Slappie

Enjoy it while you can.. corporate money grabbing and the free internet is gone. *** By John C. Dvorak http://www.pcmag.com How many people realize that we're living in a golden age, the Golden Age of the Internet? It won't last; golden ages never do. Some of it will remain, but there's evidence that much of it is headed for the trash heap of history. Radio days. The golden age of radio lasted from about 1930 to 1950. It was nothing like radio today. Money was thrown at it. Thousands of great dramas and variety shows were made. Huge news organizations were built. Today, radio consists of right­wingers ranting about liberals, psychologists analyzing moaners-and-groaners, and mediocre music from CDs. We do get all-news stations with erroneous traffic reports, and public broadcasting stations with thoughtful shows on fascinating topics like the art of Gebel Barkel from the first millennium BC. Every new technology that widely affects society has a golden age, and we give things a lot of slack. Porn on the Net symbolizes this leeway. But so do podcasting, blogging, free video servers, chat rooms, P2P, free e-mail, and other flourishing services. A proprietary, closed Net is coming. A golden age ends either when something new comes along (as with radio's golden age, killed by the advent of TV), the government gets involved, or entropy sets in—usually a mix of these elements. In the case of the Internet, we are already seeing a combination of government, carrier, and business interactions that will eventually turn the Net into a restricted and somewhat proprietary network, with much of its content restricted or blocked. Only a diligent few will actually have access to the restricted data, and in some parts of the world even trying to view the restricted information on the Net will be a crime. It's already a crime to post intellectual discussions about copy-protection schemes that are protected by the DMCA. If the American public tolerates that sort of onerous restriction, then it will tolerate anything.— Filtering and blacklists now common. Most U.S. government agencies now use filtering mechanisms to keep their own computers from accessing blacklisted Web sites. Third parties maintain these blacklists, and they put whatever they want on the lists. For example, my blog was blacklisted for a while, with no explanation. Most companies go much further and carefully monitor all network traffic. They can then pinpoint the use of streaming media and other verboten uses of corporate computers and simply block such usages and blacklist the sites involved. Even e-mail is lost in the shuffle. The New York Times has a system in place that prevents certain press releases from getting to the reporters. Blame spam and porn. Spam, porn, and other forms of questionable content are the reasons for filtering and blacklisting. But increasingly, content that mentions birth control or evolution is blocked. Nazi memorabilia sales and hate sites are also banned. It is folly to think that any government, no matter how progressive, won't be tempted to choke off certain content of which it does not approve. This sort of intervention becomes ever easier with the consolidation of the Internet. It's all headed to AT&T and Comcast. AT&T has already sold the public down the river by turning over phone records to the government without blinking an eye. Ask it to filter Google results? No problemo! Is there anything the public can do about this? Yes—enjoy the Golden Age, while you can. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Losen the hairnet dude.. jeez buncha whining babies. S I U C C! Fluffing Slappie! Quit fluffing me and wtf is S I U C C? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Losen the hairnet dude.. jeez buncha whining babies. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

You know how those frogs hate not being the center of attention "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

I mean http://digg.com/ I'm slowly getting addicted to the fast pace and some of the news is realevent. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Boobies that lactate beer would equal HEAVEN! "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Dont forget VIBES... Remitard you've been ejected from this thread. How dare you bring that silly tradition of asking people you hardly know or even care about to think nice things about you. On the slim chance some higher being will hear their pleas and grant you some sort of luck or well being. Bah Stupid rubbish. What if this group of people you've relayed your worst troubles too, had previously wished those troubles upon you? What then? You really think these same people are going to give you well wishes and pray to their deity to help relieve you of the stressful and sometimes painful situations you've gotten yourself into? Bah fluff.. all of it. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Is that plain or plane? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Don't get me wrong, I still hate fluff. I just happen to agree with you. There are just wayyyy to many polls about silly stupid stuff. People have relied on dz.com as their crutch to long. It's time we took back the Bonfire and talked about really important stuff like BOOBIES and BEER! "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

.. make a desicion without a poll? Seriously do we need a poll for every question you can think up? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Finally stopped. Having a truck that can drive through 5ft of water is mandatory in Houston it seems. Not sure $275k is worth the having the ability to get to and from work in the middle of a massive tropical disturbance though. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

*faint* "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

LIFT? It's already traversing 5ft of water! "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Please slow down on the PMs I've only received.. 0 "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

It's a Bad Boy truck. Pictures "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

If you want to add me to your friends list PM me and let me know. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

I've no barometer as to the validity of the article. It's pretty funny though. I saw it on Digg.com this morning. As far as can be figured out, it's a Dell CD600 laptop. Probably with some seriously faulty batteries. *edit* to add: If any of you have experience with Lithium, it tends to explode and cause a big mess when it gets wet. Some laptop batteries are made from lithium-ion batteries. Could have been a leak and some water or a liquid spilt on the conference table.. Then the resulting BOOM! "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

So is the "real world". And yet, in both, I have met some very cool people and gotten in contact with people from my past. I digress with my comment. My gf has had some pretty good success tracking down old friends. I've even got a link on the site. I was shooting for shock value with the post I guess. My bad. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

You've not been around long enough to know narcimund. He takes shots at all us breeders when he's able. He's pretty narcissistic. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

I can see where you're trying to show irony narcimund, but you're off base. I have to agree with Weege here narci. She's running and listening to a headset. Nothing like trying to operate a 6k lbs vehicle with your mind not on it's immediate task, instead it's trying to respond to the conversation at hand. Driving takes a backseat when a phone in involved. Listening to a headset and jogging is like driving and listening to the radio. Take no interaction from your brain unless you're fumbling with the stations or trying to load a cd. Not the same at all... Next? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

It's this incredibly effective marketing survey whereby the youth of the world are convinced it's cool to broadcast what they're willing to spend their money on to the entire world. And they don't even get paid for it! Just wait till Murdoch and News Corp are done with it. Those kids will be mindless consumers to advertising on that site. It's kind of like an untapped gold mine to News Corp. They're still studying how to make it pay off. They've only got 531ml invested but the first year advertising profits could dbl the initial investment to purchase the site. Minus what they've invested into infrastructure. NC won't disclose what they've got tied up in servers and hardware to keep it running. It's like you said a survey, I'm curiously awaiting the results and the information gathered. Right now it's a cesspool where pedophiles stalk their next victim. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

SHIT! Did you steal your avatar from a textbook company's website? It sort of looks like a really hairy asshole inflamed with a massive hemorrhoid. It is seriously painfull to look at. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

What is MySpace? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

Hey Slap.....it may get made in fron of you, but depending on where you eat, it may very well come from "Tsukiji", the largest fish market in the world. 2000 tons and over 450 different kinds of seafood that translates into roughly 1/6 of the TOTAL amount of fish peddled in the world. Ya I know but I was equating the process of slicing the fish and rolling it as "making it" in the US. Agreed the subcomponents of the finished product could be procured in Japan. The final assembly was done in the US in front of me. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."