I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth's sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks to God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.
Ogden Nash, Song of the Open Road:
"I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall I'll never see a tree at all."
Yes, it was a parody of the earlier work. No, I do no believe I am guilty of misattribution.
I wish I had some mod points I could give you -- I'd give you a "+5 -- Funny." Notice how salaries *never* decrease in state government, but education is always under threat? Education is what gets voters to swallow tax increases, there is no way that a state or local government will increase spending in this area unless the voters approve more funding. Once the increase is approved, it is slowly redirected to other government agencies, education becomes underfunded, and the whole process starts again.
No, my guess is that the money they save will go toward a "well-deserved" pay increase. Sorry if this is -1 -- offtopic, but the biannual "schools in crisis" tax levy increase are rather annoying.
Since you are the most frequent poster on/. and frequently modded up to 5, I will strive to be more like you, A.C. You could at least point out my misspelling next time, though.
Wait, you mean Fallout 2 isn't real life? Sheesh, and here I thought I was a hero for jumping in and helping that mob squash that poor, defenseless spammer.
That's nothing, I came up with a program that not only detects the keys a person types, but the unique order they are typed in. I call this set of ASCII characters a "name."
It isn't that the public particularly enjoys a government-sponsored bureaucracy or that we get TANG and Velcro out of the deal (though space spin-offs are nice), but because our history and culture is based on exploration and we are descended from those with an active imagination and restless feet. With Apollo, we could see our future with every footstep on the moon, and while robotic explorers are nice -- and certainly more cost effective -- there is something about seeing a human demonstrate both bravery and intelligence in a place no person has ever been before that really stirs the emotions.
Does NASA waste money? Well, I doubt it spends it as efficiently as it could, and there definitely needs to be a change in its management. Still, I'm prouder of it's accomplishments than just about any other government agency.
I think one way to cut down on frivolous patent and copyright lawsuits is to require compilable source code for everything seeking protection under copyright or patent law. SCO wants to claim Linux infringed, but if they had been forced to release the code in order to gain a legal monopoly on it I doubt they would be able to -- and the community could easily check the claim and fix any problems. Microsoft would have been forced to release the source for everything since the DOS 1.0 days, and while others couldn't copy this directly it would help with any software that needed to tie in to the operating system (and no more hidden or undocumented features that only MS workers could use).
The software manufacturers might claim that this would allow others to steal their valuable property, but since the thieves would either A) not be stopped by copyright/patent anyway or B) be forced to release *their* source code, I doubt this would be a serious problem.
No one thinks of the poor girl the worm was dedicated to. The guy will probably forget all about her in prison, and may even write a "LoveBrunoMyCellmate" worm to keep himself occupied.
>2) Violates monotonicity (it is possible to actually cause a candidate to lose by voting FOR them). It should go without saying that this is evil.
Agreed.
>3) Despite appearing to solve the spoiler problem, it actually has exactly the same spoiler issue as soon as the "third party" starts becoming competitive.
True, though with your proviso "as soon as the 'third party' starts becoming competitive." With the present duopoly, more minor parties -- Ross Perot and Ralph Nader come to mind -- can easily flip the election by splitting the vote.
Don't get me wrong, I agree IRV is not the way to go, and I think Approval or one of the Condorcet methods would be far better. Still, I think IRV is marginally better than plurality -- especially if you have a 100+ candidates like in California -- even if it isn't *that* much better.
>But she'd lose my vote on one issue: I refuse to support anyone who supports IRV. Our current electoral system is bad enough: why oh why does every electoral-reformist have to support one of the few systems that's actually provably WORSE?
IMO, Instant Runoff Voting is slightly better than plurality because it gets rid of the spoiler problem, but I agree that Approval and Condorcet are better yet. I like Direct Representation for Legislatures, too -- it gets rid of the whole gerrymandering problem, and it reflects the wishes of both majority and minority parties.
brakk: >pi** >Just say it. PISS PISS PISS >Slashdot doesn't restrict any words. If you want to protect people from your "bad" language, then change your wording.
Slashdot Mirror
let me know.
Trees by Alfred Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Ogden Nash, Song of the Open Road:
"I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all."
Yes, it was a parody of the earlier work. No, I do no believe I am guilty of misattribution.
I think I shall never see
A program as lovely as a tree.
In fact, without a program call
I'll never see a tree at all.
I wish I had some mod points I could give you -- I'd give you a "+5 -- Funny." Notice how salaries *never* decrease in state government, but education is always under threat? Education is what gets voters to swallow tax increases, there is no way that a state or local government will increase spending in this area unless the voters approve more funding. Once the increase is approved, it is slowly redirected to other government agencies, education becomes underfunded, and the whole process starts again.
No, my guess is that the money they save will go toward a "well-deserved" pay increase. Sorry if this is -1 -- offtopic, but the biannual "schools in crisis" tax levy increase are rather annoying.
Why are you bleeping your words? This is Slashdot, and your @#$@#^& words should be said proudly.
-Anonymous Coward
Since you are the most frequent poster on /. and frequently modded up to 5, I will strive to be more like you, A.C. You could at least point out my misspelling next time, though.
Must be the phone equivalent of Slashdotted.
(For those of you who don't see the pun, "Berry'ed" = "buried" -- ah, never mind.)
Well, that and "Hello, World!" is the height of my programming prowess.
"The state's taxpayers deserve nothing less."
I'm sure it's a misquote. He probably said "The state's taxpayers deserve nothing, or even less."
Sorry, my /sarcasm tag was missing.
Politicians spend money so much more wisely than the average person.
I predict Halloween masks will become stylish.
Wait, you mean Fallout 2 isn't real life? Sheesh, and here I thought I was a hero for jumping in and helping that mob squash that poor, defenseless spammer.
I don't know your face, but your name is familiar.
No fair! I demand the chance to get involved in any Slashdotting!
On a more serious note, Dilbert fans please note do *not* forget the "t" in the web address when at work.
That's nothing, I came up with a program that not only detects the keys a person types, but the unique order they are typed in. I call this set of ASCII characters a "name."
It isn't that the public particularly enjoys a government-sponsored bureaucracy or that we get TANG and Velcro out of the deal (though space spin-offs are nice), but because our history and culture is based on exploration and we are descended from those with an active imagination and restless feet. With Apollo, we could see our future with every footstep on the moon, and while robotic explorers are nice -- and certainly more cost effective -- there is something about seeing a human demonstrate both bravery and intelligence in a place no person has ever been before that really stirs the emotions.
Does NASA waste money? Well, I doubt it spends it as efficiently as it could, and there definitely needs to be a change in its management. Still, I'm prouder of it's accomplishments than just about any other government agency.
>Jargon file: Tricky Dick : see Bill Gates.
;-)
I was thinking about an awful pun relating Tricky Dick, Bill Gates, MicroSoft, hard disks, and a 3.5" floppy, but good taste prevailed
Next thing you know Bill Gates will be stating "I am not a crook!"
I think one way to cut down on frivolous patent and copyright lawsuits is to require compilable source code for everything seeking protection under copyright or patent law. SCO wants to claim Linux infringed, but if they had been forced to release the code in order to gain a legal monopoly on it I doubt they would be able to -- and the community could easily check the claim and fix any problems. Microsoft would have been forced to release the source for everything since the DOS 1.0 days, and while others couldn't copy this directly it would help with any software that needed to tie in to the operating system (and no more hidden or undocumented features that only MS workers could use).
The software manufacturers might claim that this would allow others to steal their valuable property, but since the thieves would either A) not be stopped by copyright/patent anyway or B) be forced to release *their* source code, I doubt this would be a serious problem.
No one thinks of the poor girl the worm was dedicated to. The guy will probably forget all about her in prison, and may even write a "LoveBrunoMyCellmate" worm to keep himself occupied.
>1) Massively more complicated ballot
More complicated, anyway, but I agree.
>2) Violates monotonicity (it is possible to actually cause a candidate to lose by voting FOR them). It should go without saying that this is evil.
Agreed.
>3) Despite appearing to solve the spoiler problem, it actually has exactly the same spoiler issue as soon as the "third party" starts becoming competitive.
True, though with your proviso "as soon as the 'third party' starts becoming competitive." With the present duopoly, more minor parties -- Ross Perot and Ralph Nader come to mind -- can easily flip the election by splitting the vote.
Don't get me wrong, I agree IRV is not the way to go, and I think Approval or one of the Condorcet methods would be far better. Still, I think IRV is marginally better than plurality -- especially if you have a 100+ candidates like in California -- even if it isn't *that* much better.
>But she'd lose my vote on one issue: I refuse to support anyone who supports IRV. Our current electoral system is bad enough: why oh why does every electoral-reformist have to support one of the few systems that's actually provably WORSE?
IMO, Instant Runoff Voting is slightly better than plurality because it gets rid of the spoiler problem, but I agree that Approval and Condorcet are better yet. I like Direct Representation for Legislatures, too -- it gets rid of the whole gerrymandering problem, and it reflects the wishes of both majority and minority parties.
Luckily, if it ever becomes infectious we can cure ourselves with refrigerator magnets.
Snarfangel
brakk:
>pi**
>Just say it. PISS PISS PISS
>Slashdot doesn't restrict any words. If you want to protect people from your "bad" language, then change your wording.
Yeah, but my way looks naughtier.