You can argue that this is overly optimistic, but in the end this attitude often leads to life satisfaction.
This is part of the so-called American dream. But eventually you wake up and find reality staring you in the face. I don't deny there's opportunity, but there's a lot of slime that goes with it. In many cases, it's often a choice of how much you're willing to give for what you get - not only in terms of your time and/or skills, but in terms of your integrity, your dignity, and other things that matter.
This goes to prove my point. There are limits. Limits impose by our physical environment, and the mere fact that we are human. These limits extend from what we are physically able to accomplish, to the effects that our environment and our behavior have on our well-being.
The human condition, in my opinion, requires balance. When this balance is upset (by abundance, for example), those benefitting from the abundance might enjoy a short-term gain, but it comes at a cost. If this cost is not realized (or compensated), the net effect will be negative.
Practically speaking, resources are finite. Yes, one may argue that there is an infinite potential, but converting most of it into practical use is beyond the means at our disposal. Even if we aren't limited by the resources themselves, we are limited by our ability to use them. The end result: resources which are, in one way or another, limited.
Indeed. How do they solve it? And how can that solution be applied here? Do other sites have a technical fix at all or are they just not as thoroughly-trolled as slashdot?,
If arstechnica can do it, so can slashdot. Ars (if I remember) provides the ability to edit the post within the first 10 minutes. After that, it's etched in stone. It's trolled every bit as much (if not more), and it gets along just fine.
Abundance simply ignores the fact that resources are limited. Resources are finite, whether they be one's health, or the raw materials used for one's sustenance. You engage too much of one, you pay with the other. It all evens out in the end.
I can't tell you how many times you run into the very same kinds of issues EVEN WITH COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE. Want help for Microsoft Windows? Oh sure, you can call someone, but be sure you whip out that credit card first. Then there's the issue of whether or not your call will lead to the ever-popular recommendation to get rid of the problem by reinstalling Windows.
Ever been caught in the middle of two vendors, both pointing their fingers at each other, claiming that it's the "other guy" responsible for the problem? Where does that leave YOU?
Please...anyone who actually believes that commercial software is the end to all of their problems, and that with commercial software there will always be someone accountable for the problems you encounter, dream on.
How much of my money have I spent buying products from Amazon? NONE.
Unlike many others who only pay lip service to their disappointment in Amazon's behavior, I've put mine into action. Patents notwithstanding, Amazon will get away with whatever we allow it to get away with.
They are deprived of the compensation they would normally receive for providing you with the benefit you derive from what it is you've stolen. There *is* such a thing as theft of service. It doesn't involve the acquisition of a physical object, but you do derive benefit from using something that someone else is paying for. There is a very similar principle at work when someone steals music without paying for it.
You owe the company a buck if that's what both parties have agreed to. If you simply download a song without the knowledge or consent of its owner, or any kind of mutually accepted contractual arrangement, you've engaged in theft. You can't unilaterally create a contract just because it's convenient for you.
On the other hand, I can take your logic and apply it to almost anything. If I take a CD from the store, I haven't really stolen it, it's just the I now owe the store $15. How is that any different? The end result is the same.
You're conveniently forgetting that in both cases, you're still benefitting from the value that the stolen item will provide you - wether it's downloaded from the internet or taken from a store is completely irrelevant. The bottom line is that you benefit from the owner's property, and the owner gets nothing. Theft of value.
Seriously...why do Farmers use Monsanto products if it requires adherence to such a rediculous agreement? Aren't farmers capable of growing crops without Monsanto's help?
I'm not a big XP user, although I do have XP installed at home. Fortunately, the only thing I use it for is OPEN SOURCE software that runs on 'doze, and of course, games. I ran into the messenger madness, and the first thing I did was search the net for an answer. Disabling the messenger service is so simple that the average user should be able to handle this. Not being able to accomplish something like this is akin to not being able to put the seat forward in a car to make more room for trunk storage. One might reason that if they can't handle the responsibility, they shouldn't be using it in the first place- at least as long as it's connected to the internet.
The point is this: it was a sense of complacency on the part of the FBI and other federal agencies that led to gaps in intelligence - that, and outright political power plays characteristic of people more interested in building empires, than maintaining a secure nation. What the Fed has elected to do is to rely on the same kind of false assumptions that you've stated in your post. If you're a terrorist, and you know what's being monitored and how, you fly under the radar - just as they did with 9/11. No amount of TIA-type surveillance will stop (or even detect) someone, for example, from passing a note to someone else. It might slow things down a bit, but as we've seen, a certain degree of patience is not something that is lost on a group whose objectives are long-term and far-reaching.
I maintain that what Americans see isn's an increase in security, but an increase in the perception of security- unfortunately, with a corresponding loss of both their privacy, and their rights. The only way to prevent a similar event is to skip the technical sugar, get down in the trenches, and figure out what's going on.
This isn't going to happen. It would be far too easy for the trolls to drag us all into the depths of -1. For example:
There are far too many ways of dealing with this for it to be a problem. First, I don't see a comment being modded up to 5 within the first ten minutes- usually, the desire to edit something comes shortly (like a minute) after it's posted. Minimally I don't see a problem in allowing users to edit their posts within the first 10 minutes. Or, better, a system where if someone wishes to edit their post, they lose any moderation they've received up to that point. Two constructive suggestions, both of which I believe are workable.
So for grins, I tried out OO1.1, and was left dumbfounded on how clean and concise the interface was for all the tools.
Well, all except for one. I'm still trying to figure out why in hell they changed the way that the tool palettes work - now, instead of popping up a temporary windoid allowing you to select the tool you want, it opens a completely new window, and it stays open after the tool is selected. Small, yes, but VERY annoying.
People aspiring to work in the industry, however, need to learn the tools.
On the other hand, the tools don't make the artist - the talent does. If you've got the talent, you CAN produce some amazing stuff with Blender, should you care to endure its shortcomings. Shigeto Maeda's work is one such example.
God only knows how many times this story has been repeated by others who stumbled into your predicament. I started using Blender several years ago, and on many occasions, I championed the idea of an interface overhaul. To be sure, there are some nice things about the current interface, but little of it is very intuitive to a new user, and there are some things that actually detract from one's productivity. Most of my comments fell on deaf ears, as the response was always the same..."It's easy once you get to know it!" What isn't?
Things seem to be turning around however, and rumor has it that the end of October (or thereabouts) will sport a release that *starts* to pay some attention to interface issues. Let's hope this isn't the last of it.
Slashdot Mirror
You can argue that this is overly optimistic, but in the end this attitude often leads to life satisfaction.
This is part of the so-called American dream. But eventually you wake up and find reality staring you in the face. I don't deny there's opportunity, but there's a lot of slime that goes with it. In many cases, it's often a choice of how much you're willing to give for what you get - not only in terms of your time and/or skills, but in terms of your integrity, your dignity, and other things that matter.
This goes to prove my point. There are limits. Limits impose by our physical environment, and the mere fact that we are human. These limits extend from what we are physically able to accomplish, to the effects that our environment and our behavior have on our well-being.
The human condition, in my opinion, requires balance. When this balance is upset (by abundance, for example), those benefitting from the abundance might enjoy a short-term gain, but it comes at a cost. If this cost is not realized (or compensated), the net effect will be negative.
Practically speaking, resources are finite. Yes, one may argue that there is an infinite potential, but converting most of it into practical use is beyond the means at our disposal. Even if we aren't limited by the resources themselves, we are limited by our ability to use them. The end result: resources which are, in one way or another, limited.
Indeed. How do they solve it? And how can that solution be applied here? Do other sites have a technical fix at all or are they just not as thoroughly-trolled as slashdot?,
If arstechnica can do it, so can slashdot. Ars (if I remember) provides the ability to edit the post within the first 10 minutes. After that, it's etched in stone. It's trolled every bit as much (if not more), and it gets along just fine.
And I suppose that every other site that offers the ablility to edit posts suffers from this phenomenon....NOT. Come on, this isn't rocket science.
Abundance simply ignores the fact that resources are limited. Resources are finite, whether they be one's health, or the raw materials used for one's sustenance. You engage too much of one, you pay with the other. It all evens out in the end.
I can't tell you how many times you run into the very same kinds of issues EVEN WITH COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE. Want help for Microsoft Windows? Oh sure, you can call someone, but be sure you whip out that credit card first. Then there's the issue of whether or not your call will lead to the ever-popular recommendation to get rid of the problem by reinstalling Windows.
Ever been caught in the middle of two vendors, both pointing their fingers at each other, claiming that it's the "other guy" responsible for the problem? Where does that leave YOU?
Please...anyone who actually believes that commercial software is the end to all of their problems, and that with commercial software there will always be someone accountable for the problems you encounter, dream on.
How much of my money have I spent buying products from Amazon? NONE.
Unlike many others who only pay lip service to their disappointment in Amazon's behavior, I've put mine into action. Patents notwithstanding, Amazon will get away with whatever we allow it to get away with.
They are deprived of the compensation they would normally receive for providing you with the benefit you derive from what it is you've stolen. There *is* such a thing as theft of service. It doesn't involve the acquisition of a physical object, but you do derive benefit from using something that someone else is paying for. There is a very similar principle at work when someone steals music without paying for it.
You owe the company a buck if that's what both parties have agreed to. If you simply download a song without the knowledge or consent of its owner, or any kind of mutually accepted contractual arrangement, you've engaged in theft. You can't unilaterally create a contract just because it's convenient for you.
On the other hand, I can take your logic and apply it to almost anything. If I take a CD from the store, I haven't really stolen it, it's just the I now owe the store $15. How is that any different? The end result is the same.
IT TURNS THEM IN TO LAB RATS. Pure and simple. Thinking is no longer required. Just do what's 'right', however subjectively that may be defined.
You're conveniently forgetting that in both cases, you're still benefitting from the value that the stolen item will provide you - wether it's downloaded from the internet or taken from a store is completely irrelevant. The bottom line is that you benefit from the owner's property, and the owner gets nothing. Theft of value.
Anytime you tell a kid that something's bad, their first instinct is to go investigate it.
If I tell a kid it's wrong to steal, their first inclination is to go and steal something? I sure as hell hope not.
This is crazy....open source agriculture, anyone?
Seriously...why do Farmers use Monsanto products if it requires adherence to such a rediculous agreement? Aren't farmers capable of growing crops without Monsanto's help?
America has always been fiecely indepedent
Fiercely independent or fiercely arrogant?
I'm not a big XP user, although I do have XP installed at home. Fortunately, the only thing I use it for is OPEN SOURCE software that runs on 'doze, and of course, games. I ran into the messenger madness, and the first thing I did was search the net for an answer. Disabling the messenger service is so simple that the average user should be able to handle this. Not being able to accomplish something like this is akin to not being able to put the seat forward in a car to make more room for trunk storage. One might reason that if they can't handle the responsibility, they shouldn't be using it in the first place- at least as long as it's connected to the internet.
The point is this: it was a sense of complacency on the part of the FBI and other federal agencies that led to gaps in intelligence - that, and outright political power plays characteristic of people more interested in building empires, than maintaining a secure nation. What the Fed has elected to do is to rely on the same kind of false assumptions that you've stated in your post. If you're a terrorist, and you know what's being monitored and how, you fly under the radar - just as they did with 9/11. No amount of TIA-type surveillance will stop (or even detect) someone, for example, from passing a note to someone else. It might slow things down a bit, but as we've seen, a certain degree of patience is not something that is lost on a group whose objectives are long-term and far-reaching.
I maintain that what Americans see isn's an increase in security, but an increase in the perception of security- unfortunately, with a corresponding loss of both their privacy, and their rights. The only way to prevent a similar event is to skip the technical sugar, get down in the trenches, and figure out what's going on.
This isn't going to happen. It would be far too easy for the trolls to drag us all into the depths of -1. For example:
There are far too many ways of dealing with this for it to be a problem. First, I don't see a comment being modded up to 5 within the first ten minutes- usually, the desire to edit something comes shortly (like a minute) after it's posted. Minimally I don't see a problem in allowing users to edit their posts within the first 10 minutes. Or, better, a system where if someone wishes to edit their post, they lose any moderation they've received up to that point. Two constructive suggestions, both of which I believe are workable.
How this would deter P2P activity is a bit of a mystery.
Is it any more of a mystery than the belief that spying on every American citizen will deter terrorism?
A movie entitled Real Genius
So for grins, I tried out OO1.1, and was left dumbfounded on how clean and concise the interface was for all the tools.
Well, all except for one. I'm still trying to figure out why in hell they changed the way that the tool palettes work - now, instead of popping up a temporary windoid allowing you to select the tool you want, it opens a completely new window, and it stays open after the tool is selected. Small, yes, but VERY annoying.
Very promising.
Is this what's supposed to be in the end-of-October release, or is this scheduled for release later on?
People aspiring to work in the industry, however, need to learn the tools.
On the other hand, the tools don't make the artist - the talent does. If you've got the talent, you CAN produce some amazing stuff with Blender, should you care to endure its shortcomings. Shigeto Maeda's work is one such example.
God only knows how many times this story has been repeated by others who stumbled into your predicament. I started using Blender several years ago, and on many occasions, I championed the idea of an interface overhaul. To be sure, there are some nice things about the current interface, but little of it is very intuitive to a new user, and there are some things that actually detract from one's productivity. Most of my comments fell on deaf ears, as the response was always the same..."It's easy once you get to know it!" What isn't?
Things seem to be turning around however, and rumor has it that the end of October (or thereabouts) will sport a release that *starts* to pay some attention to interface issues. Let's hope this isn't the last of it.
Guess how much of my money Amazon has gotten...exactly NONE. Same goes for the RIAA. How many others here can say the same?