I think the original poster was using hyperbole to make a point. Regardless of how the American system of 'democracy' happens to work, (and doesn't, as evidenced by the recent undoing of the civil charter, among other things), I think this was less a troll than it was a flailing stab of frustration at the heart of bullshit-central.
In the final analysis, I'd not be surprised to see Bush out-do Hitler in terms of both deed and scale.
Bic! You're right! It IS all Bic's fault! All the pieces are coming together!
I knew those stupid pens were evil.
Did you ever notice back in school when one of their pens, 'accidentally' exploded and bled ink, that the student it stained would get kinda glassy eyed and highly receptive?
Extra curricular activities, my ass. I wonder what we've REALLY been trained for?
-Garund
(Conspiracy buff? Hm. Maybe. I do avoid things like air-miles, and I do distrust large corps because they keep doing morally objectionable things, like ignoring safety standards and employing children in third world nations, etc. And in the case of my previous post, I'm just relaying what I've heard from sources I know personally, which seem to me more reliable than the average newspaper article, which comes from who-knows-where).
While certain religious paradigms were definitely in power when the New World was being populated, don't you think that maybe the hard work which led to reward was more closely related to the fact that everybody coming here was looking to make his/her fortune in a land where hard work was the price of survival?
And don't you think it's just a LITTLE bit embarrassing how religious propagandists regularly attach their ideologies to whatever respected cultural attribute happens to be in the forum at a given moment?
I mean, c'mon!
We're talking about adventure games v.s. FPS's. Let's stay on topic here!
(Though, for the record, I don't agree at all that there is ANY connection between the violence of FPS's and the lack of mythological standards in society. Look at the Romans! They had gladiatorial combat in a time rife with god worship. I think the real connection with violence obsession in a culture has more to do with the size and general corruption of a given society.)
I know an ex-special, special forces guy who has told me about some of the of mind-numbing sci-fi bits of technology he was equipped and trained with a number of years back. One of his ex-team mates who remains in the military was visiting, and he described some of the Star-Trek shit currently in use.
If what I heard is worth taking at face value, then I think the sad little info releases about 'recent' technological advances we see available for public consumption are the result of an orchestrated control over the time line on which the general public is kept in regard to scientific advancement. As far as I can figure, we're at LEAST thirty five years away from having access, (both physical and psychological), to the kind of tech a select few currently take for granted.
Kinda sucks.
One of the main applications in the instance of this fine crystaline stuff, (which was not even mentioned either in the article or on Slashdot), was in the area of battery architecture.
If any of this is true, then most of us here at Slashdot are playing in tune like a bunch of damned lemmings to a timed beat metered out by others. Feel the joy.
It sounds reasonable, but I think it only describes half the equation. There's a question of balance to be examined.
While large cooperative groups offer advantages, they also have a number of qualities which I think are largely uncontroled today.
Maybe the advantages in the pseudo-symbiotic relationship we share with corporate entities are enough to overwhelm any worries you might have as to the more destructive qualities corporations exhibit, but I choose not to wear blinders or to see the world in black & white, and certainly not to tell people who might have legitimate concerns to 'grow up', just because I would rather not face the nauseating possibility that maybe there is something terribly wrong.
So I'll definitely be keeping at least one of my feet squarely in the, 'Corporations are the Evil Empire,' camp you described, simply because corporate entities do lots and lots of morally questionable things which make the world crappy for lots and lots of people. The fact that you can clearly write well, means you're not ignorant, so I won't bother listing off any of the ton of available examples of corporate greed and willfully reckless behavior. (When profit is god, how money is made is unimportant, so long as it's cheaply done and doesn't leave shit in your own immediate corner of the pond.)
Also. . .
'The other possibility is that instead of creating something of value yourself, you feel an adolescent urge to be a big hero to other adolescents by finding ways of stealing things of value created by others.' [snip] 'why don't you go out and create music or great films or whatever, and then give away what you've traded the hours of your life to produce, instead of trying to give away the hours of other peoples' lives?'
Yeah. . .
Fair enough. Except you're again looking only at the portion of the equation, (that which clearly makes you feel comfortable in your own philosophical rules set). Hate to say it, but. . .
The problem is one of fairness. The people who make music don't ever receive the lion's share of the profit. I'm all for a system which will put a quarter into the hands of the artist for every track of music I decide to keep, and keeps the millions of dollars out of the hands of the non-creative music execs who currently take nearly all of the profit.
And take stealing the content from DVD's. I think that's entirely fair. -The content of a DVD has usually made its money back with lots of profit by the time it plays theatrically world wide. The disks themselves cost pennies to press. If DVD's cost eight bucks a unit, I'd never rip one off ever again. As it is, they regularly retail for over thirty dollars. That's just plain greedy and unfair. The 'competition' which is supposed to bring us fair prices clearly doesn't work. (Gee? There are content cartels? Who would have thunk it!)
Currently, piracy is the only semi-organized structure which has a shot at bringing about fairness in the market place. Shucks.
Sure, I sometimes feel like I'm wielding a metaphoric lightsaber, but that's only because I feel that I'm being manipulated and taken advantage of by a metaphoric evil.
The perception that hard earned tax money deducted from your pay check is being mis-spent on projects and causes which seem unfair and unjust. The problem is that the brain muscle responsible for reacting to things which seem unjust and unfair is very easy to engage. A great deal of the population can be angered and made indignant, or as you say, frustrated, with stories of how 'bleeding heart liberals' are giving money to people who don't work as hard as others do. Those emotions are easy to incite, and easy to direct. If you want votes, then making the people feel angry at a certain demograph, and promising to punish that demograph, seems to nearly always be a sure ticket into office.
I tend to believe that any party which engages these kinds of emotions in the public in order to obtain power, is irresponsible at the very least, and manipulative at worst. I don't like to be manipulated.
And the simple fact of the matter is that anybody can balance a budget. It's just math. Even a socialist knows that 'things need to be paid for,' and that, 'money doesn't grow on trees.'
