jackerin
Feb 23, 05:36 PM
I was wondering how you can directly transfer Loops to the Keyboard, as in having up side by side, as I cant seem to find this.
I don't know what you mean with that, but you can't trigger loops from a MIDI keyboard if that's what you're asking.
I don't know what you mean with that, but you can't trigger loops from a MIDI keyboard if that's what you're asking.
hulugu
Apr 5, 10:41 PM
There seems to be a lot of confusion between morality and reality in this thread. Let me give a real life experience as example and comparison....
I don't have all the details, so I won't comment further on this unfortunate rape and please don't misinterpret that I am saying theft compares to rape. My point is that each of us can take steps to protect ourselves. Will taking these steps guarantee our safety, no, but they can certainly minimize risk.
I agree, but there's a vast difference between trying to 'minimize risk' and the post below:
...If a man sees a woman with a low top, lots of cleavage showing, high skirts and heels, then he will view her as trash.....
Which acts as a kind of justification.
Your comparison isn't apt. If you're wearing gold chains and bracelets and hundred dollar bills sticking out of your pockets, yes it would increase your chances of being mugged.
I would argue that flashing cash is worse in terms of risk than wearing a suit, but that depends on the neighborhood and the suit. A well-dressed Wall Street-type in a chicano neighborhood is running a higher risk than the vato with a thick bank roll. However, Gelfin's comparison remains, as Lord Blackadder noted, apt.
Neither man deserves to be robbed and moreover no one will try to argue some mitigating circumstances for the attacker. However, in rape cases, the woman's behavior can become part of an argument to remove some guilt from the attacker.
The defense for rapists is wholly different than the defense for robbers because the first tries to envelop the victim as some kind of co-conspirator with the accused.
I don't have all the details, so I won't comment further on this unfortunate rape and please don't misinterpret that I am saying theft compares to rape. My point is that each of us can take steps to protect ourselves. Will taking these steps guarantee our safety, no, but they can certainly minimize risk.
I agree, but there's a vast difference between trying to 'minimize risk' and the post below:
...If a man sees a woman with a low top, lots of cleavage showing, high skirts and heels, then he will view her as trash.....
Which acts as a kind of justification.
Your comparison isn't apt. If you're wearing gold chains and bracelets and hundred dollar bills sticking out of your pockets, yes it would increase your chances of being mugged.
I would argue that flashing cash is worse in terms of risk than wearing a suit, but that depends on the neighborhood and the suit. A well-dressed Wall Street-type in a chicano neighborhood is running a higher risk than the vato with a thick bank roll. However, Gelfin's comparison remains, as Lord Blackadder noted, apt.
Neither man deserves to be robbed and moreover no one will try to argue some mitigating circumstances for the attacker. However, in rape cases, the woman's behavior can become part of an argument to remove some guilt from the attacker.
The defense for rapists is wholly different than the defense for robbers because the first tries to envelop the victim as some kind of co-conspirator with the accused.
ucfgrad93
Oct 3, 11:50 AM
On my iMac.
Kirgan
Sep 5, 10:23 AM
http://i56.tinypic.com/2yye9at.png
macAllen
Sep 1, 04:04 PM
So Futuristic
666sheep
Mar 29, 04:11 PM
Yes, Kingston you've linked will work OK. Plus it has lifetime manufacturer's warranty (which really works). But I'd recommend the same brand but PC3200 (400 MHz). It's more futureproof - if you'd buy MDD with faster bus (or overclock this one's bus to 167 MHz) or G5 in the future, then you'll be able to use this RAM with it.
Other brand, like Crucial, Corsair will also work: http://www.clevedons.co.uk/product_info.php?c=05&n=430511031&i=B000234UQA&x=Corsair_VS512MB400_512MB_DDR_400MHzPC3200_Memory_non_ECC_Unbuffered_CL25_Lifetime_Warranty
Other brand, like Crucial, Corsair will also work: http://www.clevedons.co.uk/product_info.php?c=05&n=430511031&i=B000234UQA&x=Corsair_VS512MB400_512MB_DDR_400MHzPC3200_Memory_non_ECC_Unbuffered_CL25_Lifetime_Warranty
MattG
Oct 4, 07:07 AM
To recap all the comments above...
