Great point! Much of our science is based on these hypotheses being taken for fact, particularly in the field of theoretical physics. Humans need to know, even when they don't!
When I read the story, I didn't even think about the religious aspect. I'm a devout Christian and evolution is just another one of God's miracles to me. I don't see why Creationism and Evolution are not compatible. After all, God did create Adam from the Earth. God is the master of code-reuse!:-) We can physically be made of the same stuff as all of the other creatures and still be spiritually distinct.
But this isn't the point of the story, really; we've already seen evidence of links between our bodies and behaviors to other creatures. This story just shows that the rods and cones in our eyes developed from certain types of brain cells. It isn't a religious discussion.
It will be interesting to see "mollecular fingerprinting" tell the entire story of our evolution over time. It will be like putting together the human genome!
Learn what Troll means. You're the one trolling here.
You're out of control emotionally, based on the contradictions in your statement. You state that you are not a hateful person, yet you say I am the exact kind of "lying, sneering fraud [whom] I do HATE." You call me "full of crap,... spewing it on our country," yet you say you are "calmly hating me." If this is your calm, you'd have to be absolutely psychotic when you are angry! These are direct, personal attacks, petty name-calling and if you insist on harrassing me, I will report you. At the very least, I'm going to stop reading this thread.
Your opinion of me is meaningless and I don't come on to/. to get called names. So, go away; vote for who you want to, show your opinion at the polls if you must!
And so the true Doc Ruby comes out. I counter his arguments and he can't counter them back so he has to go personal -- just like Kerry. He starts out pretending he is all academic with the flowery language -- just like Kerry -- and now, after minor discussion, melts-down into what he truly is: a frothing, hateful person.
Where are those jobs he said he'd create with his tax cuts for the rich?
If I am making $30,000 a year and I am taxed at 10%, I am paying $3,000 a year. If I am making $70,000 a year and I am taxed at 10%, I am paying $7,000 a year. If I am making $300,000 a year and am taxed at 10%, I am paying $30,000 a year. The rich are taxed higher than the rest even after these cuts. The rich pay most of the taxed due to simple math -- you make more, you pay more. It isn't fair to tax the rich at any other rate than anyone else, jealousy be damned. They pay more money, what is the problem? There is no law that because they have more than you that they should give you a bigger share. That just makes a person not want to have more. Since America, for good or evil, is based upon consumption, that would undermine our capitalist system because the biggest consumers are the rich and they can't consume as much if you're taking more of their money. I'm not being hypocritical here -- I do think most people are rich by stealing and exploiting, but the math still holds up.
About the gay thing, it was wrong of Kerry to mention it. It was an obvious political stab. He could have mentioned anyone else and it makes him look like a rat, even if Chaney's daughter wore a sign.
Bush won the election in 2,000. Every recount proved it. He was defending himself against lawyers looking to abuse the system.
I do agree that Bush is too lenient on corporations. Corporations are the root of most evil today. My vote for Bush is relative, just like your vote for Kerry.
They did find that Saddam Hussein did fund Al Queda. So, there is a definite connection there. Granted, so does Iran, Syria, and the other 'stans, but all in due time. I think it is very reasonable to say that war is no time for sensitivity. Once a country declares war, and the congress did support that declaration, the country must win the war. Period. America takes unbelievable steps to avoid civilian casualties. The terrorists certainly do not work with such restrictions. Either we win the war or we lose it and we can't afford to lose it. Afghanistan is a resounding success, by the way -- they are having elections. We won in Afghanistan, there is no Taliban, that was our primary objective, now we're winning in Iraq.
No president is going to give "aid and comfort" to *the enemy*, unless you count Bush's protection of the Saudis, who funded the 9/11/2001 terrorists.
Don't confuse your Moore with reality. Moore's got a bone to pick with Bush. Bush told him to get a real job so now he's trying to get him back with lies.
There is a reason the terrorists are celebrating Kerry. They know that they'll win if we elect Kerry because we'll be the weasly, Liberal, apologetic nation they always thought we were, which is what embolded them in the first place to hit us with those planes.
By telling the terrorists in Iraq (and they are terrorists, as you've seen them perform acts of terror over there like killing those children) that we should not be fighting the war moralizes the enemy and demoralizes our troops. That leads to increased death of our soldiers and a higher likelyhood of failure, which we cannot afford. This is an act of betrayal. To betray one's country is gain the label of traitor. Therefore, Kerry is a traitor. Just because he is running for president and that people like him doesn't mean he isn't what he is.