Harris announced with great fanfare that his Tory party had balanced the Ontario budget for the first time in 30 years. He didn't mention that more than 20 of those 'unbalanced' years had been under Tory leadership. (And during the 80's too, when money was all over the place and the government had massive revenues.) When the NDP got into power, (during a recession and inheriting this massive debt), Bob Rae told us frankly that his party had a plan which would eliminate the deficit in seven years, although they explained that they would have to make cuts to both education and health care, among other things, in order to do it. While this was unwelcome news, it was at least honest, and I respect that. As we know, however, they didn't get into power for a second term. Though, eight years after they first announced their plan, we now have a balanced budget. And how did Tories manage it? Cuts to health care and education.
I can understand your frustration with unfairness. There are many examples which do infuriate. But I've seen cases where the welfare net has rescued people who lost their jobs during the recession. They felt terrible and guilty about taking charity checks from the government during the time it took for them to find new work, (which they did). --And these are people with families and white collar jobs I'm talking about. Not the parking lot attendants which have you feeling indignantion. --I recognize that while there are welfare leaches, there are also case workers and regulations which work to minimize that problem.
I realize that a system based on Social Darwinism which champions survival of the fittest and penalizes failure with starvation and destitution *can* work, but it seems to me that the result is a harsh and mean spirited society where people spend a great deal of time scared & angry or feeling unjustly superior because they started the game, often with rich parents. This kind of system is much more likely to devolve into an upper and lower class which openly hate one another. I don't think it has to be this way; we're supposed to be civilized. Who the heck wants a cruddy, angry system like that?
And as for the 'smelly people' on the subway which you would rather avoid. . .
While I agree that subways can be crowded during rush hours, and that driving does provide a certain degree of luxury in terms of personal space, (if you don't mind the exhaust and equally crowded through fares during rush hour which I find, frankly more stressful, having commuted in both manners.). . , but I do think that operating a car is amazingly selfish. Cars are extremely destructive and dirty; Every litre of gasoline burned creates two kilograms of Carbon Monoxide. (I believe. I'm recalling an old documentary on the subject, and my chemistry isn't entirely reliable. I do remember that it was either two or three to one. Either way, it's dirty as hell. And that's not even counting the black crud which also comes out the pipe!)
I hate after I cycle through Toronto, how I blow black snot out my nose as a result of so many selfish or simply ignorant people who opperate cars.
And it shouldn't be like this.
I take the subway frequently, and it really isn't that bad. And I don't know what isolated and clearly over-hyped incedent you're referring to, but lice and scabies just don't show their faces when I travel. --I think, rather, your attitude speaks of a general despising of others, and I would suggest that a step back and honest self review might show you what you need to look at in order to become a happier individual who doesn't feel the need to vote with such indignation and frustration. (--Remember, the bomb threat campaign which closed polling stations in liberal ridings was organized by conservatives. Do you really want people with a bomb-threat mentality in government? --And yes, the only people who had access to the thousand or so polling station volunteers were the party members. --And a thousand threatening phone calls in a single night? That takes organization. Tories play dirty. They manipulate and incite hate. I can't think of a worse group to have in power!)
You're not going to get scabies from riding the public transit system.
And declaring that supporting labor unions will turn Canada into a third world nation is just plain foolish. Unions have a place, and when they are kept in balance, their place is important. Without unions, companies could exploit their workers into a state of slavery. It has happened enough times in the past, and it happens today.
And what's with this notion that people such as parking lot attendants and bus drivers and garbage collectors are somehow worth less, and should be shunned by society for what they do? I happen to know several people in McJobs who are trying to earn money to go to school and pay rent and such. They're smart, motivated and generally good people. But guys like you, and much of society, seem to think that not only should they be paid less for their work, but also be despised as a general rule.
When people tell me that it's a crime when bus drivers make the same amount as white collar workers, I always think, "Yeah. The bus driver should be paid more. White collar workers don't provide essential services, or spend the day responsible for the lives of their passengers."
I know you're pointing at parking lot attendants and not bus drivers, but I belive the point is still relevant in that your attitude seems to stem from the same source.
Scabies?
For goodness sake!
The only thing that can come from the current thinking in Ontario is a further division between rich and poor. That leads to increased levels of intolerance, hate, crime, walled communities, and as history shows again and again, revolution.
I really don't think I'm being extremist. I don't like cops wearing riot gear.
This story about the federal liberal databank was used as a convenient distraction, (along with the buzz of the holiday weekend), while the Tory conservative government in Ontario sneaked by a nasty announcement, (which, not surprisingly, few seemed to notice), about their plan to "review" the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Oh yay.
Pardon this tangential story, but. . .
Our current government in Ontario is overwhelmingly conservative because, (IMHO), people are both easily fooled with campaign promises, and easily enraged by stupid stories about how their 'hard earned tax dollars are being spent on lazy homeless people and single starving moms.'
The basic story, which we've seen again and again in Ontario under this government which can pound through laws without challenge because of its massive majority, (changes including huge cuts to health care and education, environmental restrictions lifted or not put into place where needed, privatized prison programs starting up in the wings, and my favorite, the changing of the color of police uniforms to all black; the new color being named, (get this,) 'LAPD Blue'. Oh, and our RCMP must now wear the same kind of hats that U.S. state troopers wear, because in the words of our lead politician, "They look more like 'real' police that way.")
Among other things. But anyway. . .
The basic story is this: Disturbed minister sees Tory wrong doing, (in this case, breaking its own laws by making the social insurance numbers, addresses, phone numbers and bank accounts of about 50,000 private citizens available to two companies). The minister, (Ann Cavoukian), pointed out that this should not have happened.
The Tories' vengeance was to reopen the act. I'm sure whatever they plan to do to it can't possibly be good.
I know this is all off topic, but politics in Ontario, the most powerful province in Canada, seem to have gotten increasingly evil in a very short period of time, and few seem to realize what this can very easily and quickly lead to.
In five years if there's no positive change, I'm probably going to have to move.
Garund
--What if 'The Matrix,' was a piece of propaganda designed to make people fear enlightenment?
I read an essay way back in highschool about this stuff. It had an interesting conclusion. It was this:
The establishment is run on rules and regulations, and it is almost impossible to win against them. They are immovable pillars of strength, so you have to be like water. The pillars don't care if you don't directly oppose them, so don't. Just go around them. There's always a way, so stay cool.
Actually, it occurs to me now that the fact this essay was even made available is an example of its own conclusion, since it wasn't part of the strict curriculum; it was brought in and distributed by a man who also happened to be my favorite English teacher. Those who understood, 'Got it.' Those who didn't. . . Well it didn't really matter.
