If choice bothers you, then use Windows. On most pre-installed distributions you get exactly one app for each thing you want to do. No need to actually choose anything yourself at all.
Linux is all about choice, and clearly it's not meant for a user like you. In your case Windows is undoubtedly the product you need to be using. Why advocate turning Linux into Windows when you can already purchase an OS that's does exactly what you want?
There are people who write prose for prestige... But these people are all working on essays, journal articles, or "literary" novels...
You're behind the times, friend. Now they 'blog', usually in a form that most closely resembles mental diarrhea, in the arrogant belief that their dazzling pseudo-intellectual analysis of some aspect of human nature or the world is a pearl of wisdom, a veritable fucking godsend, to all of us lesser proles.
These are the people we need writing beginner's docs. It's about all they can realistically handle given the limits of both their verbal skills and their wit, and their output would certainly be a hell of a lot more useful than the blather they vomit up on the web whenever the mood to 'enlighten' others takes them.
But claiming it's as easy to install Linux as it is to install Windows? That way lies insanity.
Cleary you've never tried an install of SuSe Linux from version 8.0 or later. It's considerably easier to install than Windows XP and on the systems I've installed it on it flawlessly detected all the on-board hardware without any intervention on my part.
The 'newb' installation of SuSe involves all of three - count 'em, THREE - steps. Which essentially devolves to 'do you want to use the default installation, or muck with things yourself?'. Goddamnably easy any which way you slice it. Everything up and running, including internet connections, in no time flat.
The old Windows FUD about the 'difficulty' of installing Linux is just that - FUD. SuSe, as well as a few other distros, are as simple to install as Windows now, or more so. That's been true for nearly two years.
Time to get out of that cubicle of yours and update your worldview.
You wouldn't know a free market if it up and bit you in the ass. 'Hypercapitalism' is a bullshit word, nothing more than a catch-phrase for what you perceive as an economic form of evil. And what you describe has NOTHING to do with capitalism.
The system we have in place in America bears as little resemblance to real capitalism as the former Soviet Union or modern China reflects real communism. It's a state supported, corporate oligarchy much closer to fascism than capitalism - and the left-wing loonies argue for *more* state control, as if somehow that'll fix the problem! What morons! The very foundation of the problem - government interference in a free market - is precisely what they should be arguing *against*.
So don't blather on about 'capitalism'. You obviously don't have a clue what capitalism is all about, other than the tripe you've been spoon-fed by pseudo-socialist twits.
we all deserve to die of viruses if they are more capable than our immune systems. Would you argue that medicine is just immorally saving the lives of people who are getting in the way of evolution?
Strawman argument, and completely, utterly irrelevant to the point being made.
Cultures are vital things. Those that refuse to adapt, die, and are replaced with something more capable of dealing with current conditions. Trying to impose stasis in a changing world is the game of fools, or of dictators invested only in preserving the status quo to their own benefit. Denying people access to 'outside factors' is just another way of trying to keep folks from rocking the apple cart, just because you like the way the apples are being distributed.
Socialism and capitalism by themselves are quite evil.
What tripe. Capitalism isn't at all evil; it's about being able to distribute your own resources *as you please*. Capitalism is synonymous with economic freedom.
The point where capitalism becomes corrupt is when government gets involved. Government despises a free market; free markets lead to change and fluctuations in power. Government, more than anything else, is interested in maintaining it's power base, and to do that it needs a consistency which you can't get in a truly free market. Government doesn't exist to protect us from the 'evils' of capitalism, but rather to perpetuate whatever power structure exists in the current economic system. This is entirely antithetical to free market capitalism.
You can have both capitalism and social welfare programs. Despite the ravings of left wing loonies the two are not opposed. Charities operate perfectly well alongside capitalism; a government charity could do the same, and without interference in the market. This is a truth which would-be tin-point wannabe socialist dictators refuse to acknowledge because it doesn't allow them to force others to bend to their will, which is the point of their 'greater good' bullshit no matter what they claim to the contrary.
If Islam was a dying thing, like say the aboriginal cultures in Australia, then perhaps there would be an argument there.
No, it would not be a valid argument. If exposure to ideas and information outside the culture results in the collapse of that culture, then it wasn't worth supporting in the first place. That culture deserves to die and be replaced with something more robust.
It's about four hours if you're driving during regular commuting times; the traffic is pretty bad near Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle itself.
If there's a wreck of any kind - more and more frequent these days - the time it takes is considerably longer. The last time I went through Portland it took almost *two hours* to travel seven miles because of a pile-up near downtown. I could've walked the distance faster.
Ask any iraki what he thinks about americans being free to run their cars whenever they want. Or any vietnamese for that matter...
Fuck 'em. Why should I give a shit what they think about how I live? Why should I give a shit what *you* think, for that matter? Your opinion on my lifestyle doesn't mean squat, and because I'm an American there isn't a goddamn thing you can do about it.
Yet the americans adamantly refuse to go out and discover the world en masse. And when they do, they do it in the most boorish way possible, either by being obnoxious tourists, greedy raping businessmen or rampaging soldiers.
So what you're saying is that we're emulating the practices of Europeans from 1492 to the end of World War 2? The way I see it, we'd have to rape and pillage the world for at least another 300 years to match the atrocities that countries like Spain, England, and France committed upon the world during the age of imperialism. And unless we install our own Reich, we'll never manage to surpass the Germans.
And this explains the general stupidity and ignorance of the americans; they don't have any education. Thus they get the leaders they deserve.
Which would also explain the general leadership of the European Union, which is some of the worst the world has ever seen. I guess those Europeans are just too fucking stupid to vote in people of value, and deserve what they get - a bunch of assholes bound and determined to establish a European socialist dictatorship.
What isn't explained is how on god's green earth you came to the conclusion that you're both morally and intellectually superior to the rest of us. To me, you sound like some bitter little geek who's never managed to get laid by anyone other than Mother Thumb and her four daughters.
What it takes to move people off the roads is to move past the 19th century workplace where managers insist on five million lunchpail-carrying peons crawling through the door on their knees to punch a timeclock at the exact same moment.
Managers will *always* insist on this. It's how they measure dicksize - by the head-count as they walk into their fiefdom. The heads have to be there, and all at the same time, else the appearance of power over the serfs is far less than it otherwise would be.
Try working as management in any corporation in America. The vast majority of your energies are spent jockying for position with other managers, like dogs trying to become the alpha male of the pack. Or, if you refuse to play, defending against the attempts of the other dogs to knock you out of your station.
I care about my fellows, which is why it is a daily pain to watch hypercapitalism swallow more of America. More sensible socialism is needed.
What crap. The advocates of socialism are no different than the advocates of 'hypercapitalism', as you call it. They're the same animal, with a trivial difference in stripes. Both want to tell everyone else how to live their lives, and distribute their resources, at the point of a gun if necessary - no doubt 'for the greater good'.
Socialism is just another form of dictatorship. The fact that the majority might support this dictatorship makes it no different than any other.
The best way to avoid commuting is for people to move back into the cities, to walk to work, to downsize the huge companies into smaller human-sized organizations, to live on a human scale. The best way to connect large countries is through high-speed trains that use conventional rail technology.
Spoken like a true fanatic. "The best way is my way - bow down to my wisdom!" Just because it's *your* way doesn't make it the 'best' way.
You aren't a genius or a visionary. You're just a Joe, like any other. Get over yourself.
but in the vast majority of cases, trains really, really suck.
I can't speak for the east coast, but on the west coast trains often beat the hell out of driving long distances by car. If, for example, I want to go from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington, I have a dull 4 to 6 hour drive in front of me (depending on how many drunks have cluttered the roads with bodies that day), the boredom only relieved by occassional moments of stark raving terror courtesy of the insane driving practices of those folks who should've never been issued a license in the first place (most of which seem fond of minivans).
The train takes about the same amount of time (always delayed, always late) but not only is it a hell of a lot more comfortable, I don't have to worry about the drunks or the minivan drivers, other than the possibility that they'll further delay me by stupidly crashing into the train. And at least on this count I'm somewhat mollified by the fact that Darwinism is still alive and well, and that there's one less moron on the road.
For daily commutes on the east coast the train does, undoubtedly, suck. For long-distance travel on the west coast it beats driving hands-down.
You ever work for government? Especially the agencies that tend to involve themselves in power politics and shady deals? Let's just say that they're definitely not the masterminds portrayed on the "X Files", despite their unwavering belief in their own intellectual superiority.
Most conspiracies are one part cunning, one part accident, and eight parts a bunch of morons all acting at cross-purposes. But, like the monkeys and the typewriters, every once in awhile they produce something legible...or in this case - perhaps - something that actually works.
