Re:How is the Brooks article unintentionally funny
on
The Almighty Buck
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· Score: 1
Fact is, we spend more than most people in the world make. We're a consumptionist society. We invented disposable plates and cups and diapers and everything else. Sake of convienience, isn't it?
I'd much rather eke out a meager living, scraping the ground in some thuggish People's Republic in Africa.
Please: Those of you in the community with name-recognition, use your influence for good causes other than running linux on an aibo. You have the ears of 100,000s of/. readers, and we WILL support you in these important acts.
How do you get the name recognition if you don't port Linux to Aibo or Furby or my Desklamp?
That's why so many people on Slashdot were shocked to read stuff like the letter that Peruvian congress man wrote. Shocked by intelligent, eloquent, unbiased reasoning, because it's so uncommon these days.
How could we be shocked here by that? Slashdot is synonymous with well-researched, well-reasoned, civil debate, with people open to growth and enlightenment and a better understanding of the truth about things.
No, China is an "interesting" market because the rest of the industrialized nations (North America, EU, Japan, etc) are already glutted.
The "China Market" is a siren song that has been luring American business for over 100 years. It's the origin of the Spanish-American war, even. Back then, the US had basically finished expanding westward. There was fear in business about what would happen because there was no "expanding" market (which is ridiculous, because the population didn't stop growing...). Anyway, they looked a bit further west, and saw China, a "huge untapped market". However, you needed coaling stations along the way for the ships plying the trade. The Hawaiian Islands and the Phillippines were optimal. Hawaii was already under US control (the monarchy having been undermined and overthrown), and the Phillippines were owned by the Spanish. So we concocted a little war with Spain to "liberate" Cuba, and on the side we grabbed the Phillipines, and smashed their own independence movement (> 200,000 Filipinos killed). Just a little tangent here, sorry.
It's going to be fun watching Jon Katz's brain melt when he reads this article.
What do you mean? It's _already_ melted.
Re:would you like some cheese with that w(h)ine?
on
Amazon.Heartbreak
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· Score: 1
You're certainly entitled to your opinion; however, I can vote for my government. I don't remember electing any corporations. The basic purpose of government is, well, governing. Whereas the corporations exist to provide goods and services in exchange for money. Of course, I'm glossing over the perversion of both, but at the basic level, which one has more responsibility towards the people?
Well, for that matter, you can stop buying a product, or arrange a boycott. Corporations don't have coercive power; the State has a monopoly on violence in a geographic area. Corporations don't--they have to persuade (via marketing).
Coz people are easily gulled, we suffer under both, which was really my point.
You can get the entire first chapter off Barnes and Noble
Here's a fast summary: "I am a talented underachieving unmotivated drifting loser."
Re:would you like some cheese with that w(h)ine?
on
Amazon.Heartbreak
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· Score: 1
You know, I think you're right. All this huge-corporation stuff is really stifling the quality of living in America. It's really awful here. If only we could turn back the clock to the nineteenth century!
You really need to get a grip on yourself -- you're not nearly infallible enough that the only reason people disagree with you is that they've been brainwashed.
You have made the mistake of defining "quality of living" as an economic measure. Are you a Marxist? I find it ironic how the Republican party so often speaks in a Marxist fashion: man is mostly economic. Or am I totally off-base here?
Because by most other measures (cultural, community--especially cities, employment, political, educational, help me with more), quality of life in the US mostly sucks and is getting worse. We do have some liberty left, which counts for good, but even that is slipping away.
Re:would you like some cheese with that w(h)ine?
on
Amazon.Heartbreak
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· Score: 1
Um. Earth to human. Just the very fact that you think enjoying your job is some unattainable nirvana prooves just how microcosmic your world view is. I didn't say anything about fun and cool. I said enjoyable. Not tolerable... enjoyable.
A lot of our tedium in jobs is a result of Industrial Engineering principles applied _everywhere_: humans are interchangeable machines. The search for total efficiency in large organizations relegates humans to repetitive assembly-line type jobs. Shipping these out to other countries is good for us, but not for them (I know, for them it's a step up economically, but not humanly).
