"Why do people pay so much attention to her? Her coverage is way out of proportion to her actual influence."
You're kidding, right? She is a media wet dream. An attractive, okay, generally attractive woman with a big mouth. It is not that she says anything substantive or influential to the majority, it is that in her elevated position (thanks be to McCain) she feeds treats to the media dogs who hope beyond hope she'll utter a comment that they can pick apart for 24 hours. All media (LSM and Fox) love the sugary fluff she delivers for it sells to the masses and makes everyone involved money. Truth has not place here.
This woman is not dumb. If she her self is not savvy, she's hired folks who are. She, or they, know how to ride the milk train (or bus in this case) to the most important destination for her, money and attention. President? No way, but she will wave that treat out to the dogs until just before they get bored, then toss them another sweet one to chew on. She and the Don are cut from the same cloth. be extravagant without being over the top. The media will never ignore her, she is too good for ratings, she know that all too well. Like a wave, she'll rise up for a bit, then lay low, find a new way to garner attention and rise up again. Personally I think she should be a college study in either physiology or marketing. The former for lessons in understanding ego centrism, the latter for how to sell a product in a short attention span world.
Only time will push Ms Palin to obscurity as the world changes to meet new issues and new attention grabbers push her off the stage. Every election we'll get the Palin effect (will she run this time, she's not too old), but that too will fade as a new generation latches on to the enw Plain or gets intelligent enough to ignore this type of public person. For me, I give her no respect, I may take a moment to read an account or comment (like this), but would not care if she crawled back to the hole she came from.
I hate it when there is small fender bump on my commute to work and the people just sit on the side of the road. The traffic piles up with neck cranners, the 30 ride goes to 45 or 50 mins and on a hot day, not fun at all. If a blown capacitor obliterates the two cars into nothing..oh well. Maybe people will start to pay more attention to driving then talking a phone, eating breakfast, dressing or whatever they do other then focus on driving.
In this day and age why we still subject people to commuting when there is so much opportunity to use the internet and communication tools available to keep people home working. We'd save on energy costs, we'd help local economies, and from one swedish study I read, marriages may last longer. Honestly, maybe capacitors blowing up will get us off the road.
#1 A baby is born in Hawaii 45 years ago. Today, as a US citizen, he is President of the United States
#2 45 Years ago a cabal implemented a plan to put in place a man who will bring socialism and destruction to America. They used a fake birth certificate, bribed doctors, used actors portraying parents and grand parents stating he was born in the US, while the truth is he was born in kenya, trained as a convert operative in Indonesia; they manipulated the election so he could finally bring ruin to this country.
#2 is more fun, #1 is more rational and that's how I hope we mainly look at things. His dick "Allegedly" overcame his rational mind and he did something very stupid. They both pay for it in the end, no matter the outcome, and that is the sad point.
Ahhhh, nothing like a good conspiracy theory with my morning coffee. Brightens my day. However, I prefer the more mundane, the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. No matter what, two lives are irrevocably changed and not for the better.
Ask that question to the coal industry (re: West Virginia). I bet their answer is a resounding YES! followed up by stating "look at the jobs we are creating. Why without dangerous, environmental destroying mining these people would have nothing to live for. See, we are saving lives".
Actually, I don't buy that position either. I don't trust the law or the government even when I feel I have not done anything wrong, but currently we still have checks against abuse and that is what I am referring too. Most likely it could be a computer program that pops a name out for suspicious activity or adds it to a "don't allow them to ????" list, but it is people that monitor and implement that list and those people can be held accountable. We cannot stop data collection. In this age it is impossible. What we can do is structure the laws that protect citizens such that the data carries responsibilities.
Its off topic, but look at the "Do Not Call" list created after the flood of telemarketing burst upon the scene. We could not stop the calling, but We could control it, limit it, and render it moot. Suing Google, raiding the office is stupid and short sighted. We want this controlled. National Opt Out programs to require OS or app developers to turn off location data. Laws requiring disclosure of selling my data (location data) to marketing agencies. Now I am not naive enough to believe a representative of the corpora^H^H^H^H^H^H^H people would support privacy rights to citizens, but its a better approach then ME ME ME; I'll take mine, screw you.
