Actually the idea behind the law is a pretty good one. It is so that you have representatives of both parties at the polling places. It is an attempt to prevent wrong doing. Imagine if you had only democrats or only Republicans working at any location? The requirement for saying that you fully support the party is so that people can not stack the deck with fake party members. Well you can still lie but the idea is to have have some balance. And you don't have to be a member of any party to vote. Just to be a poll worker. Not a perfect system or law by any stretch but the intentions are good and it is no where as evil as it looks at first sight.
What I find scary is that GW/Climate Change seems to have actually become a religion replacement for so many people. Look at how they treat anybody that doubts or looks at other interpretations of the data? They are looked down on, called names, and generally treated as heretics. The reason is simple. Their truth is so important that any doubt could cause endless harm. Sound familiar? Funny thing is I am religious. I go to church every Sunday. The thing is that I know that my faith is strictly faith. I can not prove it true by scientific means and I don't try. Science on the other hand can not have faith as a corner stone. You must be willing at any point to say, "Nope everything I though was wrong!" That is what Science is all about. People need to stop worshiping at the alter of Science. It is just silly. And the only place that Religion has a place in Science is the one narrow place the have common ground, ethics. And even ethics must be looked at in a broad scope.
Okay I live in an area that gets hit by hurricanes. Every year we get the prediction for the year. I would say they hit it about 50% of the time in a broad sense. If you count the times they get it exactly right with the number it is probably less then 10% but I will admit that we don't pay too much attention to that. They are really good at path prediction with the storms at about the two day range. Strength predictions are just really bad in general. So what I get from this is that accuracy of the models drop drastically over time. Since weather is none linear system I would say that is exactly what I expect. So I find the absolute faith in very long term weather models scary.
Funny but that isn't what people have been saying at all. I remember people saying that the extra active hurricane seasons where proof of and or caused by global warming. Now we have an extra cold winter and that is proof of and or caused by global warming. I didn't used to be a doubter in the idea of climate change I just didn't like the religion of climate change. I would have to say that at this point that we have a lot data that we need should shift through. Frankly a year long sample shift is not what I call a small swing that shows instability. I would like to see a few more years data at this point. It is still probably a good idea to cut carbon output but I would say that the level of uncertainty is gone up not down.
They wanted Lucy and Desi to push Vista but they never returned Steve Ballmer's call! This is only just the beginning. The next step is the new catchy theme song by Wynn Newton.
There isn't a person in the US that can escape the Free Tibet publicity assault.
Let the Dali Lama bring it to peoples attention. If you want to do something real than ask your friends and co workers if they know about what is going on in Tibet. Stunts are ego stroking fluff. How about this. Here is an idea that will never happen. Let's target Apple. We all know that Apple cares what people think about it as a company. So when the new iPod comes out let's all not buy it. Let's take the money we would spend on the new iPod and donate it to a charity. It can be any charity you want. But take the time to photocopy the check that you send to the charity. Send it along with a note to Apple saying. I would have really liked to buy that new iPod but I don't want my money going to China as long as they have such a terrible human rights record. If a million people did that then it would make a bigger difference than all the bumper stickers. Not only that but think of all the good a few hundred million dollars would do for say Habitat for Humanity, the United Way, and AIDS relief in Africa. In other words I will say it again. DO SOMETHING REAL.
Notice that I never said do nothing. I am just am all for not doing stupid ego stroking gestures that do NOTHING but make you feel good. If enough people stopped buying iPods and other expensive toys made in China then companies would move production from China. Money would stop flowing into China. But as I said it is SO much easier to buy the Dali Lama's book, put a bumper sticker on your car, and post on Slashdot than to give up a toy. Not only that but that bumper sticker show off how much you care. When I went and hunted down a lawnmower that wasn't made in China all I did was take say $100 from the Chinese company, help pay someone in a free country's wage and benefits, and put money in the pocket of a company that didn't do business in China. Well at least not all of it. I am sure at least some of the parts where made in China. So which do you think would have more impact. A million people putting FreeTibet bumper stickers or a million people avoiding products made in China? In other words stop pretending that you are doing something important and actually do something that counts. Even if nobody knows it but you.
I have read what he has to say. Seems like a very nice man and great at PR. But you keep saying let the Tibetan people decide. I am also all for that but are you sure that would happen if China pulled out tomorrow? Would I like to see a Free Tibet? Yes I would like to see all nations free. Do I think projecting something on a building or putting up some throwies will do it? Not on your life. I am willing to bet that if China just up and left Tibet tomorrow that there would be civil war and a blood bath in less than twenty four hours.
I never said he was evil. Silly, useless, and maybe a publicity hound but that doesn't reach the level of evil. As to a "free" Tibet. You do know that Tibet was never "free" right? Before China invaded it was a totalitarian theocracy. Now it is a totalitarian dictatorship. As I said I don't like China's government but this "Free Tibet" is a great feel good pr campaign. If China said "Ok we will pull out tomorrow." Do you have any idea what kind of mess you would see? Are you really hopping that the Dali Lama is returned to the throne of Tibet and an unquestionable God King? What to you think will happen to the ethnic Chinese that where born there? You want to make a stand? The stop buying luxury items that are made in China! don't buy that shiny new iPod. And when you have a choice don't buy things made in China. When I had to buy a new lawn mower I hunted a long time to find one I could afford and wasn't made in China. I found one that was made in Canada. But giving up shiny toys and spending a little time and money is a lot harder than tossing throwies, shining lights, and putting a bumper sticker on your car. Oh and it is a lot less cool.
So I guess I am getting there as well. What if. You bought a C64 before the 1541 was available? You bought an Amiga 1000 new? You remember when DOS could only handle 33 MB hard driver partitions? And you have a Grey Beard.
"But to the extent it is meant to make black people feel ill at ease being out in public, a political objective of the white power movement, it borders on terrorism." Wacked. First this was at best some idiot. Probably the only movement they where worried about is the next bowel movement. Second since when is being made to fell uncomfortable terrorism? Guess what sparky. I will bet you a dollar that idiots playing Gangster make people uncomfortable all the time. Heck people blasting profanity filled music so load that I can hear it in my care with the windows up and the AC on and my stereo playing makes me uncomfortable but it sure isn't terrorism. As I said letting idiots have way to much power over you.
You are so out of date. ATI has made great progress and is not working with the FOSS community to produce "Free" drivers that will make even the biggest FOSS fan happy. I used to stick with Nvidia because of their Linux support. My next box is probably going to have ATI all the way.
Gee so you don't think there is any chance the it was all just a publicity stunt? I guess that I may be jaded but it seems like a big chunk of self promotion and betting on his US passport to keep him out of trouble. I could be wrong but silly protests are often more for that egos of the protesters than anything else.
Or he is a publicity hound that knows his audience and is betting on his US citizenship to get him off with his skin intact. I really don't like the Chinese governments treatment of it's citizens but this is a case of useless showboating.
Sure they do. Nvidia has a company presence in the US so they can get sued here. Not only that but India and China want to do business with Intel and AMD so they will not be real happy with open disregard for IP. They may be perfectly happy to ignore IP but they know they must be subtle about and at least pretend to fight it.
"But a standalone fact is that racism is indeed terrorism. When you call a Black person "nigger", you are referring to a long history of abuse, often lethal (and worse) of Black people." No not at all. No more than someone saying whitey or honky is! What about Redneck or Cracker? It is ugly and ignorant but terrorism? You are granting idiots too much power over you.
Except. 1. No games I really must have. 2. For a game system I find it expensive. 3. I don't care about blue ray and I can get an UP converting DVD player that handles Divix for under $50. 4. Linux is crippled on it. You can not use all the hardware so it is at best a toy. 5. Sony. Rootkit DRM loving Sony. The only company that seems to out Evil Microsoft.
I still may end up getting one because my wife Loves Singstar. The hard drive swaping is nice but the lack of games that interest me keeps me from buying it. I still have Hundreds of games that I have yet to play on my PS2 and now they are cheap.
1. In some areas of gymnastics being young gives you and advantage. 2. The training can be very harmful to young women. 3. It is the rules. You know just like it is a rule that you can not take certain drugs, use certain tennis rackets, and so on.
So these Olympics has really been a show case for China. It shows that they will say one thing like agreeing to freedom of the press and then do something totally different. And that they will cheat at the Government level even for something so trivial as winning a game. Oh and that they think clean air is just not all that important. Good show.
No he didn't purge or ride the country of ethnic minorities. He just had a brutal forced integration program. "And when they resisted forced relocation, they were shot." I said. Stalin only killed people that failed, where too talented, caught his attention, opposed him, or could have possibly opposed him. But not really just because you where a minority.
Those people opposed him relocating them. So they where shot. Stalin wasn't racist well no more than was typical of the time. He was just a blood thirsty bastard.
Yes but standards are also good. When I hit a button with a play symbol on my DVD it should play and not rewind. My car should have a gas pedal on the right then the brake pedal and then a clutch if it is manual. I find most GUI tweaking to be next to useless. A good clean consistent interface has a lot of value.
