I don't have an on/off button on my DSL modem. Neither, probably, do you or most other people. When I lived in Tampa, I had one until the cable company arrived one morning to tell me that I had to get a new modem installed.
If companies really want everyone to conserve bandwidth then why can't we block the pipe without unplugging the thing? Makes no sense unless they get a bigger benefit from knowing exactly what your computer is doing at any given moment.
I am a robot developer in a new robot industry startup developing robot services and robot infrastructure. Our IPO launches on Monday...
The author of this article has completely failed to understand basic economics.
Maybe he never peeked outside an airplane window. There are lots of people whose ancestors were displaced by the airplane. Those people will still find work. His example of New York has a completely different cause than corporate layoffs... homelessness in this country comes from stupidity. Sorry if that's a little insensitive but it's true.
You should have been dropped to "troll", not the parent post.
How is Buddhism not a religion? What makes a religion? The suspension of rational thought?
There's nothing scientific about the Buddhist moral code in the Middle Path and this moral code is far stricter than any religion I've seen. You pay the price of your deeds in karma. That price can be pretty f'n heavy if you aren't careful. You might not get punished immediately or even in this life but you will pay. Conversely, karma rewards good deeds. You can foster your entire existence into generating good karma (/. has nothing to do with this.)
There is no eternity for your behavior. You will not suffer eternal damnation for evil nor will you enjoy eternal bliss for good. Everything can change.
Further, while the overall concepts square with science, once you start exploring the 31 states of existence, you may need to leave science at the door or at least not get upset when you hear various descriptions of these different realities.
You have to believe that the Middle Path is the right way of living and that creating excuses and rationalizations for why you deviated from it will hurt you more than just admitting that you like porn, gambling and other nonsense.
Now, what were you saying about Buddhism not being a religion? Maybe it was just your ignorance and cynicism shining through.
Meditation is valuable but there are a lot of different kinds of meditation. For example, breathing meditation can be done 24 hours a day. Our breath rate has a huge impact on what emotions control us in a given moment. Control the breath and you have another avenue for seeking mental equilibrium.
Then there's the "kindness" meditation which can be done at all hours while you're awake. Basically, you decide that you wish everyone well no matter what they think of you and you don't let situations beyond your control get the best of you.
I don't find value in yoga or sitting in one place humming crazy chants. Neither do most educated Buddhists. The charlatans like yoga and incense and other nonsense because it sells. The naive like yoga and incense and other nonsense because these people haven't detached themselves from the myth that you can *buy* happiness.
Corporate adoption of meditation practices seems like yet another idiotic idea from marketing. I'm sure most employees are perfectly capable of taking care of their spiritual needs without the Corporate Big Brother getting involved.
If corporations really want to help, they can focus on providing money in exchange for hours worked instead of always trying to ace full-timers out of their labor.
It's in Pebble Beach (near Cape Canaveral). Giant surf shop with a stupid looking shark on all their brand stuff. Seriously, if you are coming to the US, go to Washington D.C. like everyone here is saying. It's an amazing city and the National Mall (museums, not cheesy stores) is simply one of the great wonders of the world. Unfortunately, it's a bit annoying with all the counterterrorism barricades everywhere... it was truly beautiful before our new age of terror funding. Nevertheless, spend loads of time there. You'll see some eye-opening exhibits that are explicitly critical of past US behavior so it's a legitimate place to learn about anything.
I concur. Free software really screws up the currency circulation. I think a desktop monopoly also screws up currency circulation. The answer is an open source/free operating system but not free software. Java's "write once, run anywhere" is complete crap largely because that prevailing desktop operating system is neither free nor open. BSD style licensing instead of GPL is needed to have a sustainable, innovative industry.
But what do you do? IBM is on the Linux bandwagon. Nobody can rationally ban free software. The only possibility is that Linux remains a ghetto OS and Microsoft gets some true justice leveled against them.
Despite open APIs and other aspects that make the closed nature of Windows "irrelevant", there are still parts that make Microsoft products run better than competitors and one company controls 95% of the desktop market. I'm still on 98 because I have critical disability software that doesn't run under XP.
Screw waiting for Linux to spread. Force open Windows now.
The only religion that attempts to be rational and, for the most part, succeeds is Buddhism. Not the Tibetan nonsense but Southern or Theravada Buddhism.
That was an excellent post. Given the pace and patience of/., it is not surprising that you weren't given your due of + 5 Insightful. Of course, you earned some real karma here so it doesn't matter what the score on/. is.
If I wrote a journal entry on a sheet of paper and decided to note something interesting I found at Google News and make sure to note the appropriate links, how does that differ? By putting my journal entry on the web, people can click to it faster. Your additional identification for what is nothing more than a journal proves my point.
This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology.
Since both are true, the word "Journal" works just fine.
