"Actually in it's blog I believe Nokia wrote 'please return our babies' or something like that. No lawsuit etc."
Puh-leeze. They're asking for Russian security stormtroopers to track the guy down and bust into his house. That's better than a lawsuit? Nicey-nice PR be damned.
Enough of this shit. I want my cops & fire department on break to feel like they're well-trained and compensated, trusted professionals, not slave-wagers in the "all your base are belong to the company man" plan. (Also, I want tough and transparent oversight.) Otherwise you get the TSA.
The fact that it takes you such a truckload full of words to rationalize your sociopathy is excellent evidence thereunto. Portraying yourself as a messianic figure earns bonus points. My only hope is that your time spent writing here saves some real person in the world from your attention.
"Yes, but they are non-violent and require the cooperation of their 'victims'... They provide a limiting function. They disincentivize ignorance and stupidity by making it more painful, just like those natural pests disincentivize improper sanitation. By becoming knowledgable and savvy, the 'victim' can have total control over whether he/she is successfully targeted."
You're a fucking sociopath. Have a little empathy or fuck off.
Business-wise, PC gaming is a river that leads to the sea of Consoles. Practically every gaming company starts out on PCs, and at some point tries to make the jump up to Consoles with x10 the install and active customer base.
Therefore, it always continually looks like "all game makers are leaving PCs for Consoles". Soon the river will be dry! Not so much -- the cycle refreshes itself constantly.
I've thought about this long and hard for some time now. Food for thought: David Wells' article "Are These The Most Beautiful?" from the 1990 Mathematical Intelligencer magazine:
"Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right."
This is almost too self-referential, but the fact that most mistakes are honest does not mean that all mistakes are honest. That would be an error of inductive reasoning. And in fact that inductive reasoning (assumption of honesty/ fair play/ empathy) is exactly the vulnerability that makes sociopath-type behavior rewarding. It is, in short, the reward behind the "defect" option in your Prisoner's Dilemma game.
"Educators need to stop thinking that some how another computer or faster connection is going to some how be a panacea for their problems teaching."
I think that your use of the word "educators", conflating it with "people who make decisions in schools", is likely incorrect. As I've said before, schools have two camps: teachers and administrators, and the two camps are usually at odds with each other. Teachers are usually anti-universal-computers, for reasons such as (1) distractions, (2) technical maintenance, etc. Administrators are usually pro-universal computers, for reasons such as (1) "we're advanced" PR, (2) increased funding and staff, etc.
"In other words, the observed vote pattern is something you will expect to see a lot when checking various machines and various elections over time."
Problem: They are NOT "checking various machines and various elections over time". They are only checking this one, right now. In other words: Clue #1 was whatever caused anyone to investigate the fishiness of this election in the first place and decide to run this test. Clue #2 was this test then indeed coming back positive for non-randomness at the 90% confidence level. Thus, it's further-building evidence.
If you think that we're experiencing "Publication bias", that "lots" of these tests are being run routinely on elections all the time, and all of the uninteresting ones being shelved, then that's a separate argument. I highly doubt that's the case; I'd need to see evidence of it occurring, and I don't think you have that. The idea that this just happened to occur in this already highly fishy election, and therefore should be entirely discounted -- you'd need some pretty pliable sheep to believe that one.
It's well known that great mineral wealth is highly correlated with corruption in government (esp. in 3rd-world countries). This is terrible news for the people of Afghanistan -- foreign armies and powers now have even more reason to be permanently in the country, extracting this wealth for their benefit, and poisoning poor residents with the waste products.
"In these countries, public contracting in the oil sector is plagued by revenues vanishing into the pockets of Western oil executives, middlemen and local officials," http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3758798.stm
"If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention... This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta. The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
Large mineral wealth (especially in 3rd-world countries) is highly correlated with corruption of government in those countries. My first reaction was to be aghast for Afghanistan because of this.
As the Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 shows, oil-rich Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen all have extremely low scores," said Peter Eigen, the chairman of Transparency International.
In these countries, public contracting in the oil sector is plagued by revenues vanishing into the pockets of Western oil executives, middlemen and local officials," he added.
