If you read up on neo conservative principals you will find that one of their avowed goals is to bankrupt the federal government so that large corporations will take over the fundamental social services of our lives. We're seeing the after-effects of this right now.
Basically, they believe a small group of people is more intelligent than the masses, and those people should be running everything in order to save people from themselves. To do this, they have to concentrate as much power in the hands of the judicial branch and the executive branch as possible.
How many executives or busy professionals do you know? Ok. Now, how many of those people do their own taxes? My bet is "none", given my experience with those types of people (I manage their finances).
None of these people knew about what was wrong with their taxes until they got reamed. I'm sure their CPA is looking for work now.
Can you address the logical fallacy where you tied my personal statement to my country and that by extension I cannot be given reprieve for an act that I did not, and do my best not to, commit? It's like saying that if a white racial rights activist addresses the issue of racism and uses black people as an example of people who also commit racism, then that white person is a hypocrite (which he is) but just can't be forgiven because white people also commit racist acts. Seriously, wtf mate?
Yes, I was looking for a reasonable discussion. I may have started it less than perfectly, but is launching an attack against a well-intentioned, if flawed, statement really productive? I don't expect a discussion on slashdot to change the world, but why create animosity on a site where we actually have the chance to reach an understanding between two intelligent people? Maybe I'm too new here:)
As far as a conspiracy goes: You're right, there is no conspiracy. Is it necessary to put words in my mouth? I'm only saying that the rest of the world has its own hypocrisy too.
The air in the big cities is more than reasonable, and I spend about half my time in one of the biggest (and best:) ), Chicago. I'm not sure where you are from, but most US cities are nothing like Beijing's cloud of pollution (Los Angeles, perhaps). Sure, it's probably not the healthiest, cleanest air in our cities but I can go running and cycling and go just as far as when I'm out in the middle of nowhere, so the quality can't be *that* bad.
Yes, I know where the local dumpsite is. It's called the Arf Landfill (how's that for a lovely name?). The dump sites are all self-contained, mandated by law to be leakproof. There are a few places in the US that have done it half-assed and gotten reamed by the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) and made to clean it up, but on the whole they're fairly clean (if smelly). I have a friend who works on groundwater monitoring for the EPA. If his tests ever came up badly I'd know pretty quickly, and he covers a number of states in the Midwest.
As far as the Plastic Dead Zone (East, West, or both?) goes: That's a terrible mess. I don't know what percentage of it is whose fault, but I do know it's not all the USA's. A lot of that debris actually comes from shipping lane traffic I think, so perhaps we could correlate shipping traffic to each country and get a rough estimate of who is causing what percentage of it. Should we all get together and clean it up? Absolutely. I sure hope we wake the hell up one day and deal with it, but I'm not sure it should all be on the US's shoulders.
First, I'm sorry if this has gotten your ire up. I really try to be part of good discussions here, with the occasional silly or snarky comment. I'm not the smartest one here (god help us all if I am) so I try to give some respect so that when I mess up I can get a little leeway in return.
The U.S. certainly has its share of crap that it does but the idea was to ask about who would be responsible. Perhaps a less inflammatory statement or an alternate example country such as the U.S. would have been better.
I don't know what's going on with moderation here, but I'll throw my hat in the ring. Why is this modded Troll? Why are som of the other posts moderated down? The politicizing that seems to be going on here is worrisome.
Hypocrisy or not, I was looking for an informed discussion as opposed to culture wars or finger-pointing.
And why is it particularly difficult to pardon? Have you conflated what my country/government does with my actions? Why am I suddenly the Supreme Envoy of The United States? I am quite tired of the rest of the world rabbiting on about the USA's hypocrisy while they themselves commit similar acts.
I do my tiny part to correct the kinds of missteps The States make but one person (most people) can only do so much. So wherever you are perhaps it makes more sense to be understanding of those who want to change things and not automatically lump us together. Our policies, fine. As individual people? Then you've entered Ignorance Central.
Who is to blame as this happens more often? Is there going to be a tracking mechanism that shows exactly whose debris causes damage to a craft? It seems to me that if countries are going to be so irresponsible as to not decommission their craft and satellites correctly they ought to either clean it up or pay a very hefty fine to reimburse the loss of a country's hard-earned space mission.
For instance, if China treats space the way they treat many other things (ie little or no regard for its preservation, pardon the sweeping statement) then what recourse will other countries have? If they have a project which has cost a nation billions of dollars and a small piece of shrapnel knocks out the whole damn thing, what happens next?
I'm sure someone will get paid big bucks to make a solution, but it sure sounds like space debris is quickly becoming a problem. Maybe it's just coincidence, though.
While I agree with this in principal I can't help but feel there may be a deeper cultural issue at work regarding "privacy". This may be slightly off topic, but since we are talking about porn, which is fairly cultural, here goes:
I know that I have picked up a book or two because some stranger was reading it on the train or in a cafe. Sometimes I have conversations with strangers on the street due to something that happens or a weird coincidence. These instances are one way that culture can spread, move people, and create a community.
