I live about 90 miles south of the Canadian border in Western NY... The winter cooling capacity 'round these parts is pretty high. It's about time somebody figured out a way to use the area's largest natural resource... Snow. My only question is what happens to algae growth if the lake warms up even a couple of degrees?
True. We can debate who's more important to the process, but without a "visionary" to get out in front of people and get them excited about computers, we'd be left with engineers, coders, and the like to do that marketing. As a graphic artist, I am right there alongside the code monkeys in the "not great with customers" group. We need people who don't know any better to ask stupid questions so that we have a problem to solve, which is why we're addicted to what we do. Though it pains me to say it, Marketing people are actually useful. When they don't understand the true dimensions of the box, they can easily (and unintentionally) present you with a problem that gets you outside said box.
Steve Jobs has been excellent in that capacity. I wouldn't say he doesn't understand the gear, but Woz clearly knew more about the engineering side of it. Let's face it though, Woz would not have been able to get people as excited about home computers as Jobs. Love him or hate him, his contribution to geek culture can't be ignored.
That said, this story has generated the funniest comments I've seen on/. in ages.
"Clever corporate nicknames"? I'm sorry, was VOD too hard for you to decipher? Or was it Cockbuster? I'll let you work out which huge video rental chain rhymes with Cockbuster... Oh, maybe "Skinemax" was too tricky for you. I'm 33, but I did notice a zit on my chin this morning. You're very perceptive... You have no sense of fucking humor, but you're very perceptive. Relax smart guy.
Sorry. Didn't notice. From time to time I go through the list to see if anything grabs my attention and it seemed that they were all still there, but I'll take your word for it. I was more than happy to burn 1.95 on Blazing Saddles. I do think it's funny that the Porn VOD channel is $9.95 per movie... not that I'd know anything about that...
I should start by saying that I work for the Deathstar... err... Time Warner Cable. I can't really speak about the competitors' products, but our VOD is not like the traditional pay-per-view. We still have a pile of channels with the same movie all day that start at half hour intervals, but that isn't VOD. For VOD, we add a few movies a week, you can start them at any time, fast forward/rewind, and you can watch it as many times as you like in a 24 hour period. Believe me, nobody thinks less of the service we provide than I do, but the VOD rollout has worked exactly as advertised. There are two additional "features" that don't make it into the marketing materials... One, VOD movies don't seem to freeze up or pixelate as often as the normal digital channels. And two, the catalog of movies only grows. It started with maybe a dozen movies, and everything that's been added since we launched it is still there. It's still not the volume you'd find at CockBuster, but it's growing. And, surprisingly, it's not all huge megabudget movies, there are quite few foreign films and indies, plus older movies available for a cheaper price than the new releases. The older movies seem to be added according to theme or actor... 80's "classics", or additional movies starring somebody who's in one of the new releases, etc. Between cable prices, Roadrunner prices/performance, network programming, etc... It's the only service we offer that I don't hear too many people bitching about. The OnDemand channels from HBO, Showtime, TMC, and Skinemax are great for catching things that are in the current lineup, particularly any of their original stuff... But I agree that the volume is somewhat limited. Personally, I wish we would ditch the VOIP effort and worry about making the stuff we already sell better... But, I'm just the brooding graphics guy that sits in the dimly lit cave with loud scary music... so I doubt they'll be asking me what I think any time soon.
"Jack Hoff"... That takes me back. There was a local cop in my home town whose last name was Knouff. In his off duty time, he was a heavy drug user and mall cop, in that order. In junior high, we always called him Jack. Being sort of a failed body builder/wannabe stud/ scumbag type, he was usually hitting on high school girls who would then laugh at him and continue teasing him after we left. After a while, there must have been hundreds of kids doing this to him. Years later, I heard he had some kind of meltdown drunk and on duty at the mall where he beat the crap out of a 15 year old. Turns out his real name was Ralph, which I'm not sure was really any better. I wonder whatever happened to old Officer Jack Knouff? Now that it I'm thinking of it, the police chief here was named Richard Reems... I'm starting to think my hometown was run by the cast of a gay porn movie...
Maybe it won't be as important to your company, but treat the grunts (coders, graphics people) as though they are at least as important as your sales people. I work in the advertising department of a large, death star owning, cable company... cough Time Warner cough cough. The culture has developed into a very lopsided mess that makes it very difficult to be a team player. The physical space is designed for paper-pushers... bright overhead lights, normal walls don't go all the way to the ceilings, too many cubicle walls, creative people located too close to administrative types... Even in an imperfect world, you should be able to provide different atmospheres for your "departments". Sales, customer service, administrative personnel, and the like can have their brightly lit "office" space. We rasterbators like to have a space where you can put stuff on the walls, play music, and literally "think outside the box". Likewise, dress codes and break schedules should be a bit more flexible for the people who need to get into any kind of creative "groove". Nothing puts the hurt on my right lobe like sitting in a bright white room, wearing clothes that are uncomfortable, listening to the demented ramblings of sales people trying to "upsell" a client. Fortunately, I have taken over an unused TV studio for my space. It's overkill, but having a 25x40 office where I can close the door and make as much noise as I want is much less stressful. Plus, scrubbing through chunks of video repeatedly has a tendency to make non-vidiots nearby want to hang themselves. Also, don't do what we did... Our fearless leader (all the way at the top) spent $23 Million on just HIS office in NYC. Meanwhile, the poor bastards creating the company's product out of thin air have had our salaries pretty much frozen. To add insult to injury, the completion of said office made all of the big news networks, Newsweek, most of the industry rags, and our utterly pointless company magazine. Nothing will demotivate the people who pull your product out of their ass faster than unbalanced compensation. That said, I'd like to apologize for using "think outside the box", "upsell" and "groove" in this post. See, I told you I was located too close to the office drones... Time to sharpen up my demo reel. Oh, and for the love of God, make sure there's free coffee. I think my contract actually states that I'm allowed to kill one coworker every 30 minutes until there's a pot of coffee on. Also VERY IMPORTANT: Let your people have some input on what equipment they're going to have to use! Letting middle manager/number cruncher types try to select CGI gear is like having my grandmother help you shop for porn... Not that her taste is bad, it's just that she's probably not real up to date on the good stuff. Nothing says "Your job is unimportant and the appearance is even less important" louder than trying to convince the art department that $75 worth of software from Wal Mart (I shit you not) is going to do the trick... Direct quote after I picked my jaw up off of the floor: "What's the problem? It says here that it comes with 250,000 stock photos...". I'm sure that, to some degree, the same could be said for all departments, but it's particularly important to properly equip the people who make the product and its image.
I love my iPod and I use it in my car, so I had been looking forward to seeing this when the rumors started leaking last week. This is the big deal? Maybe Apple hates BMW drivers as much as the rest of us? I have an extra Apple dock that fits perfectly in my ashtray in my (don't laugh) 92 LeSabre. It puts the iPod within easy reach, I can read it without too much hassle, sits very close to the tape deck/radio, and best of all the lighter is right next to it... It isn't the most elegant solution, but for the cost of another dock and an adapter for the lighter... I actually get to use as many playlists as I want and I can see the screen. I expected better out of Apple and BMW.
I've worked with digital imaging since the mid 80's, done photo enhancement for the police, and have had functioning eyeballs since 1971... I don't see the rings. I think the larger story is the fact that the beach looks like a big strip of bacon. Besides, aside from Patrick Duffy, who gives a shit about Atlantis? Are we looking to outsource some jobs there or bomb them?
Back before anything carried on your person could make you a suspected terrorist, I had a few different implements that saved my ass more than once. My favorite was the cattle prod I kept in my car, and occasionally under my trench coat. While only as effective as a mediocre stun-gun, the fact that it was a 24 inch long metal pipe gave a nice alternative in case the zap didn't take care of business. It was also extremely effective for clearing out keg parties when it was time for everyone to go home. My other favorites included a plain old tube sock with a few fistfuls of wood screws or a pile of D batteries in it, a fistful of 18 inch coaxial cables with frayed ends (talk about a terrifying wound!), and in one extreme case a can of oven cleaner did the trick. My geekdom wasn't what caused my need for improvised weapons, it had more to do with having a blue mohawk and being an accused satanist in a small town in the 80s... Either way, any self respecting geek should have enough extra cables laying around that they shoud be able to sufficiently arm themselves. I don't mean that pansy-ass USB shit, dig up some SCSI cables! The coax can shred the sleeve of a leather jacket pretty effectively... not that I, as a "reformed" citizen, would know anything about that... But if you want to hear a 240 defensive tackle scream like a 6 year old girl on fire, flog him once or twice with a fistful of coax. In the case of a mugger, or other armed assailant, aim for the face and neck... Nothing says "no you can't have my iPod" like ripping someone's eye out. Everyone on Slashdot likes to bitch about how expensive they are... go ahead and sell it, you won't make enough to cover your ER visit... never mind the cost of a semi convincing glass eye and plastic surgery to give you a new cheek.
