How should the community deal with a crucial open-source project led an ego which is so great that it refuses to ensure quality at a fundamental level through simple, standard, and reliable mechanisms like CVS?
Fork it. The beauty of open source projects is that morons cannot exercise absolute control over a project once the source has been made available.
Man, that's gotta be a bitch when you're connected even when you leave those aforementioned pagers, email, cell phones, etc. at home. Guess we'd better not provide the means of access to those areas at all, then.;)
No, deities are beings who live in another place/all around us who created/regulate everything in existing, as far as I can tell from what I've heard. Just don't ever say that you believe in a deity in public without explaining that its a religious thing or the people in the white coats might not be far away.;) Seriously though, I never really looked into it in depth as I don't care about religion, so I could be really far off, but that's the impression that I've gotten. It doesn't mean crap to me if someone is Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, etc. What I've never been able to understand is why people here at work and elsewhere want to tell me about their religion, even after I've explicitly said that I don't care about religion and would rather discuss soemthing else, and even become aggressive towards me if I don't just shut up and start nodding my head, like I was bashing them personally. Man, I've had to deal with that for the past two nights from two different people, one Christian and one Jehovah's Witness. Damn, I don't start hounding the wonders of the self-organizing properties of genetic algorithms to them (although if there was a religion based on that, or Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, I might have to look into it;)).
Can someone possibly explain why its OK for me to say that I'm not interested in discussing clothing styles, car engines or children's books, but I almost always have to listen to a ration of shit when I try to subtlely change the subject and then have to admit that I don't have a religion when asked? What is it that makes people think that everyone has a religion? That's as dumb as thinking that everyone has a club membership of some sort; be part of a religion and have a ball, but spare those of us who have no interest, OK? I'll spare you the boring details of my last LUG meeting in return. I've found this thread to be pretty interesting, not because I personally care about these belief systems being discussed, but because there are some neat thought exercises going on and I have the option of just going to another topic when this one begins to bore me. If only physical conversations offered the same courtesy without the bitchy side effects.
What, in a forum chock full of geeks?:) Admittedly, I was looking forward to finding out what MUD he was on so I could see how many times I could whip his ass while he tried to PK me using some godawful 12,000 line perl script as a client.;)
They've got all sorts of methods, but the most widely used are diaries that are given to people to document all of their listening; i.e. what stations at what time of day for how long, etc. You can learn a whole lot about radio research and ratings at the Arbitron web site, as they are the primary media research company used; in fact, its their research that "the ratings" are really based on, as its their books that are used as the standard ratings measuring tool by radio (I think they do TV as well, but I don't know TV so I don't want to definitively say so, although Nielson is the standard there so its somewhat moot:)). You want to talk about a company that wields incredible power in the industry? Look at Arbitron. Of course, they are extremely diligent and have never reflected any sort of bias whatsoever, which is why they are held in such high regard, because ANY indicator that they were even the slightest bit biased would destroy their credibility. Multibillion dollar corporations like CBS and Clear Channel don't take kindly to that sort of thing, as you might imagine.:)
Aside from the Arbitron books, the less official means of finding out listening habits include mail,phone and in-person surveys, which I'd be willing to bet that many Slashdotters have gotten in the past, either as a quick phone call with a few innocuous questions, postcard or quick stop in the mall by a guy with a clipboard. These are used to supplement the research done, but the listener diaries are to radio what the Nielson set-top boxes are to TV. Hope that clears it up somewhat. While I learned a lot about this stuff, I'm no expert (else I wouldn't be answering this stupid phone collecting my paltry sum to tell people how to find the space bar:)) so you really should check out the Arbitron site for more info.
