I am so sick of this whole entire issue. These days I just don't listen to anything if it isn't free of copyright or on the radio. There's a good variety of free music out there and I live in a large enough metropolitan area to have a good variety of radio available. My wife occasionally buys music but I haven't bought anything in at least several years. I used to have a decent music collection on LP, and then cassette. Of that music, I probably only upgraded around two dozen of my absolute favorite albums to CD and that was long ago. Am I missing out on anything? Not that I'm aware of, and if I'm not aware of it, then I'm obviously not missing it.
I've taken the same philosophy to my computer. I don't purchase OS or software although I do donate in some cases. When my wife's VAIO laptop gets replaced in a year or two, she'll be going Ubuntu and OpenOffice too.
""It's so antithetical to the way scientists are trained," one Duke University geneticist said, though he eventually became a convert."
"I won't publish my data anywhere in any form but an article in a peer reviewed journal thank you. I worked hard to get my data and work out all the difficulties and I want the credit for it."
Perhaps good examples how things are wrong. What great discovery is waiting on just some little tidbit of data being seen in a different light by someone other than the one who gathered it.
"*ahem* anthropomorphic means "in the shape of a human". The original poster meant anthropogenic. i.e. "caused by humans"
Funny, I always thought it meant using human characteristics to define animals or objects. I guess we're both right (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthropomorphic) although I'll continue to consider my definition as the primary.
"Aren't you made of meat? Also not all creatures are designed to eat meat. And factory farming is far from natural."
No argument here...just a couple of points...
-People are meat and get eaten. People eating people isn't so common these days but it happens. There are a couple of bear species and large cat species that will be more than happy to eat people. -I'll bet that some of the creatures you think don't eat meat actually do eat meat even if infrequently. I'm thinking parrots specifically but I'll bet even some of the larger hoofed animals eat the occasional frog or lizard. -Factory farming is far from natural but so is free range farming. Personally, I'd rather my chicken, cow, or pig live out its life before slaughter in an environment more like nature and less like a jail cell but the chicken roaming the farmyard and roosting in a coop is still not natural. Also, the chickens, cows, and pigs we eat are a lot different creature from the natural animal they were before we started selectively breeding them.
All in all I like meat. I have some issues with some of the practices in place to raise them to slaughter. If my steak is produced in a vat that's cool as long as I don't notice the difference.
"You sir have made me go log in for the first time in years to post a reply to Slashdot. Incorporating the only animal that can't jump, and Microsoft into a legendary parable... We need to invent new words to describe awesome."
Wait just a minute. I'm sure elephants can jump. I've seen it in lots of cartoons.
"I disagree. A cult is generally a group of people who follow a charismatic leader who has only his own best interests at heart. The followers themselves are usually unable to recognize the fact they're being hoodwinked, or even do much thinking for themselves. That does not in any way describe the people that follow NYCL's writings, or Ray Beckerman himself for that matter."
I can think of at least a couple of "cult followings" that don't meet your definition. I'll start you off with one and let you come up with some others.
I thought he stated pretty clearly that he was referring to the USA. Long before his post the US was brought into the discussion which shouldn't be surprising. I would bet most Slashdot folks are US citizens and most of us here in the US haven't traveled to the UK. There often is an attempt to parse a discussion in a framework we are familiar with as opposed to one we are not.
I thought the Vatican was the center of the universe?
"Got any evidence to back up those vague assertions?"
You can easily find the evidence yourself. You are the one who seems not to believe it. Try using Google with a search term like; "U.S. state criminal penalties marijuana".
"My experience may be randomly skewed, but I don't think anyone is going to jail for small time possession in the UK."
I wouldn't know if your experience is randomly skewed but you are comparing apples to oranges. The poster stated they are in the US, not the UK. I have a friend in Washington DC who did 30 days in jail for a $10 bag of pot. That seems excessive even though it was his second conviction.
"Unfortunately, what they've decided to do is put the data even more at risk by subcontacting to a whole bunch of subvendors without having an idea of how to secure their data much less decide who is doing a good job."
I think you misread. What they said is:
"Small agencies that won't qualify for their own connections under TIC must subcontract their Internet services to larger agencies."
I think that means they are keeping it in house so to speak and causing small agencies to contract with large agencies for Internet access. This actually makes a lot of sense and is the way smaller agencies already work for some of the other services they need.
"In the end, Blockbuster (from their online store site) told me to use the Facebook option to block their website from accessing my profile if I didn't want their spam."
