Yeah, no kidding... What I picked up from the article is that the French whatchamacallit agency is against P2P software, not open-source software in general. Smells like a bait-and-switch to me, with P2P authors trying to sucker the rest of the OSS world into being their allies.
French P2P enthusiasts (smoking Galoises and waving their arms about while wearing a mime suit and one of those floppy hats): "Ve want to prrrroduce our Soffffffftware, damn you!"
French Government: "Go on! Get lost! Or we shall insult you again!"
FP2PE: "Hey! Let us post to ze Slashdot, and raise an internet army, like in the very silly American movie with Ze pre-breast Angelina Jolie! Sacrebleu!"
Oil is NOT running out... Yet. And it'll take too long to run out to prevent the more immediate problem (climate change).
Here's what will most likely happen:
1. The price of oil will fluctuate up and down, "training" "consumers" to pay more for gasoline, but it will NOT rise so fast that people will be shocked into changing their behavior. This is very well organized and the oil companies know EXACTLY what they're doing. Don't for a minute think they'll EVER allow your scenario to occur.
2. Whenever the price of oil gets too high, some middle-eastern nation will be declared the Enemy Of The World and everyone will gang up on them, in an attempt to "liberate" their oil supplies from the "nasty dictators" who were charging too much or not supplying enough or (insert offense here).
3. In a few decades, when oil finally DOES run out, we'll all switch to another resource that can be controlled in the same way -- natural gas. We will NOT go with clean fuels or power generation methods because Those In Power simply can't make enough money that way (in their opinion). Of course, one day natural gas will run out and they'll have no choice but to figure out some novel way to force controlled scarcity on us.
4. Interesting possibility: Certain technologies, like fuel-cell tech, have the potential to get out of their inventor's control. As William Gibson said, "The street makes its own uses for things". It's entirely possible that some free-thinking geeks will repurpose some technology into a homegrown power plant that can be mass produced and sold. Who knows what the future holds? But even if this does happen, Those In Power will never let it become mainstream.
That's how the world works, man. The rich want to stay rich, and are willing to fuck all of us over and destroy the planet to do it.
They're not going to let a silly thing like oil prices screw things up for them.
Now, that's a lot of coal plants. Looks like China is going to look like nineteenth-century london soon (i.e. black soot everywhere, acid rain, skies overcast with coal smoke)...
Hey, I wonder if their moths are going to change color? Maybe that'll shut up all the "intelligent design" folks!;)
I don't buy it. I think what Washington wants is a captive puppet-regime selling them vast quantities of oil on their terms, plus peachy contracts for Halliburton et al. Remember, when supply goes down, prices go up and demand goes down.
Look at it this way:
If oil supplies increase, gas prices drop; people buy more gas, leading to higher profits, and they're willing to travel more (which means more shopping, more tourism, MORE fuel purchases, more of everything that drives the economy). Confidence goes up, stock prices climb, and the economy chugs along like a good little locomotive.
BUT, if the oil supply decreases, gas prices rise; people are scared into conserving, they buy smaller and smaller cars, travel less, spend less money on worthless crap at the mall... They think about the economy and layoffs and start to hoard money, they don't take risks on stock... The economy flattens out a bit, confidence drops, stock prices fall, and the rich lose money.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be implementing steps. My argument is twofold:
1. The People In Charge (tm) are assholes who are pursuing their own selfish self-interest, and they have neither the will nor the incentive to do anything to change the situation. From their point of view, poisoning the environment and screwing up the climate are profitable endeavours.
2. Since things have already gone pretty far, I think it's pretty unlikely that anything that CAN be done about it will have much of an effect. So we're at the "Ok, so let's see what happens" stage.
I am not a nihilist. I am not even a pessimist. I am a realist. And I'm not following along some Slashdot bandwagon; this is my own, personal opinion formed while reading the news and ruthlessly mocking the People In Charge.
