The existence of God has every bearing of truthfulness #1 of ancient texts that talk about any given God or godlike thing or person.
I am not sure what you are trying to say, that ancient texts (which ones?) are "true" in some meaningful way? That there really is a vishnu, jehovah, allah, etc. out there and that the ancient authors had some "real" insight into its "true" nature?
Hi Mark. Thanks for the reply. I don't really think I was constructing a straw man. This is the direct quote:
"Have you ever seen recent Mac hardware from nearby (and I mean recent as in less than five years old)? It's not just beautiful, it's solid and durable. Look inside one and the attention to detail seems immediately obvious. I have never seen a PC box or laptop that comes close, although some try"
The argument I was attempting to summarize seems to run as follows:
Apple computers are beatiful, solid and durable
Apple computers are constructed with obvious attention to detail
No PC manufacturer other than apple comes close to the solidity, durability or attention to detail of the Apple
To me the last three sentences of the individual's post comprise this argument. Having experience with Apple equipment in addition to other gear, I would say that Apple gear is of pretty high quality and that Apple cares about making a good product. That's why you pay a little extra, and why I raised the counter-example of the Thinkpad as a device which matches Apple equipment in stability, durability and overall quality. Others have submitted their positive experiences with other equipment.
I don't disagree that Apple equipment is among the best in the industry, I choose to use it as a personal desktop and recommend it to family members. I *do* disagree with the attitude that everything that does not come from Cupertino is garbage, that to me is when you cross the line from advocacy to zealotry, and that is what irritates me about some Apple fans.
It is not dissimilar to a Linux fan who dismisses out of hand all software that comes out of Microsoft. If you don't evaluate equipment, software, companies, political parties, etc on an equal plane and instead view everything with a jaundiced eye that does not come from your "favoured" group, you are only hurting yourself.
The question of randomness, and the existence / non-existence of God has absolutely no bearing on the truthfulness of "Ancient Writings". Contemporary writings to an event are empirical evidence of a kind, but you have to weigh them critically against other contemporary accounts, think about the biases of the author and audience, etc. This is something that most people who take the Bible literally fail to do, ie think critically about what they are reading.
It is perfectly conceivable to me that God exists and yet no human being knows a thing about the true nature of God. Which would render all those "Ancient Writings" into the category of bullshit people made up, while still not invalidating the existence of God.
You're just flat-out wrong. You think nobody in the PC industry pays attention to build quality, durability and style? Have you never used a Thinkpad? There IS great PC hardware out there if you are willing to look for it. Not everything is cheap plastic Dell crap.
I own, use and appreciate Macs, I'm typing this post on one as a matter of fact. I also own, use and appreciate my Thinkpad. Seriously, I don't see how you think that taking blatantly silly stances "Only Apple cares enough to pay attention to detail" does anything but undermine your overall position. Sigh, this is what drives me nuts about Apple zealots.
'Heat Vision & Jack', a pilot from 1999 with Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Ben Stiller. It's out there on p2p.
I've seen it - it is funny, but I remain unconvinced that it was a 'real' pilot - I can not imagine a weekly show based on that premise, it seems they get most of the laughs that are there to have in the pilot episode.
Actually, it allows individuals to be taxed similarly to corporations.
Since Linden Dollars are not taxable in game (I think - correct me if I'm wrong) and they are only taxable as income when transferred out-of-game, only the profits realized from an in-game business are taxed.
The excellent Star Fleet Command game circa about 1999 was a very faithful reproduction of SFB. It's still available on e-bay and is well worth checking out if you missed it back then. I used to play SFB in high school with my buddies, when we discovered SFC we were overjoyed. I recently bought my third copy of the game to replace worn-out media..
Can you imagine the nightmare of trying to install a standard operating system on 1,000,000 random previously-junked laptops? Or providing any kind of support? Or spare parts?
I think those donated laptops are probably better utilized in smaller-scale scenarios like a drop-in centre. Take a look at what these guys have done in creating a standard Debian-based distro for use on marginal hardware. (It's a very impressive project, proves what kind of talent exists in the K/W area)
There's poverty close to home, too, and close to home in the developed world is probably a better place to use this kind of hardware, where there are lots of geeks close by to lend a hand.
Not sure what their reason is, but the reason I would *hate* this if they did it is resolution switching. My projector takes a few seconds to change resolutions (think of a CRT monitor flickering when you change screen resolution). As it is when I change channels I have this effect, if it happened when going into / out of commercial, et cetera, it would be very irritating.
and find, written in the margins and fly-papers, the sonnets of some unknown schoolboy Petrarch to his Laura...now that's power to hold.
I like where you are going with this.. but don't you think that part of the promise of electronic books is that we can marry them up to things like Wiki? Imagine being able to read the highest-moderated comments from every person who read the "book" you are reading?
