Force MS to provide free *nix based hardware firewalls for every Windows user in the world to prevent incoming connections unless the user actively consents. I believe that would cut down on at least 75% of the spam we see. A CD-based firewall would be best as it would prevent hackers from being able to do anything to the firewall that would be lasting. I also think that this will end the war in Iraq. But that's just me.
You're leaving out some important factors when it comes to decent food. Most of the poor live in depressed areas. Those areas either lack grocery stores or have realy poor quality grocery stores. Have you ever been in an inner city grocery? I have. Many times. There is usually NO produce or such a small selection of rotting produce compared to the abundance of convenience foods. They don't HAVE a choice unless they want to drive out to the suburbs and shop there. If they make enough money, they might be able to afford the weekly gas costs but that just makes the food all the more expensive. My main point being that there is a definite quality difference between a suburban grocer vs. an inner-city grocer. Not only will they have to pay more for crap food (which is true as you pointed out), but they have no choice to buy any better food. In even more extreme cases that I've seen, there is also a huge markup on food prices in the inner-city. You can see an almost 75% difference in pricing of the same foods comparing between inner-city and suburban grocers in some cases. You might think that this difference would justify the cost of the gas to travel to the suburbs. But you're also assuming a decent automobile that is reliable, and you're discounting the time cost.
On a personal level, I live in a beautiful old railcar suburb. I do so because I prefer city living to suburban or country living. I also do so because I like the racial integration that tends to be lacking in the suburbs and the country. (Places that are predominantly white frighten me. White people can be scary and I'm one of them.) This suburb had three grocery stores. One is leaving my state, so we'll be down to two grocery stores from the same chain. This is a middle class city, but likely because of the high number of black citizens in the neighboring inner-city, the parent corporation doesn't see fit to stock these stores well. My wife and I prefer to eat healthy food and typically buy heavy on the produce. The problem is... the produce is always old. We know this because it spoils within one or two days of purchase. Sometimes the stores are also just plain "out" of certain produce for extended periods. Having experienced this one too many times, my wife decided that she would shop once a week at a neighboring suburb (mostly white and about two cities away) grocery store. Quite a few things stood out. Not only do they have better quality produce that lasts longer, but they also have a much wider selection. They also have a "health food" and very well stocked "imported foods" section. Plus the prices tend to be lower. Just as an example, a bag of Tostitos corn chips in the "Family Size" costs about $3.49 at this store. At our neighborhood store (where the incomes of the customers are lower) the same bag is $4.49. A dollar difference between two stores about 30 minutes apart. This is wrong on many levels with the most notable one being that they are fucking with the food supply for many many people simply in the name of profit. I'm guessing the reason for the higher prices where I live is because they are trying to counter a possibly higher rate of theft. But that's only a guess. I'd be far more likely to suspect that the cover story for a little price gouging.
Shell games. There aren't that many people that make even $100,000 a year. Six figure salaries are pretty much a falsehood for the average American no matter what TV might try to convince us of. I also don't trust the U.S. census of 2000 due to the damage it did in my state. It made Columbus Ohio the "largest" city in Ohio by incorporating all the cow towns around it. The REAL largest city in Ohio is Greater Cleveland IF we played the same game and incorporated the entire surrounding county into Cleveland proper. The end result is that Cleveland lost a LOT of federal funding and it all went to Columbus. This has caused somewhat of a boom in the Columbus area while killing off Cleveland. We've been losing businesses and the associated jobs thanks to census games. I suspect that the 95th percentile number was merely a numbers game to try and make it seem like there are more wealthy people in the U.S. than there really are.
Hehehe... nice one. Only for the fact that beads and trinkets (cell phones, MP3 players, etc...) don't really help people in a capitalist economy. If anything they put these people in worse financial situations due to their own poor judgement in buying into those things in the first place. The real measure of a decent standard of living (in addition to measuring wealth) would be to determine the housing, diet and health of these "richer" individuals who have cell phones and MP3 players. I would guess they can't afford decent food, housing or health care even though they are "richer" by your estimation. And by decent food, we're talking about fresh produce, meat, poultry, sea food and staples like rice, whole wheat flour, etc... Forget convenience foods and fast foods, they don't count. By decent housing, we're talking a proportional amount of space and count of rooms compared to the number of members of a household. Add to the decent climate control and security, as well as pest free (no roaches, mice or rats) living spaces as well. Regarding health care, do these people have any to begin with? And if so, is their co-pay reasonably low? Do they have access to decent doctors and facilities? Do they get their prescriptions paid for in most cases? Once you can answer yes to the criteria I've outlined above for the poor in the western world, then I'll agree that they are "richer". Owning a Slivr or an iPod doesn't make you healthy, wealthy or wise if you're poor.
You keep telling yourself that chuckie... I don't make anywhere near that much. In fact I don't even make a six figure salary. The people who do are not as common as you'd think.
Not surprising in the least, but still... DAMN. In order to be below 50% you'd have to be pulling in $1,000 a year. Unless you're a high school student in the U.S. who still lives at home, NO ONE can live on that in America. I see the reasoning behind the site too. It gives you a sense of proportion which indicates that even giving a few dollars ($35) could make some vast changes for others in the world. If you're compassionate, it makes you feel a lot more likely to give to charities for less developed nations. If you're selfish, you'll likely just say, "Tell them to get a job"!
