"Just for the sake of playing devil's advocate and pedantry, if you don't run MS products how do you know your computer crashes less often?" Ahh, perhaps he used to run Windows, and now that he uses Linux he has noticed his computer crashes less often?
"Oh, so you're saying that you've never heard of a Macintosh before?" I *do* believe he was being sarcastic. The link to Apple's site really gives it away, as if it weren't obvious enough.
As a society, yes we do need to take a look at our pursuit of material goods. But I don't see much connection with buying this particular card and the third-world situation. Because most of "our basic consumer goods and foodstuffs" come from third-world countries, we shouldn't buy this card? Now, if it was shown that nvidia was exploiting third-world workers in sweatshop conditions ala Nike, then I would see your point.
I just don't know if I can buy this meteorite as absolute proof. It certainly suggests there's a high probability that life on Mars created the formations, but it doesn't guarantee it. Too many others things could be the cause and too many variable affected the meteorite....who's to say it didn't happen on earth? But now that we have this -good idea-, we should send a probe (or manned mission - pick me! pick me!) up to Mars to look for more rocks that exhibit this same formation and search for more conclusive proof.
I don't think man is meant to use slashdot. If God had wanted us to be able to waste our time talking about science with people around the world, he would have given us telepathic powers to have psychic chat rooms or something.
The pro-micropayment article had been temporarily removed when I tried to view it, so some of my questions may have been answered in there. I am not necessarily opposed to the idea of micropayments; if ads don't work there has to be some way for sites to stay in business, thats just economics. I don't know exactly what is meant by "micro"payments, but for the sake of this post I'll say sites charge about a quarter to view their content (sounds "micro" to me). Now, it would be a tremendous hassle to put in your credit card for a bunch of $0.25 transactions for every content site you look at. But what if ISPs charged just a little more than they do now, say $5.00 more, and the micropayments came out of that? I don't know exactly how that would work and I'm sure there are many obstacles, but I think that would be the most convenient way.
People always say that Napster is ripping off the artists, but that is not true. If you download music rather than buy it, if anything you are ripping off the RIAA and the record label. CDs cost almost $20 now, and from what I've heard they cost about 69 cents to manufacture, and the artist usually gets about one dollar. The rest of that and the vast majority fills the pockets of greedy corporations. I don't use Napster, personally, but I'm not saying it is or is not right to use it. That's a difficult question to answer, and I'm supposed to be working right now. hehe. But I think why the RIAA is so afraid of Napster and MP3s is that it allows artists to bypass them directly. I could, if I had ANY musical talent, produce my music and distribute it and make profit on it without the RIAA or a record label at all. I advocate supporting independent artists such as this and not supporting the RIAA. Most of the popular artists are shallow, emotionless copycat crap anyway. IMHO of course.;)
What I consider important, and all that I consider important, is that this kid did what he did on his own time and without school resources. Was it immature? Yes. Should he have done it? Probably not. Does the school have the right to restrict it's students right to free speech when they're not even in school? ABSOLUTELY NOT! And I find it difficult to believe that there are people here who would think the school has that right. Basically the kid got suspended because the principal didn't like his webpage (and rightly so, it was mocking him), but what if the kid was advocating the Democratic party, and the principal is a Republican? Could he be suspended for advocating an opinion the principal deemed offensive? I doubt THAT would happen, but the hyperbole helps us see how assinine this really is.
What he means is that your argument is that protesting what he felt was injustice from his principal was not in the spirit of the Constitution, but that very Constitution was protesting what the colonists thought was injustice from the British. You think the kid was out of line, the British thought the colonists were out of line. So it's ironic you don't think the kid's protest was "in the spirit" of the Constitution when the Constitution's spirit is and always has been about freedom of speech and expression, and the right to protest injustice.
We have lots of cassette singles at most stores here (Montana), and I used to buy them occassionally when my car didn't have a CD Player because they were much cheaper, but now I don't buy them because I do have a CD player in my car and its more hassle than its worth to listen to them only at home. I still see them as promo things a lot, and bands still release promo only stuff on them, and when I was in California Rasputin Music used to have free promo cassettes or unknown bands and stuff. I think they still have a place, albeit a minor niche.
*sigh* I think that's why we have seen the demise of the adventure game genre, which are the only kind of games I ever really enjoyed. People find these kind of games slow, and boring if they make you think. However, I and a lot of other adventure, turn-based, etc. fans find games like Quake, etc. boring.
Slashdot Mirror
"Just for the sake of playing devil's advocate and pedantry, if you don't run MS products how do you know your computer crashes less often?" Ahh, perhaps he used to run Windows, and now that he uses Linux he has noticed his computer crashes less often?
"Oh, so you're saying that you've never heard of a Macintosh before?" I *do* believe he was being sarcastic. The link to Apple's site really gives it away, as if it weren't obvious enough.
As a society, yes we do need to take a look at our pursuit of material goods. But I don't see much connection with buying this particular card and the third-world situation. Because most of "our basic consumer goods and foodstuffs" come from third-world countries, we shouldn't buy this card? Now, if it was shown that nvidia was exploiting third-world workers in sweatshop conditions ala Nike, then I would see your point.
I just don't know if I can buy this meteorite as absolute proof. It certainly suggests there's a high probability that life on Mars created the formations, but it doesn't guarantee it. Too many others things could be the cause and too many variable affected the meteorite....who's to say it didn't happen on earth? But now that we have this -good idea-, we should send a probe (or manned mission - pick me! pick me!) up to Mars to look for more rocks that exhibit this same formation and search for more conclusive proof.
I don't think man is meant to use slashdot. If God had wanted us to be able to waste our time talking about science with people around the world, he would have given us telepathic powers to have psychic chat rooms or something.
The pro-micropayment article had been temporarily removed when I tried to view it, so some of my questions may have been answered in there. I am not necessarily opposed to the idea of micropayments; if ads don't work there has to be some way for sites to stay in business, thats just economics. I don't know exactly what is meant by "micro"payments, but for the sake of this post I'll say sites charge about a quarter to view their content (sounds "micro" to me). Now, it would be a tremendous hassle to put in your credit card for a bunch of $0.25 transactions for every content site you look at. But what if ISPs charged just a little more than they do now, say $5.00 more, and the micropayments came out of that? I don't know exactly how that would work and I'm sure there are many obstacles, but I think that would be the most convenient way.
People always say that Napster is ripping off the artists, but that is not true. If you download music rather than buy it, if anything you are ripping off the RIAA and the record label. CDs cost almost $20 now, and from what I've heard they cost about 69 cents to manufacture, and the artist usually gets about one dollar. The rest of that and the vast majority fills the pockets of greedy corporations. I don't use Napster, personally, but I'm not saying it is or is not right to use it. That's a difficult question to answer, and I'm supposed to be working right now. hehe. But I think why the RIAA is so afraid of Napster and MP3s is that it allows artists to bypass them directly. I could, if I had ANY musical talent, produce my music and distribute it and make profit on it without the RIAA or a record label at all. I advocate supporting independent artists such as this and not supporting the RIAA. Most of the popular artists are shallow, emotionless copycat crap anyway. IMHO of course. ;)
What I consider important, and all that I consider important, is that this kid did what he did on his own time and without school resources. Was it immature? Yes. Should he have done it? Probably not. Does the school have the right to restrict it's students right to free speech when they're not even in school? ABSOLUTELY NOT! And I find it difficult to believe that there are people here who would think the school has that right. Basically the kid got suspended because the principal didn't like his webpage (and rightly so, it was mocking him), but what if the kid was advocating the Democratic party, and the principal is a Republican? Could he be suspended for advocating an opinion the principal deemed offensive? I doubt THAT would happen, but the hyperbole helps us see how assinine this really is.
What he means is that your argument is that protesting what he felt was injustice from his principal was not in the spirit of the Constitution, but that very Constitution was protesting what the colonists thought was injustice from the British. You think the kid was out of line, the British thought the colonists were out of line. So it's ironic you don't think the kid's protest was "in the spirit" of the Constitution when the Constitution's spirit is and always has been about freedom of speech and expression, and the right to protest injustice.
We have lots of cassette singles at most stores here (Montana), and I used to buy them occassionally when my car didn't have a CD Player because they were much cheaper, but now I don't buy them because I do have a CD player in my car and its more hassle than its worth to listen to them only at home. I still see them as promo things a lot, and bands still release promo only stuff on them, and when I was in California Rasputin Music used to have free promo cassettes or unknown bands and stuff. I think they still have a place, albeit a minor niche.
ROCK ON MAN! King's Quest kicks ass! (Along with all those other early Sierra games.....ahh, nostalgia).
*sigh* I think that's why we have seen the demise of the adventure game genre, which are the only kind of games I ever really enjoyed. People find these kind of games slow, and boring if they make you think. However, I and a lot of other adventure, turn-based, etc. fans find games like Quake, etc. boring.