I would feel some sympathy for them if they were merely stupid.
However, most the people who fall for it are also dishonest; in most cases they think they're bilking the Nigerian (or Botswanan or whatever) governments. Makes me feel a bit less sorry for them.
THAT'S RIGHT BUDDY NOW ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DRIVE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD, AND DAMN THESE ENGLISH IS SURE UNFRIENDLY, NOT LIKE -WE- DO THINGS OVER HERE.
Seriously though, you guys have a slight advantage now because your PM can be (in theory) more easily reigned in by his party, and if necessary, by a vote of no confidence. Our guy's basically in until 2004, and possible (ugh) 2008, and has the support of both the Senate (barely), and the House of Representatives (I don't know how many Europeans realize how reactionary many of its members are)
Well we weren't talking about realism, we were talking about originality. The great thing about Law and Order was they didn't turn into a weepy drama like NYPD Blue, where every character looks like they're about to burst into tears.
Law and Order was unique because it kept all the boring personal stuff out. CSI was unique because it showed real science. Not sure exactly what the Sopranos recycled. You forgot Seinfeld.
Nah, people like new stuff. The problem is most television producers are dumb as a bag of doorknobs, so they can't understand this. Look at the most successful shows; with few exceptions they're different than the regular crop of brain-numbing digital opium.
No, the analogy is you shouldn't make cars without wheels for a few years, insist that your product is superior to cars with wheels, then when you finally put some wheels on your cars dislocate your shoulder patting yourself on the back.
After college you use a small inheritance to open up a wicker basket shop. What's wrong with that? Just because you're a man doesn't mean you can't sell wicker bastkets! It has NOTHING to do with your sexuality. Anyway, one day an odd man walks into your shop, picks up a basket, and starts screaming "You haff stolen mein design! Look at zis basket!"
Quickly you rush over to get him to stop screaming. He looks at you oddly for a second, then mutters "my mistake" and shoves the basket into your hands and stumbles out. As you start to put the basket back on the shelf, you notice a strange capsule on the bottom. "Odd." you think.
Since it's your lunch hour the next time the shop is empty you put up your closed sign and sit back in your office. Examining the small capsule you realize that you can open it. When you do so a small piece of translucent plastic pops out. "Wait a minute," you think, "that almost looks like microfilm..." This has turned into a strange day. You put the plastic back in the capsule and hide it in the office safe, behind the picture of dogs playing poker. All through the rest of the day you puzzle over the odd events. Finally, you close up shop and leave; since tomorrow is Saturday, you open up late. Maybe you can head over to your alma mater, the local community college where you studied Wicker Science and use one of their microfiche machines to see if that strange strip of plastic really is microfilm.
As you stop by your office early Saturday morning you sense something is wrong. Quickly entering your office you're horrified to find that the place is trashed; papers are strewn about, furniture has been moved, and figurines from your porcelain kitten collection have been thrown to the ground, and now lay in shards. Breathlessly you check your safe; apparently they didn't check the painting, and the capsule is still there. You feel a cold ball of fear settle in your stomach; what the hell is going on?
If you've read this far you'll find it's not really an analogy, but I wanted to write a little story featuring a wicker shop. Maybe next time a post on slashdot mentions a wicker basket shop I'll write part II of the story.
Yeah, love watching Law and Order on TNT only to see a third of the screen taken up by an ad for another show, and a basket ball bouncing across the screen.
Just pretend Jerry Orbach is playing basketball.
Seriously though, I actually don't watch reruns a lot, on account of having seen just about every one of them. I like the new shows though.
The Discovery Channel is almost as bad. Cars driving across the screen, text bouncing around the corners of the screen. Annoying little sound effects in the middle of the show, etc.
Is that the Discovery Channel or the Discovery Science Channel? There's a big difference. I rarely watch the former, but love the latter.
The article talks about how this priceless artifact as well as many others, from the same civilisation that invented writing and the wheel, could be threatened by the impending war.
They say specifically that the artifacts are in danger from the war, not the civilization. Nowhere do they imply that the civilization that created them is the same culture that inhabits Iraq now.
Algorithms aren't supposed to be patentable. Of course, when Amazon did it everyone complains, but since nobody would dare criticize Google it's all wine and roses.
Right, and thanks to Roosevelt it was reduced. Every few generations corporate corruption becomes rampant, and someone needs to smack the corps down. Unfortunately we tried electing someone who might have stopped them last election, but the supreme court overturned our decision.
Slashdot Mirror
Didn't ask you.
That's Solaris. When was the last time you used UNIX?
Huh? What would he gain from it? In fact, he has to spend money because of it.
No, it's not.
When was the last time you used UNIX?
I sometimes do. It's thrilling, but short-sighted law enforcement officials frown on it for some reason.
Right ho what what.
I misremembered. I guess because lower lip seems to make more sense.
I would feel some sympathy for them if they were merely stupid.
However, most the people who fall for it are also dishonest; in most cases they think they're bilking the Nigerian (or Botswanan or whatever) governments. Makes me feel a bit less sorry for them.
THAT'S RIGHT BUDDY NOW ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DRIVE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD, AND DAMN THESE ENGLISH IS SURE UNFRIENDLY, NOT LIKE -WE- DO THINGS OVER HERE.
