You can bet it was a higher-up in the GOP who bullied the sheriff and FBI into doing this. Looks like they never learned the lessons of the Vietnam War.
The right to assembly for redress of grievances is protected in the First Amendment. The right of protection from search and seizure without a warrant* is protected in the 4th. Are they so afraid of these protesters making them look bad to the GOP that they went and preemptively shut them down? Was this a botched strategy to make the Democratic convention look like the Los Angeles riots?
What are they thinking, that they can nab these people for some arbitrary thought-crime? The most severe crime they will be able to charge them with is conspiracy. Even with a boatload of evidence, I doubt the local or federal prosecutors will be willing to bring this to court now that it's out in the open.
* I realize they probably had warrants for search and arrest, but planting moles inside groups of your critics gives your critics hundreds of witnesses and evidence. They also are running the risk that some of their moles will become turncoats and whistle-blowers on them-- not likely, since cops look out for their own 99% of the time.
The question that logically follows is, "Do we have the resources to pull it off in a decade, and how will you ensure that the next President won't destroy them in his first 2 years in office, or that the next sessions of Congress won't during that decade?"
If I'm not mistaken, Slashdot doesn't handle ad space sales itself, that's contracted out to other firms like Google. McCain's campaign is using the fresh oil industry donations (among other resources) to try to out-spend Obama. He'll probably succeed there, but the GOP convention's impact has been reduced due to Gustav, which puts his campaign at a disadvantage considering the DNC spectacle.
Lawyers possess a membrane of blood just below the skin so they appear to be human and bleed from things like paper cuts and scratches but if shot in the head or other vital organ, they will not bleed.
[Corporate lawyers] can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are destitute and enslaved.
(Yeah, the traditional quote ends with "dead", but the RIAA screwed that one up.)
So, rather than face lawsuits over contractual obligations to build and maintain a secure system (hah), they litigate the party who exposes them for attempting fraud.
Should it be surprising that in a culture that prizes profits and pride over progress, that litigation threats are used to squelch otherwise good feedback and information?
11. Gamers shall have the right to be free of treatment as second-class citizens for their hobby or profession. Sure, gaming's more mainstream than 20 years ago, but the media still loves to paint gamers as young men who are so obsessed that they don't go out and work for a living. There are those who still believe D&D is the gateway to hell, rather than a more modern and complex version of poker night.
12. Gamers shall have the right to be free from the influence of propaganda spread by people on self-styled "crusades". Thank goodness the most obnoxious man on a crusade is facing near-certain disbarment for his conduct. His claims were outlandish, and his antics in the courtroom and elsewhere would've made him more suited as a guest on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich. But no, he gets appearances on Fox News, so hypnotized viewers think he's telling the truth. The damage he's done to young gamers is far more than the supposed good he thought he was doing, and now we'll have activist parents claiming their kids were corrupted by Tetris, and people claiming that Super Mario Brothers was the impetus for someone's murder spree. We'd laugh them out of the courtroom, until they convince enough politicians to crack down on gaming violence and sex. I can only hope that most parents today have more sense than to believe the ravings of a deluded man trying to prove his faith isn't insincere or malicious. I bet the first shrink who examined Thompson only used a polygraph, thinking he was sent to analyze a liar. Thompson exhibits severe sociopathic behavior to my untrained eye, but surely the real doctors are better judges than I am.
Um, you thought it stopped with Lotus Jazz? Ever try to install Microsoft Office without the license key? How about getting updates for a recent version of Office or Windows without activation?
Have you played PC game titles recently? Last I checked, they have been using DRM copy deterrent schemes like Starforce and SecuROM as recently as this year. It's gotten to the point where if you don't crack the game, you have to buy a new disc/license if the key disc used in authenticating your install is damaged beyond repair/readability.
(Caution: Depart from the lawn if you detest rants by old-school gamers) Whatever happened to the simple password mechanism authenticating the game? Back when games fit on floppies, the designers went all-out with creative ways to make sure that some people at least thought highly enough of their work to buy a copy.
The best ones were those that made you feel like a part of the game. Silent Service had a WW2-esque test for the "tour of duty" mission where you had to identify Japanese warships. Sure, they were blocky approximations which would be pathetic even as a Flash game, but it was a step up from the "13th word in the 3rd paragraph on page 91" method. Ultima VI's "consult thy Compendium" method wasn't too bad, even though some of the details since V were different. These are probably two of the worst examples; I played a lot of games, but I haven't played nearly as many old games as I would have liked.
Even better, perhaps, those trivial methods are definitely a lot more fun because the people who made the game put them in place, and they enjoy playing games just as much as we do. In those days, gaming was a lot more about getting more people to play your game, rather than turning it into a glorified state lottery. This is what the corporate mindset ruined, by letting businessmen determine that they know better than the game developers how to get more sales, and this same mindset applies to music and movie quality as well. The reason they're losing sales isn't because people download cracked versions of their product online, it's because they tried to establish a business model of producing a series of functionally identical but consistent products in a market where innovation is at a premium and excellence is a baseline expectation. At the same time, they try to keep their promises of perpetual growth/wealth to their shareholders in such a competitive industry. By making consistent stuff (look at sports games in this decade for a great example), they become as boring as the software security company CEO, and that is deadly to a PC game's success.
In my experience, Ruby syntax tends to be easy to read and maintain compared to Javascript or Perl, although you are still free to obfuscate it to your heart's content-- its rather libertarian syntax allows Java coders and shell scripters to continue using their respective styles, which is nice if they want to try it out. Many of the language features that Ruby proponents bring up are often found in some way or another in Python, Lisp, or Perl. Being relatively new to the scene, it has fewer well-developed libraries, which may change with more developers using Rails.
I don't know if that helped much, I just code in it; I haven't really delved into how the language works.
The Democrats seem to want to attack Palin on experience... If they or their supporters do, they're morons. "Experience" in presidential elections is a serious red herring, and the only President who could have conceivably used the experience claim successfully is really Grover Cleveland. Just because you think that Democrats will walk into such an easy trap doesn't make reality so, and in claiming such, you are invoking the same style of lie that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are famous for.
Reading letxa2000's other comments reveal that he (she?) is a Republican loyalist. The only reason this guy's getting modded up is because Palin is a real conservative in her current policies. The problem is that the GOP leadership will either crush her maverick policies through neglect, or let the Democrats kill them after they gain a bigger majority in Congress. The party is not interested in progress or conservatism, they are interested in consolidating more power.
In order to be a really powerful VP in a party like the current GOP, you must be evil enough to believe consistently that you alone are right. In other words, you must be Dick Cheney.
You're a few decades too late to call them on the fallacy of equivocation.
The phrases' implications are now common knowledge, so it is now you blurring the definitions. Ergo, you are the one trying to prop up an argument with a fallacy.
It would be fine if it was taught in a historical perspective. The problem is that it does not belong in a science class.
Really? Is it not one of the fundamental objectives of science to demonstrate through evidence whether a theory or conjecture is sound? Isn't it the point of a science class to demonstrate that the scientific method actually works, by disproving inaccurate or wrong hypotheses? Heck, we're taught early genetic theory despite its utter simplicity compared to the real thing, and in some curricula, spontaneous generation, which is even more demonstrably wrong than ID.
What the "attack on science" people fear is that the religious minority will somehow poison the nation's children into believing creationism strictly according to the Bible. Few, if any, science teachers will go for this, and kids' BS meters are much more sensitive, thanks to all the viewpoints and information available online. But it's really an appeal to fear of the religious, so all the posts that mention creationism or ID are really meant to stir the pot and preach to the Slashdot choir.
What makes you think that we're voting based on experience?
Let's name some names from the post-Eisenhower era. Clinton, Kennedy, Carter, W. Bush, even the GOP hero Reagan's experience all pale in comparison to H. W. Bush, McCain, Nixon and Johnson. We've got a motley bunch of heroes and goats in this "inexperienced" group, and a dictator and a socialist in the "experienced".
Heck, we elected W. Bush even though his only political experience was running a cracker-jack job as Texas governor. So we're pounding on Obama after a few years in state and US Senates for "lack of experience"? Seems he's done a much better job talking to foreign leaders than Bush ever did, and he most likely won't use the McCain "big guns"* foreign policy style.
Using "experience" as a qualification or requirement for the Presidency is an insult to history.
* An attempt at TR's "big stick" policy, only McCain and other GOP supporters doesn't know how to "speak softly".
I think you underestimate the insight and wisdom of many science teachers. A lot of them will most likely risk their careers to resist any attempt at presenting creationism as a viable alternative or complement to the current curriculum. The really good ones will say, "Here's creationism and the evidence for it. Here's Darwin's theory, and current scientific consensus, and all the evidence for that. You decide which side of this debate."
And for strict biblical literalists, teaching a heliocentric model of the solar system is going against their religion.
Let's be fair: the percentage of the "strict biblical literalists" teaching a geocentric model is really small, but really loud. Equating the geocentrists with the biblical literalists is a classic fallacy of composition.
What makes it all the more infuriating for parent, myself, and many others, is that the average user won't look at the additional software and think, "Great, more crud to clean out," but as an added value, which is exactly what the guys in sales and marketing told their bosses when they suggested deals with Symantec, McAfee and the rest. I'm sure some young guy in legal was squirming, thinking of possible antitrust violations, while the execs went ahead with the plan because there wouldn't be many who would complain.
Of course, they made the bone-headed decision to let the software partners decide which version of what software to install-- which in turn led to piling in various and sundry trialware from their partners in crime, er, business, turning what might be an otherwise functional computer into a molasses glacier in the Klondike.
I guess they're hoping for global warming to help the computers run faster.
Slashdot Mirror
Much as I share the sentiment, Yevloyev would most likely have been alive if he were in Minneapolis. Detained without charges*, but alive.
* The police's method of arresting/imprisoning you when they don't have a case against you. Generally politically motivated. Time to cut funding.
You can bet it was a higher-up in the GOP who bullied the sheriff and FBI into doing this. Looks like they never learned the lessons of the Vietnam War.
The right to assembly for redress of grievances is protected in the First Amendment. The right of protection from search and seizure without a warrant* is protected in the 4th. Are they so afraid of these protesters making them look bad to the GOP that they went and preemptively shut them down? Was this a botched strategy to make the Democratic convention look like the Los Angeles riots?
What are they thinking, that they can nab these people for some arbitrary thought-crime? The most severe crime they will be able to charge them with is conspiracy. Even with a boatload of evidence, I doubt the local or federal prosecutors will be willing to bring this to court now that it's out in the open.
* I realize they probably had warrants for search and arrest, but planting moles inside groups of your critics gives your critics hundreds of witnesses and evidence. They also are running the risk that some of their moles will become turncoats and whistle-blowers on them-- not likely, since cops look out for their own 99% of the time.
The question that logically follows is, "Do we have the resources to pull it off in a decade, and how will you ensure that the next President won't destroy them in his first 2 years in office, or that the next sessions of Congress won't during that decade?"
If I'm not mistaken, Slashdot doesn't handle ad space sales itself, that's contracted out to other firms like Google. McCain's campaign is using the fresh oil industry donations (among other resources) to try to out-spend Obama. He'll probably succeed there, but the GOP convention's impact has been reduced due to Gustav, which puts his campaign at a disadvantage considering the DNC spectacle.
For you geeks who don't grok French, run that through Google Translate or Babelfish. :)
Lawyers possess a membrane of blood just below the skin so they appear to be human and bleed from things like paper cuts and scratches but if shot in the head or other vital organ, they will not bleed.
(Yeah, the traditional quote ends with "dead", but the RIAA screwed that one up.)
So, rather than face lawsuits over contractual obligations to build and maintain a secure system (hah), they litigate the party who exposes them for attempting fraud.
Should it be surprising that in a culture that prizes profits and pride over progress, that litigation threats are used to squelch otherwise good feedback and information?
11. Gamers shall have the right to be free of treatment as second-class citizens for their hobby or profession.
Sure, gaming's more mainstream than 20 years ago, but the media still loves to paint gamers as young men who are so obsessed that they don't go out and work for a living. There are those who still believe D&D is the gateway to hell, rather than a more modern and complex version of poker night.
12. Gamers shall have the right to be free from the influence of propaganda spread by people on self-styled "crusades".
Thank goodness the most obnoxious man on a crusade is facing near-certain disbarment for his conduct. His claims were outlandish, and his antics in the courtroom and elsewhere would've made him more suited as a guest on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich. But no, he gets appearances on Fox News, so hypnotized viewers think he's telling the truth. The damage he's done to young gamers is far more than the supposed good he thought he was doing, and now we'll have activist parents claiming their kids were corrupted by Tetris, and people claiming that Super Mario Brothers was the impetus for someone's murder spree. We'd laugh them out of the courtroom, until they convince enough politicians to crack down on gaming violence and sex. I can only hope that most parents today have more sense than to believe the ravings of a deluded man trying to prove his faith isn't insincere or malicious.
I bet the first shrink who examined Thompson only used a polygraph, thinking he was sent to analyze a liar. Thompson exhibits severe sociopathic behavior to my untrained eye, but surely the real doctors are better judges than I am.
Gah-- Hey! I was about to say that if she's a geek, there's a good chance she'll appreciate the symbolisms he's applying to iridium.
Hopefully, his gut doesn't get cold feet.
Let's not forget FLAC (lossless audio) and Theora (video).
Um, you thought it stopped with Lotus Jazz? Ever try to install Microsoft Office without the license key? How about getting updates for a recent version of Office or Windows without activation?
Have you played PC game titles recently? Last I checked, they have been using DRM copy deterrent schemes like Starforce and SecuROM as recently as this year. It's gotten to the point where if you don't crack the game, you have to buy a new disc/license if the key disc used in authenticating your install is damaged beyond repair/readability.
(Caution: Depart from the lawn if you detest rants by old-school gamers)
Whatever happened to the simple password mechanism authenticating the game? Back when games fit on floppies, the designers went all-out with creative ways to make sure that some people at least thought highly enough of their work to buy a copy.
The best ones were those that made you feel like a part of the game. Silent Service had a WW2-esque test for the "tour of duty" mission where you had to identify Japanese warships. Sure, they were blocky approximations which would be pathetic even as a Flash game, but it was a step up from the "13th word in the 3rd paragraph on page 91" method. Ultima VI's "consult thy Compendium" method wasn't too bad, even though some of the details since V were different. These are probably two of the worst examples; I played a lot of games, but I haven't played nearly as many old games as I would have liked.
Even better, perhaps, those trivial methods are definitely a lot more fun because the people who made the game put them in place, and they enjoy playing games just as much as we do. In those days, gaming was a lot more about getting more people to play your game, rather than turning it into a glorified state lottery. This is what the corporate mindset ruined, by letting businessmen determine that they know better than the game developers how to get more sales, and this same mindset applies to music and movie quality as well. The reason they're losing sales isn't because people download cracked versions of their product online, it's because they tried to establish a business model of producing a series of functionally identical but consistent products in a market where innovation is at a premium and excellence is a baseline expectation. At the same time, they try to keep their promises of perpetual growth/wealth to their shareholders in such a competitive industry. By making consistent stuff (look at sports games in this decade for a great example), they become as boring as the software security company CEO, and that is deadly to a PC game's success.
In my experience, Ruby syntax tends to be easy to read and maintain compared to Javascript or Perl, although you are still free to obfuscate it to your heart's content-- its rather libertarian syntax allows Java coders and shell scripters to continue using their respective styles, which is nice if they want to try it out. Many of the language features that Ruby proponents bring up are often found in some way or another in Python, Lisp, or Perl. Being relatively new to the scene, it has fewer well-developed libraries, which may change with more developers using Rails.
I don't know if that helped much, I just code in it; I haven't really delved into how the language works.
Wikipedia should have more info than I do.
The Democrats seem to want to attack Palin on experience...
If they or their supporters do, they're morons. "Experience" in presidential elections is a serious red herring, and the only President who could have conceivably used the experience claim successfully is really Grover Cleveland. Just because you think that Democrats will walk into such an easy trap doesn't make reality so, and in claiming such, you are invoking the same style of lie that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are famous for.
Reading letxa2000's other comments reveal that he (she?) is a Republican loyalist. The only reason this guy's getting modded up is because Palin is a real conservative in her current policies. The problem is that the GOP leadership will either crush her maverick policies through neglect, or let the Democrats kill them after they gain a bigger majority in Congress. The party is not interested in progress or conservatism, they are interested in consolidating more power.
In order to be a really powerful VP in a party like the current GOP, you must be evil enough to believe consistently that you alone are right. In other words, you must be Dick Cheney.
Yes, well, the threshold for outrage is apparently $9 million.
You're a few decades too late to call them on the fallacy of equivocation.
The phrases' implications are now common knowledge, so it is now you blurring the definitions. Ergo, you are the one trying to prop up an argument with a fallacy.
It would be fine if it was taught in a historical perspective. The problem is that it does not belong in a science class.
Really? Is it not one of the fundamental objectives of science to demonstrate through evidence whether a theory or conjecture is sound? Isn't it the point of a science class to demonstrate that the scientific method actually works, by disproving inaccurate or wrong hypotheses? Heck, we're taught early genetic theory despite its utter simplicity compared to the real thing, and in some curricula, spontaneous generation, which is even more demonstrably wrong than ID.
What the "attack on science" people fear is that the religious minority will somehow poison the nation's children into believing creationism strictly according to the Bible. Few, if any, science teachers will go for this, and kids' BS meters are much more sensitive, thanks to all the viewpoints and information available online. But it's really an appeal to fear of the religious, so all the posts that mention creationism or ID are really meant to stir the pot and preach to the Slashdot choir.
Reminder: Pray to Jebus in the same way a French knigget would insult a son of a silly person.
What makes you think that we're voting based on experience?
Let's name some names from the post-Eisenhower era. Clinton, Kennedy, Carter, W. Bush, even the GOP hero Reagan's experience all pale in comparison to H. W. Bush, McCain, Nixon and Johnson. We've got a motley bunch of heroes and goats in this "inexperienced" group, and a dictator and a socialist in the "experienced".
Heck, we elected W. Bush even though his only political experience was running a cracker-jack job as Texas governor. So we're pounding on Obama after a few years in state and US Senates for "lack of experience"? Seems he's done a much better job talking to foreign leaders than Bush ever did, and he most likely won't use the McCain "big guns"* foreign policy style.
Using "experience" as a qualification or requirement for the Presidency is an insult to history.
* An attempt at TR's "big stick" policy, only McCain and other GOP supporters doesn't know how to "speak softly".
I think you underestimate the insight and wisdom of many science teachers. A lot of them will most likely risk their careers to resist any attempt at presenting creationism as a viable alternative or complement to the current curriculum. The really good ones will say, "Here's creationism and the evidence for it. Here's Darwin's theory, and current scientific consensus, and all the evidence for that. You decide which side of this debate."
Let's be fair: the percentage of the "strict biblical literalists" teaching a geocentric model is really small, but really loud. Equating the geocentrists with the biblical literalists is a classic fallacy of composition.
Nah, we won't really touch the thesis, especially when we take down the server.
That's okay, since Grant Imahara isn't hit by the moustache provision.
What makes it all the more infuriating for parent, myself, and many others, is that the average user won't look at the additional software and think, "Great, more crud to clean out," but as an added value, which is exactly what the guys in sales and marketing told their bosses when they suggested deals with Symantec, McAfee and the rest. I'm sure some young guy in legal was squirming, thinking of possible antitrust violations, while the execs went ahead with the plan because there wouldn't be many who would complain.
Of course, they made the bone-headed decision to let the software partners decide which version of what software to install-- which in turn led to piling in various and sundry trialware from their partners in crime, er, business, turning what might be an otherwise functional computer into a molasses glacier in the Klondike.
I guess they're hoping for global warming to help the computers run faster.
> delete that crap
> your monitor asplode