Lots of folks are satisfied with old versions of software, but some folks aren't. Just like some folks lease cars, but some buy.
"just like"??? if you have an old car you are free to open the hood and disassemble/fix/repair what is broken. you can also add features to your car that were not available at purchase.
OTOH, doing this to MS-Office is illegal.
car::computer analogies are interesting because they always point out the consumer-gouging that takes place in the IT world.
and once, after a few years, a high enough % of people move to the sub. version, MS can stop supporting backwards-compatibility (which is something they've never been in favor of anyway), and then your Office2000 documents will be worthless to Office 13.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
The article reads that you can't create *new* documents, not that you can't continue working on and reading existing ones
are you sure? it says: If customers do not renew or install an upgrade product, they can still open, view and print their existing documents.
that's open, view, print. yes, by "open" we assume that means "open to editing", but when someone's trying to sucker you they'll permit this kind of assumption and then fall back on a narrow, literal intepretation when it comes time to apply the thumbscrews.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
So removing defrag is "easy" and safe to remove. Something like ie would require massive changes all of which reinvent the wheel plus then a ton of testing. Your comparison between the two is silly.
from the c't article about this conflict:
"Therefore an uncertainty remains though it is relativized by the way of integration into Windows 2000: The defragmentation only runs by request of the administrator or user. Additionally there are two alternatives, among others at [1]. But even there the source code is currently missing. Microsoft's advice to simply delete the defragmentation software if in doubt borders on deceit. Following that advice in the current pre-releases activates a component called System File Protection (SFP). It immediately restores the files in question as soon as they have vanished from the Explorer by using a cached copy."
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
CoS vs. the Government? Lawd Save Us!
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FRG on W2K: No CoS
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You mean to say that a money-grubbing scam for redistributing wealth upwards (Scientology) sent members undercover to secure their assets against the government, which only wants your money for Theologically Pure Reasons!!! Land sakes alive! Those evil scientologists taking millions from gullible fools must be made to properly respect our godly, noble IRS which generously accepts my "offering" of 30%+ of my already miniscule income!!
When will these religious nuts understand that what they do is "fraud" -- not to be confused with "taxation" which is what our Infallible Holy Guvmint does?
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
How about a new internet with a Declaration of Independence right from the start that says We the people say we are unbound by your countries laws, anything you put in is owned by all, this is a free-for-all baby!
I know, it will never even come close to becoming a reality, but it sounds good doesn't it?
all systems of law are unnatural agreements. they have only the power we allow them to exercise.
throughout human history, whenever laws have become oppressive or disagreeable, communities of persons have left their societies to claim new land and form new systems.
there is no more land to emigrate to.
virtually all pieces of land are bound by regulations of some kind.
we are at a new period in history.
even if so-called "cyberspace" is an abstraction, its human operators are corporeal, and they shall continue to be held to the laws governing whatever physical space their bodies occupy.
to truly accept and support the notion of Internetworked systems as autonomous entities will be no different than other revolutions.
violence.
rights sound wonderful in Declarations of Independence, but are meaningless without the support of guns and people willing to use them.
there will be no Digital Revolution as long as the above conditions hold true.
the momentum of ~8,000 years of history will crush your puny new technology.
for now.
but you're right -- although it's impossible to improve circumstances because humanity remains the same, it's nice to fantasize about.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
truth is irrelevant, you will be edited to sound shocking/funny.
i can tell by your tone that you're the same person who has posted this to every other applicable thread -- i can just see you loading every story at -1, then Ctrl-F-ing and typing in "Gore" to find the newest offenders.
it's politics silly, what actually happens to actual people is not important.
after all, those who live by the media soundbyte-invective die by the media soundbyte-invective.
move on with your life.
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
pointing out that it is the culture, not guns, that encourages Columbine-like behavior. There can be no doubt that the Columbine killers were affected by the culture, and accessed that through the internet.
"the culture"??
yes, but which culture?
the "culture" of a computer game?
the "culture" of a web page?
i don't think so.
try these:
the culture of consumerism
the culture of apathetic convenience
the culture that places the activities, opinions, and appearances of media-fabricated celebrities at a higher level of importance than the world or the community
the culture of the kill-or-be-killed teen years
If my memory of grade school serves me well (hint: it does), then nothing has a larger impact than the very culture of childhood.
nothing is more disturbing than the culture of public school, which is an evolutionary concentration camp where one unpopular statement, one mismatched item of clothing, one act of resistance against the conformist rules brands you as insignificant, a loser, a waste, nothing.
there can be no doubt that the influence of some web page i surfed through a couple of times pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of hours spent being run through the Status Quo Transmogrifier that is the education system.