Yup, said by the Masao, IIRC. Great, great book; I've really got to get Steakley's Vampires, as I dug the movie. Got a chuckle out of the main character in Vampires being named Jack Crow as well. Apparently, there's a Felix in the book as well, although Jack's sidekick in the movie was named Montoya. Wow, freeform thought at work; I should keep going and reveal the secret to the universe in about seven more paragraphs.:)
Dear god, that is some funny shit; and yes, I'm aware that by getting the jokes on that page, I am admitting to be a complete and total nerd, but what do I care? I'm married, so I'll still get laid, even if I'll never be admitted into a fraternity.:)
I did a stint as an intern and then a board op in the programming department of a fairly big radio station in these parts (consistantly #1-2 in the books) and learned a lot about radio from picking the hell out of the brain of a kickass PD during that time (damn, do I miss that gig:)). Basically, there are two magic numbers for radio stations: 1) how many people they can get to tag the station at all, and, more importantly, 2) how many people they can get to listen for at least 15 minutes. That 15 minute one is the big whammy, as that is what most of a book is based on. That's why they use teasers, contests, etc to nab listeners for just a few more minutes, because once a listener breaks the 15 minute mark, its a win for the station.
You wouldn't believe the insane amount of research that goes into each and every goddamn song that gets spins. There was this massive book in the PD's office that had 2-3 pages for damn near every single song in the archive that contained interest levels of every age/sex group for that song, so that they could determine what adds to throw into the playlist to boost a certain demographic. The amount of time and money devoted to testing music is enormous! And radio stations still use their own testing to supplement the millions of dollars worth of research already available. The station I worked at had a weekly listening session where they'd bring in a few people, stick some cans on them and play cuts of new and older music to get an idea of what people wanted to hear, what they are burnt out on, what they should reintroduce into the playlist, etc. Every night, they play a couple new tunes being considered for the playlist and solicit responses from the listeners. We even periodically kept track of all requests made throughout the day as another tool for determining interest.
While it may be true that the record companies push off certain pap on to the stations to get spins, radio stations are not tools of the RIAA, as they make their money off of advertising revenue based on the almighty ratings, so they can't afford to blindly play whatever gets thrown on their plate. You may think that radio sucks because they play the same crap every three to four hours, but that's because you only see it from our unique perspective of high volume music listeners. The majority of people have only a passing interest in listening to radio, such as on the way to and from work or at lunchtime; hence the reason that the magic number of minutes for a listener to peg in the ratings being only 15. And, while I hate to say it myself, they love that shit, and while you may want to argue with millions of dollars of market research, the fact is that radio stations have very little influence over what a person really wants to hear; shit, if they could actually do that, they sure as shit wouldn't bother paying the promotions department or the on-air personalities to try and maintain listener loyalty so that they could squeeze a few more minutes out of them; they'd just force you to listen to whatever they have on hand, as so many people love to assert, and save the tens of thousands of dollars spent trying to figure out how to keep people listening in the first place.
Whether you agree with their methods or not, their is a damn good reason why radio stations play what they play and use the formats that they do: because they work. For those of us who listen to a whole LOT of music, it begins to seem pretty boring after awhile, but we aren't the real target anyway; Joe Sixpack who spends around 45 minutes a day listening to the radio is, as there's a whole hell of a lot of him than there are us. Hope that helps at least give you an idea of why the current state of affairs in the industry exists and why independant stations who eschew format don't have great reputations of longevity.
I'm rather hoping that someone will develop a neat little app that will use CDDB or something along those lines to pull tune info so that I can quickly catalog my CD collection just by flipping through my CD cases and scanning the bar codes. Isn't there some sort of central repository for bar codes, since they would overlap like a bastard and not with every POS system if anyone could just slap any bar code on their product? If there was an online access point to that data, that would absolutely rule, as you could use these goofy looking bastards to catalog CDs, tapes, records, books, electronic gear... anything that uses bar codes to ring up on a POS system. Probably just wishful thinking...
He put the word "some" in bold and you still missed it? I guess the requirement to be at least as smart as this stick -> | is no longer a requirement for using the Internet.
I did my time in the US military, so I well realize that its not really made up of the best and brightest.:) (And yes, I'm willing to concede myself in that statement;)) That aside, I ofen wonder if our military is not WAY oversized. It is said that we need to maintain a strong defence; I would certainly never argue that point, but when you consider that we have the capability to nuke any nation on Earth into a fine sheet of glass, you have to wonder just who would be insane enough to mount an attack against the US. Its one thing to say that we'll never use nukes in an offensive capability (despite the first and only use of a nuclear weapon in a war WAS in an offesive capasity), but when the nation is actually threatened with possible takeover? I believe that we do need to maintain a moderate standing army for smaller scale conflicts that do not directly threaten the US (OK, I can't think of any good examples at the moment:)), but the one that we currently have is far more bloated than necessary.
And as for small towns that rely on the military installations, well, time passes on. Hate to be the one to break it to you, but things will change, and were the US war machine able to develop robotic soldiers, they would very likely be stationed in existing bases, along with their associated support structures.
I do believe that the comment regarding the poor and minorities "being shepherded in" was patently ridiculous, but it would be nice to envision a day when matters could be settled without having to kill people off. Of course, with Vietnam Part Deux (Columbia) escalating, that time is going to be a bit too late.:(
Yeah, they're really cool, alright... until some jackass GMG decides to point it at you while you're checking some compressed air piping on the gun mount. After watching those things shred drones like tissue paper, its somewhat disconcerting to look straight down into their barrels.:/
Just out of curiousity, didn't Matt Groening have his name pulled from the credits of that episode? That said, I certainly wouldn't mind a quick pass through appearance by the Futurama gang, like when Bender was working as a telethon employee at the end of an episode. That moment was particularly funny as Family Guy was the last show flashed on the screen as one of the shows trying to be saved by the telethon, and then the second commercial after the closing credits was for the return of Family Guy.:)
Issues2000.org is another excellent website for checking out how all of the candidates stand on various issues. Lots of quotes compiled from interviews and other political goodness. Some senatorial info as well, although the focus appears to be the presidential candidates.
Heh, yeah, heaven forbid that I actually gain something for my vote for once, but I certainly understand why votes should not be directly for sale, as corruption is rampant enough without this. I'll spend a couple hundred bucks on Browne campaign gear and try to get a few more people to vote for him, but I'm not holding my breath as I fully expect yet another Republicrat president and more Republicrat congresscritters who are more concerned with some political party or special interest group rather than their district as a whole. But I suppose I'll do what I can, at least for the small personal satisfaction gained; sure would be nice to get a tangible benefit for my vote if I can't get representation, though.:)
They probably did not implement the 60 second wait in the admin's part of the code (although that may be shortly rectified), so the wait only applies to us readers' posts. And if you were honestly making a code inquiry regarding Slash rather than just taking a lame shot at Slashdot, you should check out Slashcode for information and discussion regarding Slash.
Oh man, that would be so great to stop by the Walgreens to snag a bottle of Coke without that irritating little voice running in the back of my head saying, "She knows, dude, she knows." After all, if it was legal, why would I care?:)
Heh, Stephen King is definately a pro at making dough. Remember The Green Mile? Six paperbacks at $3 a pop, $18 total for what was then reprinted in a single paperback that was about the same length as any of his other novels which sell for around $7. While I did enjoy reading his books (his latest few haven't really done much for me), I always read them a couple years after they have been released, as it takes that long just to get a regularly priced paperback. Not faulting him, as his ideas definately seem to work at raking in far more cash, just pointing out that this isn't the author to look to as an early adopter of the micropayment idea.:)
Ah, I see. He had specifically mentioned being worried about losing karma, but that may have been what he meant. I do know that a lot of folks here do worry about their karma total, though, so I am still curious as to what that's about.:)
While the US government is populated by idiots and shitheads, your position is weakened when you talk out your ass on well documented matters, such as the Panama Canal. You should read the treaty sometime, the original and ratified versions; our governments today could really learn from the cooperative spirit in which they were written. To break it down for you, Spain actually planned the Panama Canal in the first place, an international team was set up later to build it and that team obtained permission from the Columbian government to build the canal. The international group fell through, however, so a French company was formed to build it, headed by the dude who made the Suez Canal, who actually got some dirt turned, but ended up failing. The US then asked Panama if they could build a canal in their most excellent location to do so. Panama agreed, since it would bring a whole lot of business their way when they really had nothing else of value to the world at large to bring it in, they didn't have the resources to build one themselves and the US was going to pay them what was, at the time, shitloads of cash to operate it. Since the US was also considering building a canal in Central America and had negotiated a treaty to do so, and the French company was going into the shitter after spending around 20 years trying to get the project going themselves and failing miserably, the company decided to sell their land rights in the area and gear to the US for some huge amount of money at the time, about $40 million, IIRC. Work commenced, ground was dug, locks were built, people died and about 10 years later, there was a working canal. A commission would control operations of the canal, with a member of the USA as administrator and a Panamanian as deputy; in 1990, those roles switched as Panama prepared to take over the canal in full, as stipulated by the treaty. December 31, 1999, at noon, Panama took over the Panama Canal in full.
Take the time to educate the fool who blew that smoke up your ass concerning the history of the Panama Canal; while the US gummint is a collection of wasted sperm cells, it isn't an excuse to be ignorant of history. If you want reasons to hate the US, find the real reasons why we're pieces of shit, not the ignorant crap that your overly loud friend likes to toss around while trying to impress you with his versimilitude. Or better yet, stow your stereotypes, ditch the hate trip and try to enjoy life a little; although I may be a scumbag, many of my fellow US citizens aren't, so give 'em a chance.
I've got to swerve off-topic here for a bit. What is it that worries you, or anyone else reading who does this same thing, about losing karma or getting modded down? Karma is worthless; its not like you get a tax break at 150 or can put it on your resume (you know, the resume thing might not be a bad ploy, actually...). I can see posting as an AC if you are normally logged in if you are commenting on something controversial and fear reprocussions from an employer, nutcase, etc. or you have already moderated in a thread, but just for the sake of not losing karma? I'm not flaming you, I am honestly curious, as I have never understood this particular phenomenon.
Dr. Kevorkian can only be in one place at a time, so there's no use trying to do something for us tech support folks. Although if you'd like to do a tech rep a good deed when you call, try to remember that we can't see your screen or what's installed on the computer, know your usage habits or recognize that "thingy" that you keep pointing at. Not that I don't enjoy talking to myself, just not when the boss is listening and recording the call to pick it apart in a meeting later.
Slashdot Mirror
How should the community deal with a crucial open-source project led an ego which is so great that it refuses to ensure quality at a fundamental level through simple, standard, and reliable mechanisms like CVS?
Fork it. The beauty of open source projects is that morons cannot exercise absolute control over a project once the source has been made available.
Deo
Man, that's gotta be a bitch when you're connected even when you leave those aforementioned pagers, email, cell phones, etc. at home. Guess we'd better not provide the means of access to those areas at all, then. ;)
Deo
No, deities are beings who live in another place/all around us who created/regulate everything in existing, as far as I can tell from what I've heard. Just don't ever say that you believe in a deity in public without explaining that its a religious thing or the people in the white coats might not be far away. ;) Seriously though, I never really looked into it in depth as I don't care about religion, so I could be really far off, but that's the impression that I've gotten. It doesn't mean crap to me if someone is Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, etc. What I've never been able to understand is why people here at work and elsewhere want to tell me about their religion, even after I've explicitly said that I don't care about religion and would rather discuss soemthing else, and even become aggressive towards me if I don't just shut up and start nodding my head, like I was bashing them personally. Man, I've had to deal with that for the past two nights from two different people, one Christian and one Jehovah's Witness. Damn, I don't start hounding the wonders of the self-organizing properties of genetic algorithms to them (although if there was a religion based on that, or Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, I might have to look into it ;)).
Can someone possibly explain why its OK for me to say that I'm not interested in discussing clothing styles, car engines or children's books, but I almost always have to listen to a ration of shit when I try to subtlely change the subject and then have to admit that I don't have a religion when asked? What is it that makes people think that everyone has a religion? That's as dumb as thinking that everyone has a club membership of some sort; be part of a religion and have a ball, but spare those of us who have no interest, OK? I'll spare you the boring details of my last LUG meeting in return. I've found this thread to be pretty interesting, not because I personally care about these belief systems being discussed, but because there are some neat thought exercises going on and I have the option of just going to another topic when this one begins to bore me. If only physical conversations offered the same courtesy without the bitchy side effects.
Deo
What, in a forum chock full of geeks? :) Admittedly, I was looking forward to finding out what MUD he was on so I could see how many times I could whip his ass while he tried to PK me using some godawful 12,000 line perl script as a client. ;)
Deo
They've got all sorts of methods, but the most widely used are diaries that are given to people to document all of their listening; i.e. what stations at what time of day for how long, etc. You can learn a whole lot about radio research and ratings at the Arbitron web site, as they are the primary media research company used; in fact, its their research that "the ratings" are really based on, as its their books that are used as the standard ratings measuring tool by radio (I think they do TV as well, but I don't know TV so I don't want to definitively say so, although Nielson is the standard there so its somewhat moot :)). You want to talk about a company that wields incredible power in the industry? Look at Arbitron. Of course, they are extremely diligent and have never reflected any sort of bias whatsoever, which is why they are held in such high regard, because ANY indicator that they were even the slightest bit biased would destroy their credibility. Multibillion dollar corporations like CBS and Clear Channel don't take kindly to that sort of thing, as you might imagine. :)
,phone and in-person surveys, which I'd be willing to bet that many Slashdotters have gotten in the past, either as a quick phone call with a few innocuous questions, postcard or quick stop in the mall by a guy with a clipboard. These are used to supplement the research done, but the listener diaries are to radio what the Nielson set-top boxes are to TV. Hope that clears it up somewhat. While I learned a lot about this stuff, I'm no expert (else I wouldn't be answering this stupid phone collecting my paltry sum to tell people how to find the space bar:)) so you really should check out the Arbitron site for more info.
Aside from the Arbitron books, the less official means of finding out listening habits include mail
Deo
Yup, said by the Masao, IIRC. Great, great book; I've really got to get Steakley's Vampires, as I dug the movie. Got a chuckle out of the main character in Vampires being named Jack Crow as well. Apparently, there's a Felix in the book as well, although Jack's sidekick in the movie was named Montoya. Wow, freeform thought at work; I should keep going and reveal the secret to the universe in about seven more paragraphs. :)
Deo
Dear god, that is some funny shit; and yes, I'm aware that by getting the jokes on that page, I am admitting to be a complete and total nerd, but what do I care? I'm married, so I'll still get laid, even if I'll never be admitted into a fraternity. :)
Deo
I did a stint as an intern and then a board op in the programming department of a fairly big radio station in these parts (consistantly #1-2 in the books) and learned a lot about radio from picking the hell out of the brain of a kickass PD during that time (damn, do I miss that gig :)). Basically, there are two magic numbers for radio stations: 1) how many people they can get to tag the station at all, and, more importantly, 2) how many people they can get to listen for at least 15 minutes. That 15 minute one is the big whammy, as that is what most of a book is based on. That's why they use teasers, contests, etc to nab listeners for just a few more minutes, because once a listener breaks the 15 minute mark, its a win for the station.
You wouldn't believe the insane amount of research that goes into each and every goddamn song that gets spins. There was this massive book in the PD's office that had 2-3 pages for damn near every single song in the archive that contained interest levels of every age/sex group for that song, so that they could determine what adds to throw into the playlist to boost a certain demographic. The amount of time and money devoted to testing music is enormous! And radio stations still use their own testing to supplement the millions of dollars worth of research already available. The station I worked at had a weekly listening session where they'd bring in a few people, stick some cans on them and play cuts of new and older music to get an idea of what people wanted to hear, what they are burnt out on, what they should reintroduce into the playlist, etc. Every night, they play a couple new tunes being considered for the playlist and solicit responses from the listeners. We even periodically kept track of all requests made throughout the day as another tool for determining interest.
While it may be true that the record companies push off certain pap on to the stations to get spins, radio stations are not tools of the RIAA, as they make their money off of advertising revenue based on the almighty ratings, so they can't afford to blindly play whatever gets thrown on their plate. You may think that radio sucks because they play the same crap every three to four hours, but that's because you only see it from our unique perspective of high volume music listeners. The majority of people have only a passing interest in listening to radio, such as on the way to and from work or at lunchtime; hence the reason that the magic number of minutes for a listener to peg in the ratings being only 15. And, while I hate to say it myself, they love that shit, and while you may want to argue with millions of dollars of market research, the fact is that radio stations have very little influence over what a person really wants to hear; shit, if they could actually do that, they sure as shit wouldn't bother paying the promotions department or the on-air personalities to try and maintain listener loyalty so that they could squeeze a few more minutes out of them; they'd just force you to listen to whatever they have on hand, as so many people love to assert, and save the tens of thousands of dollars spent trying to figure out how to keep people listening in the first place.
