"All drivers are included in the kernel. Seems pretty centralized to me. Nice troll, though. "
If it worked out that way for me, I'd be running Linux now. Sorry, not a troll. I will say at the risk of being flamed to heck that I'm not trying as hard as most Linux users would. Fine. Just remember that the less intervention that is required by the end user, the more mainstream Linux will go. Linux is so close to cracking the Windows monopoly, but some attitudes about how 'smart' the user needs to be are really detrimental (sp?).
Yep. I'm aware of Linux's advantage here. I do like that it's more 'out of the box' friendly than Windows in some cases. At the same time, though, I've had much better luck finding unsupported (out of the box I mean) stuff for Windows than I have with Linux. I hated that defeating "Damn, I just can't use it" feeling I had with Linux. Bear in mind, most of my attempts have been with laptops than with desktops. Painful painful painful. I do try again every year or so, though.
"Let's not notice the elephant, let's build some robots to see if we can detect any subtle hints of poisons in the water. "
You do realize that chemicals/pesticides etc happen slowly over a period of time, vs. a terrorist attack which would be rather sudden, right? Quick detection of sudden changes isn't exactly a bad thing.
One of the reasons I *don't* want to switch to Linux is that I don't want to deal with driver installs with stuff that came out later than whatever flavor of Linux I have. If they could automate this, boy would I be strongly interested in attempting the switch again. Frankly, any steps the community takes to minimize the actual maintenance aspect of Linux would be greatly appreciated. Surprisingly, not all of us want to sit there and tweak the damn thing.
"An interesting comment, without any explanation. Neither the PS1 nor the PS2 crashed and burned. Why would the PSP?"
I apologize, I should have clarified. Take a look at how portables have done against Nintendo in the past. The 1 mhz 8-bit Gameboy has defeated like 5 or 6 MAJOR portables. Sony is breaking some of the same rules the other ones did. It just simply isn't clear that Sony will win. Based on previous history (look up Turbo Express, Game Gear, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket, Game.Com, etc) Sony stands a VERY good chance of losing. It really isn't that related to the PS2 or PS1 at all. (Although I will say that Sony's success with those two machines has me thinking they have a shot, as opposed to just writing them off. For that reason, I don't think we're in disagreement, just a matter of to what degree.)
"Military technology is striving to be one big Quake clone I mean, we already have aimbots, now there are railguns....next thing you know the US Army will be wallhacking."
Heh. Everybody calling each other a faggot camper whenever they fire the railgun.
"How would it have been dammned if it decided to not lie about Iraq?"
How do we know they lied? How do we know the gov't wasn't absolutely convinced of what Saddam had? How do we know the weapons weren't there?
"To not make false links between Saddam and Bin Laden?"
When did this happen? I have yet to hear the gov't say anything other than "We don't believe Saddam had anything to do with 9-11". The closest thing we've come to was Powell providing evidence that Al Qeada had agents in Iraq. That's not pointing a finger at involvement with 9-11. I am dead serious here, if somebody can point me at a link that shows when the US said Iraq had anything to do with 9-11, I'd really like to be educated on it.
" To not violate international law? To not make the United States a rogue agressor nation? "
To be fair, Iraq had a number of resolutions against it that the UN wasn't doing anything about. The US's breaking of international law probably would not have happened had the UN actually stood up to Iraq.
"There's no substantial argument to be made that the Iraq invasion did anything to protect us. "
Libya gave up their weapons, and Iran and North Korea know we're absolutely serious about dealing with threats like that.
"It took Adam Arkin and David Schaffer just $200,000 and a grad student to develop a potential treatment for AIDS. And that scares them"
Maybe it's because I'm not medically inclined, but this doesn't scare me at all. (Assuming this reads like "It scares them that they were able to do it so cheaply with so few people")
a.) Lots of research has already been done, it's unlikely that he had to start on square one. I don't think it's fair to assume that the money and time spent by other researchers didn't give this guy an advantage.
b.) How do we know he didn't just have a great inspiration after watching other failures and take a gamble on it? I can't say I've kept up on this, but this is the first time I've heard of anybody trying to use a virus to kill a virus. (I've heard the theory, but I understood that there was concern over what happens to the new virus...)
I don't think it's so shocking, but maybe those feelings are muted by the idea that maybe a lot of people in Africa will be able to look forward to a long healthy life.
"Where was the police state lockdown after Oklahoma City?"
