Productivity is way up since 1945 yet we still have to work 40 hours a week.
The corporations and the government have turned capitalism into a voluntary form of slavery-- your option is to opt out and starve and be propertyless.
Property taxes enforce it from the government side. If you do not work, you will lose all your property.
Health Insurance (which grossly distorts the true price of health care) enforces it from the corporate side. If you do not work, once you get sick you will die.
Athiests believe all kinds of different things. Most athiests are not all scientists. Many scientists are not athiests. A lot of them don't think or care about the beginning of the universe at all.
On the minus side there is no big invisible guy to punish them if they do evil, scummy things. On the plus side, there is no big invisible guy to reward or forgive them if they do evil, scummy things.
---
Science is based on facts and the scientific method. Either everyone can observe the facts and repeat your observations or it is not science. Your theories should be testable- your hypothesis do not have to be.
Until someone provides some evidence that the rules changed, then the assumption is that the rules have been the same.
Science doesn't include "anything could have been true" in every theory. Of course... ANYTHING could have been true- our current day reality for the last 10,000 years could be a black swan event. But those conditions are pretty pointless for concluding anything.
And on the religious and scientific side, given "anything could have been true", there is no way to prove Last Tuesdayism is not a valid faith.
Because science takes evidence and builds a theory that supports the evidence. The more evidence supporting the theory, the more likely it is true. Science is never 100% certain. Best you can get is 99.9999_.
Based on current observable facts about the universe the big bang is extremely likely.
For example-- all the observed physical matter in the universe is expanding outwards.
Now- run that backwards.
A:at some time in the past, all the matter in the universe was at the same point. B:at some time in the past, all the matter in the universe was created by a god at the same point. C:at some time in the past, all the matter in the universe was created by a god at the different points, with velocities and vectors to give the impression that it all came from some point.
B and C involve something that can't be measured or proven. C is more obvious but B&C are equally likely. Science doesn't say "B" or "C" is unprovable- just that they are not science.
Now- add the radiation evidence and you get "Time "A" had a big explosion- the echos of which can still be measured.
Religious people are hostile to science because it contradicts some of their religious tales which are clearly impossible and unsupported by evidence. The better policy would be for them to say, "Science finds truth- God wants us to know truth- The fact that the universe started with a big bang 16 to 20 billion years ago does not violate god's statement that eating kumquats on sundays is immoral".
Religion should confine itself to matters of morality- and leave the science to hard physical facts and conclusions drawn from those facts.
1) Microsoft basically begged people to pirate their software until the very late 1990's or even early 2000's (so it was "free"). 2) Microsoft controlled the operating system and they did make changes to it to kill strong competing software. 3) Microsoft certified as "ready for windows 95" Word95 which violated the certification standards that all competitors were held to (including undocumented O/S entry points) 4) Apple had a good product AND overcharged for it- hideously so. Windows for $300 hardware plus "free" operating system or Apple for 900 bucks ($10,000 for the Lisa). 5) Amiga came too late and their business side killed a superior hardware platform (and it had a very buggy Disk O/S-- but I did get my first virus on it-- "Something wonderful has happened... Your Amiga has come alive!" 6) The component architecture of the PC let it upgrade graphics independently (this was major). 7) Intel was making better faster processors quicker and cheaper than Motorola. 9) Microsoft, more than once, stole other companies IP. (and in some cases when caught bought out the entire company) 10) Microsoft Windows 95 was comparatively EASY to network which got a lot of gamers on it. DOS games were a complete pain to configure and sometimes just never worked. Lan parties ruled with Win95.
---
Why I personally am moving away from Windows and Word. Microsoft's stated desire is me paying the maximum subscription money will bear (probably $50 to $80 a month like cable) for their software. And Microsoft getting into bed in a big way with DRM people who want to control MY FRAKKIN computer. It's MINE- If they want me to use DRM- GIVE me a computer like the Cell Phone people give me a cell phone.
Sounds like a great controller but it won't benefit from the network effect like the wiimote.
I finally got a wii, it sat for about 7 months before I finally used it.
It's okay- I bowl on it. The star trek game seems pretty painful so far.
What I'd like is a basic RTS. seems like a dream combo.
I have a 55" screen and control seems fine.
This new remote is better- but because it is an add on, not a standard feature, it will join a million other great controllers that we don't even remember.
Capitalism has been turned into a finely tuned system of voluntary slavery.
1) Property taxes mean you can never own anything. 2) The economy has been tuned to require 40 hour a week of work. I mean come on- we've had about 300 percent productivity since WWII (if not more)-- we should be able to get buy on 32 hours a week easily.
Keep in mind the second airline charges $1,100 per ticket and will be ready to fly in november while their competitors charge $450 a ticket and start flying next week.
You have to find the right balance between cost and safety.
We would all like to be in the second plane- but 99% of people would buy tickets on the $450 airplane every day (assuming only one plane crashes per million miles of flight-- even if the $1,100 only crashes every 2 million miles.)
It is the white collar equivalent of digging a hole and putting the dirt in another hole and then digging the second hole back out and refilling the first hole.
They give you something to do with just enough grit that you have to pay attention. A former co-worker had to enter data into spreadsheets (java programmer/Systems programmer).
Sorry they boned you-- remember next time- but give the illusion of being gung ho.
And the time to negotiate for wages is before you have finished the job.
They gave me 4 hours off on a friday after working 72+ hour weeks for 6 weeks (and making ME go in for a full day sunday but not the female and then making ME come in for the early meeting monday- so no slack because I had to work sunday when it was "too dangerous for a girl to work alone" even tho she got the same pay).
Since then I've gotten down the art of "graceful failure".
You maintain a great attitude, but simply can't manage to meet unreasonable demands.
Most of the reason people are fired is because some dipshit above you doesn't like your attitude.
Extremely competent assholes are fired left and right, being just ever so mildly incompetent means they choose to give the shitty important job to one of the other guys-- and even got me booted up into management with more pay and unbelievable amounts of freedom.
You have to be able to distinguish between *real* emergencies and successfully be heroic on a couple up front but if the real reason for the problem is 1) insufficient funding. 2) insufficient staffing. 3) unbelievably stupid arbitrary schedule some shithead upstairs set to make an arbitrary date on the calendar because "we always MEET our commitments!!!!" (but it is YOU not HIM or HER that is working saturday morning at 5am to meet the shitty deadline- he or she is yukking it up having drinks with clients and getting a big bonus after she or he "met the deadline".
Then let it fall.
I have seen extremely competent people who are honest get fired (or worse- put in an office doing *nothing* -- i.e. the "white room" punishment which gets you to quit so you don't get unemployment benefits). Screw them- especially when you are underpaid and the last person left.
A,L,E are not expected to get up at 3am and check on their accounting or lawyer job that broke or get up at 5:30am every morning to check the jobs ran right.
They are expected to work 10 hour days but the lawyers get paid well for it.
Sarbanes Oxley destroyed the fun of IT jobs - every line of code has to be approved by people who don't have a clue now.
Businesses cut your budget and give all the money to executives and salespeople.
Corporations had the laws changed so engineers, and programmers are basically just slaves to corporations.
Friend of mine got in a world of hurt that way in New Orleans.
Be very careful there.
Apparently she and her boyfriend wanted a threesome, everyone consented, but she had had one drink. That apparently means that she can't give informed consent.
So in New Orleans- ANY AGE female (she was close to 30 and hot) + One Drink = Rape.
Since her boyfriend had a pre-existing relationship with her, he was NOT charged with rape even tho he participated in the same sex act.
Nearly ruined my friend's life. He lost a very good job. Just because he was charged- they didn't even wait for the "not guilty" that came after a settlement with the girl and the judge. Details unknown. He will never go back to NO again.
I don't have a lot of interest myself after hearing that.
1970's: A copper wire ran from the phone company to you. The phone company had their own generators or first dibs on regular power.
2000's: A plastic/glass fiber-optic wire goes to a local switch box. Local power with battery backup (SAME as cell phones) runs from the copper wire to your house.
2000's: in some subdivisions... the fiber actually goes down your street and there is no backup for the 60' of copper wire to it.
