"The centers for self-restraint do not fully develop until after adolescence"
I see absolutely no difference in the level of self-restraint shown by teens compared to that shown by "adults". Self-indulgence is the American norm for all age groups.
And I'm sick of hearing about Columbine. Most often it's cited to support somebody's attempt to ram their personal brand of controlling morality down other people's throats. For every Columbine there are a dozen or more cases of a so-called "adult" blowing away his whole family or offing a bunch of random people at his workplace.
"The thing is, because Java is free, that's why there are so many apps that run on it."
Out in the non-geek world Java Apps are almost universally reviled for being slow, unpleasant and prone to crash.
There are a multitude of users at my work, people who wouldn't know a memory stick from a cpu, who will say "Oh no, another crappy corporate app that uses Java. I hate Java".
The only place Java will ever do well is where it is invisible to the end user because end users, even non-technical ones, tend to hate Java.
Personally I've seen a bit of a boom in the self-employment industry.
I see a lot of desperate people trying to sell candles or trinkets to friends and relatives just to make ends meet.
When our Republican leaders see a guy offering to mow his neighbor's lawn because he can't find a job that pays a livable wage they smile and say, "look we seeing a boom in self-employment"
And don't forget that the economy has to create something like 100,000 new jobs a month just to say even with a growing population.
Question: Since we are having trouble creating enough jobs that provide a decent living for our existing population why are we still letting in over 2 million new immigrants a year?
Answer: Big business loves it because it provides more and more downward pressure on wages. In our current society the desires of Big Business triumph all else.
Here's what we are staring to see in a typical month: Lose 100,000 manufacturing jobs that support a middle-class lifestyle. Gain 150,000 service jobs that provide a just over poverty line lifestyle.
And then the politicians crow, "Look, we done gained 50,000 jobs"
"Take an economics class. So we loose a few US jobs. US companies are making those jobs, which means US companies will be reaping the profits"
Oh man, you are so completely off track it boggles the mind. You have swallowed the propaganda hook, line and sinker. This is the Big Lie that Corporations and Politicians use to get the laws passed that they want.
In reality, these are primarily Global Multinational corporations that benefit. And they are not passing on the wealth by hiring vast numbers of new managers. In fact these big companies are finding that they need fewer and fewer managers. When was the last time you saw a headline like "Big Company Hires 10,000 New American White-Collar Workers"?
When a factory moves to China it doesn't just create jobs for assembly line workers. It also creates jobs for supervisors and managers and maintenance workers and so forth. And once all the actual production has been shipped overseas there's no real reason to keep the services and support staff here either. Hence the accounting and programming jobs are starting to go.
We are witnessing the complete hollowing out of the American Economy.
This is a common and widely-believed simplification.
There are many "sides" to Global "Free Trade". Multinational Corporations and their stockholders benefit the most. Politicians, lawyers and bankers tend to benefit as the Corporations spread money around to grease the wheels of trade. People who are already wealthy benefit from the cheap prices.
But the American Middle Class most certainly does not benefit in the long run. Remember that thirty years ago a person could get a job in a factory or a machine shop and buy a house and a car and raise a family on his earnings. Not everybody wants to or is able to be a businessman or a "knowledge" worker.
But this is ending. America is on the path to becoming a two class society: the business class who are becoming very wealthy and the service class who just barely scrape out a minimal existence.
It's the future of America. I'm not really joking.
I work in a two man IT department at a factory. My pal and I realize that this is the last of the gravy train. When these jobs end because of corporate restructuring or the factory moving to Mexico we will most likely never work in the Tech industry again.
Is that as completely stupid as it sounds? How can they claim to be able to file a lawsuit before they have a user's identity? You can't file suit against an IP address.
Prior art does not come into effect because the Patent Office apparently no longer checks for prior art. They are currently in the business of taking the hefty fees, rubberstamping patent applications and letting the courts sort out any of that messy prior art stuff.
