Do a google search on kin selection. There is just one of many theories put forth on why homosexuality is actually something that could have positive results in an model of evolution.
I can't think of any positive benefits of you destroying people's hopes and preventing them from enjoying their lives the way they want to. Wouldn't your energy be better served on some green cause, internet liberation, the next great technological revolution for humanity, or ?
The reason I think you, and others, spend so much time fighting so that other people can't enjoy their lives is because you're so generally inept and such a busybody that you have nothing better that you *could* be doing.
As opposed to the indignity of naming spaceships after anthropomorphic deities from 2,000 year old cultures that never have existed or never will exist?
Science fiction seems to me to contain a massive element of hope or fascination at what could be. Even when great liberties are taken with scientific theories as they are known to us. Just how is it undignified to use these concepts?
Or, maybe we should just call it generic boring names like "voyager" or "enterprise"? When they named a submarine Nautilus, I, for one, thought that was 'cool'.
No, the only objection I have to the name 'serenity' is that it hails from obviously bad science fiction. Take something from Asimov, or Heinlen, or what have you.
It seems you have a bit of an axe to grind, and a bias as well. Quite frankly, I think that his whining, whether heartfelt or not, will eventually lead to less hungry mouths than your whining. It would be nice if we all carried around sighing violins and bleeding hearts trying to help out humanity, but it is "enlightened" self interest that has raised the standard of living of us earthians.
And, quite frankly, whether you value a cheaper internet or not, your response isn't really apropos and your participation in the discussion has been digressive.
The underlying point I really wanted to make is that I feel a cheap, fast internet is extremely valuable to society as it enables complex content, creative or productive, to be easily shared and communication to occur on many levels. It also allows for cheaper food at walmart, or other large distribution centers and therefore eventually less capital rich markets become acceptable investments and they eventually get to enjoy better access to food, as well.
Why must you (and I realise this is only a subset of GLBT people that I am addressing here), shove it in everyones face?
Why are there African American college clubs, night clubs, or an african american caucus in the U.S. Congress? Why are there minority scholarship funds, minority political action committees, or other minority groups built around a sport? Why is there a hispanic rugby team in my city? Do you think they're shoving their hispanic-ness in your face when they advertise on a board at Wal-mart or in your local newspaper?
The reason why these kinds of organizations exist and why minorities and homosexual people want to gather together is because you're less likely to experience comments like "thats so gay" on the guild channel, you're more likely to be able to talk about things in real life that might hint at your sexuality, and you're more likely to be able to say things like "Oh honey, I just went to an Elton John concert and it was so fabulous." There are also many common things among many of the self-identified and out homosexual people and maybe they want to be closer to those kinds of people.
I ran a GLBT-friendly end-game guild on WoW where I would guess 20% of our members did not identify themselves as heterosexuals. We did not advertise ourselves as GLBT friendly except in one way, you were introduced to our charter before you were given an invite, and it clearly expressed that we would not tolerate discrimination against ethnic groups or homosexual people and that we were friendly to all types of people of all backgrounds, ie we were GLBT friendly. The guild leader in the article takes pains to say that it is not GLBT only. I have known heterosexual people who were attracted to GLBT friendly guilds because they shared a lot of common values that are held by a majority of out GLBT people.
But lets be absolutely clear. She wasn't flaunting a sexual preference or in anyway saying that there is a superior sexual preference. She wasn't shoving her preferences in your face, unlike that stupid Chuck Norris trend, she was advertising a specific thing, a cultural thing. I fear for your ability to reason and be critical when you think that a guild that advertises a specific cultural style is offensive and in your face when they aren't speaking to you directly but on a public channel created for that kind of thing.
In fact, its a game designed to have people team up and work together and be social based on the game dynamics. Why bring in outside dynamics?
