I bought a Mandrake CD set off of eBay about a year ago. After paying for and receiving it, I got an ebay notice that they had deleted his account and I did not have to pay for the CD set, as it was not legal for him to be distributing it.
It would be nice, except for the cost. I bet a 120 watt solar panel costs around AU$1000 in volume. Even in a sunny place you're going to want at the bare minimum 10 of those panels per kilowatt you need, so by the time you're done you're going to be spending $200,000 on solar panels to run your house.
Nice to know you pulled a nice round number out of your ass. I know a small CNC machine shop (think several large computerized cutting machines constantly running), complete with air con at 74 degrees and several computer workstations on 12+ hours per day that runs entirely off of solar. The whole system cost around $40,000 before tax rebates, if I remember right. During the summer months the meter actually rolls back (it's on the grid), so that the net electricity bill is essentially nill.
exactly my point.. people who discriminate based on "ive heard that name before" or "it looks pretty" go into the "unintelligent" category when it comes to purchasing habits.
So you think it's unintelligent to buy condoms partly based on brand name? I'd never buy condoms from a company I've never heard of before unless I saw some serious research on their reliability and they offered an increase in comfort/pleasure.
Partially true, but as quality starts to rapidly fall at both companies, they'll need much larger marketing teams to push the crappy products. Marketing could even become their largest expense, and marketing teams could certainly be consolidated, combined, and reduced. Even if they're contracting their marketing campaigns out, it's still less to be done.
You, sir, are trying to spin the facts to spread blasphemy and heresy. It is well documented throughout numerous sections of the bible that God Himself created the Moon, and that all things Moon-Related are God-Related. How can you state that light "just randomly emits" from the Moon? That the nuclear reactors which power this "just randomly work"? Clearly there is an intelligence far beyond us at work here. Only God could create something so massive with such powerful light-reflecting abilities, perfectly designed and positioned for the pleasure and needs of humanity! Imagine where we would be had God not made things so perfectly for us. All of the evidence points to one simple, logical, and divine solution: Intelligent Reflection.
Governments can always create more soldiers via conscription. If they lose officers, they're in a tough place, but cannon fodder is relatively cheap.
I suppose that was true in the 1800s. Today, lieutenants and captains are readily available. Everyone goes to college, and they're really not that hard to train. A lot of the skills that will make them good officers will be parts of their character that can't be changed by the military. Skilled enlisted personnel are very hard to come across. The pay sucks so intelligent people usually don't want to join. The jobs have become increasingly technical over the year, and some enlisted jobs take over three years to train for. The only American service consistently meeting their recruiting goals is the Air Force, and they've been kicking thousands of officers out due to officer overages.
I guess what I'm saying is that, while the military demands leadership and management skills from its officers, it demands many more skills which aren't in use in the civilian sector from its enlisted. They would hurt a lot by promoting officers faster and bringing many new ones in, but it'd grind to a halt if they lost a majority of their experienced enlisted folks. Sometimes officers just get in the way anyways.
I was just arguing with your points. I'll respond point-by-point to try to show you what I meant.
1) Shiver Metimbers made a clear indication, with full intention to deceive, that if the mark sent goods there was potential for financial gain. Degrees of audacity are irrelevant.
Would be legal in a police operation.
2) Shiver Metimbers did take material goods, instead of cash. Both have value. The mark's salary claims are irrelevant.
Which the police would have confiscated if they were involved in an operation.
3) Shiver Metimbers lied about being someone he isn't and he lied about a company which doesn't exist. So both of them are liars; that does not vindicate the lying of Shiver Metimbers.
Lying is a necessary for any undercover work. Also a requirement of a sting operation.
4) I don't know why anyone would defend Shiver Metimbers either. I am more interested in retaining a respectable level of morality, for example resisting the use of torture even when the bad guys use it, and resisting the suspension of civil liberties in times of adversity, even when the bad guys don't respect such things. You can't claim to be on the moral high ground if you're behaving no better than the bad guys.
Agreed, but they aren't talking about torture. They aren't talking about sending out millions of spam emails hoping to lure in a few gullible suckers and then extort them. They're talking about targeting the same individual with a tactic that will do little to harm him and is just a small waste of time and money compared to the scams he is still pulling off. Is it legal? Probably not. Is it moral? Maybe. But points 1-3 are essentially requirements to catch these guys.
