The Wikipedia entry for Facism is currently flagged "The neutrality of this article is disputed."
If you read through the discussion you'll see claims that facism is incorrectly being tied with right wing politics
And for that American Heritage Dictionary definition; A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism
The dictionary.com refrence which also lists the American Heritage Dictionary as its source has something quite different A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
I want a neutral argument here, but that second definition doesn't have the "liberal spin" to it. In other words, you don't see extreme right or merging of state and business leadership, but instead the traditional definition of facism, which has a dictator with total control over the government and the economy.
Interpret this as you will, but I see here a case where information does not equal truth. There are so many facts to choose from, that people pick the ones that suit them best. If you hate Bush, you pick the first definition, and count the ways in which Bush is worse than Hitler. If you support Bush, you pick the second one and accuse the smelly hippies of spreading misinformation.
I sort of agree with you, but realistically, if you don't know, either on your own or through context clues, that IS stands for Information Systems, you shouldn't be responding to this guy's question anyway.
Well, my first assumption was Information Security. Then as I read the question I wondered why the guy didn't just use the more standard IT label.
It's nice that nerds want to have their own special langauge and this "if you don't know, you shouldn't be here" attitude, but communication is really key. Even something as stupidly simple as this should be identified a little more clearly, especially when dealing with the business folk.
Well, it kinda makes sense now. If many websites only work with IE, then cutting IE support on the Mac may get some people to switch to Windows because "websites don't work right on my Mac". Mix that with "not all games my friends have will play" and "no-one I know can help me with my computer" and it makes more sense.
If MS can keep the common stuff working with them and only with them, then Mac and Linux will remain as niche solutions for people who are comfortable with the technology.
Although they did give a large amount back, what percentage is this to what was taken in? There are a lot of people that don't make a lot of money and give a large percentage to charities. The total amount given is really not a measure of one's thoughtfulness, the percentage is really where it counts.
FTA: The foundation has saved at least 700,000 lives in poor countries by investing in vaccination programs, has donated computers and Internet access to 11,000 libraries and has sponsored the biggest scholarship fund in history, the magazine said.
Some bum giving his last 2 cents won't have that impact. Stop being so fucking petty and acknowledge that Gates has done some good in the world.
I bet the professors have alot to do with this. From Williams' website you can see that he is knee deep in Islamic terrorism research. He doesn't seem to be a radical at all, but people with that knowledge will, of course, be on the DHS radar.
Unfortunaley, the DHS probably monitors the students of these professors to catch those 'confused' kids like John Walker Lindh, who get too deep and may jump to the dark side.
Though I'm definitely thankful for this wonderful thing that Sir Tim envisioned, there's a part of me that suffers a bit. For every tool created, there are good uses and bad uses, and yeah I know I'm probably not fit to decide which category myspace belongs in...but I bet that what we most commonly use the web for nowadays is not what even Sir Tim had in mind.
Now wait a minute. Do you think Sir Tim envisioned a tech news discussion site where the editors are too lazy to check for grammar, spelling, dupes, or even quality of the stories, and a bulk of the users post thoughtless cliché comments just to get free karma?
Most of the over 40 programmers were in the game before the dot com era, so as others have said here, there weren'tt as many to begin with. So where are they? Here are some of the places:
1) They've moved into management: You can find them by talking aloud about some programming dilemma. They'll definitely pop their heads up, because they miss the good ole' programming days. Get ready for the old war stories though.
2) Doing specialized work: Many know things that the under 40 crowd has never heard of. They're still happily working, but they're just hidden in some lab or server dungeon you've never been to.
3) Not doing specialized work: Many have moved on to other fields because their skill sets are no longer relevant. An expert in an old technology has the ability to learn the newer stuff, but maybe they just never got the chance
4) Out and about: A good chunk kept up with the times and are still churning out code. Our best developer, by far, is in his 50s. A friend of mine works at a successful small company where all the developers are over 40.
It may be possible two break into any system if you have physical accesss, it is however not possible without rebooting the machine. That means that there ARE security policies that will withstand physical access. E.g. In my security class the idea was launched to encrypt stuff in special ways, and to have a key deletion schedule that will allow you to
1) determine the smallest possible window of time when the system was broken
2) prevent an attacker from inserting messages into the system, even with root access to the system. If he reboots, the key will have been deleted, the system will not be able to read its own data, and will not be able to communicate with the rest of the network
3) if the encrypted data is accessible in any way, it can be made possible to check against forgeries, and still accept the data generated before the breach (the data might have been deleted of course)
Fine, then yank the power cord, bust open the case and remove the drive. Pop a USB adapter on it and plug it into another machine. Now you can start working on getting the data without having to boot from the drive or without any other part of the system getting in the way. Or, just have the person who gave you physical access log in for you.
Yeah, but the difference is that most other countries in the world have been slowly gaining more freedoms over hundreds of years, and have been able to witness firsthand their governments' behaviour when possessing more power and control over the population, and said government's slow relinquishment of such powers. In the US, the country was founded not long ago as a new libertarian society that valued freedom over all else, including one's personal safety (hence, joining militias, and sacrificing lives to gain freedom from the laws of england), and that freedom rather than increasing, seems to have decreased since it was first won. I always find it funny when Americans now talk about "the most important freedom of all, the freedom of safety"... What ever happened to laying your life on the line for your freedom?
You're overgeneralizing to the point of absurdity.
The goal of the founding fathers was not some idealized freedom, but self rule. They devised a system where citizens elect their fellow citizens to govern. The system also included a set of checks and balances which prevented people from gaining too much power. They did not make the system so that some bum feels he has to right to sit in his house and look at kiddie porn and screw chickens. Every 'evil' congressman or president who is trying to eat our freedom was freely elected by the citizens of the US no longer than 6 years ago.
I don't see how we're less free now than in the 1700s when slavery was legal and women couldn't vote. Keep in mind that our early laws were heavily religious based. Things have been slowly lightening up over the years, which you fail to see. I think the confusion that you and many others have is privacy versus freedom. The US government is not trying to taking away any of our rights. They are, however, trying to gain more access to information, and trying to organize that information. I think it's funny that people here cry that information wants to be free, but then cry when the government wants information for itself to help serve us. That's a great thing to help them to run our country more efficiently, however, it opens up the potential for abuse. So.... that's where the issue lies, and that's where the 'freedom fighters' need to focus. It's the abuse of the rights that the people allow the government that we must fight against. The CDC gathering info from flights shouldn't put us in arms. That's just a government agency trying to do it's job.
So put down the flag, toss away the gross generalizations and look at the real issues.
With that kind of doe, you'd like they could at least get the blue/green screening done properly. Quite honestly, I felt the effects in this film were very poorly done.
One more tidbit. It's interesting that on IMDB the first 20 pages of reviews are all very positive (and submitted before the offical release), yet 80% of the more recent ones (since Fridays US release) are all very poor.
I didn't see the film, didn't read the books, so I'm not here to defend. But I actually went to IMDB and looked at the user reviews, sorted by date, and they are mostly all positive.
People who believe that the suppression of information is okay because it could be misused are heading down a dark road, the price of return from which will have to be paid in blood someday by a future generation.
------
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
-- Commissioner Pravin Lal
Oh dear god no... Someone let lose the high drama nerds.
Run for your lives, quick, before they start quoting Shakespeare!
I talked about these problems back in November in another AJAX thread here [slashdot.org]. There was a good followup [slashdot.org], too. I think what I said still stands today.
You do realize that as of, ummm.... a week ago, it was still November. I know the technology changes fast, but jeez;)
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games could switch to a cost-saving open source technology platform under proposals to be considered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The open source move will be recommended by the IOC's technology partner Atos Origin on the back of guidance from sub-contractors that include HP and IBM.
Claude Philipps, programme director at Atos Origin for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, told silicon.com the plans will be put to the IOC in a formal proposal and that the committee will then make the final decision.
He said: "For open source we have a plan to propose this for Beijing. It will save money on the licences."
But he said support costs could scupper the open source switch. "The issue might be support because especially in China you don't have all the companies we have in Europe and the US," he said.
I know the OSS advocates will wave their victoy flags, write eloquent stories about the demise of Microsoft, and rack up free karma, but nothing has happened yet. Moves like this are considered all the time when someone thinks they can save money with all this 'free' software. Hopefully with IBM in the mix, this will actually happen, but for now this really isn't a story. Come back when the decision is made.
I have talked to some people who claimed that they never received rebates. But as for me, I have turned in about 50 mail-in rebates over my lifetime, and I have received all of them. Sometimes they really do take the full 8 weeks stated in the fine print, but I have always gotten them eventually.
That's probably because you know how to both read and follow instructions.
They tap your phones to protect you from terrorists
They tap whose phones? All 250 million Americans? I pity the fool who has to sift through that data.
they limit your rights to research encryption technology and software protection to protect the economy
If by 'research' you mean 'hacking stuff to get free services', then I see their point.
and they monitor your every move to protect you from a pandemic.
You mean they standardize and organize data already being collected to make it easier for the CDC to do its job. An atrocity I tell ya.
Wonderful with all the protection we get.
Spend some time in, oh, say the Congo where they eat people's hearts. Or how about the UAE or China where the internet is heavily censored. Or how about Malaysia or Saudi Arabia where people are executed for minor drug posession or adultry. Even Cameroon, a friendly country where many of the civil servents only get half of their pay because the higer ranking officials can't keep their hands out of the pot. When you get a reality check, come back and complain about the infrasturcture of the US which protects its citizens and their privacy
Politicians are all starting the following receipe: 1 Create fictional threat. 2 Create solution to fictional threat that preferably also include increased population control 3 Increase popularity in fool demographic 4 goto 1
Hmmm... This seems to work pretty well for Slashdot also
1) Create fictional threat: THE GOVERNMENT IS CONTROLLING OUR MINDS!
2) Create solution to fictional threat: Ummm.. whine on the internet. Well, no parallel for this. Most internet lurkers are too lazy to actually do anything
3) Increase popularity in fool demographic: Karma!
Open your eyes. Save your energy for the real threats.
I don't see how you'll ever train this thing. Unless there are consistent patterns in your mood changes, you'll never get good enough statistics. You'll just be sitting there skipping songs the whole time, instead of enjoying the music before you.
Just have multiple playlists. Toss is some randomness if you feel like it.
Research like this often does more harm than good, in my opinion. Not only does it give people an excuse for their situation, it knocks off part of the drive they might have had to go ahead and change things. Though we admittedly do share many characteristics with the animals studied here, we also have the ability to override many of those with conscious decisionmaking.
Igorance is bliss? An 'excuse' is just an excuse not to do something you weren't going to do anyway. You can never hide knowledge or not do research because of how lazy/stupid people will react, becuase they'll still be lazy/stupid either way. For some people, this may actually be encouraging. They can know that they're not just lazy worthless bums because it's supposed to be hard. They'll have the answer to their cries of "Why can't I do this?"
I think you're 'crestfallen' that your kid isn't like you. Nothing is preventing him from taking a modern LEGO set, tossing the instructions, and building wacky things with it. The new sets are great because all the new pieces they offer give you limitless options. Maybe you raised your kid to 'follow the rules' and he did, or maybe he's just the type that likes to have boundaries set.
If anything, LEGO is guilty of offering too many options. They have the sets with tons of pieces, and the sets with just a few highly specialized ones. Take your pick. If you don't like what they offer, get their LEGO Factory software and design and order your own custom set. I really can't figure out why offering more options makes LEGO a bad company around here. If you're trying to claim that LEGO made your kid stupid, then I think the problem lies with you and your expectations.
Slashdot Mirror
The Wikipedia entry for Facism is currently flagged "The neutrality of this article is disputed."
If you read through the discussion you'll see claims that facism is incorrectly being tied with right wing politics
And for that American Heritage Dictionary definition;
A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism
The dictionary.com refrence which also lists the American Heritage Dictionary as its source has something quite different
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
I want a neutral argument here, but that second definition doesn't have the "liberal spin" to it. In other words, you don't see extreme right or merging of state and business leadership, but instead the traditional definition of facism, which has a dictator with total control over the government and the economy.
Interpret this as you will, but I see here a case where information does not equal truth. There are so many facts to choose from, that people pick the ones that suit them best. If you hate Bush, you pick the first definition, and count the ways in which Bush is worse than Hitler. If you support Bush, you pick the second one and accuse the smelly hippies of spreading misinformation.
I sort of agree with you, but realistically, if you don't know, either on your own or through context clues, that IS stands for Information Systems, you shouldn't be responding to this guy's question anyway.
Well, my first assumption was Information Security. Then as I read the question I wondered why the guy didn't just use the more standard IT label.
It's nice that nerds want to have their own special langauge and this "if you don't know, you shouldn't be here" attitude, but communication is really key. Even something as stupidly simple as this should be identified a little more clearly, especially when dealing with the business folk.
Well, it kinda makes sense now. If many websites only work with IE, then cutting IE support on the Mac may get some people to switch to Windows because "websites don't work right on my Mac". Mix that with "not all games my friends have will play" and "no-one I know can help me with my computer" and it makes more sense.
If MS can keep the common stuff working with them and only with them, then Mac and Linux will remain as niche solutions for people who are comfortable with the technology.
Although they did give a large amount back, what percentage is this to what was taken in? There are a lot of people that don't make a lot of money and give a large percentage to charities. The total amount given is really not a measure of one's thoughtfulness, the percentage is really where it counts.
FTA:
The foundation has saved at least 700,000 lives in poor countries by investing in vaccination programs, has donated computers and Internet access to 11,000 libraries and has sponsored the biggest scholarship fund in history, the magazine said.
Some bum giving his last 2 cents won't have that impact. Stop being so fucking petty and acknowledge that Gates has done some good in the world.
If it's entirely true...
I bet the professors have alot to do with this. From Williams' website you can see that he is knee deep in Islamic terrorism research. He doesn't seem to be a radical at all, but people with that knowledge will, of course, be on the DHS radar.
Unfortunaley, the DHS probably monitors the students of these professors to catch those 'confused' kids like John Walker Lindh, who get too deep and may jump to the dark side.
Though I'm definitely thankful for this wonderful thing that Sir Tim envisioned, there's a part of me that suffers a bit. For every tool created, there are good uses and bad uses, and yeah I know I'm probably not fit to decide which category myspace belongs in...but I bet that what we most commonly use the web for nowadays is not what even Sir Tim had in mind.
Now wait a minute. Do you think Sir Tim envisioned a tech news discussion site where the editors are too lazy to check for grammar, spelling, dupes, or even quality of the stories, and a bulk of the users post thoughtless cliché comments just to get free karma?
Most of the over 40 programmers were in the game before the dot com era, so as others have said here, there weren'tt as many to begin with. So where are they? Here are some of the places:
1) They've moved into management: You can find them by talking aloud about some programming dilemma. They'll definitely pop their heads up, because they miss the good ole' programming days. Get ready for the old war stories though.
2) Doing specialized work: Many know things that the under 40 crowd has never heard of. They're still happily working, but they're just hidden in some lab or server dungeon you've never been to.
3) Not doing specialized work: Many have moved on to other fields because their skill sets are no longer relevant. An expert in an old technology has the ability to learn the newer stuff, but maybe they just never got the chance
4) Out and about: A good chunk kept up with the times and are still churning out code. Our best developer, by far, is in his 50s. A friend of mine works at a successful small company where all the developers are over 40.
It may be possible two break into any system if you have physical accesss, it is however not possible without rebooting the machine. That means that there ARE security policies that will withstand physical access. E.g. In my security class the idea was launched to encrypt stuff in special ways, and to have a key deletion schedule that will allow you to 1) determine the smallest possible window of time when the system was broken 2) prevent an attacker from inserting messages into the system, even with root access to the system. If he reboots, the key will have been deleted, the system will not be able to read its own data, and will not be able to communicate with the rest of the network 3) if the encrypted data is accessible in any way, it can be made possible to check against forgeries, and still accept the data generated before the breach (the data might have been deleted of course)
Fine, then yank the power cord, bust open the case and remove the drive. Pop a USB adapter on it and plug it into another machine. Now you can start working on getting the data without having to boot from the drive or without any other part of the system getting in the way.
