Canadian doctors are probably leaving for the U.S. I'll give you that. But you haven't proved that this affects the Canadian health care system, and the article you linked to that I complained about was FAR from hard evidence of Canadians leaving for the U.S.anyway!
The only reason I posted was to point out that the article you linked to didn't mean anything. When a rural politician claims that he can't keep doctors in his remote community because they're moving to the U.S., it's just that - a claim. Not only that, it was a claim made in 1996. Canadian politicians love to squawk about how the Americans are destroying our health care system and that something has to be done immediately. It's the usual political rhetoric, and it happens to work fairly often with the rural Canadians. Apparently it now sways American libertarians as well.
Back up in Northern Manitoba, we did have problems keeping Canadian doctors - where they went, I don't know - could have been anywhere. But we got plenty of good doctors from elsewhere - the U.S. takes Canadian doctors, Canada takes doctors from Europe, South Africa, etc. The migration of doctors doesn't prove anything about the effectiveness of a particular system, even if you had hard evidence to back up the numbers.
So there's a shortage of doctors in Northern and Rural Manitoba, according to a couple of local politicians. What does that have to do with the "canadian health care issue" as a whole? I'm dying to know, since all that document described was a motion filed by a couple of provincial politicians. And I'm from northern manitoba, my family still lives up there, and I haven't heard any complaints about the health care. If anything, people are afraid that it will become more like the U.S. system. Sure, there may be a problem keeping doctors in communites that have a very low population (1,000 people or less) but when has that been news in any country?
I'm sure there are areas in the rural U.S. that have problems keeping doctors as well. If I find any documents describing that, will that prove anything about the U.S. heath care system as a whole? Even if it's only a motion that was filed in 1996 and specific to, say, Iowa?
The new DVD is going to be a lot better, although you're going to have to wait awhile to see it. Will have 5.1 audio, extra footage, Ridley Scott commentary track.
Look elsewhere in this thread for the post that contains the Globe & Mail article detailing McKinstry's armed rampage in 1990.
After McKinstry got out of the concrete hotel, he showed up in Winnipeg and tried desperately to promote his new "internet soap opera" called "CR6". Since not much happens in Winnipeg the local media went nuts and thought this guy was the coolest thing around. After a few months CR6 presumably disappeared and he dropped out of sight. Note that he started CR6 well after "The Spot" was on its way out. The hard-hitting journalists in Winnipeg never discovered that McKinstry was a wack-job.
While he was working on CR6, McKinstry was involved in several insane flame wars on alt.winnipeg.general. At least one ended with the cops being called and the local papers writing about stalkers on the Internet. I can't remember the particulars, but I think someone posted a tongue-in-cheek death threat and McKinstry freaked out. This was all in late '95 or early '96.
He also loved to post about some snake oil AI project he was involved with, as well as some sort of java text editor he was working on that was going to rule the world. Damn, I wish deja still had their old posts up. I'll see if I can dig some posts up off one of my old hard drives...some were so good/psychotic I saved them. Someone used to have a web page with some of them saved but google can't seem to find it...
Not much in the line of proof in this post except the link to the Globe article...damn deja all to hell!
We wouldn't have to rely on the news stories if the jerks at seti@home would post some accurate, in-depth information about the problem on their site. The "data pipeline" excuse is bullshit and justifiably irritated people who've devoted CPU time to this project. I know guys who are (WERE) constantly running seti@home in the background even though it slows down their system during normal use. Needless to say, these guys are pissed that they've been suffering through shitty performance for nothing. I've been running it at night, so I really don't care that much...but I can certainly understand why people are upset.
And all it would take is a one line apology for not being ready...
Maybe SETI wants to piss off a certain % of volunteers so their systems can handle the resulting decline in clients.
Dammit, I agree with you. You see, I've had this urge to wear speedos (and ONLY speedos) that are two sizes too tight on the subway. But I've been censoring myself...out of fear. Now I see that my fellow citizens have engendered my fear. But I'm tired of being hassled by the man! Starting tomorrow, it's Speedo time. See you all on the C Train! If you don't like my pasty, flabby physique, there's always the next car! God bless America!
Shoemaker "culminated his lunar research as science-team leader on the 1994 Clementine mission.
The Clementine mission included a deliberate search for water near the poles of the moon, Carolyn Shoemaker noted, but Clementine data did not settle the question. The search for water at the lunar poles is a key goal of Lunar Prospector."
So, Shoemaker is getting buried on the moon AND accomplishing one of the original goals of the Clementine mission in the process, which Shoemaker was science leader on. Cool.
And...
"After a 105-hour cruise to the moon, the spacecraft will be placed in lunar orbit and begin a one-year mapping mission from 63 miles above the lunar surface. When its battery fails at the end of its lifetime, an estimated 18 months [the press release was dated Jan 6/98] or more from now, Lunar Prospector and its special payload will crash on the moon."
They knew it was going to crash from the beginning, so they don't need to slam it into the lunar poles to bury him. But they ARE trying to continue Shoemaker's research by hurling the probe containing his ashes at a specific place. Way, way, way cool. Gotta love those NASA guys. Let's hope the experiment is a success.
How could you discover a more efficient way? The satellite has done its job and is no longer useful. Why would it be more efficient to do something else instead of plunging a dead satellite into the ground? Seems like the epitome of efficiency to me...
There's nothing wrong with dumping garbage on the moon. It's pretty hard to create ecological problems on a lifeless rock that doesn't have an ecology to start with. I say we dump all our garbage on the moon, and maybe relocate Newark and Cleveland there while we're at it.
Like, no way eh. Like, I used to live in Winnipeg, eh. And I'm sure all the experience this guy has is shutting down a couple of porn BBSes. The vice cops in Winnipeg can go get bent, eh. Their "computer crime force" is probably a desk jockey and a 386/SX.
Anyway if you use an obscure Winnipeg ex-cop as a source you probably really don't have a story eh. So like, don't pay attention to the article or you'll get hosed.
They don't sound better than CDs. They sound slightly worse. But most people won't notice a difference (depending on conditions).
I strongly doubt that the average person could tell the difference between identical recordings on both media, even under ideal conditions. Only way to tell is to have double-blind tests conducted by people who aren't jerk-off audiophiles.
There is no cookie cutter geek. There is no point getting upset about people who don't fit the idealized desciption of a "hacker". It's pretty funny how hackers are supposedly "non-conformists" when they savage each other over superficial differences in upbringing and personality.
Everyone's different. That's what makes life interesting.
P.S. Feynman smoked wacky tobacky in addition to taking the ketamine. He was really into the disassociative thing for awhile...but as far as I know it was part of a phase. All things in moderation, yes?
Canadians are just as bad. Canadians can't even find their own trials to make a circus out of (except the Paul Bernardo freakshow/tragedy) -- they have to watch the Americans fumble around. A *lot* of Canadians watched the OJ trial. I remember seeing the verdict in the lounge of a canuck college. I have never seen so many Canadians packed into a tiny space. And they were all REALLY into it. Cheering, booing, you name it.
He said "Dark City" was the best movie released last year. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is his favorite movie. Pretty strange picks for a guy who supposedly doesn't like sci-fi.
You wonder why your review wasn't posted? It's a summary of the movie and one huge SPOILER. Why didn't you tell us how it ended while you were at it?
As for "item 2", I hope you are joking. You got it backwards - by 2099 maybe bitter hackers will have understood that the hacker/cracker semantics war was lost to the mainstream journalists more than 100 years ago. But then again, hackers are notoriously stubborn about some things.
I used to get pissed off when "serious" magazines etc. posted fake stories for April Fools Day (and I got taken in). But it's a GOOD thing, when you think about it. We should be questioning the news that's fed to us EVERY day, not just on April Fool's day. Maybe some of the people (like me) who got burnt will learn something. This is important, especially with the low quality of journalism in general, journalists' repeated failure to correctly interpret statistics, etc.
Sorry for the genius post. Moderate it down, please.
I may not have made much sense to you in the first post, but I still believe that ESR made a mistake.
Are you saying that his two rants were self-referential? The only way they make sense is if he meant to illustrate the idiocy of masturbatory, nonsense flamage by doing it himself...in a fancy Gen-X post-ironic way. I, personally, didn't see it that way - seems more like a standard "open source leader has bitter, egotistical fit" to me. I'm sure the people who flamed him before will continue to do so; in fact, he has thrown more fuel on the fire. He should know better than to feed the trolls. I mean, come on... "Don't pity me -- I walked into this job with my eyes open. I knew the road would wear on me. I expected some people on my own side would damn near bury me in immaturity and bullshit" are sentences uttered by a character in the climax of a grade 11 literature assignment, not something that should be used without irony by an adult in a leadership position.
