You talk like a victim. The former post did have a good point. You have to change your worldview, if you want things to change. I may not agree with the methods he listed, but it's true that our beliefs are fundamental in our interactions with the world.
If you think you don't stand a chance because of your looks, that WILL, believe me, reflect in ALL the people that you encounter. Their subconsciousness will pick up your insecurity right away, and treat you like you believe they will.
Have you every met a person who often complains they ALWAYS get treated rudely? Do you want to treat such a person in a respectful way, what do you feel like? We are mirrors to eachother, and can learn immensely about ourselves through others!
What makes you attractive? Liveliness, genuinety, happiness, able to give energy and love, share your deepest thoughts, etc, etc. If you're bored, why should anybody want to be with you, and why would you want to be with somebody who lacks these traits?
Twist the whole thing around, start with yourself. Are you a happy person that will attract others, or do you suck their energy in order to get what YOU want?
Some self-inquiry may surprise you, or maybe I'm speaking to the wrong person. Anyways, I'm sharing this in the belief it may help others.
This is not it. Manipulating people for your own goals is a selfish way to live. You make them objects in your own fantasy world. In a relationship, this is often disastrous. Because if both participants are doing what they do, just in order to get satisfaction, they will empty the energy in-between themselves pretty fast.
Happily I don't need it. My girlfriend loves me for who I am, not because I "persuaded" her or treat her like a vending machine. If she says no to sex, we can talk about it like equals and I respect her choices. That's just a crude example.
Humans are NOT machines.. You may model a human like one, but it's a gross simplification. The reality is much more subtler than that.
Knowledge used to get power for yourself, is useless knowledge and will hurt you and others. Only knowledge that empowers everybody around you, including yourself is worth knowing. A gift is not a gift, if there is expectations of a return of the gift in some form. That's called a transaction. We have much more to give than we realize.
Right. And how about ol'fashioned TRUSTING PEOPLE on this issue? If somebody misuses code, they will be found out sooner or later. Anyhow, it's not like you lose anything on it. Later they'll be all the wiser for being permitted to make a mistake.
Are we no better than the big conglomerations where we can't trust anyone and are filled with fear and dread of all the abuse that _MIGHT_ happen?!?
However, I would argue by the time you're dead, your children will be adults perfectly capable of having their own income instead of milking their dad's artificial monopoly.
My family depends on profits from sales of MY creations, which sprang out of MY mind, not the world's.
You don't know that. Where does it all come from? If you were never born, you would never be able to create. Books have inspired you and people have taught you about life. Now YOU show some gratitude for that!
You sir, I believe owe the general an apology for grouping him with most terrorists. I believe his opinion of the sanctity of human life is fairly common in the US military. This places it in direct opposition to terrorists who typically, at least if the Twin Towers 19 are an example, hold other human life in little regard.
I respectfully believe I do not owe him an apology. Please let me explain.
A terrorist is a desperate person using extreme measures in a hopeless situation. The person is trying to kill an enemy that is totally superior in strength. The only way for those groups to counter attack is by using sneaky tactics, like guerilja warfare and suicide bombing. In Norway, we still regard our "terrorists" during the war, who planted bombs on the occupying Germans, as heroes. Of course, they had more value for life then, as you say. But this is still a good point, just hear me out.
If, as you say, USA are using tactics that suredly increase civilian losses, to minimize their own military losses, then what is the difference between them and "terrorist states"?
To answer that, of course, fundamentalists hold a slightly more extreme point of view and are much more polarized. Ie, "Bush is Satan, therefore we are granted to wipe out every American by Allah", or some such. But these are insane people which are in the minority. Most muslims are not like that, this is abuse of religion. Their work is mostly political: Bomb as much as you can in order to increase instability, and hope that the muslim countries will start a big war against the West. It has nothing to do with faith or religion, it is just a power-tool for the insanely desperate. While Bush & CO are just slightly less insane (also a ruling minority).. The blabbering of Bush, reminds me many times of a fundamentalist on a crusade.. The only reason democratic leaders can't do everything they want, is because USA is still a democracy, while many muslim countries are religious dictatorships. The same kind of people are in power both places, IMHO.
