Yeah, I admit that having email and internet access on my phone is very handy, but I'm not going to pay an extra $20/mo for internet and another $15/mo for text messaging . . . on top of my regular fees. I would rather just have a laptop around. Plus, depending on where you live (especially on the west coast), it's unlikely you're ever going to be out somewhere during the day that you can't get free wifi access for anyway.
Yes, because pragmatism and rational thought are outweighed by an overly emotional supposedly activist crowd that themselves probably couldn't be motivated to walk to the refrigerator, much less make any real efforts toward preserving or changing anything of consequence.
As long as the stupidest, most ignorant, least knowledgeable and most impressionable among us outweigh the rest and are allowed an equal weight in voting and directing this country, we will never be able to change anything (or preserve the things which are inherently important). And in a world where people are content as long as their favorite television shows aren't pre-empted and their favorite soft-drink is still available at their fast-food joint of choice, there will never be enough dissatisfaction with the way things are or could be for anyone to make significant efforts.
Life is short and you can't waste it fighting the inevitable in some sort of quixotic quest to overcome the median idiocy that actively wants to give up the very things you are fighting to preserve, because losing their various freedoms frighten them far less than losing their Tivo or Forerunner. You'll only end up with an ulcer.
Again, how much time am I going to spend explaining, convincing and assisting every person I communicate with to do the same? Right. It's an improbable undertaking.
I presume you are the one that doesn't live in the United States if you believe that the Bill of Rights has any meaning in this country. Protection against unjustified search and seizure has been rendered nearly non-existent as has right to due process (Jose Padia, Kevin Mitnick anyone?). Not to mention, the entire point of contention with the Patriot Act is that it violates a number of constitutional rights as has been pointed out by the courts in the past.
Also, the Bill of Rights isn't something "attached to the Constitution". The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
Hey, the rest of the world can run these internets and intarwebs however they like, but THIS IS AMERICA and we don't appreciate none of that intellectual development garbgage. We prefer our internets to be about sending videos of people getting hit in the testicles, underage girls shaking their ass on their webcams and flash videogames targeted at school children on Kraft Foods' websites.
I am almost entirely positive that is an irrelevant and inaccurate number as it doesn't indicate in any way how long you or I will live to be. I believe it indicates the age at which people are currently dying. Not at what age they'll be dying in another forty years.
They won't be. Essentially, they aid that it was abused, but it wasn't a big deal. Further, they're just going to solve the problem by expanding patriot act rights. Much easier than curtailing abusive behavior.
On the other hand, I also love not being thrown in prison for dissent and held without trial at the whim of government officials or drawing unnecessary attention to myself from authorities.
And where are you getting your stats?! I believe I just read that Americans may be facing the first-ever reduction in life expectancy because we're all fat fatties and eating crap and microwaving our brains to death.:D
No, those physicists sound completely legitimate. On the other hand, Bebo sounds like a little furry pokemon thing or some sort of cute anime character. Well, except Zoltan. That guy sounds like he's either a Transformer or he's trying to generate massive earth-based black-holes so he can hold the planet ransom for one million dollars.
Also, your average scientifically-interested slashdotter apparently things that a refrigerator modified to catapult you a can of beer is awe-inspiring and amazing. I don't put much stock in the interests of the average slashdot reader. I'm only back here because Slashdot still picks up better stories than Digg and is less spammy and redundant about it. Good old slashdot. Like a nice drunk ex-girlfriend that will always answer a booty-call.
Of course, encrypting your email is one thing. Encrypting your voice communications is another. And all manner of encryption is extremely difficult when it gets to the point of making sure the recipients and senders who are not you will be able to encrypt and decrypt (becuase I would say 99% of people do not do this)..
But the greater problem is that using encryption automatically makes you a person of interest. No kidding, there have been incidents in America where simply using encryption is, in the eyes of authorities, is in and of itself probable cause for further search. Not to mention, I believe it is illegal to wear a mask that covers your face at certain times and in certain places in America (I'm not sure if this is a constant thing or just during the superbowl or something), because it makes identifying you on CCTV difficult. For the same reason, expect it to eventually be illegal to use encryption (or, at least, without acquiring some sort of government license and registration to allow it). And it won't be that hard, since encryption is considered a munition.
