It doesn't matter.

Post #31,267 by imric 3/7/02 7:36:30 PM Reply	It doesn't matter. Hell, I've known that the fix was in ever since Microsoft was 'ordered' to 'settle' after it had been convicted. Next on my 'hit parade' - watch for SSSCA to come true, ostensibly to safeguard intellectual property rights, but really to facilitate Federal surveillance of the citizenry. Linux installations will be required to include closed-source, proprietary 'black-box' software that will continually scan the computer - only partially for 'pirated' goods. (And watch - this software will be 'provided' by MS and will have the funny side effect of wrecking Linux performance, stability, or both). Talking about this software, or even it's effect on 'competing' platforms will be treated as a National Security issue by the WH - who will justify extreme actions on this basis, including pressure against allied countries to persue anyone that reveals anything about the software as a 'terrorist'. Microsoft, now that it has the DoJ as a mouthpiece, will vigorously persue the destruction of any market even peripheral to it's own - using techniques now sanctified by the DoJ and time-tested for effect. Watch for the reintroduction of fees for the use of so-called 'standards'. RAND will be reinterpreted so that those 'reasonable' fees are paid per client, or connection, and must be paid by the developer, thus putting an end to individual development efforts, and collaborations of private individuals. Free collaboration and sharing are anathema to Microsoft - after all, the only way they can charge for every transaction on the 'net is if they control every transaction on the 'net. Watch them lobby sucessfully to 'rein in' all private servers everywhere. Governments find free speech to be a pain, too - anything that would reduce the 'volume' of dissent with thier policies on the 'net would be welcomed. By getting rid of private servers, a lot of that troublesome 'noise' will be harder for the public to 'hear'. Down that road, and in the distance, the US will never get to truly benefit from open source - nor will anyone who lives in the West. With a US-sanctioned IT monopoly in place, (and on it's way to becoming a digital 'water empire') innovation will stagnate, and if digital technology progresses at all,it will end up passing us by (assuming that private collaboration are permitted, of course). I weep for my industry. I weep for the people of the world, they will never be allowed to speak freely amongst themselves by thier masters. I weep for science, where all achievement will be limited as collaboration is limited. Brilliant minds will no longer labor for Mankind, but rather for the corporate bottom line. We stood on the edge of what could have been a golden age - but were yanked back into darkness by greed. I weep for Humanity. Do I sound too melodramatic? Maybe so, but I really do think this is what will happen MS remains unchecked - and it's pretty clear now that the Feds are more comfortable collaborating with them than they are with enforcing the law. Imric's Tips for Living Paranoia Is a Survival Trait Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised... Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
Post #31,281 by Ashton 3/7/02 9:18:33 PM 3/7/02 9:24:10 PM Reply	Maybe two years ago this would have seemed Chicken Littleish but not since the callow toadying to Authority - which began minutes after 9/11. Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft and the slimy toady Fleischer! (who advised us to, watch what we say!) ... have begun the momentum towards just about every step you describe. Even if some of the above is narrowly averted, it's clear that already large damage has been done to all ideas of 'personal rights', via tacit acceptance of restrictions which have Zippo to do with "terrorism" - except in advancing the local kind, in its creeping 'gradualism'. Pick any US War - the incarceration of the Japanese was no aberration; we trash individual liberties - casually. Who actually reads and understands that 'Constitution' amidst the daily noise, today? Probably many will try to assign the assorted blame for this current time of pewling-fearfulness, and general madness. A few candidates: 24/7 Corp bizness and its cancellation of the 40-hr. work-week? Against the trends everywhere else, in the rich countries - even the 2-week vacation is now expected to be taken - a few days at a time (or not at all.. if you really Care about The Company). Leaving no one to raise children, except the video game. Manpower Inc. replacements for all normal employee relationships. The NAFTA syndrome and other aspects of the WTO.. so prematurely rushed-towards: Yeah Bill C. has to eat That one first. Only Corp can love it. Baby Bells, Infotainment Corps and others - remassing, heading for Monopoly everywhere. (Walmart may be one of 3? 