I should note that I used Jabber as the network layer of my honors thesis project, a general-purpose distributed computing architecture. If my web server weren't dead this week, I'd share a link with you, but rest assured that Jabber makes things simple that would otherwise not be.
Good catch on the complement/compliment misuse. A pet peeve of mine and I missed it, there. Yours is the best and most intelligent response, so I'll reply here...
What Kerry wants (or wanted - I guess he changed his mind since this position isn't on his web page anymore) "feels" like a draft to me, the kind of thing that would warm people up to the idea of a draft. You've already had 2 or 4 summers of mandatory community service - here's your rifle, let's go fight.
I personally believe Bush would not reinstate the draft. There's legislation all the time (usually pushed by Democrats, historically) sine we ditched the draft the last time, and it just never goes through for some reason. Evidently, some Congressmen want to get elected to another term, and thus avoid voting for the draft like the plague. Any President would be wise to do the same - including Bush. The Republican Party would likely never get another guy in office if Bush reinstated the draft after lying about it. Raising taxes is one thing - sending 18-year-olds off to die against their will is another entirely, and whether we like it or not, nobody can seem to forget Vietnam.
I really look forward to the election year when no living Vietnam vets are left alive, nor any of their first-generation offspring - then we can have an election on some damn issues for once.
As to the "tricks" that are used to keep people in active duty - read what you sign before you sign it, especially if it's a document that promises 6 years of service to your country and gives them discretion over whether it's active or reserve and whether you're posted to Fallujah or Norfolk. If you don't like the terms of the contract, negotiate a better one or find another use of your time.
I said "this kind of tax" for a reason. If they tried that in the US, the RIAA wouldn't be the least bit pacified, even though they'd get every dime of it and no artist would see a penny.
At the debate, Bush said that the military would remain all-volunteer. Whereas Kerry's web page used to (until he decided to accuse Bush of it) call for the draft.
Which one scares you more? Someone who signed up to give his life to his country dying in Iraq, or you being told that you have to because you live here?
As if Bush is the first politician to lie about something. Dumbass. All politicians are pathological liars. Just like the core skill in IT is putting up with morons and the core skill in programming is somehow making code fit the specifications that you got at the last minute, the core skill in politics is lying.
Hardly. First off, ask the RIAA if this kind of tax is enough to get them off your case. Second, for those of us who use blank CD's for purposes other than duplicating music we didn't buy (I know this might amaze you, but there are other uses), the tax is on an activity we don't perform. I'm a non-smoker. I don't pay tobacco taxes. If I were asked to, I'd give my government the middle finger in court.
I think they should have Survivor: Siberia. Everyone is dropped off in whatever they were wearing when they showed up for their interview in the middle of Siberia in the autumn, with no assistance or guidance whatsoever. Whoever is the last man living wins... his life, should he choose to claim it by returning to society before he dies, as well.
Is there a way for you to claim your artist redistribution royalties if you put your own music on the CD? Someone needs to fight that tax in the court system.
Ah, but is Ubuntu as paranoid as Debian about switching to tf5 in unstable? I like being able to PgUp/PgDn through my history without using/recall every time I need to go backwards. Also, keeping the output from separate worlds separate is a nice feature.
I've personally gone to Arch for my desktop use. It's pretty slick and almost painfully up-to-date. I don't like Gnome and KDE gets on my nerves, so I use XFCE4. The only problem I can articulate right now for desktop use is that Firefox and Thunderbird don't talk to each other at all - Thunderbird will download a link if you click on it, and then open the temporary file in Firefox. Firefox will not handle mailto: links. And I can't figure out a good way to make it smartly handle them based on whether Thunderbird is already open.
I wouldn't recommend Arch for server use - many of its server packages are compiled with only the minimal feature set. Both exim and postfix lack SASL support, for example. (But they're on PHP5. Strange...) I only found that out when my server died and I had to use my Arch-running PC to spool my incoming e-mail until I get a new server up and running; and my ISP blocks outgoing SMTP traffic unless it's to their server, and their server only allows relaying if you use SASL to authenticate. So I can't send mail for now, but it took me about 3 minutes to get set up to receive it, which was nice.
The real point here is that everyone has an opinion and it's not clear who's right, yet. We'll find out when either Florida is completely underwater or Canada is completely under ice. I'm not overly concerned - the Earth has weathered plenty of interference, and I'm not so arrogant as to think that humans can intentionally destroy her or save her by their acts.
I think the electoral college could use some updating - don't get me wrong. Nobody writes code that works for 230 years without a glitch. The founding fathers did a darn fine job, but some changes need to be made. Selecting neutral electors would help, or selecting them by congressional district or even by county would work. Closed-ballot electoral college voting held in Washington would also help. (The major parties could then no longer punish electors who vote "the wrong way".)
Those people in SD may get more voting power per person, but they still have less power per square mile. That's what the Great Compromise is all about. He's the President of the United States, not of the United People, as another poster pointed out.
Global warming is also responsible for ending every ice age (including the one that we're still in the tail end of). I'll take global warming over global cooling, thank you much.
Shhhhhh....the eastern world consists entirely of people who live in caves or grass huts and live like it's the late Bronze Age. Don't be bringing the truth into play, here.
The US isn't a democracy. It's a common misconception. Most smaller subdivisions are purely democratic, but the US and (to my knowledge) all of its states are run by a republican system. Also, the US is not supposed to be the single country that those in Europe are. There was a battle in 1787 just to adopt our constitution instead of turning into 13 individual nations or (as was predicted most) 3 confederacies. Our federal system is supposed to ensure sovereignty of the states, but that's gone downhill ever since our Civil War in the mid-19th century. The Civil War was not predominantly about slavery - that would have gone away either way. (In fact, the Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court gave the South every slavery concession it could want and they went to war anyhow.) The Civil War was about states' rights, and the states lost.
It equalizes very well. In the 2000 election, Gore carried a land area the size of West Virginia at best, and Bush carried the remainder of the country. It came out dang near tied. I'd say that that equalizes power in a fair way.
If you really think your vote matters less than mine, you entirely misunderstand the federal system you're living under.
Actually, the Electoral College, in its original and proper form (to which I think we should return), gives minor parties a chance. The problem is that the major parties have hijacked the system by fining electors who vote against party lines. I think that each state should set its own standards for selecting electors (some states are far from the status quo on this already, with others like Colorado holding referenda this fall to decide whether to change). I also think that the electoral college should be held closed-ballot in Washington, instead of open-ballot in the several states with sealed and certified lists of votes sent to D.C. for counting in January.
As it is, if either major party nominated Adolph Hitler, and their electors voted for someone else, they'd be fined and kicked out of the party for keeping America safe. The electoral college isn't broken - it's been raped. And you don't just throw rape victims into the river and hope they die - you execute the rapist and nurture his victim.
Most election methods operate under the assumption that the popular vote is what matters. In America, that simply isn't the case. What matters is which candidate will most accurately reflect the needs and desires of the nation, not only of its population centers.
Additionally, a charismatic candidate can sweep the popular vote by carrying a handful of major cities. Popular voting in America implies that only the inner city vote matters, which disenfranchises the rural voters - you know, those who produce oil, wheat, beef, milk, chickens, pork, corn, soybeans, potatoes, and other things that you like to have in your life.
Quite simply, the Electoral College is a very effective compromise that has kept our Presidential elections mostly sane for more than 50 iterations. It ain't broke - don't try to fix it.
Slashdot Mirror
I should note that I used Jabber as the network layer of my honors thesis project, a general-purpose distributed computing architecture. If my web server weren't dead this week, I'd share a link with you, but rest assured that Jabber makes things simple that would otherwise not be.
Jabber is a presence-aware XML router. Beyond that, it's imagination-bound.
