As far as I'm concerned, the government's 1 and only job is to protect us so that we can live our lives however we choose.
Just ask yourself when was the last time that the US was actually threatened. I'm not talking small incidents (like 9/11), I'm talking threats to the nation's existence; the last time I can think of is WWII.
If you can be bothered to read the constitution then you would realize that America was never designed to have a standing military. The only purpose of the military was to combat a real threat to the nation (ie war). If you think about it this way, the US has been in a state of "war" for over 60 years...which seems kind of ridiculous...
Having a standing military gives the Executive branch too much power--it can declare war without bothering to worry about what Congress or the other branches think (not to mention the people of the nation).
Also, the federal government's role is not limited to the defense of the nation. If you read the preamble, it's purpose might be more clear.
Constitutional quibling aside, wouldn't you want your federal government to be able to protect you when the aliens come?
Did the pictures remind anyone else of...
on
Opencroquet
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· Score: 1
Microsoft Bob?
It sounded really nice in the description, but when I RTFA (or at least looked at the pretty pictures) I had horrible flashbacks of MS Bob.
The interface of this "OS" (It's not really an Operating System, it's more of a graphical environment) can only be kludgy. Imagine actually trying to navigate in this 3d environment. In order to get to different things you have navigate through "portals" and such like that.
I'm sorry, but this will never be practical for anything. Everyone's just going to just keep the current gui system because navigating it is a lot easier than trying to navigate a 3d environment. (I can already see the thousands of geeks frantically running about crying, "now where did I put my pr0n again?")
Download the pdf, look at the pretty pictures (saying "ooooo" and "ahhh" where appropriate) and move on.
Parent appears to confuse languages with development environments. Languages in general are free. I could write in C, C++, Python, Perl, PHP, etc without paying a cent (for compiler, interpreter, or whatever). What most companies are paying for is a development environment which (supposedly) makes writing and maintaining code easier (usually by integrating many nice features and optimizations). There are both free and proprietary development environments for every language I can think of (from Ada to VHDL) including scripting languages.
I would agree that there seem to be fewer development environments for scripting languages, and they are generally of lower quality than the ones for more respected languages.
more default themes.
This would allow customizability (pick your theme) without forcing the user to bother with configuring every little detail. These themes could be designed by the "experts" (whoever they may be....) and then users could just pick the style they like the same way they pick their Desktop Manager...
Whether they know it or not, everyone needs privacy (even the boring people).
The fact is EVERYONE is guilty of committing some crime. Whether this is j-walking, lieing on your tax returns, or speeding. In the current society the majority of crimes go unpunished because not all crimes are known about or can be investigated. Most of the time people don't get prosecuted for these crimes. In cases that they are, the police are merely arresting them because they suspect them of something else, but can't prove it (like arresting mob bosses for tax evasion).
In a society where everything is recorded, EVERY crime has potential consequences no matter how small. Say something some official doesn't like, get arrested for X which you (possibly unintentionally) committed years ago and forgot about. Run for public office, and then be arrested or at least knocked out of the running when word of your unprosecuted j-walking charge is revealed.
In this sort of society any action that causes someone with the right connections the slightest inconvenience could result in you being prosecuted.
For this reason, a society with no privacy inherently has no free speech.
I'm sick and tired of people making arbitrary distinctions between the geek-ing and non-geeking population.
My experience (as a geek-ing person living in the world) is there no clear distinction between catagories of people ('Myers Briggs Type Indicator' or no). The only major contributions to socialization is experience.
People who socialize more tend to be more social. For example: if someone (a geek) starts to mimic the behavior of the 'Extroverted Feeling' people and at least be open and friendly to people (or if that isn't possible attempt to appear so), they will tend to be more social (and the socialization becomes more routine and less act). Social tendency develops dynamically with use and (in my experience *IANASociologist) cannot be accurately represented by categorical systems like the MBTI.
Previous post:
Obviously the techies can not design for the "feelies". And, the "feelies" will not take the time to communicate with the techies. They write us off as "geeks" and "nerds" and belittle us every chance they get. While we tend to call them "air heads" and ignore them.
This is exactly the kind of divisive attitude that is NOT needed and claiming "two cultures" that need to be bridged just enforces that division. People are people. As long as you deal with a Person as a *person*, like yourself, it doesn't matter if the the person is a 'EF' or 'IT'.
The main problem I see is with the geek-ing community not treating other people with the respect normally allocated to human beings (I do not claim to be immune to this). Geeks tend to treat eachother like human beings, but demonstrate a lack of basic respect toward others. In short, treat everyone like they have some value....
If the speed of gravity is equal to the speed of light, and all forms of energy exert a gravitational force on eachother (including light), then it should be possible to test this:
Assume an intense coherent pulse of light of known intensity is traveling through space towards an object. Since the beam is traveling at the speed of light it is not currently exerting a force on the object. The instant the light hits the object, the total gravitational force between the light and the object would occur instantaneously. This gravitational force will oppose the pressure exerted on the object by the light. If the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light, the gravitational force will be the integral of the gravitational force between the light and the object over the entire length of time the light was traveling. If the measured pressure of the light pulse differs from the theoretical pressure of the light pulse, then gravity must have played some role. If the difference between the theoretical pressure of light and the measured pressure of light is the same as the integral gravitational force, then gravity must move at the speed of light.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not talking small incidents (like 9/11), I'm talking threats to the nation's existence; the last time I can think of is WWII.
If you can be bothered to read the constitution then you would realize that America was never designed to have a standing military. The only purpose of the military was to combat a real threat to the nation (ie war). If you think about it this way, the US has been in a state of "war" for over 60 years...which seems kind of ridiculous...
Having a standing military gives the Executive branch too much power--it can declare war without bothering to worry about what Congress or the other branches think (not to mention the people of the nation).
Also, the federal government's role is not limited to the defense of the nation. If you read the preamble, it's purpose might be more clear.
Constitutional quibling aside, wouldn't you want your federal government to be able to protect you when the aliens come?
Microsoft Bob?
It sounded really nice in the description, but when I RTFA (or at least looked at the pretty pictures) I had horrible flashbacks of MS Bob.
The interface of this "OS" (It's not really an Operating System, it's more of a graphical environment) can only be kludgy. Imagine actually trying to navigate in this 3d environment. In order to get to different things you have navigate through "portals" and such like that.
I'm sorry, but this will never be practical for anything. Everyone's just going to just keep the current gui system because navigating it is a lot easier than trying to navigate a 3d environment. (I can already see the thousands of geeks frantically running about crying, "now where did I put my pr0n again?")
Download the pdf, look at the pretty pictures (saying "ooooo" and "ahhh" where appropriate) and move on.
Parent appears to confuse languages with development environments. Languages in general are free. I could write in C, C++, Python, Perl, PHP, etc without paying a cent (for compiler, interpreter, or whatever). What most companies are paying for is a development environment which (supposedly) makes writing and maintaining code easier (usually by integrating many nice features and optimizations). There are both free and proprietary development environments for every language I can think of (from Ada to VHDL) including scripting languages.
I would agree that there seem to be fewer development environments for scripting languages, and they are generally of lower quality than the ones for more respected languages.
more default themes.
This would allow customizability (pick your theme) without forcing the user to bother with configuring every little detail. These themes could be designed by the "experts" (whoever they may be....) and then users could just pick the style they like the same way they pick their Desktop Manager...
Whether they know it or not, everyone needs privacy (even the boring people).
The fact is EVERYONE is guilty of committing some crime. Whether this is j-walking, lieing on your tax returns, or speeding. In the current society the majority of crimes go unpunished because not all crimes are known about or can be investigated. Most of the time people don't get prosecuted for these crimes. In cases that they are, the police are merely arresting them because they suspect them of something else, but can't prove it (like arresting mob bosses for tax evasion).
In a society where everything is recorded, EVERY crime has potential consequences no matter how small. Say something some official doesn't like, get arrested for X which you (possibly unintentionally) committed years ago and forgot about. Run for public office, and then be arrested or at least knocked out of the running when word of your unprosecuted j-walking charge is revealed.
In this sort of society any action that causes someone with the right connections the slightest inconvenience could result in you being prosecuted.
For this reason, a society with no privacy inherently has no free speech.
My experience (as a geek-ing person living in the world) is there no clear distinction between catagories of people ('Myers Briggs Type Indicator' or no). The only major contributions to socialization is experience.
People who socialize more tend to be more social. For example: if someone (a geek) starts to mimic the behavior of the 'Extroverted Feeling' people and at least be open and friendly to people (or if that isn't possible attempt to appear so), they will tend to be more social (and the socialization becomes more routine and less act). Social tendency develops dynamically with use and (in my experience *IANASociologist) cannot be accurately represented by categorical systems like the MBTI.
Previous post: This is exactly the kind of divisive attitude that is NOT needed and claiming "two cultures" that need to be bridged just enforces that division. People are people. As long as you deal with a Person as a *person*, like yourself, it doesn't matter if the the person is a 'EF' or 'IT'.
The main problem I see is with the geek-ing community not treating other people with the respect normally allocated to human beings (I do not claim to be immune to this). Geeks tend to treat eachother like human beings, but demonstrate a lack of basic respect toward others. In short, treat everyone like they have some value....
......until proven otherwise......
If the speed of gravity is equal to the speed of light, and all forms of energy exert a gravitational force on eachother (including light), then it should be possible to test this:
Assume an intense coherent pulse of light of known intensity is traveling through space towards an object. Since the beam is traveling at the speed of light it is not currently exerting a force on the object. The instant the light hits the object, the total gravitational force between the light and the object would occur instantaneously. This gravitational force will oppose the pressure exerted on the object by the light. If the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light, the gravitational force will be the integral of the gravitational force between the light and the object over the entire length of time the light was traveling. If the measured pressure of the light pulse differs from the theoretical pressure of the light pulse, then gravity must have played some role. If the difference between the theoretical pressure of light and the measured pressure of light is the same as the integral gravitational force, then gravity must move at the speed of light.