I'm not some conspiracy theory, flag waving maniac. I'm a mom, I pay taxes, I pimp my geek skills lightly. I believe wholeheartedly in our system of government. But I also truly believe the system we have is in far worse crisis than many want to believe is possible.
I know about that old Register April Fool's day joke about continuity presidency, and if I were raving about that, I'd expect anyone with sense to dismiss me as a troll and be done with it.
But that's not what I'm talking about. Have you heard the words 'constitutional crisis' lately? George Bush (and especially Cheney and Rove) are not merely pushing Constitutional limits, they are outright stating that the executive branch is immune from following the law or interpreting any law as they see fit. And they have proven with Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby, Harriet Miers and Sarah Taylor that they will extend their nonexistent "Executive Privilege" not only to themselves, but to anyone with any information about their deeds and misdeeds.
If there is one law Bush doesn't have to follow then he doesn't have to follow any. If we allow the president, who should be an example for us all, to pick and choose which laws he will obey and others he won't then the OP was right: we are no longer a government by, for and of the people. We are now a dictatorship posing as a Democracy.
The problem is not the Senate. They are trying to fix it, but the Bush Admin will not allow it to be fixed. Instead Bush is pressing for yet ANOTHER war. With our other conflicts still in progress, let alone resolved, this can only result in more FUD. If we, the American People allow this administration, unchallenged, to push into yet another front, we may as well resign ourselves to the last broken promise of this administration: there will be a draft because we cannot sustain our current level of deployment with the numbers we have; the illusion of civil liberties we have left will be dropped and we will finalize our entrance into the police state; instead of keeping immigrants out, we will find that the laws and walls being built are to keep us in.
I probably find it odder than you do that, I, of all people, actually believe any of this. Before the War on Terror, The War in Iraq or even 9/11, I was happy just being a mom and kicking back with my family over some movies on our new DVD player and our PlayStation 2. I never considered myself very politically minded and it was a miracle that I even voted sometimes at all.
And somehow I have evolved from not caring at all to seriously believing that a Bush 2009 coup d'etat is not only possible but probable. The sad part is, folks are simply too willing to continue to believe that things like that simply can't in America. But most of us thought that everything the Bush Admin has gotten away with to date couldn't happen here either.
No. We are still the government. It's just that most people don't believe things are as bad as they are. Or they don't want to believe.I can't even convince my own family that this game is being played for mortal stakes. They write it off as - oh, that's just politics. Or they pat me on the head and say - Oh, that's wonderful that you're so interested in all that government stuff. And they go back to their AC and Value Meals.
We, the informed, have to work hard to convince people that the problems we're having not only have solutions but must be fought for by all of us, not just a few of us. And yes, we have to be willing to give up my air conditioned, suburban lifestyle in mom's basement and be willing to die for a higher ideal in order to get back the society and Democratic Republic we think we should have.
Who said, "Never ask for what you don't have the power to take by force?" The government does not fear the American People because very few homes have guns due to propaganda spread that, "you're more likely to shoot someone you know or have your gun used against you," type crap versus 1776 when every home had at least one Winchester or something like it over the door.
The Bush Administration does not understand diplomacy. They only understand weakness and power. Only when the American People get fed up and begin the next Revolution will they understand. They're betting that it will never happen and they may be right.
Or we could just impeach their asses and try them for treason. Either way, there needs to be way more than righteous anger. There needs to be action by every day citizens and not just marches either.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
- Thomas Jefferson
If no one is willing for that blood to be their own, then we may as welcome our Bush Admin overlords permanently. I, for one, do not think the man intends to leave office at all.
I don't see any age distribution in TFA (just "over 3"), but I have a sneaking suspicion that 2/3 of those are over the age of 50. In other words, granny discovered e-mail and how to order knitting needles online.
And just how is this funny? Granny is no less a woman with her knitting needles than the young, hot, smoking blond of the average slashdotter's hopeless fantasies and probably has more sex than the average slashdotter anyway (with any being more than none).
And why isn't Granpa online and Granny is? Is Granny smarter than Granpa? Was Granny more able to adapt to online culture better? Why? Isn't it enough that she is able to search, navigate, compare, order and pay for her purchases? Isn't it enough that now she talks to her grandchildren every week through IM or email than never with snail mail and not being able to afford cross-country visits?
The fact that she is able to make use of the internet to improve or enjoy her life isn't enough? Granny has to be a programer, 3l33t haxor, network admin and security expert too? Does Granny have to be Uber Elder Geek to be counted as an online personage?
For people who are supposed to be geeks, you and the people who modded you up seem to be awfully narrow minded. Tech is not for just the people you think are worthy enough to be counted.
I am in love with NoScript and Flashblock. When I first got Flashblock though, I didn't understand that the big blue circle with the triangle in the middle meant play. I'm not much for reading directions I'm all learn as you go and I nearly uninstalled it before I saw my non-computer lit husband click on it and it played the flash whatever it was.
Never underestimate Joe Sixpack. Jill Wannabe Geek is who you should be afraid of.
