For a mindless summer blockbuster, there was a good dose of philosophy and symbolism in The Matrix. Add to that the fact that, in 1999, those really were some freakin' cool special effects. I was, however, let down that the first movie devolved into a blow 'em up, shoot 'em up gun fest. There was a lot of potential there halfway through that was lost the instant Neo says they need "Guns. Lots of guns."
I am using firefox right now. Just as fast and responsive as IE (if not moreso) with my several banking sites and loads/., as well as every other site i go to just fine. So, in conclusion, STFU!
Love, the rest of us that know how to use a computer
equally interesting to note is that M$ has only recently really gotten involved in the political donation game, and that they are still donating realively small amounts (compare to companies of similar size in other industries), considering just hom much money they have to throw around.
Why does the government feel that it needs to know the "ID" of my vehicle? What business is it of theirs? Because they have an interest in making sure that that vehicle is safe to drive (safety inspections). Also, it makes it a little more likely that your car could be recovered if it were ever stolen. Also, I believe (not certain) that VINs are global, voluntarily created by automotive manufacturers; therfore, they wouldn't be just a US thing. Furthermore, the gov't provides all the roads on which you would be driving. The gov't identifies your car by its license plate. You give your VIN when you register your car so that there is something else to match it against other than the plates if it is stolen, in an accident, etc.
This is no different than other government-mandated identity programs such as Social Security numbers. Yes it is. One has to have an SSN in the US, no matter what. One doesn't have to own a car (well, in some instances one DOES have to own a car, but people in a large enough metropolitan area don't have to).
Not to get tin-foil-hatty, too late
but if you've read books like 1984 or studied leaders like Hitler, you will know that programs like this (even if they start with the best of intentions) end up going way down the slippery slope, usually with disastrous results. A VIN isn't going to lead the SS to your door step. No one knows the VIN on a particular automobile unless they are standing right next to it and looking right at where it is printed. Now if you smash your car into a bus load of orphans, and you flee the scene on foot, then maybe the cops could check the VIN to see to whom the car is registered, and then come arrest you later. Of course, they could just as easily check the license plate.
Slashdotters were (rightfully) up in arms a few years back when Intel planned on embedding unique IDs into their Pentium III chips. Yet we blindly accept VINs and other intrusions into our privacy without question. Why? Maybe, just maybe,/.ers see VINs as just a serial number on a car, not some sort of gov't tracking system devised by the Illuminati. I think most/.ers don't like SSNs (to use your other example), but they are way, WAY too entrenched to just rebel against. Pick your battles, as they say.
Lots of shareware is crippled until you pay for it. What if you need to use it just once, but can't access a function that you need for your one time use in the crippled version?
IOW, you will only have friends that have the exact same beliefs as yourself? no. that's why i said to go read the comment i linked.
HINT: One does not throw away friends for such stupid reasons. i know. that's why i wrote that comment, which i linked above. Read it again, and see why he's really not my friend anymore, and look up humor in a dictionary.
Actually, most of the things at democraticunderground.com that i've seen make me ill. I've never paid much attention to freerepublic.
Also, You would fit in real well at democratunderground.com and/or freerepublic.com. Both those sites believe in kicking anyone who doesn't agree with their god...I mean leader.
aren't you doing something similar to me, now? at least as far as assuming that my political beliefs are at represented by the extremists at democraticunderground?
He's not my friend because he was "conservative" or liked fox news, but because he was so damn simple as to say something like fox isn't a news channel, so it doesn't matter that they are biased.He was someone (philosophy major) who should have known better. There was a lot more to it than just this one incident. He regularly showed himself to be a parrot towing the (Republican) party-line. Ultimately, though, it had far more to do with his callous and outright rude remarks to other people, irrespective of politics that got to me.
Also, you really need to learn how to more properly judge a throw-away line that is intended as humor at the end of a post. I was being flippant. Or perhaps facetious. In any event, I thought it would be obvious that I was making a joke and would not really stop being friend's with someone over something like his political views.
