I was thinking to myself... why is this any different to any porn site out there? Is porn now prohibited in the US?
I thought there was child porn or something like that, but, after reading TFA, I can't see a problem at all.
That's because TFA didn't bother to tell you that the movies involved depictions of statutory and forcible rape. One was about a journalist being gang-raped by Osama bin Laden and henchmen. Another graphically portrayed the rape and murder of a woman by a serial killer. Yet another depicted a 12-year-old girl being molested by an older man, which in some states constitutes child pornography.
This is shoddy journalism. The article makes it sound like this is just perfectly normal pornography. It is not. These are rape fantasies and snuff films.
Or you get out of an imaginary dream world and realize that your choices affect the lives of others and that sometimes the idealistic option is not the right one. If not getting someone killed is a "political end," then I'm 100% in favor of their actions.
That's fine and dandy, but what about this story, or this story, or this story? The New York Times is quick to cite responsibility when it comes to one of their own, but when anyone else is kidnapped they're full steam ahead.
The Slashdot community greatly enjoys poking fun at technically inept public officials who attempt to claim advanced knowledge of technical fields.
I find it ironic that the Slashdot community makes fun of his "tubes" analogy, considering that every network technician I've ever known has, at some point in his or her life, used the word "pipe" to describe an internet connection.
There was NO reason not to let developers know there would be no 64 bit carbon as soon as the decision was made, but Apple waited until the last possible second for who knows why.
Actually, it sounds like Apple waited until the last possible second to make the decision to drop 64-bit carbon in the first place.
Still their fault, but because of planning, not because of secrecy.
Considering that many people around the world have been prosecuted for their blogs, imprisoned, tortured and maybe even killed, it is not just humor, its a terrifying fact.
I've never been a proponent of medical marijuana, but somebody needs to get this guy some weed, STAT.
"Last month, [the Senate Commerce Committee] approved legislation overturning a federal court decision that found without merit FCC rules punishing broadcasters for a accidentally cussing on the air.
A third bill that aims to regulate violent content much the same as indecent speech is expected to be introduced soon. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has plans to introduce the anti-violence bill, but it was unclear when."
I'm so glad this new Democratic Congress is here to protect our first amendment rights from those filthy Republicans and evangelicals.
Actually, over 50% of parents are using the voluntary television rating system to determine what is appropriate for their children, but fewer than 7% of parents use the v-chip to do their work for them. So the opposite of your argument is true.
More likely, politicians are quick to dictate misunderstood technologies in order to score points with those parents who don't understand the effectiveness until the technology is in their hands... long after the legislation has been enacted.
As if it's such a huge problem that I got my whole house painted for $500.
I guess it's not, if you're a proponent of what is, for all intents and purposes, slave labor. Documented immigrants get paid a fair wage, at least. Illegal immigrants are always paid under the table.
I'm sure you'll find a way to call me a racist and xenophobe because I don't support illegal immigration. But at least you got your house painted on the cheap, right? You certainly are a paragon of humanity.
Actually, if they offer it in a format that doesn't need to be cracked, then yes, I would consider paying more for that. I often buy CDs -- even used CDs -- at a higher price than the iTunes Music Store offers. The benefits are a lossless physical hard copy that I can then transcode into any format I choose.
So your respect for a publication is easily swayed by a hit piece from a competing tech mag? You must be great fun during elections.
TFA mentions that the article in question was "a whimsical article titled 'Ten Things We Hate About Apple.'" An executive editor quits his job over a puff piece? That's respectable? If this editor was so good, why was he trying to publish an attack piece on Apple with so little substance? The obvious reason is because Apple is hot right now, and knocking them gets you publicity. More pageviews, new readers, etc. Maybe a link from Slashdot. It's a slimeball tactic for an inconsequential, "whimsical" piece, and there is no journalistic integrity in attacking your own advertisers just to get attention.
But here's the best part: Wired did the exact same thing. By making an inconsequential article on Apple the focus of their own piece, complete with the headline: "PC World Editor Quits Over Apple Story," they get to leverage Apple's popularity AND their trumped up David-and-Goliath story in order to -- you guessed it, get that link from Slashdot, and a burst in pageviews.
Wake me up when the PC World starts blocking actual, substantial news pieces. Or when Wired starts reporting them.