Zing, indeed! I hope I didn't imply that I thought Jim was a nice guy... He'd probably be the first to admit that he's a world class asshole. In any case, he's a hell of a writer. My personal favorite was the Suicide Issue.
I live in Western NY, which most would argue is almost entirely "rural". The plight of the rural ghetto-dweller is no less sad than that of their urban counterparts. Living in a trailer does not mean that somebody is stupid, lazy, or inbred... In fact, the cost of living in one is cheap enough, that most of them have pretty current gear... It's just not a huge estate. Being Slashdot, I know that membership practically requires a smug, "more evolved than thou" attitude toward people. For an interesting perspective on "white trash", check out Jim Goad's "The Redneck Manifesto". The name suggests something akin to "You might be a redneck if...", but I assure you it's much more interesting. Elsewhere in the comments, I saw somebody describing the "t-shirts with no sleeves (affectionately called "wife beaters")"... What's the matter Mr. Spock? No data on "wifebeaters" on your tricorder? Sorry. You made it sound like you were an anthropologist studying a tribe of recently discovered savages. Do you affectionately call your bedroom in your mom's basement "the Bat Cave"?
First of all, I hate that rancid skank Ann Coulter as much as anyine else. Second, there are no rebel flags in my wardrobe. Third, I never said anything about carpet bombing anyone. Fourth, by your logic, Sharon Tate must have done something horrible for Manson's girls to carve her and her friends up like that... My entire point is that being a reactionary lunatic, no matter what side of the fence you're on, is not going to solve anything. The difference between 9/11 and "collateral damage" is that we do not specifically target civilians. It's tragic when any noncombatants die in "military" actions. For that matter, it's tragic that anyone has to die for any of it. Let's also remember that there are countries that intentinally disperse military units into residential neighborhoods in a misguided attempt to keep us from attacking. If we don't attack, they win. If we do attack, and kill some of their neighbors, they beat us up in the press for bombing children. Our strikes are much more surgical than they were in Dresden, for example. The carpet bombing that you spoke of is not required to get our targets anymore. I'm pretty cynical, but even I don't believe that our military would kill children on purpose, which is more than I can say for people who blow themselves up in crowded markets... or in front of federal buildings in Oklahoma. I have no love for GWB, but if we're going to compare the moral authority of either side, he's closer to right than the "terrorists". "Close" may not be good enough to make it right, but it's about the best we can do now that the ball is rolling. Personally, if we really wanted to achieve "shock and awe", we would start dropping people like Ann Coulter and Al Franken out of planes instead of bombs. When a training camp tent collapses under the weight of Bill O'Reilly plummeting from 10,000 feet, maybe these people would get the message that we're done letting extremists of any kind affect policy. Strafe the camp with Enron executives, and maybe we can also get the corporate sponsors to back off. Send 100,000 "Promise Keepers" and let them see that preachy assholes and the theocracies they create are bad for everyone. If they keep it up, we bring out the MOAB... we drop Ted Kennedy and Rush Limbaugh on them. All kidding aside, it's a dirty fight, but now that we're in it, right or wrong, I want us to win it with as few American casualties as possible. Sadly, our pompous greed and thousands of years of institutinalized religious zealotry are going to make it very difficult to achieve a clean and peaceful end to this mess.
