marketers have defended the practice by insisting it gives Americans what they want: advertisements and other forms of content that are as relevant to their lives as possible,'
Did I just read that right? Americans want advertisement? Yeah, I want advertisements, just like I want another hole in my dick. What sort of a psychotic, delusional dream world must whoever this quote was mined from live in?
There are good and bad arguments about what has happened with college education over the last few years but there's no plausible way to describe the college graduation rate as dangerously low unless one thinks that a priori everyone should graduate college like everyone should graduate high school. That's not an easy case to make.
This is not even to mention the fact that the only reason a college degree ever meant anything in the first place is the not everyone was capable of getting one. This is because college was hard, and you had to be of above average intelligence to be able to graduate. To make college so that everyone can graduate, you need to dumb down the material significantly, so the truly gifted get screwed twice -- 1) Their degree means nothing because everyone else had one and 2) they got a lousy education because the professors had to simplify everything so that the dumbasses could pass.
(Movie was a moderately faithful adaptation, as such things go-- unlike some SF movies, where little is taken from the book other than the name, and--in the case of Bladerunner--not even that.)
This is something I often lament, but Blade Runner is one of the few examples where the departure from the novel was a very, very good thing. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of PKD, but Ridley Scott's adaptation worked much better for the screen than a faithful adaptation would have. Dick's style, unfortunately, does not transfer well to the screen (the notable exception being Richard Linklater's fantastic adaptation of A Scanner Darkly).
With the plummeting costs of magnetic storage, what is the point of this? I mean, optical storage is practical when you are talking about a few GB, but for multiple TB? I mean, how long would it take to burn one of those suckers, five, maybe six months? Why not just buy a cheap eSATA or USB external drive and stick it in a closet somewhere -- it's not much more expensive, lasts longer, and saves you a ton of productivity.
If it is being used for audio/video applications, scratches would be no more damaging on this super HD disc (10,080p!) than a regular Blu Ray or DVD. If you are using it for data storage... I have bad news for you...
Sorry, mate, but this logic does not hold up. The term monopoly refers to having exclusive control over one branch of an industry -- if Comcast has no competitors it is a monopoly, regardless of your decision to simply not watch TV.
Teacher: Why are you late?
Student 1: I was blowing bubbles.
Teacher: (to student #2) Why are you late?
Student 2: I was blowing bubbles.
Teacher: (to student #3) Let me guess - you were blowing bubbles too?
Student 3: I'm Bubbles.
Locking the console down and making it difficult to mod is totally legal and constitutional. It is a business move that I consider to be slimy, back asswards, counter-productive, unnecessary, and boneheaded, but it is totally legal, and the business has the right to behave in this manner. When they successfully lobby make this criminally prosecutable, I have a big problem. It is a huge violation of our liberty that a manufacturer can tell us what we are and aren't allowed to do with physical goods after we purchase them, for the sole intent of protecting their profits. If you feel that the profit margin is going to be too low, then get into another business, it's that simple.
Did you even read my post? I am not saying that the loser should always pay, only when the lawsuit is deemed to be frivolous by a jury. If a non-frivolous lawsuit is brought to court and fails, the current rules would still apply (usually no penalty, sometimes asked to pick up defendant's court fees).
Or better yet -- I can switch the cables and see if he can tell the difference. It will be an eye opening experience when he realizes that a $5 Monoprice cable is completely indistinguishable from the $140 Monster.
I don't think a "loser always pays" system is the best, but I think that the plaintiff should be heavily penalized if the lawsuit is determined to be frivolous by a jury of his/her peers. There is a big difference between filing a losing lawsuit, and using the court system as a personal vendetta machine. If it is found that any particular lawsuit was frivolous, the plaintiff should be obligated to repay the defendant any court costs incurred, any lost wages, and punitive damages (the amount to be determined by the judge) to repay the unfortunate defendant for their troubles.
Illegal terms cannot be stipulated in a contract. If this were not the case, Microsoft could include in its EULA that if you violate the terms of service, Steve Ballmer will come to your house and kick you in the genitals until you die from it. After kicking your balls out of your mouth, Steve would be entirely free of liability because, hey, you clicked agree. Obviously, this would not be allowed. Taking this further, first sale is mandated by law, in the same manner that murder is. Thereby, a contract (or license agreement) that denies first sale would be invalid, regardless of whether or not you agree with it.
Well that would certainly be a good thing -- the polygraph (it is not a lie detector -- it is a stress detector at best) is a crude interrogation tool and we would be better off without it. All it does is measure nervousness, which is very easy to game. Someone being sat down in a room strapped up to this machine are going to be nervous enough as it is, and will only be even more nervous if you start asking them intense questions. Conversely, it is trivial for a skilled liar to stay cool under pressure and beat the polygraph with ease.
It is still useful to test to see if the same response happens in a different situation. This further establishes the manner in which our brain responds to different stimuli, and again shows that our brain has a degree of difficulty in determining the difference between things actually happening in the real world, and bits of colored light on a screen.
Call it useless all you want, but science thrives on testing every possible angle so as to extract the maximum amount of truth from reality. There have been numerous times in science where things differed greatly from the expectation -- the double slit experiment is a great example of this.
It would have been extremely easy to say that particles behave as waves, end of story, and that obviously our observations will have no impact on it. When we decided to observe the particles as they passed through the slits, however, we discovered that they behaved as point particles again.
Que? Guitar requires effort and skill to play. The fact that Sid Vicious would stand and pretend to play bass (often with the volume completely muted) is completely irrelevant to this fact... Sid was there for looks and may as well have been holding a dead sea bass. The Sex Pistols were posers anyway, they were created solely to sell merchandise (Seriously, look it up).
Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store and prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: that makes it THEIR device, not mine, and I don't want to play that game.
I would reword that statement to say: "Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store: also a GREAT idea. Prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: BULLSHIT."
If these companies are going to offer app stores it makes perfect sense for them to do extensive QA on the apps before allowing them in. In other words, the app store should be a gated community, so to speak, so that those who want to be able to get apps quickly and easily with the peace of mind of knowing that the software is safe should have a place to go (this also helps retards not get viruses and pollute the rest of the ecosystem). Making that app store the only place to get software, however, is retarded. These developers need to get off their collective high horse and realize that these smart phones are nothing more than little computers, and start treating them as such. Sell me a solid device with a solid O/S. That is all I want. I don't need you to hold my hand the whole way, and tell me what I can and cannot do with the piece of hardware that I own. I know I speak for a lot of other nerds in saying that I will not own one of these devices until they open things up a little bit.
I don't see any problem with companies requiring an individual approval for apps being sold through their app store -- if you want to sell your software through a specific venue then it is entirely reasonable that it will be thoroughly vetted before being allowed into the store. The problem comes when the developer prevents software from outside the app store from being installed -- that is just ridiculous nonsense. From what I hear, it seems to be much easier to install third party software on the Pre than the iPhone, but I have not really been following either too closely -- all the smartphones that have come out so far are WAAAY too locked down for me to ever even consider wanting one, which is exactly the opposite effect of what they were intending with all of this draconian bullshit.
This is definitely true -- this is the reason that I actually stayed and talked to the guy -- I figured that I might be able to talk some sense into him, but it was to no avail...
Seriously -- I work in IT because it is stable work, it's something I can stand doing, and I make enough scratch to get all my bills paid and live fairly comfortably. I was never aware of there being anything even resembling 'glory' associated with IT.
This is all true, but they are also required by law to not lie. They can be as manipulative as they want, and stretch the truth to trick you into spending more than you need, but they are not allowed to lie.
FTA: "The netbooks comes [sic] with a slower processor, lesser memory, lesser hard drive, no optical drive and it would not be possible to have any software loaded on this netbook," he stated, once again playing hard and fast with the truth.
No, he is playing fast and loose with the truth.
The term fast and loose usually refers to a situation where the truth is being stretched and warped, such as the cell phone data plans where "Unlimited" actually means you can use it whenever you want, whereas most would assume that to mean you do not have a 5 GB bandwidth cap. Saying that it is not possible to load software onto a netbook is an outright, bold-faced lie.
A bit of a different field, but I know that whenever I am at Best Buy to pick up anything home theater related (I help out a lot of friends/relatives with HT setups) I will inevitably end up arguing with some moron trying to sell me a $140 Monster Cable so it will 'look better'. Being ignorant/a liar is one thing, but it is totally something else when they continue to argue with you about it. I have even, on one particular occasion, taken the time to explain to the clown how digital audio/video works and why purchasing the "better" cable is equivalent to lighting your money on fire, and had him still come back with, "Well, I'm sorry but you're wrong, this cable will make it look better." It is amazing to me that this sort of criminal fraud is tolerated -- these people get away with making provably false statements in order to separate people from their money and they don't see any consequences. The average person should be able to walk into a store and at least be confident that the person trying to sell them things will, at the very least, not blatantly lie, but this is not the case.
Yes and it would be nicer if they included a minimal O/S that can cook me breakfast and give me a handjob. You do realize that the whole point of these machines is to be as stripped down and inexpensive as possible, as well as being simple enough for children. Pining for something more robust is wishing the machine to be something other than what it is intended to be.
Holy shit, you are right. I think if they are going to be on top of the latest "scientific standards" it would behoove them to figure out the basics. Talk about running before you walk...
Slashdot Mirror
marketers have defended the practice by insisting it gives Americans what they want: advertisements and other forms of content that are as relevant to their lives as possible,'
Did I just read that right? Americans want advertisement? Yeah, I want advertisements, just like I want another hole in my dick. What sort of a psychotic, delusional dream world must whoever this quote was mined from live in?
There are good and bad arguments about what has happened with college education over the last few years but there's no plausible way to describe the college graduation rate as dangerously low unless one thinks that a priori everyone should graduate college like everyone should graduate high school. That's not an easy case to make.
This is not even to mention the fact that the only reason a college degree ever meant anything in the first place is the not everyone was capable of getting one. This is because college was hard, and you had to be of above average intelligence to be able to graduate. To make college so that everyone can graduate, you need to dumb down the material significantly, so the truly gifted get screwed twice -- 1) Their degree means nothing because everyone else had one and 2) they got a lousy education because the professors had to simplify everything so that the dumbasses could pass.
(Movie was a moderately faithful adaptation, as such things go-- unlike some SF movies, where little is taken from the book other than the name, and--in the case of Bladerunner--not even that.)
This is something I often lament, but Blade Runner is one of the few examples where the departure from the novel was a very, very good thing. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of PKD, but Ridley Scott's adaptation worked much better for the screen than a faithful adaptation would have. Dick's style, unfortunately, does not transfer well to the screen (the notable exception being Richard Linklater's fantastic adaptation of A Scanner Darkly).
With the plummeting costs of magnetic storage, what is the point of this? I mean, optical storage is practical when you are talking about a few GB, but for multiple TB? I mean, how long would it take to burn one of those suckers, five, maybe six months? Why not just buy a cheap eSATA or USB external drive and stick it in a closet somewhere -- it's not much more expensive, lasts longer, and saves you a ton of productivity.
If it is being used for audio/video applications, scratches would be no more damaging on this super HD disc (10,080p!) than a regular Blu Ray or DVD. If you are using it for data storage... I have bad news for you...
Sorry, mate, but this logic does not hold up. The term monopoly refers to having exclusive control over one branch of an industry -- if Comcast has no competitors it is a monopoly, regardless of your decision to simply not watch TV.
I've always heard this one:
Teacher: Why are you late?
Student 1: I was blowing bubbles.
Teacher: (to student #2) Why are you late?
Student 2: I was blowing bubbles.
Teacher: (to student #3) Let me guess - you were blowing bubbles too?
Student 3: I'm Bubbles.
Locking the console down and making it difficult to mod is totally legal and constitutional. It is a business move that I consider to be slimy, back asswards, counter-productive, unnecessary, and boneheaded, but it is totally legal, and the business has the right to behave in this manner. When they successfully lobby make this criminally prosecutable, I have a big problem. It is a huge violation of our liberty that a manufacturer can tell us what we are and aren't allowed to do with physical goods after we purchase them, for the sole intent of protecting their profits. If you feel that the profit margin is going to be too low, then get into another business, it's that simple.
Did you even read my post? I am not saying that the loser should always pay, only when the lawsuit is deemed to be frivolous by a jury. If a non-frivolous lawsuit is brought to court and fails, the current rules would still apply (usually no penalty, sometimes asked to pick up defendant's court fees).
Or better yet -- I can switch the cables and see if he can tell the difference. It will be an eye opening experience when he realizes that a $5 Monoprice cable is completely indistinguishable from the $140 Monster.
I don't think a "loser always pays" system is the best, but I think that the plaintiff should be heavily penalized if the lawsuit is determined to be frivolous by a jury of his/her peers. There is a big difference between filing a losing lawsuit, and using the court system as a personal vendetta machine. If it is found that any particular lawsuit was frivolous, the plaintiff should be obligated to repay the defendant any court costs incurred, any lost wages, and punitive damages (the amount to be determined by the judge) to repay the unfortunate defendant for their troubles.
Illegal terms cannot be stipulated in a contract. If this were not the case, Microsoft could include in its EULA that if you violate the terms of service, Steve Ballmer will come to your house and kick you in the genitals until you die from it. After kicking your balls out of your mouth, Steve would be entirely free of liability because, hey, you clicked agree. Obviously, this would not be allowed. Taking this further, first sale is mandated by law, in the same manner that murder is. Thereby, a contract (or license agreement) that denies first sale would be invalid, regardless of whether or not you agree with it.
Well that would certainly be a good thing -- the polygraph (it is not a lie detector -- it is a stress detector at best) is a crude interrogation tool and we would be better off without it. All it does is measure nervousness, which is very easy to game. Someone being sat down in a room strapped up to this machine are going to be nervous enough as it is, and will only be even more nervous if you start asking them intense questions. Conversely, it is trivial for a skilled liar to stay cool under pressure and beat the polygraph with ease.
It is still useful to test to see if the same response happens in a different situation. This further establishes the manner in which our brain responds to different stimuli, and again shows that our brain has a degree of difficulty in determining the difference between things actually happening in the real world, and bits of colored light on a screen.
Call it useless all you want, but science thrives on testing every possible angle so as to extract the maximum amount of truth from reality. There have been numerous times in science where things differed greatly from the expectation -- the double slit experiment is a great example of this.
It would have been extremely easy to say that particles behave as waves, end of story, and that obviously our observations will have no impact on it. When we decided to observe the particles as they passed through the slits, however, we discovered that they behaved as point particles again.
Que? Guitar requires effort and skill to play. The fact that Sid Vicious would stand and pretend to play bass (often with the volume completely muted) is completely irrelevant to this fact... Sid was there for looks and may as well have been holding a dead sea bass. The Sex Pistols were posers anyway, they were created solely to sell merchandise (Seriously, look it up).
Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store and prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: that makes it THEIR device, not mine, and I don't want to play that game.
I would reword that statement to say: "Offering a store: GREAT idea. Carefully controlling what goes in this store: also a GREAT idea. Prohibiting any other means of getting apps onto the device: BULLSHIT."
If these companies are going to offer app stores it makes perfect sense for them to do extensive QA on the apps before allowing them in. In other words, the app store should be a gated community, so to speak, so that those who want to be able to get apps quickly and easily with the peace of mind of knowing that the software is safe should have a place to go (this also helps retards not get viruses and pollute the rest of the ecosystem). Making that app store the only place to get software, however, is retarded. These developers need to get off their collective high horse and realize that these smart phones are nothing more than little computers, and start treating them as such. Sell me a solid device with a solid O/S. That is all I want. I don't need you to hold my hand the whole way, and tell me what I can and cannot do with the piece of hardware that I own. I know I speak for a lot of other nerds in saying that I will not own one of these devices until they open things up a little bit.
I don't see any problem with companies requiring an individual approval for apps being sold through their app store -- if you want to sell your software through a specific venue then it is entirely reasonable that it will be thoroughly vetted before being allowed into the store. The problem comes when the developer prevents software from outside the app store from being installed -- that is just ridiculous nonsense. From what I hear, it seems to be much easier to install third party software on the Pre than the iPhone, but I have not really been following either too closely -- all the smartphones that have come out so far are WAAAY too locked down for me to ever even consider wanting one, which is exactly the opposite effect of what they were intending with all of this draconian bullshit.
This is definitely true -- this is the reason that I actually stayed and talked to the guy -- I figured that I might be able to talk some sense into him, but it was to no avail...
Seriously -- I work in IT because it is stable work, it's something I can stand doing, and I make enough scratch to get all my bills paid and live fairly comfortably. I was never aware of there being anything even resembling 'glory' associated with IT.
If you really want that receiver to bump I can upgrade the power amp to the ID-10-T model for you for the low, low price of $999.99.
This is all true, but they are also required by law to not lie. They can be as manipulative as they want, and stretch the truth to trick you into spending more than you need, but they are not allowed to lie.
FTA: "The netbooks comes [sic] with a slower processor, lesser memory, lesser hard drive, no optical drive and it would not be possible to have any software loaded on this netbook," he stated, once again playing hard and fast with the truth.
No, he is playing fast and loose with the truth.
The term fast and loose usually refers to a situation where the truth is being stretched and warped, such as the cell phone data plans where "Unlimited" actually means you can use it whenever you want, whereas most would assume that to mean you do not have a 5 GB bandwidth cap. Saying that it is not possible to load software onto a netbook is an outright, bold-faced lie.
A bit of a different field, but I know that whenever I am at Best Buy to pick up anything home theater related (I help out a lot of friends/relatives with HT setups) I will inevitably end up arguing with some moron trying to sell me a $140 Monster Cable so it will 'look better'. Being ignorant/a liar is one thing, but it is totally something else when they continue to argue with you about it. I have even, on one particular occasion, taken the time to explain to the clown how digital audio/video works and why purchasing the "better" cable is equivalent to lighting your money on fire, and had him still come back with, "Well, I'm sorry but you're wrong, this cable will make it look better." It is amazing to me that this sort of criminal fraud is tolerated -- these people get away with making provably false statements in order to separate people from their money and they don't see any consequences. The average person should be able to walk into a store and at least be confident that the person trying to sell them things will, at the very least, not blatantly lie, but this is not the case.
Yes and it would be nicer if they included a minimal O/S that can cook me breakfast and give me a handjob. You do realize that the whole point of these machines is to be as stripped down and inexpensive as possible, as well as being simple enough for children. Pining for something more robust is wishing the machine to be something other than what it is intended to be.
Holy shit, you are right. I think if they are going to be on top of the latest "scientific standards" it would behoove them to figure out the basics. Talk about running before you walk...