We seem to be heading into an era where people are very cut off from others. Ear buds in our ears, reading our Kindle, oblivious to anything in the outside world. Just our little bubble. One could even go so far as to say "it helps block out meaningful thought by keeping many of us entertained 24/7.
While I think your privacy concern is valid (I had a situation arise years ago where I am fairly certain i was fired due to the fact that I am a Buddhist, while my employer was very Christian) I sometimes wonder if the very things which we profess to keep us safe are in fact making our own worlds smaller and even conceited. While we see mountains of data and electronic communication that profess to enhance and enlarge our experience, is it at the cost of true involvement in day to day life? Maybe it's just the shifting of culture to a digitally defined reality. Either way it oftens feels cold and detached. This comes across more and more in personal interaction (IMHO) which seems like cause for concern.
To be a bit dramatic: Is it really privacy we desire, or is technology slowly giving us what some want: Emotional and social laziness?
Also, is there a time and place for porn? Should we be reading it while our boss is sitting across from us? If it's ok to do that, it seems like it could usher in a different day-to-day mindset if people are less obliged to pay attention to their business meeting than their hootie-hoo (or whatever you call it).
IMHO mod parent insightful. As someone who works in a job that can rely on both technical acumen and business charm, the charm wins out frequently. Charm seems to work the most with people who are most in need of advice (the ones who are most in denial about their situation.)
It's amazing to me how showing data to someone in black and white, or giving them straight-ahead professional advice rarely wins out over someone who can just smile no matter what and take someone's money with little or no justification for their actions.
The majority of persons I know in my position are just MBAs or salespeople who can smile and get along with people with little interest in technical details (and there are A LOT). It's terrifying and baffling to me. If one is going to orchestrate peoples' goals and finances elegantly it requires more than a smile and a handshake.
More to the point: Is Feynman right about charm vs. smarts? Probably, and that's a hard pill to swallow for an analytic who doesn't even *enjoy* getting along with many people.
A friend of mine once quipped, in 4th grade no less, that there seem to be fewer and fewer nice people in the world every day. Maybe this explains why. If you *seem* charming and empathetic you can get by. If you actually are you may be spending too many resources to look "successful".
When I had to go to the emergency room last year because i was vomiting and shitting blood, there were no urgent care facilities on the North Side of Chicago. There still aren't, at least not within driving distance where I wouldn't have passed out. I would have had to call an ambulance, which costs an arm and a leg.
Instead I was driven by my terrified but calm and loving girlfriend to Swedish Covenant Hospital. There, they informed me I was just extremely dehydrated and nauseous. They never figured out what was wrong. I stayed in ED for about 6 hours while they gave me an IV to rehydrate me, with anti-nausea drugs so I wouldn't keep heaving and bleeding.
The doctor saw me for 5 minutes. He charged me $650. The hospital billed me separately for $2500.
I have a major medical plan, high deductible. None of it was covered. I was furious. They told me I should have gone to an urgent care facility, to which I replied that there are none in driving distance of the (quite nice) neighborhood my girlfriend resides in. They had no answer for me.
My point? If I buy a majr medical policy, it should damn well cover actual emergencies and major medical. I had another emergency a couple months before that in which an MRI would have been very useful. I now have a (probably permanent) wrist injury affecting my right hand. Why? My medical plan would not cover a dime of the $5000 that it would cost get an MRI.
I am paying about $500/mo for insurance. I really ought to get something in return for that. This system is screwed up.
Did anyone else read that as "Microsoft has enough lobbyists and has given us enough money, so we can let them slide. Google, it's your turn to line our pockets so we'll leave you alone after a mock trial and a slap on the wrist" ?
My first thought (maybe not my best one) in this case is "Why?"
Why would the judge get kickbacks for jailing juveniles (or others)? Where is the money to be made by the detention center? Is this obvious evidence of a system of what amounts to forced slave labor?
If that is the case, then this whole "rights erosion/surveillance state" gets scarier by the minute. If you can be jailed by a corrupt (kick-back $)system that can deem almost anything a crime and which is watching many actions you take outside your home and online suddenly the system can arbitrarily harvest enough (slave) labor to do what it wants. Dystopian corporate future, anyone?
I know it's just one judge, but how many more of them are there? Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee, but this is a little scary.
My first thought (maybe not my best one) in this case is "Why?"
Why would the judge get kickbacks for jailing juveniles (or others)? Where is the money to be made by the detention center? Is this obvious evidence of a system of what amounts to forced slave labor?
If that is the case, then this whole "rights erosion/surveillance state" gets scarier by the minute. If you can be jailed by a corrupt (kick-back $)system that can deem almost anything a crime and which is watching many actions you take outside your home and online suddenly the system can arbitrarily harvest enough (slave) labor to do what it wants. Dystopian corporate future, anyone?
I know it's just one judge, but how many more of them are there? Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee, but this is a little scary.
Is it just me, or has Palm fallen flat on its face every time they have something that could be big (except when they debuted the palm pilot)? They used to have so much caché, but every time I hear what sounds like good news it just vanishes. Why do people keep supporting this company if they can't get their act together? Do they offer a magical pony with every purchase that no one is telling me about?
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second here:
What if it isn't a bad thing? What if the debris cloud does start some sort of slow chain reaction that knocks out a lot of satellites in orbit and rings earth with debris?
Although it would be expensive to clean up it would definitely put peoples' minds back on space technology if they suddenly couldn't get tv, phone, internet, gps, or other critical services. It could spur development to clean things up, avoid the problem in the future, and get more nations/people/viable technology in space.
In our "convenience at any cost" age, perhaps this sort of inconvenience is the kind of thing to slap some sense into us.
If Linux wants more market share it needs a face, it needs something people can point to and say "Linux". That's the way this sort of thing works.
From someone who is no longer in the tech community but is a big geek and has geek friends, we have the wrong aim, people. We need good communication, not analytics. Yes the OS should be improved, but in order for lots of people to adopt it we need to communicate a fairly unified, confident idea.
If Ubuntu is that face, great! Let's work on that. If KDE is that face, great! Let's work on that. If Gnome is that face... you get the idea.
People love consistency. We geeks want to analyze and pick apart everything, change it and tweak. Your average person DOES NOT CARE! They want something that works. Until we get that through our oversized brain/ego/whatever then Linux is not likely to take off in a really big way.
Will this sacrifice a few things? Sure it will. However, since it is Open Source those little niche OS's can still exist! That is the problem with the big players now. We can still tweak things to make them better.
Geeks like to be RIGHT and not make mistakes. I think it has something to do with smarts, or not being hugged enough as kids, or something. Their confidence/power comes from analyzing and making the "right" decision, which is why science is an analytic's passion. We can be "Right". People do not always want that. They want something that makes them feel good, simple and easy that they don't have to think about. If that thing is windows or Mac for them then so be it!
The bright spot: What if we did this and got more market share, huh? We'd be in the spot where software SHOULD be. The geeks run things behind the scenes, tweaking and improving, altering and modifying for their user base, while the average person (99% of peopl out there) can use an innovative, slick interface that runs on cheap hardware. When they want to use their special application it works! When they need software or processes tailored to what they are doing, it will be easier. Businesses will run better since there will be less down time on the user side (i think), fewer upgrade$ to the newest Mac/Windows Neon Bloat Fantastic, and fewer headaches with techies trying to make programs/systems work together.
All we have to do is learn to set aside our infighting because we want things to be scientifically "perfect) and market some form of Linux, anything, and unify behind it for the user base at large. Yes there should lots of distros for niche markets, but a general distribution would be very helpful.
Sorry about that: ================= I agree with you. I think it is wrong to deprive artists of their right to profit for recent creations. however, the artists get paid little or nothing on DVD/CD sales. They get paid from TICKET sales. The big corporatiosn are bloated maggots that should be trimmed way down. Does anybody remember the huge litigation a few years back about the exorbitant price of CDs? Anybody? Anybody? That exorbitant price is baked into a lot of our media today. Do I want the artist to get paid? Of course. Do I want some coked up asshole media exec buying his 15th vintage Porsche with that money? Hell no. Corporatiosn, like government, need a dose of reality here.
Sometimes I wonder what the recording industry is really after. It looks more like they're just terrified of losing their jobs and having to work in the real world. I'll bet if just one of those execs defected and started his own Free Association (ha) he'd have such a massive groundswell of support that it would fast become a terrific force against the MPAA/RIAA.
I know I'm not in the majority here, but here goes:
-I use P2P for getting rare stuff that I can't find elsewhere. Like Italian B-Movie music, or indie bands that have vanished, or obscure electronic music for instance.
-I use P2P for getting a song quickly that I already have and can't find the CD for (like I own almost all Rush's albums, but do I always have time to look for them? No, and there's no reason for me to rebuy the music), or perhaps for the odd song here or there that I don't own but just want to hear(yes, I could buy it, but iTunes drives me up the flipping wall) -Sometimes I use P2P when I have a hankering for discovering old music, like the Top 100 in 1981 (god help us all). Could I find ANY of that without P2P? Yes, but it would take a HUGE amount of time that I don't have. Do I really want to buy crap like "Ebony & Ivory" or Alan Parsons Project? Hell no! it's 25 years old, its run its course, for god's sake let this crap be free if I want to torture my late-night work with it.
-I use P2P to download Battlestar Galactica the Saturday morning after the show airs because I'm busy on Fridays. Could I watch it on cable? Yes. I just don't want to.
