I question your motivation for reconnecting. If you haven't seen her in years and don't know her phone number, do you really care that this person exists?
I think Facebook attempts to push the bar about whether or not you care about people who you consider "friends" to all-time low levels.
Use your dollars. Promote artists who will let you own the digital bits. I have dabbled in writing science fiction, and gladly distribute my stories with Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/No Derivatives. As a consumer of media, that's effectively a license to let you make as many copies as you want and share them with all your friends.
If enough people like you give enough people like me your $10 instead of blowing it at the movie theaters, the future of media entertainment will start looking a lot different.
I understand why you're ragging on National Defense, but the U.S. Senate doesn't pay it's elected employees very much. I believe it's under $200k for each of the 100 Senators (so, like $20M for the whole organization). I don't think you could name any other organization operating in all fifty states that manages to function on such a small budget.
I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for Computer/Systems Engineering. We had (a few, not all) classes where the defined grading schemes were (a) the top 33% of the class gets an A, (b) the middle 33% of the class gets a B, (c) the bottom 33% of the class gets a C, D, or F (as determined by the relative curve of the overall course).
There was no notion of the basic concept that 90% earns you an A. Actually, I take that back. If more than 33% of the class scored 90% on the course material, they'd get their A's. However, there were some very hard courses and I don't recall whether this actually happened.
On the other hand, Rensselaer produces engineers who aren't necessarily targeting grad school and the difference between a 2.7 GPA student and a 3.8 GPA student are important to top employers who hire their graduates.
Maybe the graduate schools that Harvard undergrads end up going to can tolerate the students who would be 2.7 GPA at more rigorous universities, so Harvard has no reason not to inflate their grades up to a 3.8 GPA (and let them graduate with Fake Honors).
We had to sit through an orientation seminar on plagiarism, which seemed to be directed specifically at international students
I've heard American professors who were attempting to partner with Chinese colleges and American outsourcing firms say that the greatest challenge was that students #1 priority over there is getting the right answer. They have no ethical issues with copying it from their neighbors or pasting it from the Internet. As long as they get the answer (and the answer is right) things are dandy for them.
The idea of "figuring out the answer on your own" seems to be a Western notion that is related to the drive of capitalism.
Of course, with China employing increasingly capitalistic business practices, maybe things will be different in a decade.
Please learn some basic reading comprehension. The part you quoted can be restated, "if Something Terrible is allowed to Occur, then Do Damage Control to Prevent it from Being Catastrophic". It wasn't presented as an alternative. It was presented as a companion action.
I thank you for otherwise agreeing that Paid Prioritization is disagreeable.
The Internet is not a Mall. Sure, there are stores. Sure, there are ads for anything you can think of plastered everywhere. Sure, it's an anonymous place with crowds of people you don't actually know.
But the Internet is not a Mall.
It transcends the status of a basic retail venue. The Internet is a place where information (and occasionally knowledge) is stored. The Internet is an international forum. The Internet is an academic cornucopia. The Internet is the Great Library of Alexandria for the 21st Cenutry.
If AT&T demands the right to tax access to the Great Library, I demand that AT&T offer to sell all of its shares to the United States government for $0.01 so that there's public control about how those additional tax revenues are spent. Failing to hand over the keys to the castle to the public, AT&T can go pound sand. They ought *not* to be the arbiter of who gets access to what for which price.
There's a tipping point where the technology becomes mature enough for the Congress to understand. I'm not familiar with the energy business, but I'd assume that before it was as tightly regulated as it is today, that it was the wild west. Something similar happened with land-line telephones in 1984, and it's probably for the best that Congress split up AT&T in the process of regulating those systems.
Now, we've got the Internet. Multiple companies (Comcast or Cox?) operate multiple technologies (Cable or FiOS?). I think Congress understands that they don't know what's best. Regional monopolies? Municipal Broadband? Free competition? It's possible that one clear "winner" would emerge if pure private competition were allowed, and it's possible that this "winner" would not be the company which us geeks would prefer. At the very least, we should be glad that Congress is preventing a single company with truly evil practices from taking control of the market.
My guess is that Congress will legislate Net Neutrality in the near future, and then real Internet Service Regulation will begin in the next decade. That would include price controls. If we're lucky, it will also hopefully mandate a level of "free" service (probably 1Mbps) so people who ditch their TVs can get local broadcasting, government information, communication services, and emergency notifications w/o a monthly bill.
And according to you... would people who author blogs are be employees of the Google Corporation? After all... AdWords is paying them! For an article where so many say, "Use Common Sense", I find your witty retort to be particularly dim.
