"Managing Enterprise Content" by Ann Rockley (with Pamela Kostur and Steve Manning). ISBN 0-7357-1306-5 (that's the one I have on my desk right now, not sure if there's a newer one).
It's an easy read, well written and with a sense of humor [note: it's a technical book on..managing enterprise content. So it's not like "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" easy... it's just not "gouge your eyes out after the first chapter" hard], and covers EVERYTHING you haven't thought of. And that most everyone here hasn't thought of. And everything I've forgotten after reading it. Chapter 1 alone will explain the very problem you just described, why it's bad, and why everyone does it.
Seriously - one time through that book has saved me on documentation questions (where to put it, how to organize it, how to write it...) time after time. And I still don't use 90% of what was in it. This is the book that you will read one time, and the concepts stick with you - and save your ass. And make you look like a rock star. A weird, librarian kind of rock star, that isn't fantastically awesome like a real rock star, but that seems to know how to use the dewy decimal system with that extra panache, rock star. People will forget all about it a couple of minutes after checking out their books, but for that one second when they find what they need when they need it and it's all because of you... you'll be the rock star.
I urge the colleges to satisfy the requirement of "offering alternatives" by partnering exclusively with indie, creative-commons, and public domain distributors.
This is actually genius. If this bill passes, the universities will be required by law to 'offer alternatives'. The government is under some obligation to fund such mandates, and as such, indie/creative-commons/public domain distributors may have a huge opportunity to make the government fund their efforts to provide alternatives. It would also clearly meet the additional requirement to 'explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity' by design, making it the cheaper and more attractive solution for Universities who have to implement such systems. Even if the government doesn't pay, the Universities will need to comply with the law and would certainly pick the cheapest system. If that system is backed by lawyers, the staff, and students... the RIAA would have a really hard time convincing congress that the law was wrong and that it needs to be re-written so that they can get paid. I don't care enough about music to do anything, but non-RIAA distributors have a huge opportunity to create a system that complies with a law written by the RIAA and steal their most lucrative market. (Instead of just their music - heh!)
1) It closed many loopholes that allowed the warrentless wiretaps in the first place.
What the hell are you talking about? There were no loopholes before. There was the suggestion that there were loopholes put forward by the very people who BROKE the LAW and were facing up to 40 civil suits. Their claimed "loopholes" didn't stand a chance in an actual court (even a secret one) and everyone knows it [apparently, not everyone]. If those loopholes really existed there would be NO NEED for retroactive immunity because they'd get off anyway.
All this bill did was deny U.S. citizens their day in court.
Let's get these all out of the way now
on
Internet Black Holes
·
· Score: 5, Funny
1) The Large Hadron Collider is causing it. 2) The government(s) is capturing your traffic because it thinks your a terrorist, and it's losing packets due to the [Republican created] bureaucracy.
(a) And your packets are being water boarded
(b) AT&T helped
(c) The EFF wants to know 3) The RIAA is capturing your traffic because it thinks your a pirate, and doesn't know how to get them back to you at a reasonable price.
(a) Your packets are being sued
(b) Congress is helping
(c) The EFF still wants to know 4) It's a setup for the next Matrix movie. Neo's abilities are causing corruption in the matrix, creating failures in command nodes and putting millions of people to sleep. Like most of his movies. 5) The two Hubble's are tied together, and the internet is an existential manifestation of our physical universe as we discover it. 6) Global warming / El Nino's internet revenge. 7) Tubes are clogged.
It smells nasty. I don't know what the research was, but I bet it started with "Dude - how long has this $*t been in the fridge?". The other scientist said "back off man, that's my lunch. I'm taking to the international space station." An argument amongst scientists ensues, research grants are approved, and the dude with the Kimchi won. And if he doesn't eat it in the air lock, the others are going to kill him.
By making the top 5% pay 90% of the taxes. NOT, mind you, pay a 90% tax... they pay 90% of the ~taxes~ this country needs to operate. I can pretty much guarantee that government waste, pork, pet projects and a billion other little problems (like unnecessary wars, lobbiests, and so on) would evaporate over night.
I'd like to point out that our founders pledged their lives, THEIR FORTUNES, and their sacred honor. We should expect nothing less from our leaders - and if they're true Americans, they'd gladly do it. If not... Patriot act v.2?
