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Monty Python already knew what it was: look here for some quotes.

Dostoevsky

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

But the Acton quote is also correct

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Acton

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

Dostoevsky

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

But the Acton quote is also correct

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Acton

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

It appears that Mussolini never actually said that. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Benito_Mussolini

BTW, the Feminists don't have a point. XD

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker

I don't care if 15 astronauts died in that disaster (the stoppage in space exploration in the other hand isn't, but that's another debate). You can all argue with me as much as you want, those astronaut live doesn't worth more in my eye as human being than the millions that die around the world each week. Sometime, I found it deeply immoral that we put so much value in people only because we see them in the news.

Strawman argument on multiple levels, the biggest of which is that "we" think that the dead astronauts are worth "more" than the people who die through famine, disease, war, and so on. Death is an abstraction to most people to begin with, and the human mind can't really comprehend tens of thousands of dead, especially when they're people about whom we know nothing and to whom we have no connection. Hence the quotation attributed to Stalin (which probably didn't originate with him, but it looks likely that he said a version of it): "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."

The counterpoint to that, though, comes from the Talmud: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." And what that acknowledges is the particularity of human compassion and cognition: we can't grasp what it means for ten thousand to die, but we can grasp saving one specific life -- and that when ten thousand lives are saved, then that experience isn't just a large number couched in abstraction, but represents the experience of saving one life, ten thousand times over.

In saying that you don't care about the dead astronauts, but do care about the tens of thousands, you're essentially saying that for you, caring is a political act, expressed not in terms of empathy but in terms of strategy. Fine, if that's your bag. But if there's no reason to care about 15, there's really no reason to care about ten thousand. It's just those same 15, multiplied by...heh, a rather devilish number.

As soon as death becomes a matter of indifference to you on the most human level -- the level where you can see their faces, hear their stories, know that they're generally accomplished and intelligent people who gave more to their societies than they took -- then it's hard to believe that your empathy suddenly kicks in when it's a sea of meaningless strangers who are doing the dying.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eben_Moglen, great quotes

FYI, the "lead a horiculture" quip was invented by a woman.

Is that you Voltaire?

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. " Though these words are regularly attributed to Voltaire, they were first used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire (1906), as a summation of Voltaire's beliefs on freedom of thought and expression.

The quotation is also a "fallacy", if used without context. Imagine there's a party saying there should be a law that will kill you and your family, will you "defend it to the death"?

That's because you weren't paying attention. The number of consoles affected has been estimated at between 23% and 54%. In other news, anecdotes aren't data.

You seem to think that you're somehow smarter than most people. A general rule of thumb is that anyone who believes themselves to be an expert probably isn't; people who are smarter and know more realize how much more there is to know. For a more elegant statement, refer to Socrates. For a more scientific statement, see here.

The best way, "Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for." -Socrates.

That is a spurious quotation. Please don't perpetuate stuff like that. Anyone who has read Plato and has seen the ambiguous view of writing in the Socratic dialogues can tell right off that an attribution to Socrates is bogus.

Actually that quote is mis-quoted. The ONLY sentence that is accurate is: "It must proclaim the truth that the child is the most valuable possession a people can have." The rest is paraphrased and made up.

http://sydwalker.info/blog/2008/12/08/having-fun-falsifying-history/

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf#Chapter_2_-_The_State

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Mein_Kampf

Actually that quote is mis-quoted. The ONLY sentence that is accurate is: "It must proclaim the truth that the child is the most valuable possession a people can have." The rest is paraphrased and made up.

http://sydwalker.info/blog/2008/12/08/having-fun-falsifying-history/

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf#Chapter_2_-_The_State

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Mein_Kampf

You list the benefits of the internet as a whole and comment as if those benefits are for users of facebook only...sounds like you drink the cool-aide ;)

To develop more, you cite examples of entities (political parties, retailers, travel industry) and say that because those entities want information and facebook HAS information then facebook.com will be a profitable company

You're skipping about 1000 steps...its what Adam Smith called the 'black box'

See people buy things for all kinds of reasons, and marketing types have their own institutional problems for why they can't get a good sample (look at say, Neilsen ratings for more on this kind of ineptitude). Marketing people barely understand the internet, and you're saying facebook is smart for betting those companies will put alot of their money into just ONE internet ad channel...wouldn't ever happen on a scale to sustain...

And that ad sales volume has to be sustained over decades.

To use your refrigerator analogy, what's really happening is that facebook is saying that Sears and others like them will have enough data saying that people chose Sears based on facebook.com posts to justify a substantial, long-term ad buy that would sustain a quasi-profitable company with huge overhead.

That's not a smart bet in a good economy....let alone an economy where the Sear's of the world are closing hundreds of stores

So you're wrong on all counts...facebook is a bad business model, bad investment, and a wast of computer cycles for the most part
The last one was IMHO

I don't normally do this, but woosh

Not at all!

Twitter can block tweets in some countries but the country could block twitter anyway. Superficially it appears that twitter is cooperating, but what do we know about censorship on the internet?

