[Tfug] The NET

[rfs_lists at mac.com]

Michael, right before he left the list, wrote "What would be the  
point of hacking an Amiga?"

The Austrian police were having a hard time extracting data from a  
kidnapper's C-64 recently. http://www.guardian.co.uk/austria/article/ 
0,,1865500,00.html
Some points to consider: an Amiga is internet-capable. FAT/Amiga  
hybrid floppies are possible -- when you read 'em on a PC, you get  
the PC's files, and if you don't know what you're looking for, you'll  
miss the important data. Also, Amiga hardware is sufficiently  
widespread around the world to make sourcing spares pretty  
straightforward. AmigaOS provides enough in the way of Unix-like  
tools to be dangerous. Or you could run NetBSD...


T Takahashi said "the usa will remain free [...] because it has a  
constitution, like the ussr did; and because it has mobs, like the  
third reich did."

Isn't it a logical fallacy to conclude that all countries with  
constitutions should beware of collapse because the USSR had a  
constitution? Lots of countries have constitutions. The famous ones  
are those codified into a single document, but many countries "make  
do" with an ever-changing series of documents that are enveloped by  
or dropped from an unwritten constitution. The USA should beware of  
worshipping the codified constitution: it was meant to be malleable.  
That's what the amendments are for.

Similarly for playing the 'Hitler' card. Thatcher managed to draw  
mobs on a few occassions, most notably for her cackhanded efforts at  
destroying the unions, and later when she attempted to force through  
a poll tax (quite literally a taxation on representation),  
architected by the current leader of the opposition, Michael Howard.  
These mobs didn't cause the country to collapse; rather they caused  
its government to rethink over-aggressive policy making.
(Another amusing anecdote illustrating the contempt which politicians  
hold us commoners: The reason given by Howard's father for changing  
his surname from Hecht is that the locals couldn't pronounce the  
'ch'. He was living in Llandudno.)


Keith Smith said "You'd be hard pressed to find many social documents  
written 230+ years ago that were crafted well enough to still be  
socially applicable."

If you don't look beyond these shores, maybe! Try the Magna Carta,  
nearly 800 years old, and the Act of Settlement, a sprightly 305;  
both of which form part of the British constitution. Yup, they're  
supplemented by more recent legislation, but that's the point.

cheers,
Rich



-- 
Richard Smit