Your for freespeach, but only with a restriction. This one restirction is enough to block speach off for a large chunk of people.
Sometimes keying a person with an idea can be a bad thing. People going through various medical and psychological treatments may want to be part of an exchange but not have thier Ids known.
This is just one example, im sure you can come up with more.
So ya see, where as you may think you are for free speach, you are really for Restricted Speach, or if i were to put it more PC, you are for Correct Speach.
Major of this is that the reaction of many when faced with self freedoms is to run and hide from themselves.
I think more people need to think how comfortable they are living in an age where we are free to express ourselves to each other. It seems more and more that a large chunk of the online population is crying for controls and regulations to protect them from the evils of others and more importlantly the evils they could do to themselves,
It just maybe that the mass of the globe is not ready of this level of freedom.
In which case, please report to the nearest detention center and subject your will to the masters. All pain will be taken away, as will all freedoms.
Come JOIN THe LOTUS EATERS
and leave the real world to those that cant take it on.
Ive been on the Freenet mailing lists for a few weeks and have been impressed beyond words. The ways in which you are working witht he participating user base and the speed at which your code is forming up is amazing.
Will you keep this level of user involvement in the future?
Given the amazing impact certian "simple" apps and protocals have had on the way we think and work (mp3, tcp, http) what is your expectation for freenet?
How is the work going on having Freenet spread to non java code? Do you see Freenet as dependent on a particular language or do you see it as being free from such constraints?
When the beast goes offical in a few weeks, I am curious as to how much "moral" constraints youwill hamper Freenet with. Given the posts here on slashdot it seems more than a few people would love to see you add in all sorts of Big Brother controls to stop the spread of warez and other such items.
How much moral bondage will you put on Freenet, if any?
Do you see yourself as being responsible for the actions of the protocals users or do you lay the reposnibility on the users themselves?
That jon katz should see it to jump on the Anti M$ bandwagon is about as newworthy as saying that NT will blue screen today.
In all practicle terms this case is about 3 years away from a DECISIVE action. Factor in the appeals, the court procedings, the money and loby work that is working and you are way out in the mid of this decade before M$ gets truly uncomfortable.
Rather than Rah Rah cheerlead along with Jon Kats and his pom poms of stupidity you should be doing the real damage to MS, and thats making linux work more like MS so that MS's customers can quickly and easily move away from the big Redmond machine.
GNOME and KDS are great examples of this, as is Corel and the like. Never has LInux worked and looked so much like MS as when it boots directly into a GUI with apps cluttering up the screen. Good job folks, youve moved closer to becoming that which you despise. But for a good cause, so that makes it all ok.
Katz forgets, as do many of you, that outside of the bubble of slashdot there is a thriving Growing hungry world of End USers. Theyuse MS products in such numbers that you would probably wet yourselfs if you had to think about it too long.
Yes, the world runs on Applications and MS feeds the hungry. Fast food, yep, but look around the block and notice how many Mickey D's and Booger Kings there are.
You begining to see the big picture?
MS is the fried food fast service pablum the masses are tought to crave, and crave they do. In numbers so large that until recently MS was the largest corp in the sector users are buying and using MS products.
Change comes in waves, and already we are seeing the awakening of the end user to the alternatives. MS sees this and , surpirse surprise, is moving to meet the demands of its paying user base.
Open source, unix based, blah blah blah... MS will keep the pace and sell to the masses what the masses are taught to want, wether they learn form the OSS buzz words of the MIS buzzwords of the Slashdot buzzwords...
Like the great one says weekly "It dont matter what you think.." cause billy borg and the MS crones will be putting thier sized 11 marketking boots right up your candy asses.
So get to work and pervert Linux some more.
And get down on your knees and give thanks to Jon Katz, the becon of light to keep the moths fluttering round and round and round and round and splattttt.
Yes, sad but true, Apple fanatics fade in the wake of the litigious arms of Apple.
Embrace OSS? Apple has sued for Look and Feel issues several times, starting with Steve Jobs help in ruining Gem back in the 80's. Way to go with the open spirit Steve0. In recent days we have seen them do the same for thier new Gui.
Anyone ever find themselves wondering why Xerox didint flat out sue the shit out of Apple in the 80's? Of course given Parcs tract record at bringing anyof thier wonderous gifts to the public the Gui may have well died in the closet along with other Parc goodies.
Pound for Pound Apple is still today the legal beagle it has always been.
SteveO and his multicolored jack booted goons are more than likely to close down on things than not, or to open it just enough to keep MAC in the News. Where once the ratio of PR to tech in apple was far in favor of tech, its been obvious that Apple needs PR to stay relevant in a age that needs them less than ever.
