No I am not killing you. The US army killed lots of people in Iraq. Those people are dead. You are alive and well and writing on slashdot. Bush lied.
"The second statement is about a book I haven't read. Can't comment."
Just exactly how ignorant are you? I understand that you didn't read her book but have you never watched television? Ever read a newspaper? Ever read a news magazine? Are you totally oblivious anything she says? You have never read any of her commentaries in a newspaper, or on the web. Have you ever seen her on TV? Not even on one show?
Maybe you really do live in a cave and never heard her but how about David Horowitz, Sean Hannidy or Bill O'Reilly? Have you ever read or heard anything by those people?
Just exactly how far do you have your head buried in the sand anyway?
"They aren't interested in the fact that cmdrtaco@slashdot.org posted to alt.sex.unicorns 10 times last month."
How do you know what they intend to do? How could you possibly know? These are the richest most powerful men in the world you really think you can fathom their ambitions and plans? Honestly where did you get such insight?
"I think we should tone done the M$ and SCO crap for a while."
Why? Why should people lie down and let MS and SCO spread FUD all day long without countering it with truth or counter FUD? Turn the other cheek is a nice sentiment but lets face it if someone punches me in the face I am going to hit them back with everything I got. Acting like scared wimps and withdrawing into a corner whimpering is the surest way to get your ass kicked every day.
I say let them have it with everything you got. Don't worry, they have 40 billion in the bank you are not really going to hurt them that much. You will however sleep better knowing you put up a fight even if you get the shit beat out of you.
""Becuase he is a zealot!" This is a simplification of a very complex political issue."
I don't think so. As you said what does he have to gain? Why spend two million dollars of your own money if you have nothing to gain? Either he does have something to gain or he is a zealot. Surely he could have spent that two million dollars buying himself a new mansion or a yacht. If he had a pure heart he could have spent the two million helping the poor or the indigent. Instead he chose to spend it toppling a sitting governor. Why?
"Also, that your sig is a personal attack against the Bush administration seems pretty much like trying to get back at them for going to war without your consent. Its that seething hatred I'm talking about."
Once again. Me pointing out that Bush lied to take us to war (he did you know) is hatred but Bush actually taking us to war and killing hundreds of thousands of human beings is not hatred. Is that right? Pointing out that Ann Coulter calls democrats traitors is hatred but Ann Coulter actually calling democrats traitors is not hatred. Am I getting correctly so far? You have warped sense of hatred.
"Do conservatives have it towards liberals? Sure."
Great! Finally we agree on something!.
"The only reason you may feel singled out is that big "come at me conservatives" chip on your shoulder"
Oops we slipped again. Ok you agree that conservatives have it towards liberals. I feel singled out because I am a democrat and a liberal. I am under direct attack by conservatives. I am slo darker skinned and Ann Coulter called for the justice dept to round up people like me. I am under direct attack by the conservatives (and passively by people like you who don't object to that kind of demonization). I for one don't believe in lying down when attacked so I am making sure I attack back. Sure it my be weak and feeble because I am not on TV every night like Ann Coulter is nor do I have a cable TV channel to attack my enemies like Ann Coulter has but it's something. I am doing what I can do to fight back the terrorism that is directed against me and people who have the same political stance as I do.
Treason is a capital offense. When Ann Coulter calls me a traitor she is speaking to two different groups of people. One she is talking to freepers (look it up) who then feel empowered to hassle and threaten liberals much like the KKK did with blacks. Two she is talking to John Ashcroft who is primarily responsible for enforcing the laws against treason. Unless I and other people who are under attack by Ann Coulter and her ilk are ready and willing to fight back we could very well be rounded up and taken to Gitmo to live in chain link cages.
In summary. It is not hatred to defend yourself. If someone calls me a traitor or a terrorist you can bet your ass I will defend myself no matter what you say. If I let people like you dissuade me from defending myself I may end up being picked up as a terrorist and locked up without a trial or tried for treason and sent to the electric chair. Don't say it can't happen because it's already happened in this country. Remember the japanese internment camps? Remember McCarthy?
