Sigh. Meme. Go look that up in Wikipedia now (because that of course makes it a canonical truth). Memes evolve and change, that's the point.
Anyway. My motive wasn't to end the thread, it was to make a dumb joke. Honestly don't care if you liked it or not, but you sure overreacted to it, just like Hitler would have.
I take it then you've never actually been a contractor? Here in the real world, they get asked to do stuff that's not in the contract. That's why you *have* a contract - to limit the scope of work.
Ad hominem followed by actually supporting my point? Impressive for one paragraph. Yes, he's a contractor and has a contract, that was the point. And yes, I have done contract work, and when asked to do *significant* additional work I billed for it. If this were an extra hour of his time, big deal, he wouldn't be posting the question on slashdot.
Learn the difference between assumptions and facts.
And learn that assumptions are the only reason the human brain functions in any meaningful capacity at all. You may not realize it, but you make thousands of assumptions a day. And why does that work so well? Because they are almost all correct.
What? Ok, now you have just proven yourself a troll. I didn't even say anything about you in my previous post (but I did in this one). *You* are in fact the one calling people crazy and deluded in the middle of an otherwise civil argument, while clearly having no idea "how this works". Registering in some database does not give a journalist and more legal right to defame someone, and not registering does not mean you no longer have the right to free expression (spoken or published).
Anyway, the other reply to your post said it well - it's a false dichotomy. Oh, and when it's defamation by written word - it's called libel.
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."
Of course it applies. It's an online discussion, and a comparison was made.
And your claim that a meme doesn't apply to something just because it wasn't in the exact same context as its first use means you clearly don't understand what a meme is in the first place...
Wha? Did *you* actually read TFA? (actually, summary, there wasn't even an attached article).
For the most part it has been a happy arrangement for both parties
He actually used the word "happy" in the summary! And said he's not worried about losing the client.
And as far as not stating he's being compensated... he's a contractor. He does work for a client and bills them for his work, and he clearly states he's still working for the client, but one day they might end the contract to save money - which means he's still getting paid. Having to state contractors get paid for their work is a bit like having to state you are living on the planet Earth.
I will go further. If you are a blogger, you are potentially a news organisation: you are publishing information for a very large public.
See, now that's how they want you to think about it. So now you can just keep going down that same path and everyone who uses Twitter is now a news organization (after all, some people have millions of followers, while many bloggers only have a few), and needs to "register with the government". Same with everyone who makes their Facebook account public (or, why even bother with that? If you have enough friends, what's the difference?) Hell, we are all posting our opinions on a blog here for everyone to read. Why shouldn't anyone who ever wants to post something on the Internet have to "register"? ACs should be illegal!
It's impossible to "register" with the government for a blog, Twitter account, or whatever and still *be* anonymous, so now there is no longer any ability to post anything contrary to the government without risking retribution.
My issue (and the OP) was more with people minimizing or pretending facts aren't facts just to support their opinion. And I equally disagree with people on my side of the argument doing this (as is the case here) just as much as those on the other side.
Saying "nuclear power results in fewer deaths long term than coal" is a very good point. Saying "thyroid cancer is treatable and not as bad as a loss of property" was despicable.
You OWN your home, even though its mortgaged. You are not leasing it. You are not renting it. It is yours to do with ANYTHING you please.
Actually, that's completely incorrect. If you have a mortgage, go read what you signed and initialized (about 25 times in various places). A contract is a contract. They can put what they want in it if it's legal, and if you sign it you have to follow it.
Here's one specific statute (Maine... it was first on Google search:) -
Provided nevertheless, except as otherwise specifically stated in the mortgage, that if the mortgagor, his heirs, executors or administrators pay to the mortgagee, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns the principal and interest secured by the mortgage, and shall perform any obligation secured at the time provided in the note, mortgage or other instrument or any extension thereof, and shall perform the condition of any prior mortgage, and until such payment and performance shall pay when due and payable all taxes, charges and assessments to whomsoever and whenever laid or assessed, whether on the mortgaged premises or on any interest therein or on the debt or obligation secured thereby; and shall keep the buildings on said premises insured against fire in a sum not less than the amount secured by the mortgage or as otherwise provided therein for insurance for the benefit of the mortgagee and his executors, administrators and assigns, in such form and at such insurance offices as they shall approve, and, at least 2 days before the expiration of any policy on said premises, shall deliver to him or them a new and sufficient policy to take the place of the one so expiring, and shall not commit nor suffer any strip or waste of the granted premises, nor commit any breach of any covenant contained in the mortgage or in any prior mortgage, then the mortgage deed, as also the mortgage note or notes shall be void, otherwise shall remain in full force.