Not only do we tolerate our children being prosecuted but we allow them to be handcuffed at five and tasered at six.
This 10-year-old doesn't stand a chance.
That's exactly what happened here in Cincinnati, OH, specifically, Hamilton County.
Our County Commissioners (there are 3) decided that we need a new jail. However most people feel that the new jail is only to support a marijuana ordinance that no one likes and to keep people in jail longer instead of house arrest or court mandated treatment for drug offenses.
They put it on the ballot last November and it was overwhelmingly voted down. The County Commissioners stated, "This does not mean the voters don't want a jail, they just don't want a new tax." They've also said that the voters simply didn't understand the ballot or got hoodwinked into voting no on the jail when they really meant yes.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We said no, we meant no. There are several groups, a news blog committed to updating the status and another website that are dedicated to make sure the voters aren't shafted.
Seems to me that thanks to Bush, this is getting to be a trend no matter what State or County you live in. He simply passes whatever Congress puts out and says he doesn't have to follow the law. Likewise, the voters vote and the politicians find a way to do an end run around the voters.
It's a shame how our democracy gets hijacked and one more reason to get Bush and anyone who thinks like him out of public office.
And for the person who asked, "What does this have to do with 'news for nerds' well let me tell you: fledgling computer geek or no, I want to know when my civil liberties and fundamental right to suffrage are being threatened. That's news for geeks and anyone else who wants to salvage the shreds of democracy we still have left and put things back to rights.
So is this about right for typical end users such as myself?
- wait at least one year after a new release of operating system
- if you can't do it yourself, pay someone else to evaluate your existing pc to see if an upgrade is possible and if it is possible, to make sure you get exactly what you need
- make sure the person you pay for evaluation has no stake in selling you a new pc
- if an upgrade is not possible, secure your old system as much as humanly possible and ride it until using the old system is no longer possible, plausible or just plain insane (like one of my friends using Windows 95 until last week and my cousin switched her over to Ubuntu)
- when all else dies by a new pc
- find something useful to do with your old pc (donate it, etc.)
I remember the advertising for the Wal-Mart Linux laptops. There was no shortage of it. But the bottom line is they didn't sell. Customers didn't want it.
********** Was it that customer didn't want Linux or that they were wary of buying a Wal-Mart branded computer.
I may buy a Faded Glory sweater but I'm not sure I want to do the equivalent with my PC.
The real-life equivalent would be someone calling a sheriff to report that you have a billboard on top of your house displaying your entire neighborhood's home phone#'s, cell phone#'s, email addresses and passwords, ATM & credit card #'s and pins.
The sheriff comes, locks you out and gives you a choice. You may go back into your house when you agree to take the sign down yourself. Until then, or if you choose not to take the sign down, you can find someplace else to live where they allow such things.
I happen to agree with what Go Daddy did regardless of whether the information was already compromised or not. I'd be upset if someone got hold of my Slashdot password let alone the one to my blog or email.
I expect that he thought he'd find he would be denied everywhere, but then still chose not to fly at SFO simply because he didn't want to be searched and so it wouldn't stop his little "Achtung! Papers, please!" stunt before it started. That's his choice. And if you'd argue against a search, then you might as well argue against ALL security measures at airports.
Woah there buckaroo.
First things first. There were quite a few security measures at airports that did not include searches for a very long time. People were more than willing not to argue against those.
However it offends a person's sense of personal dignity and personal space to have complete strangers demand to search their bodies. What's more, this is not done in privacy but in plain view of complete strangers.
To say that objecting to this, means that I object to all airport security measures is ludicrous. I do not object to security guards, security cameras or even walk-through metal detectors. I'm even partial to watching the contents of my bag in relief on the monitors.
However, having my actual body wanded with an additional demand to remove my shoes and other items with the threat of an even more invasive search if I do not comply or somehow fail the initial scan - I find this nothing short of tyranny and oppression.
George Bush promised that if we fought the terrorists abroad that we wouldn't have to fight them here. Well his administration, his policies and the subsequent police state regime that has sprung up at his countenance is nothing short of appalling and proof that the terrorists, foreign and domestic, have already won.
Your comment above sounds *exactly* like someone who has never seen the interface. I've been using it for months now and would *hate* to go back to the "old" office setup. Everything I've ever looked for (page formatting options, etc) are *exactly* where one would expect them to be.
Do some research. Spend TWO MINUTES looking over the NUMEROUS web pages that have lots of screen shots. I know that many of you don't like "software by focus group", but I think MS got it right this time (if they used a focus group for the UI, that is. They probably did...)
I have never seen the Vista interface. Quite frankly, I just got up to Office 2003, have yet to even glimpse 2007 and soon I'll have to move on up to Vista without so much as a by your leave.
I can hardly believe that this is Slashdot anymore and sometimes I think folks above must be MS plants or something. I just don't understand how you cannot understand that some of us who are not all that old have spent a minimum of 10 years maybe more using Office. Even if you used all through high school, college and definitely in the workplace, MS has spent a lot of time and effort showing and proving that their menus, toolbars, and everything were the best way to get things done.
