That's ridiculous. It's like saying it should be illegal to carry cash because people with guns could steal it. It should be a crime to do something bad, not to do something that might allow someone else to do something bad to you.
These comments all make me feel much better. I sleep for around 3 hours after work (5pm-8pm) and then 3-4 hours before work (3:30am-7:30am). Obviously I don't have kids. I find that when I skip my post-work sleep I have to be doing something active to avoid being completely exhausted and useless. After my long nap/short sleep I am much more rested and can read and write more complicated things much more easily.
Everyone I know thinks these hours are weird, but it works so well for me that I intend to keep doing it as long as I can. These comments all serve to make me feel like a little bit less of an outsider. Thanks!:-)
"It will have an immeasurably miniscule influence on our planet. By comparison, my subcompact automobile exerts a greater influence on the ocean's tides than comet Elenin ever will."
"These people announced on their Internet sites that they planned to come here and cause disruptions, and told their friends. We were able to contact other foreign ministries and simply give them links," Palmor said.
Facebook, the company, didn't permit Israel to do this. It was Facebook users who don't know how to restrict access to their groups and posts.
Phillip doesn't take criticism very well. You can read through the comments section of any of his articles to see how he responds to those who disagree with him. Usually he just re-states a phrase from his article while implying that "you just don't get it" rather than rationally addressing the content of the argument.
I've never seen him acknowledge a comment that conflicts with his article's premise as being valid or reasonable, though I've mostly stopped reading his stuff. All the rationality in the world won't change his mind when it's set on something.
His constant, overly-defensive nature when someone critiques his articles, combined with his tendency to "Like" only comments that agree with himself suggest that he is probably relatively insecure and needs the acceptance of others to feel good about himself. He may have placed so much of his self-worth into these articles that it feels like people are critiquing him, not his argument.
Just a suggestion, Phillip: try to be a little more flexible and receptive to criticism. You're still a valuable person regardless of what random people on the internet think of your arguments, but you'll expand your mind considerably if you remain open to rational viewpoints that run counter to your own.
I don't have mod points, but that's ok because what I really want to do is buy you a beer. Interesting, reasoned comments like these are why I read slashdot -- thanks.
Right-click on a search box and choose "add a keyword for this search." I use wp for Wikipedia searches and az for amazon ones. Very convenient, but I'm not sure how this new command line function will be any different.
You seem to be taking this idea seriously, so I'm going to seriously discourage you from implementing it. It's noble to have faith that if each citizen is given a blank slate and the power to shape a governing structure for themselves, something wholly democratic and wonderful will come out of it. But it's also hopelessly wrong. Someone on Slashdot has a sig that I really like that says "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner." I wouldn't trust the average citizen with filing my taxes, let along determining my country's monetary policy.
Now, you sound like a smart person. And you seem to be fed up with the current electoral/legislative/governmental processes. I can understand that. But please don't put your energies into fashioning a way for every citizen to come together and instantly form some new system of government that could be anything from direct democracy to elected dictator and somehow have the flexibility to become the very opposite on a whim. This will never happen. And if it did happen, it wouldn't work out like you hope. You don't have a plan for a new government system. You have a plan for allowing other people to figure out a new government system. Pardon my harshness, but that's intellectually lazy. Instead trying to figure out how to create an infrastructure that would allow everyone to create a new governing structure, I encourage you to come up with your own idea for a new electoral/legislative/governing structure. Think you know the perfect system that can satisfy Libertarians and Socialists, Centralists and Decentralists, Rich and Poor, Rural and Urban? Please, for the love of god, tell us! But if you think that getting all those people together in a virtual room is going to spontaneously generate the perfect system of government, you're fucking crazy.
I think you're taking a very narrow view of what art is. That's ok. A lot of people wouldn't define abstract art as "art" because to them it's just a couple of coloured lines on a solid background. Some people don't think of architecture as art, and you don't think of video games as art. The problem is that there can be no objective definition of art, because art is in the eye of the beholder. Doom isn't art to you, but I have no idea where you get the arrogance to say that it isn't art period.
That being said, I don't understand your objection to video games as art. Sure, video games can be open-ended, but so are the interpretations of paintings, literature, and film. It seems strange to me that you concede that graphics, game plot, and background score are all art individually, but when combined together they somehow cease being art? If I play Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon with the Wizard of Oz, is that also not art? Could the trailer for a video game be art? What about the video capture from a game? Could you consider playing a game akin to playing an instrument, whereby the end result is art, even if (like an improvised sax solo) it is open-ended and would be different each time you play?
