Yep. I always compensated for that by telling them I'm from Texas (true) and, amazingly, that usually works. For some reason, foreigners sometimes hate Americans, but love Texans. Go figure. Of course, that may have changed since GW got into office. He wears Texas on his sleeve.
I should mention that there are many other draconian regulations that do apply to recreational boaters. For instance, the Coast Guard may conduct thorough searches of your boat at any time, anywhere on the water, and without warrant. This is clearly unconstitutional under the fourth ammendment, yet happens all the time. If they find any illegal contraband such as any amount of illegal drugs (including a single joint) they may confiscate the boat. Once this happens, you must sue the government to get them to return the boat, which may or may not be successful.
However, these areas are typically industrial area that are not well suited to recreational boating. The impact of these measures on recreational boaters is minimal.
WHY are flashing Santa's ok while the same people often would never consider a garden gnome? For some reason people seem to consider Christmas decorations a license to lose all sense of taste.
I hope you are not implying that there is anything wrong with garden gnomes. That just ain't right. Garden gnomes are an important--perhaps integral--part of popular lawn culture. How dare you mock them?
I have read the entire King James version of bible twice, cover to cover, with the exception of some of the more torturous passages. I have also read portions of the Gidgeon's bible and portions of other modern translations. That was some time ago and I have put considerable thought into it since then. There is nothing in it that I could consider reasonable proof of God's existence, nor of the legitamacy of Christianity. It's not that the bible does not make any good points. It does, but so does the Quran, the Torah, the Karma Sutra, or any of hundreds of other religious texts. However, none of them speak directly to the nature of the universe in a concrete way -- one that does not boil down to "It is so because my father and my father's father believed it to be so" or "It is so because God told me so." My father was wrong about many things, as was his father, and his father before him. Those things they tried to pass on to me are not any more true simply because historical figures agree. In the second case, I have absolutely nothing but heresay to assure me that God actually spoke in person.
So I ask again: why should I believe anything in the bible? Please reply with a concrete example. Until somebody can satisfactorily answer that question, I cannot place my faith there. To do so is to stick my head in the sand and ignore the realities of the world around me.
The bible, like other religious texts, should be taken merely as a model for living one's life--a moral guide, if you will--but that does not mean that it contains existential truths.
I don't like that argument. The value of the cash to the survivors is nearly irrelevant. What matters is the value of the fine to the company involved. The fine must be large enough to convince the company to change its ways; otherwise the fine gets relegated to "the cost of doing business." Personally, I feel that Union Carbide should have been fined at least three billion dollars. If they managed to pay that, you can bet they would think twice before they let important saftey considerations slide in favor of increased profits. If they can't pay, then the company either dissolves in bankruptcy or ceases doing business in that country. Nothing less could be considered justice in the face of massive loss of life due to negligence.
And btw, $4000 is not even close to enough compensation; no matter where it is paid. It may be more than that woman might have ever seen otherwise, but it still amounts to a trivial fine to pay for killing someone's loved one.
Criminal cases are about justice, civil cases are about settling disputes. This case is a civil matter and money has a way of settling disputes very quickly.
Personally, I hope Nokia had good reason to back out of this thing, and I hope they will eventually go public with those reasons.
Incidentally, after reading the entire corpus of ordinances pertaining to parking, I discovered that I was in the right after all, and photocopied the sections of the book for the occasion of receiving a ticket. Oops. Guess I broke some copyright laws there.
Nope, you're fine. You could copy every section, page by page. Not having read the copyright statement (how could I) I would guess that the book is in the public domain. Even if it is a copyrighted book, the laws themselves are public information and can be freely copied and distributed.
This is a myth, and like most myths, it does contain a kernel of truth. It is true that virus and malware authors target Internet Explorer because it is widely distributed (and used) but that's not the only reason, or even the main reason.
Virus authors require two things from their targets -- wide deployment and ease of compromising. If a program is not widely deployed then it becomes a less appealing target because the virus may not find enough of them to make the effort worthwhile. Similarly, if the target is sufficiently hard to crack, it becomes less appealing to do so because of the work involved.
