That greedy oil company provides fuel for the trucks that bring sharmin to your store so you can wipe your ass
And you think this is an essential of life?
Let me tell you, there are sophisticated cultures where toilet paper is unheard of. The traditional Arab way of wiping oneself is with your hand; soap is provided in the bathroom to clean your hand afterwards. It is in fact more effective than paper-- the immediacy lends itself to a more thorough cleaning job. No paper is consumed, and bathrooms have soap anyways.
Look the net was built for commerce, by people who understand commerce, for the intended use of commerce
The net was built for nuclear war, by warmongers, for the intended use of strenghtening the US military to lend more puch to US exploitation and oppression world wide.
You should worry about the people that don't have concrete, oil, silicon and cash - because with those basic precusors, I can build purification facilities for water, artificially grow tasty produce indoors, generate all the power I need, and live a comfy life.
But where the hell did I say I am opposed to people having that kind of stuff at all?
Try to think about what I write before making a fool of yourself. I wrote:
I hope you enjoy the taste of silicon, cash, concrete and oil, because thanks to people like you, we'll all end up eating and drinking that.
It is just OBVIOUS that this is a reference to the possibility of the environment getting so fucked up that the only things left in the planet are silicon, cash, concrete and oil.
Writing those "trivial free programs" might take BILLIONS of dollars from money-grubbing tycoons (no names here), money that maybe could be re-allocated for that schmuck living in the street.
Really? How is XBill taking billions of dollars away from anybody?
You are obsessed with money. Let me tell you one thing I've learned in the hard school of knocks, kid. Money does not solve problems-- people do. Throwing scraps of money at the homeless is nothing but patching surface wounds in your society. To do the homeless some real good, you have to transform the social and production relations in which society is based. Money won't do that.
I'm sorry, but you are simply wrong--oil companies have no interest in spilling their oil all over the ocean.
Where the hell did I claim that it is the interest of oil companies to spill oil? Can you point out the precise words that say that?
Oil companies are simply not interested in preventing oil spills to the max degree possible, since that would cut a big bite off their profits. They simply want the biggest profits, and if that means spilling their oil regularly out of unsufficient precautions, they are happy with that.
[on social responsibility] For the best results, it should be as streamlined and simple as possible. That would be known as a Good Thing.
No. That would be known as selling peace of mind to smug and clueless gringo yuppies who don't really care about anyone or anything but themselves. This kind of attitude needs to go, if any good is to come.
I would be much more likely to donate to the cause if they took credit cards online.
Social resposibility is not a commodity-- it requires actual work and effort. You can't buy or sell social justice and/or the well-being of the biosphere. People need to actually make coordinated efforts to make that happen.
Can't they appeal to some large, greedy oil company looking to do community service by donating a server, SSL, and a Merchant Account (say maybe someone who could symphathize... like maybe Exxon??)
No, because these companies have precisely the opposite interests they do.
I was thinking - yeah I might chip in some cash for this - I like penguins, hate oil slicks - what the hell?
Look a centimeter beneath your shallow surface, and you'll realize you can't be bothered to even send a fax or letter in favor of penguins and against oil slicks.
Oh... but you got to fax your credit card number or send them a *snail mail* with your info... sorry but you lost me there. Make it easy to donate online and maybe more people would give.
I hope you enjoy the taste of silicon, cash, concrete and oil, because thanks to people like you, we'll all end up eating and drinking that.
On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh, and give you a break. I'll tell you something. Try taking up as a hobby something really useful-- no, not writing yet another trivial free program, but soemthing like volunteering for a soup kitchen. I won't even expect you to give any money-- just go there, help cook, serve and clean up in a regular basis. No amount of money you could ever give will be more significant than something real, like this.
Sengan, as was said right above, used to post/. stories a lot some time ago. Slashbots booed him all the time because he had political interests they didn't share, and for a while there was a "ban Sengan from/." thing going on...
Well, you are right in a way: the incessant automation pushed by the US high-tech industries will lead to the inevitable collapse of the country. I don't think it will happen the way you think, though.
