alex23 wrote: > In this case, it sounds like the library is providing computers for two > purposes: access to Office tools and to the internet. Given the > "everything not forbidden is permissable" attitude of most people, > unless the use is restricted to only those two activities people > legitimately wanting access will tend to end up waiting for others who > have co-opted the services for their own personal end.
But who are those people using this *public* library for their own personal end? Is it the cannibal elite that is using this public space to promote microsoft products and 'reducing' their workload (actually I believe they are making their own job harder) or is it the user who wants to run public domain software? The current situation is such that in order to make the system 'safer' I cannot clear my own cache, so my internet history is visible for the next user, which compromises *my* security. Surely there should be a balance between the interests of the provider and the client, but since in this case the client is also the 'owner' of the service (it's a *public* library) there should be room to run non-proprietary software. The connection with the european constitution is exactly about this shifting of the ownership of public buildings, institutions, infrastructure etc. *from* the persons using the service *towards* the people accidentally working in that place. So social security starts to act like it's an employer, but since they are also the state, they don't have to pay minimum wages, if one is treated unfairly it's impossible to get a fair trial. If one doesn't agree with this treatment they just keep the money they are obliged to pay (according to our national constituton) to themselves. Universities start to act like the buildings are extra living room for the persons working there and in order to get a degree one has to *work* for a professor. The elite in the city starts building luxury appartments for their own people (who are payed with public money stolen one way or the other from the normal residents in the city) in the natural resorts because their is some kind of 'shortage' in the housing market. On the other hand one wants to "make the polluter pay" and creates taxes for garbage. But these taxes are 'equal' for everyone, meaning that they are negligible for the rich but a large part of the income of the poor. The same goes for fines for speeding or parking tickets. If you're rich or know the people in the elite you can get away with anything. The *european* constitution is related to this because our government wants to limit the discussion to the merits of the document. The problem is that even with a good constitution a corrupt elite can interpret the terms in a way that is unfavorable for the poor (almost anyone is poor or becoming poor by now). And secondly the document is only intelligible for specialists, so even if it was good, there's no way to tell. So we might find ourselves in a situation one day when walking to the water tap to fill our teakettle a voice will come out of it asking whether we want *coca* cola or *pepsi* cola. When complaning about this to our government we will hear something like: 'Look you *have* a choice it's not like we prefer one brand over the other, so what are you complaining about? Be silent out you will be removed from our administration, which means no food, health care, money or friends." I'm currently mentally analogizing this discussion with the one on python dev about whether the decimal module should give users 'what they expect' or conform to industry standards, but I guess one has to be Dutch to see any connection at all here :-) The rationale for all of this is that the economy is bad and we have close to zero growth. We should be like China or other low wage countries in order to be more competitive. However the rationale is false! Because we have better infrastructure here we are *further* up the exponential development curve so we could have fenomenal growth if we wanted! The fact that this isn't happening at all has nothing to do with with the economic potential but all the more with conservative power consolidation tactics. The media play a very nasty role in all of this. For example the newspapers are complaining nobody reads paper anymore because of the internet. IMO it is caused more by nobody wanting to read the same old selfpromotion anymore. Something comparable is happening with public television which is not a true representation of the public opinion at all. Not to say public opinion is always good, but if noone thinks you are giving the right characterization of the current situation, one is not likely to want to join the discussion. Ok, this is getting way to far off topic. Thanks to all for the hints to get python running here. I'm now contemplating to access the already running java interpreter that must hide somewher in this IE, and to start a jython console from there (without even running a new jview.exe). Anton 'if you disagree this probably wasn't explained properly' -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list