If you are calling yourself Geek or Nerd then in all likely hood you are lost to a truer meaning.
To name a thing is to cntrol a thing. If you allow others to name you , you have given them control of that part of yourself.
Think that is bullshit, look at the media. All "geeks" and "nerd" are controled by those that control the phrases.
There are a million paths to take in a life, why do so many chooe the paths most travelled.
Welcome to the path of the sheeple. Sont worry, the butcher will be to you soon. Bahhhhhh.
"I will choose the path thats clear I will choose free will"
Waste or Want----a good idea with a bad execution
on
Disposable Cell Phones
·
· Score: 1
The idea of a Use Once and Burn vector for messages is a sound one.Anonymous messaging is fast going the way of the dodo bird. This exectution though leavs a lot to be desired.
I bet ya the devices are serialzed in some way and traceable to a store. Once traceable to a store it wont be all that impossible to track a customer.
If you pay in cash that may be ok, but i bet there will be a credit card needed to buy them.
The enviro aspect is also not so hot. Better still would be a cell you could erase down to the core and have recoded. Of course this still would require, im betting, some sort of tracable transaction.
The need for this sort of thing is real, but this is not it.
The whole basis of the case here is FUD, pure and simple.
The Goverment wants to scare teh shit out of the consumers and it has chosen MS as the FUDGoat.
By using the stadard tactics of FUD. they paint MS as the sole eveil controller of all OS software. they paint the industry as being simply pupets of Bills Borg collective. If you buy into this and you use and INTEL box then YOU TOO are a defensless victim who needs the gov's help.
If you buy this, if you cheer this on, then you are the Problem not not , very much not, part of the solution.
If MS is a bad company, DONT USE THEM.
I lived thru the begining of all this in the 70's and 80's. MS was just another player, one of many. They got the foothold they did becuase the other players fucked up in some way or another.
Unix couldnt get it, and still really hasnt, got it togther enough to make the average user feel safe.
Apple tossed the game becuase steve job's ego was bruised.
Atari was managed by clowns in small cars.
Xerox as been dodging sucess for decades. they are good at making great ideas and then letting them out like gas after a heavy mexican meal
There were others, but they all blew it. MS got where it is today because it was in a field of worse loosers than they were.
Same for Word Processors. Have you ever truly gone back and looked at what the choices were back in the late 80's? Word Perfect (how has has more owners than amiga), WordStar, XYwrite, DisplayWrite(from IBM no less). There was a WIDE field and MS came out on top beacuse the rest of them could not get it togther.
Like I said, I lived and worked thru the whole bloody battle. Every user was screamning and yelling for ONE THING over all else...MAKE IT EASY AND CHEAP. They where willing to get behind the first company that made a suite of programs that would wrap up all the taks they were doing. I mean lets face it , it was a mess back then. Spell checkers were seperate TSRs, you needed to jump from one program to another to get the simplest of tasks done.
The first thing that came out that was even closer was Ashton Tates FrameWork. Great product that was another victim of Ashton tates blunderings.
Lotus tried and fialed so horribly it sent the company back to 123 so fast it left a vacuum.
MS was one of several compies to starting bundling.
But somewhere down the road enough consumers decided on a product, and it was MS.
Operating system wise its basicaly the same story. Only now a days there are more user freindly OS's around than ever. And this was all BEFORE the findings form the Gov. Thats right, Linux and BSD were all popular INSPITE Of MS. they made a growing base of users and admins happy becuase it worked for them.
Thats how the market works. Even with MS and all its money moving to get folks to use thier stuff other things flourish. Given time and enough consumer education the shift could have been a natural one. Instead we are left looking like children unable to fend for themsleves.
The gang of people call ing for the gov to stomp on MS need to be educated that the GOV is not the tool for this. It is the market place, the source of MS's power. MS will not be daunted by the gov, it hold the gov in low regard. MS knows the secret, that if it pleases the customer it will previal.
So now we may have 5 or six MS's. That will be pleasent. You couldnt handle one on your own, so now you want the gov to make it 5. Good thinking.
So maybe they will hamper MS practices. Well they might, a bit, but you folks should know how currupt the regualtions of a large gov is. In the end its about Money and Power. Do you think that MS will be worried about that in this market, with its base?
Do you think thats air your breathing?
The only way to stomp on MS is to kill them at thier source. No market, no money no power.
Clip this and read it back to yourself in two years. Odds are all the folks who called for GOV action on MS will be singing differnt tunes.
You can find me laughing my ass off back at the MediaWhore studios think about how a lot of SlashDotters Got Taken in By The FUD.
Once again we find Jon "lets all sink to sameness" Katz taking up over hyped chatter and crafting it for his own crusade to battle excellence.
If you look back over all the Katz articles you will find nearly no new information. The only thing Katz adds is his own little spin towards the the Dumbing Down of Computers.
After years of trials one , ONE , judge comes out with a FINDINGS paper that hits in all the right places. This is news? This changes anything?
For all of the Bigoted statements Katz says perhaps his most amazingly inane statement is that NO ONE HAS A CHOICE, that MS was forced on us by Republicans and Evil Priests. Jon has once again strippied his readers of free will and in his good intention righting og this seeks to bring in a ruling power to hold us up.
Thanks Jon, but I can make a choice all by myself. So can the million sof users who use computers. It may not be the choice you think is right, but it is my choie to make.
Jon says that MS got into the net game late and fumbled. Well lets see, IE came on like ganga busters from its early days as Blackbird and kicked the shit out of NS. Netscape tried to sell a free browser and the PEOPLE handed them thier ass.
If you follow Jons logic any company that comes into a market and does well needs to be taken control of by the goverment. Gee Jon, thanks for trying to revive the Dead Soviet System here at home. It didnt work there and it sure as hell wont work here.
Competition is what breeds innovation. Look back into history Jon, and I mean more than 3 weeks ago, and you will see that clearly. What your seeking to do here is level off the edge and legisalte the field such that nothing out side of your mindset could be or should be done.
Thank god you dont realy code or programm or sys admin. You would be the clod who is unable to do anything creative and try to hold back those who can with standards, committes and the other tools of the bland and creative chalanged.
We live in a time of rapid change. We live in a time where the sharpest minds and the quickest hands can shape the future. If your only "talent" is to hamstring others thru legislation of luditism then you will eventualy be put tossed tot he wayside.
I look forward to your next installment of the Bland Crusade.
And now A song for you to whitle with. " Oh slashdoters jump and shout with glee
and bill gates on the moon
I wonder if they really see
that bill gates on the moon
Netscape tried to sell a free browser
and bill gates on the moon
Scot mcnealy got java, but he aint getting any prouder
A few people I know ARE blind. I know what they go thru. In the old time radio circle its not uncommon for the vision of the user to be bad or gone.
Its not fucking easy but they have more options now than EVER.
Lots of folks here are just getting into this topic TODAY and thinking they know it all. GO educate yourselves first.