SCO smells just like this. A dash of cunning, a pinch of good luck, and a huge dollop of stupidity contributed by a bunch of dumb-asses convinced they're the next Napoleons of the political/business world. By sheer happenstance things just might work out well for the puppet master...whoever that happens to be.
But if it does it will have had nothing to do with masterful planning. The conspiracies put forward by shows like the X-Files and the loons just don't exist. Conspirators, by and large, are either too arrogant, too stupid, or both to actually pull off whatever it is they're aiming for...assuming you can keep them from fighting with each other over pecking order long enough to get anything done.
Is it okay to send people to jail for copyright violation? I think not. We're not talking about theft here; we're talking about VIOLATION OF COPYRIGHT. No sane society sends people off to be incarcerated with murderers, rapists, and *real* thieves - you know, the kind that break into your home and actually take stuff - for VIOLATING LAWS ON COPYING THINGS.
And let's not forget that D&D breeds it's own version of the apologist, the 'why things work the way they do no matter how fucking stupid the rules look on their face' guy.
Yada yada. BAK had a better game system than D&D ever did. So does Morrowind. So, for that matter, did the pen-and-paper original RuneQuest. No classes, no levels, no experience points necessary.
being a Geek means "ratherly looking for cleverer solution whenever any kind of problem is faced".
Nah, being a geek means being some pasty-faced, fat-assed, socially retarded little loser who'll never get laid by anything other than his hand, a whore, or his drunken sister, and compensates for his obvious and glaring inadequacies by pretending that he's actually smarter than everyone else even though statistically loser-hood doesn't correlate to IQ and geeks aren't any brighter than anyone else.
In other words, geeks are the genetic dross that would've been wiped out long before they got old enough to breed, had we not short-circuited Darwinism with civilization.
If we go by history, there ARE NO mages or priests, D&D-style. Never have been and never will be. By your argument we should remove them from gaming altogether. As well as the abilities to raise the dead, cast a fireball, or call an insect plague, since no human being has ever been able to do any of these things.
D&D is about trying to fix the fuckups with assinine rule restrictions, all for the sake of 'game balance'. If the game were fucking balanced from the get-go then these restrictions wouldn't be at all necessary.
Like I said, the 'Starfleet Battles' of RPG. If you want a pen-and-paper game which actually did the genre and did it well without all the bullshit of D&D, you need look no further than the original RuneQuest.
Just because someone does a shitty game based on D&D doesn't make it a failure of D&D.
No, D&D fails all on its own. It always has. The game system absolutely blows; 90% of the rules are there simply to make up for the fuckups in the other 10% of the rules. It's the 'Starfleet Battles' of role-playing and, like 'Starfleet Battles', quickly loses its appeal once one gets beyond puberty (assuming you don't arrest there altogether).
Come on; hit points? Levels? Experience gained through psychotic, unprecedented levels of slaughter that only the likes of Hitler and Stalin could ever hope to match? Inane restrictions that make absolutely no sense (e.g., mages can't wear armor, priests can't use swords)? Skills which advance because you happened to decapitate 800 orcs...but don't improve when you actually use them, and can never be practiced or trained?
The list goes on...and on..and on. What's curious is that companies keep porting such a shitty game to the PC, when Betrayal at Krondor did the character and game system so much better than any D&D-based game that you can't even compare the two. And BAK game out 15 years ago.
Of course, the moronic rules of D&D could very well be part of the basis for the wild popularity of non-D&D-based games like Morrowind. Lo! And there came a game where one improved skills...by actually using them! And mages could wear armor! And priests could use whatever weapon was handy to stave in thy head!
How revolutionary! A CRPG rules sytem that actually makes sense! Might explain why NWN was a financial loser, while Morrowind made more money than anyone at Bethsoft ever dreamed it could.
Perhaps this signals the end of D&D-based computer games. God knows, we can only hope. The genre could only be improved by tossing shit like D&D onto the trash heap.
Instead of packing up and running every time something happens that you don't like, why not stick around here and fight for what you believe in?
Assuming there are enough people who give a shit. Seems to me that with each passing year there are more and more Americans who couldn't give a rat's ass about the Bill of Rights, and who'll defend any government action, no matter how inane, as 'necessary'. How many times have I heard the argument "but times have changed, the Constitution is an outdated document that isn't applicable to our modern world"? When I was a kid no one in their right mind would even dream of whispering such a thing, yet I hear it more and more often these days - with others chiming in over the 'wisdom' of the speaker!
There's a point where believers in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will become such a tiny minority that it's no longer possible to win against the government, much less stave off the disintegration of freedom in this country. And at that point the only logical course of action is to go to some other country that's still sane, and let the morons stew in the pseudo-dictatorship they so obviously crave. Only idiots fight a battle they can't win.
The problem is such exploits are published and not referred to the companies in question for them to fix these faults.
And there's absolutely no ethical obligation on the part of the person who finds the flaw to inform the company before informing the public. It's up to the company to prevent the sudden appearance of egg all over their faces, not folks who aren't their employees and aren't getting paid by said company to find such faults in the first place.
Funny how well corporations have managed to brainwash some people into thinking otherwise...as if in the end we're all their employees and 'owe' them something beyond the price we pay for their (buggy and insecure) software. I wonder when this little tidbit was included in the definition of 'capitalism'?
Or perhaps we could just do away with the commercials altogether. I already pay for my cable; why do I have to pay twice with time wasted on ads? What, you say it'd be more expensive? If that's the case then how come the largest networks in America can broadcast their content over the airwaves *for free*?
Seems to me that it's EITHER commercials OR a monthly payment. Seems to me that having to put up with both is some greasy corporate exec's way of fucking me up the ass, and laughing all the way to the bank.
In fact, seems to me that the fact that I downloaded every single episode of Alias for the first two seasons - trying to catch up since I didn't even know the show existed until the third - and didn't pay anyone a goddamned dime for the privilege is a drop in the bucket called 'payback'.
Or, from another perspective, just a method of time-shifting since I already have cable and own a VCR, and would've recorded when it actually aired had I known about it.
And I would've skipped all of the commercials then, too. Because I *already pay* for my service, and I'll be goddamned if I'm going to pay twice.
Once again, you completely ignore the artists who aren't getting paid because you're not buying their albums.
Riiight. Tell us another, RIAA butt-monkey. The artist getting paid! How fucking funny is that?
And how much does the artist get per CD? I do believe that Ani DiFranco has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the RIAA does nothing but screw both artist and customer, then bend them over again for a good reaming via bought-and-paid-for congressmen.
I could pay $8 for a CD direct from the artist, and even if you take off $2 for shipping and production (vastly overstated, but for you we'll pretend that's the actual cost) the average artist will still earn SIX TIMES what they get paid under the RIAA aegis.
Fuck the RIAA and it's apologists. The middleman isn't worth the price anymore. We can sample the artist's work direct (P2P, wouldn't you know) and buy if we like. And not buy if we don't.
Guess that business model is too complex for folks like you to parse. But in your world everyone's a thief...no doubt a reflection of your own character.
Your problem is that you think NORMAL people--i.e., people who don't visit Slashdot 10+ times a day and download the latest point release of something called "GNOME"--have the time, energy, and patience to learn which of their 8 text editors is the best.
And then there's the problem of idiots who've obviously never been anywhere near a Linux distribution, talking out of their asses about something they know nothing about. All major newb distros install, by default, one or two desktops, and choose for you default text editors, browsers, and spreadsheets. They've done this for quite some time; in fact, SuSe allows you to not only go with their preferred selection but to not bother installing anything else at all, with a single click of the mouse. You not only get to not make that choice, you won't be able to make it in the future either, at least not without reinstalling or adding the packages in separatetly at a later date.
And, as others have pointed out, you're apparently incapable of making the connection between the idea of 'choice' here and the fact that it applies to so many other things that no one bitches or complains about. No one whines about having more than ONE computer to choose from, or ONE car, or ONE type of house, or ONE style of furniture, or ONE brand of shoes, or just about anything else under the sun that's bought, sold, or traded. Nope, the only time people whine about having a choice in consumer products is here, about Linux, from fans of Billy-boy, looking for any straw to grasp so they can make an attack against that 'evil' Linux that threatens the empire of their god.
And conversely, if sales go down then there's no reason to believe that file sharing has anything to do with it, given the lack of hard evidence to support that assumption.
Oh, wait - it's okay to say that because the RIAA insists that's the case, even though they never managed to actually prove it in any way, shape or form. Our corporate masters can turn baseless correlation into causation just by saying that it's so!
Slashdot Mirror
If choice bothers you, then use Windows. On most pre-installed distributions you get exactly one app for each thing you want to do. No need to actually choose anything yourself at all.
Linux is all about choice, and clearly it's not meant for a user like you. In your case Windows is undoubtedly the product you need to be using. Why advocate turning Linux into Windows when you can already purchase an OS that's does exactly what you want?
Max
There are people who write prose for prestige... But these people are all working on essays, journal articles, or "literary" novels...
You're behind the times, friend. Now they 'blog', usually in a form that most closely resembles mental diarrhea, in the arrogant belief that their dazzling pseudo-intellectual analysis of some aspect of human nature or the world is a pearl of wisdom, a veritable fucking godsend, to all of us lesser proles.
These are the people we need writing beginner's docs. It's about all they can realistically handle given the limits of both their verbal skills and their wit, and their output would certainly be a hell of a lot more useful than the blather they vomit up on the web whenever the mood to 'enlighten' others takes them.
Max
But claiming it's as easy to install Linux as it is to install Windows? That way lies insanity.
Cleary you've never tried an install of SuSe Linux from version 8.0 or later. It's considerably easier to install than Windows XP and on the systems I've installed it on it flawlessly detected all the on-board hardware without any intervention on my part.
The 'newb' installation of SuSe involves all of three - count 'em, THREE - steps. Which essentially devolves to 'do you want to use the default installation, or muck with things yourself?'. Goddamnably easy any which way you slice it. Everything up and running, including internet connections, in no time flat.
The old Windows FUD about the 'difficulty' of installing Linux is just that - FUD. SuSe, as well as a few other distros, are as simple to install as Windows now, or more so. That's been true for nearly two years.
Time to get out of that cubicle of yours and update your worldview.
Max
and leave the free-market slogans at the door
You wouldn't know a free market if it up and bit you in the ass. 'Hypercapitalism' is a bullshit word, nothing more than a catch-phrase for what you perceive as an economic form of evil. And what you describe has NOTHING to do with capitalism.
The system we have in place in America bears as little resemblance to real capitalism as the former Soviet Union or modern China reflects real communism. It's a state supported, corporate oligarchy much closer to fascism than capitalism - and the left-wing loonies argue for *more* state control, as if somehow that'll fix the problem! What morons! The very foundation of the problem - government interference in a free market - is precisely what they should be arguing *against*.
So don't blather on about 'capitalism'. You obviously don't have a clue what capitalism is all about, other than the tripe you've been spoon-fed by pseudo-socialist twits.
Max
we all deserve to die of viruses if they are more capable than our immune systems. Would you argue that medicine is just immorally saving the lives of people who are getting in the way of evolution?
Strawman argument, and completely, utterly irrelevant to the point being made.
Cultures are vital things. Those that refuse to adapt, die, and are replaced with something more capable of dealing with current conditions. Trying to impose stasis in a changing world is the game of fools, or of dictators invested only in preserving the status quo to their own benefit. Denying people access to 'outside factors' is just another way of trying to keep folks from rocking the apple cart, just because you like the way the apples are being distributed.
Max
Socialism and capitalism by themselves are quite evil.
What tripe. Capitalism isn't at all evil; it's about being able to distribute your own resources *as you please*. Capitalism is synonymous with economic freedom.
The point where capitalism becomes corrupt is when government gets involved. Government despises a free market; free markets lead to change and fluctuations in power. Government, more than anything else, is interested in maintaining it's power base, and to do that it needs a consistency which you can't get in a truly free market. Government doesn't exist to protect us from the 'evils' of capitalism, but rather to perpetuate whatever power structure exists in the current economic system. This is entirely antithetical to free market capitalism.
You can have both capitalism and social welfare programs. Despite the ravings of left wing loonies the two are not opposed. Charities operate perfectly well alongside capitalism; a government charity could do the same, and without interference in the market. This is a truth which would-be tin-point wannabe socialist dictators refuse to acknowledge because it doesn't allow them to force others to bend to their will, which is the point of their 'greater good' bullshit no matter what they claim to the contrary.
Max
If Islam was a dying thing, like say the aboriginal cultures in Australia, then perhaps there would be an argument there.
No, it would not be a valid argument. If exposure to ideas and information outside the culture results in the collapse of that culture, then it wasn't worth supporting in the first place. That culture deserves to die and be replaced with something more robust.
Max
That's going pretty damned slow
It's about four hours if you're driving during regular commuting times; the traffic is pretty bad near Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle itself.
If there's a wreck of any kind - more and more frequent these days - the time it takes is considerably longer. The last time I went through Portland it took almost *two hours* to travel seven miles because of a pile-up near downtown. I could've walked the distance faster.
Max
Ask any iraki what he thinks about americans being free to run their cars whenever they want. Or any vietnamese for that matter...
Fuck 'em. Why should I give a shit what they think about how I live? Why should I give a shit what *you* think, for that matter? Your opinion on my lifestyle doesn't mean squat, and because I'm an American there isn't a goddamn thing you can do about it.
Yet the americans adamantly refuse to go out and discover the world en masse. And when they do, they do it in the most boorish way possible, either by being obnoxious tourists, greedy raping businessmen or rampaging soldiers.
So what you're saying is that we're emulating the practices of Europeans from 1492 to the end of World War 2? The way I see it, we'd have to rape and pillage the world for at least another 300 years to match the atrocities that countries like Spain, England, and France committed upon the world during the age of imperialism. And unless we install our own Reich, we'll never manage to surpass the Germans.
And this explains the general stupidity and ignorance of the americans; they don't have any education. Thus they get the leaders they deserve.
Which would also explain the general leadership of the European Union, which is some of the worst the world has ever seen. I guess those Europeans are just too fucking stupid to vote in people of value, and deserve what they get - a bunch of assholes bound and determined to establish a European socialist dictatorship.
What isn't explained is how on god's green earth you came to the conclusion that you're both morally and intellectually superior to the rest of us. To me, you sound like some bitter little geek who's never managed to get laid by anyone other than Mother Thumb and her four daughters.
Twit.
Max
What it takes to move people off the roads is to move past the 19th century workplace where managers insist on five million lunchpail-carrying peons crawling through the door on their knees to punch a timeclock at the exact same moment.
Managers will *always* insist on this. It's how they measure dicksize - by the head-count as they walk into their fiefdom. The heads have to be there, and all at the same time, else the appearance of power over the serfs is far less than it otherwise would be.
Try working as management in any corporation in America. The vast majority of your energies are spent jockying for position with other managers, like dogs trying to become the alpha male of the pack. Or, if you refuse to play, defending against the attempts of the other dogs to knock you out of your station.
Max
I care about my fellows, which is why it is a daily pain to watch hypercapitalism swallow more of America. More sensible socialism is needed.
What crap. The advocates of socialism are no different than the advocates of 'hypercapitalism', as you call it. They're the same animal, with a trivial difference in stripes. Both want to tell everyone else how to live their lives, and distribute their resources, at the point of a gun if necessary - no doubt 'for the greater good'.
Socialism is just another form of dictatorship. The fact that the majority might support this dictatorship makes it no different than any other.
Max
The best way to avoid commuting is for people to move back into the cities, to walk to work, to downsize the huge companies into smaller human-sized organizations, to live on a human scale. The best way to connect large countries is through high-speed trains that use conventional rail technology.
Spoken like a true fanatic. "The best way is my way - bow down to my wisdom!" Just because it's *your* way doesn't make it the 'best' way.
You aren't a genius or a visionary. You're just a Joe, like any other. Get over yourself.
Max
but in the vast majority of cases, trains really, really suck.
I can't speak for the east coast, but on the west coast trains often beat the hell out of driving long distances by car. If, for example, I want to go from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington, I have a dull 4 to 6 hour drive in front of me (depending on how many drunks have cluttered the roads with bodies that day), the boredom only relieved by occassional moments of stark raving terror courtesy of the insane driving practices of those folks who should've never been issued a license in the first place (most of which seem fond of minivans).
The train takes about the same amount of time (always delayed, always late) but not only is it a hell of a lot more comfortable, I don't have to worry about the drunks or the minivan drivers, other than the possibility that they'll further delay me by stupidly crashing into the train. And at least on this count I'm somewhat mollified by the fact that Darwinism is still alive and well, and that there's one less moron on the road.
For daily commutes on the east coast the train does, undoubtedly, suck. For long-distance travel on the west coast it beats driving hands-down.
Max
You ever work for government? Especially the agencies that tend to involve themselves in power politics and shady deals? Let's just say that they're definitely not the masterminds portrayed on the "X Files", despite their unwavering belief in their own intellectual superiority.
Most conspiracies are one part cunning, one part accident, and eight parts a bunch of morons all acting at cross-purposes. But, like the monkeys and the typewriters, every once in awhile they produce something legible...or in this case - perhaps - something that actually works.
