I've read through some of your site. I can't (won't) attempt to watch a youtube video at work, as I'd have to leave it buffering until tomorrow to be able to see it all. I see it does give benefits, but please note that I fully realize that there will be quite a few benefits after full integration. I HATE remembering how many quarts are in a gallon, cups in a quart, and teaspoons in a tablespoon (most of my measuring is centered around cooking). The issue is that most of those benefits require full integration. When people are sometimes using some measurements in metric, others in Imperial units, other times confusing the two, it's not going to be pretty. The site is impractical at best. It reads like a sales brochure. It doesn't acknowledge the hangups and issues that will be run into during a transition toward such a system, let alone attempt to offer some means of mitigating them. I feel like it could have been written by middle-management. "This system is great, so we're going to use it now." Then everyone else has to scramble behind the scenes to make it work out. Might as well have been trying to sell Esperanto on people. Speaking of which, if universal systems are a miracle cure, why aren't you and the rest of the world all around us barbaric, backwards Americans speaking Esperanto by now?
"Hey, while we're changing this one very specific limited use measurement, we should just throw our entire existing system right out and use a different one that the majority of users will be uncomfortable with at best, completely unfamiliar with at worst. Pieces of infrastructure country-wide will be of inconsistent measurements based upon whether or not that specific portion of them are pre-2010 or not. Old people will be confused because gas got cheaper but their gas tanks now hold more, and for some reason, the prices of fruits and vegetables are now advertised wildly different but end up ringing up the same at the register."
Touche. However, I don't see the duration for which this guarantee is valid for. How are they backing that guarantee? Can I take God to court if people I know die of old age? How about other "natural causes"? Will Heaven extradite to the US? Even if I hypothetically won the court case, could I get the government to honor that guarantee and resurrect my/his/her corpse in the interest of honoring it?
It's very much feelgood-speak; It doesn't really change biological process or cease the inevitable from happening in any other way.
Then clearly he and his family are at fault for not breaking into a grocery store. They ARE starving to death, after all.
Life sucks, and I have the utmost amount of condolences for the friends and family of imaginary person A, but people die, such that it's the one thing we all do equally well. People just need to realize that life isn't a right guaranteed by our or any government.
By design even. Distribution is the primary thing that keeps the cartel's thumb pressed down upon artists. Pandora helps a lot, but lately they seem to be fallible even. I can't seem to get them to stop play Coldplay for example. I finally thought I voted down every Coldplay song in the collection, and then they started springing LIVE versions on me. I kind of thing they're getting paid to push it at this point.
Or because they'll bounce back eventually after stockholders get new management and overcome the bad press they got hit with that caused them to devalue. The rebound from that doesn't always last long though, so it's good to get out soon as you get your money.
Oh, they'd reply, if/when they checked actually their email. I did not realize that Facebook supported XMPP. Thanks for giving me something to go off of.
I don't believe privacy exists really anymore, but I wouldn't say that privacy is dead, it's more like it was just given away freely and irrevocably without a second thought as to the long term ramifications. I refused to use facebook for the longest time, but I've personally given up. My friends use it and it's their primary means of communication, above and beyond simpler and "better" things such as email. I just try to keep as much actual honest information about myself off there as possible and keep my head down to limit damage as much as possible. The moment someone comes up with an alternative solution that I can talk even the laziest person into migrating to, let me know. Until then, I'm living with the subpar solution for lack of a better.
Also, "privacy is dead" is the bumper sticker slogan those people go by. I've never heard anyone outside of corporations and governments (hard to tell the difference anymore) saying that it is. They're not determined to purge the world of privacy, but merely to illustrate to people just how privacy-free it's become.
With regard to the "news" itself, color me completely unsurprised.
