Its pretty obvious that the US as a superpower was a post-WWII accident and the rest of the world has caught up, thus the decentrilization of wealth, power, industry, ideas, etc. Instead of lamenting "this sad state" we should be preparing for a future where the US isnt the king of all things and learn how to better compete, create new markets, etc.
I never saw the allure of sliders. Sure, it had a good premise but the execution was terrible. It was, lets face it, poorly acted, poorly shot, and consisted of cheap sets. Either the characters weren't fleshed out or the actors couldnt pull it off. I remember thinking this show could breakthrough to the mainstream if it had more drama and was simply better made. Instead of improving on the first two seasons Fox and Scifi pretty much gave it a slow and ugly death.
I wouldnt mind seeing a better production team try the "elseworld" game. Perhaps with more allegory.
There's no real incentive to sell below costs. Sure, it helps the itunes music store, but not enough to justify giving these things away. I'm pretty sure Apple makes a profit on everything it sells.
> Sadly this means that I now support any kind of gestapo like tactic that they use to keep the OS locked to their hardware.
Actually you could do the opposite. You could demand Apple work with MS to get a version of windows running on their Macs for people who want to dual-boot. If those people end up never using OSX, then Apple still made a sale. This gestapo crap is short-sighted.
If Apple wants to make it past its tiny niche, they need to open up the platform somewhat. Ideally, the Macs should be able to triple boot OSX, Windows, and Linux if need be.
Not to mention the opposite approach; a "OSX jr"' release for non-Apple hardware for dabblers, developers, etc. As long as it clearly states its unsupported and OSX best runs on Macs, it probably wont hurt the brand. In fact, exposing people to OSX might just sell a few extra macs here and there.
> Evolution is simply the result of certain genetic traits being selected based upon environmental pressures.
The scope of this article is over 60,000 years, the headline suggests the brain is "still" evolving. When you consider modern medicine and modern living the most basic mechanics of evolution (natural selection) aren't nearly as powerful as they were in hunter/gatherer societies.
So, it is news, and whats even more misleading is that the suggestion that evolution is happening due to environmental factors now. What factors exactly? Modern life is about preserving life no matter what and previously people who would have died due to a weak immune system, mental illness, etc are happily (or miserably) reproducing and passing their genes. Seems like evolution is in action but when the environment gives mixed signals, whose to say where its "going."
they're probably using the groupware too. Are they also willing to ditch outlook?
If you're looking for a groupware replacement, then you've got a big job ahead of you. Scalix is a mess, bynari is a hack, etc. When you do get them running things end users end up buying like PDAs and apps that hook into outlook are going to cause more problems.
If its just pop/imap you really can't go wrong. A good webmail option is kinda a catch. Squirrelmail is nice, but compared to OWA its really out of its league.
If your post told us what they were fed up with and how they used their system you'd get some real advice. Expect the usual postfix vs qmail vs sendmail vs whoever mini-flamewars.
>The point is, the current administration can do nothing right, and will always be painted with evil motives, no matter what.
Funny, I turned off the news for the opposite reasons.
1. The war in Iraq rages on. Why? Where is the WMD? Where is the outrage?
2. The Christian Right's talking heads (who are 99% pro-Bush) seem to be the only voices on the news with little to no appropriate secular answer to their insane claims and hate-mongering.
3. The lack of discourse about why our National Guard is in Iraq and not waiting for events just like these to happen.
4. How the FEMA head Michael Brown's background is in being a laywer and city councilman. The favor system in Washington hurts when real work is demanded from these types.
5. How all the cries of "smaller government" also include smaller emergency services.
The saying "games drive the market" really is about the rapid upgrade cycle of the home user. Its a great way for intel, nvidia, and the rest to say "See, thats why you need this new chip. You cant play this game!" Its the old keeping up with the jonses strategy and it works.
Back in the day, Apple thought it could get OS dominance by giving away machines to schools and selling pricey GUI driven machines to business. Well, it ends up that its very convienent for people to buy a computer that runs some of the stuff they run at work to do work at home. MS had a good start in the business world and it just translated into the home market.
Not to mention the x86 architecture was much more hacker friendly than Apple's offerings at the time. That's still true today.
Lastly, the game companies are developing in DirectX anyway so they seem to have drunk the kool-aid with the rest of the industry.
And what is it that people here want? Seriously, do we want to go through mountains of demographic data on the "teen and young adult market," sales projections, business plans, and marketing tactics of the PSP and the DS.
Its the back and forth arguments, the polarized views, the outrage, etc that bring people here. This is what passes for ordinary discourse and considering the popularity of the site, well, you tell me what people -really- want.
>similarly to XP activation, Firefox sends us a code generated according to the computer's hardware
Oh come on, this is just trolling.
The secret code if it exists is called USER_AGENT. Firefox downloads don't get counted. Nor do downloads from the update mechanism. Surely, if this secret code exists you can sniff the http session and post it here.
1. That is an invalid IP address. Some software chokes on it. Opera hates it.
2. Some odd networking issues have been traced to it. Rare, but enough to not make the default hosts file resolve to 0.0.0.0.
So I err on the side of caution. It is a tad faster, but not worth the dozen emails from people asking me why their computer doesnt work right anymore. Its especially handy if you run a local webserver and you dont want to fill up the logs with/ads/annoyingflashcrap.swf
People who are informed enough to know what 0.0.0.0 is are smart enough to do the find and replace themselves so it all works out in the end. Good question though.
It wasnt too long ago that people filled out long questionaires for "Win a free minivan" at the mall, and all that information was just sold en masse to a bunch of marketers. From there, they can do whatever they like with the info. Do you trust them to build a complex and well-running filtering system? ]
I dont think its even possible to have "targeted ads." Amazon's suggestion system is terrible. My tivo suggestions are even worse.
Don't give up any of your personal information. Not only are their methods seriously flawed, but they'll toss you on a bulk marketing list if they could get 1 penny per name.
Just block ads outright. I keep an updated hosts file of ad servers here. The whole situation with flash ads, firefox proof pop-ups, etc is getting ridiculous. Funny, I've been blocking ads for years yet I still buy stuff.
No conspiracy theory needed, last I checked Congress was controlled by Republicans not to mention the White House and arguably SCOTUS. When my friends and I saw the first Patriot act pass we knew the sunset would never, ever come. History alone could tell you that.
There's a difference between depression which everyone gets and major or chronic depression which has nothing or very little to do with one's environment.
The idea that treatment will stop progress is pretty ridiculous and the pollyanna-types have been screaming this Brave New World. Doesn't seem to be happening at all and the idea that its moral to deprive very sick people of treatment for the greater social good is kinda disturbing. If your society is at that point, then "social justice" has long left you.
Also, I'd like to point out that in every democracy people tend to vote against their best interests and the interests of others over party loyalty, hot button issues, or just plain old fashioned ideology regardless of how they feel. In the US, the poorest states vote for the party which wants to dismantle the very social programs they depend on to get by. So the thesis itself sounds highly flawed to me.
> I sometimes wonder what movies would be like if logically thinking people made them.
Lets count the ways:
1. Flying through space would involve a crew, safety checks, and published flight plans in an advances society. So no two man smuggling teams.
2. Effeminate robots and a beeping speech system would never have made it past the "stupidity test" thus no R2 and 3P0. Instead you'd have two very predictable and obedient automatons.
3. No faster than light travel. So long galactic civilization.
4. No sounds in space.
5. Stormtroopers being professional soldiers would take careful aim, set up snipers, etc thus all gun fights end with the good guys dying and quickly.
6. No force, no prophesies, etc. No such thing.
7. No one acting out of stupid impulse or emotion, thus Luke never leaves tatooine.
etc.
Err, I'd rather not watch the Vulcan version of Star Wars. The silliness is part of its charm. Storytelling is much more an unpredictable art than a science.
Exactly, Plame/Wilson is her real name and as a NOC she used her real identity along with the front of a fake company to do CIA work, like thousands of others do. The top-secret James Bond world of fake personas and underground lairs is not how intelligence agencies tend to work.
Finding stuff when you have a name is easy. Figuring out that that person is a NOC or the company they "work" for is a CIA front shouldnt be. Ignoring the actions of the current WH of course.
Also, their legal team should be forced to testify to reveal if they knew about this consultant, and if so why they continued these lawsuits with this information. If there's going to be a chilling effect on this madness, the lawyers should not get a free ride. They do not belong in the Bar association if they were doing McBride's bidding the whole time.
This country needs to be cleaned out. Its starting. We got Ebbers on the finacial front, along with Arther Anderson. Soon we'll have Rove or someone from the WH on the political front. Now McBride on the tech front and his lawyers on the legal front.
