I believe you've misunderstood Einstein a wee bit. At best, Einstein was a non-theist, his deterministic streak was too strong. Here's just a sampling of his quotes about religion:
"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."
"I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it."
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
Just for purpose of discussion, here's a list of other folks many consider enlightened, who also had no use for religion:
Oh, come on. Lighten up a bit. I was poking at how fast our civilised nation drops any pretense of civility and good behavior at the mere mention of a killer sale.
Besides, it's not a "he" we're talking about, but a "they"; a few hundred "thems". And I'm willing to bit a fairly large chunk of my money that a very high percentage of those people call themselves "Christians" (after all, approximately 77% of Americans {myself included} do). That is, they probably do when they're not engaged in riotous, and, apparently for that last fellow in the CNN article, "righteous", violence in the name of capitalistic opportunity.
You see, they have this large machine called "The Obvious Way to Nag Exasperate and Dominate". Inside this machine is a very large and hungry chicken. Whenever the RIAA wants to perform a piracy loss study, they give a handful of popcorn to a trained Capuchin Monkey. The monkey then walks over to the machine, and throws his feces on the side of the glass while taunting the chicken by eating the popcorn. The chicken flies into an apoplectic rage, and begins trying to peck through the glass. By counting the number of pecks and multiplying the results by the diameter of a music CD, the RIAA thus discovers how much money they are losing for that particular day.
Often a few of the first several result are link farms or other content neutral ad sites. We should have new technology to fix the problem
I think the problem here is not so much a need for new technology to filter out the link farmers, but rather a set of domain registrars that actually validate the ownership of the domains being registered.
Here at my office, we're currently running the rounds with a company that registered a ".com" version of our non-profit domain name, and is trying to sell services that he's literally cut-n-pasted from our site. According to the registrar's data, the company that owns the similar domain is based in California using two street addresses; one of which is in a Mailboxes, Etc. store and the other a UPS store.
If ICANN would threaten to pull the accreditation of any registrar that refuses to validate that a domain name's owner is an actual business, instead of a blatant front, I imagine lots of the link farms would go away.
Of course, that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
My time has much value, thank you very much, and wasting it removing viruses, spyware, and downloading endless updates to repatch a system so that it is only less vulnerable than before is not appreciated.
This is the same tired old Microsoft argument: You'll have to train folks to use Linux, so it'll cost you more.
Remind me again how much I had to spend training my folks to use Windows? Last I looked, those MCSEs were not free. Even now, a quick comparison shows me that a LPI certification costs around $100 while an average MCSE cert is running about $1000 minimum (figures for a self-taught student, buying their own books - the figures are much higher for a course-based cert.).
A better question might be who has the better technical skills once they are certified. I've known more than a few MCSEs who think that things like DNS views are virtually impossible. I know of no LPIs suffering the same confusion, but, I'm willing to concede there may be a few out there - I just haven't seen 'em yet.
most slashdotters are understandably upset when their own personal information is mined by corporations and passed around as currency
While the mining of personal info bothers me, what really gets my nuts in a knot is the endless profit streams being generated from the endless re-selling of my data to "affiliates", "business partners", etc. I could probably comfortably retire on the amount of money made buying, selling, and re-selling my personal info, but do I see a penny of it? Do I even see it occur?
It's not always necessary to pay a fee to protect your information. Certain states have passed laws allowing you to request the freeze for free - check your state regs for the details.
Folks should be aware that the credit industry is starting to push for legislation at the federal level that will be far weaker than, and will automatically trump, these state laws. God forbid they lose the ability to extend "valuable offers" from their affiliates and business partners.
Another alternative approach is to file a fraud alert on your credit report. Doing this is not as restrictive as a freeze, and it will severely limit the amount of people who get access to your files. Anyone attempting to establish a credit account in your name will be advised to contact you directly. The fraud alert can be left on your reports for as long as seven years, or until you request that it be removed (in writing). As an added bonus, you'll also be removed from a lot of junk mailing lists (!) - an instant opt-out, if you will.
Re:I have a suggestion...
on
Ice Lake on Mars
·
· Score: 2, Funny
It requires everyone to live in tiny high rise condos. People don't want that. They want a house that you don't have to listen to your neighbors arguing next door, and a yard for their kids to play in.
While I'm sure this holds true for some folks (it certainly does for me) I'm not so sure the building industry still thinks that way, and based on what I've seen locally, I'm not so sure people wouldn't mind living in a "rat cage".
Here in Atlanta, the vast majority of new construction is high rise condominiums, and existing apartment buildings are being converted to condos at an equally impressive pace. They're being built because people are buying them.
New home construction consists mostly of what we call "McMansions" - large houses with yards no larger than six feet deep, and the neighbors so close you can reach out the side windows to touch them (or change their TV channels with your remote). Sadly, these are increasingly only found in the suburbs. Since Atlanta is a fairly high density city, with no true natural boundaries (like say, Chicago or NY), the 'burbs are getting further and further out from the city proper and the average communte is now something in the neighborhood of 40 minutes to over and hour.
I think the point of a PRT system is that it is not intended to replace roads outright, and I disagree that adoption of a PRT dictates we all get used to cubicles. As you mention there will always be a need for delivery services and shipping items larger than an overnight letter. I see PRT's as a good complimentary system that can be used in extremely high density areas such as city mid-towns as an alternative to buses. Smallish tracks that connect to each building in a city center would enable transportation in all kinds of weather, without creating street congestion, which would increase the efficiencies of delevery traffic. People could drive their normal cars to an extrenal hub that lies just outside of the city core, then swith over to the PRT for intown travelling between offices, shops and restaurants. Drop off points on each side of a city block would reduce PRT congestion at popular destinations, or these particular stops could be designed with drops that are off the primary track or multi-tiered.
Of course there's plenty of other issues that would have to be resolved before anything like this comes to be - just the issue of laying the tracks would create an uproar from both architects and city commissioners used to being "rewarded" for their "contract negotiations" - but I have to say it looks damn do-able for high density areas, and its a pretty slick bit of thinking. Warts and all, its a whole lot better than getting used to increasingly longer commutes.
Thanks for the well written response. It goes a long way to easing my sense of impending doom at a nation of gladiators - I just kept seeing the fall of Rome all over again...
It does beg a further question though. Shouldn't a "trainer's" degree come from the medical schools?
Why doesn't the government lay the lines for internet where needed and let companies use them? Just like the Tennessee Valley Authority Act but with internet.
I think the risk here is that we'd soon see yet another version of the Telephone Excise Act (aka: "The Spanish American War tax"), only this time with a much longer life-span (as if 107 years isn't bad enough), and a much higher cost. Somebody's going to want to turn a profit off the effort, or offset the cause, and a connectivity tax is probably the only way to do it.
Just adding one extra knob will only increase the amount of time it'll take a shocked parent to leap off the couch, spill his corn chips, and turn the channel away from the staggering horror of another nipple slip.
You know, for a group that's been predominantly run by a Republican majority for the past few years, the FCC sure seems to be spending a lot of time and energy trying to have more government involvement in our lives. I don't get it, I thought Republicans traditionally preferred less government? Not flame-baiting here, just curious to know what changed and when (9-11 is not an acceptable answer).
It's deja vu all over again. Instead of what is the meaning of "is", its now what is the meaning of "identify". My favorite quote so far has been:
Well, if a reporter has a lick of logical sense, you don't need to mention a name. Karl Rove, through his lawyer, now admits that he told a reporter that Joseph Wilson's had a wife who worked as an agent for the CIA. Marriage records are public, and unless Joseph Wilson is a bigamist it's easier than pie to figure out exactly who that wife is.
Slashdot Mirror
Masochism
The U.S. government doesn't really lack common sense; just backbone.
For a lot of elected officials its a question of who can pay more for their services, the average Joe, or corporate America?
I believe you've misunderstood Einstein a wee bit. At best, Einstein was a non-theist, his deterministic streak was too strong. Here's just a sampling of his quotes about religion:
Just for purpose of discussion, here's a list of other folks many consider enlightened, who also had no use for religion:
Oh, come on. Lighten up a bit. I was poking at how fast our civilised nation drops any pretense of civility and good behavior at the mere mention of a killer sale.
Besides, it's not a "he" we're talking about, but a "they"; a few hundred "thems". And I'm willing to bit a fairly large chunk of my money that a very high percentage of those people call themselves "Christians" (after all, approximately 77% of Americans {myself included} do). That is, they probably do when they're not engaged in riotous, and, apparently for that last fellow in the CNN article, "righteous", violence in the name of capitalistic opportunity.
Ah Mammon, we know ye too well . . .
...don't ya just love 'em?
European - 'cause of the metric system. ;-)
You see, they have this large machine called "The Obvious Way to Nag Exasperate and Dominate". Inside this machine is a very large and hungry chicken. Whenever the RIAA wants to perform a piracy loss study, they give a handful of popcorn to a trained Capuchin Monkey. The monkey then walks over to the machine, and throws his feces on the side of the glass while taunting the chicken by eating the popcorn. The chicken flies into an apoplectic rage, and begins trying to peck through the glass. By counting the number of pecks and multiplying the results by the diameter of a music CD, the RIAA thus discovers how much money they are losing for that particular day.
I think the problem here is not so much a need for new technology to filter out the link farmers, but rather a set of domain registrars that actually validate the ownership of the domains being registered.
Here at my office, we're currently running the rounds with a company that registered a ".com" version of our non-profit domain name, and is trying to sell services that he's literally cut-n-pasted from our site. According to the registrar's data, the company that owns the similar domain is based in California using two street addresses; one of which is in a Mailboxes, Etc. store and the other a UPS store.
If ICANN would threaten to pull the accreditation of any registrar that refuses to validate that a domain name's owner is an actual business, instead of a blatant front, I imagine lots of the link farms would go away.
Of course, that may just be wishful thinking on my part.
Still though, it might be fun to dig out a few of those 2400 baud modems I've got lying in the attic...
Dammit! I snorted Cheerios out of my nose when I read that! I hate when I do that!
My time has much value, thank you very much, and wasting it removing viruses, spyware, and downloading endless updates to repatch a system so that it is only less vulnerable than before is not appreciated.
This is the same tired old Microsoft argument: You'll have to train folks to use Linux, so it'll cost you more.
Remind me again how much I had to spend training my folks to use Windows? Last I looked, those MCSEs were not free. Even now, a quick comparison shows me that a LPI certification costs around $100 while an average MCSE cert is running about $1000 minimum (figures for a self-taught student, buying their own books - the figures are much higher for a course-based cert.).
A better question might be who has the better technical skills once they are certified. I've known more than a few MCSEs who think that things like DNS views are virtually impossible. I know of no LPIs suffering the same confusion, but, I'm willing to concede there may be a few out there - I just haven't seen 'em yet.
While the mining of personal info bothers me, what really gets my nuts in a knot is the endless profit streams being generated from the endless re-selling of my data to "affiliates", "business partners", etc. I could probably comfortably retire on the amount of money made buying, selling, and re-selling my personal info, but do I see a penny of it? Do I even see it occur?
It's not always necessary to pay a fee to protect your information. Certain states have passed laws allowing you to request the freeze for free - check your state regs for the details.
Folks should be aware that the credit industry is starting to push for legislation at the federal level that will be far weaker than, and will automatically trump, these state laws. God forbid they lose the ability to extend "valuable offers" from their affiliates and business partners.
Another alternative approach is to file a fraud alert on your credit report. Doing this is not as restrictive as a freeze, and it will severely limit the amount of people who get access to your files. Anyone attempting to establish a credit account in your name will be advised to contact you directly. The fraud alert can be left on your reports for as long as seven years, or until you request that it be removed (in writing). As an added bonus, you'll also be removed from a lot of junk mailing lists (!) - an instant opt-out, if you will.
Since it's a lake, why not name it after Fredo?
Of course. That's what the "System Idle Process" is for...
;-)
Originally read that as "desperate" then realized it could probably go either way...
While I'm sure this holds true for some folks (it certainly does for me) I'm not so sure the building industry still thinks that way, and based on what I've seen locally, I'm not so sure people wouldn't mind living in a "rat cage".
Here in Atlanta, the vast majority of new construction is high rise condominiums, and existing apartment buildings are being converted to condos at an equally impressive pace. They're being built because people are buying them.
New home construction consists mostly of what we call "McMansions" - large houses with yards no larger than six feet deep, and the neighbors so close you can reach out the side windows to touch them (or change their TV channels with your remote). Sadly, these are increasingly only found in the suburbs. Since Atlanta is a fairly high density city, with no true natural boundaries (like say, Chicago or NY), the 'burbs are getting further and further out from the city proper and the average communte is now something in the neighborhood of 40 minutes to over and hour.
I think the point of a PRT system is that it is not intended to replace roads outright, and I disagree that adoption of a PRT dictates we all get used to cubicles. As you mention there will always be a need for delivery services and shipping items larger than an overnight letter. I see PRT's as a good complimentary system that can be used in extremely high density areas such as city mid-towns as an alternative to buses. Smallish tracks that connect to each building in a city center would enable transportation in all kinds of weather, without creating street congestion, which would increase the efficiencies of delevery traffic. People could drive their normal cars to an extrenal hub that lies just outside of the city core, then swith over to the PRT for intown travelling between offices, shops and restaurants. Drop off points on each side of a city block would reduce PRT congestion at popular destinations, or these particular stops could be designed with drops that are off the primary track or multi-tiered.
Of course there's plenty of other issues that would have to be resolved before anything like this comes to be - just the issue of laying the tracks would create an uproar from both architects and city commissioners used to being "rewarded" for their "contract negotiations" - but I have to say it looks damn do-able for high density areas, and its a pretty slick bit of thinking. Warts and all, its a whole lot better than getting used to increasingly longer commutes.
Look on the bright side - being a geek has become so mainstream that others are pillaging the lingo in order to sound "cool".
Thanks for the well written response. It goes a long way to easing my sense of impending doom at a nation of gladiators - I just kept seeing the fall of Rome all over again...
It does beg a further question though. Shouldn't a "trainer's" degree come from the medical schools?
If this is true, I am truly apalled.
Business Administration or Marketing I can take, but P.E. ?!?
Mother of God, we are doomed...
I think the risk here is that we'd soon see yet another version of the Telephone Excise Act (aka: "The Spanish American War tax"), only this time with a much longer life-span (as if 107 years isn't bad enough), and a much higher cost. Somebody's going to want to turn a profit off the effort, or offset the cause, and a connectivity tax is probably the only way to do it.
Good point.
Just adding one extra knob will only increase the amount of time it'll take a shocked parent to leap off the couch, spill his corn chips, and turn the channel away from the staggering horror of another nipple slip.
You know, for a group that's been predominantly run by a Republican majority for the past few years, the FCC sure seems to be spending a lot of time and energy trying to have more government involvement in our lives. I don't get it, I thought Republicans traditionally preferred less government? Not flame-baiting here, just curious to know what changed and when (9-11 is not an acceptable answer).
HAH! Thanks, man. That cracked me up.
Yes...but that was fiction...
It's deja vu all over again. Instead of what is the meaning of "is", its now what is the meaning of "identify". My favorite quote so far has been: