Of course inventions of a half century ago were broader and more world-influencing than modern ones. The further back you go, the bigger the impact of a discovery, simply because there were still big things to Be discovered.
Go back to the dawn of human intelligence and you get the biggest discoveries/inventions of all time.. fire, language, shelter, the knife, etc.
That's not to say, of course, that there's nothing big left to invent.. the computer's probably as big as electricity was, even if electricty did lead to its invention. And then there's genetic engineering and quantum mechanics.. which don't do a whole lot now but have huge implications.
So all in all, I don't think it's fair to say that technological innovation is less important, or even slower. It's just that there aren't as many big, obvious things left to find.
Not really a valid analogy at all. The person who paid the hitman or the hacker in your example is just as legally responsible as the actual hitman or hacker. IANAL, but i believe that if they're caught before the incident takes place the penalty for the person who was hired would only be ranked as conspiracy to commit a felony. Cops pull sting operations where they set up an undercover policeman as a hitman for hire to catch people like that and the hirer is sent to trial despite no murder ever taking place.
In this case you have a person who told a group that they were authorized to commit an illegal act without having the actual authority to do so. Sounds like fraud to me. And while this guy will probably get away with it because he's a teacher and the kid's..well.. a kid, if you walked onto a used car lot in a cheap suit and started telling people they could have the cars if they could hot-wire them I don't think the police would accept, "But I was just kidding, I didn't think they'd really Take them!"
Do all releases of the dvd have the japanese track? I saw it at Best Buy tonight before reading the/. story and didn't buy it because the 'special features' section on the back said "French Language Track" or something similar, but made no mention of a japanese track or subtitleing.. It also mentioned something called a "Featurette", can anyone explain to me what exactly that is?
While i agree the |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| logo brings to mind DEC, not digital media, i really don't think you can say that 'when people say digital, they're talking about DEC...' In fact, i can't think of a single time i've talked about DEC and said 'digital' instead..
That's pretty much what his point was.. the vast majority of people don't do what they think is right anymore, they just do what they think will make them fit in.
Rincewind as the bottom rung
on
The Truth
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I've got to agree with you on that one.. I enjoy the guards and death books more than the witches, but they're still far and away better than rincewind. While the other characters have grown and shown us insights into their motivations and personalities Rincewind has remained the incompetent wizard who runs away from everything.
On the other hand, I find the rest of the UU hilarious and at least the Rincewind books are usually a vehicle for them to make appearances.
Slashdot Mirror
No, but it means they're tasty and squishy and have that gooey filling and... must..eat..twinkies..
Of course inventions of a half century ago were broader and more world-influencing than modern ones. The further back you go, the bigger the impact of a discovery, simply because there were still big things to Be discovered.
Go back to the dawn of human intelligence and you get the biggest discoveries/inventions of all time.. fire, language, shelter, the knife, etc.
That's not to say, of course, that there's nothing big left to invent.. the computer's probably as big as electricity was, even if electricty did lead to its invention. And then there's genetic engineering and quantum mechanics.. which don't do a whole lot now but have huge implications.
So all in all, I don't think it's fair to say that technological innovation is less important, or even slower. It's just that there aren't as many big, obvious things left to find.
Not really a valid analogy at all. The person who paid the hitman or the hacker in your example is just as legally responsible as the actual hitman or hacker. IANAL, but i believe that if they're caught before the incident takes place the penalty for the person who was hired would only be ranked as conspiracy to commit a felony. Cops pull sting operations where they set up an undercover policeman as a hitman for hire to catch people like that and the hirer is sent to trial despite no murder ever taking place.
In this case you have a person who told a group that they were authorized to commit an illegal act without having the actual authority to do so. Sounds like fraud to me. And while this guy will probably get away with it because he's a teacher and the kid's..well.. a kid, if you walked onto a used car lot in a cheap suit and started telling people they could have the cars if they could hot-wire them I don't think the police would accept, "But I was just kidding, I didn't think they'd really Take them!"
Do all releases of the dvd have the japanese track? I saw it at Best Buy tonight before reading the /. story and didn't buy it because the 'special features' section on the back said "French Language Track" or something similar, but made no mention of a japanese track or subtitleing..
It also mentioned something called a "Featurette", can anyone explain to me what exactly that is?
While i agree the |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| logo brings to mind DEC, not digital media, i really don't think you can say that 'when people say digital, they're talking about DEC...' In fact, i can't think of a single time i've talked about DEC and said 'digital' instead..
That's pretty much what his point was.. the vast majority of people don't do what they think is right anymore, they just do what they think will make them fit in.
I've got to agree with you on that one.. I enjoy the guards and death books more than the witches, but they're still far and away better than rincewind. While the other characters have grown and shown us insights into their motivations and personalities Rincewind has remained the incompetent wizard who runs away from everything.
On the other hand, I find the rest of the UU hilarious and at least the Rincewind books are usually a vehicle for them to make appearances.