russ suggests a little farther down that if these kids were inherently disturbed, then "isn't more restriction and licensing for weapons the _only_ way to limit their killing?"
i'm not so sure.
my question is: Wouldn't it be best to stop wasting our time complaining about some game/movie and spend more time giving kids something they can hold onto other than the hypermutable treachery of adolescent identity? If some kids are inherently disturbed, how is throwing them into a depersonalizing system with 2000 of their equally selfish, anxious, and uncertain peers going to help them overcome their nature? I guess we could cut off their opposable thumbs to deter them from ever using a physical object as a weapon, but perhaps it would be more effective to work to counteract the culture that says "you are your job", "you are your possessions", "you cannot attain substance unless you make this much money, drive this car, wear these clothes, weigh this much, spray this perfume, have clear skin, have straight white teeth..."
these types of images are the source of the worst damage to a developing person.
personally, i find FPS games more boring than shocking. ["oh look, i just made a bunch of green and beige pixels turn black and red and then randomly disperse themselves in clumps toward the bottom of my screen. yay"]. what shocks me is that there are millions of americans who truly believe that if only we can keep those other evil people from electing {Gore,Bush} then we can begin to build a bridge to the 21st century, whatever the hell that means.
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i remember one of the State-Of-The-Union Addresses given by GHWB (senior for those who don't keep up with initials) i think in '90, he was talking about winning the war on drugs, and how we have to stop the trend of younger children getting into harder drugs. and then he listed some: heroin, cocaine, crack -- except exactly when he said "cocaine" he absentmindedly rubbed his nose!
i actually *did* fall off my chair laughing.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i guess i didn't make myself sufficiently clear.
i was not referring to your post at all. i don't see any mis-spelled words in your post.
i intended for moderators to go look up the word "informative". the original might be considered "insightful" or "interesting" as an example of one argument in the discussion, but it did not itself present any data.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
no offense to the original poster, but...
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High-Speed Greed
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--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
that's innovative capitalism at work
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High-Speed Greed
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hehe, good idea, though i bet the alleged @home hypothetical policy under discussion would have some basic monthly minimum regardless of sales. kinda like the inverse of how many salespersons are paid a low base salary to provide incentive to achieve sales commission.
but because this is/. FUD, i'm willing to guess that this idea is more of a hassle than would be profitable, and won't actually see the light of day.
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
it's a shame i have to buy everything online
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High-Speed Greed
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now that gorcery stores, bookstores, electronics outlets, entertainment facilitites, magazines, fashion retailers, restaurants, gas stations, and home contractors have all gone out of business because of massive online purchasing -- i'm forced, absolutely forced to buy every product or service through my @home connection.
this will destroy morality, democracy, and The Children!!
c'mon, people, what's the deal here?
ATT can't possibly bill a webmerchant simply because an @homer ended up on their page -- even ignoring the technical/paperwork nightmare involved in tracking and generating Accounts Receivable statments for every single user's every single click, there is no way to enforce such a policy:
@Home: Merchant, you owe us $27,300 for the people that accessed your page during the last week using our service.
Merchants: Um, but we didn't invite your users here. Someone posted our URL on Slashdot and all the geeks just flooded in.
@Home: Still, they got there using our wires, so you better pay up!
Merchants: Whatever. Honk off, Bozo.
Federal Judge to @Home: Yeah, Honk off, Bozo!
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
A good writer can say with one sentence what takes a bad writer to do in a book. Long != Good
A GOOD writer can take a thought that can be reasonably summed up in one sentence and then write an engaging 700 pages illustrating it.
Good is not a function of Length. Instead, each individual reader decides whether the length of each specific item is worth it.
For instance, when some friends blackmailed me into watching The Matrix recently, I did not think the length was an engaging exposition of the main plot, which as far as I could tell was: "Keanu Reeves is the Messiah. Wh-o-oah!"
If you hate JK's writing so much why did you come read the article and then respond?
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
well, yes, but i think that's her/his point: every other post gets a +1 by comparison. equally -- regardless of its content.
meaning that something that should be at 2+ simply stays at 1, along with a whole bunch of mediocre posts. yes, everything at 1 is of course above anything less than zero but since most logged-in/.ers start posting at 1, the majority of comments are on-topic but unexceptional. to throw your mod points away downgrading a troll instead of helping a good post move above the ranks of the mediocre 1 is, by your logic, to also SUBTRACT 1 in comparison from every post that deserves to be at 2+
to wit:
Concentrate more on promoting than on demoting. The real goal here is to find the juicy good stuff and let others read it.
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
overwhelming public sentiment against Carnivore...
Whatever. Pick up a newspaper, watch the 6 o'clock nightly report. Ask the grocery-store cashier what she thinks of Carnivore.