This explains why IIS is so frequently cracked. It has a large install base (not dominant, but large enough) and contains flaws that are relatively easy to exploit. Same with IE. It has a large enough install base (the exact size does not matter) and it is easy to exploit.
It is the combination of those two features that determine the popularity of any particular piece of software has in the crackers' circles.
P.S. -- the web server you're thinking of is Apache. Apache has the largest install base in the web server market, but there are far fewer exploits for it than there are for IIS. In Apache's case, it is the fact that it is hard to crack that has resulted in fewer exploits in the wild. The install-base requirement is definitely there.
There is some truth to what you are saying, but there is an increasing trend towards Linux, Mozilla, and various other FOSS projects. Inertia is a powerful force, but not an unstoppable one.
One of my good friends is a student and bartender. He is not on a technical track. However, last time I went to his house to fix his Windows box I asked him if he'd like to try Linux. His answer was an enthusiastic "yeah!" So I installed Mandrake and did the initial setup for him, which included Firefox. He hasn't looked back yet, and he's even making friends with the command line.
I personally know at least thirty people who now use Firefox routinely. Mostly on Windows, but it's an improvement. None, so far as I know, were forced to use it.
All anectdotal evidence, to be sure, but my evidence is hardly rare. FOSS really is starting to take off in the greater marketplace.
The great Bill Hicks did a sketch where he assumed the persona of a modern day Jesus in Heaven and said "Fuck 'em, Dad. Let's go bury some more dinosaur heads." This was in response to the Christians using a cross as their symbol; as if Jesus would want to see another cross if he were to come back.
I think of that sketch everytime the evangelicals start mouthing off about evolution.
DLL Hell? I've seen that. Of course with Windows it manifests itself differently than the Linux/dependancy hell. With Windows, sometimes applications install old DLLs over new ones, breaking several other applications at once. It's rare, and it's not supposed to happen, but it does.
Oh, and urpmi rocks. Takes care of dependancies for you, and it is rare that it's dependancy resolution fails. Not unheard of, but rare.
The bottom line is that operating systems are complex and sometimes fail, no matter which operating system it is. Personally, and for too many reasons to list here, I find Linux much more pleasant to use than Windows.
Re:so whats the deal with regular mozilla
on
Firefox News Roundup
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It seems that, for the most part, different teams work on the two projects, although there appears to be a lot of communication between the two. There is no reason to speculate that either project will end in the foreseeable future. In fact, there have been statements from the Mozilla Foundation indicating that both projects will continue, with Firefox dipping into Mozilla Seamonkey code when appropriate and vice-versa.
Don't know about the grandparent troll, but I intend to eat tonight. Then I will likely defecate, and perhaps bathe. After that, I will consider my existential duties largely complete for the day. Probably I'll get drunk.
Folks, please keep your torrent clients up as long as you can. That will help make sure that downloads go smoothly for everybody, and help Mozilla provide the best experience possible.
Phfft! This is a linux company making hardware for linux. They are specifically targeting a niche market, and that's fine and dandy. If you want a tuner card for Windows, go pick up an ATI All-In-Wonder.
Human life in the womb must be preserved at all costs, up to and including executing doctors.
Wow. I suspect I will never understand how some Christians can rationalize killing someone as retribution for that person having killed another.
I mean, how can an otherwise good, moral Christian ever support the death penalty? How is that even remotely conceivable? It strikes me as extraordinarily hypocritic.
The FOIA requests are being sent to election offices from the local to the state level. There are (likely) several thousand different offices that will receive a request. I'm curious to know what will happen when some of the requests are denied, which seems inevitable. Will blackboxvoting.org sue? If so, they are going to need busloads of lawyers and many, many stacks of cash.
Hmm... perhaps the EFF or some other interested charitable organization would care to get involved.
Are they seriously believing that there is a slight chance of getting it for free?
Why wouldn't there be? They are requesting the documents from government workers, most of whom are regular people just like us. It is reasonable to think that some of those people may want to actually help.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep. I always compensated for that by telling them I'm from Texas (true) and, amazingly, that usually works. For some reason, foreigners sometimes hate Americans, but love Texans. Go figure. Of course, that may have changed since GW got into office. He wears Texas on his sleeve.
