I would go so far as to say that:
- Really unintelligent people do not realize that they are unintelligent. They may have been informed of this, but they don't necessarily believe it.
- Just below average people are probably aware that they are below average. They probably know it without having to be told, but it doesn't really seem to impact them tremendously. They seem to deal with it.
- Just above average intelligent people seem to be the profoundly arrogant know-it-alls. They know that they're smart. They've been told that they're smart, but it's not really doing a whole lot for them. Play it up.
- High above average people tend to be aware of their own lack of knowledge and intelligence.
Now, of course, this is just my take on all of this. I'm a mechanic and I'm finishing up a degree in physics, so I think that I know people from all of these groups fairly well.
On the other hand, I don't think that I really believe any of this. The anomolies aside (brain damage, etc), I don't think that anybody is really any more intelligent than anybody else. I think that most of it boils down to the training that a person (specifically, their brain) received growing up, and still receives every day. I think that IQ tests are accurate as a way of testing a specific use of intelligence (logic in particular), but I don't think that they are the best test of even that.
Some of the "unintelligent" people that I know are capable of profound acts of reasoning and logic, yet they lack the basic language and math skills to do very well on an IQ test.
In the same vein, I wonder what the spelling level (typos aside) of the Slashdot community says for its intelligence!
As usual, this turned into a drawn out rant before I got around to what I was trying to say, so I'll leave it at that...
The average per capita GDP of the United Kingdom is $25,300. The average per capital GDP of the United States is $37,600. I'm not saying it makes sense to sell a book at half the price in England, but it does make sense to sell it at a proportionate discount.
And how exactly does this translate into students being able to pay for things. I doubt that the average income of students in the US is much if any higher than that of UK students. These are people who can (mostly) work a part-time job for shit poor wages while dumping all of their excess income into the University system. Students everywhere are pretty poor.
I've never purchased a Mac new, and I've never had a Mac for my primary computer, but that is something that I've noticed. I often buy surplus computers for cheap and give them to family who doesn't have a computer. I've found Apple hardware, running the latest OS that will run on it, well outlasts similar PC hardware. Older Macs still feel pretty snappy and responsive, while older PCs (even running older OSs) feel real sluggish in comparison.
Also, for those who have literally zero experience with computers, I've found that the learning curve for Macs seems to be lower (? - what are the units for a learning curve?). I've been repeatedly astounded to find that the people I left with Macs are doing some pretty impressive stuff with them. The only thing I'm really impressed by with the PC users is the frequency with which I'm called in to remove adware and viruses and to fix little problems. I get almost no complaints from the Macs.
Re:Idiocy - bluetooth just taking off
on
Is Bluetooth Dead?
·
· Score: 1
I don't think that I would call this total coverage. I suppose that that shows just where you live, but the old 800MHz analog service is the nearest to total coverage. I'm very interested in switching to GSM (int'l travel), but that map up there isn't convincing me to.
If the spyware companies included in their EULA that the user was forbidden from removing of having an agent remove the software without the consent of the spyware company or something like that, then the anti-virus company would be liable for interference with contractual relations. The virus company is inducing the user to break with the contract formed with the spyware company.
I dunno...
My girlfriend (fiancee now) is really into fibers and spinning and weaving and stuff. She has some books about weaving and there are pictures of looms in it. It says how to work one, so that was a start. I made up a crude plan for it, then got a book from the library (oh hallowed place) on the construction of looms and weaving apparatus in history. I used that to tweak the plan and made it. It's alright. I could do it better next time, but you've got to start somewhere.
I live in central Missouri. The city that I live in has small plots that you can rent (for cheap) to plant a garden. There's also an organic subscription farm nearby that lets you help out. It's fun. Unfortunately, it's off to the grocery store when the winter rolls around.
If you want to be self-sufficient, just try. Don't be afraid to screw up, nobody's watching (if they are, who cares!?). There's lots of good info in public and University libraries. Google for it if you need to. But I think that it's important to try to solve the problems yourself, first. Learn from your mistakes, but make sure that you try stuff. Double check what you've done before you get too deep, but I can't stress enough that just following instructions will never let you really understand a subject.
Yeah, I have. It's not too impressive right now, in fact, it segfaulted after I made that post. I'm working at it, though.
This is a fault of mine, but I've got too much pride to release it when it's in such a state as it is now. I'm cleaning it up, though.
Once I get to 0.2 (hypothetical semi-stable release), and think of a better name (hmmm, wbrowser sounds kinda stupid) I'll put it up on SourceForge and put a link in my sig.
I'm trying to make it transparently use the toolkit of the environment it was launched in. That's obviously spinning off into its own little project. I'm pretty excited about that one. I've got a friend working on it with me and it's coming along.
I'm a mechanic (ASE and all that crap) as well as a computer dork. I can (and do) fix my own plumbing, do my own carpentry, and am learning to adequately use a loom (which I made) to make clothes. I grow a substantial amount of my own food. I'm posting this from a browser that I wrote myself.
No troll, I'm dead serious.
I wish people took more interest in the things that they use every day and take for granted. Everything is so completely fascinating. I think that there is no better pursuit in life than to learn the hell out of everything. The way people learn one thing and then get all arrogant about it is, in my opinion, the worst behavior of all.
There are tons of things that I don't know, I don't look down on people for not knowing things. It does bother me when they refuse to learn, though.
People do awful things to their computers and people do awful things to their cars (and their plumbing!). If people took a little more time to appreciate the things that they take for granted, many of our problems would be gone.
I didn't mean for this to end up all preachy, but I don't remember where I was going. If I hadn't already typed so damn much, I'd just quit now, but hell...
Just because the ATM's aren't on that network doesn't make the fact that they have an unsecured wireless entry to their network ok. Banks deal exclusively in money, there is bound to be other useful information on their non-ATM network as well.
I've seen lives ruined from the criminal charges associated with marijuana.
I think that is a excellent argument against laws intended to "protect one from oneself." Justice is not intended to dissuade people from breaking the law, it's intended to right the wronged party and prevent the wrongdoer from doing again. Using justice as a deterrent for law-breaking leads to punishment that does not suit the crime, which is unconstitutional.
When excessive sentences are applied to laws that are supposed to protect a person from themself, you get a punishment which wrongs the wronged (who is also the wrongdoer) much worse than the actual 'crime'.
In this way, it is more damaging to a person to get caught smoking pot than it is to actually smoke pot. 'Justice' is doing more harm to members of society than the 'crimes' it is supposed to be punishing.
This is a little shakier, but some of the laws (denying student aid to students convicted of drug offences) seems to serve to make less productive members of society of those who break certain laws. Are rapists and murderers and armed robbers denied student aid? If they aren't (I really don't know!), then why the disparate uses of justice?
I see country-hopping as a perfectly good solution to the problem of living in a poorly run (IMHO) country.
If I dislike the laws of the country that I live in, and 99.99% of the rest of the population don't seem to mind them, should I try to change them when there is a government that seems to suit me better elsewhere? Why spend my life fighting against the views of the majority in one place when I can join the contented majority elsewhere?
I have no particular attachment to the geographical area that I live in, and certainly no attachment to the increasingly oppressive government that claims me. I don't have the resources ($$$) to get any representation in the US government, so why stay?
I'm seriously debating this, though I'm not looking at Canada (nice place, though). If anybody has any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them. Once I'm done with school (finally!), I'm gone.
Add to that that too many sites use IE specific garbage that only even works with brand new versions of IE. Support for older browsers has not often held back content providers.
This is not exactly in line with what you were saying, but it is something that I've thought about lately...
From a historical perspective, we know everything that we do know about ancient cultures (even only slightly old cultures), from the artifacts and records that the left behind. It's interesting to think that in the future (not necessarily too distant), there will possibly be very little usable historical records available.
If the push for universal DRM is sucessful, our times will likely be seen as a period that left massive amounts of plastic and no knowledge behind. It's already been pointed out that DRM protected material will never enter the public domain, but it will also be unavailable to the future as well.
After reading some truly ancient pieces of fiction and marvelling at the differences and similarities between our times, it's sad to think that our times will likely be historically remembered as a "dark ages" of sorts, because we left no usable information behind.
No kidding!
I had just checked kernel.org minutes before this story was posted. I began the download before the story, only to see it drastically slow down halfway through. So I checked Slashdot, and here we are!
