Wikipedia is being held to an unfair standard. When is the last time any of you who have complained about not being allowed to cite wikipedia have cited Britannica, Encarta, or some other "accepted" encyclopedia? Are you out of grade school? Encylopedias should NEVER be cited in an academic work. They are a generic reference that allows a researcher who has absolutely 0 knowledge of a subject gain the necessary background to begin an effective research campaign. This is akin to having a friend tell you what search terms to plug into google to find material for your paper - you don't cite your friend either. I remember being taught to question bias in Britannica before the internet became popular. Wikipedia has bias. It has errors. It is by no means an authoritative source. Yet it summarizes basic facts and timelines well, and often gives one everything necessary to perform a deeper search - often begun with the citations at the bottom of each article. It fascinates me that Wikipedia because of its open nature is being held to a far higher standard than other encyclopedias. This seems to hold true of Linux as well. If an open source system shipped with as few bells and whistles as say...XP (ie, no office, no pdf reader, no CD burning software, etc) it would be held up as a failure in the mass media. (although I'm sure the enlightened readership of slashdot would ignore the hype) So why should there be a higher expectation of something that is FREE than something that one PAYS FOR? This seems bass ackwards to me. Recognizing that this perception exists, how do we go about changing it? Advertising? Viral Marketing? Light-brights? I realize not every OS, encylopedia, etc is right for everyone; but they should at least be evaluated on a level playing field.
Ummm no. Read the parent's wiki link. "[Algae] span more than one domain, including both Eukaryota and Bacteria (see Blue-green algae), as well as more than one kingdom, including plants and protists." The "algae" classed as Bacteria (with a capital B) are phylogenically further removed from those eukaryotes known as plants (Kingdom: Plantae) than are animals (Kingdom: Animalia). As Bacteria and Archaea were the sole living organisms on the planet for nearly 4 Billion years (compared with the mere 2 Billion years for single-celled eukaryotes from which all multicelled plants and animals eventually evolved). It is Bacteria that are responsible for the creation of an aerobic atmosphere. To learn more, I highly recommend a basic microbiology course - you'd be amazed at the capabilities of single celled organisms.
When I did SAR in Alaska, a good weather forecast was essential. It didn't take long to realize that every source for information analyzed their data differently and came up with slightly different conclusions. The solution? Learn to forcast yourself. Learn to read an isobar map, learn to predict wind/temp/precip for your local area and you'll get a far more accurate feel for what's going to happen than any regional analysis could give you. Practice locally - you'll learn what worked and what didn't, then apply it to other locations. When I went to a friends wedding in Minnesota, I was able to predict when the rain would start to within 5 minutes - just enough time for the outdoor ceremony to be performed.
I usually try to get a quick feel for what they use their computer for (are you a gamer? do you need to connect to a business network?) then I either recommend a distro - or don't. Linux isn't for everyone, regardless of my personal views on the matter. For those who's computer needs won't warrant endless amounts of tweaking to get basic functionality from the perspective of that specific user, I recommend a liveCD and normally offer my email address as a POC for any questions. It's amazing how people's attitudes change when they feel they have help. Additionally, this is a great introduction to linux as a "community". When they have questions, I work with them on finding solutions - easing them into the eclectic and often uncivil world of help forums, irc, and the like. Finally, for those prospective linux users who feel the learning curve may be too steep, I tell them they can expect to spend as much time learning linux as they did learning windows, but with the added benefit that something learned or tweaked stays that way and doesn't need to be reaccomplished with every forced update, security flaw, or patch. In other words, the learning curve is standard, but the maintenance curve rapidly approaches 0 as one's skills improve. To sum up, don't "sell" linux by explaining how "Windoze sucks" or how "you can manually configure the kernel". Sell linux by finding the customers needs, expectations, and problems and "fitting" the strengths of specific distros, wms, etc to that customer.
looks like there might be a problem in your xorg.conf. It shouldn't drop you to command line, but it should bring you back to the login screen of your GUI of choice.
it restarts the xserver and consequently, the window manager. It is useful if you are playing around with hardware configurations in/etc/X11/xorg.conf and want to apply changes without rebooting.
IM Client : Kopete and Gaim are the biggest names, although there are others. Both work fairly well with windows messenger.
