I've been hearing about that live album for years. Will believe it when I see it. As for Oh My God, I almost died when I heard it. I hope to God that GNR's not gone electronica. That crap scared me.
Slash was the real genius of that band; he wrote, played, and sang. Axl has a one in a million voice, and is a fantastic frontman, but their best epic stuff (Don't Cry, November Rain, Estranged, etc) came from Axl and Slash together. Their best hardcore rock came from Slash (Think About You, Mr. Brownstone, etc). Don't get me wrong, GNR will be a force again, but without Slash they're a ghost of what they were.
And if you liked that Top 100 videos stuff, you've gotta by Guns N Roses "Welcome to the Videos." Make a trip to amazon.com, and cough up the $18 or so. It's all their videos (minus Civil War for some reason) with NO commercials, NO Carson Daily, and no interruptions of any kind. I love it.
Hrm... how about all still-active slashdot posters with ID's 500? The Orignial Public Relations People;-).
Or how about anyone who's been active on irc.debian.org #debian helping newbies?
About the IPO itself... this is fantastic. I really think this could be even more significant that Redhat. And it's a much more sound investment. VA has turned a profit; Redhat hasn't. VA is working with an industry-tested model (direct PC manufacture/delivery), whereas Redhat is in uncharted waters (selling free software). And VA has grown faster than Dell its first months.
I'm buying; I just hope I can pull together the pennies. Donations are welcome, of course;-).
I don't claim to be an expert in political science, or much of anything else, but I've read more on it than probably 95% of the population has, and I'm minoring in it at school. The basic, fundamental TRUTH to politics is that it's a means to an end; no matter the system, the FINAL END is always a happy functional society, where everyone has everything they could ever need. No poor, no war: that about sums it up.
Socialism and Capitalism just take different (drastically different) approaches to achieving the SAME end. Socialism says, "start everyone off under government-enforced equallity, and eventually the need for government will disappear." This (falsely) assumes that everyone will be motivated to be a good citizen, and contribute to the good of the nation, rather than just themselves. Capitalism is 180 degrees different; it assumes people are inherintly selfish, and will better their OWN situation. As this happens, it boosts the economy, and betters the situation of others. Eventually, everyone's happy. This is also bullshit; however, because it's based on a true assumption (we're selfish bastards at heart), it's closer to fully functional, and it's the system that works best in practice.
You can spew as much socialist crap as you want; but until you change the basic nature of man to be such that we seek to better the lives of OTHERS before our own, it's JUST NOT GOING TO WORK IN PRACTICE. Come on, free software developers are as selfish as Mother Teresa was. They want a working system, and want to do something they enjoy. She wanted to better her chances of getting in to Heaven, and wanted to feel good about herself. Every motivation for everything we DO is selfish, if you look deep enough. And until this changes, man just ain't gonna be able to function in a pure socialist society.
CNN is now saying that the reaction may still be going on. Citizens are told to stay indoors, and this thing may reach critical mass (imminent self-sustaining meltdown) within hours.
I'm no expert by any means, but I'm guessing that Japan's geographic isolation is a Real Good Thing right about now...
...aright, to start, I'm not a "geek," and personally, I find the term degrading. But I'm reasonably bright, can program, and enjoy doing it. I'm sure as hell not autistic. I party, drink, run up amazing phone bills, play soccer, raquetball, guitar, and still keep a respectable 2.9 in Computer Engineering at one of the hardest engineering schools in the nation.
What's my point? Well, I think the media is missing the fact that some of us are damn good at what we do, but don't let it consume us. That's not healthy, no matter WHAT your occupation/hobby/etc. I get the feeling that the only people who get noticed are those who are slightly abnormal in terms of POPULAR ACTIVITIES, and are noticed BECAUSE of their "abnormality". Hardly grounds for suggesting ALL or even MOST or even A HIGH PERCENTAGE of "smart" people are disabled. Sure, there's autistic computer people out there. Just like autistic artists or musicians. But the percentages are damn near enough to equal. Fact is, a lot of computer nerds just don't get out much - that doesn't make them autistic, just antisocial; and it's their loss to be living in a shell rather than experiencing life. My point of view on it, simply put, is "who the hell cares?" If they don't wanna ever leave their bedroom, more power to 'em. They're big boys and girls; they can live however they chose as long as they stay confined by the laws of their country. If talking about DSL and C++ and kernel development floats their boat, I couldn't care less.
Come on, folks. Anyone know the names Saul Hudson, or James Hetfield? Y'all should... Guitarists and vocalists for Guns 'N' Roses and Metallica. Spent 10 hours a day as kids playing guitar, and nobody called THEM autistic. Just because someone has a hobby doesn't make them "strange", so long as they do other things, too. Everybody marches to a different drummer, but it doesn't make them disabled, or even "strange". Nobody critizes the kid who spends 5 hours a day shooting hoops (Michael Jordan ring a bell, anyone?). Or for playing guitar. Or for lifting weights for hours on end. Why go and suggest that people who -do whatever- are diseased just because YOU don't like their hobby? As long as they get out a bit, who cares, and who has a right to say anything?
I've also gotta wonder if we're not responsible for some of this ourselves... some of you older slashdot readers prob'ly remember me... I've pretty much drifted out of the discussions here, because they've taken on a dangerous "me GEEK! me BETTER than you" tone. Come on, put down your caveman clubs and open your eyes to the fact that other people are allowed to have other interests... in my not-so-humble opinion, it's no damn wonder that people tend to label you, persecute you, and suggest that you're mentally ill... you've got to drop the eleetist attitude, and join the real world... there's more than enough room for everybody. Except for snobs, and you all are just not welcome. Respect the rights of others to have other interests, and realize that they probably don't care about yours, AND THAT THIS IS OK, and the world will be a much better place. Those of you who scream "dumb jock, dumb business major, dumb dumb dumb" are as bad as those who scream "hey, hit the dork, hit the dork!" Get over yourselves already.
VA Tech has some really intelligent people on staff, most of whom are in the computer engineering department... the CS department, on the other hand, has from my experience left a little to be desired. Don't get me wrong, I've met some good CS professors, but most have a big note on their syllabus "THe only compiler supported by this course is VC++ 6.0 - you will only recieve credit if your work compiles on Windows NT with VC++ 6.0. All documentation must be submitted in MS Word '97 format."
Really sucks for me; I've got to write program and docs, then reboot just to submit them. Of course, they made the submission app in Java2, and used some lovely Windows specific extensions.
They claim to support *BSD, but in fact some profs have been actively discouraging it, with comments like, "well, use it if you want, but it's easier to use windows because that's what we have in the labs."
Ok, enough of my rant. Gotta reboot to test build a project, then click "submit" in this applet:-(.
Rob, if UserX is an obvious troll, and used a login account (the particular one in question did), why not get his real email address (the one you send account passwords to), and send him a warning. Then, why not give the rest of us a shot at warning him, too? Easy enough to put a quick post under his that says, "hey guys, I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this opinion, but I think it's worded strongly enough that some of you may want to carry the conversation further, OUTSIDE this thread." Honestly... aside from a spam guard, or glaring need for anonymity (sp?), everyone should be making email addresses visible anyway, if for no other reason than to add credibility to their argument.
If ya ask me, all user account trolls should have email made public, and the login account disabled. You have just grounds for doing it; anyone willing to make such stupid comments should be held accountable for them.
As for anonymous trolls, just ban more than 1 post every X minutes from every IP. Trolls don't have 20 minutes to post 5 comments... they'll post once, get denied once, and go away. Real comments (at least the useful ones) take more than X minutes to type out, so no problem there. And if a dialup user is assigned an ex-troll's IP, he can wait X minutes for it to clear again.
Just 2 cents from a longtime reader who's getting tired of watching idiots ruin a good thing for everyone...
Um... isn't the very nature of the internet itself such that there is no collection of Special Documents? I mean, isn't the very nature of the internet defined by the existance of "Joe's Dog's Homepage", "My Resume" and "My favorite links" pages?
