I know it's fun to rag on the 'editors' here, and kdawson is evidently a troll account (no profile, just consistent flamebait), whenever I consider ranting against them, I think of this post from the 'idle' launch:
Agreed. I never post. I hardly ever mod. But Slashdot has been an immense education for me as a tech generalist over the past 8 years (yes - took me a few years to even sign up for a uid). A couple of thoughts.
I love the js powered post-expansion. Massive improvement as I no longer have to skip about posts. Never any speed issues.
Lack of avatars + user cruft mean posts rise to the top rather than personalities. The few who I can name have it for good reason - I've actively noticed who they are through consistent quality posting: nycl, badanalogyguy, akaimbatman, clevernickname...
To paraphrase a comment above -/. is where I frequently learn from people whose general views I actively reject
I teach an HTML class to primarily New Canadians who often have a limited grasp of English, and certainly a limited grasp of computers. Ok, I hear you all crying "Teach them the basics before you teach them HTML", but my course runs concurrent with a number of other 'starter' courses, that in theory prep them for Canadian employment.
So, I try to not patronise, and I try to not oversimplify, as that only leads to problems in week 7 or contradictions with Bob in Basic Computing, where you have to go back on your original lie (anyone remember their physics classes from age 12...complete bullshit).
What I do though is make heavy use of analogy and visual cues. I always keep class notes in a bright yellow folder, that is remarkable similar to a Windows folder icon. "This yellow thing is a folder, inside is files with information" is usually only needed once after they've renamed a folder to index.html. I also always carry a newspaper to class.
<h1> is the headline. <h2> is the subheading. This is a <p> paragraph...etc...
I've found these two tools to be the most useful teaching aids possible.
A logical argument always starts with some assumptions - no problem there
If you want to argue ethics you always start with your beliefs - take philosophy 101, a devils's advocate is always useful
However what you believe is no way tied to some universal truth - reasonable again, but what is technically known as 'stating the bleeding obvious'
There is no "ethical truth" or what Kant called the categorical imperative - for someone who attempted to use logical argument to settle this, this is a pretty major leap
back to the quote:
The reason slavery is unacceptable today is because the vast majority of the world believes that it is wrong.
Ok. We're back to the 'assumption/belief' stage. Sure, Kant is not invincible, but his 'categorical imperative' that you so briefly dismissed goes a hell of a lot further than your blaise assumptions. His basic notion (paraphrased and simplified) is that an action cannot be considered for the moral good if one cannot wish the extrapolation of that action to all agents. What that means is that if you can't wish everyone to do the same, it's probably not ethical. This position has been attacked since he suggested it, but most of the arguments come down to minutiae, not the concept as it governs certain 'universal truths' as you would have. On the whole, Kant hit the nail on the head.
The reason slavery is not acceptable morally is that all human beings realise that it is a selfish action for the few who have the power by chance. If you were the potential object of slavery I suspect your views on binary moral concepts might change.
Slavery might return one day when people's attitudes change. You may claim that it is unethical and they would say it is not. Both views stand on similar ground. However people may one day think the Sun rotates around the Earth but it will not change the actual truth.
So, what point are you trying to make with the Sun/earth analogy? Sure there is scientific truth, but people often act in contrary ways to this and construct plausible hypotheses. Just because people act contrary to possible ethical truths does not lessen their potential veracity.
The assumption with which you started your 'logical argument' was in fact no less than the conclusion with which you intended to finish. Bad logical argument is as bad as falsified scientific data.
a number of years back (should have patented it). Replace standard paving slabs with slabs that sink slightly when stood on, and generate electricity from the motion...wouldn't create any issues of extra emissions (as this will), and would merely make your trip to the shops a little more tiring. Solving obesity and power issues all in one.
Ok, probably wouldn't work practically, but is a damn sight better end-product than this.
Like many here no doubt, concurrent with pouring my morning coffee I check several sites. bbc.co.uk, theweathernetwork.com and football365.com. This gives me the means to decide if I should leave the house - if there's nuclear war, a hurricane or if City have lost I may well not do.
That said, I read a paper newspaper daily. The Metro (metronews.ca) is a free (ad-supported) newspaper that offers me as much news as I can read daily - 45 minutes on the way to work - with less ads than the major (not-free) dailies. Ok the journalism may not be as highbrow and neutral as such publications as the WSJ (US), the Times (UK) or the Globe (CA) [/irony], but frankly I am capable of researching a story if something catches my eye. And it has a crossword and sudoku. It also focuses on the one aspect of news that is not well covered online which is my local (down to what happens on my street) news.
The paper is not dead, nor will it be for the forseeable future, but the industry is undergoing (albeit more quietly) the same changes as the other major media - music and tv/film, and they need to find a new business model that can compete with the technological and revenue changes of the day.
The metro has a readership of over 400,000 of Toronto's 20-35 (read disposable income) population. This is the kind of targeted marketing that Google is milking vast VC on right now. National bloatpapers may have had their day but the print-paper industry is far from dead. They just need to wake up.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with any news dissemination organ, be it online, tree-based or otherwise
"Let's help ourselves to music for free" goes down a lot smoother if you believe that everybody who contributed to the music is a millionaire, but it's simply not true.
'Free' was not what I, or TFA was proposing.
The suggested sorts of models, where the distribution costs are tiny and the manufacturing costs zero (no jewel case, cover etc..), would not need to be to the detriment of the people who already receive a paltry wage. The Music Industry has for the longest time justified the enormous cut they take from CDs, and hence the enormous price, on these now redundant factors. A p2p distribution system could still recompense the artists the same, and have a more realistic price for a track. Sadly, as we are currently seeing, the industry still tries to sell the music for the inflated cost (and even raise the price) when the overheads just aren't there any more, in order to overhype certain (arguably less talented) artists to the detriment of others and pay themselves a nice big fat paycheque.
'artists' like Lipsychson making millions. Record company execs making...millions. IT pros making...a lot less than that.
Now ask yourself who can 'suck it up' the most of those groups.
A well written wikipedia article should cite its sources. If some of these are web sources, the act of verifying the facts is actually quicker than verifying the facts in a print encyclopedia (because they can be wrong as well, particularly out-of-date).
countless "it's a rip-off" posts, and countless others responding to the "none of the Mac Benefits" flamebait remark.
What neither of these will take into account is that copying other people's form-factor and design concepts is all part of the tech merry-go-round. Nobody complains (or should) about other portable MP3 players being 'iPod rip-offs', if there's a market why not enter it. And not even the most avid Mac-fan would try to argue that there are no 'Mac drawbacks' as well.
I for one welcome our new Small-Formfactor-PC overlords.
What happens when shopping malls decide they don't generate enough revenue by rent alone...
1)install reader in door frame
2)print EULA on doorstep stating there is a $5 charge to enter. "By stepping over this threshold you agree to the following terms...."
3)...
4)profit!!
or Blockbuster:
1)Take out advert at superbowl "THE END OF RENTAL FEES"
2)Place item at #296 in the website FAQ - "There will be a $15 charge for entering the store
3)...
4)profit!!
It's not even workable in one direction if you think about it. If it works in less that all directions, then the object in question will cast a shadow. Even if the main shadow is not in a visible place to the 'enemy', the area behind the object [as they look at it] will be darker than the surrounding landscape as there will be a certain amount of blocked light to the general area.
-- Just my Issey Miyake and CKone (two scents)
Slashdot Mirror
I know it's fun to rag on the 'editors' here, and kdawson is evidently a troll account (no profile, just consistent flamebait), whenever I consider ranting against them, I think of this post from the 'idle' launch:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=646041&cid=24603867
We all have PHBs, even /. editors. I love how they all appeared in solidarity, like the ending of a Stephen King novel.
Keep it up, we luv ya really ;-)
Agreed. I never post. I hardly ever mod. But Slashdot has been an immense education for me as a tech generalist over the past 8 years (yes - took me a few years to even sign up for a uid). A couple of thoughts.
I love the js powered post-expansion. Massive improvement as I no longer have to skip about posts. Never any speed issues.
Lack of avatars + user cruft mean posts rise to the top rather than personalities. The few who I can name have it for good reason - I've actively noticed who they are through consistent quality posting: nycl, badanalogyguy, akaimbatman, clevernickname...
To paraphrase a comment above - /. is where I frequently learn from people whose general views I actively reject
To another 100k.
So, I try to not patronise, and I try to not oversimplify, as that only leads to problems in week 7 or contradictions with Bob in Basic Computing, where you have to go back on your original lie (anyone remember their physics classes from age 12...complete bullshit).
What I do though is make heavy use of analogy and visual cues. I always keep class notes in a bright yellow folder, that is remarkable similar to a Windows folder icon. "This yellow thing is a folder, inside is files with information" is usually only needed once after they've renamed a folder to index.html. I also always carry a newspaper to class. I've found these two tools to be the most useful teaching aids possible.
back to the quote:
Ok. We're back to the 'assumption/belief' stage. Sure, Kant is not invincible, but his 'categorical imperative' that you so briefly dismissed goes a hell of a lot further than your blaise assumptions. His basic notion (paraphrased and simplified) is that an action cannot be considered for the moral good if one cannot wish the extrapolation of that action to all agents. What that means is that if you can't wish everyone to do the same, it's probably not ethical. This position has been attacked since he suggested it, but most of the arguments come down to minutiae, not the concept as it governs certain 'universal truths' as you would have. On the whole, Kant hit the nail on the head.
The reason slavery is not acceptable morally is that all human beings realise that it is a selfish action for the few who have the power by chance. If you were the potential object of slavery I suspect your views on binary moral concepts might change.