Yea I have throw this in then. "Joseph Stalin's blog talks about how he's going to purge his blog of all links. I assume because he purged his country of ethnic minorities, political opponents and other undesirables, killing millions. Hilarious! " Stalin was a total murdering bastard but he really wasn't much of a racist. Not only that but Russia is still full of ethnic minorities. Stalin only killed people that failed, where too talented, caught his attention, opposed him, or could have possibly opposed him. But not really just because you where a minority. Yea let a person fail over and over again for your amusement. Nice guy.
Kernel development is actually doing just fine I think. Documented hardware gets added quickly to the Kernel and Kernel stability, performance, and security are all pretty good right now. I would still like to see to some drivers moved out the the kernel and into the user space and a stable binary driver interface but those are political and not technical issues.
I think too many people are worried about the Kernel and not enough about the other projects that make Linux useful. Sound still has a lot of issues. KDE and Gnome are getting better all the time but they both lack what I consider to be a really good media player. The Kernel is the least of my worries when it comes to Linux. BTW no there doesn't have to be a better way. Sometimes what you have is the best you can do.
You can join the military at 18 but if you are in the military you can also drink. When I was young they moved the drinking age from 18 to 19 and boy was I ticked since they did it right before I was 18. The idea was that it kept 18 year old's from buying alcohol for the other younger high school students. Also we don't have any difference between Beer, Wine, and hard liquor. Frankly any difference is really imaginary since most of the people I know that get drunk get drunk on beer anyway.
Good bad or other? Well since the drinking age was raised there are fewer drunk driving deaths. That is the good. I admit that I think adult should be adult so yea I have problems with it. Of course my solution to drunk driving is far more harsh. First offense: $5000 fine and you lose your license for one year. You may drive a 125cc scooter during that year so you can go to work and school. Second Offense: $10,000 fine and you lose the your driving privileges forever. Yes you can still drive the scooter. Third Offense: $20,000 fine and you loss the car! If your friend let you use his.. Too bad for him. Hey it is so easy to just not drink and drive that I have no mercy for anyone that does it a second time.
And the honest truth is that. Unless you are some kind of super prodigy or have years of experience writing systems code odds are your complete subsystem rewrite is total junk. It takes time to be good at anything.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually the idea behind the law is a pretty good one.
It is so that you have representatives of both parties at the polling places.
It is an attempt to prevent wrong doing. Imagine if you had only democrats or only Republicans working at any location? The requirement for saying that you fully support the party is so that people can not stack the deck with fake party members. Well you can still lie but the idea is to have have some balance.
And you don't have to be a member of any party to vote. Just to be a poll worker.
Not a perfect system or law by any stretch but the intentions are good and it is no where as evil as it looks at first sight.
I really don't think so plus it really did suck.
What I find scary is that GW/Climate Change seems to have actually become a religion replacement for so many people. Look at how they treat anybody that doubts or looks at other interpretations of the data? They are looked down on, called names, and generally treated as heretics.
The reason is simple. Their truth is so important that any doubt could cause endless harm. Sound familiar?
Funny thing is I am religious. I go to church every Sunday. The thing is that I know that my faith is strictly faith. I can not prove it true by scientific means and I don't try. Science on the other hand can not have faith as a corner stone. You must be willing at any point to say, "Nope everything I though was wrong!"
That is what Science is all about.
People need to stop worshiping at the alter of Science. It is just silly.
And the only place that Religion has a place in Science is the one narrow place the have common ground, ethics. And even ethics must be looked at in a broad scope.
Okay I live in an area that gets hit by hurricanes. Every year we get the prediction for the year. I would say they hit it about 50% of the time in a broad sense. If you count the times they get it exactly right with the number it is probably less then 10% but I will admit that we don't pay too much attention to that.
They are really good at path prediction with the storms at about the two day range. Strength predictions are just really bad in general.
So what I get from this is that accuracy of the models drop drastically over time. Since weather is none linear system I would say that is exactly what I expect.
So I find the absolute faith in very long term weather models scary.
Funny but that isn't what people have been saying at all. I remember people saying that the extra active hurricane seasons where proof of and or caused by global warming. Now we have an extra cold winter and that is proof of and or caused by global warming.
I didn't used to be a doubter in the idea of climate change I just didn't like the religion of climate change. I would have to say that at this point that we have a lot data that we need should shift through.
Frankly a year long sample shift is not what I call a small swing that shows instability. I would like to see a few more years data at this point.
It is still probably a good idea to cut carbon output but I would say that the level of uncertainty is gone up not down.
They wanted Lucy and Desi to push Vista but they never returned Steve Ballmer's call!
