"I doubt there's anyone on this planet who knows what's best for me aside from myself"
That may be true of yourself, but is doubtfully true of the rest Americans. Remember that we live in a country with a third-world education system, we live in a country with SERIOUS moral problems, where egotism (ME-ism, the cheif import of the 80's) is a serious problem.
Also the public (in a democracy) should be INFORMED, most of us are not. Most of us are bottom of the barrel apathetic. Also, the current (if not all) political issues are too complicated for even the most intelligent INDIVIDUAL to grasp and react with on their own.
Government, classically, exists because WE DON'T KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR OURSELVES, as an aggregate. Look at all the various "Social Contract" philosophies, what is their main premise? We need someone to tell us what to do, for the good of the whole.
So when it comes down to privacy, can anyone actually take the "all-or-nothing" stance? Its give and take, we must sacrafice SOME (not all) privacy for the good of the whole.
(as proof that we don't know whats good for ourselves, look at America's voting history? Our foreign policy history, and what self-masterbatory acts sentate has been ingauged in...)
After reading all the posts on this thread, I've realized something, most (not all) are not replying to the actual article, it's actual meaning. Everyone is argueing the term "Second Superpower", and not the fact that Google is flawed towards a minority of web-log people. (just say no to BLOG!).
While I too have strong sentiments towards war, and protest, I have the clarity of thought to SEE what is actually going on, mainly nothing to do with glorifying protest.
So everyone now please, turn off CNN, take a deep breath, and RTFA! If you still want to rant for/against war and protest, please buy a dog, thats what their here for.
Nobody is going to be swayed by your opinion anyway. Who's seriouly going to revamp their value system because some/.'er told 'em too? when a/.'er gives me advice I advise you to do the opposite, especially if it has nothing to do with tech.
Sorry, just one moment of coffee driven zen-like clarity.
Lets see... I OWN an NES, I own a C-64, I own a broken SNES and a bunch of games, also I have a stockpile of GB/C games but not GBC/GBA...
This is a godsend. Being that my NES is to big (and lacking a screen) to be portable, ditto on the C-64. I own game carts for the other system, but time has taken the actual systems from me.
So this is VERY nice. I can play FFI, and MULE (C-64 version better than NES), and Zelda (I, II, and III! oh my!)....
No piracy. Pure legit.
Either I am.001% of the pop, according to you, or their are PEOPLE WITH DEAD SYSTEMS AND GAMES... Or people who don't want to carry a C-64, and drive wherever they go, they be heavy.
According to geneva then, a bullet is also illegal, since if I shot you in the eye, you'd be blind (least of your worries)...
And lets not forget the lowly common household PEN! Poke that in someones eye. The pen truly is more illegal than the sword!
(oh DESIGNED!, so if my pen said EYE-POKER on it, then it would be illegal... damn geneva...)
Are any of your instances BAD things? Korea would be communist, the french would kick ass, and well... who cares about kuwait, they don't do anything special (except oil...). The civil war wasn't about slavery, it was about the right to succeed [sic], and slavery would probably be dead by now anyways.
There are oppressive regimes aplenty out there, but we single out one, the LEAST threateing (minus some of the clumsy African ones). It isn't our job to 'defend the freedom' (as you'd call it) of the whole damn world. Maybe they are living as they want, as their used to, or in a way thats tolerable to the whole, even if it goes against our capitolism=freedom philosophy. If they don't like it, let them fight for THEIR vision of freedom, it worked for us.
Though I agree that our protests are insensative to our folk over-seas. And I agree that Saddam is an ass-bonnet. But I think that the American People should also show that they don't LIKE the policies of Shrub The Great and Terrible, and Rummy. That they don't agree with the NAC ideology. And that the ENDS do not JUSTIFY the MEANS.
Ahem... Back to lasers... I don't like 'em. Let's compair the sniping implements of the big 3 tourney FPS'.
UT: The sniper rifle ownz... Bullets are tried/true. UT2k3: The lightening gun sucks, slow reload, not quite acurate, and tons of wasted energy. Quake: The railgun is the best of both worlds, obscenely powerful, and simple.
Thus (.:) The mil should invest in railguns and guasse technology. And you the cool spiral trail as an added bonus. (HEADSHOT!)
