This little fifteen year old boy would like to add something here -- I spent all christmas dropping hints about how I wanted gel rests for my mouse and keyboard as I slowly get RSI. (My folks aren't so good in the creativity dept.)
They did me one better is what they did. I got a frikking Executive Leather Office Chair, and it's the nicest thing I've placed my butt on in a long time. That and my relatives got me enough cash to cover gel rests.
It's been a good christmas, and some insightful giftgiving has made it great.
Just felt like sharing.
BTW, I insulted a Jewish girl in my school by saying merry christmas to her, so now I just say "Have a good thing"
Errr, well Communism is based on the idea that all should be equally participatory and affected in/by all decisions. Capitalism is based on the idea that those who succeed (by merits, ideally) should call the shots.
So in this way linux is more communist that windows. Although Collectivist is a better term, really.
Even if a child is continually racked with pain, this does not logically mean that it's existence consists of nothing but intense pain.
I happen to disagree with Singer inasmuch as I believe that the "existence of a conscious subject" begins not at birth or any later point but at conception, with the gift of a soul.
This soul is what is continually overlooked during discussions of assisted deaths of all kinds.
Granted, my views are strongly tied to my theistic beliefs, although I don;t believe this makes them any less valid.
Disclaimer: I can't figure out how to post directly on a story, only on someone else's comment. I picked this one cuz I thought it was nice and expressed itself coherently.
I think people need to step back somewhat from the perspective-draining provincialism that has been seen here on the various postings. I'll admit to complete ignorance of this man's positive or negative attributes. I never even heard of him till I read this. I didn't know ANYTHING about him, only that he was techical enough to have Rob place an announcement of his death on/. I still felt the pang of sympathy when I realized that this guy meant enough to someone warrant a/. story and over 300 comments, all of which I have (sickeningly) read.
I think that people need to realize that there are a few sacred cows that transcend CS, that affect us all due to our greater abstraction than IT, *humanity*. Don't get me wrong. I'm a die-hard techie, as my parents will, to their chagrin, vouch for. I spend far too much time at my computer, the one I saved for 6 months to buy. But I still recognize the power of greater things than CS, let alone Linux or KDE or any of the other 65 kazillion CS things I like or don't like.
Notably: Religion - by definiton (or at least by the definition of my religion (christianity)) religion supercedes *everything*.
The Search For Knowledge - exemplified perfectly by the/. moderation system. It's a good system. I love, even relish, reading through the posts that accompany every story. Despite practically inducing vomiting on myself reading those 300+ posts, I STILL believe that freespeech is important.
and, last but not least:
Humanity - For any kind of exchange or enriching experience, the participants must, at pain of waste of their own time and that of others, hold to the basic tenets of respect and kindness. Very simple values that have been simeaultaneusly trumpeted and rejected by many of the world. I am continually apalled by the lack of my fellow teenagers respect for *anything*. The gifted (yet shortsighted) of these tend to cry wolf, very perceptively and rightly, at all the various injustices of the day, and wax nostalgic about how kindness is going down the drain.
It pains me to see such myopic tendancies that surround my daily life pollute my _escape_ from such pettiness, the usually clearheaded tech culture.
Take a step back, look at the greater things you sacrifice when you fight over meaningless things.
Anonymous Coward, reminding everyone that Real Men (and women!) know when to fight and when to agree to disagree.
The last place that anyone should fight is online. There's far too much already. I'm an argumentative type, and I love arguments. But when they so clearly acoomplish nothing, that's when I stop arguing.
I think that the both of you are taking this a leeeetle to far, and I certainly hope you enjoy it, cuz that's what will be gained from the whole thing. I've seen this so many times it makes me sick - but this one fits the mould perfectly. Guy 1 posts a decent-but-not-expertly-worded post about his or her point of view. So far nothing is wrong, but tbere is the possibility for harm. Guy 2 fires back a response, which tries or succedes to refute Guy 1's point of view. He thinks Guy 1 is an idiot, and doesn't have his facts straight. Layered with some genorous misninterpretation, we have ourselves the kind of post that we all love to hate. Guy 1 thinks (rightly or wrongly) that he's (she's?) being personally insulted, so he drops his gloves. Now we have ourselves a lovely little spat, and it's hard to say who's at fault. The bottom line: Stop.
