Nice to see such blatant racist propaganda get to +5. I'll bookmark this post and reference it next time someone makes the laughable claim that/. is biased to the left...
Because everybody who's racist is on the "right?" WTF?
Which most people took to mean they would actively try not to behave like every other giant, rich, corporation.
Which is retarded. Seriously. Most corporations aren't *evil*. Avoiding taxes (not evading) is not *evil*. We all do it. I drive to NH to purchase some items due to no sales tax, I claim what I can on my income taxes to keep more of my money. Am I evil? Now, if Google is funneling money to African guerrillas to mine diamonds, then you'd have a point...
The definition of "evil" on Slashdot is so vague that we're all pretty much damned at this point for earning an income. "Do no evil" does not mean "Do things Slashdotters like."
So if they're like everybody else, why do they deserve geek community support?
Do you even realize what you just said? Christ, if this is how the "geek community" behaves then count me out... You can go support your nearest hippy organization, I'll support whom I want.
Seriously. Why must Sun make me 'login' for everything I download at their site? Downloading at Sun sucks. You login, get a link that only works for X minutes, and get pestered to use their own crappy download utility.
To this day I start to feel 'embarrassed' when I'm fixing typos in an IM even though I know the other user can't see my text until I hit enter... Long live talkd!
If you *must* know, there isn't enough room in the sig. I had to trim it a bit just to get it to fit as it is./. has a ridiculously small allowance for a signature...
[It's all about FUD] otherwise MS would actually name the patents, so Open-Source projects would avaoid (sic) them, and so Open-Source users would be confident of their status.
Which, as you say, is what MS doesn't want. So why do you assume this is what they would do?
Why does everyone here seem to be making the completely irrational assumption that is MS *had* something they would sue? Why can't they destroy faith in OSS by spreading cheap FUD for years, and then kick it when it's down by suing at a later date (if necessary) when victory is much more assured? This is a fantastic tactic for Microsoft and frankly I don't see a good way for OSS to counter it. It's very difficult to defend against FUD.
In any war there is always loss on both sides. The winner is simply that which has lost the least. The best way to win a war is to never have to fight it to begin with.
Ballmer spreading FUD is the latter approach. It doesn't mean he doesn't think he could win a confrontation, but that he'd rather not have one if it isn't necessary. How is that not protecting shareholder interests?
I agree bans are not the answer, but definitely tax the unhealthy, unnecessary, damaging, etc. stuff and rebate the better, but currently more expensive, option.
Repeat after me: "The government does not exist to make other people live the way I want them to." Even if it *is* "better for them."
Why can't people get this? That means no regulating marriage, no telling me I can't eat a candy bar or trans fats, no *taxing* me for activities "you don't like", etc.
I don't *want* to drink 100% juice, I *want* a fucking soda. And I *want* to eat a fucking pound of bacon with it. Maybe I'll die of a heart attack, but it's *my fucking decision*. You don't like it? Tough. STFU and go eat your tofurkey and water. Sorry for the rant but I'm starting to go nuts with the list of things I "shouldn't be doing" that the government wants to either tax or ban.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."
I'm from the Boston area too, but I also believe one must do something *illegal* before being prosecuted. Being an asshole is still legal last I checked.... Maybe get 'em for littering or for graffiti. But nothing else.
True. But you don't see Boston's finest detonating every trash can in the city do you? After all, more bombs have been placed in trash receptacle's than placed under bridges shaped like Err...
Maybe this guy has kids and decided their college education could use that $25,000 more than he could? He could have a sick parent he's caring for? Maybe he's sick himself? Perhaps his car was totaled recently and is fighting his insurance company for a large sum of money?
Nothing like a myopic slashdotter assuming the rest of the world has the same non-life they do...
Just because *you* were able to scrap together that much does not mean everybody else is so fortunate.
Using 20/20 hindsight I almost wish the South had unilaterally freed the slaves, shipped them back to Africa....and still gone to war with the North over their power grab.
I agree. I think I did misunderstand the tone of your post. But you're right - if the war had been over states rights (10th amendment) without the slavery issue, then even if the north did win we probably wouldn't have as much federal power today (federal income tax? I don't think so!).
The side backing the Tenth Amendment lost so we've had expansion of Federal power ever since.
It would help the 'losing sides' case a lot more if they hadn't fought for states rights partially/primarily so that they could maintain slavery. Oh, and the next 50 years or so of cruelty to blacks in the south didn't help much either. They pretty much *demanded* the federal government move in...
And when the future does indeed arrive, will it not then be simply 'the present'?
Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at?!
Colonel Sandurz: Now. You're looking at now, sir. Everything that is happening now is happening now.
DH: What happened to then?
CS: We passed it.
DH: When?
CS: Just now. We're at now now.
DH: Go back to then!
CS: When?
DH: Now!