With all these modern technologies the mainstream USian is doing less and less every day. For example, many decades ago women were freed from going to the river to wash clothes by the invention of the washing machine. And continuosly, more and more work-saving inventions appear. Web technology makes it possible to do more and more things effortlessly without leaving the house-- you can shop at Amazon and Webvan, have pizza delivered, you can telecommute to work, etc. Not to mention that advances in AI software mean that every year there is less and less actual work to be done at work. Remember DotComGuy? This points the way to the near future of the US
So eventually, we will arrive at a society where the mainstream middle class inhabitant of the US will not work at all. They will be free to sit down in front of a machine all day long, have all the necessities of life delivered by that machine, and just involve themselves in virtual reality net porn or whatever in their virtual communities.
But this will not extend to everyone. South of the Río Grande, as always, people will not share in this wealth, and will be living real lives, doing actual work, walking from place to place, shopping in real stores, having real sex, and so on. They will not, of course, be oblivious to the (ir)realities of life in the northern neighbor. They will notice that this huge monster, gloating in it power and wealth, has fallen asleep. They will cross the border, with no oposition, since all the USians will be too busy playing VR Quake MMCXVII to even notice, and take over everything with no opposition.
So yes, wearable computers certainly will lead the US to its destruction. Though I can't really say I'm worried about it down here, me...
You too need to practice your reading skills. I didn't imply anything. I didn't make the original statement.
Anyway, let's go back to the original. I'll bracket it so you can see:
(*BSD is pretty widely accepted anywhere) but (Linux isn't as much as some would like it to.)
Which expresses two different, independent clauses: (a) that *BSD is pretty widely accepted anywhere, and (b) that Linux isn't as accepted as some people would like it to. This is wholly compatible with Linux being more widely accepted than *BSD. (Remember, Linux Torevals has been quoted as saying that his goal with the OS is "world domination").
Now, you obviously read it this way:
(*BSD is pretty widely accepted anywhere but Linux isn't as much) (as some would like it to.)
This is what you thought it said. But all this shows is that (a) you don't know shit about comma placement (if that were the reading, one would have a comma after 'much'), and (b) you assumed the poster to be stupid and wholly oblivious to the facts, and by extension, that you are an arrogant idiot who thinks him or herself smarter than anybody.
Last time I checked, press is supposed to represent the public, not the government.
Well, then they must not be doing what they're supposed to.
Of course, adding corporations to "the public" already turns the whole idea into a farce, but having government agencies' interests secretly influencing it crosses the line.
Well, corporations exist only because the state licenses them to exist, so there's one first point of influence; also, the US government has this huge military apparatus that the megacorps can depend on to enforce their interests worldwide, so they can enter in exploitative deals all over the planet. Of course the media megacorps will be intertwined with the government; they use it to expand their power and influence.
It may be worse -- it may indicate that New York Times journalists actually had clearance for things like that.
Well, how many of those journalists may actually be government agents? The US military has proven links to the US media: look here for a story on Army propaganda personnel working at CNN. Surely there are CIA people working in all major media outlets.
But for what purpose simple journalists would have it?
Maybe to report on it? Gee, I though that was what journalists in a country that prides itself on its "free press" (but really has a handful of megaconglomerates pushing their interests with their media possessions) were supposed to do.
The names that have been found in classified US documents (FBI, CIA) are always very interesting to look at. I know many people that, when they managed to get their FBI dossiers with FOIA petitions, found that many of their neighbors and "friends" were actively giving the authorities info about them. Even in the case of neighbors they treated very nicely.
Which just shows the terribly pernicious effect US domestic and international espionage has on communities. In their vile efforts to keep down people who are dedicated to social justice, they corrupt the comunity with offers of money for trivial pieces of information like what do the spied upon talk about with their neighbors, how they raise their children, who visits them, and stuff.
I'm happy about this blunder. I'm sure one can learn a lot more about the evil machinations of US intelligence agencies from this.
While you can complain about abuses of the past, I think your efforts would be better spent trying to ensure that they don't happen again and to encourage that the technology is used for maximum benefit for all humankind.
