First of all, let me just say that that last bit ("I would think that access to culture should be a civil right") was spoken like a true Quebecker, and in a good way.
Secondly, and this is a legitimate question, I think (I really want to know!) - isn't it possible to make a little recorder box to plug in as an intermediary between your speakers/monitor and the computer? Have it record what gets piped through the wires, rather than trying to do it via software, which is apparently getting locked down in increasingly effective ways. Or is there something that would prevent this from being as easy as it sounds?
Well, most of those aren't applicable to me, as I really don't feel those ways. In general, though, I don't have secrets. I don't tell my girlfriend about every passing fancy I've had for someone, but you'd better believe I'd tell her if I cheated on her. I try not to lie to myself, either: I'm not the hero of the story and my failures are monumental. There are no good people, only bad ones that compensate, and that includes me.
BSG always seemed like it cooked up drama for the sake of drama by creating characters with strong allergic reactions to any kind of openness. There may not be good people, but there are always people that struggle against their evil. Nobody in BSG struggles with it unless confronted with it, and I find that frankly unbelievable.
Tisk tisk, it's because the physicist that came on-set to talk about this sort of thing pronounced it 'jiggawatts'. He, my friend, is the moron, and after they found out it should be 'gigawatts', they decided it would be better to just be consistent.
Because every thing you can do to tamper with a paper ballot will leaves a physical artifact. Americans don't trust computers because tampering with them requires a level of skill most people don't have, can be done on a massive scale with relative ease, and when it is done doesn't leave a physical trail. The only trace may be in the source code but, even then, if the computers were networked it would be possible to implant a virus to tell them all to vote a certain way, then have the virus self-destruct. Paper, at least, leaves a trace.
Even this isn't a solution, though. To trigger a recount, the results have to be suitably close. If you're going to spoof the results in a relatively close area, just make sure you balance the results so that your guy wins with enough margin to not trigger a recount. All those printouts saying how the people actually voted are safely stored in a box somewhere, never to be touched again.
Okay, that's an interesting look at things. You've actually managed to work the bible into a coherent argument on Slashdot, of all places. Go figure!
However, I take issue with your assumption that people don't believe humanity is fundamentally selfish. Capitalism is based on rational individualism - if everybody's looking out for their own self-interest, everybody does better. This is obviously not an uncommon belief, but its root is in selfishness; people, therefore, do believe humanity is fundamentally selfish.
Bubbles occur because people become stupid about what's in their self-interest, and regulation is supposed to keep people from taking advantage of others' stupidity, or to keep people from doing stupid stuff themselves. This current bubble occurred because the dominant thought was that the banking sector could regulate itself: in other words, that the banks would be intelligently selfish. Unfortunately, they outsmarted themselves by developing derivatives that people didn't really understand and selling mortgages that they thought were fool-proof. The Clinton Administration failed to realize they would be stupid (and the Bush Administration failed to realize that homebuyers would be stupid) and so failed to regulate. Everybody was dumber than they should have been. It's not the fault of selfishness/capitalism; rather, it's the fault of stupid selfishness/stupid capitalism.
Generally one does what one has to in order to get to where one needs to go. If a need arises that justifies the cost and extreme difficulty of designing and building a space elevator, not to mention a space station in orbit around Mars, then it might happen.
On the other hand, we can go to Mars without a space elevator and without a Martian space station. Those things might make it easier to do the mission itself, but the overall cost and difficulty of going from 'Nobody on Mars' to 'Colony on Mars' is substantially increased when you throw in such extras.
We never did have a time when we were fully engaged and excited about the process. You probably don't remember Warren Harding, a man elected largely because he "looked like a president" then proceeded to appoint his friends to high places where the proceeded to rob the government blind. But perhaps we can go back further, to the election of 1800, where John Adams called Thomas Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." To be fair, though, Jefferson had accused Adams of having "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."
If you take any single slice of American history, you will find rancor, stark disagreement, outright corruption and near-militant partisanship. Right now, though, it seems like at least one side may get a full-fledged parliamentary majority: large House majority, filibuster-proof Senate majority, and a president. Even if you disagree with Democrats, you can agree that those most obviously associated with the President - Republicans - are going to be punished for letting him run us into the ground. If Democrats do the same, it'll be Carter to Reagan all over again.
Weird as it sounds, it seems like you and Senator Tom Coburn have something in common. Anyway, the complexity of the problem's competing interest groups is enough to make anyone shudder, and, quite honestly, in such instances lawmakers tend to defer to those that know more than they do. Unfortunately, the most omnipresent teachers on the Hill are lobbyists. It's not an issue of bribes or influence peddling in this case, but just one of complexity beyond the interest of most lawmakers in office today. Perhaps more IT folks should get into politics.
