Now if we could just find a correlation between IQ and intelligence, we'd easily be able to sort out which humans are worth saving. A visual test eliminates the cultural bias... except the one against the blind.
Most of us want to popularize the OS enough so that it will continue to be developed, and so that a larger selection of end user software will be developed for it. Getting bogged down in a disagreement about whether it should be called "Linux", "GNU/Linux", or by a distribution name, is counter-productive to that objective. It gives the impression that all of this is only for nerds (and that is a reason enough for most people to want nothing to do with it). When I refer to the OS as "Linux", I am not discounting nor disrespecting in any way the contribution of the Free Software Foundation or Richard Stallman. I'm trying to use the most common term that is easy to pronounce, and communicates in a way most commonly understood by the listener to refer to the operating system. The fact that "GNU/Linux" doesn't roll off the tongue or lend itself to being written, or typed easily enough, is the reason I don't, and will not, use it. The discussion reminds me of one in which fastidious guardians of exactitude allow a discussion about western democracy to get sidetracked by the insistence that the U.S. is a "republic" not a "democracy". Technically, they're right. But they're insistence on it interferes with more important ideas becoming the focus of discussion. So, I'm not going to call it "GNU/Linux". I'm going to call it "Linux". No further discussion will change my mind on the matter. Furthermore the U.S. is a Democracy (close enough). P.S. I've switched to FreeBSD, which I call "FreeBSD".
... there's really no scientific consensus about this. It's entirely irresponsible to report this as though it were an unchallenged fact. We need a more "fair and balanced" approach to the topic. We really need to hear from experts from the Flat Earth Society to provide a counter point. http://theflatearthsociety.org/
The work ethic is valid when a great deal of work has to be done in order for the basic necessities to be provided, e.g. if the crops aren't harvested everyone will starve, so if you don't participate, you don't eat. But in our times, an average hours' work by a farm laborer produces enough food to feed hundreds of people. The work ethic is extolled as a virtue by those who seek to convince others to do more than a fair share of the work. I've seen it among laborers putting in 50 and 60 hour work weeks, no benefits, no pensions, no control over working conditions, no seniority, etc. This behavior tends to drive down wages for everyone in the work force. If these people were to ask for a raise, the bosses respond by trying to convince them (sometimes successfully) that they haven't done enough to deserve any better. That's what I think of when I hear someone lamenting that we have lost the "work ethic". The problem is there's nothing ethical about it under the circumstances. With the technology we have, the fact that anyone in the world is living in poverty is what is most unethical.
An economy so structured, with so little work for humans to do, will be a disaster if humanity continues insisting that there's an intrinsic morality in the "work ethic". For centuries we've tried to convince people that if they didn't work harder, they weren't morally entitled to a share of the aggregate sum of all that was produced through human labor. With almost nothing left that requires human labor, we'll be in bad shape if we don't replace the work ethic with entitlement ethic. (That will no doubt ruffle some conservative sensibilities). Want to see how the economy will have to work? Think "Star Trek Replicators"; that's why the Federation doesn't use money anymore in the 24th century.
" I have to question how we can create a sentient creature simply to experiment upon it and still claim to have a shred of humanity to us."
Shred humanity. Got it. Done. Next task?
But seriously, who the hell claimed we ever had a shred of humanity? What makes you think human beings have ever been decent to one another, or to any other living thing?
That's interesting. Someone who doubts his own abilities raises your doubts about his abilities. I'd have to say I have the opposite reaction. People who are overly confident in their own abilities always raise my suspicions that they may be incapable of introspection and self-correction.
The article states that viruses in drinking water aren't regulated by the EPA. That's a bit misleading. Regulations pertaining to pathogens in surface water and ground water sources in drinking water are largely based on disinfection criteria that would remove or inactivate 99.99% of viruses from the water.
Part of what's broken about the U.S. economy is the minimum wage. In 1968, adjusting for inflation to the current dollar, it was around $12 and hour, or so. Now it's $7 and change. And, unlike 1968, when it was the wage for teenagers working at fast food outlets, now more than 40% of the American workforce is earning less than the 1968 minimum. So how's that globalized economy working for you?