You totally misunderstood my post. I didn't refer to any specific individual or just the military, and what I tried to achieve is to show that it's not all black and white. What we call terrorists are heroes in their own countries, and what terrorists we've had in the past, are heroes in our books too. It's all dependent on circumstances and who holds the most power. The winners write the history books, unless you're in another country. If you've read Sun Tzu, which I haven't, I'm sure you can appreciate such a point.
What I say is this: Given the same circumstances, many in the US would do exactly the same as the suicide bombers from muslim countries. It's all dependent on circumstances, lack of education and a misidentification, justifying taking life for some "higher cause" AND seeing others as an enemy (separation: reread my previous post for clarification).
Don't believe me? Remember Ireland and Belfast, white people suicide bombs too. It's not about race, you can argue that it's about religion, but the US government still use nuclear warheads and nuclear tests that make people sick and die, use devastating tactics to minimize own losses (understandably, but not so honorable), plus a shitload of other things like treating the world like it's theirs to play with. With media attention, it's gotten better, but there's still lots of hidden activites that we never hear about. The history books are filled to the brim with examples how "free" and "peaceful" USA really have been in the last 200 years.. Of course, all is not bad here either, and USA has been the most influential country in the world, bringing democracy to many places. (Not all B&W, remember?)
What ALL people need is education and knowledge about life, so that some realization can prevent hurting others. Because in hurting others, you are hurting yourself. When you kill somebody, something dies inside you.. You can see this in the eyes of people who have gotten cold-hearted,
Still, it does scare me how little regard some people have for their fellow humans.
I'm sure the general have very high regard of his fellow citizens of the USA. He would gladly sacrifice his life for others, just like many terrorists would. They're not so different as they love to believe. This is a problem of identification. When people only identify with their own nationality, religion or other group identification, conflicts arise.
Instead, we should start identifying with every human being and all living beings, expanding that as appropriate. Instead of focusing on only ourselves and our own group. Such small thinking only leads to trouble later on. With big thinking, we can progress and do what needs to be done regardless of immediate results.
Also, such mentality as the "Good vs Bad guys" and "We and Them" mentalities are products of fear and separation. Fear will breed fear and chaos, not security, far from it you will feel even more insecure the more you listen to your fears while being afraid of losing anything. What is there to lose? In 200 years you are a corpse in a grave, and so are everybody else on this planet! Probably much less for most of us..
I guess I'm too late to this discussion (just had a holiday), but I must reply to your excellent argument.
Anger will come when it comes, like you say, you cannot help it. It can even save you, that's a very good point. I'm not arguing against anger itself. What is there to argue against? When a strong emotion comes, the storm will sweep you away..
However, anger, revenge, hatred, fear, misunderstandings, all this is eating away at people. People have so much separating themselves from others, much more than they realize, not just the zealots.
What I don't want to become, is an angry drunkard father beating up my children. This is just a random example, there are lots of others. But what is the difference between life-saving anger and that other one?
Justified anger, righteous anger (like Jesus in the temple), is anger WITH consciousness. You're conscious you're angry, and you're not so easily swept away on emotions making you uncontrollable. You can use the power of the anger in a good way, to help others as well as yourself. Anger can be a good tool to get people to listen to you and get things done! It's a fine tip to balance on, and you might fall sometimes, but it's seriously effective. It should not be abused or misused however, you have to be clear on your motives and goals.
Unfortunately, many zealots abuses "righteous anger" so much, the very term is loaded beyond usage and most people don't really know that it's really about love.
What you call abstraction, I used to call generalization. Ie, making everything more generalized. It's really the same thing I believe, but I found more to it in spirituality and has abandoned my "generalization philosophy". Especially on this account: If everythiing becomes abstract/general, then where has diversity gone? The world is filled with so much detail and diversity (God must love diversity alot!), and when you really recognize this, that's one of the qualities that gives this world its charm..
Nope. You have more chance to be struck by lightning... And if by any chances you are not American, your chances drop to almost zero.
But the karma has been worse lately. By going after the filesharers, the RIAA is generating bad karma between themselves and the filesharers.
Getting something for nothing that others have spent something to produce, may also generate bad karma. You can feel it by feeling a bad conscience. At first, the novelty made up for all that, but now when the copyright holders are taking more and more action, it's starting to lose its charm. In karmic understanding, this is because you are doing something against someone else's will, so that a conflict arises.
Don't mistake anger at RIAA for not having bad conscience, and "sticking it to the Man". The anger is just covering the distress, bad conscience and fear of being caught, which rises everytime RIAA takes public action. Anger is always produced out of fear and separation. Of course, you can be angry that CDs are expensive, but nobody is forcing you to need those CDs. At some level you're following the massmarket willingly. At the highest level you always pay the right consequences for your actions and choices.
Myself, I have stopped filesharing. I cut down on TV, movies and music. You can get so much more from a hike in the mountains with a best friend or lover. I sing with a group, do yoga and meditation. We don't need to be spoon-fed entertainment and dumbed down to the lowest denominator, at least I know I don't.
One more thing: By getting something for nothing, you will value it less and less. The very enjoyment will be gone before you realize it, and may be replaced with an addiction which never fullfills. At some point, you may realize that the juice has gone out of the orange, and you're left with a dry unedible skin.
Of course, this is all part of the process. Nothing is ultimately good or bad, it just is as it is. Never make this into dogma that restricts your life in any way.
I suspect that one of the reasons that Google can bring higher quality links to the forefront is that being #1, they have a wider and more generous revenue base and therefore don't have to be as generous to "paying patrons" *cough cough*.
Not just that. Google revolutionized the web-search stage with their Pagerank software and other improvements. It's not something new, librarians have used such algorithms for a long time. However, it consistently gives "better" results than most of the competition.
I suspect Google won out due to high competence and a drive to become the best, while not being evil and greedy.
You forgot to mention there are many people that simply are tired of prepackaged/regurgitated news, packaging, advertising, telemarketing, pop-ups, spam, artificial food, TV, schools, politicians, corporations, governments, etc, etc.
I consider those people who are logging out of the asylum that the current society is, to be the smartest. You're in to something when you say human beings are not really made for living like we do. It's just a matter of time and escalation before the masses realizes this too.
Being smart or not, has nothing to do with it. Nor does "coping" with it. It's a sign of strength to stamp down your feet and say "enough's enough" and seek an alternative living, even if you're tired. It's when you're just learning to "cope" with it, go with the program, I'd consider that person a zombie- or a sleepwalker, until he/she wakes up.
Bill: Hello. Ballmer: Hi Bill! Bill: Y'know, I saw this Slashdot post the other day. A geek talking about fun and Microsoft. Ballmer: Brilliant innovation! Bill: Indeed.. Now would you lead its embrace-and-extend offensive? Ballmer: You had me at hello. Bill: As I always do Steve:-)
Well said. I really liked the Virgin comparison. When I read this I realized I've been thinking the same thing in the back of my mind in unspecified format. I would mod you up if I could.
Truth is always recognized, by some, not by all.
I also see the truth in those words, of course it is never the Whole Truth. Think of this: If everything becomes Microsoft and English-speaking etc, etc, then we will truly miss diversity, which is what makes life truly interesting and fun. But for diversity, you have to allow others to exist, even when you don't understand them or even agree with them.
It will happen when it's supposed to happen. Will you be happy then..?
Why not be happy NOW?
I'd much rather we wake up and find solutions to our own problems, instead of infecting the whole universe with it. Fleeing into space will not solve anything.
It's just that when those models fail, and you end up directing an asteroid that would otherwise miss. It's just so typical to do such things when you manipulate everything around you.
Why worry? We'll die in the next 50-100 years or so anyways. If we're meant to be extinguished, maybe the universe has a good plan about it?
You know, if the dinosaurs had prevented their extinction, we wouldn't be here..
Cellphones DO interefere with all kinds of equipment in the home. Just because it's not creating hovic in your kitchen, doesn't mean the effects aren't there. You can hear it in your phone, in your loudspeakers, your TV or monitor may exhibit interference and even the VCR might be affected.
The reason it's not a big deal is that unlike an airplane, a home does not contain much important vulnerable electronics. If we were living in a home where air-pressure was being mastered by electronics (as in an aircraft), and all kinds of calibration regulated heat, ventilation, cooking, whatever, then we might notice more problems.
Presuming that a laptop or cell phone can interfere with airplane cockpits, why can it not be detected from the cockpit? ("We've detected that personal electronics are on, and we won't take off until they're all off.") On the other hand, they cannot even detect a bomb in their luggage hold. If you cannot detect a signal from a gameboy, how can the device interfere with the plane?