Good catch on the complement/compliment misuse. A pet peeve of mine and I missed it, there. Yours is the best and most intelligent response, so I'll reply here...
What Kerry wants (or wanted - I guess he changed his mind since this position isn't on his web page anymore) "feels" like a draft to me, the kind of thing that would warm people up to the idea of a draft. You've already had 2 or 4 summers of mandatory community service - here's your rifle, let's go fight.
I personally believe Bush would not reinstate the draft. There's legislation all the time (usually pushed by Democrats, historically) sine we ditched the draft the last time, and it just never goes through for some reason. Evidently, some Congressmen want to get elected to another term, and thus avoid voting for the draft like the plague. Any President would be wise to do the same - including Bush. The Republican Party would likely never get another guy in office if Bush reinstated the draft after lying about it. Raising taxes is one thing - sending 18-year-olds off to die against their will is another entirely, and whether we like it or not, nobody can seem to forget Vietnam.
I really look forward to the election year when no living Vietnam vets are left alive, nor any of their first-generation offspring - then we can have an election on some damn issues for once.
As to the "tricks" that are used to keep people in active duty - read what you sign before you sign it, especially if it's a document that promises 6 years of service to your country and gives them discretion over whether it's active or reserve and whether you're posted to Fallujah or Norfolk. If you don't like the terms of the contract, negotiate a better one or find another use of your time.
I said "this kind of tax" for a reason. If they tried that in the US, the RIAA wouldn't be the least bit pacified, even though they'd get every dime of it and no artist would see a penny.
At the debate, Bush said that the military would remain all-volunteer. Whereas Kerry's web page used to (until he decided to accuse Bush of it) call for the draft.
Which one scares you more? Someone who signed up to give his life to his country dying in Iraq, or you being told that you have to because you live here?
As if Bush is the first politician to lie about something. Dumbass. All politicians are pathological liars. Just like the core skill in IT is putting up with morons and the core skill in programming is somehow making code fit the specifications that you got at the last minute, the core skill in politics is lying.
Hardly. First off, ask the RIAA if this kind of tax is enough to get them off your case. Second, for those of us who use blank CD's for purposes other than duplicating music we didn't buy (I know this might amaze you, but there are other uses), the tax is on an activity we don't perform. I'm a non-smoker. I don't pay tobacco taxes. If I were asked to, I'd give my government the middle finger in court.
I think they should have Survivor: Siberia. Everyone is dropped off in whatever they were wearing when they showed up for their interview in the middle of Siberia in the autumn, with no assistance or guidance whatsoever. Whoever is the last man living wins ... his life, should he choose to claim it by returning to society before he dies, as well.
Welshie!!!
Is there a way for you to claim your artist redistribution royalties if you put your own music on the CD? Someone needs to fight that tax in the court system.
Ah, but is Ubuntu as paranoid as Debian about switching to tf5 in unstable? I like being able to PgUp/PgDn through my history without using /recall every time I need to go backwards. Also, keeping the output from separate worlds separate is a nice feature.
I've personally gone to Arch for my desktop use. It's pretty slick and almost painfully up-to-date. I don't like Gnome and KDE gets on my nerves, so I use XFCE4. The only problem I can articulate right now for desktop use is that Firefox and Thunderbird don't talk to each other at all - Thunderbird will download a link if you click on it, and then open the temporary file in Firefox. Firefox will not handle mailto: links. And I can't figure out a good way to make it smartly handle them based on whether Thunderbird is already open.
I wouldn't recommend Arch for server use - many of its server packages are compiled with only the minimal feature set. Both exim and postfix lack SASL support, for example. (But they're on PHP5. Strange...) I only found that out when my server died and I had to use my Arch-running PC to spool my incoming e-mail until I get a new server up and running; and my ISP blocks outgoing SMTP traffic unless it's to their server, and their server only allows relaying if you use SASL to authenticate. So I can't send mail for now, but it took me about 3 minutes to get set up to receive it, which was nice.
...high school diploma, no high school diploma, kindergarten certificate of completion, no kindergarten certificate of completion...
"may in fact"
The real point here is that everyone has an opinion and it's not clear who's right, yet. We'll find out when either Florida is completely underwater or Canada is completely under ice. I'm not overly concerned - the Earth has weathered plenty of interference, and I'm not so arrogant as to think that humans can intentionally destroy her or save her by their acts.
I think the electoral college could use some updating - don't get me wrong. Nobody writes code that works for 230 years without a glitch. The founding fathers did a darn fine job, but some changes need to be made. Selecting neutral electors would help, or selecting them by congressional district or even by county would work. Closed-ballot electoral college voting held in Washington would also help. (The major parties could then no longer punish electors who vote "the wrong way".)
Those people in SD may get more voting power per person, but they still have less power per square mile. That's what the Great Compromise is all about. He's the President of the United States, not of the United People, as another poster pointed out.
I'm glad someone gets it. :)
No. The UN is trying to destroy the rights of sovereign nations. That's its very purpose.
Global warming is also responsible for ending every ice age (including the one that we're still in the tail end of). I'll take global warming over global cooling, thank you much.
Shhhhhh....the eastern world consists entirely of people who live in caves or grass huts and live like it's the late Bronze Age. Don't be bringing the truth into play, here.
The US isn't a democracy. It's a common misconception. Most smaller subdivisions are purely democratic, but the US and (to my knowledge) all of its states are run by a republican system. Also, the US is not supposed to be the single country that those in Europe are. There was a battle in 1787 just to adopt our constitution instead of turning into 13 individual nations or (as was predicted most) 3 confederacies. Our federal system is supposed to ensure sovereignty of the states, but that's gone downhill ever since our Civil War in the mid-19th century. The Civil War was not predominantly about slavery - that would have gone away either way. (In fact, the Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court gave the South every slavery concession it could want and they went to war anyhow.) The Civil War was about states' rights, and the states lost.
It equalizes very well. In the 2000 election, Gore carried a land area the size of West Virginia at best, and Bush carried the remainder of the country. It came out dang near tied. I'd say that that equalizes power in a fair way.
If you really think your vote matters less than mine, you entirely misunderstand the federal system you're living under.
This was in the news at least 2 or 3 years ago (here on Slashdot, I believe). Sounds like a trend to me.
Actually, the Electoral College, in its original and proper form (to which I think we should return), gives minor parties a chance. The problem is that the major parties have hijacked the system by fining electors who vote against party lines. I think that each state should set its own standards for selecting electors (some states are far from the status quo on this already, with others like Colorado holding referenda this fall to decide whether to change). I also think that the electoral college should be held closed-ballot in Washington, instead of open-ballot in the several states with sealed and certified lists of votes sent to D.C. for counting in January.
As it is, if either major party nominated Adolph Hitler, and their electors voted for someone else, they'd be fined and kicked out of the party for keeping America safe. The electoral college isn't broken - it's been raped. And you don't just throw rape victims into the river and hope they die - you execute the rapist and nurture his victim.
Yep - every time a minor party has a popular idea, one of the major parties adopts it as a long-standing tradition of their party.
Most election methods operate under the assumption that the popular vote is what matters. In America, that simply isn't the case. What matters is which candidate will most accurately reflect the needs and desires of the nation, not only of its population centers.
Additionally, a charismatic candidate can sweep the popular vote by carrying a handful of major cities. Popular voting in America implies that only the inner city vote matters, which disenfranchises the rural voters - you know, those who produce oil, wheat, beef, milk, chickens, pork, corn, soybeans, potatoes, and other things that you like to have in your life.
Quite simply, the Electoral College is a very effective compromise that has kept our Presidential elections mostly sane for more than 50 iterations. It ain't broke - don't try to fix it.
I was going to post that combined wisdom here, but Slasdhot won't allow empty comments.