Wish I could mod parent up higher than 5... right on.
Don't forget that anyone who has referred to their internet connection as "a ten-meg pipe" or the like has made the exact same comparison. Your friendly neighborhood I.T. professional has been using the "series of tubes" metaphor for far longer than Stevens.
"Both have a belief system that says that others who behave or function differently are inherently worse."
Uh, yes. You're telling me a man should not be judged by his behavior? That's horseshit. The choices we make determine who we are, capability be damned -- I am better than this shooter, because I've never killed 32 people. If you refuse to judge a man by his actions, then you implicitly condone them. I reserve the right to be discerning about a man's behavior. For example:
You are a total asshole for minimizing a horrific act of violence with your relativist fallacies.
I think you may be right, and the clue is referenced in the story:
while substituting for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School
She's a substitute, which means she was only in that class a day or so. For her to have installed spyware and be duped into clicking on it multiple times may be feasible, but is it likely? Besides when you read TFA, the investigator also points out that the jury viewed a list of sites accessed, many of which could not be reached without actively clicking on the ads:
On a projected image of the list of Web sites visited while Amero was working, Lounsbury pointed out several highlighted links.
"You have to physically click on it to get to those sites," Smith said. "I think the evidence is overwhelming that she did intend to access those Web sites."
Among the sites Amero visited were meetlovers.com and femalesexual.com, along with others with more graphic names.
Hitting one or two could be a mistake, but several? It really sounds more like she was surfing for pr0n in the classroom, and using "teh spyware" as an excuse. And of course, Slashdot fell for it. Again.
Actually, even if you're making minimum wage ($5.15 in most states), you fall within the top 15%, according to this site. The real shell game being played here is the use of the global population as a statistic when the cost of living varies so greatly across the globe. A guy making $100,000 in California isn't really as rich as a guy making $100,000 in Kansas. And there are a lot more of those guys in California.
This 2% b.s. is a pretty meaningless statistic, all things considered. You only need to be making 44k a year to hit that.
Actually, most of them become high-level excutives and businessmen who are now outsourcing your ass to India, thanks to the no-pass-no-play rules that forced them to make decent grades, and the competitive atmosphere of sports that turned them into go-getters while you spent all your time playing video games in your mom's basement.
Seriously, most of us have grown out of that tired, cliched worldview dominated by high school stereotypes that weren't even accurate in high school.
My state allows early voting, so I already voted last week, but before doing so I wrestled with a similar problem. I knew I wanted to vote for governor and congress, but there are plenty of smaller statewide races I knew nothing about. Hopefully my experience will be useful to some folks.
First of all, if you don't think you have a firm grasp on the issues, you have three options:
1. Vote randomly, or along party lines 2. Abstain from voting 3. Educate yourself about the issues and candidates
Logically speaking, option 1 can indeed come back to bite you; not knowing where a candidate stands on the issues gives you very little insight into his motivations and actions. I highly recommend choosing another option. Still, if you know you like a particular party platform, the odds are in your favor with a straight party ticket.
Option 2 is a perfectly safe option. It is as much your right to abstain from the voting process as it is your right to take part in it. In fact, even if you believe yourself to be well-informed about candidates and issues, you may find that you do not prefer one option to another.
I chose option 3, and though it took me the better part of a day, I believe it was worth it. There are several resources at your disposal. Various organizations publish handy voter's guides. For me, the most useful was the voter's guide provided by The League of Women Voters. They sent questions to all the candidates, and the candidates provided answers. This was a very useful, no-nonsense, no-bias, no-mudslinging resource.
Beyond that, most newspapers have found their way online these days, and it is likely that your local newspaper(s) will have endorsements listed online. My city has a newspaper, and alternative newspaper, and a student newspaper, all of which endorsed particular candidates (and gave their reasons for doing so). You may not agree with a newspaper's reasoning for its endorsements, but that doesn't make it any less valuable a resource -- you can always vote the other way.
With these few simple resources, I felt I knew enough about the candidates and issues on the ballot to make an informed decision. There's a lot of distortion and spin in today's media, but it is not impossible to find straight answers if you're looking for them. Bottom line: You owe it to yourself to get educated on the issues.
So to answer your question, yes, I believe abstaining is a better choice than an uninformed choice. But an informed choice beats either of them, hands down.