Police officers not obeying the laws are so bad in some places (like where I live), that I've come up with a nice idea! I say that there should be governors on the cruiser that doesn't allow the car to operate above a certain set speed unless the siren/lights are on. If it could be tailored to fit the speed limit of the street, that would be even better.
Police are supposed to be setting the example, not casually breaking the law as if they were above it. There's absolutely no reason why anybody should be speeding, right? Why shouldn't that also apply to police in non emergency situations? I'd assume that tampering with a police cruiser would be a pretty serious offense, too.
Having not used Windows in quite some time (Win95 didn't take up too much space, and deselecting components would drastically reduce the size), I was shocked to discover that WinXP with all optional components removed needed more than 1GB on the hard disk.
The fact that I'm typing this message from (albeit, not as pretty) LNX-BBC shows quite a bit.
It's quite possible, as well, that the MPAA will lobby for a law (or use the DMCA) that would make countering/disabling their virus a criminal action. I see this as the most likely path for them to choose.
Of course you would still be able to download a copy of the protective software from the Free World. (Though the authors better not ever try to visit the US!)
Re:Got a whole lotta hype
on
Brain Privacy
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I agree.
I like to take the tests (a small price to pay in order to make my point more effective), pass them and then inform the potential employer that I choose not to work for them because of their disrespect for the privacy of their own employees. It seems to me that just refusing the job before taking the test reinforces their faith in the good that the test is doing for them ("Well, he was just a stoner/crackhead/junkie anyway. I'm glad he didn't waste our time.")
I choose to drive my point in more thoroughly by wasting both their time and money (as I feel that they wasted mine).
Of course it snoops into American citizens privacy. What other way is there to detect terrorist email communication? If two people decided to blow something up (and communicated this by email), the only wasy to determine this would be to read everyone's email. The same goes for telephones, conversations in private rooms, etc. Because terrorists can be anybody, the only way to be forwarned is to be completely aware of all communication that takes place in this country... and outside of it. Then there's the matter of stopping them. I don't think that this is something that will ever be actually accomplished. Perhaps we'll hear of 'captured terrorists' who were goin gto blow stuff up, but mostly we'll just get our rights eroded away.
Why not then just cache all of the possible blocks on your system, obtain the instructions for building the file, then construct it from the blocks stored on your own system! It would take much less time to download it, too.
I think that the complaint here is not so much the nature of this man's crimes, but the lack of due process.
While it may seem that we are in a state of war right now, that is officially not the case, and this man (most probably guilty of heinous crimes) is being denied the due process of law that he is supposed to be guaranteed as an American citizen. Exceptions for rights such as these should be made under no circumstances. The due process of law is definitely adequate for trying and punishing all criminals.
Allowing the government to make exceptions (even in grave situations) only makes it easier for them to get away with making exceptions in more (less, or not grave) situations.
Sorry to break it to you but CD audio, at 44.1k samples per second, isn't exactly lossless.
Vinyl provided better "sampling rates" and live performances are obviously much better. Have you ever listened to a CD after hearing the same thing live, or even on vinyl.
128k mp3's will eventually satisfy everyone just like CDs did.
Slashdot Mirror
- Just below average people are probably aware that they are below average. They probably know it without having to be told, but it doesn't really seem to impact them tremendously. They seem to deal with it.
- Just above average intelligent people seem to be the profoundly arrogant know-it-alls. They know that they're smart. They've been told that they're smart, but it's not really doing a whole lot for them. Play it up.
- High above average people tend to be aware of their own lack of knowledge and intelligence.
Now, of course, this is just my take on all of this. I'm a mechanic and I'm finishing up a degree in physics, so I think that I know people from all of these groups fairly well.
On the other hand, I don't think that I really believe any of this. The anomolies aside (brain damage, etc), I don't think that anybody is really any more intelligent than anybody else. I think that most of it boils down to the training that a person (specifically, their brain) received growing up, and still receives every day. I think that IQ tests are accurate as a way of testing a specific use of intelligence (logic in particular), but I don't think that they are the best test of even that.
Some of the "unintelligent" people that I know are capable of profound acts of reasoning and logic, yet they lack the basic language and math skills to do very well on an IQ test.
In the same vein, I wonder what the spelling level (typos aside) of the Slashdot community says for its intelligence!
