Your post is spot on and I agree with it wholeheartedly, except that last sentence. I used to think that too, but lately I've started to have doubts about it. They seem to be heading in the wrong direction awfully fast this time (faster than ever before in their history?), and considering that half (!) of the people who could be bothered to vote voted for the clown who's currently in office, and most others voted for a guy who's only marginally better (although of course he did invent the Internet,) they currently don't seem to be capable of making much of a fist against this development.
I'm seriously wondering whether the US isn't heading for a fall of Roman proportions. I'm not saying that to bash the US; I have American friend, and I like Americans in general. I'm saying it because since the last few months I genuinely believe it to be a possibility.
First, he argues: 'We find an intelligent civilization and there's no way in creation we can communicate with them because they're so alien to us. We can't talk to dolphins now. In which case, we'll never know.' Secondly, he suggests: 'We find the intelligent civilization. We can communicate.' As agents of free-will, the aliens are self-aware of good and evil, thus convertible to some terrestrial religion. Thirdly: 'We find a dozen civilizations out there, and a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses go up and convert them all.'
Or how about: we find a dozen civilizations out there who teach mankind to finally grow up and throw away the crutch that is religion?
You'd be surprised how much the industry is sick of Java programmers,...
Could you expand a bit on that? Cite some sources, for instance, instead of making blanket statements out of the blue? I'm a freelance Java programmer, and I've been at work and earning good constantly over the last few years, when the rest of the IT world was down the toilet. The industry is certainly not sick of me or my colleagues. And why would they, since Java makes it an order of magnitude easier to write well documented, maintainable, portable, scaleable, robust, bug-free and fast programs than for instance, C or assembler?
I would also add that so much high-quality software is available for free it has the effect of devaluing the worth of what programmers do.
Nonsense. Programmers are paid by companies to write custom software that those companies need, or want to sell. Companies don't have the luxury of hanging around until the software they need happens to get written as open source. This will never change.
What is happening however is that the price that companies can charge for off-the-shelf software is going down, and rightly so! Software costs next to nothing to reproduce, or "manufacture", so it's not right for companies to charge hundreds of dollars for software as if it does cost a lot of money to reproduce. After they have recouped their development costs, the purchase price of commercial software is almost 100% pure profit. Open source is (or will be, hopefully) making it so that they can't do that anymore.
Nothing in the Bible has ever been disproven based on ancient findings by any reputable scientific investigation.
Who the hell modded this "insightful"? Of course science hasn't "disproven" anything in the bible. That's not how science works. Much more to the point is that nothing in the bible has ever been proven by any reputable scientific investigation!
Am I the only one who suspects that there was a lot more than just a phone call behind this? That people high up in Verisign must have been conspiring with Cohen? Why else go through so much to keep obviously stolen property from it's rightful owner? Why lie to the courts about a supposedly forged letter if you weren't covering for something much worse?
While I'm certainly not saying that it's impossible, I also think that the sheer incompetence they displayed is enough to want to cover up; no further conspiracy theory is needed to explain it IMHO.
Hmmm. The big bang posits a long period of time where everything is compressed, followed by an explosion which flares stuff out in all directions.
Actually, the big bang theory doesn't say anything about what happened "before" the big bang, and there's no reason to assume that the universe already existed, only scrunched up into a little ball.
Also, the "flare" caused by the big bang probably isn't shaped like that of a trumpet. According to recent theory, there was a very short period of enormous expansion in the beginning, followed by a long period of much slower expansion. Not the kind of exponential expansion that you would associate with the shape of a trumpet.
So, I think it's unlikely that this new theory and the theory of the big bang have much to do with each other, at least not in the sense that the big bang would explain the shape of the universe in this other theory.
Yes, yes and yes. Whay would you call it then? Or do you think it's perfectly alright to make use of a service that costs other people money to provide, without paying for it?
That's very hard to believe! A tax like that exists in many countries. We have one just like it here in the Netherlands, but it's still illegal to copy CD's! I agree that that's spectacularly unjust, but it's true nonetheless. Are you sure it's not like that in Canada? Otherwise, wouldn't there be thousands of businesses in no time making tons of money copying CD's?
You are taking something that you should ordinarily pay for, without paying for it. That's called stealing, it really is that simple. People who insist on this "copyright infringement is not stealing" crap are just trying to justify their (or others') theft of music.
Their interview with USGS Yellowstone scientists covers all the angles and should inspire the mad-hatters to find something else to fear (for now).
Of course they won't. If anything they'll take it as a confirmation of the big government conspiracy to cover it up! The scientists were obviously on the government's payroll... (as they probably are, of course).
I agree. The only country that I can speak authoritatively about (since I live there) is the Netherlands. It is less of a problem here; a person is much less likely to consider sueing as a possible remedy or means to obtain compensation for a problem.