For those who are quick to jump on Apple for OSS goodness, do some research. Its a shame to see OSS be tainted with this sort of misguided cheerleaderism.
Having lived thru the birth of the browser wares and thru Netscapes fatal conceit I look forward to seeing it put on the video archives. Maybe future corps will learn from the Blundering Lizard.
Now as dead as the dinosaurs we can look forard to years of a select few sifting thru the bones searching for fragments of thier shattered egos.
For all the supposed tech experience slashdoters are supposed to have it never ceases to amaze me the mass of drones who simply just dont get it. From Jon Katz and his band of Blandeteers I expect it, but from others it still astounds the sense.
Napster is tied to a central server. BAD Gnutella is not. GOOD Napster you are stuck using thier network structures. BAD Gnutella you can create you own nets of sharing. GOOD
If you want to stay the slaves of prechewed and preapproved data flows then , as mick foley says, Have a Nice Day. If your into something a little more, get your heads out of the monolithic worldview.
I just want to thank you for all the great work youve done on the PG site. Style Hags and Design Wonks may bash you on points, but very few sites offer the wealth of CONTENT (yes content, i know its a dirty word on the web) in an other wise empty waste land of pretty eyecandy.
There is no reason there should be just ONE (or several) sources for this sort of thing.
All Praises to Hart and PG, he has done a herculean task for DECADES....
But....
Distibuted librarys and multi homed sources are the way to start thinking. Yes there needs to be a peer review and proofing of works going on line, but for collectors and folks looking it is far more useable to have a few dozen differnts ways and places of access this stuff.
If you have a collection of etexts or resources, put them up and spread the links. If the works are not already in one of the more popular resources (etexts, pg, etc) send it up for inclusion.
Spread the Words.
Wafting Another Airball with Jon "Salaieri" Katz
on
LonelyNet
·
· Score: 1
ALONE ON THE NET Sounds more like a Rimjob report from TIME mag than something of a slashdot nature. Seems the more the net creeps into this petty paced world the more the nay sayers and shitmongers will seek to bring it down with thier slings and arrows of blandness. Of course Katz should take up this thread, It speaks to everything he has posted baout in the past. Here we have the loner( ie dangerous) computer using person versus the rest of normal (ie safe) society. Is it bad to be differnt? Is it wrong not to use and embrace the "normal" methods of communication between other beings? Of course it is. Being differnt is wrong. It is a slap in the face of the Warm Blanket of Societys calming, hence controling, forces and thus needs to be pounded down. A few years ago, when the net boom was just begining to crest, there were reportds about Net Addiction. "Normal" america could not fathom why a large chunk of the populace wasnt out line dancing, doing the mall walk, or sitting aournd waiting to be watch tv to find out how they should be feeling. Meet the new cause, same as the old cause. ITs more mortor shells raining down on our heads to pound us into some sort of compliance with the rest of society. Those of us who know this smile and laugh it off, those of us who are a little more prone to these atacks will fall into the Katz mode of thought and cry out with each faux attack. Coem on folks, this is 2000, get your heads out of the mass medias sphintcher and think for yourlseves.
Yes, look at you flaming right back. Sort of a throw back to your comp sci days?
Maybe, just maybe, some of the people who dont like Katz have a point. Could it be that you "breezed through them, eyes open ONLY for inconsistency, and posted as quickly and as rudly as possible. "?
What i have seen in this whole Katz mess is one very clear thing. Readers of slashdot are, surprise surprise, prone to the fatal conciet that wrecks most thoughtfull conversations.
Unless you are posting from a stance of knowing you are most likely falling into the hell hole of that veru fatal conceit.
When you get on your moral high horse and forget you may have horseshit on your boots, you run the risk of stinking up the situation.
Jon Katz, the patron saint of the DulledWitted and Blandness Brigade , has taken time to actualy respond to questions offered up by the people he is writting for.
What were jons great points of wisdom in this interaction?
1) Im jon katz, you dont matter.
2) I wrote for big magazines (name drop a few here) and you are just geeks
3) Its All Geek To Me...I dont understand you well enough to know what you are about but I misunderstand you enough to tell you what you should be. I can also write a book on the subject to educate the rest of the world about what you should be.
4) Anyone who is critical of me is either 14 years old, a christian, a nonGeek (see above) or part of a big corporation.
4a) I will talk down to anyone who has an issue with me because they evidently forgot point 1)
5) I am all for free expression, so long as it does not conflict too much with point 1)
6) If anything I say seems like a conflict of thought, a case of backpeddling, or simply shows I dont understand the meat of the matter, see point 1)
7) There is no point 7) but if there was it would remind you to go see point 1)
So there you have it. Jon Katz, your duly appointed spokesperson, has put it all down straight.