I'm almost 30. I'm too old to waste the rest of my life giving a fuck. I'm sorry to say it, but I'm pretty much ready to cave in to the inevitable.
True, but I believe the mini-coolers you're talking about only hold a few drinks, right? I don't know about you but I can go through a six pack of any sort of drink in no time. And that's assuming you don't have multiple people in the room.
But it does appear that this device is actually just a modified refrigerator with a hole cut in the top and a mechanical arm. Probably even less efficient than a regular refrigerator.
Still baffled as to why I saw this about fifty times on CNN.com -- slow news day?
Exactly. If you have a PhD in physics, does that mean that you somehow have free reign to alter and "correct" all physics related content on Wikipedia with impunity? Facts are facts. Information is information. Further, when do credentials become relevant to the reader of a Wikipedia article? Or are they going to start including a byline on the main portion of certain articles indicating that these were written and vetted by some sort of "educated professional"?
Additionally, supposed credentialed experts in a field have drastic differences in opinion and are just as likely as anyone else to engage in pointless flamewars, editing wars and vandalism.
No kidding. This is one of the most uninformed, uneducated, idiotic linux articles I have ever written. The very first point the guy makes starts the whole article off poorly and I really can't believe this even made it to the front page of Slashdot.
His first premise is "linux is not a thing". Well, of course it is. Saying "linux is not a thing" is like saying the BSD TCP/IP stack is "not a thing". Just because it's a thing that can be used by more than one entity doesn't make it less of a "thing".
Then he goes on to say, for example, that in order to compare linux-based systems to Windows systems, one has to choose a commercial linux distrobution. So apparently you can't compare linux to windows and you can't compare Debian to windows, but you can compare RedHat and Suse to it. Um. Kay.
Frankly, I stopped reading at that point. This guy seems to be a bit too old and a bit too old school to understand the subject he's trying to cover. This reads like something some inexperienced middle-manager in a tech company would write to convince his employer to stay using Windows -- because it's what the guy used when he was younger and working in IT and he's just grasping at straws for any justification possible, without actually understanding the subject matter.
In fact, it's very easy to compare the two. For example, it requires some effort to configure a system to play proprietary formats on a linux system compared to a Windows system. The file systems used by Windows require defragging frequently while you essentially never need to on Linux. Linux machines tend to make great servers. Windows works out of the box with full functionality on more laptops than Linux does. See? Making comparisons is easy.
Not to be a dick, but it's guys like this that cause me to take commentary from guys who look old enough to be a grandfather with several grains of salt. This guy is a step away from describing the internets as a series of tubes that haul stuff dumped into them by big trucks.
Saying something, compared to MySpace, is ugly?! Wow. That has to be horrifyingly bad, then. Also, promoting something as having "myspace/youtube elements" is hardly a way to entice me to your service. UGH.
Yeah, I've had a Treo 650 for about a year and a half and I only use it for phone calls. In fact, I've shut off all of the other services and disabled downloads and everything else. The only thing I didn't shut off was text messaging, in case people need to reach me that way (maybe five messages a month). I use about 2,000 minutes a month, but I don't use email or web browsing or calendaring or any other crap. I used the camera once or twice in the last couple of years, but I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to copy the images over to my computer. Not to mention, the Palm OS software for the Treo was ridiculously stupid, so I didn't bother with it. I used the note-taking facility a few times, too -- because I didn't have a pad of paper handy.
If the person is not asking what "cell services" are best in the united states in as much as "what cell phone company should I go with", then I'm not sure what the poster is expecting. There aren't really any services. There are services where you can pay $10 for a ringtone or a dollar a day for really insultingly stupid jokes and a few other things, but they're usually just poor scams to work you out of your cash and are very difficult (or so it seems) to shut off once you have been snared into them.
If I want to use email or something, I have a laptop. Or a desktop. If I want to talk to someone, I could peck away at a stupid qwerty keyboard the size of a credit card or I could just press a button to call the person directly and... I dunno... TALK to them. Really can't imagine what kind of services people would *want* on their phones. *shrug*
Actually, a lot of problems in schools could be solved very simply:
+ Merit-based employment, salary, raises and promotion.
+ Don't force kids to be in school. Why waste resources and sacrifice enthusiastic children's education to coddle some twit that doesn't want to be there, isn't willing to learn and just sits around pestering and hassling teachers, fellow students and causing endless disruptions?
I'm not really sure that "invest intelligently" and "sell a few hours/days later" belong together unless you manage a hedgefund. For that matter, what serious investor plays in penny stocks?!
Also, there isn't any "best cell service". Maybe you can do this in the UK, but America is far too large to have a single greatest service. You may find that only one or two providers even have a usable signal in your area. And pretty much ALL of them will put you through hoops. I have had a cell plan (with a large discount via my employer) for almost 18 months now and I have had to call them EVERY SINGLE MONTH to clear up problems. One month they might double charge me. Another month all of the services I shut off ($2.50 for voice activated calling, $20 for unlimited internet, $15 for unlimited text messages, etc) will end up back on my bill, even though I don't want them.
It's sad to say, but even cable television providers have greater scruples and ethics and service than cell phone providers.
This format is not going to ever give jpg, gif and png a run for their money where it counts. Like a number of other formats (TIFF and RAW for example), this proposed "standard" may reach a level of popularity or even majority on digital cameras and in the realm of magazine cover and DVD cover editing, but you and I aren't going to be storing our photos in this new format and serving them in this format to our visitors via the web or email just like you don't post a whole bunch of huge TIFF images from your camera for your friends to view, after you get home from a party.
I don't understand what "spam" the SEC is discussing, here. Didn't we eliminate spam a few years ago when congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act?
And if we're going to halt transactions during periods of heavy spam for a particular stock, why not halt transactions during periods in which pundits in print, radio and television are promoting or demoting particular stocks? Or, even better, how about we just not worry about it in the first place because anyone that is stupid enough to base their investment decisions on email campaigns should suffer their own stupidity.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I admit that having email and internet access on my phone is very handy, but I'm not going to pay an extra $20/mo for internet and another $15/mo for text messaging . . . on top of my regular fees. I would rather just have a laptop around. Plus, depending on where you live (especially on the west coast), it's unlikely you're ever going to be out somewhere during the day that you can't get free wifi access for anyway.
How else is NASA supposed to afford diapers?!
Yes, that too. Now leave me alone - I'm busy watching an infomercial for this amazing stick that lets you clean your dryer's lint catcher.
Yes, because pragmatism and rational thought are outweighed by an overly emotional supposedly activist crowd that themselves probably couldn't be motivated to walk to the refrigerator, much less make any real efforts toward preserving or changing anything of consequence.
As long as the stupidest, most ignorant, least knowledgeable and most impressionable among us outweigh the rest and are allowed an equal weight in voting and directing this country, we will never be able to change anything (or preserve the things which are inherently important). And in a world where people are content as long as their favorite television shows aren't pre-empted and their favorite soft-drink is still available at their fast-food joint of choice, there will never be enough dissatisfaction with the way things are or could be for anyone to make significant efforts.
Life is short and you can't waste it fighting the inevitable in some sort of quixotic quest to overcome the median idiocy that actively wants to give up the very things you are fighting to preserve, because losing their various freedoms frighten them far less than losing their Tivo or Forerunner. You'll only end up with an ulcer.
Again, how much time am I going to spend explaining, convincing and assisting every person I communicate with to do the same? Right. It's an improbable undertaking.
I presume you are the one that doesn't live in the United States if you believe that the Bill of Rights has any meaning in this country. Protection against unjustified search and seizure has been rendered nearly non-existent as has right to due process (Jose Padia, Kevin Mitnick anyone?). Not to mention, the entire point of contention with the Patriot Act is that it violates a number of constitutional rights as has been pointed out by the courts in the past.
Also, the Bill of Rights isn't something "attached to the Constitution". The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
Hey, the rest of the world can run these internets and intarwebs however they like, but THIS IS AMERICA and we don't appreciate none of that intellectual development garbgage. We prefer our internets to be about sending videos of people getting hit in the testicles, underage girls shaking their ass on their webcams and flash videogames targeted at school children on Kraft Foods' websites.
I am almost entirely positive that is an irrelevant and inaccurate number as it doesn't indicate in any way how long you or I will live to be. I believe it indicates the age at which people are currently dying. Not at what age they'll be dying in another forty years.
They won't be. Essentially, they aid that it was abused, but it wasn't a big deal. Further, they're just going to solve the problem by expanding patriot act rights. Much easier than curtailing abusive behavior.
I love my civil liberties!
:D
On the other hand, I also love not being thrown in prison for dissent and held without trial at the whim of government officials or drawing unnecessary attention to myself from authorities.
And where are you getting your stats?! I believe I just read that Americans may be facing the first-ever reduction in life expectancy because we're all fat fatties and eating crap and microwaving our brains to death.
No, those physicists sound completely legitimate. On the other hand, Bebo sounds like a little furry pokemon thing or some sort of cute anime character. Well, except Zoltan. That guy sounds like he's either a Transformer or he's trying to generate massive earth-based black-holes so he can hold the planet ransom for one million dollars.
Also, your average scientifically-interested slashdotter apparently things that a refrigerator modified to catapult you a can of beer is awe-inspiring and amazing. I don't put much stock in the interests of the average slashdot reader. I'm only back here because Slashdot still picks up better stories than Digg and is less spammy and redundant about it. Good old slashdot. Like a nice drunk ex-girlfriend that will always answer a booty-call.
No, you idiot. Nigers are from Niger. These are Nigerians because they're from Nigeria.
Regardless, at least it isn't America. This kind of unamerican undertaking wouldn't be allowed here. If it ain't oil - it ain't American.
Of course, encrypting your email is one thing. Encrypting your voice communications is another. And all manner of encryption is extremely difficult when it gets to the point of making sure the recipients and senders who are not you will be able to encrypt and decrypt (becuase I would say 99% of people do not do this)..
But the greater problem is that using encryption automatically makes you a person of interest. No kidding, there have been incidents in America where simply using encryption is, in the eyes of authorities, is in and of itself probable cause for further search. Not to mention, I believe it is illegal to wear a mask that covers your face at certain times and in certain places in America (I'm not sure if this is a constant thing or just during the superbowl or something), because it makes identifying you on CCTV difficult. For the same reason, expect it to eventually be illegal to use encryption (or, at least, without acquiring some sort of government license and registration to allow it). And it won't be that hard, since encryption is considered a munition.
I'm almost 30. I'm too old to waste the rest of my life giving a fuck. I'm sorry to say it, but I'm pretty much ready to cave in to the inevitable.
True, but I believe the mini-coolers you're talking about only hold a few drinks, right? I don't know about you but I can go through a six pack of any sort of drink in no time. And that's assuming you don't have multiple people in the room.
But it does appear that this device is actually just a modified refrigerator with a hole cut in the top and a mechanical arm. Probably even less efficient than a regular refrigerator.
Still baffled as to why I saw this about fifty times on CNN.com -- slow news day?
Nothing shouts serious, professional scientist like the name Bebo.
Exactly. If you have a PhD in physics, does that mean that you somehow have free reign to alter and "correct" all physics related content on Wikipedia with impunity? Facts are facts. Information is information. Further, when do credentials become relevant to the reader of a Wikipedia article? Or are they going to start including a byline on the main portion of certain articles indicating that these were written and vetted by some sort of "educated professional"?
Additionally, supposed credentialed experts in a field have drastic differences in opinion and are just as likely as anyone else to engage in pointless flamewars, editing wars and vandalism.
No kidding. This is one of the most uninformed, uneducated, idiotic linux articles I have ever written. The very first point the guy makes starts the whole article off poorly and I really can't believe this even made it to the front page of Slashdot.
His first premise is "linux is not a thing". Well, of course it is. Saying "linux is not a thing" is like saying the BSD TCP/IP stack is "not a thing". Just because it's a thing that can be used by more than one entity doesn't make it less of a "thing".
Then he goes on to say, for example, that in order to compare linux-based systems to Windows systems, one has to choose a commercial linux distrobution. So apparently you can't compare linux to windows and you can't compare Debian to windows, but you can compare RedHat and Suse to it. Um. Kay.
Frankly, I stopped reading at that point. This guy seems to be a bit too old and a bit too old school to understand the subject he's trying to cover. This reads like something some inexperienced middle-manager in a tech company would write to convince his employer to stay using Windows -- because it's what the guy used when he was younger and working in IT and he's just grasping at straws for any justification possible, without actually understanding the subject matter.
In fact, it's very easy to compare the two. For example, it requires some effort to configure a system to play proprietary formats on a linux system compared to a Windows system. The file systems used by Windows require defragging frequently while you essentially never need to on Linux. Linux machines tend to make great servers. Windows works out of the box with full functionality on more laptops than Linux does. See? Making comparisons is easy.
Not to be a dick, but it's guys like this that cause me to take commentary from guys who look old enough to be a grandfather with several grains of salt. This guy is a step away from describing the internets as a series of tubes that haul stuff dumped into them by big trucks.
Saying something, compared to MySpace, is ugly?! Wow. That has to be horrifyingly bad, then. Also, promoting something as having "myspace/youtube elements" is hardly a way to entice me to your service. UGH.
Yeah, I've had a Treo 650 for about a year and a half and I only use it for phone calls. In fact, I've shut off all of the other services and disabled downloads and everything else. The only thing I didn't shut off was text messaging, in case people need to reach me that way (maybe five messages a month). I use about 2,000 minutes a month, but I don't use email or web browsing or calendaring or any other crap. I used the camera once or twice in the last couple of years, but I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to copy the images over to my computer. Not to mention, the Palm OS software for the Treo was ridiculously stupid, so I didn't bother with it. I used the note-taking facility a few times, too -- because I didn't have a pad of paper handy.
If the person is not asking what "cell services" are best in the united states in as much as "what cell phone company should I go with", then I'm not sure what the poster is expecting. There aren't really any services. There are services where you can pay $10 for a ringtone or a dollar a day for really insultingly stupid jokes and a few other things, but they're usually just poor scams to work you out of your cash and are very difficult (or so it seems) to shut off once you have been snared into them.
If I want to use email or something, I have a laptop. Or a desktop. If I want to talk to someone, I could peck away at a stupid qwerty keyboard the size of a credit card or I could just press a button to call the person directly and... I dunno... TALK to them. Really can't imagine what kind of services people would *want* on their phones. *shrug*
Speed Found to be Key to Galaxy Formation
And they said drugs are bad!
Actually, a lot of problems in schools could be solved very simply:
+ Merit-based employment, salary, raises and promotion.
+ Don't force kids to be in school. Why waste resources and sacrifice enthusiastic children's education to coddle some twit that doesn't want to be there, isn't willing to learn and just sits around pestering and hassling teachers, fellow students and causing endless disruptions?
I'm not really sure that "invest intelligently" and "sell a few hours/days later" belong together unless you manage a hedgefund. For that matter, what serious investor plays in penny stocks?!
Also, there isn't any "best cell service". Maybe you can do this in the UK, but America is far too large to have a single greatest service. You may find that only one or two providers even have a usable signal in your area. And pretty much ALL of them will put you through hoops. I have had a cell plan (with a large discount via my employer) for almost 18 months now and I have had to call them EVERY SINGLE MONTH to clear up problems. One month they might double charge me. Another month all of the services I shut off ($2.50 for voice activated calling, $20 for unlimited internet, $15 for unlimited text messages, etc) will end up back on my bill, even though I don't want them.
It's sad to say, but even cable television providers have greater scruples and ethics and service than cell phone providers.
And that's precisely my point.
This format is not going to ever give jpg, gif and png a run for their money where it counts. Like a number of other formats (TIFF and RAW for example), this proposed "standard" may reach a level of popularity or even majority on digital cameras and in the realm of magazine cover and DVD cover editing, but you and I aren't going to be storing our photos in this new format and serving them in this format to our visitors via the web or email just like you don't post a whole bunch of huge TIFF images from your camera for your friends to view, after you get home from a party.
I don't understand what "spam" the SEC is discussing, here. Didn't we eliminate spam a few years ago when congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act?
And if we're going to halt transactions during periods of heavy spam for a particular stock, why not halt transactions during periods in which pundits in print, radio and television are promoting or demoting particular stocks? Or, even better, how about we just not worry about it in the first place because anyone that is stupid enough to base their investment decisions on email campaigns should suffer their own stupidity.