Finally! Now I can look at pictures that other people think are amazing. At last, my personal preference for photography can fall in line with the consensus of strangers on the Internet. I'm so happy to have found this Acquine thing! Now I'll like all the same stuff everyone else likes, like a normal person. After all, having individual taste is treachery. Fall in line with the group, everyone!
'Some brands go too far with the girlie stuff,' Learned says. 'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'
Oh really? And why is it that when we're talking about laptops, the kind of language used is evil and demeaning, but when it comes to overpriced sacks, it's fine? Seems to me that Learned's argument is that women are either irrational or just plain dumb regarding things important to women, but if it's important to guys too, then they suddenly get a giant increase in mental capacity.
Here's what most women want to know about their computers:
Can it load myspace and facebook quickly?
Can it run my work productivity software?
Can I get my email?
Can I compose documents?
Can I organize my documents?
Can it play solitare?
Only geeks and gamers focus on raw metrics. The rest of the world? They just want to be able to do the things they need a computer for, quicker. And many are even willing to trade speed for portability. Hence, netbooks.
People who get pissed at marketers for doing what marketers do are just being dishonest for themselves. Marketers don't create ads out of personal satisfaction, they create them because they want to reach the largest possible audience and convince them to buy or do something. That's how they get paid.
When you say "Here's what most women want to know about their computers" you are making the same mistake as Dell. You don't know what women want from their computers unless you've walked up to every woman in the world and asked them. Women are not all the same. Every woman is different, and perhaps they have a few things in common,, its rather arrogant to put them all in the same group, and say they want X from their computers. It's not a specific enough demographic to target.
Sorry to be politically-incorrect here. But just because some people find a certain stereotype demeaning doesn't necessarily make it a complete falsehood. Sure, it's stereotypical to say that women like pink, pretty accessories, shoes, knick-knacks they can put on a million shelves on the wall (instead of the movie posters that belong there), a pink cover on the toilet, decorative soaps, scented candles, etc., etc. But you know what? That "stereotype" effectively describes 4 out my 5 last girlfriends, my mother, all my aunts, and a solid majority of female friends I've had over the years.
Sounds like a sampling bias to me. Maybe you seek out girls with qualities like your mother. Maybe thats why all of your girlfriends like that sort of thing.
I know a lot of girls who don't conform to the stereotype. I'm not saying there aren't some women out there who do like the traditional "girly" things (pink, shoes, shopping), but it's not something one is born with, and not something all women like. By assuming it was, dell pigeonholed female customers, and thats insulting.
Had you read your parent's full post, you would have discovered this:
We still need people to create content (we call them artists).
He also says some words about editors, producers and retailers near that bit. I suggest you read it, it's quite interesting.
It puts the whole "DVDs should be cheap" bit in perspective.
Artists won't go away just because they get paid less. Speaking as an artist myself, I can testify that it's a calling, and most artists would keep on doing what they love, even if they didn't get paid. Of course, they'd have a smaller budget... but good things can still be made on the cheap. Audio equipment and software has become so cheap that ordinary people on a shoestring budget can produce an album surpassing the typical audio quality of major bands, and the way things are going, movies will become just as cheap and easy to make.
The notion that art will somehow stop unless the MAFIAA gets total leeway in prosecuting pirates is a widely propagated myth.
You have to write good music, good books, and good movies to make money? Then explain to my why the top selling musical artists write crappy music, the top selling authors write trashy books, and the top selling movies are more often then not, shit.
No I think in order to make money, you need to create worthless dreck. Anybody who makes good art doesn't do it for the money, because they could make more money making bad art. Thats why artists shouldn't worry about piracy. It's not like they are making millions anyway, and to them, getting people to read your book or listen to your song is more important than how much they paid for it.
And lets see how clean and green Pittsburgh becomes after the entire population of Arizona moves in. There wont be plenty of drinking water - there will be a water shortage. Pittsburgh can't support that many people.
Besides, Pittsburg PA is a cold, dull, and thoroughly miserable city. Few would want to live there.
Most people that run Linux don't bother to examine the source. They may compile it, but they are still trusting that someone else performed a security audit.
We ain't talkin bout most people. We talkin bout the military, and I would expect the military to investigate the security of their software.
Well ok, maybe I expect to much... These days, it feels like the government can't do much of anything right. But my point is the average user doesn't have to expect lines of source code (the average user probably doesn't know any code to begin with), but a big group like the military could inspect lines of code, find potential errors, and perhaps even contribute fixes for these errors back to the open source community.
About time, mozilla.
