I'm annoyed that this comment system won't work. I tried using the same one that Johnny seems to be using successfully, but mine just refuses to function properly. Anyone know of another comment system that is more reliable?
Bruce, regarding movies, you are correct. I think this is going to start becoming a major shift in the next couple of years. For only $149 I got an 8ft by 8ft ceiling mounted projection screen for my home. It literally fills the entire room. A screen that size works out to about 11foot diagonal. Combine that with a nice surround sound system and DLP projector, and you have an in-home theater that is arguably superior to the conventional theater going experience. I only go to a few movies a year now, typically just a handful of major action releases like "The Lord of the Rings". Other than that I can wait the relatively short period of time till they come out on DVD and watch them in my *own* movie theater.
Now, a brief comment on a topic that I have become concerned about of late. The proliferation of file sharing software among our youth. Specifically a program called Kazaa. This 'innocent' program has been installed on almost every home computer in the country by teenagers and often by kids even younger than that. The parents have no clue what this software is other than 'Larry downloads his music on that.'
Well, there are two issues here. First of all, downloading music is illegal. The music industry intends to protect their copyright, and they are going to start by suing the parents of some of these kids to make an example out of them. Congress recently passed legislation that gives music industry lawyers more powers than Herbert Hoover ever had. ISP's can and must roll over and give out the name, address, and telephone number of every single paying subscriber to their services. No warrant, no nothing. The ISP's give this information over because they agreed to do so in this legislation to be immune from prosecution.
While the civil libertarian in me cringes at these strong arm tactics the professional software developer in me sees no other solution to the problem.
The bottom line is our youth today do *NOT* think downloading music is illegal. Not in any way, shape or form. Which utterly bemuses me. They *know* they didn't go into the store and buy the CD, so how can they not know they are stealing?
We have to protect copyright some way, and some how, and if suing some parents is what it takes, well so be it.
So, here we have little kids downloading songs on their home PC and putting their parents at risk of lawsuits for thousands of dollars. This should give every parent pause.
However, still this isn't the big issue. I know of families who have installed child-proofing software with age restrictions who, often unknowingly, have also allowed their kids to install Kazaa. The parents are clueless. They do not know what their children are doing.
Letting your child have access to Kazaa is like letting them walk through the most crime infested sewer in the worst part of the city alone.
Let's say little Johnny tries to download a game on Kazaa? There's probably a 25% chance he will download nothing but a virus that will destroy the home PC.
Or, let's say Johnny goes to the Kazaa search engine and types in something as innocent as the word 'hello'. I just tried this myself. I apologize for the following, but I believe it is necessary to make my point. Here is just one example of a top level return on the search for the world 'hello' on Kazaa:
"hot latin bitch with a fine shaved p***y t*ts teen ass c*m"
I could go on, but I think you get the point. It's not even that kids are trying to look for something they shouldn't, it's that Kazaa is such a foul sewer it's almost impossible not to become mired in it. If your child *ever* selects a search on Kazaa they will be flooded with search results that are inappropriate beyond belief. Think of any taboo, anything illegal, anything that you would not want your nice Church going child exposed to and it's on Kazaa. There is an enormous amount of material on Kazaa that would send people to jail if they were found in possession of it. Think about that the next time your 12 year old says they are "just using it to download some music."
Now, let's say your teenage son is a normal red-blooded american boy and wants to download a little bit of pornography. Well, boys will be boys. Now, you see, at least the public web based porn sites are just that, public. Their models are over 18, they have records on file, and if they do anything that is patently illegal, they are going to be in trouble.
But, not Kazaa. Your teenage son could innocently download a few 'nudie pics' and end up with a a hard drive full of very foul stuff.
Kazaa is a foul sewer that should not be allowed to be installed on any home PC that is accessible to children.
Ok, I'm done with my rant.
P.S. I think my comment system works now, I needed to change my HTML code since I edited my settings. So, if you think teenagers the world over should have unfettered access to child pornography, please feel free to disagree with me and leave a comment. I also sent a copy of this post to an editor at the St. Louis Post Dispatch and suggested they do a feature story on the topic. This rant was inspired by the fact that I have recently witnessed a number teenagers with Kazaa installed on their machines and their parents had no clue what it was or what it did. In several cases, I was able to scan the hard-drive and found examples of materials that pretty much most parents would consider inappropriate. So, this rant is not inspired by a wild hair but by repeated real-world experiences.
