> We've already done a pretty good job of rendering species extinct
Pssh, give genetics a decade or two without regulation, we'll create all kinds of new species. Of course, most of them will only live a horribly tortured 5 minutes of mutated mess...
> But that would mean the end of all the oil conglomerates
not exactly... We still have cars, no? All that would happen is they shrink and then the remainder will merge to form a monopoly. The Republicans will be accused of allowing it to happen, while the Democrats will be accused of causing it.
Thank you. That is the primary reason I don't consider myself environmentalist in any way. Because I am the environment. The "whackos" don't seem to realize this.
> why would they be fighting to ensure our continuity as a species?
Because there is no fight to take part in. Our species is probably not going to be "wiped out" due to controllable ecological disaster. They don't just sit and watch, because everyone would slowly realize that they make almost no difference.
Okay, honestly? I don't believe that. Environmentalists (real ones, not politicians posing as) do love the world, sometimes a bit too much, but too much love generally isn't bad. What I dislike is the offensive "blame-this-guy" kind of thing. They tend to automatically jump on things that follow their side, whether or not there is any basis on reality. They just assume it is, and anyone who says otherwise is either stupid, intentionally misunderstanding, or some other silly excuse.
> I could do better than WebCT in a couple of months
Since I don't know you, I cannot reasonably doubt your programming 5ki11z. However, I don't think WebCT is that bad. I never participated in a class with it, but the people who used it had no complaints at all. I had the joy of "administering" it. I put that in quotes, because after the (admittedly, slightly confusing) install, the only time I had to touch the software was to do an upgrade (3.6 -> 3.8). And that was pretty easy. Luckily, the server (Solaris 8 UltraSPARC 1) didn't do much else, except backup DNS, and WebCT was the only site on it.
> couldnt google preparse the pages to see if the text and background colors are the same
I may be entirely wrong, but I believe that they already do this. In my previous job, one of my tasks was to improve website search placement. Some of the sites already had such keyword spamming, and I read in at least one (I think it was 3) WebPosition newsletter/site that hiding text will adversely affect rank. So I removed them, as well as cleaned up some other things, but nothing exceptional. The page rank increased considerably on most of them (one went from ~250 to #3)
> how many times could a group get away with threatening voters, has to be done on a case by case basis after all, before it got public?
I believe that you are correct, although stranger things have happened. And yes, any system that has available vote verification is autamatically subject to possible abuse in this way. I guess there is always a fine line to walk on any issue, and this one is particularly troublesome due to the massive amounts of money (invested in campains and others) and power at stake. Those two things can bring out the worst in people, and we need to find a way to counteract that. Funny, usually I have all the answers (yeah right) but this time I'm stumped.
> should the company face a fine so large because of an incompetent programmer?
I have 2 answers: Knee-jerk: Of course! These Telemarketing scum should suffer' regardless! Mwuahahaha!
Reality: That's difficult. They have to make the fine reasonably large to ensure large companies like this follow the rules. On the flip side, however, if it was my father's business that accidentally called 3 people, he would be put out of business by a $30K fine. No, he doesn't do telemarketing, but it's just an example.
This would be doubly bad for my father if it was a programmer error, because there's nothing he could do about it. Now, if HE wrote the software, then he should be liable.
Likewise, a corporate is 1 entity, even though it is made of individuals. If the hand (programmer) doesn't know what the head (corp) is doing, isn't that still the fault of the company? There are no certifications, that I know of, to be a custodian, but if he spills soapy water all over the floor of their lobby, and a customer comes in, slips, falls, breaks his neck, isn't the company still liable? Even though it was the fault of one single employee at the company?
When someone does something at work, they act as a representative of that company and they & the corp get all benefits AND DRAWBACKS that entails.
But, to draw my analogy back to the question you actually asked, what should be compensation for the guy with the broken neck? It would probably be more than it should be, considering the idiotic lawsuit judgements these days, but the company has to be punished somehow, at the very least, to make them honestly aware of a problem and fix it ASAP.
If it was a $1,000 fine, it wouldn't be it AT&T's financial interest to pay the programmer to fix the bug.
And this entire argument is based on the idea that it was a programmer error, which I don't believe has been mentioned as a fact.
> You should stop believing them and think for yourself for a second. Maybe then you'd be less of an asshole.
