You're mistaking that 3-5% as actual dissent. Nah, their dissent is generally with their fellow citizens. If they were giving small percentages attention and kowtowing to them then the privacy advocates would like to have a word. The intellectually capable would like to have a word. The people with advanced degrees would like to have a word. The well-reasoned and logical would like to have a word. The advocates for liberty would like to have a word. The list goes on...
If we are, as you say, the point where the government "clearly needs to be taken down" then why are you not doing so with you and your like-minded people?
What you have there is a non-sequitur. Your belief of when it needs to be taken down does not match the majority opinion. The militia you decry seems to have more intelligence than you do. If, as you claim, it were time to be taken down then you'd clearly be doing so. I notice that you're not.
The rest of us speak out, work in peaceful ways, and will rely on a firearm as the last choice. A firearm is a tool. It is not yet time to use one. When it is time to use one, in my views, then I will use one. I am disgusted but I am not without hope. When I am without hope, I will resort to a firearm. Until then, I will use all lawful means to accomplish my goals.
Your presumptions are based on stupid things and things you've assumed as opposed to actually heard. You argue against a strawman, you argue against a caricature. You feel just for you have beaten that which doesn't exist. You're a coward and a hypocrite. If, as you describe, it's clearly needed then you'd be doing it. Yet, here you sit...
I should also add, it is not when you feel it is clearly needed. It is when we feel it is clearly needed. Why you'd think you have any other option is beyond me. Why you think your opinion matters is beyond me. You, and what you think is clear, is of no importance to anyone but you and those you can convince to feel the same. You're lazy, a coward, and are far more egotistical than you rate.
And no, no I do not belong to any militia but I am an armed US citizen with a history of serving my country. In short, there's your lesson and you are dismissed.
The government should be afraid of the citizenry, not the other way around. If they are afraid then that is just, that is how it should be. I doubt that they are afraid of us, yet. I suspect they worry about losing control but that they're not afraid at this time. This sort of stuff is precautionary, not reactionary. If all were well in the world, the government would be afraid of us and would act accordingly.
I'd wondered what the fallout would be. I had no idea. "HOLY SHIT" does not cover my thoughts well enough. I'd been a bit curious as to what was going to happen to the people involved but that never showed up in any of the media that I follow so I mostly forgot about it. I figured that they had to have pissed some people off - especially at the national level and at the level where powerful people sit.
I have not yet looked into it further to see who sent down the orders to do those things. People often wonder why I hold the US' political left, and their adherents, to high standards. At first blush, this would be a good example of why I do so. I've not yet spent the time to look deeper (I will) to see if it's a confirmation of my expectations. I am less than impressed - disgust is the word I'm looking for but that only begins to describe it.
Ah well... I'm awake now. Fortunately, I've been awake since about 0300 and have already had my bucket of coffee.
I am trying to come up with a pithy and simple way to say; The boot is stomped with the greatest zeal by those who believe they're doing the right thing.
I guess, that's as close to concise as I can make it and it shouldn't need much elaboration or expansion - everyone should be able to agree and there are many instances in history of this being demonstrated as true. Do you think the NAZI party members believed they were doing bad things?
So, there's the above. I'm not usually all that concise, I do not articulate things well, and I'm very verbose. Thanks for giving me the motivation to ponder that. I'd like to think it says what I need it to say. It'll get used in the future, thanks.
Beliefs that you profess to hold but are unable to accept the consequences of are not really beliefs, now are they? They're conveniences.
Sorry if that hurts but if you really held the views you profess to hold then you'd be willing to accept the consequences of holding and expressing those views. Beliefs that one is willing to be castigated for are truly held beliefs. The rest are just things you tell yourself to make yourself feel good about yourself or, perhaps, myriad other reasons.
Yes, yes that is a pep talk. Put your name behind the views and accept the consequences. You'll feel better about yourself - even if you're hungry, homeless, and friendless.
You needn't listen. It's okay. It's a way to feel liberated and happier with yourself - if you want to take that route. It might not be a wise move if you have others that you're responsible for. Though, today, it's probably not as terrible as you seem to think it is but you're surely more familiar with the local environment so you'd probably be able to guess better than I - it just seems a bit unlikely.
Me? Well, I'm David and I've not only had/. users at my current abode just recently, I've had them visit my home in Maine more than once and met others in their locale. Someone appropriately dedicated could probably find me without enlisting the aid of the NSA. On the other hand, I don't have a Facebook account but I'd be fooling myself if I said I didn't have any social media accounts. Slashdot is, for example, a social media site - even though a few of us like to deny it.
At any rate, a truly held belief is one which one is willing to accept the consequences for holding. The rest are just things you tell yourself for whatever reasons you have. I'd assume they're to make you feel better - it's hard to imagine why you'd tell yourself things to feel worse. Would you have said nothing when they came for the Jews or would you have expressed your dissent and accepted the consequences? Would you have risked hiding them or would you have quietly pointed when they came looking?
Ah, but you've made previous dissenting opinions known so failing to agree with them, in a public fashion, will mean that you're attempting to now hide your views in light of recent events and, because of this, you've likely made efforts to curtail your speech and to hide it - thus you'll need to be monitored all the more closely because you're acting suspiciously.
My view? Fuck 'em. I say what I have to say and do what I need to do. If they don't like it, they know where to find me. I don't need a job, I don't need favor, I'm in a position where I can get away with that and not suffer any undue consequences. I will not now, nor ever, refrain from saying those things I feel need to be said. Sometimes it even pisses people off. I'm okay with that. In/. terms, it sometimes gets me modded down. I'm okay with that too.
Realistically speaking? I don't have much to say that indicates that I'm itching to start a revolution. I do speak out against government and let my opinion be known. I do so politely, realistically, and without advocating things like violence. I'm okay with that and they appear to be okay with it too.
I want to know why they're worried about seeing pixels on a phone 19" from their face. Move it a half inch further away, problem solved. The above AC posting the funny comment about "muh pixels" and "smashing the phone against their face" is remarkably insightful. I've got gobs of resources. I don't even own a 4k display. I don't even watch video in HD most of the time. It's a phone... A phone with a 4" screen... They're not editing UHD video on it... In short, they're idiots.
Yes. There's someone out there willing to believe anything. There are still people who believe that they only want this for this one phone and this one phone ever. There are still people who do not think this is about precedent. There are still people who believe all sorts of things - some of which are outlandish things to believe. They come from both sides of the debate - the people who believe the outlandish things. Some of them, from this very site, have been shown the errors in their beliefs but return in a latter thread to demonstrate that they still believe the things they were previously shown were erroneous.
You probably knew that and meant "did anyone with a working brain in their head really believe" but took the shortcut.;-) I knew what you meant (I am pretty sure) but I figured I'd respond because there are people who will, in fact, believe all sorts of silly things. I figured it best to make it clear. You never know...
I've actually wondered, and have since before this happened, why phones don't have profiles. Why don't they have limited user profiles, administration profiles, etc? Sure, they sort of come close but they're not really usable. It seems to me that it'd be pretty trivial to make separate profiles on phones using standard file permissions. That could include a "root" account (which we have but it isn't really all that effective for what I'm thinking) and multiple users.
Basically, why not use the multi-user approach with phones? Is it purely a matter of resources and price? One could require a special hardware key-press to enable the login screen and have a profile login by default. There are lots of ways to go about this. The end-user gets a regular phone with limited permissions. The owner gets the phone and has an admin account in which they can login, change passwords, permissions, and things like that.
I'd think such a thing would be good for businesses. A person who owns the phone (which is not the case when it's a business-owned phone) can just not bother to set up the admin account, use the account, keep the account for recovery purposes, all that stuff.
If you've noticed my signature and seen a number of my comments when people ask me nonsensical questions that can be answered with a number then you'd be silly to think I didn't notice.;-) In fact, I'd almost commented about it but I couldn't think of any way to make it fitting.
Oh! Hah... Thankfully preview saves the day. I've found a fit.
"And, the number 43 is significant as well. It shows that DMOZ also missed the answer. Close, but no cigar."
That's the best I can do to fit it in there. DMOZ... Man, I remember trying so hard to get in there. I had some jackass offer to sell me something. They (gender unknown) were willing to... Not verbatim but close to: "I'm pretty busy, I've got some work to do this weekend. I kind of need the money. I'll be making ____. If you want, I can skip my weekend job and review your site quicker." It was something like that - this was way back in ca. 2000(ish) IIRC. In between 2000 and 2003. I want to guess that today was the first time I've been back since then. I wasn't going to include that in my earlier post because it has been a long time and I've not retained the proof.
But, more to the point, I can't really think of a whole lot of internet businesses that have stuck it out as long as Google. There are a few. AOL, Yahoo, Slashdot, and things like that. Only a few of those are still in their original core business. I guess AOL still offers ISP service but Yahoo doesn't have their curated listing and hasn't for a very long time. Slashdot is still Slashdot. Usenet still runs but it's not a business, it's a service.
You wanna know how messed the world is? Let's just say that I'm a pretty content Linux user. My phone is a Windows phone and has been since October of last year. Yup... I use a Windows 8 phone and am pretty happy with it. Actually, I'm more than happy with it. Note: I keep two phones. One is a dumb-phone. I do nothing "secure" or even really private on either phone.
Back in late September, I hit the road. I'm still sort of on it. Some young lady bumped into me and she stuck, she's been there since. At any rate, in October I got a bit sick of it and started asking some questions here on Slashdot. I mentioned a Windows phone and a few people piped up and expressed that they were happy with their models or that their spouses were happy with their models. Updates come from Microsoft, they're speedy, the phone works fantastically, and there are all the apps I could possibly want - but there aren't a bunch of duplicate me-too apps in the store. That's something that's very different from Android and iPhone.
So, the hotel I was at allowed me to get stuff shipped to me. I was up in Buffalo at the time. I made a phone call and a couple of days later, I had a package in the mail. I turned it on, I went through the setup, and it started working - the old one stopped working shortly afterwards. (I was curious and checked the old one. I am not a phone geek, I don't pay much attention to how it works.) That was it. I've been using that phone since then.
