It's all knee jerk far far right wing wackoness. Look at this little exchange I had with him a bit ago. The best part was when he shut up after realizing what an idiot he was.
I'm not going to argue with what you have said as it is a lot of the ugly truth. However it is a cynics take on things imo. And that is fine. However if I could just give another take on things.
There are people in America/the world who really do believe in Freedom and Justice and all those ideals with the capital letters. And they do what they can to try and allow those ideals to exist. However they are at odds with a lot of human instincts/survival mechanics/learned behavior/etc that we have been dealing with since the 1st person had a thought to bash another guy over the head with a rock to steal his meal.
I don't think America is a sham so much as some of us are doing the best we can to contain 'the way the world works' vs others who don't give a damn for any of those capital letter ideals. And even those people who believe in those capital letter ideas are at odds with each other for various reasons which makes it even harder.
Further I think our American system has become a bit dated for lack of a better word. Or maybe it has just suffered one too many, 'well the system can take one more for the team', in terms of having a pragmatic issue take precedent over our core ideals. But as Heinlein once said, "Democracy is a good system, for beginners." (And yes America is a representative republic by in large, but that would have sounded silly in the context of that book.)
Quick note, remember Sony's claim to fame was not only the Walkman and the CD player but their line of TVs back during the CRT days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitron
That out of the way it is easy for someone like me who does like to hack every bit of hardware that I own and thus will 'vote with my wallet' for hardware makers who allow that. But people like me are such a fringe, these days called enthusiast, market that it is really not a viable plan.
An no mass education campaign is going to stop Joe/Jane Blow when they go to Target/Walmart/Best Buy and shop based on a whole different set of criteria. Price, features, what looks good, heck even color matters A LOT to some people.
I'm gonna get a little pissed here and go Larry David on you all, fuck you and all you fuckers who think that what some smuck said is of value.
And yeah I do value writers but dammit if we have to have a meeting every damn time they want to change the draft then fuck them.
In short, TFA says that The Watchman was too highbrow for the profit center of what the Jews who own Hollywood like to accept. IE The profit margin was too low. Fuck you and fuck them.
You think your next story about some bridge is gonna bring in 100m? Fuck no, it's gonna be about space you dumb fucks. That is where sci-fi is at and that is where you are gonna make your money. Stop being a fucking noob and learn to know where the market is.
Yeah I'm a geek. I've been using computers since I was 7. I play a lot of video games, not as much of a stigma now as it used to be, and oh yeah I also read a lot. I've got some other things going against me. I like to speak in clear English, American English for what it is worth, and I sometimes get pedantic about things that really don't matter in a conversation.
All that being said I am pretty lucky. I've been called a pretty boy, I played football, I can drink and hang out with guys decently well, and my point in all of this is that I've been also pretty lucky with the lady's.
I don't say this to brag and in fact I never even talk about this kinda crap even in 'teh locker room' unless pressed by other guys for some reason that I've yet to understand fully. But rather to just try and give some crediblity to the fact of what I'm about to say next.
Sex is not always the ok dear let us do it. Assume the position! Right-o! Let me just get this condom on and we shall bang. Oh, yes, good stuff, you enjoying yourself too dear? Glad to hear it. Oh, there I go. Ok, let us both take showers and go back to watching TV.
I've gotten groped by both men and women in bars. I've gotten into strange situations where some girl is crying and yet she is giving me a blowjob. I've watched the lust in some poor girls eyes for me when she is way out of my league, and at times been horny enough to let her do me. I've woken up in a strange bed with some girl I dimly remember and yet we do it again because dammit sex feels good!
Not only could I go on but I'm not even 1/2 the player of some people. My stories are often just fist bump moments rather than whoa dog, wtf!? And as such this whole thing about Assange feels so weak. If this guy had not pissed off the most rich and powerful people in the world would this even be an issue?