During Ike, My AT&T Cell phone randomly worked great while my friend's Verizon completely died. Something about being on the 3G network-- no idea why it worked and theirs failed.
However- electricity was a problem. From Rita, I had gasoline but Ike kind of stunned us (hit the day we were going to galveston on vacation -- we were sure it was going to be another "miss" 80-120 miles away but it was like a guided missle) and it took a couple days to realize this was serious and to find my inverter going (at least that gave me two lights, a fan, optionally a microwave, laptop, and roomba chargable vacuum cleaner (regular vac wouldn't run).
I should have a solar set up with battery (Xantex?) by next storm in addition to a generator (8-10 hours, will run a window unit, lights, a TV, and a laptop).
But --- Landlines are no longer reliable. I was without them for about 3 years entirely but for now have a $16 a month deal (that's after taxes!) from AT&T. 25 outgoing calls (10 cents after that). Mainly use it to find my cell phone when I lose it in the house.
I STOPPED using landlines tho - because the spam calls got so bad. I would get home to 10-15 messages- all trying to sell me things. I said, "I am not going to PAY AT&T for this kind of abuse any more on my frikkin unlisted number (which i pay them $1 to have)).
But there are many out there, and microsoft and linux gangs who have mod points. Heck, some people have multiple id's that have mod points so they can mod themselves up.
Shill... troll.. whatever.
I've been mismodded, I've metamodded. It happens.
I rarely mod people down- I prefer to mod people up.
I get about 15 mods every few weeks.
Your point however flips right back around- of COURSE I can say I think you are a troll. Then you can say you are not-- For what it is worth,if I had been modding I would have looked at your posting history first .
There are too many userid's for me to keep track of. I think I got to know maybe one person here- the rest come and go (you too probably). It's just another message board (like slate and others) and here you can't edit your posts.
In a world where corporations step on us all the time, he has spent a lot of effort fighting them. Should he wish to cash in and make a little money on that now, fine by me.
If you are not an industry troll, then you are certainly doing a good enough job that you should consider cashing in yourself.
Your first procedure Is pretty similar to XP if notepad is a regular program on your start menu like mine.
(1) press ctrl+esc to bring up start menu (2) press N (first letter of "notepad" (3) press O (4) press Enter (autocompletion)
For me it is... (1) press ctrl+esc to bring up start menu (2) press N (first letter of "new office document" (2) press N (first letter of "notepad" (4) press Enter (autocompletion)
I have vista on my laptop... I have XP on this computer and at work.
For other applications (like your backup example) that might be useful- I'll have to double check.
I find XP and Vista to be pretty similar in speed personally. I also find Vista to be very stable on my Toshiba Laptop (that was built with it specifically in mind).
Then we should stop paying copyright fees to dead artists... like john lennon, jim morris, and others.
Especially those two ladies that wrote "Happy Birthday, To You."
Perhaps we should way the moral benefits to society of having stories like Snow White available for various other artists to create new stories from (too numerous to count) instead of locking down stories and characters forever (like Micky Mouse).
The situation in music is even more ludicrous. Locking down a particular sequence of 12 notes forever is the death of music long term.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of it would be gone.
You can count on the returns for solar.
You can pretty much count on electric rates rising in the future.
Without insurance, medical prices would be a tenth of what they are now.
Doctor's have a legal cartel which they use to restrict supply-- and they can do it because they are protected from real competition.
And, oh my god, what is insurance but forcing other people to pay for your health care?
They have you so well slaved trained you can't even see your collar. Probably happier that way at least.
No.
Productivity is way up since 1945 yet we still have to work 40 hours a week.
The corporations and the government have turned capitalism into a voluntary form of slavery-- your option is to opt out and starve and be propertyless.
Property taxes enforce it from the government side. If you do not work, you will lose all your property.
Health Insurance (which grossly distorts the true price of health care) enforces it from the corporate side.
If you do not work, once you get sick you will die.
Thanks... been a while since I really cared about this issue...
I just read the wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe and as you say, multiple current theories indicate 13.6 to 13.8 billion years.
Not at all.
Athiests believe all kinds of different things. Most athiests are not all scientists. Many scientists are not athiests.
A lot of them don't think or care about the beginning of the universe at all.
On the minus side there is no big invisible guy to punish them if they do evil, scummy things.
On the plus side, there is no big invisible guy to reward or forgive them if they do evil, scummy things.
---
Science is based on facts and the scientific method. Either everyone can observe the facts and repeat your observations or it is not science.
Your theories should be testable- your hypothesis do not have to be.
Until someone provides some evidence that the rules changed, then the assumption is that the rules have been the same.
Science doesn't include "anything could have been true" in every theory. Of course... ANYTHING could have been true- our current day reality for the last 10,000 years could be a black swan event. But those conditions are pretty pointless for concluding anything.
And on the religious and scientific side, given "anything could have been true", there is no way to prove Last Tuesdayism is not a valid faith.
So your entire point is pointless.
And more importantly, without us, there would be no gods.
Because science takes evidence and builds a theory that supports the evidence.
The more evidence supporting the theory, the more likely it is true.
Science is never 100% certain. Best you can get is 99.9999_.
Based on current observable facts about the universe the big bang is extremely likely.
For example-- all the observed physical matter in the universe is expanding outwards.
Now- run that backwards.
A:at some time in the past, all the matter in the universe was at the same point.
B:at some time in the past, all the matter in the universe was created by a god at the same point.
C:at some time in the past, all the matter in the universe was created by a god at the different points, with velocities and vectors to give the impression that it all came from some point.
B and C involve something that can't be measured or proven. C is more obvious but B&C are equally likely.
Science doesn't say "B" or "C" is unprovable- just that they are not science.
Now- add the radiation evidence and you get "Time "A" had a big explosion- the echos of which can still be measured.
Religious people are hostile to science because it contradicts some of their religious tales which are clearly impossible and unsupported by evidence.
The better policy would be for them to say, "Science finds truth- God wants us to know truth- The fact that the universe started with a big bang 16 to 20 billion years ago does not violate god's statement that eating kumquats on sundays is immoral".
Religion should confine itself to matters of morality- and leave the science to hard physical facts and conclusions drawn from those facts.
put on p2p... what happens?
You still have your songs (on your computer).
But they are also out in the wild.
I've lost/had stolen a couple cheap mp3 players over the last 7 years.
As an old fart that lived through the time...
1) Microsoft basically begged people to pirate their software until the very late 1990's or even early 2000's (so it was "free").
2) Microsoft controlled the operating system and they did make changes to it to kill strong competing software.
3) Microsoft certified as "ready for windows 95" Word95 which violated the certification standards that all competitors were held to (including undocumented O/S entry points)
4) Apple had a good product AND overcharged for it- hideously so. Windows for $300 hardware plus "free" operating system or Apple for 900 bucks ($10,000 for the Lisa).
5) Amiga came too late and their business side killed a superior hardware platform (and it had a very buggy Disk O/S-- but I did get my first virus on it-- "Something wonderful has happened... Your Amiga has come alive!"
6) The component architecture of the PC let it upgrade graphics independently (this was major).
7) Intel was making better faster processors quicker and cheaper than Motorola.
9) Microsoft, more than once, stole other companies IP. (and in some cases when caught bought out the entire company)
10) Microsoft Windows 95 was comparatively EASY to network which got a lot of gamers on it. DOS games were a complete pain to configure and sometimes just never worked. Lan parties ruled with Win95.
---
Why I personally am moving away from Windows and Word.
Microsoft's stated desire is me paying the maximum subscription money will bear (probably $50 to $80 a month like cable) for their software.
And
Microsoft getting into bed in a big way with DRM people who want to control MY FRAKKIN computer. It's MINE- If they want me to use DRM- GIVE me a computer like the Cell Phone people give me a cell phone.
The Wii is awesome as a platform. At some points the games I want will be there.
The selection of games for it, mostly seems to be for people with ADD.
I have never been a Zelda fan so I'd be coming in late in the story there.
Raygun rabbits seems like it is for the hyper kinetic.
Main reason it sat was relationship breakup depression.
Still fighting it but happy about half the time again.
Sounds like a great controller but it won't benefit from the network effect like the wiimote.
I finally got a wii, it sat for about 7 months before I finally used it.
It's okay- I bowl on it. The star trek game seems pretty painful so far.
What I'd like is a basic RTS. seems like a dream combo.
I have a 55" screen and control seems fine.
This new remote is better- but because it is an add on, not a standard feature, it will join a million other great controllers that we don't even remember.
Capitalism has been turned into a finely tuned system of voluntary slavery.
1) Property taxes mean you can never own anything.
2) The economy has been tuned to require 40 hour a week of work. I mean come on- we've had about 300 percent productivity since WWII (if not more)-- we should be able to get buy on 32 hours a week easily.
Just to be a devil's advocate...
Keep in mind the second airline charges $1,100 per ticket and will be ready to fly in november while their competitors charge $450 a ticket and start flying next week.
You have to find the right balance between cost and safety.
We would all like to be in the second plane- but 99% of people would buy tickets on the $450 airplane every day (assuming only one plane crashes per million miles of flight-- even if the $1,100 only crashes every 2 million miles.)
It's actually a form of torment in Japan.
It is the white collar equivalent of digging a hole and putting the dirt in another hole and then digging the second hole back out and refilling the first hole.
They give you something to do with just enough grit that you have to pay attention. A former co-worker had to enter data into spreadsheets (java programmer/Systems programmer).
Sorry they boned you-- remember next time- but give the illusion of being gung ho.
And the time to negotiate for wages is before you have finished the job.
I did this one time 20 years ago.
They gave me 4 hours off on a friday after working 72+ hour weeks for 6 weeks (and making ME go in for a full day sunday but not the female and then making ME come in for the early meeting monday- so no slack because I had to work sunday when it was "too dangerous for a girl to work alone" even tho she got the same pay).
Since then I've gotten down the art of "graceful failure".
You maintain a great attitude, but simply can't manage to meet unreasonable demands.
Most of the reason people are fired is because some dipshit above you doesn't like your attitude.
Extremely competent assholes are fired left and right, being just ever so mildly incompetent means they choose to give the shitty important job to one of the other guys-- and even got me booted up into management with more pay and unbelievable amounts of freedom.
You have to be able to distinguish between *real* emergencies and successfully be heroic on a couple up front but if the real reason for the problem is
1) insufficient funding.
2) insufficient staffing.
3) unbelievably stupid arbitrary schedule some shithead upstairs set to make an arbitrary date on the calendar because "we always MEET our commitments!!!!" (but it is YOU not HIM or HER that is working saturday morning at 5am to meet the shitty deadline- he or she is yukking it up having drinks with clients and getting a big bonus after she or he "met the deadline".
Then let it fall.
I have seen extremely competent people who are honest get fired (or worse- put in an office doing *nothing* -- i.e. the "white room" punishment which gets you to quit so you don't get unemployment benefits).
Screw them- especially when you are underpaid and the last person left.
A,L,E are not expected to get up at 3am and check on their accounting or lawyer job that broke or get up at 5:30am every morning to check the jobs ran right.
They are expected to work 10 hour days but the lawyers get paid well for it.
Sarbanes Oxley destroyed the fun of IT jobs - every line of code has to be approved by people who don't have a clue now.
Businesses cut your budget and give all the money to executives and salespeople.
Corporations had the laws changed so engineers, and programmers are basically just slaves to corporations.
Friend of mine got in a world of hurt that way in New Orleans.
Be very careful there.
Apparently she and her boyfriend wanted a threesome, everyone consented, but she had had one drink. That apparently means that she can't give informed consent.
So in New Orleans- ANY AGE female (she was close to 30 and hot) + One Drink = Rape.
Since her boyfriend had a pre-existing relationship with her, he was NOT charged with rape even tho he participated in the same sex act.
Nearly ruined my friend's life. He lost a very good job. Just because he was charged- they didn't even wait for the "not guilty" that came after a settlement with the girl and the judge. Details unknown. He will never go back to NO again.
I don't have a lot of interest myself after hearing that.
During Ike, many land lines also failed.
1970's: A copper wire ran from the phone company to you. The phone company had their own generators or first dibs on regular power.
2000's: A plastic/glass fiber-optic wire goes to a local switch box. Local power with battery backup (SAME as cell phones) runs from the copper wire to your house.
2000's: in some subdivisions... the fiber actually goes down your street and there is no backup for the 60' of copper wire to it.
During Ike, My AT&T Cell phone randomly worked great while my friend's Verizon completely died. Something about being on the 3G network-- no idea why it worked and theirs failed.
However- electricity was a problem. From Rita, I had gasoline but Ike kind of stunned us (hit the day we were going to galveston on vacation -- we were sure it was going to be another "miss" 80-120 miles away but it was like a guided missle) and it took a couple days to realize this was serious and to find my inverter going (at least that gave me two lights, a fan, optionally a microwave, laptop, and roomba chargable vacuum cleaner (regular vac wouldn't run).
I should have a solar set up with battery (Xantex?) by next storm in addition to a generator (8-10 hours, will run a window unit, lights, a TV, and a laptop).
But --- Landlines are no longer reliable. I was without them for about 3 years entirely but for now have a $16 a month deal (that's after taxes!) from AT&T. 25 outgoing calls (10 cents after that). Mainly use it to find my cell phone when I lose it in the house.
I STOPPED using landlines tho - because the spam calls got so bad. I would get home to 10-15 messages- all trying to sell me things. I said, "I am not going to PAY AT&T for this kind of abuse any more on my frikkin unlisted number (which i pay them $1 to have)).
Glad to hear you are not a RIAA shill or troll.
But there are many out there, and microsoft and linux gangs who have mod points. Heck, some people have multiple id's that have mod points so they can mod themselves up.
Shill... troll.. whatever.
I've been mismodded, I've metamodded. It happens.
I rarely mod people down- I prefer to mod people up.
I get about 15 mods every few weeks.
Your point however flips right back around- of COURSE I can say I think you are a troll. Then you can say you are not-- For what it is worth,if I had been modding I would have looked at your posting history first .
There are too many userid's for me to keep track of. I think I got to know maybe one person here- the rest come and go (you too probably).
It's just another message board (like slate and others) and here you can't edit your posts.
I like Beckerman.
In a world where corporations step on us all the time, he has spent a lot of effort fighting them.
Should he wish to cash in and make a little money on that now, fine by me.
If you are not an industry troll, then you are certainly doing a good enough job that you should consider cashing in yourself.
No,
He was purposely being obscure.
For $15, you can buy a cardboard cutout with a face.... and fasten it on the opposite wall.
For 10 cents a copy, you could copy a lot of faces.
Or you could put a face on the back of your head (2 eye spots perhaps).
And then there is always simple vandalism of the cameras (like paint-balling traffic cameras, fast easy, good range, cheap)
Your first procedure
Is pretty similar to XP if notepad is a regular program on your start menu like mine.
(1) press ctrl+esc to bring up start menu
(2) press N (first letter of "notepad"
(3) press O
(4) press Enter (autocompletion)
For me it is ...
(1) press ctrl+esc to bring up start menu
(2) press N (first letter of "new office document"
(2) press N (first letter of "notepad"
(4) press Enter (autocompletion)
I have vista on my laptop... I have XP on this computer and at work.
For other applications (like your backup example) that might be useful- I'll have to double check.
I find XP and Vista to be pretty similar in speed personally.
I also find Vista to be very stable on my Toshiba Laptop (that was built with it specifically in mind).
In Soviet Russia,
Missing Joke
Whooshes You!
Then we should stop paying copyright fees to dead artists... like john lennon, jim morris, and others.
Especially those two ladies that wrote "Happy Birthday, To You."
Perhaps we should way the moral benefits to society of having stories like Snow White available for various other artists to create new stories from (too numerous to count) instead of locking down stories and characters forever (like Micky Mouse).
The situation in music is even more ludicrous. Locking down a particular sequence of 12 notes forever is the death of music long term.