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A child will fail this test. A person who is not familiar with slang will fail this test. But they both are intelligent. That's the problem with the TT - it's testing for a characteristic that we cannot define, much like one of US judges, who proclaimed that "hard-core pornography" was hard to define, but that "I know it when I see it."

Similarly, a TT cannot be conducted if the parties don't speak the same language, or don't share the same culture, or just are of different genders. How would you think a man can sustain a conversation with several girls about fashions? Wouldn't his replies be somewhat mechanistic? A man could say "I don't care, dear, what color is your dress, because I have no use of the dress; the content of it is far more attractive." However a similar reply might be obtained just by googling, and that can be done by a pretty simple algorithm. Siri probably would win the TT today against most of its users.

White Men Wearing Google Glass

There's always the Hello Kitty AK-47.

"In its favour, if Google Glass didn’t exist, all these Silicon Valley guys would be having affairs or buying unsuitable motorbikes”

That's not intrinsic value. Gold has intrinsic value because it's an attractive, non-tarnishable raw material that can be made into jewellery.

Bitcoin gains its value for the same reason gold ultimately does: It takes an effort to obtain it, and it is in limited supply. Snow literally falls out of the sky, you can get it anywhere. Bitcoins are scarce though.

Many cultures have gone through currencies for the same reason. For example, pacific nations for a long time used sharks teeth as currency. The reason is simple: they are (or were) rare and hard to obtain, however they aren't so hard to obtain that there aren't enough to go around. That is their intrinsic value. Snoflakes, UUID's, are a fail analogy. Beanie babies are likewise a fail analogy.

And, I don't think you realize just how powerful the drug trade is. It's estimated that globally there is more than 750 billion USD going into it every year. If BTC became the standard bearer for trading in that (e.g. conventional means of distribution go away) then it isn't going anywhere.

All your nonsequiturs about Keynes and government control just mark you out as a Libertarian, and underline how appropriate my sig is.

Well here's the thing: I'm making money on bitcoins. In addition to actually obtaining more of them at very little cost, I already have realized gains far in excess of what I have put into it (that is, converted the bitcoins into real world valuable items.) Even if the whole thing were to fall apart tomorrow (it couldn't any easier than the US government could suddenly collapse,) and even if you subtract a dollar figure on the actual time I've been working on it, I'd walk away from the table with a net gain. And I'm a libertarian. So tell me, how is your sig appropriate there?

How much money have you made fighting against bitcoin by the way? You've certainly put time into working against it it (for example, the time spent writing these posts.) And further, why are you so interested in seeing it fall? I'll tell you why: because you're afraid of what might happen should the worlds governments lose their titans grip on trade. You're afraid that we might all become free, because if we did, then we'd all be libertarian.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lykz2dLCsL1qid5x9o1_1280.png

Wiretap warrants require a lot more than just reasonable suspicion of a crime, though. Wiretap laws were written to fit the idea that phone companies were simple carriers who would respect the integrity of customer's conversations, and since they didn't provide services themselves, people had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Now that we willingly send information to companies knowing it will be manipulated for the provided services, that clear expectation of privacy gets a lot more blurry. Post a threat to Facebook, and your friends can pass it on as a tip to police, but the police can't just ask Facebook who made threats? That doesn't really make much sense.

if only there was some legislation allowing companies to look at the data they carry, that didn't require a tedious and detailed warrant request for every detail... And of course, that's the goal of CISPA. Where CISPA fails is that it doesn't just remove the excessive red tape on wiretap warrants, but apparently bypasses due process altogether, for any kind of query.

The bird is the word

http://jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com/post/48596551224/nice-piece-of-glass

The world -- by which of course I mean tech "journalists" who earn a living making the Valley feel like it deserves reportage -- seems to care about Google Glass, the idiotic new wearable computer from Mountain View.

(The actual world couldn't give two shits about such a fey, ludicrous nonessential, but that as usual doesn't stop anyone around here from thinking this is valid life's work.)

Now I say "idiotic" not out of the typical ironic tech-envy that permeates the Valley, but because I've seen Glass in person, perched atop the literal douche-nozzles of Kool-Aid-drunk Google employees.

I have to admit that my initial reaction upon seeing a pair was indeed one of childlike wonder. As in, "I wonder what will happen if I kick this guy in the nuts?"

(Incidentally, this is the world we live in, where rich cock-jockeys sporting techno-eyewear is news. Look at that little guy in the middle, coiffed so perfectly for his big photo-op and taking his little gadget as seriously as the world-changing technology it is. "I'd fuck me," he seems to be saying -- automatically translated by his stupid glasses into Portuguese or some shit.)

