"Gentleman, the bad news is that there isn't much more money to be made selling Internet hardware. Profit levels in Internet-related hardware are down 300% from 5 years ago.
The good news? We've just landed a top notch PR firm to help sell our message that we must upgrade and overhaul the whole infrastructure. We'll be monitoring the impact of this message over the next several months. If successful, we expect to see profit levels soar again within 3 years."
Last week, I could easily see my swimming pool in satellite photos that are publicly available on the Internet. That the crater is big enough to be seen with a satellite really isn't significant.
OK, so lets have people living in desperate poverty and walking the streets like in Tijuana. Sounds like a plan. I guess your idea of an effective anti-poverty program is child prostitution and drug running.
No one mentioned anything about whether people who did things intentionally should be punished more harshly than those who inflict harm unintentionally. It makes no sense for you to bring it up.
Bush is a fear mongerer. It's a central point in his campaign. He essentially says: "Vote for me if you want to stay safe." He is clearly using fear as a motivation for people to vote for him. You insinuate that only liberals use fear to motivate people. My point is that that is absurd.
By the way, contrast Bush to FDR who said in the face of a global war: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." FDR was a liberal and Bush is a conservative. Go figure.
However, the 16 year old drivers aren't trying to be bad drivers, they just are and always will be. We won't get rid of them.
Actually, getting rid of 16 year old drivers is far easier than getting rid of terrorists across the globe. Just set up checkpoints on every highway, raise the driving age to 21, and spend $150 billion dollars on the effort. You'd save a lot of lives that way.
And since when does intention determine whether or not a bad thing should be stopped? People who manufactured asbestos didn't mean to give thousands of people mesothelioma. Should they be allowed to continue the practice because they didn't intend to kill anyone? Your logic makes no sense.
I got a 1200 on my SAT and I did nothing but fuck off in high school. Never did homework, barely studied except to cram in the final minutes before a test. I also missed the maximum number of days before I would be forced to stay back a grade. I'm not proud of this but my point is that either:
a) George Bush was a fuck off like me OR b) George Bush studied harder than me but could only score marginally better.
Either way, the guy doesn't deserve to be President. And watch him during interviews and speeches. The guy obviously doesn't think well on his feet. Just about everything he utters is coached down to the syllable. It's one big reason he rarely has press conferences.
Strange you should use liberal causes in your examples. Because isn't the exploitation of fear precisely what conservative George Bush is doing? After all, only about 4,000 people died in the last 20 years from terroist attacks. Hell, that's a drop in the bucket compared to traffic accidents where probably about almost 1.5 million have been killed. Here we are turning the country upside down because of a handful of religious nuts when we've got killer machines right in our driveways. Why aren't we pulling out the stops to make roads and cars safer?
Fear is used by both sides, left and right. George Bush marched us off into a needless war based on those fears. This has resulted in many more dead people throughout the world. You are right, we have important decision to make on Nov. 2nd. Will we follow our fears, as George Bush hopes we will?
President Bush also has a very limited vocabulary. "Good", "evil," "black," "white," "good," "bad," "wrong," and "right." So give the guy a break. He simply doesn't have the mental tools to comprehend the complexities of many issues.
I suggest we pass a "No President Left Behind" act to help him around this problem. We can have him memorize flahscards with words and concepts like "grey," "neutrality," "compromise," "subtle," "multifaceted," and "uncertainty."
"Doing what you wish" is a measure of how much power you have. We all have power---some more than others. Some of our power is expressed as individuals and some of it is expressed through larger collective bodies (Congress, Town Council, markets, etc.).
That being said, the United States was founded on the principle that "All men are created 'equal'". That is, in theory, the government cannot give special privilege to one citizen over another. Of course, in practice, we fall far short of the ideal. People and organizations with money enjoy far more political power (read rights) than people without. And slavery was perfectly legal under our system.
It will be impossible to achieve a perfect political system. However, some systems are better than others. Personally, I think the system that distributes power as evenly as possible results in the happiest society. Systems, like the Soviet system, had too much power in the hands of the Communist Party members. Free Market capitalism gives too much power to markets/corporations. Personally, I think Social-Democracies have come the closest to achieving the greates amount of happiness for its citizens. However, it's likely that Social-Democracies--what the United States still is but not for much longer---will go the way of the dinosaur. I'm afraid the power of the more economically efficient, but less socially responsible, Free Market democracies will muscle Social-Democracies out.
Yeah, I guess I could pack my bags and move to Canada and solve the problem for myself. But I also have the option of trying to fix the problems within my own country. I choose the latter.
Yeah, but you could argue that he is not "selling" his idea to the person he responds to but to the wider Slashdot audience who is reading the posts. Let's face it, people like blood in sport so this kind of name calling can help win the approval of a good chunk of the audience. Appealing to emotion and courser instincts always trumps logic and reasoned debate, especially in this day and age.
Organizing a massive strike could not happen for the simple reason that you need someone to organize and lead it. Strikes don't happen spontaneously. All you need to do is squash the leadership of the strike and that'll be the end of it.
as a society I don't give a damn if my neighbor has health insurance.