In the end, I find it hard to get too worked up about the world and money. I've worked in many different corporate environments and I have come to the conclusion that corporations are like schools -- glorified baby-sitters to keep us distracted during the day from something.
When I see Chaney, I think corporate right away. In fact, your reasoning is exactly why I started out months ago wanting to vote for Kerry. Unfortunately, his elitist attitude, back-handed, inappropriate comments about Chaney's daughter, constant shifting, and general evil demeanor turned me off. It's like Kerry has gone out of his way to make it hard for me to vote for him. Even his running mate and wife make it even worse. The last thing I need at the top is two lawyers. Lawyers are the reason America is falling apart.
Bush looks like a bungler, I know. But, his actions do not show bungling to me at all, dispite what the media says. I have a lot of the same demeanor as Bush, with the same personality, and I'm a friggin' super-genius so I don't hold that against him:-P I know where he stands and I agree with more of Bush's philosophy than Kerry's -- that we cannot let the UN decide our fate because the UN is filled with teeth-gnashing people who wish they were us and want us to fail because humans love to see people on top topple. I know, as much as I don't like it, that we're going to have to expand the war on terrorism and start to bring out the bigger guns. I also know that we can't win any war at all by telling the enemy that we are doing the wrong thing. There's a reason fundamental Islamists are dancing in the street in support of Kerry (see the news, it's really happening!). Anyone who brings comfort to the aid of the enemy like the fundamental Islamist terrorists -- an enemy who attacked and killed 3000 innocent people on 9/11 -- is a traitor. Kerry is a traitor, how else do you define the word???
How do you know that Kerry is only 75%, though? Are there numbers to back this up? Do you know where Kerry's money comes from? Is it all from Ketchup? Surely his Renoir's aren't/that/ valuable.
Liberal doesn't necessarily translate into anti-corporate. It seems that Kerry has a great deal of money and money pools in corporations. I actually get the impression that Kerry will be/more/ corporate than Bush based on the elitist attitude. He looks down at me, the middle-class, although I can quite his or his running mate's wife (I can't remember which) by stating that I don't think he's "worked an honest day in his life". Only the very young and naive can believe that, aside from a lottery or extremely good luck, that a person can amass that much wealth honestly, and I link dishonest with corporate. But, that is just an impression -- but we vote on impressions.
Isn't it interesting that, to build a protocol like SMTP that is open and trustful, that the makers are considered naive for being open and trustful? How does a person have a positive, trusting attitude without being a naive moron because people are so evil? This is one of the many behavior paradoxes that make me want to kick every human I see [kick, kick, thump].
In my opinion, one of the most beautiful equations is the one that computes natural cubic splines. Given a set of knots (points) on a graph, this equation figures out a smooth curve between each point. This is called "curve-fitting". Very cool calculus, and it includes a tridiagonal matrix equation, which gives it extra beauty points!
See this page for an excellent discussion on it:
Let's be fair -- technology is a very broad subject and nobody can know everything. A lot has to do with how a professional programs with a database. For example, a person may write applications that use an existing database for years, learning all kinds of complex queries and techniques without ever having the access to create an index. A professional is really one who gets paid to do something. I think a person who knows at least 80% of everything there is to know about a specific topic like MySQL would be called an "expert" instead.
I totally agree on those books. When I'm going to look for a book and see the word "For Dummies", I think, "Hey, I'd be a dummy if I/wasn't/ looking to learn!"
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is our real champion in such matters. The government is useless in such matters because they cannot move fast enough.
I think we worry too much. It isn't like thousands of other patents haven't been enforceable for the same reason. It's just that Micro$oft did it this time. If they were to sue someone, which it would be hard to pick just one product out of the fray, the case would get so much attention that it would be the greatest business boon that person could ever hope for. Plus, the EFF will help, I wager, so relax and hope they sue for something so silly!
Well, yes; no doubt. I wasn't being an adult in college, although I was at an age where I could be put in jail. Now I am an adult, and regretting my posts. I didn't realize there would be consequences in 2002. I should have, yet I was too immature.
Your post kindof reminds me of the way I used to post. Please, be careful. I know that it seems like hurting me is fun. In fact, it probably is -- it was for me when I was 10 years younder, and as mature as most Slashdot users. Yet, keep in mind: this post will be around, possibly forever. You may not be able to imagine it now, but take a tip from me who is down that road already -- you'll regret it.
