Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Wal-Modem, Culpability, Misquotes
There must be some mistake; this is what I wanted. Masem writes: "The review of the OS-less PCs sold through Wal-Mart brought out a lot of comments on the inclusion of a WinModem, effectively requiring Windows to make the computer work correctly. However, NewsForge reports that shortly after that posting, Microtel, the makers of these computers, wrote back to the reviewer and indicated that new versions of the systems will ship with Linux-friendly modems from now on. Nice to see a company that knows its target audience and how to make them happy."
Thanks, Microtel!
Next: ethernet cable manufacturers. cpt kangarooski writes: "For those tuning in late, Harlan Ellison sued AOL (among others) for having the temerity to permit users to upload copies of his copyrighted works across their networks on the Usenet. As it turns out, AOL was in the right, and got a summary judgment against Ellison.
The opinion by Judge Cooper is located here in PDF format Given his reputation, Ellison will likely appeal."
Welcome to Ix, please take off your shoes. cayle clark writes "A few months back I asked slashdot about shopping in the Akihabara, Tokyo's famous "electric town," and got lots of good advice. Well, now I been and went there, took some pictures, and posted an illustrated account here. Netting it out, it's a keen place to wander, and prices are in some (but only some) cases lower than in the USA."
Hacking at the ties that bind Following up on the new venture in wireless from the LinuxCare crew, Dave Sifry writes "802.11b Networking News wrote up a summary of the new Sputnik Gateway release today, codenamed Stagecoach. The Community Gateway code runs from CD and turns a computer with an ethernet card and Prism 802.11b card into a secure authenticating firewalled 802.11b Access Point. New features of this release include support for desktop cards, like the Linksys WMP11 PCI card, which means that you can turn your old 486 in a closet into a cheap secure wireless router."
I'd rather they save Futurama, but gift horse, teeth, etc. Remik writes "Yahoo News is carrying this story letting Simpsons creator Matt Groening set the record straight that the Simpsons isn't winding down and that it isn't on the ropes. He claims he was misquoted and misunderstood in a Financial Times of London article that came out earlier this week and that he does indeed has stories for years and years. What if Marge became a robot? Hmm..."
Has anyone detected the envelope with the winner's name yet? SoundGuy666 writes "Looks like SETI made it past that 500 million milestone - wonder who won the $500 prize..."
Come on man, get with it! Suing over usenet piracy is so 90's. It's all about suing p2p now!
Next thing you know, he'll start railing off on the evils of DOOM.
-Denor
Clean PC... Wal-Mart...
Clean PC... Wal-Mart... Aaaaaagh!
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
...but you knew that.
If you actually read Ellison's original rant, he sued AOL because the infringing postings were "received as part of his subscription to AOL."
That's right kids, Ellison was connecting through AOL. The alleged infringer's ISP (Tehama County Online) rolled over immediately, and was thus spared inclusion in the lawsuit. AOL got sued because they carried the infringing bits to him at his request.
At worst, they failed to proactively remove the posts from their news spools.
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
Actually, it is a well known fact that the Duron is manufactured in AMD's Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. I'm sure the residents of Austin will be suprised to know that they are now citizens of "Maylasia". Or did you perhaps mean Malaysia?
But hey, smart folks like you have no need for verifiable facts, right? So much for that "no toleranse for stupidity" thing. I guess Mensa'll hand out a card to any retard willing to take their asinine brain teaser test...
Oh and, by the way, it's spelled "tolerance". You might want to fix that one of these days. But then again, since I already pointed that out to you several months ago, maybe you enjoy looking like an idiot?
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
In that case, the court said this: "The court does not find workable a theory of direct infringement that would hold the entire Internet liable for actions that cannot reasonably be deterred." The worst possible outcome from a Scientologist's perspective.
Judge Cooper upheld this precedent with her current summary judgement. Way cool.
Yet again, the Scientologists shoot themselves in the foot!
