This blog said a lot I agree with. The Gentoo-relevant part:
Gentoo has given me intractable issues with X configuration. This is to be expected. Once, the Gentoo community was large, and therefore helpful enough to solve my problems. Their only answer for me now is "Your video card is rubbish!".
As for me, I once spent four days back in 2002 trying to install Gentoo on a laptop -- never did get X to work. Once I gave up, I had RedHat 7.3 installed in under three hours. I'm not saying Gentoo is a bad distro, but after that experience, I've had serious reservations about trying it again.
Wish I could agree with your conclusion, but corrupt != doomed. If that were so, the UN building would have been turned into low-income housing by now. But if we're lucky, a better project will just take all of WP's GFDL and make an actual encyclopedia with it.
But what do I know? I'm only a 24 year-old Kentucky native who -- no wait, I'm from Wisconsin and I've almost completed my second Master's program! Dang, I always get that wrong!
Excellent points, all. Let me add one thing. In Wichita, KS, a graduate with a BS in Engineering will get about $50K out of the gate. A graduate with a BA in Education will make $34,654, and his/her salary tops out at $41,479 after nine years' experience. Those numbers can go up with extra job duties (coaching, head of the department, etc.), but that's it, unless said teacher goes back to school for more credit hours. But this increase isn't as dramatic as one might expect. For a teacher to earn what an engineer makes on his/her first year on the job, the fastest way would be to get a Ph.D. and then teach for ten years. And by then, the engineer is making $70K.
And if we compare these salaries to lawyers or finance wizards, then it's clear that teachers are people who either love the job despite the salary or can't get a higher paying job elsewhere. So, even if the union wasn't playing politics (which it is), it would still be a good idea for teachers to be paid better. How else do you guarantee that your children aren't being taught by someone who just couldn't cut it anywhere else but in education?
Now, how to get a union to accept certain economic realities such as supply & demand -- no clue there.
I second the motion. I'd give it a looksee despite the factthat Wash is gone.
Plus, I was waiting for Weedon write a scene where Mal said: "Jayne! Stop this crazy thing!"
RODDENBERRY: "Hi, I'm Gene Roddenberry, and I want to introduce to you my vision of the future. It's one where humanity evolves into a higher form than it is now -- no, I don't mean we grow wings or turn purple! I mean where humanity's consciousness evolves. Where we rise up against our petty differences and create future of tolerance, happiness, and --"
JIHADIST: "Jihad!"
RODDENBERRY: "I'm sorry, I wasn't done speaking about the glorious future that I see for us."
JIHADIST: "In your future, does Allah rule the world?"
RODDENBERRY: "No, everyone's an atheist essentially -- like me -- huh, huh, huh -- but --"
JIHADIST: "Then my mission is clear: I must kill you to please Allah and get my 72 virgins in Paradise!"
RODDENBERRY: "Kill me?! Why? Don't you see that in my future everyone will enjoy free love and there will be no jealousy and -- put that sword down!"
JIHADIST: "You disagree with Allah! Allah be praised! Die, infidel, die! And by the way: it's a scimitar, not a sword, wuld ilgahba!"
RODDENBERRY: "'Infidel'? Isn't that somewhat extreme?! I embrace all creeds and cultures -- except certain Christians who don't believe me when I tell them about the glorious future I envision. But I have lots of friends who aren't atheists! Buddhist friends, Muslim friends --"
JIHADIST: "Muslim?! Like who?"
RODDENBERRY: "Well, my assistant, Gregory Ali, for one!"
JIHADIST: "Ma tunfukhhumlish! I don't believe you!"
RODDENBERRY: "Well, I'll call him. Greg?"
GREGORY: "Yo! What's up?"
RODDENBERRY: "Well, this scimitar-wielding gentleman doesn't agree with my vision of the future and --"
JIHADIST: "Are you a Muslim, Gregory?"
GREGORY: "Well, yeah...!"
RODDENBERRY: "And you support this man in his ravings?!"
GREGORY: "I work for him if that's what you mean, but --"
JIHADIST: "Then die!"::hacks Gregory to death with the scimitar::
RODDENBERRY: "Gregory! My vision of the future! My carpet!"
JIHADIST: "We will now recreate your Satannic series based on the premise of the return of the 12th Imam. He rules the world and kills all Jews. After that, we go to space and kill all Jews -- or aliens -- whatever. If you try to stop me, I will convene a press conference to label you a religious bigot and then slaughter all of your wives."
RODDENBERRY: "I-- I only have one wife...."
JIHADIST: "You passed up on Uhura? You are not only a pig but an idiot!"
RODDENBERRY: "But... what about peace and tolerance?"
JIHADIST: "That comes after all of you infidels are dead! Are you never satisfied?!"
That's the alternate headline. It's basic economics that if there's a labor shortage, wages go up. But Bill wants to stay a billionaire, so he'd rather pull an Al Gore and create hysteria rather than acknowledge certain facts. Double IT salaries, or even just double benefits, and its doubtful that the shortage will continue.
This got modded as 'Interesting'? RTA! By the author's estimates, over 98% of the million+ WP articles do not meet WP standards. It will take four millenia for WP to become achieve the level of accuracy to which it aims. And you say WP should kick back awhile?
And as for comparing WP to an 18th century publication... oh please. If you really want to compare/contrast with the first edition Britannica, let's start out with the fact that none of its 2400 pages contained the words "dork", "bitch slap", "fuck", or "dumbass" because someone vandalized the proofs before they reached the printer.
WP is failing to become a genuine encyclopedia -- note that I do not say "has failed". Blithe optimism will not fix WP's problems.
Anyone who thinks global warming is strictly a man-made problem: stop driving cars, stop using airplanes, stop using air-conditioning, stop using electricity, stop eating beef, stop drinking milk, stop farting, and stop breathing. With a billion fewer people on the planet, this problem might just go away.
DR. ARMSTRONG: "I wish you wouldn't tag along, Betty." BETTY ARMSTRONG: "I'm tagging, Paul, I'm tagging!" DR. ARMSTRONG: "Well, I can't stop a woman from tagging." BETTY ARMSTRONG: "No one ever has."
No... the above just wouldn't work with "label". Sorry Google.
I'm waiting for an RPG game where the player, a jock, racks up points for killing, maiming, and otherwise torturing nerds... maybe even Slashdot readers specifically. Get points by shoving the nerd's keyboard up his rectum or overwriting his Linux laptop with the ProJock version of Windows -- maybe shaking nerds down to pay off the principle to look the other way? The end game ought to be piling the dead nerd bodies on the football field and setting them on fire, with cheerleaders egging you on the whole time.
That would be a *really* good way of finding out how open-minded the/. community is.
Let R be the set of real numbers and define R* = R U {0*} with the following properties:
1) a/b = c for some c in R if and only if b ~= 0,0*. 2) a/b = 0* if and only if a = 0 and b = 0. 3) 0*/0* = 0*
But without careful definition, R* may not have the same topology as R, which means that calculus won't work as expected. That's the real test as to whether or not this prof has come up with something interesting.
Yeah, I'm sorry about the damage the US did to France and Germany in WWII. I wish Western Europe was speaking German right now.
Of course, if that were the case, you'd be the whinging twit who complains that the US never gets involved....
By definition 7 of that page, Creationism is a theory.
Point being: whether something is a guess/conjecture or an actual theory boils down to the existence of a test that would disprove the theory should the test come up positive. No such test == not a theory.
I leave it up to the experts as to whether such a test exists for ST.
Linux, on the other hand, may not ready just yet for the desktop. But it will one day.
If it wasn't ready before, it became ready with the release of Ubuntu 6.06. I have been searching for five years for a desktop Linux that just works — as in Grandma friendly. I tried RedHat 7.3-8.1, Debian Sarge, Knoppix, and Kanotix. All of them had their issues unless you were at least a power user. Not so with Ubuntu, or my preference, Kubuntu. I'm not saying it's perfect or will replace standard Debian or Gentoo, but if K/Ubuntu isn't ready for the desktop, then neither is Windows.
I remember being on the mailing list years ago. The conversations with Bruce can be summarized this way:
BRUCE: I can't tell you who I'm working for, but there's a lot of money behind this project. So, we have to be serious about this. What should we call this distro?
BOB: SuperLinux!
FRED: Enterprise-D Linux!
ELMER: CoolNIX!
BRUCE: No, no, no! You have to be serious about this! There's a lot of money behind this project. I can't tell you whose money, but we have to come up with a name for our distro that they'll like!
FRED: If they have that much money, why don't *they* pick a name?
BRUCE: I want this to be a community effort! How about 'UserLinux'?
FRED: Boring.
BOB: Generic.
ELMER: Ditto that.
BRUCE: But the community has to be serious about this! There's a lot of money behind this, and the companies that I can't name won't use Linux without a professionally named distro!
ELMER: So, this is a community effort, but the decisions will be made by fiat?
BRUCE: No, the community has to be a part of this. Now, KDE or GNOME? My clients only want GNOME. What do you think?
ELMER: That we should take this seriously because there's a lot of money behind this project from companies you can't name?
BRUCE: Exactly! So, KDE is out!
Eventually, there was a big rumble and KDE got shoved back in. I dropped the list some time after that, because it was clear that the community was meant to rubber-stamp a project that some large companies wanted to produce on the cheap.
Forget the usual threads of:
(a) I never liked Dr. Who.
(b) I LOVED Doctor Who!
(c) Was Jamie gay?
Anybody got something important to add, like a mirror?
What applications do you run to protect your Windows boxes from malware (viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.), and what do you pay for this protection per year? How does this cost compare to the cost incurred by other Windows users? How does this cost compare to what you would pay for equivalent protection offered in Debian GNU/Linux?
Slashdot Mirror
This blog said a lot I agree with. The Gentoo-relevant part:
As for me, I once spent four days back in 2002 trying to install Gentoo on a laptop -- never did get X to work. Once I gave up, I had RedHat 7.3 installed in under three hours. I'm not saying Gentoo is a bad distro, but after that experience, I've had serious reservations about trying it again.
Wish I could agree with your conclusion, but corrupt != doomed. If that were so, the UN building would have been turned into low-income housing by now. But if we're lucky, a better project will just take all of WP's GFDL and make an actual encyclopedia with it.
But what do I know? I'm only a 24 year-old Kentucky native who -- no wait, I'm from Wisconsin and I've almost completed my second Master's program! Dang, I always get that wrong!
Excellent points, all. Let me add one thing. In Wichita, KS, a graduate with a BS in Engineering will get about $50K out of the gate. A graduate with a BA in Education will make $34,654, and his/her salary tops out at $41,479 after nine years' experience. Those numbers can go up with extra job duties (coaching, head of the department, etc.), but that's it, unless said teacher goes back to school for more credit hours. But this increase isn't as dramatic as one might expect. For a teacher to earn what an engineer makes on his/her first year on the job, the fastest way would be to get a Ph.D. and then teach for ten years. And by then, the engineer is making $70K.
And if we compare these salaries to lawyers or finance wizards, then it's clear that teachers are people who either love the job despite the salary or can't get a higher paying job elsewhere. So, even if the union wasn't playing politics (which it is), it would still be a good idea for teachers to be paid better. How else do you guarantee that your children aren't being taught by someone who just couldn't cut it anywhere else but in education?
Now, how to get a union to accept certain economic realities such as supply & demand -- no clue there.
I second the motion. I'd give it a looksee despite the factthat Wash is gone. Plus, I was waiting for Weedon write a scene where Mal said: "Jayne! Stop this crazy thing!"
RODDENBERRY: "Hi, I'm Gene Roddenberry, and I want to introduce to you my vision of the future. It's one where humanity evolves into a higher form than it is now -- no, I don't mean we grow wings or turn purple! I mean where humanity's consciousness evolves. Where we rise up against our petty differences and create future of tolerance, happiness, and --"
::hacks Gregory to death with the scimitar::
JIHADIST: "Jihad!"
RODDENBERRY: "I'm sorry, I wasn't done speaking about the glorious future that I see for us."
JIHADIST: "In your future, does Allah rule the world?"
RODDENBERRY: "No, everyone's an atheist essentially -- like me -- huh, huh, huh -- but --"
JIHADIST: "Then my mission is clear: I must kill you to please Allah and get my 72 virgins in Paradise!"
RODDENBERRY: "Kill me?! Why? Don't you see that in my future everyone will enjoy free love and there will be no jealousy and -- put that sword down!"
JIHADIST: "You disagree with Allah! Allah be praised! Die, infidel, die! And by the way: it's a scimitar, not a sword, wuld ilgahba!"
RODDENBERRY: "'Infidel'? Isn't that somewhat extreme?! I embrace all creeds and cultures -- except certain Christians who don't believe me when I tell them about the glorious future I envision. But I have lots of friends who aren't atheists! Buddhist friends, Muslim friends --"
JIHADIST: "Muslim?! Like who?"
RODDENBERRY: "Well, my assistant, Gregory Ali, for one!"
JIHADIST: "Ma tunfukhhumlish! I don't believe you!"
RODDENBERRY: "Well, I'll call him. Greg?"
GREGORY: "Yo! What's up?"
RODDENBERRY: "Well, this scimitar-wielding gentleman doesn't agree with my vision of the future and --"
JIHADIST: "Are you a Muslim, Gregory?"
GREGORY: "Well, yeah...!"
RODDENBERRY: "And you support this man in his ravings?!"
GREGORY: "I work for him if that's what you mean, but --"
JIHADIST: "Then die!"
RODDENBERRY: "Gregory! My vision of the future! My carpet!"
JIHADIST: "We will now recreate your Satannic series based on the premise of the return of the 12th Imam. He rules the world and kills all Jews. After that, we go to space and kill all Jews -- or aliens -- whatever. If you try to stop me, I will convene a press conference to label you a religious bigot and then slaughter all of your wives."
RODDENBERRY: "I-- I only have one wife...."
JIHADIST: "You passed up on Uhura? You are not only a pig but an idiot!"
RODDENBERRY: "But... what about peace and tolerance?"
JIHADIST: "That comes after all of you infidels are dead! Are you never satisfied?!"
That's the alternate headline. It's basic economics that if there's a labor shortage, wages go up. But Bill wants to stay a billionaire, so he'd rather pull an Al Gore and create hysteria rather than acknowledge certain facts. Double IT salaries, or even just double benefits, and its doubtful that the shortage will continue.
This got modded as 'Interesting'? RTA! By the author's estimates, over 98% of the million+ WP articles do not meet WP standards. It will take four millenia for WP to become achieve the level of accuracy to which it aims. And you say WP should kick back awhile?
And as for comparing WP to an 18th century publication... oh please. If you really want to compare/contrast with the first edition Britannica, let's start out with the fact that none of its 2400 pages contained the words "dork", "bitch slap", "fuck", or "dumbass" because someone vandalized the proofs before they reached the printer.
WP is failing to become a genuine encyclopedia -- note that I do not say "has failed". Blithe optimism will not fix WP's problems.
Anyone who thinks global warming is strictly a man-made problem: stop driving cars, stop using airplanes, stop using air-conditioning, stop using electricity, stop eating beef, stop drinking milk, stop farting, and stop breathing. With a billion fewer people on the planet, this problem might just go away.
Pass a law making it illegal to connect any OS to the internet that cannot be made bot-free.
DR. ARMSTRONG: "I wish you wouldn't tag along, Betty."
BETTY ARMSTRONG: "I'm tagging, Paul, I'm tagging!"
DR. ARMSTRONG: "Well, I can't stop a woman from tagging."
BETTY ARMSTRONG: "No one ever has."
No... the above just wouldn't work with "label". Sorry Google.
I'm waiting for an RPG game where the player, a jock, racks up points for killing, maiming, and otherwise torturing nerds... maybe even Slashdot readers specifically. Get points by shoving the nerd's keyboard up his rectum or overwriting his Linux laptop with the ProJock version of Windows -- maybe shaking nerds down to pay off the principle to look the other way? The end game ought to be piling the dead nerd bodies on the football field and setting them on fire, with cheerleaders egging you on the whole time.
/. community is.
That would be a *really* good way of finding out how open-minded the
Let R be the set of real numbers and define R* = R U {0*} with the following properties:
1) a/b = c for some c in R if and only if b ~= 0,0*.
2) a/b = 0* if and only if a = 0 and b = 0.
3) 0*/0* = 0*
But without careful definition, R* may not have the same topology as R, which means that calculus won't work as expected. That's the real test as to whether or not this prof has come up with something interesting.
Yeah, I'm sorry about the damage the US did to France and Germany in WWII. I wish Western Europe was speaking German right now. Of course, if that were the case, you'd be the whinging twit who complains that the US never gets involved....
Enough of that ST:TOS head. Replace it with the TARDIS!
7. guess or conjecture
By definition 7 of that page, Creationism is a theory.
Point being: whether something is a guess/conjecture or an actual theory boils down to the existence of a test that would disprove the theory should the test come up positive. No such test == not a theory.
I leave it up to the experts as to whether such a test exists for ST.
I guess "Gallifrey" is out of the running, then.
Linux, on the other hand, may not ready just yet for the desktop. But it will one day.
If it wasn't ready before, it became ready with the release of Ubuntu 6.06. I have been searching for five years for a desktop Linux that just works — as in Grandma friendly. I tried RedHat 7.3-8.1, Debian Sarge, Knoppix, and Kanotix. All of them had their issues unless you were at least a power user. Not so with Ubuntu, or my preference, Kubuntu. I'm not saying it's perfect or will replace standard Debian or Gentoo, but if K/Ubuntu isn't ready for the desktop, then neither is Windows.
How do find a German spy? Check to see if their last name begins with 'Von'! ("General Hospital")
I remember being on the mailing list years ago. The conversations with Bruce can be summarized this way:
BRUCE: I can't tell you who I'm working for, but there's a lot of money behind this project. So, we have to be serious about this. What should we call this distro?
BOB: SuperLinux!
FRED: Enterprise-D Linux!
ELMER: CoolNIX!
BRUCE: No, no, no! You have to be serious about this! There's a lot of money behind this project. I can't tell you whose money, but we have to come up with a name for our distro that they'll like!
FRED: If they have that much money, why don't *they* pick a name?
BRUCE: I want this to be a community effort! How about 'UserLinux'?
FRED: Boring.
BOB: Generic.
ELMER: Ditto that.
BRUCE: But the community has to be serious about this! There's a lot of money behind this, and the companies that I can't name won't use Linux without a professionally named distro!
ELMER: So, this is a community effort, but the decisions will be made by fiat?
BRUCE: No, the community has to be a part of this. Now, KDE or GNOME? My clients only want GNOME. What do you think?
ELMER: That we should take this seriously because there's a lot of money behind this project from companies you can't name?
BRUCE: Exactly! So, KDE is out!
Eventually, there was a big rumble and KDE got shoved back in. I dropped the list some time after that, because it was clear that the community was meant to rubber-stamp a project that some large companies wanted to produce on the cheap.
Any word on that?
I'm behind a strict firewall. No BitTorrent, no P2P, nada. Any other options?
On WHRM, Wausau, WI, it came after "Market to Market" with Chet Randolf. :) ("Buy it for me now babe, before I blow away!")
Forget the usual threads of: (a) I never liked Dr. Who. (b) I LOVED Doctor Who! (c) Was Jamie gay? Anybody got something important to add, like a mirror?
To rectify this injustice, the master tapes to all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager will be dumped there as soon as the copyright runs out.
What applications do you run to protect your Windows boxes from malware (viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.), and what do you pay for this protection per year? How does this cost compare to the cost incurred by other Windows users? How does this cost compare to what you would pay for equivalent protection offered in Debian GNU/Linux?