So, what point are you trying to make with the Sun/earth analogy? Sure there is scientific truth, but people often act in contrary ways to this and construct plausible hypotheses. Just because people act contrary to possible ethical truths does not lessen their potential veracity.
The assumption with which you started your 'logical argument' was in fact no less than the conclusion with which you intended to finish. Bad logical argument is as bad as falsified scientific data.
a number of years back (should have patented it). Replace standard paving slabs with slabs that sink slightly when stood on, and generate electricity from the motion...wouldn't create any issues of extra emissions (as this will), and would merely make your trip to the shops a little more tiring. Solving obesity and power issues all in one. Ok, probably wouldn't work practically, but is a damn sight better end-product than this.
Like many here no doubt, concurrent with pouring my morning coffee I check several sites. bbc.co.uk, theweathernetwork.com and football365.com. This gives me the means to decide if I should leave the house - if there's nuclear war, a hurricane or if City have lost I may well not do.
That said, I read a paper newspaper daily. The Metro (metronews.ca) is a free (ad-supported) newspaper that offers me as much news as I can read daily - 45 minutes on the way to work - with less ads than the major (not-free) dailies. Ok the journalism may not be as highbrow and neutral as such publications as the WSJ (US), the Times (UK) or the Globe (CA) [/irony], but frankly I am capable of researching a story if something catches my eye. And it has a crossword and sudoku. It also focuses on the one aspect of news that is not well covered online which is my local (down to what happens on my street) news.
The paper is not dead, nor will it be for the forseeable future, but the industry is undergoing (albeit more quietly) the same changes as the other major media - music and tv/film, and they need to find a new business model that can compete with the technological and revenue changes of the day.
The metro has a readership of over 400,000 of Toronto's 20-35 (read disposable income) population. This is the kind of targeted marketing that Google is milking vast VC on right now. National bloatpapers may have had their day but the print-paper industry is far from dead. They just need to wake up.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with any news dissemination organ, be it online, tree-based or otherwise
to alter the ./ code for posting an article, that could do a quick scan of the past 3 weeks' urls in the database, and flag dupes before they arrive?
"Let's help ourselves to music for free" goes down a lot smoother if you believe that everybody who contributed to the music is a millionaire, but it's simply not true. 'Free' was not what I, or TFA was proposing.
The suggested sorts of models, where the distribution costs are tiny and the manufacturing costs zero (no jewel case, cover etc..), would not need to be to the detriment of the people who already receive a paltry wage. The Music Industry has for the longest time justified the enormous cut they take from CDs, and hence the enormous price, on these now redundant factors. A p2p distribution system could still recompense the artists the same, and have a more realistic price for a track. Sadly, as we are currently seeing, the industry still tries to sell the music for the inflated cost (and even raise the price) when the overheads just aren't there any more, in order to overhype certain (arguably less talented) artists to the detriment of others and pay themselves a nice big fat paycheque.
'artists' like Lipsychson making millions. Record company execs making...millions. IT pros making...a lot less than that. Now ask yourself who can 'suck it up' the most of those groups.
Here's some more thoughts on this topic from el Reg: How the music biz can live forever, get even richer, and be loved
A well written wikipedia article should cite its sources. If some of these are web sources, the act of verifying the facts is actually quicker than verifying the facts in a print encyclopedia (because they can be wrong as well, particularly out-of-date).
or more to the point, why would anyone want a lunchbox that size? You could barely fit half a sandwich and a wagon wheel in there.
[Insert link to Linux flavour of choice here]
countless "it's a rip-off" posts, and countless others responding to the "none of the Mac Benefits" flamebait remark.
What neither of these will take into account is that copying other people's form-factor and design concepts is all part of the tech merry-go-round. Nobody complains (or should) about other portable MP3 players being 'iPod rip-offs', if there's a market why not enter it. And not even the most avid Mac-fan would try to argue that there are no 'Mac drawbacks' as well.
I for one welcome our new Small-Formfactor-PC overlords.
Or, we could
.ca after they become illegal in the US.
1)Manufacture non-BF ready TVs in
2)Open a store at the border
3)...
4)profit!
What happens when shopping malls decide they don't generate enough revenue by rent alone...
1)install reader in door frame
2)print EULA on doorstep stating there is a $5 charge to enter. "By stepping over this threshold you agree to the following terms...."
3)...
4)profit!!
or Blockbuster:
1)Take out advert at superbowl "THE END OF RENTAL FEES"
2)Place item at #296 in the website FAQ - "There will be a $15 charge for entering the store
3)...
4)profit!!
It's not even workable in one direction if you think about it. If it works in less that all directions, then the object in question will cast a shadow. Even if the main shadow is not in a visible place to the 'enemy', the area behind the object [as they look at it] will be darker than the surrounding landscape as there will be a certain amount of blocked light to the general area. -- Just my Issey Miyake and CKone (two scents)