This argues from an assumption that there is no personal responsibility for healthcare.
I don't want the government running my healthcare, thank you, they've managed to screw up international affairs, wireless communications, taxes, roads, telecommunications, and regulation of food so far...
Yes, intelligence, muscular structure, blue eyes, etc. are encoded in genes, but a difference in a certain gene does not simply turn on/off one specific trait or select between traits. Modify a gene and you mess with a whole bunch of stuff at once. That's why genetic science is so difficult.
There will be a day when IQ can be adjusted genetically.
Some primates are social, some aren't - gorillas vs orangutans, and that's genetic. There will be a day when the need for social approval can be adjusted genetically.
I doubt it. You can't simply "adjust" something genetically. That's the whole misconception. We would have to learn to write genetic code ourselves, and we are a long way from that. All we can do is piece together what we have to try to make something happen, and we end up screwing it up more often than not. Reverse engineering genetic code is a much scarier challenge than reverse engineering Windows. (BTW, I know that there is work being done on this, see ReactOS)
And why should we assume that Joe Public can understand science? If that was the case, there would be no use for graduate degrees. The MSM is just an entertainment medium. Only a small percentage of us actually care about being correct. That's why I hang around/. Regardless of all the jokes, people here do care about being right. I say this even disagreeing with many of the general opinions around here.
Ah yes. Sad isn't it, that science has become as political as everything else? Small variations are read as huge trends, and the gullible public feeds money into it. (In this case, indirectly though government grants.) Of what possible use is this study? Are we going to change everyone's genes to make sure they don't act like dictators?
We would be in a very sad place, with no one with a motivation to lead. Bad character traits are just overmanifestations (is that a word?) of good ones.
Agreed. Genes do not "turn off/on" certain functions like a checkbox in a properties/preferences dialog. Genetic science can provide many wonderful things, but we will never be able to alter a gene to "make sure the baby is smart" or "keep him from being anti-social." As usual, the mainstream press sensationalizes science and contributes to the dumbing down already far advanced by public^Wgovernment education.
I've always thought of the concept of "thinking outside the box" as a very good and idealistic concept, but taken in reality; people who truly think-outside-the-box will ultimately be outsiders, and therefore be on the shortlist for being fired or "laid-off".
Yes, too true. I question a lot of things, and I fear I am outside the box even at/.
The government wants too much control of citizens, and unfortunately, most people have been raised to think that's their job. Good to see that someone is willing to question that.
Brilliant post!
The problem, though, is that the citizens will not stand up for their rights, because our current culture is taught to depend on the government to fix all of the problems. If citizens were to take a stand on the issue, government and corporations would see that it is not in their best interest to continue these practices. What needs to happen is (as has previously been posted) citizens encrypting their communications and taking other steps (Tor, Freenet, etc.) to prevent snooping, government, corporate, or otherwise.
Liberty and capitalism don't solve problems, they just give us an opportunity to. That's why less government is good.
All grew into feudal states when socialism was attempted. Socialism inevitably leads to corruption.
Ever hear of New Harmony, Indiana (Wikipedia)? Robert Owen thought he could do it... People are just to lazy when the government takes care of them.
Lets see, Russia had a wonderful economy controlled by Lenin, Stalin, and their successors. Indeed. Venezuela and Cuba have wonderful economies...
Yes, socialism works wonderfully./sarcasm
Yes, individual responsibility must be regulated, but only to the point where liberty could harm others. Thus we have laws against underage sex, laws against nudity in public, laws against drinking while driving. Thus, we should have laws prohibiting abortion, which is, however you try to spin it, murder of an unborn child. "Rights of a mother" pooh, do I have the right to come kill you?
The libertarians have it almost right. However, in the course of protecting liberty, some liberty must be curtailed. The problem comes when too much liberty is curtailed and the government becomes a legal form of robbery.
No. The government exists to defend the life and liberty of its citizens. Looking after society is best left to religious groups (I subscribe to one in particular, but many seem to do a good job) and individuals.
Not to protect us and our liberty?
That you think the two are separate objectives speaks volumes.
Yes. It says that I am discerning and able to spot the difference. I don't want government forcing me to pay for someone else's healthcare, choosing my healthcare for me, forcing me to comply with insane "environmental" regulations which have no basis in fact, and telling me that I'm not smart enough to figure out how fast I can drive. I do want it defending our soil against invaders of any kind (especially "religious" extremists) and protecting my life, liberty, and property. That's what it's there for.
True. Not all issues can be defined with left/right. However, in politics, we can generalize (oh the horror) thus:
Left:
Do as much as possible through government, especially welfare and education. Less free market. Higher taxes, more government benefits
Right:
Do as much as possible in the private sector. This includes welfare (private charities) and education. Lower taxes, less government benefits.
Now this does not cover every issue, but it gives a general idea of the philosophies that an intelligent person can apply.
