Keep your judgements to yourself. Many people believe getting high one way or another is the purpose of life.
LS
Re:A bone to pick with the dept.
on
Indecision 2002
·
· Score: 2
You definitely fit in with your opinion. "If everyone thought like you" is a generic response I've heard dozens of times to skeptics of voting. The individual vote DOES NOT matter (except in rare corner cases where the difference is one vote, but if you based your actions on corner cases then you should spend all your money on lottery tickets). The group does matter, but you as an individual ARE NOT the group (unless you believe in some sort of group-think). So you can lie to yourself and and think your vote matters, just so you can avoid the wrath of the 99.999% who call non-voters cynics.
Now for really affecting an election, why don't you try activism or running for office? It gives you the opportunity to influence the group.
I realize the irony of my post - my vote doesn't matter, but my prosteletizing that it doesn't matter actualy does matter, because I may convince a number of people not to vote. You see, the whole thing is not as simple as you think. The system is a feedback loop with many variables, and the vote is a one dimensional slice of it. And your vote is one point on that slice.
I don't understand why everyone has so much difficulty with spam. Ever since my yahoo mail got deluged, I abandoned it and set up another account. I only gave it out ONLY to my friends/family (about 60 people in my address book right now), and no one else. I keep another mail alias for online purchases and other sites where I MUST give a real mail address. If my alias address starts getting spam, then I will simply redirect it to it's own folder instead of my inbox, then start using a new one. But I'm very selective about whom I purchase from on the net (read: no porn).
Easily categorizable "humor" is a waste of time for those who's age is in the double digits. The category for your humor would be "misinterpreting a word to be that of an inferior sort, and responding with a straight face". Next time, review your jokes before you post them. Now move on, son...
And what's this "you" vs. "us" shit? In this free country, taxpayers are entitled to their American education and "favors" (?) regardless if they have a "moral stance as bad as Hitler's". It's the Wahabbi that take away your rights if they don't like your opinion, not a democracy with a supposed right to free speech.
Your statement is the same braindead rhetoric I've heard repeatedly in response to those against Iraqi sanctions.
In saying that the people of Iraq want to live in the conditions they do, and that you would do something differently if you were there, says to me that you are either an extraordinary activist/freedom fighter/Arnold Schwarzenegger/death wish type hero, or a fucking liar.
If you believe that FIVE THOUSAND CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF FIVE deserve to die EACH MONTH because of a couple of thicked headed assholes in Iraq AND America, then you are a thick headed asshole. Have some compasion. Nitwit.
"an attacker with physical access already has you owned"
I usually feel a superiority complex when it comes to the "humor" and "wit" that normally accompany the average slashdot text, but this one has me stumped... Is this a really an old adage? Or is it some semi-subtle joke, using the relatively new term "owned" and calling a phrase with its usage an "old adage"?
The concept of the singularity is an obvious analogy to the black hole, except with an infinite density of technology instead of mass. With a black hole, there is a feedback loop, with gravity pulling particles closer together, therefore increasing gravity, which then pulls them even closer together, and so on. With technology, the feedback loop is that of building technology to enhance humanity, whom then can build even better technology to enhance humanity further, leading to some state of divine catharsis, where "technology is indistinguishable from magic", quoth Arthur C. Clarke. Or where the boundries of reality break.
Whether this analogy works is the question. Transhumans speak of technology and "advancement" as if it is some kind of measurable substance, like phlogiston.
I like to think of humanity's future more in terms of currently observable animal phenomenon, considering our great similarities to other fauna. For instance, take the humble Dictyostelium discoideum. These amoebae will live on their own, foraging for food. Once it becomes scarce, they signal each other, and come together as one. They form into a vehicle, a slug, and move to another food source. Then some amoebae sacrifice themselves to form a solid stalk, which the rest of the amoebae climb to the top of. They form a spore, which then explodes and scatters all over the food, allowing them to forage as individuals, once again. Read more here
Considering that as technology gets more powerful more and more people will have the ability to destroy the human race with a flip of a switch, there will have to be some survival mechanism [see above] in which we can scatter ourselves across the [solar system/galaxy/universe/multiverse/spiritual sky] to assure our survival.
Technology like the internet brings us closer together as one. For those of you who experiment with psychedelics, you may or may not already know that telepathy is possible, so the nature of humanity coming together doesn't necessarily have to be only technological. In fact, boundries are simply models we place on the world to understand it, and we're all together in a big mush anyway, we just don't realize it. Maybe technology and religion aren't that different...
at those who are up in arms about this. TV is mostly shitty, it's not forced on you, and yet it still defines reality for most people by selectively pushing ways of thought that stimulate the libido, and leaving out specific ways of life and thought and break the status quo. Those of you who think I'm full of shit and don't believe that TV is a brainwashing tool are brainwashed. There are infinite things to do in this life. I hope you aren't pulled into a vortex of despair when you find out you spent most of it in front of a glowing brainwashing box.
Since the early 90's, electronic music in conjunction with smallish underground gatherings and hallucinogenic/euphoric drugs has spawned a shock of creative music and new attitudes.
There is a lot of "skillful" electronic music out there, but then there is music that is taken to the next level. The amazingly intricate sounds these artists make indicates to me that the complicated machinery between the mind and the media has become transparent to them:
Hallucinogen - Twisted Orb - Orbus Terrerum Towa Tei - Future Listening Fantastic Plastic Machine - Fantastic Plastic Machine Saafi Brothers - Mystic Cigarettes Cortex Burn - Dark Ritual [a song, not an album] Goa Gil - Kosmokrator [DJ Mix] Tromesa - Psuedomental Shpongle - Are You Sphongled? Nortec Collective - The Tijuana Sessions vol. 1 Koxbox - Dragon Tales Rip Van Hippy - Waking Up Is Hard To Do X-Dream - Radio
The reason this question has not been settled unanimously is because it is a flawed question. "Life", just like any other definition, such as "America" or "body" or "good" is just a definition. There there a true "essence" that defines "life" to make it absolute. Some consider the entire earth to be a living organism (Gaia). Some consider the entire universe to be an organism (God). Some consider nothing to be alive, but just atomic processes exhibiting emergent phenomena, and the definition of life is an arbitrary boundry.
There is not an absolute definition of life... We are asking to define life by deciding whether a virus is alive or not.
Yes, I agree that the government is here as a means and not an end. But I think you take the phrase "day-to-day" too literally. There are very few administrative tasks for a country of 300 million people that take only one day or one person to accomplish, and thus require planning.
And I also think you are making a mistake when you say "plan the lives". In this case they would not be planning lives, they would be planning resource management. It's not the same thing.
But I do agree with your general sentiment. Our government does have more power in certain places than it should, and they meddle too much with personal freedoms.
So don't "throw the baby out with the bath water". Just because we don't want an oppresive government doesn't mean we shouldn't plan and manage a limited resource (oil/energy) that drives civilization as we know it, and if misused can cause the destruction of man kind.
I would have to fully agree that this is the most beautiful experiment as defined. For those of you who are clueless about the two slit experiment, here are a couple of sites that describe it. They both have pretty pictures too:
Yes they can prevent it. I wrote a script to browse google's cache, and they somehow detected it and disallow my IP from running it. But I can still query through the browser.
Re:It was gonna happen eventually
on
Loki Games Closing?
·
· Score: -1, Troll
Brainiac: Do you really think cheap games is the killer app that will drag down the Windows monopoly and bring users to Linux?
The recent trend is to rate poorly argued points as trolls. For instance, someone will make a statement without much thought, but is serious in all respects, and gets moderated up. When someone else comes along and smashes this person's argument, the first poster then gets marked as a troll.
This moderation behavior serves to stifle dialog and downplay any positive points the first poster made.
Remember, a troll is post which attempts to illicit responses from others under the pretense of discussing the issue at hand, not a poor argument.
Never consider Slashdot editors unbiased, ESPECIALLY when it comes to stories about products. I'm 100% positive this story was paid for by SonicBlue. Where do you think Slashdot gets their revenue? Ad Clickthrus????
Limewire is GNU licensed, and therefore open source. If you have a problem with spyware, then roll your own version. I don't even think the source code has the spyware, so all you have to do is compile. Now as for other closed source software that doesn't tell the user of it's misdeeds - I can't defend that.
Wow, one of the more interesting comments I've seen on Slashdot.
I would partially disagree with you though. When a mountain climber dies, and composts into the mountain, is he still more significant than the mountain? What I am saying is that you make a false distinction between man and nature. Recent debates on cloning have revealed the illusion of a division between the living and the dead. The same universal fabric and "laws" apply to both stars and scientists. Do remember that every molecule in your body was generated by fusion in the center of a star.
Beyond this, I'm still up in the air as to whether the human pattern is powerful enough to continue growth indefinitely. Will we eventually harness entire galaxy clusters for energy? This is a lot of hubris and a long way from using ropes to get to the top of a mountain.
Lastly, I can somewhat see your point, if you mean by reducing stars to images, that the universe is really generated and reduce in our minds, and nothing exists explicitly until we make it so. In this case some would equate humans to lesser gods.
There seems to be an incongruity here. Hacking is usually associated with computers and mechanical things unless it involves fraternity-type pranks executed by MIT engineering students. Someone clarify please.
Slashdot Mirror
Keep your judgements to yourself. Many people believe getting high one way or another is the purpose of life.
LS
You definitely fit in with your opinion. "If everyone thought like you" is a generic response I've heard dozens of times to skeptics of voting. The individual vote DOES NOT matter (except in rare corner cases where the difference is one vote, but if you based your actions on corner cases then you should spend all your money on lottery tickets). The group does matter, but you as an individual ARE NOT the group (unless you believe in some sort of group-think). So you can lie to yourself and and think your vote matters, just so you can avoid the wrath of the 99.999% who call non-voters cynics.
Now for really affecting an election, why don't you try activism or running for office? It gives you the opportunity to influence the group.
I realize the irony of my post - my vote doesn't matter, but my prosteletizing that it doesn't matter actualy does matter, because I may convince a number of people not to vote. You see, the whole thing is not as simple as you think. The system is a feedback loop with many variables, and the vote is a one dimensional slice of it. And your vote is one point on that slice.
LS
I don't understand why everyone has so much difficulty with spam. Ever since my yahoo mail got deluged, I abandoned it and set up another account. I only gave it out ONLY to my friends/family (about 60 people in my address book right now), and no one else. I keep another mail alias for online purchases and other sites where I MUST give a real mail address. If my alias address starts getting spam, then I will simply redirect it to it's own folder instead of my inbox, then start using a new one. But I'm very selective about whom I purchase from on the net (read: no porn).
I haven't received any spam in over a year.
Ellis
I thought NP meant Not Particularly. duh
Easily categorizable "humor" is a waste of time for those who's age is in the double digits. The category for your humor would be "misinterpreting a word to be that of an inferior sort, and responding with a straight face". Next time, review your jokes before you post them. Now move on, son...
And what's this "you" vs. "us" shit? In this free country, taxpayers are entitled to their American education and "favors" (?) regardless if they have a "moral stance as bad as Hitler's". It's the Wahabbi that take away your rights if they don't like your opinion, not a democracy with a supposed right to free speech.
Your statement is the same braindead rhetoric I've heard repeatedly in response to those against Iraqi sanctions.
In saying that the people of Iraq want to live in the conditions they do, and that you would do something differently if you were there, says to me that you are either an extraordinary activist/freedom fighter/Arnold Schwarzenegger/death wish type hero, or a fucking liar.
If you believe that FIVE THOUSAND CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF FIVE deserve to die EACH MONTH because of a couple of thicked headed assholes in Iraq AND America, then you are a thick headed asshole. Have some compasion. Nitwit.
LS
"an attacker with physical access already has you owned"
I usually feel a superiority complex when it comes to the "humor" and "wit" that normally accompany the average slashdot text, but this one has me stumped... Is this a really an old adage? Or is it some semi-subtle joke, using the relatively new term "owned" and calling a phrase with its usage an "old adage"?
The concept of the singularity is an obvious analogy to the black hole, except with an infinite density of technology instead of mass. With a black hole, there is a feedback loop, with gravity pulling particles closer together, therefore increasing gravity, which then pulls them even closer together, and so on. With technology, the feedback loop is that of building technology to enhance humanity, whom then can build even better technology to enhance humanity further, leading to some state of divine catharsis, where "technology is indistinguishable from magic", quoth Arthur C. Clarke. Or where the boundries of reality break.
Whether this analogy works is the question. Transhumans speak of technology and "advancement" as if it is some kind of measurable substance, like phlogiston.
I like to think of humanity's future more in terms of currently observable animal phenomenon, considering our great similarities to other fauna. For instance, take the humble Dictyostelium discoideum. These amoebae will live on their own, foraging for food. Once it becomes scarce, they signal each other, and come together as one. They form into a vehicle, a slug, and move to another food source. Then some amoebae sacrifice themselves to form a solid stalk, which the rest of the amoebae climb to the top of. They form a spore, which then explodes and scatters all over the food, allowing them to forage as individuals, once again. Read more here
Considering that as technology gets more powerful more and more people will have the ability to destroy the human race with a flip of a switch, there will have to be some survival mechanism [see above] in which we can scatter ourselves across the [solar system/galaxy/universe/multiverse/spiritual sky] to assure our survival.
Technology like the internet brings us closer together as one. For those of you who experiment with psychedelics, you may or may not already know that telepathy is possible, so the nature of humanity coming together doesn't necessarily have to be only technological. In fact, boundries are simply models we place on the world to understand it, and we're all together in a big mush anyway, we just don't realize it. Maybe technology and religion aren't that different...
peace out
LS
at those who are up in arms about this. TV is mostly shitty, it's not forced on you, and yet it still defines reality for most people by selectively pushing ways of thought that stimulate the libido, and leaving out specific ways of life and thought and break the status quo. Those of you who think I'm full of shit and don't believe that TV is a brainwashing tool are brainwashed. There are infinite things to do in this life. I hope you aren't pulled into a vortex of despair when you find out you spent most of it in front of a glowing brainwashing box.
LS
oK, it's in quotes, so don't freak out.
Since the early 90's, electronic music in conjunction with smallish underground gatherings and hallucinogenic/euphoric drugs has spawned a shock of creative music and new attitudes.
There is a lot of "skillful" electronic music out there, but then there is music that is taken to the next level. The amazingly intricate sounds these artists make indicates to me that the complicated machinery between the mind and the media has become transparent to them:
Hallucinogen - Twisted
Orb - Orbus Terrerum
Towa Tei - Future Listening
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Fantastic Plastic Machine
Saafi Brothers - Mystic Cigarettes
Cortex Burn - Dark Ritual [a song, not an album]
Goa Gil - Kosmokrator [DJ Mix]
Tromesa - Psuedomental
Shpongle - Are You Sphongled?
Nortec Collective - The Tijuana Sessions vol. 1
Koxbox - Dragon Tales
Rip Van Hippy - Waking Up Is Hard To Do
X-Dream - Radio
LS
The reason this question has not been settled unanimously is because it is a flawed question. "Life", just like any other definition, such as "America" or "body" or "good" is just a definition. There there a true "essence" that defines "life" to make it absolute. Some consider the entire earth to be a living organism (Gaia). Some consider the entire universe to be an organism (God). Some consider nothing to be alive, but just atomic processes exhibiting emergent phenomena, and the definition of life is an arbitrary boundry.
There is not an absolute definition of life... We are asking to define life by deciding whether a virus is alive or not.
LS
Yes, I agree that the government is here as a means and not an end. But I think you take the phrase "day-to-day" too literally. There are very few administrative tasks for a country of 300 million people that take only one day or one person to accomplish, and thus require planning.
And I also think you are making a mistake when you say "plan the lives". In this case they would not be planning lives, they would be planning resource management. It's not the same thing.
But I do agree with your general sentiment. Our government does have more power in certain places than it should, and they meddle too much with personal freedoms.
So don't "throw the baby out with the bath water". Just because we don't want an oppresive government doesn't mean we shouldn't plan and manage a limited resource (oil/energy) that drives civilization as we know it, and if misused can cause the destruction of man kind.
LS
I would have to fully agree that this is the most beautiful experiment as defined. For those of you who are clueless about the two slit experiment, here are a couple of sites that describe it. They both have pretty pictures too:
4 23 / pd.html
f in t.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/7
http://rugth30.phys.rug.nl/quantummechanics/dif
Yes they can prevent it. I wrote a script to browse google's cache, and they somehow detected it and disallow my IP from running it. But I can still query through the browser.
Brainiac: Do you really think cheap games is the killer app that will drag down the Windows monopoly and bring users to Linux?
Moderation is worthless these days
A note to moderators:
The recent trend is to rate poorly argued points as trolls. For instance, someone will make a statement without much thought, but is serious in all respects, and gets moderated up. When someone else comes along and smashes this person's argument, the first poster then gets marked as a troll.
This moderation behavior serves to stifle dialog and downplay any positive points the first poster made.
Remember, a troll is post which attempts to illicit responses from others under the pretense of discussing the issue at hand, not a poor argument.
LS
Someone please moderate this as informative.
You're not a very good hoax sniffer, are you? This is real. Do a little more research before crying wolf.
Geniuses:
Never consider Slashdot editors unbiased, ESPECIALLY when it comes to stories about products. I'm 100% positive this story was paid for by SonicBlue. Where do you think Slashdot gets their revenue? Ad Clickthrus????
LS
Limewire is GNU licensed, and therefore open source. If you have a problem with spyware, then roll your own version. I don't even think the source code has the spyware, so all you have to do is compile. Now as for other closed source software that doesn't tell the user of it's misdeeds - I can't defend that.
LS
Wow, one of the more interesting comments I've seen on Slashdot.
I would partially disagree with you though. When a mountain climber dies, and composts into the mountain, is he still more significant than the mountain? What I am saying is that you make a false distinction between man and nature. Recent debates on cloning have revealed the illusion of a division between the living and the dead. The same universal fabric and "laws" apply to both stars and scientists. Do remember that every molecule in your body was generated by fusion in the center of a star.
Beyond this, I'm still up in the air as to whether the human pattern is powerful enough to continue growth indefinitely. Will we eventually harness entire galaxy clusters for energy? This is a lot of hubris and a long way from using ropes to get to the top of a mountain.
Lastly, I can somewhat see your point, if you mean by reducing stars to images, that the universe is really generated and reduce in our minds, and nothing exists explicitly until we make it so. In this case some would equate humans to lesser gods.
LS
It was sarcastic, but I guess no one caught it.
PLEASE someone with moderator privileges mod this down! As has been said, this is a review by Ebert.
There seems to be an incongruity here. Hacking is usually associated with computers and mechanical things unless it involves fraternity-type pranks executed by MIT engineering students. Someone clarify please.
LS