Family tree software: GRAMPS
I've spent a good deal of time advocating for linux among family and friends with mixed results. "Aunt Tilly" or "Grandma" have no problems with Linux - they even prefer it because I can remove a great deal of clutter that makes it hard to "use the internet". All Tilly and Grandma need is painless technical support for little things like: "How do I find this picture of my." Heck, the local coffehouses and bookstores have linux computers running and nobody seems to have noticed that it's "not windows". I've had little trouble with extremely computer saavy people either, many of whom already run *nix or BSD. The few who still run windows have valid reasons for doing so (primarily for windows software development). It's the middle range that I've had the most problems with. Engineering students exposed to an ancient version of redhat on university computers are rapidly turned off. Relatives who run businesses invariably ask "does it run X or is there an equivalent?". Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no. Among the college crowd - "does it run Y new game?" Linux is making progress, but it hasn't won. Yes the OS is important, but applications are important too. Openoffice is getting there - slowly but surely. The GIMP and Krita will hopefully keep bouncing off each other until they come up with a viable photoshop alternative (I've tried to convert several professional photographers who just couldn't do what they needed with the *nix apps.) Other MANDATORY equivalent programs include: AutoCAD, ArcGIS (yes, I know about GRASS), email clients that seamlessly support exchange accounts, AD interfacing, and Visual Studio. These are applications that I have had to admit are lacking in Linux - even after demonstrating the closest equivalent - time and time again. If we are serious about making linux a viable windows alternative, we have to give the users what they want - not what we think they should have. And before I get flamed with "they just want IM or MySpace", read the rest of this comment and recognize that we have the opportunity to make better, more capable software for BUSINESS users who will then go home and become frustrated with the inadequacies of windows. If linux is built by the "community" then let's expand the community to INCLUDE non-geeks and the technologically ignorant who (believe it or not) can have some great ideas and who make up the target market anyway.
From TFA There was no immediate word on the contents of the device, but officials told CBS 5 Tuesday that the debris left behind was not radiological.
This was my first worry..... but the article failed to mention whether hackers, teens, or radical islamofacistantiglobalisticexpialidocious terrorists may or may not have been involved.
So what's the solution? Big artificial carbon converters. It would be terribly inefficient to plant another billion trees, and that's what the planet needs to handle all the carbon that modern human activity spews into the air.
Trees? If I remember my microbiology classes correctly, most CO2 fixation occurs in the ocean via phytoplankton and photosynthetic algae or bacteria. Trees only account for a small percentage. I'm more concerned with the amount of CO2 we expel changing the pH of the ocean and killing off all these unicellular organisms.
The only thing holding me back from Opera is lack of an AdBlock equivalent. I'm surprised more browsers haven't picked up on this. I switched to firefox before it was even called firefox because it was light, fast, and extremely configurable. I like having the ability to customize my browsing environment to fit the way I use the internet. Unfortunately, I've been plagued recently (v1.5) with random freezes and crashes, memory problems, and have even had FF disable my sound driver! I find myself using Opera more and more often, but until there's an adblock equivalent, I'll never switch completely. For all FF's faults, not being spammed with gazillions of flashing and blinking ads on every page I visit goes a long way to redeeming the bugs.
The 1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both," is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of 'law enforcement.'
They had an Air Force in 1878? Wow, they told me when I enlisted that we were founded in 1947.
Close - The human race has a problem with responsibility. Many of these addictions have classic biochemical or genetic causes, but others merely require a little willpower to overcome. Almost all of them require an initial act of curiosity or cowardice to initiate. It's easy to blame a videogame for "ruining your life" - almost as easy as not facing day-to-day hardships by playing the game in the first place. In the US at least, personal responsibility is nearly extinct. Until we, as a people, start to assume responsibility for our own actions rather than immediately blame them on others, this is only going to get worse.
This is just one more circumstance where the gov't exploits the ignorance of citizens with simple "rocket bad - go boom" arguements akin to Orwell's "Four legs good, two legs bad". Other posters have pointed out how other household chemicals and (of course) gasoline can make nice booms too. What hasn't been mentioned, is how EVERYTHING is a chemical! Ever seen a silo explode? Ever tossed flour into a fire? (Don't DO this - it's dangerous) You can level buildings with little more than it takes to bake a cake. It doesn't take a lot of brains or education to kill someone or wreak havoc in a "civilized" but panicky society. No amount of regulation is going to stop people from coming up with ways to make explosions. All these regulations accomplish is the generation of irrational fears and the erosion of innocuous but "related" civil rights. They merely make people more fearful, and more irrational so that the next time someone says "boo" more regulations and restrictions can be placed upon each of us "for our own protection from ourselves".
I thought the suspension of habeas corpus only applies to foreign nationals ("aliens" in the bill), not US citizens. While this doesn't make the bill any more morally justifiable, there is a big leap between "disappearing" citizens for which our own gov't is responsible and those of other states. I agree that the bill is disturbing, but unless it applies equally to Americans, I wouldn't start the revolution just yet.
The source code for all of ZERT's unofficial fixes will be released along with the testing methodologies used during the patch preparation.
Now it appears to me that this is an open source solution to a proprietary problem. Isn't this what the OSS crowd has said all along - that the OSS side gets patches out in a much more timely manner? Also, does anybody know what license is being attached to these patches?
With all the rhetoric on this site referring to coders as "artists", I have to wonder why the rules are different from say, an oil painter. A painter, by default, retains all rights to an original work. If a work is commissioned, however, the rights go automatically to the commissioner, not the artist, unless another agreement is worked out in advance. Why such different rules for artists and programmers?
While I agree he was an excellent military commander, I must disagree with much of your comment. The republic was in a state of civil war, but neither side was out to destroy the republic. Both sides wanted greater influence and stature in the government, but neither was looking to be dictator for life. Sulla "saved" the republic by marching his army into the city of Rome and establishing himself as dictator at the point of a sword. He was not "enabled" by the deference of the people, but by his habit of proscribing, exiling, or executing those who dissented. The precedent he set enabled Caesar to later justify his crossing of the Rubicon to his troops. As shown by other events in history, civil war does not necessarily result in the complete overthrow (Republic to Empire) of a government. Had Sulla not set the precedent of assuming supreme executive authority via use of the army and had simply served his 6 month stint as dictator before returning control of the republic to the senate, then the Triumvirate and subsequent empire may have been avoided by a different political and social climate. Sulla was not a brilliant politician. He was a capable soldier. His social programs were neither revolutionary nor long lasting. His consolidation of power was formulaic. Personal brilliance is therefore questionable (especially when compared with Caesar, or even the much maligned Catiline) as is the "public's" (are you refering to the plebs, patricians, equites, tribunes or senators?) "gratitude" for his actions. Rome was not facing "extinction" as the social wars were civil. Sulla's actions made the collapse of the republic inevitable, as it would be unreasonable to assume that a future leader would not use the precedent of trumping the word of the senate and the rule of law via military force.
Umm...Rome did not start with the Triumvirate. As point of fact, the triumvirate was the last gasp of the Roman republic upon which much of our current governmental system is based. As I've said in other posts, Bush is akin to Sulla. He thinks he's singlehandedly saving the nation, but in reality is setting the precedents that allowed the Triumvirs, Dictators-for-life, Princeps, and finally Imperators (from which we get emperors) to take control and successfully dismantle the republic. Bush brought the army into Rome, but I fear those who will emulate him far more. We have disabled nearly every one of the safety mechanisms installed in our constitution by the founding fathers precisely to avoid the predicament we're in now. Checks have failed, and balance is little more than an idealist's memory. It's only a matter of time until a populist crosses the Rubicon in the name of restoration and reform. Once such an event occurs, it will be many generations before the people regain the power they passively handed to the tyrants. As for myself....I shall be Cicero - the last voice of the republic. (Yes, I know he was killed in the end as the Triumvirs shook hands and silenced dissenters.) I shall make one small change, however. I shall offer hope for the future where Cicero looked only to the past. I neither cast my fate with the Caesars, nor glorify our history. In the words of another visionary..."I have a dream.............".
I have studied Latin, German, and Spanish and have had some exposure to Russian, Korean, French, Italian and Portugese. I find that languages are not difficult to learn when students are taught properly to begin with. Schools all too often rely on rote memorization of rules and exeptions, rather than upon phoenetics and pattern recognition when first teaching students to read. When it comes time for advanced education in grammar, most schools ignore the subject completely or review basic SVO constructions ad nauseum. I had the benefit of learning English properly when I was young. I was taught phonetics first, and learned exeptions as I encountered them. When I was taught grammar, I was taught to distinguish the pluperfect from the imperfect and the nominative from the accusative. When I began to study Latin in college (a language that IMHO should still be required in middle schools) it was not difficult to apply these patterns to a new language. The only memorization required of me was vocabulary. Following Latin, I enrolled in a German class which followed the more conventional "conversational" instruction methodology. I, and most of my fellow students, struggled with this although few of us could specifically state the reason for this difficulty. The reason was simple, more time was being spent learning to say "hello" and "where is the bathroom?" that rules and patterns were neglected. On the first day of Latin, we began with the first conjugation. We didn't reach simple German conjugations for over a week! The difficulty is not in the languages, it's in the methods of instruction and the educational backgrounds of the students. While there are concepts that are unique to specific languages, I find that no language as a whole is uniformly more difficult than any other.
Just as a point of clarification...."minimally concious" is different from the "persistent vegetative state" ascribed by physicians to Terri Schiavo. The EEG and CAT scan of the former show a viable, though damaged, brain with persistent activity that remains even while the patient is unresponsive (which is not the same as unconcious). The EEG and CAT scan of the latter show no viable brain activity above the brain stem and no amount of "rewiring" will change matters. Using the analogy of a (simplified) power grid, the first is like knocking out a couple of distribution stations, the second is like knocking out the dam...the water still flows but it serves no useful function.
The disproportionate sacrifice of an individual for the sake of the whole is a poor lesson indeed. Our society is based upon individual rights, and the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. The kid did indeed deserve to be punished, but not for some abstract notion of environmental integrity. He erred by using an obiously inflammatory statement without any redeeming contexual substance in a forum where he could reasonably expect adverse consequences. This is akin to poking a dog with a stick - one can reasonably expect to be bitten. This student should have been given counseling on socially acceptable means of expressing anger and frustration. He should have been directed to "teach" other students about why something like this is unacceptable. He should not have been expelled. We supposedly send wrongdoers to a "corrections" facility so they can be "rehabilitated" and reintroduced to society. How is expulsion going to correct or rehabilitate this student? His behaviour is obiously condoned by his parents, and as such is far more likely to be swept under the rug at home, while counseling and the like would keep this from happening. Additionally, he'll be a hero when he gets back. The school has created a martyr and probably a future troublemaker by taking the easy way out.
As for the "integrity of the learning environment"......I remember being a student and finding blatant factual errors in the teaching material. I remember calling the teacher's attention to these errors (with references) after class away from the presence of other students and being told not to repeat my actions as they "questioned the course's integrity". The learning environment has little to do with learning and everything to do with conforming. Learning comes from trial and error. Learning comes from making mistakes. Learning comes from curiosity and experience. Learning does not come from rote memorization, reading on topics that are uninteresting and unrelated to whatever one IS interested in, or taking and retaking test after test after test. Learning is an outlook on life that has nothing whatsoever to do with the classroom. Aside from a few basic math skills, I can recall nothing that I learned in school that I use to this day. School taught me to avoid bullies, to keep my mouth shut, to walk in a straight line, to follow a bell. School did not teach me about the world. I learned that at home, through coversation, reading, watching news, interacting with people who disagreed with me and with whom I disagreed. Knowledge of trivia is not knowledge. Being able to defend one's beliefs and opinions, and being open to changing these in the light of new experiences is knowledge.
So let me get this straight..... If a private beats an Iraqi without cause, his platoon Sergeant and Captain are responsible for his conduct and at a bare minimum deserve a reprimand. Yet when we extend this view of responsibility to the home front, say to a parent and child, then we can suddenly think of a million excuses for getting the parents off the hook. IMHO, these parents, whether good or bad, showed a severe lapse in judgement and are ultimately responsible for ANY action of the daughter. Such is life. That having been said, however, the daughter bears a great deal of responsibility for her own actions. Unfortunately, our legal system doesn't have a lot of tolerance for gray areas. As for the accused? He's as responsible as anyone else. Sorry, but regardless of whether she lied or not, he does bear responsibility for not looking a little deeper. He doesn't have to check an ID, but anything more than a cursory knowledge of the girl's history should have revealed her lack of life experience. Next time he should think with his other head. Moral of the story? Everybody put your fingers down. All three parties bear some amount of responsibility and should shoulder some amount of the penalty. End of rant.
And of course none of these pseudo-economic "analyses" take into account the near "necessity" of having high speed internet access today. This is a factor that the free market junkies keep forgetting. Supply and Demand doesn't work properly when people are required by rule or circumstance to purchase the product. Insurance is a great example of requirement by rule, and telecoms are great examples of requirement by cicumstance. This is one of the few instances where a properly balanced gov't (which only exists in the ideal) should begin to distribute the product at little to no charge using our tax dollars. Once a product becomes a public necessity, the market economy fails and an alternative becomes necessary.
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Wikipedia is being held to an unfair standard. When is the last time any of you who have complained about not being allowed to cite wikipedia have cited Britannica, Encarta, or some other "accepted" encyclopedia? Are you out of grade school? Encylopedias should NEVER be cited in an academic work. They are a generic reference that allows a researcher who has absolutely 0 knowledge of a subject gain the necessary background to begin an effective research campaign. This is akin to having a friend tell you what search terms to plug into google to find material for your paper - you don't cite your friend either. I remember being taught to question bias in Britannica before the internet became popular. Wikipedia has bias. It has errors. It is by no means an authoritative source. Yet it summarizes basic facts and timelines well, and often gives one everything necessary to perform a deeper search - often begun with the citations at the bottom of each article. It fascinates me that Wikipedia because of its open nature is being held to a far higher standard than other encyclopedias. This seems to hold true of Linux as well. If an open source system shipped with as few bells and whistles as say...XP (ie, no office, no pdf reader, no CD burning software, etc) it would be held up as a failure in the mass media. (although I'm sure the enlightened readership of slashdot would ignore the hype) So why should there be a higher expectation of something that is FREE than something that one PAYS FOR? This seems bass ackwards to me. Recognizing that this perception exists, how do we go about changing it? Advertising? Viral Marketing? Light-brights? I realize not every OS, encylopedia, etc is right for everyone; but they should at least be evaluated on a level playing field.
Ummm no. Read the parent's wiki link. "[Algae] span more than one domain, including both Eukaryota and Bacteria (see Blue-green algae), as well as more than one kingdom, including plants and protists." The "algae" classed as Bacteria (with a capital B) are phylogenically further removed from those eukaryotes known as plants (Kingdom: Plantae) than are animals (Kingdom: Animalia). As Bacteria and Archaea were the sole living organisms on the planet for nearly 4 Billion years (compared with the mere 2 Billion years for single-celled eukaryotes from which all multicelled plants and animals eventually evolved). It is Bacteria that are responsible for the creation of an aerobic atmosphere. To learn more, I highly recommend a basic microbiology course - you'd be amazed at the capabilities of single celled organisms.
When I did SAR in Alaska, a good weather forecast was essential. It didn't take long to realize that every source for information analyzed their data differently and came up with slightly different conclusions. The solution? Learn to forcast yourself. Learn to read an isobar map, learn to predict wind/temp/precip for your local area and you'll get a far more accurate feel for what's going to happen than any regional analysis could give you. Practice locally - you'll learn what worked and what didn't, then apply it to other locations. When I went to a friends wedding in Minnesota, I was able to predict when the rain would start to within 5 minutes - just enough time for the outdoor ceremony to be performed.
I usually try to get a quick feel for what they use their computer for (are you a gamer? do you need to connect to a business network?) then I either recommend a distro - or don't. Linux isn't for everyone, regardless of my personal views on the matter. For those who's computer needs won't warrant endless amounts of tweaking to get basic functionality from the perspective of that specific user, I recommend a liveCD and normally offer my email address as a POC for any questions. It's amazing how people's attitudes change when they feel they have help. Additionally, this is a great introduction to linux as a "community". When they have questions, I work with them on finding solutions - easing them into the eclectic and often uncivil world of help forums, irc, and the like. Finally, for those prospective linux users who feel the learning curve may be too steep, I tell them they can expect to spend as much time learning linux as they did learning windows, but with the added benefit that something learned or tweaked stays that way and doesn't need to be reaccomplished with every forced update, security flaw, or patch. In other words, the learning curve is standard, but the maintenance curve rapidly approaches 0 as one's skills improve. To sum up, don't "sell" linux by explaining how "Windoze sucks" or how "you can manually configure the kernel". Sell linux by finding the customers needs, expectations, and problems and "fitting" the strengths of specific distros, wms, etc to that customer.
looks like there might be a problem in your xorg.conf. It shouldn't drop you to command line, but it should bring you back to the login screen of your GUI of choice.
it restarts the xserver and consequently, the window manager. It is useful if you are playing around with hardware configurations in /etc/X11/xorg.conf and want to apply changes without rebooting.
IM Client : Kopete and Gaim are the biggest names, although there are others. Both work fairly well with windows messenger.
Family tree software: GRAMPS
I've spent a good deal of time advocating for linux among family and friends with mixed results. "Aunt Tilly" or "Grandma" have no problems with Linux - they even prefer it because I can remove a great deal of clutter that makes it hard to "use the internet". All Tilly and Grandma need is painless technical support for little things like: "How do I find this picture of my ." Heck, the local coffehouses and bookstores have linux computers running and nobody seems to have noticed that it's "not windows". I've had little trouble with extremely computer saavy people either, many of whom already run *nix or BSD. The few who still run windows have valid reasons for doing so (primarily for windows software development). It's the middle range that I've had the most problems with. Engineering students exposed to an ancient version of redhat on university computers are rapidly turned off. Relatives who run businesses invariably ask "does it run X or is there an equivalent?". Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no. Among the college crowd - "does it run Y new game?" Linux is making progress, but it hasn't won. Yes the OS is important, but applications are important too. Openoffice is getting there - slowly but surely. The GIMP and Krita will hopefully keep bouncing off each other until they come up with a viable photoshop alternative (I've tried to convert several professional photographers who just couldn't do what they needed with the *nix apps.) Other MANDATORY equivalent programs include: AutoCAD, ArcGIS (yes, I know about GRASS), email clients that seamlessly support exchange accounts, AD interfacing, and Visual Studio. These are applications that I have had to admit are lacking in Linux - even after demonstrating the closest equivalent - time and time again. If we are serious about making linux a viable windows alternative, we have to give the users what they want - not what we think they should have. And before I get flamed with "they just want IM or MySpace", read the rest of this comment and recognize that we have the opportunity to make better, more capable software for BUSINESS users who will then go home and become frustrated with the inadequacies of windows. If linux is built by the "community" then let's expand the community to INCLUDE non-geeks and the technologically ignorant who (believe it or not) can have some great ideas and who make up the target market anyway.
This was my first worry..... but the article failed to mention whether hackers, teens, or radical islamofacistantiglobalisticexpialidocious terrorists may or may not have been involved.
Trees? If I remember my microbiology classes correctly, most CO2 fixation occurs in the ocean via phytoplankton and photosynthetic algae or bacteria. Trees only account for a small percentage. I'm more concerned with the amount of CO2 we expel changing the pH of the ocean and killing off all these unicellular organisms.
The only thing holding me back from Opera is lack of an AdBlock equivalent. I'm surprised more browsers haven't picked up on this. I switched to firefox before it was even called firefox because it was light, fast, and extremely configurable. I like having the ability to customize my browsing environment to fit the way I use the internet. Unfortunately, I've been plagued recently (v1.5) with random freezes and crashes, memory problems, and have even had FF disable my sound driver! I find myself using Opera more and more often, but until there's an adblock equivalent, I'll never switch completely. For all FF's faults, not being spammed with gazillions of flashing and blinking ads on every page I visit goes a long way to redeeming the bugs.
They had an Air Force in 1878? Wow, they told me when I enlisted that we were founded in 1947.
Close - The human race has a problem with responsibility. Many of these addictions have classic biochemical or genetic causes, but others merely require a little willpower to overcome. Almost all of them require an initial act of curiosity or cowardice to initiate. It's easy to blame a videogame for "ruining your life" - almost as easy as not facing day-to-day hardships by playing the game in the first place. In the US at least, personal responsibility is nearly extinct. Until we, as a people, start to assume responsibility for our own actions rather than immediately blame them on others, this is only going to get worse.
This is just one more circumstance where the gov't exploits the ignorance of citizens with simple "rocket bad - go boom" arguements akin to Orwell's "Four legs good, two legs bad". Other posters have pointed out how other household chemicals and (of course) gasoline can make nice booms too. What hasn't been mentioned, is how EVERYTHING is a chemical! Ever seen a silo explode? Ever tossed flour into a fire? (Don't DO this - it's dangerous) You can level buildings with little more than it takes to bake a cake. It doesn't take a lot of brains or education to kill someone or wreak havoc in a "civilized" but panicky society. No amount of regulation is going to stop people from coming up with ways to make explosions. All these regulations accomplish is the generation of irrational fears and the erosion of innocuous but "related" civil rights. They merely make people more fearful, and more irrational so that the next time someone says "boo" more regulations and restrictions can be placed upon each of us "for our own protection from ourselves".
I thought the suspension of habeas corpus only applies to foreign nationals ("aliens" in the bill), not US citizens. While this doesn't make the bill any more morally justifiable, there is a big leap between "disappearing" citizens for which our own gov't is responsible and those of other states. I agree that the bill is disturbing, but unless it applies equally to Americans, I wouldn't start the revolution just yet.
Now it appears to me that this is an open source solution to a proprietary problem. Isn't this what the OSS crowd has said all along - that the OSS side gets patches out in a much more timely manner? Also, does anybody know what license is being attached to these patches?
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With all the rhetoric on this site referring to coders as "artists", I have to wonder why the rules are different from say, an oil painter. A painter, by default, retains all rights to an original work. If a work is commissioned, however, the rights go automatically to the commissioner, not the artist, unless another agreement is worked out in advance. Why such different rules for artists and programmers?
While I agree he was an excellent military commander, I must disagree with much of your comment. The republic was in a state of civil war, but neither side was out to destroy the republic. Both sides wanted greater influence and stature in the government, but neither was looking to be dictator for life. Sulla "saved" the republic by marching his army into the city of Rome and establishing himself as dictator at the point of a sword. He was not "enabled" by the deference of the people, but by his habit of proscribing, exiling, or executing those who dissented. The precedent he set enabled Caesar to later justify his crossing of the Rubicon to his troops. As shown by other events in history, civil war does not necessarily result in the complete overthrow (Republic to Empire) of a government. Had Sulla not set the precedent of assuming supreme executive authority via use of the army and had simply served his 6 month stint as dictator before returning control of the republic to the senate, then the Triumvirate and subsequent empire may have been avoided by a different political and social climate. Sulla was not a brilliant politician. He was a capable soldier. His social programs were neither revolutionary nor long lasting. His consolidation of power was formulaic. Personal brilliance is therefore questionable (especially when compared with Caesar, or even the much maligned Catiline) as is the "public's" (are you refering to the plebs, patricians, equites, tribunes or senators?) "gratitude" for his actions. Rome was not facing "extinction" as the social wars were civil. Sulla's actions made the collapse of the republic inevitable, as it would be unreasonable to assume that a future leader would not use the precedent of trumping the word of the senate and the rule of law via military force.
Umm...Rome did not start with the Triumvirate. As point of fact, the triumvirate was the last gasp of the Roman republic upon which much of our current governmental system is based. As I've said in other posts, Bush is akin to Sulla. He thinks he's singlehandedly saving the nation, but in reality is setting the precedents that allowed the Triumvirs, Dictators-for-life, Princeps, and finally Imperators (from which we get emperors) to take control and successfully dismantle the republic. Bush brought the army into Rome, but I fear those who will emulate him far more. We have disabled nearly every one of the safety mechanisms installed in our constitution by the founding fathers precisely to avoid the predicament we're in now. Checks have failed, and balance is little more than an idealist's memory. It's only a matter of time until a populist crosses the Rubicon in the name of restoration and reform. Once such an event occurs, it will be many generations before the people regain the power they passively handed to the tyrants. As for myself....I shall be Cicero - the last voice of the republic. (Yes, I know he was killed in the end as the Triumvirs shook hands and silenced dissenters.) I shall make one small change, however. I shall offer hope for the future where Cicero looked only to the past. I neither cast my fate with the Caesars, nor glorify our history. In the words of another visionary..."I have a dream.............".
I have studied Latin, German, and Spanish and have had some exposure to Russian, Korean, French, Italian and Portugese. I find that languages are not difficult to learn when students are taught properly to begin with. Schools all too often rely on rote memorization of rules and exeptions, rather than upon phoenetics and pattern recognition when first teaching students to read. When it comes time for advanced education in grammar, most schools ignore the subject completely or review basic SVO constructions ad nauseum. I had the benefit of learning English properly when I was young. I was taught phonetics first, and learned exeptions as I encountered them. When I was taught grammar, I was taught to distinguish the pluperfect from the imperfect and the nominative from the accusative. When I began to study Latin in college (a language that IMHO should still be required in middle schools) it was not difficult to apply these patterns to a new language. The only memorization required of me was vocabulary. Following Latin, I enrolled in a German class which followed the more conventional "conversational" instruction methodology. I, and most of my fellow students, struggled with this although few of us could specifically state the reason for this difficulty. The reason was simple, more time was being spent learning to say "hello" and "where is the bathroom?" that rules and patterns were neglected. On the first day of Latin, we began with the first conjugation. We didn't reach simple German conjugations for over a week! The difficulty is not in the languages, it's in the methods of instruction and the educational backgrounds of the students. While there are concepts that are unique to specific languages, I find that no language as a whole is uniformly more difficult than any other.
