Both bloody parties are OWNED by the powers that be now.
It doesn't matter which side you vote for except on trivial side issues (like abortion).
For everything that matters, we have one party, owned by big business and the wealthy.
The republicans choose from 5 to 7 candidates *chosen* for them. The democrats choose from 5 to 7 candidates *chosen* for them. Then we all get to vote between the two "candidates" to pick a "winner".
I agree with your point and this could easily get out of hand and that the professor has a conflict of interest here. There are all kinds of equality tho- and I had to trade money for:
a) a $300 calculator (in 1989!) that I joked could make a "B" if I put it down on the test. b) about $500 worth of "study guides" (big 3" thick books full of problems and solutions) c) illness (to the extent of and probably including cancer in my junior year) d) any other advantage (except oddly- tutoring-- no time!) I could get
for
40 to 55 hours a week of free time because the government gave a grant because the person was "too poor". I wasn't lucky enough to be that poor and I wasn't rich enough either. I was stuck in the middle- again.
There are all kinds of equality. Rich kids have their own problems- motivation, drugs, partying too much. Oh if I could have only suffered with those problems...
And we probably shouldn't allow tutors or all those help guides that cost $30 apiece either. Because equality is the golden rule.
Thank god didn't apply to me-- I bought my way thorugh college while working 55 hours a week. The lucky poor guys on grants had 55 hours a week to study that I didn't.
Since he is using university property.. and has this opportunity because he is a professor at that university, I would think the university should get a cut. Not all- not even most-- but definately a cut.
I like the lased sound for commercial applications-- turn your music up *as loud as you want* and I hear nothing sitting next to you.
Clearly our government is going to have the means to oppress us (and it really already does with "freedom of speech zones" a half mile from where they should be and arrests if you go there).
But as long as you don't get in their way- you currently have a lot of freedom to do what you want and die of old age.
Just like the "race card", the "pc" card where you *shut down* an opponent's point of view by plucking a few words out of context is wearing thin too. Tho what they did to the president of harvard was an excellent example of the radical feminists and leftists successfully using the "PC" card.
And no... I'm not a republican or "right wing" either- I voted against Bush and 75% of the republican candidates in every election since 1996.
---
And with regard to my parent post- I was responding to the general flow of the discussion with my own specific experience as a "privileged" white male who the parent was arguing didn't need any help since I was well off enough. Thanks, but I'm bloody TIRED of paying for situations that havn't existed for over two decades.
You take people like that-- with those skills-- with all that talent--
And then you put then in an environment where they have to estimate a project and fill out *five* different forms and submit them to a project management office before they can do any real work. It may be months before the approved project gets back to them if it ever does. Then there are more forms- more procedures to follow- more self-audits, cross audits, CMP "self" goals, and on and on. The joy is squeezed out of it. Some coders change as few as a few lines of code per quarter-- the rest is paperwork and testing.
A more appropriate test would involve following written procedures- filling out lots of forms- and changing the procedures once in a while during the testing without updating any kind of master procedure document.
I've felt my point of view, my chances of promotion, my entire standing in society has been suppressed my entire life to make up for the sins of the people 10 years older than I am. It was worse in the past- they were very blatant about even promoting imcompetant people to balance the percentages. Today, there are plenty of competant people of all races and sexes- I'm one of them- but they still need to get up to 50% female, 12% black, etc. I've seen females blatantly selected to be fast tracked into upper management.
The role of men as parents has been completely destroyed by feminist ideology and male-hating family courts (some going so far as the put the children up for adoption rather than let a loving father with no problems take custody- thank god they got BUSTED for that-- it only took the father two years and sixty thousand dollars of course). It's gotten bad enough that young men do not casually get married since everyone knows some poor sob who is paying the rent of his ex AND her new boyfriend while not seeing any money spent on the kids.
It won't last forever. As recently as 100 years ago- the father always got custody because a single woman was assumed to be unfit to be parent like males are today.
The blacks "race card" has less power each time it is played. It's becoming clear to everywhere that fair "black " representation is roughly 12% and NOT 50%. You still see it from time to time tho "Why aren't HALF the "X"'s black???? -- well because only 11% of the population is black perhaps???"
I've never played the native american card- which legally I could. I look white and my name is european.