So much corruption, but at least some opportunities are opening and making an example out of these people goes a long way towards justice and keeping others from doing the same.
Some groups would like to change this, but if you get 25 years you're probably serving 25 years. H.R. 3072 is a bill to bring back parole, and as much as I hate people like Ebbers, its much needed when non-violent drug offenders spend their lives in prison because of the puritanical drug war.
The upside is that federal prisons tend to be a bit nicer than state prisons.
> Only a few decades ago, predictions were all over the place: flying cars, nuclear power plants in every home, etc.
Seems to me a lot of people got out of the futurist business becuause, well, its mostly groundless speculation and self-promotion. I'm not surprised that the remaining self-styled futurists agree, seemingly, more than usual. If anything the singularity crap and super-amazing just around the corner nanomachines/genetic engineering are memes in themselves and the remaining futurists are just hosts to these very appealing ideas.
Sometimes the writing is clearly on the wall. Heavier than air flight wasnt really a question of "if possible" as much as "when." Or electric light or electric music.
In fact I'd say futurism is a bit harmful, maybe even useless. People who keep up with technology dont need to be told "there will be gradual advances and perhaps a breakthrough" and those who are oblivious to it all read a Kuzweil quote and think the military has a wintermute-type AI device in the works or that the government will force everyone to have a chip in their heads.
Playing the "rotating seat" card and claiming an evil conspiracy is pretty weak. The UN members states get representation of some kind, not just, say the US. Internationalism is ugly and messy. There's another country with a horrible human rights record that almost never gets mentioned by the "UN is bad, mmkay" crowd. Guess who? Guess who keeps covering for them in the security council.
Anyway, taking the "I hate stuff and I'm kinda a libertarian" stance on slashdot is a great way to get mod points. Congrats on your +5 post!
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget China's sword wielding robot. Imagine that running at you.
Its pretty obvious that the US as a superpower was a post-WWII accident and the rest of the world has caught up, thus the decentrilization of wealth, power, industry, ideas, etc. Instead of lamenting "this sad state" we should be preparing for a future where the US isnt the king of all things and learn how to better compete, create new markets, etc.
I never saw the allure of sliders. Sure, it had a good premise but the execution was terrible. It was, lets face it, poorly acted, poorly shot, and consisted of cheap sets. Either the characters weren't fleshed out or the actors couldnt pull it off. I remember thinking this show could breakthrough to the mainstream if it had more drama and was simply better made. Instead of improving on the first two seasons Fox and Scifi pretty much gave it a slow and ugly death.
I wouldnt mind seeing a better production team try the "elseworld" game. Perhaps with more allegory.
Analysts peg iPods with something like a 20% profit margin and the shuffle with almost 40%.
There's no real incentive to sell below costs. Sure, it helps the itunes music store, but not enough to justify giving these things away. I'm pretty sure Apple makes a profit on everything it sells.
> Sadly this means that I now support any kind of gestapo like tactic that they use to keep the OS locked to their hardware.
Actually you could do the opposite. You could demand Apple work with MS to get a version of windows running on their Macs for people who want to dual-boot. If those people end up never using OSX, then Apple still made a sale. This gestapo crap is short-sighted.
If Apple wants to make it past its tiny niche, they need to open up the platform somewhat. Ideally, the Macs should be able to triple boot OSX, Windows, and Linux if need be.
Not to mention the opposite approach; a "OSX jr"' release for non-Apple hardware for dabblers, developers, etc. As long as it clearly states its unsupported and OSX best runs on Macs, it probably wont hurt the brand. In fact, exposing people to OSX might just sell a few extra macs here and there.
> Evolution is simply the result of certain genetic traits being selected based upon environmental pressures.
The scope of this article is over 60,000 years, the headline suggests the brain is "still" evolving. When you consider modern medicine and modern living the most basic mechanics of evolution (natural selection) aren't nearly as powerful as they were in hunter/gatherer societies.
So, it is news, and whats even more misleading is that the suggestion that evolution is happening due to environmental factors now. What factors exactly? Modern life is about preserving life no matter what and previously people who would have died due to a weak immune system, mental illness, etc are happily (or miserably) reproducing and passing their genes. Seems like evolution is in action but when the environment gives mixed signals, whose to say where its "going."
they're probably using the groupware too. Are they also willing to ditch outlook?
If you're looking for a groupware replacement, then you've got a big job ahead of you. Scalix is a mess, bynari is a hack, etc. When you do get them running things end users end up buying like PDAs and apps that hook into outlook are going to cause more problems.