Just as a point of clarification...."minimally concious" is different from the "persistent vegetative state" ascribed by physicians to Terri Schiavo. The EEG and CAT scan of the former show a viable, though damaged, brain with persistent activity that remains even while the patient is unresponsive (which is not the same as unconcious). The EEG and CAT scan of the latter show no viable brain activity above the brain stem and no amount of "rewiring" will change matters. Using the analogy of a (simplified) power grid, the first is like knocking out a couple of distribution stations, the second is like knocking out the dam...the water still flows but it serves no useful function.
The disproportionate sacrifice of an individual for the sake of the whole is a poor lesson indeed. Our society is based upon individual rights, and the punishment is supposed to fit the crime. The kid did indeed deserve to be punished, but not for some abstract notion of environmental integrity. He erred by using an obiously inflammatory statement without any redeeming contexual substance in a forum where he could reasonably expect adverse consequences. This is akin to poking a dog with a stick - one can reasonably expect to be bitten. This student should have been given counseling on socially acceptable means of expressing anger and frustration. He should have been directed to "teach" other students about why something like this is unacceptable. He should not have been expelled. We supposedly send wrongdoers to a "corrections" facility so they can be "rehabilitated" and reintroduced to society. How is expulsion going to correct or rehabilitate this student? His behaviour is obiously condoned by his parents, and as such is far more likely to be swept under the rug at home, while counseling and the like would keep this from happening. Additionally, he'll be a hero when he gets back. The school has created a martyr and probably a future troublemaker by taking the easy way out.
As for the "integrity of the learning environment"......I remember being a student and finding blatant factual errors in the teaching material. I remember calling the teacher's attention to these errors (with references) after class away from the presence of other students and being told not to repeat my actions as they "questioned the course's integrity". The learning environment has little to do with learning and everything to do with conforming. Learning comes from trial and error. Learning comes from making mistakes. Learning comes from curiosity and experience. Learning does not come from rote memorization, reading on topics that are uninteresting and unrelated to whatever one IS interested in, or taking and retaking test after test after test. Learning is an outlook on life that has nothing whatsoever to do with the classroom. Aside from a few basic math skills, I can recall nothing that I learned in school that I use to this day. School taught me to avoid bullies, to keep my mouth shut, to walk in a straight line, to follow a bell. School did not teach me about the world. I learned that at home, through coversation, reading, watching news, interacting with people who disagreed with me and with whom I disagreed. Knowledge of trivia is not knowledge. Being able to defend one's beliefs and opinions, and being open to changing these in the light of new experiences is knowledge.
So let me get this straight..... If a private beats an Iraqi without cause, his platoon Sergeant and Captain are responsible for his conduct and at a bare minimum deserve a reprimand. Yet when we extend this view of responsibility to the home front, say to a parent and child, then we can suddenly think of a million excuses for getting the parents off the hook. IMHO, these parents, whether good or bad, showed a severe lapse in judgement and are ultimately responsible for ANY action of the daughter. Such is life. That having been said, however, the daughter bears a great deal of responsibility for her own actions. Unfortunately, our legal system doesn't have a lot of tolerance for gray areas. As for the accused? He's as responsible as anyone else. Sorry, but regardless of whether she lied or not, he does bear responsibility for not looking a little deeper. He doesn't have to check an ID, but anything more than a cursory knowledge of the girl's history should have revealed her lack of life experience. Next time he should think with his other head. Moral of the story? Everybody put your fingers down. All three parties bear some amount of responsibility and should shoulder some amount of the penalty. End of rant.
And of course none of these pseudo-economic "analyses" take into account the near "necessity" of having high speed internet access today. This is a factor that the free market junkies keep forgetting. Supply and Demand doesn't work properly when people are required by rule or circumstance to purchase the product. Insurance is a great example of requirement by rule, and telecoms are great examples of requirement by cicumstance. This is one of the few instances where a properly balanced gov't (which only exists in the ideal) should begin to distribute the product at little to no charge using our tax dollars. Once a product becomes a public necessity, the market economy fails and an alternative becomes necessary.