I metamoderate negative mods mostly as fair because most people mark them unfair.
So you are ignoring the moderation instructions about promoting instead of demoting just because you're a contrarian? You are supporting the person who moderates as redundant the first five comments in a thread that he disagrees with. You are supporting the moderators-on-crack. Congratulations.
BTW I meta mod often
So do I. However, I try to put a little thought into it. I take a serious look at down mods, especially redundant mods, which are often just from moderation cowards with an agenda.
Its about perspective. I imagine that if Linus T was making a few billion each year, some of you lot might just be up in arms.
I can't figure out what you're replying to, but your perspective seems wobbly and short-sighted at best. If Linus were making billions per year on the back of Linux, there would be no Linux, hence no billions . ..
Something more believable and fear-inducing, such as falsified terrorist threats and terrorist attacks might do it.
Yeah, like today's romp through DC security by two staff halloweenists that had all the channels screaming for hours about a terrorist attack. We are just as gullible now as people were then.
The Martian Government has determined that the people of Earth are harboring biological weapons. Prepare to be liberated.
Please. There is no centralized "Martian" government, and please use the correct name, Barsoom. Everyone should remain calm. I have word from Captain Carter that everything is under control, and we have nothing to fear . . . except maybe from those *red* Barsoomians.
But, it hasn't accomplished anything other than being uber-cool and a nice platform for other experiments. But we haven't had any major impacts from work done there.
My first point would be that the ISS is still under construction - it is a work in progress. Another problem is that the ISS is underfunded and understaffed. It was running with one-half the ideal staff before the shuttle disaster. All the staff had time for was maintenance and a very few experiments. The shuttle was designed with a space station in mind, and one byproduct (of the shuttle) is the SRTM data from the shuttle radar mission. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it's the most accurate elevation data we have of many portions of Earth. It's being used by firefighters now in California, and it's a big deal to many scientists in several fields. I'd guess there have been other related advances in other fields like robotics and materials science as well.
Colonizing other worlds could also reap mining benefits, etc. But we're a long way from there right now . ..
Agreed, but Columbus was a long way from the new world while his ships were being built. We need a staging point before we can travel, and I'll bet on the ISS before the *space elevator*.
We're certainly not going to offload all our excess population to another planet.
Agreed. It will be for explorers and small groups of colonists with a reason to leave, just like the colonists on this planet, and once they leave, we are no longer confined. Oh well, sorry to be so long-winded, I'm an admitted advocate.:)
I would really like to see this go to court. Not only for the satisfaction of seeing SCO get smashed by an elephant, but also to see how the GPL will shake out in the courts.
Normally I'd be rooting for the underdog rather than the elephant. I want to see SCO get whacked because they're lying theives, and at least in this case, IBM is right.
I've been often asked by friends and others just why it is we send people to space anyway. . . But I have a hard time coming up with things that we've discovered because a person actually went along . . . Can anyone here name some?
How about building an inhabitable platform in space? I don't suppose you've heard of the ISS. As usual, stuff happened, and it took real people to make things fit together. And the ISS is the biggest "experiment" ever attempted in space. If you think humanity is confined to this planet, you may think it's no big deal. I disagree. I hope there is a greater future ahead of us, and I will continue to support it even though I won't be around to see it.
Going to Mars is a great idea and the next obvious step after the Moon. However, the ideal time to do it just passed, so getting to Mars (and back) is getting harder and harder with each passing day.
I see your point about the distance increasing, but isn't the best time to go to Mars when you're ready to do it? If the point is interplanetary exploration, the distance to a *near* neighbor shouldn't be a real issue. Others in the discussion have talked about the space program going nowhere because it goes nowhere, but the ISS is the first stage. Why does anyone want to attempt interplanetary travel directly from Earth with all the extra baggage that entails? Let's build the launch facility before we launch the mission.
saftey should be paramount, and if that isn't the case I would urge congress to put a stop all manned flights until that is the case.
Safety should be an important consideration but not paramount. The people involved know the risks, or they shouldn't be there. How many test pilots have died? How many mountain climbers? Oceanic explorers? Pushing back frontiers is a dangerous business with its own rewards. Given the number of miles travelled, I'd bet the odds of being killed are higher for commuters than for astronauts.