Finally, someone who is willing to say the truth about what the philosophy of the right is: "Fuck everyone else! I've got mine!" The whole world is nothing but a giant rat race to them.
Sounds easy enough. But that advice is like saying "Go out and win the lottery! All your problems will be solved!" OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration but the fact is, most businesses fail. The odds are against start-ups. For every success story, there are 10 more stories of failure. We only hear about the success stories because no one likes to brag about failures (except from those who succeed and talk about how they learned from their previous failures).
I'm not saying people shouldn't take the risk. I am saying that you have to be more realistic with your advice. You should acknowledge that there are very big risks involved. Building a successful business takes a lot of time, talent, dedication, good connections and some luck. And money to at least pay the rent and feed yourself and your family during the initial launch phase of your efforts will also be needed. If you are missing any of these ingredients, you are going to be in rough shape. So starting your own business is hardly the be all and end all solution to getting out of your hated-but-paying-the-bills job.
Other than that, yeah, I agree. I have been running a very samll one-man business for myself for the last couple of years and I love it. But note that I still have to keep a part-time job (which fortunately has a very flexible schedule) while I grow it to make ends meet. It may take a few years more years but I'm doing my damndest to succeed because answering to some asshole or organizational structure you hate sucks. I can't deal with it.
This society has moved further and further away from the ideals rooted in the enlightenment of which valued knowledge for the sake of knowledge. We have high schools that train workers and colleges that prepare professionals for a career. Where is the read education these days? I guess what's considered best for society these days is what's supposedly best for the economy: a bunch of trained monkeys who produce junk for other trained monkeys to consume.
Well, I can't say what your stance is on p2p because you don't state what it is. I should hope that you think you shouldn't wipe out a communication technology only on the basis that it COULD be used to swap copyrighted material.
Gee, let's think about this for a 1/2 second. What's stopping me from plastering a billboard right on your front lawn for a miracle drug that cures cancer?
I can't do that because sometimes property rights and deceptive trade practices trump free speech rights. It's not a difficult concept. The two college kids want to take over your computer to pitch false claims at you. Damn straight that should be illegal.
Slashdot Mirror
"Gentleman, the bad news is that there isn't much more money to be made selling Internet hardware. Profit levels in Internet-related hardware are down 300% from 5 years ago.
The good news? We've just landed a top notch PR firm to help sell our message that we must upgrade and overhaul the whole infrastructure. We'll be monitoring the impact of this message over the next several months. If successful, we expect to see profit levels soar again within 3 years."
Last week, I could easily see my swimming pool in satellite photos that are publicly available on the Internet. That the crater is big enough to be seen with a satellite really isn't significant.
OK, so lets have people living in desperate poverty and walking the streets like in Tijuana. Sounds like a plan. I guess your idea of an effective anti-poverty program is child prostitution and drug running.
You don't want to pay taxes yet you want to reap all the benefits of a first world country. Sorry, you can't have both. Go try moving to Afghanistan.
I should have been less subtle with my point:
Training people on the dangers of pop-up ads is far down on the list of this societies educational priorities.
50% of American adults are unable to read a book at the eight-grade level. (Jonathan Kozol, Illiterate America, United Nations)
You want to do what, now?
When I got to that sentence, I did a double take. It now looks like we've got the best judicial system money can buy.
No one mentioned anything about whether people who did things intentionally should be punished more harshly than those who inflict harm unintentionally. It makes no sense for you to bring it up.
Bush is a fear mongerer. It's a central point in his campaign. He essentially says: "Vote for me if you want to stay safe." He is clearly using fear as a motivation for people to vote for him. You insinuate that only liberals use fear to motivate people. My point is that that is absurd.
By the way, contrast Bush to FDR who said in the face of a global war: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." FDR was a liberal and Bush is a conservative. Go figure.
Actually, getting rid of 16 year old drivers is far easier than getting rid of terrorists across the globe. Just set up checkpoints on every highway, raise the driving age to 21, and spend $150 billion dollars on the effort. You'd save a lot of lives that way.
And since when does intention determine whether or not a bad thing should be stopped? People who manufactured asbestos didn't mean to give thousands of people mesothelioma. Should they be allowed to continue the practice because they didn't intend to kill anyone? Your logic makes no sense.
I got a 1200 on my SAT and I did nothing but fuck off in high school. Never did homework, barely studied except to cram in the final minutes before a test. I also missed the maximum number of days before I would be forced to stay back a grade. I'm not proud of this but my point is that either:
a) George Bush was a fuck off like me OR
b) George Bush studied harder than me but could only score marginally better.
Either way, the guy doesn't deserve to be President. And watch him during interviews and speeches. The guy obviously doesn't think well on his feet. Just about everything he utters is coached down to the syllable. It's one big reason he rarely has press conferences.
Strange you should use liberal causes in your examples. Because isn't the exploitation of fear precisely what conservative George Bush is doing? After all, only about 4,000 people died in the last 20 years from terroist attacks. Hell, that's a drop in the bucket compared to traffic accidents where probably about almost 1.5 million have been killed. Here we are turning the country upside down because of a handful of religious nuts when we've got killer machines right in our driveways. Why aren't we pulling out the stops to make roads and cars safer?