Pretty muc everyone who actually had to *use* Notes for work hates it.
The only people who seem to be praising it are the ones who are paid to maintain it. Notice how the Notes fanbois refer to it as a "product", "platform", "solution", etc - and yet provide not a single example where the features of the client itself would make the user more happy and productive.
Yes, I said the word: User!
It's the users that matter most.
And Notes client makes any user miserable.
It is slow, it uses non-standard interface elements, and it has a really steep learning curve (even for the 'engineer' types). I am not a big fan of Outlook, but even Outlook is light years ahead of Notes.
As for the Domino server itself... That thing is just as bad as the client.
Its raison d'etre seems to be simplification of development process.
And it might have made (some limited) sense in 1995.
Not anymore.
Everything, and I mean everything, that you can do with Domino, you can do with Ruby, PHP/MySQL/PostgreSQL, WebObjects, or Java.
You can do it in less time, using highly visual dev environments. You can also easily collaborate on the development process, and systematically create concise documentation. The finished product will run fast and solid, and it won't depend on proprietary (terrible) client software. You will just need a web browser.
Domino, on the other hand, is pure garbage. I remember working in a 20 person company back in '00 where we had a Domino server running on a dual 500MHz PIII server with 2 gigs of RAM - very expensive at the time. It was very hard on the poor machine. It was choking. And the only three things the server was used for were email, very basic scheduling, and a billable hour tracking app. Not that that server is any speed demon by modern standards... But a non-Domino system having the same functionality would not have created any measurable load on the server at all with only 20 users. Did I also mention the server was less than stable? And I still remember how SP6 for NT completely brought the damn thing down... Ouch.
I agree for the most part. It's the same where I work. We had one resident Domino fan (who left us about 8 months ago), and she was the only one in our department who really liked it. Most IT people I know hate Lotus Notes, and our department is no exception. The client is an absolute pain in the ass to contend with. The whole system of IDs and certifiers is a nightmare.
Here are some perfect examples of what's wrong with Domino/Notes.
1. A friend of mine where I work accidentally deleted her Notes ID file one time. (for those of you who don't know, unless you're using the web client, a Notes ID is what stores your personal information [including your password] and you need this to log on to the system). We tried to restore her ID from a backup copy we made when the account was originally created, but it wouldn't work because this copy of the ID was from before she got married, and her name was changed on Domino. The resident Domino fangirl putzed around with it for hours, and could not get it to work. She ended up deleting the account and recreating it, blaming my friend saying "she made a dumb mistake by deleting her ID file." That may have been so, but doesn't it seem a bit ridiculous that there isn't a "Regenerate Notes ID" button in Administrator? Seems like a stupid thing to leave out. So, someone accidentally deletes their ID file (which I'm sure happens at places all the time), you can't regenerate it, and you have to recreate the account? Ludicrous.
2. Or how about the fact that in Domino Admin, I can't change the password in an ID file, so if someone forgets it, they're SOL? As the admin I can't change a password???!!?
3. We've currently got about 5000 users on our student email server. These are iNotes only users -- they don't get ID files and they don't use the Notes client, just web-mail. Domino doesn't provide anyway to track usage of these, only with Notes-ID clients. I've been trying to come up with a way to show how many people are accessing their accounts, and you just can't do it. I've spent hours on the phone with IBM trying to figure this out, and I can't. Their techs don't know how to do it. I'm trying to figure out who hasn't used their account in a year or more so they can be deleted, and IBM doesn't give you any way to track usage through the web client.
Good stuff.
I do have to say though, that although the client is awful and a pain to use, and that users are difficult to administrate sometimes, the server itself holds up pretty well. It really doesn't crash much.
Pretty muc everyone who actually had to *use* Notes for work hates it.
The only people who seem to be praising it are the ones who are paid to maintain it. Notice how the Notes fanbois refer to it as a "product", "platform", "solution", etc - and yet provide not a single example where the features of the client itself would make the user more happy and productive.
Yes, I said the word: User!
It's the users that matter most.
And Notes client makes any user miserable.
