US's continuing economic decline? I wasn't aware of that - I thought that 3% growth and 5% unemployment were optimal economic growth condidtions. Maybe reporters should take an economics class, no? Hell, a journalism class might do them some good too. Americans work longer and sleep much less than almost all other nations, and most people are happy with a annual three-week vacation. No bash against France in particular, but as an example of a more socialised country, they get 11 weeks of vacation on average, and (okay maybe this is only France) go on strike as soon as they get back.
Unless you live in Texas it is unlikely you saw me when I was helping out with Katrina relief, both physically aiding in sheltering (I served food, organized supplies and played with kids in the daycare) as well as in donating clothing and other things, and on top of that I have been donating blood every two months for free since I have been old enough. I'm a little short on money right now, and the little that I have left over usually goes to my computer, but I always drop my change in the charity jar. The point is, most people give something to charity, but they also treat themselves sometimes, and the Superbowl (as mindless and brutish as it is - btw, remember I'm a Texan) is to them what the release of x videogame or x version of FOSS or x invention is to us. And it's not like Americans don't give alot to charity, or even that if we all gave all we didn't need away it would really solve all of the social and cultural problems that chronically plague most of the third world. For instance, in the US, a cartoon making fun of Christ (like in South Park) would upset people, but not start riots, attacking of stores and embassies, or get people killed like in the Mohammed cartoons incident (BBC link not working now, sorry). It's pretty ironic that a cartoon about Muslims being violent extremists is responded to with violence. Don't ge me wrong, Islam can be just as good as any religion (I lived in Oman for a while), but to most cultures in the area, the tolerance of what you disagree with is not recognized as an essential aspect of society like it is in West, among other things. It's not like we are all actively preventing them from picking themselves up - Oman is a great example of a country that uses its resources to build infrastructure and industry rather than commit genocide. I never felt any danger at all there, I never saw a gun except 100 year old antique rifles, and have in all my time in America, Europe, and China never met as many friendly people. For more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaboos_bin_Said_Al_Sa id. The Sultan is a great example of the kind of leadership that completely change a country for the better. The whole time I was there I saw roads, schools, desalinization plants, and other things being built and never felt or saw any oppression of any kind directed at me or anyone else. Although I'm sure they have their problems, they deal with them in a way that the rest of the region could learn from.
How about selling your computer and giving the money to charity? You don't really _need_ it to survive, not like the food all those poor Eithiopian kids don't have. Sure, if we all lived like Spartans and correctly appropriated resources, we could solve all the problems in the world. But no one is about to do that. Or, since everyone cares so much about money, save yourself the approximately $100000 it cost to raise a kid by not having them and give half to charity. Couple of bucks in condoms for a $50k return on inverstment, now that's money well spent. At the very least ADOPT one instead of ADDING TO THE PROBLEM. Ah, if only - outlaw babies and allow only adoptions from the third world! Or genetically engineer a biological weapon that makes people sterile instead of killing them, then release it evenly (though not too much) throughout the world - perhaps as an STD? What could be more fair and humane, but still effective? Certainly not any current population control methods.
from one of my favorite authors, Peter Watts. He writes hard as hell sf, which includes behavioral modification in this manner. His first two novels are schedluled to be reprinted soon, but until then he has made them available for free in basic tect or pdf form, all downloadable, on his website http://rifters.com/ red the right hand column on the newscrawl section too, it's very much like/. in topics.
what concerns me is M$'s track record of not exactly fixing things in a timely manner. Firefox has come leaps and bounds in half a version, and by 2.1 I expect that almost all significant issues will be gone (I'm not saying it's perfect, just improving faster and more noticeably). I just don't see IE7 becoming any more bug-free than IE6, or most other M$ product.
I have already beaten most of those games either in their original form, or as PC ROMS. Why should I spend $300 to play these same games, only on the go? As a supplement, they are nice, but I'm not gonna buy a Revolution just to play old games, neither should I buy a PSP to do so, especially when I already have a laptop that alows me to do so one the go. Besides, on the off-chance someone else cares, ROMS are on the grey side of the law.
It changed over time to reflect the consolidation of power and the national sense of unity and identity. It was a pretty important historical shift when people began to describe themselves as Americans first, then by their state.
Okay, the PSP is sexy, Sony, yes I think it's pretty. But what can I do with it besides watch mostly crappy movies, listen to music that I already have on my smaller iPod, or put pr0n on? Where are the GAMES? What is your killer app? What are the must-have games? I have never seen someone playing anything besides Lumines on a PSP. Everyone I know with a DS has a ton of games that kick ass. Don't you have something better to be doing, Sony, than making translators and rootkits? How about games or finishing the PS3?
Ranting aside, if you own a PSP, kill anyone you have to to get the PSP remake of the best RPG of all time, Valkyrie Profile. And if you own a PS2, buy the sequel, Valkyrie Profile Silmeria. And if you like the music, download (since you will be broke after buying both games you'll have to wait till payday to buy) Dimmu Borgir.
Okay, what is the single most desired natural resource in the world that is becoming ever more important since drilling for more or using nuclear energy or concerving energy are so vehemently being denied as reasonable possibilities?
And what about Microsoft? Are they just a runner-up, did most of the profit go to Gates, and what is happening with their taxation?
Also, that is only a minor point in my whole statement. If you disagree with that line, or it is invalid, do you still agree with the rest of my post?
Sure, anything to an extreme is bad, but imagine a world full of autistic-y people. What are people with good social skills good at? Organizing mobs and armies and holy wars. Or building statues of people that did that. What are geeky people good for? Oh, I dunno, maybe ignoring mundane superficial issues and heeping busy advancing the human race?
The questions are at the bottom, along with the answers.
Seriously, print this out and test your friends, family, classmates and or coworkers. If they fail, shoot them and remove them from the gene pool now. It may seem harsh, but it's for the children. And Lord knows nothing is more important than them. Hop to it!
In my experience as a nerdling, I found that most guys were veritable dumb jocks, most girls were either airheads or perfect students that only knew the garbage they teach you in shool, nothing of real value, interest, or signifigance. The top grades always belonged to a chick, but the very brightest and most interesting people, the ones who read books for fun, watched the Discovery and History Channel, who knew history, who knew more about science, the ones clearly ahead of teachers, were always guys. Usually there were about three or four of us in my grade. Maybe the girls who were like us were shy or something, but all the smartasses I knew were guys. I wasn't afraid, it was just that my best friends were always like me intellectually, and there were no girls I knew about like us at all. Anyone else have a different experience (you lucky bastard)?
But seriously, is this mostly an attention grab or is does this guy have anything to say we don't already know? By the way, 40 years ago scientists were worried about global cooling. I thought it was common knowldge that the Earth has gone through several cycles of warming and mini ice ages. Or was I the only one fascinated with dinosaurs and prehistory as a child? I don't remember all the details, but I'm sure that's not a completely new theory. I mean, pollution is a problem and there's no doubt humans are the worst tenants a landlord could ask for, or that many species of plants and animals are going to become extinct as a result of this, but isn't that kinda common and a part of the whole, I dunno, natural selection thing? Things are gonna die out, our duty is only to not unnaturally accelerate the process (a la deforestation of the Amazon), and maybe to save some in a zoo or genetic archive. Maybe reversing global population growth, and thus reducing all human impact would be better than trying to solve one aspect of the issue we clearly don't understand enough? Daniel Quinn has written several interesting but very counterintuitive (they sound kinda newagey at first, but aren't) books on the subject of mankind's place in and effect on nature specifically contrasting the tribal societies and civilaization. Do yourself a favor and check out Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn. It's short, cheap, and a very good paradigm shifter even if you don't agree with it completely.
#352172 +(4691)- [X]
I broke my G-string while fingering a minor:(...
I was trying to play Knocking on Heaven's Door.
Oh well, time to buy new strings.
Why does anyone shop at Best Buy anyway? Their prices are NOT the best, or even particularly good. The only rebate purchases I've made recently were at Fry's for a 200GB Seagate hard drive and a 36GB Western Digital Raptor. I got the Seagate for $50 and the WD for $100, after rebate (this was a year ago, when prices were higher than they are now for those things). Sure, it took a while, but I saved nearly $80 between the two. Basically, I only buy something with a rebate on it if it is something I really want, with a large rebate, and if I really intend on sending it. The few times I have done this have really paid off.
It *might* have been sarcastic. Watch out for dolphins, after all those dolphins killed in fishing nets, one can't expect them to remain helpful and friendly for long.
You want to be treated like a human being? Um, human beings haven't exactly been treated well by other humans overall for oh, say, all of human existance. I'd like to be treated like a ninja assasin inside a giant robot. No one would wanna mess with me.
I agree - either this is okay or we should do something about it, but we need to make up our minds. Are most Westerners of the opinion that the US has been too heavy handed in pushing themselves on other countries without real justification a la Vietnam? Most likely. It wasn't just that at the time we thought communism was bad, or that we now realize that we were too frightend by communism and that it's not really that dangerous now; it is that the dictatorial nature of these countries sucked ass. Americans may think certain European countries are silly with their socialistic economies, but we are otherwise fine with them because they have peaceful democratic governments. The Chinese government is an evil dictatorship, just like N. Korea (and formerly Iraq). I say that if we truly stand for democracy and freedom, then destroying military dictatorships and warlords is not only okay, but our duty. We shouldn't have a beef with China bc they're commies, but bc it is led by a military dictatorship with a human rights abuse record far worse than any reporter could possibly lead the world to think Americans have in Iraq.
No, most laws are an attempt to legislate a social contract that allows for individuals to do as much of what they want without infringing on other's wants to do the same, a compromise of limiting the freedom of individuals to allow everyone the most freedoms and or safety. Theft isn't illegal because it's "wrong", it is illegal becuase if it wasn't we'd have people stealing left and right, which would result in fights, which would quickly degenerate into looting mobs and armed gangs - total violent anarchy. We all give up the right to drive as fast as we want or ignore traffic rules to allow everyone to be safe. The problem is that absolutist rulers that cemented their power through religion used their power to enforce religious beliefs in the past, and we have become used to this and believe it is natural for any government to want to do the same. If the law isn't necessary to stop us from depriving each other from our inalienable rights, it probably isn't necessary at all. I'm touched that so many people are so concerned about my soul that they'd outlaw pr0n (rather than forgive me, explain the "evil" of it to me and save my soul the way Jesus says to do), but no thank you. I have the right to voice my opinion, and I can try to convince you to agree with me, but we don't need a law passed declaring that my opinion is correct when we can avoid killing and stealing from each other without it. Like gay marriages, for example. Being gay may be immoral to some, but I find ignorance and belligerance immoral and we aren't about to outlaw that, are we? Marriage has historically been a political or economic decision under the guise of religion, and recently the West has decided that marriage is for love instead, so why the fuss? If people are being gay left and right, maybe the population will decrease to the point where mass adoptions of Third-World babies is commonplace! If pr0n is left and right, maybe people will stop cheating on their spouses and getting into nasty divorces that scar their choldren for life! If masturbation is occuring left and right, maybe a website where geeks discuss new of interest to geeks will emer- oh wait, nevermind. But no one will be hurt in any way, unlike if people were aborting babies left and right, or snorting crack left and right, or smoking left and right. Basically, it should only be against the law (maybe under certain conditions) if it would become a serious problem if everyone were doing it (like rape, or tresspassing, or using Winblows).
Slashdot Mirror
It's overly complex, it's bloated, and it's badly architectured
What was that about Microsoft?
Seriously though, code and jokes aside, Firefox is much nicer in every way than any MS product I've ever used.
US's continuing economic decline? I wasn't aware of that - I thought that 3% growth and 5% unemployment were optimal economic growth condidtions. Maybe reporters should take an economics class, no? Hell, a journalism class might do them some good too. Americans work longer and sleep much less than almost all other nations, and most people are happy with a annual three-week vacation. No bash against France in particular, but as an example of a more socialised country, they get 11 weeks of vacation on average, and (okay maybe this is only France) go on strike as soon as they get back.
Unless you live in Texas it is unlikely you saw me when I was helping out with Katrina relief, both physically aiding in sheltering (I served food, organized supplies and played with kids in the daycare) as well as in donating clothing and other things, and on top of that I have been donating blood every two months for free since I have been old enough. I'm a little short on money right now, and the little that I have left over usually goes to my computer, but I always drop my change in the charity jar. The point is, most people give something to charity, but they also treat themselves sometimes, and the Superbowl (as mindless and brutish as it is - btw, remember I'm a Texan) is to them what the release of x videogame or x version of FOSS or x invention is to us. And it's not like Americans don't give alot to charity, or even that if we all gave all we didn't need away it would really solve all of the social and cultural problems that chronically plague most of the third world. For instance, in the US, a cartoon making fun of Christ (like in South Park) would upset people, but not start riots, attacking of stores and embassies, or get people killed like in the Mohammed cartoons incident (BBC link not working now, sorry). It's pretty ironic that a cartoon about Muslims being violent extremists is responded to with violence. Don't ge me wrong, Islam can be just as good as any religion (I lived in Oman for a while), but to most cultures in the area, the tolerance of what you disagree with is not recognized as an essential aspect of society like it is in West, among other things. It's not like we are all actively preventing them from picking themselves up - Oman is a great example of a country that uses its resources to build infrastructure and industry rather than commit genocide. I never felt any danger at all there, I never saw a gun except 100 year old antique rifles, and have in all my time in America, Europe, and China never met as many friendly people. For more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaboos_bin_Said_Al_Sa id. The Sultan is a great example of the kind of leadership that completely change a country for the better. The whole time I was there I saw roads, schools, desalinization plants, and other things being built and never felt or saw any oppression of any kind directed at me or anyone else. Although I'm sure they have their problems, they deal with them in a way that the rest of the region could learn from.
How about selling your computer and giving the money to charity? You don't really _need_ it to survive, not like the food all those poor Eithiopian kids don't have. Sure, if we all lived like Spartans and correctly appropriated resources, we could solve all the problems in the world. But no one is about to do that. Or, since everyone cares so much about money, save yourself the approximately $100000 it cost to raise a kid by not having them and give half to charity. Couple of bucks in condoms for a $50k return on inverstment, now that's money well spent. At the very least ADOPT one instead of ADDING TO THE PROBLEM. Ah, if only - outlaw babies and allow only adoptions from the third world! Or genetically engineer a biological weapon that makes people sterile instead of killing them, then release it evenly (though not too much) throughout the world - perhaps as an STD? What could be more fair and humane, but still effective? Certainly not any current population control methods.
from one of my favorite authors, Peter Watts. He writes hard as hell sf, which includes behavioral modification in this manner. His first two novels are schedluled to be reprinted soon, but until then he has made them available for free in basic tect or pdf form, all downloadable, on his website http://rifters.com/ red the right hand column on the newscrawl section too, it's very much like /. in topics.
http://creativecommons.org/ is what you want. Private actions ahead of the Gov. and without the cost triumphs again!
Tell M$ that, see if they care. Firefox, Opera, Safari, I don't care; anything but IE for the love of flying spaghetti!
That's actually extremly accurate
what concerns me is M$'s track record of not exactly fixing things in a timely manner. Firefox has come leaps and bounds in half a version, and by 2.1 I expect that almost all significant issues will be gone (I'm not saying it's perfect, just improving faster and more noticeably). I just don't see IE7 becoming any more bug-free than IE6, or most other M$ product.
I have already beaten most of those games either in their original form, or as PC ROMS. Why should I spend $300 to play these same games, only on the go? As a supplement, they are nice, but I'm not gonna buy a Revolution just to play old games, neither should I buy a PSP to do so, especially when I already have a laptop that alows me to do so one the go. Besides, on the off-chance someone else cares, ROMS are on the grey side of the law.
It changed over time to reflect the consolidation of power and the national sense of unity and identity. It was a pretty important historical shift when people began to describe themselves as Americans first, then by their state.
If I cared about kittens I wouldn't be the kind of guy that posts on /. now would I?
Okay, the PSP is sexy, Sony, yes I think it's pretty. But what can I do with it besides watch mostly crappy movies, listen to music that I already have on my smaller iPod, or put pr0n on? Where are the GAMES? What is your killer app? What are the must-have games? I have never seen someone playing anything besides Lumines on a PSP. Everyone I know with a DS has a ton of games that kick ass. Don't you have something better to be doing, Sony, than making translators and rootkits? How about games or finishing the PS3? Ranting aside, if you own a PSP, kill anyone you have to to get the PSP remake of the best RPG of all time, Valkyrie Profile. And if you own a PS2, buy the sequel, Valkyrie Profile Silmeria. And if you like the music, download (since you will be broke after buying both games you'll have to wait till payday to buy) Dimmu Borgir.
Okay, what is the single most desired natural resource in the world that is becoming ever more important since drilling for more or using nuclear energy or concerving energy are so vehemently being denied as reasonable possibilities?
And what about Microsoft? Are they just a runner-up, did most of the profit go to Gates, and what is happening with their taxation?
Also, that is only a minor point in my whole statement. If you disagree with that line, or it is invalid, do you still agree with the rest of my post?
Sure, anything to an extreme is bad, but imagine a world full of autistic-y people. What are people with good social skills good at? Organizing mobs and armies and holy wars. Or building statues of people that did that. What are geeky people good for? Oh, I dunno, maybe ignoring mundane superficial issues and heeping busy advancing the human race?
Slightly more than half of the adult US population can now correctly answer the question "How long does it take for the Earth to complete a circuit of the Sun?", as long as it's presented in multiple-choice format:t tp://www.rifters.com/real/articles/stats_on_americ an_scientific_idiocy.pdf
http://pdf2html.pootwerdie.com/pdf2html.php?url=h
The questions are at the bottom, along with the answers.
Seriously, print this out and test your friends, family, classmates and or coworkers. If they fail, shoot them and remove them from the gene pool now. It may seem harsh, but it's for the children. And Lord knows nothing is more important than them. Hop to it!
In my experience as a nerdling, I found that most guys were veritable dumb jocks, most girls were either airheads or perfect students that only knew the garbage they teach you in shool, nothing of real value, interest, or signifigance. The top grades always belonged to a chick, but the very brightest and most interesting people, the ones who read books for fun, watched the Discovery and History Channel, who knew history, who knew more about science, the ones clearly ahead of teachers, were always guys. Usually there were about three or four of us in my grade. Maybe the girls who were like us were shy or something, but all the smartasses I knew were guys. I wasn't afraid, it was just that my best friends were always like me intellectually, and there were no girls I knew about like us at all. Anyone else have a different experience (you lucky bastard)?
"A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats."
But seriously, is this mostly an attention grab or is does this guy have anything to say we don't already know? By the way, 40 years ago scientists were worried about global cooling. I thought it was common knowldge that the Earth has gone through several cycles of warming and mini ice ages. Or was I the only one fascinated with dinosaurs and prehistory as a child? I don't remember all the details, but I'm sure that's not a completely new theory. I mean, pollution is a problem and there's no doubt humans are the worst tenants a landlord could ask for, or that many species of plants and animals are going to become extinct as a result of this, but isn't that kinda common and a part of the whole, I dunno, natural selection thing? Things are gonna die out, our duty is only to not unnaturally accelerate the process (a la deforestation of the Amazon), and maybe to save some in a zoo or genetic archive. Maybe reversing global population growth, and thus reducing all human impact would be better than trying to solve one aspect of the issue we clearly don't understand enough? Daniel Quinn has written several interesting but very counterintuitive (they sound kinda newagey at first, but aren't) books on the subject of mankind's place in and effect on nature specifically contrasting the tribal societies and civilaization. Do yourself a favor and check out Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn. It's short, cheap, and a very good paradigm shifter even if you don't agree with it completely.
