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Slashback: Injunction, Waivers, Black Hole 137

Posted by timothy from the ain't-it-always-the-way? dept.
More news from the protecting-the-children front in Indianapolis (and it's good news, even if fleeting); bits on emulation and long-ago video games from a British perspective (and another wacky British story that you can tell your kids as a cautionary tale); and educational news of Cosmic significance, all below. And I promise, apart from this paragraph, there will be no mention of Lieberman, Gore, Cheney or Bush.

Meanwhile, kids, make sure to join the Marines! An unnamed correspondent writes: "An update on a slashdot article from Oct 14: The video game industry has obtained a stay from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. According to the article, "the city on Wednesday was ordered to hold off enforcement, temporarily at least, of its ordinance against children under 18 using violent or sexually explicit coin-operated video games." The CNN article can be found here."

Those whom the gods would destroy ... Sacrifice writes: "The Times tells the whimsical story of an inventor too overconfident in the difficulty of a puzzle he estimated would take a genius four years of work to complete; three possible solutions are being reviewed after only 16 months, and royalties aren't enough to cover the half million pounds he pledged, so has put his 67 room mansion up for sale to make good on his pledge (Lloyd's will pony up the other half)."

.. then only criminals will play emulated videogames. Ultra-protective reader FortKnox writes: "Although we've all heard about retro-gaming emulators and copyrights, this BBC article mentions a few of the copyright holder's that waived their copyrights to emulators. Its good to finally see some of these copyrights being waived to let us retro-gamers get our fix."

quintillions and jazillions (with inflation) general_re writes: "Carl Sagan's groundbreaking series "Cosmos" is finally available on VHS/DVD after many years. Although it isn't scheduled to ship until sometime next month, there's a reasonable discount for pre-orders. Many of you probably remember how awesome this series was (I first saw it when I was 9, and still remember it), and for those of you who haven't seen it, go see it. One caveat: after hunting around Project Voyager and carlsagan.com, nobody seems to be offering an official Carl Sagan commemorative bong. ;)"

Take that, evil wicked dirty spammer scumbags! And that! And that! rhea writes: "As an update to this article, Harris dropped the lawsuit they brought against MAPS for putting them on the RBL. Read the final word from MAPS. Paul Vixie: 1; Spammers: 0." The close of that "final word" is pretty biting:

In the final analysis, it would seem that the only thing which Harris has accomplished was getting one, possibly two ISPs (depending on AOL) out of more than a dozen ISP defendants to start accepting their email traffic, something which they could quite possibly have done without the expense and complication of filing a lawsuit.

And, oh yes, they helped to prove MAPS' position that it is up to each individual subscriber to the RBL to decide for themselves whose email they will accept, and whose they will reject.

Harris remains on the RBL.

Not that there's any truly good answer to spam, but MAPS represents about the sanest approach I've ever seen -- it's voluntary, it's factual, and it makes no bones about either one of those. Congratulations, Paul. Keep up the good work.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: Injunction, More

Slashback: Injunction,

Comments Filter:
  • To actually see the "right" (MAPS) side winning in a tech court decision, makes me feel fuzzy inside.

  • Spammers lose again (Score:4)

    by Tony Shepps ( 333 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:58PM (#691372)
    In another spammer story worthy of a slashback mention, the same lawyer who represented Earthlink against Sanford Wallace has "obtained the broadest permanent injunction ever issued" [northernlight.com] against a spammer, in a court case in Georgia. In this case, if the spammer spams again, he could face jail time. Awright!!!
    --
  • Dang crack-smoking moderators who don't read the post before moderating. Copyright expires when it expires, and not before, unlike trademark which you are probably thinking of. Right now this is approximately 80 years, or in video game time 39 million skillion eons.

    The relevant section of the Constitution is that Congress shall have power "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Author and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
    Writings and Discoveries;" - United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. I will agree that this was written to promote innovation, but the part referring to writings (the relevant one in this case) is usually interpreted more generally to just be encouraging artistic expression.

    Del
  • I loved that game, beat it like 100+ times, and DW is kind of special to me, because it was the FIRST game I beat on my own, with no help.
  • Quarntines have been practiced before, without general loss of liberty, and liberty has been sacrificed for less in this century. You seem to have forgoten the polio quarantines that saved so many lives.

    What, and polio has an incubation period of maybe a week? With AIDS, we're talking about a disease that can remain asymptomatic yet contagious for periods on the order of a decade. An effective quarantine program would require massive blood test screenings of either every individual in the country or selected "at risk groups" (and who gets to select those?). And if you miss just one person, you have a very good chance of epidemic pockets reemerging--you've sacrificed the liberty of all those people for absolutely no benefit.


    You also seem to have forgoten that dissidents were rounded up by both the US and UK for the second world war. The case of Japaneese Americans was particularly bad.

    In fact, I have not forgetten this. And it was particularly bad. Which is the point, isn't it?


    It is far too early to tell what kind of parents homosexuals will be.

    Hey man, just read the Salon article I linked to in my first post. It's been studied. . .

  • Haiku (Score:2)

    by 575 ( 195442 )
    Signal Eleven?
    Perhaps... and it isn't me. 575's male!
  • Tell me, when was the last time you nearly starved to death?

    When I went without work for the summer. No cash, little food, lost 1/5th of my body weight. Yeah, food is good, but its NOT the government's responsibility to fatten me up! I'd really rather have free speech, since I can earn money (and thus food), but how in the hell can one earn freedom? Ooops, nevermind, already know the answer to that one... send some lobbyists to washington heh...

    As sick and insensitive as this is going to sound, I think the US is already too much of a welfare state, ESPECIALLY considering that the unemployment rate is so low (c'mon now, its not like people are starving because there is no place to get a job). It'd be different if we were in the middle of a depression or something, but in that case, the Gov't couldn't afford to feed everyone that NEEDED to be fed. So, our nice welfare state only works when we shouldn't need it.

    Course, I wouldn't go so far to say that the Gov't should increase technology development at the expense of social services (thats just dumb), but on the other hand, technology creates jobs.

    Welfare should be supplied to those completely unable to earn an income for theirselves (i.e. mentally handicapped or otherwise severely disabled).

    I would think this would save the gov't enough money so they could do some things a bit more beneficial to the country as a whole... like improving education, and providing a way for people to get out of those overpopulated urban areas... I just can't understand why it is the government would rather send welfare checks to people in the ghetto, instead of helping them get the hell away from the drugs and gangs.
  • An unpracticed fool
    575 submits the post
    Missing a line break
  • No, no, no! Read my post more carefully--I'm assuming it costs $15K a year to survive. (Maybe that's not an accurate estimate, but I can adjust that any way you like and still make my point.) I'd like to see you "encourage people to save" when they can barely afford to feed their children. Beyond this, sales tax is still generally unfair because a truly rich person has incomprehensibly more money to spend on luxuries than a poor person, and could have a standard of living orders of magnitude higher while still paying proportionately far less tax. Finally, saving/investing is only one part of a healthy economy--the other component is spending. If no one spends any money, no one makes any money. Why do you think consumer confidence is considered to be such an important economic index? In fact, saving was considered to be immoral by some economists around the time of the industrial revolution. Of course, this whole spending vs. saving debate is rendered irrelevant by the aforementioned family who can barely feed and clothe themselves. Try selling mutual funds in rural Alabama, or the Bronx, and see how that goes over.... The whole problem with modern economic debate is that it's always carried out from the perspective of the priviliged classes. You must put yourself in the shoes of those whose lives you would try to govern before making decisions about them.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • From the site..

    "Fully international edition - DVD Region Zero - playable everywhere"

    Um, well it's great that its Region Zero and all, but it's also rather annoying that they see fit to call it an 'international edition', when their(www.projectvoyager.com) online ordering system doesn't even allow non-US orders...it would be nice if people overseas could actually _order_ this.