Seriously though, you guys have a slight advantage now because your PM can be (in theory) more easily reigned in by his party, and if necessary, by a vote of no confidence. Our guy's basically in until 2004, and possible (ugh) 2008, and has the support of both the Senate (barely), and the House of Representatives (I don't know how many Europeans realize how reactionary many of its members are)
I'd think brits would be less likely to report it. Stiff lower lip and all that rot.
Pip pip.
You could grow pipeweed to power your troops.
Sounds unlikely? Look at what they did with Galactic Battelgrounds, where you can have your R2 units gather berries and fish.
Well we weren't talking about realism, we were talking about originality. The great thing about Law and Order was they didn't turn into a weepy drama like NYPD Blue, where every character looks like they're about to burst into tears.
Law and Order was unique because it kept all the boring personal stuff out. CSI was unique because it showed real science. Not sure exactly what the Sopranos recycled. You forgot Seinfeld.
Nah, people like new stuff. The problem is most television producers are dumb as a bag of doorknobs, so they can't understand this. Look at the most successful shows; with few exceptions they're different than the regular crop of brain-numbing digital opium.
No, the analogy is you shouldn't make cars without wheels for a few years, insist that your product is superior to cars with wheels, then when you finally put some wheels on your cars dislocate your shoulder patting yourself on the back.
Yes, where bad shows suddenly become good simply because you saw it as a child.
Well I for one am glad it's not in this case. That was a fascinating e-mail.
No, it's more like this:
After college you use a small inheritance to open up a wicker basket shop. What's wrong with that? Just because you're a man doesn't mean you can't sell wicker bastkets! It has NOTHING to do with your sexuality. Anyway, one day an odd man walks into your shop, picks up a basket, and starts screaming "You haff stolen mein design! Look at zis basket!"
Quickly you rush over to get him to stop screaming. He looks at you oddly for a second, then mutters "my mistake" and shoves the basket into your hands and stumbles out. As you start to put the basket back on the shelf, you notice a strange capsule on the bottom. "Odd." you think.
Since it's your lunch hour the next time the shop is empty you put up your closed sign and sit back in your office. Examining the small capsule you realize that you can open it. When you do so a small piece of translucent plastic pops out. "Wait a minute," you think, "that almost looks like microfilm..." This has turned into a strange day. You put the plastic back in the capsule and hide it in the office safe, behind the picture of dogs playing poker. All through the rest of the day you puzzle over the odd events. Finally, you close up shop and leave; since tomorrow is Saturday, you open up late. Maybe you can head over to your alma mater, the local community college where you studied Wicker Science and use one of their microfiche machines to see if that strange strip of plastic really is microfilm.
As you stop by your office early Saturday morning you sense something is wrong. Quickly entering your office you're horrified to find that the place is trashed; papers are strewn about, furniture has been moved, and figurines from your porcelain kitten collection have been thrown to the ground, and now lay in shards. Breathlessly you check your safe; apparently they didn't check the painting, and the capsule is still there. You feel a cold ball of fear settle in your stomach; what the hell is going on?
If you've read this far you'll find it's not really an analogy, but I wanted to write a little story featuring a wicker shop. Maybe next time a post on slashdot mentions a wicker basket shop I'll write part II of the story.
If you read science fiction at all, you're familiar with Larry Niven. (If you don't, his work is a great place to start.)
If you don't know Larry Niven's work, his work is a great place to start? My head hurts.
Yeah, love watching Law and Order on TNT only to see a third of the screen taken up by an ad for another show, and a basket ball bouncing across the screen.
Just pretend Jerry Orbach is playing basketball.
Seriously though, I actually don't watch reruns a lot, on account of having seen just about every one of them. I like the new shows though.
The Discovery Channel is almost as bad. Cars driving across the screen, text bouncing around the corners of the screen. Annoying little sound effects in the middle of the show, etc.
Is that the Discovery Channel or the Discovery Science Channel? There's a big difference. I rarely watch the former, but love the latter.
They didn't say they were.
The article talks about how this priceless artifact as well as many others, from the same civilisation that invented writing and the wheel, could be threatened by the impending war.
They say specifically that the artifacts are in danger from the war, not the civilization. Nowhere do they imply that the civilization that created them is the same culture that inhabits Iraq now.
Algorithms aren't supposed to be patentable. Of course, when Amazon did it everyone complains, but since nobody would dare criticize Google it's all wine and roses.
Some geeks flock to SMG and vampires I guess, others flock to Farscape
And the more discerning of us ignore both of those lousy shows and watch mostly Law and Order reruns and the Discovery science channel...
Now that's some mighty fine viewing.
So there's no good Linux office app, but that's ok because there's no good MS OS? That doesn't make sense.
Nice to get a head start on what we'll be cloning next year ;)
Yeah, right. Next year. Heh.
Find me an open source project that has the functionality of MS Office from 4 years ago. Or 5. Or 6.
Right, and thanks to Roosevelt it was reduced. Every few generations corporate corruption becomes rampant, and someone needs to smack the corps down. Unfortunately we tried electing someone who might have stopped them last election, but the supreme court overturned our decision.