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US Government Announces National Day of Civic Hacking
An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday in a post at the White House website, the U.S. government announced that June 1-2 would be the National Day of Civic Hacking. 'Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans.' It will be a joint project with Random Hacks of Kindness, Code for America. Activities are being planned in many cities across the country, and you can also sign up to host your own event. It's nice to see the government use the word 'hacking' in a positive way, since most uses of the term these days involve malicious activity."
And here I thought it was about hacking Honda Civics.. enough people do that you'd think there'd be a holiday for it already.
Color me surprised. Or maybe code me surprised. I thought the term 'hacker' was forever lost, stained by the media beyond redemption.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
"Liberate data that can inform better problem solving in every community."
I propose we make a script that downloads all the research journals that we can, then makes massive online library of them that anyone can access. Oh wait. That doesn't end well.
Be careful out there. This isn't a true call to hacking, it is a call for free labor.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
This isn't a true call to hacking, it is a call for free labor.
I don't mind donating my labor for free sometimes if it makes the world a better place.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
...And the US government has made the world a better place recently?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I truly believe in the 'pay it forward', random acts of kindness ideology. When I see someone obviously having difficulty somehow, I many times do stop and ask them if I can help. It usually doesn't cost me up anything but a little of my time, and it helps me feel better about myself afterwards. How coders can apply this to 'hacking' though, how can they do that?
Yes. I like roads.
are you sure it's not the Mirror universe instead?
Roads are predominantly state projects. And though you might claim the feds help fund them, it's only because the feds confiscate via the income tax then give it back for compliance with federal initiatives.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Why am I reminded of this Dilbert?
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
June 1. is my birthday.... Dunnowhattothinkofthat.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Then I will have to make sure that my hatchet has been sharpened, before this day of hacking.
sudo make me a sandwich
Since much of this academic work is subsidized with public funding, let's put some servers somewhere at MIT so we can download and mirror it.
Ideally, its none of us!
What happens in a democracy, not just the US, but in ANY democracy (or republic) is that the masses will inevitably push for higher taxes and more welfare and raid the treasury for their own personal gain. Since democracy at its essence is a popularity contest, the politicians will push for higher and higher taxes and more welfare. When productivity is punished, productive people will go elsewhere (see France) when productive people go elsewhere, the country goes into a decline (such as the Roman Empire/USSR) and eventually collapses.
I am responsible only for the actions and decisions I make. Not my neighbor's, not the government's, but mine and mine alone.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I suppose I expect too much from my government in openly allowing hacking on one day without repercussions so long as it harms nobody. After all, it only has access to my national identity and tax records.
I have been a captive in America my entire life. Everybody and everything uses customary units instead of metric.
That's a ridiculous oversimplification of what happened to both the Roman Empire and the USSR.
Probably less than 0.1% of the cost of developing a new fighter jet that people like you aren't complaining about.
if they're OK by this.
How terribly insensitive and how clueless can the whitehouse be?
AKA give us cool apps for free, nothnx
KERNEL PANIC -SIGFAULT AT ADDRESS #51A54D07
They use the term "hacking" when they mean "coding". They use the term "Day" when they mean "weekend". They hope to have an event in a city in "all 50 states and territories". Someone is bad at geography, math, grammar, or a mix of the 3.
Why, oh why, didn't I take the Blue Pill?
IT'S A TRAP!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Ideally, it's all lizards.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
I like roads too. The issue is what value are you getting for your money. I am very pleased if I get a great meal for $10. I expect the meal to be great if I pay $100. They build the roads argument makes sense if the government is only spending on building roads. I am sure that the federal government spending on road is not even a meaningful part of the federal budget. The question is are you getting the best value for your money? Would a smaller government give a greater value for the money? How about a larger government? What services/level of services does the government have to provide? This is not an all or nothing proposition.
It's the drunken approach congress, the executive and the judiciary take to unconstitutional legislation.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Evidently judging from comments here, something that used to happen in America's past.
I'm working on an anti-gerrymander app that will help voters move into swing districts so make the practice obsolete.
I would have thought, the even more paranoid, be careful out there, it's a trap would be even more relevant. FBI we need a list of all hackers, so we can decide which ones are the anarchistic criminals.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I figure they are gonna steal the good ideas. You know, the ones they can get money for. I bet you wouldn't get a civil response if you showed them what their real problem is. Their inability to secure their low level infrastructure.
What happens in a democracy, not just the US, but in ANY democracy (or republic) is that the masses will inevitably push for higher taxes and more welfare and raid the treasury for their own personal gain. Since democracy at its essence is a popularity contest, the politicians will push for higher and higher taxes and more welfare.
People have been saying this for a long time, it's why democracy was often limited to land owners, historically. In the US, basically the franchise has extended to all males since its inception, and the U.S. is hardly the most commie country in the world. But of course, it's hard to refute a proposition that simply states something is inevitable, since, after all, only a finite period has passed without it having any obvious evidence to support it.
When productivity is punished, productive people will go elsewhere (see France) when productive people go elsewhere, the country goes into a decline (such as the Roman Empire/USSR) and eventually collapses.
It's a free country, if people want to go, they can go. It's hard to be productive in an anarchy, so I'm not entirely sure how paying taxes constitutes punishment for being productive.
Out of curiousity, exactly where did the fucking Romans migrate to? Gaul? Fucking Britannia? Egypt, because of the great wages on the construction jobs?
Of course there was some migration out of the USSR, but not as much as your making it out to be, since they weren't really allowed to leave. Economic theories are debatable, the advisability of not nuking yourself is undisputed.
I am responsible only for the actions and decisions I make. Not my neighbor's, not the government's, but mine and mine alone.
So you seriously are an anarchist? I was just kind of tossing that out there earlier. Well, whether you're "responsible" for your neighbors actions or not, if your neighbor sticks a gun to your head and pulls the trigger you're going to be dead. If he has the choice through certain death through starvation, or possible death from the penal system for blowing your head off to take your stuff, he's going to blow your head off. Shit happens without regard to whether or not anybody is "responsible" for it.
Anyhow, it's a free country. If you don't like it, you can leave. That's a much better deal than anyone got from the Soviets.
Yeah, "hacker" is way too ambiguous.
"Cracker" was used for a while to mean "malicious hacker", but has its own ambiguity since it's used as a sort-of black person's "N-word" for a white person. (whatever happened to "Ofay", by the way?)
I'd suggest "jacker", from "jack in to a network in order to hi-jack it".
And by analogy to Tim Leary's "Turn on, tune in, drop out" - "Jack in, jack out, jack off"
Actually, I'd claim that roads are predominantly construction projects completed by private enterprises which the city, state and federal governments fund through taxation.
"Republic" just means they don't have a "king". It doesn't mean the people are represented. It's just a coinsodence of language that the two words seem similar.
You know how we usually get in a huff about a topic and everyone galvanizes along two sides and it's a big sort of debate thing? Yeah, back in the day, one of those issues was whether or not we should have a king or we should have a republic.
But anyway, no, your argument isn't coming from the right angle. You can't say the masses will always want more taxes. That's crazy. Who wants to pay more taxes? No, they want other people to pay more taxes. Especially when there's inequality and unfair advantage. So you should argue that, in a democracy, collective Peter will vote to tax/enslave/repress selective Paul. Of course, historically, democracies have been pretty good when it comes to the civil rights of minorities.... Eventually... I don't see how that's neccesarily part of a democratic system, but there's probably some sociological factors at play.
I am responsible only for the actions and decisions I make. Not my neighbor's, not the government's, but mine and mine alone.
And that's what separates a individualistic libertarian and the people who understand they live in and depend upon a socity. Bitch as much as you want, but you live in a democracy. Ultimately, YOU, in some small percentage, are the person in charge of all the laws and all the government. Don't like the shitty laws? Hate taxes and what it buys you? Do your civic duty, get political, and rally your neighbors to change it. Because we're all responsible for this. Together.