The paper was not discussed or mentioned ever again, but those who were awake benefitted and learned. I've been following the advice in that paper ever since, and my life is pretty darn good. I have lots of friends, society at large respects me. (I've received multiple lines of credit from banking institutions who have told me point blank, (though very quietly), that they were going against all policy and were bending several rules in order to help me.)
I'm not angry. I don't hate anybody. I have a smile for all. (I do, I admit, always dress in camoflauge. It's a war out there. That is, I wear an ironed shirt, and maintain a haircut and shaven face. It works. I get friendly service where enraged letter-bombers don't. It's very simple.) But I also work the hours I want, (if any), and NEVER for a corporation, and while I am not rich, I make enough to remain comfortable.
Essentially, I think it's important to remember this:
Corporations are the enemy. Not the people who infest them. You can always appeal to People, so long as you respect and love them, and love life. People are the infection, and they'll almost always be on your side, because when it comes right down to it, even the well paid hate the establishment which makes them get up at 6:30 in the morning to go to 10 hour a day jobs. Even the most right wing politician likes to walk on beaches and have friends. The trick is to be able to see the world from everybody else's point of view.
That's all. Fight to maintain the things you love, but accept that you are never going to bring down the 'Man'. Anger is counter productive.
Wait until the market settles upon its favorite DVD recorder, then buy it. Who the Fu(K cares if you can't play the stuff you record on it over a basic DVD player? As long as the DVD recorder can play commercial Hollywood disks, then you might as well make it your primary box and ditch the basic DVD player altogether.
It seems to me that this might even be the natural evolution of the technology. People are always going to want to record Bab 5 episodes and dumb hockey tournaments, and once home DVD recorders get cheep and one recording medium prevails, people will want to buy 'em. I think the only way the industry will be able to prevent this trend will be to make the boxes inordinately expensive, and with so many manufacturers jumping on board to rush out DVD+RW units, it looks like that boat has already been missed.
Oh, and OEM versions for your computer won't be far behind.
It looks to me like Hollywood fu(ked itself by thinking like a big dumb, immovable pillar while life, as always, flows like water.
So. . . based on this, (and those light box experiments somebody else mentioned which show both the wave and particle behavior in light), would it be logical to assume that all particles are just a convenient/temporarily stable manifestation of basic energy, and that everything in existence is simply a result of this essential nature of 'matter'?
I may have been a little abrupt in my first response to this article. So I have a question regarding QM (Quantum Mechanics.)
I keep hearing about particles which seemingly appear and disappear in an impossible manner. I've read science fiction short stories about this and all the amazing technologies and possibilities which come along after you make the basic assumption that particles can perform magic tricks of this nature.
So my question is this: Are these effects real, or are they simply products of the math used to track particles? (i.e., QM math works in averages and percent possibilities of particles being in one place at one time. Thus, sometimes QM states that a particle has 'vanished' or is in 'many places at once.' -And the uninitiated student reads this as though the particle has actually performed the impossible.)
Is the impossible actually happening, or are there just a lot of science students looking for munchkins in their wardrobes?
Please tell me more. If magic exists, I'd be happy, but I have my doubts.
The way a particle changes when observed is that you have to bounce a photon or electron of it, (or whatever your microscope is using), in order for a signal to come back to your eye.
And OF COURSE bouncing an electron off a particle is going to affect its state.
There's no mystery to it. It's not magic.
Like I said, either I'm a total heathen, or 90% of the world is foolishly treating quantum mechanics like the second coming.
Linux is quintessentially anti-establishment. It's designed to be everything that big, lumbering dinosaur outfits like Microsoft and the military are not.
Sorry, but it strikes me as really lame to see so many Linux enthusiasts so desperate to find validation in having a big daddy like the f***ing military give them a nod of approval.
Linux won't die. It's driven and created by those who want it to exist. So who the hell cares about any aspect of it beyond that?
Geez. Humanity is at war with the corporations and nobody seems to realize it.
Has anybody else noticed how corporations are like very early life forms? They grow and eat and reproduce, and display many of the same characteristics that cell cultures do. (And cell cultures just eat and grow and eat until the petri dish is dry and crusty.)
Like the cells in the human body which live and work and die tirelessly so that we humans can all lumber around our daily lives and watch bad television. . . I think that's what people are becoming in corporations, which push and push to get the maximum efficiency and minimum trouble out of their human building blocks.
When I grow up, I want to be a disease that kills big, lumbering life forms.
'Star Wars Episode One' for the cost of a street vendor hotdog! (Will cause about the same amount of intestinal vapor, too!)
My whole damn city is log jammed with those stupid cassettes. You can buy them in drug stores and gas stations, for crying out loud!
But the movie was so lousy, only geeks with no critical faculties whatsoever, (and 5 year olds), want them. So the city threatens to remain log jammed. Look for them to appear in your local bargain bin in two months.
-Garund
Get the DVD's and LD's of the first three films, and cut together your own Lucas-without-a-melted-brain copies of these classics!
Unfortunately, Phantom Mucus is not just damaged; it never worked in the first place.
Why on Earth should Sony care about international sales being affected by early exports of PS2's? It's not as if the cash from the sale of smuggled units won't still flow into Sony coffers. Buy it here or buy it there. Why would Sony care?
It's more likely to be a dumb publicity stunt.
"Dude! Are you shittin'? A PS2 could be used to guide a fuckin' croose missile? Well ditch this stupid competitor's new game platform. I'm gonna ask my parents for the game system preferred by Islamic Fundamentalists everywhere!"
And, frankly, I don't even buy this idea.
I expect it really comes down to red tape and bureaucratic brain damage. I see it enough to know that it's built into human behavior. Most people are morons. ESPECIALLY civil servants.
One thing's certain. The insurance comapnies would make a killing if people were allowed to do themselves and each other in, (and destroy architecture and topography), with flying death cars. Heck. The AC's should all run on uncertified liquid natural gas systems. Every day should be fireworks day, and the insurance companies could buy shoes and hamburgers for every man woman and child in the country!
Ooh. Another thought. What would the towing charge be on a parachuted copter when you might land your sorry ass somewhere without road access?
Clearly, this flying car invention is another which belongs on the very short, "It Would Much Cooler If I Was The Only Person To Own One," category.