Have you looked at the options available to you should you go blind, deaf, or loose a limb. Hit www.webable.com for starters.
Then, after you looked there and got some programs...
Tie one hand behind your back for an hour and use your computer.
Blindfold yourself, go browse the web. Serach for oldtime radio shows. Download one. Listen to it .
Ive done this and talked to folks who have no choice in doing it. Things are working, pages can be had, there are resources out ther and rather than seek litigation more work needs to be done on them.
Would you rather sit around and write another cool KDE theme , draft legal documents to halt people working on web pages...or do something about it?
Legal action against AOL is the lamest solution i can think of.
This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status. Below is a list of 1 accessibility problems that should be fixed in order to make this page accessible to people with disabilities.
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P3 - Manual check
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1.Furnish keyboard shortcuts for form elements. (11 instances)
2.Use the ABBR and ACRONYM elements to denote and expand abbreviations and acronyms.
3.If this table is used to display data in rows and columns (i.e. a spreadsheet), have you provided a summary of the table? (35 instances)
4.Consider adding keyboard shortcuts to frequently used links. (272 instances)
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1.Required attribute ALT is missing from tag IMG for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
2.Unknown attribute LENGTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
3.Attribute BGCOLOR in element TABLE needs a valid color. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
4.Unknown attribute WIDTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
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Download Time
The following three-column table gives download time statistics for the images, applets, and objects on this page. The first column contains the URL of each item, the second column the item size in kilobytes, and the third column the approximate download time for each item when using a 28,800 baud modem. At the end of the report, an arbitrary delay of 0.5 seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times.
Total 74.45 K 20.68 HTTP Request Delays -- 10.00 Total + Delays -- 30.6 Bobby finished.
from http://www.cast.org/bobby/ For www.slashdot.org --- Priority 1 Accessibility This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status. Below is a list of 1 accessibility problems that should be fixed in order to make this page accessible to people with disabilities. 1.Provide alternative text for all images. (1 instance) P1 - Manual check There are some checkpoints that an automatic program like Bobby cannot examine. These 5 item(s) are presented below. You will need to be able to respond affirmatively to these items as well to obtain Bobby Approved status. 1.Ensure that descriptions of dynamic content are updated with changes in content. 2.If any of the images on this page convey important information beyond what is in each image's alternative text, add a LONGDESC attribute. (49 instances) 3.If you can't figure out any other way to make a page accessible, construct an alternate version of the page which is accessible and has the same content. 4.If this table contains data in rows and columns (i.e. a spreadsheet), have you identified headers for the table rows and columns? (35 instances) 5.If any of the images on this page convey important information beyond what is in each image's alternative text, add descriptive (D) links. (49 instances) his page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status. Priority 2 Accessibility Bobby Approved status is assigned on the basis of Priority 1 items in the Web Content Guidelines. For a higher level of accessibility you may also want to examine Priority 2 and Priority 3 items. No Priority 2 items that Bobby is able to detect have been found, but you should examine the list of items that require a manual examination below. To achieve conformance with Priority 2 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. P2 - Manual check In addition to the items that Bobby can examine there are 11 Priority 2 issue(s) presented below for which Bobby cannot make a determination. To achieve conformance with Priority 2 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. 1.Use relative sizing and positioning (% values) rather than absolute (pixels). (11 instances) 2.Have you grouped related form controls and labeled each group? (4 instances) 3.Style sheets should be used to control layout and presentation wherever possible. (35 instances) 4.Mark up quotations with the Q and BLOCKQUOTE elements. 5.Did you avoid using movement where possible? (37 instances) 6.Make sure that text, image, and background colors contrast well and that color is not used as the sole means of conveying important information. 7.Do not use pop-up windows or change active window unless the user is aware this is happening. (1 instance) 8.Associate labels with their form controls. (11 instances) 9.Do labels of all form controls immediately follow its control on the same line? (15 instances) 10.Have you provided a linear text alternative for all tables that lay out content in parallel, word-wrapped columns? (70 instances) 11.Only use list elements for actual lists, not formatting. Priority 3 Accessibility Bobby Approved status is assigned on the basis of Priority 1 items in the Web Content Guidelines. For a higher level of accessibility you may also want to examine Priority 2 and Priority 3 items. No Priority 3 items that Bobby is able to detect have been found, but you should examine the list of items that require a manual examination below. To achieve conformance with Priority 3 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. P3 - Manual check In addition to the items that Bobby can examine there are 7 Priority 3 issue(s) presented below for which Bobby cannot make a determination. To achieve conformance with Priority 3 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. 1.Furnish keyboard shortcuts for form elements. (11 instances) 2.Use the ABBR and ACRONYM elements to denote and expand abbreviations and acronyms. 3.If this table is used to display data in rows and columns (i.e. a spreadsheet), have you provided a summary of the table? (35 instances) 4.Consider adding keyboard shortcuts to frequently used links. (272 instances) 5.Include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas. (15 instances) 6.Specify a logical tab order among form controls, links and objects. (15 instances) 7.Identify the language of the text, and any changes in the language. Browser Compatibility Errors The following section contains a list of 5 browser compatibility errors. Browser compatibility errors help to determine when HTML tags and their attributes are not compatible with certain web browsers or HTML specifications. Problems here do not mean that this page is necessarily inaccessible. Browser compatibility errors do not affect the accessibility rating of a page. 1.Required attribute ALT is missing from tag IMG for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 2.Unknown attribute LENGTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 3.Attribute BGCOLOR in element TABLE needs a valid color. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 4.Unknown attribute WIDTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 5.Unknown element name NOBR for browser(s): HTML4.0 (5 instances) Download Time The following three-column table gives download time statistics for the images, applets, and objects on this page. The first column contains the URL of each item, the second column the item size in kilobytes, and the third column the approximate download time for each item when using a 28,800 baud modem. At the end of the report, an arbitrary delay of 0.5 seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times. Total 74.45 K 20.68 HTTP Request Delays -- 10.00 Total + Delays -- 30.6 Bobby finished.
I dont think many people would argue with your point that the blind, or any disabled persosn, should get access to all that the able can get to.
What this case is about though, and we are talking about this case not the blind in general, is the litigation of a company to be forced to change their content. It is a claim based on several false assumptions, ones I would have thought salshdot readers would be able to pick up quickly.
1)No one forces the blind to use AOL for net access. It is not the only access available. In the market place for ISPS AOL is simply the common dumping ground for lackluster users and the net challanged. Why any group would seek to force their way onto this mess of an ISP is another matter all togther. Treating AOL as the whole of the net is wrong, has always been wrong, as amazes me who many slashdoters lost that fact in this debate.
2)It is simply a lawyers run at making more litigation and a goverment stab at more control into your daily life.
3)If this is what you consider aid for the disabled I would think you would be all for the solution proposed by Kurt Vonegut. IF anyone in our society is blind, everyone must where glasses to make their sight the same.If one person is unable to sing well, no one should.
