Similar situation. I had a guy who thought I was his nephew (despite a couple of emails trying to explain that I really wasn't and it was a case of identity doppleganger) who'd occasionally send me 'motivational' Bible quotes. Then one day I got a friend request from him to some sort of service that alerts you if any of your friends are looking at porn sites or other soul-corrupting material. I was tempted to accept and then take him for a walk on the wild side, but I was a good boy and just deleted it.
You must be pretty young, or have a very selective memory, because when I voiced my objections to the US invading Iraq in 2002 and '03, I encountered quite a bit of intolerance for differing opinions. If you had to choose between being called an asshole and having your company boycotted, or being called a traitor and threatened with physical violence and potentially imprisonment, which would you choose?
I'm writing this post via Firefox, and would agree that this boycott is a bit silly (if I'm going to boycott the products of every company whose CEO has stupid, fucked up political opinions, I might as well pack up and go live in a log cabin in the woods and make my own soap). But laying this at the feet of "The Left" much less Obama is utter horseshit. Hell, I remember when I was a kid in the late 1970's, and my dad wouldn't take us to Burger King because they were supposedly supporting communists somehow.
As someone who was a physics major during the late 1980's, who idolized Feynman, watched Buckaroo Bonzai way too many times, and had to repeatedly apologize for Pons and Fleischmann to friends and acquaintances... I find this statement hilarious.
I predict that they're trying to line up an appearance from Giorgio A. Tsoukalos at their press conference, but the fee negotiations are getting out of hand.
Because any 'religion' with an eschatology that reads like (bad) science fiction is illegitimate and false. A true religion has an eschatology that reads like a dragons and wizards epic fantasy.
I read that part, and it led me to take the rest of the article less seriously.
In 1996, a ProTools rig itself (not the microphones, etc.) would set you back ~$20,000, between the A/D/D/A converters, the 10K SCSI disks, and a PC fast enough to keep up. Nowadays, you buy a setup with far better sound quality for about $500, and run it on commodity PC hardware. For established artists (who are perhaps still using the same studio gear they bought in 1996 with the royalties from that one hit that got used on the soundtrack of a Michael Moore film), this might be a small factor, but for fledgling musicians recording in their bedroom, it's a big deal. Many people track and mix on such setups (perhaps not Lowery, who may think it's crucial to have that $20K tube preamp to get that 'warmth' when he screams and caterwauls into the mic, but many other people).
It's also worth noting that in 1996, paying DiscMakers for a run of 1,000 CDs of your first effort was a daunting cost. Now you can upload to bandcamp for free, provided you're willing to lose some of the revenue in fees.
I'd say naming his band Camper Van Beethoven was the harbinger of things to come. He's smart and witty, but Lowery's a not-great-looking guy who doesn't sing that well, and if we're being honest, never wrote a song after "Take the Skinheads Bowling" that had anywhere near as much commercial potential... probably on purpose.
I'd say he had a pretty good run. The music industry was littered with guys 10+ years into their careers, who played to an increasingly "more selective demographic," long before mp3 was a file format.
The issue is indeed simple, and you've completely missed it.
We see 10 cops investigating the Chief's kid's missing phone, while the police can't even be bothered to file a report of an ordinary citizen having their phone snatched right out of their hand. We see thousands of people needlessly losing their homes to banks that have perjured themselves by 'robosigning' documents, and the DAs settle with the banks for fractions of a penny on the dollar; meanwhile, Bernie Madoff rots in a real, not-Clud-Fed prison for having the temerity to rip off rich people.
We are supposed to be equal before the law. In theoretical legal sense, we are, but in a practical sense, when it comes to enforcement, we are not. As the public becomes more aware of this, they are angered, and rightly so.
Ho ho ho! I'm thinking Goldman Sachs ability to repay in such a timely manner might have a little something to do with the $182B bailout to AIG, seeing as GS was AIG's biggest customer of its credit default swaps, and those AIG stakeholders were made entirely whole, whereas as of earlier this month, AIG still owes about $45B to the US taxpayers.
> the H1-Bs all go home and help THEIR countries to compete
They don't/all/ go home. Despite the green card process having become pretty onerous over the past 10 years, many of those on H1-B's do attempt to become permanent, legal immigrants. Many more would likely go that route, if the green card process were streamlined and made somewhat more predictable, and if our country hadn't become so antagonistic toward immigrants who aren't white and Christian.
There's a lot of potential out in the future that could cripple the disc-based side of things (look at the current turmoil involved with the Post Office).
If I were to wager, I would bet that the Congresscritters who blather on about "limited government" will prefer to let Level 3 et al upcharge and/or QoS route Netflix network packets, than face their rural constituents' ire at the USPS no longer routing packages down their country roads.
Wall Street is a fickle mistress, and cares overmuch what other people are saying about you.
The initial bounce was probably due to their CEO saying something -- anything -- in response to the customer anger over the price hikes that have caused their stock price to go from ~300 to ~150 over the last three months. Now some 'analysts' are weighing in with much the same "Uhmmm, what?" that Netflix's customers are.
The differentiating factor of their streaming offering *is* the integration with a physical disc queue.
Exactly. I don't doubt that In The Future, we'll all be watching movies and TV programs primarily via internet stream. I already do.
But Netflix needs to face reality about their current streaming offerings... I like Muay Thai boxing movies, sci-fi b-flicks, and 30-year-old TV series as much as the next guy (that is, I do, but a little goes a long way), but most people want to see something that's in the "Top 100" too (I do). Currently, Netflix streaming doesn't doesn't offer that, but Netflix streaming+DVD does... as does Amazon, iTunes, Hulu+, etc.
The only thing that would make this make sense is if Netflix, by divorcing their DVD delivery and streaming businesses, will get better selection and terms from movie studios and other content holders for their streaming service.
I blame the coarsening of popular culture. Back in those days, all the music on the radio was well-written with thoughtful and meaningful lyrics, rather unlike the music of today, which is just a load of fucken crap.
"Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed or critically injured, and those that weren't are living in worse conditions than under Saddam Hussein's rule, but I'm 10% underwater on the suburban McMansion I bought in 2006.... I'm the victim I tell ya!"
Target the Federal Reserve.
And buy gold coins to bury in your backyard!
We're not in Great Depression II. We're not even as bad off as in the 1970's. Lots of people are really hurting economically, through little or no fault of their own, and they do need help. I agree that the "too big to fail" banks are culpable, but the only way lots of people in the US are going to starve is if the "de-regulate everything" and "drown government in a bathtub" folks get their way.
becoming too PC is a weakness. If we would just profile
Yep profiling seems to work for the Israelis.
Note that the Israelis don't do racial profiling, so "too PC" doesn't really enter into it (though as noted below ability to scale the process to meet US traffic does). Granted, in that part of the world, selecting for "brown skinned" gets you an indistinct, useless set. But they're also apparently smart enough to realize that there are white/black/yellow-skinned people who want to martyr themselves, too.
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Similar situation. I had a guy who thought I was his nephew (despite a couple of emails trying to explain that I really wasn't and it was a case of identity doppleganger) who'd occasionally send me 'motivational' Bible quotes. Then one day I got a friend request from him to some sort of service that alerts you if any of your friends are looking at porn sites or other soul-corrupting material. I was tempted to accept and then take him for a walk on the wild side, but I was a good boy and just deleted it.
Of course, the whole point of a Military Unicorn is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world!?
... two days ago that had been missing for over six months, not sure how enthusiastic I'd be about this.
> a bunch of thugs (you know who I mean)
No, who do you mean?
You must be pretty young, or have a very selective memory, because when I voiced my objections to the US invading Iraq in 2002 and '03, I encountered quite a bit of intolerance for differing opinions. If you had to choose between being called an asshole and having your company boycotted, or being called a traitor and threatened with physical violence and potentially imprisonment, which would you choose?
I'm writing this post via Firefox, and would agree that this boycott is a bit silly (if I'm going to boycott the products of every company whose CEO has stupid, fucked up political opinions, I might as well pack up and go live in a log cabin in the woods and make my own soap). But laying this at the feet of "The Left" much less Obama is utter horseshit. Hell, I remember when I was a kid in the late 1970's, and my dad wouldn't take us to Burger King because they were supposedly supporting communists somehow.
In that case, I'd say it's clear that he found his 'special purpose!'
See, this is why I'm hesitant to carry a gun; if that were you and me, you'd either be dead, or have a hole in your gas tank.
People like you make me SICK! It's my RIGHT to use MY phone when and where I want in the MAGNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
> respectable career in theoretical physics.
As someone who was a physics major during the late 1980's, who idolized Feynman, watched Buckaroo Bonzai way too many times, and had to repeatedly apologize for Pons and Fleischmann to friends and acquaintances... I find this statement hilarious.
I predict that they're trying to line up an appearance from Giorgio A. Tsoukalos at their press conference, but the fee negotiations are getting out of hand.
> Former fans mockingly dismissed it as 'swiss cheese.'
One has to wonder how cheesy the first few iterations of Facebook would have looked if their source had been open to all.
Because any 'religion' with an eschatology that reads like (bad) science fiction is illegitimate and false. A true religion has an eschatology that reads like a dragons and wizards epic fantasy.
I read that part, and it led me to take the rest of the article less seriously.
In 1996, a ProTools rig itself (not the microphones, etc.) would set you back ~$20,000, between the A/D/D/A converters, the 10K SCSI disks, and a PC fast enough to keep up. Nowadays, you buy a setup with far better sound quality for about $500, and run it on commodity PC hardware. For established artists (who are perhaps still using the same studio gear they bought in 1996 with the royalties from that one hit that got used on the soundtrack of a Michael Moore film), this might be a small factor, but for fledgling musicians recording in their bedroom, it's a big deal. Many people track and mix on such setups (perhaps not Lowery, who may think it's crucial to have that $20K tube preamp to get that 'warmth' when he screams and caterwauls into the mic, but many other people).
