You mean like how fleas carrying the plague made rats and humans extinct during the dark ages?
IIRC insects predate dinasaurs. Sorry, I'm a skep tick.
The book's author isn't a palentologist, he is with the Department of Entomology at Oregon State University. He is (like I am now) making claims he does not have the credentials for.
At least they weren't shipped with rootkits! Well, I THINK they weren't but how could you know?
I know that after being rooted by a music CD, I'll never have a Sony product burn me (except maybe my TV, which I bought before being burned by XCP). Once bitten, twice shy. Other corporations should take heed.
Re:unionization = siren song
on
Should IT Unionize?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Ah, yes-- the siren song of unionization, born out of the early 20th century labor struggles where socialism was still an idyllic future utopia
(citation needed)
IF THE American people turned a deaf ear to Woodrow Wilson's plea for the League of Nations during the early years of the Post-war Decade, it was not simply because they were too weary of foreign entanglements and noble efforts to heed him. They were listening to something else. They were listening to ugly rumors of a huge radical conspiracy against the government and institutions of the United States. They had their ears cocked for the detonation of bombs and the tramp of Bolshevist armies. They seriously thought-at least millions of them did, millions of otherwise reasonable citizens-that a Red revolution might begin in the United States the next month or next week, and they were less concerned with making the world safe for democracy than with making America safe for themselves.
Those were the days when column after column of the front pages of the newspapers shouted the news of strikes and and-Bolshevist riots; when radicals shot do Armistice Day paraders in the streets of Centralia, Washington, and in revenge the patriotic citizenry took out of the jail a member of the I. W. W.-a white American, be it noted-and lynched him by tying a rope around his neck and throwing him off a bridge; when properly elected members of the Assembly of New York State were expelled (and their constituents thereby disfranchised) simply because they had been elected as members of the venerable Socialist Party; when a jury in Indiana took two minutes to acquit a man for shooting and killing an alien because he had shouted, "To hell with the United States"; and when the Vice-President or the nation cited as a dangerous manifestation of radicalism in the women's colleges the fact that the girl debaters of Radcliffe had upheld the affirmative in an intercollegiate debate on the subject: "Resolved, that the recognition of labor unions by employers is essential to successful collective bargaining." It was an era of lawless and disorderly defense of law and order, of unconstitutional defense of the Constitution, of suspicion and civil conflict-in a very literal sense, a reign of terror.
Allen was a bona-fide historian, the document that debunks your argument is hosted at an American university. So, do you have someone with better credentials than Rush Limbaugh to back your assertion that "socialism was still an idyllic future utopia"?
Re:Sixty-hour work weeks with no overtime...
on
Should IT Unionize?
·
· Score: 1
Unions correct for errors in the free market, and are not effective in situations where the market already has checks and balances in place
See, that's the problem - there are no checks and balances in place. When American Airlines (IIRC, this was in the '80s when the airline inquestion was non-union), the CEO said "any company that has a union deserves one".
If your employer treats you well, you have no need for a union.
And in any case, there are few companies with large enough IT workforces to make unionizing a viable idea.
You don't have to have a separate IT union. Your employer has drivers? Let the Teamsters* represent you.
* The Teamsters SUCK, or at least did in the '80s. I was in the Temaster's union when I worked at Disney, and they were in bed with management.
Go to the Playboy Mansion - that's where many politicians are.
Have a HUGE expense account to entertain with the above.
A Budget for a private jet. It will allow me to be more productive in representing the stockholders!
A budget for bodyguards.
A budget for residences around the country because it's faster than hotels. Also, my nieces who happen to be lawyers will be staying there full time to handle local politics and laws.
A budget for gifts to Congress.
A budget for interns.
And a 50% budget buffer for unforeseen petty cash expenses that are too small to track officially.
A lifetime Republican Party membership.
I'm in a union. My dues are $20 per month, and it's far more than made up by the higher wages collective bargaining gets me, as well as holidays, sick leave, paid vacations, health care, etc. That $20 monthly is money well spent; nay, INVESTED.
You have it backward. The "union bosses" take their orders from the rank and file. They are elected democratically by union members, and are beholden to the union members.
Your union bargains on your behalf, and when a settlement is reached YOU VOTE on it. If a majority of members vote it down, it goes back to negotiation. If the "bosses" decide a strike is in order, YOU VOTE ON IT.
Once the contract is voted in and signed, the union is there to protect your rights; it makes sure that the contract isn't just a worthless piece of paper that your employer can disregard at will.
If your employer treats you unfairly, the union backs you up. You are THEIR boss, collectively, not the other way around. Americans have been brainwashed by the corporate-owned media into giving up gains your parents and grandparents fought and suffered for. Stand up on your hind legs and fight back!
Unions themselves aren't "bad". They are just bad for all who aren't members.....
Well, sucks to be one who isn't a member then. A union's purpose is so that you can bargain collectively. Your employer is likely a corporation with not only a CEO but a board of dirsctors and stockholders, all of whom ar collectively bargaining agaisnt one little guy - you. If you unionize, your union bargains on your behalf, not with the nonexistant clout of one guy, but with the clout of all the company's employees together. Your employer bargains collectively, you are a fool not to as well.
Business are hurt by unions because of higher pay demands, strikes, etc.
And by worker safety laws, minimum wage laws, etc. You're crying because your employer CAN'T RIP YOU OFF.
Other businesses are hurt when they rely on businesses subject to unions (manufacturers impacted by shipping industry unions that are on strike).
Sucks to be them! They don't care if my employer wants unsafe working conditions, low pay, no health care, why should I give a rat's as about them? If they're hurt because I'm on strike for safer working conditions, then they should complain to my employer, and/or go to his competitor.
Customers are hurt by unions in that higher business costs are then transferred to them in terms of higher prices.
They're hurt by stockholders demanding higher dividends, why aren't you whining about that?
Employees who aren't members are hurt by exclusion of job potential.
The let them join and pay their dues.
The Union members benefit from higher pay, better benefits, etc. For them, Unions are good.
BINGO! It's YOUR job. Stop whining about the issues of people who are exploiting you. YOU benefit if YOU unionise, and all the other people you whine about DON'T MATTER. learn from Slartibartfast's Bistromatic -- it's Somebody Else's Problem.
Actually, in most case (although not a legal document, even an illegal legal document like a EULA) the lower the education level needed to read, the more intelligent the writer.
For example, Isaac Asimov's books are written at roughly an eighth grade level, and his nonfiction still managed to educate intelligent, learned people. He was actually called "the great educator". Dr. Asimov held a PhD in biochemistry and taught and did research at (IIRC) Boston University. Asimov was a very intelligent man with a great imagination, and was one hell of a writer.
OTOH I read a paper once by some dimwit PhD who used the word "enumerate" five times in a single paragraph without once using the word "count". Writing like this is intended to obfuscate rather than illuminate, and its sole purpose is usually to impress you with how intelligent the moron is.
In a EULA the obfuscation's purpose is obviously to make you think the damned people won't use your personal information when in fact it actually says the opposite. These people are just slimy.
The thesaurus entry for obfuscate says bewilder, blur, cloud, confuse, darken, dim, garble, hide, muddle, obscure, perplex, puzzle. None are exact synonyms, so sorry; I'm not smart enough to convey this information well.
That's how I used to do it. IMO one should learn HTML thoroughly before learning javascript, for just that reason.
<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="15;url="http://www.slashdot.org"> </head> <body> We are sorry for the inconvienience, but we have moved to <a href="http://www.slashdot.org>slashdot.org</a>. Please update your bookmarks.
Your browser will now. redirect to the new URL. </body> </html>
Actually mine was a tad bit bigger; I made it look more or less like the old page, but with no content except the forwarding message.
Wow, I'd forgotten about the game completely; I played it way, way back on an Apple IIe. My now-drinking age kids were infants! It was a hard game, I could never make it off the earth. I'm better at FPSs (but even then I lack the m4d 5k1LLz some guys had)
Of course, I used the computer at the library to (attempt to) play it; at the time I owned a Trash-80.
As I'm stuck on the wrong side of the pond, I'll have to search the US version of Amazon as I have no idea what the exchange rate is or if they even tale dollars (I wouldn't these days).
I agree, but the difference is if a person's actions are from incompetence or ignorance you can educate them and avoid future harm, but if the action is from greed you're going to have a hard time stopping it.
Some may be acting out of malice or greed, but claim ignorance when confronted.
I have the HHGTG books, I taped the TV series from PBS, and bought the DVD of the movie, but I have never heard the original radio play. Will it be available at this new BBC store? If it is, I want a copy!
This is insanity. I can download a copy of that stupid movie without Dumb Restrictions on Media from TPB, or I can just watch the tape I already paid for over ten years ago. Now, I'd buy the key with the movie pre-loaded, but to pay good money for crippleware when I can get a perfectly useable copy for free is just brain-dead stupid.
DRM doesn't affact copyright infringers whatsoever. It only inconvieniences paying customers. The only rational explanation for the MAFIAA's insanity is drugs - cocaine. It must be all the coke they're snorting/smoking/shooting that makes them behave like a bunch of thieving, distrusting, irrational crack whores.
I just started reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (HTML version linked; there are other formats here), and its preface has something to say about the insanity that is DRM (I've abbreviated it a bit):
I recently saw Neil Gaiman give a talk at which someone asked him how he felt about piracy of his books. He said, "Hands up in the audience if you discovered your favorite writer for free -- because someone loaned you a copy, or because someone gave it to you? Now, hands up if you found your favorite writer by walking into a store and plunking down cash." Overwhelmingly, the audience said that they'd discovered their favorite writers for free, on a loan or as a gift. When it comes to my favorite writers, there's no boundaries: I'll buy every book they publish, just to own it (sometimes I buy two or three, to give away to friends who must read those books). I pay to see them live. I buy t-shirts with their book-covers on them. I'm a customer for life.
People who study the habits of music-buyers have discovered something curious: the biggest pirates are also the biggest spenders. If you pirate music all night long, chances are you're one of the few people left who also goes to the record store (remember those?) during the day. You probably go to concerts on the weekend, and you probably check music out of the library too. If you're a member of the red-hot music-fan tribe, you do lots of everything that has to do with music, from singing in the shower to paying for black-market vinyl bootlegs of rare Eastern European covers of your favorite death-metal band.
Same with books. I've worked in new bookstores, used bookstores and libraries. I've hung out in pirate ebook ("bookwarez") places online. I'm a stone used bookstore junkie, and I go to book fairs for fun. And you know what? It's the same people at all those places: book fans who do lots of everything that has to do with books.
If I could loan out my physical books without giving up possession of them, I would. The fact that I can do so with digital files is not a bug, it's a feature, and a damned fine one. It's embarrassing to see all these writers and musicians and artists bemoaning the fact that art just got this wicked new feature: the ability to be shared without losing access to it in the first place. It's like watching restaurant owners crying down their shirts about the new free lunch machine that's feeding the world's starving people because it'll force them to reconsider their business-models. Yes, that's gonna be tricky, but let's not lose sight of the main attraction: free lunches!
Universal access to human knowledge is in our grasp, for the first time in the history of the world. This is not a bad thing.
For me -- for pretty much every writer -- the big problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity (thanks to Tim O'Reilly for this great aphorism). Of all the people who failed to buy this book today, the majority did so because they never heard of it, not because someone gave them a free copy. Mega-hit best-sellers in science fiction sell half a million copies -- in a world where 175,000 attend the San Diego Comic Con alone, you've got to figure that most of the people who "like science fiction" (and related geeky stuff li
I visited the island and when they told me it was "fuck it island" I didn't believe it either, until I saw "Phuket" on the map. "PH" is an "F" sound in English phonetics.
Indeed! Even an amateur like I was back in 2000, when I bought TheFragfest.com (long since defunct) knew to have a message on the old "URL from hell" as Flamethrower called it to the effect of "the Fragfest has moved to hXXp://www.TheFragfest.com. Please update your bookmarks.
Damn slashdot's auto-linking URLs; I don't want to link to that old site! I think it's a porn site now; I let it lapse when I got tired of it. It was just a hobby, and my employer had me webmastering their site making it a lot less fun to webmaster my own when I got home.
Shit, did I just verb a noun? Damn I hate it when people do that...
Slashdot Mirror
You mean like how fleas carrying the plague made rats and humans extinct during the dark ages?
IIRC insects predate dinasaurs. Sorry, I'm a skep tick.
The book's author isn't a palentologist, he is with the Department of Entomology at Oregon State University. He is (like I am now) making claims he does not have the credentials for.
At least they weren't shipped with rootkits! Well, I THINK they weren't but how could you know?
I know that after being rooted by a music CD, I'll never have a Sony product burn me (except maybe my TV, which I bought before being burned by XCP). Once bitten, twice shy. Other corporations should take heed.
Ah, yes-- the siren song of unionization, born out of the early 20th century labor struggles where socialism was still an idyllic future utopia
(citation needed)
-Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday (emphasis mine)
Allen was a bona-fide historian, the document that debunks your argument is hosted at an American university. So, do you have someone with better credentials than Rush Limbaugh to back your assertion that "socialism was still an idyllic future utopia"?
Unions correct for errors in the free market, and are not effective in situations where the market already has checks and balances in place
See, that's the problem - there are no checks and balances in place. When American Airlines (IIRC, this was in the '80s when the airline inquestion was non-union), the CEO said "any company that has a union deserves one".
If your employer treats you well, you have no need for a union.
And in any case, there are few companies with large enough IT workforces to make unionizing a viable idea.
You don't have to have a separate IT union. Your employer has drivers? Let the Teamsters* represent you.
* The Teamsters SUCK, or at least did in the '80s. I was in the Temaster's union when I worked at Disney, and they were in bed with management.
I'm CEO and I can
I'm in a union. My dues are $20 per month, and it's far more than made up by the higher wages collective bargaining gets me, as well as holidays, sick leave, paid vacations, health care, etc. That $20 monthly is money well spent; nay, INVESTED.
You have it backward. The "union bosses" take their orders from the rank and file. They are elected democratically by union members, and are beholden to the union members.
Your union bargains on your behalf, and when a settlement is reached YOU VOTE on it. If a majority of members vote it down, it goes back to negotiation. If the "bosses" decide a strike is in order, YOU VOTE ON IT.
Once the contract is voted in and signed, the union is there to protect your rights; it makes sure that the contract isn't just a worthless piece of paper that your employer can disregard at will.
If your employer treats you unfairly, the union backs you up. You are THEIR boss, collectively, not the other way around. Americans have been brainwashed by the corporate-owned media into giving up gains your parents and grandparents fought and suffered for. Stand up on your hind legs and fight back!
Unions themselves aren't "bad". They are just bad for all who aren't members.....
Well, sucks to be one who isn't a member then. A union's purpose is so that you can bargain collectively. Your employer is likely a corporation with not only a CEO but a board of dirsctors and stockholders, all of whom ar collectively bargaining agaisnt one little guy - you. If you unionize, your union bargains on your behalf, not with the nonexistant clout of one guy, but with the clout of all the company's employees together. Your employer bargains collectively, you are a fool not to as well.
Business are hurt by unions because of higher pay demands, strikes, etc.
And by worker safety laws, minimum wage laws, etc. You're crying because your employer CAN'T RIP YOU OFF.
Other businesses are hurt when they rely on businesses subject to unions (manufacturers impacted by shipping industry unions that are on strike).
Sucks to be them! They don't care if my employer wants unsafe working conditions, low pay, no health care, why should I give a rat's as about them? If they're hurt because I'm on strike for safer working conditions, then they should complain to my employer, and/or go to his competitor.
Customers are hurt by unions in that higher business costs are then transferred to them in terms of higher prices.
They're hurt by stockholders demanding higher dividends, why aren't you whining about that?
Employees who aren't members are hurt by exclusion of job potential.
The let them join and pay their dues.
The Union members benefit from higher pay, better benefits, etc. For them, Unions are good.
BINGO! It's YOUR job. Stop whining about the issues of people who are exploiting you. YOU benefit if YOU unionise, and all the other people you whine about DON'T MATTER. learn from Slartibartfast's Bistromatic -- it's Somebody Else's Problem.
Actually, in most case (although not a legal document, even an illegal legal document like a EULA) the lower the education level needed to read, the more intelligent the writer.
For example, Isaac Asimov's books are written at roughly an eighth grade level, and his nonfiction still managed to educate intelligent, learned people. He was actually called "the great educator". Dr. Asimov held a PhD in biochemistry and taught and did research at (IIRC) Boston University. Asimov was a very intelligent man with a great imagination, and was one hell of a writer.
OTOH I read a paper once by some dimwit PhD who used the word "enumerate" five times in a single paragraph without once using the word "count". Writing like this is intended to obfuscate rather than illuminate, and its sole purpose is usually to impress you with how intelligent the moron is.
In a EULA the obfuscation's purpose is obviously to make you think the damned people won't use your personal information when in fact it actually says the opposite. These people are just slimy.
The thesaurus entry for obfuscate says bewilder, blur, cloud, confuse, darken, dim, garble, hide, muddle, obscure, perplex, puzzle. None are exact synonyms, so sorry; I'm not smart enough to convey this information well.