Agreed that modern plants will have more safety measures. But in the end he's right, if you are talking *worst case* it's not a lame hypothetical, it was an incident that HAPPENED. You can argue the butterfly effect again once we're all dead.
Yes, highly treatable... with major surgery followed by radiation and/or chemotherapy, life long hormone replacement drugs, and a > 50% chance of hypothyroidism. Sounds like a picnic!
You can argue that the chances of any incident are extremely low, and have really only been 1-2 nuclear disasters in history (Chernobyl and Fukushima - 3 Mile Island was a joke). I am pro-nuclear, and think statistically it's probably the safest and best medium/long term replacement for fossil fuels.
But don't try to argue that Chernobyl wasn't a huge disaster with 30+ dead from acute radiation poisoning and an estimated 4000 people dead or likely to die prematurely from cancer. I'm sure they would debate your claim that the loss of property is much worse...
That said, I've never even been to China and don't really have a good handle on the politics. Maybe Chinese citizens find NK attacking South Korea to be entertaining?
Maybe the Communist party leaders find it entertaining, but from my experience most of the rural citizens just want to be left alone to get by without government interference, and most of the urban citizens just want to be left alone to make money and buy Western toys. In that sense, it's really not that much different from the US:)
Once they have them they warn SK, Japan and any countries housing USA military that the missiles will be used against them if they support the USA.
No, that doesn't make sense. The only reason NK hates the US is because they are SK's biggest supporter. Remember, their main goal in all of this is to take over the rest of the Korean peninsula.
Besides, the bulk of the US nuclear arsenal is submarine-based, and the bulk of the cruise missile arsenal is sea (subs and frigates) based. Not to mention the 10 aircraft carriers in service.
These missile interceptors aren't for North Korea. That is the excuse. They are actually a bargaining chip for China. If China reels in North Korea, then these missile interceptors near their borders will be removed. Until then, Obama can simply claim that he is trying to defend against an aggressive North Korean threat to nuke the US (even if North Korea doesn't actually have the capability to do so).
That's what I was thinking - China has a huge amount of bargaining power with North Korea (ie. even if NK stops listening to them, the vast majority of their "slush fund" accounts are in Chinese banks and currently China is ignoring the UN resolution it *supported* to freeze them. Until then, the US can pretty much attribute anything it does in the Western Pacific to countering North Korean threats...
If that analysis is wrong and it really is just to about North Korea, they clearly have won this pissing match, as the US would be spending the equivalent of ~10-20% of NK's entire yearly military budget just to counter a ridiculous idle threat.
And Un is definitely not the brightest bulb - not only has he given the US an excuse, but he has the majority of South Korea's population in favor of developing their own nuclear weapons. Given SK's GDP is $1.1T and NK's is approx. $20B, a high tech arms race is absurd.
Luckily for Google that contest only applies to Chromebooks, not Android tablets. Otherwise they'd have given out all of their hacking prize money in the first 10 minutes.
4 hours to create and install your own custom firmware that supports all of those add on devices on a Nexus 7? If that were true you'd probably have more of a life than a trolling AC on slashdot.
I have no experience from the IT/support side of things, but as far as users being "superior" - I don't think choice of computer makes anyone superior, but looking at the choice of computer of highly technically proficient users is interesting at least.
It's almost eerie how many people in the tech industry in SV, at least (developers, marketing, execs, etc) have started using MacBooks in the last few years. It seems 4 out of 5 people in meetings are using them. In fact, the exception to the rule was almost comical at a meeting with Microsoft - half the table was MacBooks, half was Ultrabooks (and half iPhone/Android, half Windows Phone;) ) Apple haters can claim *all* of those people are just fanboys getting overpriced electronics for the image (I'm sure some do, but that's the exception rather than the rule of those I know). But it just comes across as a fairly petty and ignorant attitude - probably more so than the attitude they are railing against.
As I said, I have a Mac (Macbook Pro retina, my first Apple in 25 years) and I *really* like the hardware (the software I'm getting used to, but with VMs it's somewhat irrelevant). To go to the logical extreme of "the right tool for the job" - a few weeks ago I needed to install a Windows-based compiler toolchain on my Linux workstation at work so I could integrate it into our makefile-based automated build, but I was working from home. So I ran the Windows installer in Wine on my Linux workstation over VPN and an ssh tunnel from my laptop popping up the intstall window on the X11 server running on MacOS. Worked perfectly, and my head almost esplode. And this was all just to cross compile an app for the Nintendo Wii U:-D
And today I am home sick, so I'm about to fire up Windows running in a Parallels VM to play Planescape Torment on that Mac. And the only thing I see wrong with that picture is that I haven't finished Torment long ago!