I did find this excellent article on the topic.
Bruce, regarding movies, you are correct. I think this is going to start becoming a major shift in the next couple of years. For only $149 I got an 8ft by 8ft ceiling mounted projection screen for my home. It literally fills the entire room. A screen that size works out to about 11foot diagonal. Combine that with a nice surround sound system and DLP projector, and you have an in-home theater that is arguably superior to the conventional theater going experience. I only go to a few movies a year now, typically just a handful of major action releases like "The Lord of the Rings". Other than that I can wait the relatively short period of time till they come out on DVD and watch them in my *own* movie theater.
Now, a brief comment on a topic that I have become concerned about of late. The proliferation of file sharing software among our youth. Specifically a program called Kazaa. This 'innocent' program has been installed on almost every home computer in the country by teenagers and often by kids even younger than that. The parents have no clue what this software is other than 'Larry downloads his music on that.'
Well, there are two issues here. First of all, downloading music is illegal. The music industry intends to protect their copyright, and they are going to start by suing the parents of some of these kids to make an example out of them. Congress recently passed legislation that gives music industry lawyers more powers than Herbert Hoover ever had. ISP's can and must roll over and give out the name, address, and telephone number of every single paying subscriber to their services. No warrant, no nothing. The ISP's give this information over because they agreed to do so in this legislation to be immune from prosecution.
While the civil libertarian in me cringes at these strong arm tactics the professional software developer in me sees no other solution to the problem.
The bottom line is our youth today do *NOT* think downloading music is illegal. Not in any way, shape or form. Which utterly bemuses me. They *know* they didn't go into the store and buy the CD, so how can they not know they are stealing?
We have to protect copyright some way, and some how, and if suing some parents is what it takes, well so be it.
So, here we have little kids downloading songs on their home PC and putting their parents at risk of lawsuits for thousands of dollars. This should give every parent pause.
However, still this isn't the big issue. I know of families who have installed child-proofing software with age restrictions who, often unknowingly, have also allowed their kids to install Kazaa. The parents are clueless. They do not know what their children are doing.
Letting your child have access to Kazaa is like letting them walk through the most crime infested sewer in the worst part of the city alone.
Let's say little Johnny tries to download a game on Kazaa? There's probably a 25% chance he will download nothing but a virus that will destroy the home PC.
Or, let's say Johnny goes to the Kazaa search engine and types in something as innocent as the word 'hello'. I just tried this myself. I apologize for the following, but I believe it is necessary to make my point. Here is just one example of a top level return on the search for the world 'hello' on Kazaa:
"hot latin bitch with a fine shaved p***y t*ts teen ass c*m"
I could go on, but I think you get the point. It's not even that kids are trying to look for something they shouldn't, it's that Kazaa is such a foul sewer it's almost impossible not to become mired in it. If your child *ever* selects a search on Kazaa they will be flooded with search results that are inappropriate beyond belief. Think of any taboo, anything illegal, anything that you would not want your nice Church going child exposed to and it's on Kazaa. There is an enormous amount of material on Kazaa that would send people to jail if they were found in possession of it. Think about that the next time your 12 year old says they are "just using it to download some music."
Now, let's say your teenage son is a normal red-blooded american boy and wants to download a little bit of pornography. Well, boys will be boys. Now, you see, at least the public web based porn sites are just that, public. Their models are over 18, they have records on file, and if they do anything that is patently illegal, they are going to be in trouble.
But, not Kazaa. Your teenage son could innocently download a few 'nudie pics' and end up with a a hard drive full of very foul stuff.
Kazaa is a foul sewer that should not be allowed to be installed on any home PC that is accessible to children.
Ok, I'm done with my rant.
P.S. I think my comment system works now, I needed to change my HTML code since I edited my settings. So, if you think teenagers the world over should have unfettered access to child pornography, please feel free to disagree with me and leave a comment. I also sent a copy of this post to an editor at the St. Louis Post Dispatch and suggested they do a feature story on the topic. This rant was inspired by the fact that I have recently witnessed a number teenagers with Kazaa installed on their machines and their parents had no clue what it was or what it did. In several cases, I was able to scan the hard-drive and found examples of materials that pretty much most parents would consider inappropriate. So, this rant is not inspired by a wild hair but by repeated real-world experiences.
I did find this excellent article on the topic.
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