Hey, what do you want me to say? That everything's ok? That the aliens are going to come and take us off to the stripper planet for hundreds of years of sexy frolicking?
The problem is, oil won't go to 250 a barrel. Long before it hits that point, there'll be a gory war that'll drive down prices. It's fucked up that the world works that way, but it does.
And there is no will whatsoever to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Corporations have committed to a certain way of doing things, mostly sending work to countries without worker protection laws (the cheapness of labor is a side effect, not the real point). That won't change.
I'm with you on this 100%. My prediction is that even if things go totally sideways and everyone panics, it's already too late to do anything about it and we're going to have a dual "ice age up north, hot as crap down south" situation. Ah, well. I have a nice parka, looks like I'll get to put it to use.
It's all pointless at this point anyway. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Anything any set of countries tries at this point is going to be pathetically too little, too late.
Consider that the third world and much of asia is desperate to ramp up industrial production to help their economies grow. The way they look at it, they can either worry about global warming or the bigger fish they have to fry, i.e. poverty and catching up to the rest of the world. Are they going to spend huge amounts of money trying to clean up their industries? No. They're going to pollute the fuck out of everything while they manufacture all the disposable crap they'll be selling to the rest of us. Crap we ASKED them to produce, of course.
Consider that the first world has already shifted most of its heavy industry to the third world. The only thing most of US can do to reduce global warming is stop driving cars and use clean energy generation methods. Is this going to happen? No. Not while our self-absorbed leaders are so fascinated with the oil economy they're willing to overthrow other countries to increase their supply.
Conclusion: The situation is completely and hopelessly fucked. Everyone is acting in their pathetic selfish self-interest, and nobody is willing to give anything up to change anything. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
It'll be an interesting few decades while things settle down. I'm betting on the following:
1. Mini ice age lasting two hundred years or so, sort of like the last one, in all nations bordering the North Atlantic. Actually I don't mind this, I hate hot weather and I've always loved snow. Here in New York, things should be pretty nice, if a bit chilly. And blizzards are fun as long as you don't have to travel. It's an excuse to stay home and play Halo II on XBox Live.
2. Very hot weather and major storms throughout equatorial regions. Florida and the other gulf states, for example, are going to get the shit beaten out of them every year. I expect most people to get fed up and move inland to get away from the hurricanes, and away from the plains states to get away from "Tornado Alley". Lots of migration will produce new ghost towns along the coasts, not due to disasters per se, but to people getting fed up with having their houses knocked down biannually. Actually I'm endlessly surprised this hasn't already started.
3. Ocean levels might rise a bit, but this might be offset by increased ocean ice due to the mini ice age, so the whole "waterworld" thing is going to be a non-starter. Of course we knew that.
4. Everyone is going to completely freak out and run around with their hair on fire for years and years. We on Slashdot will argue about it endlessly, never arriving at any conclusion, but it'll be interesting and take our minds off the fact that none of us have been laid recently.
Once doctors get this particular trick completely worked out, and hopefully collect their nobel prize, here's what I hope they do next:
1. Figure out how to clone new body parts, to replace those which are severed or lost, and forever banish the horror inspired in us by Lorena Bobbit (yes, I know they sewed it back on and it works, but what if she'd done something else, like gobbled it down? It's not like she was particularly sane at the time).
2. Figure out how to cure and/or immunize against aids and herpes, which will significantly increase the amount of joy in the world.
3. Create the "bowel" gun (makes you crap your drawers when shot) from Transmetropolitan, with it's various settings like "watery" and "prolapse".
4. Create an electrical gizmo which makes all penises adjustable. Although current technology exists to turn all penii into vibrators, a big adjustment dial would make things more interesting. I envision settings like "Whopper", "Excalibur", "Minuteman Missle", and "Saturn V" for starters.
Silly slashdotter... Psychopath does NOT mean "one who dislikes other people in general". It means "one who has no moral constraints or conscience with respect to his dealings with others, who usually behaves in a completely irredeemable, evil way" -- in other words, one who is, for lack of a better word, evil.
