Well, according to the Library of Congress' website, they have collected "over 200 terabytes of data". But since they don't specify an exact number, let's call it at 200 TB.
On the one hand, failing to provide for so many of our people can indeed be an issue.
On the other hand, some of that "pie in the sky" research might, say, end up making food or power cheaper. For the most part I agree that it doesn't relate to any practical problems regarding basic necessities, though.
Right, because when I was talking about crime I clearly meant all of those executives and their offshore accounts. If only they were richer; they'd stop dodging their taxes!
It should have been pretty obvious, but either I failed at that or you're being pedantic, so I'll state it more plainly:
Crimes perpetrated by poor or average income persons (excluding crimes of passion) is caused by not having enough money? Whoda thunk it?
I might get modded down for the following, because talking shit about open software/source on Slashdot is like drawing a picture of Mohammad... well, pretty much anywhere. It's gonna end badly.
9 times out of 10 if something is mentioned on/. I hear someone say "Oh, here's this and this free and awesome open source alternative". I've tried a fair bit of these alternatives - I liked and used Open Office for years, for instance. However, most of the time I find that while they may be better on the technical level, they largely fail on aesthetics or ease of use. Using the ubiquitous car analogy, if I could build a car that could outrun a Ferrari but looks like something out of a M.C. Escher painting, it wouldn't sell as well - performance isn't everything.
To the average user, security isn't everything either. I've seriously encountered people who say things like "oh, my computer has slowed down so much after these last couple of years - time to buy a new one I guess!" when it is obviously laden with bloatware, malware, unused programs, etc. If they have a virus, they don't care about someone getting root on their box; they care about whether or not the thing works. To the layman, a computer is an appliance like a television or DVD player, even though you or I may know that simply is not the case by far.
All in all, your post contains, in my view, absolutely everything that is wrong with the open source/free software/etc. movement and, by association, its proponents. You have a beautiful technical design, with talk of encryption and a system that would difficult for someone to externally attack. You talk like a sensible software engineer.
And almost nobody would ever actually use your software.
Again, security, open source, etc. and whatnot are very important to most of us here on/. Let's take it a step up and say that you have core functionality built in, just like Facebook - friends, potential for games, video, etc. Does it run smoothly? Does it look good? Simply "just working", being secure, being open source, etc. isn't good enough for the layman. It has to work smoothly, be cool and/or have that standout brand identity that makes it easily recognizable, and be pretty.
Until you OSS guys figure this shit out and actually act on it, OSS is never going to get above the single percent digits in the consumer world.
First, if he thinks you're a moron and says as much - not to your face, but on their own private facebook page - then as far as this particular jurisdiction that is indeed true. But honestly, firing someone for bitching about their boss (which I imagine a hell of a lot of people do regularly) is petty at best.
If someone is rude to your face (and you have witnessess) you can get away with terminating someone for insubordination and/or gross insubordination.
If someone spreads rumors about you that they deliberately know not to be true (and not idly passing along gossip), they may be liable for libel or slander. Not only could you most probably fire them, but you might have a civil lawsuit against them.
And lastly, there's loads of creative management types who can terminate someone with a non-specific reason. Terminate the entire department but only transfer *some* of the staff (unloading some of the ones they want to get rid of due to "cost overruns" or "cutting back"), laying off him/her because they've been there the longest (or the shortest), etc. Anyone who's remotely competent can come up with a reason that would probably stand up in court.
However, if someone is saying you're an asshole, then either they're unhappy with their workload or work environment (which is something you should personally study and attempt to fix), unhappy with your leadership (which is something you'd personally have to resolve - are you being a poor leader?), or unhappy with the fact they actually have to, you know, do stuff to get paid (can their asses!)
Personal experience speaking here, but nine times out of ten when I hear "Oh, the boss in an asshole" I usually can see why they mean it clear as day. This guy takes out his problems on his co-workers, he picks on this one person, etc. So again (in my experience), if one of your employee's genuinely believes you're an asshole, you're probably an asshole.
You may or may not find this amusing, but I've seen a few games where they don't support widescreen because it would give the player an "unfair advantage" (larger field of view).
Why? We've been able to hook up gamepads to PCs and keyboards & mice up to consoles for like 10 years now.
You can get a good wired USB controller for about $25 and a good USB keyboard and mouse for $30 or so - either way, the price of most basic peripherals on conosles.
"Discloser:" I am an average adult male with over 15 years of common sense. A true bullshit-detecting professional.
Facts: Chiropracty causes your wallet to become lighter and nothing much else, Penn and Teller have proven it. These brave men have been vilified by the BIG CRACKA controlled BIG INTERNETS.
All a person needs for good health and long life are: 1) Proper nutrition. 2) Plenty of exercise. 3) Regular critical thinking exercises. 4) Avoid BIG CRACKA controlled "doctors"!
Regular critical thinking exercises offer plenty of benefits: 1) Improved B.S. detection. 2) Increased money in your wallet. 3) Help with putting these scam artists out of business. 4) Increased brain function.
As for seeing Facebook and Twitter as a path for 'freedom of the people'... well that just makes you sound like a freaking idiot. Neither of these sites provide anything that wasn't already done before them on the Internet as well in more traditional methods. Old idea, new theme, new fad... not a world changer.
I tend to disagree, what with millions of people congregated around the same services. Most people I know (personal experience, not scientific) check their Facebook 10-20 times a day compared to once a day (if that) for e-mail. Those who tweet, tend to tweet often. Yes, message boards, newsgroups, mailing lists, and so on were around long before this, but I don't think there were ever this many people on one unified service that is used near-ubiquitously.
Back when I actually edited Wikipedia more actively, I recall that there was a stated goal of keeping articles under a certain length. If an article went over this length, it should be trimmed or split into separate articles.
And when they promise not to support this but then do?
Well, some may view it as extreme for breaking one promise, but the official could always be recalled. Remember Gray Davis? A big stink was made about how he essentially was kicked out of office by the people. Massive media circus.
If someone blatantly balks on their promises to a large degree, the people always have the option to initiate the recall vote. I'm personally note sure if it's an option in all states or just a few; it really should be available everywhere.
I want to reply to your comment and take the time to speak of my sophomore year Physics teacher, Mr. Mondalto. He taught in Science High School in Newark, NJ. (He may still teach at the new Science Park High School for all I know; I really have to look him up.)
Science High was a magnet school and tended to attract teachers who actually gave a damn. I think I was fortunate compared to other students of my generation in that I thought that I had more good teachers than bad. We had a Literature teacher, Mr. Gaylord, who opened the year with "I've heard all the jokes, and if you're gonna say one it had better be goddamned new and hilarious." We had a general science teacher, Ms. Stawsky, who actually taught us about general science, using simple but fun experiments.
But yes, on to Mr. Mondalto. In Science High there were two physics teachers. While the other teacher's approach was quite conventional (use the book 90% of the time), Mr. Mondalto's was the opposite - his class was taught more like a college-level course. Everything he did was written down by hand on the board; most of our books were still in the original plastic wrapping and returned that way.
He was in the building every day at 7:00 AM (classes started at 8:15 and ended at 3:00; we had 9 classes instead of 8 in most other schools in Newark) and left every day at 5:00 PM. If you didn't understand something, you could always come in early or stay late and he would help you personally. If you missed a test, this is when you had to make it up. Almost all tests (save midterms and finals) were open-note tests, so if you took notes they were remarkably easy; I suppose he felt it were more important that his students know how to apply the science of Physics rather than just rote memorization and application of formulas.
I ended up failing his class, partially due to personal health and family problems but largely due to my own laziness and apathy. I very much regret not working harder and actually making an effort to learn in his classroom back then; to me it seems like a pretty big insult to someone who went above and beyond compared to the majority of teachers anywhere in America today. I hope I'll get the chance to see him again and tell him how much I appreciated his class. Even though I failed it pretty spectacularly, I still learned many valuable things. That's the most valuable lesson of all to teach in science, don't you think? Failure is still a wonderful educational experience (most especially when it's spectacular).
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder if anyone ever turned down the reward? Even if I were desperate for money, I don't think I'd go that far.
Well, according to the Library of Congress' website, they have collected "over 200 terabytes of data". But since they don't specify an exact number, let's call it at 200 TB.
295 exabytes / 200 terabytes = 1,546,649.6 Libraries of Congress.
Leaders don't pull the trigger on civilians - soldiers do.
So far we've seen very good restraint on the part of the military forces out in the street.
For all we know, they've already been ordered to fire on civilians or something of the like and refused to do so.
I personally don't care for how Wikileaks editorializes.
This is a non-issue since you can basically view the source material.
If you think Collateral Murder is editorializing (and it is), then you can always show people the unedited video which Wikileaks provides.
