But we'll all be speaking Mandarin in twenty years anyway
I was just thinking about this last night so...I highly doubt the dominant language of the world is going to change any time soon. English happened to be the language of the dominant countries at the time that the world became more global as well as when languages were being more solidified (England then America). Now most of the worlds docs are in English. If you want to be a pilot you must know rudimentary English. Almost everyone who knows more than one langauge knows English. It is taught to grade school children in nearly every country.
No, if the dominant language of the world is going to change, it will be abrupt (as in China taking over the world and threatening death to any who don't speak Mandarin) or over hundreds of years (as in langauge evolving naturally). If you are speaking Mandarin in 20 years either you decided on your own to learn it, or the world will be in a big hurt.
Whatever man. Santa Claus was on my rooftop last year with his sleigh being pulled by the unicorns. But I ain't never seen an honest lawyer. I think your Fantasy Island is a load of crap.
Even so, what "most adults" cite as good story isn't any better. Witness the standard movie theater fare on any given day. There's usually not so much as story, as an opportunity to infuse some rudimentary plot devices in the quiet moments between sex and violence.
Geeks, please don't respond that you love Nintendo... we all know that many of you don't care about things like story. I'm talking about MOST adults.
Yes, geeks don't like story. That is why they don't bother to read not only Lord of the Rings, but also all the other Tolkien books, letters and journals to get more into Middle-Earth. That is why there is hardly any backstory to Warhammer. That would be why there are only a few Star Wars Expanded Universe books. That is why Dungeons & Dragons has so little source material. That is why the original Half-Life did so poorly.
[T]heir profit margin is going to be significantly better than either MS or Nintendo with this generation.
MS I can understand, maybe. Nintendo only sells their console for losses for a few months each generation, and at that usually only in the single digit losses -- as in $1-$9 per unit. Sony and MS both lose hundreds of dollars on each unit.
It's fine if you feel like you have to spend a lot of money on "mature" things to boost your ego. The rest of us will base fun on things other than "mature content" and price.
What a crock. So they didn't tell anyone originally that it daily phoned home. Now they think they can say it won't and that people will believe them even when it says It is important to note that WGA Validation still periodically checks to determine whether the version of Windows is genuine.
And why in the world would it have to do so. You check once, it's either valid or it's not. Since at the time of my writing this, we don't have to relicense Windows XP every so often, so if it is legitimate now, it will be legitimate later.
I used to do all the updates that they sent out. Now, I don't trust MS even on their updates and since Tuesday have been setting it to ignore. If they go ahead and shut me down later this year because of it, fine. They've lost one more paying customer. Yes, I paid. I legally purchased a copy of Windows XP. Now they stand to lose a customer because of their own silliness. The same is true of the RIAA/MPAA. The more you treat your customers poorly, the less customers you have. This isn't even Business 101 stuff. This is 1st-grade-lemonade-stand type stuff.
You made me think of an interesting idea. Maybe this whole net neutrality thing is like a bunch of penguins lining up on the shore, pushing each other until one falls in. They're daring each other to make their networks non-neutral. The first one that "falls in" will be the guinea pig. If it works, everyone else will jump in, but if the polar bear of consumers eats it alive, the rest will be there to take over his market share. No one wants to be the first in that case, but if it's safe, no one wants to be the last either. So they just keep getting closer and closer until one finally falls in.
So how do you make phone calls? What about your internet service? Cable TV? What do you do for haricuts? All of those are services. You pay for it, you get your service, then after some finite amount of time, the service you paid for is gone and you have to pay again to keep it.
MMORPGs are more of a service than a commodity.
But if you would rather think of it like a commodity item, think of it like this: you pay for it once and have it, it only lasts for a month though. Just like a haircut.
Too true. In this case if people stop buying the RIAA/MPAA stuff, they automatically assume it is because of piracy. You can vote with your money, but if you don't tell them the reason your not buying is DRM, they will assume it's because piracy is on the rise, use extremely silly numbers as lost sales, and do some more tweaking to the law book. It is a good thing to tell them why in this case.
While true that slavery ended after the civil war, it wasn't like the North started the war as a revolution to end slavery. There were lots of reasons why the South was upset at the North, and they had finally had enough and started to secede from the Union. The North went to war to force them back into the Union, and when that wasn't working so hot, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which said that any slave in a state rebelling on January 1st 1863 would be considered free. Had the South stopped rebelling by December 31, 1862 there would have been no freeing of slaves. But the South kept rebelling, but it wasn't to free the slaves. The North kept fighting, but it also was not to free the slaves.
I think we forget that of the many reasons the Civil War was fought, slavery was not the (only) major issue at the time. The Emancipation Proclamation was nearly a threat to the South that if they didn't fall in line they would lose their labor force. The South refused to listen because in their minds they weren't a part of the United States anymore and the North had no business telling them who was free or not. One of the big issues was states rights, but since the slaves were freed we tend to think now that the Civil War was all about slavery, whereas it was only ancillary in the minds of many of the people in the day.
So while slavery ended during a revolution, it wasn't ended because of the revolutionaries.
Maybe the way we should vote is this: Vote for who you approve of and those getting a majority vote are elected, while those who do not are not elected. Majority vote will be greater than 50% of all votes, any office or position without a candidate of 50% or more votes will go unfilled until the next election. Congress would still need the same number of votes to pass anything, so if there are less than 50 senators then nothing gets passed in the Senate, etc.
Offtopic, but I like gedit more than vi or emacs mostly because, coming from a Windows environment, the keyboard shortcuts were more to my liking. I also like keeping it simple, and neither of those programs are. Judging by your sig, you'll think I'm even more of troll, but when I ssh and need a command-line based editor, I use emacs. In addition, I thought it would be funny, and contrary to what you may think, I still laugh at it, even more so because of your reaction.
Two people have replied to my comment and both of you missed the point. If we change now, there are other immediate benefits we can enjoy. Improved health, lower asthma rates, cleaner air and water and streets, better looking natural landscapes, all without waiting even 20-30 years. We get so caught up over whether global warming is real or not that we ignore other reasons to stop polluting.
If you want to get people on your side doom and gloom isn't going to do it. But telling asthmatics that they will be breathing easier this time next year if we all stop polluting will be more effective. I swear, even the camp claiming humans are causing global warming is ignoring it. They are so uptight about being right about that one thing they ignore a hundred other reasons to cut down on waste. Those who claim humans aren't the cause, or that there is no such thing altogether are guilty as well.
What good does it do to be right one way or the other if you still can't go outside and breathe? What if there is no such thing as global warming? Will we then just ignore the pollution we have? I hope not. There are hundreds of reasons to cut down on CFCs, fossil fuel dependence, or whatever else is the evil of the week. So ignore the reason that causes all the infighting, bickering and arguing over who killed who, and focus on the reasons we can all agree on. No one ever said that the acid rain in the northeast was a good thing. No one ever stands up and says there aren't enough asthmatics. No one has ever claimed that smog is good for the lungs. No one spouts off about the beauty of coal-powered factories. Why don't we just ignore the global warming debate (since the original poster was right about it never ending) and focus on other reasons to clean up?
Maybe so, you sound like you might know more about it than I. My point is that there are lots of reasons to eliminate waste and pollution, but people get so tied up about one of those reasons that they ignore all the others.
Too true. I don't know what all the fuss is about anyway. If there is global warming then it won't affect any of us alive today. But pollution affects our lives right now. Personally, I'm skeptical that humans can cause that much damage to the world with anything short of nuclear warfare. I haven't read much up on it, though. However, when my brother-in-law suffers from asthma because of the pollution in Philadelphia, I know that is caused by humans and was preventable for the most part.
I don't know why we can't just clean up our acts just for the sake of the health of those living today. Why can't we stop polluting for the sake of beautiful landscapes? Why can't we clean up our rivers so that we have clean water? Why can't we push for cleaner energy so that when we step outside for a breath of fresh air, we can actually get a breath of fresh air?
All this talk about global warming this, global cooling that, ice caps melting here, severe winters there, and no one is taking the side of the current generation's health.
Why? I didn't say people should be treated like scum. I said their standard of living is much lower. The necessities of life are cheap and they have those things. They don't have all the shiny gadgets we have and yet they are still happy people. I care for those people a lot. When my wife and I have a chance, we send them some money. Some are rice farmers, others own their own shops. They work hard for a living. They have all the necessities of life (food, shelter, clothes) and they are happy people. So what more do they need? What more would you give them? $200 for a new iPod? What would they use it for? Is it going to help them sell more? Is it going to gather the harvest in? Is it going to bring their families that much closer? Is it going to help them laugh at another joke when gathered with loved ones? Is it going to stop a leak in their roof? You tell me, what is more money going to do for them when they are already happy.
Now that's speaking from the perspective of my wife's family and the others in Vietnam that I met. These people in the story I have no more idea about than you what their actual quality of life is. We know they work a lot. We also know that only half of their income is used on food and shelter. Which says that they are getting sufficient food and shelter. They don't have guests but it doesn't say they aren't allowed to leave and visit people. If that was the case then there would be a real problem. As it is, if there's a 100 people in a dorm adding some guests might be a bit of a pain. Most dorms I know of here also don't allow guests as an official policy. Should we go after them as well?
This article is inflammatory and no more. If it wasn't why don't they also show how much worse it is for the workers at the factory next door? Why don't they talk about how cheap food is in the area? Why don't they mention anything about cost-of-living? Why don't they actually quote any of the workers and ask them what their quality of life is or how they feel about it?
The article was sensationalistic flamebait and you fell for it. To call me brainless and uncaring because of that is your problem. Go ahead and ask me to live like them over there, and then you can feel all snug knowing that I'll say I don't want to live like that, becuase I don't. First of all, that's because we are creatures of habit. Getting rid of things is a lot harder than gaining them. For me to get rid of my lousy stuff is harder than for them to acquire it (psychologically). Second, if you aren't willing to do the same then by your logic you are as soulles and pathetic as you think I am.
Expanding that house might have cost $1000, but would any westerner live in it?
I did for a month. It had three running showers, two western-style flushing toilets, tiled floors, glass windows and a balcony. Yes it had bugs, but I doubt the Orkin man can do much about the bugs in the jungles of Vietnam. No refrigerator but no one I met there has one. No one needs one. You eat the food you make and buy everything fresh.
Just give that old stupid idea "they make less, but the price of living is much lower" a rest, will you.
The only thing that is cheap in 3rd world country is the value of labor.
I'm sorry that you've never been to a third world country.
No, I don' think it's OK but you can use short sound bytes to make it sound like that if you want. What I am saying is it's not a lot different than anyone else around them, nor is it a lot different than what is going on down the street from where you and I live. And eventually that changes. This article and hundreds more like it aren't doing anything for that change. Apple is doing more than you or I or this article to bring these people an income and thus slowly change their economy for the better. It takes time, maybe a few decades, more or less, just like in dozens of other nations.
The same happened in India. Companies outsourced to India because it was cheaper. Then slowly their standard of living got better. So much so that it's getting cheaper to outsource to other countries, like China and Vietnam, and even India is doing some of that outsourcing. Eventually those countries will become more wealthy as well. Soon it won't be cheaper to outsource anywhere and all the jobs will come back. Then our own country will get wealthier and the whole cycle starts again.
We could just up and give them a wage that equals over here and watch as inflation consumes them.
On the other hand, we could just keep all our wealth to ourselves. We could never share it by paying them anything, not for labor, not for goods, not for raw materials. Just make it ourselves. Our economy would collapse bringing us down to their standard of living. Most times the path that takes the longest is the one that is the best.
Yes somebody on the other side on the world can earn "contextually huge cash" but in fact he/she cannot afford pretty common "global" gadgets - for example IPod. Is it OK?
In a word, yes. I am sorry to hear that you enjoy making people suffer. I am also sorry to hear that you need an iPod in order to be happy in life. Perhaps some people find joy in things that aren't materialistic, perhaps some people like to have a strong work ethic.
Slashdot Mirror
But we'll all be speaking Mandarin in twenty years anyway
I was just thinking about this last night so...I highly doubt the dominant language of the world is going to change any time soon. English happened to be the language of the dominant countries at the time that the world became more global as well as when languages were being more solidified (England then America). Now most of the worlds docs are in English. If you want to be a pilot you must know rudimentary English. Almost everyone who knows more than one langauge knows English. It is taught to grade school children in nearly every country.
No, if the dominant language of the world is going to change, it will be abrupt (as in China taking over the world and threatening death to any who don't speak Mandarin) or over hundreds of years (as in langauge evolving naturally). If you are speaking Mandarin in 20 years either you decided on your own to learn it, or the world will be in a big hurt.
Whatever man. Santa Claus was on my rooftop last year with his sleigh being pulled by the unicorns. But I ain't never seen an honest lawyer. I think your Fantasy Island is a load of crap.
i got ball this is my adress 108 20 37 av corona come n do it iam give u the internet so I can hit you wit it. reference
Wrong, the government, and by the transitive property, the people, own the wires. The telcos didn't pay for them to go up. In fact, even when they were paid, by the government, to put them up, they didn't.
Even so, what "most adults" cite as good story isn't any better. Witness the standard movie theater fare on any given day. There's usually not so much as story, as an opportunity to infuse some rudimentary plot devices in the quiet moments between sex and violence.
Was this sarcasm?
Geeks, please don't respond that you love Nintendo... we all know that many of you don't care about things like story. I'm talking about MOST adults.
Yes, geeks don't like story. That is why they don't bother to read not only Lord of the Rings, but also all the other Tolkien books, letters and journals to get more into Middle-Earth. That is why there is hardly any backstory to Warhammer. That would be why there are only a few Star Wars Expanded Universe books. That is why Dungeons & Dragons has so little source material. That is why the original Half-Life did so poorly.
[T]heir profit margin is going to be significantly better than either MS or Nintendo with this generation.
MS I can understand, maybe. Nintendo only sells their console for losses for a few months each generation, and at that usually only in the single digit losses -- as in $1-$9 per unit. Sony and MS both lose hundreds of dollars on each unit.
It's fine if you feel like you have to spend a lot of money on "mature" things to boost your ego. The rest of us will base fun on things other than "mature content" and price.
What a crock. So they didn't tell anyone originally that it daily phoned home. Now they think they can say it won't and that people will believe them even when it says
It is important to note that WGA Validation still periodically checks to determine whether the version of Windows is genuine.
And why in the world would it have to do so. You check once, it's either valid or it's not. Since at the time of my writing this, we don't have to relicense Windows XP every so often, so if it is legitimate now, it will be legitimate later.
I used to do all the updates that they sent out. Now, I don't trust MS even on their updates and since Tuesday have been setting it to ignore. If they go ahead and shut me down later this year because of it, fine. They've lost one more paying customer. Yes, I paid. I legally purchased a copy of Windows XP. Now they stand to lose a customer because of their own silliness. The same is true of the RIAA/MPAA. The more you treat your customers poorly, the less customers you have. This isn't even Business 101 stuff. This is 1st-grade-lemonade-stand type stuff.
You made me think of an interesting idea. Maybe this whole net neutrality thing is like a bunch of penguins lining up on the shore, pushing each other until one falls in. They're daring each other to make their networks non-neutral. The first one that "falls in" will be the guinea pig. If it works, everyone else will jump in, but if the polar bear of consumers eats it alive, the rest will be there to take over his market share. No one wants to be the first in that case, but if it's safe, no one wants to be the last either. So they just keep getting closer and closer until one finally falls in.
There is more than one Slashdotter you know.
You mean all you people aren't just my imaginary friends making all these posts? YES! I have friends!
Gaah! Ignore that. Time for bed.
Just say Kelvin and be done.
Grocery store! You lazy slob. Grow your own wheat.
So how do you make phone calls? What about your internet service? Cable TV? What do you do for haricuts? All of those are services. You pay for it, you get your service, then after some finite amount of time, the service you paid for is gone and you have to pay again to keep it.
MMORPGs are more of a service than a commodity.
But if you would rather think of it like a commodity item, think of it like this: you pay for it once and have it, it only lasts for a month though. Just like a haircut.
Too true. In this case if people stop buying the RIAA/MPAA stuff, they automatically assume it is because of piracy. You can vote with your money, but if you don't tell them the reason your not buying is DRM, they will assume it's because piracy is on the rise, use extremely silly numbers as lost sales, and do some more tweaking to the law book. It is a good thing to tell them why in this case.
While true that slavery ended after the civil war, it wasn't like the North started the war as a revolution to end slavery. There were lots of reasons why the South was upset at the North, and they had finally had enough and started to secede from the Union. The North went to war to force them back into the Union, and when that wasn't working so hot, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which said that any slave in a state rebelling on January 1st 1863 would be considered free. Had the South stopped rebelling by December 31, 1862 there would have been no freeing of slaves. But the South kept rebelling, but it wasn't to free the slaves. The North kept fighting, but it also was not to free the slaves.
I think we forget that of the many reasons the Civil War was fought, slavery was not the (only) major issue at the time. The Emancipation Proclamation was nearly a threat to the South that if they didn't fall in line they would lose their labor force. The South refused to listen because in their minds they weren't a part of the United States anymore and the North had no business telling them who was free or not. One of the big issues was states rights, but since the slaves were freed we tend to think now that the Civil War was all about slavery, whereas it was only ancillary in the minds of many of the people in the day.
So while slavery ended during a revolution, it wasn't ended because of the revolutionaries.
i got ball this is my adress 108 20 37 av corona come n do it iam give u the copyright so I can hit you wit it
-- With Love, the **AA
Buy the t-shirt today!
Maybe the way we should vote is this: Vote for who you approve of and those getting a majority vote are elected, while those who do not are not elected. Majority vote will be greater than 50% of all votes, any office or position without a candidate of 50% or more votes will go unfilled until the next election. Congress would still need the same number of votes to pass anything, so if there are less than 50 senators then nothing gets passed in the Senate, etc.
Offtopic, but I like gedit more than vi or emacs mostly because, coming from a Windows environment, the keyboard shortcuts were more to my liking. I also like keeping it simple, and neither of those programs are. Judging by your sig, you'll think I'm even more of troll, but when I ssh and need a command-line based editor, I use emacs. In addition, I thought it would be funny, and contrary to what you may think, I still laugh at it, even more so because of your reaction.
Two people have replied to my comment and both of you missed the point. If we change now, there are other immediate benefits we can enjoy. Improved health, lower asthma rates, cleaner air and water and streets, better looking natural landscapes, all without waiting even 20-30 years. We get so caught up over whether global warming is real or not that we ignore other reasons to stop polluting.
If you want to get people on your side doom and gloom isn't going to do it. But telling asthmatics that they will be breathing easier this time next year if we all stop polluting will be more effective. I swear, even the camp claiming humans are causing global warming is ignoring it. They are so uptight about being right about that one thing they ignore a hundred other reasons to cut down on waste. Those who claim humans aren't the cause, or that there is no such thing altogether are guilty as well.
What good does it do to be right one way or the other if you still can't go outside and breathe? What if there is no such thing as global warming? Will we then just ignore the pollution we have? I hope not. There are hundreds of reasons to cut down on CFCs, fossil fuel dependence, or whatever else is the evil of the week. So ignore the reason that causes all the infighting, bickering and arguing over who killed who, and focus on the reasons we can all agree on. No one ever said that the acid rain in the northeast was a good thing. No one ever stands up and says there aren't enough asthmatics. No one has ever claimed that smog is good for the lungs. No one spouts off about the beauty of coal-powered factories. Why don't we just ignore the global warming debate (since the original poster was right about it never ending) and focus on other reasons to clean up?
Maybe so, you sound like you might know more about it than I. My point is that there are lots of reasons to eliminate waste and pollution, but people get so tied up about one of those reasons that they ignore all the others.
Too true. I don't know what all the fuss is about anyway. If there is global warming then it won't affect any of us alive today. But pollution affects our lives right now. Personally, I'm skeptical that humans can cause that much damage to the world with anything short of nuclear warfare. I haven't read much up on it, though. However, when my brother-in-law suffers from asthma because of the pollution in Philadelphia, I know that is caused by humans and was preventable for the most part.
I don't know why we can't just clean up our acts just for the sake of the health of those living today. Why can't we stop polluting for the sake of beautiful landscapes? Why can't we clean up our rivers so that we have clean water? Why can't we push for cleaner energy so that when we step outside for a breath of fresh air, we can actually get a breath of fresh air?
All this talk about global warming this, global cooling that, ice caps melting here, severe winters there, and no one is taking the side of the current generation's health.
Why? I didn't say people should be treated like scum. I said their standard of living is much lower. The necessities of life are cheap and they have those things. They don't have all the shiny gadgets we have and yet they are still happy people. I care for those people a lot. When my wife and I have a chance, we send them some money. Some are rice farmers, others own their own shops. They work hard for a living. They have all the necessities of life (food, shelter, clothes) and they are happy people. So what more do they need? What more would you give them? $200 for a new iPod? What would they use it for? Is it going to help them sell more? Is it going to gather the harvest in? Is it going to bring their families that much closer? Is it going to help them laugh at another joke when gathered with loved ones? Is it going to stop a leak in their roof? You tell me, what is more money going to do for them when they are already happy.
Now that's speaking from the perspective of my wife's family and the others in Vietnam that I met. These people in the story I have no more idea about than you what their actual quality of life is. We know they work a lot. We also know that only half of their income is used on food and shelter. Which says that they are getting sufficient food and shelter. They don't have guests but it doesn't say they aren't allowed to leave and visit people. If that was the case then there would be a real problem. As it is, if there's a 100 people in a dorm adding some guests might be a bit of a pain. Most dorms I know of here also don't allow guests as an official policy. Should we go after them as well?
This article is inflammatory and no more. If it wasn't why don't they also show how much worse it is for the workers at the factory next door? Why don't they talk about how cheap food is in the area? Why don't they mention anything about cost-of-living? Why don't they actually quote any of the workers and ask them what their quality of life is or how they feel about it?
The article was sensationalistic flamebait and you fell for it. To call me brainless and uncaring because of that is your problem. Go ahead and ask me to live like them over there, and then you can feel all snug knowing that I'll say I don't want to live like that, becuase I don't. First of all, that's because we are creatures of habit. Getting rid of things is a lot harder than gaining them. For me to get rid of my lousy stuff is harder than for them to acquire it (psychologically). Second, if you aren't willing to do the same then by your logic you are as soulles and pathetic as you think I am.
Expanding that house might have cost $1000, but would any westerner live in it?
I did for a month. It had three running showers, two western-style flushing toilets, tiled floors, glass windows and a balcony. Yes it had bugs, but I doubt the Orkin man can do much about the bugs in the jungles of Vietnam. No refrigerator but no one I met there has one. No one needs one. You eat the food you make and buy everything fresh.
Just give that old stupid idea "they make less, but the price of living is much lower" a rest, will you. The only thing that is cheap in 3rd world country is the value of labor.
I'm sorry that you've never been to a third world country.
No, I don' think it's OK but you can use short sound bytes to make it sound like that if you want. What I am saying is it's not a lot different than anyone else around them, nor is it a lot different than what is going on down the street from where you and I live. And eventually that changes. This article and hundreds more like it aren't doing anything for that change. Apple is doing more than you or I or this article to bring these people an income and thus slowly change their economy for the better. It takes time, maybe a few decades, more or less, just like in dozens of other nations.
The same happened in India. Companies outsourced to India because it was cheaper. Then slowly their standard of living got better. So much so that it's getting cheaper to outsource to other countries, like China and Vietnam, and even India is doing some of that outsourcing. Eventually those countries will become more wealthy as well. Soon it won't be cheaper to outsource anywhere and all the jobs will come back. Then our own country will get wealthier and the whole cycle starts again.
We could just up and give them a wage that equals over here and watch as inflation consumes them.
On the other hand, we could just keep all our wealth to ourselves. We could never share it by paying them anything, not for labor, not for goods, not for raw materials. Just make it ourselves. Our economy would collapse bringing us down to their standard of living. Most times the path that takes the longest is the one that is the best.
Yes somebody on the other side on the world can earn "contextually huge cash" but in fact he/she cannot afford pretty common "global" gadgets - for example IPod. Is it OK?
In a word, yes. I am sorry to hear that you enjoy making people suffer. I am also sorry to hear that you need an iPod in order to be happy in life. Perhaps some people find joy in things that aren't materialistic, perhaps some people like to have a strong work ethic.