    Anyone know if this will be available through the usual DVD distribution channels? I can't find it listed as a pre-order or anything on any of the larger sites..
  • "Whether you agree with my position or not, (in my case I don't like my money going to free abortions for "low income households") you must must admit that there is something wrong with taking money from people to do things that you absolutely are opposed to." You mean, like desegregation? Funding the military? Enforcing Drug laws? All things that some people *are* absolutely opposed to. The Constitution (in the most widely used and abused preamble portion) says that is it is nplace to ensure the "General Welfare". Drug laws, Welfare and Social Security, the Food and Drug Administration, all are examples of the application of this clause. As is Medicare, and the funding of abortions for low-income families. The concept of the US Constitution is to prevent the tyrrany of the majority over those who hold minority positions. Whenever someone says that something unpopular should not be done just because a majority of people oppose it, you should ask yourself if this can be considered the "tyrrany of the majority". If your honest answer is even *possibly* yes, be careful - it may be working against the purpose of the Constitution in the first place.
  • First off I'd like to say that skoda had exactly the answer I was looking for in his post [slashdot.org] about treating AIDS as a desease rather than a political issue.

    After the wonderful 'political' slashdot articles I expected this much of a pummeling of my karma if not more over this posting.

    I still assert that it's biologically impossible for a gay couple to produce children and I eagerly await someone to prove me wrong. To create a child requires a sperm and an egg and when you've got those two then you are talking about a heterosexual situation. Two sperm or two eggs cannot combine to create a fetus (and probably not even coaxed to do it with current technology). Therefore my statement is true.. A gay couple cannot biologically produce offspring.

    And finally I wrote my original aspestos coated nugget of a posting because I tire of a certain very vocal activist element using harrasment campaigns to silence those who have different views. They preach tolerance but are themselves intolerant. Would you start a boycot of Coke and call and harras all the networks to pull their adds and write congresspeople to pull their business licenses if you found out the president of coke favored windows over Linux? Why is it permisable to do the same thing to people or organizations who might have different but equally legitimate views than you?

    Because Christopher Monckton believed that one course of action should be taken to stop the growth of AIDS, the same course of action they are using in Uganda right now to contain the Ebola outbreak you should know, he and any of his business contacts get continuously harrased to such a point that it actually ended his business venture and probably put his livelyhood at risk. All because one activist group was offended over his opinion.

    *shug* feel free to mod this down to -1 and burn my karma if this applies to you. You'll just be proving my point.

    -- Greg
  • Well, this sounds adequatley alarmist so as to have us all worrying about making sure that "they" pay thier "fair share".

    Hey, if we're gonna live in a society whose government taxes its citizenry, I want it to be fair. What's wrong with that?

    To all of y'all, where do you get your figures (by the way, don't just quote another article which has an agenda like you do. I wanna see an unbiased account of this stuff.

    Well, ya got me here. I couldn't quote a really reliable source on those figures I gave. In fact, when I posted that, I suspected that someone might comment on my numbers... My reasoning was, "well, if he's gonna throw random figures around, I will too." Until he provides really good evidence for his 10%/90% thing, I reckon I'm under no obligation to do so myself. :)

    I'm a guy who had to drop out of high school and work full time at age 15 . . . [life story snipped in interest of brevity] . . .I have brought a bunch of computers to an elementry school down there and have set them up with Spanish OS and things like that.

    Well, this is very inspiring (honestly, no sarcasm intended), but I assure you that you are by no means a typical case. Many members of the underclass are so immersed in a culture of ignorance, violence, drugs, mass media hypnosis, and so on that a life like this isn't even conceivable to them.

    I'm a computer hardware technician and I'm not comlaining about my life or trying to toot my horn but I'm tired of the government telling me that I'm not pulling my fair share . . . [long rant again snipped in the interest of brevity] . . . give the people a real tax cut and give us an INDIVIDUAL voice in where our taxes go, the agencies who don't get enough funding because no one wants them will be shut down and should be if that many people don't want them funded.

    Your main point here seems to be that you believe you could do a better job of distributing your wealth (whether it be for charity or supporting governmental programs) than the government. Well, perhaps you, personally, could. You seem to be concerned for the welfare of others. However, you are quite the rarity in that respect. I made a quip in another comment in a different thread that went something like this: "On the news one morning... 'In a press release this morning, Bill Gates, RJR Nabisco, and Time-Warner announced a joint $900 billion program to supply food, shelter, and education to those in need.'" Unlikely at best, my friend. I don't trust human nature enough to let people decide how their wealth gets redistributed by themselves.

    I'd like to conclude by saying that, while I may argue in this fashion, I'm only arguing within the current framework of our society. It is entirely possible that taxation is a poor means of redistributing wealth, and that capitalism itself is too fundamentally flawed to provide an equitable solution.

    Oh, one last point regarding redistributing wealth in general. I have no qualms about doing this because most of the wealthy elite in this country did not in fact earn their wealth. The vast majority of it is the product of the toil (mental and physical) of others in their employ. For example, while Bill Gates may have had some original ideas for an operating system (oh, wait, no he didn't), that doesn't justify his current multi-multi-mult-billionaire status. That's all the work of his employees, and his hordes of lawyers. :)

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • Hear, hear. This is a point I had considered making myself, but my reply was getting rather bloated. Thanks for bringing it up--it's an absolutely crucial point in the debate surrounding entitlement (and other) programs.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • so aids only affects those who have unprotected sex. reproduction only affects those who have unprotected sex. doesn't really make sense to me...
  • I don't like SPAM, but when an ISP chooses to use MAPS RBL, they're censoring your email for you. Perhaps that's what you want, perhaps that's not what you want. But you never get the choice.

    I'm sorry, did someone hold a gun to your head and make you choose the ISP you use?

    It is rather hypocritical that /. clamors for one form of censorware, but fights against another, the forced censorship of internet connections in public schools and libraries, which is also a decision which is made without the input of the user, and which also supposedly protects the user from something which is bad for them.

    The government isn't forcing me to use MAPS. No one is.

    What disturbs me most about MAPS RBL is the small number of people that make a decision to add a mail server to it, and the same small number that can make the decision to remove it in the future or retain it.

    I know this is a hard concept to grasp, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to.

    If the government were doing this, there would be an outcry, but when a private company does it, it's fine.

    Because you don't have to use that private company.

    Bottom Line: MAPS RBL is not voluntary for the user, just for the ISP.

    Very few ISPs use MAPS. You are free to choose one that doesn't. If you choose one that doesn't, you are free to implement MAPS on your own. Are you using an obscure definition of "voluntary," because that's about as voluntary as a service gets.

  • Considering many people already underwrite their "free" internet access by agreeing to view ads, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable step. Not that I would go for that, but there are people who would.

  • "HELP ME I'M STARVING - THE GOVERNMENT IS STARVING ME"

    yeah you're right, that feels good
    .oO0Oo.

  • every schoolchild should be shown the last episode of Cosmos. It's over a decade since I first saw it, and I still get those goosebumps

    I've got the hardcover book of Cosmos, the one with the pictures in, not the lame mostly-text paperback. I can't bring myself to even look at that one picture in the last chapter. I think we both feel so spooked because Sagan gives you such an amazing sense of wonder, only to bring home how we could screw up 10+ billion years of hard work (locally) for essentially trivial reasons.

  • MAPS & Like (Score:3)

    by topham ( 32406 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:59PM (#691390) Homepage
    For those people who use, and like MAPS... great.

    For those people who think MAPS & friends abuse their power this stinks.

    I know for a fact that some of these groups do network scans (which they often claim they do not do); since they do most of the scans via private network accounts they don't get caught in log files. I also know that regardless of the results of network scans that they will list servers which they think MIGHT exist but which they cannot test. (If they cannot test it from random net account it should be inaccessable to anybody wanting to use it for a relay, right? Doesn't matter. They will ban it anyway.)

    Organizations playing god don't deserve to be on the internet.

  • Because problem solving is a traditional nerd pasttime?
    Because it is a good lesson that many of todays up and coming technocrats need to learn?
    I think the story you posted ALSO belongs on /. . this is not a newspaper where once the days articals go to print, thats it.
    this is a web page they add things to it, you can have a story with little social merit, and not take away from a story that may have great social merit?
    Jeez, you must be one of those guys that thinks the comics should be removed from the newspaper because something "important" can go on those pages.

  • Cosmos (Score:3)

    by Apotsy ( 84148 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @04:03PM (#691392)
    Oh, happy day! I loved Cosmos as a kid. It helped foster in me an appreciation for science, not to mention that it taught me a lot. Hell, there's stuff I learned from watching that series that I still found useful years later.

    Here's an interesting quote from the website about the DVD edition:

    Fully international edition - DVD Region Zero - playable everywhere.

    Very cool. Also note that the soundtrack is avaiable on a 2 CD set as well. It has Vangelis's awesome score, along with all the bits of incidental music used throughout the series. Damn, I'm going to order me a copy right now!

  • Oh, bah. You bleeding-heart, tree-hugging hippy liberals are mainly what's wrong with the US these days. It's not the government's responsibility to provide for the welfare of its citizens, past providing basic rights (speech, religion, due process -- you know, the important things, not the "right" to have a full belly) and protecting those rights.

    Seriously, rather than providing more welfare services, and thus raising taxes and lowering spendable income, why not reduce taxes so we can afford to feed our selves? It's a win-win situation -- citizens have more of their own money to spend on food, clothing, shelter, and the government gets to shed the responsibility of providing for the crackwhore baby factories.

    Then again, that's just one man's opinion.
  • I'm just doing my part to show that, whatever edicts Rob and Jeff may hand down from on high as to what's best for slashdot and who deserves to be here, there's always untapped potential for creativity.
  • Most TVs and VCRs over in the UK are NTSC-compatible from UKP100 - it's not that bad at all. NTSC isn't a worry - region encoding is.

    Still, at least I have Zone Selector (wink, wink.)
  • Instead of having a knee jerk reaction, why don't you read my post and think about it?
    I never said video games caused violent behavior.
    we don't know how the human mind will process graphics with the high degree of realism that we are producing today, or the future.
    just because violent games may not have caused someone to step over the edge, doesn't mean future games won't. What happens when technology gets to the point where you clip a connector to your ear, overide all your 'naturall' senses, then input 'virtual' sense to your brain?(technology thats being tested on rats right now, btw)
    Don't forget about people who have a tenious grasp on reality as it is? don't you think that extra push that one gets from a video game might send one of those people over the edge?
    games and music have an effect on humans.people often use music to sych them selves to do something. Whether its to ask someone out, or drive fast or shoot someone.
    I am not talking good vs evil here, that is a totally diffrent topic, I'm talking about unbalanced mental states. Over sensory input is used for brain washing, to cause epileptic siezurs, mob mentality, etc....
    we need studies on this sort of things. how much does the energy that games/music effect someone and for how long?
    How many people are so close to the 'edge' that they shouldn't play games?
    and we need studies that keep pace with current technology.
    does playing a video game automatically mean you are going to have violent tendencies? probably not. does playing a game 16 hours a day, every day have a negative effect on a developing mind? probably.
    . so which is it? let the customer decide, or let the parents decide, you can't have it both ways.
    I would also like to say, that this has nothing to do with a kids intelligence. Many snipers have been very intelligent people. this has to do with how the brain process information, something we are just begining to understand.
    as to your last qusetion: before I can answer it, how stable was that child before he started playing silent Scope?
  • Network scans is hardly subjective.

    And it's funny, there have been a number of sites getting on MAPS lists which have *never* been used for spam.

    While they may have multiple lists to try and keep these seperate, the problem is the users do not have control over which list is used.

    Slashdot users start screaming and yelling the moment somebody wants to filter Internet access in public libraries; but they will happily sit back while somebody filters their e-mail.

  • >I don't like SPAM, but when an ISP chooses to use MAPS RBL, they're censoring your email for you.

    My ISP uses MAPS, it tags the email for me, and even provides filters so I can filter it server side and choose what to do with it.

    You were saying?
  • Network scans is hardly subjective. "Network scan" is very subjective:
    • Is a single test on port 25 (i.e. testing for open SMTP relay) a "network scan"?
    • Are 7 tests? Each testing for a different vulnerability?
    • Port scanning all ports? What about 5 ports?
    • Is a webcrawl bot a network scan? It's multiple connections to port 80.
    Which list? RBL? RSS? DUL? MAPS RBL is not exclusively for those machines that send spam. But also for spam facilitators. If you own a website that's selling the latest release of Spamware 2000 then you're a candidate. Likewise an ISP's netblock where a spammer has IP hopped around in can also get listed in the RBL. This all spelled out in their policies. MAPS RSS? While I'm certain there might be errors in the database, I'd bet they're few. RSS is open relays that have been used to send spam (a sample is archived). It, however, excludes certain mailservers where the collateral damage would be too great. MAPS DUL? Well.. yes. But, the way it is designed to be used, it doesn't matter. It's designed to only be blocked from making direct SMTP TCP/IP connections. While they may have multiple lists to try and keep these seperate, the problem is the users do not have control over which list is used. You're right. It's not the user's equipment. It's the providers, who have full discretion as to how their equipment/bandwidth is used. You can just jump off the "user's rights" train now, cause it ain't gonna fly. You have "rights" on the steps of your local courthouse. Your "rights" on my equipment are severely limited. Claiming there's crossover is a red herring. Slashdot users start screaming and yelling the moment somebody wants to filter Internet access in public libraries; but they will happily sit back while somebody filters their e-mail. Slashdot users are smart enough to know the difference between blocking mail based on content and blocking mail based on a bad "track record" of responsible net behavior.

    --
  • You missed my point, FREE bread vs FREE speach. If you'd rather be dependant on the government to feed you and not let you express your opinions that's your choice, me I'd rather earn my bread in a country that lets me speak my mind.

    I can earn bread, can you earn speach?

  • Usually the copyright problems don't come from the games themselves, but from the ROM images. For example you can download Elite but not the BBC Micro MOS and Basic ROMs needed to play it.

    Amstrad behaved very well here - many years ago they released the Spectrum ROM code into the public domain, or at least allowed people to use it. But Acorn (the makers of the BBC Micro) kept a tight grip on the ROMs from 1981. Some say this was because the operating system on their 32-bit Archimedes machines (Arthur, which later became RISC OS) was originally a straight port of the BBC Micro's operating system, and had many features in common. But that's a pretty poor reason to stop people using the original 8-bit code for a machine which hasn't been sold since 1986.

    Acorn kept this up until their eventual demise a couple of years ago. I don't know who inherited the copyright to the BBC ROMs - probably RISC OS Limited (who almost develop newer versions of RISC OS) or Pace Micro Technology (who make set-top boxes). They could do the world a favour, and themselves no harm, by letting emulator users run the original ROM images.
  • Tell me when I can legally play all the NES games... :(

    Oh well, at least I own Metroid, Mega Man, and Mega Man 2. That's all that *really* matters, right? :)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].
  • I can earn bread, can you earn speach?

    well, yes you can. it's called respect and power.

    I am born without food and have no right to any.

    All the food produced in my country is sanctioned by the state and I have no free speech.

