.... in 1985. I was working with a guy who had retired from large & blue, who had gone into consulting. Helping him with some big iron installs, he just brings the subject up "You know in the year 2000 all this crap is going to crash and burn?" paraphrased. "Say what?" sez I. He tells me about the problem, but says "micros will be taking over by then and surely they will be programmed correctly". Now go forward to 1995, I get on the internet and IIRC I started reading about the y2k problem again, or perhaps 96. Basically it hadn't been "fixed" ten years later, in fact I find out that millions of lines of code had been written in the meantime with the same problem. Like WTF??? I knowe that did it for me, I thought, "these people are complete idjits, they are going to allow this crap to crash and burn because of..." whatever reason, fill in the procrastination blanks. 97 starts the real big time concern, because it still hasn't been fixed and that reality hit millions of people in a short time.
Those millions of people who are non IT people who raised a big stink loudly and often and constantly in public (I was certainly one of those people) deserve just as much credit for "fixing" y2k as the coders, they helped force it to happen, got the ball rolling, because without the thousands of IT people being harangued by their spouses at home "are you guys gonna fix that crap yet or what??" and bosses getting nailed and politicians being questioned on it by millions of just the general citizenry, a lot of the "fix" would have been ignored,postponed, all the typical big business incompetency and short sightedness, just like it was from the origins up to 85, then 95, then onto 97, 98, 99. I was thinking "eGAD what happened, why did they wait so (*(*^ long?" and I sure thought there was better than a 50/50 chance of some pretty serious and major catastrophes possible the more I looked into it. I personally talked off the record to my states head honcho contractor in charge of the states computers and remediation of same. HE said he wasn't sure it would all be fixed enough "in time" to avert some major screwups, all the way to the point that he had bought an additional home out in the sticks with a generator, etc and told me he planned to move his family in before rollover. I took that as a clue. If guys like that thought it still might be real bad, what else was there to rationalise about at that point?
I think it would have been a huge problem if people hadn't "over reacted" because "the computer industry" proved that it wasn't going to do enough about it on it's own. They failed it bigtime and it was public pressure that made the fix happen in the large way that was really needed. When things were still being "fixed" up to millenia rollover, well, there's the proof. You can't blame people when that was reality.
closer to what I was thinking. Eventually, flash forward to the mysterious future with flying cars, I would think it would be spiffy if there weren't any traditional hard coded traditional apps, instead to have "create what you need to do on the fly" software, by just about any user. And that software would then go and coordinate with what hardware resources are available, at that exact point in time, considering that computers then would be the entire network, not just the stand alone box we have now. The transition *might be* in these various languages and a universal translator or parser of some sort.
"As far as for making commentary so that unskilled people can understand what the code is doing, what's the point?" --because I don't think there's any such thing as a black/white skilled and unskilled exact dividing line with people who do code. For every coder there is his or her skill level. There are beginners and old timey gurus and everyone in between. And more times than not, the gurus code fails it sometimes and then someone else needs to go and fork around with it to get it to work, including non coders. That's why. You can see it here sometimes (heck, more than sometimes all the time) on slashdot where some code snippets are being discussed and you can see a wide range of how to do it and example to counter example to further counter example, etc, with all the replies being done by "skilled" level people.
If it is ambiguous at that level,back down the road to the even more unskilled it gets increasingly more difficult to understand what is going on. It would seem better commentary might help alleviate that.
The whole idea of foss is that people other than the original coder will be working with this example code, at who knows what skill level. They could be raw beginner to grizzled veteran. Just saying "well, if you aren't exactly like me in skill level,therefore knowing exactly what is going on here instantly and intuitively, you have no business trying to understand or adapt to or alter from this code" doesn't foster increasing sharing and better code coming out and more involvement with more people.
I would imagine that is one-not all but one-of the major reasons you see so many examples of very similar projects being started and worked on. There seems to be some coders mindset there that cooperation isn't as important as going it alone in a lot of cases. And it's also a deal where even people who aren't coders by nature or profession still have to ocasionaly go into some obscure files and fix something. I know it's happened to me a few times,latest two weeks ago, and the *only* way I was able to fix my serious problem was from the comments in the code, otherwise I would have had no idea where to even start to look. All major googling got me was where to maybe look, that was it, and even that was vague enough to be major league confusing. After I found something that looked suspicious, I took a chance on doing some very basic modifications, which apparently worked. If there had been no non-coder human readable commentary there was no way in heck would I have been able to fix it, none,nada, zero. So, I guess that means that I should have just remained with the broken stuff (broke my firewall and couldn't dialout either) because I'm not the same skillset as the writer of the code? Really, that's what you suggest? How awfully nice! Naw, don't think so. I appreciated the commentsbecause it was non coder human language readable, if it hadn't been..tough noogies for me. Sorry, don't need the elitism. It would be like -just an example picked at random-you having the plumber come over to fix some problem, he fixes it, you ask him what he did, he replies "sorry, you aren't a master plumber, you don't need to know what I did, nor could you understand it". How would you like it someone said something like that to you?
Hope my point is made more clearly now. The main reasons, I read the IT section and comment here occassionaly are -I hope to better my understanding of what the heck is going on with apps sometimes because user manuals and man pages still mostly suck bigtime, and two, to help nudge the various coders mindset more towards cooperation and reducing the barrier to entry with code in general. To help eliminate this obvious curse that exists in software land of "N developed IMBY so it isn't any good". And that's because I thought the whole idea was to tear down fences, not build new ones.
Re:dumb question..and here are some dumber answers
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How Do You Use UML?
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· Score: 1
Which one has more comments? - No 2, but maybe I am wrong.
Is it the one that's easier to read, maintain, and debug? -No idea, said I wasn't a developer
Does the second have a bug? -NO idea, not a developer
Is the comment correct? _again, no idea, although initially it appears incorrect. Frankly, neither example makes much sense to a non coder, at least to me they don't, not on a glance anyway.
I was asking a question, not really making a declarative statement based on skillset, therefore if by asking a question makes me "incorrect" I pity students everywhere who might have to learn from you somehow-or a coder down the line who has to interpret your stuff. No offense of course, just an observation.
Anyway, with that out the way, it brings up another observation in this code versus comments imbroglio. Why is it that it's one or the other? In a sense I am agreeing with your last that "the code is the comment". Aren't there any code generators that use actual grammatical speech entirely yet? If not, why not? Too hard to build or what? Why should there by code AND comments, why can't the comment BE the code, all the time? Instead, I read about yet another miracle floorwax code language being developed. Seems to me they are all minute and arcane variations on the same deal, designed to be...uhh. what's a descriptive phrase...obscurely counter intuitive and overly rube goldbergish complex.
Rhetorical on my part, I don't know enough to phrase it properly. Just a view from the outside looking in. I know like in the example there are languages that are *closer* to normal speech to use for coding,so that a bonafide coder could glance and see what is going on,comments or not, but isn't the idea of computing the idea that eventually everyone can use it to the fullest, and *easily*?
Just wondering when the next logical step is taken when a code language is developed that exactly mimics normal speech in it's ultimate output in binary compiled form. I know it's a scary thought to professional coders, but hey, automation and better tools and more ease of use comes to every field eventually. I personally *love it* when I get access to a new and/or better tool that eliminates or reduces in time and complexity a drudge chore for me and lets me go on and do something new. Like ask me if I'd rather use A-a scythe, or B-a bushhog when tackling a pasture.
In the meantime I'll let ya'all smart guys with the keyboards wrangle over it (code language flame wars are a LOT funnier to read on slashdot than OS flame wars, BTW, from the perspective of a non coder, it's like listening to people argue over sanskrit as opposed to aramic as to which is "better", ie, sorta silly) and I'll stick to driving ye olde computer bus. And thanks for the work, really! appreciate it! If it wasn't for you guys, no computer use for the kid here. I get enough mechanical headaches keeping various small and medium sized engines running. And next time you might happen to chow down on some chicken or steak, you can reciprocate the thanks back. We all work together *on the planet* to make each others lives better, and also to make a buck for ourselves. I know I appreciate it when someone suggests something entirely new to me as regards my work, I'll stop and think about it, because a long long time ago I learned sometimes some pretty snazzy inputs can be gleaned from someone else looking at what you are doing who hasn't been blinded to the forest by standing in the tress all day long.
Let me know when you and your rich urban tech buddies take the cash being offered for wireless connectivity that is sitting begging out here in the hinterlands for decent broadband with no copper involved. Been hearing about it for years, ain't seeing it yet. The areas of the nation that HAVE broadband and wireless got it now,overlapped and competetive, the rest-no one cares about it, and it's millions of people. We get copper pair dialup and that's it, so I don't see it going away like you do. The options are satellite based broadband, very expensive hardware, very expensive by the month with limited usefullness, or dialup.
