Remind me again how any of this falls under the umbrella of rights protection with which the government was originally charged. The government was most certainly never charged with rights protection. Our rights are to protect us from an otherwise omnipotent authority.
If you understood why the miner cares for the life of the canary, maybe you'd appreciate why I'm concerned about the life of the bald eagle with regard to a poison that accumulates up the food chain. Bald eagles have no natural predators. Unless you're suggesting you eat bald eagles. But you don't hate America that bad, do you?
They are one of the few species to ever come back after being placed on the endangered species list, and it's directly due to environmental action. So I presume you're suggesting the Endangered Species Act is not "one of the most successful examples of environmental policy in our history," correct? I would have to concur. Also, to play both sides, just because nobody bothers to take a rebounded species off the list doesn't mean species don't rebounded -- there is a lot of green-vs-green politics involved.
The $120 a barrel crude oil has little if anything to do with present-day reactions to Global Warming. And that's what's causing the widest and sharpest increase in the cost of food, not the redeployment of farmland to create biofuel. And you don't think the $120/barrel crude is incentivizing the redeployment of farmland to create biofuel?
What happened to editorial integrity, with it's provider staking it's credibility on the accuracy it's content?
I was going to mod you up, but damn, three in one sentence. I can't tell if you're serious or if you just wanted to slip that amusing little grammernazism in. But don't be fooled by this ignorant argument -- this is the same *cult of the amateur* argument debunked over and over 'round these parts.
Nothing about participatory news implies everyone's voice is equal.
Farmers would be able to utilize their land for something interesting we haven't even thought of yet. Oh, and there will certainly be far fewer dead fishermen.
Interesting concept, but you left out the primary disadvantage: sourceforget is not itself open source -- something that ought to be the first priority.
Of course, as an alternative, something like this may work nice...
(I say with sarcasm, what many people would say with all seriousness. They display prejudice rather than open-mindedness.) Damn. I was just about to mod you Informative.
true, but a good workaround doesn't substitute a good design true, but good design doesn't substitute for good architecture...modularity allows *nixy apps and frameworks to be easily and infinitely reconfigured to suit the special needs of umpcs, cell phones, iphones, ipods -- any damn device you want to throw at it -- try that with windows...
oh, you can't?
I completely understand your sentiment, but I'm having a little trouble reconciling...
I don't disagree with their business model. I think it is perfectly acceptable for...connectors integrating with commercial technologies such as Outlook or iSync stay commercial ...and...
I hope Microsoft doesn't buy Yahoo. Because your next upgrade path is Exchange, if Zimbra isn't released from a Microsoft merger or forked to a new project. Because of the very strategy you advocate, it's impossible to fork the project with the connectors -- which is really the competitive pressure MS would want to squelch. Thus, irony ensues.
Hey, I'm as rabidly anti-socialist as the next slashbot, but you can't just waive the commie wand at what are fundamental problems of our economic system (e.g. natural monopoly). Are our roads "treated the same as all other utilities"? For that matter, are our utilities even treated as you suggest? Not even close -- they are heavily regulated. I would agree this is a very sub-optimal solution, but in this case the better solution isn't to completely deregulate: that just guarantees an oligopoly at best. But the problems in these industries share a common thread: we must find a way to agree on the platform, then we can have real competition in the products on top of it.
Of course, in this case, it's moot -- it's impossible for all of the "internet" to really be owned -- by design -- but more and more, I find myself agreeing with the notion that at least one of the last-mile wired linkages in any locality should fall under the purview of local authorities (you need to grease their palms to get the eminent domain to lay the wires anyway). If the local gov't f's it up (likely) or decides to use it as their personal platform for censorship (even more likely), it should be easy enough to route around them, particularly with wireless and mesh tech.
Not sure how their particular deal works, but I think if Comedy Central actually owns the show they make, then they could have actually been criminally breaking the copyright of their own employers and in theory could be sued for it. IANAL, etc. Wow -- it's all almost as illogical as academia, where professors have to beg permission from publishers to distribute their own works to students. Almost.
Hey maybe in 20 more years the open source world can reinvent another Unix. Perhaps by that time, Microsoft will have finally finished theirs...poorly...
There are lots of things which can't be patented - mathematics, scientific discoveries[*], plot devices in novels or films, methods of trolling Slashdot. Sadly, you, sir, are incorrect.
Around here Ms. Harps was stabbed to death on new years eve by a man with serious mental health problems, it turns out that he had himself tried to get committed a few days previously and been declined.
