Slashdot for you. The factually false post bashing the US gets +4 Interesting, while the corrections pointing out facts that put the US case in a more favorable light get no higher than +2.
Talk about bait and switch! Californians petition for a recall on the assumption they'll be able to vote for the Terminator. Instead they get a Hustler.
"'m a moderate with a bit of a leftward bent (Kucinich is looking surprisingly good for a Democrat)"
Moderate??? Kucinich is about as left as you can get.
It's always interesting to me that liberals are so utterly ashamed of their ideology that they can never bring themselves to admit that they're liberals.
Apple's growth prospects are all wrapped up in Music.
iPod sales way up, especially with Windows version.
6.5MM songs sold WITHOUT a Windows version. Huge growth potential here, and scales nicely (marginal cost of selling a song is roughly 0, compared to computers which have large fixed costs).
iTunes Music Store for Windows should create even more iPod sales, completing the virtuous circle.
So outlook for growth in Apple profits is tied strongly to its music business, much more so than computer sales.
My team (myself and another guy) implemented a mapping framework in Java that I think is more useful than the other frameworks I've seen.
Order of fields in mapping file specifies order of elements in generated XML.
Formatting of String, Date, etc. classes determined by formatter string in the mapping file.
Can use an XPath like path to specify the location in the XML, not just a key name. This lets you decouple the structure of the object and the structure of the XML.
Likewise, object fields are specified with a "keypath". E.g. Mapping "some string" to foo.bar.baz would result in getFoo().getBar().setBaz("some string").
Constant mappings that let you just set an XML node to whatever you want. Maybe you just always want attribute "larry" of tag "bob" to always be "junior". Simple thing, but very useful.
So when reading the comments about the weaknesses of object-mapping tools, keep in mind that some of us have overcome them.:)
Spend another $3k with Apple and you get "pro" tools for most applications -- video editing, photo editing, email/web, development, and page layout?
Actually, the developer tools are free, along with consumer level video and photo editing, mail client and web browser. Page layout is the only one on your list not already bundled in some form.
Which is the really sad thing about comics. It was created as a mass market medium to appeal to a large segment of the population. Now it's becoming just a specialty market for nostalgic middle aged men with too much disposable income.
I wish the industry would adopt the Japanese model of putting out tons of material on just above newsprint paper and try to make comics a mass market phenomenom again. Of course, that would require getting outside the adolescent male power fantasy genre, which would be good for American comics, too.
It could also function as a normal prepaid phone card, to be used as a wedge to get into stores that only are willing to sell phone cards.
Now I think that's the little bit of magic that would make this business model work. Bitpass should team up with an existing phone card company to piggy back on their distribution network. Otherwise, I'm sure the cost to get distributed in stores would be prohibitive.
He has an aggressive rationalization program to weave together 45 different business planning software systems running in 100 different locations.
This sounds like the kind of thing that could keep consultants or in-house developers busy and gainfully employed for a good long time. Bad news for hw/sw companies, though.
Of course, the problem for programmers in the West is that the good news might be off-shored to India, etc.
Anyone else notice how this has "The Innovator's Dilemma" written all over it? Sun was drawn up market (more and more processors, more high end features), while Linux became "good enough" for most things. The high margin draw was irresistable, until it was too late.
Do you have any evidence that the eqyptions wouldn't record something that makes them look bad?
The fact they were human makes it quite likely. Interestingly, the Jews DID record lots of things in the Bible that make them look bad. This is quite rare in historical accounts.
I take comfort in the fact that cultural evolution will weed you out.
My my. Aren't we feeling insecure. Lots of people have tried to "weed out" Christians, from the Romans to modern day Communists and Muslims. Most of the time, they only succeed in making more of them.
And Jesus was not physically a gate, or literally a sheperd. Your point is?
The Egyptians, who were meticulous record keepers, made no mention of massive Jewish slave use that was ripped away from them by the coming of Moses.
And you think the Eqyptian historians would record such an utterly humiliating defeat?
Jesus lies quite egregiously to try to save his own skin in the Bible when questioned by the Pharisies.[sic]
Don't suppose you'd like to back that up?
To believe that Jonah spent days inside a whale is an utter joke.
By saying this, all you're saying is that you don't believe in the supernatural. Why stop there? How could a man be born to a virgin? How could the blind be made to see and the deaf to hear?