Now, on a whim and prayer, all that's changed. All the old toolbars and menus are old and busted. This unseen ribbon and other assorted filmy eye candy is supposed to be the new hotness. There may be people with jobs on the line based on how well they learn or adapt to the new software. There may be people who have taken time and effort to gain their skills using office the way it is. Do you know how many people are probably still using 2000? I know people who don't know that Windows and Office past 2000 even exists.
As for myself, I've spent entirely too much of my life catering to Microsoft whims and what have I gotten in return? A damn drawing canvas I don't need and at least two years of spending more time turning off their new "features" that are, far from being helpful, annoying and useless. I still can't forget the error messages and failures that drove me to Slashdot back in the 90's anyway.
A lot of people are genuinely worried about how much it's going to cost them in software and hardware and learning time and without really knowing the effect this will have on their lives and worth, you're asking them to pacify their fears with FARKING SCREENSHOTS?! as if the time and effort they've spent learning what they know this far doesn't mean jack.
There is something clearly wrong with this picture and the fools that modded you up. I wanted to make this post more than something of a rant but I guess my main point is that it is foolish, rude and way too damn early to disregard folks' apprehensions regarding Vista and the new Office using "screenshots" as proof that everything will be OK.
Seems like we've been asking (and answering) this question for a long time. (Eras are rough but you'll get the idea)
1700 - Candles or Kerosene Lots of folks didn't see the need to upgrade to kerosene lamps. Kerosene cost money whereas, if you didn't mind getting stung a little, you could always make plenty of your own beeswax candles for nothing but the cost of your own time and effort.
1800 - Fireplace or Cookstove Many people thought that cooking and heating a home with a stove was a pale comparison to gathering around the family hearth and that the stove would never replace the fireplace as the gathering place of the family (little did they know that T.V. was going to make the kitchen the last place anyone would ever hang out anyway). Not to mention the additional cost of coal. Why would anyone want to spend more on coal when you could just chop some wood, right?
1900 - Kerosene or Electricity Again lots of folks couldn't see the need to upgrade to the more expensive electricity when kerosene and candles did the job pretty well save for the occasional pesky house fire.
2000 - Electricity/Batteries or Flexible Plastic Pads Which brings us to your question Why should I want to replace an already mature, tested, cheap, reliable technology with something that costs a whole lot more, and may direct power to where it is not wanted?
I've been considering starting my own home desktop publishing business. I keep doing things for people for free and it's gotten to a point where I've gotten pretty good and could actually make a bit of money for what I do.
Would this font issue affect someone like me? What if I create a small brand for myself, even in a tiny market? What if it gets bigger? Will I have to pay someone just for using a certain font?
The huge majority of people who will sit down Monday...just simply don't have the same bizarre, abiding hatred for Bill that a small, rabid corner of the IT world does...very little of the world ever goes that far out of its way to hate someone whose tools they use every day (to say nothing of the fact that, really - come on now - it really does just work for most people, at least well enough that the things about it that don't pale compared to the other issues in their lives).
Don't underestimate how much non IT people hate MS.
There are things that people put up with in Windows and Office but don't know why. They come to think it's a part of the computing experience rather than understand that the problems are bugs, defects or just poor construction. Moving a text box from point A to point B should not cause Word to crash. OK, it doesn't take the whole OS down with anymore. I guess that's progress but damn, shouldn't we have come further by now?
I wish I could put this in better words but I'm not a IT person just an end user who's learned that while computers aren't perfect, MS has made things much worse by ignoring problems or covering them up with fatter, colorful graphics or more "features" that are really just annoyances. They took the concept of a computer on every desk and made it into dumbing down the computer on every desk. They don't want Joe & Jill like me to learn how computers really work, they want end users to learn how to be dependent on their products, without really taking the time to fix stuff that's wrong.
I always used to keep taking stuff out of my startup items and still XP would load slow. I got it down to a bare minimum of stuff and still XP would load slow. I finally read somewhere that XP never truly indicates when it is finished loading.
Well damn. I thought I was doing something wrong, when really it's just MS's need to prove that XP is loaded when all the desktop items are up when really that's not true at all. There is no amount of PC knowledge I can have to change that. It's not my fault.
MS has convinced a lot of people that if their computer doesn't work the way they expect it's because they need the latest, fanciest Dell to run off of, or that they need more memory or a server or that they are doing something wrong. People feel that if they knew more about PC's not just the applications then they could fix it but you are right about people having other life issues besides their PC. Most folk don't have time to spend 8 hours at work then another 8 at home and another 8 on figuring out Windows. They teach themselves what they need to know for their jobs or home projects and call IT or their kids and grandkids when things go wrong.
The problem is they blame themselves when sometiems it's really not their fault at all.
The way I see it, it's only a matter of time before they get sick of feeling stupid, realize that a lot of problems they live with are the fault of the OS or application and not their own. I give it five years or a major MS screwup, whichever comes first. Either way, the ill will toward MS is simmering and will eventually boil over.
Simple fact: there are vastly more women and minorities in the workplace now than there were before affirmative action and forced equal access to education. It works. It's not flawless, and it's not a cure-all, but it has produced results
Simple fact my ass. There are more women in the "workplace" but minorities were always in the workplace but their workplace was limited to wherever white folks said they could work. Big difference.
As for women not being in the "workplace", well that's just crap too when you really think about it. I know our society does not place monetary value to housework, raising children, and supporting and feeding a husband but it should.
Slashdot, even if you never leave your computers, you can still find out more about the world of women in that little known place called the internet and not just pron either. Real women with real boobs. Slashdotters talk good game when it comes to tech rights but you all are in the dark ages when it comes to dealing with real females.
Be more Odo and less Quark.
I don't like these gender balances because they tend to have tunnel vision. We are greatly rewarding mediocre women in engineering fields due to their low numbers, but we aren't doing the same for men in other fields.
Of Course it's not sexist!
Why of all the nerve! The article says that no women applied, it didn't say that no women were good enough. It seems that the people who did worry about this seem to have the right idea. There may be some brilliant women codes out there who were put off for some reason and didn't apply. Maybe the job ad/description had language that women found offputting; maybe women read between the lines of the ad and didn't approve; maybe the company has a reputation of not being woman friendly. Whatever the reason that absolutely not one female person applied is something worth looking into and these folks have the right idea.
If they can find women who do the job up to the best standard then they should make the effort to eliminate the gender imbalance. What they should not do is find women who are not qualified and drag the entire team down by trying to bring them up to standard. That would be sexist.
Your comments and others like them here assume, wrongly, that whatever women they find will be subpar merely because they didn't apply. Your comments and the others even more idiotic are only more proof that male Slashdotters rarely come into contact with women let.
For all your tech skills, you may as well be a bunch of Neanderthals.
RFIDs are extremely low distance information responders.
That we know of.
Either IMB is making false claims in their commercial or they've found a way to provide a more powerful service than we, the general public, are aware of.
This will not apply to white skinned Europeans or Canadians. No need to be scared unless you have brown skin. It's ok. You can sigh with relief now.
It's only a matter of time before they start tagging us all anyway. If you've ever been in the military, police force, or anywhere they required you to get shots before working, you have already been tagged whether you know it or not.
I don't download music or movies.
I don't buy CD's or DVD's either.
I won't do either until RIAA and MPAA stop their sensless persecution across the globe; and until politicians stop taking their bribes for implementing laws that favor them and empowering their cartel.
I wonder how much I'm costing them and if I and people like me figure into their equation.
Just stop buying their stuff. Stop downloading it as well. Who gives a damn about them anyway. Only buy directly from artists that sell their own stuff either in person or from their own websites. So simple and I've got a lot of great independent music and movies this way. And it's legal.
The RIAA and MPAA can kiss my ass.
OK, MS, you've got security licked. Now about this paying my firstborn Windows and then again for Office, licensing, EULA issues and this bit about being forced to register my software and not being able to swap out stuff on my box without calling you guys?
Australian scientists have tried for decades to eradicate the toads, but with limited success. Last year, researchers announced they had successfully lured and trapped the toads using ultraviolet lights like those used in disco clubs.
Sounds like all they want to do is have sex and party. It's not their fault that they're mounstrous toxic beasts.
Potential exists in a gamete; how troubled are you by the loss of billions of potential lives during the course of one man's life? How troubled are you by the thought that people using condoms or birth control pills actively want these gametes to never realize their full potential as human beings
Your examples are not extremes. There are people who actually feel that using birth control (condoms, the pill, the sponge, etc) are tantamount to abortion. I am not joking. This lady, Karen Brauer, has made it to the Ohio Supreme court with her "I am a pharmacist, birth control is murder" message
I find that most people don't care about where life ends or begins. They simply want to control other people having sex because sex is evil and anyone who does it any other way but married, in a bed and horizontal (man on top of course) is an evil sinner who will burn in the lake of fire. (Somehow this thought makes them happy.)
I didn't click on the link (I don't want to know) but the post reminds me of the time I had a toothache one Saturday evening. I knew I wouldn't be able to see a dentist until Monday and I did a search for "toothache" looking for home remedies.
I clicked on a page of horrific and bloody snuff pics that made tub girl look like a prom date and made me ill (this was in the mid '90's. I've seen so much crap since then it'd take something pretty drastic to make me blink). I don't know if they were real or staged, but it made me realize how easy it is to click on a seemingly innocent link and wind up in Horror Neverland.
Slashdot Mirror
...Google had a video store?
Not to troll, but just to say, maybe they didn't do a good enough job of letting people know it was even there.
It is not only as bad as I think, it's worse.
I'm not some conspiracy theory, flag waving maniac. I'm a mom, I pay taxes, I pimp my geek skills lightly. I believe wholeheartedly in our system of government. But I also truly believe the system we have is in far worse crisis than many want to believe is possible.
I know about that old Register April Fool's day joke about continuity presidency, and if I were raving about that, I'd expect anyone with sense to dismiss me as a troll and be done with it.
But that's not what I'm talking about. Have you heard the words 'constitutional crisis' lately? George Bush (and especially Cheney and Rove) are not merely pushing Constitutional limits, they are outright stating that the executive branch is immune from following the law or interpreting any law as they see fit. And they have proven with Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby, Harriet Miers and Sarah Taylor that they will extend their nonexistent "Executive Privilege" not only to themselves, but to anyone with any information about their deeds and misdeeds.
If there is one law Bush doesn't have to follow then he doesn't have to follow any. If we allow the president, who should be an example for us all, to pick and choose which laws he will obey and others he won't then the OP was right: we are no longer a government by, for and of the people. We are now a dictatorship posing as a Democracy.
The problem is not the Senate. They are trying to fix it, but the Bush Admin will not allow it to be fixed. Instead Bush is pressing for yet ANOTHER war. With our other conflicts still in progress, let alone resolved, this can only result in more FUD. If we, the American People allow this administration, unchallenged, to push into yet another front, we may as well resign ourselves to the last broken promise of this administration: there will be a draft because we cannot sustain our current level of deployment with the numbers we have; the illusion of civil liberties we have left will be dropped and we will finalize our entrance into the police state; instead of keeping immigrants out, we will find that the laws and walls being built are to keep us in.
I probably find it odder than you do that, I, of all people, actually believe any of this. Before the War on Terror, The War in Iraq or even 9/11, I was happy just being a mom and kicking back with my family over some movies on our new DVD player and our PlayStation 2. I never considered myself very politically minded and it was a miracle that I even voted sometimes at all.
And somehow I have evolved from not caring at all to seriously believing that a Bush 2009 coup d'etat is not only possible but probable. The sad part is, folks are simply too willing to continue to believe that things like that simply can't in America. But most of us thought that everything the Bush Admin has gotten away with to date couldn't happen here either.
No. We are still the government. It's just that most people don't believe things are as bad as they are. Or they don't want to believe.I can't even convince my own family that this game is being played for mortal stakes. They write it off as - oh, that's just politics. Or they pat me on the head and say - Oh, that's wonderful that you're so interested in all that government stuff. And they go back to their AC and Value Meals.
We, the informed, have to work hard to convince people that the problems we're having not only have solutions but must be fought for by all of us, not just a few of us. And yes, we have to be willing to give up my air conditioned, suburban lifestyle in mom's basement and be willing to die for a higher ideal in order to get back the society and Democratic Republic we think we should have.
Who said, "Never ask for what you don't have the power to take by force?" The government does not fear the American People because very few homes have guns due to propaganda spread that, "you're more likely to shoot someone you know or have your gun used against you," type crap versus 1776 when every home had at least one Winchester or something like it over the door.
The Bush Administration does not understand diplomacy. They only understand weakness and power. Only when the American People get fed up and begin the next Revolution will they understand. They're betting that it will never happen and they may be right.
Or we could just impeach their asses and try them for treason. Either way, there needs to be way more than righteous anger. There needs to be action by every day citizens and not just marches either.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
- Thomas Jefferson
If no one is willing for that blood to be their own, then we may as welcome our Bush Admin overlords permanently. I, for one, do not think the man intends to leave office at all.
...giant penguins once stalked the plains of Peru
But did they sing or tap dance to a Prince soundtrack or have Morgan Freeman, God Himself, provide narration?
I don't see any age distribution in TFA (just "over 3"), but I have a sneaking suspicion that 2/3 of those are over the age of 50. In other words, granny discovered e-mail and how to order knitting needles online.
And just how is this funny? Granny is no less a woman with her knitting needles than the young, hot, smoking blond of the average slashdotter's hopeless fantasies and probably has more sex than the average slashdotter anyway (with any being more than none).
And why isn't Granpa online and Granny is? Is Granny smarter than Granpa? Was Granny more able to adapt to online culture better? Why? Isn't it enough that she is able to search, navigate, compare, order and pay for her purchases? Isn't it enough that now she talks to her grandchildren every week through IM or email than never with snail mail and not being able to afford cross-country visits?
The fact that she is able to make use of the internet to improve or enjoy her life isn't enough? Granny has to be a programer, 3l33t haxor, network admin and security expert too? Does Granny have to be Uber Elder Geek to be counted as an online personage?
For people who are supposed to be geeks, you and the people who modded you up seem to be awfully narrow minded. Tech is not for just the people you think are worthy enough to be counted.
I am in love with NoScript and Flashblock. When I first got Flashblock though, I didn't understand that the big blue circle with the triangle in the middle meant play. I'm not much for reading directions I'm all learn as you go and I nearly uninstalled it before I saw my non-computer lit husband click on it and it played the flash whatever it was. Never underestimate Joe Sixpack. Jill Wannabe Geek is who you should be afraid of.
Not only do we tolerate our children being prosecuted but we allow them to be handcuffed at five and tasered at six. This 10-year-old doesn't stand a chance.
That's exactly what happened here in Cincinnati, OH, specifically, Hamilton County.
Our County Commissioners (there are 3) decided that we need a new jail. However most people feel that the new jail is only to support a marijuana ordinance that no one likes and to keep people in jail longer instead of house arrest or court mandated treatment for drug offenses.
They put it on the ballot last November and it was overwhelmingly voted down. The County Commissioners stated, "This does not mean the voters don't want a jail, they just don't want a new tax." They've also said that the voters simply didn't understand the ballot or got hoodwinked into voting no on the jail when they really meant yes.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We said no, we meant no. There are several groups, a news blog committed to updating the status and another website that are dedicated to make sure the voters aren't shafted.
Seems to me that thanks to Bush, this is getting to be a trend no matter what State or County you live in. He simply passes whatever Congress puts out and says he doesn't have to follow the law. Likewise, the voters vote and the politicians find a way to do an end run around the voters.
It's a shame how our democracy gets hijacked and one more reason to get Bush and anyone who thinks like him out of public office.
And for the person who asked, "What does this have to do with 'news for nerds' well let me tell you: fledgling computer geek or no, I want to know when my civil liberties and fundamental right to suffrage are being threatened. That's news for geeks and anyone else who wants to salvage the shreds of democracy we still have left and put things back to rights.
References for this post:
The Cincinnati Beacon
No Jail Tax website
So is this about right for typical end users such as myself?
- wait at least one year after a new release of operating system
- if you can't do it yourself, pay someone else to evaluate your existing pc to see if an upgrade is possible and if it is possible, to make sure you get exactly what you need
- make sure the person you pay for evaluation has no stake in selling you a new pc
- if an upgrade is not possible, secure your old system as much as humanly possible and ride it until using the old system is no longer possible, plausible or just plain insane (like one of my friends using Windows 95 until last week and my cousin switched her over to Ubuntu)
- when all else dies by a new pc
- find something useful to do with your old pc (donate it, etc.)
I remember the advertising for the Wal-Mart Linux laptops. There was no shortage of it. But the bottom line is they didn't sell. Customers didn't want it.
**********
Was it that customer didn't want Linux or that they were wary of buying a Wal-Mart branded computer.
I may buy a Faded Glory sweater but I'm not sure I want to do the equivalent with my PC.
You analogy is flawed.
The real-life equivalent would be someone calling a sheriff to report that you have a billboard on top of your house displaying your entire neighborhood's home phone#'s, cell phone#'s, email addresses and passwords, ATM & credit card #'s and pins.
The sheriff comes, locks you out and gives you a choice. You may go back into your house when you agree to take the sign down yourself. Until then, or if you choose not to take the sign down, you can find someplace else to live where they allow such things.
I happen to agree with what Go Daddy did regardless of whether the information was already compromised or not. I'd be upset if someone got hold of my Slashdot password let alone the one to my blog or email.
I expect that he thought he'd find he would be denied everywhere, but then still chose not to fly at SFO simply because he didn't want to be searched and so it wouldn't stop his little "Achtung! Papers, please!" stunt before it started. That's his choice. And if you'd argue against a search, then you might as well argue against ALL security measures at airports.
Woah there buckaroo.
First things first. There were quite a few security measures at airports that did not include searches for a very long time. People were more than willing not to argue against those.
However it offends a person's sense of personal dignity and personal space to have complete strangers demand to search their bodies. What's more, this is not done in privacy but in plain view of complete strangers.
To say that objecting to this, means that I object to all airport security measures is ludicrous. I do not object to security guards, security cameras or even walk-through metal detectors. I'm even partial to watching the contents of my bag in relief on the monitors.
However, having my actual body wanded with an additional demand to remove my shoes and other items with the threat of an even more invasive search if I do not comply or somehow fail the initial scan - I find this nothing short of tyranny and oppression.
George Bush promised that if we fought the terrorists abroad that we wouldn't have to fight them here. Well his administration, his policies and the subsequent police state regime that has sprung up at his countenance is nothing short of appalling and proof that the terrorists, foreign and domestic, have already won.
Your comment above sounds *exactly* like someone who has never seen the interface. I've been using it for months now and would *hate* to go back to the "old" office setup. Everything I've ever looked for (page formatting options, etc) are *exactly* where one would expect them to be.
Do some research. Spend TWO MINUTES looking over the NUMEROUS web pages that have lots of screen shots. I know that many of you don't like "software by focus group", but I think MS got it right this time (if they used a focus group for the UI, that is. They probably did...)
I have never seen the Vista interface. Quite frankly, I just got up to Office 2003, have yet to even glimpse 2007 and soon I'll have to move on up to Vista without so much as a by your leave.
I can hardly believe that this is Slashdot anymore and sometimes I think folks above must be MS plants or something. I just don't understand how you cannot understand that some of us who are not all that old have spent a minimum of 10 years maybe more using Office. Even if you used all through high school, college and definitely in the workplace, MS has spent a lot of time and effort showing and proving that their menus, toolbars, and everything were the best way to get things done.
Now, on a whim and prayer, all that's changed. All the old toolbars and menus are old and busted. This unseen ribbon and other assorted filmy eye candy is supposed to be the new hotness. There may be people with jobs on the line based on how well they learn or adapt to the new software. There may be people who have taken time and effort to gain their skills using office the way it is. Do you know how many people are probably still using 2000? I know people who don't know that Windows and Office past 2000 even exists.
As for myself, I've spent entirely too much of my life catering to Microsoft whims and what have I gotten in return? A damn drawing canvas I don't need and at least two years of spending more time turning off their new "features" that are, far from being helpful, annoying and useless. I still can't forget the error messages and failures that drove me to Slashdot back in the 90's anyway.
A lot of people are genuinely worried about how much it's going to cost them in software and hardware and learning time and without really knowing the effect this will have on their lives and worth, you're asking them to pacify their fears with FARKING SCREENSHOTS?! as if the time and effort they've spent learning what they know this far doesn't mean jack.
There is something clearly wrong with this picture and the fools that modded you up. I wanted to make this post more than something of a rant but I guess my main point is that it is foolish, rude and way too damn early to disregard folks' apprehensions regarding Vista and the new Office using "screenshots" as proof that everything will be OK.
No man. It's pretty effing far from ok.
Seems like we've been asking (and answering) this question for a long time. (Eras are rough but you'll get the idea)
1700 - Candles or Kerosene
Lots of folks didn't see the need to upgrade to kerosene lamps. Kerosene cost money whereas, if you didn't mind getting stung a little, you could always make plenty of your own beeswax candles for nothing but the cost of your own time and effort.
1800 - Fireplace or Cookstove
Many people thought that cooking and heating a home with a stove was a pale comparison to gathering around the family hearth and that the stove would never replace the fireplace as the gathering place of the family (little did they know that T.V. was going to make the kitchen the last place anyone would ever hang out anyway). Not to mention the additional cost of coal. Why would anyone want to spend more on coal when you could just chop some wood, right?
1900 - Kerosene or Electricity
Again lots of folks couldn't see the need to upgrade to the more expensive electricity when kerosene and candles did the job pretty well save for the occasional pesky house fire.
2000 - Electricity/Batteries or Flexible Plastic Pads
Which brings us to your question
Why should I want to replace an already mature, tested, cheap, reliable technology with something that costs a whole lot more, and may direct power to where it is not wanted?
Well....
I've been considering starting my own home desktop publishing business. I keep doing things for people for free and it's gotten to a point where I've gotten pretty good and could actually make a bit of money for what I do.
Would this font issue affect someone like me? What if I create a small brand for myself, even in a tiny market? What if it gets bigger? Will I have to pay someone just for using a certain font?
I never thought of such thing.
The huge majority of people who will sit down Monday...just simply don't have the same bizarre, abiding hatred for Bill that a small, rabid corner of the IT world does ...very little of the world ever goes that far out of its way to hate someone whose tools they use every day (to say nothing of the fact that, really - come on now - it really does just work for most people, at least well enough that the things about it that don't pale compared to the other issues in their lives).
Don't underestimate how much non IT people hate MS.
There are things that people put up with in Windows and Office but don't know why. They come to think it's a part of the computing experience rather than understand that the problems are bugs, defects or just poor construction. Moving a text box from point A to point B should not cause Word to crash. OK, it doesn't take the whole OS down with anymore. I guess that's progress but damn, shouldn't we have come further by now?
I wish I could put this in better words but I'm not a IT person just an end user who's learned that while computers aren't perfect, MS has made things much worse by ignoring problems or covering them up with fatter, colorful graphics or more "features" that are really just annoyances. They took the concept of a computer on every desk and made it into dumbing down the computer on every desk. They don't want Joe & Jill like me to learn how computers really work, they want end users to learn how to be dependent on their products, without really taking the time to fix stuff that's wrong.
I always used to keep taking stuff out of my startup items and still XP would load slow. I got it down to a bare minimum of stuff and still XP would load slow. I finally read somewhere that XP never truly indicates when it is finished loading.
Well damn. I thought I was doing something wrong, when really it's just MS's need to prove that XP is loaded when all the desktop items are up when really that's not true at all. There is no amount of PC knowledge I can have to change that. It's not my fault.
MS has convinced a lot of people that if their computer doesn't work the way they expect it's because they need the latest, fanciest Dell to run off of, or that they need more memory or a server or that they are doing something wrong. People feel that if they knew more about PC's not just the applications then they could fix it but you are right about people having other life issues besides their PC. Most folk don't have time to spend 8 hours at work then another 8 at home and another 8 on figuring out Windows. They teach themselves what they need to know for their jobs or home projects and call IT or their kids and grandkids when things go wrong.
The problem is they blame themselves when sometiems it's really not their fault at all.
The way I see it, it's only a matter of time before they get sick of feeling stupid, realize that a lot of problems they live with are the fault of the OS or application and not their own. I give it five years or a major MS screwup, whichever comes first. Either way, the ill will toward MS is simmering and will eventually boil over.
It's only a matter of time.
Simple fact: there are vastly more women and minorities in the workplace now than there were before affirmative action and forced equal access to education. It works. It's not flawless, and it's not a cure-all, but it has produced results Simple fact my ass. There are more women in the "workplace" but minorities were always in the workplace but their workplace was limited to wherever white folks said they could work. Big difference. As for women not being in the "workplace", well that's just crap too when you really think about it. I know our society does not place monetary value to housework, raising children, and supporting and feeding a husband but it should. Slashdot, even if you never leave your computers, you can still find out more about the world of women in that little known place called the internet and not just pron either. Real women with real boobs. Slashdotters talk good game when it comes to tech rights but you all are in the dark ages when it comes to dealing with real females. Be more Odo and less Quark.
I don't like these gender balances because they tend to have tunnel vision. We are greatly rewarding mediocre women in engineering fields due to their low numbers, but we aren't doing the same for men in other fields.
Of Course it's not sexist!
Why of all the nerve! The article says that no women applied, it didn't say that no women were good enough. It seems that the people who did worry about this seem to have the right idea. There may be some brilliant women codes out there who were put off for some reason and didn't apply. Maybe the job ad/description had language that women found offputting; maybe women read between the lines of the ad and didn't approve; maybe the company has a reputation of not being woman friendly. Whatever the reason that absolutely not one female person applied is something worth looking into and these folks have the right idea.
If they can find women who do the job up to the best standard then they should make the effort to eliminate the gender imbalance. What they should not do is find women who are not qualified and drag the entire team down by trying to bring them up to standard. That would be sexist.
Your comments and others like them here assume, wrongly, that whatever women they find will be subpar merely because they didn't apply. Your comments and the others even more idiotic are only more proof that male Slashdotters rarely come into contact with women let.
For all your tech skills, you may as well be a bunch of Neanderthals.
RFIDs are extremely low distance information responders. That we know of. Either IMB is making false claims in their commercial or they've found a way to provide a more powerful service than we, the general public, are aware of.
You don't understand.
This will not apply to white skinned Europeans or Canadians. No need to be scared unless you have brown skin. It's ok. You can sigh with relief now.
It's only a matter of time before they start tagging us all anyway. If you've ever been in the military, police force, or anywhere they required you to get shots before working, you have already been tagged whether you know it or not.
I don't download music or movies. I don't buy CD's or DVD's either. I won't do either until RIAA and MPAA stop their sensless persecution across the globe; and until politicians stop taking their bribes for implementing laws that favor them and empowering their cartel. I wonder how much I'm costing them and if I and people like me figure into their equation. Just stop buying their stuff. Stop downloading it as well. Who gives a damn about them anyway. Only buy directly from artists that sell their own stuff either in person or from their own websites. So simple and I've got a lot of great independent music and movies this way. And it's legal. The RIAA and MPAA can kiss my ass.
...and that's because I'll have to.
OK, MS, you've got security licked. Now about this paying my firstborn Windows and then again for Office, licensing, EULA issues and this bit about being forced to register my software and not being able to swap out stuff on my box without calling you guys?
Nah, it's still a pass.
Australian scientists have tried for decades to eradicate the toads, but with limited success. Last year, researchers announced they had successfully lured and trapped the toads using ultraviolet lights like those used in disco clubs.
Sounds like all they want to do is have sex and party. It's not their fault that they're mounstrous toxic beasts.
Potential exists in a gamete; how troubled are you by the loss of billions of potential lives during the course of one man's life? How troubled are you by the thought that people using condoms or birth control pills actively want these gametes to never realize their full potential as human beings
Your examples are not extremes. There are people who actually feel that using birth control (condoms, the pill, the sponge, etc) are tantamount to abortion. I am not joking. This lady, Karen Brauer, has made it to the Ohio Supreme court with her "I am a pharmacist, birth control is murder" message
I find that most people don't care about where life ends or begins. They simply want to control other people having sex because sex is evil and anyone who does it any other way but married, in a bed and horizontal (man on top of course) is an evil sinner who will burn in the lake of fire. (Somehow this thought makes them happy.)
I didn't click on the link (I don't want to know) but the post reminds me of the time I had a toothache one Saturday evening. I knew I wouldn't be able to see a dentist until Monday and I did a search for "toothache" looking for home remedies.
I clicked on a page of horrific and bloody snuff pics that made tub girl look like a prom date and made me ill (this was in the mid '90's. I've seen so much crap since then it'd take something pretty drastic to make me blink). I don't know if they were real or staged, but it made me realize how easy it is to click on a seemingly innocent link and wind up in Horror Neverland.