"Most people would consider that more information than you asked for not 'different' information."
"More information" is not beneficial if it's just noise-to-signal. How do I know these links are on topic? How do I know where on the webpage I'm being referred the key information is? How do I know I'm not being asked to waste half a day doing reading research because some asshole is either (a) too lazy, or (b) just plain bullshitting? I've seen both many times.
Just copy-paste the key quote-name-location if you're already looking at it. Anything else is a demonstration of intentional malice.
"Schools should teach students how to think, learn and figure things out; not how to use one particular program or operating system. Then the platform used for teaching wouldn't have to be the same one used in the real world."
This type of "full abstraction solves all problems" thinking is fatally flawed.
"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." -- Lawrence Peter Berra "All non-trivial abstractions, to some degree, are leaky." -- Joel Spolsky
In your case, the related ideas that (1) You used MS Office in school, (2) You used MS Office at work, (3) You think that "anyone graduating... is going to have used MS Office" are telling. If someone was very poor, only had an opportunity to see Office at school, and was prevented from doing so, then they would be at a disadvantage in proficiency with that particular tool.
I teach CS, I'm down on MS, and I'm anti-required-laptops. However, tools matter; full abstraction is not a panacea, and usually not remotely feasible in basic education.
'Anti-fusion environmentalist organizations' I wonder who that is exactly? Care to name one?"
"Well here ya go Einstein: http://www.stop-iter.org/ [stop-iter.org] here's another: http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/nuclear-free/reactors/index.shtml [sierraclub.ca] and oh look, another: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/ITERprojectFrance/ [greenpeace.org]"
So you didn't NAME any, did you? You posted a bunch of links, which is a different action entirely.
This is a good marker for establishing who's the real asshole in an online thread -- the person who acts like they don't understand that a "citation" means quote + name + page number.
"More financial- and spreadsheet-related fixations and less computer science have made a few members cross"
I've read all the links provided, I don't see anyone referring to this whatsoever. All of the discussion centers on whether BCS remains a member-driven professional group and charity, or a top-down corporately-structured business. To quote the second link in its big-font and boldface summary:
Among the active members of the BCS, there are many dissatisfactions with how the Society is run; but when it comes specifically to why this EGM has been called, it all boils down to the issues of governance and probity. [http://bcsreform.wikispaces.com/Message+re+EGM+call]
"The reason why they have speed cameras is because they get lots of racing fans because the town is located just south of Bristol Motor Speedway. Nascar racing fans have a general disregard for speed limits and I bet that on a big race weekend one police car could not write tickets fast enough."
Ridiculous. I've been to a Bristol race and I think it took 2 hours just to get out of the parking lot. No one was moving for miles and miles around.
"This ridiculousness needed to be stopped at its source. Artists should have stopped signing on with the RIAA at least a decade ago. They are not needed. Even as a hobby, these days, you can afford to self-produce with your own studio, if you are so inclined."
It's not about production. It's promotion, which is a whole different ballgame.
I'm even skeptical of that at this point. If we wind up having to go to the Russian nuke-it-from-orbit plan (after months and months of leakage), I wouldn't be surprised.
"Actually, the amusing part of the example you've used is that the oil company is doing exactly what they know work"
So why hasn't it worked? Or by "worked" do you mean "fallacious, duplicitous PR about comforting nonsense everyone knows won't work"? Yeah, I can see that.
"I remember when both parties approved of the Patriot Act, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The dems only started backpedaling when it became convenient to do so. They need to keep up the facade of being pacifists, and more importantly, the facade that Republicans are warhawks."
The problems is that Democrats are unwilling to fight for their pacifism. At the time there was a lot of nose-holding I'm-forced-vote-for-this going, which infuriated me greatly.
Slashdot Mirror
"Actually in it's blog I believe Nokia wrote 'please return our babies' or something like that. No lawsuit etc."
Puh-leeze. They're asking for Russian security stormtroopers to track the guy down and bust into his house. That's better than a lawsuit? Nicey-nice PR be damned.
Enough of this shit. I want my cops & fire department on break to feel like they're well-trained and compensated, trusted professionals, not slave-wagers in the "all your base are belong to the company man" plan. (Also, I want tough and transparent oversight.) Otherwise you get the TSA.
