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Is 'SimCity' Homelessness a Bug Or a Feature?
sarahnaomi writes: SimCity players have discussed a variety of creative strategies for their virtual homelessness problem. They've suggested waiting for natural disasters like tornadoes to blow the vagrants away, bulldozing parks where they congregate, or creating such a woefully insufficient city infrastructure that the homeless would leave on their own.
You can read all of these proposed final solutions in Matteo Bittanti's How to Get Rid of Homelessness, "a 600-page epic split in two volumes documenting the so-called 'homeless scandal' that affected 2013's SimCity." Bittanti collected, selected, and transcribed thousands of these messages exchanged by players on publisher Electronic Arts' official forums, Reddit, and the largest online SimCity community Simtropolis, who experienced and then tried to "eradicate" the phenomenon of homelessness that "plagued" SimCity."
You can read all of these proposed final solutions in Matteo Bittanti's How to Get Rid of Homelessness, "a 600-page epic split in two volumes documenting the so-called 'homeless scandal' that affected 2013's SimCity." Bittanti collected, selected, and transcribed thousands of these messages exchanged by players on publisher Electronic Arts' official forums, Reddit, and the largest online SimCity community Simtropolis, who experienced and then tried to "eradicate" the phenomenon of homelessness that "plagued" SimCity."
This is noise.
I found this one on a trip down memory lane. Runs in a DOSBox and works great on my Win7 laptop! Yes, it's ENTIRELY LEGAL. you can get the download here.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
It sure is a good thing that players' behavior as modeled in games has no effect whatsoever on their offline behavior, or in any way informs us about their attitudes toward the real world. That might be disconcerting.
join them!
That game has more problems than just the homeless population.
host the Olympics?
Just type FUND.
Oh wait, that only gives free money to the elite capitalists. Why is SimCity so classist??
If this dude is morally outraged by the way people play Sim City I can only hope someone alerts them to the way people play Dwarf Fortress.
What, no turning them into dog-food (see 'Soylent green'), or killing the elderly (see "Logan's run")? Or if you like socialism, raise a tax to fund soup kitchens and free contraception.
Would be to build your city above the arctic circle.
Better to have homeless people on welfare in the streets rather than only drunken frat boys, small criminals and drug addicts. Problem in the US is you don't give them enough welfare (or at all) and no healthcare, hell homeful people at full time min wage employment don't even have healthcare. Nationalise all the evul healthcare companies (this cuts red tape), make the price of medicines drop, make welfare easier to get (less red tape) and redistribute the half a trillion or so you've saved in welfare.
The homeless people are who lived in all the neighborhoods of players who no longer play the game due to being locked out by intrusive DRM.
A limited run of 99 copies of How to get Rid of Homeless is available from Bittanti's Concrete Press via Amazon. Volume I is $150 and Volume II is $70.
Like anyone's going to pay $220.00 for a collection of reddit posts ...
They lost their way after SimCity 4 + Rush Hour. For aficionados of previous versions of the game, read the reviews first, it'll save you money. As for the "books", you can get the raw posts from reddit and the Simcity site.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Clearly your city needs a better welfare and education system, and perhaps a work incentive scheme.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I was under the impression that no one plays this game. The cities are so tiny that the game gets boring after about 2 hours of playtime. Support for the game has ended. And everyone went back to playing the previous Sim City game, or Cities XL.
Is 'Slashdot' Bennet Haselton a Bug Or a Feature?
"You've got a bug in my feature!" ... It's our featured bug!"
"You've got a feature in my bug!"
"I have an idea
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
go back to simcity version 1 or 2. homelessness wasn't a problem 22 years ago, right?
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
Are we now going to say it's incorrect for a city simulator to present the player with problems that currently occur in actual real cities?
Jumping the homeless?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=44s81sZPFOA
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As long as there are people starving and going mad in the streets
Mental health problems are far more likely to be the cause of homelessness than the reverse.
And I encounter someone who is mentally ill on the street, I'm not sure what you think I could do for them that the social workers and the police couldn't.
Really, you mean they are not just lazy freeloaders? I can't believe the republicans steered us wrong!
Note to self: Avoid Santa Monica. Non-zero probability of encountering strange person trying to make an obscure point while disguised as a homeless person.
