Not to disparage the work of sanitation engineers, but I think teachers should make at least as much...
<rant>
You know, I'm tired of hearing this. Most teachers are making comfortable wages already, certainly better than most working-class people. And most of 'em aren't worth what they're getting. They see themselves as intellectuals, and a precious few of them are, but most of them are just regurgitating garbage and complaining a lot.
What teachers really need is more freedom instead of arbitrary standards. The hell with standardized testing.
There are too few good teachers to go around, and too many kids in each class. The kids spend too much time in the classroom. They get burned out on learning. Kids should be out playing. The hell with school five days a week. How about two classes, M-W-F and Tu-Th-Sa?
Oh yeah, I am studying to be a teacher. And I will work for peanuts and work six days a week. Just let me do my job, that's all I'm gonna ask.
I was born in February, 1977. I clearly remember my father carrying me upstairs to bed on New Year's Eve, 1979. My mother told me, "When you wake up, the 70's will be gone forever!" If only...:o)
I have even earlier memories than that. Most of my earliest memories are visual. My brother was born in October, 1979. I remember what the outside of the hospital looked like when I went there to see him for the first time. And I remember a big storm we had in the summer of '79, although I wouldn't be able to put a date on it if my parents didn't remember it. I remember being in the car, and my dad pulled over because it was too windy to drive. I think he was really upset. I thought it was fun. That must have been some wind to rock that old cast iron Chevy or whatever the heck it was...
Or is this just some crackpot's homepage? Who is this guy, anyhow? Prophet of his own cyber-religion? Sounds credible enough.
I bet the RIAA grabs this and runs with it, regardless. Hmm... maybe it's part of a carefully-constructed scheme to publicly discredit and humiliate them.
Oh wait, they already did that on their own and nothing happened.
I don't know much about Beowulf beyond what it is, so maybe this idea is redundant. My understanding is that most apps designed to run on Beowulf are highly specialized to run on a cluster and take full advantage of its capabilities. But what if there were an abstraction layer on top of the clustering algorithms that basically turned a cluster into a general-purpose application and data server. It would be highly redundant, hot-swappable, and scalable with off-the-shelf hardware... a "virtual mainframe". A node could catch fire without the users ever noticing.
Actually, the epidemic (if that's what it is) may have started in domestic livestock and spread to wild herds via contact along fencelines.
I've been following this for a while. I hunt with a camera instead of a rifle, but it's just as important to me even if I don't eat much venison. I've read that overcrowding and mismanagement of domestic herds may have played a big part in the disease getting its foothold. It would be a tragedy if this turns out to be yet another example of mankind's careless destruction of nature.
They're trying to fill a non-existent need for a non-existent market.
A Federally-mandated market, actually. The FCC decided that all the mobile phone networks have to upgrade to 3G before a certain date. At least that's what the Sprint rep at my store tells me.
A business's only motivation is, and should be, to make a profit.
Wrong. A privately-owned business can ethically turn a profit; a corporation cannot. All corporations should be non-profit: pay the workers, pay the managers, pay back the investors with interest (i.e., no more shares and dividends), put a little money away for a rainy day, and give the rest back to the consumer in the form of lower prices and/or better products. This leads to a sustainable economy. Perpetual indebtedness to investors does not and cannot, and that's why we're in the state we're in. It's not a matter of if the market's going to crash, but when. They keep lowering interest rates to discourage saving and encourage investing. It's just duct tape. It's like a big game of hot potato. "Please God, don't let the dam break while I'm in office."
Unfortunately, this is probably another issue where people would rather bitch than take action.
No, this is an issue where people don't have much choice anymore: steal, starve, or bow before thy corporate masters.
Anthony G. Laos, president and chief executive of ProdiGene, Inc. was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the Board for International Food and Agriculture Development (BIFAD). Mr. Laos will serve a four-year term, expiring on July 28, 2005.
Anthony G. Laos... isn't he the guy who wanted to transfer me 21 MILLION US DOLLARS?
When I was in Okinawa a couple years ago, I was a bit surprised to see that on most signs and billboards, the hiragana phoneticization of the kanji characters is written very small underneath. I guess it's not uncommon for people to not know their kanji...
Anyone who goes back to work after half their co-workers get laid off is a coward. Don't pick up the slack for the people who are gone. In fact, don't even do your own work anymore. It's time to start screwing the shareholders instead of the workers. Nobody owes anybody a profit.
This gives me a sick idea. How about a huge external LCD display that counts your frags? Maybe you could set it up to play a recording of maniacal laughter every time it increments. Then you could position it over by your opponent's monitor...