There was an earler AHRA, another commenter corrected me; it wasn't 1978, but 1976. I haven't googled to verify.
That's why you add a link. If you redirect immediately you might as well not bother.
It was Kyle who said it first to Sarah Connor. Arnold said it in the first sequel. IIRC it was Connor who said it in the third movie.
The joke was "I'm saving you from Arnold".
What movie did Morgan Freeman say it in? Seems he said something similar in "Robin Hood".
That's how I used to do it. IMO one should learn HTML thoroughly before learning javascript, for just that reason.
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="15;url="http://www.slashdot.org">
</head>
<body>
We are sorry for the inconvienience, but we have moved to <a href="http://www.slashdot.org>slashdot.org</a>. Please update your bookmarks.
Your browser will now. redirect to the new URL.
</body>
</html>
Actually mine was a tad bit bigger; I made it look more or less like the old page, but with no content except the forwarding message.
Wow, I'd forgotten about the game completely; I played it way, way back on an Apple IIe. My now-drinking age kids were infants! It was a hard game, I could never make it off the earth. I'm better at FPSs (but even then I lack the m4d 5k1LLz some guys had)
Of course, I used the computer at the library to (attempt to) play it; at the time I owned a Trash-80.
As I'm stuck on the wrong side of the pond, I'll have to search the US version of Amazon as I have no idea what the exchange rate is or if they even tale dollars (I wouldn't these days).
I'm stuck in this third world backwater called the "USA" so I was never given the opportunity to hear them.
I agree, but the difference is if a person's actions are from incompetence or ignorance you can educate them and avoid future harm, but if the action is from greed you're going to have a hard time stopping it.
Some may be acting out of malice or greed, but claim ignorance when confronted.
I have the HHGTG books, I taped the TV series from PBS, and bought the DVD of the movie, but I have never heard the original radio play. Will it be available at this new BBC store? If it is, I want a copy!
Hmmmm, I believe you're right.
It's simple enough to have a "this page has moved" with a redirect after fifteen seconds. What's annoying about that?
Come with me if you want to live.
I admit I'm prone to believe in government incompetence before government conspiracy.
Hi Mr. Hanlon, my name's mcgrew. Just note the sig, thanks.
That explains why all those freaks are pirating my slashdot journals!
As I can't fathom cocaine users, I asked a crack whore why she thought the coke shooters running the movie studios would do this.
"Sure, I'll tell you, but it'll cost you twenty dollars".
"Twenty dollars??? Sorry, babe, I'll buy you a double cheeseburger at McDonalds, how's that?"
"OK, that'll do. See, they want this to FAIL and fail hard. They're doing this to prove that the concept is unworkable."
"Ok, I'll take you to McDonalds now."
"Man, I ain't goin' nowhere, I'm tweakin', dude. Just go get the burger, it's for my dog anyway, I'm not hungry. OK?"
This is insanity. I can download a copy of that stupid movie without Dumb Restrictions on Media from TPB, or I can just watch the tape I already paid for over ten years ago. Now, I'd buy the key with the movie pre-loaded, but to pay good money for crippleware when I can get a perfectly useable copy for free is just brain-dead stupid.
DRM doesn't affact copyright infringers whatsoever. It only inconvieniences paying customers. The only rational explanation for the MAFIAA's insanity is drugs - cocaine. It must be all the coke they're snorting/smoking/shooting that makes them behave like a bunch of thieving, distrusting, irrational crack whores.
I just started reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (HTML version linked; there are other formats here), and its preface has something to say about the insanity that is DRM (I've abbreviated it a bit):
I visited the island and when they told me it was "fuck it island" I didn't believe it either, until I saw "Phuket" on the map. "PH" is an "F" sound in English phonetics.
Indeed! Even an amateur like I was back in 2000, when I bought TheFragfest.com (long since defunct) knew to have a message on the old "URL from hell" as Flamethrower called it to the effect of "the Fragfest has moved to hXXp://www.TheFragfest.com. Please update your bookmarks.
Damn slashdot's auto-linking URLs; I don't want to link to that old site! I think it's a porn site now; I let it lapse when I got tired of it. It was just a hobby, and my employer had me webmastering their site making it a lot less fun to webmaster my own when I got home.
Shit, did I just verb a noun? Damn I hate it when people do that...