that secretly cheers and dances with joy (although they'll never admit it) whenever someone who really deserves it is on the receiving end of a little shotgun justice.
I usually don't do it so secretly.
We live in such a pretty little whitewashed world where everyone wears happy pants and we're all 'civilized' so we don't really need to be human anymore.
It's rather nice when someone violently proves otherwise.
I am 100% FOR network neutrality, but when you have to resort to rank bullshit to make your point, you're doing your side no favors.
"Washington Times says Net Neutrality will destroy the internet." - Comcast commercial, 3 days ago.
Seems to me that when one side wants to grossly lie through their teeth in order to distort public opinion, your only choice is to do the same thing, the opposite direction.
The general public is not smart enough to understand most technical issues. A single individual WILL understand it, eventually. The masses, won't. They never will. So your only choice, if you want to retain any semblance of hope for a future in which people will be free, is basically to lie as much as the other guy.
Do the ends justify the means? Nah, not at all. The behavior is just as heinous as the corporations' behavior.
It just happens to have a positive side effect, which really is the only argument in its favor.
Nobody will appreciate you for it. But, we live in a world where you don't have a choice: control or die. That is the mantra by which our culture exists.
*Note: The companies used are only examples and in no way implies that they would actually do something like this.
Oh, Comcast definitely will, first chance they get. They continually run commercials here talking about how Net Neutrality is evil and will destroy the internet.
Unfortunately, nobody has the money to put counter-advertisements on the same channels. So Comcast is basically going to purchase public opinion without nary a single dissenting voice.
Your post echoes sentiments of my own. I was not attempting to make a case for sitting back on your ass and doing nothing - if anything, my post can only encourage people to realize the current system is broken and needs fixing in a major way.
Armed revolution is one option, but an armed uprising is extremely difficult to organize, and I fear we are too far gone for people to ever consider physical violence to ensure their freedoms. And that, I think, is very sad.
No, please do go on. I love stuff like this - abuse of language is one of the most effective means of thought control. Because I'm aware of it, I am mostly immune to it - but it's a constant battle and one in which I have no allies.
So it's nice at least to have some heavier ammo - for example, posts like yours.
Please go on! Or.. make a journal post or something and let me know.
Whoops, soldiers are immune from prosecution in respect to following orders. You can't sue a soldier for killing your brother, because he was acting in the name of another authority.
And the vast majority of those tried for war crimes were still convicted - because "I was just following orders" is never a defense against following unethical, inhuman, or illegal orders. Sometimes a court will choose to not convict the soldier, because they'd rather go after the ones in charge, but make no mistake: that kind of defense, isn't one.
And the American military has standing rules that state explicitly that "just following orders" is no defense against following illegal orders.
The government is too damn big and full of know-nothings to be able to handle information correctly, especially large amounts of information. Just look at katrina, iraq, social security, global warming and countless other things they continually fuck up because they mishandle or misunderstand the simplest data sets and concepts.
It's even worse than that. From personal experience, I can tell you that the current culture in the government does not encourage strong decision makers, because if you make the decision and something messes up, you take the fall for it. Everyone goes so far out of their way to make sure THEY can't be blamed for something, that everyone essentially does the least amount of work possible so they stay under the radar, which essentially results in little ever getting done in a timely manner.
And these are the people we trust with our data, our lives, our future.. no thanks. I'd rather keep their responsibilities small and take charge of my own life, thanks. I think I can do it just a tad better than someone whose only interest is in making sure he can't be blamed if something goes wrong.
yes, it is your fault, you voted didnt you?. And if you didnt, then it's still your fault as you didnt do your duty to ensure that your voice was heard.
I appreciate the sentiment, because in an ideal, fair world, people can be happy that their guy lost because 'the other guy' is still 'pretty good.' And American politics did have that happy medium for the first ~60 years of its existence (writings of a French author.. agh what was his name.. starts with a T.. wrote a book about US politics in the 1840's...).
But that kind of political climate disappeared a long time ago, so I've never liked this argument.
Voting for the 'lesser of two evils' is still voting for an evil - and you still have every right to complain about what they do. Once, we didn't have to vote for an evil - just a potentially less effective politician. And to be fair, of course there were corrupt politicians in the early days of the US. Just fewer of them, because the education was different, the values were different, and the laws were different.
The purpose of the 14th Amendment, if you will recall, was to ensure that blacks were given equal rights to citizenship and equal access to protection under the law.
The 14th Amendment was a response to various Jim Crow laws in the South that essentially treated blacks as lesser humans, and thus gave the authorities in those states 'legal basis' to treat them like shit - and deny them the vote.
The 14th Amendment was intended to clarify who could be citizens, and prohibit the kind of discrimination that the Southern states were enacting.
In short: it defines who is a citizen, and what protections they have under the law.
It is not intended to limit or restrict in any way, provisions in previous Amendments - it is intended to add clarity to the word 'citizen' in a legal context.
The word 'citizen' does not appear anywhere in the Bill of Rights - because the founders believed these were inalienable rights of all men - not just of citizens. (men, women, white, black or otherwise, not relevant to the issue at hand). If they had meant citizens, they would have used the word citizens.
I wish that ppl would think about this before posting such things. First the NSA does not involve itself with manipulating others. All they do is monitor, as well as work on securing our (USA) communications and systems.
Terrorism is literally the act of carrying out actions that cause people to fear for their safety or well being.
From my own perspective, I would consider the Chilling Effect to be a form of terrorism. I sometimes wonder if people will be 'disappeared' for being a little too outspoken about how the government conducts its business. Secret government agencies don't seem to be the hallmark of a 'free' country.
But maybe that's just me, and your opinion may differ.
Same here. When I navigated to Slashdot and saw this headline on the page, I jumped out of my seat and yelled "YES!!!" as though someone had just given me a million dollars. Frankly, I fully expected the judge to throw out the case and I have been sitting here for weeks thinking to myself that this country is completely screwed and wondering what I could do about it.
This is such great news and it gives me a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe we aren't on the road to complete totalitarianism that I thought we were. Maybe we have a future after all.
By the way, I don't recommend sitting in one spot for weeks; it makes things smell bad [grin].
"The state can't easily punish piracy because it's difficult to catch and difficult to prove."
I would reply to this by saying - that's by design. The whole point of how the United States government (in particular; you may not be in the US) was designed was to put the burden of proof and force on the government - to protect the rights of the populace. Our government and the rich and powerful forgot those ideas a very long time ago.
Nothing in your parent post mentioned the US specifically at all. So why are you now using that to make your case for why accessibility doesn't matter? Just because the US hasn't specifically passed legislation addressing the issue doesn't mean it isn't one.
The point I was trying to make is that it would be shortsighted and possibly very stupid for major companies to be ignoring web accessibility.
This means soon enough, we'll have websites that aren't IE compatible.
Ah ha! So that's Google's master plan! Pretty good plan if you ask me.. make the web better AND get rid of Microsoft.
I like MS technologies as much as the next guy (.NET has some pretty good stuff) but.. I think they're a dinosaur and dinosaurs tend to stifle innovation.
A small device the nurse clicks a button on for each tool.
I saw a documentary once on this problem, and that was one of the solutions they tried. I don't recall how successful it was. They also did a trial of using RFID tagged items, and that proved pretty successful. Of course, it really needs to be trialed over the span of several dozen thousand surgeries to see how successful it'd be in the long run.
Or have someone who *does* just count if it's that big of a surgey.
In an age of shrinking personnel budgets, I'm not sure that's a possibility.
Nurse: 127, 128, 129... Doctor: Nurse! The patient needs suction over here, now! Nurse: Yes doctor. [begins suction] Doctor: Thanks, that's good for now. Nurse: 12.. uh.. what number was I on? Oh.. 129, 130...
When she should have started at 130.
Operating rooms are not an ideal environment for the attention to detail required to remember counts for potentially thousands of operating tools, not to mention sponges, etc. It usually is not the doctors counting the tools, it is the nurses, and there is NEVER just one nurse whose job it is to count - they're all moving around doing different things.
You can actually download PEAR and toss it in any directory in your hosting account and then include the PEAR.php file. It will do the rest, and you don't need it to be bundled with PHP. I've resorted to that approach a few times.
Slashdot Mirror
We live in such a pretty little whitewashed world where everyone wears happy pants and we're all 'civilized' so we don't really need to be human anymore.
It's rather nice when someone violently proves otherwise.
Seems to me that when one side wants to grossly lie through their teeth in order to distort public opinion, your only choice is to do the same thing, the opposite direction.
The general public is not smart enough to understand most technical issues. A single individual WILL understand it, eventually. The masses, won't. They never will. So your only choice, if you want to retain any semblance of hope for a future in which people will be free, is basically to lie as much as the other guy.
Do the ends justify the means? Nah, not at all. The behavior is just as heinous as the corporations' behavior.
It just happens to have a positive side effect, which really is the only argument in its favor.
Nobody will appreciate you for it. But, we live in a world where you don't have a choice: control or die. That is the mantra by which our culture exists.
Unfortunately, nobody has the money to put counter-advertisements on the same channels. So Comcast is basically going to purchase public opinion without nary a single dissenting voice.
Wonderful world we live in.
Your post echoes sentiments of my own. I was not attempting to make a case for sitting back on your ass and doing nothing - if anything, my post can only encourage people to realize the current system is broken and needs fixing in a major way.
Armed revolution is one option, but an armed uprising is extremely difficult to organize, and I fear we are too far gone for people to ever consider physical violence to ensure their freedoms. And that, I think, is very sad.
Sweet, thank you!
How's that saying go?
Fight fire with fire?
I've never seen a battle where someone who fought fairly won over someone who cheated every whichway from Sunday.
It sucks but that's the world we live in.
"I really don't care."
People actually say that. And I am one of the least threatening people you could ever talk to.
Sigh..
No, please do go on. I love stuff like this - abuse of language is one of the most effective means of thought control. Because I'm aware of it, I am mostly immune to it - but it's a constant battle and one in which I have no allies.
So it's nice at least to have some heavier ammo - for example, posts like yours.
Please go on! Or.. make a journal post or something and let me know.
And the vast majority of those tried for war crimes were still convicted - because "I was just following orders" is never a defense against following unethical, inhuman, or illegal orders. Sometimes a court will choose to not convict the soldier, because they'd rather go after the ones in charge, but make no mistake: that kind of defense, isn't one.
And the American military has standing rules that state explicitly that "just following orders" is no defense against following illegal orders.
And these are the people we trust with our data, our lives, our future.. no thanks. I'd rather keep their responsibilities small and take charge of my own life, thanks. I think I can do it just a tad better than someone whose only interest is in making sure he can't be blamed if something goes wrong.
But that kind of political climate disappeared a long time ago, so I've never liked this argument.
Voting for the 'lesser of two evils' is still voting for an evil - and you still have every right to complain about what they do. Once, we didn't have to vote for an evil - just a potentially less effective politician. And to be fair, of course there were corrupt politicians in the early days of the US. Just fewer of them, because the education was different, the values were different, and the laws were different.
The purpose of the 14th Amendment, if you will recall, was to ensure that blacks were given equal rights to citizenship and equal access to protection under the law.
The 14th Amendment was a response to various Jim Crow laws in the South that essentially treated blacks as lesser humans, and thus gave the authorities in those states 'legal basis' to treat them like shit - and deny them the vote.
The 14th Amendment was intended to clarify who could be citizens, and prohibit the kind of discrimination that the Southern states were enacting.
In short: it defines who is a citizen, and what protections they have under the law.
It is not intended to limit or restrict in any way, provisions in previous Amendments - it is intended to add clarity to the word 'citizen' in a legal context.
The word 'citizen' does not appear anywhere in the Bill of Rights - because the founders believed these were inalienable rights of all men - not just of citizens. (men, women, white, black or otherwise, not relevant to the issue at hand). If they had meant citizens, they would have used the word citizens.
That would open up a very interesting can of worms.
From my own perspective, I would consider the Chilling Effect to be a form of terrorism. I sometimes wonder if people will be 'disappeared' for being a little too outspoken about how the government conducts its business. Secret government agencies don't seem to be the hallmark of a 'free' country.
But maybe that's just me, and your opinion may differ.
Nah - it would cost the president quite alot of political capital to use the pardon for something like this.
So yes, he may use it - at the price of the Republican party ever having a majority for the next 10 years.
Same here. When I navigated to Slashdot and saw this headline on the page, I jumped out of my seat and yelled "YES!!!" as though someone had just given me a million dollars. Frankly, I fully expected the judge to throw out the case and I have been sitting here for weeks thinking to myself that this country is completely screwed and wondering what I could do about it.
This is such great news and it gives me a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe we aren't on the road to complete totalitarianism that I thought we were. Maybe we have a future after all.
By the way, I don't recommend sitting in one spot for weeks; it makes things smell bad [grin].
Holy crap that's a scary thought..
"The state can't easily punish piracy because it's difficult to catch and difficult to prove."
I would reply to this by saying - that's by design. The whole point of how the United States government (in particular; you may not be in the US) was designed was to put the burden of proof and force on the government - to protect the rights of the populace. Our government and the rich and powerful forgot those ideas a very long time ago.
Nothing in your parent post mentioned the US specifically at all. So why are you now using that to make your case for why accessibility doesn't matter? Just because the US hasn't specifically passed legislation addressing the issue doesn't mean it isn't one.
The point I was trying to make is that it would be shortsighted and possibly very stupid for major companies to be ignoring web accessibility.
In fact, the opposite seems to be true - the Olympics was successfully sued over their website being inaccessible, and so was Target. As a consequence, it seems, more and more business are finding reason to make a case for web accessibility - whether they consider themselves a target or not.
I like MS technologies as much as the next guy (.NET has some pretty good stuff) but.. I think they're a dinosaur and dinosaurs tend to stifle innovation.
In an age of shrinking personnel budgets, I'm not sure that's a possibility.
Here is the problem with "learn to count":
Nurse: 127, 128, 129...
Doctor: Nurse! The patient needs suction over here, now!
Nurse: Yes doctor. [begins suction]
Doctor: Thanks, that's good for now.
Nurse: 12.. uh.. what number was I on? Oh.. 129, 130...
When she should have started at 130.
Operating rooms are not an ideal environment for the attention to detail required to remember counts for potentially thousands of operating tools, not to mention sponges, etc. It usually is not the doctors counting the tools, it is the nurses, and there is NEVER just one nurse whose job it is to count - they're all moving around doing different things.
You can actually download PEAR and toss it in any directory in your hosting account and then include the PEAR.php file. It will do the rest, and you don't need it to be bundled with PHP. I've resorted to that approach a few times.
Any idea what IP address and port WGA uses to connect?
I might just block them at my router.