Targeting would be harder as well, for non-sniper applications, because of the lack of tracer-fire. But then again with the energy demands I doubt that we'll have this baby ever being full-auto. But then again you could have a continuus beam, which could just chop the 'bad-guy' in half, and the guy behind him, and so on...
Maybe Europe is too even-headed to run around installing 'regimes', only to topple them when the turn despotic, or stop doing what their told.
I'm getting bored with the Hitler/Saddam comparison, I see no simularity between them, at all. Yes, Saddam is an ass, yes, he's a bad guy, but Hitler? Appeasment didn't work ONCE, count the number if occurances carefully, once. SO STOP USING IT AS A BLOODY EXAMPLE! Saddam didn't declare war on us or our allies this time, Hitler did (after pearl harbor [the real reason we joined WWII, not the Jews]). Sadam has shown no further external hostility, meaning HE IS NOT A DIRECT THREAT.
If the world was concerned, you'd think they'd do something, no? But a majority of the world doesn't agree, hell most of our so-called allies don't agree, their only in the game for their own self-interest. And then their Britan... Ahem.
Yeah, the french HELPED, after we revolted. The Iraqi people haven't revolted, the Iraqi people will not be allowed to found their government, in their own cultural/historical image. We will force an oil exporting, capitalist economy down their throat, along with some icky democracy, which WILL NOT WORK. That region has never seen a democracy, democracy is ALIEN to that region, alien to that culture. Capitolism and Democracy is not some sociopolitical panacea.
And, I do not forget my origins, I am a son of Prussian draft dodgers. My ancestors escaped a superpower to avoid silly wars.
All you have proved is that each of these points are argueable. By all sides. But taking the list as a whole you must come to a conclusion, America is not THE moral high ground of the world.
America is just as icky as any other country (except maybe, Andora? Malta?).
"That's what you get when Europe's inability to act makes you be world policeman."
What give us the right to be such? Our "policing" all through the Cold War consisted of us promoting some stupid pro-capitolism adgenda. We don't have the right to force our policy on anyone.
We forget our own origins everytime we push our version of "what is right and just" on another country. Remember we were founded by a PEOPLES revolt. Taking that, if another country (say iraq) doesn't want its rulership, let them rebel. If they can't, they don't want freedom enough.
Maybe it's time to give the UN some teeth, so they can stop relying on others. Let the UN enforce international law (as an international body), and not leave it to the US, who has a predisposition for going rogue.
So who is your wife, Mr. USA? Kuwait? Isreal? Or just Oil?
That is a very flawed analogy, I'd say it was more like: Some guy lives in a posh house, and you don't like him (say his dog pooped on your yard). There is a potential that this guy could have a sawed off shot-gun in his broom closet (short range, can't hit your living room). So you kill him and take his house.
Ahem...
So, going with your logic: The U.S. helped found the UN, meaning the US agreed (promised) to follow the UN charter. The U.S. doesn't like that bit about other nations sovereignty, so the US repeatedly violates UN, and international law. (read: Korea, Vietnam, Somolia, Kosovo, most of South America, ect...).
The U.S. doesn't live up to it's promises.
THEREFORE, it is okay for other nations to bomb the US. I'm hoping Canada takes the initiative on this one.
While not really spam, telemarketers are much worse in my opinion. I check my email maybe 3 times a day, but answer my damn phone anytime it rings. With email I can just click the handy del key, but with the phone I have to amble over to it, pick it up, and listen to it for a few moments. Spam is imediatly identifiable, a telephone marketer is not.
Bringing me to my question: If we are always so gung-ho about spamming the spammers, and go and find their addies, why don't we do the same for telephone people?
Lately I have been harrased by this one company that call roughly 3 times a day (always at 3:30ish, and 9:30ish, and sometimes at 9am), they have a timed message (the recording waits for answering machine pickup), and it is always the same. "We have been trying to reach you with an important..."
The rub is, they don't give a phone number until the last minute of the message, and that phone number isn't real. It is an 866 number that hasn't been connected yet. Never in the message do they say who they are, or what they want.
All forms of interpersonal communications is bad, to an extent. When doing my high-concentration tasks (school, web design, writing, what-not), a random email or IM is just as annoying as my room-mate mumbleing to me (when they know that I am cogito absentia).