AWESOME troll for Troll Tuesday!!! I especially like the misspelling of literate. Nice touch there!:) Let me add a little fule to the fyre as it were...
Top ten differences between Windows and Linux for high schoolers:
1. You can't buy software for Linux in stores!!! (Sure it's free online, but since you don't pay for it, you don't feel like you've done your virtuous duty of paying for software like you do with Windows. Oh wait... piracy? Yeah, but that's illegal!) 2. How am I gonna keep up with all the Windows virii (hehehe I LOVE that one) that turn my PC into a spambot!!? The last time I checked the Wine Software Compatibility DB, I noticed they STILL haven't ported a lot of the older virii over yet! 3. DVDs won't play on Linux!!! (Never mind that you can watch them with Xine, Mplayer and a host of other players based on the related libraries as well) But worse! If I DO get them to play, I won't have the Digital Rights Management feature! 4. You have to think too much to use Linux. At least in Windows I don't have to think about anything since it does everything for me automatically!!! (Including the installation of malware and infection with virii and the coming deletion of data if I use pirated software. OOOOPS!!!) 5. Linux looks ugly compared to Windows. It has too many visual options that make it look like a two bit whore on Sunset Boulevard. At least in Windows the UI is always grey. 6. The Linux OS is missing a vital part of the OS: MS Office!!! (Never mind that Windows doesn't CUM with Office, only Ballmer does!!!) 7. If I hear one more word about Ubuntu I'm gonna kill!!! Ubuntu is to Windows as your mom is to Jenna Jameson. She might be nice and all, but you wouldn't bed down with her over Jenna Jameson unless you're from West Virginia!!!! 8. Using Linux makes you smell bad, grow suspenders and have to wear a beard and get fat. At least Windows only makes you pudgy, gives you a chin butt and makes you act like the dad from "The Family Guy". 9. Linux can't make the internet any faster!!! At least with Windows, as soon as everyone in the world puts their Windows boxes behind a hardware firewall, worldwide bandwidth will increase 2000 fold. 10. Linux is based on a 30+ year old OS which means it's OLD!!! Windows is based on NT (New technology)!!! If it's new it's GOT to be better unless "new" is spelled GNU in which case it's old an farty smelling!!!!
This has been a reality check for the Slashdot community. We now return you to your regularly schedule idiot ranting...
OK. I didn't start with the insults this time. Just to point out your insult:
"You have determined that you're going to be part of the problem (shrill, polarized political thinking) rather than part of the solution (reasoned discourse) because the latter bores you. I find that attitude contemptible".
Completely wrong. I have done no such thing. I merely stated that reasoned discourse is unproductive in today's environment. However, you are entitled to think what you want to think if it makes you feel better.
You're right in saying that there are more positions than "us against them". However, that's lost on most readers, so there's little point in trying to get into those details. But, if we both talk rationally, it's likely we agree on some things even if we have different solutions in mind. That addresses your first point.
My "Government success story" is public libraries. Until recent years when Repiblicans began cutting funding in my state, the public libraries here (specifically in Cleveland Ohio) were the best libraries in the country. The were well funded both federally and at the state level. These libraries provided *ME* with a lot of exposure to information that I otherwise would not have gotten. I come from a less priveleged background and basically "worked my way up" to an extent. But that would not have been possible without the help of free government programs. Thanks to those programs I got the exposure and encouragement to persue technology. Even though I had no plans and no intention of becoming an IT person, I still got here because of the government programs. My parents couldn't afford to give me that kind of exposure no matter how much they would have wanted to. The great thing is that I grew up in a Liberal bastion (Cleveland Heights) where free thought and critical thinking were encouraged. Instead of following what the masses do, we were encouraged to discover the truth and then make our own judgements. Again, had I grown up in a generic typical American school, I would have only been educated with the most basic skills and had to rely on college alone to add the extras. My high school experience was much better than my college experience in terms of being in a real world urban setting vs. the fairyland of small town college. Had I really given it much thought I probably would have been better off at N.Y.U. or C.U.N.Y even. I can safely say that if those government programs weren't around to help someone like me, I would likely have followed in my father's footsteps and remained in the blue collar world. The fact that I'm a *nix admin is all thanks to free government programs and public libraries. College had NOTHING to do with it. Admittedly that was my own fault as I had no interest in college. But I still managed to go to college (once again thanks to public college + grants) and get a Bachelor's. Good enough to get my foot in the door for IT.
As far as the rights of the individual are concerned, that's all well and good. I don't disagree that individuals should have certain rights. But one thing I don't consider a right is self-destruction. That is what many people gravitate towards and they therefore need protection from themselves. I also don't agree that the rights of the individual allow them to do whatever they want, which is what most people interpret it to mean today. As soon as one individual interferes with another in a negative way (physical harm specifically), there are no longer any rights for that individual. Without laws, this would not be enforceable. Without laws and government, the world would be owned by the people with the biggest guns, the most money and the most clout. That's NOT a world I want to live in. I don't want to have to use a big gun to protect myself, I don't want to have to become insanely rich to guarantee a good standard of living for myself and I don't want to have to work on the skills it would take for me to become a "mover and shaker" simply to make sure I don't fall down in socail standing. That's not what life should be about. Life should simply be about following those interests that make you happy without much care for anything else, assuming your interests are enriching to yourself and those around you.