With their high priority voting weight, their needs are currently prioritized above the needs of high population states.
It's not that simple. There's a whole branch of mathematics that deals with this stuff. (I forget what it's called -- I'm hoping someone will reply to this, because I don't know much about it and I'd like to look it up and learn more. It's good stuff.)
Proportional representation is not necessarily fair. Montana's proportional share of representation can be as good as no representation if they're stacked against larger interests. They have to get more than their proportional share to get any representation at all.
Instead, we have a system in which the concerns of a few people in Montana have excessive influence over the whole country. If more people live in the cities, why shouldn't their concerns get proportional weight?
Hmmm... how about we decentralize government power, so that everybody can serve their own best interests? Gee, there's a novel idea.
Civil disobedience is ONE way to protest a law you felt was unfair, but it should by no means be your first resort.
Name one other means we have left to us. Name one other weapon that hasn't been completely blunted by the forces we're fighting against. (And if you said "voting", you're not paying attention.)
Civil disobedience isn't the last resort. It's the second-to-last resort, just before armed rebellion.
The fact that a number of laws probibit behavior most people consider immoral does not make that behavior immoral to everyone, only illegal.
Very true. My argument is that when that which is immoral is legalized (or in this case, unpunished), civil disobedience becomes moral.
Contrary to the smug characterizations of some respondents, I for one have thought this through. One of my favorite ideas for deconstructing capitalism is rather subtle, not exactly an "overthrow" at all:
I believe that investment is a risk to be borne by the investor, not by the worker or the consumer. It is wrong for corporations to lay off workers to maintain profitability. I propose a law that would forbid corporations from paying dividends or executive bonuses for n fiscal quarters after any layoff. All surplus revenue would be distributed directly to the newly unemployed. Thus, a corporation would still be free to avoid bankruptcy and potentially show profit in the future by laying off workers -- but not to the immediate benefit of the fat cats running it.
Carrying the idea further, I propose doing away with Wall Street entirely. Hear me out...
I do not believe that the current investment model is a sustainable way to run the economy. Think about it. If you take out a loan for a home or an education, you make payments on the loan and eventually pay it off. The granter of the loan makes a profit from the interest paid. But when a corporation has an IPO, they become perpetually indebted to their investors. The shareholders demand a share of the company's revenue long after their initial investment has been repaid -- money that should instead be used to reward the workers, or reduce prices and promote competition. The stock market drives immoral business practices by making profit a priority, and is a wildly inaccurate indicator of the true strength of the economy.
I'm not talking about shutting down Wall Street tomorrow and instantly rendering every share of stock in America worthless. What I propose is forbidding the formation of any new publicly-traded corporations. With their reduced overhead, non-profit corporations would be highly competitive and would eventually undermine their for-profit counterparts. The transition would be gradual. And a corporation that turns zero profit, but which pays its employees and gives something back to the community, is a successful corporation in my book.
"But what about Grandma's mutual funds?", I hear you shouting. Fear not! Personal investment agencies would not be hurt one bit. They would just have to shift their business model to identifying promising new investment opportunities and profiting from the interest on their loans.
There's still one big problem with this idea. By forbidding the creation of for-profit corporations, private investors would be forced to invest in non-profits. But most of the capital in this country is not controlled by private investors. It's controlled by the very corporations that the non-profits would be competing with. Also, banks, which should be impartial in their extension of loans, nowadays have interests in the industries where the non-profits would be competing. We'd have to come up with some kind of law that basically states... if you're a bank, you can only be a bank.
Anyway, to answer your question more directly: I propose replacing capitalism with communism. Unfortunately, the word 'communism' has already been appropriated by a system that is very much not what the word 'communism' should mean. So we'll have to come up with some other word for it.
The pro-capitalist conclusion to this case would have been to chop MS up into about 20 companies of 300 or fewer employees
That is precisely the anti-capitalist solution. Capitalism is the rule of capital -- the rule of wealth and privelege, the division of socio-economic classes, and the powerlessness of the poor. Capitalism != free enterprise! The overthrow of capitalism is the key to free enterprise.
1. Open Source still delivers the best product at the best price. That speaks for itself in any language. Full speed ahead.
2. When Microsoft goes bankrupt in five years and Open Source takes over the market, nobody will be able to whine that it was because of sanctions imposed by the government.
3. When the law doesn't protect The People, then The People are not bound by the law. With this ruling, the court has abdicated its authority with regards to the enforcement of antitrust law. We The People have thus been granted the absolute moral right to hack, pirate, and reverse engineer any Microsoft product or protocol to ensure competition and compatibility.