A very good idea. The reason is probably because of cost. They're waiting for an incident before taking more regulative measures. You bet it will happen when the first accident is proven to be caused by a cellphone. There's even been invented gear to automatically shut down newer cellphones automatically when entereing the plane. Newer cellphones will respond to a signal and shut down, ie. go into "airplane mode" (my Siemens M45 has this, but it hasn't encountered such a signal yet).
Most webspiders should index on IP anyways. DNS names are simply changing too much and the relationship between DNS names and IP are generally many-to-one.
Serious webservices like Google will quickly update their programs to recognize the hack for what it is. It may be ugly, but it'll work. Or they may just index the pages, and it'll become Very authorative in Google's pagerank. However, making a hack around it may save some disc space.
Thanks for a well thought-out response. I fairly agree with you. I was just so tired of seing all the posts "MS vs FSF" or something. Just posted to balance those post;-) Didn't mean to attack You..
Btw, if somebody goes to war with me, I'll think of something when it happens. I don't believe in prescripted action (but not in reaction either *hydr*). A balance is good, unless extremes are called for;-)
I think you are doing a good job as programmers, but I have always been a bit worried that you are helping MS to slay Java. To me it seems they are fighting really hard on two fronts now, against Linux and against Java. If they manage to get.Net/C# and all that to be the business standard, with your help, won't that make it easier for them to turn against the one remaining target?
When will people step down from their warhorses viewing others as the "enemy", and start realizing we're all here together? We depend on eachother and those who try to live in glasshouses, should notice the cracks in it. Quotes such as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", is still ignorant, stupid and dangerous thinking as it always has been. WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE LEARN?
The "enemy" are our thoughts that we are the "good guys" and the others are "evil". Thoughts of separation, which is the ONLY reason we go to war.
To be more OT, what matters if people want to support certain technology? Software is software, screw the politics and manipulations. If people like some ideas, let them implement them. Stop viewing everything as a threat to YOU, as we have enough tyrants and paranoid leaders in this world. We don't need more with such mode of thinking, and nobody need your political approval of their pet project.
Here's my take on it, in my own words, which is inspired from the divine: If God is everywhere, omniscient, he must be everything and everyone. If he is truly everywhere, then there can be NO thing that is NOT God. Thus everything and everyone IS God, which means that everything that exists and happens (same thing) ARE according to the highest plan. There's nothing we have to do to make God "happy", nothing we can discover that God doesn't already know. A God that is angry and vengeful, is a weak God. Such is not a full representative to the One And True God and are man-made.
It's usually the lower plans that has an agenda and is miserable because of it. God's plans never fails. It's easy to mistake powerful beings for God. God is bliss and bliss is God, no matter what happens. God is love.
God loves the devil, wether he exists or not (why is the devil always male?), because he is omnipotent as well as omniscient. If God was not omnipotent, he would be afraid of the devil's plans for overturning Him. Instead, he embraces the devil, for the two are in truth One. The devil is just an externalized symbol for Man's rejection of God and ambition to become God himself. This does not make God sad, because He knows that Man will again see the truth that Man and God is One. Everything is One, not Two - Man and God. Truth prevails, because all else is illusory. Thus there is NOTHING TO FEAR, ever.
If I made sense, congrats. If I didn't, don't worry, experience takes you back to God. It's just a (rough) journey into ignorance and back into Oneness.
They can use the money they planned on licensing from Microsoft to support their own IT-staff, including programmers. They can afford to build and extend on Free Software where necessary. It's all about mindshare, thousands of people surrounding the government will also install Free Software, and contribute when they get educated about FSF/Open Source and have an itch to scratch. This means fewer people locked into the abusive monopoly behemoth that is Microsoft.
You should rather ask yourself: Why am I so negative?
Slashdot Mirror
You talk like a victim. The former post did have a good point. You have to change your worldview, if you want things to change. I may not agree with the methods he listed, but it's true that our beliefs are fundamental in our interactions with the world.
If you think you don't stand a chance because of your looks, that WILL, believe me, reflect in ALL the people that you encounter. Their subconsciousness will pick up your insecurity right away, and treat you like you believe they will.