"do you ever get the feeling youve been cheated?" Johnny Rotten on the last 70's Sex Pistols tour
First off, Jon Katz once again is saying what he thinks will sell, and now that he has a book to seel (on amazon and thru other CORPORATE venues) he needs to hook us with his wisdom.
So are you hooked yet?
Are you hooked with the idea that JOn Katz has set himself up as THE GEEK SPOKESMAN, that hsi will be the Nouns And verbs of the community?
Are you hooked with a person who in one posting decrys the hostile language of net posters, and in the next flings flames and troll bait at "corporate" people?
(I gather in Jons world view Corporations are not people, they are this mystical entity much like Rage Against My Cherios "The Man". Jon forgets that People make the evil he looks to objectify, and thus Jon fails to see he attacks people with is verbal missles.)
Are you hooked with the actions of a man who for the last many months has been writting shallow meaning tracts of buzz word laiden text all in the name of YOU?
Remeber, this is the Jon Katz who proclaimed Blair Witch Project as the SINGLE BEST INDI FILM EVER ( passing over "the last broadcast" and a slew of others simply because he was ignorant of their being). This is the Jon Katz who creid over the poor abused "geeks" for being thier own persons but who then riddicules others for being differnt than his image of them.
This is the same Jon Katz who has used the community to pen a book and bolster a carrer that is built up soley on the works of others.
This is the Jon Katz who honors Riddley Scott for creating Blade Runner?
Yes Jon "Im all surface" Katz is the man that has been apointed as the voice of the geeks, is being support by Slashdoters, and with his book now seeks to solidify his rightfull places as mouthpiece and moral navgator for all things "cyber".
Remeber what happened when Billy Idol tried to become the front man for Cybersapce? Remeber Al Gores claim to inventing the internet? Remeber evey clueless technophobe who 5 years ago would have laughed at you for your actions and now seeks to not only imitate your actions but lay claim to thier source?
Remeber these things, and you will remeber what it is Jon Katz is doing here.
And hes geting a cahs payoff for his action....:)-
Sweet deal, cash for making the word safe for the pinks.
We'll be fighting in the streets With our children at our feet And the morals that they worship will be gone And the men who spurred us on Sit in judgment of all wrong They decide and a shotgun sings the song I'll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I'll get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again I'll move myself and my family aside If we happen to be left half alive Get all my papers and smile at the sky Tho' I know that the hypnotized never lie
There's nothing in the street Looks any different to me And the slogans are replaced by the by The parting on the left Is now the parting on the right And the beards have all grown longer overnight Make the new boss, same as the old boss
A few months ago Jon Katz was the Arch Enemy of the movie industry. If you go back and read his posts you will see that unless the film was made on stolen film stock by hipply dressed college students it was a afront to the intelect of all right thinking citizens.
Well now the table sare turning and Jon Salieri Katz is becoming the center of his own hatred. I cant wait for the article from Katz's MS Word driven creativity to hit slashdot.
"Voices From Hollywood, Geeks FOR $ale"
In it he will interview kids who saw the movie and were harmed by its blatant consumeristic messages. He will ride the author, himself, for being a tool to the white power base that hold down everyone.
Yes, Katz will be profiting not only from the film he will be giving himself more things to pontificate on. He will become the selfperpetuating Crumudgeon.
I cant wait for Katz to hit the silver screen. I m sur it will do well, in fact I pray that it does better than Titanic. I can think of no better reward for Katz then to become the great mass marketed hero of the Geeks. Relegated to live in a world he so depises it will be both his just reward and his self made cell.
So heres to Jon Katz, lets all hope he make sit big soon.
Frys has had the DVD/mp3 players for a while now under the brand name RAITE. They cost about $147 on sale. I picked one up and returned it withing 48 hours.
Why?
The mp3 player part of it has the following limitations.
MP3s made with VBR...wont play right
MP3s made with certian new encoders, such as Xings new one, wont play right
Any MP3s encoded at less than 100 or so kbs and over 196 kbs wont play right
The Display of file names is 8 chars only and even at that is piss poor
Directory navigation was a pain
No PLaylist Support
No Native Shuffle/Random support
None of my Old Time Radio Show, Spoken Word or 78rpm era jazz mp3 played with out major "bird sounds" or even flat out rejections. Many of the newer MP3s i have also would not play right.
Unless you live by around these limitations this unit will be pewp on your shoes.
This was not only NOT ready for consumer use, it was a pain in the butchecks for someone who knew what they were doing. the onlyworth of this thing is that it is a decent DVD and VCD player.
I was thinking of frankenstining it but it really wasnt worth it. My Toshiba Satalite serves me much better, and i can play Homeworld on it.
