It's a bit like "socialism" isn't a bad word around here. We do enjoy being protected from plummeting into the abyss, even if that means we have to pay more taxes.
Also something, taxes isn't considered a bad thing here either. Most people understand that that ain't money the treasury secretary eats for breakfast.
That works for the same reason you can get soldiers to shoot at someone in a war: This is the enemy. He has done something wrong to you or the people you should protect, so he deserves it.
What matters is whether it elicits an emotional response. Ok, Windows update and its knack for finding the WORST possible moment to force a shutdown usually does that, but that's not what I mean.
The PC running Windows is very obviously a "thing". It's not humanized in anyway, or, rather, you cannot see any agency in it. It has no motivation, no goal, it doesn't "want" anything. Our compassion responds to that, we respond to seeing that someone (or something, even) "wants" something (or, in case of something hurting it, does not want something).
That Windows PC doesn't care whether you shut it down. It tells you to not shut it off, but not because it doesn't want to "die", but simply for a logical reason: Shutting it off might compromise the update and could have a detrimental effect on the stability and integrity of the system. The decision to not shut it off is a logical one, not an emotional one.
Mmm... in this case, yes. But if the history of DRM in the more recent past is any indicator, the chance of having unwanted and potentially harmful software on your PC after installing a legit game is higher than from a copy...
Removing compassion takes some powerful conditioning. At the very least, a "us vs them" emotion has to be evoked to de-humanize a group of people. They have to become your enemy, not just the enemy of your state but your personal enemy so you can actually do things to them that you normally simply could not.
No. It's simple compassion. Compassion has nothing to do with reality or whether who we have compassion with is human or even real.
Take a cartoon. You see a line. That line is wiggling along on the ground, like a cartoony worm. Dragging up its back to form something like an inverted v, then flattening again. And suddenly, we see a circle roll by, quietly, majestic, a care-free, rolling circle. And now our line starts to lift its head and tail in a desperate attempt to become a circle, too. But it just doesn't succeed. And every now and then, we see another circle roll by. Our line keeps trying, harder and harder, its ends rising more and more with every attempt.
And I guarantee you: Everyone watching really, really wishes for that line to succeed in its effort to become a circle.
Despite there being no emotion on the end of the line. Even less than with the robot, that could at least in theory, somehow, maybe, at some point in time, possibly, eventually, have something that we could call a figment of a sliver of conscience. That line is a drawn image. That has no feelings. With absolute certainty.
But you cannot control compassion. Not possible. That's why movies work, even cartoons. At the time this part of us was formed in our brain, everything we saw WAS real and as social beings, having compassion for those around us that are part of our group is a survival trait that will propagate.
Whether something that begs us to not "kill" it is actually alive is meaningless in this context. Compassion is a trait you cannot control. Well, some people can. Or rather, they simply don't feel it. We call them sociopaths. Or C-Level managers, same thing.
Water is a way better thermal conductor than air (which is one of the worst). That's why you can survive (at least briefly) temperatures way below freezing and temperatures close to boiling, even though touching a, say, metal rod of the respective temperatures (say, -20 or +80) could cause instant damage to your skin.
You wouldn't want metal benches in a sauna either. For pretty much the same reason.
Well worth the trip. Word of warning, though, Fins tend to be VERY blunt and terse. They don't want to offend, they just have no patience for euphemisms, their language is complicated enough as it is.:)
Watch a few YouTube videos. Take you favorite conspiracy theory as the topic. Then come again and tell me that it should be taken as granted that anything that's completely insane can only be meant as a joke.
Your explanation that the US government has not taken control of this problem and issued a law that regulates the use and abuse of personal data was that it is a revolutionary field that requires longer time frames to be addressed. My response (or rather, response question) is that the EU has issued a legal guideline (effectively a law, but due to how the EU works it's to be implemented by the local governments, which did happen already, too) despite being comprised of 28 different nation states with diverging interests, a problem the US is not facing.