Why would this be?
Two reasons. The people who run the patent office are patent attorneys. They are happy to build a culture that generates massive amounts of work for patent attorneys. 2nd reason is that the Patent Office is now a cash cow for the Government. Going slow and checking and rejecting patents would just cut into the lucre.
This is really bad. Not so much because the MPAA is going to schools to deliver it's particular propaganda. But because ANY group from private industry can buy access to school kids.
What's next? Representatives from the Brokerage industry going to grade schools to preach the virtues of buying stock? Fast food evangelists marching freely through classrooms brainwashing kids to eat only Happy Meals.
The MPAA is evil. But no more evil than any other industry group that will push it's own profits at the expense of all else. We are truely losing our integrity as a society if we let any of them into our schools.
There's no difference anymore. Politicians move from corporations to government and back again with ease.
The Bush Administration is essentially an executive branch composed of businessmen. When their time in Office is over they will move back to the business world armed with an expanded web of personal connections that can be used to advance their business interests.
It's called Crony Capitalism and it's destroying this country.
Are you an absolute idiot? You admit that their terms of service give you unlimited downloads. Unlimited means without any limits. Nobody is a "freaky weirdo" because they actualy use their "unlimited" service as much as possible.
Ever hear of a wonderful thing called Due Process. Well, it's all going out the window now. Unless you are rich enough to hire some good lawyers you no longer have the right to Due Process.
If somebody believes they have evidence of criminal behavior they should have to take it to a Court of Law which would then issue a subpeona or warrent. But in our New World Order big corporations merely have to finger you and you are presumed guilty. So lovely.
Programmers aren't wanted as burger flippers anyway. They think too much and tend to stir up discontent. Face it, nobody wants to hire bitter ex-Programmers for much of anything.
You mean he was going to steal electro-magnetic waves as they traveled through the air?
He was going to steal something that was traveling through his house?
Never forget that the whole concept of the "ownership" of waves and signals and digital code and sounds and pictures and images is an artificial legal construction designed wholly for the benefit of large corporations.
In any rational world he would be seen as "stealing" nothing. He was simply putting to use what was being beamed to his house already.
I have 3 teenagers, one son who lives with me full time and 2 daughters who are with me every weekend. Between them they will easily watch 3 or 4 DVDs every weekend.
When I was on the twenty buck plan (3 DVDs out at a time) they would watch them on the weekend and I would send them back monday. New ones would arrive before the next weekend and the cycle would repeat. We would average 10 or more rentals a month for twenty bucks.
I recently moved to the thirty buck plan (5 out at a time) because my wife started adding in a ton of movies too. So far it's paying off. We cycle the rentals quickly and often get new DVDs back in 2 or three days from when we mail the old ones.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for over a year. I'm on the 5 at a time plan because we have four people in my family adding movies to the rental queue.
For the most part we get everything that we ask for amazingly fast. It's very rare that anything hangs up on the queue with a long wait. Even highly popular and newly released items arrive quickly. And since we are in the Bay Area not far from Netflix central the turnaround time is often just two or three days.
I'm very happy with Netflix. In a good month we'll easily get 20 or more DVDs for an average rental price of under $1.50 delivered right to our door.
Slashdot Mirror
"The centers for self-restraint do not fully develop until after adolescence"
I see absolutely no difference in the level of self-restraint shown by teens compared to that shown by "adults". Self-indulgence is the American norm for all age groups.
And I'm sick of hearing about Columbine. Most often it's cited to support somebody's attempt to ram their personal brand of controlling morality down other people's throats. For every Columbine there are a dozen or more cases of a so-called "adult" blowing away his whole family or offing a bunch of random people at his workplace.
ZDNet are Windows Camp Followers. They see everything through a Redmond colored prism.
Spinning reality to make Linux look scary or dangerous is nothing new for them.
"The thing is, because Java is free, that's why there are so many apps that run on it."
