Step 3 being "Get semi-secretive funding from industry leaders (Sun/MS) with a vested interest in the situation and/or short the stock-market as your wild, unsubstantiated claims cause stock prices to fluctuate wildly, then ditch to the Bahamas before the SEC can slap you on the wrist for it".
Except that, since they've now built their own power base, voting them out of office is going to be a LOT harder than you think. You'll need popular support for that, and getting enough popular support requires either their cooperation or the commission of "questionable" activities.
I apologize if my tone sounded in any way insulting; this was not at all my intent. I merely wanted to understand the situation better.
My issue with the NSA is that precisely because of its secrecy, I cannot be certain that any research I do is factual - just because its publically stated mission and charter prevents it from working domestically is no guarantee that it is, in fact, not working domestically - many of us are already well aware of some of the abuses of power performed domestically and abroad by various government agencies this century. "That couldn't happen here" is not a sentiment some of us will trust, especially not after having heard it echoing throughout history from other nationals just as brave, just as strong, and just as patriotic as ourselves.
Okay, I've wondered this for a long time, and it's tangentially on-topic:
Given that secretive government organizations invariably lead to unchecked abuses, and given that the global environment does not allow for a country to operate entirely in the open, how do we, as citizens, ensure that organizations like the NSA are helping us more than they hurt us? Hell, how are we to even know how MUCH they hurt us, if we - as citizens - are not allowed to know what they are doing? But if we ARE allowed to know what they're doing, and are allowed to travel abroad and associate with whomever we please (it's a free country, after all), how do these organizations ensure the safety of their personell and the effectiveness of their missions?
Do we even NEED the NSA? Does it do more for us than it does to us? And how could we ever possibly find out for sure?
Of course not, modern society recognizes that human rights are not dictated by those who have the biggest stick, or the biggest constituency.
And it's this fallacy that has led to most of our problems. Human rights ARE dictated by those with the biggest stick - so long as I have the power to control you, and you do not have the power to resist my control, I effectively own you, and there's nothing you can do about it. All government is coercive force, and it's high time we own up to it and start working with it instead of pretending it ain't so while we manipulate it from behind.
The only reason we are given as many rights as we have been is because it's easier than fighting off the constant attempts at revolution and terrorism that would result from clamping down - and as those above us in the hierarchy find better and better ways to dupe us into complacency, those rights become less and less relevant.
The bottom line is, whoever has the most power and the strongest will to use it will make the rules, and this whole copyright fiasco is just a big play to see who has the most power and the strongest will to use it.
I've found it telling that after a 5 minute Google search, I've found 50 different sites talking about SAP, how wonderful it is, and what it can do for my business, BUT NOT ONE DAMN ARTICLE DEFINING IT. A single sentence would have sufficed. An expansion of the acronym would have been a great start. But now it just feels like yet another bit of corporate chicanery.
Interesting idea. And as you're doing all this, how do you prove to the IRS that you aren't a drug dealer - or worse, a terrorist?
There's a particular Despair poster that's appropriate: "Noone can make you feel inferior without your consent, but you'd be a fool to withhold that from your superiors." Same works with power and money - people can't take things from you unless you allow them to, but attempt to prevent them, and they (or someone else) will do far worse to you.
Lots and lots of fat people (you walk down the street and it's unbelievable).
Heh. I'm in Tempe, right next to ASU. For every 2 fat people, you get 3 really, REALLY hot college babes. Can't complain here.
Unlivably hot & dry weather, nearly all year long.
Oh, hell yeah. Why do you think I moved out here? Can't STAND cold. Ugh.
2nd lowest % of students graduating to college in US.
Sad, innit? Something should be done about that...
Near universal gun ownership.
Yeah, that REALLY weirded me out when I first came here. About one out of every 5 people is walking around with an openly displayed firearm. Felt like I was in the Wild West. Oh wait... I am (just 150 years late).
More speed than a Hell's Angels convention. Yeah... something should be done about this one, too. Like maybe legalizing LSD and Marijuana, so people don't have to get fucked up with nasty shit that just happens to be easier to make and hide.
A quality of life that rivals Las Vegas. Eh, can't complain TOO bad.
Get burned?
