Actually, there is a "hero story arc" that basically outlines every hero story ever made. It originated back when we (humans) kept our history through story telling. I did a cursory search on google, but sadly wasn't able to find what I wanted. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?
--So effectively the practical difference between stealing cars and downloading pirate oses is primarily one of enforcement.--
Actually, the practical difference is pretty simple. If I steal a car, I am depriving the original owner of the property.
If I steal software, I'm depriving a faceless, soulless, underhanded company of a few bucks.
Now, does that make software piracy right or justified? Um...no. Does that mean that software piracy IS NOT STEALING? YES IT DOES.
What do you suggest, that we cut off a hand for each time you pirate a program? Is this that damaging to society in general? Somehow I don't think that it is. It's more of a white collar crime and less murder in the 1st degree.
Are you trying to tell me that there was no 8.0Gbit high speed servers in 2000? SERIOUSLY???!!!111
Of *course* the market is different. We've steadily increased the things we can do with a home computer, along with the speed and capacity of the 'affordable' internet services. What you're arguing is akin to "well, a 2008 Mustang is WAY faster than a Model A man!!!"
As a side note, the idea of PAYING for a game over and over and over and over again is just strange to me. Granted over the past few months I've done some checking and it would seem that it's not just paying for the privilege of being able to play the game online, which is basically what it started out as. I can actually get behind the whole "downloadable expanded content" idea. Took them long enough though:P
--Vista without the glass doesn't look nearly as good.--
--The task bar needs quite a bit of work--
--"...how crappy the taskbar is, how "in your face" the windows were, how crappy the file dialogs were, how crappy taskman.exe was, or how generally insecure the default setup was"--
In reverse : If you don't know how to set up your computer, ask someone who does know. Please don't beg for the Dilbert OS. You know, with one GIANT red button that they're nice enough to push at the factory for you?
I'm not sure why taskman.exe was "crappy" or wtf you're talking about with the "crappy file dialogs"
How are the windows "in your face"?
I just had my first real run in with winblows vista this morning (have been avoiding it for as long as possible now.)and I have a few questions :
1.) Why in the ever loving fuck would you need PERMISSION to move a file from one directory to another?
2.) Why is it asking me if it's cool to save the changes...TO A PROPERTY SHEET...when I haven't changed ANYTHING at all?
I haven't heard a single reason yet why I should switch to Vista.
-my decent (AMD 1.4Ghz, 512 DDR2 RAM, decent vid card) computer won't even get NEAR IT.
-I have yet to read about ANY 'improvements' that didn't involve that bloody "areo" interface or how "ooo shinyprettylookitthat!" it is.
Yes it's nice. Yes it's pretty. People aren't complaining that they're using their video card. They're complaining that Vista runs like shit on their mostly new system and they don't want to have to go out and get a top-of-the-line system JUST TO HAVE A PRETTY INTERFACE.
I should not have to upgrade my system just because you wanted my os to look nicer. Hey MSFT, how about first concentrating on making the fucking thing WORK instead of "OOOOH SHINY!!!"?...I think it's time to give my shift key a break!
--Instead I'm using good old ever reliable WinXP Pro--
I can't believe I'm reading that. I was in the tech support industry when XP came out. It was a *NIGHTMARE*. It seems that MSFT's way of business is to have a product in beta for 3/4 of it's "service life" then when they FINALLY work out all the bugs in the damn thing THEY DON'T SUPPORT IT ANYMORE.
I agree with you on most of your points though. I still miss the days when winblows was exactly what it should be now : AN APPLICATION. Leave the OS to do what it's supposed to be doing...BEING AN OS instead of a one-click bloated pos.
"If we, the citizens, want to protect the constitution, then we should step up and take responsibility for defending it from our politicians." -- DAMN STRAIGHT.
Had I mod points dear sir, you would be getting some. Now if we could just rustle up some people with balls over the next few elections, maybe we could keep ourselves out of the Communist States of America a bit longer.
Actually, I think I'm entitled to drive SAFELY. Unless of course you think that driving a Yukon XL at 40 while cutting 4 cars off doing a triple lane change is "safe"...I mean, he WAS doing under the posted speed limit right?