My state (Massachusetts) charges $500 in fees for setting up a business and $500 annually to handle the cost of processing the annual business report that you need to file with the state to continue existing as a business. I don't actually run a business, so I don't know the nitty-gritty details. $100-300 seems more responsible, but anything under $1-10k shouldn't really make a dent if you're running a successful business in the first place.
Also, I keep an informal blog that isn't ad supported -- it costs me money to run. If I were a Philly resident, would I be expected to get a business licence for that?
IANAL, but I don't think you'd be required to get a business license for your blog since you're not earning money. Hopefully the people you're paying for your hosting account have a business license, though!
However, since you aren't a business, you won't qualify for any upcoming "Blogger Bailouts" to stimulate the Blogosphere after the upcoming Internet Opinion Recession begins.
Google ads: Ads are non-intrusive & easily blocked by ad blockers. Cost to me to put them up: $0.00. Hey, $50 is $50!
There's the rub! The government in PA is saying that the cost to establish yourself as an internet advertizing platform is $300! In this example, $50 income is a net loss of $250. If you want to blog anyway... at least in PA... you'd be best served taking down the ads.
I'm not sure where the pulse of Slashdot will fall for this one... but I'd side with those in the government on this one that the business license is appropriate for bloggers in the state who have income as the result of their blogs.
AdBlock or not... the internet doesn't need 20 million people earning $50/year through Google AdWords and similar advertising platforms.
Though, I say this as somebody who happily publishes an ad-free blog. There's no need for my friends to AdBlock on my site!
Since when has PT, $1/month blogging become a business!?
When money is exchanged for goods/services on a regular basis, a business is being run.
Blogging is a cottage industry. It makes no difference whether the blogger is successful or not, they're running a business if they make agreements to accept money for advertisements to appear on their sites.
Thank you for noting that you're the Devil's Advocate! I'll suggest an alternative solution!
Next time these hikers request help (rescue call #3 and beyond)... respond, but move their request to the bottom of the queue with a super-low priority.
I seems absurd that one can operate a webpage that serves advertisements that don't generate enough review to afford basic cost-of-business fees.
If I sold cupcakes from my kitchen, but only earned $50/year... I may not stop making cupcakes but I'd throw in the towel pretending that I'm operating a business.
To bloggers who make a pittance serving ads on their blogs... TAKE THOSE ADS DOWN!
I imagine that dispatching a helicopter "for the second time" gives the emergency responders one opportunity to say, "Don't waste our time", and one opportunity to say, "We're done with you, so be fairly warned that we aren't going to respond to you anymore".
Thus, after fraudulent rescue cry number two it's possible for the in-over-their-heads hikers to say, "Give us a lift out of here so we can find a safer, more comfortable trail".
Then again... call *me* crazy. I pay attention to things like posted warning signs and having the recommended supplies to ensure I won't get dehydrated when I go camping.
no matter how insignificant the event called it was.
This is a classic "Boy who cried wolf" problem. During an emergency, responders need to take calls seriously unless there is overwhelming evidence that the call is a prank. After the second time the Grand Canyon SatPhone hikers pushed their emergency button, I think they ought to be put in the "sorry, you're on your own from here on out" category, giving bears uninterrupted access to eat their faces.
I recently wrote a short fictional story about an imagined "space tourism" business where commercial vessels fly up into LEO for the purposes of "fishing" for debris satellites that are floating around up there. Link is here
Any chance this may become a reality in 10-20 years?
Even if the codebase officially known as MySQL withers on the vine, there's still at least 2 forks I can think of that are viable.
Are they "Drizzle" and "MariaDB"? I don't recall this being well publicized, but these are the ones that pop up at the top of a Google search for "MySQL fork".
Facebook pages don't create and maintain themselves
If only the Author knew someone who was good at writing they could do that part themselves
An author who takes the time to maintain an advertising push on Facebook is going to be taking a significant amount of time away from writing his next manuscript. Benefits of specialization would direct the author away from doing his own publicity. On the other hand, he could hire somebody and pay then for a few months to create buzz.
The main point is that something that seems obvious for you might be the wrong tactic for somebody else who has different ways of valuing their own time/efforts.
Could you share the story that made you bitter towards the publishing industry? I'm working on a book that I will eventually be pushing through Amazon's POD BookSurge service. I think many of the readers on Slashdot would appreciate your anecdotal evidence that the traditional publishers are jerks.
Slashdot Mirror
if I haven't seen her for a few years
I question your motivation for reconnecting. If you haven't seen her in years and don't know her phone number, do you really care that this person exists?
I think Facebook attempts to push the bar about whether or not you care about people who you consider "friends" to all-time low levels.
I will own nothing.