I don't really understand how it has gotten so bad, I live In NZ we have a few homeless, I used to work in the center of our major city night shift, and I got to meet quite a few of them in a city of 2 Million (at the time) we had less than 50 homeless, I don't see any at all now I live In dunedin (a small city) How could the most powerful, influential, wealthiest country in the world have tens of thousands of homeless citizens plaguing its streets?
the thing that most players don't realise about games like simcity (and other "simulation" games including civilisation and clones, the sims, and many others) is that they're not just simulations, they're also propaganda tools with a particular model of how reality is, or should, be.
for the most part, these games push the theology of "meritocratic" free market laissez-faire capitalism - with the deserving rich being those who worked hard and the undeserving poor being worthless lazy slobs. this simulates american moralising and judgemental opinions fairly well, but not the real world.
...was the last actual SimCity. Every subsequent game with that name was a dumbed-down fucking shell, a goddamn disgrace. Had high hopes for this latest iteration before all the BS came to light. SMH.
Hell I still play SC4 now when I get bored. Have an awesome realistic region of 4+ million or so, based on a map made from the Oxnard, CA area (scaled way up). Bah...but enough waxing nostalgic. Fuck fucking EA and what they did to Maxis, smfh.
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Greed.
Most aren't, but sounds like the OP is.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
There was a time when people without the mental capacity to provide for themselves would simply die. Later, these people were thrown in jail. Then we decided this was not humane, and we confined them all to a hellish existence in insane asylums. Then we decided this was no longer humane, and we tore the asylums down, condemning them to a hellish existence on the street living off infrastructure, the public safety net, and the few services we provide to those who are not simply in need of a way out of a bad economic situation.
I'm curious as to what your solution is, as warehousing these people the way we do with the elderly seems no better, and impractical as these are not people who are approaching their expiration date.
I think the PC name for that game is Little People's Fortress.
Only if it's made by Fisher-Price.
Given that a lot of homeless people have a mental illness and/or are addicted to drugs, that is not surprising.
Then perhaps the package should have included health care, such as a psychiatric evaluation and warm turkey treatment (first dose 1 minute later each day) for any chemical dependence.
Note to self: Avoid Santa Monica. Non-zero probability of encountering strange person trying to make an obscure point while disguised as a homeless person.
For that matter, avoid Earth in general.
I think you are missing the point. The vast majority of homeless have mental health issues, and that is why they are homeless. There is nothing that we can do to help them that the social workers cannot. The fact that you are using homelessness as a protest against capitalism is a bit wierd. Why not just move to another country you might be more happy with?
"Personally, I just don't care to contribute to a system/country that I find vomit-inducing and am pretty comfortable sleeping under a bridge."
Yeah, so I read your blog - you were arrested for holding burglary tools and appearing to be high and when you got out the first thing you did was score some weed, got high, then at some point got some schrooms, got high, then complained about the homeless life, etc. You sir, are in my opinion, a bullshit artist and your homeless has nothing to do with solidarity; I believe it has everything to do with you being in need of some serious mental help. Of course, I'm pretty sure you won't see it that way. Please, get yourself some help, you don't have to live with substance abuse issues and you don't appear to need to be a burglar to make a living if you actually are a programmer. Good luck, man.
I know my sig says "hire me", but I have had offers in real-life and turned them down because I didn't agree with the what/how the employer produced.
The guy above suggested forced-hospitalization of mentally-ill people as a way to help them. If he gets his way, you could be 'hospitalized' with that attitude.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
In case you didn't get it from the other posts above, the single largest factor in current homeless levels in the US seems to be the accumulated damage from changes in mental health policy in the past generation or two. Do you have mental hospitals and asylums in NZ? Do you have figures on what percentage of the population suffers from psychological disorders requiring intervention? In the US, many of those people are out on the streets or in prison for drug offenses rather than in a care providing facility. What might have been a temporary crisis can instead become a one-way trip to chronic dysfunction.
I suppose the reason for the policy failure is the same reason we are struggling with health care in general. There is something broken in the American psyche when it comes to community and compassion. I am sure I am over simplifying things, but the cultural emphasis on individualism and the prevalence of the post-WW2, small, "nuclear family" seems to have weakened social ties and our ability to identify with and reach out to one another. There is so little exposure and experience with care-giving that people recoil in confusion when faced with someone who is not self-sufficient.
