> It's not the tech that makes people stupid, it's stupid people using it that causes problems.
I doubt these people are really stupid. If anything, they are probably some of the smart ones. The problem is that incompetence has a way of tricking people into thinking they know what they are doing. Its conceptually easy to hike, especially with GPS. Without it, it was easy to see how lost you could get, and how hard it would be to come out with compass and map.
GPS takes all that away. What the article points to is that these people were inexperienced at actual hiking in these conditions, and massively underestimated their challenge, because, they thought that the part solved by technology was the hard part. They were simply wrong.
Is it stupid to, through lack of experience, underestimate a challenge and end up in over your head? It points to a lack of experience, but not really stupidity.
How is it that the government is not redeemable, but the military is?
The government makes all the decisions as to the size of the military, who its going to be used against etc.
In fact, the way that the military has grown out of control like a tumor on the national budget is entirely unredeemable. We would be NO LESS SAFE if we shit-canned the majority of the military. We just don't need a military this large, not half this size, not a quarter of it.
Both of these wars were not needed, and are absolute human tragedies that our country should be ashamed of starting. I don't see how there is anything redeemable about having done the civilian governments dirty work.
So here is an idea. Maybe its pointless to argue about stereotypes?
The blanket term rape has a definition that seems, on its face, very black and white. However, when you try to actually put metrics to it, you have to have a clear definition, or method of counting. Will you look at legal convictions? Well legal standards, court systems, etc all vary from country to country.
So, depending on your definition of rape, there are many types of rapists with many types of motivations and circumstances. They range from the true psychopaths and predators to the drunken situations where neither side was in any condition to even recall what happened.
Back to the actual case though... doesn't this just sound like Hollywood movie? Guy moving from safe house to safe house, releasing info on the US government, suddenly being charged with crimes...
My problem with the term really stems from how it attempts to draw a line between certain violent acts as something special. I don't see whats so special about a plane flying into a building vs a bomb being dropped on it with a laser guidance system. I don't see whats so special bout it happening in this country vs happening elsewhere.
The only way terrorism seems useful to me is to draw rather arbitrary distinctions between the various attempts to use violence to change the actions of others, and frankly, its less that I disagree with deamonizing terrorists as much as that it serves to legitimize "state sponsored" violence.
Actually yes, that should work. Even if it could provide enough sugar to transport around and make ATP, it wouldn't diminish the need for vitamins, fiber (gotta keep that digestive tract flowing), and protein. In fact, it might add slightly to dietary requirements with other minerals needed for the chloroplasts.... might need a bit more Mg to produce chlorophyll?
In any case yes, some people shouldn't be allowed in a bio class. I too am one of them.
I still think the surface area to volume ratio would render such a "splice" to have very limited value.
I want to disagree on some level, but I really can't.
I think the only thing that I would add is that addiction is painful (mental pain is no different from physical), even if it is the result of patterns of learned behavior. Those patterns are hard to change, and it takes a lot of work. Its not something most people can do without really wanting to do it.
I have trouble blaming him for seeing himself as some sort of victim and looking for whatever remedy to the spiraling situation that he can. Its a little like being mad at a cornered cat for scratching you. However, your remedy is spot on, he has to stop blaming the object of his addiction and take control of his life.
The reality is, many things are addicting. I have seen a friend who kicked various drugs, only to throw himself into cult level religious activities and get a big tattoo of Jesus over his heart. I don't see many lawsuits against churches for making their religion too addictive getting very far.
I guess I would say I view addiction as more a matter of tripping and falling. Its easy to make a mistake and fall on the ground. You may be strong enough to get up on your own, or so weak you need a helping hand. However, sitting on the ground and ranting about how you got there doesn't help anybody.
Yes the group that some people belong to has resorted to violence to make political points. That doesn't mean that any individual thrives on killing or is some sort of murdering monster. It means that he sided with a group, for his own personal reasons, and that group did what it saw as needed.
A tamil tiger removed from sri lanka, has no specific reason or need to fight in Canada. If such fears were realistic, then how could we justify even bringing our own troops home after a war?
I really think pidgeonholing terms like "terrorist" lead us away from seeing the big picture. Few, if any, real "terrorists" do what they do out of a love for killing and destruction. Its a means to an end and, it is the means, which we should take issue with. Though its hypocritical to do so, while employing them wantonly.