There is a line between making the world better for those with less, this is not one of them. In the future you need to choose your fights better.
If what im reading is correct, the arguemtn would only hold any water if AOL was the ONLY source of access for the blind to the internet.
This is not the case. There are many many ISPs in the nation that have accessable entry paths to the net.
To say that the only venue for the Blind to get to the net is AOL is not only inane, it is a lie; one i hope the judges who hear this case point out.
No one is forced to use AOL. On the webit is often the case that AOL users are themsleves "net challanged" and as such it would be possible the last place a disabled person should look for access.
PPP connection via windows and linux can esily be scripted once and used byt the blind. Even easier is DSL or other persistent connection.
Once on the net blind users can then get around the web via a wide array of web browsers made specificaly with the disabled in mind.
If anyone here had looked you would see the Windows operating system comes BUILT WITH tools for the diabled. Of course though this being slashdot no one will cop to that and will probably flame me for mentioning it.
If you look on the site mentioned earlier (www.webable.com) you will see slew of tools and documents about this subject.
Great points. One of the things many of the more narrow minded posters to this thread neglect is that there is no way to LEgislate all the "helpfull" things they want without creating a facist state. I know lots of them probably see no problem with that, but I do. How we are defined as a society is more shown by how we act on our own rather than how we are legislated into action. If the only reason we do soemthing is because of a law then we have lost the battle to a free and open society. The accessability needs to come from within, not without. There are many methods now to traverse guis, read web pages and make a site more accessable to the blind. There is no need for a Federal Law to be inacted to make these work. IF a segment of the populations need redress to being areed from an source of information or a venue of experssion then this is already covered by laws and also by thechincal methods. Those who are too short sighted and reactionary to look into these methods need to reacess their own vision and motives.
Looking to make your site a bit more freindly folks with a disabilty? Try these links http://www.webable.com/ --A great site for all manner of resources on the subject. Go there and explore http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/ http://lunch.ncsa.uiuc.edu/tom/tom.html ---Is your site useable for folks without 20/20 vision? http://lynx.browser.org/ http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ ---browsers to use for testing
Well its not JK this time making the idiotic statements, but it should be.
This sort of litigious morality is one of the many things hamstringing the creative and innovative from achieving a level of excellence.
Making a website compliant with the ADA is not a bad idea for many web sites. It would benefit the website by getting more traffic, by looking over their code to make sure its not bloated beyond belief (have you ever looked at Front page code?)and would have the added benefit of being a nice thing to do.
BUT, and believe me I got a big one, LEGISLATING this as a demand is just the thing to stop things dead in their tracts. I will be the first one to say that much of the websites out there are pewp, but the right to make pewp is one of the very cornerstones of the American being. [1]
Forcing AOL to be ADA compliant is simply a way to bolster legal fees, court time and press coverage. The blind will get little out of it.
Rather than this tact the blind people themselves should contact web sites and ask them to be made more readable. I have had this happen to me already. I run a web site for Old Time Radio fans. Some of them are blind. I gladly made my page more friendly to their needs. I get email when something is added they cannot parse, in fact I have a list of things to do this weekend for that very end.
No one is forcing me to do this, no great police force is banging down my door shouting "Drop the mouse and step away from the PhotoShop screen!" I do it myself and would expect others whose web sites are important to the blind to do the same.
If a site is not made more accessible to the blind then they should protest it, harangue the web site operator (much the way people bugging me for my spelling and typos:)- ) This is something that is already in place, is already being done and is already a part of how some websites work.
In this way we become our own feedback loop. In this way we keep the government from encroaching on yet another part of our lives that it has no inherent right to encroach on. Those that would bring the force of the government to bear in this issue are the true enemies of a free society.
I am no fan of AOL but this is one action against them I can not approve of .
[1][Yes I am making this American centric. That is who I am and the way I am reading this argument. For all the ECCers and Pacrimers out there who have a problem with that...I am who I am, you are who you are. When you want to change me, come and bring it on.]
1) The web is visual only in so far as you are only LOOKING AT IT. You do know that sight is only one sense, that a web site can be heard...and in a few instances the bad ones can even be smelt a mile off.
I run a web site for Old Time Radio fans. Many of these tend towards the aged set, god lovem. A few are blind or have a tough time reading. I try to make all the OTR pages readable by TextToSpeach programs (like Readtome or even MS Agents)
2) Its not hard at all, in fact its nearly idiot proof to make a site readable by those without eyes. Alt tags, descriptions, common sense descriptions.
3) As you point out though not every web site is for every purpose and there are many web sites that are sight centric. This is not a bad thing, not at all. I love a well designed page. Unfortunately I would say about 90% of the "web designers" should be classified as legally BLIND simple on the basis of their works.
Akari Kerasua said once that he was going to stick to filming in Black and White until such time as he felt he understood the basic premises of film making, that color was something in addition to telling a story on film. Look at some of his works. In an age when TECHNICOLOR was touted above quality his black and white films are masterpieces.
So too with websites today. Everyone is running around making their sites LOOK all flash and POW and bangwhizzo...but the content is piss poor and the techniques used in the flashbang are not learned well enough to even make the fluff look good.
I will fight for the rights of anyone to make a fool of themselves, but Id rather they learn from their mistakes and use the tools that best suit the tasks at hand. Many web pages are contextual but they are hampered with the NEED to "Keep up with the Jones'" in flash and tech.
Using tech as a substation for creativity or content is the sure sign of a weak minded web creator. Inflated egos on knowing a simple set of page layout tags, uses for the color mauve and truly missing the boat on what the web is (ie another in a long line of ways (mediums) to get ideas from one mind to many (paper, telegraph, radio, tv, etc )
Many sites could benefit from closing their eyes and reevaluating what they get out of their creations.
Actualy, my anonymous posting looser, i was taken to see it at a $1 theater here in portland that probaly beats out any theater in your neck of the woods.
I also was bought pizza.
So lets see, I was paid to go see it, fed pizza...oh yea I am such the looser.
Ive seen better plots on episodes of TJ hooker. Come on, even you hit on the key thing here. They makers thought this would be shown on a TV to a few freinds, a few showings for folks on small screens. Putting this up on the big screen is like putting Jon Bennet Ramesy as the centerfold of Hustler.
Not only is it a problem of scale but its a problem of intent. Blowing up a bad picture ona ascreen 20x its intended format and the flaws become 20x as glarring.
Charging full price for this was one one of the many bonehead moves. Blowing it up in the press was another. Great, lets take a nice little student film and hype it more than GOne With the Wind and then expect everyone to fall over themselves with glowing praise.
Flaw flaw flaw. If I used it to clean my teeth it would be dental flaws.
The characters were so paper thin as to make the plot look almost solid. The only impression we have of heather is she whines, she lies and she controls a situation past its usefullness...Much like the movie. The other two make nice foils for her rantings, but even here it is so paper thin and flawe that they might as well have brought in JArJar and Yoda.
