Normally, when you're in a war and someone not wearing a uniform shoots at you, and you capture them, you hang them.
Not all of the Guantanamo prisoners are actually prisoners of war in that sense, though. Some of them were just picked up on dubious tipoffs, tipoffs that may have been given in exchange for lucrative rewards. And the US government is refusing tooth-and-nail to allow the evidence against them to be examined in a fair trial held according to standard US legal principles. I wonder why? Some of them have even been told "We believe you're innocent, but we're never going to release you." I wonder why?
Therefore Google are using entire copies of copyrighted material for commercial benefit.
That's correct - but that argument also applies to their conventional web search engine. They make complete copies of most web pages, too, as you can see by inspecting the Google Cache. So if their book search is a massive copyright violation, so is their web search.
Which means the law definitely needs to be changed, at least to legalise their currently-illegal web search business model.
That's why the DMCA takedown provisions are so important. The DMCA takedown provisions actually protect publishers like Wikipedia from being sued just due to the actions of one individual.
Unfortunately, these provisions do not exist in every jurisdiction, and there are no similar provisions for libel, as far as I know.
I read a bit of your crank paper. It sounds like you have never heard of object-oriented programming - or even event-driven programming. CLUE: Event-driven programming is used heavily in certain modern object-oriented systems such as the Java platform and Eclipse. Also, I do not believe that the word "simulate" means what you think it means. And you have not understood the Church-Turing thesis and its significance in computer science - because otherwise you would realise that computers can in principle simulate anything that can be engineered or reverse-engineered. (See Roger Penrose's "The Emporer's New Mind" for a discussion of this topic.)
If you don't like the usability, no-one's stopping you from forming a user consortium to improve it.
The seldom-acknowledged fact about open source is that not only do most OSS developers not care very much about usability, but neither do most corporate users - those who do care, typically choose not to use the software, instead of spending money to improve its usability.
Maybe in some cases they just haven't institutionally clued-in to the fact that you can pay someone to improve the software.
Do you really think that an entire city's population should be left to fend for themselves - in a city where there is not enough food or clean water - because of the behaviour of a minority?
Do you really think it's the responsibility of ordinary people to stop criminals?
Are you some kind of anarchist? That's what police officers are supposed to do, unless you're some kind of whacked-out anarchist who believe that it's everybody's job to stop criminals in their community. (No, I'm not being sarcastic. I'm deadly serious.)
Bush was right when he said that "results are not acceptable" with regard to regaining law and order.
I met a family there for whom it was more profitable to be voluntarily unemployed and live off welfare than it was to get a real job.
And the solution to that is... Citizen's Income. Pay every citizen (or resident), unconditionally, a basic income, enough to buy food, pay rent, etc. That solves the problem you described, but it's not a popular idea (outside of developing countries like Brazil) because a lot of people instinctively don't like the idea of giving poor people free money (although the idea of giving well-off people and companies free money, in the form of "tax allowances", "corporate welfare", "pork barrel contracts", and "performance bonuses for incompetent executives" is strangely not viewed as very problematic. This is a very odd phenomenon because the latter set of issues is more morally problematic and is probably a larger problem).
Actually, he says that it is the lower average IQ that leads to these disparities. That is, the mean, not the standard deviation.
That's what the grandparent post meant.
Incidentally, IQ tests were originally designed as a measure of academic "achievement". It's debatable whether they've ever gone beyond that. Furthermore, IQ scores are supposed not to change with time in adulthood, but this assumption is refuted by the evidence. Most people can prep for IQ tests just as for any other test. (Indeed I'd expect that anyone with a basic level of literacy, except perhaps top-scorers, could improve their IQ test score by prepping for it.)
It seems like some individuals want to make humanitarian catastrophes more relevant to the tech community by inflating the value of their favorite obsession
I'm sorry, I must have missed the part of the post where it said: "Look at how Linux has saved millions of lives! Isn't it brilliant - and aren't we Linux users brilliant too?"
