Corporations are the sum of their people. People like you and me, unless you're a trust fund kid who has no idea what it's like to work for someone else to make a living. I don't feel bad for people who abuse capitalism, but I do feel bad for people who work really hard on something only to have it stolen by people with zero ethics and an entitlement complex. I write mobile apps and for every paid download I get there are 1000 illegal downloads. I charge no more than 99c for my apps. What kind of loser does one have to be to steal a 99c item from an indie content provider??? The people sharing and downloading are just as much crooks as corp execs.
Google (YouTube), and dozens of other major sites are in clear violation of long standing copyright law. Millions of people rely on those laws to protect their industries and livelihood. Now it's a content wild west where anything goes. When there is blatant criminal activity in progress the authorities do have the right to stop the activity before there is a trial. I like free content as much as anyone else, but not at someone else's expense. Who's more greedy? The corporations who want to make a buck on content, or the fans who want it for free? There's got to be some middle ground where everyone wins.
This isn't news. It's common sense. Of course people and their passwords are the weakest link. Same thing in physical space. You can have the best lock in the world, but if you make copies of the key and are careless with them you'll get robbed.
AAA game studios are totally missing the point. Angry Birds is a huge hit across multiple platforms and it is single player. It's also more fun than 90% of the AAA titles available. Sales numbers don't lie. This guy should be investing in the single player experience so serious gamers, who recognize genres beyond "first person shooter", have engaging games to buy and play. Seriously, running around a maze of war-torn buildings looking for friends to frag is seriously tired and boring these days. There are some gems, but AAA titles are so dumbed down and predictable now that the fun factor has been diluted to the point where the games sometimes feel more like work than play.
I've been looking for a good reason to quit using the internet. Maybe the borgification of today's web will lead to better, more secure things in the future.
PHP. But, I'd recommend learning programming/software engineering concepts using a variety of languages. When I was starting out many decades ago it was hard to get one's hands on a compiler and even harder to get time on an actual machine. These days you can get solid compilers or interpreters for most every language 100% FREE. If you understand how computers work, how programs are written, compiled, or interpreted, and you have a decent mind for math and problem solving you should be able to learn any language you want to quickly.
It just chaps my hide that statements like this get scored 5 "insightful". Sounds like someone is jealous that their life sucks while others are living it up off of grandpa's J.R. Ewing-style success. I see by the lame sig that you are also a liberal. That explains your lack of ethics, wit, and class.
Nice rebuttal. I agree that students get a dose of everything while at school. Maybe that's why we have such a divided nation. Some people are inclined to go left and others go right. It's all good though. I'll try to keep my feet planted somewhere in the middle.
Ok, this response if fragmented, but I had a lot to cover and not much time. Good response by the way. You make some good points.
I knew that list wouldn't be popular but it is true. I come from the very hive of liberalism (San Francisco) and spent three decades in high tech and academia so I'm not some Gomer who's never left the farm. I've seen what decades of liberal policies have done to our nation, and especially california (which is basically a third-world state at this point). I have lots of gay friends and many liberal friends. I'm also aware of how unions work and how the left panders to them. The child molester thing has to do with NAMBLA which is supported by the left, not the right. The "rich" bosses generally work harder and carry more responsibility than the worker. Yes there are board-room abuses, but for the most part the average CEO works harder and longer than their employees do. Yes, the environment is a SUPER left thing. But, I've never met a conservative who wanted to ruin the environment, they just want to manage it responsibly without losing our edge as a superpower to countries like China that could give a rat's ass about the environment. Leftists like Al Gore used the environment for personal gain and blackmailed companies with his influence over popular opinion. That's low.
All the lefties I know have one thing in common. They are angry and jealous that they are not someone else. Stereotypes are, at least somewhat true. That is why they are stereotypes.
Maybe Sharron Angle was tongue tied, but I can tell you that if we lose the Bush tax cuts, it will probably mean more laid-off employees. People refer to the "rich" like they are somehow flawed for being successful, but the fact is "the rich" provide jobs for people and create opportunities for the not so rich to become rich themselves.
Yes, it is a broad generalization, but there's nothing wrong with that in this context. And, I agree 100% that our leaders should be people we can trust know what they are doing. Still, I find it pretty easy to look down intellectually on anyone who subscribes only to the left or the right (I was in the top 10% too), but since I try to eat my own dog food I remember that they are entitled to their beliefs and that I may be wrong and they may be right. But I just don't see how! I've had a great life as an independent thinker, and I've been very successful as well. Why would I change the way I think just because it's not hip or in line with the latest trends or even correct by today's standards? Hell, even Steve Jobs said "I don't care about being right, I just want to do neat stuff." Sorry for being tangential, it's really late on the East Coast.
I've often wondered the same thing, but being smart isn't a guarantee of being correct. Hawking spent a career searching for a unified theory that he now claims doesn't exist. Is he not smart? Actually, studies have shown that the more intelligent a person is the higher the likelihood that they will defy common sense in search of their own intellectual gratification. If you went to a major university in the US, that wasn't a military academy, then you were most definitely subjected to loads of liberal indoctrination, and you probably don't even know it. It's a sneaky recipe. A little political correctness here, a dash of environmentalism there, a heaping teaspoon of marxism all rolled into a casserole of insecurity, jealousy, and hatred for anyone who doesn't think the same which can eventually lead to doing stupid things like DDoS-ing a major media website.:-)
Of course, you could be 100% correct and the academics may be smarter and know what is best for humanity. I'll concede to that, I certainly don't deny that there are tons of really smart people out there (most way smarter than me), but I do question their motives. The fictional character Q (Star Trek) had limitless knowledge, but he was adolescent in his behavior and his motives were questionable.
It's interesting how things get perceived differently by different people. You mentioned that you often find right-wing people claiming to be victims, but I would say the opposite is most certainly true. Right-wingers are generally hard working, socially responsible, religious, patriotic, military servers, and family/community oriented people. Left wingers (I'm generalizing here because I DO have right-wing friends in some of these demographics) are entertainers, lawyers, criminals, child molesters (NAMBLA), unions, welfare recipients and just about any other special interest group out there that has no problem claiming that evil capitalists are oppressing them. Look at how the left always plays the race card. It's despicable and MLK would surely be kicking asses if he could see how his message has been twisted and confused by the left in order to manipulate people. Conservatism is not about being a victim, it is about personal responsibility.
Hey, I didn't claim to subscribe to any of their views. The right is just as screwed up as the left, but if I have to pick sides I'm leaning towards the right because they are at least smart enough to know that unions are bad and smaller government is good.
Umm.... I graduated college too. I just didn't drink the kool-aid while I was there. College is where much of the brainwashing I'm talking about happens. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-education, but universities have been overrun by leftists and *everyone* knows this is true. To deny this is like saying 2+2=5.
It's basic supply-side economics. Cutting taxes reduces the barriers to production, consumption goes up, businesses can afford to hire more people, and our economy thrives with 6% unemployment. Using Keynesian Economics, like President Obama, leads to the reduction of private economic control and puts more control in the government's hands. This is really bad because the government is the most inefficient organization in the country. Right now our "leaders" are resorting to easements which really mean they are "printing" money which de-values the dollar significantly providing foreign interests with huge economic advantages over domestic businesses. If you don't get what I'm telling you, go read about supply-side and Keynesian economics, then research how our liberal leaders think and what they believe in. It's frightening. BTW, I'm not a republican or a tea bagger! I just actually paid attention in college. What I saw happening was gullible students getting spoon fed a bunch of marxist crap (brainwashing) while they were sleeping through the important stuff like how macroeconomics work. Then they hit the real world with an elitist arrogance that is almost fascist in its intolerance for anything they don't agree with.
I stand corrected. I should have said "many" 23-year-old liberals. But, I maintain that today's young leftist progressives are most definitely brainwashed. If that's my imagination talking then so be it. I trust my imagination more than I trust other's opinions.
Yeah, those Black Panthers with clubs in front of the polling building were certainly right-wingers. The only double standard is that if a white cop arrested them for intimidating voters he'd be called the racist.
I know the majority here is bleeding sympathy for this clown, but he deserves the sentence in my opinion. DDoS-ing high-profile websites is a stupid/pointless activity and getting caught or admitting it is even more stupid. Look, people in the U.S. have the protected RIGHT to say and write their opinions no matter how left, right, or radical they may be. DDoS-ing someone's website is blocking freedom of the press just like book burning is. Most 23-year-old liberals think they have the *audacity* to silence people who don't agree with their brainwash-induced political views, but it's a violation of one of our fundamental freedoms in the U.S to prevent people from expressing themselves through speech or the media. Maybe having no freedom for a few years will teach this cat, and anyone dumb enough to follow in his footsteps, a valuable lesson about the true value of liberty and democracy.
I interviewed a recent grad from Dartmouth who informed me that he wasn't interested in any projects that were on a schedule or a budget. I told him that he should consider running for public office and he said he was an anarchist and didn't believe in organized government. So I suggested maybe using his own money to finance his own venture and he informed me that he didn't believe in capitalism. I really wanted to hire him simply to see if a few months in the real world would help him understand how life works, but I had other candidates who really wanted to work. I ended up hiring a person who didn't even have her degree yet and she did an excellent job. Colleges don't matter. People matter.
I think the word "cyber" loosely translates to "mind" which would make cyber-crime = mindcrime. Geoff Tate's lyrics have a whole new meaning to me now!
You really need to watch Apple's last two keynotes. They have revolutionized music, movie, book, and software delivery. I know there are a lot of complaints about how they do it, but they have created huge online content markets that didn't exist a few years ago. As an indie developer I've made thousands of dollars through their dev program. I've made significantly less through Google's. Google is following Apple's lead at the moment, and so is Microsoft - period. Google may be on top in years to come, but I doubt it. They just don't "think different" enough to set them apart from the rest of the tech noise.
Slashdot Mirror
Corporations are the sum of their people. People like you and me, unless you're a trust fund kid who has no idea what it's like to work for someone else to make a living. I don't feel bad for people who abuse capitalism, but I do feel bad for people who work really hard on something only to have it stolen by people with zero ethics and an entitlement complex. I write mobile apps and for every paid download I get there are 1000 illegal downloads. I charge no more than 99c for my apps. What kind of loser does one have to be to steal a 99c item from an indie content provider??? The people sharing and downloading are just as much crooks as corp execs.
Google (YouTube), and dozens of other major sites are in clear violation of long standing copyright law. Millions of people rely on those laws to protect their industries and livelihood. Now it's a content wild west where anything goes. When there is blatant criminal activity in progress the authorities do have the right to stop the activity before there is a trial. I like free content as much as anyone else, but not at someone else's expense. Who's more greedy? The corporations who want to make a buck on content, or the fans who want it for free? There's got to be some middle ground where everyone wins.
This isn't news. It's common sense. Of course people and their passwords are the weakest link. Same thing in physical space. You can have the best lock in the world, but if you make copies of the key and are careless with them you'll get robbed.
AAA game studios are totally missing the point. Angry Birds is a huge hit across multiple platforms and it is single player. It's also more fun than 90% of the AAA titles available. Sales numbers don't lie. This guy should be investing in the single player experience so serious gamers, who recognize genres beyond "first person shooter", have engaging games to buy and play. Seriously, running around a maze of war-torn buildings looking for friends to frag is seriously tired and boring these days. There are some gems, but AAA titles are so dumbed down and predictable now that the fun factor has been diluted to the point where the games sometimes feel more like work than play.
She's a harmless MILF. Smarter than Obama though.
I've been looking for a good reason to quit using the internet. Maybe the borgification of today's web will lead to better, more secure things in the future.
Datacenters + Moonshine = Downtime.
PHP. But, I'd recommend learning programming/software engineering concepts using a variety of languages. When I was starting out many decades ago it was hard to get one's hands on a compiler and even harder to get time on an actual machine. These days you can get solid compilers or interpreters for most every language 100% FREE. If you understand how computers work, how programs are written, compiled, or interpreted, and you have a decent mind for math and problem solving you should be able to learn any language you want to quickly.
Nicely put.
It just chaps my hide that statements like this get scored 5 "insightful". Sounds like someone is jealous that their life sucks while others are living it up off of grandpa's J.R. Ewing-style success. I see by the lame sig that you are also a liberal. That explains your lack of ethics, wit, and class.
Nice rebuttal. I agree that students get a dose of everything while at school. Maybe that's why we have such a divided nation. Some people are inclined to go left and others go right. It's all good though. I'll try to keep my feet planted somewhere in the middle.
Ok, this response if fragmented, but I had a lot to cover and not much time. Good response by the way. You make some good points. I knew that list wouldn't be popular but it is true. I come from the very hive of liberalism (San Francisco) and spent three decades in high tech and academia so I'm not some Gomer who's never left the farm. I've seen what decades of liberal policies have done to our nation, and especially california (which is basically a third-world state at this point). I have lots of gay friends and many liberal friends. I'm also aware of how unions work and how the left panders to them. The child molester thing has to do with NAMBLA which is supported by the left, not the right. The "rich" bosses generally work harder and carry more responsibility than the worker. Yes there are board-room abuses, but for the most part the average CEO works harder and longer than their employees do. Yes, the environment is a SUPER left thing. But, I've never met a conservative who wanted to ruin the environment, they just want to manage it responsibly without losing our edge as a superpower to countries like China that could give a rat's ass about the environment. Leftists like Al Gore used the environment for personal gain and blackmailed companies with his influence over popular opinion. That's low. All the lefties I know have one thing in common. They are angry and jealous that they are not someone else. Stereotypes are, at least somewhat true. That is why they are stereotypes.
Maybe Sharron Angle was tongue tied, but I can tell you that if we lose the Bush tax cuts, it will probably mean more laid-off employees. People refer to the "rich" like they are somehow flawed for being successful, but the fact is "the rich" provide jobs for people and create opportunities for the not so rich to become rich themselves.
Yes, it is a broad generalization, but there's nothing wrong with that in this context. And, I agree 100% that our leaders should be people we can trust know what they are doing. Still, I find it pretty easy to look down intellectually on anyone who subscribes only to the left or the right (I was in the top 10% too), but since I try to eat my own dog food I remember that they are entitled to their beliefs and that I may be wrong and they may be right. But I just don't see how! I've had a great life as an independent thinker, and I've been very successful as well. Why would I change the way I think just because it's not hip or in line with the latest trends or even correct by today's standards? Hell, even Steve Jobs said "I don't care about being right, I just want to do neat stuff." Sorry for being tangential, it's really late on the East Coast.
I've often wondered the same thing, but being smart isn't a guarantee of being correct. Hawking spent a career searching for a unified theory that he now claims doesn't exist. Is he not smart? Actually, studies have shown that the more intelligent a person is the higher the likelihood that they will defy common sense in search of their own intellectual gratification. If you went to a major university in the US, that wasn't a military academy, then you were most definitely subjected to loads of liberal indoctrination, and you probably don't even know it. It's a sneaky recipe. A little political correctness here, a dash of environmentalism there, a heaping teaspoon of marxism all rolled into a casserole of insecurity, jealousy, and hatred for anyone who doesn't think the same which can eventually lead to doing stupid things like DDoS-ing a major media website. :-)
Of course, you could be 100% correct and the academics may be smarter and know what is best for humanity. I'll concede to that, I certainly don't deny that there are tons of really smart people out there (most way smarter than me), but I do question their motives. The fictional character Q (Star Trek) had limitless knowledge, but he was adolescent in his behavior and his motives were questionable.
It's interesting how things get perceived differently by different people. You mentioned that you often find right-wing people claiming to be victims, but I would say the opposite is most certainly true. Right-wingers are generally hard working, socially responsible, religious, patriotic, military servers, and family/community oriented people. Left wingers (I'm generalizing here because I DO have right-wing friends in some of these demographics) are entertainers, lawyers, criminals, child molesters (NAMBLA), unions, welfare recipients and just about any other special interest group out there that has no problem claiming that evil capitalists are oppressing them. Look at how the left always plays the race card. It's despicable and MLK would surely be kicking asses if he could see how his message has been twisted and confused by the left in order to manipulate people. Conservatism is not about being a victim, it is about personal responsibility.
Hey, I didn't claim to subscribe to any of their views. The right is just as screwed up as the left, but if I have to pick sides I'm leaning towards the right because they are at least smart enough to know that unions are bad and smaller government is good.
Umm.... I graduated college too. I just didn't drink the kool-aid while I was there. College is where much of the brainwashing I'm talking about happens. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-education, but universities have been overrun by leftists and *everyone* knows this is true. To deny this is like saying 2+2=5.
It's basic supply-side economics. Cutting taxes reduces the barriers to production, consumption goes up, businesses can afford to hire more people, and our economy thrives with 6% unemployment. Using Keynesian Economics, like President Obama, leads to the reduction of private economic control and puts more control in the government's hands. This is really bad because the government is the most inefficient organization in the country. Right now our "leaders" are resorting to easements which really mean they are "printing" money which de-values the dollar significantly providing foreign interests with huge economic advantages over domestic businesses. If you don't get what I'm telling you, go read about supply-side and Keynesian economics, then research how our liberal leaders think and what they believe in. It's frightening. BTW, I'm not a republican or a tea bagger! I just actually paid attention in college. What I saw happening was gullible students getting spoon fed a bunch of marxist crap (brainwashing) while they were sleeping through the important stuff like how macroeconomics work. Then they hit the real world with an elitist arrogance that is almost fascist in its intolerance for anything they don't agree with.
I stand corrected. I should have said "many" 23-year-old liberals. But, I maintain that today's young leftist progressives are most definitely brainwashed. If that's my imagination talking then so be it. I trust my imagination more than I trust other's opinions.
Yeah, those Black Panthers with clubs in front of the polling building were certainly right-wingers. The only double standard is that if a white cop arrested them for intimidating voters he'd be called the racist.
I know the majority here is bleeding sympathy for this clown, but he deserves the sentence in my opinion. DDoS-ing high-profile websites is a stupid/pointless activity and getting caught or admitting it is even more stupid. Look, people in the U.S. have the protected RIGHT to say and write their opinions no matter how left, right, or radical they may be. DDoS-ing someone's website is blocking freedom of the press just like book burning is. Most 23-year-old liberals think they have the *audacity* to silence people who don't agree with their brainwash-induced political views, but it's a violation of one of our fundamental freedoms in the U.S to prevent people from expressing themselves through speech or the media. Maybe having no freedom for a few years will teach this cat, and anyone dumb enough to follow in his footsteps, a valuable lesson about the true value of liberty and democracy.
I interviewed a recent grad from Dartmouth who informed me that he wasn't interested in any projects that were on a schedule or a budget. I told him that he should consider running for public office and he said he was an anarchist and didn't believe in organized government. So I suggested maybe using his own money to finance his own venture and he informed me that he didn't believe in capitalism. I really wanted to hire him simply to see if a few months in the real world would help him understand how life works, but I had other candidates who really wanted to work. I ended up hiring a person who didn't even have her degree yet and she did an excellent job. Colleges don't matter. People matter.
I think the word "cyber" loosely translates to "mind" which would make cyber-crime = mindcrime. Geoff Tate's lyrics have a whole new meaning to me now!
You really need to watch Apple's last two keynotes. They have revolutionized music, movie, book, and software delivery. I know there are a lot of complaints about how they do it, but they have created huge online content markets that didn't exist a few years ago. As an indie developer I've made thousands of dollars through their dev program. I've made significantly less through Google's. Google is following Apple's lead at the moment, and so is Microsoft - period. Google may be on top in years to come, but I doubt it. They just don't "think different" enough to set them apart from the rest of the tech noise.