TFA is incorrect -- Gillette Fusion does not actually have six blades. It has five blades, although it is correct that Gillette accomplished this by putting one blade on the back. This, of course, makes the Onion article that much more accurate.
Universal Music Group, you say? Wow, what a surprise. Remind me again, which was the only record label to refuse to settle with mp3.com over the my.mp3.com service? And who was it who subsequently bought mp3.com, gutted it, and eventually sold off the remains afterwards? It's on the tip of my tongue, I just can't quite place the name...
Parent post is one of the best comments I've ever seen on this issue, and something I've argued for a long time now. So many people forget that the convenience factor is so important in driving future technologies. This is the same reason why SACD and DVD-Audio haven't taken off; they do not surpass the convenience factor of the CD, and the improvements in quality aren't particularly noticeable. This comes as a surprise to some people, until you realize that the CD's strength was in the convenience of instant track search, durability, and the lack of needing to rewind.
Same goes for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. They might offer a better picture than DVD, but there will be a lot of people who can't tell (especially not without buying an expensive display to view it on). With zero improvement in convenience, people aren't going to be championing the format without a noticeable improvement in quality. And even then, there will be a lot of people who don't think the improvement is worth the cash.
if you're looking for a president who really tanked the economy, i'd suggest reagan. in his eight years he moved the national deficit from 2.5% ($80 bn) of gdp to 6% ($250 bn).
So, by your own numbers, the GDP under Reagan increased by 23%, but the deficit only increased by 3.5%, and that's considered "tanking the economy?" Clearly, you are not an economist.
The blame for current debt-control shenanigans rests solely on the current power brokers. Reagan fixed the economy that Carter left.
I love how this B.S. gets modded up, but when it comes to censoring video games, the Slashdotters are quick to accuse parents of not doing their jobs by monitoring what their kids see and do.
Howsabout you drop the hypocrisy and let parents take care of their kids as they see fit?
Good insight. In other words, it's the ultimate in viral marketing. I work for a marketing agency (though I'm not in marketing myself) and "viral" is what everybody wets themselves over in this business. If you can get word-of-mouth to spread, it's basically free advertising. If your ad is good enough that people want to see it, interact with it, and be a part of it, then you spend less time and money taking your message to consumers -- they come to you. MySpace was practically made for this; it's an easy way for people to find you on their own, and an easy way for them to spread the word about you.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking to myself... why is this any different to any porn site out there? Is porn now prohibited in the US?
I thought there was child porn or something like that, but, after reading TFA, I can't see a problem at all.
That's because TFA didn't bother to tell you that the movies involved depictions of statutory and forcible rape. One was about a journalist being gang-raped by Osama bin Laden and henchmen. Another graphically portrayed the rape and murder of a woman by a serial killer. Yet another depicted a 12-year-old girl being molested by an older man, which in some states constitutes child pornography.
This is shoddy journalism. The article makes it sound like this is just perfectly normal pornography. It is not. These are rape fantasies and snuff films.
Or you get out of an imaginary dream world and realize that your choices affect the lives of others and that sometimes the idealistic option is not the right one. If not getting someone killed is a "political end," then I'm 100% in favor of their actions.
That's fine and dandy, but what about this story, or this story, or this story? The New York Times is quick to cite responsibility when it comes to one of their own, but when anyone else is kidnapped they're full steam ahead.
Seems a bit hypocritical to me.
The Slashdot community greatly enjoys poking fun at technically inept public officials who attempt to claim advanced knowledge of technical fields.
I find it ironic that the Slashdot community makes fun of his "tubes" analogy, considering that every network technician I've ever known has, at some point in his or her life, used the word "pipe" to describe an internet connection.
There was NO reason not to let developers know there would be no 64 bit carbon as soon as the decision was made, but Apple waited until the last possible second for who knows why.
Actually, it sounds like Apple waited until the last possible second to make the decision to drop 64-bit carbon in the first place.
Still their fault, but because of planning, not because of secrecy.
Considering that many people around the world have been prosecuted for their blogs, imprisoned, tortured and maybe even killed, it is not just humor, its a terrifying fact.
I've never been a proponent of medical marijuana, but somebody needs to get this guy some weed, STAT.
I'm so glad this new Democratic Congress is here to protect our first amendment rights from those filthy Republicans and evangelicals.
