How about me? I'm suspicious of anyone who proposes an increase in the amount or power of government as an answer to a problem. Beyond a certain few minimal services, like defense, the effectiveness of government diminishes.
I'm loathe to call government "evil," however, especially since I've seen it first hand and would be lying if I didn't say all other adjectives besides "inefficient" are lies. The Slashdot crowd seems to have a problem reconciling the morality of things that they don't agree with. Government, democracy, capitalism, and especially corporations aren't inherintly evil entities.
Those that think so have traded the simple "everything is great" view of the world for the equally simple "everything is a conspiracy." In reality, our government is a lot more complex than that, and many things start with the best of intentions and are misused by unscruplous individuals later. Those that think that our politicians exist to enslave the population are naive. This indeed may happen, but more through a comedy of errors than any malicious intent. What you should be scared of are the ignorant people with the doomsday prophecies...when they start asking for money, better watch out.
I'm pretty sure this is one of those cases.
You know what would be the best way to combat terrorism in this country? Stop watching TV, stop attending protests far away from where you live, stop reading this post, and go introduce yourself to your neighbors. Bring them some wine. Have a chat.
The only reason terrorism is a threat today is because people don't know who they're living right next door to. Could be a terrorist, could be a serial killer, could be a really nice guy. But I find the fact that there can be sleeper cells of terrorists in this country that nobody knows about because everyone exists in their own little enclosed world cut off to even the people who live on the other side of their walls to be the most disturbing thing about this whole affair.
You're exactly right, and I think the case against the ACLU is made by noting their absence at times when more legitimate causes are left undefended.
Hey, I'm all for free speech for everyone, but if you're ONLY going to defend the child molesters, what moral authority does your organization have? None. You have to be there for everybody.
That's an excellent point, but I guess you're paying for the convenience of not having to return rental movies.
It's a way to meet consumer demand. From the customer's point of view, he's paying the same amount for a rental and having to do less work since he doesn't have to return it.
Same thing happens when you buy a CPU. We all realize that the only difference between some of the chips is a few jumper settings to impose speed penalties artificially. But the manufacturer does that to match consumer demand while being able to offer a range of models. Is that wrong? Maybe, but at least in that case, you can get a slightly slower PC for cheaper while the rabid fans of speed pick up the tab by buying the fastest version.
Y'all need to read the excellent New York Time Magazine article on Recycling. Published sometime in 1996-97 I believe. The last time I tried to search for it there was a fee for the article, but you might have better luck.
The gist of it was that we don't really have a garbage problem, that when you think of your trash output you're seeing it uncompressed, and that recycling is actually much more detrimental to the environment than simply throwing the trash away (think about the emmissions produced to recycle a piece of plastic, it's substantial).
One of the stats mentioned in the article was that if the compressed garbage output of the entire U.S. for the next millenium was dumped into a single landfill 100 yards deep, the space required would be about 250 (I think) square miles.
The article delves into the sanitation industry which loves the lucrative recycling contracts and how politically expedient it is to institute recycling programs, based on a lot of misinformation passed about recycling in schools and such.
One thing we don't realize is that the cost really doesn't change much. It just changes forms. Your taxes hid a lot of the cost before, now there is more direct cost to send mail.
The reason it really sucks is that when the U.S. government, for example, privatized the post office, there was no corresponding tax cut. ("Hey, my $5 post office tax went down...") They just spend it on something else.
In theory, privatizing the post office should have little to no effect on price, but in reality, government spending insures we'll never see the money that previously went to the post office.
Itemized taxation and making people pay a tax bill every year, instead of deductions from pay each month, are the answer.
You'd think from the comments on here George Bush personally went out and shot all members of the OpenBSD team.
It's funding. It's free. OpenBSD is not entitled to it, it's a gift. OpenBSD existed before this gift, and will exist after it. Isn't the great thing about open source that it's developed as a hobby and not dependent on dollars?
I love the keyboards on laptop computers, but I haven't been able to find a similar style keyboard for a desktop. Not that I've looked particularly hard...but any suggestions?
I came back to my computer one day to a long Instant Message from my mother. When I scrolled back, I realized she was having a conversation with my away message:
Mom: Hi.
Me: Please leave a message.
Mom: Oh, I guess you don't have time now. That's ok. Your father's out raking leaves so I thought we could talk. We love you and miss you.
Me: Please leave a message.
Mom: I just did.
Me: Please leave a message.
Mom: Ok, you're starting to make me mad. Why do you keep saying that? I don't care anymore. I'm turning this stupid thing off now.
Slashdot Mirror
>I would like to see neighborhood butcher shops where locally-raised animals would be slaughtered on the premises.
Or you could go hunting. A lot of people still do that, and most seem to have the greater appreciation for nature that you describe.
How about me? I'm suspicious of anyone who proposes an increase in the amount or power of government as an answer to a problem. Beyond a certain few minimal services, like defense, the effectiveness of government diminishes.
I'm loathe to call government "evil," however, especially since I've seen it first hand and would be lying if I didn't say all other adjectives besides "inefficient" are lies. The Slashdot crowd seems to have a problem reconciling the morality of things that they don't agree with. Government, democracy, capitalism, and especially corporations aren't inherintly evil entities.
Those that think so have traded the simple "everything is great" view of the world for the equally simple "everything is a conspiracy." In reality, our government is a lot more complex than that, and many things start with the best of intentions and are misused by unscruplous individuals later. Those that think that our politicians exist to enslave the population are naive. This indeed may happen, but more through a comedy of errors than any malicious intent. What you should be scared of are the ignorant people with the doomsday prophecies...when they start asking for money, better watch out.
I'm pretty sure this is one of those cases.
You know what would be the best way to combat terrorism in this country? Stop watching TV, stop attending protests far away from where you live, stop reading this post, and go introduce yourself to your neighbors. Bring them some wine. Have a chat.
The only reason terrorism is a threat today is because people don't know who they're living right next door to. Could be a terrorist, could be a serial killer, could be a really nice guy. But I find the fact that there can be sleeper cells of terrorists in this country that nobody knows about because everyone exists in their own little enclosed world cut off to even the people who live on the other side of their walls to be the most disturbing thing about this whole affair.
Or, "you're a racist" today.
He might have your FBI file laying around if they didn't do a thorough enough housecleaning when Clinton left.
But I guess that sort of thing doesn't bother you, since government is just so *great* when your party's in power.
You're not alone.
I always try the latest and greatest desktops, but keep going back to FVWM.
Nothing on the desktop but a pager, everything is in the root windows, including a handy tasklist. (like an auto-hide taskbar, 'cept better.)
I've got keyboard shortcuts to open all of the apps I use frequently.
FVWM would be perfect if only it had anti-aliased fonts...oh well. I can live with that.
I thought it was funny.
If you knew me, however, you'd know that's a small fucking consolation.
You're exactly right, and I think the case against the ACLU is made by noting their absence at times when more legitimate causes are left undefended.
Hey, I'm all for free speech for everyone, but if you're ONLY going to defend the child molesters, what moral authority does your organization have? None. You have to be there for everybody.
Maybe it's just more hacker speak for LOL.
Trinity is really just a fat 35 year old man in an AOL chatroom.
That's an excellent point, but I guess you're paying for the convenience of not having to return rental movies.
It's a way to meet consumer demand. From the customer's point of view, he's paying the same amount for a rental and having to do less work since he doesn't have to return it.
Same thing happens when you buy a CPU. We all realize that the only difference between some of the chips is a few jumper settings to impose speed penalties artificially. But the manufacturer does that to match consumer demand while being able to offer a range of models. Is that wrong? Maybe, but at least in that case, you can get a slightly slower PC for cheaper while the rabid fans of speed pick up the tab by buying the fastest version.
It's a mixed blessing.
Y'all need to read the excellent New York Time Magazine article on Recycling. Published sometime in 1996-97 I believe. The last time I tried to search for it there was a fee for the article, but you might have better luck.
The gist of it was that we don't really have a garbage problem, that when you think of your trash output you're seeing it uncompressed, and that recycling is actually much more detrimental to the environment than simply throwing the trash away (think about the emmissions produced to recycle a piece of plastic, it's substantial).
One of the stats mentioned in the article was that if the compressed garbage output of the entire U.S. for the next millenium was dumped into a single landfill 100 yards deep, the space required would be about 250 (I think) square miles.
The article delves into the sanitation industry which loves the lucrative recycling contracts and how politically expedient it is to institute recycling programs, based on a lot of misinformation passed about recycling in schools and such.
It's an interesting read.
"the general public is much, much stupider than the Slashdot crowd."
You're new here, aren't you?
Yeah, and the sound would suck.
>Do you ever wonder why most import cars are vastly superior to domestics?
Ummm, domestic assembly line robots are lazy?
0.6 of Firebird the browser or Firebird the database?!?!?!
Oh my god I'm so confused!!
>Wait til they target newborns, and generate a program only a prenatal infant can enjoy. ;)
You mean teletubbies?
I know this is a really unpopular thing to say around here, but guess what? Trees grow back.
One thing we don't realize is that the cost really doesn't change much. It just changes forms. Your taxes hid a lot of the cost before, now there is more direct cost to send mail.
The reason it really sucks is that when the U.S. government, for example, privatized the post office, there was no corresponding tax cut. ("Hey, my $5 post office tax went down...") They just spend it on something else.
In theory, privatizing the post office should have little to no effect on price, but in reality, government spending insures we'll never see the money that previously went to the post office.
Itemized taxation and making people pay a tax bill every year, instead of deductions from pay each month, are the answer.
Even though I agree with your sentiment, using the post office as a model of efficiency just may get you into trouble someday...
I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are, looking up how to start a home business on Slashdot.
What am I going to do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?
You'd think from the comments on here George Bush personally went out and shot all members of the OpenBSD team.
It's funding. It's free. OpenBSD is not entitled to it, it's a gift.
OpenBSD existed before this gift, and will exist after it. Isn't the great thing about open source that it's developed as a hobby and not dependent on dollars?
I love the keyboards on laptop computers, but I haven't been able to find a similar style keyboard for a desktop. Not that I've looked particularly hard...but any suggestions?
$VC =~ /lemming/
I can't stand the suspense. Is it a match, or not?
Until it comes with the Jet-Jaguar theme song, standard.
That's a cute story about the mouse.
I came back to my computer one day to a long Instant Message from my mother. When I scrolled back, I realized she was having a conversation with my away message:
Mom: Hi.
Me: Please leave a message.
Mom: Oh, I guess you don't have time now. That's ok. Your father's out raking leaves so I thought we could talk. We love you and miss you.
Me: Please leave a message.
Mom: I just did.
Me: Please leave a message.
Mom: Ok, you're starting to make me mad. Why do you keep saying that? I don't care anymore. I'm turning this stupid thing off now.
That's true, but KDE and Gnome are the only things comparable to Windows in terms of consistancy and ease of use.
And they're substantially slower than what a typical Windows user would be used to.
So while FVWM is great on old machines, much better than Windows, it's not something that's going to make a switch from Windows easy.