in a democracy, the majority rules, and the rest have to live with it.

in open source, if a group makes a decision and you don't like it, you can take all of their work, fork it, and do what you want. even make your own democracy.

And to respond to some of the comments here, no you would not need to be a programmer. You could for example start a blog, and recruit programmers who feel like you to do the work.

however, just because you disagree with the direction of one open source project don't expect sympathy from me if you don't get your way and start casting dispersions on the model. it is the best one going...

Universal health care would be socialist.
Government directed health insurance (which this bill is) is fascist
Actually health care was a major part of the discussions. One or two of the founders was a doctor, set up hospitals where they lived. Look it up yourself, you seem to need to read a few facts anyways.

there is no need for a technical solution..assuming this is for a business, fire anyone who decides to infect a company-owned PC with malware. (make sure your AUP/HR Policies *clearly* state this).

Great! So all someone needs to do to get his boss fired is to get his machine infected? What about the CFO? CEO? How long would that policy be in place with a little targeted mischief?

What about the case of the user that gets infected because he visited a legitimate website that was serving up malware because they got hacked by a SQL injection attack last night? What if visiting the (now malicious) website was part of her job (reviewing press releases, whatever).

Not sure if your "Just set the AUP right in the first place" suggestion was a joke or a legitimate suggestion.

Thinking about what you said there, I think it would be pretty cool if, instead of hooking an HTPC up to my television, I could, using the latest RDP tech where 3D acceleration and HD video can be played back on the client, remote into a virtual machine instead or into a second login session on my desktop or laptop, eliminating the need for the HTPC altogether.

Something to think about I suppose.

Visusal Basic HAS "structures, classes, polymorphism, OO, etc.". My worst complaint about it is that I'm never sure when it is passing by reference or passing by value.

Sorry guys, computerized learning is here to stay. Just because you've encountered an old problem in a new format (students being distracted) doesn't mean that 'technology is bad'! Seriously, when these kids graduate they'll be using computers to take notes all day, no matter what sort of job they're doing. Heck, even mechanics take notes on their laptop pads of parts they need to order, diagrams, etc. In the real world, people are going to have to learn how to deal with distraction as well, be it from the neighbors cubicle, or heaven forbid, the outside world actually intruding. This teacher is some kind of primadonna, upset about losing an audience he didn't have in the first place. If you can't compete World of Warcraft or facebook, what does that say about you as a lecturer? What does this say about you as a student? Face it- throughout life you're always going to have some asshole frittering away his time while you do work, there's always going to be kids being distracting, and your boss is going to suck up an inordinate amount of time sending you stupid chain emails- learn to deal with it.

I don't think parent is a troll here (I want to say that you are, given your tone, but I'll withhold, since reading vs. hearing can distort the intended message and I could be mistaken).

My youngest sister has dyslexia, and she qualified for note takers in college (yes, a human who took notes for her while she listened to the lecture), along with extended exam time, pen-shaped scanners that verbalize text, and other considerations. At the time I wondered how she would deal in the "real world" that wouldn't allow her such luxuries, but I see now that the important thing was that she was able to gain the knowledge she needs to do what she wants to do in life. She's now successful in her career, even if reading for pleasure isn't exactly her "cuppa."

Perhaps a way to go is to permit only using slate machines, ex iPad or Table PCs. This way, you have the power of digital media and at the same time, it's much harder to play games or social networking in the class? Just an idea!

You get modded informative, but nowhere do you give any proof of your refinery cracking theory. I work in the oil business, and while I'm not in refining (I'm in distribution), I do know that API (American Petroleum Institute) has repeatedly said there is absolutely zero benefit in using a higher grade gas than recommended by the manufacturer. But if you don't believe API, than maybe believe the California Energy Commission http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/consumer_tips/regular_vs_premium.html, or if you don't believe in organizations (private or government) than maybe a car talk radio show? http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/premium/questions.html

But please, feel free to keep buying premium gas, it's quite profitable on our end :)

Agreed, but the life and death wasn't the point. Regulation was the point. Over-regulation sucks. The question is whether the fact of regulation is reasonable.

You've indicated that life and death obviously merit regulation. And you've said that distraction might be just cause.

Banning screens is regulation. Maybe it is over-regulation. So what would be reasonable?

While I find the same is true, I find having my notes and other documents searchable via Google Desktop Search invaluable.

If I were in school today, I would use a TabletPC. Hand-writing notes in either OneNote or EverNote together with the audio recording is fabulous with these programs. (At least with Onenote, it will sync the audio with your notes. I think Evernote will do that too.) And then my notes would also be searchable using whichever desktop search utility I prefer.

This is legislation basically saying a company has to conform to points 1, 2 and 3 if they want to install software X of a particular variant (in this case, P2P) on your machine.