As far as my experience goes, when one is actively engaged in any activity that requires concentration (from coding, to gaming, to reading, or watching television)you distraction threshold decreases, making it much harder for you to be distracted from the task. Most of the time one is aware of the source of the distraction, but not ACTIVELY aware of it, resulting in a Charlie Brown School Experience (whaaa-wa-wa-WA)... Hence there is functionally no distraction on a cognitive level. But telephones and people have a better chance of breaking through the subconcious buffer, being that they are much more insistant for attention.
The main problem I have with maintaining attention and productivity is going to the damn bathroom. Someone should invent a less "pee-some" strain of coffee.
I have an old C-64 (as opposed to a new one) that has withstood just about everything I could put it through. When new, my old cat subjected it to a nice bath, knocking over a full glass of water onto the back of it. Dried it off, and it worked fine. Then I dropped it off of the desk, smacked onto a hardwood floor, shattering one corner of the base.
Then it went to the attic, replaced by an 8086, with its shoe box of games (mostly pirated). It sat in an attic for five years. I live in Phoenix, so my attic can reach 250degrees, easily. Got the nostalgia bug, pulled it out, the case was EXTREMELY warped, in parts the top half was a full inch from the bottom half, thus letting the PCB inside fget covered with an cenimeter of dust.
Booted it up, let the dust fry off, it still worked. I was playing Qix and Space Taxi in no time. Yes, all of the warped 5 1/4's worked as well, even when they were dusty and discolored.
To add to all of this, I managed to mess up the AC adapter on it, causeing it to blow out copious amounts of ozone, while making a pleasant little zapping sound. I attached an different adapter and the whole thing STILL worked.
Damn tank!
The only peice of hardware more resilient is an old Atari2600, which could live through a direct nuclear attack and still run Centapede.
Eh... Left handed folk use the right shift-alt-ctrl keys, and don't touch the LEFT ones, hence the left ones should be removed.
So when is someone going to rant against the inavalability of left handed scroll mice, and trackballs?
Thats the crappy keyboard I'm using right now. I bought it for $9.99 at Fry's until I can find myself a nice black mini-keyboard, with my damn \ in the right place (next to r-shift).
Another problem with this style (this one is Memorex, some other company makes them as well) is that it has 5 extra keys, on top of the obnoxious win keys. 3 of them are only usefull for crashing a windows PC (power-sleep-wake up), and the Turbo key does nothing, as far as I can tell. Then there is a key-lock key in the far right top, which locks the keyboard (duh), but I still don't know why.
90% of the keyboards for sale now in your major electronic retailers are IE keytboards, with all of those silly buttons on top. MY father has one, but it won't open Mozilla or Opera, no matter what. Plus the fact it requires to be booted up with windows, further destabalizing ME (w00t!). System resources are precious, without the TSR crap of the keyboard I can sqeeze an extra THREE fps!
Also, someone ranted against the F keys. What else am I supposed to use for quicksave?
Eh... Sounds like a... er... I think I'll stick to eating cheese puffs and watching CSPAN.
I personally like Jeff Noon and Steve Beards collaboration, Mappalujo. Mappalugo.com . It contains stuff that doesn't make ANY sense, but then again, that was part of the point.
Looking at the RIAA member list, I am proud to not buy any new CD's of bands that support them. How many people in the forum can say the same? Most of you have bought a new CD from a RIAA label, no?
I don't support the cause of the RIAA, but I see where they are coming from, and most/.'rs should see this too. They are out for money. Most of you have the same goal, no? In the bygone "union" area most of you held a view that unions undermine profits. Also, most of the/.'rs supported a very capitolist view of how the economy should work. The RIAA is the Amerikan dream. You make money, and the customer must take it up the ass.
How many of you work for chibi version of the RIAA, rake in the cash, get away with what you can? Why do you work for these companies? Thats where the money is, thats why. So can't you see the WHY the RIAA works?
American morality is slippery. I beleive in causes, but gosh-darn I want my Brittany! I hate the American buisness system, but gosh-darn I want to be paid more than the "unskilled" guy across the street. We have what is called "situational ethics"... Give 'em up and the RIAA and Micro$oft will fail... Keep 'em and they win.