Capitalism would flourish in a distributist system, where property is not concentrated in the hands of a few. I don't know that you can _make_ that happen. People have to want it. They don't. I think most people are content with how things are, and just want to watch the next episode of "Celebrity Fear Factor."
Re:would you like some cheese with that w(h)ine?
on
Amazon.Heartbreak
·
· Score: 1
Read "No Logo". Search for it at Amazon. Read it with an open mind, and you'll begin to see what I mean. Try out a few books on the left of center regarding the left's view of global trade over the last 30 years.
The Left has some valid critiques of corporatism. However, the Left's love affair with the State is horrifying, especially in light of the past century. Given the two evils, Huge Corporations and the Huge State, I'd pick the Corps, because at least they don't have large armies and secret police etc etc etc. Problem is: we have _both_. And they are in bed together, cooperating. I much prefer Distributism, but the State-run schools are too successful in churning out State/Corporate drones.
He portrays Daisey here as a wage slave? So who _doesn't_ have to work to get your pay (and still sleep at night)? And don't say he was "locked in" at Amazon, in those days jobs were easy to find.
...slaves to fetch laundry...
Hey Jon Katz, since you get paid to write, are you a whore, or a slave? Or both?
What I don't understand is why "they" (gub'mint's everywhere) seem to think that the answer to the failures that lead to 9/11 [bbc.co.uk] is more of the same [theregister.co.uk]. Unless... but that would just be paranoia.
9/11 was a massive success for governments everywhere--more centralization of power, more docile subjects.
Spam, while obnoxious (especially HTML emails) is not the biggest unsolicited waste of money/bandwidth, at least not that I'm experiencing.
While not necessarily obnoxious (unless an unwitting target),/. is the biggest waste of bandwidth. How many sites have been/.-ed? How many inboxes have been/.-ed?/. is a community-based DOS tool.
I for one will not be moving to such Office packages.
You must not be a manager. Only a manager would find the Incredible Productivity Improvements! you get from buying a suite. Embed a spreadsheet in your presentation! Put a presentation in your spreadsheet! Or stuff a flight simulator in there somewhere....
This whole office "suite" thing is one massive mistake on everyones part.
Dude, you are forgetting the totally awesome synergy you get when you work in a suite. When you're creating text files, you want to bust loose spreadsheeting and creating presentations, and maybe create a database of your activities! Only a suite lets you fulfil such a momentous destiny.
Go read your license. A lot of commercial software has a clause in the license that says it's illegal to resell the software+license to someone else without written consent. I wouldn't be surprised if Office was that way. The license itself should say.
I think it's safe to say that Microsoft is very friendly and liberal on their licensing and distribution policies; they have a long history like that. NOT!
I find it amusing how so many people complain about paying $18+/CD. Then they go and buy another. Your words are just hot air--you paid the price for the CD, it's worth it to you, and you're supporting the system. No one is coercing the money out of you--you did it freely.
If you don't like the system, support a different system. Or are you just a drooling consumerist lapdog?
That's the absurdity of the law and proof that the legislators responsible for the piece of filth known as the DMCA deserve to be shot. And stabbed. And beaten. And boiled. And whipped. And drawn and quartered.
And only then given a fair trial and taken out and hanged by the neck until death.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd much rather eke out a meager living, scraping the ground in some thuggish People's Republic in Africa.
Let me guess: you work at Hotmail?
How do you get the name recognition if you don't port Linux to Aibo or Furby or my Desklamp?
Laziness is the mother of at least 9 out of 10 inventions.
How could we be shocked here by that? Slashdot is synonymous with well-researched, well-reasoned, civil debate, with people open to growth and enlightenment and a better understanding of the truth about things.
Except for all the bedwetting leftists!