Some 'edgy' tech bloggers have used the term "glasshole" to describe these early-adopting dongle-schlobbers, because it allows them theoretical judgmental distance while remaining just cutesy enough to not sacrifice their intense bloodlust for actually being able to unbox a pair.

I prefer: "embarrassing overcompensated retards who need something to flaunt while their Tesla is charging."

These Glass-sporting scrota would have you believe we're destined for a world where information is at our fingertips -- by which they mean not at your fingertips at all, as it already is -- but stapled to the side of your head and interjecting its worthy informationality into your eyeball every second of the day.

Let me bone-conduct this straight to your inner ear: We're not.

In my groundbreaking post on profile photo douchebags, I compared Glass to the Segway, and the comparison rings true even today, nearly two weeks later. Segway ignored the fact that Americans (and the American-influenced) are unwilling to pay for their laze. Costco provides free scooters for me to roll my fat ass around in -- why would I need a Segway? (And how would I hold all my free samples?) Segway ignored that for most Americans, the rare times when they walk are considered workouts.

And Segway ignored the fact that they were making a scooter, for Christ's sake.

Similarly Glass ignores our capacity for multi-anything. Lord knows we have the willingness, especially in the Valley -- God help anything that stands in the way of a tech-nerd consuming his handcrafted, custom-filtered, bespoke news feed -- but at some point even a morally destitute society such as ours demands actual human interaction with the humans actually standing in front of you, creepy and Asperger-y as most of them may be.

The Segway has its place. Underneath mall cops. Helping American tourists see the ruins of Rome quickly enough to still make their reservation at Bubba Gump's. Or if you're playing Segway Polo like a fucking jackass. (The existence of Segway Polo, by the way, is responsible for more Muslim extremism than cruise ships, Vegas and the Lap-Band combined.)

Likewise, Glass could be useful augmenting specific, heads-up-display-friendly tasks. Air traffic control. Helping police on a manhunt so they can keep up with the very latest from the Tweetstream. And for rich cunts who want to film their snowboarding escapades at five times the price and half the resolution of a GoPro.

Everyone else, just look down at your fucking phone.

Either and/or both.

Plumpergeddon Mod > Dude 2 days ago

My guess is he pulled a knife or something at the ATM after following/helping me there under the pretense of getting me home.

But sadly 'cos the Police didnt manage to get any CCTV from an ATM at a large bank about 100m from Oxford Circus or anywhere on the 500m route between the pub, my client (where I apparently picked up my bag/laptop) and the ATM, I'll never know for certain who I left the pub with or what happened at the ATM :/

Source

He was blind drunk, to the point of blacking out and he willingly associated with the thief.

And in case anybody starts feeling sorry for the hunted and soon to be deceased Mr. Tsarnaev Jr., just remember this picture: http://media.tumblr.com/3ee5f3e27917c83a3810cd688da60817/tumblr_inline_mlhg426NpU1qz4rgp.png

Proportional representation. Small factions will get represented too.

As it is, only the smallest fraction gets represented. (The ones with obscene amounts of money.) This is an issue that must take precedence; see Lawrence Lessig's We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim.

There are a lot of other important issues, but there is no way to address any of them in the current system. The problem is that solutions often require upsetting the status quo, and the money ensures that that will never happen, wether it is with energy, health care, patent, copyright, the "wars" on drugs/terrorism, the military/prison industrial complexes etc. Perhaps above all, the thorough and systematic destruction of our civil liberties,

Protests against the government of Argentina last night, largely organized via Facebook and other social networks:

http://clarincomhd.tumblr.com/image/48316699321

Does this give you a sense of scale, about the level of communication people can have on Facebook?

Proclaiming yourself to be a geek and then proceed to buy a hyped-up expensive product by a big corporation does not correlate. Want to be a real "geek" then watch anime, become a brony and get a dakimakura. Bonus points for going to cons. Extra bonus points for dressing up like your favourite character. Extra extra bonus points for ending up on Your cosplay sucks.

GP poster should indeed have started by reading the actual complaints.

That said, it's still not 'stealing' as the summary alleges, and Matthew partially asserted. That and other claims are usually railed against when it's the RIAA, MPAA, etc. based purely on the technical facts. It should be no different when it's 'the little guy' - be it Matthew Inman or Katie Woodger.

The IRS is using it in a legal sense, and they are wrong here. From a practical sense, one should not expect email to be confidential. From a legal aspect we should have that expectation.

I am not a lawyer, but this guy is, and he illustrates well how email is not legally private.

Well before all this, but I recently gave up and removed him because he continously posted nonsense.

Don't compare "socialist" Europe to "capitalist" US. It just ain't fair.