SCO smells just like this. A dash of cunning, a pinch of good luck, and a huge dollop of stupidity contributed by a bunch of dumb-asses convinced they're the next Napoleons of the political/business world. By sheer happenstance things just might work out well for the puppet master...whoever that happens to be.
But if it does it will have had nothing to do with masterful planning. The conspiracies put forward by shows like the X-Files and the loons just don't exist. Conspirators, by and large, are either too arrogant, too stupid, or both to actually pull off whatever it is they're aiming for...assuming you can keep them from fighting with each other over pecking order long enough to get anything done.
Max
Is it okay to pirate games and software?
Is it okay to send people to jail for copyright violation? I think not. We're not talking about theft here; we're talking about VIOLATION OF COPYRIGHT. No sane society sends people off to be incarcerated with murderers, rapists, and *real* thieves - you know, the kind that break into your home and actually take stuff - for VIOLATING LAWS ON COPYING THINGS.
Fucking troll. Go back to sucking Valenti's dick.
Max
And let's not forget that D&D breeds it's own version of the apologist, the 'why things work the way they do no matter how fucking stupid the rules look on their face' guy.
Yada yada. BAK had a better game system than D&D ever did. So does Morrowind. So, for that matter, did the pen-and-paper original RuneQuest. No classes, no levels, no experience points necessary.
Max
being a Geek means "ratherly looking for cleverer solution whenever any kind of problem is faced".
Nah, being a geek means being some pasty-faced, fat-assed, socially retarded little loser who'll never get laid by anything other than his hand, a whore, or his drunken sister, and compensates for his obvious and glaring inadequacies by pretending that he's actually smarter than everyone else even though statistically loser-hood doesn't correlate to IQ and geeks aren't any brighter than anyone else.
In other words, geeks are the genetic dross that would've been wiped out long before they got old enough to breed, had we not short-circuited Darwinism with civilization.
Max
If we go by history, there ARE NO mages or priests, D&D-style. Never have been and never will be. By your argument we should remove them from gaming altogether. As well as the abilities to raise the dead, cast a fireball, or call an insect plague, since no human being has ever been able to do any of these things.
D&D is about trying to fix the fuckups with assinine rule restrictions, all for the sake of 'game balance'. If the game were fucking balanced from the get-go then these restrictions wouldn't be at all necessary.
Like I said, the 'Starfleet Battles' of RPG. If you want a pen-and-paper game which actually did the genre and did it well without all the bullshit of D&D, you need look no further than the original RuneQuest.
Max
Just because someone does a shitty game based on D&D doesn't make it a failure of D&D.
No, D&D fails all on its own. It always has. The game system absolutely blows; 90% of the rules are there simply to make up for the fuckups in the other 10% of the rules. It's the 'Starfleet Battles' of role-playing and, like 'Starfleet Battles', quickly loses its appeal once one gets beyond puberty (assuming you don't arrest there altogether).
Come on; hit points? Levels? Experience gained through psychotic, unprecedented levels of slaughter that only the likes of Hitler and Stalin could ever hope to match? Inane restrictions that make absolutely no sense (e.g., mages can't wear armor, priests can't use swords)? Skills which advance because you happened to decapitate 800 orcs...but don't improve when you actually use them, and can never be practiced or trained?
The list goes on...and on..and on. What's curious is that companies keep porting such a shitty game to the PC, when Betrayal at Krondor did the character and game system so much better than any D&D-based game that you can't even compare the two. And BAK game out 15 years ago.
Of course, the moronic rules of D&D could very well be part of the basis for the wild popularity of non-D&D-based games like Morrowind. Lo! And there came a game where one improved skills...by actually using them! And mages could wear armor! And priests could use whatever weapon was handy to stave in thy head!
How revolutionary! A CRPG rules sytem that actually makes sense! Might explain why NWN was a financial loser, while Morrowind made more money than anyone at Bethsoft ever dreamed it could.
Perhaps this signals the end of D&D-based computer games. God knows, we can only hope. The genre could only be improved by tossing shit like D&D onto the trash heap.
Max
Instead of packing up and running every time something happens that you don't like, why not stick around here and fight for what you believe in?
Assuming there are enough people who give a shit. Seems to me that with each passing year there are more and more Americans who couldn't give a rat's ass about the Bill of Rights, and who'll defend any government action, no matter how inane, as 'necessary'. How many times have I heard the argument "but times have changed, the Constitution is an outdated document that isn't applicable to our modern world"? When I was a kid no one in their right mind would even dream of whispering such a thing, yet I hear it more and more often these days - with others chiming in over the 'wisdom' of the speaker!