Well, think about the unrealistic expectations that pr0n sets for sex in the real world. I have heard much anecdotal evidence about couples in their 20s where the woman has to basically act like pornstar in the bedroom in order to interest the guy at all because he's become so desensitized to sex by all the pr0n he's been seeing since he was 16.
Now, imagine now how much worse it'll be for kids who are growing up on the Internet with a world of porn at their fingertips. I teach at a high school where all the kids are given laptops and wireless net connectivity, and I know that all of them, male and female alike, have gone to at least one pr0n site on purpose, not to mention all of the goatse's, lemonparty's, etc. that they are tricked into viewing by their maliscious friends.
We're going to have an entire generation of kids who are completely jaded concerning sex while simultaneously haveing all kinds of complexes because their boobs, penis, butt, etc. is too small.
I was talking once to an associate of mine, and he was complaining about the left leanings of CNN and other news outlets, which is why he preferred Fox News Channel.
I responded, "but they're even more right-wing than you could possibly accuse cnn of being left-wing. They certainly provide a far more biased assessment of the news."
To this he responded, "Yeah, but Fox is more just commentary and editorials, not news reporting, unlike CNN or MSNBC."
"But is says news right in the name!" I countered. "It's Fox NEWS Channel, not Fox Commentary Channel."
Needless to say, he's not my friend anymore./True story.
My honors biology class in small town texas high school (but still close to a big city) taught creationism during our unit on evolution and the origin of life. It took about 15 minutes. In a nutshell, my bio teacher (Catholic, went to the same Parish as I did, if anyone is interested), very diplomatically said, "Some people think that God, or some kind of supreme being, created everything as it is right now; however, this is not what scientists think."
Contrast this with an ex-gf, whose small town texas (but really freakin' remote) junior high science teacher held up a Bible in class and told them flat out that he refused to teach them anything about evolution, and that everything they needed to know was "in this book, right here."
The first steps to a Brazillian OS are being made by the OpenBeOS project (now officially renamed Haiku).
Seriously, one of the most active contributors of the project is one Bruno G. Albuquerque, a resident of Brazil. There are several other important contributors from around the world working on Haiku as well.
Of course, there are many of the same problems (U.S. compilers, U.S. hardware, etc.), but the base of initial developers is more multi-national, it seems.
It's just one of those things that will take time. For a long time, the undisputed leaders in computer technology were the US. It's is only natural that Open Source/Free Software be centered around US things at first. The democratizing nature of FS/OSS will naturally push things to a more global nature, by helping level the playing field (every one has access to Linux, GNU, GCC, etc) and allowing developing countries to develop the software that they need at an affordable price.
Those federal funds amount to around, IIRC, 10% of our budget each year, and we can't afford not to accpet money, we're already losing money as it is because of the f'ed up state of public school financing in TX.
(In case you're wondering, public schools in TX are currently funded through property taxes, with a max rate of 1.5%. Nearly all districts have already reached that maximum rate [as has my district]. Now then, my district the last several years has seen an increase in enrollment, mostly in minority imigrants [Asian {esp. Indian} and Latino]. This in turn, along with the crap economy has depressed property values in my district. Now guess what happens to our property tax revenues when property values are decreasing, and we are forbidden by state law to raise property tax rates any higher than they already are).
Umm, no. Most schools still recieve the same federal funding as they did before, it's just that now they have more conditions on that money. Many schools are staring down the barrell of bankruptcy trying to get achieve the standards set up by NCLB. At the school where I teach here in TX, when we were getting ready to administer the TAKS test, we were honestly facing a situation where we could, under the states standards, get a rating of "Exemplary" (best) from the state school board, but actually not achieve the Annual Yearly Progress outlined in NCLB.
It's hitting all sports. Spend to win and use money and technology to remove so much doubt the mystery of the game is ultimately solved.
Doesn't always work in all sports. In baseball, for example, the Yankees, who spend the most of any team, have remained competetive, but are not guaranteed a Championship, as the last few years have shown. In fact, the World Series winners the past few years have all been mid-market teams (2003 Marlins, 2002 Angels, 2001 Diamondbacks). Conversely, the Mets, who spend the 2nd most in baseball, have been in the cellar for the last few seasons. Same for the Rangers, who also boast a fairly high rate of team spending.