This will only silence an actual tweet, if nobody in the world is sufficiently incensed by the censorship. As soon as a tweet is blocked, it will be retweeted like crazy, as well as mirrored on countless websites. It effectively neuters censorship.

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" - John Gilmore

Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them. -- John von Neumann
Reply to Felix T. Smith who had said "I'm afraid I don't understand the method of characteristics." -- as quoted in The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (1984) by Gary Zukav footnote in page 208. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann

So basically you gave up and let them win by default ??

May I remind you of a few famous quotes:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

-- mis-attributed to http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance

-- Thomas Jefferson

The reasons for the lack of female participation in open source are a touchy subject, and I probably risk offending some folks, but the fact is that the movement is largely made up of male computer nerds with few social skills and little female contact. My guess is that women fare better in proprietary software development because it implies a level of professionalism, since if you can't interact well socially with co-workers, you usually don't work there anymore.

Richard Stallman made some infamous remarks at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit about "EMAC virgins", explicitly defining them as women who needed to be "relieved" of their EMACS virginity as a "holy duty." RMS defended it as a parody of religion, missing the point that the complaints were about the sexism and not the religious satire (RMS also believes in legalizing pedophilia and possession of child pornography--probably not the most palatable spokesperson to get behind in the first place).

If you're a man who rarely hangs out with women, it's easy to forget what it's like for the other side, especially if they're in a field in which they're practically outsiders. Women didn't take too kindly to being singled out like that at a tech conference. The bigger problem is the backlash from male techies that always flares up when this issue is discussed, which was amplified in the case of RMS because his core supporters tend to be so rabid.

I'm subscribed to the Cocoa-dev mailing list, and one of the regular members there began submitting messages under her real name, revealing that she had previously been posting under a male name because they found that they got more direct responses and less obnoxious comments. And this is Apple platform development, where you might assume the more liberal elements of that particular demographic would lend itself to increased tolerance.

I really can't imagine what it must be like to be a female developer and hope some of them voice their opinions here.

Why stop here? Why not death penalty even if you get one little tiny hamburger. And his/her relatives in prison. For life.

One thing at a time, Ambassador. One thing at a time.

"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

IANAL but as an example, calling someone a thief is libelous in some jurisdictions, I believe.

For those who are unaware, Belarus is ruled by a turd named Alexander Lukashenko. He's been their president since 1994 and initially increased presidential term limits from the standard five years to seven and later removed presidential term limits altogether.

Some of his memorable moments include:

1. He warned that anyone joining an opposition protest would be treated as a "terrorist", adding: "We will wring their necks, as one might a duck".
2. Addressing the "miserable state of the city of Babruysk" on a live broadcast on state radio he stated: "This is a Jewish city, and the Jews are not concerned for the place they live in. They have turned Babruysk into a pigsty. Look at Israel—I was there and saw it myself ... I call on Jews who have money to come back to Babruysk."
3. "My position and the state will never allow me to become a dictator, but an authoritarian style of rule is characteristic of me, and I have always admitted it. You need to control the country, and the main thing is not to ruin people's lives."

... and so on.

In other words, such stories while shocking are, IMO, hardly surprising ...

This quote sums up all you need to know about religion: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger).

That quotation is spurious.

Disputed is not the same as spurious.

However, in this case the quote is disputed because it is completely spurious.

This quote sums up all you need to know about religion: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger).

That quotation is spurious.

Disputed is not the same as spurious.

However, in this case the quote is disputed because it is completely spurious.

This quote sums up all you need to know about religion: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger).

That quotation is spurious.

Disputed is not the same as spurious.

This quote sums up all you need to know about religion: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger).

That quotation is spurious.

Disputed is not the same as spurious.

This quote sums up all you need to know about religion: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." â" Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger).

That quotation is spurious.

Actually that's a George Santayana quote.

Oh, you own your house outright, fine but who enforces it?

That's the problem for any form of property. As John Philpot Curran (not Jefferson, as commonly thought) pointed out, the price of liberty "is eternal vigilance."

Should I be allowed to sell you a device that is designed to break, or at least rely on updates to keep doing the same job?

As long as you make this clear in advance. The problem comes when advertising does not mention restrictions on a device or buries them in a page of legalese. For example, where on a video game console's box does the manufacturer mention the restrictions on who qualifies to develop games for the platform?

>The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it
>with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally
>used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years
>ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.
>
> On software patents, Quoted in "John Carmack: Knee Deep in the Voodoo" Voodo Extreme(2000-09-20)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gus_Grissom

If we die we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our god-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis, only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men.

On the dangers and importance of the mission of going to the moon in "Gemini : A Personal Account of Man's Venture Into Space (1968) by Virgil I. Grissom

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra#Misattributed

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

Say "what" again. Say "what" again. I dare you. I double-dare you, motherfucker. Say "what" one more goddamn time.

Like Kurzweil and Co., he's a nut. But a smart nut!

Who said that all progress comes the crazy ones (or something vaguely like that). So maybe they're right (and I'm hoping for it). But (unlike him, lacking a legacy) I wouldn't bet my retirement fund on it.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw

There's a difference between being unreasonable and crazy.

Like Kurzweil and Co., he's a nut. But a smart nut!

Who said that all progress comes the crazy ones (or something vaguely like that). So maybe they're right (and I'm hoping for it). But (unlike him, lacking a legacy) I wouldn't bet my retirement fund on it.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw

So I found this which indicates you're right about Bill Gates not saying it (and it was 640K) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates , but I can't find anything on Steve Jobs related to that comment.

While I can't confirm the Niels Bohr idea, I strongly suspect it rose out of one from Hawking.

Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking

>The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand,
>and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the
>same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.
>
> Quoted in "John Carmack: Knee Deep in the Voodoo" Voodo Extreme(2000-09-20) http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack

Yeah , fuck scientists! Those entitled pricks draped in lab coats haven't done shit* for us!

* Except for essentially wiping out polio, smallpox, and a host of other major diseases. And generally improving the quality of life not just for all Americans but people the world around. And discovering nuclear power. And providing insights into how our universe works so that we may better understand it. And making the end of hunger a political problem rather than a practical problem. And...

Excellent rant, it reminded me of this from Monty Python's "Life of Brian"

Reg: But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

PFJ Member: Brought peace?

Reg: Oh, peace? SHUT UP!

Life of Brian

I salute you.

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."

--Mein kampf, Adolf Hitler.

It's a fake.

Why yes , they are.

What. A. Hipster. Doofus.

Does Shuttleworth honestly think he's drawing the line between "cool" and "hip" here? Is cognitive dissonance somehow perceived an sovereign right of industry leaders?

Let's turn back the clock a bit... see who else has made claims that cut across the "cool" grain:
NOTE: Emphases are my own.

(s/good/slick)

If I were Mark Shuttleworth, I would STFU and learn from the foot-and-crow gourmets that came before me. There's no reason to get personally invested in your own innovations. Steve Jobs once insisted that the Macintosh would never have a cooling fan, didn't he get fired once? (What? Too soon?)

This Unity farce kinda reminds me of the rally MS put forth for "Microsoft Bob" after the first few bad reviews. Yeah, I said Microsoft Bob and they said it "looks really slick" too... back in the day. I admit it. I was, and am "too cool" to use Microsoft Bob. I don't use Unity either.

I'm sure Unity has it's place, it's place just doesn't happen to be on the desktop.

What. A. Hipster. Doofus.

Does Shuttleworth honestly think he's drawing the line between "cool" and "hip" here? Is cognitive dissonance somehow perceived an sovereign right of industry leaders?

Let's turn back the clock a bit... see who else has made claims that cut across the "cool" grain:
NOTE: Emphases are my own.

(s/good/slick)

If I were Mark Shuttleworth, I would STFU and learn from the foot-and-crow gourmets that came before me. There's no reason to get personally invested in your own innovations. Steve Jobs once insisted that the Macintosh would never have a cooling fan, didn't he get fired once? (What? Too soon?)

This Unity farce kinda reminds me of the rally MS put forth for "Microsoft Bob" after the first few bad reviews. Yeah, I said Microsoft Bob and they said it "looks really slick" too... back in the day. I admit it. I was, and am "too cool" to use Microsoft Bob. I don't use Unity either.

I'm sure Unity has it's place, it's place just doesn't happen to be on the desktop.

It's just that I notice how often I just press the key on the top right of my keyboard that drops down Yakuake

Yakuake is for KDE. I use Gnome, so I installed Guake for much the same reason you installed Yakuake. Tagging F12 and tossing out a command line with a few parameters is something I do on a fairly regular basis. My few remaining Windows (XP) machines have "cmd.exe" and "notepad" at the top of the start menu for the exact same reason: they're used more often than anything else.

One day I realized the core problem: It's NOT simplicity that is the ideal we should all strive for. Because simplicity, driven far enough, makes it less efficient again.

From the Wiki on Albert Einstein:

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

        "On the Method of Theoretical Physics" The Herbert Spencer Lecture, delivered at Oxford (10 June 1933); also published in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 1, No. 2 (April 1934), pp. 163-169., p. 165. [thanks to Dr. Techie @ www.wordorigins.org and JSTOR]
        There is a quote attributed to Einstein that may have arisen as a paraphrase of the above quote, commonly given as “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” or “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

Even your founding fathers knew this when Franklin said "democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for dinner".

Ben Franklin did not say this. People on the internet - trying to make their goofy arguments sound intellectual and/or support a non-literal interpretation of the second amendment - said this.

640K of RAM is enough for everyone... -- William Gates.

well... little offtopic, but Bill Gates never said such thing, about 640K ram, enough for everyone. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484

Spoilsport.

640K of RAM is enough for everyone... -- William Gates.

well... little offtopic, but Bill Gates never said such thing, about 640K ram, enough for everyone. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484

Aren't those all true now? :-)

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gibson
"The future is already here â" it's just not very evenly distributed."

You know what they say; Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.