It is slow, it uses non-standard interface elements, and it has a really steep learning curve (even for the 'engineer' types). I am not a big fan of Outlook, but even Outlook is light years ahead of Notes.
As for the Domino server itself... That thing is just as bad as the client.
Its raison d'etre seems to be simplification of development process.
And it might have made (some limited) sense in 1995.
Not anymore.
Everything, and I mean everything, that you can do with Domino, you can do with Ruby, PHP/MySQL/PostgreSQL, WebObjects, or Java.
You can do it in less time, using highly visual dev environments. You can also easily collaborate on the development process, and systematically create concise documentation. The finished product will run fast and solid, and it won't depend on proprietary (terrible) client software. You will just need a web browser.
Domino, on the other hand, is pure garbage. I remember working in a 20 person company back in '00 where we had a Domino server running on a dual 500MHz PIII server with 2 gigs of RAM - very expensive at the time. It was very hard on the poor machine. It was choking. And the only three things the server was used for were email, very basic scheduling, and a billable hour tracking app. Not that that server is any speed demon by modern standards... But a non-Domino system having the same functionality would not have created any measurable load on the server at all with only 20 users. Did I also mention the server was less than stable? And I still remember how SP6 for NT completely brought the damn thing down... Ouch.
I agree for the most part. It's the same where I work. We had one resident Domino fan (who left us about 8 months ago), and she was the only one in our department who really liked it. Most IT people I know hate Lotus Notes, and our department is no exception. The client is an absolute pain in the ass to contend with. The whole system of IDs and certifiers is a nightmare.
Here are some perfect examples of what's wrong with Domino/Notes.
1. A friend of mine where I work accidentally deleted her Notes ID file one time. (for those of you who don't know, unless you're using the web client, a Notes ID is what stores your personal information [including your password] and you need this to log on to the system). We tried to restore her ID from a backup copy we made when the account was originally created, but it wouldn't work because this copy of the ID was from before she got married, and her name was changed on Domino. The resident Domino fangirl putzed around with it for hours, and could not get it to work. She ended up deleting the account and recreating it, blaming my friend saying "she made a dumb mistake by deleting her ID file." That may have been so, but doesn't it seem a bit ridiculous that there isn't a "Regenerate Notes ID" button in Administrator? Seems like a stupid thing to leave out. So, someone accidentally deletes their ID file (which I'm sure happens at places all the time), you can't regenerate it, and you have to recreate the account? Ludicrous.
2. Or how about the fact that in Domino Admin, I can't change the password in an ID file, so if someone forgets it, they're SOL? As the admin I can't change a password???!!?
3. We've currently got about 5000 users on our student email server. These are iNotes only users -- they don't get ID files and they don't use the Notes client, just web-mail. Domino doesn't provide anyway to track usage of these, only with Notes-ID clients. I've been trying to come up with a way to show how many people are accessing their accounts, and you just can't do it. I've spent hours on the phone with IBM trying to figure this out, and I can't. Their techs don't know how to do it. I'm trying to figure out who hasn't used their account in a year or more so they can be deleted, and IBM doesn't give you any way to track usage through the web client.
Good stuff.
I do have to say though, that although the client is awful and a pain to use, and that users are difficult to administrate sometimes, the server itself holds up pretty well. It really doesn't crash much.
robo
Dec 25, 10:04 AM
Logitech Revue
http://www.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/hometheatre/logitech-revue-google-tv.jpg
Pioneer VSX-1020-K
http://hometheatergears.com/wp-content/uploads/pioneer-vsx1020k.jpg
Apple TV
http://static.technorati.com/10/09/01/17467/apple-TV.jpg
Yankee Jersey
http://www.onthefield.com/prodimg/b1480.jpg
Cash
http://weblogs.cltv.com/news/local/chicago/Money%20stacks.jpg
Mine...:cool:
http://www.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/hometheatre/logitech-revue-google-tv.jpg
Pioneer VSX-1020-K
http://hometheatergears.com/wp-content/uploads/pioneer-vsx1020k.jpg
Apple TV
http://static.technorati.com/10/09/01/17467/apple-TV.jpg
Yankee Jersey
http://www.onthefield.com/prodimg/b1480.jpg
Cash
http://weblogs.cltv.com/news/local/chicago/Money%20stacks.jpg
Mine...:cool:
Socratic
May 2, 05:55 PM
Except that the question "male to male sex" is discriminatory. It doesn't ask you "received anal sex", it asks you about your sexual orientation. Plain and simple, discriminatory and non-scientific because male-to-female sex has the exact same risks.