"I didn't convey the seething hatred or straw-man style charechtarisation of "the other party" you seem to have found necessary."
There is no doubt that the most vocal advocates of the republican party are all zealots. I don't know why you thought I was conveying some kind of "seething hatred" though. Apparently for you Ann Coulter calling democrats traitors is not "seething hatred" but me pointing out her statements is somehow offensive to you. I don't hink you are actually as Non Partisan as you claim. I would think that most people would be offended by a well known and prominent author/commentator/television personality calling half the country traitors or terrorists. I believe one of her recent books states that "liberals hate america" how come that does not register on your "seething hatred" meter?
"As someone who is eligible to vote, I am. Sorry if you don't like that."
I am not disputing that you can make up your mind about stupid things. Clearly you can. For example you can dislike her because she is white, because she is pretty, because she reminds you of the girl that dumped you in Jr. High, because she is short or because she used $$$ when answering a question on slashdot.
What I am saying is that all those reasons are silly and immature criterea to judge a candidate. When you do that you are indeed acting like a 14 year old.
"3) Show how Issa has benefited from this. Party issues aside, three million dollars is a lot to spend on something he found so unimportant as to decide not to run anyway."
He is a republican zealot. As a zealot he won big time. Here is how he has benefited.
1) He is recalling a democratic governor and giving a chance for a republican to win. Just the first part is a huge win for a zealot. 2) He is able to embarras the democratic party. 3) If a republican is elected he will reap huge benefits when he goes to collect on his favors.
The worse case for him is that republican will lose but even then he got a chance to embarass the democrats and take out one of his biggest enemies. For a millionaire this alone is worth 2 million dollars.
The best case is that the republicans take the state and they give his companies some favors or contracts and he makes his 2 million back and then some.
Don't discount zealotry. What does Ann Coulter benefit by saying democrats are traitors? What does Sean Hannity benefit by calling democrats bedwetters? What does Bill Oreilly benefit by calling democrats terrorists? Seemingly nothing right? But for a zealot it means everything.
If battlefield earth caused a dozen people to get sucked into the scientology cult then it was a success for scientology. They spend nothing (hollywood footed the bill after all) and got new members out of the deal.
I don't think there is anything illegal in what they are doing. It's legal to hype your stock, it's legal to hype it with lies, it's legal to sell it after you have suckered fools into buying your stock.
In America it's legal to rip off the shareholders to make yourself rich. It's even more legal when the white house and the DOJ and the SEC are controlled by people who think the govt is evil and the corporations can do no wrong.
I think I know what you are trying to say. Consider this however.
You are vastly underestimating the impact that Marie Antoinette, Genghis Khan or Pope Pious. Each one of those people profoundly changed the world that they were living in and there is no denying that their actions changed the world forever and in profound ways.
It's pretty hard to say who changed the world more but there is a very real possiblity that if it wasn't for Gengiz Khan there would be no Jesus Christ. History is funny that way. Even small acts can have profound consequences later on, big giant acts like Gengiz Khan performed have giant impacts.
I guess if your definition of power is that lame then OK. To me power is George Bush launching wave upon wave of airplanes dropping bombs on afghanistan and iraq. Power is Bill gates buying the govt of the US., Power is Dick Cheney making sure only Haliburton gets billion dollar contracts in Iraq.
Maybe RSM has more power then you but that's not much of an achievement is it? The fact is that he has no real power especially compared with his enemies. Compare the power of RMS with Bill gates or the Canopy group. His enemies have infinately more power then him.
It does not matter who the democrat run. As soon as Bush falls below 50% he'll start bombing sryia, iran or north korea and get re-elected by a landslide.
The democrats know this and so does the rest of the country. I say if you know you are going to lose anyway run somebody who is not afraid the tell the truth and who is not afraid to call republicans names. The republicans get to call all democrats traitors and traitors so the democrats need someone to call them facists and racists.