No guild I've ever been in or run myself, and I've been gaming for over 11 years, has ever failed to bring in outside dynamics. People talk about getting married, having kids, meeting someone new, dealing with their studies, and how sick they are. When people are social they share parts of themselves that are not totally encapsulated into the game world and it is ridiculous, thoroughly ridiculous, to expect otherwise of the vast majority of guilds.
This cultural aspect of social dynamics means that it is legitimate to want a guild where people will not say "thats so gay" and where you can say, "yeah my sex class is turning out to be quite compelling" when you want a guild that is more accepting of that kind of thing.
How would you feel if you saw a "Straight as an Arrow" guild? Wouldn't it seem silly?
Yes and no. It would seem silly, in a way, because it seems thats what most guilds are. You don't have to be really picky to find a guild like that. Finding a straight guild that is not GLBT friendly is like trying to find a white person in a country club, you can close your eyes and still run into one. Also, it wouldn't seem quite inappropriate because a lot of people really, really want to avoid GLBT people and they might go to such lengths just to do so. I think it is the height of ignorance, but I would still support their right to do so.
"The first user who is able to use the complete space will receive from us a free email account with one TByte space on a dedicated server," Weiss said. "This will be the worlds largest email inbox."
What about my 250 gigabyte hard drive? I could slap an email server on that and beat this. Also they're charging 150 dollars for 100g a year? I paid less for my hard drive.
Which leads me to my next thought, why not write an open source web interface and buy a static ip for your home (for us nerds) and a domain (most of us already have both), and then throw a hard drive on it (250 gig is affordable.). Put a webserver and the appropriate email server.... A lot of work at first but could be a lot easier to setup via rpm or something. Then you could leave your "server" on all the time and check your email away from home. No ads either.
Wow, can't wait till the classic "Jurassic Park" is remade later on in this millenium when you get smells in the movie, too. Maybe, after I've lived for five centuries because of quantum biotechnology, I'll be able to forgive slashdot because I'll have realized that this news item was just ahead of its time, when I go to see the movie utilizing this hot new smelling technology.
Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I see the Star Wars prequels as relatively successful and entertaining. While it has its serious faults, ones which I am quite displeased by, the overall series of movies is spectacular.
I acknowledge the common mistakes, haydenson is not a very good vader, several actors are not doing their best work, jar jar blew, bad dialog, a few stupid plot lines, some bs about midichlorians, on and on. But, with the exception of haydenson, I think these things are all largely forgivable.
Shut your ears to the "science" behind the jedi, let jar jar do what he does best, and that is be a foil for other actors, forgive the bad acting, and you have an entertaining flick.
To me, as a child, the greatest aspect of the star wars movies was the larger than life set of the universe. The huge battles, the lightsabers, the uber jedi, the excitement and anticipation of a large showdown between good and evil, etc. All of this is preserved. The space scenes are fantastic, as are the sets. Everything visual about this movie is just gorgeous to look at. The huge war in Attack of the Clones was breathtaking.
Enter, exhibit A, my little brother. Throughout both movies he was in awe. He was practically jumping out of his seat the whole time. For episode 3, I recommend you look around yourself in the theater at the little kids. Don't you remember doing what they were doing when you saw the movie?
Enter, Exhibit B, the money. The box office money is not coming from bitter fans, don't kid yourself. People are going to see these movies multiple times. You elitists can scoff that its people who don't know any better and who aren't good enough for movies, but thats a steaming pile of excrement. It is families with kids, it is teenagers, and the like in my opinion who are going to this. I enjoy a good drama movie with great acting and good plot, but I also enjoy an action / adventure space-opera. I saw adults getting ultra excited about these movies, too. When I went to watch Attack of the Clones for the *second* time the day it was released in my city, I was waiting in line with other people who had already seen it once. Those people aren't going back to remind themselves of how godawful the movie was. They are going back because they enjoyed it.
Enter, Exhibit C, yoda's fight scene. This was not the only scene that garnered a huge reaction among people in the theater when I saw the movies. But this scene was one of the most engendering. Cat calls, whistles, and general "yo go yoda, kick his ass", were what people said. People were engaged and they remained engaged throughout the scene. When christopher lee chickened out, people boo'd.
