Here in the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised if they propose that. Of course you could eliminate a lot of the risk of terrorism and other similar problems by securing the borders, but that's too obvious and makes too much sense. At least in the U.K. you have to cross water to get in.
I can't speak for your government, but I know mine would love throw 11 figures at a high-tech boondoggle (can you say "electronic voting"?) rather than take the simpler, cheaper, but politically expensive steps that would be more effective.
The U.K. should take a hint from Futurama and use the best biometric data available, a "colonic map".
Man, I'm glad I went to school in the 80's when we needed audio cassettes and floppy disks to pirate stuff. No one ever got sued for using a tape recorder or running Copy II PC.
This is because it was clear there was a conflict of interest on the husband's and his lawyer's part, demonstrable that there was prejudice on the part of Judge Greer, and arguable that feeding is life support, despite what the Supreme Court says (They've never made a mistake... (*cough*Dred Scott*cough*). Babies who aren't being breastfed are fed no less artificially. Neither is someone on an IV.
I understand that the parents had no legal standing, but they certainly had a moral standing. If one tenth of what I've heard and read about the case is true (affadavits, doctor reports, etc, not innuendo and rumors, although those hardly appear out of a vacuum) then there was plenty of reason to review the case de novo. This case would have gone much differently if the parents, based on very bad counsel, had not affirmed years ago that she was in a PVS. If you ask me, people in a PVS don't talk, yet Terri's caregivers gave affadivits that she would talk. Yes, talk. Maybe only a word or two, like "Mommy" or "Help Me", in addition to significant other non-verbal communication. But that level of conversation was enough for Bernstein to write an entire book about CIA Director Casey, so I think it's reasonable to conclude it is evidence against the idea that all brain function had ceased.
The irony of this whole case was that if you accept all of the above, how can you justify the judge forbidding attempts to feed or hydrate her normally. Even if I accept all the twisted logic and shaky justifications for withholding a feeding tube, there can nothing behind the decision but a sheer desire to kill. If she could eat and drink, even with a tube through her nose, would it still have been "right" to kill her? This is not a moot point. Terri's gone, but this is being repeated thousands of times over, and no one, particularly those who claim to be in support of the helpless and downtrodden (*cough*Democrats*cough*) by and large seems to be raising a finger in their defense.
Apparently denial of life and liberty without due process, especially in light of new and exonorating evidence (i.e., the new classification of minimal consciousness, etc) doesn't apply to people who are simply declared to be not human, as I have seen argued in this case. We've seen this before. It is the justification behind every instance of genocide ever committed by mankind. If we can arbitrarily decide who is human and who is not, then we cannot ever be guilty of acting inhumanely. I thought our society had gotten past that point. I guess I was wrong. I guess "Life unworthy of life" can be found in the United States too.
Well, there's always a chance we could all become Incredible Hulks. It wouldn't do much for world peace, but it would be fun to toss a tank now and then.
Hulk smash!
Of course, the Hulk always lost his shirt, and the She-Hulk always lost her pants. What are the odds that would happen six billion times. I shudder to think about it. Or maybe I'm happy. No, it's scary.
Seriously though, you've hit it right on the head: "quiet genius".
I've always said that a sermon that doesn't make you feel at least a little uncomfortable probably isn't a good sermon and this goes double for a book like "Screwtape". Devout people can be confident, but confidence can lead to pride, pride leads to hubris, and hubris leads to blindness (gee, I sound like Yoda).
Reading "Screwtape" can remind us that even the best of us will always have room for improvement.
I assume you're being facetious. Why does stopping someone from sending you garbage equate to not being able to find something. That argument sounds like those nitwit "censorship" whiners who think Freedom of Speech means Freedom to be Heard and that all content must be available at all times in all places.
Anarchy never worked in the real world, how could it work in the electronic world?
Absolutely. "Screwtape" is one of the best "pop" Christianity books I've ever read. Lewis was a brilliant and sublime writer.
And what's better, echolyn based a song on the book back in 1995, on their wonderful "As the World" album. Unlike most popular music, this was made by real musicians.
At least Microsoft actually invents things (lets leave the idea aside that patents on algorithms or methods of doing business are absurd to begin with), some of these companies exist solely to screw other companies by taking advantage of a flawed system.
If Congress cared, maybe something would be fixed. Of course, Congress can fix anything it wants and the judges just overthrow it anyway. I feel like our government has moved from the rock-solid foundation of our Constitution to the quicksand of deconstructionist philosophies and mercurial reinterpretations of simple and plain language.
Your URL is, um, a little weird. Are you referring to the story about BT? That's exactly what I was remembering.
It's going to happen. The USPTO is a joke, and I can't understand why no one (outside of us pimply-faced mouse-jockeys) seems to care. Kinda like immigration, judges single-handedly rewriting our Constitution, the pending economic problems, ecological problems, Social Security, tax reform, and a hundred other issues that no one seems to want to fix (address maybe but not fix).
9/11 was a big blow to our country, but 4 years later and the vast majority of us are significantly worse off in the long run. With many of these other things, that might not be the case.
It's just like the Terry Schiavo case (not to start an argument here), but if the Republicans had really wanted to stop it, they could have. As I understand it, the governor and President both had the Constitutional wherewithal to stop it. But I guess that was too much work, and making a big show of it was all they intended to do. And I usually support these guys.
What we need is a third party that is not impotent or run by fruitcakes or egomaniacs (or as is usually the case, all 3).
I've gotten several employees to use _my_ code, while making sure beforehand to establish that while they can do what they want with it, so can I. Kind of a simplified version of the LGPL, under which I license the code.
Of course, I haven't worked for jerks, at least in this regard, that there was never a problem over it. The license is clearly stated and the code (or at least a really old version... gotta update that) is available on Sourceforge.
We Windows users are used to that as Explorer, the buggiest piece of software MS ever wrote and apparently will never fix, locks up pretty frequently. Very often I will minimize an app only to have the desktop fail to repaint until I kill explorer.exe. No wonder I use the command line as much as humanly possible.
I really need to set up GeoShell again...
Is it just me or is Explorer the most consistently crappy piece of software MS has ever written? I mean I've used Visual Studio all day almost every day for about 8 years, and in a year I can usually count the number of times I've seen it crash, lock up or otherwise behave poorly on one hand, whereas I need more than one hand for Explorer on a daily basis. Which piece of software is more sophisticated? Which piece of software does MS obviously care about and demonstrates that they can do a good job*, and which is a 10-year hack job they can't bother to fix because they are too busy faking evidence for their next monopoly trial?
* The tools are good, but I think the libraries (i.e., MFC, etc), excuse my French, suck.
It will get noticed when some company that exists only to snatch up patents and then litigate over them (like Immersion) manages to get ahold of a patent for something like the hyperlink or the for-loop or something and tries to grind the whole U.S. economy to a halt.
In other words, no one is going to fix until we get the USPTO-induced equivalent of flying airplanes into buildings.
After all, Congress is too busy roadblocking each other over judicial nominees or debating back and forth to decide if Social Security will self-destuct in 2020 or 2025, and how much of the U.S. economy it will take down with it.
24 is about tearing down rights. It's about situations that are so dire that the ordinary rules must sometimes be circumvented.
That said, there was much hand-wringing in season 2 over the use of torture, and by the end of season 3 and especially in season 4 they go right for the taser without a thought*.
Still, "24" provides great suspense, action and intrigue and isn't so far-fetched that suspension of belief gets in the way of watching a fun TV show.
(* I still can't understand, however, how that so-called sensory-deprivation dealie could be so bad... unless it was painfully loud and/or bright, I don't see how it would be anything but boring.)
Yes, it is. Spell checkers and calculators can do their work without error. There is no way, short of true AI that this program can.
Besides, the ubiquity of spell-checkers hasn't improved anyone's spelling, if/. is indicative of general spelling ability. In fact, it's gotten worse in the past 100 years, as has writing. The typical children's book from 100 years ago is written in a more sophisticated way that much adult reading material is today. Don't think so? Try reading "The Wind and the Willows" or even "Winnie the Pooh".
Tools can help us, sure. But often the tool become a crutch that ultimately leads to poorer performance when it is relied upon to do more than it can, or used so much the tool-user loses or never develops real critical-thinking skills. Too much reliance on tools keeps us from developing a solid understanding of basic principles which is necessary for further growth.
Yeah, but they didn't use them much. I just watched the entire series over the last couple weeks, something I do every few months and it's so painful how much better this show is than "The Simpsons" (which I still enjoy, but it has been hit and miss for the last 6 years or so).
"Futurama" had real character development, deeper stories, and some great philosophy along with the breakneck speed, great sight gags, ass jokes and sharp satire that it shares with its predecessor.
The point I was trying to make is that no one seems to be trying to make progress in UI design since the early 90's.
Windows 95 was a big attempt that succeeded in some ways and failed miserably in others. Since then, there have been a few incremental improvements, but most UI design nowadays centers exclusively around crappy-looking graphics or hamstringing apps' functionality by making them look like Web pages, with usability that isn't even taking a back seat because that would imply it's being thought about.
As a good example, I would list every media player since WinAmp 2, but it's hardly limited to that. UI design is now less consistent and thought-out than it was in 1984.
Slashdot Mirror
That's funny. Well, sad funny, not funny funny.
Here in the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised if they propose that. Of course you could eliminate a lot of the risk of terrorism and other similar problems by securing the borders, but that's too obvious and makes too much sense. At least in the U.K. you have to cross water to get in.
I can't speak for your government, but I know mine would love throw 11 figures at a high-tech boondoggle (can you say "electronic voting"?) rather than take the simpler, cheaper, but politically expensive steps that would be more effective.
The U.K. should take a hint from Futurama and use the best biometric data available, a "colonic map".
Man, I'm glad I went to school in the 80's when we needed audio cassettes and floppy disks to pirate stuff. No one ever got sued for using a tape recorder or running Copy II PC.
Any year now we'll be getting it tattooed on our heads or right arms, just to make sure. Don't think they won't try.
This is because it was clear there was a conflict of interest on the husband's and his lawyer's part, demonstrable that there was prejudice on the part of Judge Greer, and arguable that feeding is life support, despite what the Supreme Court says (They've never made a mistake... (*cough*Dred Scott*cough*). Babies who aren't being breastfed are fed no less artificially. Neither is someone on an IV.
I understand that the parents had no legal standing, but they certainly had a moral standing. If one tenth of what I've heard and read about the case is true (affadavits, doctor reports, etc, not innuendo and rumors, although those hardly appear out of a vacuum) then there was plenty of reason to review the case de novo. This case would have gone much differently if the parents, based on very bad counsel, had not affirmed years ago that she was in a PVS. If you ask me, people in a PVS don't talk, yet Terri's caregivers gave affadivits that she would talk. Yes, talk. Maybe only a word or two, like "Mommy" or "Help Me", in addition to significant other non-verbal communication. But that level of conversation was enough for Bernstein to write an entire book about CIA Director Casey, so I think it's reasonable to conclude it is evidence against the idea that all brain function had ceased.
The irony of this whole case was that if you accept all of the above, how can you justify the judge forbidding attempts to feed or hydrate her normally. Even if I accept all the twisted logic and shaky justifications for withholding a feeding tube, there can nothing behind the decision but a sheer desire to kill. If she could eat and drink, even with a tube through her nose, would it still have been "right" to kill her? This is not a moot point. Terri's gone, but this is being repeated thousands of times over, and no one, particularly those who claim to be in support of the helpless and downtrodden (*cough*Democrats*cough*) by and large seems to be raising a finger in their defense.
Apparently denial of life and liberty without due process, especially in light of new and exonorating evidence (i.e., the new classification of minimal consciousness, etc) doesn't apply to people who are simply declared to be not human, as I have seen argued in this case. We've seen this before. It is the justification behind every instance of genocide ever committed by mankind. If we can arbitrarily decide who is human and who is not, then we cannot ever be guilty of acting inhumanely. I thought our society had gotten past that point. I guess I was wrong. I guess "Life unworthy of life" can be found in the United States too.
Well, there's always a chance we could all become Incredible Hulks. It wouldn't do much for world peace, but it would be fun to toss a tank now and then.
Hulk smash!
Of course, the Hulk always lost his shirt, and the She-Hulk always lost her pants. What are the odds that would happen six billion times. I shudder to think about it. Or maybe I'm happy. No, it's scary.
Um... yeah... what you said.
Seriously though, you've hit it right on the head:
"quiet genius".
I've always said that a sermon that doesn't make you feel at least a little uncomfortable probably isn't a good sermon and this goes double for a book like "Screwtape". Devout people can be confident, but confidence can lead to pride, pride leads to hubris, and hubris leads to blindness (gee, I sound like Yoda).
Reading "Screwtape" can remind us that even the best of us will always have room for improvement.
I assume you're being facetious. Why does stopping someone from sending you garbage equate to not being able to find something. That argument sounds like those nitwit "censorship" whiners who think Freedom of Speech means Freedom to be Heard and that all content must be available at all times in all places.
Anarchy never worked in the real world, how could it work in the electronic world?
Absolutely. "Screwtape" is one of the best "pop" Christianity books I've ever read. Lewis was a brilliant and sublime writer.
And what's better, echolyn based a song on the book back in 1995, on their wonderful "As the World" album. Unlike most popular music, this was made by real musicians.
At least Microsoft actually invents things (lets leave the idea aside that patents on algorithms or methods of doing business are absurd to begin with), some of these companies exist solely to screw other companies by taking advantage of a flawed system.
If Congress cared, maybe something would be fixed. Of course, Congress can fix anything it wants and the judges just overthrow it anyway. I feel like our government has moved from the rock-solid foundation of our Constitution to the quicksand of deconstructionist philosophies and mercurial reinterpretations of simple and plain language.
They're consistently against the user. At least when they can get away with it.
Your URL is, um, a little weird. Are you referring to the story about BT? That's exactly what I was remembering.
It's going to happen. The USPTO is a joke, and I can't understand why no one (outside of us pimply-faced mouse-jockeys) seems to care. Kinda like immigration, judges single-handedly rewriting our Constitution, the pending economic problems, ecological problems, Social Security, tax reform, and a hundred other issues that no one seems to want to fix (address maybe but not fix).
9/11 was a big blow to our country, but 4 years later and the vast majority of us are significantly worse off in the long run. With many of these other things, that might not be the case.
It's just like the Terry Schiavo case (not to start an argument here), but if the Republicans had really wanted to stop it, they could have. As I understand it, the governor and President both had the Constitutional wherewithal to stop it. But I guess that was too much work, and making a big show of it was all they intended to do. And I usually support these guys.
What we need is a third party that is not impotent or run by fruitcakes or egomaniacs (or as is usually the case, all 3).
I'm sure you're very proud of that cromulent accomplishment.
I've gotten several employees to use _my_ code, while making sure beforehand to establish that while they can do what they want with it, so can I. Kind of a simplified version of the LGPL, under which I license the code.
Of course, I haven't worked for jerks, at least in this regard, that there was never a problem over it. The license is clearly stated and the code (or at least a really old version... gotta update that) is available on Sourceforge.
Just don't let Troy McClure know. I'd hate to see how he might react.
And yes, I'm not surprised Lukie put boobs on a fish.
We Windows users are used to that as Explorer, the buggiest piece of software MS ever wrote and apparently will never fix, locks up pretty frequently. Very often I will minimize an app only to have the desktop fail to repaint until I kill explorer.exe. No wonder I use the command line as much as humanly possible.
I really need to set up GeoShell again...
Is it just me or is Explorer the most consistently crappy piece of software MS has ever written? I mean I've used Visual Studio all day almost every day for about 8 years, and in a year I can usually count the number of times I've seen it crash, lock up or otherwise behave poorly on one hand, whereas I need more than one hand for Explorer on a daily basis. Which piece of software is more sophisticated? Which piece of software does MS obviously care about and demonstrates that they can do a good job*, and which is a 10-year hack job they can't bother to fix because they are too busy faking evidence for their next monopoly trial?
* The tools are good, but I think the libraries (i.e., MFC, etc), excuse my French, suck.
It will get noticed when some company that exists only to snatch up patents and then litigate over them (like Immersion) manages to get ahold of a patent for something like the hyperlink or the for-loop or something and tries to grind the whole U.S. economy to a halt.
In other words, no one is going to fix until we get the USPTO-induced equivalent of flying airplanes into buildings.
After all, Congress is too busy roadblocking each other over judicial nominees or debating back and forth to decide if Social Security will self-destuct in 2020 or 2025, and how much of the U.S. economy it will take down with it.
You should probably also hate the improper-use-of-apostrophe Nazis too.
I couldn't believe a police officer would be afraid of a terrorist attack on his police station in Canada.
Canada? Thank God you weren't reading aloud from the Bible or you'd be in cell right now.
Seriously though, answering a few questions isn't so bad. Now if you were detained, then I think it would be an unjust overreaction.
24 is about tearing down rights. It's about situations that are so dire that the ordinary rules must sometimes be circumvented.
That said, there was much hand-wringing in season 2 over the use of torture, and by the end of season 3 and especially in season 4 they go right for the taser without a thought*.
Still, "24" provides great suspense, action and intrigue and isn't so far-fetched that suspension of belief gets in the way of watching a fun TV show.
(* I still can't understand, however, how that so-called sensory-deprivation dealie could be so bad... unless it was painfully loud and/or bright, I don't see how it would be anything but boring.)
Yes, it is. Spell checkers and calculators can do their work without error. There is no way, short of true AI that this program can.
/. is indicative of general spelling ability. In fact, it's gotten worse in the past 100 years, as has writing. The typical children's book from 100 years ago is written in a more sophisticated way that much adult reading material is today. Don't think so? Try reading "The Wind and the Willows" or even "Winnie the Pooh".
Besides, the ubiquity of spell-checkers hasn't improved anyone's spelling, if
Tools can help us, sure. But often the tool become a crutch that ultimately leads to poorer performance when it is relied upon to do more than it can, or used so much the tool-user loses or never develops real critical-thinking skills. Too much reliance on tools keeps us from developing a solid understanding of basic principles which is necessary for further growth.
This tool sounds like the perfect candidate.
Yeah, but they didn't use them much. I just watched the entire series over the last couple weeks, something I do every few months and it's so painful how much better this show is than "The Simpsons" (which I still enjoy, but it has been hit and miss for the last 6 years or so).
"Futurama" had real character development, deeper stories, and some great philosophy along with the breakneck speed, great sight gags, ass jokes and sharp satire that it shares with its predecessor.
I figure if my heirs invent faster-than-light travel, they'll come back and give me the info to patent it. They'll be rich.
Of course, if FTL doesn't involve going backwards in time, they can fly to Omicron Persei 8 and sell spoilers to the latest season of Jenny McNeal.
Are you sure your cable didn't go through the planet? ;-)
Just kidding. The judges sound like mid-level management candidates.
The point I was trying to make is that no one seems to be trying to make progress in UI design since the early 90's.
Windows 95 was a big attempt that succeeded in some ways and failed miserably in others. Since then, there have been a few incremental improvements, but most UI design nowadays centers exclusively around crappy-looking graphics or hamstringing apps' functionality by making them look like Web pages, with usability that isn't even taking a back seat because that would imply it's being thought about.
As a good example, I would list every media player since WinAmp 2, but it's hardly limited to that. UI design is now less consistent and thought-out than it was in 1984.
I don't think so. I think they've had this technology for a couple years. There was a fairly long period before they released their own version of it.