White supremacists here, there, and everywhere. Yeah... something should be done about that. I personally think the meth, the racism, and the lack of education are all part of the same problem - having a jackass control freak for a sheriff doesn't help, either.
Eh well. You take the good with the bad, no matter where you go.
True. But there's an additional memetic advantage to "Phoenix" - the metaphor.
I don't know what it is about this town, but people seem to come to Phoenix to change their lives, then leave. That, and Phoenix is hot. Damn hot. These two together evoke the image of the mythical bird, purging and rebirthing itself in the flames of its own destruction.
Los Angeles is the same way, but for the exact opposite reason. You know it means "The Angels", and you can't help but chuckle as you drive through the rougher neighborhoods, wondering why none of them are paying attention and helping the God-forsaken place.
The point is... give a town a mere name, and you have defined only its existance. Give it a Name, and you have defined its spirit. And it is that spirit that people invoke and remember, not a random collection of alphanumerics.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not getting all mystical on you or anything. But in a very real sense, the human mind operates on Jungian-style metaphors and synchronicities, and qq232d just isn't going to provide the same number of memetic "hooks" for memory and attachment.
Even areas based on people's names - like Allentown, or Bakersfield, or even Washington or America - these too contain spirit within them, because of their deep-rooted associations in our psyches. You're correct that qq232d may eventually pick those up (for a real-world example, look at "42nd Street" in New York), but it must first surmount a significant psychological hurdle - people don't LIKE thinking like this.
My city name is not conceptually grasped as seven characters; it is a single mimetic construct. Humans have a much easier time identifying with the name of a place than they do with a random string of letters and numbers. "Phoenix, Arizona" means something more than a physical location in space. It's a community. It's the warmth of the sun at my back. It's the image of Scottsdale, panning wide with dust-tan gravel and bounding jackrabbits. It's the two jutting masses of high-rises on either side of the I-10. It's six dozen hole-in-a-wall dance clubs. It's open skies, painfully blue and clear at six in the morning; it's raging thunderstorms on an August afternoon, with whole pepper trees sailing down the road at 50 miles an hour. My mind recalls all these things, and each of them reinforces the neural pathway that says "Phoenix". What do your ten letters and numbers mean, sir? What memories do they offer? What emotions do they evoke?
Now I am thoroughly depressed because the closest thing we have to a blues-rock band is the annoying lady here who plays adult contemporary from her one speaker radio.
An... and she always has - has her headphones turned up so the whole office can hear them, and I don't understand - why I can't play my radio... at a reasonable level.
From www.warehouse23.com/basement/box/level.cgi?1 -
A device, about the size of an electric typewriter, with slots on the left and right. A placard on the front is written in Braille, and identifies it as a "money imprinter." Bills fed in the left side will be optically recognized, stamped in braille with their denomination and type, and fed out the right side. The process doesn't damage the bill, it merely raises bumps in its surface which can be read by touch. It recognizes all contemporary currencies, and has a pull-out drawer into which more ROM chips can be plugged (presumably for new forms of currency). A sheaf of documents elsewhere in the crate describe correctly its operation and inexpensive construction using currently available technology. However, the device has a bloodstain on it, and an attached tag reads merely "Suppress indefinitely."
Fiction, but it brings up a good point - why ISN'T our money blind-friendly?
4. Managers must know the test/ QA process should never by bypassed -- this unfortunately is probably the hardest point.:-(
Of course it is. If the code breaks, it's the developer's fault, even if the Manager broke the process. The Manager can FORCE it to be the developer's fault, so what reason does the manager ever have to accept blame?
When you have a choice between waiting 3 days for a fix that has to be done TODAY, and risking breaking something that absolutely MUST NOT BE BROKEN, it is your fault, as a developer, for the manager having to make that choice at all, and either way they go, you will take the blame for the negative impact of their choice.
Foreign aid isn't the problem. Domestic pork-barrel is.
If the Shuttle program wasn't DESIGNED, from the START, to make the most constituents the most money, and was rather designed to SEND MEN INTO SPACE, that's exactly what we would have got - a program designed to send men safely and economically into space.
Instead, we get a system spread over as many Congressional districts as possible, with as many fingers in the pie as can possibly squeeze in... it's like pigs feeding at a trough.