I never had the pleasure of a Japanese bath, but I did spend a time in Finland and grew to enjoy the sauna experience. The temperature is very negotiable and you should start with moderate temperatures, then, with time, you might want to increase that gradually. At first it is maybe a bit uncomfortable, but that quickly passes, provided you have someone who can ease you in and aid you with the dos and don'ts, there's more to it than just sweating, jumping into ice cold lakes and hitting yourself with twigs.
Then you either exaggerated your own sauna experience when he asked you, or you found the one Fin that would rather show off and make you feel miserable than accommodate you and make your sauna experience a pleasurable one.
Sauna should be an enjoyable event. It's supposed to relax you and be comfortable. The very last thing it should is to put undue stress on you, like, say, by being too hot. Yes, it's true that Fins like their sauna hot, for the same reason Thais like their food spicy: They're used to it. But they're not insensitive to the fact that most foreigners aren't.
Because it costs a metric ton of money to start a new ISP when you have to lay down cable as well. If you are allowed to at all, that depends on the local government, which curiously often thinks that one provider is enough and that they don't want many cables in their ground. The cynic in me would say that the campaign contributions of certain ISPs have something to do with it. You might have heard about communities that tried to establish a WiFi based alternative, only to have it shot down by the local government.
So, there's no need to get government involved. It already is.
Please let this be a joke, it's bad enough that the morons have flooded the rest of the internet, but/. was at least so far an island of sanity in the sea of unspeakable bullshit.
Yes, I said it. THIS is the island of sanity. Even in the state it's in today, it still is. The rest is even more bananas.
It's a convenience item. 60 bucks vs. tinkering and toying with emulators and roms 'til they work. Yes, that's part of the fun for some, for most it's just an inconvenient ordeal necessary to get to the fun. And if you spend more than 3 hours doing it, and if you have at least a halfway decent job, spending 60 bucks is actually cheaper for you since you could have worked those 3 hours and earned more than those 60 bucks if you don't get any joy out of tinkering with it anyway. Hell, depending on your job and how much you like it, you could get enjoyment out of working instead...
This is, by the way, also the reason people buy games instead of copying them. Copy protection, prosecution and whatever else you could field changes jack shit. Back in the days when I was poor, I copied games. Today, I buy them. Not because it's "the right thing to do" or some bullshit, but simply because I want to play the game and not toy with the game to make it work. Yes, that was fun when I was young (and I owe the skills I picked up back then that allows me to do my job today to copy protection, so... thank you, I guess?), but I don't have the time anymore. I want my stuff to work, preferably without having to jump a bunch of hoops first.
You see, the problem is that people don't tend to accept that. Before he's starving to death, someone would rather bash your head in for the 10 bucks in your wallet so he can eat again.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, from that angle it makes sense.
It's a bit like "socialism" isn't a bad word around here. We do enjoy being protected from plummeting into the abyss, even if that means we have to pay more taxes.
Also something, taxes isn't considered a bad thing here either. Most people understand that that ain't money the treasury secretary eats for breakfast.
We don't care about your facts, we feel it's different.
Hey, what do you know, I found the Fin, too!
That works for the same reason you can get soldiers to shoot at someone in a war: This is the enemy. He has done something wrong to you or the people you should protect, so he deserves it.
Without that narrative, wars don't work.
What matters is whether it elicits an emotional response. Ok, Windows update and its knack for finding the WORST possible moment to force a shutdown usually does that, but that's not what I mean.
The PC running Windows is very obviously a "thing". It's not humanized in anyway, or, rather, you cannot see any agency in it. It has no motivation, no goal, it doesn't "want" anything. Our compassion responds to that, we respond to seeing that someone (or something, even) "wants" something (or, in case of something hurting it, does not want something).
That Windows PC doesn't care whether you shut it down. It tells you to not shut it off, but not because it doesn't want to "die", but simply for a logical reason: Shutting it off might compromise the update and could have a detrimental effect on the stability and integrity of the system. The decision to not shut it off is a logical one, not an emotional one.
