Every unit has(had) a meaningful real-world purpose. (i.e., a 'furlong' is a day's farming work, by hand. A 'yard' is about a stride)
The cup-and-pound system makes common division possible with only a balance scale.
Yes, I know that many of the measurements for the second are obsolute (which is why we stopped using a lot of them), and that the first isn't as necessary with the prevalence of calendars. But this isn't a discussion about which is better, it's a discussion about whether or not it has any benefits beyond familiarity.
I'd be far less effective rotting in jail or paying heavy fines through the nose.
If your goal is to actually change the law, you're wrong. You would be MORE effective being the victim of an unjust system than you would be sneaking around and not getting caught.
And I'm actually going to perform a form of "civil obedience" -- No More Downloads. I have a ReplayTV and a TiVo, so I can get all the video I care to watch from them. Yeah, the new movies will take longer, but there are so many, many old movies to watch that it's not really an issue.
That's not C.D. or even a boycott -- it's lawful behavior.
As for your plans against the "copyright cartel" -- might I suggest that you take the additional step of actually boycotting (i.e, don't partake of at all) work that doesn't meet your criteria?
Demonstrating that the law is unjust, by violating it, getting caught, and then letting everyone see it.
Going to a restaurant and being arrested just for sitting down is Civil Disobedience. Sending your white friend to get take-out is NOT.
Guess that makes the members of French Underground cowards too, since they tried to not get caught by the Nazis...
the french underground were members of a revolution against the extant government. Civil Disobeidence was NOT one of their weapons.
If you want to try revolutionary overthrow of the government, go right ahead. Just don't say "it's civil disobeidence!" because C.D. is looked upon favorably.
Undocumented formats suck, but I think it's premature to suggest that Microsoft is deliberately targetting the reverse engineers just because a later version of Word fails to open something that earlier versions will open.
If we were talking about any other company, you'd be right.
but MS has a track record of doing this. "DOS ain't done until Lotus won't run" isn't an urban legend, it was a staple of the cut-throat unethical business practices that MS used to get to the top.
OTOH, this is all hypothetical. I haven't done the complex testing required yet.
Three things, off the top of my head, that make me hope OOo is good enough to do what I want it to.
1: word prediction. OOo Writer keeps track of the 500-2000 words you use most often, and suggests them as you type. Since I tend to use a few long-length words reguarly (i.e., when typing a fantasy story), this would be a great boon.
2: PDF Export. OOo PDFs with the right tuning-macro are absolutely incredible. Size control, bookmark placement--and all free.
3: Standard XML files. It's all but impossible to render a OOo writer file unsuable short of deleting it.
Here are three JEs i did awhile back about what's good and not-so-good about OOo. Be sure to read the second one.
If the "he" you're referring to is the original poster, he isn't. At *best*, he's a coward too afraid to face the full force of civil disobedience.
There's all sorts of "real change" that goes on, every year, by way of the government. Homosexuals can marry in Massachusets. The intelligence community is being reshaped. Tax laws no longer charge successful people for being married.
If you don't think that real change comes from acting within the system, you must not be living in America.
Most of us know we're talking about an application if we ever mention "The GIMP" to a handicapped person, and are mature enough to handle it.
This isn't about us. This is about them.
How long do you think Linux would have lasted if Linus had decided to call it Linus's Effecient Simple Binary Operating System? Do you really think that "LESBOS" would have ever gained the marketshare that Linux has?
The copyright industry owns the advertising media and has the right under private property law to deny any public service advertisement.
If you think that political will can only be harnessed through advertising, you don't know politics.
You need to find some charismatic people -- NOT anyone who's stumped for OSS, because largely they aren't -- and convince them. They will, in turn, convince others.
Arguments like "Snow White might never have been made if the laws today were in place then. Who knows what new great movie isn't being made because of overzealous copyright laws?" are what you want to go for.
As for entering public office -- get yourself a respectable profession, and pick a political party.
Why didn't the government just build more (and more sophisticated) rail systems?
Fear of invasion by hostilie military force.
A broken road can be driven around right at the point of the break. A broken railroad track requires backtracking to the nearest switchpoint and MASSIVE rerouting.
And let's not ignore that highways are simply better for anything other than massive city-to-city transportation, or that airlines overtook rail's benefit there for many goods?