--"I am on my side pretty sick of getting nearly killed once per year by stupid idiot which think law don't apply to them"--
How about 4-5 times a *DAY*? Then again, I see the police speed like hell all the time for no reason (no lights, sirens, etc. people get out of their way by habit...and they just accelerate) Someone else in this thread mentioned seeing police flip their lights on just to get through a red light and things like that... happens all the time around here. We like to call our police the "Toilet Paper Department" (I live in a city that starts with a "t") because they're just shitty around here./end rant
I was driving in Portland OR a few years ago and got stopped...STOPPED mind you... for not wearing my seatbelt. It was something like a $175 ticket. I opted to go to the "Seat Belt Awareness Class", got to see some really amusing videos, and then told that even if I don't care about my own safety, I should think of the firemen, paramedics, etc. that have to remove me from the vehicle. I asked the instructor why it was anyone's business but my own if I decide to wear my seatbelt. She threatened to have me removed...and to keep the $80 I paid for the class in ADDITION to having me pay the original fine.
It amazes me that we pass laws like this, all because some soccer mom lost her precious little boy/girl in a terrible auto accident because they were drunk and not wearing their seatbelt while driving 100MPH down a country road. fffft.
Indeed. Much better to drive an Abrams tank down the road and get 4MPG @ $4+/gal than say... a smaller more fuel efficient vehicle. God only knows what people like me do (I drive a 2007 Ford Focus.) Oh wait... I look around and pay attention to the people on the road. Like the guy who cut across 3 lanes of traffic traveling at ~75MPH in an SUV. Why? Simple...what am I going to do, NOT move out of his way?
I've noticed that a slight majority of people who drive SUV's drive them like tanks. I've been flipped off, laughed at and cut off more times than I can count by them. All because of F=ma and the low-brow neanderthalic thinking that a lot of people get by driving the biggest thing they can get their hands on.
Last I checked, it was uh...punishment for breaking the common laws of society. Not a vacation at the hilton. Personally, I think we should skip some steps and use some of the Islamic punishments. Get caught stealing? Only twice...once for each hand. Murder someone? We send 'ya out back with the victim's family. They get weapons. You don't.
Cruel? Yep. Unusual...not really. The "Bible" is full of fun situations like these. Personally I'm sick of hearing how prisoners live better lifestyles than I do. Same with welfare. Got annoying when I worked security for $7.00/hr at rent controlled apartments only to see that over 80% drove Cadalliac Escalades or sports cars. Am I whining? Perhaps a little. I just don't see why people who can't be bothered to get a job (why would you? They sat at home and made more $$ than I did.) and only pay $30 a month for a 2-3 bdrm apartment get all these benefits. People in jail want golf courses and weight rooms and Cable TV, SCREW YOU. Here's some bread, some water and some bare walls because in case you missed it....THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE PUNISHMENT.
I think you can go one of two ways. 1.) "Rehabilitate" people. I think this was the idea behind the golf courses and cable tv. As it sits, I think this takes the fear factor out of prison. Sounds more like a resort to me. 2.) Give the people who want to actually learn something the opportunity to do so, the rest of them can sit and stare at the walls. It's punishment. Just like when you were a kid and had to sit in the corner.
"They were the ones who THOUGHT they were smarter than everyone else, and didn't realize that answering every question the teacher asked was just rubbing everyone else's face in it"
Maybe the "dumber kid" shouldn't be so focused on himself or his weights that he forgets to study or that people are different huh?
OR....
Maybe the "fat kid" was simply a target for mis-aligned rage at something else, like say an abusive parent. OR it could be that they felt self-conscious because they didn't know as much as he did OR...well you could simply go on and on.
Maybe we should teach tolerance towards others who aren't like us and some fucking self-respect. Then perhaps the instances of people kicking the shit out of each other to make themselves feel better would go down. But who am I? Oh yeah, the nerd who got tossed down two flights of steps by 3 of the guys from the football team. Guess I should have just slit their throats instead right, THAT would have showed them!! HA!
"I was bullied as a child, but only ever once by each bully - they soon learned the lesson once I broke noses and fingers."
Taken one step further, you're basically saying 'an eye for an eye'. Personally I'm seeing that as we raise yet another generation of "unique snowflakes" we're straying farther from where we need to be. Personal esteem is a great thing, however I don't understand this concept of stepping on one to raise another. Little Johnny scraped his knee at school because of the bad wood chips on the playground, so mommy sues on her little angel's behalf and now we have nerf playgrounds.(Be thankful kid, I had cement and pea gravel!) Some people don't like it when people smoke around them, so they just ban smoking. Law-makers now actually cater to special interests so they can pick up the donations from those groups. People have strayed so far from personal responsibility now it's almost unreal. We've got corporations that are making billions of dollars in profit while at the same time demanding relief in the form of additional millions of tax abatements. Patent law is quickly becoming a joke, and extremist views are becoming the norm.
Personally, if you can't take responsibility for your own actions, and the consequences of those actions, I don't think you should be able to hold society responsible and force them to change to suit your own individual (or small group for that matter.) tastes. Laws are there to keep others from immediate danger or harm, or, to keep business fair (at least that's what they tell me;-) ). If businesses are screwing their customers, then we need to take action (such as the anti-trust laws) to make sure it stops occurring. If individuals or small groups are causing undue harm or duress, then steps need to be taken to alleviate that. Sadly, even that line of thinking is prone to extremism... and I just don't have a solution to that part yet.
Simply put, don't hold society responsible for your personal problems. As more people populate the planet, each individual gets less of the finite resources. That's simply the way it is. If you don't like it, research ZPG.
--"it requires a further few months to have a lasting effect."--
Not sure if you were just summarizing or not, but just for the record... Prozac is a 'concentration' drug not a 'presence' drug. It has to be in the body for a length of time at a certain concentration in order to have the desired effect, unlike say, an anti-biotic which simply has to be there. Prozac is an SSRI (you probably already know this, but just want you to have the info if you don't already.) it works by prohibiting Seratonin from being destroyed after it's used to transmit a nerve impulse, thus increasing the amount of it in the synapse.
First of all, they're not parasites, they're PEOPLE. Just because they have a different culture and physical appearance doesn't qualify them as anything other than PEOPLE. Furthermore, if you'd like to take a walk down to a few of the trailer courts in my town (Toledo Ohio.) You'll see that wow, we have a bunch of WHITE people living like animals off the public teat as well, so sorry no "we behave better" points there, and they're just as willing to cannabilize their fellow countryman as anyone else.
"Things that most blacks are incapable of, hence the hell on earth that occurred in the Superdome... It was BLACKS that caused it, not the floods. Whites in the same position, as we can clearly now see, behave properly..."
Stop reading all the old books on how "inferior" one race is over another. They're what educated people call "propaganda". I know plenty of people of all colors who have BASIC HUMAN DIGNITY and RESPECT for LIFE, perhaps you should stop trying to prop up your own deflated and bruised sense of self worth....it occurs to me now that I'm trying to have a logical argument with someone holding an illogical viewpoint. *shakes his head*
"Your government has been hijacked by criminals. When will you realize that?"
When they finally take Survivor and American Idol off the air and nobody, not even the faux rich (the lower middle class and extreme lower class) can afford to put gas into their gold rimmed SUVs anymore. Until then, it'll be business as usual.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, there is a "hero story arc" that basically outlines every hero story ever made. It originated back when we (humans) kept our history through story telling. I did a cursory search on google, but sadly wasn't able to find what I wanted. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?
-A.A.M
--So effectively the practical difference between stealing cars and downloading pirate oses is primarily one of enforcement.--
Actually, the practical difference is pretty simple. If I steal a car, I am depriving the original owner of the property.
If I steal software, I'm depriving a faceless, soulless, underhanded company of a few bucks.
Now, does that make software piracy right or justified? Um...no. Does that mean that software piracy IS NOT STEALING? YES IT DOES.
What do you suggest, that we cut off a hand for each time you pirate a program? Is this that damaging to society in general? Somehow I don't think that it is. It's more of a white collar crime and less murder in the 1st degree.
A.A.M
Are you trying to tell me that there was no 8.0Gbit high speed servers in 2000? SERIOUSLY???!!!111
Of *course* the market is different. We've steadily increased the things we can do with a home computer, along with the speed and capacity of the 'affordable' internet services. What you're arguing is akin to "well, a 2008 Mustang is WAY faster than a Model A man!!!"
As a side note, the idea of PAYING for a game over and over and over and over again is just strange to me. Granted over the past few months I've done some checking and it would seem that it's not just paying for the privilege of being able to play the game online, which is basically what it started out as. I can actually get behind the whole "downloadable expanded content" idea. Took them long enough though :P
GET off my LAWN!! :)
A.A.M
...and don't forget their best seller : Lobotomy in a box(tm)!
--Vista without the glass doesn't look nearly as good.--
--The task bar needs quite a bit of work--
--"...how crappy the taskbar is, how "in your face" the windows were, how crappy the file dialogs were, how crappy taskman.exe was, or how generally insecure the default setup was"--
In reverse :
If you don't know how to set up your computer, ask someone who does know. Please don't beg for the Dilbert OS. You know, with one GIANT red button that they're nice enough to push at the factory for you?
I'm not sure why taskman.exe was "crappy" or wtf you're talking about with the "crappy file dialogs"
How are the windows "in your face"?
I just had my first real run in with winblows vista this morning (have been avoiding it for as long as possible now.)and I have a few questions :
1.) Why in the ever loving fuck would you need PERMISSION to move a file from one directory to another?
2.) Why is it asking me if it's cool to save the changes...TO A PROPERTY SHEET...when I haven't changed ANYTHING at all?
I haven't heard a single reason yet why I should switch to Vista.
-my decent (AMD 1.4Ghz, 512 DDR2 RAM, decent vid card) computer won't even get NEAR IT.
-I have yet to read about ANY 'improvements' that didn't involve that bloody "areo" interface or how "ooo shinyprettylookitthat!" it is.
Because hardly anyone besides the fanbois run Macs?
They're great for a lot of things, but they simply don't have the user share WINX does.
And see my above rants for my opinion on MSFT being "on track".
A.A.M
Yes it's nice. Yes it's pretty. People aren't complaining that they're using their video card. They're complaining that Vista runs like shit on their mostly new system and they don't want to have to go out and get a top-of-the-line system JUST TO HAVE A PRETTY INTERFACE.
I should not have to upgrade my system just because you wanted my os to look nicer. Hey MSFT, how about first concentrating on making the fucking thing WORK instead of "OOOOH SHINY!!!"? ...I think it's time to give my shift key a break!
A.A.M
--Instead I'm using good old ever reliable WinXP Pro--
I can't believe I'm reading that. I was in the tech support industry when XP came out. It was a *NIGHTMARE*. It seems that MSFT's way of business is to have a product in beta for 3/4 of it's "service life" then when they FINALLY work out all the bugs in the damn thing THEY DON'T SUPPORT IT ANYMORE.
I agree with you on most of your points though. I still miss the days when winblows was exactly what it should be now : AN APPLICATION. Leave the OS to do what it's supposed to be doing...BEING AN OS instead of a one-click bloated pos.
A.A.M
...They came for the speeders, and I didn't speed, so I never said anything
My apologies to the originator of that remark.
"If we, the citizens, want to protect the constitution, then we should step up and take responsibility for defending it from our politicians." --
DAMN STRAIGHT.
Had I mod points dear sir, you would be getting some. Now if we could just rustle up some people with balls over the next few elections, maybe we could keep ourselves out of the Communist States of America a bit longer.
It wasn't lost on me. I voted green party mostly because my finger just wouldn't touch Obama's name....
Actually, I think I'm entitled to drive SAFELY. Unless of course you think that driving a Yukon XL at 40 while cutting 4 cars off doing a triple lane change is "safe"...I mean, he WAS doing under the posted speed limit right?
--"I am on my side pretty sick of getting nearly killed once per year by stupid idiot which think law don't apply to them"--
How about 4-5 times a *DAY*? Then again, I see the police speed like hell all the time for no reason (no lights, sirens, etc. people get out of their way by habit...and they just accelerate) Someone else in this thread mentioned seeing police flip their lights on just to get through a red light and things like that... happens all the time around here. We like to call our police the "Toilet Paper Department" (I live in a city that starts with a "t") because they're just shitty around here. /end rant
A_A
Sort of like seatbelt laws?
I was driving in Portland OR a few years ago and got stopped...STOPPED mind you... for not wearing my seatbelt. It was something like a $175 ticket. I opted to go to the "Seat Belt Awareness Class", got to see some really amusing videos, and then told that even if I don't care about my own safety, I should think of the firemen, paramedics, etc. that have to remove me from the vehicle. I asked the instructor why it was anyone's business but my own if I decide to wear my seatbelt. She threatened to have me removed...and to keep the $80 I paid for the class in ADDITION to having me pay the original fine.
It amazes me that we pass laws like this, all because some soccer mom lost her precious little boy/girl in a terrible auto accident because they were drunk and not wearing their seatbelt while driving 100MPH down a country road. fffft.
A_A
Godwin loves you!
A.A
It's that whole sarcasm thing ;)
Indeed. Much better to drive an Abrams tank down the road and get 4MPG @ $4+ /gal than say... a smaller more fuel efficient vehicle. God only knows what people like me do (I drive a 2007 Ford Focus.) Oh wait... I look around and pay attention to the people on the road. Like the guy who cut across 3 lanes of traffic traveling at ~75MPH in an SUV. Why? Simple...what am I going to do, NOT move out of his way?
I've noticed that a slight majority of people who drive SUV's drive them like tanks. I've been flipped off, laughed at and cut off more times than I can count by them. All because of F=ma and the low-brow neanderthalic thinking that a lot of people get by driving the biggest thing they can get their hands on.
Archangel_azazel
Last I checked, it was uh...punishment for breaking the common laws of society. Not a vacation at the hilton. Personally, I think we should skip some steps and use some of the Islamic punishments. Get caught stealing? Only twice...once for each hand. Murder someone? We send 'ya out back with the victim's family. They get weapons. You don't.
Cruel? Yep. Unusual...not really. The "Bible" is full of fun situations like these. Personally I'm sick of hearing how prisoners live better lifestyles than I do. Same with welfare. Got annoying when I worked security for $7.00/hr at rent controlled apartments only to see that over 80% drove Cadalliac Escalades or sports cars. Am I whining? Perhaps a little. I just don't see why people who can't be bothered to get a job (why would you? They sat at home and made more $$ than I did.) and only pay $30 a month for a 2-3 bdrm apartment get all these benefits. People in jail want golf courses and weight rooms and Cable TV, SCREW YOU. Here's some bread, some water and some bare walls because in case you missed it....THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE PUNISHMENT.
I think you can go one of two ways. 1.) "Rehabilitate" people. I think this was the idea behind the golf courses and cable tv. As it sits, I think this takes the fear factor out of prison. Sounds more like a resort to me.
2.) Give the people who want to actually learn something the opportunity to do so, the rest of them can sit and stare at the walls. It's punishment. Just like when you were a kid and had to sit in the corner.
*shrugs* My 2cents.
A.A.M
+1 Fricking Hilarious
--even though there are technically only three races--
Um.... Last I checked man, there was the *HUMAN* race. So, I'm not sure what "3" you're talking about.
"They were the ones who THOUGHT they were smarter than everyone else, and didn't realize that answering every question the teacher asked was just rubbing everyone else's face in it"
Maybe the "dumber kid" shouldn't be so focused on himself or his weights that he forgets to study or that people are different huh?
OR....
Maybe the "fat kid" was simply a target for mis-aligned rage at something else, like say an abusive parent. OR it could be that they felt self-conscious because they didn't know as much as he did OR...well you could simply go on and on.
Maybe we should teach tolerance towards others who aren't like us and some fucking self-respect. Then perhaps the instances of people kicking the shit out of each other to make themselves feel better would go down.
But who am I? Oh yeah, the nerd who got tossed down two flights of steps by 3 of the guys from the football team. Guess I should have just slit their throats instead right, THAT would have showed them!! HA!
pish.
AAM
"I was bullied as a child, but only ever once by each bully - they soon learned the lesson once I broke noses and fingers."
;-) ). If businesses are screwing their customers, then we need to take action (such as the anti-trust laws) to make sure it stops occurring. If individuals or small groups are causing undue harm or duress, then steps need to be taken to alleviate that. Sadly, even that line of thinking is prone to extremism... and I just don't have a solution to that part yet.
Taken one step further, you're basically saying 'an eye for an eye'. Personally I'm seeing that as we raise yet another generation of "unique snowflakes" we're straying farther from where we need to be. Personal esteem is a great thing, however I don't understand this concept of stepping on one to raise another. Little Johnny scraped his knee at school because of the bad wood chips on the playground, so mommy sues on her little angel's behalf and now we have nerf playgrounds.(Be thankful kid, I had cement and pea gravel!) Some people don't like it when people smoke around them, so they just ban smoking. Law-makers now actually cater to special interests so they can pick up the donations from those groups. People have strayed so far from personal responsibility now it's almost unreal. We've got corporations that are making billions of dollars in profit while at the same time demanding relief in the form of additional millions of tax abatements. Patent law is quickly becoming a joke, and extremist views are becoming the norm.
Personally, if you can't take responsibility for your own actions, and the consequences of those actions, I don't think you should be able to hold society responsible and force them to change to suit your own individual (or small group for that matter.) tastes. Laws are there to keep others from immediate danger or harm, or, to keep business fair (at least that's what they tell me
Simply put, don't hold society responsible for your personal problems. As more people populate the planet, each individual gets less of the finite resources. That's simply the way it is. If you don't like it, research ZPG.
"If I recall correctly, you can even write in whatever name you want for your vote."
CmdrTaco for president?!
Brilliant.
--"it requires a further few months to have a lasting effect."--
:)
Not sure if you were just summarizing or not, but just for the record... Prozac is a 'concentration' drug not a 'presence' drug. It has to be in the body for a length of time at a certain concentration in order to have the desired effect, unlike say, an anti-biotic which simply has to be there. Prozac is an SSRI (you probably already know this, but just want you to have the info if you don't already.) it works by prohibiting Seratonin from being destroyed after it's used to transmit a nerve impulse, thus increasing the amount of it in the synapse.
http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/ssriwork.htm
Just in case you didn't have the info
Ok I'll bite.
...it occurs to me now that I'm trying to have a logical argument with someone holding an illogical viewpoint. *shakes his head*
First of all, they're not parasites, they're PEOPLE. Just because they have a different culture and physical appearance doesn't qualify them as anything other than PEOPLE. Furthermore, if you'd like to take a walk down to a few of the trailer courts in my town (Toledo Ohio.) You'll see that wow, we have a bunch of WHITE people living like animals off the public teat as well, so sorry no "we behave better" points there, and they're just as willing to cannabilize their fellow countryman as anyone else.
"Things that most blacks are incapable of, hence the hell on earth that occurred in the Superdome... It was BLACKS that caused it, not the floods. Whites in the same position, as we can clearly now see, behave properly..."
Stop reading all the old books on how "inferior" one race is over another. They're what educated people call "propaganda". I know plenty of people of all colors who have BASIC HUMAN DIGNITY and RESPECT for LIFE, perhaps you should stop trying to prop up your own deflated and bruised sense of self worth.
Moving on...
A.A
"Your government has been hijacked by criminals. When will you realize that?"
When they finally take Survivor and American Idol off the air and nobody, not even the faux rich (the lower middle class and extreme lower class) can afford to put gas into their gold rimmed SUVs anymore. Until then, it'll be business as usual.
A.A