Summation--interesting first round consumer item...will be as valuable as a pet rock in a slate quary in about 6 months.
Poor little sheep. 150 mil is biotch change to the Great Borg Complex. Caldera has basiclay been given pocket change by Gates.
"Heres some money, go play in traffic"
Thats the message Billy Borg has given the industry today. So far no actions have touched MS that money could not fix.
Face it folks, MS has the cashito to win this war. If your going to win you better start driving your SUVs into the Redmond campus with a few pounds of c4 strapped to your IBooks yelling "For The Love of the LInux Jihad"
PLay witht he winners, cry with the loosers, step aside for the real deal.... Can you smell what the borg is cooking?
First off if this does reach the greater of the two Steves may I wish to you a thousand years of living and much funding to all your works. Anyone that can touch so many with his works, as well as putting the Clash and David Lee Roth on the same stage should be blessed with an extra long life.
Now to the question...
Back in the mid 80's I did a interview with Andy Herzfeld for my college Computer Club newsletter. In the interview he described a bet he had with you to see who would be the first to wire up a plain old clothes iron to do disc copys. Was this was a real bet and if so how far did you get?
What was the hardware hacking in general like back in those days? Do you see yourself doing more hardware hacks in the now and future? If so, what are you cooking up now?
Do you see yourself doing more hardware hacks in the spirit of the tone boxes, dial-a-jokes and the like...things that are more fun as well as functional?
Wafting Another Airball with Jon "Salieri " Katz
on
Holiday Movie Thread
·
· Score: 1
Open Source Reviewing....
Hmm. even for jon Katz this is a tad too much of the hypemaster at work. Maybe Jon wrote this article for another less savy place and forgot to slip that part out, maybe he still thinks he is inventing the Net as he goes along.
Maybe I get a little ticked off when Media Scum like Jon Katz deem themselves the Voice of A Generation. Jon, do you realize taht folks could "JUMP ON IN WITH REVIEWS" way back in the BBS days of the 80's? Where you still a Media Wonk back then enough so that you missed out on the tech? Did you think that now was the only time that is?
Please, Jon, before you tell us more of your Open Source Invention, go back and study OUR history, you might be surprised that there is a rich tapestry of inovation there already.
The net impacts a persons life once they start using it day in day out. DId you NOT EXPECT this to translate into music? Look at music, look at the things it talks about. It has always been, in part, a reporting of the times they were crafted in.
Townshends Quadrophenia was about a particular set of cultural and societal events speheres. All thesongs about driving your chevy with the girl you love...PUNK, at its best was always a commentary on the times and forces.
So why do we have this knee jerk reaction against any artist who starts placing the net in the fore of the tale being told? Well I think part of it might be the overexposure in the last 5 years. I have to say back in '86 i never thought the net would be this much a part of so many peoples lives. There sheer forces that moved acorss the 90's is worthy of some great works.
Townshend is finaly seeing a way to do his long itme Lifehouse project in part due to the fact that the net has grown to a point where his vision can be shared in the manner he wants. think of that, in someones life time the means to get a bizzare expression out of thier skull and into others is becomming avialable in ways not thought of before. this opens not only the possiblity of these works to be done up, but the process itself becomes a focal point.
The process becomes one of the forces of culture, of society, of the day in day out lives of so many that it is a prome topic for a work. I see Waters getting into this as a logical and welcome progression in the path of his life times work.
If it happens that in the next 5 years both Waters and Townshend will have completed and delivered works hither too unable to be done, i will be very happy .
It will also mean that it is NEWS FOR NERDS, STUFF THAT MATTERS inthat it will have used the things that impact us here on slash dot in ways that make it newsworthy. For those who have thier ONE TRACK heads stuck up their one track colons i can only say this, your mindset is part of the problem. You are in no uncertian terms part the force that degrades the progress of things. You have been around from the beging and will be around to the end, but know that you will have your teeth kicked in by those forces of excelence that you so despise. Water's "amused themselves to death" is all about you. Please, Die young and dont spawn.
"lets sell them a fake ideology, clothing fads, musical groups and a phrase book so they can all say only the same 12 catch phrases."
Yes its Hippie time again. Hippies, lets look back at thier legacy.
Free Sex-------Spread of aids and other STDS
Free Thought----Political Correctness and New Speak
Help The Poor---All the Top Hippies sold out or caved in.
Think For Yourself--A blind observence of being the same as every other hippie in thought, action and dress.
Evolve---a 30 year stagnation of mind and body so much so that they take a glee in making thier chidrens children in thier mold and thus not offering them evolution but a hang me down dead end.
So if you calssify yourself as hippie, technohippie or the ilk...welcome to being part of the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Your for freespeach, but only with a restriction. This one restirction is enough to block speach off for a large chunk of people.
