I am an atheist. I do not believe in any gods, flying spaghetti monsters, Santa Clause, the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, bigfoot, lochness monster, etc. That doesn't mean none of those things exist, there is simply no concrete evidence that they do.
Is my lack of belief in something really itself a belief system? That depends how you define "belief system." Frankly, I call it honesty.
Most people are not in situations where they have the ability to pick their Internet provider. Most areas are served by a single monopoly, or at best, one telco and one cable co. With the largest telcos and cable cos forming alliances, choice is 100% out of the equation for consumers.
Which is precisely why the Republicans are wrong here. The first Republican President warned of corporate power, corporate influence in government, and monopolies. Anti-trust law used to be something Republicans accepted as pro-capitalism, and pro-democracy. Current Republican politicians have been bought, it would seem.
Damn.
disclaimer: this post is in no way an endorsement of any other political party, if you assumed it was, then you're an idiot, and part of the problem.
Uh, where the fuck were you when everyone found out that Bush and friends were lying to everyone? I think it's only fair to suppose that Congress *may* *not* have gone along with him if they knew the truth. And completely nevermind the fact that this Presidency is strongarming Congress like no administration has done in my 27 year lifetime. As for funding the "war", now that we're already there, well, that's just a matter of causing the least harm. Would it be more harmful if "we" up and left, or stayed the course?
I certainly wouldn't claim to know the answer to that.
But, as to who *I* blame? I blame the entire country. Every jackass who doesn't bother to vote, every tool who is affiliated with the major political parties, every stupid shit who is blinded by fear of terrorism to question our supposed leaders.
But certainly, Bush is responsible for his own actions, is he not? His administration unilaterally started this war. Any support he had was predicated on lies.
You douchebag, how was that just Republican bashing? It was American politics, in its entirety, bashing. Your pathetic devotion to your party is apparent now, as well as the sad fact that you can't see past it. I was not endorsing the Democratic party, on the contrary, quite the contrary.
And while you pretend it's just politicans who have become completely twisted and lost sight of their values, look around. I live in a "red" county. I know a lot of Republicans. They support the current administration, the encroachment of the government our on civil liberties, the overspending, the ridiculous military actions, the jingoistic rhetoric, etc.
The fact is, we are more in agreement than you realize, or even want to accept. I want smaller government. I want the government to butt out of matters of personal responsibility. I want spending to be curbed. It's time for you to realize that there's nothing of value left in the mainstream Republican party, in and out of Washington, and go independent.
*sigh* I know, I'm such an asshole. But I'm right, regardless. I was right about "Dubya" 6 years ago when I argued with my Republican friends. On what he would do to their party, and the country as a whole, I was right. Some of them even admit it. Not that it matters, they still don't vote outside their pathetic party.
If only Republicans actually cared about their own supposed values anymore, then maybe we could have some fucking balance in American politics. But, no, both parties want to ban/censor everything, sell out to special interest groups, etc.
And don't get me started on how the Democrats are completely throwing away their opportunity to bring some sanity back to the U.S. I really think the country would applaud if some key Dems stood up for personal responsibility and freedom in the face of terror. But what do we get? A bunch of tools vying to make the people feel safer from the big bad terrorists and saving the children.
What a fucking wankfest American politics is, and what a bunch of pussies the citizenry has become. It's like a fucking kindergarden.
The AC has a good point. Any user of OOo can certainly see that the app is rather bloated. How? The end result. In the case of OOo, that is a very slow to start app that consumes awful amounts of memory. In the case of these patents, the end result is a ridiculous lawsuit against Blockbuster. You do not need every last detail to make a reasonable judgement of something. That is what expensive lawsuits are for. People like the OP, who demand everyone pay attention to the fucking minutiae of everything, are part of the reason we have such a litigious society.
We all know what Netflix's business model is. We all know what Blockbuster started doing. We all know that Netflix is sueing Blockbuster for patent infringement. That's more than enough to call bullshit on the current patent regime.
Some asshole like you chimes in every discussion saying the same thing. They always get modded up, despite adding nothing real to the discussion. The facts remain. The facts being: ridiculous lawsuits, ridiculous constraints on freedom caused by the PTO.
So you made the code available anyway, but the GPL is somehow unacceptable? The GPL is arm twisting? You have a problem with people putting some restrictions on code they give away for free, yet you want to reserve the right to keep your code proprietary? I find that pretty hypocritical.
Just FWIW, I recently bought a Sony TV. It included a copy of the GPL. You can get the code for all the GPLed software the thing runs.
That's bullshit. This certainly is news to me, and I'm sure to most people here. I had no idea about any of this stuff that went on at MS. Whether you are a rabid MS hater or the most insane doublespeaking apologist -- of course, hopefully you're somewhere in-between, ie. a rational human being:) -- this is news.
I was seriously interested in trying exactly that a few years ago. I guess I passed up on a good opportunity. Kudos to you for making a business out of something worthwhile.
That's utter tripe. Most Apple customers never even deal with Apple customer service. In fact, some who do are wholly unsatisfied. That's not been my experience with Apple customer service -- it is pretty good IMO -- however, not everyone appreciates them.
There's a myriad of reasons why people love Apple. Their products are very capable, very attractive, and they've grown a cult following over the years that has now become trendy. I find the trendiness annoying, but it's not completely undeserved. In a world where most products are completely unoriginal, poorly designed, with very poor asthetics, and usually go through several iterations before even working as they're supposed to, Apple delivers an appealing product that is reasonably well thought out on their first try.
Take the iPod(s). They're very capable, asthetically pleasing, and the interface is reasonable. Every other player on the market is littered with buttons instead of having a clean interface. STILL. There's a few players that are an attempt at a clean interface, but they have serious show-stopping flaws. Apple can thank their competitors incompetence, and laugh all the way to the bank. That doesn't seem to be changing either.
Mac? Honestly, I'm not a fan, but that's irrelevent. Compared to the fucking ghetto that is your average Windows desktop -- goddamnit! right out of the box Windows machines are litter with a metric fuckton of bullshit -- OS X looks like a dream come true. That irritates me, because I personally don't care for the OS X interface. But compared to the competition... And it comes with nice, simple, shiny, useful apps.
Customer service? Bahaha, Apple could completely close down any customer service at all and people would still buy Apple.
What did you mean when you said, "never again?" You would never work with that particular person again, or overly geeky people in general?
I do hope it's the former, because if it's the latter, not only are you a serious asshole, but you'll be missing out on a whole lot of people who have more to offer than you ever will. Please not that I'm saying that as someone who does not consider himself geeky.
I do agree with you that there are reasons people latch onto different subcultures, but, the reasons are many, and one shouldn't be quick to judge people based on that. Indeed, that's really fucking short-sighted.
WTF is wrong with Blizzard? It seems they are always in court harassing their own user-base, which is a damn sight worse than the RIAA even, as the RIAA(well, supposedly) goes after actual pirates. Why not leave well enough alone?
Why don't you read the article, you fucking douchebag. Then you'd see where this guy is coming from, and here's a hint, you clueless piece of shit, it's not from where you're ignorantly assuming.
So what? A lot of casual gamers like Mario Party and the like. BFD. I always liked Nintendo's more hardcore franchises, and I'm dismayed by their lackluster appearance on the Cube.
OTOH, Metroid Prime is pretty fucking cool, and I haven't played both of them through, as I don't have 'em. I will have to fix that.
By all means though, please recommend some more Cube games that I need to play.
The question is, will Nintendo even HAVE 5 games worth playing? Out of all 3 last-gen consoles, the Cube is by far the most disappointing. Nintendo has really failed to deliver to the more "hardcore" audiences. Wind Waker and Mario Sunshine were kinda lame. Their predecessors were much better. And we'll be lucky if the new Mario and Zelda get released while they still matter.
I don't know how many iterations of Mario fucking Party I can stand.
Slashdot Mirror
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Is my lack of belief in something really itself a belief system? That depends how you define "belief system." Frankly, I call it honesty.
Indeed. The current Republican party couldn't be farther from Lincoln.
Which is precisely why the Republicans are wrong here. The first Republican President warned of corporate power, corporate influence in government, and monopolies. Anti-trust law used to be something Republicans accepted as pro-capitalism, and pro-democracy. Current Republican politicians have been bought, it would seem.
Damn.
disclaimer: this post is in no way an endorsement of any other political party, if you assumed it was, then you're an idiot, and part of the problem.
I certainly wouldn't claim to know the answer to that.
But, as to who *I* blame? I blame the entire country. Every jackass who doesn't bother to vote, every tool who is affiliated with the major political parties, every stupid shit who is blinded by fear of terrorism to question our supposed leaders.
But certainly, Bush is responsible for his own actions, is he not? His administration unilaterally started this war. Any support he had was predicated on lies.
And while you pretend it's just politicans who have become completely twisted and lost sight of their values, look around. I live in a "red" county. I know a lot of Republicans. They support the current administration, the encroachment of the government our on civil liberties, the overspending, the ridiculous military actions, the jingoistic rhetoric, etc.
The fact is, we are more in agreement than you realize, or even want to accept. I want smaller government. I want the government to butt out of matters of personal responsibility. I want spending to be curbed. It's time for you to realize that there's nothing of value left in the mainstream Republican party, in and out of Washington, and go independent.
*sigh* I know, I'm such an asshole. But I'm right, regardless. I was right about "Dubya" 6 years ago when I argued with my Republican friends. On what he would do to their party, and the country as a whole, I was right. Some of them even admit it. Not that it matters, they still don't vote outside their pathetic party.
And don't get me started on how the Democrats are completely throwing away their opportunity to bring some sanity back to the U.S. I really think the country would applaud if some key Dems stood up for personal responsibility and freedom in the face of terror. But what do we get? A bunch of tools vying to make the people feel safer from the big bad terrorists and saving the children.
What a fucking wankfest American politics is, and what a bunch of pussies the citizenry has become. It's like a fucking kindergarden.
Some asshole like you chimes in every discussion saying the same thing. They always get modded up, despite adding nothing real to the discussion. The facts remain. The facts being: ridiculous lawsuits, ridiculous constraints on freedom caused by the PTO.
Just FWIW, I recently bought a Sony TV. It included a copy of the GPL. You can get the code for all the GPLed software the thing runs.
I was seriously interested in trying exactly that a few years ago. I guess I passed up on a good opportunity. Kudos to you for making a business out of something worthwhile.
There's a myriad of reasons why people love Apple. Their products are very capable, very attractive, and they've grown a cult following over the years that has now become trendy. I find the trendiness annoying, but it's not completely undeserved. In a world where most products are completely unoriginal, poorly designed, with very poor asthetics, and usually go through several iterations before even working as they're supposed to, Apple delivers an appealing product that is reasonably well thought out on their first try.
Take the iPod(s). They're very capable, asthetically pleasing, and the interface is reasonable. Every other player on the market is littered with buttons instead of having a clean interface. STILL. There's a few players that are an attempt at a clean interface, but they have serious show-stopping flaws. Apple can thank their competitors incompetence, and laugh all the way to the bank. That doesn't seem to be changing either.
Mac? Honestly, I'm not a fan, but that's irrelevent. Compared to the fucking ghetto that is your average Windows desktop -- goddamnit! right out of the box Windows machines are litter with a metric fuckton of bullshit -- OS X looks like a dream come true. That irritates me, because I personally don't care for the OS X interface. But compared to the competition... And it comes with nice, simple, shiny, useful apps.
Customer service? Bahaha, Apple could completely close down any customer service at all and people would still buy Apple.
I do hope it's the former, because if it's the latter, not only are you a serious asshole, but you'll be missing out on a whole lot of people who have more to offer than you ever will. Please not that I'm saying that as someone who does not consider himself geeky.
I do agree with you that there are reasons people latch onto different subcultures, but, the reasons are many, and one shouldn't be quick to judge people based on that. Indeed, that's really fucking short-sighted.
WTF is wrong with Blizzard? It seems they are always in court harassing their own user-base, which is a damn sight worse than the RIAA even, as the RIAA(well, supposedly) goes after actual pirates. Why not leave well enough alone?
Please go somewhere and die. America is supposed to be about freedom, not restriction. I'm so fucking sick of prudes like you.
If you don't like it, don't watch it you goddamn prude.
OTOH, Metroid Prime is pretty fucking cool, and I haven't played both of them through, as I don't have 'em. I will have to fix that.
By all means though, please recommend some more Cube games that I need to play.
I don't know how many iterations of Mario fucking Party I can stand.
OTOH, there's nothing to be ashamed about being a "LAMP" developer, so those OPers can go fuck themselves too.
Oh, and there's no shame in fucking yourself, I'm pretty sure most /.ers do it.
Just FYI.
Come to think of it... I think I've been seeing fewer Bush '04 bumper stickers of late. But maybe I'm just deluding myself...