There's a point where believers in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will become such a tiny minority that it's no longer possible to win against the government, much less stave off the disintegration of freedom in this country. And at that point the only logical course of action is to go to some other country that's still sane, and let the morons stew in the pseudo-dictatorship they so obviously crave. Only idiots fight a battle they can't win.
Max
The problem is such exploits are published and not referred to the companies in question for them to fix these faults.
And there's absolutely no ethical obligation on the part of the person who finds the flaw to inform the company before informing the public. It's up to the company to prevent the sudden appearance of egg all over their faces, not folks who aren't their employees and aren't getting paid by said company to find such faults in the first place.
Funny how well corporations have managed to brainwash some people into thinking otherwise...as if in the end we're all their employees and 'owe' them something beyond the price we pay for their (buggy and insecure) software. I wonder when this little tidbit was included in the definition of 'capitalism'?
Max
Or perhaps we could just do away with the commercials altogether. I already pay for my cable; why do I have to pay twice with time wasted on ads? What, you say it'd be more expensive? If that's the case then how come the largest networks in America can broadcast their content over the airwaves *for free*?
Seems to me that it's EITHER commercials OR a monthly payment. Seems to me that having to put up with both is some greasy corporate exec's way of fucking me up the ass, and laughing all the way to the bank.
In fact, seems to me that the fact that I downloaded every single episode of Alias for the first two seasons - trying to catch up since I didn't even know the show existed until the third - and didn't pay anyone a goddamned dime for the privilege is a drop in the bucket called 'payback'.
Or, from another perspective, just a method of time-shifting since I already have cable and own a VCR, and would've recorded when it actually aired had I known about it.
And I would've skipped all of the commercials then, too. Because I *already pay* for my service, and I'll be goddamned if I'm going to pay twice.
Max
Once again, you completely ignore the artists who aren't getting paid because you're not buying their albums.
Riiight. Tell us another, RIAA butt-monkey. The artist getting paid! How fucking funny is that?
And how much does the artist get per CD? I do believe that Ani DiFranco has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the RIAA does nothing but screw both artist and customer, then bend them over again for a good reaming via bought-and-paid-for congressmen.
I could pay $8 for a CD direct from the artist, and even if you take off $2 for shipping and production (vastly overstated, but for you we'll pretend that's the actual cost) the average artist will still earn SIX TIMES what they get paid under the RIAA aegis.
Fuck the RIAA and it's apologists. The middleman isn't worth the price anymore. We can sample the artist's work direct (P2P, wouldn't you know) and buy if we like. And not buy if we don't.
Guess that business model is too complex for folks like you to parse. But in your world everyone's a thief...no doubt a reflection of your own character.
Max
Your problem is that you think NORMAL people--i.e., people who don't visit Slashdot 10+ times a day and download the latest point release of something called "GNOME"--have the time, energy, and patience to learn which of their 8 text editors is the best.
And then there's the problem of idiots who've obviously never been anywhere near a Linux distribution, talking out of their asses about something they know nothing about. All major newb distros install, by default, one or two desktops, and choose for you default text editors, browsers, and spreadsheets. They've done this for quite some time; in fact, SuSe allows you to not only go with their preferred selection but to not bother installing anything else at all, with a single click of the mouse. You not only get to not make that choice, you won't be able to make it in the future either, at least not without reinstalling or adding the packages in separatetly at a later date.
And, as others have pointed out, you're apparently incapable of making the connection between the idea of 'choice' here and the fact that it applies to so many other things that no one bitches or complains about. No one whines about having more than ONE computer to choose from, or ONE car, or ONE type of house, or ONE style of furniture, or ONE brand of shoes, or just about anything else under the sun that's bought, sold, or traded. Nope, the only time people whine about having a choice in consumer products is here, about Linux, from fans of Billy-boy, looking for any straw to grasp so they can make an attack against that 'evil' Linux that threatens the empire of their god.
Max
And conversely, if sales go down then there's no reason to believe that file sharing has anything to do with it, given the lack of hard evidence to support that assumption.
Oh, wait - it's okay to say that because the RIAA insists that's the case, even though they never managed to actually prove it in any way, shape or form. Our corporate masters can turn baseless correlation into causation just by saying that it's so!
Max