Have you every met a person who often complains they ALWAYS get treated rudely? Do you want to treat such a person in a respectful way, what do you feel like? We are mirrors to eachother, and can learn immensely about ourselves through others!
What makes you attractive? Liveliness, genuinety, happiness, able to give energy and love, share your deepest thoughts, etc, etc. If you're bored, why should anybody want to be with you, and why would you want to be with somebody who lacks these traits?
Twist the whole thing around, start with yourself. Are you a happy person that will attract others, or do you suck their energy in order to get what YOU want?
Some self-inquiry may surprise you, or maybe I'm speaking to the wrong person. Anyways, I'm sharing this in the belief it may help others.
This is not it. Manipulating people for your own goals is a selfish way to live. You make them objects in your own fantasy world. In a relationship, this is often disastrous. Because if both participants are doing what they do, just in order to get satisfaction, they will empty the energy in-between themselves pretty fast.
Happily I don't need it. My girlfriend loves me for who I am, not because I "persuaded" her or treat her like a vending machine. If she says no to sex, we can talk about it like equals and I respect her choices. That's just a crude example.
Humans are NOT machines.. You may model a human like one, but it's a gross simplification. The reality is much more subtler than that.
Knowledge used to get power for yourself, is useless knowledge and will hurt you and others. Only knowledge that empowers everybody around you, including yourself is worth knowing. A gift is not a gift, if there is expectations of a return of the gift in some form. That's called a transaction. We have much more to give than we realize.
Right. And how about ol'fashioned TRUSTING PEOPLE on this issue? If somebody misuses code, they will be found out sooner or later. Anyhow, it's not like you lose anything on it. Later they'll be all the wiser for being permitted to make a mistake.
Are we no better than the big conglomerations where we can't trust anyone and are filled with fear and dread of all the abuse that _MIGHT_ happen?!?
I just ask. It's up to you to answer..
Nice troll.
However, I would argue by the time you're dead, your children will be adults perfectly capable of having their own income instead of milking their dad's artificial monopoly.
My family depends on profits from sales of MY creations, which sprang out of MY mind, not the world's.
You don't know that. Where does it all come from? If you were never born, you would never be able to create. Books have inspired you and people have taught you about life. Now YOU show some gratitude for that!
You sir, I believe owe the general an apology for grouping him with most terrorists. I believe his opinion of the sanctity of human life is fairly common in the US military. This places it in direct opposition to terrorists who typically, at least if the Twin Towers 19 are an example, hold other human life in little regard.
I respectfully believe I do not owe him an apology. Please let me explain.
A terrorist is a desperate person using extreme measures in a hopeless situation. The person is trying to kill an enemy that is totally superior in strength. The only way for those groups to counter attack is by using sneaky tactics, like guerilja warfare and suicide bombing. In Norway, we still regard our "terrorists" during the war, who planted bombs on the occupying Germans, as heroes. Of course, they had more value for life then, as you say. But this is still a good point, just hear me out.
If, as you say, USA are using tactics that suredly increase civilian losses, to minimize their own military losses, then what is the difference between them and "terrorist states"?
To answer that, of course, fundamentalists hold a slightly more extreme point of view and are much more polarized. Ie, "Bush is Satan, therefore we are granted to wipe out every American by Allah", or some such. But these are insane people which are in the minority. Most muslims are not like that, this is abuse of religion. Their work is mostly political: Bomb as much as you can in order to increase instability, and hope that the muslim countries will start a big war against the West. It has nothing to do with faith or religion, it is just a power-tool for the insanely desperate. While Bush & CO are just slightly less insane (also a ruling minority).. The blabbering of Bush, reminds me many times of a fundamentalist on a crusade.. The only reason democratic leaders can't do everything they want, is because USA is still a democracy, while many muslim countries are religious dictatorships. The same kind of people are in power both places, IMHO.
You totally misunderstood my post. I didn't refer to any specific individual or just the military, and what I tried to achieve is to show that it's not all black and white. What we call terrorists are heroes in their own countries, and what terrorists we've had in the past, are heroes in our books too. It's all dependent on circumstances and who holds the most power. The winners write the history books, unless you're in another country. If you've read Sun Tzu, which I haven't, I'm sure you can appreciate such a point.