CS: Now?
DH: Now!
CS: We can't!
DH: Why?
CS: We missed it.
DH: When?
CS: Just now.
DH: When will then be now?
CS: Soon.
Slashdot Mirror
Slasdotter reply: It's only a matter of time before $BAD_THING happens in America!
Really, must everything come back to bad-mouthing the US for no reason?
Nice to see such blatant racist propaganda get to +5. I'll bookmark this post and reference it next time someone makes the laughable claim that /. is biased to the left...
Because everybody who's racist is on the "right?" WTF?
Which most people took to mean they would actively try not to behave like every other giant, rich, corporation.
Which is retarded. Seriously. Most corporations aren't *evil*. Avoiding taxes (not evading) is not *evil*. We all do it. I drive to NH to purchase some items due to no sales tax, I claim what I can on my income taxes to keep more of my money. Am I evil? Now, if Google is funneling money to African guerrillas to mine diamonds, then you'd have a point...
The definition of "evil" on Slashdot is so vague that we're all pretty much damned at this point for earning an income. "Do no evil" does not mean "Do things Slashdotters like."
So if they're like everybody else, why do they deserve geek community support?
Do you even realize what you just said? Christ, if this is how the "geek community" behaves then count me out... You can go support your nearest hippy organization, I'll support whom I want.
So you don't itemize your tax return? You don't claim kids/mortgage/etc.? Or are you 'cheating' on your taxes as well?
They'll just send somebody back in time again.
They just don't "get it."
To this day I start to feel 'embarrassed' when I'm fixing typos in an IM even though I know the other user can't see my text until I hit enter... Long live talkd!
If you *must* know, there isn't enough room in the sig. I had to trim it a bit just to get it to fit as it is. /. has a ridiculously small allowance for a signature...
Which, as you say, is what MS doesn't want. So why do you assume this is what they would do?
Why does everyone here seem to be making the completely irrational assumption that is MS *had* something they would sue? Why can't they destroy faith in OSS by spreading cheap FUD for years, and then kick it when it's down by suing at a later date (if necessary) when victory is much more assured? This is a fantastic tactic for Microsoft and frankly I don't see a good way for OSS to counter it. It's very difficult to defend against FUD.
Where software?
Ballmer spreading FUD is the latter approach. It doesn't mean he doesn't think he could win a confrontation, but that he'd rather not have one if it isn't necessary. How is that not protecting shareholder interests?
I'd been mulling over a number of responses to the GP. But yours was better than anything I could come up with. Bravo! :-)
Repeat after me: "The government does not exist to make other people live the way I want them to." Even if it *is* "better for them."
Why can't people get this? That means no regulating marriage, no telling me I can't eat a candy bar or trans fats, no *taxing* me for activities "you don't like", etc.
I don't *want* to drink 100% juice, I *want* a fucking soda. And I *want* to eat a fucking pound of bacon with it. Maybe I'll die of a heart attack, but it's *my fucking decision*. You don't like it? Tough. STFU and go eat your tofurkey and water. Sorry for the rant but I'm starting to go nuts with the list of things I "shouldn't be doing" that the government wants to either tax or ban.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."
- C.S. Lewis
saying "I know here, there fore she exists" isn't exactly a stellar argument.
Nor is it stellar grammar....
Yes. They are.
I'm from the Boston area too, but I also believe one must do something *illegal* before being prosecuted. Being an asshole is still legal last I checked.... Maybe get 'em for littering or for graffiti. But nothing else.
Sooo, we should have detonated New Orleans?
True. But you don't see Boston's finest detonating every trash can in the city do you? After all, more bombs have been placed in trash receptacle's than placed under bridges shaped like Err...
Next: Can bees think? A new study shows that no! In fact, they cannot...
Like Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, etc.?
Nothing like a myopic slashdotter assuming the rest of the world has the same non-life they do...
Just because *you* were able to scrap together that much does not mean everybody else is so fortunate.
I agree. I think I did misunderstand the tone of your post. But you're right - if the war had been over states rights (10th amendment) without the slavery issue, then even if the north did win we probably wouldn't have as much federal power today (federal income tax? I don't think so!).
It would help the 'losing sides' case a lot more if they hadn't fought for states rights partially/primarily so that they could maintain slavery. Oh, and the next 50 years or so of cruelty to blacks in the south didn't help much either. They pretty much *demanded* the federal government move in...
Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at?!
Colonel Sandurz: Now. You're looking at now, sir. Everything that is happening now is happening now.
DH: What happened to then?
CS: We passed it.
DH: When?
CS: Just now. We're at now now.
DH: Go back to then!
CS: When?
DH: Now!
CS: Now?
DH: Now!
CS: We can't!
DH: Why?
CS: We missed it.
DH: When?
CS: Just now.
DH: When will then be now?
CS: Soon.