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This is straight out of this post from Stuff White People Like about "awareness." They're giving $5M, while not profitable, to make people "aware" of an issue instead of doing something practical like spending $5M to augment background investigation systems. Because that would be actually doing something. Making people "aware" of a problem is just mental and emotional masturbation for activists who should be working real jobs.

In the site/book Stuff White People Like, the article about "Awareness" summed up much of this mentality:

This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges. Because, the only challenge of raising awareness is people not being aware. In a worst case scenario, if you fail someone doesn’t know about the problem. End of story.

Getting clean water consistently in a hell hole like much of Africa is a truly transformative experience for many people. Public sanitation, reliable electricity, etc. Nothing your mobile/web app is doing is as transformative for the world as replicating consistent, basic utilities for all of mankind. It's unsexy work that is more commonly associated with redneck laborers (guys who actually make these systems work) than hipsters.

People like to brag they have no TV, but the reality is that the keyboard-less tablets are just the latest incarnation of consume-only-produce-nothing started by TV.

Having been an early adopter of smartphones, getting an Audiovox 6700 Spring PocketPC in 2004 with slide-out tactile QWERTY keyboard, I avoided the current crop (everything post-iPhone) for as long as I could, even after my beloved PocketPC gave out in 2009. I recently got a Galaxy S3, and while it looks nice, I'm continually frustrated at the short messages it effectively limits me to tapping out.

I realize I'm in the minority, and, sorry, don't know any other way to say this, but that's what scares me. No one has given up TV -- they've just moved on to the next TV.

Now, tablets do have their use-case, and that is as clipboard substitute in business environments where the only input on those clipboards needed is checkboxes and signatures. The advantage of a tablet over a clipboard, of course, is instant and total recording of data into a central database.

And BTW, 1024x768 is XGA, not SVGA, which is 800x600.

I bet you'd find drug dealers and others ... make excellent entrepeneurs as well.

You'd think so, right? Apparently, that enterprise is run like any other. The Wire did a decent job of portraying its day-to-day.

Or just not own a TV:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv/

Specially if he's white

Also this http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv/ But my favorite is this quote from Groucho Marx: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."

Because inevitably such an optimization process would reduce the tax bill of some rich person, some corporation, or some other entity that White People don't like.

"More tax breaks for the rich!!!!" they would say. "I thought things were supposed to be different now. I thought there was supposed to be Change."

This is why the tax system can never be reformed. (1) You can't simplify it without reducing the tax bills of someone the White People don't like, and (2) you can't give tax breaks to the poor without also giving them to the rich.

It's not a computing problem. It's a politics problem.

This is #134 on the full list of stuff white people like. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

I'm going to go out on a limb, here, and take a guess that you are, in fact, a White Person

Asian girls?

Agree with you 100%. Good to know I was not and will not affected in any way. Does anything serious get done on Facebook?

Wow, what a phenomenally smug statement. Why does everything have to have a "serious" use? Social tools are useful and valid things, and 500 million users think so. Or are you more enlightened than every one of them?

Ever since Stuff White People Like mocked pretentious TV-haters, they had to move on to hating Facebook instead.

Wait, I thought this topic was already covered here :P

What's a commercial? I'm a smug SWPL-style tech yuppie with no TV and both NoScript and AdBlock installed on my Mac, so I like to ask silly questions like this to prove my superiority over the unwashed masses.

Most people I know who go on regular vacations to other countries end up going to the Caribbean twice a year, and sitting on a beach. There are so many more interesting places to see in the world. Go to Europe

Here in Europe there are plenty of culture-free sunny beach tourist destinations too. I assume you aren't suggesting Americans fly many times further to sit in front of rows of hotel blocks on a Costa del Sol beach though?

If all you want to do is sit on a beach and drink, you might as well just sit on your couch at home.

Except that you're on your couch at home, and not on holiday on a nice, sunny beach.

Some people like that sort of thing. Get over it. You don't? Fine- it's not your holiday.

You remind me of the type of people described in Stuff [upper middle class American] white people like. God forbid that someone should simply want to go on holiday to relax.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/02/10/121-funny-or-ironic-tattoos/
Just saying.

Also, not to dissuade you or anything, but beware the risks: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/02/10/121-funny-or-ironic-tattoos/

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2007/07/15/10-stuffwhitepeoplelike/

You're one of those people, STFU.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/09/15/109-the-onion/

You're one of those people, STFU.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv/

You're one of those people, STFU.

“this place is pretty good, but living in Japan really spoiled me. I’ve had such a hard time finding a really authentic place.”

Not just easy, but Facebook got popular due to brand recognition and I guess maybe media exposure?

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/07/31/106-facebook/ explains it better than I can.

Same thing with Twitter, which is really just RSS with a cell phone interface and brand name recognition. Even with nearly everything supporting RSS, it never really caught on as fast and by surprise as twitter.

I think the real money to be made is for truly closed alternatives to Facebook and Twitter for use in corporate intranets or for your secret societies.

Also, I'd really like to see Google Buzz and Google Wave catch on as much more technically advanced social networking platforms, but alas, no one I know uses them. Facebook (and to a lesser extent, Twitter) has nearly everyone signed on it, succeeding where Classmates.com failed miserably and spectacularly for a decade+. So Facebook has pretty much become the hub that links to any activity going on in other social sites (flikr, livejournal, etc. where's the Slashdot comment notification?)

The number one reason why white people like not having a TV is so that they can tell you that they don’t have a TV."

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/29/38-netflix/
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/30/39-apple-products/


Conflict averted.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/29/38-netflix/
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/30/39-apple-products/


Conflict averted.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/03/11/123-mad-men/

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv

Yes indeed. The same sort of thing happened to Volvo and VW too. They were mid-level basic transportation for the average person in Europe. Nothing fancy. Then American yuppies found out about them and they became another commodity of SWPL and that was the end of them as comfortable, sturdy and economical automobiles for middle income earners. Their prices ballooned and they became just another toy for the yuppsters and their ilk.

Don't worry, trendy people have started drinking tap water again. They are, however, filtering it through a Brita and then putting it in their own pretentious bottles.

Side note: these bottles bring health and safety full circle. I remember when there was a health concern about the aluminum in soda cans leading to Alzheimers, so the industry started lining cans with plastic and 20oz bottles became popular. Now with the concern about BP-A, people are paying top dollar for aluminum bottles to drink their water from.

Sigh...link fail. Let's try that again:

Bravo, Mr. Walking Cliché. In your 10 o'clock show, will you discuss Aung San Suu Kyi, rail against multinational corporations, or tell us about how your hybrid has an Apple sticker on the back?

Sigh...link fail. Let's try that again:

Bravo, Mr. Walking Cliché. In your 10 o'clock show, will you discuss Aung San Suu Kyi, rail against multinational corporations, or tell us about how your hybrid has an Apple sticker on the back?

Sigh...link fail. Let's try that again:

Bravo, Mr. Walking Cliché. In your 10 o'clock show, will you discuss Aung San Suu Kyi, rail against multinational corporations, or tell us about how your hybrid has an Apple sticker on the back?

Sigh...link fail. Let's try that again:

Bravo, Mr. Walking Cliché. In your 10 o'clock show, will you discuss Aung San Suu Kyi, rail against multinational corporations, or tell us about how your hybrid has an Apple sticker on the back?

Sigh...link fail. Let's try that again:

Bravo, Mr. Walking Cliché. In your 10 o'clock show, will you discuss Aung San Suu Kyi, rail against multinational corporations, or tell us about how your hybrid has an Apple sticker on the back?

Yes. Slagging someone over the fact that their native language does not include certain phonemes isn't funny though, it's just pathetic. Humour around race can be funny (Jon Stewart is pretty good at walking the line), but in this case, it's really not funny at all. It's just pointing fingers and shouting "DIFFERENT!".

They bought a mac for the same reason they do Yoga, and bought a Prius and an expensive baby stroller. They read about it on Stuff White People Like

Wow... I think there's a web site dedicated to people like you. Tell me, do you own a television?

In all seriousness, I loved cities when I was single. They were busy, everything was near everything, I could hang out with my friends - good times. Then I had a kid. Suddenly, being in an area that actually quiets down before 10 was a priority. Being able to afford an apartment that can actually fit two adults and a kid became a priority. Having some green space for the kid to play in became a priority (public parks are okay). Being in an area where the kid can step outside semi-unsupervised and not go into full-on panic mode became a priority. Though some cities are better than others at meeting that list of criteria, suburbia, for all its faults, was practically designed around providing just that.

Huh, my middle paragraph got eaten somehow.

In fact, I'm going to go all racist and suggest that you'd enjoy reading http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ . But it's OK because I'm part white myself and identify with at least a third of the stuff they cover. It has really helped me understand myself and others in a way that is simple, succinct, and wrong :P

Actually, that guy is one of their "internal police". They make his internal memos available in blog form because, well, they are interesting.

I know that the editorial staff at the Times clearly hasn't given up - and I think it reasonable to hold their writers to the old standard if only to avoid the wrath of white people. I just don't know why people go around hunting forums for minor errors, as if they are the forum editor or something.

Not that you're white necessarily, but I think this is a good parody of why people think it is silly to get so up in arms about grammar and spelling in casual conversation.

My question would be, why didn't 95% of whites vote for Obama?

Anti-black racism in the white American community is ugly.

I didn't vote for Obama because (1) I don't agree with his Iraq policy... what he has of one, anyway and (2) I'm not looking forward to the tax hike I'll take paying for all the government programs he ran his campaign on.

I realize most of the country disagrees with my assessment. I'm ok with that, and we'll all find out together whether or not he'll be a good President. But labeling me a racist just because I didn't get on the Obama hope/change bandwagon?

This election set an historic precedent, but it wasn't about race. For me, anyway. Apparently it was for you.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/19/8-barack-obama/

Yes, you're exactly right. Once everyone realizes the (untruth) that their vote doesn't count, MAGICALLY, problems will begin to be solved. Yes, that's right folks, all you need is awareness, and problems just happen to fall away.

He must be white.

This is actually #28 on the list of "Stuff White People Like."
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv/

The number one reason why white people like not having a TV is so that they can tell you that they don't have a TV.
. ...
It is effective in making other white people feel bad, and making themselves feel good about their life and life choices.
Though these people often fill their time by talking with other friends who don't watch TV about how they don't watch TV, looking at leaves, cooking, reading books about left wing politics, and going to concerts/protests/poetry slams.

You laugh, but quite frequently I see Apple stickers on the back of Priuses (Prii? Priora?). Makes sense to me, they're both products targeted at people with money to waste on over-priced products that don't live up to the hype. Prius owners think they're getting a car that helps cut down carbon emissions, but doesn't much (if at all) and Mac owners think they're getting a computer which is better than a PC, but isn't much (if at all). Same thing.

Also:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/60-toyota-prius/
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/30/39-apple-products/

You laugh, but quite frequently I see Apple stickers on the back of Priuses (Prii? Priora?). Makes sense to me, they're both products targeted at people with money to waste on over-priced products that don't live up to the hype. Prius owners think they're getting a car that helps cut down carbon emissions, but doesn't much (if at all) and Mac owners think they're getting a computer which is better than a PC, but isn't much (if at all). Same thing.

Also:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/07/60-toyota-prius/
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/30/39-apple-products/

"I'm with you in that boat, I think I'll leave the country"

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/24/75-threatening-to-move-to-canada/

The new ad is saying that PC users are a diverse cross-section of humanity, while Mac-users are stuck-up racist white people. Of course, they are.

why would someone want to be offended by a word, you would think people would have better things to do than create reasons to be offended.

If you like the onion, you might be entertained by this: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/ ;)

They are already. See here