In short: No, they (should) have no right to do
anything with your files.
It's like renting out a house or appartement. Once the contract is signed, and you're a tenant, the owner is not even allowed to enter the rented space without your express permission, at least under Dutch law. They can only insist you adhere to the terms of contract. And who's to say my Low.mp3 is the REM song or me reciting an identically named poem by myself? Or a recorded vocal insight for the benefit of my shrink? They have no right to check either way, unless with a court order for specifically this file. Anything else is invasion of privacy or destruction of my property.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Americans hold such a store by a value they do not fully comprehend?...how the French feel compelled to silence history by sacrificing liberty?
You completely misunderstand the issue, but that's not so strange since you've not been brought up in these parts. Nazi propaganda and Nazi memoribilia have been outlawed in many European countries since shortly after the second world war. And with good reason: right from the word "go" all those with dubious sympathies during the war began questioning and denying the very real horrors of teh second world war. So those denials were outlawed, as were memoribilia of the Nazis, to try and prevent a second wave of that murderous idiocy.
Now you Americans immediately lament the loss of freedom of speech, but it never dawns on you that there is no such thing as absolute freedom, unless you're the last person on earth. Freedom is always a balance between the freedoms of all the individuals involved. And after the horrors of the second world war Europe said: "Never again!".
The French are starting down a dangerous path that may leave their view of history distorted and risk having their children relive the tragedies and evils of the past.
Not so, the true scope of the second world war is taught on every European school, and certqainly the French schools. But not the lies some ouwld-be Nazi's would like to believe. You hold much by "And justice for all." These laws are firstly and foremostly to ensure justice for those who were the victims of the Nazi regime.
Never forget, never belittle.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
ok, it is wonderful to have this important piece of history back where it belongs, and the theif caught, but was it really necessary to go through such lengths?
The article was a trifle longwinded, I agree, and what ruffled my feathers even earlier was the self-aggrandizing tone in which it is written. Ok, so they took part in the process of recovery. Well, just think about why they were given the chance: someone steals something, decides to contact some papers to negotiate with for the return, which papers is he going to write to? My guess would be, the papers he reads anyway.
So the implication is, that people who do that kind of thing read that kind of paper. Not an association I'd like to crow about. Then again, it takes all sorts, but don't quote me on that. (I'm thinking the kind of paper that uses no big words, just big lettering, and colour photos of boobies on as many pages as possible, right?)
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
but maybe there doing this because it will be easier to filter trough people's email
Then by all means, do it, because the reason is then false. It's much easier to filter email om a Unix system. Without trying I could cobble up 10 ways of doing it on any regular Unix box in no time. Some of them even with little performance cost.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
More importantly, the BBC story explains why this theory is likely to be true, which the one the/. article has doesn't. The latter made me even think it was a very sloppy and self-contradicting theory.
The brief explanation, mentioned in the BBC story: While the Gizeh pyramid is indeed very precisely oriented, most others aren't, and assuming the builders used the same method explains the deviations.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Amen. And I'm glad to note, that he (or someone) has indeed corrected the spelling error. Spelling errors should be avoided at all cost, as they distract from the content. I hate other peoples spelling mistakes almost as much as my own.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Which is exactly why, if there is to be a new TLD, under those restrictions it should be.who. If they want the content control as well as the TLD, it should be clearly marked so.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
The real valuable discoveries are not in the base pairs, but how they code for amino acids, how those amino acid chains cause the protein to fold, how that folded structure causes the protein to behave in the bigger metabolic picture. These areas are where the real work is done and these are the things that should be rewarded with patents.
I must disagree with this: those things you name are things that happen anyway, and have been happening over millions of years. Just discovering the relationship between a specific sequence and what is does may be clever, but it still only a scientific discovery, like getting handed an internal combustion machine and figuring out how it works.
Now if they thought up a new working sequence, which actually added to the gene pool, like a gene for Xray vision (to use a popular second rate scifi feature much craved after by us sexstarved male geeks, not that it'd work as advertised), that would be innovation and therefore merit a patent, but simply finding out what does what is not innovation, though it can lead to it.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
How about seeing the movie for yourself instead of relying on a single opinion?
