France and Germany both seem to have much more liberal hours-of-work and vacation policies. So what if you make a bit less money if you aren't beating yourself to death trying to claw your way ahead?
We currently have unemployment problems in the US.
the world view's America as the land of the selfish, run by corporations, headed by a falsely-elected retard, and not bothered about persecuting people, being hypocritical, or just plain murder if it's beneficial to profits.
Anyone who believes that (and I refuse to childishly anthropomorhize 'the world') is, quite simply, an idiot. Or believing what they are told.
I refuse to pander to such people. You could spend your life trying to refute such infantile ideas, but you'd be wasting your time. People who believe tripe like that want to believe it; it satisfies some weird psychological need in them.
When did Americans turn into a bunch of whiny assed scared of everything softcock xenophobes?
When did (some) non-Americans turn into foul-mouthed, generalizing, inferiority-complex wielding morons?
Compared to most countries in the world worth visiting, we have wide open borders and are a freakin paradise of racial harmony. And yes, I have traveled enough to back that up.
Call me when half the population of the world stops trying to move here...
Better yet, to win the war on terrorism compell a real peace in Isreal and the West Bank and get U.S. occupation troops out Islamic countries. If the U.S. and Isreal stop humiliating the Palastinians in particular and arabs in general that will dramaticly reduce the ability of islamic extremists to recruit for and fund their movement.
Just how do you propose to "compell a real peace in Israel and the West Bank"? Compelling peace is exactly what the anti-terrorism measures you describe are meant to do. As you point out, they do an imperfect job of it.
I suspect what you mean is "compell Israel to not defend itself" but if you think that will result in peace, you're quite wrong.
The US governments reactions to terrorist threats are exactly what the terrorists wanted.
How so?
They wanted to topple the current government of Saudi Arabia. Hasn't happened.
They wanted the US "out of the Middle East". Er... maybe you haven't been paying attention, but the opposite has happened.
They wanted to strike at us in our homeland and have us rattle our saber and make "strong statements" in futility. Instead, we flattened their base of operations and replaced the government, flattened one of their allies and replaced the government, and have been rounding them up apace.
Do you really believe that you have the power to declare legitimate analogies off limits, and your debating opponents automatically the loser? (see your eponymous "Law")
Do you also command traffic lights to change, and believe yourself decended from royalty?
AFAIK there is no browser available that correctly renders CSS 2.0 -- the entire spec.
You got that right. It really isn't so shocking that years elapse between the recommendations and implementations - it's one thing to just say that the browser shall do all these nifty things based on a simple stylesheet line of text, and quite another to make them do it.
Yeah, it's horrible, flame away, but it works like you wouldn't believe.
Oh, I believe it. Back when these techniques were disseminated in books (egad), I used some of them briefly to enter (or at least visit) the world of non-geekiness.
But while it might "work" in some mechanical sense, so do illegal drugs (or so I hear) "work" at bringing pleasure. Like any mindless pursuit of pleasure (vs. happiness), learning those Fast Seduction style techniques, without actually learning how to love and interact with your fellow human being, is going to bring misery and a pathetic existence in the long run.
After the debacle of Reagan's supply side, the last time these unemployment numbers were close to this high (excepting Bush Sr's next-closest nadir), you'd think this nonsense would be rejected. But I guess greed blinds even the survival instinct, when so much loot is flying through the air, without any merit to where it lands.
I guess you're too young to actually know what you're talking about... the double digit inflation and unemployment were Carter's. "Supply-side" got us out of that.
It is human nature to "know" how or why things are the way they are. You choose your explanation to be God. It is a nice and easy way to go about life, believing that everything has a purpose, but you do not need know what that is because you have God.
This is both the funniest and annoyingly smarmiest bit of atheist dogma.
How exactly is it "easier" to believe in larger things than oneself and one's pleasure? No, the "easy" thing is to say "well, we're all just animals and nothing matters. Paaaarty!".
Re:What is the *source* of the "RMS" controversy?
on
Stallman Goes to India
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· Score: 1
I think this is because USA punishes people without money. If you don't make lots of money you live on the streets. There is no socialism. No "safety net" if you lose your job. It's shameful for an American to be without money. Success is tied with being rich. Poor people are "losers". That makes it hard for an American to get past the "no cost" aspect of Free Software and start to understand the freedom aspects.
What are you talking about?
