Income tax is an atrocity committed upon free people to deprive them of their liberties and freedoms.
Tell me, please, learned sir, the difference between "Freedoms" and "Liberties". Also tell me how exactly these are wrenched from my not-quite cold, nor dead hands. If we've been brainwashed, why are you complicit in hiding the "truth" from us? Oh, you just like feeling superior? And here I thought those liberals were the "elitists".
Income tax requires you to submit to a degrading interrogation by the state, you are supposed to tell the state everything you do, how and why, etc.
Oh, yes, terribly degrading. With its dastardly 1040 (and bazillion worksheets!), the feds put a virtual knife to my throat when I almost fearfully reported yet again that I was in violation of God's own law in my current choice to have neither wife nor children. Then it proceeded the "humiliation" by demanding to know things I'm hardly embarrassed to tell my mother- my profession, who I work for and what they pay me. The demand was scary to the point where I twice came nowhere near braking down crying complying with the Stalinist line 7. To the two required 10-page depositions titled "Why I go to Work" and "Why I'm Not Selfish Enough to Keep My Hard Earned Money to Myself" which I wasn't required to write to justify the above, it didn't respond with a Slashdotesque petty demand that I redo my taxes for the past four years because of a minor grammar error. It then went on to not invade my freedom by datamining this information, with which it neither bombarded me with big-government propaganda, nor sent even one measly federal agent to my home to harass me just for shits and giggles. Then (as if the IRS hadn't been invasive enough!), I was even compelled to feel completely free to tell them I donated money to several organizations when I requested a tax deduction! If I was just infinitely more outraged I would have vomited!
You guys are so right! Hyperbole sure is fun!
An income tax may not be the right way to go about collecting government revenue, but it's hardly the bane of freedom and end of the world that Ron Paul fanboys keep claiming. Paul's a smart guy and I respect him, but he's a too much of an idealist- he wouldn't have been able to bring many of his ideas to fruition if he had been elected president.
Your theory sounds great (almost as good as communism does in theory, as long as we're talking the USSR, which of course wasn't so much influenced by communist as by it being a corrupt dictatorship, but that's just a minor detail we can ignore for the sake of convenience). But it's lacking in all the important details, much of which are the very minor details important to actually passing such a massive reform. (Oh, you'll disclose those after the election, [insert your Republican candidate here]? No problem, I trust you this time.)
For example, who will taxes actually come from, at what levels, and most important to those in power who we need to vote on this: what kind of controls would they have, such as those government currently does with a very large number of tax breaks and state controls? If you think they'll give up that power any time soon you're no realist.
Government a la carte would be a great way to increase the fiscal efficiency of our government.
Of course. We'd spend a fraction of what we do currently.
But in our non-fairy-tale world it would also cause the fiscal collapse of governments, which would mean no large-scale projects would ever get done and existing infrastructure will finally crumble.
The answer isn't no government. The answer is better government oversight and less voter apathy.
we will be poorly prepared to know where or how to look to identify "truly alien" lifeforms
That's certainly true. We perhaps wouldn't think to search certain planets for Earth-like life, since we mistakenly assume we know its limitations.
At the same time however, we'd perhaps be less arrogant to think we know the limitations of alien life and the environs to which it would be be restricted and so look anywhere. Given an assumption that there are plenty of Earth-like worlds in the cosmos, why restrict ourselves from looking at least on those worlds? It's certainly not necessary (nor often possible) to completely exhaust the limits of knowledge of one line of research before exploring other areas.
I think that depends on one's definition of "strange". Sure there's definitely room for marine biologists, physicists and chemists to learn from creatures inhabiting the deep. But all these newly discovered lifeforms are, as strange as they seem, still just distant cousins, restricted to evolutionary limitations. Glibly put, there are only so many fields which care about yet one more species of jellyfish.
Scientific knowledge would grow by leaps and bounds with something truly alien. They'll settle for unrelated carbon-based life, but would love to study something which doesn't even have that in common. Other fields of science would absolutely love locating sentient life. I'm not sure how much spending that's worth, but it's far from worthless.
The "big deal" is simply the silly new trend to bash Google any chance someone gets to make a silly suggestion that Google's the evil one even in an equation which includes actual bad people.
It's surprising that you bothered replying to someone who thinks Google should have practiced bad business because it's better ideologically. It's no surprise that business trumped unrealistic computer theory when it came to entering a very competitive market. If Google tried to monitor application activity it'd be the one accused of spying on users.
Not if they don't know who you are. You're not scared enough of being seen driving down the highway to hide your face and plates. Nor are most technical people so fearful of this that they'll bother to use a proxy to avoid IP and browser information to be revealed.
Raw GPS data in itself is pretty useless except to correlate similar coordinates. What can they do- send you an ad for a local pizzeria if it's dinnertime, or local entertainment otherwise? Big deal.
There is only capacity to profile if they could get frequent updates, with which to build a real tracking database which shows extended location periods such as home/work. That and they'd need to be able to uniquely identify each user to actually figure out where you live and work/school instead of just getting locations where random Android phones have checked in. And then to get reliable data that'd take an application you use routinely, not just some random sudoku game and you're just that bored to play everywhere you go.
Granting them access to your name & address, contacts, list of installed applications, email and browser history is a completely different matter. It's much easier and far more reliable to drive around looking for a nice car in a driveway and watch the house for a couple days.
That is, unless you're overly paranoid and premise that the whole world is watching your every move because you're just that special.
The key, as has been pointed out, is not to install random crap you see on the Internet without scrutinizing it and its source. Come on, nobody is pointing out that there's nothing new to this issue and that PCs (Windows, that is) and weak passwords are far ore vulnerable to privacy violations.
Obvious tips which require little more than a spinal cord: Application requesting far too many permissions it doesn't seem to actuall need? Don't install. No listed developer website? I'd pass. Free application? Be extra careful because no paper trail will provide some minimal amount of tracking. Reviews are obviously self-promotions or written by children? Ignore the number of stars. And the pinnacle of obvious: Sounds too good to be true? It's not.
Well put, but there's a huge difference in feature-set between Google Docs and LibreOffice/WinWord, and generally only existing Google customers are being targeted with the public version of Docs.
I don't know if Google demands its employees eat their own dog food, but if they do, you'd be right in that it's not imperative to their day-to-day operations. Regardless and as you said, the client-side application must still be addressed by Google in their quest to bring about the downfall of the Windows monopoly. And I'd add- as they're not moving fast enough to provide a comparable online replacement, there's good reason for this support.
It's important to remember that Windows represents more than just Microsoft Corp., but an entire ecosystem of proprietary formats and protocols which Google is strongly against, and the reason it is such a good friend and benefactor of Free Software. That won't change even if OpenOffice becomes less relevant in a thin client world. As a Linux advocate, my allegiance to LibreOffice continues only so long as it remains best tool for the job- I wouldn't expect Google to act differently.
Honestly, after looking at that project, I have to ask, "Why the hell wouldn't I just walk to my destination? Or ride my bike?"
Because you can't get sustained 70kps with bicycles without shortening the average lifespan.
So....to clarify, they talk about the problems of transportation including not having enough leg room or space, and their solution is for you to lock yourself in a bubble....hmmmmm.
Yes- you can stretch your legs in the pod, which you can't in all trains/buses. "Bubble" is misleading- it's not spherical. It's more of a rounded coffin, but far roomier and not claustrophobic. As for locking, yes, it's probably a good idea when suspended in the air moving at that speed, to ensure that you don't fall out.
There's obviously room for adaptation to mass-market, which might just benefit from, say, I don't know- a little investment?
Now you're crying about moderation? Boo fucking hoo. Grow up, will ya?
You're the only one whining here, you spoiled little brat. Read this, then stop doing it. When you understand what you've been doing here, you'll stop wasting your time trolling Slashdot for the attention mommy never gave you.
You're the one who ignored my point, and launched into not one but two very boring rants we've all heard before about how I supposedly don't know what I'm talking about, when I never even discussed the subject of Linux.
I replied to a post arguing against a previous post that the population is technologically sophisticated. It was about two people who couldn't "fix" Windows machines with "black screens", which I called stupid.
I never TL;DR but I could only bother to read the first sentence. Stay on topic if you want me to read more.
No amount of access to technology will solve these problems for 100% of the population. On the other hand it's completely legal to not hire those boneheads. Seem whoever Mr. Bitter here works for is part of the stupid. I feel sorry for the kid.