If its just pop/imap you really can't go wrong. A good webmail option is kinda a catch. Squirrelmail is nice, but compared to OWA its really out of its league.
If your post told us what they were fed up with and how they used their system you'd get some real advice. Expect the usual postfix vs qmail vs sendmail vs whoever mini-flamewars.
>The point is, the current administration can do nothing right, and will always be painted with evil motives, no matter what.
Funny, I turned off the news for the opposite reasons.
1. The war in Iraq rages on. Why? Where is the WMD? Where is the outrage?
2. The Christian Right's talking heads (who are 99% pro-Bush) seem to be the only voices on the news with little to no appropriate secular answer to their insane claims and hate-mongering.
3. The lack of discourse about why our National Guard is in Iraq and not waiting for events just like these to happen.
4. How the FEMA head Michael Brown's background is in being a laywer and city councilman. The favor system in Washington hurts when real work is demanded from these types.
5. How all the cries of "smaller government" also include smaller emergency services.
Then again you always have Fox news.
The saying "games drive the market" really is about the rapid upgrade cycle of the home user. Its a great way for intel, nvidia, and the rest to say "See, thats why you need this new chip. You cant play this game!" Its the old keeping up with the jonses strategy and it works.
Back in the day, Apple thought it could get OS dominance by giving away machines to schools and selling pricey GUI driven machines to business. Well, it ends up that its very convienent for people to buy a computer that runs some of the stuff they run at work to do work at home. MS had a good start in the business world and it just translated into the home market.
Not to mention the x86 architecture was much more hacker friendly than Apple's offerings at the time. That's still true today.
Lastly, the game companies are developing in DirectX anyway so they seem to have drunk the kool-aid with the rest of the industry.
And what is it that people here want? Seriously, do we want to go through mountains of demographic data on the "teen and young adult market," sales projections, business plans, and marketing tactics of the PSP and the DS.
Its the back and forth arguments, the polarized views, the outrage, etc that bring people here. This is what passes for ordinary discourse and considering the popularity of the site, well, you tell me what people -really- want.
"Katz"
What ever happened to him?
>similarly to XP activation, Firefox sends us a code generated according to the computer's hardware
Oh come on, this is just trolling.
The secret code if it exists is called USER_AGENT. Firefox downloads don't get counted. Nor do downloads from the update mechanism. Surely, if this secret code exists you can sniff the http session and post it here.
A couple reasons:
/ads/annoyingflashcrap.swf
1. That is an invalid IP address. Some software chokes on it. Opera hates it.
2. Some odd networking issues have been traced to it. Rare, but enough to not make the default hosts file resolve to 0.0.0.0.
So I err on the side of caution. It is a tad faster, but not worth the dozen emails from people asking me why their computer doesnt work right anymore. Its especially handy if you run a local webserver and you dont want to fill up the logs with
People who are informed enough to know what 0.0.0.0 is are smart enough to do the find and replace themselves so it all works out in the end. Good question though.
I'd be careful what I wish for.
It wasnt too long ago that people filled out long questionaires for "Win a free minivan" at the mall, and all that information was just sold en masse to a bunch of marketers. From there, they can do whatever they like with the info. Do you trust them to build a complex and well-running filtering system? ]
I dont think its even possible to have "targeted ads." Amazon's suggestion system is terrible. My tivo suggestions are even worse.
Don't give up any of your personal information. Not only are their methods seriously flawed, but they'll toss you on a bulk marketing list if they could get 1 penny per name.
Just block ads outright. I keep an updated hosts file of ad servers here. The whole situation with flash ads, firefox proof pop-ups, etc is getting ridiculous. Funny, I've been blocking ads for years yet I still buy stuff.
No conspiracy theory needed, last I checked Congress was controlled by Republicans not to mention the White House and arguably SCOTUS. When my friends and I saw the first Patriot act pass we knew the sunset would never, ever come. History alone could tell you that.
The abuses have already happened as reported by the inspector general back in 2003. Oh well, this is the ever changing face of America. Funny how this type of big intrusive government is compatible with conservative philosophies. As long as no men are kissing I guess its all dandy.
There's a difference between depression which everyone gets and major or chronic depression which has nothing or very little to do with one's environment.
The idea that treatment will stop progress is pretty ridiculous and the pollyanna-types have been screaming this Brave New World. Doesn't seem to be happening at all and the idea that its moral to deprive very sick people of treatment for the greater social good is kinda disturbing. If your society is at that point, then "social justice" has long left you.
Also, I'd like to point out that in every democracy people tend to vote against their best interests and the interests of others over party loyalty, hot button issues, or just plain old fashioned ideology regardless of how they feel. In the US, the poorest states vote for the party which wants to dismantle the very social programs they depend on to get by. So the thesis itself sounds highly flawed to me.
> I sometimes wonder what movies would be like if logically thinking people made them.
Lets count the ways:
1. Flying through space would involve a crew, safety checks, and published flight plans in an advances society. So no two man smuggling teams.
2. Effeminate robots and a beeping speech system would never have made it past the "stupidity test" thus no R2 and 3P0. Instead you'd have two very predictable and obedient automatons.
3. No faster than light travel. So long galactic civilization.
4. No sounds in space.
5. Stormtroopers being professional soldiers would take careful aim, set up snipers, etc thus all gun fights end with the good guys dying and quickly.
6. No force, no prophesies, etc. No such thing.
7. No one acting out of stupid impulse or emotion, thus Luke never leaves tatooine.
etc.
Err, I'd rather not watch the Vulcan version of Star Wars. The silliness is part of its charm. Storytelling is much more an unpredictable art than a science.
No, its not "just political." Outing an agent is outing an agent. Period. Thanks for the RNC talking points though.
Exactly, Plame/Wilson is her real name and as a NOC she used her real identity along with the front of a fake company to do CIA work, like thousands of others do. The top-secret James Bond world of fake personas and underground lairs is not how intelligence agencies tend to work.
Finding stuff when you have a name is easy. Figuring out that that person is a NOC or the company they "work" for is a CIA front shouldnt be. Ignoring the actions of the current WH of course.
Also, their legal team should be forced to testify to reveal if they knew about this consultant, and if so why they continued these lawsuits with this information. If there's going to be a chilling effect on this madness, the lawyers should not get a free ride. They do not belong in the Bar association if they were doing McBride's bidding the whole time.
This country needs to be cleaned out. Its starting. We got Ebbers on the finacial front, along with Arther Anderson. Soon we'll have Rove or someone from the WH on the political front. Now McBride on the tech front and his lawyers on the legal front.
So much corruption, but at least some opportunities are opening and making an example out of these people goes a long way towards justice and keeping others from doing the same.
Some groups would like to change this, but if you get 25 years you're probably serving 25 years. H.R. 3072 is a bill to bring back parole, and as much as I hate people like Ebbers, its much needed when non-violent drug offenders spend their lives in prison because of the puritanical drug war.
The upside is that federal prisons tend to be a bit nicer than state prisons.
> These are likely to be influential people.
My god, its full of teenage girls.
> Only a few decades ago, predictions were all over the place: flying cars, nuclear power plants in every home, etc.
Seems to me a lot of people got out of the futurist business becuause, well, its mostly groundless speculation and self-promotion. I'm not surprised that the remaining self-styled futurists agree, seemingly, more than usual. If anything the singularity crap and super-amazing just around the corner nanomachines/genetic engineering are memes in themselves and the remaining futurists are just hosts to these very appealing ideas.
Sometimes the writing is clearly on the wall. Heavier than air flight wasnt really a question of "if possible" as much as "when." Or electric light or electric music.
In fact I'd say futurism is a bit harmful, maybe even useless. People who keep up with technology dont need to be told "there will be gradual advances and perhaps a breakthrough" and those who are oblivious to it all read a Kuzweil quote and think the military has a wintermute-type AI device in the works or that the government will force everyone to have a chip in their heads.
> Can anyone look at the history of the UN and honestly say that they would be any better, rather than a lot worse?
You'd probably be dead of smallpox, if not all out nuclear war, but hey who cares when you you've got fox news talking points to spread on the web.
I'll get you started on the path to some facts:
The World Health Organization eradicated smallpox. Guess who created WHO?
Playing the "rotating seat" card and claiming an evil conspiracy is pretty weak. The UN members states get representation of some kind, not just, say the US. Internationalism is ugly and messy. There's another country with a horrible human rights record that almost never gets mentioned by the "UN is bad, mmkay" crowd. Guess who? Guess who keeps covering for them in the security council.
Anyway, taking the "I hate stuff and I'm kinda a libertarian" stance on slashdot is a great way to get mod points. Congrats on your +5 post!