I bow to your superior wisdom, and thank you for opening my eyes to your tip calculation technique. Such a technique, exercised properly, has no counter. It is unstoppable.
Right no, and thats what I am shocked about. I have seen and used that short hand and always assumed it was just that... a quick shorthand. I never realized it may also be a symptom of people just plain not understanding the underlying concept.
I think you give these groups FAR too much credit. They survive the way they do primarily because of where they are.
I fundamentally don't think that we have anything to fear from them. Look at the rest of the world, the vast majority of people have no desire to live their way, not even within the muslim world! Its crazy to think that they are going to make any inroads beyond their backwater niches in the mountains.
This is not the rolling big red machine (which was also a joke), these are a few muslim hillbillies who go around terrorizing some towns in the mountains. There really is no military solution for what amounts to a small cultural problem.
Seriously, some pissant terror group takes down two buildings and you are still shitting your pants nearly 10 years later. Get over it already. This is not a worthy adversary.
I mean, I guess I just never thought of it that way.
I was aware that people solve math problems differently, mostly from discussing methods of figuring the tip at restaurants (I just round off to the nearest 5 and divide by 5 to get about 20%) however I never considered that someone might not learn the meaning of the symbols that they use.
I would like to know more because, I understand the equals sign, but I still use that a + b = 1 + 2 = 3 notation when I am just calculating something for a quick note, since I don't care about formality, I just want to have the result and the values used to calculate it so that I can check my work later if need be.
I am not sure what you wanted for morals. I am against non-consensual violence. There may be situations where it is justified on a very small scale, but, never on the scale of a war. I have far more sympathy for a person trying to resist an occupation than an occupier.
Now, in the past, many armies were armies of conscripts. You can't really blame a conscript for marching to battle, and fighting for his live when he arrives. Our army is one of volunteers. As such, I do feel that you can blame them for their piss poor moral decision to join a war.
At least the Afghani or Iraqi resistance fighters have a legitimate claim to having their hand forced by the foreign occupation force. They are acting out in violence against... people who volunteered (and thus consented) to being in a war. Sorry if my heart doesn't bleed for the occupation force just because they fly the "right flag".
Now I don't so much think they are doing the moral thing, even by fighting the occupation force, however, I understand and sympathize with why they do. I do think that they should look to find better and less violent modes of resistance, but its not like they started the fight.
Whats your point? So what if he is acting as a spy? Many of the people whose names were released were "acting as spys". Why can the US military have Spys but someone spying to open information up is a bad guy? If he is so bad, then.... what are the named people?
Is it just a matter of "us vs them"? "Its not wrong when my country does it, but when it happens to us...."
In my eyes, Julian Assange is about the only hero these wars have produced. I hope that he sets an example for people all over the world and EVERY military and government all around the world has thorns like him sticking in their side.
War is now, and ALWAYS has been prosecuted to to the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many. Every dirty aspect of this nasty enterprise should be forcibly dragged out into the light of day, because sunlight is a great antiseptic.
This brings up an important point for me.... what about the individuals say in their own "digital legacy". What if my family doesn't agree with the things I say (often the case)... will they be able to posthumously censor me? Sure I am dead, and my feelings on the matter will be void... but even though something is "my account" and "I am dead"... it was public or semi-public. It was between me and a section of the world.... my next of kin may be given control over the account but, my words belong to me and the people that I broadcast them to, there is an element of cultural record there that goes beyond my families grief.
Perhaps there should be an option for a "will" of sorts.
I would like to be able to set the "upon my death, close off new posts, but keep my old ones available" option.
Maybe allow me to select a new theme or a digital epitaph.... or just a "final post".
> Well, obviously the only thing Assange can do is dump stuff - his organization isn't setup to do any sort of quality control at > all, and he's probably more interested in making his own political points than the lives of some far away villagers. And > frankly, if people are honest with themselves, the same can probably be of ourselves as well.
Agreed....and I think thats the real point of utter hypocrisy here. The lives of far away villages are, at best, an inconvenience to the people in charge. The war was prosecuted, from day one, in spite of them. As it has to be...war is never about the little guy (this is one of the things Afghani and American peasants have in common... the war isn't being fought for either of our interests)
Its just plain disingenuous to support a war in the first place, and then frame this as being about civilians, its about winning the war at all costs and covering up anything that could make control harder.... like the truth about what happens in war, and keeping all of their longstanding ties to their collaborators and sympathizers within Afghan society.
I am hopeful that organizations like Wikileaks can continue to expose the dark underbelly of war and erode the publics willingness to support these atrocious activities. At least the lives endangered, soldiers and their collaborators are all voluntary soldiers. I would feel far worst about the deaths of true innocents.
Though, not having that information endangers lives too, just not the lives mentioned here. Frankly, I don't give a damn about that aspect, its a war, and lives will be endangered, thats why I am against war (that and it really only serves the interests of those already in power, and does it at the expense of the poor... on all sides).
There are any number of ways to cut this. I tend to like to look at it by putting myself in the Afghani's place. Imagine a foreign occupation force has come into my land to setup a new government "for me". Now documents get released...some of which name the capabilities of the occupation force, and some of the names of the collaborators and sympathizers that have been working with the occupation force.
Hmmm.... this is really hard.... what would I think of the person who leaked that information.... hmmmm....
-Steve
Re:Don't f* with the IT guy like at restaurant you
on
Child Porn As a Weapon
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Er um s/not against child rape/not in favor of/
I seriously need an editor. (talk about the situations where that 1 minute between postings rule really blows)
-Steve
Re:Don't f* with the IT guy like at restaurant you
on
Child Porn As a Weapon
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Stating that a difference exists and claiming that is is big proves nothing. Would you like to elaborate on that difference, particularly on where the moral difference is. Why can a family photo album not be public on facebook?
I am not against child rape or anything like that but... seriously.... ambiguity is all fine and good most of the time, but we are talking about whats "socially acceptable" which seems to translate to "when its ok to send armed thugs out to 'modify' your behavior" then, I think it behooves us to spell out, in detail, exactly where the line is drawn and be absolutely clear about WHY it is being drawn where it is (and the convenience of police or prosecutors is NEVER an acceptable answer in my book; if their job is hard it is because it should be hard to divorce a person from his otherwise inalienable rights).
-Steve
Re:I Guess I Don't Exist Then ...
on
Why Wave Failed
·
· Score: 1
> But since it's open source and free I kind of view it as a solution to a problem I don't have.
Yup. I felt the same way. It was cool, I liked the concept however...it had a real problem of being useless in two different ways.
Basically, if I collaborate with others, there are two modes I am likely to operate in.
1. Open Mode. I am designing with the full intention to let anyone join in. Google wave is not so good for this. Its not a public website like sourceforge. It means anyone who wants to join has to find out about the wave and be given access.
2. Closed Mode. Sorry google: If I only want to trust a small group of people to what I am working on, whether its my wife and I, or a small cabal and myself, the problem is the opposite... my information is now stored, unencrypted, on servers that I don't control. Now I HAVE to trust google to not get hacked, have a malicous employee, or be duped by some government spy into giving them access "for national security reasons" to steal and sell my personal info to the highest bidder. (and no, I don't trust "law enforcement", NSA, or whoever to NOT be in it for the personal money... or any other nefarious reason)
Both of these expose wide gaps in google wave, and honestly, most everything that I would work on, and collaborate with others, falls right through those gaps.
Agreed. I am no engineer, my needs are quite modest... to the point that the scope I use is one I picked up at the flea market for $15. It can't do a quarter of what what even a reasonable scope from the early 90s can do... but... as I said... my needs are quite modest, and I don't mind waiting for the tubes to warm up.
SO all in all, I am with you. For me, $200 on a scope would have been mostly wasted. (as it was I got it for $15 as a toy 15 years ago, I just recently found a need for it). Maybe
Ive used a scope (not this one) as a glorified multimeter. Thats cool if you have a scope... but... if I didn't have any tools, I wouldn't go buy a scope just because I needed to measure a voltage.
Slashdot Mirror
> It's not the tech that makes people stupid, it's stupid people using it that causes problems.
I doubt these people are really stupid. If anything, they are probably some of the smart ones. The problem is that incompetence has a way of tricking people into thinking they know what they are doing. Its conceptually easy to hike, especially with GPS. Without it, it was easy to see how lost you could get, and how hard it would be to come out with compass and map.
