Heinlein was ... naively and certainly shallowly libertarian.. But I'm not aware of a definition of "fascistic" that would apply. As portrayed in the novel just about the only privilege of "veterans" was franchise and a hand-full of government oversight jobs. It was explicitly pointed out in the novel that putting in the time to get veteran status was looked down upon as "unproductive" by much of civil society and that franchise was considered not worth the effort. In other words "veteran" was not a status worth investing in as considered by the majority population. Veteran status could hardly have been exercised to an extent to render government control of private resources a significant effect in that society. It could not be considered "fascist". As said I consider much of Heinlein's libertarian leanings as naive ... there are many complex issues he never deeply addressed ... or even showed evidence of having considered. But there is cetainly evidence that he was not a "pure" libertarian. Not a capitalist take no prisoners but all of everything else thnker. See his early (one of my favorites) "Beyond this Horizon". He presents a welfare state in essence as an idyllic paradise. Heinlein was, as said simplistically shallow in many of his political presentations. I suspect he was aware that he was painting black and white contrasts in a world of grays. But he was writing science fiction "what ifs" to entertain by limning end-results of his ideas. -- TWZ

Look at the slides. She's bitchnig about a requirement for *algebra*. Now yes I've only used calculus perhaps half a dozen times in thirty plus years of business programming. But *algebra*? I've wound up many times setting up (relatively simple, true) sets of linear equations to balance allocations of money in purely financial applications. In a couple cases I could use the linear equations to see at a glance what information I needed to finish the program, and in others to take back to the biz people to show why what they were asking for was not possible. Er. do trend analysis on space usages across multiple data spaces and multiple volume-groups across a large database and tell me you don't need algebra to do it. And for that matter programming is becoming ever more future oriented .... You may only need algebra to tell where you've been, but you DO need (at least basic) calculus to anticipate the future. -- TWZ

Arguments for the sim hypothesis are always Polynomial or Geometric. Our reality is massively and multiply re-entrant ... complexity of reality is combinatorial. Limit as entity count approaches VERY VERY LARGE .... ==> 0. And, in fact, if the sim ONLY emulated physics being "looked at" to cut down the combinatorial explosion effects, it would in fact make determination/breakout of the sim that much easier. The anomalies between "looked at" and statistically indeterminate sets of envents would continuously widen, eventually reaching a measurable displacement that would be noticed. Bottom line ... while not having any bona-fides but my math intuition, I''m really quite confident the arguments for reality being simulated are grotesquely in error. -- TWZ -- TWZ

Amen, brother. What is it with the people who think it's got to be flashy and and jump all over the place? And did plain old html suddenly become the cultural equivalent of cooties? Does it friggin have to be java-script/DOM webbie callbacks? Good grief, I find that irritating. Even odds says the slash folks are positioning for a corporate buyout and are going for the flash to get the cash. -- TWZ -- TWZ

Can we *stop* calling unautorized use of information "piracy".

It rather by definition cedes criminal conduct when in many casesm however draconian laws are worded, proving criminality is way beyond plausible.

Most "piracy" is at a civil matter and usually of dubious merit, not murder, and theft on the high seas.

Call it what it usually is. Retrieving information without a license. Enjoying a film or song without having paid a corporation for the privilege.

-- TWZ

The real question these days is where to get components! Mail order is fine, but you may wind up spending more in shipping charges than fro what you need! Then there's the idea that wandering around aisles looking at stuff is fun and may now and then inspire you to pick up something you hadn't thought of before. Where, say around Philadelphia. Even in NY, where would you go? -- TWZ

The words I actually used were: This is a legal nicety evidently, but the penalty enforced by federal courts for overreaching copyright claims is forfeiture in the instance. It appears I ought have elaborated, but I thought "in the instance" would have made it clear that the forfeiture meant for any actual copyrights involved regarding the accusation in that specific case. As said in the article IANAL, and all I really know is what I've read here and there and what is in the memorandum, but it does look to me that the courts will in fact will decline to enforce any legitimate copyright claims if the claimant has attempted to egregiously overreach beyond whatever rightful claims he may have had. And that, according to IBM is exactly what SCO has done against IBM (and by many of the arguments to Linux users generally) even if they would have otherwise had some valid claim. -- TWZ