I should mention that there are many other draconian regulations that do apply to recreational boaters. For instance, the Coast Guard may conduct thorough searches of your boat at any time, anywhere on the water, and without warrant. This is clearly unconstitutional under the fourth ammendment, yet happens all the time. If they find any illegal contraband such as any amount of illegal drugs (including a single joint) they may confiscate the boat. Once this happens, you must sue the government to get them to return the boat, which may or may not be successful.
Personal watercraft such as sailboats are already banned in certain high risk areas. One example is the Houston ship channel.
2 0B ulletin%2012-04-01.pdf
http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/so/USCG%20Marine%
However, these areas are typically industrial area that are not well suited to recreational boating. The impact of these measures on recreational boaters is minimal.
WHY are flashing Santa's ok while the same people often would never consider a garden gnome? For some reason people seem to consider Christmas decorations a license to lose all sense of taste.
I hope you are not implying that there is anything wrong with garden gnomes. That just ain't right. Garden gnomes are an important--perhaps integral--part of popular lawn culture. How dare you mock them?
That is not an answer.
I have read the entire King James version of bible twice, cover to cover, with the exception of some of the more torturous passages. I have also read portions of the Gidgeon's bible and portions of other modern translations. That was some time ago and I have put considerable thought into it since then. There is nothing in it that I could consider reasonable proof of God's existence, nor of the legitamacy of Christianity. It's not that the bible does not make any good points. It does, but so does the Quran, the Torah, the Karma Sutra, or any of hundreds of other religious texts. However, none of them speak directly to the nature of the universe in a concrete way -- one that does not boil down to "It is so because my father and my father's father believed it to be so" or "It is so because God told me so." My father was wrong about many things, as was his father, and his father before him. Those things they tried to pass on to me are not any more true simply because historical figures agree. In the second case, I have absolutely nothing but heresay to assure me that God actually spoke in person.
So I ask again: why should I believe anything in the bible? Please reply with a concrete example. Until somebody can satisfactorily answer that question, I cannot place my faith there. To do so is to stick my head in the sand and ignore the realities of the world around me.
The bible, like other religious texts, should be taken merely as a model for living one's life--a moral guide, if you will--but that does not mean that it contains existential truths.
On what basis should I beleive anything in the bible?
I don't like that argument. The value of the cash to the survivors is nearly irrelevant. What matters is the value of the fine to the company involved. The fine must be large enough to convince the company to change its ways; otherwise the fine gets relegated to "the cost of doing business." Personally, I feel that Union Carbide should have been fined at least three billion dollars. If they managed to pay that, you can bet they would think twice before they let important saftey considerations slide in favor of increased profits. If they can't pay, then the company either dissolves in bankruptcy or ceases doing business in that country. Nothing less could be considered justice in the face of massive loss of life due to negligence.
And btw, $4000 is not even close to enough compensation; no matter where it is paid. It may be more than that woman might have ever seen otherwise, but it still amounts to a trivial fine to pay for killing someone's loved one.
Criminal cases are about justice, civil cases are about settling disputes. This case is a civil matter and money has a way of settling disputes very quickly.
Personally, I hope Nokia had good reason to back out of this thing, and I hope they will eventually go public with those reasons.
Nice post.
Incidentally, after reading the entire corpus of ordinances pertaining to parking, I discovered that I was in the right after all, and photocopied the sections of the book for the occasion of receiving a ticket. Oops. Guess I broke some copyright laws there.
Nope, you're fine. You could copy every section, page by page. Not having read the copyright statement (how could I) I would guess that the book is in the public domain. Even if it is a copyrighted book, the laws themselves are public information and can be freely copied and distributed.
This is a myth, and like most myths, it does contain a kernel of truth. It is true that virus and malware authors target Internet Explorer because it is widely distributed (and used) but that's not the only reason, or even the main reason.
Virus authors require two things from their targets -- wide deployment and ease of compromising. If a program is not widely deployed then it becomes a less appealing target because the virus may not find enough of them to make the effort worthwhile. Similarly, if the target is sufficiently hard to crack, it becomes less appealing to do so because of the work involved.