Umm, nobody told me that conclusion, I came up with it via my own thought processes. Oh, and speaking of asshole, you tell me (with no knowledge of me) to think for myself, yet you don't offer any reason why I am wrong. How about you get off yourself and try intelligent discussion? Or is that too much work that you'd rather just try to make yourself look smart by naysaying anything you don't agree with?
Pissed off? GOOD! Give me something constructive. Tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me why I'm an asshole. Onine, I may well be one. Don't just make claims with no reason. Put my logic to shame, if you can (and you probably can).
What makes you think that everything would turn out hunky dorey by letting a population of mostly uneducated people vote for leaders of their country, most of whom the populace has never heard of and don't know the views of? What makes you think the U.N. can't appoint a viable interim government? Why is it doomed to fail? At risk of making myself look like a bigger jerk than I really am, do you have any good reasoning to back up your stance, or are you just tagging along with liberal propaganda to make yourself look like the savior of the persecuted? To feel important? To be rebellious against the Republican, oppresive, "regime?" Try thinking for yourself, you might be surprised what you come up with, if you are honest and logical.
You just figured that out? Some reasons they claim religion is to 1) fool potential followers into joining 2) evade taxes 3) evade other laws that do not pertain to religions
> designed by the plant to deter or kill insects. Caffeine, THC, opium
If I were a bug, that would make me MORE likely to eat them. Of course, if I had insectoid physiology I might not think so. I'll have to get back to you after mind swap.
> I've routinely smoked more than 3 cigs in an hour's time
Lightweight. Eating three cigarettes will probably cause you to puke before enough of it is digested, but you'll be in pretty bad shape regardless. I don't know if three will kill you, however (if kept down).
The difference in smoking is that more than 90-some-odd percent of these chemicals in cigarettes are burned off before they can be inhaled. This is something those stupid anti-smoking commercials (Wackyland, or whatever with the grapes) like to leave out. Not that I endorse smoking for everyone...
> I've personaly consumed caffine doses as high as 1500mg, and been fine.
Unless you weigh 7.8 kg, that's not a lethal dose. I am not sure where the -1 came from, but the measures are in milligrams per kilogram. Meaning, if you weigh 200 lbs, you need over 17,000mg to be lethal.
> Try steeping a pound of high grade marijuana in a liqour of your choice for a coupla weeks
A pound? Christ, man, you gotta be a friggin millionare to drop a pound like that. If you don't have 2 grand to throw away, I suggest using an oz or so for a litre of vodka. It turns a beautiful green color and goes down pretty easy... Too easy, maybe.
> Sure, it'll take a little longer to kick in, but it works perfectly well.
That's one-sided, you drug-hating communist:) (I don't know why I felt like saying that).
You forgot the good side to the slow release. First, you get ALL of the THC into your system when eating it, as opposed to the large amount that goes "up in smoke" during more traditional consumption. Secondly, and more importantly, although it takes longer to kick in, it lasts a WHOLE lot longer. Eat a couple of well-made "brownies," and you can be messed up for a day & a half (though you have to use good stuff).
> Imagine doing this [...] with cannabis and tomatos
This has, sort-of, been done. I believe Cannabis & Tomatoes are too distant to graft, but there is some kind of ivy/vine that it can be spliced onto. Also, hops (Humulus) seems to be a good choice.
> cancer is caused by the fact that tobacco in the US is grown in radioative soil
Wow, how amazing. Add into that fact that many, many things are "radioctive" and perfectly safe, and you start to look like a scaremonger. Radioactivity != bad, necessarily, or even slightly harmful. Do some research into what radioactive really means. Like the username, BTW:)
Yes, exactly what they need... They are in the middle of serious turmoil, just got rid of a horrible dictator, are confused as hell, have no way of knowing who they should vote for due to the lack of communication, among other things... Yeah, real fucking smart idea, dipshit. I'd come up with better insults, but I don't want to have to explain them to such a clueless, worthless piece of shit like yourself.
I hate rpelying to trolls, but sometimes people believe the lies.
Slashdot Mirror
> We've already done a pretty good job of rendering species extinct
Pssh, give genetics a decade or two without regulation, we'll create all kinds of new species. Of course, most of them will only live a horribly tortured 5 minutes of mutated mess...
(That's a joke, BTW, I like genetics.)
> But that would mean the end of all the oil conglomerates
not exactly... We still have cars, no? All that would happen is they shrink and then the remainder will merge to form a monopoly. The Republicans will be accused of allowing it to happen, while the Democrats will be accused of causing it.
> only the poor people will die.
;)
Hey, wait a second... That's brilliant! Send it to Cheney, maybe he'll become an environmentalist!
