I Feel Sadness
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
This exchange has saddened me (as is often the case when I read "political" analyses on/.).
With few exceptions the talk is ugly and uncaring. Drones, smart bombs, and propaganda about "casualties". Where did we learn to return hate for hate? Has this ever appeased hatred? No, only kindness has ever appeased hatred. It takes a courageous people (with courageous leadership) to return kindness in the face of hatred. Evil, greedy, and careless people wage war on the weak -- and then call it justice when it is really revenge (or worse self-righteousness).
I implore thinking and caring people to turn off the media for one week. It is extremely difficult, and many of you will not be able to do it - but it is a worthwhile exercise. The media is like a drug, it dulls your sense of compassion, it damages your psyche, it renders you incapable of reasoned thought. It makes you only capable of thinking in terms defined by it - drones, smart bombs, casualties.
During that week think deeply and compassionately about what is right and wrong. Think about cause and effect. You might be surprised by what you find.
1. Do you trust that the drug companies and biotech research institutions (always partially funded by the drug companies) have our best interests in mind?
2. Do we want the rich and powerful to live forever? Is stem cell research likely to help the average human being - no, it will be far too expensive. So who are these miracle treatments for? The people who can afford them, of course.
3. Ain't it odd that such anti-abortion stalwarts as GWB and Orin Hatch have come out in favor of stem cell research. Well apparently it really isn't a religious question at all (all the FUD about when a "soul" is placed in the blastocyst). Could it perhaps be about payola in the form of campaign contributions. And is this the manner that important decisions that affect the entire species should be made - by a few very wealthy and very rich multinational drug companies and their toady research institutions.
4. People die, get over it. Humans (especially the more affluent ones) need to learn to die with a little grace. Hell, as a species we've been dying regularly for at least couple hundred years. So enough with the miracle treatments already. We'd all be far better off (and live longer) investing in clean water.
Mark my words - within 5 years humans will be cloned for fertility reasons. Most likely humans have already been cloned (with the embryos destroyed). Of course no researcher would publish this research yet because it is illegal, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. If they did it with a sheep, you can rest assured they did it with a human.
We don't have the wisdom yet to control such power of our own genetics. I say outlaw it until we've evolved past the current Capital problem.
So Suck imagines big media companies trying to lock up content and force us to pay. Sure they will try - even Salon has their new Premium service and now puts the juicy stuff behind a subscription.
But there is an alternative... if you want "free" content you have to pay for it. Hell, someone already is - the site owners typically. But it is up to us to change it. If independent content producers (from media to art to music) ask for donations then by gum give them a few bucks. You tip your bartender, you tip street musicians, you pay for the shareware you like, time to pony up and start voluntarily paying for content.
And that includes content producers too! If you are asking for tips and donations on your website, then you need to set some aside to use as tips and donations for the sites you use. It goes both ways.
Culture develops rapidly on the web. With the implosion of ad based revenue, now is an ideal time to start promoting an alternative Goodwill economy as a counter to solely subscription or ad-based ones. I'm willing to bet that many web users would gladly contribute a few bucks a year to the sites they regularly use. The more people who do it voluntarily the more ingrained it becomes - part of the culture.
Look you lost the bid. Nothing you do will get it back. The only thing you can do now is make yourself look like a fool. Besides even if they agree with you that there are security holes, they ain't gonna give the job back to you - they already turned you down and they have to save face. Let it go.
More important would be to look at your proposal strategy and come up with ideas that will help you get those jobs. If you are a security guru - emphasize that aspect in your bid. Remember, it is your proposal that will ultimately make or break you. How it looks and reads is the key - especially in a competitive bid situation.
Good luck - but for god's sake don't go back to those companies. You'll hate yourself in the morning.
Ask your users for tips and micro-donations! It works with Shareware it can work for Content sites too.
It is as easy as putting an address where they can send a few bucks to using something like Pay Pal or Honor System.
If you set reasonable goals - like covering your web hosting, and use basic fundraising strategies you should be able to make some additional money.
Full Disclosure - We just set up a site called The Donation Project where we provide some strategies and ideas for webmasters seeking to start taking donations online.
The Donation Project
http://www.donationproject.com support independent content producers - dammit
Imagine if all you did was allow your child to participate in your daily work life - from cooking, to programming, to cleaning.
Could they possibly turn out worse than being subjected to the Public Ed system? Especially the High School system - where they learn about arbitrary social heirarchies based on appearance and sports skill, where all knowledge is taught out of context, and homework is used to control rather then enrich their home lives.
The most responsible thing you can do for your children is protect them from the government by removing them from the Public Ed system.
My wife and I are planning on home schooling our children as we have no doubt that the gulag known as the U.S. public education system would utterly destroy their creativity and individuality.
But the key is to coordinate home schooling with others of similar mindset. Home schooling works best when the focus is on building a home schooling community.
What is needed is a secular home-schooling network that would help link up parents and families with others in their communities.
I believe if you like the music enough to remove it from your hard drive (either by CD or otherwise), then you have an obligation to send some money to the artist.
Send the artist a couple of bucks. This is typically more than they would make from the sale of a commercial CD. Screw the recording industry, but don't harm the artist.
On our site for The Donation Project (www.donationproject.com) which will be launching later this week (so don't go there yet), we have proposed an MP3 naming convention that includes the artist's website if they accept tips. Something like this:
Slashdot Mirror
This exchange has saddened me (as is often the case when I read "political" analyses on /.).
