I'd like to think an "enlightened" authority wouldn't be "forcing" anything.
Goverments won't make environmentally considerate policies until their citizens demand it. They're a lot like companies in that respect (more so every day, it seems!)
If you care about what happens to this planet, don't sit around waiting for some 'enlightened authority' to save you - start arguing with people in a position to do something about the issues you care about. Join political pressure groups, write to your local govt representative(s), local papers, etc etc etc...
Okay, so maybe you can't save the planet. And maybe I can't. And maybe that guy over there can't. But how about you, me, him, and these other several thousand people? How about if we add all their friends into that question too??
The number of people noticing that things aren't quite right grows every day - provide them with an example of what to do once they've noticed! (Hint: sitting still and keeping quiet is not the right example)
Wasn't there some guy with an equation about this one?;-)
No, seriously, I suppose if we develop far enough scientifically you can take the view that energy is all that matters, because we can use the energy to make the materials we want... but the chances are we'll run out of something we need before we reach that stage, so I think you're right really.
Right, it's inconvenient and they see no return for that inconvenience, so they take no action. However, recently there have been cases where the level of consumer interest in specific environmental/ecological/etc issues has risen to a sufficiently high level that it started to affect consumer purchasing decisions.
That is when industry starts to pay attention to environmental issues. As a specific example, it is now not much more expensive and certainly no more difficult to buy organic milk/eggs/etc (in the UK anyway) than it would be to buy the less healthy/moral/whatever alternatives...
If you want to persuade industry to behave in a better way, you can only get their attention through their balance sheets. In most high income countries (if you're reading this site, that's probably you) people are often happy to pay more for environmentally less damaging products once they have been made aware of the issue(s) involved.
People will even pay an extra amount which is more than the difference in production costs - so the manufacturers can make more profit by selling the 'better' type of product! Now that's the kind of good reason for developing a social conscience that companies can see the sense in:)
World Summit for Sustainable Development
on
Cradle to Cradle
·
· Score: 4, Informative
There is a world summit coming up (a 10 years later follow-up to the Rio Summit) in which many issues related to this topic will be discussed.
I've been working as a contractor on a website project recently for a UK university. The site uses the Slash code, and is aiming to focus discussions between special interest groups in the time before the summit (groups like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, etc).
The site is called Earth Summit for All, and there is quite a lot of background information there relating to sustainable development in general and the summit in particular, as well as the discussions powered by the Slash software which are only just starting to take shape...
I have an ergonomic keyboard and it has definitely reduced the feeling of 'tension' in my hands after a long bout of typing. I find it more helpful when typing 'essay' type material rather than coding, but it's not a hindrance at all for coding - just not as beneficial, probably because you don't pound the keyboard so non-stop when coding.
One thing someone else said, and I'd agree with, is that 'soft touch' keyboards are a Bad Thing (tm). I hate them. My ergonomic is the only one I've ever found that isn't soft touch, and that's why I bought two of them on the spot and put the spare in a cupboard...
Incidentally, I also have one of those weird 'kneeling position' chairs, a friend got me it for Xmas three years ago. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it has helped my back immeasurably - I don't get backaches when using my computer any more, even on all night hacking runs, and I definitely used to.
As others have mentioned above, one problem with the idea of China establishing a moon-base is that they could use the positional advantage that gives them to cheaply and easily blow up (or threaten to do so) pretty much any nation on earth from a launch base which would be hard to take out with a counter-attack. This could help them continue their recent policies of oppression, rather than distracting them from it.
I still hope they get there... if the rest of us are too stupid to realise that we need to keep moving outwards, then we deserve to die at the hands of those who do realise it. Evolution strikes again...
On the other hand, if you're running a paedophile ring or something equally nasty, that should get you a long sentence, say 20 years or whatever, then refusing to hand over your encryption keys will get you 4 years instead of handing them over for the full 20.
So this law has given people a fairly easily exploitable Get Out of Jail Quicker card...
This new crop of well considered posts makes me think Slash should add a "So incredibly stupid that it's really funny to read" moderation flag... I'm not sure whether it should be +1 or -1 though:)
Because it needs to be tested first, as someone already mentioned quite clearly further up in this thread.
If you want to run untested code, install the patch (or Windows XP *wink*). If you don't want to, then a base install of Linux should be nice and stable, because stuff doesn't (usually) get in the kernel until it actually works!
Bright monitors cause eye strain... I'm fed up with finding my monitor or television back at 50% or higher brightness settings when I leave them unplugged for a while - it washes out the blacks, and in my case tends to cause headaches after a while.
Screens should have sufficiently good contrast that you can run them at about one-third brightness, with the contrast turned right up instead. Much better for your eyes over long periods of time.
My Iiyama VM502 is pretty nice, although the picture isn't quite as sharp as my old Iiyama 17" was (although it's close). On the other hand, I can fit more stuff on it when I'm developing code, and that trade off is worth it for me...
You can now buy a wireless keyboard with optical mouse combo (and on the bright side it's black!) but for some unknown reason it's not the ergonomic keyboard, it's similar to the 'Internet' keyboard:(
Cordless Desktop Optical (you might need to tell the site which country you're in first, then hit that URL again)
Well, I installed Lotus Notes 5.6 under WINE here at work and use it every weekday - works fine, or at least, works as well as it ever did under Windows, which isn't quite the same thing.
Considering how obscure the inner workings of Notes are, I think that's a pretty good indication of the maturity of WINE these days.
As far as I'm aware, it mainly has trouble with games and Microsoft software these days - games I presume because they use lower level functions than most software (in which case virus emulation achieves a new level of importance!) and Microsoft software because it seems to use some interesting Windows API calls that don't appear in the documentation anywhere...
Slashdot Mirror
Green products might well be cheapest - if you use a more encompassing definition of 'cost'.
Regards,
Denny
I'd like to think an "enlightened" authority wouldn't be "forcing" anything.
Goverments won't make environmentally considerate policies until their citizens demand it. They're a lot like companies in that respect (more so every day, it seems!)
If you care about what happens to this planet, don't sit around waiting for some 'enlightened authority' to save you - start arguing with people in a position to do something about the issues you care about. Join political pressure groups, write to your local govt representative(s), local papers, etc etc etc...
Okay, so maybe you can't save the planet. And maybe I can't. And maybe that guy over there can't. But how about you, me, him, and these other several thousand people? How about if we add all their friends into that question too??
The number of people noticing that things aren't quite right grows every day - provide them with an example of what to do once they've noticed! (Hint: sitting still and keeping quiet is not the right example)
Regards,
Denny
Wasn't there some guy with an equation about this one? ;-)
No, seriously, I suppose if we develop far enough scientifically you can take the view that energy is all that matters, because we can use the energy to make the materials we want... but the chances are we'll run out of something we need before we reach that stage, so I think you're right really.
Regards,
Denny
Right, it's inconvenient and they see no return for that inconvenience, so they take no action. However, recently there have been cases where the level of consumer interest in specific environmental/ecological/etc issues has risen to a sufficiently high level that it started to affect consumer purchasing decisions.
That is when industry starts to pay attention to environmental issues. As a specific example, it is now not much more expensive and certainly no more difficult to buy organic milk/eggs/etc (in the UK anyway) than it would be to buy the less healthy/moral/whatever alternatives...
If you want to persuade industry to behave in a better way, you can only get their attention through their balance sheets. In most high income countries (if you're reading this site, that's probably you) people are often happy to pay more for environmentally less damaging products once they have been made aware of the issue(s) involved.
People will even pay an extra amount which is more than the difference in production costs - so the manufacturers can make more profit by selling the 'better' type of product! Now that's the kind of good reason for developing a social conscience that companies can see the sense in :)
Regards,
Denny
...pick two.
(not mine, but I can't remember where I read it)
Regards,
Denny
There is a world summit coming up (a 10 years later follow-up to the Rio Summit) in which many issues related to this topic will be discussed.
I've been working as a contractor on a website project recently for a UK university. The site uses the Slash code, and is aiming to focus discussions between special interest groups in the time before the summit (groups like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, etc).
The site is called Earth Summit for All, and there is quite a lot of background information there relating to sustainable development in general and the summit in particular, as well as the discussions powered by the Slash software which are only just starting to take shape...
Regards,
Denny
D'oh! I knew I should have double-checked that vague memory... thanks for the correction. ~D
> What about guitarists?
;)
The guitarist from Dire Straits was recently diagnosed with RSI.
I found that quite amusing, cruel I know, but they were a bit repetitive - maybe if they'd used more than one riff per track he'd still be okay!