So, that's the entirety of the experience that I have but, so far, it has been pretty good. I've been quite content with it. I've not yet thought of something that I wanted to do with it that I was unable to do with it. It's open enough so that I can easily program for it - if I wanted to, which I do not. I've had no crashes, indications of malware, known security issues, hindrances, hassles, or problems of any type. It is speedy, has plenty of resources, responsive, and intuitive in operation - but not even really like an iDevice or an Android.
Yes, I am as shocked as you are. I'm kind of surprised that it is not more popular. Not one goal has remained unmet with the phone. Yeah... I'm impressed with that.
I don't want to be held accountable if you mess up but I have learned a few things which may, or may not, be of value to you...
Do *not* check the business/investment news sections. Do not attempt to trade on the whims of the market - I might login and check once a week, as a general rule. I might move something twice a month. Long-term but not greedy.
I don't check the investment news, I don't watch the ticker price, I don't even know what the current values are. I don't care. The market fluctuates - hold long-term. Watching all those things and reading all those things seems to make me think I know too much and I start making trades all day long - this is a money loosing adventure.
An example, I bought a bunch of shares in Tesla back when they were $24 each. I've not actually checked their particular price in quite a while now. I'll start paying attention as their next announcement draws near. I expect them to peak over $250 each. I'll be unloading sometime around that time - I'd rather not be too specific. Suffice to say, it will all be automated. I'm a patient person and I don't need the money today - if I needed the money today then it would not be tied up in investments.
Index funds, bonds, those are slow but generally good. Municipal bonds are pretty good if you're just looking for near-certain growth. It's not a bad rate but you can easily beat it.
I said I didn't want to be specific and I don't want to be. So, this is just an example...
Right now, I'm watching VW. Yup, still... I'm waiting for the other foot to drop and them to get nailed in the media and in the courts. That's going to tank their value. I will buy then - I will invest a whole bunch. Why? I'm *really* certain that within five years that they'll have recovered to previous levels and I'll have probably made at least 300%. When it does that - I'll sell it, rather than stay in and be greedy. I'll then do it again with something else.
I don't plan on buying and selling. I buy and hold. I never buy with the intent of selling in less than a year. In my case, short-term investing means higher tax rates (income vs. capital gains) and I've not had any luck with it. I've yet to make any money doing the short-term stuff. It's mostly fairly automated. After a while, I say that I want to sell when it hits X price. I then forget about it for a while and let 'em do their thing.
They don't get why if you give the FBI a backdoor someone else could also find it.
If you leave your house key under the mat for your friends, it is also possible for a thief to find it - and a thief knows all the regular hiding places for keys.
I have been doing exactly that since 1976. It does appear to be catching on. There's a slow growth in the number of people who do so until the last couple of elections where the numbers increased a good deal. I'm kind of hoping that the number is even greater in this coming election where, again, I'm quite likely to be voting third party.
I figure the number crunchers will start to notice and, eventually, tell the powers that be that there's room for a third party and folks might actually start appealing to that group. I've voted for some straight up lunatics that I'd never want to see in office. It's not like they had a chance at winning. I don't expect a candidate that's any good to be from the two major parties this time around. So, I'm almost certain that I'll be throwing my vote away again this year. It's okay, throwing it away is sending a message. I'm okay with that.
I've voted for one president that was elected once and only once. I've never voted for the winning candidate besides that one time and I've only voted for a major party one other time - for the presidential election. Every other vote has been third party.
I've kind of figured out which ones I generally need to allow to get the functionality I need/want out of it. It has taken a lot of playing but I had the time and motivation. I should probably document my findings somewhere.
In internet years (not entirely unlike dog years including the accelerated years at the start) that's a veritable ancient one - past even grandfather stage and well into empire range. There are not a whole lot of internet companies that have lasted as long as Google has. I can only think of one search company that exists now as it did when Google came out. That company is DMOZ and, aside from SEO companies, I'm not sure who even uses it anymore. I don't think I've been to DMOS in the past 10 years.
Lemme look...
Holy shit. Scratch that. LOL They're in a "partnership with Aol" which is, I guess, AOL.
Oh, I think I just broke the internet with math. Sorry. I think we can safely say that even DMOZ is dead. First, they're partnered with AOL who seems to have changed their name's capitalization. More importantly, they've got over 90k "editors" and about 4m sites. They've got about 1m categories. That puts 4 sites in the average category. Worse, each editor has seemed to add only about 43 sites to the index.
I think we can conclude that DMOZ is somehow both dead and alive but the alive is only technical and they're also technically useless. Some 303 of the DMOZ sites are from Slashdot. I have no idea how or why there are 303 as they're individually added. I should think there would only be one. That there are 303 of them makes me think that the 43 number above is mostly meaningless.
I really like robots. I really am openly biased about Boston Dynamics for stupid personal reasons. I really like the robots that I've seen that they've created.
Alas, there's no way that I could do a damned thing to help this company along. It may be years out before they'd be profitable. I almost (I've not yet thought it through) hope they're picked up by one of the heavies like Boeing. I could even see them tucked into Oshkosh somewhere. I'd love to see DARPA just keep them researching but, if I recall correctly, they've always wanted to be independent(ish) and only went to outsiders 'cause that shit's expensive - so many they could just retain the IP and go work for DARPA. I don't know, I've not given it much thought.
But that leads me to this...
They are, and I'm hugely biased, really awesome. I mean they make my childhood dreams flash back to memory. They make me giddy, sort of. I'm enthralled with them in ways that are surely not healthy - I've watched every single video they've ever released, found them in documentaries, and really enjoyed watching them grow - I remember when they were just splitting from academia, that's how long I've followed them, since the beginning.
It does give me a few ideas. It'd be neat if there was a way that group-funding could generate recurring revenue large enough to keep them afloat - with no real necessity to generate profit. It'd be neat if a group of people got together to fund stuff like this - on a larger scale. There are already some programs to do this.
It'll make me sad to see them building assembly robots. Those robots, the ones that they've made, shouldn't be in factories. They should be out giving bad people nightmares. They should be stomping in and out of battles to rescue wounded, bring gear, and maybe even stand up with hidden mini-guns embedded in its chest and lay waste to an approaching enemy's armored personnel carrier. They should be leaping from peak to peak in a destroyed urban landscape like a mountain goat does atop a precarious precipice perch. They should not be loading boxes and moving them around a factory.
Yeah, I'm kind of, probably, sort of not the least biased person here. Even if I could do anything to help something out at that scale, I'd not touch it as an investment. There's no way I could be objective enough to do that. Biased or not, I'd hate to see 'em go.
I'd never thought of it before then. I think I'm gonna save it for later use. Wait, no... I can't. I gave it away. Angel O' Sphere (/. user) liked it a bunch and I told 'em they could have it. So, I hope to see it again.
As I said to them (or someone else who replied - I think it was them), mathematics humor only goes so far.
I much, much prefer the metric system. I've traveled a lot and it's odd, I sometimes find myself converting a lot of the figures into metric in my head. I didn't realize I was doing this until maybe ten years ago. I even look at speed limit signs, convert them into my head into metric, and then end up converting them back when I look at the dashboard. Yeah, it's horribly wasteful but I can't seem to help doing it. I blame the US for that - and I live here!
I think they do use the nautical mile in Europe but that might be because there's a whole lot of standardization in aircraft and watercraft. Especially at the professional level. All air-traffic control communications are in English, no matter where you go, for example. Pilots (on boats) and Captains (on boats and not the same thing all the time) I think all speak English as well. I think the nautical mile is kind of based on the metric system (it's so far divided by so many - what and what I have forgotten) and I'm pretty sure that they use it in the European countries. I think it's actually fairly universal.
I may very well take you up on that offer.;-) I do appreciate it. Speaking of gaming, did you end up getting into KoL? It's addictive... If you do *and* you'd like to, err... Hmm... If you'd like to experience what it's like to have some goodies, I'll be more than happy to find my login and hook you up. I've got millions of meat left (I'm pretty sure) and/or I might have some rather rare things kicking around in my inventory. I've got a whole bunch of stuff, including familiars that are hatchlings (unused so can be transferred) that aren't available any longer, that sort of thing. Well, not by the store one can't buy them. Players sell and auction them.
I edited my post and ended up forgetting to put my expression of gratitude back in. It made me think of a slightly different route which I may try. I might have him pick a few models of things that he likes (give him permission to make some orders with my name at CDW) and let him pick. I am able to trust him. So, I'll probably do that - actually. I'm sure he'll thank you. That's about the closest I can get to what you're suggesting and what does make the most sense. We used to buy a few, test them, and then roll 'em out - when we did things like refreshes. The vendors used to actually take the test boxes back, I have no idea if they still do that sort of thing. I seem to recall Sun, back when we used their workstations and lots of server room stuff, used to just ship 'em over. That was years ago. (I retired in 2007, 2008 and I was completely gone.)
So, thanks. My sincere thanks are given. I am duly impressed and have come up with a plan based on the best way I can think of to implement what you've suggested. I used to read those whitepapers all the time. I think I used them more as a list of things to not buy than I ever used them to pick what to buy. I did end up going with a company called Juniper based on one and a resulting talk with some salesmen. They were pretty good guys then.
Anyhow, seriously, thanks. 'Tis rarely said around here but I make it a point to. I'm kind of surprised that I'd forgotten to add it back after editing it. Ah well.
I would agree, as a general rule. I'd even extend it to other areas of your life, as a general rule. You're probably right - but there are times when I just can't pretend to respect the person I'm communicating with. So yeah, you're probably right but there are times when I've been unable to do so - they're rare times but they do happen from time to time. There have even been times when I, or one of my employees, has fired a customer (so to speak) though I guess those were done in fairly respectable fashions.
Slashdot Mirror
You're mistaking that 3-5% as actual dissent. Nah, their dissent is generally with their fellow citizens. If they were giving small percentages attention and kowtowing to them then the privacy advocates would like to have a word. The intellectually capable would like to have a word. The people with advanced degrees would like to have a word. The well-reasoned and logical would like to have a word. The advocates for liberty would like to have a word. The list goes on...
If we are, as you say, the point where the government "clearly needs to be taken down" then why are you not doing so with you and your like-minded people?
What you have there is a non-sequitur. Your belief of when it needs to be taken down does not match the majority opinion. The militia you decry seems to have more intelligence than you do. If, as you claim, it were time to be taken down then you'd clearly be doing so. I notice that you're not.
The rest of us speak out, work in peaceful ways, and will rely on a firearm as the last choice. A firearm is a tool. It is not yet time to use one. When it is time to use one, in my views, then I will use one. I am disgusted but I am not without hope. When I am without hope, I will resort to a firearm. Until then, I will use all lawful means to accomplish my goals.
Your presumptions are based on stupid things and things you've assumed as opposed to actually heard. You argue against a strawman, you argue against a caricature. You feel just for you have beaten that which doesn't exist. You're a coward and a hypocrite. If, as you describe, it's clearly needed then you'd be doing it. Yet, here you sit...
I should also add, it is not when you feel it is clearly needed. It is when we feel it is clearly needed. Why you'd think you have any other option is beyond me. Why you think your opinion matters is beyond me. You, and what you think is clear, is of no importance to anyone but you and those you can convince to feel the same. You're lazy, a coward, and are far more egotistical than you rate.
And no, no I do not belong to any militia but I am an armed US citizen with a history of serving my country. In short, there's your lesson and you are dismissed.
The government should be afraid of the citizenry, not the other way around. If they are afraid then that is just, that is how it should be. I doubt that they are afraid of us, yet. I suspect they worry about losing control but that they're not afraid at this time. This sort of stuff is precautionary, not reactionary. If all were well in the world, the government would be afraid of us and would act accordingly.
> http://www.nationalreview.com/...
I'd wondered what the fallout would be. I had no idea. "HOLY SHIT" does not cover my thoughts well enough. I'd been a bit curious as to what was going to happen to the people involved but that never showed up in any of the media that I follow so I mostly forgot about it. I figured that they had to have pissed some people off - especially at the national level and at the level where powerful people sit.
I have not yet looked into it further to see who sent down the orders to do those things. People often wonder why I hold the US' political left, and their adherents, to high standards. At first blush, this would be a good example of why I do so. I've not yet spent the time to look deeper (I will) to see if it's a confirmation of my expectations. I am less than impressed - disgust is the word I'm looking for but that only begins to describe it.
Ah well... I'm awake now. Fortunately, I've been awake since about 0300 and have already had my bucket of coffee.
I am trying to come up with a pithy and simple way to say; The boot is stomped with the greatest zeal by those who believe they're doing the right thing.
I guess, that's as close to concise as I can make it and it shouldn't need much elaboration or expansion - everyone should be able to agree and there are many instances in history of this being demonstrated as true. Do you think the NAZI party members believed they were doing bad things?
So, there's the above. I'm not usually all that concise, I do not articulate things well, and I'm very verbose. Thanks for giving me the motivation to ponder that. I'd like to think it says what I need it to say. It'll get used in the future, thanks.
Beliefs that you profess to hold but are unable to accept the consequences of are not really beliefs, now are they? They're conveniences.
Sorry if that hurts but if you really held the views you profess to hold then you'd be willing to accept the consequences of holding and expressing those views. Beliefs that one is willing to be castigated for are truly held beliefs. The rest are just things you tell yourself to make yourself feel good about yourself or, perhaps, myriad other reasons.
Yes, yes that is a pep talk. Put your name behind the views and accept the consequences. You'll feel better about yourself - even if you're hungry, homeless, and friendless.
You needn't listen. It's okay. It's a way to feel liberated and happier with yourself - if you want to take that route. It might not be a wise move if you have others that you're responsible for. Though, today, it's probably not as terrible as you seem to think it is but you're surely more familiar with the local environment so you'd probably be able to guess better than I - it just seems a bit unlikely.
Me? Well, I'm David and I've not only had /. users at my current abode just recently, I've had them visit my home in Maine more than once and met others in their locale. Someone appropriately dedicated could probably find me without enlisting the aid of the NSA. On the other hand, I don't have a Facebook account but I'd be fooling myself if I said I didn't have any social media accounts. Slashdot is, for example, a social media site - even though a few of us like to deny it.
At any rate, a truly held belief is one which one is willing to accept the consequences for holding. The rest are just things you tell yourself for whatever reasons you have. I'd assume they're to make you feel better - it's hard to imagine why you'd tell yourself things to feel worse. Would you have said nothing when they came for the Jews or would you have expressed your dissent and accepted the consequences? Would you have risked hiding them or would you have quietly pointed when they came looking?
Ah, but you've made previous dissenting opinions known so failing to agree with them, in a public fashion, will mean that you're attempting to now hide your views in light of recent events and, because of this, you've likely made efforts to curtail your speech and to hide it - thus you'll need to be monitored all the more closely because you're acting suspiciously.