Sometimes keying a person with an idea can be a bad thing. People going through various medical and psychological treatments may want to be part of an exchange but not have thier Ids known.
This is just one example, im sure you can come up with more.
So ya see, where as you may think you are for free speach, you are really for Restricted Speach, or if i were to put it more PC, you are for Correct Speach.
Big difference.
You bring up several intersting points.
Major of this is that the reaction of many when faced with self freedoms is to run and hide from themselves.
I think more people need to think how comfortable they are living in an age where we are free to express ourselves to each other. It seems more and more that a large chunk of the online population is crying for controls and regulations to protect them from the evils of others and more importlantly the evils they could do to themselves,
It just maybe that the mass of the globe is not ready of this level of freedom.
In which case, please report to the nearest detention center and subject your will to the masters. All pain will be taken away, as will all freedoms.
Come JOIN THe LOTUS EATERS
and leave the real world to those that cant take it on.
Ive been on the Freenet mailing lists for a few weeks and have been impressed beyond words. The ways in which you are working witht he participating user base and the speed at which your code is forming up is amazing.
Will you keep this level of user involvement in the future?
Given the amazing impact certian "simple" apps and protocals have had on the way we think and work (mp3, tcp, http) what is your expectation for freenet?
How is the work going on having Freenet spread to non java code? Do you see Freenet as dependent on a particular language or do you see it as being free from such constraints?
When the beast goes offical in a few weeks, I am curious as to how much "moral" constraints youwill hamper Freenet with. Given the posts here on slashdot it seems more than a few people would love to see you add in all sorts of Big Brother controls to stop the spread of warez and other such items.
How much moral bondage will you put on Freenet, if any?
Do you see yourself as being responsible for the actions of the protocals users or do you lay the reposnibility on the users themselves?
That jon katz should see it to jump on the Anti M$ bandwagon is about as newworthy as saying that NT will blue screen today.
In all practicle terms this case is about 3 years away from a DECISIVE action. Factor in the appeals, the court procedings, the money and loby work that is working and you are way out in the mid of this decade before M$ gets truly uncomfortable.
Rather than Rah Rah cheerlead along with Jon Kats and his pom poms of stupidity you should be doing the real damage to MS, and thats making linux work more like MS so that MS's customers can quickly and easily move away from the big Redmond machine.
GNOME and KDS are great examples of this, as is Corel and the like. Never has LInux worked and looked so much like MS as when it boots directly into a GUI with apps cluttering up the screen. Good job folks, youve moved closer to becoming that which you despise. But for a good cause, so that makes it all ok.
Katz forgets, as do many of you, that outside of the bubble of slashdot there is a thriving Growing hungry world of End USers. Theyuse MS products in such numbers that you would probably wet yourselfs if you had to think about it too long.
Yes, the world runs on Applications and MS feeds the hungry. Fast food, yep, but look around the block and notice how many Mickey D's and Booger Kings there are.
You begining to see the big picture?
MS is the fried food fast service pablum the masses are tought to crave, and crave they do. In numbers so large that until recently MS was the largest corp in the sector users are buying and using MS products.
Change comes in waves, and already we are seeing the awakening of the end user to the alternatives. MS sees this and , surpirse surprise, is moving to meet the demands of its paying user base.
Open source, unix based, blah blah blah... MS will keep the pace and sell to the masses what the masses are taught to want, wether they learn form the OSS buzz words of the MIS buzzwords of the Slashdot buzzwords...
Like the great one says weekly "It dont matter what you think.." cause billy borg and the MS crones will be putting thier sized 11 marketking boots right up your candy asses.
So get to work and pervert Linux some more.
And get down on your knees and give thanks to Jon Katz, the becon of light to keep the moths fluttering round and round and round and round and splattttt.
Yes, sad but true, Apple fanatics fade in the wake of the litigious arms of Apple.
Embrace OSS? Apple has sued for Look and Feel issues several times, starting with Steve Jobs help in ruining Gem back in the 80's. Way to go with the open spirit Steve0. In recent days we have seen them do the same for thier new Gui.
Anyone ever find themselves wondering why Xerox didint flat out sue the shit out of Apple in the 80's? Of course given Parcs tract record at bringing anyof thier wonderous gifts to the public the Gui may have well died in the closet along with other Parc goodies.
Pound for Pound Apple is still today the legal beagle it has always been.
SteveO and his multicolored jack booted goons are more than likely to close down on things than not, or to open it just enough to keep MAC in the News. Where once the ratio of PR to tech in apple was far in favor of tech, its been obvious that Apple needs PR to stay relevant in a age that needs them less than ever.
For those who are quick to jump on Apple for OSS goodness, do some research. Its a shame to see OSS be tainted with this sort of misguided cheerleaderism.
AppleII4VR
Having lived thru the birth of the browser wares and thru Netscapes fatal conceit I look forward to seeing it put on the video archives. Maybe future corps will learn from the Blundering Lizard.
Now as dead as the dinosaurs we can look forard to years of a select few sifting thru the bones searching for fragments of thier shattered egos.
Necrozilla, long may she rot
For all the supposed tech experience slashdoters are supposed to have it never ceases to amaze me the mass of drones who simply just dont get it. From Jon Katz and his band of Blandeteers I expect it, but from others it still astounds the sense.
Napster is tied to a central server. BAD
Gnutella is not. GOOD
Napster you are stuck using thier network structures. BAD
Gnutella you can create you own nets of sharing. GOOD
If you want to stay the slaves of prechewed and preapproved data flows then , as mick foley says, Have a Nice Day. If your into something a little more, get your heads out of the monolithic worldview.
Your milage may vary
I just want to thank you for all the great work youve done on the PG site. Style Hags and Design Wonks may bash you on points, but very few sites offer the wealth of CONTENT (yes content, i know its a dirty word on the web) in an other wise empty waste land of pretty eyecandy.
http://wsmf.org/texts/emonks/
There is no reason there should be just ONE (or several) sources for this sort of thing.
All Praises to Hart and PG, he has done a herculean task for DECADES....
But....
Distibuted librarys and multi homed sources are the way to start thinking. Yes there needs to be a peer review and proofing of works going on line, but for collectors and folks looking it is far more useable to have a few dozen differnts ways and places of access this stuff.
Such as http://wsmf.org/texts/emonks/
If you have a collection of etexts or resources, put them up and spread the links. If the works are not already in one of the more popular resources (etexts, pg, etc) send it up for inclusion.
Spread the Words.
ALONE ON THE NET Sounds more like a Rimjob report from TIME mag than something of a slashdot nature. Seems the more the net creeps into this petty paced world the more the nay sayers and shitmongers will seek to bring it down with thier slings and arrows of blandness. Of course Katz should take up this thread, It speaks to everything he has posted baout in the past. Here we have the loner( ie dangerous) computer using person versus the rest of normal (ie safe) society. Is it bad to be differnt? Is it wrong not to use and embrace the "normal" methods of communication between other beings? Of course it is. Being differnt is wrong. It is a slap in the face of the Warm Blanket of Societys calming, hence controling, forces and thus needs to be pounded down. A few years ago, when the net boom was just begining to crest, there were reportds about Net Addiction. "Normal" america could not fathom why a large chunk of the populace wasnt out line dancing, doing the mall walk, or sitting aournd waiting to be watch tv to find out how they should be feeling. Meet the new cause, same as the old cause. ITs more mortor shells raining down on our heads to pound us into some sort of compliance with the rest of society. Those of us who know this smile and laugh it off, those of us who are a little more prone to these atacks will fall into the Katz mode of thought and cry out with each faux attack. Coem on folks, this is 2000, get your heads out of the mass medias sphintcher and think for yourlseves.
Yes, look at you flaming right back. Sort of a throw back to your comp sci days?
Maybe, just maybe, some of the people who dont like Katz have a point. Could it be that you "breezed through them, eyes open ONLY for inconsistency, and posted as quickly and as rudly as possible. "?
What i have seen in this whole Katz mess is one very clear thing. Readers of slashdot are, surprise surprise, prone to the fatal conciet that wrecks most thoughtfull conversations.
Unless you are posting from a stance of knowing you are most likely falling into the hell hole of that veru fatal conceit.
When you get on your moral high horse and forget you may have horseshit on your boots, you run the risk of stinking up the situation.
Check your boots.
"Slash dot is made of people, peeeeeeeooooople"
Jon Katz, the patron saint of the DulledWitted and Blandness Brigade , has taken time to actualy respond to questions offered up by the people he is writting for.
What were jons great points of wisdom in this interaction?
1) Im jon katz, you dont matter.
2) I wrote for big magazines (name drop a few here) and you are just geeks
3) Its All Geek To Me...I dont understand you well enough to know what you are about but I misunderstand you enough to tell you what you should be. I can also write a book on the subject to educate the rest of the world about what you should be.
4) Anyone who is critical of me is either 14 years old, a christian, a nonGeek (see above) or part of a big corporation.
4a) I will talk down to anyone who has an issue with me because they evidently forgot point 1)
5) I am all for free expression, so long as it does not conflict too much with point 1)
6) If anything I say seems like a conflict of thought, a case of backpeddling, or simply shows I dont understand the meat of the matter, see point 1)
7) There is no point 7) but if there was it would remind you to go see point 1)
So there you have it. Jon Katz, your duly appointed spokesperson, has put it all down straight.
