Granted you hear stories (and see pictures) about Styrofoam bridges, but I can't help but think that something like their space program would, like the US, would be little less about the lowest bidder and a little more about national pride.
I hope my Chinese made sarcasm detector is just off today, because I'm not sure if that was a joke or not. The crap they sell you is cheap, because frankly you keep buying it and they don't care what you do with it; they aren't investing in you. A space station on the other hand, is something they are interested in investing in, an investment in themselves (or at least an investment in sabre rattling).
Unless Beijing wants to start spewing propaganda that they invented space travel, have had it since the beginning of time, but graciously let the west ungratefully steal it from them, I can think of better places to use my stereotyping.
Perhaps it comes from living in a relatively rural area, but the number of people who enjoy tinkering and fixing are pretty abundant. The only things that have changed are necessity and cost; people have more money and they don't need a whole lot. When you find an area where cost is high (or incomes are low) and necessity (or at least want) is also high, you'll see people pulling small miracles out of their rear ends.
Their problem is the same one that most people have, signal to noise. Their solution is often the same as everyone else, "use a hammer" and their hammer is methodology and the channels they use to achieve the goal of looking out for the public's welfare.
Quick anecdote; though details changed to protect the innocent.
A reporter friend and I use to have coffee maybe once or twice a week. A story came up that involved some kids performing an act of vandalism. I told her where they got the idea and how they did it. All of it was public knowldege that only involved putting 2 and 2 togeather. Then law enforcement shows up. How did I know about this? Where did I get this information. Where was I at the time it happened? Was there a whitness who could prove that I wasn't there at the time. Fortunately, I had an answer to all of those questions and they left, apologizing for the inconvenience, they were just doing their job. From that point on the coffee conversations never swayed beyond the weather and sports teams; her only reason for turning me in, she had an obligation to protect the public, just doing her job.
Needless to say, I learned one thing. There is a reason those reporters don't talk to the guy down in IT. The IT guy doesn't have a prepared statement for when someone shows up demanding responsibility for what he said, otherwise the IT guy could get hurt.
There is one big catch right there. We are rapidly approaching a world where having an internet connection of some kind may not be a right, but it certainly is a requirement.
Where do you do your banking? Where do you pay your bills? Where do you communicate with your peers, boss, co-workers, students and teachers? Where do you do your taxes? Where do you find out your kid's grades? Where do you apply for a job? How does your future employer contact you? How does your lender get back to you when you are applying for a loan?
10 years ago all of those would have been either in person, through the mail or on the phone. Now you use a web form and e-mail for most of those and 10 years from now who knows. For most of us that doesn't mean anything. We want nice, shiny computers and cell phones and I'm sure most of us can afford it, but what if you can't? When Prometheus brought fire, anyone with two dry sticks could get in on the action. With man's new fire we weren't quite so forward thinking.
I live in a relatively poor town and this is why I fully support low-bandwidth municipal wifi; I'm thankful to my community for providing it. It may not be a free, easy in, but if you have some device to connect with it ends up saving everyone from the school district to the bank to the citizen a lot of wasted time and effort. Kids can do their school assignments, parents can pay their bills and the elderly can check their e-mail. Though I seldom use it (just outside of the coverage area and yes, it is slow), I'll be happy to fight anyone tooth and nail if they try to get rid of it. I don't want to see anyone made a semi-citizen in a world they didn't even ask for, but are virtually required to participate in.
Libraries aren't just repositories for stacks of John Grisham novels that were printed into the millions. There are these things called private collections. Go to largest public library in your area and dig around in their basement. If you are into history, especially local history, there are things there that will blow your mind. Diaries, letters, old periodicals from long ago wars, all of that and much more, without watermarks or DRM; the original thing, on the original print. This is what gets lost and very literally thrown into a dumpster when we close libraries or shrink them down to make space for a few rows of beige boxes and they are things that Amazon isn't all that interested in monetizing.
His post is more about.NET programmers often not having the necessary skills to work in the field. On statistic alone he is stereotyping, but not 100% wrong (so nice trolling on his part).
Still, when I read "have a passion for", it throws a different flag. It sounds more like he is hiring young, idealistic, fresh-out-of-college folks who are more likely to work 80 hours for chump change and a promised 2% (but probably not delivered with layoffs before a much dreamed about buyout) in the company. I wouldn't want to work for this guy, not because he is a bigot, but because he sounds cheap and dubious.
I don't think I was very clear with that. Just to clarify, I don't think a bar tender who says something like that is a two time potential murderer. Rather there are plenty of attention seeking prosecutors who would just love to test the law.
Granted, I really don't know a lot about this story, every article on it is a little hazy, but one issue, two really come to mind.
Why isn't the bar tender locked up when he says, "Be careful, there is a traffic stop 3 blocks away." I mean technically that is two counts of being an accessory to attempted homicide.
The other, how does the app maker obtain this info? Some states require that check points are made public, others do them at random. Using public information really isn't that different than owning a police scanner to know who is getting locked up, only the maker was too stupid to word their product as a "Tobacco pipe, only for tobacco, not crack, pot or opium; did you say something other than tobacco, sorry, you'll have to leave".
If the data is user reported and this is really that big of an issue why isn't someone like MADD downloading these apps like crazy and reporting that every street corner in America is a traffic stop?
Saw that, but the fact that they are even bothering to censor English seems to raise a flag that there is a very specific paranoia of outside influence.
I can't help but wonder how much of that is justifiable. You always hear of some shady think-tank or puppet "activist" who is obviously just spewing pro-Chinese propaganda or even the occasional intrusion and when I hear something like this, I can't help but wonder how much the US is doing over there.
"I'd be willing to bet that only phones that are already under surveillance for "subversive behavior" (activists, journalists, etc.) are subject to this technology. If not, I'd seriously question the wisdom of the government."
Gotta agree with that one, with only 10,000,000 English speakers in the country;.77%, why would you bother to censor English unless you were interested in censoring that particular group.
I can't help but wonder what the official line on this is. "Government places restrictions on activist puppets of western influences who work to subvert Government." ?
I'll be completely honest, I thought the Internet would be a fad.
Then one day all of the terminals in the library, that were setup for DISCUS, were taken except this one ratty looking box in the corner. Gopher? Veronica? OK. Man, I was hooked and felt like a complete ass for dismissing friends who had only a few years earlier been doing the BBS thing as wasting their time with a rich kid's toy that no one would be interested in.
One small problem. What happens if you live in a world where everyone knows what you make for a living? There is a high value in bargaining power and bluffing, without that are more than often at the mercy of others.
Just a note, one of those was Peter King, an attention seeking hack. The other was Mitch McConnell, a man capable of occasional sanity and has to make up for it with the radical base by saying something crazy every now and then (at this point with the Republican party you are either straight up hard line or carefully mix your left with very vocal hard-right or you'll get thrown out by your own people).
I'm sure there were many others who supported putting Assange's head on the block, but I haven't had my coffee yet. Not excusing their behavior, but it was all politics.
Sony is just testing the waters to see how far they can go in their "California" matter and Wikipedia just doesn't want to waste resources in the eventual court battle. While I'm not going to applaud Wikipedia, I can't throw too many rocks at them either.
Soon someone big is going to have to deal with it and I get the feeling that it isn't going to be favorable for Sony, who has been pretty reckless since they don't have a wold conquering media format to rest their laurels on. Until then it is probably better for small players with out an army of lawyers, to keep their heads down until this thing comes to an end. Then again if the EFF wants to jump in, more power to them.
"You ever use the bushes outdoors as a bathroom? Disorderly conduct, public indecency, littering. "
Last time I checked that was conspiracy to commit sexual assault, though in a sane world it is improper disposal of waste. Sometimes the world isn't a very sane place.
Slashdot Mirror
Granted you hear stories (and see pictures) about Styrofoam bridges, but I can't help but think that something like their space program would, like the US, would be little less about the lowest bidder and a little more about national pride.
I hope my Chinese made sarcasm detector is just off today, because I'm not sure if that was a joke or not. The crap they sell you is cheap, because frankly you keep buying it and they don't care what you do with it; they aren't investing in you. A space station on the other hand, is something they are interested in investing in, an investment in themselves (or at least an investment in sabre rattling).
Unless Beijing wants to start spewing propaganda that they invented space travel, have had it since the beginning of time, but graciously let the west ungratefully steal it from them, I can think of better places to use my stereotyping.
Perhaps it comes from living in a relatively rural area, but the number of people who enjoy tinkering and fixing are pretty abundant. The only things that have changed are necessity and cost; people have more money and they don't need a whole lot. When you find an area where cost is high (or incomes are low) and necessity (or at least want) is also high, you'll see people pulling small miracles out of their rear ends.
Their problem is the same one that most people have, signal to noise. Their solution is often the same as everyone else, "use a hammer" and their hammer is methodology and the channels they use to achieve the goal of looking out for the public's welfare.
Quick anecdote; though details changed to protect the innocent.
A reporter friend and I use to have coffee maybe once or twice a week. A story came up that involved some kids performing an act of vandalism. I told her where they got the idea and how they did it. All of it was public knowldege that only involved putting 2 and 2 togeather. Then law enforcement shows up. How did I know about this? Where did I get this information. Where was I at the time it happened? Was there a whitness who could prove that I wasn't there at the time. Fortunately, I had an answer to all of those questions and they left, apologizing for the inconvenience, they were just doing their job. From that point on the coffee conversations never swayed beyond the weather and sports teams; her only reason for turning me in, she had an obligation to protect the public, just doing her job.
Needless to say, I learned one thing. There is a reason those reporters don't talk to the guy down in IT. The IT guy doesn't have a prepared statement for when someone shows up demanding responsibility for what he said, otherwise the IT guy could get hurt.
There is one big catch right there. We are rapidly approaching a world where having an internet connection of some kind may not be a right, but it certainly is a requirement.
Where do you do your banking? Where do you pay your bills? Where do you communicate with your peers, boss, co-workers, students and teachers? Where do you do your taxes? Where do you find out your kid's grades? Where do you apply for a job? How does your future employer contact you? How does your lender get back to you when you are applying for a loan?
10 years ago all of those would have been either in person, through the mail or on the phone. Now you use a web form and e-mail for most of those and 10 years from now who knows. For most of us that doesn't mean anything. We want nice, shiny computers and cell phones and I'm sure most of us can afford it, but what if you can't? When Prometheus brought fire, anyone with two dry sticks could get in on the action. With man's new fire we weren't quite so forward thinking.
I live in a relatively poor town and this is why I fully support low-bandwidth municipal wifi; I'm thankful to my community for providing it. It may not be a free, easy in, but if you have some device to connect with it ends up saving everyone from the school district to the bank to the citizen a lot of wasted time and effort. Kids can do their school assignments, parents can pay their bills and the elderly can check their e-mail. Though I seldom use it (just outside of the coverage area and yes, it is slow), I'll be happy to fight anyone tooth and nail if they try to get rid of it. I don't want to see anyone made a semi-citizen in a world they didn't even ask for, but are virtually required to participate in.
Libraries aren't just repositories for stacks of John Grisham novels that were printed into the millions. There are these things called private collections. Go to largest public library in your area and dig around in their basement. If you are into history, especially local history, there are things there that will blow your mind. Diaries, letters, old periodicals from long ago wars, all of that and much more, without watermarks or DRM; the original thing, on the original print. This is what gets lost and very literally thrown into a dumpster when we close libraries or shrink them down to make space for a few rows of beige boxes and they are things that Amazon isn't all that interested in monetizing.
Finally, an April Fools day story that I honestly had to think twice about.
Been there, done that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Dexter
I can't violate the DMCA. Sorry.
His post is more about .NET programmers often not having the necessary skills to work in the field. On statistic alone he is stereotyping, but not 100% wrong (so nice trolling on his part).