I buy CDs and support artists if I really like their music. I tell others about it. They tend to be bands that will never show up on any chart anywhere ever. In fact, the online radio I listen to (somafm.com) is probably in danger of going under due to the restrictive actions of big corporations. I don't listen to pop radio anymore, it's either NPR, Classical, or Jazz, because nothing good seems to be on the radio anymore. The stuff that does sound pretty good seems to be older music and the occasional single that catches my ear.
Another idea: How many times have you heard snippets of songs in commercials, between radio segments, or in stores, and wondered "Hey, that sounds kinda neat, I wonder what it is?" Is there a way to explore that further? Rarely. If I have no way of knowing what a song is, I can't buy it even if I wanted to. Since I'm at the store and in impulse buying mode to a degree, why not tack music onto that list for $1 a pop?
I know this has been a long post. My hope is that as the corps try to control things more (like Microsoft) the people who provide free content with an option to buy (like Linux) will begin to get a flood of new business. David Byrne did this with his new album, and it's beena huge success! You can listen to his album as much as you want on the album's website. Want to have it on CD? On MP3? Lossless FLAC? pay a modest sum ($8 for MP3, FLAC, $8 more for the CD) and there you go. Most of the money goes directly to the artist and everyone is happy.
Hi,
I agree with you. I think it is wrong to deprive artists of their right to profit for recent creations. however, the artists get paid little or nothing on DVD/CD sales. They get paid from TICKET sales. The big corporatiosn are bloated maggots that should be trimmed way down. Does anybody remember the huge litigation a few years back about the exorbitant price of CDs? Anybody? Anybody? That exorbitant price is baked into a lot of our media today. Do I want the artist to get paid? Of course. Do I want some coked up asshole media exec buying his 15th vintage Porsche with that money? Hell no.
Corporatiosn, like government, need a dose of reality here.
Sometimes I wonder what the recording industry is really after. It looks more like they're just terrified of losing their jobs and having to work in the real world. I'll bet if just one of those execs defected and started his own Free Association (ha) he'd have such a massive groundswell of support that it would fast become a terrific force against the MPAA/RIAA.
I know I'm not in the majority here, but here goes:
-I use P2P for getting rare stuff that I can't find elsewhere. Like Italian B-Movie music, or indie bands that have vanished, or obscure electronic music for instance.
-I use P2P for getting a song quickly that I already have and can't find the CD for (like I own almost all Rush's albums, but do I always have time to look for them? No, and there's no reason for me to rebuy the music), or perhaps for the odd song here or there that I don't own but just want to hear(yes, I could buy it, but iTunes drives me up the flipping wall)
-Sometimes I use P2P when I have a hankering for discovering old music, like the Top 100 in 1981 (god help us all). Could I find ANY of that without P2P? Yes, but it would take a HUGE amount of time that I don't have. Do I really want to buy crap like "Ebony & Ivory" or Alan Parsons Project? Hell no! it's 25 years old, its run its course, for god's sake let this crap be free if I want to torture my late-night work with it.
-I use P2P to download Battlestar Galactica the Saturday morning after the show airs because I'm busy on Fridays. Could I watch it on cable? Yes. I just don't want to.
I buy CDs and support artists if I really like their music. I tell others about it. They tend to be bands that will never show up on any chart anywhere ever. In fact, the online radio I listen to (somafm.com) is probably in danger of going under due to the restrictive actions of big corporations. I don't listen to pop radio anymore, it's either NPR, Classical, or Jazz, because nothing good seems to be on the radio anymore. The stuff that does sound pretty good seems to be older music and the occasional single that catches my ear.
Another idea: How many times have you heard snippets of songs in commercials, between radio segments, or in stores, and wondered "Hey, that sounds kinda neat, I wonder what it is?" Is there a way to explore that further? Rarely. If I have no way of knowing what a song is, I can't buy it even if I wanted to. Since I'm at the store and in impulse buying mode to a degree, why not tack music onto that list for $1 a pop?
I know this has been a long post. My hope is that as the corps try to control things more (like Microsoft) the people who provide free content with an option to buy (like Linux) will begin to get a flood of new business. David Byrne did this with his new album, and it's beena huge success! You can listen to his album as much as you want on the album's website. Want to have it on CD? On MP3? Lossless FLAC? pay a modest sum ($8 for MP3, FLAC, $8 more for the CD) and there you go. Most of the money goes directly to the artist and everyone is happy.
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If you read up on neo conservative principals you will find that one of their avowed goals is to bankrupt the federal government so that large corporations will take over the fundamental social services of our lives. We're seeing the after-effects of this right now.
Basically, they believe a small group of people is more intelligent than the masses, and those people should be running everything in order to save people from themselves. To do this, they have to concentrate as much power in the hands of the judicial branch and the executive branch as possible.
How many executives or busy professionals do you know?
Ok.
Now, how many of those people do their own taxes?
My bet is "none", given my experience with those types of people (I manage their finances).
None of these people knew about what was wrong with their taxes until they got reamed. I'm sure their CPA is looking for work now.
Can you address the logical fallacy where you tied my personal statement to my country and that by extension I cannot be given reprieve for an act that I did not, and do my best not to, commit? It's like saying that if a white racial rights activist addresses the issue of racism and uses black people as an example of people who also commit racism, then that white person is a hypocrite (which he is) but just can't be forgiven because white people also commit racist acts. Seriously, wtf mate?
Yes, I was looking for a reasonable discussion. I may have started it less than perfectly, but is launching an attack against a well-intentioned, if flawed, statement really productive? I don't expect a discussion on slashdot to change the world, but why create animosity on a site where we actually have the chance to reach an understanding between two intelligent people? Maybe I'm too new here :)
As far as a conspiracy goes: You're right, there is no conspiracy. Is it necessary to put words in my mouth? I'm only saying that the rest of the world has its own hypocrisy too.
The air in the big cities is more than reasonable, and I spend about half my time in one of the biggest (and best :) ), Chicago. I'm not sure where you are from, but most US cities are nothing like Beijing's cloud of pollution (Los Angeles, perhaps). Sure, it's probably not the healthiest, cleanest air in our cities but I can go running and cycling and go just as far as when I'm out in the middle of nowhere, so the quality can't be *that* bad.
Yes, I know where the local dumpsite is. It's called the Arf Landfill (how's that for a lovely name?). The dump sites are all self-contained, mandated by law to be leakproof. There are a few places in the US that have done it half-assed and gotten reamed by the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) and made to clean it up, but on the whole they're fairly clean (if smelly). I have a friend who works on groundwater monitoring for the EPA. If his tests ever came up badly I'd know pretty quickly, and he covers a number of states in the Midwest.
As far as the Plastic Dead Zone (East, West, or both?) goes: That's a terrible mess. I don't know what percentage of it is whose fault, but I do know it's not all the USA's. A lot of that debris actually comes from shipping lane traffic I think, so perhaps we could correlate shipping traffic to each country and get a rough estimate of who is causing what percentage of it. Should we all get together and clean it up? Absolutely. I sure hope we wake the hell up one day and deal with it, but I'm not sure it should all be on the US's shoulders.
First, I'm sorry if this has gotten your ire up. I really try to be part of good discussions here, with the occasional silly or snarky comment. I'm not the smartest one here (god help us all if I am) so I try to give some respect so that when I mess up I can get a little leeway in return.
Have a good one.
While I could have picked other examples, such as Russia's recent debacle with that Iridium satellite, I cite China partly because of one of the last satellites they "decommissioned".
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2007/01/china_blows_up_.html
I certainly thought there was a more recent incident but it looks like China may be taking measures to mitigate debris:
http://www.space.com/spacenews/070903_businessmonday_china_debris.html
The U.S. certainly has its share of crap that it does but the idea was to ask about who would be responsible. Perhaps a less inflammatory statement or an alternate example country such as the U.S. would have been better.
I don't know what's going on with moderation here, but I'll throw my hat in the ring.
Why is this modded Troll?
Why are som of the other posts moderated down?
The politicizing that seems to be going on here is worrisome.
Hypocrisy or not, I was looking for an informed discussion as opposed to culture wars or finger-pointing.
And why is it particularly difficult to pardon? Have you conflated what my country/government does with my actions? Why am I suddenly the Supreme Envoy of The United States? I am quite tired of the rest of the world rabbiting on about the USA's hypocrisy while they themselves commit similar acts.
I do my tiny part to correct the kinds of missteps The States make but one person (most people) can only do so much. So wherever you are perhaps it makes more sense to be understanding of those who want to change things and not automatically lump us together. Our policies, fine. As individual people? Then you've entered Ignorance Central.
Who is to blame as this happens more often? Is there going to be a tracking mechanism that shows exactly whose debris causes damage to a craft?
It seems to me that if countries are going to be so irresponsible as to not decommission their craft and satellites correctly they ought to either clean it up or pay a very hefty fine to reimburse the loss of a country's hard-earned space mission.
For instance, if China treats space the way they treat many other things (ie little or no regard for its preservation, pardon the sweeping statement) then what recourse will other countries have? If they have a project which has cost a nation billions of dollars and a small piece of shrapnel knocks out the whole damn thing, what happens next?
I'm sure someone will get paid big bucks to make a solution, but it sure sounds like space debris is quickly becoming a problem. Maybe it's just coincidence, though.
Just to clarify:
My hope was that the post was worded so it wouldn't sound alarmist. Apparently I could have done better :)
While I agree with this in principal I can't help but feel there may be a deeper cultural issue at work regarding "privacy".
This may be slightly off topic, but since we are talking about porn, which is fairly cultural, here goes:
I know that I have picked up a book or two because some stranger was reading it on the train or in a cafe. Sometimes I have conversations with strangers on the street due to something that happens or a weird coincidence. These instances are one way that culture can spread, move people, and create a community.