NIN releases are routinely bashed on the pitchfork site. Look at a broad base of rock critics however, and you will see NIN being generally praised. It's not just NIN, either. Some of the critics as pitchfork seem to have an agenda against certain bands, and make sure to give said bands poor ratings at every turn. (Though I'm not sure, a cursory look at the site seems to suggests that the one positive NIN review they have up, written by one James P. Wisdom, was the last review written by said reviewer for the site).
Hell, how about the differing requirements of (let's say) Texas and New York educators. Both states have very stringent (believe it or not) well-defined standards, such that textbook companies cater and fawn over them, making special Texas-only editions of their textbooks and the like. The same holds true for any other reasonably wealthy, populous state (CA, anyone?).
On the otherhand, this kind of project could be great for states without much political, economic, social, etc. clout (MT, WY, WV, etc.) to get text books that weren't made with other state curricula in mind./educator in Texas.
If OpenTextBooks.org use a license with a strong copyleft, then they are likely incompatible (i cannot get to the page with thier license right now b/c of stupid webfilters at work), but the two groups could probably come to a consensus (most copyleft licenses, I've noticed, don't differ from one another much). Also if their is some kind of forced contribution, ala the MPL, then there is a conflict with the licenses, which would leave WikkiBooks able to share, but not able to freely take.
If OTB.org is using something ala the BSD license, then WikkiBooks can take all they want, but OTB.org could be potentially left out in the cold.
Slashdot Mirror
For a mindless summer blockbuster, there was a good dose of philosophy and symbolism in The Matrix. Add to that the fact that, in 1999, those really were some freakin' cool special effects. I was, however, let down that the first movie devolved into a blow 'em up, shoot 'em up gun fest. There was a lot of potential there halfway through that was lost the instant Neo says they need "Guns. Lots of guns."
i still have 0.8 on this machine, and it renders fine. it must be a new bug in 0.9.1.
Dear Troll,
/., as well as every other site i go to just fine. So, in conclusion, STFU!
I am using firefox right now. Just as fast and responsive as IE (if not moreso) with my several banking sites and loads
Love,
the rest of us that know how to use a computer
P.S. Log in next time
actually, M$ give more money to Dems than Reps:http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib .asp?Ind=C5120
equally interesting to note is that M$ has only recently really gotten involved in the political donation game, and that they are still donating realively small amounts (compare to companies of similar size in other industries), considering just hom much money they have to throw around.
Why does the government feel that it needs to know the "ID" of my vehicle? What business is it of theirs?
/.ers see VINs as just a serial number on a car, not some sort of gov't tracking system devised by the Illuminati. I think most /.ers don't like SSNs (to use your other example), but they are way, WAY too entrenched to just rebel against. Pick your battles, as they say.
Because they have an interest in making sure that that vehicle is safe to drive (safety inspections). Also, it makes it a little more likely that your car could be recovered if it were ever stolen. Also, I believe (not certain) that VINs are global, voluntarily created by automotive manufacturers; therfore, they wouldn't be just a US thing. Furthermore, the gov't provides all the roads on which you would be driving. The gov't identifies your car by its license plate. You give your VIN when you register your car so that there is something else to match it against other than the plates if it is stolen, in an accident, etc.
This is no different than other government-mandated identity programs such as Social Security numbers.
Yes it is. One has to have an SSN in the US, no matter what. One doesn't have to own a car (well, in some instances one DOES have to own a car, but people in a large enough metropolitan area don't have to).
Not to get tin-foil-hatty,
too late
but if you've read books like 1984 or studied leaders like Hitler, you will know that programs like this (even if they start with the best of intentions) end up going way down the slippery slope, usually with disastrous results.
A VIN isn't going to lead the SS to your door step. No one knows the VIN on a particular automobile unless they are standing right next to it and looking right at where it is printed. Now if you smash your car into a bus load of orphans, and you flee the scene on foot, then maybe the cops could check the VIN to see to whom the car is registered, and then come arrest you later. Of course, they could just as easily check the license plate.