Still, when I read "have a passion for", it throws a different flag. It sounds more like he is hiring young, idealistic, fresh-out-of-college folks who are more likely to work 80 hours for chump change and a promised 2% (but probably not delivered with layoffs before a much dreamed about buyout) in the company. I wouldn't want to work for this guy, not because he is a bigot, but because he sounds cheap and dubious.
I don't think I was very clear with that. Just to clarify, I don't think a bar tender who says something like that is a two time potential murderer. Rather there are plenty of attention seeking prosecutors who would just love to test the law.
Granted, I really don't know a lot about this story, every article on it is a little hazy, but one issue, two really come to mind.
Why isn't the bar tender locked up when he says, "Be careful, there is a traffic stop 3 blocks away." I mean technically that is two counts of being an accessory to attempted homicide.
The other, how does the app maker obtain this info? Some states require that check points are made public, others do them at random. Using public information really isn't that different than owning a police scanner to know who is getting locked up, only the maker was too stupid to word their product as a "Tobacco pipe, only for tobacco, not crack, pot or opium; did you say something other than tobacco, sorry, you'll have to leave".
If the data is user reported and this is really that big of an issue why isn't someone like MADD downloading these apps like crazy and reporting that every street corner in America is a traffic stop?
Everyone in this subthread including the parent suck at rules 1 and 2.
Saw that, but the fact that they are even bothering to censor English seems to raise a flag that there is a very specific paranoia of outside influence.
I can't help but wonder how much of that is justifiable. You always hear of some shady think-tank or puppet "activist" who is obviously just spewing pro-Chinese propaganda or even the occasional intrusion and when I hear something like this, I can't help but wonder how much the US is doing over there.
"I'd be willing to bet that only phones that are already under surveillance for "subversive behavior" (activists, journalists, etc.) are subject to this technology. If not, I'd seriously question the wisdom of the government."
Gotta agree with that one, with only 10,000,000 English speakers in the country; .77%, why would you bother to censor English unless you were interested in censoring that particular group.
I can't help but wonder what the official line on this is. "Government places restrictions on activist puppets of western influences who work to subvert Government." ?
I'll be completely honest, I thought the Internet would be a fad.
Then one day all of the terminals in the library, that were setup for DISCUS, were taken except this one ratty looking box in the corner. Gopher? Veronica? OK. Man, I was hooked and felt like a complete ass for dismissing friends who had only a few years earlier been doing the BBS thing as wasting their time with a rich kid's toy that no one would be interested in.
Yeah, the American Shadow Government isn't what it use to be.
One small problem. What happens if you live in a world where everyone knows what you make for a living? There is a high value in bargaining power and bluffing, without that are more than often at the mercy of others.
Just a note, one of those was Peter King, an attention seeking hack. The other was Mitch McConnell, a man capable of occasional sanity and has to make up for it with the radical base by saying something crazy every now and then (at this point with the Republican party you are either straight up hard line or carefully mix your left with very vocal hard-right or you'll get thrown out by your own people).
I'm sure there were many others who supported putting Assange's head on the block, but I haven't had my coffee yet. Not excusing their behavior, but it was all politics.
Slashdot, meet non-story. Non-story, meet Slashdot.
At least they haven't removed this one yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deletionpedia
Sony is just testing the waters to see how far they can go in their "California" matter and Wikipedia just doesn't want to waste resources in the eventual court battle. While I'm not going to applaud Wikipedia, I can't throw too many rocks at them either.
Soon someone big is going to have to deal with it and I get the feeling that it isn't going to be favorable for Sony, who has been pretty reckless since they don't have a wold conquering media format to rest their laurels on. Until then it is probably better for small players with out an army of lawyers, to keep their heads down until this thing comes to an end. Then again if the EFF wants to jump in, more power to them.
Don't forget the anger over using the name "American".
You don't need to place a limit on childbirth, you just need to increase the number of man-children.
"You ever use the bushes outdoors as a bathroom? Disorderly conduct, public indecency, littering. "
Last time I checked that was conspiracy to commit sexual assault, though in a sane world it is improper disposal of waste. Sometimes the world isn't a very sane place.