First of all, this argument is wrong, as so many other Slashdotters have pointed out. Second, unless you're doing something mission-critical, I'd rather have a broadband connection with spyware than a dial-up connection without.
There are no Chinese servers for me to choose from.
That's the only mistake that really popped out at me. I'm not trying to be rude, if you're a geek like me (and you probably are, you're on/.) you'll like being corrected and thus taught something:-)
I'm trying to learn Spanish and French at the moment and let me tell you something: Nothing you read in a book can prepare you for a chat room. #linuxfr has just as much crazy slang and broken French as #linux does English. Knowing a language, however, involves being able to use it to communicate in any reasonable and common venue. The internet certainly qualifies as such and so its speech should be learned along with all other dialects (if this is the proper term, IANA linguist) of the language. In fact, you could go so far as to argue that internet comprehension is as important as comprehension of the standard language, but I'm not going to support that point here.
My point isn't that they were invented by well-meaning people. My point is that they were written for people who believe them to be true, or for the purpose of cocnvincing non-believers that they're true.
If I remember the definition correctly, all religious texts are nonfiction, because they're intended to be true and are designed for an audience that believes them to be true.
That thing is a travesty. I was in an advanced language class when I was in elementary school, and wasn't subjected to it. My best friend, who was a tiny hair below the level required for the advanced class (he tried to get in every year, and missed 1-3 problems more than the maximum on the test to get in, IIRC), tested out of the stratosphere on AR. Unfortunately for him, the school library didn't carry any books near his level, except for one: Little Women. The next time they took the test, he bombed the hell out of it on purpose. He liked (and still likes) to read, but he simply couldn't find AR books in his level. He had no choice but to throw the test, and he ended up reading books miles below his level. I highly doubt he learned anything
I think the problem originates in huge class sizes and small teacher salaries. Schools don't have enough teachers, and the ones they do have often aren't qualified. My 8th grade English teacher was a substitute teacher by trade and only had the job because the district absolutely could not find anyone else to take it. We spent the year doing things like memorizing the list of prepositions. Higher salaries make for better qualified teachers, as highly qualified people will take teaching jobs rather than make a zillion dollars in the private sector. (Note to teachers: I'm not trying to offend you, I'm sure you're great. Unless you're not. My point is, there aren't enough of you.) Another thing that needs to be done is hiring more teachers. Classes are geared towards the middle-of-the-road students. The students who are behind fall further behind, and the students who are ahead progress at an agonizingly slow pace. If class sizes were drastically smaller, they could be more geared towards the needs of individual students.
Interestingly, the United States could have hired somewhere around 4 million teachers for one year with the money they spent on Iraq. Solution: Spend war money on schools. Then raise taxes, and spend the money you get from that on schools. Raising taxes is a subject for another post, but if any people leaning to the conservative side on economic policy disagree with me, we can discuss it. Reply.
For the record, I'm currently a sophomore in high school, where honors and AP classes give some measure of separating the advanced from the remedial students. It's not enough though. And yes, I still know how to read.
On a more serious note than my grandparent (aka myself... man, that's some weird incest)
Actually, there's no problem with them if you see them as what they are: catalogs and advertisement. Every field publishes catalogs detailing their latest offerings and offering glowing praise. Dell publishes computer catalogs. Ikea publishes furniture catalogs. Yamaha et al publish keyboard catalogs, etc. etc. No problem in my book.
Precisely because Catholicism at its best seeks to be inclusive, we are open to all who share our mission and seek the truth about God and the world, and we are firmly committed to academic freedom as the necessary precondition for that search. We welcome and benefit enormously from the diversity of seekers within our ranks, even as we freely choose and celebrate our own Catholic identity.
It sounds like people of any faith can join as long as they "seek the truth" etc.
First, you miss the sarcasm of his post. Second, you go quote a website that argues exactly against you. Did you even check that link? It says quite clearly that "irregardless" is in fact a word and that it means "regardless"
Such shenanigans only make sense when you believe in intellectual property The GPL completely relies on intellectual property laws! If it weren't for IP laws, there would be no GPL.
Saying we shouldn't call it "intellectual property" is a semantic argument that has nothing to do with your main point (if indeed you have one)
and treat the creators of such property like criminals. Er, what? Why would companies treat themselves as criminals? I lost you here.
If your entire business relies of [sic] a few secrets that could sneak out the door, you have a sorry business. First of all, most companies don't "rely" on a few secrets. Their secrets are important, and they do matter, but they generally aren't the entire company. And even if they are, mind expounding on your point? What's wrong with relying on secrets?
If you do have secrets you need to keep but employees you can't trust to keep them, there is something wrong with the way you hire and treat your employees. Human nature is human nature. No matter how well you screen and treat employees, there will always be some who want to make a quick buck by selling your secrets. I'm not sure how you think this could be prevented, but if you want to explain I'd be glad to listen.
The idea of network "security" through port blocking is so laughable the company in question must be using a M$ desktop. You almost make a good point here but veer of into "M$"-bashing-land, as you are so prone to doing. I fail to see how using bad security practices has anything to do with what desktop the peons use.
If your company has such sorry software, you probably flunk the other tests of dumb company and your life is miserable. First you postulate that they use Microsoft software. Then you take your own postulate as gospel and use it to determine that the company is idiotic. If you can't see the logical fallacy here you should probably take more vitamins.
Slashdot Mirror
Bceause when you look at a mirror, your eyes are turned 180 degrees from the orientation they would be in if you were looking straight at someone.
First of all, this argument is wrong, as so many other Slashdotters have pointed out. Second, unless you're doing something mission-critical, I'd rather have a broadband connection with spyware than a dial-up connection without.
I don't play WoW.
Just wondering, is this where the new word "ninja" meaning "steal" I've been hearing from gamer kids recently came from?
There are no Chinese servers for me to choose from.
/.) you'll like being corrected and thus taught something :-)
That's the only mistake that really popped out at me.
I'm not trying to be rude, if you're a geek like me (and you probably are, you're on
I'm trying to learn Spanish and French at the moment and let me tell you something: Nothing you read in a book can prepare you for a chat room. #linuxfr has just as much crazy slang and broken French as #linux does English. Knowing a language, however, involves being able to use it to communicate in any reasonable and common venue. The internet certainly qualifies as such and so its speech should be learned along with all other dialects (if this is the proper term, IANA linguist) of the language. In fact, you could go so far as to argue that internet comprehension is as important as comprehension of the standard language, but I'm not going to support that point here.
My point isn't that they were invented by well-meaning people. My point is that they were written for people who believe them to be true, or for the purpose of cocnvincing non-believers that they're true.
If I remember the definition correctly, all religious texts are nonfiction, because they're intended to be true and are designed for an audience that believes them to be true.
Actually, "Western society" generally only groans at puns that aren't funny. Which is, of course, most of them.
I agree with the rest of it though. Nerdiness should be praised.
holy shit! You are my hero.
Who me?
Couldn't be!
That thing is a travesty. I was in an advanced language class when I was in elementary school, and wasn't subjected to it. My best friend, who was a tiny hair below the level required for the advanced class (he tried to get in every year, and missed 1-3 problems more than the maximum on the test to get in, IIRC), tested out of the stratosphere on AR. Unfortunately for him, the school library didn't carry any books near his level, except for one: Little Women. The next time they took the test, he bombed the hell out of it on purpose. He liked (and still likes) to read, but he simply couldn't find AR books in his level. He had no choice but to throw the test, and he ended up reading books miles below his level. I highly doubt he learned anything
I think the problem originates in huge class sizes and small teacher salaries. Schools don't have enough teachers, and the ones they do have often aren't qualified. My 8th grade English teacher was a substitute teacher by trade and only had the job because the district absolutely could not find anyone else to take it. We spent the year doing things like memorizing the list of prepositions. Higher salaries make for better qualified teachers, as highly qualified people will take teaching jobs rather than make a zillion dollars in the private sector. (Note to teachers: I'm not trying to offend you, I'm sure you're great. Unless you're not. My point is, there aren't enough of you.) Another thing that needs to be done is hiring more teachers. Classes are geared towards the middle-of-the-road students. The students who are behind fall further behind, and the students who are ahead progress at an agonizingly slow pace. If class sizes were drastically smaller, they could be more geared towards the needs of individual students.
Interestingly, the United States could have hired somewhere around 4 million teachers for one year with the money they spent on Iraq. Solution: Spend war money on schools. Then raise taxes, and spend the money you get from that on schools. Raising taxes is a subject for another post, but if any people leaning to the conservative side on economic policy disagree with me, we can discuss it. Reply.
For the record, I'm currently a sophomore in high school, where honors and AP classes give some measure of separating the advanced from the remedial students. It's not enough though. And yes, I still know how to read.
On a more serious note than my grandparent (aka myself... man, that's some weird incest)
Actually, there's no problem with them if you see them as what they are: catalogs and advertisement. Every field publishes catalogs detailing their latest offerings and offering glowing praise. Dell publishes computer catalogs. Ikea publishes furniture catalogs. Yamaha et al publish keyboard catalogs, etc. etc. No problem in my book.
Posting this on Slashdot, of all places...
Moi non plus, mais j'ai compris aussi.
(Mais je suis un tricheur, j'etudie l'espagnol.)
It sounds like people of any faith can join as long as they "seek the truth" etc.
IANAL, but I don't think you can lose a libel suit just by reporting what someone else said.
You fucktard.
First, you miss the sarcasm of his post. Second, you go quote a website that argues exactly against you. Did you even check that link? It says quite clearly that "irregardless" is in fact a word and that it means "regardless"
That'd be awesome. Send it to me if you do: brennan.vincent@gmail.com
thanks
It means some guy from Afghanistan came to Washington DC. No more no less. I'm sure that they have better ways of ascertaining that anyway.
Of course they're data. They're just not a statistically significant amount of it.
Something certain Jews say, check in this very thread for someone's response to my question on why they do it.
Isn't the original name of the Judeo-Christian god the "tetragrammaton" or whatever?
Offtopic, but it's something I've wondered:
Why is it that Orthodox Jews write "g-d", "gd", etc.?
Here comes the cluehammer!
Such shenanigans only make sense when you believe in intellectual property
The GPL completely relies on intellectual property laws! If it weren't for IP laws, there would be no GPL.
Saying we shouldn't call it "intellectual property" is a semantic argument that has nothing to do with your main point (if indeed you have one)
and treat the creators of such property like criminals.
Er, what? Why would companies treat themselves as criminals? I lost you here.
If your entire business relies of [sic] a few secrets that could sneak out the door, you have a sorry business.
First of all, most companies don't "rely" on a few secrets. Their secrets are important, and they do matter, but they generally aren't the entire company. And even if they are, mind expounding on your point? What's wrong with relying on secrets?
If you do have secrets you need to keep but employees you can't trust to keep them, there is something wrong with the way you hire and treat your employees.
Human nature is human nature. No matter how well you screen and treat employees, there will always be some who want to make a quick buck by selling your secrets. I'm not sure how you think this could be prevented, but if you want to explain I'd be glad to listen.
The idea of network "security" through port blocking is so laughable the company in question must be using a M$ desktop.
You almost make a good point here but veer of into "M$"-bashing-land, as you are so prone to doing. I fail to see how using bad security practices has anything to do with what desktop the peons use.
If your company has such sorry software, you probably flunk the other tests of dumb company and your life is miserable.
First you postulate that they use Microsoft software. Then you take your own postulate as gospel and use it to determine that the company is idiotic. If you can't see the logical fallacy here you should probably take more vitamins.
rofl omfg
Je sais ce que c'est un MMORPG.