Seriously? Writing and dialogue does not need any budget?
This is Slashdot - All content must be free, created by artists working for free. The smallest nods might be given towards costs for hardware to create, but NEVER towards funding creativity. That flows 'freely' out of the hearts of the creators.
I was recently involved in trying to send a USB HDD through the mail from the US to Canada. Unsuccessful several times
Odd. We frequently ship hard drives in both directions between our American and Canadian offices. Never had a problem. Granted, we rarely use USPS or Canada Post... Almost always FedEx or UPS.
With all the crap they deploy at the borders, from X-Ray to T-Ray Imaging
I've crossed the US border by land and air hundreds of times, at many different crossing points, and I've never once seen X-Ray or T-Ray imagining used by the CBP.
why doesn't one of these soldiers just end their collective misery and put a bullet so to speak in the problem?
Because the soldier doesn't know his life is any worse than any other soldier in the world, and he doesn't know his leader isn't like every other leader.
Would you be willing to accept that "expensive culture that requires lots of full time work by professionals" won't persist without a way to monetize it?
Of course they won't. This is Slashdot. Everyone here seems to think a season of Portlandia could easily be shot, edited and mixed by a couple of dedicated hipsters over a long weekend using their Canon EOS and a Macbook.
my younger friends (in their 20's) not only don't have POTS phone service anymore (its all cell phones) but they don't subscribe to tv packages, either. they get a data connection, they download what they want and that's that.
Do they pay for the content they download? If not, in 20 years, when those 20 somethings are 40 somethings, who is going to generate the content?
Come by and get the 35" tube TV in my closet while you're at it. I can't give that away.
I put my 35" TV out in the sidewalk with a 'free' sign on it, then put an ad on Craigslist-Free saying there's a free TV on the corner of X and Y. 20 minutes later a hipster was wheeling it away on his skateboard.
by now I assume that the US is at least as invasive as North Korea, but it's OK when Amerika does it apparently.
Oh for f*ck's sake. Go send your friend an email that says "I think Obama is an idiot." Then wait until the FBI knocks on your door. Here's a tip: You'll be waiting a LONG time.
Then go to North Korea and send an email that says "I think Kim Jong-un is an idiot." Chances are good you'll be in a gulag (without a trial) before your friend gets the email, and once he does he'll go to jail too.
Frankly, I'm not surprised. I amazed many more Americans don't live in Hawaii. I realize there are many reasons people live where they do - Family and friend connections, employment, intertia... But man, if it was easy for me to move to Hawaii I'd be there in a shot. It's just such an agreeable place - Particulary places like Kauai.
It is like that "your friends are only 6 friends away" crap
You're reading it wrong. It's not that 'friends' are six friends away, it's that every other person on FB is connected by a max of six other connections (or whatever). So if you were to connect to me, it would take a max of six connections. LinkedIn actually demonstrates this pretty well when you search a random person.
Then why is the USA the only country using indirect elections?
While I think the electoral college is pretty nutty, in defense of the USA, they're not alone in their use of indirect elections.
Virtually every jurisdiction using the Westminster Parliamentary System (mostly Commonwealth countries like the Canada, Australia, the UK etc.) use indirect elections.
A riding ('district') elects a Member of Parliament (MP) who heads off to the legislature. The party with the most number of MPs form government, and the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister. So in that sense, the PM is 'indirectly elected.'
What you are witnessing is the disintegration of American secondary education.
My (Canadian) brother married an American. Once their (American-born) kids were of a 'certain' age, they moved back to Canada, for exactly this reason. They were appalled at the degradation of American public education, and they saw their options as being 1) paying gazillions they didn't have for private school, 2) home schooling with the loss of all the resultant good stuff that comes from going to school or 3) putting their kids in public school and having them wind up with an inferior education.
So now the kids are enrolled in public school here in Vancouver.
A family (with or without kids) where there are two adults each making $75K a year should be able to afford $50,000 for a car
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Buy a $30,000 car and give the remaining $20,000 to charity. $20K can do a lot of good in Africa - You could send a whole village of girls to school for $20K, you could fund a LOT of Kiva loans for $20K. That's the sort of thing that makes a real difference in this world.
I know I'll get flamed, because on Slashdot 'looking nice' means wearing socks with your Tevas (preferably black), but there are a few basic things men of a certain age should have - One of them is a nice watch. I have an Omega Seamaster that I've worn pretty much every day for the past seven years. I just can't see the need to put a portable computer on my wrist - It just screams 'unprofessional.'
you know that little buzzer or dinger that goes off incessantly whenever I leave the lights on or don't buckle up and you think it's a "feature"?
It's absolutely a feature. Unlike the good ol' days I no longer mistakenly leave my lights on (although it's always been a big of a puzzle to me why the lights don't turn off with the ignition, like the wipers and fan, but whatever), never leave the key in the ignition and I always wear my seatbelt, so the seatbelt beep is irrelevant.
PS Oh yeah and next time just pull out the fuse. While I'm sure the hammer and coals and all that is cathartic, it's rather unnecessary.
American democracy is far more powerful to effect change than that Colt.45 under your pillow ever will be. Why will we see immigration reform in the USA in the next four years? Because Latinos vote. Why has the Republican party gone loony? Because Tea Partiers vote. Why is weed legal in Washington state? Because of the vote. If you want your rights back stop buying guns and start unelecting the people who are taking them away, and make it clear why you are unelecting them.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously? Writing and dialogue does not need any budget?
This is Slashdot - All content must be free, created by artists working for free. The smallest nods might be given towards costs for hardware to create, but NEVER towards funding creativity. That flows 'freely' out of the hearts of the creators.
I was recently involved in trying to send a USB HDD through the mail from the US to Canada. Unsuccessful several times
Odd. We frequently ship hard drives in both directions between our American and Canadian offices. Never had a problem. Granted, we rarely use USPS or Canada Post... Almost always FedEx or UPS.
With all the crap they deploy at the borders, from X-Ray to T-Ray Imaging
I've crossed the US border by land and air hundreds of times, at many different crossing points, and I've never once seen X-Ray or T-Ray imagining used by the CBP.
What, dare I ask, is a salad shooter?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvL-I3Dfeqc
the leadership in both countries is intelligent and rational. It'll work in Israel/Iran for exactly the same reason
The Iranian leadership is 'intelligent and rational?'
What have you been smoking?
why doesn't one of these soldiers just end their collective misery and put a bullet so to speak in the problem?
Because the soldier doesn't know his life is any worse than any other soldier in the world, and he doesn't know his leader isn't like every other leader.
Only as long as it takes to convince China that they need our purchasing power
China's buyers aren't going anywhere soon. NK could nuke Seattle and we'd still be salivating for the latest iPhone, big-screen TV and salad shooter.
Lighters are not
Incorrect.
Lighters are permitted, just not torch-style, which makes lighting my cigars a little more tricky.
Would you be willing to accept that "expensive culture that requires lots of full time work by professionals" won't persist without a way to monetize it?
Of course they won't. This is Slashdot. Everyone here seems to think a season of Portlandia could easily be shot, edited and mixed by a couple of dedicated hipsters over a long weekend using their Canon EOS and a Macbook.
my younger friends (in their 20's) not only don't have POTS phone service anymore (its all cell phones) but they don't subscribe to tv packages, either. they get a data connection, they download what they want and that's that.
Do they pay for the content they download? If not, in 20 years, when those 20 somethings are 40 somethings, who is going to generate the content?
Ah Commercial Drive
Mount Pleasant actually, but close enough.
Come by and get the 35" tube TV in my closet while you're at it. I can't give that away.
I put my 35" TV out in the sidewalk with a 'free' sign on it, then put an ad on Craigslist-Free saying there's a free TV on the corner of X and Y. 20 minutes later a hipster was wheeling it away on his skateboard.
I'll bet you my US Robotics modem this is simply about layoffs. Laying off people is expensive - However, if they quit, well that's much cheaper.
"You have to come into the office now."
"Come into the office? No way. I quit."
by now I assume that the US is at least as invasive as North Korea, but it's OK when Amerika does it apparently.
Oh for f*ck's sake. Go send your friend an email that says "I think Obama is an idiot." Then wait until the FBI knocks on your door. Here's a tip: You'll be waiting a LONG time.
Then go to North Korea and send an email that says "I think Kim Jong-un is an idiot." Chances are good you'll be in a gulag (without a trial) before your friend gets the email, and once he does he'll go to jail too.
Frankly, I'm not surprised. I amazed many more Americans don't live in Hawaii. I realize there are many reasons people live where they do - Family and friend connections, employment, intertia... But man, if it was easy for me to move to Hawaii I'd be there in a shot. It's just such an agreeable place - Particulary places like Kauai.
It is like that "your friends are only 6 friends away" crap
You're reading it wrong. It's not that 'friends' are six friends away, it's that every other person on FB is connected by a max of six other connections (or whatever). So if you were to connect to me, it would take a max of six connections. LinkedIn actually demonstrates this pretty well when you search a random person.
Then why is the USA the only country using indirect elections?
While I think the electoral college is pretty nutty, in defense of the USA, they're not alone in their use of indirect elections.
Virtually every jurisdiction using the Westminster Parliamentary System (mostly Commonwealth countries like the Canada, Australia, the UK etc.) use indirect elections.
A riding ('district') elects a Member of Parliament (MP) who heads off to the legislature. The party with the most number of MPs form government, and the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister. So in that sense, the PM is 'indirectly elected.'
Alec Guinness pulled it off as old Ben Kenobi in Episode 4.
"Episode 4?" F*ck off. Guinness pulled it off in Star Wars. Now get off my lawn.
Oh and BTW, Guinness's age when Star Wars was released? 63. Ford turned 63 in 2005.
What you are witnessing is the disintegration of American secondary education.
My (Canadian) brother married an American. Once their (American-born) kids were of a 'certain' age, they moved back to Canada, for exactly this reason. They were appalled at the degradation of American public education, and they saw their options as being 1) paying gazillions they didn't have for private school, 2) home schooling with the loss of all the resultant good stuff that comes from going to school or 3) putting their kids in public school and having them wind up with an inferior education.
So now the kids are enrolled in public school here in Vancouver.
A family (with or without kids) where there are two adults each making $75K a year should be able to afford $50,000 for a car
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Buy a $30,000 car and give the remaining $20,000 to charity. $20K can do a lot of good in Africa - You could send a whole village of girls to school for $20K, you could fund a LOT of Kiva loans for $20K. That's the sort of thing that makes a real difference in this world.
I know I'll get flamed, because on Slashdot 'looking nice' means wearing socks with your Tevas (preferably black), but there are a few basic things men of a certain age should have - One of them is a nice watch. I have an Omega Seamaster that I've worn pretty much every day for the past seven years. I just can't see the need to put a portable computer on my wrist - It just screams 'unprofessional.'
you know that little buzzer or dinger that goes off incessantly whenever I leave the lights on or don't buckle up and you think it's a "feature"?
It's absolutely a feature. Unlike the good ol' days I no longer mistakenly leave my lights on (although it's always been a big of a puzzle to me why the lights don't turn off with the ignition, like the wipers and fan, but whatever), never leave the key in the ignition and I always wear my seatbelt, so the seatbelt beep is irrelevant.
PS Oh yeah and next time just pull out the fuse. While I'm sure the hammer and coals and all that is cathartic, it's rather unnecessary.
Transparent dishwashers!
American democracy is far more powerful to effect change than that Colt .45 under your pillow ever will be. Why will we see immigration reform in the USA in the next four years? Because Latinos vote. Why has the Republican party gone loony? Because Tea Partiers vote. Why is weed legal in Washington state? Because of the vote. If you want your rights back stop buying guns and start unelecting the people who are taking them away, and make it clear why you are unelecting them.
The whole point to the 2nd Amendment is that it gives the people the ability to defend their unalienable rights if need be
How?