So, I really don't see what this has to do with "maximum short-term profit" or crooked CEOs. Ken Lay is a crooked CEO. Amazon is just taking advantage of the current situation.
Amazon's patents just give them the right to spend money suing people, the patents don't mean they'll win. A company constantly engaged in meaningless lawsuits is a company leaking money. Since the feds allowed companies to tie executive compensation to stock performance, i.e., stock options rather than salary, it has become beneficial to CxOs to make the stock price as volatile as possible. Constant press releases about stupid patents keep the pundits talking. Good for CxOs, not good for any shareholder who is not a day trader, and it's not good for the company, which is paying for the patent attorneys in both the short- and the long-term.
You think Amazon is being smart instead of being fleeced. I think Amazon has spent so much money unwisely that they don't know the difference. Fine, in ten years, we'll compare notes, and I'll buy you a beer of your choice if you're right.:)
You tell the Shareholders that at the annual meeting... wait, they fired you and found another CEO? *GASP*, who'd of thought!
And the new CEO is *GASP* Darl McBride, who will work very hard to ensure the long-term health and success of the company. Are you saying that short-sighted shareholders and crooked CEOs deserve each other? That still doesn't invalidate the point that creating maximum short-term profit is not a legal requirement. In fact, the practice is relatively new. Before, good executives were expected to provide steady, long-term growth and profits.
If it's just a normal Amazon sale, 5%. 2.5% for anything sold by another store or person through Amazon.com (like Target, Marshall Fields, Gap, or Marketplace sales). I think you get 15% for direct-linked books over $15. $20 for every amazon.com credit card sign-up.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
So do your patients get a discount for sitting in the waiting room while you're surfing Amazon and/. ?
It's an interesting list, but you left out the mid-range group - not talented but trained. My favorite sub-group is the not-talented-but-trained junior programmer who has been on the job for two years and thinks she's being passed over for management positions and is complaining loudly about it. If only we could get her into management (where she could do less damage) and out of software. And this is not misogynist, we have a guy of the same age that I would really like to promote to management as well.
Dude, everyone hates there job and if they claim they don't there lying so drop the boardroom bullshit.
Really? I don't hate my job. There are some parts I'd rather not have to do, but on the whole, it's interesting. It allows me to work with both software and hardware and their integration. Actually, I like my job, having had many others for comparison. Perhaps you just need another position more suited to your obviously underused talents.
That move from 16-32 bit was, umm, a long long time ago.
Win 95 was the first MS 32-bit OS (well, NT actually). That may be "umm, a long long time ago" to you sonny, but some of us have a longer view of computing history. (You know, dragging bits through twisted-pair, uphill, both ways, etc, etc.) Anyway, *when* is not important. The API was still the same old crap, just bigger, uglier, and more prone to breakage.
If you're still cranky over that, then I'm sure that MS-DOS config.sys syntax really sinks your panties.
Funny you should mention that. I'm very familiar with MS boot script syntax. The inability of MS operating systems to handle both expanded and extended memory was the reason I had to write my own dual-boot loader, and it was a real pain. So, I'd have to say you're correct on that one point.
The people who say it's easier to write in Unix are the same ones who wrote Makefiles in Windows, and used 'vi'. Ridiculous.
At least you're one of the few slashdotters who can spell *ridiculous*, but no, actually we used the IDEs just like everybody else. And in Unix, we use gvim, autoconf, automake, Qt Designer, other IDEs - all things you wouldn't understand, apparently.
As someone who has been programming since the Commodore PET, though the Commodore 64, Atari, Apple, Sun, SGI, DOS, Convex, Cray, etc., etc., and Windows, I disagree.
My experience is similar (less the Cray:) and goes back to the same period, and the Windows API is a real kludge. When they moved from 16- to 32-bit, it really got ripe, trying (and failing) to keep everything backward-compatible. The OP was probably talking about writing *Hello World* in Visual Basic.
I don't know, but when someone generalizes me into a stereotype, I just grin with satisfaction that they have nothing to offer in the way of discussion and have resorted to personal attacks to distance me from their views.
Umm, right, whatever. Seriously, psychobabble aside, having read far too many of your posts, it's hardly a personal attack; it's a matter of record here. Like an old vinyl LP with a scratch, you regurgitate your claims over and over no matter how many times you've been refuted by any number of slashbots. You seem to be a glutton for punishment. Have you ever considered setting up a site for people with views similar to your own instead of constantly trolling Slashdot?
You can dance around the issue all you want with sarcastic rhetoric, but it doesn't change the fact that Slashdot is biased.
Well, of course it's biased. Slashdot is, or was apparently, a *nix-centric site. Isn't there a MS fanboy site where you guys can go and reaffirm your gratitiude for assimilation, or is Bill paying you extra for proselytzing on Slashdot during your lunch hour?
The bias that people refuse to see here sickens me.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. After all, Microsoft has been an upstanding member of the business community, always willing to work with other businesses for the good of the industry and always putting their customers' interests first. They have always put profit second to providing the world with a stable and secure computing environment. They are leading the way to make sure people do not have to worry about possibly infringing someone's digital rights. They are the poster child for Homeland Security! How could anyone have a reason to mistrust this paragon of corporate virtue? The door is over here. Let me show you the way out.
On April 14, 2003, EMarketersAmerica.Org, Inc. filed suit against SPEWS, The Spamhaus Project, Joker.com, and the individuals that hide behind these organizations as they endeavor to destroy our right to market via the Internet. To date they've been much louder then our industry.
The spam industry has a *Chief Counsel* who doesn't know the difference between then and than.
We continually invest in equipment, inventory and technology. And, most importantly we create jobs!
Yeah, all those people writing spam filters and helping customers to install them are a huge boost to the economy. He's got us there.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I metamoderate negative mods mostly as fair because most people mark them unfair.
So you are ignoring the moderation instructions about promoting instead of demoting just because you're a contrarian? You are supporting the person who moderates as redundant the first five comments in a thread that he disagrees with. You are supporting the moderators-on-crack. Congratulations.
BTW I meta mod often
So do I. However, I try to put a little thought into it. I take a serious look at down mods, especially redundant mods, which are often just from moderation cowards with an agenda.
Its about perspective. I imagine that if Linus T was making a few billion each year, some of you lot might just be up in arms.
I can't figure out what you're replying to, but your perspective seems wobbly and short-sighted at best. If Linus were making billions per year on the back of Linux, there would be no Linux, hence no billions . . .
Fer cryin' out loud, would someone please mod that +Funny?
Something more believable and fear-inducing, such as falsified terrorist threats and terrorist attacks might do it.
Yeah, like today's romp through DC security by two staff halloweenists that had all the channels screaming for hours about a terrorist attack. We are just as gullible now as people were then.
The Martian Government has determined that the people of Earth are harboring biological weapons. Prepare to be liberated.
Please. There is no centralized "Martian" government, and please use the correct name, Barsoom. Everyone should remain calm. I have word from Captain Carter that everything is under control, and we have nothing to fear . . . except maybe from those *red* Barsoomians.
LOL. I've gotta remember that one for my next dinner out.
But, it hasn't accomplished anything other than being uber-cool and a nice platform for other experiments. But we haven't had any major impacts from work done there.
My first point would be that the ISS is still under construction - it is a work in progress. Another problem is that the ISS is underfunded and understaffed. It was running with one-half the ideal staff before the shuttle disaster. All the staff had time for was maintenance and a very few experiments. The shuttle was designed with a space station in mind, and one byproduct (of the shuttle) is the SRTM data from the shuttle radar mission. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but it's the most accurate elevation data we have of many portions of Earth. It's being used by firefighters now in California, and it's a big deal to many scientists in several fields. I'd guess there have been other related advances in other fields like robotics and materials science as well.
Colonizing other worlds could also reap mining benefits, etc. But we're a long way from there right now . . .
Agreed, but Columbus was a long way from the new world while his ships were being built. We need a staging point before we can travel, and I'll bet on the ISS before the *space elevator*.
We're certainly not going to offload all our excess population to another planet.
Agreed. It will be for explorers and small groups of colonists with a reason to leave, just like the colonists on this planet, and once they leave, we are no longer confined. Oh well, sorry to be so long-winded, I'm an admitted advocate. :)
Yeah, 'cos American food is just *soo* tasty. Mmm, chewy bland grey steak, yum yum.
Grey? Where did you eat? A properly prepared American steak is red and still twitching.
I would really like to see this go to court. Not only for the satisfaction of seeing SCO get smashed by an elephant, but also to see how the GPL will shake out in the courts.
Normally I'd be rooting for the underdog rather than the elephant. I want to see SCO get whacked because they're lying theives, and at least in this case, IBM is right.
I've been often asked by friends and others just why it is we send people to space anyway. . . But I have a hard time coming up with things that we've discovered because a person actually went along . . . Can anyone here name some?
How about building an inhabitable platform in space? I don't suppose you've heard of the ISS. As usual, stuff happened, and it took real people to make things fit together. And the ISS is the biggest "experiment" ever attempted in space. If you think humanity is confined to this planet, you may think it's no big deal. I disagree. I hope there is a greater future ahead of us, and I will continue to support it even though I won't be around to see it.
Going to Mars is a great idea and the next obvious step after the Moon. However, the ideal time to do it just passed, so getting to Mars (and back) is getting harder and harder with each passing day.
I see your point about the distance increasing, but isn't the best time to go to Mars when you're ready to do it? If the point is interplanetary exploration, the distance to a *near* neighbor shouldn't be a real issue. Others in the discussion have talked about the space program going nowhere because it goes nowhere, but the ISS is the first stage. Why does anyone want to attempt interplanetary travel directly from Earth with all the extra baggage that entails? Let's build the launch facility before we launch the mission.
saftey should be paramount, and if that isn't the case I would urge congress to put a stop all manned flights until that is the case.
Safety should be an important consideration but not paramount. The people involved know the risks, or they shouldn't be there. How many test pilots have died? How many mountain climbers? Oceanic explorers? Pushing back frontiers is a dangerous business with its own rewards. Given the number of miles travelled, I'd bet the odds of being killed are higher for commuters than for astronauts.
So, I really don't see what this has to do with "maximum short-term profit" or crooked CEOs. Ken Lay is a crooked CEO. Amazon is just taking advantage of the current situation.
Amazon's patents just give them the right to spend money suing people, the patents don't mean they'll win. A company constantly engaged in meaningless lawsuits is a company leaking money. Since the feds allowed companies to tie executive compensation to stock performance, i.e., stock options rather than salary, it has become beneficial to CxOs to make the stock price as volatile as possible. Constant press releases about stupid patents keep the pundits talking. Good for CxOs, not good for any shareholder who is not a day trader, and it's not good for the company, which is paying for the patent attorneys in both the short- and the long-term.
You think Amazon is being smart instead of being fleeced. I think Amazon has spent so much money unwisely that they don't know the difference. Fine, in ten years, we'll compare notes, and I'll buy you a beer of your choice if you're right. :)
You tell the Shareholders that at the annual meeting... wait, they fired you and found another CEO? *GASP*, who'd of thought!
And the new CEO is *GASP* Darl McBride, who will work very hard to ensure the long-term health and success of the company. Are you saying that short-sighted shareholders and crooked CEOs deserve each other? That still doesn't invalidate the point that creating maximum short-term profit is not a legal requirement. In fact, the practice is relatively new. Before, good executives were expected to provide steady, long-term growth and profits.
If it's just a normal Amazon sale, 5%. 2.5% for anything sold by another store or person through Amazon.com (like Target, Marshall Fields, Gap, or Marketplace sales). I think you get 15% for direct-linked books over $15. $20 for every amazon.com credit card sign-up.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
So do your patients get a discount for sitting in the waiting room while you're surfing Amazon and /. ?
It's an interesting list, but you left out the mid-range group - not talented but trained. My favorite sub-group is the not-talented-but-trained junior programmer who has been on the job for two years and thinks she's being passed over for management positions and is complaining loudly about it. If only we could get her into management (where she could do less damage) and out of software. And this is not misogynist, we have a guy of the same age that I would really like to promote to management as well.
I need an old programmer and a young programmer.
The power of Christ compels you...to compile!
C'mon, meet God half-way. Use autoconf and automake before asking for a miracle. :)
Dude, everyone hates there job and if they claim they don't there lying so drop the boardroom bullshit.
Really? I don't hate my job. There are some parts I'd rather not have to do, but on the whole, it's interesting. It allows me to work with both software and hardware and their integration. Actually, I like my job, having had many others for comparison. Perhaps you just need another position more suited to your obviously underused talents.
That move from 16-32 bit was, umm, a long long time ago.
Win 95 was the first MS 32-bit OS (well, NT actually). That may be "umm, a long long time ago" to you sonny, but some of us have a longer view of computing history. (You know, dragging bits through twisted-pair, uphill, both ways, etc, etc.) Anyway, *when* is not important. The API was still the same old crap, just bigger, uglier, and more prone to breakage.
If you're still cranky over that, then I'm sure that MS-DOS config.sys syntax really sinks your panties.
Funny you should mention that. I'm very familiar with MS boot script syntax. The inability of MS operating systems to handle both expanded and extended memory was the reason I had to write my own dual-boot loader, and it was a real pain. So, I'd have to say you're correct on that one point.
The people who say it's easier to write in Unix are the same ones who wrote Makefiles in Windows, and used 'vi'. Ridiculous.
At least you're one of the few slashdotters who can spell *ridiculous*, but no, actually we used the IDEs just like everybody else. And in Unix, we use gvim, autoconf, automake, Qt Designer, other IDEs - all things you wouldn't understand, apparently.
As someone who has been programming since the Commodore PET, though the Commodore 64, Atari, Apple, Sun, SGI, DOS, Convex, Cray, etc., etc., and Windows, I disagree.
My experience is similar (less the Cray :) and goes back to the same period, and the Windows API is a real kludge. When they moved from 16- to 32-bit, it really got ripe, trying (and failing) to keep everything backward-compatible. The OP was probably talking about writing *Hello World* in Visual Basic.
I don't know, but when someone generalizes me into a stereotype, I just grin with satisfaction that they have nothing to offer in the way of discussion and have resorted to personal attacks to distance me from their views.
Umm, right, whatever. Seriously, psychobabble aside, having read far too many of your posts, it's hardly a personal attack; it's a matter of record here. Like an old vinyl LP with a scratch, you regurgitate your claims over and over no matter how many times you've been refuted by any number of slashbots. You seem to be a glutton for punishment. Have you ever considered setting up a site for people with views similar to your own instead of constantly trolling Slashdot?
You can dance around the issue all you want with sarcastic rhetoric, but it doesn't change the fact that Slashdot is biased.
Well, of course it's biased. Slashdot is, or was apparently, a *nix-centric site. Isn't there a MS fanboy site where you guys can go and reaffirm your gratitiude for assimilation, or is Bill paying you extra for proselytzing on Slashdot during your lunch hour?
The bias that people refuse to see here sickens me.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. After all, Microsoft has been an upstanding member of the business community, always willing to work with other businesses for the good of the industry and always putting their customers' interests first. They have always put profit second to providing the world with a stable and secure computing environment. They are leading the way to make sure people do not have to worry about possibly infringing someone's digital rights. They are the poster child for Homeland Security! How could anyone have a reason to mistrust this paragon of corporate virtue? The door is over here. Let me show you the way out.
On April 14, 2003, EMarketersAmerica.Org, Inc. filed suit against SPEWS, The Spamhaus Project, Joker.com, and the individuals that hide behind these organizations as they endeavor to destroy our right to market via the Internet. To date they've been much louder then our industry.
The spam industry has a *Chief Counsel* who doesn't know the difference between then and than.
We continually invest in equipment, inventory and technology. And, most importantly we create jobs!
Yeah, all those people writing spam filters and helping customers to install them are a huge boost to the economy. He's got us there. :)
LOL. You had me going with the first sentence. I was getting ready to jump all over that. :)