Book 1: Sun Tzu was a Sissy by Stanley Bing. Nuggets of truth awash in satire and dark office humor. It's an easy read and will help you keep your sense of humor when the inevitable soul crushing begins.;)
Book 2: The first 90 days by Michael Watkins. Pretty easy read but covers how to deal with moving up - most companies are going to give you a trial by fire (I'm pretty sure my company uses a nuclear powered pressure cooker - I see people burn out almost monthly), and I suspect you're likely on your own. This book will help you make the transition work for you.
um... Linux mce is not tivo, it's a Linux based MCE, with an obscene amount of extensions, way WAY beyond what you can do with a Windows system.
For example - can you use your cell phone as a remote control with your Windows MCE box? A remote control that works on your stereo, TV, and home security system? Can your Windows MCE PC recognize your phone when you walk in the door and set the house to your preferences (lights, music, volume, ??)? Will your Windows MCE PC move the movie your watching into your bedroom*, while the movie is running, because you walked _from_ the living room to the bedroom (*I think you need a bluetooth phone for this...)? Can you use it to make phone calls from screen? Using your voip line? Video conferencing?
Disclaimer, I haven't set *all* this up (I don't have a home security system, for example), but the stuff I am using works like a charm, wasn't all that hard to get running, and I've only been using it for about 2 weeks. I don't think there's a commercial offering out there that can compete with it, short of a high end total home automation make over - and I can't justify that expense.
While it's not as easy to set up as they make it appear (don't get me wrong, it's not actually that hard either - it's just not quite plug and play), Linux MCE makes Windows MCE look like Windows 3.1. I don't even have a proper capture card (thank you bit torrent until I can afford one!), but I haven't stopped playing with it all week. Home movies, music, ripping my dvd collection, organizing it, games - awesome.
sgt_jake
That would be combat time for the pilot, who experiences the physical and mental stress of a combat situation, which makes the amount of time he's spent IN COMBAT a useful statistic. We're talking about a vehicle here - if that vehicle isn't engaged "in combat", it's not "in combat", it's simply "in use" "in a combat zone". Vehicles don't get bonus points for operating in theater because they don't experience the mental stress that can degrade performance and put people at risk, and neither do they get better based on experience.
My point is that General Atomics is hiding something about the _actual effectiveness_ of the drones by giving us a useless statistic that appears impressive ["They fly ALOT!"] with the announcement that the new drones are ready. Something is missing, and it's a glaring omission.
(and "hippy-speak"? wft is "hippy-speak"? It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that's just giggling a lot followed by 'maaaaan....', so - seriously - I don't get the inference...)
No, that would be called reconnaissance, whereas the phrase "...in combat" implies an active engagement of the enemy. In which case you'd think that we would have won by now.
And it's a vehicle, not a troop (where '2 years in combat' would be understood in context). Say "in a combat zone" or report the total number of engagements. It's relevant - 27 years of flight time with less than 100 actual combat *engagements* would be... perspective. We don't get any perspective from "over 80% of that time spent in combat". Seriously - from that statement, do we know if it's an effective combat vehicle? Really? No - we know that it flies a lot. "in combat". It's fluff, and feels distinctly like they're going for a PR piece but lack better statistics. They're pulling a fast one.
300,000 hours of flight time. 80% of it "in combat". hmmm... 80% of 300,000 hours = 240,000, divided by 24 hours = 10,000 days, divided by 365 = 27.4 YEARS IN COMBAT? According to the monthly figures, they'd have about 11 of these in the air, all day, every day. But mostly - flying in, around or above a comabat zone doesn't count as 'combat'. How many actual strikes they've performed would sound less... smarmy.
Gotta disagree with you on one point specifically:
using your analogy, when you use a rest stop on the highway, and you see the retarded commentary on the walls, does it devastate you? emotionally damage you? no. you just roll your eyes and forget about it 10 seconds later.
Sure, but that's now what's going on here, and I'll use your analogy to illustrate. She rolled her eyes at the first comment, and was a little freaked out by the 'I want to rape her', 'beat her', 'bone her' follow up comments. She went back later and found that the wall had bloomed. Someone posted pictures of her going about her daily routine - the gym, class, lunch, her friends. It's clear that someone didn't just write on the outhouse wall and forget about it, they were still thinking about it, and ACTING on it. That's not your normal retarded graffiti. Someone, more than one person in fact, was going out of their way to find out more about her, including finding her *physically*. And they were encouraging each other, which has a tendancy to gain steam (as anyone who's been drinking in Vegas and woken up in a Mexican jail can tell you...). The only way you roll your eyes and forget about that 10 seconds later is when you get clubbed over the head by your stalker.
And it wasn't an outhouse wall, it was basically a newsletter/forum posted by her colleagues. All she'd have to believe to become deeply worried is that 1 of those 400+ anonymous colleagues might be sick enough to actually do something to her - given the amount posted and nature of the posts, that's not at all unreasonable. In short, it wasn't just juvenile snark - some of it was threatening, and some of it was potentially damaging professionally.
Personally - I think those guys SHOULD have their real names attached to their specific statements for 2 reasons; 1) The professional damage that might be incurred would immediately become self inflicted (no one would hire you because your a dick, vs. her not getting hired because apparently her associates think poorly of her - or she's just a trouble magnet), and 2) you'd have to be a complete idiot to attack someone that you'd already threatened (added bonus - the person you threatened could recognize you and run).
Fortunately, and in general, you're wrong about free speech. It's not an absolute freedom, and it is most certainly not "...without accountability and recourse". In this case, many of the comments violate the obscenity clause "(2) depicts or describes in a patently offensive manner specifically defined sexual conduct; and (3) lacks as a whole serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.", and others are fighting words "Speech likely to provoke an average listener to retaliation, and thereby cause a breach of peace". Not to mention the malice clauses of libel/slander. The Supreme Court has stated that sacrificing anonymity "might deter perfectly peaceful discussions of public matters of importance.", but I'm pretty sure those guys are going to fail that test. Free speech is not about some fundamental right to spout shit off the top of your head, it's about preventing the government or public from intimidating you into silence regarding your ideas.
So, I like to believe there's some kind of cosmic balance regarding the justice of things. What would be really cool here, is if someone would collect all the pseudonyms of the jack-asses posting things like pictures, rape threats, etc. and so on, *and* collect all of their comments to basically make a 'my space' profile of those pseudonyms. A clearing house of that users particular online personality. Then figure out who that pseudonym belongs to. Offer a reward of 10 paypal bucks, an i-five, you know - stupid schwagg that should be more than enough to out the guy by his acquaintances, who undoubtedly also think he's an asshole. Confirm it of course, as best as you're able - maybe get a few pics of the guy along with his schedule, a pic of him taking a pic of one of his targets would be funny as hell, and then come back to Slashdot with the results. A "Hall of assholes who post on AutoAdmit". Guaranteed those dicks will have a hard time getting a job (or staying in law school if some of those comments are to be believed). And it's not really actionable since all you did was tie his anonymous pseudonym to his real name (again, you'd need a really solid source for who he is), and by God, you didn't promise him any such anonymity.
Now I know, we'd all be in trouble if someone did this to us (for example, my own essays on the transcendent joy of seeing goatse.../retch/). But the thing is, when someone tells you to leave them the hell alone, and you don't, and then someone fsck's with you and you tell them to leave you alone, and they don't... that, my friends, is cosmic justice. Oh - and funny.
To make you feel like a loser for not having your own company by now. I say we kick his ass and take his lunch money. I might be in my 30's, but I'm not above beating up people who make me feel threatened and useless. You in?
Nevertheless, the government shouldn't be involved in the business of education.
You can't have a democracy unless the public is educated, and the only way to guarantee an educated public is through public schools. Explain your solution.
The mis-perception is that all porn would somehow magically be labeled.xxx... like all.com addresses are for commercial sites,.org's are for non-profits and so on? pfft. The porn industry is at the forefront of filtering, cataloging and organizing information. You can find just about any fetish you can think of [also - fun thing to do when you're bored...]. You're right on two counts - the law won't stop porn, and legislation will probably be passed. But you fail to follow your own logic to it's conclusion. Legislation that's passed will be easily by-passed by technology, making the laws pretty useless and not hindering porn. Net effect - 0. However! A.xxx domain isn't a bad idea, any more than.com,.net or.org are. Personally, I'm not only fine with it, I'm all for it - makes legitimate porn (at least some of it, if not the worst of it) available in the context of what it is, while letting me look at playboy.com without hitting a bad link on purpose. I mean, on accident... Movie and Video game ratings were voluntary because a worse system was going to be mandated - it was a pre-emptive "we'll do it" so they could at least have some measure of control. Note - it worked. The movie/music/video game industry makes a fortune off that rating system as opposed to the COST other industries incur from regulations (like light truck emissions).
I got suckered with the RAZR, and you're dead right - it sucks. It's worse than any phone I've owned. But I'm saving my money for an iphone for that very reason. Yes, you heard me right - I'm saving my money for an iphone because the RAZR and every other cell phone I've had since the nokia something-circa-1998 has sucked big time. The iphone was built by people that think current cell phones suck in both design and function (if I remember it right, Jobs himself started this crusade for a usable cell phone after some lousy offering with motorola in '05?). Apple built the iphone without the input of the cell phone companies, and as I understand it, in some cases, in spite of them - verizon dumped it because apple wouldn't use verizon's web browser (or some such quibble) - that really had nothing to do with the device itself. Verizon and every other phone company wanted to tack their own little piece of crapware to the device, and apple said no. Oh thank GOD. APPLE built a *phone* from the hardware to the software, without the 'help' or input from the very same companies that have flooded the market with cool LOOKING garbage like the RAZR. I've never owned a mac, but from what I understand they're pretty good at the whole 'designed' for people thing. I own an ipod (hate itunes, but love the device), and I'm happy to bet $600 that I'll be using an iphone for the next 5 years.
Of course... if it sucks too, I'm just going back to screaming really loud. Or maybe just suck it up and get a land line.
I think that's part of it, but I also think shows like stargate and star trek speak to the military crowd in ways that other sci-fi shows don't. First, the characters are all deeply concerned with integrity, honor and morals, in some cases ignoring lawful orders (and getting away with it) in order to do what's right. I think most people in the military identify with that - maybe not getting away with it, but it's nice to see. Second, the 'administration' (higher ups and political influence) is either nefarious or incompetent. I think we can all identify with that, but in the military, it can be pronounced. Third, we tend to pay closer attention or at least be more aware of how politics influences our role in the world so we can recognize many of the conflicts as possibilities for ourselves (note - this doesn't mean we know or care about WHY we find ourselves places, just that we recognize the conflicts). From meeting new cultures, intelligence gathering, combat, defending what's right or making horrible mistakes by not questioning authority, sci-fi shows where the military is generally the good guy show us a fantasy that resembles our reality (and sometimes our reality seems like a fantasy). Plus it is a nice escape and perfect for that downtime. You sure as hell don't want to be caught reading a romance novel... for a lot of reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
And I almost bought the house across the street from him. No, he didn't share. Rude.
It's an easy read, well written and with a sense of humor [note: it's a technical book on ..managing enterprise content. So it's not like "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" easy... it's just not "gouge your eyes out after the first chapter" hard], and covers EVERYTHING you haven't thought of. And that most everyone here hasn't thought of. And everything I've forgotten after reading it. Chapter 1 alone will explain the very problem you just described, why it's bad, and why everyone does it.
Seriously - one time through that book has saved me on documentation questions (where to put it, how to organize it, how to write it...) time after time. And I still don't use 90% of what was in it. This is the book that you will read one time, and the concepts stick with you - and save your ass. And make you look like a rock star. A weird, librarian kind of rock star, that isn't fantastically awesome like a real rock star, but that seems to know how to use the dewy decimal system with that extra panache, rock star. People will forget all about it a couple of minutes after checking out their books, but for that one second when they find what they need when they need it and it's all because of you... you'll be the rock star.
Still - your life will be easier.
1) Make everyone involved from the CEO on down take those drugs daily for 20 years (especially the men).
2) Charge them all with murder, maiming, etc.
Corporations can't be charged with murder (or take drugs), which is why that system is broken. Unless SOMEONE is responsible, no one is.
This is actually genius. If this bill passes, the universities will be required by law to 'offer alternatives'. The government is under some obligation to fund such mandates, and as such, indie/creative-commons/public domain distributors may have a huge opportunity to make the government fund their efforts to provide alternatives. It would also clearly meet the additional requirement to 'explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity' by design, making it the cheaper and more attractive solution for Universities who have to implement such systems. Even if the government doesn't pay, the Universities will need to comply with the law and would certainly pick the cheapest system. If that system is backed by lawyers, the staff, and students... the RIAA would have a really hard time convincing congress that the law was wrong and that it needs to be re-written so that they can get paid. I don't care enough about music to do anything, but non-RIAA distributors have a huge opportunity to create a system that complies with a law written by the RIAA and steal their most lucrative market. (Instead of just their music - heh!)
The founding fathers were idealists.
What the hell are you talking about? There were no loopholes before. There was the suggestion that there were loopholes put forward by the very people who BROKE the LAW and were facing up to 40 civil suits. Their claimed "loopholes" didn't stand a chance in an actual court (even a secret one) and everyone knows it [apparently, not everyone]. If those loopholes really existed there would be NO NEED for retroactive immunity because they'd get off anyway.
All this bill did was deny U.S. citizens their day in court.
1) The Large Hadron Collider is causing it.
2) The government(s) is capturing your traffic because it thinks your a terrorist, and it's losing packets due to the [Republican created] bureaucracy.
(a) And your packets are being water boarded
(b) AT&T helped
(c) The EFF wants to know
3) The RIAA is capturing your traffic because it thinks your a pirate, and doesn't know how to get them back to you at a reasonable price.
(a) Your packets are being sued
(b) Congress is helping
(c) The EFF still wants to know
4) It's a setup for the next Matrix movie. Neo's abilities are causing corruption in the matrix, creating failures in command nodes and putting millions of people to sleep. Like most of his movies.
5) The two Hubble's are tied together, and the internet is an existential manifestation of our physical universe as we discover it.
6) Global warming / El Nino's internet revenge.
7) Tubes are clogged.
It smells nasty. I don't know what the research was, but I bet it started with "Dude - how long has this $*t been in the fridge?". The other scientist said "back off man, that's my lunch. I'm taking to the international space station." An argument amongst scientists ensues, research grants are approved, and the dude with the Kimchi won. And if he doesn't eat it in the air lock, the others are going to kill him.
I'd like to point out that our founders pledged their lives, THEIR FORTUNES, and their sacred honor. We should expect nothing less from our leaders - and if they're true Americans, they'd gladly do it. If not... Patriot act v.2?
No one will RTFProof anyway.
I did not see that coming. huh.
Book 1: Sun Tzu was a Sissy by Stanley Bing. Nuggets of truth awash in satire and dark office humor. It's an easy read and will help you keep your sense of humor when the inevitable soul crushing begins. ;)
Book 2: The first 90 days by Michael Watkins. Pretty easy read but covers how to deal with moving up - most companies are going to give you a trial by fire (I'm pretty sure my company uses a nuclear powered pressure cooker - I see people burn out almost monthly), and I suspect you're likely on your own. This book will help you make the transition work for you.
Good luck.
um... Linux mce is not tivo, it's a Linux based MCE, with an obscene amount of extensions, way WAY beyond what you can do with a Windows system. For example - can you use your cell phone as a remote control with your Windows MCE box? A remote control that works on your stereo, TV, and home security system? Can your Windows MCE PC recognize your phone when you walk in the door and set the house to your preferences (lights, music, volume, ??)? Will your Windows MCE PC move the movie your watching into your bedroom*, while the movie is running, because you walked _from_ the living room to the bedroom (*I think you need a bluetooth phone for this...)? Can you use it to make phone calls from screen? Using your voip line? Video conferencing? Disclaimer, I haven't set *all* this up (I don't have a home security system, for example), but the stuff I am using works like a charm, wasn't all that hard to get running, and I've only been using it for about 2 weeks. I don't think there's a commercial offering out there that can compete with it, short of a high end total home automation make over - and I can't justify that expense.
While it's not as easy to set up as they make it appear (don't get me wrong, it's not actually that hard either - it's just not quite plug and play), Linux MCE makes Windows MCE look like Windows 3.1. I don't even have a proper capture card (thank you bit torrent until I can afford one!), but I haven't stopped playing with it all week. Home movies, music, ripping my dvd collection, organizing it, games - awesome. sgt_jake
My point is that General Atomics is hiding something about the _actual effectiveness_ of the drones by giving us a useless statistic that appears impressive ["They fly ALOT!"] with the announcement that the new drones are ready. Something is missing, and it's a glaring omission.
(and "hippy-speak"? wft is "hippy-speak"? It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that's just giggling a lot followed by 'maaaaan....', so - seriously - I don't get the inference...)
No, that would be called reconnaissance, whereas the phrase "...in combat" implies an active engagement of the enemy. In which case you'd think that we would have won by now. And it's a vehicle, not a troop (where '2 years in combat' would be understood in context). Say "in a combat zone" or report the total number of engagements. It's relevant - 27 years of flight time with less than 100 actual combat *engagements* would be... perspective. We don't get any perspective from "over 80% of that time spent in combat". Seriously - from that statement, do we know if it's an effective combat vehicle? Really? No - we know that it flies a lot. "in combat". It's fluff, and feels distinctly like they're going for a PR piece but lack better statistics. They're pulling a fast one.
300,000 hours of flight time.
80% of it "in combat".
hmmm... 80% of 300,000 hours = 240,000, divided by 24 hours = 10,000 days, divided by 365 = 27.4 YEARS IN COMBAT? According to the monthly figures, they'd have about 11 of these in the air, all day, every day. But mostly - flying in, around or above a comabat zone doesn't count as 'combat'. How many actual strikes they've performed would sound less... smarmy.
This case specifically -> http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1 529267420070616?feedType=RSS&rpc=22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2007/03/06/AR2007030602705.html
using your analogy, when you use a rest stop on the highway, and you see the retarded commentary on the walls, does it devastate you? emotionally damage you? no. you just roll your eyes and forget about it 10 seconds later.
Sure, but that's now what's going on here, and I'll use your analogy to illustrate. She rolled her eyes at the first comment, and was a little freaked out by the 'I want to rape her', 'beat her', 'bone her' follow up comments. She went back later and found that the wall had bloomed. Someone posted pictures of her going about her daily routine - the gym, class, lunch, her friends. It's clear that someone didn't just write on the outhouse wall and forget about it, they were still thinking about it, and ACTING on it. That's not your normal retarded graffiti. Someone, more than one person in fact, was going out of their way to find out more about her, including finding her *physically*. And they were encouraging each other, which has a tendancy to gain steam (as anyone who's been drinking in Vegas and woken up in a Mexican jail can tell you...). The only way you roll your eyes and forget about that 10 seconds later is when you get clubbed over the head by your stalker.
And it wasn't an outhouse wall, it was basically a newsletter/forum posted by her colleagues. All she'd have to believe to become deeply worried is that 1 of those 400+ anonymous colleagues might be sick enough to actually do something to her - given the amount posted and nature of the posts, that's not at all unreasonable. In short, it wasn't just juvenile snark - some of it was threatening, and some of it was potentially damaging professionally. Personally - I think those guys SHOULD have their real names attached to their specific statements for 2 reasons; 1) The professional damage that might be incurred would immediately become self inflicted (no one would hire you because your a dick, vs. her not getting hired because apparently her associates think poorly of her - or she's just a trouble magnet), and 2) you'd have to be a complete idiot to attack someone that you'd already threatened (added bonus - the person you threatened could recognize you and run).
Fortunately, and in general, you're wrong about free speech. It's not an absolute freedom, and it is most certainly not "...without accountability and recourse". In this case, many of the comments violate the obscenity clause "(2) depicts or describes in a patently offensive manner specifically defined sexual conduct; and (3) lacks as a whole serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.", and others are fighting words "Speech likely to provoke an average listener to retaliation, and thereby cause a breach of peace". Not to mention the malice clauses of libel/slander. The Supreme Court has stated that sacrificing anonymity "might deter perfectly peaceful discussions of public matters of importance.", but I'm pretty sure those guys are going to fail that test. Free speech is not about some fundamental right to spout shit off the top of your head, it's about preventing the government or public from intimidating you into silence regarding your ideas.
So, I like to believe there's some kind of cosmic balance regarding the justice of things. What would be really cool here, is if someone would collect all the pseudonyms of the jack-asses posting things like pictures, rape threats, etc. and so on, *and* collect all of their comments to basically make a 'my space' profile of those pseudonyms. A clearing house of that users particular online personality.
/retch/). But the thing is, when someone tells you to leave them the hell alone, and you don't, and then someone fsck's with you and you tell them to leave you alone, and they don't... that, my friends, is cosmic justice. Oh - and funny.
Then figure out who that pseudonym belongs to. Offer a reward of 10 paypal bucks, an i-five, you know - stupid schwagg that should be more than enough to out the guy by his acquaintances, who undoubtedly also think he's an asshole. Confirm it of course, as best as you're able - maybe get a few pics of the guy along with his schedule, a pic of him taking a pic of one of his targets would be funny as hell, and then come back to Slashdot with the results. A "Hall of assholes who post on AutoAdmit".
Guaranteed those dicks will have a hard time getting a job (or staying in law school if some of those comments are to be believed). And it's not really actionable since all you did was tie his anonymous pseudonym to his real name (again, you'd need a really solid source for who he is), and by God, you didn't promise him any such anonymity.
Now I know, we'd all be in trouble if someone did this to us (for example, my own essays on the transcendent joy of seeing goatse...
To make you feel like a loser for not having your own company by now. I say we kick his ass and take his lunch money. I might be in my 30's, but I'm not above beating up people who make me feel threatened and useless. You in?
You can't have a democracy unless the public is educated, and the only way to guarantee an educated public is through public schools. Explain your solution.
The mis-perception is that all porn would somehow magically be labeled .xxx... like all .com addresses are for commercial sites, .org's are for non-profits and so on? pfft. The porn industry is at the forefront of filtering, cataloging and organizing information. You can find just about any fetish you can think of [also - fun thing to do when you're bored...]. .xxx domain isn't a bad idea, any more than .com, .net or .org are. Personally, I'm not only fine with it, I'm all for it - makes legitimate porn (at least some of it, if not the worst of it) available in the context of what it is, while letting me look at playboy.com without hitting a bad link on purpose. I mean, on accident...
You're right on two counts - the law won't stop porn, and legislation will probably be passed. But you fail to follow your own logic to it's conclusion. Legislation that's passed will be easily by-passed by technology, making the laws pretty useless and not hindering porn. Net effect - 0. However! A
Movie and Video game ratings were voluntary because a worse system was going to be mandated - it was a pre-emptive "we'll do it" so they could at least have some measure of control. Note - it worked. The movie/music/video game industry makes a fortune off that rating system as opposed to the COST other industries incur from regulations (like light truck emissions).
I got suckered with the RAZR, and you're dead right - it sucks. It's worse than any phone I've owned. But I'm saving my money for an iphone for that very reason. Yes, you heard me right - I'm saving my money for an iphone because the RAZR and every other cell phone I've had since the nokia something-circa-1998 has sucked big time.
The iphone was built by people that think current cell phones suck in both design and function (if I remember it right, Jobs himself started this crusade for a usable cell phone after some lousy offering with motorola in '05?). Apple built the iphone without the input of the cell phone companies, and as I understand it, in some cases, in spite of them - verizon dumped it because apple wouldn't use verizon's web browser (or some such quibble) - that really had nothing to do with the device itself. Verizon and every other phone company wanted to tack their own little piece of crapware to the device, and apple said no. Oh thank GOD.
APPLE built a *phone* from the hardware to the software, without the 'help' or input from the very same companies that have flooded the market with cool LOOKING garbage like the RAZR. I've never owned a mac, but from what I understand they're pretty good at the whole 'designed' for people thing. I own an ipod (hate itunes, but love the device), and I'm happy to bet $600 that I'll be using an iphone for the next 5 years.
Of course... if it sucks too, I'm just going back to screaming really loud. Or maybe just suck it up and get a land line.
I think that's part of it, but I also think shows like stargate and star trek speak to the military crowd in ways that other sci-fi shows don't. First, the characters are all deeply concerned with integrity, honor and morals, in some cases ignoring lawful orders (and getting away with it) in order to do what's right. I think most people in the military identify with that - maybe not getting away with it, but it's nice to see. Second, the 'administration' (higher ups and political influence) is either nefarious or incompetent. I think we can all identify with that, but in the military, it can be pronounced. Third, we tend to pay closer attention or at least be more aware of how politics influences our role in the world so we can recognize many of the conflicts as possibilities for ourselves (note - this doesn't mean we know or care about WHY we find ourselves places, just that we recognize the conflicts). From meeting new cultures, intelligence gathering, combat, defending what's right or making horrible mistakes by not questioning authority, sci-fi shows where the military is generally the good guy show us a fantasy that resembles our reality (and sometimes our reality seems like a fantasy). Plus it is a nice escape and perfect for that downtime. You sure as hell don't want to be caught reading a romance novel... for a lot of reasons.