A bit of a ramble- but I'm just saying, YES, I do want my side of the story pushed up because there are a hell of a lot of people pushing me down and trying to take my cheese.
a) we all know the fair market price of photoshop b) there are no used or last version copies being sold at discount c) there are no unusually inexpensive holiday sales. d) there are no special back door prices for students, teachers, employees of select corporations, etc.
I could buy the current version of Office for $10 bucks last year. I think it is $20 this year. That's direct from Microsoft. I'm in a selected group of people who qualify for that deal.
As far as photoshop, I (and many others) have no idea what a fair deal is for it.
Yea I saw it- expecting a complete mess- plan 9 from outer space for the 1980's and what I got was a decent version of a 1950's sci-fi novel. It was "quaint" more than bad.
Let's see... I also had a daughter who's now married. I've been down multiple double diamond black runs. I've saved a girl from a crazy boyfriend. I've helped lots of homeless people with food. I'm successful in my career and manage other people-- in part because my social skills are so damn good compared to the people around me. Where did I learn these skills? Mostly DnD and EQ. I've had as many as four girlfriends actively going at one time-- all aware that they were not the only one. I know about tantra and the g-spot and how to approach a female so that it works reliably (No.. not dnd- Donald Hicks GREAT BOOK! READ IT! Every woman in the world should go and give Donald Hicks a blow job or do his housework for a week.) So then the question is-- does the x-spot really exist? I've lead ultimate frisbee teams. I've built a house for the homeless and worked in the foodbanks. I've slammed about in mosh pits. I've been in terrific pillow fights with saucy young girls in the last two years. I've gotten drunk on Absinthe (yes! It IS different than getting drunk on other alchohols- not quite as "silly". And I prefer it neat with dark chocolate-- loched with chilled water was really gagworthy). I play tons of boardgames. I go to lots of concerts. I've seen every Cirque d' Soliel in vegas except the new one -- including a hot date to the sexy one. I know how to swing and western swing dance (and still take lessons).
DnD was the foundation of most of these things. It put me in a regular social group with regular interaction with girls which gave me a regular basis for parties and that led me into EQ which put me into an even larger social group and some kick ass parties. EQ gave me a chance to flirt like hell for the first time in my life which lead to huge improvements in RL.
DnD does not == "end of social life". Making DnD your entire life is probably bad- but so is watching football games 24/7 during the season unless your SO is into football that much too.
Most of the DnD people I know are happily married and have been for years.
If I were a lady, I'd take a gamer over a TV addict any day of the week. At least the mind is still working.
And...
I *still* play DND -- twice a month with a total of 15 people. Sure, it's not the 8 times a month of my ill-spent youth but life has a way of intruding as you get older. Even now I play EQ more (7 hours a week) than I play DnD. Wow-- hmm. Wow seems like "EQ-Lite" to me. I guess that's why so many like it.
I'm in texas too.. but I'm in the 2000's and I think that californian is remembering the 70's when california actually did influence culture. They lost that ability *before* reagan came to power because they went from being cool... to being wierd and people lost the desire to follow them any more.
Terminator 3 tossed out the entire philosophical underpinning ("You make your own fate").
There are lots of other things I can watch (such as the DELIGHTFUL "Dead like Me" currently in syndication on Sci-Fi) instead of prostituted warmed over rehashed crap.
T1 Great. T2 A true successor to T1. T3 Uh.. sort of like "Highlander: The final dimension" and in some ways worse than "Battlefield: Earth"
And that basic point empowers to do anything they want to anyone.
I'm sure that child pornography is so terrible, that you really would be okay to shoot them-- and by extension anyone who had anything to do with them.
And what is so fantastic about this is- you can SEND people these particularly illicit images and then bust them for having it on their computer if you time it right! Given just a few seconds of access to any computer- you can load it up with these illicit images and then bust people. Anyone that browses the web for illicit images has a fair chance of having some of these loaded on their computer without even realizing it.
---
Funny side note... I knew a person who caught her underage child were secretly sending naked pictures of themselves back and forth to their underage lover (who was returning the favor). So this teen hotty was adding a bunch of child porn to the net (and come on- when they break up, if the guy is pissed he is likely to post the pics somewhere adding them to the pool of naked humans that is the internet). And if caught, there is a very real chance that the parent could face huge fines, loss of the computer, or go to jail.
---
And your basic point is correct- a lot of law enforcement is about making the perp do the walk until they get tired or run out of resources. The law guy knows this person is involved with something but they can't prove it. Any TOR user accepts that they are allowing and supporting some bad things (illegal stuff, terrorism, etc.) so that other good things (privacy, oppose oppression?) can happen. For them, those good things are worth the trade off.
We dance on a fine edge- ready to teeter into totalitarianism and an endless boot on our faces.
I understand where you are coming from-- but I suspect if all your code was put in front of 1 million hackers, they would probably find more stuff than you would think possible.
I've been coding for 20 years and the IT-QA department catches bugs in my code (after I unit tested them- and another developer cross unit tested them) all the time. That's why they are IT-QA, it's what they do.
It used to be like this back in the 20's and 30's.
If you wanted a house, you had to save up the *entire* purchase price. You bought things on "layaway" instead on credit. That's where they set the item aside in their store, and you paid for it over time (like a credit card) and when you had paid in full, you got the item. I think if you failed to pay the item off they kept the money in some cases too.
It was a very different world. Money was a lot less fluid.
I still live that way except for my car and house. If I don't have the money to pay cash for something then I don't buy it.
And I'm STILL not where I need to be. I need to have at least $24,000 cash outside of retirement accounts and that is going to be at least three more years of hard saving. Then I can relax.
You also need to run a balance at least one month a year. It doesn't have to be a lot.
I can't know for sure- but I do get credit offers than my buds with perfect credit do not get. And I put about $2k a month through my card too (paying in full except one month a year).
As if stopping "meddling" in the middle east would even begin to solve the problem. Not all islamics are middle eastern. Just wearing bikini's in the states are enough to piss them off. Just not believing "Allhu Akbar" is justification enough to do these things.
The occasional wackjob is not the problem. There are christian crazies, atheist crazies, and probably bhuddist and hindu crazies. The problem with islamics is that the *sane* ones by their own belief systems head large organizations with the resources to perform these acts and they really really do want to kill us.
As Khomeni said, "Those who advocate peace with Islam are fools of this century."
Small isolated wackos who would be turned in by members of their own religion just can't do much effectively. Sane people taught from birth that we are evil don't need poverty or "meddling" in their countries as a reason to kill us. They didn't have a chance- they were corrupted towards murder and death before their brains were finished developing.*
And anyway- the powers that be (corporations and near nobility multi-national rich) don't care that we get attacked anyway so meddling in your countries (and our countries) are not going to stop. Blowing us up kills a few of us but the corporations are immortal and soulless. The multi-national rich have allegience to no country or creed. In fact, it's probably in their interest to KEEP you stirred up since then we'll all buy weapons (from the military-industrial complex as foreseen by Dwight Eisenhower). Ask yourself- if most democrats, republicans and libertarians in america favor closing our southern border and the republicans *know* it will probably cost them many elections this fall- why are both parties ignoring this issue? Could it be because the wealthy and the corporations want cheap labor and they control both parties in power in the US?
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting.
The net profits in most real world businesses is 3% to 7%.
While I agree with your point about wasted votes,
Both bloody parties are OWNED by the powers that be now.
It doesn't matter which side you vote for except on trivial side issues (like abortion).
For everything that matters, we have one party, owned by big business and the wealthy.
The republicans choose from 5 to 7 candidates *chosen* for them.
The democrats choose from 5 to 7 candidates *chosen* for them.
Then we all get to vote between the two "candidates" to pick a "winner".
Yup.
And I imagine he's already built in the government's share of income taxes.
We have too much inflation-- back when a penny would buy a candybar, a lot of things worth less than a penny were free.
Now that you need a dollar, they measure and charge for miniscule things.
And I imagine, he can put DRM on the recordings and then charge per play. Royalties on You Tube.
He's really missing a lot of opportunities here.
There was a great joke about that in Real Genius.
"Math is important! Listen carefully!"
I agree with your point and this could easily get out of hand and that the professor has a conflict of interest here. There are all kinds of equality tho- and I had to trade money for:
a) a $300 calculator (in 1989!) that I joked could make a "B" if I put it down on the test.
b) about $500 worth of "study guides" (big 3" thick books full of problems and solutions)
c) illness (to the extent of and probably including cancer in my junior year)
d) any other advantage (except oddly- tutoring-- no time!) I could get
for
40 to 55 hours a week of free time because the government gave a grant because the person was "too poor". I wasn't lucky enough to be that poor and I wasn't rich enough either. I was stuck in the middle- again.
There are all kinds of equality. Rich kids have their own problems- motivation, drugs, partying too much. Oh if I could have only suffered with those problems...
And we probably shouldn't allow tutors or all those help guides that cost $30 apiece either. Because equality is the golden rule.
Thank god didn't apply to me-- I bought my way thorugh college while working 55 hours a week. The lucky poor guys on grants had 55 hours a week to study that I didn't.
Since he is using university property.. and has this opportunity because he is a professor at that university, I would think the university should get a cut. Not all- not even most-- but definately a cut.
I like the lased sound for commercial applications-- turn your music up *as loud as you want* and I hear nothing sitting next to you.
Clearly our government is going to have the means to oppress us (and it really already does with "freedom of speech zones" a half mile from where they should be and arrests if you go there).
But as long as you don't get in their way- you currently have a lot of freedom to do what you want and die of old age.
Hehehe.
Oh that's wicked.
Pardon me for not being PC. But those labels are accurate.
http://www.fathermag.com/808/GenderBias.shtml
http://www.4famlaw.com/genbfamc.htm
http://www.glennsacks.com/it_is_fathers.htm
http://www.mesacanada.com/news11.htm
http://www.fathermag.com/205/abuse/
Feminist ideology is an accurate label
They even use the term here to describe feminism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
Just like the "race card", the "pc" card where you *shut down* an opponent's point of view by plucking a few words out of context is wearing thin too. Tho what they did to the president of harvard was an excellent example of the radical feminists and leftists successfully using the "PC" card.
And no... I'm not a republican or "right wing" either- I voted against Bush and 75% of the republican candidates in every election since 1996.
---
And with regard to my parent post- I was responding to the general flow of the discussion with my own specific experience as a "privileged" white male who the parent was arguing didn't need any help since I was well off enough. Thanks, but I'm bloody TIRED of paying for situations that havn't existed for over two decades.
Clearly they are related
in-ept means not-skillful so ept would be skill
-tude is a "Latinate suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives and participles" from the latin -tudo
eptitude would be skill at something
aptitude would be inherent ability at something
And of course, both are much -tudo about nothing.
You take people like that-- with those skills-- with all that talent--
And then you put then in an environment where they have to estimate a project and fill out *five* different forms and submit them to a project management office before they can do any real work. It may be months before the approved project gets back to them if it ever does. Then there are more forms- more procedures to follow- more self-audits, cross audits, CMP "self" goals, and on and on. The joy is squeezed out of it. Some coders change as few as a few lines of code per quarter-- the rest is paperwork and testing.
A more appropriate test would involve following written procedures- filling out lots of forms- and changing the procedures once in a while during the testing without updating any kind of master procedure document.
As a white male just after the baby boomers,
I've felt my point of view, my chances of promotion, my entire standing in society has been suppressed my entire life to make up for the sins of the people 10 years older than I am. It was worse in the past- they were very blatant about even promoting imcompetant people to balance the percentages. Today, there are plenty of competant people of all races and sexes- I'm one of them- but they still need to get up to 50% female, 12% black, etc. I've seen females blatantly selected to be fast tracked into upper management.
The role of men as parents has been completely destroyed by feminist ideology and male-hating family courts (some going so far as the put the children up for adoption rather than let a loving father with no problems take custody- thank god they got BUSTED for that-- it only took the father two years and sixty thousand dollars of course). It's gotten bad enough that young men do not casually get married since everyone knows some poor sob who is paying the rent of his ex AND her new boyfriend while not seeing any money spent on the kids.
It won't last forever. As recently as 100 years ago- the father always got custody because a single woman was assumed to be unfit to be parent like males are today.
The blacks "race card" has less power each time it is played. It's becoming clear to everywhere that fair "black " representation is roughly 12% and NOT 50%. You still see it from time to time tho "Why aren't HALF the "X"'s black???? -- well because only 11% of the population is black perhaps???"
I've never played the native american card- which legally I could. I look white and my name is european.
A bit of a ramble- but I'm just saying, YES, I do want my side of the story pushed up because there are a hell of a lot of people pushing me down and trying to take my cheese.
Man... you say that like
a) we all know the fair market price of photoshop
b) there are no used or last version copies being sold at discount
c) there are no unusually inexpensive holiday sales.
d) there are no special back door prices for students, teachers, employees of select corporations, etc.
I could buy the current version of Office for $10 bucks last year. I think it is $20 this year. That's direct from Microsoft. I'm in a selected group of people who qualify for that deal.
As far as photoshop, I (and many others) have no idea what a fair deal is for it.
Aye!
Clearly Bill Gates is rich, so EA was not ripping off their software employees and making them work unpaid overtime.
who happens to be female, older, and have a child who has had a child.
Most people are still the same person inside when they get older.
The outside just changes appearance.
Yea I saw it- expecting a complete mess- plan 9 from outer space for the 1980's and what I got was a decent version of a 1950's sci-fi novel. It was "quaint" more than bad.
And I still do.
Let's see...
I also had a daughter who's now married.
I've been down multiple double diamond black runs.
I've saved a girl from a crazy boyfriend.
I've helped lots of homeless people with food.
I'm successful in my career and manage other people-- in part because my social skills are so damn good compared to the people around me. Where did I learn these skills? Mostly DnD and EQ.
I've had as many as four girlfriends actively going at one time-- all aware that they were not the only one.
I know about tantra and the g-spot and how to approach a female so that it works reliably (No.. not dnd- Donald Hicks GREAT BOOK! READ IT! Every woman in the world should go and give Donald Hicks a blow job or do his housework for a week.) So then the question is-- does the x-spot really exist?
I've lead ultimate frisbee teams.
I've built a house for the homeless and worked in the foodbanks.
I've slammed about in mosh pits.
I've been in terrific pillow fights with saucy young girls in the last two years.
I've gotten drunk on Absinthe (yes! It IS different than getting drunk on other alchohols- not quite as "silly". And I prefer it neat with dark chocolate-- loched with chilled water was really gagworthy).
I play tons of boardgames.
I go to lots of concerts.
I've seen every Cirque d' Soliel in vegas except the new one -- including a hot date to the sexy one.
I know how to swing and western swing dance (and still take lessons).
DnD was the foundation of most of these things. It put me in a regular social group with regular interaction with girls which gave me a regular basis for parties and that led me into EQ which put me into an even larger social group and some kick ass parties. EQ gave me a chance to flirt like hell for the first time in my life which lead to huge improvements in RL.
DnD does not == "end of social life".
Making DnD your entire life is probably bad- but so is watching football games 24/7 during the season unless your SO is into football that much too.
Most of the DnD people I know are happily married and have been for years.
If I were a lady, I'd take a gamer over a TV addict any day of the week. At least the mind is still working.
And...
I *still* play DND -- twice a month with a total of 15 people. Sure, it's not the 8 times a month of my ill-spent youth but life has a way of intruding as you get older. Even now I play EQ more (7 hours a week) than I play DnD. Wow-- hmm. Wow seems like "EQ-Lite" to me. I guess that's why so many like it.
I'm in texas too.. but I'm in the 2000's and I think that californian is remembering the 70's when california actually did influence culture. They lost that ability *before* reagan came to power because they went from being cool... to being wierd and people lost the desire to follow them any more.
Term 2 ended the story properly.
Terminator 3 tossed out the entire philosophical underpinning ("You make your own fate").
There are lots of other things I can watch (such as the DELIGHTFUL "Dead like Me" currently in syndication on Sci-Fi) instead of prostituted warmed over rehashed crap.
T1 Great.
T2 A true successor to T1.
T3 Uh.. sort of like "Highlander: The final dimension" and in some ways worse than "Battlefield: Earth"
Of course.
And that basic point empowers to do anything they want to anyone.
I'm sure that child pornography is so terrible, that you really would be okay to shoot them-- and by extension anyone who had anything to do with them.
And what is so fantastic about this is- you can SEND people these particularly illicit images and then bust them for having it on their computer if you time it right! Given just a few seconds of access to any computer- you can load it up with these illicit images and then bust people. Anyone that browses the web for illicit images has a fair chance of having some of these loaded on their computer without even realizing it.
