As evidenced by George Burns, you can still have your fun and live to old age too. The key is....... dadaDA! MODERATION. He had a martini,
a cigar, and legend has it... a woman, every day until the day he died (at 100).
A glass of wine with dinner, or a couple beers while watching a game. Maybe a regular afternoon martini. A puff or two from a cigar, pipe, or cigarette, even a chew.
These things only become a problem when you
1) have bad genetics to begin with or
2) you move from moderation to excess and extreme addiction or
3) you use them as an excuse to engage in poor behavior (drunk driving, abuse, etc., typically
only related to alcohol)
Neverwinter Nights, last I heard, was going to have all platform support in the same box.
Although it might be nice to be able to point to Linux sales of, say, Quake 3, the problem there is that they were slow in getting it out. Very slow. It wasn't available until several months after the Win32 version. I never saw it on the shelves at CompUSA or BestBuy. I want to buy one copy of a game, and be able to run it on whatever platform I desire. They're doing the right thing with Neverwinter Nights.
Say what you will, but gamers tend to be impatient. I know some people that used linux exclusively and went and shelled out money for windows!!! just so they could play Q3 the day it was out.
Oh Jeez. How long before we see books that are shrink wrapped? "By opening this book you agree to abide by the license terms within"
"You do not own this work. You own a license to the work, that we may revoke at any time. You may not transfer ownership of this work unless granted written permission by the author. You may not read this book out loud, or lend it to anyone else..."
How long? How long before those greedy authors take away the freedom to share literature? This scares me. This scares me BAD.
I realize this is your opinion, but you do not speak for all Dune fans.
I could care less about the matte paintings or CGI. I could care less about the costumes, sets, and silly hats. You probably spent too much time making fun of and paying attention to those things to actually grasp what was going on.
What Dune, and I'm convinced, all great literature, especially sci-fi is about, is people. The miniseries brought this to the fore far more than the Lynch movie. The evolution of Paul, the love affair with Chani, the conflict with his mother, the political intrigue, the religious mania, the ecological message, it was all there. In short, the things that really mattered to me.
I know people who loved it, people who hated it, and people who could care less. Dune fans on all sides.
The only time there is a charge on pay-pal is if you sign up with their pro or business accounts. Then you get assessed a 1.9% + $.25 fee for every payment you recieve.
I used to use Kagi, and their payment rate is on a sliding scale - "Kagi charges 6.5% up to a maximum of $3.00 for our operational costs, plus 3.5% plus $0.50 for processing costs we incurr (credit card fees, etc)."
I'd recieve a payment for a low end hosting account (say about $60.00 under my old scale), and Kagi would take about 10% of that.
Plus there's generally over a one month lag in recieving payments from Kagi.
However, Kagi does offer some customization features that paypal doesn't, as well as their registration code system for shareware. Each has there pro's and cons I guess.
Yes, there may be some fraud issues with paypal. There can be anytime you purchase something from someone you don't know. At least with PayPal and Kagi, you're not actually giving the person your credit card number. The reason the credit card companies won't get involved is because you've paid paypal and not the person directly. Paypal hasn't done anything wrong, so the credit card companies can't reverse the charges. If you run into, or suspect a case of fraud, let paypal know about it. And it might be a good idea to read paypal's security help on fraud issues.
Adobe's still pissed off because of the gimp eating into Photoshop's marketshare. There are only two reasons to use photoshop really anymore - MacOS and color matching.
> Do we need it?
No, we don't need anything outside of Maslow's
heiarchy of needs, the basic things required to
support relatively normative human life. If
technology helps us fill one of those needs,
perhaps it can be needed.
> Can we support it? Can the people who buy or
> use what we make get free, readily-available
> help?
Who says they're entitled to free,
readily-available help? A whole industry has
arisen around support and training services. Can
you become an ASE certified mechanic without
paying a dime? I don't think so. Does that mean
you need to be at a mechanics level to drive a
car? Not at all.
It's up to the educational system to step up to
the plate and add new technologies to the
curriculum, as has happened for hundreds of years.
Older folks may have to pay a bit more to get this
new knowledge, but they won't die if they don't.
> Are new technologies open to peer review and
> scrutiny, that is, are the software, hardware,
> systems and design of new technologies
> available for public and other inspection
> in order to root out potential mistakes,
> problems and flaws?
That's what QA is for. I believe in Free Software
and Open Source as much as anyone. You want to
find flaws? Do like the do with cars... slam them
into brick walls at 40mph. Or get Underwriter's
Labs or someone to test.
> Will everyone have equal access to new
> technologies, or will they become the property
> of corporate and social elites with specialized
> knowledge and lots of disposable income?
I don't see this as a problem. Not everyone can
afford a car. Or a telephone. Or a house. Or a
decent meal. This digital divide stuff is crap.
What, the "haves" should give stuff to the "have
nots" because it would be more fair since the
"have nots" didn't have the same opportunities?
My parents, and their parents, worked damn hard,
sacrificed, to provide each following generation a
better life than their own. I will do the same for
my children. I will not do the same for someone
else's offspring. That's their responsibility.
At this point in my life do I give to charity? No.
Will I in the future, when I have a secure
financial situation? Sure. Everyone deserves to
have their basic needs met. People don't "need"
to live in a mansion, drive a porchse, own a
computer, access the internet, or have a
genetically engineered pet that's a perfect
companion and teacher for their children.
Those that do are lucky, they have advantages.
But to claim that having advantages isn't fair
is tantamount to claiming life's not fair, that
everyone should be equal.
The only way everyone will be equal, physically,
mentally, financially, would be if everyone was
dead.
> Do new technologies have unintended
> consequences?
That's kind of silly. They always do.
> Have academic, business or civic analysts
> examined them? Have their ramifications been
> explained to the people affected (as in
> telling Victor Frankenstein's neighbors that a
> monster would soon be running around the
> community?).
The ramifications can't be known until the
technologies have been in widespread use for a
number of years. Medical technology will have
to be tested of course, which means guinea pigs.
Heck, we're still trying to guess what the
ramifications of the integrated circuit have been,
and will be.
> Can technologies be created with consideration
> both for the environment and for consumer's
> convenience?
Yes, if consumers demand it and are willing to
pay for it.
> Can batteries, parts, cartridges,
> support and service be standardized, so that
> consumers don't have to continuously scramble?
Consumers scramble because they want the best.
I won't begrudge and incompatibility for an edge
in functionality. So the new Boo Bah Battery will
only work in a Boo Bah Camcorder. It gets 3x as
much life as any other cordless camcorder. If
people find value in it, they will buy it.
> Can software and computer makers agree on
> ethical standards for their product's lifespan,
> so that people who invest in expensive
> technologies can be assured that they will last
> a few years, and that products and software for
> them will be available in the future?
Heh. No. Probably never. They're in business to
make money. That involves giving people what they
want, and charging them out the arse for it.
Get over it already.
> Can the sale and licensing of gene research to
> private bio-tech corporations be halted until
> critical social issues can be discussed and
> resolved? The public has yet to grasp the
> consequences of such researching falling into
> the hands of a few corporations, lulled as they
> are by scientific and political promises of
> cures for cancer, aging and heart disease.
Sure, but that means gene research will never
go anywhere. If you think we can come to a
resolution about the moral and ethical
implications of gene research, you're living in
a very different country than I am.
> Is downloading music or a novel theft? Do the
> ethics of copyright and intellectual property
> need reconsideration? Or elimination? Is there
> a more rational alternative to the Sonny
> Bono and Digital Millennium Copyright Acts?
I have problems with the idea of intellectual
property only so far is to goes to cover patents
on processes or algorithms. I don't find any
problems with a creative work, like a novel or
a piece of music.
Do I like the RIAA? No. Do I like many of the
artists who, unfortunately, find themselves in a
position to be employed by them to support their
craft? Absolutely.
I think the micropayment model, the MP3.com model
and the commission model are going to be the
funding methods for most future art.
The problem with the RIAA and even the MPAA, is
that they, in large part, have a monopoly right
now.
> How can we ensure that technology and software
> companies and Web sites prominently disclose
> privacy provisions and implications? It ought
> to be illegal to distribute people's personal
> information with their knowledge and permission.
It's simple. If you don't want your personal,
public information to be distributed, don't give
it out!!!! No one's forcing you to give real.com
or whoever it is correct information.
> Perhaps we should require that before new
> technologies are licensed, deployed or sold,
> we need a technological impact statement. Like
> the environmental statements designed to make
> people aware that their surroundings could be
> affected by construction or research projects,
> a TIS would mean that before projects like the
> gene map are sold and distributed, ordinary
> people are aware of the technology and its
> possible impact on their lives and those of
> their children.