Surely the "chair of information governance" is aware that the patient data, and the source codes of the programs that are used to process that data are two separate things. It is demonstrably possible to keep the programs in the realm of open source, while keeping the patient data confidential. But that is a point that proprietary software providers typically like to obscure.
I just realized while reading your post that my laptop still has the "Windows Vista" sticker by the left CTRL key. I've had this machine for years. It has 5 operating systems. None of them are Windows. They're all Linuxes and BSD's. I'm not going to peel off the sticker. I really like it. I don't like Microsoft software, but I like the sticker. It's cool.
Let me tell you how I learned about Linux as a desktop operating system, then I'll recommend how to avoid some of the pitfalls. In 1996 I installed Slackware distribution on my PC. It was challenging. I learned a lot. Sure it was as user-friendly as wrestling with a rabid bear. But I felt very accomplished once it was up and running. I was hooked on that. My experience prior to this with computers was limited to Windows 3.11 and just enough Unix to get through an introductory Fortran class. The next year, I started using a Suse Linux distribution. That added to my knowledge because they do things differently. Then I got a small laptop and installed Debian on it. That worked much better for me. It isn't as difficult to install as Slackware. Apt-get (a package installer in Debian-based distributions) takes care of dependencies fairly automatically. Over the years I've also had experience installing and/or using Red Hat, Fedora, Linux Mint, Puppy Linux, Suse, Arch, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, and I've built several Linux from Scratch systems. On these systems I've used various desktop environments and window managers such as E17, XFCE, KDE, Gnome2, Unity, FVWM, Fluxbox, CTWM, etc.
If you're determined to learn Linux I recommend: 1. Ubuntu (or one of its variants) for a beginner. 2. Slackware (or maybe Arch) when you're more advanced and ready to be challenged. 3. Build a Linux From Scratch system if you really want to know how it all fits together, but not until you're ready for it.
Here's my final advice on the matter. Run! Run to FreeBSD as fast as you can! Save Yourself!
"This is different from Linux distros distributing Firefox as part of their bundle for a number of reasons - chief of which is that Firefox isn't made by the Linux Foundation, it's a Mozilla product. "
Moreover, even if products made by the Linux Foundation and Mozilla were made by the same group, they still wouldn't be violating anti-monopoly statutes in Europe or the U.S. by bundling simply because the products are not "products" in an economic sense (though they certainly have an economic impact). They are not sold by these groups but given away, without any contingent requirement to purchase any other product. I think that would place their activities outside the scope of any anti-monopoly statutes. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm not a lawyer.
About 8 months ago, I dived into trying FreeBSD on the desktop, after having been a Linux user since the mid-90's. I like it very much. In fact it has become my default desktop, but I'm reluctant to recommend it to others. Firstly, I don't know whether their hardware will be fully supported. And, even if it is, most people won't have the time or inclination to learn what's required to use it.
"Whether that's OK or not is a judgment call." I'm one of those former STEM students, but I think language skills are important. Think of what can happen without proper punctuation. "Let's eat Grandma" is not the same as "let's eat, Grandma"
Do you mean "Plan 9 from Outer Space"? We should write a musical version for Broadway. Can anyone here think of what rhymes with "stupid, stupid, stupid"?
Without the 3d, is Avatar just a re-write of Dances with Wolves? It's OK as a gimmick once in awhile. If it adds to the story, it could be worth doing. But 99% of the movies I'm going to want to see are going to be 2d. They will rely on story telling to compel me to watch.
Slashdot Mirror
Now if we could just find a correlation between IQ and intelligence, we'd easily be able to sort out which humans are worth saving. ... except the one against the blind.
A visual test eliminates the cultural bias
I noticed the roaches weren't going for it, so I added a sign to it: "Free Continental Breakfast, Free Wifi".
Most of us want to popularize the OS enough so that it will continue to be developed, and so that a larger selection of end user software will be developed for it. Getting bogged down in a disagreement about whether it should be called "Linux", "GNU/Linux", or by a distribution name, is counter-productive to that objective. It gives the impression that all of this is only for nerds (and that is a reason enough for most people to want nothing to do with it).