Years ago when I played RoN a lot I was a above average player. Good enough to be in some of the better clans and thus had recognition in the community but I still was not in the top tier of players. I had a few specific strengths that even allowed me at times to compensate in team games on a higher level than I would have been 1v1 but that is an aside.
In a RTS like RoN a part of the game was matching up 1v1 with people in rated games. And I did so often and as such played a pretty full spectrum of players in such a way. RoN while having its flaws was kept pretty balanced and most of the games that were played rated 1v1 were random civs and random land maps to boot keeping all the players on their toes. (I always would fight to play full random maps and thus force people to fight on the sea as well but anywhoo.)
In playing those games I would every now and then allow myself to be fodder for one of the high end players. One game in particular comes to mind. I had drawn a, this is in the context of 1v1, random strong civ and he had drawn one of the weaker ones. The map was pretty for both of us so overall I had the advantage.
He came at me early and strong. Microing his units well and forced me on the defensive while my early raids suffered because I had to spend my attention to his raiding. He leveled faster and boomed better than me. In short he outplayed me rather well and while I put up a good fight he won.
When playing such games I remember thinking at times, how the hell are they doing that!? And had I not known a lot about the game and the state of what type of cheating was possiable in RoN (very little to none) I think it might have been human nature to assume that my opponent was cheating. When in reality I was just getting outplayed by orders of magnitude.
And here is the kicker. RoN like many RTS games allowed you to record every game you played so you could go back and watch your opponent to see exactly what they did. When I would watch the records of the games I played vs the higher level players I could understand what they were doing but was simply unable to replicate it myself. They were better players than me and that was ok. But even I will admit that at times when I would be playing and see myself getting out played to a degree beyond what I even expected I would wonder if there was some sort of cheating involved.
Here is the thing. Once I put myself into 'the system' as it were it allows any idiot and their brother to link to you. Once I put my real name and even whatever bogus info with it, it allows Joe User who took a pic of me out the other night to tag me.
I'm not looking to control what people do with their cameras. If someone takes a pic of me with their cell phone fair enough. But I'll be dammed if I let the marketing groups that run Facebook get free data.
Over the holidays my brother in law asked again why I did not have a Facebook account. I was in a rather pedantic mood so I gave him the rather technical accounting of why and he of course ignored that blather, and I suppose rightly so, and at one point said that he was going to make me an account.
Thankfully his ADD prevented him from following though with that but I realize now I need a new tactic when dealing with people who don't understand why Facebook 'is evil'. I need a succinct and clear way to tell people that they will be used and abused just for the privilege of sharing the personal lives.
And the kicker is this. I kinda get why it is cool to share what happens in your life with others. I actually kinda get the underlying philosophy of the original intent of Facebook. However that intent is long gone and now it is all about the dollars. And while at a very low level they are providing a service that service is so tied in with marketing that it only tends to harm people rather than help them.
Solutions? I've got precious few. Protecting someones privacy seems rather silly when everyone has a webcam, cell phone, or real camera. Never mind the actual government surveillance that goes on. I'm actually betting Brin was right and we will end up in a very open type of world and all the pains that go with that at some point. But as Asimov said hopefully I'll be dead by then.
So you are a Jobs' person. Fair enough. Preeeety sure I expressed that in my OP but hey, kids like you that don't understand nuance do better with rote.
...that means being deprived of things he can use to KILL HIMSELF WITH.
How great that our system can spend billions upon billions on a hunt for non-existent WMD's but can't give a man some sheets to sleep with. Would it really be that hard to put a camera on the guy with someone watching 24/7 if they were really THAT worried about him?
This is not just some random dude, this is someone who has yet to be charged with any sort of crime. But ah, I did forget that once you are a member of the armed forces you give up all your rights...?
I get what Jim is saying. I do not want, and therefore to not have, any sort of walled garden type device. The actual idea that we need to have something like that is somewhat repugnant to me.
But the reality is that all of us geeks have done enough tech support to know that the walled garden idea has it's roots in practicality. It begins with the idea that most end users should not have total control over everything because when they do they only will require more support.