That's a quick and dirty way to get yourself mental healthcare for life...
I rant and rail against nationalized health care semi-regularly, but this notion ex post facto care brings me pause. An ounce of prevention...
The moral framework you ascribe to, divine command theory, is but one of many mankind has dreamed up over the millennia . Take a philosophy class sometime -- you'd be amazed at the breadth the field of ethics brings to morality. Though, I'd argue most, if not all frameworks ultimately boil down to the golden rule.
Every political movement that has attempted to build a society <strike>without religion</strike> has resulted in horrific mistreatment of human beings. There. Fixed. But seriously, why is it you seem to believe humans need a deity to be moral?
He always kept the team meetings stocked with several kegs of beer and always told the employees that if they drank too much take a cab home and expense it. Obligatory xkcd...
Patent examiners need to be reviewed based on the quality of their work, not just the speed by which they process it. Are you suggesting a meritocracy for Federal employees? You're brave: I'd have posted as AC if I were you...
I agree -- heterogeneity in dev tools is a feature, not a bug.
I could go on, but the point is - horrible as some OSS offerings might be, they are there, and they are essentially yours to do with as you bloody well please. By and large most tech savvy people can learn to use them, and if one doesn't take your fancy - try another, and if you are stuggling - google is truly your friend! (Also, many OSS offerings are awesomely put together products that can really hold a candle to the best out on offer.) I'd go one step further here. It took me an eternity to learn this, but many OSS offerings aren't meant for you, even you the developer. They are meant for the developer developing the tools for you the developer (as low down the stack as you want to go). Many tools may seem brutish and difficult to wrangle, but often that's because you're operating at too low a level. Once someone else wrangles them in a way that makes sense to you, you probably won't even know you're efficiently using that FOSS tool you couldn't hack it with before.
The chances of random pieces entering a stable orbit for the long term is slim.
What about this big rock we're on? And all them others balls of rock and gas? Now I'm as atheist as they come, but you just made one damn good scientific argument for intelligent design.
Seriously, I've always wondered how debris circling the Sun came to coalesce into planets, all without getting slowly slurped into the Sun?
Slashdot Mirror
Wrong. This is what economists call the broken window fallacy.
Farmers would be able to utilize their land for something interesting we haven't even thought of yet. Oh, and there will certainly be far fewer dead fishermen.
Interesting concept, but you left out the primary disadvantage: sourceforget is not itself open source -- something that ought to be the first priority. Of course, as an alternative, something like this may work nice...
That'd be great and all. But Microsoft still hasn't fully implemented OOXML, and has no immediate plans to.
Hey, I'm as rabidly anti-socialist as the next slashbot, but you can't just waive the commie wand at what are fundamental problems of our economic system (e.g. natural monopoly). Are our roads "treated the same as all other utilities"? For that matter, are our utilities even treated as you suggest? Not even close -- they are heavily regulated. I would agree this is a very sub-optimal solution, but in this case the better solution isn't to completely deregulate: that just guarantees an oligopoly at best. But the problems in these industries share a common thread: we must find a way to agree on the platform, then we can have real competition in the products on top of it.
Of course, in this case, it's moot -- it's impossible for all of the "internet" to really be owned -- by design -- but more and more, I find myself agreeing with the notion that at least one of the last-mile wired linkages in any locality should fall under the purview of local authorities (you need to grease their palms to get the eminent domain to lay the wires anyway). If the local gov't f's it up (likely) or decides to use it as their personal platform for censorship (even more likely), it should be easy enough to route around them, particularly with wireless and mesh tech.
Have you ever heard of jury nullification?
"We borrow things like American Idol from the US" Quite the opposite, and I still haven't forgiven you limey bastards for it!
That's a quick and dirty way to get yourself mental healthcare for life...
I rant and rail against nationalized health care semi-regularly, but this notion ex post facto care brings me pause. An ounce of prevention...
The moral framework you ascribe to, divine command theory, is but one of many mankind has dreamed up over the millennia . Take a philosophy class sometime -- you'd be amazed at the breadth the field of ethics brings to morality. Though, I'd argue most, if not all frameworks ultimately boil down to the golden rule.
What about this big rock we're on? And all them others balls of rock and gas? Now I'm as atheist as they come, but you just made one damn good scientific argument for intelligent design.
Seriously, I've always wondered how debris circling the Sun came to coalesce into planets, all without getting slowly slurped into the Sun?