It's not. Risky male to female sex is also excluded (sleeping with anyone involved in the sex industry). It's a question of exposure to mixing blood, and thus communicating disease. Statistically, Male to Male sex increases that risk. Also, if it was a homophobic policy female to female sex would be deemed a risk factor, but it's not, as it does not carry elevated risk. And to clarify, I'm not saying elevated means high - I'm saying it means higher.
It's not. Risky male to female sex is also excluded (sleeping with anyone involved in the sex industry). It's a question of exposure to mixing blood, and thus communicating disease. Statistically, Male to Male sex increases that risk. Also, if it was a homophobic policy female to female sex would be deemed a risk factor, but it's not, as it does not carry elevated risk. And to clarify, I'm not saying elevated means high - I'm saying it means higher.
spillproof
Oct 13, 10:33 PM
That's creepy.
...ly awesome.
...ly awesome.
Sopranino
Sep 27, 10:04 AM
I've been a very satisfied customer of .Mac since its inception. I receive zero spam e-mails and I am delighted with the ability to create aliases. On top of that there is no advertising at all. I also have a couple of other web-mail accounts and they get zillions of spam messages even with their respective anti-spam filters turned on. I think that this update adds a little bit more polish on an already decent offering. I do agree with a previous poster that the iCal integration needs some work.
Sopranino
Sopranino
snugharbor
Dec 10, 01:29 PM
Not true.. I am the Art Director for a Art department that makes grocery store ads.
Soda is not a common loss leader since it's DSD Pepsi/Coke keep close price controls.
I usually see produce and meat used as loss leaders..
--------------------------------------------
Another point... I expect that TJ MAXX just bought up a bunch of the Refurbished iPads and is taking a $50 loss on each to get people in the stores.
That's true: soda/chips not loss leaders but maintained by rack jobbers.
Soda is not a common loss leader since it's DSD Pepsi/Coke keep close price controls.
I usually see produce and meat used as loss leaders..
--------------------------------------------
Another point... I expect that TJ MAXX just bought up a bunch of the Refurbished iPads and is taking a $50 loss on each to get people in the stores.
That's true: soda/chips not loss leaders but maintained by rack jobbers.
Skika
Mar 23, 11:06 AM
He really is a character! Has a bit of that mad scientist/genius vibe to him.
Chimera
Oct 31, 08:56 AM
Appleinsider called this correctly then, I wonder if this will be the top selling iPod model this Christmas.
2 Replies
Apr 7, 12:50 PM
I can confirm that I am a genuine iPhone 4 user who loves it.
And I can confirm that my ass itches.
(Point being, your confirmation about yourself means nothing.)
Don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of problems with my iPhone as well, just confirming with others who can do nothing to fix it... isn't helpful at all.
It's just that the only real 'confirmation' (at least the only one that matters) is done by the manufacturer's testers ... (Apple's in this case)...
AFTER you report the issue (https://bugreport.apple.com/), with clear & easy to follow repro steps.
So if you have an issue that you can consistently reproduce, with any software... lookup the manufacturer... see if they have a bug reporting tool (or a support contact), and report it. ^_^
And I can confirm that my ass itches.
(Point being, your confirmation about yourself means nothing.)
Don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of problems with my iPhone as well, just confirming with others who can do nothing to fix it... isn't helpful at all.
It's just that the only real 'confirmation' (at least the only one that matters) is done by the manufacturer's testers ... (Apple's in this case)...
AFTER you report the issue (https://bugreport.apple.com/), with clear & easy to follow repro steps.
So if you have an issue that you can consistently reproduce, with any software... lookup the manufacturer... see if they have a bug reporting tool (or a support contact), and report it. ^_^
danamania
Apr 28, 10:37 AM
If you would like an informative take on the issue read:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/04/28/the-unedifying-arrogance-of-apple/
Unfortunately that article has at least one fundamental mistake about how the data in consolidated.db is obtained that leads to incorrect conclusions.