Not to imply that NMCI isn't ridiculous and a huge waste of money. We're trying to fight it...
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. One time I wanted to give my co-worker read access to a folder so we could share a Foxpro database. (That's another DoD software horror story...) Anyway, they came over and couldn't figure out how to do it -- I had to show them. And these are admins?
It's just interesting to see the breakdown of donations to the main parties by industry. Clearly, Republicans are the favored party of big business, and Democrats get the support of the little guy. (Just in case you weren't already aware.)
Slashdot Mirror
<rant>
You know, I'm tired of hearing this. Most teachers are making comfortable wages already, certainly better than most working-class people. And most of 'em aren't worth what they're getting. They see themselves as intellectuals, and a precious few of them are, but most of them are just regurgitating garbage and complaining a lot.
What teachers really need is more freedom instead of arbitrary standards. The hell with standardized testing.
There are too few good teachers to go around, and too many kids in each class. The kids spend too much time in the classroom. They get burned out on learning. Kids should be out playing. The hell with school five days a week. How about two classes, M-W-F and Tu-Th-Sa?
Oh yeah, I am studying to be a teacher. And I will work for peanuts and work six days a week. Just let me do my job, that's all I'm gonna ask.
</rant>
I was born in February, 1977. I clearly remember my father carrying me upstairs to bed on New Year's Eve, 1979. My mother told me, "When you wake up, the 70's will be gone forever!" If only... :o)
I have even earlier memories than that. Most of my earliest memories are visual. My brother was born in October, 1979. I remember what the outside of the hospital looked like when I went there to see him for the first time. And I remember a big storm we had in the summer of '79, although I wouldn't be able to put a date on it if my parents didn't remember it. I remember being in the car, and my dad pulled over because it was too windy to drive. I think he was really upset. I thought it was fun. That must have been some wind to rock that old cast iron Chevy or whatever the heck it was...
"cute anthropomorphic animals"
"ninjas vs. vampires"
"chicks with guns" (my personal fave)
Will we even remember what half this crap is in 2050?
Or is this just some crackpot's homepage? Who is this guy, anyhow? Prophet of his own cyber-religion? Sounds credible enough. I bet the RIAA grabs this and runs with it, regardless. Hmm... maybe it's part of a carefully-constructed scheme to publicly discredit and humiliate them. Oh wait, they already did that on their own and nothing happened.
Has it been done? Could it be done?
Like, say, Alzheimer's disease?
I've been following this for a while. I hunt with a camera instead of a rifle, but it's just as important to me even if I don't eat much venison. I've read that overcrowding and mismanagement of domestic herds may have played a big part in the disease getting its foothold. It would be a tragedy if this turns out to be yet another example of mankind's careless destruction of nature.
Here's another interesting article.
Interesting.
A Federally-mandated market, actually. The FCC decided that all the mobile phone networks have to upgrade to 3G before a certain date. At least that's what the Sprint rep at my store tells me.
Ridiculous monthly transfer limits, that's what happened.
Sprint's sorta got it figured out now, but that's a recent development.
And the phones are still gonna have to come down in price. I don't care how pretty the screen is, I ain't payin' $300 for a frickin' telephone.
Wrong. A privately-owned business can ethically turn a profit; a corporation cannot. All corporations should be non-profit: pay the workers, pay the managers, pay back the investors with interest (i.e., no more shares and dividends), put a little money away for a rainy day, and give the rest back to the consumer in the form of lower prices and/or better products. This leads to a sustainable economy. Perpetual indebtedness to investors does not and cannot, and that's why we're in the state we're in. It's not a matter of if the market's going to crash, but when. They keep lowering interest rates to discourage saving and encourage investing. It's just duct tape. It's like a big game of hot potato. "Please God, don't let the dam break while I'm in office."
No, this is an issue where people don't have much choice anymore: steal, starve, or bow before thy corporate masters.
Anthony G. Laos... isn't he the guy who wanted to transfer me 21 MILLION US DOLLARS?
Holy shit, I just blew him off...!
When I was in Okinawa a couple years ago, I was a bit surprised to see that on most signs and billboards, the hiragana phoneticization of the kanji characters is written very small underneath. I guess it's not uncommon for people to not know their kanji...
Yes. Unfortunately, any American who points it out is ridiculed as paranoid, or worse, branded a terrorist.
Anyone who goes back to work after half their co-workers get laid off is a coward. Don't pick up the slack for the people who are gone. In fact, don't even do your own work anymore. It's time to start screwing the shareholders instead of the workers. Nobody owes anybody a profit.
