Actually, there are only about 380 million native English speakers in the world - and those who speak English as a second language won't save you, either, because even the most optimistic estimate is about 1 billion for those. So you'd still be 120 million short of the 1,5 billion required (and that's assuming that that optimistic estimate is actually realistic, which it most likely isn't).:)
But yeah, I agree - it's a pretty stupid thing. And who'd visit a web page comprised *solely* of advertising, anyway? I checked it out, and found it amusing for half a minute, but I don't have any intentions on coming back in the future...
It *is* unreasonable, simply because the RIAA is not the police. If you want to sue someone but don't know their name, go to the police and file a complaint; then, the police can handle the actual investigation.
Nothing unreasonable about that, is there? The moral of the story: the RIAA, or any private organisation or individual for that matter, does not and should not wield any police power. Period.
I wouldn't call a 7 inch screen "photorealistic" - the graphics may be, but the small screen size alone would be enough to make sure you don't really get that feeling of immersion that would make this gadget dangerous.
Of course, it's probably still dangerous, but that's another story...
If they can't compete, they go out of business, to be replaced by companies that can compete.
OK, so these aren't companies in the strictest sense, but... have you recently looked at how much money is spent on subsidising cotton farmers in the USA, for example? If not, please do, and then try to come back and say that the USA aren't subsidising anyone with a straight face. I predict you won't be able to.
Also, the idea that there are no monopolies in the USA is so far out there that I'm not really sure whether your entire post isn't actually meant to be sarcastic/funny. I'm pretty sure we can all think of at least *one* monopoly that has a pretty firm grip on *one* industry at least...
Humans aren't being used as guinea pigs - it's everyone's own choice whether they want to participate in such studies or not, but guinea pigs or other lab animals don't have that choice.
For that reason alone, I think it's not only OK but in fact the *only* ethically sound opinion that we stop all animal tests immediately and only rely on volunteers for testing. At the risk of sounding cynical, if a disease is bad enough, people will sign up for tests; or, put another way, if noone signs up for tests, then the whole thing can't have been *that* bad, anyway. Humans can volunteer, or choose not to; animal testing is torture, pure and simple, and noone with intact personal ethics should lower themselves to that level.
(And FWIW, I do say that as someone who has to take medication each day for a chronic disease.)
You seem to confuse two distinct types of blogs here - or maybe you're not aware of the distinction at all, so let me recap that:
The first kind of blog is the one you talk about and that you find boring - personal blogs detailing personal experiences, kind of like a public diary. The second kind is blogs dedicated to certain subjects etc.; these are more akin to professional journalistic media such as newspapers etc.
The "rage" about blogs is mostly about the second kind; and FWIW, the second kind are the only ones that are meant to attract readers not otherwise acquainted with the writer, too.
Nobody expects you to find the personal diary of Joe Average to be interesting; but then, the *purpose* of blogs of the first kind is not to attract you (or others), anyway, but rather to allow the writer to keep their own circle of friends informed about the going-ons in their life. Think of it as some kind of multicast communication - instead of telling the same stories over and over again to everyone who asks "how was your day?" (be it in an email, IM, on the phone, in person, or whatever), Joe Average just writes these things down in a central place *once* for everyone to read.
There's advantages for the reader, too: they typically will be able to read the blogs of many of their friends in an aggregate fashion, by means of an RSS aggregator or on a social networking site such as MySpace or Livejournal or so; and what's more, they can also decide when to catch up, and - when they do catch up - what to read in depth, what to gloss over, and what to skip completely.
So, yes, most blogs of the first kind *are* boring, but complaining about that just shows that you misunderstood their purpose: they're not *meant* to be interesting or to attract readers. That's the second kind you're thinking of there.
As for video blogs, those don't seem to make much sense to me with either kind - it seems that it's more of a combination of buzzwords, a marketing ploy or PR gag without any real value. Not that there aren't situations where video feeds could be interesting, of course, but I do predict that text-based blogs will remain in the majority for now - and probably for quite a long time, too, simply because they distract the reader/viewer less and do not force them to focus their attention as much as video does.
Yeah... unlike in the USA, where things like racism etc. don't exist at all and where everyone has the same chance in life, no matter whether they are black or white, rich or poor, man or woman or heterosexual or homosexual...
At least people in Europe have the guts to say "we won't tolerate that crap!".
If it really is so great, someone will eventually add support for it to eMule or whatever other free clients there are.
Similarly, if support doesn't get added eventually, then it can't be have been that great after all, at leas not in practice.:) Survival of the fittest.
The difference is that Echelon was (supposedly) only aimed at the rest of the world. And nobody really cares about those pesky foreigners, right? (They probably all wear turbans and eat snails, anyway! And those who complain must have something to hide...)
It's a sad fact that people will only complain when they themselves are affected, and - FWIW - that they will cry bloody murder only then even though they didn't mind the same things happening to others in the past.
OTR may do what you want (or not), but it needs to be handled correctly to really be secure, of course. I think there's built-in support for it in Adium-X, too; for vanilla GAIM, there's a plugin, as well as a generic AIM proxy that will work with all clients (but only AIM, obviously, whereas the plugin supports all IM services that GAIM can use).
Of course we're addicted to technology - all of us. I'm pretty sure most people would find life without running water, telephones, electricity, central heating, cars and all that pretty cumbersome, for example, and those are all examples of technology.
FWIW, we're not just addicted to technology, either; we're also addicted to food, water, air and sleep, to love, sex and physical contact (between loved ones, at least), to friendship, humour, entertainment, and lots of other things.
All of that may seem pointless, of course, but the reason why I'm saying it is that addictions are not necessarily bad things.
In the end, once you know one OOP language, you know 95%
of what you need to work in any OOP language
Not quite. The basic concepts are the same throughout all OO languages, of course, but the fact that Java and C# (and, to a lesser extent, C++) are so similar is - basically - that they all have a common ancestor in C, and that they also build upon each other to some extent. Other OO languages are different, though - if you have ever programmed in Smalltalk-80, for example, you'll know what I mean. (Beautiful language, BTW, and much better than Java - it's a pity it's not one of the available choices for the OP.)
The Drake equation already yields a non-zero number. If it really was zero, we wouldn't (and couldn't exist), either.
Think about it - a probability of zero does not mean that something is highly, extremely, ludicrously unlikely; it means that it's outright impossible.
... which, of course, would only be symptomatic of a deeper-running problem you and your girlfriend have. If you can't openly talk about your sexual interests, and if you have to hide things from each other because the other one'd go apeshit if they knew about them, then you have a bigger problem in your relationship, anyway.
You seem to be misunderstanding what a beta release is.
A beta release is (or at least is supposed to be) essentially a release where the important features are pretty much done, and where the "only" work that's left to do is shake out bugs, tweak minor things, fix documentation and so on.
It is NOT a release where you put in all sorts of crazy features that you don't actually plan to have in the final product - that would be rather stupid on pretty much every level I can think of, especially the economic one.
So when there's a fundamental problem with a feature in a beta product, especially if it's the feature *as such* as opposed to its (probably buggy) implementation, then pointing that out is not "doom and gloom" - it's just reporting.
Say Ford decided to switch the driver's and passenger's seat in all their new models, so that the driver actually sits to the right of the passenger now, and further suppose that Ford presents their new concept model to the press. If a reporter now pointed out that that feature is pretty nonsensical (dangerous, even), would you call it "doom and gloom", and would you believe Ford if they said that it's "just a 'beta'", and that the actual cars won't have this after all?
Of course not. If they really didn't have any plans to have this feature, they wouldn't have it in the "beta" version, either, and the same's true here.
And what's more... if nobody cared about this now, then I'd bet (no pun intended) that when people actually noted these problems after the final product had been released, there'd be many who'd complain that it should've been pointed out while the product was still in beta, and not only after the final release.
You don't have to collect all the metadata in one central place, either. You could - when you create a Word file, for example - simply create a second file in addition to the actual document, one that holds the metadata, so you'd have one.doc file and one.mdc (or so) file.
If you want to guard against stupid l0sers who will only send/save/copy/move the.doc file and then complain that the metadata is gone, put them together in a zip file (and call it.dzp or so); then, someone who wants to remove the metadata can simply delete the.mdc file in there with any standard zip tool, and someone who doesn't care about these things can treat the container just like they would treat a plain old.doc file.
Oh, will you US-American guys *please* stop referring to yourself as "Americans" if you really mean "US-Americans"? There's a lot of countries in America, from Canada to Chile, and your ursuping of the word for your own nationality is just arrogant.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, there are only about 380 million native English speakers in the world - and those who speak English as a second language won't save you, either, because even the most optimistic estimate is about 1 billion for those. So you'd still be 120 million short of the 1,5 billion required (and that's assuming that that optimistic estimate is actually realistic, which it most likely isn't). :)
But yeah, I agree - it's a pretty stupid thing. And who'd visit a web page comprised *solely* of advertising, anyway? I checked it out, and found it amusing for half a minute, but I don't have any intentions on coming back in the future...
It *is* unreasonable, simply because the RIAA is not the police. If you want to sue someone but don't know their name, go to the police and file a complaint; then, the police can handle the actual investigation.
Nothing unreasonable about that, is there? The moral of the story: the RIAA, or any private organisation or individual for that matter, does not and should not wield any police power. Period.
I wouldn't call a 7 inch screen "photorealistic" - the graphics may be, but the small screen size alone would be enough to make sure you don't really get that feeling of immersion that would make this gadget dangerous.
Of course, it's probably still dangerous, but that's another story...
OK, so these aren't companies in the strictest sense, but... have you recently looked at how much money is spent on subsidising cotton farmers in the USA, for example? If not, please do, and then try to come back and say that the USA aren't subsidising anyone with a straight face. I predict you won't be able to.
Also, the idea that there are no monopolies in the USA is so far out there that I'm not really sure whether your entire post isn't actually meant to be sarcastic/funny. I'm pretty sure we can all think of at least *one* monopoly that has a pretty firm grip on *one* industry at least...
ESR is not a hacker... he's a nut. :)
Humans aren't being used as guinea pigs - it's everyone's own choice whether they want to participate in such studies or not, but guinea pigs or other lab animals don't have that choice.
For that reason alone, I think it's not only OK but in fact the *only* ethically sound opinion that we stop all animal tests immediately and only rely on volunteers for testing. At the risk of sounding cynical, if a disease is bad enough, people will sign up for tests; or, put another way, if noone signs up for tests, then the whole thing can't have been *that* bad, anyway. Humans can volunteer, or choose not to; animal testing is torture, pure and simple, and noone with intact personal ethics should lower themselves to that level.
(And FWIW, I do say that as someone who has to take medication each day for a chronic disease.)
You seem to confuse two distinct types of blogs here - or maybe you're not aware of the distinction at all, so let me recap that:
The first kind of blog is the one you talk about and that you find boring - personal blogs detailing personal experiences, kind of like a public diary. The second kind is blogs dedicated to certain subjects etc.; these are more akin to professional journalistic media such as newspapers etc.
The "rage" about blogs is mostly about the second kind; and FWIW, the second kind are the only ones that are meant to attract readers not otherwise acquainted with the writer, too.
Nobody expects you to find the personal diary of Joe Average to be interesting; but then, the *purpose* of blogs of the first kind is not to attract you (or others), anyway, but rather to allow the writer to keep their own circle of friends informed about the going-ons in their life. Think of it as some kind of multicast communication - instead of telling the same stories over and over again to everyone who asks "how was your day?" (be it in an email, IM, on the phone, in person, or whatever), Joe Average just writes these things down in a central place *once* for everyone to read.
There's advantages for the reader, too: they typically will be able to read the blogs of many of their friends in an aggregate fashion, by means of an RSS aggregator or on a social networking site such as MySpace or Livejournal or so; and what's more, they can also decide when to catch up, and - when they do catch up - what to read in depth, what to gloss over, and what to skip completely.
So, yes, most blogs of the first kind *are* boring, but complaining about that just shows that you misunderstood their purpose: they're not *meant* to be interesting or to attract readers. That's the second kind you're thinking of there.
As for video blogs, those don't seem to make much sense to me with either kind - it seems that it's more of a combination of buzzwords, a marketing ploy or PR gag without any real value. Not that there aren't situations where video feeds could be interesting, of course, but I do predict that text-based blogs will remain in the majority for now - and probably for quite a long time, too, simply because they distract the reader/viewer less and do not force them to focus their attention as much as video does.
This was about blogs, not podcasts.
I can understand not wanting to live in Afghanistan, or Ethiopia, or Yemen, but.. San Marino? What's wrong with *that* one?
Yeah... unlike in the USA, where things like racism etc. don't exist at all and where everyone has the same chance in life, no matter whether they are black or white, rich or poor, man or woman or heterosexual or homosexual...
At least people in Europe have the guts to say "we won't tolerate that crap!".
Touché. :)
People who can't spell "nerdiest" shouldn't go around calling others morons. :)
If it really is so great, someone will eventually add support for it to eMule or whatever other free clients there are.
:) Survival of the fittest.
Similarly, if support doesn't get added eventually, then it can't be have been that great after all, at leas not in practice.
I shudder to think what the RIAA equivalent of Montezuma's Revenge will be.
The difference is that Echelon was (supposedly) only aimed at the rest of the world. And nobody really cares about those pesky foreigners, right? (They probably all wear turbans and eat snails, anyway! And those who complain must have something to hide...)
It's a sad fact that people will only complain when they themselves are affected, and - FWIW - that they will cry bloody murder only then even though they didn't mind the same things happening to others in the past.
It sucks, but what can you do?
OTR may do what you want (or not), but it needs to be handled correctly to really be secure, of course. I think there's built-in support for it in Adium-X, too; for vanilla GAIM, there's a plugin, as well as a generic AIM proxy that will work with all clients (but only AIM, obviously, whereas the plugin supports all IM services that GAIM can use).
Of course we're addicted to technology - all of us. I'm pretty sure most people would find life without running water, telephones, electricity, central heating, cars and all that pretty cumbersome, for example, and those are all examples of technology.
FWIW, we're not just addicted to technology, either; we're also addicted to food, water, air and sleep, to love, sex and physical contact (between loved ones, at least), to friendship, humour, entertainment, and lots of other things.
All of that may seem pointless, of course, but the reason why I'm saying it is that addictions are not necessarily bad things.
Not quite. The basic concepts are the same throughout all OO languages, of course, but the fact that Java and C# (and, to a lesser extent, C++) are so similar is - basically - that they all have a common ancestor in C, and that they also build upon each other to some extent. Other OO languages are different, though - if you have ever programmed in Smalltalk-80, for example, you'll know what I mean. (Beautiful language, BTW, and much better than Java - it's a pity it's not one of the available choices for the OP.)
The Drake equation already yields a non-zero number. If it really was zero, we wouldn't (and couldn't exist), either.
Think about it - a probability of zero does not mean that something is highly, extremely, ludicrously unlikely; it means that it's outright impossible.
... which, of course, would only be symptomatic of a deeper-running problem you and your girlfriend have. If you can't openly talk about your sexual interests, and if you have to hide things from each other because the other one'd go apeshit if they knew about them, then you have a bigger problem in your relationship, anyway.
You seem to be misunderstanding what a beta release is.
A beta release is (or at least is supposed to be) essentially a release where the important features are pretty much done, and where the "only" work that's left to do is shake out bugs, tweak minor things, fix documentation and so on.
It is NOT a release where you put in all sorts of crazy features that you don't actually plan to have in the final product - that would be rather stupid on pretty much every level I can think of, especially the economic one.
So when there's a fundamental problem with a feature in a beta product, especially if it's the feature *as such* as opposed to its (probably buggy) implementation, then pointing that out is not "doom and gloom" - it's just reporting.
Say Ford decided to switch the driver's and passenger's seat in all their new models, so that the driver actually sits to the right of the passenger now, and further suppose that Ford presents their new concept model to the press. If a reporter now pointed out that that feature is pretty nonsensical (dangerous, even), would you call it "doom and gloom", and would you believe Ford if they said that it's "just a 'beta'", and that the actual cars won't have this after all?
Of course not. If they really didn't have any plans to have this feature, they wouldn't have it in the "beta" version, either, and the same's true here.
And what's more... if nobody cared about this now, then I'd bet (no pun intended) that when people actually noted these problems after the final product had been released, there'd be many who'd complain that it should've been pointed out while the product was still in beta, and not only after the final release.
You don't have to collect all the metadata in one central place, either. You could - when you create a Word file, for example - simply create a second file in addition to the actual document, one that holds the metadata, so you'd have one .doc file and one .mdc (or so) file.
.doc file and then complain that the metadata is gone, put them together in a zip file (and call it .dzp or so); then, someone who wants to remove the metadata can simply delete the .mdc file in there with any standard zip tool, and someone who doesn't care about these things can treat the container just like they would treat a plain old .doc file.
If you want to guard against stupid l0sers who will only send/save/copy/move the
Mine too, but I'd pray *for* him ending up face-down in the gutter. :)
You say that as if it's a good thing.
Oh, will you US-American guys *please* stop referring to yourself as "Americans" if you really mean "US-Americans"? There's a lot of countries in America, from Canada to Chile, and your ursuping of the word for your own nationality is just arrogant.