To generalize: You want to fix the government? Ban money.
In this context, "ballistic" probably means "unpowered". A ballistic trajectory is a trajectory acted on only by gravitational forces - as opposed to aerodynamic or self-motive forces.
Why the insane venom FROM you? Do you enjoy accusing people of being rapists? Or retards?
And how did you possibly consider "I hope your friend died a horrible grisly death" an appropriate response?
Bad things happen to good people. It really, really sucks. A lot of us wish it didn't. But that doesn't mean we can stop it all the time, or even make it less likely most of the time.
Our inability to fix the world often turns into rage against those who have done no wrong. Your friend got raped. His/her friend got killed. Big fucking deal. Live obviously goes on for the rest of us.
Now, that didn't feel so good, did it?
If you want to turn your outrage at a world that would allow such injustices into useful energy, temper it with compassion - compassion for the victim, compassion for the perpetrator, compassion for those caught in the middle. And never forget that every action has a formative cause, even actions as abhorrent as rape, torture and murder.
Beating someone within an inch of their life may make you FEEL better, but it's not solving the problem - it's merely perpetuating the karma. (Note that this does not mean violence is never the answer - but violence must be tempered with compassion, violence must strive to do as little harm as possible when solving its ends, and violence must be willing to take a step back and allow non-violence to work its course as well.)
The idea that violence cannot solve any problems is horribly naive, and leads to a deliberate and wilfull (and often violent!) reaction to those who understand that violence is sometimes necessary.
The idea that violence can solve ALL problems is horribly vicious, and leads to a deliberate and willfull (and often violent!) reaction to those who understand that violence often causes more harm than good.
But when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Slashdot Mirror
No, because this is a corporate entity, not a person. It's far more like suing everyone who ever bought a gun because someone robbed a bank with one.
Step 3 being "Get semi-secretive funding from industry leaders (Sun/MS) with a vested interest in the situation and/or short the stock-market as your wild, unsubstantiated claims cause stock prices to fluctuate wildly, then ditch to the Bahamas before the SEC can slap you on the wrist for it".
Except that, since they've now built their own power base, voting them out of office is going to be a LOT harder than you think. You'll need popular support for that, and getting enough popular support requires either their cooperation or the commission of "questionable" activities.
Congratulations. You just pissed me off.
I apologize if my tone sounded in any way insulting; this was not at all my intent. I merely wanted to understand the situation better.
My issue with the NSA is that precisely because of its secrecy, I cannot be certain that any research I do is factual - just because its publically stated mission and charter prevents it from working domestically is no guarantee that it is, in fact, not working domestically - many of us are already well aware of some of the abuses of power performed domestically and abroad by various government agencies this century. "That couldn't happen here" is not a sentiment some of us will trust, especially not after having heard it echoing throughout history from other nationals just as brave, just as strong, and just as patriotic as ourselves.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes, indeed?
Okay, I've wondered this for a long time, and it's tangentially on-topic:
Given that secretive government organizations invariably lead to unchecked abuses, and given that the global environment does not allow for a country to operate entirely in the open, how do we, as citizens, ensure that organizations like the NSA are helping us more than they hurt us? Hell, how are we to even know how MUCH they hurt us, if we - as citizens - are not allowed to know what they are doing? But if we ARE allowed to know what they're doing, and are allowed to travel abroad and associate with whomever we please (it's a free country, after all), how do these organizations ensure the safety of their personell and the effectiveness of their missions?
Do we even NEED the NSA? Does it do more for us than it does to us? And how could we ever possibly find out for sure?
Of course not, modern society recognizes that human rights are not dictated by those who have the biggest stick, or the biggest constituency.
And it's this fallacy that has led to most of our problems. Human rights ARE dictated by those with the biggest stick - so long as I have the power to control you, and you do not have the power to resist my control, I effectively own you, and there's nothing you can do about it. All government is coercive force, and it's high time we own up to it and start working with it instead of pretending it ain't so while we manipulate it from behind.
The only reason we are given as many rights as we have been is because it's easier than fighting off the constant attempts at revolution and terrorism that would result from clamping down - and as those above us in the hierarchy find better and better ways to dupe us into complacency, those rights become less and less relevant.