Fear is used by both sides, left and right. George Bush marched us off into a needless war based on those fears. This has resulted in many more dead people throughout the world. You are right, we have important decision to make on Nov. 2nd. Will we follow our fears, as George Bush hopes we will?
I watch Fox all the time. And I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh before I just got tired of the same all ranting. I'm definitely a lefty, too.
Gotta dig #6. I fantasize making sweet love to her (when she turns 18) with nothing but that calculator watch on.
President Bush also has a very limited vocabulary. "Good", "evil," "black," "white," "good," "bad," "wrong," and "right." So give the guy a break. He simply doesn't have the mental tools to comprehend the complexities of many issues.
I suggest we pass a "No President Left Behind" act to help him around this problem. We can have him memorize flahscards with words and concepts like "grey," "neutrality," "compromise," "subtle," "multifaceted," and "uncertainty."
"Doing what you wish" is a measure of how much power you have. We all have power---some more than others. Some of our power is expressed as individuals and some of it is expressed through larger collective bodies (Congress, Town Council, markets, etc.).
That being said, the United States was founded on the principle that "All men are created 'equal'". That is, in theory, the government cannot give special privilege to one citizen over another. Of course, in practice, we fall far short of the ideal. People and organizations with money enjoy far more political power (read rights) than people without. And slavery was perfectly legal under our system.
It will be impossible to achieve a perfect political system. However, some systems are better than others. Personally, I think the system that distributes power as evenly as possible results in the happiest society. Systems, like the Soviet system, had too much power in the hands of the Communist Party members. Free Market capitalism gives too much power to markets/corporations. Personally, I think Social-Democracies have come the closest to achieving the greates amount of happiness for its citizens. However, it's likely that Social-Democracies--what the United States still is but not for much longer---will go the way of the dinosaur. I'm afraid the power of the more economically efficient, but less socially responsible, Free Market democracies will muscle Social-Democracies out.
Yeah, I guess I could pack my bags and move to Canada and solve the problem for myself. But I also have the option of trying to fix the problems within my own country. I choose the latter.
Yeah, but you could argue that he is not "selling" his idea to the person he responds to but to the wider Slashdot audience who is reading the posts. Let's face it, people like blood in sport so this kind of name calling can help win the approval of a good chunk of the audience. Appealing to emotion and courser instincts always trumps logic and reasoned debate, especially in this day and age.
Organizing a massive strike could not happen for the simple reason that you need someone to organize and lead it. Strikes don't happen spontaneously. All you need to do is squash the leadership of the strike and that'll be the end of it.
as a society I don't give a damn if my neighbor has health insurance.
Finally, someone who is willing to say the truth about what the philosophy of the right is: "Fuck everyone else! I've got mine!" The whole world is nothing but a giant rat race to them.
He bases part of his argument that Java is less popular than .NET by doing a Google fight between "java" and "net"???
Java can be a coffee or an island in the Indonesia. Net is a device to ensnare animals and is a verb as well.
And he cites a blog item from a Sun executive as proof that Java is back? Please. The article is nonsensical.
Sounds easy enough. But that advice is like saying "Go out and win the lottery! All your problems will be solved!" OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration but the fact is, most businesses fail. The odds are against start-ups. For every success story, there are 10 more stories of failure. We only hear about the success stories because no one likes to brag about failures (except from those who succeed and talk about how they learned from their previous failures).
I'm not saying people shouldn't take the risk. I am saying that you have to be more realistic with your advice. You should acknowledge that there are very big risks involved. Building a successful business takes a lot of time, talent, dedication, good connections and some luck. And money to at least pay the rent and feed yourself and your family during the initial launch phase of your efforts will also be needed. If you are missing any of these ingredients, you are going to be in rough shape. So starting your own business is hardly the be all and end all solution to getting out of your hated-but-paying-the-bills job.
Other than that, yeah, I agree. I have been running a very samll one-man business for myself for the last couple of years and I love it. But note that I still have to keep a part-time job (which fortunately has a very flexible schedule) while I grow it to make ends meet. It may take a few years more years but I'm doing my damndest to succeed because answering to some asshole or organizational structure you hate sucks. I can't deal with it.
I called and just got a message. But the phone is apparently on. It rang several times.
This society has moved further and further away from the ideals rooted in the enlightenment of which valued knowledge for the sake of knowledge. We have high schools that train workers and colleges that prepare professionals for a career. Where is the read education these days? I guess what's considered best for society these days is what's supposedly best for the economy: a bunch of trained monkeys who produce junk for other trained monkeys to consume.
Well, I can't say what your stance is on p2p because you don't state what it is. I should hope that you think you shouldn't wipe out a communication technology only on the basis that it COULD be used to swap copyrighted material.
Gee, let's think about this for a 1/2 second. What's stopping me from plastering a billboard right on your front lawn for a miracle drug that cures cancer?
I can't do that because sometimes property rights and deceptive trade practices trump free speech rights. It's not a difficult concept. The two college kids want to take over your computer to pitch false claims at you. Damn straight that should be illegal.