I agree, but unfortunately since 9/11 the american government is growing more and more corrupt.
Sorry, the government has been growing more and more corrupt since they started the Income Tax and suddenly became very wealthy and more powerful. If you think this corruption has started since 9/11, you haven't been paying much attention, or you would like to blame the corruption only on the Republicans. The fault lies with both parties.
If you can spin your arguments such that the public buys them, even if they are lies, then you win.
Correct. The only way to solve this problem is to reduce the power of the federal government. That means forcing them to take in less money, spend less money, and in general, have less control over our daily lives.
If it is a brand new house, and built like all the other expensive crackerboxes I've seen - it is anything but a "piece of cake".
I just bought a new house, and although it wasn't a completely custom home, I was able to choose all kinds of options along the way. One of these was the ability to get two in-ceiling speaker pre-wires, hooked to volume controls on the wall, for about $200 a room. As I save money, I can add speakers to each room quite easily now. (For $70 you can get 2 8-inch in-ceiling speakers made by AudioSource on amazon.com).
I was also able to choose my wiring, and add more ethernet/video/power outlets anywhere I wanted them, for about $70 extra per outlet (up to $150 per outlet depending on what features it had). Then I was also able to add "conduit" wherever I wanted for $70 per drop. (For house newbies, conduit is essentially a tube that goes from your attic, down the inside of your wall, and to a box with a plate over it exposed in your wall... makes it easy to drop unexpected wiring down your wall at a later date.) Conduits will come in handy for things not planned until later on (like dropping a subwoofer cable down the wall near where my subwoofer will be placed later on.
Just several more reasons NOT to buy an overpriced cardboard/styrofoam shitbox they call a "house". Want real value? Buy a pre-1980 block constructed house, or something older.
It totally depends on the builder. My builder is excellent. The quality and workmanship has been superb. (I won't pimp their name here, but they are based in Texas, but build nationally.)
The house is single story, solid block construction. Before this one I owned a home built in the 1940's, and would never go back to an older home if I could avoid it.
Overall, I consider your comment one of the most insightful I've ever read on Slashdot.
No offense to the original poster, but this is not exactly a compliment. It's like saying, "Your dog's ass smells the best of any dog's ass I've ever smelled."
but Marc got greedy and formed Netscape 1.0 from Mosaic and made lots of money
Good thing he "got greedy," because that gave us Netscape 1.x, which pushed new boundaries on the web. And in the end, through a tangly road, we now have an awesome Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird browser base.
I understand that the Mozilla codebase does not really resemble the stuff originally released from Netscape, but I seriously doubt we'd be where we are today without Netscape in our history, and that money infusion from AOL/Netscape allowing the Mozilla Foundation to sustain through the lean "Mozilla will never amount to anything, it's too late!" years.
You can't pick your "parents," but if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be around right now, no matter how much your "childhood" sucked.
2. If the study was done correctly, and the results are accurate, is it really surprising to people that government-educated children think so "highly" of the government?
The summary ignores that corporations are just as bad, but that corporations don't admit their problems.
Public corporations sure DO admit their problems. Then their stock takes a pummeling, people in charge of the failures might be fired, there's accountability for the failure in some way in almost all cases.
Now compare that to the government. If the blunder is serious enough, someone might be fired. But then they are right back asking for more money of my money to flush down the drain.
the governor who opposed Enron ousted from office by the White House and replaced with an Enron supporter selected by the White House
Do you have proof that this replacement is related to Enron, or is this just causation without correlation?
Steal billions, go free, and you get to choose a new governor who's yer best bud.
Which of those that stole billions are "going free"? They are either already sentences, awaiting sentencing, or awaiting their trial. Trials take time, especially in humongously complex cases like this one.
The law is an ass. Little smurfs get destroyed for disobeying laws bought by rich men, and rich men steal billions without consequence.