The bottom line is, whoever has the most power and the strongest will to use it will make the rules, and this whole copyright fiasco is just a big play to see who has the most power and the strongest will to use it.
Not to sound like an idiot, but what is SAP?
I've found it telling that after a 5 minute Google search, I've found 50 different sites talking about SAP, how wonderful it is, and what it can do for my business, BUT NOT ONE DAMN ARTICLE DEFINING IT. A single sentence would have sufficed. An expansion of the acronym would have been a great start. But now it just feels like yet another bit of corporate chicanery.
Last I checked, AIX isn't GPLed software.
Why is this +0/Flamebait and the post above it is +5/Funny? Is there any semantic difference between the two?
Ah, but belonging to Mensa is.
Interesting idea. And as you're doing all this, how do you prove to the IRS that you aren't a drug dealer - or worse, a terrorist?
There's a particular Despair poster that's appropriate: "Noone can make you feel inferior without your consent, but you'd be a fool to withhold that from your superiors." Same works with power and money - people can't take things from you unless you allow them to, but attempt to prevent them, and they (or someone else) will do far worse to you.
Ngh! Forgot to turn my karma bonus off for this obviously OT bit of drivel. Damn. Sorry guys.
Don't forget:
Lots and lots of fat people (you walk down the street and it's unbelievable).
Heh. I'm in Tempe, right next to ASU. For every 2 fat people, you get 3 really, REALLY hot college babes. Can't complain here.
Unlivably hot & dry weather, nearly all year long.
Oh, hell yeah. Why do you think I moved out here? Can't STAND cold. Ugh.
2nd lowest % of students graduating to college in US.
Sad, innit? Something should be done about that...
Near universal gun ownership.
Yeah, that REALLY weirded me out when I first came here. About one out of every 5 people is walking around with an openly displayed firearm. Felt like I was in the Wild West. Oh wait... I am (just 150 years late).
More speed than a Hell's Angels convention.
Yeah... something should be done about this one, too. Like maybe legalizing LSD and Marijuana, so people don't have to get fucked up with nasty shit that just happens to be easier to make and hide.
A quality of life that rivals Las Vegas.
Eh, can't complain TOO bad.
Get burned?
White supremacists here, there, and everywhere.
Yeah... something should be done about that. I personally think the meth, the racism, and the lack of education are all part of the same problem - having a jackass control freak for a sheriff doesn't help, either.
Eh well. You take the good with the bad, no matter where you go.
True. But there's an additional memetic advantage to "Phoenix" - the metaphor.
I don't know what it is about this town, but people seem to come to Phoenix to change their lives, then leave. That, and Phoenix is hot. Damn hot. These two together evoke the image of the mythical bird, purging and rebirthing itself in the flames of its own destruction.
Los Angeles is the same way, but for the exact opposite reason. You know it means "The Angels", and you can't help but chuckle as you drive through the rougher neighborhoods, wondering why none of them are paying attention and helping the God-forsaken place.
The point is... give a town a mere name, and you have defined only its existance. Give it a Name, and you have defined its spirit. And it is that spirit that people invoke and remember, not a random collection of alphanumerics.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not getting all mystical on you or anything. But in a very real sense, the human mind operates on Jungian-style metaphors and synchronicities, and qq232d just isn't going to provide the same number of memetic "hooks" for memory and attachment.
Even areas based on people's names - like Allentown, or Bakersfield, or even Washington or America - these too contain spirit within them, because of their deep-rooted associations in our psyches. You're correct that qq232d may eventually pick those up (for a real-world example, look at "42nd Street" in New York), but it must first surmount a significant psychological hurdle - people don't LIKE thinking like this.
Not at all.
My city name is not conceptually grasped as seven characters; it is a single mimetic construct. Humans have a much easier time identifying with the name of a place than they do with a random string of letters and numbers. "Phoenix, Arizona" means something more than a physical location in space. It's a community. It's the warmth of the sun at my back. It's the image of Scottsdale, panning wide with dust-tan gravel and bounding jackrabbits. It's the two jutting masses of high-rises on either side of the I-10. It's six dozen hole-in-a-wall dance clubs. It's open skies, painfully blue and clear at six in the morning; it's raging thunderstorms on an August afternoon, with whole pepper trees sailing down the road at 50 miles an hour. My mind recalls all these things, and each of them reinforces the neural pathway that says "Phoenix". What do your ten letters and numbers mean, sir? What memories do they offer? What emotions do they evoke?
