how does the design, manufacture, and subsequent sale of the card help the malnourished? I'm not thinking of the card-maker-in-extension, but the one in-intension. (Read Frege if you don't get this.)
That giver-of-food-to-the-malnourished is not an intensive property of SETI-card-maker does not mean that withholder-of-food-from-the-malnourished is. That is your assumption. Maybe he spends the rest of his free time in soup kitchens. Maybe he's giving the proceeds of his sales to the homeless. Maybe the proceeds from this sale keeps him from being homeless and therefore one less mouth that you have to feed. You're shitting on this person based on one thing he did, knowing literally nothing else about him.
You assume that SETI results won't somehow help the starving.
Quite a reasonable assumption, isn't it? How will SETI help feed the starving?
I don't know. That's the whole point of science. If we knew ahead of time how any particular scientific endeavour would help humanity, we wouldn't need to do science.
Should we all quit our jobs and stop having social lives so that we can dedicate every waking hour to feed starving people?
No. Where did you get that idea? not from me.
Well, you're the one telling people that running a SETI client on their computers means that they are a scourge on humanity and that they cause people to be malnourished.
Yes, but this is beside the point. I was addressing the fact that the SETI craze is symptomatic of deep problems within our modern industrial societies. The fact is that there is something ugly, something evil about our so called "civilizations", which results in people having their priorities completely fucked. Like dedicating resources to building dedicated SETI cards, while others, not only in faraway lands, but in their own city, are malnourished.
Then why are you wasting resources posting to Slashdot when you could be feeding the homeless? You assume that this person who made the card doesn't also help the malnourished. You assume that SETI results won't somehow help the starving. Should we all quit our jobs and stop having social lives so that we can dedicate every waking hour to feed starving people?
And insisting in doing SETI is inhuman. I mean, enough of the people in *our* planet are starving; yet all these self-described geeks would rather find out if there's life in another planet than see if there's still life in Somalia.
US West has a solution for these and pretty much any solicitation calls. They call it "No Solicitation." Basically, you sign up for the service and when someone calls you, they get a soothing female voice telling you that your number does not accept solicitations and to put it on their do-not-call lists. Then they get a choice of pushing 1 or staying on the line and my phone rings. You can add numbers to a list that don't get the message, so your friends and family don't have to type 1 every time they call you. Since getting this service about a month ago, I've gotten zero phone solicitations. The only down side is that I have to pay money to be left alone, which I find kind of repugnant.
No, I don't work for US West. I actually don't particularly like them.
You simply cannot charge for a GPL'ed program. Sure you can. You just have to make the source code available. From the preamble:
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
Market forces may make it impossible to sell the software (though Cheapbytes doesn't seem to have a problem doing so), but for all the GPL cares, you could force a buyer to sacrifice a goat to the Sun god.
Now, to download it from Sun you need to sign up with Sun and get a login ID. I use an account I set up last year to register for a Java tool kit.
You have to sign up with your name, address, phone number and email address, and I think they want a blood an urine sample, too. That, frankly, is no better than MS's registration sceme.
I resort to the oldest argument against encryption: if YOU aren't doing anything wrong, why do you care if THEY read your emails?
If you aren't doing anything wrong, why do you care if they install cameras in your house? If you aren't doing anything wrong, why do you care if they install microphones in your bedroom?
6) small but cool difference: "socketed" weapons. These are weapons that have sockets for gems you can collect. Naturally, the slotting a sapphire in to a club makes the club a better weapon (!?).
Don't forget also that in order to actually go through the center of the Earth, you'd have to dig your hole to somewhere near Australia (assuming a starting point somewhere in the northern US). If you tried to jump through a hole to China, you'd smack the side partway "down."
Either way, as i said before, i come to slashdot for one reason alone. Geek news. When there's something on here that's totally irrelevant, (traditionally) news-worthy or not...if it's got nothing to do with technologoy/geeks/nerds/what have you...then it's got no business being on slashdot.
It's a story on the dark side of our technology obsessions. How many of your geekly products are made from petroleum?
But even so, why are you reading an article that you have no interest in and find is clearly in violation of some mythical topic regulation? Is someone holding a gun to your head?
The person at Cryptome publicized something that was already being done by others. For all we know, the Iranians already figured out how to get rid of the black boxes. At least now everyone knows about the breach and maybe someone can do something about it.
If someone dies because of this, it's on the Times' hands, not Cryptomes.
Is it just me or do people find reasons to get all up and arms for nothing. For all of you how will respond that this is a big deal, remember your name/address AND phone number are all available in your local phone book.
I'm sorry, but all of this privacy stuff sounds like paranoia to me. I'd be happy if companies that I might actually be interested in could get their ads to me, rather than companies I couldn't care about.
I've noticed that I get more advertising when I tell companies "what I want." If companies know what you like, they're naturally going to send you more stuff than if they don't know what you want (or that you exist). It's a choice between getting a few ads for things you don't like and being inundated with stuff you might possibly be more interested in.
Besides, it should be my choice what information a company gets to know.
However, there is one HUGE problem: TIME. {Snip} If someone can figure this out, we should have no problems using the whole globe as one big telescope. Good luck
What is it with all these "do your own science" projects that keep popping up recently? Why do people insist on thinking that they can do what scientists spend years learning in their spare time at home without any clue about the subject?
Well, one of the more prolific supernova discoverers is a retired Microsoft employee doing it on his spare time. IIRC, one of the Hale-Bopp discoverers was a kid. It does take time and effort (and in most cases money), but the beauty of astronomy is that a lot of it can be done by amateurs.
Re:More money = better grade at the end?
on
Laptop Exams?
·
· Score: 1
It's unfair, but at the same time, why is it important to know how to do everything by hand if you know how to make a machine do it for you?
How do you know the machine's doing it right? How do you know you plugged it into the machine correctly to get the right answer? If you have no concept of what the answer should look like, you don't.
Furthermore, I've found it faster sometimes to do a seemingly hard problem by hand than to try plugging it into Mathematica and debugging it. If you do these things over and over, you eventually get good at it, which is kind of the point. As a scientist, I don't like trusting some black box to give me the correct answer unless I have to.
Plus there are the problem-solving skills, yadda yadda yadda.
I use floppys all the time. When I'm in a computer lab, I just pop a floppy in the computer and keep whatever document I need on it. Then when I'm on my computer at home, I don't need to get on the internet to download something. I do keep a backup of my files on my unix account at school, but it's much easier to keep track of the most up-to-date copy when it's always in the same place. It also prevents having bunches of possibly sensitive documents spread among bunches of lab computers.
>And yes it is censorship. Censorship by definition is not limited to the government-any organization or individual can censor others if they have the power to stop their speech. The second "feature" that Rob has coded is definately censorship as it allows moderators to deny any account or IP the ability to post.
It is not censorship, no matter who you limit it to. The posting restriction is temporary. If, after several obvious trolls, you are forbidden from posting that day, you can post again 24 hours later. Most of the posts stay on/.'s main page for at least a day. You will be read. You are not forbidden from having your material read, only when it can be read. It probably won't help the troll situation, but it is not censorship.
And no, there is no "right" to post to Slashdot. This is a privately owned web forum.
Slashdot Mirror
That giver-of-food-to-the-malnourished is not an intensive property of SETI-card-maker does not mean that withholder-of-food-from-the-malnourished is. That is your assumption. Maybe he spends the rest of his free time in soup kitchens. Maybe he's giving the proceeds of his sales to the homeless. Maybe the proceeds from this sale keeps him from being homeless and therefore one less mouth that you have to feed. You're shitting on this person based on one thing he did, knowing literally nothing else about him.
You assume that SETI results won't somehow help the starving.
Quite a reasonable assumption, isn't it? How will SETI help feed the starving?
I don't know. That's the whole point of science. If we knew ahead of time how any particular scientific endeavour would help humanity, we wouldn't need to do science.
Should we all quit our jobs and stop having social lives so that we can dedicate every waking hour to feed starving people?
No. Where did you get that idea? not from me.
Well, you're the one telling people that running a SETI client on their computers means that they are a scourge on humanity and that they cause people to be malnourished.
Then why are you wasting resources posting to Slashdot when you could be feeding the homeless? You assume that this person who made the card doesn't also help the malnourished. You assume that SETI results won't somehow help the starving. Should we all quit our jobs and stop having social lives so that we can dedicate every waking hour to feed starving people?
You can do both, you know...
US West has a solution for these and pretty much any solicitation calls. They call it "No Solicitation." Basically, you sign up for the service and when someone calls you, they get a soothing female voice telling you that your number does not accept solicitations and to put it on their do-not-call lists. Then they get a choice of pushing 1 or staying on the line and my phone rings. You can add numbers to a list that don't get the message, so your friends and family don't have to type 1 every time they call you. Since getting this service about a month ago, I've gotten zero phone solicitations. The only down side is that I have to pay money to be left alone, which I find kind of repugnant.
No, I don't work for US West. I actually don't particularly like them.
When they start making it less expensive than an Air Force fighter jet.
So get RedHat, etc to hire you. They do hire programmers, you know. Or you could write your own program and sell it.
You have to sign up with your name, address, phone number and email address, and I think they want a blood an urine sample, too. That, frankly, is no better than MS's registration sceme.
If you aren't doing anything wrong, why do you care if they install cameras in your house? If you aren't doing anything wrong, why do you care if they install microphones in your bedroom?
Never underestimate the power of a pointy rock.
Don't forget also that in order to actually go through the center of the Earth, you'd have to dig your hole to somewhere near Australia (assuming a starting point somewhere in the northern US). If you tried to jump through a hole to China, you'd smack the side partway "down."
It's a story on the dark side of our technology obsessions. How many of your geekly products are made from petroleum?
But even so, why are you reading an article that you have no interest in and find is clearly in violation of some mythical topic regulation? Is someone holding a gun to your head?
The person at Cryptome publicized something that was already being done by others. For all we know, the Iranians already figured out how to get rid of the black boxes. At least now everyone knows about the breach and maybe someone can do something about it.
If someone dies because of this, it's on the Times' hands, not Cryptomes.
Not if it's unlisted.
I've noticed that I get more advertising when I tell companies "what I want." If companies know what you like, they're naturally going to send you more stuff than if they don't know what you want (or that you exist). It's a choice between getting a few ads for things you don't like and being inundated with stuff you might possibly be more interested in.
Besides, it should be my choice what information a company gets to know.
I'd gladly support advertisers if they didn't try to track my every move on the internet.
Any company who strips away my right to privacy without my permission frankly deserves to go out of business.
{Snip}
If someone can figure this out, we should have no problems using the whole globe as one big telescope. Good luck
Someone has, the NRAO, with the Very Long Baseline Array
Well, one of the more prolific supernova discoverers is a retired Microsoft employee doing it on his spare time. IIRC, one of the Hale-Bopp discoverers was a kid. It does take time and effort (and in most cases money), but the beauty of astronomy is that a lot of it can be done by amateurs.
It's unfair, but at the same time, why is it important to know how to do everything by hand if you know how to make a machine do it for you?
How do you know the machine's doing it right? How do you know you plugged it into the machine correctly to get the right answer? If you have no concept of what the answer should look like, you don't.
Furthermore, I've found it faster sometimes to do a seemingly hard problem by hand than to try plugging it into Mathematica and debugging it. If you do these things over and over, you eventually get good at it, which is kind of the point. As a scientist, I don't like trusting some black box to give me the correct answer unless I have to.
Plus there are the problem-solving skills, yadda yadda yadda.
I use floppys all the time. When I'm in a computer lab, I just pop a floppy in the computer and keep whatever document I need on it. Then when I'm on my computer at home, I don't need to get on the internet to download something. I do keep a backup of my files on my unix account at school, but it's much easier to keep track of the most up-to-date copy when it's always in the same place. It also prevents having bunches of possibly sensitive documents spread among bunches of lab computers.
>And yes it is censorship. Censorship by definition is not limited to the government-any organization or individual can censor others if they have the power to stop their speech. The second "feature" that Rob has coded is definately censorship as it allows moderators to deny any account or IP the ability to post.
/.'s main page for at least a day. You will be read. You are not forbidden from having your material read, only when it can be read. It probably won't help the troll situation, but it is not censorship.
It is not censorship, no matter who you limit it to. The posting restriction is temporary. If, after several obvious trolls, you are forbidden from posting that day, you can post again 24 hours later. Most of the posts stay on
And no, there is no "right" to post to Slashdot. This is a privately owned web forum.
Sorry for the bluntness, but didn't he die about
five months ago? Or am I thinking of a different
comic book guy?