>>Lack of Productivity Software. (Yes, I like
>>Word and Outlook).
>Do you like VBS worms?
I use Eudora, and I disable macros and I have.js/.vbs/etc set to open in Notepad. No worms.
But that's beside the point: *productivity* is. At this time, Windows maximizes my ability to be productive. And as a contractor, it's really important that I not waste my time not being paid.
>>Lack of Fonts.
>433
>Please explain how I'm missing fonts.
I currently have 1356 fonts -- and about 80% of them are high-quality Bitstream or Adobe fonts. How many of your 433 are professional fonts?
>>And no easy way of doing things
>See above. How fast can you count the # of
>true-type fonts you have installed?
Took me about 30 seconds. Goodness, do you know how much time I waste each and every day just counting fonts? My god, I really do need to start using Linux.
But in important things -- creating professional-quality page layout using Ventura Publisher, diagrams using Visio, and client communications using Word97 (because, damn it, that's what they're all using) -- it seems that Linux would result in (a) my not being able to do my work or (b) doing my work a lot slower/less capably/less efficiently.
Except for the rare geek who feels a need to count fonts quickly, Linux is an overall loser on the productivity front. It simple does not have the tools and applications needed by people like me.
And that is the key: **for people like me**. For you, Linux might be great. For me, it sucks rocks.
Oh, if only there were someone so cynical as to start making 2GHz 386 CPUs!
I'd piss myself laughing.
[and, you know, I think it's entirely plausible: the 386 was a lot more simple than the Pentium-class CPUs. Combine that with.13micron process. They'd be low-power, low-heat chips. Toss 'em on a cheap-ass mobo with 66MHz bottlenecks.
Gahd. I hope someone with a chip fab in their basement is reading this. I really want to see it happen!]
What a *great* way to keep the money flowing in, eh? It must be getting pretty darn difficult to register any reasonable sort of domain names (ie. single or paired words that make sense) these days.
Well, the whole market is opened up again. The domain squatters will throw a pile of money at the registrars, who will kick money back to ICANN.
And then the trademark disputes will begin, enriching the lawyers.
And most of the rest of us will be left out of the loop, 'cause we were to slow to jump in at the start.:*)
Speaking of said Star Wars Lego, is there a new site for it? The poor basta got slashdotted, and it looks like the account was pulled. It'd be a shame if his work wasn't viewable any more -- did he find a new location? Where?
The US government just changed the long-established laws on copyright, because, by gosh!, Disney might lose its copyright on the Mickey Mouse image, and we can't have *that* sort of thing happening!
The world governments will be damn quick to change the patent period to suit the interests of big business.
How about a video chipset that consumes less than one watt of power? Wouldn't *that* make more sense?
Out of all the world's laptops, how many are *really* being used primarily for 3D video games?
Out of all the world's laptops, how many are *really* being used for wordprocessing, spreadsheets, e-mail and other simple data processing?
Right. So why, oh why, do the dumb knobs keep focusing on stupid things like clockspeed, 3d video, dvd players and shit like that?
How about a nice 200MHz ultra-low-power CPU with a nice fast-refresh, accelerated 2D video card with rock-solid drivers; a nice, low-power hard drive; a good 128Mb of low-power memory; and a ultra-hi-res screen (one of IBM's 200dpi ones!) with a super-reflective backplane that reduces the need for backlighting?
I found the info on the Canadian group that is helping set up film societies -- if you're looking for great independent and foreign films, give them a call!
"The Film Circuit: A division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group, a charitable, cultural and educational organization devoted to celebrating excellence in film and the moving image. The Film Circuit is generously sponsored by: Alliance Atlantis, Cineplex Odeon, Famous Players Canada, Telefilm Canada, and the Ontario Film Development Corporation."
Now, in Vernon, what we have is a small collection of people (perhaps a dozen) who are organizers for the incoming film shows. Each show is being held on Mondays (sometimes with a second showing on Wednesday) at the local six-plex Famous Players. Tickets are six bucks a pop. Shows are packing the seats to overflowing.