On the Google Newsgroups, if you search for "dprust", you'd find articles I wrote when I was a Freshman in college on newsgroups. Those aricles were flamebait; I was having fun with the idea, and I had an attitude problem at the time. Well, I still have an attitude problem -- it was just considerably worse!
Now, I worry about people doing searches on there and denying me jobs because of it. I was innocent, I tells ya; who would have thought back in 1992 that this would be around in 2002!!! I mean, I wasn't thinking about my future back then, I was screwing around with this new "news" program, and gettin' people's danders up.
I wish there was a way to remove those posts, but here isn't. I'm stuck with it, and the consequences of what I wrote as a child.
It's time to start a bee lobby in Washington and fight for these noble creatures. Let's give the bees minority status, and get them some special treatment. The cloning aristocracy must NOT keep the proleteriat bee down by exploting their resources. The time to act is NOW!
Okay, this has probably been said already on this board, yet I'm just sick and tired of going through so many lines of whining and crap that say, "Hey, we can't develop now," or, "This isn't fair -- he shouldn't be fined, it's wrong, wrong, wrong, I wanna put a mod-chip in my PS2, I wanna bunch of free games too, waah!"
Listen, kids, let's put this into a perspective you might be able to understand, okay? Let's say you put together a little book describing how much fun you had at your little sister's tea-party. Now, you spend your allowance money putting the books together, distributing them, paying your classmates who did pretty little drawings on each page, and promoting it by standing out in the hall wearing a tiny pink t-shirt that says, "Buy my book." And boy, was that t-shirt expensive.
Now, some other kid comes in and buys one of your books, takes it to a photocopier, and starts whipping off copies of the books, little pictures and all. Then, he goes to all your friends and says, "Hey, you can have this book cheaper; pay me instead!"
At this time, little Johnny Customer in the hall goes for the cheaper book. Little Johnny may not even know better -- he's just interested in the tea party, and he wants a deal. So, he pays the kid and the kid gets the money. You get no money for it, yet you made it. You lose your allowance. You lose your time. You lose your patience.
The kid didn't cross the line when he bought your book and copied it. He crossed the line when he started selling those copies to other kids. Because, now, you're out of your allowance, and any more candy money you might have gotten is but a dream.
Now, you get mad. You confront the kid who is selling your books. The kid sticks out his tongue, calls your sister names I dare not repeat and says, "What do you need the money for? You've already got lots of money."
"Listen, kid," you might reply. "I'll make you a deal, okay? If you're gonna be willing to go out there and sell these books for me, I'll help you make some money too. You can buy these books for a lot less than what you'll sell them for. That way, we both win."
The kid looks at you like you're insane. "No way! I don't have the money to buy your books! I'm gonna keep copying it. I make more money that way."
"But I don't make any money that way."
"Screw you," he yells. "You're a big kid with lots of money now. You owe me. You got it because you must have punched somebody in the schoolyard for it. All you rich kids do that."
"I made my allowance money fair and square --"
"Well, I don't have any money! I deserve money too. Why are you getting all the breaks, huh? Is your daddy rich?"
"No," you reply. "I worked my ass off for it. I wrote this book. Some of my friends drew the pictures, and they deserve to get something back for that."
The kid looks befuddled. He can't explain how things work because he still lives in his bedroom and doesn't do anything for a living yet. He's a whiney little bitch, while you are making something of your life. "I don't care. I'm doing this, and you can't stop me."
At that point, you punch the kid in the face, kick him a few times, and make an example of him. Lots of other kids form a circle wearing green shirts that say "Slashdot" on them and start chanting, "That's not fair! See? You're a big bully!"
Luckily, you're insane, so you keep making these books, even though these little parasites keep taking your due.
I suppose in a world like that, maybe the kids are right? Why work when you can whine, beg, and bitch on Slashdot while stealing another kids lunch money?
PS: Please, don't bother to reply if the best you can do is find a few spelling errors on here, alright? Go stick your head in the sandbox, you little freaks. You know who you are.
I think a television commercial would go a long way to solving the SPAM problem. It could go something like this:
A montage of pictures begins popping-up on the screen, all black-and-white with faces squeezed in concern.
"I lost my house," one says.
"I lost my car."
"I lost my life savings."
An announcer's voice booms as the talking faces go mute. "Who are these people? The are people just like you who get unsolicited e-mails every day. E-mails from companies that appear legitimate, yet have hurt these people's lives."