Considering that he has already raised over a hundred million dollars you'd think the least he could do is let people email him and pay a few people to read them.
What the hell is he going to do with all that money anyway?
This happens more often then you think. In my home town during a recent election the republicans sent out mailings pretending to be from the communist party endorsing the democratic candidate. Too bad the democrats did not retaliate by sending out mailing from the white supremacists endorsing the republican candidate. Although that would not have the same impact since the local white supremacists were endorsing the republican candidate.
"How can you make such a blanket dismissal of what is an otherwise common observance."
Common to who? Not to me.
"In either case, you can't argue with someone else's first hand observation."
Huh? On what planet? How is it that your first hand experience with a extremely limited sample is somehow representitive of the whole world. Maybe you ought to go back to school and study statistics.
" Standardizing on Apple's in schools is not really a responsible decision regardless of a lower TCO. If your going to be sending someone into a market where probably in excess of 80% of the computers they'll come in contact with are Microsoft based, you owe it to them to at least include some of those computers in their educational experience."
Most students will get exposed to windows at home or someplace else. It's impossible to avoid a monopoly. Schools should teach kids knowledge they are not likely to get elsewhere.
Also since most Unix admins get paid more then windows admins schools should teach unix because it will lead to higher paychecks.
" Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the Microsoft bed today. I don't care what kids get educated on, as long as they are learning."
If that's the case then why not teach them a skill that pays more?
"I'm sad to say that all they want is that "cool, black Dell" and to be sent packing so that they can surf the web and check their email. "
Those kids would be much more likely to say "cool a new g5" and surf the web. After a while once they lean (they are there to learn right?) they will be adept at administering unix. A very valuable and high paying skill.
" Besides, the whole idea of TCO in the world of information technology would baffle administrators who also want that "cool, black Dell" and to be sent packing so that they can surf the web and check their email. As long as it's initial purchase price is CHEAPER than everything else. "
Apparently you have a very low opinion of IT managers. Although they are often not the brightest bulb in the pack they do make their decisions on factors other then the color. If they are so stupid as to make their entire buying decision on looks then they can't go wrong with apple can they?
I don't think school IT administrators are as stupid as you say they are. I know it's fashionable to insult teachers and administrators these days but I know some personally and they are quite bright. On the whole I find them to be brighter then their compatriots in the commercial world.
As Microsoft is so fond of saying. There is more to TCO then the initial purchase price. Microsoft insists that windows has a lower TCO despite the fact that Linux is free. It seems to me apple would save enough on admin costs alone to make up the difference.
Of course there is also the fact that you are educating the kids to learn a unix operating system. As Microsoft is so fond of pointing out Unix sysadmins get paid more then Windows sysadmins. Why educate your kids to get lower paid positions?
Of course it's possible to write crappy code in php just like it's possible to write crappy code in python. For example neither language mandates classes.
As for you other critisims I think they are offbase. Both languages use include() hell all languages have some sort of an Include. PHP does not "encourage" inlining of code, smarty is an official part of PEAR but neither does it force people to use smarty. Finally speaking for myself I don't think I have ever used eval() nor seen it used in any major projects. Having said that both python and ruby have eval type of functionality so what is the big deal?
We also disagree on the importance of whitespace. I personally don't like to have it forced on me by the language. If I wanted a straightjacket I would have used pascal or eiffel or something.
Slashdot Mirror
"Stop it, your killing me!"
No I am not killing you. The US army killed lots of people in Iraq. Those people are dead. You are alive and well and writing on slashdot. Bush lied.
"The second statement is about a book I haven't read. Can't comment."
Just exactly how ignorant are you? I understand that you didn't read her book but have you never watched television? Ever read a newspaper? Ever read a news magazine? Are you totally oblivious anything she says? You have never read any of her commentaries in a newspaper, or on the web. Have you ever seen her on TV? Not even on one show?