#352172 +(4691)- [X] I broke my G-string while fingering a minor :( ...
I was trying to play Knocking on Heaven's Door.
Oh well, time to buy new strings.
Why does anyone shop at Best Buy anyway? Their prices are NOT the best, or even particularly good. The only rebate purchases I've made recently were at Fry's for a 200GB Seagate hard drive and a 36GB Western Digital Raptor. I got the Seagate for $50 and the WD for $100, after rebate (this was a year ago, when prices were higher than they are now for those things). Sure, it took a while, but I saved nearly $80 between the two. Basically, I only buy something with a rebate on it if it is something I really want, with a large rebate, and if I really intend on sending it. The few times I have done this have really paid off.
It *might* have been sarcastic. Watch out for dolphins, after all those dolphins killed in fishing nets, one can't expect them to remain helpful and friendly for long.
You want to be treated like a human being? Um, human beings haven't exactly been treated well by other humans overall for oh, say, all of human existance. I'd like to be treated like a ninja assasin inside a giant robot. No one would wanna mess with me.
I agree - either this is okay or we should do something about it, but we need to make up our minds. Are most Westerners of the opinion that the US has been too heavy handed in pushing themselves on other countries without real justification a la Vietnam? Most likely. It wasn't just that at the time we thought communism was bad, or that we now realize that we were too frightend by communism and that it's not really that dangerous now; it is that the dictatorial nature of these countries sucked ass. Americans may think certain European countries are silly with their socialistic economies, but we are otherwise fine with them because they have peaceful democratic governments. The Chinese government is an evil dictatorship, just like N. Korea (and formerly Iraq). I say that if we truly stand for democracy and freedom, then destroying military dictatorships and warlords is not only okay, but our duty. We shouldn't have a beef with China bc they're commies, but bc it is led by a military dictatorship with a human rights abuse record far worse than any reporter could possibly lead the world to think Americans have in Iraq.
No, most laws are an attempt to legislate a social contract that allows for individuals to do as much of what they want without infringing on other's wants to do the same, a compromise of limiting the freedom of individuals to allow everyone the most freedoms and or safety. Theft isn't illegal because it's "wrong", it is illegal becuase if it wasn't we'd have people stealing left and right, which would result in fights, which would quickly degenerate into looting mobs and armed gangs - total violent anarchy. We all give up the right to drive as fast as we want or ignore traffic rules to allow everyone to be safe. The problem is that absolutist rulers that cemented their power through religion used their power to enforce religious beliefs in the past, and we have become used to this and believe it is natural for any government to want to do the same. If the law isn't necessary to stop us from depriving each other from our inalienable rights, it probably isn't necessary at all. I'm touched that so many people are so concerned about my soul that they'd outlaw pr0n (rather than forgive me, explain the "evil" of it to me and save my soul the way Jesus says to do), but no thank you. I have the right to voice my opinion, and I can try to convince you to agree with me, but we don't need a law passed declaring that my opinion is correct when we can avoid killing and stealing from each other without it. Like gay marriages, for example. Being gay may be immoral to some, but I find ignorance and belligerance immoral and we aren't about to outlaw that, are we? Marriage has historically been a political or economic decision under the guise of religion, and recently the West has decided that marriage is for love instead, so why the fuss? If people are being gay left and right, maybe the population will decrease to the point where mass adoptions of Third-World babies is commonplace! If pr0n is left and right, maybe people will stop cheating on their spouses and getting into nasty divorces that scar their choldren for life! If masturbation is occuring left and right, maybe a website where geeks discuss new of interest to geeks will emer- oh wait, nevermind. But no one will be hurt in any way, unlike if people were aborting babies left and right, or snorting crack left and right, or smoking left and right. Basically, it should only be against the law (maybe under certain conditions) if it would become a serious problem if everyone were doing it (like rape, or tresspassing, or using Winblows).