I can give you two honest answers.
1.) OK City building was a gov't building, unlike the WTC.
2.) It was a domestic terrorist that wasn't part of a group. (In stark contrast to Al Qaeda where it'll be a long time or never before they're nabbed.)
" Where was the police state lockdown after Oklahoma City? It's not the body count, it's the political advantages of the lockdown."
Your own details here trip up your point a bit. The body count on 9-11 was FAR higher and far less localized than what happened at OK City. So the 'police state lockdown' after that bombing doesn't do anything to imply political advantages. If anything, it would be non-sensical for the Bush Administration to push for a police-state lockdown. It's not like half the country is saying "Yeah!! Take our freedoms away!" It'll damage his ability to get reelected.
"Most Americans hated Arabs/Muslims BEFORE 9/11."
Maybe my view is too limited to mean a whole lot here, but I don't remember much anti-arab sentiment after 9-11. There were isolated incidents here and there, but it was pretty well understood that it wasn't the race that made them enemies, it was the joining of Al Qaeda.
"The existence of Al Qaeda justifies the Patriot Act in what way?"
Just to be clear, I'm not a proponent of it. (Not really against it either. Need more info.)
"but it's the Bush administration that's destroying the American way of life. "
Maybe I'm just being dense, but a few incidents here and there (with many details not disclosed) I have little justification to be so dramatic about it. The US Gov't is not interested in 'nazi-esque' control over us. (Note: I hope that's not considered a violation of Godwin's law, rather I'm referring to an earlier comment that started this whole thread.)
"True, and while I don't love Kerry, he is the lesser of two evils."
I hope you're not basing that on 20/20 hindsight campaign promises intended to earn votes. The truth of the matter is that the country is so divided about what's happening here that either way, a large number of people are going to be unhappy. Either they'll do too much to stop terrorism, or they won't do enough. Niether situation is ideal, and the bitching will not die down.
You wanna be mad at somebody? Point to the asshole that thinks the right way to express himself is to brainwash people into flying planes into buildings.
"Why don't they put in as much resources in reducing traffic accidents, even though traffic accidents kill many more than 3000 innocent people each year?"
Because accidents are, by nature, accidental. Pre-meditated murder is a more urgent problem.
"A hell of a lot more will die if we continue on this course."
Changing course will not ensure that others won't die. It's certainly not an absolute that less would die, either.
I'm not supporting or defending the loss of freedoms or the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm simply trying to point out there are motivations and considerations here, as opposed to the knee-jerk reactions that everybody assumes is happening. Truth be told, the Bush Administration was either damned if it do or damned if it don't. Either we cry that we've lost our freedoms, or we cry that the gov't isn't moving to protect us. The worst part is the blame is falling on entirely the wrong people.
"If you buy a physical device, you should be able to do with it whatever you want, short of hitting someone over the head with it. "
I wasn't arguing that you shouldn't be able to do that. (I agree with you there.) I was saying that doing it just to flip a middle finger to MS is the wrong reason. Erase the "you got to do something that Microsoft doesn't want, all while MS makes a loss on the XBox" bit and I would completely agree with that post.
I was referring to downloading of images. Ignore that particular comment if you envisioned buying the games. (I find it strange one would pay $50 per game on an emulated machine when the system itself only costs as much as 3 games..)
"Emulators are free."
They're not exactly the best gaming experience, either.
"The games are probably DirectX based too. "
That's why I didn't say the games would run slow. However, getting all the ins and outs of the system, despite being so close to a PC, will take a while.
"The nerd lobby just isn't big enough to oust a president."
Not while there are more pressing matters like gay marriage, abortion, joblessness, and the rest of the war on terrorism to consider. It's not like people are turning a blind eye to the 'nerd lobby'.
Slashdot Mirror
"All drivers are included in the kernel. Seems pretty centralized to me. Nice troll, though. "
If it worked out that way for me, I'd be running Linux now. Sorry, not a troll. I will say at the risk of being flamed to heck that I'm not trying as hard as most Linux users would. Fine. Just remember that the less intervention that is required by the end user, the more mainstream Linux will go. Linux is so close to cracking the Windows monopoly, but some attitudes about how 'smart' the user needs to be are really detrimental (sp?).
Yep. I'm aware of Linux's advantage here. I do like that it's more 'out of the box' friendly than Windows in some cases. At the same time, though, I've had much better luck finding unsupported (out of the box I mean) stuff for Windows than I have with Linux. I hated that defeating "Damn, I just can't use it" feeling I had with Linux. Bear in mind, most of my attempts have been with laptops than with desktops. Painful painful painful. I do try again every year or so, though.
"I'm sure that John and Sarah Conner and Neo all felt that way. At first! "
I know this is meant as a joke, but it's hard to laugh after reading so much Asimov lately.
"Let's not notice the elephant, let's build some robots to see if we can detect any subtle hints of poisons in the water. "
You do realize that chemicals/pesticides etc happen slowly over a period of time, vs. a terrorist attack which would be rather sudden, right? Quick detection of sudden changes isn't exactly a bad thing.
Don't over-focus on one aspect of a problem.
One of the reasons I *don't* want to switch to Linux is that I don't want to deal with driver installs with stuff that came out later than whatever flavor of Linux I have. If they could automate this, boy would I be strongly interested in attempting the switch again. Frankly, any steps the community takes to minimize the actual maintenance aspect of Linux would be greatly appreciated. Surprisingly, not all of us want to sit there and tweak the damn thing.
"An interesting comment, without any explanation. Neither the PS1 nor the PS2 crashed and burned. Why would the PSP?"
I apologize, I should have clarified. Take a look at how portables have done against Nintendo in the past. The 1 mhz 8-bit Gameboy has defeated like 5 or 6 MAJOR portables. Sony is breaking some of the same rules the other ones did. It just simply isn't clear that Sony will win. Based on previous history (look up Turbo Express, Game Gear, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket, Game.Com, etc) Sony stands a VERY good chance of losing. It really isn't that related to the PS2 or PS1 at all. (Although I will say that Sony's success with those two machines has me thinking they have a shot, as opposed to just writing them off. For that reason, I don't think we're in disagreement, just a matter of to what degree.)
"Surely you mean with his songs."
Thought that was a Bill and Ted reference for a moment there.
"Military technology is striving to be one big Quake clone I mean, we already have aimbots, now there are railguns....next thing you know the US Army will be wallhacking."
Heh. Everybody calling each other a faggot camper whenever they fire the railgun.
"I suspect history is about to repeat itself."
If history repeats itself, then the PSP will crash and burn.
" I value liberty over security. I'm truly sorry you don't. "
Funny, I don't remember saying I value security over liberty.
Are you seriously asking me if I should fight against people thinking it's okay to kill?
"How would it have been dammned if it decided to not lie about Iraq?"
How do we know they lied? How do we know the gov't wasn't absolutely convinced of what Saddam had? How do we know the weapons weren't there?
"To not make false links between Saddam and Bin Laden?"
When did this happen? I have yet to hear the gov't say anything other than "We don't believe Saddam had anything to do with 9-11". The closest thing we've come to was Powell providing evidence that Al Qeada had agents in Iraq. That's not pointing a finger at involvement with 9-11. I am dead serious here, if somebody can point me at a link that shows when the US said Iraq had anything to do with 9-11, I'd really like to be educated on it.
" To not violate international law? To not make the United States a rogue agressor nation? "
To be fair, Iraq had a number of resolutions against it that the UN wasn't doing anything about. The US's breaking of international law probably would not have happened had the UN actually stood up to Iraq.
"There's no substantial argument to be made that the Iraq invasion did anything to protect us. "
Libya gave up their weapons, and Iran and North Korea know we're absolutely serious about dealing with threats like that.
"That means it'll be great for powering my tinny DVD, my tinny digital camera, in fact anything tinny and of far-Eastern manufacture."
Oh good, I can finally have a heart!
-TM
"Sure beats a standard laptop... "
On an airplane it sure would. Though I'd rather have a Nintendo DS.
"It took Adam Arkin and David Schaffer just $200,000 and a grad student to develop a potential treatment for AIDS. And that scares them"
Maybe it's because I'm not medically inclined, but this doesn't scare me at all. (Assuming this reads like "It scares them that they were able to do it so cheaply with so few people")
a.) Lots of research has already been done, it's unlikely that he had to start on square one. I don't think it's fair to assume that the money and time spent by other researchers didn't give this guy an advantage.
b.) How do we know he didn't just have a great inspiration after watching other failures and take a gamble on it? I can't say I've kept up on this, but this is the first time I've heard of anybody trying to use a virus to kill a virus. (I've heard the theory, but I understood that there was concern over what happens to the new virus...)