Software is just a tool, not a religion... and there is no single "right tool" for all jobs...;)
Sorry, but I can't help but comment on "GNU/Linux" - I doubt all of your "tools" are GNU/Linux. "OSS"/Linux, maybe, but I thought only Stallman tries to pretend all of a Linux distro userspace is GNU:)
Every game using this stupid "always online", "data on the server" scheme, including MMOs, has had a clusterfucked launch.
Every. Single. One.
If you are convinced that every online EA game is a clusterfuck from day one, then honestly you are the fool if you bought the game anyway. Their software doesn't come with a warranty and you can read their terms before buying. So, no, the "only" solution is not to buy something you already know is bad and then complain when it works exactly as you expected (in fact, with no contractual guarantee of service, admit that and you've probably lost the lawsuit anyway). The reasonaly solution when you know a product sucks is not spend your money on it.
And, really, it's not a boycott. A boycott is when you stop spending your money where you'd normally spend it to make a point. Not spending your money because you just don't like the product is just basic consumer common sense.
One again, class action lawsuits aren't about winning tons of money. They are about punishing the bad behavior of the offending party to get them to change their ways.
That's what the class action lawyers tell you before they get tons of money out of it and leave the customers with their "good feelings".
The only ones who really wins in a class action lawsuit are the lawyers. The customers would end up with some lame EA credit or a few bucks back at best.
Much better at least to *try* to work with EA/Maxis on resolving the issues first - so far they are offering a free game to everyone registering by 3/18 (which is at least as much as a class action would get, without lining the pockets of the only people I can think of who are sleazier than EA execs - class action attorneys). And hey, they may still actually fix the issues, add new features, and eventually make it a decent game...
but I agree with you on the silly release day impulse/frenzy - I never bought the new Simcity because I waited a couple days, read the reviews (which often trashed the game even when it worked as intended), saw the issues, and stayed clear. How hard was that?
Slashdot Mirror
Sigh. Meme. Go look that up in Wikipedia now (because that of course makes it a canonical truth). Memes evolve and change, that's the point.
Anyway. My motive wasn't to end the thread, it was to make a dumb joke. Honestly don't care if you liked it or not, but you sure overreacted to it, just like Hitler would have.
I take it then you've never actually been a contractor? Here in the real world, they get asked to do stuff that's not in the contract. That's why you *have* a contract - to limit the scope of work.
Ad hominem followed by actually supporting my point? Impressive for one paragraph. Yes, he's a contractor and has a contract, that was the point. And yes, I have done contract work, and when asked to do *significant* additional work I billed for it. If this were an extra hour of his time, big deal, he wouldn't be posting the question on slashdot.
Learn the difference between assumptions and facts.
And learn that assumptions are the only reason the human brain functions in any meaningful capacity at all. You may not realize it, but you make thousands of assumptions a day. And why does that work so well? Because they are almost all correct.
You restrain yourself from slander (like now!)
What? Ok, now you have just proven yourself a troll. I didn't even say anything about you in my previous post (but I did in this one). *You* are in fact the one calling people crazy and deluded in the middle of an otherwise civil argument, while clearly having no idea "how this works". Registering in some database does not give a journalist and more legal right to defame someone, and not registering does not mean you no longer have the right to free expression (spoken or published).
Anyway, the other reply to your post said it well - it's a false dichotomy. Oh, and when it's defamation by written word - it's called libel.
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."
Of course it applies. It's an online discussion, and a comparison was made.
And your claim that a meme doesn't apply to something just because it wasn't in the exact same context as its first use means you clearly don't understand what a meme is in the first place...
Schadenfreude is more of a passive thing. I think that's more along the lines of good old sadism.
Wha? Did *you* actually read TFA? (actually, summary, there wasn't even an attached article).
For the most part it has been a happy arrangement for both parties
He actually used the word "happy" in the summary! And said he's not worried about losing the client.
And as far as not stating he's being compensated... he's a contractor. He does work for a client and bills them for his work, and he clearly states he's still working for the client, but one day they might end the contract to save money - which means he's still getting paid. Having to state contractors get paid for their work is a bit like having to state you are living on the planet Earth.
This is slashdot. They should at least have to pass the Voight-Kampff Test.
I will go further. If you are a blogger, you are potentially a news organisation: you are publishing information for a very large public.