I, personally, agree with 80% of the RIAA's line... Piracy DOES happen, and piracy DOES cut into the ever precious bottom line. And as someone on/. once said, most indie bands are indie because they suck. The only time I pirate a track is too see if I want the CD... And honestly how many people do the same? Most of us will take free over loyalty, taste, or ethics.
Not only did they increase the the standard of work done, but increased productivity by producing a better work-force. More care, less sleep dep. Less sleep dep, less minivans crushed by mack trucks piloted by independent tweakers in a hurry to meet an impossible deadline.
Actually it is the prodestant[sp] work-ethic. It came from the calvanists. It has since infected the working poor, and the working class boomers, the ones that never quite became yuppies.
So lets go for pure equality, everyone makes $.01 an hour, we'll all be equal then.
You want to know something funny, the average american worker expects to live in an advanced economic climate, our forefathers faught for that. We don't stand for third-class.
Our CEOs are the ones makeing this poor third-world laborers work for nothing, so the comparison is nonexistant. Our CEO's want us to work like their third-world employees.
So yes, Americans have the moral right to a decent wage. As do the thirdworlders. The corps have the right to exploit neither of them. And the thirdworlders have the right to arm themselves and fight back.
Ah, but cube people get much more psychological illnesses. Cube people get unsocialized, and abused. Great you make more money, but you move less, get fatter, have an early heart-attack. If you survive that you'll be sitting at a therapist wondering why your family hates you for playing CS and tweaking the linux box 24/7.
And THAT is why all of our jobs are going to mexico and india. Who needs good ol' american labor that you have to care for, insure, and treat like a human when you can hire someone in the developing (third) world?
I'm sorry, 90% of bosses (I've had one or two good ones, but only on the local level, not corporate level) care only for the bottom line, and if they could get away with paying unix admin as much as a janitor they would, gladly. BUT.. if they could hire a crapload of malaysian women to do the same task for half the price, they would.
Money comes above people. Always. Personal success comes above group success, always. American buisness (and most americans) are just greedy. Sad. Eh?
Slashdot Mirror
"I doubt there's anyone on this planet who knows what's best for me aside from myself"
That may be true of yourself, but is doubtfully true of the rest Americans. Remember that we live in a country with a third-world education system, we live in a country with SERIOUS moral problems, where egotism (ME-ism, the cheif import of the 80's) is a serious problem.
Also the public (in a democracy) should be INFORMED, most of us are not. Most of us are bottom of the barrel apathetic. Also, the current (if not all) political issues are too complicated for even the most intelligent INDIVIDUAL to grasp and react with on their own.
Government, classically, exists because WE DON'T KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR OURSELVES, as an aggregate. Look at all the various "Social Contract" philosophies, what is their main premise? We need someone to tell us what to do, for the good of the whole.
So when it comes down to privacy, can anyone actually take the "all-or-nothing" stance? Its give and take, we must sacrafice SOME (not all) privacy for the good of the whole.
(as proof that we don't know whats good for ourselves, look at America's voting history? Our foreign policy history, and what self-masterbatory acts sentate has been ingauged in...)
After reading all the posts on this thread, I've realized something, most (not all) are not replying to the actual article, it's actual meaning. Everyone is argueing the term "Second Superpower", and not the fact that Google is flawed towards a minority of web-log people. (just say no to BLOG!).
/.'er told 'em too? when a /.'er gives me advice I advise you to do the opposite, especially if it has nothing to do with tech.
While I too have strong sentiments towards war, and protest, I have the clarity of thought to SEE what is actually going on, mainly nothing to do with glorifying protest.
So everyone now please, turn off CNN, take a deep breath, and RTFA! If you still want to rant for/against war and protest, please buy a dog, thats what their here for.
Nobody is going to be swayed by your opinion anyway. Who's seriouly going to revamp their value system because some
Sorry, just one moment of coffee driven zen-like clarity.
Lets see... I OWN an NES, I own a C-64, I own a broken SNES and a bunch of games, also I have a stockpile of GB/C games but not GBC/GBA...
.001% of the pop, according to you, or their are PEOPLE WITH DEAD SYSTEMS AND GAMES... Or people who don't want to carry a C-64, and drive wherever they go, they be heavy.
This is a godsend. Being that my NES is to big (and lacking a screen) to be portable, ditto on the C-64. I own game carts for the other system, but time has taken the actual systems from me.
So this is VERY nice. I can play FFI, and MULE (C-64 version better than NES), and Zelda (I, II, and III! oh my!)....
No piracy. Pure legit.
Either I am
I GET IT! What a terrible pun...
According to geneva then, a bullet is also illegal, since if I shot you in the eye, you'd be blind (least of your worries)... And lets not forget the lowly common household PEN! Poke that in someones eye. The pen truly is more illegal than the sword! (oh DESIGNED!, so if my pen said EYE-POKER on it, then it would be illegal... damn geneva...)
Are any of your instances BAD things? Korea would be communist, the french would kick ass, and well... who cares about kuwait, they don't do anything special (except oil...). The civil war wasn't about slavery, it was about the right to succeed [sic], and slavery would probably be dead by now anyways.
There are oppressive regimes aplenty out there, but we single out one, the LEAST threateing (minus some of the clumsy African ones). It isn't our job to 'defend the freedom' (as you'd call it) of the whole damn world. Maybe they are living as they want, as their used to, or in a way thats tolerable to the whole, even if it goes against our capitolism=freedom philosophy. If they don't like it, let them fight for THEIR vision of freedom, it worked for us.
Though I agree that our protests are insensative to our folk over-seas. And I agree that Saddam is an ass-bonnet. But I think that the American People should also show that they don't LIKE the policies of Shrub The Great and Terrible, and Rummy. That they don't agree with the NAC ideology. And that the ENDS do not JUSTIFY the MEANS.
Ahem... Back to lasers... I don't like 'em. Let's compair the sniping implements of the big 3 tourney FPS'.
UT: The sniper rifle ownz... Bullets are tried/true.
UT2k3: The lightening gun sucks, slow reload, not quite acurate, and tons of wasted energy.
Quake: The railgun is the best of both worlds, obscenely powerful, and simple.
Thus (.:) The mil should invest in railguns and guasse technology. And you the cool spiral trail as an added bonus. (HEADSHOT!)
Targeting would be harder as well, for non-sniper applications, because of the lack of tracer-fire. But then again with the energy demands I doubt that we'll have this baby ever being full-auto. But then again you could have a continuus beam, which could just chop the 'bad-guy' in half, and the guy behind him, and so on...
Range is a problem as well, come to think of it.
Maybe Europe is too even-headed to run around installing 'regimes', only to topple them when the turn despotic, or stop doing what their told.
I'm getting bored with the Hitler/Saddam comparison, I see no simularity between them, at all. Yes, Saddam is an ass, yes, he's a bad guy, but Hitler? Appeasment didn't work ONCE, count the number if occurances carefully, once. SO STOP USING IT AS A BLOODY EXAMPLE! Saddam didn't declare war on us or our allies this time, Hitler did (after pearl harbor [the real reason we joined WWII, not the Jews]). Sadam has shown no further external hostility, meaning HE IS NOT A DIRECT THREAT.
If the world was concerned, you'd think they'd do something, no? But a majority of the world doesn't agree, hell most of our so-called allies don't agree, their only in the game for their own self-interest. And then their Britan... Ahem.
Yeah, the french HELPED, after we revolted. The Iraqi people haven't revolted, the Iraqi people will not be allowed to found their government, in their own cultural/historical image. We will force an oil exporting, capitalist economy down their throat, along with some icky democracy, which WILL NOT WORK. That region has never seen a democracy, democracy is ALIEN to that region, alien to that culture. Capitolism and Democracy is not some sociopolitical panacea.
And, I do not forget my origins, I am a son of Prussian draft dodgers. My ancestors escaped a superpower to avoid silly wars.
Saddam: OH GOD NO! The Americans are using ZERGLINGS! Why did I pick the damn Terrans.
Bush: SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!
All you have proved is that each of these points are argueable. By all sides. But taking the list as a whole you must come to a conclusion, America is not THE moral high ground of the world. America is just as icky as any other country (except maybe, Andora? Malta?). "That's what you get when Europe's inability to act makes you be world policeman." What give us the right to be such? Our "policing" all through the Cold War consisted of us promoting some stupid pro-capitolism adgenda. We don't have the right to force our policy on anyone. We forget our own origins everytime we push our version of "what is right and just" on another country. Remember we were founded by a PEOPLES revolt. Taking that, if another country (say iraq) doesn't want its rulership, let them rebel. If they can't, they don't want freedom enough.
Maybe it's time to give the UN some teeth, so they can stop relying on others. Let the UN enforce international law (as an international body), and not leave it to the US, who has a predisposition for going rogue.
So who is your wife, Mr. USA? Kuwait? Isreal? Or just Oil? That is a very flawed analogy, I'd say it was more like: Some guy lives in a posh house, and you don't like him (say his dog pooped on your yard). There is a potential that this guy could have a sawed off shot-gun in his broom closet (short range, can't hit your living room). So you kill him and take his house. Ahem...
So, going with your logic: The U.S. helped found the UN, meaning the US agreed (promised) to follow the UN charter. The U.S. doesn't like that bit about other nations sovereignty, so the US repeatedly violates UN, and international law. (read: Korea, Vietnam, Somolia, Kosovo, most of South America, ect...).
The U.S. doesn't live up to it's promises.
THEREFORE, it is okay for other nations to bomb the US. I'm hoping Canada takes the initiative on this one.
While not really spam, telemarketers are much worse in my opinion. I check my email maybe 3 times a day, but answer my damn phone anytime it rings. With email I can just click the handy del key, but with the phone I have to amble over to it, pick it up, and listen to it for a few moments. Spam is imediatly identifiable, a telephone marketer is not.
Bringing me to my question: If we are always so gung-ho about spamming the spammers, and go and find their addies, why don't we do the same for telephone people?
Lately I have been harrased by this one company that call roughly 3 times a day (always at 3:30ish, and 9:30ish, and sometimes at 9am), they have a timed message (the recording waits for answering machine pickup), and it is always the same. "We have been trying to reach you with an important..."
The rub is, they don't give a phone number until the last minute of the message, and that phone number isn't real. It is an 866 number that hasn't been connected yet. Never in the message do they say who they are, or what they want.
Any advice on tracking these bastages down?
All forms of interpersonal communications is bad, to an extent. When doing my high-concentration tasks (school, web design, writing, what-not), a random email or IM is just as annoying as my room-mate mumbleing to me (when they know that I am cogito absentia).
As far as my experience goes, when one is actively engaged in any activity that requires concentration (from coding, to gaming, to reading, or watching television)you distraction threshold decreases, making it much harder for you to be distracted from the task. Most of the time one is aware of the source of the distraction, but not ACTIVELY aware of it, resulting in a Charlie Brown School Experience (whaaa-wa-wa-WA)... Hence there is functionally no distraction on a cognitive level. But telephones and people have a better chance of breaking through the subconcious buffer, being that they are much more insistant for attention.
The main problem I have with maintaining attention and productivity is going to the damn bathroom. Someone should invent a less "pee-some" strain of coffee.
I have an old C-64 (as opposed to a new one) that has withstood just about everything I could put it through. When new, my old cat subjected it to a nice bath, knocking over a full glass of water onto the back of it. Dried it off, and it worked fine. Then I dropped it off of the desk, smacked onto a hardwood floor, shattering one corner of the base.
Then it went to the attic, replaced by an 8086, with its shoe box of games (mostly pirated). It sat in an attic for five years. I live in Phoenix, so my attic can reach 250degrees, easily. Got the nostalgia bug, pulled it out, the case was EXTREMELY warped, in parts the top half was a full inch from the bottom half, thus letting the PCB inside fget covered with an cenimeter of dust.
Booted it up, let the dust fry off, it still worked. I was playing Qix and Space Taxi in no time. Yes, all of the warped 5 1/4's worked as well, even when they were dusty and discolored.
To add to all of this, I managed to mess up the AC adapter on it, causeing it to blow out copious amounts of ozone, while making a pleasant little zapping sound. I attached an different adapter and the whole thing STILL worked.
Damn tank!
The only peice of hardware more resilient is an old Atari2600, which could live through a direct nuclear attack and still run Centapede.
Eh... Left handed folk use the right shift-alt-ctrl keys, and don't touch the LEFT ones, hence the left ones should be removed. So when is someone going to rant against the inavalability of left handed scroll mice, and trackballs?