What I say is this: Given the same circumstances, many in the US would do exactly the same as the suicide bombers from muslim countries. It's all dependent on circumstances, lack of education and a misidentification, justifying taking life for some "higher cause" AND seeing others as an enemy (separation: reread my previous post for clarification).
Don't believe me? Remember Ireland and Belfast, white people suicide bombs too. It's not about race, you can argue that it's about religion, but the US government still use nuclear warheads and nuclear tests that make people sick and die, use devastating tactics to minimize own losses (understandably, but not so honorable), plus a shitload of other things like treating the world like it's theirs to play with. With media attention, it's gotten better, but there's still lots of hidden activites that we never hear about. The history books are filled to the brim with examples how "free" and "peaceful" USA really have been in the last 200 years.. Of course, all is not bad here either, and USA has been the most influential country in the world, bringing democracy to many places. (Not all B&W, remember?)
What ALL people need is education and knowledge about life, so that some realization can prevent hurting others. Because in hurting others, you are hurting yourself. When you kill somebody, something dies inside you.. You can see this in the eyes of people who have gotten cold-hearted,
Still, it does scare me how little regard some people have for their fellow humans.
I'm sure the general have very high regard of his fellow citizens of the USA. He would gladly sacrifice his life for others, just like many terrorists would. They're not so different as they love to believe. This is a problem of identification. When people only identify with their own nationality, religion or other group identification, conflicts arise.
Instead, we should start identifying with every human being and all living beings, expanding that as appropriate. Instead of focusing on only ourselves and our own group. Such small thinking only leads to trouble later on. With big thinking, we can progress and do what needs to be done regardless of immediate results.
Also, such mentality as the "Good vs Bad guys" and "We and Them" mentalities are products of fear and separation. Fear will breed fear and chaos, not security, far from it you will feel even more insecure the more you listen to your fears while being afraid of losing anything. What is there to lose? In 200 years you are a corpse in a grave, and so are everybody else on this planet! Probably much less for most of us..
I guess a true master is not dependent on "face". Nice story. :-)
I guess I'm too late to this discussion (just had a holiday), but I must reply to your excellent argument.
Anger will come when it comes, like you say, you cannot help it. It can even save you, that's a very good point. I'm not arguing against anger itself. What is there to argue against? When a strong emotion comes, the storm will sweep you away..
However, anger, revenge, hatred, fear, misunderstandings, all this is eating away at people. People have so much separating themselves from others, much more than they realize, not just the zealots.
What I don't want to become, is an angry drunkard father beating up my children. This is just a random example, there are lots of others. But what is the difference between life-saving anger and that other one?
Justified anger, righteous anger (like Jesus in the temple), is anger WITH consciousness. You're conscious you're angry, and you're not so easily swept away on emotions making you uncontrollable. You can use the power of the anger in a good way, to help others as well as yourself. Anger can be a good tool to get people to listen to you and get things done! It's a fine tip to balance on, and you might fall sometimes, but it's seriously effective. It should not be abused or misused however, you have to be clear on your motives and goals.
Unfortunately, many zealots abuses "righteous anger" so much, the very term is loaded beyond usage and most people don't really know that it's really about love.
What you call abstraction, I used to call generalization. Ie, making everything more generalized. It's really the same thing I believe, but I found more to it in spirituality and has abandoned my "generalization philosophy". Especially on this account: If everythiing becomes abstract/general, then where has diversity gone? The world is filled with so much detail and diversity (God must love diversity alot!), and when you really recognize this, that's one of the qualities that gives this world its charm..
Knowledge will set you free.
Nope. You have more chance to be struck by lightning... And if by any chances you are not American, your chances drop to almost zero.
But the karma has been worse lately. By going after the filesharers, the RIAA is generating bad karma between themselves and the filesharers.
Getting something for nothing that others have spent something to produce, may also generate bad karma. You can feel it by feeling a bad conscience. At first, the novelty made up for all that, but now when the copyright holders are taking more and more action, it's starting to lose its charm. In karmic understanding, this is because you are doing something against someone else's will, so that a conflict arises.
