You can't just handwave away decades of oppression with phrases like "the past is in the past" and "you need to address the present." Racism in America is an institutionalized problem, which you can see for yourself by looking at e.g. incarceration rates among different ethnicities. This isn't about "how bad you have it," it's about living in a society where masses of people (such as blacks) are systematically oppressed by the way the system itself is structured.
This is because racism is in fact (somewhat of) a one-way street. White people have traditionally been (and still are, by and large) in the privileged position in our society. Thankfully, it's not true to nearly the extent that it was decades ago (although hispanics/arabs seem to have filled that space in America), but ignoring the fact that black people are a historically oppressed class and then whining about how white people have it so bad is either ignorant, stupid, or both.
The reason facebook is so popular with college age students is that it's ridiculously easy to find and add your friends (assuming you go to the same university they do, and it's only marginally harder to do otherwise). It's true that anything you can do in facebook you can do with another medium just as well (and possibly better), but none of my friends use flickr, only one or two use del.icio.us, etc., which means that facebook just happens to be the most convenient way of sharing pictures, links, and sending quick messages when I don't feel like searching for someone's email address.
So yeah, life without facebook isn't really different than life with it (and to be honest, I'm not a very active user myself). However, there are times when it happens to be the most convenient thing around, and I think that the way I connect with friends is changed in at least a small way by facebook (specifically, now I have easy access to what amounts to every picture taken of me in the past few years; a somewhat terrifying concept).
The only problem is that these new fees are retroactive to the beginning of 2006. Even if internet radio stations were to drop all music associated with these new royalty fees, most would probably still be forced to shut down because they'd be unable to pay (a second time) for music they've already broadcast.
The article strongly implies that the OLPC will be defective by design, as RMS would say. A central authentication system that locks users out if they don't authenticate regularly, being used in an environment without reliable net access? Yeah, great idea. Can't see any problems with that. Does it also prevent users loading their own applications or custom kernels?
Considering that the laptops are designed to encourage users to program their own applications (to the point of having a dedicated "view source" button), and users can be given a "developer key" of sorts that lets them reflash their firmware, I think that it most certainly does not prevent loading custom kernels and applications.
I'm not sure if I'm understanding the implication here, but are you saying that web sites shouldn't use CSS? Maybe it's because I wasn't around during the glory days of the internet (the early 90s from what I understand) when you only had hyperlink, header, and paragraph tags and you were happy with it dammit, but how is expanding the way people can present things on the internet (in a standardized way) anything but good?
Pointing out that things are adaptations/remakes is only strengthening the GP's point, namely that there's plenty of source material for hollywood to use for its movies (and that we aren't stealing everything from the japanese, who base a lot of their animation/cinema on printed material themselves).
So which of those regulations is specifically causing healthcare to screw the poor? Or will healthcare providers suddenly say "oh wow it's time to not screw the poor now" once gov't regulations are lifted, simply out of principle?
The idea behind Dunifer's project is to promote pirate radio that specifically addresses those types of concerns. He [or, more generally, Radio Free Berkeley] provides not only schematics and tutorials for building a setup that will not interfere with other [licensed] frequencies, but he even sells kits and hosts seminars on doing just that.
Thinks only appear on the feed when you do thinks on facebook. So if you have enough time to be changing your profile/writing a wall comment/friending someone, you have an extra 10 seconds to click the X.
Guess what? Under the old system, if I clicked "see your friends with recently changed profiles", I'd see that information anyways.
Second and much more importantly, you can keep any information about out from being added to your friends' feeds, just by clicking the little 'x' next to it on your own minifeed.
Sounds like many WoW raids from what I hear. A screw-up by one member could wipe the whole team. Do a "Leeroy Jenkins" and you might even become famous.
But the GP (GGGP?) wasn't talking about raids (which are "fun" in a whole different sort of way, and, as I said, aren't exactly the easiest thing to screw up once you've run through the dungeon a few times); he was talking about leveling to 60 so that you can raid, which you don't do in groups (well, unless you want to double the time you're grinding to 60, at least; and even then, messing up will at worst give you a 10-minute debuff. Usually you just have to run back to where you were.
That's a pretty superficial analysis, and quite frankly, it's wrong.
In basketball, you aren't actually repeating the same thing over and over. You can either go down the left side of the court, or the right. You can either try to make a three point shot, or go for an easy layup. You can try to steal the ball from someone else. Furthermore, not only are you making an important decision that affects how well your team does at every moment, but you don't have a 100% chance of succeeding at everything you try, and this chance is dependent upon your skill as a player (or coordination as a team).
Contrast this with WoW: You get to choose whether to do quest type A, B, or C, but beyond that, there is no variation past the drop rate of items and the type of mob (monster) you're killing. Killing mobs outside of instances is, in general, not a challenge at all (you either have the skills/gear necessary to do it, in which case it's cake, or you don't, in which case you're not gonna do it without help). Heck, even in instances, if you've run that portion of the instance a few times and aren't raiding with a bunch of morons, it don't require much, if any, skill beyond remembering when to push each hotkey.
As to why a lot of people like/play WoW, there were a couple of brilliant posts here on/. when EQ was in vogue that deal with that very subject.
After living in Japan for two years, I must agree that American cell phones suck. My Japanese cellphone (it was an AU something or other) was much more intuitive than any cellphone I've seen here in the states, despite the fact that all the really cool features (you know, the ones that really matter) were in Japanese only.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I'd honestly prefer to be a "willfully ignorant" "retard talkin'" "gangsta" than a racist white nerd, to be honest.
You can't just handwave away decades of oppression with phrases like "the past is in the past" and "you need to address the present." Racism in America is an institutionalized problem, which you can see for yourself by looking at e.g. incarceration rates among different ethnicities. This isn't about "how bad you have it," it's about living in a society where masses of people (such as blacks) are systematically oppressed by the way the system itself is structured.
This is because racism is in fact (somewhat of) a one-way street. White people have traditionally been (and still are, by and large) in the privileged position in our society. Thankfully, it's not true to nearly the extent that it was decades ago (although hispanics/arabs seem to have filled that space in America), but ignoring the fact that black people are a historically oppressed class and then whining about how white people have it so bad is either ignorant, stupid, or both.
The reason facebook is so popular with college age students is that it's ridiculously easy to find and add your friends (assuming you go to the same university they do, and it's only marginally harder to do otherwise). It's true that anything you can do in facebook you can do with another medium just as well (and possibly better), but none of my friends use flickr, only one or two use del.icio.us, etc., which means that facebook just happens to be the most convenient way of sharing pictures, links, and sending quick messages when I don't feel like searching for someone's email address.
So yeah, life without facebook isn't really different than life with it (and to be honest, I'm not a very active user myself). However, there are times when it happens to be the most convenient thing around, and I think that the way I connect with friends is changed in at least a small way by facebook (specifically, now I have easy access to what amounts to every picture taken of me in the past few years; a somewhat terrifying concept).
The only problem is that these new fees are retroactive to the beginning of 2006. Even if internet radio stations were to drop all music associated with these new royalty fees, most would probably still be forced to shut down because they'd be unable to pay (a second time) for music they've already broadcast.
I'm not sure if I'm understanding the implication here, but are you saying that web sites shouldn't use CSS? Maybe it's because I wasn't around during the glory days of the internet (the early 90s from what I understand) when you only had hyperlink, header, and paragraph tags and you were happy with it dammit, but how is expanding the way people can present things on the internet (in a standardized way) anything but good?
Offtopic, but I'm curious about your sig: "It is a statistical certainty (p < 10e-11) that there are innocent people being held at Guantanamo Bay"
Pointing out that things are adaptations/remakes is only strengthening the GP's point, namely that there's plenty of source material for hollywood to use for its movies (and that we aren't stealing everything from the japanese, who base a lot of their animation/cinema on printed material themselves).
So which of those regulations is specifically causing healthcare to screw the poor? Or will healthcare providers suddenly say "oh wow it's time to not screw the poor now" once gov't regulations are lifted, simply out of principle?
Female AND good at math? What else could a /.er ask for?
The idea behind Dunifer's project is to promote pirate radio that specifically addresses those types of concerns. He [or, more generally, Radio Free Berkeley] provides not only schematics and tutorials for building a setup that will not interfere with other [licensed] frequencies, but he even sells kits and hosts seminars on doing just that.
I don't know; fuck_you was my stock password for forums/throwaway accounts for quite a while.
Thinks only appear on the feed when you do thinks on facebook. So if you have enough time to be changing your profile/writing a wall comment/friending someone, you have an extra 10 seconds to click the X.
Guess what? Under the old system, if I clicked "see your friends with recently changed profiles", I'd see that information anyways. Second and much more importantly, you can keep any information about out from being added to your friends' feeds, just by clicking the little 'x' next to it on your own minifeed.
Unless, of course, your flight is delayed.
To be fair, every 10.x update adds a considerable amount of features.
That's a pretty superficial analysis, and quite frankly, it's wrong.
/. when EQ was in vogue that deal with that very subject.
In basketball, you aren't actually repeating the same thing over and over. You can either go down the left side of the court, or the right. You can either try to make a three point shot, or go for an easy layup. You can try to steal the ball from someone else. Furthermore, not only are you making an important decision that affects how well your team does at every moment, but you don't have a 100% chance of succeeding at everything you try, and this chance is dependent upon your skill as a player (or coordination as a team).
Contrast this with WoW: You get to choose whether to do quest type A, B, or C, but beyond that, there is no variation past the drop rate of items and the type of mob (monster) you're killing. Killing mobs outside of instances is, in general, not a challenge at all (you either have the skills/gear necessary to do it, in which case it's cake, or you don't, in which case you're not gonna do it without help). Heck, even in instances, if you've run that portion of the instance a few times and aren't raiding with a bunch of morons, it don't require much, if any, skill beyond remembering when to push each hotkey.
As to why a lot of people like/play WoW, there were a couple of brilliant posts here on
You criticize Java as being too verbose and strict, but that's probably a good thing for some beginning programmers.
After living in Japan for two years, I must agree that American cell phones suck. My Japanese cellphone (it was an AU something or other) was much more intuitive than any cellphone I've seen here in the states, despite the fact that all the really cool features (you know, the ones that really matter) were in Japanese only.
Ironically enough, for a mod to say this post is `interesting' (ie modding up), s/he will be defeating the purpose of the post.
Don't know about HAL, but maybe this could work?