Carnivore what? Why should i care about the obliteration of my most sacred freedoms when there are stories discussing high gas prices? and isn't Madonna Roberts Midler Winfrey coming out with a new movieshowbookmediaitem? Goddammit, I Want My MTV!
When confirmation of Echelon burst out all over the Net, print media buried it in two-column back page articles that nobody noticed.
"will the real representative sample please stand up?" the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
you're welcome.
in the time since my first bbs, i've done (and still occasionally do) a lot of anonymous flaming, and i think the thrill of treating others viciously is really a harmless hobby that can be sometimes amusing. what's great about public message boards is that the relative privacy means we can say whatever we want to without consideration for anything -- instead of wasting time trying to understand and be understood, the act of speaking becomes all about Me. Saying things like, "you're a complete moron" allow me to briefly pretend that i, and i alone, really know what it's all about. there's a tremendous amount of power in that, and it's something i think everyone should do just so they can understand how base and petty they are (it worked for me).
anyway, to go ahead and act out my assigned role as Defender-Who-Seeks-Public-Justification-After-Bein g-Oh-So-Dramatically-Flamed:
1)it is true that i am not generally inclined to capitalize the beginning of sentences. the strength of language is that we readily understand poorly constructed phrases like "you please help?" or "no like bad man". in context even single words like "restroom?" are understood to mean, "Would you please direct me to the nearest restroom?" that's good, because it gives us an emormous degree of freedom to form things in whatever way suits our purpose, and everyone can use whatever level of syntactic precision they feel is necessary.
2)i won't protest the label of pseudo-intellectual, since i'm sure parts of me fit into that category quite easily. still, you have to be grateful that i am, because otherwise you wouldn't have been given this splendid opportunity to "get your ya-yas".
3)as far as the phrase "give rise to verbal rhythm, mental ambience, subtexture, supertexture"
being meaningless, i'm not terribly concerned. i chose those words because to me they possess very definite, descriptive connotations out of which i can try to externalize what i'm thinking. other people, naturally, have association-sets of their own which may or may not be similar to mine. the more dissimilar they are, the more meaningless my speech becomes to the listener. since i wasn't exactly expecting to change the world by posting on slashdot, i can accept the your attribution of meaninglessness to my post as a failure (on my part) to communicate. but it still sounds good to me, and since i'm quite happy with just that, perhaps that really does make me:
4)a first-class wanker.
yes, you're right again. i do like myself. i do enjoy my own company. i am often pleased by things i say and do. yep....
hmmm.. well, i guess i gave in on all four points there. so let's keep playing our roles and declare you the dashing, irresistably sharp chap who has single-handedly made a fool out of yet another of those awful pseudo-intellectuals.
i can only hope this has been as entertaining for you as it was for me.
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
amazing. i didn't think i'd ever see a "plainspeak only" post on/.
i mean, it's one thing to be simply uninterested in reading/composing anything above the infamous mass market print media level of 8th grade.
it's another thing to take the cliche anti-intellectual stance that anyone who uses more semantically complex prose is doing so wastefully.
in an absolute sense all language is needless, but some of us enjoy the aesthetic affect of phrasing ideas in ways that give rise to verbal rhythm, mental ambience, subtexture, supertexture -- which we feel enriches the whole text. in this vein, it isimportant to come to understand language not simply as a dictionary filled with words and definitions, but rather as a well-developed and fertile garden, the fruits and herbs of which can be infinitely recombined to satisfy and delight the palate.
but designating all such usage as necessarily pretentious calls upon the same kind of snobbishness (though from the opposite "side") that is attributed to the orator. namely, the preconception that anyone who uses elaborate speech does so not because she has grown into familiarity with the subtle connotative differences between semantic particles, but rather because of her preconceptions that using florid imputes to her ideas a greater authority. [which is like a study i read a few years ago which demonstrated the tendency of americans to assume greater intelligence of persons speaking in a British accent. just as accents are natural outgrowths of location, ornate speech is (usually) a simple product of greater early exposure to an advanced and varied literary diet.
language is like any skill in that those who achieve a more complete understanding of its various nuances will painstakingly select each word to maximize the effect of the whole, and simply having a larger vocabulary will lead quite naturally to a higher incidence of uncommon words.
[oh, and for anybody that's pissing themselves in excitement, waiting to correct my first use of "affect" instead of effect -- i'm intending that in the psychological sense of "perceived or imparted mood". thus, affect.]
"Gawdang them smart peepul, they ah-ays makin stuff with there big wurds. wha caint they talk lyke regler fokes."