When I refer to the OS as "Linux", I am not discounting nor disrespecting in any way the contribution of the Free Software Foundation or Richard Stallman. I'm trying to use the most common term that is easy to pronounce, and communicates in a way most commonly understood by the listener to refer to the operating system. The fact that "GNU/Linux" doesn't roll off the tongue or lend itself to being written, or typed easily enough, is the reason I don't, and will not, use it.
The discussion reminds me of one in which fastidious guardians of exactitude allow a discussion about western democracy to get sidetracked by the insistence that the U.S. is a "republic" not a "democracy". Technically, they're right. But they're insistence on it interferes with more important ideas becoming the focus of discussion.
So, I'm not going to call it "GNU/Linux". I'm going to call it "Linux". No further discussion will change my mind on the matter. Furthermore the U.S. is a Democracy (close enough).
P.S. I've switched to FreeBSD, which I call "FreeBSD".
... there's really no scientific consensus about this. It's entirely irresponsible to report this as though it were an unchallenged fact. We need a more "fair and balanced" approach to the topic. We really need to hear from experts from the Flat Earth Society to provide a counter point.
http://theflatearthsociety.org/
The work ethic is valid when a great deal of work has to be done in order for the basic necessities to be provided, e.g. if the crops aren't harvested everyone will starve, so if you don't participate, you don't eat. But in our times, an average hours' work by a farm laborer produces enough food to feed hundreds of people.
The work ethic is extolled as a virtue by those who seek to convince others to do more than a fair share of the work. I've seen it among laborers putting in 50 and 60 hour work weeks, no benefits, no pensions, no control over working conditions, no seniority, etc. This behavior tends to drive down wages for everyone in the work force. If these people were to ask for a raise, the bosses respond by trying to convince them (sometimes successfully) that they haven't done enough to deserve any better. That's what I think of when I hear someone lamenting that we have lost the "work ethic". The problem is there's nothing ethical about it under the circumstances. With the technology we have, the fact that anyone in the world is living in poverty is what is most unethical.
An economy so structured, with so little work for humans to do, will be a disaster if humanity continues insisting that there's an intrinsic morality in the "work ethic". For centuries we've tried to convince people that if they didn't work harder, they weren't morally entitled to a share of the aggregate sum of all that was produced through human labor. With almost nothing left that requires human labor, we'll be in bad shape if we don't replace the work ethic with entitlement ethic. (That will no doubt ruffle some conservative sensibilities). Want to see how the economy will have to work? Think "Star Trek Replicators"; that's why the Federation doesn't use money anymore in the 24th century.
" I have to question how we can create a sentient creature simply to experiment upon it and still claim to have a shred of humanity to us."
Shred humanity.
Got it.
Done.
Next task?
But seriously, who the hell claimed we ever had a shred of humanity? What makes you think human beings have ever been decent to one another, or to any other living thing?
Are you really a conservative? or is it just a cartoonish parody of one?
That's interesting. Someone who doubts his own abilities raises your doubts about his abilities. I'd have to say I have the opposite reaction. People who are overly confident in their own abilities always raise my suspicions that they may be incapable of introspection and self-correction.
I wonder what a belief in J.R. Bob Dobbs does for one's mental health.
The article states that viruses in drinking water aren't regulated by the EPA. That's a bit misleading. Regulations pertaining to pathogens in surface water and ground water sources in drinking water are largely based on disinfection criteria that would remove or inactivate 99.99% of viruses from the water.
http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/pathogens.cfm#What%20pathogens%20does%20EPA%20regulate%20in%20drinking%20water,%20and%20what%20are%20their%20health%20effects?
Steve Robertson, PE
Las Vegas Valley Water District
Planning Division
Water Quality Team
Finally, after 15 years, a Slashdot article in my field.
Part of what's broken about the U.S. economy is the minimum wage. In 1968, adjusting for inflation to the current dollar, it was around $12 and hour, or so. Now it's $7 and change. And, unlike 1968, when it was the wage for teenagers working at fast food outlets, now more than 40% of the American workforce is earning less than the 1968 minimum. So how's that globalized economy working for you?