The BWP was good for one thing. It is a great litmus test to see if someone can be easily dupped by hype and peer preasure.
Reports of The Fair Geek have long been told in these wild woods of the net. No one has uncovered hard evidence and the few who do go looking for this ellusive creature often are never heard from again.
Tales of well formed debates, proof of concepts, factual ideas and open mindedness can be heard in many folk stories and legends. Still nothing concrete ever has surfaced.
So while we go thru our day listening to Jon Katz, Cnn and reading Slashdot threads let us remeber, there are some things, some hidden things, that we are just not ment to find.
POint the first--Aside fromt eh broadway tommy I love most things Pete does. Hes a creative guy and trys to tell storys. You do remeber storys? I mean yea mastery of music is nice and good, but without a good tale to tell its mostly mastorbatory fluffings. Im sure that appeals to some of the more narrow focused cretins here, but i aim a tad higher.
Point the B--Why is it that in a place such as slash dot the first reactions of many, not all, to something slightly off the charts or beaten paths is negative? You would think slashdot has become a haven for closed minded fundamentalists to read some of the posts surrounding new things.
Petes track record should speak for itself. This Third Disc generative thing is either going to be utter cheese that the reocrd company is foisting on him or something amusingly cool.
Why, in this place, are there not more stabs, regarddless if they fail or not, at making new evenues of expression?
Has the clacification creeped in such a tight weave that its all restritive motions?
POint the first--Aside fromt eh broadway tommy I love most things Pete does. Hes a creative guy and trys to tell storys. You do remeber storys? I mean yea mastery of music is nice and good, but without a good tale to tell its mostly mastorbatory fluffings. Im sure that appeals to some of the more narrow focused cretins here, but i aim a tad higher.
Point the B--Why is it that in a place such as slash dot the first reactions of many, not all, to something slightly off the charts or beaten paths is negative? You would think slashdot has become a haven for closed minded fundamentalists to read some of the posts surrounding new things.
Petes track record should speak for itself. This Third Disc generative thing is either going to be utter cheese that the reocrd company is foisting on him or something amusingly cool.
Why are, in this place, are there not more stabs, regarddless if they fail or not, at making new evenues of expression?
Has the clacification creeped in such a tight weave that its all restritive motions?
--just a though
bell boy, got my lip buttoned down
Wafting Another Airball with Jon "Salieri " Katz
on
The New, New, Thing
·
· Score: 2
It's a great read, but the author perhaps admires his ego-maniacal subject a bit too much.
This from Jon "Any hype you can write I can hype better" Katz. This from a man hwo has done NOTHING of tech but writes about it as if he were its Joan Of Arc? ("Yes god i hear you , i will lead the poor masses to rethink their tech crazy ways and to let me have more contact with the young")
One of your main gripes about this book is that of ego. You simply cant let your mind think of Anyone with a larger ego than your own, can ya? Does it burn you so much that others are making millions while you are relegated to writting about the chewed over crumbs of a tech sceen that is leaving you in the dust?
Maybe what creates some aspects of greatness is ego driven to excelence. The goals may be good , evil , or more likely personal shades inbetween, but the mark is set and the pace is frantic and you Mr Jon "Ludties Unite and Smash Your Gameboys" Katz seek only to belittle the achievments with your own mediocracy.
Once again we see Jon "Salieri" Katz living up to his true sainted goal, to make the world safe from excelence, to level the fields of achievment, and to pave over the groundwork of the great with the blacktar sameness of his safe and effcient Information SuperKatzway.
Wafting Another Airball with Jon "Salieri " Katz
on
The New, New, Thing
·
· Score: 2
New Yorkers can't quite grasp how computers, the Net and the Web moved to the forefront of commerce, culture and communications so rapidly.
First off, my credentials. Born and raised in the Bronx, NYC. 205th street front and representing.
Second off, well there is no second off there is just...
The Meat of the Matter You no good momo mook. Your luddite leaning columns are amuzing at best and insulting at the core. This is no excpetion. You reach escape velocity in your first few paragraphs, the rest being all strum and fluff.
So east coast born and breed cant cope with computers? Cant grasp the net? Wow Mr Katz, seems like all your work at the NAMBLA meeting heloing out the tortured yout of america has given you some great views on geography and technology.
Maybe now you can tell us how the home of the 25 World Series winning Yanks dont know about baseball becuase the east coast has no grasp of sunshine and sportsmanship.
Ill have more to say on this topic Mr Katz, I just wanted to chime in here as an Eastcoaster for a hearty "fuck you and the horse you blew".
This one is going to be short, becuase the article is so simpleminded.
Jon wants to have the RIGHT to say what he wants but no one should have the RIGHT to say things that might make him feel "bad" about his points of view.
Great Jon, not only have you shown yourself to be a Ludite, your now working up to Facist Controller.
Typical, let katz talk long enough and I bet he comes out with a Manifesto.
Had the genre down cold in THE 60's and EARLY 70's
Its sad when the sights fall short of insight into ones own favorite topics. Gibsons stuff is great and good, but it is continuations of themes rooted firly rooted Before his typewriter clacked on about the sprawl.
Also , lest we forget, lets remeber who BUTCHERED and MADE CRAP his own great work of Johny Mnemonic? Twasnt Hollywood, was the author himself.
All of which is a way of saying, beyond the post pre ant pro meaningless jangle of jaws is the fact that most genres are born years before they are given a name by the pundints.
Honor the good stuff and, as the wise sage Flavor Flav says, dont belive the hype. Lables constrain, confine and make a camp concentration of otherwise great ideas.
this message brought to you by the "Anarchists Unite Society...We Bring UNruly Things to Right(tm)
Slashdot Mirror
If you are calling yourself Geek or Nerd then in all likely hood you are lost to a truer meaning.
To name a thing is to cntrol a thing. If you allow others to name you , you have given them control of that part of yourself.
Think that is bullshit, look at the media. All "geeks" and "nerd" are controled by those that control the phrases.
There are a million paths to take in a life, why do so many chooe the paths most travelled.
Welcome to the path of the sheeple. Sont worry, the butcher will be to you soon. Bahhhhhh.
"I will choose the path thats clear
I will choose free will"
The idea of a Use Once and Burn vector for messages is a sound one.Anonymous messaging is fast going the way of the dodo bird. This exectution though leavs a lot to be desired.
I bet ya the devices are serialzed in some way and traceable to a store. Once traceable to a store it wont be all that impossible to track a customer.
If you pay in cash that may be ok, but i bet there will be a credit card needed to buy them.
The enviro aspect is also not so hot. Better still would be a cell you could erase down to the core and have recoded. Of course this still would require, im betting, some sort of tracable transaction.
The need for this sort of thing is real, but this is not it.
The whole basis of the case here is FUD, pure and simple.
The Goverment wants to scare teh shit out of the consumers and it has chosen MS as the FUDGoat.
By using the stadard tactics of FUD. they paint MS as the sole eveil controller of all OS software. they paint the industry as being simply pupets of Bills Borg collective. If you buy into this and you use and INTEL box then YOU TOO are a defensless victim who needs the gov's help.
If you buy this, if you cheer this on, then you are the Problem not not , very much not, part of the solution.
If MS is a bad company, DONT USE THEM.
I lived thru the begining of all this in the 70's and 80's. MS was just another player, one of many. They got the foothold they did becuase the other players fucked up in some way or another.
Unix couldnt get it, and still really hasnt, got it togther enough to make the average user feel safe.
Apple tossed the game becuase steve job's ego was bruised.
Atari was managed by clowns in small cars.
Xerox as been dodging sucess for decades. they are good at making great ideas and then letting them out like gas after a heavy mexican meal
There were others, but they all blew it. MS got where it is today because it was in a field of worse loosers than they were.
Same for Word Processors. Have you ever truly gone back and looked at what the choices were back in the late 80's? Word Perfect (how has has more owners than amiga), WordStar, XYwrite, DisplayWrite(from IBM no less). There was a WIDE field and MS came out on top beacuse the rest of them could not get it togther.
Like I said, I lived and worked thru the whole bloody battle. Every user was screamning and yelling for ONE THING over all else...MAKE IT EASY AND CHEAP. They where willing to get behind the first company that made a suite of programs that would wrap up all the taks they were doing. I mean lets face it , it was a mess back then. Spell checkers were seperate TSRs, you needed to jump from one program to another to get the simplest of tasks done.
The first thing that came out that was even closer was Ashton Tates FrameWork. Great product that was another victim of Ashton tates blunderings.
Lotus tried and fialed so horribly it sent the company back to 123 so fast it left a vacuum.
MS was one of several compies to starting bundling.
But somewhere down the road enough consumers decided on a product, and it was MS.
Operating system wise its basicaly the same story. Only now a days there are more user freindly OS's around than ever. And this was all BEFORE the findings form the Gov. Thats right, Linux and BSD were all popular INSPITE Of MS. they made a growing base of users and admins happy becuase it worked for them.
Thats how the market works. Even with MS and all its money moving to get folks to use thier stuff other things flourish. Given time and enough consumer education the shift could have been a natural one. Instead we are left looking like children unable to fend for themsleves.
The gang of people call ing for the gov to stomp on MS need to be educated that the GOV is not the tool for this. It is the market place, the source of MS's power. MS will not be daunted by the gov, it hold the gov in low regard. MS knows the secret, that if it pleases the customer it will previal.
So now we may have 5 or six MS's. That will be pleasent. You couldnt handle one on your own, so now you want the gov to make it 5. Good thinking.
So maybe they will hamper MS practices. Well they might, a bit, but you folks should know how currupt the regualtions of a large gov is. In the end its about Money and Power. Do you think that MS will be worried about that in this market, with its base?
Do you think thats air your breathing?
The only way to stomp on MS is to kill them at thier source. No market, no money no power.
Clip this and read it back to yourself in two years. Odds are all the folks who called for GOV action on MS will be singing differnt tunes.
You can find me laughing my ass off back at the MediaWhore studios think about how a lot of SlashDotters Got Taken in By The FUD.
---
Once again we find Jon "lets all sink to sameness" Katz taking up over hyped chatter and crafting it for his own crusade to battle excellence.
If you look back over all the Katz articles you will find nearly no new information. The only thing Katz adds is his own little spin towards the the Dumbing Down of Computers.
After years of trials one , ONE , judge comes out with a FINDINGS paper that hits in all the right places. This is news? This changes anything?
For all of the Bigoted statements Katz says perhaps his most amazingly inane statement is that NO ONE HAS A CHOICE, that MS was forced on us by Republicans and Evil Priests. Jon has once again strippied his readers of free will and in his good intention righting og this seeks to bring in a ruling power to hold us up.
Thanks Jon, but I can make a choice all by myself. So can the million sof users who use computers. It may not be the choice you think is right, but it is my choie to make.
Jon says that MS got into the net game late and fumbled. Well lets see, IE came on like ganga busters from its early days as Blackbird and kicked the shit out of NS. Netscape tried to sell a free browser and the PEOPLE handed them thier ass.
If you follow Jons logic any company that comes into a market and does well needs to be taken control of by the goverment. Gee Jon, thanks for trying to revive the Dead Soviet System here at home. It didnt work there and it sure as hell wont work here.
Competition is what breeds innovation. Look back into history Jon, and I mean more than 3 weeks ago, and you will see that clearly. What your seeking to do here is level off the edge and legisalte the field such that nothing out side of your mindset could be or should be done.
Thank god you dont realy code or programm or sys admin. You would be the clod who is unable to do anything creative and try to hold back those who can with standards, committes and the other tools of the bland and creative chalanged.
We live in a time of rapid change. We live in a time where the sharpest minds and the quickest hands can shape the future. If your only "talent" is to hamstring others thru legislation of luditism then you will eventualy be put tossed tot he wayside.
I look forward to your next installment of the
Bland Crusade.
And now A song for you to whitle with.
"
Oh slashdoters jump and shout with glee
and bill gates on the moon
I wonder if they really see
that bill gates on the moon
Netscape tried to sell a free browser
and bill gates on the moon
Scot mcnealy got java, but he aint getting any prouder
and bill gates on the moon
Everyones got to slay a goat, its true
and bill gates on the moon
and when the goats run out, they start with you
and bill gates on the moon
The try to legisalte thier own mindsets
and bill gates on the moon
its a pity thier applications aint ready yet
and bill gates on the moon
I wonder will they ever learn
that bill gates on the moon
you cant claim victory if the markets burned
and bill gates on the moon
Now its comming close to the end
and bill gates on the moon
when there are 5 micrsofts, what ya goona do then
fly MSnasa and visit bill gates on the moon "
Oh slashdoters jump and shout with glee
and bill gates on the moon
I wonder if they really see
that bill gates on the moon
Netscape tried to sell a free browser
and bill gates on the moon
Scot mcnealy got java, but he aint getting any prouder
and bill gates on the moon
Everyones got to slay a goat, its true
and bill gates on the moon
and when the goats run out, they start with you
and bill gates on the moon
The try to legisalte thier own mindsets
and bill gates on the moon
its a pity thier applications aint ready yet
and bill gates on the moon
I wonder will they ever learn
that bill gates on the moon
you cant claim victory if the markets burned
and bill gates on the moon
Now its comming close to the end
and bill gates on the moon
when there are 5 micrsofts, what ya goona do then
fly MSnasa and visit bill gates on the moon
----
A few people I know ARE blind. I know what they go thru. In the old time radio circle its not uncommon for the vision of the user to be bad or gone.
Its not fucking easy but they have more options now than EVER.
Lots of folks here are just getting into this topic TODAY and thinking they know it all. GO educate yourselves first.