I am a used-book buyer and in practice, the stuff written in the margins is usually un-insightful rubbish. The used copy of Juvenal in my bathroom is a case-in-point. In the margins of Satire II is written "Is he protesting homosexuality among the nobility?". Now imagine if that statement of the obvious could be moderated -1, Redundant, and instead of seeing that tripe I could have seen the marginal comments rated +5 insightful:)
Great insight. As an unreconstructed carnivore, I've got some ignorant comments to make:)
While the attitude you describe may hold true for pre-existing vegan and vegetarian folk, I wonder if we would see a sharp decline in the ranks of 'new converts'. Pure speculation of course, but if the ethical difficulty becomes basically theoretical rather than actual, I doubt that many people would feel compelled to change their eating habits.
I disagree. I usually end up the console cycle with all the competing consoles, but I buy the most compelling early in the cycle and the others as price comes down. By the time I buy the second (third) console, good games are usually in the bargain bin, it's pretty clear where the not-to-be-missed games are, and I can get more gaming goodness for less overall dollars.
Think of it as dollar-cost-averaging for game consoles:P
I support an Xserve. The local theatre group has an Xserve and because I'm a Mac user on the desktop (I mostly do programming and Unix support work) I get to support it. It's a nice box. That said, when a comparable product from IBM of all people is half the price (IBM X306 vs. XServe), your machine is definitely overpriced:).
I like Macs, the management software is nice, and if the cost was even close to what can be bought in the x86 world, I'd recommend them to customers. As it is, I can only recommend them in Apple-only or mixed environments.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto has been out for the Mac, and running on OS X for at least 4 years. There's been a copy sitting at the "Compucentre" in my local mall since about mid 2001.
Interestingly, this Perl-as-Uncle-Ron parallel seems to run on and on. Uncle Ron keeps trying to break into the "mainstream" and find "mass acceptance", and while he has done so in limited roles that play to his special strengths, at the end of the day he is a superstar of porn but a pretty sorry legitimate actor.
All this is true, of course. I think Capitalism can have a democratizing influence,through fostering social mobility. "new money" parvenus get access to the corridors of power, which in a monarchy or aristocracy is usually restricted to the "select group".
He's probably talking about Rogers. I live in Guelph, and we're under the same media conglomerate umbrella as the GTA. If you have a Rogers Cable (3 MB/s IIRC) internet connection, you can swap out your modem at a cost of ~$100.00 and get 5 MB/s service. I'd quote make and model but I'm a few hundred klicks away ATM...
This is they key quote from the article, in my opinion:
"We're always interested in another tool," said one executive who asked not to be named. "But until they fix the analog hole... it doesn't solve the problem."
For those of you who don't remember the '80s, the "Analog Hole" was all we had back then, we used audio and video cassette for backup and sharing purposes.
This battle was fought two decades ago when fair use was upheld and we all got to keep our VCRs and double-cassette decks. I contend that the concern of the *AA is not only to protect themselves from the new threat to their business model that digital media represents, but to regain ground they lost twenty years ago.
I am not talking about racism, or the mistreatment of people. Nor am I "on the left", whatever that means. Those are all inferences you are drawing from my statements. I think free speech is a critical right and that people who seek to limit any speech, even hateful or reprehensible speech, are misguided at best.
Having said that, I am not saying in any way that law enforcement officials in general or in particular are bad or worth degrading. I appreciate and like the police, they perform a much needed function. However, it seems to me that it is desirable to limit police power in order to protect the rights of the individual.
Police power is not an end in itself, it serves a function in society, just like political power. In the United States, different branches of government act as checks upon one another in order to limit their power. Not because we think they are bad guys, or because we think judges, or Presidents, or legislators are inherently evil, but because we want to protect ourselves against the abuse of power.
Re:What a stupid question....
on
No Pictures, Thanks
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Dude, those liberal-conservative labels are for blinkered sheeple.
Expansion of police powers increases the danger of a police state forming. It does not guarantee it. I was merely indicating to the original poster, why we need to concern ourselves with restriction of police power even if it results in some reduction in police efficiency. High police efficiency, for example, existed in the Third Reich - didn't help their citizenry much, it just enabled criminals and gangsters in the police forces to exploit them more easily.
Police efficiency is not an end in itself, in my opinion.
Re:What a stupid question....
on
No Pictures, Thanks
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Because expanded police powers increase the threat of the development of a police state. We need to keep a leash on the police. They are a useful tool for keeping peace in society, as long as they are OUR tool.
If you increased police powers significantly, you would run the risk of those powers being abused.
Slashdot Mirror
Can you explain this statement?