The also maintain a collection of videos at the local Art Gallery. There are a couple hundred videos there, for rent for a couple of bucks.
I know that Cineplex Odeon is in dire financial straits. I'll bet that you can get them to sponsor the showings pretty darn easy, given the floods of people the shows are attracting -- although, on the other hand, it may be a year before word of mouth really makes them popular.
Anyway, *have a go at it!* You've got nothing to lose, and a *lot* to gain!
For starters, it wouldn't take a team of rocket scientists to clean-room clone the DTD to a level of functionality that'd satisfy most anyone.
For seconders, there are already a bijillion incompatible DTDs out there. The world doesn't need more.
And most importantly, requiring your suppliers and/or customers to conform to a closed-source DTD *COSTS THEM RESOURCES.* You shoot yourself in the foot when you do that: as soon as someone with a cheaper solution comes along, kiss your contract goodbye.
The best thing you can do is work *with* your competition to develop a *single* DTD that saves all your suppliers/customers money. Compete on the basis of service, of added-value, or something else that counts. Competing based on proprietary DTDs is just utterly stupid.
...and go support your local reperatory (sp?) theatre. If you don't have one, start one.
Up here in Canada, the Famous Players chain of big-box cinemas has become a member of an independent releases self-help group. So FP is willing (nay, eager!) to work with community groups to bring single-showing foreign and independent films to the theatre.
It's worth noting that over the past six months, the *only* screens that are jam-packed with viewers have been these indie films. The other week I was in the lineup for twenty minutes to get in -- and saw *not one person* walk in the door to see any other film.
My town has a population of about 40K. Another nearby town (~45m drive away) has a pop. ~20K. Both towns have a film society... so *your* hometown can have one, too, if you get off your duff and organize it!
Recent films:
"East is East" (UK) -- Very funny story of an East Indian immigrant who is trying to raise his family as Pakistani in England... in particular, in marrying off his sons traditionally. They want none of it! A touch dark, a touch funny, a touch painful.
"New Waterford Girl" (Cda) -- Hilarious. Poor Moonie Potter lives at the edge of the earth, somewhere on Cape Breton, in a cramped, bleak little Catholic community. She's a renegade artiste-type, unappreciated and misunderstood. Things turn around when a new neighbour -- refugees from the Bronx, hiding out from the law -- shows up at about the same time she gets a scholarship to an Fine Arts school -- a scholarship her parents won't let her take. Moonie and her new girlfriend hatch a plot to get her out of Cape Breton...
"The Colour of Paradise" (Iran) -- Poignant, tragic story of Mohammed, a blind eight-year old (the actor really is blind), his bitter, widowed father, and his loving grandmother and sisters. Fascinating look into a small Iranian town, and utterly heart-wrenching.
"Felicia's Journey" (UK) -- Bob Hoskins is a meek and mild child-killer. A psychological thriller, and the *only* film I've ever seen that has caused me to curl up in the theatre seat, hands to face and horrified. Hoskins is a brilliant actor. Felicia is an Irish lassy who comes to Britain to find her run-away boyfriend, and hitches a lift from Bob. He insinuates himself into her life, and it's not going to go well for her. Mortifying, absolutely mortifying.
Anyway, point is, every one of the Film Society films I've seen over the past two years has been an order of magnitude better than the shit that is being pumped out of Hollywood.
You owe it to yourself to at least search for or create alternatives.
www.vernonfilmsociety.bc.ca, if you want to poke 'round my local viewing. Do a search for "Princess Theatre Edmonton Alberta Whyte Avenue" or somesuch, and I'm sure you'll come up with a treasure trove of info ('cause Princess Theatre rocks the film world, IMO).
I'd like to point out the other likely mis-voting scenario.
Another senior citizen, this one also suffering near-sightedness, frailty and perhaps some confusion from the hustle and excitement of the voting stations, gets his ballot.
Knowing the value of a vote and wishing to avoid making a mistake, he is cautious to a fault. He carefully examines the top candidate. It's Bush, the candidate he wants to have win.
He follows the arrow and locates the punch-outs. He carefully punches both punch-outs. He's very careful to punch them both: they are both directly beside the space allocated to Bush. Those new-fangled machines must need confirmation or something.
Submits his ballot, happy that he's Done The Right Thing.
But because he was so fastidious, he made a mistake: this ballot wasn't arranged like the ballots he's used in the previous sixteen elections.
These people weren't stupid: they were old, with all the problems that young people love to ignore about old age. Visual impairment. Mental confusion. Hearing impairment.
Visual impairment alone! Glaucoma: like looking at everything through a paper towel tube. Macular degeneration: everything in the centre of your vision looks like Apple ][ graphics - big and chunky. Cataracts: like looking through silk.
Many senior citizens literally could not see the ballot in its entirety. Combine that with fading mental acuity and the habits of a lifetime of filling out proper ballots, and it's little wonder they made mistakes.
Gahd, I hope the most caustic of you live to see euthanasia legalized, because with the kind of attitudes and lack of compassion you have for seniors, you're going to want to kill yourself when your body starts failing you.
Hell, no. It's why "many" in Alberta and BC support the idea of freaking seperating from the rest of you losers!
Alaska, BC, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon all the way! Why we'd have it *ALL*! Oil, pot, potatoes, cattle, high-tech, salmon, lumber, moose and more!
There are a few people casting ascerbic comments about the "idiots" who mis-voted. These folk seem to be genuinely astonished that anyone could misread the ballot.
I'd like to present the likely user scenario:
The senior citizen, with coke bottle glasses and still near-sighted, places the ballot down. Knowing the value of a vote and wishing to avoid making a mistake, he is cautious to a fault.
He points to the top-most candidate with his left hand, and the top punch-out with his right hand, and reads the name. Bush. Not the fellow he wishes to vote for; a Bush has been running the state, and our senior ain't happy with the Bush politics.
He moves both hands down one spot. Reads the name. Gore. Now that young whippersnapper has a brain in his head! Wants to vote for him. Checks that he's pointing at the second hole. Punches it out. Submits his ballot, happy that he's Done The Right Thing.
But because he was so fastidious, he made a mistake: this ballot wasn't arranged like the ballots he's used in the previous sixteen elections.
Oopsy. And not because the old guy was stupid, but because he was so careful to track the form "correctly!" The form was a user interface nightmare and was not tested before being put into use.
...if you don't vote with integrity. If you feel that Nader is the candidate who has the best ideals, policies, attitude and ethics, then vote for him.
Voting for an undesirable candidate because he's less undesirable than the alternate isn't democracy in action: it's a perversion, a mockery, an abomination of what democracy is meant to be.
Get out there and vote for the *best* candidate! It's the only hope you have for saving your nation!
I watch less than a half-hour of television a week. As a result, it came as a shock when I discovered that the election is happening in the last week of this month.
I mean, didn't they just call it? Shouldn't it take a few months? I thought the CRAP (Combined Reform and Alliance Party) just elected their leader -- how's he supposed to compete when he hasn't even had a chance to settle into the job?
It's all happening way to fast for me, and I haven't found (well, I haven't looked for) a good, independent web press site to get informed. I'm going into this election much more ignorant than ever before. It's scary.
I sure hope there's been good television coverage, for the rest of the Canadian electorate, who's probably all too likely to spend their life in front of the tube.
I did overhear something about Stockwell Day saying he was going to legalize marijuana. I'm not a drug user (save caffeine), but I'll vote for him without hesitation if he really means it. I'd really like the cops to go back to doing something more useful than busting small-time users.
Anyone have a web resource where I can get informed about my choices in this election? Thanks in advance!
I mean, really. Imagine the accidents that would happen if they had had their heads just snaking through the grass. It'd be worse than being a python on a highway...
--
Re:But the CoS *does* infiltrate governments.
on
FRG on W2K: No CoS
·
· Score: 2
I figure I'd better follow it my whining post, 'cause it's going to make it onto the +3 message lists, without benefit of the followup posts that didn't get rated up, and should have.
So ATTENTION, PEOPLE WHO WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION: it turns out that karma has been capped at 50 points. It isn't a Taco bitchslap, it's a way of dealing -- I presume -- with karma-whoring. It's not a conspiracy! [grin]
I think it's safe to say that a lot of us ignored the karma business. Back when it first kicked in, it took me a few weeks to clue in that the suddenly weird +2 posting behaviour was related to the new-fangled plus-whatever karma score of mine. Sure, call me clueless; the whole thing just wasn't important.
Guess I'll go read some slashFAQs and find out what the new rules are...
--
Re:But the CoS *does* infiltrate governments.
on
FRG on W2K: No CoS
·
· Score: 3
Speaking of "Fair Game," it appears I'm now flagged as a troublemaker by Slashdot. For the past four or so months, I've yet to gain an iota of karma for the posts that I've had moderated up -- and, in fact, I've seen a net loss of karma, because meta-moderation has smoked me a few times.
What happened? Oh, just that during the summer, I was particularly disappointed with the quality of Slashdot postings and the moderation system. I groused about it, quit being a moderator (I was part of the test pilot group, so I must have engendered some sort of respect at one time) and came within bits of deleting Slashdot from my bookmarks list.
I can only assume I've received a Taco bitchslap. How petty.
In the past week, I've posted twelve messages. Four have been moderated up and seven have generated follow-up replies. None have been moderated down. And yet my karma -- it's dropped at least three points, and perhaps five.
This wouldn't bother me, except that at some point I'm bound to fall below the +2 boundry, and will have no method of recouping the loss. I really don't give a flying fuck about accumulating gross amounts of karma, but I am a little cheesed that I've been excluded from the system, to my detriment.
Church of Scientology, coming soon to a Slashdot near you: fair game policies, chain-locker imprisonment, Operation Freak-out and Karma Exclusion -- whoo! What fun it is to run a private fiefdom!
--
But the CoS *does* infiltrate governments.
on
FRG on W2K: No CoS
·
· Score: 5
There will be a *flood* messages from cultists that attack the German government and/or mock the situation.
The reality is that the CoS actively infiltrates governments. It's part of their cult mandate: LRon himself wrote "The goal of the [CoS] Department [of Governmental Affairs] is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by a high-level ability to control and in its absence by a low-level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies."
Here's the internal CoS memo that ended up with the US IRS being infiltrated, a bijillion documents stolen, and ultimately the arrest and subsequent jailing of CoS members: [Infiltrate the IRS]. It is, of course, worth noting that in the end, the IRS dismissed over a billion dollars in backtaxes and granted the CoS religious exemption status... in a secret, shady, wholly unprecedented deal.
In Canada, the CoS stole confidential documents from myriad Ontario government organizations, when those organizations were investigating the CoS for various illegal practices. They CoS had operatives working in the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Metro Toronto Police, the Ontario Medical Assoc., the College of Physicians, the Cdn Mental Health Assoc., and even the Attorney General's office.
The CoS is also infiltrating businesses: it offers a "training package" which is no more than Hubbardology in business guise. There's a bit of a write up [over here], and a bit of web-searching will dig up a lot more information about the repugnent tactics they use to abuse people to perform better.
Here are two great CoS information sites: [RickRoss] and [Xenu.Net] And it really takes no effort at all to use Google to dig up plenty of facts that will shock and astound you.
As evil organizations hell-bent on world domination go, the CoS is pretty much at the fore-front. Their adherents are fanatical beyond any rational thinking, their mandates to infiltrate governments, businesses and opposition groups is explicit and ruthless, and they have a pile of money.
Go do some web-prowling. The CoS is fascinating, scary and shocking. It's a better use of your time than surfing for goat pr0n!
[I'm probably now "Fair Game" -- which is kind of scary: in CoS words, I "may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."]
Slashdot Mirror
>>Lack of Productivity Software. (Yes, I like
.js/.vbs/etc set to open in Notepad. No worms.
>>Word and Outlook).
>Do you like VBS worms?
I use Eudora, and I disable macros and I have
But that's beside the point: *productivity* is. At this time, Windows maximizes my ability to be productive. And as a contractor, it's really important that I not waste my time not being paid.
>>Lack of Fonts.
>433
>Please explain how I'm missing fonts.
I currently have 1356 fonts -- and about 80% of them are high-quality Bitstream or Adobe fonts. How many of your 433 are professional fonts?
>>And no easy way of doing things
>See above. How fast can you count the # of
>true-type fonts you have installed?
Took me about 30 seconds. Goodness, do you know how much time I waste each and every day just counting fonts? My god, I really do need to start using Linux.
But in important things -- creating professional-quality page layout using Ventura Publisher, diagrams using Visio, and client communications using Word97 (because, damn it, that's what they're all using) -- it seems that Linux would result in (a) my not being able to do my work or (b) doing my work a lot slower/less capably/less efficiently.
Except for the rare geek who feels a need to count fonts quickly, Linux is an overall loser on the productivity front. It simple does not have the tools and applications needed by people like me.
And that is the key: **for people like me**. For you, Linux might be great. For me, it sucks rocks.
--
Oh, if only there were someone so cynical as to start making 2GHz 386 CPUs!
.13micron process. They'd be low-power, low-heat chips. Toss 'em on a cheap-ass mobo with 66MHz bottlenecks.
I'd piss myself laughing.
[and, you know, I think it's entirely plausible: the 386 was a lot more simple than the Pentium-class CPUs. Combine that with
Gahd. I hope someone with a chip fab in their basement is reading this. I really want to see it happen!]
--
What a *great* way to keep the money flowing in, eh? It must be getting pretty darn difficult to register any reasonable sort of domain names (ie. single or paired words that make sense) these days.
:*)
Well, the whole market is opened up again. The domain squatters will throw a pile of money at the registrars, who will kick money back to ICANN.
And then the trademark disputes will begin, enriching the lawyers.
And most of the rest of us will be left out of the loop, 'cause we were to slow to jump in at the start.
--
Speaking of said Star Wars Lego, is there a new site for it? The poor basta got slashdotted, and it looks like the account was pulled. It'd be a shame if his work wasn't viewable any more -- did he find a new location? Where?
--
I wouldn't want to bet on that: corporations have continually gained individual rights over the past twenty years or so.
--
Yes, they do, because you'll be applying for workers' comp if you do get RSI.
If you completely remove yourself from the workers' comp system, you might have an argument...
--
You shouldn't expect *that* to last.
The US government just changed the long-established laws on copyright, because, by gosh!, Disney might lose its copyright on the Mickey Mouse image, and we can't have *that* sort of thing happening!
The world governments will be damn quick to change the patent period to suit the interests of big business.
--
"Scientific research is not driven primarily by commercial institutions."
That's right.
It's primarily driven by the military.
--
Not much aware of the sweatshops in New York, are you?
You do what your triad boss tells you. Period.
--
You don't need "most people." You need about 100 warm bums to fill the seats.
Surely any town of reasonable size (ie. 10K) has a hundred people who are looking for something better.
--
Battery life.
How about a video chipset that consumes less than one watt of power? Wouldn't *that* make more sense?
Out of all the world's laptops, how many are *really* being used primarily for 3D video games?
Out of all the world's laptops, how many are *really* being used for wordprocessing, spreadsheets, e-mail and other simple data processing?
Right. So why, oh why, do the dumb knobs keep focusing on stupid things like clockspeed, 3d video, dvd players and shit like that?
How about a nice 200MHz ultra-low-power CPU with a nice fast-refresh, accelerated 2D video card with rock-solid drivers; a nice, low-power hard drive; a good 128Mb of low-power memory; and a ultra-hi-res screen (one of IBM's 200dpi ones!) with a super-reflective backplane that reduces the need for backlighting?
--
I found the info on the Canadian group that is helping set up film societies -- if you're looking for great independent and foreign films, give them a call!
"The Film Circuit: A division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group, a charitable, cultural and educational organization devoted to celebrating excellence in film and the moving image. The Film Circuit is generously sponsored by: Alliance Atlantis, Cineplex Odeon, Famous Players Canada, Telefilm Canada, and the Ontario Film Development Corporation."
Now, in Vernon, what we have is a small collection of people (perhaps a dozen) who are organizers for the incoming film shows. Each show is being held on Mondays (sometimes with a second showing on Wednesday) at the local six-plex Famous Players. Tickets are six bucks a pop. Shows are packing the seats to overflowing.
The also maintain a collection of videos at the local Art Gallery. There are a couple hundred videos there, for rent for a couple of bucks.
I know that Cineplex Odeon is in dire financial straits. I'll bet that you can get them to sponsor the showings pretty darn easy, given the floods of people the shows are attracting -- although, on the other hand, it may be a year before word of mouth really makes them popular.
Anyway, *have a go at it!* You've got nothing to lose, and a *lot* to gain!
--
For starters, it wouldn't take a team of rocket scientists to clean-room clone the DTD to a level of functionality that'd satisfy most anyone.
For seconders, there are already a bijillion incompatible DTDs out there. The world doesn't need more.
And most importantly, requiring your suppliers and/or customers to conform to a closed-source DTD *COSTS THEM RESOURCES.* You shoot yourself in the foot when you do that: as soon as someone with a cheaper solution comes along, kiss your contract goodbye.
The best thing you can do is work *with* your competition to develop a *single* DTD that saves all your suppliers/customers money. Compete on the basis of service, of added-value, or something else that counts. Competing based on proprietary DTDs is just utterly stupid.
--
...and go support your local reperatory (sp?) theatre. If you don't have one, start one.
Up here in Canada, the Famous Players chain of big-box cinemas has become a member of an independent releases self-help group. So FP is willing (nay, eager!) to work with community groups to bring single-showing foreign and independent films to the theatre.
It's worth noting that over the past six months, the *only* screens that are jam-packed with viewers have been these indie films. The other week I was in the lineup for twenty minutes to get in -- and saw *not one person* walk in the door to see any other film.
My town has a population of about 40K. Another nearby town (~45m drive away) has a pop. ~20K. Both towns have a film society... so *your* hometown can have one, too, if you get off your duff and organize it!
Recent films:
"East is East" (UK) -- Very funny story of an East Indian immigrant who is trying to raise his family as Pakistani in England... in particular, in marrying off his sons traditionally. They want none of it! A touch dark, a touch funny, a touch painful.
"New Waterford Girl" (Cda) -- Hilarious. Poor Moonie Potter lives at the edge of the earth, somewhere on Cape Breton, in a cramped, bleak little Catholic community. She's a renegade artiste-type, unappreciated and misunderstood. Things turn around when a new neighbour -- refugees from the Bronx, hiding out from the law -- shows up at about the same time she gets a scholarship to an Fine Arts school -- a scholarship her parents won't let her take. Moonie and her new girlfriend hatch a plot to get her out of Cape Breton...
"The Colour of Paradise" (Iran) -- Poignant, tragic story of Mohammed, a blind eight-year old (the actor really is blind), his bitter, widowed father, and his loving grandmother and sisters. Fascinating look into a small Iranian town, and utterly heart-wrenching.
"Felicia's Journey" (UK) -- Bob Hoskins is a meek and mild child-killer. A psychological thriller, and the *only* film I've ever seen that has caused me to curl up in the theatre seat, hands to face and horrified. Hoskins is a brilliant actor. Felicia is an Irish lassy who comes to Britain to find her run-away boyfriend, and hitches a lift from Bob. He insinuates himself into her life, and it's not going to go well for her. Mortifying, absolutely mortifying.
Anyway, point is, every one of the Film Society films I've seen over the past two years has been an order of magnitude better than the shit that is being pumped out of Hollywood.
You owe it to yourself to at least search for or create alternatives.
www.vernonfilmsociety.bc.ca, if you want to poke 'round my local viewing. Do a search for "Princess Theatre Edmonton Alberta Whyte Avenue" or somesuch, and I'm sure you'll come up with a treasure trove of info ('cause Princess Theatre rocks the film world, IMO).
--
They *didn't know* they were in need of help.
My god, it's like so many of you have never interacted with a senior citizen who's in poor mental and physical health!
--
Another senior citizen, this one also suffering near-sightedness, frailty and perhaps some confusion from the hustle and excitement of the voting stations, gets his ballot.
Knowing the value of a vote and wishing to avoid making a mistake, he is cautious to a fault. He carefully examines the top candidate. It's Bush, the candidate he wants to have win.
He follows the arrow and locates the punch-outs. He carefully punches both punch-outs. He's very careful to punch them both: they are both directly beside the space allocated to Bush. Those new-fangled machines must need confirmation or something.
Submits his ballot, happy that he's Done The Right Thing.
But because he was so fastidious, he made a mistake: this ballot wasn't arranged like the ballots he's used in the previous sixteen elections.
These people weren't stupid: they were old, with all the problems that young people love to ignore about old age. Visual impairment. Mental confusion. Hearing impairment.
Visual impairment alone! Glaucoma: like looking at everything through a paper towel tube. Macular degeneration: everything in the centre of your vision looks like Apple ][ graphics - big and chunky. Cataracts: like looking through silk.
Many senior citizens literally could not see the ballot in its entirety. Combine that with fading mental acuity and the habits of a lifetime of filling out proper ballots, and it's little wonder they made mistakes.
Gahd, I hope the most caustic of you live to see euthanasia legalized, because with the kind of attitudes and lack of compassion you have for seniors, you're going to want to kill yourself when your body starts failing you.
--
Hell, no. It's why "many" in Alberta and BC support the idea of freaking seperating from the rest of you losers!
Alaska, BC, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon all the way! Why we'd have it *ALL*! Oil, pot, potatoes, cattle, high-tech, salmon, lumber, moose and more!
I think we'd call our new country "Utopia."
--
I'd like to present the likely user scenario:
The senior citizen, with coke bottle glasses and still near-sighted, places the ballot down. Knowing the value of a vote and wishing to avoid making a mistake, he is cautious to a fault.
He points to the top-most candidate with his left hand, and the top punch-out with his right hand, and reads the name. Bush. Not the fellow he wishes to vote for; a Bush has been running the state, and our senior ain't happy with the Bush politics.
He moves both hands down one spot. Reads the name. Gore. Now that young whippersnapper has a brain in his head! Wants to vote for him. Checks that he's pointing at the second hole. Punches it out. Submits his ballot, happy that he's Done The Right Thing.
But because he was so fastidious, he made a mistake: this ballot wasn't arranged like the ballots he's used in the previous sixteen elections.
Oopsy. And not because the old guy was stupid, but because he was so careful to track the form "correctly!" The form was a user interface nightmare and was not tested before being put into use.
--
...if you don't vote with integrity. If you feel that Nader is the candidate who has the best ideals, policies, attitude and ethics, then vote for him.
Voting for an undesirable candidate because he's less undesirable than the alternate isn't democracy in action: it's a perversion, a mockery, an abomination of what democracy is meant to be.
Get out there and vote for the *best* candidate! It's the only hope you have for saving your nation!
--
I watch less than a half-hour of television a week. As a result, it came as a shock when I discovered that the election is happening in the last week of this month.
I mean, didn't they just call it? Shouldn't it take a few months? I thought the CRAP (Combined Reform and Alliance Party) just elected their leader -- how's he supposed to compete when he hasn't even had a chance to settle into the job?
It's all happening way to fast for me, and I haven't found (well, I haven't looked for) a good, independent web press site to get informed. I'm going into this election much more ignorant than ever before. It's scary.
I sure hope there's been good television coverage, for the rest of the Canadian electorate, who's probably all too likely to spend their life in front of the tube.
I did overhear something about Stockwell Day saying he was going to legalize marijuana. I'm not a drug user (save caffeine), but I'll vote for him without hesitation if he really means it. I'd really like the cops to go back to doing something more useful than busting small-time users.
Anyone have a web resource where I can get informed about my choices in this election? Thanks in advance!
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I mean, really. Imagine the accidents that would happen if they had had their heads just snaking through the grass. It'd be worse than being a python on a highway...
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I figure I'd better follow it my whining post, 'cause it's going to make it onto the +3 message lists, without benefit of the followup posts that didn't get rated up, and should have.
So ATTENTION, PEOPLE WHO WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION: it turns out that karma has been capped at 50 points. It isn't a Taco bitchslap, it's a way of dealing -- I presume -- with karma-whoring. It's not a conspiracy! [grin]
I think it's safe to say that a lot of us ignored the karma business. Back when it first kicked in, it took me a few weeks to clue in that the suddenly weird +2 posting behaviour was related to the new-fangled plus-whatever karma score of mine. Sure, call me clueless; the whole thing just wasn't important.
Guess I'll go read some slashFAQs and find out what the new rules are...
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Speaking of "Fair Game," it appears I'm now flagged as a troublemaker by Slashdot. For the past four or so months, I've yet to gain an iota of karma for the posts that I've had moderated up -- and, in fact, I've seen a net loss of karma, because meta-moderation has smoked me a few times.
What happened? Oh, just that during the summer, I was particularly disappointed with the quality of Slashdot postings and the moderation system. I groused about it, quit being a moderator (I was part of the test pilot group, so I must have engendered some sort of respect at one time) and came within bits of deleting Slashdot from my bookmarks list.
I can only assume I've received a Taco bitchslap. How petty.
In the past week, I've posted twelve messages. Four have been moderated up and seven have generated follow-up replies. None have been moderated down. And yet my karma -- it's dropped at least three points, and perhaps five.
This wouldn't bother me, except that at some point I'm bound to fall below the +2 boundry, and will have no method of recouping the loss. I really don't give a flying fuck about accumulating gross amounts of karma, but I am a little cheesed that I've been excluded from the system, to my detriment.
Church of Scientology, coming soon to a Slashdot near you: fair game policies, chain-locker imprisonment, Operation Freak-out and Karma Exclusion -- whoo! What fun it is to run a private fiefdom!
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The reality is that the CoS actively infiltrates governments. It's part of their cult mandate: LRon himself wrote "The goal of the [CoS] Department [of Governmental Affairs] is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by a high-level ability to control and in its absence by a low-level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies."
Here's the internal CoS memo that ended up with the US IRS being infiltrated, a bijillion documents stolen, and ultimately the arrest and subsequent jailing of CoS members: [Infiltrate the IRS]. It is, of course, worth noting that in the end, the IRS dismissed over a billion dollars in backtaxes and granted the CoS religious exemption status... in a secret, shady, wholly unprecedented deal.
[This document] also provides some good insight.
The Greek government busted a CoS unit, and discovered [top-secret US military airbase maps.]
In Canada, the CoS stole confidential documents from myriad Ontario government organizations, when those organizations were investigating the CoS for various illegal practices. They CoS had operatives working in the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Metro Toronto Police, the Ontario Medical Assoc., the College of Physicians, the Cdn Mental Health Assoc., and even the Attorney General's office.
The CoS is also infiltrating businesses: it offers a "training package" which is no more than Hubbardology in business guise. There's a bit of a write up [over here], and a bit of web-searching will dig up a lot more information about the repugnent tactics they use to abuse people to perform better.
Here are two great CoS information sites: [RickRoss] and [Xenu.Net] And it really takes no effort at all to use Google to dig up plenty of facts that will shock and astound you.
As evil organizations hell-bent on world domination go, the CoS is pretty much at the fore-front. Their adherents are fanatical beyond any rational thinking, their mandates to infiltrate governments, businesses and opposition groups is explicit and ruthless, and they have a pile of money.
Go do some web-prowling. The CoS is fascinating, scary and shocking. It's a better use of your time than surfing for goat pr0n!
[I'm probably now "Fair Game" -- which is kind of scary: in CoS words, I "may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed."]
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You don't need to make $120K in Canada. You need to make $70-80K in Canada.
Things don't automatically cost 50% more just because they're sold in Canada.
It certainly isn't a financial loss of any calibre once one calculates in the costs of being in America.
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