Nonsense. This is a step in the right direction because if done at least a little bit well, it'll demolish the wrong perception of computer as a glorified typewriter. That. Is. The. Point. It won't turn all kids into programmers but it will show them what they can actually do with a computer. It'll show them that on a computer, you can solve very complicated problems by breaking them down into lots of simple ones and then solve those using many different tools available.
Look around how many people today are completely clueless when they need to use just two different programs to solve their problem. That's like having hammer and a saw but being unable to fix a plank fence because you can't cut the plank with a hammer and you can't hammer the nails with a saw.
No, they don't. When Rick Falkvinge started the party, the name Pirat Party was the obvious choice. But to realize that, you need to know a bit of background from 2005 Sweden. At the time, there were two well known organizations - the Pirate Bay (we all know what that is) and the Piratbyrån, an activist group of independent artists who made fun of big media and their campaign against piracy. The name Piratbyrån was in fact chosen to make fun of Antipiratbyrån (the Anti-Piracy Agency, subsidiary of big media). The name Pirate Party therefore associated the party with those well known (at least to the average Swede) organizations and people immediately knew what to expect.
Pirate parties outside Sweden are in more difficult position because they have to establish their brand from scratch but there simply isn't any better name. Controversial name attracts attention. And on the other hand, people who'll dismiss the party just for its name without any interest in what the name stands for have to stay away from it at this point. If those people started influencing it before it's fully established, the party would implode. At this point, the party needs people who understand its core issues and their importance without lenghty explanations and therefore understand the name as well.
Not all art matters, but that's not an argument in this case. Copyrights affects most heavily especially the art that does matter. In essence, it gives the power to erase a copyrighted work from existence to a handful of people - the copyright owners. And the worst thing is that to exercise this power, due to the ridiculous length of copyright, the copyright owners literally don't have to move a finger. It takes more effort to save a work of art for future generations than it takes to destroy it before it enters public domain.
Go find a list of books and movies that didn't survive to the end of their respective copyright. Not only they won't reach the public domain in your lifetime, they won't reach public domain ever, period. Because there's no copy left to read or view and copy. There's your tangible, measurable benefit.
And to address your claim that art doesn't matter, it does. Art shapes our view of the world. It makes us think about possibilities we wouldn't think about otherwise. Just try to notice how many concepts you think about and use when you speak every day come from books and movies. For example the vast majority of concepts regarding government spying indiscriminately and globally on its citizens comes from George Orwell's book 1984. We understand the dangers involved a little better because Orwell gave us a look at the consequences. What would the world look like today if the whole issue was completely new and unknown to everybody because the book was never written or because all copies were lost shortly after its release?
The "we" you're talking about is actually just a handful of megacorporations that make those patented technologies in China and India. The "we" you should be talking about, small businesses that have no choice but to make their inventions locally, were thrown overboard decades ago and have no vested interest worth speaking of.
IQ of a genius never stopped any smart person from posting something incredibly stupid. There's a very good reason why intelligence and wisdom are completely independent stats in many RPGs.
Believe me that they will figure out what we've been talking about very quickly when the first SOPA victims go to jail. The harder the government stomps on file sharing, the easier it will get to avoid detection because software developers will come up with better privacy measures.
In this case, the ugliness isn't about syntax but about how much spaghetti code the language will eat before it barfs. Perl and C both force you to write much better code than PHP does.
Maybe it has something to do with the simple fact that Linux is often used in big business to run servers with mission-critical services while WP7 phone is at best about as important as overpriced paperweight.
And for the above posters: Try being involved in politics AND have a family AND have a job AND hold onto any semblance of personal sanity or get any sleep these days.
Most people are worked into the ground, it does not allow them to have a government that is all that just, it only allows for animalism.
I know it hasn't sunken in yet for the vast majority of people but we have the Internet now. Some people have time, some people have money and some people have knowledge. I know it takes a lot of all three to influence politics in any significant way and very few people have all three in sufficient quantities but that doesn't matter anymore. Citizens taking active part in politics doesn't have to be a one-man-show anymore. Do the thing you can do best and leave the things you can't do to somebody else who can. Remember that there are just a few thousand politicians, but there're millions of us citizens.
That's pretty much how it works here in Czech republic. I'll let you in on a secret: It makes no difference.
The only thing that can make a difference is people taking active part in politics in between elections. If you think that some "perfect" political system will do your hard work for you, you're looking in the wrong direction.
It doesn't matter that they are not in the machine before elections. They will be five minutes after they say their inauguration pledge. Stop wasting time on looking for the non-existent perfect politician for the office and use that free time on making sure that those imperfect politicians who got elected do their job properly.
Well, when the first government that slits their throat happens to run the almighty US of A, the rest of the world will either slit their throats as well either behind closed doors or at gunpoint. Stupidity only hurts yourself when you don't have the means to inflict it upon everybody else as well.
That was pretty obvious from the beginning, wasn't it? Christoforo was way too arrogant for mere corporate drone but at the same time there's no way a big business owner like he claims to be would deal with customers directly.
Wrong. To be worthy of the hullabaloo, AGW effects have to be catastrophic in nature, merely warming things up a degree in a century does not qualify as such.
Does extinction of entire species sound catastrophic enough? Does mass migration of people from subtropic regions due to severe droughts sound catastrophic enough? Because that's what "a degree in a century" actually means in reality when you stop downplaying large scale effects by even larger global statistics.
We don't have reliable historic reconstructions of temperature and even the current data is suspect. Which leaves satellite data as our most reliable measure of what's going on with the climate.
If you really believe that temperature records are the only evidence for global warming, you just prove my point about deniers ignoring the overwhelming evidence. Temperature records are only a fistful of sand on top of a mountain.
Sure, except when somebody drops a mountain of evidence on their heads, the deniers stick fingers in their ears, close their eyes and start singing lalala.
However, in an ideal world, it should not be necessary to constantly baby-sit the politicians.
The only problem is that we don't live in an ideal world.
Such a system has all of the disadvantages of a direct democracy (Citizens need to stay aware of every issue.) and all of the disadvantages of a republic (Politicians may not represent those who voted for them.) with none of the advantages of either (Citizens having a direct voice on issues for direct democracy, or politicians allowing citizens to devote more time to other issues for a republic.).
Actually, it has advantages and disadvantages of both. Citizens don't need to keep track of everything that happens in politics. Each issue needs to be examined by only a few people who then write short summary for the rest or call for action against government decision. The disadvantages of the republic can be mitigated by voters getting a complete summary of good and evil done by each candidate in the past right before they vote. The advantage is that you get benefits of direct democracy for fraction of the cost. Checking if the decision is good or not often takes much less resources than actually making it. And now we can crowdsource the checking.
I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. ~Alexander Woollcott
This is the first most important thing to remember about democracy. The second most important thing to remember is that it's not anywhere near enough to just vote once every few years. Votes are not blank cheques for politicians. You have the right to check up on your elected representatives and the right to complain loudly if they misappropriate government money or do evil. Your duty as a citizen is to use both of those rights.
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Really? AFAIK U.S. pounds are defined from kilogram which is a unit of mass, not weight.
Nonsense. This is a step in the right direction because if done at least a little bit well, it'll demolish the wrong perception of computer as a glorified typewriter. That. Is. The. Point. It won't turn all kids into programmers but it will show them what they can actually do with a computer. It'll show them that on a computer, you can solve very complicated problems by breaking them down into lots of simple ones and then solve those using many different tools available.
Look around how many people today are completely clueless when they need to use just two different programs to solve their problem. That's like having hammer and a saw but being unable to fix a plank fence because you can't cut the plank with a hammer and you can't hammer the nails with a saw.
No, they don't. When Rick Falkvinge started the party, the name Pirat Party was the obvious choice. But to realize that, you need to know a bit of background from 2005 Sweden. At the time, there were two well known organizations - the Pirate Bay (we all know what that is) and the Piratbyrån, an activist group of independent artists who made fun of big media and their campaign against piracy. The name Piratbyrån was in fact chosen to make fun of Antipiratbyrån (the Anti-Piracy Agency, subsidiary of big media). The name Pirate Party therefore associated the party with those well known (at least to the average Swede) organizations and people immediately knew what to expect.
Pirate parties outside Sweden are in more difficult position because they have to establish their brand from scratch but there simply isn't any better name. Controversial name attracts attention. And on the other hand, people who'll dismiss the party just for its name without any interest in what the name stands for have to stay away from it at this point. If those people started influencing it before it's fully established, the party would implode. At this point, the party needs people who understand its core issues and their importance without lenghty explanations and therefore understand the name as well.
Not all art matters, but that's not an argument in this case. Copyrights affects most heavily especially the art that does matter. In essence, it gives the power to erase a copyrighted work from existence to a handful of people - the copyright owners. And the worst thing is that to exercise this power, due to the ridiculous length of copyright, the copyright owners literally don't have to move a finger. It takes more effort to save a work of art for future generations than it takes to destroy it before it enters public domain.
Go find a list of books and movies that didn't survive to the end of their respective copyright. Not only they won't reach the public domain in your lifetime, they won't reach public domain ever, period. Because there's no copy left to read or view and copy. There's your tangible, measurable benefit.
And to address your claim that art doesn't matter, it does. Art shapes our view of the world. It makes us think about possibilities we wouldn't think about otherwise. Just try to notice how many concepts you think about and use when you speak every day come from books and movies. For example the vast majority of concepts regarding government spying indiscriminately and globally on its citizens comes from George Orwell's book 1984. We understand the dangers involved a little better because Orwell gave us a look at the consequences. What would the world look like today if the whole issue was completely new and unknown to everybody because the book was never written or because all copies were lost shortly after its release?
The "we" you're talking about is actually just a handful of megacorporations that make those patented technologies in China and India. The "we" you should be talking about, small businesses that have no choice but to make their inventions locally, were thrown overboard decades ago and have no vested interest worth speaking of.
IQ of a genius never stopped any smart person from posting something incredibly stupid. There's a very good reason why intelligence and wisdom are completely independent stats in many RPGs.
Believe me that they will figure out what we've been talking about very quickly when the first SOPA victims go to jail. The harder the government stomps on file sharing, the easier it will get to avoid detection because software developers will come up with better privacy measures.
Damn... some states of USA.
Except in some status of USA.
In this case, the ugliness isn't about syntax but about how much spaghetti code the language will eat before it barfs. Perl and C both force you to write much better code than PHP does.
Maybe it has something to do with the simple fact that Linux is often used in big business to run servers with mission-critical services while WP7 phone is at best about as important as overpriced paperweight.
And for the above posters: Try being involved in politics AND have a family AND have a job AND hold onto any semblance of personal sanity or get any sleep these days. Most people are worked into the ground, it does not allow them to have a government that is all that just, it only allows for animalism.
I know it hasn't sunken in yet for the vast majority of people but we have the Internet now. Some people have time, some people have money and some people have knowledge. I know it takes a lot of all three to influence politics in any significant way and very few people have all three in sufficient quantities but that doesn't matter anymore. Citizens taking active part in politics doesn't have to be a one-man-show anymore. Do the thing you can do best and leave the things you can't do to somebody else who can. Remember that there are just a few thousand politicians, but there're millions of us citizens.
That it's about time the government hit Apple with antitrust suit.
That's pretty much how it works here in Czech republic. I'll let you in on a secret: It makes no difference.
The only thing that can make a difference is people taking active part in politics in between elections. If you think that some "perfect" political system will do your hard work for you, you're looking in the wrong direction.
It doesn't matter that they are not in the machine before elections. They will be five minutes after they say their inauguration pledge. Stop wasting time on looking for the non-existent perfect politician for the office and use that free time on making sure that those imperfect politicians who got elected do their job properly.
Well, when the first government that slits their throat happens to run the almighty US of A, the rest of the world will either slit their throats as well either behind closed doors or at gunpoint. Stupidity only hurts yourself when you don't have the means to inflict it upon everybody else as well.
That was pretty obvious from the beginning, wasn't it? Christoforo was way too arrogant for mere corporate drone but at the same time there's no way a big business owner like he claims to be would deal with customers directly.
Sorry to disappoint you but I fully support nuclear power. I would still support it even if there was no AGW though.
For every day use, all you need is to have a sense of how much a unit is.
Here's a handy guide.
Wrong. To be worthy of the hullabaloo, AGW effects have to be catastrophic in nature, merely warming things up a degree in a century does not qualify as such.
Does extinction of entire species sound catastrophic enough? Does mass migration of people from subtropic regions due to severe droughts sound catastrophic enough? Because that's what "a degree in a century" actually means in reality when you stop downplaying large scale effects by even larger global statistics.
We don't have reliable historic reconstructions of temperature and even the current data is suspect. Which leaves satellite data as our most reliable measure of what's going on with the climate.
If you really believe that temperature records are the only evidence for global warming, you just prove my point about deniers ignoring the overwhelming evidence. Temperature records are only a fistful of sand on top of a mountain.
And as time goes on, it's only going to get worse :D
Sure, except when somebody drops a mountain of evidence on their heads, the deniers stick fingers in their ears, close their eyes and start singing lalala.
However, in an ideal world, it should not be necessary to constantly baby-sit the politicians.
The only problem is that we don't live in an ideal world.
Such a system has all of the disadvantages of a direct democracy (Citizens need to stay aware of every issue.) and all of the disadvantages of a republic (Politicians may not represent those who voted for them.) with none of the advantages of either (Citizens having a direct voice on issues for direct democracy, or politicians allowing citizens to devote more time to other issues for a republic.).
Actually, it has advantages and disadvantages of both. Citizens don't need to keep track of everything that happens in politics. Each issue needs to be examined by only a few people who then write short summary for the rest or call for action against government decision. The disadvantages of the republic can be mitigated by voters getting a complete summary of good and evil done by each candidate in the past right before they vote. The advantage is that you get benefits of direct democracy for fraction of the cost. Checking if the decision is good or not often takes much less resources than actually making it. And now we can crowdsource the checking.
I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. ~Alexander Woollcott
This is the first most important thing to remember about democracy. The second most important thing to remember is that it's not anywhere near enough to just vote once every few years. Votes are not blank cheques for politicians. You have the right to check up on your elected representatives and the right to complain loudly if they misappropriate government money or do evil. Your duty as a citizen is to use both of those rights.