Sorry, but that's exactly what privatizing some sectors get you. [...]

The UK Rail system is a great study in this [1]. Their railways weren't shitty, but then rails and cars got privatized, and now the UK rail sucks serious ass.
With the massive investment required to get clearance to lay rail, and maintaining rails and cars, it's a natural barrier to entry for competitors... allowing companies that do operate to have regional monopolies or operate as a cartel to comfortably ignore their customers and sometimes even their own charter.

[1] http://leavesontheline.tumblr.com/post/3487259985/why-privatisation-sucks

Flash works. No Script works. Adblock Plus works.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:22.0) Gecko/20130329 Firefox/22.0 ID:20130329030904 CSet: 8693d1d4c86d

Now, if you want to crash 64-bit Nightly, this is the way to do it.

http://deshommesetdeschatons.tumblr.com/

Keep scrolling. And it's nice that the crash reports are null and invalid.

My printer can do that.

Of course the reproduction isn't perfect yet, but I'm getting there.

I like this comma joke better... http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/serial%20comma?before=19

This is a big point. We have the largest prison system in the world, both in total numbers and per-capita.

We have a two tiered system of law. There's a slap on the wrist for the elite, and zero tolerance for the rest of us. That means if you simply get caught with drugs more than once or twice, you may well end up with life in prison.

Our prison systems rely heavily on isolation. Anyone can end up in isolation for any reason, including for "their own protection". This almost always breaks the prisoner mentally and sometimes physically. They are never the same after that.

Once out, they lead a meager existence as a ex-convict. An untouchable under-class with fewer rights and destined to be passed over for all but the worst jobs.

With that in mind, and considering some of the other things going on, we are already trapped and controlled.

Sometimes when I read about history I'm surprised. For instance, both Hitler and Chavez failed at their first attempt at leading a revolution to overthrow the government. They were thrown in prison for a little while and released. Do that today and the President himself will order your assassination. What an honor that must be.

The more interesting (though not entirely surprising) bit from this news is that MPEG LA might not actually own all the patents required for H.264 to work.

No shit? I've been saying precisely this during the entire "VP8 must infringe patents unlike good 'ol H.264! Use H.264, it's safe!" troll fest.

H.264 never was, never is and never will be any safer than any other alternative. Which, really, means there's no good reason not to use VP8 anyway. You're just as likely to be infringing on someone's patents, so you may as well go for the cheapist option.

As you wish

I don't know whether I should be laughing, or reporting this as spam >.

My face when..

Read this. Memorize it. It tells you everything you need to know as a developer:

http://tommyrefenes.tumblr.com/post/45684087997/apathy-and-refunds-are-more-dangerous-than-piracy

Not sure about the "anecdotal" excuse.
It doesn't mean (necessarily) a preference over shooting darker skin tones, but at least they seem to spend much, much more time looking at them, at least in NY.
I mean, even accounting for some +/-% of uncertainty, 87% is a freaking big chunk.

That war will be fought in internet, and the innocent bystanders will be all of us, that in a way or another have some part of our lives here. No, won't be bullets, but privacy will dissapear (even pretending that you want it or try to give it to others could lead you to getting into political prosecutions), abuses of people in power will be common (like this, maybe more **AA oriented this time), forbidding not "government approved" encryption, software, technologies and so on.

Considering the investment on space exploration, Mars will be for long time the only "land of the free"

I would welcome the advance notice. I'd like to have a chance to get my affairs in order and do a few things before I'm unable.

Do those things now; you never know when your time is up.

My wife was perfectly healthy until the day before Thanksgiving 2005 when, with only the complaint of a persistent headache, she was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor known as a Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). She died in my arms just seven weeks later; we had been together for 20 years.

While she was 61, I was 42 at that time. We both had Wills and our finances pretty well in order anyway, but now I have a more detailed Will, beneficiaries and/or transfer on death notices on my investments, copies of important paperwork in a firesafe at home, and a Living Will registered at U.S. Living Will Registry that includes a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) - many hospitals can provide and submit the paperwork and having them do so will also cover the $5/year fee. I have also signed up with the Virginia State Anatomical Program to donate my body to science, like my wife asked me to do for her.

We were lucky and I'm grateful for all our years and those last seven weeks together, including our last Thanksgiving, wedding anniversary, Christmas and New Year. (though, the Winter season suck for me now.) Many people aren't so lucky and the end comes very suddenly.

Remember Sue...

