I mean, if we all got together at the end of the day and declared that Slashdot has given us the best April Fools' Day celebration ever and that they could never possibly top it in a million lifetimes, would it convince them to stop?
...wouldn't this lead to exploits that are currently considered impossible due to the volatile nature of RAM? I'm thinking of something along the lines of those guys who jailbroke a mobile phone by putting it in a freezer. Not that this would be an insurmountable problem, but it is something to think about.
Have you ever heard of the concept that the left-right spectrum is shaped like a horseshoe? That is, the further left a person goes the more he begins to look like an ultra-right-wing lunatic, and vice versa? I think that's what's going on here. The progressive attempt to give women equal rights under the law has mutated into the desire to protect them from everyone including themselves.
Not true--just because both sides of an argument are honest and forthcoming doesn't mean that they're both right. They often have different understandings of a situation that come from their own unique perspectives and beliefs. Judges are useful arbiters for determining which side is correct.
They're more than willing to admit that blacks are responsible for more crimes than other races, even when there are many more whites and Hispanics who are far worse off, economically and socially.
Er, either you're simply wrong about this or you're using the word "more" in two different ways in the same sentence. While it's true that there are more black criminals per capita, it's also true that there are more socioeconomically deprived black people per capita. And while there are more impoverished whites and Hispanics in an absolute number, there are also more white and Hispanic criminals in an absolute number.
That's not even getting into the fact that there's a systematic bias against blacks in our judicial system, or that most black criminals are considered criminals as a direct or indirect result of the War on Drugs which you yourself decried just a few sentences later...
Your post is proof that if we based our view of the world and our policies on what is taught in an introductory class on any particular subject, we'd be totally screwed. Eradicating low intelligence, which is based on a whole host of genetic traits and environmental influences, would be orders of magnitude harder than eradicating mental retardation, which itself is already impossible to do through eugenics. (If you don't know why, read up on Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in relation to rare recessive traits.)
You can't declare that ownership laws in another country apply to you when they protect you (e.g. copyright law) and at the same time declare that they don't apply to you when they protect someone else. This would be a slam-dunk case if not for certain Supreme Court Justices who can't help but give big slobbery kisses to any corporation that gives them the time of day.
That's more of a problem with FPSes, though TF2 does happen to be a game that didn't have as much of a problem with idiot kids until it went F2P. No, the major problem with F2P is that it usually devolves to P2W (pay-to-win), where the stuff they charge you for is necessary to do well at the game. I'd rather pay upfront for a game where everyone is on an equal playing field than end up paying the same amount (or more) for a game where money trumps skill or perseverance. (TF2 is ironically the best example I've seen of not falling into this trap.) And that's not getting into the fact that F2P games are multiplayer-only almost by definition...
The problem with this argument is that he's actually trying to justify moving towards F2P. The choice between DRM and F2P is the video-game equivalent of choosing between the giant douche or the turd sandwich.
False analogy. Nuclear power is one of the most tightly regulated industries in America. Agriculture is far more of a free market than that is, and thus much less vulnerable to the vagaries of political willpower. A labeling requirement would not change that.
Aside from that, when it comes to doing something unethical like preventing a consumer from giving informed consent, you're going to need a better backing argument than "informed consent isn't all that great for business."
None of that is relevant to the simple question of whether or not GMO foods should be labeled as such. We still show people what the workings of a sausage factory look like despite the fact that most people would rather not know, and we still tell people which vaccines contain thimerosal despite the stupidity surrounding that topic.
On Bill Maher's show: if GMO food truly is safe and beneficial (and it generally is if you remove Monsanto et al. from the equation), then the obvious solution is not to keep consumers from knowing what it is they're eating, but just the opposite--educate them on exactly what it is they're eating in a neutral, fact-based manner.
...I see a problem with filtering email that you may not have noticed.
Let's ignore all of the cynical "people who only communicate by email don't deserve to have a voice in government" responses and assume that email in itself is fine, it just depends on whether or not the email in question is a robocall. The problem here is that it's not a binary question. The interest groups I'm familiar with allow part or all of the email to be personalized; for example, a mass email protesting attacks on women's rights may start out with some boilerplate stuff but give an individual woman a space to relate her own personal experience with contraception or abortion. Whatever filtering method you use has to recognize this issue to be effective.
if copying of media was allowed, you'd have to be an idiot to buy anything
Yeah, look at all those dumbasses who buy IP because they appreciate the talent and effort behind it and want the creators to succeed and make more IP. Those guys who spend more than the minimum on those Humble Indie Bundles are a bunch of fucking rubes, amirite?
BTW, the "not a lost sale" argument isn't "I wouldn't have bought it anyway because I can get it free on the Internet," it's "I wouldn't have bought it anyway at the price you're offering, period." IOW, there are plenty of pirates who would refuse to pay 99 cents for Halo 4 even if they couldn't get it illegally.
1) There was no need to wait because the authenticity of those documents was never challenged.
You do realize that this begs the question, right? Since the denialists immediately trumpeted the Climategate emails as authentic, how could there have been a chance for any question of authenticity to arise? This is exactly what the Heartland Institute is criticizing now, that "the individuals who have commented so far on these documents did not wait for Heartland to confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents." The fact that the Climategate emails did indeed turn out to be authentic is irrelevant to this hypocritical argument.
The idea of a "right to be forgotten" is just stupid on the face of it. What are you going to do about people who know the thing in question that you're trying to get them to forget? Electroshock? Room 101, maybe?
Slashdot Mirror
You're roughly 11.5 years late.
Rob
If you have Windows 7 Pro or greater, you can get an instance of XP running on Virtual PC for free. It's called "Windows XP Mode."
Rob
I mean, if we all got together at the end of the day and declared that Slashdot has given us the best April Fools' Day celebration ever and that they could never possibly top it in a million lifetimes, would it convince them to stop?
Rob
As I said, some guys rooted an Android phone by sticking it in a freezer. Non-volatile RAM would make this kind of thing easier, wouldn't it?
Rob
...wouldn't this lead to exploits that are currently considered impossible due to the volatile nature of RAM? I'm thinking of something along the lines of those guys who jailbroke a mobile phone by putting it in a freezer. Not that this would be an insurmountable problem, but it is something to think about.
Rob
Have you ever heard of the concept that the left-right spectrum is shaped like a horseshoe? That is, the further left a person goes the more he begins to look like an ultra-right-wing lunatic, and vice versa? I think that's what's going on here. The progressive attempt to give women equal rights under the law has mutated into the desire to protect them from everyone including themselves.
Rob
Not true--just because both sides of an argument are honest and forthcoming doesn't mean that they're both right. They often have different understandings of a situation that come from their own unique perspectives and beliefs. Judges are useful arbiters for determining which side is correct.
Rob
And if there wasn't a large and powerful government, then corporations would suddenly have no power over the system? How does that work?
Rob
Er, either you're simply wrong about this or you're using the word "more" in two different ways in the same sentence. While it's true that there are more black criminals per capita, it's also true that there are more socioeconomically deprived black people per capita. And while there are more impoverished whites and Hispanics in an absolute number, there are also more white and Hispanic criminals in an absolute number.
That's not even getting into the fact that there's a systematic bias against blacks in our judicial system, or that most black criminals are considered criminals as a direct or indirect result of the War on Drugs which you yourself decried just a few sentences later...
Rob
Your post is proof that if we based our view of the world and our policies on what is taught in an introductory class on any particular subject, we'd be totally screwed. Eradicating low intelligence, which is based on a whole host of genetic traits and environmental influences, would be orders of magnitude harder than eradicating mental retardation, which itself is already impossible to do through eugenics. (If you don't know why, read up on Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in relation to rare recessive traits.)
Rob
You can't declare that ownership laws in another country apply to you when they protect you (e.g. copyright law) and at the same time declare that they don't apply to you when they protect someone else. This would be a slam-dunk case if not for certain Supreme Court Justices who can't help but give big slobbery kisses to any corporation that gives them the time of day.
Rob
Do these crystals have a cubic structure?
Maybe we were all educated stupid after all...
Rob
That's more of a problem with FPSes, though TF2 does happen to be a game that didn't have as much of a problem with idiot kids until it went F2P. No, the major problem with F2P is that it usually devolves to P2W (pay-to-win), where the stuff they charge you for is necessary to do well at the game. I'd rather pay upfront for a game where everyone is on an equal playing field than end up paying the same amount (or more) for a game where money trumps skill or perseverance. (TF2 is ironically the best example I've seen of not falling into this trap.) And that's not getting into the fact that F2P games are multiplayer-only almost by definition...
Rob
The problem with this argument is that he's actually trying to justify moving towards F2P. The choice between DRM and F2P is the video-game equivalent of choosing between the giant douche or the turd sandwich.
Rob
False analogy. Nuclear power is one of the most tightly regulated industries in America. Agriculture is far more of a free market than that is, and thus much less vulnerable to the vagaries of political willpower. A labeling requirement would not change that.
Aside from that, when it comes to doing something unethical like preventing a consumer from giving informed consent, you're going to need a better backing argument than "informed consent isn't all that great for business."
Rob
None of that is relevant to the simple question of whether or not GMO foods should be labeled as such. We still show people what the workings of a sausage factory look like despite the fact that most people would rather not know, and we still tell people which vaccines contain thimerosal despite the stupidity surrounding that topic.
Rob
On Bill Maher's show: if GMO food truly is safe and beneficial (and it generally is if you remove Monsanto et al. from the equation), then the obvious solution is not to keep consumers from knowing what it is they're eating, but just the opposite--educate them on exactly what it is they're eating in a neutral, fact-based manner.
Rob
You guys did notice we're talking about the video games here, right?
Rob
You're confusing Pokemon with Magic. Also, if chess was invented in the 90s, I can almost guarantee you'd see similar bullshit marketing tactics.
Rob
The only important difference between competitive Pokemon and competitive chess is that chess is old and respected.
Rob
As opposed to all of those patents in English lit and women's studies, I suppose...
Rob
...I see a problem with filtering email that you may not have noticed.
Let's ignore all of the cynical "people who only communicate by email don't deserve to have a voice in government" responses and assume that email in itself is fine, it just depends on whether or not the email in question is a robocall. The problem here is that it's not a binary question. The interest groups I'm familiar with allow part or all of the email to be personalized; for example, a mass email protesting attacks on women's rights may start out with some boilerplate stuff but give an individual woman a space to relate her own personal experience with contraception or abortion. Whatever filtering method you use has to recognize this issue to be effective.
Rob
Yeah, look at all those dumbasses who buy IP because they appreciate the talent and effort behind it and want the creators to succeed and make more IP. Those guys who spend more than the minimum on those Humble Indie Bundles are a bunch of fucking rubes, amirite?
BTW, the "not a lost sale" argument isn't "I wouldn't have bought it anyway because I can get it free on the Internet," it's "I wouldn't have bought it anyway at the price you're offering, period." IOW, there are plenty of pirates who would refuse to pay 99 cents for Halo 4 even if they couldn't get it illegally.
Rob
You do realize that this begs the question, right? Since the denialists immediately trumpeted the Climategate emails as authentic, how could there have been a chance for any question of authenticity to arise? This is exactly what the Heartland Institute is criticizing now, that "the individuals who have commented so far on these documents did not wait for Heartland to confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents." The fact that the Climategate emails did indeed turn out to be authentic is irrelevant to this hypocritical argument.
Rob
The idea of a "right to be forgotten" is just stupid on the face of it. What are you going to do about people who know the thing in question that you're trying to get them to forget? Electroshock? Room 101, maybe?
Rob