This I understand. I guess my previous post wasn't clear enough. The general opinion on El Reg is that amanfromMars is an experimental turing machine which is designed to learn to communicate by reading internet forums. He/She/It posts many places... usually as amanfromMars, though sometimes AC. The nonsensical mess spewing from whatever this is sounds more like
AI than a demented human. At least thats my opinion. I think it would be interesting to see the server logs and run a whois on the IP address of this commenter.
No. It looks like amanfromMars from The Register has found slashdot. For unknown reasons, he always posts AC here, but I would recognize his comment style anywhere. This is the second comment by him/her/it I have seen on/. in a couple days.
I have used both (GIMP at home, Photoshop at school). I can see several areas where gimp needs to catch up with Photoshop. Most of these should be made much easier to implement by GEGL
Text scaling: use actual font rendering for scaled text instead of image scaling
Adjustment layers: won't be needed when GEGL's non-destructive editing is implemented.
layer effects: Useful for adding text to images, among other things
clipping masks: Also useful for adding text, especially when combined with layer effects
brush sizes: do away with "brush editor" for everyday circle/square brushes and get a toolbar. I hate using a dialog to adjust size/hardness/transparency.
CYMK etc. color support
If GIMP gets these things, it will surpass Photoshop. I personally enjoy using software that I'm required to pay for a license for, or be bound to use on only 1 or 2 computers. Also, I can't wait to get my hands on non-destructive editing.
I partially agree, however, pulseaudio is a full-featured, low-latency audio server. What's missing is app support. While I don't entirely agree with it, this seems to be a move to force applications to support pulseaudio. The Ubuntu developers will probably be writing patches for a number of libraries and applications and sending them upstream. For legacy ALSA and OSS applications, there is pasuspender (pause pulseaudio and give a single app direct ALSA access) and padsp (emulate an OSS device for an application, send its audio to a pulseaudio output). Hopefully we will soon see pulseaudio support in the major audio libraries (PortAudio etc.) ALSA already includes a compatibility drive where you can create a virtual "pulse" device to send output to pulseaudio.
BTW about latency, I tested JACK running on top of PulseAudio on my system with a generic integrated soundcard, and got <2ms without hardware monitoring. <flamebait>Try that under any Windows soundserver.</flamebait>
Actually, if I had the cash for an iPhone, I would love to play that game.
People think puzzle games are simplistic, until they actually start playing them. Puzzles develop your brain (which is the ultimate goal of many geeks, I would imagine.)
I love any game where you have to think. Monopoly, Tetris, frvade (www.frvade.com), baseball (yes, the real sport).
No, there actually aren't that many original games. Just a whole bunch of clones. This actually looks innovative.
Not ignorant. More informed than most people. Go read the Koran. It specifically says that those who do not convert to Islam must die. Now I realize that not all Muslims believe this, but this is a tenant of their religion.
Read my comment again. I said we shouldn't be trying to kill civilians. However, these people are not as "innocent" or "peace-loving" as people think. Not by a long stretch.
P.S. If I went to a government school the "High School" flamebait would have some merit.
Slashdot Mirror
This argues from an assumption that there is no personal responsibility for healthcare.
I don't want the government running my healthcare, thank you, they've managed to screw up international affairs, wireless communications, taxes, roads, telecommunications, and regulation of food so far...
Yes, intelligence, muscular structure, blue eyes, etc. are encoded in genes, but a difference in a certain gene does not simply turn on/off one specific trait or select between traits. Modify a gene and you mess with a whole bunch of stuff at once. That's why genetic science is so difficult. I doubt it. You can't simply "adjust" something genetically. That's the whole misconception. We would have to learn to write genetic code ourselves, and we are a long way from that. All we can do is piece together what we have to try to make something happen, and we end up screwing it up more often than not. Reverse engineering genetic code is a much scarier challenge than reverse engineering Windows. (BTW, I know that there is work being done on this, see ReactOS)
And why should we assume that Joe Public can understand science? If that was the case, there would be no use for graduate degrees. The MSM is just an entertainment medium. Only a small percentage of us actually care about being correct. That's why I hang around /. Regardless of all the jokes, people here do care about being right. I say this even disagreeing with many of the general opinions around here.
Ah yes. Sad isn't it, that science has become as political as everything else? Small variations are read as huge trends, and the gullible public feeds money into it. (In this case, indirectly though government grants.) Of what possible use is this study? Are we going to change everyone's genes to make sure they don't act like dictators?
We would be in a very sad place, with no one with a motivation to lead. Bad character traits are just overmanifestations (is that a word?) of good ones.
Agreed. Genes do not "turn off/on" certain functions like a checkbox in a properties/preferences dialog. Genetic science can provide many wonderful things, but we will never be able to alter a gene to "make sure the baby is smart" or "keep him from being anti-social." As usual, the mainstream press sensationalizes science and contributes to the dumbing down already far advanced by public^Wgovernment education.
The government wants too much control of citizens, and unfortunately, most people have been raised to think that's their job. Good to see that someone is willing to question that.