Use your dollars. Promote artists who will let you own the digital bits. I have dabbled in writing science fiction, and gladly distribute my stories with Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/No Derivatives. As a consumer of media, that's effectively a license to let you make as many copies as you want and share them with all your friends.
If enough people like you give enough people like me your $10 instead of blowing it at the movie theaters, the future of media entertainment will start looking a lot different.
I understand why you're ragging on National Defense, but the U.S. Senate doesn't pay it's elected employees very much. I believe it's under $200k for each of the 100 Senators (so, like $20M for the whole organization). I don't think you could name any other organization operating in all fifty states that manages to function on such a small budget.
Start with Ubuntu. If you don't know what version you want to run, then Ubuntu is probably the version you want to run.
I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for Computer/Systems Engineering. We had (a few, not all) classes where the defined grading schemes were (a) the top 33% of the class gets an A, (b) the middle 33% of the class gets a B, (c) the bottom 33% of the class gets a C, D, or F (as determined by the relative curve of the overall course).
There was no notion of the basic concept that 90% earns you an A. Actually, I take that back. If more than 33% of the class scored 90% on the course material, they'd get their A's. However, there were some very hard courses and I don't recall whether this actually happened.
On the other hand, Rensselaer produces engineers who aren't necessarily targeting grad school and the difference between a 2.7 GPA student and a 3.8 GPA student are important to top employers who hire their graduates.
Maybe the graduate schools that Harvard undergrads end up going to can tolerate the students who would be 2.7 GPA at more rigorous universities, so Harvard has no reason not to inflate their grades up to a 3.8 GPA (and let them graduate with Fake Honors).
We had to sit through an orientation seminar on plagiarism, which seemed to be directed specifically at international students
I've heard American professors who were attempting to partner with Chinese colleges and American outsourcing firms say that the greatest challenge was that students #1 priority over there is getting the right answer. They have no ethical issues with copying it from their neighbors or pasting it from the Internet. As long as they get the answer (and the answer is right) things are dandy for them.
The idea of "figuring out the answer on your own" seems to be a Western notion that is related to the drive of capitalism.
Of course, with China employing increasingly capitalistic business practices, maybe things will be different in a decade.
and a few stranglers might show up only to find out there's no exam.
How very disappointing for the stranglers. I'm assuming they were hired to deal with the cheaters?
Writing comprehension must be one of the subjects at Harvard that doesn't require a final exam. =)
I'm the GP who he responded to. His analogy is better than mine.
Oh shut up you idiot.
Please learn some basic reading comprehension. The part you quoted can be restated, "if Something Terrible is allowed to Occur, then Do Damage Control to Prevent it from Being Catastrophic". It wasn't presented as an alternative. It was presented as a companion action.
I thank you for otherwise agreeing that Paid Prioritization is disagreeable.
The Internet is not a Mall. Sure, there are stores. Sure, there are ads for anything you can think of plastered everywhere. Sure, it's an anonymous place with crowds of people you don't actually know.
But the Internet is not a Mall.
It transcends the status of a basic retail venue. The Internet is a place where information (and occasionally knowledge) is stored. The Internet is an international forum. The Internet is an academic cornucopia. The Internet is the Great Library of Alexandria for the 21st Cenutry.
If AT&T demands the right to tax access to the Great Library, I demand that AT&T offer to sell all of its shares to the United States government for $0.01 so that there's public control about how those additional tax revenues are spent. Failing to hand over the keys to the castle to the public, AT&T can go pound sand. They ought *not* to be the arbiter of who gets access to what for which price.
There's a tipping point where the technology becomes mature enough for the Congress to understand. I'm not familiar with the energy business, but I'd assume that before it was as tightly regulated as it is today, that it was the wild west. Something similar happened with land-line telephones in 1984, and it's probably for the best that Congress split up AT&T in the process of regulating those systems.
Now, we've got the Internet. Multiple companies (Comcast or Cox?) operate multiple technologies (Cable or FiOS?). I think Congress understands that they don't know what's best. Regional monopolies? Municipal Broadband? Free competition? It's possible that one clear "winner" would emerge if pure private competition were allowed, and it's possible that this "winner" would not be the company which us geeks would prefer. At the very least, we should be glad that Congress is preventing a single company with truly evil practices from taking control of the market.
My guess is that Congress will legislate Net Neutrality in the near future, and then real Internet Service Regulation will begin in the next decade. That would include price controls. If we're lucky, it will also hopefully mandate a level of "free" service (probably 1Mbps) so people who ditch their TVs can get local broadcasting, government information, communication services, and emergency notifications w/o a monthly bill.