    Frankly I'd rather eat first, then drink free beer
    .oO0Oo.
  • Also from the site...
    "7 NTSC DVD's...", "7 NTSC VHS tapes..."
    That's great for USians and others who have access to TVs that are NTSC capable, but when's the PAL version coming????

    Just my little whinge (and that's what she said too)
  • I haven't met her, and so far she doesn't sound like my type, nor I hers. Who knows? She does have the ability to submit her slashdot comments in columns, which is neat, but other than that I'm not sure we'd have much to talk about.

    (Besides, Anne Marie may be fictional, married, gay, asexual, or simply not like me ... and I may be fictional, married, gay, asexual or simply not like her. Actually, you can rule some of these out, but you get what I mean.)

    timothy
  • Compared to cancer, diabetes, the plague and malaria, AIDS is an outbreak that mankind should be grateful for due to its limited means of transmission

    Hmmm.. I've had diabetes for 20 years and I've not yet given it to anyone else. I didn't know cancer was contagious either. Where did you get this one from?

  • Part of the problem is that the suit was dropped. That means it can be brought again and again.

    MAPS didn't really win because there was no precedent set.

    This battle is over, but there could be more. What's to stop these companies from doing this repeatedly until MAPS is broke? Nothing.

    I'm happy MAPS won, but this won't go away until it's settled.

  • Now all you need to do is design a tool to enable multi-column postings! Maybe it can be added to a future release of Slashcode...
  • So you believe minors should be able to walk into a store and buy alcohol, or cigaretts? I'm sure companies that sell those products could show a 'loss' for not selling to minors.Maybe we should let 4 year olds drive, because I wouldn't want to step on there rights.
    Why not let your kids carry guns? I mean it is there right? right?
    maybe we should let 8 year olds be in porno movies?
    Freedom of speech has nothing to do with video games. Its about a person being able to say what they feel without the government banning them.
    It is not about letting people sell whatever they want to whomever they want, regaurdless of the consiquences.
    America has set certian guidlines for minors. Is 18/21 arbitrary? to some degree yes, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. The fact is, minors have very little to no way to compare what is good and what is bad, because they have yet to develop a point of reference. That is why we need laws to protect minors.
    Yes, video game/music/movies do effect people, espcially young minds that are still developing. the question is, how much?
    I am a 1st generation video gamer. I have been playing video games since there where video games, but the degree of realism is at a point now that the brain is going to not be able to tell the difference. actual I should probably say the mind, but lets not quibble.
    2 last comments:
    1: the brain is basically on organic computer
    2: GIGO
    *puts on his flame retardant PJ's waits for incoming*
  • Picture is of a nuclear bomb, Sagan is arguing we could mess up by causing nuclear winter. As some folks would point out, this doesn't destroy the planet or even life on Earth, but it's still a bad idea for any species bigger than bacteria.
  • Just wanted to say that you rule, and so does the real Anne. It's always so fun to visit the 0 and -1 regions of slashdot, where nutty people roam.

    Btw: Can I get a hug?
  • ...cos the one in the original article (cnn) isnt up...

    http://www.2think.org/carlsagan.shtml
  • Indeed, this is just what Micro$oft is doing with Atari. Some of the best old games are being sold rather than being given away.
  • Can I tell you what the kids in my neighborhood are going to be up to behind a curtain on a Friday night?

    Who's the moro.... genius, who came up with this?

    "Strip-quake" will be played by drunken, half-naked teens in malls all over town...

  • Misinformation (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What's both interesting and saddening is that it seems like AIDS has been dealt with as if it's a political issue, not a disease that is a "problem for everyone."

    I totally disagree - but then I actually know someone who has HIV as a result of a blood transfusion before there was adequate testing (and yes, the person in question is still alive after 15 years). And by the way - people are infected by HIV, they develop AIDS as the later symptoms.

    Consider, if a form of smallpox returned, which had a relatively slow spread rate, but was still deadly. How would it be dealt with? Would doctors be required to not inform those in contact with the infected that they might be at risk. Would we allow them to donate blood, even though there was a checkbox indicating they were sick and the blood shouldn't be processed (mislabeling happens)? Would it be politicized rather than treated as a disease, with political correctness taking priority over public health?

    I hope this is just your lack of knowledge about the transmission of HIV. If you work or live with someone with HIV you are at practically no risk during normal day to day activities. Shaking hands with this person will NOT infect you. Neither is kissing them likely to infect you - saliva does not carry the virus in any measurable levels. Only when there is blood-level contact between the HIV carrier and someone else is there any likelihood of transmission. Even in full sexual acts, the chance of transmission is only 40%. This differs sharply from the analogy you raise with Smallpox, which was both shorter in term and more easily transmitted. So I feel your argument comes over as being poorly informed.

    Having said that, it is one thing to know all this stuff. It is quite another to deal with it in an ordinary day-to-day situation and actually treat the HIV-sufferer as a normal, healthy person, which until AIDS develops they are. I have the greatest respect for the carers, nurses and doctors who help people with HIV continue to live normal lives. I also take my hat off to the researchers who have managed to find drugs which have lifted the 10-year death sentence that HIV used to imply.

  • Or Perhaps it's Signal 11 or the penis-bird guy in a plot to mess with your head.
  • Super NES old, geez don't make me prematurely grey here. I grew up with an Atari 2600 and a Collecovision. The 2 classic gaming consoles. What's up Missle Command and Asteroids...

    What's interesting about the article on video games is that it doesn't discuss you having ever purchased the games in first place and being able to legally reproduce them in other formats to play. (IE- I'm making a legitimate backup copy for archive purposes) But, in this case you are using your alternative backup- what it was designed for...
  • In the final analysis, it would seem that the only thing which Harris has accomplished was getting one, possibly two ISPs (depending on AOL) out of more than a dozen ISP defendants to start accepting their email traffic, something which they could quite possibly have done without the expense and complication of filing a lawsuit.

    They accomplished a helluva lot more than just getting off of a few ISPs' deny access lists. Harris got themselves statically added to many more sysadmins' access lists to *deny* all harrisinteractive.com, including all of mine. This was big news on SlahDot after all. In fact, I imagine Harris set a record for getting statically added to the most mail access lists in a short period of time than any other domain (with the exception of maybe popsite.net which is nothing but spam). This would exclude what getting on one of MAPS' lists would do for you. Think about it...

  • Dominguez has been working with the Zapatista rebels in Mexico since 1994 to develop nonviolent direct-action tools and spread information about conditions in Chiapas, a mountainous state in southern Mexico, where for the past five years the Zapatistas have clashed with the government.


    "I want to bring the net.hacker, net.activist and net.artist into a dialogue about what we can leave to the future for those without a voice and without power -- something the Zapatistas can teach us all," Dominguez says.
    This is just a small excerpt from a larger article [cnn.com] on CNN on how the web is used to expose conditions and issues which certain "groups" have to deal with. In all essence the Web can be a very effective tool if used properly.
  • The Constitution itself says very little about Copyright, but I agree with you somewhat, because I don't see where the "Artist" is being represented here, so I doubt their interests are being protected.
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].

  • I agree with the list of games in this thread (Blaster Master, Mega Man, Super Mario Bros. (1 and 3), the Zeldas (1 and 2), Contra, Metroid.

