Wow. I work for a large insurance company, and pretty much everyone here gets at least 4 weeks off per year. Some who have been here for 20+ years get 7 or more. Before this, I worked at a consulting company without as many vacation days, but who paid overtime for anything over 40 hours per week. If I didn't have my current position, that's what I'd be doing again.
I was just married in June and we had a science fiction theme for our wedding. Everyone was encouraged to dress up in their favorite sci-fi costumes - our 'minister' was a vulcan, our parents were characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, and BSG, and our ring bearer was Dark Helmet. We even had a Jedi battle during the reception.
My wife did most of the planning, and got a lot of ideas from Offbeat Brides. I think the pitfalls are mostly the same as with any other wedding - be sure you book your space early, find a reputable caterer, make sure that everyone's outfit is in order, etc. The worst thing you might come across is friction from your own families about having such a non-traditional wedding. Some people have a real problem with anything but the standard church and white dress. Luckily, both of our immediate families were cool with everything and didn't complain. In the end, everyone had a great time that nobody is likely to forget anytime soon.
>I already get five weeks paid leave and work 37 hour weeks.
Yeah? I live in the US and get the same thing except I work 37.5 hours per week. Also, that 5 weeks doesn't count national holidays. I don't think my job is that unusual.
Maybe that's because the pricing schemes thought up by the phone companies all include the price of paying back the subsidy on a cell phone in their 'normal' rates. If they cut out the 2 year contracts, the true price of the service itself could be used. Instead, we are all subsidizing new phones whether we have one or not.
>Russia has a mandatory program for all telecommunication providers (ISPs included), wherein they should have equipment to log all network usage. According to the law, access to that equipment is restricted to law enforcement and intelligence services, and only with court permission; however, they do not have to show the court order to providers, and some parts of the law can be interpreted as meaning that order can be obtained after the fact.
Sorry if this has already been pointed out, but they are just plain lying to get these laws passed.
"The RUIE commission took the decision to form a working group to prepare proposals for legislative control over IP activities in Russia. In that way Russia might follow the example of some countries, such as China, Canada and the United States which have banned or imposed severe restrictions on the use of VoIP."
I can use Skype without any restrictions whatsoever. If I really want to, I can use zFone an there is no way that the government can listen in to my voip calls at all.
>This high frequency trading issue is a moot point.
No, it's not a moot point. They are artificially raising the price that everyone has to pay for a stock. They literally see what you are going to buy, snatch it up before you can buy it, and then sell it to you at an increased price. How is this even a little fair?
Can a seller of a stock refuse to sell it to certain companies?
>If the entire program is math, then you agree that everything it contains is math. So if the program contains a recipe to bake pizza or make pankcakes, then you have just postulated that the procedure to make pizza or pancakes is math, which is ridiculous.
If the description is stored in a computer, that description is nothing but a long string of 1s and 0s. Any recipe, or song, or movie can be exactly represented by some number. Any changes to that representation is also done by - take a guess - math. If you alter your cake recipe in the computer, the initial and final form can be gotten by using nothing but simple arithmetic. All that a computer can do is math - it's right there in the name. It computes.
The procedure to make a cake applies to the real world, it's storage in a computer is math.
>Correction, it uses mathematical processes... big difference. All techonology uses math, it is not math by itself. Just as when you type 2 + 2 in your calculator, you are using math, you don't transform from human into math.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. The program that the calculator is running to calculate 2 + 2 is itself math. How this makes a human into math I have no idea.
>But is a program that stores and displays recipes, math?
Yes. It is math. The program itself is exactly the same thing as math. It is a mathematical process. The commands you type to create the program are not.
>uh... how about no? how about you are irrational and fear addled?
The irrational and fear addled response to your child getting on the wrong bus is to think that GPS tracking has to get involved instead of a little common sense parenting.
>There are many in America (and an astounding amount on Slashdot) who would love to have religion banned forever.
If by 'many', you mean a statistically insignificant number, you would be correct. As it is, there are very, very few people making that argument here or anywhere else for that matter. A lot of us may think you are dumb because of your religious beliefs, and a lot of us might enjoy pointing out the factual errors and contradictions in whatever your religion is, but even attempting to ban religion is idiotic. If you're free, you're free to believe in falsehoods.