Ok, this would put a halt on all future progress.
Do you really think that "ordinary" people will
ever be fully aware of technology and it's
possible impact? People fear what they don't
understand, and often times people don't
understand new things.
Monumentous change is forced upon humanity at
regular intervals. Adapt, or become a fossil.
Ah, the catch is, you can't use 'no faith', you could use, for example, faith in not.
Here in the states, we don't have a nationalized sales tax, but non profits, including churches, most private schools, clubs, community org's, etc., don't have to pay any taxes at all, sales or otherwise. Of course if you get paid by one of these agencies, you still have to pay taxes, but if you are, chances are you're in a very low tax bracket [i.e., you make no money.]
There is a group already in existence called the Universal Life Church, that looks pretty interesting. Just reading up on them now.
"The church has two tenets: the absolute right of freedom of religion and to do that which is right. Anything else within the law is allowed."
If you accept atheism as religion, then this church accepts you as a member, and in fact a minister apparently (for free).
The founder seems to believe in "God", but apparently he's written something like Jefferson's Bible. I'm not saying it's the same, I haven't read it, but it's his own version.
Yes, Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Bible that leaves out all the Son of God, miracles, and other mythology stuff, with the goal of providing a philosophical, non-religious look at Jesus's ethical teachings. It's actually the Bible used to swear in members of congress!
Oh yeah, like a Jesse type thing (that whacked out MTV so you wanna be a DJ crack-head Bob wannabe guy, or that "vote for hank the drunken dwarf, sexiest man alive" thing awhile back).
But he didn't say he was downtrodden, he said that his friends were...
But why not get a bunch of "devout atheists" together, found the Atheistic Church (or the Church of Atheism, whatever you want to call it), and get the legal protections granted even for those passive atheists?
There are plenty of "passive Christians" and "passive Jews" in the world, who do not adhere strictly to their faith, and yet they are still protected.
So a guy at the top of the heap, Mr. Popular, decides it's wrong to win a popularity contest.
His friends are the downtrodden. If all his friends are downtrodden, how the hell did he get to be some damn popular huh?
Hanging out with the downtrodden, the geeks and freaks and oddballs as it were, does not get you elected homecoming king unless the school is comprised mainly of geeks, freaks, and oddballs.
(I myself am a geek, somewhat freakish, and definately an oddball). I seriously doubt that it is.
Still, I give him Kudos for standing up for what he believed in (if in fact, he's being honest and it's not just some publicity stunt or something).
The schools on the other hand... they're all out of control, all this 0 tolerance crap. I swear, the vast majority of school administrators out there these days are serious control freaks that really trip out on their power to make or break a student's life. We need some common sense for the new millenium people.
From dictionary.com:
religion:
n. Abbr. rel., relig.
4.A cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
Is athiesm not a principle?
From dictionary.com:
principle:
1.A basic truth, law, or assumption
Given that these are correct, and you believe that there is no God or god(s), is that not at least assumption, if not a basic truth in the eyes of the beholder so to speak?
Therefore I find Atheism is a religion in that it begins with an assumption (no deity), that is also a principle that can be pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
Just because there is no deity involved doesn't make it not a religion, in the truest sense of the word.
I believe that athiests should probably get together, form a church, and apply for status as a recognized religion. This shackles them with the regulations that are placed religions, but the great protections as well.
Oh. I forgot to mention memory useage. Allaire recommends (or at least did last year), that any production box have 512megs of ram as an absolute bear minimum, with the recommended minimum being 1gig of ram. Ouch!
I'm part of a team that maintains a very large site in ColdFusion, and let me tell you, ColdFusion has some really nasty problems.
For one, it has very limited handling of binary data. As in, you can base64 encode/decode it, and store the base64'd data in a database. That's it. There's no BLOB support at all, and no way to pull a file from a database and send it to the client without saving it to disk and including it on your page (say for image file data).
Also, yes, it's made for dummies. It's easy to learn if all you know is HTML. If you already know perl or c, it can be quite frustrating. Arrays, structures, etc. start with 1, not 0. If you get 0 records from a database query, the RecordCount will be 0, but the CurrentRow will be 1! Functions and tags don't always act they way they're supposed too, especially when you're CFINCLUDE'ing or CFMODULE'ing files nested 15 levels deep.
When to use #'s and when not to use #'s? Some functions (IsDefined() for example) require the #'s, while in general allaire says don't use them in contitionals or functions, just in output.
Text formatting and parsing with ColdFusion is a serious pain.
It's really expensive. At $5,000 per server, a proper development, staging, and production environment will cost you $15,000. If you want to make use of the clustering support? $5,000 extra per node.
Support contracts are expensive and difficult to obtain.
It's difficult to write secure code in ColdFusion. Having to lock things left and right is a pain (here I can't say that PHP's shared memory support is any better).
I'd much rather be working with PHP, but all that said ColdFusion isn't too bad.
Actually, it's quite often misquoted, but usually people get the attribution correct, geez.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
In scenario number 1 (which I believe to be the most likely one) AT&T will stop charging ecommerce hosting customers based on traffic or flatrate fees. Instead they'll take a cut of each sale. This means many many companies will move their networks over to other big-pipe supplies, like sprint or uunet. Otherwise, the cost will be passed on to the consumer. Note that this could be a good thing! The per sale charge might well be less on average than the company was spending on their bandwidth at the flat rate or by traffic fees, especially for smaller ecommerce buisnesses.
Scenario number 2 is that, somehow, they track each individual home broadband users purchases, and force merchants/customers to pay a "tax" on those transactions. This is ethically, legally, and technologically questionable. If, somehow, they did get this working, I forsee a great rise in SSL proxies outside of at&t networks, or the rise of shell accounts on *nix boxen with ssl'd lynx. They'd never see a dime.
Yes, they've had a couple seasons of it, and it is sooo much better than Battle Bots it's unbelievable, and it's hosted by what's his name from Red Dwarf..:)
Slashdot Mirror
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Ben Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
As evidenced by George Burns, you can still have your fun and live to old age too. The key is....... dadaDA! MODERATION. He had a martini,
a cigar, and legend has it... a woman, every day until the day he died (at 100).
A glass of wine with dinner, or a couple beers while watching a game. Maybe a regular afternoon martini. A puff or two from a cigar, pipe, or cigarette, even a chew.
These things only become a problem when you
1) have bad genetics to begin with or
2) you move from moderation to excess and extreme addiction or
3) you use them as an excuse to engage in poor behavior (drunk driving, abuse, etc., typically
only related to alcohol)
Neverwinter Nights, last I heard, was going to have all platform support in the same box.
Although it might be nice to be able to point to Linux sales of, say, Quake 3, the problem there is that they were slow in getting it out. Very slow. It wasn't available until several months after the Win32 version. I never saw it on the shelves at CompUSA or BestBuy. I want to buy one copy of a game, and be able to run it on whatever platform I desire. They're doing the right thing with Neverwinter Nights.
Say what you will, but gamers tend to be impatient. I know some people that used linux exclusively and went and shelled out money for windows!!! just so they could play Q3 the day it was out.
Oh Jeez. How long before we see books that are shrink wrapped? "By opening this book you agree to abide by the license terms within"
"You do not own this work. You own a license to the work, that we may revoke at any time. You may not transfer ownership of this work unless granted written permission by the author. You may not read this book out loud, or lend it to anyone else..."
How long? How long before those greedy authors take away the freedom to share literature? This scares me. This scares me BAD.
I haven't seen MS release cd's with thousands of crappy little images, with even worse windows based browsers... :)
I realize this is your opinion, but you do not speak for all Dune fans.
I could care less about the matte paintings or CGI. I could care less about the costumes, sets, and silly hats. You probably spent too much time making fun of and paying attention to those things to actually grasp what was going on.
What Dune, and I'm convinced, all great literature, especially sci-fi is about, is people. The miniseries brought this to the fore far more than the Lynch movie. The evolution of Paul, the love affair with Chani, the conflict with his mother, the political intrigue, the religious mania, the ecological message, it was all there. In short, the things that really mattered to me.
I know people who loved it, people who hated it, and people who could care less. Dune fans on all sides.
The only time there is a charge on pay-pal is if you sign up with their pro or business accounts. Then you get assessed a 1.9% + $.25 fee for every payment you recieve.