GPS takes all that away. What the article points to is that these people were inexperienced at actual hiking in these conditions, and massively underestimated their challenge, because, they thought that the part solved by technology was the hard part. They were simply wrong.
Is it stupid to, through lack of experience, underestimate a challenge and end up in over your head? It points to a lack of experience, but not really stupidity.
-Steve
How is it that the government is not redeemable, but the military is?
The government makes all the decisions as to the size of the military, who its going to be used against etc.
In fact, the way that the military has grown out of control like a tumor on the national budget is entirely unredeemable. We would be NO LESS SAFE if we shit-canned the majority of the military. We just don't need a military this large, not half this size, not a quarter of it.
Both of these wars were not needed, and are absolute human tragedies that our country should be ashamed of starting. I don't see how there is anything redeemable about having done the civilian governments dirty work.
-Steve
So here is an idea. Maybe its pointless to argue about stereotypes?
The blanket term rape has a definition that seems, on its face, very black and white. However, when you try to actually put metrics to it, you have to have a clear definition, or method of counting. Will you look at legal convictions? Well legal standards, court systems, etc all vary from country to country.
So, depending on your definition of rape, there are many types of rapists with many types of motivations and circumstances. They range from the true psychopaths and predators to the drunken situations where neither side was in any condition to even recall what happened.
Back to the actual case though... doesn't this just sound like Hollywood movie? Guy moving from safe house to safe house, releasing info on the US government, suddenly being charged with crimes...
-Steve
My problem with the term really stems from how it attempts to draw a line between certain violent acts as something special. I don't see whats so special about a plane flying into a building vs a bomb being dropped on it with a laser guidance system. I don't see whats so special bout it happening in this country vs happening elsewhere.
The only way terrorism seems useful to me is to draw rather arbitrary distinctions between the various attempts to use violence to change the actions of others, and frankly, its less that I disagree with deamonizing terrorists as much as that it serves to legitimize "state sponsored" violence.
I make no distinction. Murder is murder.
-Steve
Actually yes, that should work. Even if it could provide enough sugar to transport around and make ATP, it wouldn't diminish the need for vitamins, fiber (gotta keep that digestive tract flowing), and protein. In fact, it might add slightly to dietary requirements with other minerals needed for the chloroplasts.... might need a bit more Mg to produce chlorophyll?
In any case yes, some people shouldn't be allowed in a bio class. I too am one of them.
I still think the surface area to volume ratio would render such a "splice" to have very limited value.
-Steve
I want to disagree on some level, but I really can't.
I think the only thing that I would add is that addiction is painful (mental pain is no different from physical), even if it is the result of patterns of learned behavior. Those patterns are hard to change, and it takes a lot of work. Its not something most people can do without really wanting to do it.
I have trouble blaming him for seeing himself as some sort of victim and looking for whatever remedy to the spiraling situation that he can. Its a little like being mad at a cornered cat for scratching you. However, your remedy is spot on, he has to stop blaming the object of his addiction and take control of his life.
The reality is, many things are addicting. I have seen a friend who kicked various drugs, only to throw himself into cult level religious activities and get a big tattoo of Jesus over his heart. I don't see many lawsuits against churches for making their religion too addictive getting very far.
I guess I would say I view addiction as more a matter of tripping and falling. Its easy to make a mistake and fall on the ground. You may be strong enough to get up on your own, or so weak you need a helping hand. However, sitting on the ground and ranting about how you got there doesn't help anybody.
-Steve
And I could have sworn it was to trap the doctor in the blue box, so that he can unleash his secret reconstituted dalek army
Maybe its a different guy, bares a striking resemblance though.
I really like firefly, but that intro is almost as bad as enterprise.
"I have always felt 'ouch you moron stop' was all the safe word that I needed"
Well the obvious need for light would put a damper on this.
I have often wondered if it would convey any advantage for humans to have chloroplasts in their skin.
I have to imagine that it wouldn't be enough surface area, CO2, and Light to actually need to not breath... so probably little to no advantage.
But thats just my guess.
Overall, I don't like the term "terrorist".
Yes the group that some people belong to has resorted to violence to make political points. That doesn't mean that any individual thrives on killing or is some sort of murdering monster. It means that he sided with a group, for his own personal reasons, and that group did what it saw as needed.
A tamil tiger removed from sri lanka, has no specific reason or need to fight in Canada. If such fears were realistic, then how could we justify even bringing our own troops home after a war?
