It's like being told "look at all the great things that you'll never get to see". All this talk of space exploration used to make me think "wow - that will be cool", then "Yeah suuuuurrrreeeee - promises, promises". Now when I see one of these articles it makes me feel like crap because I realise that in all reality I will probably never see my dream of a space faring human race on an industrial scale in my lifetime.
So fucking disappointing that something solid and real hasn't happened in the last 40 years, LEO - big deal. The only time that space exploration attracts any attention is when someone dies doing it and saddest of all is that our entire capability to get into space came from the urge to commit global suicide. I'm trying to stay optimistic but the realist in me is ROFL that the sheeple can be lied to over and over, and that's all these types of articles are, plans for something that's Never. Gonna. Happen. EVER.
What do you want to bet this is exactly the kind of "cure" that the Gates Foundation is looking for: The kind that you need to keep buying every month for the rest of your life.
I feel it is appropriate to remind everybody that BILL GATES 3 adds up to 666 when you add the ascii codes, could be nothing in it, but then again there is always that nagging possibility...
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned that Salvador Dali's works were heavily influences by his fascination with science and mathematics. Several examples exist but one that sticks out immediately is Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) which points to the paradox his own mind must of dwelled in supported by what I heard him say in an interview (sorry this is from memory so it may not be exact) "The mathematical and scientific evidence I've observed tells me that God exists, but I don't believe it". This from a man who spent time with people like Einstein, Freud and other notable scientist of the 20th Century.
It's interesting to note that it's established acts that seem to take this course of action against digital distribution and newer acts use it to distribute their music. I think it's interesting because distributing music via these emerging channels represent a lower barrier of entry into the market for new bands and a, somewhat obvious, challenge to the status quo for established acts (and the management structures that surrounds them).
I don't see this as bands vs. the pirate bay, but as old distribution model vs. new distribution model. The new music business model is emerging and trying to mold itself to what consumers, who use the internet, want. The old business model swats down the new business model where ever it emerges and will attempt to change laws and the very nature of the internet to do it.
The by-product of the music industries attempts to do this have two consequences if allowed to continue. 1) Banal crappy sounding music with very little originality and fewer bands (and they are made to an accountants recipe of what sells) and more seriously 2) The ability for business to innovate better business models using the internet will be hampered by the legal framework left over from the music industries legal maneuvering.
How do acts like Prince and The Village People know that their music isn't reaching a new audience *because* of places like the pirate bay? As a whole I think because the music industry is not prepared/able to adapt (it lacks the imagination) eventually it will be replaced, hopefully soon, and that their main fear is that the artists themselves will be able to have a direct relationship with the people who want to listen to their music and yield an income from that direct relationship.
One idea I've thought of, if legal means don't work, is to get a blow-gun, and put poison on the tip of a blow-dart.
I might just stick with the high frequency dood, it seems to work for me, besides it's the owner of the animal that deserves a dart they, after all, are the ones not controlling the dog.
I definately agree with you about the local ordinances though, and the HF could fill a gap where that control doesn't exist to negate violent confrontations between neighbors. That's why I don't think such products should be banned.
If I have a problem with my Linux machine I will follow the same path.
Well, thats because it will work if you do it that way - but you don't *need* to do it that way. About the only time I reboot a linux box is if I'm upgrading the kernel or a process is so I/O bound that it becomes unkillable, that's a rarity, and at home the boxes go down cause I'm going to sleep and I'm doing all I can to minimise my power consumption. As for re-install (I'm using fedora) most of the apps are upgraded as a newer version comes out through the software updater and re-install of the OS happens at a convenient time after a new core version has been released, and sometimes I skip a core.
A while back I had a xserver problem and rather than digging through conf files for a whole weekend to fix the problem I just copied my home folder and reformated/reinstalled the OS.
Owwwwwch. I share your anguish though, X can be painful when you're learning but it's not that bad. You could just do a Xorg -configure and I find making copies of my xorg.conf file helps when I need to make changes to X. I think however where you had problems is where most new Linux users have problems, stick with it young padawan, you will master it and complete your transition from the dark side;-)
There are lot of legit reasons to rag on MS, but thats just a computer problem in general
Yeah but since I've owned every MS offering since DOS version 2.0 I get to rag on M$ for any reason I want to. And sure I've gone through the phases of I rag MS for this and that technical reasons, or ethical reason, or legal reason or financial reason but now I just see my time as too valuable to waste on MS, people want me to fix it - they pay extra - simple. If anything these sorts of viruses (I believe that is the correct plural for a computer virus) just prove how poorly the product is designed and resolving some of the architectural issues will mean that windows is basically a different product, so bring on more viruses. oh and Ha Ha.