We don't. Freedom of speech is guaranteed in our charter of rights and freedoms. It's just that people, canadian and otherwise, know the american constition better, especially the 1st amendment and it's ramifiactions re: free speech and freedom of expression. I agree with the amendment in theory, and the comment is there _beacause_ we don'thav amendments. If I said, I believe in the "charter of rights and freedoms", that could mean any number of things.
As a satire, I found it poor also - more spoof-ish than satire, but a valiant attempt all the same. _Anything_ worth standing up for can stand up to satire, especially such as this. I love satire, ESPECIALLY when it's directed against something I particularly like, beacuse then I can see the flaws better to be able to defend the thing as a whole. To elaborate: If I like something, I want to truly understand it, but once I like it, I am clouded slightly to it's faults and someone else's satire (or spoof, depending) is easily the best vehicle. If you disagree with Tom, be happy, you better understand the other side's point of view, and much more clearly than if they had just come out and said it. And if you agree, then be happy that someone has the guts to write something beneficial to both.
The real appeal, however, in this article, is in the bigger picture, rather than the points it makes. It exposes the bickering that exists on/., and further. If Tom decides to take 20 minutes and read all the fire-laden posts here, he would laugh himself silly, and for our sakes I hope he does. If this is what a satire (a poor one at that) does to inflame the warring factions, what will happen if someone says something _deliberately_ inflammatory. Like the miniscule print subtitle says: It's-satire-people.
I'm a Canadian - but I still believe in the 1st amendment.
If you think I'll use a shitty product because everyone is aware that it exists and talks it up... Then why aren't you using Microsoft Windows NT?
I didn't mean to imply that marketing should be allowed to brainwash people into using bad products. The point I was trying to make is that software, lik every other industry, needs to be noticed before it is used. I use Win98 and RH5.2, and I have no desire to use WinNT. I know about it, sure. But I wouldn't be using Linux if I didn't hear from many many people that "hey, this is pretty cool." That's what convinced me to get it. It's the superiority of that over Windows is why it _continues_ to occupy it's place on my hard drive.
I don't advocate "prostituting for the masses". I think that the software is good, and that is what needs to be told. Marketing doesn't neccessarily involve smoke and mirrors, and it isn't always illicit or unethical. We have the better product, and it would be a damned shame to watch it fall by the wayside with those other products I mentioned.
I wish they'd stay off the soap box and spend more time coding
This is entirely the point of the essay. The idea is that we should spend less time on rhetoric and more time on code. Granted, ESR does indulge himself slightly when describing the successes of linux et al. as being the successes of OSI. Also granted, he defeats himself slightly spewing doctrine to the effect of "don't spew doctrine."
However, this is a very clear cut case of "do as I say, not as I do", because it is clear (to me) that the community needs such a direct method, be it hypocritical (sp?) or not.
ESR is a definitely feeling the need to take credit
Then how do you explain that he is stepping down? A ploy to gain more media spotlight? Go talk to some of th people in alt.ESR.consipiracy instead. It simply seems unlikely that he really needs to take credit.
I think [...] that most of us [...] would agree that Linux, Perl, [and] Apache, [...] are driven not by the candy wrapper of marketing and press coverage, but by content
Moving from paranoia to naivate. It is childish to believe that these successes are the simple result of good content and such. The most crucial part in a technology taking hold is awareness, followed closely by good marketing. Think BetaMax, think Amiga, OS/2, commodore, etc., yadda, yadda, yadda. Do not be sucked into believing that we got here based on the merits of the product. That takes over after you have awareness. Marketing gets customers, and good products keep them.
My schoool (Jr. High) has over two hundred Classic twos. Their combined power is likely still less than my K6-2 400. One year we were told the shcool had purchased some "advanced video editing computers" - 30 more Classic 2s
Slashdot Mirror
Are there any links online to records of credit card fraud online? How do those figures compare with real world fraud?
Micah
Saint Patricks High School did one better, I'm off today aswell! Woohoo!
Errr....
if you want to be picky, that's like saying shoes are more better than socks....
but that would be picky
Micah
Perhaps you fail to realize what beliefs Einstein actually held concerning religion.
I will give you one of my favorite quotes of his:
"Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind."
Micah
This little fifteen year old boy would like to add something here -- I spent all christmas dropping hints about how I wanted gel rests for my mouse and keyboard as I slowly get RSI. (My folks aren't so good in the creativity dept.)
They did me one better is what they did. I got a frikking Executive Leather Office Chair, and it's the nicest thing I've placed my butt on in a long time. That and my relatives got me enough cash to cover gel rests.