And according to you... would people who author blogs are be employees of the Google Corporation? After all... AdWords is paying them! For an article where so many say, "Use Common Sense", I find your witty retort to be particularly dim.
My state (Massachusetts) charges $500 in fees for setting up a business and $500 annually to handle the cost of processing the annual business report that you need to file with the state to continue existing as a business. I don't actually run a business, so I don't know the nitty-gritty details. $100-300 seems more responsible, but anything under $1-10k shouldn't really make a dent if you're running a successful business in the first place.
Also, I keep an informal blog that isn't ad supported -- it costs me money to run. If I were a Philly resident, would I be expected to get a business licence for that?
IANAL, but I don't think you'd be required to get a business license for your blog since you're not earning money. Hopefully the people you're paying for your hosting account have a business license, though!
However, since you aren't a business, you won't qualify for any upcoming "Blogger Bailouts" to stimulate the Blogosphere after the upcoming Internet Opinion Recession begins.
Google ads: Ads are non-intrusive & easily blocked by ad blockers. Cost to me to put them up: $0.00. Hey, $50 is $50!
There's the rub! The government in PA is saying that the cost to establish yourself as an internet advertizing platform is $300! In this example, $50 income is a net loss of $250. If you want to blog anyway... at least in PA... you'd be best served taking down the ads.
I'm not sure where the pulse of Slashdot will fall for this one... but I'd side with those in the government on this one that the business license is appropriate for bloggers in the state who have income as the result of their blogs.
AdBlock or not... the internet doesn't need 20 million people earning $50/year through Google AdWords and similar advertising platforms.
Though, I say this as somebody who happily publishes an ad-free blog. There's no need for my friends to AdBlock on my site!
Since when has PT, $1/month blogging become a business!?
When money is exchanged for goods/services on a regular basis, a business is being run.
Blogging is a cottage industry. It makes no difference whether the blogger is successful or not, they're running a business if they make agreements to accept money for advertisements to appear on their sites.
Thank you for noting that you're the Devil's Advocate! I'll suggest an alternative solution!
Next time these hikers request help (rescue call #3 and beyond)... respond, but move their request to the bottom of the queue with a super-low priority.
I seems absurd that one can operate a webpage that serves advertisements that don't generate enough review to afford basic cost-of-business fees.
If I sold cupcakes from my kitchen, but only earned $50/year... I may not stop making cupcakes but I'd throw in the towel pretending that I'm operating a business.
To bloggers who make a pittance serving ads on their blogs... TAKE THOSE ADS DOWN!
I imagine that dispatching a helicopter "for the second time" gives the emergency responders one opportunity to say, "Don't waste our time", and one opportunity to say, "We're done with you, so be fairly warned that we aren't going to respond to you anymore".
Thus, after fraudulent rescue cry number two it's possible for the in-over-their-heads hikers to say, "Give us a lift out of here so we can find a safer, more comfortable trail".
Then again... call *me* crazy. I pay attention to things like posted warning signs and having the recommended supplies to ensure I won't get dehydrated when I go camping.
America caused it's own economic collapse, thankyouverymuch. It didn't need help from the Taliban.
no matter how insignificant the event called it was.
This is a classic "Boy who cried wolf" problem. During an emergency, responders need to take calls seriously unless there is overwhelming evidence that the call is a prank. After the second time the Grand Canyon SatPhone hikers pushed their emergency button, I think they ought to be put in the "sorry, you're on your own from here on out" category, giving bears uninterrupted access to eat their faces.
I recently wrote a short fictional story about an imagined "space tourism" business where commercial vessels fly up into LEO for the purposes of "fishing" for debris satellites that are floating around up there. Link is here
Any chance this may become a reality in 10-20 years?
Even if the codebase officially known as MySQL withers on the vine, there's still at least 2 forks I can think of that are viable.
Are they "Drizzle" and "MariaDB"? I don't recall this being well publicized, but these are the ones that pop up at the top of a Google search for "MySQL fork".
Facebook pages don't create and maintain themselves
If only the Author knew someone who was good at writing they could do that part themselves
An author who takes the time to maintain an advertising push on Facebook is going to be taking a significant amount of time away from writing his next manuscript. Benefits of specialization would direct the author away from doing his own publicity. On the other hand, he could hire somebody and pay then for a few months to create buzz.
The main point is that something that seems obvious for you might be the wrong tactic for somebody else who has different ways of valuing their own time/efforts.
A "slightly" bitter author
Could you share the story that made you bitter towards the publishing industry? I'm working on a book that I will eventually be pushing through Amazon's POD BookSurge service. I think many of the readers on Slashdot would appreciate your anecdotal evidence that the traditional publishers are jerks.