Whether you agree with their methods or not, their is a damn good reason why radio stations play what they play and use the formats that they do: because they work. For those of us who listen to a whole LOT of music, it begins to seem pretty boring after awhile, but we aren't the real target anyway; Joe Sixpack who spends around 45 minutes a day listening to the radio is, as there's a whole hell of a lot of him than there are us. Hope that helps at least give you an idea of why the current state of affairs in the industry exists and why independant stations who eschew format don't have great reputations of longevity.
Deo
I'm rather hoping that someone will develop a neat little app that will use CDDB or something along those lines to pull tune info so that I can quickly catalog my CD collection just by flipping through my CD cases and scanning the bar codes. Isn't there some sort of central repository for bar codes, since they would overlap like a bastard and not with every POS system if anyone could just slap any bar code on their product? If there was an online access point to that data, that would absolutely rule, as you could use these goofy looking bastards to catalog CDs, tapes, records, books, electronic gear... anything that uses bar codes to ring up on a POS system. Probably just wishful thinking...
Deo
He put the word "some" in bold and you still missed it? I guess the requirement to be at least as smart as this stick -> | is no longer a requirement for using the Internet.
Deo
I did my time in the US military, so I well realize that its not really made up of the best and brightest. :) (And yes, I'm willing to concede myself in that statement ;)) That aside, I ofen wonder if our military is not WAY oversized. It is said that we need to maintain a strong defence; I would certainly never argue that point, but when you consider that we have the capability to nuke any nation on Earth into a fine sheet of glass, you have to wonder just who would be insane enough to mount an attack against the US. Its one thing to say that we'll never use nukes in an offensive capability (despite the first and only use of a nuclear weapon in a war WAS in an offesive capasity), but when the nation is actually threatened with possible takeover? I believe that we do need to maintain a moderate standing army for smaller scale conflicts that do not directly threaten the US (OK, I can't think of any good examples at the moment :)), but the one that we currently have is far more bloated than necessary.
:(
And as for small towns that rely on the military installations, well, time passes on. Hate to be the one to break it to you, but things will change, and were the US war machine able to develop robotic soldiers, they would very likely be stationed in existing bases, along with their associated support structures.
I do believe that the comment regarding the poor and minorities "being shepherded in" was patently ridiculous, but it would be nice to envision a day when matters could be settled without having to kill people off. Of course, with Vietnam Part Deux (Columbia) escalating, that time is going to be a bit too late.
Deo
Yeah, they're really cool, alright... until some jackass GMG decides to point it at you while you're checking some compressed air piping on the gun mount. After watching those things shred drones like tissue paper, its somewhat disconcerting to look straight down into their barrels. :/
Deo
Just out of curiousity, didn't Matt Groening have his name pulled from the credits of that episode? That said, I certainly wouldn't mind a quick pass through appearance by the Futurama gang, like when Bender was working as a telethon employee at the end of an episode. That moment was particularly funny as Family Guy was the last show flashed on the screen as one of the shows trying to be saved by the telethon, and then the second commercial after the closing credits was for the return of Family Guy. :)
Deo
Wow, an aerospace engineer AND he's pro death? Tell him to run in 2004! He's got my vote!
Deo
Issues2000.org is another excellent website for checking out how all of the candidates stand on various issues. Lots of quotes compiled from interviews and other political goodness. Some senatorial info as well, although the focus appears to be the presidential candidates.
Deo
Heh, yeah, heaven forbid that I actually gain something for my vote for once, but I certainly understand why votes should not be directly for sale, as corruption is rampant enough without this. I'll spend a couple hundred bucks on Browne campaign gear and try to get a few more people to vote for him, but I'm not holding my breath as I fully expect yet another Republicrat president and more Republicrat congresscritters who are more concerned with some political party or special interest group rather than their district as a whole. But I suppose I'll do what I can, at least for the small personal satisfaction gained; sure would be nice to get a tangible benefit for my vote if I can't get representation, though. :)
Deo
Wow, you mean my vote can be worth something? You've got a deal! I wear size L.