Every state has a welfare agency. If you lose your job or otherwise have no money, you go there and sign up. You can get checks, food stamps, subsidized or free health care, all kinds of stuff. There is an astounding array of benefits available. Yes, there are some theoretical time limits and requirements, and if you try really hard you can at least temporarily disrupt the flow of benefits.
I'm not surprised that not living in the US you believe what you do. Republicans claim (sometimes) to want to dismantle the welfare state, and Democrats accuse them of wanting to do so, or having done so, or something. TV shows love to show the inner city, which is basically the laboratory where people are payed to not work and not get married. Oddly enough this produces a twisted environment - who knew?
See, I don't get this. I wear ties when expected by our dippy culture, but I never understood what the hell they are supposed to mean. As far as I can tell, it's some pointless relic from an bygone era. I'm not saying show up in torn jeans, but why can't people be comfortable in an interveiw instead of tarting themselves up with clothing they will never be wearing on the job? Why can't we have some sort of happy medium?
What makes you think they will never wear ties on the job? There are a lot of IT positions where ties will be required, at least some of the time.
Anyway, all clothing styles are either fashion-driven, situational, or both. You can wear what your drinking buddies think is "comfortable", or what the hiring authority thinks is "comfortable", but unless they are the same, I'd go with the hiring authority for the interview. Save the "pointless relics" of the current era for after hours:)!
Some of the most brilliant engineers and scientists have are perpetually casual dressers. It's irrelevant. Drug dealers wear suits. Kenneth Lay wore suits. Saddam Hussein wore suits. It's meaningless.
Not quite. The bad guys wear them because they don't want to feel like or appear as bad guys. I think you're getting that lesson backwards...
As for the geniuses, they by definition get more leeway than us mortals. Just because it works for them doesn't mean that it will work for you.
ANYONE who engages in vote fraud is reprehensible.
Yep, no argument here.
Saying "Yeah? Well they did it, too!" is no excuse, and, by dividing people into us-versus-them camps, does nothing to advance democracy.
Good thing that's not what I was saying, then. I wasn't saying "they did it too", I was saying "they did it, period". Stamping out vote fraud would probably eliminate the Democrat party, on a national level, unless they can use lawyers again to magically transform spoiled ballots into votes.
Forgive me for asking but why is the Pentagon involved in the conduct of Elections? Isn't there some more neutral organization ? It is like asking the Republican-leaning ("I am committed to delivering...") Diebold to be in charge of conducting elections. If it was the State Department (Colin Powell) it would make sense but the Pentagon (Donald Rumsfeld) ? There is no democracy in the Defense Services and None at the Pentagon - what makes them so confident that they know what democracy needs.
(Cough, choke) Powell, and the State Department?
I'm sorry, but State seems to be full of people who think that their job is to serve the citizens of all countries except the United States. Not exactly "neutral" if you ask me (anti-Americanism being the province of Dems, domestically speaking).
Lightning fast counting with no paper trail seems too much like an adaptable magic wand to say whatever Bush wants it to say.
Why Bush?
Those dead people in Chicago, the inner city residents who get bussed from polling place to polling place, and those who aren't, er, technically citizens, weren't voting Republican last time I checked.
Does you're side really want to start talking about voting fraud (as opposed to metaphysical "voter intent" and "hanging chads")?
The easiest solution, methinks, would have been not dragging her to church if she didn't want to go. Trying to force church on the actively disliking is a waste of time and effort.
Easiest solution, maybe, but not the best.
Children are born "actively disliking" anything but eating, sleeping, eliminating, and being entertained. They need to be "forced" to do things, to gain an appreciation of anything else.
Those who aren't ever "forced" to do things are eventually "forced" anyway, into the back of a cruiser, into a cell, etc.
Of course over in the UK we teach this thing called evolution in the schools so there is kind of an assumption that aliens are likely to be completely different.
Er, anybody see the irony in this snarky dogmatic theme?
So, you've done lots of original research and science in the field of evolution, have you?;) Because otherwise, you're just snidely repeating what you've been told, and thinking that it makes you some kind of independent-thinking iconoclast...
(and no, for the record, I don't doubt evolution, I just find this amusing...)
Smart bank cards, GSM in Europe beats US crdit/debit cards and cell phone standards. Now commercial high-speed maglev train.
Why is that? Is there anything wrong with US that it doesn't let the country to lead hi-techs anymore?