    Now I have a few games to add:

    1. Kung Fu -- This games was so cool, where he'd say "Foo Foo" when he kicked, and "Cha Cha" when he punched. Defeat Mr. X and save (What was her name?). OH YEAH.
    2. R.C. Pro Am -- This game was awesome. Drive around in little RC cars, collecting N-I-N-T-E-N-D-O letter blocks, to get a car upgrade. Look out for the oil slick!
    3. Double Dragon -- Was this mentioned before? It deserves it--particularly DD2. How cool is it to pick up a steel drum and throw it at an enemy?
    4. Base Wars -- A futuristic robot baseball game. It really sucked, but getting in fights was totally cool when you choose the "Edit A" and "Edit B" teams--tons of cool weapons to beat the shit out of your opponent with! It was only good with the NES Advantage, though. You would fight every time you ran to a base where the baseman tagged you with the ball--you fought to determine if you were safe or out.
    5. Spy Hunter and Seicross -- These two are lumped together since neither one has an end. They just keep repeating. Spy Hunter is a car game, where you look down on top of your car. You use guns, oil slicks, and smoke screens to force enemies off the road. I still remember the music. Sometimes, they play variations of it on the radio--I'm not kidding. The grass at the side of the road cycles through colors, but you never get anywhere (except on a boat, but you have to get off after awhile, and the cycle repeats). Somebody once told me there was a sequence of forks that you need to take to beat it--that was a lie. Seicross is a futuristic motorcycle game, where you shoot enemies and avoid crashing into obstacles. There are six levels, which alternate fast and slow (the speed you zoom through the level). At the end of each level, there are dinosaur/tiger monstrosities you must shoot, while still moving. When you get to level six, you just work your way back down to level one, then back up to six, ad infinitum (or ad nauseum, whichever you prefer). Both are fun, but they get old after awhile.
    6. NINJA GAIDEN -- This is all in caps because, of all the games here (which I'd consider my favorite games of all time), this is the absolute BEST Nintendo game I've ever played. It's so hard, I can't even beat it with Game Genie. I come sooooo close, though. I'm talkin' last level here, where Ryu fights his father. That game is impossible. If you haven't played Ninja Gaiden, you really need to. It's the game I'm most likely to forget about when I'm reminiscing about Nintendo, but it's my favorite by a long shot. Does anybody remember the CIA chick's name? She was about as hot as you can get in sixteen colors. What I hated was those goddamned jumping ninjas you can never get rid of. And those fuckin' birds in level three, which would knock you into a pit so many times. Don't get the sequel, it sucks badly.

    Nintendo was the high point of console gaming (and damn close to the high point of all of digital gaming). The only thing I like nowadays is GT2 for Playstation, which is a truly awesome game. But it doesn't come close to my NES. Oh that I were twelve with my Nintendo again! We're goin' all the way, Ryu, all the way...

    Thank you.

    I do not belong in the spam.redirect.de domain.

  • Terry Anslow, chief investigator for the European Leisure Software Association (Elspa), the body which protects and enforces software copyright, said: "It is a criminal act to copy these games from the internet.

    "By emulating a computer system or game, you are effectively reproducing a trademark and, without permission, that is an infringement of intellectual property rights."

    (IANAL, duh.) By copying old ROMs, you're not reproducing trademarks! You might be breaching copyright laws, but not trademarks. Whadduh ideeot.

    --Yekrats

  • It is rather hypocritical that /. clamors for one form of censorware, but fights against another, the forced censorship of internet connections in public schools and libraries, which is also a decision which is made without the input of the user, and which also supposedly protects the user from something which is bad for them.

    I don't think its necessarily hypocritical. If you think about it, some kind of control or filtering is necessary. The problem most people have with filtering is that the decision of what is filtered is a closed process. People aren't allowed to provide input or to know what is being censored. If I understand it correctly, MAPS allows you to see what is blocked and it at least allows people more input than a more closed proprietary product does.

    Also, the fact that the decision to use it is up to the ISP is at least better than everyone being forced to use a closed system. Individual users have a larger voice with their respective ISPs than they would with a large corporation or with the Federal government. The truth is, there probably isn't a perfect solution, but this is the best I've seen so far.

  • It's all part of society's attempt to "pass the buck" when it comes to placing the blame. It seems that in this day and age, it's never anyone's fault for what they did.

    Guy- "But officer I was only speeding because my parents were usually speeding when I grew up. It was a bad influence on me."

    Officer- "Okay, you're free to go."

    Take the Columbine (sorry to resurrect something like this) situation. The media looked for a convenient scapegoat. It was the evil computer games they played and that horrific music. Give me a BREAK! Listening to music and playing GAMES, major emphasis on the word game [which Webster defines: Game- activity engaged in for diversion or amusement] doesn't make me want to go out and beat the crap out of people or worse.

    When it comes to something like that, or for things in general it comes down to being the parents responsibility to raise they're children properly. Parents, take an active role in your child's activities. Don't just "pass the buck!"
  • Of those games that are made available, my favorite, Elite is available from one of the original authors! Ian Bell's [clara.net] website has virtually every version of 8-bit Elite ever made. David Braben, the other half of the Elite team and author of FE:2 and FFE (the two Elite followups) says that he won't be going around shutting down people who offer the games for download (although these games are PC games). In fact, Frontier Developments is starting The Elite Club [eliteclub.co.uk] soon, and members will be able to get their mitts on the source code for FE:2 and Frontier First Encounters. And of course there's other Elite efforts, such as Christian Pinder's excellent Elite: The New Kind [newkind.co.uk] which comes with full sources (and can be compiled and run on Linux).

    As for emulation, the old Sinclair Spectrum is perfectly legally emulable: Amstrad (holder of they copyright of the ROM) said basically "go ahead and use it, so long as you don't do it commercially". There is hope out there for retro games.

  • Yeah, I had a Mattel Intellivision once, found it still down the cellar a couple of years back, but it didn't work anymore. Burger Time, Astrosmash, a bunch of others, I had legal bought and paid for copies. If I could find an emulator for the Intellivision and copies of those games to download, I would feel TOTALLY JUSTIFIED in doing so. I don't care who owns the copyrights, I paid for the right to play those games, use of an emulator ("repair" for the defunct console) and downloaded "backup" copies is NOT violating anything.
  • Oh, yeah... GIGO... that's a classic...
    Well, rather than let the government tell us what our kids can and can't see, why don't we just educate them to know better?
    Shit, I've been playing Street fighter and Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct for years... I haven't ripped someone's spine out yet, I haven't even gotten into a FIGHT in like 10 years, despite loads of money gone into games.
    The long term affects of video games are at best unclear, while the long term affects of alcohol and tobbacco are WELL documented, especially the affect of them on kids.
    And what you're basically saying is that kids are too stupid to know when a game is a game, and not real life. That's complete bullshit. I can tell you right now that kids know the difference between those damned polygons on the screen and the flesh and blood next to them.
    They know that in real life, Gunjack would kick Panda's ass because he's a fucking ROBOT.
    And as far as knowing good and bad, where are the parents in the formula? I always thought that teaching good vs evil was the job of the parents, not the government, I mean, otherwise, it would be better to just stick our kids in government housing for 18 years and let Uncle Sam tell them what's going on.

    Let the customer decide what is right for them, and let the government work on the important shit like education, roads, and national defence.
    Think about it... who are you more afraid of: a foreign terrorist sneaking in through lax security and letting off sarin gas in a NY subway, or some 14 year old playing Silent Scope?
  • Not that a gay boycot of a toy company would do much good as it's biologically impossible for a gay couple to produce children.

    As if biological impossibility had anything to do with raising children these days. Ever heard of a sperm bank? Ever heard of adpotion? Last time I checked, there were plenty of gay families raising children.

    Plus, just because OutRage! is a gay organization doesn't mean only gays would participate in the boycott. HIV/AIDS is a problem for everyone, not just homosexuals.

    Anyway, staging a boycott is more about the bad press than anything else. The original boycotters make enough noise to pique the interest of the larger community.


    If you're not wasted, the day is.

  • Re:The Eternity Puzzle and Christopher Monckton (Score:3)

    by mr. roboto ( 85479 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @04:39PM (#691429)
    Is it reasonable to trade the freedom of a few thousand (when AIDS was first discovered) for the lives of the millions who have died from AIDS to date?

    No, it is not. Though it might seem a workable (I won't say good) idea on the surface, it's scary to think of the governmental mechanisms that need be in place for such a policy to be implimented with adequate swiftness and thoroughness. Any government that could elimate aids victims swiftly enough to stop the spread of the disease could just as easily eliminate dissentors swiftly enough to stop the spread of free thought.


    it's biologically impossible for a gay couple to produce children.

    Wrong. Gay men can produce children just as well as any other men; all they need is a cooperative woman to be the mother. It's even easier for lesbians, who require only sperm, which is readily available. And on top of it all, homosexuals tend to make excellent parents. [salon.com]

  • (OT) How society deals with epidemics (Score:5)

    by skoda ( 211470 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @05:47PM (#691430) Homepage
    (Ok - first, I really not looking for a flamewar here; I'm not trolling.)

    "HIV/AIDS is a problem for everyone, not just homosexuals."

    What's both interesting and saddening is that it seems like AIDS has been dealt with as if it's a political issue, not a disease that is a "problem for everyone."

    Consider, if a form of smallpox returned, which had a relatively slow spread rate, but was still deadly. How would it be dealt with? Would doctors be required to not inform those in contact with the infected that they might be at risk. Would we allow them to donate blood, even though there was a checkbox indicating they were sick and the blood shouldn't be processed (mislabeling happens)? Would it be politicized rather than treated as a disease, with political correctness taking priority over public health?

    I intend no insult or accusation to someone with such a disease. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone; I don't think anyone who has AIDS 'deserves' it as some have horribly said. Nor do I think quarantines are the answer, nor making them social outcasts. But I think AIDS should be handled as a disease and not as a political/minority-rights/voting issue.

    As always, this is just my perception from events over the past decade, talking with doctors, and listening to the voices in my head.
    -----
    D. Fischer
  • I don't like SPAM, but when an ISP chooses to use MAPS RBL, they're censoring your email for you. Perhaps that's what you want, perhaps that's not what you want. But you never get the choice. Many ISPs that use MAPS RBL never state publically that they do.

    It is rather hypocritical that /. clamors for one form of censorware, but fights against another, the forced censorship of internet connections in public schools and libraries, which is also a decision which is made without the input of the user, and which also supposedly protects the user from something which is bad for them.

    What disturbs me most about MAPS RBL is the small number of people that make a decision to add a mail server to it, and the same small number that can make the decision to remove it in the future or retain it. If the government were doing this, there would be an outcry, but when a private company does it, it's fine.

    Bottom Line: MAPS RBL is not voluntary for the user, just for the ISP.

    --
  • if this had been done 12 years ago, aids would have been removed from humans by now.

    By the time it was discovered that AIDS was caused by a virus, HIV had spread far enough that it was already a pandemic in the making. It is not reasonable to assume that ANY quarantine procedures would have prevented its emergence in the population.

    In fact, considering the mutagenic nature of HIV, and the long gestation time, quarantine may have the unintended effect of pressuring the virus to mutate into new, less easily detected strains with longer gestation times. HIV is adapted for slow and steady emergence in a population, whereas quarantine tends to be more effective for "hot" viruses like Ebola, which infects and kills rapidly.

    Global testing of individuals is impractical, but necessary for any quarantine strategy to eliminate the virus from the population. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that it wouldn't cross over again into humans from the wild, unless we kill all the monkeys (something that SIV has not done, BTW.)

    Therefore, vaccination on a massive scale, much like with small pox, is probably the only viable method for eliminating HIV, assuming an effective vaccine for all strains can ever be produced. Otherwise, we can only continue to deal with the symptoms of a disease that is here to stay.

    And despite viral threats like HIV, antibiotic resistant tuberculosis is probably what is really going to be killing us all in the future.
  • Come on, try to hack my 31337 firewall! [127.0.0.1]

    Whoa!

    It's like deja vu, all over again!

    t_t_b
    --
    I think not; therefore I ain't®

  • I am so poorly read in the Christian Old Testament, a window on the Jewish Torah, that I can only cite a smattering of things as they happen to come to me.

    It reminds me of my several years of bipolar affective disorder, manic depression, when I would at times wander barefoot through concrete suburbs, reeling about like a drunk, then open the bible at random and read something that I would interpret as imputing my personal condemnation.

    -- Anne Marie
  • Quarantining the AIDS/HIV-infected populaces of Britain and America wouldn't help anything. Africa is currently getting hammered by AIDS--I forget the exact ratio, but something like 1 out of 6 people in Africa has HIV or AIDS. As for quaratining all of them... Ha! Good luck. Okay, from a hypothetical standpoint, perhaps this would work, but it is unfortunately entirely impractical in reality. Now we must rely on education and, hopefully, medicine.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • "An American Voting for Bush is like a Chicken voting for Col.Sanders"

    You mean in the way chickens can't vote?
    Or that Bush will batter and deep fry us and serve us in his multinational cannibalistic fast food chain?
    Would an American voting for Al Gore be like chickens voting for....what? What do chickens really want? What will it take to swing that chicken vote?
    Exactly what presidential candidate is chicken friendly?
    Which one is TOO chicken friendly?

    Face it, all creatures either ignore chickens, or eat them. Oh, I suppose they comfort themselves at night, in their little chicken beds, that they can make a difference in the world. But all a chicken can really do is peck at things and lay eggs. So when you go to the henhouse, and move among their trusting hearts like a wolf among, er, chickens. Take a moment to reflect how a chicken fits in the great universal scheme of things.

    As your dinner.

    Later
    Erik Z

  • Would you really prefer a full belly, but live in an oppressed society? Bread or Human Rights? I'd rather Free Speech if it were one or the other.

    Most people would disagree with you.

  • The latter post which you replied to is from A-r-m-e Marie, not A-n-n-e Marie who posted the multi-column story. Look again.

    Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
    Thought exists only as an abstraction
  • things have never been better - ever. why would you want to change that?
  • China alone would be more than a match for the U.S.

    Well, yes and no. The US probably couldn't invade and take over ther PRC, but if worse came to worst, the US could go nuke and destroy them, and the PRC certainly could not invade the US. Loads of PLA troops would have to somehow get to the US, past SSNs, carrier battle groups, and the USAF, without any log-range air support etc. of their own. Not too likely. Now, if the PRC really wanted to get Taiwan back, it would be hard/impossible to stop them, and we could never liberate the peasants and install our own regime miltarily. It more comes down to how interventionist you want your foreign policy to be.

  • FF6 is good, but no one seems to remember FF4 (or 2 here in the US). The music in FF4 is every bit as masterful as FF6, and the storyline runs circles around almost any other game I can think of... it's cosmic and personal at the same time, and fascinating, to boot. Yeah, the graphics are cheesy compared to the later games, but some of the effects (especially towards the end) are incredible, considering the game came out in (I believe) 93 or 94.

    Final Fantasy 4 is one of 2 games that has actually brought tears to my eyes.
  • I saw that one too. Hilarious!

    My favorite part was the "soundtrack," which consisted of some folkie with a guitar singing the names of the different components of the reactions. It doesn't sound too funny, but you had to hear the enthusiasm in his voice as he shouted out "t-RNA!"

    Thanks for the memory.
    --

  • Though it might seem a workable (I won't say good) idea on the surface

    I wouldn't even call it workable. If I recall correctly (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), HIV can go for months in the bloodstream without even being detected. So even if some government was cruel enough to quarantine people with AIDS, it wouldn't get rid of the disease. The first wave would get rid of people with obvious symptoms and those who have been infected for awhile. The disease would still circulate though.