The existence of God has every bearing of truthfulness #1 of ancient texts that talk about any given God or godlike thing or person.I am not sure what you are trying to say, that ancient texts (which ones?) are "true" in some meaningful way? That there really is a vishnu, jehovah, allah, etc. out there and that the ancient authors had some "real" insight into its "true" nature?
Hi Mark. Thanks for the reply. I don't really think I was constructing a straw man. This is the direct quote:
"Have you ever seen recent Mac hardware from nearby (and I mean recent as in less than five years old)? It's not just beautiful, it's solid and durable. Look inside one and the attention to detail seems immediately obvious. I have never seen a PC box or laptop that comes close, although some try"
The argument I was attempting to summarize seems to run as follows:
To me the last three sentences of the individual's post comprise this argument. Having experience with Apple equipment in addition to other gear, I would say that Apple gear is of pretty high quality and that Apple cares about making a good product. That's why you pay a little extra, and why I raised the counter-example of the Thinkpad as a device which matches Apple equipment in stability, durability and overall quality. Others have submitted their positive experiences with other equipment.
I don't disagree that Apple equipment is among the best in the industry, I choose to use it as a personal desktop and recommend it to family members. I *do* disagree with the attitude that everything that does not come from Cupertino is garbage, that to me is when you cross the line from advocacy to zealotry, and that is what irritates me about some Apple fans.
It is not dissimilar to a Linux fan who dismisses out of hand all software that comes out of Microsoft. If you don't evaluate equipment, software, companies, political parties, etc on an equal plane and instead view everything with a jaundiced eye that does not come from your "favoured" group, you are only hurting yourself.
Completely OT, but regarding your sig:
The question of randomness, and the existence / non-existence of God has absolutely no bearing on the truthfulness of "Ancient Writings". Contemporary writings to an event are empirical evidence of a kind, but you have to weigh them critically against other contemporary accounts, think about the biases of the author and audience, etc. This is something that most people who take the Bible literally fail to do, ie think critically about what they are reading.
It is perfectly conceivable to me that God exists and yet no human being knows a thing about the true nature of God. Which would render all those "Ancient Writings" into the category of bullshit people made up, while still not invalidating the existence of God.
You're just flat-out wrong. You think nobody in the PC industry pays attention to build quality, durability and style? Have you never used a Thinkpad? There IS great PC hardware out there if you are willing to look for it. Not everything is cheap plastic Dell crap.
I own, use and appreciate Macs, I'm typing this post on one as a matter of fact. I also own, use and appreciate my Thinkpad. Seriously, I don't see how you think that taking blatantly silly stances "Only Apple cares enough to pay attention to detail" does anything but undermine your overall position. Sigh, this is what drives me nuts about Apple zealots.
'Heat Vision & Jack', a pilot from 1999 with Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Ben Stiller. It's out there on p2p.
I've seen it - it is funny, but I remain unconvinced that it was a 'real' pilot - I can not imagine a weekly show based on that premise, it seems they get most of the laughs that are there to have in the pilot episode.
Actually, it allows individuals to be taxed similarly to corporations.
Since Linden Dollars are not taxable in game (I think - correct me if I'm wrong) and they are only taxable as income when transferred out-of-game, only the profits realized from an in-game business are taxed.
The excellent Star Fleet Command game circa about 1999 was a very faithful reproduction of SFB. It's still available on e-bay and is well worth checking out if you missed it back then. I used to play SFB in high school with my buddies, when we discovered SFC we were overjoyed. I recently bought my third copy of the game to replace worn-out media..
Can you imagine the nightmare of trying to install a standard operating system on 1,000,000 random previously-junked laptops? Or providing any kind of support? Or spare parts?
I think those donated laptops are probably better utilized in smaller-scale scenarios like a drop-in centre. Take a look at what these guys have done in creating a standard Debian-based distro for use on marginal hardware. (It's a very impressive project, proves what kind of talent exists in the K/W area)
There's poverty close to home, too, and close to home in the developed world is probably a better place to use this kind of hardware, where there are lots of geeks close by to lend a hand.
Not sure what their reason is, but the reason I would *hate* this if they did it is resolution switching. My projector takes a few seconds to change resolutions (think of a CRT monitor flickering when you change screen resolution). As it is when I change channels I have this effect, if it happened when going into / out of commercial, et cetera, it would be very irritating.
and find, written in the margins and fly-papers, the sonnets of some unknown schoolboy Petrarch to his Laura...now that's power to hold.
I like where you are going with this .. but don't you think that part of the promise of electronic books is that we can marry them up to things like Wiki? Imagine being able to read the highest-moderated comments from every person who read the "book" you are reading?
I am a used-book buyer and in practice, the stuff written in the margins is usually un-insightful rubbish. The used copy of Juvenal in my bathroom is a case-in-point. In the margins of Satire II is written "Is he protesting homosexuality among the nobility?". Now imagine if that statement of the obvious could be moderated -1, Redundant, and instead of seeing that tripe I could have seen the marginal comments rated +5 insightful :)
Great insight. As an unreconstructed carnivore, I've got some ignorant comments to make :)
While the attitude you describe may hold true for pre-existing vegan and vegetarian folk, I wonder if we would see a sharp decline in the ranks of 'new converts'. Pure speculation of course, but if the ethical difficulty becomes basically theoretical rather than actual, I doubt that many people would feel compelled to change their eating habits.
Seconded! Don't forget your red gems.
I disagree. I usually end up the console cycle with all the competing consoles, but I buy the most compelling early in the cycle and the others as price comes down. By the time I buy the second (third) console, good games are usually in the bargain bin, it's pretty clear where the not-to-be-missed games are, and I can get more gaming goodness for less overall dollars.
Think of it as dollar-cost-averaging for game consoles :P
What do you do when you are with a real woman? Do you put on your 480i goggles so that all of the imperfections are hidden by the low resolution?
I support an Xserve. The local theatre group has an Xserve and because I'm a Mac user on the desktop (I mostly do programming and Unix support work) I get to support it. It's a nice box. That said, when a comparable product from IBM of all people is half the price (IBM X306 vs. XServe), your machine is definitely overpriced :).
I like Macs, the management software is nice, and if the cost was even close to what can be bought in the x86 world, I'd recommend them to customers. As it is, I can only recommend them in Apple-only or mixed environments.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto has been out for the Mac, and running on OS X for at least 4 years. There's been a copy sitting at the "Compucentre" in my local mall since about mid 2001.
If you don't happen to live near me, use Amazon.
Interestingly, this Perl-as-Uncle-Ron parallel seems to run on and on. Uncle Ron keeps trying to break into the "mainstream" and find "mass acceptance", and while he has done so in limited roles that play to his special strengths, at the end of the day he is a superstar of porn but a pretty sorry legitimate actor.
Do you? "Confer" - I do not think it means what you think it means.
Normally I don't play grammar nazi on /. but in cases of hypocrisy I'll make an exception.
All this is true, of course. I think Capitalism can have a democratizing influence,through fostering social mobility. "new money" parvenus get access to the corridors of power, which in a monarchy or aristocracy is usually restricted to the "select group".
He's probably talking about Rogers. I live in Guelph, and we're under the same media conglomerate umbrella as the GTA. If you have a Rogers Cable (3 MB/s IIRC) internet connection, you can swap out your modem at a cost of ~$100.00 and get 5 MB/s service. I'd quote make and model but I'm a few hundred klicks away ATM...
This is they key quote from the article, in my opinion:
"We're always interested in another tool," said one executive who asked not to be named. "But until they fix the analog hole ... it doesn't solve the problem."
For those of you who don't remember the '80s, the "Analog Hole" was all we had back then, we used audio and video cassette for backup and sharing purposes.
This battle was fought two decades ago when fair use was upheld and we all got to keep our VCRs and double-cassette decks. I contend that the concern of the *AA is not only to protect themselves from the new threat to their business model that digital media represents, but to regain ground they lost twenty years ago.
Great discussion. This is fun.
I am not talking about racism, or the mistreatment of people. Nor am I "on the left", whatever that means. Those are all inferences you are drawing from my statements. I think free speech is a critical right and that people who seek to limit any speech, even hateful or reprehensible speech, are misguided at best.
Having said that, I am not saying in any way that law enforcement officials in general or in particular are bad or worth degrading. I appreciate and like the police, they perform a much needed function. However, it seems to me that it is desirable to limit police power in order to protect the rights of the individual.
Police power is not an end in itself, it serves a function in society, just like political power. In the United States, different branches of government act as checks upon one another in order to limit their power. Not because we think they are bad guys, or because we think judges, or Presidents, or legislators are inherently evil, but because we want to protect ourselves against the abuse of power.
Dude, those liberal-conservative labels are for blinkered sheeple.
Expansion of police powers increases the danger of a police state forming. It does not guarantee it. I was merely indicating to the original poster, why we need to concern ourselves with restriction of police power even if it results in some reduction in police efficiency. High police efficiency, for example, existed in the Third Reich - didn't help their citizenry much, it just enabled criminals and gangsters in the police forces to exploit them more easily.
Police efficiency is not an end in itself, in my opinion.
Because expanded police powers increase the threat of the development of a police state. We need to keep a leash on the police. They are a useful tool for keeping peace in society, as long as they are OUR tool.
If you increased police powers significantly, you would run the risk of those powers being abused.
Doh.. invisible link
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