The psychological need that you feel to post that comment says otherwise... nobody bothers dissing somebody who is "way behind" in any meaningful sense.
It doesnt vary. Its a federal requirement. There are standards that have to be met.
What I'm saying is that the standards that water departments actually work towards, across the USA, whether internally imposed, state imposed, or federally imposed, must vary enormously.
As nharmon was suggesting that federal standards are weak (in his opinion), then those of my local municipality must be much higher.
Concerns involving the purity of drinking water should be addressed to your water department. But even then, the standards they have to meet are not very strict, and they will probably tell you the same thing.
Guess it just depends... my city brags about their water quality, sends out a detailed analysis report annually, and their literature pratically chortles over the astronomical price difference between the city water and bottled water that is no better.
It's a university town too, so I suspect that they are being reasonably accurate, or someone would call them on it;)
No its accurate. They typically will raise the prices again but still keep them below competition so must consumers will not notice.
They do this mainly from competitors who are are expensive outlets like Home Depot, Acehardware, and Kmart. Target they will not screw with because they are almost as powerfull and can lower the prices and sell below cost as well if Walmart tried this. Both would end up losing money.
I still don't get it... so you're saying that they undersell expensive competitors to drive them out of business, then they raise their prices to just below, er, inexpensive competitors, like Target?
How does the consumer get hurt by that, again? I must be missing it:).
I think the biggest problem is there is concrete everywhere, so unlike the US where they lay cable underground in the mass sprawling suburbs of the cities.
That's why I always laugh when people knock suburbs. It's a good thing not to be packed in like ants!
Wallmart is losing money and only doing this to turn their competitors under. They will raise the costs afterwards. Walmart does this more then Microsoft and the DOJ can't touch them because Americans would have a fit since it would raise the cost of goods there.
If you think about it for, oh, 30 more seconds, that makes no sense. If that was their standard practice, then it would be this practice that would raise the cost of goods, and Americans would welcome government intervention. So that must not be an accurate description of what goes on (an entertaining theory, perhaps, but not accurate).
Slashdot Mirror
France and Germany both seem to have much more liberal hours-of-work and vacation policies. So what if you make a bit less money if you aren't beating yourself to death trying to claw your way ahead?
We currently have unemployment problems in the US.
Compared to France and Germany? Are you sure?
the world view's America as the land of the selfish, run by corporations, headed by a falsely-elected retard, and not bothered about persecuting people, being hypocritical, or just plain murder if it's beneficial to profits.
Anyone who believes that (and I refuse to childishly anthropomorhize 'the world') is, quite simply, an idiot. Or believing what they are told.
I refuse to pander to such people. You could spend your life trying to refute such infantile ideas, but you'd be wasting your time. People who believe tripe like that want to believe it; it satisfies some weird psychological need in them.
with UN troops providing security and to preclude the new Palastinian state from posing a military threat to Isreal.
UN troops would do this how? For how long?
At the same time tell the Palastinians to disempower Yasser Arafat once and for all if they want their own state.
"Tell" them? How? Why should they listen to us? You're also assuming that the actual people have a choice in the matter.
Fact is he is massively corrupt, enriching himself on money coming in that should be going to ease Palastinian poverty.
Um, yeah ...
Arafat grievously wounded the world when he rejected the Clinton peace plan. It was the best deal the Palastinian people could've hoped
No kidding. So you still think diplomatic processes are the best way of dealing with Arafat types?
When did Americans turn into a bunch of whiny assed scared of everything softcock xenophobes?
When did (some) non-Americans turn into foul-mouthed, generalizing, inferiority-complex wielding morons?
Compared to most countries in the world worth visiting, we have wide open borders and are a freakin paradise of racial harmony. And yes, I have traveled enough to back that up.
Call me when half the population of the world stops trying to move here ...
Better yet, to win the war on terrorism compell a real peace in Isreal and the West Bank and get U.S. occupation troops out Islamic countries. If the U.S. and Isreal stop humiliating the Palastinians in particular and arabs in general that will dramaticly reduce the ability of islamic extremists to recruit for and fund their movement.
Just how do you propose to "compell a real peace in Israel and the West Bank"? Compelling peace is exactly what the anti-terrorism measures you describe are meant to do. As you point out, they do an imperfect job of it.
I suspect what you mean is "compell Israel to not defend itself" but if you think that will result in peace, you're quite wrong.
The US governments reactions to terrorist threats are exactly what the terrorists wanted.
