"Every person you kill takes away a piece of your soul, "
If one is socially conditioned to think that, one will think that. It's a cherished, popular idea in recent times, especially where religion (as Alan Watts said) institutionalizes guilt as a virtue.
For an apex predator to mind killing creatures that it perceives as a threat is profoundly un-natural.
We should look to our simplistic social constructs that try to be "universal" and cannot sufficiently distinguish between war and peace, just violence and unjust, useful and useless.
"I think the people of the world including the leaders would think twice if they (that is, all leaders and followers) had to do this old-style with rocks and clubs."
That's not supported by history!
Plenty of people have the guts to get up close and personal, and if we go back to the time where almost all war was close combat, we have countless stories of leaders who fought at the front. Their success is the reason they were leaders.
Substitute "variation" for "corruption", since the superstition itself is impressively toxic. Slashdot is the last place religion should be accorded respect.
"War is about greed. War is governments killing people, both people of their enemies and their own, instead of being reasonable and sorting out their differences."
That's "traditional" war.
"Non-state actors" can have a poke on their own, and often do, without being minions of government. The implication that, absent government, people would be "reasonable" is a bit of a reach considering the worldwide fondness for organized violent competition.
The philosopher John Rawls should step down from his ivory tower and take part in a war. Either side will do, then let's see how much he faps to "fairness".
"Yet we fought much of the war in a guerrilla manner, and won."
Not "much", some.
Sherman's march wasn't guerilla warfare, for example, and the few famous raiders don't amount to much compared to the massed formations which inflicted most of the casualties (other than disease, of course!) and decided the important battles.
Many soldiers on the ground call use drone assistance from surveillance to fire support. Situational awareness is the greatest advantage of drones, but the strikes make the papers.
It isn't a binary choice between engagement and disengagement except in Mom's basement.
"Why did the American Civil war soldiers line up and fire at each other? Because to hide behind trees, bushes, and hills would be unethical."
Everyone who modded this up deserves a (virtual) throat punch for gross and spectacular historical ignorance.
Slowly for the short-bus crowd:
Civil War weapons were not accurate or long-range by modern standards, so the way to obtain high volumes of fire was by massed formations of troops. That didn't have anything to do with ethics, but everything to do with making the best use of (usually muzzle-loading) muskets and rifles.
Massed fire required lots of troops, performing different stages of the process to ensure something like steady fire:
"You can't change the world through indignation. You really have only three choices. First, be docile and do nothing at all. That's often a good option by the way. Second, make sure your concerns have been heard, even if they are dismissed. Or, third, be prepared to devote at least a year or two of your life to the cause of fighting this thing."
Well, four choices, if one includes the Joe Stack Option.
If the "kid" involved were smart enough to know they were being spied on, they could go about their normal business in front of the camera, then crucify the school for monitoring them. Destroy a few careers and lives, make some bank on the lawsuit, be famous as a victim and do the TV circuit.
Anyone care to post a tutorial to monitor, with a MITM PC between the notebook and the router, what content is being streamed from the notebook cam?
Making intrusive behavior by schools (which are supposed to protect children) backfire in the most punitive and painful way is clearly a noble cause.
"On MOST laptops, just plugging something in to the MIC jack disables the built-in mic."
Spread the word. Youth enjoy rebellion, so ensure the info is available.
The sooner they know that the entire system is designed to condition and frequently prey on them, the sooner they will learn to resent that. The government is not their friend, the school system is not their friend, and most adults are not their friends.
I put my assigned camel in War Reserve Material (WRM) storage, properly wrapped with desiccant packs, then charged the container with dry nitrogen.
When my unit deployed, we opened the box, but camel was all wrinkly, very quiet, and wouldn't get up. Attempts to jump start it off a slave cable from my truck were unsuccessful. The design needs work.
"Anyway to get them for "force" a free download of PhotoShop?"
