(i.e. the US - you guys are responsible for who you vote into power)
You really think that's how it works these days? It's as clear cut as that? Because there are so many honest, everyday Joes on the ballot that aren't on the take or in some corporation's pocket, and we just choose not to elect them because we're dicks. We're simply dicks. Really, our elections boil down to which shit sandwich is going to taste the least appalling over the next 4 years, based on what is said before you take that bite. Once it's in your mouth, pretty much anything goes. The only real power we have these days is to abstain from voting, or to 'throw away' your vote on someone who isn't either of the two party's candidates, but that's merely symbolic. In theory, the US government is supposed to be of the people, but there is clearly a huge divide between the majority of Americans, and those who have any chance in hell of becoming elected to higher office. So don't blame the American people for this crap; we're going for the same ride you are.
The US does not want this. Certain corporations want this. There is a huge difference between the two, so quit throwing the rest of us in with that greedy lot.
Wow, lots of jumping to conclusions around here. They make a mat for that now, you know...
Perhaps I referred to it as the Hakenkreuz, or "Hooked Cross", because that's what the Germans call it? As opposed to every other version of the non-nazified swastika, which isn't banned by any laws that I'm aware of.
That may be harder than you think. We 'fired' AT&T for several reasons, and picked up a connection through Telepacific. Guess what? Every time the circuit goes down, we have to wait for AT&T to come fix it, because they own most of the copper from here to the moon. And let me tell you, you get even worse service from AT&T when you aren't paying them directly...
What do I tell people when asked what I do for a living? "Work with computers" or "IT department". Nobody really gives a crap about my "Computer Network Systems Engineering" degree. {------"IT Degree" is short for "I don't want to have to say that every time"
Also, IT books from 6 years ago are still entirely relevant. A lot of my coursework was in Server 2003 and Cisco IOS environments, of which there are still thousands upon thousands of installs out in the field. We still use a system written in BBX that was just recently moved off of a SCO Unix machine. Just because technology marches on doesn't mean knowledge becomes irrelevant. On the contrary, the older and more scarce a technology becomes, the more valuable that knowledge becomes. I hear California was looking for some COBOL programmers recently:)
I also have an IT degree (shocking here, i know), and I remember in one class we were to get the 6th edition of the book, but someone wound up with a 4th edition. It was almost the exact same book, word for word, except the chapters had been reordered and some of the chapter-end questions were different. It was one of the Server 2003 classes, and this was back in 2009. Not sure how they could justify 6 editions in almost as many years regarding relatively low-level OS operations...
Which is why they come out with a 'new' edition every couple of years, rendering the previous editions 'obsolete' and therefore worthless on the secondary market.
Death Valley is not the entire world, and it can get well below freezing there in the winter months. Using your example, one could also say that the world is a freezing cold place.
Notice the subtle difference in wording? You used warm, which is what I would have chosen. They used hot. To me, the world is not a hot place. A toaster is hot. A flamethrower is hot. The planet Mercury is hot. The earth is, on average, a 'warm' place for us. Average temperatures may be increasing, but 'warm' and 'hot' are subjective terms that are best left out of factual reporting. As soon as you start using unquantifiable measurements such as these, you're just telling stories.
I just love how humans go about their lives thinking that we're the only thing holding this planet together, and that if we go extinct, time itself will go all taco-shaped and the universe will cease to exist. If we were truly a species worth saving, we'd be fixing this problem*, instead of bickering about whether or not it even exists, and who's to blame, and who's paying for it, and at what interest rate, and....
*assuming the rising temperatures are not natural, or a statistical blip.
Because due process is applied, and yes, you can be arrested and put in jail before being found guilty.
And then, unless you've been deemed an imminent threat of flight or danger to public safety, you may post bail and get out of jail until the question of guilt or innocence has been answered. In this situation, there is no option for megaupload to be 'bailed out' and continue operating until trial. The entire company has been effectively seized as evidence, and most likely will never operate again even if it is exonerated. To me, this is akin to the feds putting an entire business on a flatbed truck and hauling it off; chairs, tables, staplers and all.
Yeah, I'm sure that the remainder of the U.S. would just let China or Russia to take over independent California and not lift a finger.
Or then again, maybe not.