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
And a hack like King should never quote Heinlein; Heinlein is the Earth, and he's the Moon, by comparison.
take my heinlein, please.
i read sf exclusively for the first 17 years of my life, but never got around to heinlein. then around 21 i picked up Stranger in a Strange Land just to see what the deal was, and the whole time i was reading it i kept wondering, "now, WHY is it that this is supposed to be an incredible book??" i had a similar reaction to some of his other stuff, which was written similarly. i guess for the time it was written, stuff like free love and telekinesis was just so subversively deep and avantgarde, but having read stuff that is still relevant after 1974, i just didn't see what was so exciting about it. it wasn't even a convincing attempt to be sf -- it was more like a sociopolitical manifesto set to fiction (which can still make for some excellent lit. but imo that's not what this was).
new.sig?
A bore like Heinlein should never quote King; King is alive, and Heinlein is dead, by comparison.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i was at work and in a hurry so i just slapped the link over and forgot about the spacing issue.
here's the link i used, in text:
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/OopBooks/OopResults .asp?userid=2MV2P65425&mscssid=3MDCX V7Q0 NLB8GJCS385A41FXQJGFW10&title=splendid+war+kids
or you can just go to Barnes&Noble, go to the advanced search screen and type into the title field, "war between splendid kids". then hit the "More titles from our network of out of print book dealers" link and it should be right there.
really, that was one of the books that planted in me the idea of not just going along with whatever public school tried to make me, and actually tell my teachers, "Sorry, I read, I think, and I'm smart -- what you want me to do is dumb. Therefore, i respectfully decline from praticipating."
I still crack up thinking about the "Status Quo Homogenizer" or whatever it was called... hehe
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
And speaking of Them, where lies the trend in The War Between The Pitiful RIAA and the Splendid Universities?
neat reference timothy, i read that book in grade school and really enjoyed it. it's one of those items i keep checking used bookstores for, since it's been o.p. for about fifteen years.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i was beginning to think that i had only imagined the existence of that book because no one seems to have heard of it! i've scoured used bookstores for years and now have two pbk copies (so i can keep one permanently and occasionally loan out the other if someone proves worthy). everyone's reaction is the same: "wow! why haven't i heard of this before?"
seriously, i consider it the best novel i've read, and it puzzles me that it's not as well known as its cohorts like Hitchhiker's Guide, Catch22, vonnegut (esp. Sirens of Titan), Confederacy of Dunces...
as far as the phil dick story, if it's a short story i may have read it since i used to read every sf anthology i could find (maybe that's why the memory-wipe idea was floating around in my subconscious); since it comes recommended from someone who has read Satan i'll definitely track it down.
i'd be interested in hearing how you came across Satan and what kind of impression it made on you.. you can email me using my nick (it's a hotmail address).
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
The point being, that there are genuine threats out there, and the NSA is, really, trying its best to protect you, whether you realize it or not.
I can basically agree with this as long as it is understood that societies are like humans -- they do not have treatably isolated disorders.
The personality trait-set that makes someone insightful, sensitive, and generous may also be what makes them vulnerable to rejection and depression.
By the same token, it is the existence and legacy of america's (and the West's) global policies for the last couple centuries that has made us the target of terrorist attacks in the first place. These policies are administered and operated with the same mindset, by the same cadre of military-industrial traditionalists that also give us organizations like the NSA. Yes, I suppose it's great that I enjoy a personal leisure, life-expectancy, and security than any other comparable civilization/era, but the piper must always be paid. In other words, if we didn't have a society run by people with an "NSA mindset", then perhaps we wouldn't need the NSA in the first place. [heh. as you may notice, i like to mix metaphors and analogies]
Confucius says, "It is a wise physician who can discern when the Cure is also the Disease".
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
you'll see that this guy has been "ex"-NSA for a long time. He probably has no idea of what the current position on software is inside the agency itself. If he did, he certainly wouldn't be allowed to release it.
Changing jobs does not mean that you suddenly lose all memory of common practices in your previous workplace (or maybe with NSA it does??.. now there's a conspiracy theory for you...:-))
In fact, contrary to what you seem to conclude, I would think that the longer he has been out of the NSA the more likely it is that this is correct. To horribly abuse the Principle of Induction, think of it like this:
1) In year y-0, NSA hits upon the idea of using backdoors as a way of conducting espionage.
2) In year y-1, NSA discovers that computers will become universal within decades. NSA then continues to develop backdoor implementation.
3) thus, in year y-n it is reasonable to make the statement that, as computers have become more prevalent and software holes become more useful, NSA is still strengthening its backdoor strategies.*
What you're suggesting is like saying that we should ignore any intelligence gathered during the American-Iraqi war that discussed Iraq's development of nuclear weapons since to paraphrase you such sources "probably have no idea of what the current position on nukes is inside Iraq itself".