This gives me a sick idea. How about a huge external LCD display that counts your frags? Maybe you could set it up to play a recording of maniacal laughter every time it increments. Then you could position it over by your opponent's monitor...
It's not that simple. There's a whole branch of mathematics that deals with this stuff. (I forget what it's called -- I'm hoping someone will reply to this, because I don't know much about it and I'd like to look it up and learn more. It's good stuff.)
Proportional representation is not necessarily fair. Montana's proportional share of representation can be as good as no representation if they're stacked against larger interests. They have to get more than their proportional share to get any representation at all.
Hmmm... how about we decentralize government power, so that everybody can serve their own best interests? Gee, there's a novel idea.
Name one other means we have left to us. Name one other weapon that hasn't been completely blunted by the forces we're fighting against. (And if you said "voting", you're not paying attention.)
Civil disobedience isn't the last resort. It's the second-to-last resort, just before armed rebellion.
The fact that a number of laws probibit behavior most people consider immoral does not make that behavior immoral to everyone, only illegal.
Very true. My argument is that when that which is immoral is legalized (or in this case, unpunished), civil disobedience becomes moral.
I believe that investment is a risk to be borne by the investor, not by the worker or the consumer. It is wrong for corporations to lay off workers to maintain profitability. I propose a law that would forbid corporations from paying dividends or executive bonuses for n fiscal quarters after any layoff. All surplus revenue would be distributed directly to the newly unemployed. Thus, a corporation would still be free to avoid bankruptcy and potentially show profit in the future by laying off workers -- but not to the immediate benefit of the fat cats running it.
Carrying the idea further, I propose doing away with Wall Street entirely. Hear me out...
I do not believe that the current investment model is a sustainable way to run the economy. Think about it. If you take out a loan for a home or an education, you make payments on the loan and eventually pay it off. The granter of the loan makes a profit from the interest paid. But when a corporation has an IPO, they become perpetually indebted to their investors. The shareholders demand a share of the company's revenue long after their initial investment has been repaid -- money that should instead be used to reward the workers, or reduce prices and promote competition. The stock market drives immoral business practices by making profit a priority, and is a wildly inaccurate indicator of the true strength of the economy.
I'm not talking about shutting down Wall Street tomorrow and instantly rendering every share of stock in America worthless. What I propose is forbidding the formation of any new publicly-traded corporations. With their reduced overhead, non-profit corporations would be highly competitive and would eventually undermine their for-profit counterparts. The transition would be gradual. And a corporation that turns zero profit, but which pays its employees and gives something back to the community, is a successful corporation in my book.
"But what about Grandma's mutual funds?", I hear you shouting. Fear not! Personal investment agencies would not be hurt one bit. They would just have to shift their business model to identifying promising new investment opportunities and profiting from the interest on their loans.
There's still one big problem with this idea. By forbidding the creation of for-profit corporations, private investors would be forced to invest in non-profits. But most of the capital in this country is not controlled by private investors. It's controlled by the very corporations that the non-profits would be competing with. Also, banks, which should be impartial in their extension of loans, nowadays have interests in the industries where the non-profits would be competing. We'd have to come up with some kind of law that basically states... if you're a bank, you can only be a bank.
Anyway, to answer your question more directly: I propose replacing capitalism with communism. Unfortunately, the word 'communism' has already been appropriated by a system that is very much not what the word 'communism' should mean. So we'll have to come up with some other word for it.
That is precisely the anti-capitalist solution. Capitalism is the rule of capital -- the rule of wealth and privelege, the division of socio-economic classes, and the powerlessness of the poor. Capitalism != free enterprise! The overthrow of capitalism is the key to free enterprise.
1. Open Source still delivers the best product at the best price. That speaks for itself in any language. Full speed ahead. 2. When Microsoft goes bankrupt in five years and Open Source takes over the market, nobody will be able to whine that it was because of sanctions imposed by the government. 3. When the law doesn't protect The People, then The People are not bound by the law. With this ruling, the court has abdicated its authority with regards to the enforcement of antitrust law. We The People have thus been granted the absolute moral right to hack, pirate, and reverse engineer any Microsoft product or protocol to ensure competition and compatibility.
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. One time I wanted to give my co-worker read access to a folder so we could share a Foxpro database. (That's another DoD software horror story...) Anyway, they came over and couldn't figure out how to do it -- I had to show them. And these are admins?
It's just interesting to see the breakdown of donations to the main parties by industry. Clearly, Republicans are the favored party of big business, and Democrats get the support of the little guy. (Just in case you weren't already aware.)