Lesson learned: If a disaster happens, don't mention the L-word.
Does operation blessing have any scandles regarding the misuse of donations in its past?
Oh yes, it sure does!
You want scandal, I'll give you fucking scandal - from Wikipedia:
"Through his ostensibly charitable organization, Operation Blessing International, Robertson claims to have spent $1.2 million bringing aid to refugees in Rwanda. His critics, such as Palast, claim the money was actually spent to bring heavy equipment for Robertson's African Development Corporation, a diamond mining operation."
This is covered in Palast's book "The Best Democracy Money can Buy", which is a must-read for every Bush-lover out there.
Heck, rack up a big debt and pass it on, who cares, I'll be dead then, haha.
I was curious about what happens to debts when people die, so I looked it up. In the UK at least, debts aren't "passed on". If the estate you leave behind isn't enough to pay your debts, then any debts that can't be paid out of the estate are obliterated (except for any debts that are owed jointly, e.g. a mortgage where both a husband and a wife are responsible for repaying it). People should therefore be careful when considering lending to someone who is terminally ill, or old enough to die soon!
If these people are stupid enough not to read the directions and find a cup of water in a city that is drowning under 3 feet of water, I don't really think they should be getting the MREs in the first place.
Do the directions come with each MRE? Are they in an obvious place or are they tucked away somewhere? Also, there may be the mentality, "Fuck the directions - I'm in a disaster area, I'm not going to be able to follow the directions to cook this thing, so I won't bother to read them." Or, "fuck the directions, I'm STARVING!!"
everything to do with the devolution of 90% of the population in the face of utter destruction.
Wha????? Are you trying to say that 90% of NO residents have "de-evolved" into sub-humans as a result of this tradgedy? If so, that's a shocking insult to people who just lost their homes and in some cases their loved ones.
That's interesting. Here in the UK, by contrast, there is absolutely no legal defense against having to pay premium-rate phone bills, or so I read in the newspaper. Not even "my computer was hacked into and dialled a premium-rate number while I was on holiday". It's up to the phone company's discretion whether they want to let you off.
But when the only solution presented to us is totalitarianism (or at least what we percieve to be totalitarianism), you are naturally going to have the resistance and skepticism you see from many people on slashdot.
What you fail to understand is that government action is the only way to deal effectively with global warming right now. Kyoto may be weak and ineffective - but voluntary do-gooderism is doubly so. Prove me wrong - you can't!
Individually such people are not worth much to society - their deaths pale in comparison to the millions of dollars in damages inflicted by spammers.
You are a sick, twisted individual. Such views are fascistic. I bet you want to murder old people and the mentally disabled, like Hitler did, don't you? Oh that's right you "would never do such a thing", but you wouldn't mind so much if someone else did, eh? Sicko.
Slashdot Mirror
Not all of the Guantanamo prisoners are actually prisoners of war in that sense, though. Some of them were just picked up on dubious tipoffs, tipoffs that may have been given in exchange for lucrative rewards. And the US government is refusing tooth-and-nail to allow the evidence against them to be examined in a fair trial held according to standard US legal principles. I wonder why? Some of them have even been told "We believe you're innocent, but we're never going to release you." I wonder why?
That's correct - but that argument also applies to their conventional web search engine. They make complete copies of most web pages, too, as you can see by inspecting the Google Cache. So if their book search is a massive copyright violation, so is their web search.
Which means the law definitely needs to be changed, at least to legalise their currently-illegal web search business model.
That's why crime has gone up and up and up in the UK since firearms were banned... oh wait, no it hasn't.
Unfortunately, these provisions do not exist in every jurisdiction, and there are no similar provisions for libel, as far as I know.
That's not correct. Both SuSE and Mandriva use KDE by default.
Doesn't Israel get massive subsidies from the US, in money and in arms, year after year?
Regrettable collateral damage.
The seldom-acknowledged fact about open source is that not only do most OSS developers not care very much about usability, but neither do most corporate users - those who do care, typically choose not to use the software, instead of spending money to improve its usability.
Maybe in some cases they just haven't institutionally clued-in to the fact that you can pay someone to improve the software.
Do you really think it's the responsibility of ordinary people to stop criminals?
Are you some kind of anarchist? That's what police officers are supposed to do, unless you're some kind of whacked-out anarchist who believe that it's everybody's job to stop criminals in their community. (No, I'm not being sarcastic. I'm deadly serious.)
Bush was right when he said that "results are not acceptable" with regard to regaining law and order.
And the solution to that is... Citizen's Income. Pay every citizen (or resident), unconditionally, a basic income, enough to buy food, pay rent, etc. That solves the problem you described, but it's not a popular idea (outside of developing countries like Brazil) because a lot of people instinctively don't like the idea of giving poor people free money (although the idea of giving well-off people and companies free money, in the form of "tax allowances", "corporate welfare", "pork barrel contracts", and "performance bonuses for incompetent executives" is strangely not viewed as very problematic. This is a very odd phenomenon because the latter set of issues is more morally problematic and is probably a larger problem).
That's what the grandparent post meant.
Incidentally, IQ tests were originally designed as a measure of academic "achievement". It's debatable whether they've ever gone beyond that. Furthermore, IQ scores are supposed not to change with time in adulthood, but this assumption is refuted by the evidence. Most people can prep for IQ tests just as for any other test. (Indeed I'd expect that anyone with a basic level of literacy, except perhaps top-scorers, could improve their IQ test score by prepping for it.)
I'm sorry, I must have missed the part of the post where it said: "Look at how Linux has saved millions of lives! Isn't it brilliant - and aren't we Linux users brilliant too?"
Lesson learned: If a disaster happens, don't mention the L-word.
I don't think CmdrTaco really cares what your RSS reader is full of. He is running a tech news and discussion site, primarily.
Oh yes, it sure does!
You want scandal, I'll give you fucking scandal - from Wikipedia:
"Through his ostensibly charitable organization, Operation Blessing International, Robertson claims to have spent $1.2 million bringing aid to refugees in Rwanda. His critics, such as Palast, claim the money was actually spent to bring heavy equipment for Robertson's African Development Corporation, a diamond mining operation."
This is covered in Palast's book "The Best Democracy Money can Buy", which is a must-read for every Bush-lover out there.
I was curious about what happens to debts when people die, so I looked it up. In the UK at least, debts aren't "passed on". If the estate you leave behind isn't enough to pay your debts, then any debts that can't be paid out of the estate are obliterated (except for any debts that are owed jointly, e.g. a mortgage where both a husband and a wife are responsible for repaying it). People should therefore be careful when considering lending to someone who is terminally ill, or old enough to die soon!
Do the words "martial law" mean anything to you? Isn't NO under martial law right now, or is that just a figment of my imagination?
Do the directions come with each MRE? Are they in an obvious place or are they tucked away somewhere? Also, there may be the mentality, "Fuck the directions - I'm in a disaster area, I'm not going to be able to follow the directions to cook this thing, so I won't bother to read them." Or, "fuck the directions, I'm STARVING!!"
Wha????? Are you trying to say that 90% of NO residents have "de-evolved" into sub-humans as a result of this tradgedy? If so, that's a shocking insult to people who just lost their homes and in some cases their loved ones.
What you fail to understand is that government action is the only way to deal effectively with global warming right now. Kyoto may be weak and ineffective - but voluntary do-gooderism is doubly so. Prove me wrong - you can't!
You are a sick, twisted individual. Such views are fascistic. I bet you want to murder old people and the mentally disabled, like Hitler did, don't you? Oh that's right you "would never do such a thing", but you wouldn't mind so much if someone else did, eh? Sicko.