Yah, telling them not to drive won't do much good, because most people are too fucking self-centered and stupid to accept the *fact* that driving while drowsy puts people's lives in grave danger.
All that you say would be perfectly fine and true if we were grizzly bears.
Griz are out for number one, because they live alone. They're not social animals.
The most important thing people in this society *must* come to understand is that the good of the whole is *more important* than the good of oneself.
If we don't start behaving in a manner that benefits society, then this society is destined to collapse. It has happened in the past, and it *will* happen again.
Now of course, someone is going to go on some riff about the evils of socialism or communism or some other dippy understanding of what I've said. Just please note that I didn't say anything at all about what the political structure would look like.
What I will say is that "good for society" *can* align with "good for oneself." The two are not mutually exclusive.
Let me Venn diagram it: two circles, overlapping. One circle is "good for society." The other is "good for oneself." What we want is to maximize the area of overlap, and position ourselves in it.
"True story: A friend of mine and I were sitting at a red light in DC when a car full of gangstas pulled up beside us. We happened to be listening to NWA's "Fuck Tha Police". For some reason, these gangstas were offended that two white boys were listening to rap, and one of them pulled a gun and held it up to the window."
Or perhaps they were tired of hearing assholes with their crappy rap music cranked so loud that it can be heard in the next county.
They were probably trying to teach you some manners. Shame they didn't shoot your stereo.
Your one of the *causes* of the "fuck you" society we're living in, buddy. Turn down the stereo already.
"Turn the other cheek" isn't going to change a thing. All that will happen is that they'll *continue* to act abusively towards everyone else around them.
I'm perfectly aware that busting heads isn't a wimpy nice-guy attitude. Tough shit. Dictatorships aren't overthrown by wishing them away, either.
If we want this society to change, then *we* have to take action to change it.
Actually, they were deeply religious. They were Theists: they believed in a supreme being, but *NOT* in personal salvation nor that Christ was God's son.
Shouldn't take you very long at all to hit Google and learn that Theists are not Christian, and that most of the founders were Theists.
'But somehow I can't get the bad taste out of my mouth. I see it on Slashdot all the time, and I find it really disheartening. Its an attitude that many people have: The "You Owe Me" attitude.'
It's part of the 'going to hell in a handbasket' problem we've got going in this society.
The root cause seems to boil down to one thing: a lot of people these days are out for #1, and don't give a fuck for the consequences that affect others.
Maybe it's because those of us that try to play nice are too patient, too forgiving, and too unwilling to get in their faces and *demand* that they play nice. Instead, we let them walk all over us.
Myriad examples: the assholes with their 110dB subwoofer ripping through residential neighbourhoods at 2AM. The pissant little fuck who takes 30 items through the 10 items or less till. People who don't hold doors open when you both arrive at the same time. Dangerous fucking assholes running red lights. Ah, it's aggravating just thinking of all the examples.
Why do these people act like jerks? Because they can.
Perhaps it's because they're so powerless in every other aspect of their lives. Between their boss and the government, they can't fart without permission. So they take out their frustrations by pissing off everyone else. Maybe that's it.
Bottom line, at any rate, is that it's time for the nice guys to put their foot down and demand better from others. Don't like the behaviour you see? Don't be a milquetoast -- stand up and demand better!
Slashdot should just get its own "partners" link already. Why the hell do we need to go through this dumb-ass two-step system where the main article posts some NYTimes registration-required link and someone else ferrets out a no-reg-required link?
Cut to the chase already, Slashdot. Beg, borrow or buy a damned registered partner account with the NYTimes and be done with it!
--
Re:Everything You Need to Know, You Learned in Kdg
on
IANAL
·
· Score: 2
No one said anything about "these days," but sure, let's run with that.
First, there are plenty of parents doing a fine job. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who might go by the name of "parent" but who are, really, just owners.
Like that woman who "forgot" her infant in her car for the entire fucking day, leaving it parked out in the sun and roasting her baby. She was no parent: she was a child *owner.*
Or every goddamn "parent" that owns a child that they don't read to. If there is *one* significant factor in influencing how your child will do in school, it's reading to them. No, all too many child-owners don't read to their children: they sit them down in front of the effing television babysitter.
Or all those child-owners who don't discipline -- and please getta clue and realise that "discipline" has a meaning that has nothing to do with beating the shit out of a child -- their children. No, they engage in loosey-goosey bullshit where their child gets to make all sorts of moral and life decisions on their own. As if we come with a built-in sense of right and wrong!
There are all those child-owners who tell their children to live their life one way, but demonstrate a completely different lifestyle. "Don't steal, Johnny. Oh, look, the clerk didn't charge me for this!" "Don't start fights, Sally. GET YOUR FUCKING CAR OFF THE ROAD YOU STUPID SLOW BITCH! And always be nice to others, Sally."
Parents? Hah! An all-too-rare breed these days, Karm. Child ownership is where it's at. You get to spooge your genes forward into the next generation, but you don't actually have to take any responsibility for it!
It's a sick culture we're currently living in.
--
Everything You Need to Know, You Learned in Kdgrtn
on
IANAL
·
· Score: 3
* Play fair.
* Don't hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don't take things that aren't yours.
* Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Live a balanced life.
* Take a nap in the afternoon.
* Be aware of wonder.
And basically, it's true. Kindergarten is when you become a social human being. A good kindergarten teacher will train you to be a good adult.
Unfortunately, these days, the parents then go and fuck it all up.
Well, okay, so the Germans are bipolar or schizophrenic: they either go with lots of words when one would do (the "limited" example above), or one humungous mofo of a word that's damn near impossible to parse.
Like "neunhundertneunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunun dneunzig" -- because, hey, it's just so handy to have to read your Really Big Numbers as a single word.
Or "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenüber tragungsgesetz," (hell, Slashdot inserts a space!) which more or less directly Alta-vista translates as "British beef labeling monitoring function transfer law" and actually means "watching out for Mad Cow disease."
I look at it sort of like a user interface issue: what's going to increase comprehension and decrease error rates -- using spaces between words, ornotusingspacesbetweenwords?
The former, obviously. So why on earth choose the latter?!
Those nutty Germans! Always with the lots of words, when a single word would do!
Literally, it translates to "Society with More Limited Adhesion." I'm not sure if that's "more-limited adhesion" or "more limited-adhesion," mind you, but either way sounds like a run-in with a UHU glue stick...
They bought the original IBM PC keyboard design/patents, and manufacture leaf-spring keyboards.
We're talking "wing o' death" keyboards. And, as a bonus, they've redesigned the wing o' death and come up with some *great* new designs that are smaller and perhaps even better.
In Canada, the telcos generally lay fiber right to the foundation wall of new homes.
They're laying copper to homes anyway, and the big expense isn't the fiber -- it's cheaper than copper -- but installation. Expensive to dig trenches, lay conduit, and all that shite. Costs damn near nothing to toss a bit of fiber in the pipe at the same time.
So there's a lot of dark fiber out there, just waiting for the profitability point to make it worth it for the telco to turn it on.
You should move to a modern country. We've got ADSL all over the damn place. Can't get away from it these days...:-)
For the same reasons they used Win3.1 instead of OS/2 or MacOS? For the same reason they use MSPublisher instead of FrameMaker or Ventura?
Because, I suspect, they don't know any better. And many of whom naively believe that their school is teaching them with the best tools, when the reality is they are taught with whatever tools the school can get for free.
[rather long description of how long-doc publishing is made easier by VP, snipped because Slashdot is being a pain in the ass... maybe it'll like a shorter message]
Anyway, try this URL: http://www.coreluser.com/html/vent_table.h tml
(it was working earlier today...)
Also, the Ventura user's group, should you decide to make a go of it:
news://cnews.corel.ca/corel.graphic_apps.ventura 8
(and if you're doing single-page sort of layout, you'll need to find an enthusiast for Corel Draw, PageMaker, Illustrator or the like. I'm afraid that's just not my gig.)
[bloody slashdot is making it difficult to post responses these days. over 30 submit-button hits to get this in...]
So you basically agree with me, particularly as v5.0 doesn't yet exist.
Quark v5.0 will, indeed, be a good improvement. That still doesn't deny that out-of-the-box, there is better software available.
It would currently take over $10000 in add-on software to bring Quark's capabilities up to par with Ventura... go, price it out: I state the truth here.
You say it yourself: you aren't familiar enough with CD or Ventura to be able to say anything intelligent about them.
Important things Quark falls down on:
* multiple undo
* customizable menus * document zoom
* snap grid * mixing page layouts in a single document
* straddle paragraphs across columns
* good text frames management * relative frame anchoring * multiple-colour gradient, PS, vector fills * decimal tab align * all caps, intercaps, small caps, etc
* rotate paragraphs within text flow
* external file linking * conditional text * footnote/endnotes/sidenotes
* text fills
* hanging punctuation * custom underlines
* fully customizable line styles
* fancy-ass bitmap graphic filters
* NO built-in table support
* No cross-referencing
* Limited graphic import formats
* No impositioning * No print bureau profiling
* NO built-in HTML support * NO built-in database layout support * NO links within PDF output * Limited colour systems support
* NO built-in equation editor
* NO scripting
Some of the things it lacks can be made up for by buying extra, expensive software. And many of the things it lacks can not be added. And many of those lacking features are a godsend to doing professional work.
ftp://ftp.coreluser.com/coreluser/CU65TBL1-LTR.p df for an even-handed (no, really, it is: it's very factual and thorough: there is no apparent bias) comparison of Quark, PageMaker, FrameMaker and Ventura.
Face it: you're outlook is severely limited by your familiarity with a *single* product. If you were to free your mind and start doing some research into the features you need and the software that best fulfills those needs, you very likely would never conclude that Quark is the best tool for the job.
Slashdot Mirror
Yah, telling them not to drive won't do much good, because most people are too fucking self-centered and stupid to accept the *fact* that driving while drowsy puts people's lives in grave danger.
--
WTF does Linux have to do with this? There aren't any Adobe products for Linux. Be pretty damn difficult to impact Adobe sales on Linux products.
--
JAWS PDF Creator, which is every bit as good -- and in some ways better -- than Distiller.
--
All that you say would be perfectly fine and true if we were grizzly bears.
Griz are out for number one, because they live alone. They're not social animals.
The most important thing people in this society *must* come to understand is that the good of the whole is *more important* than the good of oneself.
If we don't start behaving in a manner that benefits society, then this society is destined to collapse. It has happened in the past, and it *will* happen again.
Now of course, someone is going to go on some riff about the evils of socialism or communism or some other dippy understanding of what I've said. Just please note that I didn't say anything at all about what the political structure would look like.
What I will say is that "good for society" *can* align with "good for oneself." The two are not mutually exclusive.
Let me Venn diagram it: two circles, overlapping. One circle is "good for society." The other is "good for oneself." What we want is to maximize the area of overlap, and position ourselves in it.
--
So fink her out.
If you don't, she is going to be rewarded for dishonest behaviour.
That's just going to take us one more step toward the sort of society we don't want.
Do yourself, do her, and do all of us a favour: make sure she pays the price for cheating and lying.
--
"True story: A friend of mine and I were sitting at a red light in DC when a car full of gangstas pulled up beside us. We happened to be listening to NWA's "Fuck Tha Police". For some reason, these gangstas were offended that two white boys were listening to rap, and one of them pulled a gun and held it up to the window."
Or perhaps they were tired of hearing assholes with their crappy rap music cranked so loud that it can be heard in the next county.
They were probably trying to teach you some manners. Shame they didn't shoot your stereo.
Your one of the *causes* of the "fuck you" society we're living in, buddy. Turn down the stereo already.
--
"Turn the other cheek" isn't going to change a thing. All that will happen is that they'll *continue* to act abusively towards everyone else around them.
I'm perfectly aware that busting heads isn't a wimpy nice-guy attitude. Tough shit. Dictatorships aren't overthrown by wishing them away, either.
If we want this society to change, then *we* have to take action to change it.
--
So I'm forced to wonder whether Tokyo is crawling with assholes.
Somehow, I doubt it. Politeness, respect, and courtesy are fundamental social laws in Japan.
Not so in America, and what's left of consideration for others seems to be rapidly dwindling.
--
Actually, they were deeply religious. They were Theists: they believed in a supreme being, but *NOT* in personal salvation nor that Christ was God's son.
Shouldn't take you very long at all to hit Google and learn that Theists are not Christian, and that most of the founders were Theists.
--
'But somehow I can't get the bad taste out of my mouth. I see it on Slashdot all the time, and I find it really disheartening. Its an attitude that many people have: The "You Owe Me" attitude.'
It's part of the 'going to hell in a handbasket' problem we've got going in this society.
The root cause seems to boil down to one thing: a lot of people these days are out for #1, and don't give a fuck for the consequences that affect others.
Maybe it's because those of us that try to play nice are too patient, too forgiving, and too unwilling to get in their faces and *demand* that they play nice. Instead, we let them walk all over us.
Myriad examples: the assholes with their 110dB subwoofer ripping through residential neighbourhoods at 2AM. The pissant little fuck who takes 30 items through the 10 items or less till. People who don't hold doors open when you both arrive at the same time. Dangerous fucking assholes running red lights. Ah, it's aggravating just thinking of all the examples.
Why do these people act like jerks? Because they can.
Perhaps it's because they're so powerless in every other aspect of their lives. Between their boss and the government, they can't fart without permission. So they take out their frustrations by pissing off everyone else. Maybe that's it.
Bottom line, at any rate, is that it's time for the nice guys to put their foot down and demand better from others. Don't like the behaviour you see? Don't be a milquetoast -- stand up and demand better!
--
I was thinking Fu'dobe (fuh-doh-be) or Fukdobe might make a good name.
--
Slashdot should just get its own "partners" link already. Why the hell do we need to go through this dumb-ass two-step system where the main article posts some NYTimes registration-required link and someone else ferrets out a no-reg-required link?
Cut to the chase already, Slashdot. Beg, borrow or buy a damned registered partner account with the NYTimes and be done with it!
--
No one said anything about "these days," but sure, let's run with that.
First, there are plenty of parents doing a fine job. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who might go by the name of "parent" but who are, really, just owners.
Like that woman who "forgot" her infant in her car for the entire fucking day, leaving it parked out in the sun and roasting her baby. She was no parent: she was a child *owner.*
Or every goddamn "parent" that owns a child that they don't read to. If there is *one* significant factor in influencing how your child will do in school, it's reading to them. No, all too many child-owners don't read to their children: they sit them down in front of the effing television babysitter.
Or all those child-owners who don't discipline -- and please getta clue and realise that "discipline" has a meaning that has nothing to do with beating the shit out of a child -- their children. No, they engage in loosey-goosey bullshit where their child gets to make all sorts of moral and life decisions on their own. As if we come with a built-in sense of right and wrong!
There are all those child-owners who tell their children to live their life one way, but demonstrate a completely different lifestyle. "Don't steal, Johnny. Oh, look, the clerk didn't charge me for this!" "Don't start fights, Sally. GET YOUR FUCKING CAR OFF THE ROAD YOU STUPID SLOW BITCH! And always be nice to others, Sally."
Parents? Hah! An all-too-rare breed these days, Karm. Child ownership is where it's at. You get to spooge your genes forward into the next generation, but you don't actually have to take any responsibility for it!
It's a sick culture we're currently living in.
--
* Play fair.
* Don't hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don't take things that aren't yours.
* Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Live a balanced life.
* Take a nap in the afternoon.
* Be aware of wonder.
And basically, it's true. Kindergarten is when you become a social human being. A good kindergarten teacher will train you to be a good adult.
Unfortunately, these days, the parents then go and fuck it all up.
--
The wonders of nanny states, eh?
Like ones that make possession of marijuana a *criminal offense*?
What about states that suckhole to corporations, providing obscene tax breaks or environment law loopholes?
American citizens should be the *last* citizens on the face of the planet to mutter comments about "nanny states."
--
Well, okay, so the Germans are bipolar or schizophrenic: they either go with lots of words when one would do (the "limited" example above), or one humungous mofo of a word that's damn near impossible to parse.
n dneunzig" -- because, hey, it's just so handy to have to read your Really Big Numbers as a single word.
r tragungsgesetz," (hell, Slashdot inserts a space!) which more or less directly Alta-vista translates as "British beef labeling monitoring function transfer law" and actually means "watching out for Mad Cow disease."
Like "neunhundertneunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunu
Or "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübe
I look at it sort of like a user interface issue: what's going to increase comprehension and decrease error rates -- using spaces between words, ornotusingspacesbetweenwords?
The former, obviously. So why on earth choose the latter?!
--
Dr. Fun has a most appropriate cartoon for today. Except that it doesn't mention Katz by name...
--
"Gesellschaft mit beschraenkter Haftung"
Those nutty Germans! Always with the lots of words, when a single word would do!
Literally, it translates to "Society with More Limited Adhesion." I'm not sure if that's "more-limited adhesion" or "more limited-adhesion," mind you, but either way sounds like a run-in with a UHU glue stick...
--
Here is where you can buy real keyboards
www.pckeyboard.com
They bought the original IBM PC keyboard design/patents, and manufacture leaf-spring keyboards.
We're talking "wing o' death" keyboards. And, as a bonus, they've redesigned the wing o' death and come up with some *great* new designs that are smaller and perhaps even better.
Check 'em out!
--
I live in BC. I pay $45/mo for DSL+modem rental; if I buy my own modem, it's $35/mo.
Exchange rate is 60-odd cents. Do the math: we've got cheap Internet.
--
In Canada, the telcos generally lay fiber right to the foundation wall of new homes.
:-)
They're laying copper to homes anyway, and the big expense isn't the fiber -- it's cheaper than copper -- but installation. Expensive to dig trenches, lay conduit, and all that shite. Costs damn near nothing to toss a bit of fiber in the pipe at the same time.
So there's a lot of dark fiber out there, just waiting for the profitability point to make it worth it for the telco to turn it on.
You should move to a modern country. We've got ADSL all over the damn place. Can't get away from it these days...
--
Hey, when you've got 19", you hear this sort of thing down at the club show all the time:
"HEY BABY! NICE RACK! COME ON HOME, BABY! I WANNA MOUNT THAT THING!"
Tough life, I know. [shrug]
--
"If it's so inferior, why is it used like it is?"
a 8
For the same reasons they used Win3.1 instead of OS/2 or MacOS? For the same reason they use MSPublisher instead of FrameMaker or Ventura?
Because, I suspect, they don't know any better. And many of whom naively believe that their school is teaching them with the best tools, when the reality is they are taught with whatever tools the school can get for free.
[rather long description of how long-doc publishing is made easier by VP, snipped because Slashdot is being a pain in the ass... maybe it'll like a shorter message]
Anyway, try this URL: http://www.coreluser.com/html/vent_table.h tml
(it was working earlier today...)
Also, the Ventura user's group, should you decide to make a go of it:
news://cnews.corel.ca/corel.graphic_apps.ventur
(and if you're doing single-page sort of layout, you'll need to find an enthusiast for Corel Draw, PageMaker, Illustrator or the like. I'm afraid that's just not my gig.)
[bloody slashdot is making it difficult to post responses these days. over 30 submit-button hits to get this in...]
--
So you basically agree with me, particularly as v5.0 doesn't yet exist.
Quark v5.0 will, indeed, be a good improvement. That still doesn't deny that out-of-the-box, there is better software available.
It would currently take over $10000 in add-on software to bring Quark's capabilities up to par with Ventura... go, price it out: I state the truth here.
--
You say it yourself: you aren't familiar enough with CD or Ventura to be able to say anything intelligent about them.
p df for an even-handed (no, really, it is: it's very factual and thorough: there is no apparent bias) comparison of Quark, PageMaker, FrameMaker and Ventura.
Important things Quark falls down on:
* multiple undo
* customizable menus
* document zoom
* snap grid
* mixing page layouts in a single document
* straddle paragraphs across columns
* good text frames management
* relative frame anchoring
* multiple-colour gradient, PS, vector fills
* decimal tab align
* all caps, intercaps, small caps, etc
* rotate paragraphs within text flow
* external file linking
* conditional text
* footnote/endnotes/sidenotes
* text fills
* hanging punctuation
* custom underlines
* fully customizable line styles
* fancy-ass bitmap graphic filters
* NO built-in table support
* No cross-referencing
* Limited graphic import formats
* No impositioning
* No print bureau profiling
* NO built-in HTML support
* NO built-in database layout support
* NO links within PDF output
* Limited colour systems support
* NO built-in equation editor
* NO scripting
Some of the things it lacks can be made up for by buying extra, expensive software. And many of the things it lacks can not be added. And many of those lacking features are a godsend to doing professional work.
ftp://ftp.coreluser.com/coreluser/CU65TBL1-LTR.
Face it: you're outlook is severely limited by your familiarity with a *single* product. If you were to free your mind and start doing some research into the features you need and the software that best fulfills those needs, you very likely would never conclude that Quark is the best tool for the job.
--