The systemd suite provides features such as faster boot times

I haven't seen any sign of that anywhere and I saw the opposite on a eeepc by about half a minute when I put a newer distro with systemd on it. Is there any proof or are the faster boot times just on the wish list?

This is a problem?

Hey, Bingo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Well, while that is possible, I don't think that has happened to the US as yet. I think some parts of it work that way. There is a mixture of corruption in everything and I don't want to conflate corruption with cultishness because they're different concepts.

For example, you the rabid apple people that will buy a literal piece of shit if it has an apple logo on it and then get the new version of it every time one comes out. And then you have people that are being paid do something or say something or not do something or not say something.

My issue is that both aspects are a problem and they're not the same thing.

The virtue of the money is that you can shift people in positions of power or influence to do anything you want so long as you meet their sellout price.

The virtue of the cult is that you can get hordes of fucking peasants with pitch forks to burn people out or book burn or kill people... literally or figuratively.

Both things are a problem but it isn't the same thing.

The saddest thing is when you see one of these things being cited as the solution to the other.

Don't like corruption? Get a cult together that will burn it out.

Don't like the mob? Bribe some people in places of power to quietly kill it.

When you use something evil to fight something evil... you're not leaving good behind.

Sometimes there is no option. The only answer to war is war. You can't throw candy at people genociding your people. But evil is to be avoided if possible. If you can't do it then you can't. But I think often people don't consider alternatives.

I am a big believer in reason. Literally a believer in it. Logic is what I bow to. And it is sad to me that we can't just sit down and work things out in a reasonable fashion.

I am a big believer in win win situations. People sitting down and saying "okay, I need these things, I want those things... what do you need and want from me that would make you give me those things?" And often as not there is an exchange that can be made that makes everyone happy.

Now sometimes people are not reasonable. They say "I need to rape your wife and I want your dried genitals as a trophy to hang around my neck"... I mean... you deal with that and fine... lets just kill each other. But even then, it is important to establish who is being unreasonable and who is not being unreasonable. Who is causing a problem where none needs to exist and who is not.

It is possible that both sides if we want to be binary about it are causing problems. And if that's what is going on... then again... yeah... kill each other. But even killing each other is more productive then a lot of the crap going on. There is just so much mindless shit talking. And it is that mindlessness that offends me the most.

I don't think the solution is giving the people less power over their government or empowering career politicians with more power.

The batteries themselves are DC. You could drop an entire array in a pool full of people and you wouldn't do much damage as they'd all discharge at their individual cell voltage levels as they short. It's not that dangerous unless the individual cells are going past 24VDC in that particular type of environment and someone's within a couple of feet of that pack and acting as a ground path to somewhere else. The inverter equipment hooked up to the batteries, on the other hand, and the charging equipment, should be kept well off the floor. AC-charged water is much more dangerous.

Charging batteries generate hydrogen and oxygen, Hydrogen rises to the top, Oxygen can mix pretty well with a primarily-nitrogen atmosphere. Not a problem for a battery bank, single-level, on the floor. Cooling is about as simple as a large fan blowing across the array/pack, as that's where a majority of the cooling-capable metal (terminals) is located, anyways.

I agree, going to a more state centric system would be less prone to this manipulation.

The frothing cultists don't like that though. All glory to Cthulhu, apparently.

The means are the ends. You can't stop something by doing the same thing. A thing is the product of the actions that created it. The means are the ends.

That was the logical error made when someone said "the ends justify the means". Morality doesn't come into it. The ends = the means just as the means = the ends. One is the other.

To create a different system you must play by the rules of the system you wish to create.

A system that does not reward bribery or the manipulation of chanting frothing lunitics.

A society run by either faction is not especially rational or desirable.

On the one hand you have people that will manipulate the system using their wealth to get whatever they want. And on the other you have a system where cult leaders use their chattel as fodder to get whatever they want.

I want a society of free people by free people for free people. A society of bribery very quickly leads to one where we are bought and sold... doesn't sound very free to me. And a society ruled by chanting cultists isn't especially free either since they require utter obedience to their dogma and cult leaders or they start throwing people onto bonfires.

If you value freedom or human dignity... how can you support either one?

As to money, we can do more to control and monitor the way in which public officials receive money or gifts. And of course establish stiff unconditional penalties if they break the rules.

