind, and understand women.
Previous attempts at adding flight functionality haven't had less than stellar results...so it'll probably be a while before we see it again.
However, I can assure you that when you choose to bang your head against after using Microsoft's new operating system against some metal object, it will end up dented.
As for your third request, it simply isn't possible. I recommend that you request that Microsoft add the "cooking", "laundry", "dishes", "sex" and "stop bugging me and leave me alone" features. That should solve your problem.
Maybe we should push for new laws that explicitly allow certain things. It's harder to overturn an existing law than to pass a new one.
Hmmm...I think I'd rather have the dollar.
note that Java is not open source
Funny...I wonder what that source I downloaded from Sun was...sure looked like Java. Java might not be GPL, but it *is* open source.
I think what you're referring to is that Java is still a very proprietary entity. The JCP is pretty much a sham for Sun to control the Java specification. Basically, anyone's free to look all they want, just don't touch.
It's a good example to illustrate Stallman's Open Source != Free Software distinction.
Why would they pay you anything?
They could sell email addresses to people and make a fortune. How much would you pay for an SPAM-free email address @mofo.com?
That means that people should not be able to fake their return address.
Agreed. But let's architect an email infrastructure that enforces this instead of passing legislation.
The multi-national nature of the internet means that the only laws that will truly be respected on the internet are ones that are technically mandated.
Ummm...This shouldn't really hurt TiVo too much. For the average user, it's just too complicated. The overhead of building your own linux box is a signifcant one. When you add in that it doesn't come in a pretty package like the TiVo.
I also wouldn't discount the effort necessary to build a public database of showtimes. I would doubt that entertainment companies would just give open source developers an easy way to pull this information automatically. It probably wouldn't be too hard to screen scrape from some other source, but there are legal issues with that, not to mention the hassle whenever the format of those sources changes.
In the unlikely event that this does start to threaten TiVo's business, TiVo has plenty of patents on timeshifting video and the like that could probably kill off this product.
TiVo's not going anywhere...
How did the entertainment industry become so powerful?
.com era, people believed that there was value in the number of "eyeballs" one can command. People learned a quick lesson that there is very little monetary value to those "eyeballs." However, those eyeballs do have value beyond monetary. Simply beacuse you produce the content that everyone consumes, you have the ability to propogandize people. It takes a *lot* of money to offset this advantage.
Entertainment has always been more powerful than its bottom line. Simply because it commands our attention, it becomes a channel with which the entertainment industry can indoctrinate the population (people are sheep...just look at the current state of US elections). I wouldn't be surprised if in 2 years, 90% of the population believed that DRM is a good thing. It sounds far fetched, but just wait until Jean-Claude Van Damme is fighting against a group from Hong Kong that is supplying the US with bootlegged CDs.
During the
Narrator 2: This message brought to you by the Council for an Evil Free America.
You meant "...an Evil Free United States." right?
You do realize that by 2004, the USA will be forced to drop the A after AOL alleges trademark infringement.
While the government tried to argue that there was no chance of confusion between the two, but AOL successfully argued that due to their new NetTax(TM) initiative taxing internet transactions, there could be confusion with the governments federal income tax program.
Is that REALLY more intuitive to most people?
If this were a consumer device, I'd probably agree with you. But who, besides geneticists, is gonna see one of these anytime soon?
Yeah...like that would help?
Ask Slashdot: I'm stuck in a panic room and there are criminals in my house. How can I get out?
Responses:
True Security...
If your security system ran OpenBSD, you wouldn't have this problem.
Re: True Security...
yeah...by definition there's no Windows allowed in a panic room.
Imagine...
A beowulf cluster of panic rooms...that'd be cool.
Re: Imagine...
The military already has that...the bomb shelters under the mountains in Colorado.
Too bad you don't have a Microsoft panic room...
...it'd be sure to have a back door.
However on most cameras speeds over about 1/200th of a second are not "real"
This is only true for film cameras as they actually have shutters. Digital cameras (well, the ones I've owned at least) don't have shutters. They usually play a little shutter sound until you find the menu to turn that off.
IIRC, they still have a large light bulb or two (of sorts) sitting behind the Liquid Crystals...I don't think OLED displays will have this requirement. While this is only a few inches thick, it *would* make OLEDs more flat than an LCD.
That's not fair...it's not like Microsoft ever tried to influence the results of a /. poll...
Heh...I'm surprised we haven't seen the RIAA try to pass this stuff off under the guise of gun control.
Has anyone checked the list of banned weapons to see if it contains the ultra-dangerous ATA-100 or ATA-133?
Murder is already actively enforced. Copyright infringement is not. If law enforcement were actively monitoring people who share content (getting their ips, calling the ISP to get their real identity and then prosecuting them) and the problem still persisted, then it might be time for new laws. This is the same argument gun enthusiasts use when talking about new handgun legislation. Enforce existing laws before passing new ones.
/. would object to their ethernet card preventing them from DoS'ing another site. I wouldn't want any law to mandate that, but would consider it a feature when selecting which card I bought since it might deter people cracking into my box.
Assault rifle legislation was enacted also as a protection for law enforcement. Police officers put their lives on the line on a daily basis. Having officers out-gunned by criminals is a real problem. The only thing that copyright infringement affects is how many Bentleys/Ferraris Hillary Rosen buys on a given day. It's pretty clear to me that we have to be much more careful with controling weapons than controlling computers' copying ability.
Incidently, other proposals for disabling computers might be much more useful. As more important services are moved onto the web, limiting a computers ability to attack another computer could be handled at the machine level. I wonder how many people on
Getting "VB free, as in beer" doesn't make me want to use Kazaa (but getting "VB, as in beer, free" might ;)
P.S. Does anyone else feel sorry for your friend having to turn in homework assignments in VB?
Expect a call from my lawyer, Satan.
Wow...Satan represents himself...he must not be a very good lawyer...I would have thought he'd get a call from the "devil's advocate."
Katz bothers not with such mundane details as the location of these planets. He's more interested in the implications of the existence of such planets. He has no idea what implications those might be, but he'll definitely be sure that they will change the way we live our lives.
Get ready for articles with words such as "Earth-centric", "Extra-terrestrial Imperialism" and "Trans-globalism"
The original Salon piece highlighted the problem with this solution.
The major labels are constantly buying smaller labels. That's the business model for many small labels. So, a web broadcaster can often get consent from a small label to play their content for free over the internet. However, if that smaller label gets bought by a member of the RIAA, the content once again falls under CARP.
So it ends up being a massive headache for a web broadcaster to continually check with label who owns the content that you're broadcasting to see if they've changed their mind. One of the reasons why record companies continually buy up smaller labels is to force more alternative radio stations to pay their ASCAP/BMI fees.