I don't do Facebook so I don't know if they tell you in their TOS that they allow Blockbuster to feed off their profiles. Here's a large portion of the problem. The link between them is not plainly and obviously stated in a way to catch attention and then, once you identify the issue, the solution is also buried. We live in a world of obfuscation and to a certain extent, arrogance. Oh, the little people just don't have a need to know... Wouldn't it be nice if everyone just stated things plainly and clearly? Of course, that would put a lot of lawyers, bosses, and the IRS out of business.
"You want to reduce your footprint measurably? Don't build a windmill - instead, reduce your consumption of electricity to match that the amount the windmill would have provided."
I mostly agree with you, especially with the idea of reducing consumption. Lots of little steps add up to make a difference. One of the challenges is to pinpoint every little place where you can reduce.
An idea to consider might be to reuse already existing motors scavenged from where they are no longer being used. Fan blades can be made from almost any kind of scrap metal or wood. Even if they need to replaced on occasion the material they came from was scrap in the first place.
"If you're not working for the Mafia or the Clinton family (but I repeat myself) that shouldn't be a problem. And I'm guessing the guy who is ethically minded isn't working somewhere that would seriously consider murder as a business decision."
What do you know about Enron? Anything can happen.
"Suddenly, the only way to "cover up" is to fix the problem. If they fire you, you go public anyway, and not only is their coverup work worthwhile, but they're liable under whistleblower protection laws."
Or...you get discovered in your car with your brains decorating the interior and an unsigned and typed suicide note bemoaning your guilt for all of the problems.
"The biggest addition to society that Clarke, and all other science fiction writers, have added is not in the works of fiction themselves, but the spark of imagination infused in those reading it. Some will take that spark and build their lives around it turning fiction to fact."
Respectfully, I'm not trying to argue against your point. It is valid. But please, let's not diminish the pleasure derived from being able to escape the real world by diving into another. I find myself pulling a Heinlein, or Clarke, or Niven and Pournelle down from the shelf when I've had all I can tolerate in the real world.
"What's the difference between "loss of reliability" and "failure"?"
In the most general terms, I would think that something can still function to a certain extent after suffering a loss of reliability and won't function at all when experiencing a failure.
"I thought geeks bit the heads off live chickens and nerds pushed technology to to the limit."
I guess I prefer the newer usage of "geek" over the older when applied to me. "Hacker" has changed too. Eh, try calling someone "niggardly" and see what happens. I sometimes wish English evolved a little more slowly, at least as far as usage of existing words.
"Although, in my opinion, you are better off hiring someone who's worked on numerous systems/languages and is willing to learn yours, than switching platforms to get someone with experience in that single platform."
Insightful...
Not only do you get someone who should be able to provide quality work on the existing system pretty quickly, you also get someone who should be able to plan and implement a transition when it's finally decided that the existing platform has reached the end of its useful lifespan.
"I think you two are defining two different "youth" groups. You're probably thinking of high-schoolers or college kids. Your parent post is probably thinking of people in their early to mid twenties."
Actually, I was really referring to all of the above. I'm a jaded, cynical old fart of 41.
"Personally, I'm 23. I have a full time job, pay for school on the side, and pay my own mortgage. While I think some commercials are funny (Chuck Norris Old Spice comes to mind), I almost never buy that product. Most of my friends feel the same way."
My unfortunately cynical viewpoint sees you and your friends as a minority. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. What we need here in the US and the rest of the world is a lot more folks with your gumption (there's an old fart vocabulary word for you). I do try to temper my cynicism with the honest admission that I was kind of a late bloomer in some respects. I was around your age before I moved from retail into the corporate world and started to really apply myself and move up the ladder to a successful career. I do still have my first bong I bought at 18 but it hasn't seen any use in better than 15 years. It's just a memento of a nearly misspent youth. Hmmm...wonder what I'll do if Obama makes it legal...
"As someone who's old enough to have seen several "youth demographics" come and go, I can tell you that this generation is less sheep-like than the previous 3 or 4."
Respectfully, I disagree. I think they are more sheep-like and that their "entitled" attitude stems from that sheep-like lack of critical thought. They have been completely sold on being consumer entities and not having to work to get the consumer items they want.
Slashdot Mirror
I am so sick of this whole entire issue. These days I just don't listen to anything if it isn't free of copyright or on the radio. There's a good variety of free music out there and I live in a large enough metropolitan area to have a good variety of radio available. My wife occasionally buys music but I haven't bought anything in at least several years. I used to have a decent music collection on LP, and then cassette. Of that music, I probably only upgraded around two dozen of my absolute favorite albums to CD and that was long ago. Am I missing out on anything? Not that I'm aware of, and if I'm not aware of it, then I'm obviously not missing it.