> humanity is part of the environment
Thank you. That is the primary reason I don't consider myself environmentalist in any way. Because I am the environment. The "whackos" don't seem to realize this.
> why would they be fighting to ensure our continuity as a species?
Because there is no fight to take part in. Our species is probably not going to be "wiped out" due to controllable ecological disaster. They don't just sit and watch, because everyone would slowly realize that they make almost no difference.
Okay, honestly? I don't believe that. Environmentalists (real ones, not politicians posing as) do love the world, sometimes a bit too much, but too much love generally isn't bad. What I dislike is the offensive "blame-this-guy" kind of thing. They tend to automatically jump on things that follow their side, whether or not there is any basis on reality. They just assume it is, and anyone who says otherwise is either stupid, intentionally misunderstanding, or some other silly excuse.
> I could do better than WebCT in a couple of months
Since I don't know you, I cannot reasonably doubt your programming 5ki11z. However, I don't think WebCT is that bad. I never participated in a class with it, but the people who used it had no complaints at all. I had the joy of "administering" it. I put that in quotes, because after the (admittedly, slightly confusing) install, the only time I had to touch the software was to do an upgrade (3.6 -> 3.8). And that was pretty easy. Luckily, the server (Solaris 8 UltraSPARC 1) didn't do much else, except backup DNS, and WebCT was the only site on it.
> couldnt google preparse the pages to see if the text and background colors are the same
I may be entirely wrong, but I believe that they already do this. In my previous job, one of my tasks was to improve website search placement. Some of the sites already had such keyword spamming, and I read in at least one (I think it was 3) WebPosition newsletter/site that hiding text will adversely affect rank. So I removed them, as well as cleaned up some other things, but nothing exceptional. The page rank increased considerably on most of them (one went from ~250 to #3)
> AYE!
He said to say Aye, not type it...
> how many times could a group get away with threatening voters, has to be done on a case by case basis after all, before it got public?
I believe that you are correct, although stranger things have happened. And yes, any system that has available vote verification is autamatically subject to possible abuse in this way. I guess there is always a fine line to walk on any issue, and this one is particularly troublesome due to the massive amounts of money (invested in campains and others) and power at stake. Those two things can bring out the worst in people, and we need to find a way to counteract that. Funny, usually I have all the answers (yeah right) but this time I'm stumped.
> should the company face a fine so large because of an incompetent programmer?
I have 2 answers:
Knee-jerk: Of course! These Telemarketing scum should suffer' regardless! Mwuahahaha!
Reality: That's difficult. They have to make the fine reasonably large to ensure large companies like this follow the rules. On the flip side, however, if it was my father's business that accidentally called 3 people, he would be put out of business by a $30K fine. No, he doesn't do telemarketing, but it's just an example.
This would be doubly bad for my father if it was a programmer error, because there's nothing he could do about it. Now, if HE wrote the software, then he should be liable.
Likewise, a corporate is 1 entity, even though it is made of individuals. If the hand (programmer) doesn't know what the head (corp) is doing, isn't that still the fault of the company? There are no certifications, that I know of, to be a custodian, but if he spills soapy water all over the floor of their lobby, and a customer comes in, slips, falls, breaks his neck, isn't the company still liable? Even though it was the fault of one single employee at the company?
When someone does something at work, they act as a representative of that company and they & the corp get all benefits AND DRAWBACKS that entails.
But, to draw my analogy back to the question you actually asked, what should be compensation for the guy with the broken neck? It would probably be more than it should be, considering the idiotic lawsuit judgements these days, but the company has to be punished somehow, at the very least, to make them honestly aware of a problem and fix it ASAP.
If it was a $1,000 fine, it wouldn't be it AT&T's financial interest to pay the programmer to fix the bug.
And this entire argument is based on the idea that it was a programmer error, which I don't believe has been mentioned as a fact.
> You should stop believing them and think for yourself for a second. Maybe then you'd be less of an asshole.
Umm, nobody told me that conclusion, I came up with it via my own thought processes. Oh, and speaking of asshole, you tell me (with no knowledge of me) to think for myself, yet you don't offer any reason why I am wrong. How about you get off yourself and try intelligent discussion? Or is that too much work that you'd rather just try to make yourself look smart by naysaying anything you don't agree with?
Pissed off? GOOD! Give me something constructive. Tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me why I'm an asshole. Onine, I may well be one. Don't just make claims with no reason. Put my logic to shame, if you can (and you probably can).