No, but blocking the proper entries in your hosts file as someone might do who didn't want Adobe warez "phoning home" would take care of unwanted "updates" nicely.
"What you spend on it in 5 years is for sure much more than what you'd spend to buy and maintain a brand new car for the same time."
Not in the US, not even close.
There are many thousands of people who drive 1950s cars (and more often, trucks) without spending nearly that much. I'm an experienced mechanic and consider your assertion laughable. I can't vouch for the longevity of European makes (which until Volkswagen were considered a joke by US motorists), but it's unremarkable to see a beater 1950s truck still taking its owner to work in the US. US vehicles of those times made up for higher wear rates by being VERY easy to work on. That's why there are so many millions of the 1950s design classic Chevrolet small block engines still running. I can rebuild a small block for a few hundred dollars, or buy a NEW engine in a crate for well under two thousand dollars. It's easier and much more convenient to get such parts in the US than for any other engine. Drivetrain and other parts for common vehicles are readily available too.
"There are very little istances of cars which are more than 10 years old and still good for everyday use, at least not without major maintenance."
Cars twenty or thirty years old often serve well for everyday use in the US (so long as they are in areas where the roads aren't salted during the winter). Generic boring family cars are not often preserved beyond about 15 years, trucks are routinely kept for decades, but in either case "major maintenance" is usually much cheaper than a new vehicle.
What DOES drive new car purchases is easy credit. There is every reason for makers to finance new vehicles at lower initial cost than one-time expenses such as an engine rebuild for an older car. That's also key to the horrid debt cycle many people buy into, but that's for another thread.;)
Lusers (the term fits in this case) don't care about securing their machine unless it gets broken. Malware that breaks machines provokes an immunue response, while parasitic malware usually does not.
"Hard to distribute" and "irregular supply" come to mind.
Instead, we should leverage our domestic fat supply by pyrolizing the liposuction from our motoring population into bio-diesel. A suction tube integrated with the seat belt could clip into driver and passenger stoma to harvest while driving. The corn syrup in many foods would support farmers, lipo would keep us thin, and the product would power our SUVs.
"Islam isn't "the principal enemy of moral progress" because it's so ass-backwards that they don't even get counted...."
Other than by the hundreds of millions of Muslims throughout the world, who run "countries" and stuff, or are present where they can influence modern countries (by stabbing their playwrights and driving their cartoonists into hiding while intimidating their governments into abject political annilingus), I'd have to agree with you.
I'm not worried about collecting a Fatwah on/., but the world ain't/.
"I am pretty sure that it will be a long time before the Olympic Committee manages to run their ice resurfacers the 29,000 times needed to break even."
The smart, CHEAP way to slap a propane surfacer on the ass and call it Green would have been to tweak it to run on compressed hydrogen for the duration of the event and have a truckload of spare cylinders ready to go, even better if they are on a snazzy Green cart.
Standard valves and fittings (Western Enterprises if you do this yourself) plus a propane mixer tune and you are good to go. Fuck it, make Green forklifts and other support equipment while you are at it. Just ignore the diesel truck that delivers the cylinders...
Slashdot Mirror
"Every person you kill takes away a piece of your soul, "
If one is socially conditioned to think that, one will think that. It's a cherished, popular idea in recent times, especially where religion (as Alan Watts said) institutionalizes guilt as a virtue.
For an apex predator to mind killing creatures that it perceives as a threat is profoundly un-natural.
We should look to our simplistic social constructs that try to be "universal" and cannot sufficiently distinguish between war and peace, just violence and unjust, useful and useless.
"I think the people of the world including the leaders would think twice if they (that is, all leaders and followers) had to do this old-style with rocks and clubs."
That's not supported by history!
Plenty of people have the guts to get up close and personal, and if we go back to the time where almost all war was close combat, we have countless stories of leaders who fought at the front. Their success is the reason they were leaders.