What is going these days? People suing over location information, others running to buy tinfoil to make hats (and we know where you go to buy it) thinking there is this great conspiracy to know each individuals whereabouts in practical real time.
Are we all terrorists? Are we all so important that we need to hide from stalkers and three letter agencies? a very large portion of the population of this planet is not that important.
I appreciate privacy. I love my 4th amendment rights and I would not want any illegal use of data that would cause me harm including location data. If we are so consumed about this issue then lets get our representatives to enact laws to stop this practice. Require an "Opt In", not an "Opt Out". So we get Google and Apple to stop collecting data; that wont stop you from being tracked. Credit card receipts, security cameras, cell tower triangulation, the list is long on ways people and governments can figure out where you've been and what you've been doing. Want off the grid? Live in a forest and make it all yourself. Not my cup of tea.
There are ways to deal with this other then extreme, over the top methods like invading offices overseas or 50 million dollar suits (please...grow up). Like others have said, pull the battery, turn off a feature, write to the company and tell them to stop, but in the end, you bought into it. Me? I still carry a dumb phone, mainly use maps, and don't blab about every minutia of my life on the web. I may get a smartphone one day, I may rely on GPS systems one day, but when I do, the last thing I will worry about is whether Google or Apple or RIM or whom ever is saving my location. What I will get pissed about is if they sell that data and its used in a way that provides for illegal activity by people or governments against me or other people. That is facilitation of a crime and that should be dealt with firmly.
See, this is whats great about "crowd sourcing" ideas. h4rr4r tosses out some good ideas (I like em), you play the shady schister business name to poke holes in the rules, the rules get adjusted to limit said shady practice. I am not that good at thinking evil nor business oriented, but my go at adjustment:
1 - Any owner of fiber must post any and all other company holdings to FCC.
2 - See 1
3 - Any owner of service (ISP) must post any and all other company holdings FCC and release media company holdings
4 - See 1 & 3.
Also, random audits would be applied to all companies including infrastructure, service, and content provider. Any violations results in fines and forced restructuring (splitting) companies.
There was a time when one media company could not hold more the (33%?) of the local market including TV, Newspapers, and magazines. That seems riddled with holes, but who is to say that we can't get similar limits to secure a more competative market.
I agree with you which is why I've stayed with programmer to the point where now it may hurt me. How does one change a career with an established life at 50+? The US has snipped away at the safety of risk to the point where only the financial jobs have potential, and I cannot lose my heart.
i will say though that sales, marketing, even stocks are a necessary part of the engine. We build something, that is what we do well, but to get people to buy it, in numbers takes *good* marketing, *honest* sales and the distribution stocks to continue innovation. I emphasize good and honest because that is what lacks in today's world. It is easier to lie to an uneducated populous, it is easier to sale crap to unsuspecting people and it is becoming acceptable to look the other way when people cheat on the market. As a society we don;t enforce basic laws or immoral behavior anymore. The action of sales is not bad, it is the person behind it that flavors it with morality one way or another.
That's what you get for pricing yourselves out of the market.
The US did not price its self out of the market, repressive regimes, wanting to increase their wealth, opened the doors to foreign companies knowing they had a plethora of vastly underpaid employees with unregulated work environments (who cares about safety). This was a CEO's wet dream for maximizing profit. Now that the formally exploited countries like China or India are getting a workforce that wants to get paid a fair wage, those same companies will look else where till we all hit the lowest common denominator.
Scientists did not price themselves out of the market, this country took a right turn and looked at science as either profit, or justification of political and/or religious validation of ones ideas. not for building on knowledge. (yes that sentence sucks, but this guy's got my blood on a slow boil). As yet, education, even at the highest levels, is still something that we export, not import. People come here to learn, then take it back and sadly for the US, use that knowledge to forge a better path for the future for their country. Overpriced ourselves out of the market? Bullshit, we sold ourselves to the lowest bidder and now reap the rewards. Had we invested our people, money, and time into the future...I'm to disgusted any more about what constitutes leadership in either politics or business these days.
I have to agree with you on this rant. Way to many moons ago I walked into my freshman physics class with high hopes of being a physicist. I am not sure such an engaging lecturer as Dr. Feynman would have saved me from the pit of hell that was calculus (thus sparking my career in computer science), but listening to him today shook the dust off my love for physics.
I followed along, took notes like I was in class and felt that at the end of the lecture that I had learned something new, even from a1964 film. Perhaps I will continue to view the other series, just for continuity and tacit interest. I am a Linux fan and support FOSS, but instead of bitching about the negatives I found a way to see the positives and enjoy my day a little more through this presentation.
Interesting...It took some minor investigation to look up your web site. I then did a generic type Google search (vehicle technical specifications) and tada! You're site popped up as the first link. It would seem that perhaps their algorithm is doing its job.
The web site was a little rough on the user. I did not find it very user friendly for looking up vehicles. I tried with my two rather common vehicles, 1999 Dodge 2500 and a 1997 Nissan Maxima. Could not find either of them. I am jsut wondering how you make money off something like this/ I'd love to drop my life as a Sr Developer drudging my way to an office each day and work from home, managing a web site with Google sending me a check.
I don't want to flog this to death, but your comment about where you were born makes a good point. I was born in the US, at a time when government and politics in general was viewed favorably and shown to be beneficial to society. From you statement I take it you were born in the USSR, a place where there was a... umm...less the favorable view of government, for good reason.
What I find sad is that today, my own belief and faith in the US government is fading. I still believe in the foundation, but not the practice today. Politicians pander to the corporate largesse, bribery begins to take the place of adherence to the law, and the "state" begins to take more and more control over our lives. Step by step the US government slides towards fascism and the ones who suffer are those who need the protection of government the most. So for me, the structure of a republic (or democracy) is not inherently evil, it is made so by the individuals that are corrupted by power. They become evil.
When stated thus, "Ad hominem abuse (also called personal abuse or personal attacks) usually involves insulting or belittling one's opponent in order to invalidate his argument", I agree with you. IT is not normally my way to put people down to make my point. I apologize for that.
I will still disagree about the context of government as evil. Are parents evil because the inflict "hurt" upon their children in order to teach or establish order? If the law says to not kill, and a person kills another then I would hope there is punishment. Perhaps we argue the intensity of that punishment.
As we are humans, we can strive for a perfect place where pain does not exist, where we treat all with respect, where no one is hurt; till that happens I would rather a government that tries to balance good treatment of citizens with "hurt" for those who choose to abuse that trust. I just do not see evil in structure or government, I do see it in individuals.
You remind me of the time cube guy. You write a lot, but don't say much. What you do say has no substance or foundation in reality. You may read, but you do not comprehend.
Had you been reading and comprehending sound practical statements from fellow/.'ers and from history you would not produce the drivel written above. There are too many points to breakdown, but I'll take one that offended me the most,
Government is a necessary evil, but it is an evil, do not forget it. It is an evil,
Governments are neither good nor evil. They are merely the extension of what the populous choose for representation. When a society chooses, they tned to choose a governing structure that is oriented towards caring for the population as a whole, not individuals. They may not always choose the best representatives, but the intent is to help keep order through cooperation and adherence to the law. When choice is taken away, such as dictators, warloards, uncaring royalty the population suffers and in time revolts. Then middle east is a prime example today of what happens when you suppress people, dehumanize them for years. Given knowledge of a better life, and nothing left to loose, they will attempt to overthrow. Dictators are not governments, they are regimes, extensions of their sick individual minds.
The EU, United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan to name a few; these are true governments because it is the will of the people that determine the course of their society. For me, I'll take paying taxes and vote for representatives that try to put across the best of how we can work together then live is a dog eat dog, I got mine screw you world you portray. Democracy is not always pretty, not always fair, and costs me money, but it is a far better option then those limited government cesspool countries run by megalomaniacs (Kadaffi) that see people as objects, subjects, or fodder for violence.
While I can appreciate your thoughts on the whole silverlight vs Linux issue (a home user of Ubuntu), I checked out the site and found it a truly fascinating tool. Were I to visit England I could see how this would be a great help in getting off the main tourist paths and really getting to see the countryside.
I do not see (or can find) an equivalent site for the United States. Perhaps because of our size it is harder to implement, perhaps our self centered politicos think that a site like this would take business away from honest entrepreneurs. No matter, the complaint is noted, but do regard that it is a good helpful site. I did a quick search and found this link for Linux users who do not have Moonlight installed.
That link to game copy world tried to load malware on my system so dude, nice write up, but really bad form to post a malicious link. Folks, don't click on that link. Now I have to go and check if anything else got loaded...or is this how you get business !!!!
I think a wonderful whitehat hack would be to get every Firefox/Chome install to have adblock installed and set to block FB ads. If IE has ad block then include that one as well.
Most consumers are not aware of plugins like adblock(+) et al. Having the tech community get all uppy with "I'm done with FB' wont even register with FB since the bulk of users, at this point, are not tech savvy. Blanket block ads from a hack...people wont know the difference, maybe even be thankful that they are free of ads, and send a message to data scrapping companies that maybe, just maybe the public is tired to in your face ads, targeted or not.
I barely use FB these days and I notice that chatter and traffic has dropped amongst "friends" once they (and I) realized that getting daily updates was to time consuming to maintain. Were it to drop tomorrow I would not miss it, just as I don't mis Myspace, Geocities, AOL, or anything that tried to monetize my attempt to chat with friends, family, and peers.
In a strange, altered mindset way I miss OMG Ponies. Nothing said April First like a pink tech web site. Now it is just bland articles we have to guess as to real or fake. I guess there can be only one Pony moment.
Last night I watched this movie called Cube^2. Hypercube. The premise was interesting, the beginning and middle okay, but the ending just plain sucked. I felt like the writer got bored and took a cheap ending using violence. I mentioned this because of your comment. In one scene a character gets chopped up by a tesseract gone Freddy Kruger. That was the beginning of the slide down to the crappy end and certain one too many dimensions for the poor victim.
Slashdot Mirror
"Why do people pay so much attention to her? Her coverage is way out of proportion to her actual influence."
You're kidding, right? She is a media wet dream. An attractive, okay, generally attractive woman with a big mouth. It is not that she says anything substantive or influential to the majority, it is that in her elevated position (thanks be to McCain) she feeds treats to the media dogs who hope beyond hope she'll utter a comment that they can pick apart for 24 hours. All media (LSM and Fox) love the sugary fluff she delivers for it sells to the masses and makes everyone involved money. Truth has not place here.
This woman is not dumb. If she her self is not savvy, she's hired folks who are. She, or they, know how to ride the milk train (or bus in this case) to the most important destination for her, money and attention. President? No way, but she will wave that treat out to the dogs until just before they get bored, then toss them another sweet one to chew on. She and the Don are cut from the same cloth. be extravagant without being over the top. The media will never ignore her, she is too good for ratings, she know that all too well. Like a wave, she'll rise up for a bit, then lay low, find a new way to garner attention and rise up again. Personally I think she should be a college study in either physiology or marketing. The former for lessons in understanding ego centrism, the latter for how to sell a product in a short attention span world.
Only time will push Ms Palin to obscurity as the world changes to meet new issues and new attention grabbers push her off the stage. Every election we'll get the Palin effect (will she run this time, she's not too old), but that too will fade as a new generation latches on to the enw Plain or gets intelligent enough to ignore this type of public person. For me, I give her no respect, I may take a moment to read an account or comment (like this), but would not care if she crawled back to the hole she came from.
I hate it when there is small fender bump on my commute to work and the people just sit on the side of the road. The traffic piles up with neck cranners, the 30 ride goes to 45 or 50 mins and on a hot day, not fun at all. If a blown capacitor obliterates the two cars into nothing..oh well. Maybe people will start to pay more attention to driving then talking a phone, eating breakfast, dressing or whatever they do other then focus on driving.
In this day and age why we still subject people to commuting when there is so much opportunity to use the internet and communication tools available to keep people home working. We'd save on energy costs, we'd help local economies, and from one swedish study I read, marriages may last longer. Honestly, maybe capacitors blowing up will get us off the road.
That is a beautiful piece of sarcasm and truth all wrapped in one clear message. Well done.
Perhaps I should add the word rational.
#1
A baby is born in Hawaii 45 years ago. Today, as a US citizen, he is President of the United States
#2
45 Years ago a cabal implemented a plan to put in place a man who will bring socialism and destruction to America. They used a fake birth certificate, bribed doctors, used actors portraying parents and grand parents stating he was born in the US, while the truth is he was born in kenya, trained as a convert operative in Indonesia; they manipulated the election so he could finally bring ruin to this country.
#2 is more fun, #1 is more rational and that's how I hope we mainly look at things. His dick "Allegedly" overcame his rational mind and he did something very stupid. They both pay for it in the end, no matter the outcome, and that is the sad point.
Ahhhh, nothing like a good conspiracy theory with my morning coffee. Brightens my day. However, I prefer the more mundane, the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. No matter what, two lives are irrevocably changed and not for the better.
umm.. I'll take geography for 500. Daily double!! what is the straits of gibraltar?
There, that's better. I love that show.
Ask that question to the coal industry (re: West Virginia). I bet their answer is a resounding YES! followed up by stating "look at the jobs we are creating. Why without dangerous, environmental destroying mining these people would have nothing to live for. See, we are saving lives".
Actually, I don't buy that position either. I don't trust the law or the government even when I feel I have not done anything wrong, but currently we still have checks against abuse and that is what I am referring too. Most likely it could be a computer program that pops a name out for suspicious activity or adds it to a "don't allow them to ????" list, but it is people that monitor and implement that list and those people can be held accountable. We cannot stop data collection. In this age it is impossible. What we can do is structure the laws that protect citizens such that the data carries responsibilities.
Its off topic, but look at the "Do Not Call" list created after the flood of telemarketing burst upon the scene. We could not stop the calling, but We could control it, limit it, and render it moot. Suing Google, raiding the office is stupid and short sighted. We want this controlled. National Opt Out programs to require OS or app developers to turn off location data. Laws requiring disclosure of selling my data (location data) to marketing agencies. Now I am not naive enough to believe a representative of the corpora^H^H^H^H^H^H^H people would support privacy rights to citizens, but its a better approach then ME ME ME; I'll take mine, screw you.
What is going these days? People suing over location information, others running to buy tinfoil to make hats (and we know where you go to buy it) thinking there is this great conspiracy to know each individuals whereabouts in practical real time.
Are we all terrorists? Are we all so important that we need to hide from stalkers and three letter agencies? a very large portion of the population of this planet is not that important.
I appreciate privacy. I love my 4th amendment rights and I would not want any illegal use of data that would cause me harm including location data. If we are so consumed about this issue then lets get our representatives to enact laws to stop this practice. Require an "Opt In", not an "Opt Out". So we get Google and Apple to stop collecting data; that wont stop you from being tracked. Credit card receipts, security cameras, cell tower triangulation, the list is long on ways people and governments can figure out where you've been and what you've been doing. Want off the grid? Live in a forest and make it all yourself. Not my cup of tea.
There are ways to deal with this other then extreme, over the top methods like invading offices overseas or 50 million dollar suits (please...grow up). Like others have said, pull the battery, turn off a feature, write to the company and tell them to stop, but in the end, you bought into it. Me? I still carry a dumb phone, mainly use maps, and don't blab about every minutia of my life on the web. I may get a smartphone one day, I may rely on GPS systems one day, but when I do, the last thing I will worry about is whether Google or Apple or RIM or whom ever is saving my location. What I will get pissed about is if they sell that data and its used in a way that provides for illegal activity by people or governments against me or other people. That is facilitation of a crime and that should be dealt with firmly.
See, this is whats great about "crowd sourcing" ideas. h4rr4r tosses out some good ideas (I like em), you play the shady schister business name to poke holes in the rules, the rules get adjusted to limit said shady practice. I am not that good at thinking evil nor business oriented, but my go at adjustment:
1 - Any owner of fiber must post any and all other company holdings to FCC.
2 - See 1
3 - Any owner of service (ISP) must post any and all other company holdings FCC and release media company holdings
4 - See 1 & 3.
Also, random audits would be applied to all companies including infrastructure, service, and content provider. Any violations results in fines and forced restructuring (splitting) companies.
There was a time when one media company could not hold more the (33%?) of the local market including TV, Newspapers, and magazines. That seems riddled with holes, but who is to say that we can't get similar limits to secure a more competative market.
I agree with you which is why I've stayed with programmer to the point where now it may hurt me. How does one change a career with an established life at 50+? The US has snipped away at the safety of risk to the point where only the financial jobs have potential, and I cannot lose my heart.
i will say though that sales, marketing, even stocks are a necessary part of the engine. We build something, that is what we do well, but to get people to buy it, in numbers takes *good* marketing, *honest* sales and the distribution stocks to continue innovation. I emphasize good and honest because that is what lacks in today's world. It is easier to lie to an uneducated populous, it is easier to sale crap to unsuspecting people and it is becoming acceptable to look the other way when people cheat on the market. As a society we don;t enforce basic laws or immoral behavior anymore. The action of sales is not bad, it is the person behind it that flavors it with morality one way or another.
That's what you get for pricing yourselves out of the market.
The US did not price its self out of the market, repressive regimes, wanting to increase their wealth, opened the doors to foreign companies knowing they had a plethora of vastly underpaid employees with unregulated work environments (who cares about safety). This was a CEO's wet dream for maximizing profit. Now that the formally exploited countries like China or India are getting a workforce that wants to get paid a fair wage, those same companies will look else where till we all hit the lowest common denominator.
Scientists did not price themselves out of the market, this country took a right turn and looked at science as either profit, or justification of political and/or religious validation of ones ideas. not for building on knowledge. (yes that sentence sucks, but this guy's got my blood on a slow boil). As yet, education, even at the highest levels, is still something that we export, not import. People come here to learn, then take it back and sadly for the US, use that knowledge to forge a better path for the future for their country. Overpriced ourselves out of the market? Bullshit, we sold ourselves to the lowest bidder and now reap the rewards. Had we invested our people, money, and time into the future...I'm to disgusted any more about what constitutes leadership in either politics or business these days.
I have to agree with you on this rant. Way to many moons ago I walked into my freshman physics class with high hopes of being a physicist. I am not sure such an engaging lecturer as Dr. Feynman would have saved me from the pit of hell that was calculus (thus sparking my career in computer science), but listening to him today shook the dust off my love for physics.
I followed along, took notes like I was in class and felt that at the end of the lecture that I had learned something new, even from a1964 film. Perhaps I will continue to view the other series, just for continuity and tacit interest. I am a Linux fan and support FOSS, but instead of bitching about the negatives I found a way to see the positives and enjoy my day a little more through this presentation.
Interesting...It took some minor investigation to look up your web site. I then did a generic type Google search (vehicle technical specifications) and tada! You're site popped up as the first link. It would seem that perhaps their algorithm is doing its job.
The web site was a little rough on the user. I did not find it very user friendly for looking up vehicles. I tried with my two rather common vehicles, 1999 Dodge 2500 and a 1997 Nissan Maxima. Could not find either of them. I am jsut wondering how you make money off something like this/ I'd love to drop my life as a Sr Developer drudging my way to an office each day and work from home, managing a web site with Google sending me a check.
Anyway, looks like you got top billing again.
I don't want to flog this to death, but your comment about where you were born makes a good point. I was born in the US, at a time when government and politics in general was viewed favorably and shown to be beneficial to society. From you statement I take it you were born in the USSR, a place where there was a ... umm...less the favorable view of government, for good reason.
What I find sad is that today, my own belief and faith in the US government is fading. I still believe in the foundation, but not the practice today. Politicians pander to the corporate largesse, bribery begins to take the place of adherence to the law, and the "state" begins to take more and more control over our lives. Step by step the US government slides towards fascism and the ones who suffer are those who need the protection of government the most. So for me, the structure of a republic (or democracy) is not inherently evil, it is made so by the individuals that are corrupted by power. They become evil.
When stated thus, "Ad hominem abuse (also called personal abuse or personal attacks) usually involves insulting or belittling one's opponent in order to invalidate his argument", I agree with you. IT is not normally my way to put people down to make my point. I apologize for that.
I will still disagree about the context of government as evil. Are parents evil because the inflict "hurt" upon their children in order to teach or establish order? If the law says to not kill, and a person kills another then I would hope there is punishment. Perhaps we argue the intensity of that punishment.
As we are humans, we can strive for a perfect place where pain does not exist, where we treat all with respect, where no one is hurt; till that happens I would rather a government that tries to balance good treatment of citizens with "hurt" for those who choose to abuse that trust. I just do not see evil in structure or government, I do see it in individuals.
You remind me of the time cube guy. You write a lot, but don't say much. What you do say has no substance or foundation in reality. You may read, but you do not comprehend.
Had you been reading and comprehending sound practical statements from fellow /.'ers and from history you would not produce the drivel written above. There are too many points to breakdown, but I'll take one that offended me the most,
Government is a necessary evil, but it is an evil, do not forget it. It is an evil,
Governments are neither good nor evil. They are merely the extension of what the populous choose for representation. When a society chooses, they tned to choose a governing structure that is oriented towards caring for the population as a whole, not individuals. They may not always choose the best representatives, but the intent is to help keep order through cooperation and adherence to the law. When choice is taken away, such as dictators, warloards, uncaring royalty the population suffers and in time revolts. Then middle east is a prime example today of what happens when you suppress people, dehumanize them for years. Given knowledge of a better life, and nothing left to loose, they will attempt to overthrow. Dictators are not governments, they are regimes, extensions of their sick individual minds.
The EU, United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan to name a few; these are true governments because it is the will of the people that determine the course of their society. For me, I'll take paying taxes and vote for representatives that try to put across the best of how we can work together then live is a dog eat dog, I got mine screw you world you portray. Democracy is not always pretty, not always fair, and costs me money, but it is a far better option then those limited government cesspool countries run by megalomaniacs (Kadaffi) that see people as objects, subjects, or fodder for violence.
While I can appreciate your thoughts on the whole silverlight vs Linux issue (a home user of Ubuntu), I checked out the site and found it a truly fascinating tool. Were I to visit England I could see how this would be a great help in getting off the main tourist paths and really getting to see the countryside.
I do not see (or can find) an equivalent site for the United States. Perhaps because of our size it is harder to implement, perhaps our self centered politicos think that a site like this would take business away from honest entrepreneurs. No matter, the complaint is noted, but do regard that it is a good helpful site. I did a quick search and found this link for Linux users who do not have Moonlight installed.
That link to game copy world tried to load malware on my system so dude, nice write up, but really bad form to post a malicious link. Folks, don't click on that link. Now I have to go and check if anything else got loaded...or is this how you get business !!!!
I think a wonderful whitehat hack would be to get every Firefox/Chome install to have adblock installed and set to block FB ads. If IE has ad block then include that one as well.
Most consumers are not aware of plugins like adblock(+) et al. Having the tech community get all uppy with "I'm done with FB' wont even register with FB since the bulk of users, at this point, are not tech savvy. Blanket block ads from a hack...people wont know the difference, maybe even be thankful that they are free of ads, and send a message to data scrapping companies that maybe, just maybe the public is tired to in your face ads, targeted or not.
I barely use FB these days and I notice that chatter and traffic has dropped amongst "friends" once they (and I) realized that getting daily updates was to time consuming to maintain. Were it to drop tomorrow I would not miss it, just as I don't mis Myspace, Geocities, AOL, or anything that tried to monetize my attempt to chat with friends, family, and peers.
define "profit"? 5%, 10%, more? lets try this one more time so it does not seem so soft on the providers....
...still on dial-up because the telcos need to maximize profit and can't on that "last mile". There, FTFY.
Profit is good, greed is not.
/.'ers will bounce back and spring into action with more puns.
Oh please, that would be great. I can't wait for April 1st 2012 now. Meh to all the complainers of /. for their AF work. Joke on ./, joke on!
In a strange, altered mindset way I miss OMG Ponies. Nothing said April First like a pink tech web site. Now it is just bland articles we have to guess as to real or fake. I guess there can be only one Pony moment.
Last night I watched this movie called Cube^2. Hypercube. The premise was interesting, the beginning and middle okay, but the ending just plain sucked. I felt like the writer got bored and took a cheap ending using violence. I mentioned this because of your comment. In one scene a character gets chopped up by a tesseract gone Freddy Kruger. That was the beginning of the slide down to the crappy end and certain one too many dimensions for the poor victim.