The real answer is to make certain that all people have good quality housing without regard for their ability to pay. More than ever human labor is being replaced and devalued. Work related education is not an answer when jobs do not exist. And for those than can do the math it is cheaper to buy a poor person a home and keep it up for him than to slap him in jail or prison. It is an issue similar to medical care. It is far cheaper to simply give a poor person a whiz bang medical policy for free than to pay his bills when he is sick and at the emergency room door. But if we compromise and give the poor inadequate insurance coverage they will still end up at the emergency room. Oddly the way to save money can be to spend money more freely.
If natural disasters dealt with the homeless, Boulder, Colorado, would have a lot less.
There are places where welfare is less generous than others, but where I live homelessness is a lifestyle choice, the way it is for yourself. Now, it's not reasonable to expect the mentally ill to take responsibility for making the best choices for themselves, but again, there's nothing I can do that the professionals can't.
The bugs, and people glossing over the basic info on homeless made them much more of a problem. Homeless only really became a problem with going up to the largest cities. Traffic would snarl resulting in people not getting enough work resulting in homeless. Homeless would build up in that scenario until traffic got under control. Getting rid of homeless was only an issue if you recklessly upgraded everything. Homeless need a level 1 business that needs workers to get out of becoming homeless. If you have too many people and not enough jobs these jobs will be filled by people with homes. I've yet to see a scenario where I changed the economy to level 1 businesses with a surplus of jobs that didn't slowly remove the homeless without going all Machiavellian. Though Machiavellian is a much faster route.
So you're deliberately giving different projection to the experiences that the rich person would experience.
But you know, just because you're 'nice' perhaps, it doesn't make the rest of the homeless 'nice'.
If you follow your line of thinking backwards, you really should be hanging out with the homeless folks, trying to get them to be more of a well-spoken homeless hipster like yourself. Raise the perception of the homeless by educating -them-.
Sim City is a utopian planner/dictator simulator already (one person, the human player, dictates to the society) .... so now it produces the natural results of central planning (a large homeless discouraged population in an artificially-crippled economy where the "invisible hand" of the free economy can NEVER solve the problem) and induces the player (the central planner/dictator) to dream of ways of killing them off (or neglecting them to death) for the benefit of his/her whim, preferences of societal "cleanliness", organization, etc? The central planner wants his city to look fantastic, and to hell with all the inconvenient people! Ha! that's quite possibly the best simulation ever written! Very meta.
The solution is also a hyper-realistic one. Copy the example of our current President; double the budget for food stamps, promise them free phones and free junior college and free healthcare to keep them from getting too squirrly.... and then pretend they simply do not exist so you can cite new updated low unemployment numbers (leaving out the millions of unemployed you choose to pretend have been killed by Godzilla) while you push very hard to import another huge population to do all the work those people already in the sim wont't do.
So, if I walk around naked or dive under water (preferably both) then I'm okay?
The solution is simple: you have to want to live in a world that's worth living in. So many people really don't.
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I know my sig says "hire me", but I have had offers in real-life and turned them down because I didn't agree with the what/how the employer produced.
I took a two minute glance at your blog. I read your comment here and a little bit of your other writings. You sound like you have a decent level of intelligence. I am gonna go out on a limb and assume that you are young (20 - 30). At some point in your life you are going to realize your wasted potential. When that moment of clarity hits you,... it is going to hit you like a stone to the head.
Part of 'being a man' is doing the work you don't want to do. It is the daily struggle so you can provide for a family; not living under a bridge so your values can remain intact. We are all idealistic at some point in our lives, but, there comes a time to grow up. Don't wait until it is too late.
my $.02
Men wear something almost just like a burka without the hood.
Instead they get a fancy headband with it's own cloak.
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buy the all 1 way tickets to another city (far away).
For fuck's sake man, pick a class and get a job. Fighter mage thief multi? No wonder you're homeless.
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Much of the time when I see a homeless person, I think "There but for the grace of God, go I." -- I can imagine any number of poor choices I could have made earlier in life, or perhaps even just bad luck, that could have led me to a similar situation. It's seldom that I am able to "help" such an individual, though I try make a point of acknowledging them as a fellow human, like I would do with any other person, with a nod, or a smile. Interesting twist of irony: smiling at most homeless people will get you a "Hi" or a smile back, whereas nodding or smiling at random people on the street will often (but not always) get you a glare and a wide berth, I guess some would say that's as it should be.
There's really only a thin veneer separating the homeless from about half of the US population. In fact, I'm sure that there are a lot of people that while having a place to live, are actually worse off than some who are homeless, wintertime in northern climates wholly excepted of course.
