Psychology isn't very scientific, and can be easily fooled. Especially when you put people -- desperate to get out -- with them every day, they will learn what the psychologist wants to hear and will say it to get out. This now makes them a more effective criminal than they were before, because they now know better how to cover their tracks and fool other people.
Also, you give far too much credit to criminologists, and statisticians don't usually help on an individual basis, only on larger population samples.
> A reasonable law-enforcement system
The "reasonable" law enforcement system you envision may seem nice in a perfect world... err, well, perfect except for the criminals... [?] anyway, but if you get people to believe that law enforcement is perfect, they will not question when innocents are punished unfairly.
> the legal system isn't just about punishment
Not only, but mostly -- and it's certainly NOT about rehabilitation. Just because you WANT it to be doesn't change the fact that there is generally none of it to be had. It is there for social control (whipping people into line), removing dangerous persons from society for a time (or "life"), or retribution; depending on the circumstances and people involved. There is no rehabilitation in prison, you know darn well that a fair percentage of criminals will be worse criminals when they get out: because they are now REALLY pissed off, have become institutionalized, don't think they can live a "straight" life now that they have been branded for life as an ex-con, and/or they learned how to be "better" criminals while in jail.
> Do unto others as you would have them do unto you..
I believe the "Jesus' and Buddha's" philosophies were more along the lines of Do unto others everything good you can, regardless what they would do to you. Bit of a difference.
> she merely has to generate $1,000 more wealth each year than she consumes for the operation to be "worth it"
Most people who have heart bypass surgery aren't going to be living another 20 years, and even if they do, it's extremely rare that they will be working for that 20 years. In fact, they are more likely to have retired or will be retiring soon, meaning they will cost money by getting Social Security checks... or, I suppose, will be getting their money back from the government who took it in the first place.
I'm not really arguing that this is a complete, or even valid, measure of cost/worth, just that there is more to it than a simple $1k/year productivity increase -- and really, is Aunt Tilly's productivity going to increase after her heart attack, bypass, and recovery? For 20 years?
It's a pointless observation, but most people I know call them tissues, not Kleenex. They call our copy-making devices "copiers," not Xeroxes... and they are Xeroxes. Although they do still call gelatin food products Jell-O.
At work some people decided to use something like that (Citrace -- might be "industrial grade") to clean their keyboards. Turned them a nice, inconsistent, chalky grey.
He has a pretty shitty track record in "helping." I prayed for things (and not necessarily selfish things) at a point in my life when my faith was very strong. The result has been worse than random chance. Of course, I prayed for things when my faith wasn't so strong, although I wouldn't expect any help at that point.
If the way my life is is the result of being "helped," I might as well kill myself now, because I have very little to be thankful or hopeful for; at least in things that really matter to me. For instance, my career is alright. I don't make much money, but I don't need (nor want, in a way) much money. But I've never prayed for a good job. God hasn't helped me find love. God hasn't even helped me find good friends. God hasn't helped me feel happy, whether it was when I was young, when I was a bit older and "born again," or after I realized my faith didn't make any difference and my life was, in fact, worse than it had been beforehand.
Basically, regardless of what it is that I've wanted -- whether I prayed for it or not -- it hasn't happened.
As for "proof," that word does not mean what you think it means. Proof is something you can point to and say "see?" and you can see it. "Proof" is not a feeling, which is all you have. I have quite a bit of evidence to the contrary, and none for.
To think that there is no such thing as a god is the default stance, and therefore takes no faith. To come up with a new idea that has no evidence and still believe it is true, that's whan faith comes into play. To reverse the logic a bit, if one is completely devoid of any faith in anything, they would necessarily be an atheist. Therefore, to say that an atheist has "faith" that something doesn't exist is ridiculous.
You might as well say that you have "faith" that gravity exists. Believing in the theory of gravity or not does not change the fact that we are all being pulled towards the Earth. Of course, I can't prove that EVERYONE is pulled towards the Earth, but my belief that gravity affects everyone is not a matter of faith; it is a thought based on observation, logic, and information shared by other people. And the complete lack of evidence to the contrary.
Lies and ignorance from a Christian are still lies and ignorance, regardless of your faith or lack thereof. You are illogically saying that if you don't have faith that a thing exists that you necessarily have faith that it does not. Agnosticism is a valid point of view regardless how much Xtian trolling you do.
If someone couldn't figure out that a porn version of YouTube wasn't SFW, they probably aren't smart enough to hold a job at a place with Internet access, they'd be serving fries or washing cars. Oh well, I suppose fair warning could have been useful for people visiting it through meta-mod?