Their statement "Yes, cell towers can be “located more than one hundred miles away”, but only if you live in the Mojave Desert." gives away part of that thinking. The database does not contain a list of cell towers/locations that the iPhone has identified by itself - local geography is totally irrelevant, because consolidated.db records a list of cell towers sent from Apple. I tested this by wiping my iPhone clean, not restoring from a backup, then leaving it sit for a while on my desk on Saturday.
Within 30 minutes consolidated.db held data on about 30 cell towers across a range of 80km, and every single one had the same timestamp. It could do this because it's received a dump of relatively nearby towers and wifi points from Apple. All the iPhone has recorded of its own position is a few strong towers, sent off the IDs of those to Apple, and received back a file with info on more towers around me that may be useful in the future - Apple selects which towers, and by looking at iPhoneTracker's dump of other folks' consolidated.db files, it's across a wide wide physical range.
That's the biggie. The list of locations in consolidated.db ARE NOT DISCOVERED BY THE PHONE ITSELF - It's a list sent from Apple, and all entries are timestamped AFTER that information comes back from Apple, which is not necessarily when the phone was remotely near that location.
Wifi turned out even more distant, timewise. I (and my phone :) was in a location 5km away from home, and after returning I checked my consolidated.db for any wifi points from near that place. There were none. I checked again that night, there were none. I checked again the next morning, and there they were, 1750 wifi points timestamped around 2am - that's a list of wifi points across several kilometres, for a position I was at more than 12 hours beforehand. I could have been on the other side of the country at that timestamp, or I could have been in the same place. For looking back and 'tracking' me or my phone it's about as accurate as throwing a dart at a spinning globe. For enabling me to find my own location through aGPS, it lets me find my precise location if I choose, in seconds instead of 13 minutes. I'm the one who benefits.
Worth mentioning apart from the 2MB limit is that new data from Apple on the same cell towers or wifi points overwrites the old data. Last I looked at my consolidated.db, (because I haven't moved more than a few km) every cell tower in it has a timestamp of the most recent time it was updated; today that's Thursday morning (16 hours ago) There are no cell tower entries with timestamps before that, even though I've been checking consolidated.db since Saturday when it first showed a record of towers approximately near me. More succinctly, each unique object (cell tower or wifi point) only has its location stored in consolidated.db once, and that's its most recent known position as sent from Apple.
I feel this log shouldn't be readable so easily, and it could do with being smaller (There's no point to stale data from a year ago on a city I haven't been near for the same time, when wifi points and cell towers could have changed dramatically) but as for tracking? It's about as close to tracking me as carrying a bag of maps is.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/04/28/the-unedifying-arrogance-of-apple/
Unfortunately that article has at least one fundamental mistake about how the data in consolidated.db is obtained that leads to incorrect conclusions.
Their statement "Yes, cell towers can be “located more than one hundred miles away”, but only if you live in the Mojave Desert." gives away part of that thinking. The database does not contain a list of cell towers/locations that the iPhone has identified by itself - local geography is totally irrelevant, because consolidated.db records a list of cell towers sent from Apple. I tested this by wiping my iPhone clean, not restoring from a backup, then leaving it sit for a while on my desk on Saturday.
Within 30 minutes consolidated.db held data on about 30 cell towers across a range of 80km, and every single one had the same timestamp. It could do this because it's received a dump of relatively nearby towers and wifi points from Apple. All the iPhone has recorded of its own position is a few strong towers, sent off the IDs of those to Apple, and received back a file with info on more towers around me that may be useful in the future - Apple selects which towers, and by looking at iPhoneTracker's dump of other folks' consolidated.db files, it's across a wide wide physical range.
That's the biggie. The list of locations in consolidated.db ARE NOT DISCOVERED BY THE PHONE ITSELF - It's a list sent from Apple, and all entries are timestamped AFTER that information comes back from Apple, which is not necessarily when the phone was remotely near that location.