On the one hand, failing to provide for so many of our people can indeed be an issue.
On the other hand, some of that "pie in the sky" research might, say, end up making food or power cheaper. For the most part I agree that it doesn't relate to any practical problems regarding basic necessities, though.
I dunno, what about architecture? You know, having a building look good and have a style but also be ultimately functional?
I'd kick your ass, but I've been court-martialed for being overweight.
Right, because when I was talking about crime I clearly meant all of those executives and their offshore accounts. If only they were richer; they'd stop dodging their taxes!
It should have been pretty obvious, but either I failed at that or you're being pedantic, so I'll state it more plainly:
Crimes perpetrated by poor or average income persons (excluding crimes of passion) is caused by not having enough money? Whoda thunk it?
I might get modded down for the following, because talking shit about open software/source on Slashdot is like drawing a picture of Mohammad... well, pretty much anywhere. It's gonna end badly.
9 times out of 10 if something is mentioned on /. I hear someone say "Oh, here's this and this free and awesome open source alternative". I've tried a fair bit of these alternatives - I liked and used Open Office for years, for instance. However, most of the time I find that while they may be better on the technical level, they largely fail on aesthetics or ease of use. Using the ubiquitous car analogy, if I could build a car that could outrun a Ferrari but looks like something out of a M.C. Escher painting, it wouldn't sell as well - performance isn't everything.
To the average user, security isn't everything either. I've seriously encountered people who say things like "oh, my computer has slowed down so much after these last couple of years - time to buy a new one I guess!" when it is obviously laden with bloatware, malware, unused programs, etc. If they have a virus, they don't care about someone getting root on their box; they care about whether or not the thing works. To the layman, a computer is an appliance like a television or DVD player, even though you or I may know that simply is not the case by far.
All in all, your post contains, in my view, absolutely everything that is wrong with the open source/free software/etc. movement and, by association, its proponents. You have a beautiful technical design, with talk of encryption and a system that would difficult for someone to externally attack. You talk like a sensible software engineer.
And almost nobody would ever actually use your software.
Again, security, open source, etc. and whatnot are very important to most of us here on /. Let's take it a step up and say that you have core functionality built in, just like Facebook - friends, potential for games, video, etc. Does it run smoothly? Does it look good? Simply "just working", being secure, being open source, etc. isn't good enough for the layman. It has to work smoothly, be cool and/or have that standout brand identity that makes it easily recognizable, and be pretty.
Until you OSS guys figure this shit out and actually act on it, OSS is never going to get above the single percent digits in the consumer world.
Are you kidding?
First, if he thinks you're a moron and says as much - not to your face, but on their own private facebook page - then as far as this particular jurisdiction that is indeed true. But honestly, firing someone for bitching about their boss (which I imagine a hell of a lot of people do regularly) is petty at best.
If someone is rude to your face (and you have witnessess) you can get away with terminating someone for insubordination and/or gross insubordination.
If someone spreads rumors about you that they deliberately know not to be true (and not idly passing along gossip), they may be liable for libel or slander. Not only could you most probably fire them, but you might have a civil lawsuit against them.
And lastly, there's loads of creative management types who can terminate someone with a non-specific reason. Terminate the entire department but only transfer *some* of the staff (unloading some of the ones they want to get rid of due to "cost overruns" or "cutting back"), laying off him/her because they've been there the longest (or the shortest), etc. Anyone who's remotely competent can come up with a reason that would probably stand up in court.
However, if someone is saying you're an asshole, then either they're unhappy with their workload or work environment (which is something you should personally study and attempt to fix), unhappy with your leadership (which is something you'd personally have to resolve - are you being a poor leader?), or unhappy with the fact they actually have to, you know, do stuff to get paid (can their asses!)
Personal experience speaking here, but nine times out of ten when I hear "Oh, the boss in an asshole" I usually can see why they mean it clear as day. This guy takes out his problems on his co-workers, he picks on this one person, etc. So again (in my experience), if one of your employee's genuinely believes you're an asshole, you're probably an asshole.
IANAL, personal opinions only herein.
Crime is caused by poverty? Whoda thunk it?
Amen brother. Little bastards ruined my vacation a few years ago. I stopped counting at 150 bites on my arms, legs, and neck.
Strange. My decoder comes out with "Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine." A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!
You may or may not find this amusing, but I've seen a few games where they don't support widescreen because it would give the player an "unfair advantage" (larger field of view).
