Good point. Ideally, people would realize that even if *they* don't use a government-provided service, it still benefits society as a whole, and, therefore, themselves.
In general, though, it seems that lower taxes = higher fees on services. Fewer taxe dollars for the roads means higher tolls on those roads, for example. A tax for wireless connectivity would, realistically, be very small, compared to the monthly bill you'd get from your high-speed provider to that you can set up a wireless network in your home.
To be honest, I, too, was surprised that someone modded my comment up. It was a fatuous thing I spurted up on my keyboard before I had any coffee.
As to whether I "really, honestly think that everyone in the White House is a bumbling fool who couldn't find their dick if the light wasn't on?" The answer is, No, of course not. Only the President. Cheney, for example, has proven himself to be dangerously intelligent (and is the main reason I really hope nothing bad happens to Bush). Sadly, the only person in the administration who I thought had an ounce of integrity and honor (even after shilling the dangerous lies of Bush & Co. to the UN) has resigned the position of Secretary of State.
I know that we won't be invading DPRK anytime soon anyway. I hadn't considered Seoul. The main reason I was thinking that was because we've already demonstrated, in the late 60's and early 70's, how effective our military is in dealing with combat in that region of the world. Better to take on enemies who don't pose any threat to us. Like Iraq.
...if you were surprised by this admission. Anyone?
*crickets*
Thought not. See, North Korea is a real threat. Probably why Bush is ignoring it. Unlike those massive armed-to-the-teeth maniacs hoarding nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in Iraq. Good thing we went in there. Seems like every man, woman, and child there had a shoulder mounted nuclear missile launcher.
Between spyware, adware, monopolies, abuse of IP, and corporate shenanigans, it's almost enough to get me to quit my job as an IT guy and go live in a monastary somewhere.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is the original spyware product.
I've suggested that to my wife, but she wants both address book and calendar integration. The Palm Desktop is great for calendaring, but I've never been able to make it talk to an e-mail client, so the address book is almost pointless. I'm hoping that with Sunbird/Thunderbird, though, at some point in the future, we can move my wife away from Outlook.
For the record, I have my wife behind three firewalls: the firewall hardwired into our Linksys router, the firewall that came with WindowsXP SP2, and the ZoneAlarm firewall. We also run AdAware and Spybot S&D religiously. I'm not overly concerned with the security issues, but we're both philosophically in favor of OSS.
Linux and OSS are compatible with less than 1% of the viruses, worms, and trojans that have been created by third party Windows developers! If you're running Linux (or even Firefox on Windows) you're denied the rich environment of advertising available to users of MSFT products!
And, actually, the quote which you attribute to Churchill (which variably uses the word "communist" instead of "liberal", and sometimes changes the age of the different leanings) was never uttered by him at all. There is no record of Churchill -- who was a Conservative at the age of 15 -- ever having said this.
I've actually always figured that both approaches are equally wrong, and equally right. To view the world through either viewpoint -- always conservative, or always liberal -- is simply foolish.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans base their ideologies on broken mythologies. The Democrat mythology is that if you allow the government to solve problems, it will. The Republican mythology, on the other hand, is that if you allow the private sector to solve problems, it will. Both mythologies are equally wrong.
There are aspects of Republican ideology which appeal to me, but, on the whole, I find that the Democrat ideology is more grounded in reality, which is why I tend to vote Democrat, in spite of having several very close friends who are Republicans (they're all very intelligent, just mistaken in their party choice; I don't hold it against them;) ).
My reactionary judgement against Republicans, as typified in my earlier post, usually stems from the way I perceive that the Republican party has gone: derailed from a party of intelligent and sincere conservatives (wither Goldwater?) to a mob of hard-core right wing Christian militants, of which our President is a typical example.
On a more positive note, I agree with you that both sides do want to find the best solutions to the problems that ail our nation and our society. Where I disagree is with the idea that "liberal thinking" is de facto wrong, and that "conservative thinking" is de facto right.
When I first saw the title The Power of Thinking without thinking, my first reaction was to reword the title in my head to The Power of Voting Republican.
I think you missed the point. Allow me to simplify it.