I've taken the same philosophy to my computer. I don't purchase OS or software although I do donate in some cases. When my wife's VAIO laptop gets replaced in a year or two, she'll be going Ubuntu and OpenOffice too.
Popular papyrus porn from Persia?
What about a really, really small jump? More like a hop. Isn't a hop just a small jump? :)
""It's so antithetical to the way scientists are trained," one Duke University geneticist said, though he eventually became a convert."
"I won't publish my data anywhere in any form but an article in a peer reviewed journal thank you. I worked hard to get my data and work out all the difficulties and I want the credit for it."
Perhaps good examples how things are wrong. What great discovery is waiting on just some little tidbit of data being seen in a different light by someone other than the one who gathered it.
"*ahem* anthropomorphic means "in the shape of a human". The original poster meant anthropogenic. i.e. "caused by humans"
Funny, I always thought it meant using human characteristics to define animals or objects. I guess we're both right (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthropomorphic) although I'll continue to consider my definition as the primary.
"Aren't you made of meat? Also not all creatures are designed to eat meat. And factory farming is far from natural."
No argument here...just a couple of points...
-People are meat and get eaten. People eating people isn't so common these days but it happens. There are a couple of bear species and large cat species that will be more than happy to eat people.
-I'll bet that some of the creatures you think don't eat meat actually do eat meat even if infrequently. I'm thinking parrots specifically but I'll bet even some of the larger hoofed animals eat the occasional frog or lizard.
-Factory farming is far from natural but so is free range farming. Personally, I'd rather my chicken, cow, or pig live out its life before slaughter in an environment more like nature and less like a jail cell but the chicken roaming the farmyard and roosting in a coop is still not natural. Also, the chickens, cows, and pigs we eat are a lot different creature from the natural animal they were before we started selectively breeding them.
All in all I like meat. I have some issues with some of the practices in place to raise them to slaughter. If my steak is produced in a vat that's cool as long as I don't notice the difference.
"You sir have made me go log in for the first time in years to post a reply to Slashdot. Incorporating the only animal that can't jump, and Microsoft into a legendary parable... We need to invent new words to describe awesome."
Wait just a minute. I'm sure elephants can jump. I've seen it in lots of cartoons.
I'm way off topic here but I have to say it...
Ray, I always appreciate your input on Slashdot stories that delve into the legal arena.
Please accept my heartfelt thanks.
al
"I disagree. A cult is generally a group of people who follow a charismatic leader who has only his own best interests at heart. The followers themselves are usually unable to recognize the fact they're being hoodwinked, or even do much thinking for themselves. That does not in any way describe the people that follow NYCL's writings, or Ray Beckerman himself for that matter."
I can think of at least a couple of "cult followings" that don't meet your definition. I'll start you off with one and let you come up with some others.
The Grateful Dead...
I thought he stated pretty clearly that he was referring to the USA. Long before his post the US was brought into the discussion which shouldn't be surprising. I would bet most Slashdot folks are US citizens and most of us here in the US haven't traveled to the UK. There often is an attempt to parse a discussion in a framework we are familiar with as opposed to one we are not.
I thought the Vatican was the center of the universe?
"Got any evidence to back up those vague assertions?"
You can easily find the evidence yourself. You are the one who seems not to believe it. Try using Google with a search term like; "U.S. state criminal penalties marijuana".
"My experience may be randomly skewed, but I don't think anyone is going to jail for small time possession in the UK."
I wouldn't know if your experience is randomly skewed but you are comparing apples to oranges. The poster stated they are in the US, not the UK. I have a friend in Washington DC who did 30 days in jail for a $10 bag of pot. That seems excessive even though it was his second conviction.
"Unfortunately, what they've decided to do is put the data even more at risk by subcontacting to a whole bunch of subvendors without having an idea of how to secure their data much less decide who is doing a good job."
I think you misread. What they said is:
"Small agencies that won't qualify for their own connections under TIC must subcontract their Internet services to larger agencies."
I think that means they are keeping it in house so to speak and causing small agencies to contract with large agencies for Internet access. This actually makes a lot of sense and is the way smaller agencies already work for some of the other services they need.
"In the end, Blockbuster (from their online store site) told me to use the Facebook option to block their website from accessing my profile if I didn't want their spam."