This explains why IIS is so frequently cracked. It has a large install base (not dominant, but large enough) and contains flaws that are relatively easy to exploit. Same with IE. It has a large enough install base (the exact size does not matter) and it is easy to exploit.
It is the combination of those two features that determine the popularity of any particular piece of software has in the crackers' circles.
P.S. -- the web server you're thinking of is Apache. Apache has the largest install base in the web server market, but there are far fewer exploits for it than there are for IIS. In Apache's case, it is the fact that it is hard to crack that has resulted in fewer exploits in the wild. The install-base requirement is definitely there.
There is some truth to what you are saying, but there is an increasing trend towards Linux, Mozilla, and various other FOSS projects. Inertia is a powerful force, but not an unstoppable one.
One of my good friends is a student and bartender. He is not on a technical track. However, last time I went to his house to fix his Windows box I asked him if he'd like to try Linux. His answer was an enthusiastic "yeah!" So I installed Mandrake and did the initial setup for him, which included Firefox. He hasn't looked back yet, and he's even making friends with the command line.
I personally know at least thirty people who now use Firefox routinely. Mostly on Windows, but it's an improvement. None, so far as I know, were forced to use it.
All anectdotal evidence, to be sure, but my evidence is hardly rare. FOSS really is starting to take off in the greater marketplace.
I'm not sure that this is exactly what you are looking for, but you can start at OpenSecrets.org.
http://www.opensecrets.org/
The great Bill Hicks did a sketch where he assumed the persona of a modern day Jesus in Heaven and said "Fuck 'em, Dad. Let's go bury some more dinosaur heads." This was in response to the Christians using a cross as their symbol; as if Jesus would want to see another cross if he were to come back.
I think of that sketch everytime the evangelicals start mouthing off about evolution.
urpmi (mandrake's implementation of rpm) has 5 letters, so there!
DLL Hell? I've seen that. Of course with Windows it manifests itself differently than the Linux/dependancy hell. With Windows, sometimes applications install old DLLs over new ones, breaking several other applications at once. It's rare, and it's not supposed to happen, but it does.
Oh, and urpmi rocks. Takes care of dependancies for you, and it is rare that it's dependancy resolution fails. Not unheard of, but rare.
The bottom line is that operating systems are complex and sometimes fail, no matter which operating system it is. Personally, and for too many reasons to list here, I find Linux much more pleasant to use than Windows.
It seems that, for the most part, different teams work on the two projects, although there appears to be a lot of communication between the two. There is no reason to speculate that either project will end in the foreseeable future. In fact, there have been statements from the Mozilla Foundation indicating that both projects will continue, with Firefox dipping into Mozilla Seamonkey code when appropriate and vice-versa.
Don't know about the grandparent troll, but I intend to eat tonight. Then I will likely defecate, and perhaps bathe. After that, I will consider my existential duties largely complete for the day. Probably I'll get drunk.
Folks, please keep your torrent clients up as long as you can. That will help make sure that downloads go smoothly for everybody, and help Mozilla provide the best experience possible.
Phfft! This is a linux company making hardware for linux. They are specifically targeting a niche market, and that's fine and dandy. If you want a tuner card for Windows, go pick up an ATI All-In-Wonder.
Human life in the womb must be preserved at all costs, up to and including executing doctors.
Wow. I suspect I will never understand how some Christians can rationalize killing someone as retribution for that person having killed another.
I mean, how can an otherwise good, moral Christian ever support the death penalty? How is that even remotely conceivable? It strikes me as extraordinarily hypocritic.
The FOIA requests are being sent to election offices from the local to the state level. There are (likely) several thousand different offices that will receive a request. I'm curious to know what will happen when some of the requests are denied, which seems inevitable. Will blackboxvoting.org sue? If so, they are going to need busloads of lawyers and many, many stacks of cash.
Hmm... perhaps the EFF or some other interested charitable organization would care to get involved.
Are they seriously believing that there is a slight chance of getting it for free?
Why wouldn't there be? They are requesting the documents from government workers, most of whom are regular people just like us. It is reasonable to think that some of those people may want to actually help.
OMFG, no! At least wait until it is separated from his body.
heh. You could also say you are a member of some luddite religion, and being forced to use a voting machine would therefore be discriminatory.
Licensing.