All of the subject matter can be learned pretty easily
really?
really? as long as you can write coherently then mastering the latest debates on whether or not string theory is a dead end is a doddle and you can be a science reporter? you can, in a matter of hours, learn to discern what constitutes news out of the Linux camp? and bias? writing he-says she-says nonsense parroting the talking points of political parties does not constitute the elimination of bias...
journalism schools seem to teach the avoidance of stating objective facts as facts even if that renders one side of a debate as clearly being untruthful... the great age of print journalism existed before the recent trend for 'journalism' courses...
it is like these community 'computer courses' that teach people to use some obscure piece of software that bears no resemblance to what they actually use in real life... useless but once you get enough people invested in saying that they are valid then no-one dare challenge them...
but it is time to call bullshit on journalims studies
I think the idion is Hear Here.
Not sure - been a point of debate in my household for some time - none of us can be bothered looking it up of course, so who knows...
you cannot be corrected as you are not wrong... you are just having a completely different discussion from the rest of us... we are talking about relativity and you are talking bollox
This is not controversial. Free Republic is an extreme right wing website with a political agenda not in any way credible as a scientific source. This is pathetic - putting a link that is obviously political hackery on here as though it adds some value...
...I think you are reading more into his post than he meant...
at the end of the day everyone in any sort of customer care or tech support environment bitches about the idiots they get through who are usually rude and angry and don't want to help the support person help them
let the guy vent - if he cannot do it on here where can he... plus at the end of the day you are doing exactly what you complain he is - saying i know more than you so GFY
there is ALWAYS someone who knows more than you and ALWAYS someone who knows less... sometimes we get proud of our little knowledge and push too far and get slapped down by someone further down the path than us
but isn't this place about people who WANT to know more and who LOVE it when they learn something new? the tech support guy may be on a lower rung of the ladder than you but don't kick him off it for bragging about the view, encourage him to climb higher...
..."nobby", "What?", "you can see the pub from here"
Gov't doesn't nold copyright? Irrelevant surely - this is a clear case of FAIR USE, digitizing items in their collection for easier retrieval and for backup.
Now that I can buy into - work their way up - even to a relatively lowly paid job by American standards. The point I was trying to make was even a foreigner from a poor country has to find somewhere to stay and eat in the US - and working at McDonald's would make that tough to do AND save even a tiny amount of money.
I seriously doubt ANYONE made it rich my any standards working in McDonald's... I know the math and stuff - but you still have to live somewhere and eat while you are here... you knew people or you knew of people?
exactly - i have the same thing - my wife used to want to use my laptop all the time...
hell, I have a whole folder on personal thoughts and ideas and philosophy and crap that is really just an extension of my brain so I don't forget stuff - I don't want people reading it!!!
but it is more primal... can't quite place it, but glad i am not the only one...
She has her own laptop now - oh and she hates me using it:-)
in fact any communication medium becomes an 'addiction' by the terms of the article, once we start using it - phone, IM, blogs...
this is because we are in fact addicted to communication with others and again it isn't really addiction so much as part of the way our brains function - we hate isolation
Well said - as far as I can tell an addiction is painful to quit. I enjoy going to Belize and being without email for a week or two - once the panic has settled down. But if I go without a coke my head is pounding by day three. I am addicted to Caffeine. EMail has just become integrated with my life.
We are just becoming more and more integrated with the computer half of ourselves. Sure the interface between fleshy bits and the computer hardware needs imrpovement.
But I have been thinking about this and whether or not I am addicted lately. Ever get that feeling of irrational rage or anger or just plain frustration when someone else uses your laptop. It is because for some of us the laptop is an extension of our brain and we instinctively protect it.
Just like I instinctively protect my email communication by denying I am addicted.
Once upon a time I ran the Service Desk (help desk by another name) for a large company (26,000 desktops worldwide).
There was a remarkable consistency in who called in with problems. A subset of users with one thing in common. A resistance to the answer "sometimes it just does that". Those people who always want to know "why" without ever accepting, as any tech support person knows, that a network this large and complex, connected to all those PCs with so many different versions of so many complex pieces of software...etc... just complicated and sometimes does unexpected things. It is not always worth investigating every last detail. We see what you did. Rebooting fixed it. Get off the f***ing phone!!!
This set of people probably maps closely with creationists - better to know the wrong thing than not know something. The illusion of control.
Time begins with the universe. There is no before. There is therefore no beginning. No eternity. No infinity. There is just what is, what has been and what will be. No beginning and no end because time doesn't need an end either. I know this seems confusing and threatening to some people, and it takes quite a lot of fundamental learning before you can understand why that is the case. But it is the case. And to gratuitously quote Wittgenstein, the world is all that is the case.
I'm sorry but you might want to read through my posts in this thread again. I am saying something quite different. That the best of all worlds is a public entity with open access regulations and strong, accountable oversight. The worst of all worlds is a private company that has a (de-facto) monopoly handed to it. Wholly private companies lie somewhere in the middle.
Or maybe, and I am no scholar on the subject but remember how wrong we have been before about the intentions of other nations, just maybe the Chinese government really is more concerned about what it (rightly or wrongly) considers inappropriate content from outside (porn, attempts by foreign powers to overthrow it etc.) rather than actually stifling thought in its own country, contrary to our Western cliches.
Now, I don't advocate anything like that, and I don't have much time for the regime over there, nor any sort of oppression. I don't necessarily even think the above is correct. However, it is possible.
I think if we look at history - or even the current state of affairs in this country - we see that neither the extreme left or the extreme right is correct.
The threat isn't from clearly publicly owned entities with well defined oversight and open accountable systems of control and access to information. The threat isn't from a competitive market place of aggressive private companies. The threat is in that place where government and business overlap - where these corporate parasites are created and live, that do nothing but suckle at the teet of government largesse. It is corrupting to both government and the businesses.
As a private company becomes more and more dependent on the favours of the local government that has granted it certain rights it becomes more likely to do whatever it takes to make the pol's happy. As the local gov't starts seeing income from its relationship it becomes more and more protective over its source of revenue and overlooks certain behaviours.
Ask anyone who has worked in the Oil industry (I have) or the defense industry, or in heavily regulated utilities.
But the one or two percent of the populus desperate to see if they are being censored is not the problem. The problem of censorship is the masses, who are whipped up into delusional states at odds with the real world. These people will not pay for a more expensive alternative to the company the local municipality has given the rights to. (And yes I am sure that they may not all TECHNICALLY be monopolies, but the de facto position will be different - just look at cable).
Again, to clarify my original posting this is what I was getting at.
What I am fearful of right now is the granted monopolies that municipalities are putting in place. Private companies that we cannot monitor but who will be very sensitive to local political pressures to censor information.
The only safe alternative is a publicly owned (municipal owned) system that has open accountable processes, that has public oversight of all software, hardware, filtering etc. so that anyone who wants to see if censorship is happening can do so.
Plus the local owned system WILL be subject to first amendment protection in ways a private entity just won't be.
Slashdot Mirror
hmmm - went against wrong posting - never said i could use slashdot
really?
really? as long as you can write coherently then mastering the latest debates on whether or not string theory is a dead end is a doddle and you can be a science reporter? you can, in a matter of hours, learn to discern what constitutes news out of the Linux camp? and bias? writing he-says she-says nonsense parroting the talking points of political parties does not constitute the elimination of bias...
journalism schools seem to teach the avoidance of stating objective facts as facts even if that renders one side of a debate as clearly being untruthful... the great age of print journalism existed before the recent trend for 'journalism' courses...
it is like these community 'computer courses' that teach people to use some obscure piece of software that bears no resemblance to what they actually use in real life... useless but once you get enough people invested in saying that they are valid then no-one dare challenge them...
but it is time to call bullshit on journalims studies
Google will wake up, and may have already. I for one welcome our new technological overlord.
I think the idion is Hear Here. Not sure - been a point of debate in my household for some time - none of us can be bothered looking it up of course, so who knows...
you cannot be corrected as you are not wrong... you are just having a completely different discussion from the rest of us... we are talking about relativity and you are talking bollox
This is not controversial. Free Republic is an extreme right wing website with a political agenda not in any way credible as a scientific source. This is pathetic - putting a link that is obviously political hackery on here as though it adds some value...
at the end of the day everyone in any sort of customer care or tech support environment bitches about the idiots they get through who are usually rude and angry and don't want to help the support person help them
let the guy vent - if he cannot do it on here where can he... plus at the end of the day you are doing exactly what you complain he is - saying i know more than you so GFY
there is ALWAYS someone who knows more than you and ALWAYS someone who knows less... sometimes we get proud of our little knowledge and push too far and get slapped down by someone further down the path than us
but isn't this place about people who WANT to know more and who LOVE it when they learn something new? the tech support guy may be on a lower rung of the ladder than you but don't kick him off it for bragging about the view, encourage him to climb higher...
Gov't doesn't nold copyright? Irrelevant surely - this is a clear case of FAIR USE, digitizing items in their collection for easier retrieval and for backup.
Now that I can buy into - work their way up - even to a relatively lowly paid job by American standards. The point I was trying to make was even a foreigner from a poor country has to find somewhere to stay and eat in the US - and working at McDonald's would make that tough to do AND save even a tiny amount of money.
I seriously doubt ANYONE made it rich my any standards working in McDonald's... I know the math and stuff - but you still have to live somewhere and eat while you are here... you knew people or you knew of people?
where are these recruitments ads for Indian jobs - I for one would love to work somewhere new... but I don't see the ads...
the point is you DID have a physical reaction to your addiction - withdrawal of some sort... and if you didn't then no you weren't addicted
i have no fear of loss or damage due to my wife's equally competent use...
i feel violated that some part of me is disconnected and connected to someone else...
hell, I have a whole folder on personal thoughts and ideas and philosophy and crap that is really just an extension of my brain so I don't forget stuff - I don't want people reading it!!!
but it is more primal... can't quite place it, but glad i am not the only one...
She has her own laptop now - oh and she hates me using it :-)
this is because we are in fact addicted to communication with others and again it isn't really addiction so much as part of the way our brains function - we hate isolation
Well said - as far as I can tell an addiction is painful to quit. I enjoy going to Belize and being without email for a week or two - once the panic has settled down. But if I go without a coke my head is pounding by day three. I am addicted to Caffeine. EMail has just become integrated with my life.
We are just becoming more and more integrated with the computer half of ourselves. Sure the interface between fleshy bits and the computer hardware needs imrpovement. But I have been thinking about this and whether or not I am addicted lately. Ever get that feeling of irrational rage or anger or just plain frustration when someone else uses your laptop. It is because for some of us the laptop is an extension of our brain and we instinctively protect it. Just like I instinctively protect my email communication by denying I am addicted.
There was a remarkable consistency in who called in with problems. A subset of users with one thing in common. A resistance to the answer "sometimes it just does that". Those people who always want to know "why" without ever accepting, as any tech support person knows, that a network this large and complex, connected to all those PCs with so many different versions of so many complex pieces of software...etc... just complicated and sometimes does unexpected things. It is not always worth investigating every last detail. We see what you did. Rebooting fixed it. Get off the f***ing phone!!!
This set of people probably maps closely with creationists - better to know the wrong thing than not know something. The illusion of control.
Time begins with the universe. There is no before. There is therefore no beginning. No eternity. No infinity. There is just what is, what has been and what will be. No beginning and no end because time doesn't need an end either. I know this seems confusing and threatening to some people, and it takes quite a lot of fundamental learning before you can understand why that is the case. But it is the case. And to gratuitously quote Wittgenstein, the world is all that is the case.
"I have the idea of God therefore God exists"
bit more complex - not much - and complete bollox
I'm sorry but you might want to read through my posts in this thread again. I am saying something quite different. That the best of all worlds is a public entity with open access regulations and strong, accountable oversight. The worst of all worlds is a private company that has a (de-facto) monopoly handed to it. Wholly private companies lie somewhere in the middle.
Now, I don't advocate anything like that, and I don't have much time for the regime over there, nor any sort of oppression. I don't necessarily even think the above is correct. However, it is possible.
I think if we look at history - or even the current state of affairs in this country - we see that neither the extreme left or the extreme right is correct. The threat isn't from clearly publicly owned entities with well defined oversight and open accountable systems of control and access to information. The threat isn't from a competitive market place of aggressive private companies. The threat is in that place where government and business overlap - where these corporate parasites are created and live, that do nothing but suckle at the teet of government largesse. It is corrupting to both government and the businesses. As a private company becomes more and more dependent on the favours of the local government that has granted it certain rights it becomes more likely to do whatever it takes to make the pol's happy. As the local gov't starts seeing income from its relationship it becomes more and more protective over its source of revenue and overlooks certain behaviours. Ask anyone who has worked in the Oil industry (I have) or the defense industry, or in heavily regulated utilities.
But the one or two percent of the populus desperate to see if they are being censored is not the problem. The problem of censorship is the masses, who are whipped up into delusional states at odds with the real world. These people will not pay for a more expensive alternative to the company the local municipality has given the rights to. (And yes I am sure that they may not all TECHNICALLY be monopolies, but the de facto position will be different - just look at cable).
Again, to clarify my original posting this is what I was getting at. What I am fearful of right now is the granted monopolies that municipalities are putting in place. Private companies that we cannot monitor but who will be very sensitive to local political pressures to censor information. The only safe alternative is a publicly owned (municipal owned) system that has open accountable processes, that has public oversight of all software, hardware, filtering etc. so that anyone who wants to see if censorship is happening can do so. Plus the local owned system WILL be subject to first amendment protection in ways a private entity just won't be.