AFAIK, XYZ is a new type of action (since the age of computing) that the English language does not yet have a verb for. It would be good to have a proper word to reduce confusion and misinformation.
There is one condition to free speech: Speak with respect.
Speaking with respect reduces all forms of hatefulness. You're less likely to make people angry and, consequently, make you less likely to be attacked by angry mobs.
Proper respect seems much the same in all cultures I'm familiar with. Given that's a fairly broad variety, it seems to me that respect is part of human nature, rather than just cultural. (Not to be confused with manners, though. Manners differ greatly between cultures.)
At least in the political sense.... Freedom does not mean "being allowed to do whatever one wants". Freedom means "absence of oppression/repression".
The ability to discuss and solve social problems is crucial for a society to grow and mature. A society that does not allow that is a repressive society.
Political correctness stifles our ability to speak freely, under the guise of being polite. And so, political correctness is a path to repression. Unfortunately, too many people don't know how to speak respectfully without limiting what they say with political correctness.
Also, there will always be those who enjoy antagonising others. The solution is not easy for some, as it involves self restraint. When no-one reacts to antagonising behaviour, then antagonising behaviour loses its shine.
To live freely, we need to be allowed to say whatever we feel needs saying. But we need to say it respectfully. And we need to accept what other people say, respectfully.
The concept of race exists because different groups of people look different. And if we look different, then why can't we behave differently?
I'm fully prepared to accept that much of our behaviour is genetic. Obviously it won't mean that different races have different worth. But it might explain why we do things differently (especially if were to be analysed on a individual level). And that might in turn give us insight in how better to help our fellows. It might also help people be more accepting of each other, in much the same way that people are usually more patient with someone who has been diagnosed with some trait/dysfunction/disease/sensitivity/strength/etc.
The trick is to be accepting of ourselves and each other, regardless of faults or strengths. To keep out bigotry, don't look at groups of humans as discrete entities, but rather as fuzzy groups of individuals where each individual has their own personal worth. (The groups are fuzzy due to crossbreeding in genetics, culture, technology, etc.)
The telecom with infrastucture
Australia had Telecom (renamed to Telstra) as a government body that built and owned Australia's telecommunications infrastructure. In the 90's that was privatised (but not split up) to introduce competition.
The problem
How do you, as a new telecommunications company (first Optus, then many smaller ISP's), compete with a business that owns all the existing infrastructure? You rent off the owner. But Telstra is also selling end products that compete with your end products. Unfair advantage? Most definately, and Telstra squeezed its advantage to the point where Australian services cost much more than necessary. Our expensive and slow internet plans were a running joke compared to other firstworld countries. There was no incentive to upgrade from copper, and Telstra could charge what it wanted, both from service providers who were renting infrastructure and from end users who were buying end products.
The solution
A few years ago the government initatied the building of the NBN (Natioanl Broadband Network) that is intended to be government owned and should only sell infrastructure wholesale, and should only charge what's necessary for building and maintenance. The intent is that, on the NBN, all other service providers will be able to compete on an equal footing.
The screams
Of course Telstra complained bitterly. That's to be expected. But Telstra did worse than merely complain and promise to behave nicer... it acted like a spoilt child. For example, when the government asked for tenders, Telstra delivered its tender after the deadline and still expected and demanded its tender to be accepted anyway, while the government was trying to play fair, at least on the surface. (Though I think that the government had a lot of tacit support in hoping to exclude Telstra as much as possible at this stage as most people were fed up with Telstra's bad behaviour at every turn.) Eventually, Telstra managed to insist on taking part of the NBN by leveraging its existing ownership of the current infrastructure as blackmail material.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the NBN, and hope that its goals will not be changed, as the NBN ought to enable fairer competition in the ISP market.
put a picture of your favorite gorgeous actress next to your PC, stare into her eyes, and describe your program to her.
Yeah, I'm just worried that my documentation of... software might end up x-rated.
(Though on a serious note, I've considered dictating before, and after your post I might actually just follow your advice and "Just do it.". Though I would try to correct the punctuation afterwards anyway.)
Well... base jumping doesn't require that you land, just that you jump from a great altitude. And the highest base I can think of is a space base. I mean, that's just poetic.
Another danger is when stupid people inhale baloon gas and asphyxiate. With helium, this problem is commonly solved by adding some oxygen to the mix. Hydrogen cannot be safely mixed with oxygen, so you'd either have to tell the stupid people not to do that, or accept a slight decline in the stupid population as they figure it out for themselves.
It was 20 years ago since I studied relativity, but if memory serves me right...
However, someone will observe you traveling faster than light, going from point A to point B faster than light would travel the same distance.
Isn't this the reason that the traveller would age differently from the observer?
One observer stays on Earth while a traveller moves to Proxima Centauri. The traveller experiences the trip to Proxima Centauri as 1/2 year, but the observer doesn't see anything moving faster than light, thus experiencing the trip as 4 1/2 years. (Okay, so the observer will see the traveller being stretched out over space, but that stretching would not appear to occur faster than the speed of light.) So when the traveller returns to Earth, the observer has aged 8 years more than the traveller.
Surely that would apply whether or not a warp drive was used?
Those with the greatest numbers have the greatest potential power. Those who are more organised have the greatest actual power.
People living our lives day to day are not not coherently organised enough to make big deliberate changes to our society. That's what we have governments for - to organise us enough to make use of our potential power. How that power is used depends on the aims of the government. A government may organise the people into building great monuments, waging great wars, building a stronger more stable society, etc.
The problem with those in office is that many are there to achieve their own agendas, which large portions of the crowd often disagree with. And that's fine for those in office, as long as people don't get organised, because as long as people are not organised they can't get their act together enough to pose a threat to those agendas. And that is why revolutions and popular movements can be a little scary for those who have made their careers in politics - because those with the greatest numbers are getting organised, enabling them to make use of their own potential power to move against self serving officials.
In short, the reason the "bigger team" keeps losing to the "smaller team" is because of a lack of organisation.
But that is now beginning to change in a way that has not really been possible before. Personally, I believe that the political landscape will be vastly different in a century of two from now, in ways that might be very hard for us to image today.
Also for working out what bonds make for good superconductors. And, when we can investigate large enough molecules, understanding the structures of cell markers so that we can custom design medicines.
I used to think that viewing atomic bonds was technically impossibe, because what would you use to see the bonds with? Yet here it is.
If one was able to quantify suffering, then I'm sure that the combined suffering caused by several billion dollars lost might well compare to the suffering caused by, say, a murder. Yet white collar criminals get relatively small sentences (if they're sentenced at all, as Hatta pointed out).
I can imagine that, at least for some, punishment may be seen as no more than a worthwhile price given the dividends (if they squirrel away the profits in time). And not being caught would be seen as a bonus.
Mod me flamebait if you like, but that's my opinion.
Unfortunately the odds are pretty hight that some of the rare earths required to make your phone were dug out in central Africa with wars being fought over them, and other more horrendous atrocities.
It would be nice to have the option of byuing devices that didn't cost lives, even if they cost more. I understand that not everyone feels this way, but some of us would like that option.
Slashdot Mirror
make a configuration change across, say, 2000 devices (or in our case, several million)
Running a bot net, are ya?
That's an open question to everyone, by the way.
"Stealing" is taking without permission.
"Forging" is duplicating without permission.
"XYZ" is copying without permission.
AFAIK, XYZ is a new type of action (since the age of computing) that the English language does not yet have a verb for. It would be good to have a proper word to reduce confusion and misinformation.
Any good suggestions?
The problem with hydrogen powered cars is that they tend to float up in the air and blow away in the wind.
There is one condition to free speech: Speak with respect.
Speaking with respect reduces all forms of hatefulness. You're less likely to make people angry and, consequently, make you less likely to be attacked by angry mobs.