Oddly, there's only about three other inventions I'd like to see in this list. For your reference they include. . .
Guns, Nukes, Bicycles,
--Come on. If you were the only guy with a bicycle, you could do the Letterman show and be a real live circus side show attraction. And who wouldn't want to run away with the circus? Or is that very last century? (What's today's equivalent? Can you even run away in this world and not end up a squeegie kid? Too bad. Squeegie kids don't get pet monkeys, or fall in love with the beautiful 18 year old daughter of the Amazing Flying Petrov family.)
Garund
---After all the fuss and bother, it turned out that most of the population was only good for ripping off and building pyramids. How very sad.---
Fantasia 2000 was a giant illustration of how the animation industry is quickly becoming yet another soulless machine entirely dependant on the creativity of a few minds, very few of which are currently working at Disney.
And frankly, aside from the curiosity of seeing an animated film really, really big, making Fantasia 2K in the esteemed IMAX format seemed rather pointless to me. IMAX is great when shooting live action, because it picks up details normal film formats do not. But the animators certainly weren't working at four times the size they were trained to work! In fact, 10 minutes into the film, I forgot I was even in a giant round cinema. My memories of the experience certainly don't reflect the ridiculous amount of money I spent on my ticket.
As for the content. . .
I'm really glad they included, "Sorcerer's Apprentice," (For which I noticed the credits conveniently neglected to mention the name of the original composer. I guess Disney feels enough time has passed that they own the rights to it now, and so slyly suggest that it was entirely a Disney Product.)
Now, when Mickey in the wizrd's robe first appeared on screen, I thought, "What the heck is this?! Come on! How little work did you bozos do? Can't you even give us a full feature-length film? Is that why you went IMAX, so you could have an excuse to skimp on the content?"
But I'm glad they did show it. It demonstrated really well just how wide the gap is between the old and new Disney abilities in terms of over-all quality in comedic timing, story rhythm, wisdom of subject matter. . , everything. The Sorcerer's Apprentice had soul. The new stuff was only reasonably well crafted, and certainly not without numerous flaws and kinks which made me cringe each time one of them popped up. I actually had to turn my head when that 'Spring Nymph of Life', or whatever she was, in the Firebrand, swept up in front of the camera with her face filled with the Anime-esque, cliche rapture those bone head animators obviously think passes for real emotion. I mean, YUCK! Basically, I found the level of over-all maturity was severely lacking. When I have 25 year old animators, who by all accounts, are over-worked, depressed and generally lost in life, trying to sagely advise me on anything, let alone the, 'Circle of Life', I just want to puke. The only pieces I found virtually flawless and entirely enjoyable, were Gershwin's, "Rhapsody in Blue", and Camille Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals". But $15 bucks for 10 minutes worth of decent film? What a rip off!
The original Fantasia was spotless and dazzling and FEATURE LENGTH. And most of all, it was made by people driven by something entirely different than the forces driving animators today; something which actually gave them a unique view of the world well worth sharing through their art. Rent the original film and compare!
Basically, the original Disney people back then were still very much in the process of experimenting with animation, and were thinking like this:
"Wow. We love this music. Let's make some animation to go along with it. Let's push the envelope and see what we can do! It'll look sooo cool!"
And frankly, the 'rumors' of psychedelic drug fascination among the animators at Disney at the time, in my mind only further proves their genuine desire to create something interesting to themselves. It wasn't just another job. Or a chance to, "Me Too! Watch, watch! Me Too!"
Today, the driving force at Disney strikes me as anything *but* genuine.
Today, what we have are a bunch of young and, albeit, technically capable animation professionals who in my view are nothing more than over-paid fan boys with stars in their eyes more interested in copying their heros than in exploring their own creativity, (what little of it they have). When Fantasia was made, animation was a loser's career choice in terms of professions. You animated only if you loved the medium heart and soul and could do nothing else. Today, we have a whole different breed.
Today, our most innovative minds are making other things. Like video games, or indy comics or roll playing stuff. And I guess animation is in there too. But Disney sure hasn't got much to do with it.
I deal with artwork which I'd like to see preserved for a long time to come.
One thing I'd like to do is make analog back-ups in case digital preservation methods fail for whatever reason. (Like the fall of human civilization into another dark age, perhaps? -Where we no longer have any sockets to plug our computers into. ..) -Paranoid, sure, but hey. If you prepare against the worst case scenario, then you'll likely do alright against everything else.
I've found a good paper manufacturer, (no-acid, non-bleached cotton fiber paper capable of lasting hundreds and hundreds of years), but I've been waiting for a decent print technology to come along which can output from a computer at a consumer level cost, (offset, litho and web presses, while capable of the task are WAY too expensive for one-offs), and which offers a high enough dot resolution and which uses a highly stable ink. -And which can print at about 11"x17".
An Imagesetter might be the best option, and silver halides on photographic paper can be quite stable, but I don't know about the paper substrate itself. . . And either way, most of the earlier artwork was done entirely in 'Analog', but done on deteriorating paper, but I'm having trouble even scanning black & white dot screens, (newspaper grey tones), without disgusting interference patterns popping up.
Plus I've NEVER seen any computer peripheral company even mention the long-term stability of their printer inks.
All you'd need to do is design boards using CAD software. We've had manufacturing machines for years now which you literally put parts into at one end, push a 'Go' button, and then have finished cards spit out the other end.
I don't know what the costs are like, but I expect they would follow the standard rule of, 'Setup is expensive. After that, they're pennies a unit.' --Or rather, 'The cost of buying parts in bulk'. Products with memory chips or CRT's and such would likely be more expensive, but all in all, I bet it'd be surprisingly reasonable once you cut out salaries and a promotional department, not to mention the million dollar salaries of the one or two Uber-Suits & Haircuts at the top. Basically, the same force of GREED which causes industry to implement A-hole standards, like CPU-to-Screen encryption, also drives companies to make their manufacturing technology available to anybody willing to pay. (Especially on well established and prolific manufacturing technology.)
So I'm POSITIVE equipment could be made in a co-op kind of manner. All you'd need are enough initial investors willing to back a good 'open-source' design.
While you might run into certain committee-type thinking difficulties, I bet those forces could be managed, and as long as the co-op charter states implicitly that the point of the project is to provide reasonably priced, well made, 'open-source' hardware, then I'm sure it could be done and the big boys could be walked away from.