Some American famously said "I may not like what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it"--a principle that many Americans hold dear.
I wonder how all those Americans will feel when they learn that the famous American who said that was Voltaire, a Frenchman...
It's not always that personal, though. Are you willing to sacrifice an industry for the overall improvement of the country? No TVs are made in the US, but that's because you can now get better TVs for less money if you import them. This hurts those who used to be in the TV-making industry, but for most Americans it leaves them with more money in their pocket and a better TV in their living room.
Americans are mostly opposed to globalization because they don't understand it. Job loss is always bad for the person who loses their job, but it isn't always bad for the country. No one complains that there are fewer bank teller jobs than there were before ATMs or fewer telephone operators now that calls aren't manually routed, because we can achieve the same (or better) end result with less cost thanks to technology. Somehow Americans seem to think it's ok for technology to replace American jobs, but not poor people in other countries.
More importantly I know about logic. A = B, B = C, does not mean A = C.
In fact, it would appear that you know very little about logic. That equals sign doesn't allow for much wiggle room. If A equals B, and B equals C, then it necessarily follows that A = C. 2*4 = 8, 8 = 2^3, therefore 2*4 = 2^3.
Bullshit. Just because you ask useless questions doesn't mean everyone has to. "Here's a problem/challenge/task we took on recently. We resolved the issue but I wonder how you would approach it...when you come in for the interview Monday, I would like to hear your thoughts. Bring in a little example code/whatnot and be prepared to back up your choices." You're the interviewer, remember? You can ask whatever you want within the bounds of law. Might as well learn something relevant about them while they're there. Or, you know, not.
You do understand, though, that you were putting them in a situation they would never encounter in the 'real world' of your job, right? I assume you would never give your employees a couple of hours to complete a programming assignment which had to be done entirely over the phone. Why not make everyone code while humming a folk song and juggling to see how their multi-tasking skills are? If you give someone less time, less tools, and more pressure than in real life, how clear a picture can you possibly get of how they would perform in real life?
What if I tested your hiring skills by asking you to hire someone via black and white videoconference without speaking to any of the candidates? Sure you might look for things like dress, facial expressions, and body language (which are things you would take into account in a normal interview), but would it be an accurate measure of your real-world value as an interviewer?
Seriously, cut out the song and dance routine. It's like choosing American Idol based on who can sight-sing the most accurately.
TFA makes your point, too, but that doesn't make it a good one:
Unfortunately, these types of QoS services may never see the light of day if poorly conceived Net Neutrality legislation gets passed that ban the sale of packet prioritization. It's bad when someone else decides on your behalf which packets to give priority to. The point of Net Neutrality is to stop an ISP from deciding which packets get through and which don't. But that's not the only way to prioritize packets; in fact, I suspect there would be much rejoicing if individuals were given the opportunity to set the priority for themselves.
I happen to love the new address bar. Well, except for the fact that it assumes I'm blind and takes up 80% of the screen displaying the results. But that's why I use the 'oldbar' plugin. If there really are 'many of us' that prefer a different algorithm, one of you can write a plugin to display porn first or whatever suits your fancy. There is "no way" to disable the feature? Just like there's "no way" to block ads and "no way" to view Flash? But you're right, it's more fun to complain about how Mozilla is ignoring you, just like Pidgin. Maybe you should write a fork or perhaps you should just shut the fork up.
Finally, I do believe that Yahoo! is worth more than that ammount Your personal opinion is swell and all, but the fact is that the market values Yahoo! differently. The Microsoft bid is something like 68% more per share than Yahoo! was worth the day before it was announced. If people genuinely believed Yahoo! was worth more than this, they'd put their money where their mouth is and Yahoo! stocks would rise.
Microsoft is playing hardball, but they are well within their rights to go directly to the Yahoo! shareholders, who do own the company, after all. You and the Yahoo! board of directors can believe whatever you want, but the shareholders own the company and they will decide whether or not to accept the offer.
What ought to happen is instead of granting monopolies, the government ought to lay down its own fibre and lease the bandwidth to any company that wants to resell it. This removes the major barrier to entry of major ISPs and encourages competition. Our government funded the construction of a cross-country railroad in the 19th century and a transcanada highway system in the 20th century. In a knowledge-based economy, high-speed internet access is critical; it is the infrastructure of a new century. If we let things stay the way they are now, we'll be stuck paying $50/month for mediocre speeds and throttled bandwidth forever.
Slashdot Mirror
That's ridiculous. It's like saying it should be illegal to carry cash because people with guns could steal it. It should be a crime to do something bad, not to do something that might allow someone else to do something bad to you.
They finally found the Prothean ruin!
These comments all make me feel much better. I sleep for around 3 hours after work (5pm-8pm) and then 3-4 hours before work (3:30am-7:30am). Obviously I don't have kids. I find that when I skip my post-work sleep I have to be doing something active to avoid being completely exhausted and useless. After my long nap/short sleep I am much more rested and can read and write more complicated things much more easily.
Everyone I know thinks these hours are weird, but it works so well for me that I intend to keep doing it as long as I can. These comments all serve to make me feel like a little bit less of an outsider. Thanks! :-)
Below are some other recommended magazines for depth. These are worth supporting much more than your average newspaper.
The New Yorker
The Atlantic
Harper's
Lapham's Quarterly (not news coverage, exactly, but still great)
(Canadian) The Walrus
(Australian) The Monthly
(Australian) Quarterly Essay
(UK) Standpoint
(UK) Prospect
(India) The Caravan
(Spain) Catalan International View
"It will have an immeasurably miniscule influence on our planet. By comparison, my subcompact automobile exerts a greater influence on the ocean's tides than comet Elenin ever will."
Exactly. From TFA:
"These people announced on their Internet sites that they planned to come here and cause disruptions, and told their friends. We were able to contact other foreign ministries and simply give them links," Palmor said.
Facebook, the company, didn't permit Israel to do this. It was Facebook users who don't know how to restrict access to their groups and posts.
Phillip doesn't take criticism very well. You can read through the comments section of any of his articles to see how he responds to those who disagree with him. Usually he just re-states a phrase from his article while implying that "you just don't get it" rather than rationally addressing the content of the argument. I've never seen him acknowledge a comment that conflicts with his article's premise as being valid or reasonable, though I've mostly stopped reading his stuff. All the rationality in the world won't change his mind when it's set on something. His constant, overly-defensive nature when someone critiques his articles, combined with his tendency to "Like" only comments that agree with himself suggest that he is probably relatively insecure and needs the acceptance of others to feel good about himself. He may have placed so much of his self-worth into these articles that it feels like people are critiquing him, not his argument. Just a suggestion, Phillip: try to be a little more flexible and receptive to criticism. You're still a valuable person regardless of what random people on the internet think of your arguments, but you'll expand your mind considerably if you remain open to rational viewpoints that run counter to your own.
Seriously, though...Roy Halladay is a machine!
Additionally, from Penny Arcade... http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/19/
I don't have mod points, but that's ok because what I really want to do is buy you a beer. Interesting, reasoned comments like these are why I read slashdot -- thanks.
They must account for the games released during that time.
Precisely. And what was released on June 12, 2008? Metal Gear Solid 4.
This is the most hilarious thing I've read in a long time. You, sir, are awesome.
Right-click on a search box and choose "add a keyword for this search." I use wp for Wikipedia searches and az for amazon ones. Very convenient, but I'm not sure how this new command line function will be any different.
You seem to be taking this idea seriously, so I'm going to seriously discourage you from implementing it. It's noble to have faith that if each citizen is given a blank slate and the power to shape a governing structure for themselves, something wholly democratic and wonderful will come out of it. But it's also hopelessly wrong. Someone on Slashdot has a sig that I really like that says "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner." I wouldn't trust the average citizen with filing my taxes, let along determining my country's monetary policy.
Now, you sound like a smart person. And you seem to be fed up with the current electoral/legislative/governmental processes. I can understand that. But please don't put your energies into fashioning a way for every citizen to come together and instantly form some new system of government that could be anything from direct democracy to elected dictator and somehow have the flexibility to become the very opposite on a whim. This will never happen. And if it did happen, it wouldn't work out like you hope. You don't have a plan for a new government system. You have a plan for allowing other people to figure out a new government system. Pardon my harshness, but that's intellectually lazy. Instead trying to figure out how to create an infrastructure that would allow everyone to create a new governing structure, I encourage you to come up with your own idea for a new electoral/legislative/governing structure. Think you know the perfect system that can satisfy Libertarians and Socialists, Centralists and Decentralists, Rich and Poor, Rural and Urban? Please, for the love of god, tell us! But if you think that getting all those people together in a virtual room is going to spontaneously generate the perfect system of government, you're fucking crazy.