Operating systems should be free and open. Software should not. This is honest dissent, not a troll so moderators need to find someone else to mod down.
Having Windows controlled by Microsoft instead of the public allows them to wrestle companies to their knees. On the other side, the open source movement has as many innovative ideas as Microsoft which is damn near zero. By creating free software, the open source movement kicks third party companies in the kidneys while Microsoft is efficiently pushing them down already.
If Microsoft opened the source to Windows (perhaps 98) tomorrow, Linux would die a quick death or revert back to being a tool of hobbyists.
In fact, that might be the ultimate weapon in any potential trade war with Europe.;)
The only party is the contributor list and that is what they vote with. I definitely did not imply that those bastards vote with their conscience. Go read my reply to the non-AC.
Full disclosure: I earned a 3.7 GPA in Political Science at the University of Florida. While I despise political office, I am tremendously interested in structures, institutions and dynamics between them.
Let me explain how two political parties can be more tolerant than 7 or 8. You'll have to put the cynicism aside for a moment though...
There's a predictive principle of how many parties will be in any given democracy called Duvarcheis (spelling definitely wrong) Law. Basically, there's an inverse relationship between diversity and the number of political parties. The more ethically and culturally diverse a country is, the fewer parties it will have.
For the US, that means two giant umbrella parties. For Europe, that means half a dozen or more parties per country.
One of the outcomes of everyone being in two or three parties is that individual members can break the party line frequently and without penalty. Parties in the US are extremely weak and *never* contribute to the victory of any given official. Therefore, elected officials are more concerned with what their contributors want than what the party wants.
That aspect is where everyone adopts the cynical belief that there is one party when the truth is much more reflective of the country: every man for himself.
I hope that helps you understand where I was coming from. Personally, I dislike Bush but I understand the system and it will take a *lot* more nonsense for him or anybody else to screw it up. Power simply doesn't concentrate in any particular structure in the US.
I think we're reaching some common ground but the delivery of dissent is as relevant as the content of dissent. There is a threshold where someone moves beyond debate into "just being a dick." I suppose that threshold is pretty high for Americans because even the expression of the post in question didn't register as a problem.
His view is tame compared to the vitriolic discussions that occur on American television every evening. And those discussions pale in comparison to the shitstorm on Fox News.
But even the evil Bill O'Reilly or Pat Buchanan will loudly oppose prevailing conservative views on some issues a few times a month. Clinton was notorious for "abandoning" the left on dozens of occasions. It's the culture of individuality and it is about as evil as collectivism--which is entirely dependent on cultural upbringing.
The only super rigid holier-than-thou public figures are the Christian right assholes like Franklin Graham et al. Those guys are worse than any ayatollah the Middle East can put out.
This message is getting long and way off the original topic. Feel free to contact me by email.
It's flamebait because it's presenting a blatantly one sided view without even attempting to use any logic, let alone empathy, to see it from the other side.
First, this is Slashdot. There's no further explanation needed for that. Second, this was not necessarily bad moderation but a cultural difference in how to treat dissent.
Americans can be great friends and hold radically different political views. I know Europeans tend to scorn "our" freedom of speech but it allows our country to function despite the fact that half the people think the other half is a giant mass of idiotic protoplasm.
Europeans, in contrast, like order and disagreement from the party line is strongly discouraged. It could very well get you ostracized.
While Europeans may have 7 or 8 political parties per country, Americans essentially have 536 political parties--president, 100 Senators, 435 representatives. None of them give a damn about another official's position and will take the position they think is right regardless of party affiliation.
In that kind of atmosphere, you are not going to last long if you can't accept dissent and promote compromise--even if dissent is one-sided with little or no basis in logic. That's life.
I agree. My objective is to have 77 children in 23 states. What's with the requirements for a wife and a demand for responsibility? True genius requires space and the propagation of genius requires my DNA. Propagation of genius is the most important objective. If they came from me, they'll figure everything out. No problem.
How is this flamebait? The gentleman might not hold the prevailing viewpoint but it is his right to hold this opinion. I don't see him targeting a specific group or insulting the majority of readers. Perhaps moderators need a choice to indicate their disagreement in a more accurate way.
But don't forget to ask the Dictionary about the definition of "troll". Or rather, the most important definition in reference to your post:
Troll--makes spurious claims to infuriate readers in the hope of eliciting as many responses as possible. Usually cannot spell anything correctly. Very often is a nerd according to parent post definition.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't have an on/off button on my DSL modem. Neither, probably, do you or most other people. When I lived in Tampa, I had one until the cable company arrived one morning to tell me that I had to get a new modem installed.
If companies really want everyone to conserve bandwidth then why can't we block the pipe without unplugging the thing? Makes no sense unless they get a bigger benefit from knowing exactly what your computer is doing at any given moment.
A society's success is determined by how fat it is.
America is a HUGE success.
I am a robot developer in a new robot industry startup developing robot services and robot infrastructure. Our IPO launches on Monday...
The author of this article has completely failed to understand basic economics.
Maybe he never peeked outside an airplane window. There are lots of people whose ancestors were displaced by the airplane. Those people will still find work. His example of New York has a completely different cause than corporate layoffs... homelessness in this country comes from stupidity. Sorry if that's a little insensitive but it's true.
You should have been dropped to "troll", not the parent post.
How is Buddhism not a religion? What makes a religion? The suspension of rational thought?
There's nothing scientific about the Buddhist moral code in the Middle Path and this moral code is far stricter than any religion I've seen. You pay the price of your deeds in karma. That price can be pretty f'n heavy if you aren't careful. You might not get punished immediately or even in this life but you will pay. Conversely, karma rewards good deeds. You can foster your entire existence into generating good karma (/. has nothing to do with this.)
There is no eternity for your behavior. You will not suffer eternal damnation for evil nor will you enjoy eternal bliss for good. Everything can change.
Further, while the overall concepts square with science, once you start exploring the 31 states of existence, you may need to leave science at the door or at least not get upset when you hear various descriptions of these different realities.
You have to believe that the Middle Path is the right way of living and that creating excuses and rationalizations for why you deviated from it will hurt you more than just admitting that you like porn, gambling and other nonsense.
Now, what were you saying about Buddhism not being a religion? Maybe it was just your ignorance and cynicism shining through.
Meditation is valuable but there are a lot of different kinds of meditation. For example, breathing meditation can be done 24 hours a day. Our breath rate has a huge impact on what emotions control us in a given moment. Control the breath and you have another avenue for seeking mental equilibrium.
Then there's the "kindness" meditation which can be done at all hours while you're awake. Basically, you decide that you wish everyone well no matter what they think of you and you don't let situations beyond your control get the best of you.
I don't find value in yoga or sitting in one place humming crazy chants. Neither do most educated Buddhists. The charlatans like yoga and incense and other nonsense because it sells. The naive like yoga and incense and other nonsense because these people haven't detached themselves from the myth that you can *buy* happiness.
Corporate adoption of meditation practices seems like yet another idiotic idea from marketing. I'm sure most employees are perfectly capable of taking care of their spiritual needs without the Corporate Big Brother getting involved.
If corporations really want to help, they can focus on providing money in exchange for hours worked instead of always trying to ace full-timers out of their labor.
It's in Pebble Beach (near Cape Canaveral). Giant surf shop with a stupid looking shark on all their brand stuff. Seriously, if you are coming to the US, go to Washington D.C. like everyone here is saying. It's an amazing city and the National Mall (museums, not cheesy stores) is simply one of the great wonders of the world. Unfortunately, it's a bit annoying with all the counterterrorism barricades everywhere... it was truly beautiful before our new age of terror funding. Nevertheless, spend loads of time there. You'll see some eye-opening exhibits that are explicitly critical of past US behavior so it's a legitimate place to learn about anything.
We've upped our standards so up yours.
Free Classifieds
I concur. Free software really screws up the currency circulation. I think a desktop monopoly also screws up currency circulation. The answer is an open source/free operating system but not free software. Java's "write once, run anywhere" is complete crap largely because that prevailing desktop operating system is neither free nor open. BSD style licensing instead of GPL is needed to have a sustainable, innovative industry.
But what do you do? IBM is on the Linux bandwagon. Nobody can rationally ban free software. The only possibility is that Linux remains a ghetto OS and Microsoft gets some true justice leveled against them.
Despite open APIs and other aspects that make the closed nature of Windows "irrelevant", there are still parts that make Microsoft products run better than competitors and one company controls 95% of the desktop market. I'm still on 98 because I have critical disability software that doesn't run under XP.
Screw waiting for Linux to spread. Force open Windows now.
Dude, you are preaching to the choir. Exactly who is your post aimed at? Certainly not slashdot. Find a way to get that message to the public.
That's great that what's-his-face can decree something. Is somebody forcing him to use the license or is he just screaming at the sky?
The only religion that attempts to be rational and, for the most part, succeeds is Buddhism. Not the Tibetan nonsense but Southern or Theravada Buddhism.
That was an excellent post. Given the pace and patience of /., it is not surprising that you weren't given your due of + 5 Insightful. Of course, you earned some real karma here so it doesn't matter what the score on /. is.
It definitely gets published. You shouldn't kid yourself on the second point.
If I wrote a journal entry on a sheet of paper and decided to note something interesting I found at Google News and make sure to note the appropriate links, how does that differ? By putting my journal entry on the web, people can click to it faster. Your additional identification for what is nothing more than a journal proves my point.
This word shows the worst side of tech--inventing a word for something that A) already exists in the physical world and B) has undergone ZERO changes outside of being ported to new technology.
Since both are true, the word "Journal" works just fine.
FUCX...The new, dynamic OS from IBM featuring Carrie-Anne Moss.
You didn't catch any humor in my post? Not even with the tell tale smiley and the "perfect weapon in a trade war with Europe"?
Next time, I'll turn on the sarcasm tag.
Sheesh. Where are you from? Germany?
Operating systems should be free and open. Software should not. This is honest dissent, not a troll so moderators need to find someone else to mod down.
;)
Having Windows controlled by Microsoft instead of the public allows them to wrestle companies to their knees. On the other side, the open source movement has as many innovative ideas as Microsoft which is damn near zero. By creating free software, the open source movement kicks third party companies in the kidneys while Microsoft is efficiently pushing them down already.
If Microsoft opened the source to Windows (perhaps 98) tomorrow, Linux would die a quick death or revert back to being a tool of hobbyists.
In fact, that might be the ultimate weapon in any potential trade war with Europe.
The only party is the contributor list and that is what they vote with. I definitely did not imply that those bastards vote with their conscience. Go read my reply to the non-AC.
Full disclosure: I earned a 3.7 GPA in Political Science at the University of Florida. While I despise political office, I am tremendously interested in structures, institutions and dynamics between them.
Let me explain how two political parties can be more tolerant than 7 or 8. You'll have to put the cynicism aside for a moment though...
There's a predictive principle of how many parties will be in any given democracy called Duvarcheis (spelling definitely wrong) Law. Basically, there's an inverse relationship between diversity and the number of political parties. The more ethically and culturally diverse a country is, the fewer parties it will have.
For the US, that means two giant umbrella parties. For Europe, that means half a dozen or more parties per country.
One of the outcomes of everyone being in two or three parties is that individual members can break the party line frequently and without penalty. Parties in the US are extremely weak and *never* contribute to the victory of any given official. Therefore, elected officials are more concerned with what their contributors want than what the party wants.
That aspect is where everyone adopts the cynical belief that there is one party when the truth is much more reflective of the country: every man for himself.
I hope that helps you understand where I was coming from. Personally, I dislike Bush but I understand the system and it will take a *lot* more nonsense for him or anybody else to screw it up. Power simply doesn't concentrate in any particular structure in the US.
I think we're reaching some common ground but the delivery of dissent is as relevant as the content of dissent. There is a threshold where someone moves beyond debate into "just being a dick." I suppose that threshold is pretty high for Americans because even the expression of the post in question didn't register as a problem.
His view is tame compared to the vitriolic discussions that occur on American television every evening. And those discussions pale in comparison to the shitstorm on Fox News.
But even the evil Bill O'Reilly or Pat Buchanan will loudly oppose prevailing conservative views on some issues a few times a month. Clinton was notorious for "abandoning" the left on dozens of occasions. It's the culture of individuality and it is about as evil as collectivism--which is entirely dependent on cultural upbringing.
The only super rigid holier-than-thou public figures are the Christian right assholes like Franklin Graham et al. Those guys are worse than any ayatollah the Middle East can put out.
This message is getting long and way off the original topic. Feel free to contact me by email.
First, this is Slashdot. There's no further explanation needed for that. Second, this was not necessarily bad moderation but a cultural difference in how to treat dissent.
Americans can be great friends and hold radically different political views. I know Europeans tend to scorn "our" freedom of speech but it allows our country to function despite the fact that half the people think the other half is a giant mass of idiotic protoplasm.
Europeans, in contrast, like order and disagreement from the party line is strongly discouraged. It could very well get you ostracized.
While Europeans may have 7 or 8 political parties per country, Americans essentially have 536 political parties--president, 100 Senators, 435 representatives. None of them give a damn about another official's position and will take the position they think is right regardless of party affiliation.
In that kind of atmosphere, you are not going to last long if you can't accept dissent and promote compromise--even if dissent is one-sided with little or no basis in logic. That's life.
I agree. My objective is to have 77 children in 23 states. What's with the requirements for a wife and a demand for responsibility? True genius requires space and the propagation of genius requires my DNA. Propagation of genius is the most important objective. If they came from me, they'll figure everything out. No problem.
How is this flamebait? The gentleman might not hold the prevailing viewpoint but it is his right to hold this opinion. I don't see him targeting a specific group or insulting the majority of readers. Perhaps moderators need a choice to indicate their disagreement in a more accurate way.
But don't forget to ask the Dictionary about the definition of "troll". Or rather, the most important definition in reference to your post: Troll--makes spurious claims to infuriate readers in the hope of eliciting as many responses as possible. Usually cannot spell anything correctly. Very often is a nerd according to parent post definition.