My general experience is that an overwhelming majority of people does indeed treat ethics and values as something that's important except when inconvenient. I know a few people with very strong ethics who are willing to swallow the disadvantages, but they seem more the exception than the rule.
I have a data plan, and yet I'm not connected all the time. To the contrary - I'm only only when I need to. I don't have an endless stream of twitter feeds, facebook updates and rss stuff streaming to my phone; I just have google when I need it.
It's not even a matter of "which plan", it's just a matter of having control over your own actions.
Mole ? He worked for MS up to september. That's not MS planting a mole, that's Nokia dropping pants and bending over.
I've also been a Nokia guy up until now; currently got an N97. Wonderful toy even with Symbian being a bit of a bugger at times; but I'll be keeping a very sharp eye on where this is going.
Also, repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't make it true, although it might brainwash the weak-minded.
I can perfectly control you by telling you the truth: I've got your pet hamster strapped to half a ton of dynamite, and the remote control is in my pocket. Now do as I say, minion.
- How will you magick your military stuff to not be impacted ?
- How will you build the wonderwall that shields your neighbours ?
- How will you shield yourself from a suddenly very keen to remove you set of global superpowers ?
- And, not in the least, how will you shield yourself from the hundreds of thousands to one majority of your people who suddenly decide that a madman in power is one thing, but a madman in power who nukes his own bloody country is a whole different bag of marbles ?
No, the two main tricks for being an effective dictator, are
- either oppress them enough to get everything you want, but not so much that they decide their children's future is well worth their lives; or
- don't oppress them as much as just keep them as stupid as possible, preferably adding a sturdy dose of patriotism to the mix.
The former is what a lot of middle eastern states do - Mubarak recently crossed that line, but managed to keep emergency law in effect for thirty years - while the latter is what is employed very effectively in North Korea, the US and an increasing number of "civilized" countries.
I can follow your reasoning, but lack of understanding is not an excuse. If you ignore the chinese warning signs and walk on to a random military base, you're still going to get shot, and it's a safe assumption that chinese bullets are just as deadly as english ones.
You mean, like setting your blog friends-only - a simple checkbox both in the general preferences and on every post - and accepting friend requests (only) from people you know ?
You're distributing the blame wrong, here. Part of the blame goes to sites like Facebook, who intentionally make their privacy settings as obscure as possible, simply because it's in their own best interest to have as many user data as possible wide open for everyone to see; part of the blame does go to users, but instead of saying they're not "technically savvy enough" it would be more accurate to say that they are just too damn lazy to look at the obvious settings.
I'm also wondering (as a non-iDeveloper) wether these apps aren't, in fact, self-contained pieces of code that merely depend on their OS to provide a set of libraries, not unlike 'real' applications on pretty much every other operating system, short of static-compiled binaries ?
Google's use of webpages as apps is a more complex thing; but they're strictly speaking still applications in the sense that they do something useful. The main difference there is where the code runs: either in your local browser (javascript) or on the remote server (CGI et al). You could start building dozens of criteria of what constitutes an app: code is stored locally vs code comes from the net (or code is local but still needs the net to start up because data lives there); runs locally vs remote (so is javascript running in your browser an application ?); where the code executes (but isn't your browser running javascript the same kind of sandbox that a Java VM is ?); et cetera ad nauseam.
Answers.com defines 'application' as '7. Computer Science. A computer program with a user interface' and 'Application (APP)' as 'An executable program that performs a specialized function other than system maintenance'. Both seem accurate, although the latter arguably doesn't include Google's view.
For me, personally, the ethics issue is not around the meat-eating itself, but rather involves the way that meat is produced - especially the way the animals get treated in the bioindustry. I'm a strong proponent of a return to smalltime farming and local produce as opposed to government-sponsored animal cruelty in the name of economics and more money for the rich.
There's a very limited number of people who can actually read large swathes of disassembled code, though, and I believe the majority of that already small number has more interesting things to do than see what makes another antivirus suite tick.
Well, until Kapersky manages to tick one of them off, that is.
See, that's another of those silly prejudices. I'll have you know that the vatican is an equal opportunity abuser, and that we currently have nuns accused of child molestation, as well.
> When I read "More than just a hobby" I thought it was going to explain that he makes a living through facebook... maybe then I'd see where he's coming from.
Well, yes, and no. Facebook is indeed a platform for moneymaking, but not for the users, only for Zuckerberg, inc., the advertisers he attracts, the providers of random farmvilles and indirectly the people he sells the lusers' personal data to.
If you make money off of Facebook without cutting Zuckerberg in, you haven't a foot to stand on.
I happen to work for a national broadcaster these days. Our most popular youth radio, Studio Brussel, has repeatedly had their account pulled without any warning whatsoever, apparently because they gained too much following in too short a time. Well, yeah, that's what happens when you do an action. By the time we got service to be restored, the action was of course well past. AFAIK we didn't even bother talking to the lawyers - they can do whatever they want to their free service. Nobody seems to "get it", either, or maybe they've just accepted the fact that it's still THE online channel to our listeners, regardless that the same thing may, and probably will, happen over and over again.
True. The logistics of "100km east" are rather less complex than those of "100km up", however. Also, if said disaster is indeed so major as to make space outposts a major asset, it is reasonable to assume that the home nation can no longer provide those logistics.
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My general experience is that an overwhelming majority of people does indeed treat ethics and values as something that's important except when inconvenient. I know a few people with very strong ethics who are willing to swallow the disadvantages, but they seem more the exception than the rule.
I don't have my laptop with me or online the whole day; and people tend to see texts a lot sooner than mails.
I have a data plan, and yet I'm not connected all the time. To the contrary - I'm only only when I need to. I don't have an endless stream of twitter feeds, facebook updates and rss stuff streaming to my phone; I just have google when I need it.
It's not even a matter of "which plan", it's just a matter of having control over your own actions.
Mole ? He worked for MS up to september. That's not MS planting a mole, that's Nokia dropping pants and bending over.
I've also been a Nokia guy up until now; currently got an N97. Wonderful toy even with Symbian being a bit of a bugger at times; but I'll be keeping a very sharp eye on where this is going.
> It would be nice to see a more liberal perspective when discussing rape.
I know what you mean, and I agree, but that sounds so utterly, deliciously wrong :-)
Then it'll sell plenty to Fox viewers and CMFA members as presents for their kids.
Hmm. I never tought of my buttocks as my private parts. Interesting.
Also, repeating the same thing over and over again doesn't make it true, although it might brainwash the weak-minded.
I can perfectly control you by telling you the truth: I've got your pet hamster strapped to half a ton of dynamite, and the remote control is in my pocket. Now do as I say, minion.
Interesting.
- How will you magick your military stuff to not be impacted ?
- How will you build the wonderwall that shields your neighbours ?
- How will you shield yourself from a suddenly very keen to remove you set of global superpowers ?
- And, not in the least, how will you shield yourself from the hundreds of thousands to one majority of your people who suddenly decide that a madman in power is one thing, but a madman in power who nukes his own bloody country is a whole different bag of marbles ?
No, the two main tricks for being an effective dictator, are
- either oppress them enough to get everything you want, but not so much that they decide their children's future is well worth their lives; or
- don't oppress them as much as just keep them as stupid as possible, preferably adding a sturdy dose of patriotism to the mix.
The former is what a lot of middle eastern states do - Mubarak recently crossed that line, but managed to keep emergency law in effect for thirty years - while the latter is what is employed very effectively in North Korea, the US and an increasing number of "civilized" countries.
> The last release was Beta 10
Umm... I'm running the Firefox 4 beta ("Minefield") from the PPA, and I seem to be on 4.0b12pre (2011-02-03).
I can follow your reasoning, but lack of understanding is not an excuse. If you ignore the chinese warning signs and walk on to a random military base, you're still going to get shot, and it's a safe assumption that chinese bullets are just as deadly as english ones.
