Much like Christianity has dominated the police in nearly all US cities?
Christianity forbids carrying weapons, so anyone you see in uniform in the US is NOT a Christian, even if he thinks he is a Christian and attends a Christian church weekly.
Matthew 5:39- "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
You can't do this and fulfill your duty as a police officer. It's damned hard to do even if you're not a cop.
3 and most importantly: All three religions share the same foundation, a book that Christians know as "the Old Testament" which is, in fact, several thousand years old.
You would have made your point far better had you been a little more accurate. The Christian bible says nothing of telepathy, nor that the Christ was a "god fragment". Nor that he is dead; the opposite in fact. The entire religion revolves around this man being tortured to death in order to pay for all the nasty shit YOU have done to other people in your life, then walking out of the tomb alive. The religion of Christanity is a religion based on giving, sharing, being non-judgemental, and forgiving of others' faults. If you see a Christian preacher wearing a five thousand dollar suit, he is one of the "wolves in sheep's clothing" that the man he preaches about warned against.
If you're going to troll Christians, at lest get your facts straight.
And yes, not only are there a lot of Christians at slashdot, a lot of scientests are Christians, Muslims, and Jews as well. Being deliberately offensive is trolling.
The difference is in attitude, reputable religions want to spread the word. eg. I have a bible, a translation of the qur'an, and other texts; all of which were given to me for free by believers who genuinely believe that by reading the words I'll become converted.
Perhaps, but have you given thought to the idea that these texts may just contain true wisdom that could benefit even an unbeliever, rather than simply trying to convert you to their religion?
Proverbs 3:13 from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim bibles:
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
"Happy is the man that finds understanding" certainly applies to every nerd I've ever known.
Jesus H. Christ! All these trolls (yours followed by the ones farther down) modded "insightful". Actually I would have modded yours "funny". Some mods will lose karma come the metamoderation. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.[2]
Trolls Habitat Trolls live everywhere where n00bs congregate. As they needs n00bs to live on, they keep a special place in their homes. Their homes harry is like bob the builder
Their Newspaper, the UnNews, fittingly has an item that would fit the wikipedia definition of troll (but I found humorous because I'm batshit crazy) "Pope to appear in Girls Gone Wild film so Americans will know who he is". I found the picture of the Pope wearing a baseball cap backwards and a T-Shirt that reads "I fuck on the first date" hilarious, but Tami, AKA Lucy Furr, found it extremely offensive. I'm surprised she didn't burn my house down.
"...And then you add some RITZ and bake it in the oven on 800F for 35 minutes..." ~ Martha Stewart on Her new baby casserole
You know it makes sense.The human baby is considered a delicacy in many parts of the world, and thus a considerable following has built around it. So-called "Babiseurs" swap recipes and tips for achieving maximum flavour and the appropriate texture. It is well-known that human baby is the best tasting food in the entire universe.
Well that may have been on topic for the topic of your comment, but the following was on the 'cyclopedia's front page today and is actually on topic for the subject of calling stupid scientology asshats a "dangerous cult" (as well as calling fire "hot" and ice "cold" and water "wet" in the UK:
Democrazy (pronounced "Dem-OCH-Ray-Zee," "Dem-O-CRA-zee" and "Bicycle horn") describes a series of related governments linked by election of leaders by madmen. With origins in ancient Greece, Rome, south Asia and the inseam of my pants, democrazy has grown and expanded throughout history to become the preferred form of rule around the world. Even the sternest dictatorships, seeing the need to cloak their regimes in popular will, call themselves democrazies and encourage secret police to stick warm glue in their ears.
The principles of democrazy emphasize the importance of the lunatic in government, and the necessity of handing the lunatic the keys to education, business and nuclear warheads. Democrazy is not without its skeptics, but most criticisms are drowned in a chorus of duck calls.
In the UK, I can say "Gordon Brown is a noxious prick" without any legal repercussions. If I was in the US, I couldn't say that about George W Bush without being arrested.
To quote my journal from yesterday (to which my seemingly most avid reader responded "tltr"):
IMPEACH THE OIL BARON. Then try him for treason, find him guilty, put him in front of a firing squad and shoot the son of a bitch. And his vice Baron, too.
And then charge his family for the bullets like they do in China.!
I'd say that's a bit more harsh than "George Bush is a noxious Prick." (and he is indeed a noxious prick). I'm calling him a traitor to his country and calling for a legal jury to execute him for that crime.
Lets see if they put this geezer who has gone 56 years without going in front of a judge except for traffic violations, divorce, and bankrupcy in jail. I don't think they will.
irony1 -noun, plural -nies 1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, "How nice!" when I said I had to work all weekend. 2. Literature. a. a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated. b. (esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
3. Socratic irony. 4. dramatic irony. 5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. 6. the incongruity of this. 7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing. 8. an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.
[slow down cowboy, it's been three minutes since you posted the only comment you've posted so far today. Slashdot is for lysdexic nerds who don't read very fast. Go to some web site where everyone has gone past the sixth grade. Good luck answering all 31 of the "messages" that were left in the "slashdot message system" because of the highly rated comments you made yesterday. Now go away and leave us illiterates alone.
Ok, lets see if this stupid web site will let me post this yet...]
I'm not sure how Britain's government works so I'll reference the US government here. In the US, before a bill becomes Federal law (and most if not all states are the same way, I know Illinois is) a bill must get a majority vote in both houses of Congress and then not be vetoed by the President.
After the President signs the bill, it would go on a referendum to be voted on once a year. Citizens could vote "yes" or "no" on any bill. No bill signed by the President would become law unless there were more "yes" votes than "no" votes by the people.
We have a ten year limit on Presidential terms, I think the same should apply to Representatives, Senators, and laws as well.
When I saw this headline in iGoogle this morning (yes, slashdot is the most prominent site I have there) of course my reaction was WTF???
It seems that English speaking countries are in a race to see who can become "Oceania" first. Britain is winning, but then again Eric Arthur Blair was British. I'm starting to believe some of the wags at slashdot who say he was an optimist (I think someone's sig says it too).
The thing is, the fact that this kid was prosecuted says to me that any British subject can be thrown in jail at any time at all for saying anything at all. The dictionary puts no derogatory meaning at all to the word "cult".
1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies. 2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult. 3. the object of such devotion. 4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc. 5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols. 6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader. 7. the members of such a religion or sect. 8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.
-adjective 9. of or pertaining to a cult. 10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.
The only one of the eight definitions posted that can in any way be considered derogatory is fittingly #6, and Scientology is certainly unorthodox and extremist. Then again, so are Islam, Bhuddism, Hinduism, Shintoism, and Judism (not to mention Atheism) in Britain (afaik), and Christianity is unorthodox and extremist in Muslim countries.
It is now illegal to discuss religion in Britain. If you are British and you post a comment in this thread, your government can throw you in jail.
But we in the US don't have a lot of room to talk. As I wrote two years ago,
But our own freedom to speak carries such heavy limitations that to think we are better than the Chinese is laughable. You can be arrested for "hate speech." If you badmouth the wrong corporation (and face it, the corporations are the government here, the politicians only being figureheads who do the corporations' bidding) you will be slapped down with a S.L.A.P.P. suit. You won't go to jail, but you will be financially ruined.
2600.org wasn't allowed to link to an algorithm (DeCSS). The courts have held that you have no freedom of speech when writing in a computer language.
Our freedom of speech is illusory.
Religion? Again there's China, and Cuba. However, I don't think that Christianity or Hinduism are illegal in Saudia Arabia.
On the other hand, children have been suspended and even expelled from school for evangelizing. They're being punished both for their speech and their religion.
As to freedom of assembly, that's been gone for quite some time. You want to "petition the government for a redress of grievances" by protesting en masse in front of the statehouse? You're going to go to jail for not having a permit- in short, you must have permission to petition the government by peaceful assembly. Having to ask permission doesn't seem too free to me.
As I argued in the linked story, the US bill of rights in "our" Constitution has become meaningless in the last two centuries.
Welcome to Oceana, formerly called "Earth", number six.
Print Version (unless you want to click through about 10 pages)
Thank you for that. I used to be an avid reader of zdnet until they started that insanity. It's probably been a few years since I've visited.
It's ironic that an annoying web site would write a story about annoying software. The only way I'll visit the site is if some kind soul like yourself provides a link to the print version of a story.
It's embarrassing as a nerd to have a nerd site like that to be so godawful. Pity, too, because I like the writing in the article: "RealPlayer - If this software turned up at your door, you'd call the police."
"Programming languages are like sewage plants: if the average user becomes aware of them, something's gone wrong. Java doesn't know this. Java wants to be in your face."
"Windows Update And now that we've stopped you doing whatever it was you were doing (like we care), shall we go ahead and install them now, or would you rather be interrupted yet again later?" What about Windows itself? That little yellow balloon that often pops up when you boot with such useful turds as "there are unused icons on your desktop" really annoy me. There should be a button you could click marked "I don't care about the damned icons, leave me alone and let me use my computer."
"Flash In fact, Flash-based web sites are quite possibly one of the most useful pieces of network technology around. Like heroin or microlights, they ensure that those who think it's a good idea aren't around to annoy us for too long."
Now if only ZDnet's site was any less annoying than any of the software they've listed!
Actually I stole and purposly mangled the quote from Sir Isaac Newton, who stole it from someone else. "If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I stand on the sholders of giants". It holds true for art, science, technology, and in fact any creative endeavor.
It would be a pretty useless patent, as sand prints usually don't last long. However, you could patent filling the footprints with plaster for the purposes of identifying an individual, animal, plant, of fossil if the method hadn't already been used forever.
I see you weren't alive in the 1970s. People walked even less than they do today.
And pollution was far, far worse. If you drove through Sauget in the summer when it was 100F (38C), the humidity was 100%, and you had no air conditioning, you STILL rolled the windows up.
Dead Creek in Cahokia (note that the Cahokia mounds aren't in Cahokia) downstream from Monsanto, Cerro Copper, and other polluters in Sauget actually caught fire once.
I mean word processing documents, not spreadsheets. And why would a spreadsheet macro need to have the ability to overwrite EXE files or delete any files?
Any computer with a sound card, DVD burner, video capture and and video-out is a "media center".
Linux is still tough to configure
So is Windows. Actually I find Window's "control panel" an inextricable mess, while Mandriva's KDE solution for configuring your hardware and desktop is elegant and simple. You don't have to "dive into config files" at all. It's pretty obvious it's been a while since you've tried Linux.
Linux solutions exist but are not plug-and-play
Bullshit. If you're serious then it must have been a decade or more since you tried Linux.
I don't know about Apple; I don't have one, but I would be very surprised if everything about them wasn't five years ahead of Windows.
You can't "clear things up" when you are so ignorant about the better OS choices out there.
That stuff is minor league in terms of global pollution problems
Indeed. The efects of just transporting games and game consoles dwarfs any negative environmental impact of their manufacture and disposal. Greenpeace should think about how much more it would harm the environment if you had to drive to an arcade to play electronic games like you did in the 1970s.
Speaking of the seventies, in the 1870s someone actually predicted the huge environmental problems that would be posed by the futuristic society of the 1970s - the continent, he predicted, would be hip deep in horse shit.
Technology solves far more problems, environmental and otherwise, than it causes.
You're comparing Greenp[eace to terrorists? I was going to comment bashing them but damn, man! I have this mental image of Jack Thompson joining Greenpeace now.
Slashdot Mirror
Much like Christianity has dominated the police in nearly all US cities?
Christianity forbids carrying weapons, so anyone you see in uniform in the US is NOT a Christian, even if he thinks he is a Christian and attends a Christian church weekly.
Matthew 5:39- "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."
You can't do this and fulfill your duty as a police officer. It's damned hard to do even if you're not a cop.
but somehow they all see themselves as "us", and the others as "them".
;)
says the emacs-using vi-hater!
We zombies don't eat eyes, you ignorant clod!
We eat BRAINS!
Now get it straight, tastybrains.
3 and most importantly: All three religions share the same foundation, a book that Christians know as "the Old Testament" which is, in fact, several thousand years old.
