You're confusing "curbing drug use" with "getting rid of hacks".
I don't know about you but of all the people I knew [or very well suspected to know] took drugs during college, very few of them were highly productive people.
This line of thinking that potheads are all somehow smart or something is plain idiotic.
Frankly I'm tired of this "help the poor bastard out". I'd rather have time and energy spent on the students who can't make ends meet and/or need a tutor than forgiving those who cheat on assignments/exams and abuse drugs/commit crimes.
Seriously, I had to go through school being the outcast unpopular non-criminal. Why should they get the same chances in life as I should?
I'm not saying we can't help kids/students. I'm saying if they choose to be criminals you have to be tough.
By time a student hits grade 9 they're well aware of the negative implications of drugs. We did D.A.R.E. training in grade 6 for crying out loud.
The thing is to keep tabs on students and help them out [e.g. when grades slip] but once they go, let them go.
I'm not saying the way you led your life is "wrong". It's not about life choices being "right" or "wrong". It's about having consequences.
In your case you're not specifically a "bad person" for doing what you did but I also think you [from what you wrote and some extrapolation] probably deserved to be shoved out of the education system.
I dunno. School is free, all you have to do is attend and participate. How much easier could people make it?
Exactly. Do you know how much an episode of "Raymond" costs? Like several MILLION dollars.
That's right. A stupid 30 minute show costs MILLIONS of dollars and all they do is re-use tiring gags, sitcom bullshit and the same set over and over.
Hell, I could do that on cable access for a couple hundred a night...
That's why you have advertisements on TV. Because the execs will pay stupid amount of money for "stars". When really what it comes down to is content [or in the case of Friends, Seinfeld, Raymond and pretty much all other sitcoms, just enough face time...].
I don't see the direct correlation between going to school and doing drugs. Like as if you MUST do drugs to get through school.
What if we replaced "drugs" with "theft" or "murder" or what not? Actually, look at the UK with the "bitch slap cell phone" thingy going on.
That's really popular apparently. Does that mean we should excuse it just because "it's tough trying to fit in when you're not a criminal"...
Bullshit.
And you know what you do in schools, you withdraw their student aid so that you can give it to ANOTHER STUDENT who is more serious about actually making a contribution.
That's exactly the point "kids don't think that far ahead so we should excuse their actions.."
I'm sorry but I was thinking of my career path since I was roughly 14 or so. It wasn't a big mystery that I would end up working computers and/or math doing one thing or another.
If a 16,17,18-yr old can't reason that "I ought to actually focus on some key majors and not be a total pothead" then maybe they're not serious enough to actually attend school.
More so they think this way because people like you let them. Oh it's ok Johny, you go out and drink and have unprotected sex. Afterall, "studying on your own time" is really nerdish.
Suffice it to say I still had fun during high school and college while at the same time studying independent subjects. It's just called prioritizing. Some days I would go out and have fun and others I'd stay at home. I even had a part time job through most of my high school career.
Kids today want to just go out and have fun EVERY day and they assume that "barely paying attention during school is enough preperation for the real world."
As in high school there were floaters in college too. In my software engineering group of 6 we essentially had 2-3 people do all the work and the others floated [despite how much we asked them to help out]. Last I heard one of the floaters was a busker [and a bad one] downtown...
Moreso if all you put into college is the bare minimums to pass labs/exams you're going to end College being essentially as useless as you entered.
Yeah, because your father had his share of filth from the likes of monty python et al. Let's not forget this generation brought us "flower power" and the whole "casual sex is good" thing.
Anyone who actually argues that "monkey see is monkey do" ought to have their heads examined themselves.
A game like GTA makes me want to go out and murder a cop about as much as seeing some B-rated MPAA "block buster" makes me wanna be a super-villain/hero.
People who are that far detached from society are likely to be "set off" by just about anything.
Let's not forget that society has endured mass murder, murder sprees and serial killers long before the advent of a one "Grand Theft Auto" series.
