DocJohn - Slashdot User

Comment Except this is exactly wrong... (Score 5, Informative) 421

by DocJohn on Monday January 12, 2009 @07:37PM (#26424735) Attached to: Congressman Wants Health Warnings On Video Games

Psychologists have shown that, in fact, there is virtually no connection between playing violent video games and increased violence, so the Congressman from California has it exactly wrong:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/05/17/the-link-between-video-games-and-violence/

I'm all for research supporting reasoned legislation, but in this case, it is ignorance and misconceptions supporting "feel good" government nannies.

--
Yes, the answer is no.

Comment Sorry, sophmoric argument (Score 1) 502

by DocJohn on Tuesday December 16, 2008 @05:59PM (#26138195) Attached to: MySpace Verdict a Danger To Depressed Kids

Laws are laws, and if you disagree with a law, work to get it overturned or changed.

But to argue that a prosecution of a law is bad because it might or could or may lead to someone thinking they might or could or possibly get someone prosecuted if they are bullied online and then kill themselves relies on a lot of "what-ifs" and assumptions.

Really? Do you really think there's this huge morass of online people just waiting for a verdict like this so they can go and say, "Wow, now all I have to do is get someone to impersonate someone else, get them to bully me on MySpace, and then make sure lots of people know about it, and then take my own life, and I'll get my revenge!"

Agree or disagree with TOSs, but they are there for a reason. And if you don't like the fact that if you violate one, you can face prosecution (or even criminal prosecution if your actions lead to someone's harm or death), well, that's your choice not to visit that site then. There are millions of websites, and the nice thing is, nobody's forcing anyone to visit a particular one.

Decisions like this one are not bad, nor are they likely to lead to some sort of strange epidemic of people who work hard to try and commit suicide while implicating someone else for causing it. They are reasonable interpretations of law and proper repercussions for people acting in an unlawful manner. And people who are suicidal aren't going to start changing their entire set of behaviors to conform to this decision, to try and implicate another person.

Submission + - Ultimate Guide to Eliminating Spam from Your Inbox

Submitted by

BoneThugND

on Tuesday January 23, 2007 @08:27PM

BoneThugND writes: "ITSecurity.com has posted a comprehensive guide to eliminating spam from your email inbox. Of course there is no single tactic that keeps the annoyances away, but a layered 'best practice' approach can save you time each morning from the daily clean-up. The reasons for implementing anti-spam best practices, as an individual, or in your company, are obvious: "The facts are staggering... Spam emails are estimated to cost anywhere between US$10 to $87 billion per year in direct costs and lost productivity. What's more, 90% of computer viruses are spread by email attachments.""

Submission + - 'Smoking gun' report to say global warming here

Submitted by

gollum123

on Tuesday January 23, 2007 @07:20PM

gollum123 writes: "from the CNN, Human-caused global warming is here — visible in the air, water and melting ice — and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week ( http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/01/23/climate .report.ap/index.html ). The first phase of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being released in Paris next week. This segment, written by more than 600 scientists and reviewed by another 600 experts and edited by bureaucrats from 154 countries, includes a significantly expanded discussion of observation on the climate. That report will feature an "explosion of new data" on observations of current global warming. the 12-page summary for policymakers will be edited in secret word-by-word by governments officials for several days next week and released to the public on February 2. The rest of that first report from scientists will come out months later. The report will draw on already published peer-review science. Some recent scientific studies show that temperatures are the hottest in thousands of years, especially during the last 30 years; ice sheets in Greenland in the past couple years have shown a dramatic melting; and sea levels are rising and doing so at a faster rate in the past decade."

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