So anyway, basically, I agree with you, and what you're doing, though lack the temperament to employ your methods myself -- though I do strive to "consume" as little as possible, just on principle. I've been called "unamerican" (whatever that means, can you be "uncanadian" or "unswedish") for this philosophy, though not by many fellow "yankees" here in rural New England, some of whom still practice the art of frugality for it's own sake.
Americans, on the whole, however, are too willing to say "Those people are just lazy." or "Those people are mentally ill." And while I'm sure those descriptions fit, for some percentage of humans (not just the homeless) more often than not, it seems to me that those two statements are essentially regurgitation of propaganda; platitudes to make us feel less ashamed that we live in a society with so little regard for our brothers and sisters, especially in a supposedly "christian nation", that we allow some of them to languish in the streets, to the detriment of the communities they inhabit, out of some bizarre philosophy that to "give handouts" to them would somehow harm our society. It really is the most twisted logic: damage the culture in order to save it.
Salt Lake City has a program where they're simply providing housing for their homeless population. So far, it's a resounding success, though I'm sure the program isn't perfect (what is?). The city is actually *saving money* since the load on social workers, emergency services and law enforcement is lower. San Fransisco has a similar program, but it hasn't worked as well there, probably for a whole host of reasons.
It seems to me that homelessness is just the tip of the iceberg of America's social ills, a glaring symptom of a root cause that very few are willing to face: monstrous greed produced by a highly-infectious "mental illness", the carriers of which are "neo-liberal" economists and policy makers, convincing us that all we have to do is keep buying shit and working at our jobs that we hate and All Will Be Well, while most of the the imaginary wealth is transferred to a ever smaller sector of the population, as it has done for the better part of a century. It seems they've even deluded themselves into thinking that this can continue indefinitely, by hand-waving away the mathematical absurdities that result if one actually looks at the reality.
I'm not surprised that SimCity has a "virtual homelessness" problem, since the simulation models are probably as absurd as the models used in the real world -- though it has an excuse, it's just supposed to be a fun game, where the outcome doesn't cause real suffering and death for those on the losing side.
Wow - somebody modded up a post asking why the poor don't just splash out on travel expenses.
And I encounter someone who is mentally ill on the street, I'm not sure what you think I could do for them that the social workers and the police couldn't.
It's hard not to take this as a troll. The police are not generally inclined to help homeless people - although I see police harassing them almost every day. Social workers for the most part would help the homeless - but they're underpaid, understaffed and institutionally handicapped. Maybe you don't live in the United States?
I personally don't expect you to personally spend time / effort / money helping an individual homeless person in some way, but if you're unhappy with how local, state and federal governments are handling the problem at large, then the same recourse exists as for any other social problem.
.: Semper Absurda
Much of the time when I see a homeless person, I think "There but for the grace of God, go I."
One of the main things I want in life is for my descendants not to suffer too much. Now, in retrospect the best way for me to guarantee that my descendants wouldn't suffer too much would have been not to have any. Unfortunately, that train has already left the station. So now, when I see extreme poverty, I think "There but for the grace of God, go my descendants." The thing is, short of taking big risks and doing things that most people would consider to be wildly unethical, there's no way I'm going to be rich enough to give my descendants enough inheritance to guarantee that they will avoid poverty.
On the other hand, there are countries (not the USA unfortunately) where essentially no one is living in desperate poverty. It's not that almost everyone is sitting around doing nothing collecting welfare while a few people do all the work. Instead, almost everyone has access to good jobs that pay at least enough to live simply but comfortably. And that's what I want for my descendants - that they can feel secure in the knowledge that they will be able to live simply but comfortably as long as they're willing to do an honest days work.
It would be great if the USA could get it's act together and become one of those countries - because it happens to be where I have citizenship. But, failing that, the best thing I could do for my descendants would be to find a way to move them to a country without desperate poverty and that's likely to stay that way for a long time.
I write this while homeless in Santa Monica, CA
Yet, you can somehow manage to post on slashdot.
Your priorities are puzzling to say the least.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Is 'SimCity' Homelessness a Bug Or a Feature?
Homelessness is obviously a feature. It's the level of homelessness and the impact it has on gameplay that is being questioned in the article.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Doing what you don't want to do is the very definition of wasting rather than realising your potential.
Dwarf Fortress where babies are considered a plague for many forts ...
Efficiency and progress are ours once more; now that we have the neutron bomb.