Well, an attack on California would only make sense as a pretext for invading the rest of North America, sure. The remaining 49 states of America would most likely come to our defense, if for nothing more than their own self interests. But it still makes absolutely no sense for a nation, especially one that sits so close to Mexico's drug trade/violence, to have no means of effectively securing it's borders.
Except for the fact that California would be left completely defenseless against foreign aggression. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Uncle Sam won't let us keep all those shiny boats and planes after we break away. What's the cost of forming a new multi-branch fighting force from scratch these days? Not to mention the economic catastrophe that would occur to certain towns that rely on the newly abandoned local military base. And lets not get started on our replacements for SSI and medicare, importation of water and food from a now-foreign and probably a little butthurt country, maintaining security on the new 1000+ miles of border...
Sure we may not currently get back as much from the Feds as we send them, but the real benefit in sticking around is all the things that are already in place and paid for. Taking things for granted, like security and open borders between states, is foolish.
If you had nothing to do all day, you'd get bored soon enough.
There are other things to do with your time than work. Why not go see the world? It's a huge fascinating place that few these days get to see. If you had the time and finances to do it.. GO. Or, if you still feel locked into a life of servitude, why not volunteer your time? Go help out at a homeless shelter, plant some trees, spend time with the lonely elderly. If you no longer have to worry about you, go help out somebody else who isn't as fortunate, and be a decent human being.
I caught the tail end of it. My point was that after the fall of the USSR, the Russians certainly didn't refuse our western ways. Your comparison of Levis and Coke to Russian cars is a little flawed though. The Russians obviously wanted our goods well before they could obtain them, but who the hell wants a Volga?
McCarthyism was used to build support against the communists in a country that is somewhat influenced by its people. In countries that have a strong totalitarian grip on their subjects, such as Iran and North Korea, do the powers that be really need the thumbs up from the proles to engage in any hostilities? When you have a strong army and a total disregard of human rights, why would you care what some impoverished farmer thinks about your 'enemies'? He's more concerned about his own survival than your regime's.
How long before the people have a (renewed) hate of the USA?
It's not a step to a new cold war, but it disconcertingly similar to the behavior we saw then.
Did the Soviet "people" really hate the united states? Or just envy us. I don't remember seeing them burning pairs of Levi's or throwing cases of Coke into the harbor...
The same goes for pretty much every other country out there that 'hates' us too. Does the entire Iranian populace hate us? Do all the North Koreans hate us? Or is it just more convenient to believe that they do to make it easier when we start killing them...
Unfortunately, any sort of blackout would be cutting off the nose to spite the face, only this face never cared about the nose in the first place. If this things gains momentum, and sites like Google go dark in protest, the only people it hurts would be you and me. I use Google as an essential part of my daily job. If it's not available, it makes my life that much more difficult. If Google, or the entire internet for that matter, goes dark.. the politicians might not even know about it unless one of their assistants tells them. When corporations are waving truckloads of cash at you to further their agendas, who cares about whether or not some prole on the other side of the country can get his job done?
Protesting SOPA on the internet is not going to be effective. Protesting anything these days doesn't seem to be very effective. Unless you can disrupt their lives and sense of comfort, why should they do anything different? It's like walking past an angry dog chained to some immovable object. He can bark and threaten all he wants, but until the day he comes off that chain, you can do whatever you want without fear of any consequences.
If they had expected to run these units as long as they did, I'm sure they would have already put them on there. They only banked on ~90 days, so there was no perceived need for this kind of thing. Right now, they're running on extended bonus time.
Define your use of the word 'free' here. In this current economy, a company can most likely have your replacement on the job by the end of the week. You, however, may be out of work for a long, long time. It's like saying you're free to walk the plank, but I hope you can swim. And faster than the sharks.
I am so fucking tired of hearing how America is bullying the world into being forced into implementing legislation that is utterly flawed and is only there to serve the interests of the *AAs.
Yeah, me too. Because it's not "America" that's doing it. I'm American, my friends are American, and I don't know a single person who supports this. Please stop lumping all of my countrymen in with this small handful of scumbags who are raping the world. Building negative sentiment against an entire country over the actions of a few really isn't going to do anybody any favors.
Slashdot Mirror
(i.e. the US - you guys are responsible for who you vote into power)
You really think that's how it works these days? It's as clear cut as that? Because there are so many honest, everyday Joes on the ballot that aren't on the take or in some corporation's pocket, and we just choose not to elect them because we're dicks. We're simply dicks. Really, our elections boil down to which shit sandwich is going to taste the least appalling over the next 4 years, based on what is said before you take that bite. Once it's in your mouth, pretty much anything goes. The only real power we have these days is to abstain from voting, or to 'throw away' your vote on someone who isn't either of the two party's candidates, but that's merely symbolic. In theory, the US government is supposed to be of the people, but there is clearly a huge divide between the majority of Americans, and those who have any chance in hell of becoming elected to higher office. So don't blame the American people for this crap; we're going for the same ride you are.
The US does not want this. Certain corporations want this. There is a huge difference between the two, so quit throwing the rest of us in with that greedy lot.
Wow, lots of jumping to conclusions around here. They make a mat for that now, you know...
Perhaps I referred to it as the Hakenkreuz, or "Hooked Cross", because that's what the Germans call it? As opposed to every other version of the non-nazified swastika, which isn't banned by any laws that I'm aware of.
I can fire AT&T and Comcast
That may be harder than you think. We 'fired' AT&T for several reasons, and picked up a connection through Telepacific. Guess what? Every time the circuit goes down, we have to wait for AT&T to come fix it, because they own most of the copper from here to the moon. And let me tell you, you get even worse service from AT&T when you aren't paying them directly...
You mean like the German ban of public display of the hakenkreuz?
Or streetbike plastics. Those things cost a bloody fortune to replace, and they're just molded ABS!
What do I tell people when asked what I do for a living? "Work with computers" or "IT department". Nobody really gives a crap about my "Computer Network Systems Engineering" degree. {------"IT Degree" is short for "I don't want to have to say that every time"
Also, IT books from 6 years ago are still entirely relevant. A lot of my coursework was in Server 2003 and Cisco IOS environments, of which there are still thousands upon thousands of installs out in the field. We still use a system written in BBX that was just recently moved off of a SCO Unix machine. Just because technology marches on doesn't mean knowledge becomes irrelevant. On the contrary, the older and more scarce a technology becomes, the more valuable that knowledge becomes. I hear California was looking for some COBOL programmers recently :)
I also have an IT degree (shocking here, i know), and I remember in one class we were to get the 6th edition of the book, but someone wound up with a 4th edition. It was almost the exact same book, word for word, except the chapters had been reordered and some of the chapter-end questions were different. It was one of the Server 2003 classes, and this was back in 2009. Not sure how they could justify 6 editions in almost as many years regarding relatively low-level OS operations...
I have nothing against digital books, but if they are going to be locked up on a single platform, ...
What, you mean like they were on their previous platform, paper?
Which is why they come out with a 'new' edition every couple of years, rendering the previous editions 'obsolete' and therefore worthless on the secondary market.
Death Valley is not the entire world, and it can get well below freezing there in the winter months. Using your example, one could also say that the world is a freezing cold place.
Earth is getting hotter
Why is that? getting warmer
Notice the subtle difference in wording? You used warm, which is what I would have chosen. They used hot. To me, the world is not a hot place. A toaster is hot. A flamethrower is hot. The planet Mercury is hot. The earth is, on average, a 'warm' place for us. Average temperatures may be increasing, but 'warm' and 'hot' are subjective terms that are best left out of factual reporting. As soon as you start using unquantifiable measurements such as these, you're just telling stories.
I just love how humans go about their lives thinking that we're the only thing holding this planet together, and that if we go extinct, time itself will go all taco-shaped and the universe will cease to exist. If we were truly a species worth saving, we'd be fixing this problem*, instead of bickering about whether or not it even exists, and who's to blame, and who's paying for it, and at what interest rate, and.... *assuming the rising temperatures are not natural, or a statistical blip.
Because due process is applied, and yes, you can be arrested and put in jail before being found guilty.
And then, unless you've been deemed an imminent threat of flight or danger to public safety, you may post bail and get out of jail until the question of guilt or innocence has been answered. In this situation, there is no option for megaupload to be 'bailed out' and continue operating until trial. The entire company has been effectively seized as evidence, and most likely will never operate again even if it is exonerated. To me, this is akin to the feds putting an entire business on a flatbed truck and hauling it off; chairs, tables, staplers and all.
How dare people drink their tap water!
You mean like in the toilet?
Yeah, I'm sure that the remainder of the U.S. would just let China or Russia to take over independent California and not lift a finger.
Or then again, maybe not.
Well, an attack on California would only make sense as a pretext for invading the rest of North America, sure. The remaining 49 states of America would most likely come to our defense, if for nothing more than their own self interests. But it still makes absolutely no sense for a nation, especially one that sits so close to Mexico's drug trade/violence, to have no means of effectively securing it's borders.
Except for the fact that California would be left completely defenseless against foreign aggression. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Uncle Sam won't let us keep all those shiny boats and planes after we break away. What's the cost of forming a new multi-branch fighting force from scratch these days? Not to mention the economic catastrophe that would occur to certain towns that rely on the newly abandoned local military base. And lets not get started on our replacements for SSI and medicare, importation of water and food from a now-foreign and probably a little butthurt country, maintaining security on the new 1000+ miles of border...
Sure we may not currently get back as much from the Feds as we send them, but the real benefit in sticking around is all the things that are already in place and paid for. Taking things for granted, like security and open borders between states, is foolish.
If you had nothing to do all day, you'd get bored soon enough.
There are other things to do with your time than work. Why not go see the world? It's a huge fascinating place that few these days get to see. If you had the time and finances to do it.. GO. Or, if you still feel locked into a life of servitude, why not volunteer your time? Go help out at a homeless shelter, plant some trees, spend time with the lonely elderly. If you no longer have to worry about you, go help out somebody else who isn't as fortunate, and be a decent human being.
I caught the tail end of it. My point was that after the fall of the USSR, the Russians certainly didn't refuse our western ways. Your comparison of Levis and Coke to Russian cars is a little flawed though. The Russians obviously wanted our goods well before they could obtain them, but who the hell wants a Volga?
McCarthyism was used to build support against the communists in a country that is somewhat influenced by its people. In countries that have a strong totalitarian grip on their subjects, such as Iran and North Korea, do the powers that be really need the thumbs up from the proles to engage in any hostilities? When you have a strong army and a total disregard of human rights, why would you care what some impoverished farmer thinks about your 'enemies'? He's more concerned about his own survival than your regime's.
How long before the people have a (renewed) hate of the USA?
It's not a step to a new cold war, but it disconcertingly similar to the behavior we saw then.
Did the Soviet "people" really hate the united states? Or just envy us. I don't remember seeing them burning pairs of Levi's or throwing cases of Coke into the harbor...
The same goes for pretty much every other country out there that 'hates' us too. Does the entire Iranian populace hate us? Do all the North Koreans hate us? Or is it just more convenient to believe that they do to make it easier when we start killing them...
Unfortunately, any sort of blackout would be cutting off the nose to spite the face, only this face never cared about the nose in the first place. If this things gains momentum, and sites like Google go dark in protest, the only people it hurts would be you and me. I use Google as an essential part of my daily job. If it's not available, it makes my life that much more difficult. If Google, or the entire internet for that matter, goes dark.. the politicians might not even know about it unless one of their assistants tells them. When corporations are waving truckloads of cash at you to further their agendas, who cares about whether or not some prole on the other side of the country can get his job done?
Protesting SOPA on the internet is not going to be effective. Protesting anything these days doesn't seem to be very effective. Unless you can disrupt their lives and sense of comfort, why should they do anything different? It's like walking past an angry dog chained to some immovable object. He can bark and threaten all he wants, but until the day he comes off that chain, you can do whatever you want without fear of any consequences.
If they had expected to run these units as long as they did, I'm sure they would have already put them on there. They only banked on ~90 days, so there was no perceived need for this kind of thing. Right now, they're running on extended bonus time.
Define your use of the word 'free' here. In this current economy, a company can most likely have your replacement on the job by the end of the week. You, however, may be out of work for a long, long time. It's like saying you're free to walk the plank, but I hope you can swim. And faster than the sharks.
I am so fucking tired of hearing how America is bullying the world into being forced into implementing legislation that is utterly flawed and is only there to serve the interests of the *AAs.
Yeah, me too. Because it's not "America" that's doing it. I'm American, my friends are American, and I don't know a single person who supports this. Please stop lumping all of my countrymen in with this small handful of scumbags who are raping the world. Building negative sentiment against an entire country over the actions of a few really isn't going to do anybody any favors.