I'm glad my brother doesn't read slashdot otherwise he'd be asking me, why do those people not like star wars? And I'd have to explain to him, well some people require science fiction movies with silly and fictional devices to somehow make sense and be these all important dramatic movies. (a la matrix). The mystery of it, was its charm. We were free to imagine why the jedi could do what they did. I think people expect all these answers from the prequels and you aren't going to get them. What you get is set up work for episodes 4-6. And the answers come from *those* movies. You get leia's love of solo, you get a father's love for his son squashing his tyrranical ways, and you get the ultimate control freak (the emporer) to die a horrible death. Freedom and the little guys conquer the large, evil empire of control.
You still get emotional moments from the prequels, the death of anakin's mother, anakin having to leave his mother, the loss of his arm, the rift between anakin and obi wan, etc. I think they're designed to be stress inducing, which they are. The movie successfully makes you feel an impending doom for everyone involved.
The only trully sad thing about the prequels is that there is no equivalent to Harrison Ford. Maybe if they let samuel jackson get a bit more scre
I am a huge proponent of the death penalty for spammers (this is really a joke, I'd settle for just removing their digits so they can't type.) With that being said I would love to find a way to shutdown spam.
Here's how I think it has to be done.
1) Education. Educate your mother who buys from spam emails that even though she's getting a discount (or perceived discount) that she's doing so at the detriment of people's time and wasting bandwidth. Explain why bandwidth is important. Bottom line, don't reply, don't buy, and don't encourage spamming.
Education stops the motive, and the loss of motive will stop the crime. I would be interested in seeing the trends in terms of how often people respond to spam and if that level of response degrades per user as those users become more net-savvy and gain more experience.
2) Law enforcement and legistlation. I would prefer it if everyone could sue a spammer. Obviously this has to be more carefully thought out because anyone who uses the cc field in an email might be considered a spammer, but I still think that action should be taken quickly and decisively. Possibly an organized investigative body to discover who spammers really are and then to build up incriminating evidence. Then of course to sue their ass out of existence in class action lawsuits with the money going to pay for more investigative work.
Also, a heavy against companies. "We know you are utilizing spammers and we don't appreciate it. You have been blacklisted" or some other various things.
But what it all amounts to is : money. Control the money, control the problem. And I feel education and law enforcement are some of the few clear ways to do that.
Everyone else has basically mentioned in other posts my problems with the method of DoS'ing spam hosts.
N
Is a locksmith a criminal?
Ie: does knowing how locks work and how they can be broken make a locksmith a criminal? Having an ability to do something evil, does not necessarily translate into malice. Often, those abilities can be used for good, too.
Hackers know how computers work and how to break into them using a combination of social engineering and tech skills. It is comparable to hiring a locksmith to design a lock, they know how to break into them, so they have a better idea how to make them unbreakable.
N,
Whose locked his keys in his car too many times.
PS: it sounds like this guy is just buying the stigma of "hackerdom" that some people have.
In many ways I myself used muds to improve my self-esteem and my ability to socialize with others. It was like a slow transition from hiding everything about me to being able to almost fully function as a human being in an online multiplayer universe.
I was also addicated to muds for a very long time, because I needed them for my esteem. The pavlonian response of earning levels, beating your foe, or successfully "teaming" with other people in a clan can be quite addictive. Also that whole numbers/social status thing can do wonders for the ego.
But you brought up what I consider to be a really good point. There is a huge difference between online games and offline games. With online games you can learn to socialize with others if you are not so good at it, as well as improving your sense of self-esteem. I agree, however, that there is a danger in letting yourself get trapped such that only the MUD or MMP-RPG determines your self-value.
So while bowling does bring you in contact with others and possibly improve your dexterity or physical abilities, I still believe that MUDs and MMPRPGs can do good things for one's self-perceptions and social skills. Eventually I was "mature" enough in the online world that I could be a "better" man outside of it.
I used to be one of those annoying little toddlers that would kill-steal, raze, and generally grief others. I morphed into a person who contributed to the mud-community in quite large ammounts, had a significant number of friends, and socialized frequently. Transitioning from mud life to real life was a bit clunky, but some of the very same skills I learned without fear of repudiation in the quasi-social world of muds allowed me to be more mature in the real world and get things relatively right on the first go.
Basically I feel I can blame quite a lot of my successful real-world relationships on my having grown up in the social environments of MUDs.
N
PS: those that are still lost as to what a MUD is, go here for a quick idea. Basically everquest, daoc, etc. are startling similar to MUDs (and are considered by many to be graphical MUDs while MUDs are considered by many to be computerized versions of D&D).
I have a nasty addictive habit of taking scotch tape and chewing on it cause its got just the right amount of resistence. Of course I'm also that weird guy who "eats" his ice after drinking anything. I just like to crunch on things.
But its OKAY! because chewing on scotch tape is cheap and it doesn't have calories or leave ugly hard to cleanup sticky residues! So its okay, I mean, in comparison, I could have a lot worse addictions. I could be a hard-core computer gamer, for instance.
N
Its interesting to note that the earth's magnetic field is changing because of the glaciers melting. Could this possibly explain some of the data that geologists use to claim as evidence of a future polar shift? Is this even related?
Also it seems quite intimidating to me that these glaciers are melting. I wonder how far they will go before they stop melting and which cities, countries, etc would be "covered" in water etc, as we've already seen flood damage in europe. Not to mention, how does this affect fault lines? I know theres something wrong there *shakes finger like crotchety old man*. I saw "A view to a kill".
Quick, lets all prepare for an apocalypse!:)
N
PS: damn, I knew I should have paid more attention to Waterworld.
The thing I wonder is exactly what sort of content will be restricted on these domains? First, lets start off with some controversial topics.
Censors can say, hey we'll approve anti-gay messages because we also approved anti-strangers kind of thing and we all know how bad gay people are *nudge nudge wink wink*. Suddenly little johnny is already being told that his or her sexuality has to be this way or he's going to become hitler, grow a mustache, and attempt to convert little boys.
What about black people? Yes sure, we're pc enough as a society to have a flood of cutesy multicultural content but that doesn't mean that censorship wouldn't get in the way anyway. And besides, I find pc stuff all the time that is so pc as to be an offensive generalization again. I mean its hard to toe the line between appreciating diversity and trying to say that diversity doesn't exist. Even if nothing offensive is put in front of kids eyes, who cares? I can still see the flood of lawsuits from liberal groups and pro-hate groups alike.
Lets not forget immigratation. What about those border-hopping mexicans looking for a nice place to work with a decent economic future? We could say many things and influence children in many ways. But hey, lets confuse the issue some more and throw in some stuff that is either so bland and uncontroversial as to not say anything realistic or important or is controversial to one side or the other in such a way as to limit free-speech towards kids.
---The mommies are always right theory---
Lets look at this whole issue in a more simiplified fashion.
My mommy is always right. I know because she told me since I was old enough to understand. And of course, as a kid, you naturally believe your mommy. But if your mommy is always right, and my mommy is always right, what happens if they say stuff that is the opposite of each other?
Your mommy says you should be able to go out with people at the age of 14, whereas my mommy says its a sin before 16.
But dating, a very mild issue really, is not where this theory stops at. What about, gays, black people, immigration, politics, etc etc etc? Don't forget religion. In the end, by creating a space where only "kid" appropriate stuff should be you create a giant question mark.
In a society where free speech and opposite thoughts are allowed, and the parents right to parent as they please is respected, what you are doing is creating a forum for a censor to give what free speech only to those whom the censor finds to be kid appropriate. That means that one mommy will be parenting massive amounts of children in a way that is sure to irritate many or render the whole kids.us domain totally pointless in the first place.
I won't get into commercialism, censorship enforcement issues, etc because it seems that people have already done enough of that.
But it all boils down to this, on all of these controversial issues, deciding whose mommy is right is something that will be done quite a lot and could potentially have a profound impact of this country if many, many kids are given free range to go and do what they please, but only on kids.us domains.
Because I believe kids are so darned impressionable I believe that letting a few mommies decide for the rest of our kids is not something we should choose.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, you haven't because you haven't been looking.
Do a google search on kin selection. There is just one of many theories put forth on why homosexuality is actually something that could have positive results in an model of evolution.
I can't think of any positive benefits of you destroying people's hopes and preventing them from enjoying their lives the way they want to. Wouldn't your energy be better served on some green cause, internet liberation, the next great technological revolution for humanity, or ?
The reason I think you, and others, spend so much time fighting so that other people can't enjoy their lives is because you're so generally inept and such a busybody that you have nothing better that you *could* be doing.
N
Science fiction seems to me to contain a massive element of hope or fascination at what could be. Even when great liberties are taken with scientific theories as they are known to us. Just how is it undignified to use these concepts?
Or, maybe we should just call it generic boring names like "voyager" or "enterprise"? When they named a submarine Nautilus, I, for one, thought that was 'cool'.
No, the only objection I have to the name 'serenity' is that it hails from obviously bad science fiction. Take something from Asimov, or Heinlen, or what have you.
Based on this post, I want to work for you!
--
emphasis added
And, quite frankly, whether you value a cheaper internet or not, your response isn't really apropos and your participation in the discussion has been digressive.
The underlying point I really wanted to make is that I feel a cheap, fast internet is extremely valuable to society as it enables complex content, creative or productive, to be easily shared and communication to occur on many levels. It also allows for cheaper food at walmart, or other large distribution centers and therefore eventually less capital rich markets become acceptable investments and they eventually get to enjoy better access to food, as well.
Why are there African American college clubs, night clubs, or an african american caucus in the U.S. Congress? Why are there minority scholarship funds, minority political action committees, or other minority groups built around a sport? Why is there a hispanic rugby team in my city? Do you think they're shoving their hispanic-ness in your face when they advertise on a board at Wal-mart or in your local newspaper?
The reason why these kinds of organizations exist and why minorities and homosexual people want to gather together is because you're less likely to experience comments like "thats so gay" on the guild channel, you're more likely to be able to talk about things in real life that might hint at your sexuality, and you're more likely to be able to say things like "Oh honey, I just went to an Elton John concert and it was so fabulous." There are also many common things among many of the self-identified and out homosexual people and maybe they want to be closer to those kinds of people.
I ran a GLBT-friendly end-game guild on WoW where I would guess 20% of our members did not identify themselves as heterosexuals. We did not advertise ourselves as GLBT friendly except in one way, you were introduced to our charter before you were given an invite, and it clearly expressed that we would not tolerate discrimination against ethnic groups or homosexual people and that we were friendly to all types of people of all backgrounds, ie we were GLBT friendly. The guild leader in the article takes pains to say that it is not GLBT only. I have known heterosexual people who were attracted to GLBT friendly guilds because they shared a lot of common values that are held by a majority of out GLBT people.
But lets be absolutely clear. She wasn't flaunting a sexual preference or in anyway saying that there is a superior sexual preference. She wasn't shoving her preferences in your face, unlike that stupid Chuck Norris trend, she was advertising a specific thing, a cultural thing. I fear for your ability to reason and be critical when you think that a guild that advertises a specific cultural style is offensive and in your face when they aren't speaking to you directly but on a public channel created for that kind of thing.
No guild I've ever been in or run myself, and I've been gaming for over 11 years, has ever failed to bring in outside dynamics. People talk about getting married, having kids, meeting someone new, dealing with their studies, and how sick they are. When people are social they share parts of themselves that are not totally encapsulated into the game world and it is ridiculous, thoroughly ridiculous, to expect otherwise of the vast majority of guilds.
This cultural aspect of social dynamics means that it is legitimate to want a guild where people will not say "thats so gay" and where you can say, "yeah my sex class is turning out to be quite compelling" when you want a guild that is more accepting of that kind of thing.
Yes and no. It would seem silly, in a way, because it seems thats what most guilds are. You don't have to be really picky to find a guild like that. Finding a straight guild that is not GLBT friendly is like trying to find a white person in a country club, you can close your eyes and still run into one. Also, it wouldn't seem quite inappropriate because a lot of people really, really want to avoid GLBT people and they might go to such lengths just to do so. I think it is the height of ignorance, but I would still support their right to do so.
What about my 250 gigabyte hard drive? I could slap an email server on that and beat this. Also they're charging 150 dollars for 100g a year? I paid less for my hard drive.
Which leads me to my next thought, why not write an open source web interface and buy a static ip for your home (for us nerds) and a domain (most of us already have both), and then throw a hard drive on it (250 gig is affordable.). Put a webserver and the appropriate email server.... A lot of work at first but could be a lot easier to setup via rpm or something. Then you could leave your "server" on all the time and check your email away from home. No ads either.
N
Wow, can't wait till the classic "Jurassic Park" is remade later on in this millenium when you get smells in the movie, too. Maybe, after I've lived for five centuries because of quantum biotechnology, I'll be able to forgive slashdot because I'll have realized that this news item was just ahead of its time, when I go to see the movie utilizing this hot new smelling technology.
Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I see the Star Wars prequels as relatively successful and entertaining. While it has its serious faults, ones which I am quite displeased by, the overall series of movies is spectacular.
I acknowledge the common mistakes, haydenson is not a very good vader, several actors are not doing their best work, jar jar blew, bad dialog, a few stupid plot lines, some bs about midichlorians, on and on. But, with the exception of haydenson, I think these things are all largely forgivable.
Shut your ears to the "science" behind the jedi, let jar jar do what he does best, and that is be a foil for other actors, forgive the bad acting, and you have an entertaining flick.
To me, as a child, the greatest aspect of the star wars movies was the larger than life set of the universe. The huge battles, the lightsabers, the uber jedi, the excitement and anticipation of a large showdown between good and evil, etc. All of this is preserved. The space scenes are fantastic, as are the sets. Everything visual about this movie is just gorgeous to look at. The huge war in Attack of the Clones was breathtaking.
Enter, exhibit A, my little brother. Throughout both movies he was in awe. He was practically jumping out of his seat the whole time. For episode 3, I recommend you look around yourself in the theater at the little kids. Don't you remember doing what they were doing when you saw the movie?
Enter, Exhibit B, the money. The box office money is not coming from bitter fans, don't kid yourself. People are going to see these movies multiple times. You elitists can scoff that its people who don't know any better and who aren't good enough for movies, but thats a steaming pile of excrement. It is families with kids, it is teenagers, and the like in my opinion who are going to this. I enjoy a good drama movie with great acting and good plot, but I also enjoy an action / adventure space-opera. I saw adults getting ultra excited about these movies, too. When I went to watch Attack of the Clones for the *second* time the day it was released in my city, I was waiting in line with other people who had already seen it once. Those people aren't going back to remind themselves of how godawful the movie was. They are going back because they enjoyed it.
Enter, Exhibit C, yoda's fight scene. This was not the only scene that garnered a huge reaction among people in the theater when I saw the movies. But this scene was one of the most engendering. Cat calls, whistles, and general "yo go yoda, kick his ass", were what people said. People were engaged and they remained engaged throughout the scene. When christopher lee chickened out, people boo'd.
I'm glad my brother doesn't read slashdot otherwise he'd be asking me, why do those people not like star wars? And I'd have to explain to him, well some people require science fiction movies with silly and fictional devices to somehow make sense and be these all important dramatic movies. (a la matrix). The mystery of it, was its charm. We were free to imagine why the jedi could do what they did. I think people expect all these answers from the prequels and you aren't going to get them. What you get is set up work for episodes 4-6. And the answers come from *those* movies. You get leia's love of solo, you get a father's love for his son squashing his tyrranical ways, and you get the ultimate control freak (the emporer) to die a horrible death. Freedom and the little guys conquer the large, evil empire of control.
You still get emotional moments from the prequels, the death of anakin's mother, anakin having to leave his mother, the loss of his arm, the rift between anakin and obi wan, etc. I think they're designed to be stress inducing, which they are. The movie successfully makes you feel an impending doom for everyone involved.
The only trully sad thing about the prequels is that there is no equivalent to Harrison Ford. Maybe if they let samuel jackson get a bit more scre
Also interesting is the fact that the winner wins 1 million dollars. I wonder what sort of design budgets these teams have.
My only concern is, is this ESPN2 quality programming or merely cable access?
N
I am a huge proponent of the death penalty for spammers (this is really a joke, I'd settle for just removing their digits so they can't type.) With that being said I would love to find a way to shutdown spam. Here's how I think it has to be done. 1) Education. Educate your mother who buys from spam emails that even though she's getting a discount (or perceived discount) that she's doing so at the detriment of people's time and wasting bandwidth. Explain why bandwidth is important. Bottom line, don't reply, don't buy, and don't encourage spamming. Education stops the motive, and the loss of motive will stop the crime. I would be interested in seeing the trends in terms of how often people respond to spam and if that level of response degrades per user as those users become more net-savvy and gain more experience. 2) Law enforcement and legistlation. I would prefer it if everyone could sue a spammer. Obviously this has to be more carefully thought out because anyone who uses the cc field in an email might be considered a spammer, but I still think that action should be taken quickly and decisively. Possibly an organized investigative body to discover who spammers really are and then to build up incriminating evidence. Then of course to sue their ass out of existence in class action lawsuits with the money going to pay for more investigative work. Also, a heavy against companies. "We know you are utilizing spammers and we don't appreciate it. You have been blacklisted" or some other various things. But what it all amounts to is : money. Control the money, control the problem. And I feel education and law enforcement are some of the few clear ways to do that. Everyone else has basically mentioned in other posts my problems with the method of DoS'ing spam hosts. N
Is a locksmith a criminal? Ie: does knowing how locks work and how they can be broken make a locksmith a criminal? Having an ability to do something evil, does not necessarily translate into malice. Often, those abilities can be used for good, too. Hackers know how computers work and how to break into them using a combination of social engineering and tech skills. It is comparable to hiring a locksmith to design a lock, they know how to break into them, so they have a better idea how to make them unbreakable. N, Whose locked his keys in his car too many times. PS: it sounds like this guy is just buying the stigma of "hackerdom" that some people have.
no anemia
Thanks for the consideration though :)
N
I was also addicated to muds for a very long time, because I needed them for my esteem. The pavlonian response of earning levels, beating your foe, or successfully "teaming" with other people in a clan can be quite addictive. Also that whole numbers/social status thing can do wonders for the ego.
But you brought up what I consider to be a really good point. There is a huge difference between online games and offline games. With online games you can learn to socialize with others if you are not so good at it, as well as improving your sense of self-esteem. I agree, however, that there is a danger in letting yourself get trapped such that only the MUD or MMP-RPG determines your self-value.
So while bowling does bring you in contact with others and possibly improve your dexterity or physical abilities, I still believe that MUDs and MMPRPGs can do good things for one's self-perceptions and social skills. Eventually I was "mature" enough in the online world that I could be a "better" man outside of it.
I used to be one of those annoying little toddlers that would kill-steal, raze, and generally grief others. I morphed into a person who contributed to the mud-community in quite large ammounts, had a significant number of friends, and socialized frequently. Transitioning from mud life to real life was a bit clunky, but some of the very same skills I learned without fear of repudiation in the quasi-social world of muds allowed me to be more mature in the real world and get things relatively right on the first go.
Basically I feel I can blame quite a lot of my successful real-world relationships on my having grown up in the social environments of MUDs.
N
PS: those that are still lost as to what a MUD is, go here for a quick idea. Basically everquest, daoc, etc. are startling similar to MUDs (and are considered by many to be graphical MUDs while MUDs are considered by many to be computerized versions of D&D).
I have a nasty addictive habit of taking scotch tape and chewing on it cause its got just the right amount of resistence. Of course I'm also that weird guy who "eats" his ice after drinking anything. I just like to crunch on things. But its OKAY! because chewing on scotch tape is cheap and it doesn't have calories or leave ugly hard to cleanup sticky residues! So its okay, I mean, in comparison, I could have a lot worse addictions. I could be a hard-core computer gamer, for instance. N
Also it seems quite intimidating to me that these glaciers are melting. I wonder how far they will go before they stop melting and which cities, countries, etc would be "covered" in water etc, as we've already seen flood damage in europe. Not to mention, how does this affect fault lines? I know theres something wrong there *shakes finger like crotchety old man*. I saw "A view to a kill".
Quick, lets all prepare for an apocalypse! :)
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PS: damn, I knew I should have paid more attention to Waterworld.
The thing I wonder is exactly what sort of content will be restricted on these domains? First, lets start off with some controversial topics. Censors can say, hey we'll approve anti-gay messages because we also approved anti-strangers kind of thing and we all know how bad gay people are *nudge nudge wink wink*. Suddenly little johnny is already being told that his or her sexuality has to be this way or he's going to become hitler, grow a mustache, and attempt to convert little boys. What about black people? Yes sure, we're pc enough as a society to have a flood of cutesy multicultural content but that doesn't mean that censorship wouldn't get in the way anyway. And besides, I find pc stuff all the time that is so pc as to be an offensive generalization again. I mean its hard to toe the line between appreciating diversity and trying to say that diversity doesn't exist. Even if nothing offensive is put in front of kids eyes, who cares? I can still see the flood of lawsuits from liberal groups and pro-hate groups alike. Lets not forget immigratation. What about those border-hopping mexicans looking for a nice place to work with a decent economic future? We could say many things and influence children in many ways. But hey, lets confuse the issue some more and throw in some stuff that is either so bland and uncontroversial as to not say anything realistic or important or is controversial to one side or the other in such a way as to limit free-speech towards kids. ---The mommies are always right theory--- Lets look at this whole issue in a more simiplified fashion. My mommy is always right. I know because she told me since I was old enough to understand. And of course, as a kid, you naturally believe your mommy. But if your mommy is always right, and my mommy is always right, what happens if they say stuff that is the opposite of each other? Your mommy says you should be able to go out with people at the age of 14, whereas my mommy says its a sin before 16. But dating, a very mild issue really, is not where this theory stops at. What about, gays, black people, immigration, politics, etc etc etc? Don't forget religion. In the end, by creating a space where only "kid" appropriate stuff should be you create a giant question mark. In a society where free speech and opposite thoughts are allowed, and the parents right to parent as they please is respected, what you are doing is creating a forum for a censor to give what free speech only to those whom the censor finds to be kid appropriate. That means that one mommy will be parenting massive amounts of children in a way that is sure to irritate many or render the whole kids.us domain totally pointless in the first place. I won't get into commercialism, censorship enforcement issues, etc because it seems that people have already done enough of that. But it all boils down to this, on all of these controversial issues, deciding whose mommy is right is something that will be done quite a lot and could potentially have a profound impact of this country if many, many kids are given free range to go and do what they please, but only on kids.us domains. Because I believe kids are so darned impressionable I believe that letting a few mommies decide for the rest of our kids is not something we should choose.