I know how to program. It is not my trade. It never has been, and, God and the economy willing, it never will be (although I'm not averse to churning out some code for recompense now and again as part of a diversified professional portfolio and just for the change of pace).
I do, however, find it a useful skill that allows me to use my computer to conduct business, perform scientific and engineering tasks and yes, on occasion, save a lot of money on programs and programers. Saved me from all that Quicken/Quick Books lockout nonsense too.
You must have quite the mental abilities to beable to perform sin, cos, sqrt, e^x, ln, etc, in your head.
Indeed. Many have remarked on this ability, although it certainly isn't unique. If you understand the math you don't actually have to memorize the complete tables, just a relative handful of values and the rest can be produced from them. I'll note I do so a bit quicker with a slide rule though.
The applications of these functions to my date book are fairly trivial though (Hey, meet me for lunch at the cotangent of noon, 'K?), although combining my paper, pen and slide rule I can certainly wangle my way through computations complicated enough to send a man to the moon.
We all could back in the day you know.
Yes, if need be I can make a fire by banging two rocks together. The skill has even come in handy a few times. Using a match is easier though. I greatly prefer that technology. Using a TIG welder is is bit much though, don't you think?
Another advantage of liking "obsolete" technology is that it can be had cheaply. I think I'm going to have to add a circular to my collection, and maybe replace the bamboo K&E that someone walked off with.
On the other hand it requires a certain mathmatical understanding to play freecell if you expect to win.
Learning to use an abacus would have been the correct way of going about teaching the "New Math," which was otherwise a bit of a failure.
Perhaps better still would be learning Chisenbop, since it's harder to misplace your fingers than an abacus, and you can convert to octal by simply removing two of them.
I keep my datebook in a pocket spiral bound notebook I picked up in a drugstore for $.69. I find it superiour technology for the task. Pen ready and everything.
Sometimes we use our technology because it's there, not because it's really ideal for the task.
Comes to that I keep the exact same model slide rule the astronauts carried on my desk. If you know how to use one it's still sometimes faster and easier than a calculator or a computer, and the batteries never wear down.
It also keeps me a bit sharper than I might otherwise be. Slide rules require an understanding of mathematics to use. I quote from my user manual:
"When people have difficulty in learning to use a slide rule, usually it is not because the instrument is difficult to use. The reason is likely to be that they don't understand the mathematics on which the instrument is based, or the formulas they are trying to evaluate. "
I don't recommend that people dispose of their calculators, but I do think it would be instructive if everyone at least learned a bit about using a slide rule. It has a way of showing whether you really understand the the math you're doing, or whether you're using the calculator as a crutch for said understanding, as opposed to using it as a tool.
With regards to law? Absolutely. The age of 18 may well be "magic" (which is really to say somewhat arbitrary), but it is real nonetheless. If one does not like that lower the age. If one does not like the idea of lowering the age, that only serves to make my point. Set the age wherever you like, but abide by the age.
I might also point out that this record incriminates not so much the child, but the juvenile detention system. If he commits an armed robbery at 17 and beats an old woman half a year latter while still a juvenile something has gone terribly awry. He should not have been allowed to be in a position where that was possible.
Please note that I never, ever said that juveniles who commit serious crimes should not be treated as such. Merely that they be treated as juveniles who have commited a serious crime.
And if he beats an old woman to death on his 18th birthday, toast the motha' fucka'. You'll get no argument from me that you can't do that on the basis that the day before you wouldn't have been legally allowed to do so.
Tha Riot Be Tha Rhyme of The Unheard -jediman1138-
As it happens a very appropriate sig to the matter at hand.
I'd point out, however, that the rioter is often expressing a generalized anger, often against the innocent, indeed often against the very supporters of his own cause. It reduces the cause to an act of thuggery in way no different than any other act of violence.
A thoughtful and directly relevant resistence is more fruitful, just and likely to draw further support.
John Brown's taking of the Harper's Ferry Armory is still the stuff of legend. Tim McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah Federal Building is, and shall remain, an act of infamy.
Some virus writers are angry young men with legitimate cause for their anger.
Wiping Grandma's C drive as part of an act of generalized vandalism is a poor way to express that anger and does nothing to actually relieve it's cause. It does not even leave one with an idea what the virus writer percieves that cause as being.
John Brown is considered a terrorist by a good many to this day, but at least we know what the hell he was mad as heaven about.
If one has a distaste, or even an anger, about certain aspects of society or orginizations within that society, well and good. Oppose them. Oppose them with your words, your actions and even your very life if need be, but please, leave my mom and my grandmom out if it unless they are directly involved.
As to the issue of punishing minors as adults, I will accept this only at such time as the legally defined as adults. To deny a person of youth the franchise as a full citizen because he is too young, ignorant and immature, but hold him responsible, without the proper rights and benfits of full citizenship and representation, because he "is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong" is hypocritical, unjust and undemocratic.
This issue came to a head in the 60s when teenagers were being drafted for the Vietnam war, and yet those same teenagers were denied the right to vote on representation or other issues which had obvious life or death consequences to them.
That is why the age of majority was lowered from 21 to 18.
Rights and responsibilites should always, always, always march hand in hand.
Although with the sort of songs I write I'm more likely to get sued for some sort of defamation:
I own a FIAT, please give what you can I'm broken and tired and footsore young man I walk the cold earth with my hat in my hand Saying, I own a FIAT, please, give what you can
There's also a fairly massive catalog of music that even the music industry has had to admit has passed into the public domain:
Weel may the keel row The keel row The keep row Weel may the keel row That my laddie's in
that when we spread the rodent infestation of our space ships across the galaxy that the wee ratty things are happy and healthy?
And all these centuries we've been trying to kill any of the buggers that managed to get on board. Just wait until they get into the triticale stores. Then they'll be sorry.
I have a guitar and I know how to use it. Grab a conga and your friend who plays fiddle and meet me down at the park.
Everybody together now:
"Momma don't allow no guitar playin round here
Momma don't allow no guitar playin round here
Well I don't care what momma don't allow
Gonna play my guitar anyhow
Momma don't allow no guitar playin round here."
There's another possible reason for suing the secondary businesses though. To create a sort of "Korean Conflict" out of it. In Korea the real belligerants were America and China, but by fighting the war through Korea and on Korean soil neither America or China suffered. Korea was effectively destroyed, but so what? They "don't count" except as a power pawn of the big boys.
By suing a secondary target they "take the hit," but as the issue is one of someone else's IP that someone else is inevitablly drawn in the provide the relevant testimony. It's unavoidable.
Thus the real combatants can fight each other at arms length, either laying waste to the poor bastard in the middle, or, creating a business vassel out of them.
Because the manufacturers are more likely to settle. The producer of the OEM parts, whose entire business is based on the technology, is more or less obliged to put up a hell of fight.
These suits, although not legally, are basically extortionate. Nobody wants to actually go to trial, least of all the company bringing forth the claim. Said company just wants someone to mail money to their post office box in order that they be left alone.
Once one person buys a "license" they can then use this to spread FUD that said purchase "proves" their case. See SCO/Sun/Microsoft.
One possible defense approach is to argue that since the parts are purchased you are not the primary litigant at law. Plaintiff must first prove their case against the manufaturer of the part before you can be held liable for infringement. You may or may not be financially liable, but it isn't your job to defend the IP if you are not its genesis. If the argument is accepted by the judge this does not dismiss the case, but holds it in abeyance until the primary claim is settled.
Then the plaintiff must decide if they want to go up against the big gun or not. If they do not then the pending case will eventually be dismissed. If they do then at least the smaller fish has the big one as its ally, and if the big one prevails than the orginal suit may be dismissed as groundless.
If big fish loses then the settlement may be held to have sufficiently compensated the plaintiff and the suit against the smaller fish may be dismissed so long as they no longer infringe. Which they're not likely to do because the OEM source will have licensed the technology in order to continue to sell it.
While all of this is going on the legal issues become a bigger and bigger tarball encompassing more and more companies who are more and more likely to just settle and get it the bloody hell over with.
It's basically stealing the nerdy kid's lunch money.
No, the case isn't similar. MS is seeking to avoid punishment for a crime of which it is already convicted, whereas Mengle evaded trial through the efforts of the Red Cross.
So in his case it would merely be repaying a debt already acquired, not to curry future influence.
You won't find many Jews over a certain age that will give one penney to the Red Cross.
And one of the differences between being observed by a police officer and being observed by a camera is that a camera can make a 'traffic stop' by hauling you out of bed at 4 A.M. six months later.
Slashdot Mirror
I know how to program. It is not my trade. It never has been, and, God and the economy willing, it never will be (although I'm not averse to churning out some code for recompense now and again as part of a diversified professional portfolio and just for the change of pace).
I do, however, find it a useful skill that allows me to use my computer to conduct business, perform scientific and engineering tasks and yes, on occasion, save a lot of money on programs and programers. Saved me from all that Quicken/Quick Books lockout nonsense too.
KFG
You must have quite the mental abilities to beable to perform sin, cos, sqrt, e^x, ln, etc, in your head.
Indeed. Many have remarked on this ability, although it certainly isn't unique. If you understand the math you don't actually have to memorize the complete tables, just a relative handful of values and the rest can be produced from them. I'll note I do so a bit quicker with a slide rule though.
The applications of these functions to my date book are fairly trivial though (Hey, meet me for lunch at the cotangent of noon, 'K?), although combining my paper, pen and slide rule I can certainly wangle my way through computations complicated enough to send a man to the moon.
We all could back in the day you know.
Yes, if need be I can make a fire by banging two rocks together. The skill has even come in handy a few times. Using a match is easier though. I greatly prefer that technology. Using a TIG welder is is bit much though, don't you think?
KFG
If you pay the entry fee you get to play the game.
Anything else is robbery.
KFG
. . .if all u need is pen and paper, i fear your responsibilities are low, or your available time is high anyway.
Or my mental abilities are rather above yours.
Your volley.
KFG
Another advantage of liking "obsolete" technology is that it can be had cheaply. I think I'm going to have to add a circular to my collection, and maybe replace the bamboo K&E that someone walked off with.
KFG
On the other hand it requires a certain mathmatical understanding to play freecell if you expect to win.
Learning to use an abacus would have been the correct way of going about teaching the "New Math," which was otherwise a bit of a failure.
Perhaps better still would be learning Chisenbop, since it's harder to misplace your fingers than an abacus, and you can convert to octal by simply removing two of them.
Chisenbop
KFG
I keep my datebook in a pocket spiral bound notebook I picked up in a drugstore for $.69. I find it superiour technology for the task. Pen ready and everything.
Sometimes we use our technology because it's there, not because it's really ideal for the task.
Comes to that I keep the exact same model slide rule the astronauts carried on my desk. If you know how to use one it's still sometimes faster and easier than a calculator or a computer, and the batteries never wear down.
It also keeps me a bit sharper than I might otherwise be. Slide rules require an understanding of mathematics to use. I quote from my user manual:
"When people have difficulty in learning to use a slide rule, usually it is not because the instrument is difficult to use. The reason is likely to be that they don't understand the mathematics on which the instrument is based, or the formulas they are trying to evaluate. "
I don't recommend that people dispose of their calculators, but I do think it would be instructive if everyone at least learned a bit about using a slide rule. It has a way of showing whether you really understand the the math you're doing, or whether you're using the calculator as a crutch for said understanding, as opposed to using it as a tool.
KFG
Did you pick your car insurance company, or was it "granted to you" by the voting majority?
It was "granted" to me. Which is to say neither I nor the isurance company had any say in the matter. They were assigned to me by law.
Yes, I am an American in America.
KFG
With regards to law? Absolutely. The age of 18 may well be "magic" (which is really to say somewhat arbitrary), but it is real nonetheless. If one does not like that lower the age. If one does not like the idea of lowering the age, that only serves to make my point. Set the age wherever you like, but abide by the age.
I might also point out that this record incriminates not so much the child, but the juvenile detention system. If he commits an armed robbery at 17 and beats an old woman half a year latter while still a juvenile something has gone terribly awry. He should not have been allowed to be in a position where that was possible.
Please note that I never, ever said that juveniles who commit serious crimes should not be treated as such. Merely that they be treated as juveniles who have commited a serious crime.
And if he beats an old woman to death on his 18th birthday, toast the motha' fucka'. You'll get no argument from me that you can't do that on the basis that the day before you wouldn't have been legally allowed to do so.
KFG
It sucks.
And most certainly doesn't kiss you afterwards.
KFG
Tha Riot Be Tha Rhyme of The Unheard -jediman1138-
As it happens a very appropriate sig to the matter at hand.
I'd point out, however, that the rioter is often expressing a generalized anger, often against the innocent, indeed often against the very supporters of his own cause. It reduces the cause to an act of thuggery in way no different than any other act of violence.
A thoughtful and directly relevant resistence is more fruitful, just and likely to draw further support.
John Brown's taking of the Harper's Ferry Armory is still the stuff of legend. Tim McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah Federal Building is, and shall remain, an act of infamy.
Some virus writers are angry young men with legitimate cause for their anger.
Wiping Grandma's C drive as part of an act of generalized vandalism is a poor way to express that anger and does nothing to actually relieve it's cause. It does not even leave one with an idea what the virus writer percieves that cause as being.
John Brown is considered a terrorist by a good many to this day, but at least we know what the hell he was mad as heaven about.
If one has a distaste, or even an anger, about certain aspects of society or orginizations within that society, well and good. Oppose them. Oppose them with your words, your actions and even your very life if need be, but please, leave my mom and my grandmom out if it unless they are directly involved.
As to the issue of punishing minors as adults, I will accept this only at such time as the legally defined as adults. To deny a person of youth the franchise as a full citizen because he is too young, ignorant and immature, but hold him responsible, without the proper rights and benfits of full citizenship and representation, because he "is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong" is hypocritical, unjust and undemocratic.
This issue came to a head in the 60s when teenagers were being drafted for the Vietnam war, and yet those same teenagers were denied the right to vote on representation or other issues which had obvious life or death consequences to them.
That is why the age of majority was lowered from 21 to 18.
Rights and responsibilites should always, always, always march hand in hand.
KFG
:)
KFG
Your post is very tartan.
KFG
I am not responsible for newspeak or doublespeak.
KFG
I hate myses to pyses.
KFG
My sweet Lord
Ummmmm my Lord
My, my sweet Lord
Although with the sort of songs I write I'm more likely to get sued for some sort of defamation:
I own a FIAT, please give what you can
I'm broken and tired and footsore young man
I walk the cold earth with my hat in my hand
Saying, I own a FIAT, please, give what you can
There's also a fairly massive catalog of music that even the music industry has had to admit has passed into the public domain:
Weel may the keel row
The keel row
The keep row
Weel may the keel row
That my laddie's in
KFG
that when we spread the rodent infestation of our space ships across the galaxy that the wee ratty things are happy and healthy?
And all these centuries we've been trying to kill any of the buggers that managed to get on board. Just wait until they get into the triticale stores. Then they'll be sorry.
KFG
We're responsible for our own actions.
This is a splendid definition of liberalism.
KFG
We not only allow images of bestiality, we allow them to be seen on the public streets. Our art books are full of them.
Leda Lights Up
The internet is publishing. It is no different from any other kind of publishing, other than the difficulty of effectively censoring it.
KFG
Ah, well. In that case just grab a bodhran instead.
KFG
. . .who will you turn to?
I have a guitar and I know how to use it. Grab a conga and your friend who plays fiddle and meet me down at the park.
Everybody together now:
"Momma don't allow no guitar playin round here
Momma don't allow no guitar playin round here
Well I don't care what momma don't allow
Gonna play my guitar anyhow
Momma don't allow no guitar playin round here."
KFG
There's another possible reason for suing the secondary businesses though. To create a sort of "Korean Conflict" out of it. In Korea the real belligerants were America and China, but by fighting the war through Korea and on Korean soil neither America or China suffered. Korea was effectively destroyed, but so what? They "don't count" except as a power pawn of the big boys.
By suing a secondary target they "take the hit," but as the issue is one of someone else's IP that someone else is inevitablly drawn in the provide the relevant testimony. It's unavoidable.
Thus the real combatants can fight each other at arms length, either laying waste to the poor bastard in the middle, or, creating a business vassel out of them.
KFG
Because the manufacturers are more likely to settle. The producer of the OEM parts, whose entire business is based on the technology, is more or less obliged to put up a hell of fight.
These suits, although not legally, are basically extortionate. Nobody wants to actually go to trial, least of all the company bringing forth the claim. Said company just wants someone to mail money to their post office box in order that they be left alone.
Once one person buys a "license" they can then use this to spread FUD that said purchase "proves" their case. See SCO/Sun/Microsoft.
One possible defense approach is to argue that since the parts are purchased you are not the primary litigant at law. Plaintiff must first prove their case against the manufaturer of the part before you can be held liable for infringement. You may or may not be financially liable, but it isn't your job to defend the IP if you are not its genesis. If the argument is accepted by the judge this does not dismiss the case, but holds it in abeyance until the primary claim is settled.
Then the plaintiff must decide if they want to go up against the big gun or not. If they do not then the pending case will eventually be dismissed. If they do then at least the smaller fish has the big one as its ally, and if the big one prevails than the orginal suit may be dismissed as groundless.
If big fish loses then the settlement may be held to have sufficiently compensated the plaintiff and the suit against the smaller fish may be dismissed so long as they no longer infringe. Which they're not likely to do because the OEM source will have licensed the technology in order to continue to sell it.
While all of this is going on the legal issues become a bigger and bigger tarball encompassing more and more companies who are more and more likely to just settle and get it the bloody hell over with.
It's basically stealing the nerdy kid's lunch money.
KFG
No, the case isn't similar. MS is seeking to avoid punishment for a crime of which it is already convicted, whereas Mengle evaded trial through the efforts of the Red Cross.
So in his case it would merely be repaying a debt already acquired, not to curry future influence.
You won't find many Jews over a certain age that will give one penney to the Red Cross.
KFG
And one of the differences between being observed by a police officer and being observed by a camera is that a camera can make a 'traffic stop' by hauling you out of bed at 4 A.M. six months later.
KFG