"do you ever get the feeling youve been cheated?"
Johnny Rotten on the last 70's Sex Pistols tour
-tom
Welcome to the spread of the balnd sameness that will take the edge off of things.
Make it safe, dull the knife
dumb it down, save a life
A mind is a terrible thing to have to use.
Chant of the katzians
Where to begin.
First off, Jon Katz once again is saying what he thinks will sell, and now that he has a book to seel (on amazon and thru other CORPORATE venues) he needs to hook us with his wisdom.
So are you hooked yet?
Are you hooked with the idea that JOn Katz has set himself up as THE GEEK SPOKESMAN, that hsi will be the Nouns And verbs of the community?
Are you hooked with a person who in one posting decrys the hostile language of net posters, and in the next flings flames and troll bait at "corporate" people?
(I gather in Jons world view Corporations are not people, they are this mystical entity much like Rage Against My Cherios "The Man". Jon forgets that People make the evil he looks to objectify, and thus Jon fails to see he attacks people with is verbal missles.)
Are you hooked with the actions of a man who for the last many months has been writting shallow meaning tracts of buzz word laiden text all in the name of YOU?
Remeber, this is the Jon Katz who proclaimed Blair Witch Project as the SINGLE BEST INDI FILM EVER ( passing over "the last broadcast" and a slew of others simply because he was ignorant of their being). This is the Jon Katz who creid over the poor abused "geeks" for being thier own persons but who then riddicules others for being differnt than his image of them.
This is the same Jon Katz who has used the community to pen a book and bolster a carrer that is built up soley on the works of others.
This is the Jon Katz who honors Riddley Scott for creating Blade Runner?
Yes Jon "Im all surface" Katz is the man that has been apointed as the voice of the geeks, is being support by Slashdoters, and with his book now seeks to solidify his rightfull places as mouthpiece and moral navgator for all things "cyber".
Remeber what happened when Billy Idol tried to become the front man for Cybersapce? Remeber Al Gores claim to inventing the internet? Remeber evey clueless technophobe who 5 years ago would have laughed at you for your actions and now seeks to not only imitate your actions but lay claim to thier source?
Remeber these things, and you will remeber what it is Jon Katz is doing here.
And hes geting a cahs payoff for his action....:)-
Sweet deal, cash for making the word safe for the pinks.
In yet anoter article Jon Katz pleads to the world to dumb themselves down.
Here we hear Katz plead that we censore our thoughts so that we can all get along more to his image of utopia.
more of the same from JoKe
We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and a shotgun sings the song
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
Get all my papers and smile at the sky
Tho' I know that the hypnotized never lie
There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced by the by
The parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
Make the new boss, same as the old boss
--Pete Townshend
A few months ago Jon Katz was the Arch Enemy of the movie industry. If you go back and read his posts you will see that unless the film was made on stolen film stock by hipply dressed college students it was a afront to the intelect of all right thinking citizens.
Well now the table sare turning and Jon Salieri Katz is becoming the center of his own hatred. I cant wait for the article from Katz's MS Word driven creativity to hit slashdot.
"Voices From Hollywood, Geeks FOR $ale"
In it he will interview kids who saw the movie and were harmed by its blatant consumeristic messages. He will ride the author, himself, for being a tool to the white power base that hold down everyone.
Yes, Katz will be profiting not only from the film he will be giving himself more things to pontificate on. He will become the selfperpetuating Crumudgeon.
I cant wait for Katz to hit the silver screen. I m sur it will do well, in fact I pray that it does better than Titanic. I can think of no better reward for Katz then to become the great mass marketed hero of the Geeks. Relegated to live in a world he so depises it will be both his just reward and his self made cell.
So heres to Jon Katz, lets all hope he make sit big soon.
Frys has had the DVD/mp3 players for a while now under the brand name RAITE. They cost about $147 on sale. I picked one up and returned it withing 48 hours.
Why?
The mp3 player part of it has the following limitations.
None of my Old Time Radio Show, Spoken Word or 78rpm era jazz mp3 played with out major "bird sounds" or even flat out rejections. Many of the newer MP3s i have also would not play right.
Unless you live by around these limitations this unit will be pewp on your shoes.
This was not only NOT ready for consumer use, it was a pain in the butchecks for someone who knew what they were doing. the onlyworth of this thing is that it is a decent DVD and VCD player.
I was thinking of frankenstining it but it really wasnt worth it. My Toshiba Satalite serves me much better, and i can play Homeworld on it.
Summation--interesting first round consumer item...will be as valuable as a pet rock in a slate quary in about 6 months.
So this just shows fundamental jews are as rabidly asinine as fundamental christians.
Oh what fun to watch the sons of Abraham fuck up the good word.
Poor little sheep. 150 mil is biotch change to the Great Borg Complex. Caldera has basiclay been given pocket change by Gates.
"Heres some money, go play in traffic"
Thats the message Billy Borg has given the industry today. So far no actions have touched MS that money could not fix.
Face it folks, MS has the cashito to win this war. If your going to win you better start driving your SUVs into the Redmond campus with a few pounds of c4 strapped to your IBooks yelling "For The Love of the LInux Jihad"
PLay witht he winners, cry with the loosers, step aside for the real deal.... Can you smell what the borg is cooking?
First off if this does reach the greater of the two Steves may I wish to you a thousand years of living and much funding to all your works.
Anyone that can touch so many with his works, as well as putting the Clash and David Lee Roth on the same stage should be blessed with an extra long life.
Now to the question...
Back in the mid 80's I did a interview with Andy Herzfeld for my college Computer Club newsletter. In the interview he described a bet he had with you to see who would be the first to wire up a plain old clothes iron to do disc copys. Was this was a real bet and if so how far did you get?
What was the hardware hacking in general like back in those days? Do you see yourself doing more hardware hacks in the now and future? If so, what are you cooking up now?
Do you see yourself doing more hardware hacks in the spirit of the tone boxes, dial-a-jokes and the like...things that are more fun as well as functional?
Open Source Reviewing....
Hmm. even for jon Katz this is a tad too much of the hypemaster at work. Maybe Jon wrote this article for another less savy place and forgot to slip that part out, maybe he still thinks he is inventing the Net as he goes along.
Maybe I get a little ticked off when Media Scum like Jon Katz deem themselves the Voice of A Generation. Jon, do you realize taht folks could "JUMP ON IN WITH REVIEWS" way back in the BBS days of the 80's? Where you still a Media Wonk back then enough so that you missed out on the tech? Did you think that now was the only time that is?
Please, Jon, before you tell us more of your Open Source Invention, go back and study OUR history, you might be surprised that there is a rich tapestry of inovation there already.
The net impacts a persons life once they start using it day in day out. DId you NOT EXPECT this to translate into music? Look at music, look at the things it talks about. It has always been, in part, a reporting of the times they were crafted in.
Townshends Quadrophenia was about a particular set of cultural and societal events speheres. All thesongs about driving your chevy with the girl you love...PUNK, at its best was always a commentary on the times and forces.
So why do we have this knee jerk reaction against any artist who starts placing the net in the fore of the tale being told? Well I think part of it might be the overexposure in the last 5 years. I have to say back in '86 i never thought the net would be this much a part of so many peoples lives. There sheer forces that moved acorss the 90's is worthy of some great works.
Townshend is finaly seeing a way to do his long itme Lifehouse project in part due to the fact that the net has grown to a point where his vision can be shared in the manner he wants. think of that, in someones life time the means to get a bizzare expression out of thier skull and into others is becomming avialable in ways not thought of before. this opens not only the possiblity of these works to be done up, but the process itself becomes a focal point.
The process becomes one of the forces of culture, of society, of the day in day out lives of so many that it is a prome topic for a work. I see Waters getting into this as a logical and welcome progression in the path of his life times work.
If it happens that in the next 5 years both Waters and Townshend will have completed and delivered works hither too unable to be done, i will be very happy .
It will also mean that it is NEWS FOR NERDS, STUFF THAT MATTERS inthat it will have used the things that impact us here on slash dot in ways that make it newsworthy. For those who have thier ONE TRACK heads stuck up their one track colons i can only say this, your mindset is part of the problem. You are in no uncertian terms part the force that degrades the progress of things. You have been around from the beging and will be around to the end, but know that you will have your teeth kicked in by those forces of excelence that you so despise. Water's "amused themselves to death" is all about you. Please, Die young and dont spawn.
Did you read the masthead. Its NEWS FOR NERD not LINUX CENTRAL. Get you one track mind out of your one track anus.
"lets sell them a fake ideology, clothing fads, musical groups and a phrase book so they can all say only the same 12 catch phrases."
Yes its Hippie time again. Hippies, lets look back at thier legacy.
Free Sex-------Spread of aids and other STDS
Free Thought----Political Correctness and New Speak
Help The Poor---All the Top Hippies sold out or caved in.
Think For Yourself--A blind observence of being the same as every other hippie in thought, action and dress.
Evolve---a 30 year stagnation of mind and body so much so that they take a glee in making thier chidrens children in thier mold and thus not offering them evolution but a hang me down dead end.
So if you calssify yourself as hippie, technohippie or the ilk...welcome to being part of the problem.
Peace Love and Get A Clue