Over the course of your courtship, please remember that somewhere between "what's your religion" and "are you open to or expecting S&M play?" that you should ask the "what's your opinion on diamonds" question.
She may want a diamond, but only as a signal and she doesn't care what the cost is. She may want something other than a diamond. She may also want a diamond, but willing to take something else along with it.
My suggestion, assuming that your "two month's salary" is the US per-capita range of $5000, is to spend no more than one-fifth that on the ring itself, and the remainder on a romantic getaway or other distinct and memorable gift.
(I'll also note here that a reasonable and senible wedding, honeymoon, AND engagement gift can all be done for under $5,000.)
If we start building a political structure into the Internet, we will start to have laws and bureaucrats and innovation will suffer. Just look at just about any other areas where government has gotten involved. Soon we'll need licenses just to use the Internet.
*sigh*
The internet was a government project for a LONG, LONG time, until it finally was decided to open it up to commercial enterprises.
And let's not forget the interstate highway system, or the national power grid, or any of the other hundred items where the government's intervention no only is non-ornerous, but necessary for the whole thing to work at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Off the top of my head:
Yes, I know that many of the measurements for the second are obsolute (which is why we stopped using a lot of them), and that the first isn't as necessary with the prevalence of calendars. But this isn't a discussion about which is better, it's a discussion about whether or not it has any benefits beyond familiarity.
Name a concrete benefit to the current calendar.
The imperial system, on the other hand, does have multiple discreet built-in benefits.
You apparantly aren't from the USA.
In this instance, trust me, you need better data than "the most popular chain sells crap coffee."
Proper != Valid.
There ain't not nothing wrong with using that there informal English, nosiree-bob.
"print media", "news media", etc. are all valid -- and so, "all medias" is also valid.
Insightful.
If you want good coffee, you can probably find a roaster nearby. Or your grocery store will sell a slew of "gormet" coffees.
nope. You can have multiple pools.
i.e., "the peoples of earth."
You obviously haven't had coffee in awhile.
Starbucks is crap -- but there are gas stations that have "good" coffee.
you know what the answer is for that, right?
"Some web pages may look different if they're designed for IE-only code."
Don't do that. Install Firefox, set it as the default web browser, and disable access to IE. Be sure to remove it from the desktop using Tweak UI.
Tell him that you gave him a better web browser, that won't get exploited as easily so hackers will have a harder time hacking his computer.
More people, less frequently.
I'd be far less effective rotting in jail or paying heavy fines through the nose.
If your goal is to actually change the law, you're wrong. You would be MORE effective being the victim of an unjust system than you would be sneaking around and not getting caught.
And I'm actually going to perform a form of "civil obedience" -- No More Downloads. I have a ReplayTV and a TiVo, so I can get all the video I care to watch from them. Yeah, the new movies will take longer, but there are so many, many old movies to watch that it's not really an issue.
That's not C.D. or even a boycott -- it's lawful behavior.
As for your plans against the "copyright cartel" -- might I suggest that you take the additional step of actually boycotting (i.e, don't partake of at all) work that doesn't meet your criteria?
Care to tell what is, then ?
Demonstrating that the law is unjust, by violating it, getting caught, and then letting everyone see it.
Going to a restaurant and being arrested just for sitting down is Civil Disobedience. Sending your white friend to get take-out is NOT.
Guess that makes the members of French Underground cowards too, since they tried to not get caught by the Nazis...
the french underground were members of a revolution against the extant government. Civil Disobeidence was NOT one of their weapons.
If you want to try revolutionary overthrow of the government, go right ahead. Just don't say "it's civil disobeidence!" because C.D. is looked upon favorably.
What's with the "by request" crap?
S.O.P. for the entire legal world.
Ask to see every EULA at the store, every time you come in, and get as many friends of yours to do the same as possible.
Eventually, the GM will just post them next to the software.
Undocumented formats suck, but I think it's premature to suggest that Microsoft is deliberately targetting the reverse engineers just because a later version of Word fails to open something that earlier versions will open.
If we were talking about any other company, you'd be right.
but MS has a track record of doing this. "DOS ain't done until Lotus won't run" isn't an urban legend, it was a staple of the cut-throat unethical business practices that MS used to get to the top.
OTOH, this is all hypothetical. I haven't done the complex testing required yet.
Three things, off the top of my head, that make me hope OOo is good enough to do what I want it to.
1: word prediction. OOo Writer keeps track of the 500-2000 words you use most often, and suggests them as you type. Since I tend to use a few long-length words reguarly (i.e., when typing a fantasy story), this would be a great boon.
2: PDF Export. OOo PDFs with the right tuning-macro are absolutely incredible. Size control, bookmark placement--and all free.
3: Standard XML files. It's all but impossible to render a OOo writer file unsuable short of deleting it.
Here are three JEs i did awhile back about what's good and not-so-good about OOo. Be sure to read the second one.
http://slashdot.org/~Planesdragon/journal/30727
http://slashdot.org/~Planesdragon/journal/30730
http://slashdot.org/~Planesdragon/journal/31327
Hypothetically...
if the OOo-made document opens in Office 97, 2000, and 2002, but breaks in 2003, then it *IS* MS's deliberate attempt to break compatability.
What he's doing is real change...
If the "he" you're referring to is the original poster, he isn't. At *best*, he's a coward too afraid to face the full force of civil disobedience.
There's all sorts of "real change" that goes on, every year, by way of the government. Homosexuals can marry in Massachusets. The intelligence community is being reshaped. Tax laws no longer charge successful people for being married.
If you don't think that real change comes from acting within the system, you must not be living in America.
Most of us know we're talking about an application if we ever mention "The GIMP" to a handicapped person, and are mature enough to handle it.
This isn't about us. This is about them.
How long do you think Linux would have lasted if Linus had decided to call it Linus's Effecient Simple Binary Operating System? Do you really think that "LESBOS" would have ever gained the marketshare that Linux has?
The copyright industry owns the advertising media and has the right under private property law to deny any public service advertisement.
If you think that political will can only be harnessed through advertising, you don't know politics.
You need to find some charismatic people -- NOT anyone who's stumped for OSS, because largely they aren't -- and convince them. They will, in turn, convince others.
Arguments like "Snow White might never have been made if the laws today were in place then. Who knows what new great movie isn't being made because of overzealous copyright laws?" are what you want to go for.
As for entering public office -- get yourself a respectable profession, and pick a political party.
might I suggest that there is a better way to spend your time?
You *can* do something about the law. Convince other Americans that the Public Domain is a Good Thing. Run for office if you have to.
Better to try convincing them now than after you're facing a civil trial.
Why didn't the government just build more (and more sophisticated) rail systems?
Fear of invasion by hostilie military force.
A broken road can be driven around right at the point of the break. A broken railroad track requires backtracking to the nearest switchpoint and MASSIVE rerouting.
And let's not ignore that highways are simply better for anything other than massive city-to-city transportation, or that airlines overtook rail's benefit there for many goods?
Over the course of your courtship, please remember that somewhere between "what's your religion" and "are you open to or expecting S&M play?" that you should ask the "what's your opinion on diamonds" question.
She may want a diamond, but only as a signal and she doesn't care what the cost is. She may want something other than a diamond. She may also want a diamond, but willing to take something else along with it.
My suggestion, assuming that your "two month's salary" is the US per-capita range of $5000, is to spend no more than one-fifth that on the ring itself, and the remainder on a romantic getaway or other distinct and memorable gift.
(I'll also note here that a reasonable and senible wedding, honeymoon, AND engagement gift can all be done for under $5,000.)
If we start building a political structure into the Internet, we will start to have laws and bureaucrats and innovation will suffer. Just look at just about any other areas where government has gotten involved. Soon we'll need licenses just to use the Internet.
*sigh*
The internet was a government project for a LONG, LONG time, until it finally was decided to open it up to commercial enterprises.
And let's not forget the interstate highway system, or the national power grid, or any of the other hundred items where the government's intervention no only is non-ornerous, but necessary for the whole thing to work at all.
Unions have no place in the modern workplace and are a breeding ground for mediocrity.
Spoken like someone who never had to work without benefit of a union's success.
As you are randomly downsized and sold overseas, take comfort that you didn't give in and unionize when it could have saved your profession.
(and don't try telling me that there are no unions for white-collar workers: what do you think bar associations and medical boards are?)
You're kidding, right?
A usable, workable microkernal that snuggly runds Win32 by design, and you're suggesting they give up and poke and Linux some more?
And let's not forget that they have essentially "joined WINE" -- both projects apparantly share rather liberally between each other.