Maybe you really do live in a cave and never heard her but how about David Horowitz, Sean Hannidy or Bill O'Reilly? Have you ever read or heard anything by those people?
Just exactly how far do you have your head buried in the sand anyway?
"They aren't interested in the fact that cmdrtaco@slashdot.org posted to alt.sex.unicorns 10 times last month."
How do you know what they intend to do? How could you possibly know? These are the richest most powerful men in the world you really think you can fathom their ambitions and plans? Honestly where did you get such insight?
"I think we should tone done the M$ and SCO crap for a while."
Why? Why should people lie down and let MS and SCO spread FUD all day long without countering it with truth or counter FUD? Turn the other cheek is a nice sentiment but lets face it if someone punches me in the face I am going to hit them back with everything I got. Acting like scared wimps and withdrawing into a corner whimpering is the surest way to get your ass kicked every day.
I say let them have it with everything you got.
Don't worry, they have 40 billion in the bank you are not really going to hurt them that much. You will however sleep better knowing you put up a fight even if you get the shit beat out of you.
""Becuase he is a zealot!" This is a simplification of a very complex political issue."
I don't think so. As you said what does he have to gain? Why spend two million dollars of your own money if you have nothing to gain? Either he does have something to gain or he is a zealot. Surely he could have spent that two million dollars buying himself a new mansion or a yacht. If he had a pure heart he could have spent the two million helping the poor or the indigent. Instead he chose to spend it toppling a sitting governor. Why?
"Also, that your sig is a personal attack against the Bush administration seems pretty much like trying to get back at them for going to war without your consent. Its that seething hatred I'm talking about."
Once again. Me pointing out that Bush lied to take us to war (he did you know) is hatred but Bush actually taking us to war and killing hundreds of thousands of human beings is not hatred. Is that right? Pointing out that Ann Coulter calls democrats traitors is hatred but Ann Coulter actually calling democrats traitors is not hatred. Am I getting correctly so far? You have warped sense of hatred.
"Do conservatives have it towards liberals? Sure."
Great! Finally we agree on something!.
"The only reason you may feel singled out is that big "come at me conservatives" chip on your shoulder"
Oops we slipped again. Ok you agree that conservatives have it towards liberals. I feel singled out because I am a democrat and a liberal. I am under direct attack by conservatives. I am slo darker skinned and Ann Coulter called for the justice dept to round up people like me. I am under direct attack by the conservatives (and passively by people like you who don't object to that kind of demonization). I for one don't believe in lying down when attacked so I am making sure I attack back. Sure it my be weak and feeble because I am not on TV every night like Ann Coulter is nor do I have a cable TV channel to attack my enemies like Ann Coulter has but it's something. I am doing what I can do to fight back the terrorism that is directed against me and people who have the same political stance as I do.
Treason is a capital offense. When Ann Coulter calls me a traitor she is speaking to two different groups of people. One she is talking to freepers (look it up) who then feel empowered to hassle and threaten liberals much like the KKK did with blacks. Two she is talking to John Ashcroft who is primarily responsible for enforcing the laws against treason. Unless I and other people who are under attack by Ann Coulter and her ilk are ready and willing to fight back we could very well be rounded up and taken to Gitmo to live in chain link cages.
In summary. It is not hatred to defend yourself. If someone calls me a traitor or a terrorist you can bet your ass I will defend myself no matter what you say. If I let people like you dissuade me from defending myself I may end up being picked up as a terrorist and locked up without a trial or tried for treason and sent to the electric chair. Don't say it can't happen because it's already happened in this country. Remember the japanese internment camps? Remember McCarthy?
Apprently you care more about appearance then substance. Ok I guess that's cool. I think it's stupid but what the hell that's just me.
"I didn't convey the seething hatred or straw-man style charechtarisation of "the other party" you seem to have found necessary."