Proper respect seems much the same in all cultures I'm familiar with. Given that's a fairly broad variety, it seems to me that respect is part of human nature, rather than just cultural. (Not to be confused with manners, though. Manners differ greatly between cultures.)
At least in the political sense.... Freedom does not mean "being allowed to do whatever one wants". Freedom means "absence of oppression/repression".
The ability to discuss and solve social problems is crucial for a society to grow and mature. A society that does not allow that is a repressive society.
Political correctness stifles our ability to speak freely, under the guise of being polite. And so, political correctness is a path to repression. Unfortunately, too many people don't know how to speak respectfully without limiting what they say with political correctness.
Also, there will always be those who enjoy antagonising others. The solution is not easy for some, as it involves self restraint. When no-one reacts to antagonising behaviour, then antagonising behaviour loses its shine.
To live freely, we need to be allowed to say whatever we feel needs saying. But we need to say it respectfully. And we need to accept what other people say, respectfully.
If we're just slapping each other on the ass
Ah, better not do that. I think that's considered quite controversial in some cultures.
Ironic really, that "Microsoft" comes with "Longhorn".
The concept of race exists because different groups of people look different. And if we look different, then why can't we behave differently?
I'm fully prepared to accept that much of our behaviour is genetic. Obviously it won't mean that different races have different worth. But it might explain why we do things differently (especially if were to be analysed on a individual level). And that might in turn give us insight in how better to help our fellows. It might also help people be more accepting of each other, in much the same way that people are usually more patient with someone who has been diagnosed with some trait/dysfunction/disease/sensitivity/strength/etc.
The trick is to be accepting of ourselves and each other, regardless of faults or strengths. To keep out bigotry, don't look at groups of humans as discrete entities, but rather as fuzzy groups of individuals where each individual has their own personal worth. (The groups are fuzzy due to crossbreeding in genetics, culture, technology, etc.)
Case in point...
The telecom with infrastucture
Australia had Telecom (renamed to Telstra) as a government body that built and owned Australia's telecommunications infrastructure. In the 90's that was privatised (but not split up) to introduce competition.
The problem
How do you, as a new telecommunications company (first Optus, then many smaller ISP's), compete with a business that owns all the existing infrastructure? You rent off the owner. But Telstra is also selling end products that compete with your end products. Unfair advantage? Most definately, and Telstra squeezed its advantage to the point where Australian services cost much more than necessary. Our expensive and slow internet plans were a running joke compared to other firstworld countries. There was no incentive to upgrade from copper, and Telstra could charge what it wanted, both from service providers who were renting infrastructure and from end users who were buying end products.
The solution
A few years ago the government initatied the building of the NBN (Natioanl Broadband Network) that is intended to be government owned and should only sell infrastructure wholesale, and should only charge what's necessary for building and maintenance. The intent is that, on the NBN, all other service providers will be able to compete on an equal footing.
The screams
Of course Telstra complained bitterly. That's to be expected. But Telstra did worse than merely complain and promise to behave nicer... it acted like a spoilt child. For example, when the government asked for tenders, Telstra delivered its tender after the deadline and still expected and demanded its tender to be accepted anyway, while the government was trying to play fair, at least on the surface. (Though I think that the government had a lot of tacit support in hoping to exclude Telstra as much as possible at this stage as most people were fed up with Telstra's bad behaviour at every turn.) Eventually, Telstra managed to insist on taking part of the NBN by leveraging its existing ownership of the current infrastructure as blackmail material.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the NBN, and hope that its goals will not be changed, as the NBN ought to enable fairer competition in the ISP market.
I can't find references now, but although the Wiki page only contains broad strokes, it does elude. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Broadband_Network#Agreement_with_Telstra_and_Optus_2011
"A nun, a gardener, and a housepainter" walk into a nuclear facility.
Yeees... and what's the rest of the joke?
Not only that. He doesn't even make the art himself. He employs bacteria to do the work for him.
everything is 20 miles apart and uphill
Yeah, but if you live in a town where everything is downhill, then you won't get much excercice.
put a picture of your favorite gorgeous actress next to your PC, stare into her eyes, and describe your program to her.
