Are you serious? Why would you pay $100 for someone to just splice some wires together? That's insane. It's like taking your car into the dealership to change the wiper blades.
Most homes have been wired for 2 lines for decades.
I was hooking up some phones at my father's new house (god, almost a decade ago now...) and it had 4 lines in the walls (8 individual wires). Being 15 or 16 at the time, I was a terrible electrician and had no idea which cables to go with. So I did the most sensible thing and had my brother lick them.
Lucky for him, you're right. Only 1 pair was hooked up to power. A few aluminum foil and duct-tape splices and we had dial-up!
My point being that this was nearly ten years ago. People still get their internet over the phone lines? For serious?
Assuming that you actually don't understand and aren't just feigning ignorance, I think it's the logical conclusion that people draw from this that is the concern, rather than the actual content.
RE: "I'll show you mine if you show me yours!"
You can't tell teenagers to take pictures of their bodies without that being the natural conclusion.
Because everyone knows that European countries have a centuries-long history of not horribly killing people for showing any kind of deviance what-so-ever.
It's bad when the prudes leave your continent to seek more freedom.
What, the freedom for your system to be very slightly unstable if you fail to upgrade a piece of software a year out of date after six months of warnings?
Remember - the marginal cost of distributing software is also free, and yet we expect everyone to pay for a copy.
I'm glad there's no such thing as F/OSS to completely undermine that argument. Well, at least no one on a website like this would be familiar with that kind of thing...
To do the typical Slashdot thing and completely ignore the meaningful part of your extremely interesting and well-organized post while focusing on seemingly inane details:
If you don't take part, then you don't have room to complain.
I have to disagree. By this argument, those living under totalitarian dictatorships have no right to complain unless they are actively inciting rebellion. Just because it's a heck of a lot easier for me to actually do something about my complaints doesn't mean I in any way have a necessary responsibility to do it.
Then again, there is that oft-quoted:
...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government...
But applying it here is something of a stretch...
Besides, I've never really cared about who wins elections. They're just not that important. Legislation and government and such are just distractions from the things in life that actually matter. In 1000 years, where will the debate about free (ha, like we have anything like that at all) health care have gotten us? Probably to the same place either way.
As someone else brought up, Kang and Kodos may have been a better example. You're absolutely right, this does fairly well exemplify the extreme voter apathy viewpoint. Who knew us apathetic folks were such extremists?
Slashdot Mirror
If you click the links in first posts, /. can be a one-stop shop.
I believe they brought it up to give the "500 years" comment a reasonable context.
It all started when they wanted to put fluoride in the water! POE! POE!
anti-multicultural tome
That is quite possibly the most loaded rhetoric I've seen in a while.
Are you serious? Why would you pay $100 for someone to just splice some wires together? That's insane. It's like taking your car into the dealership to change the wiper blades.
Most homes have been wired for 2 lines for decades.
I was hooking up some phones at my father's new house (god, almost a decade ago now...) and it had 4 lines in the walls (8 individual wires). Being 15 or 16 at the time, I was a terrible electrician and had no idea which cables to go with. So I did the most sensible thing and had my brother lick them.
Lucky for him, you're right. Only 1 pair was hooked up to power. A few aluminum foil and duct-tape splices and we had dial-up!
My point being that this was nearly ten years ago. People still get their internet over the phone lines? For serious?
None of them send a message to user's desktop, do they?
heh.. What's the point?
It's kind of funny how this comment thread comes up immediately following this article...
If you're from a country built up by protestant prudes.
Okay...
Ya, I know, Hitler was totally on the ball, wasn't he?
You Eastern-Hemisphere folk and your genocide...
Assuming that you actually don't understand and aren't just feigning ignorance, I think it's the logical conclusion that people draw from this that is the concern, rather than the actual content.
RE: "I'll show you mine if you show me yours!"
You can't tell teenagers to take pictures of their bodies without that being the natural conclusion.
Because everyone knows that European countries have a centuries-long history of not horribly killing people for showing any kind of deviance what-so-ever.
It's bad when the prudes leave your continent to seek more freedom.
You do realize that the military has also had hovercraft for over 25 years, right?
You can bet the US wasn't behind this decision.
Wait... when did they start putting links in these?
I heard he was kdawson.
Heck! Is this the "freedom" you want?
What, the freedom for your system to be very slightly unstable if you fail to upgrade a piece of software a year out of date after six months of warnings?
Nope, doesn't work that way either. Sorry. Your brethren to the south have one farce of a "democracy."
To oh-so-subtly quote you out of context:
Remember - the marginal cost of distributing software is also free, and yet we expect everyone to pay for a copy.
I'm glad there's no such thing as F/OSS to completely undermine that argument. Well, at least no one on a website like this would be familiar with that kind of thing...
...that's how democracy is supposed to work.
And that's would be my point.
To do the typical Slashdot thing and completely ignore the meaningful part of your extremely interesting and well-organized post while focusing on seemingly inane details:
If you don't take part, then you don't have room to complain.
I have to disagree. By this argument, those living under totalitarian dictatorships have no right to complain unless they are actively inciting rebellion. Just because it's a heck of a lot easier for me to actually do something about my complaints doesn't mean I in any way have a necessary responsibility to do it.
Then again, there is that oft-quoted:
...when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government...
But applying it here is something of a stretch...
Besides, I've never really cared about who wins elections. They're just not that important. Legislation and government and such are just distractions from the things in life that actually matter. In 1000 years, where will the debate about free (ha, like we have anything like that at all) health care have gotten us? Probably to the same place either way.
...evil madman stew.
We like to call it a "melting pot." =]
As someone else brought up, Kang and Kodos may have been a better example. You're absolutely right, this does fairly well exemplify the extreme voter apathy viewpoint. Who knew us apathetic folks were such extremists?
The Siege of Tyre has always been my favorite, personally.
Worked for Vietnam.
I thought you could write whomever you wanted onto your ballot?
Nope. They have to be pre-approved (pdf in Google Docs) or they just plain won't be counted.
"The majority chooses who wins, and I'm not part of the majority!"
No, my objection is that the minority choses who the majority gets to pick. The US version of an "election" is a joke relative to modern systems.