And you weren't modded down, either. If you post without logging in, you start off with a score of 0. Read the/. FAQ, it's quite informative.
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Re:verily I say unto you
on
Spidergoats
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· Score: 1
If you actually put stock in Pascal's wager, I have this card game I'd like to show you.
And even if there is indeed some Heaven/Elysian Fields/Halls of Asgard/Generic Post-Mortem Utopia, how do you know which one to put your money on? For all you know, the only way to get into the club is by wreaking as much havoc on earth as you can.
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Re:You sure you mean this god?
on
Spidergoats
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· Score: 2
I think George Carlin, of all people, said it best:
Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these 10 things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever til the end of time...but he loves you.
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Re:Genetic E'neering Ideas.
on
Spidergoats
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· Score: 1
Why don't we engineer empathy towards the creatures who will eventually be in constant pain from us placing strain on their bodies?
I'm going to assume that you are a vegetarian, don't ever wear wool, don't drink milk, and don't ever use any product that was ever tested on an animal. Because if you did any of those things, you'd be a raging hypocrite and accomplishing nothing but wasting our time and space on/. servers.
We are the closest thing to God this planet has ever seen. We don't control life, we don't control the stars, we don't even control the weather. But we damn well control ourselves.
That was very well said. I get really tired of hearing people whine that the latest toy is going to be our downfall. It's even worse when they claim it's because "It's unnatural". You want natural, go live in a fscking cave.
Best yet was that fool a week ago who said, and I quote, "I'm sick of technology. I wish it would go away, sometimes."
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Re:Does this mean... [OT]
on
Spidergoats
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· Score: 1
If you want to complain about frivilous lawsuits, remember, lawyers don't sue people, plaintifs sue people
About on par with "Guns don't kill people, people do." While it is true, guns/lawyers make it a hell of a lot easier and effective.
Oddly enough, while I'm not in favor of total gun control, I have no problems whatsoever with "Kill all the lawyers".
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Re:Just what the military always wanted
on
Spidergoats
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· Score: 1
Surely bullet-proof vests made from goat's milk will strike fear into the hearts of any enemy
Maybe not, but going up against infantry with full body armor that is impenetrable to just about everything I can throw at them would certainly make me think twice about laughing at them.
Of course, scientists still debate how far out the sun's corrona will extend in it's red giant phase. Will the earth be inside, on the surface, or outside the sun?
The sun is going to expand pretty damned far out in its red giant phase, but whether or not earth will end up inside is largely a question of where you say "The photosphere ends here". Past 70 or 80 million miles, the density of starstuff will be so barely above normal vacuum, it's questionable as to whether something inside is actually inside the sun.
In related news: by 2010 every HTML page will have JavaScript code to check whether you can read the text or not
Nuts to that, what I want is JavaScript code that tells me whether I want to read the text or not! For instance, anything by Jon Katz is not fit to be shown on my monitor.
there's a fair chance that a lot of people will simply stop watching TV. So that's not a bad thing, i don't think.
Indeed. Our cable service (which we never paid for in the first place) dropped channels and quality one at a time over a period of about a year until the only one we get is blurry Fox. Been like that for 8 months now, and the only thing I miss is the Star Trek reruns on the sci-fi channel.
Road switching has indeed happened, and as was pointed out, preparations were made for it months or years in advance.
However, the technologies behind driving a car do not change very much, while digital media does. So while Sweden, Germany, Pakistan, etc can prepare nicely, the IP-happy people make lots of knee-jerk reactions to anything new. Which will do them no end of harm and bad PR, thankfully.
Another reason that DVD's have taken off is that the restrictions on them, while ridiculous, only affect a small portion of the population. Namely, Linux users and people who make intercontinental moves. It's not exactly the biggest demographic out there.
But when Bob Smith buys a DVD and gives it to his son, who cannot play it because it's not registered to his player, he'll care. When he finds he is actually unable to (as opposed to being restricted by a totally unenforcable law) copy his cd to tape to play in his walkman when he goes jogging, he'll care. When the DVD player decides that his saturday night party has too many people and thereby qualifies as a 'public performance' and refuses to play unless some people leave, he'll care.