Regarding the things I find great vs. the things you find great... What I find great or what you find great don't really matter at all. We might both hate something equally, but if the majority of society (seriously counting the real feelings of every person and not what corporations claim everyone wa
It's a 50/50 point. Millions could die if we do something or if we don't. But it's less likely that doing something to fight pollution is going to kill people than it is to let companies continue to pollute with no penalties.
Well I can back you up on that. I ran Windows XP for nearly two years on a laptop at home to "keep up" with what was going on in the other camp. Much like you, I was behind a hardware based firewall, kept all the security updates going, etc... I NEVER installed an antivirus program on it and never got an infection (I scanned the system before I wiped it at the end of that period and it was clean) once. For the first eight or nine months I ran with the stock XP using IE. My wife used the system as well (she's not a techy and visited some sites that definitely introduced some spyware). After having some odd problems and cleaning the system with Spybot S&D and AdAware, I installed Firefox, removed the "blue E" and pretty much hid IE from the system. The interesting thing to me is that when I would run Sypbot and AdAware, the system was clean every time. To me, that was ultimate proof that IE was the main culprit for Windows security issues. Never went back to IE and never missed it. In order to make Windows XP more usable I installed Cygwin on it and started building up the suite of things I felt were necessary. I was able to be somewhat comfortable but there were so many niceties that I experience in Gnome/KDE apps and the Gnome desktop that I couldn't take it anymore and my experiment came to an end.
What did I miss? Mainly the ability to get an application for anything I wanted to do without having to pay an arm and a leg. Yeah... it was the "free beer". Even though I had to "brew" it, it was still better than having to pay premium prices to buy the premade stuff. The second thing I missed was how the apps in most Linux distros tend to have a lot more options (something that most users wouldn't care about) available for both GUI and especially CLI environments. I don't know how many people experience this in Windows, but I do all the time: "Hmmm.. I wonder if I can do action X with application Z"? Poke around a bit and find that you can't, or worse... you can but only if you upgrade to the deluxe version of the software meaning that you have to fork out more cash. And finally, the extensibilty of the OS itself. Unless someone writes a particular driver for something, you're pretty much out of luck if you're not an MS developer if you want the core OS (ie. kernel) to do something new. Again, to cite an example, I point to the Linux kernel's network block device support. All I had to do to enable it was compile the kernel/module and load the module, install a user space app for server and client and bam... I had new and amazing functionality. I was then able to export hard drives, CD-ROM and DVD drives as network block devices which could be imported to remote systems via TCP. This is NOT file sharing. It's basically like making a disk on one system appear as a disk on a remote system that can be partitioned, formattted or in the case of a DVD, played via the network.
As much as I wish it weren't so, I think that people like me are relatively rare. Most people have no problem paying out lots of money for new functionality, or worse, pirating software. I'm in a situation where my interest in computers and software exceeds my financial situation. So GNU/Linux is a natural fit in that way. The XP system I was using was provided by my employer so it was no cost to me. But after having drank of the FOSS well, I can't go back for reasons more than just the finances... I've nearly eliminated Windows from my life other than at work (only on the servers I have to deal with from time to time. My workstation is Gentoo) and the occasions when I use a virtual machine at home to access Windows only online media. Whatever fits your situation... use it.
OK. Let's back up for a minute and be civil. I won't attack as long as you don't. But we're obviously of opposite minds. I personally trust government to do more for people than businesses. I don't believe that individuals matter with the lack of power or money on their part, so contributions or individual actions while nice are ineffectual. In other words I don't believe in the power of the individual at all unless the individual is financially on the scale of Bill Gates or politically equivalent to the president. Time and time again, I've seen businesses do more damage to lesser individuals than I've seen government do. I'm not saying that government is perfect. I happen to disagree highly with the current administration, the war in Iraq, etc... But I also believe that the government is not really in control anymore. Businesses control the government.
Most libertarians tend to have an aversion to ANY large concentration of power, be it business or government. My problem with that is that you can't achieve great things in a uniform fashion without large concentrations of power. If the libertarians had their way and dismantled government and then attempted to take on big business next, they'd lose because there'd be no system over business to give them the power to challenge business. There'd also be no rules or laws for them to use to clearly punish a company for being a bad citizen. You'd also have the problem of duplication of effort at local levels. If everything got pushed down to the local level, you'd have people who are completely unqualified to make certain desicions or operate certain systems/procedures doing just that. This would cause a complete lack of uniformity to many important bits of infrastructure. Witness the mess that the cell phone industry is. You either have multiple providers in an area who all suck, with the one who sucks the least being the "king". Or, you have one provider that everyone latches onto no matter how overpriced and poor the service is (ie. monopoly) because it's pretty much the only game in town and there's no governmental regulation that stipulates what the company should provide. Face it... cell phones suck ass compared to the old land lines of the Bell telephone system. (You may not be old enough to remember just how well telephones worked back in the 70s, but I am)
So back to the issue at hand. I have a lot of difficulty understanding how it's acceptable to "tilt at windmills" for things like cancer research, AIDS research, or Iraq all at huge expense and yet when it comes to staging a preemptive attack on global warming it's suddenly wrong. I *CAN* understand each individual not being happy with how the government uses tax dollars to fund things that we may not personally believe in. I find it abhorrent that my tax dollars are killing innocent people in Iraq. I also find it equally evil that my tax dollars are being taken away from public schools and public libraries where I live by a Republican governor and given over to failed initiatives like "No Child Left Behind" (which is an attack on urban schools) and charter schools. To me, Kyoto seemed like a fine start to a plan which hit the real polluters: businesses. I'm not interested in businesses becoming wildly rich, I feel that businesses are successful when they break even or have mild profits. I think that's fair. That means that some of that excess money should not go to investors but back to the rest of the world that had nothing to do with the business directly. That's my view on what's fair.