If I think Steve Balmer should really consider changing shirts mid-conference, thats a reason to rag MS, If someone points out that BILL GATES III adds up to 666 when you add the ascii codes, then dammit, thats a reason to rag MS. I see it much as 'why climb that mountain...' because it's there!!! Besides I can't pay for entertainment that good. I mean if someone told you twenty years ago that the computing landscape would be dominated by a operating system product so unreliable that drivers written for it would crash the *whole* operating system, and be prone to malicious software because of it faulty design and run by a CEO that throws chairs around you'd laugh,
There's no way to distinguish between the person that takes pleasure in having come up with a clever way to inflict invisible suffering on an animal and someone who is doing the minimum they feel they can do to preserve their own well-being, other than further comments.
Fair call. I have personally rescued many animals from a demise as a result of human actions or uncaring.
A lot of your other respondants give the impression they'd take pleasure in doing this willfully.
No way dood, I feel that these sorts of devices are necessary because obnoxious people do obnoxious things, so there has to be a way for the control to be exerted over animals if the owners will not control them. If they are commercialised that exact point should be taken into consideration, perhaps they should be equipped with a timer so they turn of after some time period. It's the same with controlling cats, I personally think that cats should be kept within enclosures as they are natural hunters. There is something sickening about hearing a parrot (there are several species where I live) being murdered by a cat for it's amusement at 2am.
Sorry...You can obviously see where I was coming from. Wasn't my intention to be an asshole. Okay?
Cool, I guess I presumed you were being judgmental. My apologies, consider yourself un-assholed and un-fuck-you'ed.
So what you did is find a way to torment people's pets from your home.
No, I actually like dog's and animals but when you have five (5) of the little fuckers barking outside your bedroom window at ALL hours of the morning, day and night, you tend to get frayed at the edges. When the council was to impotent to even DO ANYTHING or SOMETHING so that I could sleep, I had to do something. The dog's could sleep during the day, I however had to go to work. I put up with it a lot longer than I should have and it affected my work and my health. So you're saying it ok for people to torment me with their pets? I was never cruel to them limiting the dogs exposure to two minutes, laws here say that car and house alarms can be activated for eight minutes at a time.
I'd like to see how you go when you turn up to work so tired you can barely function, or so tired that you almost have a car accident on the way home, only to get home and try to sleep only to be woken up AGAIN or get in to work late so many time that it starts to affect your career. To have dogs fighting so loud that even earplugs didn't work - so fuck you - if the owners of those dogs can't take appropriate responsibility for them they shouldn't be allowed to own a dog there is such a thing as cruelty to people.
So, asshole, keep your holier-than-thou attitude to yourself.
So we resorted to simply calling the police every time certain neighbors' dogs barked for more than 10 minutes. In our city, barking dogs are illegal.
Well, you are lucky. It's not where I live and the dogs can be a real nuisance. Where I live before you can make a complaint you have to note every time the dog barks which is why I knew when the dogs were barking. Even then the council doesn't do anything about the dog(s) immediately, they note it as a nuisance, then after more complaints you can take out a civil complaint and take them to court - over a dog,,,, useless.
It's kinda like - take a number pal, and then we will ignore you.
motorola piezo tweeter and a 555 timer and amplifier.
Yeah, I thought about it but it was easier to do it in software, sure it was an overkill, but after the devices was past being useful I just used the tweeters for something else, oh and I was useing the motorola tweeters, damn solid bit of kit.
Also to remove nasty neighbors, I built a waterproof box with a pair of 12" long throw subwoofers. from 8am to 5pm I play directed at their home a 15 HZ tone at about 108 DB.
See, thats whats so good about geeks, if in doubt - get the evil genius out!! Thats such a great idea, I've had the odd obnoxious neighbor, but now I know what to do . Much better than a full on confrontation.
Yes, but I tried the same thing with Audacity's tone generator after remembering that small fact about mp3. No crunching there. Guess what? I still heard the tone.
From memory the highest frequency your sound card can generate is half the clock rate of the oscillator on your sound card, if you have a 96Khz rate card then you can probably generate frequencies up to about 48khz, if the oscillator is 44.1Khz then max of about 22.5khz. Of course that's the advertised rate, could be higher or lower slightly.