Substitute "variation" for "corruption", since the superstition itself is impressively toxic. Slashdot is the last place religion should be accorded respect.
"Terrorism isn't an act of war. Never was, never will be."
Citation other than emotional construct needed.
"War is about greed. War is governments killing people, both people of their enemies and their own, instead of being reasonable and sorting out their differences."
That's "traditional" war.
"Non-state actors" can have a poke on their own, and often do, without being minions of government. The implication that, absent government, people would be "reasonable" is a bit of a reach considering the worldwide fondness for organized violent competition.
The philosopher John Rawls should step down from his ivory tower and take part in a war. Either side will do, then let's see how much he faps to "fairness".
"Yet we fought much of the war in a guerrilla manner, and won."
Not "much", some.
Sherman's march wasn't guerilla warfare, for example, and the few famous raiders don't amount to much compared to the massed formations which inflicted most of the casualties (other than disease, of course!) and decided the important battles.
Many soldiers on the ground call use drone assistance from surveillance to fire support. Situational awareness is the greatest advantage of drones, but the strikes make the papers.
It isn't a binary choice between engagement and disengagement except in Mom's basement.
"Why did the American Civil war soldiers line up and fire at each other? Because to hide behind trees, bushes, and hills would be unethical."
Everyone who modded this up deserves a (virtual) throat punch for gross and spectacular historical ignorance.
Slowly for the short-bus crowd:
Civil War weapons were not accurate or long-range by modern standards, so the way to obtain high volumes of fire was by massed formations of troops. That didn't have anything to do with ethics, but everything to do with making the best use of (usually muzzle-loading) muskets and rifles.
Massed fire required lots of troops, performing different stages of the process to ensure something like steady fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqgPsmT7tc&feature=related
Contemplate doing this while under musket and cannon fire you can't usually move to dodge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z5kr2EmRIo&feature=related
"We start to treat killing the enemy the way we treat killing chickens at the Perdue packing plant."
Who the fuck are "we"? Excepting grunts on the ground, it's all distant.
Artillery, bombs, missiles, mortars and rockets come to mind.
"That loop needs more, not fewer, negative feed-backs."
The only people who got those feed-backs were the grunts on the ground. Want to volunteer to be a "designated casualty" so we have more feed-back?
"You can't change the world through indignation. You really have only three choices. First, be docile and do nothing at all. That's often a good option by the way. Second, make sure your concerns have been heard, even if they are dismissed. Or, third, be prepared to devote at least a year or two of your life to the cause of fighting this thing."
Well, four choices, if one includes the Joe Stack Option.
If the "kid" involved were smart enough to know they were being spied on, they could go about their normal business in front of the camera, then crucify the school for monitoring them. Destroy a few careers and lives, make some bank on the lawsuit, be famous as a victim and do the TV circuit.
Anyone care to post a tutorial to monitor, with a MITM PC between the notebook and the router, what content is being streamed from the notebook cam?
Making intrusive behavior by schools (which are supposed to protect children) backfire in the most punitive and painful way is clearly a noble cause.
"On MOST laptops, just plugging something in to the MIC jack disables the built-in mic."
Spread the word. Youth enjoy rebellion, so ensure the info is available.
The sooner they know that the entire system is designed to condition and frequently prey on them, the sooner they will learn to resent that. The government is not their friend, the school system is not their friend, and most adults are not their friends.
"They just specced a camel!"
I put my assigned camel in War Reserve Material (WRM) storage, properly wrapped with desiccant packs, then charged the container with dry nitrogen.
When my unit deployed, we opened the box, but camel was all wrinkly, very quiet, and wouldn't get up. Attempts to jump start it off a slave cable from my truck were unsuccessful. The design needs work.
"If you like seeing yourself as a member of a small, impenetrable elite possessed of special and arcane knowledge"
then you'd best use BSD or something else that with higher n00b barriers than Linux. Linux elitism is so 1999.