It's obvious that we're on opposite sides of the spectrum although I can't tell if you're pro-business or just libertarian and hate all large concentrations of power. So, rather than attack you and your views again, I'm just going to leave it at the fact that I can accept that we can't agree. You are free to express your views, but they are merely that: opinion. Just as my views are also mere opinion. As soon as you cross the line and attack my views or vice-versa, that's whe
One question. Where do you get millions of people starving to death out of the Kyoto plan? When you can show me irrefutable and honest proof of that from a credible non-right wing source, maybe I'll consider changing my mind.
OK. So you openly admit that you're a selfish dickhead who doesn't give a rat's ass about anything or anyone but yourself then? Wonderful. At last we can agree on something. The reason to tax people is because not everyone wants to do the right thing. You apparently don't want to do the right thing so you must be forced. Why are so many people self-interested? That just makes no sense to me.
Where did I say that? Stop putting words in my mouth to satisfy your overinflated ego. If some organization existed (which you seem to suggest doesn't) that allowed me to put my money towards something I can support, I would do it in a heart beat. Just as I would love to control my tax dollars and allocate the majority of them to public schools, libraries, museums and parks and cut off all funding for the military with MY money, it just isn't there. The best you can do is individual stuff but that's like throwing grapes at a bowling ball hoping it will move. There is NO solution until the people with the money and power take our side. If you're truly environmentally friendly, then you would know that unless you have money and power, there is little you can do outside of actually staging some "eco terror" actions. Not everyone has the time to do that. If you do, great! Wonderful! I did do that sort of thing in my 20s, but now I don't have as much time. The best I can do right now is contribute to the movements I believe in. And I do. Regularly. But that still won't make good plans like Kyoto happen unless I win a mega-lotery.
I live within five miles of where I work. I have multiple options available to me and take advantage of whichever one is convenient AND earth friendly. Sometimes I drive. Sometimes I use the rapid transit. Sometimes I use the bus. And I've even been known to ride a bike when weather permits. Ideally I'd love to have an electric car charged by solar panels because then I know it would be completely free of emissions. As far as paying the cost myself, where do I sign up? If you give me an address for a legitimate way to pay the cost (not those stupid "eco credits" for bad behavior) that will help force Kyoto into action, I'll pay my share. It's likely to be negiligable as the businesses that pollute should pay a larger chunk of it anyway. So give it up hotshot...
You're absolutely right!!! What with all the terraforming technology that's coming down the road and the migration to Mars (for those who will be able to afford it), who cares what happens to grandma... I mean Earth? Look at it this way... If we just keep on our current course, we'll have used up all the valuable resources on the planet, so the time to move would be here anyway. Also, as long as we can reshape Mars or other suitable places in space for the wealthy, what does it matter that there will be people who will be left behind here breathing poisoned air, losing land mass and drinking dead water? Those people aren't investors or valued customers anyway, so they aren't really alive anyway are they? In fact we'd be doing the productive members of society a favor by clearing out the drift wood. Then only the brightest and best can live on the newly terraformed worlds. I think the symbol for the first arks to carry the valuable people off the earth should be a soiled piece of toilet paper. That's what we'll have made of Earth by the time we depart and it will be the destiny of any world we infect... err... I mean inhabit.
We all know that Kyoto failed because businesses paid to have it fail. It was worth it to them to spend the money throwing up roadblocks to getting sensible environmental protection measures in place than it would have been to actually do something good for the Earth.
Saving the environment at any financial cost is always worth the expenditure. Saying that we shouldn't do something this important because of the cost to business is like saying we shouldn't save grandma's life with expensive medication since it will impact our trip to Alcapulco this Winter.
I think ANYONE would kill under the right circumstances. Look at war for instance... All soldiers have to kill at one point or another during a war. Whether it's hand to hand combat, pointing a gun and firing or dropping a bomb. It's all killing. You also have crimes of passion where someone loses control and goes over the line. A parent who witnesses something horrific happening to a child will likely lash out in a rage which would certainly cause death under the right cirumstances. The same for a spouse. You can't predict who will or won't kill if you don't know the situation the person is in.
Since when did MS start bundling hugely popular games with the OS? Nobody ever told me about that! The last version of Windows didn't come with any new games from iD Software that I'm aware of. Oh... wait. "Doom". Not "Doom" the game, but "Doom" the word. Heh. Hahaha. Hohohoho. Bwahahahahah. I get it! "Doom!" Phwahhahahahaha!!! Ohh.. "Doom"! The word! Not the game! ROTFLMAO!!! Oh I kill myself!!!