We seem to be heading into an era where people are very cut off from others. Ear buds in our ears, reading our Kindle, oblivious to anything in the outside world. Just our little bubble. One could even go so far as to say "it helps block out meaningful thought by keeping many of us entertained 24/7.
While I think your privacy concern is valid (I had a situation arise years ago where I am fairly certain i was fired due to the fact that I am a Buddhist, while my employer was very Christian) I sometimes wonder if the very things which we profess to keep us safe are in fact making our own worlds smaller and even conceited. While we see mountains of data and electronic communication that profess to enhance and enlarge our experience, is it at the cost of true involvement in day to day life? Maybe it's just the shifting of culture to a digitally defined reality. Either way it oftens feels cold and detached. This comes across more and more in personal interaction (IMHO) which seems like cause for concern.
To be a bit dramatic: Is it really privacy we desire, or is technology slowly giving us what some want: Emotional and social laziness?
Also, is there a time and place for porn? Should we be reading it while our boss is sitting across from us? If it's ok to do that, it seems like it could usher in a different day-to-day mindset if people are less obliged to pay attention to their business meeting than their hootie-hoo (or whatever you call it).
IMHO mod parent insightful. As someone who works in a job that can rely on both technical acumen and business charm, the charm wins out frequently. Charm seems to work the most with people who are most in need of advice (the ones who are most in denial about their situation.)
It's amazing to me how showing data to someone in black and white, or giving them straight-ahead professional advice rarely wins out over someone who can just smile no matter what and take someone's money with little or no justification for their actions.
The majority of persons I know in my position are just MBAs or salespeople who can smile and get along with people with little interest in technical details (and there are A LOT). It's terrifying and baffling to me. If one is going to orchestrate peoples' goals and finances elegantly it requires more than a smile and a handshake.
More to the point:
Is Feynman right about charm vs. smarts? Probably, and that's a hard pill to swallow for an analytic who doesn't even *enjoy* getting along with many people.
A friend of mine once quipped, in 4th grade no less, that there seem to be fewer and fewer nice people in the world every day. Maybe this explains why. If you *seem* charming and empathetic you can get by. If you actually are you may be spending too many resources to look "successful".
It is what it is.
When I had to go to the emergency room last year because i was vomiting and shitting blood, there were no urgent care facilities on the North Side of Chicago. There still aren't, at least not within driving distance where I wouldn't have passed out. I would have had to call an ambulance, which costs an arm and a leg.
Instead I was driven by my terrified but calm and loving girlfriend to Swedish Covenant Hospital. There, they informed me I was just extremely dehydrated and nauseous. They never figured out what was wrong. I stayed in ED for about 6 hours while they gave me an IV to rehydrate me, with anti-nausea drugs so I wouldn't keep heaving and bleeding.
The doctor saw me for 5 minutes. He charged me $650.
The hospital billed me separately for $2500.
I have a major medical plan, high deductible. None of it was covered. I was furious. They told me I should have gone to an urgent care facility, to which I replied that there are none in driving distance of the (quite nice) neighborhood my girlfriend resides in. They had no answer for me.
My point? If I buy a majr medical policy, it should damn well cover actual emergencies and major medical. I had another emergency a couple months before that in which an MRI would have been very useful. I now have a (probably permanent) wrist injury affecting my right hand. Why? My medical plan would not cover a dime of the $5000 that it would cost get an MRI.
I am paying about $500/mo for insurance. I really ought to get something in return for that. This system is screwed up.
Did anyone else read that as "Microsoft has enough lobbyists and has given us enough money, so we can let them slide. Google, it's your turn to line our pockets so we'll leave you alone after a mock trial and a slap on the wrist" ?
My first thought (maybe not my best one) in this case is "Why?"
Why would the judge get kickbacks for jailing juveniles (or others)? Where is the money to be made by the detention center?
Is this obvious evidence of a system of what amounts to forced slave labor?
If that is the case, then this whole "rights erosion/surveillance state" gets scarier by the minute. If you can be jailed by a corrupt (kick-back $)system that can deem almost anything a crime and which is watching many actions you take outside your home and online suddenly the system can arbitrarily harvest enough (slave) labor to do what it wants. Dystopian corporate future, anyone?
I know it's just one judge, but how many more of them are there? Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee, but this is a little scary.
Am I missing something?
Sorry, wrong thread, too many tabs.
My first thought (maybe not my best one) in this case is "Why?"
Why would the judge get kickbacks for jailing juveniles (or others)? Where is the money to be made by the detention center?
Is this obvious evidence of a system of what amounts to forced slave labor?
If that is the case, then this whole "rights erosion/surveillance state" gets scarier by the minute. If you can be jailed by a corrupt (kick-back $)system that can deem almost anything a crime and which is watching many actions you take outside your home and online suddenly the system can arbitrarily harvest enough (slave) labor to do what it wants. Dystopian corporate future, anyone?