However with control means ideology. Someone has to setup the rules. And now I'll quickly digress and say that FOSS is not without it's own ideology. But there is a huge delta between a walled garden and a FOSS repository.
So for those who are a bit upset with Jimmy and what he is saying I'd ask you to really think before you get too upset. And if that is too much then just either stick with Jobs or Stallman since the shades of gray that line the real road of human travel might be too much for you.
Currently no matter how you talk about taxes the right's current MO is to scream bloody murder and the left will flail ineffectively. Not that in Texas the right has to do too much screaming or the left has very much flailing to do but again I'm trying to keep the politics of this
Ugh, replying to my own post. I tried to write that post as non-political as I could but then realized after a bit that doing so would be silly.
Should have used the preview button. That bolded part should not be there.
And of course it is the conservatives in Texas who don't want an income tax. The problem is that Texas depends on sales tax, a tax which is not collected due to everyone ordering product from out of state. Of course the conservative legislature could create a new enforcement squad to collect these out of state taxes, thus destroying legitimatize businesses, or they could acknowledge a failed taxation model. Right now the sales tax is 6.25% If this tax was eliminated and replaced by a fixed income tax, say 3-5%, local business would no longer be at a huge disadvantage to Amazon and the like, and the average person, who spends all their income on goods, many taxed, would be no worse off. Of course, because conservative are more interested in dogma rather than conservative fiscal policy, this can never happen.
Currently no matter how you talk about taxes the right's current MO is to scream bloody murder and the left will flail ineffectively. Not that in Texas the right has to do too much screaming or the left has very much flailing to do but again I'm trying to keep the politics of this
Bottom line is that any government requires money to do things. Hopefully we are not going to become a modern day Rome or Great Britain we will not look to fund our coffers from the plunders of war. (Even thou it looked like we were at one point going that way but then just made some of our own right wingers rich at the expense of our own coffers, but I digress.) So by in large the main way of getting those funds is taxes.
Now I understand that there is a philosophical divide on what exactly should be funded by the government and what should be privately funded. That is a whole other debate. Unless you are an archaist, and no being one of the current right wingers who says that all gov is bad unless your in power does not count, the gov needs to exist and needs money to do so.
And that last paragraph finally leads me to my point. In the current climate that exists where the right demonizes the gov when they are not in charge and then de-regulates/defunds it when they are how is there going to be any sort of rational debate on tax policy-especially in a place like Texas?
And like your eyesight you miss the point completely.
It is not about there being an new tech. It is not about it being better and someone like you who will benefit from it and likely use it.
But that the idea that because a new tech comes that the old tech is going to go away instantly. Can we please put on some reading glasses such that we have focus on the way tech works on a site like Slashdot.
While Heinlein was full of all sorts of products of his generation, and I don't ascribe to everything he has said, one of the things he wrote has always struck me:
"He felt that democracy was a very good system, for beginners."
That quote was from an alien that oversaw 3 galaxies and had a political system far beyond what even Heinlein was willing to describe.
Now, everyone is going to take something away from that quote but what I take away from it is that we should not be so static in our system of governance. Our system while a lot better than most is not above a better system that could be drafted for this age. And then that system will be eclipsed by another system that fits that age better.
Sadly, it takes blood and tears to make these changes. One day we might know better. One day.
Slashdot Mirror
It's all knee jerk far far right wing wackoness. Look at this little exchange I had with him a bit ago. The best part was when he shut up after realizing what an idiot he was.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2030288&cid=35447450
No more than your original reply. "It's the other guys' fault, so let's ignore it."
Wait, what? This is what I said:
Who ran up that debt again?
I asked who ran up the debt. Please tell me how I said anything about it being 'the other guys fault', and or more seriously 'let us ignore it."
Your reply speaks volumes. And your parting shot, pure gold.
Who ran up that debt again?
This likely is a boardroom decision that is devoid of engineering input. And given HPs cooperate culture lately it does not surprise me one bit.