Also, where are your statistics on gun crime in US vs UK? I'd be interested in seeing that. Also, is this strictly gun crime vs gun crime? Have you seen anything comparing outright violent crime from one to the other? Honestly, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised that we have higher gun crime, but I'd be genuinely surprised to see that overall violent crime rate here is much higher, if any at all. Of course, with a topic so politically charged as this one, I'd be surprised to see any data that's not been slanted one way or another in favor of any specific views.
Fair enough. I see your points and understand your view, and appreciate your response to my somewhat heated rant above. Having this been said, things are somewhat different over here. I'm not certain of your level of interaction with police, but here, at least in my area, they have very little involvement with community safety. They are literally over glorified traffic monitors. To be fair, crime is virtually non-existent in my immediate area, but it's also full of upper-middle class homes, so it would be a decent target for burglary, especially since the police don't hit it hard. As an American, having lived with "Innocent until proven guilty" and "freedom and liberty"* crammed down my throat since I was old enough to walk, it rubs me the wrong way when the idea of being hassled by law enforcement for mere possession of an object comes up.
* Yes, I am aware of the fine print on our idea of freedoms and innocence, but that doesn't change the fact that those are the ideals that I've been brainwashed with.
but carrying a tool that can be used to do serious harm when there is no reason to do so should be illegal
Fuck you Mr. Nanny State. I think you made me throw up a little. By your logic, anyone trained in Martial Arts or previously in the military is now not allowed to walk around unescorted by police because of the fact that their very bodies are tools capable of doing "serious harm". Okay, so you don't want to count that one. That's fine. What about the toolbox I keep in my trunk? I work in an office, dealing with computers, why would I need tools in my trunk? ZOMG TERRORIST! Obviously the only reasonable answer is that I'm out to cause as much damage as possible everywhere I can. How do I even buy tools if I can't transport them at this point? Oh, ok, so it's okay if I have them in my car? In that case, why the hell do you people treat people who walk around like criminals? You know what? I like going for long walks at night. Typically I carry something to defend myself with because I realize that were I to be attacked, the law system would not be able to protect me, as they're too busy revenue generating on the state highways to actually be doing their job. Here's another one for you: Let's say you're a mechanic (auto, boat, plane, whatever, Hell, even just a machinist in a shop somewhere), who, for whatever reason, doesn't have a car. You own your own tools. You, for whatever reason, decide you want to take your own property home one night. Suddenly, this is impossible because you can't legally leave the property possessing your screwdriver/micrometer/torque wrench because of the fact that someone somewhere had the blessed insight to realize that possession of these items in public turns you into a savage and dangerous criminal who is beyond reason.
The worst part is, if you take away anything manufactured that can be used as a weapon, people will just beat the shit out of each other with loose bricks and heavy fallen branches from trees. People in the inner city used to do it with car antennas. Fuck, I could just hit you with my car. Outlaw those too, because they're clearly better weapons than a screwdriver could ever be. I think SUV drivers get special penalization because those are classified as assault weapons and that should be a capital offense.
Banks... You mean those regulated, controlled and insured (by law) institutions? Sure. I like my money there. It's reasonably safe. What laws and regulations cover EC2 et al.?
Good. Perhaps that means that the few that are still around will start to focus on quality rather than just assembly-lining out crap. Leave Madden 2048 for the consoles and give us something that actually takes advantages of the hardware superiority of a real computer. I miss the nineties.
Slashdot Mirror
I've read through some of your site. I can't (won't) attempt to watch a youtube video at work, as I'd have to leave it buffering until tomorrow to be able to see it all. I see it does give benefits, but please note that I fully realize that there will be quite a few benefits after full integration. I HATE remembering how many quarts are in a gallon, cups in a quart, and teaspoons in a tablespoon (most of my measuring is centered around cooking). The issue is that most of those benefits require full integration. When people are sometimes using some measurements in metric, others in Imperial units, other times confusing the two, it's not going to be pretty. The site is impractical at best. It reads like a sales brochure. It doesn't acknowledge the hangups and issues that will be run into during a transition toward such a system, let alone attempt to offer some means of mitigating them. I feel like it could have been written by middle-management. "This system is great, so we're going to use it now." Then everyone else has to scramble behind the scenes to make it work out. Might as well have been trying to sell Esperanto on people. Speaking of which, if universal systems are a miracle cure, why aren't you and the rest of the world all around us barbaric, backwards Americans speaking Esperanto by now?