The "China Market" is a siren song that has been luring American business for over 100 years. It's the origin of the Spanish-American war, even. Back then, the US had basically finished expanding westward. There was fear in business about what would happen because there was no "expanding" market (which is ridiculous, because the population didn't stop growing...). Anyway, they looked a bit further west, and saw China, a "huge untapped market". However, you needed coaling stations along the way for the ships plying the trade. The Hawaiian Islands and the Phillippines were optimal. Hawaii was already under US control (the monarchy having been undermined and overthrown), and the Phillippines were owned by the Spanish. So we concocted a little war with Spain to "liberate" Cuba, and on the side we grabbed the Phillipines, and smashed their own independence movement (> 200,000 Filipinos killed). Just a little tangent here, sorry.
What do you mean? It's _already_ melted.
Well, for that matter, you can stop buying a product, or arrange a boycott. Corporations don't have coercive power; the State has a monopoly on violence in a geographic area. Corporations don't--they have to persuade (via marketing).
Coz people are easily gulled, we suffer under both, which was really my point.
Here's a fast summary: "I am a talented underachieving unmotivated drifting loser."
You have made the mistake of defining "quality of living" as an economic measure. Are you a Marxist? I find it ironic how the Republican party so often speaks in a Marxist fashion: man is mostly economic. Or am I totally off-base here?
Because by most other measures (cultural, community--especially cities, employment, political, educational, help me with more), quality of life in the US mostly sucks and is getting worse. We do have some liberty left, which counts for good, but even that is slipping away.
A lot of our tedium in jobs is a result of Industrial Engineering principles applied _everywhere_: humans are interchangeable machines. The search for total efficiency in large organizations relegates humans to repetitive assembly-line type jobs. Shipping these out to other countries is good for us, but not for them (I know, for them it's a step up economically, but not humanly). Capitalism would flourish in a distributist system, where property is not concentrated in the hands of a few. I don't know that you can _make_ that happen. People have to want it. They don't. I think most people are content with how things are, and just want to watch the next episode of "Celebrity Fear Factor."
The Left has some valid critiques of corporatism. However, the Left's love affair with the State is horrifying, especially in light of the past century. Given the two evils, Huge Corporations and the Huge State, I'd pick the Corps, because at least they don't have large armies and secret police etc etc etc. Problem is: we have _both_. And they are in bed together, cooperating. I much prefer Distributism, but the State-run schools are too successful in churning out State/Corporate drones.
He portrays Daisey here as a wage slave? So who _doesn't_ have to work to get your pay (and still sleep at night)? And don't say he was "locked in" at Amazon, in those days jobs were easy to find.
Hey Jon Katz, since you get paid to write, are you a whore, or a slave? Or both?
As vermin rodents, Spammers shouldn't receive human rights.
As the old saying goes (told to me by a city policeman): "Better judged by 12 than carried by 6."
"WHAM!" Australian for "justice".
9/11 was a massive success for governments everywhere--more centralization of power, more docile subjects.
While not necessarily obnoxious (unless an unwitting target), /. is the biggest waste of bandwidth. How many sites have been /.-ed? How many inboxes have been /.-ed? /. is a community-based DOS tool.
Despite all evidence, you are a True Believer! Keep the faith--in America, people have a short memory, and will soon forget all the evidence!
You must not be a manager. Only a manager would find the Incredible Productivity Improvements! you get from buying a suite. Embed a spreadsheet in your presentation! Put a presentation in your spreadsheet! Or stuff a flight simulator in there somewhere....
Dude, you are forgetting the totally awesome synergy you get when you work in a suite. When you're creating text files, you want to bust loose spreadsheeting and creating presentations, and maybe create a database of your activities! Only a suite lets you fulfil such a momentous destiny.
I think it's safe to say that Microsoft is very friendly and liberal on their licensing and distribution policies; they have a long history like that. NOT!
The Republic died in 1861. We are now an Empire.
If you don't like the system, support a different system. Or are you just a drooling consumerist lapdog?
And only then given a fair trial and taken out and hanged by the neck until death.