This is not really much different from telling a contractor that they're free to install a bathroom into your home, but that they will have to abide by laws 1, 2 and 3 regarding things like the electrical wiring.
( although that's based on UK and NL law - I suppose maybe in the U.S. every contractor is free to install an outlet into the side of their client's bathtub if they so desire? )

Is that over-legislation in the case of P2P? probably. But mostly because it's a bit odd to target P2P specifically - it could apply to just about any program. Security programs would be an issue, though*

The points themselves -seem- sound enough, though...

prohibit peer-to-peer file-sharing programs from being installed without the informed consent of the authorized computer user.

no stealthy installs - I'm all for that. I'm looking at you, Apple with iTunes and Safari, and you MS for MSN's final installation screen suggesting IE should be my default browser and MSN be set my homepage, and a crapload of other apps that suggest that installing a Yahoo! toolbar is vital to the operation of the principle software.. give me a donate button instead, I'll happily part with some dosh if I'm using your app, more than you're getting from Yahoo for the toolbar install I'd imagine.

The legislation would also prohibit P2P software that would prevent the authorized user from blocking the installation of a P2P file-sharing program and/or disabling or removing any P2P file-sharing program.

So, bittorrent isn't allowed to block my installation of, say, utorrent, nor is would it be allowed to prevent me from uninstalling itself (or others).
* just to get back to that security programs bit - obviously a security program -should- be allowed to block other software from being installed if that other software is malware. So that's where broader legislation could have problems.

Software developers would be required to clearly inform users when their files are made available to other peer-to-peer users

Given the "I didn't know!" defense-craptaculaire proferred by some people, I think that's sane, too. Heck, disable sharing by default, and if the user wants to share files warn them of the ramifications, and always make it clear -which- files you're sharing.. not via a configuration dialog that merely specifies the path - offer a screen where you can get an -actual list- of the files.
Better yet would be not allowing the sharing of a directory 'as is' at all. Have the user confirm that any files added to a specified share folder should be shared - keep a simple database (flat text file would do) of the files the user actually wanted to share.
That way you can't have business users dropping a random document(s) into the share folder, forgetting that they had it shared, and auto-sharing that/those document(s) with the world -unless- they also go to their P2P app to confirm that they want the added file(s) shared.

The thing -I- worry about is that IANAL. Moreover, IANAS(neaky)L - so I don't know just how these definitions (which I suspect are loosely phrased around the actual suggested legislation anyway) can be worked around, or twisted for abuse, etc.

The unfortunate outcome of Thief 3 breathed new life into the Thief 2 fan mission community. Over 5 years after T3's release, you can still find more new T2 fan missions than T3 fan missions.

I think this is explainable by a few reasons:

The level editing tools for T3 are supposedly quite poor, compared to what exists for T2 (here I'm relying totally on hearsay, as I haven't the requisite patience to develop my own levels).

Also, there are major things missing in T3 that people had got used to in T1 and T2: no swimmable water, and no rope arrows.

Eidos devs reported that they simply could not get rope arrows to work, despite lots of effort, so we got those goofy Spider Man gloves. Apparently the Havok engine doesn't handle water immersion, thus the "fall into the water = die" at the harbor.

Actually, deregulation ALONG WITH removal of all protectionism, bailouts, juicy government contracts, favorable (targeted) legislation, etc. would go a long way toward evening the scales between small companies and large companies.

Keep telling yourself that. There's no way a town of 8,000 people can support two cable companies that both have to pay for the wire infrastructure. The incumbent will always kill the newcomer because the cost of buildout is more than you can hope to get back in years of operation even if you steal more than half of the households from the incumbent.

In many industries, it is simply not possible to "even the scales" because the industry is basically unprofitable unless it limits who it serves. That's why we have cellular infrastructure that only covers a small percentage of the country versus the government-built wire infrastructure that covers the entire country. Granted, the wireless industry isn't completely deregulated, but in practice, limited spectrum means that deregulating the availability of frequencies would result in companies stomping all over each other, producing an unusable experience for everyone.

And spectrum availability doesn't explain why only one company provides service in many areas; in most of those areas, it simply would not be profitable for a second company to enter the market. Even in areas where it would cost almost nothing to buy or lease a plot of land for a tower, there are often simply not enough customers for it to ever pay for itself.

Say $150k to build the tower. If there are only 100 potential customers in the served area, even if you stole every one of them and made 100% profit (no power costs, no cost of routing the calls, etc.), it would take 50 months (over 4 years) to turn a profit. When you figure that only 40 of those people have a cell phone, only 20 will defect, and only a 60% profit margin (guessing here), you're making a profit after 35 years. There are simply areas that will never be served with these services unless they are government-provided (which you'd probably call socialism).

It does. Though you can opt to use the mirror - though they only recommend it if the P2P Services don't work for various reasons.