This is only just the beginning. The next step is the new catchy theme song by Wynn Newton.
There isn't a person in the US that can escape the Free Tibet publicity assault.
Let the Dali Lama bring it to peoples attention. If you want to do something real than ask your friends and co workers if they know about what is going on in Tibet.
Stunts are ego stroking fluff.
How about this. Here is an idea that will never happen. Let's target Apple. We all know that Apple cares what people think about it as a company. So when the new iPod comes out let's all not buy it. Let's take the money we would spend on the new iPod and donate it to a charity. It can be any charity you want. But take the time to photocopy the check that you send to the charity. Send it along with a note to Apple saying. I would have really liked to buy that new iPod but I don't want my money going to China as long as they have such a terrible human rights record.
If a million people did that then it would make a bigger difference than all the bumper stickers.
Not only that but think of all the good a few hundred million dollars would do for say Habitat for Humanity, the United Way, and AIDS relief in Africa.
In other words I will say it again. DO SOMETHING REAL.
Notice that I never said do nothing. I am just am all for not doing stupid ego stroking gestures that do NOTHING but make you feel good.
If enough people stopped buying iPods and other expensive toys made in China then companies would move production from China. Money would stop flowing into China.
But as I said it is SO much easier to buy the Dali Lama's book, put a bumper sticker on your car, and post on Slashdot than to give up a toy.
Not only that but that bumper sticker show off how much you care. When I went and hunted down a lawnmower that wasn't made in China all I did was take say $100 from the Chinese company, help pay someone in a free country's wage and benefits, and put money in the pocket of a company that didn't do business in China. Well at least not all of it. I am sure at least some of the parts where made in China.
So which do you think would have more impact. A million people putting FreeTibet bumper stickers or a million people avoiding products made in China?
In other words stop pretending that you are doing something important and actually do something that counts. Even if nobody knows it but you.
I have read what he has to say. Seems like a very nice man and great at PR. But you keep saying let the Tibetan people decide. I am also all for that but are you sure that would happen if China pulled out tomorrow? Would I like to see a Free Tibet? Yes I would like to see all nations free.
Do I think projecting something on a building or putting up some throwies will do it? Not on your life.
I am willing to bet that if China just up and left Tibet tomorrow that there would be civil war and a blood bath in less than twenty four hours.
I never said he was evil.
Silly, useless, and maybe a publicity hound but that doesn't reach the level of evil.
As to a "free" Tibet. You do know that Tibet was never "free" right? Before China invaded it was a totalitarian theocracy. Now it is a totalitarian dictatorship. As I said I don't like China's government but this "Free Tibet" is a great feel good pr campaign. If China said "Ok we will pull out tomorrow." Do you have any idea what kind of mess you would see? Are you really hopping that the Dali Lama is returned to the throne of Tibet and an unquestionable God King? What to you think will happen to the ethnic Chinese that where born there?
You want to make a stand? The stop buying luxury items that are made in China! don't buy that shiny new iPod. And when you have a choice don't buy things made in China. When I had to buy a new lawn mower I hunted a long time to find one I could afford and wasn't made in China. I found one that was made in Canada.
But giving up shiny toys and spending a little time and money is a lot harder than tossing throwies, shining lights, and putting a bumper sticker on your car. Oh and it is a lot less cool.
So I guess I am getting there as well.
What if.
You bought a C64 before the 1541 was available?
You bought an Amiga 1000 new?
You remember when DOS could only handle 33 MB hard driver partitions?
And you have a Grey Beard.
"But to the extent it is meant to make black people feel ill at ease being out in public, a political objective of the white power movement, it borders on terrorism."
Wacked.
First this was at best some idiot. Probably the only movement they where worried about is the next bowel movement.
Second since when is being made to fell uncomfortable terrorism? Guess what sparky. I will bet you a dollar that idiots playing Gangster make people uncomfortable all the time.
Heck people blasting profanity filled music so load that I can hear it in my care with the windows up and the AC on and my stereo playing makes me uncomfortable but it sure isn't terrorism.
As I said letting idiots have way to much power over you.
You are so out of date.
ATI has made great progress and is not working with the FOSS community to produce "Free" drivers that will make even the biggest FOSS fan happy.
I used to stick with Nvidia because of their Linux support. My next box is probably going to have ATI all the way.
Gee so you don't think there is any chance the it was all just a publicity stunt?
I guess that I may be jaded but it seems like a big chunk of self promotion and betting on his US passport to keep him out of trouble.
I could be wrong but silly protests are often more for that egos of the protesters than anything else.
Or he is a publicity hound that knows his audience and is betting on his US citizenship to get him off with his skin intact.
