I'm not all doom and gloom... Forty years ago we had a middle class. We don't anymore.
We don't?
Either you've raised "low class" up to the 200k income level, or you've lowered "high class" down to about 30k. What the fuck are you talking about "we have no middle class?" What am I then? What about my neighbors? Hell, my entire town? In a town of about 8000, we have... maybe 50 I'd consider wealthy, and a few hundred in trailer parks I'd consider poor. Everybody else is middle class, by any reasonable definition of the term.
Thank you for bringing some sanity to that horribly cynical and pessimistic first post.
Slashdotters: the modern world, the world we live in *right now*, is better than any point in human history in every measurable way. That is a simple fact.
Yes, you're concerned about people below the poverty line now. So am I. But you have to realize that modern Americans in *poverty* have far more luxuries than the richest man on earth 200 years ago.
Pixar's The Incredible's is a heck of a lot more commonly-known and accessible and carries fundamentally the same message as Harrison Bergeron. Just FYI.
You can't even spell psychologist. Or believe, for that matter. Or certainly.
Nokia's "full distro" doesn't break compatibility with standard desktop apps because it doesn't make you use Javascript. Javascript driven GUIs could certianly be part of a so called full distro, provided other types of applications are also possible.
Surprisingly, that explanation makes sense-- I don't know why you didn't type that in the first fucking place.
And yet both semi-trucks and sportscars somehow share the exact same freeway.
(BTW, which one is Javascript?)
I never made the claim that Javascript was appropriate for all apps- you came up with that little gem. But that doesn't change my point: an app made with Javascript is as "real" as an app made with anything else.
I'm sorry, maybe I missed it, but where, exactly, in the summary does it say that Javascript apps can't be part of a "real" distro? In fact, the only definition I can see in the summary is that Nokia's "real" distro doesn't purposely break compatibility with standard desktop apps. That's it.
Wow, this got modded flamebait *seconds* after it was posted. *Seconds!* Some moderator has a real stick up their ass...
I'd love an explanation of how this posting (which says I suspect someone dislikes Javascript for no rational reason) is more flamebait than the parent it was responding to (which says applications made with Javascript can't possibly exist in a "real" distro.)
Firstly, if it only runs javascript applications as you say, then it's hardly any more of a "real distro" than Android is.
Why?
What's the difference between, Javascript as the language and HTML/CSS as the GUI, or using Python as the language and XML to do the GUI? And yet the first is "not a real distro", while the second is. Why?
There are other compiled languages besides C. There are a lot of them in fact...
Yes, but the real question is, "since when is being compiled a requirement?"
I suspect from your previous comment that you are terribly unqualified to even understand the implications of what you're saying, or to make that comment at all.
I suspect you're a language snob who dislikes Javascript for no rational reason.
I like how there are two rival Slashdot cellphone factions.
There's the "phone should just make phone calls and not have all this shit added on!" faction, which is pre-dominant in a lot of stories.
And then there's the "I can't possibly get by with a phone that doesn't have VT-100 emulation!" faction, who are probably all rushing out to buy this thing right now.
I, uh, don't really have anywhere clever to go with this idea though...
The Greeks have been camped outside of Troy, kapowin', zappin' and kersplattin' the Trojans for the best part of a decade, yeah? Then they wake up one mornin' and the Greeks have gone. And there outside the city walls they've left this gift, this tribute to their valiant foes, a huge wooden horse-- Just large enough to happily contain five hundred Greeks in full battle dress, and still have adequate room for toilet facilities!
Are you telling me not one Trojan goes, 'Hang on a minute, that's a bit of a funny prezzie. What's wrong with a couple of hundred pairs of socks and some aftershave? No, they don't, they just wheel it in, and all decide to go for an early night.
People that stupid deserve to be kapowed, zapped and kersplatted in their beds!
And do you know what the funny thing is? From this particular phase in history derived the phrase - Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. When it'd be much more logical to derive the phrase - Beware of Trojans, they're complete SMEGHEADS!
Ok, here's why that is a health care problem- in most single-payer nations, they'd take an obese person, put them into an intense diet program, and treat the problem just like alcoholism.
Citation needed.
What nations do this? *Most* single-payer nations? I've never heard of this happening in a single one, much less "most."
The only one of my (approx.) 30-year-old consoles that has worked without repair has been my Atari 2600. (Unless you count replacing the TV switchbox as "repair." The original switchbox has long since rusted into uselessness.)
The Magnovox Odyssey2 (released 1978) doesn't work, and I can't fix it because it requires a part that I can't find. (I don't remember the exact details, it's been a few years since I've worked with it, but it was related to the co-ax cable connector.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey%C2%B2
My Atari Super-PONG system had to have its coax cable replaced, the connector inside the plastic housing, and the connector on the TV end, had both broken. Everything else worked, though.