The only chance IP-happy industries is to make any such transition really, really slow, but look how much caution they've been showing in the past few years. And it's only going to get worse. They'll shoot themselves in the foot soon enough, and ordinary people will begin to hate them as much as the/. crowd does.
Did you even bother to read your own post? Here's a rough translation of what you said:
We have 2 choices: we can fundamentally change human nature or we can fundamentally change human nature. I move that we use opressive Orwellian legislation to avoid some promising technology being used in an opressive Orwellian fashion.
True, but it would still have been nice if they'd described just how they got that 10 bilion amount. I read the article hoping to get some facts and figures, but alas...
what standards are there to enable us to seperate computer commands from normal conversation? we have to be like ST and prefix everyhting with "computer", or are there more intelligent ways?
Easy, you just talk into the mouse with a scottish accent.
First and foremost, the game has not been released yet. It, along with Civilization 3, are currently two of the most eagerly anticipated turn-based strategy games.
Anyone else like to go for the "massive overkill" victory where you kept the last race cooped up on a small, ultra poor planet until you maxxed all the technology levels and started pumping out stacks of 32000 ultra large ships just bristling with miniaturized weapons?
Yup. My favorite twist was when I'd cede over every one of my systems but the capital to that puny enemy, and then go through the now enemy systems, blowing them all away with half a dozen Death Stars. Great fun...
The cycle will continue until we reach critical mass with our ability to exist on this world, and then for all our technology, we will fscked.
The solution, therefore, is to get off this particular rock and make sure that we don't go extinct should such an event occur.
Some final thoughts: The relative happiness and suffering ratio of any given segment of any population has remained constant throughout the ages.
I'll admit that that sounds pretty clever, but do you have any statistics to back a statement like that up? Furthermore, even supposing that it is accurate, the poor of today have some luxuries and to some extent have a standard of living that could be had only by the ultra-rich of the past (obviously this applies mostly to first-world nations).
It does sound like something out of the Twilight Zone. But if I could be assured of getting a perfectly compatible organ replacement, I for one could deal with the image.
For everyone of us who can afford to survive in the 'new economy', there are dozens and dozens just barely scraping by.
I suppose you'd rather go back to everyone being sustenance farmers living one bad harvest away from starvation? There's a very good reason why a mere 3% of the US population can easily produce enough food for the rest of us. I'll give you a hint; it's that T-word that you seem to abhor so much.
I'm sick of technology. I wish it would go away, sometimes.
You want technology to go away? Fine. Go live in a cave in the middle of fscking nowhere so you needn't be bothered by such evils like running water. Demand that everyone with you have an average lifespan of 30 to 40 years, since modern medicine is anathema. Any children born to your family can have a survival rate on par with the toss of a coin. Have fun eeking out a living, hunter-gatherer style.
But do not even think to tell me that I have to join you.
Slashdot Mirror
Hollywood seems to have an even higher opinion of itself. Witness the attempts to prosecute a Norwegian under California law.
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Hey, that's a good point. How much stronger than this stuff do space elevator cables have to be?
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And you weren't modded down, either. If you post without logging in, you start off with a score of 0. Read the /. FAQ, it's quite informative.
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And even if there is indeed some Heaven/Elysian Fields/Halls of Asgard/Generic Post-Mortem Utopia, how do you know which one to put your money on? For all you know, the only way to get into the club is by wreaking as much havoc on earth as you can.
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I'm going to assume that you are a vegetarian, don't ever wear wool, don't drink milk, and don't ever use any product that was ever tested on an animal. Because if you did any of those things, you'd be a raging hypocrite and accomplishing nothing but wasting our time and space on /. servers.
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Presumably protective coatings will be applied as needed.
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Jolt Cola maybe? That would kick ass!
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That was very well said. I get really tired of hearing people whine that the latest toy is going to be our downfall. It's even worse when they claim it's because "It's unnatural". You want natural, go live in a fscking cave.