See, now that's how they want you to think about it. So now you can just keep going down that same path and everyone who uses Twitter is now a news organization (after all, some people have millions of followers, while many bloggers only have a few), and needs to "register with the government". Same with everyone who makes their Facebook account public (or, why even bother with that? If you have enough friends, what's the difference?) Hell, we are all posting our opinions on a blog here for everyone to read. Why shouldn't anyone who ever wants to post something on the Internet have to "register"? ACs should be illegal!
It's impossible to "register" with the government for a blog, Twitter account, or whatever and still *be* anonymous, so now there is no longer any ability to post anything contrary to the government without risking retribution.
....aaaaaand Godwin.
So, the two sides camp. Got it.
Yep, I agree with everything you said.
My issue (and the OP) was more with people minimizing or pretending facts aren't facts just to support their opinion. And I equally disagree with people on my side of the argument doing this (as is the case here) just as much as those on the other side.
Saying "nuclear power results in fewer deaths long term than coal" is a very good point. Saying "thyroid cancer is treatable and not as bad as a loss of property" was despicable.
You OWN your home, even though its mortgaged. You are not leasing it. You are not renting it. It is yours to do with ANYTHING you please.
Actually, that's completely incorrect. If you have a mortgage, go read what you signed and initialized (about 25 times in various places). A contract is a contract. They can put what they want in it if it's legal, and if you sign it you have to follow it.
Here's one specific statute (Maine... it was first on Google search :) -
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/33/title33sec769.html
Provided nevertheless, except as otherwise specifically stated in the mortgage, that if the mortgagor, his heirs, executors or administrators pay to the mortgagee, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns the principal and interest secured by the mortgage, and shall perform any obligation secured at the time provided in the note, mortgage or other instrument or any extension thereof, and shall perform the condition of any prior mortgage, and until such payment and performance shall pay when due and payable all taxes, charges and assessments to whomsoever and whenever laid or assessed, whether on the mortgaged premises or on any interest therein or on the debt or obligation secured thereby; and shall keep the buildings on said premises insured against fire in a sum not less than the amount secured by the mortgage or as otherwise provided therein for insurance for the benefit of the mortgagee and his executors, administrators and assigns, in such form and at such insurance offices as they shall approve, and, at least 2 days before the expiration of any policy on said premises, shall deliver to him or them a new and sufficient policy to take the place of the one so expiring, and shall not commit nor suffer any strip or waste of the granted premises, nor commit any breach of any covenant contained in the mortgage or in any prior mortgage, then the mortgage deed, as also the mortgage note or notes shall be void, otherwise shall remain in full force.
Agreed that modern plants will have more safety measures. But in the end he's right, if you are talking *worst case* it's not a lame hypothetical, it was an incident that HAPPENED. You can argue the butterfly effect again once we're all dead.
Yes, highly treatable... with major surgery followed by radiation and/or chemotherapy, life long hormone replacement drugs, and a > 50% chance of hypothyroidism. Sounds like a picnic!
You can argue that the chances of any incident are extremely low, and have really only been 1-2 nuclear disasters in history (Chernobyl and Fukushima - 3 Mile Island was a joke). I am pro-nuclear, and think statistically it's probably the safest and best medium/long term replacement for fossil fuels.
But don't try to argue that Chernobyl wasn't a huge disaster with 30+ dead from acute radiation poisoning and an estimated 4000 people dead or likely to die prematurely from cancer. I'm sure they would debate your claim that the loss of property is much worse...
That said, I've never even been to China and don't really have a good handle on the politics. Maybe Chinese citizens find NK attacking South Korea to be entertaining?
Maybe the Communist party leaders find it entertaining, but from my experience most of the rural citizens just want to be left alone to get by without government interference, and most of the urban citizens just want to be left alone to make money and buy Western toys. In that sense, it's really not that much different from the US :)
Once they have them they warn SK, Japan and any countries housing USA military that the missiles will be used against them if they support the USA.
No, that doesn't make sense. The only reason NK hates the US is because they are SK's biggest supporter. Remember, their main goal in all of this is to take over the rest of the Korean peninsula.
Besides, the bulk of the US nuclear arsenal is submarine-based, and the bulk of the cruise missile arsenal is sea (subs and frigates) based. Not to mention the 10 aircraft carriers in service.
These missile interceptors aren't for North Korea. That is the excuse. They are actually a bargaining chip for China. If China reels in North Korea, then these missile interceptors near their borders will be removed. Until then, Obama can simply claim that he is trying to defend against an aggressive North Korean threat to nuke the US (even if North Korea doesn't actually have the capability to do so).
That's what I was thinking - China has a huge amount of bargaining power with North Korea (ie. even if NK stops listening to them, the vast majority of their "slush fund" accounts are in Chinese banks and currently China is ignoring the UN resolution it *supported* to freeze them. Until then, the US can pretty much attribute anything it does in the Western Pacific to countering North Korean threats...
