And when they go into reruns part way through the season, or they stop broadcasting entirely for a couple of weeks or more and then come back on. And what is it with the short season lengths? TV seasons used to last 25 to 30 weeks. Now they're 12 weeks???? To say TV is getting more lame as time goes on is like saying Ci Lo is just chunky. Maybe if they provided something worth watching instead of 'reality tv' they wouldn't be so far behind. It's all for the shareholders.
Create something cheap to produce to maximize revenue for the shareholders, instead of worrying about good product for the customers and long term stability for the employees. Instead of win, win, win, it is win for a short time, get fucked, get fucked. And then eventually the customers get tired of the crap product and it is lose lose lose. End of story.
Over emphasize of the shareholders so the already overpaid CEO can get bigger bonuses for a short time then out the door with a gold parachute. Same bullshit that plagues the financial industry plagues every other industry in North America and Europe lately. Sure, the shareholders should get paid, but not to the exclusion of long term viability. Businesses like these have adopted the parasitic self-cannibalization strategy since around 1990.
OK, so tell us how you would quantify damage for a news report other than using a dollar figure, smart guy? How about, the damage was REALLY REALLY BAD and SCARY! Does that convey anything to the average person? NO.
They already said in the article that over 300 died and maybe more, and that a lot of towns and homes were damaged. Do you want them to go out and get an exact count how many vehicles, homes, cats, dogs, chicken coops, businesses (broken out by number of employees they have), trailer parks, trailers, telephone polls, were destroyed and report back in tabular fashion... all in the first few days since it happened. What the fuck is wrong with retards who want to news reports to empathize instead of provide information and "fight the man" because someone gave an estimate in the amount of damage in terms of dollars.
If you are at least reasonably intelligent you will figure out that if the insurance damage was 5 billion, there might be close to that in uninsured damaged. But how are they or we supposed to know that if the items were never valued to begin with.
They are telling us what they know. They can't tell us what they don't know. Get a fucking grip for fuck's sake.
I for one am sick of reporters and talking heads telling me what they think and putting a "human perspective" on the news. I don't give a shit what THEY think. I prefer to think on my own. News and its reporters should just tell us the FACTS (i.e. not like Fox) about a story and let us figure out what it means on our own. If someone wants to analyze it, do it somewhere else but not on actual news sites and broadcasts.
That's like saying you can shoot anyone you want, if you are OK with going to prison for the rest of your life. An extreme example I know, but it gets the point across. In both cases it amounts to a rule saying you cannot do something. In one the rule is good (errrrrrrrr.... mostly), and with the other the rule is always bad (firing MPs). Now there are some out there who might advocate that shooting someone is OK as long as they are politician... but that isn't me (errrrrrrrr... mostly). OK, just kidding with that.
And I think an informed electorate would agree that you elect someone from a particular party because they vote along party lines; but they should NOT do it dogmatically at the behest of the party leaders like is done now in Canada. Opposition parties almost always vote along party lines, even when the bill being voted on is a good on. So there are many times things of benefit to Canada are lost because the idea was from someone on the opposite side of the house. What a ridiculous set of rules to allow this to happen. And if there were free votes, party members WOULD likely still vote along party lines, but not always; when they see something of merit created by the other side.
Most of the time the parties vote in blocks not because all the MPs think they should, but because the party leader wants to put on a show about how effective he/she is, and what a good leader he/she is. It has nothing to do with allowing MPs to represent people in their ridings. It is about doing what the party leader says and represent him/her back at the public... the opposite of what should be done.
Sure they will generally vote in blocks, but not always. A lot of Canadians like to slam the U.S. (war of 1812 ended a LONG time ago people). But it is only recently that the U.S. government has been so polarized. Quite often, even now, members of one party will vote for the other party's bills. Sometimes legislators of both parties, and sometimes along with independents (like Lieberman) will craft bills/legislation that some members of both sides will vote for, and some against. Right now we don't have that in Canada because of the way the party leaders act like dictators. Their way or the highway. We would have a much more effective and less cantankerous government if we had a similar set of rules allowing all free votes.
The only question I can see is "so what's it in for the party if they win the most seats?" That's easy: They get to form the government. That is a lot of power in itself. They get to set the agenda. An agenda where each MP will be accountable to their ridings.
You see, if the party leader had no say in how an MP votes, or who each riding association picks to represent them, the people have even more say in how the country is run. If say a conservative member of parliament were elected in a riding, and he/she didn't vote the way the people of the riding liked, the next election the riding could fire the MP and put a new conservative candidate in place for the election.
One thing would be important though, is that I believe laws against lobbying and gifts to MPs would need to be increase on almost a constitutional level so the MPs couldn't change that. Also they would need to change the rules so that not just MP who belong to parties over a certain size would get to speak regularly in the house. Representatives should never be muzzled by stupid procedure.
So somehow you are linking the alleged mishandling of priorities at the FBI with that kook David Koresh burning down his own building rather than be demoted from his status as self professed mesiah? And then you are blaming it all on Reno?
I wish there were a way to mark you -1 "Kook". Have fun at the Creation Museum. Do I hear Dueling Banjos?
So you're surprised that a window manager that has (relatively) VERY few users does not get a lot of attention? WTF? Of course they focused more on Gnome and KDE. Issues with those desktops affect far, far more people.
I don't doubt that Gnome will now receive less attention akin to Kubuntu, and will need to build a solid community like Kubuntu currently has. But if you don't like Unity, or don't trust Gnome to be supported, try Kubuntu. I'm not sure why it would be affected that much since it always has operated on its own parallel course, and now has its stride. I prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu any day. The Gnome version was already getting 'dumbed down' significantly before this. I think Kubuntu strikes a better balance.
What I wonder is about is if and when they get a larger market share of even 3% or 4% of total OS on laptops, desktops, tablets, etc., the new user base will totally eclipse the current Linux user base. If that happens, what people on Slashdot and other tech related sites think will be moot. The masses that make the company Canonical money will win over the original Ubuntu/Debian users. At that point, will even Kubuntu be supported and/or viable.
You missed my point. What I am concerned about is NOT proportional representation. That is the least of our worries. I want representational democracy. I want my MP to be able to vote his/her own mind, not be told by the party leader how to vote. Once our representatives can actually represent us, and not their party leader back at us, then we can worry about improving how we get them there.
If Layton said he would introduce a constitutional amendment that all votes in Parliament (house and senate) were to be truly free votes, then I would vote for him. Proportional representation is not the same as representative democracy. They may be related, but they are not the same. Don't get me wrong, the Instant Run Off Voting is OK, and I would agree to it. IROV is the version of Single Transferable Vote system that we would use in Canadian elections; since we only have one winner for each riding election.
And if your MP/MLA/MPP is not just a lump of shit. I've been helped with an issue I had with the government when I lived in the Winnipeg/Saint Boniface riding. Ron Duhamel (may he rest in peace) helped me when the government was jerking me around financially for about four or five months leaving me short on cash. I saw him in his local riding office (he was in town). He literally asked me if I was bullshitting about anything because he was going to rattle some cages. The problem was fixed in no kidding, two days. Then again, in Kitchener a few years back I needed some assistance from my MP and/or MPP for a medical issue. All I got was a form letter from them saying how they are working on getting Canada/Ontario a better medical system with less waiting times. I ended up getting treatment in Buffalo. So yeah... if you get a fucktard who is only interested in keeping his seat for six years till he/she gets their full parliamentary pension, you get nothing.
And for anyone who watches poker Duhamel is pronounced do-Ham-EL each piece distinctive (especially the EL). Not run together like the mumble they do on TV where the HAM is emphasized and the other two syllables aren't. Sorry... one of those things that sets me off is listening to announcers butcher French names.
MPs are toothless. If the party leader in Canada tells them to vote a certain way, or talk a certain way, they have to. Otherwise they get kicked out of the party. It has happened before; look at John Nunziata (Liberal fired by Prime Minister Chretien for voting with integrity), and Garth Turner (Conservative fired by Prime Minister Harper for daring to think on his own). Then next election no one will pay for their election campaign and they're for sure out of a cushy job. It doesn't matter much that they aren't given any opportunity to speak in the house during question period if they are independent (only MPs in parties get anything more than around (literally) two or three minutes talking time each year during question period).
I have no idea why we have to pay to have MPs elected in ridings. It would save a lot of money if we just elected the leaders and gave them each a weighted vote commensurate with what percent of the popular vote they got. If we get a majority government in Canada it amounts to a limited term dictatorship. If it is a minority government like we just had, it is a limited term oligarchy. We need reform so that we can have true representative democracy, where the MPs can really vote the way the people who elected them want them to. Then we wouldn't have the BS where everyone in the house yells to get the attention of the party leaders so they can be good dogs and maybe get a bone, and keep their jobs. The party leaders should have no say in how members vote and represent their ridings, nor in who the riding associations (Conservatives, Liberals, etc.) pick to run in elections. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way right now. Our democracy is broken.
I think you are correct in that the government provides a lot of good services. But I think your post also is showing evidence of boiling frog syndrome. Someone has to stop the crap that Bush started and wunder-kind Obama is extending.
Must have been a while ago since they weren't yet 'defending the homeland', nor hiring secret police who say things like 'your papers please.' Nor secretly wiretapping you (with permission from a secret court) because your neighbour anonymously 'reported you' (likely because your dogs barking bothered him enough to trigger a witch hunt). The slippery slope towards a police state is fast approaching the shape and speed of an Olympic luge track (and the U.S. people are Nodar Kumaritashvili).
More to the point, the laws against online gambling were enacted by a republican president, and continued under a democrat. Meaning that blaming one side or the other here is a ridiculous.
Google is a business not a charity. What's in it for them? If you are so hyped on it, buy from Indie labels only. Start hyping Indie labels. You know, independent labels? More competition, not less.
Canadians eat pretty much the same kinds of meat as the rest of the industrialized world. Remember, it may get cold here, but we live and work in heated buildings. It's not like we would have to travel miles on foot or horse to places anymore. And while we don't get as hot as Australia, many places in the south along the U.S. border (where 95%) of Canadians live) regularly get into the 30s C in the summer. In some places it can rise above 40 C. And you may not have noticed, but the province of Ontario extends as far south as to be below the latitude of northern California; which is why it is the most densely populated area in Canada. Ontario gets winters ranging from what Chicago gets, all the way to arctic in the far north. But summers are quite hot and very humid as it is surrounded by water (the great lakes are huge). Also, from the sounds of it, while the other fellow in the thread is in the U.S. (not Canada) it sounds from the fauna he describes that he is in the west and north like maybe Montana or Idaho, or maybe Minnesota, all of which have areas several hundred miles north of me in terms of latitude alone. Even in areas where temperatures can get extreme, most people wouldn't be able to survive without their heated homes.
I know there used to be a term for charging one distinct group of people more for your goods than another group of people because you could get away with it; even though the costs involved to the seller were the same.
Similar return policies on both sides of the border. What is interesting is if you purchase something from say Best Buy in America, they won't warranty it in Canada and vice versa. Legally they are separate entities in the two countries, but I bet the money only goes to one place.:) This has bit me too.
Slashdot Mirror
And when they go into reruns part way through the season, or they stop broadcasting entirely for a couple of weeks or more and then come back on. And what is it with the short season lengths? TV seasons used to last 25 to 30 weeks. Now they're 12 weeks???? To say TV is getting more lame as time goes on is like saying Ci Lo is just chunky. Maybe if they provided something worth watching instead of 'reality tv' they wouldn't be so far behind. It's all for the shareholders.
Create something cheap to produce to maximize revenue for the shareholders, instead of worrying about good product for the customers and long term stability for the employees. Instead of win, win, win, it is win for a short time, get fucked, get fucked. And then eventually the customers get tired of the crap product and it is lose lose lose. End of story.
Over emphasize of the shareholders so the already overpaid CEO can get bigger bonuses for a short time then out the door with a gold parachute. Same bullshit that plagues the financial industry plagues every other industry in North America and Europe lately. Sure, the shareholders should get paid, but not to the exclusion of long term viability. Businesses like these have adopted the parasitic self-cannibalization strategy since around 1990.
OK, so tell us how you would quantify damage for a news report other than using a dollar figure, smart guy? How about, the damage was REALLY REALLY BAD and SCARY! Does that convey anything to the average person? NO.
They already said in the article that over 300 died and maybe more, and that a lot of towns and homes were damaged. Do you want them to go out and get an exact count how many vehicles, homes, cats, dogs, chicken coops, businesses (broken out by number of employees they have), trailer parks, trailers, telephone polls, were destroyed and report back in tabular fashion... all in the first few days since it happened. What the fuck is wrong with retards who want to news reports to empathize instead of provide information and "fight the man" because someone gave an estimate in the amount of damage in terms of dollars.
If you are at least reasonably intelligent you will figure out that if the insurance damage was 5 billion, there might be close to that in uninsured damaged. But how are they or we supposed to know that if the items were never valued to begin with.
They are telling us what they know. They can't tell us what they don't know. Get a fucking grip for fuck's sake.
I for one am sick of reporters and talking heads telling me what they think and putting a "human perspective" on the news. I don't give a shit what THEY think. I prefer to think on my own. News and its reporters should just tell us the FACTS (i.e. not like Fox) about a story and let us figure out what it means on our own. If someone wants to analyze it, do it somewhere else but not on actual news sites and broadcasts.
[End of touchy feely rant /]
That's like saying you can shoot anyone you want, if you are OK with going to prison for the rest of your life. An extreme example I know, but it gets the point across. In both cases it amounts to a rule saying you cannot do something. In one the rule is good (errrrrrrrr.... mostly), and with the other the rule is always bad (firing MPs). Now there are some out there who might advocate that shooting someone is OK as long as they are politician... but that isn't me (errrrrrrrr... mostly). OK, just kidding with that.
And I think an informed electorate would agree that you elect someone from a particular party because they vote along party lines; but they should NOT do it dogmatically at the behest of the party leaders like is done now in Canada. Opposition parties almost always vote along party lines, even when the bill being voted on is a good on. So there are many times things of benefit to Canada are lost because the idea was from someone on the opposite side of the house. What a ridiculous set of rules to allow this to happen. And if there were free votes, party members WOULD likely still vote along party lines, but not always; when they see something of merit created by the other side.
Most of the time the parties vote in blocks not because all the MPs think they should, but because the party leader wants to put on a show about how effective he/she is, and what a good leader he/she is. It has nothing to do with allowing MPs to represent people in their ridings. It is about doing what the party leader says and represent him/her back at the public... the opposite of what should be done.
Sure they will generally vote in blocks, but not always. A lot of Canadians like to slam the U.S. (war of 1812 ended a LONG time ago people). But it is only recently that the U.S. government has been so polarized. Quite often, even now, members of one party will vote for the other party's bills. Sometimes legislators of both parties, and sometimes along with independents (like Lieberman) will craft bills/legislation that some members of both sides will vote for, and some against. Right now we don't have that in Canada because of the way the party leaders act like dictators. Their way or the highway. We would have a much more effective and less cantankerous government if we had a similar set of rules allowing all free votes.
The only question I can see is "so what's it in for the party if they win the most seats?" That's easy: They get to form the government. That is a lot of power in itself. They get to set the agenda. An agenda where each MP will be accountable to their ridings.
You see, if the party leader had no say in how an MP votes, or who each riding association picks to represent them, the people have even more say in how the country is run. If say a conservative member of parliament were elected in a riding, and he/she didn't vote the way the people of the riding liked, the next election the riding could fire the MP and put a new conservative candidate in place for the election.
One thing would be important though, is that I believe laws against lobbying and gifts to MPs would need to be increase on almost a constitutional level so the MPs couldn't change that. Also they would need to change the rules so that not just MP who belong to parties over a certain size would get to speak regularly in the house. Representatives should never be muzzled by stupid procedure.
Point taken.
Will this stop ISP hijacking the 404 not found messages and redirecting us to their spam?
So somehow you are linking the alleged mishandling of priorities at the FBI with that kook David Koresh burning down his own building rather than be demoted from his status as self professed mesiah? And then you are blaming it all on Reno?
I wish there were a way to mark you -1 "Kook". Have fun at the Creation Museum. Do I hear Dueling Banjos?
Like watching a slow train wreck.
So you're surprised that a window manager that has (relatively) VERY few users does not get a lot of attention? WTF? Of course they focused more on Gnome and KDE. Issues with those desktops affect far, far more people.
I don't doubt that Gnome will now receive less attention akin to Kubuntu, and will need to build a solid community like Kubuntu currently has. But if you don't like Unity, or don't trust Gnome to be supported, try Kubuntu. I'm not sure why it would be affected that much since it always has operated on its own parallel course, and now has its stride. I prefer Kubuntu to Ubuntu any day. The Gnome version was already getting 'dumbed down' significantly before this. I think Kubuntu strikes a better balance.
What I wonder is about is if and when they get a larger market share of even 3% or 4% of total OS on laptops, desktops, tablets, etc., the new user base will totally eclipse the current Linux user base. If that happens, what people on Slashdot and other tech related sites think will be moot. The masses that make the company Canonical money will win over the original Ubuntu/Debian users. At that point, will even Kubuntu be supported and/or viable.
Must have been cut and paste.... Messier hasn't even played in the NHL for years, never mind Vancouver.
You missed my point. What I am concerned about is NOT proportional representation. That is the least of our worries. I want representational democracy. I want my MP to be able to vote his/her own mind, not be told by the party leader how to vote . Once our representatives can actually represent us, and not their party leader back at us, then we can worry about improving how we get them there.
If Layton said he would introduce a constitutional amendment that all votes in Parliament (house and senate) were to be truly free votes, then I would vote for him. Proportional representation is not the same as representative democracy. They may be related, but they are not the same. Don't get me wrong, the Instant Run Off Voting is OK, and I would agree to it. IROV is the version of Single Transferable Vote system that we would use in Canadian elections; since we only have one winner for each riding election.
And if your MP/MLA/MPP is not just a lump of shit. I've been helped with an issue I had with the government when I lived in the Winnipeg/Saint Boniface riding. Ron Duhamel (may he rest in peace) helped me when the government was jerking me around financially for about four or five months leaving me short on cash. I saw him in his local riding office (he was in town). He literally asked me if I was bullshitting about anything because he was going to rattle some cages. The problem was fixed in no kidding, two days. Then again, in Kitchener a few years back I needed some assistance from my MP and/or MPP for a medical issue. All I got was a form letter from them saying how they are working on getting Canada/Ontario a better medical system with less waiting times. I ended up getting treatment in Buffalo. So yeah... if you get a fucktard who is only interested in keeping his seat for six years till he/she gets their full parliamentary pension, you get nothing.
And for anyone who watches poker Duhamel is pronounced do-Ham-EL each piece distinctive (especially the EL). Not run together like the mumble they do on TV where the HAM is emphasized and the other two syllables aren't. Sorry... one of those things that sets me off is listening to announcers butcher French names.
MPs are toothless. If the party leader in Canada tells them to vote a certain way, or talk a certain way, they have to. Otherwise they get kicked out of the party. It has happened before; look at John Nunziata (Liberal fired by Prime Minister Chretien for voting with integrity), and Garth Turner (Conservative fired by Prime Minister Harper for daring to think on his own). Then next election no one will pay for their election campaign and they're for sure out of a cushy job. It doesn't matter much that they aren't given any opportunity to speak in the house during question period if they are independent (only MPs in parties get anything more than around (literally) two or three minutes talking time each year during question period).
I have no idea why we have to pay to have MPs elected in ridings. It would save a lot of money if we just elected the leaders and gave them each a weighted vote commensurate with what percent of the popular vote they got. If we get a majority government in Canada it amounts to a limited term dictatorship. If it is a minority government like we just had, it is a limited term oligarchy. We need reform so that we can have true representative democracy, where the MPs can really vote the way the people who elected them want them to. Then we wouldn't have the BS where everyone in the house yells to get the attention of the party leaders so they can be good dogs and maybe get a bone, and keep their jobs. The party leaders should have no say in how members vote and represent their ridings, nor in who the riding associations (Conservatives, Liberals, etc.) pick to run in elections. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way right now. Our democracy is broken.
All your patents are belong to us. - Steve Jobs
I think you are correct in that the government provides a lot of good services. But I think your post also is showing evidence of boiling frog syndrome. Someone has to stop the crap that Bush started and wunder-kind Obama is extending.
Must have been a while ago since they weren't yet 'defending the homeland', nor hiring secret police who say things like 'your papers please.' Nor secretly wiretapping you (with permission from a secret court) because your neighbour anonymously 'reported you' (likely because your dogs barking bothered him enough to trigger a witch hunt). The slippery slope towards a police state is fast approaching the shape and speed of an Olympic luge track (and the U.S. people are Nodar Kumaritashvili).
In a number of jurisdictions, no, overly aggressive non-competes end up not being valid. Check out the last half of the article.
On slashdot, what you posted can more often than not be a person's real beliefs.
Way to hyperbolize.
More to the point, the laws against online gambling were enacted by a republican president, and continued under a democrat. Meaning that blaming one side or the other here is a ridiculous.
Google is a business not a charity. What's in it for them? If you are so hyped on it, buy from Indie labels only. Start hyping Indie labels. You know, independent labels? More competition, not less.
We'll be in framework hell before it even gets through a standards committee.
Canadians eat pretty much the same kinds of meat as the rest of the industrialized world. Remember, it may get cold here, but we live and work in heated buildings. It's not like we would have to travel miles on foot or horse to places anymore. And while we don't get as hot as Australia, many places in the south along the U.S. border (where 95%) of Canadians live) regularly get into the 30s C in the summer. In some places it can rise above 40 C. And you may not have noticed, but the province of Ontario extends as far south as to be below the latitude of northern California; which is why it is the most densely populated area in Canada. Ontario gets winters ranging from what Chicago gets, all the way to arctic in the far north. But summers are quite hot and very humid as it is surrounded by water (the great lakes are huge). Also, from the sounds of it, while the other fellow in the thread is in the U.S. (not Canada) it sounds from the fauna he describes that he is in the west and north like maybe Montana or Idaho, or maybe Minnesota, all of which have areas several hundred miles north of me in terms of latitude alone. Even in areas where temperatures can get extreme, most people wouldn't be able to survive without their heated homes.
I know there used to be a term for charging one distinct group of people more for your goods than another group of people because you could get away with it; even though the costs involved to the seller were the same.
Similar return policies on both sides of the border. What is interesting is if you purchase something from say Best Buy in America, they won't warranty it in Canada and vice versa. Legally they are separate entities in the two countries, but I bet the money only goes to one place. :) This has bit me too.