He may have bad motives or you may see him as a vigilante, but he is using the exact same tactics the police would use. If the police did it, few would be questioning the morality of their actions. The only problem I see with this is that the scammer is still scamming. If there were as many people scamming the scammers as there are scamming, it would not be a good profession to be in. This seems to be a requirement since international law enforcement tends to be a bit on the non-existant side.
And if he was a cop this would be a perfectly valid sting operaton. The only differences is that he made scamming less profitable and failed to directly shut them down.
"Overfuckingrated" is the only DOWNMOD that applies to your OVERLY RATED post. 2 is way too high for the worthless read. It is now, and should be, a "1". Troll, Flamebait, and Offtopic aren't appropriate. "Overfuckingrated" is, so shutup and deal with it. Not that we want asshats like you on slashdot anyways. Go back to hugging your pillow in room 36-387.
has anyone besides me noticed the preponderance of "Funny" posts? I suspect that that is a symptom as well: Having nothing to contribute, and not being willing to take some time to at least learn something about the matter at hand, and then perhaps contribute, but nonetheless feeling the need to say something, they go for the "easy post", which is to say something that others of their ilk will find amusing.
Yeah?! Well, in Soviet Russia, Funny posts post YOU!
which were based upon the idea that true nerds appreciate truth in all matters, first, regardless, and would use their moderation privileges accordingly... The day of the Nerd has passed, at least, in the sense that we knew it, back in the day when it took some knowledge to get online, back when the 'Net was new, and the people you met there were smart and knowlegeable, because it took that, to get here in the first place. Back when there were mostly only nerds online, and knowledge was passed, because we could, to help each other, and a lack of knowledge on the part of one person was considered something correctable, and not a character flaw.[1]
Thanks, you made me cry. Good going. While I agree with what you said, I think the increased funny posts also comes from a society that needs a distraction. Life is getting shittier, busier, and more depressing for a lot of people these days. Most people I know work their asses off simply because they have to. Not that it matters when they don't have any time to be with their families or enjoy the fruits of their labor. Comedy is necessary at this point. Although I have noticed the quality of the jokes slowly degrading from intelligent puns, parodies, and satires to "in soviet russia" jokes.
Sadly, with the popularization of the computer, the coolification of nerds/hackers in mass media, and the spread of cheap, pre-configured computers and internet access "nerd" status has become desirable. Computer skills are as cool as nunchuck skills and everyone must have a MySpace account. If you know how to change your profile from the default layout and add in videos and music you're now computer-cool.
Sorry, I'll stop ranting at this point, but I think you're spot on. There's little that can be done because it's a problem with the culture and user base. I wouldn't mind seeing a moderation test, where people have to correctly answer what a comment should be moderated (in context) prior to being eligible to moderate.
You don't need to subscribe to a telephone company's plans to maintain 911 service on the phone line in your house. What will really get you is having only wireless phones!
Thank you. That's the same reason I was posting on fidonet, BBSing, etc. Hell, my parents never would've given me an AOL account, so I found some credit card # generators and trial offer number generators and went to town. I had free AOL for a long time, undetected by my parents. I think I talked to a couple of cops who thought I was a child molestor, since I would say things like "12 year old boy looking for girl about the same age", but hey, I was smart enough not to tell some random predator to pick me up at midnight while my parents were sleeping.
Did I do some illegal and irresponsible things as a child? Hell yes. Who didn't? I've made mistakes and learned from them, and my parents were always able to give me guidance to help me learn how to arrive at the right decision. Isn't that what parenting is supposed to be about?
Back on topic, though, due to the disparity in computer literacy the internet really is the only place a child can hide from their parents (and most adults) and express themselves. Perhaps the modern generation of emo bloggers posting nude pictures of themselves and giving daily accounts of their emotions, bowel movements, and sexual fantasies will result in a more free and open society. It's certain to have a profound effect on society as these things become the norm. I just wish MySpace would encourage proper spelling.
if a fat kid trying to paddle a canoe becomes the next viral video...
That actually sounds extremely entertaining. Any idea where I could find such a video? If I can't find one I'll just have to rent a canoe and pay some fat kid to do it, and staged videos just aren't as funny...
One means of protecting your kids from this trick is to discuss this possibility with them ahead of time. Then come up with a passphrase for strangers to use if they really are supposed to pick up the kids. It's what my parents did for me and my brother.
My parents did that too. It was "hey kid, want some candy?" We only had to use it a few times, but the strangers always got me home afterwards... Come to think of it, my parents really were looking out for my best interests, even if they seemed disappointed every time I came home.
Interesting note: if human population grew at 2% per year, and we were able to make use of all resources on all planets withing a sphere that grew at the speed of light starting today, we'd still exhaust all available resources within 1000 years or so (assuming the solar system isn't that unusual in our part of the galaxy). Exponential growth is really unsustainable. Since people seem to stop having a lot of kids once they become an economic negative, instead of a positive, for the family that looks like it won't be a problem, however.
Luckily humans are better than that (although not due to conscious thought about the matter). As we colonized other planets, Earth itself would have very little population growth, but the outer colonies would experience rapid growth until saturation. Until that bloody Earth-Mars war begins...
I think it's because they finally realized that after their (what is it now, 5 years?) of developing Longhorn, with all the features they're leaving out,NO ONE CARES ABOUT VISTA
I was looking forward to having Chess Titans on my work computer, you insensitive clod!
The only real issue is that it's hard to compare "Iraq War" and "Public Domain" as talking points, so it's hard to use it to drive votes.
Right, because that argument has worked very well for the democrats in the last couple elections... I guess you haven't figured this out yet, either, but the democratic party is not going to win over the majority of Americans by yelling "you suck!" over and over and spouting the same rhetoric about war. It didn't work. It's not working. It's not going to work. It doesn't really matter if they're right or not, it's how they're perceived.
The Pirate Party might be able to get a lot of people to vote who wouldn't bother otherwise. If a party got every non-voter to vote for them, they'd win an election. More importantly, if a party (like the Green party) starts to become a serious player and attracts a lot of votes, politicians will try to cater to that cause to get the votes back.
Let's play flip-the-words. "Fuck you non-Americans are celebately intelligent". I'd say that implies some naivete, but neither statement really shows much meaning...
Maybe if you had a better education you would be able to say "Golly, Americans really don't seem to study basic grammar or spelling these days. I wonder if it's because they're too busy having sex with their sisters. They're probably just focusing their efforts on more important pursuits such as logic, science, math, and self-expression."
Of course the truth is that the average American is less educated about the world and their language today than they should be. Butt spelling duznt rilly mattur iff peepole kan under stand wut you r saying.
I got an email from some brits telling me to chage a dialog box in the app my co makes which included the phrase "You will loose data". At fist I thought it was a typo, but it seems like brits spell all sorts of words wrong.
Unless you were talking about letting data loose on the world, they were right to say it should not be "loose". "Lose" refers to being unable to retain something. "Loose" means unfettered, relaxed, or easy.
If a brit gives you crap about spelling "lose" and "loose" by the American standards, remind him that more people speak american english than british english, then tell him to bugger off or something. I'm too tired to be consistent in my capitalization tonight...
Would we run into this same problem if someone created a "violent" video game that was based on the bible?
We'll find out when Left Behind: Eternal Forces is released next Christmas. They promise to allow players to "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world."
Their site also boasts that they'll likely receive an "E" or "T" rating. Of course the game will allow them to brutally murder or force the conversion of non-believers and heretics. Basically they're getting their own GTA, only it's a lot scarier because they actually believe and look forward to it.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks. I'm glad this got modded informative, it's definitely something I never knew.
Maybe he was charging extra for the source?
My apologies. 40,000 USD. That's about 53,000 AUD last I saw.
Nice to know you pulled a nice round number out of your ass. I know a small CNC machine shop (think several large computerized cutting machines constantly running), complete with air con at 74 degrees and several computer workstations on 12+ hours per day that runs entirely off of solar. The whole system cost around $40,000 before tax rebates, if I remember right. During the summer months the meter actually rolls back (it's on the grid), so that the net electricity bill is essentially nill.
So you think it's unintelligent to buy condoms partly based on brand name? I'd never buy condoms from a company I've never heard of before unless I saw some serious research on their reliability and they offered an increase in comfort/pleasure.
Partially true, but as quality starts to rapidly fall at both companies, they'll need much larger marketing teams to push the crappy products. Marketing could even become their largest expense, and marketing teams could certainly be consolidated, combined, and reduced. Even if they're contracting their marketing campaigns out, it's still less to be done.
You, sir, are trying to spin the facts to spread blasphemy and heresy. It is well documented throughout numerous sections of the bible that God Himself created the Moon, and that all things Moon-Related are God-Related. How can you state that light "just randomly emits" from the Moon? That the nuclear reactors which power this "just randomly work"? Clearly there is an intelligence far beyond us at work here. Only God could create something so massive with such powerful light-reflecting abilities, perfectly designed and positioned for the pleasure and needs of humanity! Imagine where we would be had God not made things so perfectly for us. All of the evidence points to one simple, logical, and divine solution: Intelligent Reflection.
I suppose that was true in the 1800s. Today, lieutenants and captains are readily available. Everyone goes to college, and they're really not that hard to train. A lot of the skills that will make them good officers will be parts of their character that can't be changed by the military. Skilled enlisted personnel are very hard to come across. The pay sucks so intelligent people usually don't want to join. The jobs have become increasingly technical over the year, and some enlisted jobs take over three years to train for. The only American service consistently meeting their recruiting goals is the Air Force, and they've been kicking thousands of officers out due to officer overages.
I guess what I'm saying is that, while the military demands leadership and management skills from its officers, it demands many more skills which aren't in use in the civilian sector from its enlisted. They would hurt a lot by promoting officers faster and bringing many new ones in, but it'd grind to a halt if they lost a majority of their experienced enlisted folks. Sometimes officers just get in the way anyways.
Would be legal in a police operation.
Which the police would have confiscated if they were involved in an operation.
Lying is a necessary for any undercover work. Also a requirement of a sting operation.
Agreed, but they aren't talking about torture. They aren't talking about sending out millions of spam emails hoping to lure in a few gullible suckers and then extort them. They're talking about targeting the same individual with a tactic that will do little to harm him and is just a small waste of time and money compared to the scams he is still pulling off. Is it legal? Probably not. Is it moral? Maybe. But points 1-3 are essentially requirements to catch these guys.
He may have bad motives or you may see him as a vigilante, but he is using the exact same tactics the police would use. If the police did it, few would be questioning the morality of their actions. The only problem I see with this is that the scammer is still scamming. If there were as many people scamming the scammers as there are scamming, it would not be a good profession to be in. This seems to be a requirement since international law enforcement tends to be a bit on the non-existant side.
And if he was a cop this would be a perfectly valid sting operaton. The only differences is that he made scamming less profitable and failed to directly shut them down.
"Overfuckingrated" is the only DOWNMOD that applies to your OVERLY RATED post. 2 is way too high for the worthless read. It is now, and should be, a "1". Troll, Flamebait, and Offtopic aren't appropriate. "Overfuckingrated" is, so shutup and deal with it. Not that we want asshats like you on slashdot anyways. Go back to hugging your pillow in room 36-387.
Yeah?! Well, in Soviet Russia, Funny posts post YOU!
Thanks, you made me cry. Good going. While I agree with what you said, I think the increased funny posts also comes from a society that needs a distraction. Life is getting shittier, busier, and more depressing for a lot of people these days. Most people I know work their asses off simply because they have to. Not that it matters when they don't have any time to be with their families or enjoy the fruits of their labor. Comedy is necessary at this point. Although I have noticed the quality of the jokes slowly degrading from intelligent puns, parodies, and satires to "in soviet russia" jokes.
Sadly, with the popularization of the computer, the coolification of nerds/hackers in mass media, and the spread of cheap, pre-configured computers and internet access "nerd" status has become desirable. Computer skills are as cool as nunchuck skills and everyone must have a MySpace account. If you know how to change your profile from the default layout and add in videos and music you're now computer-cool.