It is however very sad from a company that was founded by engineers.
I'm not going to argue with what you have said as it is a lot of the ugly truth. However it is a cynics take on things imo. And that is fine. However if I could just give another take on things.
There are people in America/the world who really do believe in Freedom and Justice and all those ideals with the capital letters. And they do what they can to try and allow those ideals to exist. However they are at odds with a lot of human instincts/survival mechanics/learned behavior/etc that we have been dealing with since the 1st person had a thought to bash another guy over the head with a rock to steal his meal.
I don't think America is a sham so much as some of us are doing the best we can to contain 'the way the world works' vs others who don't give a damn for any of those capital letter ideals. And even those people who believe in those capital letter ideas are at odds with each other for various reasons which makes it even harder.
Further I think our American system has become a bit dated for lack of a better word. Or maybe it has just suffered one too many, 'well the system can take one more for the team', in terms of having a pragmatic issue take precedent over our core ideals. But as Heinlein once said, "Democracy is a good system, for beginners." (And yes America is a representative republic by in large, but that would have sounded silly in the context of that book.)
http://xkcd.com/538/
For people that have massive OCD like me, that meant that deleting a file was a two step process: delete the file and then empty the recycle bin.
Fixed.
Seems like the person who wrote this 'story' is in denial about their OCD.
Quick note, remember Sony's claim to fame was not only the Walkman and the CD player but their line of TVs back during the CRT days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitron
That out of the way it is easy for someone like me who does like to hack every bit of hardware that I own and thus will 'vote with my wallet' for hardware makers who allow that. But people like me are such a fringe, these days called enthusiast, market that it is really not a viable plan.
An no mass education campaign is going to stop Joe/Jane Blow when they go to Target/Walmart/Best Buy and shop based on a whole different set of criteria. Price, features, what looks good, heck even color matters A LOT to some people.
I'm gonna get a little pissed here and go Larry David on you all, fuck you and all you fuckers who think that what some smuck said is of value.
And yeah I do value writers but dammit if we have to have a meeting every damn time they want to change the draft then fuck them.
In short, TFA says that The Watchman was too highbrow for the profit center of what the Jews who own Hollywood like to accept. IE The profit margin was too low. Fuck you and fuck them.
You think your next story about some bridge is gonna bring in 100m? Fuck no, it's gonna be about space you dumb fucks. That is where sci-fi is at and that is where you are gonna make your money. Stop being a fucking noob and learn to know where the market is.
Yeah I'm a geek. I've been using computers since I was 7. I play a lot of video games, not as much of a stigma now as it used to be, and oh yeah I also read a lot. I've got some other things going against me. I like to speak in clear English, American English for what it is worth, and I sometimes get pedantic about things that really don't matter in a conversation.
All that being said I am pretty lucky. I've been called a pretty boy, I played football, I can drink and hang out with guys decently well, and my point in all of this is that I've been also pretty lucky with the lady's.
I don't say this to brag and in fact I never even talk about this kinda crap even in 'teh locker room' unless pressed by other guys for some reason that I've yet to understand fully. But rather to just try and give some crediblity to the fact of what I'm about to say next.
Sex is not always the ok dear let us do it. Assume the position! Right-o! Let me just get this condom on and we shall bang. Oh, yes, good stuff, you enjoying yourself too dear? Glad to hear it. Oh, there I go. Ok, let us both take showers and go back to watching TV.
I've gotten groped by both men and women in bars. I've gotten into strange situations where some girl is crying and yet she is giving me a blowjob. I've watched the lust in some poor girls eyes for me when she is way out of my league, and at times been horny enough to let her do me. I've woken up in a strange bed with some girl I dimly remember and yet we do it again because dammit sex feels good!
Not only could I go on but I'm not even 1/2 the player of some people. My stories are often just fist bump moments rather than whoa dog, wtf!? And as such this whole thing about Assange feels so weak. If this guy had not pissed off the most rich and powerful people in the world would this even be an issue?