    It would become an undetectable threat that, when detected, would be an instant death sentence. (What kind of health care do you think society would want to provide to a quarantined group of "infectious threats." And a government that would quarantine individuals based on a disease they have is just a short hop from simply killing them. (Again, once you make someone an outcast it dehumanizes them and making them viewed as "expendable.")

    Sounds to me like a slippery slope leading towards Nazi Germany. And if anyone thinks that it wouldn't affect them, I suggest they read "Then they came for me" by Pastor Martin Niemller:

    "First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak up because I was not a Communist.
    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew.
    Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist.
    Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up because I was a Protestant.
    Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me."

    So to the person who said "Is it reasonable to trade the freedom of a few thousand...for the lives of the millions": Just remember, which thousand are sacrificed can easily change from a group you don't belong to, to a group you do belong to.
  • ORBS is not a part of MAPS. ORBS does network scans. MAPS does not.
    -russ
  • If your ISP defends your mailbox using the RBL, and you don't like it, get your email through a different service. This is the Internet; stop acting so helpless.
    -russ
  • I have to agree, at least with R.C. Pro Am, Spy Hunter, and Ninja Gaiden; I remember Kung Fu and Double Dragon from the arcades.

    I also have Ninja Gaiden 3, actually; they're all awesome. Go Ryu Hayabusa! I can't remember her name, I want to say 'Linda' or 'Jane' or something, but I could check.

    Actually, if you liked Ninja Gaiden... do you remember Strider? I loved that game for the NES. The arcade version was pretty, but it came nowhere near the NES version for plot and puzzle solving and whatnot.
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].
  • uhhm, hello? You have a right not to use MAPS. It is not mandatory. WTF is your problem?

    Organizations playing god don't deserve to be on the internet.

    I agree with that. But it's not MAPS who is playing God. There is certain other organization [networksolutions.com] that frequently attempts to do so.
    ___

  • "Organizations playing god don't deserve to be on the internet."

    What a #$^%@&^!'ed up comment.

    Participation in MAPS is voluntary.

    Believing in GOD is voluntary.

    Just because you don't hold the same ideals or beilefs as those who CHOOSE to use MAPS (or believe in GOD) doesn't mean that everyone should be denyed the right to CHOOSE based on your beliefs.
  • My friend, I hate to break this to you, but the American armed forces are a bit of a joke. I won't deny the need for some kind of national defense force, but the US has taken things far, far out of proportion. Our armed strength just about rivals that of all other countries in the world combined. Now, I don't know about you, but I doubt they're all going to gang up on us at once... I'd also say that military actions *are* becoming more and more like video games as technology is continuously integrated into warfare. Mind you, I don't think violent video games are a serious threat to a normal person's view of reality, but I could see things working the other way. If all you have to do to kill someone is hit a button, and you don't see or hear them die horribly, I'd say that distances you from the consequences of your actions pretty significantly....

    Finally, I'd like to ask, what relevance does someone's sexual orientation have to their views on America's bloated military? Or Linux, or the PRC (where, coincidentally, I doubt Linux is very popular)? Your homophobic remark only serves to get you mentally filed in the "bigot" bin. If you're going to argue against homosexuality, do it respectfully and logically, not at random.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.
  • It is my considered medical opinion that every schoolchild should be shown the last episode of Cosmos. It's over a decade since I first saw it, and I still get those goosebumps when I think about it.

    However...
    The miserable, well-poisoning donkey blowers are only making the DVD available (as far as I can see) to denizens of the US. What about us humble Irishmen? How do we get it? DVD express (usually so reliable) never heard of it. Nor did DVD empire.

    If any kind soul knows of a site that'll sell it to foreigners, I'd appreciate a note.

    Y'know, when this happened with the boxed set of Urusei Yatsura movies, I was pissed off. But denying Cosmos to the Rest of The World isn't just annoying, it's positively criminal.
  • Isn't this guy too gracious?

    "We could have been sitting pretty but it has worked out well for the winner who will be richer than I am."

  • I agree. If you're for free speech and against censorware, you've got to be all out. I would much, much rather have all that spam delivered to me and have to construct my own filters or use some premade set of filters or whatever than have anything removed from my mail before it gets to me without my consent. It's no different in principle to do that than it is to censor the web in schools.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • This and the parent of this thread smell strongly of troll to me, but I'd like to reply anyhow. Specifically, I'd like to remind you that sales tax is wildly unfair in favor of the rich. Why, you may ask? Because the poor spend far more of their income. Take two people, as an example, one with an income of $18K a year, another with an income of $80K. If it costs $15K a year (including $2K taxes, say) to survive, then the first person has effectively paid 11.1% income tax, and the second .025%. Fair? hardly. Of course, you seem to think that favoring the rich is fine, so maybe these words will fall on deaf ears, but that's never stopped me before!

    This whole attitude that the rich are entitled to something because they're rich strikes me as arrogant in the extreme. You know why the richest 10% pay 90% of all taxes? Because the richest 1% has 99% of the money. And, if my calculations are correct, that leaves the rest of us paying, proportionately, oh, ten times as much in taxes.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • Cosmos is just the jumping off point...

    How about The Mechanical Universe [learner.org]? If you missed it the first time around, Real-player clips are available here [learner.org]. If nothing else, look for the early-eighties animation; stay for the fun of it.

    Or how about Powers of Ten [eamesoffice.com]? (Both the rough sketch, with the cool relativity clock, and the final in color, with SEM photos, instead of drawings, are great.)

    For a change, consider Why Man Creates [pyramidmedia.com]. This thing did win the Academy, and it deserved it. Darned funny, trenchant, moving, and scary.

    If you want to go further back, how about all the Bell Science films, including Hemo the Magnificent [videoflicks.com]. Darned patronizing in places, but they got many of us kidniks started in science.

    And then there's the film that got away... My husband remembers the one he saw at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1978 or 1979. His pupils still dilate as he laughs about the use of student volunteers to model ADP/ATP cycles, complete with CO2 fire extinguishers to show energy being given off. Titles gratefully accepted.

  • PLAYING games is a crime? (Score:3)

    by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:15PM (#691457)
    From the article on emulation:
    the playing of "classic games" is a crime

    That's not quite what they meant, of course, but the fact is that many companies would like to make it a crime to play these games (even if you actually legally own them. See all the complaining about emulators, even if you're using it for your own games.) It's this part that really annoys me about the attitude of the game companies ... they want you to buy their new (and generally not very good) games so badly that they want to remove the chance to play these older games. A video game is a work of art, and it seems like a shame that they would effectively destroy them because they're incapable of otherwise turning a profit.

    I don't think that, legally, we'll be able to make any ground on this issue ... at least, until somebody manages to get copyright law reverted to a somewhat sane state ... but until then, I hope that the little 'rebellion' keeps going strong.

  • Lieberman, Gore, Cheney or Bush.

    I just made a liar out of Timothy.

  • Yeah but. . . (Score:3)

    by 348 ( 124012 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:18PM (#691459) Homepage
    Paul Vixie: 1; Spammers: 0

    But here it seems more like

    Slashdot: 0; Spammers 9

  • You can use my RBL tester. Send email to nelson-rbl-test@crynwr.com. See http://crynwr.com/spam/ for more information. As I said in another post, "This is the Internet; stop acting so helpless."
    -russ
  • Well, that's kind of off-topic, but when has that stopped anyone? ;)

    I think the idea of bringing the Internet to countries with 4% literacy rates is sketchy at best. Electricity, water, roads, sufficient food supply & distribution of same, and universal public education in the 3 R's would all be a better start.

    OTOH, the 'Net can be a valuable tool for revolutionaries, and a great way to exchange information under the noses of the oppressive & greed-headed regimes that tend to lead countries to third-worldness to begin with.

    Anyway, I guess I think it couldn't hurt, it might help, but there are other things that might help more.

    OK,
    - B

  • We need a candidate that can be taken more seriously than the current ones. Dave Barry for President! [herald.com]

  • I know for a fact that some of these groups do network scans (which they often claim they do not do); since they do most of the scans via private network accounts they don't get caught in log files. You're painting a mighty broad brush there. :)
    The reference to "network scans" (in itself a subjective term) is referring to ORBS [orbs.org] and, possibly, the now-defunct IMRSS. See my previous post [slashdot.org] for information on the differences between the various anti-spam IP lists. Neither of these lists has anything to do with MAPS [mail-abuse.org]. MAPS considers active networking scanning abusive. However, having received a spam, then testing to see if the offending machine is an open relay would not be considered a "network scan". Note: I am not an employee of MAPS. I do not speak for MAPS in any capacity. Rather, from a position of familiarity with their policies.

    --
  • This is the most benighted, offensive thing I've seen on /. Do you honestly believe the government should not try to provide succor to those in need? I assure you, the private citizenry with the power to do so rarely will. ("And in the news this morning, Bill Gates, RJR Nabisco, and Time-Warner have announced a jointly-funded $900 billion program to provide education, food, and shelter to the needy...") And don't try to convince me welfare is simply supporting freeloaders and unproductive members of society--I'd like to see you grow up in an inner city, drop out of your grossly underfunded school by grade nine, either become a perpetuator of or have to deal with a culture of violence, drugs, and internal self-oppression every moment of your life, and then tell me you don't think there's a place for governmental programs to help the underclasses of our sick society. "More of our own money to spend on food, clothing, and shelter," eh? Yeah, I'd like to see a lifelong drug addict whose parents left him on the street at age 12 spend his $35 tax refund from his minimum-wage McDonald's job he's only had for a month to buy "food, clothing, and shelter." Crackwhore baby factories indeed. You are so obviously ignorant of the true conditions the destitute members of this nation's populace live in it sickens me.

    Wraithmaster
    www.wraithmaster.com [wraithmaster.com] -- Chicken soup for the spleen.

  • From the article: "Loss adjusters Gaebel, Watkins & Taylor of London, are validating a possible winning entry."

    From the prev. poster: "load of plastic polygons that you have to fit into a hexagon shape. All the pieces are the same plain featureless green."

    Ahh... At first I was wondering why 'validation' was more complicated than comparing allegedly complete puzzle to boxtop. I mean, I know six-year olds that can do that.

    Of course, if all the pieces are the same color, and the pieces are put together, then what more is there for the 'validators' to do than look at it and say, "Yup. That thar puzzle is plumb put together." -- no need to even look at the boxtop, unless you *really* wanted to make sure that it is supposed to be solid green.

    :)
    -----
    D. Fischer

  • 7th Circuit decision is pleasant but no surprise (Score:5)

    by Anne Marie ( 239347 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:24PM (#691483)

    TheSeventhCircuit |topornographyin |excitedaboutabig
    Appealshasastrong |general,sincethe |precedent,,remember
    trackrecordonfree-|ordinanceswept |thattheSupreme
    speechrightsevenfor|broadlyandwould've |Court rarelyhears
    sexuallyexplicit |evencoveredsuch |caseslikethisone
    speech. AmericanBook|----------------------|unlesstheycome
    Sellersv.Hudnutcame|TheSeventhCircuitof|fromCong ressitself
    outofthe7thCircuit|Appealshasastrong|--localpoli ticsare
    andstruckdownthe |trackrecordonfree-|rarelytouchedonce
    Indianapolisordinance|speechrightsevenfor|they'v ebeensettled
    againstpornography |sexuallyexplicit |bytheintermediate
    deemeddegradingto |speech. |appealscourts. On
    women(regardlessof |----------------------|theotherhand,the
    howmuchpainthe |artisticworksas |Rehnquistcourthas
    womenexperience,it's|Shakespeare'sand |beenespecially
    stillconsidered |others'). Butbefore|attentivetoparents'
    speech--aresultI |you1stamendment |"rights"oflate,so
    actuallyagreewithin|mavensgettoo |nothingisassured.
    spiteofmyopposition|
  • You're getting much better at this. Your new format is a bit more pleasant to the eye.

  • Retro games ok? Awesome! (Score:3)

    by malahoo ( 128370 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:31PM (#691488) Homepage
    I'm really impressed to see the owners of "retro" games donating them to the public good. They (hopefully) made their money when the games were originally released, and, as Jeff Minter [mailto] notes on his game download page [c64gg.com], "software old enough to be running on emulators is not going to be exactly generating a huge amount of revenue" . Now that their work has become iconic and part of a sizeable subculture, making that work a freely available part of that subculture is generous, tasteful, artistic.

    Anyone who appreciates such gestures should voice their support. Send mail thanking Ian Bell [mailto], and check out his web site [clara.net]. Do the same for Jeff Minter by following the links above. And hunt down these guys' circa-1980-hot-shot-game-programmer peers, show some love and relive the old days of 8-bit.


    If you're not wasted, the day is.

  • Well you probably would've had a better chance of getting that story through if you had mentioned one of the magic words. Namely, "Linux", since no there are no representatives for Linux, GNU, FSF, OSS, or anything of that ilk at that "Digital Dividends" conference. (They did send an invitation to RedHat who declined.)

    But then, Linux Weekly News has been covering it pretty well. Maybe the boys here figure that putting it on /. would be redundant. And I'm apt to agree with them.

    Oh, and when I said "conference" previously, I meant "bending-over-and-kissing-our-own-asses".
  • "the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and copying or distributing those games is a copyright infringement".

    I'm surely no lawyer, but i'm pretty sure that the copyright is only to reserve the right for enough time to make profits off of the copyrighted noun. once the copyright holder has stopped attempting to make profits on the object, he or she has, in effect, relenquished hold on the 'right to copy.'

    also, the copyright is to promote something like scientific development, invention, and innovation. its been a while since ive read the law its self. but once the copyright is stifling creativity and development, or even our simple enjoyment, by preventing others from using (example) these emulators and ROMs, then the copyright is working at cross purposes.

    when you stop using your copy right, then it shouldn't still exist. keeping others from using it, and yet not using it your self, i can't think of anything to compare it to other than greediness. if a certain company gives up on selling or servicing a product, then the company does not deserve the right to claim it. if they want to claim it, then they should have a reason for maintaining the copyright (such as selling me my favorite 8-bit nintendo with complete mario brothers game set) .

    just a few pennies i had kicking around.

  • The Eternity Puzzle and Christopher Monckton (Score:5)

    by IvyMike ( 178408 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:36PM (#691504)

    The puzzle developed by Christopher Monckton is The Eternity Puzzle [eternity-puzzle.co.uk]. (Also check out this unoffical page [mathpuzzle.com]). Interestingly enough, there was a distributed computing project [swissknifesoftware.com] designed to solve the puzzle, but the effort was suspended after the threat of legal action. [swissknifesoftware.com] And the game in question was boycotted after Monckton urged that the entire population of the United States and Britain should be compulsorily tested for HIV, and that everyone with the virus should be forcibly quarantined for life. [nz.com]

  • Cosmos was awesome (Score:3)

    by cosmol ( 143886 ) on Thursday October 19, 2000 @03:56PM (#691507)
    I too was a wee little pup when I saw the cosmos series on pbs. More recently I was able to rent it from blockbuster (it's pretty pricey to rent a whole PBS series :-) Now that I'm older I can see how Sagan might have been a toker :)

    I loved it. Sagan did such a good job of illuminating the wonders of science and our world. The whole series is organized wonderfully, and Sagan himself is so enthusiastic about the subject matter..

    If you haven't seen it, snatch up a copy when it comes out. Geez I get goosebumps just thinking about it... SHows how geeky i am..

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