Honestly, what makes Cathedral and Bazzar so special in terms of the internet, anyways? It's a 5 or 6 page paper. It describes the nature of Open Source Software, and does that quite well. Sure, it exists on the internet, but that makes it no more relevant than the thousands of Geocities pages.
If you've got to find some kind of What Makes The Internet What It Is Today collection, look no further than the USA's Bill of Rights, and the results of it's existance - the ability of anyone to say anything, and be heard when they do it. That's the one and ONLY thing that separates Internet from Radio and Print Media, when you get right down to it. Live radio is instantaneous, free, and widely available, but content censored. Print Media is more or less free and open, but wide distribution is near impossible (without a HUGE bankroll or LOTS of time), and it's almost never up-to-the-second current.
Hrm... did I have a point in all this? Damn... I forgot!
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No, NO a thousand times, NO!
on
GEEK Unions?
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NO, NO, NO! A thousand times, NO!
The two obvious (and historically most effective) types of 'organizations' Katz seems to be talking about are Labor/Trade Unions, and Political Parties. They each suck, in their own special ways. Neither meshes well with Katz's cliche'd "internet culture", either.
First, the Union. A group of like (and often simple) minded people, joined together to further a common goal, and direct the will of The Management. Unions have lost much of their luster and power these days, for several reasons. The most common is that in general, they have outlived their usefullness. Unions were originally founded to fight for human working conditions and above-poverty wages for steel and mine workers. Strikers and members in general had to be willing to FIGHT for what they wanted, often physically. They had to be willing to risk their jobs if Management stood out a strike. Fact is, for someone to be willing to do this, their job has to be pretty much a piece of shit. I just can't see Joe Happy Web Master going to twice weekly meetings, holding candlelight vigils, or going on strike, let alone beating the hell out of anyone who dares cross him. Sorry folks, but Joe Happy Web Master and his cousin Bill Happy Programmer can't complain about much more than their company car being a Saturn rather than a BMW. They're not going to fight when they've already WON, in the grand scheme of things (stock options, flex hours, cars, money, casual dress, desk job in A/C). Unions also have also just flat out become obsolete for most professions, with a few noted exceptions. A coal miner is a coal miner is a coal miner, no matter where, or what title he's given, and at the Union heyday, there were lots and lots of coal miners. Now, a C programmer refuses to associate with a "webmaster" who doesn't like a "HTML monkey" who hates "java jockeys" etc. There's just not enough broad-band "tech master" type positions out there. You'd be hard pressed to get 50 techies in a room to even agree on a cause to fight for, let alone support eachtother in fighting for it.
Next, the Political Party. A group of people sharing a common general view of government in its ideal shape. This doesn't fit exceptionally well in this case, but because it was brought up in above posts, I'll ramble about it. A successful Tech Party is even less likely than a Tech Union, because of the over-specialization thing, again. For techs, it's not a question of "left wing" or "right wing", it's much more often "how many bits of encryption" or "how many visas". You'll never see a stable party platform with no BIG planks in; especially when the one or two BIG planks are still not important to the voting masses. No support == no success == no party. The other big problem is that most techs are already politically aware, and lean towards one of the major parties (at least, in the USA). You'll not tear enough of them away, because a Tech Party just woudln't have a stand on IMPORTANT issues, like "right to die" "abortion" "death penalty", etc. Political parties generally preach IDEALS (ex: "big govt" and "little govt"), while Tech Party would preach a few selected special issues. It would have about as much success as a Farmers of America political party. That is to say, not enough to count.
So, what CAN we do? That's easy. Work the system. Over and under, inside and out. Call your representatives, write editorials, explain yourself to the layman down the street. Make yourself heard as an INDIVIDUAL; and you'll win over the MASSES. We're a varried group; too much so to band together as a Union or Party. But, when a bunch of INDIVIDUALS speak their mind, people take notice, and the popular opinion IS acknowledged. More importantly, the popular opinion is BENT. Slashdot as a case-in-point, anyone?
Can you believe this guy? He finds Matilda too objectionable to even review... and it's one of the best kids movies put out in well, forever! A choice quote:
"I recommend you avoid exposing you child(ren) toMatilda if you can. I found this movie to be yet another example of the subliminal style of child abuse from the entertainment media. If this movie makes you as a parent uncomfortable, it should!"
The only thing he liked was Mary Poppins. Which surprises me, it involved evils such as levitation, death, fantasy, hero worship, and the use of the name Mary, which obviously is slander against the Blessed Virgin.
Hehe... I ought to write a review of that... I'm damn good at this, if I do say so myself;-)
Heh... if you're willing to commit in writing to doing this, up to RMS's specs, you might just be able to weasel a loaner machine. BUT, nobody's gonna take you seriously with a.aol.com address, and no linux experience.
I'm not sure if the govt could stop a company from, say, GIVING stock to a few select "employees". Put them on payroll for a 1 day "temp" position, and that would cover it.
Now, whether Red Hat would be willing to do such a thing is another story entirely...
When they want a "call for features", open your mouths! If CTP and Alpha Centauri are going to get replaced by this, it's gotta be GOOD... do your part by telling them what's good/bad/needed...
Woah... Rob, you realize you've got more hits than there are people in most countries? Me thinks you deserve a big pat on the back, along with Hemos, Nate, and everyone else who put in time/effort before the corporate sponsorship, ad banners, and Block Stackers existed.
I normally don't presume to speak for anyone but myself, but I think I'm safe here, when I say, on behalf of everybody, many many thanks for all the hard work.
Where else in the world does the Papa Johns delivery guy ask if he can hop on your computer to check his email;-)? (Hrm... Dino's was better pizza... sucks that they closed... Triple Treat was a gift from God...)
Hang on a sec. A pen and ink sig can be verified by a handwriting expert. An electronic sig would have to be gauranteed by strong cryptography, most likely in the form of a PGP-ish key of some kind. Whoops... my bad... the same government that wants to use electronic sigs is also actively trying to stomp strong crypto...
Until we have legal, government-encouraged, secure (Ex: no key escrow repository) crypto, the electronic signiature is worth no more than a name pecked out on an old typewriter. No if's and's or but's about it, electronic sigs would be great, but until the strong crypto to ensure their validity is in place legally and widely, they're not going to happen, unless in some insecure half-assed form that would be bad news for everyone.
Here's a new one on the dangers of "copycats". This scares me. To quote,
Schools need to be on the lookout for "students who are angry or alienated," says Carroll, adding that special attention now needs to be paid to what children are doing on the Internet. Parents have to know what their kids are doing," Carroll says. "We felt that about alcohol, we felt that about drugs and we now feel that about the Internet."
This man misses the point. Totally. The reason this HAPPENED is because people fear, shun, and harass those and that which they don't understand. If my high school was "on the lookout" when I was there, I'd have never been allowed to graduate. I'm guessing quite a few of the slashdot readers would be in the same situation. It's NOT the internet, it's NOT the lack of popularity, although they're certainly the most easy to blame, and were possibly secondary contributions. The real 'reason' this happened is a combination of bad parenting (not seeing your kids worship hitler and build bombs), ever-present hatred towards other people (man is not wired to deal with it - there's a big difference between being NOT POPULAR and CONSTANT PERSECUTION), and the fact that something deep inside those boys just plain snapped.
The media needs to realize this, and STOP THE WITCHHUNT before it causes someone to get seriously hurt at the hands of "concerned classmates". That is, if it hasn't happened already.
Heh... what the media needs to do is call me... I'll give 'em an earful....;-)
I think you somehow missed my point. Maybe the parents are excellent PEOPLE. They might be wonderful brothers/sisters/etc. But they did a poor job of raising children. These boys worshipped Hitler. They built bombs. In the GARAGE of the house the parents shared with them! Come on, how much clue does it take to say "hrm... maybe my son building lethal explosives isn't a good thing"? How about making videos for school saying they want to kill everyone? This isn't a cause for alarm? I'm sorry for the parents loss. I really am. I'm sorry the whole thing ever happened. But the fact is, they missed way, way too many warning signs, let these kids slip too far into the world inside their head, and if anyone should have been able to prevent this tragedy, they should have.
Look, it's a really simple thing to understand. If Duke Nukem, Marylin Manson, Black Sabbath, or the internet is the biggest influence in a child's life, the parents are obviously not doing their job. The idea that the internet is somehow responsible for this is as funamentally insane as the act itself. If one wishes to blame anyone for this, it seems that they should be pointing at the parents of these boys, who apparently didn't notice or care that their sons were hoarding weapons, building bombs, or developing into bitter, hating, racist adults. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be overly blunt, but this stuff DOES NOT happen overnight.
Asking to government to ban this, that, or the other thing to prevent these acts of voilence won't solve the REAL problem: unbalanced kids with no parents or positive role models in their lives. Banning the guns might help, but there's still 1001 potential murder weapons in every kitchen in America. If children aren't raised to respect life, separate FICTION and ENTERTAINMENT from REALITY, and obey the laws of the land in which they live, the problem will never totally disappear, only keep changing shape. The only way kids will learn to do these things is if parents teach them to. The government just doesn't have the reach/power/ability/right to teach morals and such - it's got to start in the home.
If parents would raise their children right, teach them the difference between "real life" and "lets pretend", take them to church, and be role models instead of babysitters, we'd all be much better off. It's easy - if you don't want your children looking at porn, teach them it's wrong and disrespectful to women. If you don't want them building bombs, teach them life is to be respected. If you want them to grow up to be mature responsible adults, TEACH THEM. Don't ask the government to do it, or the school system, or anyone else. Parents should be the biggest influence in a child's life. End of story.
Oh, don't worry, I'm still here, still posting. Just have a coop job that actually -gasp- keeps me busy, so I don't have 7 hours a day to post to slashdot. Check the "user info" stuff - you can track people that way... I've not written any novellas lately or anything, but I've not disappeared.
Slashdot suggestion: Poster Watch. Make a slashbox allowing one to track the last X number of posts by a registered user. Watch for me, MEEPT, Bruce Perens, whoever...
Slashdot Mirror
I've been hearing about that live album for years. Will believe it when I see it. As for Oh My God, I almost died when I heard it. I hope to God that GNR's not gone electronica. That crap scared me.
Slash was the real genius of that band; he wrote, played, and sang. Axl has a one in a million voice, and is a fantastic frontman, but their best epic stuff (Don't Cry, November Rain, Estranged, etc) came from Axl and Slash together. Their best hardcore rock came from Slash (Think About You, Mr. Brownstone, etc). Don't get me wrong, GNR will be a force again, but without Slash they're a ghost of what they were.
And if you liked that Top 100 videos stuff, you've gotta by Guns N Roses "Welcome to the Videos." Make a trip to amazon.com, and cough up the $18 or so. It's all their videos (minus Civil War for some reason) with NO commercials, NO Carson Daily, and no interruptions of any kind. I love it.
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Or how about anyone who's been active on irc.debian.org #debian helping newbies?
About the IPO itself... this is fantastic. I really think this could be even more significant that Redhat. And it's a much more sound investment. VA has turned a profit; Redhat hasn't. VA is working with an industry-tested model (direct PC manufacture/delivery), whereas Redhat is in uncharted waters (selling free software). And VA has grown faster than Dell its first months.
I'm buying; I just hope I can pull together the pennies. Donations are welcome, of course
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I don't claim to be an expert in political science, or much of anything else, but I've read more on it than probably 95% of the population has, and I'm minoring in it at school. The basic, fundamental TRUTH to politics is that it's a means to an end; no matter the system, the FINAL END is always a happy functional society, where everyone has everything they could ever need. No poor, no war: that about sums it up.
Socialism and Capitalism just take different (drastically different) approaches to achieving the SAME end. Socialism says, "start everyone off under government-enforced equallity, and eventually the need for government will disappear." This (falsely) assumes that everyone will be motivated to be a good citizen, and contribute to the good of the nation, rather than just themselves. Capitalism is 180 degrees different; it assumes people are inherintly selfish, and will better their OWN situation. As this happens, it boosts the economy, and betters the situation of others. Eventually, everyone's happy. This is also bullshit; however, because it's based on a true assumption (we're selfish bastards at heart), it's closer to fully functional, and it's the system that works best in practice.
You can spew as much socialist crap as you want; but until you change the basic nature of man to be such that we seek to better the lives of OTHERS before our own, it's JUST NOT GOING TO WORK IN PRACTICE. Come on, free software developers are as selfish as Mother Teresa was. They want a working system, and want to do something they enjoy. She wanted to better her chances of getting in to Heaven, and wanted to feel good about herself. Every motivation for everything we DO is selfish, if you look deep enough. And until this changes, man just ain't gonna be able to function in a pure socialist society.
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I'm no expert by any means, but I'm guessing that Japan's geographic isolation is a Real Good Thing right about now...
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What's my point? Well, I think the media is missing the fact that some of us are damn good at what we do, but don't let it consume us. That's not healthy, no matter WHAT your occupation/hobby/etc. I get the feeling that the only people who get noticed are those who are slightly abnormal in terms of POPULAR ACTIVITIES, and are noticed BECAUSE of their "abnormality". Hardly grounds for suggesting ALL or even MOST or even A HIGH PERCENTAGE of "smart" people are disabled. Sure, there's autistic computer people out there. Just like autistic artists or musicians. But the percentages are damn near enough to equal. Fact is, a lot of computer nerds just don't get out much - that doesn't make them autistic, just antisocial; and it's their loss to be living in a shell rather than experiencing life. My point of view on it, simply put, is "who the hell cares?" If they don't wanna ever leave their bedroom, more power to 'em. They're big boys and girls; they can live however they chose as long as they stay confined by the laws of their country. If talking about DSL and C++ and kernel development floats their boat, I couldn't care less.
Come on, folks. Anyone know the names Saul Hudson, or James Hetfield? Y'all should... Guitarists and vocalists for Guns 'N' Roses and Metallica. Spent 10 hours a day as kids playing guitar, and nobody called THEM autistic. Just because someone has a hobby doesn't make them "strange", so long as they do other things, too. Everybody marches to a different drummer, but it doesn't make them disabled, or even "strange". Nobody critizes the kid who spends 5 hours a day shooting hoops (Michael Jordan ring a bell, anyone?). Or for playing guitar. Or for lifting weights for hours on end. Why go and suggest that people who -do whatever- are diseased just because YOU don't like their hobby? As long as they get out a bit, who cares, and who has a right to say anything?
I've also gotta wonder if we're not responsible for some of this ourselves... some of you older slashdot readers prob'ly remember me... I've pretty much drifted out of the discussions here, because they've taken on a dangerous "me GEEK! me BETTER than you" tone. Come on, put down your caveman clubs and open your eyes to the fact that other people are allowed to have other interests... in my not-so-humble opinion, it's no damn wonder that people tend to label you, persecute you, and suggest that you're mentally ill... you've got to drop the eleetist attitude, and join the real world... there's more than enough room for everybody. Except for snobs, and you all are just not welcome. Respect the rights of others to have other interests, and realize that they probably don't care about yours, AND THAT THIS IS OK, and the world will be a much better place. Those of you who scream "dumb jock, dumb business major, dumb dumb dumb" are as bad as those who scream "hey, hit the dork, hit the dork!" Get over yourselves already.
/rant
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Really sucks for me; I've got to write program and docs, then reboot just to submit them. Of course, they made the submission app in Java2, and used some lovely Windows specific extensions.
They claim to support *BSD, but in fact some profs have been actively discouraging it, with comments like, "well, use it if you want, but it's easier to use windows because that's what we have in the labs."
Ok, enough of my rant. Gotta reboot to test build a project, then click "submit" in this applet
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If ya ask me, all user account trolls should have email made public, and the login account disabled. You have just grounds for doing it; anyone willing to make such stupid comments should be held accountable for them.
As for anonymous trolls, just ban more than 1 post every X minutes from every IP. Trolls don't have 20 minutes to post 5 comments... they'll post once, get denied once, and go away. Real comments (at least the useful ones) take more than X minutes to type out, so no problem there. And if a dialup user is assigned an ex-troll's IP, he can wait X minutes for it to clear again.
Just 2 cents from a longtime reader who's getting tired of watching idiots ruin a good thing for everyone...
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Honestly, what makes Cathedral and Bazzar so special in terms of the internet, anyways? It's a 5 or 6 page paper. It describes the nature of Open Source Software, and does that quite well. Sure, it exists on the internet, but that makes it no more relevant than the thousands of Geocities pages.
If you've got to find some kind of What Makes The Internet What It Is Today collection, look no further than the USA's Bill of Rights, and the results of it's existance - the ability of anyone to say anything, and be heard when they do it. That's the one and ONLY thing that separates Internet from Radio and Print Media, when you get right down to it. Live radio is instantaneous, free, and widely available, but content censored. Print Media is more or less free and open, but wide distribution is near impossible (without a HUGE bankroll or LOTS of time), and it's almost never up-to-the-second current.
Hrm... did I have a point in all this? Damn... I forgot!
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The two obvious (and historically most effective) types of 'organizations' Katz seems to be talking about are Labor/Trade Unions, and Political Parties. They each suck, in their own special ways. Neither meshes well with Katz's cliche'd "internet culture", either.
First, the Union. A group of like (and often simple) minded people, joined together to further a common goal, and direct the will of The Management. Unions have lost much of their luster and power these days, for several reasons. The most common is that in general, they have outlived their usefullness. Unions were originally founded to fight for human working conditions and above-poverty wages for steel and mine workers. Strikers and members in general had to be willing to FIGHT for what they wanted, often physically. They had to be willing to risk their jobs if Management stood out a strike. Fact is, for someone to be willing to do this, their job has to be pretty much a piece of shit. I just can't see Joe Happy Web Master going to twice weekly meetings, holding candlelight vigils, or going on strike, let alone beating the hell out of anyone who dares cross him. Sorry folks, but Joe Happy Web Master and his cousin Bill Happy Programmer can't complain about much more than their company car being a Saturn rather than a BMW. They're not going to fight when they've already WON, in the grand scheme of things (stock options, flex hours, cars, money, casual dress, desk job in A/C). Unions also have also just flat out become obsolete for most professions, with a few noted exceptions. A coal miner is a coal miner is a coal miner, no matter where, or what title he's given, and at the Union heyday, there were lots and lots of coal miners. Now, a C programmer refuses to associate with a "webmaster" who doesn't like a "HTML monkey" who hates "java jockeys" etc. There's just not enough broad-band "tech master" type positions out there. You'd be hard pressed to get 50 techies in a room to even agree on a cause to fight for, let alone support eachtother in fighting for it.
Next, the Political Party. A group of people sharing a common general view of government in its ideal shape. This doesn't fit exceptionally well in this case, but because it was brought up in above posts, I'll ramble about it. A successful Tech Party is even less likely than a Tech Union, because of the over-specialization thing, again. For techs, it's not a question of "left wing" or "right wing", it's much more often "how many bits of encryption" or "how many visas". You'll never see a stable party platform with no BIG planks in; especially when the one or two BIG planks are still not important to the voting masses. No support == no success == no party. The other big problem is that most techs are already politically aware, and lean towards one of the major parties (at least, in the USA). You'll not tear enough of them away, because a Tech Party just woudln't have a stand on IMPORTANT issues, like "right to die" "abortion" "death penalty", etc. Political parties generally preach IDEALS (ex: "big govt" and "little govt"), while Tech Party would preach a few selected special issues. It would have about as much success as a Farmers of America political party. That is to say, not enough to count.
So, what CAN we do? That's easy. Work the system. Over and under, inside and out. Call your representatives, write editorials, explain yourself to the layman down the street. Make yourself heard as an INDIVIDUAL; and you'll win over the MASSES. We're a varried group; too much so to band together as a Union or Party. But, when a bunch of INDIVIDUALS speak their mind, people take notice, and the popular opinion IS acknowledged. More importantly, the popular opinion is BENT. Slashdot as a case-in-point, anyone?
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"I recommend you avoid exposing you child(ren) toMatilda if you can. I found this movie to be yet another example of the subliminal
style of child abuse from the entertainment media. If this movie makes you as a parent uncomfortable, it should!"
The only thing he liked was Mary Poppins. Which surprises me, it involved evils such as levitation, death, fantasy, hero worship, and the use of the name Mary, which obviously is slander against the Blessed Virgin.
Hehe... I ought to write a review of that... I'm damn good at this, if I do say so myself
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Malda, you need a girlfriend
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Now, whether Red Hat would be willing to do such a thing is another story entirely...
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"NPL
easy as
1
2
3
now you all
work
for
me
"
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New slashdot suggestion: If a post is marked flamebait by 500 moderators, kill it totally...
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I normally don't presume to speak for anyone but myself, but I think I'm safe here, when I say, on behalf of everybody, many many thanks for all the hard work.
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Where else in the world does the Papa Johns delivery guy ask if he can hop on your computer to check his email
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Until we have legal, government-encouraged, secure (Ex: no key escrow repository) crypto, the electronic signiature is worth no more than a name pecked out on an old typewriter. No if's and's or but's about it, electronic sigs would be great, but until the strong crypto to ensure their validity is in place legally and widely, they're not going to happen, unless in some insecure half-assed form that would be bad news for everyone.
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Schools need to be on the lookout for "students who are angry or alienated," says Carroll, adding that special attention now needs to be paid to what children are doing on the Internet. Parents have to know what their kids are doing," Carroll says. "We felt that about alcohol, we felt that about drugs and we now feel that about the Internet."
This man misses the point. Totally. The reason this HAPPENED is because people fear, shun, and harass those and that which they don't understand. If my high school was "on the lookout" when I was there, I'd have never been allowed to graduate. I'm guessing quite a few of the slashdot readers would be in the same situation. It's NOT the internet, it's NOT the lack of popularity, although they're certainly the most easy to blame, and were possibly secondary contributions. The real 'reason' this happened is a combination of bad parenting (not seeing your kids worship hitler and build bombs), ever-present hatred towards other people (man is not wired to deal with it - there's a big difference between being NOT POPULAR and CONSTANT PERSECUTION), and the fact that something deep inside those boys just plain snapped.
The media needs to realize this, and STOP THE WITCHHUNT before it causes someone to get seriously hurt at the hands of "concerned classmates". That is, if it hasn't happened already.
Heh... what the media needs to do is call me... I'll give 'em an earful....
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Asking to government to ban this, that, or the other thing to prevent these acts of voilence won't solve the REAL problem: unbalanced kids with no parents or positive role models in their lives. Banning the guns might help, but there's still 1001 potential murder weapons in every kitchen in America. If children aren't raised to respect life, separate FICTION and ENTERTAINMENT from REALITY, and obey the laws of the land in which they live, the problem will never totally disappear, only keep changing shape. The only way kids will learn to do these things is if parents teach them to. The government just doesn't have the reach/power/ability/right to teach morals and such - it's got to start in the home.
If parents would raise their children right, teach them the difference between "real life" and "lets pretend", take them to church, and be role models instead of babysitters, we'd all be much better off. It's easy - if you don't want your children looking at porn, teach them it's wrong and disrespectful to women. If you don't want them building bombs, teach them life is to be respected. If you want them to grow up to be mature responsible adults, TEACH THEM. Don't ask the government to do it, or the school system, or anyone else. Parents should be the biggest influence in a child's life. End of story.
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Slashdot suggestion: Poster Watch. Make a slashbox allowing one to track the last X number of posts by a registered user. Watch for me, MEEPT, Bruce Perens, whoever...
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