Slashdot Mirror
How's Your Whuffie? Interview with Cory Doctorow
Richard Koman writes "My interview with EFF's Cory Doctorow just went up on O'Reilly. The interview is largely about his book, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom," but naturally veers towards discussing his view of Disney, programmers, and peer to peer. Then there's this: Doctorow: I think that Disney's art and technology kicks ass. But one thing you discover in the technology world, especially in free software, is that being a good programmer and being a good person are not necessarily correlated, or at least being a good programmer and being a person with whom other people want to spend a lot of time, who has good hygiene and good social skills, are not correlated."
Is he the guy that was on that tlc show about hackers, standing on the golden gate bridge, reciting the hackers manifesto, and generally acting like a complete jackass? Singlehandedly made me stop donating to the eff.
Programmers and other artisans frequently get absorbed in their craft. This is good for their output and all those who receive it. They naturally attach lesser importance to impressing people with their conversational or sartorial skills. I resent gregarious people expecting everyone to share their high value on impressing others.
Hygiene only becomes a problem when it causes skin or GI infections. Odor is a matter of taste. I've found female smokers to be the most easily offended. The Pot is calling the Kettle black ...
Now that I think about it, "Whuffie" more accurately describes what's called "Karma" here on Slashdot. Perhaps a change is in order?
Yeah, I hate to say this, but just because many programmers have sex, doesn't mean that you have to go far to find some that are stinky and/or socially unpleasant.
Bear in mind that "not correllated" means that there is no link between one and the other. If he said that being a programmer and having good hygeine were negatively correllated, then that could be a myth, since it indicates a link.
Mind you, compared to other professions where you sit at a desk, there probably is a weak negative correllation between programming and bathing habits. Unless I've just been really lucky in my jobs. Who knows, maybe it's just the games industry.
=Brian
There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
In the world of the 'Bitchun' Society,' what's scarce is esteem, called Whuffie. For content, we should already be living in the world of the Bitchun Society--any digital file can be copied endlessly without degradation. Only it can't, because we have accepted the notion of intellectual property and adopted laws that punish people for the wholesale copying of stuff. Doctorow's Net move is an opening to the Bitchun' world, and it poses plenty of questions. Why will anyone buy the book if they can get it online for free?
Considering that Whuffie is essentially used as cash in his universe, we'd have to set up an automatic micropayment system the deducts from our bank account whenever we like something. f course, this will never work because if we disliked something, the transaction would go the other way. Furthermore, he never discusses why no one ever tried to hack their Whuffie higher.
This is weird.... They talk of Disney as being cutting-edge.
While I know that disney is renowned for it's use of technology at their theme parks, I can't say that I've heard of any of it being cutting-edge. From what I've heard (and seen), Disney is still using 8-track tapes for the audio tracks of many of their (older) rides, as well as the for the control of animatronics, using the age old argument: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Pneumatic tubes are still used for transporting paperwork (and garbage, but that's another story).
Of course, on the newer stuff they build, they're using, they've turned to using CDs, DAT, and of course, computers. But I certainly think their views on outdated technology (from what I have heard in the bast) make a lot of sense.
Do animatronic robots really need to be controlled by 2ghz computers over a secure fiber-optic TCP/IP link? No. Disney still uses their old system which has worked for several decades, and uses the old technology on some of the new stuff they build.
Just because it's old doesn't mean it's bad.
I suppose this is where a lot of the conflict in the company originates from. They used to be a really great company, but as of late, I've taken to strongly disliking their marketing strategies and overall business model - WE DICTATE YOUR CULTURE, BUY OUR PRODUCTS.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose