Thank you for eloquently stating what I could not.
Just one more comment:
if they choose not to wear a seatbelt, or if their diet consists of fatburgers and coke and nothing else
By saying that it's hard to measure health risk, my point was that we can measure not wearing a seatbelt (for example, by the amount of not-wearing-seatbelt traffic tickets). How can we determine what a person is eating? How many times have you been to the doctor and told them "oh yeah, I exercise 4 times a week, eat only lean meats, salad with no dressing, fruits and veg, etc.."?
All I'm saying is that not only would this single out people that have non-self-inflicted health problems, but it would also provide them with a lesser level of health care if it becomes too expensive. Smoking? Yes. Seatbelts? Yes. Cholesterol? No.
High cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose, could be valid measurements. Unless, of course, you're genetically predisposed to high cholesterol. The other problem I see with this is it's going to increase promotions for drugs, particularly cholesterol drugs, in a society where taking The Easy Way Out (tm) seems to be a de facto standard.
I think this sets a dangerous precedent. While I agree that people at high risk (of anything) should be charged more for insurance, health has too many variables to be able to accurately measure risk.
Fat percentage, in this case, might be the only possible solution. Anyone got any other suggestions?
This CD also contains names of people who signed up their site to have it shipped on the CD. I signed up my wife's name for Christmas, and every few months or so, we get an update. It's a gift that keeps on giving!
What do you do when there is no practical compromise?
As an example, my wife is _constantly_ on my computer. I set her up her own linux machine (she doesn't need much, just surfing the web, the occasional photoshop session, and email), but no, it's too damn slow for her. Granted, it is an older computer, but so what?! It does what she needs it to do! Meanwhile, I have to do my development on that computer, and of course, all the projects I have are now lagging.
The biggest mistake I ever made was giving her an account on my computer. Trust me, if there is something you don't want to share for some reason, NEVER EVER EVER make an exception under any circumstances, because that will become the rule.
I don't think the Indianapolis 500 is the ideal place to be promoting Linux, especially in the form of a tiny sticker on a car (or even if they had raised all the money, for an entire Tux500 car). I doubt anyone at the Indianapolis 500 is going to care about the fact that tux is represented on a car, beyond "hay look thar's a penguin on that thar car!"
By that logic, XM radio or Tag Heuer have no business sponsoring the Indy 500 either, but they do. So it must be a lucrative return on investment.
This kind of narrow-mindedness is EXACTLY why developers have no place promoting a product. I think the OP's point you missed (other than the fact that Slashdot is jumping on the tux500 bandwagon after refusing to run the story) is that we need to expose linux as a product, if we are serious about making it an alternative to Windows.
GNU/Linux isnt about commercialism, it's about the community, which is where this argument fails.
I agree. But, how do we "enlighten" non-geeks? From Ubuntu.com (as an example): "Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers.".
The laptop and desktop markets are saturated as it is. Breaking through requires name recognition. Name recognition requires advertising. Name recognition brings a larger community, and thus more funds. This is what Tux500 tried to accomplish.
As an aside, I'd like to comment on this:
At any rate, I know there was a smear campaign going around saying that the tux500 project was a scam, but there was really nothing conclusive.
I wanted to contribute, even if it was just $5 or $10. What made it impossible for me was the fact that the website doesn't (or didn't) have the email address of the organizer whom I wanted to ask questions about the fund raiser. I disagree with you calling it a smear campaign because, really, the site didn't do much to establish any sort of credibility.
In sports, it's irrelevant that it gives you no advantage - the point is, you cheated. Dale Earnhart Jr was reprimanded because his team used banned bolts on his spoiler. They probably didn't give any real advantage, but he broke the rules. It's stupid, yes (just like Stoudemire and Diaw getting suspended), but they broke the rules (and I'm not defending the Spurs by any means).
Break the rules, pay the price. Simple as that. I may not agree with the rules, and I'm all for going out and getting the rules changed, but don't complain when you intentionally break the rules and get reprimanded for that.
Agreed. That game actually inspired me to put real effort into learning Hangar 18. I'm about half way through, until about the 4th solo, right before Dave takes over. Marty was amazing.
Anyway, it's fun to play with other people who don't know how to play for real, like close friends who never had time to pick up guitar -- GH has a relatively flat learning curve (on the easy level) so you can both rock out and "deploy star power".
As far as dancing goes, you're on your own on that one hehe
-ik
P.S. Regarding: Heh I like all those bands:-P... Though my all-time fav is probably still Malmsteen.
The 80s had awesome metal. Pop Rock sucked in the 80s. Def Leppard and Journey are probably not the best examples to defend 80s rock. Van Halen is maybe the only good "rock" band out of the 80s, but only because Eddie revolutionized tapping. Oh yeah, I thought of another - Aerosmith is definitely decent.
But then look at metal bands: Rush (which paved the way for Dream Theater), Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica (shudder), Motorhead, and even Priest.
Anyhow, the real point of all this is that the only reason some of us like Guitar Hero is because some of the much harder songs (like Hangar 18 or YYZ) are damn near impossible to play on a real guitar. So instead of pretending like I'm a guitar virtuoso thinking I'm Steve Vai while my neighbors think I'm Kurt Cobain or that I left my guitar on while my cat is jumping up and down on it, I'd rather pretend and, hell, even have some fun with my wife because now we can BOTH mess around with it. And yes, I did just equate Kurt Cobain to a cat on the guitar -- he was a great songwriter, just not the greatest guitar player in the world.
Another example -- planet earth, now running on Discovery HD Theatre. An absolutely stunning piece of scientifically interesting video.
You know, I grew up in a different country in the early 80s, and these types of shows were shown daily on TV. Granted, the cinematography is prettier, but the essence and scientific material was there and still as exciting. Point is, you don't need a stunning piece of cinematography and HD programming to impress kids -- they have great imagination that should be explored and not spoon-fed.
Those National Geographic shows are becoming scarce nowadays, but Planet Earth has brought them back to life. But I think it's sad when the main advertising factor of a show about nature is the fact that it's broadcast in HD. Anyway, I'm thankful for PE even though I am slightly annoyed with the way it's narrated.
Yeah, this is great until servers start dying, and you won't be able to retrieve that 100-page dissertation you're working on when you need it. I realize that hard drives crash too, motherboards die, and memory blows up, but at least you can do something about it and not depend on a third party (i.e., make backups, liveCD, take your HD for data recovery).
When I first went on business travel, I dropped my laptop and I couldn't boot up the system. Thanks to Knoppix, I was able to access more than half of my hard drive and move the data to an external hard drive I then bought. Can you do this when Google goes down? How many of you have gotten the "Server unavailable" message from Google on Saturday nights???
The problems with this romantic notion that somehow the RIAA will die if enough indie bands start breaking through are the following:
1) Bands don't play music for free -- I am not suggesting that every band wants to get signed by a major label, but I suspect that lots do. Hey, my rights are worth a couple of million, right? Hell, I'd do it.
2) The RIAA has its roots set wayyyy too deep in the media business. It's definitely difficult to find a counter-weight to all that power, and Napster (and P2P) was just what the world needed until they found a way to shut it down. Indie artists are simply too small-time to affect the RIAA. Which brings me to my next point,
3) Reach. The reason indie bands are indie bands is because they don't have as much reach. RIAA has a world-wide reach, a world-wide audience, and world-wide advertising power. There are people in this world -- and I suspect a VERY LARGE percentage -- that don't know any other kind of music other than RIAA's labels' music.
So please, can we get off this indie-bands-will-kill-the-RIAA bandwagon, and start finding some real solutions to this imbalance of power???