As to cultists, part of the problem is that our system counts us as individuals in some places and values money in others. Where it counts us as individuals we're all equal when really we shouldn't be all equal. Some laws and rules effect some people and not others. What is more many laws are about giving someone something but not someone else. That means someone profits and not everyone. That means there are conflicts of interest because the laws do not effect everyone equally.

Something should be done to weight the votes on various things so that those the law applies to have more of a say in it then those that do not. And possibly if someone profits by a law they might have reduced influence.

If there is a law to give money to Tim, then maybe Tim should recuse himself form the vote. And if there is a law to make Tim pay for something but not Jerry... why does Jerry get a vote? Jerry isn't paying regardless.

Take an issue like abortion... do men deserve a vote on it? I don't see why. But if we had a vote on parental rights then obviously men and women would get a vote. So on and so forth.

Keeping track of who does and does not have an interest in everything for 300 million people would be complicated. I don't know if that is logistically possible or if it would even be a good idea. But that would control the cultist issue where political parties say "vote for X and anyone that doesn't is EVIL". Everyone that voted would have their vote matter to the extent that it should matter. If you don't own a house, then why are you voting on property taxes? If you don't have a car, then I don't see why you're voting on gas taxes. If you don't have a child, then why are you voting on schools?

I am to be clear a libertarian. It is just a word. I don't think I fit into any ideology perfectly. But I do feel the government especially at the federal level should be stripped of nearly all its responsibilities. The only thing I feel comfortable with them maintaining are the Federal courts, Federal law enforcement, Federal prisons, coast guard, border patrol, and the various military forces. Nothing more. I'd be happier if everything else were state based. And the states especially in the west need to be subdivided. California and Texas being the prime example of states that probably need to get broken into 5 or 6 small pieces just so the people living in them have any say in the government.

California is very corrupt in large part because it is so large. The reigning politicians can do whatever they want so long as they keep most of the state happy. That can bend any portion of the state over a rail and fuck it raw, take pictures, and sell them as rape porn on the internet and nothing happens to them because they have a few cities that will vote for them regardless. Nothing matters so long as they keep those cities happy. And they don't even need to really keep them happy at that. Just keep everyone unwilling to vote for the opposition. And thus having a choice between the corrupt politician you know and the spawn of satan that the opposition always is... the reigning politicians can do whatever they want.

And I'm not nailing any one party here. Its like that throughout most of the country. Democrat areas won't vote for republicans no matter what the democrats do and the republican areas won't vote for democrats no matter what the republicans do.

It is a nice little scam they've set up. No accountability.

My thoughts are that the Clintons are well known to be manifestly corrupt. Even democrats know it and they accept it on the basis that the Clinton are their criminals.

The republicans also have similar arrangements with their own corrupt politicians. So I'm not nailing either side.

The Clintons however are so corrupt that even the New York Times and Hollywood are turning on them. I wouldn't worry about Hillary. Her campaign is already over.

I offered no plan.

as to your notion that the parliamentary system is less vulnerable... I've seen no indication of that in fact. To the contrary, I've seen them just as beholden to such interests as anyone.

Except in this case, the patent is for the use of VFAT, which is a very specific file system format that even Microsoft doesn't use much anymore, but is commonly understood by their systems.

There is no reason, for example, why Microsoft couldn't implement an open file system like EXT4 or UFS and update all their operating systems to recognize it, except that it would mitigate the value of their VFAT patents. So they don't bother.

I remember reading that they make more money on their patents from Android vendors than they make *gross* from their Windows Mobile sales.

I have a Moto Razr Maxx HD, now working on its 3rd year. It's been basically perfect. I reboot it perhaps once every few months, and half of those reboots are due to an OTA OS upgrade.

With it's amazing battery life, and durable, sturdy case, it's a phone that feels like a "partner" that doesn't leave me hanging and even when I'm really putting the screws to it, (EG: on trips) it's "just there" for me.

It is no longer a "flagship" phone, it's not the fastest phone, and it doesn't have the biggest/brightest screen any more, but it's still a very, very good balance for a phone that I probably won't be replacing until it actually dies.

My only honest complaint is that its bluetooth reception seems weak. I use $20 wired headphones as a result.

But you didn't eat it

Well...