I find it humorous that you are comparing US law, which is prosecuting the Enron hustlers you are referring to, with Norway's law, which is doing the "smurf destroying."
My web page had a link to the credible news source; The Guardian newspaper.
I read the article on the Guardian from your link, and while the site is more credible than a blog, they are also fairly anti-American and the article references only hearsay.
I'm sorry if I'm not impressed by this mound of evidence.
And guess what? We killed ten of thousands ourselves "liberating" them
That is what happens in a war. However, we did not intentionally kill civilians, unlike Saddam. And our goal is to free everyone there, unlike Saddam's goals.
Do you know how many millions died fighting the good fight in WW2? How many innocent civilians? Does this mean we shouldn't have fought that war? There's more to war than just black and white.
now the civilian death rate is worse than it was under Saddam.
Ummm, nope, sorry, it's not. That report you cited examined precisely 14.6 months of deaths in Iraq under Saddam. Or are you saying the people he killed 15+ months before the war don't count?
You mean like the Iraqi teenager who was seen in Abu Ghraib, lying on the floor with his anus bleeding while US troops discussed sodomizing him with metal objects? I guess that story didn't get reported on FOX News, huh?
Not only wasn't it reported on FOX News, nor did I read anything about it from any other credible sources, such as CNN, MSNBC, my local newspaper, etc. I am talking about credible evidence, not hearsay from prisoners. Can you point me to some references other than blogs?
I am not trying to excuse the stupidity of Abu Ghraib, however I find it laughable how much was made of that "torture" by the same crowd that would like to forget the torture rooms of Saddam.
It seems to me very few of you have actually been to China or even understand how the system there works.... you think the Chinese is some sort of omni-present superpower that oversees all of the minute details of its citizens' lives and takes sadistic pleasure in torture. You're taking in media hype and a fear of the unknown.
Yes. If only someone could post an Ask Slashdot on this topic and we could get some real answers!
Actually, they did have WMD. Sarin gas for starters. What else went over the border to Syria and Iran, we'll probably never know. Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Even the report that the media trotted out a few months ago highlighting the "NO WMDs" claim made it very clear that Saddam was going to keep his eyes on the WMD prize.
And this is completely setting aside the question of the oppression of Iraqis.
Let's face it. This was a blood for votes war started by Bush.
Wait, first it was a blood for oil war. But then everyone pointed out we weren't making out on Iraqi oil. (Just the UN made out on that, right?)
Now it's a... blood for votes war? The war divided the fucking USA. How exactly did that win him votes? He won by a larger majority than 2000, but you act as if the war sealed the deal. I mean, the war was the single most hated thing about Bush by the left.
It's costing us billions of dollars and over 1000 American lives. And I don't give a shit if we did capture Saddam. His capture wasn't worth a single American life!
Is he worth hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Because that's how many his men have killed since he was in power. And they didn't just die from bombings, we're talking rape and torture. And no, not the kind of torture where people have sex in front of you and make you undress, but the kind where things are shoved up your ass that don't belong in your ass, where you are slowly killed, you know, real torture.
And that's not even counting the Iraqis that were just made to suffer under his rule.
I only hope that history will paint Bush as the evil little mental midget that he really is.
Sad to tell you this, but if Iraq gets a taste of democracy and it catches on in the middle east, Bush is going to be the Reagan of the 21st century.
You sound like my parents complaining about "that damn rock music!"
Why, in my day we had good video games, not like today's kids, what with their tricked out cars, etc.
There are good games out there and bad games. If you like a game, play it. If you don't, don't play it, don't buy it, don't buy any more games from that company.
B.S. Thanks for feeding into ??AA math. If I was never going to pay for it EVER, it can't be LOST money
Hey man, whatever you need to tell yourself so you can sleep at night.
The simple fact is you are SUPPOSED to pay for it. You are using the software, and until they can find a way to make you pay for the software you're using (like the point behind this entire/. article), then it is money they are losing out on.