Sorry, I'll stop ranting at this point, but I think you're spot on. There's little that can be done because it's a problem with the culture and user base. I wouldn't mind seeing a moderation test, where people have to correctly answer what a comment should be moderated (in context) prior to being eligible to moderate.
You don't need to subscribe to a telephone company's plans to maintain 911 service on the phone line in your house. What will really get you is having only wireless phones!
Thank you. That's the same reason I was posting on fidonet, BBSing, etc. Hell, my parents never would've given me an AOL account, so I found some credit card # generators and trial offer number generators and went to town. I had free AOL for a long time, undetected by my parents. I think I talked to a couple of cops who thought I was a child molestor, since I would say things like "12 year old boy looking for girl about the same age", but hey, I was smart enough not to tell some random predator to pick me up at midnight while my parents were sleeping.
Did I do some illegal and irresponsible things as a child? Hell yes. Who didn't? I've made mistakes and learned from them, and my parents were always able to give me guidance to help me learn how to arrive at the right decision. Isn't that what parenting is supposed to be about?
Back on topic, though, due to the disparity in computer literacy the internet really is the only place a child can hide from their parents (and most adults) and express themselves. Perhaps the modern generation of emo bloggers posting nude pictures of themselves and giving daily accounts of their emotions, bowel movements, and sexual fantasies will result in a more free and open society. It's certain to have a profound effect on society as these things become the norm. I just wish MySpace would encourage proper spelling.
That actually sounds extremely entertaining. Any idea where I could find such a video? If I can't find one I'll just have to rent a canoe and pay some fat kid to do it, and staged videos just aren't as funny...
My parents did that too. It was "hey kid, want some candy?" We only had to use it a few times, but the strangers always got me home afterwards... Come to think of it, my parents really were looking out for my best interests, even if they seemed disappointed every time I came home.
Luckily humans are better than that (although not due to conscious thought about the matter). As we colonized other planets, Earth itself would have very little population growth, but the outer colonies would experience rapid growth until saturation. Until that bloody Earth-Mars war begins...
I was looking forward to having Chess Titans on my work computer, you insensitive clod!
Right, because that argument has worked very well for the democrats in the last couple elections... I guess you haven't figured this out yet, either, but the democratic party is not going to win over the majority of Americans by yelling "you suck!" over and over and spouting the same rhetoric about war. It didn't work. It's not working. It's not going to work. It doesn't really matter if they're right or not, it's how they're perceived.
The Pirate Party might be able to get a lot of people to vote who wouldn't bother otherwise. If a party got every non-voter to vote for them, they'd win an election. More importantly, if a party (like the Green party) starts to become a serious player and attracts a lot of votes, politicians will try to cater to that cause to get the votes back.
Yeah! We could use it as a cheap alternative for diamonds in rings, and it'll even cut glass so nobody will be able to tell it's fake!
Sure, with your wife. But the sex with your girlfriends only gets better!
I'm abusive and mean spirited, you insensitive clod!
As opposed to celebately intelligent?
Let's play flip-the-words. "Fuck you non-Americans are celebately intelligent". I'd say that implies some naivete, but neither statement really shows much meaning...
Maybe if you had a better education you would be able to say "Golly, Americans really don't seem to study basic grammar or spelling these days. I wonder if it's because they're too busy having sex with their sisters. They're probably just focusing their efforts on more important pursuits such as logic, science, math, and self-expression."
Of course the truth is that the average American is less educated about the world and their language today than they should be. Butt spelling duznt rilly mattur iff peepole kan under stand wut you r saying.
Unless you were talking about letting data loose on the world, they were right to say it should not be "loose". "Lose" refers to being unable to retain something. "Loose" means unfettered, relaxed, or easy.
If a brit gives you crap about spelling "lose" and "loose" by the American standards, remind him that more people speak american english than british english, then tell him to bugger off or something. I'm too tired to be consistent in my capitalization tonight...
We'll find out when Left Behind: Eternal Forces is released next Christmas. They promise to allow players to "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world."
Their site also boasts that they'll likely receive an "E" or "T" rating. Of course the game will allow them to brutally murder or force the conversion of non-believers and heretics. Basically they're getting their own GTA, only it's a lot scarier because they actually believe and look forward to it.