Or, just have the person who gave you physical access log in for you.
Yeah, but the difference is that most other countries in the world have been slowly gaining more freedoms over hundreds of years, and have been able to witness firsthand their governments' behaviour when possessing more power and control over the population, and said government's slow relinquishment of such powers. In the US, the country was founded not long ago as a new libertarian society that valued freedom over all else, including one's personal safety (hence, joining militias, and sacrificing lives to gain freedom from the laws of england), and that freedom rather than increasing, seems to have decreased since it was first won. I always find it funny when Americans now talk about "the most important freedom of all, the freedom of safety"... What ever happened to laying your life on the line for your freedom?
You're overgeneralizing to the point of absurdity.
The goal of the founding fathers was not some idealized freedom, but self rule. They devised a system where citizens elect their fellow citizens to govern. The system also included a set of checks and balances which prevented people from gaining too much power. They did not make the system so that some bum feels he has to right to sit in his house and look at kiddie porn and screw chickens. Every 'evil' congressman or president who is trying to eat our freedom was freely elected by the citizens of the US no longer than 6 years ago.
I don't see how we're less free now than in the 1700s when slavery was legal and women couldn't vote. Keep in mind that our early laws were heavily religious based. Things have been slowly lightening up over the years, which you fail to see. I think the confusion that you and many others have is privacy versus freedom. The US government is not trying to taking away any of our rights. They are, however, trying to gain more access to information, and trying to organize that information. I think it's funny that people here cry that information wants to be free, but then cry when the government wants information for itself to help serve us. That's a great thing to help them to run our country more efficiently, however, it opens up the potential for abuse. So.... that's where the issue lies, and that's where the 'freedom fighters' need to focus. It's the abuse of the rights that the people allow the government that we must fight against. The CDC gathering info from flights shouldn't put us in arms. That's just a government agency trying to do it's job.
So put down the flag, toss away the gross generalizations and look at the real issues.
With that kind of doe, you'd like they could at least get the blue/green screening done properly. Quite honestly, I felt the effects in this film were very poorly done.
One more tidbit. It's interesting that on IMDB the first 20 pages of reviews are all very positive (and submitted before the offical release), yet 80% of the more recent ones (since Fridays US release) are all very poor.
I didn't see the film, didn't read the books, so I'm not here to defend. But I actually went to IMDB and looked at the user reviews, sorted by date, and they are mostly all positive.
People who believe that the suppression of information is okay because it could be misused are heading down a dark road, the price of return from which will have to be paid in blood someday by a future generation.
------
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
-- Commissioner Pravin Lal
Oh dear god no... Someone let lose the high drama nerds.
Run for your lives, quick, before they start quoting Shakespeare!
I'd rather be a little behind the times in news, if I can get some meaningful comments beyond: "LOLL, the MPAA is so gay!!"
Yeah, here at Slashdot, the veteran readership can stretch "LOLL, the MPAA is so gay!!" out into a paragraph or two and get a Score:5
Those Diggers are such rookies.
I talked about these problems back in November in another AJAX thread here [slashdot.org]. There was a good followup [slashdot.org], too. I think what I said still stands today.
;)
You do realize that as of, ummm.... a week ago, it was still November. I know the technology changes fast, but jeez
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games could switch to a cost-saving open source technology platform under proposals to be considered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The open source move will be recommended by the IOC's technology partner Atos Origin on the back of guidance from sub-contractors that include HP and IBM.
Claude Philipps, programme director at Atos Origin for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, told silicon.com the plans will be put to the IOC in a formal proposal and that the committee will then make the final decision.
He said: "For open source we have a plan to propose this for Beijing. It will save money on the licences."
But he said support costs could scupper the open source switch. "The issue might be support because especially in China you don't have all the companies we have in Europe and the US," he said.
I know the OSS advocates will wave their victoy flags, write eloquent stories about the demise of Microsoft, and rack up free karma, but nothing has happened yet. Moves like this are considered all the time when someone thinks they can save money with all this 'free' software. Hopefully with IBM in the mix, this will actually happen, but for now this really isn't a story. Come back when the decision is made.
I have talked to some people who claimed that they never received rebates. But as for me, I have turned in about 50 mail-in rebates over my lifetime, and I have received all of them. Sometimes they really do take the full 8 weeks stated in the fine print, but I have always gotten them eventually.
That's probably because you know how to both read and follow instructions.
Who exactly is Otto Z. Stern? What is his background, credentials, past software development involvement, and so on?
Only software developers can criticize OSS?
They tap your phones to protect you from terrorists
They tap whose phones? All 250 million Americans? I pity the fool who has to sift through that data.
they limit your rights to research encryption technology and software protection to protect the economy
If by 'research' you mean 'hacking stuff to get free services', then I see their point.
and they monitor your every move to protect you from a pandemic.
You mean they standardize and organize data already being collected to make it easier for the CDC to do its job. An atrocity I tell ya.
Wonderful with all the protection we get.
Spend some time in, oh, say the Congo where they eat people's hearts. Or how about the UAE or China where the internet is heavily censored. Or how about Malaysia or Saudi Arabia where people are executed for minor drug posession or adultry. Even Cameroon, a friendly country where many of the civil servents only get half of their pay because the higer ranking officials can't keep their hands out of the pot. When you get a reality check, come back and complain about the infrasturcture of the US which protects its citizens and their privacy
Politicians are all starting the following receipe: 1 Create fictional threat. 2 Create solution to fictional threat that preferably also include increased population control 3 Increase popularity in fool demographic 4 goto 1
Hmmm... This seems to work pretty well for Slashdot also
1) Create fictional threat: THE GOVERNMENT IS CONTROLLING OUR MINDS!
2) Create solution to fictional threat: Ummm.. whine on the internet. Well, no parallel for this. Most internet lurkers are too lazy to actually do anything
3) Increase popularity in fool demographic: Karma!
Open your eyes. Save your energy for the real threats.
hmmm, ignore me, misinterpreted the idea
I don't see how you'll ever train this thing. Unless there are consistent patterns in your mood changes, you'll never get good enough statistics. You'll just be sitting there skipping songs the whole time, instead of enjoying the music before you.
Just have multiple playlists. Toss is some randomness if you feel like it.
Who cares?
Slashdot needs content and the guy is providing it. If he's profitting from it, well good for him. He's smarter than the rest of us.
Research like this often does more harm than good, in my opinion. Not only does it give people an excuse for their situation, it knocks off part of the drive they might have had to go ahead and change things. Though we admittedly do share many characteristics with the animals studied here, we also have the ability to override many of those with conscious decisionmaking.
Igorance is bliss? An 'excuse' is just an excuse not to do something you weren't going to do anyway. You can never hide knowledge or not do research because of how lazy/stupid people will react, becuase they'll still be lazy/stupid either way.
For some people, this may actually be encouraging. They can know that they're not just lazy worthless bums because it's supposed to be hard. They'll have the answer to their cries of "Why can't I do this?"
Bring on the knowledge.
Just give them lots of flash, explosions, and the occasional breast and all is good.
Same effect as feeding Slashdotters cynicism and obscure foreign entertainment.
"Ooooohhh, a rant on why we're going to hell in a handbasket... drool......"
Anyone who read more than a few words into it
The calls for the obligatory "You must be new here".
I think you're 'crestfallen' that your kid isn't like you. Nothing is preventing him from taking a modern LEGO set, tossing the instructions, and building wacky things with it. The new sets are great because all the new pieces they offer give you limitless options. Maybe you raised your kid to 'follow the rules' and he did, or maybe he's just the type that likes to have boundaries set.
If anything, LEGO is guilty of offering too many options. They have the sets with tons of pieces, and the sets with just a few highly specialized ones. Take your pick. If you don't like what they offer, get their LEGO Factory software and design and order your own custom set. I really can't figure out why offering more options makes LEGO a bad company around here. If you're trying to claim that LEGO made your kid stupid, then I think the problem lies with you and your expectations.
Cough.
I think everyone at Slashdot need to get checked for bronchitis.
Seems to be alot of **coughing** going around.