ldar15's comments

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: SOPA creator received half a million dollars from the TV/Film/Music lobby

The reasoning would be simple: The corrupt members of the government have levied a body of men to overthrow the democratic institution that we call the United States of America.

http://law.onecle.com/constitution/article-3/41-levying-war....

"Major" Bloomberg: "The NYPD is my Army", Homeland Security trampling on the US Constitution at every opportunity and at the order of congress, warrantless wiretaps, etc etc. Peaceable Protest made impossible by bureaucracy. Establishment of "First Amendment" zones for the press - where they can't see what's going on. Congress/Executive/SCOTUS making a tidy living from bribes^H^H^H Free Speech Expressed As Money.

There are a great many "bodies of men" acting unconstitutionally in this country, so assuming that a revolution took place, I don't think this line of prosecution would have much of a problem, do you? If a revolution doesn't take place, I think its pretty safe to say that the Government will take your side on the matter.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: Reddit admin: "If SOPA passes it would almost certainly mean the end of reddit"

I don't think I mentioned the Nazi's, but since you bring it up.

"From the prosperity of the empire during the Wilhelmine era (1890-1914), Germany plunged into World War I, a war it was to lose and one that spawned many of the economic crises that would destroy the successor Weimar Republic."

"During the Hitler era (1933-45), the economy developed a hothouse prosperity, supported with high government subsidies to those sectors that tended to give Germany military power and economic autarky"

Economic crises inducing a transition from democracy to plutocracy/fascism, and massive military spending, ending in wars on multiple fronts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Germany

I suppose I should also qualify my statement as "dominant states". Since the most common way for small states to be converted to fascism is by the dominant state (i.e. USA) installing fascist/authoritarian governments for them. So I concede that, in general, you may be right.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: SOPA creator received half a million dollars from the TV/Film/Music lobby

Or "attempted bribery" that didn't work. o_O

If I get pulled over 10 times by 10 different cops, and I offer each one $100 to let me off, and only one of them takes the bribe - the other 9 don't negate the fact that one guy took the bribe.

"No your honor, I just like giving money to police officers whenever I meet them. See, its just random chance that this one guy let me off. Clearly it was on the merits of the situation, not because my money influenced him."

Cops don't make the laws of course. Otherwise you'd be allowed to bribe cops.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: SOPA creator received half a million dollars from the TV/Film/Music lobby

Interesting. You claim:

1) My guy was honest and just expressing his opinion.

2) My guy had trouble raising money when faced with an opponent who also had the same opinion and whose honesty you cannot vouch for.

You argument does not refute our claim: Money goes to the corrupt. Indeed it would appear to support it.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: SOPA creator received half a million dollars from the TV/Film/Music lobby

You are mistaken. Bribery and corruption are not protected by the first amendment. Try offering a police officer some cash next time you get a speeding ticket. Or setting up a nice deal to put kids in jail [1].

Of course, this only applies to me, you, county judges, etc. Not senators. Not SCOTUS Justices. Not the people who have the most to gain from such corruption. Not the people who actually decide such laws. Fancy.

[1] http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-23/justice/pennsylvania.corr...

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: Reddit admin: "If SOPA passes it would almost certainly mean the end of reddit"

Power-grabs are the abuse. There need not be any imoral motive behind the desire for this power, nor any plan to use them "for evil". We have already seen (UMG) that, given such power, there will be "accidental" abuse that has a major, negative effect on small players and citizens.

Even if you believe that these were genuine "accidents", do you believe that it is acceptable to allow these interests to have such power? Do you think it is just about "unimportant" things like copying music?

The US is still the worlds largest superpower, but compared to 20 years ago it has vastly less power. Its power has declined and continues to do so. Any student of history will tell you that this is exactly when states transform from free nations to fascist states.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: The Recording Industry Likes to Make Me Look Like an Asshole

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei

"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"

"limited times". Apparently the US Constitution disputes your assertion. Bunch of pirates, those founding fathers.

More on the "ownership" myth. Just one of many sites picked from google. http://c4sif.org/2011/07/the-mythology-of-intellectual-prope...

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: The Recording Industry Likes to Make Me Look Like an Asshole

Our founding fathers believed that you should be very careful what powers you give to any authority because, even though they may be nice now, you have no idea who will be in charge in the future.

This is why any student of history is against SOPA. We believe that it does not protect the rights espoused in the Constitution. We believe that it may be abused in the future.

Some people, such as yourself, seem to believe that this would never happen. You seem to think that because there is a need (in your view) for copyright holders to remove "owned" content, that we need a law like this. And further you seem to believe that its ok to have such a broad law, even though it may be open to such abuse.

UMG is just demonstrating why the founding fathers were right and why you are naive and short-sighted.

Here's the thing: if UMG wasn't actively doing it, you'd still be naive and short-sighted. You'd still be an "asshole", in your words, and the founding fathers would still be right.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: The Recording Industry Likes to Make Me Look Like an Asshole

"There is a plan to murder 6 million jews. Some of you have written in to ask me to condemn this plan. Unfortunately, I cannot condemn this plan, because none of you have come up with a reasonable alternative."

I don't think you can use the excuse that we don't have a way to support your business model, to turn around and support fascism.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: How to stop SOPA: Don't build it.

Psychopaths, sociopaths, and hackers.

I could draw you a venn diagram if you like.

I can't believe in all your experience, you haven't met extremely smart hackers who are also utterly immoral. A situation like this just means they will be worth more money.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: How Integers Should Work (In Systems Programming Languages)

The rationale, then, is that the compiler should catch mistakes that lead to security holes. On that basis, then, we'll be adding GC memory management, so we never access freed memory, also strongly defined types - e.g. bounded integers, and bounded arrays too. Writing the OS an ADA would satisfy this chap?

"catching security holes" is the compiler version of "think of the children".

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: How Integers Should Work (In Systems Programming Languages)

In Systems Programming Languages? For "writing operating systems"? There are people who argue we should be writing our operating systems in high level languages anyway. Assuming the premise is we should be using a low-level language, then how does the author reconcile that with "but I want the language to hold my hand when it comes to math".

Choosing "overflow" or "underflow" to mean "I fucked up" is totally arbitrary. Variables usually indicate values that have a domain - a range of valid numbers. Saying "I don't want to think about what that it is, but oh if X hits 2 billion and change then warn me when some math fails" is no better than having it not fail at all. In most cases there's already a problem.

So, simply, writing "OS quality" code means explicitly checking inputs to ensure they are in the permissible range. Once you know what the range is, you know if your code needs to go up to 64bit math to handle them.

UPDATE: Some explanation for the downvote would be appreciated.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: Exploring Euclideon's Unlimited Detail Engine

No it doesn't. It demonstrates that Minecraft's solution is heavy. Minecraft is a cellular automaton. That's why its slow. It would be a mistake to believe that minecraft demonstrates the effectiveness of voxel technology.

ldar15 | 14 years ago | on: Joel Spolsky On Tech Hiring: Beware the Exploding Offer

Its true that if I put a gun to your child's head and tell you that I'm going to kill her unless you agree to take my job, and you agree, then you gave me your word. Its also true that you genuinely had the choice of saying yes or no. It just that if you had said "no" there would be pretty negative consequences. Would you argue that in this case, had you said "yes", that you should be required to keep your word? Or that you are morally obligated to keep your word? Some fierce word-keepers argue "yes you should". In which case you may stop reading, but probably stop posting too.

Otherwise, let us agree that "I gave my word" is not a moral absolute and we are now debating about degree.

We get where you stand on this. Many disagree.

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