If you expected to be rolling your own diaspora server right now, then you really didn't understand what was going on
Exactly. Like much of the dumbed-down "news" we're subjected to, this is just a little more sensational nonsense.
Breaking news! Infants can't grasp quantum physics. Are they stupid? You decide!
The little coverage I've seen sticks strictly to usability ("aspects" and this very early revision of the UI) . If that's all they built, I wouldn't bother criticizing the more difficult areas of security, scalability and reliability (that's not to say one shouldn't report bugs). Since hearing of the project I've assumed that these problems may be something these kids are looking for others to pitch in. Releasing the code isn't a bad way to get other people to start working, and as we've seen that actually worked out well, significantly multiplying the number of contributors to the project.
Diaspora, done right, is not a weekend project. Doesn't help that these naysayers are too immature to seek positive reinforcement.
Technically speaking, the English word (taken from Greek) 'holocaust' is defined mainly with loss of life in mind. 'Shoah' on the other hand is a more general definition, such as 'destruction' or perhaps as 'disaster' similar to the Arabic word 'nakba' oft-used to describe the Palestinian diaspora does not mean "sowing of seeds" (to maintain some kind of tie-back to the topic at hand).
There was a couple years back an Israeli official who the word 'shoah' which caused a brief stir and the tired "Zionism=Nazism" references. But of course there was, as there has never been, a credible and commonly-accepted governmental intent of genocide and if you just scratch the surface of the story you see that Matan Vilnai is hardly that kind of crackpot. So such references were strictly a matter of propaganda, akin to the so-called "apartheid wall", which is not analogous to racism and segregation.
Other than that unfortunate choice of word, I lived in Israel for years and never heard anyone use 'shoah' in a way that minimizes 'hashoah' with the kind of casual reference I'm talking about. It's a rarely used word due to the sensitivity, but it is part of the language and not taboo when used properly. If you can point me to one such distasteful misuse by a serious person (i.e. not some Kach nut) showing intent to reference 'hashoah', I'd be grateful to be cured of my ignorance.
Well that's an easy argument to make, populist and shallow. I'd agree with an argument that lack of access is only a problem when it comes to someone wanting to beat you at [insert currently hot PvP game]. And if that's the only argument, the cost is certainly not worth such limited benefit. But that's a crazy assumption to which you provided no backing for an obvious reason.
The truth is the push for rural broadband isn't about your strawman of entertainment, but about economic development, as even BusinessWeek pointed out. Whether or not R.B. is economically feasible in any specific location is the important question. A question which should not be tainted by the shortsighted and selfish whining of tax haters.
I expect that a significant percentage of Google users don't know where that name came from and wouldn't care to find out, that the minds of Amazon users don't often turn to South America, and Dunkin' Donuts regulars don't often consider actually dunking their doughnuts. Once a word transforms into a brand, we tend to ignore the word.
Besides the fact that people don't care about words, meanings of words still get twisted and change meaning in the public's mind. Given we're talking about anti-Jewish/Zionist sentiments, I'll point out that many Muslim hardliners frequently misuse the term "holocaust" to define obviously inequivalent events. They have also adopted the word "diaspora" for their own cause.
Perhaps. As with AI, they could be wildly off when it comes to the feasibility of what seems within reach even to leading experts.
Using "50 years away" isn't about giving an somewhat accurate estimate and certainly not a definitive timescale. When you hear this kind of phrase*, read "we don't even know what's involved in building that" or to businessmen "we're nowhere near talking about cost estimates for an actual system". Note the skepticism about our readiness for just this limited technology demonstration. The real deal, where fusion could replace (oil or whatever we're using in 30-50 years) is decades away, give or take n decades due to unforeseen obstacles or unexpected breakthroughs.
* or any long-term estimate, adjusted for time scale of technology, e.g. in the case of software perhaps 5 years.
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State income taxes are a horrible idea. Nevada doesn't have one...
Neither does New Hampshire, but we don't have your state's reputation either. ;)
Income tax is an atrocity committed upon free people to deprive them of their liberties and freedoms.