"I lost my retirement; my retirement! What am I going to do now?"
The announcer continues. "It's called SPAM, and it can cost you your livelihood. All it takes for a few people to fall into their trap, and they get rich, while the victims go homeless. It happens every day. It can happent o anyone." A number pops-up on the screen. "If you are concerned about SPAM, contact this number to get more information. Find out who your representative is. Because if you don't do something about it soon, you'll be hearing more of this."
"I lost everything! What am I going to do?"
Perhaps a bit dramatic, and yet I think you get my point. Most people are going to say, "I'm not that stupid," and ignore it. Yet it educates. It keeps it in the mind of the public. Use advertising to combat bad advertising. It works.
I'm not a Microsoft fan. Far from it. I resent how a country is linking business to political concerns. If I were Microsoft, I would drop Isreal entirely. It is too costly now to do business with them if they are going to try to strong-arm Microsoft with politics.
Why are people assuming that to add Hebrew to the Macintosh version of Office is not going to cost Microsoft money? Because some writer said so? Is it because there are a few engineers who want to add it themselves? That would require that Microsoft give them the code for Office (presumably). Why would Microsoft do that?
To support Hebrew in Macintosh Office may cost Microsoft money, and they may have decided that it would cost them too much money to be worth it. Let's not try to see shadows everywhere without evidence. They may not be abusing their monopoly power at all in Isreal -- we simply aren't privy to all of the facts.
Instead of whining, perhaps Isreal should take a cue from Peru and move to Linux? That way they can add whatever they want because they already have the source code.
I see this a lot; everyone, stop bitching about Microsoft and do something about it. Move to Linux. Alter the open-source code yourself. By now, it should be entirely obvious that complaining to Microsoft is like throwing stones at Hoover Dam; they don't care, and why should they?
Slashdot Mirror
Great point! Much of our science is based on these hypotheses being taken for fact, particularly in the field of theoretical physics. Humans need to know, even when they don't!
When I read the story, I didn't even think about the religious aspect. I'm a devout Christian and evolution is just another one of God's miracles to me. I don't see why Creationism and Evolution are not compatible. After all, God did create Adam from the Earth. God is the master of code-reuse! :-) We can physically be made of the same stuff as all of the other creatures and still be spiritually distinct.
But this isn't the point of the story, really; we've already seen evidence of links between our bodies and behaviors to other creatures. This story just shows that the rods and cones in our eyes developed from certain types of brain cells. It isn't a religious discussion.
It will be interesting to see "mollecular fingerprinting" tell the entire story of our evolution over time. It will be like putting together the human genome!
Learn what Troll means. You're the one trolling here.
... spewing it on our country," yet you say you are "calmly hating me." If this is your calm, you'd have to be absolutely psychotic when you are angry! These are direct, personal attacks, petty name-calling and if you insist on harrassing me, I will report you. At the very least, I'm going to stop reading this thread.
/. to get called names. So, go away; vote for who you want to, show your opinion at the polls if you must!
You're out of control emotionally, based on the contradictions in your statement. You state that you are not a hateful person, yet you say I am the exact kind of "lying, sneering fraud [whom] I do HATE." You call me "full of crap,
Your opinion of me is meaningless and I don't come on to
And so the true Doc Ruby comes out. I counter his arguments and he can't counter them back so he has to go personal -- just like Kerry. He starts out pretending he is all academic with the flowery language -- just like Kerry -- and now, after minor discussion, melts-down into what he truly is: a frothing, hateful person.
Pray for the senator in disguise.
Where are those jobs he said he'd create with his tax cuts for the rich?
If I am making $30,000 a year and I am taxed at 10%, I am paying $3,000 a year. If I am making $70,000 a year and I am taxed at 10%, I am paying $7,000 a year. If I am making $300,000 a year and am taxed at 10%, I am paying $30,000 a year. The rich are taxed higher than the rest even after these cuts. The rich pay most of the taxed due to simple math -- you make more, you pay more. It isn't fair to tax the rich at any other rate than anyone else, jealousy be damned. They pay more money, what is the problem? There is no law that because they have more than you that they should give you a bigger share. That just makes a person not want to have more. Since America, for good or evil, is based upon consumption, that would undermine our capitalist system because the biggest consumers are the rich and they can't consume as much if you're taking more of their money. I'm not being hypocritical here -- I do think most people are rich by stealing and exploiting, but the math still holds up.
About the gay thing, it was wrong of Kerry to mention it. It was an obvious political stab. He could have mentioned anyone else and it makes him look like a rat, even if Chaney's daughter wore a sign.
Bush won the election in 2,000. Every recount proved it. He was defending himself against lawyers looking to abuse the system.
I do agree that Bush is too lenient on corporations. Corporations are the root of most evil today. My vote for Bush is relative, just like your vote for Kerry.
They did find that Saddam Hussein did fund Al Queda. So, there is a definite connection there. Granted, so does Iran, Syria, and the other 'stans, but all in due time. I think it is very reasonable to say that war is no time for sensitivity. Once a country declares war, and the congress did support that declaration, the country must win the war. Period. America takes unbelievable steps to avoid civilian casualties. The terrorists certainly do not work with such restrictions. Either we win the war or we lose it and we can't afford to lose it. Afghanistan is a resounding success, by the way -- they are having elections. We won in Afghanistan, there is no Taliban, that was our primary objective, now we're winning in Iraq.
No president is going to give "aid and comfort" to *the enemy*, unless you count Bush's protection of the Saudis, who funded the 9/11/2001 terrorists.
Don't confuse your Moore with reality. Moore's got a bone to pick with Bush. Bush told him to get a real job so now he's trying to get him back with lies.
There is a reason the terrorists are celebrating Kerry. They know that they'll win if we elect Kerry because we'll be the weasly, Liberal, apologetic nation they always thought we were, which is what embolded them in the first place to hit us with those planes.
By telling the terrorists in Iraq (and they are terrorists, as you've seen them perform acts of terror over there like killing those children) that we should not be fighting the war moralizes the enemy and demoralizes our troops. That leads to increased death of our soldiers and a higher likelyhood of failure, which we cannot afford. This is an act of betrayal. To betray one's country is gain the label of traitor. Therefore, Kerry is a traitor. Just because he is running for president and that people like him doesn't mean he isn't what he is.
Everything is relative -- I see what you mean.
:-P I know where he stands and I agree with more of Bush's philosophy than Kerry's -- that we cannot let the UN decide our fate because the UN is filled with teeth-gnashing people who wish they were us and want us to fail because humans love to see people on top topple. I know, as much as I don't like it, that we're going to have to expand the war on terrorism and start to bring out the bigger guns. I also know that we can't win any war at all by telling the enemy that we are doing the wrong thing. There's a reason fundamental Islamists are dancing in the street in support of Kerry (see the news, it's really happening!). Anyone who brings comfort to the aid of the enemy like the fundamental Islamist terrorists -- an enemy who attacked and killed 3000 innocent people on 9/11 -- is a traitor. Kerry is a traitor, how else do you define the word???
In the end, I find it hard to get too worked up about the world and money. I've worked in many different corporate environments and I have come to the conclusion that corporations are like schools -- glorified baby-sitters to keep us distracted during the day from something.
When I see Chaney, I think corporate right away. In fact, your reasoning is exactly why I started out months ago wanting to vote for Kerry. Unfortunately, his elitist attitude, back-handed, inappropriate comments about Chaney's daughter, constant shifting, and general evil demeanor turned me off. It's like Kerry has gone out of his way to make it hard for me to vote for him. Even his running mate and wife make it even worse. The last thing I need at the top is two lawyers. Lawyers are the reason America is falling apart.
Bush looks like a bungler, I know. But, his actions do not show bungling to me at all, dispite what the media says. I have a lot of the same demeanor as Bush, with the same personality, and I'm a friggin' super-genius so I don't hold that against him
How do you know that Kerry is only 75%, though? Are there numbers to back this up? Do you know where Kerry's money comes from? Is it all from Ketchup? Surely his Renoir's aren't /that/ valuable.
/more/ corporate than Bush based on the elitist attitude. He looks down at me, the middle-class, although I can quite his or his running mate's wife (I can't remember which) by stating that I don't think he's "worked an honest day in his life". Only the very young and naive can believe that, aside from a lottery or extremely good luck, that a person can amass that much wealth honestly, and I link dishonest with corporate. But, that is just an impression -- but we vote on impressions.
Liberal doesn't necessarily translate into anti-corporate. It seems that Kerry has a great deal of money and money pools in corporations. I actually get the impression that Kerry will be
(This is a great discussion!!)
Alright, a challenge, if you would: convince me that Kerry isn't every bit as corporate as Bush. Consider his wife, where his money comes, etc.
Isn't it interesting that, to build a protocol like SMTP that is open and trustful, that the makers are considered naive for being open and trustful? How does a person have a positive, trusting attitude without being a naive moron because people are so evil? This is one of the many behavior paradoxes that make me want to kick every human I see [kick, kick, thump].
If Martha Stewert had a shining, charismatic personality, she would have never seen a day in prison.
So... don't vote for Bush is how we start?
In my opinion, one of the most beautiful equations is the one that computes natural cubic splines. Given a set of knots (points) on a graph, this equation figures out a smooth curve between each point. This is called "curve-fitting". Very cool calculus, and it includes a tridiagonal matrix equation, which gives it extra beauty points! See this page for an excellent discussion on it:
Excellent. So, how do we begin?
Let's be fair -- technology is a very broad subject and nobody can know everything. A lot has to do with how a professional programs with a database. For example, a person may write applications that use an existing database for years, learning all kinds of complex queries and techniques without ever having the access to create an index. A professional is really one who gets paid to do something. I think a person who knows at least 80% of everything there is to know about a specific topic like MySQL would be called an "expert" instead.
/wasn't/ looking to learn!"
I totally agree on those books. When I'm going to look for a book and see the word "For Dummies", I think, "Hey, I'd be a dummy if I
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is our real champion in such matters. The government is useless in such matters because they cannot move fast enough.
I think we worry too much. It isn't like thousands of other patents haven't been enforceable for the same reason. It's just that Micro$oft did it this time. If they were to sue someone, which it would be hard to pick just one product out of the fray, the case would get so much attention that it would be the greatest business boon that person could ever hope for. Plus, the EFF will help, I wager, so relax and hope they sue for something so silly!
Hey, I (and damn near everyone else I've ever met) have been doing this for years. Should we sue Microsoft for taking our idea?
Well, yes; no doubt. I wasn't being an adult in college, although I was at an age where I could be put in jail. Now I am an adult, and regretting my posts. I didn't realize there would be consequences in 2002. I should have, yet I was too immature.
Your post kindof reminds me of the way I used to post. Please, be careful. I know that it seems like hurting me is fun. In fact, it probably is -- it was for me when I was 10 years younder, and as mature as most Slashdot users. Yet, keep in mind: this post will be around, possibly forever. You may not be able to imagine it now, but take a tip from me who is down that road already -- you'll regret it.
On the Google Newsgroups, if you search for "dprust", you'd find articles I wrote when I was a Freshman in college on newsgroups. Those aricles were flamebait; I was having fun with the idea, and I had an attitude problem at the time. Well, I still have an attitude problem -- it was just considerably worse!
Now, I worry about people doing searches on there and denying me jobs because of it. I was innocent, I tells ya; who would have thought back in 1992 that this would be around in 2002!!! I mean, I wasn't thinking about my future back then, I was screwing around with this new "news" program, and gettin' people's danders up.
I wish there was a way to remove those posts, but here isn't. I'm stuck with it, and the consequences of what I wrote as a child.
It's time to start a bee lobby in Washington and fight for these noble creatures. Let's give the bees minority status, and get them some special treatment. The cloning aristocracy must NOT keep the proleteriat bee down by exploting their resources. The time to act is NOW!
Okay, this has probably been said already on this board, yet I'm just sick and tired of going through so many lines of whining and crap that say, "Hey, we can't develop now," or, "This isn't fair -- he shouldn't be fined, it's wrong, wrong, wrong, I wanna put a mod-chip in my PS2, I wanna bunch of free games too, waah!"
Listen, kids, let's put this into a perspective you might be able to understand, okay? Let's say you put together a little book describing how much fun you had at your little sister's tea-party. Now, you spend your allowance money putting the books together, distributing them, paying your classmates who did pretty little drawings on each page, and promoting it by standing out in the hall wearing a tiny pink t-shirt that says, "Buy my book." And boy, was that t-shirt expensive.
Now, some other kid comes in and buys one of your books, takes it to a photocopier, and starts whipping off copies of the books, little pictures and all. Then, he goes to all your friends and says, "Hey, you can have this book cheaper; pay me instead!"
At this time, little Johnny Customer in the hall goes for the cheaper book. Little Johnny may not even know better -- he's just interested in the tea party, and he wants a deal. So, he pays the kid and the kid gets the money. You get no money for it, yet you made it. You lose your allowance. You lose your time. You lose your patience.
The kid didn't cross the line when he bought your book and copied it. He crossed the line when he started selling those copies to other kids. Because, now, you're out of your allowance, and any more candy money you might have gotten is but a dream.
Now, you get mad. You confront the kid who is selling your books. The kid sticks out his tongue, calls your sister names I dare not repeat and says, "What do you need the money for? You've already got lots of money."
"Listen, kid," you might reply. "I'll make you a deal, okay? If you're gonna be willing to go out there and sell these books for me, I'll help you make some money too. You can buy these books for a lot less than what you'll sell them for. That way, we both win."
The kid looks at you like you're insane. "No way! I don't have the money to buy your books! I'm gonna keep copying it. I make more money that way."
"But I don't make any money that way."
"Screw you," he yells. "You're a big kid with lots of money now. You owe me. You got it because you must have punched somebody in the schoolyard for it. All you rich kids do that."
"I made my allowance money fair and square --"
"Well, I don't have any money! I deserve money too. Why are you getting all the breaks, huh? Is your daddy rich?"
"No," you reply. "I worked my ass off for it. I wrote this book. Some of my friends drew the pictures, and they deserve to get something back for that."
The kid looks befuddled. He can't explain how things work because he still lives in his bedroom and doesn't do anything for a living yet. He's a whiney little bitch, while you are making something of your life. "I don't care. I'm doing this, and you can't stop me."
At that point, you punch the kid in the face, kick him a few times, and make an example of him. Lots of other kids form a circle wearing green shirts that say "Slashdot" on them and start chanting, "That's not fair! See? You're a big bully!"
Luckily, you're insane, so you keep making these books, even though these little parasites keep taking your due.
I suppose in a world like that, maybe the kids are right? Why work when you can whine, beg, and bitch on Slashdot while stealing another kids lunch money?
PS: Please, don't bother to reply if the best you can do is find a few spelling errors on here, alright? Go stick your head in the sandbox, you little freaks. You know who you are.
WTF; what is up with the nasty comments? Math geeks gettin' a little ornery in here. Place nice, kids.
I think a television commercial would go a long way to solving the SPAM problem. It could go something like this:
A montage of pictures begins popping-up on the screen, all black-and-white with faces squeezed in concern.
"I lost my house," one says.
"I lost my car."
"I lost my life savings."
An announcer's voice booms as the talking faces go mute. "Who are these people? The are people just like you who get unsolicited e-mails every day. E-mails from companies that appear legitimate, yet have hurt these people's lives."
"I lost my retirement; my retirement! What am I going to do now?"
The announcer continues. "It's called SPAM, and it can cost you your livelihood. All it takes for a few people to fall into their trap, and they get rich, while the victims go homeless. It happens every day. It can happent o anyone." A number pops-up on the screen. "If you are concerned about SPAM, contact this number to get more information. Find out who your representative is. Because if you don't do something about it soon, you'll be hearing more of this."
"I lost everything! What am I going to do?"
Perhaps a bit dramatic, and yet I think you get my point. Most people are going to say, "I'm not that stupid," and ignore it. Yet it educates. It keeps it in the mind of the public. Use advertising to combat bad advertising. It works.
I'm not a Microsoft fan. Far from it. I resent how a country is linking business to political concerns. If I were Microsoft, I would drop Isreal entirely. It is too costly now to do business with them if they are going to try to strong-arm Microsoft with politics.
Why are people assuming that to add Hebrew to the Macintosh version of Office is not going to cost Microsoft money? Because some writer said so? Is it because there are a few engineers who want to add it themselves? That would require that Microsoft give them the code for Office (presumably). Why would Microsoft do that?
To support Hebrew in Macintosh Office may cost Microsoft money, and they may have decided that it would cost them too much money to be worth it. Let's not try to see shadows everywhere without evidence. They may not be abusing their monopoly power at all in Isreal -- we simply aren't privy to all of the facts.
Instead of whining, perhaps Isreal should take a cue from Peru and move to Linux? That way they can add whatever they want because they already have the source code.
I see this a lot; everyone, stop bitching about Microsoft and do something about it. Move to Linux. Alter the open-source code yourself. By now, it should be entirely obvious that complaining to Microsoft is like throwing stones at Hoover Dam; they don't care, and why should they?
You're nothing to them.