Plenty of people took his "retirement" seriously. If enough people miss the "message" -- enough to warrant a whole new essay explaining the first one -- I'd say mistakes were made, wouldn't you? Or is it easier to be smug and decry the poor reading comprehension of everyone who actually took ESR seriously?
People who wish to retire generally do not do what ESR did. It is no surprise that he had to back-track considerably with today's post on tuxedo.
If he *did* want to retire, it would have been much more effective to release a simple statement that didn't point fingers. It would have been classy instead of petulant. People would have discussed it with more fervor and it would have been more of a "big deal" because people would have taken it more seriously.
Try this: "For a variety of reasons I have decided to step aside as the de facto leader of the xxx movement. I will remain in the position until a suitable replacement is found. I would like to thank the people I've worked with over the last xxx months -- it's been a blast and I've learned a lot. But it's time to move on. I will continue to play an as yet undecided role in the xxx movement after my vacation:)"
It's obviously not perfect, but it's short and to the point. People would have figured out the reasons for retirement on their own (or with a little help from "AC" posters <g>), and he would have received far more sympathy. More people would have gotten the "wake up call".
However, it is now very clear that he wasn't intending to retire. People who were suspicious of his motives were, in fact, correct. Now he claims he was trying to stop us from "pushing (ESR and other Important Hackers) nearly over the edge". If that's true, he should have said that in the first place instead of posting something that turned out to be bullshit. It just damages his credibility.
Just my opinion. I realize that it's easy to second guess people, and I recognize ESR's herculean effort. But he wouldn't have had to post the clarification today if he had gotten it right the first time.
Anyone who says they would prefer to be murdered than raped has the same wiring problems rapists have. It's macho bullshit. Death is irreversible. People can and do recover from rape.
If I had to choose between being raped and being murdered, I would pick the rape. And I'm sure my friends and family would rather have me alive and raped than dead and gone forever.
Seriously, THINK about it. Would you prefer your loved ones to be raped or murdered? "Well, I really miss my daughter, but at least she wasn't raped" -- get REAL.
Slashdot Mirror
do a whois on reviewboard.com.
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:
Ferreira, Philip (PF2861) philip@GWI.NET
Reviewboard Magazine
913 Elm Street, Suite 500
Manchester, NH 03101
603-625-1564
Then do a google search on Philip Ferreira. Or, better yet, on both Philip Ferreira and slashdot. Seems like our buddy redir used to post to slashdot using both his username and email address...% 22+%2Bslashdot&hl=en&lr=&safe=off
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22philip+ferreira
Canadian doctors are probably leaving for the U.S. I'll give you that. But you haven't proved that this affects the Canadian health care system, and the article you linked to that I complained about was FAR from hard evidence of Canadians leaving for the U.S .anyway!
The only reason I posted was to point out that the article you linked to didn't mean anything. When a rural politician claims that he can't keep doctors in his remote community because they're moving to the U.S., it's just that - a claim. Not only that, it was a claim made in 1996. Canadian politicians love to squawk about how the Americans are destroying our health care system and that something has to be done immediately. It's the usual political rhetoric, and it happens to work fairly often with the rural Canadians. Apparently it now sways American libertarians as well.
Back up in Northern Manitoba, we did have problems keeping Canadian doctors - where they went, I don't know - could have been anywhere. But we got plenty of good doctors from elsewhere - the U.S. takes Canadian doctors, Canada takes doctors from Europe, South Africa, etc. The migration of doctors doesn't prove anything about the effectiveness of a particular system, even if you had hard evidence to back up the numbers.
So there's a shortage of doctors in Northern and Rural Manitoba, according to a couple of local politicians. What does that have to do with the "canadian health care issue" as a whole? I'm dying to know, since all that document described was a motion filed by a couple of provincial politicians. And I'm from northern manitoba, my family still lives up there, and I haven't heard any complaints about the health care. If anything, people are afraid that it will become more like the U.S. system. Sure, there may be a problem keeping doctors in communites that have a very low population (1,000 people or less) but when has that been news in any country?
I'm sure there are areas in the rural U.S. that have problems keeping doctors as well. If I find any documents describing that, will that prove anything about the U.S. heath care system as a whole? Even if it's only a motion that was filed in 1996 and specific to, say, Iowa?
Blade Runner Special Edition Info
I guess I have to write something here or get hit by the lameness filter.
I screwed up the date in the last post. I meant to write "late '96 or or early '97". Sorry.
