Good Lord, no. Flash's "programming language" is a joke and even worse is what most Flash designers to with it - since they are designers, not programmers. I'm having a hard time explaining fellow designers what Boolean algebra is - again and again and again.
Reality check: The US government does not want to join the effort of creating an international, independent criminal court.
Why?
Because they (the US government) don't want to be accountable to anyone else for their actions. They don't want US citizens and especially US soldiers to be checked against the international rules of e.g. Human Rights they claim to defend.
This is their actual reason.
See the recent reports about the "Hague Invasion Act" of US congress.
I fear a superpower that doesn't want to be accountable.
There may be a decline in music sales because of digital piracy, but it doesn't explain the huge drop in sales that we see right now. The explanation offered by the music industry is too simple. There is no single cause.
1.) Practically every business - not just the music business - is reporting slow sales in the last year and/or the year before. People aren't as easy with their money as they were two years ago. In case you haven't heard the news: This is a recession right now.
2.) I find it scary that the music industry has one target market, only: 10 to 21 year olds. I'm 30 and I haven't found a compelling reason buying an album since almost five years. I bought less than 1 album/year since that time. Come on - I'm not that old and my music taste used to be called "mainstream". Yet the music in the charts right now does not appeal to me and my buddies. I don't "like" music anymore. I don't care about the stars being hyped these days.
3.) The music and film industry have both been very successful in hurting their own image. I didn't care about them some five years ago, now I detest their actions and decisions. And even my non-geek friends who don't care at all about DMCA etc. have become suspicious. The public is more and more wary of these industries, it seems, and has lost the respect for their public figures (the spokesmen) and most of all their employees (the artists).
I agree with your disagreement.:-) I found "Spriggan" a standard mainstream anime - it combines many stock elements of Japanimation, but it doesn't add anything new to it.
Re:This is just flat out *wrong*
on
Lineo near Death
·
· Score: 2
Cripes. People have bills to pay and families to feed. Doesn't anyone have a shred of decency anymore?
(This is not an anti-US flame, just an observation...)
Well, the "hire and fire" business paradigm actually enforces this management style...
Many industrial nations have laws against this type of abuse and/or effective unions that are well respected and have a real force in protecting workers against this.
Just look at Europe.
But whenever Americans are pointed to this, they shake their collective heads and denounce this as modern-day communism...
But I have to admit that I certainly prefer living under my "oppressive socialist governemt" (quote from an US reader) than in a work environment where I can get a pink slip out of the blue and be told to leave the building within 15 minutes, guided by security guards.
Things aren't all peachy here, of course. The.com boom and whimper has lead to a union-free zone of media companies that also practiced the "hire and fire" style because they could...
I've proven, via the previous statement, that either fundamentalist Islam is a cult or that Scientology is a real religion....
No, you haven't proven, either.
The Taliban are fundamentalists of Islam, but not all fundamentalists of Islam are Taliban. Note that members and ministers of Islam have repeatedly called the Taliban a "sect" and also - aha - a "cult". So yes, they agree with you - that the Taliban are a cult.
I can finally understand how so many people who have some modicum of sanity could be part of such a screwed-up organization!
I wonder why you are so surprised.
The "us" (the englightened members of the cult) vs. "them" (the stupid, ignorant, frightning and hostile rest of the population) is a very common theme among cults and Sc. is no exception.
First, members are suckered in by promising them a way to happiness, spiritual growth and self-fulfillment. In case of Sc., another major topic they promise is business success and gaining control over others (the "wogs").
Once you are in the cult, you're slowly taught that "we", the members, are better than the rest, that you cannot trust "them", that "they" want to stop you on your way to happiness, that "they" are bad karma, evil enemies, whatever. More and more, your relations to the rest of the world are taken away and all you have is the cult.
"Why do people join a cult?" is an age-old question. It seems that many cults (and many regimes, such as the one in Nazi Germany) offer happiness to their members by taking away the everyday burden of responsibility, a burden that people give away surprisingly easy.
Most cults strip you from responsibility, decisions and the need for self-control. Others decide for you, you don't have to take responibility for your actions. You are "free" from this hostile world.
You might want to read the book "Underground" by Haruki Murakami about the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The second part includes interviews with active and former members of the Aum sect, a group that turned highly intelligent science graduates into people who believed in an upcoming Armageddon and hence killed innocent bystanders using poison gas.
An interesting read that at least helped me to understand why people join cults and what they want to find there.
It's an American law, applied to an American company (Google). If Sc. tries to apply an American law on a German search engine, you'll see me writing to my local guys in the Bundestag, trust me.
Besides, I *did* write to two dozen US congressmen and the US consulate in Germany about my concerns about the SSSCA, being an IT professional who will by directly affected by that law if it passes the US lawmakers.
I received no reply from any of them, being the puny foreigner I am.
Are they convinced the way to expand their membership is to make enemies with... everyone?
Yes, in a way that is a good summary of their world view from _out_ perspective. They, of course, think that it's the other way round...
Scientology is, in a way, similar to a doomsday cult, although they don't believe in a soon-to-come end of the world. They believe that humanity is on a path to immediate self-destruction and that Scientology is the only way to "save" and "free" the world. They believe that they are superiour beings (members claim to have gained superhuman powers by their Sc.-training). We, the non-members, are just stupid "wogs", who can be cheated, lied to, even killed at will. Hubbard actually promised his members the superhuman power of killing such enemies by mere thought.
They also believe to be in a constant state of siege by the outside world, surrounded by enemies trying to enslave them. The outside world is seen as hostile, non-members are a grey goo of stupids and critics are evil enemies who can be attacked with every means possible. Sc.'s favourite weapon is lawyers...
Of course, Sc. sees this as pure self-defense against the hostile outside world. However, someone who dares to say something remotely critical of the cult is instantly labeled an enemy and handled as such, making the small critic an even fiercer critic...
So, yeah, Scientology is making itself is making enemies from people who just expressed doubt. And this helps Scientology, because *having* enemies is proof of their worldview and is what keeps the cult together.
Oh, I'll remember that for my next trip to Asia and have my new business card printed with the message "ask me how to increase the length of your penis" on its back. Must be common courtesy there.
the Goverment situation is VERY different from here, they live in pseudo-democratic goverment where, trade unions(they are VERY unlike here) still wield large amounts of power and freedom of speech isnt a freedom, or even an option of one.
I find this statement very funny, since there are many pseudo-freedoms and pseudo-rights in the US that aren't freedoms or rights at all once you have a closer look at them.
But that's an ongoing discussion whenever Americans comment on those "communist" German ideas of democracy and vice-versa, so I'm not wanting to begin yet another flame-war on this.
Just want to say: To each his own. I'm quite happy with the "pseudo-democracy" here in Germany, far happier with many of the things going on in the US (especially right now) when it comes to democratic values...
"The Jungle" is a novel about the meat-packing industry in Chicago of the early 1900s and about its incredible working conditions and exploitation of its disposable work force.
Don't be appalled by its reputation as a socialist classic - I don't consider myself a socialist, yet learned a lot of new perspectives from this book. It's a fine piece of literature and quite an eye-opener, showing how little society has really changed when it deals with "disposable" jobs.
If they don't like it they should refuse to participate. It's their own damn fault for taking the job.
Oh, I just hate this "they're stupid for doing this job" attitude. It's so easy for people who had a better choice. There are more than enough people who don't have this choice and your narrow-minded, condescent "look at me, I did't take your kind of job" doesn't help them.
I hereby invite you to read the book "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. While it describes the problems of Chicago workers around 1900, it observes many of the basic wrongs that are still valid even today. That book is quite an eye-opener...
They just decided to phase out all nuclear power in favor of wind power by the year's end and it looks like they'll do it.
Not really. The new conservative candidate for the upcoming national election wants to stop this plan and go 180 degrees.
What is the state of Linux use in Germany?
Linux itself: Well, folks use it, that's it. There's no "we're Germans, we use Linux" mantra. However, the German government is currently replacing their old Windows NT based computer network and there is heavy lobbying going on by Microsoft Germany to stop them favouring Linux.
Your definition is less specific than mine and explicitely allows email abuse to continue. Just consider Multi Level Marketing / Pyramid schemes ("make money fast"), where everyone does this "once" only, for an example where your definition doesn't help at all.
It's not wether I am interested or might be interested. It's wether it's unsolicited, bulk and email. UBE. Spam. It's just as simple as that.
Think about it.
Let me ask you this, if I repeatedly send you a mail trying to sell you something, and I've forged the headers so that you cannot contact me, and my unsubscribe link does not work, am I spamming you? What if I'm only sending to you? It's not bulk and by your definition not spam.
Then you'd be harassing me, which is also abuse of email and a violation of the AUP at practically every provider on the planet.
Well then, good luck with your view on spam. Just don't try to use it as an excuse once you send your first spam, since no provider will agree with you.
Slashdot Mirror
flash programs themselves are small and neat
Good Lord, no. Flash's "programming language" is a joke and even worse is what most Flash designers to with it - since they are designers, not programmers. I'm having a hard time explaining fellow designers what Boolean algebra is - again and again and again.
SVG and DOM don't include synced audio. Granted, you don't need audio for this particular application...
This is not a review, but a transcript of the product announcement.
Reality check: The US government does not want
to join the effort of creating an international,
independent criminal court.
Why?
Because they (the US government) don't want to
be accountable to anyone else for their actions.
They don't want US citizens and especially US
soldiers to be checked against the international
rules of e.g. Human Rights they claim to defend.
This is their actual reason.
See the recent reports about the "Hague Invasion
Act" of US congress.
I fear a superpower that doesn't want to be
accountable.
There may be a decline in music sales because of digital piracy, but it doesn't explain the huge drop in sales that we see right now. The explanation offered by the music industry is too simple. There is no single cause.
1.) Practically every business - not just the music business - is reporting slow sales in the last year and/or the year before. People aren't as easy with their money as they were two years ago. In case you haven't heard the news: This is a recession right now.
2.) I find it scary that the music industry has one target market, only: 10 to 21 year olds. I'm 30 and I haven't found a compelling reason buying an album since almost five years. I bought less than 1 album/year since that time. Come on - I'm not that old and my music taste used to be called "mainstream". Yet the music in the charts right now does not appeal to me and my buddies. I don't "like" music anymore. I don't care about the stars being hyped these days.
3.) The music and film industry have both been very successful in hurting their own image. I didn't care about them some five years ago, now I detest their actions and decisions. And even my non-geek friends who don't care at all about DMCA etc. have become suspicious. The public is more and more wary of these industries, it seems, and has lost the respect for their public figures (the spokesmen) and most of all their employees (the artists).
I agree with your disagreement. :-) I found
"Spriggan" a standard mainstream anime -
it combines many stock elements of Japanimation,
but it doesn't add anything new to it.
Cripes. People have bills to pay and families to feed. Doesn't anyone have a shred of decency anymore?
.com boom and whimper has lead to a union-free zone of media companies that also practiced the "hire and fire" style because they could...
(This is not an anti-US flame, just an observation...)
Well, the "hire and fire" business paradigm actually enforces this management style...
Many industrial nations have laws against this type of abuse and/or effective unions that are well respected and have a real force in protecting workers against this.
Just look at Europe.
But whenever Americans are pointed to this, they shake their collective heads and denounce this as modern-day communism...
But I have to admit that I certainly prefer living under my "oppressive socialist governemt" (quote from an US reader) than in a work environment where I can get a pink slip out of the blue and be told to leave the building within 15 minutes, guided by security guards.
Things aren't all peachy here, of course. The
I've proven, via the previous statement, that either fundamentalist Islam is a cult or that Scientology is a real religion....
No, you haven't proven, either.
The Taliban are fundamentalists of Islam, but not all fundamentalists of Islam are Taliban. Note that members and ministers of Islam have repeatedly called the Taliban a "sect" and also - aha - a "cult". So yes, they agree with you - that the Taliban are a cult.
I can finally understand how so many people who have some modicum of sanity could be part of such a screwed-up organization!
I wonder why you are so surprised.
The "us" (the englightened members of the cult) vs. "them" (the stupid, ignorant, frightning and hostile rest of the population) is a very common theme among cults and Sc. is no exception.
First, members are suckered in by promising them a way to happiness, spiritual growth and self-fulfillment. In case of Sc., another major topic they promise is business success and gaining control over others (the "wogs").
Once you are in the cult, you're slowly taught that "we", the members, are better than the rest, that you cannot trust "them", that "they" want to stop you on your way to happiness, that "they" are bad karma, evil enemies, whatever. More and more, your relations to the rest of the world are taken away and all you have is the cult.
"Why do people join a cult?" is an age-old question. It seems that many cults (and many regimes, such as the one in Nazi Germany) offer happiness to their members by taking away the everyday burden of responsibility, a burden that people give away surprisingly easy.
Most cults strip you from responsibility, decisions and the need for self-control. Others decide for you, you don't have to take responibility for your actions. You are "free" from this hostile world.
You might want to read the book "Underground" by Haruki Murakami about the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The second part includes interviews with active and former members of the Aum sect, a group that turned highly intelligent science graduates into people who believed in an upcoming Armageddon and hence killed innocent bystanders using poison gas.
An interesting read that at least helped me to understand why people join cults and what they want to find there.
Well, the Psi Corps is a Government agency in the world of B5. That's something totally different.
However, the show "Millenium" once had a very clever Sc.-Parody in one episode.
It's an American law, applied to an American company (Google). If Sc. tries to apply an American law on a German search engine, you'll see me writing to my local guys in the Bundestag, trust me.
Besides, I *did* write to two dozen US congressmen and the US consulate in Germany about my concerns about the SSSCA, being an IT professional who will by directly affected by that law if it passes the US lawmakers.
I received no reply from any of them, being the puny foreigner I am.
It's an American law. You American citizens can write your congressmen about this.
Are they convinced the way to expand their membership is to make enemies with... everyone?
Yes, in a way that is a good summary of their world view from _out_ perspective. They, of course, think that it's the other way round...
Scientology is, in a way, similar to a doomsday cult, although they don't believe in a soon-to-come end of the world. They believe that humanity is on a path to immediate self-destruction and that Scientology is the only way to "save" and "free" the world. They believe that they are superiour beings (members claim to have gained superhuman powers by their Sc.-training). We, the non-members, are just stupid "wogs", who can be cheated, lied to, even killed at will. Hubbard actually promised his members the superhuman power of killing such enemies by mere thought.
They also believe to be in a constant state of siege by the outside world, surrounded by enemies trying to enslave them. The outside world is seen as hostile, non-members are a grey goo of stupids and critics are evil enemies who can be attacked with every means possible. Sc.'s favourite weapon is lawyers...
Of course, Sc. sees this as pure self-defense against the hostile outside world. However, someone who dares to say something remotely critical of the cult is instantly labeled an enemy and handled as such, making the small critic an even fiercer critic...
So, yeah, Scientology is making itself is making enemies from people who just expressed doubt. And this helps Scientology, because *having* enemies is proof of their worldview and is what keeps the cult together.
I have to admit - I have *no* knowledge
whatsoever about car electronics; I don't even
have a car.
But I like this idea. Is it possible to build such
a unit oneself using a standard analog RPM display?
I get about 10 spam mails a day
Lucky you. More than 60% of my
daily mail was spam before I
started using very strict filtering.
Seriously, I'm tired of the people telling me to
"just hit delete".
Could someone translate and/or post a summary of this, please?
Oh, I'll remember that for my next trip to Asia and have my new business card printed with the message "ask me how to increase the length of your penis" on its back. Must be common courtesy there.
the Goverment situation is VERY different from here, they live in pseudo-democratic goverment where, trade unions(they are VERY unlike here) still wield large amounts of power and freedom of speech isnt a freedom, or even an option of one.
I find this statement very funny, since there are many pseudo-freedoms and pseudo-rights in the US that aren't freedoms or rights at all once you have a closer look at them.
But that's an ongoing discussion whenever Americans comment on those "communist" German ideas of democracy and vice-versa, so I'm not wanting to begin yet another flame-war on this.
Just want to say: To each his own. I'm quite happy with the "pseudo-democracy" here in Germany, far happier with many of the things going on in the US (especially right now) when it comes to democratic values...
Oh, but to be honest, that's also the nostalgia effect.
I tried an VCS 2600 emulator with a few old games that I loved as a kid. Boy, those games were BAD.
(Darn, hit submit too early.)
"The Jungle" is a novel about the meat-packing industry in Chicago of the early 1900s and about its incredible working conditions and exploitation of its disposable work force.
Don't be appalled by its reputation as a socialist classic - I don't consider myself a socialist, yet learned a lot of new perspectives from this book. It's a fine piece of literature and quite an eye-opener, showing how little society has really changed when it deals with "disposable" jobs.
Read The Jungle, a book by Upton Sinclair, written in early 1900.
If they don't like it they should refuse to participate. It's their own damn fault for taking the job.
Oh, I just hate this "they're stupid for doing this job" attitude. It's so easy for people who had a better choice. There are more than enough people who don't have this choice and your narrow-minded, condescent "look at me, I did't take your kind of job" doesn't help them.
I hereby invite you to read the book "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. While it describes the problems of Chicago workers around 1900, it observes many of the basic wrongs that are still valid even today. That book is quite an eye-opener...
They just decided to phase out all nuclear power in favor of wind power by the year's end and it looks like they'll do it.
Not really. The new conservative candidate for the upcoming national election wants to stop this plan and go 180 degrees.
What is the state of Linux use in Germany?
Linux itself: Well, folks use it, that's it. There's no "we're Germans, we use Linux" mantra. However, the German government is currently replacing their old Windows NT based computer network and there is heavy lobbying going on by Microsoft Germany to stop them favouring Linux.
And what if I send my resume to companies asking for work ?
You answered your own question. They solicit resumes, fine.
Your definition is less specific than mine and explicitely allows email abuse to continue. Just consider Multi Level Marketing / Pyramid schemes ("make money fast"), where everyone does this "once" only, for an example where your definition doesn't help at all.
It's not wether I am interested or might be interested. It's wether it's unsolicited, bulk and email. UBE. Spam. It's just as simple as that.
Think about it.
Let me ask you this, if I repeatedly send you a mail trying to sell you something, and I've forged the headers so that you cannot contact me, and my unsubscribe link does not work, am I spamming you? What if I'm only sending to you? It's not bulk and by your definition not spam.
Then you'd be harassing me, which is also abuse of email and a violation of the AUP at practically every provider on the planet.
Well then, good luck with your view on spam. Just don't try to use it as an excuse once you send your first spam, since no provider will agree with you.