Heard slashdot story rumors of 802 whatever blah blah blah and sky-fi and wi-fi and wimax and wi-turbo and blimp delivered and meshed with your peers and 2G and 2.5 g and 3G and G this and that and quantum teleportation implantable wearable supercomputer games and chat videophones and flying cars and such impressive market speak noise like that, but no real action except in a few places. Partly, I think anyway, because it's changing so fast, who really wants to invest in expensive gear and renting tower space or building towers and everything like that when two months later there's another "new shiny industry standard" and technique that "looks better"? The short term profits based VC loot is going to the same old top 100 or 200 major urban areas and short distance suburban leakage and that's about it. I mean, we have a cellphone and the local company loses our subscriber name every month. I have to literally go through and help them find out that yes in fact we have authorised service we signed up for a long time ago and here please take the money and they fail it. And this is an alleged "big player" verizon. I asked them about cell based data service,and get a blank stare at the customer service desk, they have *no clue*. I say "internet" and they don't get it. I've checked with T mobile and speakeasy and the others in the area, bottom line is if you can get basic talk on a plain vanilla cellphone you are lucky. You ain't getting any broadband, wired or wireless, no one is interested in it. And I am only an hour or so outside Atlanta, this isn't like it's some place in the middle of the amazon or anything.
So, just not seeing any "high tech" replacing plain old copper telephone wires all over real soon, not every place it ain't. But I'll keep reading the stories about it, same as I did the popular mechanics stories in the 50s.
dumb question but because I am not a developer I'll ask anyway. I am seeing the comments on "code commenting". Aren't there any editors that automagically generate at least some sort of generic commentary as you code along? I guess I assumed this was the case already. I know specific things you'd have to type in, I just though a lot of the general stuff just got "done" as you typed in code according to what language you were using, etc.
anyway.. where is the speech to code to useable apps dealie? heh, that's what I am waiting for.
Hmm, maybe coders and coding shops need to hire IT proficient but primarily english majors/experts/writers to follow along in real time as much as possible with the coding being done by the geeky and cranky guru pros and add in human readable commentary, and then write the manual pages as well. Eliminate that painful step (for other people down the line) of having to translate and decipher what the esoteric guys were trying to do with their code.
...of thwe two ways of computing and networking more than one or the other. For a lot of purposes, the way things are now, for special apps you only use once in awhile and are bandwith hungry, then a remotely run app. And we also have to contend with convergence in the area that is experiencing more and faster growth, and that is the cellphone/pda market. Consumers are replacing those devices a lot faster than either desktops or laptops, and the price is dropping faster when you factor in features in these small wireless computer thingees people tote around. You can't even hardly call them just phones any longer.
Next compare cost of consumer bandwith as a ratio to cost of IC chips in general. With printible ink based circuits coming online in a big way soon, it will be just so cheap to always have an advanced system that people would still want "the power" of having their own "computer" as opposed to someone elses computer.
Now, I could see your premise taking off more IF a lot of the major players and governments combine to end the "wild wild west" phase of the internet and require a good deal more in the way of identity and accountability online, and chop the internet up into subscription models a la AOL type "nets" where the consumers would pay for a package of apps, games, delivered on demand entertainment and information resources, etc., and in competetion with other nets, much like you buy a cellphone package today or satellite or cable TV package, etc. But that's a big wild card. I know they would *like* that as it would mean a guaranteed revenue stream, it remains how much lobbying and political pressure the big guys can put to it to institigate such profound changes.
Although the personal "system administration" angle is quite complex for the average user, automatic updates that can be pushed to them along with more secure design are the obvious trends now, so I see that problem getting easier in the future. People who want such systems have them now, and word of mouth and pressure from business desktop deployment will make it trickle down to the home owner level.
And there's one more thing to consider, and that is the "blue collaring" of the personal computer. They are merely little machines that take nothing more than a simple screwdriver to construct, because of this, we have the population now with millions of "shade tree mechanics" who are as comfortable with computer repair as one or two generations ago were as comfortable with a car tune up. It is no longer the leet high paid IT professional locked away in obscure academic or corporate R&D labs who can muck around with computers, either on the hardware or software side, it has become ubiqituous across the board in the general population. As computers have grown more complex and "hard", they have also become much easier. A person now can take a dozen boxes and connect them wired or wirelesssly, boot from a pre made Cd and have a mini super computer up and running in no time, and that is at the *hard* side of personal computing. One decade ago that would have required some pretty advanced skills, a lot of money and some pretty good luck to pull off. Single system admin has now become mostly a no brainer with the proper operating system and just a scosh of forethought, and it has the potential to be automated a LOT more. And with huge RAM becoming more and more common, you could see just RAM images of the OS and apps being the norm to run in,not hard drive based, and any major disaster being easily recoverable then, just poof it away and reinstall from known good, as simple as popping in a disk for a few moments, or as you point out, from the network. After playing around with various live cd based distros you can see the potential there, both in ease of use and in security and in administration.
.... in my experience, girls + gifts makes the odds a lot better than girls + 0 gifts, YMMV though...
and no, it's not all I got her for the holidays...
point and click linux
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Grokking Knoppix
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· Score: 5, Informative
roblimos book "point and click linux" is what you want then. You get simply mepis on cd, then a dvd with instructions that you can run simultaneously with booting the live cd if you use your normal dvd player hooked to the TV for that part. Just recently got one for my GF, it fits what you are looking for, linux for beginners.
.."How do you make international calls?" Umm, it's easy. What I have done through two decades of hard NWO struggles with my fellow billionaire conspiracists in congress and big business is destroy the borders, and make it super easy for this "foreign" guy to just move over here and squat,and thereby eliminate that oceanic and long distance middleman that was always such a hassle whenever I needed to speak to...whomever over in whoknowswhereistan. It's funny, too, we heard a lot of squawking about it from our domestic serfs and peons, but because we control the mercenaries with the badges and guns and tanks and planes,and they follow our orders without question, we got all the rabble to just eat it raw and like it. It's hysterical really.
Oh, electronically you mean, to the couple of folks left overseas, our plantation and factory overseers? Why, we just call em on the phone, we are billionaires remember, we own the phone companies and it's a full "tax" write off anyway. We talk as long as we want, and if we really want to, we just hop in our personal jets and mosey on over sipping champers on the way and consulting with our "administrative assistants".. You don't really think we PAY for stuff out of personal profits do you?
seems the youthful art of vigorus protest has been replaced with typing crap on the internet. I blame video games and cheezits myself....
The goons have never given a rats patootie about words, never. It's held up as the sacred thing, the right of speech, well yes and no, speech is only as good as the intentions acts and deeds that backup that speech. If all you have is speech, you've lost, might as well move on and accept defeat.
;)
Back in the day, we protested, both ways, uphill and downhill and it wasn't all via zap comix and underground newspapers, what passed for the internet you have now.
Bah, must be the additives in the junk food or something.
... well, to me anyway because I just don't know. There are a lot of distros out there, including all the various "live" versions, and various ways to install. I am wondering, is there such a beast as a no brainer, one click to install Linux distro that works over the internet and would seamlessly replace a users windows install with a working and safe while downloading and installing linux distro? I mean, a windows user (or another linux user, whatever) clicks on a webpage link and off she goes? With broadband now, it's common to downloand an ISO and burn it, I was just wondering if there was a distro that was designed from the ground up to eliminate that intermediary step. Say someone had finally just had it with windows problems, just said to heck with it, just replace this whole mess with something else, etc. Click, download, install, as easy as a normal app? I know there are "network" installs, but those are usually targeted at corporations where a lot of PCs are on the LAN, etc, I mean one for joe raw beginner newbie home user surfer.
in a situation like that, the control group would be all those other people who AREN'T getting the new drug or treatment. It obviously fails the strictly classical dictionary definition of course, but it would help those if the thing works at all. People typically volunteer for those tests when they have no other options available, when no other previously approved drug or treatment has worked for them, and they have limited time left. So giving them *nothing* was the original point,it's bogus, and I can see it, and I agree, all the test subjects should be given the treatment for-real if they volunteer for it and chose that method. I agree that it's cruel and unethical at that point, IF it's a life threatening disease of some immediacy and no other treatment has proven of any worth. If it's gotten so far as to be having human trials, and the volunteers have very short projected calendar times remaining, it's far enough along to offer it to people who sign a disclaimer, etc as their "last ditch hope", so don't mess with them by giving them a placebo. It is not "idiocy" for someone to want to have a possible effective treatment when nothing else has worked, and it was quite rude of you to suggest that of the other poster. Offer the drug/treatment to all that volunteer. They are already suffering enough, don't make them have the additional lottery aspect to it, it's bad enough as it is. This is a situation by situation call, there is NO "one size fits all" method that "works" with research, especially if you are talking about peoples last hopes.
And as to "approved" or not, that's a different subject, millions of people are not all that happy with the entire FDA and what they "approve" or not. They are not the end all and be all of either pure science or practical applications of science, they are just another half corrupt and half lame government agency with a ton of documented failures and questionable "rulings" to their credit. And it also violates peoples basic civil rights, IMO humans have the RIGHT to decide what to do with their bodies and for their medical care. If they choose to try an "experimental" method, let them. Give them an OPTION to either be in a classical double blind type study that includes placebos, OR NOT, let them actually have the bonafide drug or treatment in an experimental study that DOESN'T use placebos,if they choose that, and you can do research both ways.
The best I have come up with is just to ignore tham as much as possible and re arrange your life such that you don't *need* to be "in the system" as much as most folks. Use cash and barter, not CCs and credit. Live rural where you can grow a lot of your own food, have your own water supply on site. Produce your own energy via the alternatives. Buy recycled and used stuff instead of new all the time. Reduce your income but increase your wealth via tangibles, eliminate the need for their scam money and scam banking system as much, helps to keep the taxman away as a bonus. Fork with them,monekywrench, these stores that want all your info for purchaisng with those loyalty cards and whatnot, give em a song and dance when you fill them out. I don't have kids but I encourage people to homeschool, as a way to break that mass brainwashing and conditioning that is done in the public schools.
and etcetcetc
Besides things of that nature, nope, not a lot you can do. One big hint to young folks, don't "enlist", don't take that temptation of the cash and "free college!" crapola sign on bonus they use, don't fall for the rah rah rah propoganda commercials on the TV they run like with football games and etc.. You sign away your rights as a human when you do that,and also put yourself into physical peril, not only with scam wars but with the dang shots they make you take and being around stuff like DU munitions, this generations ignored "perfectly safe agent orange" fiasco that is hitting people. Joining up is like voluntarily installing gator on a life sized scale to your person. If you get married, don't get their permission, their license, just don't. Don't register your kids with "social security". don't take their number, their mark. People joke about it, but it's true, they are turning people into basically warehoused pieces of stock so you have to say "no" and make it stick as much as possible. And if you work in IT, don't take a job that you know is producing something "wrong", don't do that surveillence command and control work when you know it will be abused by governments and their controllers, the transnationals. Find something else to work on instead.
The problem is millions who don't care and just go along with any weird crap,cash the check, say "I can't do anything about it". You can, you can NOT do stuff you know is ethically wrong or stupid or lame. The only rational solution is really just one person at a time making a decision to not go along with it and follow through wherever you can in all the things that confront you daily. For instance, I was always a big radio shack shopper, and I never gave them all that info they always wanted. I always ranted at the checkout, loud enough for anyone to hear,got the manager over, then told them to write in crap for name and phone number and stuff, else "no sale". I always bought what I wanted too, took a few minutes every time at the counter, but as we can see, thousands of folks did that and RS STOPPED asking those questions eventually.
Besides that, I have no easy answers, because there are none. It isn't one proble, it's the combination of hundreds of smaller problems, so you address each one as it appears.
I know I refuse to vote for any D or R though, too compromised and corrupt to be of any use nowadays, and I never bought that "lesser of two evils is better" noise. I don't care if it's just one vote in the total election tally, it's still the vote I personally have to cast. It's too valuable and precious a commodity to me personally to waste on one of those paid off bribed and blackmailed D or R losers, that's for sure.
Just part of the FTAA, free trade area of the americas coming to fruit. Google it up. The globalists want to carve up the world into regions, then eventually into a single world government. It will be called something like the American Union then, or similar. It's coming. This is just a chunk of the nuts and bolts infrastructure to make it happen.
They have to get rid of nations first,and borders, and the easiest way is to create super economic unions first with common currencies and no borders, etc,plus privatise and thereby profit-from what are commonly now public and governmental services. Sound familiar? Witness private corporations taking over prison industries and now municipal water supplies, etc. Look at how many "security contractors" are fighting the wars now. Roads are a biggee as well, much better (from their POV) that some big corporations profit from road travel. Think about it, in the article, they will use private investment money(I bet some tax money gets used as well, or bonds maybe like when they build sports stadiums) to seize other peoples private lands through so called public "beneficial" law, then allow a profit to occur from this seizure and construction and perpetual service project. Sweet deal for them, especially if they make it harder to use the public roads at the same time, which they can easily do by closing off other roads in conjunction with opening the new private ones.. "You", anyone, I mean us semi peons, are being *herded* like stock animals. Fed propoganda brainwashing news, fed similar conditioning propoganda in the movies and on Tv (torture is good!), and etc. Look at the article, the local R reps are against it, I doubt many local people are for building it, but they still are going to do it. Huh? What's the use of having elections if whatever "they" want happens anyway?
I don't have a link handy, but I was reading some months back about them gradually going to almost all toll roads for the highways in texas, precisely because of it's border gateway to central and south america, and then into the entire US eventually, just adding checkpoints to existing roads/highways and by making these super highways. Serves a few purposes,serious forever folding money profit for a few big corps., control the population, better surveillence (combo of black boxes in cars and your highway pass token and internal passport, err I mean the universal ID system you'll suck down when you go down and get your right to travel license), then the upcoming federal sales tax, and the also upcoming tax on miles driven in addition to normal taxes on gallons of fuel bought (you'll pay both, don't live in denial about it, it's coming).
Really, the globalists in their various publications spell all this stuff out and have decades long views and plans, nothing is really hidden if you look for it. They don't like national borders, so eventually they'll go buh bye. Simple as that. These are transnational megabucks corporations who call the shots and could care less what you think. You exist to serve them, period.. They stick their tame politicians in power, and everyone should be able to see that now. It's how they think, act, and do. They make the decisions, you don't, and your vote is meaningless in the long run. They know anyone "you" is a pipsqueak and won't do a dang thing to stop them. They let you complain,and that's it, but you *must* go along with what they say, or suffer the consequences.
...economic reality until around the 80s or so in this nation. Since then, between the combination of going from the worlds largest creditor nation to the worlds largest debtor nation, and from the occurrence of the rise of the super nanny state, the net result is that now illegal immigrants cost the economy in general terms approx 55 grand a head. It's a severe net loss in purely economic terms. The increased "benefits" of a pool of lower wage earners (who really now are in a lot more than truely dismal jobs "no one wants", that's now an exploded myth) compared to increased infrastructure and societal costs is way tilted towards the "more cost" size. Increases in property taxes to go for new public schools for instance. Whereas in the past is was slow normal growth, many places are having to double or tripe their expenditures in a few short years, ie, no way to ramp it gracefully other than to rip it out of the pockets of people who built the original infrastructure locally, forcing them to pay twice or three times for basically the same "service" they already paid for previously. Ditto police, fire and more importantly public and private health costs. Many local hospitals now run in the red constantly due to pressure from illegals, whom they must treat by law, and who don't/can't/won't pay a penny back. "Anchor babies" who are instant citizens because their 8 months and 29 days pregnant mothers fly in just to have their babies here, which make them eligible for citizenship status, which therefore makes the babies parents and other extended family groups somehow eligible. Instant small business loans and grants for "new arrivals".
And another point, the ratio of new arrivals to long term existing is HIGHER now than at any time in the past, as when people talk about the earlier days of the US when so called "waves" of immigrants came in. The ratio is much higher now, no other era comes as close or is "more" unless you talk about the immediate early colonization period and leave out all the native peoples. The nearest to now historical era was the late 1890s and, IIRC we are almost triple that ratio currently.
But with that said, yes, some people profit from it immensely, those same folks who want what they can get vacationing in the second world,real cheap house serfs, garden serfs, factory serfs, various other labor serfs, uhh "physical companion" serfs, and etc, but without the inconvenience of actually having to move to some second world nation. They just want that sort of ultimate two class society here. I mean, there's a reason-say for example Mexico, is still mostly a two class nation. It's not because they lack natural resources or ag land or hard working people or access to tools or whatever, it's because they have a 1% controlling racist class of "castillians" who would rather it stayed the way it has become, 1% controller wealthy class, every one else below them, much below them. The same guys and their economic allies want that for the US. In China, a very equivalent deal, these large companies know what's up at the top levels in China, and they *like it*, they like that orders can be given and that those with the wealth have a lot more power,economic, political, etc, they *dig it*. They want that scene here, too.
I call them the modern technofeudalists, the new neo-royal "class".
"Despite those facts, it was obviously still cheaper to move the bulk of production overseas"
Well the obvious quick answer to part of it is that the freeking government gave them a corporate tax break to move overseas. True facts. No idea how much got paid in bribes for that fiasco, but I can't think of any other reason to do that.
...anyway, this is all well and good until such a time as the parent nation (the US) has so much screwed the pooch by destroying previously existing decent paying middle class CONSUMERS jobs and incomes that they have very few people left back in the original nation to sell this foreign made stuff -> to, at most any price. These various companies seem to think that they are the only one doing it, when in reality they all are, and they depend on "the other guy" to keep paying their employees real good middle money, so that they can sell their widgets, but they don't want to do it themselves. but they all are heading that direction. Let's cogitate on this a scosh.. How many companies really aren't doing it now, or industries I should say? They are all standing in a circle cutting each others throats basically, and thinking this is a "good deal". They think if only they outsource no one else will, for some magical reason.
People who keep losing jobs only to struggle to find cheaper and cheaper paying jobs don't "upgrade" as much, nor do they buy much of anything once the bank account is stripped, they switch to credit, and credit is *not* wealth, and eventually that gets borked as well. Then what?
Any nation that voluntarily destroys middle class jobs for still useful products, not buggywhip subsidies, I mean still current and useful manufactured goods, deserves everything that happens to them. And it WILL happen too.there's no way it can't now, it's too far gone to recover from. I call it the upcoming full "second worlding" of the US.
Penny wise now,lots of this quarter "profits" for "shareholders" and big fancy magazine covers for various "successful" CEOs,and some cheap crap on credit at *mart, but seriously pound foolish later.
Eventually, jobs exported to nation X will result in said nation X no longer needing the market represented by the original nation, in this instance, soon China will no longer need the US market, as they will have enough of an infrastructure developed and in place and more than enough population to only need their exploding internal market and those markets foreign to them that exist to supply them various raw materials, of which the US isn't one, either. We won't be making anything they need, selling any raw materials, or being able to afford to export our last ditch products, which are ag products. We just recently switched to being a net food *importer*, unparalleled in our nations history. They will have to drop the buck to what passes for a dime in todays buying power to stay competetive, so guess what that will do to the median standard of living.
This isn't a case of china creating these jobs all on their own, or the various other big outsourcing targets, this is a case of decent existing and still useful jobs being exported for short term high level mega profits and tax breaks, and it's a big difference.
In short, in the US we are in the good old days now of affordable stuff and perhaps good jobs, I doubt it will continue into the next adult generation. I seriously doubt it, all the numbers point to a bad decline across the board. It's been 30 years in the making, I've watched it happen, but it's about "cooked", that economic scam turkey is done, and the proof is in the balance of trade payments (we lose), the savings levels(historical all time low), the amount of bankruptcies and foreclosures(historical all time highs), government debt (all time high), and the complete lack of confidence or fiscal reality in most private or governmental pension schemes out
dislclaimer-I work at technocrat, but I joined there first from the stated reason, to have a more mature forum (ie, less bogus trolling posts and whatnot) than..well, here for instance..
With that said, you'll find across the net at news places that allow commentary, it's frequently the case that original sources of the news get very little in the way of comments to their articles, yet at the large sites like slashdot that aggregate and repost, that they get quite a few. It's a normal occurrence and not just limited to technocrat. Each fills a niche in a way, and choice is good. I'll give you another example, exactly similar as it was written by Bruce. He wrote a very long and quite decent piece on soiftware patents, etc, that was published at Technocrat.net, but it was rejected at Slashdot. Personally, I don't see why, as it was easily better than quite a few of the articles posted here on any given day. So, realistically, I have no idea how many people actually saw it. If people only or primarily look at Slashdot, they miss quite a lot of tech news. So sites like Technocrat.net serve a purpose, even if people merely add it to their RSS feeds and click over for things they are interested in. As large as Slashdot is, it can't cover everything.
..would probably release enough energy to cause earthquakes, so we'd get an additional bonus shaking. A gigaton concentrated on one spot would penetrate deep you would think, energy wise. I guess it depends where it hits, some areas more likely than others to take it as an earthquake domino effect.
...should the odds look grim and there's only x-small amount of seats off planet, I would wager it's the guys with the biggest guns and the willingness to use them who would get off planet, and I doubt they would let any civilian politicians or generic stupid random rich farts go for a ride either, they would tell them to fudge off. To get loyalty from their other troops, they would hold a lottery for the last few seats, to insure no counter revolts, with winners only announced at the last second. Maybe.
Even then it might not occur, jealous other military forces might attack with such force that no one gets off the planet at all. And by 2029 I *doubt* we will have much of a space launch ability anyway, I think a thousand all at once would be pushing it. I've weatched the space race since going outside and staring up trying to see sputnik, and frankly, it ain't all that far along compared to what I thought would happen way back then. and even with rutans and virgin airlines help, it still won't be that much further along in the 20's unless there's some sort of dramatic breakthrough to replace chemical reaction rocket engines. They are just too expensive for huge mass production, require a lot of people to get a few people off the ground and lots of work. And you'd still have the problem of how would you get the ground crew to cooperate? Like stated, what good is money. Now, maybe large balloons, or blimps might be sufficient, not sure, but it would be worth a try and a heck of a lot cheaper to mass produce..I bet mass prouction you can make decent Model T blimps for the price of a car. Add in some groceries and grog, good to go for a week of floating above the destruction. Earth quakes and Tsuanmis you could fly over and float around for awhile until things settled down. Even if the winds blow ya around, so what, let em. strap in.
That might be more doable on a somewhat larger scale than just 1,000 people. You would think after a few days it would be enough settled to reland someplace.
Me,with a big ole asteroid coming in, and say no blimp or rocket, naked barbecue! Dead mans dinner, surf and turf! Well,proly wear a grease spatter apron, got to be practical about these things. Then kick back in the lawn chairs and watch the show! Hmm, maybe loot a bank and play monopoly with real money and deeds to properties waiting for it to show up. sort of like new years eve countdown.
Ya, ya, I know, you young guys all thinking the same thing, "hang out with the ole lady ya tarded fool, get you a bunch..."..Sure,sure, sure, sure, but get that out of the way the week before the show. I mean, you can get lucky anytime, how often do you get to see a PLANET SMASHER hit? We are geeks, some things are just *important*.
Anyway, that one is too small, need a much larger one for a good fireworks show. The Mayans claim no history past 2012 anyway, something like that I was reading.
I sincerely hope you aren't assuming I am minimizing the serious nature of this devastation. I don't see where you get this impression from what I wrote. It's a bad scene, no ways about it, and my best wishes go out to the victims and their families. I was merely trying to allude to one of the recently talked about on slashdot speculated huge asteroid impacts with a projected tsunami 10 times larger, that it would be practically unimaginable in destructive force, from a recorded human history POV short of something like the Biblical "great flood" stories.
As to waves of that size, no, my own personal experience with big water along those lines was three days in a 55 foot boat with "only" 25 foot swells and 70 knot winds, which was *dang spooky enough*, it came close to sinking the boat, and as it was, we had to beat feet to drydock once the storm subsided enough for us to make way safely for emergency repairs,and we took on enough seawater from a completely sprung plank below waterline to almost completely flood over the top of the detroit diesel v-12 in the engine room,despite the pumping efforts of the separate diesel powered bilge pump,and luckily it kept chugging along "liquid cooled" as it were. When we got to drydock (much slower than normal good speed) we were sitting in the water almost to the gunwales, and they were originally around 8 feet from waterline. In other words, a few hours from swamping, max. We lucked out bigtime. Had to stay firmly lashed to something the entire three days of the storm to keep from getting beat senseless, there was no walking around, etc, happening. You had to crawl and move a safety line from point to point.
Of course I was a young fool then and thought "hey, adventure!" HAHAHAHAHA!
....are sold to anyone "you" as joe consumer as being the bottom part of a pyramid. You have the producer/manufacturer, the wholesaler, the jobber, the distributor, etc, down to the retail store, each taking a cut, and that doesn't count the shipping guys,k insurance guys, accountant guys, tax boys, yada yada, who are always in the mix as well. This isn't a whole lot different, just using sources that aren't normally inside the pyramid, in a slightly different way. And as to consumers paying the cost,sure they do, no argument, same as you do anyway for every single thing that's advertised, no matter how it's advertised, the expense is shared by all the purchasers eventually.
I haven't done or responded to any of the ipod offers, but I don't see it as much different than recommending a link to your favorite web vendor to go buy something, whether you get something or not from the deal, not in the grand scheme of things anyway. As to the privacy factor, you can't ever use a credit card for any purchase then, could you, either online or in meatspace, nor a personal check, it would have to be cash-ola in person at a brick and mortar store for every purchase of a good or service rendered to avoid "losing privacy".
I heard about it late last night on a net radio feed (my time EST 0 dark thirty am sometime, I was half asleep) right after it happened, but a tsunami wave travelling roughly the speed of a commercial jetliner doesn't give a lot of leeway even if the people in the soon to be affected areas hear about it.
And this one follows that 8. something quake that hit between tasmania and antarctica just the other day.
I think this story should be taken into consideration along with the asteroid stories, as this wave was only roughly 40-50 feet high, yet by some reports it traveled up to half a mile inland in some places. Just imagine one ten times higher (something like that) from a large asteroid oceanic strike.
But ya, you would think that their would be some sort of emergency alert tied to seismographs, that would automatically get posted to various radio and television and internet sources if it was of sufficient strength, ie, danger. I know we have this alleged emergency alert system in the US that will over ride the TV and radio stations OTA broadcasts, but no idea in other nations what they have for that. Civil defense is always lesser funded than military offense in most nations it appears. What would it really cost to develop a radio based alert system for these various nations? Cost of one jet fighter or tank? And it could be tied to cellphones for that matter through the various national carriers, say, in a true natural disaster (impending or otherwise) scenario, your phone might ring with a pre recorded short message.
I realise in the poorer areas it might be problematic, but surely someone in most areas has a phone or a radio or whatever, you don't have to get the message to every single human directly, just to enough of them in any given area for word of mouth to help out a lot. Wake up and alert one dude per poor village, he can go running outside yelling his head off for that matter, like "dang evac! Tsunami coming! Move it people!" something like that anyway. The old church bells ringing hard and fast deal.
Slashdot Mirror
.... in 1985. I was working with a guy who had retired from large & blue, who had gone into consulting. Helping him with some big iron installs, he just brings the subject up "You know in the year 2000 all this crap is going to crash and burn?" paraphrased. "Say what?" sez I. He tells me about the problem, but says "micros will be taking over by then and surely they will be programmed correctly". Now go forward to 1995, I get on the internet and IIRC I started reading about the y2k problem again, or perhaps 96. Basically it hadn't been "fixed" ten years later, in fact I find out that millions of lines of code had been written in the meantime with the same problem. Like WTF??? I knowe that did it for me, I thought, "these people are complete idjits, they are going to allow this crap to crash and burn because of ..." whatever reason, fill in the procrastination blanks. 97 starts the real big time concern, because it still hasn't been fixed and that reality hit millions of people in a short time.
Those millions of people who are non IT people who raised a big stink loudly and often and constantly in public (I was certainly one of those people) deserve just as much credit for "fixing" y2k as the coders, they helped force it to happen, got the ball rolling, because without the thousands of IT people being harangued by their spouses at home "are you guys gonna fix that crap yet or what??" and bosses getting nailed and politicians being questioned on it by millions of just the general citizenry, a lot of the "fix" would have been ignored,postponed, all the typical big business incompetency and short sightedness, just like it was from the origins up to 85, then 95, then onto 97, 98, 99. I was thinking "eGAD what happened, why did they wait so (*(*^ long?" and I sure thought there was better than a 50/50 chance of some pretty serious and major catastrophes possible the more I looked into it. I personally talked off the record to my states head honcho contractor in charge of the states computers and remediation of same. HE said he wasn't sure it would all be fixed enough "in time" to avert some major screwups, all the way to the point that he had bought an additional home out in the sticks with a generator, etc and told me he planned to move his family in before rollover. I took that as a clue. If guys like that thought it still might be real bad, what else was there to rationalise about at that point?
I think it would have been a huge problem if people hadn't "over reacted" because "the computer industry" proved that it wasn't going to do enough about it on it's own. They failed it bigtime and it was public pressure that made the fix happen in the large way that was really needed. When things were still being "fixed" up to millenia rollover, well, there's the proof. You can't blame people when that was reality.
closer to what I was thinking. Eventually, flash forward to the mysterious future with flying cars, I would think it would be spiffy if there weren't any traditional hard coded traditional apps, instead to have "create what you need to do on the fly" software, by just about any user. And that software would then go and coordinate with what hardware resources are available, at that exact point in time, considering that computers then would be the entire network, not just the stand alone box we have now. The transition *might be* in these various languages and a universal translator or parser of some sort.
"As far as for making commentary so that unskilled people can understand what the code is doing, what's the point?" --because I don't think there's any such thing as a black/white skilled and unskilled exact dividing line with people who do code. For every coder there is his or her skill level. There are beginners and old timey gurus and everyone in between. And more times than not, the gurus code fails it sometimes and then someone else needs to go and fork around with it to get it to work, including non coders. That's why. You can see it here sometimes (heck, more than sometimes all the time) on slashdot where some code snippets are being discussed and you can see a wide range of how to do it and example to counter example to further counter example, etc, with all the replies being done by "skilled" level people.
If it is ambiguous at that level,back down the road to the even more unskilled it gets increasingly more difficult to understand what is going on. It would seem better commentary might help alleviate that.
The whole idea of foss is that people other than the original coder will be working with this example code, at who knows what skill level. They could be raw beginner to grizzled veteran. Just saying "well, if you aren't exactly like me in skill level,therefore knowing exactly what is going on here instantly and intuitively, you have no business trying to understand or adapt to or alter from this code" doesn't foster increasing sharing and better code coming out and more involvement with more people.
I would imagine that is one-not all but one-of the major reasons you see so many examples of very similar projects being started and worked on. There seems to be some coders mindset there that cooperation isn't as important as going it alone in a lot of cases. And it's also a deal where even people who aren't coders by nature or profession still have to ocasionaly go into some obscure files and fix something. I know it's happened to me a few times,latest two weeks ago, and the *only* way I was able to fix my serious problem was from the comments in the code, otherwise I would have had no idea where to even start to look. All major googling got me was where to maybe look, that was it, and even that was vague enough to be major league confusing. After I found something that looked suspicious, I took a chance on doing some very basic modifications, which apparently worked. If there had been no non-coder human readable commentary there was no way in heck would I have been able to fix it, none,nada, zero. So, I guess that means that I should have just remained with the broken stuff (broke my firewall and couldn't dialout either) because I'm not the same skillset as the writer of the code? Really, that's what you suggest? How awfully nice! Naw, don't think so. I appreciated the comments because it was non coder human language readable, if it hadn't been..tough noogies for me. Sorry, don't need the elitism. It would be like -just an example picked at random-you having the plumber come over to fix some problem, he fixes it, you ask him what he did, he replies "sorry, you aren't a master plumber, you don't need to know what I did, nor could you understand it". How would you like it someone said something like that to you?
Hope my point is made more clearly now. The main reasons, I read the IT section and comment here occassionaly are -I hope to better my understanding of what the heck is going on with apps sometimes because user manuals and man pages still mostly suck bigtime, and two, to help nudge the various coders mindset more towards cooperation and reducing the barrier to entry with code in general. To help eliminate this obvious curse that exists in software land of "N developed IMBY so it isn't any good". And that's because I thought the whole idea was to tear down fences, not build new ones.
Which one has more comments? - No 2, but maybe I am wrong.
Is it the one that's easier to read, maintain, and debug? -No idea, said I wasn't a developer
Does the second have a bug? -NO idea, not a developer
Is the comment correct? _again, no idea, although initially it appears incorrect. Frankly, neither example makes much sense to a non coder, at least to me they don't, not on a glance anyway.
I was asking a question, not really making a declarative statement based on skillset, therefore if by asking a question makes me "incorrect" I pity students everywhere who might have to learn from you somehow-or a coder down the line who has to interpret your stuff. No offense of course, just an observation.
Anyway, with that out the way, it brings up another observation in this code versus comments imbroglio. Why is it that it's one or the other? In a sense I am agreeing with your last that "the code is the comment". Aren't there any code generators that use actual grammatical speech entirely yet? If not, why not? Too hard to build or what? Why should there by code AND comments, why can't the comment BE the code, all the time? Instead, I read about yet another miracle floorwax code language being developed. Seems to me they are all minute and arcane variations on the same deal, designed to be...uhh. what's a descriptive phrase...obscurely counter intuitive and overly rube goldbergish complex.
Rhetorical on my part, I don't know enough to phrase it properly. Just a view from the outside looking in. I know like in the example there are languages that are *closer* to normal speech to use for coding,so that a bonafide coder could glance and see what is going on,comments or not, but isn't the idea of computing the idea that eventually everyone can use it to the fullest, and *easily*?
Just wondering when the next logical step is taken when a code language is developed that exactly mimics normal speech in it's ultimate output in binary compiled form. I know it's a scary thought to professional coders, but hey, automation and better tools and more ease of use comes to every field eventually. I personally *love it* when I get access to a new and/or better tool that eliminates or reduces in time and complexity a drudge chore for me and lets me go on and do something new. Like ask me if I'd rather use A-a scythe, or B-a bushhog when tackling a pasture.
In the meantime I'll let ya'all smart guys with the keyboards wrangle over it (code language flame wars are a LOT funnier to read on slashdot than OS flame wars, BTW, from the perspective of a non coder, it's like listening to people argue over sanskrit as opposed to aramic as to which is "better", ie, sorta silly) and I'll stick to driving ye olde computer bus. And thanks for the work, really! appreciate it! If it wasn't for you guys, no computer use for the kid here. I get enough mechanical headaches keeping various small and medium sized engines running. And next time you might happen to chow down on some chicken or steak, you can reciprocate the thanks back. We all work together *on the planet* to make each others lives better, and also to make a buck for ourselves. I know I appreciate it when someone suggests something entirely new to me as regards my work, I'll stop and think about it, because a long long time ago I learned sometimes some pretty snazzy inputs can be gleaned from someone else looking at what you are doing who hasn't been blinded to the forest by standing in the tress all day long.
Let me know when you and your rich urban tech buddies take the cash being offered for wireless connectivity that is sitting begging out here in the hinterlands for decent broadband with no copper involved. Been hearing about it for years, ain't seeing it yet. The areas of the nation that HAVE broadband and wireless got it now,overlapped and competetive, the rest-no one cares about it, and it's millions of people. We get copper pair dialup and that's it, so I don't see it going away like you do. The options are satellite based broadband, very expensive hardware, very expensive by the month with limited usefullness, or dialup.
Heard slashdot story rumors of 802 whatever blah blah blah and sky-fi and wi-fi and wimax and wi-turbo and blimp delivered and meshed with your peers and 2G and 2.5 g and 3G and G this and that and quantum teleportation implantable wearable supercomputer games and chat videophones and flying cars and such impressive market speak noise like that, but no real action except in a few places. Partly, I think anyway, because it's changing so fast, who really wants to invest in expensive gear and renting tower space or building towers and everything like that when two months later there's another "new shiny industry standard" and technique that "looks better"? The short term profits based VC loot is going to the same old top 100 or 200 major urban areas and short distance suburban leakage and that's about it. I mean, we have a cellphone and the local company loses our subscriber name every month. I have to literally go through and help them find out that yes in fact we have authorised service we signed up for a long time ago and here please take the money and they fail it. And this is an alleged "big player" verizon. I asked them about cell based data service,and get a blank stare at the customer service desk, they have *no clue*. I say "internet" and they don't get it. I've checked with T mobile and speakeasy and the others in the area, bottom line is if you can get basic talk on a plain vanilla cellphone you are lucky. You ain't getting any broadband, wired or wireless, no one is interested in it. And I am only an hour or so outside Atlanta, this isn't like it's some place in the middle of the amazon or anything.
So, just not seeing any "high tech" replacing plain old copper telephone wires all over real soon, not every place it ain't. But I'll keep reading the stories about it, same as I did the popular mechanics stories in the 50s.
dumb question but because I am not a developer I'll ask anyway. I am seeing the comments on "code commenting". Aren't there any editors that automagically generate at least some sort of generic commentary as you code along? I guess I assumed this was the case already. I know specific things you'd have to type in, I just though a lot of the general stuff just got "done" as you typed in code according to what language you were using, etc.
anyway.. where is the speech to code to useable apps dealie? heh, that's what I am waiting for.
Hmm, maybe coders and coding shops need to hire IT proficient but primarily english majors/experts/writers to follow along in real time as much as possible with the coding being done by the geeky and cranky guru pros and add in human readable commentary, and then write the manual pages as well. Eliminate that painful step (for other people down the line) of having to translate and decipher what the esoteric guys were trying to do with their code.
...of thwe two ways of computing and networking more than one or the other. For a lot of purposes, the way things are now, for special apps you only use once in awhile and are bandwith hungry, then a remotely run app. And we also have to contend with convergence in the area that is experiencing more and faster growth, and that is the cellphone/pda market. Consumers are replacing those devices a lot faster than either desktops or laptops, and the price is dropping faster when you factor in features in these small wireless computer thingees people tote around. You can't even hardly call them just phones any longer.
Next compare cost of consumer bandwith as a ratio to cost of IC chips in general. With printible ink based circuits coming online in a big way soon, it will be just so cheap to always have an advanced system that people would still want "the power" of having their own "computer" as opposed to someone elses computer.
Now, I could see your premise taking off more IF a lot of the major players and governments combine to end the "wild wild west" phase of the internet and require a good deal more in the way of identity and accountability online, and chop the internet up into subscription models a la AOL type "nets" where the consumers would pay for a package of apps, games, delivered on demand entertainment and information resources, etc., and in competetion with other nets, much like you buy a cellphone package today or satellite or cable TV package, etc. But that's a big wild card. I know they would *like* that as it would mean a guaranteed revenue stream, it remains how much lobbying and political pressure the big guys can put to it to institigate such profound changes.
Although the personal "system administration" angle is quite complex for the average user, automatic updates that can be pushed to them along with more secure design are the obvious trends now, so I see that problem getting easier in the future. People who want such systems have them now, and word of mouth and pressure from business desktop deployment will make it trickle down to the home owner level.
And there's one more thing to consider, and that is the "blue collaring" of the personal computer. They are merely little machines that take nothing more than a simple screwdriver to construct, because of this, we have the population now with millions of "shade tree mechanics" who are as comfortable with computer repair as one or two generations ago were as comfortable with a car tune up. It is no longer the leet high paid IT professional locked away in obscure academic or corporate R&D labs who can muck around with computers, either on the hardware or software side, it has become ubiqituous across the board in the general population. As computers have grown more complex and "hard", they have also become much easier. A person now can take a dozen boxes and connect them wired or wirelesssly, boot from a pre made Cd and have a mini super computer up and running in no time, and that is at the *hard* side of personal computing. One decade ago that would have required some pretty advanced skills, a lot of money and some pretty good luck to pull off. Single system admin has now become mostly a no brainer with the proper operating system and just a scosh of forethought, and it has the potential to be automated a LOT more. And with huge RAM becoming more and more common, you could see just RAM images of the OS and apps being the norm to run in,not hard drive based, and any major disaster being easily recoverable then, just poof it away and reinstall from known good, as simple as popping in a disk for a few moments, or as you point out, from the network. After playing around with various live cd based distros you can see the potential there, both in ease of use and in security and in administration.
.... in my experience, girls + gifts makes the odds a lot better than girls + 0 gifts, YMMV though...
and no, it's not all I got her for the holidays...
roblimos book "point and click linux" is what you want then. You get simply mepis on cd, then a dvd with instructions that you can run simultaneously with booting the live cd if you use your normal dvd player hooked to the TV for that part. Just recently got one for my GF, it fits what you are looking for, linux for beginners.
.."How do you make international calls?" Umm, it's easy. What I have done through two decades of hard NWO struggles with my fellow billionaire conspiracists in congress and big business is destroy the borders, and make it super easy for this "foreign" guy to just move over here and squat,and thereby eliminate that oceanic and long distance middleman that was always such a hassle whenever I needed to speak to...whomever over in whoknowswhereistan. It's funny, too, we heard a lot of squawking about it from our domestic serfs and peons, but because we control the mercenaries with the badges and guns and tanks and planes,and they follow our orders without question, we got all the rabble to just eat it raw and like it. It's hysterical really.
Oh, electronically you mean, to the couple of folks left overseas, our plantation and factory overseers? Why, we just call em on the phone, we are billionaires remember, we own the phone companies and it's a full "tax" write off anyway. We talk as long as we want, and if we really want to, we just hop in our personal jets and mosey on over sipping champers on the way and consulting with our "administrative assistants".. You don't really think we PAY for stuff out of personal profits do you?
MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
seems the youthful art of vigorus protest has been replaced with typing crap on the internet. I blame video games and cheezits myself....
The goons have never given a rats patootie about words, never. It's held up as the sacred thing, the right of speech, well yes and no, speech is only as good as the intentions acts and deeds that backup that speech. If all you have is speech, you've lost, might as well move on and accept defeat.
;)
Back in the day, we protested, both ways, uphill and downhill and it wasn't all via zap comix and underground newspapers, what passed for the internet you have now.
Bah, must be the additives in the junk food or something.
heh heh heh
... well, to me anyway because I just don't know. There are a lot of distros out there, including all the various "live" versions, and various ways to install. I am wondering, is there such a beast as a no brainer, one click to install Linux distro that works over the internet and would seamlessly replace a users windows install with a working and safe while downloading and installing linux distro? I mean, a windows user (or another linux user, whatever) clicks on a webpage link and off she goes? With broadband now, it's common to downloand an ISO and burn it, I was just wondering if there was a distro that was designed from the ground up to eliminate that intermediary step. Say someone had finally just had it with windows problems, just said to heck with it, just replace this whole mess with something else, etc. Click, download, install, as easy as a normal app? I know there are "network" installs, but those are usually targeted at corporations where a lot of PCs are on the LAN, etc, I mean one for joe raw beginner newbie home user surfer.
in a situation like that, the control group would be all those other people who AREN'T getting the new drug or treatment. It obviously fails the strictly classical dictionary definition of course, but it would help those if the thing works at all. People typically volunteer for those tests when they have no other options available, when no other previously approved drug or treatment has worked for them, and they have limited time left. So giving them *nothing* was the original point,it's bogus, and I can see it, and I agree, all the test subjects should be given the treatment for-real if they volunteer for it and chose that method. I agree that it's cruel and unethical at that point, IF it's a life threatening disease of some immediacy and no other treatment has proven of any worth. If it's gotten so far as to be having human trials, and the volunteers have very short projected calendar times remaining, it's far enough along to offer it to people who sign a disclaimer, etc as their "last ditch hope", so don't mess with them by giving them a placebo. It is not "idiocy" for someone to want to have a possible effective treatment when nothing else has worked, and it was quite rude of you to suggest that of the other poster. Offer the drug/treatment to all that volunteer. They are already suffering enough, don't make them have the additional lottery aspect to it, it's bad enough as it is. This is a situation by situation call, there is NO "one size fits all" method that "works" with research, especially if you are talking about peoples last hopes.
And as to "approved" or not, that's a different subject, millions of people are not all that happy with the entire FDA and what they "approve" or not. They are not the end all and be all of either pure science or practical applications of science, they are just another half corrupt and half lame government agency with a ton of documented failures and questionable "rulings" to their credit. And it also violates peoples basic civil rights, IMO humans have the RIGHT to decide what to do with their bodies and for their medical care. If they choose to try an "experimental" method, let them. Give them an OPTION to either be in a classical double blind type study that includes placebos, OR NOT, let them actually have the bonafide drug or treatment in an experimental study that DOESN'T use placebos,if they choose that, and you can do research both ways.
The best I have come up with is just to ignore tham as much as possible and re arrange your life such that you don't *need* to be "in the system" as much as most folks. Use cash and barter, not CCs and credit. Live rural where you can grow a lot of your own food, have your own water supply on site. Produce your own energy via the alternatives. Buy recycled and used stuff instead of new all the time. Reduce your income but increase your wealth via tangibles, eliminate the need for their scam money and scam banking system as much, helps to keep the taxman away as a bonus. Fork with them,monekywrench, these stores that want all your info for purchaisng with those loyalty cards and whatnot, give em a song and dance when you fill them out. I don't have kids but I encourage people to homeschool, as a way to break that mass brainwashing and conditioning that is done in the public schools.
and etcetcetc
Besides things of that nature, nope, not a lot you can do. One big hint to young folks, don't "enlist", don't take that temptation of the cash and "free college!" crapola sign on bonus they use, don't fall for the rah rah rah propoganda commercials on the TV they run like with football games and etc.. You sign away your rights as a human when you do that,and also put yourself into physical peril, not only with scam wars but with the dang shots they make you take and being around stuff like DU munitions, this generations ignored "perfectly safe agent orange" fiasco that is hitting people. Joining up is like voluntarily installing gator on a life sized scale to your person. If you get married, don't get their permission, their license, just don't. Don't register your kids with "social security". don't take their number, their mark. People joke about it, but it's true, they are turning people into basically warehoused pieces of stock so you have to say "no" and make it stick as much as possible. And if you work in IT, don't take a job that you know is producing something "wrong", don't do that surveillence command and control work when you know it will be abused by governments and their controllers, the transnationals. Find something else to work on instead.
The problem is millions who don't care and just go along with any weird crap,cash the check, say "I can't do anything about it". You can, you can NOT do stuff you know is ethically wrong or stupid or lame. The only rational solution is really just one person at a time making a decision to not go along with it and follow through wherever you can in all the things that confront you daily. For instance, I was always a big radio shack shopper, and I never gave them all that info they always wanted. I always ranted at the checkout, loud enough for anyone to hear,got the manager over, then told them to write in crap for name and phone number and stuff, else "no sale". I always bought what I wanted too, took a few minutes every time at the counter, but as we can see, thousands of folks did that and RS STOPPED asking those questions eventually.
Besides that, I have no easy answers, because there are none. It isn't one proble, it's the combination of hundreds of smaller problems, so you address each one as it appears.
I know I refuse to vote for any D or R though, too compromised and corrupt to be of any use nowadays, and I never bought that "lesser of two evils is better" noise. I don't care if it's just one vote in the total election tally, it's still the vote I personally have to cast. It's too valuable and precious a commodity to me personally to waste on one of those paid off bribed and blackmailed D or R losers, that's for sure.
Just part of the FTAA, free trade area of the americas coming to fruit. Google it up. The globalists want to carve up the world into regions, then eventually into a single world government. It will be called something like the American Union then, or similar. It's coming. This is just a chunk of the nuts and bolts infrastructure to make it happen.
They have to get rid of nations first,and borders, and the easiest way is to create super economic unions first with common currencies and no borders, etc,plus privatise and thereby profit-from what are commonly now public and governmental services. Sound familiar? Witness private corporations taking over prison industries and now municipal water supplies, etc. Look at how many "security contractors" are fighting the wars now. Roads are a biggee as well, much better (from their POV) that some big corporations profit from road travel. Think about it, in the article, they will use private investment money(I bet some tax money gets used as well, or bonds maybe like when they build sports stadiums) to seize other peoples private lands through so called public "beneficial" law, then allow a profit to occur from this seizure and construction and perpetual service project. Sweet deal for them, especially if they make it harder to use the public roads at the same time, which they can easily do by closing off other roads in conjunction with opening the new private ones.. "You", anyone, I mean us semi peons, are being *herded* like stock animals. Fed propoganda brainwashing news, fed similar conditioning propoganda in the movies and on Tv (torture is good!), and etc. Look at the article, the local R reps are against it, I doubt many local people are for building it, but they still are going to do it. Huh? What's the use of having elections if whatever "they" want happens anyway?
I don't have a link handy, but I was reading some months back about them gradually going to almost all toll roads for the highways in texas, precisely because of it's border gateway to central and south america, and then into the entire US eventually, just adding checkpoints to existing roads/highways and by making these super highways. Serves a few purposes,serious forever folding money profit for a few big corps., control the population, better surveillence (combo of black boxes in cars and your highway pass token and internal passport, err I mean the universal ID system you'll suck down when you go down and get your right to travel license), then the upcoming federal sales tax, and the also upcoming tax on miles driven in addition to normal taxes on gallons of fuel bought (you'll pay both, don't live in denial about it, it's coming).
Really, the globalists in their various publications spell all this stuff out and have decades long views and plans, nothing is really hidden if you look for it. They don't like national borders, so eventually they'll go buh bye. Simple as that. These are transnational megabucks corporations who call the shots and could care less what you think. You exist to serve them, period.. They stick their tame politicians in power, and everyone should be able to see that now. It's how they think, act, and do. They make the decisions, you don't, and your vote is meaningless in the long run. They know anyone "you" is a pipsqueak and won't do a dang thing to stop them. They let you complain,and that's it, but you *must* go along with what they say, or suffer the consequences.
...economic reality until around the 80s or so in this nation. Since then, between the combination of going from the worlds largest creditor nation to the worlds largest debtor nation, and from the occurrence of the rise of the super nanny state, the net result is that now illegal immigrants cost the economy in general terms approx 55 grand a head. It's a severe net loss in purely economic terms. The increased "benefits" of a pool of lower wage earners (who really now are in a lot more than truely dismal jobs "no one wants", that's now an exploded myth) compared to increased infrastructure and societal costs is way tilted towards the "more cost" size. Increases in property taxes to go for new public schools for instance. Whereas in the past is was slow normal growth, many places are having to double or tripe their expenditures in a few short years, ie, no way to ramp it gracefully other than to rip it out of the pockets of people who built the original infrastructure locally, forcing them to pay twice or three times for basically the same "service" they already paid for previously. Ditto police, fire and more importantly public and private health costs. Many local hospitals now run in the red constantly due to pressure from illegals, whom they must treat by law, and who don't/can't/won't pay a penny back. "Anchor babies" who are instant citizens because their 8 months and 29 days pregnant mothers fly in just to have their babies here, which make them eligible for citizenship status, which therefore makes the babies parents and other extended family groups somehow eligible. Instant small business loans and grants for "new arrivals".
And another point, the ratio of new arrivals to long term existing is HIGHER now than at any time in the past, as when people talk about the earlier days of the US when so called "waves" of immigrants came in. The ratio is much higher now, no other era comes as close or is "more" unless you talk about the immediate early colonization period and leave out all the native peoples. The nearest to now historical era was the late 1890s and, IIRC we are almost triple that ratio currently.
But with that said, yes, some people profit from it immensely, those same folks who want what they can get vacationing in the second world,real cheap house serfs, garden serfs, factory serfs, various other labor serfs, uhh "physical companion" serfs, and etc, but without the inconvenience of actually having to move to some second world nation. They just want that sort of ultimate two class society here. I mean, there's a reason-say for example Mexico, is still mostly a two class nation. It's not because they lack natural resources or ag land or hard working people or access to tools or whatever, it's because they have a 1% controlling racist class of "castillians" who would rather it stayed the way it has become, 1% controller wealthy class, every one else below them, much below them. The same guys and their economic allies want that for the US. In China, a very equivalent deal, these large companies know what's up at the top levels in China, and they *like it*, they like that orders can be given and that those with the wealth have a lot more power,economic, political, etc, they *dig it*. They want that scene here, too.
I call them the modern technofeudalists, the new neo-royal "class".
Well the obvious quick answer to part of it is that the freeking government gave them a corporate tax break to move overseas. True facts. No idea how much got paid in bribes for that fiasco, but I can't think of any other reason to do that.
People who keep losing jobs only to struggle to find cheaper and cheaper paying jobs don't "upgrade" as much, nor do they buy much of anything once the bank account is stripped, they switch to credit, and credit is *not* wealth, and eventually that gets borked as well. Then what?
Any nation that voluntarily destroys middle class jobs for still useful products, not buggywhip subsidies, I mean still current and useful manufactured goods, deserves everything that happens to them. And it WILL happen too.there's no way it can't now, it's too far gone to recover from. I call it the upcoming full "second worlding" of the US.
Penny wise now,lots of this quarter "profits" for "shareholders" and big fancy magazine covers for various "successful" CEOs,and some cheap crap on credit at *mart, but seriously pound foolish later.
Eventually, jobs exported to nation X will result in said nation X no longer needing the market represented by the original nation, in this instance, soon China will no longer need the US market, as they will have enough of an infrastructure developed and in place and more than enough population to only need their exploding internal market and those markets foreign to them that exist to supply them various raw materials, of which the US isn't one, either. We won't be making anything they need, selling any raw materials, or being able to afford to export our last ditch products, which are ag products. We just recently switched to being a net food *importer*, unparalleled in our nations history. They will have to drop the buck to what passes for a dime in todays buying power to stay competetive, so guess what that will do to the median standard of living.
This isn't a case of china creating these jobs all on their own, or the various other big outsourcing targets, this is a case of decent existing and still useful jobs being exported for short term high level mega profits and tax breaks, and it's a big difference.
In short, in the US we are in the good old days now of affordable stuff and perhaps good jobs, I doubt it will continue into the next adult generation. I seriously doubt it, all the numbers point to a bad decline across the board. It's been 30 years in the making, I've watched it happen, but it's about "cooked", that economic scam turkey is done, and the proof is in the balance of trade payments (we lose), the savings levels(historical all time low), the amount of bankruptcies and foreclosures(historical all time highs), government debt (all time high), and the complete lack of confidence or fiscal reality in most private or governmental pension schemes out
dislclaimer-I work at technocrat, but I joined there first from the stated reason, to have a more mature forum (ie, less bogus trolling posts and whatnot) than ..well, here for instance..
With that said, you'll find across the net at news places that allow commentary, it's frequently the case that original sources of the news get very little in the way of comments to their articles, yet at the large sites like slashdot that aggregate and repost, that they get quite a few. It's a normal occurrence and not just limited to technocrat. Each fills a niche in a way, and choice is good. I'll give you another example, exactly similar as it was written by Bruce. He wrote a very long and quite decent piece on soiftware patents, etc, that was published at Technocrat.net, but it was rejected at Slashdot. Personally, I don't see why, as it was easily better than quite a few of the articles posted here on any given day. So, realistically, I have no idea how many people actually saw it. If people only or primarily look at Slashdot, they miss quite a lot of tech news. So sites like Technocrat.net serve a purpose, even if people merely add it to their RSS feeds and click over for things they are interested in. As large as Slashdot is, it can't cover everything.
store gas and invest in a welder. Worked for mel gibson, ha!
+++6 good idea. spread rumors on the internets about it, all the worlds top generals build space ships and fly away. I like it!
..would probably release enough energy to cause earthquakes, so we'd get an additional bonus shaking. A gigaton concentrated on one spot would penetrate deep you would think, energy wise. I guess it depends where it hits, some areas more likely than others to take it as an earthquake domino effect.
...should the odds look grim and there's only x-small amount of seats off planet, I would wager it's the guys with the biggest guns and the willingness to use them who would get off planet, and I doubt they would let any civilian politicians or generic stupid random rich farts go for a ride either, they would tell them to fudge off. To get loyalty from their other troops, they would hold a lottery for the last few seats, to insure no counter revolts, with winners only announced at the last second. Maybe.
Even then it might not occur, jealous other military forces might attack with such force that no one gets off the planet at all. And by 2029 I *doubt* we will have much of a space launch ability anyway, I think a thousand all at once would be pushing it. I've weatched the space race since going outside and staring up trying to see sputnik, and frankly, it ain't all that far along compared to what I thought would happen way back then. and even with rutans and virgin airlines help, it still won't be that much further along in the 20's unless there's some sort of dramatic breakthrough to replace chemical reaction rocket engines. They are just too expensive for huge mass production, require a lot of people to get a few people off the ground and lots of work. And you'd still have the problem of how would you get the ground crew to cooperate? Like stated, what good is money. Now, maybe large balloons, or blimps might be sufficient, not sure, but it would be worth a try and a heck of a lot cheaper to mass produce..I bet mass prouction you can make decent Model T blimps for the price of a car. Add in some groceries and grog, good to go for a week of floating above the destruction. Earth quakes and Tsuanmis you could fly over and float around for awhile until things settled down. Even if the winds blow ya around, so what, let em. strap in.
That might be more doable on a somewhat larger scale than just 1,000 people. You would think after a few days it would be enough settled to reland someplace.
Me,with a big ole asteroid coming in, and say no blimp or rocket, naked barbecue! Dead mans dinner, surf and turf! Well,proly wear a grease spatter apron, got to be practical about these things. Then kick back in the lawn chairs and watch the show! Hmm, maybe loot a bank and play monopoly with real money and deeds to properties waiting for it to show up. sort of like new years eve countdown.
Ya, ya, I know, you young guys all thinking the same thing, "hang out with the ole lady ya tarded fool, get you a bunch..."..Sure,sure, sure, sure, but get that out of the way the week before the show. I mean, you can get lucky anytime, how often do you get to see a PLANET SMASHER hit? We are geeks, some things are just *important*.
Anyway, that one is too small, need a much larger one for a good fireworks show. The Mayans claim no history past 2012 anyway, something like that I was reading.
I sincerely hope you aren't assuming I am minimizing the serious nature of this devastation. I don't see where you get this impression from what I wrote. It's a bad scene, no ways about it, and my best wishes go out to the victims and their families. I was merely trying to allude to one of the recently talked about on slashdot speculated huge asteroid impacts with a projected tsunami 10 times larger, that it would be practically unimaginable in destructive force, from a recorded human history POV short of something like the Biblical "great flood" stories.
As to waves of that size, no, my own personal experience with big water along those lines was three days in a 55 foot boat with "only" 25 foot swells and 70 knot winds, which was *dang spooky enough*, it came close to sinking the boat, and as it was, we had to beat feet to drydock once the storm subsided enough for us to make way safely for emergency repairs,and we took on enough seawater from a completely sprung plank below waterline to almost completely flood over the top of the detroit diesel v-12 in the engine room,despite the pumping efforts of the separate diesel powered bilge pump,and luckily it kept chugging along "liquid cooled" as it were. When we got to drydock (much slower than normal good speed) we were sitting in the water almost to the gunwales, and they were originally around 8 feet from waterline. In other words, a few hours from swamping, max. We lucked out bigtime. Had to stay firmly lashed to something the entire three days of the storm to keep from getting beat senseless, there was no walking around, etc, happening. You had to crawl and move a safety line from point to point.
Of course I was a young fool then and thought "hey, adventure!" HAHAHAHAHA!
....are sold to anyone "you" as joe consumer as being the bottom part of a pyramid. You have the producer/manufacturer, the wholesaler, the jobber, the distributor, etc, down to the retail store, each taking a cut, and that doesn't count the shipping guys,k insurance guys, accountant guys, tax boys, yada yada, who are always in the mix as well. This isn't a whole lot different, just using sources that aren't normally inside the pyramid, in a slightly different way. And as to consumers paying the cost,sure they do, no argument, same as you do anyway for every single thing that's advertised, no matter how it's advertised, the expense is shared by all the purchasers eventually.
I haven't done or responded to any of the ipod offers, but I don't see it as much different than recommending a link to your favorite web vendor to go buy something, whether you get something or not from the deal, not in the grand scheme of things anyway. As to the privacy factor, you can't ever use a credit card for any purchase then, could you, either online or in meatspace, nor a personal check, it would have to be cash-ola in person at a brick and mortar store for every purchase of a good or service rendered to avoid "losing privacy".
I heard about it late last night on a net radio feed (my time EST 0 dark thirty am sometime, I was half asleep) right after it happened, but a tsunami wave travelling roughly the speed of a commercial jetliner doesn't give a lot of leeway even if the people in the soon to be affected areas hear about it.
And this one follows that 8. something quake that hit between tasmania and antarctica just the other day.
I think this story should be taken into consideration along with the asteroid stories, as this wave was only roughly 40-50 feet high, yet by some reports it traveled up to half a mile inland in some places. Just imagine one ten times higher (something like that) from a large asteroid oceanic strike.
But ya, you would think that their would be some sort of emergency alert tied to seismographs, that would automatically get posted to various radio and television and internet sources if it was of sufficient strength, ie, danger. I know we have this alleged emergency alert system in the US that will over ride the TV and radio stations OTA broadcasts, but no idea in other nations what they have for that. Civil defense is always lesser funded than military offense in most nations it appears. What would it really cost to develop a radio based alert system for these various nations? Cost of one jet fighter or tank? And it could be tied to cellphones for that matter through the various national carriers, say, in a true natural disaster (impending or otherwise) scenario, your phone might ring with a pre recorded short message.
I realise in the poorer areas it might be problematic, but surely someone in most areas has a phone or a radio or whatever, you don't have to get the message to every single human directly, just to enough of them in any given area for word of mouth to help out a lot. Wake up and alert one dude per poor village, he can go running outside yelling his head off for that matter, like "dang evac! Tsunami coming! Move it people!" something like that anyway. The old church bells ringing hard and fast deal.