Out in the non-geek world Java Apps are almost universally reviled for being slow, unpleasant and prone to crash.
There are a multitude of users at my work, people who wouldn't know a memory stick from a cpu, who will say "Oh no, another crappy corporate app that uses Java. I hate Java".
The only place Java will ever do well is where it is invisible to the end user because end users, even non-technical ones, tend to hate Java.
Personally I've seen a bit of a boom in the self-employment industry.
I see a lot of desperate people trying to sell candles or trinkets to friends and relatives just to make ends meet.
When our Republican leaders see a guy offering to mow his neighbor's lawn because he can't find a job that pays a livable wage they smile and say, "look we seeing a boom in self-employment"
Since late 2001 the Gross Domestic Product has increased something like 7%.
But wages and salaries have only increased 0.6%.
Think about it!
"...Cisco could sell all those routers"
We just upgraded all our Cisco switches and routers last month.
Replaced 15 units made in America with 15 units made in China.
You are very much correct!
And don't forget that the economy has to create something like 100,000 new jobs a month just to say even with a growing population.
Question: Since we are having trouble creating enough jobs that provide a decent living for our existing population why are we still letting in over 2 million new immigrants a year?
Answer: Big business loves it because it provides more and more downward pressure on wages. In our current society the desires of Big Business triumph all else.
"Most people who came through the door were underqualified and wanted too much money"
Yep, the poor misguided fools probably wanted a wage they could actually live on.
But what kind of new jobs are they?
Here's what we are staring to see in a typical month:
Lose 100,000 manufacturing jobs that support a middle-class lifestyle.
Gain 150,000 service jobs that provide a just over poverty line lifestyle.
And then the politicians crow, "Look, we done gained 50,000 jobs"
"Take an economics class. So we loose a few US jobs. US companies are making those jobs, which means US companies will be reaping the profits"
Oh man, you are so completely off track it boggles the mind. You have swallowed the propaganda hook, line and sinker. This is the Big Lie that Corporations and Politicians use to get the laws passed that they want.
In reality, these are primarily Global Multinational corporations that benefit. And they are not passing on the wealth by hiring vast numbers of new managers. In fact these big companies are finding that they need fewer and fewer managers. When was the last time you saw a headline like "Big Company Hires 10,000 New American White-Collar Workers"?
When a factory moves to China it doesn't just create jobs for assembly line workers. It also creates jobs for supervisors and managers and maintenance workers and so forth. And once all the actual production has been shipped overseas there's no real reason to keep the services and support staff here either. Hence the accounting and programming jobs are starting to go.
We are witnessing the complete hollowing out of the American Economy.
"Free trade benefits both parties."
This is a common and widely-believed simplification.
There are many "sides" to Global "Free Trade". Multinational Corporations and their stockholders benefit the most. Politicians, lawyers and bankers tend to benefit as the Corporations spread money around to grease the wheels of trade. People who are already wealthy benefit from the cheap prices.
But the American Middle Class most certainly does not benefit in the long run. Remember that thirty years ago a person could get a job in a factory or a machine shop and buy a house and a car and raise a family on his earnings. Not everybody wants to or is able to be a businessman or a "knowledge" worker.
But this is ending. America is on the path to becoming a two class society: the business class who are becoming very wealthy and the service class who just barely scrape out a minimal existence.
It's the future of America. I'm not really joking.
I work in a two man IT department at a factory. My pal and I realize that this is the last of the gravy train. When these jobs end because of corporate restructuring or the factory moving to Mexico we will most likely never work in the Tech industry again.
So, prior to this judgement, which ISPs already just rolled over on their users and gave up identities to the RIAA?
And which ISPs have been fighting in Court and at least making an effort to protect their users?
Is that as completely stupid as it sounds? How can they claim to be able to file a lawsuit before they have a user's identity? You can't file suit against an IP address.