"Now, I only wish they would design and market a legitimate brand to compete with Apple."
I give a fuck about "legitimate"?
Sell me the knockoff and I'll deal with any problems since it was cheap. Either way my money goes to the same
ChiCom assembly plant.
With the knockoff I get access to something I'd not otherwise buy.
Google "block adobe hosts file" for more useful info.
"Anyway to get them for "force" a free download of PhotoShop?"
No, but blocking the proper entries in your hosts file as someone might do who didn't want Adobe warez "phoning home" would take care of unwanted "updates" nicely.
"What you spend on it in 5 years is for sure much more than what you'd spend to buy and maintain a brand new car for the same time."
Not in the US, not even close.
There are many thousands of people who drive 1950s cars (and more often, trucks) without spending nearly that much. I'm an experienced mechanic and consider your assertion laughable. I can't vouch for the longevity of European makes (which until Volkswagen were considered a joke by US motorists), but it's unremarkable to see a beater 1950s truck still taking its owner to work in the US. US vehicles of those times made up for higher wear rates by being VERY easy to work on. That's why there are so many millions of the 1950s design classic Chevrolet small block engines still running. I can rebuild a small block for a few hundred dollars, or buy a NEW engine in a crate for well under two thousand dollars. It's easier and much more convenient to get such parts in the US than for any other engine. Drivetrain and other parts for common vehicles are readily available too.
"There are very little istances of cars which are more than 10 years old and still good for everyday use, at least not without major maintenance."
Cars twenty or thirty years old often serve well for everyday use in the US (so long as they are in areas where the roads aren't salted during the winter). Generic boring family cars are not often preserved beyond about 15 years, trucks are routinely kept for decades, but in either case "major maintenance" is usually much cheaper than a new vehicle.
What DOES drive new car purchases is easy credit. There is every reason for makers to finance new vehicles at lower initial cost than one-time expenses such as an engine rebuild for an older car. That's also key to the horrid debt cycle many people buy into, but that's for another thread. ;)
"I admit I sound like a jerk here,"
No, you don't.
Lusers (the term fits in this case) don't care about securing their machine unless it gets broken. Malware that breaks machines provokes an immunue response, while parasitic malware usually does not.
"Elderly?!?!? I'm 41, you insensitive clod!"
Now get out of that igloo and back on the ice, Gramps. Polar bears gotta eat too.
"Hard to distribute" and "irregular supply" come to mind.
Instead, we should leverage our domestic fat supply by pyrolizing the liposuction from our motoring population into bio-diesel. A suction tube integrated with the seat belt could clip into driver and passenger stoma to harvest while driving. The corn syrup in many foods would support farmers, lipo would keep us thin, and the product would power our SUVs.
It ain't perpetual motion, but it's close.
"Islam isn't "the principal enemy of moral progress" because it's so ass-backwards that they don't even get counted...."
Other than by the hundreds of millions of Muslims throughout the world, who run "countries" and stuff, or are present where they can influence modern countries (by stabbing their playwrights and driving their cartoonists into hiding while intimidating their governments into abject political annilingus), I'd have to agree with you.
I'm not worried about collecting a Fatwah on /., but the world ain't /.
"I am pretty sure that it will be a long time before the Olympic Committee manages to run their ice resurfacers the 29,000 times needed to break even."
The smart, CHEAP way to slap a propane surfacer on the ass and call it Green would have been to tweak it to run on compressed hydrogen for the duration of the event and have a truckload of spare cylinders ready to go, even better if they are on a snazzy Green cart.
Standard valves and fittings (Western Enterprises if you do this yourself) plus a propane mixer tune and you are good to go. Fuck it, make Green forklifts and other support equipment while you are at it. Just ignore the diesel truck that delivers the cylinders...
"I had to do it to my USB thumb drive, as well as a few members of my family."
I couldn't get the U3 software off my family.
I had to delete their partition tables and reload from scratch.