I really think pidgeonholing terms like "terrorist" lead us away from seeing the big picture. Few, if any, real "terrorists" do what they do out of a love for killing and destruction. Its a means to an end and, it is the means, which we should take issue with. Though its hypocritical to do so, while employing them wantonly.
-Steve
I bow to your superior wisdom, and thank you for opening my eyes to your tip calculation technique. Such a technique, exercised properly, has no counter. It is unstoppable.
-Steve
Right no, and thats what I am shocked about. I have seen and used that short hand and always assumed it was just that... a quick shorthand. I never realized it may also be a symptom of people just plain not understanding the underlying concept.
I think you give these groups FAR too much credit. They survive the way they do primarily because of where they are.
I fundamentally don't think that we have anything to fear from them. Look at the rest of the world, the vast majority of people have no desire to live their way, not even within the muslim world! Its crazy to think that they are going to make any inroads beyond their backwater niches in the mountains.
This is not the rolling big red machine (which was also a joke), these are a few muslim hillbillies who go around terrorizing some towns in the mountains. There really is no military solution for what amounts to a small cultural problem.
Seriously, some pissant terror group takes down two buildings and you are still shitting your pants nearly 10 years later. Get over it already. This is not a worthy adversary.
-Steve
I mean, I guess I just never thought of it that way.
I was aware that people solve math problems differently, mostly from discussing methods of figuring the tip at restaurants (I just round off to the nearest 5 and divide by 5 to get about 20%) however I never considered that someone might not learn the meaning of the symbols that they use.
I would like to know more because, I understand the equals sign, but I still use that a + b = 1 + 2 = 3 notation when I am just calculating something for a quick note, since I don't care about formality, I just want to have the result and the values used to calculate it so that I can check my work later if need be.
-Steve
I am not sure what you wanted for morals. I am against non-consensual violence. There may be situations where it is justified on a very small scale, but, never on the scale of a war. I have far more sympathy for a person trying to resist an occupation than an occupier.
Now, in the past, many armies were armies of conscripts. You can't really blame a conscript for marching to battle, and fighting for his live when he arrives. Our army is one of volunteers. As such, I do feel that you can blame them for their piss poor moral decision to join a war.
At least the Afghani or Iraqi resistance fighters have a legitimate claim to having their hand forced by the foreign occupation force. They are acting out in violence against... people who volunteered (and thus consented) to being in a war. Sorry if my heart doesn't bleed for the occupation force just because they fly the "right flag".
Now I don't so much think they are doing the moral thing, even by fighting the occupation force, however, I understand and sympathize with why they do. I do think that they should look to find better and less violent modes of resistance, but its not like they started the fight.
-Steve
Whats your point? So what if he is acting as a spy? Many of the people whose names were released were "acting as spys". Why can the US military have Spys but someone spying to open information up is a bad guy? If he is so bad, then.... what are the named people?
Is it just a matter of "us vs them"? "Its not wrong when my country does it, but when it happens to us...."
In my eyes, Julian Assange is about the only hero these wars have produced. I hope that he sets an example for people all over the world and EVERY military and government all around the world has thorns like him sticking in their side.
War is now, and ALWAYS has been prosecuted to to the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many. Every dirty aspect of this nasty enterprise should be forcibly dragged out into the light of day, because sunlight is a great antiseptic.
-Steve
Letting informants live and continue to inform risks the lives of freedom fighters trying to shake off the bonds of occupation.
What makes the US military and its sympathizers and collaborators so much more important than other factions in this idiotic and unnecessary war?
Lets not forget, if the tables were turned, and we were Afghani, these people would be "traitors".
-Steve
This brings up an important point for me.... what about the individuals say in their own "digital legacy". What if my family doesn't agree with the things I say (often the case)... will they be able to posthumously censor me? Sure I am dead, and my feelings on the matter will be void... but even though something is "my account" and "I am dead" ... it was public or semi-public. It was between me and a section of the world.... my next of kin may be given control over the account but, my words belong to me and the people that I broadcast them to, there is an element of cultural record there that goes beyond my families grief.
Perhaps there should be an option for a "will" of sorts.
I would like to be able to set the "upon my death, close off new posts, but keep my old ones available" option.
Maybe allow me to select a new theme or a digital epitaph.... or just a "final post".
-Steve
> Well, obviously the only thing Assange can do is dump stuff - his organization isn't setup to do any sort of quality control at
> all, and he's probably more interested in making his own political points than the lives of some far away villagers. And
> frankly, if people are honest with themselves, the same can probably be of ourselves as well.
Agreed....and I think thats the real point of utter hypocrisy here. The lives of far away villages are, at best, an inconvenience to the people in charge. The war was prosecuted, from day one, in spite of them. As it has to be...war is never about the little guy (this is one of the things Afghani and American peasants have in common... the war isn't being fought for either of our interests)
Its just plain disingenuous to support a war in the first place, and then frame this as being about civilians, its about winning the war at all costs and covering up anything that could make control harder.... like the truth about what happens in war, and keeping all of their longstanding ties to their collaborators and sympathizers within Afghan society.
I am hopeful that organizations like Wikileaks can continue to expose the dark underbelly of war and erode the publics willingness to support these atrocious activities. At least the lives endangered, soldiers and their collaborators are all voluntary soldiers. I would feel far worst about the deaths of true innocents.
-Steve
Though, not having that information endangers lives too, just not the lives mentioned here. Frankly, I don't give a damn about that aspect, its a war, and lives will be endangered, thats why I am against war (that and it really only serves the interests of those already in power, and does it at the expense of the poor... on all sides).
There are any number of ways to cut this. I tend to like to look at it by putting myself in the Afghani's place. Imagine a foreign occupation force has come into my land to setup a new government "for me". Now documents get released...some of which name the capabilities of the occupation force, and some of the names of the collaborators and sympathizers that have been working with the occupation force.
Hmmm.... this is really hard.... what would I think of the person who leaked that information.... hmmmm....
-Steve
Er um s/not against child rape/not in favor of/
I seriously need an editor.
(talk about the situations where that 1 minute between postings rule really blows)
-Steve
Stating that a difference exists and claiming that is is big proves nothing. Would you like to elaborate on that difference, particularly on where the moral difference is. Why can a family photo album not be public on facebook?
I am not against child rape or anything like that but... seriously.... ambiguity is all fine and good most of the time, but we are talking about whats "socially acceptable" which seems to translate to "when its ok to send armed thugs out to 'modify' your behavior" then, I think it behooves us to spell out, in detail, exactly where the line is drawn and be absolutely clear about WHY it is being drawn where it is (and the convenience of police or prosecutors is NEVER an acceptable answer in my book; if their job is hard it is because it should be hard to divorce a person from his otherwise inalienable rights).
-Steve
> But since it's open source and free I kind of view it as a solution to a problem I don't have.
Yup. I felt the same way. It was cool, I liked the concept however...it had a real problem of being useless in two different ways.
Basically, if I collaborate with others, there are two modes I am likely to operate in.
1. Open Mode. I am designing with the full intention to let anyone join in. Google wave is not so good for this. Its not a public website like sourceforge. It means anyone who wants to join has to find out about the wave and be given access.
2. Closed Mode. Sorry google: If I only want to trust a small group of people to what I am working on, whether its my wife and I, or a small cabal and myself, the problem is the opposite... my information is now stored, unencrypted, on servers that I don't control. Now I HAVE to trust google to not get hacked, have a malicous employee, or be duped by some government spy into giving them access "for national security reasons" to steal and sell my personal info to the highest bidder. (and no, I don't trust "law enforcement", NSA, or whoever to NOT be in it for the personal money... or any other nefarious reason)
Both of these expose wide gaps in google wave, and honestly, most everything that I would work on, and collaborate with others, falls right through those gaps.
-Steve
Agreed. I am no engineer, my needs are quite modest... to the point that the scope I use is one I picked up at the flea market for $15. It can't do a quarter of what what even a reasonable scope from the early 90s can do... but... as I said... my needs are quite modest, and I don't mind waiting for the tubes to warm up.
SO all in all, I am with you. For me, $200 on a scope would have been mostly wasted. (as it was I got it for $15 as a toy 15 years ago, I just recently found a need for it). Maybe
Ive used a scope (not this one) as a glorified multimeter. Thats cool if you have a scope... but... if I didn't have any tools, I wouldn't go buy a scope just because I needed to measure a voltage.
It all comes down to what your needs are.
-Steve