I guess I just have damn good ears, or all the loud amplified music I listened to in my youth didn't kill the high end of my hearing.
I found the same thing, though tintinitis can still affect you even if your hearing is good, well that's the way it seems with me sometimes, just be careful I love loud music too but that ringing sucks big time when it kicks in. I had a hearing check and my sensitivity was really good after many loud concerts, jams with bands, night clubs etc - I feel very lucky - I use hearing protection ALL the time now.
And one thing I did find useful, generating a high-pitched noise above human hearing (I've got a delta-1010lt connected to a PA system, it's oscillator is 50Khz) was to get my neighbors dog's to STFU. I certainly wasn't keen on disturbing the rest of my neighbors by yelling at the dogs at 1,2,3,5,6,7am. Worked a treat - even for the dogs in the next street along - and no-one was the wiser - thus avoiding unnecessary confrontation. It's amazing what can be done with a few heavy duty tweeters, an amp, and a distorting high-frequency signal source (ardour and ladspa in this case).
Beside I know heeps of kids that have high frequency ring tones so that their teachers cannot hear their mobiles ringing in class, cheeky little brats. Might be agood idea under some circumstances IF used with restraint and wisdom - not just to be obnoxious. I only used enough high frequency noise on the dogs so they would learn to keep quiet.
OH yeah!! Well I hear that the new technology can tell the spies how many pimples are on your ass and if they need squeezing or not. Plus they can tell from the residual surface irritation whether you have scratched you ass recently AND if you washed your hands delivered to the operative long before they even shake you hand. That's what I call technological advancement PAL!!!!
So just scratch your ass before you meet someone and you can tell if they are a spy.
Of course, "green" doesn't mean much, but energy is never free, and taking it from an ecosystem is always going to have consequences.
The problem is that currently we are using solar energy from the past stored in the form of coal and oil. Essentially duplicating those pre-historic conditions, when the atmosphere was more carbon rich, into the present.
In this case, we could try to use these, make them popular, and find out that they not only take heat energy from the oceans, but also change currents.
We already have, ocean currents have already had periods where they have shut down. This is a serious development as the mixing of currents and nutrients in the ocean is not only responsible for maintaining the food chain, but the algae that makes most of the breathable oxygen in the world. We are in an incident pit and the sooner we take steps to mitigate the situation by finding an energy balance the less difficult it will be for us all.
It is silly to compare the US of 200x with the 1950s and 60s. The fear of communism was real,
The only difference is that where once in America it was unthinkable to be searched and have you possessions confiscated at an airport, or you communications intercepted, now it is. Back then over 50 media outlets competed for the truth, now less than 6 compete to spew out rhetoric. Back then the fear of communism was justified, but today America justifies acting more like a communist states in the name of security.
Today communism has fallen and is not perceived as a threat.
America was less like China in the 50 and 60's and America is less of a threat to China than it is today. Meanwhile they deploy operatives into strategic sectors of industry and weaken you from within knowing full well that NOTHING will be done politically to stop them for fear of a brouhaha over how much foreign debt is owed to China. I remember reading somewhere that Chinese form of communism didn't see America as a threat because eventually it would wait until America self-destructed. China today may *look* more free (with cars and big buildings and no-one riding bicycles anymore), but ideologically they're not much different.
It is naive to think that the "communism with a chinese face" bears much resemblance to the communism of Mao from the 50s and 60s.
Do you honestly think America more free today than it was in the 50's and 60's. Oppression has the same face it's always had, and you're dreaming if you think that the threat of oppression has done anything but become more intense today.
Irag II: Saddam had WMD (used it on Kurdish villagers in the 80s). Was required to get rid of it (90s),
No one really mentions that Iraq was trading oil in Euro's, but challenging the default world currency wouldn't be a reason to attack a country, would it? Of course, the US sold Saddam those WMD's in the first place (we are talking anthrax and bubonic plague) to fight Iran, I mean wtf? I am looking at a photo of Don ald Rum sfeld shaking hands with Saddam, wtf? who himself was promoting the Iranian nuclear program, I mean wtf?
Afghanistan: The people behind 9/11 were here, and they were being protected by the government
Afghanistan: battle ground of the super dooper powers, the only country that can claim to have had the crap bombed out of them by BOTH sides. Incidentally Afghanistan was also being subjugated by the Taliban and around the sixth/11/2001 were also holding foreign nationals hostage for handing out christian leaflets and no-one noticed when the former leader of the mujahudean (please don't ask me to spell it) was assassinated leaving a power vacuum. Considering that the US were funding the mujahudeen against the soviets it's quite probable that the Afghanistan people probably hate russia and america in equal measure. And once the US lost interest in the region, leaving weapons, orgainisational infrastructure and money behind, the result is hardly surprising in retrospect.
Iraq I: They invaded Kuwait, were told to leave, and did not. Even the UN blessed this one.
But despite the fact that Iraq repeatedly complained that their oil was being raided by Kuwait drilling under the border but `the UN ignored it, funny that veto power thing in the UN and which countries can do the veto-ing.
Grenada: Communists building a runway capable of handling long range Soviet bombers. The spread of communism was feared.
South Vietnam: Communist North Vietnam fostering a civil war in the South, and invaded the South to a degree. The spread of communism was feared.
South Korea: Communist North Korea invaded the south. The UN blessed this one. The US also feared the spread of communism.
C'mon dood, who is currently America's major trading partner? China, the home of communism, where US companies are assisting the censor ship of the Chinese people. America had the opportunity to be rid of communism once and for all but has chosen to prop it up, Why?
The answer is capital, not capitalism, just capital. The same capital that flows out of the US into other countries instead of employing Americans, instead of forcing to China to raise their standards for workers the US must lower theirs, instead of propping up democracy (the ultimate in radical ideas) tyranny is enforced and all the things that great American citizens have fought for is being lost.
America, a great country, has forgotten diplomacy and is not the nation it was when admired and respected. Americans, I've noticed, often ask "Why do people hate us?", and as a friend I'd like to answer. Nations fear/hate America largely because it is being driven by parasitic greed driven corporate entities that couldn't give a shit about your freedom or mine. They only care about the almighty dollar and freedom is a commodity that, it seems, no one else in the world deserves. The people of America's allied nations can see that most American's have been lied to and deceived so much that the truth is completely lost to the average U.S citizen, who when challenged, will resort to hand on heart flag waving rhetoric. It is truly humiliating, and I do believe Lady Liberty has her head in her hands crying.
Instead of listening to former superpowers like the French (I'm not French) your leaders belittled them when they tried to advise you sincerely and out of friendship. Meanwhile, your enemies (*our* idealogical enemies) c
I've viewed the nation and people of Iraq as more of Saddam's victims for decades, not his willing accomplices.
And a fine and real view it is. Unfortunately,
The question has to be asked of how this picture changes if Saddam is/was a American Intelligence asset being cashed in...mighty convenient that there was a strong relationship in the past.
What? That I believe the US should be held just as responsible for every Kurdish death by American gas given freely to a known dictator? I really wasn't trying to hide my bias.
No need to either, the kurds were primed to attack Saddam with US backing, the US pulled out at the last moment, Saddam rewarded the kurds the only way he knew how.
that the lawyer class seems to attract the slimiest of human beings, rather than more virtuous ones, is an observation i won't touch, because i, er, agree with it
Well you shouldn't, because lawyers are the last line of defense between the people and the politicians passing the laws they want.
You see when politicians want to pass a new suckworthy law, it is lawyers reading those laws and lobbying for them to be softened or abolished if politicians want to make it legal to impose full body cavity searches when you go to the airport. I have personally spent substantial amounts of time pawing over new laws in our "cybr-tewworism" society that would have made IT professionals liable for 15 years gaol (jail) for using a tools like netcat or nmap. As a coder, lawyers are the closest thing that I know as a kindred spirit. Law is at least as complex code and don't forget a fair bit of hostility is directed in OUR direction for controlling an everyday person's destiny on a computer.
Sure not all lawyers are great people, but a lot of them volunteer their time to stop politicians passing stupid laws. So before you go criticising lawyers why don't you pick up a new stupid piece of legislation and start looking over it and see how poorly it is constructed. Put another way imagine what sort of code your local representatives would write and imagine it controlling your life, because that is the reality.
Essentially a lot of lawyers debug the law. Sometimes they get it wrong because they don't know the specifics of a certain segment of society, like trying to debug code that you have no idea what it does - not easy. This is a big reason for IT professionals to (at least) examine laws that are related to IT so we get laws that make sense. I can tell you from experience it's well within a IT professionals capability to understand.
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely, why the hell isn't it Number 1 on the list. Mod parent up!!!
So fucking disappointing that something solid and real hasn't happened in the last 40 years, LEO - big deal. The only time that space exploration attracts any attention is when someone dies doing it and saddest of all is that our entire capability to get into space came from the urge to commit global suicide. I'm trying to stay optimistic but the realist in me is ROFL that the sheeple can be lied to over and over, and that's all these types of articles are, plans for something that's Never. Gonna. Happen. EVER.
I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned that Salvador Dali's works were heavily influences by his fascination with science and mathematics. Several examples exist but one that sticks out immediately is Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) which points to the paradox his own mind must of dwelled in supported by what I heard him say in an interview (sorry this is from memory so it may not be exact) "The mathematical and scientific evidence I've observed tells me that God exists, but I don't believe it". This from a man who spent time with people like Einstein, Freud and other notable scientist of the 20th Century.
I don't see this as bands vs. the pirate bay, but as old distribution model vs. new distribution model. The new music business model is emerging and trying to mold itself to what consumers, who use the internet, want. The old business model swats down the new business model where ever it emerges and will attempt to change laws and the very nature of the internet to do it.
The by-product of the music industries attempts to do this have two consequences if allowed to continue. 1) Banal crappy sounding music with very little originality and fewer bands (and they are made to an accountants recipe of what sells) and more seriously 2) The ability for business to innovate better business models using the internet will be hampered by the legal framework left over from the music industries legal maneuvering.
How do acts like Prince and The Village People know that their music isn't reaching a new audience *because* of places like the pirate bay? As a whole I think because the music industry is not prepared/able to adapt (it lacks the imagination) eventually it will be replaced, hopefully soon, and that their main fear is that the artists themselves will be able to have a direct relationship with the people who want to listen to their music and yield an income from that direct relationship.
2. Get the necessary information...
3. goto court and...
4. Profit.
like most answers, it's been right under our noses all along, I guess that goto's are not so bad after all :-)
I definately agree with you about the local ordinances though, and the HF could fill a gap where that control doesn't exist to negate violent confrontations between neighbors. That's why I don't think such products should be banned.
If I think Steve Balmer should really consider changing shirts mid-conference, thats a reason to rag MS, If someone points out that BILL GATES III adds up to 666 when you add the ascii codes, then dammit, thats a reason to rag MS. I see it much as 'why climb that mountain...' because it's there!!! Besides I can't pay for entertainment that good. I mean if someone told you twenty years ago that the computing landscape would be dominated by a operating system product so unreliable that drivers written for it would crash the *whole* operating system, and be prone to malicious software because of it faulty design and run by a CEO that throws chairs around you'd laugh,
or cry.
now get of my lawn!!!! ;-)
reboot the machine
reload the applications *
reformat/reinstall the OS *
revert to the previous version
but it must be fun cause we do it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
No, I actually like dog's and animals but when you have five (5) of the little fuckers barking outside your bedroom window at ALL hours of the morning, day and night, you tend to get frayed at the edges. When the council was to impotent to even DO ANYTHING or SOMETHING so that I could sleep, I had to do something. The dog's could sleep during the day, I however had to go to work. I put up with it a lot longer than I should have and it affected my work and my health. So you're saying it ok for people to torment me with their pets? I was never cruel to them limiting the dogs exposure to two minutes, laws here say that car and house alarms can be activated for eight minutes at a time.
I'd like to see how you go when you turn up to work so tired you can barely function, or so tired that you almost have a car accident on the way home, only to get home and try to sleep only to be woken up AGAIN or get in to work late so many time that it starts to affect your career. To have dogs fighting so loud that even earplugs didn't work - so fuck you - if the owners of those dogs can't take appropriate responsibility for them they shouldn't be allowed to own a dog there is such a thing as cruelty to people.
So, asshole, keep your holier-than-thou attitude to yourself.
It's kinda like - take a number pal, and then we will ignore you.
Thanks for that, I was never a fan of tin tin!
And one thing I did find useful, generating a high-pitched noise above human hearing (I've got a delta-1010lt connected to a PA system, it's oscillator is 50Khz) was to get my neighbors dog's to STFU. I certainly wasn't keen on disturbing the rest of my neighbors by yelling at the dogs at 1,2,3,5,6,7am. Worked a treat - even for the dogs in the next street along - and no-one was the wiser - thus avoiding unnecessary confrontation. It's amazing what can be done with a few heavy duty tweeters, an amp, and a distorting high-frequency signal source (ardour and ladspa in this case).
Beside I know heeps of kids that have high frequency ring tones so that their teachers cannot hear their mobiles ringing in class, cheeky little brats. Might be agood idea under some circumstances IF used with restraint and wisdom - not just to be obnoxious. I only used enough high frequency noise on the dogs so they would learn to keep quiet.
So just scratch your ass before you meet someone and you can tell if they are a spy.
Like in the exorcist, now that was head spinning technology ;-)
No one really mentions that Iraq was trading oil in Euro's, but challenging the default world currency wouldn't be a reason to attack a country, would it? Of course, the US sold Saddam those WMD's in the first place (we are talking anthrax and bubonic plague) to fight Iran, I mean wtf? I am looking at a photo of Don ald Rum sfeld shaking hands with Saddam, wtf? who himself was promoting the Iranian nuclear program, I mean wtf?
Afghanistan: battle ground of the super dooper powers, the only country that can claim to have had the crap bombed out of them by BOTH sides. Incidentally Afghanistan was also being subjugated by the Taliban and around the sixth/11/2001 were also holding foreign nationals hostage for handing out christian leaflets and no-one noticed when the former leader of the mujahudean (please don't ask me to spell it) was assassinated leaving a power vacuum. Considering that the US were funding the mujahudeen against the soviets it's quite probable that the Afghanistan people probably hate russia and america in equal measure. And once the US lost interest in the region, leaving weapons, orgainisational infrastructure and money behind, the result is hardly surprising in retrospect.
But despite the fact that Iraq repeatedly complained that their oil was being raided by Kuwait drilling under the border but `the UN ignored it, funny that veto power thing in the UN and which countries can do the veto-ing.
C'mon dood, who is currently America's major trading partner? China, the home of communism, where US companies are assisting the censor ship of the Chinese people. America had the opportunity to be rid of communism once and for all but has chosen to prop it up, Why?
The answer is capital, not capitalism, just capital. The same capital that flows out of the US into other countries instead of employing Americans, instead of forcing to China to raise their standards for workers the US must lower theirs, instead of propping up democracy (the ultimate in radical ideas) tyranny is enforced and all the things that great American citizens have fought for is being lost.
America, a great country, has forgotten diplomacy and is not the nation it was when admired and respected. Americans, I've noticed, often ask "Why do people hate us?", and as a friend I'd like to answer. Nations fear/hate America largely because it is being driven by parasitic greed driven corporate entities that couldn't give a shit about your freedom or mine. They only care about the almighty dollar and freedom is a commodity that, it seems, no one else in the world deserves. The people of America's allied nations can see that most American's have been lied to and deceived so much that the truth is completely lost to the average U.S citizen, who when challenged, will resort to hand on heart flag waving rhetoric. It is truly humiliating, and I do believe Lady Liberty has her head in her hands crying.
Instead of listening to former superpowers like the French (I'm not French) your leaders belittled them when they tried to advise you sincerely and out of friendship. Meanwhile, your enemies (*our* idealogical enemies) c
You see when politicians want to pass a new suckworthy law, it is lawyers reading those laws and lobbying for them to be softened or abolished if politicians want to make it legal to impose full body cavity searches when you go to the airport. I have personally spent substantial amounts of time pawing over new laws in our "cybr-tewworism" society that would have made IT professionals liable for 15 years gaol (jail) for using a tools like netcat or nmap. As a coder, lawyers are the closest thing that I know as a kindred spirit. Law is at least as complex code and don't forget a fair bit of hostility is directed in OUR direction for controlling an everyday person's destiny on a computer.
Sure not all lawyers are great people, but a lot of them volunteer their time to stop politicians passing stupid laws. So before you go criticising lawyers why don't you pick up a new stupid piece of legislation and start looking over it and see how poorly it is constructed. Put another way imagine what sort of code your local representatives would write and imagine it controlling your life, because that is the reality.
Essentially a lot of lawyers debug the law. Sometimes they get it wrong because they don't know the specifics of a certain segment of society, like trying to debug code that you have no idea what it does - not easy. This is a big reason for IT professionals to (at least) examine laws that are related to IT so we get laws that make sense. I can tell you from experience it's well within a IT professionals capability to understand.