In the case of doctors I think that firstly, Dutch people are less likely to think that a medical problem has been caused by incompetence of or malpractice by a doctor. They appreciate that there is only so much that a doctor can do and that it is sometimes very difficult or even impossible to predict what the effect of certain treatments will be.
Secondly, I think that in the Netherlands it is appreciated more that doctors are only human, that medical professions are extremely difficult and that doctors are under a lot of pressure, and are therefore more inclined to let things go even if they do think that a doctor made an honest mistake.
I don't really know what causes these differences in attitude. It probably comes down to historical differences in the development of our two cultures, as well as perhaps the level of education.
Sadly, there are signs that there will be changes for the worse here. For instance, the Dutch "bar association" wants to start experimenting with "no cure no pay" legal aid, which had previously been prohibited in the Netherlands (perhaps another cause for the difference in attitude).
We could have left it at that, but we have also paid attention to the European Union and the 'rfid' tracking devices placed in their money,...
Maybe in X-files country, but here in real life, euros do not have 'rfid tracking devices'. What they do have is a metal strip which makes it more difficult to counterfeit.
Of course I fully expect now to be told that my government only wants me to think that that's just a metal strip...:-)
Bluetooth has nothing to do with Intel. Intel are a chip maker, maybe they can kill any but the most amazingly advanced CHIP technology, but why would they have any such power in any other industry?
Re:This would be in America. right?
on
Cell-Phone Wars
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· Score: 1
If it happened to you a few times, I'm guessing that it probably happens a lot in Australia, if the alarm number is that easy. Most alarm numbers have two different digits (911, 112), so you'd have to press two different digits and the call button in the right order by accident, which would probably be as likely to happen as unlocking the keypad by accident...
Slashdot Mirror
They'll correct it eventually, don't worry.
Your post is spot on and I agree with it wholeheartedly, except that last sentence. I used to think that too, but lately I've started to have doubts about it. They seem to be heading in the wrong direction awfully fast this time (faster than ever before in their history?), and considering that half (!) of the people who could be bothered to vote voted for the clown who's currently in office, and most others voted for a guy who's only marginally better (although of course he did invent the Internet,) they currently don't seem to be capable of making much of a fist against this development.
I'm seriously wondering whether the US isn't heading for a fall of Roman proportions. I'm not saying that to bash the US; I have American friend, and I like Americans in general. I'm saying it because since the last few months I genuinely believe it to be a possibility.
First, he argues: 'We find an intelligent civilization and there's no way in creation we can communicate with them because they're so alien to us. We can't talk to dolphins now. In which case, we'll never know.' Secondly, he suggests: 'We find the intelligent civilization. We can communicate.' As agents of free-will, the aliens are self-aware of good and evil, thus convertible to some terrestrial religion. Thirdly: 'We find a dozen civilizations out there, and a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses go up and convert them all.'
Or how about: we find a dozen civilizations out there who teach mankind to finally grow up and throw away the crutch that is religion?
You'd be surprised how much the industry is sick of Java programmers, ...
Could you expand a bit on that? Cite some sources, for instance, instead of making blanket statements out of the blue? I'm a freelance Java programmer, and I've been at work and earning good constantly over the last few years, when the rest of the IT world was down the toilet. The industry is certainly not sick of me or my colleagues. And why would they, since Java makes it an order of magnitude easier to write well documented, maintainable, portable, scaleable, robust, bug-free and fast programs than for instance, C or assembler?
He is currently closing in on one of these individuals...
Who, thanks to you, will now have been tipped off and will vanish without a trace...
...intertwingled...
...vice versa contrariwise.
...happy peanut butter cup land.
...spaghetti objects...
...umpty-booty-teen...
...10kloc!
...death-march misery...
There has got to be some creative language usage award I can nominate you for, and if not, I move that we create one...
I would also add that so much high-quality software is available for free it has the effect of devaluing the worth of what programmers do.
Nonsense. Programmers are paid by companies to write custom software that those companies need, or want to sell. Companies don't have the luxury of hanging around until the software they need happens to get written as open source. This will never change.
What is happening however is that the price that companies can charge for off-the-shelf software is going down, and rightly so! Software costs next to nothing to reproduce, or "manufacture", so it's not right for companies to charge hundreds of dollars for software as if it does cost a lot of money to reproduce. After they have recouped their development costs, the purchase price of commercial software is almost 100% pure profit. Open source is (or will be, hopefully) making it so that they can't do that anymore.
Nothing in the Bible has ever been disproven based on ancient findings by any reputable scientific investigation.
Who the hell modded this "insightful"? Of course science hasn't "disproven" anything in the bible. That's not how science works. Much more to the point is that nothing in the bible has ever been proven by any reputable scientific investigation!