I wouldn't complain about Microsoft not offering functionality updates to non-licensed users. If you didn't buy MS-Office 2000, there's no reason at all M$ should let you have a freek copy of M$O 2003. That's bad business.
But if I have a pirated copy of Windows which has been hacked and is now a zombie machine sending out thousands and thousands of porn spam to, say, you, are you still going to praise Microsoft for not offering security upgrades to my machine? We're on opposite sides of the planet, so you can't do anything about me aside from utter your self righteousness about FOSS*; and I'll just keep using my zombie PC because it still gets on-line, still plays my games, still does my e-mail and IM and word processing, and I barely notice the drop in performance as it send you the viruses and the spam and the worms.
So yeah. I guess I got what I deserved, eh?
*Note: I am an avid user of Linux and free software, and I only use Windows at work where I have no choice. I enjoy the ride on the FOSS high horse just as much as you do, but that doesn't change the fact that this is still a bad move on Microsoft's part that will hurt everyone.
"What if all the people on welfare became lawyers? Problem solved!" --Scott Adams, Clues for the Clueless: Dogbert's Guide to Etiquette
I've never understood this argument, since it seems to imply that the vast majority of Americans understand their finances well enough to make it work for them. Sadly, we don't do a thing to educate people on how to manage their finances (or did you take a "financial management" class in high school?). During their working lives, not many people have the time, between career and family, to educate themselves on these issues. Not everyone can afford a financial planner (they're expensive).
If you have a proposal for educating people on these issues, I'd love to see it. Unfortunately, I've never seen such a proposal.
I use Kontact on my FC3 box at home for all my communication and calendaring needs. My wife, however, is a Linux-phobe: she approves of the concept, but doesn't trust her ability to learn a new OS, and has too many OS-specific applications on her computer. She's been bemoaning the fact that she's stuck with Outlook for her e-mail/calendaring needs, since there is no OS equivalent available on Windows. Finally, though, there will be an option!
My father-in-law, who was very worried about losing his job, will be able to stay. He's part of Oracle's new CRM division, which was part of the PeopleSoft deal.
Oracle's new CRM software came from PeopleSoft; before that, it was Vantive; before that it was Systar; before that it was Scotch-Bonnet; and before that it was Mobius. My father-in-law has stayed at the same desk for fifteen years, and worked for six different companies, including Oracle. He's a real 90s kind of guy.
There are dirtbags out there even as we speak trying to figure out to use Firefox and Thunderbird just as they use IE and Outlook. Mind you, Firefox and Thunderbird are very probably much more secure in nature than IE and Outlook, just because of how they're built. But I promise you there is someone out there trying to figure out how to compromise it.
My young sister brought me her laptop which was probably the most compromised machine I'd ever seen: tons of adware, spyware, and viruses had made it almost unusable. I'd promised I'd fix it, but I couldn't even get it to boot to the point where I could rescue her files. I made some fixes so that I could boot it, but whenever I tried to copy her files to a special share on my Linux box, some virus would pop up and kill the connection before it was done. I was just about to give up, when I thought of booting up the computer with a Knoppix CD I had. So I did, and mounted her hard drive and tar'ed up all of her files and copied them to the Linux share. I scanned all of her files for viruses and whatnot on that computer while wiping her computer and reinstalling Windows. I wasn't able to convince her to switch to Debian, but I did install AdAware, Spybot S&D, Thunderbird, and Firefox, and hid all links to IE (I did install the "View in IE" extension for her, just in case).
She's gotten a new laptop since then, one which runs WinXP. But she's now a Firefox fanatic; she even asked for a Firefox T-shirt for Christmas. I'm so proud. Now if only she'd let me dual-boot her machine.
When my wife and I started acquiring investments and stock, we realized that things had just gotten too complicated for us; at one point, we did our taxes three times, and got three different results.
So, we've had them done by H&R Block for the past three years, and we'll be using them this year as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Shouldn't this one be put into the "Humor" section?
Good point. Ideally, people would realize that even if *they* don't use a government-provided service, it still benefits society as a whole, and, therefore, themselves.
In general, though, it seems that lower taxes = higher fees on services. Fewer taxe dollars for the roads means higher tolls on those roads, for example. A tax for wireless connectivity would, realistically, be very small, compared to the monthly bill you'd get from your high-speed provider to that you can set up a wireless network in your home.
To be honest, I, too, was surprised that someone modded my comment up. It was a fatuous thing I spurted up on my keyboard before I had any coffee.
As to whether I "really, honestly think that everyone in the White House is a bumbling fool who couldn't find their dick if the light wasn't on?" The answer is, No, of course not. Only the President. Cheney, for example, has proven himself to be dangerously intelligent (and is the main reason I really hope nothing bad happens to Bush). Sadly, the only person in the administration who I thought had an ounce of integrity and honor (even after shilling the dangerous lies of Bush & Co. to the UN) has resigned the position of Secretary of State.
I know that we won't be invading DPRK anytime soon anyway. I hadn't considered Seoul. The main reason I was thinking that was because we've already demonstrated, in the late 60's and early 70's, how effective our military is in dealing with combat in that region of the world. Better to take on enemies who don't pose any threat to us. Like Iraq.
I thought that was the Bush Doctrine: Attack Before Evidence. Worked in Iraq, or so Bush tells us.
...if you were surprised by this admission. Anyone?
*crickets*
Thought not. See, North Korea is a real threat. Probably why Bush is ignoring it. Unlike those massive armed-to-the-teeth maniacs hoarding nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in Iraq. Good thing we went in there. Seems like every man, woman, and child there had a shoulder mounted nuclear missile launcher.
Doubtful. Jolene Blaylock would just figure it was par for the course. This is the Berman-verse, after all.
No, no. That's open source Slash Trek. A different beast altogether.
If this works out, then would the fans have more say over the direction of the show? Open source Star Trek?
Between spyware, adware, monopolies, abuse of IP, and corporate shenanigans, it's almost enough to get me to quit my job as an IT guy and go live in a monastary somewhere.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is the original spyware product.
I've suggested that to my wife, but she wants both address book and calendar integration. The Palm Desktop is great for calendaring, but I've never been able to make it talk to an e-mail client, so the address book is almost pointless. I'm hoping that with Sunbird/Thunderbird, though, at some point in the future, we can move my wife away from Outlook.
For the record, I have my wife behind three firewalls: the firewall hardwired into our Linksys router, the firewall that came with WindowsXP SP2, and the ZoneAlarm firewall. We also run AdAware and Spybot S&D religiously. I'm not overly concerned with the security issues, but we're both philosophically in favor of OSS.
I know that the major thing keeping my wife tied to Outlook on Windows is that her Palm won't sync with Thunderbird or Sunbird.
Linux and OSS are compatible with less than 1% of the viruses, worms, and trojans that have been created by third party Windows developers! If you're running Linux (or even Firefox on Windows) you're denied the rich environment of advertising available to users of MSFT products!
And, actually, the quote which you attribute to Churchill (which variably uses the word "communist" instead of "liberal", and sometimes changes the age of the different leanings) was never uttered by him at all. There is no record of Churchill -- who was a Conservative at the age of 15 -- ever having said this.
I've actually always figured that both approaches are equally wrong, and equally right. To view the world through either viewpoint -- always conservative, or always liberal -- is simply foolish.
;) ).
Both the Democrats and the Republicans base their ideologies on broken mythologies. The Democrat mythology is that if you allow the government to solve problems, it will. The Republican mythology, on the other hand, is that if you allow the private sector to solve problems, it will. Both mythologies are equally wrong.
There are aspects of Republican ideology which appeal to me, but, on the whole, I find that the Democrat ideology is more grounded in reality, which is why I tend to vote Democrat, in spite of having several very close friends who are Republicans (they're all very intelligent, just mistaken in their party choice; I don't hold it against them
My reactionary judgement against Republicans, as typified in my earlier post, usually stems from the way I perceive that the Republican party has gone: derailed from a party of intelligent and sincere conservatives (wither Goldwater?) to a mob of hard-core right wing Christian militants, of which our President is a typical example.
On a more positive note, I agree with you that both sides do want to find the best solutions to the problems that ail our nation and our society. Where I disagree is with the idea that "liberal thinking" is de facto wrong, and that "conservative thinking" is de facto right.
When I first saw the title The Power of Thinking without thinking , my first reaction was to reword the title in my head to The Power of Voting Republican.
Really? Can one fan arrange all that?
I think you missed the point. Allow me to simplify it.
I wouldn't complain about Microsoft not offering functionality updates to non-licensed users. If you didn't buy MS-Office 2000, there's no reason at all M$ should let you have a freek copy of M$O 2003. That's bad business.
But if I have a pirated copy of Windows which has been hacked and is now a zombie machine sending out thousands and thousands of porn spam to, say, you, are you still going to praise Microsoft for not offering security upgrades to my machine? We're on opposite sides of the planet, so you can't do anything about me aside from utter your self righteousness about FOSS*; and I'll just keep using my zombie PC because it still gets on-line, still plays my games, still does my e-mail and IM and word processing, and I barely notice the drop in performance as it send you the viruses and the spam and the worms.
So yeah. I guess I got what I deserved, eh?
*Note: I am an avid user of Linux and free software, and I only use Windows at work where I have no choice. I enjoy the ride on the FOSS high horse just as much as you do, but that doesn't change the fact that this is still a bad move on Microsoft's part that will hurt everyone.
I, for one, welcome our new geek overlords.
"What if all the people on welfare became lawyers? Problem solved!"
--Scott Adams, Clues for the Clueless: Dogbert's Guide to Etiquette
I've never understood this argument, since it seems to imply that the vast majority of Americans understand their finances well enough to make it work for them. Sadly, we don't do a thing to educate people on how to manage their finances (or did you take a "financial management" class in high school?). During their working lives, not many people have the time, between career and family, to educate themselves on these issues. Not everyone can afford a financial planner (they're expensive).
If you have a proposal for educating people on these issues, I'd love to see it. Unfortunately, I've never seen such a proposal.
Wherever shall I get my weekly dose of Nipples the Vulcan?!!?
I use Kontact on my FC3 box at home for all my communication and calendaring needs. My wife, however, is a Linux-phobe: she approves of the concept, but doesn't trust her ability to learn a new OS, and has too many OS-specific applications on her computer. She's been bemoaning the fact that she's stuck with Outlook for her e-mail/calendaring needs, since there is no OS equivalent available on Windows. Finally, though, there will be an option!
My father-in-law, who was very worried about losing his job, will be able to stay. He's part of Oracle's new CRM division, which was part of the PeopleSoft deal.
Oracle's new CRM software came from PeopleSoft; before that, it was Vantive; before that it was Systar; before that it was Scotch-Bonnet; and before that it was Mobius. My father-in-law has stayed at the same desk for fifteen years, and worked for six different companies, including Oracle. He's a real 90s kind of guy.
There are dirtbags out there even as we speak trying to figure out to use Firefox and Thunderbird just as they use IE and Outlook. Mind you, Firefox and Thunderbird are very probably much more secure in nature than IE and Outlook, just because of how they're built. But I promise you there is someone out there trying to figure out how to compromise it.
My young sister brought me her laptop which was probably the most compromised machine I'd ever seen: tons of adware, spyware, and viruses had made it almost unusable. I'd promised I'd fix it, but I couldn't even get it to boot to the point where I could rescue her files. I made some fixes so that I could boot it, but whenever I tried to copy her files to a special share on my Linux box, some virus would pop up and kill the connection before it was done. I was just about to give up, when I thought of booting up the computer with a Knoppix CD I had. So I did, and mounted her hard drive and tar'ed up all of her files and copied them to the Linux share. I scanned all of her files for viruses and whatnot on that computer while wiping her computer and reinstalling Windows. I wasn't able to convince her to switch to Debian, but I did install AdAware, Spybot S&D, Thunderbird, and Firefox, and hid all links to IE (I did install the "View in IE" extension for her, just in case).
She's gotten a new laptop since then, one which runs WinXP. But she's now a Firefox fanatic; she even asked for a Firefox T-shirt for Christmas. I'm so proud. Now if only she'd let me dual-boot her machine.
When my wife and I started acquiring investments and stock, we realized that things had just gotten too complicated for us; at one point, we did our taxes three times, and got three different results.
So, we've had them done by H&R Block for the past three years, and we'll be using them this year as well.