The original and still the best

http://25.media.tumblr.com/89598a218da9fecb96f0a9f9b575c3b1/tumblr_mfp8971y771qclwico1_400.jpg

Oh god, this is the same bullshit that willfully blind sexists like bleating about over and over again.
The problem with sexism in our nerdy community is that we think that we're above it, so we spend a lot of time trying to justify the unjustifiable, or pin the blame back on women somehow, or claim that 'both sides got it'. It's not true, and you're too smart to claim ignorance.

The Hulk or Superman aren't FEMALE sex fantasies, they're MALE power fantasies. The reason why men look the way they do in media--including Han Solo, incidentally--is because that's what sells TO MEN. For a long time, Men were effectively the only people spending large amounts of money, and they were the only demographic that mattered. (And, in a terrible twist of irony, when women claim to like comics or video games despite the shitty way they're generally portrayed, they get called 'fake nerds' or 'attention whores'.)

You think Tomb Raider was somehow NOT marketed to men? You think the overt sexualisation of Cortana over the progression of Halo wasn't for the hetero men? Why the fuck does an AI need tits like that anyway?

This is a classic example of a false equivalence. You're claiming a molehill is a mountain. Here's a comic strip for you that boils it down much faster than I can: http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/05-the-death-of-snkrs/falseequivalence/

The fact that there are now emerging some shows and movies that women can go to and get a bit of a sexy fix isn't a justification for the last 30 years of sexist video games. Anita Sarkeesian (who received death and rape threats for starting a kickstarter so she could make a video series about this sort of thing) just released her first video. Go watch it.
http://tropesversuswomen.tumblr.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

Sex sells, yes. Sex and gender are deeply ingrained in our culture, yes. It doesn't mean that a bad or stilted view of sexuality is embedded in our culture. It doesn't mean we shouldn't change it.

Man, I'm probably wasting my breath, but I'm 100% sick of this BS. I'm a dude. I'm hetero and white and I have all the privileges afforded to me simply by being those things and I'm really irritated that I still have to see stuff like this that makes no sense and seems only to exist so you don't have to feel bad about your part in how shitty things still are for women, even just in the media (before we get to all the other feminist issues surrounding equality of pay, access to health services, work, etc., etc.)

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m53hhanSLt1ru2qouo1_1280.jpg

Yeah, I can see where that could be useful:

Man, go read the post.

http://violetblue.tumblr.com/post/44107008572/what-happened-with-my-security-bsides-talk

Basically, if someone wants to shut you down, they can use anything sex-related as a weapon. And if anyone disagrees, you become the enemy.

Violet Blue got shut down because the presentation *mentioned* the sex.

And if you ever disagree with someone who claims to be sensitive to the topic (abuse survivor), then you are worse than hitler.

Outrage is called for.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m57xd65swZ1qjvxfho1_500.jpg

I believe we'll have to agree to disagree.

As these historical documents show, that is a solved problem and therefore not a subject inviting further discussion.

Congratulations & welcome to the club! http://couchguy.tumblr.com/blueblockok

Thank you for sharing this. So many people around me are adamant that happiness in life is impossible without having a child. Perhaps they are so set on it to justify in their minds the decision they made.

You're welcome. I've heard many opinions over the years. My wife and I were an unusual couple. We met in 1985 when I was 22 and she was 41 (and twice divorced). She never could get pregnant, and certainly not when I met her, and I promised her that I was fine with that. When people asked if we had children, I usually started with a simple "no", but people would then ask "when would we", to which I would reply that we couldn't and that it was okay - really okay - then many, many people would immediately responded that we could adopt - yada, yada, yada - sigh.

My only regret was that we didn't get more time together. Sure 20 years seems like a long time, but not with the right person. The day before Thanksgiving 2005 she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died seven weeks later in Jan 2006 - just like that, or so it seemed.

Remember Sue...

Only 1500 signatures needed before monday (probably monday early morning) for fire Steve Heymann white house petition See also Aaron's partner post for more details.

This probably won't get an answer but once the treshhold is reached, the petition will remain readable indefinitely on the white house website. This won't look good on his resume when it comes to be promoted. That's reason enough to sign.

I like your music, lady, but sheesh, cry me a river, will ya?

Except that she's not crying: it seems that the NYT took quite a lot of the context from what she was saying.

I’ve posted all my streaming data for the month my “content” went live.

Just take a look at the typical compensation

Internet royalties With the explosion of the Internet and the ease of downloading music onto your computer, a whole new royalty arena has opened up in recent years. Record companies usually treat downloads as "new media/technology," which means they can reduce the royalty by 20% to 50%. This means that rather than paying artists a 10% royalty on recording sales, they can pay them a 5% to 8% rate when their song is downloaded from the Internet. In the case of downloaded music, although there is no packaging expense, many record company contracts still state that the 25% packaging fee will be deducted.

this reeks of non-news trumped up (by the new York times) with a jab at the scale goat, I mean piracy, for good measure..