Christians are completely unable to do any of the things that Jesus claimed they could with even a little faith: They can't move mountains, they can't whither trees or tell them to jump into the ocean (well, they can, but nothing happens), they can't walk on water, they can't provably cure the sick, they can't do shit. Furthermore, all followers of Christ are supposed to be able to prove the divinity of their cause. Jesus said they would prove it by drinking deadly poison, handling deadly snakes, and speaking in tongues (in a way such that all people of all languages can understand what they say).
I've certainly have heard testimony to some of these things. And I certainly know people who have been healed after prayer in ways that doctors have been hard pressed to explain. Also, I believe you're inserting the "all" in there yourself; my reading is that these are things that Christians will do as a group, not that all of these things will be done by all Christians. For example, Paul quite explicitly makes the point that speaking in tongues is a gift given to some, and other gifts are giving to others.
Yes, science is practiced by humans and therefore all the usual human follies can be observed among scientists.
However, scientists are well aware of that fact...
So, religous people aren't aware of the fact that they're human, too?
The entire region should be declared a criminal liability to the World, and denied all rights of state - for Israeli as well as Palestine - until such time as the two sides have remained at peace with each other for... lets just give them, say, 5 years?
Now that's an interesting idea! You should have said this earlier on. Just saying "Zionism Bad" isn't very constructive.
There are a bunch of Palestinians, and other Muslims for that matter, who want to eliminate every Jew from Israel. If pushed, a lot of them probably want to eliminate all Jews everywhere.
I don't know what you mean by "Zionism". The right of Jews to live in Israel? The "settlements"?
What should we do? Forcefully relocate all Jews out of Israel? Help Hamas exterminate them? Otherwise, you need to do something like a two state solution, which is what is being pursued now (kind of).
You come off like all the problems in that part of the world are the fault of the Jews, and that the Islamic terrorists are all justified in what they're doing. I don't buy it.
If you don't know that Zion is not just a place in a ass-kick movie with 3D effects, then I suggest you put google to use and learn just *WHY* the name "Zion" has so much stigma associated with it, and why many firmly believe that the Zionist movement is a destructive one for the human race as a whole.
And anti-Zionism is thinly veiled anti-Semitism, as long as we're generalizing. Look, the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is a complex one and if you think it can be simplified and blamed on just one side or the other, you're either an ideologue or a simpleton.
I suspect they're saying that, in a country with a history of Islamist resistance, multiple assassination attempts on President Mubarak, semi-regular spates of suicide bombings which have killed hundreds of people over the last 20 years, a country which has long been a fertile recruiting ground for the various armed Islamist groups, from Ayman al-Zawahiri down, in a country which has been struggling to maintain a secular state while its leaders are condemned as apostates and traitors, puppets of a purported US agenda to corrupt the beliefs of devout muslims, religion matters.
Seems to me they have bigger things to worry about than whether people are watching the Matrix or not.
You can compare it to the TV networks and their endless pathetic grabs for ratings with reality TV--they're desperate, hungry, and scared, but won't admit that they're losing the battle to cable television.
Actually, the network companies and cable station companies are the same companies. Disney, Viacom, etc.
Capitalism works because all it demands is that people are greedy. Very few people are good but everybody is greedy.
Bingo. And this statement is strongly endorsed by the Bible (that people are inherently greedy and not good).
One of the striking things about Jesus is how unrelentingly apolitical he was. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's" is about all he had to say on the prevailing political environment of his day. More explicitly, he said "My kingdom is not of this world."
As for communism and socialism, they're great ideas if you persuade people to live by them voluntarily. Once coercion (i.e. the state) gets involved, you're back facing that little problem of people being inherently greedy and self centered (including people in the government).
So that's how capitalism, as a state backed system, can be supported by Christians: it recognizes the Biblical truth about human nature, and it dovetails with the separation of spiritual affairs and worldly affairs. Religion should be a matter of persuasion, and government a matter of protecting liberty and freedom. This is an idea that Christ, I believe, introduced into the world. And it's a big reason why the Christian world first adopted these ideas.
Personally, I find the Bible astoundingly consistent, especially considering the number of individual authors and the time span over which it was written, but, oh well.
I do think that capitalism is in direct opposition to christianity especially as it was preached by jesus.
Actually, Jesus used a parable in which the servants that get a return on what they invested are praised by their master, but the servant that does not invest what he was given is rebuked. Granted, this parable is undoubtedly meant to convey a spiritual message, but would Jesus use a metaphor that even seemed to praise something he believed to be outright evil?
Also, I agree with most of your criticism of corporations and capitalism. But I will paraphrase Churchill and say "Capitalism is the worst of all economic systems, except for all the others."
Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot for you. The factually false post bashing the US gets +4 Interesting, while the corrections pointing out facts that put the US case in a more favorable light get no higher than +2.
Figures.
-jimbo
Talk about bait and switch! Californians petition for a recall on the assumption they'll be able to vote for the Terminator. Instead they get a Hustler.
Best,
-jimbo
"'m a moderate with a bit of a leftward bent (Kucinich is looking surprisingly good for a Democrat)"
Moderate??? Kucinich is about as left as you can get.
It's always interesting to me that liberals are so utterly ashamed of their ideology that they can never bring themselves to admit that they're liberals.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
Apple's growth prospects are all wrapped up in Music.
So outlook for growth in Apple profits is tied strongly to its music business, much more so than computer sales.
Best,
-jimbo
My team (myself and another guy) implemented a mapping framework in Java that I think is more useful than the other frameworks I've seen.
So when reading the comments about the weaknesses of object-mapping tools, keep in mind that some of us have overcome them. :)
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
Spend another $3k with Apple and you get "pro" tools for most applications -- video editing, photo editing, email/web, development, and page layout?
Actually, the developer tools are free, along with consumer level video and photo editing, mail client and web browser. Page layout is the only one on your list not already bundled in some form.
Best,
-jimbo
Which is the really sad thing about comics. It was created as a mass market medium to appeal to a large segment of the population. Now it's becoming just a specialty market for nostalgic middle aged men with too much disposable income.
I wish the industry would adopt the Japanese model of putting out tons of material on just above newsprint paper and try to make comics a mass market phenomenom again. Of course, that would require getting outside the adolescent male power fantasy genre, which would be good for American comics, too.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
It could also function as a normal prepaid phone card, to be used as a wedge to get into stores that only are willing to sell phone cards.
Now I think that's the little bit of magic that would make this business model work. Bitpass should team up with an existing phone card company to piggy back on their distribution network. Otherwise, I'm sure the cost to get distributed in stores would be prohibitive.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
He has an aggressive rationalization program to weave together 45 different business planning software systems running in 100 different locations.
This sounds like the kind of thing that could keep consultants or in-house developers busy and gainfully employed for a good long time. Bad news for hw/sw companies, though.
Of course, the problem for programmers in the West is that the good news might be off-shored to India, etc.
Peace be with you,
-jimob
This is the definition of being a child. What a sick, sick society we have become.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
The question is, 100 years from now, will robots grow up with the prescence of people being commonplace?
Best,
-jimbo
The city needs taxes to function, rural communities dont.
Then shouldn't we abolish our cities and move everyone into rural communities?
Best,
-jimbo
Anyone else notice how this has "The Innovator's Dilemma" written all over it? Sun was drawn up market (more and more processors, more high end features), while Linux became "good enough" for most things. The high margin draw was irresistable, until it was too late.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
Do you have any evidence that the eqyptions wouldn't record something that makes them look bad?
The fact they were human makes it quite likely. Interestingly, the Jews DID record lots of things in the Bible that make them look bad. This is quite rare in historical accounts.
I take comfort in the fact that cultural evolution will weed you out.
My my. Aren't we feeling insecure. Lots of people have tried to "weed out" Christians, from the Romans to modern day Communists and Muslims. Most of the time, they only succeed in making more of them.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
The Earth is not flat with four corners.
And Jesus was not physically a gate, or literally a sheperd. Your point is?
The Egyptians, who were meticulous record keepers, made no mention of massive Jewish slave use that was ripped away from them by the coming of Moses.
And you think the Eqyptian historians would record such an utterly humiliating defeat?
Jesus lies quite egregiously to try to save his own skin in the Bible when questioned by the Pharisies.[sic]
Don't suppose you'd like to back that up?
To believe that Jonah spent days inside a whale is an utter joke.
By saying this, all you're saying is that you don't believe in the supernatural. Why stop there? How could a man be born to a virgin? How could the blind be made to see and the deaf to hear?
Christians are completely unable to do any of the things that Jesus claimed they could with even a little faith: They can't move mountains, they can't whither trees or tell them to jump into the ocean (well, they can, but nothing happens), they can't walk on water, they can't provably cure the sick, they can't do shit. Furthermore, all followers of Christ are supposed to be able to prove the divinity of their cause. Jesus said they would prove it by drinking deadly poison, handling deadly snakes, and speaking in tongues (in a way such that all people of all languages can understand what they say).
I've certainly have heard testimony to some of these things. And I certainly know people who have been healed after prayer in ways that doctors have been hard pressed to explain. Also, I believe you're inserting the "all" in there yourself; my reading is that these are things that Christians will do as a group, not that all of these things will be done by all Christians. For example, Paul quite explicitly makes the point that speaking in tongues is a gift given to some, and other gifts are giving to others.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
Yes, science is practiced by humans and therefore all the usual human follies can be observed among scientists. However, scientists are well aware of that fact...
So, religous people aren't aware of the fact that they're human, too?
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
More likely, they're not interested in enforcing the agreement, and doing the bare minimum to make it look like they give a fig.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
The entire region should be declared a criminal liability to the World, and denied all rights of state - for Israeli as well as Palestine - until such time as the two sides have remained at peace with each other for ... lets just give them, say, 5 years?
Now that's an interesting idea! You should have said this earlier on. Just saying "Zionism Bad" isn't very constructive.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
There are a bunch of Palestinians, and other Muslims for that matter, who want to eliminate every Jew from Israel. If pushed, a lot of them probably want to eliminate all Jews everywhere.
I don't know what you mean by "Zionism". The right of Jews to live in Israel? The "settlements"?
What should we do? Forcefully relocate all Jews out of Israel? Help Hamas exterminate them? Otherwise, you need to do something like a two state solution, which is what is being pursued now (kind of).
You come off like all the problems in that part of the world are the fault of the Jews, and that the Islamic terrorists are all justified in what they're doing. I don't buy it.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
If you don't know that Zion is not just a place in a ass-kick movie with 3D effects, then I suggest you put google to use and learn just *WHY* the name "Zion" has so much stigma associated with it, and why many firmly believe that the Zionist movement is a destructive one for the human race as a whole.
And anti-Zionism is thinly veiled anti-Semitism, as long as we're generalizing. Look, the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is a complex one and if you think it can be simplified and blamed on just one side or the other, you're either an ideologue or a simpleton.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
Excuse me, I'm an atheist.
But you're not Egyptian, I bet.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
I suspect they're saying that, in a country with a history of Islamist resistance, multiple assassination attempts on President Mubarak, semi-regular spates of suicide bombings which have killed hundreds of people over the last 20 years, a country which has long been a fertile recruiting ground for the various armed Islamist groups, from Ayman al-Zawahiri down, in a country which has been struggling to maintain a secular state while its leaders are condemned as apostates and traitors, puppets of a purported US agenda to corrupt the beliefs of devout muslims, religion matters.
Seems to me they have bigger things to worry about than whether people are watching the Matrix or not.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
You can compare it to the TV networks and their endless pathetic grabs for ratings with reality TV--they're desperate, hungry, and scared, but won't admit that they're losing the battle to cable television.
Actually, the network companies and cable station companies are the same companies. Disney, Viacom, etc.
Best,
-jimbo
Capitalism works because all it demands is that people are greedy. Very few people are good but everybody is greedy.
Bingo. And this statement is strongly endorsed by the Bible (that people are inherently greedy and not good).
One of the striking things about Jesus is how unrelentingly apolitical he was. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's" is about all he had to say on the prevailing political environment of his day. More explicitly, he said "My kingdom is not of this world."
As for communism and socialism, they're great ideas if you persuade people to live by them voluntarily. Once coercion (i.e. the state) gets involved, you're back facing that little problem of people being inherently greedy and self centered (including people in the government).
So that's how capitalism, as a state backed system, can be supported by Christians: it recognizes the Biblical truth about human nature, and it dovetails with the separation of spiritual affairs and worldly affairs. Religion should be a matter of persuasion, and government a matter of protecting liberty and freedom. This is an idea that Christ, I believe, introduced into the world. And it's a big reason why the Christian world first adopted these ideas.
Personally, I find the Bible astoundingly consistent, especially considering the number of individual authors and the time span over which it was written, but, oh well.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
I do think that capitalism is in direct opposition to christianity especially as it was preached by jesus.
Actually, Jesus used a parable in which the servants that get a return on what they invested are praised by their master, but the servant that does not invest what he was given is rebuked. Granted, this parable is undoubtedly meant to convey a spiritual message, but would Jesus use a metaphor that even seemed to praise something he believed to be outright evil?
Also, I agree with most of your criticism of corporations and capitalism. But I will paraphrase Churchill and say "Capitalism is the worst of all economic systems, except for all the others."
Peace be with you,
-jimbo