How so?
Do you really believe that you have the power to declare legitimate analogies off limits, and your debating opponents automatically the loser? (see your eponymous "Law")
Do you also command traffic lights to change, and believe yourself decended from royalty?
;)
AFAIK there is no browser available that correctly renders CSS 2.0 -- the entire spec.
You got that right. It really isn't so shocking that years elapse between the recommendations and implementations - it's one thing to just say that the browser shall do all these nifty things based on a simple stylesheet line of text, and quite another to make them do it.
You need to check out Fast Seduction.
Yeah, it's horrible, flame away, but it works like you wouldn't believe.
Oh, I believe it. Back when these techniques were disseminated in books (egad), I used some of them briefly to enter (or at least visit) the world of non-geekiness.
But while it might "work" in some mechanical sense, so do illegal drugs (or so I hear) "work" at bringing pleasure. Like any mindless pursuit of pleasure (vs. happiness), learning those Fast Seduction style techniques, without actually learning how to love and interact with your fellow human being, is going to bring misery and a pathetic existence in the long run.
Apparently you didn't read the word "unemployment". Double-digit unemployment was Carter, the cure was Reagan.
After the debacle of Reagan's supply side, the last time these unemployment numbers were close to this high (excepting Bush Sr's next-closest nadir), you'd think this nonsense would be rejected. But I guess greed blinds even the survival instinct, when so much loot is flying through the air, without any merit to where it lands.
I guess you're too young to actually know what you're talking about ... the double digit inflation and unemployment were Carter's. "Supply-side" got us out of that.
It is human nature to "know" how or why things are the way they are. You choose your explanation to be God. It is a nice and easy way to go about life, believing that everything has a purpose, but you do not need know what that is because you have God.
This is both the funniest and annoyingly smarmiest bit of atheist dogma.
How exactly is it "easier" to believe in larger things than oneself and one's pleasure? No, the "easy" thing is to say "well, we're all just animals and nothing matters. Paaaarty!".
I think this is because USA punishes people without money. If you don't make lots of money you live on the streets. There is no socialism. No "safety net" if you lose your job. It's shameful for an American to be without money. Success is tied with being rich. Poor people are "losers". That makes it hard for an American to get past the "no cost" aspect of Free Software and start to understand the freedom aspects.
What are you talking about?
Every state has a welfare agency. If you lose your job or otherwise have no money, you go there and sign up. You can get checks, food stamps, subsidized or free health care, all kinds of stuff. There is an astounding array of benefits available. Yes, there are some theoretical time limits and requirements, and if you try really hard you can at least temporarily disrupt the flow of benefits.
I'm not surprised that not living in the US you believe what you do. Republicans claim (sometimes) to want to dismantle the welfare state, and Democrats accuse them of wanting to do so, or having done so, or something. TV shows love to show the inner city, which is basically the laboratory where people are payed to not work and not get married. Oddly enough this produces a twisted environment - who knew?
See, I don't get this. I wear ties when expected by our dippy culture, but I never understood what the hell they are supposed to mean. As far as I can tell, it's some pointless relic from an bygone era. I'm not saying show up in torn jeans, but why can't people be comfortable in an interveiw instead of tarting themselves up with clothing they will never be wearing on the job? Why can't we have some sort of happy medium?
What makes you think they will never wear ties on the job? There are a lot of IT positions where ties will be required, at least some of the time.
Anyway, all clothing styles are either fashion-driven, situational, or both. You can wear what your drinking buddies think is "comfortable", or what the hiring authority thinks is "comfortable", but unless they are the same, I'd go with the hiring authority for the interview. Save the "pointless relics" of the current era for after hours :)!
Some of the most brilliant engineers and scientists have are perpetually casual dressers. It's irrelevant. Drug dealers wear suits. Kenneth Lay wore suits. Saddam Hussein wore suits. It's meaningless.
Not quite. The bad guys wear them because they don't want to feel like or appear as bad guys. I think you're getting that lesson backwards ...
As for the geniuses, they by definition get more leeway than us mortals. Just because it works for them doesn't mean that it will work for you.
ANYONE who engages in vote fraud is reprehensible.
Yep, no argument here.
Saying "Yeah? Well they did it, too!" is no excuse, and, by dividing people into us-versus-them camps, does nothing to advance democracy.
Good thing that's not what I was saying, then. I wasn't saying "they did it too", I was saying "they did it, period". Stamping out vote fraud would probably eliminate the Democrat party, on a national level, unless they can use lawyers again to magically transform spoiled ballots into votes.
Forgive me for asking but why is the Pentagon involved in the conduct of Elections? Isn't there some more neutral organization ? It is like asking the Republican-leaning ("I am committed to delivering ...") Diebold to be in charge of conducting elections. If it was the State Department (Colin Powell) it would make sense but the Pentagon (Donald Rumsfeld) ? There is no democracy in the Defense Services and None at the Pentagon - what makes them so confident that they know what democracy needs.
(Cough, choke) Powell, and the State Department?
I'm sorry, but State seems to be full of people who think that their job is to serve the citizens of all countries except the United States. Not exactly "neutral" if you ask me (anti-Americanism being the province of Dems, domestically speaking).
Lightning fast counting with no paper trail seems too much like an adaptable magic wand to say whatever Bush wants it to say.
Why Bush?
Those dead people in Chicago, the inner city residents who get bussed from polling place to polling place, and those who aren't, er, technically citizens, weren't voting Republican last time I checked.
Does you're side really want to start talking about voting fraud (as opposed to metaphysical "voter intent" and "hanging chads")?
The easiest solution, methinks, would have been not dragging her to church if she didn't want to go. Trying to force church on the actively disliking is a waste of time and effort.
Easiest solution, maybe, but not the best.
Children are born "actively disliking" anything but eating, sleeping, eliminating, and being entertained. They need to be "forced" to do things, to gain an appreciation of anything else.
Those who aren't ever "forced" to do things are eventually "forced" anyway, into the back of a cruiser, into a cell, etc.
Of course over in the UK we teach this thing called evolution in the schools so there is kind of an assumption that aliens are likely to be completely different.
Er, anybody see the irony in this snarky dogmatic theme?
So, you've done lots of original research and science in the field of evolution, have you? ;) Because otherwise, you're just snidely repeating what you've been told, and thinking that it makes you some kind of independent-thinking iconoclast ...
(and no, for the record, I don't doubt evolution, I just find this amusing ...)
Smart bank cards, GSM in Europe beats US crdit/debit cards and cell phone standards. Now commercial high-speed maglev train.
Why is that? Is there anything wrong with US that it doesn't let the country to lead hi-techs anymore?
The psychological need that you feel to post that comment says otherwise ... nobody bothers dissing somebody who is "way behind" in any meaningful sense.
It doesnt vary. Its a federal requirement. There are standards that have to be met.
What I'm saying is that the standards that water departments actually work towards, across the USA, whether internally imposed, state imposed, or federally imposed, must vary enormously.
As nharmon was suggesting that federal standards are weak (in his opinion), then those of my local municipality must be much higher.
Concerns involving the purity of drinking water should be addressed to your water department. But even then, the standards they have to meet are not very strict, and they will probably tell you the same thing.
Guess it just depends ... my city brags about their water quality, sends out a detailed analysis report annually, and their literature pratically chortles over the astronomical price difference between the city water and bottled water that is no better.
It's a university town too, so I suspect that they are being reasonably accurate, or someone would call them on it ;)
No its accurate. They typically will raise the prices again but still keep them below competition so must consumers will not notice.
They do this mainly from competitors who are are expensive outlets like Home Depot, Acehardware, and Kmart. Target they will not screw with because they are almost as powerfull and can lower the prices and sell below cost as well if Walmart tried this. Both would end up losing money.
I still don't get it ... so you're saying that they undersell expensive competitors to drive them out of business, then they raise their prices to just below, er, inexpensive competitors, like Target?
How does the consumer get hurt by that, again? I must be missing it :).
I think the biggest problem is there is concrete everywhere, so unlike the US where they lay cable underground in the mass sprawling suburbs of the cities.
That's why I always laugh when people knock suburbs. It's a good thing not to be packed in like ants!
Wallmart is losing money and only doing this to turn their competitors under. They will raise the costs afterwards. Walmart does this more then Microsoft and the DOJ can't touch them because Americans would have a fit since it would raise the cost of goods there.
If you think about it for, oh, 30 more seconds, that makes no sense. If that was their standard practice, then it would be this practice that would raise the cost of goods, and Americans would welcome government intervention. So that must not be an accurate description of what goes on (an entertaining theory, perhaps, but not accurate).