I agree with your thoughts on Rwanda. I also agree about the regimes that we have supported over the years. I think it's worth pointing out the other voters on the UNSC who helped seal the fate of those people. There are countries that make lots of noise about the US behaving badly, but do nothing (or worse) to help the situation. People complain about us trying to be the world's policemen, but when the shit hits the fan... we're the first country expected to put our troops in harm's way. It can't be both ways. If other countries want us to stay home and mind our own business, they shouldn't expect our taxpayers to pay for our soldiers to come fix their problems. We seem to have lots of foul-weather friends in that respect. [cough] the french [cough] I am no fan of the dirty dealings that ANY of these countries, including the US, have engaged in. However, I do not think that killing civilians is justifiable, no matter what someone's arms budget is, or how righteous they feel their cause is. If the god fearing (and opium dealing) Taliban (and friends) want to declare war, declare it. Don't be fucking cowards. If the Saudis want to get on board, at least be open about it. But, if one is going to start a conflict like that, they would be well served by the old rule: "Never bring a knife to a gunfight". In regards to the Rwandans, anyone who commits genocide (by bomb, gas, farm tools, etc.) should be made into puppy food. I am definitely not some bleeding heart that believes that no killing can be justifiable. I just think that, in order to justify it, you have to have the right target. Killing Peter to scare Paul is not right. If Paul has it coming, kill Paul. The bottom line is that there are too many players playing for interests other than the common good or progress. They require varying degrees of weeding out before anything will change. Attacks like 9/11, or any of the hundreds of situations like the ones you mentioned only serve to give the other morons in power the "justification" to make bolder moves on behalf of their real masters. I don't pretend to have the answers, I just don't think that blaming the US for all the world's ills is getting us anywhere. Likewise, the US needs to start taking a more responsible approach to our foreign policy. For now, we seem to be too busy worrying about making sure that nobody downloads movies or talks "dirty" in public to get any real work done. In the meantime, if it's not o.k. for me to kill somebody for happening to be a Muslim, then it is not o.k. to kill people because they happen to be Americans. Let's all focus our hatred just a bit tighter and make sure it shines only on the people who have earned it.
So... If I decide I don't like the policies of Norway, for instance, it's their fault if I fly a plane-load of people into one of their office buildings? On a smaller scale, if I don't like your policies, I'd be justified in killing the people you live with? I'm not real happy with everything our country does, but if you think we'll be nicer if you kill a bunch of our citizens, your turban is on too tight. If you're such a humanitarian that you have a problem with US policy, how about a little compassion for the people who just showed up for work on time on 9/11? The hypocricy of the dissenters these days is just as deplorable as our foreign policy. My friend Amy was a flight attendant on United Flight 175. Last I checked, she did not break any trade agreements, torture any Canadians, pay Bangladeshi toddlers 12 cents an hour to make Nikes, or anything else that might warrant having her body vaporized over Manhattan. Amy's job was to make people comfortable on an airplane. If you're suggesting that she deserved to die for it, I would regard that as a "bad policy"... Would that give me the right to find some fundamentalist dimwit to plow a truckload of explosives through your house? Yes, the world is an ugly place where unpopular decisions are made on a daily basis. It's an unfortunate reality. As you plan your happy warm Nerf Utopia, please keep in mind that somebody somewhere is going to dislike it. They will still not have the right to kill your citizens.
Us poor bastards that work for Time Warner companies. Having AOL mixed in with us has been disastrous for everything from our desktop systems to the creepy micromanagement. Not to mention all of the budget tightening that had to occur to help make up for AOL's "sloppy" accounting... We're just starting to get out from under it, and now this. For the record, I don't work for AOL, or even an internet related division, so please don't start flaming me. I'm pointing out that the effects of having the Voyage of the Damned plow into our (semi) tightly run ship reach far deeper into the corporate culture than you might suspect. The only positive aspect I can see is that AOL may help suck some of the money out of Microsoft, making it harder for them to remain so insanely dominant. Plus, "enemies" consolidating might make it easier to identify "friends"...
Heh? I keep forgetting that on slashdot you have to parse every statement down to the last possible interpretation so the other readers don't get too cranky. I get news from as many different sources/perspectives as I can. While there is surely not a home invasion every night in every neighborhood, you can't really deny the fact that there is quite a bit of crime being committed in this country to fund drug habits. If there were indeed only one violent crime per year connected to cocaine, it would still be more than the number connected to coffee. I was merely pointing out that cocaine comes with a whole host of connected social ills and that it was absurd to compare it to coffee. Sorry to confuse anyone.
So, when is the last time somebody pulled a home invasion and killed a family to get money to buy coffee? I mean, I'm kind of scary in the moring before my first cup, but seriously...