Right up there with the war on drugs and the war on terrorism right?
If you want to stop a fire take away the fuel source.
What drives people to spam?
1. Greed 2. Zero talent or drive to do real work 3. It's easy [which reinforces #1].
Make spamming hard [e.g. hash-cash or something similar] and you essentially remove any financial backing to spam.
Let's keep in mind that not all the spam you get is from one source. There are many smaller time spammers out that by using their fourth grade math knowledge think they'll get rich overnight by sending out a billion "genu1n3 r0lll3x" ads.
As for drugs I have a simple solution to that problem. Expulsion. I don't see how a university can legitimately claim they have a serious admitance program [e.g. you need the high marks, pass an essay or oral exam, etc, etc, etc] when they let students drink and do drugs all the time.
If kids honestly feared ending their academic careers the serious ones would avoid drugs and the less serious [e.g. bench warmers] would fall out.
But no... we must forgive all the shit they cause... all I know is I was a teenager once, I went to college once and never did I do drugs.
What this proves is the market for software is not the same as the producers would like it to be. That is charging 400$ for a copy of WinXP is not going to invite many people to actually buy it.
Think about it. You think people wouldn't be more likely to steal candy bars if they cost 50$ each?
So once companies stop selling software like Windows for 400$ or Office for 800$ or the latest "remap of last years game" for 60$ or.... the better. None of this means that actually using a commercial program which hasn't been legitimately paid for is right.
Of course I don't see the huge drive to pirate stuff like that. I run all free software and get along just fine....;-)
Google makes money off ads, they also license off their tech [e.g. google-box].
But keep in mind google provides more than just bandwidth for some grainy videos. They provide a service which essentially "makes the net usable". We can live without some random assortment of videos.
Can you honestly say the net would be the same tommorow if google dropped off the face of the earth? I use it myself a dozen times a day to find odd references for things.
Usually for me I have "tvtime" running on desktop1 and my work on 2,3,4 so I don't even "watch" the tv most of the time.
I see that you basically handle it the same way. I wonder how many others purposely do other things during station breaks... hehehe
BTW, you want an annoying commercial [outside of the pyramid schemes on tv early/late at night] try Canada's FIDO cellphone network commercials. They're significantly more painful to endure then having a nine centimeter nail driven through your lungs... hehehe
Yeah seriously. He's saying he's popular because of the ads and the content is otherwise free..
Hmm... no shit.
Where do these people come from? Before you even vest one dollar in your company you have to know where your eventual money will come from. Relying solely on ads for a paycheque is idiotic.
Stop making your ads insulting and ineffcient and people won't block them.
In the age of dialup a simple 3KB page would have >20KB of stupid banner ads and logos.
Now we're in the age of flash popup/under/over/sideways ads that have loud "HEY BUY ME" audio samples and etc..
Yes, an ad has to be noticed. But if it's just too much of a pain in the ass people are going to actively try and ignore them.
For me it has gotten to the point where I actually mute the TV during station breaks because the commercials are not only repetitive and annoying but insulting to my [and anyone over the age of seven] intelligence.
And no, RemodelAmerica, I really don't want your fucking cheap wall siding. Stop paying for EVERY AD SPOT ON THE WEEKEND....
I don't think low pay causes theft. It can contribute to it though.
There are people who would steal even if you gave them enough money to buy whatever they were stealing.
The point is we're trusting all this information to the what essentially ammounts to the lowest bidder. No shit we're starting to hear about theft and misappropriations [re: recent MC problems].
If Dell outsources to India and you get rammed you sue Dell USA not Dell India. Since it's Dell USA that sends the data out they're responsible for what others do with it.
[I'm using Dell here as an example company, obviously this applies to any other outsourcing company].
On top of that fraud is well covered by the Indian penal code so their actions are not going to be "totally unnoticed".
Yeah their wage WAS good. I've been saying this forever but the standard of living is going up.