Surely the "chair of information governance" is aware that the patient data, and the source codes of the programs that are used to process that data are two separate things. It is demonstrably possible to keep the programs in the realm of open source, while keeping the patient data confidential. But that is a point that proprietary software providers typically like to obscure.
Instant Runoff Voting. Look it up.
That's what we need.
My laptop boots 5 OSes from burg. I have 4 browsers installed. Been at the same job for 11 years. Just one more browser and out I go.
I just realized while reading your post that my laptop still has the "Windows Vista" sticker by the left CTRL key. I've had this machine for years. It has 5 operating systems. None of them are Windows. They're all Linuxes and BSD's.
I'm not going to peel off the sticker. I really like it.
I don't like Microsoft software, but I like the sticker. It's cool.
Let me tell you how I learned about Linux as a desktop operating system, then I'll recommend how to avoid some of the pitfalls.
In 1996 I installed Slackware distribution on my PC. It was challenging. I learned a lot. Sure it was as user-friendly as wrestling with a rabid bear. But I felt very accomplished once it was up and running. I was hooked on that. My experience prior to this with computers was limited to Windows 3.11 and just enough Unix to get through an introductory Fortran class.
The next year, I started using a Suse Linux distribution. That added to my knowledge because they do things differently. Then I got a small laptop and installed Debian on it. That worked much better for me. It isn't as difficult to install as Slackware. Apt-get (a package installer in Debian-based distributions) takes care of dependencies fairly automatically.
Over the years I've also had experience installing and/or using Red Hat, Fedora, Linux Mint, Puppy Linux, Suse, Arch, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, and I've built several Linux from Scratch systems. On these systems I've used various desktop environments and window managers such as E17, XFCE, KDE, Gnome2, Unity, FVWM, Fluxbox, CTWM, etc.
If you're determined to learn Linux I recommend:
1. Ubuntu (or one of its variants) for a beginner.
2. Slackware (or maybe Arch) when you're more advanced and ready to be challenged.
3. Build a Linux From Scratch system if you really want to know how it all fits together, but not until you're ready for it.
Here's my final advice on the matter. Run! Run to FreeBSD as fast as you can! Save Yourself!
"This is different from Linux distros distributing Firefox as part of their bundle for a number of reasons - chief of which is that Firefox isn't made by the Linux Foundation, it's a Mozilla product. "
Moreover, even if products made by the Linux Foundation and Mozilla were made by the same group, they still wouldn't be violating anti-monopoly statutes in Europe or the U.S. by bundling simply because the products are not "products" in an economic sense (though they certainly have an economic impact). They are not sold by these groups but given away, without any contingent requirement to purchase any other product. I think that would place their activities outside the scope of any anti-monopoly statutes. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm not a lawyer.
... refuse to issue the standard obligatory decades old Simpson's joke that typically accompanies a story like this one.
About 8 months ago, I dived into trying FreeBSD on the desktop, after having been a Linux user since the mid-90's. I like it very much. In fact it has become my default desktop, but I'm reluctant to recommend it to others. Firstly, I don't know whether their hardware will be fully supported. And, even if it is, most people won't have the time or inclination to learn what's required to use it.
"Whether that's OK or not is a judgment call."
I'm one of those former STEM students, but I think language skills are important. Think of what can happen without proper punctuation. "Let's eat Grandma" is not the same as "let's eat, Grandma"
I read it. You're absolutely right, violence, sexism, war, intolerance.... Oh wait, that was the Bible I was reading. Nevermind.
Me too. The Fireworks on the Strip scare our dog. We stayed home with him. Same as last year.
Do you mean "Plan 9 from Outer Space"?
We should write a musical version for Broadway.
Can anyone here think of what rhymes with "stupid, stupid, stupid"?
Without the 3d, is Avatar just a re-write of Dances with Wolves?
It's OK as a gimmick once in awhile. If it adds to the story, it could be worth doing. But 99% of the movies I'm going to want to see are going to be 2d. They will rely on story telling to compel me to watch.