Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Google, Prince, Bayesian
Please confirm, over. After reports that the People's Republic of China was blocking access to Google, an anonymous reader writes: "I'm working in China, and for the last 3 days Google and some other sites were not accessible. But since even sending SMS to europe didn't work I don't think it was censoring, more like routing problems of some sort. Anyway, Google is back and reports of slashdot blocking are also overrated :)"
Cradle of Democracy, or Regular Cradle? Many readers have written to point out that, just like they promised to in March, the government of Greece has gone ahead and banned electronic games. xlurker, for instance, writes "In an unbelievable move the Greek government has banned all public play of computer games with enactment of law 3037/2002. An english translation of it can be read here. This has been reported in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini and recently confirmed in detail at the German Heise site (Google translation). The law encompasses all appliances that play games, as ludicrous this sounds, it spans from cells ph ones and computers to gameboys and consoles. Greek internet cafes are protesting and international gaming events are being cancelled and relocate d. The bill was passed as a last ditch effort by the government to combat gambling. Thousands of Greek citizens have protested the blanket anti-gaming law. Online petitions can be found here and at the Greek Net Cafe site."
Welcome to your new email account. In addition to the Bayesian spam filter for Qmail mentioned in a previous Slashback, an anonymous reader writes "An article here talked about using statistical methods to classify spam (and perhaps other mail) automatically. A real implementation of this has been released (currently beta) here that acts as a POP3 proxy and works with any mail client. It inserts an X-Text-Classification: header in each mail message containing a classification of the mail into any of a number of classes that the user defines. The code is mostly Perl and an LGPL library so although the current version is for Windows it will work on other platforms and the author is asking for suggestions and testers."
Yes, I'd like to be paid in unlucky-pop-star weights, please. 21mhz writes "Reuters reports: Russia's space agency has scrapped 'N Sync singer Lance Bass's plans to join an October space mission after the U.S. pop star failed to meet payment deadlines. More details from AP. The guys that do real stuff at ISS will get an extra cargo package the weight of the unlucky pop singer."
And Lo, eleven shall have been selected, and it is so. AmateurHuman writes "After two delays, Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Dungeons & Dragons, have announced that the first stage of the New Fantasy Setting Search is completed. Eleven out of 11,000 entries were selected. Good job to those lucky eleven!"
Slashdot is not responsible for the content of external links. ttyp writes "We've all seen Janis Ian's opinions about P2P and the RIAA but, man, does Prince take it to a new level! Check out the artist's commentary A Nation of Thieves wherein Prince wonders, 'How long, however, b4 a critical mass of established artists realize that it is in their best interests, both artistically and commercially, 2 leave the system 4 good? How long b4 a critical mass of young aspiring artists become aware of the enslaving aspects of the system and r careful not 2 get involved in it without a maximum of precautions? And how long b4 a critical mass of art lovers get 2gether 2 provide these artists with a real, valuable, legitimate, truthfully enthusiastic alternative audience that completes the process of rendering the xisting system artistically irrelevant?' Also check out the links to other commentaries on this page."
Why do I have a feeling that most people focused on Prince's spelling rather than what he was saying?
Honestly, if you're spending time reading the comments section, then you should already be prepared to read lots of typos and shorthand spellings. Don't act like it's all encrypted.
How could we possibly "check that out"? How can anyone read and comprehend that sort of crap? I guess people no longer need IM to prove they are idiots; now they can write whole manifestoes and remove all doubt. Or maybe Prince is trying to be artsy, I dunno. He just comes off as unintelligible, which flies in the face of communication's goals just a bit if he's trying to accomplish something with his writing.
"The technology and entertainment industries r simply 2 big 4 us 2 xpect any overnight changes." And they probably took at least one English class, too, so you probably aren't going to convince anyone to do anything that you want them to do if you attempt to use the written word, Prince...
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
"The reason people are focusing on his "spelling", is because to garner any sort of respect amoung regular geeks, you must have, or at least appear to have, a grasp on which ever language you happen to be speaking."
So what would you say if a notable person doesn't speak english as his native language? Would you guys pull this shit with him too?
I mean seriously, if you're going to measure somebody's intelligence based on their shorthand (note: these aren't even typos we're talking abouthere) then wtf's the point? We're talking about the same group of people who uses email, instant messaging, IRC, and so on. Yet you're supposed to spell check everything you say?
Sounds like an attempt at a social class to me. I'm glad I'm not that judgemental of people. I'd be missing a lot.
Or maybe because they don't have the pull to get their thoughts on the matter published where you will see them.
Duh....
Errrrr, why don't you ask Janis Ian how many millions of dollars she has in the bank ? Or how many albums she has in the top 20 ?
DZM
The only excuse for that "shorthand" crap is if the writer has some physical problem entering text.
Since we become accustomed to read by seeing regular word forms, "733t" is just a strain on the reader. It lessens the impact of the message, because the reader's resources are spent decyphering the medium. It's insulting to the reader because it points out he's excluded him from whatever subculture uses that "7eet" medium. It's less effective and more annoying: not the way to convince anyone.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Those plane spotters were taking pictures of aircraft at a military airfield in a country where that is illegal. It was their own stupid faults that they were thrown in the slammer, especially after being warned once before.
I mean seriously, if you're going to measure somebody's intelligence based on their shorthand (note: these aren't even typos we're talking abouthere) then wtf's the point? We're talking about the same group of people who uses email, instant messaging, IRC, and so on. Yet you're supposed to spell check everything you say?
Well, yes. Have you ever heard of "manners"? Sure, it's fine to abbreviate and such if you're talking to people you know, but otherwise it's only polite to use proper grammar and spelling. Call it "an attempt at a social class" or whatever you like, but how you write does make an impression on people, and you know what they say about first impressions. If I didn't already know about Prince, I would have been very disinclined to read his entire commentary.
If you don't take exception to such writing styles, well, good for you--but be aware that many, many people do, and no amount of telling them "don't judge a book by its cover" will change that.
My take on the whole thing has been that he never intended to go to space. He used his star power and the promise of $20 million to get himself free access to NASA and do what most boys only dream of, i.e., pretend you're in the space program, sit in on NASA press conferences, play with all the high-tech space equipment.
Oh sure, maybe at first he was serious about the $20 million. But I think he sobered up pretty quick and decided that there was no way he was paying that, but he was going to milk the experience for everything he could before they kicked him out.
In the meantime, he also got himself a TON of free publicity. How many members of NSync can you name? Well, there's some guy named Justin who used to date Britney Spears, and a bunch of other guys. Oh, and LANCE BASS.
Geez, he got $20 million worth of publicity without spending a dime.
> Why don't we hear the artists who aren't Top 20,
> platinum album, millions in the bank jumping up
> and down in favor of this?
You do. Have you not found any of the huge number of mp3 showcase sites for artists not on major labels?
Lots of music waiting to be downloaded.
I'm sure that most of the idiots posting here about Prince's lack of grammatical skills didn't read his entire commentary because there is actually a really good point he makes:
"If people do not feel enough guilt 2 prevent them from making digital copies of the latest episode of a popular TV show or hit pop song, it is precisely because the industry giants have succeeded in making these works purely commercial products, with little or no consideration 4 their actual artistic value. It is precisely because these companies have been consistently promoting commercial products at the xpense of artistic works. "
I think (while not elegant in form) this may be one of the most insightful remarks I've heard in a long time about the dangers of artistic commercialization. Teenagers aren't being tought the intrensic value of creativity. They are only being taught that the music they want to listen to and the movies they want to watch cost much more than they are willing or able to pay. Why wouldn't they copy them off P2P networks? Large media companies have turned music and movies into high profit commodities. People no longer feel that they are supporting the artists or actors... They are just filling the pockets of overpaid CEOs who are just going to turn around, steal their retirement and then lay them off!
For those truly interested in this travesty, please read the entire article with an open mind. Prince may not be an elegant writer, but his comments appear to be similar to many Slashdot readers ideas on this subject.
If Lance Bass had gotten to go up millions of screaming fangirls would start thinking of space travel as being kind of interesting, as opposed to thinking of it as a nerdy waste of time. This may not seem important now, but screaming fangirls do grow up, become voters, and (hopefully) pay for space exploration/exploitation.
As long as space travel remains exclusively the domain of highly intelligent uber-jocks only a very few people will see its benefits. Space travel must become more accessable or it will die off.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
Ever wake up at night, covered in a cold sweat, wondering what will happen to the world when a nation of teenagers whose only experience with written English is Instant Messenger grows up?
Language is fluid, and the only spellings that are "correct" are the ones in common use. As lame as it is, I think the spelling most in danger of extinction is "you" vs. "u". Compared to other languages, "you" is pretty long for a second person pronoun.
It bugs me the most when people write "that way" on purpose. It is hard to read, and hard to understand. I assume his point was not only good, but well voiced, but I wouldn't know. I got a couple of sentences in and stopped reading because the "interesting" manner of writing was too distracting.
If he likes to be all style and no substance, then writing however he pleases is fine. But I get the impression that he actually cares about communicating to people, in which case he has to learn not to let the frame get in the way of the picture.
The other factor that weighs in here is that the only thing more annoying (grammer wise, at least) than people who deliberatly write like that because the like it are those who write like that because they think it makes them cool and/or different. I don't know (and don't really care) whether Prince falls into this category or not, but the possibility lowers how seriously I would take what he had to say had I been able to read the whole thing.