That's the problem with critique in general: unless you know the reviewer, and the relation to his critiques to your own taste, they're as good as worthless. I usually watch movies on TV, and read my TV guide and newspaper reviews of the films to be shown, and since both have a tendency to intellectual, elitist tastes I can read some of their bad reviews as recommendations to me. (After a days work I truely enjoy a simple action movie, especially with simple humour, and I'll be too tired to enjoy a deeply psychological French drama. So even if the former may basically be trash, and the latter have won prizes all over, I'll probably watch the first one.)
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
You're going to be shocked at how often you are on camera these days.
But those camera's and the information they obtain are regulated by very strict laws, aat least here in the Netherlands. Recordings may be kept only 72 hours, and only viewed by few law-officers under very strict circumstances. The man in this story wants the records all the way back from 1998 to now. To what purpose? I don't know. Maybe he's trying to find the best free pr0nsites himself, and hopes the students with their copious free time and superior knowledge will have found them. I expect they have, and even on occasion will visit them. How you can wheedle out those from more obviously study-relevant sites is a big riddle for me. Especially if only IP adresses are logged (for better performance). Here in the Netherlands a defense against releasing the data would be, that that's not what the data is collected for, which is a big nono in the current data-privacy law.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
I fully agree with Hardwyred. I myself have once
contributed a quickie about a unix featuring billboard. But, since I'm a systems programmer I thought about the/. effect before doing so, and cut off as much "fat" from the picture of the billboard before sending in the link. And I bet my provider had enough power to withstand the/. effect. And I knew, that at worst I'd have to remove the picture if they didn't. A couple of days after the submission made it to slashdot, I did get an email from the provider, because my website traffic had exceeded the maximum monthly traffic. (Above 1 Gb/month you have to pay extra.) But, as I said, they're cool, and he'd already seen I'd tried to minimize traffic (the original picture was right beside the one I posted the link to) and traffic was slacking down, so after I answered with an explanation the matter was further ignored.
However, not all people maintain the URL they're submitting, and not all providers are cluefull. So a careless submissions can, in a worst case scenario, cost unsuspecting or less experienced nerds their access, or some money.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
"positive reinforcement is more effective than negative reinforcement"
WRONG! I know that failing my classes (negative reinforcement) sure is more effective at making me study than when I wasn't failing them.
That's a completely different type of environment, with a different goal and different working method. If at work they only nag on about my failures or deficiencies, and not in the same strength praise my good work, I'm likely to get sullen and unmotivated, even though the pay's good. I do goof up from time to time, and sometimes I'm brilliant and solve complex seeming problems with a few keystrokes. I don't mind hearing about the bad stuff, as long as they do not forget the good stuff and say so.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Does this have anything to do with the upcoming elections?
I don't think so. Elections are invariably about promises, never on actual fullfillment of promises made last time. That way you can use the same promises over and over again. Any politician can tell you that. Over and over again.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Kasparov lost most likely due to some problems that didn't let him concentrate and prepare fully for the game, but he is still so far ahead,
That's as may be, but Kramnik was so brilliant he beat Kasparov at his favourite openings, and so convincingly, that Kasparov moved away from them. So Kramnik beat Kasparov at openings the latter has played and analysed nearly to the death, and yet beat him. That takes both gut aan ingenuity. I say: "Well deserved win, and leave off the excuses."
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
First of all, major vendors spread all kinds of FUD around, and you don't know what independent corporate salesmen/consultants are saying to doctors who know very little about computers.
That's as may be, but apparently they are failing more and more in getting to be believed. Read the article of this story to see what I mean.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Agreed. Sometimes I think statistics should be banned from all media. And from governmental decision making. Mistakes are too simple to make, and anyone with half a class in statistics automatically assumes they're qualified to apply their (lack of) knowledge to anything they see. As to the conclusion we're doomed to extinction, I'm with Westley on that one:
[Scene: Ravine floor. Ahead looms the dark of the Fire Swamp]
Westley: Ha! Your pig fiancé is too late. A few more steps and we'll be safe in the fire swamp.
Buttercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
Better watch out. US law reaches to the Netherlands.
Luckily, this isn't so, as the CoS found out.
But really, you can't blame the guys, it's in our blood: when we see a hole we plug it, for safety's sake. It's what comes from living in a country two-thirds of which are below sealevel. Plug first, then think. And, maybe, pray.
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
That bastard Linus, he has entered a conspiracy to destroy Microsoft!
Yes, and isn't it always the same? The big bullies like Linus threaten the little defenseless guys like Microsoft. I't so unfair! We should all be so ashamed.
Stefan, who has maliciously withheld most of his money from making it to Redmond. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Ok, thank you and CrackDady, who answered the same just below, that answers my question very clearly an succinctly. And makes it clear the postal regulation seem to apply to the cuecat, for those people.
Stefan (If this appears twice, I was misled by the first one not appearing for over 10 minutes.) It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
(d) For the purposes of this section, ''unordered merchandise'' means merchandise mailed without the prior expressed request or consent of the recipient.
The section is about unsollicited packages. Therefore it only applies if you guys didn't in any way invite Radio Shack or DC to mail the thing to you. This may be the case, I don't know, I'm not a merkin, but I find it hard to believe they'd mail the thing to each and every US citizen/household. Or do they?
Stefan. It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Slashdot Mirror
It's like renting out a house or appartement. Once the contract is signed, and you're a tenant, the owner is not even allowed to enter the rented space without your express permission, at least under Dutch law. They can only insist you adhere to the terms of contract. And who's to say my Low.mp3 is the REM song or me reciting an identically named poem by myself? Or a recorded vocal insight for the benefit of my shrink? They have no right to check either way, unless with a court order for specifically this file. Anything else is invasion of privacy or destruction of my property.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Last time? There's never been a first time, for me. This is the first I ever heard about it, and I'm not exactly a newbie.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
You completely misunderstand the issue, but that's not so strange since you've not been brought up in these parts. Nazi propaganda and Nazi memoribilia have been outlawed in many European countries since shortly after the second world war. And with good reason: right from the word "go" all those with dubious sympathies during the war began questioning and denying the very real horrors of teh second world war. So those denials were outlawed, as were memoribilia of the Nazis, to try and prevent a second wave of that murderous idiocy.
Now you Americans immediately lament the loss of freedom of speech, but it never dawns on you that there is no such thing as absolute freedom, unless you're the last person on earth. Freedom is always a balance between the freedoms of all the individuals involved. And after the horrors of the second world war Europe said: "Never again!".
The French are starting down a dangerous path that may leave their view of history distorted and risk having their children relive the tragedies and evils of the past.
Not so, the true scope of the second world war is taught on every European school, and certqainly the French schools. But not the lies some ouwld-be Nazi's would like to believe. You hold much by "And justice for all." These laws are firstly and foremostly to ensure justice for those who were the victims of the Nazi regime.
Never forget, never belittle.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
The article was a trifle longwinded, I agree, and what ruffled my feathers even earlier was the self-aggrandizing tone in which it is written. Ok, so they took part in the process of recovery. Well, just think about why they were given the chance: someone steals something, decides to contact some papers to negotiate with for the return, which papers is he going to write to? My guess would be, the papers he reads anyway.
So the implication is, that people who do that kind of thing read that kind of paper. Not an association I'd like to crow about. Then again, it takes all sorts, but don't quote me on that. (I'm thinking the kind of paper that uses no big words, just big lettering, and colour photos of boobies on as many pages as possible, right?)
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Then by all means, do it, because the reason is then false. It's much easier to filter email om a Unix system. Without trying I could cobble up 10 ways of doing it on any regular Unix box in no time. Some of them even with little performance cost.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
More importantly, the BBC story explains why this theory is likely to be true, which the one the /. article has doesn't. The latter made me even think it was a very sloppy and self-contradicting theory.
The brief explanation, mentioned in the BBC story: While the Gizeh pyramid is indeed very precisely oriented, most others aren't, and assuming the builders used the same method explains the deviations.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Amen. And I'm glad to note, that he (or someone) has indeed corrected the spelling error. Spelling errors should be avoided at all cost, as they distract from the content. I hate other peoples spelling mistakes almost as much as my own.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
I must disagree with this: those things you name are things that happen anyway, and have been happening over millions of years. Just discovering the relationship between a specific sequence and what is does may be clever, but it still only a scientific discovery, like getting handed an internal combustion machine and figuring out how it works.
Now if they thought up a new working sequence, which actually added to the gene pool, like a gene for Xray vision (to use a popular second rate scifi feature much craved after by us sexstarved male geeks, not that it'd work as advertised), that would be innovation and therefore merit a patent, but simply finding out what does what is not innovation, though it can lead to it.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
That's the problem with critique in general: unless you know the reviewer, and the relation to his critiques to your own taste, they're as good as worthless. I usually watch movies on TV, and read my TV guide and newspaper reviews of the films to be shown, and since both have a tendency to intellectual, elitist tastes I can read some of their bad reviews as recommendations to me. (After a days work I truely enjoy a simple action movie, especially with simple humour, and I'll be too tired to enjoy a deeply psychological French drama. So even if the former may basically be trash, and the latter have won prizes all over, I'll probably watch the first one.)
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
But those camera's and the information they obtain are regulated by very strict laws, aat least here in the Netherlands. Recordings may be kept only 72 hours, and only viewed by few law-officers under very strict circumstances. The man in this story wants the records all the way back from 1998 to now. To what purpose? I don't know. Maybe he's trying to find the best free pr0nsites himself, and hopes the students with their copious free time and superior knowledge will have found them. I expect they have, and even on occasion will visit them. How you can wheedle out those from more obviously study-relevant sites is a big riddle for me. Especially if only IP adresses are logged (for better performance). Here in the Netherlands a defense against releasing the data would be, that that's not what the data is collected for, which is a big nono in the current data-privacy law.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
However, not all people maintain the URL they're submitting, and not all providers are cluefull. So a careless submissions can, in a worst case scenario, cost unsuspecting or less experienced nerds their access, or some money.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
"positive reinforcement is more effective than negative reinforcement"
WRONG! I know that failing my classes (negative reinforcement) sure is more effective at making me study than when I wasn't failing them.
That's a completely different type of environment, with a different goal and different working method. If at work they only nag on about my failures or deficiencies, and not in the same strength praise my good work, I'm likely to get sullen and unmotivated, even though the pay's good. I do goof up from time to time, and sometimes I'm brilliant and solve complex seeming problems with a few keystrokes. I don't mind hearing about the bad stuff, as long as they do not forget the good stuff and say so.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
I don't think so. Elections are invariably about promises, never on actual fullfillment of promises made last time. That way you can use the same promises over and over again. Any politician can tell you that. Over and over again.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
That's as may be, but Kramnik was so brilliant he beat Kasparov at his favourite openings, and so convincingly, that Kasparov moved away from them. So Kramnik beat Kasparov at openings the latter has played and analysed nearly to the death, and yet beat him. That takes both gut aan ingenuity. I say: "Well deserved win, and leave off the excuses."
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
That's as may be, but apparently they are failing more and more in getting to be believed. Read the article of this story to see what I mean.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
[Scene: Ravine floor. Ahead looms the dark of the Fire Swamp]
Westley: Ha! Your pig fiancé is too late. A few more steps and we'll be safe in the fire swamp.
Buttercup: We'll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.
(Quoted from here.)
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
What with people talking out of their asses all the time, I think you're overconcerned.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Luckily, this isn't so, as the CoS found out.
But really, you can't blame the guys, it's in our blood: when we see a hole we plug it, for safety's sake. It's what comes from living in a country two-thirds of which are below sealevel. Plug first, then think. And, maybe, pray.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Furrfu. And I'm not even a Merkin.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
It may have been there, but isn't, now. Koos has copied it in time, though, here.
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Yes, and isn't it always the same? The big bullies like Linus threaten the little defenseless guys like Microsoft. I't so unfair! We should all be so ashamed.
Stefan, who has maliciously withheld most of his money from making it to Redmond.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
Stefan (If this appears twice, I was misled by the first one not appearing for over 10 minutes.)
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-
The section is about unsollicited packages. Therefore it only applies if you guys didn't in any way invite Radio Shack or DC to mail the thing to you. This may be the case, I don't know, I'm not a merkin, but I find it hard to believe they'd mail the thing to each and every US citizen/household. Or do they?
Stefan.
It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit-