I knew some people here and there who were in the music business and allot that wanted to be. I'll be honest, not all were good. But surprisingly some were great, well beyond anything you hear on the radio. It's hard to get heard, played on the radio, and hit the right ear to get the record contract. I only know a handful that did that. Even then there are problems. Some ended up being pawns in the scheme to bilk money out of a large label. One band was hardly promoted at all, after recording great album. In fact the ONLY place I heard them played was at big name gym chain.
Problems to beyond that. In one case a friend's band was to open for a well known band since they both had the same agent. It was a done deal, but at the last minute the big name band didn't want them to open. It appears to be out of fear that the opening act might be too good.
I also know people who have made it and done well, but they are the exception. To date it's only 1 person out of the many many many people I met in the LA, San Francisco, and Boston music scene.
Some bands I think people would enjoy.
Tsar (fist Album if my favorite) Calendar Girls Lee Press-on Champion Ken Layne (kenlayne.com)
I don't own any patents, and don't claim to know much about them, but I think I have a solution to them.
Just have someone show a working invention to the people at the patent office. That will be patented. You want to spur innovation? Maybe rewarding people AFTER they innovate might be better than to reward them after they have submitted nothing but paper and ink?
Compete. Start with educating people and allowing them to innovate. Remove restrictions that might prevent learning. People who love money will not compete. Those that love to compete will compete.
Remove software patents, and weaken software copyrights. Allow people a little room and they will stand on the shoulders of giants. Some have built condos there.
Punish companies that are anticompetitive. We need a strong nation not one where anticompetitive-ness as seen as a standard business tactic. If convicted of criminally anticompetitive acts the code involved in those products should be put in the public domain copyright & patents.
Well, that would be the extreme view, but if you want to compete you do have to be somewhat committed. One method is to prevent the impediments.
I'm there for them. I make sure they know TV/Movies are for the most part no real, except news with is 50% real.:)
From one point of view I can see how parents seem to have gone completely nuts. Growing up, doing the things I did, watching the things I did, would today land my parent in jail. Now-a-days it's blame anyone else, and blame Canada too for good measure. Parents on TV, at PTA meetings, parents of pre-school kids across the street. They all feel the need to blame anyone else.
True, it was easier to be a better parent when the parents didn't both work. At least someone was there t greet the kids when they got home from school. Now that parents can't be there all the time it has become normal to expect others to bare the blame for what kids see, hear, and think. I recall reading about parent blaming anything from books, music, TV, movies, and D&D, for the actions of their child. I feel for those people. Some I read about lost their kids. It's their stories that insures that I'm there for my kids. Someone needs to give children enough self worth that losing a D&D character is not going to make them kill themselves, or being insulted at school wont lead to a massive shoot out, and so on. Sure we have school, teachers, doctors, peers, and so on, looking out for kids, but nobody but the parents really has the opportunity to witness the warning signs.
You can't hold the ocean back with a broom. If a word from in a song can cause a person to kill themselves that is not normal. They have a massive problem. Not all problems are detectable, sure, but the parent need to be the look out. As parent we tend to blind ourselves and not see the faults in our kids. After all their faults might translate into our failures. Parents need to care and be accessible. I once heard someone say that if your child is afraid of telling your the truth you, that you did something to create that fear. My kids don't get punished for telling the truth. It they do someone their told not to do, but come clean I'll listen. I wont cut myself off from the truth. I wont blind myself to what is going on in their lives.
My kids don't like TV too much. We have a good enough collection of DVDs. When it's time for a DVD they almost always pick a computer animated movie. No other form of animation seems to do it. But one day my four year old got into my private collection containing Futurama, Simpsons, and the original Transformers. He loaded it up to the DVD menu and asked if he could watch it. I was surprised. Sure. I didn't mind. I was sure he would not like it. The animation was not that good. Now where there is allot of noise in the house and I ask "What are you playing?" they said "Transformers" or "Optimus Prime". They only want to watch Transformers now. They know all their names, and my four year old can work my 20th anniversary Optimus Prime which can transform into a truck and has the Autobot Matrix in his chest.
But the show is everything shows are not today. It was stunning to realize that. First off characters die. Then there is the fact that almost all characters have more than one gun, and use them all the time. It's a show about a war. About insane hatred. Good vs Evil. It also is episodic, telling a good continuing story. It really does beat the square pants off of Mr Spongebob.
A simple ad should not cause that much panic that it was pulled. The network might have demanded more from the parents. But they don't want the bad press taking a stand might generate. In this case I don't think parent were right. They had their hearts in the right place, but their heads in the wrong one.
I hope one day we demand more from parents. I think spending time getting to know their kids even more might make the word a better place.
Okay, somebody get me a latter. This soapbox I'm on has gotten really tall.:)
I'm sorry you feel that way. I love them very much. We read every night, laugh and have a great time. I help at the school, but I don't feel they should be allow to watch anything on TV. Commercials, thankfully have drained them of the desire to watch most TV. We have a great collection of Transformers, Thomas The Tanks Engine And Friends, Bob The Builder, and just about everything Pixar as put out, and much more. They do a really great job of managing their TV time and love many other activities. I trust them to do the right thing and step in only now and again.
Since I work from home they have the security of knowing I'm here when they need me. I don't know if that will continue forever, but it's great right now. If I didn't trust my kids, and they were not so open with me I would lock up the TV when I was unable to insure what they were watching was suitable for our standards.
I don't pretend to be right, but government is not the best of all solutions. Maybe I hear it too much from people I'm around, but they really think that the government should step in at every moment to fix the most harmless items, but they should do nothing.
Maybe we need something like the FCC to tell us what to watch. I'd prefer something like a descriptive rating system. Then people could block something based on the content they object to.
But, I really do doubt you pity my kids. You don't know them. But, you say that to make a point. The point is only that you disagree, and tere is nothing wrong with that.
We have the FCC because people are offended by all the sex and violence on their VCR.
First off for adults. If you don't like it, change the channel or turn it off. It sure ain't mandatory.
Second for people with kids. Lock the TV up when you are gone. That's right buy a cabinet, install a lock(sold at all hardware stores). Get help if you need it. Or, lock the TV in your bedroom. Don't let the kids watch bad stuff. Buy some books, and get a library card. D'uh.
IT'S CALL PARENTING!!!!!
I do it, so can you.
FCC is a sure sign of punishing all for the failure of some parents. Or, I'm being really hard on people who should be allow to restrict free speech and use our money to do so. I just don't feel great about being taxed by the same government that should be protecting my rights, to restrict my rights. It's all so Today American, but also very unAmerican.
Well, don't listen to me. I not with the popular vote. I trust folks to manage their own lives, and often demand it. Yup, crazy that way.
I don't like DRM. I'm not happy with the concept. I don't like where copyrights have gone in the last 200 years. The first 120 years were okay.
Life is far far far too short to be a complete fool spending my time, effort, money, and resources trying to make something as simple as looking at a picture, watching a movie, listening to music, or reading a book, into a huge wrestling match between me and my electronics. See, I've got a life. Not enough to stop me from making this comment, but enough that I'm not going to fool around with crap and pretend it's all good.
Go out, get your Zune and squirt your eyes out, for all I care. You young people with your rock and roll music. GET OFF MY LAWN!
Or could we? Could we just drop patents from this point forward and limit the power of the existing ones until they expire.
If problems come up I'm sure we can make laws to deal with them. Maybe I'm just a small town fool, but I think everything would continue better and faster than normal. This is not the 90's... ummm... 18-90's anymore. We don't need to be persuaded off the farm to make and market devices. Many of us do that for a living. In fact I expect without patents we'd innovate even faster, being able to build freely without first consulting with armies of lawyers galore. You would be able to create something without expecting that knock on the door from IBM with their hand out wanting for dead president salad so that you can use a device that might fit into the description of some vague patent application.
You could also make people have a real working version of the item listed in the patent application rather than a guess of what someone else might make. Your patent protection would be limited to that.
It's complicated and complicated things attract lawyers like stink on poop. Make it simple and they'll try and complicated it with things like the legal definition of the word "and" and such. So, my instinct it to get rid of it. Which is likely a bad idea in many people's eyes.
Why are you reading this post. There are smart people making better points. Just look at the following reply. Wow! That is a nice one.
You are correct. They catalog facts. From those facts they can make observation, and conclusions based on those observation.
While something does not require this process to be true, it must be true to be a fact. For an observation to be correct it must also be true. But, conclusions are speculation, and thus hopefully true.
While truths are flexible science is not about lies.
Or as Andrea Daniel says "Just because I made it up, does not mean it's not true."
Faith keeps us from having to distrust all we read and except as fact. You could call it trust or credibility. In any case, we can read about something from a trusted source or an expert and take it on faith as truth. That's often how we come about many of the givens we take for granted in our daily lives.
Faith is the ability to believe something without the need for proof. I have had no genetic test or film of my birth, but I believe without proof that my parents are my parents. I expect you feel similarly about your parents, without proof.
Faith is not shameful or weakness. It's a subtle part of our thinking.
Faith is great. It might well be the best of all human qualities. It has helped people survive the worst moments of life, and to go on when hope should have been lost.
But, faith itself can be twisted and misused. When faith is used as a tool to prevent people from using their god given gifts, then it's become a weapon. I have seen people use their faith to ignore what they have seen with their own eyes. I have seen faith used to prevent normal healthy inquiry. It is my opinion that this is the path to pure insanity.
If you except that God created man, and you also except that you were not consulted on God's plan and work habits, then you should be open to explanations as to the details of his creation. Was evolution part of God's plan? Most people admit that they do not know how God works, but some of those same people claim to know exactly how he does not work.
Scientist are only looking for the truth, and sometimes to be published. But I think they are truthful. I imagine that someone with a greater observance of what God has created and it's inner workings is much closer to God than someone who twists faith to blind themselves to God's wonders.
In this letter they talk about choice? Since when? MS is about choice, I guess. Mainly the choice about being locked in to their product like a complete fool, or not.
Don't get me wrong. Office it really nice. I think as a product it could compete just fine, but MS is never going to allow that. They want you locked in. That's just good for the stock. What's good for the stock is often bad for the user. With Open Office I just don't see the need for MS Office. I don't. I'm sure someone can think of a good reason to have, but I'm guessing most can do without and save a good amount of money.
What really gets me about people and MS has nothing to do with the battle of free(as in freedom) vs pay software. If you are the CIO/CTO or other officer of a company and you don't, at least look into free software like Linux and Open Office, might be turning your back on your stockholders. This assumes you are publicly traded. I've worked for a few publicly traded companies and they never seem interested in doing more with less(money, and hardware). They are always more interested in purchasing the brand name of the moment. There is rarely a goal in mind when purchasing.
Maybe I don't choose the best places to work. I current CIO and CTO where I work at the moment seem to be going in the right direction. But that has only come about lately.
If I was a stockholder in a large company or sat on the board I would want them to explain using costly locked in software. I really can't understand why there are not more shareholder suits about this subject.
I don't normally play computer games. Before I tried COH/COV the last game I played was on the Apple ][. So, you see, this was a bit of a leap. I love RPG games, running mainly. I specific like superhero games, like Champions. I spent some 20 years playing with a large group of people and other gatherings like Dundracon. I also very much enjoyed the game V&V for it's simple system that allow people to get into the game quickly. With pen and paper RPGs it was important to make sure people had a good time. Most game system got-it. Some did not. And, before you go pointing out the problem with these systems, I and everyone else knows there is not perfect system. They all have flaws, but most are fun.
When I started COH/COV is was interesting for it's newness, to me. But after playing a while I found it's shortcomings quickly. You start as a complete idiot. You are basically a normal person who can't drive a car, motorcycle, or ride a buss. Your "powers" can only be described as a few lousy tricks, at the start. You only get real powers at around level 38. It's only then that you even start to have power that you might start with in the pen and paper system. So if you want to imagine yourself as a homeless person, unable to use normal human transportation, who can preform little tricks, then you gotta love this game.
There is little imagination to it also. All characters complete the exact same "missions" and they are never in public. The mission take place in an isolated bubble. The missions always come down to these simple goals or a combination.
1) Defeat everyone 2) Defeat so-and-so 3) Kidnap somebody 4) Click on glowing or translucent things 5) Beat up an object(s) and escape(like bank vault)
The only goal is to "level-up" and beyond that there is little going on. The only place where user content utilized, besides characters, is in base construction.
One day someone will tap into the imagination of the people who love these games, and create a system where people can contribute. This generic system will play host to a number of different genre. People will be able to create their own "mission" and "missions" for others.
Maybe I don't get it. But on COV I have a "mastermind" character. As a Mastermind I only end up taking orders from others.
For one thing they can back the people who will do what they want. Money = votes, sadly. People are often swayed by twisted words or a charismatic figure. People are far to wrapped up in their daily lives to understand what qualifications the person on the ballot should have, so they go buy the ads. The enlightened ones look to third parties, but often those too are paid for by a party interest in the outcome of the election.
Seems the me only the candidates know their own motivations. But, to me, lobbying seem to be little more than broking some sort of legal bribe. Well, I'm assuming it's all legal, but I guess it's not always so.
Long and the short, lobbying should allow business from any country a chance to bypass the will of the votes based on some "greater good excuse"
... that people in the US just assume we are the greatest without any perspective. I'd be glad to be wrong, but it's the impression I get from people, popular media, news, interviews, marketing, politics,...
It goes like this "We're great because we are the USA. Therefore what the USA does is great."
I see the people are the most powerful body within the US. When they awaken to a common idea it can be done. We used to be great for being who we are, not where we are. This had been the home to the can-do people who left their homeland to create a new life. That takes allot of will. It was also home to those that expressed their political opinions and ideas, are were driven from their homeland for doing so. In any case a great force in this land has been the can-do spirit. The American spirit moved mountains in it's day. This is the land that can reward the smart and hardworking people who don't give up and don't give in to fear.
It's a new day and fear seems to have become quite a good master. When it was rare to have a phone company or cable company in a city they would offer exclusive deals and work to attract them like a popular sports team. Now these are not such rare items, as in the past. These exclusive deals are made from fear. The fear that without them we would not find a way to get these services. We will. That is a given, but the fear can blind people of that and is great for the companies security and bottom line.
When the people are sick of this, so sick they forget to be lazy, then it will change. But for now we wont change. America is great because it's America, etc, etc, etc...
Lazy people look for someone else for a solution and go back to their regularly schedule program or sporting event. They claim "Someone/The government should do something about this." Then the really energetic ones write a little to someone about it, or even a letter to the editor. While that is a first step, it's only that a first step. People who know how important the issues are should get in the ring and run for office. It does not have to be big. People here have written some amazing comments. I've read enough to know that some people here have good reason to run for office. I can't say I'd vote for all of you though.:) But, I expect you to know enough to know that someone else will not solve today's problems if you are not willing to.
Ugly or not, a large part of the Internet is the American dream, Liberty. America is about the liberation of it's own people. A lofty goal. Liberty can best be kept alive with ideas and opinions. It can also be kept alive with arms, sure, but I doubt anyone needs that kind of liberation in America, yet. Keeping the Internet free, simple, and growing is at least as important as the US Mail or the military. In this medium people can connect and learn. Sure, there are dangers, and they cannot all be avoided. Spam, sexual predators, scams, and so on. Freedom and Liberty comes at a price. We, not the government, must come up with a solution to these problems. That's our job. After all if you look at the Constitution of the United States you will find a single branch of government sits over the other three and grants them their powers though that document. It is "We the people of the United States"
It's high time the people did their job. It's you'll excise me I'll hop right off my soap box and get back to work.
Companies that make deals with Microsoft often are unhappy. Microsoft only makes deals when it needs to and does not enjoy them. Novell got burns as many others have in the past. Since I have seen a higher percentage of companies who partner with Microsoft disappear shortly after, or become wounded badly, I avoid those companies. I expect them to go away. I worked for such a company. This is Microsoft's special game, and their good. I see no reason to use SUSE, more than I do now. Partly due to the deal, and partly due to my attraction to bar raising distros like Ubuntu. If I relied on SUSE for my business this would only be one reason to move away from SUSE, but not a large enough one to reinstall everything this weekend.
Time will tell what this is all about. Some legal action might dig up the behind the scenes paper work and Microsoft's motivation for this. If might turn out they had some kind of "Master Plan", which is what I would think. They don't do things for not reason at all. But as a "Master Plan" is seem really stupid.
I'm advising people that I know, work with/for to stay away from SUSE, but there is more than one reason for that.
Slashdot Mirror
I knew some people here and there who were in the music business and allot that wanted to be. I'll be honest, not all were good. But surprisingly some were great, well beyond anything you hear on the radio. It's hard to get heard, played on the radio, and hit the right ear to get the record contract. I only know a handful that did that. Even then there are problems. Some ended up being pawns in the scheme to bilk money out of a large label. One band was hardly promoted at all, after recording great album. In fact the ONLY place I heard them played was at big name gym chain.
Problems to beyond that. In one case a friend's band was to open for a well known band since they both had the same agent. It was a done deal, but at the last minute the big name band didn't want them to open. It appears to be out of fear that the opening act might be too good.
I also know people who have made it and done well, but they are the exception. To date it's only 1 person out of the many many many people I met in the LA, San Francisco, and Boston music scene.
Some bands I think people would enjoy.
Tsar (fist Album if my favorite)
Calendar Girls
Lee Press-on
Champion
Ken Layne (kenlayne.com)
I don't own any patents, and don't claim to know much about them, but I think I have a solution to them.
Just have someone show a working invention to the people at the patent office. That will be patented. You want to spur innovation? Maybe rewarding people AFTER they innovate might be better than to reward them after they have submitted nothing but paper and ink?
Just a thought.
Compete. Start with educating people and allowing them to innovate. Remove restrictions that might prevent learning. People who love money will not compete. Those that love to compete will compete.
Remove software patents, and weaken software copyrights. Allow people a little room and they will stand on the shoulders of giants. Some have built condos there.
Punish companies that are anticompetitive. We need a strong nation not one where anticompetitive-ness as seen as a standard business tactic. If convicted of criminally anticompetitive acts the code involved in those products should be put in the public domain copyright & patents.
Well, that would be the extreme view, but if you want to compete you do have to be somewhat committed. One method is to prevent the impediments.
Shoot, "War Of The Worlds" you say? If it's the remake, my kids can watch it when their grown and have moved out!
:)
A child driving a car is one thing, but Tom Cruse, that's where I draw the line.
I'm there for them. I make sure they know TV/Movies are for the most part no real, except news with is 50% real. :)
:)
From one point of view I can see how parents seem to have gone completely nuts. Growing up, doing the things I did, watching the things I did, would today land my parent in jail. Now-a-days it's blame anyone else, and blame Canada too for good measure. Parents on TV, at PTA meetings, parents of pre-school kids across the street. They all feel the need to blame anyone else.
True, it was easier to be a better parent when the parents didn't both work. At least someone was there t greet the kids when they got home from school. Now that parents can't be there all the time it has become normal to expect others to bare the blame for what kids see, hear, and think. I recall reading about parent blaming anything from books, music, TV, movies, and D&D, for the actions of their child. I feel for those people. Some I read about lost their kids. It's their stories that insures that I'm there for my kids. Someone needs to give children enough self worth that losing a D&D character is not going to make them kill themselves, or being insulted at school wont lead to a massive shoot out, and so on. Sure we have school, teachers, doctors, peers, and so on, looking out for kids, but nobody but the parents really has the opportunity to witness the warning signs.
You can't hold the ocean back with a broom. If a word from in a song can cause a person to kill themselves that is not normal. They have a massive problem. Not all problems are detectable, sure, but the parent need to be the look out. As parent we tend to blind ourselves and not see the faults in our kids. After all their faults might translate into our failures. Parents need to care and be accessible. I once heard someone say that if your child is afraid of telling your the truth you, that you did something to create that fear. My kids don't get punished for telling the truth. It they do someone their told not to do, but come clean I'll listen. I wont cut myself off from the truth. I wont blind myself to what is going on in their lives.
My kids don't like TV too much. We have a good enough collection of DVDs. When it's time for a DVD they almost always pick a computer animated movie. No other form of animation seems to do it. But one day my four year old got into my private collection containing Futurama, Simpsons, and the original Transformers. He loaded it up to the DVD menu and asked if he could watch it. I was surprised. Sure. I didn't mind. I was sure he would not like it. The animation was not that good. Now where there is allot of noise in the house and I ask "What are you playing?" they said "Transformers" or "Optimus Prime". They only want to watch Transformers now. They know all their names, and my four year old can work my 20th anniversary Optimus Prime which can transform into a truck and has the Autobot Matrix in his chest.
But the show is everything shows are not today. It was stunning to realize that. First off characters die. Then there is the fact that almost all characters have more than one gun, and use them all the time. It's a show about a war. About insane hatred. Good vs Evil. It also is episodic, telling a good continuing story. It really does beat the square pants off of Mr Spongebob.
A simple ad should not cause that much panic that it was pulled. The network might have demanded more from the parents. But they don't want the bad press taking a stand might generate. In this case I don't think parent were right. They had their hearts in the right place, but their heads in the wrong one.
I hope one day we demand more from parents. I think spending time getting to know their kids even more might make the word a better place.
Okay, somebody get me a latter. This soapbox I'm on has gotten really tall.
I'm sorry you feel that way. I love them very much. We read every night, laugh and have a great time. I help at the school, but I don't feel they should be allow to watch anything on TV. Commercials, thankfully have drained them of the desire to watch most TV. We have a great collection of Transformers, Thomas The Tanks Engine And Friends, Bob The Builder, and just about everything Pixar as put out, and much more. They do a really great job of managing their TV time and love many other activities. I trust them to do the right thing and step in only now and again.
Since I work from home they have the security of knowing I'm here when they need me. I don't know if that will continue forever, but it's great right now. If I didn't trust my kids, and they were not so open with me I would lock up the TV when I was unable to insure what they were watching was suitable for our standards.
I don't pretend to be right, but government is not the best of all solutions. Maybe I hear it too much from people I'm around, but they really think that the government should step in at every moment to fix the most harmless items, but they should do nothing.
Maybe we need something like the FCC to tell us what to watch. I'd prefer something like a descriptive rating system. Then people could block something based on the content they object to.
But, I really do doubt you pity my kids. You don't know them. But, you say that to make a point. The point is only that you disagree, and tere is nothing wrong with that.
We have the FCC because people are offended by all the sex and violence on their VCR.
First off for adults. If you don't like it, change the channel or turn it off. It sure ain't mandatory.
Second for people with kids. Lock the TV up when you are gone. That's right buy a cabinet, install a lock(sold at all hardware stores). Get help if you need it. Or, lock the TV in your bedroom. Don't let the kids watch bad stuff. Buy some books, and get a library card. D'uh.
IT'S CALL PARENTING!!!!!
I do it, so can you.
FCC is a sure sign of punishing all for the failure of some parents. Or, I'm being really hard on people who should be allow to restrict free speech and use our money to do so. I just don't feel great about being taxed by the same government that should be protecting my rights, to restrict my rights. It's all so Today American, but also very unAmerican.
Well, don't listen to me. I not with the popular vote. I trust folks to manage their own lives, and often demand it. Yup, crazy that way.
No.
I don't like DRM. I'm not happy with the concept. I don't like where copyrights have gone in the last 200 years. The first 120 years were okay.
Life is far far far too short to be a complete fool spending my time, effort, money, and resources trying to make something as simple as looking at a picture, watching a movie, listening to music, or reading a book, into a huge wrestling match between me and my electronics. See, I've got a life. Not enough to stop me from making this comment, but enough that I'm not going to fool around with crap and pretend it's all good.
Go out, get your Zune and squirt your eyes out, for all I care. You young people with your rock and roll music. GET OFF MY LAWN!
You're right it does. Which is really sad, because he never had a cool bionic sound.
Which one of your parents do you look like?
We're now one step closer to building a 1970's version of Lee Majors!
Now if only the eye could make the cool bionic sound.
Damnit man, I like the cut of your jib. You make too much good sense.
Quick now, lock the door and hide a pack of hungry lawyers should after you in seconds.
Or could we? Could we just drop patents from this point forward and limit the power of the existing ones until they expire.
... ummm ... 18-90's anymore. We don't need to be persuaded off the farm to make and market devices. Many of us do that for a living. In fact I expect without patents we'd innovate even faster, being able to build freely without first consulting with armies of lawyers galore. You would be able to create something without expecting that knock on the door from IBM with their hand out wanting for dead president salad so that you can use a device that might fit into the description of some vague patent application.
If problems come up I'm sure we can make laws to deal with them. Maybe I'm just a small town fool, but I think everything would continue better and faster than normal. This is not the 90's
You could also make people have a real working version of the item listed in the patent application rather than a guess of what someone else might make. Your patent protection would be limited to that.
It's complicated and complicated things attract lawyers like stink on poop. Make it simple and they'll try and complicated it with things like the legal definition of the word "and" and such. So, my instinct it to get rid of it. Which is likely a bad idea in many people's eyes.
Why are you reading this post. There are smart people making better points. Just look at the following reply. Wow! That is a nice one.
You are correct. They catalog facts. From those facts they can make observation, and conclusions based on those observation.
While something does not require this process to be true, it must be true to be a fact. For an observation to be correct it must also be true. But, conclusions are speculation, and thus hopefully true.
While truths are flexible science is not about lies.
Or as Andrea Daniel says "Just because I made it up, does not mean it's not true."
Faith keeps us from having to distrust all we read and except as fact. You could call it trust or credibility. In any case, we can read about something from a trusted source or an expert and take it on faith as truth. That's often how we come about many of the givens we take for granted in our daily lives.
Faith is the ability to believe something without the need for proof. I have had no genetic test or film of my birth, but I believe without proof that my parents are my parents. I expect you feel similarly about your parents, without proof.
Faith is not shameful or weakness. It's a subtle part of our thinking.
Faith is great. It might well be the best of all human qualities. It has helped people survive the worst moments of life, and to go on when hope should have been lost.
But, faith itself can be twisted and misused. When faith is used as a tool to prevent people from using their god given gifts, then it's become a weapon. I have seen people use their faith to ignore what they have seen with their own eyes. I have seen faith used to prevent normal healthy inquiry. It is my opinion that this is the path to pure insanity.
If you except that God created man, and you also except that you were not consulted on God's plan and work habits, then you should be open to explanations as to the details of his creation. Was evolution part of God's plan? Most people admit that they do not know how God works, but some of those same people claim to know exactly how he does not work.
Scientist are only looking for the truth, and sometimes to be published. But I think they are truthful. I imagine that someone with a greater observance of what God has created and it's inner workings is much closer to God than someone who twists faith to blind themselves to God's wonders.
In this letter they talk about choice? Since when? MS is about choice, I guess. Mainly the choice about being locked in to their product like a complete fool, or not.
Don't get me wrong. Office it really nice. I think as a product it could compete just fine, but MS is never going to allow that. They want you locked in. That's just good for the stock. What's good for the stock is often bad for the user. With Open Office I just don't see the need for MS Office. I don't. I'm sure someone can think of a good reason to have, but I'm guessing most can do without and save a good amount of money.
What really gets me about people and MS has nothing to do with the battle of free(as in freedom) vs pay software. If you are the CIO/CTO or other officer of a company and you don't, at least look into free software like Linux and Open Office, might be turning your back on your stockholders. This assumes you are publicly traded. I've worked for a few publicly traded companies and they never seem interested in doing more with less(money, and hardware). They are always more interested in purchasing the brand name of the moment. There is rarely a goal in mind when purchasing.
Maybe I don't choose the best places to work. I current CIO and CTO where I work at the moment seem to be going in the right direction. But that has only come about lately.
If I was a stockholder in a large company or sat on the board I would want them to explain using costly locked in software. I really can't understand why there are not more shareholder suits about this subject.
I don't normally play computer games. Before I tried COH/COV the last game I played was on the Apple ][. So, you see, this was a bit of a leap. I love RPG games, running mainly. I specific like superhero games, like Champions. I spent some 20 years playing with a large group of people and other gatherings like Dundracon. I also very much enjoyed the game V&V for it's simple system that allow people to get into the game quickly. With pen and paper RPGs it was important to make sure people had a good time. Most game system got-it. Some did not. And, before you go pointing out the problem with these systems, I and everyone else knows there is not perfect system. They all have flaws, but most are fun.
When I started COH/COV is was interesting for it's newness, to me. But after playing a while I found it's shortcomings quickly. You start as a complete idiot. You are basically a normal person who can't drive a car, motorcycle, or ride a buss. Your "powers" can only be described as a few lousy tricks, at the start. You only get real powers at around level 38. It's only then that you even start to have power that you might start with in the pen and paper system. So if you want to imagine yourself as a homeless person, unable to use normal human transportation, who can preform little tricks, then you gotta love this game.
There is little imagination to it also. All characters complete the exact same "missions" and they are never in public. The mission take place in an isolated bubble. The missions always come down to these simple goals or a combination.
1) Defeat everyone
2) Defeat so-and-so
3) Kidnap somebody
4) Click on glowing or translucent things
5) Beat up an object(s) and escape(like bank vault)
The only goal is to "level-up" and beyond that there is little going on. The only place where user content utilized, besides characters, is in base construction.
One day someone will tap into the imagination of the people who love these games, and create a system where people can contribute. This generic system will play host to a number of different genre. People will be able to create their own "mission" and "missions" for others.
Maybe I don't get it. But on COV I have a "mastermind" character. As a Mastermind I only end up taking orders from others.
Never mind. I've just thought of my next project.
For one thing they can back the people who will do what they want. Money = votes, sadly. People are often swayed by twisted words or a charismatic figure. People are far to wrapped up in their daily lives to understand what qualifications the person on the ballot should have, so they go buy the ads. The enlightened ones look to third parties, but often those too are paid for by a party interest in the outcome of the election.
Seems the me only the candidates know their own motivations. But, to me, lobbying seem to be little more than broking some sort of legal bribe. Well, I'm assuming it's all legal, but I guess it's not always so.
Long and the short, lobbying should allow business from any country a chance to bypass the will of the votes based on some "greater good excuse"
... that people in the US just assume we are the greatest without any perspective. I'd be glad to be wrong, but it's the impression I get from people, popular media, news, interviews, marketing, politics, ...
...
:) But, I expect you to know enough to know that someone else will not solve today's problems if you are not willing to.
It goes like this "We're great because we are the USA. Therefore what the USA does is great."
I see the people are the most powerful body within the US. When they awaken to a common idea it can be done. We used to be great for being who we are, not where we are. This had been the home to the can-do people who left their homeland to create a new life. That takes allot of will. It was also home to those that expressed their political opinions and ideas, are were driven from their homeland for doing so. In any case a great force in this land has been the can-do spirit. The American spirit moved mountains in it's day. This is the land that can reward the smart and hardworking people who don't give up and don't give in to fear.
It's a new day and fear seems to have become quite a good master. When it was rare to have a phone company or cable company in a city they would offer exclusive deals and work to attract them like a popular sports team. Now these are not such rare items, as in the past. These exclusive deals are made from fear. The fear that without them we would not find a way to get these services. We will. That is a given, but the fear can blind people of that and is great for the companies security and bottom line.
When the people are sick of this, so sick they forget to be lazy, then it will change. But for now we wont change. America is great because it's America, etc, etc, etc
Lazy people look for someone else for a solution and go back to their regularly schedule program or sporting event. They claim "Someone/The government should do something about this." Then the really energetic ones write a little to someone about it, or even a letter to the editor. While that is a first step, it's only that a first step. People who know how important the issues are should get in the ring and run for office. It does not have to be big. People here have written some amazing comments. I've read enough to know that some people here have good reason to run for office. I can't say I'd vote for all of you though.
Ugly or not, a large part of the Internet is the American dream, Liberty. America is about the liberation of it's own people. A lofty goal. Liberty can best be kept alive with ideas and opinions. It can also be kept alive with arms, sure, but I doubt anyone needs that kind of liberation in America, yet. Keeping the Internet free, simple, and growing is at least as important as the US Mail or the military. In this medium people can connect and learn. Sure, there are dangers, and they cannot all be avoided. Spam, sexual predators, scams, and so on. Freedom and Liberty comes at a price. We, not the government, must come up with a solution to these problems. That's our job. After all if you look at the Constitution of the United States you will find a single branch of government sits over the other three and grants them their powers though that document. It is "We the people of the United States"
It's high time the people did their job. It's you'll excise me I'll hop right off my soap box and get back to work.
Take care everyone.
... allow, or deny?
Allow.
When Linux started throwing chairs around the office like a spoiled child denied, then it crossed the patent line! Balmer is not amused!
He should get a picture of Chair Face.
Who wants to join them!?
Contracts are what you use on your friends...
Companies that make deals with Microsoft often are unhappy. Microsoft only makes deals when it needs to and does not enjoy them. Novell got burns as many others have in the past. Since I have seen a higher percentage of companies who partner with Microsoft disappear shortly after, or become wounded badly, I avoid those companies. I expect them to go away. I worked for such a company. This is Microsoft's special game, and their good. I see no reason to use SUSE, more than I do now. Partly due to the deal, and partly due to my attraction to bar raising distros like Ubuntu. If I relied on SUSE for my business this would only be one reason to move away from SUSE, but not a large enough one to reinstall everything this weekend.
Time will tell what this is all about. Some legal action might dig up the behind the scenes paper work and Microsoft's motivation for this. If might turn out they had some kind of "Master Plan", which is what I would think. They don't do things for not reason at all. But as a "Master Plan" is seem really stupid.
I'm advising people that I know, work with/for to stay away from SUSE, but there is more than one reason for that.