Slashdot Mirror
Force MS to provide free *nix based hardware firewalls for every Windows user in the world to prevent incoming connections unless the user actively consents. I believe that would cut down on at least 75% of the spam we see. A CD-based firewall would be best as it would prevent hackers from being able to do anything to the firewall that would be lasting. I also think that this will end the war in Iraq. But that's just me.
...bah... forget it! No one thinks that's funny anymore except me.
You're leaving out some important factors when it comes to decent food. Most of the poor live in depressed areas. Those areas either lack grocery stores or have realy poor quality grocery stores. Have you ever been in an inner city grocery? I have. Many times. There is usually NO produce or such a small selection of rotting produce compared to the abundance of convenience foods. They don't HAVE a choice unless they want to drive out to the suburbs and shop there. If they make enough money, they might be able to afford the weekly gas costs but that just makes the food all the more expensive. My main point being that there is a definite quality difference between a suburban grocer vs. an inner-city grocer. Not only will they have to pay more for crap food (which is true as you pointed out), but they have no choice to buy any better food. In even more extreme cases that I've seen, there is also a huge markup on food prices in the inner-city. You can see an almost 75% difference in pricing of the same foods comparing between inner-city and suburban grocers in some cases. You might think that this difference would justify the cost of the gas to travel to the suburbs. But you're also assuming a decent automobile that is reliable, and you're discounting the time cost.
On a personal level, I live in a beautiful old railcar suburb. I do so because I prefer city living to suburban or country living. I also do so because I like the racial integration that tends to be lacking in the suburbs and the country. (Places that are predominantly white frighten me. White people can be scary and I'm one of them.) This suburb had three grocery stores. One is leaving my state, so we'll be down to two grocery stores from the same chain. This is a middle class city, but likely because of the high number of black citizens in the neighboring inner-city, the parent corporation doesn't see fit to stock these stores well. My wife and I prefer to eat healthy food and typically buy heavy on the produce. The problem is... the produce is always old. We know this because it spoils within one or two days of purchase. Sometimes the stores are also just plain "out" of certain produce for extended periods. Having experienced this one too many times, my wife decided that she would shop once a week at a neighboring suburb (mostly white and about two cities away) grocery store. Quite a few things stood out. Not only do they have better quality produce that lasts longer, but they also have a much wider selection. They also have a "health food" and very well stocked "imported foods" section. Plus the prices tend to be lower. Just as an example, a bag of Tostitos corn chips in the "Family Size" costs about $3.49 at this store. At our neighborhood store (where the incomes of the customers are lower) the same bag is $4.49. A dollar difference between two stores about 30 minutes apart. This is wrong on many levels with the most notable one being that they are fucking with the food supply for many many people simply in the name of profit. I'm guessing the reason for the higher prices where I live is because they are trying to counter a possibly higher rate of theft. But that's only a guess. I'd be far more likely to suspect that the cover story for a little price gouging.
Shell games. There aren't that many people that make even $100,000 a year. Six figure salaries are pretty much a falsehood for the average American no matter what TV might try to convince us of. I also don't trust the U.S. census of 2000 due to the damage it did in my state. It made Columbus Ohio the "largest" city in Ohio by incorporating all the cow towns around it. The REAL largest city in Ohio is Greater Cleveland IF we played the same game and incorporated the entire surrounding county into Cleveland proper. The end result is that Cleveland lost a LOT of federal funding and it all went to Columbus. This has caused somewhat of a boom in the Columbus area while killing off Cleveland. We've been losing businesses and the associated jobs thanks to census games. I suspect that the 95th percentile number was merely a numbers game to try and make it seem like there are more wealthy people in the U.S. than there really are.
Hehehe... nice one. Only for the fact that beads and trinkets (cell phones, MP3 players, etc...) don't really help people in a capitalist economy. If anything they put these people in worse financial situations due to their own poor judgement in buying into those things in the first place. The real measure of a decent standard of living (in addition to measuring wealth) would be to determine the housing, diet and health of these "richer" individuals who have cell phones and MP3 players. I would guess they can't afford decent food, housing or health care even though they are "richer" by your estimation. And by decent food, we're talking about fresh produce, meat, poultry, sea food and staples like rice, whole wheat flour, etc... Forget convenience foods and fast foods, they don't count. By decent housing, we're talking a proportional amount of space and count of rooms compared to the number of members of a household. Add to the decent climate control and security, as well as pest free (no roaches, mice or rats) living spaces as well. Regarding health care, do these people have any to begin with? And if so, is their co-pay reasonably low? Do they have access to decent doctors and facilities? Do they get their prescriptions paid for in most cases? Once you can answer yes to the criteria I've outlined above for the poor in the western world, then I'll agree that they are "richer". Owning a Slivr or an iPod doesn't make you healthy, wealthy or wise if you're poor.
You keep telling yourself that chuckie... I don't make anywhere near that much. In fact I don't even make a six figure salary. The people who do are not as common as you'd think.
Not surprising in the least, but still... DAMN. In order to be below 50% you'd have to be pulling in $1,000 a year. Unless you're a high school student in the U.S. who still lives at home, NO ONE can live on that in America. I see the reasoning behind the site too. It gives you a sense of proportion which indicates that even giving a few dollars ($35) could make some vast changes for others in the world. If you're compassionate, it makes you feel a lot more likely to give to charities for less developed nations. If you're selfish, you'll likely just say, "Tell them to get a job"!