I know it's just one judge, but how many more of them are there? Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee, but this is a little scary.
Am I missing something?
and I have the Karma to spare, so...
I welcome our new robot zombie overlords!
thank you. I guess I was just hard up to use an ASCII table.
Is it just me, or has Palm fallen flat on its face every time they have something that could be big (except when they debuted the palm pilot)?
They used to have so much caché, but every time I hear what sounds like good news it just vanishes.
Why do people keep supporting this company if they can't get their act together? Do they offer a magical pony with every purchase that no one is telling me about?
I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second here:
What if it isn't a bad thing? What if the debris cloud does start some sort of slow chain reaction that knocks out a lot of satellites in orbit and rings earth with debris?
Although it would be expensive to clean up it would definitely put peoples' minds back on space technology if they suddenly couldn't get tv, phone, internet, gps, or other critical services. It could spur development to clean things up, avoid the problem in the future, and get more nations/people/viable technology in space.
In our "convenience at any cost" age, perhaps this sort of inconvenience is the kind of thing to slap some sense into us.
Yes.
But the tendency of those programmers/Linux geeks is to lose sight of that fact, and changing that habit isn't necessarily easy.
That actually sounds like a much better idea.
I must still be stuck in "War on Terror" mode from the last 8 years.
Does this mean that countries could begin to wage "weather war"? If we stop rain from falling on a country, it would be just sieging a castle.
If Linux wants more market share it needs a face, it needs something people can point to and say "Linux".
That's the way this sort of thing works.
From someone who is no longer in the tech community but is a big geek and has geek friends, we have the wrong aim, people.
We need good communication, not analytics. Yes the OS should be improved, but in order for lots of people to adopt it we need to communicate a fairly unified, confident idea.
If Ubuntu is that face, great! Let's work on that.
If KDE is that face, great! Let's work on that.
If Gnome is that face... you get the idea.
People love consistency. We geeks want to analyze and pick apart everything, change it and tweak. Your average person DOES NOT CARE! They want something that works. Until we get that through our oversized brain/ego/whatever then Linux is not likely to take off in a really big way.
Will this sacrifice a few things? Sure it will. However, since it is Open Source those little niche OS's can still exist! That is the problem with the big players now. We can still tweak things to make them better.
Geeks like to be RIGHT and not make mistakes. I think it has something to do with smarts, or not being hugged enough as kids, or something. Their confidence/power comes from analyzing and making the "right" decision, which is why science is an analytic's passion. We can be "Right". People do not always want that. They want something that makes them feel good, simple and easy that they don't have to think about. If that thing is windows or Mac for them then so be it!
The bright spot: What if we did this and got more market share, huh? We'd be in the spot where software SHOULD be. The geeks run things behind the scenes, tweaking and improving, altering and modifying for their user base, while the average person (99% of peopl out there) can use an innovative, slick interface that runs on cheap hardware. When they want to use their special application it works! When they need software or processes tailored to what they are doing, it will be easier. Businesses will run better since there will be less down time on the user side (i think), fewer upgrade$ to the newest Mac/Windows Neon Bloat Fantastic, and fewer headaches with techies trying to make programs/systems work together.
All we have to do is learn to set aside our infighting because we want things to be scientifically "perfect) and market some form of Linux, anything, and unify behind it for the user base at large. Yes there should lots of distros for niche markets, but a general distribution would be very helpful.
Sorry about that:
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I agree with you. I think it is wrong to deprive artists of their right to profit for recent creations. however, the artists get paid little or nothing on DVD/CD sales. They get paid from TICKET sales. The big corporatiosn are bloated maggots that should be trimmed way down. Does anybody remember the huge litigation a few years back about the exorbitant price of CDs? Anybody? Anybody? That exorbitant price is baked into a lot of our media today. Do I want the artist to get paid? Of course. Do I want some coked up asshole media exec buying his 15th vintage Porsche with that money? Hell no.
Corporatiosn, like government, need a dose of reality here.
Sometimes I wonder what the recording industry is really after. It looks more like they're just terrified of losing their jobs and having to work in the real world. I'll bet if just one of those execs defected and started his own Free Association (ha) he'd have such a massive groundswell of support that it would fast become a terrific force against the MPAA/RIAA.
I know I'm not in the majority here, but here goes:
-I use P2P for getting rare stuff that I can't find elsewhere. Like Italian B-Movie music, or indie bands that have vanished, or obscure electronic music for instance.
-I use P2P for getting a song quickly that I already have and can't find the CD for (like I own almost all Rush's albums, but do I always have time to look for them? No, and there's no reason for me to rebuy the music), or perhaps for the odd song here or there that I don't own but just want to hear(yes, I could buy it, but iTunes drives me up the flipping wall)
-Sometimes I use P2P when I have a hankering for discovering old music, like the Top 100 in 1981 (god help us all). Could I find ANY of that without P2P? Yes, but it would take a HUGE amount of time that I don't have. Do I really want to buy crap like "Ebony & Ivory" or Alan Parsons Project? Hell no! it's 25 years old, its run its course, for god's sake let this crap be free if I want to torture my late-night work with it.