Regards,
Denny
I have an ergonomic keyboard and it has definitely reduced the feeling of 'tension' in my hands after a long bout of typing. I find it more helpful when typing 'essay' type material rather than coding, but it's not a hindrance at all for coding - just not as beneficial, probably because you don't pound the keyboard so non-stop when coding.
One thing someone else said, and I'd agree with, is that 'soft touch' keyboards are a Bad Thing (tm). I hate them. My ergonomic is the only one I've ever found that isn't soft touch, and that's why I bought two of them on the spot and put the spare in a cupboard...
Incidentally, I also have one of those weird 'kneeling position' chairs, a friend got me it for Xmas three years ago. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it has helped my back immeasurably - I don't get backaches when using my computer any more, even on all night hacking runs, and I definitely used to.
Regards,
Denny
As others have mentioned above, one problem with the idea of China establishing a moon-base is that they could use the positional advantage that gives them to cheaply and easily blow up (or threaten to do so) pretty much any nation on earth from a launch base which would be hard to take out with a counter-attack. This could help them continue their recent policies of oppression, rather than distracting them from it.
I still hope they get there... if the rest of us are too stupid to realise that we need to keep moving outwards, then we deserve to die at the hands of those who do realise it. Evolution strikes again...
Regards,
Denny
On the other hand, if you're running a paedophile ring or something equally nasty, that should get you a long sentence, say 20 years or whatever, then refusing to hand over your encryption keys will get you 4 years instead of handing them over for the full 20.
So this law has given people a fairly easily exploitable Get Out of Jail Quicker card...
Regards,
Denny
I have to admit, I'm intrigued... what is that thing she's got around her neck? :)
Denny
> I'm not racist, just disenfranchised
Disenfranchised means you're not allowed to vote, if I recall correctly...
Disaffected, maybe?
Regards,
Denny
> Animals can't file lawsuits against us under some obscure law.
In America, I wouldn't bet on that :)
Regards,
Denny
It says "the usual mirrors" with a link on mirrors...
Did they post-edit the story, or did you post without reading it?
Regards, Denny
Shouldn't that be "Know, ewe burn inn hell" ? Why waste all the opportunities? ;)
Denny
(it's Monday, I'm bored)
*applause*
This new crop of well considered posts makes me think Slash should add a "So incredibly stupid that it's really funny to read" moderation flag... I'm not sure whether it should be +1 or -1 though :)
Regards,
Denny
*applause*
Virtual Memory
Regards,
Denny
Because it needs to be tested first, as someone already mentioned quite clearly further up in this thread.
If you want to run untested code, install the patch (or Windows XP *wink*). If you don't want to, then a base install of Linux should be nice and stable, because stuff doesn't (usually) get in the kernel until it actually works!
Regards,
Denny
Bright monitors cause eye strain... I'm fed up with finding my monitor or television back at 50% or higher brightness settings when I leave them unplugged for a while - it washes out the blacks, and in my case tends to cause headaches after a while.
Screens should have sufficiently good contrast that you can run them at about one-third brightness, with the contrast turned right up instead. Much better for your eyes over long periods of time.
My Iiyama VM502 is pretty nice, although the picture isn't quite as sharp as my old Iiyama 17" was (although it's close). On the other hand, I can fit more stuff on it when I'm developing code, and that trade off is worth it for me...
Regards,
Denny
You can now buy a wireless keyboard with optical mouse combo (and on the bright side it's black!) but for some unknown reason it's not the ergonomic keyboard, it's similar to the 'Internet' keyboard :(
Cordless Desktop Optical (you might need to tell the site which country you're in first, then hit that URL again)
Regards,
Denny
On the bright side, it put an extra 'l' in there to compensate...
Denny
Well, I installed Lotus Notes 5.6 under WINE here at work and use it every weekday - works fine, or at least, works as well as it ever did under Windows, which isn't quite the same thing.
Considering how obscure the inner workings of Notes are, I think that's a pretty good indication of the maturity of WINE these days.
As far as I'm aware, it mainly has trouble with games and Microsoft software these days - games I presume because they use lower level functions than most software (in which case virus emulation achieves a new level of importance!) and Microsoft software because it seems to use some interesting Windows API calls that don't appear in the documentation anywhere...
Regards,
Denny