OK. You misread that. It wasn't boring to ME. The discussion is boring to the rest of humanity. You TOTALLY misread me.
AWESOME troll for Troll Tuesday!!! I especially like the misspelling of literate. Nice touch there! :) Let me add a little fule to the fyre as it were...
Top ten differences between Windows and Linux for high schoolers:
1. You can't buy software for Linux in stores!!! (Sure it's free online, but since you don't pay for it, you don't feel like you've done your virtuous duty of paying for software like you do with Windows. Oh wait... piracy? Yeah, but that's illegal!)
2. How am I gonna keep up with all the Windows virii (hehehe I LOVE that one) that turn my PC into a spambot!!? The last time I checked the Wine Software Compatibility DB, I noticed they STILL haven't ported a lot of the older virii over yet!
3. DVDs won't play on Linux!!! (Never mind that you can watch them with Xine, Mplayer and a host of other players based on the related libraries as well) But worse! If I DO get them to play, I won't have the Digital Rights Management feature!
4. You have to think too much to use Linux. At least in Windows I don't have to think about anything since it does everything for me automatically!!! (Including the installation of malware and infection with virii and the coming deletion of data if I use pirated software. OOOOPS!!!)
5. Linux looks ugly compared to Windows. It has too many visual options that make it look like a two bit whore on Sunset Boulevard. At least in Windows the UI is always grey.
6. The Linux OS is missing a vital part of the OS: MS Office!!! (Never mind that Windows doesn't CUM with Office, only Ballmer does!!!)
7. If I hear one more word about Ubuntu I'm gonna kill!!! Ubuntu is to Windows as your mom is to Jenna Jameson. She might be nice and all, but you wouldn't bed down with her over Jenna Jameson unless you're from West Virginia!!!!
8. Using Linux makes you smell bad, grow suspenders and have to wear a beard and get fat. At least Windows only makes you pudgy, gives you a chin butt and makes you act like the dad from "The Family Guy".
9. Linux can't make the internet any faster!!! At least with Windows, as soon as everyone in the world puts their Windows boxes behind a hardware firewall, worldwide bandwidth will increase 2000 fold.
10. Linux is based on a 30+ year old OS which means it's OLD!!! Windows is based on NT (New technology)!!! If it's new it's GOT to be better unless "new" is spelled GNU in which case it's old an farty smelling!!!!
This has been a reality check for the Slashdot community. We now return you to your regularly schedule idiot ranting...
OK. I didn't start with the insults this time. Just to point out your insult:
"You have determined that you're going to be part of the problem (shrill, polarized political thinking) rather than part of the solution (reasoned discourse) because the latter bores you. I find that attitude contemptible".
Completely wrong. I have done no such thing. I merely stated that reasoned discourse is unproductive in today's environment. However, you are entitled to think what you want to think if it makes you feel better.
You're right in saying that there are more positions than "us against them". However, that's lost on most readers, so there's little point in trying to get into those details. But, if we both talk rationally, it's likely we agree on some things even if we have different solutions in mind. That addresses your first point.
My "Government success story" is public libraries. Until recent years when Repiblicans began cutting funding in my state, the public libraries here (specifically in Cleveland Ohio) were the best libraries in the country. The were well funded both federally and at the state level. These libraries provided *ME* with a lot of exposure to information that I otherwise would not have gotten. I come from a less priveleged background and basically "worked my way up" to an extent. But that would not have been possible without the help of free government programs. Thanks to those programs I got the exposure and encouragement to persue technology. Even though I had no plans and no intention of becoming an IT person, I still got here because of the government programs. My parents couldn't afford to give me that kind of exposure no matter how much they would have wanted to. The great thing is that I grew up in a Liberal bastion (Cleveland Heights) where free thought and critical thinking were encouraged. Instead of following what the masses do, we were encouraged to discover the truth and then make our own judgements. Again, had I grown up in a generic typical American school, I would have only been educated with the most basic skills and had to rely on college alone to add the extras. My high school experience was much better than my college experience in terms of being in a real world urban setting vs. the fairyland of small town college. Had I really given it much thought I probably would have been better off at N.Y.U. or C.U.N.Y even. I can safely say that if those government programs weren't around to help someone like me, I would likely have followed in my father's footsteps and remained in the blue collar world. The fact that I'm a *nix admin is all thanks to free government programs and public libraries. College had NOTHING to do with it. Admittedly that was my own fault as I had no interest in college. But I still managed to go to college (once again thanks to public college + grants) and get a Bachelor's. Good enough to get my foot in the door for IT.
As far as the rights of the individual are concerned, that's all well and good. I don't disagree that individuals should have certain rights. But one thing I don't consider a right is self-destruction. That is what many people gravitate towards and they therefore need protection from themselves. I also don't agree that the rights of the individual allow them to do whatever they want, which is what most people interpret it to mean today. As soon as one individual interferes with another in a negative way (physical harm specifically), there are no longer any rights for that individual. Without laws, this would not be enforceable. Without laws and government, the world would be owned by the people with the biggest guns, the most money and the most clout. That's NOT a world I want to live in. I don't want to have to use a big gun to protect myself, I don't want to have to become insanely rich to guarantee a good standard of living for myself and I don't want to have to work on the skills it would take for me to become a "mover and shaker" simply to make sure I don't fall down in socail standing. That's not what life should be about. Life should simply be about following those interests that make you happy without much care for anything else, assuming your interests are enriching to yourself and those around you.