Years ago when I played RoN a lot I was a above average player. Good enough to be in some of the better clans and thus had recognition in the community but I still was not in the top tier of players. I had a few specific strengths that even allowed me at times to compensate in team games on a higher level than I would have been 1v1 but that is an aside.
In a RTS like RoN a part of the game was matching up 1v1 with people in rated games. And I did so often and as such played a pretty full spectrum of players in such a way. RoN while having its flaws was kept pretty balanced and most of the games that were played rated 1v1 were random civs and random land maps to boot keeping all the players on their toes. (I always would fight to play full random maps and thus force people to fight on the sea as well but anywhoo.)
In playing those games I would every now and then allow myself to be fodder for one of the high end players. One game in particular comes to mind. I had drawn a, this is in the context of 1v1, random strong civ and he had drawn one of the weaker ones. The map was pretty for both of us so overall I had the advantage.
He came at me early and strong. Microing his units well and forced me on the defensive while my early raids suffered because I had to spend my attention to his raiding. He leveled faster and boomed better than me. In short he outplayed me rather well and while I put up a good fight he won.
When playing such games I remember thinking at times, how the hell are they doing that!? And had I not known a lot about the game and the state of what type of cheating was possiable in RoN (very little to none) I think it might have been human nature to assume that my opponent was cheating. When in reality I was just getting outplayed by orders of magnitude.
And here is the kicker. RoN like many RTS games allowed you to record every game you played so you could go back and watch your opponent to see exactly what they did. When I would watch the records of the games I played vs the higher level players I could understand what they were doing but was simply unable to replicate it myself. They were better players than me and that was ok. But even I will admit that at times when I would be playing and see myself getting out played to a degree beyond what I even expected I would wonder if there was some sort of cheating involved.
Here is the thing. Once I put myself into 'the system' as it were it allows any idiot and their brother to link to you. Once I put my real name and even whatever bogus info with it, it allows Joe User who took a pic of me out the other night to tag me.
I'm not looking to control what people do with their cameras. If someone takes a pic of me with their cell phone fair enough. But I'll be dammed if I let the marketing groups that run Facebook get free data.
In short the only way to win is to not play.
Over the holidays my brother in law asked again why I did not have a Facebook account. I was in a rather pedantic mood so I gave him the rather technical accounting of why and he of course ignored that blather, and I suppose rightly so, and at one point said that he was going to make me an account.
Thankfully his ADD prevented him from following though with that but I realize now I need a new tactic when dealing with people who don't understand why Facebook 'is evil'. I need a succinct and clear way to tell people that they will be used and abused just for the privilege of sharing the personal lives.
And the kicker is this. I kinda get why it is cool to share what happens in your life with others. I actually kinda get the underlying philosophy of the original intent of Facebook. However that intent is long gone and now it is all about the dollars. And while at a very low level they are providing a service that service is so tied in with marketing that it only tends to harm people rather than help them.
Solutions? I've got precious few. Protecting someones privacy seems rather silly when everyone has a webcam, cell phone, or real camera. Never mind the actual government surveillance that goes on. I'm actually betting Brin was right and we will end up in a very open type of world and all the pains that go with that at some point. But as Asimov said hopefully I'll be dead by then.
So you are a Jobs' person. Fair enough. Preeeety sure I expressed that in my OP but hey, kids like you that don't understand nuance do better with rote.
If you have some evidence to the contrary I'd like to see it.
Is a subject innocent or guilty before trial? Can you answer that question?
...that means being deprived of things he can use to KILL HIMSELF WITH.
How great that our system can spend billions upon billions on a hunt for non-existent WMD's but can't give a man some sheets to sleep with. Would it really be that hard to put a camera on the guy with someone watching 24/7 if they were really THAT worried about him?
This is not just some random dude, this is someone who has yet to be charged with any sort of crime. But ah, I did forget that once you are a member of the armed forces you give up all your rights...?
I get what Jim is saying. I do not want, and therefore to not have, any sort of walled garden type device. The actual idea that we need to have something like that is somewhat repugnant to me.
But the reality is that all of us geeks have done enough tech support to know that the walled garden idea has it's roots in practicality. It begins with the idea that most end users should not have total control over everything because when they do they only will require more support.
However with control means ideology. Someone has to setup the rules. And now I'll quickly digress and say that FOSS is not without it's own ideology. But there is a huge delta between a walled garden and a FOSS repository.
So for those who are a bit upset with Jimmy and what he is saying I'd ask you to really think before you get too upset. And if that is too much then just either stick with Jobs or Stallman since the shades of gray that line the real road of human travel might be too much for you.
That my nation has deprived PFC Bradly Manning of due process is something I worry about greatly.
If I was on any sort of stage I would be repeating the words 'due process' every day until Manning is given his rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox
Currently no matter how you talk about taxes the right's current MO is to scream bloody murder and the left will flail ineffectively. Not that in Texas the right has to do too much screaming or the left has very much flailing to do but again I'm trying to keep the politics of this
Ugh, replying to my own post. I tried to write that post as non-political as I could but then realized after a bit that doing so would be silly.
Should have used the preview button. That bolded part should not be there.
And of course it is the conservatives in Texas who don't want an income tax. The problem is that Texas depends on sales tax, a tax which is not collected due to everyone ordering product from out of state. Of course the conservative legislature could create a new enforcement squad to collect these out of state taxes, thus destroying legitimatize businesses, or they could acknowledge a failed taxation model. Right now the sales tax is 6.25% If this tax was eliminated and replaced by a fixed income tax, say 3-5%, local business would no longer be at a huge disadvantage to Amazon and the like, and the average person, who spends all their income on goods, many taxed, would be no worse off. Of course, because conservative are more interested in dogma rather than conservative fiscal policy, this can never happen.
Currently no matter how you talk about taxes the right's current MO is to scream bloody murder and the left will flail ineffectively. Not that in Texas the right has to do too much screaming or the left has very much flailing to do but again I'm trying to keep the politics of this
Bottom line is that any government requires money to do things. Hopefully we are not going to become a modern day Rome or Great Britain we will not look to fund our coffers from the plunders of war. (Even thou it looked like we were at one point going that way but then just made some of our own right wingers rich at the expense of our own coffers, but I digress.) So by in large the main way of getting those funds is taxes.
Now I understand that there is a philosophical divide on what exactly should be funded by the government and what should be privately funded. That is a whole other debate. Unless you are an archaist, and no being one of the current right wingers who says that all gov is bad unless your in power does not count, the gov needs to exist and needs money to do so.
And that last paragraph finally leads me to my point. In the current climate that exists where the right demonizes the gov when they are not in charge and then de-regulates/defunds it when they are how is there going to be any sort of rational debate on tax policy-especially in a place like Texas?
And like your eyesight you miss the point completely.
It is not about there being an new tech. It is not about it being better and someone like you who will benefit from it and likely use it.
But that the idea that because a new tech comes that the old tech is going to go away instantly. Can we please put on some reading glasses such that we have focus on the way tech works on a site like Slashdot.
Yes let us bid goodbye to a foolproof, established, and market proven tech because something new has come out.
Taco...Come now, "Welcome the new Bifocals," would have been much more appropriate.
While Heinlein was full of all sorts of products of his generation, and I don't ascribe to everything he has said, one of the things he wrote has always struck me:
"He felt that democracy was a very good system, for beginners."
That quote was from an alien that oversaw 3 galaxies and had a political system far beyond what even Heinlein was willing to describe.
Now, everyone is going to take something away from that quote but what I take away from it is that we should not be so static in our system of governance. Our system while a lot better than most is not above a better system that could be drafted for this age. And then that system will be eclipsed by another system that fits that age better.
Sadly, it takes blood and tears to make these changes. One day we might know better. One day.