Don't mistake anger at RIAA for not having bad conscience, and "sticking it to the Man". The anger is just covering the distress, bad conscience and fear of being caught, which rises everytime RIAA takes public action. Anger is always produced out of fear and separation. Of course, you can be angry that CDs are expensive, but nobody is forcing you to need those CDs. At some level you're following the massmarket willingly. At the highest level you always pay the right consequences for your actions and choices.
Myself, I have stopped filesharing. I cut down on TV, movies and music. You can get so much more from a hike in the mountains with a best friend or lover. I sing with a group, do yoga and meditation. We don't need to be spoon-fed entertainment and dumbed down to the lowest denominator, at least I know I don't.
One more thing: By getting something for nothing, you will value it less and less. The very enjoyment will be gone before you realize it, and may be replaced with an addiction which never fullfills. At some point, you may realize that the juice has gone out of the orange, and you're left with a dry unedible skin.
Of course, this is all part of the process. Nothing is ultimately good or bad, it just is as it is. Never make this into dogma that restricts your life in any way.
So, you stop paying for maintenance, and get to raise prices. Isn't that precious?
;-)
But this way, at least one person can live out the American Dream and become a billionaire. Who are you to kill the American Dream??!
Yes, that was sarcasm folks..
I suspect that one of the reasons that Google can bring higher quality links to the forefront is that being #1, they have a wider and more generous revenue base and therefore don't have to be as generous to "paying patrons" *cough cough*.
Not just that. Google revolutionized the web-search stage with their Pagerank software and other improvements. It's not something new, librarians have used such algorithms for a long time. However, it consistently gives "better" results than most of the competition.
I suspect Google won out due to high competence and a drive to become the best, while not being evil and greedy.
You forgot to mention there are many people that simply are tired of prepackaged/regurgitated news, packaging, advertising, telemarketing, pop-ups, spam, artificial food, TV, schools, politicians, corporations, governments, etc, etc.
I consider those people who are logging out of the asylum that the current society is, to be the smartest. You're in to something when you say human beings are not really made for living like we do. It's just a matter of time and escalation before the masses realizes this too.
Being smart or not, has nothing to do with it. Nor does "coping" with it. It's a sign of strength to stamp down your feet and say "enough's enough" and seek an alternative living, even if you're tired. It's when you're just learning to "cope" with it, go with the program, I'd consider that person a zombie- or a sleepwalker, until he/she wakes up.
Bill: Hello. :-)
Ballmer: Hi Bill!
Bill: Y'know, I saw this Slashdot post the other day. A geek talking about fun and Microsoft.
Ballmer: Brilliant innovation!
Bill: Indeed.. Now would you lead its embrace-and-extend offensive?
Ballmer: You had me at hello.
Bill: As I always do Steve
Well said. I really liked the Virgin comparison.
When I read this I realized I've been thinking the same thing in the back of my mind in unspecified format. I would mod you up if I could.
Truth is always recognized, by some, not by all.
I also see the truth in those words, of course it is never the Whole Truth. Think of this: If everything becomes Microsoft and English-speaking etc, etc, then we will truly miss diversity, which is what makes life truly interesting and fun. But for diversity, you have to allow others to exist, even when you don't understand them or even agree with them.
It will happen when it's supposed to happen. Will you be happy then..?
Why not be happy NOW?
I'd much rather we wake up and find solutions to our own problems, instead of infecting the whole universe with it. Fleeing into space will not solve anything.
It's just that when those models fail, and you end up directing an asteroid that would otherwise miss. It's just so typical to do such things when you manipulate everything around you.
Why worry? We'll die in the next 50-100 years or so anyways. If we're meant to be extinguished, maybe the universe has a good plan about it?
You know, if the dinosaurs had prevented their extinction, we wouldn't be here..
Cellphones DO interefere with all kinds of equipment in the home. Just because it's not creating hovic in your kitchen, doesn't mean the effects aren't there. You can hear it in your phone, in your loudspeakers, your TV or monitor may exhibit interference and even the VCR might be affected.
The reason it's not a big deal is that unlike an airplane, a home does not contain much important vulnerable electronics. If we were living in a home where air-pressure was being mastered by electronics (as in an aircraft), and all kinds of calibration regulated heat, ventilation, cooking, whatever, then we might notice more problems.