Hey, four of those artists don't make new music anymore (Hendrix, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, and GNR). GNR's last album was around what, '92 (and no, Chinese Democracy does not count -- it's just not GNR without Slash).
The point is, there's only a limited number of albums, so by now you should have them all already, the end. Besides, you could have had them for free back in the napster days;)
So I think it's about as likely that the email messages in question got "accidentally" deleted as it is that the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was "accidentally" bombed.
If I had mod points, you'd get them just for that.
It doesn't mean a thing. In a deposition it's a totally inappropriate objection.
"I.e., the RIAA lawyer, hopefully out of inexperience rather than calculated dilatoriness, was wasting our precious time."
So, why do they raise these objections?? I can't imagine that they'd send an inexperienced lawyer to court... I didn't see the judge's responses -- do they not show up on the transcript (obviously, I know nothing about the mechanics of a trial/hearing/legal proceeding)? Also, why wouldn't the judge stop the other lawyer from raising the objections if they were totally inappropriate, and wasting the court's time? Judge Judy sure seems to hate people wasting her time....
As I was reading this transcript, every time an objection was raised, it made me lose my concentration a little. By the 8th page or so, it became VERY distracting. I couldn't help it but feel that this was a tactic to a) give the witness extra time to answer, and b) to disrupt the flow of the testimony.
With all due respect, you don't matter. None of us really matter.
And as far as gp's post is concerned, "taking out what really matters" implies that he'd take out the bomb-squad or whoever tried to defuse the device. They don't matter either.
No. The people that really matter would be nowhere near that device.
Slashdot Mirror
We could also spray it on Rosie O'Donnell and get the same effect.
Thank you for eloquently stating what I could not. Just one more comment: if they choose not to wear a seatbelt, or if their diet consists of fatburgers and coke and nothing else By saying that it's hard to measure health risk, my point was that we can measure not wearing a seatbelt (for example, by the amount of not-wearing-seatbelt traffic tickets). How can we determine what a person is eating? How many times have you been to the doctor and told them "oh yeah, I exercise 4 times a week, eat only lean meats, salad with no dressing, fruits and veg, etc.."? All I'm saying is that not only would this single out people that have non-self-inflicted health problems, but it would also provide them with a lesser level of health care if it becomes too expensive. Smoking? Yes. Seatbelts? Yes. Cholesterol? No.
High cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose, could be valid measurements. Unless, of course, you're genetically predisposed to high cholesterol. The other problem I see with this is it's going to increase promotions for drugs, particularly cholesterol drugs, in a society where taking The Easy Way Out (tm) seems to be a de facto standard.
I think this sets a dangerous precedent. While I agree that people at high risk (of anything) should be charged more for insurance, health has too many variables to be able to accurately measure risk.
Fat percentage, in this case, might be the only possible solution. Anyone got any other suggestions?
This CD also contains names of people who signed up their site to have it shipped on the CD. I signed up my wife's name for Christmas, and every few months or so, we get an update. It's a gift that keeps on giving!
Here's to a safe landing. Go little probe, go!
What do you do when there is no practical compromise? As an example, my wife is _constantly_ on my computer. I set her up her own linux machine (she doesn't need much, just surfing the web, the occasional photoshop session, and email), but no, it's too damn slow for her. Granted, it is an older computer, but so what?! It does what she needs it to do! Meanwhile, I have to do my development on that computer, and of course, all the projects I have are now lagging. The biggest mistake I ever made was giving her an account on my computer. Trust me, if there is something you don't want to share for some reason, NEVER EVER EVER make an exception under any circumstances, because that will become the rule.
Yes, we all know how well that works.
I don't think the Indianapolis 500 is the ideal place to be promoting Linux, especially in the form of a tiny sticker on a car (or even if they had raised all the money, for an entire Tux500 car). I doubt anyone at the Indianapolis 500 is going to care about the fact that tux is represented on a car, beyond "hay look thar's a penguin on that thar car!"
By that logic, XM radio or Tag Heuer have no business sponsoring the Indy 500 either, but they do. So it must be a lucrative return on investment.
This kind of narrow-mindedness is EXACTLY why developers have no place promoting a product. I think the OP's point you missed (other than the fact that Slashdot is jumping on the tux500 bandwagon after refusing to run the story) is that we need to expose linux as a product, if we are serious about making it an alternative to Windows.
GNU/Linux isnt about commercialism, it's about the community, which is where this argument fails.
I agree. But, how do we "enlighten" non-geeks? From Ubuntu.com (as an example): "Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers.".
The laptop and desktop markets are saturated as it is. Breaking through requires name recognition. Name recognition requires advertising. Name recognition brings a larger community, and thus more funds. This is what Tux500 tried to accomplish.
As an aside, I'd like to comment on this:
At any rate, I know there was a smear campaign going around saying that the tux500 project was a scam, but there was really nothing conclusive.
I wanted to contribute, even if it was just $5 or $10. What made it impossible for me was the fact that the website doesn't (or didn't) have the email address of the organizer whom I wanted to ask questions about the fund raiser. I disagree with you calling it a smear campaign because, really, the site didn't do much to establish any sort of credibility.
In sports, it's irrelevant that it gives you no advantage - the point is, you cheated. Dale Earnhart Jr was reprimanded because his team used banned bolts on his spoiler. They probably didn't give any real advantage, but he broke the rules. It's stupid, yes (just like Stoudemire and Diaw getting suspended), but they broke the rules (and I'm not defending the Spurs by any means). Break the rules, pay the price. Simple as that. I may not agree with the rules, and I'm all for going out and getting the rules changed, but don't complain when you intentionally break the rules and get reprimanded for that.
I don't generally post a lot on /. so I forgot.
On a separate note, makes you wonder why they can't convert \n to <br> in the submission script
What is this "Lawn" that you speak of? /apartments all my life, thank you housing market
They should use the whole Scenes from a Memory album as the Grand Finale "song" of the game (it's just one giant song anyway!).
Agreed. That game actually inspired me to put real effort into learning Hangar 18. I'm about half way through, until about the 4th solo, right before Dave takes over. Marty was amazing.
Anyway, it's fun to play with other people who don't know how to play for real, like close friends who never had time to pick up guitar -- GH has a relatively flat learning curve (on the easy level) so you can both rock out and "deploy star power".
As far as dancing goes, you're on your own on that one hehe
-ik
P.S. Regarding: Heh I like all those bands :-P ... Though my all-time fav is probably still Malmsteen.
Good taste
The 80s had awesome metal. Pop Rock sucked in the 80s. Def Leppard and Journey are probably not the best examples to defend 80s rock. Van Halen is maybe the only good "rock" band out of the 80s, but only because Eddie revolutionized tapping. Oh yeah, I thought of another - Aerosmith is definitely decent.
But then look at metal bands: Rush (which paved the way for Dream Theater), Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica (shudder), Motorhead, and even Priest.
Anyhow, the real point of all this is that the only reason some of us like Guitar Hero is because some of the much harder songs (like Hangar 18 or YYZ) are damn near impossible to play on a real guitar. So instead of pretending like I'm a guitar virtuoso thinking I'm Steve Vai while my neighbors think I'm Kurt Cobain or that I left my guitar on while my cat is jumping up and down on it, I'd rather pretend and, hell, even have some fun with my wife because now we can BOTH mess around with it. And yes, I did just equate Kurt Cobain to a cat on the guitar -- he was a great songwriter, just not the greatest guitar player in the world.
Seriously.. I'm still just happy Hangar 18 was in GH2. Hell, I'd even settle for 80s Metallica, you know, before they sucked.
I never even knew about opera mini it before your post. I can't believe I suffered with my default browser for so long.. Anyway, thanks!
Another example -- planet earth, now running on Discovery HD Theatre. An absolutely stunning piece of scientifically interesting video.
You know, I grew up in a different country in the early 80s, and these types of shows were shown daily on TV. Granted, the cinematography is prettier, but the essence and scientific material was there and still as exciting. Point is, you don't need a stunning piece of cinematography and HD programming to impress kids -- they have great imagination that should be explored and not spoon-fed.
Those National Geographic shows are becoming scarce nowadays, but Planet Earth has brought them back to life. But I think it's sad when the main advertising factor of a show about nature is the fact that it's broadcast in HD. Anyway, I'm thankful for PE even though I am slightly annoyed with the way it's narrated.
Take care.
This is great!
Yeah, this is great until servers start dying, and you won't be able to retrieve that 100-page dissertation you're working on when you need it. I realize that hard drives crash too, motherboards die, and memory blows up, but at least you can do something about it and not depend on a third party (i.e., make backups, liveCD, take your HD for data recovery).
When I first went on business travel, I dropped my laptop and I couldn't boot up the system. Thanks to Knoppix, I was able to access more than half of my hard drive and move the data to an external hard drive I then bought. Can you do this when Google goes down? How many of you have gotten the "Server unavailable" message from Google on Saturday nights???
Hey, great stuff! Thanks for the link. (I wish I didn't comment already in this thread, or you'd be modded up)
The problems with this romantic notion that somehow the RIAA will die if enough indie bands start breaking through are the following:
1) Bands don't play music for free -- I am not suggesting that every band wants to get signed by a major label, but I suspect that lots do. Hey, my rights are worth a couple of million, right? Hell, I'd do it.
2) The RIAA has its roots set wayyyy too deep in the media business. It's definitely difficult to find a counter-weight to all that power, and Napster (and P2P) was just what the world needed until they found a way to shut it down. Indie artists are simply too small-time to affect the RIAA. Which brings me to my next point,
3) Reach. The reason indie bands are indie bands is because they don't have as much reach. RIAA has a world-wide reach, a world-wide audience, and world-wide advertising power. There are people in this world -- and I suspect a VERY LARGE percentage -- that don't know any other kind of music other than RIAA's labels' music.
So please, can we get off this indie-bands-will-kill-the-RIAA bandwagon, and start finding some real solutions to this imbalance of power???
Quick, someone get EzInKy an infinite amount of monkeys!
Hey, four of those artists don't make new music anymore (Hendrix, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, and GNR). GNR's last album was around what, '92 (and no, Chinese Democracy does not count -- it's just not GNR without Slash).
;)
The point is, there's only a limited number of albums, so by now you should have them all already, the end. Besides, you could have had them for free back in the napster days
So I think it's about as likely that the email messages in question got "accidentally" deleted as it is that the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was "accidentally" bombed.
If I had mod points, you'd get them just for that.
It doesn't mean a thing. In a deposition it's a totally inappropriate objection.
"I.e., the RIAA lawyer, hopefully out of inexperience rather than calculated dilatoriness, was wasting our precious time."
So, why do they raise these objections?? I can't imagine that they'd send an inexperienced lawyer to court... I didn't see the judge's responses -- do they not show up on the transcript (obviously, I know nothing about the mechanics of a trial/hearing/legal proceeding)? Also, why wouldn't the judge stop the other lawyer from raising the objections if they were totally inappropriate, and wasting the court's time? Judge Judy sure seems to hate people wasting her time....
As I was reading this transcript, every time an objection was raised, it made me lose my concentration a little. By the 8th page or so, it became VERY distracting. I couldn't help it but feel that this was a tactic to a) give the witness extra time to answer, and b) to disrupt the flow of the testimony.
With all due respect, you don't matter. None of us really matter. And as far as gp's post is concerned, "taking out what really matters" implies that he'd take out the bomb-squad or whoever tried to defuse the device. They don't matter either. No. The people that really matter would be nowhere near that device.
The Devil does not sleep.