The military isn't perfect but to claim that it's only made up of "inbred hicks" is absurd. I'd like to see you have the balls to make that statement on the street anywhere in the United States as opposed to making it as an anonymous coward on/.
You confuse bravery with stupidity. That is why you defend the military so ardently.
I'm one of these types of people myself. If there is a software product that I'm personally very fond of and I feel that more folks might benefit from it than do, I'll actively attempt to support the product through this type of forum activity, giving advice, tutorial writing and generally ranting about it on my travels around the web.
I ran two Linux Install Fest at my university. I built a web site, got several people to help me set up the room, clean up afterwards, got someone to give and introductory speech on Linux, and helped install the distros on the computers.
I did because I really like Linux, and I think a lot of other people would like it, if they could've been exposed to it.
What I did find out was that most people take everything for granted. They will complain about what they get for free, and if you ever think about asking for money to pay for anything (like paying for the disks you burned) they will point out how they could get it free somewhere else in front of everyone and make you feel like an idiot for even helping them.
I quit doing after the second time. I got nothing out of it but headaches.
I talked to my manager today, he said we were going to use Postgres instead of MySQL for out next web project.
In his opinion, the latest stable release had poor support for stored procedures and now this acquisition puts further development into question. He wants to move everything out of MySQL at some point.
Since I have never used Postgres before, I couldn't comment on anything, but from my perspective, MySQL had been moving forward with their database. Even if the stored procedures were not on par with the other DB's out there, they would mature in time.
I was ready to speak up, until I thought about MySQL passing hands for the second time, talks about forks, and finally the developers leaving the company. All those things cannot be good short term, and long term will depend a lot on the parent company.
So for the time being, I think my manager is correct and I did not protest his decision.
I second your comment. Savage Worlds is a great system.
I started using it after my group complained of the unnecessary complexity of the D20 system. At first, I was going to try the 4th edition of D&D, but once I saw their new and updated license, I looked elsewhere.
I was during that time that I heard about Savage Worlds from the Fear the Boot podcast. They talked about it at length, touting it's easy of use and malleability.
Once I read it for myself, it became clear they were not exaggerating.
I remember reading this article "80% of accidents caused by distracted motorists - 04/21/06 - The Detroit News". That research cited on that article had concluded that some people were so used to the cell phone, they showed little to no difference driving while talking on it. But they said almost all crashes had occurred because motorists simple failed to pay attention while driving.
They had cameras in a few places on the vehicle for that research. One of places was in the face of the driver and another right in front of the vehicle plus on the back (I am not sure if that was any cameras on the side of the vehicle). They said that a motorist had driven her car right into a tree during the day, they said that the only reason that did occur was because she was not paying attention, she wasn't talking on the cell, nobody on her car with her, it was during the day in a low traffic road. She was just day dreaming.
Another research that I remember reading said that Brain Immaturity Could Explain Teen Crash Rate. In it, the researchers talked about teens showing off while driving with their friends and also about the fact that they are more easily distracted than an adult (over 25) due to their brain growth until they reach 25.
Would a cell phone ban in the cars help anything in these two cases? In my opinion they would do little to nothing.
The problem is that a lot of the software we use on a daily basis is largely copyrighted by these businesses
You might be confusion copyright with patents. This is a quote from the Wikipedia about copyright
Copyright law covers only the form or manner in which ideas or information have been manifested, the "form of material expression". It is not designed or intended to cover the actual idea, concepts, facts, styles, or techniques which may be embodied in or represented by the copyright work.
Only two countries were listed on the Wikipedia as having Software Patents, and these were the US and the UK. Therefore unless a disto (or a company that does software development) is afraid of being sued in one of these two countries, it shouldn't worry about it.
Governments have always worked this way. They protect the industries on their soil by using all means necessary to coerce other countries into accepting what is the most favorable trade agreements (in this case laws) for them. That was one of the reasons the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) failed in South America. It was not because the countries there wanted to remain separate (most of them are part of some trade zone), it was because they were weary of having the US force them to accept agreements, in which they would not get anything out of.
I have seen the European Union try something very similar to this, but with their agricultural subsidies during the Doha talks, or China with their import tariffs. The problem here is, Canada doesn't get anything out of it, which is the worse case scenario for an agreement (or law) like that.