So sure. Why not?
Heck, it'd be fun to do just to send a bug up the collective butt of the Greed-driven hardware establishment.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds more like Sleep Deprivation than anything else. Stop sleeping and you can start seeing things pretty quick.
Caffeine isn't to blame for that.
I'm going to wait for another eight years. Then I'll go back and read history. I'll start with your post and work forwards.
I think the original poster was using hyperbole to make a point. Regardless of how the American system of 'democracy' happens to work, (and doesn't, as evidenced by the recent undoing of the civil charter, among other things), I think this was less a troll than it was a flailing stab of frustration at the heart of bullshit-central.
In the final analysis, I'd not be surprised to see Bush out-do Hitler in terms of both deed and scale.
I knew those stupid pens were evil.
Did you ever notice back in school when one of their pens, 'accidentally' exploded and bled ink, that the student it stained would get kinda glassy eyed and highly receptive?
Extra curricular activities, my ass. I wonder what we've REALLY been trained for?
-Garund
(Conspiracy buff? Hm. Maybe. I do avoid things like air-miles, and I do distrust large corps because they keep doing morally objectionable things, like ignoring safety standards and employing children in third world nations, etc. And in the case of my previous post, I'm just relaying what I've heard from sources I know personally, which seem to me more reliable than the average newspaper article, which comes from who-knows-where).
And don't you think it's just a LITTLE bit embarrassing how religious propagandists regularly attach their ideologies to whatever respected cultural attribute happens to be in the forum at a given moment?
I mean, c'mon!
We're talking about adventure games v.s. FPS's. Let's stay on topic here!
(Though, for the record, I don't agree at all that there is ANY connection between the violence of FPS's and the lack of mythological standards in society. Look at the Romans! They had gladiatorial combat in a time rife with god worship. I think the real connection with violence obsession in a culture has more to do with the size and general corruption of a given society.)
-Garund
If what I heard is worth taking at face value, then I think the sad little info releases about 'recent' technological advances we see available for public consumption are the result of an orchestrated control over the time line on which the general public is kept in regard to scientific advancement. As far as I can figure, we're at LEAST thirty five years away from having access, (both physical and psychological), to the kind of tech a select few currently take for granted.
Kinda sucks.
One of the main applications in the instance of this fine crystaline stuff, (which was not even mentioned either in the article or on Slashdot), was in the area of battery architecture.
If any of this is true, then most of us here at Slashdot are playing in tune like a bunch of damned lemmings to a timed beat metered out by others. Feel the joy.
-Garund
"I'll see it when I believe it."
It sounds reasonable, but I think it only describes half the equation. There's a question of balance to be examined.
While large cooperative groups offer advantages, they also have a number of qualities which I think are largely uncontroled today.
Maybe the advantages in the pseudo-symbiotic relationship we share with corporate entities are enough to overwhelm any worries you might have as to the more destructive qualities corporations exhibit, but I choose not to wear blinders or to see the world in black & white, and certainly not to tell people who might have legitimate concerns to 'grow up', just because I would rather not face the nauseating possibility that maybe there is something terribly wrong.
So I'll definitely be keeping at least one of my feet squarely in the, 'Corporations are the Evil Empire,' camp you described, simply because corporate entities do lots and lots of morally questionable things which make the world crappy for lots and lots of people. The fact that you can clearly write well, means you're not ignorant, so I won't bother listing off any of the ton of available examples of corporate greed and willfully reckless behavior. (When profit is god, how money is made is unimportant, so long as it's cheaply done and doesn't leave shit in your own immediate corner of the pond.)
Also. . .
'The other possibility is that instead of creating something of value yourself, you feel an adolescent urge to be a big hero to other adolescents by finding ways of stealing things of value created by others.' [snip] 'why don't you go out and create music or great films or whatever, and then give away what you've traded the hours of your life to produce, instead of trying to give away the hours of other peoples' lives?'
Yeah. . .
Fair enough. Except you're again looking only at the portion of the equation, (that which clearly makes you feel comfortable in your own philosophical rules set). Hate to say it, but. . .
The problem is one of fairness. The people who make music don't ever receive the lion's share of the profit. I'm all for a system which will put a quarter into the hands of the artist for every track of music I decide to keep, and keeps the millions of dollars out of the hands of the non-creative music execs who currently take nearly all of the profit.
And take stealing the content from DVD's. I think that's entirely fair. -The content of a DVD has usually made its money back with lots of profit by the time it plays theatrically world wide. The disks themselves cost pennies to press. If DVD's cost eight bucks a unit, I'd never rip one off ever again. As it is, they regularly retail for over thirty dollars. That's just plain greedy and unfair. The 'competition' which is supposed to bring us fair prices clearly doesn't work. (Gee? There are content cartels? Who would have thunk it!)
Currently, piracy is the only semi-organized structure which has a shot at bringing about fairness in the market place. Shucks.
Sure, I sometimes feel like I'm wielding a metaphoric lightsaber, but that's only because I feel that I'm being manipulated and taken advantage of by a metaphoric evil.
And I don't wear blinders made from half-reason.
-Garund
Balance is everything and we don't have enough.
Yeah. I got my acronym wrong there. I meant the OPP of course, not the mounties. Pardon the amazingly stupid error. I blame gravity.
The perception that hard earned tax money deducted from your pay check is being mis-spent on projects and causes which seem unfair and unjust. The problem is that the brain muscle responsible for reacting to things which seem unjust and unfair is very easy to engage. A great deal of the population can be angered and made indignant, or as you say, frustrated, with stories of how 'bleeding heart liberals' are giving money to people who don't work as hard as others do. Those emotions are easy to incite, and easy to direct. If you want votes, then making the people feel angry at a certain demograph, and promising to punish that demograph, seems to nearly always be a sure ticket into office.
I tend to believe that any party which engages these kinds of emotions in the public in order to obtain power, is irresponsible at the very least, and manipulative at worst. I don't like to be manipulated.
And the simple fact of the matter is that anybody can balance a budget. It's just math. Even a socialist knows that 'things need to be paid for,' and that, 'money doesn't grow on trees.'