Yeah, I know, this is supposed to be a forum and not a speech park, but I don't particularly care. Our problem isn't in how we elect the President, it's in how much attention we give him. We expect the President to embody the entirety of the government and make the legislation to make the country work. The problem is that legislation should get debated in Congress, and we don't notice anyone in Congress, unless he happens to take bribes or calls the internet funny names. We don't care about policy, we care about personality, and that's most easily found in a President. If we started to focus on Congressmen a bit more, they might actually start to get something done.
Well, if ignorance is bliss, and we got kicked out of the Garden through eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which is also when we got to eat meat, then I suppose we got smart first, and then we got to eat meat. Now, although this Knowledge damned us to our present planet, I think the chance to eat meat was definitely worth it.
Let's summarize this comment, shall we? Starvation + disease is better than obesity, which is a body gone 'to hell'. A lifespan half as long as the West's is better than insecurity about one's looks. The lust for money and power are native only to Europe.
I have to disagree, I'm sorry. You are correct that there are cultural wrongs that we export from the West, but we cannot presume that the cost of help is greater than the benefit. To do so would be paternalistic and condescending, and I don't think that's what you mean to advocate.
Sorry, what? There's a war? I was just watching CNN and all they had on was John Edward's affair... no, wait, I think there's something in the news crawl... "Russia invades Georgia/Governor recalls National Guard/Declares 'I had no idea!'"
Two choices: electronic voting or revolution. Pick one.
What? Does that actually make sense to you, or are you just saying things that sound iconoclastic? Plenty of politicians want a voting system that is accountable and quick, and those are not mutually exclusive. Witness the California Secretary of State - an elected official - slamming electronic voting machines earlier this year. Or the states that haven't had much trouble as far as electronic voting goes. Or Nebraska's nonpartisan legislature.
Our system is not nearly as stultified or ossified as people enjoy thinking it is. Calling for accountability actually does work. Just because the Governor isn't calling up someone you know for advice doesn't mean the government isn't considering your issue, nor does it mean advocacy is powerless against the Establishment. Deal with it.
You can do circuit training with a mix of anaerobic and aerobic excercise. The premise is: do 1 set of one thing (bench press, say), then do a set of something else. Then jog for a little. Then go back to your second set of bench press, then your second set of whatever was next, and then jog again, and so on through your routine. It's quite effective and can shorten the length of time you spend exercising while increasing the returns, so long as you remember to switch up how you work each muscle group every month or two.
Since the last Apollo flights? No no, it was over-budget even then. For example, the lunar buggies were going to cost $19 million and ended up costing $38 million. In 2007 dollars, that's $100 million projected, $200 million actual. Apollo wasn't a fairy-tale time of bureaucratic efficiency, but rather a time when we had the will to power through the difficulties. I think the lack of a massive debt helped.
I'd say read When the Tripods Came last. It's sort of the final huzzah to the series, and it ends on both a sad and a happy note, to see how things all began and whatnot. Very good books.
There's also one that I don't recall the title of, perhaps someone could help? It involves a kid stranded on a desolate planet with stuff falling from the sky that eats metal. There are a bunch of sickly looking creatures, there's a wild girl involved, he's got a cybernetic arm...
Since when have we blown ourselves up in crowded markets? Or strapped bombs to women with downs syndrome? Did we hit up shop owners for money, or spread candy to attract children so we could blow them up?
I'm actually asking these things. These are the tactics that define the insurgents. Does this manual, which I don't have time to read, advocate these things, too?
TFA is a bit more holistic than what you make it out to be. Its thesis is that technologies change to match the times in often unpredictable ways, not that we hold tightly to obsolete machines like old teddy bears.
Although DMing was never my strong suit, it was another RPG, Shadowrun, that got me finally out of my shell at a new college to realize that yes, people actually DO enjoy spending time with me. D&D, a later love, has taught me things about taking risks while seeing the full picture and how to be decisive without delegating to others as a matter of habit: I can't stand those awkward "so... what do we do now?" moments around the table. My loathing of such silences has spurred me to make some dumb moves and some smart ones, with the latter becoming more and more frequent than the former.
So, yes, I can definitely identify with your sister-in-law, at least in part. Gary: good on ya, and may d20s roll long into the future.
Or perhaps they aren't so keen on getting sued over copyright infringement: one should be above reproach. Lobby against the law, but don't break it while doing so.
My first computer game was SimEarth, and that remained satisfying all the way from elementary school until jr. high when we finally upgraded the 386. Then it was onto others: SimTower, SimCity 2, Pitfall, Dangerous Dave... Plenty of software toys through until now, with SimCity 4 and D&D.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all, let me just say that that last bit ("I would think that access to culture should be a civil right") was spoken like a true Quebecker, and in a good way.
Secondly, and this is a legitimate question, I think (I really want to know!) - isn't it possible to make a little recorder box to plug in as an intermediary between your speakers/monitor and the computer? Have it record what gets piped through the wires, rather than trying to do it via software, which is apparently getting locked down in increasingly effective ways. Or is there something that would prevent this from being as easy as it sounds?
Well, most of those aren't applicable to me, as I really don't feel those ways. In general, though, I don't have secrets. I don't tell my girlfriend about every passing fancy I've had for someone, but you'd better believe I'd tell her if I cheated on her. I try not to lie to myself, either: I'm not the hero of the story and my failures are monumental. There are no good people, only bad ones that compensate, and that includes me.
BSG always seemed like it cooked up drama for the sake of drama by creating characters with strong allergic reactions to any kind of openness. There may not be good people, but there are always people that struggle against their evil. Nobody in BSG struggles with it unless confronted with it, and I find that frankly unbelievable.
Tisk tisk, it's because the physicist that came on-set to talk about this sort of thing pronounced it 'jiggawatts'. He, my friend, is the moron, and after they found out it should be 'gigawatts', they decided it would be better to just be consistent.
Because every thing you can do to tamper with a paper ballot will leaves a physical artifact. Americans don't trust computers because tampering with them requires a level of skill most people don't have, can be done on a massive scale with relative ease, and when it is done doesn't leave a physical trail. The only trace may be in the source code but, even then, if the computers were networked it would be possible to implant a virus to tell them all to vote a certain way, then have the virus self-destruct. Paper, at least, leaves a trace.
Even this isn't a solution, though. To trigger a recount, the results have to be suitably close. If you're going to spoof the results in a relatively close area, just make sure you balance the results so that your guy wins with enough margin to not trigger a recount. All those printouts saying how the people actually voted are safely stored in a box somewhere, never to be touched again.
Well, next time they'll just have to change the deadline. Someone at the CT State Department's office screwed that one up.
Okay, that's an interesting look at things. You've actually managed to work the bible into a coherent argument on Slashdot, of all places. Go figure!
However, I take issue with your assumption that people don't believe humanity is fundamentally selfish. Capitalism is based on rational individualism - if everybody's looking out for their own self-interest, everybody does better. This is obviously not an uncommon belief, but its root is in selfishness; people, therefore, do believe humanity is fundamentally selfish.
Bubbles occur because people become stupid about what's in their self-interest, and regulation is supposed to keep people from taking advantage of others' stupidity, or to keep people from doing stupid stuff themselves. This current bubble occurred because the dominant thought was that the banking sector could regulate itself: in other words, that the banks would be intelligently selfish. Unfortunately, they outsmarted themselves by developing derivatives that people didn't really understand and selling mortgages that they thought were fool-proof. The Clinton Administration failed to realize they would be stupid (and the Bush Administration failed to realize that homebuyers would be stupid) and so failed to regulate. Everybody was dumber than they should have been. It's not the fault of selfishness/capitalism; rather, it's the fault of stupid selfishness/stupid capitalism.
Generally one does what one has to in order to get to where one needs to go. If a need arises that justifies the cost and extreme difficulty of designing and building a space elevator, not to mention a space station in orbit around Mars, then it might happen.
On the other hand, we can go to Mars without a space elevator and without a Martian space station. Those things might make it easier to do the mission itself, but the overall cost and difficulty of going from 'Nobody on Mars' to 'Colony on Mars' is substantially increased when you throw in such extras.
We never did have a time when we were fully engaged and excited about the process. You probably don't remember Warren Harding, a man elected largely because he "looked like a president" then proceeded to appoint his friends to high places where the proceeded to rob the government blind. But perhaps we can go back further, to the election of 1800, where John Adams called Thomas Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." To be fair, though, Jefferson had accused Adams of having "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."
If you take any single slice of American history, you will find rancor, stark disagreement, outright corruption and near-militant partisanship. Right now, though, it seems like at least one side may get a full-fledged parliamentary majority: large House majority, filibuster-proof Senate majority, and a president. Even if you disagree with Democrats, you can agree that those most obviously associated with the President - Republicans - are going to be punished for letting him run us into the ground. If Democrats do the same, it'll be Carter to Reagan all over again.
Like putting too much air in a balloon!
Weird as it sounds, it seems like you and Senator Tom Coburn have something in common. Anyway, the complexity of the problem's competing interest groups is enough to make anyone shudder, and, quite honestly, in such instances lawmakers tend to defer to those that know more than they do. Unfortunately, the most omnipresent teachers on the Hill are lobbyists. It's not an issue of bribes or influence peddling in this case, but just one of complexity beyond the interest of most lawmakers in office today. Perhaps more IT folks should get into politics.
Yeah, I know, this is supposed to be a forum and not a speech park, but I don't particularly care. Our problem isn't in how we elect the President, it's in how much attention we give him. We expect the President to embody the entirety of the government and make the legislation to make the country work. The problem is that legislation should get debated in Congress, and we don't notice anyone in Congress, unless he happens to take bribes or calls the internet funny names. We don't care about policy, we care about personality, and that's most easily found in a President. If we started to focus on Congressmen a bit more, they might actually start to get something done.
Well, if ignorance is bliss, and we got kicked out of the Garden through eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which is also when we got to eat meat, then I suppose we got smart first, and then we got to eat meat. Now, although this Knowledge damned us to our present planet, I think the chance to eat meat was definitely worth it.
Let's summarize this comment, shall we? Starvation + disease is better than obesity, which is a body gone 'to hell'. A lifespan half as long as the West's is better than insecurity about one's looks. The lust for money and power are native only to Europe.
I have to disagree, I'm sorry. You are correct that there are cultural wrongs that we export from the West, but we cannot presume that the cost of help is greater than the benefit. To do so would be paternalistic and condescending, and I don't think that's what you mean to advocate.
Sorry, what? There's a war? I was just watching CNN and all they had on was John Edward's affair... no, wait, I think there's something in the news crawl... "Russia invades Georgia/Governor recalls National Guard/Declares 'I had no idea!'"
Huh, go figure.
Two choices: electronic voting or revolution. Pick one.
What? Does that actually make sense to you, or are you just saying things that sound iconoclastic? Plenty of politicians want a voting system that is accountable and quick, and those are not mutually exclusive. Witness the California Secretary of State - an elected official - slamming electronic voting machines earlier this year. Or the states that haven't had much trouble as far as electronic voting goes. Or Nebraska's nonpartisan legislature.
Our system is not nearly as stultified or ossified as people enjoy thinking it is. Calling for accountability actually does work. Just because the Governor isn't calling up someone you know for advice doesn't mean the government isn't considering your issue, nor does it mean advocacy is powerless against the Establishment. Deal with it.
You can do circuit training with a mix of anaerobic and aerobic excercise. The premise is: do 1 set of one thing (bench press, say), then do a set of something else. Then jog for a little. Then go back to your second set of bench press, then your second set of whatever was next, and then jog again, and so on through your routine. It's quite effective and can shorten the length of time you spend exercising while increasing the returns, so long as you remember to switch up how you work each muscle group every month or two.
Since the last Apollo flights? No no, it was over-budget even then. For example, the lunar buggies were going to cost $19 million and ended up costing $38 million. In 2007 dollars, that's $100 million projected, $200 million actual. Apollo wasn't a fairy-tale time of bureaucratic efficiency, but rather a time when we had the will to power through the difficulties. I think the lack of a massive debt helped.
I'd say read When the Tripods Came last. It's sort of the final huzzah to the series, and it ends on both a sad and a happy note, to see how things all began and whatnot. Very good books.
There's also one that I don't recall the title of, perhaps someone could help? It involves a kid stranded on a desolate planet with stuff falling from the sky that eats metal. There are a bunch of sickly looking creatures, there's a wild girl involved, he's got a cybernetic arm...
Although eventually we'll just need to build more ad infinitum siphons, too.
Since when have we blown ourselves up in crowded markets? Or strapped bombs to women with downs syndrome? Did we hit up shop owners for money, or spread candy to attract children so we could blow them up?
I'm actually asking these things. These are the tactics that define the insurgents. Does this manual, which I don't have time to read, advocate these things, too?
TFA is a bit more holistic than what you make it out to be. Its thesis is that technologies change to match the times in often unpredictable ways, not that we hold tightly to obsolete machines like old teddy bears.
Although DMing was never my strong suit, it was another RPG, Shadowrun, that got me finally out of my shell at a new college to realize that yes, people actually DO enjoy spending time with me. D&D, a later love, has taught me things about taking risks while seeing the full picture and how to be decisive without delegating to others as a matter of habit: I can't stand those awkward "so... what do we do now?" moments around the table. My loathing of such silences has spurred me to make some dumb moves and some smart ones, with the latter becoming more and more frequent than the former.
So, yes, I can definitely identify with your sister-in-law, at least in part. Gary: good on ya, and may d20s roll long into the future.
Or perhaps they aren't so keen on getting sued over copyright infringement: one should be above reproach. Lobby against the law, but don't break it while doing so.
My first computer game was SimEarth, and that remained satisfying all the way from elementary school until jr. high when we finally upgraded the 386. Then it was onto others: SimTower, SimCity 2, Pitfall, Dangerous Dave... Plenty of software toys through until now, with SimCity 4 and D&D.