"who the hell is going to actually have the Sirius tuned to a populated frequency?"
is like saying "Who the hell would take their wide open wireless router out of the box, plug it in, and just start using it without changing any of the security defaults?"
The answer: the 99.9% of the rest of the population who aren't Slashdotters....
"basically if you had given them $300, it might not actually be $300 less you owe the government."
People always think that is how donations work - but they don't. $300 in charitable donations probably won't net you $1 less you owe unless you are in a very low income bracket. You need to be over a certain amount or percentage of what you make to even qualify for any reduction in taxes. Last tax year I had about $700-800 in tax deductible donations which gave me a tax savings of about $25 if I remember correctly...
Right..and giving $300 to charity and not getting a laptop means you are effectively donating $300 to charity. So what do we need the stupid laptops for?
Exactly...Don't you think that $300 (for the $100 laptop - someone want to explain this??) could go for, oh I don't know, food, medicine, shelter, water purifying machines?? What good is a laptop if you are starving and have dysentery? (Unless you somehow got an ad-hoc wireless connection to the internet, and you now may actually know what you are dying from...) Technology is not a panacea - giving underdeveloped countries laptops isn't going to magically launch them into the 21st century.. If you want to give poor people computers then give them computers. I have a few old laptops laying around, and I'm sure the big manufacturers could enjoy a big tax write off by donating their surplus stock.
Really? The RIAA can access my disk through the internet?? That is news to me (and is also illegal without my consent). I have only seen them take screenshots from within Bittorrent and other P2P applications from thier end- to my knowledge they cannot "access" your drive remotely unless you have remote access software installed... And those screenshots can be so easily faked it isn't funny.
Which strangely coincides with the US having one of the highest average incomes amongst developed countries. Do you really think all goods and services cost the same in all countries??
With all due respect, the Linux crowd has been saying this for years without significant marketshare increase....Until it is adopted by the business world as a desktop replacement, it doesn't stand a chance...
Another case of a confused geek mistaking Slashdot for RealLife(TM)...The reality is, most people in the general population don't know, care, or want to tinker around with their computer's hardware or software unless absolutley necessary, in which case they will bring it in or hire someone else to do it... I mean come on, I have seen people shell out $100 to have the Geek Squad (most overrated idiots ever) install a single memory module...
"it's clear that Microsoft's primary obligation is to its stockholders"
Shouldn't that be the priority of every publicly traded corporation?? I mean corporations don't form with the idea of making the world a better place, they form to make a profit. I for one as a shareholder would be pissed if the corporation I owned shares in didn't think that way... I'm not saying that should be a corporation's only obligation, but it should be the primary one.
Luckily, I think most home users are connected through a router that usually does NAT or has a rudimentary firewall built-in - while these won't necessarily "protect" you for any large length of time, it is usually enough time to download all the patches you need to have a fighting chance...although I certainly wouldn't count on it. I set up a fresh XP machine with no firewall and no security updates behind my cheap little linksys router and 6 hours later it was still unscathed...
To simplify:
Facial Recognition - Real or Science Fiction? -- Real, but still inaccurate and easily fooled Real Time Facial Recognition - Complete science fiction at this point
Or it could simply be that Bush and Co. do a lot more things that are ripe for Jon's brand of humor... Could you imagine if The Daily Show had been around when Quayle was in office??? Probably our own personal biases too - from what I remember he went after Clinton pretty good - it just seems like blowjob jokes are a little "lighter" than jokes how everyone else in the world wants to kill us now...(also I can't imagine the majority of his young straight-out-of-college writers themselves would fall into the "Conservative" category..)
I hate to break it to you, but the Colbert Report is a satire show also. Stepehn Colbert is playing a character on the show - that isn't what he really believes...
As far as Republicans being made fun of more - well let's see, it's a show where they laugh at political figures. Which party do most political figures in power now belong to - let's tally them up.
Executive branch - Republican
Legislative branch - Republican
Judicial branch - Republican
Starting to see a pattern here?? Maybe our government is "disperportionalty" Republicans (we are hoping to get more "democrates" soon). Jon Stewart used to do the exact same things to Clinton when he was in office, either you are selectively forgetting that, or you didn't watch the Daily Show back then...
Slashdot Mirror
"who the hell is going to actually have the Sirius tuned to a populated frequency?"
is like saying "Who the hell would take their wide open wireless router out of the box, plug it in, and just start using it without changing any of the security defaults?"
The answer: the 99.9% of the rest of the population who aren't Slashdotters....
You can't educate people that have died from lack of food and water...
I think another part of the problem is the people who are getting the $200 charity probably have zero use for the $100 laptop either...
Ummmm, it's not to late to still give your money to charities...
"basically if you had given them $300, it might not actually be $300 less you owe the government."