Actually, over 50% of parents are using the voluntary television rating system to determine what is appropriate for their children, but fewer than 7% of parents use the v-chip to do their work for them. So the opposite of your argument is true.
More likely, politicians are quick to dictate misunderstood technologies in order to score points with those parents who don't understand the effectiveness until the technology is in their hands... long after the legislation has been enacted.
You know, that's the first funny Bush joke I've heard in years.
As if it's such a huge problem that I got my whole house painted for $500.
I guess it's not, if you're a proponent of what is, for all intents and purposes, slave labor. Documented immigrants get paid a fair wage, at least. Illegal immigrants are always paid under the table.
I'm sure you'll find a way to call me a racist and xenophobe because I don't support illegal immigration. But at least you got your house painted on the cheap, right? You certainly are a paragon of humanity.
Actually, if they offer it in a format that doesn't need to be cracked, then yes, I would consider paying more for that. I often buy CDs -- even used CDs -- at a higher price than the iTunes Music Store offers. The benefits are a lossless physical hard copy that I can then transcode into any format I choose.
So your respect for a publication is easily swayed by a hit piece from a competing tech mag? You must be great fun during elections.
TFA mentions that the article in question was "a whimsical article titled 'Ten Things We Hate About Apple.'" An executive editor quits his job over a puff piece? That's respectable? If this editor was so good, why was he trying to publish an attack piece on Apple with so little substance? The obvious reason is because Apple is hot right now, and knocking them gets you publicity. More pageviews, new readers, etc. Maybe a link from Slashdot. It's a slimeball tactic for an inconsequential, "whimsical" piece, and there is no journalistic integrity in attacking your own advertisers just to get attention.
But here's the best part: Wired did the exact same thing. By making an inconsequential article on Apple the focus of their own piece, complete with the headline: "PC World Editor Quits Over Apple Story," they get to leverage Apple's popularity AND their trumped up David-and-Goliath story in order to -- you guessed it, get that link from Slashdot, and a burst in pageviews.
Wake me up when the PC World starts blocking actual, substantial news pieces. Or when Wired starts reporting them.
Wish I could mod parent up higher than 5... right on.
Don't forget that anyone who has referred to their internet connection as "a ten-meg pipe" or the like has made the exact same comparison. Your friendly neighborhood I.T. professional has been using the "series of tubes" metaphor for far longer than Stevens.
"Both have a belief system that says that others who behave or function differently are inherently worse."
Uh, yes. You're telling me a man should not be judged by his behavior? That's horseshit. The choices we make determine who we are, capability be damned -- I am better than this shooter, because I've never killed 32 people. If you refuse to judge a man by his actions, then you implicitly condone them. I reserve the right to be discerning about a man's behavior. For example:
You are a total asshole for minimizing a horrific act of violence with your relativist fallacies.
She's a substitute, which means she was only in that class a day or so. For her to have installed spyware and be duped into clicking on it multiple times may be feasible, but is it likely? Besides when you read TFA, the investigator also points out that the jury viewed a list of sites accessed, many of which could not be reached without actively clicking on the ads:
Hitting one or two could be a mistake, but several? It really sounds more like she was surfing for pr0n in the classroom, and using "teh spyware" as an excuse. And of course, Slashdot fell for it. Again.
Actually, even if you're making minimum wage ($5.15 in most states), you fall within the top 15%, according to this site. The real shell game being played here is the use of the global population as a statistic when the cost of living varies so greatly across the globe. A guy making $100,000 in California isn't really as rich as a guy making $100,000 in Kansas. And there are a lot more of those guys in California.
This 2% b.s. is a pretty meaningless statistic, all things considered. You only need to be making 44k a year to hit that.
Actually, most of them become high-level excutives and businessmen who are now outsourcing your ass to India, thanks to the no-pass-no-play rules that forced them to make decent grades, and the competitive atmosphere of sports that turned them into go-getters while you spent all your time playing video games in your mom's basement.
Seriously, most of us have grown out of that tired, cliched worldview dominated by high school stereotypes that weren't even accurate in high school.
My state allows early voting, so I already voted last week, but before doing so I wrestled with a similar problem. I knew I wanted to vote for governor and congress, but there are plenty of smaller statewide races I knew nothing about. Hopefully my experience will be useful to some folks.
First of all, if you don't think you have a firm grasp on the issues, you have three options:
1. Vote randomly, or along party lines
2. Abstain from voting
3. Educate yourself about the issues and candidates
Logically speaking, option 1 can indeed come back to bite you; not knowing where a candidate stands on the issues gives you very little insight into his motivations and actions. I highly recommend choosing another option. Still, if you know you like a particular party platform, the odds are in your favor with a straight party ticket.
Option 2 is a perfectly safe option. It is as much your right to abstain from the voting process as it is your right to take part in it. In fact, even if you believe yourself to be well-informed about candidates and issues, you may find that you do not prefer one option to another.
I chose option 3, and though it took me the better part of a day, I believe it was worth it. There are several resources at your disposal. Various organizations publish handy voter's guides. For me, the most useful was the voter's guide provided by The League of Women Voters. They sent questions to all the candidates, and the candidates provided answers. This was a very useful, no-nonsense, no-bias, no-mudslinging resource.
Beyond that, most newspapers have found their way online these days, and it is likely that your local newspaper(s) will have endorsements listed online. My city has a newspaper, and alternative newspaper, and a student newspaper, all of which endorsed particular candidates (and gave their reasons for doing so). You may not agree with a newspaper's reasoning for its endorsements, but that doesn't make it any less valuable a resource -- you can always vote the other way.
With these few simple resources, I felt I knew enough about the candidates and issues on the ballot to make an informed decision. There's a lot of distortion and spin in today's media, but it is not impossible to find straight answers if you're looking for them. Bottom line: You owe it to yourself to get educated on the issues.
So to answer your question, yes, I believe abstaining is a better choice than an uninformed choice. But an informed choice beats either of them, hands down.
TFA is incorrect -- Gillette Fusion does not actually have six blades. It has five blades, although it is correct that Gillette accomplished this by putting one blade on the back. This, of course, makes the Onion article that much more accurate.
Universal Music Group, you say? Wow, what a surprise. Remind me again, which was the only record label to refuse to settle with mp3.com over the my.mp3.com service? And who was it who subsequently bought mp3.com, gutted it, and eventually sold off the remains afterwards? It's on the tip of my tongue, I just can't quite place the name...
Seriously, it's obvious where this is heading.
Awesome rundown, thanks for the info. :)
Parent post is one of the best comments I've ever seen on this issue, and something I've argued for a long time now. So many people forget that the convenience factor is so important in driving future technologies. This is the same reason why SACD and DVD-Audio haven't taken off; they do not surpass the convenience factor of the CD, and the improvements in quality aren't particularly noticeable. This comes as a surprise to some people, until you realize that the CD's strength was in the convenience of instant track search, durability, and the lack of needing to rewind.
Same goes for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. They might offer a better picture than DVD, but there will be a lot of people who can't tell (especially not without buying an expensive display to view it on). With zero improvement in convenience, people aren't going to be championing the format without a noticeable improvement in quality. And even then, there will be a lot of people who don't think the improvement is worth the cash.
if you're looking for a president who really tanked the economy, i'd suggest reagan. in his eight years he moved the national deficit from 2.5% ($80 bn) of gdp to 6% ($250 bn).
So, by your own numbers, the GDP under Reagan increased by 23%, but the deficit only increased by 3.5%, and that's considered "tanking the economy?" Clearly, you are not an economist.
The blame for current debt-control shenanigans rests solely on the current power brokers. Reagan fixed the economy that Carter left.
Does /. have a polling mechanism? Can we actually vote on these?
There is indeed such a mechanism, but you will have to add:
5. CowboyNeal
I love how this B.S. gets modded up, but when it comes to censoring video games, the Slashdotters are quick to accuse parents of not doing their jobs by monitoring what their kids see and do.
Howsabout you drop the hypocrisy and let parents take care of their kids as they see fit?
Good insight. In other words, it's the ultimate in viral marketing. I work for a marketing agency (though I'm not in marketing myself) and "viral" is what everybody wets themselves over in this business. If you can get word-of-mouth to spread, it's basically free advertising. If your ad is good enough that people want to see it, interact with it, and be a part of it, then you spend less time and money taking your message to consumers -- they come to you. MySpace was practically made for this; it's an easy way for people to find you on their own, and an easy way for them to spread the word about you.