My view? Fuck 'em. I say what I have to say and do what I need to do. If they don't like it, they know where to find me. I don't need a job, I don't need favor, I'm in a position where I can get away with that and not suffer any undue consequences. I will not now, nor ever, refrain from saying those things I feel need to be said. Sometimes it even pisses people off. I'm okay with that. In /. terms, it sometimes gets me modded down. I'm okay with that too.
Realistically speaking? I don't have much to say that indicates that I'm itching to start a revolution. I do speak out against government and let my opinion be known. I do so politely, realistically, and without advocating things like violence. I'm okay with that and they appear to be okay with it too.
I want to know why they're worried about seeing pixels on a phone 19" from their face. Move it a half inch further away, problem solved. The above AC posting the funny comment about "muh pixels" and "smashing the phone against their face" is remarkably insightful. I've got gobs of resources. I don't even own a 4k display. I don't even watch video in HD most of the time. It's a phone... A phone with a 4" screen... They're not editing UHD video on it... In short, they're idiots.
did anyone really believe
Yes. There's someone out there willing to believe anything. There are still people who believe that they only want this for this one phone and this one phone ever. There are still people who do not think this is about precedent. There are still people who believe all sorts of things - some of which are outlandish things to believe. They come from both sides of the debate - the people who believe the outlandish things. Some of them, from this very site, have been shown the errors in their beliefs but return in a latter thread to demonstrate that they still believe the things they were previously shown were erroneous.
You probably knew that and meant "did anyone with a working brain in their head really believe" but took the shortcut. ;-) I knew what you meant (I am pretty sure) but I figured I'd respond because there are people who will, in fact, believe all sorts of silly things. I figured it best to make it clear. You never know...
I've actually wondered, and have since before this happened, why phones don't have profiles. Why don't they have limited user profiles, administration profiles, etc? Sure, they sort of come close but they're not really usable. It seems to me that it'd be pretty trivial to make separate profiles on phones using standard file permissions. That could include a "root" account (which we have but it isn't really all that effective for what I'm thinking) and multiple users.
Basically, why not use the multi-user approach with phones? Is it purely a matter of resources and price? One could require a special hardware key-press to enable the login screen and have a profile login by default. There are lots of ways to go about this. The end-user gets a regular phone with limited permissions. The owner gets the phone and has an admin account in which they can login, change passwords, permissions, and things like that.
I'd think such a thing would be good for businesses. A person who owns the phone (which is not the case when it's a business-owned phone) can just not bother to set up the admin account, use the account, keep the account for recovery purposes, all that stuff.
If you've noticed my signature and seen a number of my comments when people ask me nonsensical questions that can be answered with a number then you'd be silly to think I didn't notice. ;-) In fact, I'd almost commented about it but I couldn't think of any way to make it fitting.
Oh! Hah... Thankfully preview saves the day. I've found a fit.
"And, the number 43 is significant as well. It shows that DMOZ also missed the answer. Close, but no cigar."
That's the best I can do to fit it in there. DMOZ... Man, I remember trying so hard to get in there. I had some jackass offer to sell me something. They (gender unknown) were willing to... Not verbatim but close to: "I'm pretty busy, I've got some work to do this weekend. I kind of need the money. I'll be making ____. If you want, I can skip my weekend job and review your site quicker." It was something like that - this was way back in ca. 2000(ish) IIRC. In between 2000 and 2003. I want to guess that today was the first time I've been back since then. I wasn't going to include that in my earlier post because it has been a long time and I've not retained the proof.
But, more to the point, I can't really think of a whole lot of internet businesses that have stuck it out as long as Google. There are a few. AOL, Yahoo, Slashdot, and things like that. Only a few of those are still in their original core business. I guess AOL still offers ISP service but Yahoo doesn't have their curated listing and hasn't for a very long time. Slashdot is still Slashdot. Usenet still runs but it's not a business, it's a service.
You wanna know how messed the world is? Let's just say that I'm a pretty content Linux user. My phone is a Windows phone and has been since October of last year. Yup... I use a Windows 8 phone and am pretty happy with it. Actually, I'm more than happy with it. Note: I keep two phones. One is a dumb-phone. I do nothing "secure" or even really private on either phone.
Back in late September, I hit the road. I'm still sort of on it. Some young lady bumped into me and she stuck, she's been there since. At any rate, in October I got a bit sick of it and started asking some questions here on Slashdot. I mentioned a Windows phone and a few people piped up and expressed that they were happy with their models or that their spouses were happy with their models. Updates come from Microsoft, they're speedy, the phone works fantastically, and there are all the apps I could possibly want - but there aren't a bunch of duplicate me-too apps in the store. That's something that's very different from Android and iPhone.
So, the hotel I was at allowed me to get stuff shipped to me. I was up in Buffalo at the time. I made a phone call and a couple of days later, I had a package in the mail. I turned it on, I went through the setup, and it started working - the old one stopped working shortly afterwards. (I was curious and checked the old one. I am not a phone geek, I don't pay much attention to how it works.) That was it. I've been using that phone since then.
So, that's the entirety of the experience that I have but, so far, it has been pretty good. I've been quite content with it. I've not yet thought of something that I wanted to do with it that I was unable to do with it. It's open enough so that I can easily program for it - if I wanted to, which I do not. I've had no crashes, indications of malware, known security issues, hindrances, hassles, or problems of any type. It is speedy, has plenty of resources, responsive, and intuitive in operation - but not even really like an iDevice or an Android.
Yes, I am as shocked as you are. I'm kind of surprised that it is not more popular. Not one goal has remained unmet with the phone. Yeah... I'm impressed with that.
If you invested well you can (but I suck at it)
I don't want to be held accountable if you mess up but I have learned a few things which may, or may not, be of value to you...
Do *not* check the business/investment news sections.
Do not attempt to trade on the whims of the market - I might login and check once a week, as a general rule. I might move something twice a month.
Long-term but not greedy.
I don't check the investment news, I don't watch the ticker price, I don't even know what the current values are. I don't care. The market fluctuates - hold long-term. Watching all those things and reading all those things seems to make me think I know too much and I start making trades all day long - this is a money loosing adventure.
An example, I bought a bunch of shares in Tesla back when they were $24 each. I've not actually checked their particular price in quite a while now. I'll start paying attention as their next announcement draws near. I expect them to peak over $250 each. I'll be unloading sometime around that time - I'd rather not be too specific. Suffice to say, it will all be automated. I'm a patient person and I don't need the money today - if I needed the money today then it would not be tied up in investments.
Index funds, bonds, those are slow but generally good. Municipal bonds are pretty good if you're just looking for near-certain growth. It's not a bad rate but you can easily beat it.
I said I didn't want to be specific and I don't want to be. So, this is just an example...
Right now, I'm watching VW. Yup, still... I'm waiting for the other foot to drop and them to get nailed in the media and in the courts. That's going to tank their value. I will buy then - I will invest a whole bunch. Why? I'm *really* certain that within five years that they'll have recovered to previous levels and I'll have probably made at least 300%. When it does that - I'll sell it, rather than stay in and be greedy. I'll then do it again with something else.
I don't plan on buying and selling. I buy and hold. I never buy with the intent of selling in less than a year. In my case, short-term investing means higher tax rates (income vs. capital gains) and I've not had any luck with it. I've yet to make any money doing the short-term stuff. It's mostly fairly automated. After a while, I say that I want to sell when it hits X price. I then forget about it for a while and let 'em do their thing.
They don't get why if you give the FBI a backdoor someone else could also find it.
If you leave your house key under the mat for your friends, it is also possible for a thief to find it - and a thief knows all the regular hiding places for keys.
I have been doing exactly that since 1976. It does appear to be catching on. There's a slow growth in the number of people who do so until the last couple of elections where the numbers increased a good deal. I'm kind of hoping that the number is even greater in this coming election where, again, I'm quite likely to be voting third party.
I figure the number crunchers will start to notice and, eventually, tell the powers that be that there's room for a third party and folks might actually start appealing to that group. I've voted for some straight up lunatics that I'd never want to see in office. It's not like they had a chance at winning. I don't expect a candidate that's any good to be from the two major parties this time around. So, I'm almost certain that I'll be throwing my vote away again this year. It's okay, throwing it away is sending a message. I'm okay with that.
I've voted for one president that was elected once and only once. I've never voted for the winning candidate besides that one time and I've only voted for a major party one other time - for the presidential election. Every other vote has been third party.
I've kind of figured out which ones I generally need to allow to get the functionality I need/want out of it. It has taken a lot of playing but I had the time and motivation. I should probably document my findings somewhere.
I dunno... I have an M5000M in my laptop. It's pretty damned speedy and is kind of wasted on me but it's nice to have in case I should opt to use it.
In internet years (not entirely unlike dog years including the accelerated years at the start) that's a veritable ancient one - past even grandfather stage and well into empire range. There are not a whole lot of internet companies that have lasted as long as Google has. I can only think of one search company that exists now as it did when Google came out. That company is DMOZ and, aside from SEO companies, I'm not sure who even uses it anymore. I don't think I've been to DMOS in the past 10 years.
Lemme look...
Holy shit. Scratch that. LOL They're in a "partnership with Aol" which is, I guess, AOL.
Oh, I think I just broke the internet with math. Sorry. I think we can safely say that even DMOZ is dead. First, they're partnered with AOL who seems to have changed their name's capitalization. More importantly, they've got over 90k "editors" and about 4m sites. They've got about 1m categories. That puts 4 sites in the average category. Worse, each editor has seemed to add only about 43 sites to the index.
I think we can conclude that DMOZ is somehow both dead and alive but the alive is only technical and they're also technically useless. Some 303 of the DMOZ sites are from Slashdot. I have no idea how or why there are 303 as they're individually added. I should think there would only be one. That there are 303 of them makes me think that the 43 number above is mostly meaningless.
I really like robots. I really am openly biased about Boston Dynamics for stupid personal reasons. I really like the robots that I've seen that they've created.
Alas, there's no way that I could do a damned thing to help this company along. It may be years out before they'd be profitable. I almost (I've not yet thought it through) hope they're picked up by one of the heavies like Boeing. I could even see them tucked into Oshkosh somewhere. I'd love to see DARPA just keep them researching but, if I recall correctly, they've always wanted to be independent(ish) and only went to outsiders 'cause that shit's expensive - so many they could just retain the IP and go work for DARPA. I don't know, I've not given it much thought.
But that leads me to this...
They are, and I'm hugely biased, really awesome. I mean they make my childhood dreams flash back to memory. They make me giddy, sort of. I'm enthralled with them in ways that are surely not healthy - I've watched every single video they've ever released, found them in documentaries, and really enjoyed watching them grow - I remember when they were just splitting from academia, that's how long I've followed them, since the beginning.
It does give me a few ideas. It'd be neat if there was a way that group-funding could generate recurring revenue large enough to keep them afloat - with no real necessity to generate profit. It'd be neat if a group of people got together to fund stuff like this - on a larger scale. There are already some programs to do this.
It'll make me sad to see them building assembly robots. Those robots, the ones that they've made, shouldn't be in factories. They should be out giving bad people nightmares. They should be stomping in and out of battles to rescue wounded, bring gear, and maybe even stand up with hidden mini-guns embedded in its chest and lay waste to an approaching enemy's armored personnel carrier. They should be leaping from peak to peak in a destroyed urban landscape like a mountain goat does atop a precarious precipice perch. They should not be loading boxes and moving them around a factory.
Yeah, I'm kind of, probably, sort of not the least biased person here. Even if I could do anything to help something out at that scale, I'd not touch it as an investment. There's no way I could be objective enough to do that. Biased or not, I'd hate to see 'em go.
I'd never thought of it before then. I think I'm gonna save it for later use. Wait, no... I can't. I gave it away. Angel O' Sphere (/. user) liked it a bunch and I told 'em they could have it. So, I hope to see it again.
As I said to them (or someone else who replied - I think it was them), mathematics humor only goes so far.
I much, much prefer the metric system. I've traveled a lot and it's odd, I sometimes find myself converting a lot of the figures into metric in my head. I didn't realize I was doing this until maybe ten years ago. I even look at speed limit signs, convert them into my head into metric, and then end up converting them back when I look at the dashboard. Yeah, it's horribly wasteful but I can't seem to help doing it. I blame the US for that - and I live here!
I think they do use the nautical mile in Europe but that might be because there's a whole lot of standardization in aircraft and watercraft. Especially at the professional level. All air-traffic control communications are in English, no matter where you go, for example. Pilots (on boats) and Captains (on boats and not the same thing all the time) I think all speak English as well. I think the nautical mile is kind of based on the metric system (it's so far divided by so many - what and what I have forgotten) and I'm pretty sure that they use it in the European countries. I think it's actually fairly universal.
LOL Good catch. Any number multiplied by zero is zero - was what I meant. *sighs*
You want to know the worst part about that?
Yes, yes I do have my Ph.D in Applied Mathematics. *sighs again*
I may very well take you up on that offer. ;-) I do appreciate it. Speaking of gaming, did you end up getting into KoL? It's addictive... If you do *and* you'd like to, err... Hmm... If you'd like to experience what it's like to have some goodies, I'll be more than happy to find my login and hook you up. I've got millions of meat left (I'm pretty sure) and/or I might have some rather rare things kicking around in my inventory. I've got a whole bunch of stuff, including familiars that are hatchlings (unused so can be transferred) that aren't available any longer, that sort of thing. Well, not by the store one can't buy them. Players sell and auction them.
I edited my post and ended up forgetting to put my expression of gratitude back in. It made me think of a slightly different route which I may try. I might have him pick a few models of things that he likes (give him permission to make some orders with my name at CDW) and let him pick. I am able to trust him. So, I'll probably do that - actually. I'm sure he'll thank you. That's about the closest I can get to what you're suggesting and what does make the most sense. We used to buy a few, test them, and then roll 'em out - when we did things like refreshes. The vendors used to actually take the test boxes back, I have no idea if they still do that sort of thing. I seem to recall Sun, back when we used their workstations and lots of server room stuff, used to just ship 'em over. That was years ago. (I retired in 2007, 2008 and I was completely gone.)
So, thanks. My sincere thanks are given. I am duly impressed and have come up with a plan based on the best way I can think of to implement what you've suggested. I used to read those whitepapers all the time. I think I used them more as a list of things to not buy than I ever used them to pick what to buy. I did end up going with a company called Juniper based on one and a resulting talk with some salesmen. They were pretty good guys then.
Anyhow, seriously, thanks. 'Tis rarely said around here but I make it a point to. I'm kind of surprised that I'd forgotten to add it back after editing it. Ah well.
I would agree, as a general rule. I'd even extend it to other areas of your life, as a general rule. You're probably right - but there are times when I just can't pretend to respect the person I'm communicating with. So yeah, you're probably right but there are times when I've been unable to do so - they're rare times but they do happen from time to time. There have even been times when I, or one of my employees, has fired a customer (so to speak) though I guess those were done in fairly respectable fashions.