Why should you be familiar with guns? Well, how about because you're much less likely to do something stupid with one (like treat it as a toy) if you know
something about them?
But most people don't need to have any real familiarity with guns in order not to do something stupid with them, for the simple reason that they don't ever come across them.
I know enough not to try to lick a black widow spider or jump off the top of a skyscraper without needing any more detailed knowledge.
Basically, this was the option open to the principal, knock it over to the police
What absurd cowardice. Just walk up and ask the guy what he's up to, for fucks sake.
And if he's an armed nutter, he might just shoot you. There are things which it's best to leave to the police, although I appreciate this is blasphemy now on slashdot.
"Yes, spree killers being so well known for their rational behaviour and all. I'm sure no-one would adopt an affectation [wikipedia.org] to commit a massacre [wikipedia.org] when more practical clothing is available."
I have no problem with someone calling the police. The police should have stopped him and asked to see the blaster. When it was shown to be nothing but a toy then they tell him, "cool costume but you might not want to wear it all the time. It can freak some people out. Have a nice day."
End of story.
But then it wouldn't have been a story which slashdotters could get all Second Amendmenty about.
Apparently the Stormtrooper blaster is based off of the Sterling L2A3 [google.com] But the toy has a lot of extra crap attached to it, so you'd have to be pretty far to mistake the two. Plus, I can't say I've ever seen a Sterling L2A3 in the US. I doubt many people in the US, other than serious gun collectors, have ever seen one.
So if someone who is keen on guns has never seen a Sterling sub machine gun, why the fuck do you expect a school principal to be able to categorically identify a vaguely similar Star Wars toy as definitely not one?
There are plenty of movie sci fi guns based on real weapons, and plenty of accessorised real weapons which are indistinguishable from movie sci fi guns unless you get to examine them properly. Which you don't if someone is pointing one at you.
Do you truly believe that every criminal found not guilty should also face a civil trial for damages after being found not guilty?
Yes, why not? If you can produce sufficient evidence why should they get away scot free?
You seem to be under the impression that in a civil case you just ask for some money and the defendant has to give it to you. There is still a trial by jury.
The Bill of Rights states explicitly that you can not be tried for the same crime twice.
OJ was not tried for the same crime twice. He was tried once at a criminal trial and found not guilty. The subsequent civil trial was a claim for damages for wrongful death, and it was found that on the balance of probabilities he was responsible and should pay damages . He was not found "guilty" of anything and did not suffer a criminal punishment.
Criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, civil cases only require that the plaintiff's case has been proved on the balance of probabilities. The former is a much higher standard of proof.
Usually when you say "from the article" you make the word "article" all blue and linky.
I think that involves scary computer "html programming" or something. The editors were probably worried they'd break the internet if they got it wrong.
LOL, I fear Microsoft will forever be best summarized with the "Hi, I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" commercials where Microsoft is in a shirt and tie and wants to run a spreadsheet. Always with the fscking spreadsheet. Hell, on my Windows machine I don't even have software for spreadsheets. Because I don't ever use spreadsheets. Or PowerPoint. At least no on my personal desktop.
Ah, the good old "I don't use something myself, therefore it's totally pointless" argument.
And since when did being "cool" become a nerd ideal?
But it is clearly still very far from human. It lands smack middle in the uncanny valley. It becomes incredibly clear when it talks about population numbers and lists them down to the last digit. Not only is that typical computer-ish, it's also vastly less useful than a human who would tell you "about 80 million".
When I ask my personal assistant device how long it'll take to get to city X, I'm not interested in an answer that says "3 hours, 57 minutes, 48 seconds". I want to hear "4 hours", because we humans understand it's an estimate anyways and a few minutes more or less doesn't matter anyways.
It can't be that difficult to give it a rounding function if you're really that bothered.
Kickstarter shows how lame and hopeless ideas pushed by people with near zero skills can raise astonishing amounts of money, if the fantasy appeals to nerds
enough.
Careful, Kickstarter is up there with Uber, travelling to Mars and bitcoins as being beyond criticism on slashdot.
I want to be able to say "give me a list of up to 5 single-family homes for sale in the city I'm currently in that are among the lowest-priced 10 or so homes in the three categories of price per total square foot, price per finished square foot and price per above-grade finished square foot that also have at least 1800 sqft, 4 beds and 2 or more 3/4 or bigger bathrooms, are in the matriculation area of a good middle school and cost around $350k or less.". Then, when it gives me the list, I want it to explain to me
Actually thanks to the northern cities vowel shift in the mid 20th century the Inland North dialect has diverged from General American dialect which is the "most pure" and "most easily understood" form of American English.
To outsiders, all North American accents sound pretty much the same. Except for people from Quebec.
Slashdot Mirror
There is ZERO difference between the actions of this 'principal', and ISIS enforcers
I think that, except in brevity, that matches "literally Hitler" as an hysterical over-reaction.
A (educated) child might just save the life of an (ignorant) one if they KNOW how to disarm a potentially deadly situation.
It's only a potentially deadly situation because gun-loving arseholes leave loaded weapons lying around the house.
Why should you be familiar with guns? Well, how about because you're much less likely to do something stupid with one (like treat it as a toy) if you know something about them?
But most people don't need to have any real familiarity with guns in order not to do something stupid with them, for the simple reason that they don't ever come across them.
I know enough not to try to lick a black widow spider or jump off the top of a skyscraper without needing any more detailed knowledge.
Basically, this was the option open to the principal, knock it over to the police
What absurd cowardice. Just walk up and ask the guy what he's up to, for fucks sake.
And if he's an armed nutter, he might just shoot you. There are things which it's best to leave to the police, although I appreciate this is blasphemy now on slashdot.
"Yes, spree killers being so well known for their rational behaviour and all. I'm sure no-one would adopt an affectation [wikipedia.org] to commit a massacre [wikipedia.org] when more practical clothing is available."
I have no problem with someone calling the police. The police should have stopped him and asked to see the blaster. When it was shown to be nothing but a toy then they tell him, "cool costume but you might not want to wear it all the time. It can freak some people out. Have a nice day." End of story.
But then it wouldn't have been a story which slashdotters could get all Second Amendmenty about.
Apparently the Stormtrooper blaster is based off of the Sterling L2A3 [google.com] But the toy has a lot of extra crap attached to it, so you'd have to be pretty far to mistake the two. Plus, I can't say I've ever seen a Sterling L2A3 in the US. I doubt many people in the US, other than serious gun collectors, have ever seen one.
So if someone who is keen on guns has never seen a Sterling sub machine gun, why the fuck do you expect a school principal to be able to categorically identify a vaguely similar Star Wars toy as definitely not one?
There are plenty of movie sci fi guns based on real weapons, and plenty of accessorised real weapons which are indistinguishable from movie sci fi guns unless you get to examine them properly. Which you don't if someone is pointing one at you.
I must have missed the part where he had an actual firearm. No firearm, no grounds for arrest.
Dressing up like a retarded cunt and hanging around outside schools seems like reasonable grounds for arrest to me.
Nanny-state limp-wrists who soil themselves at the sight of a plastic gun.
cool, we now know that Chuck Norris posts on slashdot under the pseudonym clonehappy.
Do you truly believe that every criminal found not guilty should also face a civil trial for damages after being found not guilty?
Yes, why not? If you can produce sufficient evidence why should they get away scot free?
You seem to be under the impression that in a civil case you just ask for some money and the defendant has to give it to you. There is still a trial by jury.
The Bill of Rights states explicitly that you can not be tried for the same crime twice.
OJ was not tried for the same crime twice. He was tried once at a criminal trial and found not guilty. The subsequent civil trial was a claim for damages for wrongful death, and it was found that on the balance of probabilities he was responsible and should pay damages . He was not found "guilty" of anything and did not suffer a criminal punishment.
No, it's not an extremely high standard.
Criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, civil cases only require that the plaintiff's case has been proved on the balance of probabilities. The former is a much higher standard of proof.
Usually when you say "from the article" you make the word "article" all blue and linky.
I think that involves scary computer "html programming" or something. The editors were probably worried they'd break the internet if they got it wrong.
LOL, I fear Microsoft will forever be best summarized with the "Hi, I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" commercials where Microsoft is in a shirt and tie and wants to run a spreadsheet. Always with the fscking spreadsheet. Hell, on my Windows machine I don't even have software for spreadsheets. Because I don't ever use spreadsheets. Or PowerPoint. At least no on my personal desktop.
Ah, the good old "I don't use something myself, therefore it's totally pointless" argument.
And since when did being "cool" become a nerd ideal?
What's wrong with verbosity? Verbosity actually gives you some idea what the command does.
But that lets non-1337 lusers use computers too, and we can't have that.
If they really want that, they can make free to download and share.
Yeah, what they lose in margin they'll make up in volume. Oh, wait...
Microsoft wants Windows 10 to be installed on as many devices as possible
That's been their strategy forever.
Captcha: renews
It's almost as though they're a commercial organisation who want to increase their profits.
But it is clearly still very far from human. It lands smack middle in the uncanny valley. It becomes incredibly clear when it talks about population numbers and lists them down to the last digit. Not only is that typical computer-ish, it's also vastly less useful than a human who would tell you "about 80 million".
When I ask my personal assistant device how long it'll take to get to city X, I'm not interested in an answer that says "3 hours, 57 minutes, 48 seconds". I want to hear "4 hours", because we humans understand it's an estimate anyways and a few minutes more or less doesn't matter anyways.
It can't be that difficult to give it a rounding function if you're really that bothered.
Kickstarter shows how lame and hopeless ideas pushed by people with near zero skills can raise astonishing amounts of money, if the fantasy appeals to nerds enough.
Careful, Kickstarter is up there with Uber, travelling to Mars and bitcoins as being beyond criticism on slashdot.
And brace yourself for robotic surveys and sales calls that sound uncannily like real people.
Since the humans doing these are generally foreigners reading from a script, that's not saying much.
I want to be able to say "give me a list of up to 5 single-family homes for sale in the city I'm currently in that are among the lowest-priced 10 or so homes in the three categories of price per total square foot, price per finished square foot and price per above-grade finished square foot that also have at least 1800 sqft, 4 beds and 2 or more 3/4 or bigger bathrooms, are in the matriculation area of a good middle school and cost around $350k or less.". Then, when it gives me the list, I want it to explain to me
And then I want it to give me a blowjob.
Obviously, YMMV.
Saying "why em em vee" is interpreted by Siri as meaning "yes"?
Actually thanks to the northern cities vowel shift in the mid 20th century the Inland North dialect has diverged from General American dialect which is the "most pure" and "most easily understood" form of American English.
To outsiders, all North American accents sound pretty much the same. Except for people from Quebec.
I just tried on my iPhone... Siri launched Waze on the first try.
I fucking love that woman.
Oh, sure, but what happens when I say I need a Lyft to the airport and it brings up Uber? ;-)
Just make up pseudonyms for your stupidly named apps. For instance "taxi service" for Lyft and "shitty taxi service" for Uber.
Although since "launch ways" doesn't really make sense as an English phrase, I would imagine SoundHound would get it right anyway.