Harris announced with great fanfare that his Tory party had balanced the Ontario budget for the first time in 30 years. He didn't mention that more than 20 of those 'unbalanced' years had been under Tory leadership. (And during the 80's too, when money was all over the place and the government had massive revenues.) When the NDP got into power, (during a recession and inheriting this massive debt), Bob Rae told us frankly that his party had a plan which would eliminate the deficit in seven years, although they explained that they would have to make cuts to both education and health care, among other things, in order to do it. While this was unwelcome news, it was at least honest, and I respect that. As we know, however, they didn't get into power for a second term. Though, eight years after they first announced their plan, we now have a balanced budget. And how did Tories manage it? Cuts to health care and education.
I can understand your frustration with unfairness. There are many examples which do infuriate. But I've seen cases where the welfare net has rescued people who lost their jobs during the recession. They felt terrible and guilty about taking charity checks from the government during the time it took for them to find new work, (which they did). --And these are people with families and white collar jobs I'm talking about. Not the parking lot attendants which have you feeling indignantion. --I recognize that while there are welfare leaches, there are also case workers and regulations which work to minimize that problem.
I realize that a system based on Social Darwinism which champions survival of the fittest and penalizes failure with starvation and destitution *can* work, but it seems to me that the result is a harsh and mean spirited society where people spend a great deal of time scared & angry or feeling unjustly superior because they started the game, often with rich parents. This kind of system is much more likely to devolve into an upper and lower class which openly hate one another. I don't think it has to be this way; we're supposed to be civilized. Who the heck wants a cruddy, angry system like that?
And as for the 'smelly people' on the subway which you would rather avoid. . .
While I agree that subways can be crowded during rush hours, and that driving does provide a certain degree of luxury in terms of personal space, (if you don't mind the exhaust and equally crowded through fares during rush hour which I find, frankly more stressful, having commuted in both manners.). . , but I do think that operating a car is amazingly selfish. Cars are extremely destructive and dirty; Every litre of gasoline burned creates two kilograms of Carbon Monoxide. (I believe. I'm recalling an old documentary on the subject, and my chemistry isn't entirely reliable. I do remember that it was either two or three to one. Either way, it's dirty as hell. And that's not even counting the black crud which also comes out the pipe!)
I hate after I cycle through Toronto, how I blow black snot out my nose as a result of so many selfish or simply ignorant people who opperate cars.
And it shouldn't be like this.
I take the subway frequently, and it really isn't that bad. And I don't know what isolated and clearly over-hyped incedent you're referring to, but lice and scabies just don't show their faces when I travel. --I think, rather, your attitude speaks of a general despising of others, and I would suggest that a step back and honest self review might show you what you need to look at in order to become a happier individual who doesn't feel the need to vote with such indignation and frustration. (--Remember, the bomb threat campaign which closed polling stations in liberal ridings was organized by conservatives. Do you really want people with a bomb-threat mentality in government? --And yes, the only people who had access to the thousand or so polling station volunteers were the party members. --And a thousand threatening phone calls in a single night? That takes organization. Tories play dirty. They manipulate and incite hate. I can't think of a worse group to have in power!)
You're not going to get scabies from riding the public transit system.
And declaring that supporting labor unions will turn Canada into a third world nation is just plain foolish. Unions have a place, and when they are kept in balance, their place is important. Without unions, companies could exploit their workers into a state of slavery. It has happened enough times in the past, and it happens today.
And what's with this notion that people such as parking lot attendants and bus drivers and garbage collectors are somehow worth less, and should be shunned by society for what they do? I happen to know several people in McJobs who are trying to earn money to go to school and pay rent and such. They're smart, motivated and generally good people. But guys like you, and much of society, seem to think that not only should they be paid less for their work, but also be despised as a general rule.
When people tell me that it's a crime when bus drivers make the same amount as white collar workers, I always think, "Yeah. The bus driver should be paid more. White collar workers don't provide essential services, or spend the day responsible for the lives of their passengers."
I know you're pointing at parking lot attendants and not bus drivers, but I belive the point is still relevant in that your attitude seems to stem from the same source.
Scabies?
For goodness sake!
The only thing that can come from the current thinking in Ontario is a further division between rich and poor. That leads to increased levels of intolerance, hate, crime, walled communities, and as history shows again and again, revolution.
I really don't think I'm being extremist. I don't like cops wearing riot gear.
This story about the federal liberal databank was used as a convenient distraction, (along with the buzz of the holiday weekend), while the Tory conservative government in Ontario sneaked by a nasty announcement, (which, not surprisingly, few seemed to notice), about their plan to "review" the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Oh yay.
Pardon this tangential story, but. . .
Our current government in Ontario is overwhelmingly conservative because, (IMHO), people are both easily fooled with campaign promises, and easily enraged by stupid stories about how their 'hard earned tax dollars are being spent on lazy homeless people and single starving moms.'
The basic story, which we've seen again and again in Ontario under this government which can pound through laws without challenge because of its massive majority, (changes including huge cuts to health care and education, environmental restrictions lifted or not put into place where needed, privatized prison programs starting up in the wings, and my favorite, the changing of the color of police uniforms to all black; the new color being named, (get this,) 'LAPD Blue'. Oh, and our RCMP must now wear the same kind of hats that U.S. state troopers wear, because in the words of our lead politician, "They look more like 'real' police that way.")
Among other things. But anyway. . .
The basic story is this: Disturbed minister sees Tory wrong doing, (in this case, breaking its own laws by making the social insurance numbers, addresses, phone numbers and bank accounts of about 50,000 private citizens available to two companies). The minister, (Ann Cavoukian), pointed out that this should not have happened.
The Tories' vengeance was to reopen the act. I'm sure whatever they plan to do to it can't possibly be good.
I know this is all off topic, but politics in Ontario, the most powerful province in Canada, seem to have gotten increasingly evil in a very short period of time, and few seem to realize what this can very easily and quickly lead to.
In five years if there's no positive change, I'm probably going to have to move.
Garund
--What if 'The Matrix,' was a piece of propaganda designed to make people fear enlightenment?
The establishment is run on rules and regulations, and it is almost impossible to win against them. They are immovable pillars of strength, so you have to be like water. The pillars don't care if you don't directly oppose them, so don't. Just go around them. There's always a way, so stay cool.