Brilliant post! The problem, though, is that the citizens will not stand up for their rights, because our current culture is taught to depend on the government to fix all of the problems. If citizens were to take a stand on the issue, government and corporations would see that it is not in their best interest to continue these practices. What needs to happen is (as has previously been posted) citizens encrypting their communications and taking other steps (Tor, Freenet, etc.) to prevent snooping, government, corporate, or otherwise.
Liberty and capitalism don't solve problems, they just give us an opportunity to. That's why less government is good.
All grew into feudal states when socialism was attempted. Socialism inevitably leads to corruption. Ever hear of New Harmony, Indiana (Wikipedia)? Robert Owen thought he could do it... People are just to lazy when the government takes care of them.
Lets see, Russia had a wonderful economy controlled by Lenin, Stalin, and their successors. Indeed. Venezuela and Cuba have wonderful economies... Yes, socialism works wonderfully. /sarcasm
Yes, individual responsibility must be regulated, but only to the point where liberty could harm others. Thus we have laws against underage sex, laws against nudity in public, laws against drinking while driving. Thus, we should have laws prohibiting abortion, which is, however you try to spin it, murder of an unborn child. "Rights of a mother" pooh, do I have the right to come kill you? The libertarians have it almost right. However, in the course of protecting liberty, some liberty must be curtailed. The problem comes when too much liberty is curtailed and the government becomes a legal form of robbery.
Not to protect us and our liberty?
True. Not all issues can be defined with left/right. However, in politics, we can generalize (oh the horror) thus: Left: Do as much as possible through government, especially welfare and education. Less free market. Higher taxes, more government benefits Right: Do as much as possible in the private sector. This includes welfare (private charities) and education. Lower taxes, less government benefits. Now this does not cover every issue, but it gives a general idea of the philosophies that an intelligent person can apply.
spam. No, seriously.
Compile a list? I'm lazy, try Google. In short, he posts a lot of places. Blogs, forums, El Reg
Its a day early... Practice maybe?
LOL... Sorry I asked. How about non-Linear Image Manipulation Program? Ok I know... lame comeback.
This I understand. I guess my previous post wasn't clear enough. The general opinion on El Reg is that amanfromMars is an experimental turing machine which is designed to learn to communicate by reading internet forums. He/She/It posts many places... usually as amanfromMars, though sometimes AC. The nonsensical mess spewing from whatever this is sounds more like AI than a demented human. At least thats my opinion. I think it would be interesting to see the server logs and run a whois on the IP address of this commenter.
No. It looks like amanfromMars from The Register has found slashdot. For unknown reasons, he always posts AC here, but I would recognize his comment style anywhere. This is the second comment by him/her/it I have seen on /. in a couple days.
Agreed... Suggestions anyone?
Maybe not. The skin isn't the problem (and changes with the gnome theme anyway. The UI functionality and layout needs some work...
- Text scaling: use actual font rendering for scaled text instead of image scaling
- Adjustment layers: won't be needed when GEGL's non-destructive editing is implemented.
- layer effects: Useful for adding text to images, among other things
- clipping masks: Also useful for adding text, especially when combined with layer effects
- brush sizes: do away with "brush editor" for everyday circle/square brushes and get a toolbar. I hate using a dialog to adjust size/hardness/transparency.
- CYMK etc. color support
If GIMP gets these things, it will surpass Photoshop. I personally enjoy using software that I'm required to pay for a license for, or be bound to use on only 1 or 2 computers. Also, I can't wait to get my hands on non-destructive editing.I agree, however, this looks less like spam and more like amanfromMars (theregister.co.uk) wrote it.
I partially agree, however, pulseaudio is a full-featured, low-latency audio server. What's missing is app support. While I don't entirely agree with it, this seems to be a move to force applications to support pulseaudio. The Ubuntu developers will probably be writing patches for a number of libraries and applications and sending them upstream. For legacy ALSA and OSS applications, there is pasuspender (pause pulseaudio and give a single app direct ALSA access) and padsp (emulate an OSS device for an application, send its audio to a pulseaudio output). Hopefully we will soon see pulseaudio support in the major audio libraries (PortAudio etc.) ALSA already includes a compatibility drive where you can create a virtual "pulse" device to send output to pulseaudio.
BTW about latency, I tested JACK running on top of PulseAudio on my system with a generic integrated soundcard, and got <2ms without hardware monitoring. <flamebait>Try that under any Windows soundserver.</flamebait>
Actually, if I had the cash for an iPhone, I would love to play that game. People think puzzle games are simplistic, until they actually start playing them. Puzzles develop your brain (which is the ultimate goal of many geeks, I would imagine.) I love any game where you have to think. Monopoly, Tetris, frvade (www.frvade.com), baseball (yes, the real sport). No, there actually aren't that many original games. Just a whole bunch of clones. This actually looks innovative.
Not ignorant. More informed than most people. Go read the Koran. It specifically says that those who do not convert to Islam must die. Now I realize that not all Muslims believe this, but this is a tenant of their religion.
Read my comment again. I said we shouldn't be trying to kill civilians. However, these people are not as "innocent" or "peace-loving" as people think. Not by a long stretch.
P.S. If I went to a government school the "High School" flamebait would have some merit.