Tell me, please, learned sir, the difference between "Freedoms" and "Liberties". Also tell me how exactly these are wrenched from my not-quite cold, nor dead hands. If we've been brainwashed, why are you complicit in hiding the "truth" from us? Oh, you just like feeling superior? And here I thought those liberals were the "elitists".
Income tax requires you to submit to a degrading interrogation by the state, you are supposed to tell the state everything you do, how and why, etc.
Oh, yes, terribly degrading. With its dastardly 1040 (and bazillion worksheets!), the feds put a virtual knife to my throat when I almost fearfully reported yet again that I was in violation of God's own law in my current choice to have neither wife nor children. Then it proceeded the "humiliation" by demanding to know things I'm hardly embarrassed to tell my mother- my profession, who I work for and what they pay me. The demand was scary to the point where I twice came nowhere near braking down crying complying with the Stalinist line 7. To the two required 10-page depositions titled "Why I go to Work" and "Why I'm Not Selfish Enough to Keep My Hard Earned Money to Myself" which I wasn't required to write to justify the above, it didn't respond with a Slashdotesque petty demand that I redo my taxes for the past four years because of a minor grammar error. It then went on to not invade my freedom by datamining this information, with which it neither bombarded me with big-government propaganda, nor sent even one measly federal agent to my home to harass me just for shits and giggles. Then (as if the IRS hadn't been invasive enough!), I was even compelled to feel completely free to tell them I donated money to several organizations when I requested a tax deduction! If I was just infinitely more outraged I would have vomited!
You guys are so right! Hyperbole sure is fun!
An income tax may not be the right way to go about collecting government revenue, but it's hardly the bane of freedom and end of the world that Ron Paul fanboys keep claiming. Paul's a smart guy and I respect him, but he's a too much of an idealist- he wouldn't have been able to bring many of his ideas to fruition if he had been elected president.
Your theory sounds great (almost as good as communism does in theory, as long as we're talking the USSR, which of course wasn't so much influenced by communist as by it being a corrupt dictatorship, but that's just a minor detail we can ignore for the sake of convenience). But it's lacking in all the important details, much of which are the very minor details important to actually passing such a massive reform. (Oh, you'll disclose those after the election, [insert your Republican candidate here]? No problem, I trust you this time.)
For example, who will taxes actually come from, at what levels, and most important to those in power who we need to vote on this: what kind of controls would they have, such as those government currently does with a very large number of tax breaks and state controls? If you think they'll give up that power any time soon you're no realist.
Government a la carte would be a great way to increase the fiscal efficiency of our government.
Of course. We'd spend a fraction of what we do currently.
But in our non-fairy-tale world it would also cause the fiscal collapse of governments, which would mean no large-scale projects would ever get done and existing infrastructure will finally crumble.
The answer isn't no government. The answer is better government oversight and less voter apathy.
You are if you misread that as "taxes are only good for protecting idiots like this one from themselves."
No refund for you.
we will be poorly prepared to know where or how to look to identify "truly alien" lifeforms
That's certainly true. We perhaps wouldn't think to search certain planets for Earth-like life, since we mistakenly assume we know its limitations.
At the same time however, we'd perhaps be less arrogant to think we know the limitations of alien life and the environs to which it would be be restricted and so look anywhere. Given an assumption that there are plenty of Earth-like worlds in the cosmos, why restrict ourselves from looking at least on those worlds? It's certainly not necessary (nor often possible) to completely exhaust the limits of knowledge of one line of research before exploring other areas.
I think that depends on one's definition of "strange". Sure there's definitely room for marine biologists, physicists and chemists to learn from creatures inhabiting the deep. But all these newly discovered lifeforms are, as strange as they seem, still just distant cousins, restricted to evolutionary limitations. Glibly put, there are only so many fields which care about yet one more species of jellyfish.
Scientific knowledge would grow by leaps and bounds with something truly alien. They'll settle for unrelated carbon-based life, but would love to study something which doesn't even have that in common. Other fields of science would absolutely love locating sentient life. I'm not sure how much spending that's worth, but it's far from worthless.
Because it's not a census-wide decline:
including the dramatic decline of many commercially important large marine animals
The "big deal" is simply the silly new trend to bash Google any chance someone gets to make a silly suggestion that Google's the evil one even in an equation which includes actual bad people.
It's surprising that you bothered replying to someone who thinks Google should have practiced bad business because it's better ideologically. It's no surprise that business trumped unrealistic computer theory when it came to entering a very competitive market. If Google tried to monitor application activity it'd be the one accused of spying on users.
Not if they don't know who you are. You're not scared enough of being seen driving down the highway to hide your face and plates. Nor are most technical people so fearful of this that they'll bother to use a proxy to avoid IP and browser information to be revealed.
Raw GPS data in itself is pretty useless except to correlate similar coordinates. What can they do- send you an ad for a local pizzeria if it's dinnertime, or local entertainment otherwise? Big deal.
There is only capacity to profile if they could get frequent updates, with which to build a real tracking database which shows extended location periods such as home/work. That and they'd need to be able to uniquely identify each user to actually figure out where you live and work/school instead of just getting locations where random Android phones have checked in. And then to get reliable data that'd take an application you use routinely, not just some random sudoku game and you're just that bored to play everywhere you go.
Granting them access to your name & address, contacts, list of installed applications, email and browser history is a completely different matter. It's much easier and far more reliable to drive around looking for a nice car in a driveway and watch the house for a couple days.
That is, unless you're overly paranoid and premise that the whole world is watching your every move because you're just that special.
The key, as has been pointed out, is not to install random crap you see on the Internet without scrutinizing it and its source. Come on, nobody is pointing out that there's nothing new to this issue and that PCs (Windows, that is) and weak passwords are far ore vulnerable to privacy violations.
Obvious tips which require little more than a spinal cord: Application requesting far too many permissions it doesn't seem to actuall need? Don't install. No listed developer website? I'd pass. Free application? Be extra careful because no paper trail will provide some minimal amount of tracking. Reviews are obviously self-promotions or written by children? Ignore the number of stars. And the pinnacle of obvious: Sounds too good to be true? It's not.
Well put, but there's a huge difference in feature-set between Google Docs and LibreOffice/WinWord, and generally only existing Google customers are being targeted with the public version of Docs.
I don't know if Google demands its employees eat their own dog food, but if they do, you'd be right in that it's not imperative to their day-to-day operations. Regardless and as you said, the client-side application must still be addressed by Google in their quest to bring about the downfall of the Windows monopoly. And I'd add- as they're not moving fast enough to provide a comparable online replacement, there's good reason for this support.
It's important to remember that Windows represents more than just Microsoft Corp., but an entire ecosystem of proprietary formats and protocols which Google is strongly against, and the reason it is such a good friend and benefactor of Free Software. That won't change even if OpenOffice becomes less relevant in a thin client world. As a Linux advocate, my allegiance to LibreOffice continues only so long as it remains best tool for the job- I wouldn't expect Google to act differently.
Honestly, after looking at that project, I have to ask, "Why the hell wouldn't I just walk to my destination? Or ride my bike?"
Because you can't get sustained 70kps with bicycles without shortening the average lifespan.
So....to clarify, they talk about the problems of transportation including not having enough leg room or space, and their solution is for you to lock yourself in a bubble....hmmmmm.
Yes- you can stretch your legs in the pod, which you can't in all trains/buses. "Bubble" is misleading- it's not spherical. It's more of a rounded coffin, but far roomier and not claustrophobic. As for locking, yes, it's probably a good idea when suspended in the air moving at that speed, to ensure that you don't fall out.
There's obviously room for adaptation to mass-market, which might just benefit from, say, I don't know- a little investment?
Not on the pods, no. There is the necessary break on the rail at destination.
Indeed. And when you connect your account to that of your family&friends' you can get even more trustworthy opinions.
Now you're crying about moderation? Boo fucking hoo. Grow up, will ya?
You're the only one whining here, you spoiled little brat. Read this, then stop doing it. When you understand what you've been doing here, you'll stop wasting your time trolling Slashdot for the attention mommy never gave you.
I'm arrogant?
You're the one who ignored my point, and launched into not one but two very boring rants we've all heard before about how I supposedly don't know what I'm talking about, when I never even discussed the subject of Linux.
Get fucking a clue, Dave.
It's not about change.
I replied to a post arguing against a previous post that the population is technologically sophisticated. It was about two people who couldn't "fix" Windows machines with "black screens", which I called stupid.
I never TL;DR but I could only bother to read the first sentence. Stay on topic if you want me to read more.
You can't fix stupid.
No amount of access to technology will solve these problems for 100% of the population. On the other hand it's completely legal to not hire those boneheads. Seem whoever Mr. Bitter here works for is part of the stupid. I feel sorry for the kid.
If you expected to be rolling your own diaspora server right now, then you really didn't understand what was going on
Exactly. Like much of the dumbed-down "news" we're subjected to, this is just a little more sensational nonsense.
Breaking news! Infants can't grasp quantum physics. Are they stupid? You decide!
The little coverage I've seen sticks strictly to usability ("aspects" and this very early revision of the UI) . If that's all they built, I wouldn't bother criticizing the more difficult areas of security, scalability and reliability (that's not to say one shouldn't report bugs). Since hearing of the project I've assumed that these problems may be something these kids are looking for others to pitch in. Releasing the code isn't a bad way to get other people to start working, and as we've seen that actually worked out well, significantly multiplying the number of contributors to the project.
Diaspora, done right, is not a weekend project. Doesn't help that these naysayers are too immature to seek positive reinforcement.
Learn to read, kid. I never suggested it was a Jewish word.
I do hope you take your coffee hot.
Technically speaking, the English word (taken from Greek) 'holocaust' is defined mainly with loss of life in mind. 'Shoah' on the other hand is a more general definition, such as 'destruction' or perhaps as 'disaster' similar to the Arabic word 'nakba' oft-used to describe the Palestinian diaspora does not mean "sowing of seeds" (to maintain some kind of tie-back to the topic at hand).
There was a couple years back an Israeli official who the word 'shoah' which caused a brief stir and the tired "Zionism=Nazism" references. But of course there was, as there has never been, a credible and commonly-accepted governmental intent of genocide and if you just scratch the surface of the story you see that Matan Vilnai is hardly that kind of crackpot. So such references were strictly a matter of propaganda, akin to the so-called "apartheid wall", which is not analogous to racism and segregation.
Other than that unfortunate choice of word, I lived in Israel for years and never heard anyone use 'shoah' in a way that minimizes 'hashoah' with the kind of casual reference I'm talking about. It's a rarely used word due to the sensitivity, but it is part of the language and not taboo when used properly. If you can point me to one such distasteful misuse by a serious person (i.e. not some Kach nut) showing intent to reference 'hashoah', I'd be grateful to be cured of my ignorance.
Well that's an easy argument to make, populist and shallow. I'd agree with an argument that lack of access is only a problem when it comes to someone wanting to beat you at [insert currently hot PvP game]. And if that's the only argument, the cost is certainly not worth such limited benefit. But that's a crazy assumption to which you provided no backing for an obvious reason.
The truth is the push for rural broadband isn't about your strawman of entertainment, but about economic development, as even BusinessWeek pointed out. Whether or not R.B. is economically feasible in any specific location is the important question. A question which should not be tainted by the shortsighted and selfish whining of tax haters.
I expect that a significant percentage of Google users don't know where that name came from and wouldn't care to find out, that the minds of Amazon users don't often turn to South America, and Dunkin' Donuts regulars don't often consider actually dunking their doughnuts. Once a word transforms into a brand, we tend to ignore the word.
Besides the fact that people don't care about words, meanings of words still get twisted and change meaning in the public's mind. Given we're talking about anti-Jewish/Zionist sentiments, I'll point out that many Muslim hardliners frequently misuse the term "holocaust" to define obviously inequivalent events. They have also adopted the word "diaspora" for their own cause.
Haha! Thanks for that, I missed that one.
Perhaps. As with AI, they could be wildly off when it comes to the feasibility of what seems within reach even to leading experts.
Using "50 years away" isn't about giving an somewhat accurate estimate and certainly not a definitive timescale. When you hear this kind of phrase*, read "we don't even know what's involved in building that" or to businessmen "we're nowhere near talking about cost estimates for an actual system". Note the skepticism about our readiness for just this limited technology demonstration. The real deal, where fusion could replace (oil or whatever we're using in 30-50 years) is decades away, give or take n decades due to unforeseen obstacles or unexpected breakthroughs.
* or any long-term estimate, adjusted for time scale of technology, e.g. in the case of software perhaps 5 years.