Look elsewhere in this thread for the post that contains the Globe & Mail article detailing McKinstry's armed rampage in 1990.
After McKinstry got out of the concrete hotel, he showed up in Winnipeg and tried desperately to promote his new "internet soap opera" called "CR6". Since not much happens in Winnipeg the local media went nuts and thought this guy was the coolest thing around. After a few months CR6 presumably disappeared and he dropped out of sight. Note that he started CR6 well after "The Spot" was on its way out. The hard-hitting journalists in Winnipeg never discovered that McKinstry was a wack-job.
While he was working on CR6, McKinstry was involved in several insane flame wars on alt.winnipeg.general. At least one ended with the cops being called and the local papers writing about stalkers on the Internet. I can't remember the particulars, but I think someone posted a tongue-in-cheek death threat and McKinstry freaked out. This was all in late '95 or early '96.
He also loved to post about some snake oil AI project he was involved with, as well as some sort of java text editor he was working on that was going to rule the world. Damn, I wish deja still had their old posts up. I'll see if I can dig some posts up off one of my old hard drives...some were so good/psychotic I saved them. Someone used to have a web page with some of them saved but google can't seem to find it...
Not much in the line of proof in this post except the link to the Globe article...damn deja all to hell!
Is Pixelon still looking for a new CEO?
oooh, let's see how deep we can take this. We are all so very clever.
That manager was soooooo right. Folks like you just keep proving it.
We wouldn't have to rely on the news stories if the jerks at seti@home would post some accurate, in-depth information about the problem on their site. The "data pipeline" excuse is bullshit and justifiably irritated people who've devoted CPU time to this project. I know guys who are (WERE) constantly running seti@home in the background even though it slows down their system during normal use. Needless to say, these guys are pissed that they've been suffering through shitty performance for nothing. I've been running it at night, so I really don't care that much...but I can certainly understand why people are upset.
And all it would take is a one line apology for not being ready...
Maybe SETI wants to piss off a certain % of volunteers so their systems can handle the resulting decline in clients.
Anyone want to start "SI@SETI@HOME"?
Dammit, I agree with you. You see, I've had this urge to wear speedos (and ONLY speedos) that are two sizes too tight on the subway. But I've been censoring myself...out of fear. Now I see that my fellow citizens have engendered my fear. But I'm tired of being hassled by the man! Starting tomorrow, it's Speedo time. See you all on the C Train! If you don't like my pasty, flabby physique, there's always the next car! God bless America!
And...
They knew it was going to crash from the beginning, so they don't need to slam it into the lunar poles to bury him. But they ARE trying to continue Shoemaker's research by hurling the probe containing his ashes at a specific place. Way, way, way cool. Gotta love those NASA guys. Let's hope the experiment is a success.
Damn, I wish I had some moderator points. Thanks for the info.
How could you discover a more efficient way? The satellite has done its job and is no longer useful. Why would it be more efficient to do something else instead of plunging a dead satellite into the ground? Seems like the epitome of efficiency to me...
There's nothing wrong with dumping garbage on the moon. It's pretty hard to create ecological problems on a lifeless rock that doesn't have an ecology to start with. I say we dump all our garbage on the moon, and maybe relocate Newark and Cleveland there while we're at it.
Like, no way eh. Like, I used to live in Winnipeg, eh. And I'm sure all the experience this guy has is shutting down a couple of porn BBSes. The vice cops in Winnipeg can go get bent, eh. Their "computer crime force" is probably a desk jockey and a 386/SX.
Anyway if you use an obscure Winnipeg ex-cop as a source you probably really don't have a story eh. So like, don't pay attention to the article or you'll get hosed.
Beauty eh.
They don't sound better than CDs. They sound slightly worse. But most people won't notice a difference (depending on conditions).
I strongly doubt that the average person could tell the difference between identical recordings on both media, even under ideal conditions. Only way to tell is to have double-blind tests conducted by people who aren't jerk-off audiophiles.
There is no cookie cutter geek. There is no point getting upset about people who don't fit the idealized desciption of a "hacker". It's pretty funny how hackers are supposedly "non-conformists" when they savage each other over superficial differences in upbringing and personality.
Everyone's different. That's what makes life interesting.
P.S. Feynman smoked wacky tobacky in addition to taking the ketamine. He was really into the disassociative thing for awhile...but as far as I know it was part of a phase. All things in moderation, yes?
Canadians are just as bad. Canadians can't even find their own trials to make a circus out of (except the Paul Bernardo freakshow/tragedy) -- they have to watch the Americans fumble around. A *lot* of Canadians watched the OJ trial. I remember seeing the verdict in the lounge of a canuck college. I have never seen so many Canadians packed into a tiny space. And they were all REALLY into it. Cheering, booing, you name it.
So, like, take it easy on the yanks eh.
He said "Dark City" was the best movie released last year. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is his favorite movie. Pretty strange picks for a guy who supposedly doesn't like sci-fi.
You wonder why your review wasn't posted? It's a summary of the movie and one huge SPOILER. Why didn't you tell us how it ended while you were at it?
As for "item 2", I hope you are joking. You got it backwards - by 2099 maybe bitter hackers will have understood that the hacker/cracker semantics war was lost to the mainstream journalists more than 100 years ago. But then again, hackers are notoriously stubborn about some things.
It's interesting to see how moderators moderate moderation comments :)
Seems they are busier then usual. Very opinionated when it comes to moderating, I guess.
I used to get pissed off when "serious" magazines etc. posted fake stories for April Fools Day (and I got taken in). But it's a GOOD thing, when you think about it. We should be questioning the news that's fed to us EVERY day, not just on April Fool's day. Maybe some of the people (like me) who got burnt will learn something. This is important, especially with the low quality of journalism in general, journalists' repeated failure to correctly interpret statistics, etc.
Sorry for the genius post. Moderate it down, please.
I may not have made much sense to you in the first post, but I still believe that ESR made a mistake.
Are you saying that his two rants were self-referential? The only way they make sense is if he meant to illustrate the idiocy of masturbatory, nonsense flamage by doing it himself...in a fancy Gen-X post-ironic way. I, personally, didn't see it that way - seems more like a standard "open source leader has bitter, egotistical fit" to me. I'm sure the people who flamed him before will continue to do so; in fact, he has thrown more fuel on the fire. He should know better than to feed the trolls. I mean, come on... "Don't pity me -- I walked into this job with my eyes open. I knew the road would wear on me. I expected some people on my own side would damn near bury me in immaturity and bullshit" are sentences uttered by a character in the climax of a grade 11 literature assignment, not something that should be used without irony by an adult in a leadership position.
Plenty of people took his "retirement" seriously. If enough people miss the "message" -- enough to warrant a whole new essay explaining the first one -- I'd say mistakes were made, wouldn't you? Or is it easier to be smug and decry the poor reading comprehension of everyone who actually took ESR seriously?
L. Ron McKenzie
Sloppy Reader and Slashdot Poster
Yeah, only the geniuses caught ESR's brilliance. Egos...
People who wish to retire generally do not do what ESR did. It is no surprise that he had to back-track considerably with today's post on tuxedo.
:)"
If he *did* want to retire, it would have been much more effective to release a simple statement that didn't point fingers. It would have been classy instead of petulant. People would have discussed it with more fervor and it would have been more of a "big deal" because people would have taken it more seriously.
Try this:
"For a variety of reasons I have decided to step aside as the de facto leader of the xxx movement. I will remain in the position until a suitable replacement is found. I would like to thank the people I've worked with over the last xxx months -- it's been a blast and I've learned a lot. But it's time to move on. I will continue to play an as yet undecided role in the xxx movement after my vacation
It's obviously not perfect, but it's short and to the point. People would have figured out the reasons for retirement on their own (or with a little help from "AC" posters <g>), and he would have received far more sympathy. More people would have gotten the "wake up call".
However, it is now very clear that he wasn't intending to retire. People who were suspicious of his motives were, in fact, correct. Now he claims he was trying to stop us from "pushing (ESR and other Important Hackers) nearly over the edge". If that's true, he should have said that in the first place instead of posting something that turned out to be bullshit. It just damages his credibility.
Just my opinion. I realize that it's easy to second guess people, and I recognize ESR's herculean effort. But he wouldn't have had to post the clarification today if he had gotten it right the first time.
Anyone who says they would prefer to be murdered than raped has the same wiring problems rapists have. It's macho bullshit. Death is irreversible. People can and do recover from rape.
If I had to choose between being raped and being murdered, I would pick the rape. And I'm sure my friends and family would rather have me alive and raped than dead and gone forever.
Seriously, THINK about it. Would you prefer your loved ones to be raped or murdered? "Well, I really miss my daughter, but at least she wasn't raped" -- get REAL.