What so many people are missing about the importance of this idea is that the mass media has created a world for us. Big Money used the media to convince Americans that lower taxes for the rich and lower trade barriers and tariffs were going to be good for Americans. Those ideas were found laughable by most Americans 40 years ago. But when the billionaires and corporations fund think tanks and foundations with billions of dollars, funding and developing rightwing talent, they were able to convince Americans to hold beliefs that were actually detrimental to their own well being.
THat is why this kind of grassroots media is so important.
Remember the visions of the future we had decades ago? We saw the future as a place of nothing but leisure for humans, while our machines did the work for us. We would spend our time playing games, instead.
But it looks more like a Slave Plantation Future, one where even our leisure time has to be dedicated to preparation for work. Gee, I wonder what happened?
Back in the day, the 1700's and all, when the Constitution was written, America was all about protecting Massa'a property, which in that day was your basic pub, store, plantation, your basic indentured servant, the scrawny English model, and your basic slave, African model.
Nowadays, Massa has moved to other types of property, namely intellectual property. But the Constitution still protects Massa, to the detriment of the little guy. America is all about "enTITLEments," don't you know. Massa is enTITLEd to protection by the state when it comes to his property rights. The state gives him a TITLE.
Is it time to rethink the entitlements system of America and its Constitution?
The story of how one Google-obsessed computer geek solves crime after crime, all the while consuming vast quantities of pizzz, snacks, soda and coffee...
It might be more accurate to say that they are a type of political prisoner. I would not compare what happened to them to what happened in the past in authoritarian or dictatorial countries such as Soviet Russia or China or Albania, etc.
But still, we Americans are not the paragon of political freedom that we imagine ourselves to be, or to be more accurate, we are not the paragon of political freedom that we are told that we are.
Badnarik, Cobb, Peroutka, and Nader all debated on PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers last night. The transcript of these debates should be on the NOW website somewhere here:
http://www.pbs.org/now/index.html http://www.pb s.org/now/politics/thirdcandidates.ht ml
I think it appropriate that they be called political prisoners. They fit the definition.
And if America does have political prisoners, then we are not quite the paragon of propriety and human rights we hold ourselves out to be. It's high time we American start to acknowledge this fact.
Due to the flaws in the/. moderation system, I think it unwise for me to reply to each of my detractors individually. Through hard experience I know that my IP may be banned if I receive multiple down mods on multiple posts in the same subthread. So in this post I am replying to (and quoting below) each detractor/responder:
Someone wrote:
2.) We don't generalize an entire cross-section of people in succinct little sentences meant to insult people (i.e., the false "know your place" bullshit).
I generalize for expediency. I think my generalization much more true than false.
3.) There exists this magical world in which people AREN'T Republican or Democrat and view both of your scumsucking proven liar candidates as idiots who don't deserve to be President.
Indeed, 50% of Americans do not vote, but the people of whom you speak are a very small minority.
Then why do you want to raise taxes and socialize the nation's programs? Seems to me, that's taking stuff OUT of the citizens' and employers' hands.
Well, I see high taxes on the wealthy and upper income earners as rent due to the citizens as a whole. Pay unto Caesar, etc., where Caesar is the people, not the leaders, or the govt itself. America is a business, but one where the owner is absentee, and a small percent of the owners are ripping off the rest of us.
The rest of your comment was flamebait. So people on the Right view humans as animals and follow animal traditions? Wtf?
We are all animals. Period. The difference is that the secular Left admits it, and wants to move on to a higher, more rational plane.
Are you denying that there is a forced rigid heirichy in the government system with lots of "i scratch your back, you scratch mine" people and lots of ass kissing and fakers out there with back stabbing gallore. Pack animals, yes, ask any socialigist/biologist and they will concur the similarity, you cannot deny it dude. Maybe we cannot avoid that, but we can add extra logical none currupt decision processes into it to make it fair and transparent, not contract based and locked in a safe.
I see govt as a tool, a machine. And machines can be improved, modified, engineered, made better. The early models always suck. But what we have here in America, is that the richest and most powerful PROFIT from poor and primitive models of govt, and they have spewed out decades of propaganda convincing Americans (the owners) that the primitive models of this govt machine are the best models. Ah, the power of marketing/advertising/propaganda...
Just look at Michael Moore fans who believe his every word despite when his films get torn to shreds in the fact department.
Right now, Moore is the only prominent Leftist IN America! You better believe we keep track of him.
Rofl..."minimizes heirarchy?" People on the left are traditionally in favor of BIGGER GOVERNMENT.
We are in favor of getting back the wealth of America that the investor robber barons and corporations are stealing. That is a very powerful coalition, and we will need a lot of muscle to wrest away from them what is ours.
That runs directly contrary to your flamebait. And people on the right traditionally favor SMALLER GOVERNMENT. Why do you think Democrats raise taxes while Republicans cut taxes?
To hire our own goons?
I could just as well say "You on the Left seek comfort in a society where all your property, business, and social programs are owned by the government, and majority rule is overridden by the demands of a minute few." It would be no less of a braindead generalization on politics than yours.
We seek security and peace and a relaxed life where stress is lessened by pooling our resources to help make the future more secure for everyone.
You Righties see America as something to which you owe loyalty, and you see and the President, Senators, et al as demigods. However, we Lefties see America as the property of its citizens, and its leaders as our employees.
I think the difference in perspective may be better understood by seeing those on the Right as composed of two classes--the alpha leaders and the followers. Really, it is a timeless pack-animal, social-animal hierarchy.
We on the Left see humans as something above animals, and to a great extent we reject animal tradition, and seek a new organization, one that minimizes hierarchy, and one that sees a nation as a tool for the citizens. You on the Right seek comfort in a stable society where you and everyone else "know your own place" in society.
Umm....can someone please remind me how this is the greatest and most free country in the world? (No fair modding me down based on your warped "political" leanings...).
This is what you get when you pay taxes--REAL SCIENCE. The BBC is of course funded by tax dollars.
As opposed to the so-called free market vaporware hype science that is the main focus in America.
Now tell me about all the great accomplishments coming out of American media....
Don't let the free market, neoliberal, laissez faire scammers hoax you, my fellow Americans. Real accomplishments were made in the past with tax funded research. And when we go back to Keynesianism and protectionism, just like what is being done in Europe, we will get America back on track.
now telcos & cable co will have to lower price
on
WiMax: When, Not If
·
· Score: 0
THis competition will force the utiiities to lower prices, uncap bandwidth and uploads, and run fiber to the door. Once that is done, a new kind of internet will emerge, and we will get a new kind of grassroots mass media, which will make the USA more like Europe.
...then you have a lot more users than you have now, and since it is broadband, a lot faster (and assuming symmetric upload and download speeds), and everyone on the network is sharing, AND you have clients and a p2p network built along the BT model, but easier to use, then you have a network worthy of being called a network.
Look at the broadband connections being offered in Korea, or many parts of Europe. Imagine how you could put a really fat pipe to work, if most everyone has one.
You could build into the clients a way of rating peers. If a lot of peers think the content distributed by a certain peer is good, then that peer gets a high trust rating. Just download video from peers with a high trust rating.
Method for licensing software United States Patent 5375206 View Patent Images
Inventors: Hunter; James D. (Ft. Collins, CO);Watkins; William H. (Ft. Collins, CO) Abstract: Disclosed is a system that provides a common application software interface for a variety of vendor supplied license servers. The system provides a single set of program calls and translates this single set of calls into a set of calls for each license server. This translation is performed using a translate table, which is easily updated to interface to newly developed or newly released license servers. The system runs as a separate process within the operating environment to monitor the application program, and as long as the application program continues to provide services to the user, the system sends periodic license renewal messages to the license server. The system also notifies the user when the application program cannot obtain a license in order to provide a consistent user interface across applications. Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (Palo Alto, CA) Application Number: 198657 Filing Date: February 18, 1994 Publication Date: December 20, 1994 Current Classes: 717/176; 717/177; 719/310 International Classes: G06F 003/00; G06F 015/16 Field of Search: 364/DIG. 1,DIG. 2 US Patent References: 4441163 Apr., 1984 Leikam et al. 395/275. 4712189 Dec., 1987 Mohri 395/700. 4780821 Oct., 1988 Crossley 364/200. 4924378 May., 1990 Hershey et al. 364/200. 4937863 Jun., 1990 Robert et al. 380/4. 4941175 Jul., 1990 Enescu et al. 380/4. 5023907 Jun., 1991 Johnson et al. 380/4. 5138712 Aug., 1992 Corbin 395/700. 5146593 Sep., 1992 Brandle et al. 395/700. 5175810 Dec., 1992 Young et al. 364/DIG. Parent Case Data: This is a continuation of copending application Ser. No. 08/031,063 filed on Mar. 12, 1993, now abandoned.
Claims:
What is claimed is:
1. A computer implemented method for interfacing between a licensed application program and a plurality of license server programs in an operating system executing in a computer system, for the purpose of obtaining a license to use the licensed application program, said computer implemented method comprising the steps of:
(a) programmatically receiving a license request from the licensed application program, wherein said license request is defined in a first format;
(b) programmatically requesting identification information from a currently active license server program to identify which one of the plurality of license server programs is currently in use by the operating system;
(c) programmatically translating said license request from said first format into a second format required by said one of the plurality of license server programs identified in step (b);
(d) programmatically sending said translated request to said license server program identified in step (b);
(e) programmatically receiving a response from said license server program identified in step (b), wherein said response indicates whether a license to use the licensed application program is granted;
wherein step (e) further comprises the steps of:
(e1) when said response indicates said license is not granted, presenting an options menu to a user of the licensed application program, through a display attached to said computer system;
(e2) obtaining a menu selection input from the user through an input device attached to said computer system;
(e3) immediately retrying said license request by repeating steps (d) and (e), when said menu selection input from the user requests that said license request be attempted again; and
(e4) sending a queue request to said license server program currently in use, to place said license request into a queue, when said menu selection input f
"said the kamikaze pilot, climbing into his plane"
on
Amateur Revolution?
·
· Score: 1
You wrote:
Why would you want the weak lions to procreate?
Um. maybe because I AM THE WEAKER LION??! How in the name of the sweet two-fisted Jesus did the rich folks/corporation convince so many people to adopt these SUICIDAL political viewpoints? Or is it just your pride, your vanity? Will you hold on to the bitter end believing that your legendary (in your own mind) intellect will set you above all your competitors? I bet you have heard of game theory. But I bet you do not practice it in your politics....
That would pass on the weaker genes and lower the overall quality of the species? You do realize that were it not for that very process you disdain (i.e. Darwinian evolution), humans might never have appeared or any other form of intelligent species?
Dude/Dudette, surely, SURELY, you can see from my post above that I am a semi-serious student of evolutionary psychology and sociology. I am KEENLY aware of natural selection and its role on Earth. But that does not mean that I want to be held in its cruel grasp. Surely that is suicidal MADNESS!
I refuse to live as an animal. Animal life is for animals. The rich and the corporations want Americans to live by the rules of the animals. I say FUCK THAT!
Technology is negating corporate money
on
Amateur Revolution?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Many of these people are not really amateurs. Some of them are making a living at these pursuits, although admittedly not as good a living as the so-called professionals.
What is happening is that cheap technology is negating the advantage that Big Corporate Money gives to corporations or to business people who have some serious capital, either personal monies or loaned monies.
I cannot overstate how great this makes me feel or how important it is.
I see much of human interaction in the economic marketplace, in the world of employment and jobs and commerce, as akin to interactions in animal society, especially the way that social animals interact, and in animal sibling interactions.
In America, at least, it all comes to nature, red of tooth and claw.
What happens is that the more powerful entities use current advantage, monetary advantage, to snuff out competition, and then, ironically, they call it the "free market."
You see many examples of this: one young male in the lion pride was get bigger than the others, and use that advantage to drive off the other males, and then mate with the females.
But cheap technology is like some sort of vitamin supplement that evens up the competitors.
The boogeyman gonna getcha unless you re-elect Bush. If kerry is president, there gonna be all kinda terraists running round with lasers blinding people.
When someone breaks into your house and steals something from you, and you want it back, is that envy?
The constitution promises a government for the people and by the people, but our govt is in fact for the rich and not the people. The top tax rates are much too low. That wealth that our country is losing is OURS, by right. Yes, a person who is successful should have more than others. But pay unto Caesar what is Caesar's. The rich and our own govt collude to rob us. It aint envy to want back our robbed wealth.
Yeah, like it frees them up to do things like....living in a van down by the river, and, um, dying from lack of medical care, and, um, becoming an alcoholic because of the humiliation of losing their livelihood.
All thanks to outsourcing and our Brave New Laissez-Faire Economy. That sure is keen!
the stats come from this site, which is a great source of truth about taxes and income: http://www.rationalrevolution.net/america n_income_ taxation.htm
Also, those income stats above are HOUSEHOLD income, so that includes single and joint filers.
So 40% of the households take home $29K or less....
Re:I think Marx would shit a brick if he could see
on
What The Bubble Got Right
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
you wrote:
His point about the rising power of nerds highlights something of great importance: the "old class relations" that sparked Marxism are essentially dead.
No, they are not dead. Maybe you are just isolated from them. Or maybe you just see what you want to see....
SO many Slashdotters seem to think that everyone is making 80K a year. The facts show that is not the case at all.
You can see that the bottom 40 percent take home 29K, and that was at the HEIGHT of the longest boom in a long while. It has gone downhill since then for most people. No class warfare, huh? Well, there should be....
In many respects now there is a symbiotic relationship between the large number of white collar workers and the "capitalist class" which allows for an almost give-take relationship.
Ohh, man. The word is not "symbiotic", but "parasitic". The capitalist class parasitizes the rest of us. And they feed us baloney about how they are the innovators and creators, etc. yakety yakety yak.
What really galls me is that these scumbags take credit for the cumulative effect of scientific research adn engineering. They point to all the electronic consumer goods laying around and say it is all because of the free market that these things exist. Ah, no. Engineering and science improve incrementally because of stored knowledge that builds up over time and leads to improved products. Our improvements in goods are mainly due to that, and not predatory capitalism.
Now I know that some will look to outsourcing and say, see class exploitation still exists!
Oh, yeah, that "exploitation" stuff, it be a thing of the past, dontcha know....
Yes, but it is the fault of the people of many of those countries. If your government is corrupt and you have a democratic system of government, why are your people systematically voting for political parties that keep your country from growing. America's corruption is bad, but it doesn't hinder growth anywhere near that of many developing or stagnate countries.
Absolutely. It is always the fault of those lazy, scumsucking poor people. A few lashes will improve their morale.
Say, didn't I meet you in a prior life? Weren't you the foreman on a Roman slave galley? Or was it that cotton plantation in 1804?
People often want it both ways. They don't want to adapt to a new economy, but they want all of the benefits. You have three choices, and these have existed for most of human history.
The little scum. They can just suck it up....
You can lead, you can follow or you can be dominated. America leads, India follows, others are simply dominated because they refuse to follow the leaders' example and try to grow, and cannot lead on their own, thus another country steps in and economically dominates them. It doesn't mean it's right, but it's a fact of life.
Slashdot Mirror
What so many people are missing about the importance of this idea is that the mass media has created a world for us. Big Money used the media to convince Americans that lower taxes for the rich and lower trade barriers and tariffs were going to be good for Americans. Those ideas were found laughable by most Americans 40 years ago. But when the billionaires and corporations fund think tanks and foundations with billions of dollars, funding and developing rightwing talent, they were able to convince Americans to hold beliefs that were actually detrimental to their own well being.
THat is why this kind of grassroots media is so important.
Remember the visions of the future we had decades ago? We saw the future as a place of nothing but leisure for humans, while our machines did the work for us. We would spend our time playing games, instead.
But it looks more like a Slave Plantation Future, one where even our leisure time has to be dedicated to preparation for work. Gee, I wonder what happened?
Back in the day, the 1700's and all, when the Constitution was written, America was all about protecting Massa'a property, which in that day was your basic pub, store, plantation, your basic indentured servant, the scrawny English model, and your basic slave, African model.
Nowadays, Massa has moved to other types of property, namely intellectual property. But the Constitution still protects Massa, to the detriment of the little guy. America is all about "enTITLEments," don't you know. Massa is enTITLEd to protection by the state when it comes to his property rights. The state gives him a TITLE.
Is it time to rethink the entitlements system of America and its Constitution?
The story of how one Google-obsessed computer geek solves crime after crime, all the while consuming vast quantities of pizzz, snacks, soda and coffee...
It might be more accurate to say that they are a type of political prisoner. I would not compare what happened to them to what happened in the past in authoritarian or dictatorial countries such as Soviet Russia or China or Albania, etc.
But still, we Americans are not the paragon of political freedom that we imagine ourselves to be, or to be more accurate, we are not the paragon of political freedom that we are told that we are.
Badnarik, Cobb, Peroutka, and Nader all debated on PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers last night. The transcript of these debates should be on the NOW website somewhere here:
b s.org/now/politics/thirdcandidates.ht ml
http://www.pbs.org/now/index.html
http://www.p
I think it appropriate that they be called political prisoners. They fit the definition.
And if America does have political prisoners, then we are not quite the paragon of propriety and human rights we hold ourselves out to be. It's high time we American start to acknowledge this fact.
Due to the flaws in the /. moderation system, I think it unwise for me to reply to each of my detractors individually. Through hard experience I know that my IP may be banned if I receive multiple down mods on multiple posts in the same subthread. So in this post I am replying to (and quoting below) each detractor/responder:
Someone wrote:
2.) We don't generalize an entire cross-section of people in succinct little sentences meant to insult people (i.e., the false "know your place" bullshit).
I generalize for expediency. I think my generalization much more true than false.
3.) There exists this magical world in which people AREN'T Republican or Democrat and view both of your scumsucking proven liar candidates as idiots who don't deserve to be President.
Indeed, 50% of Americans do not vote, but the people of whom you speak are a very small minority.
Then why do you want to raise taxes and socialize the nation's programs? Seems to me, that's taking stuff OUT of the citizens' and employers' hands.
Well, I see high taxes on the wealthy and upper income earners as rent due to the citizens as a whole. Pay unto Caesar, etc., where Caesar is the people, not the leaders, or the govt itself. America is a business, but one where the owner is absentee, and a small percent of the owners are ripping off the rest of us.
The rest of your comment was flamebait. So people on the Right view humans as animals and follow animal traditions? Wtf?
We are all animals. Period. The difference is that the secular Left admits it, and wants to move on to a higher, more rational plane.
Are you denying that there is a forced rigid heirichy in the government system with lots of "i scratch your back, you scratch mine" people and lots of ass kissing and fakers out there with back stabbing gallore. Pack animals, yes, ask any socialigist/biologist and they will concur the similarity, you cannot deny it dude. Maybe we cannot avoid that, but we can add extra logical none currupt decision processes into it to make it fair and transparent, not contract based and locked in a safe.
I see govt as a tool, a machine. And machines can be improved, modified, engineered, made better. The early models always suck. But what we have here in America, is that the richest and most powerful PROFIT from poor and primitive models of govt, and they have spewed out decades of propaganda convincing Americans (the owners) that the primitive models of this govt machine are the best models. Ah, the power of marketing/advertising/propaganda...
Just look at Michael Moore fans who believe his every word despite when his films get torn to shreds in the fact department.
Right now, Moore is the only prominent Leftist IN America! You better believe we keep track of him.
Rofl..."minimizes heirarchy?" People on the left are traditionally in favor of BIGGER GOVERNMENT.
We are in favor of getting back the wealth of America that the investor robber barons and corporations are stealing. That is a very powerful coalition, and we will need a lot of muscle to wrest away from them what is ours.
That runs directly contrary to your flamebait. And people on the right traditionally favor SMALLER GOVERNMENT. Why do you think Democrats raise taxes while Republicans cut taxes?
To hire our own goons?
I could just as well say "You on the Left seek comfort in a society where all your property, business, and social programs are owned by the government, and majority rule is overridden by the demands of a minute few." It would be no less of a braindead generalization on politics than yours.
We seek security and peace and a relaxed life where stress is lessened by pooling our resources to help make the future more secure for everyone.
Life is short. Make it a g
You Righties see America as something to which you owe loyalty, and you see and the President, Senators, et al as demigods. However, we Lefties see America as the property of its citizens, and its leaders as our employees.
I think the difference in perspective may be better understood by seeing those on the Right as composed of two classes--the alpha leaders and the followers. Really, it is a timeless pack-animal, social-animal hierarchy.
We on the Left see humans as something above animals, and to a great extent we reject animal tradition, and seek a new organization, one that minimizes hierarchy, and one that sees a nation as a tool for the citizens. You on the Right seek comfort in a stable society where you and everyone else "know your own place" in society.
Umm....can someone please remind me how this is the greatest and most free country in the world?
(No fair modding me down based on your warped "political" leanings...).
This is what you get when you pay taxes--REAL SCIENCE. The BBC is of course funded by tax dollars.
As opposed to the so-called free market vaporware hype science that is the main focus in America.
Now tell me about all the great accomplishments coming out of American media....
Don't let the free market, neoliberal, laissez faire scammers hoax you, my fellow Americans. Real accomplishments were made in the past with tax funded research. And when we go back to Keynesianism and protectionism, just like what is being done in Europe, we will get America back on track.
THis competition will force the utiiities to lower prices, uncap bandwidth and uploads, and run fiber to the door. Once that is done, a new kind of internet will emerge, and we will get a new kind of grassroots mass media, which will make the USA more like Europe.
...then you have a lot more users than you have now, and since it is broadband, a lot faster (and assuming symmetric upload and download speeds), and everyone on the network is sharing, AND you have clients and a p2p network built along the BT model, but easier to use, then you have a network worthy of being called a network.
Look at the broadband connections being offered in Korea, or many parts of Europe. Imagine how you could put a really fat pipe to work, if most everyone has one.
You could build into the clients a way of rating peers. If a lot of peers think the content distributed by a certain peer is good, then that peer gets a high trust rating. Just download video from peers with a high trust rating.
I was thinking maybe product placement commercials, or banners occasionally running across the screen.
St Peter: Who is the Best Gatekeeper in the World?
Cooper: I dunno. Who IS the Best Gatekeeper in the World?
St Peter: You're looking at him....
After trying it, it appears to be a little bit better than google. For one, it has that fast, spare interface that set google apart in the beginning.
And these clusters are a great idea.
Definitely worth bookmarking!
Looks fairly similar....
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5375206.html
Method for licensing software
United States Patent 5375206
View Patent Images
Inventors: Hunter; James D. (Ft. Collins, CO);Watkins; William H. (Ft. Collins, CO)
Abstract: Disclosed is a system that provides a common application software interface for a variety of vendor supplied license servers. The system provides a single set of program calls and translates this single set of calls into a set of calls for each license server. This translation is performed using a translate table, which is easily updated to interface to newly developed or newly released license servers. The system runs as a separate process within the operating environment to monitor the application program, and as long as the application program continues to provide services to the user, the system sends periodic license renewal messages to the license server. The system also notifies the user when the application program cannot obtain a license in order to provide a consistent user interface across applications.
Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (Palo Alto, CA)
Application Number: 198657
Filing Date: February 18, 1994
Publication Date: December 20, 1994
Current Classes: 717/176; 717/177; 719/310
International Classes: G06F 003/00; G06F 015/16
Field of Search: 364/DIG. 1,DIG. 2
US Patent References:
4441163 Apr., 1984 Leikam et al. 395/275.
4712189 Dec., 1987 Mohri 395/700.
4780821 Oct., 1988 Crossley 364/200.
4924378 May., 1990 Hershey et al. 364/200.
4937863 Jun., 1990 Robert et al. 380/4.
4941175 Jul., 1990 Enescu et al. 380/4.
5023907 Jun., 1991 Johnson et al. 380/4.
5138712 Aug., 1992 Corbin 395/700.
5146593 Sep., 1992 Brandle et al. 395/700.
5175810 Dec., 1992 Young et al. 364/DIG.
Parent Case Data: This is a continuation of copending application Ser. No. 08/031,063 filed on Mar. 12, 1993, now abandoned.
Claims:
What is claimed is:
1. A computer implemented method for interfacing between a licensed application program and a plurality of license server programs in an operating system executing in a computer system, for the purpose of obtaining a license to use the licensed application program, said computer implemented method comprising the steps of:
(a) programmatically receiving a license request from the licensed application program, wherein said license request is defined in a first format;
(b) programmatically requesting identification information from a currently active license server program to identify which one of the plurality of license server programs is currently in use by the operating system;
(c) programmatically translating said license request from said first format into a second format required by said one of the plurality of license server programs identified in step (b);
(d) programmatically sending said translated request to said license server program identified in step (b);
(e) programmatically receiving a response from said license server program identified in step (b), wherein said response indicates whether a license to use the licensed application program is granted;
wherein step (e) further comprises the steps of:
(e1) when said response indicates said license is not granted, presenting an options menu to a user of the licensed application program, through a display attached to said computer system;
(e2) obtaining a menu selection input from the user through an input device attached to said computer system;
(e3) immediately retrying said license request by repeating steps (d) and (e), when said menu selection input from the user requests that said license request be attempted again; and
(e4) sending a queue request to said license server program currently in use, to place said license request into a queue, when said menu selection input f
You wrote:
Why would you want the weak lions to procreate?
Um. maybe because I AM THE WEAKER LION??! How in the name of the sweet two-fisted Jesus did the rich folks/corporation convince so many people to adopt these SUICIDAL political viewpoints? Or is it just your pride, your vanity? Will you hold on to the bitter end believing that your legendary (in your own mind) intellect will set you above all your competitors? I bet you have heard of game theory. But I bet you do not practice it in your politics....
That would pass on the weaker genes and lower the overall quality of the species? You do realize that were it not for that very process you disdain (i.e. Darwinian evolution), humans might never have appeared or any other form of intelligent species?
Dude/Dudette, surely, SURELY, you can see from my post above that I am a semi-serious student of evolutionary psychology and sociology. I am KEENLY aware of natural selection and its role on Earth. But that does not mean that I want to be held in its cruel grasp. Surely that is suicidal MADNESS!
I refuse to live as an animal. Animal life is for animals. The rich and the corporations want Americans to live by the rules of the animals. I say FUCK THAT!
Many of these people are not really amateurs. Some of them are making a living at these pursuits, although admittedly not as good a living as the so-called professionals.
What is happening is that cheap technology is negating the advantage that Big Corporate Money gives to corporations or to business people who have some serious capital, either personal monies or loaned monies.
I cannot overstate how great this makes me feel or how important it is.
I see much of human interaction in the economic marketplace, in the world of employment and jobs and commerce, as akin to interactions in animal society, especially the way that social animals interact, and in animal sibling interactions.
In America, at least, it all comes to nature, red of tooth and claw.
What happens is that the more powerful entities use current advantage, monetary advantage, to snuff out competition, and then, ironically, they call it the "free market."
You see many examples of this: one young male in the lion pride was get bigger than the others, and use that advantage to drive off the other males, and then mate with the females.
But cheap technology is like some sort of vitamin supplement that evens up the competitors.
The boogeyman gonna getcha unless you re-elect Bush. If kerry is president, there gonna be all kinda terraists running round with lasers blinding people.
BOO!
When someone breaks into your house and steals something from you, and you want it back, is that envy?
The constitution promises a government for the people and by the people, but our govt is in fact for the rich and not the people. The top tax rates are much too low. That wealth that our country is losing is OURS, by right. Yes, a person who is successful should have more than others. But pay unto Caesar what is Caesar's. The rich and our own govt collude to rob us. It aint envy to want back our robbed wealth.
Yeah, like it frees them up to do things like....living in a van down by the river, and, um, dying from lack of medical care, and, um, becoming an alcoholic because of the humiliation of losing their livelihood.
All thanks to outsourcing and our Brave New Laissez-Faire Economy. That sure is keen!
the stats come from this site, which is a great source of truth about taxes and income:a n_income_ taxation.htm
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/americ
Also, those income stats above are HOUSEHOLD income, so that includes single and joint filers.
So 40% of the households take home $29K or less....
you wrote:
His point about the rising power of nerds highlights something of great importance: the "old class relations" that sparked Marxism are essentially dead.
No, they are not dead. Maybe you are just isolated from them. Or maybe you just see what you want to see....
SO many Slashdotters seem to think that everyone is making 80K a year. The facts show that is not the case at all.
year 2000 Average After-Tax Income by Quintile:
80th-100th percentile:$141,400
60-79th percentile: $59,200
40-59th percentile: $41,900
20-39th percentile: $29,000
0-19th percentile $13,700
You can see that the bottom 40 percent take home 29K, and that was at the HEIGHT of the longest boom in a long while. It has gone downhill since then for most people. No class warfare, huh? Well, there should be....
In many respects now there is a symbiotic relationship between the large number of white collar workers and the "capitalist class" which allows for an almost give-take relationship.
Ohh, man. The word is not "symbiotic", but "parasitic". The capitalist class parasitizes the rest of us. And they feed us baloney about how they are the innovators and creators, etc. yakety yakety yak.
What really galls me is that these scumbags take credit for the cumulative effect of scientific research adn engineering. They point to all the electronic consumer goods laying around and say it is all because of the free market that these things exist. Ah, no. Engineering and science improve incrementally because of stored knowledge that builds up over time and leads to improved products. Our improvements in goods are mainly due to that, and not predatory capitalism.
Now I know that some will look to outsourcing and say, see class exploitation still exists!
Oh, yeah, that "exploitation" stuff, it be a thing of the past, dontcha know....
Yes, but it is the fault of the people of many of those countries. If your government is corrupt and you have a democratic system of government, why are your people systematically voting for political parties that keep your country from growing. America's corruption is bad, but it doesn't hinder growth anywhere near that of many developing or stagnate countries.
Absolutely. It is always the fault of those lazy, scumsucking poor people. A few lashes will improve their morale.
Say, didn't I meet you in a prior life? Weren't you the foreman on a Roman slave galley? Or was it that cotton plantation in 1804?
People often want it both ways. They don't want to adapt to a new economy, but they want all of the benefits. You have three choices, and these have existed for most of human history.
The little scum. They can just suck it up....
You can lead, you can follow or you can be dominated. America leads, India follows, others are simply dominated because they refuse to follow the leaders' example and try to grow, and cannot lead on their own, thus another country steps in and economically dominates them. It doesn't mean it's right, but it's a fact of life.
Oh, pardon, i think i feel a vomit coming on....