It seems like, instead of creating computer programs to grade essays, perhaps the schools should, you know, hire more teachers or pay the ones they have better! Couldn't this guy just hire a human assistant? There are plenty of people out there with education degrees who would enjoy having his job.
I do most of the things mentioned in the article in my unnamed blog. For one, I wrote my backend to let me mark certain posts as "restricted" only to certain users, so the public can't even read most of them anyway.
And two, the evil woman I work with is referred to as "The Demon" in big red letters instead of by her real name. Pseudonyms do indeed rock.
To be fair, Pudge is the only conservaive editor on Slashdot. On a site where any random Bush joke, no matter what the topic, gets an upmod, calling someone who falls on the other side of the fence a "partisan hack" simply because you disagree with him is just as bad as if I called you a partisan hack for being a Democrat (don't know if you are one, just using an example).
This kind of stuff is normal for political parties, because political parties are nothing more than big lobbying groups. Like the RIAA and other lobby groups, they try to push legislation through that helps them, they sue people to push agendas, and they brainwash people into thinking a certain way. In that way, they're also very similar to most organized religions.
That's why I'm an independent and refuse to affiliate myself with either party. Not only because I happen to hold views from both sides (which confuses their lackeys...both sides have accused me of being partisans for the other side), but because people don't realize how fragile their own perceptions are, and when you fall in with a group, you tend to start thinking like them.
I should say that there are good Republicans and good Democrats. Like any group, a lot of the individuals you'll meet are just good people. But the leadership and the hardcore types live in their own world of good guys and bad guys, and their perception of the world is colored by their group's agendas. I think this nation would improve greatly with the abolishment of the two-party cabal. At the least, a vocal third-party (and not Ralph Nader) could affect a lot of change for the good and keep both parties on their toes. Just my $0.02.
Personally, I have no problem with the GIMP devs focusing on catching up to Photoshop in the features department rather than the GUI department. This is one of the benefits of OSS--don't like something, do it yourself. If people want a Photoshop-alike interface, they have this. Now the other half of the puzzle is to get things like 16-bit...
Point taken about digital CDs. It is easy to make MP3s or M4As from an audio CD, but the iTunes Music Store provides them already encoded for you, even for albums you don't have a CD for. Hence, the DRM to attempt to prevent distribution.
You're absolutely right. It's a 100% valid question.
The answer is to buy the CD. Don't buy from the iTunes store. DRM is on iTunes tracks because digital music is so easy to copy and distribute, and many of us don't mind the DRM because it is liberal enough to allow us as much fair use as we would want.
I don't want to have to keep buying CDs forever. I want the music industry to go fully digital and online. I think the things Jon Johansen does prevents that from happening.
To those who cherish freedom, he has been a pillar of hope in an age when DRM (Digital Rights Management) threatens to overtake mainstream media.
You paint a picture of an evil corporate-controlled society with black helicopters and spotlights swarming in the night to take away your cherished freedoms. But DRM like iTunes' is the most liberal there is, and you can easily use its loopholes for things like infinite CD burning (just recreate the playlist).
If your freedom is being taken away by a DRM scheme, then don't use that DRM scheme. Don't shop from the iTunes Music Store (and don't ruin it for everyone else by trying to sabotage it).
In my personal opinion, he isn't a freedom fighter. He's a guy whose making it harder to get the record labels to embrace online downloading as their business model.
The issue isn't the worth of the articles posted. They are usually good articles. The issue is that a disproportionate number of Roland's submissions get posted compared to other users, and those submissions usually contain links to his blog which links to the original article, instead of just linking to the original article. Roland makes money off of his blog for adviews, so the controversy is that Slashdot accepts most of his submissions and drives traffic to his blog.
I understand that some readers don't care about this "controversy." Some of us just don't like the rampant commercialism that's crept into Slashdot, and there's no other way to speak out on it (CmdrTaco dismisses it).
For the record, I e-mailed CmdrTaco a while back on this. He dismissed it and said Roland's articles get accepted because he must be writing good submissions, and that the editors don't look at the name of the submitter when accepting stories. He said the conspiracy theories and complaints are a "new successful troll meme."
It's rather hard to ignore the evidence though. As you said, all six articles last month were accepted. That's 100%. I bet there is no other user on Slashdot with 100% accepted stories an entire month. Only Roland.
Just like the "hyperlinks" people were painting on walls for people to email with their phones to get the content. For some reason, there's this need among reporters to write about crazy social movements involving wireless technologies, to show how "zany" people are.
The article isn't worded too clearly, but re-reading it, you can see it is referring to the webmaster of the Canadian news site that promoted the American blog.
What defines the difference between a blogger and a journalist? The fact a journalist is hired by a company? Why trust a company over an individual? In this case, people wouldn't have known if all we had for news were "mainstream journalists."
Mainstream journalists work for businesses. Their only incentive to be truthful is business and reputation. For bloggers, it's mostly just reputation.