I don't think it's so shocking, but maybe those feelings are muted by the idea that maybe a lot of people in Africa will be able to look forward to a long healthy life.
"Where was the police state lockdown after Oklahoma City?"
I can give you two honest answers.
1.) OK City building was a gov't building, unlike the WTC.
2.) It was a domestic terrorist that wasn't part of a group. (In stark contrast to Al Qaeda where it'll be a long time or never before they're nabbed.)
" Where was the police state lockdown after Oklahoma City? It's not the body count, it's the political advantages of the lockdown."
Your own details here trip up your point a bit. The body count on 9-11 was FAR higher and far less localized than what happened at OK City. So the 'police state lockdown' after that bombing doesn't do anything to imply political advantages. If anything, it would be non-sensical for the Bush Administration to push for a police-state lockdown. It's not like half the country is saying "Yeah!! Take our freedoms away!" It'll damage his ability to get reelected.
"Most Americans hated Arabs/Muslims BEFORE 9/11."
Maybe my view is too limited to mean a whole lot here, but I don't remember much anti-arab sentiment after 9-11. There were isolated incidents here and there, but it was pretty well understood that it wasn't the race that made them enemies, it was the joining of Al Qaeda.
"The existence of Al Qaeda justifies the Patriot Act in what way?"
Just to be clear, I'm not a proponent of it. (Not really against it either. Need more info.)
"but it's the Bush administration that's destroying the American way of life. "
Maybe I'm just being dense, but a few incidents here and there (with many details not disclosed) I have little justification to be so dramatic about it. The US Gov't is not interested in 'nazi-esque' control over us. (Note: I hope that's not considered a violation of Godwin's law, rather I'm referring to an earlier comment that started this whole thread.)
"True, and while I don't love Kerry, he is the lesser of two evils."
I hope you're not basing that on 20/20 hindsight campaign promises intended to earn votes. The truth of the matter is that the country is so divided about what's happening here that either way, a large number of people are going to be unhappy. Either they'll do too much to stop terrorism, or they won't do enough. Niether situation is ideal, and the bitching will not die down.
You wanna be mad at somebody? Point to the asshole that thinks the right way to express himself is to brainwash people into flying planes into buildings.
"Why don't they put in as much resources in reducing traffic accidents, even though traffic accidents kill many more than 3000 innocent people each year?"
Because accidents are, by nature, accidental. Pre-meditated murder is a more urgent problem.
"A hell of a lot more will die if we continue on this course."
Changing course will not ensure that others won't die. It's certainly not an absolute that less would die, either.
I'm not supporting or defending the loss of freedoms or the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm simply trying to point out there are motivations and considerations here, as opposed to the knee-jerk reactions that everybody assumes is happening. Truth be told, the Bush Administration was either damned if it do or damned if it don't. Either we cry that we've lost our freedoms, or we cry that the gov't isn't moving to protect us. The worst part is the blame is falling on entirely the wrong people.
"Are you referring to Dresden, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki? "
9-11 was not a result of any of the events you mentioned.
"All it takes is nineteen psychos..."
Al Qaeda has more than 19 members.
"If you buy a physical device, you should be able to do with it whatever you want, short of hitting someone over the head with it. "
I wasn't arguing that you shouldn't be able to do that. (I agree with you there.) I was saying that doing it just to flip a middle finger to MS is the wrong reason. Erase the "you got to do something that Microsoft doesn't want, all while MS makes a loss on the XBox" bit and I would completely agree with that post.
"I like computers better."
Speak for yourself, I have a 32 inch TV.
"And? I have ~300 gig hd space."
I was referring to downloading of images. Ignore that particular comment if you envisioned buying the games. (I find it strange one would pay $50 per game on an emulated machine when the system itself only costs as much as 3 games..)
"Emulators are free."
They're not exactly the best gaming experience, either.
"The games are probably DirectX based too. "
That's why I didn't say the games would run slow. However, getting all the ins and outs of the system, despite being so close to a PC, will take a while.
"What, In Soviet Poland they don't watch Indiana Jones movies?"
They do, but it was translated a little different. The floor kept smacking Indy in the head.
"The nerd lobby just isn't big enough to oust a president."
Not while there are more pressing matters like gay marriage, abortion, joblessness, and the rest of the war on terrorism to consider. It's not like people are turning a blind eye to the 'nerd lobby'.
"When did my home become the Unites States of Kafka?"
When 3,000 innocent people died.