Apart from a minority of people with bad luck and little job skills, most homeless are chronically mentally ill. They were thrown out on the street or ended up in jail (40%) when Reagan "downsized" the mental hospitals. When there is a cure for schizophrenia and other incurable mental illnesses, the "homeless" problem will go away.
Are you sure you should have used the phrase final solutions in a story of removing the homeless?
It echoes statements used in 1940's Germany.
I know my sig says "hire me", but I have had offers in real-life and turned them down because I didn't agree with the what/how the employer produced.
I took a two minute glance at your blog. I read your comment here and a little bit of your other writings. You sound like you have a decent level of intelligence. I am gonna go out on a limb and assume that you are young (20 - 30). At some point in your life you are going to realize your wasted potential. When that moment of clarity hits you,... it is going to hit you like a stone to the head.
Part of 'being a man' is doing the work you don't want to do. It is the daily struggle so you can provide for a family; not living under a bridge so your values can remain intact. We are all idealistic at some point in our lives, but, there comes a time to grow up. Don't wait until it is too late.
my $.02
I disagree completely.
I have worked since I was 17 in two countries, and lived a pretty comfortable life by most people's standards.
Recently I bought a brand new 2 bedroom flat in zone 2 of London, and earn enough in the first 5 days of each month to cover the mortgage. I have an attractive, loving partner, a lot of spare cash, three passports, play in bands, am physically fit, and work for a well respected company.
I am also bored as shit, and wake up every morning dreading the day ahead.
Living under a bridge sounds pretty good to me. Not all of us get a hard on for buying things. I think it's an American thing.
Hanging out in a library reading and posting on Slashdot is probably a hell of a lot more fun than sitting on a park bench in the rain.
"while they step over the clinging-desperately-to-life 'problem' all around them."
The *most* pathetic looking and in-your-face are conmen and criminals. Giving money is a transaction where they sell you a show where you can feel like you've done something good. In reality, you've just encouraged a beggar who fought for that premium corner.
Many of the people with real problems are quieter, and some of them don't even live on the streets. But hey, entitlement comes with believing that being on the street gives you some kind of credibility.
Mental illness is the real problem, and for those who can't fit into the mold of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression or schizophrenia, defiantly homeless should be considered a mental illness. It's certainly not making you or the people around you happy.
Few countries are equipped to deal with mental illness, so people live hard and die on the streets, and that's horrible.
"Don't let businesses run homeless people off who are trying to get out of the cold"
Damn right. Screw those bourguois minimum wage kids trying to make it through school cleaning vomit and filth out of bathrooms by people who view the coffee shop where they warmed up as the enemy!
Can't reason with crazy.
Homeless bloggers, even more dangerous.
I don't have much sympathy for a homeless person that turns down a job because they don't agree with the company. Literally, beggars can't be choosers.
Based on your first sentence, I don't believe for a god damned second that you are for real. I did not read the rest of your post.
Troll more carefully, bro.
Just because you are in a jam and feel it's ok to steal something to survive, it doesn't mean you don't owe something in return to work off that debt. If you steal food from me because you are starving, fine, but you better help me replace that food. Don't expect to take out of need without ever feeling like you owe a debt.
I write this while homeless in Santa Monica, CA
Yet, you can somehow manage to post on slashdot.
Your priorities are puzzling to say the least.
I may be able to shed some light. I volunteered at a soup kitchen once, and when we were serving a whole room full of people, I noticed a couple of them had laptops. While I cannot know the exact reason, I had made a few guesses myself. I guessed that maybe a relative or a friend had given it to them, or they may have acquired it during a more plentiful portion of their lives, or an old laptop from the garbage that people start to throw out not so uncommon these days. So I would say it would be possible for a laptop to be in the possession of the homeless' stash.
As for priorities, I would say that being connected to the rest of the world, even though if only online, would be a great way for someone homeless to stay mentally sane and updated on the world and perhaps find access to support programmes or odd jobs. Without a support tools, it is very hard for somebody homeless to re-enter society. Thus, I would say that our homeless friend who posted on slashdot's priorities make sense to me.
Sounds like you should have been a CIA assassin with that "level of detachment and ability to withstand what would be torturous for most people". You could be in Nigeria right now, knocking off Boko Haram kidnappers or something. Bloody, ugly work, and pure hell if you get caught . . . but what do you care?
Don't like the US? Get out of the country and rip apart someone else's even-worse system from the inside. Being a snarky quasi-advocate for the American homeless doesn't seem to be doing anyone any good.
I doubt you'll be dismantling any hegemony anytime soon sleeping inside abandoned buildings and under bridges floating food kitchen to food kitchen.
I hear you, but my genetics are corrupt and most people would never believe that I have lived through what I have. I would not want to relate any of the details. It would be irresponsible for me to father a child. Realizing that I don't have the emotional tools to deal with people on a normal level, much less raise a child, is something that I have come to grips with over a long process. My level of detachment and ability to withstand what would be torturous for most people makes me a good candidate to be a sort of martyr for those in similarly hellish situations but without the ability to express their feelings. You are right, and a wise old guy on the street told me something very similar, but this is "the work I don't want to do."
If you are genuine and not fabricating this homeless persona ("running to a chowline for lentis and rice", who talks like that?), then reducing everything to your "genetics are corrupt" is rather fatalistic and sounds like you're ignoring the real cause of your situation. If you truly would rather live in homelessness, then own it and acknowledge that it is your choice. Don't blame it on your genetics. You can't deal with people on a normal level because you don't have the emotional tools? Fine, neither can a lot of people and they find ways to work around that. You have options and aren't on a set course that you can't deviate from, so don't pretend or lie to yourself that that is the case.
"I tore apart your stupid hosts file crapola." - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255)
Where? You RAN from trying recently -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & you're FAIRLY given the opportunity to make good on those words of yours - you downmodded (via your many sockpuppets) & ran, lol, after your wise-ass comment on hosts here JUST before that challenge -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... quoted next below:
---
"scans multiple forums repeatedly to troll his crappy HOSTS file " - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Sunday January 04, 2015 @11:58AM (#48730581) from http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...
I only post on them where they apply (or confronting naysayers like you). Prove otherwise!
(Oh, that's right - you're NOT BIG ON PROOF, are you? See below next...)
---
"His only "legend in his own mind" was that he claimed that "his" hosts file could completely secure a windows computer. " - by tomhudson (43916) on Saturday February 12, @11:19AM (#35186644)
Where did I even *once* claim hosts completely secure a computer? Hosts are, however, the BEST single tool for more speed, security, reliability, & more. Prove otherwise.
Putting words in my mouth I never stated != truth, or a good argument on YOUR part. You RAN from that too!
---
"Who has independently vetted it?" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255)
You tried to say it's malware/spyware too - guess what:
Answer = The BEST in the security antimalware & antispyware business currently, http://www.av-test.org/en/news... per that VERY recent test's results, who also host & RECOMMEND my program for hosts, is who -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... (Malwarebytes' hpHosts)
* You've done better? No... lol!
APK
P.S.=> You fail: "Eat your words, Forrest" & you told others to stalk/harass me by ac posts as YOU YOURSELF do, unceasingly, for years http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
... apk
You stalk me by ac posts & that's quoted in your words http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & your "points" vs. hosts = b.s. (in a 'journal' - not publicly since you KNOW they're bullshit):
"We don't need to use a hosts file to block ads (adblock does it better)" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Sunday September 21, 2014 @02:09PM
FROM-> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
To THAT b.s. I point out how NOT BETTER it is, tearing up 4++gb of RAM & flooring CPU too -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth...
+
By default (since advertisers KNOW most folks using "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" won't change that) adblock's PAID OFF NOT TO DO ITS JOB FULLY -> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/...
ClarityRay's also DESTROYING AdBlock but it's NOT ABLE TO DO THAT to custom hosts files.
You're *trying* to tell us that Adblock's vastly inferior in abilities + chews up resources LIKE MAD is "superior" to hosts that do all of what adblock does, and FAR more - with less? Please... lol!
* I'm confronting YOU directly (despite your constant trollings of myself often behind my back like now from you, that I do *NOT* start 1st, until YOU pull your crap on me like usual: That's all!) for closure of this publicly so You can "eat her words" in front of us all!
APK
P.S.=> Facts above vs. BarbaraHudson's fictions & the FACT BarbaraHudson CANNOT DISPROVE that hosts do more w/ LESS, & far, Far, FAR MORE for added speed, security, reliability, + even anonymity (to an extent) vs. adblock & that hosts fix DNS security issues in DNS amplification attacks, DNS being downed, DNS being redirect poisoned etc. - et al as well: NO SINGLE SOLUTION does more & w/ less, period/fact, for all those points of mine here YOU downmodded & RAN from -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... like the troll & multiple account using sockpuppeteer YOU are... apk
Easy problem to solve, just export them to SimAuschwitz.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
As a comfy westerner, this story made me blush. Talk about first world problems!