Slashdotters were (rightfully) up in arms a few years back when Intel planned on embedding unique IDs into their Pentium III chips. Yet we blindly accept VINs and other intrusions into our privacy without question. Why?
Maybe, just maybe,
Lots of shareware is crippled until you pay for it. What if you need to use it just once, but can't access a function that you need for your one time use in the crippled version?
Every asshole who was ever called on the carpet for some dumbass remark has first gone to the "it was only a joke" defense.
Actually, it's been my experience that a true-asshole wouldn't really care about it.
IOW, you will only have friends that have the exact same beliefs as yourself?
no. that's why i said to go read the comment i linked.
HINT: One does not throw away friends for such stupid reasons.
i know. that's why i wrote that comment, which i linked above. Read it again, and see why he's really not my friend anymore, and look up humor in a dictionary.
Please see this comment.
thank you.
Please see this comment.
thanks.
Please go see this comment
thank you.
Actually, most of the things at democraticunderground.com that i've seen make me ill. I've never paid much attention to freerepublic.
Also,
You would fit in real well at democratunderground.com and/or freerepublic.com.
Both those sites believe in kicking anyone who doesn't agree with their god...I mean leader.
aren't you doing something similar to me, now? at least as far as assuming that my political beliefs are at represented by the extremists at democraticunderground?
He's not my friend because he was "conservative" or liked fox news, but because he was so damn simple as to say something like fox isn't a news channel, so it doesn't matter that they are biased.He was someone (philosophy major) who should have known better. There was a lot more to it than just this one incident. He regularly showed himself to be a parrot towing the (Republican) party-line. Ultimately, though, it had far more to do with his callous and outright rude remarks to other people, irrespective of politics that got to me.
Also, you really need to learn how to more properly judge a throw-away line that is intended as humor at the end of a post. I was being flippant. Or perhaps facetious. In any event, I thought it would be obvious that I was making a joke and would not really stop being friend's with someone over something like his political views.
Well, think about the unrealistic expectations that pr0n sets for sex in the real world. I have heard much anecdotal evidence about couples in their 20s where the woman has to basically act like pornstar in the bedroom in order to interest the guy at all because he's become so desensitized to sex by all the pr0n he's been seeing since he was 16.
Now, imagine now how much worse it'll be for kids who are growing up on the Internet with a world of porn at their fingertips. I teach at a high school where all the kids are given laptops and wireless net connectivity, and I know that all of them, male and female alike, have gone to at least one pr0n site on purpose, not to mention all of the goatse's, lemonparty's, etc. that they are tricked into viewing by their maliscious friends.
We're going to have an entire generation of kids who are completely jaded concerning sex while simultaneously haveing all kinds of complexes because their boobs, penis, butt, etc. is too small.
I was talking once to an associate of mine, and he was complaining about the left leanings of CNN and other news outlets, which is why he preferred Fox News Channel.
/True story.
I responded, "but they're even more right-wing than you could possibly accuse cnn of being left-wing. They certainly provide a far more biased assessment of the news."
To this he responded, "Yeah, but Fox is more just commentary and editorials, not news reporting, unlike CNN or MSNBC."
"But is says news right in the name!" I countered. "It's Fox NEWS Channel, not Fox Commentary Channel."
Needless to say, he's not my friend anymore.
My honors biology class in small town texas high school (but still close to a big city) taught creationism during our unit on evolution and the origin of life. It took about 15 minutes. In a nutshell, my bio teacher (Catholic, went to the same Parish as I did, if anyone is interested), very diplomatically said, "Some people think that God, or some kind of supreme being, created everything as it is right now; however, this is not what scientists think."
Contrast this with an ex-gf, whose small town texas (but really freakin' remote) junior high science teacher held up a Bible in class and told them flat out that he refused to teach them anything about evolution, and that everything they needed to know was "in this book, right here."
The first steps to a Brazillian OS are being made by the OpenBeOS project (now officially renamed Haiku).
