"the "spying" on citizens issue goes back as far as biblical times and was used by kings and other powers-to-be to prevent overthrows"
er, I seem to recall a little dust-up that resulted in some folks writing up a document meant to avoid having a leader who was, or acted as a king.....The American Revolution maybe? The issue isn't that the spying was done, it's that it may have been done without a lawful basis.
...a while back, mostly from computers being marketed as appliances. All along, people have expected to plug 'em in and just go, and almost never pay for work on them until it's time to upgrade (if even then). Maybe an automotive model would actually have been the best idea, where people brought their computers in for a "tune-up", or had a tech come out every so often to service them at home. What we ended up with is clueless but well intentioned users getting loaded down with all sorts of malware and assorted glitches, or if they're lucky, they find a friend who ends up being their personal service person. If they were getting regular service appointments, at least their machines would be in better shape, and they'd probably learn a few things along the way from talking to the service techs. Too late now I suppose.....
Oh, and by the way, did the parent really deserve Flamebait? C'mon guys, that was kinda uncalled for, wasn't it?
Really? So if you were a player for the winning team in the world cup, you don't think you'd feel a bit of pride even if you didn't personally score the winning goal? The reason people feel pride in their citizenship is that they are a part of something, even if their main contribution is paying their taxes and not killing their neighbors with an axe. They played a part in accomplishing something they believe in that couldn't have been done alone. It seems to me that the irrational position is belonging to a group that you're either apathetic towards or ashamed of. If I hit that point, it's time for a new nationality, but for now I think the one I have still has potential. Like it or not, unless you're a hermit living in some uncharted no-man's land, you are part of a larger group. If your membership in that group doesn't mean anything to you, perhaps you're in the wrong one.
Interesting, and conversely I suppose you are unable to understand why citizens of a given nation would feel shame at atrocities done in their names? Same thing, isn't it? "I personally didn't exterminate all those folks belonging to group A, that was just some governmental decision that I'm completely seperate from as I'm not a king-maker". Being a proud member of *any* group, nationality, society, club, association, etc is not dependant only on what you've *directly* done for the group, but that you've added your voice to the greater chorus of which you're a part, and helped to navigate your group in a direction you believe to be right and/or your belief in that groups agenda, goals or potential (feel free to add to the list).
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"the "spying" on citizens issue goes back as far as biblical times and was used by kings and other powers-to-be to prevent overthrows"
er, I seem to recall a little dust-up that resulted in some folks writing up a document meant to avoid having a leader who was, or acted as a king.....The American Revolution maybe? The issue isn't that the spying was done, it's that it may have been done without a lawful basis.
...a while back, mostly from computers being marketed as appliances. All along, people have expected to plug 'em in and just go, and almost never pay for work on them until it's time to upgrade (if even then). Maybe an automotive model would actually have been the best idea, where people brought their computers in for a "tune-up", or had a tech come out every so often to service them at home. What we ended up with is clueless but well intentioned users getting loaded down with all sorts of malware and assorted glitches, or if they're lucky, they find a friend who ends up being their personal service person. If they were getting regular service appointments, at least their machines would be in better shape, and they'd probably learn a few things along the way from talking to the service techs. Too late now I suppose.....
Oh, and by the way, did the parent really deserve Flamebait? C'mon guys, that was kinda uncalled for, wasn't it?
Great, now I can probably expect to get invited to a series of meetings to discuss the detrimental effects of attending meetings......
"Secondly, Google is certainly not a perfect search engine."
NO NO NO NO NO! How dare you come to Slashdot and spout such nonsense! You are a very very bad person!
Huh, saying Google's not perfect....next thing you know I'll read a post saying Linux is heavily flawed or that Microsoft isn't evil.
Or what if the internet itself started out as some kind of U.S. Gov't project....at this point it'd probably just be, oh, er, nevermind.....
Really? So if you were a player for the winning team in the world cup, you don't think you'd feel a bit of pride even if you didn't personally score the winning goal? The reason people feel pride in their citizenship is that they are a part of something, even if their main contribution is paying their taxes and not killing their neighbors with an axe. They played a part in accomplishing something they believe in that couldn't have been done alone. It seems to me that the irrational position is belonging to a group that you're either apathetic towards or ashamed of. If I hit that point, it's time for a new nationality, but for now I think the one I have still has potential. Like it or not, unless you're a hermit living in some uncharted no-man's land, you are part of a larger group. If your membership in that group doesn't mean anything to you, perhaps you're in the wrong one.
Interesting, and conversely I suppose you are unable to understand why citizens of a given nation would feel shame at atrocities done in their names? Same thing, isn't it? "I personally didn't exterminate all those folks belonging to group A, that was just some governmental decision that I'm completely seperate from as I'm not a king-maker". Being a proud member of *any* group, nationality, society, club, association, etc is not dependant only on what you've *directly* done for the group, but that you've added your voice to the greater chorus of which you're a part, and helped to navigate your group in a direction you believe to be right and/or your belief in that groups agenda, goals or potential (feel free to add to the list).
>>vanilla floppy FAT
That may be the most disgusting 3 word combination ever seen on Slashdot.