Regarding the things I find great vs. the things you find great... What I find great or what you find great don't really matter at all. We might both hate something equally, but if the majority of society (seriously counting the real feelings of every person and not what corporations claim everyone wa
It's a 50/50 point. Millions could die if we do something or if we don't. But it's less likely that doing something to fight pollution is going to kill people than it is to let companies continue to pollute with no penalties.
Well I can back you up on that. I ran Windows XP for nearly two years on a laptop at home to "keep up" with what was going on in the other camp. Much like you, I was behind a hardware based firewall, kept all the security updates going, etc... I NEVER installed an antivirus program on it and never got an infection (I scanned the system before I wiped it at the end of that period and it was clean) once. For the first eight or nine months I ran with the stock XP using IE. My wife used the system as well (she's not a techy and visited some sites that definitely introduced some spyware). After having some odd problems and cleaning the system with Spybot S&D and AdAware, I installed Firefox, removed the "blue E" and pretty much hid IE from the system. The interesting thing to me is that when I would run Sypbot and AdAware, the system was clean every time. To me, that was ultimate proof that IE was the main culprit for Windows security issues. Never went back to IE and never missed it. In order to make Windows XP more usable I installed Cygwin on it and started building up the suite of things I felt were necessary. I was able to be somewhat comfortable but there were so many niceties that I experience in Gnome/KDE apps and the Gnome desktop that I couldn't take it anymore and my experiment came to an end.
What did I miss? Mainly the ability to get an application for anything I wanted to do without having to pay an arm and a leg. Yeah... it was the "free beer". Even though I had to "brew" it, it was still better than having to pay premium prices to buy the premade stuff. The second thing I missed was how the apps in most Linux distros tend to have a lot more options (something that most users wouldn't care about) available for both GUI and especially CLI environments. I don't know how many people experience this in Windows, but I do all the time: "Hmmm.. I wonder if I can do action X with application Z"? Poke around a bit and find that you can't, or worse... you can but only if you upgrade to the deluxe version of the software meaning that you have to fork out more cash. And finally, the extensibilty of the OS itself. Unless someone writes a particular driver for something, you're pretty much out of luck if you're not an MS developer if you want the core OS (ie. kernel) to do something new. Again, to cite an example, I point to the Linux kernel's network block device support. All I had to do to enable it was compile the kernel/module and load the module, install a user space app for server and client and bam... I had new and amazing functionality. I was then able to export hard drives, CD-ROM and DVD drives as network block devices which could be imported to remote systems via TCP. This is NOT file sharing. It's basically like making a disk on one system appear as a disk on a remote system that can be partitioned, formattted or in the case of a DVD, played via the network.
As much as I wish it weren't so, I think that people like me are relatively rare. Most people have no problem paying out lots of money for new functionality, or worse, pirating software. I'm in a situation where my interest in computers and software exceeds my financial situation. So GNU/Linux is a natural fit in that way. The XP system I was using was provided by my employer so it was no cost to me. But after having drank of the FOSS well, I can't go back for reasons more than just the finances... I've nearly eliminated Windows from my life other than at work (only on the servers I have to deal with from time to time. My workstation is Gentoo) and the occasions when I use a virtual machine at home to access Windows only online media. Whatever fits your situation... use it.
OK. Let's back up for a minute and be civil. I won't attack as long as you don't. But we're obviously of opposite minds. I personally trust government to do more for people than businesses. I don't believe that individuals matter with the lack of power or money on their part, so contributions or individual actions while nice are ineffectual. In other words I don't believe in the power of the individual at all unless the individual is financially on the scale of Bill Gates or politically equivalent to the president. Time and time again, I've seen businesses do more damage to lesser individuals than I've seen government do. I'm not saying that government is perfect. I happen to disagree highly with the current administration, the war in Iraq, etc... But I also believe that the government is not really in control anymore. Businesses control the government.
Most libertarians tend to have an aversion to ANY large concentration of power, be it business or government. My problem with that is that you can't achieve great things in a uniform fashion without large concentrations of power. If the libertarians had their way and dismantled government and then attempted to take on big business next, they'd lose because there'd be no system over business to give them the power to challenge business. There'd also be no rules or laws for them to use to clearly punish a company for being a bad citizen. You'd also have the problem of duplication of effort at local levels. If everything got pushed down to the local level, you'd have people who are completely unqualified to make certain desicions or operate certain systems/procedures doing just that. This would cause a complete lack of uniformity to many important bits of infrastructure. Witness the mess that the cell phone industry is. You either have multiple providers in an area who all suck, with the one who sucks the least being the "king". Or, you have one provider that everyone latches onto no matter how overpriced and poor the service is (ie. monopoly) because it's pretty much the only game in town and there's no governmental regulation that stipulates what the company should provide. Face it... cell phones suck ass compared to the old land lines of the Bell telephone system. (You may not be old enough to remember just how well telephones worked back in the 70s, but I am)
So back to the issue at hand. I have a lot of difficulty understanding how it's acceptable to "tilt at windmills" for things like cancer research, AIDS research, or Iraq all at huge expense and yet when it comes to staging a preemptive attack on global warming it's suddenly wrong. I *CAN* understand each individual not being happy with how the government uses tax dollars to fund things that we may not personally believe in. I find it abhorrent that my tax dollars are killing innocent people in Iraq. I also find it equally evil that my tax dollars are being taken away from public schools and public libraries where I live by a Republican governor and given over to failed initiatives like "No Child Left Behind" (which is an attack on urban schools) and charter schools. To me, Kyoto seemed like a fine start to a plan which hit the real polluters: businesses. I'm not interested in businesses becoming wildly rich, I feel that businesses are successful when they break even or have mild profits. I think that's fair. That means that some of that excess money should not go to investors but back to the rest of the world that had nothing to do with the business directly. That's my view on what's fair.
It's obvious that we're on opposite sides of the spectrum although I can't tell if you're pro-business or just libertarian and hate all large concentrations of power. So, rather than attack you and your views again, I'm just going to leave it at the fact that I can accept that we can't agree. You are free to express your views, but they are merely that: opinion. Just as my views are also mere opinion. As soon as you cross the line and attack my views or vice-versa, that's whe
Said the MS apologist. ;P
One question. Where do you get millions of people starving to death out of the Kyoto plan? When you can show me irrefutable and honest proof of that from a credible non-right wing source, maybe I'll consider changing my mind.
OK. So you openly admit that you're a selfish dickhead who doesn't give a rat's ass about anything or anyone but yourself then? Wonderful. At last we can agree on something. The reason to tax people is because not everyone wants to do the right thing. You apparently don't want to do the right thing so you must be forced. Why are so many people self-interested? That just makes no sense to me.
Where did I say that? Stop putting words in my mouth to satisfy your overinflated ego. If some organization existed (which you seem to suggest doesn't) that allowed me to put my money towards something I can support, I would do it in a heart beat. Just as I would love to control my tax dollars and allocate the majority of them to public schools, libraries, museums and parks and cut off all funding for the military with MY money, it just isn't there. The best you can do is individual stuff but that's like throwing grapes at a bowling ball hoping it will move. There is NO solution until the people with the money and power take our side. If you're truly environmentally friendly, then you would know that unless you have money and power, there is little you can do outside of actually staging some "eco terror" actions. Not everyone has the time to do that. If you do, great! Wonderful! I did do that sort of thing in my 20s, but now I don't have as much time. The best I can do right now is contribute to the movements I believe in. And I do. Regularly. But that still won't make good plans like Kyoto happen unless I win a mega-lotery.
I live within five miles of where I work. I have multiple options available to me and take advantage of whichever one is convenient AND earth friendly. Sometimes I drive. Sometimes I use the rapid transit. Sometimes I use the bus. And I've even been known to ride a bike when weather permits. Ideally I'd love to have an electric car charged by solar panels because then I know it would be completely free of emissions. As far as paying the cost myself, where do I sign up? If you give me an address for a legitimate way to pay the cost (not those stupid "eco credits" for bad behavior) that will help force Kyoto into action, I'll pay my share. It's likely to be negiligable as the businesses that pollute should pay a larger chunk of it anyway. So give it up hotshot...
I have no problem having it added to my taxes. The world is everyone's responsibility. I don't think it's any clearer than that.
You're absolutely right!!! What with all the terraforming technology that's coming down the road and the migration to Mars (for those who will be able to afford it), who cares what happens to grandma... I mean Earth? Look at it this way... If we just keep on our current course, we'll have used up all the valuable resources on the planet, so the time to move would be here anyway. Also, as long as we can reshape Mars or other suitable places in space for the wealthy, what does it matter that there will be people who will be left behind here breathing poisoned air, losing land mass and drinking dead water? Those people aren't investors or valued customers anyway, so they aren't really alive anyway are they? In fact we'd be doing the productive members of society a favor by clearing out the drift wood. Then only the brightest and best can live on the newly terraformed worlds. I think the symbol for the first arks to carry the valuable people off the earth should be a soiled piece of toilet paper. That's what we'll have made of Earth by the time we depart and it will be the destiny of any world we infect... err... I mean inhabit.
We all know that Kyoto failed because businesses paid to have it fail. It was worth it to them to spend the money throwing up roadblocks to getting sensible environmental protection measures in place than it would have been to actually do something good for the Earth.
Saving the environment at any financial cost is always worth the expenditure. Saying that we shouldn't do something this important because of the cost to business is like saying we shouldn't save grandma's life with expensive medication since it will impact our trip to Alcapulco this Winter.
I think ANYONE would kill under the right circumstances. Look at war for instance... All soldiers have to kill at one point or another during a war. Whether it's hand to hand combat, pointing a gun and firing or dropping a bomb. It's all killing. You also have crimes of passion where someone loses control and goes over the line. A parent who witnesses something horrific happening to a child will likely lash out in a rage which would certainly cause death under the right cirumstances. The same for a spouse. You can't predict who will or won't kill if you don't know the situation the person is in.
Since when did MS start bundling hugely popular games with the OS? Nobody ever told me about that! The last version of Windows didn't come with any new games from iD Software that I'm aware of. Oh... wait. "Doom". Not "Doom" the game, but "Doom" the word. Heh. Hahaha. Hohohoho. Bwahahahahah. I get it! "Doom!" Phwahhahahahaha!!! Ohh.. "Doom"! The word! Not the game! ROTFLMAO!!! Oh I kill myself!!!