Actually, it occurs to me now that the fact this essay was even made available is an example of its own conclusion, since it wasn't part of the strict curriculum; it was brought in and distributed by a man who also happened to be my favorite English teacher. Those who understood, 'Got it.' Those who didn't. . . Well it didn't really matter.
The paper was not discussed or mentioned ever again, but those who were awake benefitted and learned. I've been following the advice in that paper ever since, and my life is pretty darn good. I have lots of friends, society at large respects me. (I've received multiple lines of credit from banking institutions who have told me point blank, (though very quietly), that they were going against all policy and were bending several rules in order to help me.)
I'm not angry. I don't hate anybody. I have a smile for all. (I do, I admit, always dress in camoflauge. It's a war out there. That is, I wear an ironed shirt, and maintain a haircut and shaven face. It works. I get friendly service where enraged letter-bombers don't. It's very simple.) But I also work the hours I want, (if any), and NEVER for a corporation, and while I am not rich, I make enough to remain comfortable.
Essentially, I think it's important to remember this:
Corporations are the enemy. Not the people who infest them. You can always appeal to People, so long as you respect and love them, and love life. People are the infection, and they'll almost always be on your side, because when it comes right down to it, even the well paid hate the establishment which makes them get up at 6:30 in the morning to go to 10 hour a day jobs. Even the most right wing politician likes to walk on beaches and have friends. The trick is to be able to see the world from everybody else's point of view.
That's all. Fight to maintain the things you love, but accept that you are never going to bring down the 'Man'. Anger is counter productive.
Good luck out there.
-Garund
Wait until the market settles upon its favorite DVD recorder, then buy it. Who the Fu(K cares if you can't play the stuff you record on it over a basic DVD player? As long as the DVD recorder can play commercial Hollywood disks, then you might as well make it your primary box and ditch the basic DVD player altogether.
It seems to me that this might even be the natural evolution of the technology. People are always going to want to record Bab 5 episodes and dumb hockey tournaments, and once home DVD recorders get cheep and one recording medium prevails, people will want to buy 'em. I think the only way the industry will be able to prevent this trend will be to make the boxes inordinately expensive, and with so many manufacturers jumping on board to rush out DVD+RW units, it looks like that boat has already been missed.
Oh, and OEM versions for your computer won't be far behind.
It looks to me like Hollywood fu(ked itself by thinking like a big dumb, immovable pillar while life, as always, flows like water.
That's how I see it, anyway.
Your description of lasers through crystals was the first instance of anybody clearly explaining the whole 'wave collapse' thing.
To me, anyway.
Thanks!
So. . . based on this, (and those light box experiments somebody else mentioned which show both the wave and particle behavior in light), would it be logical to assume that all particles are just a convenient/temporarily stable manifestation of basic energy, and that everything in existence is simply a result of this essential nature of 'matter'?
-Garund
I keep hearing about particles which seemingly appear and disappear in an impossible manner. I've read science fiction short stories about this and all the amazing technologies and possibilities which come along after you make the basic assumption that particles can perform magic tricks of this nature.
So my question is this: Are these effects real, or are they simply products of the math used to track particles? (i.e., QM math works in averages and percent possibilities of particles being in one place at one time. Thus, sometimes QM states that a particle has 'vanished' or is in 'many places at once.' -And the uninitiated student reads this as though the particle has actually performed the impossible.)
Is the impossible actually happening, or are there just a lot of science students looking for munchkins in their wardrobes?
Please tell me more. If magic exists, I'd be happy, but I have my doubts.
-Garund
The way a particle changes when observed is that you have to bounce a photon or electron of it, (or whatever your microscope is using), in order for a signal to come back to your eye.
And OF COURSE bouncing an electron off a particle is going to affect its state.
There's no mystery to it. It's not magic.
Like I said, either I'm a total heathen, or 90% of the world is foolishly treating quantum mechanics like the second coming.
Get a grip.
-Garund
Linux is quintessentially anti-establishment. It's designed to be everything that big, lumbering dinosaur outfits like Microsoft and the military are not.
Sorry, but it strikes me as really lame to see so many Linux enthusiasts so desperate to find validation in having a big daddy like the f***ing military give them a nod of approval.
Linux won't die. It's driven and created by those who want it to exist. So who the hell cares about any aspect of it beyond that?
Sheesh.
-Garund
Has anybody else noticed how corporations are like very early life forms? They grow and eat and reproduce, and display many of the same characteristics that cell cultures do. (And cell cultures just eat and grow and eat until the petri dish is dry and crusty.)
Like the cells in the human body which live and work and die tirelessly so that we humans can all lumber around our daily lives and watch bad television. . . I think that's what people are becoming in corporations, which push and push to get the maximum efficiency and minimum trouble out of their human building blocks.
When I grow up, I want to be a disease that kills big, lumbering life forms.
-Garund
If you're not an anarchist, you're a sleeper.
'Star Wars Episode One' for the cost of a street vendor hotdog! (Will cause about the same amount of intestinal vapor, too!)
My whole damn city is log jammed with those stupid cassettes. You can buy them in drug stores and gas stations, for crying out loud!
But the movie was so lousy, only geeks with no critical faculties whatsoever, (and 5 year olds), want them. So the city threatens to remain log jammed. Look for them to appear in your local bargain bin in two months.
-Garund
Get the DVD's and LD's of the first three films, and cut together your own Lucas-without-a-melted-brain copies of these classics!
Unfortunately, Phantom Mucus is not just damaged; it never worked in the first place.
Why on Earth should Sony care about international sales being affected by early exports of PS2's? It's not as if the cash from the sale of smuggled units won't still flow into Sony coffers. Buy it here or buy it there. Why would Sony care?
It's more likely to be a dumb publicity stunt.
"Dude! Are you shittin'? A PS2 could be used to guide a fuckin' croose missile? Well ditch this stupid competitor's new game platform. I'm gonna ask my parents for the game system preferred by Islamic Fundamentalists everywhere!"
And, frankly, I don't even buy this idea.
I expect it really comes down to red tape and bureaucratic brain damage. I see it enough to know that it's built into human behavior. Most people are morons. ESPECIALLY civil servants.
-Garund
Ooh. Another thought. What would the towing charge be on a parachuted copter when you might land your sorry ass somewhere without road access?
Clearly, this flying car invention is another which belongs on the very short, "It Would Much Cooler If I Was The Only Person To Own One," category.