You would have made your point far better had you been a little more accurate. The Christian bible says nothing of telepathy, nor that the Christ was a "god fragment". Nor that he is dead; the opposite in fact. The entire religion revolves around this man being tortured to death in order to pay for all the nasty shit YOU have done to other people in your life, then walking out of the tomb alive. The religion of Christanity is a religion based on giving, sharing, being non-judgemental, and forgiving of others' faults. If you see a Christian preacher wearing a five thousand dollar suit, he is one of the "wolves in sheep's clothing" that the man he preaches about warned against.
If you're going to troll Christians, at lest get your facts straight.
And yes, not only are there a lot of Christians at slashdot, a lot of scientests are Christians, Muslims, and Jews as well. Being deliberately offensive is trolling.
Perhaps, but have you given thought to the idea that these texts may just contain true wisdom that could benefit even an unbeliever, rather than simply trying to convert you to their religion?
Proverbs 3:13 from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim bibles:"Happy is the man that finds understanding" certainly applies to every nerd I've ever known.
And from Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia:Their Newspaper, the UnNews, fittingly has an item that would fit the wikipedia definition of troll (but I found humorous because I'm batshit crazy) "Pope to appear in Girls Gone Wild film so Americans will know who he is". I found the picture of the Pope wearing a baseball cap backwards and a T-Shirt that reads "I fuck on the first date" hilarious, but Tami, AKA Lucy Furr, found it extremely offensive. I'm surprised she didn't burn my house down.
I looked it up Well that may have been on topic for the topic of your comment, but the following was on the 'cyclopedia's front page today and is actually on topic for the subject of calling stupid scientology asshats a "dangerous cult" (as well as calling fire "hot" and ice "cold" and water "wet" in the UK:Hey, at least I didn't quote wikipedia.
Irony is the thingy your mommy uses to make your shirtys flat.
To quote my journal from yesterday (to which my seemingly most avid reader responded "tltr"):I'd say that's a bit more harsh than "George Bush is a noxious Prick." (and he is indeed a noxious prick). I'm calling him a traitor to his country and calling for a legal jury to execute him for that crime.
Lets see if they put this geezer who has gone 56 years without going in front of a judge except for traffic violations, divorce, and bankrupcy in jail. I don't think they will.
irony1 -noun, plural -nies
1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, "How nice!" when I said I had to work all weekend.
2. Literature. a. a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
b. (esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
3. Socratic irony.
4. dramatic irony.
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.
8. an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.
[slow down cowboy, it's been three minutes since you posted the only comment you've posted so far today. Slashdot is for lysdexic nerds who don't read very fast. Go to some web site where everyone has gone past the sixth grade. Good luck answering all 31 of the "messages" that were left in the "slashdot message system" because of the highly rated comments you made yesterday. Now go away and leave us illiterates alone.
Ok, lets see if this stupid web site will let me post this yet...]
How can you accurately represent EVERYONE?
I'm not sure how Britain's government works so I'll reference the US government here. In the US, before a bill becomes Federal law (and most if not all states are the same way, I know Illinois is) a bill must get a majority vote in both houses of Congress and then not be vetoed by the President.
After the President signs the bill, it would go on a referendum to be voted on once a year. Citizens could vote "yes" or "no" on any bill. No bill signed by the President would become law unless there were more "yes" votes than "no" votes by the people.
We have a ten year limit on Presidential terms, I think the same should apply to Representatives, Senators, and laws as well.
It seems that English speaking countries are in a race to see who can become "Oceania" first. Britain is winning, but then again Eric Arthur Blair was British. I'm starting to believe some of the wags at slashdot who say he was an optimist (I think someone's sig says it too).
The thing is, the fact that this kid was prosecuted says to me that any British subject can be thrown in jail at any time at all for saying anything at all. The dictionary puts no derogatory meaning at all to the word "cult".The only one of the eight definitions posted that can in any way be considered derogatory is fittingly #6, and Scientology is certainly unorthodox and extremist. Then again, so are Islam, Bhuddism, Hinduism, Shintoism, and Judism (not to mention Atheism) in Britain (afaik), and Christianity is unorthodox and extremist in Muslim countries.
It is now illegal to discuss religion in Britain. If you are British and you post a comment in this thread, your government can throw you in jail.
But we in the US don't have a lot of room to talk. As I wrote two years ago,As I argued in the linked story, the US bill of rights in "our" Constitution has become meaningless in the last two centuries.
Welcome to Oceana, formerly called "Earth", number six.
It was giving me some insight into what Schroedinger's cat must have felt ;)
What an ordeal. Have a beer on Bob.
Print Version (unless you want to click through about 10 pages)
Thank you for that. I used to be an avid reader of zdnet until they started that insanity. It's probably been a few years since I've visited.
It's ironic that an annoying web site would write a story about annoying software. The only way I'll visit the site is if some kind soul like yourself provides a link to the print version of a story.
It's embarrassing as a nerd to have a nerd site like that to be so godawful. Pity, too, because I like the writing in the article: "RealPlayer - If this software turned up at your door, you'd call the police."
"Programming languages are like sewage plants: if the average user becomes aware of them, something's gone wrong. Java doesn't know this. Java wants to be in your face."
"Windows Update And now that we've stopped you doing whatever it was you were doing (like we care), shall we go ahead and install them now, or would you rather be interrupted yet again later?" What about Windows itself? That little yellow balloon that often pops up when you boot with such useful turds as "there are unused icons on your desktop" really annoy me. There should be a button you could click marked "I don't care about the damned icons, leave me alone and let me use my computer."
"Flash In fact, Flash-based web sites are quite possibly one of the most useful pieces of network technology around. Like heroin or microlights, they ensure that those who think it's a good idea aren't around to annoy us for too long."
Now if only ZDnet's site was any less annoying than any of the software they've listed!
Actually I stole and purposly mangled the quote from Sir Isaac Newton, who stole it from someone else. "If I have seen farther than other men, it is because I stand on the sholders of giants". It holds true for art, science, technology, and in fact any creative endeavor.
It would be a pretty useless patent, as sand prints usually don't last long. However, you could patent filling the footprints with plaster for the purposes of identifying an individual, animal, plant, of fossil if the method hadn't already been used forever.
I see you weren't alive in the 1970s. People walked even less than they do today.
And pollution was far, far worse. If you drove through Sauget in the summer when it was 100F (38C), the humidity was 100%, and you had no air conditioning, you STILL rolled the windows up.
Dead Creek in Cahokia (note that the Cahokia mounds aren't in Cahokia) downstream from Monsanto, Cerro Copper, and other polluters in Sauget actually caught fire once.
I mean word processing documents, not spreadsheets. And why would a spreadsheet macro need to have the ability to overwrite EXE files or delete any files?
I have to tell you, what the aliens have is far more hilarious than penises.
And not only do I quote HHGTG in my sig (actually there's a very good reason for that particular misquote), I stole a line from it in a journal.
Oh wait, it's an "homage". Or something.
SSH! It's supposed to be a secret!
I'm talking about Media Center solutions.
Any computer with a sound card, DVD burner, video capture and and video-out is a "media center".
Linux is still tough to configure
So is Windows. Actually I find Window's "control panel" an inextricable mess, while Mandriva's KDE solution for configuring your hardware and desktop is elegant and simple. You don't have to "dive into config files" at all. It's pretty obvious it's been a while since you've tried Linux.
Linux solutions exist but are not plug-and-play
Bullshit. If you're serious then it must have been a decade or more since you tried Linux.
I don't know about Apple; I don't have one, but I would be very surprised if everything about them wasn't five years ahead of Windows.
You can't "clear things up" when you are so ignorant about the better OS choices out there.
That stuff is minor league in terms of global pollution problems
Indeed. The efects of just transporting games and game consoles dwarfs any negative environmental impact of their manufacture and disposal. Greenpeace should think about how much more it would harm the environment if you had to drive to an arcade to play electronic games like you did in the 1970s.
Speaking of the seventies, in the 1870s someone actually predicted the huge environmental problems that would be posed by the futuristic society of the 1970s - the continent, he predicted, would be hip deep in horse shit.
Technology solves far more problems, environmental and otherwise, than it causes.
You're comparing Greenp[eace to terrorists? I was going to comment bashing them but damn, man! I have this mental image of Jack Thompson joining Greenpeace now.
Wikipedia link
Uncyclopedia link
Ok, I'll buy that. You weren't very clear before.