I bet you really like the movie Fight Club.
"I tore apart your stupid hosts file crapola." - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255)
Where? You RAN from trying recently -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & you're FAIRLY given the opportunity to make good on those words of yours - you downmodded (via your many sockpuppets) & ran, lol, after your wise-ass comment on hosts here JUST before that challenge -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... quoted next below:
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"scans multiple forums repeatedly to troll his crappy HOSTS file " - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Sunday January 04, 2015 @11:58AM (#48730581) from http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...
I only post on them where they apply (or confronting naysayers like you). Prove otherwise!
(Oh, that's right - you're NOT BIG ON PROOF, are you? See below next...)
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"His only "legend in his own mind" was that he claimed that "his" hosts file could completely secure a windows computer. " - by tomhudson (43916) on Saturday February 12, @11:19AM (#35186644)
Where did I even *once* claim hosts completely secure a computer? Hosts are, however, the BEST single tool for more speed, security, reliability, & more. Prove otherwise.
Putting words in my mouth I never stated != truth, or a good argument on YOUR part. You RAN from that too!
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"Who has independently vetted it?" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255)
You tried to say it's malware/spyware too - guess what:
Answer = The BEST in the security antimalware & antispyware business currently, http://www.av-test.org/en/news... per that VERY recent test's results, who also host & RECOMMEND my program for hosts, is who -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... (Malwarebytes' hpHosts)
* You've done better? No... lol!
APK
P.S.=> You fail: "Eat your words, Forrest" & you told others to stalk/harass me by ac posts as YOU YOURSELF do, unceasingly, for years http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
... apk
BarbaraHudson stalks me by ac posts & that's quoted in your words http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & your "points" vs. hosts = b.s. (in a 'journal' - not publicly since you KNOW they're bullshit):
"We don't need to use a hosts file to block ads (adblock does it better)" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Sunday September 21, 2014 @02:09PM
FROM-> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
To THAT b.s. I point out how NOT BETTER it is, tearing up 4++gb of RAM & flooring CPU too -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth...
+
By default (since advertisers KNOW most folks using "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" won't change that) adblock's PAID OFF NOT TO DO ITS JOB FULLY -> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/...
ClarityRay's also DESTROYING AdBlock but it's NOT ABLE TO DO THAT to custom hosts files.
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* You're *trying* to tell us that Adblock's vastly inferior abilities + chewing up resources LIKE MAD is "superior" to hosts?? Please... lol!
(Hosts do all of what adblock does, + FAR more - with less!)
APK
P.S.=> Facts above vs. BarbaraHudson's fictions & the FACT BarbaraHudson CANNOT DISPROVE that hosts do more w/ LESS, & far, Far, FAR MORE for added speed, security, reliability, + even anonymity (to an extent) vs. adblock
&
That hosts fix DNS security issues in DNS amplification attacks, DNS being downed, DNS being redirect poisoned etc. - et al as well:
NO SINGLE SOLUTION does more & w/ less, period/fact, for all those points of mine here YOU downmodded & RAN from -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... like the troll & multiple account using sockpuppeteer YOU are... apk
In the game Banished, I often find myself with houses holding childless elderly people while young people are unable to procreate because they are still having to live with their parents. I want a way to kill off, or at the very least make homeless, the elderly people to free up the house for the young. Hell, if I could grind them up to make another food source that would be ideal. This says nothing about my opinions on the elderly in real life, just as my constant destroying of crates in order to take supplies that obviously don't belong to me doesn't say anything about my opinions on theft and vandalism. Looking at how people in Sim City treat a factor of that simulation as any sort of indication on the real issue of homelessness is about as valid as figuring out society's treatment of prostitutes from Grand Theft Auto.
Same here, though I don't have kids, and won't ever have kids, though I do have siblings with kids... so the same concept holds -- though poverty is not the only cause of suffering -- I'd imagine there are plenty of "well off" people who live with suffering of some sort, perhaps not so much physical suffering, but suffering nonetheless. So leaving one's kids a large inheritance is hardly a guarantee of them not suffering. I've heard too many horror stories of siblings fighting bitterly over inheritance... which I'm sure causes suffering. Anxiety and fear of losing one's worldly possessions is a form of suffering.