With few exceptions the talk is ugly and uncaring. Drones, smart bombs, and propaganda about "casualties". Where did we learn to return hate for hate? Has this ever appeased hatred? No, only kindness has ever appeased hatred. It takes a courageous people (with courageous leadership) to return kindness in the face of hatred. Evil, greedy, and careless people wage war on the weak -- and then call it justice when it is really revenge (or worse self-righteousness).
I implore thinking and caring people to turn off the media for one week. It is extremely difficult, and many of you will not be able to do it - but it is a worthwhile exercise. The media is like a drug, it dulls your sense of compassion, it damages your psyche, it renders you incapable of reasoned thought. It makes you only capable of thinking in terms defined by it - drones, smart bombs, casualties.
During that week think deeply and compassionately about what is right and wrong. Think about cause and effect. You might be surprised by what you find.
Here's why.
1. Do you trust that the drug companies and biotech research institutions (always partially funded by the drug companies) have our best interests in mind?
2. Do we want the rich and powerful to live forever? Is stem cell research likely to help the average human being - no, it will be far too expensive. So who are these miracle treatments for? The people who can afford them, of course.
3. Ain't it odd that such anti-abortion stalwarts as GWB and Orin Hatch have come out in favor of stem cell research. Well apparently it really isn't a religious question at all (all the FUD about when a "soul" is placed in the blastocyst). Could it perhaps be about payola in the form of campaign contributions. And is this the manner that important decisions that affect the entire species should be made - by a few very wealthy and very rich multinational drug companies and their toady research institutions.
4. People die, get over it. Humans (especially the more affluent ones) need to learn to die with a little grace. Hell, as a species we've been dying regularly for at least couple hundred years. So enough with the miracle treatments already. We'd all be far better off (and live longer) investing in clean water.
Mark my words - within 5 years humans will be cloned for fertility reasons. Most likely humans have already been cloned (with the embryos destroyed). Of course no researcher would publish this research yet because it is illegal, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. If they did it with a sheep, you can rest assured they did it with a human.
We don't have the wisdom yet to control such power of our own genetics. I say outlaw it until we've evolved past the current Capital problem.
So Suck imagines big media companies trying to lock up content and force us to pay. Sure they will try - even Salon has their new Premium service and now puts the juicy stuff behind a subscription.
But there is an alternative... if you want "free" content you have to pay for it. Hell, someone already is - the site owners typically. But it is up to us to change it. If independent content producers (from media to art to music) ask for donations then by gum give them a few bucks. You tip your bartender, you tip street musicians, you pay for the shareware you like, time to pony up and start voluntarily paying for content.
And that includes content producers too! If you are asking for tips and donations on your website, then you need to set some aside to use as tips and donations for the sites you use. It goes both ways.
Culture develops rapidly on the web. With the implosion of ad based revenue, now is an ideal time to start promoting an alternative Goodwill economy as a counter to solely subscription or ad-based ones. I'm willing to bet that many web users would gladly contribute a few bucks a year to the sites they regularly use. The more people who do it voluntarily the more ingrained it becomes - part of the culture.
support independent content producers - dammit
Look you lost the bid. Nothing you do will get it back. The only thing you can do now is make yourself look like a fool. Besides even if they agree with you that there are security holes, they ain't gonna give the job back to you - they already turned you down and they have to save face. Let it go.
More important would be to look at your proposal strategy and come up with ideas that will help you get those jobs. If you are a security guru - emphasize that aspect in your bid. Remember, it is your proposal that will ultimately make or break you. How it looks and reads is the key - especially in a competitive bid situation.
Good luck - but for god's sake don't go back to those companies. You'll hate yourself in the morning.
support independent content producers - dammit
Ask your users for tips and micro-donations! It works with Shareware it can work for Content sites too.
It is as easy as putting an address where they can send a few bucks to using something like Pay Pal or Honor System.
If you set reasonable goals - like covering your web hosting, and use basic fundraising strategies you should be able to make some additional money.
Full Disclosure - We just set up a site called The Donation Project where we provide some strategies and ideas for webmasters seeking to start taking donations online.
The Donation Project
http://www.donationproject.com
support independent content producers - dammit
Imagine if all you did was allow your child to participate in your daily work life - from cooking, to programming, to cleaning.
Could they possibly turn out worse than being subjected to the Public Ed system? Especially the High School system - where they learn about arbitrary social heirarchies based on appearance and sports skill, where all knowledge is taught out of context, and homework is used to control rather then enrich their home lives.
The most responsible thing you can do for your children is protect them from the government by removing them from the Public Ed system.
My wife and I are planning on home schooling our children as we have no doubt that the gulag known as the U.S. public education system would utterly destroy their creativity and individuality.
But the key is to coordinate home schooling with others of similar mindset. Home schooling works best when the focus is on building a home schooling community.
What is needed is a secular home-schooling network that would help link up parents and families with others in their communities.
I believe if you like the music enough to remove it from your hard drive (either by CD or otherwise), then you have an obligation to send some money to the artist.
c om.mp3
Send the artist a couple of bucks. This is typically more than they would make from the sale of a commercial CD. Screw the recording industry, but don't harm the artist.
On our site for The Donation Project (www.donationproject.com) which will be launching later this week (so don't go there yet), we have proposed an MP3 naming convention that includes the artist's website if they accept tips. Something like this:
performer-album-track#-trackname-tips-artistsite-