Now I am thoroughly depressed because the closest thing we have to a blues-rock band is the annoying lady here who plays adult contemporary from her one speaker radio.
An... and she always has - has her headphones turned up so the whole office can hear them, and I don't understand - why I can't play my radio... at a reasonable level.
What, right next to the Ark of the Covenant?
From www.warehouse23.com/basement/box/level.cgi?1 -
A device, about the size of an electric typewriter, with slots on the left and right. A placard on the front is written in Braille, and identifies it as a "money imprinter." Bills fed in the left side will be optically recognized, stamped in braille with their denomination and type, and fed out the right side. The process doesn't damage the bill, it merely raises bumps in its surface which can be read by touch. It recognizes all contemporary currencies, and has a pull-out drawer into which more ROM chips can be plugged (presumably for new forms of currency). A sheaf of documents elsewhere in the crate describe correctly its operation and inexpensive construction using currently available technology. However, the device has a bloodstain on it, and an attached tag reads merely "Suppress indefinitely."
Fiction, but it brings up a good point - why ISN'T our money blind-friendly?
4. Managers must know the test/ QA process should never by bypassed -- this unfortunately is probably the hardest point. :-(
Of course it is. If the code breaks, it's the developer's fault, even if the Manager broke the process. The Manager can FORCE it to be the developer's fault, so what reason does the manager ever have to accept blame?
When you have a choice between waiting 3 days for a fix that has to be done TODAY, and risking breaking something that absolutely MUST NOT BE BROKEN, it is your fault, as a developer, for the manager having to make that choice at all, and either way they go, you will take the blame for the negative impact of their choice.
It's called slavery. Get used to it.
syntaces.
And 'anal-retentive' is hyphenated as a noun, but unhyphenated as an adjective - unless it is seperated from the noun it modifies.
Foreign aid isn't the problem. Domestic pork-barrel is.
If the Shuttle program wasn't DESIGNED, from the START, to make the most constituents the most money, and was rather designed to SEND MEN INTO SPACE, that's exactly what we would have got - a program designed to send men safely and economically into space.
Instead, we get a system spread over as many Congressional districts as possible, with as many fingers in the pie as can possibly squeeze in... it's like pigs feeding at a trough.
To generalize: You want to fix the government? Ban money.
In this context, "ballistic" probably means "unpowered". A ballistic trajectory is a trajectory acted on only by gravitational forces - as opposed to aerodynamic or self-motive forces.
A-fucking-men.
"Thou art God. Love thyself, for all you do is holy."
Since we're already firmly off-topic...
Why the insane venom FROM you? Do you enjoy accusing people of being rapists? Or retards?
And how did you possibly consider "I hope your friend died a horrible grisly death" an appropriate response?
Bad things happen to good people. It really, really sucks. A lot of us wish it didn't. But that doesn't mean we can stop it all the time, or even make it less likely most of the time.
Our inability to fix the world often turns into rage against those who have done no wrong. Your friend got raped. His/her friend got killed. Big fucking deal. Live obviously goes on for the rest of us.
Now, that didn't feel so good, did it?
If you want to turn your outrage at a world that would allow such injustices into useful energy, temper it with compassion - compassion for the victim, compassion for the perpetrator, compassion for those caught in the middle. And never forget that every action has a formative cause, even actions as abhorrent as rape, torture and murder.
Beating someone within an inch of their life may make you FEEL better, but it's not solving the problem - it's merely perpetuating the karma. (Note that this does not mean violence is never the answer - but violence must be tempered with compassion, violence must strive to do as little harm as possible when solving its ends, and violence must be willing to take a step back and allow non-violence to work its course as well.)
The idea that violence cannot solve any problems is horribly naive, and leads to a deliberate and wilfull (and often violent!) reaction to those who understand that violence is sometimes necessary.
The idea that violence can solve ALL problems is horribly vicious, and leads to a deliberate and willfull (and often violent!) reaction to those who understand that violence often causes more harm than good.
But when all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
He who has an ear, let him hear.