It's been a good christmas, and some insightful giftgiving has made it great.
Just felt like sharing.
BTW, I insulted a Jewish girl in my school by saying merry christmas to her, so now I just say "Have a good thing"
Micah
I suspect (IANAM - moderator) that it was marked redundant because the exact question was brought up nine or ten odd times in the last story RE: Q3
Micah
touché
Perhaps you meant Elicit.
Illicit is what many of the laws on the site banned.
I think I need a smoke.
if( above == sarcasm )
coutisInebriated() == true )
cout"That's some crazy moonshine buddy";
else
***Confused by earlier errors, bailing out***
Please someone tell me this was sarcasm.....
Actually the tower of babel involved people *not* being able to understand each other cuz God gave them all different languages.
Micah McCurdy
Errr, well
Communism is based on the idea that all should be equally participatory and affected in/by all decisions. Capitalism is based on the idea that those who succeed (by merits, ideally) should call the shots.
So in this way linux is more communist that windows.
Although Collectivist is a better term, really.
Micah McCurdy
To which I say: DAMN STRAIGHT!
This is what slashdot is about. Thank you to whoever moderated this, as I set my threshold to 5 and hardly ever see anything truly useful.
Buddy, go buy yourself a beer.
That was good.
Micah
Even if a child is continually racked with pain, this does not logically mean that it's existence consists of nothing but intense pain.
I happen to disagree with Singer inasmuch as I believe that the "existence of a conscious subject" begins not at birth or any later point but at conception, with the gift of a soul.
This soul is what is continually overlooked during discussions of assisted deaths of all kinds.
Granted, my views are strongly tied to my theistic beliefs, although I don;t believe this makes them any less valid.
Micah McCurdy
Disclaimer: I can't figure out how to post directly on a story, only on someone else's comment. I picked this one cuz I thought it was nice and expressed itself coherently.
/. I still felt the pang of sympathy when I realized that this guy meant enough to someone warrant a /. story and over 300 comments, all of which I have (sickeningly) read.
/. moderation system. It's a good system. I love, even relish, reading through the posts that accompany every story. Despite practically inducing vomiting on myself reading those 300+ posts, I STILL believe that freespeech is important.
I think people need to step back somewhat from the perspective-draining provincialism that has been seen here on the various postings. I'll admit to complete ignorance of this man's positive or negative attributes. I never even heard of him till I read this. I didn't know ANYTHING about him, only that he was techical enough to have Rob place an announcement of his death on
I think that people need to realize that there are a few sacred cows that transcend CS, that affect us all due to our greater abstraction than IT, *humanity*. Don't get me wrong. I'm a die-hard techie, as my parents will, to their chagrin, vouch for. I spend far too much time at my computer, the one I saved for 6 months to buy. But I still recognize the power of greater things than CS, let alone Linux or KDE or any of the other 65 kazillion CS things I like or don't like.
Notably:
Religion - by definiton (or at least by the definition of my religion (christianity)) religion supercedes *everything*.
The Search For Knowledge - exemplified perfectly by the
and, last but not least:
Humanity - For any kind of exchange or enriching experience, the participants must, at pain of waste of their own time and that of others, hold to the basic tenets of respect and kindness. Very simple values that have been simeaultaneusly trumpeted and rejected by many of the world. I am continually apalled by the lack of my fellow teenagers respect for *anything*. The gifted (yet shortsighted) of these tend to cry wolf, very perceptively and rightly, at all the various injustices of the day, and wax nostalgic about how kindness is going down the drain.
It pains me to see such myopic tendancies that surround my daily life pollute my _escape_ from such pettiness, the usually clearheaded tech culture.
Take a step back, look at the greater things you sacrifice when you fight over meaningless things.
Micah McCurdy
Anonymous Coward, reminding everyone that Real Men (and women!) know when to fight and when to agree to disagree.
The last place that anyone should fight is online. There's far too much already. I'm an argumentative type, and I love arguments. But when they so clearly acoomplish nothing, that's when I stop arguing.