> Is it really worth gambling up to $150,000 per track that you are safe?
A better question is, is $150,000 a reasonable punishment for downloading a song off the Internet? No, it is not.
And why do people still erroneously call it "theft"? That's a rhetorical question, BTW; I know it's so they can make something sound worse than it really is. Theft is a criminal offense. This is a civil suit.
> First of all, we don't really mean by "optimize" what you suggest
Either you meant what he thought you meant, or you used the wrong word (by definition, at least). Optimize: "to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible." It's automatically taken to the extreme; there are no levels of optimization. Something is either optimized or it is not. Just because many (presumably, very smart) people use the word incorrectly, it doesn't make you correct.
Note: this isn't meant as an insult in any way, but as an observation and definition clarification
> The ideal user interface will, by necessity, be ideal exclusively to those users who were its target market.
Not necessarily... If the interface is completely user-customizeable, and extremely easy to customize, then it should work for everyone. The problem then is that the customization interface has to be intuitive, so you just make the customization interface easily configurable. Hopefully the customization customization interface is intuitive, or we will have problems.
It seems pretty ridiculous to say "We guarantee our OS is secure [unless you use hardware that wasn't made by us]." Well, then the OS isn't secure. If 3rd-party drivers can break your security, it wasn't really there to begin with, now was it?
Punishments? That's pretty retarded. But yes, I'm fairly sure he's been made aware of whatever he needs to know in case he goes to the area. His wife was born, and lived, in Jordan until about 6-7 years ago.
> there's no such thing as a Muslim that doesn't believe, to the letter, what they believe.
I have a friend who converted so that he could marry his girlfriend. He is technically a Muslim, but really he's an Episcopalian. Perhaps I am misinterpreting what you have said...
Slashdot Mirror
> We live in an age with psychologists,
Psychology isn't very scientific, and can be easily fooled. Especially when you put people -- desperate to get out -- with them every day, they will learn what the psychologist wants to hear and will say it to get out. This now makes them a more effective criminal than they were before, because they now know better how to cover their tracks and fool other people.
Also, you give far too much credit to criminologists, and statisticians don't usually help on an individual basis, only on larger population samples.
> A reasonable law-enforcement system
The "reasonable" law enforcement system you envision may seem nice in a perfect world... err, well, perfect except for the criminals... [?] anyway, but if you get people to believe that law enforcement is perfect, they will not question when innocents are punished unfairly.
> the legal system isn't just about punishment
Not only, but mostly -- and it's certainly NOT about rehabilitation. Just because you WANT it to be doesn't change the fact that there is generally none of it to be had. It is there for social control (whipping people into line), removing dangerous persons from society for a time (or "life"), or retribution; depending on the circumstances and people involved. There is no rehabilitation in prison, you know darn well that a fair percentage of criminals will be worse criminals when they get out: because they are now REALLY pissed off, have become institutionalized, don't think they can live a "straight" life now that they have been branded for life as an ex-con, and/or they learned how to be "better" criminals while in jail.
> Do unto others as you would have them do unto you..
I believe the "Jesus' and Buddha's" philosophies were more along the lines of Do unto others everything good you can, regardless what they would do to you. Bit of a difference.
> she merely has to generate $1,000 more wealth each year than she consumes for the operation to be "worth it"
Most people who have heart bypass surgery aren't going to be living another 20 years, and even if they do, it's extremely rare that they will be working for that 20 years. In fact, they are more likely to have retired or will be retiring soon, meaning they will cost money by getting Social Security checks... or, I suppose, will be getting their money back from the government who took it in the first place.
I'm not really arguing that this is a complete, or even valid, measure of cost/worth, just that there is more to it than a simple $1k/year productivity increase -- and really, is Aunt Tilly's productivity going to increase after her heart attack, bypass, and recovery? For 20 years?
I didn't realize that World War II was a staged conflict.
It's a pointless observation, but most people I know call them tissues, not Kleenex. They call our copy-making devices "copiers," not Xeroxes... and they are Xeroxes. Although they do still call gelatin food products Jell-O.
> used some 3M Citrus based spray cleaner
At work some people decided to use something like that (Citrace -- might be "industrial grade") to clean their keyboards. Turned them a nice, inconsistent, chalky grey.
Oh! You make pointless jabs at someone on Slashdot because their hobbies and vernacular differ from yours. How utterly boring you must be.
> replying to comments strips away the signatures. Why is that anyway?
My guess is because if you are replying to a signature, it's most likely off-topic. Unless someone's sig happens to apply to the discussion at hand.
> other player in the game uses lotus/mox/channel/fireball combination to kill defendant, defendant loses.