"Hey, while we're changing this one very specific limited use measurement, we should just throw our entire existing system right out and use a different one that the majority of users will be uncomfortable with at best, completely unfamiliar with at worst. Pieces of infrastructure country-wide will be of inconsistent measurements based upon whether or not that specific portion of them are pre-2010 or not. Old people will be confused because gas got cheaper but their gas tanks now hold more, and for some reason, the prices of fruits and vegetables are now advertised wildly different but end up ringing up the same at the register."
Just Sayin'
Touche. However, I don't see the duration for which this guarantee is valid for. How are they backing that guarantee? Can I take God to court if people I know die of old age? How about other "natural causes"? Will Heaven extradite to the US? Even if I hypothetically won the court case, could I get the government to honor that guarantee and resurrect my/his/her corpse in the interest of honoring it?
It's very much feelgood-speak; It doesn't really change biological process or cease the inevitable from happening in any other way.
I, for one, want triple my money back if I die.
I completely agree with exception that your initial premise failed, assuming by "room" you meant "Federal Government"
Then clearly he and his family are at fault for not breaking into a grocery store. They ARE starving to death, after all.
Life sucks, and I have the utmost amount of condolences for the friends and family of imaginary person A, but people die, such that it's the one thing we all do equally well. People just need to realize that life isn't a right guaranteed by our or any government.
I just wanted to let you know that your last sentence may have caused me permanent damage.
The independents are hard to find.
By design even. Distribution is the primary thing that keeps the cartel's thumb pressed down upon artists. Pandora helps a lot, but lately they seem to be fallible even. I can't seem to get them to stop play Coldplay for example. I finally thought I voted down every Coldplay song in the collection, and then they started springing LIVE versions on me. I kind of thing they're getting paid to push it at this point.
Or because they'll bounce back eventually after stockholders get new management and overcome the bad press they got hit with that caused them to devalue. The rebound from that doesn't always last long though, so it's good to get out soon as you get your money.
Oh, they'd reply, if/when they checked actually their email. I did not realize that Facebook supported XMPP. Thanks for giving me something to go off of.
I've never heard anyone outside of corporations and governments (hard to tell the difference anymore) saying that it is [a good thing].
Fixed that for myself. Brain moves faster than the hands sometimes.
I don't believe privacy exists really anymore, but I wouldn't say that privacy is dead, it's more like it was just given away freely and irrevocably without a second thought as to the long term ramifications. I refused to use facebook for the longest time, but I've personally given up. My friends use it and it's their primary means of communication, above and beyond simpler and "better" things such as email. I just try to keep as much actual honest information about myself off there as possible and keep my head down to limit damage as much as possible. The moment someone comes up with an alternative solution that I can talk even the laziest person into migrating to, let me know. Until then, I'm living with the subpar solution for lack of a better.
Also, "privacy is dead" is the bumper sticker slogan those people go by. I've never heard anyone outside of corporations and governments (hard to tell the difference anymore) saying that it is. They're not determined to purge the world of privacy, but merely to illustrate to people just how privacy-free it's become.
With regard to the "news" itself, color me completely unsurprised.
I think what he was trying to snarkily say was that the article itself was read too obviously much like an advertisement.
Maybe not today or even next week....
Also, where are your statistics on gun crime in US vs UK? I'd be interested in seeing that. Also, is this strictly gun crime vs gun crime? Have you seen anything comparing outright violent crime from one to the other? Honestly, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised that we have higher gun crime, but I'd be genuinely surprised to see that overall violent crime rate here is much higher, if any at all. Of course, with a topic so politically charged as this one, I'd be surprised to see any data that's not been slanted one way or another in favor of any specific views.
