Democracy, as has been pointed out many times, is three wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner. It's for this reason that the people of the United States can't, by themselves, vote to make the First Amendment null and void. This is generally considered to be a good thing.
"When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. It has no apparatus to deal with the boor, the liar, the lout, and the antidemocrat in general." - J. William Fulbright
Nobody disputes that there's no money to be made in studying the liberal arts. Indeed, look at all the bankers who screwed over the economy in the leadup to 2007. If any of them had stopped to think about what they were actually doing or what it actually meant, or stopped to consider ethics in any form at all, they'd be just as not-in-prison as they are now, but ever so slightly less rich.
You do realize that where they have taught, what certifications or accreditation they have, or what their ideas are, does not preclude them from saying stupid things.
Of course, just like having 40 years of engineering expertise doesn't preclude someone from inadvertently causing a major disaster.
Nonetheless, expertise counts for something, as a time-saver if nothing else. It's a reliable rule of thumb that it's a better use of your time to listen to someone who has recognised expertise.
I would rather spend my time listening to (and critically evaluating) the opinions of someone with some actual qualifications than an Internet comment section. It doesn't matter if that someone is Noam Chomsky or Jordan Peterson.
Exactly this. Whether fascism, communism, or any ism in between, one of the first steps in any new dictatorship of the modern era is to purge the academy. If you want to find the wannabe dictators of today, look for the ones who want to do that. You'll find them on all sides of politics.
Ethics have been on the table for 50 years, yes. But only because it's been 50 years and we still haven't learned a goddamn thing.
If more of us software engineers had studied some liberal arts or humanities, maybe fewer of us would work for companies that suck up personal information and sell it to the highest bidder. The ability to stop and think about what it is you're actually doing is apparently a rare commodity in the tech business these days.
Also, what about forgetting they're in and going for a swim, or a shower? What about bumping into someone or tripping down the stairs and losing them forever?
I always figure that anyone who think wireless peripherals are a good idea have no kids. Kids are pretty good at looking after the phone itself, but peripherals should be considered disposable.
I lost count how many times earbuds have been lost or destroyed by various means; death by laundry cycle is a very common one. I'd be upset about this if they cost more than $10 to replace.
I would take many of those criminals as fellow citizens before someone like you.
Just FYI, this is the precise point where I started disagreeing with you. You don't know me.
We do indeed treat white collar crime very differently from lower-class crime, even though white collar crime is more often motivated by greed rather than (say) desperation.
I don't know where you live, but I have to register my car and my house. Hell, I have to register myself for taxation purposes.
Thankfully, I don't live in a country where you have to register for a military draft, and even if I did, I'm too old for it now. But there are places where that happens too.
Why else do you think these "regulations" are being asked for by the very players that will be regulated by them?
Can you imagine if, every time we wanted to amend criminal law, we went around to all the prisons and ask the burglars and drug traffickers (sorry, stakeholders) how it would affect their business model?
It depends what you mean by "military style", but yes. Category D includes most non-fully-auto firearms that most countries consider to be "military style" (centrefire rifles, self-loading or pump-action shotguns over 5 rounds capacity, semi-auto rimfire rifles over 10 rounds capacity), and they are available to those who need one for their job such as farmers and professional hunters.
Contrary to what American marketers would have you believe, non-professional sporting shooters don't actually need firearms in this class.
The way a dual citizen can't be an MP, for instance - what's that about?
To be fair, that came as a surprise to everyone. Really, though, that's a major inconvenience if you're an MP, but it's an odd one to open with, considering everything else you mentioned, plus all the stuff you didn't.
C# is by far the best language we have at the moment for most problem domains [...]
Most problem domains>? You're shitting me. It's not even close.
Having said that, for server-side web stuff... it pains me to admit it, but there's a lot of truth here. It says something about the sad state of server-side that C# is one of the few languages for which "doesn't suck as hard as others" and "can find people" are both true.
Yeah, there's Java. Have you ever tried maintaining Spring?
Even two isn't necessarily "replete". There were at least a couple of Young Earth Creationists back in the day who saw fit to butt in every now and then...
Slashdot Mirror
(I was wondering how long it would take to be downvoted by someone who works for Big Intrusive Adware.)
Democracy, as has been pointed out many times, is three wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner. It's for this reason that the people of the United States can't, by themselves, vote to make the First Amendment null and void. This is generally considered to be a good thing.
"When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. It has no apparatus to deal with the boor, the liar, the lout, and the antidemocrat in general."
- J. William Fulbright
Nobody disputes that there's no money to be made in studying the liberal arts. Indeed, look at all the bankers who screwed over the economy in the leadup to 2007. If any of them had stopped to think about what they were actually doing or what it actually meant, or stopped to consider ethics in any form at all, they'd be just as not-in-prison as they are now, but ever so slightly less rich.
I agree, but this is about humanities, who is really the expert here? I am a human, I am every bit an expert as you or that person holding a degree.
Speaking as a physical object, I'm every bit an expert on physics as someone holding a degree.
You do realize that where they have taught, what certifications or accreditation they have, or what their ideas are, does not preclude them from saying stupid things.
Of course, just like having 40 years of engineering expertise doesn't preclude someone from inadvertently causing a major disaster.
Nonetheless, expertise counts for something, as a time-saver if nothing else. It's a reliable rule of thumb that it's a better use of your time to listen to someone who has recognised expertise.
I would rather spend my time listening to (and critically evaluating) the opinions of someone with some actual qualifications than an Internet comment section. It doesn't matter if that someone is Noam Chomsky or Jordan Peterson.
Exactly this. Whether fascism, communism, or any ism in between, one of the first steps in any new dictatorship of the modern era is to purge the academy. If you want to find the wannabe dictators of today, look for the ones who want to do that. You'll find them on all sides of politics.
+1, We as a society don't value things that are important.
Ethics have been on the table for 50 years, yes. But only because it's been 50 years and we still haven't learned a goddamn thing.
If more of us software engineers had studied some liberal arts or humanities, maybe fewer of us would work for companies that suck up personal information and sell it to the highest bidder. The ability to stop and think about what it is you're actually doing is apparently a rare commodity in the tech business these days.
Also, what about forgetting they're in and going for a swim, or a shower? What about bumping into someone or tripping down the stairs and losing them forever?
I always figure that anyone who think wireless peripherals are a good idea have no kids. Kids are pretty good at looking after the phone itself, but peripherals should be considered disposable.
I lost count how many times earbuds have been lost or destroyed by various means; death by laundry cycle is a very common one. I'd be upset about this if they cost more than $10 to replace.
I would take many of those criminals as fellow citizens before someone like you.
Just FYI, this is the precise point where I started disagreeing with you. You don't know me.
We do indeed treat white collar crime very differently from lower-class crime, even though white collar crime is more often motivated by greed rather than (say) desperation.
I don't know where you live, but I have to register my car and my house. Hell, I have to register myself for taxation purposes.
Thankfully, I don't live in a country where you have to register for a military draft, and even if I did, I'm too old for it now. But there are places where that happens too.
Why else do you think these "regulations" are being asked for by the very players that will be regulated by them?
Can you imagine if, every time we wanted to amend criminal law, we went around to all the prisons and ask the burglars and drug traffickers (sorry, stakeholders) how it would affect their business model?
Relying on The Open Group didn't seem to be a problem. Unlike Linux, OSX actually is Unix.
There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer.
Only the police openly carry guns.
And security guards.
No military style weapons at all.
It depends what you mean by "military style", but yes. Category D includes most non-fully-auto firearms that most countries consider to be "military style" (centrefire rifles, self-loading or pump-action shotguns over 5 rounds capacity, semi-auto rimfire rifles over 10 rounds capacity), and they are available to those who need one for their job such as farmers and professional hunters.
Contrary to what American marketers would have you believe, non-professional sporting shooters don't actually need firearms in this class.
To put it bluntly, AccessNow seems to accuse the Australian legislators for not doing their jobs, or being stupid and illiterate.
On behalf of Australia: Yeah, we knew that much already.
The way a dual citizen can't be an MP, for instance - what's that about?
To be fair, that came as a surprise to everyone. Really, though, that's a major inconvenience if you're an MP, but it's an odd one to open with, considering everything else you mentioned, plus all the stuff you didn't.
Cling. It's much better than its main competitor, CINT.
No, most of the alternatives are objective better on every metric.
The only use case for starting a new project in PHP is if it's 1997 and the only options from your hosting provider are SSI, PHP, or CGI.
Not that I advocate this, but AWS would probably end up costing you less truth be told.
C# is by far the best language we have at the moment for most problem domains [...]
Most problem domains>? You're shitting me. It's not even close.
Having said that, for server-side web stuff... it pains me to admit it, but there's a lot of truth here. It says something about the sad state of server-side that C# is one of the few languages for which "doesn't suck as hard as others" and "can find people" are both true.
Yeah, there's Java. Have you ever tried maintaining Spring?
And if you ever want to write the software equivalent of preschool readers, it's definitely one to consider.
Even two isn't necessarily "replete". There were at least a couple of Young Earth Creationists back in the day who saw fit to butt in every now and then...
Bingo.
Why is Slashdot so replete with Electric Universe cranks?
"Replete" is a stretch. Only seen one so far and you can't be certain they weren't joking.
(As someone who hasn't heard of it before that was an interesting in a psychoceramic kind of way.)