You mean, like setting your blog friends-only - a simple checkbox both in the general preferences and on every post - and accepting friend requests (only) from people you know ?
You're distributing the blame wrong, here. Part of the blame goes to sites like Facebook, who intentionally make their privacy settings as obscure as possible, simply because it's in their own best interest to have as many user data as possible wide open for everyone to see; part of the blame does go to users, but instead of saying they're not "technically savvy enough" it would be more accurate to say that they are just too damn lazy to look at the obvious settings.
> seen "Last Chance" gas stations before
In Doolin, Ireland there's a sign that says 'Last pub for 2000 miles'.
I can't decide wether to WOOSH you or to PEDANT you.
Very insightful, indeed.
I'm also wondering (as a non-iDeveloper) wether these apps aren't, in fact, self-contained pieces of code that merely depend on their OS to provide a set of libraries, not unlike 'real' applications on pretty much every other operating system, short of static-compiled binaries ?
Google's use of webpages as apps is a more complex thing; but they're strictly speaking still applications in the sense that they do something useful. The main difference there is where the code runs: either in your local browser (javascript) or on the remote server (CGI et al). You could start building dozens of criteria of what constitutes an app: code is stored locally vs code comes from the net (or code is local but still needs the net to start up because data lives there); runs locally vs remote (so is javascript running in your browser an application ?); where the code executes (but isn't your browser running javascript the same kind of sandbox that a Java VM is ?); et cetera ad nauseam.
Answers.com defines 'application' as '7. Computer Science. A computer program with a user interface' and 'Application (APP)' as 'An executable program that performs a specialized function other than system maintenance'. Both seem accurate, although the latter arguably doesn't include Google's view.
I guess it's fun to be a Stallman fanboi, but he'll never love you back if you don't get the details right.
For me, personally, the ethics issue is not around the meat-eating itself, but rather involves the way that meat is produced - especially the way the animals get treated in the bioindustry. I'm a strong proponent of a return to smalltime farming and local produce as opposed to government-sponsored animal cruelty in the name of economics and more money for the rich.
Just label it "Perfectly Normal Beast" and people will buy it.
Not upsetting the people to the point of revolt is an equally important part of staying in power. I'd say there weren't pretty good at that.
> Many modern electronic devices have heating circuits built in
Electronic devices have CPUs, film at eleven :-)
There's a very limited number of people who can actually read large swathes of disassembled code, though, and I believe the majority of that already small number has more interesting things to do than see what makes another antivirus suite tick.
Well, until Kapersky manages to tick one of them off, that is.
See, that's another of those silly prejudices. I'll have you know that the vatican is an equal opportunity abuser, and that we currently have nuns accused of child molestation, as well.
> When I read "More than just a hobby" I thought it was going to explain that he makes a living through facebook... maybe then I'd see where he's coming from.
Well, yes, and no. Facebook is indeed a platform for moneymaking, but not for the users, only for Zuckerberg, inc., the advertisers he attracts, the providers of random farmvilles and indirectly the people he sells the lusers' personal data to.
If you make money off of Facebook without cutting Zuckerberg in, you haven't a foot to stand on.
I happen to work for a national broadcaster these days. Our most popular youth radio, Studio Brussel, has repeatedly had their account pulled without any warning whatsoever, apparently because they gained too much following in too short a time. Well, yeah, that's what happens when you do an action. By the time we got service to be restored, the action was of course well past. AFAIK we didn't even bother talking to the lawyers - they can do whatever they want to their free service. Nobody seems to "get it", either, or maybe they've just accepted the fact that it's still THE online channel to our listeners, regardless that the same thing may, and probably will, happen over and over again.
> 20 Taiwan New Dollars
At a rate of sucky sucky five dollal that should yield you four friends. Five if you're a good negotiator.
True. The logistics of "100km east" are rather less complex than those of "100km up", however. Also, if said disaster is indeed so major as to make space outposts a major asset, it is reasonable to assume that the home nation can no longer provide those logistics.