I'd like to see a social libertarianism, where there are no victimless "crimes" and government stays out of my private affairs, yet does in fact collect taxes to help society along and regulates industry so it doesn't victimize working people and the environment. Government should protect you from me, it shouldn't protect you from yourself. I'm all for socialized medicine, and wish we'd impliment it here in the US. Utilities should, IMO, be owned and operated by local governments, and I'm firmly against toll roads.
In the US, the corporate powers are free to kill, steal, and not pay taxes. Illustration: the mine "accident" last year that killed two dozen miners because safety regulations were ignored -- if corporations aren't above the law, why wasn't anyone imprisoned for mass negligent homicide? Why doesn't GE have to pay tax? Why do the oil companies get government grants? Why are monopolies allowed to gouge me?
If ideologies are perfect, then why do all of them fail? A perfect ideology would take human nature into account.
And most people are nice and altruistic; it's how we've evolved. We're social animals. But altruism, like intelligence, runs the gamut in people. The narcicistic sociopaths will always take advantage of the rest of us, and the more intelligent ones will grab power.
Concentrate wealth and power at the top and you have a perfect setup for stripping away freedom and rights. Get enough talking heads and charismatic people on your side, and you'll even have the people you're screwing over help you attain your goals.
Whoever modded you up, I agree with them; well modded. The Tea Party is a perfect example of what you're talking about here. Started by the billionaire Koch brothers, you have working people who are adamant tea partiers working against their own interests, and ignorant of the fact that they are working against their own interests.
For someone like you Facebook would be a boon, but you're the exception. Me, I really have no use for it. I have an "unlimited" cell phone plan (don't pay for minutes, $50 per month flat fee for calls, long distance, roaming, text, internet, and email) and can call, text, or email anybody I know for free.
I think it's a fad, like Hula hoops, pet rocks, mood rings, and... um, what's the name of that social networking site everybody was on a few years ago? I've forgotten. Chances are in five years everybody will have forgotten Facebook as well.
No, I was like that long before I ever ingested any mind altering substances. I just have a natural talent, it seems, and had an excellent first grade teacher (one of only three public school teachers that wasn't completely incompenent). We didn't have preschool or kindergarten back then so I learned to read in the first grade, and Superman and Batman helped over summer vacation; comic books, of course. In second grade one rainy recess I was reading a book and a teacher came up and said "What are you doing?" I replied "I'm reading." She said "you can't read that!" Puzzled, I asked why not. She replied "you just can't." I said "yes I can." She said "Ok, read it out loud" so I did. She went and got my teacher and the principal telling them "look what this kid's reading" -- it was written at a sixth grade level. In the third grade I was reading Asimov and Heinlein, at age 10 I read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. In college I went into a speed reading course reading faster at 100% comprehension than enybody else in the class came out reading at 80% comprehension.
I'm a freak. Prabably a lot of other slashdotters are the same.
Heh, the cheapest sex I ever had cost a draft beer. The most expensive cost a house, a car, and part of my pension.
However, as I said to someone else, a nerd can learn anything he sets his mind to. Of course, if you're real fat or real skinny (like I used to be) it's a lot harder. I was way too thin until I was on Paxil for a couple of years, the Paxil made me gain 40 pounds. It's actually easier to pick up a drunk chick in a bar than it is to find a hooker who won't steal from you.
You might be entertained by this encounter with a crackwhore. I stopped seeing hookers a few years ago, picking up horney women in bars is safer and easier.
However, both Thermos and Xerox had to fight for their trademarks because they were becoming common words for "vacuum bottle" and "photocopier" against other companies making competing products. Apple Computers was sued by the Beatles' Apple Records, and settled out of court. The settlement stipulated that Apple couldn't get in the music business, and was sued again when they launched iTunes, and again settled out of court.
You're incorrect. The term "Nerd" was coined by Dr. Suess in the 1950 children's story "If I Ran The Zoo". "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo/And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo/A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"
Please note that my slashdot user name has nothing to do with the book, except coincidentally; my last name really is McGrew.
And geeks were freaks who ate live animals; it was a craze in the 1920s to swallow live goldfish, and these wierdos were known as "geeks".
I agree, yet disagree. Ebooks still require editing, cover art, layout, marketing, etc.
That's true (and you forgot the most important item -- the writer), but there's no reason an ebook should cost as much as a paperback. If it costs $2 to print a $10 book, the ebook should be no more than eight bucks.
There have been many articles on Slashdot and elsewhere of authors hitting it big with $0.99 books and thumbing their noses at traditional publishing houses that rejected them time and time again. But this is also hard work.
Not that hard; I've done it, but I'm giving mine away (so far, I maight start selling printed copies).
As to book piracy, last year (I can no longer find the link, sorry) a publisher commissioned a study to see how badly piracy was hurting sales. It takes two or three weeks for a book to hit the Pirate Bay, so the researchers looked at sales figures for a month. They were amazed at the results -- rather than a drop in sales, there was actually a sales spike. That publisher, according to the article, is now rethinking his strategies.
I, too, would wish music was available in FLAC if there was very much RIAA music worth listening to these days.
He's probably very young. A few years ago some kids were at a friend's house examining some 45s. "These are the wierdest CDs I've ever seen!" they said.
When they were explained to the kids, it was "It only holds two songs???
Please clear up my confusion. After the XCP fiasco, and the OtherOS fiasco, how can you possibly trust Sony? You do realise that they could wipe out your library in a single stroke, and aren't above doing such evil if it suited their twisted purposes, don't you?
Buying Sony digital electronics seems to me like loaning your car to a car thief. Why would you risk losing your library?
To look at it another way, back in the 90s when everybody was just starting to write web pages, a favorite method for graphic designers was to composite a layout in photoshop and then chop that up into multiple images laid out in a table (or worse, use image maps!), just as they would do if they were creating a magazine or flyer layout. Those sites were horrible. They wouldn't scale if you needed to change font sizes to make them readable, they wouldn't flow with the size of your browser ("Best viewed at 1024x768" my ass!), and they eventually broke once the box model was standardized and it turned out that Internet Explorer got it wrong (oops!). You don't see those kinds of sites today
Yes you do, in fact there are few sites that don't. The difference is, instead of chopped images you have CSS, which is little better. Few sites are readable on my phone. I use my 42 inch TV as my PC monitor (using a wireless mouse and keyboard) reading it from across the living room, and enlarging the font with Ctrl+ forces a horizontal scroll on almost all sites these days. Horizontal scrolling is a venal sin.
Plain HTML with no CSS will work with any screen, from a little phone screen to a hughe hi-def screen you're inches away from, but almost nobody uses straight CSSless HTML any more.
Slashdot Mirror
Facist? Wrong end of the spectrum; the Chinese are communist. In communism, government controls industry. In facism, industry controls the government.
I'd like to see a social libertarianism, where there are no victimless "crimes" and government stays out of my private affairs, yet does in fact collect taxes to help society along and regulates industry so it doesn't victimize working people and the environment. Government should protect you from me, it shouldn't protect you from yourself. I'm all for socialized medicine, and wish we'd impliment it here in the US. Utilities should, IMO, be owned and operated by local governments, and I'm firmly against toll roads.
In the US, the corporate powers are free to kill, steal, and not pay taxes. Illustration: the mine "accident" last year that killed two dozen miners because safety regulations were ignored -- if corporations aren't above the law, why wasn't anyone imprisoned for mass negligent homicide? Why doesn't GE have to pay tax? Why do the oil companies get government grants? Why are monopolies allowed to gouge me?
If ideologies are perfect, then why do all of them fail? A perfect ideology would take human nature into account.
And most people are nice and altruistic; it's how we've evolved. We're social animals. But altruism, like intelligence, runs the gamut in people. The narcicistic sociopaths will always take advantage of the rest of us, and the more intelligent ones will grab power.
Concentrate wealth and power at the top and you have a perfect setup for stripping away freedom and rights. Get enough talking heads and charismatic people on your side, and you'll even have the people you're screwing over help you attain your goals.
Whoever modded you up, I agree with them; well modded. The Tea Party is a perfect example of what you're talking about here. Started by the billionaire Koch brothers, you have working people who are adamant tea partiers working against their own interests, and ignorant of the fact that they are working against their own interests.
That's me! :P
For someone like you Facebook would be a boon, but you're the exception. Me, I really have no use for it. I have an "unlimited" cell phone plan (don't pay for minutes, $50 per month flat fee for calls, long distance, roaming, text, internet, and email) and can call, text, or email anybody I know for free.
I think it's a fad, like Hula hoops, pet rocks, mood rings, and... um, what's the name of that social networking site everybody was on a few years ago? I've forgotten. Chances are in five years everybody will have forgotten Facebook as well.
Actually, the book I referenced did mention the tongs -- 19th century gangsters.
This was a no-ebook book that would have had to be scanned and OCRed.
No, I was like that long before I ever ingested any mind altering substances. I just have a natural talent, it seems, and had an excellent first grade teacher (one of only three public school teachers that wasn't completely incompenent). We didn't have preschool or kindergarten back then so I learned to read in the first grade, and Superman and Batman helped over summer vacation; comic books, of course. In second grade one rainy recess I was reading a book and a teacher came up and said "What are you doing?" I replied "I'm reading." She said "you can't read that!" Puzzled, I asked why not. She replied "you just can't." I said "yes I can." She said "Ok, read it out loud" so I did. She went and got my teacher and the principal telling them "look what this kid's reading" -- it was written at a sixth grade level. In the third grade I was reading Asimov and Heinlein, at age 10 I read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. In college I went into a speed reading course reading faster at 100% comprehension than enybody else in the class came out reading at 80% comprehension.
I'm a freak. Prabably a lot of other slashdotters are the same.
I must be able to write pretty well, too, because guys keep asking me to publish. Here's a more recent sample.
Heh, the cheapest sex I ever had cost a draft beer. The most expensive cost a house, a car, and part of my pension.
However, as I said to someone else, a nerd can learn anything he sets his mind to. Of course, if you're real fat or real skinny (like I used to be) it's a lot harder. I was way too thin until I was on Paxil for a couple of years, the Paxil made me gain 40 pounds. It's actually easier to pick up a drunk chick in a bar than it is to find a hooker who won't steal from you.
You might be entertained by this encounter with a crackwhore. I stopped seeing hookers a few years ago, picking up horney women in bars is safer and easier.
No, although they do exist. A nerd can learn anything, even how to attract the ladies if he wants to badly enough.
Parent AC comment is insightful. I'd mod him up if I hadn't already posted in this discussion.
If you consider "geek" and "nerd" to be insulting, you're on the wrong site.
Dude, it tales at LEAST that much alcohol for a real nerd to get down to normal folks' IQ!
But! I'm! Captain! Kirk!!!
However, both Thermos and Xerox had to fight for their trademarks because they were becoming common words for "vacuum bottle" and "photocopier" against other companies making competing products. Apple Computers was sued by the Beatles' Apple Records, and settled out of court. The settlement stipulated that Apple couldn't get in the music business, and was sued again when they launched iTunes, and again settled out of court.
You're incorrect. The term "Nerd" was coined by Dr. Suess in the 1950 children's story "If I Ran The Zoo". "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo/And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo/A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!"
Please note that my slashdot user name has nothing to do with the book, except coincidentally; my last name really is McGrew.
And geeks were freaks who ate live animals; it was a craze in the 1920s to swallow live goldfish, and these wierdos were known as "geeks".
Hey, I had a mod point left, where'd it go? You need a "funny" mod. I don't have any trouble attracting the opposite sex (but the meme is funny).
It didn't mean "fool or crazy", a "geek" was someone who ate live animals. 1920s goldfish swallowers, for example.
I agree, yet disagree. Ebooks still require editing, cover art, layout, marketing, etc.
That's true (and you forgot the most important item -- the writer), but there's no reason an ebook should cost as much as a paperback. If it costs $2 to print a $10 book, the ebook should be no more than eight bucks.
There have been many articles on Slashdot and elsewhere of authors hitting it big with $0.99 books and thumbing their noses at traditional publishing houses that rejected them time and time again. But this is also hard work.
Not that hard; I've done it, but I'm giving mine away (so far, I maight start selling printed copies).
As to book piracy, last year (I can no longer find the link, sorry) a publisher commissioned a study to see how badly piracy was hurting sales. It takes two or three weeks for a book to hit the Pirate Bay, so the researchers looked at sales figures for a month. They were amazed at the results -- rather than a drop in sales, there was actually a sales spike. That publisher, according to the article, is now rethinking his strategies.
I, too, would wish music was available in FLAC if there was very much RIAA music worth listening to these days.
He's probably very young. A few years ago some kids were at a friend's house examining some 45s. "These are the wierdest CDs I've ever seen!" they said.
When they were explained to the kids, it was "It only holds two songs???
Please clear up my confusion. After the XCP fiasco, and the OtherOS fiasco, how can you possibly trust Sony? You do realise that they could wipe out your library in a single stroke, and aren't above doing such evil if it suited their twisted purposes, don't you?
Buying Sony digital electronics seems to me like loaning your car to a car thief. Why would you risk losing your library?
The rationaile is that if they stopped printing paper books, libraries couldn't lend books out.
To look at it another way, back in the 90s when everybody was just starting to write web pages, a favorite method for graphic designers was to composite a layout in photoshop and then chop that up into multiple images laid out in a table (or worse, use image maps!), just as they would do if they were creating a magazine or flyer layout. Those sites were horrible. They wouldn't scale if you needed to change font sizes to make them readable, they wouldn't flow with the size of your browser ("Best viewed at 1024x768" my ass!), and they eventually broke once the box model was standardized and it turned out that Internet Explorer got it wrong (oops!). You don't see those kinds of sites today
Yes you do, in fact there are few sites that don't. The difference is, instead of chopped images you have CSS, which is little better. Few sites are readable on my phone. I use my 42 inch TV as my PC monitor (using a wireless mouse and keyboard) reading it from across the living room, and enlarging the font with Ctrl+ forces a horizontal scroll on almost all sites these days. Horizontal scrolling is a venal sin.
Plain HTML with no CSS will work with any screen, from a little phone screen to a hughe hi-def screen you're inches away from, but almost nobody uses straight CSSless HTML any more.
True except for one point -- drop it in the lake and it's done. My copy of Dune was ruined when my daugther spilled soda on it.
However, had it been an ebook my whole library would have been gone instead of just one volume.
Cheap? You have to be kidding me! When I was in college a textbook was ten or twenty bucks, a paperback was under a dollar.
The price of publishing has gone way down, but the price of reading has skyrocketed.
Besides, there have always been public libraries. There's no way I could ever have bought all the books I've read.