I really don't like the Chinese governments treatment of it's citizens but this is a case of useless showboating.
Sure they do.
Nvidia has a company presence in the US so they can get sued here.
Not only that but India and China want to do business with Intel and AMD so they will not be real happy with open disregard for IP.
They may be perfectly happy to ignore IP but they know they must be subtle about and at least pretend to fight it.
"But a standalone fact is that racism is indeed terrorism. When you call a Black person "nigger", you are referring to a long history of abuse, often lethal (and worse) of Black people."
No not at all. No more than someone saying whitey or honky is!
What about Redneck or Cracker?
It is ugly and ignorant but terrorism? You are granting idiots too much power over you.
Get over it people.
Except.
1. No games I really must have.
2. For a game system I find it expensive.
3. I don't care about blue ray and I can get an UP converting DVD player that handles Divix for under $50.
4. Linux is crippled on it. You can not use all the hardware so it is at best a toy.
5. Sony. Rootkit DRM loving Sony. The only company that seems to out Evil Microsoft.
I still may end up getting one because my wife Loves Singstar. The hard drive swaping is nice but the lack of games that interest me keeps me from buying it. I still have Hundreds of games that I have yet to play on my PS2 and now they are cheap.
1. In some areas of gymnastics being young gives you and advantage.
2. The training can be very harmful to young women.
3. It is the rules. You know just like it is a rule that you can not take certain drugs, use certain tennis rackets, and so on.
So these Olympics has really been a show case for China.
It shows that they will say one thing like agreeing to freedom of the press and then do something totally different.
And that they will cheat at the Government level even for something so trivial as winning a game.
Oh and that they think clean air is just not all that important.
Good show.
No he didn't purge or ride the country of ethnic minorities.
He just had a brutal forced integration program.
"And when they resisted forced relocation, they were shot."
I said.
Stalin only killed people that failed, where too talented, caught his attention, opposed him, or could have possibly opposed him.
But not really just because you where a minority.
Those people opposed him relocating them. So they where shot.
Stalin wasn't racist well no more than was typical of the time. He was just a blood thirsty bastard.
Yes but standards are also good.
When I hit a button with a play symbol on my DVD it should play and not rewind.
My car should have a gas pedal on the right then the brake pedal and then a clutch if it is manual.
I find most GUI tweaking to be next to useless. A good clean consistent interface has a lot of value.
Yea I have throw this in then.
"Joseph Stalin's blog talks about how he's going to purge his blog of all links. I assume because he purged his country of ethnic minorities, political opponents and other undesirables, killing millions. Hilarious! "
Stalin was a total murdering bastard but he really wasn't much of a racist. Not only that but Russia is still full of ethnic minorities.
Stalin only killed people that failed, where too talented, caught his attention, opposed him, or could have possibly opposed him.
But not really just because you where a minority.
Yea let a person fail over and over again for your amusement. Nice guy.
Kernel development is actually doing just fine I think. Documented hardware gets added quickly to the Kernel and Kernel stability, performance, and security are all pretty good right now.
I would still like to see to some drivers moved out the the kernel and into the user space and a stable binary driver interface but those are political and not technical issues.
I think too many people are worried about the Kernel and not enough about the other projects that make Linux useful.
Sound still has a lot of issues. KDE and Gnome are getting better all the time but they both lack what I consider to be a really good media player.
The Kernel is the least of my worries when it comes to Linux.
BTW no there doesn't have to be a better way. Sometimes what you have is the best you can do.
You can join the military at 18 but if you are in the military you can also drink.
When I was young they moved the drinking age from 18 to 19 and boy was I ticked since they did it right before I was 18. The idea was that it kept 18 year old's from buying alcohol for the other younger high school students. Also we don't have any difference between Beer, Wine, and hard liquor. Frankly any difference is really imaginary since most of the people I know that get drunk get drunk on beer anyway.
Good bad or other? Well since the drinking age was raised there are fewer drunk driving deaths. That is the good. I admit that I think adult should be adult so yea I have problems with it.
Of course my solution to drunk driving is far more harsh.
First offense: $5000 fine and you lose your license for one year. You may drive a 125cc scooter during that year so you can go to work and school.
Second Offense: $10,000 fine and you lose the your driving privileges forever. Yes you can still drive the scooter.
Third Offense: $20,000 fine and you loss the car! If your friend let you use his.. Too bad for him.
Hey it is so easy to just not drink and drive that I have no mercy for anyone that does it a second time.
And the honest truth is that.
Unless you are some kind of super prodigy or have years of experience writing systems code odds are your complete subsystem rewrite is total junk.
It takes time to be good at anything.