Prior art does not come into effect because the Patent Office apparently no longer checks for prior art. They are currently in the business of taking the hefty fees, rubberstamping patent applications and letting the courts sort out any of that messy prior art stuff.
Why would this be?
Two reasons. The people who run the patent office are patent attorneys. They are happy to build a culture that generates massive amounts of work for patent attorneys. 2nd reason is that the Patent Office is now a cash cow for the Government. Going slow and checking and rejecting patents would just cut into the lucre.
Pretty sick, huh?
This is really bad. Not so much because the MPAA is going to schools to deliver it's particular propaganda. But because ANY group from private industry can buy access to school kids.
What's next? Representatives from the Brokerage industry going to grade schools to preach the virtues of buying stock? Fast food evangelists marching freely through classrooms brainwashing kids to eat only Happy Meals.
The MPAA is evil. But no more evil than any other industry group that will push it's own profits at the expense of all else. We are truely losing our integrity as a society if we let any of them into our schools.
There's no difference anymore. Politicians move from corporations to government and back again with ease.
The Bush Administration is essentially an executive branch composed of businessmen. When their time in Office is over they will move back to the business world armed with an expanded web of personal connections that can be used to advance their business interests.
It's called Crony Capitalism and it's destroying this country.
No, you are affirming that Country is subserviant to somebody's "God" concept. It says "one nation UNDER God".
This is the same sick my-religion-above-all mentality that let's Ashcroft happily trample the Bill of Rights in the mud.
Are you an absolute idiot? You admit that their terms of service give you unlimited downloads. Unlimited means without any limits. Nobody is a "freaky weirdo" because they actualy use their "unlimited" service as much as possible.
" If McDonalds slaughters cows in an inhumane manner, should the fry cook walk out?"
If he believes strongly in animal rights then yes, he should walk out.
Any employee who believed strongly in the value and integrity of Open Source Software should have walked out of SCO when they started this crap.
I can easily understand how a company would not want to hire a developer who stuck with SCO through all of their destructive actions.
Ever hear of a wonderful thing called Due Process. Well, it's all going out the window now. Unless you are rich enough to hire some good lawyers you no longer have the right to Due Process.
If somebody believes they have evidence of criminal behavior they should have to take it to a Court of Law which would then issue a subpeona or warrent. But in our New World Order big corporations merely have to finger you and you are presumed guilty. So lovely.
Programmers aren't wanted as burger flippers anyway. They think too much and tend to stir up discontent. Face it, nobody wants to hire bitter ex-Programmers for much of anything.
Steal what?
Satelitte TV signals?
You mean he was going to steal electro-magnetic waves as they traveled through the air?
He was going to steal something that was traveling through his house?
Never forget that the whole concept of the "ownership" of waves and signals and digital code and sounds and pictures and images is an artificial legal construction designed wholly for the benefit of large corporations.
In any rational world he would be seen as "stealing" nothing. He was simply putting to use what was being beamed to his house already.
I have 3 teenagers, one son who lives with me full time and 2 daughters who are with me every weekend. Between them they will easily watch 3 or 4 DVDs every weekend.
When I was on the twenty buck plan (3 DVDs out at a time) they would watch them on the weekend and I would send them back monday. New ones would arrive before the next weekend and the cycle would repeat. We would average 10 or more rentals a month for twenty bucks.
I recently moved to the thirty buck plan (5 out at a time) because my wife started adding in a ton of movies too. So far it's paying off. We cycle the rentals quickly and often get new DVDs back in 2 or three days from when we mail the old ones.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for over a year. I'm on the 5 at a time plan because we have four people in my family adding movies to the rental queue.
For the most part we get everything that we ask for amazingly fast. It's very rare that anything hangs up on the queue with a long wait. Even highly popular and newly released items arrive quickly. And since we are in the Bay Area not far from Netflix central the turnaround time is often just two or three days.
I'm very happy with Netflix. In a good month we'll easily get 20 or more DVDs for an average rental price of under $1.50 delivered right to our door.