Division of power addresses corruption. Without oversight there will be, and there already is abuse.
There was already a system in place for getting warrants on the fly with judicial oversight from judges with security clearance.
The efficacy of the system has not been demonstrated. It's painfully easy to encrypt communications. Who do they think they're going to catch?
Warrant-less wiretapping and the patriot act represent consolidation of power KGB style. Society can go pretty dark places when power is consolidated. This is a *huge* long-term threat to our society.
So Bush tried to hide behind state secrets, and now the Dems. They must be both in on whatever it is.
After Bush madness, it seems that the Dems could go on a witch-hunt. Perhaps they don't because they're better than the Rs (think back to clinton's sex life). It seems much more plausible, however, that political MAD (mutually assured destruction) is keeping everything in check. I'm suggesting that the state-secrets would be hideously embarrassing for both Dems and Rs.
The RIAA can't win in the courts, with advertising, or education of the young. Lobbyists haven't been able to get new laws passed. So the CEOs get their guys into the DOJ.
It's as inconsistent as genetics. Dominance isn't an act of opening one's mouth - it's interpersonal.
There's a whole *science* of how people work, that's developed far beyond arm-chair philosophising. You can't use wishful thinking to change the human condition.
Not all human beings are leaders, or have a dominant disposition and tenacity necessary to create and run their own business. Most people, in fact, are not capable of doing that - which is a function of evolution. Without conformity, there's no group (and power of the group). Too many leaders, there's no group. No leaders, and there's no direction.
So, from an ethical point of view, what are you asking people to conform to? This is very important, because it's been shown time and again, in history, and the laboratory, that *all* people are prone to "do as i say, and not as I do" morality.
Conformity in the workplace reaches staid proportions. Censoring people for having opinions *outside* the workplace is a recipe for "thought-crime", and almost certain moral hypocrisy
Really, who wants to work for close minded yes men?
Unfortunately, the workplace is a place where conformity rules. Managers do *not* want people with opinions - despite what they say. They want staff that make them look good, and give them no work.
Anyway, the Sun is a first order effect, and anything man-made is at best several orders beneath that. We have more to worry about if the Sun suddenly becomes unstable and goes nova than this so-called Global Warming.,
Do you really think that climate scientists don't look at the sun and it's effects? You've extrapolated a lot from 1 data point. Trying to model climate change from sun data, however, runs into the problem of too many degrees of freedom - meaning you can make it fit anything. Thus, sun-centric models must be tested by their predictive power. Hundreds of attempts, zero successes.
Meanwhile, other models, which include more factors, have been much more successful. CO2 is a factor, it's definitely man-produced (from isotropic data alone). Denial is not an effective method of dealing with problems.
You might be missing some history there. A single scientist did a single study that suggested - as an aside no less - that global cooling *might* be a *possibility*. Then the media got hold of it. Made a great story. There was no consensus on global cooling - unlike with global warming.
I should add that deniers, when they get their facts straight, generally switch from being deniers to "adapters". That in itself says a lot.
So my question to you is - if global warming could be shown without a shadow of doubt (use your imagination), would you advocate change, or should we adapt?
At 15 cents per kWh, that's $26 per year. That's like having to buy a case of beer for your TV every six months.
That's the type of thinking that is landing us with a global energy problem *and* a global pollution problem. Energy has been too cheap for too long, and pollution hasn't been accounted for.
If every similar device genuinely powered down, then the country-wide savings would be significant. Doing the beer maths on a single device lands us with a tragedy of the commons.
Funny how when Microsoft rejects Open Source they get people crawling down their backs. When they suggest they might move in that general direction they get people accusing them of trying to poison Open Source and calling them liars.
Seems whatever happens people just want to hate Microsoft whatever moves the company makes...
I guess that means that Microsoft has used up it's credibility as a corporate citizen.
The fact is I don't know. I have my suspicions that it lies somewhere between my first and second question, but that is only my gut.
Well hallelujah, the first intelligent response I've read on this thread.
Most slashdot readers would never accept that there's something wrong with violent video games, because it challenges their self-concept. If you don't like the research findings, then conduct your own study - and try not to fool yourself into getting the conclusions you want.
Evidence is evidence is evidence. People can argue black is blue all they want, but if you want to find the real answers, then you need to open your mind and look. The studies must continue, and if there really is causation, then that should be understood.
PHP and MySQL are both good but not great tools. What makes them useful is all the stuff that works with them.
I would drop MySQL in a second for Postgres except that too many CMS and other packages use it. The same is true of PHP.
And javascript. It's pretty flexible, but I think most people would prefer something saner, like smalltalk, java, c#, etc.
Any MIPS or ARM at a given price point will run cooler and faster than x86. All x86 processors are RISC with an instruction converter front end, but that's still enough of a liability to make the first sentence true.
From what little I know about this... apparently the x86 instruction format is more compressed - reducing the overall code size. There's a tradeoff on getting code to the processor and efficient execution. If you're executing faster than memory is being copied, then you'll benefit from reduced code size. I believe that's the current situation, allowing x86 to hold its own (do better) than any other architecture.
There's a strange irony to this, because during the 90s, everyone believed that RISC would cream existing x86 chips. What was not accounted for, was that x86 chips would be RISC, with an instruction converter - and the cost of having the convertor is compensated by a more compressed instruction format.
End game: Netbooks with ARM or MIPS spread upward to desktops and servers with ARM or MIPS. x86 finally fades away of software that doesn't care. All hail.
Champaign and Cheers! Actually, I like my x86 processor, except I wish they were big-endian. Just a small thing.
They may just like sun on their backs and not in their eyes.
Not everything requires 'scientific' conjecture (which is, I think, your point.)
It's well known that animals can sense magnetic fields, and have specific iron compounds in their bodies for that purpose. While your point stands - it seems entirely reasonable that cows sense the magnetic field of the earth. This could be tested by taping magnets to cows heads.
My impression is that public outrage does absolutely nothing in the USA...
You really have to give a better example.
In Canada, the Mulroney government went from a majority to 2 seats, in a single election. The US seems a little too nationalistic for that, but the west is bigger than the US.
Maybe, but China's history of human rights abuses speaks for itself.
If its history we're talking about, then what about America's history of human rights abuse (slave trade anyone?), or the UK (slaves again, plus that whole empire thing, and navvies).
America owns up to it's history. China tries to revise it's history. Look in the fsking mirror.
A lot of the Western media covering Chinese affairs do nothing but criticize.
The right to disbelieve is about as sacred as you get in the West. The chinese seem to believe they have the right to control other peoples thinking - including in the west. Obviously we're not going to get along very well.
We really aren't that affected at all, and I can say (because yes, I have lived in the US and Australia) that life here is no different, except for the annoying fact that I can't access Freewebs.
Not affected until something shitty happens, and then you find out that you've got no way to even tell someone what happened. I guess it's okay, simply because the odds of that are really small right? right??
What's even funnier is that you start talking about how we in "The West" hold the government to account for its failures. Have you been reading some of the Slashdot articles of the past seven years?
Here's a really simple idea. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It is impossible to compare the power of Chinese leaders to western regimes, because in the west we have so many more checks and balances. One of those checks and balances is public outrage. Sure it's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than anything else out there.
Why not contemplate how you can make your country a better place, then stewing in negative thoughts with some false sense of entitlement you have that you should be living in some kind of enlightenment.
Slashdot Mirror
The currency in the UK is should most definitely the "pounddollar." It sounds so quaint.
Warrant-less wiretapping and the patriot act represent consolidation of power KGB style. Society can go pretty dark places when power is consolidated. This is a *huge* long-term threat to our society.
So Bush tried to hide behind state secrets, and now the Dems. They must be both in on whatever it is.
After Bush madness, it seems that the Dems could go on a witch-hunt. Perhaps they don't because they're better than the Rs (think back to clinton's sex life). It seems much more plausible, however, that political MAD (mutually assured destruction) is keeping everything in check. I'm suggesting that the state-secrets would be hideously embarrassing for both Dems and Rs.
"our committee does not believe that the climate is warming".
Or, if it is warming, we should adapt to the changes instead of addressing economic activity. That's when they show their true colours.
Basically all this noise is just a big psychotic roadblock to change.
How do you know a third party would be any different? The powers that be will smack down anybody who isn't indoctrinated into the way things are done.
The solution lies in those overseeing the public good being beyond the influence of big business. Get rid of the revolving door.
Sadly, it's exactly this type of behaviour that Obama said he was going to stop.
The RIAA can't win in the courts, with advertising, or education of the young. Lobbyists haven't been able to get new laws passed. So the CEOs get their guys into the DOJ.
What did we expect?
With a bluethooth keyboard, I could use my iphone to take notes in class, and minutes at meetings. This feature is long overdue.
I bought an iphone after I learnt that compatible bluetooth keyboards were available for pre-order. Yes it's true, I'm admitting that I've been done.
It's as inconsistent as genetics. Dominance isn't an act of opening one's mouth - it's interpersonal.
There's a whole *science* of how people work, that's developed far beyond arm-chair philosophising. You can't use wishful thinking to change the human condition.
Not all human beings are leaders, or have a dominant disposition and tenacity necessary to create and run their own business. Most people, in fact, are not capable of doing that - which is a function of evolution. Without conformity, there's no group (and power of the group). Too many leaders, there's no group. No leaders, and there's no direction.
So, from an ethical point of view, what are you asking people to conform to? This is very important, because it's been shown time and again, in history, and the laboratory, that *all* people are prone to "do as i say, and not as I do" morality.
Conformity in the workplace reaches staid proportions. Censoring people for having opinions *outside* the workplace is a recipe for "thought-crime", and almost certain moral hypocrisy
Really, who wants to work for close minded yes men?
Unfortunately, the workplace is a place where conformity rules. Managers do *not* want people with opinions - despite what they say. They want staff that make them look good, and give them no work.
Anyway, the Sun is a first order effect, and anything man-made is at best several orders beneath that. We have more to worry about if the Sun suddenly becomes unstable and goes nova than this so-called Global Warming.,
Do you really think that climate scientists don't look at the sun and it's effects? You've extrapolated a lot from 1 data point. Trying to model climate change from sun data, however, runs into the problem of too many degrees of freedom - meaning you can make it fit anything. Thus, sun-centric models must be tested by their predictive power. Hundreds of attempts, zero successes.
Meanwhile, other models, which include more factors, have been much more successful. CO2 is a factor, it's definitely man-produced (from isotropic data alone). Denial is not an effective method of dealing with problems.
You might be missing some history there. A single scientist did a single study that suggested - as an aside no less - that global cooling *might* be a *possibility*. Then the media got hold of it. Made a great story. There was no consensus on global cooling - unlike with global warming.
I should add that deniers, when they get their facts straight, generally switch from being deniers to "adapters". That in itself says a lot.
So my question to you is - if global warming could be shown without a shadow of doubt (use your imagination), would you advocate change, or should we adapt?
At 15 cents per kWh, that's $26 per year. That's like having to buy a case of beer for your TV every six months.
That's the type of thinking that is landing us with a global energy problem *and* a global pollution problem. Energy has been too cheap for too long, and pollution hasn't been accounted for.
If every similar device genuinely powered down, then the country-wide savings would be significant. Doing the beer maths on a single device lands us with a tragedy of the commons.
Funny how when Microsoft rejects Open Source they get people crawling down their backs. When they suggest they might move in that general direction they get people accusing them of trying to poison Open Source and calling them liars.
Seems whatever happens people just want to hate Microsoft whatever moves the company makes...
I guess that means that Microsoft has used up it's credibility as a corporate citizen.
The fact is I don't know. I have my suspicions that it lies somewhere between my first and second question, but that is only my gut.
Well hallelujah, the first intelligent response I've read on this thread.
Most slashdot readers would never accept that there's something wrong with violent video games, because it challenges their self-concept. If you don't like the research findings, then conduct your own study - and try not to fool yourself into getting the conclusions you want.
Evidence is evidence is evidence. People can argue black is blue all they want, but if you want to find the real answers, then you need to open your mind and look. The studies must continue, and if there really is causation, then that should be understood.
So thank-you for posting.
He did, apparently, approve of it though beforehand and take credit for it elsewhere afterwards.
Exactly where and when did Bin Laden take credit for the attacks? I've only heard hear-say on the matter, so where's the evidence? Just curious.
PHP and MySQL are both good but not great tools. What makes them useful is all the stuff that works with them. I would drop MySQL in a second for Postgres except that too many CMS and other packages use it. The same is true of PHP.
And javascript. It's pretty flexible, but I think most people would prefer something saner, like smalltalk, java, c#, etc.
Any MIPS or ARM at a given price point will run cooler and faster than x86. All x86 processors are RISC with an instruction converter front end, but that's still enough of a liability to make the first sentence true.
From what little I know about this... apparently the x86 instruction format is more compressed - reducing the overall code size. There's a tradeoff on getting code to the processor and efficient execution. If you're executing faster than memory is being copied, then you'll benefit from reduced code size. I believe that's the current situation, allowing x86 to hold its own (do better) than any other architecture.
There's a strange irony to this, because during the 90s, everyone believed that RISC would cream existing x86 chips. What was not accounted for, was that x86 chips would be RISC, with an instruction converter - and the cost of having the convertor is compensated by a more compressed instruction format.
End game: Netbooks with ARM or MIPS spread upward to desktops and servers with ARM or MIPS. x86 finally fades away of software that doesn't care. All hail.
Champaign and Cheers! Actually, I like my x86 processor, except I wish they were big-endian. Just a small thing.
They may just like sun on their backs and not in their eyes. Not everything requires 'scientific' conjecture (which is, I think, your point.)
It's well known that animals can sense magnetic fields, and have specific iron compounds in their bodies for that purpose. While your point stands - it seems entirely reasonable that cows sense the magnetic field of the earth. This could be tested by taping magnets to cows heads.
My impression is that public outrage does absolutely nothing in the USA... You really have to give a better example.
In Canada, the Mulroney government went from a majority to 2 seats, in a single election. The US seems a little too nationalistic for that, but the west is bigger than the US.
lol! I guess i feel like I met you a hundred times before, all the best =)
Maybe, but China's history of human rights abuses speaks for itself.
If its history we're talking about, then what about America's history of human rights abuse (slave trade anyone?), or the UK (slaves again, plus that whole empire thing, and navvies).
America owns up to it's history. China tries to revise it's history. Look in the fsking mirror.
A lot of the Western media covering Chinese affairs do nothing but criticize.
The right to disbelieve is about as sacred as you get in the West. The chinese seem to believe they have the right to control other peoples thinking - including in the west. Obviously we're not going to get along very well.
We really aren't that affected at all, and I can say (because yes, I have lived in the US and Australia) that life here is no different, except for the annoying fact that I can't access Freewebs.
Not affected until something shitty happens, and then you find out that you've got no way to even tell someone what happened. I guess it's okay, simply because the odds of that are really small right? right??
What's even funnier is that you start talking about how we in "The West" hold the government to account for its failures. Have you been reading some of the Slashdot articles of the past seven years?
Here's a really simple idea. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It is impossible to compare the power of Chinese leaders to western regimes, because in the west we have so many more checks and balances. One of those checks and balances is public outrage. Sure it's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than anything else out there.
Why not contemplate how you can make your country a better place, then stewing in negative thoughts with some false sense of entitlement you have that you should be living in some kind of enlightenment.