I agree with all of your first paragraph. It could be better for startups etc. We're getting an increasing amount of sportsmen with Learjets and open source entrepreneurs selling companies to Sun, but so what? I still get a warmer feeling knowing more people can "make it" on a smaller scale. So I disagree with your second paragraph. Facilitating a few people making it filthy rich isn't worth it. Not everyone can be a millionaire, but we can make university free for everyone.
We don't have the cult of the self-made millionaire. Personally I'm pretty happy where I am and don't feel a need to "rise up" to earn more. I skip chances to go into management and prefer to do tech stuff.
Of your third paragraph, I agree with some as being "problems", like the holocaust denial case. Every country has it's sore points, like race in the US. You wouldn't suffer some of the wonkies we have. I love your point about political parties, though. How much actual freedom of choice do you have in that regard? Will your vote matter if you vote for a 3rd party? You have lots of nominal freedoms, but the system robs you of choice. A US single mom may have freedom to choose her job, but she has to work two jobs night and day to support her family. You can vote any party you want, but if it's not one of two it is totally meaningless. It's not the government doing the shafting, but some people are really getting it.
You've yet to convince me I'm lacking something you have.:) Oh, and how much are you paying for medical insurance? I've met Americans with double insurance to make sure they are covered. I don't need any. My wife's friend is paying about $15K to give birth in the US. We paid nothing to have our baby in a world class hospital.
I won't dispute the fact that the US is more effective in drawing in the best and brightest. However:
- Immigration is a strange measure of freedom - like it applies to people outside the country. While it isn't difficult for whiz-kids to enter the US. How about unskilled laborers and political refugees? Should we also discuss how the US has historically "promoted" freedom internationally?
- There are European countries that don't have tuition fees. At any level of education. This applies to foreign students, too.
I don't need to bash the US, because the US is still it's own biggest critic. This is the sign of a free country. The critics haven't been totally marginalized yet.
Having said that, as an European I can't help wonder why American culture is so obsessed with "freedom" and "liberty". I've yet to see what you've got we don't. Where is this obsession coming from? Perhaps you can help me here.
But since you asked, I do have more freedoms, more rights and more privacy. Let me name certain areas. My employer cannot read my email or monitor my Internet usage. I'm free to join my family after 8 hours of work, and cannot be penalized if I refuse to do overtime. Meanwhile Americans have corporations employing spies and using underhanded tactics to monitor their employees. Sure many Americans are "free" to walk out after 8 hours but they'd get fired for it.
Please write me off now for being a jealous penniless pinko weeny with an inferiority complex.
I won't disagree, but consider that there are countries topping international comparisons that also have 40-50% divorce rates. I guess this has to do with more government support for single parents, meaning they don't have to work two jobs to maintain a decent standard of living.
Refactoring makes most sense in XP/Agile/$buzzword development where the code has good unit test coverage and continous integration. When you commit the refactored code it's immediately unit tested. If it passes you know it's not broken.
Caveat being you've got good tests.:)
Of course it can be "tweaked" - if there is a vulnerability in a web application or an Internet-accessible service. Like the grandparent, for a moment I was worried there was a vulnerability in the LA[M|P]P stack or a particular CMS. Not so. In this case it was a vulnerability in Microsoft MDAC. It's pretty trivial to exploit old vulnerabilities, so the main newsworthy part here is that there are so many unpatched systems.
Fuel consumption - true, pollution - debatable. Most bikes don't have catalytic converters so they produce proportionally more pollutants.
A swiss study concluded 'motorcycles collectively emit 16 times more hydrocarbons, three times more carbon monoxide and a "disproportionately high" amount of other air pollutants compared to passenger cars' though it has also been disputed.
I bought an old Cisco 2900XL for home use/playing around but had to relegate it to testing only because of the fan noise. At work the new models are just about the same.
Which begs the question why the US president has so much power. Not only does the president already have an IMHO disproportional amount of say on things, it's incredible how Bush has been using signing statements to override whatever legislation he dislikes. Just Google it.
That's just you rejecting an unsettling proposition to feel more comfortable.
Explain to me how are educated free-will people doing in foreign countries killing other human beings, if it's not the swarm/hive programming telling them it's the right thing to do.
If you start on that path: any "ism", and "hackers" would include - Lenin - McCarthy
You know, to people from some parts the ritual of swearing an oath of allegiance to a flag is a quite sinister form of programming. Who's hacking who there? That's right, nobody. It's swarm behaviour to enforce swarm cohesion.
We all are programmed to take some things for granted, on which we base our interpretation of the world outside ourselves. Travel is great because interacting with others exposes many of your own "programs" that you'd otherwise never call to question. It seems to me the Internet doesn't seem to do that for some reason, despite the crosscontinental interaction.
Radiohead chose not to rather than "refused". This release method means they are not indentured to a record company or distributor. They have very little overheads so most of the cash is straight in their pockets. On top of that they such a big band that regardless of the legit/illegit download ratio the actual volume of legit downloads probably means they are getting good returns. It would be a better measure of the release to compare how much more or less do they pocket out of this album than their previous one.
The guy in a previous post just said he bought the $80 physical version, but maybe it's what you define as a "major store". I found the online purchase very convenient. It took a couple of minutes to fill in the forms. I didn't rush to download the album on the 10th, so I had no problems downloading the album. I don't want any part in iTunes so it was as convenient as it can get for me.
Yup, paying for playing broadcast music is standard EU practice. In Finland taxi drivers have to turn off the radio when a client enters the vehicle, unless they're paying the local copyright agency. Same goes for shops and other public venues.
Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes.
How is a shortcoming of this software a shortcoming of Linux? You may be right to say there is no combined im/VOIP/video conferencing suites for Linux. Sounds strange to me, though. Perhaps you can make a feature request for Pidgin.
True. My wife made me install Linux over BSD when I got married. She couldn't cope with the attention I was getting.
I miss the chilled attitude of the BSD people like Theo.
Thanks for a very cogent post. I'd just like to point out that both the photographer and Virgin published the photo. The former just published it on Flickr, and not for profit. IANAL, but based on the Wikipedia article I assume any kind of publishing requires a release.
It's even sadder that in true Slashdot style this thread has turned into a political-historical debate about the pros and cons of socialism, which is totally irrelevant to the actual topic. The whole socialism debate should be modded redundant. Slashdot modders need to think about the subject of the story a bit, not just mod something up/down depending on their point of view.
Just couldn't resist to mount your favourite hobby horse, could you? Kenya is not a socialist country. It was as single party state before and is still corrupt, but has had a capitalist system with free private enterprise for decades.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with all of your first paragraph. It could be better for startups etc. We're getting an increasing amount of sportsmen with Learjets and open source entrepreneurs selling companies to Sun, but so what? I still get a warmer feeling knowing more people can "make it" on a smaller scale. So I disagree with your second paragraph. Facilitating a few people making it filthy rich isn't worth it. Not everyone can be a millionaire, but we can make university free for everyone.
:) Oh, and how much are you paying for medical insurance? I've met Americans with double insurance to make sure they are covered. I don't need any. My wife's friend is paying about $15K to give birth in the US. We paid nothing to have our baby in a world class hospital.
We don't have the cult of the self-made millionaire. Personally I'm pretty happy where I am and don't feel a need to "rise up" to earn more. I skip chances to go into management and prefer to do tech stuff.
Of your third paragraph, I agree with some as being "problems", like the holocaust denial case. Every country has it's sore points, like race in the US. You wouldn't suffer some of the wonkies we have. I love your point about political parties, though. How much actual freedom of choice do you have in that regard? Will your vote matter if you vote for a 3rd party? You have lots of nominal freedoms, but the system robs you of choice. A US single mom may have freedom to choose her job, but she has to work two jobs night and day to support her family. You can vote any party you want, but if it's not one of two it is totally meaningless. It's not the government doing the shafting, but some people are really getting it.
You've yet to convince me I'm lacking something you have.
I won't dispute the fact that the US is more effective in drawing in the best and brightest. However: - Immigration is a strange measure of freedom - like it applies to people outside the country. While it isn't difficult for whiz-kids to enter the US. How about unskilled laborers and political refugees? Should we also discuss how the US has historically "promoted" freedom internationally? - There are European countries that don't have tuition fees. At any level of education. This applies to foreign students, too.
I don't need to bash the US, because the US is still it's own biggest critic. This is the sign of a free country. The critics haven't been totally marginalized yet.
Having said that, as an European I can't help wonder why American culture is so obsessed with "freedom" and "liberty". I've yet to see what you've got we don't. Where is this obsession coming from? Perhaps you can help me here.
But since you asked, I do have more freedoms, more rights and more privacy. Let me name certain areas. My employer cannot read my email or monitor my Internet usage. I'm free to join my family after 8 hours of work, and cannot be penalized if I refuse to do overtime. Meanwhile Americans have corporations employing spies and using underhanded tactics to monitor their employees. Sure many Americans are "free" to walk out after 8 hours but they'd get fired for it.
Please write me off now for being a jealous penniless pinko weeny with an inferiority complex.
I won't disagree, but consider that there are countries topping international comparisons that also have 40-50% divorce rates. I guess this has to do with more government support for single parents, meaning they don't have to work two jobs to maintain a decent standard of living.