Again, you're overlooking his primary function. C-3PO is a protocol droid designed to serve humans, and boasts that he is fluent "in over six million forms of communication." So he's got arthritis, well, you didn't build him to be flexible or fight.
You're welcome to have that opinion, but you do realize that Microsoft's reply would likely be, "who cares?"
Frankly, people concerned about whether the hardware still functions in 30 years are not Microsoft's core demographic they're aiming at here. I highly doubt any console maker cares about you, in fact. Microsoft has somehow miraculously managed to sell millions of the damned things despite your opinion, and I can only assume they'll sell millions more.
Because I live in an area where the only broadband options are Verizon and Comcast, and Comcast refuses to take my bill payments without sending me to a collections agency for no reason, and Verizon refuses to offer unbundled DSL service. So basically I'm screwed either way, but very slightly less screwed through Verizon.
* There have always been homeless people in American cities.
There have always been homeless people in any city large enough to be called a city. I'm sure Athens had homeless, as did Babylon. The US certainly always has; in fact, the hobo stereotype is a still a decently influential meme in US culture. Futurama did an episode featuring hobos, for example.
In short, what's your point?
* About 10% of Americans will see their income drop by half in any given year. This is normal.
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about? Is that a true statistic for the last 20 years? Or are you pulling it out of your ass?
* There have always been tent cities in the US.
Yah; again, what's your fucking point?
* College educations at state schools were never free.
Have they ever been free, ever? Are you implying that they were free at some point and now are not?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not all doom and gloom... Forty years ago we had a middle class. We don't anymore.
We don't?
Either you've raised "low class" up to the 200k income level, or you've lowered "high class" down to about 30k. What the fuck are you talking about "we have no middle class?" What am I then? What about my neighbors? Hell, my entire town? In a town of about 8000, we have... maybe 50 I'd consider wealthy, and a few hundred in trailer parks I'd consider poor. Everybody else is middle class, by any reasonable definition of the term.
Amen.
Thank you for bringing some sanity to that horribly cynical and pessimistic first post.
Slashdotters: the modern world, the world we live in *right now*, is better than any point in human history in every measurable way. That is a simple fact.
Yes, you're concerned about people below the poverty line now. So am I. But you have to realize that modern Americans in *poverty* have far more luxuries than the richest man on earth 200 years ago.
Pixar's The Incredible's is a heck of a lot more commonly-known and accessible and carries fundamentally the same message as Harrison Bergeron. Just FYI.
It's to prevent people from doing it 10 times a week. Well, at least it's partially for that.
Depends; Vancouver, Washington, USA or Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada?
Awesome.
Want me to pop you off an email whenever I post? It could give you a leg-up on all the other people rushing to mod me flamebait.
You certainly implied it.
I didn't say it. I didn't imply it. I don't believe it. I never have, and I never will. Stop putting words in my mouth.
By your definition of "implied," hey look! Your posting just implied you're a jackass! Amazing how that works.
If I were a phycologist
You can't even spell psychologist. Or believe, for that matter. Or certainly.
Nokia's "full distro" doesn't break compatibility with standard desktop apps because it doesn't make you use Javascript. Javascript driven GUIs could certianly be part of a so called full distro, provided other types of applications are also possible.
Surprisingly, that explanation makes sense-- I don't know why you didn't type that in the first fucking place.
And yet both semi-trucks and sportscars somehow share the exact same freeway.
(BTW, which one is Javascript?)
I never made the claim that Javascript was appropriate for all apps- you came up with that little gem. But that doesn't change my point: an app made with Javascript is as "real" as an app made with anything else.
I'm sorry, maybe I missed it, but where, exactly, in the summary does it say that Javascript apps can't be part of a "real" distro? In fact, the only definition I can see in the summary is that Nokia's "real" distro doesn't purposely break compatibility with standard desktop apps. That's it.
Wow, this got modded flamebait *seconds* after it was posted. *Seconds!* Some moderator has a real stick up their ass...
I'd love an explanation of how this posting (which says I suspect someone dislikes Javascript for no rational reason) is more flamebait than the parent it was responding to (which says applications made with Javascript can't possibly exist in a "real" distro.)
Firstly, if it only runs javascript applications as you say, then it's hardly any more of a "real distro" than Android is.
Why?
What's the difference between, Javascript as the language and HTML/CSS as the GUI, or using Python as the language and XML to do the GUI? And yet the first is "not a real distro", while the second is. Why?