Deo
They probably did not implement the 60 second wait in the admin's part of the code (although that may be shortly rectified), so the wait only applies to us readers' posts. And if you were honestly making a code inquiry regarding Slash rather than just taking a lame shot at Slashdot, you should check out Slashcode for information and discussion regarding Slash.
Deo
Oh man, that would be so great to stop by the Walgreens to snag a bottle of Coke without that irritating little voice running in the back of my head saying, "She knows, dude, she knows." After all, if it was legal, why would I care? :)
Deo
Heh, Stephen King is definately a pro at making dough. Remember The Green Mile? Six paperbacks at $3 a pop, $18 total for what was then reprinted in a single paperback that was about the same length as any of his other novels which sell for around $7. While I did enjoy reading his books (his latest few haven't really done much for me), I always read them a couple years after they have been released, as it takes that long just to get a regularly priced paperback. Not faulting him, as his ideas definately seem to work at raking in far more cash, just pointing out that this isn't the author to look to as an early adopter of the micropayment idea. :)
Deo
Truth hurts, doesn't it? Now take off the silly-assed Cowboys jersey and quit rubbing up against that Aikman poster.
Deo
Ah, I see. He had specifically mentioned being worried about losing karma, but that may have been what he meant. I do know that a lot of folks here do worry about their karma total, though, so I am still curious as to what that's about. :)
Deo
While the US government is populated by idiots and shitheads, your position is weakened when you talk out your ass on well documented matters, such as the Panama Canal. You should read the treaty sometime, the original and ratified versions; our governments today could really learn from the cooperative spirit in which they were written. To break it down for you, Spain actually planned the Panama Canal in the first place, an international team was set up later to build it and that team obtained permission from the Columbian government to build the canal. The international group fell through, however, so a French company was formed to build it, headed by the dude who made the Suez Canal, who actually got some dirt turned, but ended up failing. The US then asked Panama if they could build a canal in their most excellent location to do so. Panama agreed, since it would bring a whole lot of business their way when they really had nothing else of value to the world at large to bring it in, they didn't have the resources to build one themselves and the US was going to pay them what was, at the time, shitloads of cash to operate it. Since the US was also considering building a canal in Central America and had negotiated a treaty to do so, and the French company was going into the shitter after spending around 20 years trying to get the project going themselves and failing miserably, the company decided to sell their land rights in the area and gear to the US for some huge amount of money at the time, about $40 million, IIRC. Work commenced, ground was dug, locks were built, people died and about 10 years later, there was a working canal. A commission would control operations of the canal, with a member of the USA as administrator and a Panamanian as deputy; in 1990, those roles switched as Panama prepared to take over the canal in full, as stipulated by the treaty. December 31, 1999, at noon, Panama took over the Panama Canal in full.
Take the time to educate the fool who blew that smoke up your ass concerning the history of the Panama Canal; while the US gummint is a collection of wasted sperm cells, it isn't an excuse to be ignorant of history. If you want reasons to hate the US, find the real reasons why we're pieces of shit, not the ignorant crap that your overly loud friend likes to toss around while trying to impress you with his versimilitude. Or better yet, stow your stereotypes, ditch the hate trip and try to enjoy life a little; although I may be a scumbag, many of my fellow US citizens aren't, so give 'em a chance.
Deo
I've got to swerve off-topic here for a bit. What is it that worries you, or anyone else reading who does this same thing, about losing karma or getting modded down? Karma is worthless; its not like you get a tax break at 150 or can put it on your resume (you know, the resume thing might not be a bad ploy, actually...). I can see posting as an AC if you are normally logged in if you are commenting on something controversial and fear reprocussions from an employer, nutcase, etc. or you have already moderated in a thread, but just for the sake of not losing karma? I'm not flaming you, I am honestly curious, as I have never understood this particular phenomenon.
Deo
Dr. Kevorkian can only be in one place at a time, so there's no use trying to do something for us tech support folks. Although if you'd like to do a tech rep a good deed when you call, try to remember that we can't see your screen or what's installed on the computer, know your usage habits or recognize that "thingy" that you keep pointing at. Not that I don't enjoy talking to myself, just not when the boss is listening and recording the call to pick it apart in a meeting later.
Deo