Thats the crappy keyboard I'm using right now. I bought it for $9.99 at Fry's until I can find myself a nice black mini-keyboard, with my damn \ in the right place (next to r-shift). Another problem with this style (this one is Memorex, some other company makes them as well) is that it has 5 extra keys, on top of the obnoxious win keys. 3 of them are only usefull for crashing a windows PC (power-sleep-wake up), and the Turbo key does nothing, as far as I can tell. Then there is a key-lock key in the far right top, which locks the keyboard (duh), but I still don't know why. 90% of the keyboards for sale now in your major electronic retailers are IE keytboards, with all of those silly buttons on top. MY father has one, but it won't open Mozilla or Opera, no matter what. Plus the fact it requires to be booted up with windows, further destabalizing ME (w00t!). System resources are precious, without the TSR crap of the keyboard I can sqeeze an extra THREE fps! Also, someone ranted against the F keys. What else am I supposed to use for quicksave?
Eh... Sounds like a... er... I think I'll stick to eating cheese puffs and watching CSPAN.
I personally like Jeff Noon and Steve Beards collaboration, Mappalujo. Mappalugo.com . It contains stuff that doesn't make ANY sense, but then again, that was part of the point.
Looking at the RIAA member list, I am proud to not buy any new CD's of bands that support them. How many people in the forum can say the same? Most of you have bought a new CD from a RIAA label, no?
/.'rs should see this too. They are out for money. Most of you have the same goal, no? In the bygone "union" area most of you held a view that unions undermine profits. Also, most of the /.'rs supported a very capitolist view of how the economy should work. The RIAA is the Amerikan dream. You make money, and the customer must take it up the ass.
/. once said, most indie bands are indie because they suck. The only time I pirate a track is too see if I want the CD... And honestly how many people do the same? Most of us will take free over loyalty, taste, or ethics.
I don't support the cause of the RIAA, but I see where they are coming from, and most
How many of you work for chibi version of the RIAA, rake in the cash, get away with what you can? Why do you work for these companies? Thats where the money is, thats why. So can't you see the WHY the RIAA works?
American morality is slippery. I beleive in causes, but gosh-darn I want my Brittany! I hate the American buisness system, but gosh-darn I want to be paid more than the "unskilled" guy across the street. We have what is called "situational ethics"... Give 'em up and the RIAA and Micro$oft will fail... Keep 'em and they win.
I, personally, agree with 80% of the RIAA's line... Piracy DOES happen, and piracy DOES cut into the ever precious bottom line. And as someone on
Teamsters.
Not only did they increase the the standard of work done, but increased productivity by producing a better work-force. More care, less sleep dep. Less sleep dep, less minivans crushed by mack trucks piloted by independent tweakers in a hurry to meet an impossible deadline.
Actually it is the prodestant[sp] work-ethic. It came from the calvanists. It has since infected the working poor, and the working class boomers, the ones that never quite became yuppies.
So lets go for pure equality, everyone makes $.01 an hour, we'll all be equal then.
You want to know something funny, the average american worker expects to live in an advanced economic climate, our forefathers faught for that. We don't stand for third-class.
Our CEOs are the ones makeing this poor third-world laborers work for nothing, so the comparison is nonexistant. Our CEO's want us to work like their third-world employees.
So yes, Americans have the moral right to a decent wage. As do the thirdworlders. The corps have the right to exploit neither of them. And the thirdworlders have the right to arm themselves and fight back.
Ah, but cube people get much more psychological illnesses. Cube people get unsocialized, and abused. Great you make more money, but you move less, get fatter, have an early heart-attack. If you survive that you'll be sitting at a therapist wondering why your family hates you for playing CS and tweaking the linux box 24/7.
And THAT is why all of our jobs are going to mexico and india. Who needs good ol' american labor that you have to care for, insure, and treat like a human when you can hire someone in the developing (third) world?
I'm sorry, 90% of bosses (I've had one or two good ones, but only on the local level, not corporate level) care only for the bottom line, and if they could get away with paying unix admin as much as a janitor they would, gladly. BUT.. if they could hire a crapload of malaysian women to do the same task for half the price, they would.
Money comes above people. Always. Personal success comes above group success, always. American buisness (and most americans) are just greedy. Sad. Eh?