When I moderate, I only use "-1, Overrated". That way, I never get meta-moderated!
Ellison is without doubt the most pompous jackass I've ever seen in my life.
Harlan or Larry?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Harlan or Larry?
Yes.
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
Since the simpsons is one of my hobbies and I spend lots of time talking about it (or spewing quotes) with my buddies at the bar, I'd like to offer my rebuttal to the argument that "The Simpsons jumped the shark long ago."
The important concept is to look at the Simpsons in phases. The Tracy Ulman shorts and season 1, and to a lesser extent season 2, was basically Groening getting his feet wet in the television medium. The plots were decent, and by the end of 2, the characters were pretty damn fleshed out. But most of the time the progress was slow, the voices (especially Azaria's) were crappy, and the jokes didn't punch.
Seasons 3 through 6,7, or 8 (depending on how much of a hardass you are) were the good years. The characters hit their prime, all the voices solidified, the animation went from "crappy" to "simple but elegant." The plots were tight, the jokes zinged. Basically every really classic episode was from this period. Flaming Moe's, Homer the Heretic, Last Temptation, Lemon of Troy... there are too many to mention.
But the seeds of crappery were also sewed during this period. Not 1 but 2 clipshows, the spinoff showcase, and guest episodes like the johny cash and X-files episodes. I bring up those last 2 for a reason: one of the central complaints about the later seasons is all the random guest voices, but those 2 above are two of my all time FAVORITES. Which brings me, I guess, to my central point: one man's meat is another's poison. Yes, the X-files episode was a pastiche attempt to gain ratings, but it was done in a freakin' hilarious way.
Most of the seasons after 9 typify this later approach: garish, sometimes slapdash, and always ridiculous ratings-fodder. Bart's a Jockey! Britney spears reads 2 lines! "It's N-Synch!" I would basically agree that the show had said everything meaningful it was going to say by the end of season 8 or so. And so it turned its energies outward: the long-loved and well-developed characters took on archtypal roles in critiques of pop culture.
Homer devolved from a dumb but lovable working class chump, to an archie bunker/fred flintstone obnoxious bastard. Lisa went from vulnerable geek to elitist snob. The thing is, these changes had a point: it's the way everyone ELSE was being, and now we're commenting on that, see? In fact, I would argue that the original Homer was a counterpoint to optimistic fans of "reaganomics" in the 80s, and the later Lisa similarly responded to the 90s' rising tide of "tree-hugging liberals" aloof from traditional democratic issues. The characters simply tracked what was going on in life and responded as necessary.
The Simpsons always had a healthy dose of biting critique, but in the end it had nothing but that. Even if it took the form of doing a totally asinine show and saying, "but you're still watching, eh?" Like the poochy episode or this most recent clip show. Basically, I commend the show for having the audacity, over the last few years, to flaunt and mock its own devolution. The fact that even this "smart" show is ultimately all about profit, and transitively, so must the rest of TV be. Not that we didn't know that, but... we're still watching, right? Granted, it's a different point than they started off trying to make in 1990, but their original idea got done to death. So they moved on. Let's, too.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Amen to that. Ironically, however, the path to that happy state almost certainly lies in increased involvement in the world economy, and that at first is going to come through Western companies. So it's OK to pressure Wal-Mart, Nike, or whomever, but recognize the irony... Here in the industrial West, we reached more human working conditions through strife and struggle; it's unlikely to happen smoothly anywhere else. The worst thing is, the transnationals seemed to have learned a lot of lessons about stopping the process, but we are not transmitting the right lessons about moving it forward.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Cry me a river. I myself have spent some time living in the Peruvian Andes in a village that didn't have running water or electricity and that relied on human (and to a small extent animal) power for everything, and I wouldn't wish that existence on anyone. Even the worst sweatshops in Lima have better living conditions than those of the typical Andean subsistance farmer. Not too mention the fact that the workers in Lima are far less likely to be harrassed by terrorists, drug-lords, or government soldiers.
