For what it's worth, I'm a computer nerd and I could not care less how the mass media portrays me. Why should I? Why do you?
Because a sizeable chunk of humanity gets their information from the mass media. And I'd like the geek ideals to be disseminated into mainstream society because I think it will improve humanity. Imagine a world where almost everyone is scientifically literate, open-minded, and artistic. Don't you want to help everyone else get there?
Yeah I spent an insane amount of time playing the original Might and Magic, didn't get close to finishing it. My party's levels were in the hundreds and we could kill anything we found, but for all I know Corak's still waiting for me to do his little quest...
SCO has said the GPL is invalid, so they must not be accepting the GPL, so they haven't accepted a license at all.
It doesn't matter what they say, it matters what they do. It's entirely possible that they've violated the GPL through their actions, but saying "the GPL shouldn't be held valid by the courts" doesn't automatically do that. Just like saying a criminal law violates the Constitution doesn't mean you've suddenly broken that law.
You'll find the government's complaint here. They weren't being punished for their success UNTIL they tried to merge. Find me a company which has had an anti-trust suit just because they had a high market share.
I find it funny how slashdotters are so concerned for the poor little companies, defenseless against the big mean government. The government's protecting you as a consumer in these cases, though you don't seem to understand it.
Microsoft's pricing system is relatively straightforward. Oracle prices it's products by going to your company, looking around, seeing how much money you seem to have, then coming up with a price based on that, rather than based on what you need. Now Oracle's software does tend to be better than MS, but their pricing and marketing is a lot more insidious.
I'm a little puzzled by all the disbelieving replies I got. Has anyone here actually worked with Oracle?
I would rather deal with MS than Oracle. At least with MS you know what you're getting into. With Oracle it's about squeezing as much money as possible.
Yup! The same government that created one of the most famous of all monopolies and enforces it by preventing competition. Not a very useful law.
That makes no sense. The postal service is a government function. That's why congress was given the sole authority to create a postal service in the Constitution. Don't see people raising their own for-profit armies in the US, do you?
You're not laughing.
Yes I am. You amuse me.
If it weren't so common for government schemes to backfire completely, you'd probably think this was funny too.
That's why no government program ever works, and why we live in a squalid, impoverished anarchy.
It gets better. The antitrust laws are used against companies that practice "anticompetitive practices." What counts as "anticompetitive?" Anything aimed at doing better than your competition.
No, by that twisted logic every industry leader in every field would be the target of a federal suit.
Well, here's my last and favorite part. Even assuming that the government is right about everything (I know it's hard...just pretend), the laws are still worthless. The government assumes that if a single company becomes the sole producer in a market, they might jack up the price of their product, hurting the little guy
The laws weren't created in a vacuum--they were enacted BECAUSE of how monopolies were treating consumers.
Now, the main reason Objectivists dislike these laws is because they're a blatant initiation of force.
Objectivists don't like these laws because they're humorless, incredibly naive little people.
If a single producer jacking up his price is really the problem they're trying to solve, and given that they don't care about property rights in the slightest, why not wait until a single producer actually does do that? That's right. If they're going to trample rights, why not just wait until the "bad" thing has actually happened? By their own standards, the antitrust laws are useless.
Because prevention is better than a cure. Corporations aren't people. They shouldn't get the same rights.
Re:/. sums it up nicely for once (Score:2, Informative)
Don't forget the "stupid" argument. As was so well documented in a book called "Slander" it would appear Bush is not the dummy that the Democrats would have us believe! In fact, he blew away Al Gore's school record. A synopsis: Bush= A's, B's and the Occasional C Gore= A few C's many D's and a none to rare F. Oops, it looks like another cherished stereotype has been thrown to the wind!
Nope, it hasn't.
Slander was written by Ann Coulter. Coulter is an inveterate liar. I mean, all political pundits stretch the truth a bit, but Coulter lies shamelessly, frequently, and implausibly. She'll claim anything about anyone she hates, she'll fabricate insane facts that can be disproven in 5 minutes on lexis-nexis, and she is constantly being caught in her idiotic lies. Hell she fabricates footnotes constantly, gets caught in her lies, but nobody really says anything a) because her loyal readers tend to be on the stupider side of the species, so they eat the lies and believe them, and b) she's so much of a joke that none of her enemies wastes too much time with her. Don't believe me? See if anyone ever corroborated her little idiocy over Bush and Gore's grades. To call any Coulter book "well-documented" betrays an incredible misunderstanding about how this frothy-mouthed, right-wing, borderline psychopath works.
Wait till the election gets closer and the people here start boasting about how they NEVER vote because it doesn't make a difference. 9 times out of 10 it's laziness, but that's not quite as good an excuse.
I think the American people would go for a tax plan that eliminated taxes altogether within about 15 - 20 years. Most Americans have no idea that the (unconstitutional) income tax is a fairly new animal, enacted as some sort of temporary money train that turned into a maglev.
a) the income tax is not unconstitutional. In fact the Constitution explicitly grants the government the right to levy income tax. And even before that amendment it wasn't unconstitutional.
b) the income tax is not "a new animal". There was income tax over a hundred years ago.
c) most Americans wouldn't trade basic order for the anarchy of no federal government. They just wouldn't.
And he may be several generations in this country. People used to Americanize their names when they came to this country, though I thought that those days were fortunately gone. Slashdot has shown otherwise, which is sad.
Slashdot Mirror
For what it's worth, I'm a computer nerd and I could not care less how the mass media portrays me. Why should I? Why do you?
Because a sizeable chunk of humanity gets their information from the mass media. And I'd like the geek ideals to be disseminated into mainstream society because I think it will improve humanity. Imagine a world where almost everyone is scientifically literate, open-minded, and artistic. Don't you want to help everyone else get there?
To quote John Carmack: Story in games is like story in porn movies, you expect it to be there, but it's really not that important.
And that's why Id makes lousy games.
Yeah I spent an insane amount of time playing the original Might and Magic, didn't get close to finishing it. My party's levels were in the hundreds and we could kill anything we found, but for all I know Corak's still waiting for me to do his little quest...
The other way to tell they're a tourist is if they're wearing a t-shirt with an advertising slogan on it, unless they're being ironic.
Oh, if they actually play 3-card monte then they're definitely a tourist.
Or if they make eye contact with strangers on the street.
Answer that one for me, Mr. Ballmer.
I don't think he reads slashdot.
Sounds good to me. We can make a cooler internet.
Listen, everyone wants super powers, but nobody's willing to get struck by lightning to get them.
is this idea just hot air?
AHHH! Mod him down!
What Social Security really is is a forced bed-mattress savings account for people too uneducated to live within their means.
Yep. So what's the problem with that? Ignorance isn't a capital offense, and no, to cut off the typical slashdot reply, it shouldn't be.
Social Security, for example, is a total disaster (I don't even include it in my retirement plans).
Social security works. If you paid into it your entire life, you get a check every month now. Where's the disaster?
The IRS is the most politically abused organization on the planet.
How so?
SCO has said the GPL is invalid, so they must not be accepting the GPL, so they haven't accepted a license at all.
It doesn't matter what they say, it matters what they do. It's entirely possible that they've violated the GPL through their actions, but saying "the GPL shouldn't be held valid by the courts" doesn't automatically do that. Just like saying a criminal law violates the Constitution doesn't mean you've suddenly broken that law.
You'll find the government's complaint here. They weren't being punished for their success UNTIL they tried to merge. Find me a company which has had an anti-trust suit just because they had a high market share.
I find it funny how slashdotters are so concerned for the poor little companies, defenseless against the big mean government. The government's protecting you as a consumer in these cases, though you don't seem to understand it.
Microsoft's pricing system is relatively straightforward. Oracle prices it's products by going to your company, looking around, seeing how much money you seem to have, then coming up with a price based on that, rather than based on what you need. Now Oracle's software does tend to be better than MS, but their pricing and marketing is a lot more insidious.
I'm a little puzzled by all the disbelieving replies I got. Has anyone here actually worked with Oracle?
And they'd better be prepared to prove it.
Or else you're going to do what?
I would rather deal with MS than Oracle. At least with MS you know what you're getting into. With Oracle it's about squeezing as much money as possible.
Oh, god, here we go again.
Yup! The same government that created one of the most famous of all monopolies and enforces it by preventing competition. Not a very useful law.
That makes no sense. The postal service is a government function. That's why congress was given the sole authority to create a postal service in the Constitution. Don't see people raising their own for-profit armies in the US, do you?
You're not laughing.
Yes I am. You amuse me.
If it weren't so common for government schemes to backfire completely, you'd probably think this was funny too.
That's why no government program ever works, and why we live in a squalid, impoverished anarchy.
It gets better. The antitrust laws are used against companies that practice "anticompetitive practices." What counts as "anticompetitive?" Anything aimed at doing better than your competition.
No, by that twisted logic every industry leader in every field would be the target of a federal suit.
Well, here's my last and favorite part. Even assuming that the government is right about everything (I know it's hard...just pretend), the laws are still worthless. The government assumes that if a single company becomes the sole producer in a market, they might jack up the price of their product, hurting the little guy
The laws weren't created in a vacuum--they were enacted BECAUSE of how monopolies were treating consumers.
Now, the main reason Objectivists dislike these laws is because they're a blatant initiation of force.
Objectivists don't like these laws because they're humorless, incredibly naive little people.
If a single producer jacking up his price is really the problem they're trying to solve, and given that they don't care about property rights in the slightest, why not wait until a single producer actually does do that? That's right. If they're going to trample rights, why not just wait until the "bad" thing has actually happened? By their own standards, the antitrust laws are useless.
Because prevention is better than a cure. Corporations aren't people. They shouldn't get the same rights.
My point was simply that relying on Ann Coulter for any kind of accurate information is folly.
Gore's and Bush's transcripts were similar; neither did especially well, and Bush certainly didn't "blow Gore out of the water". The story is here.
Re:/. sums it up nicely for once (Score:2, Informative)
Don't forget the "stupid" argument. As was so well documented in a book called "Slander" it would appear Bush is not the dummy that the Democrats would have us believe! In fact, he blew away Al Gore's school record. A synopsis: Bush= A's, B's and the Occasional C Gore= A few C's many D's and a none to rare F. Oops, it looks like another cherished stereotype has been thrown to the wind!
Nope, it hasn't.
Slander was written by Ann Coulter. Coulter is an inveterate liar. I mean, all political pundits stretch the truth a bit, but Coulter lies shamelessly, frequently, and implausibly. She'll claim anything about anyone she hates, she'll fabricate insane facts that can be disproven in 5 minutes on lexis-nexis, and she is constantly being caught in her idiotic lies. Hell she fabricates footnotes constantly, gets caught in her lies, but nobody really says anything a) because her loyal readers tend to be on the stupider side of the species, so they eat the lies and believe them, and b) she's so much of a joke that none of her enemies wastes too much time with her. Don't believe me? See if anyone ever corroborated her little idiocy over Bush and Gore's grades. To call any Coulter book "well-documented" betrays an incredible misunderstanding about how this frothy-mouthed, right-wing, borderline psychopath works.
Ooh, remember winsock. That was fun. If by fun you mean not fun.
There were several posts, and several more approving of it.
And spare me the tired old whining about "political correctness". "What, I can't make racist jokes? That's sooo unfaiiiir, waah"
Wait till the election gets closer and the people here start boasting about how they NEVER vote because it doesn't make a difference. 9 times out of 10 it's laziness, but that's not quite as good an excuse.
I think the American people would go for a tax plan that eliminated taxes altogether within about 15 - 20 years. Most Americans have no idea that the (unconstitutional) income tax is a fairly new animal, enacted as some sort of temporary money train that turned into a maglev.
a) the income tax is not unconstitutional. In fact the Constitution explicitly grants the government the right to levy income tax. And even before that amendment it wasn't unconstitutional.
b) the income tax is not "a new animal". There was income tax over a hundred years ago.
c) most Americans wouldn't trade basic order for the anarchy of no federal government. They just wouldn't.
And he may be several generations in this country. People used to Americanize their names when they came to this country, though I thought that those days were fortunately gone. Slashdot has shown otherwise, which is sad.
Maybe he's brushing it off casually, like in the Simpsons:
...well, touche.
Kent Brockman: Well, what do you say to the accusation that your group has been causing more crimes than it's been preventing?
Homer Simpson: Oh, Kent, I'd be lying if I said my men weren't committing crimes.
Kent:
It can create any 3d shape you want, as long as you want a misshapen lump.
"hey I wrote that you fruity bastard!"
Ahh, the Fruity Bastard Doctrine. A powerful legal construct.