What power would the Canadian government have over an American website? I highly doubt the US government would bother cooperating. All they could do is go after the Canadian news site that promoted it, but it's too late now...the info is out there.
Actually, the "Left" came to like the Pope in the past few yearsfor speaking out against the Iraq war and various policies of the Bush Administration. He also made undeniable contributions to the advancement of freedom in some countries, which is more than the Left or the Right can say for themselves. I don't think it's a PC issue so much as respect for the recently departed. There will always be time for criticism.
We'll see if Nintendo can top it with their next Gameboy. They've stated several times that the Nintendo DS is a third-tier system, not an official Gameboy successor. Yes, it's confusing for both consumers and developers. Whose going to develop for a system if its future is uncertain based on its company's own statements? That said, I love the DS.
Great, if I'm not already connected 24 hours a day to IRC on both my laptop and my desktop machine, now I can annoy people by dropping in from a handheld gaming system.
* bonchPSPS has entered the channel
back
hey guys...
WE GET IT, YOU'RE COOL CUZ YOU'RE ON YOUR PSP
Seriously, though, what are the chances of running a stripped down ircd on a PSP and hosting a channel wherever you are? Might be fun for get togethers or classrooms and such.
As technically-inclined people, we need to make sure society as a whole understands that there is a difference between technology and the use of technology. P2P is just a technology. Banning P2P because there are people who use it illegally is ludicrous. We have to make sure the fair and legal uses for P2P are known.
Naturally, this opens up other discussions about technologies and their uses. Some might argue that based on the above argument, everyone should have the right to own a gun, since it's not the technology that's bad but the use of it by certain people. But these are debates that need to be had to mature the discussion about the difference between a simple object or technology and the way human beings use it for their own gains or against others.
Basically, confronting the issue with education and discussion, instead of reacting with lawsuits, is the way to find a position the majority of society can agree on.
Apple also sees no need for action - to load a kernel extension it is necessary to enter the administrator's password, the company noted. We have come to an agreement with Apple to the effect that we will program a demonstration of the damaging action and make it available to Apple.
What kind of demonstration? Is there a way to bypass the administration password?
Slashdot Mirror
Everyone thinks they have good intentions. It takes the public to stand up to them when they're wrong.
It seems like, instead of creating computer programs to grade essays, perhaps the schools should, you know, hire more teachers or pay the ones they have better! Couldn't this guy just hire a human assistant? There are plenty of people out there with education degrees who would enjoy having his job.
I do most of the things mentioned in the article in my unnamed blog. For one, I wrote my backend to let me mark certain posts as "restricted" only to certain users, so the public can't even read most of them anyway.
And two, the evil woman I work with is referred to as "The Demon" in big red letters instead of by her real name. Pseudonyms do indeed rock.
To be fair, Pudge is the only conservaive editor on Slashdot. On a site where any random Bush joke, no matter what the topic, gets an upmod, calling someone who falls on the other side of the fence a "partisan hack" simply because you disagree with him is just as bad as if I called you a partisan hack for being a Democrat (don't know if you are one, just using an example).
This kind of stuff is normal for political parties, because political parties are nothing more than big lobbying groups. Like the RIAA and other lobby groups, they try to push legislation through that helps them, they sue people to push agendas, and they brainwash people into thinking a certain way. In that way, they're also very similar to most organized religions.
That's why I'm an independent and refuse to affiliate myself with either party. Not only because I happen to hold views from both sides (which confuses their lackeys...both sides have accused me of being partisans for the other side), but because people don't realize how fragile their own perceptions are, and when you fall in with a group, you tend to start thinking like them.
I should say that there are good Republicans and good Democrats. Like any group, a lot of the individuals you'll meet are just good people. But the leadership and the hardcore types live in their own world of good guys and bad guys, and their perception of the world is colored by their group's agendas. I think this nation would improve greatly with the abolishment of the two-party cabal. At the least, a vocal third-party (and not Ralph Nader) could affect a lot of change for the good and keep both parties on their toes. Just my $0.02.
Personally, I have no problem with the GIMP devs focusing on catching up to Photoshop in the features department rather than the GUI department. This is one of the benefits of OSS--don't like something, do it yourself. If people want a Photoshop-alike interface, they have this. Now the other half of the puzzle is to get things like 16-bit...
It's my computer. It's my operating system. Web pages don't have the right to open whatever windows they want whenever they want on my computer.
I don't mind banner ads. I'm used to them. I will always hate pop-ups.
Point taken about digital CDs. It is easy to make MP3s or M4As from an audio CD, but the iTunes Music Store provides them already encoded for you, even for albums you don't have a CD for. Hence, the DRM to attempt to prevent distribution.
You're absolutely right. It's a 100% valid question.
The answer is to buy the CD. Don't buy from the iTunes store. DRM is on iTunes tracks because digital music is so easy to copy and distribute, and many of us don't mind the DRM because it is liberal enough to allow us as much fair use as we would want.
I don't want to have to keep buying CDs forever. I want the music industry to go fully digital and online. I think the things Jon Johansen does prevents that from happening.
To those who cherish freedom, he has been a pillar of hope in an age when DRM (Digital Rights Management) threatens to overtake mainstream media.
You paint a picture of an evil corporate-controlled society with black helicopters and spotlights swarming in the night to take away your cherished freedoms. But DRM like iTunes' is the most liberal there is, and you can easily use its loopholes for things like infinite CD burning (just recreate the playlist).
If your freedom is being taken away by a DRM scheme, then don't use that DRM scheme. Don't shop from the iTunes Music Store (and don't ruin it for everyone else by trying to sabotage it).
In my personal opinion, he isn't a freedom fighter. He's a guy whose making it harder to get the record labels to embrace online downloading as their business model.
The issue isn't the worth of the articles posted. They are usually good articles. The issue is that a disproportionate number of Roland's submissions get posted compared to other users, and those submissions usually contain links to his blog which links to the original article, instead of just linking to the original article. Roland makes money off of his blog for adviews, so the controversy is that Slashdot accepts most of his submissions and drives traffic to his blog.
I understand that some readers don't care about this "controversy." Some of us just don't like the rampant commercialism that's crept into Slashdot, and there's no other way to speak out on it (CmdrTaco dismisses it).
For the record, I e-mailed CmdrTaco a while back on this. He dismissed it and said Roland's articles get accepted because he must be writing good submissions, and that the editors don't look at the name of the submitter when accepting stories. He said the conspiracy theories and complaints are a "new successful troll meme."
It's rather hard to ignore the evidence though. As you said, all six articles last month were accepted. That's 100%. I bet there is no other user on Slashdot with 100% accepted stories an entire month. Only Roland.
Just like the "hyperlinks" people were painting on walls for people to email with their phones to get the content. For some reason, there's this need among reporters to write about crazy social movements involving wireless technologies, to show how "zany" people are.
The article isn't worded too clearly, but re-reading it, you can see it is referring to the webmaster of the Canadian news site that promoted the American blog.
Or more so, since they don't have the financial resources to get themselves heard and have to rely solely on reputation, not a parent company.
What defines the difference between a blogger and a journalist? The fact a journalist is hired by a company? Why trust a company over an individual? In this case, people wouldn't have known if all we had for news were "mainstream journalists."
Mainstream journalists work for businesses. Their only incentive to be truthful is business and reputation. For bloggers, it's mostly just reputation.
What power would the Canadian government have over an American website? I highly doubt the US government would bother cooperating. All they could do is go after the Canadian news site that promoted it, but it's too late now...the info is out there.
Finally, a consumer use for thumbprint-scanning.
Actually, the "Left" came to like the Pope in the past few yearsfor speaking out against the Iraq war and various policies of the Bush Administration. He also made undeniable contributions to the advancement of freedom in some countries, which is more than the Left or the Right can say for themselves. I don't think it's a PC issue so much as respect for the recently departed. There will always be time for criticism.
Let's make the remote control pointless and have the TV itself be voice-activated.
Of course, the best feature of a voice-controlled remote would be to yell out, "Where the hell are you?" and have it respond, "Over here!"
We'll see if Nintendo can top it with their next Gameboy. They've stated several times that the Nintendo DS is a third-tier system, not an official Gameboy successor. Yes, it's confusing for both consumers and developers. Whose going to develop for a system if its future is uncertain based on its company's own statements? That said, I love the DS.
Great, if I'm not already connected 24 hours a day to IRC on both my laptop and my desktop machine, now I can annoy people by dropping in from a handheld gaming system.
...
* bonchPSPS has entered the channel
back
hey guys
WE GET IT, YOU'RE COOL CUZ YOU'RE ON YOUR PSP
Seriously, though, what are the chances of running a stripped down ircd on a PSP and hosting a channel wherever you are? Might be fun for get togethers or classrooms and such.
As technically-inclined people, we need to make sure society as a whole understands that there is a difference between technology and the use of technology. P2P is just a technology. Banning P2P because there are people who use it illegally is ludicrous. We have to make sure the fair and legal uses for P2P are known.
Naturally, this opens up other discussions about technologies and their uses. Some might argue that based on the above argument, everyone should have the right to own a gun, since it's not the technology that's bad but the use of it by certain people. But these are debates that need to be had to mature the discussion about the difference between a simple object or technology and the way human beings use it for their own gains or against others.
Basically, confronting the issue with education and discussion, instead of reacting with lawsuits, is the way to find a position the majority of society can agree on.
(Apple's Pages software, for example, was once a NeXT app called, wait for it, Pages)
There was indeed a NeXT app called "Pages," but it's been confirmed before that the current Apple Pages is not based on the old one.
What kind of demonstration? Is there a way to bypass the administration password?