The low end of the technology ladder is a crappy place to be. I don't see you giving up your car, your computer, and all the other trappings of civilized life to go live in the bush. Why should it surprise you that third world folk want to live like you do?
Lest Slashdot readers be tempted to dismiss Harlan Ellison as a technophobic crank, be aware that he is one of the most financially successful writers working in Hollywood today. He got that way by fighting the studios who tried to rip him off.
Hollywood operates in large part on reputation fraud and misappropriation of other people's work, particularly screenwriters. Plot ideas and outlines are co-opted left and right. Writers in Hollywood do indeed work like dogs and end up getting treated about as well. Ellison stepped into these shark-infested waters many decades ago and has consistently and resolutely refused to allow himself to be fscked by the studios.
Ellison is widely recognized as one of the most litigious writers out there, suing studios when they misappropriate his work. What's more, Harlan wins these suits almost all the time. Writing is his vocation and his passion, and he stands among some of the first names in science fiction. But he has seen too many of his friends and colleagues screwed by the studio system, doing lame knock-offs of their work and making millions while the writer goes hungry. Most creative types -- me included -- would just roll over and go, "Oh, well, what can I do about it?"
Not Harlan. He bitch-slaps these creeps up Sunset Blvd. and back until they get the clue: You don't take a writer's work without paying for it.
Where Harlan has gone wrong, IMHO, is that he has misconceptualized the nature of the "wrong" against him. Ellison's entire experience of having his work copied has been in the context of Hollywood studios and publishers. Studios copy Harlan's work, and make money off it. So Harlan sues the studio. Then he sees copies of his work are, "all over AOL," and AOL's making money off it. Ergo, the same solution applies.
Except it doesn't.
I hope someone can explain this to Ellison. His stock and trade is science fiction. We need the imaginations of men like him to provide the ideas and invent a future where copying is ubiquitous and unconstrained, and artists still get handsomely remunerated.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
OK, since there seems to be next to no posts regarding the Akihabara page, here I go... (sorry to be harsh, but I spend a lot of time there, so it sort of gets my goat to see someone come along, go around a few shops, write up a single-page report, and get that posted to /.).
...which could easily be rewritten to say, "American stores are grossly understaffed by Japanese standards." How often have I seen people complaining that they can't find a clerk in a US Fry's?
Why does that bother you? Were YOUR far far superior submissions to slashdot on this subject rejected or something, giving you the right to bitch?
Gee, I'm so sorry... strange as it may seem, shops in Akihabara don't take your plane fare into account when setting their prices.
Holy shit, talk about getting defensive about your adopted homeland. If the guy thought he was in for some life-changing bargains, then he was obviously wrong. He's just pointing that fact out, and really, was his statement wrong? Chill out, I don't think the guy was trying to offend anyone...a good idea for non-trolls.
Again with the "how dare you" attitude. By American standards (note, he implies nothing about superiority), many Japanese stores ARE overstaffed - in my experience, as well as the article author's, PLEASANTLY so.
OH MY GOD!!! You're KIDDING!!!! Japanese PDAs in Japan... who would have thought it?!?
See, now this was almost funny. Just lose all that extraneous punctuation, and you're halfway down the road to clown school.
Obviously, these stores should immediately devote a minimum of 70% of their floor space to items that are of interest to Americans.
Obviously, slashdot posters should devote 100% of their posts to inferring offense from an "outsider's" analysis. Do I have to say it? HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH, those Japanese TVs are not ideal for use outside of Japan.
All in all, about what I'd expect from a tourist on a quick spin through the larger shops...
All in all, about what I'd expect from a fanatical Western-raised Japan fanboy on a quick spin through slashdot.
Now, I have things to do Tuesday.
1. Insult a Japanese man
2. Fuck his wife, girlfriend, and daughters