As usual, this turned into a drawn out rant before I got around to what I was trying to say, so I'll leave it at that...
And how exactly does this translate into students being able to pay for things. I doubt that the average income of students in the US is much if any higher than that of UK students. These are people who can (mostly) work a part-time job for shit poor wages while dumping all of their excess income into the University system. Students everywhere are pretty poor.
Also, for those who have literally zero experience with computers, I've found that the learning curve for Macs seems to be lower (? - what are the units for a learning curve?). I've been repeatedly astounded to find that the people I left with Macs are doing some pretty impressive stuff with them. The only thing I'm really impressed by with the PC users is the frequency with which I'm called in to remove adware and viruses and to fix little problems. I get almost no complaints from the Macs.
I don't think that I would call this total coverage. I suppose that that shows just where you live, but the old 800MHz analog service is the nearest to total coverage. I'm very interested in switching to GSM (int'l travel), but that map up there isn't convincing me to.
That way it actually makes sense. A quick google found this.
You could find more if you looked.
I don't know about you, but I'm already paying those fees. Obviously WNP isn't in effect yet, but I've been paying them for quite some time.
If the spyware companies included in their EULA that the user was forbidden from removing of having an agent remove the software without the consent of the spyware company or something like that, then the anti-virus company would be liable for interference with contractual relations. The virus company is inducing the user to break with the contract formed with the spyware company. I dunno...
I live in central Missouri. The city that I live in has small plots that you can rent (for cheap) to plant a garden. There's also an organic subscription farm nearby that lets you help out. It's fun. Unfortunately, it's off to the grocery store when the winter rolls around.
If you want to be self-sufficient, just try. Don't be afraid to screw up, nobody's watching (if they are, who cares!?). There's lots of good info in public and University libraries. Google for it if you need to. But I think that it's important to try to solve the problems yourself, first. Learn from your mistakes, but make sure that you try stuff. Double check what you've done before you get too deep, but I can't stress enough that just following instructions will never let you really understand a subject.
This is a fault of mine, but I've got too much pride to release it when it's in such a state as it is now. I'm cleaning it up, though.
Once I get to 0.2 (hypothetical semi-stable release), and think of a better name (hmmm, wbrowser sounds kinda stupid) I'll put it up on SourceForge and put a link in my sig.
I'm trying to make it transparently use the toolkit of the environment it was launched in. That's obviously spinning off into its own little project. I'm pretty excited about that one. I've got a friend working on it with me and it's coming along.
No troll, I'm dead serious.
I wish people took more interest in the things that they use every day and take for granted. Everything is so completely fascinating. I think that there is no better pursuit in life than to learn the hell out of everything. The way people learn one thing and then get all arrogant about it is, in my opinion, the worst behavior of all.
There are tons of things that I don't know, I don't look down on people for not knowing things. It does bother me when they refuse to learn, though.
People do awful things to their computers and people do awful things to their cars (and their plumbing!). If people took a little more time to appreciate the things that they take for granted, many of our problems would be gone.
I didn't mean for this to end up all preachy, but I don't remember where I was going. If I hadn't already typed so damn much, I'd just quit now, but hell...
Just because the ATM's aren't on that network doesn't make the fact that they have an unsecured wireless entry to their network ok. Banks deal exclusively in money, there is bound to be other useful information on their non-ATM network as well.
When excessive sentences are applied to laws that are supposed to protect a person from themself, you get a punishment which wrongs the wronged (who is also the wrongdoer) much worse than the actual 'crime'.
In this way, it is more damaging to a person to get caught smoking pot than it is to actually smoke pot. 'Justice' is doing more harm to members of society than the 'crimes' it is supposed to be punishing.
This is a little shakier, but some of the laws (denying student aid to students convicted of drug offences) seems to serve to make less productive members of society of those who break certain laws. Are rapists and murderers and armed robbers denied student aid? If they aren't (I really don't know!), then why the disparate uses of justice?
If I dislike the laws of the country that I live in, and 99.99% of the rest of the population don't seem to mind them, should I try to change them when there is a government that seems to suit me better elsewhere? Why spend my life fighting against the views of the majority in one place when I can join the contented majority elsewhere?
I have no particular attachment to the geographical area that I live in, and certainly no attachment to the increasingly oppressive government that claims me. I don't have the resources ($$$) to get any representation in the US government, so why stay?