6? national retailers, soon.) Enron? we shall soon see just how effectively the above players manage to declare it irrelevant - an 'aberration' only: Move on, nothing to see here. However assorted the blames, let us not forget our first USSC political coup, baldfaced and - against every 'principle' the major-Troglodytes formerly professed. All scrapped, for this assured "retirement friendly" environment - for perpetuating an only Right-wing USSC in future. Today! some comments on 'admin-friendly' candidates for judicial posts: by the Senator from Mormon. Pax Romanus carried with it the elements of cultural growth, the ideas necessary to form a potentially civilized homo-sap environment. Pax Americanus appears to contain merely the Jingoistic euphemisms which ever discourage any self-examination -- and may well find new techniques (what with the transistors and all) for making dissent an actionable offense: forget habeas corpus and much else. (Already - that last!) Of those who have read any history and also thought about it, before.. Who?! - just a few years ago - could have imagined the events since 11/00 - and especially, the overwhelmingly OVINE ACCEPTANCE? since 9/11/01: Now THERE's "someone" to BLAME! (Handing an entire technology to an unprincipled sociopath, suffering from autism - dovetails exactly with the escalation - since 9/11 gave the perfect opportunity for Emergency Powers\ufffd) After the weeping, we'd damn well best get to work - if anyone remembers how it used to be done (?) MP-3s may just turn out to be - not the Most important use of the web.. next. You are the folks who will have to live within this New Order <<< Ashton Who, for being older than most here (?) may well turn out to be also: the more Fortunate one, in the end.. y'know? Ed. for date change. D'Oh. Edited by Missing User 70 March 7, 2002, 09:24:10 PM EST Expand All History
Post #31,321 by altmann 3/8/02 4:33:03 AM Reply	I'm ready. I'm glad I took accounting classes taught almost entirely via double-entry accounting on ledger paper. Surely there will still be (physical!) beans that need counting and accounting for in the next age. If not that, I was pretty handy at one point at mechanical drafting with pencil and paper, though I would miss the glorified eraser that is a CAD workstation. I even know a little metal working (milling, lathing, casting, that sort of thing) and could assist in the construction of such things as farm implements and replacement parts for "obsolete" or outlawed mechanical devices. I'm also told I play decent (bass) guitar, and so could accompany any of you attempting to pass on knowledge and/or traditions via what would be one of the few surviving methods. Of course I might be asked to participate in accounting irregularities, or be accused of improperly violating a patent on a device or a copyrighted work, regardless of the involvement of a digital device in the process. sigh -- Chris Altmann
Post #31,323 by Ashton 3/8/02 6:55:30 AM Reply	Remember the 'digital pigeon' network tests? Can't find the bookmark re the ping time data collection! Bet that Ben T. has it. (Wonder what the 'time to live' on a healthy young pigeon is?) Lots of space for pigeons around here - I doubt the satellites can resolve Quite that well, for aiming The Ronnie R Memorial Space Lasers .. so prolly the varous disruptive cells will be able to communicate. But KISS will be mandatory! No more fanciful musings and sententious sonnets, just: What'll it be today chaps? Mindless destruction, senseless violence or.. finding another M$ hole and filling it? Hell, maybe skullduggery on a monumental scale could be as much fun as Robespierre? Thanks, Will S. - it really IS just a play, after all.. Ashton the Untroubled (Dunno if cornet & bass guitar are a winning duet ;-)
Post #31,345 by Andrew Grygus 3/8/02 9:40:56 AM Reply	The "time to live" . . Well, the longest time I've heard of for a racing pigeon to take to get home was 8 years (they can live to 12 years or more). He didn't say where he'd been. Lockheed Aircraft was, not so many years ago, using pigeons to get microfilm from Burbank to Santa Barbara during rush hour (even then, the Ventura freeway was pretty slow during the late afternoon). A truck would bring fresh pigeons down during the night after traffic had cleared up. The Swiss army retired their pigeon corps about three years ago. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #31,829 by jb4 3/12/02 12:13:05 PM Reply	Short Answer: No... Melodrama? Perhaps... Accurate? Absolutely! I've been incommunicado for the last 4 or 5 days...and look what I missed. jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)

Welcome to IWETHEY!