Everyone is talking about Spam and botnets, but most are forgetting about the blatant assault by idiots using the legal system to take down anything that they don't like on web sites and forums, or parents that get abhorred when they allow their kids to talk with strangers without supervision just to find out that not everyone will treat their kids the way they do.
I believe these two issues outweigh the problems with spam and botnets, because we won't be able to say anything about anyone on any site without expecting to be sued. Not to mention that everyone will have to act as a babysitter so the parents can feel safe about their children.
I am not sure what to do about the legal suits problems, but on the babysitting problem, maybe the Internet should be rated XXX (like those hardcore porn movies) just so parents know they should pay a little attention to what they kids do on the Internet.
It is truly sad that America is fine with seeing a human being ground to bits alive in a meat grinder or other horrific violence acts but freaks out and starts screaming if a child sees a breast.
And they should freak out, specially since the "show" in which the breast appeared was not rated TV-14.
The problem here has nothing to do with the wardrobe malfunction. It has to do with parents wanting a cheap babysitter on the Internet. They already get free child care from the state on the schools, on TV, now they want the same thing out of the Internet, but unlike the schools and TV, there is not way to regulate the Net in order to achieve that without taking everyone's rights away.
The problem here is, the Internet is not a place for kids to stay alone. If a parent cannot supervise his kid, he should not allow the kid to use it.
Not sure about being clumsy and underpowered. I think most graphics designers skills are not in the area of computer software. They learn a tool and for most, that's it. In some cases, it is just too hard to learn something from scratch so Gimp is not even an alternative, unless it emulates 90% of everything that Photoshop does.
The same privileges that are extended to end users with the source code should be established with the freedom to tinker.
The license doesn't have anything establishing that "freedom". Tivo has done nothing wrong, they used the software, provided the source code back to the community, but restricted how people can change the software ON THE MACHINES THEY SELL.
People that fell so strongly about this issue are clearly not the audience for the Tivo products on the first place. Maybe building their own Tivo like device using MythTV would be a better solution for them, than having a revision on the license.
I rented the Clone War animated series, it was incredible bad. All of the episodes were about the Jedi knights taking on entire armies with no other story lines to them.
The units sent with the knights would usually all die, except them, than they would just wipe every enemy on sight. But depending on the episode they would stop for a quick drink.
To me, those series did not match with the movies at all, if the knights were so freaking amazing, how in the heck were they wiped out, except for 2 of them? Or why send an entire army, when you could just send 1 knight?
Wow, I had to reread the story, I thought it said "Jerry Falwell Jr., Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner". I was wondering how he got from Virginia to Connecticut so fast.
I think Microsoft saw a good idea when the Scientology Church pumped sales of the Battle Field Earth Book, and they asked the church members to buy copy after copy of Vista. Hence Microsoft is now threatening to sue Linux users, just like the Scientology Church would, if they were Microsoft (which now is proven by the sales of Vista, that they are)
I read a bit about Scientology. It looked from the start like one of those old Greek religions depicted during the Bible times only with a sci-fi twist to it.
From the description of those religions, a farmer would pay something, usually in goods to the temple administrator, go to a room, screw one of the priestesses and pray to some god for a good harvest. There, the guy paid something, did something, and expect to receive some benefit.
Scientology sure has the PAY part, the DO something part, and they sure expect to get some benefit out of the stuff they do.
Thailand is on the list the US publishes of counties that have the most acute problems with piracy and intellectual property not ONLY because of their stance with the AIDS patent but also because the state does little to nothing at all to stop people from selling in the local and international markets a lot of pirated stuff.
I talked to a store clerk for a small business that sell used books, games, and stuff like that here in Virginia. He told that a friend of his went to Thailand and brought back with him around 300 DVD's of recent movies that be bought for less than quarter each over there.
It is not so in Brazil. There was a recent article on the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper that read "Brazil leaves the list made by the US about the top most countries with problem on piracy". It is an interesting read. It tells that local companies together with the Brazilian Federal Police made several raids in places where piracy was running amok. This has been going on for over 2 years now.
The situation with the Drug patents have nothing to do with it, and I doubt it will put Brazil back in the US's watch list.
It isn't rape, the worst it can be is sexual harassment, even than, the person is always free to freaking log off.
In one hand, we have people screaming "think of the children" with those kind of retarded ideas such as calling sex talk "rape" in an online RPG game. On the other, we have school officials sending kids to jail for writing an unedited essay.
I find it funny when I read people complaining about the school system and decide to "educate" the children themselves by homeschooling them.
Public schools provides not only a place for children to learn the basic skills such as math but also a place where they can learn how to socialize with different people in different situations. Most people tend to only socialize where they feel most comfortable. Schools tend to break the students out of that, and make them socialize with everyone.
Will homeschooling provide that? Nope. I have talked to a few people that have been homeschooled, and all of them had some severe social problems, more so than the average person that went to a public High School.
On another subject on Homeschooling, what about the parents "qualifications" for homeschooling? Do they have a bachelors Degree? A Master perhaps? In what subject do they have them on? Are they qualified (ie can do the exercises on their own, instead of saying "I am learning with my child?") to teach all subjects in schools?
I have yet to meet a set of parents that could answer "yes" to all those questions.
Homeschooling is actually worse than Public school.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not Google's problem. Getting themselves involved has the potential of making matters worse for not only themselves but the OEM's as well.
Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own.
Proverbs 26:17
Foxconn is investing $12bn in Brazil. Citing the rising labor costs in China for this expansion.
Apple opens up a new plant in Brazil. Production could start as early as November. Perhaps then, we could see the new IPad 3.
Source:
Report: Apple Part Maker Foxconn to Open Brazil Plant
Wheaton has a pretty active blog in the link below:
WWdN: In Exile
He posts a lot about role-playing games and has become a spokesman for the hobby.
The Brazilian government has released a statement about the ACTA giving four reasons of concern to the country.
Source: Brazilian intervention at TRIPS Council: ACTA
If you haven't worked for it, chances are your understanding of respect are quite different from those that have.
You confuse bravery with stupidity. That is why you defend the military so ardently.
I ran two Linux Install Fest at my university. I built a web site, got several people to help me set up the room, clean up afterwards, got someone to give and introductory speech on Linux, and helped install the distros on the computers.
I did because I really like Linux, and I think a lot of other people would like it, if they could've been exposed to it.
What I did find out was that most people take everything for granted. They will complain about what they get for free, and if you ever think about asking for money to pay for anything (like paying for the disks you burned) they will point out how they could get it free somewhere else in front of everyone and make you feel like an idiot for even helping them.
I quit doing after the second time. I got nothing out of it but headaches.
I talked to my manager today, he said we were going to use Postgres instead of MySQL for out next web project.
In his opinion, the latest stable release had poor support for stored procedures and now this acquisition puts further development into question. He wants to move everything out of MySQL at some point.
Since I have never used Postgres before, I couldn't comment on anything, but from my perspective, MySQL had been moving forward with their database. Even if the stored procedures were not on par with the other DB's out there, they would mature in time.
I was ready to speak up, until I thought about MySQL passing hands for the second time, talks about forks, and finally the developers leaving the company. All those things cannot be good short term, and long term will depend a lot on the parent company.
So for the time being, I think my manager is correct and I did not protest his decision.
I second your comment. Savage Worlds is a great system.
I started using it after my group complained of the unnecessary complexity of the D20 system. At first, I was going to try the 4th edition of D&D, but once I saw their new and updated license, I looked elsewhere.
I was during that time that I heard about Savage Worlds from the Fear the Boot podcast. They talked about it at length, touting it's easy of use and malleability.
Once I read it for myself, it became clear they were not exaggerating.
They had cameras in a few places on the vehicle for that research. One of places was in the face of the driver and another right in front of the vehicle plus on the back (I am not sure if that was any cameras on the side of the vehicle). They said that a motorist had driven her car right into a tree during the day, they said that the only reason that did occur was because she was not paying attention, she wasn't talking on the cell, nobody on her car with her, it was during the day in a low traffic road. She was just day dreaming.
Another research that I remember reading said that Brain Immaturity Could Explain Teen Crash Rate. In it, the researchers talked about teens showing off while driving with their friends and also about the fact that they are more easily distracted than an adult (over 25) due to their brain growth until they reach 25.
Would a cell phone ban in the cars help anything in these two cases? In my opinion they would do little to nothing.
I have seen the European Union try something very similar to this, but with their agricultural subsidies during the Doha talks, or China with their import tariffs. The problem here is, Canada doesn't get anything out of it, which is the worse case scenario for an agreement (or law) like that.
Time Warner Cable is showing just how much they learned from AOL during the AOL/Timer Warner days.
I believe these two issues outweigh the problems with spam and botnets, because we won't be able to say anything about anyone on any site without expecting to be sued. Not to mention that everyone will have to act as a babysitter so the parents can feel safe about their children.
I am not sure what to do about the legal suits problems, but on the babysitting problem, maybe the Internet should be rated XXX (like those hardcore porn movies) just so parents know they should pay a little attention to what they kids do on the Internet.
The problem here has nothing to do with the wardrobe malfunction. It has to do with parents wanting a cheap babysitter on the Internet. They already get free child care from the state on the schools, on TV, now they want the same thing out of the Internet, but unlike the schools and TV, there is not way to regulate the Net in order to achieve that without taking everyone's rights away.
The problem here is, the Internet is not a place for kids to stay alone. If a parent cannot supervise his kid, he should not allow the kid to use it.
People that fell so strongly about this issue are clearly not the audience for the Tivo products on the first place. Maybe building their own Tivo like device using MythTV would be a better solution for them, than having a revision on the license.
The units sent with the knights would usually all die, except them, than they would just wipe every enemy on sight. But depending on the episode they would stop for a quick drink.
To me, those series did not match with the movies at all, if the knights were so freaking amazing, how in the heck were they wiped out, except for 2 of them? Or why send an entire army, when you could just send 1 knight?
I wonder if they will fix those issues.
Wow, I had to reread the story, I thought it said "Jerry Falwell Jr., Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner". I was wondering how he got from Virginia to Connecticut so fast.
I think Microsoft saw a good idea when the Scientology Church pumped sales of the Battle Field Earth Book, and they asked the church members to buy copy after copy of Vista. Hence Microsoft is now threatening to sue Linux users, just like the Scientology Church would, if they were Microsoft (which now is proven by the sales of Vista, that they are)
From the description of those religions, a farmer would pay something, usually in goods to the temple administrator, go to a room, screw one of the priestesses and pray to some god for a good harvest. There, the guy paid something, did something, and expect to receive some benefit.
Scientology sure has the PAY part, the DO something part, and they sure expect to get some benefit out of the stuff they do.
I talked to a store clerk for a small business that sell used books, games, and stuff like that here in Virginia. He told that a friend of his went to Thailand and brought back with him around 300 DVD's of recent movies that be bought for less than quarter each over there.
It is not so in Brazil. There was a recent article on the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper that read "Brazil leaves the list made by the US about the top most countries with problem on piracy". It is an interesting read. It tells that local companies together with the Brazilian Federal Police made several raids in places where piracy was running amok. This has been going on for over 2 years now.
The situation with the Drug patents have nothing to do with it, and I doubt it will put Brazil back in the US's watch list.
In one hand, we have people screaming "think of the children" with those kind of retarded ideas such as calling sex talk "rape" in an online RPG game. On the other, we have school officials sending kids to jail for writing an unedited essay.
It disgusts me...
Public schools provides not only a place for children to learn the basic skills such as math but also a place where they can learn how to socialize with different people in different situations. Most people tend to only socialize where they feel most comfortable. Schools tend to break the students out of that, and make them socialize with everyone.
Will homeschooling provide that? Nope. I have talked to a few people that have been homeschooled, and all of them had some severe social problems, more so than the average person that went to a public High School.
On another subject on Homeschooling, what about the parents "qualifications" for homeschooling? Do they have a bachelors Degree? A Master perhaps? In what subject do they have them on? Are they qualified (ie can do the exercises on their own, instead of saying "I am learning with my child?") to teach all subjects in schools?
I have yet to meet a set of parents that could answer "yes" to all those questions.
Homeschooling is actually worse than Public school.