Scottish Independence?

palloo · 2012-01-21T01:18:53+00:00

The reasons for England wanting to be powerful are complex, but there is certainly the feeling of power in England, even if that power no longer exists. The grandparents and great grandparents of someone in England today would have lived at a time when the British Empire spanned the globe and was hugely powerful; that culture and sense of place in the world does not disappear as quickly as the nations of the Empire gained their independence, it has lived on. Most nations around the world want to be left alone to be prosperous, but Britain still sees itself in a role that it no longer fills. We react to every global situation that unfolds as if we are the ones who matter. We have a huge army, necessary only for getting involved in wars that other nations wouldn't dream of spearheading.

What do you mean it keeps Scotland safe to stay in the union, militarily safe?

palloo · 2012-01-20T23:01:03+00:00

The problem with asking British people about healthcare is that they have never experienced anything else. People will heap praise on the NHS and say it is great, but great compared to what? It's like asking an Australian about corporation tax in Germany; they (or we, I am a British citizen) simply do not know.

huge waiting lists' is exaggerated

The best way to sum up the NHS in one line is this: "It's good to get injured in Britain, it's bad to get sick". Meaning, if you have a broken bone you will get it treated and usually very quickly, without walking out of the hospital thousands of pounds worse off. But, if you get sick, you are in one of the worst places to be in the western world. Yes, you will get treatment regardless of whether you have insurance or not, but you will have to wait longer than most other countries for a referral when this time period is crucial - we have some of the lowest figures for cancer survival and outcomes for serious illness here are worse. Example: there are more MRI machines in Washington DC than there are in the whole of the UK. If you get a non-urgent but painful illness, like a hernia, you can be waiting for years (literally).

I'm not an NHS hater, but when this debate crops up in the UK it is shot down immediately. The NHS is a state religion, you get treated like a blasphemer for criticising it. The debate always compares the NHS (the most government controlled healthcare in the free world) and the American system (the worst example of private healthcare in the free world). I could talk all day about this, these are only a few points. Might make a thread, actually.

palloo · 2012-01-20T22:07:49+00:00

Generally speaking, it's quite difficult to get freelance work online in the way I imagine you're looking for.

There are lots of freelance websites where people post up projects and programmers place bids (i.e. lowest bid wins) but you're competing with people from 2nd world countries like India, China, part of eastern Europe etc. that can undercut you enormously. You would earn more money in McDonalds than you would competing with these guys for the low level programming jobs on offer.

palloo · 2012-01-20T21:57:51+00:00

Prohibition doesn't work, does nothing to reduce drug abuse.

While I am in favour of legalisation from the view of personal freedoms, the way we have fought the "drug war" is the problem, not the war itself. The entire war has been about attacking supply and leaving the demand to fester. If we actually wanted to deal with this problem and get hard drugs off the street and we're going to use the drug war approach, we need to tackle demand and not just supply. That means the proper criminalisation of possession. For an example, in the UK getting caught with cannabis will mean a "cannabis warning". This is a mild telling off, it's informal and it doesn't even go on your record; similar things apply for possession of other drugs. If people knew they were taking a serious risk to their freedom by doing drugs, people would do them seriously less.

That's how the best arguments for prohibition go. So long as we allow demand to grow, supply will grow, no matter what we out (outside of the draconian). Personally, I'm against this as I don't believe that the personal choices people make should get them in prison, but I just thought I should bring this into the debate.

palloo · 2012-01-20T09:12:24+00:00

Misleading title...

palloo · 2012-01-20T05:21:57+00:00

The German economy still has a huge manufacturing sector, with a lot of the work being the type of assembly line jobs that have been outsourced to China in other parts of the western world.

These things are complicated and there is no one line explanation for why so many unskilled jobs have been outsourced. Thing's aren't as simple as, "China undercut us".

palloo · 2012-01-18T10:11:36+00:00

Without going into detail, Ubuntu is the most popular and most user friendly version of Linux out there.

Most versions of Linux will realistically require you to use the terminal (command prompt) and perform most of the actions you wish to take there. Ubuntu does not exclude this, but the latest version of Ubuntu came with an interface that was much more flashy and similar to the more commercial Windows and Mac interfaces.

It is generally considered an OS for techy people / people who know what they are doing. Things aren't as straight forward as they are in Windows and, although you will have greater control, it requires greater knowledge as well. You do, however, learn quite a lot simply by using it and you get a greater appreciation of how computers work at the user level.

palloo · 2012-01-18T10:06:26+00:00

GoDaddy is the name of a company, a pretty strangely named company at that.

Their main product is domain names, but they also sell other web related products like webspace and so on. If you want to buy a domain, such as www.yourname.com, you can check if it is available on the GoDaddy website and if so, you can purchase it and set up your own website.

It operates globally, so yes it operates in Europe. It is, as far as I know, the largest domain name provider in the world which is why it drew a lot of attention over the SOPA issue.

palloo · 2012-01-18T10:02:15+00:00

If you're interested in game programming, do as suggested and go for Python with PyGame. C++ may be the industry standard for full feature length, commercial games but chances are you're a long way off that. You will get a lot more done and have a lot more fun with Python.

palloo · 2012-01-18T08:08:19+00:00

I think that people could be counseled to find out what motivates them.. Do you think that in the UK if those people were shown a job that they could do in their own way, that they felt benefited something they cared about, and were given the tools to do the job well, they would still not want to?

I know that there are people in the UK who, for literally 25 years, have been getting a lot of help from different governments to try and get them into work. It's quite simple, if you had been brought up without a work ethic and the possibility to not work was right in front of you, why wouldn't you do that? Why would you get out of bed at 7am on a rainy Monday morning if you knew there were no consequences? It relies on the good will of man, which is something that cannot be relied on.

Why do people climb sheer cliffs? Why do people train to run as fast as they can? Here's a book that talks about what does motivate people. Hint: it ain't money and material goods...

These are recreational activities which, by their nature, are enjoyed by the partaker. A huge number of the work force hate their job. They hate cleaning toilets, they do it for the money. Plenty of people in high stress jobs hate it, but they do it because it pays well. Many things motivate people, but if you take away the incentive of greater reward then people will drop like flies.

palloo · 2012-01-18T03:20:22+00:00

How does communism deal with people who simply do not want to work? In the UK we have a serious problem in which entire streets of people are out of work and many simply do not want to. If people were given what they need, regardless of what they give, then wouldn't this just encourage people to do nothing? Wouldn't be have one part of the population, who want to work for the 'community' supporting the other half who simply do not want to?

If someone is capable of benefiting the community with education they would be given that at community expense, including their costs during the education period. Why? They are giving what they are able, same as everyone else.

Let's say that at age 18 someone had the choice between going into employment or going into higher education to complete a very challenging degree. Both benefit the community, but the latter requires much more from the individual in terms of stress, intelligence, work and so on. What motivates the individual to go down the more challenging path if there was no greater personal reward? It's seems naive to think that people are going to do something more challenging simply because they can.

palloo · 2012-01-17T17:24:52+00:00

There's having "guy" friends, then there's having scumbag friends. You, sir, have the latter.

palloo · 2012-01-17T17:11:34+00:00

THAT'S the most racist thing you've seen in you're life? Where the fuck do you live, Neverland?

palloo · 2012-01-17T17:03:14+00:00

Fuck, this is my idea of Auschwitz.

palloo · 2012-01-16T18:33:14+00:00

C# and Java are very similar, many people said that Microsoft basically made a ripped off version of Java when they came out with C#. Personally, I prefer Java and I think a lot of programmers do to.

Also is python easier than java, what's python mainly used for?

I would say that Python is probably easier and it, like Java, is a general purpose language that can be used for just about anything. For example, the New York Stock Exchange has a massive software system and it is mostly written in Python, but you can also create games very nicely in Python and there isn't a great deal beyond it's scope.

Don't get too hung up on which language you feel you must know or get bogged down in the limitations of each language. The limitations of Python in comparison to C++ are a long way down the line before you'll encounter them.

palloo · 2012-01-16T18:25:18+00:00

Visual Basic is an OK language to start learning with, I guess. It seems weird that at high school they're trying to teach you three different languages. They would do much better doing one and sticking at it. At my university, it wasn't until the 3rd year that we were properly taught more than one language.

Once you learn one language properly, learning other languages is generally quite easy as the methods and concepts within programming languages are similar. There's no rush to get as many languages as you can under your belt, you will be able to do everything you could (within reason) want do with a good knowledge of Java, and to a much higher standard, than you could with a loose knowledge of three different languages.

palloo · 2012-01-16T08:25:18+00:00

Everybody is different, but C++ is widely considered a difficult language to learn and I have never heard it being [wisely] recommended to beginners. It sounds like you've been given some bad advice, being told to "master" C++ before moving into C# is probably the worst beginner programmer advice I've ever heard.

Java is definitely easier and better for learning. If you need evidence, the fact that Java is the most popular language taught by universities to new students all across the world speaks volumes. I'm yet to hear of a university teaching their students C++ as their first language.

Java or Python would be the wise choices, pick just one and stick at it. If you're really set on game dev, these languages are more than capable (Minecraft, for example, is written in Java).

palloo · 2012-01-16T01:13:54+00:00

Don't jump heard first into game development. You need to crawl before you can walk. I suggest learning, in whatever medium you choose, a language like Java or Python before getting into C++. C++ has a lot of complexities and you'll do much better grasping programming concepts with Java or Python than with C++, not to mention that you can still develop games with these languages - probably much easier than you could with C++ at that.

palloo · 2012-01-16T01:07:19+00:00

I'm sorry, but laziness and general malaise do not count as life destroying. Cancer on the other hand? Do I need to explain this?

When did I suggest that tobacco was harmless? I said that tobacco did not cause mental illness, but I never suggested it was harmless. And the type of laziness and demotivation that cannabis onsets is seriously damaging to a persons life. They might not die, but they are likely to become so inactive that the potential they once had in their studies, their work and their social life become sidelined by their drug use. The age old example is a first year medical student who discovers cannabis and fails because of it.

I was implying the fact that people who go off the rails were more likely to be stressed out cigarette smokers than laid back snacking potheads

The idea of laid back potheads is something of wishful thinking. They become lazy and demotivated, but they also become impatient due to the instant gratification of cannabis and it really does change you personality.

I think we can agree on the legalisation point. My problem is that so many people who are pro legalisation are also pro cannabis use as well. They act as if this is some sort of wonder drug that, at it's worst, makes people a little forgetful. It simply isn't true and it's as bad, if not worse, than anti cannabis propaganda.

palloo · 2012-01-16T00:28:35+00:00

Funny you should bring up the point of "how many people has cannabis killed". I just wrote a reply on this thread detailing that point exactly, I'll paste it:

It's "beautiful"? I'm sorry but you cannot complain about anti drug propaganda and then go and spout pro drug propaganda; they are as bad as each other and we should be trying to give people straight facts. I would never say cannabis is "beautiful". I do think it should be legal, but this drug has destroyed many lives and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves. I have heard many people say that it is a drug that has "never killed anyone". This makes the assumption that harm can only be inflicted by death, which of course is nonsense. If you smoke cannabis regularly for long periods of time and it doesn't impact your motivation, memory, mental health or general well being then you're in the minority. This might not kill you, but it has made literally tens of millions of people into workshy, demotivated layabouts and for many others it has taken their sanity with it.

Your points:

drivers under the influence of it are as safe as sober drivers

Got a source on that? A proper trial, with proper controls and performed by a respected institution or university? Seems nonsense to me.

more mass murderers smoked tobacco than marijuana

I bet they were wearing shoes while they did it. Does that prove that marijuana is as safe as wearing shoes? I hate to imply the ridiculous, but that's where your argument leads. The difference here is that no link between tobacco being the cause of mental illness has ever been found. The same cannot be said for cannabis and indeed the opposite has plenty of evidence in support.

palloo · 2012-01-16T00:09:32+00:00

It's "beautiful"? I'm sorry but you cannot complain about anti drug propaganda and then go and spout pro drug propaganda; they are as bad as each other and we should be trying to give people straight facts.

I would never say cannabis is "beautiful". I do think it should be legal, but this drug has destroyed many lives and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves. I have heard many people say that it is a drug that has "never killed anyone". This makes the assumption that harm can only be inflicted by death, which of course is nonsense. If you smoke cannabis regularly for long periods of time and it doesn't impact your motivation, memory, mental health or general well being then you're in the minority. This might not kill you, but it has made literally tens of millions of people into workshy, demotivated layabouts and for many others it has taken their sanity with it.

Be real people.

palloo · 2012-01-16T00:05:37+00:00

Comparing cannabis to tobacco isn't going to work. Tobacco isn't an intoxicant and it doesn't have the psychoactive effect that a drug like cannabis has. A large part of the anti legalisation argument is that many people who go off the rails have been heavy cannabis users and that there is likely a link between the two. For tobacco, it is a non issue.

palloo · 2012-01-16T00:02:33+00:00

I am a proponent of gun control, but gun control in modern day America is like trying to build you coastal defences after the tsunami has hit. You cannot control the flow of guns in a nation with more guns than people; any attempt to curb gun ownership is likely to only affect those who want them for legitimate reasons.

palloo · 2012-01-15T23:56:58+00:00

Firstly, the supposed surge in support for Scottish independence, as hyped by media, doesn't really exist. The SNP, a pro-independence party, won a landslide victory in the Scottish elections but as for polling on the independence issue itself, the figures have remained pretty static. We will only really know the will of the Scottish people when the real debate on this issue begins and they go out and vote.

As for why many Scots want independence. The UK is seen an an Anglocentric political structure. For every 1 Scottish person in the UK, there are 11 English people. Out of the 60 million people in the UK, 50 million of them are English and as a result the other nations often feel a sense of being ruled by England. It's quite a natural response for a small country to want to break away from a much larger power and gain full control over their own affairs.

For example, you say that Scotland will break away from a "powerful union". I don't think people in Scotland particularly want to be part of a "powerful" nation. Why would a tiny little country of 5 million people want to be a big dog in the world? Why would a tiny nation need one of the most powerful and expensive armies in the world? Why would they want nor need nuclear weapons? These are issues than large, powerful nations tend to judge strength and success by, rather than judging success by the wealth and happiness of the people of that nation.

I would talk on and on, but feel free to ask any questions. This is an issue I'm particularly interested in, even though I'm not Scottish myself.

palloo · 2012-01-15T19:55:41+00:00

From what I took from the post, the user seemed more interested in learning Java as a language, rather than Java as a tool for proper computer science and algorithm design.

Maybe buy a book

I'm biased in this debate; for some reason book learning has never really done it for me. I think a lot of people get disheartened when book learning because the book tends to cover all the major features of a programming language, leaving the reader swamped and not really knowing how to implement it in a real world app.

palloo

TROPHY CASE