It's also worth noting that in 1996, paying DiscMakers for a run of 1,000 CDs of your first effort was a daunting cost. Now you can upload to bandcamp for free, provided you're willing to lose some of the revenue in fees.
I'd say naming his band Camper Van Beethoven was the harbinger of things to come. He's smart and witty, but Lowery's a not-great-looking guy who doesn't sing that well, and if we're being honest, never wrote a song after "Take the Skinheads Bowling" that had anywhere near as much commercial potential... probably on purpose.
I'd say he had a pretty good run. The music industry was littered with guys 10+ years into their careers, who played to an increasingly "more selective demographic," long before mp3 was a file format.
The issue is indeed simple, and you've completely missed it.
We see 10 cops investigating the Chief's kid's missing phone, while the police can't even be bothered to file a report of an ordinary citizen having their phone snatched right out of their hand. We see thousands of people needlessly losing their homes to banks that have perjured themselves by 'robosigning' documents, and the DAs settle with the banks for fractions of a penny on the dollar; meanwhile, Bernie Madoff rots in a real, not-Clud-Fed prison for having the temerity to rip off rich people.
We are supposed to be equal before the law. In theoretical legal sense, we are, but in a practical sense, when it comes to enforcement, we are not. As the public becomes more aware of this, they are angered, and rightly so.
Ho ho ho! I'm thinking Goldman Sachs ability to repay in such a timely manner might have a little something to do with the $182B bailout to AIG, seeing as GS was AIG's biggest customer of its credit default swaps, and those AIG stakeholders were made entirely whole, whereas as of earlier this month, AIG still owes about $45B to the US taxpayers.
> the H1-Bs all go home and help THEIR countries to compete
They don't /all/ go home. Despite the green card process having become pretty onerous over the past 10 years, many of those on H1-B's do attempt to become permanent, legal immigrants. Many more would likely go that route, if the green card process were streamlined and made somewhat more predictable, and if our country hadn't become so antagonistic toward immigrants who aren't white and Christian.
Are you suggesting presenting varying findings from people actually working in the field?
Or "teaching the controversy" by presenting the rantings of retired weathermen from Kansas and Oklahoma railing against communist environmentalists?
There's a lot of potential out in the future that could cripple the disc-based side of things (look at the current turmoil involved with the Post Office).
If I were to wager, I would bet that the Congresscritters who blather on about "limited government" will prefer to let Level 3 et al upcharge and/or QoS route Netflix network packets, than face their rural constituents' ire at the USPS no longer routing packages down their country roads.
Wall Street is a fickle mistress, and cares overmuch what other people are saying about you.
The initial bounce was probably due to their CEO saying something -- anything -- in response to the customer anger over the price hikes that have caused their stock price to go from ~300 to ~150 over the last three months. Now some 'analysts' are weighing in with much the same "Uhmmm, what?" that Netflix's customers are.
The differentiating factor of their streaming offering *is* the integration with a physical disc queue.
Exactly. I don't doubt that In The Future, we'll all be watching movies and TV programs primarily via internet stream. I already do.
But Netflix needs to face reality about their current streaming offerings... I like Muay Thai boxing movies, sci-fi b-flicks, and 30-year-old TV series as much as the next guy (that is, I do, but a little goes a long way), but most people want to see something that's in the "Top 100" too (I do). Currently, Netflix streaming doesn't doesn't offer that, but Netflix streaming+DVD does... as does Amazon, iTunes, Hulu+, etc.
The only thing that would make this make sense is if Netflix, by divorcing their DVD delivery and streaming businesses, will get better selection and terms from movie studios and other content holders for their streaming service.
> However, it's pretty obvious that he got the job mainly because of it.
What evidence do you have for this? Aside from Kundra being Indian and Obama being other than "not a single drop" white, I mean.
I blame the coarsening of popular culture. Back in those days, all the music on the radio was well-written with thoughtful and meaningful lyrics, rather unlike the music of today, which is just a load of fucken crap.
"Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed or critically injured, and those that weren't are living in worse conditions than under Saddam Hussein's rule, but I'm 10% underwater on the suburban McMansion I bought in 2006.... I'm the victim I tell ya!"
Target the Federal Reserve.
And buy gold coins to bury in your backyard!
We're not in Great Depression II. We're not even as bad off as in the 1970's. Lots of people are really hurting economically, through little or no fault of their own, and they do need help. I agree that the "too big to fail" banks are culpable, but the only way lots of people in the US are going to starve is if the "de-regulate everything" and "drown government in a bathtub" folks get their way.
becoming too PC is a weakness. If we would just profile
Yep profiling seems to work for the Israelis.
Note that the Israelis don't do racial profiling, so "too PC" doesn't really enter into it (though as noted below ability to scale the process to meet US traffic does). Granted, in that part of the world, selecting for "brown skinned" gets you an indistinct, useless set. But they're also apparently smart enough to realize that there are white/black/yellow-skinned people who want to martyr themselves, too.