I've used firefox since it came out, and lately I've noticed it's not the hot-rod it once was. The web is changing - full of in-browser videos, web apps, and other resource intensive content, and firefox has had trouble catching up. I look forward to better speed and stability, assuming this project is seen through it's completion.
Otherwise, I'd probably switch to google chrome eventually, which doesn't have the add-on support I enjoy from firefox.
Accurate, unbiased reporting won't come from professionals either. Cable News, for instance, pays their journalists a lot, yet the state of journalistic ethics on cable tv is deplorable.
I agree that we can't rely on bloggers to report the news. Bloggers have a role in the big picture though. And simply paying the journalists won't keep them ethical. We need a business model that thrives on the net, and lets journalists write the news that matters, not just the news that sells.
You're really that stupid? You think if artists don't get paid, they'll just refuse to work?
A wealth of new music will continue to exist, and it will be free. Most musicians don't make music for the money. They do it because they love music, its fun to make, and they want you to hear it. The only acts that will go away are the acts solely concerned about money - where every creative decision is also a business decision. And to that I say, good riddance. That music tends to be poor anyhow. How poor? Just listen to the radio for anything made in the last 10 years.
Speaking of which, you also predict the demise of FM radio. Well I'll be happy to see that go as well. It's dominated by conglomerates who play whatever mainstream garbage the record companies pay them to. If your future includes the death of radio, I'm for the scenario you describe. Of course, I'll still have NPR, and the freeform station that plays things I actually like.
Now your little straw man about "appliance revolution". There is a difference between information and things you can actually hold in your hands; tools that produce something valuable. Nobody is arguing that appliances should be free. It costs money to make appliances. There is scarcity, unlike digital information, which can be copied indefinitely for almost no cost. That's the difference.
Then again, imagine a world where everyone has 3d printers, and cheap access to materials. Could we download a toaster? I look forward to a future where we can.
I think when people say "Republicans or Democrats, it's all the same to me" they don't literally mean they have the same platform. They mean that electing either party will bring about the same result - the same corrupt politics that dominate our country.
The parties are very much the same in my eyes.
I'm certainly going against Slashdot groupthink here, so I'll undoubtedly be modded "-1 Troll", but Windows Vista is really not as bad as people think. The key thing to keep in mind is to make sure your system has enough resources to run it, because it is demanding. Don't try and put it on your P4 with only 512 MB RAM with integrated graphics. You'll regret it. I also wouldn't recommend upgrading to it from Windows XP -- it doesn't offer anything of significant value over XP that makes it worth rushing out to upgrade for. But if you're buying a new system, and it happens to have Vista AND at least 2 GB RAM with a decent graphics card, I wouldn't worry about it.
If it is that demanding, maybe there is something wrong with it.
If it uses more resources, but doesn't offer much greater functionality than it's predecessor, then it's simply a bad operating system.
If thats the case... if blacks must ignore black culture to get ahead in life... that says nothing about how African American's learn. That only proves that white culture is still the dominant culture in America, and people use it as a golden standard when comparing other elements of American culture. In other words, it only proves we are ethnocentric as a nation. No surprise there.
African American culture rejects learning?
Then explain historically black colleges.
African American culture rejects western culture?
African American culture is western culture. African Americans may have different experiences than their white counterparts, but are just as culturally literate, and just as culturally American.
More likely, most African Americans are poor, and no matter who you are, studying hard to pursue a career doesn't seem worthwhile when you're surrounded by a other poor people with no economic future. Not to mention, the poor have more stress to deal with at home, and less time to devote to studying.
Still, I agree partially with what you say. Poor areas are full of kids who don't want to learn, and we can't blame teachers for poor performance when poverty is to blame.
But that's not what anyone here is talking about. Obviously some poor parts of the country have bad schools, but the US education system is still very poor across the board when compared to other countries. Many parts of of the country may be poor, but we are a rich country overall, and its sad that our education system is worse compared to poorer countries.
The operating cost of providing broadband service is low and getting lower. At Time Warner, the cost of connecting to the Internet and other direct costs of providing its high-speed data service fell to $33 million, down 18 percent. That represents just 3 percent of the revenue it collects for broadband service. But it doesnâ(TM)t include the capital expenses needed to upgrade the network. Comcast reported $120 million of costs for high-speed data service, down 13 percent from a year ago. That represents 6 percent of its data revenue.
So apparently bandwidth costs are going down, but U.S. cable companies still wont offer high bandwidth that other parts of the world have, and whats more, they want to cap bandwidth for those who use their service the most.
Then again, who's going to stop them? Most cable companies have a monopoly where they operate, and can pretty much screw their customers without fear of competition.
Slashdot Mirror
Finally! Now I can look at pictures that other people think are amazing. At last, my personal preference for photography can fall in line with the consensus of strangers on the Internet. I'm so happy to have found this Acquine thing! Now I'll like all the same stuff everyone else likes, like a normal person. After all, having individual taste is treachery. Fall in line with the group, everyone!
That men like violence and sex isn't really a male stereotype. Everyone likes violence and sex.Not just men. Not just some people. Nearly everyone!
'Some brands go too far with the girlie stuff,' Learned says. 'Della's marketing strategy sounds like it's advertising a purse. There's a level of consumer sophistication they're missing.'
Oh really? And why is it that when we're talking about laptops, the kind of language used is evil and demeaning, but when it comes to overpriced sacks, it's fine? Seems to me that Learned's argument is that women are either irrational or just plain dumb regarding things important to women, but if it's important to guys too, then they suddenly get a giant increase in mental capacity.
Here's what most women want to know about their computers:
Only geeks and gamers focus on raw metrics. The rest of the world? They just want to be able to do the things they need a computer for, quicker. And many are even willing to trade speed for portability. Hence, netbooks.
People who get pissed at marketers for doing what marketers do are just being dishonest for themselves. Marketers don't create ads out of personal satisfaction, they create them because they want to reach the largest possible audience and convince them to buy or do something. That's how they get paid.
When you say "Here's what most women want to know about their computers" you are making the same mistake as Dell. You don't know what women want from their computers unless you've walked up to every woman in the world and asked them. Women are not all the same. Every woman is different, and perhaps they have a few things in common,, its rather arrogant to put them all in the same group, and say they want X from their computers. It's not a specific enough demographic to target.
Sorry to be politically-incorrect here. But just because some people find a certain stereotype demeaning doesn't necessarily make it a complete falsehood. Sure, it's stereotypical to say that women like pink, pretty accessories, shoes, knick-knacks they can put on a million shelves on the wall (instead of the movie posters that belong there), a pink cover on the toilet, decorative soaps, scented candles, etc., etc. But you know what? That "stereotype" effectively describes 4 out my 5 last girlfriends, my mother, all my aunts, and a solid majority of female friends I've had over the years.
Sounds like a sampling bias to me. Maybe you seek out girls with qualities like your mother. Maybe thats why all of your girlfriends like that sort of thing.
I know a lot of girls who don't conform to the stereotype. I'm not saying there aren't some women out there who do like the traditional "girly" things (pink, shoes, shopping), but it's not something one is born with, and not something all women like. By assuming it was, dell pigeonholed female customers, and thats insulting.
What happens when the flies run out of ant brains to devour? Will they crave human brains?
Haven't been to Slashdot in a while? Bullshit, Anonymous Coward. You seem to post on every story!
can you produce the movie that is on that DVD?
Had you read your parent's full post, you would have discovered this:
We still need people to create content (we call them artists).
He also says some words about editors, producers and retailers near that bit. I suggest you read it, it's quite interesting.
It puts the whole "DVDs should be cheap" bit in perspective.
Artists won't go away just because they get paid less. Speaking as an artist myself, I can testify that it's a calling, and most artists would keep on doing what they love, even if they didn't get paid. Of course, they'd have a smaller budget... but good things can still be made on the cheap. Audio equipment and software has become so cheap that ordinary people on a shoestring budget can produce an album surpassing the typical audio quality of major bands, and the way things are going, movies will become just as cheap and easy to make.
The notion that art will somehow stop unless the MAFIAA gets total leeway in prosecuting pirates is a widely propagated myth.
No I think in order to make money, you need to create worthless dreck. Anybody who makes good art doesn't do it for the money, because they could make more money making bad art. Thats why artists shouldn't worry about piracy. It's not like they are making millions anyway, and to them, getting people to read your book or listen to your song is more important than how much they paid for it.
Besides, Pittsburg PA is a cold, dull, and thoroughly miserable city. Few would want to live there.
God, Dickhead, why do you always gotta act like such a.... dickhead?
Most people that run Linux don't bother to examine the source. They may compile it, but they are still trusting that someone else performed a security audit.
We ain't talkin bout most people. We talkin bout the military, and I would expect the military to investigate the security of their software.
Well ok, maybe I expect to much... These days, it feels like the government can't do much of anything right. But my point is the average user doesn't have to expect lines of source code (the average user probably doesn't know any code to begin with), but a big group like the military could inspect lines of code, find potential errors, and perhaps even contribute fixes for these errors back to the open source community.