I'm seriously debating this, though I'm not looking at Canada (nice place, though). If anybody has any thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them. Once I'm done with school (finally!), I'm gone.
Add to that that too many sites use IE specific garbage that only even works with brand new versions of IE. Support for older browsers has not often held back content providers.
From a historical perspective, we know everything that we do know about ancient cultures (even only slightly old cultures), from the artifacts and records that the left behind. It's interesting to think that in the future (not necessarily too distant), there will possibly be very little usable historical records available.
If the push for universal DRM is sucessful, our times will likely be seen as a period that left massive amounts of plastic and no knowledge behind. It's already been pointed out that DRM protected material will never enter the public domain, but it will also be unavailable to the future as well.
After reading some truly ancient pieces of fiction and marvelling at the differences and similarities between our times, it's sad to think that our times will likely be historically remembered as a "dark ages" of sorts, because we left no usable information behind.
Most likely a combination of karma whoring and first post excitement. It's really unavoidable. I am seeking treatment, though.
No kidding! I had just checked kernel.org minutes before this story was posted. I began the download before the story, only to see it drastically slow down halfway through. So I checked Slashdot, and here we are!
Police officers not obeying the laws are so bad in some places (like where I live), that I've come up with a nice idea! I say that there should be governors on the cruiser that doesn't allow the car to operate above a certain set speed unless the siren/lights are on. If it could be tailored to fit the speed limit of the street, that would be even better.
Police are supposed to be setting the example, not casually breaking the law as if they were above it. There's absolutely no reason why anybody should be speeding, right? Why shouldn't that also apply to police in non emergency situations? I'd assume that tampering with a police cruiser would be a pretty serious offense, too.
Having not used Windows in quite some time (Win95 didn't take up too much space, and deselecting components would drastically reduce the size), I was shocked to discover that WinXP with all optional components removed needed more than 1GB on the hard disk.
The fact that I'm typing this message from (albeit, not as pretty) LNX-BBC shows quite a bit.
It's quite possible, as well, that the MPAA will lobby for a law (or use the DMCA) that would make countering/disabling their virus a criminal action. I see this as the most likely path for them to choose.
Of course you would still be able to download a copy of the protective software from the Free World. (Though the authors better not ever try to visit the US!)
I agree.
I like to take the tests (a small price to pay in order to make my point more effective), pass them and then inform the potential employer that I choose not to work for them because of their disrespect for the privacy of their own employees. It seems to me that just refusing the job before taking the test reinforces their faith in the good that the test is doing for them ("Well, he was just a stoner/crackhead/junkie anyway. I'm glad he didn't waste our time.")
I choose to drive my point in more thoroughly by wasting both their time and money (as I feel that they wasted mine).
Of course it snoops into American citizens privacy. What other way is there to detect terrorist email communication? If two people decided to blow something up (and communicated this by email), the only wasy to determine this would be to read everyone's email. The same goes for telephones, conversations in private rooms, etc. Because terrorists can be anybody, the only way to be forwarned is to be completely aware of all communication that takes place in this country... and outside of it. Then there's the matter of stopping them. I don't think that this is something that will ever be actually accomplished. Perhaps we'll hear of 'captured terrorists' who were goin gto blow stuff up, but mostly we'll just get our rights eroded away.
Why not then just cache all of the possible blocks on your system, obtain the instructions for building the file, then construct it from the blocks stored on your own system! It would take much less time to download it, too.
I think that the complaint here is not so much the nature of this man's crimes, but the lack of due process.
While it may seem that we are in a state of war right now, that is officially not the case, and this man (most probably guilty of heinous crimes) is being denied the due process of law that he is supposed to be guaranteed as an American citizen. Exceptions for rights such as these should be made under no circumstances. The due process of law is definitely adequate for trying and punishing all criminals.
Allowing the government to make exceptions (even in grave situations) only makes it easier for them to get away with making exceptions in more (less, or not grave) situations.
Sorry to break it to you but CD audio, at 44.1k samples per second, isn't exactly lossless.
Vinyl provided better "sampling rates" and live performances are obviously much better. Have you ever listened to a CD after hearing the same thing live, or even on vinyl.
128k mp3's will eventually satisfy everyone just like CDs did.