The fact that it takes you such a truckload full of words to rationalize your sociopathy is excellent evidence thereunto. Portraying yourself as a messianic figure earns bonus points. My only hope is that your time spent writing here saves some real person in the world from your attention.
"Yes, but they are non-violent and require the cooperation of their 'victims'... They provide a limiting function. They disincentivize ignorance and stupidity by making it more painful, just like those natural pests disincentivize improper sanitation. By becoming knowledgable and savvy, the 'victim' can have total control over whether he/she is successfully targeted."
You're a fucking sociopath. Have a little empathy or fuck off.
Business-wise, PC gaming is a river that leads to the sea of Consoles. Practically every gaming company starts out on PCs, and at some point tries to make the jump up to Consoles with x10 the install and active customer base.
Therefore, it always continually looks like "all game makers are leaving PCs for Consoles". Soon the river will be dry! Not so much -- the cycle refreshes itself constantly.
I've thought about this long and hard for some time now. Food for thought: David Wells' article "Are These The Most Beautiful?" from the 1990 Mathematical Intelligencer magazine:
http://bomber0.byus.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/are-these-the-most-beautiful.pdf
Myself, I think I've resolved to get the definition of a limit wrapped around my upper arm.
"Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity, or evil intent, we can liberate ourselves from the impossible burden of trying to be permanently right."
This is almost too self-referential, but the fact that most mistakes are honest does not mean that all mistakes are honest. That would be an error of inductive reasoning. And in fact that inductive reasoning (assumption of honesty/ fair play/ empathy) is exactly the vulnerability that makes sociopath-type behavior rewarding. It is, in short, the reward behind the "defect" option in your Prisoner's Dilemma game.
"Educators need to stop thinking that some how another computer or faster connection is going to some how be a panacea for their problems teaching."
I think that your use of the word "educators", conflating it with "people who make decisions in schools", is likely incorrect. As I've said before, schools have two camps: teachers and administrators, and the two camps are usually at odds with each other. Teachers are usually anti-universal-computers, for reasons such as (1) distractions, (2) technical maintenance, etc. Administrators are usually pro-universal computers, for reasons such as (1) "we're advanced" PR, (2) increased funding and staff, etc.
So basically anyone on the losing side of a hypothesis test now gets prosecuted.
If P > 0.10, go directly to jail. Awesome!
"In other words, the observed vote pattern is something you will expect to see a lot when checking various machines and various elections over time."
Problem: They are NOT "checking various machines and various elections over time". They are only checking this one, right now. In other words: Clue #1 was whatever caused anyone to investigate the fishiness of this election in the first place and decide to run this test. Clue #2 was this test then indeed coming back positive for non-randomness at the 90% confidence level. Thus, it's further-building evidence.
If you think that we're experiencing "Publication bias", that "lots" of these tests are being run routinely on elections all the time, and all of the uninteresting ones being shelved, then that's a separate argument. I highly doubt that's the case; I'd need to see evidence of it occurring, and I don't think you have that. The idea that this just happened to occur in this already highly fishy election, and therefore should be entirely discounted -- you'd need some pretty pliable sheep to believe that one.
It's well known that great mineral wealth is highly correlated with corruption in government (esp. in 3rd-world countries). This is terrible news for the people of Afghanistan -- foreign armies and powers now have even more reason to be permanently in the country, extracting this wealth for their benefit, and poisoning poor residents with the waste products.
Graph of GDP/Capita-corruption correlation: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3758798.stm
"In these countries, public contracting in the oil sector is plagued by revenues vanishing into the pockets of Western oil executives, middlemen and local officials," http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3758798.stm
"If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention... This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta. The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
Large mineral wealth (especially in 3rd-world countries) is highly correlated with corruption of government in those countries. My first reaction was to be aghast for Afghanistan because of this.
As the Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 shows, oil-rich Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen all have extremely low scores," said Peter Eigen, the chairman of Transparency International.
In these countries, public contracting in the oil sector is plagued by revenues vanishing into the pockets of Western oil executives, middlemen and local officials," he added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3758798.stm
"...here's the three names for the linked anti-nuclear activists in question: Sortir du nucléaire, Siera Club of Canada, and Greenpeace."