I don't do Facebook so I don't know if they tell you in their TOS that they allow Blockbuster to feed off their profiles. Here's a large portion of the problem. The link between them is not plainly and obviously stated in a way to catch attention and then, once you identify the issue, the solution is also buried. We live in a world of obfuscation and to a certain extent, arrogance. Oh, the little people just don't have a need to know... Wouldn't it be nice if everyone just stated things plainly and clearly? Of course, that would put a lot of lawyers, bosses, and the IRS out of business.
"You want to reduce your footprint measurably? Don't build a windmill - instead, reduce your consumption of electricity to match that the amount the windmill would have provided."
I mostly agree with you, especially with the idea of reducing consumption. Lots of little steps add up to make a difference. One of the challenges is to pinpoint every little place where you can reduce.
An idea to consider might be to reuse already existing motors scavenged from where they are no longer being used. Fan blades can be made from almost any kind of scrap metal or wood. Even if they need to replaced on occasion the material they came from was scrap in the first place.
"If you're not working for the Mafia or the Clinton family (but I repeat myself) that shouldn't be a problem. And I'm guessing the guy who is ethically minded isn't working somewhere that would seriously consider murder as a business decision."
What do you know about Enron? Anything can happen.
"Suddenly, the only way to "cover up" is to fix the problem. If they fire you, you go public anyway, and not only is their coverup work worthwhile, but they're liable under whistleblower protection laws."
Or...you get discovered in your car with your brains decorating the interior and an unsigned and typed suicide note bemoaning your guilt for all of the problems.
Ahhhhh! Tinfoil hat restricting blood flow!
"I heard goatse is moving to a .gov domain"
.gov domain. Wasn't it the IRS main page? Hmmm...appropriate to have this discussion today too.
I thought goatse started as
"The biggest addition to society that Clarke, and all other science fiction writers, have added is not in the works of fiction themselves, but the spark of imagination infused in those reading it. Some will take that spark and build their lives around it turning fiction to fact."
Respectfully, I'm not trying to argue against your point. It is valid. But please, let's not diminish the pleasure derived from being able to escape the real world by diving into another. I find myself pulling a Heinlein, or Clarke, or Niven and Pournelle down from the shelf when I've had all I can tolerate in the real world.
"What's the difference between "loss of reliability" and "failure"?"
In the most general terms, I would think that something can still function to a certain extent after suffering a loss of reliability and won't function at all when experiencing a failure.
"I thought geeks bit the heads off live chickens and nerds pushed technology to to the limit."
I guess I prefer the newer usage of "geek" over the older when applied to me. "Hacker" has changed too. Eh, try calling someone "niggardly" and see what happens. I sometimes wish English evolved a little more slowly, at least as far as usage of existing words.
"Although, in my opinion, you are better off hiring someone who's worked on numerous systems/languages and is willing to learn yours, than switching platforms to get someone with experience in that single platform."
Insightful...
Not only do you get someone who should be able to provide quality work on the existing system pretty quickly, you also get someone who should be able to plan and implement a transition when it's finally decided that the existing platform has reached the end of its useful lifespan.
"I think you two are defining two different "youth" groups. You're probably thinking of high-schoolers or college kids. Your parent post is probably thinking of people in their early to mid twenties."
Actually, I was really referring to all of the above. I'm a jaded, cynical old fart of 41.
"Personally, I'm 23. I have a full time job, pay for school on the side, and pay my own mortgage. While I think some commercials are funny (Chuck Norris Old Spice comes to mind), I almost never buy that product. Most of my friends feel the same way."
My unfortunately cynical viewpoint sees you and your friends as a minority. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. What we need here in the US and the rest of the world is a lot more folks with your gumption (there's an old fart vocabulary word for you). I do try to temper my cynicism with the honest admission that I was kind of a late bloomer in some respects. I was around your age before I moved from retail into the corporate world and started to really apply myself and move up the ladder to a successful career. I do still have my first bong I bought at 18 but it hasn't seen any use in better than 15 years. It's just a memento of a nearly misspent youth. Hmmm...wonder what I'll do if Obama makes it legal...
"As someone who's old enough to have seen several "youth demographics" come and go, I can tell you that this generation is less sheep-like than the previous 3 or 4."
Respectfully, I disagree. I think they are more sheep-like and that their "entitled" attitude stems from that sheep-like lack of critical thought. They have been completely sold on being consumer entities and not having to work to get the consumer items they want.
"Skip DST entirely. No clock changes at all."
Yeah, let's do away with all of this time zone crap too. I think the folks on the other side of the world from me can all go third shift.
"The important thing is that MS is now saying they're willing to sacrifice backwards compatibility in IE."
Fantastic point.
I wonder how many little sites built by IE-centric coders are going to need a lot of work in order to function well with IE8.