So... what exactly is your point? If you think that Last.fm radio is not worth 3 a month, then don't sign up to it. All the other stuff on their site is still free...
Would you have preferred the Pandora solution of just cutting you off? That is the choice here.
You're angry at the wrong people. Last.fm don't want this; the record labels do.
Wow, thanks for the extreme FUD. May I spoil it a little with some bona fide facts? Just two, if it's alright with you:
1) You don't need to get involved with the mildly difficult TeX syntax; you can just use lyx (free in both senses) or Scientific Word (free in neither).
I won't bother to discuss the irrelevance of the ubiquity of Microsoft Word that you mention nor that -- gosh! -- Word allows for templating and referencing, which as you well know LaTeX can handle much more gracefully.
You write pompously without the requisite backing of facts which would make it acceptable. No-one will deny that LaTeX has a steeper learning curve than Microsoft Word, at least initially, but your whole post reeks of trollness with its misrepresentation of the facts.
I'm not American, and have never touched cocaine, but thanks for making me laugh too:)
(And I wasn't talking about terrorists either, so your comment totally confused me... For that matter, I am interested in what drugs you yourself take and would like to subscribe to them).
Maybe it is the case that the Chinese are more polite than the Americans at the border, but is this what really matters? I am just trying to point out that the Chinese government is more than capable of similarly awful acts against their own citizens as the Americans do to theirs. (Did you stop to wonder how the locals are treated at the border? Aren't you even a little glad you're a laowai with a laowai passport?)
To make it more on-topic for the mods and the Gods: Truecrypt should be used whether you're going to the US or to the PRC. Can we agree on that?:)
Wow, what Kool-aid have you been drinking? I've been to China many times too, and love the place, but I'm afraid you're being seriously delusional if you think it's safe to be that blasé around the Chinese authorities. The American search procedures at the US border would indeed be unconstitutional were they conducted in the country, but at least you know up front what the rules are. In China, your rights are vague at best and your recourse to law is minimal. If next time you enter China the border officers did decide they are going to take your laptop away, what could you do about it? Oh, but if they're polite, then that's OK, right?
Fanboyism of China is not helpful to the country and unattractive, so please stop it; it's embarrassing, and even potentially dangerous.
Did you never read the UK edition of PC Gamer? I haven't looked at it for a few years now, but they regularly gave single-digit scores for games that were so awful there was no other non-violent response possible. They also gave Worms 1 40%, which confused the hell out of everyone...
I call bullshit. The Han Chinese are actually a range of ethnicities (for however much worth that loaded word has). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subgroups_of_the_Han_ethnicity for a wikipedia take on it. It's like saying all Europeans are of one ethnicity.
Secondly, what civilization that survives now *didn't* have any history of "exterminating" or "assimilating"? (Is consensual assimilation even a bad thing?) Moreover, some of the time there was an uneasy truce with the nomadic peoples on the north side of the extremely long border [why do you think the Great Wall was built? So that people would have something to look at from the moon? Even though they can't... but maybe they didn't know that 2000 years ago!], and other times the nomads themselves invaded, which rather ruins your argument, wouldn't you agree? Have you even heard of the Mongols, for example, or the Manchus? Furthermore, why do you think that the "Han" in the south are generally shorter and darker than the "Han" in the north of the country? Or maybe you don't think about these things too much as it would ruin your simple, idiotic theories of how the world really is.
China is not a perfect country, and its history is messy... I guess that makes it unique, right? Even the current Dalai Lama only wants autonomy for Tibet, and rightly condemned the racist riots that occurred there recently. I keep hearing nonsense about Tibet; where are all the protesters who are angry about Sikkim? This now-Indian state was originally a suzerainty of independent India, but was invaded in 1973. Every member of the UN accepted it, except China, until recently. Guess how many countries don't recognise Tibet as an independent country? I'll give you a clue: it's zero. Think you can work that one out?
As for America's history of immigration, have you heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act_(United_States) ), the first real restriction on immigration into this country, passed in the very recent year of 1882, and that wasn't repealed until the 1940s? Or maybe you don't count Chinese people as part of your precious diversity... As for current attitudes to hard-working people who happen to be born in Mexico... Trust me when I tell you that China's immigration procedures are rather more open than America's these days. I was shocked too when I found out.
Your Borg comment is just disgusting, even before noting that it makes no sense. You should be careful before you dehumanise another group of people so casually.
Whoever moderated your ignorant and bigoted comment to a high enough level for me to come across it should be ashamed of themselves. By all means criticise China, but at least criticise it for things it's actually done.
Lastly, for those who have some brain cells to rub together, I thought you might like to know I feel like this right now: http://www.xkcd.com/406/ And I'm not proud of it. At least I managed to slip in a nerdy reference there...
"These three journalists are innocent victims twice over," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "They let through this ad [commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre], because one of their staff didn't know what happened on 4 June 1989, so relentless is censorship about this episode."
And for what it's worth, I nonetheless don't recommend discussing politically sensitive subjects like the Tiananmen Square massacre while in China, unless you don't mind the risk of a swift deportation. It's up to you though.
Greens understand that so-called "free-trade" treaties are just the government shilling for corporate power
Looks like socialism to me. I grant that they can be liberal in the social sphere, but what use is that when they tell you what you're allowed to spend your dollars on based on how "green" it is?
Given how open to abuse the system is, how long before the MPAA figures, "Hey, there's hardcore porn on them there torrents. I wonder if we could get anyone that uses them labeled a sex offender, destroy their lives, and kill off torrents that way, without worrying about trying to prove actual piracy."?
Don't give them any ideas!
[And it was the News of the World that published pictures of convicted paedophiles, not the Daily Mail, not that I would ever knowingly seek to defend either publication from abuse.]
Hmm, so they changed it in 1974 and 1975? Talk about being decisive -- twice.
Apparently because of some obscure oil-supply crisis in 1973, Congress decided to use the whole country as a guinea pig for a year and had everyone on DST between January 1974 and April 1975. Unfortunately some quango found that there was "statistically significant evidence of increased fatalities among school-age children in the mornings during the test period", so they scrapped it. Oops.
How does the Tragedy of the Commons point out a flaw in free markets? Surely it says far more about communitarian economies, where private property does not exist or is not respected? Maybe a link to wikipedia will, for once, help.
Bravo. Good to see some straightforward fact-giving here actually happening. Maybe I'm still new here...
Why do so many people believe that the crime rate is increasing when so many indicators show otherwise? I'd expect more of self-proclaimed rational people.
Doing well on the humour front there, unless you're engaging in the severely sardonic sort there. Which for some reason I doubt.
Oh, and for the record, given how willing you are to correct other people, I have to point out that the claim in your signature is just plain untrue. Apart from the character requiring more than two brushstrokes, the underlying claim is false and even insipid.
You're welcome.
Good to see the NY Times so up to date...
on
Idea Stock Exchange
·
· Score: 1
How about waiting until the case is over before making such judgments against her, e.g. saying she isn't raising her children well, and that she was stupid to defend herself in court as is her right? Just a thought.
You're technically right, but there's one difference between robots and plain code: robots are physical entities, and can thus interact with us on a physical basis, e.g. by hitting us. A maliciously programmed robot, and we'll wish we could go back to the days when the only technology-related security problems we had were viruses and hacking.
Slashdot Mirror
Can I mod the "Insightful" mod as "Funny"? Meta-moderation never seemed so tempting.
Wow, it actually worked! There's always a first time for Slashdot.
I can confirm this. It's why I moved to openSUSE, whose KDE 4.1 is actually pretty decent.
So... what exactly is your point? If you think that Last.fm radio is not worth 3 a month, then don't sign up to it. All the other stuff on their site is still free...
Would you have preferred the Pandora solution of just cutting you off? That is the choice here.
You're angry at the wrong people. Last.fm don't want this; the record labels do.
Wow, thanks for the extreme FUD. May I spoil it a little with some bona fide facts? Just two, if it's alright with you:
1) You don't need to get involved with the mildly difficult TeX syntax; you can just use lyx (free in both senses) or Scientific Word (free in neither).
2) Elsevier do accept LaTeX submissions, or at least PDF printouts, for all their journals, because they even have pages *on their own website* dedicated specifically to LaTeX, at http://www.elsevier.com/latex. Other publishers (including Springer!) who accept LaTeX submissions can be found here: http://www.ccrnp.ncifcrf.gov/~toms/latex.html#tex-latex_publishers
I won't bother to discuss the irrelevance of the ubiquity of Microsoft Word that you mention nor that -- gosh! -- Word allows for templating and referencing, which as you well know LaTeX can handle much more gracefully.
You write pompously without the requisite backing of facts which would make it acceptable. No-one will deny that LaTeX has a steeper learning curve than Microsoft Word, at least initially, but your whole post reeks of trollness with its misrepresentation of the facts.
I'm not American, and have never touched cocaine, but thanks for making me laugh too :)
(And I wasn't talking about terrorists either, so your comment totally confused me... For that matter, I am interested in what drugs you yourself take and would like to subscribe to them).
Maybe it is the case that the Chinese are more polite than the Americans at the border, but is this what really matters? I am just trying to point out that the Chinese government is more than capable of similarly awful acts against their own citizens as the Americans do to theirs. (Did you stop to wonder how the locals are treated at the border? Aren't you even a little glad you're a laowai with a laowai passport?)
To make it more on-topic for the mods and the Gods: Truecrypt should be used whether you're going to the US or to the PRC. Can we agree on that? :)
Wow, what Kool-aid have you been drinking? I've been to China many times too, and love the place, but I'm afraid you're being seriously delusional if you think it's safe to be that blasé around the Chinese authorities. The American search procedures at the US border would indeed be unconstitutional were they conducted in the country, but at least you know up front what the rules are. In China, your rights are vague at best and your recourse to law is minimal. If next time you enter China the border officers did decide they are going to take your laptop away, what could you do about it? Oh, but if they're polite, then that's OK, right?
Fanboyism of China is not helpful to the country and unattractive, so please stop it; it's embarrassing, and even potentially dangerous.
Did you never read the UK edition of PC Gamer? I haven't looked at it for a few years now, but they regularly gave single-digit scores for games that were so awful there was no other non-violent response possible. They also gave Worms 1 40%, which confused the hell out of everyone...
I call bullshit. The Han Chinese are actually a range of ethnicities (for however much worth that loaded word has). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subgroups_of_the_Han_ethnicity for a wikipedia take on it. It's like saying all Europeans are of one ethnicity.
Secondly, what civilization that survives now *didn't* have any history of "exterminating" or "assimilating"? (Is consensual assimilation even a bad thing?) Moreover, some of the time there was an uneasy truce with the nomadic peoples on the north side of the extremely long border [why do you think the Great Wall was built? So that people would have something to look at from the moon? Even though they can't... but maybe they didn't know that 2000 years ago!], and other times the nomads themselves invaded, which rather ruins your argument, wouldn't you agree? Have you even heard of the Mongols, for example, or the Manchus? Furthermore, why do you think that the "Han" in the south are generally shorter and darker than the "Han" in the north of the country? Or maybe you don't think about these things too much as it would ruin your simple, idiotic theories of how the world really is.
China is not a perfect country, and its history is messy... I guess that makes it unique, right? Even the current Dalai Lama only wants autonomy for Tibet, and rightly condemned the racist riots that occurred there recently. I keep hearing nonsense about Tibet; where are all the protesters who are angry about Sikkim? This now-Indian state was originally a suzerainty of independent India, but was invaded in 1973. Every member of the UN accepted it, except China, until recently. Guess how many countries don't recognise Tibet as an independent country? I'll give you a clue: it's zero. Think you can work that one out?
As for America's history of immigration, have you heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act_(United_States) ), the first real restriction on immigration into this country, passed in the very recent year of 1882, and that wasn't repealed until the 1940s? Or maybe you don't count Chinese people as part of your precious diversity... As for current attitudes to hard-working people who happen to be born in Mexico... Trust me when I tell you that China's immigration procedures are rather more open than America's these days. I was shocked too when I found out.
Your Borg comment is just disgusting, even before noting that it makes no sense. You should be careful before you dehumanise another group of people so casually.
Whoever moderated your ignorant and bigoted comment to a high enough level for me to come across it should be ashamed of themselves. By all means criticise China, but at least criticise it for things it's actually done.
Lastly, for those who have some brain cells to rub together, I thought you might like to know I feel like this right now: http://www.xkcd.com/406/ And I'm not proud of it. At least I managed to slip in a nerdy reference there...
I prefer Kontact personally. *ducks*
You must be new around here... Ah, yes, a 5-digit ID, I was right.
Can you do this full-time? It's the closest I'll ever get to RTFA.
Looks like socialism to me. I grant that they can be liberal in the social sphere, but what use is that when they tell you what you're allowed to spend your dollars on based on how "green" it is?
Don't give them any ideas!
[And it was the News of the World that published pictures of convicted paedophiles, not the Daily Mail, not that I would ever knowingly seek to defend either publication from abuse.]
Or Francis Bacon.
Apparently because of some obscure oil-supply crisis in 1973, Congress decided to use the whole country as a guinea pig for a year and had everyone on DST between January 1974 and April 1975. Unfortunately some quango found that there was "statistically significant evidence of increased fatalities among school-age children in the mornings during the test period", so they scrapped it. Oops.
And it didn't come anywhere in the Top 40 either, pop music fans. Oh dear.
How does the Tragedy of the Commons point out a flaw in free markets? Surely it says far more about communitarian economies, where private property does not exist or is not respected? Maybe a link to wikipedia will, for once, help.
Why do so many people believe that the crime rate is increasing when so many indicators show otherwise? I'd expect more of self-proclaimed rational people.
Oh, and for the record, given how willing you are to correct other people, I have to point out that the claim in your signature is just plain untrue. Apart from the character requiring more than two brushstrokes, the underlying claim is false and even insipid.
You're welcome.
(Knowledge gathered from the thought-provoking if slightly shallow "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki)
How about waiting until the case is over before making such judgments against her, e.g. saying she isn't raising her children well, and that she was stupid to defend herself in court as is her right? Just a thought.
You're technically right, but there's one difference between robots and plain code: robots are physical entities, and can thus interact with us on a physical basis, e.g. by hitting us. A maliciously programmed robot, and we'll wish we could go back to the days when the only technology-related security problems we had were viruses and hacking.