I don't believe I said anything about being EVIL. I just said I find all you silly fucks irritating, and this leads to my actively avoiding your presence.
Now, if I was a psychopath (which, thank God, I'm not) I'd find you irritating and poison your twinkies. See the difference?
Crazyphilman: introverted and hostile, but NOT PSYCHO.
Psychopath: introverted and hostile, and poisons your twinkies.
Now, that's interesting. But I don't think I'm entirely misanthropic; in my case it's just in respect to the general population. There are certain subcultures I'm rather fond of. And once I know someone, and have decided I like them, I'm perfectly friendly, although being an introvert I don't exactly seek out interaction.
Perhaps I'm introverted and somewhat misanthropic, and they're related (even correlated) without having a causal relationship. I like that.
What if I'm an introvert because I just don't like other people? Maybe I find them irritating.
Perhaps I view the slavish way normal people pursue the goodwill of others as a weakness, a pathetic addiction to the approval of others. Perhaps I am just as disgusted by this addiction as I am by alcohol, heroin, or crystam meth addiction, and view it in a similar light?
Perhaps I just think most other people are stupid, boring, and unimaginative, and don't want to waste too much time on them.
Or, maybe, and humor me here, the only other people I find even remotely interesting are people who are geeks like me, and into the same things (technology, modern visual culture, etc)... Maybe I just don't have any use for anyone else.
Remember -- some of us introverts are freakin' HOSTILE.
Since I already have a perfectly good Playstation II and XBox, and a decent game collection for each...
And there is a huge supply of used games in every game store in town...
And I haven't even come close to playing through all the games that are already out there...
And my slimline Playstation II is pure solid-state with almost no moving parts except for the CD, which means it'll last for years or even decades if I take care of it...
And I can get spare Playstation IIs for 149.00, and spare copies of my game DVDs for 10 bucks in the used section of the game store...
Well...
Why bother with the next generation consoles at all? I'll stick with what I've got until the fancy new consoles are down to 150.00 each. No problemo!
Sadly, PFC Johnson had installed the PC version of a popular older first-person shooter videogame called "Sin", along with a rip of the DVD movie "Pulp Fiction" on his translating laptop, and some of the files were mis-installed.
Iraqi Militant: "Ok, I'm surrendering. Look, I'm giving you my AK-47. Ok? Here it is." BEEP! WHIRR! Machine: "OK, I surrender. Look at giving AK-47. OK. Here is it." BEEP! PFC Johnson: "Ok, no problem, just set it on the hummvee." BEEP! WHIRR! Machine (in arabic): "I'm gonna make you my bitch!" BEEP! Iraqi: "Pardon me?" BEEP! WHIRR! Machine: "Motherfucker, please!" BEEP! PFC Johnson: "Now, hang on, there's no call for that." BEEP! WHIRR! Machine: "And, you will know my name is the LORD! When I bring my vengeance down upon thee!" BEEP! Iraqi: "Wait a moment, I am giving you my weapon, vengeance is not entirely appropriate!" BEEP! WHIRR! Machine: "I'm gonna make you my bitch!" (the guy in SIN said that a lot, too) BEEP! PFC Johnson: "FREEZE! HANDS ON YOUR HEADS!" BEEP! WHIRR! Machine: "I'M A MUSHROOM CLOUD LAYING MOTHERFUCKER, MOTHERFUCKER!" BEEP! Iraqi: "EVERYBODY SHOOT! THE AMERICANS HAVE GONE NUTS! ATTACK! ATTACK!" BEEP! WHIRR!
You misunderstand me; I was just talking about computer science and electrical engineering (which, unless you want to do chip design, is very accessible to the private inventor). I consider life sciences to be "Big Science" which is pretty much inaccessible to anyone outside of enormous corporations, large government labs, and academia.
So, yes, you are correct. If you're going to be doing gene sequencing, yeah, you'll probably need to get that Ph.D. Likewise for high-energy physics research, infectious disease work, etc, etc.
