Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Shocked that it's T-Mobile (Score 3, Interesting) 25

I lost count at how many data breaches T-Mobile has had. I think it's five in the last two years.

At this point I think they run their backend on an unpatched Windows XP system with no firewall.

On second thought, I take that back. I think an unpatched Windows XP system with no firewall would be more secure than whatever T-Mobile is doing.

Comment Space Auto Industry (Score 1) 17

> The Japanese rover will support extended expeditions from Artemis landing sites that are beyond the range of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle that three American companies are developing for NASA under contracts announced April 3.

In other words, the American space car industry is doing just as well as the American Earth car industry. (i.e. getting beaten by Toyota, who is building the Lunar Cruiser)

Comment Re:Another commie idea (Score 1) 390

But Kibbutzs seem to demonstrate that you can do communist societies on the small scale, perhaps the secret sauce is collectivist communities in a capitalist economies. Arguably that's what most companies are, for all that a lot of folks talk about being capitalists the vast majority of people choose careers where they're isolated from the actual economy.

Yes. The idea of creating small scale Communist collectives is not new. They used to be called Soviets. Then you would have an group to organize interactions between the worker cooperatives (like setting prices so one soviet doesn't exploit another soviet). You could even call it a Soviet Union.

But I don't disagree with your overall point. Within a capitalist economy you can have communities that are not the stereotypical for-profit corporations. Kibbutzs and other religious communities, co-ops, employee owned corporations and not-for-profit corporations are all versions of that. As you point out, Kibbutzs (and these others) are not Communist organizations and certainly do not exist inside a fully Communist society. They are a form of Democratic Socialism within a capitalistic society. They can exist (and even thrive) because they are small and tight-knit. Where it breaks down is when you try to scale it at the nation state level. There are just too many competing interests among the 'soviets' that inevitably leads to a dictatorial central organization.

Comment Re:Another commie idea (Score 1) 390

Also, there no reason why you couldn't implement more and more communist policies without engaging in actual dictatorship. Most people recognize this about socialism (since we already have many policies which are essentially socialist in nature) but then go on to refuse to believe it about communism.

Not to repeat myself but Marx and (especially) Engels would disagree with you about being able to create a Communist system without the dictatorship of the Proletariat. If you are saying that Marx and Engels were wrong about some very fundamental concepts about how to implement Communism, (like the necessity of the dictatorship of the Proletariat because human nature means you could NEVER eliminate a class-based society without it) that undermines a lot of the whole basis of Communism. If Socialism can be achieved through an alternate path than what Marx and Engels laid out, then there really is no need for Communism at all.

Lenin's view of how to achieve Communism is relevant, and can't just be dismissed as self-serving because his concept of Marxism-Leninism predates the Bolshevik revolution. Lenin thought your could achieve Communism while skipping the Capitalist stage. (ie you could achieve mass industrialization in a proto-Communist state. And Stalin kind of proved him right for sufficiently broad definitions of success as long as you willing to put up with a full on authoritarian terror state instead of a capitalist one.) But no matter how you rolled the dice, Lenin didn't think you could skip the dictatorship of the Proletariat. It's a feature not a bug in Communism.

Comment Re:Another commie idea (Score 5, Informative) 390

Communism is not a dictatorship

Only if you are being hyper-pedantic. In the sense that Marx maintained that the dictatorship of the Proletariat was a transitionary phase and that "True Communism" would transcend it. Of course, there hasn't been a single case were Communist government has even been able to get out of that dictatorship phase.

But it would be more accurate to say a dictatorship is a necessary part of getting to a Communist society. At least according to Marx. (And Engels, and Lenin, and Mao) So if you decide to go down the path to Communism, you may not ever get there but you will definitely have a dictatorship along the way.

Comment Re:no understanding of issues (Score 1) 382

Lloyd Austin is a FORMER four star general. SECDEF is a civilian position and holds no military rank. In fact, former military officers need a waiver from Congress to become SECDEF if they have been retired for less than seven years. Three have been granted since DoD was created, two of which were since 2016. (Austin and Mattis, Trump's first SECDEF.)

Comment Re:The War of the Blue Bubbles (Score 1) 82

Everything you said is true. But the original allegation was that Apple was encouraging kids to ostracize other kids. And nobody can come up with a single quote from anyone at Apple even saying that it was a good thing. Even you concede that 'maybe' Apple didn't intend for the blue/green bubbles to become a social stigma. Your worst accusation is that Apple is happy to benefit from it. And you are probably right. But riding a wave is not causing a wave, and we doing blame a surfer if the wave drowns somebody. Agency matters.

As a reminder to all, I won't try to defend Apple on any number of things where they are wrong or acting unethically. But I will defend them (or anyone else) from 100% made up accusations without proof. (referring to the original comment I responded to not yours) Hate on Apple for actual reasons, not made up ones. (And ironically, I'm the one that is called a fanboi)

Comment Re:The War of the Blue Bubbles (Score 1) 82

> Apple's role in encouraging kids ostracizing other kids for not using Apple's products (in order to drive more sales) is more than a little sleazy.

Citation needed.

Show me any credible source that says Apple is encouraging this. Heck, I'll take a non-credible source.

There are plenty of things Apple does that are more than a little sleazy and can be fairly criticized. There's no need to make up new ones.

Comment Re:No one on the other side. (Score 1) 43

I don't know enough about Mitchell to offer any defense of him, or even if it's warranted. The original post I was responding to was:

> Well to be fair, the US Army Air Force didn't sink any battleships. The battleships (eg Musashi and Yamato) were sunk by US Navy planes

I was just pointing out that reference to the Army sinking battleships was almost certainly a reference to the Mitchell debate, not a claim that the USAAF was regularly targeting capital ships during WWII.

The only other thing I would say is that, everything you say about Mitchell may be true. But Mitchell's premise was still correct that aircraft can sink capital ships. His demonstration may have been rigged and an insufficient proof of it, but the premise was clearly shown to be true through the course of WWII even if the sinking of Virginia and Ostfriesland was rigged. (And thank you for bringing up Ostfriesland. I didn't know about it so now I have a fun new thing to learn about.)

Comment Re:No one on the other side. (Score 4, Interesting) 43

> Well to be fair, the US Army Air Force didn't sink any battleships.

OP is probably referring to the Billy Mitchell's sinking of the USS Virginia in 1923 as a demonstration that aircraft could successfully bomb capital ships. Mitchell was in the Army Air Service, and made a lot of powerful enemies in the Navy for being right.

Slashdot Top Deals

"You need tender loving care once a week - so that I can slap you into shape." - Ellyn Mustard

Working...