I doubt this kind of reasoning helps Israel sleep better at night.
*please no comments from math/logic folks pointing out any errant details -- it's an adaptation of the tool, not a proof. deal.
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
and the prices as formulated so far are nothing to write home about unless you think $20 for a CD is a fair deal.
um.
wait a sec...
are you telling me that they would have wanted me to pay more for music that i couldn't copy than for music that i could??
i'm confused... if, as they claim, part of the artificially high price of CDs (and blank CD-R for that matter) is to recover losses to music pirates -- shouldn't music that i purchase in a format that prevents this piracy actually cost LESS?!?
ouch, riaa-logic hurt wittle ol' me's head.
i go smash things now...
--- the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
Slashdot Mirror
if you have an old car you are free to open the hood and disassemble/fix/repair what is broken. you can also add features to your car that were not available at purchase.
OTOH, doing this to MS-Office is illegal.
car::computer analogies are interesting because they always point out the consumer-gouging that takes place in the IT world.
and once, after a few years, a high enough % of people move to the sub. version, MS can stop supporting backwards-compatibility (which is something they've never been in favor of anyway), and then your Office2000 documents will be worthless to Office 13.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
If customers do not renew or install an upgrade product, they can still open, view and print their existing documents.
that's open, view, print.
yes, by "open" we assume that means "open to editing", but when someone's trying to sucker you they'll permit this kind of assumption and then fall back on a narrow, literal intepretation when it comes time to apply the thumbscrews.
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
"Therefore an uncertainty remains though it is relativized by the way of integration into Windows 2000: The defragmentation only runs by request of the administrator or user. Additionally there are two alternatives, among others at [1]. But even there the source code is currently missing.
Microsoft's advice to simply delete the defragmentation software if in doubt borders on deceit. Following that advice in the current pre-releases activates a component called System File Protection (SFP). It immediately restores the files in question as soon as they have vanished from the Explorer by using a cached copy."
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
You mean to say that a money-grubbing scam for redistributing wealth upwards (Scientology) sent members undercover to secure their assets against the government, which only wants your money for Theologically Pure Reasons!!! Land sakes alive!
Those evil scientologists taking millions from gullible fools must be made to properly respect our godly, noble IRS which generously accepts my "offering" of 30%+ of my already miniscule income!!
When will these religious nuts understand that what they do is "fraud" -- not to be confused with "taxation" which is what our Infallible Holy Guvmint does?
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
throughout human history, whenever laws have become oppressive or disagreeable, communities of persons have left their societies to claim new land and form new systems.
there is no more land to emigrate to.
virtually all pieces of land are bound by regulations of some kind.
we are at a new period in history.
even if so-called "cyberspace" is an abstraction, its human operators are corporeal, and they shall continue to be held to the laws governing whatever physical space their bodies occupy.
to truly accept and support the notion of Internetworked systems as autonomous entities will be no different than other revolutions.
violence.
rights sound wonderful in Declarations of Independence, but are meaningless without the support of guns and people willing to use them.
there will be no Digital Revolution as long as the above conditions hold true.
the momentum of ~8,000 years of history will crush your puny new technology.
for now.
but you're right -- although it's impossible to improve circumstances because humanity remains the same, it's nice to fantasize about.
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
truth is irrelevant, you will be edited to sound shocking/funny.
i can tell by your tone that you're the same person who has posted this to every other applicable thread -- i can just see you loading every story at -1, then Ctrl-F-ing and typing in "Gore" to find the newest offenders.
it's politics silly, what actually happens to actual people is not important.
after all, those who live by the media soundbyte-invective die by the media soundbyte-invective.
move on with your life.
---
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i dunno about that.
bush v. gore
corporations v. government
parents v. social services
capitalism v. monarchism
humans are pretty much the same regardless. like anything else, when it's good it's good, but when it's bad, it's REALLY bad.
i'd rather have a great monarch than a mediocre president.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
yes, but which culture?
the "culture" of a computer game?
the "culture" of a web page?
i don't think so.
try these:
the culture of consumerism
the culture of apathetic convenience
the culture that places the activities, opinions, and appearances of media-fabricated celebrities at a higher level of importance than the world or the community
the culture of the kill-or-be-killed teen years
If my memory of grade school serves me well (hint: it does), then nothing has a larger impact than the very culture of childhood.
nothing is more disturbing than the culture of public school, which is an evolutionary concentration camp where one unpopular statement, one mismatched item of clothing, one act of resistance against the conformist rules brands you as insignificant, a loser, a waste, nothing.
there can be no doubt that the influence of some web page i surfed through a couple of times pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of hours spent being run through the Status Quo Transmogrifier that is the education system.
russ suggests a little farther down that if these kids were inherently disturbed, then "isn't more restriction and licensing for weapons the _only_ way to limit their killing?"
i'm not so sure.
my question is: Wouldn't it be best to stop wasting our time complaining about some game/movie and spend more time giving kids something they can hold onto other than the hypermutable treachery of adolescent identity? If some kids are inherently disturbed, how is throwing them into a depersonalizing system with 2000 of their equally selfish, anxious, and uncertain peers going to help them overcome their nature?