Have you looked at the options available to you should you go blind, deaf, or loose a limb. Hit www.webable.com for starters.
Then, after you looked there and got some programs...
Tie one hand behind your back for an hour and use your computer.
Blindfold yourself, go browse the web. Serach for oldtime radio shows. Download one. Listen to it .
Ive done this and talked to folks who have no choice in doing it. Things are working, pages can be had, there are resources out ther and rather than seek litigation more work needs to be done on them.
Would you rather sit around and write another cool KDE theme , draft legal documents to halt people working on web pages...or do something about it?
Legal action against AOL is the lamest solution i can think of.
from http://www.cast.org/bobby/
For www.slashdot.org
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1.Ensure that descriptions of dynamic content are updated with changes in content.
2.If any of the images on this page convey important information beyond what is in each image's alternative text, add a
LONGDESC attribute. (49 instances)
3.If you can't figure out any other way to make a page accessible, construct an alternate version of the page which is
accessible and has the same content.
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and columns? (35 instances)
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descriptive (D) links. (49 instances)
his page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status.
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Priority 3 Accessibility
Bobby Approved status is assigned on the basis of Priority 1 items in the Web Content Guidelines. For a higher level of
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conformance with Priority 3 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items.
P3 - Manual check
In addition to the items that Bobby can examine there are 7 Priority 3 issue(s) presented below for which Bobby cannot
make a determination. To achieve conformance with Priority 3 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to
these items.
1.Furnish keyboard shortcuts for form elements. (11 instances)
2.Use the ABBR and ACRONYM elements to denote and expand abbreviations and acronyms.
3.If this table is used to display data in rows and columns (i.e. a spreadsheet), have you provided a summary of the table? (35 instances)
4.Consider adding keyboard shortcuts to frequently used links. (272 instances)
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6.Specify a logical tab order among form controls, links and objects. (15 instances)
7.Identify the language of the text, and any changes in the language.
Browser Compatibility Errors
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when HTML tags and their attributes are not compatible with certain web browsers or HTML specifications. Problems
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rating of a page.
1.Required attribute ALT is missing from tag IMG for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
2.Unknown attribute LENGTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
3.Attribute BGCOLOR in element TABLE needs a valid color. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
4.Unknown attribute WIDTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance)
5.Unknown element name NOBR for browser(s): HTML4.0 (5 instances)
Download Time
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column contains the URL of each item, the second column the item size in kilobytes, and the third column the approximate
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seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times.
Total
74.45 K
20.68
HTTP Request Delays
--
10.00
Total + Delays
--
30.6
Bobby finished.
from http://www.cast.org/bobby/ For www.slashdot.org --- Priority 1 Accessibility This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status. Below is a list of 1 accessibility problems that should be fixed in order to make this page accessible to people with disabilities. 1.Provide alternative text for all images. (1 instance) P1 - Manual check There are some checkpoints that an automatic program like Bobby cannot examine. These 5 item(s) are presented below. You will need to be able to respond affirmatively to these items as well to obtain Bobby Approved status. 1.Ensure that descriptions of dynamic content are updated with changes in content. 2.If any of the images on this page convey important information beyond what is in each image's alternative text, add a LONGDESC attribute. (49 instances) 3.If you can't figure out any other way to make a page accessible, construct an alternate version of the page which is accessible and has the same content. 4.If this table contains data in rows and columns (i.e. a spreadsheet), have you identified headers for the table rows and columns? (35 instances) 5.If any of the images on this page convey important information beyond what is in each image's alternative text, add descriptive (D) links. (49 instances) his page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status. Priority 2 Accessibility Bobby Approved status is assigned on the basis of Priority 1 items in the Web Content Guidelines. For a higher level of accessibility you may also want to examine Priority 2 and Priority 3 items. No Priority 2 items that Bobby is able to detect have been found, but you should examine the list of items that require a manual examination below. To achieve conformance with Priority 2 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. P2 - Manual check In addition to the items that Bobby can examine there are 11 Priority 2 issue(s) presented below for which Bobby cannot make a determination. To achieve conformance with Priority 2 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. 1.Use relative sizing and positioning (% values) rather than absolute (pixels). (11 instances) 2.Have you grouped related form controls and labeled each group? (4 instances) 3.Style sheets should be used to control layout and presentation wherever possible. (35 instances) 4.Mark up quotations with the Q and BLOCKQUOTE elements. 5.Did you avoid using movement where possible? (37 instances) 6.Make sure that text, image, and background colors contrast well and that color is not used as the sole means of conveying important information. 7.Do not use pop-up windows or change active window unless the user is aware this is happening. (1 instance) 8.Associate labels with their form controls. (11 instances) 9.Do labels of all form controls immediately follow its control on the same line? (15 instances) 10.Have you provided a linear text alternative for all tables that lay out content in parallel, word-wrapped columns? (70 instances) 11.Only use list elements for actual lists, not formatting. Priority 3 Accessibility Bobby Approved status is assigned on the basis of Priority 1 items in the Web Content Guidelines. For a higher level of accessibility you may also want to examine Priority 2 and Priority 3 items. No Priority 3 items that Bobby is able to detect have been found, but you should examine the list of items that require a manual examination below. To achieve conformance with Priority 3 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. P3 - Manual check In addition to the items that Bobby can examine there are 7 Priority 3 issue(s) presented below for which Bobby cannot make a determination. To achieve conformance with Priority 3 guidelines you need to be able to answer affirmatively to these items. 1.Furnish keyboard shortcuts for form elements. (11 instances) 2.Use the ABBR and ACRONYM elements to denote and expand abbreviations and acronyms. 3.If this table is used to display data in rows and columns (i.e. a spreadsheet), have you provided a summary of the table? (35 instances) 4.Consider adding keyboard shortcuts to frequently used links. (272 instances) 5.Include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text areas. (15 instances) 6.Specify a logical tab order among form controls, links and objects. (15 instances) 7.Identify the language of the text, and any changes in the language. Browser Compatibility Errors The following section contains a list of 5 browser compatibility errors. Browser compatibility errors help to determine when HTML tags and their attributes are not compatible with certain web browsers or HTML specifications. Problems here do not mean that this page is necessarily inaccessible. Browser compatibility errors do not affect the accessibility rating of a page. 1.Required attribute ALT is missing from tag IMG for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 2.Unknown attribute LENGTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 3.Attribute BGCOLOR in element TABLE needs a valid color. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 4.Unknown attribute WIDTH in element INPUT. for browser(s): HTML4.0 (1 instance) 5.Unknown element name NOBR for browser(s): HTML4.0 (5 instances) Download Time The following three-column table gives download time statistics for the images, applets, and objects on this page. The first column contains the URL of each item, the second column the item size in kilobytes, and the third column the approximate download time for each item when using a 28,800 baud modem. At the end of the report, an arbitrary delay of 0.5 seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times. Total 74.45 K 20.68 HTTP Request Delays -- 10.00 Total + Delays -- 30.6 Bobby finished.
I dont think many people would argue with your point that the blind, or any disabled persosn, should get access to all that the able can get to.
What this case is about though, and we are talking about this case not the blind in general, is the litigation of a company to be forced to change their content. It is a claim based on several false assumptions, ones I would have thought salshdot readers would be able to pick up quickly.
1)No one forces the blind to use AOL for net access. It is not the only access available.
In the market place for ISPS AOL is simply the common dumping ground for lackluster users and the net challanged. Why any group would seek to force their way onto this mess of an ISP is another matter all togther. Treating AOL as the whole of the net is wrong, has always been wrong, as amazes me who many slashdoters lost that fact in this debate.
2)It is simply a lawyers run at making more litigation and a goverment stab at more control into your daily life.
3)If this is what you consider aid for the disabled I would think you would be all for the solution proposed by Kurt Vonegut. IF anyone in our society is blind, everyone must where glasses to make their sight the same.If one person is unable to sing well, no one should.
There is a line between making the world better for those with less, this is not one of them. In the future you need to choose your fights better.
Thanks for playing though.
If what im reading is correct, the arguemtn would only hold any water if AOL was the ONLY source of access for the blind to the internet.
This is not the case. There are many many ISPs in the nation that have accessable entry paths to the net.
To say that the only venue for the Blind to get to the net is AOL is not only inane, it is a lie; one i hope the judges who hear this case point out.
No one is forced to use AOL. On the webit is often the case that AOL users are themsleves "net challanged" and as such it would be possible the last place a disabled person should look for access.
PPP connection via windows and linux can esily be scripted once and used byt the blind. Even easier is DSL or other persistent connection.
Once on the net blind users can then get around the web via a wide array of web browsers made specificaly with the disabled in mind.
If anyone here had looked you would see the Windows operating system comes BUILT WITH tools for the diabled. Of course though this being slashdot no one will cop to that and will probably flame me for mentioning it.
If you look on the site mentioned earlier
(www.webable.com) you will see slew of tools and documents about this subject.
Eduation before egotization.
Great points. One of the things many of the more narrow minded posters to this thread neglect is that there is no way to LEgislate all the "helpfull" things they want without creating a facist state. I know lots of them probably see no problem with that, but I do. How we are defined as a society is more shown by how we act on our own rather than how we are legislated into action. If the only reason we do soemthing is because of a law then we have lost the battle to a free and open society. The accessability needs to come from within, not without. There are many methods now to traverse guis, read web pages and make a site more accessable to the blind. There is no need for a Federal Law to be inacted to make these work. IF a segment of the populations need redress to being areed from an source of information or a venue of experssion then this is already covered by laws and also by thechincal methods. Those who are too short sighted and reactionary to look into these methods need to reacess their own vision and motives.
Sorry about that.
Looking to make your site a bit more freindly folks with a disabilty? Try these links
http://www.webable.com/
--A great site for all manner of resources on the subject. Go there and explore
http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/
http://lunch.ncsa.uiuc.edu/tom/tom.html
---Is your site useable for folks without 20/20 vision?
http://lynx.browser.org/
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/
---browsers to use for testing
Looking to make your site a bit more freindly folks with a disabilty? Try these links http://www.webable.com/ --A great site for all manner of resources on the subject. Go there and explore http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/ http://lunch.ncsa.uiuc.edu/tom/tom.html ---Is your site useable for folks without 20/20 vision? http://lynx.browser.org/ http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ ---browsers to use for testing
Well its not JK this time making the idiotic statements, but it should be.
This sort of litigious morality is one of the many things hamstringing the creative and innovative from achieving a level of excellence.
Making a website compliant with the ADA is not a bad idea for many web sites. It would benefit the website by getting more traffic, by looking over their code to make sure its not bloated beyond belief (have you ever looked at Front page code?)and would have the added benefit of being a nice thing to do.
BUT, and believe me I got a big one, LEGISLATING this as a demand is just the thing to stop things dead in their tracts. I will be the first one to say that much of the websites out there are pewp, but the right to make pewp is one of the very cornerstones of the American being. [1]
Forcing AOL to be ADA compliant is simply a way to bolster legal fees, court time and press coverage. The blind will get little out of it.
Rather than this tact the blind people themselves should contact web sites and ask them to be made more readable. I have had this happen to me already. I run a web site for Old Time Radio fans. Some of them are blind. I gladly made my page more friendly to their needs. I get email when something is added they cannot parse, in fact I have a list of things to do this weekend for that very end.
No one is forcing me to do this, no great police force is banging down my door shouting "Drop the mouse and step away from the PhotoShop screen!" I do it myself and would expect others whose web sites are important to the blind to do the same.
If a site is not made more accessible to the blind then they should protest it, harangue the web site operator (much the way people bugging me for my spelling and typos:)- ) This is something that is already in place, is already being done and is already a part of how some websites work.
In this way we become our own feedback loop. In this way we keep the government from encroaching on yet another part of our lives that it has no inherent right to encroach on. Those that would bring the force of the government to bear in this issue are the true enemies of a free society.
I am no fan of AOL but this is one action against them I can not approve of .
[1][Yes I am making this American centric. That is who I am and the way I am reading this argument. For all the ECCers and Pacrimers out there who have a problem with that...I am who I am, you are who you are. When you want to change me, come and bring it on.]
Several points on your post...
1) The web is visual only in so far as you are only LOOKING AT IT. You do know that sight is only one sense, that a web site can be heard...and in a few instances the bad ones can even be smelt a mile off.
I run a web site for Old Time Radio fans. Many of these tend towards the aged set, god lovem. A few are blind or have a tough time reading. I try to make all the OTR pages readable by TextToSpeach programs (like Readtome or even MS Agents)
2) Its not hard at all, in fact its nearly idiot proof to make a site readable by those without eyes. Alt tags, descriptions, common sense descriptions.
3) As you point out though not every web site is for every purpose and there are many web sites that are sight centric. This is not a bad thing, not at all. I love a well designed page. Unfortunately I would say about 90% of the "web designers" should be classified as legally BLIND simple on the basis of their works.
Akari Kerasua said once that he was going to stick to filming in Black and White until such time as he felt he understood the basic premises of film making, that color was something in addition to telling a story on film. Look at some of his works. In an age when TECHNICOLOR was touted above quality his black and white films are masterpieces.
So too with websites today. Everyone is running around making their sites LOOK all flash and POW and bangwhizzo...but the content is piss poor and the techniques used in the flashbang are not learned well enough to even make the fluff look good.
I will fight for the rights of anyone to make a fool of themselves, but Id rather they learn from their mistakes and use the tools that best suit the tasks at hand. Many web pages are contextual but they are hampered with the NEED to "Keep up with the Jones'" in flash and tech.