But the article isn't about Big Science. The article is about how people in the government are running around with their hair on fire because kids don't want to go to grad school for computer science or engineering anymore. This issue pops up every year or so, usually when some ding-bat wants to get elected. MY point is that it doesn't matter, for various reasons, and everyone should just relax.
As far as your work goes, in my view the number of people going into genetic engineering related coursework was probably relatively small from the beginning because it's esoteric and difficult, with a small market. So it's probably not going to change much over time -- the people who would have gone into it years ago are the same type of people who are going into it now. Such people have ALWAYS been relatively scarce.
We're not talking about specialized scientists in esoteric fields. We're talking about computer science and different types of engineering. And my points are quite valid within those realms.
Ha, ha ha -- you're full of crap, and an effete, insufferable snob.
All I've got is a B.A. in computer science, pal... And I'm not pidgeonholed. I'm doing some rather high-tech things for the Government, which I don't feel inclined to discuss with you but which I'm fairly confident pay better than whatever your college lab pays YOU. While you were farting around with your books and T.As, I was building indrustry experience; before you even got your degree, I had four years' experience on the job. I've got eight years now. Way ahead of you...
You can blather on about the dozen or two Ph.D jobs that are available in this country, and overlook the fact that a few thousand people here (and several dozen thousand more overseas) are competing for them, and you get to feel all superior and smug. But you're STILL a pointy-headed, ivory-tower academic who's out of touch with the world.
Good luck with that. You'll need it. How many thousands of Ph.Ds did IBM hire over in India last year? Several, I believe. Discussed here on Slashdot. You're a dinosaur; I'm a furry little mammal. My money's on people like me.
We're talking about high tech, i.e. computer science and electrical engineering. NOT the hard sciences. Anyone can set up a serviceable software or consumer electronics lab for much less than the cost of a graduate degree, put together some software or an invention, and jump into the market.
How do you think so many PC and expansion card companies sprung up in the eighties and nineties? You didn't think it was fucking Ph.Ds making all that gear, did you? NO, it was kids with their B.S. in EE banging away on printed circuit boards in rented shops, jumping into the mail order market back then. Without them, PCs wouldn't have had the popularity they currently have, and you'd be waiting for minicomputer time to do your analysis work.
But you go ahead and knock down that straw man, make yourself feel all tingly and smart.
Very efficient way to miss my point. Practically EVERYBODY goes to undergrad these days. The choice I'm describing is NOT "college/no college". It is "Stick with my B.S. and get a job, or spend tens of thousands to get an M.S. that doesn't increase my salary, and in fact makes me LESS employable".
MY point is that all anyone needs in high tech is their bachelor's degree. Higher degrees are expensive, pointless wastes of time that will reduce your employment opportunities and never, ever earn back their opportunity cost.
Besides, if you're so jazzed about computer science or electrical engineering that you're ready to drop 120K and four years on an advanced degree, you're plenty motivated enough to learn the stuff on your own, and spend a tiny fraction of that money outfitting a home lab better than the ones the colleges have.
And don't give me that crap about how grad school is free for techies. What, did you think I never thought about getting my Master's degree? Try a minimum of 30,000 additional dollars tacked onto my loans at a STATE SCHOOL for the M.S. ALONE (more if I go private). Very few people actually get scholarships, and competition for TA positions is steep.
Slashdot Mirror
As should we all. Sacrebleu!
Yeah, no kidding... What I picked up from the article is that the French whatchamacallit agency is against P2P software, not open-source software in general. Smells like a bait-and-switch to me, with P2P authors trying to sucker the rest of the OSS world into being their allies.
French P2P enthusiasts (smoking Galoises and waving their arms about while wearing a mime suit and one of those floppy hats): "Ve want to prrrroduce our Soffffffftware, damn you!"
French Government: "Go on! Get lost! Or we shall insult you again!"
FP2PE: "Hey! Let us post to ze Slashdot, and raise an internet army, like in the very silly American movie with Ze pre-breast Angelina Jolie! Sacrebleu!"
Oil is NOT running out... Yet. And it'll take too long to run out to prevent the more immediate problem (climate change).
Here's what will most likely happen:
1. The price of oil will fluctuate up and down, "training" "consumers" to pay more for gasoline, but it will NOT rise so fast that people will be shocked into changing their behavior. This is very well organized and the oil companies know EXACTLY what they're doing. Don't for a minute think they'll EVER allow your scenario to occur.
2. Whenever the price of oil gets too high, some middle-eastern nation will be declared the Enemy Of The World and everyone will gang up on them, in an attempt to "liberate" their oil supplies from the "nasty dictators" who were charging too much or not supplying enough or (insert offense here).
3. In a few decades, when oil finally DOES run out, we'll all switch to another resource that can be controlled in the same way -- natural gas. We will NOT go with clean fuels or power generation methods because Those In Power simply can't make enough money that way (in their opinion). Of course, one day natural gas will run out and they'll have no choice but to figure out some novel way to force controlled scarcity on us.
4. Interesting possibility: Certain technologies, like fuel-cell tech, have the potential to get out of their inventor's control. As William Gibson said, "The street makes its own uses for things". It's entirely possible that some free-thinking geeks will repurpose some technology into a homegrown power plant that can be mass produced and sold. Who knows what the future holds? But even if this does happen, Those In Power will never let it become mainstream.
That's how the world works, man. The rich want to stay rich, and are willing to fuck all of us over and destroy the planet to do it.
They're not going to let a silly thing like oil prices screw things up for them.
I don't know about you, but I'd MUCH rather have penii than virii.
When I was living in Michigan, we used to say "if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes". Imagine what the swings are going to be like now...
Attractive housewife type, in bathing suit: "Honey, isn't this a beautiful day! I'm so glad we came to the beach."
Brawny young husband: "Yes, isn't it? I'm so glad we HOLY SHIT IS THAT A TIDAL WAVE?"
Now, that's a lot of coal plants. Looks like China is going to look like nineteenth-century london soon (i.e. black soot everywhere, acid rain, skies overcast with coal smoke)...
;)
Hey, I wonder if their moths are going to change color? Maybe that'll shut up all the "intelligent design" folks!
Sorry, obscure reference.
Thank you... :)
So... Do I get an inflatable suit?
I don't buy it. I think what Washington wants is a captive puppet-regime selling them vast quantities of oil on their terms, plus peachy contracts for Halliburton et al. Remember, when supply goes down, prices go up and demand goes down.
Look at it this way:
If oil supplies increase, gas prices drop; people buy more gas, leading to higher profits, and they're willing to travel more (which means more shopping, more tourism, MORE fuel purchases, more of everything that drives the economy). Confidence goes up, stock prices climb, and the economy chugs along like a good little locomotive.
BUT, if the oil supply decreases, gas prices rise; people are scared into conserving, they buy smaller and smaller cars, travel less, spend less money on worthless crap at the mall... They think about the economy and layoffs and start to hoard money, they don't take risks on stock... The economy flattens out a bit, confidence drops, stock prices fall, and the rich lose money.
Get it? It ain't just about gas prices.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be implementing steps. My argument is twofold:
1. The People In Charge (tm) are assholes who are pursuing their own selfish self-interest, and they have neither the will nor the incentive to do anything to change the situation. From their point of view, poisoning the environment and screwing up the climate are profitable endeavours.
2. Since things have already gone pretty far, I think it's pretty unlikely that anything that CAN be done about it will have much of an effect. So we're at the "Ok, so let's see what happens" stage.
I am not a nihilist. I am not even a pessimist. I am a realist. And I'm not following along some Slashdot bandwagon; this is my own, personal opinion formed while reading the news and ruthlessly mocking the People In Charge.