What makes you think that everything would turn out hunky dorey by letting a population of mostly uneducated people vote for leaders of their country, most of whom the populace has never heard of and don't know the views of? What makes you think the U.N. can't appoint a viable interim government? Why is it doomed to fail?
At risk of making myself look like a bigger jerk than I really am, do you have any good reasoning to back up your stance, or are you just tagging along with liberal propaganda to make yourself look like the savior of the persecuted? To feel important? To be rebellious against the Republican, oppresive, "regime?" Try thinking for yourself, you might be surprised what you come up with, if you are honest and logical.
> Scientology. It is a pyramid scheme
You just figured that out? Some reasons they claim religion is to
1) fool potential followers into joining
2) evade taxes
3) evade other laws that do not pertain to religions
There may be more...
> designed by the plant to deter or kill insects. Caffeine, THC, opium
If I were a bug, that would make me MORE likely to eat them. Of course, if I had insectoid physiology I might not think so. I'll have to get back to you after mind swap.
> I've routinely smoked more than 3 cigs in an hour's time
Lightweight. Eating three cigarettes will probably cause you to puke before enough of it is digested, but you'll be in pretty bad shape regardless. I don't know if three will kill you, however (if kept down).
The difference in smoking is that more than 90-some-odd percent of these chemicals in cigarettes are burned off before they can be inhaled. This is something those stupid anti-smoking commercials (Wackyland, or whatever with the grapes) like to leave out. Not that I endorse smoking for everyone...
> I've personaly consumed caffine doses as high as 1500mg, and been fine.
Unless you weigh 7.8 kg, that's not a lethal dose. I am not sure where the -1 came from, but the measures are in milligrams per kilogram. Meaning, if you weigh 200 lbs, you need over 17,000mg to be lethal.
> try crunching up some caffeine pills and smoking them.
;) the same kind of person who thinks snorting Pixie-Stix is a good buzz?
Is "your friend" (we all know who your "friend" is
> Try steeping a pound of high grade marijuana in a liqour of your choice for a coupla weeks
A pound? Christ, man, you gotta be a friggin millionare to drop a pound like that. If you don't have 2 grand to throw away, I suggest using an oz or so for a litre of vodka. It turns a beautiful green color and goes down pretty easy... Too easy, maybe.
> Sure, it'll take a little longer to kick in, but it works perfectly well.
:) (I don't know why I felt like saying that).
That's one-sided, you drug-hating communist
You forgot the good side to the slow release. First, you get ALL of the THC into your system when eating it, as opposed to the large amount that goes "up in smoke" during more traditional consumption.
Secondly, and more importantly, although it takes longer to kick in, it lasts a WHOLE lot longer. Eat a couple of well-made "brownies," and you can be messed up for a day & a half (though you have to use good stuff).
+1, Wierd Al fan :)
> Imagine doing this [...] with cannabis and tomatos
This has, sort-of, been done. I believe Cannabis & Tomatoes are too distant to graft, but there is some kind of ivy/vine that it can be spliced onto. Also, hops (Humulus) seems to be a good choice.
> cancer is caused by the fact that tobacco in the US is grown in radioative soil
:)
Wow, how amazing. Add into that fact that many, many things are "radioctive" and perfectly safe, and you start to look like a scaremonger. Radioactivity != bad, necessarily, or even slightly harmful. Do some research into what radioactive really means.
Like the username, BTW
> WON'T LET THEM HAVE THEIR OWN ELECTIONS!
Yes, exactly what they need... They are in the middle of serious turmoil, just got rid of a horrible dictator, are confused as hell, have no way of knowing who they should vote for due to the lack of communication, among other things... Yeah, real fucking smart idea, dipshit. I'd come up with better insults, but I don't want to have to explain them to such a clueless, worthless piece of shit like yourself.
I hate rpelying to trolls, but sometimes people believe the lies.
> Let's say that a programmer makes an innocent mistake which causes 50% of the DNC list to not work properly
Then that person gets fired for being an incompetent boob. If it's going to cause a 50% failure rate, your programmer didn't test the app well at all.
> I'm assuming they're going to get a cut of that money. Right?
Nope, it's a fine that goes to the Gov, like Court Costs.
> I digress into fantasy... the little blue ones I washed down with all those adult beverages must be kicking in.
I didn't know Viagra caused fantasies... Unless, of course, that "Adult Beverage" was a good bit of sake or maybe some absynthe.