Isn't pointing out what has happened in similar historical circumsntances work in that direction?
You know, I'm not a big fan of oppression of minority groups - but I still can't feel entirely terrible about this.
Minority? What the hell are you talking about? I'm not in a minority! Hint: There's a world ouside your country where you would be a minority.
This technology will have to be tested on people before it can be used for the good of mankind.
Don't give me your talk about "for the good of mankind". Say it straight: "so some hotshot unitedstatesian millionaire makes a buck from the genetic deformation of third world peasants".
Instead, the technology is created by the highest bidder, who tests it on the lowest bidder. In the words of King Missile, "That's reality. That's the way it is."
Yeah, that's so convenient for unitedstatesians on top of the food chain like you. Don't be surprised if the rest of the world has a different idea.
I'd remind you that, as a group consisting largely of "computer people", we know better than anyone else that you learn twenty times more from your fuck-ups than from your successes.
You're euphemising with "fuck-up". Why don't you say what you mean: "We learn twenty times more from making Guatemalan women bear deformed children."
In conclusion, human testing is sometimes necessary, and we should force it upon the Amish.
You end up sounding like the Japanese would have said of Koreans in WWII.
Whenever a new life altering technology is developed, the same story plays itself out: the "benevolent" unitedstatesian "scientists" go to third world countries and use the locals as human guinea pigs. For example, birth control pills were perfected by studying secondary effects on Central American women who were given experimental pills without their knowledge. The US performed radiation experiments with Puerto Rican independence supporters. These are only two examples among many.
What abominations await my "raza" now that the human genome is in their sights?
We have a large criminal population who will never do any good for society. This would be an excellent pay back.
That introduces a demand for convicts, and a class of very powerful institutions (research institution, pharmaceutical companies) with an vested interest in making the government capture more "criminals" for its experiments.
Actually, China has recently been accused of something very similar. China some years back passed a law allowing for the organs of executed prisoners to be donated against the prisoner and the family's will. The number of executions swelled after that, as the number of foreigners who went to China and paid for organ transplants. The claim essentially is that China started making money out of the organs of executed prisoners, and thus, it started executing more prisoners.
The U.S. courts (I think the Supreme Court, but I'm not sure) actually ruled once against this same thing, the taking of organs from the executed. The nature of the argument was that it would affect the justice system negatively, by introducing an incentive for juries to hand death penalties ("somebody needy will get those organs").
Problems of the same kind hold for your "solution".
Yes, technology was embraced because it would free us up to have more leisure time. But most people would rather work than have that leisure time.
How do you know? When have people during the last 50 years in the US been consulted on whether they'd like more leisure time?
The fact is that there is a hierarchical structure of positions, and the people who occupy them get to decide on how much time people should dedicate to work, and how much leisure time they get. Those at the top literally have the power to decide for millions.
Slashdot Mirror
And you think this is an essential of life?
Let me tell you, there are sophisticated cultures where toilet paper is unheard of. The traditional Arab way of wiping oneself is with your hand; soap is provided in the bathroom to clean your hand afterwards. It is in fact more effective than paper-- the immediacy lends itself to a more thorough cleaning job. No paper is consumed, and bathrooms have soap anyways.
Look the net was built for commerce, by people who understand commerce, for the intended use of commerce
The net was built for nuclear war, by warmongers, for the intended use of strenghtening the US military to lend more puch to US exploitation and oppression world wide.
But where the hell did I say I am opposed to people having that kind of stuff at all?
Try to think about what I write before making a fool of yourself. I wrote:
It is just OBVIOUS that this is a reference to the possibility of the environment getting so fucked up that the only things left in the planet are silicon, cash, concrete and oil.
Writing those "trivial free programs" might take BILLIONS of dollars from money-grubbing tycoons (no names here), money that maybe could be re-allocated for that schmuck living in the street.
Really? How is XBill taking billions of dollars away from anybody?
You are obsessed with money. Let me tell you one thing I've learned in the hard school of knocks, kid. Money does not solve problems-- people do. Throwing scraps of money at the homeless is nothing but patching surface wounds in your society. To do the homeless some real good, you have to transform the social and production relations in which society is based. Money won't do that.
I'm sorry, but you are simply wrong--oil companies have no interest in spilling their oil all over the ocean.
Where the hell did I claim that it is the interest of oil companies to spill oil? Can you point out the precise words that say that?
Oil companies are simply not interested in preventing oil spills to the max degree possible, since that would cut a big bite off their profits. They simply want the biggest profits, and if that means spilling their oil regularly out of unsufficient precautions, they are happy with that.
[on social responsibility] For the best results, it should be as streamlined and simple as possible. That would be known as a Good Thing.
No. That would be known as selling peace of mind to smug and clueless gringo yuppies who don't really care about anyone or anything but themselves. This kind of attitude needs to go, if any good is to come.
People were out after Sengan even before that for his political bent.
Social resposibility is not a commodity-- it requires actual work and effort. You can't buy or sell social justice and/or the well-being of the biosphere. People need to actually make coordinated efforts to make that happen.
Can't they appeal to some large, greedy oil company looking to do community service by donating a server, SSL, and a Merchant Account (say maybe someone who could symphathize... like maybe Exxon??)
No, because these companies have precisely the opposite interests they do.
I was thinking - yeah I might chip in some cash for this - I like penguins, hate oil slicks - what the hell?
Look a centimeter beneath your shallow surface, and you'll realize you can't be bothered to even send a fax or letter in favor of penguins and against oil slicks.
Oh... but you got to fax your credit card number or send them a *snail mail* with your info... sorry but you lost me there. Make it easy to donate online and maybe more people would give.
I hope you enjoy the taste of silicon, cash, concrete and oil, because thanks to people like you, we'll all end up eating and drinking that.
On the other hand, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh, and give you a break. I'll tell you something. Try taking up as a hobby something really useful-- no, not writing yet another trivial free program, but soemthing like volunteering for a soup kitchen. I won't even expect you to give any money-- just go there, help cook, serve and clean up in a regular basis. No amount of money you could ever give will be more significant than something real, like this.
Sengan, as was said right above, used to post /. stories a lot some time ago. Slashbots booed him all the time because he had political interests they didn't share, and for a while there was a "ban Sengan from /." thing going on...
With all these modern technologies the mainstream USian is doing less and less every day. For example, many decades ago women were freed from going to the river to wash clothes by the invention of the washing machine. And continuosly, more and more work-saving inventions appear. Web technology makes it possible to do more and more things effortlessly without leaving the house-- you can shop at Amazon and Webvan, have pizza delivered, you can telecommute to work, etc. Not to mention that advances in AI software mean that every year there is less and less actual work to be done at work. Remember DotComGuy? This points the way to the near future of the US
So eventually, we will arrive at a society where the mainstream middle class inhabitant of the US will not work at all. They will be free to sit down in front of a machine all day long, have all the necessities of life delivered by that machine, and just involve themselves in virtual reality net porn or whatever in their virtual communities.
But this will not extend to everyone. South of the Río Grande, as always, people will not share in this wealth, and will be living real lives, doing actual work, walking from place to place, shopping in real stores, having real sex, and so on. They will not, of course, be oblivious to the (ir)realities of life in the northern neighbor. They will notice that this huge monster, gloating in it power and wealth, has fallen asleep. They will cross the border, with no oposition, since all the USians will be too busy playing VR Quake MMCXVII to even notice, and take over everything with no opposition.
So yes, wearable computers certainly will lead the US to its destruction. Though I can't really say I'm worried about it down here, me...
You too need to practice your reading skills. I didn't imply anything. I didn't make the original statement.
Anyway, let's go back to the original. I'll bracket it so you can see:
Which expresses two different, independent clauses: (a) that *BSD is pretty widely accepted anywhere, and (b) that Linux isn't as accepted as some people would like it to. This is wholly compatible with Linux being more widely accepted than *BSD. (Remember, Linux Torevals has been quoted as saying that his goal with the OS is "world domination").
Now, you obviously read it this way:
This is what you thought it said. But all this shows is that (a) you don't know shit about comma placement (if that were the reading, one would have a comma after 'much'), and (b) you assumed the poster to be stupid and wholly oblivious to the facts, and by extension, that you are an arrogant idiot who thinks him or herself smarter than anybody.I think you need to practice your reading skills.
Well, then they must not be doing what they're supposed to.
Of course, adding corporations to "the public" already turns the whole idea into a farce, but having government agencies' interests secretly influencing it crosses the line.
Well, corporations exist only because the state licenses them to exist, so there's one first point of influence; also, the US government has this huge military apparatus that the megacorps can depend on to enforce their interests worldwide, so they can enter in exploitative deals all over the planet. Of course the media megacorps will be intertwined with the government; they use it to expand their power and influence.
Well, how many of those journalists may actually be government agents? The US military has proven links to the US media: look here for a story on Army propaganda personnel working at CNN. Surely there are CIA people working in all major media outlets.
But for what purpose simple journalists would have it?
Maybe to report on it? Gee, I though that was what journalists in a country that prides itself on its "free press" (but really has a handful of megaconglomerates pushing their interests with their media possessions) were supposed to do.
Which just shows the terribly pernicious effect US domestic and international espionage has on communities. In their vile efforts to keep down people who are dedicated to social justice, they corrupt the comunity with offers of money for trivial pieces of information like what do the spied upon talk about with their neighbors, how they raise their children, who visits them, and stuff.
I'm happy about this blunder. I'm sure one can learn a lot more about the evil machinations of US intelligence agencies from this.
Pedro Albizu Campos Radiation experiments. The link is a Google cached page, since the original seems to have been taken down, and leads to www.buydomains.com.
Isn't pointing out what has happened in similar historical circumsntances work in that direction?
And it isn't done just on people of Central America, it's done on US citizens as well.
You're right on this. But you'll have to excuse me for concentrating first on the defense of those who have the least resources to defend themselves.
Now, what precisely is our point of disagreement, since you call me a troll?
Minority? What the hell are you talking about? I'm not in a minority! Hint: There's a world ouside your country where you would be a minority.
This technology will have to be tested on people before it can be used for the good of mankind.
Don't give me your talk about "for the good of mankind". Say it straight: "so some hotshot unitedstatesian millionaire makes a buck from the genetic deformation of third world peasants".
Instead, the technology is created by the highest bidder, who tests it on the lowest bidder. In the words of King Missile, "That's reality. That's the way it is."
Yeah, that's so convenient for unitedstatesians on top of the food chain like you. Don't be surprised if the rest of the world has a different idea.
I'd remind you that, as a group consisting largely of "computer people", we know better than anyone else that you learn twenty times more from your fuck-ups than from your successes.
You're euphemising with "fuck-up". Why don't you say what you mean: "We learn twenty times more from making Guatemalan women bear deformed children."
In conclusion, human testing is sometimes necessary, and we should force it upon the Amish.
You end up sounding like the Japanese would have said of Koreans in WWII.
What abominations await my "raza" now that the human genome is in their sights?
That introduces a demand for convicts, and a class of very powerful institutions (research institution, pharmaceutical companies) with an vested interest in making the government capture more "criminals" for its experiments.
Actually, China has recently been accused of something very similar. China some years back passed a law allowing for the organs of executed prisoners to be donated against the prisoner and the family's will. The number of executions swelled after that, as the number of foreigners who went to China and paid for organ transplants. The claim essentially is that China started making money out of the organs of executed prisoners, and thus, it started executing more prisoners.
The U.S. courts (I think the Supreme Court, but I'm not sure) actually ruled once against this same thing, the taking of organs from the executed. The nature of the argument was that it would affect the justice system negatively, by introducing an incentive for juries to hand death penalties ("somebody needy will get those organs").
Problems of the same kind hold for your "solution".
How do you know? When have people during the last 50 years in the US been consulted on whether they'd like more leisure time?
The fact is that there is a hierarchical structure of positions, and the people who occupy them get to decide on how much time people should dedicate to work, and how much leisure time they get. Those at the top literally have the power to decide for millions.