I guess we could cut off their opposable thumbs to deter them from ever using a physical object as a weapon, but perhaps it would be more effective to work to counteract the culture that says "you are your job", "you are your possessions", "you cannot attain substance unless you make this much money, drive this car, wear these clothes, weigh this much, spray this perfume, have clear skin, have straight white teeth..."
these types of images are the source of the worst damage to a developing person.
personally, i find FPS games more boring than shocking. ["oh look, i just made a bunch of green and beige pixels turn black and red and then randomly disperse themselves in clumps toward the bottom of my screen. yay"]. what shocks me is that there are millions of americans who truly believe that if only we can keep those other evil people from electing {Gore,Bush} then we can begin to build a bridge to the 21st century, whatever the hell that means.
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
a chip off the old block?
i remember one of the State-Of-The-Union Addresses given by GHWB (senior for those who don't keep up with initials) i think in '90, he was talking about winning the war on drugs, and how we have to stop the trend of younger children getting into harder drugs. and then he listed some: heroin, cocaine, crack -- except exactly when he said "cocaine" he absentmindedly rubbed his nose!
i actually *did* fall off my chair laughing.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i guess i didn't make myself sufficiently clear.
i was not referring to your post at all. i don't see any mis-spelled words in your post.
i intended for moderators to go look up the word "informative". the original might be considered "insightful" or "interesting" as an example of one argument in the discussion, but it did not itself present any data.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
informative??
i have just three words for that:
"dictionary dot com"
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
hehe, good idea, though i bet the alleged @home hypothetical policy under discussion would have some basic monthly minimum regardless of sales. kinda like the inverse of how many salespersons are paid a low base salary to provide incentive to achieve sales commission. /. FUD, i'm willing to guess that this idea is more of a hassle than would be profitable, and won't actually see the light of day.
but because this is
see also #28
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
now that gorcery stores, bookstores, electronics outlets, entertainment facilitites, magazines, fashion retailers, restaurants, gas stations, and home contractors have all gone out of business because of massive online purchasing -- i'm forced, absolutely forced to buy every product or service through my @home connection.
this will destroy morality, democracy, and The Children!!
c'mon, people, what's the deal here? ATT can't possibly bill a webmerchant simply because an @homer ended up on their page -- even ignoring the technical/paperwork nightmare involved in tracking and generating Accounts Receivable statments for every single user's every single click, there is no way to enforce such a policy:
@Home: Merchant, you owe us $27,300 for the people that accessed your page during the last week using our service.
Merchants: Um, but we didn't invite your users here. Someone posted our URL on Slashdot and all the geeks just flooded in.
@Home: Still, they got there using our wires, so you better pay up!
Merchants: Whatever. Honk off, Bozo.
Federal Judge to @Home: Yeah, Honk off, Bozo!
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
Instead, each individual reader decides whether the length of each specific item is worth it.
For instance, when some friends blackmailed me into watching The Matrix recently, I did not think the length was an engaging exposition of the main plot, which as far as I could tell was: "Keanu Reeves is the Messiah. Wh-o-oah!"
If you hate JK's writing so much why did you come read the article and then respond?
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
meaning that something that should be at 2+ simply stays at 1, along with a whole bunch of mediocre posts. yes, everything at 1 is of course above anything less than zero but since most logged-in
to wit:
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
overwhelming public sentiment against Carnivore...
Whatever. Pick up a newspaper, watch the 6 o'clock nightly report. Ask the grocery-store cashier what she thinks of Carnivore.
Carnivore what?
Why should i care about the obliteration of my most sacred freedoms when there are stories discussing high gas prices? and isn't Madonna Roberts Midler Winfrey coming out with a new movieshowbookmediaitem? Goddammit, I Want My MTV!
When confirmation of Echelon burst out all over the Net, print media buried it in two-column back page articles that nobody noticed.
"will the real representative sample please stand up?"
the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
you're welcome.
n g-Oh-So-Dramatically-Flamed:
in the time since my first bbs, i've done (and still occasionally do) a lot of anonymous flaming, and i think the thrill of treating others viciously is really a harmless hobby that can be sometimes amusing. what's great about public message boards is that the relative privacy means we can say whatever we want to without consideration for anything -- instead of wasting time trying to understand and be understood, the act of speaking becomes all about Me. Saying things like, "you're a complete moron" allow me to briefly pretend that i, and i alone, really know what it's all about. there's a tremendous amount of power in that, and it's something i think everyone should do just so they can understand how base and petty they are (it worked for me).
anyway, to go ahead and act out my assigned role as Defender-Who-Seeks-Public-Justification-After-Bei
1)it is true that i am not generally inclined to capitalize the beginning of sentences. the strength of language is that we readily understand poorly constructed phrases like "you please help?" or "no like bad man". in context even single words like "restroom?" are understood to mean, "Would you please direct me to the nearest restroom?"
that's good, because it gives us an emormous degree of freedom to form things in whatever way suits our purpose, and everyone can use whatever level of syntactic precision they feel is necessary.
2)i won't protest the label of pseudo-intellectual, since i'm sure parts of me fit into that category quite easily. still, you have to be grateful that i am, because otherwise you wouldn't have been given this splendid opportunity to "get your ya-yas".
3)as far as the phrase "give rise to verbal rhythm, mental ambience, subtexture, supertexture" being meaningless, i'm not terribly concerned. i chose those words because to me they possess very definite, descriptive connotations out of which i can try to externalize what i'm thinking. other people, naturally, have association-sets of their own which may or may not be similar to mine. the more dissimilar they are, the more meaningless my speech becomes to the listener. since i wasn't exactly expecting to change the world by posting on slashdot, i can accept the your attribution of meaninglessness to my post as a failure (on my part) to communicate. but it still sounds good to me, and since i'm quite happy with just that, perhaps that really does make me:
4)a first-class wanker.
yes, you're right again. i do like myself. i do enjoy my own company. i am often pleased by things i say and do. yep....
hmmm.. well, i guess i gave in on all four points there. so let's keep playing our roles and declare you the dashing, irresistably sharp chap who has single-handedly made a fool out of yet another of those awful pseudo-intellectuals.
i can only hope this has been as entertaining for you as it was for me.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
amazing. i didn't think i'd ever see a "plainspeak only" post on /.
i mean, it's one thing to be simply uninterested in reading/composing anything above the infamous mass market print media level of 8th grade.
it's another thing to take the cliche anti-intellectual stance that anyone who uses more semantically complex prose is doing so wastefully.
in an absolute sense all language is needless, but some of us enjoy the aesthetic affect of phrasing ideas in ways that give rise to verbal rhythm, mental ambience, subtexture, supertexture -- which we feel enriches the whole text. in this vein, it isimportant to come to understand language not simply as a dictionary filled with words and definitions, but rather as a well-developed and fertile garden, the fruits and herbs of which can be infinitely recombined to satisfy and delight the palate.
but designating all such usage as necessarily pretentious calls upon the same kind of snobbishness (though from the opposite "side") that is attributed to the orator. namely, the preconception that anyone who uses elaborate speech does so not because she has grown into familiarity with the subtle connotative differences between semantic particles, but rather because of her preconceptions that using florid imputes to her ideas a greater authority.
[which is like a study i read a few years ago which demonstrated the tendency of americans to assume greater intelligence of persons speaking in a British accent. just as accents are natural outgrowths of location, ornate speech is (usually) a simple product of greater early exposure to an advanced and varied literary diet.
language is like any skill in that those who achieve a more complete understanding of its various nuances will painstakingly select each word to maximize the effect of the whole, and simply having a larger vocabulary will lead quite naturally to a higher incidence of uncommon words.
[oh, and for anybody that's pissing themselves in excitement, waiting to correct my first use of "affect" instead of effect -- i'm intending that in the psychological sense of "perceived or imparted mood". thus, affect.]
"Gawdang them smart peepul, they ah-ays makin stuff with there big wurds. wha caint they talk lyke regler fokes."
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i read sf exclusively for the first 17 years of my life, but never got around to heinlein. then around 21 i picked up Stranger in a Strange Land just to see what the deal was, and the whole time i was reading it i kept wondering, "now, WHY is it that this is supposed to be an incredible book??"
i had a similar reaction to some of his other stuff, which was written similarly. i guess for the time it was written, stuff like free love and telekinesis was just so subversively deep and avantgarde, but having read stuff that is still relevant after 1974, i just didn't see what was so exciting about it. it wasn't even a convincing attempt to be sf -- it was more like a sociopolitical manifesto set to fiction (which can still make for some excellent lit. but imo that's not what this was).
new
A bore like Heinlein should never quote King; King is alive, and Heinlein is dead, by comparison.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i was at work and in a hurry so i just slapped the link over and forgot about the spacing issue. here's the link i used, in text: http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/OopBooks/OopResults .asp?userid=2MV2P65425&mscssid=3MDCX V7Q0 NLB8GJCS385A41FXQJGFW10&title=splendid+war+kids
or you can just go to Barnes&Noble, go to the advanced search screen and type into the title field, "war between splendid kids". then hit the "More titles from our network of out of print book dealers" link and it should be right there.
really, that was one of the books that planted in me the idea of not just going along with whatever public school tried to make me, and actually tell my teachers, "Sorry, I read, I think, and I'm smart -- what you want me to do is dumb. Therefore, i respectfully decline from praticipating."
I still crack up thinking about the "Status Quo Homogenizer" or whatever it was called... hehe
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
And speaking of Them, where lies the trend in The War Between The Pitiful RIAA and the Splendid Universities?
neat reference timothy, i read that book in grade school and really enjoyed it. it's one of those items i keep checking used bookstores for, since it's been o.p. for about fifteen years.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
i was beginning to think that i had only imagined the existence of that book because no one seems to have heard of it! i've scoured used bookstores for years and now have two pbk copies (so i can keep one permanently and occasionally loan out the other if someone proves worthy). everyone's reaction is the same: "wow! why haven't i heard of this before?"
seriously, i consider it the best novel i've read, and it puzzles me that it's not as well known as its cohorts like Hitchhiker's Guide, Catch22, vonnegut (esp. Sirens of Titan), Confederacy of Dunces...
as far as the phil dick story, if it's a short story i may have read it since i used to read every sf anthology i could find (maybe that's why the memory-wipe idea was floating around in my subconscious); since it comes recommended from someone who has read Satan i'll definitely track it down.
i'd be interested in hearing how you came across Satan and what kind of impression it made on you.. you can email me using my nick (it's a hotmail address).
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
The point being, that there are genuine threats out there, and the NSA is, really, trying its best to protect you, whether you realize it or not.
I can basically agree with this as long as it is understood that societies are like humans -- they do not have treatably isolated disorders.
The personality trait-set that makes someone insightful, sensitive, and generous may also be what makes them vulnerable to rejection and depression.
By the same token, it is the existence and legacy of america's (and the West's) global policies for the last couple centuries that has made us the target of terrorist attacks in the first place. These policies are administered and operated with the same mindset, by the same cadre of military-industrial traditionalists that also give us organizations like the NSA.
Yes, I suppose it's great that I enjoy a personal leisure, life-expectancy, and security than any other comparable civilization/era, but the piper must always be paid. In other words, if we didn't have a society run by people with an "NSA mindset", then perhaps we wouldn't need the NSA in the first place.
[heh. as you may notice, i like to mix metaphors and analogies]
Confucius says, "It is a wise physician who can discern when the Cure is also the Disease".
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
you'll see that this guy has been "ex"-NSA for a long time. He probably has no idea of what the current position on software is inside the agency itself. If he did, he certainly wouldn't be allowed to release it.
:-))
Changing jobs does not mean that you suddenly lose all memory of common practices in your previous workplace (or maybe with NSA it does??.. now there's a conspiracy theory for you...
In fact, contrary to what you seem to conclude, I would think that the longer he has been out of the NSA the more likely it is that this is correct. To horribly abuse the Principle of Induction, think of it like this:
1) In year y-0, NSA hits upon the idea of using backdoors as a way of conducting espionage.
2) In year y-1, NSA discovers that computers will become universal within decades. NSA then continues to develop backdoor implementation.
3) thus, in year y-n it is reasonable to make the statement that, as computers have become more prevalent and software holes become more useful, NSA is still strengthening its backdoor strategies.*
What you're suggesting is like saying that we should ignore any intelligence gathered during the American-Iraqi war that discussed Iraq's development of nuclear weapons since to paraphrase you such sources "probably have no idea of what the current position on nukes is inside Iraq itself".
I doubt this kind of reasoning helps Israel sleep better at night.
*please no comments from math/logic folks pointing out any errant details -- it's an adaptation of the tool, not a proof. deal.
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties
and the prices as formulated so far are nothing to write home about unless you think $20 for a CD is a fair deal.
um.
wait a sec...
are you telling me that they would have wanted me to pay more for music that i couldn't copy than for music that i could??
i'm confused... if, as they claim, part of the artificially high price of CDs (and blank CD-R for that matter) is to recover losses to music pirates -- shouldn't music that i purchase in a format that prevents this piracy actually cost LESS?!?
ouch, riaa-logic hurt wittle ol' me's head.
i go smash things now...
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the problem with teens is they're looking for certainties