There is no doubt that the most vocal advocates of the republican party are all zealots. I don't know why you thought I was conveying some kind of "seething hatred" though. Apparently for you Ann Coulter calling democrats traitors is not "seething hatred" but me pointing out her statements is somehow offensive to you. I don't hink you are actually as Non Partisan as you claim. I would think that most people would be offended by a well known and prominent author/commentator/television personality calling half the country traitors or terrorists. I believe one of her recent books states that "liberals hate america" how come that does not register on your "seething hatred" meter?
"As someone who is eligible to vote, I am. Sorry if you don't like that."
I am not disputing that you can make up your mind about stupid things. Clearly you can. For example you can dislike her because she is white, because she is pretty, because she reminds you of the girl that dumped you in Jr. High, because she is short or because she used $$$ when answering a question on slashdot.
What I am saying is that all those reasons are silly and immature criterea to judge a candidate. When you do that you are indeed acting like a 14 year old.
"3) Show how Issa has benefited from this. Party issues aside, three million dollars is a lot to spend on something he found so unimportant as to decide not to run anyway."
He is a republican zealot. As a zealot he won big time. Here is how he has benefited.
1) He is recalling a democratic governor and giving a chance for a republican to win. Just the first part is a huge win for a zealot.
2) He is able to embarras the democratic party.
3) If a republican is elected he will reap huge benefits when he goes to collect on his favors.
The worse case for him is that republican will lose but even then he got a chance to embarass the democrats and take out one of his biggest enemies. For a millionaire this alone is worth 2 million dollars.
The best case is that the republicans take the state and they give his companies some favors or contracts and he makes his 2 million back and then some.
Don't discount zealotry. What does Ann Coulter benefit by saying democrats are traitors? What does Sean Hannity benefit by calling democrats bedwetters? What does Bill Oreilly benefit by calling democrats terrorists? Seemingly nothing right? But for a zealot it means everything.
Your dismissal of her entire campaign because she wrote $$$ is just as childish and stupid.
Really you are in no position to judge in this case.
It depends on your definition of success.
If battlefield earth caused a dozen people to get sucked into the scientology cult then it was a success for scientology. They spend nothing (hollywood footed the bill after all) and got new members out of the deal.
That's capitalims as it's practiced in the US.
I don't think there is anything illegal in what they are doing. It's legal to hype your stock, it's legal to hype it with lies, it's legal to sell it after you have suckered fools into buying your stock.
In America it's legal to rip off the shareholders to make yourself rich. It's even more legal when the white house and the DOJ and the SEC are controlled by people who think the govt is evil and the corporations can do no wrong.
Sorry.
I think I know what you are trying to say. Consider this however.
You are vastly underestimating the impact that Marie Antoinette, Genghis Khan or Pope Pious. Each one of those people profoundly changed the world that they were living in and there is no denying that their actions changed the world forever and in profound ways.
It's pretty hard to say who changed the world more but there is a very real possiblity that if it wasn't for Gengiz Khan there would be no Jesus Christ. History is funny that way. Even small acts can have profound consequences later on, big giant acts like Gengiz Khan performed have giant impacts.
"You could win this one if you did it the right way."
No it can't be won. I told you if it ever looked like Bush might lose he would start bombing some country or another.
"Deluded by idealism perhaps? Kind of like you."
It has nothing to do with idealism. Bush is willing to kill people to get re-elected.
" It's not about money it's about power"
I guess if your definition of power is that lame then OK. To me power is George Bush launching wave upon wave of airplanes dropping bombs on afghanistan and iraq. Power is Bill gates buying the govt of the US., Power is Dick Cheney making sure only Haliburton gets billion dollar contracts in Iraq.
Maybe RSM has more power then you but that's not much of an achievement is it? The fact is that he has no real power especially compared with his enemies. Compare the power of RMS with Bill gates or the Canopy group. His enemies have infinately more power then him.
" Vanilla LDAP != inherently better than AD. "
Maybe not but it is more compatible with other operating systems and non MS software.
I think those are strong enough reasons to avoid it right there.
Property is that which you can defend. IP is not real property because you can't really defend it without the help of the state.