Refactoring makes most sense in XP/Agile/$buzzword development where the code has good unit test coverage and continous integration. When you commit the refactored code it's immediately unit tested. If it passes you know it's not broken. Caveat being you've got good tests. :)
Of course it can be "tweaked" - if there is a vulnerability in a web application or an Internet-accessible service. Like the grandparent, for a moment I was worried there was a vulnerability in the LA[M|P]P stack or a particular CMS. Not so. In this case it was a vulnerability in Microsoft MDAC. It's pretty trivial to exploit old vulnerabilities, so the main newsworthy part here is that there are so many unpatched systems.
Fuel consumption - true, pollution - debatable. Most bikes don't have catalytic converters so they produce proportionally more pollutants.
A swiss study concluded 'motorcycles collectively emit 16 times more hydrocarbons, three times more carbon monoxide and a "disproportionately high" amount of other air pollutants compared to passenger cars' though it has also been disputed.
I bought an old Cisco 2900XL for home use/playing around but had to relegate it to testing only because of the fan noise. At work the new models are just about the same.
A Cisco router creates 43-57 dBA, equivalent to a TV set blaring constantly one meter away. Four full height racks implies quite a few boxes, too. Not a good working environment.
Which begs the question why the US president has so much power. Not only does the president already have an IMHO disproportional amount of say on things, it's incredible how Bush has been using signing statements to override whatever legislation he dislikes. Just Google it.
"job or commission" - as a kickback for giving them ~50k customers? That's how I read it anyway.
Be good consumers and spend your money like previous generations used to.
Kids these days spend their money on MMORPGs or whatever, instead of LPs and CDs.
That's just you rejecting an unsettling proposition to feel more comfortable.
Explain to me how are educated free-will people doing in foreign countries killing other human beings, if it's not the swarm/hive programming telling them it's the right thing to do.
If you start on that path: any "ism", and "hackers" would include
- Lenin
- McCarthy
You know, to people from some parts the ritual of swearing an oath of allegiance to a flag is a quite sinister form of programming. Who's hacking who there? That's right, nobody. It's swarm behaviour to enforce swarm cohesion.
We all are programmed to take some things for granted, on which we base our interpretation of the world outside ourselves. Travel is great because interacting with others exposes many of your own "programs" that you'd otherwise never call to question. It seems to me the Internet doesn't seem to do that for some reason, despite the crosscontinental interaction.
HTML is not a programming language, interpreted or otherwise. It's a formatting language not unlike a typesetting language.
Radiohead chose not to rather than "refused". This release method means they are not indentured to a record company or distributor. They have very little overheads so most of the cash is straight in their pockets. On top of that they such a big band that regardless of the legit/illegit download ratio the actual volume of legit downloads probably means they are getting good returns. It would be a better measure of the release to compare how much more or less do they pocket out of this album than their previous one.
The guy in a previous post just said he bought the $80 physical version, but maybe it's what you define as a "major store". I found the online purchase very convenient. It took a couple of minutes to fill in the forms. I didn't rush to download the album on the 10th, so I had no problems downloading the album. I don't want any part in iTunes so it was as convenient as it can get for me.
Did you see the USB humping dogs? Those really blew me away.
Yup, paying for playing broadcast music is standard EU practice. In Finland taxi drivers have to turn off the radio when a client enters the vehicle, unless they're paying the local copyright agency. Same goes for shops and other public venues.
Never having used that software, I had a look at http://www.pidgin.im/about/. It says
Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes.
How is a shortcoming of this software a shortcoming of Linux? You may be right to say there is no combined im/VOIP/video conferencing suites for Linux. Sounds strange to me, though. Perhaps you can make a feature request for Pidgin.
Hey, it's the ghost of Truman coming back from the 50s.
*prepares Dispell Ghost of Truman spell*
Begone! The Cold War is over! Your rhetoric rings hollow with no potency or power to incite passion. Begone and take your empty words with you!
Dude, you must invoke the Words of Might "Terrorist", "Microsoft", "patents" or maybe "emacs" to get a reaction here.
Errmm... Good points right up to the last sentence. The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons sent to Iraq.
True. My wife made me install Linux over BSD when I got married. She couldn't cope with the attention I was getting. I miss the chilled attitude of the BSD people like Theo.
I don't know what he is basing this crap on, like that Linus thinks Linux shouldn't go mainstream. Linus works for the Linux foundation that "promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms."
Next article, please.
Thanks for a very cogent post. I'd just like to point out that both the photographer and Virgin published the photo. The former just published it on Flickr, and not for profit. IANAL, but based on the Wikipedia article I assume any kind of publishing requires a release.
It's even sadder that in true Slashdot style this thread has turned into a political-historical debate about the pros and cons of socialism, which is totally irrelevant to the actual topic. The whole socialism debate should be modded redundant. Slashdot modders need to think about the subject of the story a bit, not just mod something up/down depending on their point of view.
Just couldn't resist to mount your favourite hobby horse, could you? Kenya is not a socialist country. It was as single party state before and is still corrupt, but has had a capitalist system with free private enterprise for decades.