Median and mean are both a type of average. So no, he was not wrong, just not specific enough for some tastes. And anyway, assuming that intelligence has a normal distribution, median and mean are the same.
Oh yeah, and while again I am unsure about details in Germany, in Austria it is definitely the case that the law does not affect private speech at all. It is only about organized, public, political speech. Anyway, I did not even defend that the law is not being repealed now or soon, I just explained why it is the case, and that I won't fall over myself to help them.
Well, catholicism is very community-oriented as well as old and bureaucratic (and very stable at that, it has to be said; few other organizations have lasted for 1900 years and counting). The fees are quite modest, I think (I never paid), and of course adjusted to income level.
These laws stem from the post-war time, and while I am fuzzy on the details in Germany, I would imagine that the US had a bigger hand in creating these (IMHO just) laws than the locals, who would have preferred to ignore the whole unhappy Holocaust incident. I certainly was that way in my home country, Austria. Post-war, these laws also had practical application, you really couldn't have Nazi ex-leaders clamoring for support in the streets. (I would think the US Army sees it similarly in Iraq right now, probably somewhat less appropriately.)
Later, the rights of the Jews and other survivors of the Nazi atrocities had to be considered, of whom many still lived in Germany and Austria, though sadly (but understandably) many chose to stay the hell away -- Germany and Austria not exactly inviting them back, either. It's kind of hard to deal with random (or not so random) Germans/Austrians now living in your house, from which the Nazis had dragged you away into camps in the middle of the night. Those who chose to stay or come back to contribute to the Nazis' successor states' economic and moral resurrection had every right not to be subjugated to dribbling Nazis and neo-nazis in the streets and on the media, denying the Holocaust, etc. In any case, the Nazis had certainly forfeited their right to free speech, don't you think?
The situation could change now and I am pretty sure that over a number of years, Germany would come to the conclusion that this exception should be removed. However, pretty strong neonazi parties have managed to enter several federal states' governments. These currently do not form a credible political force but are disturbing nonetheless, especially because their success clusters around (but is not strictly exclusive to) the post-GDR eastern federal states. Consequently, this pending discussion in Germany (and Austria) is delayed. In any case, IMHO the German neonazis also have forfeited their free speech rights, through voluntary association with mass murderers and through approx. 70 court-ruled violent crimes per year against foreigners, punks, leftists, jews, etc., the number of reported and unreported cases of course much much higher (dunno the numbers for Austria right now, I'd figure they are way lower per capita).
Both are partially true, but misleadingly set up. You do have to register a change of address, but you don't have to go in to the police station in person to do so;
And I guess German practice (which I think is pretty common in Europe) evens out with the US practice of no registration if you consider that in turn you are not asked for your social security number at every corner.
It's not a tax as such. The state just collects the member fees of the catholic church on the church's behalf. If you don't pay your membership fees, you are not a catholic, as far as the church is concerned. However, I am opposed to the practice because it violates the complete separation of state and church which should be common practice among modern states.
I admit that I was trolling a bit. In reality, I spoke only for Germany and Austria, the only countries I received vaccinations in. I don't think any doctor ever asked me for the booklet since I was an adult, but if I brought it with me they all stamped it.
Isn't the problem somewhere else then, in the amount of documents being produced where you live? You and I might have different live styles, but I'd say mine is pretty standard for a single mail over 30. All the documents I need to keep fit into 2 binders.
Yeah well, that sucks, but is it really worth it to implement complicated technical solutions with unforeseen implications just so that one can be sloppy? Did you lose your passport too, and if you did would you be in favor of implementing a people tracking database to set it off?
I was in the unexpected position of trying to find my immunization records which are now scattered among several states, doctors, and the military. If you think gathering that information was either fun or easy, you are wrong. Having this information to hand would have been a REAL time and money saver.
Meanwhile, we in stone-age Europe usually receive little booklets at our birth and whenever a doctor immunizes us, he enters a stamp plus some info there. Same as with voting machines, really: not everything is in need for a fragile high-tech solution.
the Middle East is ruled by a bunch of fucktards who use a 7th-century religion to justify barbarity and evil... said the president of the country with the 0th-century religion that invaded the country with the evil 7th-century religion.
In other words, by marketing, i.e., words, of which the new competitor has as huge a stock as the already established company, sufficing for the former to be more clever than the later to deflect these attempts
There's still problems with you position. I'm not motivated enough to seriously discuss your long and still interesting posts, but sometimes something catches my eye, like the above quote. Marketing is not just words and creativity. Mostly it is about money and relations. You cannot really mean that any upstart can easily match Microsoft's marketing budget and its relations to established outlets.
Thanks for the reply, interesting thoughts, and I understand now what you mean. But isn't the second part you wrote akin to saying "whenever a business exerts violence I call it a government" with the obvious effect that you can then claim that businesses never exert violence?
Um, either the/. summary was wrong (and Captain Splendid in the other reply), but it clearly stated that it is being pushed now via Windows Update (I wouldn't know, not an MS customer). And there was no mention of bittorrent downloads. It's pretty obvious what I hoped to be corrected.
Slashdot Mirror
Median and mean are both a type of average. So no, he was not wrong, just not specific enough for some tastes. And anyway, assuming that intelligence has a normal distribution, median and mean are the same.
there is no different between "living" and "non-living", apart from semantics
Huh? Explain, please.
Oh yeah, and while again I am unsure about details in Germany, in Austria it is definitely the case that the law does not affect private speech at all. It is only about organized, public, political speech. Anyway, I did not even defend that the law is not being repealed now or soon, I just explained why it is the case, and that I won't fall over myself to help them.
All your remarks sound fine from afar. Don your black skin and take walk through some of the affected towns, and let us talk then.
Well, catholicism is very community-oriented as well as old and bureaucratic (and very stable at that, it has to be said; few other organizations have lasted for 1900 years and counting). The fees are quite modest, I think (I never paid), and of course adjusted to income level.
the whole free speech thing regarding neo-nazis
A few things to consider::
These laws stem from the post-war time, and while I am fuzzy on the details in Germany, I would imagine that the US had a bigger hand in creating these (IMHO just) laws than the locals, who would have preferred to ignore the whole unhappy Holocaust incident. I certainly was that way in my home country, Austria. Post-war, these laws also had practical application, you really couldn't have Nazi ex-leaders clamoring for support in the streets. (I would think the US Army sees it similarly in Iraq right now, probably somewhat less appropriately.)
Later, the rights of the Jews and other survivors of the Nazi atrocities had to be considered, of whom many still lived in Germany and Austria, though sadly (but understandably) many chose to stay the hell away -- Germany and Austria not exactly inviting them back, either. It's kind of hard to deal with random (or not so random) Germans/Austrians now living in your house, from which the Nazis had dragged you away into camps in the middle of the night. Those who chose to stay or come back to contribute to the Nazis' successor states' economic and moral resurrection had every right not to be subjugated to dribbling Nazis and neo-nazis in the streets and on the media, denying the Holocaust, etc. In any case, the Nazis had certainly forfeited their right to free speech, don't you think?
The situation could change now and I am pretty sure that over a number of years, Germany would come to the conclusion that this exception should be removed. However, pretty strong neonazi parties have managed to enter several federal states' governments. These currently do not form a credible political force but are disturbing nonetheless, especially because their success clusters around (but is not strictly exclusive to) the post-GDR eastern federal states. Consequently, this pending discussion in Germany (and Austria) is delayed. In any case, IMHO the German neonazis also have forfeited their free speech rights, through voluntary association with mass murderers and through approx. 70 court-ruled violent crimes per year against foreigners, punks, leftists, jews, etc., the number of reported and unreported cases of course much much higher (dunno the numbers for Austria right now, I'd figure they are way lower per capita).
Both are partially true, but misleadingly set up. You do have to register a change of address, but you don't have to go in to the police station in person to do so;
And I guess German practice (which I think is pretty common in Europe) evens out with the US practice of no registration if you consider that in turn you are not asked for your social security number at every corner.
It's not a tax as such. The state just collects the member fees of the catholic church on the church's behalf. If you don't pay your membership fees, you are not a catholic, as far as the church is concerned. However, I am opposed to the practice because it violates the complete separation of state and church which should be common practice among modern states.
Oh, sorry, my mistake. But still, who wants to fuck a baboon?
That's the perfect way to get the kind of wife I see people bitching about on slashdot.
"a single mail", yes, definitely ;)
I admit that I was trolling a bit. In reality, I spoke only for Germany and Austria, the only countries I received vaccinations in. I don't think any doctor ever asked me for the booklet since I was an adult, but if I brought it with me they all stamped it.
Isn't the problem somewhere else then, in the amount of documents being produced where you live? You and I might have different live styles, but I'd say mine is pretty standard for a single mail over 30. All the documents I need to keep fit into 2 binders.
Yeah well, that sucks, but is it really worth it to implement complicated technical solutions with unforeseen implications just so that one can be sloppy? Did you lose your passport too, and if you did would you be in favor of implementing a people tracking database to set it off?
I was in the unexpected position of trying to find my immunization records which are now scattered among several states, doctors, and the military. If you think gathering that information was either fun or easy, you are wrong. Having this information to hand would have been a REAL time and money saver.
Meanwhile, we in stone-age Europe usually receive little booklets at our birth and whenever a doctor immunizes us, he enters a stamp plus some info there. Same as with voting machines, really: not everything is in need for a fragile high-tech solution.
the Middle East is ruled by a bunch of fucktards who use a 7th-century religion to justify barbarity and evil ... said the president of the country with the 0th-century religion that invaded the country with the evil 7th-century religion.
Yeah, I feel exactly the same, including the mod :)
And lived them, even.
So, just curious, from your comment then I take it you consider 2029 to be "anytime soon"?
You must be very young, then. Decades won't look as long anymore once you loved a few of them.
In other words, by marketing, i.e., words, of which the new competitor has as huge a stock as the already established company, sufficing for the former to be more clever than the later to deflect these attempts
There's still problems with you position. I'm not motivated enough to seriously discuss your long and still interesting posts, but sometimes something catches my eye, like the above quote. Marketing is not just words and creativity. Mostly it is about money and relations. You cannot really mean that any upstart can easily match Microsoft's marketing budget and its relations to established outlets.
And first post?
Ok, thanks, got it. Sorry for being a bit dense today ;)
Thanks for the reply, interesting thoughts, and I understand now what you mean. But isn't the second part you wrote akin to saying "whenever a business exerts violence I call it a government" with the obvious effect that you can then claim that businesses never exert violence?
Um, either the /. summary was wrong (and Captain Splendid in the other reply), but it clearly stated that it is being pushed now via Windows Update (I wouldn't know, not an MS customer). And there was no mention of bittorrent downloads. It's pretty obvious what I hoped to be corrected.