There are other compiled languages besides C. There are a lot of them in fact...
Yes, but the real question is, "since when is being compiled a requirement?"
I suspect from your previous comment that you are terribly unqualified to even understand the implications of what you're saying, or to make that comment at all.
I suspect you're a language snob who dislikes Javascript for no rational reason.
I like how there are two rival Slashdot cellphone factions.
There's the "phone should just make phone calls and not have all this shit added on!" faction, which is pre-dominant in a lot of stories.
And then there's the "I can't possibly get by with a phone that doesn't have VT-100 emulation!" faction, who are probably all rushing out to buy this thing right now.
I, uh, don't really have anywhere clever to go with this idea though...
In the Sean Connery "classic" Zardoz, the far-future computer "Tabernacle" communicated with people via projectors from crystal rings: http://schend.net/images/movies/zardoz_tabernacle.png
I always thought that was a pretty damned nifty interface to a computer.
Lister:
The Greeks have been camped outside of Troy, kapowin', zappin' and kersplattin' the Trojans for the best part of a decade, yeah? Then they wake up one mornin' and the Greeks have gone. And there outside the city walls they've left this gift, this tribute to their valiant foes, a huge wooden horse-- Just large enough to happily contain five hundred Greeks in full battle dress, and still have adequate room for toilet facilities!
Are you telling me not one Trojan goes, 'Hang on a minute, that's a bit of a funny prezzie. What's wrong with a couple of hundred pairs of socks and some aftershave? No, they don't, they just wheel it in, and all decide to go for an early night.
People that stupid deserve to be kapowed, zapped and kersplatted in their beds!
And do you know what the funny thing is? From this particular phase in history derived the phrase - Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. When it'd be much more logical to derive the phrase - Beware of Trojans, they're complete SMEGHEADS!
Ok, here's why that is a health care problem- in most single-payer nations, they'd take an obese person, put them into an intense diet program, and treat the problem just like alcoholism.
Citation needed.
What nations do this? *Most* single-payer nations? I've never heard of this happening in a single one, much less "most."
You might just be lucky.
The only one of my (approx.) 30-year-old consoles that has worked without repair has been my Atari 2600. (Unless you count replacing the TV switchbox as "repair." The original switchbox has long since rusted into uselessness.)
The Magnovox Odyssey2 (released 1978) doesn't work, and I can't fix it because it requires a part that I can't find. (I don't remember the exact details, it's been a few years since I've worked with it, but it was related to the co-ax cable connector.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey%C2%B2
My Atari Super-PONG system had to have its coax cable replaced, the connector inside the plastic housing, and the connector on the TV end, had both broken. Everything else worked, though.
Again, you're overlooking his primary function. C-3PO is a protocol droid designed to serve humans, and boasts that he is fluent "in over six million forms of communication." So he's got arthritis, well, you didn't build him to be flexible or fight.
You do to be fluent in non-verbal communication.
You're welcome to have that opinion, but you do realize that Microsoft's reply would likely be, "who cares?"
Frankly, people concerned about whether the hardware still functions in 30 years are not Microsoft's core demographic they're aiming at here. I highly doubt any console maker cares about you, in fact. Microsoft has somehow miraculously managed to sell millions of the damned things despite your opinion, and I can only assume they'll sell millions more.
And those millions of servers are constantly reading gigabytes of data from a DVD drive?
The parts of the Xbox that are failing are the video card and the DVD drive, neither of which a server has. (Well, it has a bare minimum video card.)
Jesus Christ, WARN US when the site auto-plays extremely LOUD audio. I almost shit myself.
Play-time is fun-time!
You don't need voice service on your landline for DSL.
Of course you don't need it, technically. That doesn't mean Verizon offers unbundled DSL in areas where it's not required to by law. The fuckers.
Because I live in an area where the only broadband options are Verizon and Comcast, and Comcast refuses to take my bill payments without sending me to a collections agency for no reason, and Verizon refuses to offer unbundled DSL service. So basically I'm screwed either way, but very slightly less screwed through Verizon.
* There have always been homeless people in American cities.
There have always been homeless people in any city large enough to be called a city. I'm sure Athens had homeless, as did Babylon. The US certainly always has; in fact, the hobo stereotype is a still a decently influential meme in US culture. Futurama did an episode featuring hobos, for example.
In short, what's your point?
* About 10% of Americans will see their income drop by half in any given year. This is normal.
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about? Is that a true statistic for the last 20 years? Or are you pulling it out of your ass?
* There have always been tent cities in the US.
Yah; again, what's your fucking point?
* College educations at state schools were never free.
Have they ever been free, ever? Are you implying that they were free at some point and now are not?