>Doesn't the word "Techno" in the USA include anything that you can dance to, and that has even a hint of electronic sounds in it?
Depends on who you're talking to. Anyone who listens to electronic music can tell you that techno is just a subgenre, along with house, trance, breaks, etc. If you're talking to someone who listens to more mainstream fare, all electronic music is techno.
If I want to write on my blog that I've heard that Steve Jobs has died just to drive the price of Apple stock down, there is nothing that can be done to me as long as I don't have some financial stake in Apple.
For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and "wiretaps without warrants," he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.)
It's hardly a new stance for Obama, who has made similar statements in previous campaign speeches, but mention of the issue in a stump speech, alongside more frequently discussed topics like Iraq and education, may give some clue to his priorities.
In our own Technology Voters' Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: "No."
I have no problem with the idea that some people are evil enough to deserve being put to death, but I don't trust any government enough to carry it out. So, I am against the death penalty in practice.
You have free will because *you*, just like Booth, are the one making the decision. Knowledge of that decision, either in the past or in the future, does not make it any less yours. Now, I don't believe in predestination in any way, I just don't think that it would remove anyone's free will.
I don't think the knowledge of the future negates free will at all - at least not any more than knowledge of the last does.
Does your knowing that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865 mean that he had no free will at the time he committed the act? While he cannot decide to do anything different now, your knowledge did not force him to do anything. A godlike view of the universe does not imply that the people within it aren't making their own decisions.
Does the universe need a cause? Sure, it appears that things within the universe follow the cause->effect rule, but what makes you think that the universe itself would?
Aren't you supposed to block the intersection when turning left? If you don't, you can run into the situation where you would literally have to wait an hour to make the left turn because of all the traffic coming the other way. If you pull out, at least one car can get through each light.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow. I work for a large insurance company, and pretty much everyone here gets at least 4 weeks off per year. Some who have been here for 20+ years get 7 or more. Before this, I worked at a consulting company without as many vacation days, but who paid overtime for anything over 40 hours per week. If I didn't have my current position, that's what I'd be doing again.
Oops. That link should be Offbeat Bride.
I was just married in June and we had a science fiction theme for our wedding. Everyone was encouraged to dress up in their favorite sci-fi costumes - our 'minister' was a vulcan, our parents were characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, and BSG, and our ring bearer was Dark Helmet. We even had a Jedi battle during the reception.
My wife did most of the planning, and got a lot of ideas from Offbeat Brides. I think the pitfalls are mostly the same as with any other wedding - be sure you book your space early, find a reputable caterer, make sure that everyone's outfit is in order, etc. The worst thing you might come across is friction from your own families about having such a non-traditional wedding. Some people have a real problem with anything but the standard church and white dress. Luckily, both of our immediate families were cool with everything and didn't complain. In the end, everyone had a great time that nobody is likely to forget anytime soon.
Here is a picture of our wedding party.
>I already get five weeks paid leave and work 37 hour weeks.
Yeah? I live in the US and get the same thing except I work 37.5 hours per week. Also, that 5 weeks doesn't count national holidays. I don't think my job is that unusual.
Maybe that's because the pricing schemes thought up by the phone companies all include the price of paying back the subsidy on a cell phone in their 'normal' rates. If they cut out the 2 year contracts, the true price of the service itself could be used. Instead, we are all subsidizing new phones whether we have one or not.
>Russia has a mandatory program for all telecommunication providers (ISPs included), wherein they should have equipment to log all network usage. According to the law, access to that equipment is restricted to law enforcement and intelligence services, and only with court permission; however, they do not have to show the court order to providers, and some parts of the law can be interpreted as meaning that order can be obtained after the fact.
Something about that sounds vaguely familiar.
Sorry if this has already been pointed out, but they are just plain lying to get these laws passed.
"The RUIE commission took the decision to form a working group to prepare proposals for legislative control over IP activities in Russia. In that way Russia might follow the example of some countries, such as China, Canada and the United States which have banned or imposed severe restrictions on the use of VoIP."
I can use Skype without any restrictions whatsoever. If I really want to, I can use zFone an there is no way that the government can listen in to my voip calls at all.
>This high frequency trading issue is a moot point.
No, it's not a moot point. They are artificially raising the price that everyone has to pay for a stock. They literally see what you are going to buy, snatch it up before you can buy it, and then sell it to you at an increased price. How is this even a little fair?
Can a seller of a stock refuse to sell it to certain companies?
>If the entire program is math, then you agree that everything it contains is math. So if the program contains a recipe to bake pizza or make pankcakes, then you have just postulated that the procedure to make pizza or pancakes is math, which is ridiculous.
If the description is stored in a computer, that description is nothing but a long string of 1s and 0s. Any recipe, or song, or movie can be exactly represented by some number. Any changes to that representation is also done by - take a guess - math. If you alter your cake recipe in the computer, the initial and final form can be gotten by using nothing but simple arithmetic. All that a computer can do is math - it's right there in the name. It computes.
The procedure to make a cake applies to the real world, it's storage in a computer is math.
>Correction, it uses mathematical processes... big difference. All techonology uses math, it is not math by itself. Just as when you type 2 + 2 in your calculator, you are using math, you don't transform from human into math.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. The program that the calculator is running to calculate 2 + 2 is itself math. How this makes a human into math I have no idea.
>But is a program that stores and displays recipes, math?
Yes. It is math. The program itself is exactly the same thing as math. It is a mathematical process. The commands you type to create the program are not.
>uh... how about no? how about you are irrational and fear addled?
The irrational and fear addled response to your child getting on the wrong bus is to think that GPS tracking has to get involved instead of a little common sense parenting.
>There are many in America (and an astounding amount on Slashdot) who would love to have religion banned forever.
If by 'many', you mean a statistically insignificant number, you would be correct. As it is, there are very, very few people making that argument here or anywhere else for that matter. A lot of us may think you are dumb because of your religious beliefs, and a lot of us might enjoy pointing out the factual errors and contradictions in whatever your religion is, but even attempting to ban religion is idiotic. If you're free, you're free to believe in falsehoods.
>This post (Q's 7 & 8) I think explains why Hulu has been forced to block media center apps
They're doing such a bang up job of it that I've been watching Hulu on my Boxee box for the past couple of weeks. :)
Oops. That link should point here.
>Doesn't the word "Techno" in the USA include anything that you can dance to, and that has even a hint of electronic sounds in it?
Depends on who you're talking to. Anyone who listens to electronic music can tell you that techno is just a subgenre, along with house, trance, breaks, etc. If you're talking to someone who listens to more mainstream fare, all electronic music is techno.
A great reference for all the genres is The Ishkur Guide.
Does anyone have any idea how difficult it would be to set up a tracker within freenet? Is there already a project anywhere trying to do this?
>Micro vs. Macroevolution; there is a difference
Yes, it's called "time".
If I want to write on my blog that I've heard that Steve Jobs has died just to drive the price of Apple stock down, there is nothing that can be done to me as long as I don't have some financial stake in Apple.
What does it mean when I can't tell if a post is parody or not?
Free speech is more important than the truth, because only through free discussion can the truth be found.
I guess we were all hoping he would stick to his original 'principles':
For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and "wiretaps without warrants," he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.)
It's hardly a new stance for Obama, who has made similar statements in previous campaign speeches, but mention of the issue in a stump speech, alongside more frequently discussed topics like Iraq and education, may give some clue to his priorities.
In our own Technology Voters' Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: "No."
I have no problem with the idea that some people are evil enough to deserve being put to death, but I don't trust any government enough to carry it out. So, I am against the death penalty in practice.
You have free will because *you*, just like Booth, are the one making the decision. Knowledge of that decision, either in the past or in the future, does not make it any less yours. Now, I don't believe in predestination in any way, I just don't think that it would remove anyone's free will.
I don't think the knowledge of the future negates free will at all - at least not any more than knowledge of the last does.
Does your knowing that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865 mean that he had no free will at the time he committed the act? While he cannot decide to do anything different now, your knowledge did not force him to do anything. A godlike view of the universe does not imply that the people within it aren't making their own decisions.
Does the universe need a cause? Sure, it appears that things within the universe follow the cause->effect rule, but what makes you think that the universe itself would?
Aren't you supposed to block the intersection when turning left? If you don't, you can run into the situation where you would literally have to wait an hour to make the left turn because of all the traffic coming the other way. If you pull out, at least one car can get through each light.