You're too late. I already patented lemon-patent awards.
I call 41 minute meetings. Nobody can have a meeting for 41 minutes because I already invented that.
A lawyer will take any case they can make a buck on.
Otherwise, I'd probably switch to google chrome eventually, which doesn't have the add-on support I enjoy from firefox.
I agree that we can't rely on bloggers to report the news. Bloggers have a role in the big picture though. And simply paying the journalists won't keep them ethical. We need a business model that thrives on the net, and lets journalists write the news that matters, not just the news that sells.
A wealth of new music will continue to exist, and it will be free. Most musicians don't make music for the money. They do it because they love music, its fun to make, and they want you to hear it. The only acts that will go away are the acts solely concerned about money - where every creative decision is also a business decision. And to that I say, good riddance. That music tends to be poor anyhow. How poor? Just listen to the radio for anything made in the last 10 years.
Speaking of which, you also predict the demise of FM radio. Well I'll be happy to see that go as well. It's dominated by conglomerates who play whatever mainstream garbage the record companies pay them to. If your future includes the death of radio, I'm for the scenario you describe. Of course, I'll still have NPR, and the freeform station that plays things I actually like.
Now your little straw man about "appliance revolution". There is a difference between information and things you can actually hold in your hands; tools that produce something valuable. Nobody is arguing that appliances should be free. It costs money to make appliances. There is scarcity, unlike digital information, which can be copied indefinitely for almost no cost. That's the difference.
Then again, imagine a world where everyone has 3d printers, and cheap access to materials. Could we download a toaster? I look forward to a future where we can.
I think when people say "Republicans or Democrats, it's all the same to me" they don't literally mean they have the same platform. They mean that electing either party will bring about the same result - the same corrupt politics that dominate our country. The parties are very much the same in my eyes.
Hipsters use both.
I'm certainly going against Slashdot groupthink here, so I'll undoubtedly be modded "-1 Troll", but Windows Vista is really not as bad as people think. The key thing to keep in mind is to make sure your system has enough resources to run it, because it is demanding. Don't try and put it on your P4 with only 512 MB RAM with integrated graphics. You'll regret it. I also wouldn't recommend upgrading to it from Windows XP -- it doesn't offer anything of significant value over XP that makes it worth rushing out to upgrade for. But if you're buying a new system, and it happens to have Vista AND at least 2 GB RAM with a decent graphics card, I wouldn't worry about it.
If it is that demanding, maybe there is something wrong with it. If it uses more resources, but doesn't offer much greater functionality than it's predecessor, then it's simply a bad operating system.
No no, the Myan Doomsday thing is still accurate. The world will end before linux ever becomes popular on the desktop. :P
I agree with you totally. I wrongly oversimplified things in my post.
If thats the case... if blacks must ignore black culture to get ahead in life... that says nothing about how African American's learn. That only proves that white culture is still the dominant culture in America, and people use it as a golden standard when comparing other elements of American culture. In other words, it only proves we are ethnocentric as a nation. No surprise there.
African American culture rejects western culture? African American culture is western culture. African Americans may have different experiences than their white counterparts, but are just as culturally literate, and just as culturally American.
More likely, most African Americans are poor, and no matter who you are, studying hard to pursue a career doesn't seem worthwhile when you're surrounded by a other poor people with no economic future. Not to mention, the poor have more stress to deal with at home, and less time to devote to studying. Still, I agree partially with what you say. Poor areas are full of kids who don't want to learn, and we can't blame teachers for poor performance when poverty is to blame. But that's not what anyone here is talking about. Obviously some poor parts of the country have bad schools, but the US education system is still very poor across the board when compared to other countries. Many parts of of the country may be poor, but we are a rich country overall, and its sad that our education system is worse compared to poorer countries.
The operating cost of providing broadband service is low and getting lower. At Time Warner, the cost of connecting to the Internet and other direct costs of providing its high-speed data service fell to $33 million, down 18 percent. That represents just 3 percent of the revenue it collects for broadband service. But it doesnâ(TM)t include the capital expenses needed to upgrade the network. Comcast reported $120 million of costs for high-speed data service, down 13 percent from a year ago. That represents 6 percent of its data revenue.
So apparently bandwidth costs are going down, but U.S. cable companies still wont offer high bandwidth that other parts of the world have, and whats more, they want to cap bandwidth for those who use their service the most. Then again, who's going to stop them? Most cable companies have a monopoly where they operate, and can pretty much screw their customers without fear of competition.