"what I suspect is that RMS is either consciously or subconsciously most concerned with empire building."
Empire? In what way? I doubt he has more then ten grand in the bank for god's sake. What kind of an empire is that?
It does not matter who the democrat run. As soon as Bush falls below 50% he'll start bombing sryia, iran or north korea and get re-elected by a landslide.
The democrats know this and so does the rest of the country. I say if you know you are going to lose anyway run somebody who is not afraid the tell the truth and who is not afraid to call republicans names. The republicans get to call all democrats traitors and traitors so the democrats need someone to call them facists and racists.
Considering that he has already raised over a hundred million dollars you'd think the least he could do is let people email him and pay a few people to read them.
What the hell is he going to do with all that money anyway?
This happens more often then you think. In my home town during a recent election the republicans sent out mailings pretending to be from the communist party endorsing the democratic candidate. Too bad the democrats did not retaliate by sending out mailing from the white supremacists endorsing the republican candidate. Although that would not have the same impact since the local white supremacists were endorsing the republican candidate.
"How can you make such a blanket dismissal of what is an otherwise common observance."
Common to who? Not to me.
"In either case, you can't argue with someone else's first hand observation."
Huh? On what planet? How is it that your first hand experience with a extremely limited sample is somehow representitive of the whole world. Maybe you ought to go back to school and study statistics.
" Standardizing on Apple's in schools is not really a responsible decision regardless of a lower TCO. If your going to be sending someone into a market where probably in excess of 80% of the computers they'll come in contact with are Microsoft based, you owe it to them to at least include some of those computers in their educational experience."
Most students will get exposed to windows at home or someplace else. It's impossible to avoid a monopoly. Schools should teach kids knowledge they are not likely to get elsewhere.
Also since most Unix admins get paid more then windows admins schools should teach unix because it will lead to higher paychecks.
" Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the Microsoft bed today. I don't care what kids get educated on, as long as they are learning."
If that's the case then why not teach them a skill that pays more?
"I'm sad to say that all they want is that "cool, black Dell" and to be sent packing so that they can surf the web and check their email. "
Those kids would be much more likely to say "cool a new g5" and surf the web. After a while once they lean (they are there to learn right?) they will be adept at administering unix. A very valuable and high paying skill.
" Besides, the whole idea of TCO in the world of information technology would baffle administrators who also want that "cool, black Dell" and to be sent packing so that they can surf the web and check their email. As long as it's initial purchase price is CHEAPER than everything else. "
Apparently you have a very low opinion of IT managers. Although they are often not the brightest bulb in the pack they do make their decisions on factors other then the color. If they are so stupid as to make their entire buying decision on looks then they can't go wrong with apple can they?
I don't think school IT administrators are as stupid as you say they are. I know it's fashionable to insult teachers and administrators these days but I know some personally and they are quite bright. On the whole I find them to be brighter then their compatriots in the commercial world.
As Microsoft is so fond of saying. There is more to TCO then the initial purchase price. Microsoft insists that windows has a lower TCO despite the fact that Linux is free. It seems to me apple would save enough on admin costs alone to make up the difference.
Of course there is also the fact that you are educating the kids to learn a unix operating system. As Microsoft is so fond of pointing out Unix sysadmins get paid more then Windows sysadmins. Why educate your kids to get lower paid positions?
Or better yet why not see if standardising on all apple costs less. Apple might have a lower TCO.
Of course it's possible to write crappy code in php just like it's possible to write crappy code in python. For example neither language mandates classes.
As for you other critisims I think they are offbase. Both languages use include() hell all languages have some sort of an Include. PHP does not "encourage" inlining of code, smarty is an official part of PEAR but neither does it force people to use smarty. Finally speaking for myself I don't think I have ever used eval() nor seen it used in any major projects. Having said that both python and ruby have eval type of functionality so what is the big deal?
We also disagree on the importance of whitespace. I personally don't like to have it forced on me by the language. If I wanted a straightjacket I would have used pascal or eiffel or something.