Who's that, the MPAA?
Is there a narrow side of the moon?
> HE HAS BEEN helping you every day of your life
He has a pretty shitty track record in "helping." I prayed for things (and not necessarily selfish things) at a point in my life when my faith was very strong. The result has been worse than random chance. Of course, I prayed for things when my faith wasn't so strong, although I wouldn't expect any help at that point.
If the way my life is is the result of being "helped," I might as well kill myself now, because I have very little to be thankful or hopeful for; at least in things that really matter to me. For instance, my career is alright. I don't make much money, but I don't need (nor want, in a way) much money. But I've never prayed for a good job. God hasn't helped me find love. God hasn't even helped me find good friends. God hasn't helped me feel happy, whether it was when I was young, when I was a bit older and "born again," or after I realized my faith didn't make any difference and my life was, in fact, worse than it had been beforehand.
Basically, regardless of what it is that I've wanted -- whether I prayed for it or not -- it hasn't happened.
As for "proof," that word does not mean what you think it means. Proof is something you can point to and say "see?" and you can see it. "Proof" is not a feeling, which is all you have. I have quite a bit of evidence to the contrary, and none for.
To think that there is no such thing as a god is the default stance, and therefore takes no faith. To come up with a new idea that has no evidence and still believe it is true, that's whan faith comes into play. To reverse the logic a bit, if one is completely devoid of any faith in anything, they would necessarily be an atheist. Therefore, to say that an atheist has "faith" that something doesn't exist is ridiculous.
You might as well say that you have "faith" that gravity exists. Believing in the theory of gravity or not does not change the fact that we are all being pulled towards the Earth. Of course, I can't prove that EVERYONE is pulled towards the Earth, but my belief that gravity affects everyone is not a matter of faith; it is a thought based on observation, logic, and information shared by other people. And the complete lack of evidence to the contrary.
> I didn't say that at all
You said it like this:
> > > Antifaith is still faith
That is exactly what that sentence means.
> And they never get robbed, never had even the slightest issue with it.
Out of curiosity, what kind of area.
> other than that they don't know this technique
Because it doesn't work on all locks, not even all tumbler locks. You also have to have the correct bumping key.
Lies and ignorance from a Christian are still lies and ignorance, regardless of your faith or lack thereof. You are illogically saying that if you don't have faith that a thing exists that you necessarily have faith that it does not. Agnosticism is a valid point of view regardless how much Xtian trolling you do.
> Definitely needed to put not work safe.
If someone couldn't figure out that a porn version of YouTube wasn't SFW, they probably aren't smart enough to hold a job at a place with Internet access, they'd be serving fries or washing cars. Oh well, I suppose fair warning could have been useful for people visiting it through meta-mod?
> Is it really worth gambling up to $150,000 per track that you are safe?
A better question is, is $150,000 a reasonable punishment for downloading a song off the Internet? No, it is not.
And why do people still erroneously call it "theft"? That's a rhetorical question, BTW; I know it's so they can make something sound worse than it really is. Theft is a criminal offense. This is a civil suit.
Death.
> First of all, we don't really mean by "optimize" what you suggest
Either you meant what he thought you meant, or you used the wrong word (by definition, at least). Optimize: "to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible." It's automatically taken to the extreme; there are no levels of optimization. Something is either optimized or it is not. Just because many (presumably, very smart) people use the word incorrectly, it doesn't make you correct.
Note: this isn't meant as an insult in any way, but as an observation and definition clarification
> The ideal user interface will, by necessity, be ideal exclusively to those users who were its target market.
Not necessarily... If the interface is completely user-customizeable, and extremely easy to customize, then it should work for everyone. The problem then is that the customization interface has to be intuitive, so you just make the customization interface easily configurable. Hopefully the customization customization interface is intuitive, or we will have problems.
Quit your damn whining and get back to work, you lazy S.O.B.!!!
(He says from his open Internet access at work)
It seems pretty ridiculous to say "We guarantee our OS is secure [unless you use hardware that wasn't made by us]." Well, then the OS isn't secure. If 3rd-party drivers can break your security, it wasn't really there to begin with, now was it?
Punishments? That's pretty retarded. But yes, I'm fairly sure he's been made aware of whatever he needs to know in case he goes to the area. His wife was born, and lived, in Jordan until about 6-7 years ago.
> there's no such thing as a Muslim that doesn't believe, to the letter, what they believe.
I have a friend who converted so that he could marry his girlfriend. He is technically a Muslim, but really he's an Episcopalian. Perhaps I am misinterpreting what you have said...