Wifi turned out even more distant, timewise. I (and my phone :) was in a location 5km away from home, and after returning I checked my consolidated.db for any wifi points from near that place. There were none. I checked again that night, there were none. I checked again the next morning, and there they were, 1750 wifi points timestamped around 2am - that's a list of wifi points across several kilometres, for a position I was at more than 12 hours beforehand. I could have been on the other side of the country at that timestamp, or I could have been in the same place. For looking back and 'tracking' me or my phone it's about as accurate as throwing a dart at a spinning globe. For enabling me to find my own location through aGPS, it lets me find my precise location if I choose, in seconds instead of 13 minutes. I'm the one who benefits.
Worth mentioning apart from the 2MB limit is that new data from Apple on the same cell towers or wifi points overwrites the old data. Last I looked at my consolidated.db, (because I haven't moved more than a few km) every cell tower in it has a timestamp of the most recent time it was updated; today that's Thursday morning (16 hours ago) There are no cell tower entries with timestamps before that, even though I've been checking consolidated.db since Saturday when it first showed a record of towers approximately near me. More succinctly, each unique object (cell tower or wifi point) only has its location stored in consolidated.db once, and that's its most recent known position as sent from Apple.
I feel this log shouldn't be readable so easily, and it could do with being smaller (There's no point to stale data from a year ago on a city I haven't been near for the same time, when wifi points and cell towers could have changed dramatically) but as for tracking? It's about as close to tracking me as carrying a bag of maps is.
gkarris
Apr 4, 09:55 AM
Aaaaaah, money for that T-Mobile USA purchase... :eek:
;)
;)
larrylaffer
Apr 6, 12:54 PM
No, I'm not joking. Not even slightly. Bad product, appalling support.
That's an even sillier statement. Whenever we have a problem we email their generic support email address and get a response in less than 5 minutes. What's more, when our cluster experiences a problem they see it and contact us proactively.
That's an even sillier statement. Whenever we have a problem we email their generic support email address and get a response in less than 5 minutes. What's more, when our cluster experiences a problem they see it and contact us proactively.
Peel
Jul 27, 01:44 AM
I guess I'm not as much of a purist as some here. I make DVDs off EyeTV digital HD broadcast recordings with Toast 7 and they look and sound very close to the original HD broadcasts on my 24" Dell 1920 x 1200 display. I cannot see much nor hear any difference.
Call me old fashioned but I just don't see why I would want Blu-ray or HD-DVD until they are cost competitive with good old fashioned single layer 4.38 GB DVDs. :rolleyes:
Well maybe on the 24" screen, but go to play it on a 42" or larger plasma monitor, and the difference will become apparent. On the 24" screen you've got a pitch of about 92 ppi, the plasma screens run from 53 ppi for the 42" down to 37 ppi on a 60" screen (remember the resolution doesn't change, just the screen size). On these less dense screens, the full resolution of the HD image, along with the greater color depth that HD provides over NTSC is significant.
Call me old fashioned but I just don't see why I would want Blu-ray or HD-DVD until they are cost competitive with good old fashioned single layer 4.38 GB DVDs. :rolleyes:
Well maybe on the 24" screen, but go to play it on a 42" or larger plasma monitor, and the difference will become apparent. On the 24" screen you've got a pitch of about 92 ppi, the plasma screens run from 53 ppi for the 42" down to 37 ppi on a 60" screen (remember the resolution doesn't change, just the screen size). On these less dense screens, the full resolution of the HD image, along with the greater color depth that HD provides over NTSC is significant.
robbieduncan
Jan 15, 09:04 AM
Please see this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=414422). There is no need for another one (this one).
hayesk
May 2, 02:22 PM
How do you open localized strings?
Using qlmanage -p or vim, you can see the contents, but they look compiled.
But anyway to view the files properly?
They are binary plists. Anything that can open a binary plist can read the file, as is shown in the screen shot, OmniOutliner.
Using qlmanage -p or vim, you can see the contents, but they look compiled.
But anyway to view the files properly?
They are binary plists. Anything that can open a binary plist can read the file, as is shown in the screen shot, OmniOutliner.
KingYaba
Jul 26, 10:15 PM
Burn High Def movies to Blu-Ray disk. Stick in PS3, watch on DLP tv :cool: life will be sweet.
buseman
Jul 13, 11:15 AM
Sofa Rockers by Kr�der & Dorfmeister.