Am I the only one who suspects that there was a lot more than just a phone call behind this? That people high up in Verisign must have been conspiring with Cohen? Why else go through so much to keep obviously stolen property from it's rightful owner? Why lie to the courts about a supposedly forged letter if you weren't covering for something much worse?
While I'm certainly not saying that it's impossible, I also think that the sheer incompetence they displayed is enough to want to cover up; no further conspiracy theory is needed to explain it IMHO.
Hmmm. The big bang posits a long period of time where everything is compressed, followed by an explosion which flares stuff out in all directions.
Actually, the big bang theory doesn't say anything about what happened "before" the big bang, and there's no reason to assume that the universe already existed, only scrunched up into a little ball.
Also, the "flare" caused by the big bang probably isn't shaped like that of a trumpet. According to recent theory, there was a very short period of enormous expansion in the beginning, followed by a long period of much slower expansion. Not the kind of exponential expansion that you would associate with the shape of a trumpet.
So, I think it's unlikely that this new theory and the theory of the big bang have much to do with each other, at least not in the sense that the big bang would explain the shape of the universe in this other theory.
Does this mean that John, Sarah and dr. Dyson didn't have to wear oxygen masks after all?
I have no problem picking up women, in fact, I have to beat them off with a stick.
Could you hit them in my direction?
Yes, yes and yes. Whay would you call it then? Or do you think it's perfectly alright to make use of a service that costs other people money to provide, without paying for it?
The evil martian regime harbors weapons of mass destruction in the form of tremendous stockpiles of poison gas, ...
You mean methane?
Here in Canada, we can copy CDs all you want
That's very hard to believe! A tax like that exists in many countries. We have one just like it here in the Netherlands, but it's still illegal to copy CD's! I agree that that's spectacularly unjust, but it's true nonetheless. Are you sure it's not like that in Canada? Otherwise, wouldn't there be thousands of businesses in no time making tons of money copying CD's?
You are taking something that you should ordinarily pay for, without paying for it. That's called stealing, it really is that simple. People who insist on this "copyright infringement is not stealing" crap are just trying to justify their (or others') theft of music.
From the article: Large numbers of dead fish were not found in Yellowstone Lake, or any other lake in Yellowstone.
<HATTER TYPE="mad">So where were they found then?</HATTER>Their interview with USGS Yellowstone scientists covers all the angles and should inspire the mad-hatters to find something else to fear (for now).
Of course they won't. If anything they'll take it as a confirmation of the big government conspiracy to cover it up! The scientists were obviously on the government's payroll... (as they probably are, of course).
In the case of doctors I think that firstly, Dutch people are less likely to think that a medical problem has been caused by incompetence of or malpractice by a doctor. They appreciate that there is only so much that a doctor can do and that it is sometimes very difficult or even impossible to predict what the effect of certain treatments will be.
Secondly, I think that in the Netherlands it is appreciated more that doctors are only human, that medical professions are extremely difficult and that doctors are under a lot of pressure, and are therefore more inclined to let things go even if they do think that a doctor made an honest mistake.
I don't really know what causes these differences in attitude. It probably comes down to historical differences in the development of our two cultures, as well as perhaps the level of education.
Sadly, there are signs that there will be changes for the worse here. For instance, the Dutch "bar association" wants to start experimenting with "no cure no pay" legal aid, which had previously been prohibited in the Netherlands (perhaps another cause for the difference in attitude).
...for being human.
Why was this modded Funny?
From the article:
We could have left it at that, but we have also paid attention to the European Union and the 'rfid' tracking devices placed in their money,...
Maybe in X-files country, but here in real life, euros do not have 'rfid tracking devices'. What they do have is a metal strip which makes it more difficult to counterfeit.
Of course I fully expect now to be told that my government only wants me to think that that's just a metal strip... :-)
Does anyone else see the whole Oscar thing as Hollywood Jerking Off All Over its Narcissistic and Beautiful Self?
Considering that the film which won eleven Oscars had very little to do with Hollywood (only the money came from there), not really no...
and fuck those that watch this shit like it's something important. You people need to go run a few laps and get a goddamn hobby.
You need to take a dose of your own medicine, dude...
None of those come even close to crappy, if you're able to see past the low budget and choice of subject matter.
Bluetooth has nothing to do with Intel. Intel are a chip maker, maybe they can kill any but the most amazingly advanced CHIP technology, but why would they have any such power in any other industry?
If it happened to you a few times, I'm guessing that it probably happens a lot in Australia, if the alarm number is that easy. Most alarm numbers have two different digits (911, 112), so you'd have to press two different digits and the call button in the right order by accident, which would probably be as likely to happen as unlocking the keypad by accident...