3rd time now, a citation is: quote-name-location.
I know that the obtusity dance will not end -- I've seen it many times -- but still.
"Most people would consider that more information than you asked for not 'different' information."
"More information" is not beneficial if it's just noise-to-signal. How do I know these links are on topic? How do I know where on the webpage I'm being referred the key information is? How do I know I'm not being asked to waste half a day doing reading research because some asshole is either (a) too lazy, or (b) just plain bullshitting? I've seen both many times.
Just copy-paste the key quote-name-location if you're already looking at it. Anything else is a demonstration of intentional malice.
Disagree. This is a "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence" situation.
"Schools should teach students how to think, learn and figure things out; not how to use one particular program or operating system. Then the platform used for teaching wouldn't have to be the same one used in the real world."
This type of "full abstraction solves all problems" thinking is fatally flawed.
"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." -- Lawrence Peter Berra
"All non-trivial abstractions, to some degree, are leaky." -- Joel Spolsky
In your case, the related ideas that (1) You used MS Office in school, (2) You used MS Office at work, (3) You think that "anyone graduating... is going to have used MS Office" are telling. If someone was very poor, only had an opportunity to see Office at school, and was prevented from doing so, then they would be at a disadvantage in proficiency with that particular tool.
I teach CS, I'm down on MS, and I'm anti-required-laptops. However, tools matter; full abstraction is not a panacea, and usually not remotely feasible in basic education.
Good for you. Thanks for that.
'Anti-fusion environmentalist organizations' I wonder who that is exactly? Care to name one?"
"Well here ya go Einstein: http://www.stop-iter.org/ [stop-iter.org] here's another: http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/nuclear-free/reactors/index.shtml [sierraclub.ca] and oh look, another: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/ITERprojectFrance/ [greenpeace.org]"
So you didn't NAME any, did you? You posted a bunch of links, which is a different action entirely.
This is a good marker for establishing who's the real asshole in an online thread -- the person who acts like they don't understand that a "citation" means quote + name + page number.
"More financial- and spreadsheet-related fixations and less computer science have made a few members cross"
I've read all the links provided, I don't see anyone referring to this whatsoever. All of the discussion centers on whether BCS remains a member-driven professional group and charity, or a top-down corporately-structured business. To quote the second link in its big-font and boldface summary:
Among the active members of the BCS, there are many dissatisfactions with how the Society is run; but when it comes specifically to why this EGM has been called, it all boils down to the issues of governance and probity. [http://bcsreform.wikispaces.com/Message+re+EGM+call]
"The reason why they have speed cameras is because they get lots of racing fans because the town is located just south of Bristol Motor Speedway. Nascar racing fans have a general disregard for speed limits and I bet that on a big race weekend one police car could not write tickets fast enough."
Ridiculous. I've been to a Bristol race and I think it took 2 hours just to get out of the parking lot. No one was moving for miles and miles around.
"This ridiculousness needed to be stopped at its source. Artists should have stopped signing on with the RIAA at least a decade ago. They are not needed. Even as a hobby, these days, you can afford to self-produce with your own studio, if you are so inclined."
It's not about production. It's promotion, which is a whole different ballgame.
I'm even skeptical of that at this point. If we wind up having to go to the Russian nuke-it-from-orbit plan (after months and months of leakage), I wouldn't be surprised.
"Actually, the amusing part of the example you've used is that the oil company is doing exactly what they know work"
So why hasn't it worked? Or by "worked" do you mean "fallacious, duplicitous PR about comforting nonsense everyone knows won't work"? Yeah, I can see that.
"I remember when both parties approved of the Patriot Act, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The dems only started backpedaling when it became convenient to do so. They need to keep up the facade of being pacifists, and more importantly, the facade that Republicans are warhawks."
The problems is that Democrats are unwilling to fight for their pacifism. At the time there was a lot of nose-holding I'm-forced-vote-for-this going, which infuriated me greatly.
Skeptical -- citation (quote, link) or I don't believe it. At the very least I bet your use of the word "they" is incorrect.