Presuming that a laptop or cell phone can interfere with airplane cockpits, why can it not be detected from the cockpit? ("We've detected that personal electronics are on, and we won't take off until they're all off.") On the other hand, they cannot even detect a bomb in their luggage hold. If you cannot detect a signal from a gameboy, how can the device interfere with the plane?
A very good idea. The reason is probably because of cost. They're waiting for an incident before taking more regulative measures. You bet it will happen when the first accident is proven to be caused by a cellphone. There's even been invented gear to automatically shut down newer cellphones automatically when entereing the plane. Newer cellphones will respond to a signal and shut down, ie. go into "airplane mode" (my Siemens M45 has this, but it hasn't encountered such a signal yet).
This is a non-problem.
Most webspiders should index on IP anyways. DNS names are simply changing too much and the relationship between DNS names and IP are generally many-to-one.
Serious webservices like Google will quickly update their programs to recognize the hack for what it is. It may be ugly, but it'll work. Or they may just index the pages, and it'll become Very authorative in Google's pagerank. However, making a hack around it may save some disc space.
I have no idea what enlightenment is! Is it as good as icecream?
Thanks for a well thought-out response. I fairly agree with you. I was just so tired of seing all the posts "MS vs FSF" or something. Just posted to balance those post ;-) Didn't mean to attack You..
;-)
Btw, if somebody goes to war with me, I'll think of something when it happens. I don't believe in prescripted action (but not in reaction either *hydr*). A balance is good, unless extremes are called for
I think you are doing a good job as programmers, but I have always been a bit worried that you are helping MS to slay Java. To me it seems they are fighting really hard on two fronts now, against Linux and against Java. If they manage to get .Net/C# and all that to be the business standard, with your help, won't that make it easier for them to turn against the one remaining target?
When will people step down from their warhorses viewing others as the "enemy", and start realizing we're all here together? We depend on eachother and those who try to live in glasshouses, should notice the cracks in it. Quotes such as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", is still ignorant, stupid and dangerous thinking as it always has been. WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE LEARN?
The "enemy" are our thoughts that we are the "good guys" and the others are "evil". Thoughts of separation, which is the ONLY reason we go to war.
To be more OT, what matters if people want to support certain technology? Software is software, screw the politics and manipulations. If people like some ideas, let them implement them. Stop viewing everything as a threat to YOU, as we have enough tyrants and paranoid leaders in this world. We don't need more with such mode of thinking, and nobody need your political approval of their pet project.
Thanks, you just got me severely confused.
Here's my take on it, in my own words, which is inspired from the divine: If God is everywhere, omniscient, he must be everything and everyone. If he is truly everywhere, then there can be NO thing that is NOT God. Thus everything and everyone IS God, which means that everything that exists and happens (same thing) ARE according to the highest plan. There's nothing we have to do to make God "happy", nothing we can discover that God doesn't already know. A God that is angry and vengeful, is a weak God. Such is not a full representative to the One And True God and are man-made.
It's usually the lower plans that has an agenda and is miserable because of it. God's plans never fails. It's easy to mistake powerful beings for God. God is bliss and bliss is God, no matter what happens. God is love.
God loves the devil, wether he exists or not (why is the devil always male?), because he is omnipotent as well as omniscient. If God was not omnipotent, he would be afraid of the devil's plans for overturning Him. Instead, he embraces the devil, for the two are in truth One. The devil is just an externalized symbol for Man's rejection of God and ambition to become God himself. This does not make God sad, because He knows that Man will again see the truth that Man and God is One. Everything is One, not Two - Man and God. Truth prevails, because all else is illusory. Thus there is NOTHING TO FEAR, ever.
If I made sense, congrats. If I didn't, don't worry, experience takes you back to God. It's just a (rough) journey into ignorance and back into Oneness.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!
;-)
Hehe, describes the current system beautifully, doesn't it
This is what you get
when you let corporations
run everything.
I for one Hail our new capitalist Overlords!
They can use the money they planned on licensing from Microsoft to support their own IT-staff, including programmers. They can afford to build and extend on Free Software where necessary. It's all about mindshare, thousands of people surrounding the government will also install Free Software, and contribute when they get educated about FSF/Open Source and have an itch to scratch. This means fewer people locked into the abusive monopoly behemoth that is Microsoft.
You should rather ask yourself: Why am I so negative?