Slashdot Mirror
I live about 90 miles south of the Canadian border in Western NY... The winter cooling capacity 'round these parts is pretty high. It's about time somebody figured out a way to use the area's largest natural resource... Snow. My only question is what happens to algae growth if the lake warms up even a couple of degrees?
Steve Jobs has been excellent in that capacity. I wouldn't say he doesn't understand the gear, but Woz clearly knew more about the engineering side of it. Let's face it though, Woz would not have been able to get people as excited about home computers as Jobs. Love him or hate him, his contribution to geek culture can't be ignored.
That said, this story has generated the funniest comments I've seen on /. in ages.
"Clever corporate nicknames"? I'm sorry, was VOD too hard for you to decipher? Or was it Cockbuster? I'll let you work out which huge video rental chain rhymes with Cockbuster... Oh, maybe "Skinemax" was too tricky for you. I'm 33, but I did notice a zit on my chin this morning. You're very perceptive... You have no sense of fucking humor, but you're very perceptive. Relax smart guy.
Sorry. Didn't notice. From time to time I go through the list to see if anything grabs my attention and it seemed that they were all still there, but I'll take your word for it. I was more than happy to burn 1.95 on Blazing Saddles. I do think it's funny that the Porn VOD channel is $9.95 per movie... not that I'd know anything about that...
I should start by saying that I work for the Deathstar... err... Time Warner Cable. I can't really speak about the competitors' products, but our VOD is not like the traditional pay-per-view. We still have a pile of channels with the same movie all day that start at half hour intervals, but that isn't VOD. For VOD, we add a few movies a week, you can start them at any time, fast forward/rewind, and you can watch it as many times as you like in a 24 hour period. Believe me, nobody thinks less of the service we provide than I do, but the VOD rollout has worked exactly as advertised. There are two additional "features" that don't make it into the marketing materials... One, VOD movies don't seem to freeze up or pixelate as often as the normal digital channels. And two, the catalog of movies only grows. It started with maybe a dozen movies, and everything that's been added since we launched it is still there. It's still not the volume you'd find at CockBuster, but it's growing. And, surprisingly, it's not all huge megabudget movies, there are quite few foreign films and indies, plus older movies available for a cheaper price than the new releases. The older movies seem to be added according to theme or actor... 80's "classics", or additional movies starring somebody who's in one of the new releases, etc. Between cable prices, Roadrunner prices/performance, network programming, etc... It's the only service we offer that I don't hear too many people bitching about. The OnDemand channels from HBO, Showtime, TMC, and Skinemax are great for catching things that are in the current lineup, particularly any of their original stuff... But I agree that the volume is somewhat limited. Personally, I wish we would ditch the VOIP effort and worry about making the stuff we already sell better... But, I'm just the brooding graphics guy that sits in the dimly lit cave with loud scary music... so I doubt they'll be asking me what I think any time soon.
"Jack Hoff"... That takes me back. There was a local cop in my home town whose last name was Knouff. In his off duty time, he was a heavy drug user and mall cop, in that order. In junior high, we always called him Jack. Being sort of a failed body builder/wannabe stud/ scumbag type, he was usually hitting on high school girls who would then laugh at him and continue teasing him after we left. After a while, there must have been hundreds of kids doing this to him. Years later, I heard he had some kind of meltdown drunk and on duty at the mall where he beat the crap out of a 15 year old. Turns out his real name was Ralph, which I'm not sure was really any better. I wonder whatever happened to old Officer Jack Knouff? Now that it I'm thinking of it, the police chief here was named Richard Reems... I'm starting to think my hometown was run by the cast of a gay porn movie...
Cthulhu Fhtagn!
Maybe it won't be as important to your company, but treat the grunts (coders, graphics people) as though they are at least as important as your sales people. I work in the advertising department of a large, death star owning, cable company... cough Time Warner cough cough. The culture has developed into a very lopsided mess that makes it very difficult to be a team player. The physical space is designed for paper-pushers... bright overhead lights, normal walls don't go all the way to the ceilings, too many cubicle walls, creative people located too close to administrative types... Even in an imperfect world, you should be able to provide different atmospheres for your "departments". Sales, customer service, administrative personnel, and the like can have their brightly lit "office" space. We rasterbators like to have a space where you can put stuff on the walls, play music, and literally "think outside the box". Likewise, dress codes and break schedules should be a bit more flexible for the people who need to get into any kind of creative "groove". Nothing puts the hurt on my right lobe like sitting in a bright white room, wearing clothes that are uncomfortable, listening to the demented ramblings of sales people trying to "upsell" a client. Fortunately, I have taken over an unused TV studio for my space. It's overkill, but having a 25x40 office where I can close the door and make as much noise as I want is much less stressful. Plus, scrubbing through chunks of video repeatedly has a tendency to make non-vidiots nearby want to hang themselves. Also, don't do what we did... Our fearless leader (all the way at the top) spent $23 Million on just HIS office in NYC. Meanwhile, the poor bastards creating the company's product out of thin air have had our salaries pretty much frozen. To add insult to injury, the completion of said office made all of the big news networks, Newsweek, most of the industry rags, and our utterly pointless company magazine. Nothing will demotivate the people who pull your product out of their ass faster than unbalanced compensation. That said, I'd like to apologize for using "think outside the box", "upsell" and "groove" in this post. See, I told you I was located too close to the office drones... Time to sharpen up my demo reel. Oh, and for the love of God, make sure there's free coffee. I think my contract actually states that I'm allowed to kill one coworker every 30 minutes until there's a pot of coffee on. Also VERY IMPORTANT: Let your people have some input on what equipment they're going to have to use! Letting middle manager/number cruncher types try to select CGI gear is like having my grandmother help you shop for porn... Not that her taste is bad, it's just that she's probably not real up to date on the good stuff. Nothing says "Your job is unimportant and the appearance is even less important" louder than trying to convince the art department that $75 worth of software from Wal Mart (I shit you not) is going to do the trick... Direct quote after I picked my jaw up off of the floor: "What's the problem? It says here that it comes with 250,000 stock photos...". I'm sure that, to some degree, the same could be said for all departments, but it's particularly important to properly equip the people who make the product and its image.
I love my iPod and I use it in my car, so I had been looking forward to seeing this when the rumors started leaking last week. This is the big deal? Maybe Apple hates BMW drivers as much as the rest of us? I have an extra Apple dock that fits perfectly in my ashtray in my (don't laugh) 92 LeSabre. It puts the iPod within easy reach, I can read it without too much hassle, sits very close to the tape deck/radio, and best of all the lighter is right next to it... It isn't the most elegant solution, but for the cost of another dock and an adapter for the lighter... I actually get to use as many playlists as I want and I can see the screen. I expected better out of Apple and BMW.
I've worked with digital imaging since the mid 80's, done photo enhancement for the police, and have had functioning eyeballs since 1971... I don't see the rings. I think the larger story is the fact that the beach looks like a big strip of bacon. Besides, aside from Patrick Duffy, who gives a shit about Atlantis? Are we looking to outsource some jobs there or bomb them?
Back before anything carried on your person could make you a suspected terrorist, I had a few different implements that saved my ass more than once. My favorite was the cattle prod I kept in my car, and occasionally under my trench coat. While only as effective as a mediocre stun-gun, the fact that it was a 24 inch long metal pipe gave a nice alternative in case the zap didn't take care of business. It was also extremely effective for clearing out keg parties when it was time for everyone to go home. My other favorites included a plain old tube sock with a few fistfuls of wood screws or a pile of D batteries in it, a fistful of 18 inch coaxial cables with frayed ends (talk about a terrifying wound!), and in one extreme case a can of oven cleaner did the trick. My geekdom wasn't what caused my need for improvised weapons, it had more to do with having a blue mohawk and being an accused satanist in a small town in the 80s... Either way, any self respecting geek should have enough extra cables laying around that they shoud be able to sufficiently arm themselves. I don't mean that pansy-ass USB shit, dig up some SCSI cables! The coax can shred the sleeve of a leather jacket pretty effectively... not that I, as a "reformed" citizen, would know anything about that... But if you want to hear a 240 defensive tackle scream like a 6 year old girl on fire, flog him once or twice with a fistful of coax. In the case of a mugger, or other armed assailant, aim for the face and neck... Nothing says "no you can't have my iPod" like ripping someone's eye out. Everyone on Slashdot likes to bitch about how expensive they are... go ahead and sell it, you won't make enough to cover your ER visit... never mind the cost of a semi convincing glass eye and plastic surgery to give you a new cheek.
Mmmmm.... Spike Jonze?
Canadians have real problems with pronunciation... When they say "ham", it comes out sounding like "bacon". C'mon, get with the program!
Zing, indeed! I hope I didn't imply that I thought Jim was a nice guy... He'd probably be the first to admit that he's a world class asshole. In any case, he's a hell of a writer. My personal favorite was the Suicide Issue.
I live in Western NY, which most would argue is almost entirely "rural". The plight of the rural ghetto-dweller is no less sad than that of their urban counterparts. Living in a trailer does not mean that somebody is stupid, lazy, or inbred... In fact, the cost of living in one is cheap enough, that most of them have pretty current gear... It's just not a huge estate. Being Slashdot, I know that membership practically requires a smug, "more evolved than thou" attitude toward people. For an interesting perspective on "white trash", check out Jim Goad's "The Redneck Manifesto". The name suggests something akin to "You might be a redneck if...", but I assure you it's much more interesting. Elsewhere in the comments, I saw somebody describing the "t-shirts with no sleeves (affectionately called "wife beaters")"... What's the matter Mr. Spock? No data on "wifebeaters" on your tricorder? Sorry. You made it sound like you were an anthropologist studying a tribe of recently discovered savages. Do you affectionately call your bedroom in your mom's basement "the Bat Cave"?
First of all, I hate that rancid skank Ann Coulter as much as anyine else. Second, there are no rebel flags in my wardrobe. Third, I never said anything about carpet bombing anyone. Fourth, by your logic, Sharon Tate must have done something horrible for Manson's girls to carve her and her friends up like that... My entire point is that being a reactionary lunatic, no matter what side of the fence you're on, is not going to solve anything. The difference between 9/11 and "collateral damage" is that we do not specifically target civilians. It's tragic when any noncombatants die in "military" actions. For that matter, it's tragic that anyone has to die for any of it. Let's also remember that there are countries that intentinally disperse military units into residential neighborhoods in a misguided attempt to keep us from attacking. If we don't attack, they win. If we do attack, and kill some of their neighbors, they beat us up in the press for bombing children. Our strikes are much more surgical than they were in Dresden, for example. The carpet bombing that you spoke of is not required to get our targets anymore. I'm pretty cynical, but even I don't believe that our military would kill children on purpose, which is more than I can say for people who blow themselves up in crowded markets... or in front of federal buildings in Oklahoma. I have no love for GWB, but if we're going to compare the moral authority of either side, he's closer to right than the "terrorists". "Close" may not be good enough to make it right, but it's about the best we can do now that the ball is rolling. Personally, if we really wanted to achieve "shock and awe", we would start dropping people like Ann Coulter and Al Franken out of planes instead of bombs. When a training camp tent collapses under the weight of Bill O'Reilly plummeting from 10,000 feet, maybe these people would get the message that we're done letting extremists of any kind affect policy. Strafe the camp with Enron executives, and maybe we can also get the corporate sponsors to back off. Send 100,000 "Promise Keepers" and let them see that preachy assholes and the theocracies they create are bad for everyone. If they keep it up, we bring out the MOAB... we drop Ted Kennedy and Rush Limbaugh on them. All kidding aside, it's a dirty fight, but now that we're in it, right or wrong, I want us to win it with as few American casualties as possible. Sadly, our pompous greed and thousands of years of institutinalized religious zealotry are going to make it very difficult to achieve a clean and peaceful end to this mess.