Something like a universal basic income would likely solve the most egregious physical suffering for most that simply lack basic survival necessities, and an actual functioning public mental health system would take care of most who wouldn't benefit from just a basic income.
The other kinds of suffering can only be eliminated by good friends, more advanced medicine, therapy, and personal philosophy or spirituality.
He said he has already been in pure hell... Atlanta.
Rent Control and zoning are a real political hot potato in San Francisco with a lot of militants (and it may be even worse across the Bay in Berkeley.) You can always of course, find poster people where some long time tenant is evicted (this is what the local media like the late Bay Guardian like to show), or, if you're brave, show a poster child of a landlord who can't evict some tenant from hell. I mention this in case any outsiders are wondering what the fuss is about here.
The other answer is to completely devalue the poor. You are worth what you own or the resources you command. If you don't control resources, that's it, you're a serf, or worse, a thing.
The ownership class will then feel free to ignore or dispose of the things they don't want, as inexpensively as possible. Possibly using aerial drones or ground robots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope
You could do a lot worse than potentially follow in the footsteps a man who mocked Plato and Alexander, if that is your lot.
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First off, don't come on here acting all superior and calling people stupid when you didn't even make one complete English sentence. You did not use one single capital letter nor one useful piece of punctuation.
Also, throwing out the 10th is a complete cop-out. It has absolutely nothing to do with this. The question posited was "why is it ok to force people to pay for something they don't want when it goes into corporate hands but it's an unholy proposition to do so when the money goes back to the government?" How does the 10th apply to this? It doesn't. You merely handwaved the problem away.
As is usual with you, Stoney McStonerstein, that's just, like, your opinion, man!
People in this thread have mentioned your blog on more than one occasion. Where are they finding it? I want to read your blog but I can't find it. Where's your blog?
Ah, yes, because there's no such thing as public libraries. And obviously, the homeless and poor must spend every waking moment trying to earn money and finding a job, and even a moment of respite or relaxation mean they're lazy sponges mooching off the system who want to be homeless.
What a crock.
You do know what a coffee shop is for?
I'm a bit stunned that this comment is modded to a +5. I suddenly have a lot more respect for the homeless than I do slashdotters. After all, they've managed to befuddle slashdotters with their amazing abilities to get online, despite being poor.
I've been where you are now. What I don't understand is, why are you arguing with the fools here ?
Most people simply lack the capacity to comprehend where you are simply because their life experiences and their own limitations prevent them from understanding. Not only are they not going to be of any assistance, their comments are going to be detrimental. They'll simply never understand. Why bother with them ? They are idiots.
You seem perfectly coherent, articulate, and intelligent to me. So what if you have a less than ideal personality right now ? That doesn't have to be a permanent state any more than living on the street does, not for you it doesn't.
The wealth of experience and understanding that you already have surpasses the average persons by far at this point. Accept help wherever you can get it. It doesn't matter what people's motivations are! Just take whatever you can get right now until you reach the goal of getting off the street. Other people's opinions are entirely insignificant. What and who you are now does not have to be what you are in a year, five years, ten years. That's what some people will never get. People change and evolve all the time.
Given what you've described you've been through, I wouldn't be surprised that you are suffering from PTSD to some extent. You need to get stable. You need a decent place to stay. You need decent nutrition and something to do consistently. Go for those things, accept the help that you can, and keep trying. It can take a long time to heal, but you need to; your'e too intelligent and articulate to stay in the situation you're in now, and your ability to help people will be exponentially enhanced.
I hope I haven't offended you. You just remind me so much of where I was nearly 25 years ago. I'm married now, I have friends that value me, and I'm able to help people. A LOT of people. Sometimes I look back and am amazed I survived. It would have been a whole hell of a lot easier if I'd just accepted help more often than I did. When I finally did, everything changed; not overnight, but gradually everything got better. Every little doubt that I had about myself and my limitations (which I might point out were put on me by fools) was dissolved over time.
Get out of the trap, never forget that you were in the trap, and help others when you're able, to get out of the trap.
And recognize that the comments made by fools here are part of the trap, too.
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Hanging out in a library reading and posting on Slashdot is probably a hell of a lot more fun than sitting on a park bench in the rain.
Yup, and a lot more fun than what I'll be doing for the next 8 hours... Your point?
You can't get everyone to tune in and wake up enough to do that. You can't even get 5% to do that. Especially not from your platform.