Why? We've been able to hook up gamepads to PCs and keyboards & mice up to consoles for like 10 years now.
You can get a good wired USB controller for about $25 and a good USB keyboard and mouse for $30 or so - either way, the price of most basic peripherals on conosles.
Don't buy into the BIG CRACKA chiropractic scam!
"Discloser:" I am an average adult male with over 15 years of common sense. A true bullshit-detecting professional.
Facts: Chiropracty causes your wallet to become lighter and nothing much else, Penn and Teller have proven it. These brave men have been vilified by the BIG CRACKA controlled BIG INTERNETS.
All a person needs for good health and long life are:
1) Proper nutrition.
2) Plenty of exercise.
3) Regular critical thinking exercises.
4) Avoid BIG CRACKA controlled "doctors"!
Regular critical thinking exercises offer plenty of benefits:
1) Improved B.S. detection.
2) Increased money in your wallet.
3) Help with putting these scam artists out of business.
4) Increased brain function.
In short: DO NOT VISIT CHIROPRACTORS!
As for seeing Facebook and Twitter as a path for 'freedom of the people' ... well that just makes you sound like a freaking idiot. Neither of these sites provide anything that wasn't already done before them on the Internet as well in more traditional methods. Old idea, new theme, new fad ... not a world changer.
I tend to disagree, what with millions of people congregated around the same services. Most people I know (personal experience, not scientific) check their Facebook 10-20 times a day compared to once a day (if that) for e-mail. Those who tweet, tend to tweet often. Yes, message boards, newsgroups, mailing lists, and so on were around long before this, but I don't think there were ever this many people on one unified service that is used near-ubiquitously.
Oh no, my one true weakness! A bureaucratic, controlling clown nanny!
Back when I actually edited Wikipedia more actively, I recall that there was a stated goal of keeping articles under a certain length. If an article went over this length, it should be trimmed or split into separate articles.
And when they promise not to support this but then do?
Well, some may view it as extreme for breaking one promise, but the official could always be recalled. Remember Gray Davis? A big stink was made about how he essentially was kicked out of office by the people. Massive media circus.
If someone blatantly balks on their promises to a large degree, the people always have the option to initiate the recall vote. I'm personally note sure if it's an option in all states or just a few; it really should be available everywhere.
I want to reply to your comment and take the time to speak of my sophomore year Physics teacher, Mr. Mondalto. He taught in Science High School in Newark, NJ. (He may still teach at the new Science Park High School for all I know; I really have to look him up.)
Science High was a magnet school and tended to attract teachers who actually gave a damn. I think I was fortunate compared to other students of my generation in that I thought that I had more good teachers than bad. We had a Literature teacher, Mr. Gaylord, who opened the year with "I've heard all the jokes, and if you're gonna say one it had better be goddamned new and hilarious." We had a general science teacher, Ms. Stawsky, who actually taught us about general science, using simple but fun experiments.
But yes, on to Mr. Mondalto. In Science High there were two physics teachers. While the other teacher's approach was quite conventional (use the book 90% of the time), Mr. Mondalto's was the opposite - his class was taught more like a college-level course. Everything he did was written down by hand on the board; most of our books were still in the original plastic wrapping and returned that way.
He was in the building every day at 7:00 AM (classes started at 8:15 and ended at 3:00; we had 9 classes instead of 8 in most other schools in Newark) and left every day at 5:00 PM. If you didn't understand something, you could always come in early or stay late and he would help you personally. If you missed a test, this is when you had to make it up. Almost all tests (save midterms and finals) were open-note tests, so if you took notes they were remarkably easy; I suppose he felt it were more important that his students know how to apply the science of Physics rather than just rote memorization and application of formulas.
I ended up failing his class, partially due to personal health and family problems but largely due to my own laziness and apathy. I very much regret not working harder and actually making an effort to learn in his classroom back then; to me it seems like a pretty big insult to someone who went above and beyond compared to the majority of teachers anywhere in America today. I hope I'll get the chance to see him again and tell him how much I appreciated his class. Even though I failed it pretty spectacularly, I still learned many valuable things. That's the most valuable lesson of all to teach in science, don't you think? Failure is still a wonderful educational experience (most especially when it's spectacular).
+1 Subtle Humor
Don't feel bad, most of the stuff posted by the editors was probably done when they had half a bottle of rum in them anyway.
This problem can be solved by youth in Asia, I'm sure.
After a few years, maybe you could get underwear with this printed on the front: