The necessary first step is to make sure ISPs and websites have the tools to block bullies. Right now the laws are structured so that taking action against bullies can be seen as taking responsibility for content they have no control over. Instead of making harassment specifically on the Internet criminal, make real harassment something that is likely to lose you access to your victims... and if one gets on the habit of it, to much of the Internet as a whole.
Yes, there's problems with this approach too, but it's far less damaging than specifically targeting online behavior in a way that's certain to have a huge chilling effect on free speech.
But on the flip side, if you can show someone used a deliberate campaign of harassment to cause real physical harm to a person, like the case that started this, that should be treated as assault whether the harassment was physical or emotional, online or offline.
And to anticipate one objection here: if a teenager doesn't know how to report an attack to the website for a TOS violation, then how do they know how to call in the police? Are they likely to? I was bullied remorselessly in high school, but there's no way I'd have gone to the police to stop it. If I could have edited a few bullies out of my life offline the way you can online I'd have had a much happier childhood.
McDonald's Wayport is the only chain I've seen that lets you pay for just 2 hours, but you still have to sign on the website and put in a credit card for $3 which would turn many people off.
I don't remember what the last place I used paid Wifi service at was, but it had a per-day and per-hour program, so you could pay just for the time you used... but you still had to sign up online.
I don't understand what part of "don't make it hard for people to give you money" these people are missing, but boy are they missing it badly.
Itunes is only worth it when there are extras, like bonus songs or interviews. Or at least a discount!
Not everyone is a completist. If I find a song I like, I'll buy it on iTunes. If I like an artist enough after a while to go ahead and buy an album, I'll buy it on CD. Sometimes I'll buy an album on iTunes if there's enough tracks that the $10 album price makes sense, but usually I just buy a couple of songs.
For the same reason that the people who DO provide it without any connection to a transaction end up having all of their seats taken up by non-customers, and have to put up notices begging people to limit their use of the system during their peak business hours.
Print a one-time key good for half an hour after the purchase on the receipt. Let people pay for longer-listing keys at the register. You'll get some yobboes dumpster-diving for keys, yes, but it'll discourage most of the leeches.
The reason that "for pay" wifi is a bust is that it's too damn hard to pay for it. There's a bookstore near my daughter's work with a hotspot... but to get on, you have to sign up ahead of time, get an account, with a credit card, it's almost as much hassle as getting cellphone service... and you have to do it again for each company doing wifi.
I realize that it'd be hard to hook it into the register, because those things are all proprietary one-offs, but how about an access point with a little receipt printer that sits on the counter next to the register with three buttons on it: "tall", "grande", and "day pass". When you buy a mocha latte you can ask for a wifi key, the barrista hits a button and you get a tall (30 minutes) or grande (90 minutes), and hands you the printout. Or you can buy a day pass for 10 bucks.
Microsoft was heading this way with increasingly powerful Windows CE clamshells from IBM and others, but around 2000 they redirected all their effort towards Windows NT "Tablet PC"s. Now Linux is the new Windows CE and Microsoft is backpedalling over shutting down XP as they scramble after a market they could have owned.
I'm not convinced that having infinitely flexible syntax is really that helpful anyway
Neither am I. What I'm really getting at here is not that I want macros so I can create an "if-maybe-whatever" construct, it's that I'd rather make methods on objects do it all and eliminate "for... end" and "if... then... else... end" and replace them with "object do: block" and "object ifTrue: block ifFalse: block" or whatever Ruby's equivalents would be. I don't think these things belong in the language, period.
I'm really not a fan of optional syntax. That way lies Perl.
Ruby is very close to Smalltalk syntax except for a few minor points.
People keep saying that, and yet when I look at Ruby I don't see it.
Staring at code with a bunch of { |a,b,c|... } all over is hardly better than looking at LISP code,
Lisp code would be better than staring at a bunch of "for... end case... when..."
and as annoying to write.
Which is annoying to write, Javascript or Ruby?
And of course people use one-letter parameter names since Ruby code is so 'small' and 'elegant'.
function(){ var d=_gat.k,a=_gat.a,c=_gat.e,g=a[_gat.m]?a[_gat.m]:"",o=c.history[_gat.c],k,m, q=[d.appName,d.version,d.language?d.language:d.browserLanguage,d.platform,d.userAgent,d.javaEnabled()?1:0].join(""); if(c.screen)q+=c.screen.width+"x"+c.screen.height+c.screen.colorDepth; [...] -- Real fragment of Javascript code with nice long meaningful variable names.
Smalltalk and Ruby syntax both suck, and JavaScript is here to stay.
Smalltalk syntax is a little odd in places, but I haven't found a better OO syntax in real widely-used language.
Of course Javascript is here to stay. So is Microsoft, the RIAA, and the common cold.
I was under the impression that things like control structures (if, while, etc) are actually defined in the language, with keywords and syntax and everything.
So you could create new control structures in Ruby?
but the syntax isn't where you get the benefit of ruby.
Of course not. It's still got a Pascal/Algol/C style procedural/algorithmic syntax, rather than one based on the object hierarchy like you have in Smalltalk. Looking at Ruby, it doesn't really look like blocks are a true first class object in the language as they are in Smalltalk or Lisp.
Pure HTML Widgets use Javascript for their active content, of course. The point is that Widgets that contain non-JS scripts or native code will, as one might expect, not run as plasmoids.
* They're more portable - they run in Windows or OS X. * They have MUCH less overhead. Some dashboard widgets have a CPU% in the double digets while Dashboard is open! * They're not constrained to the dashboard.
I have a feeling that part of the reason that Apple stuck their widgets on the dashboard was because the overhead of webkit doing AJAXy things to try and look lickable is so high. The layout engine Konfabulator introduced is much lighter weight. Whatever the reason, I found I was never using the Dashboard so I went back to Konfabulator. I used Tinkertool to disable the Dashboard completely, who needs the overhead?
When are they going to emulate Konfabulator under KDE? Hmmm?
But not very many. Net Applications reported that Intel Mac use surpassed PPC back in November.
So? How many people were still using OS 9 when they dumped the G4 tower. They had to bring Classic-booting Macs back *twice* because of the outcry from education. I'm still convinced that Apple could have introduced Intel Macs at any time and they waited until they could dump Classic booting... the third time was the charm... before they dumped Classic with the Intel introduction.
Apple has always considered the educational market a critical one because it's a gateway market.
Now, where do you suppose many of the PPC Macs out there are?
Sprint and Verizon both lock you into a phone, which is hateful, but Sprint had much better coverage for me, and didn't actually manage to lose my number the way Verizon seemed to for a while. That's enough to tip the scales.
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The necessary first step is to make sure ISPs and websites have the tools to block bullies. Right now the laws are structured so that taking action against bullies can be seen as taking responsibility for content they have no control over. Instead of making harassment specifically on the Internet criminal, make real harassment something that is likely to lose you access to your victims... and if one gets on the habit of it, to much of the Internet as a whole.
Yes, there's problems with this approach too, but it's far less damaging than specifically targeting online behavior in a way that's certain to have a huge chilling effect on free speech.
But on the flip side, if you can show someone used a deliberate campaign of harassment to cause real physical harm to a person, like the case that started this, that should be treated as assault whether the harassment was physical or emotional, online or offline.
And to anticipate one objection here: if a teenager doesn't know how to report an attack to the website for a TOS violation, then how do they know how to call in the police? Are they likely to? I was bullied remorselessly in high school, but there's no way I'd have gone to the police to stop it. If I could have edited a few bullies out of my life offline the way you can online I'd have had a much happier childhood.
Evolution is not "good" or "bad", it just "is".
You might as well talk about skyscrapers encouraging gravity. Or pollution encouraging chemistry.
Anthropomorphizing the universe is an ideological problem, but it looks like you're the one with the problem.
McDonald's Wayport is the only chain I've seen that lets you pay for just 2 hours, but you still have to sign on the website and put in a credit card for $3 which would turn many people off.
I don't remember what the last place I used paid Wifi service at was, but it had a per-day and per-hour program, so you could pay just for the time you used... but you still had to sign up online.
I don't understand what part of "don't make it hard for people to give you money" these people are missing, but boy are they missing it badly.
Itunes is only worth it when there are extras, like bonus songs or interviews. Or at least a discount!
Not everyone is a completist. If I find a song I like, I'll buy it on iTunes. If I like an artist enough after a while to go ahead and buy an album, I'll buy it on CD. Sometimes I'll buy an album on iTunes if there's enough tracks that the $10 album price makes sense, but usually I just buy a couple of songs.
For the same reason that the people who DO provide it without any connection to a transaction end up having all of their seats taken up by non-customers, and have to put up notices begging people to limit their use of the system during their peak business hours.
Print a one-time key good for half an hour after the purchase on the receipt. Let people pay for longer-listing keys at the register. You'll get some yobboes dumpster-diving for keys, yes, but it'll discourage most of the leeches.
The reason that "for pay" wifi is a bust is that it's too damn hard to pay for it. There's a bookstore near my daughter's work with a hotspot... but to get on, you have to sign up ahead of time, get an account, with a credit card, it's almost as much hassle as getting cellphone service... and you have to do it again for each company doing wifi.
I realize that it'd be hard to hook it into the register, because those things are all proprietary one-offs, but how about an access point with a little receipt printer that sits on the counter next to the register with three buttons on it: "tall", "grande", and "day pass". When you buy a mocha latte you can ask for a wifi key, the barrista hits a button and you get a tall (30 minutes) or grande (90 minutes), and hands you the printout. Or you can buy a day pass for 10 bucks.
Microsoft was heading this way with increasingly powerful Windows CE clamshells from IBM and others, but around 2000 they redirected all their effort towards Windows NT "Tablet PC"s. Now Linux is the new Windows CE and Microsoft is backpedalling over shutting down XP as they scramble after a market they could have owned.
I'm not convinced that having infinitely flexible syntax is really that helpful anyway
... end" and "if ... then ... else ... end" and replace them with "object do: block" and "object ifTrue: block ifFalse: block" or whatever Ruby's equivalents would be. I don't think these things belong in the language, period.
Neither am I. What I'm really getting at here is not that I want macros so I can create an "if-maybe-whatever" construct, it's that I'd rather make methods on objects do it all and eliminate "for
I'm really not a fan of optional syntax. That way lies Perl.
Hmmm. When it looks like I'm agreeing with Cringely on something, I gotta take a step back and see where I went wrong. :)
Where exactly was I recommending Javascript?
Ruby is very close to Smalltalk syntax except for a few minor points.
People keep saying that, and yet when I look at Ruby I don't see it.
Staring at code with a bunch of { |a,b,c|
Lisp code would be better than staring at a bunch of "for
and as annoying to write.
Which is annoying to write, Javascript or Ruby?
And of course people use one-letter parameter names since Ruby code is so 'small' and 'elegant'.
Smalltalk and Ruby syntax both suck, and JavaScript is here to stay.
Smalltalk syntax is a little odd in places, but I haven't found a better OO syntax in real widely-used language.
Of course Javascript is here to stay. So is Microsoft, the RIAA, and the common cold.
It might be cheaper for Apple to buy the FrameMaker code from Adobe than to maintain PPC!
Given Apple's relationship with Adobe, they might have to buy Adobe to manage that.
I was under the impression that things like control structures (if, while, etc) are actually defined in the language, with keywords and syntax and everything.
:i | output show: i ].
So you could create new control structures in Ruby?
I mean, in Ruby is "for" a keyword in
for i in (1..10)
puts i
end
Or is that a macro around something sane like:
1..10 do { |i|
puts i
}
By analogy with:
1 to: 10 do: [
Um, now I think about that some more, that's just stark raving nuts.
What the **** happened to the version that ran on NextStep/Openstep? That should pretty much be just a recompile to run on Cocoa.
No, I don't want to hear that Adobe lost the code or anything stupid like that. That's just inconceivable.
Framemaker only runs in Classic.
;;;
o_O
Oh Wow...
I mean, just...
There are no words...
but the syntax isn't where you get the benefit of ruby.
Of course not. It's still got a Pascal/Algol/C style procedural/algorithmic syntax, rather than one based on the object hierarchy like you have in Smalltalk. Looking at Ruby, it doesn't really look like blocks are a true first class object in the language as they are in Smalltalk or Lisp.
Only one person can save the galaxy. I don't want to have to compete with thousands of people to be that person.
Saving galaxies, can you stop at one?
Galaxies, save all you want, we'll make more!
We replaced this young Jedi's galaxy with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if he notices!
****click****VOOOOOOORN****SWISH****THUMP****
Silverlight and it's linux version Moonlight provide clientside support for Ruby, Python, C# etc.
"Phishers, start your compilers"
I think you're mixing up Classic and Carbon or Rosetta, yesno?
I'm not sure what you're getting at.
Pure HTML Widgets use Javascript for their active content, of course. The point is that Widgets that contain non-JS scripts or native code will, as one might expect, not run as plasmoids.
what I'd like to know is why has the medical industry NOT took the initative to create such a system themselves?
Perhaps because they don't want patients to start lying to their doctors because they're afraid of their insurance company going all Scrooge on them?
According to the Plasma FAQ only pure HTML Dashboard Widgets can run as Plasmoids. This is not surprising :) but do keep it in mind.
Tinkertool can disable Dashboard completely.
* They're more portable - they run in Windows or OS X.
* They have MUCH less overhead. Some dashboard widgets have a CPU% in the double digets while Dashboard is open!
* They're not constrained to the dashboard.
I have a feeling that part of the reason that Apple stuck their widgets on the dashboard was because the overhead of webkit doing AJAXy things to try and look lickable is so high. The layout engine Konfabulator introduced is much lighter weight. Whatever the reason, I found I was never using the Dashboard so I went back to Konfabulator. I used Tinkertool to disable the Dashboard completely, who needs the overhead?
When are they going to emulate Konfabulator under KDE? Hmmm?
But not very many. Net Applications reported that Intel Mac use surpassed PPC back in November.
So? How many people were still using OS 9 when they dumped the G4 tower. They had to bring Classic-booting Macs back *twice* because of the outcry from education. I'm still convinced that Apple could have introduced Intel Macs at any time and they waited until they could dump Classic booting... the third time was the charm... before they dumped Classic with the Intel introduction.
Apple has always considered the educational market a critical one because it's a gateway market.
Now, where do you suppose many of the PPC Macs out there are?
Wilson obviously made that all up. The real word is "" and the hypnosis machine looks nothing like the one he described.
Sprint and Verizon both lock you into a phone, which is hateful, but Sprint had much better coverage for me, and didn't actually manage to lose my number the way Verizon seemed to for a while. That's enough to tip the scales.