How does a website spend $80mln?
on
Salon Asks for Help
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I think worthless executives and overpaid contractors have milked this one dry, better to let Salon die than to keep dumping money into this greed-surrounded cesspool.
Biding our time, knowingly or not.
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Selfish Society
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· Score: 1
Personally I think we're just waiting. Biding our time. Some of us realize it, some don't. High technology is spreading like wildfire--first you could get the weather...eventually you could order pizza..soon you will be able to vote. Nearly everyone seems to encourage this spread..especially corporations. Yet, few people seem to realize that as this technology spreads, they begin to lose little bits and peices of the control they have over their own life. From the half-wit (i'm not making an overgeneralization, plenty of tech-support people are qualified) customer support guy, to the system administrator, to the software developer...control over the things you do are slowly slipping beyond your grasp. And as Katz said, none of us (IT professionals / techno-savvy) have any real interest in giving any more power to politicians, businessmen, etc..nor do we have any interest in giving power to the everyday layperson. We build our systems, our networks, our software..with our own knowledge, for our own use. We effectively construct a massive infrastructure that only we, the techno-elite, can even begin to comprehend. Sure, on the consumer end, we hire artists and Gooey designers to make nice little gadgets and interfaces that make use of the infrastructure. And those gadgets can give the "haves" a clear advantage over the "have-nots". But the real advantage lay in the system behind the gadget..as people begin to depend on their hordes of little web pads, wireless PDAs, web sites, etc..they begin to hand over control of their life to the infrastructure that we have constructed. And yet, they don't even realize it! They *can't wait* to get their hands on the newest little life-automation tool. They'll pay big dollars to let a little machine handle another small facet of their life. Yet, they're giving a peice of their life to a machine that they can't take apart...they have no idea how it works..if something goes wrong, they can't fix it. They are at the mercy of someone..from the tech-support guy up to the designer. Basically, my point comes down to the simple fact that knowledge is power. But not just any knowledge. The things we know about systems, networks, and the entire infrastructure, would mean nothing to anyone but us if it weren't for the user. Our knowledge gives us direct control over the user. And now with every passing day, more and more people want to be users. When everyone is a user..when all of the governments and all of the corporations are users..who then will have the real power? And Katz is right. We don't care about politicians, or the past. All we see is a group of uninformed old men infrigning upon our rights. When we finally control the majority of their daily lives...what will we do with that control?
Slashdot Mirror
I think worthless executives and overpaid contractors have milked this one dry, better to let Salon die than to keep dumping money into this greed-surrounded cesspool.
Personally I think we're just waiting. Biding our time. Some of us realize it, some don't. High technology is spreading like wildfire--first you could get the weather...eventually you could order pizza..soon you will be able to vote. Nearly everyone seems to encourage this spread..especially corporations. Yet, few people seem to realize that as this technology spreads, they begin to lose little bits and peices of the control they have over their own life. From the half-wit (i'm not making an overgeneralization, plenty of tech-support people are qualified) customer support guy, to the system administrator, to the software developer...control over the things you do are slowly slipping beyond your grasp. And as Katz said, none of us (IT professionals / techno-savvy) have any real interest in giving any more power to politicians, businessmen, etc..nor do we have any interest in giving power to the everyday layperson. We build our systems, our networks, our software..with our own knowledge, for our own use. We effectively construct a massive infrastructure that only we, the techno-elite, can even begin to comprehend. Sure, on the consumer end, we hire artists and Gooey designers to make nice little gadgets and interfaces that make use of the infrastructure. And those gadgets can give the "haves" a clear advantage over the "have-nots". But the real advantage lay in the system behind the gadget..as people begin to depend on their hordes of little web pads, wireless PDAs, web sites, etc..they begin to hand over control of their life to the infrastructure that we have constructed. And yet, they don't even realize it! They *can't wait* to get their hands on the newest little life-automation tool. They'll pay big dollars to let a little machine handle another small facet of their life. Yet, they're giving a peice of their life to a machine that they can't take apart...they have no idea how it works..if something goes wrong, they can't fix it. They are at the mercy of someone..from the tech-support guy up to the designer. Basically, my point comes down to the simple fact that knowledge is power. But not just any knowledge. The things we know about systems, networks, and the entire infrastructure, would mean nothing to anyone but us if it weren't for the user. Our knowledge gives us direct control over the user. And now with every passing day, more and more people want to be users. When everyone is a user..when all of the governments and all of the corporations are users..who then will have the real power? And Katz is right. We don't care about politicians, or the past. All we see is a group of uninformed old men infrigning upon our rights. When we finally control the majority of their daily lives...what will we do with that control?