To answer your question, yes, I also oppose in vitro fertilization. It is my belief that God intends for human life to be created only by means of sexual intercourse between a married man and woman, and any unnatural means are therefore sinful. As for "using the embryos for something useful," I believe that statement is missing the point, which is that creating human beings simply to use for science is an insult to human dignity, as well as sinful.
Before you start complaining about religious fanatics like me trying to force their beliefs on others, please observe that I am forcing nothing on you. I don't even think it is always the goverment's right to regulate or ban controversial research, but if nothing else, I think abortion should be banned on the grounds that an embryo is a human being deserving of the same rights granted to other human beings. And yes, I know I'm wasting my time posting this here, but you did ask. I would prefer to discuss these issues intelligently, rather than argue endlessly about them.
I agree, and I also feel sorry for the the countless people (or "embryos," if you prefer) who have been killed and will continue to be killed in the process of researching this stuff. The end does not justify the means.
I find it interesting and a sad reflection on the Slashdot community that you've been moderated the way you were. Maybe I'm the only one here who agrees with you, but please remember that in the real world outside the Slashdot bubble, believers constitute the majority. Apparently all the scientists and engineers here think that their education and superior intellect somehow render God and religion obsolete. They'll be in for a surprise when they meet Him.
And check hardware revision numbers carefully, too. I seem to recall a certain Ethernet card (maybe a Linksys LNE100-TX?) that was listed but only for certain revisions later than mine, and Solaris 8 wouldn't find the card I had, so I had to locate another card.
Hmm, I'd have called this interesting or insightful. I used to do the same thing all the time - build buildings our of legos or blocks and then have armies of lego soldiers and vehicles destroy them. Just thinking about it makes me wish I had some legos right now. I guess the closest thing to that I still do is build maps for Unreal Tournament.
Would I fly a Lego plane into a Lego WTC? Definitely, though I'd build both towers first and add dry ice to simulate smoke, and I'd probably use several planes on each building.
And it wasn't too long ago that their charts showed that a 2.6 GHz CPU is what you need for serious applications and gaming, and a CPU like the 1.8 GHz one I'm still using now is only good for email (and reading Slashdot which, sadly, is mostly what I use it for).
I'd just like to mention that "stop," as I've always heard it used, refers to the electrical switch on the organ console, while "rank" refers to an actual set of pipes. A stop usually activates one rank, but some activate several; these are called mixtures. Many organs, especially theatre organs and smaller classical organs, have many more stops than ranks. Often, there will be stops in different divisions (great, swell, pedal, etc.) that activate the same rank. Sometimes an organ will have multiple stops that activate the same rank at different pitches (16', 8', 4', etc.) and may even give them different names. Some "stops" are really couplers, meaning that they link one keyboard to another. Thus, the number of stops an organ has does not necessarily reflect its actual size.
Skinner organs, at least the ones I've seen, tend to be huge (the company is known for its orchestral organs; the one in Severance Hall in Cleveland is a great example), so it makes sense that you would need a number of computers to simulate it. As for the speakers, I would imagine that ideally, you would want one for every pipe, designed to play that pitch optimally. This, of course, would probably cost more than pipes. I'm an organist, not a sound engineer, so I really can't say much about how to best reproduce organ tones electronically. I will say, though, that I can instantly recognize electronic organ music, and I don't think anyone will ever be able to electronically reproduce the sound of a large organ perfectly.
The biggest benefit I can see to building an organ like this is that it won't need tuning. Tuning an 80+ rank organ takes forever and is expensive. And it will be nice when the technology makes its way into smaller home organs.
I worked with a guy last summer who had previously worked at Intel, and he said that they have had the capability to build a 10 GHz chip for some time, but the expense would be astronomical. Perhaps sometime soon they will build one just as a demonstration, to scare off their competitors, or to convince people to wait rather than buy AMD or IBM (and then proceed to make a fortune selling 4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc. chips for the next 5 years.) I'd be suspicious too, but as you say, time will tell.
This is the best advice I've read in this discussion yet. I know most people here are saying you should just trust your kids, respect their privacy, don't shelter them, they'll just get porn somewhere else, blah blah blah... Keep in mind that the majority of Slashdot readers are probably porn addicts themselves, as well as politically liberal, favoring unrestricted access to this stuff (claiming "free speech"), and in any case are not a representative sample of the population. Generations ago, when sex was really taboo, did people grow up dysfunctional because of that? Of course not. We live in a disgusting society where sex is glorified and commercialized. This treatment of sex is what is unnatural and wrong, not sex itself.
Porn IS harmful because, among other things, it really does change the way you look at and think about women, in a bad way. Children are especially vulnerable to this, and I'm glad you're taking steps to protect yours. Shame is indeed the best weapon. Even if they hate you for it, talk to them about these things. Frequent communication is so important to family relationships. Make them understand how pornography harms everyone involved, and that you are protecting them, and this is because you love them. If your son stops responding to the shame tactic, get a few girls his age from school to sit in on your talk and tell him how sick and degrading porn is to women, and that they would never date someone who looks at porn.
If you raise them with good values, they will turn out fine. Ignore all the idiots here who think embarrassing them will make them gay.
"Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had."
And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.
from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15
The prophet has spoken; Microsoft is dying. Look upon them with glee as they gasp their last breaths of FUD. Well, maybe in a few more years.
Every cost associated with weddings is ridiculously high. I'm an organist, and I've played for quite a few weddings. The average organist's wedding fee (where I'm from, Cleveland) seems to be around $150. Since I'm not doing this as a career, just a hobby, I usually charge around $75. Couples are usually pleasantly surprised to hear that. I think it's reasonable, considering the work I put into it.
If photographers are making as much as $5000 for a wedding, though, I have to wonder why organists don't charge more. Yeah, the photographer does more physical work during the ceremony and reception, but a lot of work goes into the music that most people wouldn't guess. I have to practice daily, of course. There are about ten or so pieces of music that most weddings use, but couples will usually request something special, which means I have to find (usually buy) the music for it and learn it. Sheet music isn't cheap. Sometimes I have to adapt something for organ or piano that wasn't written for it. I have to come to the church a day or two in advance to familiarize myself with the organ (unlike pianos, every organ is unique).
At most decent-sized weddings, the couple will have a friend or relative who is a singer, violinist, flutist, or some other kind of musician who they want to play along with me on one song, so I have to arrange to meet with them to practice and familiarize myself with their style. Some of these people are horrid musicians, which doesn't make my job any easier.
As the organist is in control of the louding thing in the building, screw-ups always get noticed. (Contrast this with photographers, who are expected to be an annoyance with their flashbulbs, and who can re-shoot if they make a mistake.) I have to be very careful to start and end the pieces, especially the entrance march, at just the right times. Weddings are always recorded, so any mistakes I make wind up on tape.
I don't feel I should charge more for my services, but it does irritate me that photographers can get away with charging so much. I think hiring the school paper photographer was a great idea.
Normally, I'd agree with you, but in the case of the travesty that is The Matrix Revolutions, I think posting such "opinions" on the front page is perfectly acceptable.
As reported in this Slashdot story, the interview is here (free reg, etc.)
The relevant question and response were:
We've been getting hit with a lot of viruses and worms lately. What's your idea for ending the attacks?
When you have people who hook up these machines that weren't designed for the Internet, and they don't even want to know about all the intricacies of network security, what can you expect? We get what we have now: a system that can be brought down by a teenager with too much time on his hands. Should we blame the teenager? Sure, we can point the finger at him and say, ''Bad boy!'' and slap him for it. Will that actually fix anything? No. The next geeky kid frustrated about not getting a date on Saturday night will come along and do the same thing without really understanding the consequences. So either we should make it a law that all geeks have dates -- I'd have supported such a law when I was a teenager -- or the blame is really on the companies who sell and install the systems that are quite that fragile.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, if you can get a front page Slashdot article that links to them, they will be. Start trying!
So you're opposed to in vitro fertilization, too?
To answer your question, yes, I also oppose in vitro fertilization. It is my belief that God intends for human life to be created only by means of sexual intercourse between a married man and woman, and any unnatural means are therefore sinful. As for "using the embryos for something useful," I believe that statement is missing the point, which is that creating human beings simply to use for science is an insult to human dignity, as well as sinful.
Before you start complaining about religious fanatics like me trying to force their beliefs on others, please observe that I am forcing nothing on you. I don't even think it is always the goverment's right to regulate or ban controversial research, but if nothing else, I think abortion should be banned on the grounds that an embryo is a human being deserving of the same rights granted to other human beings. And yes, I know I'm wasting my time posting this here, but you did ask. I would prefer to discuss these issues intelligently, rather than argue endlessly about them.
I agree, and I also feel sorry for the the countless people (or "embryos," if you prefer) who have been killed and will continue to be killed in the process of researching this stuff. The end does not justify the means.
Finally, someone with a rational argument. Thank you.
- I Am Not A Troll -
I find it interesting and a sad reflection on the Slashdot community that you've been moderated the way you were. Maybe I'm the only one here who agrees with you, but please remember that in the real world outside the Slashdot bubble, believers constitute the majority. Apparently all the scientists and engineers here think that their education and superior intellect somehow render God and religion obsolete. They'll be in for a surprise when they meet Him.
And check hardware revision numbers carefully, too. I seem to recall a certain Ethernet card (maybe a Linksys LNE100-TX?) that was listed but only for certain revisions later than mine, and Solaris 8 wouldn't find the card I had, so I had to locate another card.
Taboo is lots of fun, too.
They don't have Brainfuck either. How could you leave that one out?
Hmm, I'd have called this interesting or insightful. I used to do the same thing all the time - build buildings our of legos or blocks and then have armies of lego soldiers and vehicles destroy them. Just thinking about it makes me wish I had some legos right now. I guess the closest thing to that I still do is build maps for Unreal Tournament.
Would I fly a Lego plane into a Lego WTC? Definitely, though I'd build both towers first and add dry ice to simulate smoke, and I'd probably use several planes on each building.
In Soviet Russia...aw, forget it.
They'd probably just ask IBM to find it for them.
Can anyone explain the obsession the NSA seems to have with chickens? Or did the author just stick those in as a joke?
Heh, it takes my computer almost that long just to load Quake III.
And it wasn't too long ago that their charts showed that a 2.6 GHz CPU is what you need for serious applications and gaming, and a CPU like the 1.8 GHz one I'm still using now is only good for email (and reading Slashdot which, sadly, is mostly what I use it for).
I'd just like to mention that "stop," as I've always heard it used, refers to the electrical switch on the organ console, while "rank" refers to an actual set of pipes. A stop usually activates one rank, but some activate several; these are called mixtures. Many organs, especially theatre organs and smaller classical organs, have many more stops than ranks. Often, there will be stops in different divisions (great, swell, pedal, etc.) that activate the same rank. Sometimes an organ will have multiple stops that activate the same rank at different pitches (16', 8', 4', etc.) and may even give them different names. Some "stops" are really couplers, meaning that they link one keyboard to another. Thus, the number of stops an organ has does not necessarily reflect its actual size.
Skinner organs, at least the ones I've seen, tend to be huge (the company is known for its orchestral organs; the one in Severance Hall in Cleveland is a great example), so it makes sense that you would need a number of computers to simulate it. As for the speakers, I would imagine that ideally, you would want one for every pipe, designed to play that pitch optimally. This, of course, would probably cost more than pipes. I'm an organist, not a sound engineer, so I really can't say much about how to best reproduce organ tones electronically. I will say, though, that I can instantly recognize electronic organ music, and I don't think anyone will ever be able to electronically reproduce the sound of a large organ perfectly.
The biggest benefit I can see to building an organ like this is that it won't need tuning. Tuning an 80+ rank organ takes forever and is expensive. And it will be nice when the technology makes its way into smaller home organs.
Greed. Money knows no political ideology.
I worked with a guy last summer who had previously worked at Intel, and he said that they have had the capability to build a 10 GHz chip for some time, but the expense would be astronomical. Perhaps sometime soon they will build one just as a demonstration, to scare off their competitors, or to convince people to wait rather than buy AMD or IBM (and then proceed to make a fortune selling 4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc. chips for the next 5 years.) I'd be suspicious too, but as you say, time will tell.
Or it could go in our kitchen, in the spot where the dishwasher used to be.
This is the best advice I've read in this discussion yet. I know most people here are saying you should just trust your kids, respect their privacy, don't shelter them, they'll just get porn somewhere else, blah blah blah... Keep in mind that the majority of Slashdot readers are probably porn addicts themselves, as well as politically liberal, favoring unrestricted access to this stuff (claiming "free speech"), and in any case are not a representative sample of the population. Generations ago, when sex was really taboo, did people grow up dysfunctional because of that? Of course not. We live in a disgusting society where sex is glorified and commercialized. This treatment of sex is what is unnatural and wrong, not sex itself.
Porn IS harmful because, among other things, it really does change the way you look at and think about women, in a bad way. Children are especially vulnerable to this, and I'm glad you're taking steps to protect yours. Shame is indeed the best weapon. Even if they hate you for it, talk to them about these things. Frequent communication is so important to family relationships. Make them understand how pornography harms everyone involved, and that you are protecting them, and this is because you love them. If your son stops responding to the shame tactic, get a few girls his age from school to sit in on your talk and tell him how sick and degrading porn is to women, and that they would never date someone who looks at porn.
If you raise them with good values, they will turn out fine. Ignore all the idiots here who think embarrassing them will make them gay.
How about an operating system for students without broadband? (We do exist.)
As Linus said,
"Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had."
The prophet has spoken; Microsoft is dying. Look upon them with glee as they gasp their last breaths of FUD. Well, maybe in a few more years.
Every cost associated with weddings is ridiculously high. I'm an organist, and I've played for quite a few weddings. The average organist's wedding fee (where I'm from, Cleveland) seems to be around $150. Since I'm not doing this as a career, just a hobby, I usually charge around $75. Couples are usually pleasantly surprised to hear that. I think it's reasonable, considering the work I put into it.
If photographers are making as much as $5000 for a wedding, though, I have to wonder why organists don't charge more. Yeah, the photographer does more physical work during the ceremony and reception, but a lot of work goes into the music that most people wouldn't guess. I have to practice daily, of course. There are about ten or so pieces of music that most weddings use, but couples will usually request something special, which means I have to find (usually buy) the music for it and learn it. Sheet music isn't cheap. Sometimes I have to adapt something for organ or piano that wasn't written for it. I have to come to the church a day or two in advance to familiarize myself with the organ (unlike pianos, every organ is unique).
At most decent-sized weddings, the couple will have a friend or relative who is a singer, violinist, flutist, or some other kind of musician who they want to play along with me on one song, so I have to arrange to meet with them to practice and familiarize myself with their style. Some of these people are horrid musicians, which doesn't make my job any easier.
As the organist is in control of the louding thing in the building, screw-ups always get noticed. (Contrast this with photographers, who are expected to be an annoyance with their flashbulbs, and who can re-shoot if they make a mistake.) I have to be very careful to start and end the pieces, especially the entrance march, at just the right times. Weddings are always recorded, so any mistakes I make wind up on tape.
I don't feel I should charge more for my services, but it does irritate me that photographers can get away with charging so much. I think hiring the school paper photographer was a great idea.
Normally, I'd agree with you, but in the case of the travesty that is The Matrix Revolutions, I think posting such "opinions" on the front page is perfectly acceptable.
As reported in this Slashdot story, the interview is here (free reg, etc.)
The relevant question and response were:
We've been getting hit with a lot of viruses and worms lately. What's your idea for ending the attacks?
When you have people who hook up these machines that weren't designed for the Internet, and they don't even want to know about all the intricacies of network security, what can you expect? We get what we have now: a system that can be brought down by a teenager with too much time on his hands. Should we blame the teenager? Sure, we can point the finger at him and say, ''Bad boy!'' and slap him for it. Will that actually fix anything? No. The next geeky kid frustrated about not getting a date on Saturday night will come along and do the same thing without really understanding the consequences. So either we should make it a law that all geeks have dates -- I'd have supported such a law when I was a teenager -- or the blame is really on the companies who sell and install the systems that are quite that fragile.