People always think that is how donations work - but they don't. $300 in charitable donations probably won't net you $1 less you owe unless you are in a very low income bracket. You need to be over a certain amount or percentage of what you make to even qualify for any reduction in taxes. Last tax year I had about $700-800 in tax deductible donations which gave me a tax savings of about $25 if I remember correctly...
Right..and giving $300 to charity and not getting a laptop means you are effectively donating $300 to charity. So what do we need the stupid laptops for?
"And it's not really a normal laptop. It could be used in situations where a normal laptop would be useless (i.e. no power)."
Nope, the crank option was scrapped. You still need "holes" to use this laptop.
Exactly...Don't you think that $300 (for the $100 laptop - someone want to explain this??) could go for, oh I don't know, food, medicine, shelter, water purifying machines?? What good is a laptop if you are starving and have dysentery? (Unless you somehow got an ad-hoc wireless connection to the internet, and you now may actually know what you are dying from...) Technology is not a panacea - giving underdeveloped countries laptops isn't going to magically launch them into the 21st century.. If you want to give poor people computers then give them computers. I have a few old laptops laying around, and I'm sure the big manufacturers could enjoy a big tax write off by donating their surplus stock.
Really? The RIAA can access my disk through the internet?? That is news to me (and is also illegal without my consent). I have only seen them take screenshots from within Bittorrent and other P2P applications from thier end- to my knowledge they cannot "access" your drive remotely unless you have remote access software installed... And those screenshots can be so easily faked it isn't funny.
Although I wouldn't want to test that theory in either location....
Which strangely coincides with the US having one of the highest average incomes amongst developed countries. Do you really think all goods and services cost the same in all countries??
Yep - the most infalliable system because it is based on human greed - the best motivator ever!
Just charge by the hour and use Windows Update. It will be a great demonstration to those people why they should get a broadband connection.
With all due respect, the Linux crowd has been saying this for years without significant marketshare increase....Until it is adopted by the business world as a desktop replacement, it doesn't stand a chance...
Another case of a confused geek mistaking Slashdot for RealLife(TM)...The reality is, most people in the general population don't know, care, or want to tinker around with their computer's hardware or software unless absolutley necessary, in which case they will bring it in or hire someone else to do it...
I mean come on, I have seen people shell out $100 to have the Geek Squad (most overrated idiots ever) install a single memory module...
Sure in one go, if you slipstream them. The point is you can still get every patch from MS without WGA - it just isn't automated.
"it's clear that Microsoft's primary obligation is to its stockholders"
Shouldn't that be the priority of every publicly traded corporation?? I mean corporations don't form with the idea of making the world a better place, they form to make a profit. I for one as a shareholder would be pissed if the corporation I owned shares in didn't think that way... I'm not saying that should be a corporation's only obligation, but it should be the primary one.
Luckily, I think most home users are connected through a router that usually does NAT or has a rudimentary firewall built-in - while these won't necessarily "protect" you for any large length of time, it is usually enough time to download all the patches you need to have a fighting chance...although I certainly wouldn't count on it. I set up a fresh XP machine with no firewall and no security updates behind my cheap little linksys router and 6 hours later it was still unscathed...
When is the last time you saw a fat, donut eating cop catch a determined and coked up suspect in a foot chase?? Recognition is only half the battle...
To simplify:
Facial Recognition - Real or Science Fiction? -- Real, but still inaccurate and easily fooled
Real Time Facial Recognition - Complete science fiction at this point
Thanks for the "laugh out loud" at work. If I had mod points, you would be getting some...
Now the White House press is so pathetic it just isn't funny anymore...
Or it could simply be that Bush and Co. do a lot more things that are ripe for Jon's brand of humor... Could you imagine if The Daily Show had been around when Quayle was in office??? Probably our own personal biases too - from what I remember he went after Clinton pretty good - it just seems like blowjob jokes are a little "lighter" than jokes how everyone else in the world wants to kill us now...(also I can't imagine the majority of his young straight-out-of-college writers themselves would fall into the "Conservative" category..)
No problem, mistakes are made. Still waiting for Fox to correct ANY of their mistakes on the air...
I hate to break it to you, but the Colbert Report is a satire show also. Stepehn Colbert is playing a character on the show - that isn't what he really believes...
As far as Republicans being made fun of more - well let's see, it's a show where they laugh at political figures. Which party do most political figures in power now belong to - let's tally them up.
Executive branch - Republican
Legislative branch - Republican
Judicial branch - Republican
Starting to see a pattern here?? Maybe our government is "disperportionalty" Republicans (we are hoping to get more "democrates" soon). Jon Stewart used to do the exact same things to Clinton when he was in office, either you are selectively forgetting that, or you didn't watch the Daily Show back then...