I agree with your thoughts on Rwanda. I also agree about the regimes that we have supported over the years. I think it's worth pointing out the other voters on the UNSC who helped seal the fate of those people. There are countries that make lots of noise about the US behaving badly, but do nothing (or worse) to help the situation. People complain about us trying to be the world's policemen, but when the shit hits the fan... we're the first country expected to put our troops in harm's way. It can't be both ways. If other countries want us to stay home and mind our own business, they shouldn't expect our taxpayers to pay for our soldiers to come fix their problems. We seem to have lots of foul-weather friends in that respect. [cough] the french [cough] I am no fan of the dirty dealings that ANY of these countries, including the US, have engaged in. However, I do not think that killing civilians is justifiable, no matter what someone's arms budget is, or how righteous they feel their cause is. If the god fearing (and opium dealing) Taliban (and friends) want to declare war, declare it. Don't be fucking cowards. If the Saudis want to get on board, at least be open about it. But, if one is going to start a conflict like that, they would be well served by the old rule: "Never bring a knife to a gunfight". In regards to the Rwandans, anyone who commits genocide (by bomb, gas, farm tools, etc.) should be made into puppy food. I am definitely not some bleeding heart that believes that no killing can be justifiable. I just think that, in order to justify it, you have to have the right target. Killing Peter to scare Paul is not right. If Paul has it coming, kill Paul. The bottom line is that there are too many players playing for interests other than the common good or progress. They require varying degrees of weeding out before anything will change. Attacks like 9/11, or any of the hundreds of situations like the ones you mentioned only serve to give the other morons in power the "justification" to make bolder moves on behalf of their real masters. I don't pretend to have the answers, I just don't think that blaming the US for all the world's ills is getting us anywhere. Likewise, the US needs to start taking a more responsible approach to our foreign policy. For now, we seem to be too busy worrying about making sure that nobody downloads movies or talks "dirty" in public to get any real work done. In the meantime, if it's not o.k. for me to kill somebody for happening to be a Muslim, then it is not o.k. to kill people because they happen to be Americans. Let's all focus our hatred just a bit tighter and make sure it shines only on the people who have earned it.
So... If I decide I don't like the policies of Norway, for instance, it's their fault if I fly a plane-load of people into one of their office buildings? On a smaller scale, if I don't like your policies, I'd be justified in killing the people you live with? I'm not real happy with everything our country does, but if you think we'll be nicer if you kill a bunch of our citizens, your turban is on too tight. If you're such a humanitarian that you have a problem with US policy, how about a little compassion for the people who just showed up for work on time on 9/11? The hypocricy of the dissenters these days is just as deplorable as our foreign policy. My friend Amy was a flight attendant on United Flight 175. Last I checked, she did not break any trade agreements, torture any Canadians, pay Bangladeshi toddlers 12 cents an hour to make Nikes, or anything else that might warrant having her body vaporized over Manhattan. Amy's job was to make people comfortable on an airplane. If you're suggesting that she deserved to die for it, I would regard that as a "bad policy"... Would that give me the right to find some fundamentalist dimwit to plow a truckload of explosives through your house? Yes, the world is an ugly place where unpopular decisions are made on a daily basis. It's an unfortunate reality. As you plan your happy warm Nerf Utopia, please keep in mind that somebody somewhere is going to dislike it. They will still not have the right to kill your citizens.
Us poor bastards that work for Time Warner companies. Having AOL mixed in with us has been disastrous for everything from our desktop systems to the creepy micromanagement. Not to mention all of the budget tightening that had to occur to help make up for AOL's "sloppy" accounting... We're just starting to get out from under it, and now this. For the record, I don't work for AOL, or even an internet related division, so please don't start flaming me. I'm pointing out that the effects of having the Voyage of the Damned plow into our (semi) tightly run ship reach far deeper into the corporate culture than you might suspect. The only positive aspect I can see is that AOL may help suck some of the money out of Microsoft, making it harder for them to remain so insanely dominant. Plus, "enemies" consolidating might make it easier to identify "friends"...
Beat that, Bill!
Here in New York, we'll probably get to put that theory to the test in the next few years...
Just remember... doing lines of espresso results in far less discomfort than the regular grind, not to mention better bang for the buck.
Heh? I keep forgetting that on slashdot you have to parse every statement down to the last possible interpretation so the other readers don't get too cranky. I get news from as many different sources/perspectives as I can. While there is surely not a home invasion every night in every neighborhood, you can't really deny the fact that there is quite a bit of crime being committed in this country to fund drug habits. If there were indeed only one violent crime per year connected to cocaine, it would still be more than the number connected to coffee. I was merely pointing out that cocaine comes with a whole host of connected social ills and that it was absurd to compare it to coffee. Sorry to confuse anyone.
So, when is the last time somebody pulled a home invasion and killed a family to get money to buy coffee? I mean, I'm kind of scary in the moring before my first cup, but seriously...
Hi. "Powerful Drug?". Please. Comparing coffee to cocaine is retarded.