Which, if I am correct, was Colbert's mock against the "9/11 truth" movement. Please excuse me for not crediting Colbert, it wasn't really the topic of my post.
Ironically, the Op's statement is more insightful than many people may realize. Let's face it, there is alot of crap floating around that masquerades as "Truth". The entire "9/11 Truth" movement, for example. (Which, I suspect, is what the OP got the "truthiness" quip from. A mock on the "truther" movement.)
The point is, WHO is to be the arbiter of "truth"? And how do we know they won't have a political agenda? I think that the major problem is not that some sites need a "true" or "not true" label, but that FAR too many people lack critical thinking skills and fall for emotional ploys and the latest "chicken little" scares.
It would be far more efficacious to push for a critical thinking and debate class requirements in grade and collegiate level schools. At least then people would be better equipped to winnow out the facts from the crap themselves, and we wouldn't have to rely on some nebulous "Truth Authority" to inform us.
Is it just me, or is this entire thread reminding anyone else of this:
Dude: - Hey Front! You got a mag? Front: - Ex Cash man... I mean I quit. Dude: - Whaaat? You mean if I took out a fattie RIGHT NOW, you wouldn't spark it? Front: - Whoah! I'm impressed that you rolled a whole Z of Mexican brickweed into one J, but I'm not tempted! Dude: - I don't smoke no brickweed man, this is Mountain Kind right here. Front: - For real? Ya got a light?
Or am I the only one that occasionally fires up MC Frontalot on the drive home from work?
Ekiga is fine and all, but he said he was looking for cross platform support for MAC users as well. This rules out Ekiga, unless there is a plain SIP application for Macs that I don't know about.
Why not use Skype? There is a Windows, a Mac, and a Linux version. I use the Linux version to videochat from my Ubuntu Linux laptop (using a Logitech Quickcam Pro for Notebooks) with my Dad on his Mac, and he uses his Mac version to talk with Windows people. Yes, it's not Open source, but it DOES work and it's FREE (as in beer) to use, as long as you aren't placing calls to POTS numbers. Even then, the charge is minimal.
Ekiga not only cannot recognize my camera (for reasons I cannot explain, especially when crappy little "Cheese" can see it!) But because it's a plain vanilla SIP application, I basically can't use it because everybody I know uses Skype, which isn't plain SIP compatible! I realize the compatibility issue is Skype's fault, But the market has spoken, and all the people I would WANT to have a video chat with use Skype. So I use it.
It sounds very much like the Submitter is in this boat. If he tries to Use Ekiga he's going to still be stuck in the same boat. He should just use Skype.
Actually, it would be "prosecute", not sue, as this is a criminal offense, and requires a criminal prosecution.
All nitpicking aside though, I agree. It sounds like the crazy Scientologists are at it again, and SOMEONE needs to take those crazies down a few notches.
I didn't have long pointy ears or hairy feet. The only trees that will be used for MY house are ones that are cut down and milled into high-grade timbers.
Leave the tree and hill homes to the Elves and Hobbits.
It will fuel fears that Britain is lurching towards a Big Brother society
Uh, perhaps some people need to read 1984 again. By the time people start "informing" on one another, Big Brother is already here. "Lurching"? More like "Arrived".
Britain is lost behind an iron curtain of it's own making.
Additional connectors are fine. if manufacturers wish to make their machine EASIER to connect using MORE standard connectors than simply a mini-USB, then I'm fine with that. I just refuse to be pigeonholed into using some stupid proprietary connector when mini-USB would work just as well.
As far as larger devices are concerned, I haven't really seen them as an issue. By and large, your PC, Netbook, AV equipment, and automobiles all use standardized connectors and (some) interchangeable parts. These companies have all standardized on a set kind of connection, and consumers (and the companies too) have benefited from it. Small electronics need to do the same.
I don't believe that a cable that simply plugs into a USB jack but still takes a proprietary adapter to enable it to do so would conform to his quite narrow standards.
Correct. It doesn't count of you have to use an (purchased separately for a stupid amount of money) adapter. The Mini USB port must be IN the device itself.
Yes it's a narrow definition, but it has served me well. No Mini USB in the device, no money out of my pocket. Period.
There is NO EXCUSE for phone, PDA, and MP3 makers to NOT use the USB standard. It works, it works really well, and everyone can use it.
Chuck all the stupid crap toys you have that use proprietary connectors.
I have made a decision: In the small electronics area, I will ONLY buy devices that use the mini-USB style connectors. I flatly refuse to buy anything that cannot be charged or connected via USB to my PC, or a USB base station.
Yes, this does mean that I will miss out on some "hot" tech items. For example, I do not have an iPhone. Why? Not because I think it's a bad device or because I cannot afford it. I think iPhones are very nice and I can certainly afford to buy one. I don't have an iPhone because it uses a 30 pin proprietary dock connector. The means that I would have to buy all sorts of expensive connecting devices from Apple that I have no intention of spending money on like a moron.
The same goes with most other phones. I selected my Motorazr cell phone because I can charge it with a USB connector. I selected my Creative Zen MP3 player because I can charge it with a USB connector (the same one I charge my phone with) Should the need for any other small devices come along, I will select the one I can recharge with a USB connector. If no devices have that option, I will forgo the device altogether. NO device is so important that I should have to clutter my life with useless connectors and chargers, when a simple mini usb 2.0 connector will do everything these idiotic proprietary connectors will do AND MORE.
It's time we as consumers put our feet down. Manufacturers need to stop trying to follow the "give away the razor handle and sell the blades at a 500% markup" model and start selling their devices, unlocked, with a standard unified connector at a reasonable price.
It starts with each one of us deciding to change this one thing in our lives by only buying devices with USB connectors. I have made the change, who will join me?
I swear to God, the next one of my in-laws that buys our kid one of those demonic talking toys, I'm buying their kids a drum set or electric guitar. This shit is war.
Just do what I do:
1) Grandparents give child noisy annoying toy.
2) Allow child to play with said toy until grandparents go home.
3) Take toy away from child and REMOVE BATTERIES.
4) Give toy back to child and watch him/her lose interest in toy very rapidly.
5) Put batteries back in toy and donate to Salvation Army (Alternately, if you have a gift receipt, just return it to the store.)
6) While out donating (or returning) annoying toy, buy child quiet, quality toy such as LEGOS, a ball, an "action figure", a dolly, a stuffed animal, ect.
7) Tell grandparents (later) the toy broke on the first day, and that next time they should get child something more durable and less gimmicky.
I did this for the first 5 years of each child. Eventually, the GP's got the message. Now my kids get fun and educational toys, or sports/activity related toys. For my son's 6th birthday just last month my parents gave him a 16 foot Trampoline with safety net. Both kids (6 and 7) love it and play on it every day. No annoying noisy crap toys sit around the house, and people know not to bother wasting money buying those toys for our kids.
Of course, they all think my kids are incredibly rough with their toys, but if it keeps the crap out of my home, it's worth a little bending of the truth. (actually, the gimmicky toys wouldn't last much more than a month anyway. I just shortcut the breakage process by ensuring they "break" on the first day.)
I don't know what country you are from, or how things work there, but here in the U.S. our troops are among the best educated in the world. And I don't just mean in combat tactics and preparedness. Although that too.
Compared against the general population of America, America's troops have a higher level of education, score higher on standardized tests, and have a higher average IQ. They also, on average, come from families with a higher mean income. This is among standard enlisted men and women, not counting non commissioned officers and upper leadership. Obviously, if one counts those in the level skyrockets even more.
The point is, the educated and wealthy in America are ALREADY putting their kids on the line first. Maybe not the HOLLYWOOD rich or the Kennebunkport Leftist "Old Money" families, but all through the rest of America, middle class, upper middle class and wealthy families have kids serving with distinction and honor. They make up the bulk of our armed forces, and the numbers bear it out.
The old saw of "send the poor kids off to die while the rich kids stay home" is NOT true in America and hasn't been true for AGES. (if it ever was true.) While there are instances of poor kids joining the military so they can step up in life (and why not, you can get craploads of money for college and gain valuable training while there!) and there were instances of rich kids whose families have influence buying the kid out of the draft back in Vietnam (no draft since then, and the Pentagon has said unequivocally that they do NOT want one. America's military is all-volunteer.) those are rare exceptions, NOT the rule.
People's Republic my arse. As if the people have a say anymore.
Indeed.
Generally speaking, so-called "people's republics" are anything but. Particularly since they are almost always communist, which basically means they are either a dictatorship or an oligarchy.
Evil commie thugs are evil commie thugs, regardless of whether they dress in Russian hats, Speak an asian language, smoke Cuban cigars or go to the UN and call Bush "The Devil".
As John McCain has said, "History did not end in 1990." There is still evil in the world to fight. The question is, do any nations still have the will to fight them, or are we all to busy in vapid dissolution to care?
Re:Where's the lego minitiature
on
Beijing 2008 In Lego
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
if by "Freedom" you mean the freedom for your subjects to implement a puppet government under your control,
Let's list the "puppet" governments, shall we?
1 - Germany 2 - Japan 3 - Italy 4 - Poland 5 - France 6 - Austria 7 - Hungary 8 - Spain 9 - Belgium 10 - Greece 11 - Portugal 12 - Egypt 13 - Indonesia 14 - India 15 - CHINA (who were then re-oppressed by the communist chinese. But we DID free them from IMPERIAL Japan first)
Please add any other nations oppressed by the Axis powers during WW2 and freed by American "Imperialism" that I may have forgotten.
Since WW2:
16 - South Korea 17 - South Vietnam (failed) 18 - Afghanistan (work in progress) 19 - Iraq (work in progress, nearing completion)
Yep. Just LOOK at all those "puppet states" like Germany, who wouldn't even send assistance to Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein. Or France, who's recently voted out (by the people) government had back-room financial deals with Saddam Hussein's government in the oil-for-food scandal. Yep, real puppets there.
Face it smitingpurpleemu, you have NO argument. The Chinese Thugocracy has NO moral footing to stand on, and you have NOTHING to back yourself up with, so you fall back on empty DailyKos and DU talking points and useful idiot rhetoric.
Now Begone. The grown-ups wish to have a conversation.
So now it's AMERICA that's sending people to burn Tibetan shops? It's not Agent Provocateurs sent by the Chinese Thugocracy in order to keep the Tibetan monks in line and quiet an embarrassing and troublesome region by deception and violence (like ALL Communist thugocracies do), it's America.
Because, you know, we have SUCH a vested National Interest in beating up Tibetans and Han Chinese in the Himalayas, an area of the world totally outside our influence. Yep, that's it, it MUST be the Eeeeeeeeeevil Americans! Look out! They've come with Coca-cola and Marlboro to ruin your teeth and give you cancer!!
The kind of thinking required to believe that is just so twisted I can't even get my head around it. Who would believe such utter lunacy? Smitingpurpleemu, you are either the WORST Thugpologist IN THE WORLD, or a complete and utter moron. Possibly both, I'm still deciding. Either way, you are convincing no one here but your handlers.
Last time I checked, and "imperialist" government generally tended to take over smaller countries for the purpose of extracting wealth and resources. America does none of the above.
In fact, when we take over a country, we tend to SEND and SPEND large amounts of our wealth, manpower, and lives to build that country up into a functioning democracy, leaving the people there better off than before. This is the exact OPPOSITE of imperialistic behavior.
Obviously, there are those that have bought into the DailyKos/DU/communist/thugs-R-us line that helping people remove vile and murderous dictatorships is somehow "imperialism". But those people are either apologists, like smitingpurpleemu, or useful idiots, like some we occasionally see here on Slashdot.
Is America perfect? Hell No. Do we always do the right thing? Hell No. Do either of these things make America "Imperialist"? Hell No. For all our faults, we are still the last, best hope for Freedom in the world.
Re:Where's the lego minitiature
on
Beijing 2008 In Lego
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
Something as nonsensical as that could only be done by George W. Bush.
And here we have solid proof: The communist thug apologists (AKA: thugpologists) are taking their one-liners from the DailyKos and DU.
Hey Mr. Thugpologist:
Those lines only work on people stupid enough to buy into the DailyKos rhetoric. The rest of us see right through you.
Slashdot Mirror
Which, if I am correct, was Colbert's mock against the "9/11 truth" movement. Please excuse me for not crediting Colbert, it wasn't really the topic of my post.
Ironically, the Op's statement is more insightful than many people may realize. Let's face it, there is alot of crap floating around that masquerades as "Truth". The entire "9/11 Truth" movement, for example. (Which, I suspect, is what the OP got the "truthiness" quip from. A mock on the "truther" movement.)
The point is, WHO is to be the arbiter of "truth"? And how do we know they won't have a political agenda? I think that the major problem is not that some sites need a "true" or "not true" label, but that FAR too many people lack critical thinking skills and fall for emotional ploys and the latest "chicken little" scares.
It would be far more efficacious to push for a critical thinking and debate class requirements in grade and collegiate level schools. At least then people would be better equipped to winnow out the facts from the crap themselves, and we wouldn't have to rely on some nebulous "Truth Authority" to inform us.
Is it just me, or is this entire thread reminding anyone else of this:
Dude: - Hey Front! You got a mag?
Front: - Ex Cash man... I mean I quit.
Dude: - Whaaat? You mean if I took out a fattie RIGHT NOW, you wouldn't spark it?
Front: - Whoah! I'm impressed that you rolled a whole Z of Mexican brickweed into one J, but I'm not tempted!
Dude: - I don't smoke no brickweed man, this is Mountain Kind right here.
Front: - For real? Ya got a light?
Or am I the only one that occasionally fires up MC Frontalot on the drive home from work?
Man! I NEED MORE COFFEE! I meant if iChat is plain SIP compatible! ARGH!
Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. I think I need to start my weekend early. :(
Bah, scrap my previous post. My fault for not RTFA. Obviously, if they are NOT using Skype, then he shouldn't either.
I suppose Ekiga might work then, IF it is plain SIP compatible, I have no clue of it is or not.
Ekiga is fine and all, but he said he was looking for cross platform support for MAC users as well. This rules out Ekiga, unless there is a plain SIP application for Macs that I don't know about.
Why not use Skype? There is a Windows, a Mac, and a Linux version. I use the Linux version to videochat from my Ubuntu Linux laptop (using a Logitech Quickcam Pro for Notebooks) with my Dad on his Mac, and he uses his Mac version to talk with Windows people. Yes, it's not Open source, but it DOES work and it's FREE (as in beer) to use, as long as you aren't placing calls to POTS numbers. Even then, the charge is minimal.
Ekiga not only cannot recognize my camera (for reasons I cannot explain, especially when crappy little "Cheese" can see it!) But because it's a plain vanilla SIP application, I basically can't use it because everybody I know uses Skype, which isn't plain SIP compatible! I realize the compatibility issue is Skype's fault, But the market has spoken, and all the people I would WANT to have a video chat with use Skype. So I use it.
It sounds very much like the Submitter is in this boat. If he tries to Use Ekiga he's going to still be stuck in the same boat. He should just use Skype.
Actually, it would be "prosecute", not sue, as this is a criminal offense, and requires a criminal prosecution.
All nitpicking aside though, I agree. It sounds like the crazy Scientologists are at it again, and SOMEONE needs to take those crazies down a few notches.
Yeah, that was pretty much my solution too.
DRM? Ok, I'll pirate it then!
Morons.
If I had mod points I would mod you up. Well put!
Alternately, you could pirate it for free!
Oops, did I say that out loud?
I didn't have long pointy ears or hairy feet. The only trees that will be used for MY house are ones that are cut down and milled into high-grade timbers.
Leave the tree and hill homes to the Elves and Hobbits.
Uh, perhaps some people need to read 1984 again. By the time people start "informing" on one another, Big Brother is already here. "Lurching"? More like "Arrived".
Britain is lost behind an iron curtain of it's own making.
Additional connectors are fine. if manufacturers wish to make their machine EASIER to connect using MORE standard connectors than simply a mini-USB, then I'm fine with that. I just refuse to be pigeonholed into using some stupid proprietary connector when mini-USB would work just as well.
As far as larger devices are concerned, I haven't really seen them as an issue. By and large, your PC, Netbook, AV equipment, and automobiles all use standardized connectors and (some) interchangeable parts. These companies have all standardized on a set kind of connection, and consumers (and the companies too) have benefited from it. Small electronics need to do the same.
Thanks.
And yes, I know my name is stupid. I wish I could change it, at least once. I hate my l33t name. :(
Correct. It doesn't count of you have to use an (purchased separately for a stupid amount of money) adapter. The Mini USB port must be IN the device itself.
Yes it's a narrow definition, but it has served me well. No Mini USB in the device, no money out of my pocket. Period.
There is NO EXCUSE for phone, PDA, and MP3 makers to NOT use the USB standard. It works, it works really well, and everyone can use it.
The V3's did that. the V9's (which I have) can charge from the USB port no problem.
Simple.
Chuck all the stupid crap toys you have that use proprietary connectors.
I have made a decision: In the small electronics area, I will ONLY buy devices that use the mini-USB style connectors. I flatly refuse to buy anything that cannot be charged or connected via USB to my PC, or a USB base station.
Yes, this does mean that I will miss out on some "hot" tech items. For example, I do not have an iPhone. Why? Not because I think it's a bad device or because I cannot afford it. I think iPhones are very nice and I can certainly afford to buy one. I don't have an iPhone because it uses a 30 pin proprietary dock connector. The means that I would have to buy all sorts of expensive connecting devices from Apple that I have no intention of spending money on like a moron.
The same goes with most other phones. I selected my Motorazr cell phone because I can charge it with a USB connector. I selected my Creative Zen MP3 player because I can charge it with a USB connector (the same one I charge my phone with) Should the need for any other small devices come along, I will select the one I can recharge with a USB connector. If no devices have that option, I will forgo the device altogether. NO device is so important that I should have to clutter my life with useless connectors and chargers, when a simple mini usb 2.0 connector will do everything these idiotic proprietary connectors will do AND MORE.
It's time we as consumers put our feet down. Manufacturers need to stop trying to follow the "give away the razor handle and sell the blades at a 500% markup" model and start selling their devices, unlocked, with a standard unified connector at a reasonable price.
It starts with each one of us deciding to change this one thing in our lives by only buying devices with USB connectors. I have made the change, who will join me?
They are outside. They can be as loud as they want OUT THERE. As long as I can have peace and quiet IN the house when they are using the trampoline.
And who the heck modded my previous post as "Troll"? What, did I not use enough /. memes, or is someone just bored and has mod points?
Just do what I do:
1) Grandparents give child noisy annoying toy.
2) Allow child to play with said toy until grandparents go home.
3) Take toy away from child and REMOVE BATTERIES.
4) Give toy back to child and watch him/her lose interest in toy very rapidly.
5) Put batteries back in toy and donate to Salvation Army (Alternately, if you have a gift receipt, just return it to the store.)
6) While out donating (or returning) annoying toy, buy child quiet, quality toy such as LEGOS, a ball, an "action figure", a dolly, a stuffed animal, ect.
7) Tell grandparents (later) the toy broke on the first day, and that next time they should get child something more durable and less gimmicky.
I did this for the first 5 years of each child. Eventually, the GP's got the message. Now my kids get fun and educational toys, or sports/activity related toys. For my son's 6th birthday just last month my parents gave him a 16 foot Trampoline with safety net. Both kids (6 and 7) love it and play on it every day. No annoying noisy crap toys sit around the house, and people know not to bother wasting money buying those toys for our kids.
Of course, they all think my kids are incredibly rough with their toys, but if it keeps the crap out of my home, it's worth a little bending of the truth. (actually, the gimmicky toys wouldn't last much more than a month anyway. I just shortcut the breakage process by ensuring they "break" on the first day.)
I don't know what country you are from, or how things work there, but here in the U.S. our troops are among the best educated in the world. And I don't just mean in combat tactics and preparedness. Although that too.
Compared against the general population of America, America's troops have a higher level of education, score higher on standardized tests, and have a higher average IQ. They also, on average, come from families with a higher mean income. This is among standard enlisted men and women, not counting non commissioned officers and upper leadership. Obviously, if one counts those in the level skyrockets even more.
The point is, the educated and wealthy in America are ALREADY putting their kids on the line first. Maybe not the HOLLYWOOD rich or the Kennebunkport Leftist "Old Money" families, but all through the rest of America, middle class, upper middle class and wealthy families have kids serving with distinction and honor. They make up the bulk of our armed forces, and the numbers bear it out.
The old saw of "send the poor kids off to die while the rich kids stay home" is NOT true in America and hasn't been true for AGES. (if it ever was true.) While there are instances of poor kids joining the military so they can step up in life (and why not, you can get craploads of money for college and gain valuable training while there!) and there were instances of rich kids whose families have influence buying the kid out of the draft back in Vietnam (no draft since then, and the Pentagon has said unequivocally that they do NOT want one. America's military is all-volunteer.) those are rare exceptions, NOT the rule.
Indeed.
Generally speaking, so-called "people's republics" are anything but. Particularly since they are almost always communist, which basically means they are either a dictatorship or an oligarchy.
Evil commie thugs are evil commie thugs, regardless of whether they dress in Russian hats, Speak an asian language, smoke Cuban cigars or go to the UN and call Bush "The Devil".
As John McCain has said, "History did not end in 1990." There is still evil in the world to fight. The question is, do any nations still have the will to fight them, or are we all to busy in vapid dissolution to care?
Let's list the "puppet" governments, shall we?
1 - Germany
2 - Japan
3 - Italy
4 - Poland
5 - France
6 - Austria
7 - Hungary
8 - Spain
9 - Belgium
10 - Greece
11 - Portugal
12 - Egypt
13 - Indonesia
14 - India
15 - CHINA (who were then re-oppressed by the communist chinese. But we DID free them from IMPERIAL Japan first)
Please add any other nations oppressed by the Axis powers during WW2 and freed by American "Imperialism" that I may have forgotten.
Since WW2:
16 - South Korea
17 - South Vietnam (failed)
18 - Afghanistan (work in progress)
19 - Iraq (work in progress, nearing completion)
Yep. Just LOOK at all those "puppet states" like Germany, who wouldn't even send assistance to Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein. Or France, who's recently voted out (by the people) government had back-room financial deals with Saddam Hussein's government in the oil-for-food scandal. Yep, real puppets there.
Face it smitingpurpleemu, you have NO argument. The Chinese Thugocracy has NO moral footing to stand on, and you have NOTHING to back yourself up with, so you fall back on empty DailyKos and DU talking points and useful idiot rhetoric.
Now Begone. The grown-ups wish to have a conversation.
Wow.
So now it's AMERICA that's sending people to burn Tibetan shops? It's not Agent Provocateurs sent by the Chinese Thugocracy in order to keep the Tibetan monks in line and quiet an embarrassing and troublesome region by deception and violence (like ALL Communist thugocracies do), it's America.
Because, you know, we have SUCH a vested National Interest in beating up Tibetans and Han Chinese in the Himalayas, an area of the world totally outside our influence. Yep, that's it, it MUST be the Eeeeeeeeeevil Americans! Look out! They've come with Coca-cola and Marlboro to ruin your teeth and give you cancer!!
The kind of thinking required to believe that is just so twisted I can't even get my head around it. Who would believe such utter lunacy? Smitingpurpleemu, you are either the WORST Thugpologist IN THE WORLD, or a complete and utter moron. Possibly both, I'm still deciding. Either way, you are convincing no one here but your handlers.
Or, you could tell the thugpologist to stuff it.
Last time I checked, and "imperialist" government generally tended to take over smaller countries for the purpose of extracting wealth and resources. America does none of the above.
In fact, when we take over a country, we tend to SEND and SPEND large amounts of our wealth, manpower, and lives to build that country up into a functioning democracy, leaving the people there better off than before. This is the exact OPPOSITE of imperialistic behavior.
Obviously, there are those that have bought into the DailyKos/DU/communist/thugs-R-us line that helping people remove vile and murderous dictatorships is somehow "imperialism". But those people are either apologists, like smitingpurpleemu, or useful idiots, like some we occasionally see here on Slashdot.
Is America perfect? Hell No. Do we always do the right thing? Hell No. Do either of these things make America "Imperialist"? Hell No. For all our faults, we are still the last, best hope for Freedom in the world.
And here we have solid proof: The communist thug apologists (AKA: thugpologists) are taking their one-liners from the DailyKos and DU.
Hey Mr. Thugpologist:
Those lines only work on people stupid enough to buy into the DailyKos rhetoric. The rest of us see right through you.