I think that the both of you are taking this a leeeetle to far, and I certainly hope you enjoy it, cuz that's what will be gained from the whole thing. I've seen this so many times it makes me sick - but this one fits the mould perfectly. Guy 1 posts a decent-but-not-expertly-worded post about his or her point of view. So far nothing is wrong, but tbere is the possibility for harm. Guy 2 fires back a response, which tries or succedes to refute Guy 1's point of view. He thinks Guy 1 is an idiot, and doesn't have his facts straight. Layered with some genorous misninterpretation, we have ourselves the kind of post that we all love to hate. Guy 1 thinks (rightly or wrongly) that he's (she's?) being personally insulted, so he drops his gloves. Now we have ourselves a lovely little spat, and it's hard to say who's at fault. The bottom line: Stop.
Micah McCurdy
Last time I checked, Canada doesn't abridge basic freedoms at all - in the name of anything. They are well guranteed.
Micah
We don't. Freedom of speech is guaranteed in our charter of rights and freedoms. It's just that people, canadian and otherwise, know the american constition better, especially the 1st amendment and it's ramifiactions re: free speech and freedom of expression. I agree with the amendment in theory, and the comment is there _beacause_ we don'thav amendments. If I said, I believe in the "charter of rights and freedoms", that could mean any number of things.
Micah
As a satire, I found it poor also - more spoof-ish than satire, but a valiant attempt all the same.
/., and further. If Tom decides to take 20 minutes and read all the fire-laden posts here, he would laugh himself silly, and for our sakes I hope he does. If this is what a satire (a poor one at that) does to inflame the warring factions, what will happen if someone says something _deliberately_ inflammatory. Like the miniscule print subtitle says: It's-satire-people.
_Anything_ worth standing up for can stand up to satire, especially such as this. I love satire, ESPECIALLY when it's directed against something I particularly like, beacuse then I can see the flaws better to be able to defend the thing as a whole. To elaborate: If I like something, I want to truly understand it, but once I like it, I am clouded slightly to it's faults and someone else's satire (or spoof, depending) is easily the best vehicle. If you disagree with Tom, be happy, you better understand the other side's point of view, and much more clearly than if they had just come out and said it. And if you agree, then be happy that someone has the guts to write something beneficial to both.
The real appeal, however, in this article, is in the bigger picture, rather than the points it makes. It exposes the bickering that exists on
I'm a Canadian - but I still believe in the 1st amendment.
Micah McCurdy
If you think I'll use a shitty product because everyone is aware that it exists and talks it up... Then why aren't you using Microsoft Windows NT?
I didn't mean to imply that marketing should be allowed to brainwash people into using bad products. The point I was trying to make is that software, lik every other industry, needs to be noticed before it is used. I use Win98 and RH5.2, and I have no desire to use WinNT. I know about it, sure. But I wouldn't be using Linux if I didn't hear from many many people that "hey, this is pretty cool." That's what convinced me to get it. It's the superiority of that over Windows is why it _continues_ to occupy it's place on my hard drive.
I don't advocate "prostituting for the masses". I think that the software is good, and that is what needs to be told. Marketing doesn't neccessarily involve smoke and mirrors, and it isn't always illicit or unethical. We have the better product, and it would be a damned shame to watch it fall by the wayside with those other products I mentioned.
Micah McCurdy
I wish they'd stay off the soap box and spend more time coding
This is entirely the point of the essay. The idea is that we should spend less time on rhetoric and more time on code. Granted, ESR does indulge himself slightly when describing the successes of linux et al. as being the successes of OSI. Also granted, he defeats himself slightly spewing doctrine to the effect of "don't spew doctrine."
However, this is a very clear cut case of "do as I say, not as I do", because it is clear (to me) that the community needs such a direct method, be it hypocritical (sp?) or not.
ESR is a definitely feeling the need to take credit
Then how do you explain that he is stepping down? A ploy to gain more media spotlight? Go talk to some of th people in alt.ESR.consipiracy instead. It simply seems unlikely that he really needs to take credit.
I think [...] that most of us [...] would agree that Linux, Perl, [and] Apache, [...] are driven not by the candy wrapper of marketing and press coverage, but by content
Moving from paranoia to naivate. It is childish to believe that these successes are the simple result of good content and such. The most crucial part in a technology taking hold is awareness, followed closely by good marketing. Think BetaMax, think Amiga, OS/2, commodore, etc., yadda, yadda, yadda. Do not be sucked into believing that we got here based on the merits of the product. That takes over after you have awareness. Marketing gets customers, and good products keep them.
Micah McCurdy
My schoool (Jr. High) has over two hundred Classic twos. Their combined power is likely still less than my K6-2 400. One year we were told the shcool had purchased some "advanced video editing computers" - 30 more Classic 2s