Using tech as a substation for creativity or content is the sure sign of a weak minded web creator. Inflated egos on knowing a simple set of page layout tags, uses for the color mauve and truly missing the boat on what the web is (ie another in a long line of ways (mediums) to get ideas from one mind to many (paper, telegraph, radio, tv, etc )
Many sites could benefit from closing their eyes and reevaluating what they get out of their creations.
Actualy, my anonymous posting looser, i was taken to see it at a $1 theater here in portland that probaly beats out any theater in your neck of the woods.
I also was bought pizza.
So lets see, I was paid to go see it, fed pizza...oh yea I am such the looser.
Lates lamers
A few flaws????
Ive seen better plots on episodes of TJ hooker. Come on, even you hit on the key thing here. They makers thought this would be shown on a TV to a few freinds, a few showings for folks on small screens. Putting this up on the big screen is like putting Jon Bennet Ramesy as the centerfold of Hustler.
Not only is it a problem of scale but its a problem of intent. Blowing up a bad picture ona ascreen 20x its intended format and the flaws become 20x as glarring.
Charging full price for this was one one of the many bonehead moves. Blowing it up in the press was another. Great, lets take a nice little student film and hype it more than GOne With the Wind and then expect everyone to fall over themselves with glowing praise.
Flaw flaw flaw. If I used it to clean my teeth it would be dental flaws.
The characters were so paper thin as to make the plot look almost solid. The only impression we have of heather is she whines, she lies and she controls a situation past its usefullness...Much like the movie. The other two make nice foils for her rantings, but even here it is so paper thin and flawe that they might as well have brought in JArJar and Yoda.
The BWP was good for one thing. It is a great litmus test to see if someone can be easily dupped by hype and peer preasure.
teach your children well
Reports of The Fair Geek have long been told in these wild woods of the net. No one has uncovered hard evidence and the few who do go looking for this ellusive creature often are never heard from again.
Tales of well formed debates, proof of concepts, factual ideas and open mindedness can be heard in many folk stories and legends. Still nothing concrete ever has surfaced.
So while we go thru our day listening to Jon Katz, Cnn and reading Slashdot threads let us remeber, there are some things, some hidden things, that we are just not ment to find.
POint the first--Aside fromt eh broadway tommy I love most things Pete does. Hes a creative guy and trys to tell storys. You do remeber storys? I mean yea mastery of music is nice and good, but without a good tale to tell its mostly mastorbatory fluffings. Im sure that appeals to some of the more narrow focused cretins here, but i aim a tad higher.
Point the B--Why is it that in a place such as slash dot the first reactions of many, not all, to something slightly off the charts or beaten paths is negative? You would think slashdot has become a haven for closed minded fundamentalists to read some of the posts surrounding new things.
Petes track record should speak for itself. This Third Disc generative thing is either going to be utter cheese that the reocrd company is foisting on him or something amusingly cool.
Why, in this place, are there not more stabs, regarddless if they fail or not, at making new evenues of expression?
Has the clacification creeped in such a tight weave that its all restritive motions?
--just a though
bell boy, got my lip buttoned down
POint the first--Aside fromt eh broadway tommy I love most things Pete does. Hes a creative guy and trys to tell storys. You do remeber storys? I mean yea mastery of music is nice and good, but without a good tale to tell its mostly mastorbatory fluffings. Im sure that appeals to some of the more narrow focused cretins here, but i aim a tad higher.
Point the B--Why is it that in a place such as slash dot the first reactions of many, not all, to something slightly off the charts or beaten paths is negative? You would think slashdot has become a haven for closed minded fundamentalists to read some of the posts surrounding new things.
Petes track record should speak for itself. This Third Disc generative thing is either going to be utter cheese that the reocrd company is foisting on him or something amusingly cool.
Why are, in this place, are there not more stabs, regarddless if they fail or not, at making new evenues of expression?
Has the clacification creeped in such a tight weave that its all restritive motions?
--just a though
bell boy, got my lip buttoned down
It's a great read, but the author perhaps admires his ego-maniacal subject a bit too much.
This from Jon "Any hype you can write I can hype better" Katz. This from a man hwo has done NOTHING of tech but writes about it as if he were its Joan Of Arc? ("Yes god i hear you , i will lead the poor masses to rethink their tech crazy ways and to let me have more contact with the young")
One of your main gripes about this book is that of ego. You simply cant let your mind think of Anyone with a larger ego than your own, can ya? Does it burn you so much that others are making millions while you are relegated to writting about the chewed over crumbs of a tech sceen that is leaving you in the dust?
Maybe what creates some aspects of greatness is ego driven to excelence. The goals may be good , evil , or more likely personal shades inbetween, but the mark is set and the pace is frantic and you Mr Jon "Ludties Unite and Smash Your Gameboys" Katz seek only to belittle the achievments with your own mediocracy.
Once again we see Jon "Salieri" Katz living up to his true sainted goal, to make the world safe from excelence, to level the fields of achievment, and to pave over the groundwork of the great with the blacktar sameness of his safe and effcient Information SuperKatzway.
New Yorkers can't quite grasp how computers, the Net and the Web moved to the forefront of commerce, culture and communications so rapidly.
First off, my credentials. Born and raised in the Bronx, NYC. 205th street front and representing.
Second off, well there is no second off there is just...
The Meat of the Matter
You no good momo mook. Your luddite leaning columns are amuzing at best and insulting at the core. This is no excpetion. You reach escape velocity in your first few paragraphs, the rest being all strum and fluff.
So east coast born and breed cant cope with computers? Cant grasp the net? Wow Mr Katz, seems like all your work at the NAMBLA meeting heloing out the tortured yout of america has given you some great views on geography and technology.
Maybe now you can tell us how the home of the 25 World Series winning Yanks dont know about baseball becuase the east coast has no grasp of sunshine and sportsmanship.
Ill have more to say on this topic Mr Katz, I just wanted to chime in here as an Eastcoaster for a hearty "fuck you and the horse you blew".
This one is going to be short, becuase the article is so simpleminded.
Jon wants to have the RIGHT to say what he wants but no one should have the RIGHT to say things that might make him feel "bad" about his points of view.
Great Jon, not only have you shown yourself to be a Ludite, your now working up to Facist Controller.
Typical, let katz talk long enough and I bet he comes out with a Manifesto.
Jon Katz Uber Alles
John Brunner
Had the genre down cold in THE 60's and EARLY 70's
Its sad when the sights fall short of insight into ones own favorite topics. Gibsons stuff is great and good, but it is continuations of themes rooted firly rooted Before his typewriter clacked on about the sprawl.
Also , lest we forget, lets remeber who BUTCHERED and MADE CRAP his own great work of Johny Mnemonic? Twasnt Hollywood, was the author himself.
All of which is a way of saying, beyond the post pre ant pro meaningless jangle of jaws is the fact that most genres are born years before they are given a name by the pundints.
Honor the good stuff and, as the wise sage Flavor Flav says, dont belive the hype. Lables constrain, confine and make a camp concentration of otherwise great ideas.
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