I read the blog of Zoe Keating[1], the artist whose quote was extracted in the new york times article.

You said: "Seriously though, this person is getting upset because they don't have a large volume of listeners, not because the songs are not paid enough for listening."

This is not what Zoe Keating is complaining about. She complains that the artist on streaming platforms are made per play. Though, depending on who you are, you don't get paid the same per play. She claims that this is unfair. Basically because she is independent she can not negogiate a higher rate.

As for live performance, it appears to only represent 25% of her income, while music sales represent about 45%.

[1] http://zoekeating.tumblr.com/

Is negotiating a higher price not possible?

That's not what she's asking for.

This is what she's asking for:

"...to incorporate the needs of artists, not just record labels. What are those needs? Linking of avid listeners with artists for concert tickets, merch, music purchases, etc; crowdsourcing tours; providing listener stats and location data, maybe even emails; your idea here, etc, etc. Lift all the little boats. If this quixotic strategy doesn’t work, then I guess I’ll have to change my perception instead.

I was disappointed in the NYTimes article.like I’m often disappointed in the press. A 30 minute interview full of nuance squashed down to one sentence taken out of context and used to prove some other point. I know, I know, I’m naive. I’ll keep trying."
http://zoekeating.tumblr.com/

Here is her revenue breakdown:

45.55% Music sales
26.38% Live Performance
23.90% Sync/Master Licensing
2.69% ASCAP
0.89% Soundexchange (i.e. Pandora)
0.38% Spotify
0.21% Google Adsense
http://zoekeating.tumblr.com/

No wonder she's trying to use streaming to try to maximize her other much more significant revenue sources.

Is negotiating a higher price not possible?

That's not what she's asking for.

This is what she's asking for:

"...to incorporate the needs of artists, not just record labels. What are those needs? Linking of avid listeners with artists for concert tickets, merch, music purchases, etc; crowdsourcing tours; providing listener stats and location data, maybe even emails; your idea here, etc, etc. Lift all the little boats. If this quixotic strategy doesn’t work, then I guess I’ll have to change my perception instead.

I was disappointed in the NYTimes article.like I’m often disappointed in the press. A 30 minute interview full of nuance squashed down to one sentence taken out of context and used to prove some other point. I know, I know, I’m naive. I’ll keep trying."
http://zoekeating.tumblr.com/

Here is her revenue breakdown:

45.55% Music sales
26.38% Live Performance
23.90% Sync/Master Licensing
2.69% ASCAP
0.89% Soundexchange (i.e. Pandora)
0.38% Spotify
0.21% Google Adsense
http://zoekeating.tumblr.com/

No wonder she's trying to use streaming to try to maximize her other much more significant revenue sources.

Me, I'm constantly improving what was done, producing more and supporting those consumers.

And the artists aren't?

IMHO, Zoe Keating and musicians with the same attitude are the patent trolls of the music industry.

"As the artist featured in this NYTimes article, I feel horribly misrepresented and I have to straighten out a few things. ... But I'm truthfully, extremely happy and thankful, exactly where I am right now. ... I'm not against streaming by any means. I've put my music wherever someone might hear it; including onto filesharing sites (gasp)."

She probably could have made more just carving out a web site somewhere, hosting her own MP3s and throwing a paypal tip jar up.

For all the links you post, you apparently didn't check her blog :-)

"As the artist featured in this NYTimes article, I feel horribly misrepresented and I have to straighten out a few things. ... But Iâ(TM)m truthfully, extremely happy and thankful, exactly where I am right now. ... Iâ(TM)m not against streaming by any means. Iâ(TM)ve put my music wherever someone might hear itâ¦.including onto filesharing sites (gasp)."

As I've posted a couple times [I'm a fan so feel somewhat compelled to clarify that she's not really complaining (I have no further affiliation with her her)], Keating's views aren't well-reflected in the article and she's a lot less negative on the streaming model than the article seems to suggest. The vibe I've gotten is much more of a "here are numbers so you can have more intelligent conversations about things like changes in federal licensing regulations", and pick up basically no "wah wah wah Spotify should give me more money".

Her experience means very little in the real world...

As I posted above (not saying I really expect anyone to see it), Keating's views aren't very well reflected in the article; they're actually pretty neutral. I think a story hit /. a while back about her saying she would rather have more listener data from places like Spotify than more money.

Show me the details on a more mainstream person, show me details on her pre-pandora pre-digital royalties..

Pandora beat Keating's musical life to the market by several years (2000 vs 2005).