Fair enough. I see your points and understand your view, and appreciate your response to my somewhat heated rant above. Having this been said, things are somewhat different over here. I'm not certain of your level of interaction with police, but here, at least in my area, they have very little involvement with community safety. They are literally over glorified traffic monitors. To be fair, crime is virtually non-existent in my immediate area, but it's also full of upper-middle class homes, so it would be a decent target for burglary, especially since the police don't hit it hard. As an American, having lived with "Innocent until proven guilty" and "freedom and liberty"* crammed down my throat since I was old enough to walk, it rubs me the wrong way when the idea of being hassled by law enforcement for mere possession of an object comes up.
* Yes, I am aware of the fine print on our idea of freedoms and innocence, but that doesn't change the fact that those are the ideals that I've been brainwashed with.
but carrying a tool that can be used to do serious harm when there is no reason to do so should be illegal
Fuck you Mr. Nanny State. I think you made me throw up a little. By your logic, anyone trained in Martial Arts or previously in the military is now not allowed to walk around unescorted by police because of the fact that their very bodies are tools capable of doing "serious harm". Okay, so you don't want to count that one. That's fine. What about the toolbox I keep in my trunk? I work in an office, dealing with computers, why would I need tools in my trunk? ZOMG TERRORIST! Obviously the only reasonable answer is that I'm out to cause as much damage as possible everywhere I can. How do I even buy tools if I can't transport them at this point? Oh, ok, so it's okay if I have them in my car? In that case, why the hell do you people treat people who walk around like criminals? You know what? I like going for long walks at night. Typically I carry something to defend myself with because I realize that were I to be attacked, the law system would not be able to protect me, as they're too busy revenue generating on the state highways to actually be doing their job. Here's another one for you: Let's say you're a mechanic (auto, boat, plane, whatever, Hell, even just a machinist in a shop somewhere), who, for whatever reason, doesn't have a car. You own your own tools. You, for whatever reason, decide you want to take your own property home one night. Suddenly, this is impossible because you can't legally leave the property possessing your screwdriver/micrometer/torque wrench because of the fact that someone somewhere had the blessed insight to realize that possession of these items in public turns you into a savage and dangerous criminal who is beyond reason.
The worst part is, if you take away anything manufactured that can be used as a weapon, people will just beat the shit out of each other with loose bricks and heavy fallen branches from trees. People in the inner city used to do it with car antennas. Fuck, I could just hit you with my car. Outlaw those too, because they're clearly better weapons than a screwdriver could ever be. I think SUV drivers get special penalization because those are classified as assault weapons and that should be a capital offense.
"I'VE GOT BLISTERS ON ME FINGERS!"
Obligatory other text for loudness filter.
It is. They offer alcohol sales on most all of the floors and they're open quite late. It's a fun night to get drunk and stumble around the caves.
Fair enough. That's a valid point I can't argue. I still want nothing to do with the industry until that point however.
Seriously, though, what a crock of shit. Surely only lunatics and the mentally disabled buy this crap, right?
The good news is the answer is yes, the bad news is that they're surrounding you right now.
Banks... You mean those regulated, controlled and insured (by law) institutions? Sure. I like my money there. It's reasonably safe. What laws and regulations cover EC2 et al.?
Good. Perhaps that means that the few that are still around will start to focus on quality rather than just assembly-lining out crap. Leave Madden 2048 for the consoles and give us something that actually takes advantages of the hardware superiority of a real computer. I miss the nineties.
Your comment read "Smart people need to get busy" before I expanded it. Much as your idea appeals to me, I am in favor of that idea more.
But don't you find it a little ironic that everything she calls ironic in that song isn't?
C'mon, you've seen Requiem for a Dream. Current system = total happy ending.