If everyone had your mentality, Microsoft would make no money, and they would stop producing their software. While some may argue this is a good thing, the fact that you apparantly like using Windows makes me wonder whether you can honestly agree with them.
I just read the parent you were responding to and see I misinterpreted your comments. It sounded as though you were defending the practice of pirating commercial software, but in fact you were not. I apologize.
However, I have seen many posting on here that are defending it, so I offer my previous reply as counter-argument to theirs.:)
If MS hands over your key, they aren't out anything except maybe some support time, and they've earned customer goodwill besides!
But Microsoft doesn't run on customer good will. They run on money, like most companies. If you get a free copy of the program, that is $XXX less they bring in.
I don't care how much money Microsoft is making. Breaking a license by not paying for commercial software is wrong. What if someone said, shit, I want to use Linux in my commercial project, but I'm not giving away my source mods. I'll just break the GPL, because after all, we're talking tangible vs. intagible property, and the makers of Linux "aren't out anything except maybe some support time, and they've earned customer goodwill besides!"
You can try to justify it in your mind, but it's still wrong. I have more respect for the wankers that have the balls to come right out and say, hey, I know this is wrong, but I am going to steal* this software instead of pay for it.
*Yes I understand in most cases we're talking about copyright infringement, but the fact is you are taking something which does not belong to you because you have not paid for it.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree, but unfortunately since 9/11 the american government is growing more and more corrupt.
Sorry, the government has been growing more and more corrupt since they started the Income Tax and suddenly became very wealthy and more powerful. If you think this corruption has started since 9/11, you haven't been paying much attention, or you would like to blame the corruption only on the Republicans. The fault lies with both parties.
If you can spin your arguments such that the public buys them, even if they are lies, then you win.
Correct. The only way to solve this problem is to reduce the power of the federal government. That means forcing them to take in less money, spend less money, and in general, have less control over our daily lives.
If it is a brand new house, and built like all the other expensive crackerboxes I've seen - it is anything but a "piece of cake".
I just bought a new house, and although it wasn't a completely custom home, I was able to choose all kinds of options along the way. One of these was the ability to get two in-ceiling speaker pre-wires, hooked to volume controls on the wall, for about $200 a room. As I save money, I can add speakers to each room quite easily now. (For $70 you can get 2 8-inch in-ceiling speakers made by AudioSource on amazon.com).
I was also able to choose my wiring, and add more ethernet/video/power outlets anywhere I wanted them, for about $70 extra per outlet (up to $150 per outlet depending on what features it had). Then I was also able to add "conduit" wherever I wanted for $70 per drop. (For house newbies, conduit is essentially a tube that goes from your attic, down the inside of your wall, and to a box with a plate over it exposed in your wall... makes it easy to drop unexpected wiring down your wall at a later date.) Conduits will come in handy for things not planned until later on (like dropping a subwoofer cable down the wall near where my subwoofer will be placed later on.
Just several more reasons NOT to buy an overpriced cardboard/styrofoam shitbox they call a "house". Want real value? Buy a pre-1980 block constructed house, or something older.
It totally depends on the builder. My builder is excellent. The quality and workmanship has been superb. (I won't pimp their name here, but they are based in Texas, but build nationally.)
The house is single story, solid block construction. Before this one I owned a home built in the 1940's, and would never go back to an older home if I could avoid it.
The key is finding a good builder.
Overall, I consider your comment one of the most insightful I've ever read on Slashdot.
No offense to the original poster, but this is not exactly a compliment. It's like saying, "Your dog's ass smells the best of any dog's ass I've ever smelled."
Why thank you!
but Marc got greedy and formed Netscape 1.0 from Mosaic and made lots of money
Good thing he "got greedy," because that gave us Netscape 1.x, which pushed new boundaries on the web. And in the end, through a tangly road, we now have an awesome Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird browser base.
I understand that the Mozilla codebase does not really resemble the stuff originally released from Netscape, but I seriously doubt we'd be where we are today without Netscape in our history, and that money infusion from AOL/Netscape allowing the Mozilla Foundation to sustain through the lean "Mozilla will never amount to anything, it's too late!" years.
You can't pick your "parents," but if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be around right now, no matter how much your "childhood" sucked.
I'm glad Marc was "greedy."
No he isn't, Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea is. Gates's fortune took a hit with the slide of the value of the US dollar.
You are wrong, here is proof.
Yes, in fact, I have some photos we can use to blackmail him into it.
1. Where's the link to the actual study.
2. If the study was done correctly, and the results are accurate, is it really surprising to people that government-educated children think so "highly" of the government?
The summary ignores that corporations are just as bad, but that corporations don't admit their problems.
Public corporations sure DO admit their problems. Then their stock takes a pummeling, people in charge of the failures might be fired, there's accountability for the failure in some way in almost all cases.
Now compare that to the government. If the blunder is serious enough, someone might be fired. But then they are right back asking for more money of my money to flush down the drain.
The Microsoft Memo: +1 Funny Wednesday January 26, @09:12AM Rejected
Fuck you, I've got karma to burn.
Did your sales staff understand that most people would be USING THE FUCKING WEBSITE?
I see the White House covering for [Enron]
You do? Where?
prosecution nearly nonexistent
Come again?
the governor who opposed Enron ousted from office by the White House and replaced with an Enron supporter selected by the White House
Do you have proof that this replacement is related to Enron, or is this just causation without correlation?
Steal billions, go free, and you get to choose a new governor who's yer best bud.
Which of those that stole billions are "going free"? They are either already sentences, awaiting sentencing, or awaiting their trial. Trials take time, especially in humongously complex cases like this one.
The law is an ass. Little smurfs get destroyed for disobeying laws bought by rich men, and rich men steal billions without consequence.
I find it humorous that you are comparing US law, which is prosecuting the Enron hustlers you are referring to, with Norway's law, which is doing the "smurf destroying."
My web page had a link to the credible news source; The Guardian newspaper.
I read the article on the Guardian from your link, and while the site is more credible than a blog, they are also fairly anti-American and the article references only hearsay.
I'm sorry if I'm not impressed by this mound of evidence.
Where can I get this Clippy browser plugin?
how can the studios complain about piracy when they willfully defraud customers like this?
Unless I'm mistaken, the only studio (singular) that has defrauded its customers is MGM.
Google-condoms and Google-brand suppositories!
Some people think those are the same thing!
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
And guess what? We killed ten of thousands ourselves "liberating" them
That is what happens in a war. However, we did not intentionally kill civilians, unlike Saddam. And our goal is to free everyone there, unlike Saddam's goals.
Do you know how many millions died fighting the good fight in WW2? How many innocent civilians? Does this mean we shouldn't have fought that war? There's more to war than just black and white.
now the civilian death rate is worse than it was under Saddam.
Ummm, nope, sorry, it's not. That report you cited examined precisely 14.6 months of deaths in Iraq under Saddam. Or are you saying the people he killed 15+ months before the war don't count?
You mean like the Iraqi teenager who was seen in Abu Ghraib, lying on the floor with his anus bleeding while US troops discussed sodomizing him with metal objects? I guess that story didn't get reported on FOX News, huh?
Not only wasn't it reported on FOX News, nor did I read anything about it from any other credible sources, such as CNN, MSNBC, my local newspaper, etc. I am talking about credible evidence, not hearsay from prisoners. Can you point me to some references other than blogs?
I am not trying to excuse the stupidity of Abu Ghraib, however I find it laughable how much was made of that "torture" by the same crowd that would like to forget the torture rooms of Saddam.
It seems to me very few of you have actually been to China or even understand how the system there works. ... you think the Chinese is some sort of omni-present superpower that oversees all of the minute details of its citizens' lives and takes sadistic pleasure in torture. You're taking in media hype and a fear of the unknown.
Yes. If only someone could post an Ask Slashdot on this topic and we could get some real answers!
And what threat did Iraq pose?? No WMD.
... blood for votes war? The war divided the fucking USA. How exactly did that win him votes? He won by a larger majority than 2000, but you act as if the war sealed the deal. I mean, the war was the single most hated thing about Bush by the left.
Actually, they did have WMD. Sarin gas for starters. What else went over the border to Syria and Iran, we'll probably never know. Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Even the report that the media trotted out a few months ago highlighting the "NO WMDs" claim made it very clear that Saddam was going to keep his eyes on the WMD prize.
And this is completely setting aside the question of the oppression of Iraqis.
Let's face it. This was a blood for votes war started by Bush.
Wait, first it was a blood for oil war. But then everyone pointed out we weren't making out on Iraqi oil. (Just the UN made out on that, right?)
Now it's a
It's costing us billions of dollars and over 1000 American lives. And I don't give a shit if we did capture Saddam. His capture wasn't worth a single American life!
Is he worth hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Because that's how many his men have killed since he was in power. And they didn't just die from bombings, we're talking rape and torture. And no, not the kind of torture where people have sex in front of you and make you undress, but the kind where things are shoved up your ass that don't belong in your ass, where you are slowly killed, you know, real torture.
And that's not even counting the Iraqis that were just made to suffer under his rule.
I only hope that history will paint Bush as the evil little mental midget that he really is.
Sad to tell you this, but if Iraq gets a taste of democracy and it catches on in the middle east, Bush is going to be the Reagan of the 21st century.
You sound like my parents complaining about "that damn rock music!"
Why, in my day we had good video games, not like today's kids, what with their tricked out cars, etc.
There are good games out there and bad games. If you like a game, play it. If you don't, don't play it, don't buy it, don't buy any more games from that company.
B.S. Thanks for feeding into ??AA math. If I was never going to pay for it EVER, it can't be LOST money
/. article), then it is money they are losing out on.
Hey man, whatever you need to tell yourself so you can sleep at night.
The simple fact is you are SUPPOSED to pay for it. You are using the software, and until they can find a way to make you pay for the software you're using (like the point behind this entire
If everyone had your mentality, Microsoft would make no money, and they would stop producing their software. While some may argue this is a good thing, the fact that you apparantly like using Windows makes me wonder whether you can honestly agree with them.
heck out Raskins ramblings -- boils down to "The UI should be vi; and people will love it". Especially, vi with dedicated function keys.
Yes, yes. When I was viewing his zooming demo a few minutes ago, I was thinking to myself how much it resembled vi.
uhh
Why introduce logic into his emotional world of "corporations == evil"?
I especially liked the logo, which is hard to read because half of it is hanging upside down.
I just read the parent you were responding to and see I misinterpreted your comments. It sounded as though you were defending the practice of pirating commercial software, but in fact you were not. I apologize.
:)
However, I have seen many posting on here that are defending it, so I offer my previous reply as counter-argument to theirs.
If MS hands over your key, they aren't out anything except maybe some support time, and they've earned customer goodwill besides!
But Microsoft doesn't run on customer good will. They run on money, like most companies. If you get a free copy of the program, that is $XXX less they bring in.
I don't care how much money Microsoft is making. Breaking a license by not paying for commercial software is wrong. What if someone said, shit, I want to use Linux in my commercial project, but I'm not giving away my source mods. I'll just break the GPL, because after all, we're talking tangible vs. intagible property, and the makers of Linux "aren't out anything except maybe some support time, and they've earned customer goodwill besides!"
You can try to justify it in your mind, but it's still wrong. I have more respect for the wankers that have the balls to come right out and say, hey, I know this is wrong, but I am going to steal* this software instead of pay for it.
*Yes I understand in most cases we're talking about copyright infringement, but the fact is you are taking something which does not belong to you because you have not paid for it.