[past] They have more money than the average joe. So they buy an xbox, big screen tv, air conditioner, etc..
[now] Everyone [exagerating but it is leading this way] has an xbox, tv, air conditioner.
Now people want more games, bigger tvs, more etc...
Almost...like...what...happened in the US and Canada;-)
So yeah, 10 years ago they were getting paid more than the average labourer or something. but now that there are so many of them the pay doesn't scale.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever read. Fraud is illegal in India [many codes]. In particular [IANAIL but...] section 423 of the Indian Penal code seems to deal with this. It's two years in prison.;-)
It has nothing to do with outsourcing [directly]. It has to do with lower pay standards.
I'm sure if this guy got paid fairly [and competitively] he wouldn't be stealing [or less likely to be].
Hey, if the Canadian politicians can vote themselves raises to [quote] "prevent corruption" why is it so hard to reason that the average joe employee should get paid fairly to be kept honest?
Granted outsourcing exists BECAUSE they're lower paid staff it isn't the cause of it though. I mean I use a Dell computer here at work. Essentially that's "outsourcing" since my business doesn't care to make their own computers.
Just because Dell MAKES computers doesn't mean they should run the call centre themselves [for instance]. Their business is mass producing computers and shipping them out...
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.shoprbc.com/ca/shop/product_details.php ?pid=1075&cid=183
Yeah you're right, WinXP PRO Retail [e.g. a legit copy] is only 454$ not 400$...
Phew... thanks for clearing that up.
Tom
You're confusing "curbing drug use" with "getting rid of hacks".
I don't know about you but of all the people I knew [or very well suspected to know] took drugs during college, very few of them were highly productive people.
This line of thinking that potheads are all somehow smart or something is plain idiotic.
Frankly I'm tired of this "help the poor bastard out". I'd rather have time and energy spent on the students who can't make ends meet and/or need a tutor than forgiving those who cheat on assignments/exams and abuse drugs/commit crimes.
Seriously, I had to go through school being the outcast unpopular non-criminal. Why should they get the same chances in life as I should?
Tom
I'm not saying we can't help kids/students. I'm saying if they choose to be criminals you have to be tough.
By time a student hits grade 9 they're well aware of the negative implications of drugs. We did D.A.R.E. training in grade 6 for crying out loud.
The thing is to keep tabs on students and help them out [e.g. when grades slip] but once they go, let them go.
I'm not saying the way you led your life is "wrong". It's not about life choices being "right" or "wrong". It's about having consequences.
In your case you're not specifically a "bad person" for doing what you did but I also think you [from what you wrote and some extrapolation] probably deserved to be shoved out of the education system.
I dunno. School is free, all you have to do is attend and participate. How much easier could people make it?
Tom
Exactly. Do you know how much an episode of "Raymond" costs? Like several MILLION dollars.
That's right. A stupid 30 minute show costs MILLIONS of dollars and all they do is re-use tiring gags, sitcom bullshit and the same set over and over.
Hell, I could do that on cable access for a couple hundred a night...
That's why you have advertisements on TV. Because the execs will pay stupid amount of money for "stars". When really what it comes down to is content [or in the case of Friends, Seinfeld, Raymond and pretty much all other sitcoms, just enough face time...].
Tom
If none of your actions have consequences ... you think your society will be better off?
Ok. I salute you.
Tom
No it's a problem because we excuse stupidy.
I don't see the direct correlation between going to school and doing drugs. Like as if you MUST do drugs to get through school.
What if we replaced "drugs" with "theft" or "murder" or what not? Actually, look at the UK with the "bitch slap cell phone" thingy going on.
That's really popular apparently. Does that mean we should excuse it just because "it's tough trying to fit in when you're not a criminal"...
Bullshit.
And you know what you do in schools, you withdraw their student aid so that you can give it to ANOTHER STUDENT who is more serious about actually making a contribution.
Wow that's a hard concept.
Tom
That's exactly the point "kids don't think that far ahead so we should excuse their actions.."