If that analysis is wrong and it really is just to about North Korea, they clearly have won this pissing match, as the US would be spending the equivalent of ~10-20% of NK's entire yearly military budget just to counter a ridiculous idle threat.
And Un is definitely not the brightest bulb - not only has he given the US an excuse, but he has the majority of South Korea's population in favor of developing their own nuclear weapons. Given SK's GDP is $1.1T and NK's is approx. $20B, a high tech arms race is absurd.
Funny thing is they never even got him for all of his fraud and embezzlement... he ended up going to prison for a massive marijuana operation...
http://kingsbayperiscope.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-03-15/story/madison-priest-back-prison
Luckily for Google that contest only applies to Chromebooks, not Android tablets. Otherwise they'd have given out all of their hacking prize money in the first 10 minutes.
4 hours to create and install your own custom firmware that supports all of those add on devices on a Nexus 7? If that were true you'd probably have more of a life than a trolling AC on slashdot.
No, not a flogging, just a teasing ;)
I have no experience from the IT/support side of things, but as far as users being "superior" - I don't think choice of computer makes anyone superior, but looking at the choice of computer of highly technically proficient users is interesting at least.
It's almost eerie how many people in the tech industry in SV, at least (developers, marketing, execs, etc) have started using MacBooks in the last few years. It seems 4 out of 5 people in meetings are using them. In fact, the exception to the rule was almost comical at a meeting with Microsoft - half the table was MacBooks, half was Ultrabooks (and half iPhone/Android, half Windows Phone ;) ) Apple haters can claim *all* of those people are just fanboys getting overpriced electronics for the image (I'm sure some do, but that's the exception rather than the rule of those I know). But it just comes across as a fairly petty and ignorant attitude - probably more so than the attitude they are railing against.
As I said, I have a Mac (Macbook Pro retina, my first Apple in 25 years) and I *really* like the hardware (the software I'm getting used to, but with VMs it's somewhat irrelevant). To go to the logical extreme of "the right tool for the job" - a few weeks ago I needed to install a Windows-based compiler toolchain on my Linux workstation at work so I could integrate it into our makefile-based automated build, but I was working from home. So I ran the Windows installer in Wine on my Linux workstation over VPN and an ssh tunnel from my laptop popping up the intstall window on the X11 server running on MacOS. Worked perfectly, and my head almost esplode. And this was all just to cross compile an app for the Nintendo Wii U :-D
And today I am home sick, so I'm about to fire up Windows running in a Parallels VM to play Planescape Torment on that Mac. And the only thing I see wrong with that picture is that I haven't finished Torment long ago!
Software is just a tool, not a religion... and there is no single "right tool" for all jobs... ;)
Sorry, but I can't help but comment on "GNU/Linux" - I doubt all of your "tools" are GNU/Linux. "OSS"/Linux, maybe, but I thought only Stallman tries to pretend all of a Linux distro userspace is GNU :)
Every game using this stupid "always online", "data on the server" scheme, including MMOs, has had a clusterfucked launch.
Every. Single. One.
If you are convinced that every online EA game is a clusterfuck from day one, then honestly you are the fool if you bought the game anyway. Their software doesn't come with a warranty and you can read their terms before buying. So, no, the "only" solution is not to buy something you already know is bad and then complain when it works exactly as you expected (in fact, with no contractual guarantee of service, admit that and you've probably lost the lawsuit anyway). The reasonaly solution when you know a product sucks is not spend your money on it.
And, really, it's not a boycott. A boycott is when you stop spending your money where you'd normally spend it to make a point. Not spending your money because you just don't like the product is just basic consumer common sense.
One again, class action lawsuits aren't about winning tons of money. They are about punishing the bad behavior of the offending party to get them to change their ways.
That's what the class action lawyers tell you before they get tons of money out of it and leave the customers with their "good feelings".
The only ones who really wins in a class action lawsuit are the lawyers. The customers would end up with some lame EA credit or a few bucks back at best.
Much better at least to *try* to work with EA/Maxis on resolving the issues first - so far they are offering a free game to everyone registering by 3/18 (which is at least as much as a class action would get, without lining the pockets of the only people I can think of who are sleazier than EA execs - class action attorneys). And hey, they may still actually fix the issues, add new features, and eventually make it a decent game...
but I agree with you on the silly release day impulse/frenzy - I never bought the new Simcity because I waited a couple days, read the reviews (which often trashed the game even when it worked as intended), saw the issues, and stayed clear. How hard was that?