---
Funny side note... I knew a person who caught her underage child were secretly sending naked pictures of themselves back and forth to their underage lover (who was returning the favor). So this teen hotty was adding a bunch of child porn to the net (and come on- when they break up, if the guy is pissed he is likely to post the pics somewhere adding them to the pool of naked humans that is the internet). And if caught, there is a very real chance that the parent could face huge fines, loss of the computer, or go to jail.
---
And your basic point is correct- a lot of law enforcement is about making the perp do the walk until they get tired or run out of resources. The law guy knows this person is involved with something but they can't prove it. Any TOR user accepts that they are allowing and supporting some bad things (illegal stuff, terrorism, etc.) so that other good things (privacy, oppose oppression?) can happen. For them, those good things are worth the trade off.
We dance on a fine edge- ready to teeter into totalitarianism and an endless boot on our faces.
I understand where you are coming from-- but I suspect if all your code was put in front of 1 million hackers, they would probably find more stuff than you would think possible.
I've been coding for 20 years and the IT-QA department catches bugs in my code (after I unit tested them- and another developer cross unit tested them) all the time. That's why they are IT-QA, it's what they do.
It used to be like this back in the 20's and 30's.
If you wanted a house, you had to save up the *entire* purchase price.
You bought things on "layaway" instead on credit. That's where they set the item aside in their store, and you paid for it over time (like a credit card) and when you had paid in full, you got the item. I think if you failed to pay the item off they kept the money in some cases too.
It was a very different world. Money was a lot less fluid.
I still live that way except for my car and house. If I don't have the money to pay cash for something then I don't buy it.
And I'm STILL not where I need to be. I need to have at least $24,000 cash outside of retirement accounts and that is going to be at least three more years of hard saving. Then I can relax.
You also need to run a balance at least one month a year. It doesn't have to be a lot.
I can't know for sure- but I do get credit offers than my buds with perfect credit do not get.
And I put about $2k a month through my card too (paying in full except one month a year).
Because... unlike the little shop down the street, you control the configuration of the roads.
So you can change the roads to require the saw attachment to drive on - or not- arbitrarily with one patch's notice.
Microsoft has a long habit of making their competitor's products randomly non-functional on Microsoft's operating systems.
Which is why everyone in the late eighty's computer scene knew that...
DOS Ain't done,
til Lotus won't run!
LoL.
p ostse ws/2006/06/25/wsaudi25.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/25 /ixnews.html
As if stopping "meddling" in the middle east would even begin to solve the problem. Not all islamics are middle eastern. Just wearing bikini's in the states are enough to piss them off. Just not believing "Allhu Akbar" is justification enough to do these things.
The occasional wackjob is not the problem. There are christian crazies, atheist crazies, and probably bhuddist and hindu crazies. The problem with islamics is that the *sane* ones by their own belief systems head large organizations with the resources to perform these acts and they really really do want to kill us.
As Khomeni said, "Those who advocate peace with Islam are fools of this century."
Small isolated wackos who would be turned in by members of their own religion just can't do much effectively. Sane people taught from birth that we are evil don't need poverty or "meddling" in their countries as a reason to kill us. They didn't have a chance- they were corrupted towards murder and death before their brains were finished developing.*
And anyway- the powers that be (corporations and near nobility multi-national rich) don't care that we get attacked anyway so meddling in your countries (and our countries) are not going to stop. Blowing us up kills a few of us but the corporations are immortal and soulless. The multi-national rich have allegience to no country or creed. In fact, it's probably in their interest to KEEP you stirred up since then we'll all buy weapons (from the military-industrial complex as foreseen by Dwight Eisenhower). Ask yourself- if most democrats, republicans and libertarians in america favor closing our southern border and the republicans *know* it will probably cost them many elections this fall- why are both parties ignoring this issue? Could it be because the wealthy and the corporations want cheap labor and they control both parties in power in the US?
*
http://www.textbookleague.org/121musm.htm
Sowing Seeds of Hatred
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1307263/
The Palestinian schoolbooks: Planting seeds of the next war
http://www.teachkidspeace.org/doc3516.php
Teach Kids Peace - Saudi Education: Hatred of Christians & Jews
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/n
Christians still 'swine' and Jews 'apes' in Saudi schools