I used to use Kagi, and their payment rate is on a sliding scale - "Kagi charges 6.5% up to a maximum of $3.00 for our operational costs, plus 3.5% plus $0.50 for processing costs we incurr (credit card fees, etc)."
I'd recieve a payment for a low end hosting account (say about $60.00 under my old scale), and Kagi would take about 10% of that. Plus there's generally over a one month lag in recieving payments from Kagi.
However, Kagi does offer some customization features that paypal doesn't, as well as their registration code system for shareware. Each has there pro's and cons I guess.
Yes, there may be some fraud issues with paypal. There can be anytime you purchase something from someone you don't know. At least with PayPal and Kagi, you're not actually giving the person your credit card number. The reason the credit card companies won't get involved is because you've paid paypal and not the person directly. Paypal hasn't done anything wrong, so the credit card companies can't reverse the charges. If you run into, or suspect a case of fraud, let paypal know about it. And it might be a good idea to read paypal's security help on fraud issues.
Adobe's still pissed off because of the gimp eating into Photoshop's marketshare. There are only two reasons to use photoshop really anymore - MacOS and color matching.
Yeah. I'm pretty sure that Bush can spell better than Taco and crew at least. :)
Aye Carumba! Seesh. Ok, 2.2 :)
It's not 3.0 either. See, Linus is 1.0. Kid #1 is Linus 2.0. Kid #2 is Linus 2.1. GrandKid #1 is Linus 3.0.
And, hopefully, there will be screen reader software that supports proper reading of MathML!
What about write-in canidates?
> Do we need it?
No, we don't need anything outside of Maslow's
heiarchy of needs, the basic things required to
support relatively normative human life. If
technology helps us fill one of those needs,
perhaps it can be needed.
> Can we support it? Can the people who buy or
> use what we make get free, readily-available
> help?
Who says they're entitled to free,
readily-available help? A whole industry has
arisen around support and training services. Can
you become an ASE certified mechanic without
paying a dime? I don't think so. Does that mean
you need to be at a mechanics level to drive a
car? Not at all.
It's up to the educational system to step up to
the plate and add new technologies to the
curriculum, as has happened for hundreds of years.
Older folks may have to pay a bit more to get this
new knowledge, but they won't die if they don't.
> Are new technologies open to peer review and
> scrutiny, that is, are the software, hardware,
> systems and design of new technologies
> available for public and other inspection
> in order to root out potential mistakes,
> problems and flaws?
That's what QA is for. I believe in Free Software
and Open Source as much as anyone. You want to
find flaws? Do like the do with cars... slam them
into brick walls at 40mph. Or get Underwriter's
Labs or someone to test.
> Will everyone have equal access to new
> technologies, or will they become the property
> of corporate and social elites with specialized
> knowledge and lots of disposable income?
I don't see this as a problem. Not everyone can
afford a car. Or a telephone. Or a house. Or a
decent meal. This digital divide stuff is crap.
What, the "haves" should give stuff to the "have
nots" because it would be more fair since the
"have nots" didn't have the same opportunities?
My parents, and their parents, worked damn hard,
sacrificed, to provide each following generation a
better life than their own. I will do the same for
my children. I will not do the same for someone
else's offspring. That's their responsibility.
At this point in my life do I give to charity? No.
Will I in the future, when I have a secure
financial situation? Sure. Everyone deserves to
have their basic needs met. People don't "need"
to live in a mansion, drive a porchse, own a
computer, access the internet, or have a
genetically engineered pet that's a perfect
companion and teacher for their children.
Those that do are lucky, they have advantages.
But to claim that having advantages isn't fair
is tantamount to claiming life's not fair, that
everyone should be equal.
The only way everyone will be equal, physically,
mentally, financially, would be if everyone was
dead.
> Do new technologies have unintended
> consequences?
That's kind of silly. They always do.
> Have academic, business or civic analysts
> examined them? Have their ramifications been
> explained to the people affected (as in
> telling Victor Frankenstein's neighbors that a
> monster would soon be running around the
> community?).
The ramifications can't be known until the
technologies have been in widespread use for a
number of years. Medical technology will have
to be tested of course, which means guinea pigs.
Heck, we're still trying to guess what the
ramifications of the integrated circuit have been,
and will be.
> Can technologies be created with consideration
> both for the environment and for consumer's
> convenience?
Yes, if consumers demand it and are willing to
pay for it.
> Can batteries, parts, cartridges,
> support and service be standardized, so that
> consumers don't have to continuously scramble?
Consumers scramble because they want the best.
I won't begrudge and incompatibility for an edge
in functionality. So the new Boo Bah Battery will
only work in a Boo Bah Camcorder. It gets 3x as
much life as any other cordless camcorder. If
people find value in it, they will buy it.
> Can software and computer makers agree on
> ethical standards for their product's lifespan,
> so that people who invest in expensive
> technologies can be assured that they will last
> a few years, and that products and software for
> them will be available in the future?
Heh. No. Probably never. They're in business to
make money. That involves giving people what they
want, and charging them out the arse for it.
Get over it already.
> Can the sale and licensing of gene research to
> private bio-tech corporations be halted until
> critical social issues can be discussed and
> resolved? The public has yet to grasp the
> consequences of such researching falling into
> the hands of a few corporations, lulled as they
> are by scientific and political promises of
> cures for cancer, aging and heart disease.
Sure, but that means gene research will never
go anywhere. If you think we can come to a
resolution about the moral and ethical
implications of gene research, you're living in
a very different country than I am.
> Is downloading music or a novel theft? Do the
> ethics of copyright and intellectual property
> need reconsideration? Or elimination? Is there
> a more rational alternative to the Sonny
> Bono and Digital Millennium Copyright Acts?
I have problems with the idea of intellectual
property only so far is to goes to cover patents
on processes or algorithms. I don't find any
problems with a creative work, like a novel or
a piece of music.
Do I like the RIAA? No. Do I like many of the
artists who, unfortunately, find themselves in a
position to be employed by them to support their
craft? Absolutely.
I think the micropayment model, the MP3.com model
and the commission model are going to be the
funding methods for most future art.
The problem with the RIAA and even the MPAA, is
that they, in large part, have a monopoly right
now.
> How can we ensure that technology and software
> companies and Web sites prominently disclose
> privacy provisions and implications? It ought
> to be illegal to distribute people's personal
> information with their knowledge and permission.
It's simple. If you don't want your personal,
public information to be distributed, don't give
it out!!!! No one's forcing you to give real.com
or whoever it is correct information.
> Perhaps we should require that before new
> technologies are licensed, deployed or sold,
> we need a technological impact statement. Like
> the environmental statements designed to make
> people aware that their surroundings could be
> affected by construction or research projects,
> a TIS would mean that before projects like the
> gene map are sold and distributed, ordinary
> people are aware of the technology and its
> possible impact on their lives and those of
> their children.
Ok, this would put a halt on all future progress.
Do you really think that "ordinary" people will
ever be fully aware of technology and it's
possible impact? People fear what they don't
understand, and often times people don't
understand new things.
Monumentous change is forced upon humanity at
regular intervals. Adapt, or become a fossil.
Ah, the catch is, you can't use 'no faith', you could use, for example, faith in not.
Here in the states, we don't have a nationalized sales tax, but non profits, including churches, most private schools, clubs, community org's, etc., don't have to pay any taxes at all, sales or otherwise. Of course if you get paid by one of these agencies, you still have to pay taxes, but if you are, chances are you're in a very low tax bracket [i.e., you make no money.]
There is a group already in existence called the Universal Life Church, that looks pretty interesting. Just reading up on them now.
"The church has two tenets: the absolute right of freedom of religion and to do that which is right. Anything else within the law is allowed."
If you accept atheism as religion, then this church accepts you as a member, and in fact a minister apparently (for free).
The founder seems to believe in "God", but apparently he's written something like Jefferson's Bible. I'm not saying it's the same, I haven't read it, but it's his own version.
Yes, Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Bible that leaves out all the Son of God, miracles, and other mythology stuff, with the goal of providing a philosophical, non-religious look at Jesus's ethical teachings. It's actually the Bible used to swear in members of congress!
Seriously!
Oh yeah, like a Jesse type thing (that whacked out MTV so you wanna be a DJ crack-head Bob wannabe guy, or that "vote for hank the drunken dwarf, sexiest man alive" thing awhile back).
But he didn't say he was downtrodden, he said that his friends were...
But why not get a bunch of "devout atheists" together, found the Atheistic Church (or the Church of Atheism, whatever you want to call it), and get the legal protections granted even for those passive atheists?
There are plenty of "passive Christians" and "passive Jews" in the world, who do not adhere strictly to their faith, and yet they are still protected.
So a guy at the top of the heap, Mr. Popular, decides it's wrong to win a popularity contest.
His friends are the downtrodden. If all his friends are downtrodden, how the hell did he get to be some damn popular huh?
Hanging out with the downtrodden, the geeks and freaks and oddballs as it were, does not get you elected homecoming king unless the school is comprised mainly of geeks, freaks, and oddballs.
(I myself am a geek, somewhat freakish, and definately an oddball). I seriously doubt that it is.
Still, I give him Kudos for standing up for what he believed in (if in fact, he's being honest and it's not just some publicity stunt or something).
The schools on the other hand... they're all out of control, all this 0 tolerance crap. I swear, the vast majority of school administrators out there these days are serious control freaks that really trip out on their power to make or break a student's life. We need some common sense for the new millenium people.
From dictionary.com:
religion:
n. Abbr. rel., relig.
4.A cause, a principle, or an activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
Is athiesm not a principle?
From dictionary.com:
principle:
1.A basic truth, law, or assumption
Given that these are correct, and you believe that there is no God or god(s), is that not at least assumption, if not a basic truth in the eyes of the beholder so to speak?
Therefore I find Atheism is a religion in that it begins with an assumption (no deity), that is also a principle that can be pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.
Just because there is no deity involved doesn't make it not a religion, in the truest sense of the word.
I believe that athiests should probably get together, form a church, and apply for status as a recognized religion. This shackles them with the regulations that are placed religions, but the great protections as well.
Doh, it's not #'s so much as it is "'"'s
Oh. I forgot to mention memory useage. Allaire recommends (or at least did last year), that any production box have 512megs of ram as an absolute bear minimum, with the recommended minimum being 1gig of ram. Ouch!
I'm part of a team that maintains a very large site in ColdFusion, and let me tell you, ColdFusion has some really nasty problems.
For one, it has very limited handling of binary data. As in, you can base64 encode/decode it, and store the base64'd data in a database. That's it. There's no BLOB support at all, and no way to pull a file from a database and send it to the client without saving it to disk and including it on your page (say for image file data).
Also, yes, it's made for dummies. It's easy to learn if all you know is HTML. If you already know perl or c, it can be quite frustrating. Arrays, structures, etc. start with 1, not 0. If you get 0 records from a database query, the RecordCount will be 0, but the CurrentRow will be 1! Functions and tags don't always act they way they're supposed too, especially when you're CFINCLUDE'ing or CFMODULE'ing files nested 15 levels deep.
When to use #'s and when not to use #'s? Some functions (IsDefined() for example) require the #'s, while in general allaire says don't use them in contitionals or functions, just in output.
Text formatting and parsing with ColdFusion is a serious pain.
It's really expensive. At $5,000 per server, a proper development, staging, and production environment will cost you $15,000. If you want to make use of the clustering support? $5,000 extra per node.
Support contracts are expensive and difficult to obtain.
It's difficult to write secure code in ColdFusion. Having to lock things left and right is a pain (here I can't say that PHP's shared memory support is any better).
I'd much rather be working with PHP, but all that said ColdFusion isn't too bad.
Actually, it's quite often misquoted, but usually people get the attribution correct, geez.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
Ok. There are two scenarios here.
In scenario number 1 (which I believe to be the most likely one) AT&T will stop charging ecommerce hosting customers based on traffic or flatrate fees. Instead they'll take a cut of each sale. This means many many companies will move their networks over to other big-pipe supplies, like sprint or uunet. Otherwise, the cost will be passed on to the consumer. Note that this could be a good thing! The per sale charge might well be less on average than the company was spending on their bandwidth at the flat rate or by traffic fees, especially for smaller ecommerce buisnesses.
Scenario number 2 is that, somehow, they track each individual home broadband users purchases, and force merchants/customers to pay a "tax" on those transactions. This is ethically, legally, and technologically questionable. If, somehow, they did get this working, I forsee a great rise in SSL proxies outside of at&t networks, or the rise of shell accounts on *nix boxen with ssl'd lynx. They'd never see a dime.
Yes, they've had a couple seasons of it, and it is sooo much better than Battle Bots it's unbelievable, and it's hosted by what's his name from Red Dwarf.. :)