Oddly, there's only about three other inventions I'd like to see in this list. For your reference they include. . .
Guns,
Nukes,
Bicycles,
--Come on. If you were the only guy with a bicycle, you could do the Letterman show and be a real live circus side show attraction. And who wouldn't want to run away with the circus? Or is that very last century? (What's today's equivalent? Can you even run away in this world and not end up a squeegie kid? Too bad. Squeegie kids don't get pet monkeys, or fall in love with the beautiful 18 year old daughter of the Amazing Flying Petrov family.)
Garund
---After all the fuss and bother, it turned out that most of the population was only good for ripping off and building pyramids. How very sad.---
And frankly, aside from the curiosity of seeing an animated film really, really big, making Fantasia 2K in the esteemed IMAX format seemed rather pointless to me. IMAX is great when shooting live action, because it picks up details normal film formats do not. But the animators certainly weren't working at four times the size they were trained to work! In fact, 10 minutes into the film, I forgot I was even in a giant round cinema. My memories of the experience certainly don't reflect the ridiculous amount of money I spent on my ticket.
As for the content. . .
I'm really glad they included, "Sorcerer's Apprentice," (For which I noticed the credits conveniently neglected to mention the name of the original composer. I guess Disney feels enough time has passed that they own the rights to it now, and so slyly suggest that it was entirely a Disney Product.)
Now, when Mickey in the wizrd's robe first appeared on screen, I thought, "What the heck is this?! Come on! How little work did you bozos do? Can't you even give us a full feature-length film? Is that why you went IMAX, so you could have an excuse to skimp on the content?"
But I'm glad they did show it. It demonstrated really well just how wide the gap is between the old and new Disney abilities in terms of over-all quality in comedic timing, story rhythm, wisdom of subject matter. . , everything. The Sorcerer's Apprentice had soul. The new stuff was only reasonably well crafted, and certainly not without numerous flaws and kinks which made me cringe each time one of them popped up. I actually had to turn my head when that 'Spring Nymph of Life', or whatever she was, in the Firebrand, swept up in front of the camera with her face filled with the Anime-esque, cliche rapture those bone head animators obviously think passes for real emotion. I mean, YUCK! Basically, I found the level of over-all maturity was severely lacking. When I have 25 year old animators, who by all accounts, are over-worked, depressed and generally lost in life, trying to sagely advise me on anything, let alone the, 'Circle of Life', I just want to puke. The only pieces I found virtually flawless and entirely enjoyable, were Gershwin's, "Rhapsody in Blue", and Camille Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals". But $15 bucks for 10 minutes worth of decent film? What a rip off!
The original Fantasia was spotless and dazzling and FEATURE LENGTH. And most of all, it was made by people driven by something entirely different than the forces driving animators today; something which actually gave them a unique view of the world well worth sharing through their art. Rent the original film and compare!
Basically, the original Disney people back then were still very much in the process of experimenting with animation, and were thinking like this:
"Wow. We love this music. Let's make some animation to go along with it. Let's push the envelope and see what we can do! It'll look sooo cool!"
And frankly, the 'rumors' of psychedelic drug fascination among the animators at Disney at the time, in my mind only further proves their genuine desire to create something interesting to themselves. It wasn't just another job. Or a chance to, "Me Too! Watch, watch! Me Too!"
Today, the driving force at Disney strikes me as anything *but* genuine.
Today, what we have are a bunch of young and, albeit, technically capable animation professionals who in my view are nothing more than over-paid fan boys with stars in their eyes more interested in copying their heros than in exploring their own creativity, (what little of it they have). When Fantasia was made, animation was a loser's career choice in terms of professions. You animated only if you loved the medium heart and soul and could do nothing else. Today, we have a whole different breed.
Today, our most innovative minds are making other things. Like video games, or indy comics or roll playing stuff. And I guess animation is in there too. But Disney sure hasn't got much to do with it.
-Fume-
One thing I'd like to do is make analog back-ups in case digital preservation methods fail for whatever reason. (Like the fall of human civilization into another dark age, perhaps? -Where we no longer have any sockets to plug our computers into. . .) -Paranoid, sure, but hey. If you prepare against the worst case scenario, then you'll likely do alright against everything else.
I've found a good paper manufacturer, (no-acid, non-bleached cotton fiber paper capable of lasting hundreds and hundreds of years), but I've been waiting for a decent print technology to come along which can output from a computer at a consumer level cost, (offset, litho and web presses, while capable of the task are WAY too expensive for one-offs), and which offers a high enough dot resolution and which uses a highly stable ink. -And which can print at about 11"x17".
An Imagesetter might be the best option, and silver halides on photographic paper can be quite stable, but I don't know about the paper substrate itself. . . And either way, most of the earlier artwork was done entirely in 'Analog', but done on deteriorating paper, but I'm having trouble even scanning black & white dot screens, (newspaper grey tones), without disgusting interference patterns popping up.
Plus I've NEVER seen any computer peripheral company even mention the long-term stability of their printer inks.
Anybody know anything which might be of use?
All you'd need to do is design boards using CAD software. We've had manufacturing machines for years now which you literally put parts into at one end, push a 'Go' button, and then have finished cards spit out the other end.
I don't know what the costs are like, but I expect they would follow the standard rule of, 'Setup is expensive. After that, they're pennies a unit.' --Or rather, 'The cost of buying parts in bulk'. Products with memory chips or CRT's and such would likely be more expensive, but all in all, I bet it'd be surprisingly reasonable once you cut out salaries and a promotional department, not to mention the million dollar salaries of the one or two Uber-Suits & Haircuts at the top. Basically, the same force of GREED which causes industry to implement A-hole standards, like CPU-to-Screen encryption, also drives companies to make their manufacturing technology available to anybody willing to pay. (Especially on well established and prolific manufacturing technology.)
So I'm POSITIVE equipment could be made in a co-op kind of manner. All you'd need are enough initial investors willing to back a good 'open-source' design.
While you might run into certain committee-type thinking difficulties, I bet those forces could be managed, and as long as the co-op charter states implicitly that the point of the project is to provide reasonably priced, well made, 'open-source' hardware, then I'm sure it could be done and the big boys could be walked away from.
So sure. Why not?
Heck, it'd be fun to do just to send a bug up the collective butt of the Greed-driven hardware establishment.
-Fume-