Seriously, one of the most active contributors of the project is one Bruno G. Albuquerque, a resident of Brazil. There are several other important contributors from around the world working on Haiku as well.
Of course, there are many of the same problems (U.S. compilers, U.S. hardware, etc.), but the base of initial developers is more multi-national, it seems.
It's just one of those things that will take time. For a long time, the undisputed leaders in computer technology were the US. It's is only natural that Open Source/Free Software be centered around US things at first. The democratizing nature of FS/OSS will naturally push things to a more global nature, by helping level the playing field (every one has access to Linux, GNU, GCC, etc) and allowing developing countries to develop the software that they need at an affordable price.
Those federal funds amount to around, IIRC, 10% of our budget each year, and we can't afford not to accpet money, we're already losing money as it is because of the f'ed up state of public school financing in TX.
(In case you're wondering, public schools in TX are currently funded through property taxes, with a max rate of 1.5%. Nearly all districts have already reached that maximum rate [as has my district]. Now then, my district the last several years has seen an increase in enrollment, mostly in minority imigrants [Asian {esp. Indian} and Latino]. This in turn, along with the crap economy has depressed property values in my district. Now guess what happens to our property tax revenues when property values are decreasing, and we are forbidden by state law to raise property tax rates any higher than they already are).
Umm, no. Most schools still recieve the same federal funding as they did before, it's just that now they have more conditions on that money. Many schools are staring down the barrell of bankruptcy trying to get achieve the standards set up by NCLB. At the school where I teach here in TX, when we were getting ready to administer the TAKS test, we were honestly facing a situation where we could, under the states standards, get a rating of "Exemplary" (best) from the state school board, but actually not achieve the Annual Yearly Progress outlined in NCLB.
It was my understanding that all you had to do to be awarded a patent was file for it, obvious or not (see amazon, M$, et al).
It's hitting all sports. Spend to win and use money and technology to remove so much doubt the mystery of the game is ultimately solved.
Doesn't always work in all sports. In baseball, for example, the Yankees, who spend the most of any team, have remained competetive, but are not guaranteed a Championship, as the last few years have shown. In fact, the World Series winners the past few years have all been mid-market teams (2003 Marlins, 2002 Angels, 2001 Diamondbacks). Conversely, the Mets, who spend the 2nd most in baseball, have been in the cellar for the last few seasons. Same for the Rangers, who also boast a fairly high rate of team spending.
NIN releases are routinely bashed on the pitchfork site. Look at a broad base of rock critics however, and you will see NIN being generally praised. It's not just NIN, either. Some of the critics as pitchfork seem to have an agenda against certain bands, and make sure to give said bands poor ratings at every turn. (Though I'm not sure, a cursory look at the site seems to suggests that the one positive NIN review they have up, written by one James P. Wisdom, was the last review written by said reviewer for the site).
Hell, how about the differing requirements of (let's say) Texas and New York educators. Both states have very stringent (believe it or not) well-defined standards, such that textbook companies cater and fawn over them, making special Texas-only editions of their textbooks and the like. The same holds true for any other reasonably wealthy, populous state (CA, anyone?).
/educator in Texas.
On the otherhand, this kind of project could be great for states without much political, economic, social, etc. clout (MT, WY, WV, etc.) to get text books that weren't made with other state curricula in mind.
If OpenTextBooks.org use a license with a strong copyleft, then they are likely incompatible (i cannot get to the page with thier license right now b/c of stupid webfilters at work), but the two groups could probably come to a consensus (most copyleft licenses, I've noticed, don't differ from one another much). Also if their is some kind of forced contribution, ala the MPL, then there is a conflict with the licenses, which would leave WikkiBooks able to share, but not able to freely take.
If OTB.org is using something ala the BSD license, then WikkiBooks can take all they want, but OTB.org could be potentially left out in the cold.
May the person who invented that word have his eyes poked out by an angry swordfish while swimming.
That seems rather cruel. What did the poor swordfish do to deserve the the eye juice of the moron who coined "blog" all over his stately horn?