I'm sorry but I was thinking of my career path since I was roughly 14 or so. It wasn't a big mystery that I would end up working computers and/or math doing one thing or another.
If a 16,17,18-yr old can't reason that "I ought to actually focus on some key majors and not be a total pothead" then maybe they're not serious enough to actually attend school.
More so they think this way because people like you let them. Oh it's ok Johny, you go out and drink and have unprotected sex. Afterall, "studying on your own time" is really nerdish.
Suffice it to say I still had fun during high school and college while at the same time studying independent subjects. It's just called prioritizing. Some days I would go out and have fun and others I'd stay at home. I even had a part time job through most of my high school career.
Kids today want to just go out and have fun EVERY day and they assume that "barely paying attention during school is enough preperation for the real world."
As in high school there were floaters in college too. In my software engineering group of 6 we essentially had 2-3 people do all the work and the others floated [despite how much we asked them to help out]. Last I heard one of the floaters was a busker [and a bad one] downtown...
Moreso if all you put into college is the bare minimums to pass labs/exams you're going to end College being essentially as useless as you entered.
Tom
Yeah, because your father had his share of filth from the likes of monty python et al. Let's not forget this generation brought us "flower power" and the whole "casual sex is good" thing.
Anyone who actually argues that "monkey see is monkey do" ought to have their heads examined themselves.
A game like GTA makes me want to go out and murder a cop about as much as seeing some B-rated MPAA "block buster" makes me wanna be a super-villain/hero.
People who are that far detached from society are likely to be "set off" by just about anything.
Let's not forget that society has endured mass murder, murder sprees and serial killers long before the advent of a one "Grand Theft Auto" series.
Tom
Right up there with the war on drugs and the war on terrorism right?
If you want to stop a fire take away the fuel source.
What drives people to spam?
1. Greed
2. Zero talent or drive to do real work
3. It's easy [which reinforces #1].
Make spamming hard [e.g. hash-cash or something similar] and you essentially remove any financial backing to spam.
Let's keep in mind that not all the spam you get is from one source. There are many smaller time spammers out that by using their fourth grade math knowledge think they'll get rich overnight by sending out a billion "genu1n3 r0lll3x" ads.
As for drugs I have a simple solution to that problem. Expulsion. I don't see how a university can legitimately claim they have a serious admitance program [e.g. you need the high marks, pass an essay or oral exam, etc, etc, etc] when they let students drink and do drugs all the time.
If kids honestly feared ending their academic careers the serious ones would avoid drugs and the less serious [e.g. bench warmers] would fall out.
But no... we must forgive all the shit they cause... all I know is I was a teenager once, I went to college once and never did I do drugs.
Tom
That's not a smart conclusion.
.... the better. None of this means that actually using a commercial program which hasn't been legitimately paid for is right.
... ;-)
What this proves is the market for software is not the same as the producers would like it to be. That is charging 400$ for a copy of WinXP is not going to invite many people to actually buy it.
Think about it. You think people wouldn't be more likely to steal candy bars if they cost 50$ each?
So once companies stop selling software like Windows for 400$ or Office for 800$ or the latest "remap of last years game" for 60$ or
Of course I don't see the huge drive to pirate stuff like that. I run all free software and get along just fine.
Tom
Yahoo is a mystery.
Google makes money off ads, they also license off their tech [e.g. google-box].
But keep in mind google provides more than just bandwidth for some grainy videos. They provide a service which essentially "makes the net usable". We can live without some random assortment of videos.
Can you honestly say the net would be the same tommorow if google dropped off the face of the earth? I use it myself a dozen times a day to find odd references for things.
Tom
You're saying "they think they can get away with it that's why they do it".
I'm saying their motives probably include wanting to increase their quality of living.
It has ZERO todo with where they live or what laws govern their nation.
Tom
Usually for me I have "tvtime" running on desktop1 and my work on 2,3,4 so I don't even "watch" the tv most of the time.