Yeah, I'm just worried that my documentation of... software might end up x-rated.
(Though on a serious note, I've considered dictating before, and after your post I might actually just follow your advice and "Just do it.". Though I would try to correct the punctuation afterwards anyway.)
Well... base jumping doesn't require that you land, just that you jump from a great altitude. And the highest base I can think of is a space base. I mean, that's just poetic.
Another danger is when stupid people inhale baloon gas and asphyxiate. With helium, this problem is commonly solved by adding some oxygen to the mix. Hydrogen cannot be safely mixed with oxygen, so you'd either have to tell the stupid people not to do that, or accept a slight decline in the stupid population as they figure it out for themselves.
Especially if they smoke...
They'll go fucking nuts.
Had me picturing a doped up person trying to have sex with hazelnuts...
"Mark Tester"? What a perfect name for a research professor. =)
It was 20 years ago since I studied relativity, but if memory serves me right...
However, someone will observe you traveling faster than light, going from point A to point B faster than light would travel the same distance.
Isn't this the reason that the traveller would age differently from the observer?
One observer stays on Earth while a traveller moves to Proxima Centauri. The traveller experiences the trip to Proxima Centauri as 1/2 year, but the observer doesn't see anything moving faster than light, thus experiencing the trip as 4 1/2 years. (Okay, so the observer will see the traveller being stretched out over space, but that stretching would not appear to occur faster than the speed of light.)
So when the traveller returns to Earth, the observer has aged 8 years more than the traveller.
Surely that would apply whether or not a warp drive was used?
Those with the greatest numbers have the greatest potential power. Those who are more organised have the greatest actual power.
People living our lives day to day are not not coherently organised enough to make big deliberate changes to our society. That's what we have governments for - to organise us enough to make use of our potential power. How that power is used depends on the aims of the government. A government may organise the people into building great monuments, waging great wars, building a stronger more stable society, etc.
The problem with those in office is that many are there to achieve their own agendas, which large portions of the crowd often disagree with. And that's fine for those in office, as long as people don't get organised, because as long as people are not organised they can't get their act together enough to pose a threat to those agendas. And that is why revolutions and popular movements can be a little scary for those who have made their careers in politics - because those with the greatest numbers are getting organised, enabling them to make use of their own potential power to move against self serving officials.
In short, the reason the "bigger team" keeps losing to the "smaller team" is because of a lack of organisation.
But that is now beginning to change in a way that has not really been possible before. Personally, I believe that the political landscape will be vastly different in a century of two from now, in ways that might be very hard for us to image today.
Also for working out what bonds make for good superconductors. And, when we can investigate large enough molecules, understanding the structures of cell markers so that we can custom design medicines.
I used to think that viewing atomic bonds was technically impossibe, because what would you use to see the bonds with? Yet here it is.
Totally agree: amazing invention.
If one was able to quantify suffering, then I'm sure that the combined suffering caused by several billion dollars lost might well compare to the suffering caused by, say, a murder. Yet white collar criminals get relatively small sentences (if they're sentenced at all, as Hatta pointed out).
I can imagine that, at least for some, punishment may be seen as no more than a worthwhile price given the dividends (if they squirrel away the profits in time). And not being caught would be seen as a bonus.
Mod me flamebait if you like, but that's my opinion.
So the pollution turned the Black Sea into a Red Sea and killed stuff off so it became a Dead Sea. ;)
Unfortunately the odds are pretty hight that some of the rare earths required to make your phone were dug out in central Africa with wars being fought over them, and other more horrendous atrocities.
It would be nice to have the option of byuing devices that didn't cost lives, even if they cost more. I understand that not everyone feels this way, but some of us would like that option.
Whooshed by someting that obvious?!? Of course there's no sound in space, nor is there any gravity for pins to drop.
shells well over one hundred miles
Man! That's some amazingly big ammo.