Hey, what do you want me to say? That everything's ok? That the aliens are going to come and take us off to the stripper planet for hundreds of years of sexy frolicking?
What are you looking for here on Slashdot?
The problem is, oil won't go to 250 a barrel. Long before it hits that point, there'll be a gory war that'll drive down prices. It's fucked up that the world works that way, but it does.
And there is no will whatsoever to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Corporations have committed to a certain way of doing things, mostly sending work to countries without worker protection laws (the cheapness of labor is a side effect, not the real point). That won't change.
I'm with you on this 100%. My prediction is that even if things go totally sideways and everyone panics, it's already too late to do anything about it and we're going to have a dual "ice age up north, hot as crap down south" situation. Ah, well. I have a nice parka, looks like I'll get to put it to use.
Penii. Although I personally only have one. ;)
It's all pointless at this point anyway. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. Anything any set of countries tries at this point is going to be pathetically too little, too late.
Consider that the third world and much of asia is desperate to ramp up industrial production to help their economies grow. The way they look at it, they can either worry about global warming or the bigger fish they have to fry, i.e. poverty and catching up to the rest of the world. Are they going to spend huge amounts of money trying to clean up their industries? No. They're going to pollute the fuck out of everything while they manufacture all the disposable crap they'll be selling to the rest of us. Crap we ASKED them to produce, of course.
Consider that the first world has already shifted most of its heavy industry to the third world. The only thing most of US can do to reduce global warming is stop driving cars and use clean energy generation methods. Is this going to happen? No. Not while our self-absorbed leaders are so fascinated with the oil economy they're willing to overthrow other countries to increase their supply.
Conclusion: The situation is completely and hopelessly fucked. Everyone is acting in their pathetic selfish self-interest, and nobody is willing to give anything up to change anything. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
It'll be an interesting few decades while things settle down. I'm betting on the following:
1. Mini ice age lasting two hundred years or so, sort of like the last one, in all nations bordering the North Atlantic. Actually I don't mind this, I hate hot weather and I've always loved snow. Here in New York, things should be pretty nice, if a bit chilly. And blizzards are fun as long as you don't have to travel. It's an excuse to stay home and play Halo II on XBox Live.
2. Very hot weather and major storms throughout equatorial regions. Florida and the other gulf states, for example, are going to get the shit beaten out of them every year. I expect most people to get fed up and move inland to get away from the hurricanes, and away from the plains states to get away from "Tornado Alley". Lots of migration will produce new ghost towns along the coasts, not due to disasters per se, but to people getting fed up with having their houses knocked down biannually. Actually I'm endlessly surprised this hasn't already started.
3. Ocean levels might rise a bit, but this might be offset by increased ocean ice due to the mini ice age, so the whole "waterworld" thing is going to be a non-starter. Of course we knew that.
4. Everyone is going to completely freak out and run around with their hair on fire for years and years. We on Slashdot will argue about it endlessly, never arriving at any conclusion, but it'll be interesting and take our minds off the fact that none of us have been laid recently.
Once doctors get this particular trick completely worked out, and hopefully collect their nobel prize, here's what I hope they do next:
1. Figure out how to clone new body parts, to replace those which are severed or lost, and forever banish the horror inspired in us by Lorena Bobbit (yes, I know they sewed it back on and it works, but what if she'd done something else, like gobbled it down? It's not like she was particularly sane at the time).
2. Figure out how to cure and/or immunize against aids and herpes, which will significantly increase the amount of joy in the world.
3. Create the "bowel" gun (makes you crap your drawers when shot) from Transmetropolitan, with it's various settings like "watery" and "prolapse".
4. Create an electrical gizmo which makes all penises adjustable. Although current technology exists to turn all penii into vibrators, a big adjustment dial would make things more interesting. I envision settings like "Whopper", "Excalibur", "Minuteman Missle", and "Saturn V" for starters.
I was kidding you, too, hence the twinkie poisoning. Admit it - the concept of poisoned twinkies is at least amusing. Ah, well.
Silly slashdotter... Psychopath does NOT mean "one who dislikes other people in general". It means "one who has no moral constraints or conscience with respect to his dealings with others, who usually behaves in a completely irredeemable, evil way" -- in other words, one who is, for lack of a better word, evil.
I don't believe I said anything about being EVIL. I just said I find all you silly fucks irritating, and this leads to my actively avoiding your presence.
Now, if I was a psychopath (which, thank God, I'm not) I'd find you irritating and poison your twinkies. See the difference?
Crazyphilman: introverted and hostile, but NOT PSYCHO.
Psychopath: introverted and hostile, and poisons your twinkies.
Now, that's interesting. But I don't think I'm entirely misanthropic; in my case it's just in respect to the general population. There are certain subcultures I'm rather fond of. And once I know someone, and have decided I like them, I'm perfectly friendly, although being an introvert I don't exactly seek out interaction.
Perhaps I'm introverted and somewhat misanthropic, and they're related (even correlated) without having a causal relationship. I like that.
What if I'm an introvert because I just don't like other people? Maybe I find them irritating.
Perhaps I view the slavish way normal people pursue the goodwill of others as a weakness, a pathetic addiction to the approval of others. Perhaps I am just as disgusted by this addiction as I am by alcohol, heroin, or crystam meth addiction, and view it in a similar light?
Perhaps I just think most other people are stupid, boring, and unimaginative, and don't want to waste too much time on them.
Or, maybe, and humor me here, the only other people I find even remotely interesting are people who are geeks like me, and into the same things (technology, modern visual culture, etc)... Maybe I just don't have any use for anyone else.
Remember -- some of us introverts are freakin' HOSTILE.
Well...
Since I already have a perfectly good Playstation II and XBox, and a decent game collection for each...
And there is a huge supply of used games in every game store in town...
And I haven't even come close to playing through all the games that are already out there...
And my slimline Playstation II is pure solid-state with almost no moving parts except for the CD, which means it'll last for years or even decades if I take care of it...
And I can get spare Playstation IIs for 149.00, and spare copies of my game DVDs for 10 bucks in the used section of the game store...
Well...
Why bother with the next generation consoles at all? I'll stick with what I've got until the fancy new consoles are down to 150.00 each. No problemo!
Sadly, PFC Johnson had installed the PC version of a popular older first-person shooter videogame called "Sin", along with a rip of the DVD movie "Pulp Fiction" on his translating laptop, and some of the files were mis-installed.
Iraqi Militant: "Ok, I'm surrendering. Look, I'm giving you my AK-47. Ok? Here it is."
BEEP! WHIRR!
Machine: "OK, I surrender. Look at giving AK-47. OK. Here is it."
BEEP!
PFC Johnson: "Ok, no problem, just set it on the hummvee."
BEEP! WHIRR!
Machine (in arabic): "I'm gonna make you my bitch!"
BEEP!
Iraqi: "Pardon me?"
BEEP! WHIRR!
Machine: "Motherfucker, please!"
BEEP!
PFC Johnson: "Now, hang on, there's no call for that."
BEEP! WHIRR!
Machine: "And, you will know my name is the LORD! When I bring my vengeance down upon thee!"
BEEP!
Iraqi: "Wait a moment, I am giving you my weapon, vengeance is not entirely appropriate!"
BEEP! WHIRR!
Machine: "I'm gonna make you my bitch!" (the guy in SIN said that a lot, too)
BEEP!
PFC Johnson: "FREEZE! HANDS ON YOUR HEADS!"
BEEP! WHIRR!
Machine: "I'M A MUSHROOM CLOUD LAYING MOTHERFUCKER, MOTHERFUCKER!"
BEEP!
Iraqi: "EVERYBODY SHOOT! THE AMERICANS HAVE GONE NUTS! ATTACK! ATTACK!"
BEEP! WHIRR!
Iraqi: "ATTACK! THE AMERICANS HAVE GONE MAD!"
You misunderstand me; I was just talking about computer science and electrical engineering (which, unless you want to do chip design, is very accessible to the private inventor). I consider life sciences to be "Big Science" which is pretty much inaccessible to anyone outside of enormous corporations, large government labs, and academia.
So, yes, you are correct. If you're going to be doing gene sequencing, yeah, you'll probably need to get that Ph.D. Likewise for high-energy physics research, infectious disease work, etc, etc.
But the article isn't about Big Science. The article is about how people in the government are running around with their hair on fire because kids don't want to go to grad school for computer science or engineering anymore. This issue pops up every year or so, usually when some ding-bat wants to get elected. MY point is that it doesn't matter, for various reasons, and everyone should just relax.
As far as your work goes, in my view the number of people going into genetic engineering related coursework was probably relatively small from the beginning because it's esoteric and difficult, with a small market. So it's probably not going to change much over time -- the people who would have gone into it years ago are the same type of people who are going into it now. Such people have ALWAYS been relatively scarce.
We're not talking about specialized scientists in esoteric fields. We're talking about computer science and different types of engineering. And my points are quite valid within those realms.
Sheesh, indeed.
Ha, ha ha -- you're full of crap, and an effete, insufferable snob.
All I've got is a B.A. in computer science, pal... And I'm not pidgeonholed. I'm doing some rather high-tech things for the Government, which I don't feel inclined to discuss with you but which I'm fairly confident pay better than whatever your college lab pays YOU. While you were farting around with your books and T.As, I was building indrustry experience; before you even got your degree, I had four years' experience on the job. I've got eight years now. Way ahead of you...
You can blather on about the dozen or two Ph.D jobs that are available in this country, and overlook the fact that a few thousand people here (and several dozen thousand more overseas) are competing for them, and you get to feel all superior and smug. But you're STILL a pointy-headed, ivory-tower academic who's out of touch with the world.
Good luck with that. You'll need it. How many thousands of Ph.Ds did IBM hire over in India last year? Several, I believe. Discussed here on Slashdot. You're a dinosaur; I'm a furry little mammal. My money's on people like me.
We're talking about high tech, i.e. computer science and electrical engineering. NOT the hard sciences. Anyone can set up a serviceable software or consumer electronics lab for much less than the cost of a graduate degree, put together some software or an invention, and jump into the market.
How do you think so many PC and expansion card companies sprung up in the eighties and nineties? You didn't think it was fucking Ph.Ds making all that gear, did you? NO, it was kids with their B.S. in EE banging away on printed circuit boards in rented shops, jumping into the mail order market back then. Without them, PCs wouldn't have had the popularity they currently have, and you'd be waiting for minicomputer time to do your analysis work.
But you go ahead and knock down that straw man, make yourself feel all tingly and smart.
Do you feel tingly and smart?
Good for you!
Very efficient way to miss my point. Practically EVERYBODY goes to undergrad these days. The choice I'm describing is NOT "college/no college". It is "Stick with my B.S. and get a job, or spend tens of thousands to get an M.S. that doesn't increase my salary, and in fact makes me LESS employable".
MY point is that all anyone needs in high tech is their bachelor's degree. Higher degrees are expensive, pointless wastes of time that will reduce your employment opportunities and never, ever earn back their opportunity cost.
Besides, if you're so jazzed about computer science or electrical engineering that you're ready to drop 120K and four years on an advanced degree, you're plenty motivated enough to learn the stuff on your own, and spend a tiny fraction of that money outfitting a home lab better than the ones the colleges have.
And don't give me that crap about how grad school is free for techies. What, did you think I never thought about getting my Master's degree? Try a minimum of 30,000 additional dollars tacked onto my loans at a STATE SCHOOL for the M.S. ALONE (more if I go private). Very few people actually get scholarships, and competition for TA positions is steep.
Sorry to be so blunt, but you're off the mark.