-I use P2P to download Battlestar Galactica the Saturday morning after the show airs because I'm busy on Fridays. Could I watch it on cable? Yes. I just don't want to.
I buy CDs and support artists if I really like their music. I tell others about it. They tend to be bands that will never show up on any chart anywhere ever. In fact, the online radio I listen to (somafm.com) is probably in danger of going under due to the restrictive actions of big corporations. I don't listen to pop radio anymore, it's either NPR, Classical, or Jazz, because nothing good seems to be on the radio anymore. The stuff that does sound pretty good seems to be older music and the occasional single that catches my ear.
Another idea: How many times have you heard snippets of songs in commercials, between radio segments, or in stores, and wondered "Hey, that sounds kinda neat, I wonder what it is?" Is there a way to explore that further? Rarely. If I have no way of knowing what a song is, I can't buy it even if I wanted to. Since I'm at the store and in impulse buying mode to a degree, why not tack music onto that list for $1 a pop?
I know this has been a long post. My hope is that as the corps try to control things more (like Microsoft) the people who provide free content with an option to buy (like Linux) will begin to get a flood of new business. David Byrne did this with his new album, and it's beena huge success! You can listen to his album as much as you want on the album's website. Want to have it on CD? On MP3? Lossless FLAC? pay a modest sum ($8 for MP3, FLAC, $8 more for the CD) and there you go. Most of the money goes directly to the artist and everyone is happy.
Hi, I agree with you. I think it is wrong to deprive artists of their right to profit for recent creations. however, the artists get paid little or nothing on DVD/CD sales. They get paid from TICKET sales. The big corporatiosn are bloated maggots that should be trimmed way down. Does anybody remember the huge litigation a few years back about the exorbitant price of CDs? Anybody? Anybody? That exorbitant price is baked into a lot of our media today. Do I want the artist to get paid? Of course. Do I want some coked up asshole media exec buying his 15th vintage Porsche with that money? Hell no. Corporatiosn, like government, need a dose of reality here. Sometimes I wonder what the recording industry is really after. It looks more like they're just terrified of losing their jobs and having to work in the real world. I'll bet if just one of those execs defected and started his own Free Association (ha) he'd have such a massive groundswell of support that it would fast become a terrific force against the MPAA/RIAA. I know I'm not in the majority here, but here goes: -I use P2P for getting rare stuff that I can't find elsewhere. Like Italian B-Movie music, or indie bands that have vanished, or obscure electronic music for instance. -I use P2P for getting a song quickly that I already have and can't find the CD for (like I own almost all Rush's albums, but do I always have time to look for them? No, and there's no reason for me to rebuy the music), or perhaps for the odd song here or there that I don't own but just want to hear(yes, I could buy it, but iTunes drives me up the flipping wall) -Sometimes I use P2P when I have a hankering for discovering old music, like the Top 100 in 1981 (god help us all). Could I find ANY of that without P2P? Yes, but it would take a HUGE amount of time that I don't have. Do I really want to buy crap like "Ebony & Ivory" or Alan Parsons Project? Hell no! it's 25 years old, its run its course, for god's sake let this crap be free if I want to torture my late-night work with it. -I use P2P to download Battlestar Galactica the Saturday morning after the show airs because I'm busy on Fridays. Could I watch it on cable? Yes. I just don't want to. I buy CDs and support artists if I really like their music. I tell others about it. They tend to be bands that will never show up on any chart anywhere ever. In fact, the online radio I listen to (somafm.com) is probably in danger of going under due to the restrictive actions of big corporations. I don't listen to pop radio anymore, it's either NPR, Classical, or Jazz, because nothing good seems to be on the radio anymore. The stuff that does sound pretty good seems to be older music and the occasional single that catches my ear. Another idea: How many times have you heard snippets of songs in commercials, between radio segments, or in stores, and wondered "Hey, that sounds kinda neat, I wonder what it is?" Is there a way to explore that further? Rarely. If I have no way of knowing what a song is, I can't buy it even if I wanted to. Since I'm at the store and in impulse buying mode to a degree, why not tack music onto that list for $1 a pop? I know this has been a long post. My hope is that as the corps try to control things more (like Microsoft) the people who provide free content with an option to buy (like Linux) will begin to get a flood of new business. David Byrne did this with his new album, and it's beena huge success! You can listen to his album as much as you want on the album's website. Want to have it on CD? On MP3? Lossless FLAC? pay a modest sum ($8 for MP3, FLAC, $8 more for the CD) and there you go. Most of the money goes directly to the artist and everyone is happy.