Its on the "K&D Sessions" double album.
Its on the "K&D Sessions" double album.
Sydde
Mar 20, 10:41 PM
No. If you take a life, you get to sit in a small dark room for 23,5 out of 24 hours of each day for the rest of your life. You will not be able to kill yourself, you will have to endure the absolute solitude. (EDIT: This is pretty much only for premeditated stuff, if you ask me)
But what does "premeditated" mean? If I grab a gun, walk across the street and dispatch my neighbor for no apparent reason, was that premeditated? I had to think about it beforehand, from the point of picking up the gun. How about a poker game, where one of the players gets pissed off and kills one of the others for apparently cheating? At some point, the killer had to decide to do it. Given no personal threat at hand, there is a decision point. Right up to the consummation of the act, the killer has the opportunity to decide not to end a life. Be it a month ago, working up an elaborate plan, 5 minutes beforehand, or in the instant the finger squeezes the trigger, premeditation accompanies any deliberate murder. If it is not an accident, it is premeditated, to what extent that is makes little/no difference.
Despite what you, I, or a victim's family might want, incarceration is not punishment. Incarceration is the protection of the public.
Because criminal punishment is simply ineffective. From a perspective of behavioral science, negative reinforcement only works if it is directly and irrevocably linked directly to the action. When the dynamic involves avoiding being caught rather than avoiding the action itself, the relationship between action and consequence breaks down, rendering punishment useless at best. As a result, the only real punishment factor in our justice system is retribution, which I think is a net negative.
Prisons, therefore, have no business trying to mete out punishment by making convicts miserable. It serves no useful purpose and I believe is actually counterproductive in that it breeds resentment toward society in the heart of the prisoner. Everything we do to make the prisoner (who may be released at some point) miserable reduces the likelihood that they can successfully rejoin society. The more problematic ex-cons are, the more money we waste on the system.
Now, I also believe that there are individuals who are wholly incapable of being rehabilitated. Some will simply have to spend their lives behind bars because they are too unstable. In some cases, psychiatric treatment might help, but supervision would be called for. If a fraction of the population can realistically be expected to remain confined for life, we could at least consider setting up facilities in which they would be able to do enough work to make up for their expense. The justice system desperately needs to address its impracticalities.
But what does "premeditated" mean? If I grab a gun, walk across the street and dispatch my neighbor for no apparent reason, was that premeditated? I had to think about it beforehand, from the point of picking up the gun. How about a poker game, where one of the players gets pissed off and kills one of the others for apparently cheating? At some point, the killer had to decide to do it. Given no personal threat at hand, there is a decision point. Right up to the consummation of the act, the killer has the opportunity to decide not to end a life. Be it a month ago, working up an elaborate plan, 5 minutes beforehand, or in the instant the finger squeezes the trigger, premeditation accompanies any deliberate murder. If it is not an accident, it is premeditated, to what extent that is makes little/no difference.
Despite what you, I, or a victim's family might want, incarceration is not punishment. Incarceration is the protection of the public.
Because criminal punishment is simply ineffective. From a perspective of behavioral science, negative reinforcement only works if it is directly and irrevocably linked directly to the action. When the dynamic involves avoiding being caught rather than avoiding the action itself, the relationship between action and consequence breaks down, rendering punishment useless at best. As a result, the only real punishment factor in our justice system is retribution, which I think is a net negative.
Prisons, therefore, have no business trying to mete out punishment by making convicts miserable. It serves no useful purpose and I believe is actually counterproductive in that it breeds resentment toward society in the heart of the prisoner. Everything we do to make the prisoner (who may be released at some point) miserable reduces the likelihood that they can successfully rejoin society. The more problematic ex-cons are, the more money we waste on the system.
Now, I also believe that there are individuals who are wholly incapable of being rehabilitated. Some will simply have to spend their lives behind bars because they are too unstable. In some cases, psychiatric treatment might help, but supervision would be called for. If a fraction of the population can realistically be expected to remain confined for life, we could at least consider setting up facilities in which they would be able to do enough work to make up for their expense. The justice system desperately needs to address its impracticalities.
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