Best yet was that fool a week ago who said, and I quote, "I'm sick of technology. I wish it would go away, sometimes."
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About on par with "Guns don't kill people, people do." While it is true, guns/lawyers make it a hell of a lot easier and effective.
Oddly enough, while I'm not in favor of total gun control, I have no problems whatsoever with "Kill all the lawyers".
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Maybe not, but going up against infantry with full body armor that is impenetrable to just about everything I can throw at them would certainly make me think twice about laughing at them.
--
The sun is going to expand pretty damned far out in its red giant phase, but whether or not earth will end up inside is largely a question of where you say "The photosphere ends here". Past 70 or 80 million miles, the density of starstuff will be so barely above normal vacuum, it's questionable as to whether something inside is actually inside the sun.
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Nuts to that, what I want is JavaScript code that tells me whether I want to read the text or not! For instance, anything by Jon Katz is not fit to be shown on my monitor.
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Indeed. Our cable service (which we never paid for in the first place) dropped channels and quality one at a time over a period of about a year until the only one we get is blurry Fox. Been like that for 8 months now, and the only thing I miss is the Star Trek reruns on the sci-fi channel.
--
However, the technologies behind driving a car do not change very much, while digital media does. So while Sweden, Germany, Pakistan, etc can prepare nicely, the IP-happy people make lots of knee-jerk reactions to anything new. Which will do them no end of harm and bad PR, thankfully.
--
But when Bob Smith buys a DVD and gives it to his son, who cannot play it because it's not registered to his player, he'll care. When he finds he is actually unable to (as opposed to being restricted by a totally unenforcable law) copy his cd to tape to play in his walkman when he goes jogging, he'll care. When the DVD player decides that his saturday night party has too many people and thereby qualifies as a 'public performance' and refuses to play unless some people leave, he'll care.
The only chance IP-happy industries is to make any such transition really, really slow, but look how much caution they've been showing in the past few years. And it's only going to get worse. They'll shoot themselves in the foot soon enough, and ordinary people will begin to hate them as much as the /. crowd does.
--
We have 2 choices: we can fundamentally change human nature or we can fundamentally change human nature. I move that we use opressive Orwellian legislation to avoid some promising technology being used in an opressive Orwellian fashion.
--
True, but it would still have been nice if they'd described just how they got that 10 bilion amount. I read the article hoping to get some facts and figures, but alas...
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Easy, you just talk into the mouse with a scottish accent.
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First and foremost, the game has not been released yet. It, along with Civilization 3, are currently two of the most eagerly anticipated turn-based strategy games.
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Yup. My favorite twist was when I'd cede over every one of my systems but the capital to that puny enemy, and then go through the now enemy systems, blowing them all away with half a dozen Death Stars. Great fun...
--
The solution, therefore, is to get off this particular rock and make sure that we don't go extinct should such an event occur.
Some final thoughts: The relative happiness and suffering ratio of any given segment of any population has remained constant throughout the ages.
I'll admit that that sounds pretty clever, but do you have any statistics to back a statement like that up? Furthermore, even supposing that it is accurate, the poor of today have some luxuries and to some extent have a standard of living that could be had only by the ultra-rich of the past (obviously this applies mostly to first-world nations).
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You are, of course, correct. I bow in supplication to your superior wisdom.
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It does sound like something out of the Twilight Zone. But if I could be assured of getting a perfectly compatible organ replacement, I for one could deal with the image.
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I suppose you'd rather go back to everyone being sustenance farmers living one bad harvest away from starvation? There's a very good reason why a mere 3% of the US population can easily produce enough food for the rest of us. I'll give you a hint; it's that T-word that you seem to abhor so much.
I'm sick of technology. I wish it would go away, sometimes.
You want technology to go away? Fine. Go live in a cave in the middle of fscking nowhere so you needn't be bothered by such evils like running water. Demand that everyone with you have an average lifespan of 30 to 40 years, since modern medicine is anathema. Any children born to your family can have a survival rate on par with the toss of a coin. Have fun eeking out a living, hunter-gatherer style.
But do not even think to tell me that I have to join you.
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