I see that you basically handle it the same way. I wonder how many others purposely do other things during station breaks... hehehe
BTW, you want an annoying commercial [outside of the pyramid schemes on tv early/late at night] try Canada's FIDO cellphone network commercials. They're significantly more painful to endure then having a nine centimeter nail driven through your lungs... hehehe
tom
Yeah seriously. He's saying he's popular because of the ads and the content is otherwise free..
Hmm... no shit.
Where do these people come from? Before you even vest one dollar in your company you have to know where your eventual money will come from. Relying solely on ads for a paycheque is idiotic.
Tom
Stop making your ads insulting and ineffcient and people won't block them.
In the age of dialup a simple 3KB page would have >20KB of stupid banner ads and logos.
Now we're in the age of flash popup/under/over/sideways ads that have loud "HEY BUY ME" audio samples and etc..
Yes, an ad has to be noticed. But if it's just too much of a pain in the ass people are going to actively try and ignore them.
For me it has gotten to the point where I actually mute the TV during station breaks because the commercials are not only repetitive and annoying but insulting to my [and anyone over the age of seven] intelligence.
And no, RemodelAmerica, I really don't want your fucking cheap wall siding. Stop paying for EVERY AD SPOT ON THE WEEKEND....
Tom
So what? Criminals in Canada think they can get away with it too.
It's still a crime in India for which they can get punished.
Tom
I don't think low pay causes theft. It can contribute to it though.
There are people who would steal even if you gave them enough money to buy whatever they were stealing.
The point is we're trusting all this information to the what essentially ammounts to the lowest bidder. No shit we're starting to hear about theft and misappropriations [re: recent MC problems].
Tom
I don't know ANYONE who uses hotmail for more than a throwaway address. So let them have their little party. Who cares?
Tom
How about any one of the totally gutted towns in the united states? ;-)
Tom
supply and demand.
If apple went to AMD and said "here's a billion dollar contract" they'd be like "new fabs coming up!".
Self-fullfilling bullshit like that just pisses me off. AMD is small so don't invest in AMD...
How the fuck did Intel get so large?
Tom
I clearly have much to learn. My training is of yet incomplete.
Hehehe.
Tom
Liability law.
If Dell outsources to India and you get rammed you sue Dell USA not Dell India. Since it's Dell USA that sends the data out they're responsible for what others do with it.
[I'm using Dell here as an example company, obviously this applies to any other outsourcing company].
On top of that fraud is well covered by the Indian penal code so their actions are not going to be "totally unnoticed".
Tom
Yeah their wage WAS good. I've been saying this forever but the standard of living is going up.
;-)
[past]
They have more money than the average joe. So they buy an xbox, big screen tv, air conditioner, etc..
[now]
Everyone [exagerating but it is leading this way] has an xbox, tv, air conditioner.
Now people want more games, bigger tvs, more etc...
Almost...like...what...happened in the US and Canada
So yeah, 10 years ago they were getting paid more than the average labourer or something. but now that there are so many of them the pay doesn't scale.
Tom
That's the dumbest thing I've ever read. Fraud is illegal in India [many codes]. In particular [IANAIL but...] section 423 of the Indian Penal code seems to deal with this. It's two years in prison. ;-)
Use a google search engine next time.
Tom
It has nothing to do with outsourcing [directly]. It has to do with lower pay standards.
I'm sure if this guy got paid fairly [and competitively] he wouldn't be stealing [or less likely to be].
Hey, if the Canadian politicians can vote themselves raises to [quote] "prevent corruption" why is it so hard to reason that the average joe employee should get paid fairly to be kept honest?
Granted outsourcing exists BECAUSE they're lower paid staff it isn't the cause of it though. I mean I use a Dell computer here at work. Essentially that's "outsourcing" since my business doesn't care to make their own computers.
Just because Dell MAKES computers doesn't mean they should run the call centre themselves [for instance]. Their business is mass producing computers and shipping them out...
Tom