I think you're taking a very narrow view of what art is. That's ok. A lot of people wouldn't define abstract art as "art" because to them it's just a couple of coloured lines on a solid background. Some people don't think of architecture as art, and you don't think of video games as art. The problem is that there can be no objective definition of art, because art is in the eye of the beholder. Doom isn't art to you, but I have no idea where you get the arrogance to say that it isn't art period.
That being said, I don't understand your objection to video games as art. Sure, video games can be open-ended, but so are the interpretations of paintings, literature, and film. It seems strange to me that you concede that graphics, game plot, and background score are all art individually, but when combined together they somehow cease being art? If I play Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon with the Wizard of Oz, is that also not art? Could the trailer for a video game be art? What about the video capture from a game? Could you consider playing a game akin to playing an instrument, whereby the end result is art, even if (like an improvised sax solo) it is open-ended and would be different each time you play?
Some American famously said "I may not like what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it"--a principle that many Americans hold dear.
I wonder how all those Americans will feel when they learn that the famous American who said that was Voltaire, a Frenchman...
It's not always that personal, though. Are you willing to sacrifice an industry for the overall improvement of the country? No TVs are made in the US, but that's because you can now get better TVs for less money if you import them. This hurts those who used to be in the TV-making industry, but for most Americans it leaves them with more money in their pocket and a better TV in their living room.
Americans are mostly opposed to globalization because they don't understand it. Job loss is always bad for the person who loses their job, but it isn't always bad for the country. No one complains that there are fewer bank teller jobs than there were before ATMs or fewer telephone operators now that calls aren't manually routed, because we can achieve the same (or better) end result with less cost thanks to technology. Somehow Americans seem to think it's ok for technology to replace American jobs, but not poor people in other countries.
More importantly I know about logic. A = B, B = C, does not mean A = C.
In fact, it would appear that you know very little about logic. That equals sign doesn't allow for much wiggle room. If A equals B, and B equals C, then it necessarily follows that A = C. 2*4 = 8, 8 = 2^3, therefore 2*4 = 2^3.
Bullshit. Just because you ask useless questions doesn't mean everyone has to. "Here's a problem/challenge/task we took on recently. We resolved the issue but I wonder how you would approach it...when you come in for the interview Monday, I would like to hear your thoughts. Bring in a little example code/whatnot and be prepared to back up your choices." You're the interviewer, remember? You can ask whatever you want within the bounds of law. Might as well learn something relevant about them while they're there. Or, you know, not.
You do understand, though, that you were putting them in a situation they would never encounter in the 'real world' of your job, right? I assume you would never give your employees a couple of hours to complete a programming assignment which had to be done entirely over the phone. Why not make everyone code while humming a folk song and juggling to see how their multi-tasking skills are? If you give someone less time, less tools, and more pressure than in real life, how clear a picture can you possibly get of how they would perform in real life?
What if I tested your hiring skills by asking you to hire someone via black and white videoconference without speaking to any of the candidates? Sure you might look for things like dress, facial expressions, and body language (which are things you would take into account in a normal interview), but would it be an accurate measure of your real-world value as an interviewer?
Seriously, cut out the song and dance routine. It's like choosing American Idol based on who can sight-sing the most accurately.
I happen to love the new address bar. Well, except for the fact that it assumes I'm blind and takes up 80% of the screen displaying the results. But that's why I use the 'oldbar' plugin. If there really are 'many of us' that prefer a different algorithm, one of you can write a plugin to display porn first or whatever suits your fancy. There is "no way" to disable the feature? Just like there's "no way" to block ads and "no way" to view Flash? But you're right, it's more fun to complain about how Mozilla is ignoring you, just like Pidgin. Maybe you should write a fork or perhaps you should just shut the fork up.
Microsoft is playing hardball, but they are well within their rights to go directly to the Yahoo! shareholders, who do own the company, after all. You and the Yahoo! board of directors can believe whatever you want, but the shareholders own the company and they will decide whether or not to accept the offer.
What ought to happen is instead of granting monopolies, the government ought to lay down its own fibre and lease the bandwidth to any company that wants to resell it. This removes the major barrier to entry of major ISPs and encourages competition. Our government funded the construction of a cross-country railroad in the 19th century and a transcanada highway system in the 20th century. In a knowledge-based economy, high-speed internet access is critical; it is the infrastructure of a new century. If we let things stay the way they are now, we'll be stuck paying $50/month for mediocre speeds and throttled bandwidth forever.
Can someone explain the etymology of omgponies for me? And yes, I am new here.