Mmm... in this case, yes. But if the history of DRM in the more recent past is any indicator, the chance of having unwanted and potentially harmful software on your PC after installing a legit game is higher than from a copy...
...provided you can still get those thousands of games...
And that setting up once already takes more time than I need to earn 60 bucks.
Removing compassion takes some powerful conditioning. At the very least, a "us vs them" emotion has to be evoked to de-humanize a group of people. They have to become your enemy, not just the enemy of your state but your personal enemy so you can actually do things to them that you normally simply could not.
No. It's simple compassion. Compassion has nothing to do with reality or whether who we have compassion with is human or even real.
Take a cartoon. You see a line. That line is wiggling along on the ground, like a cartoony worm. Dragging up its back to form something like an inverted v, then flattening again. And suddenly, we see a circle roll by, quietly, majestic, a care-free, rolling circle. And now our line starts to lift its head and tail in a desperate attempt to become a circle, too. But it just doesn't succeed. And every now and then, we see another circle roll by. Our line keeps trying, harder and harder, its ends rising more and more with every attempt.
And I guarantee you: Everyone watching really, really wishes for that line to succeed in its effort to become a circle.
Despite there being no emotion on the end of the line. Even less than with the robot, that could at least in theory, somehow, maybe, at some point in time, possibly, eventually, have something that we could call a figment of a sliver of conscience. That line is a drawn image. That has no feelings. With absolute certainty.
But you cannot control compassion. Not possible. That's why movies work, even cartoons. At the time this part of us was formed in our brain, everything we saw WAS real and as social beings, having compassion for those around us that are part of our group is a survival trait that will propagate.
Whether something that begs us to not "kill" it is actually alive is meaningless in this context. Compassion is a trait you cannot control. Well, some people can. Or rather, they simply don't feel it. We call them sociopaths. Or C-Level managers, same thing.
Water is a way better thermal conductor than air (which is one of the worst). That's why you can survive (at least briefly) temperatures way below freezing and temperatures close to boiling, even though touching a, say, metal rod of the respective temperatures (say, -20 or +80) could cause instant damage to your skin.
You wouldn't want metal benches in a sauna either. For pretty much the same reason.
Well worth the trip. Word of warning, though, Fins tend to be VERY blunt and terse. They don't want to offend, they just have no patience for euphemisms, their language is complicated enough as it is. :)
Watch a few YouTube videos. Take you favorite conspiracy theory as the topic. Then come again and tell me that it should be taken as granted that anything that's completely insane can only be meant as a joke.
Your explanation that the US government has not taken control of this problem and issued a law that regulates the use and abuse of personal data was that it is a revolutionary field that requires longer time frames to be addressed. My response (or rather, response question) is that the EU has issued a legal guideline (effectively a law, but due to how the EU works it's to be implemented by the local governments, which did happen already, too) despite being comprised of 28 different nation states with diverging interests, a problem the US is not facing.
It's Americans and their funny units at work again. He's talking about 40-80 degrees Celsius.
I never had the pleasure of a Japanese bath, but I did spend a time in Finland and grew to enjoy the sauna experience. The temperature is very negotiable and you should start with moderate temperatures, then, with time, you might want to increase that gradually. At first it is maybe a bit uncomfortable, but that quickly passes, provided you have someone who can ease you in and aid you with the dos and don'ts, there's more to it than just sweating, jumping into ice cold lakes and hitting yourself with twigs.
Then you either exaggerated your own sauna experience when he asked you, or you found the one Fin that would rather show off and make you feel miserable than accommodate you and make your sauna experience a pleasurable one.
Sauna should be an enjoyable event. It's supposed to relax you and be comfortable. The very last thing it should is to put undue stress on you, like, say, by being too hot. Yes, it's true that Fins like their sauna hot, for the same reason Thais like their food spicy: They're used to it. But they're not insensitive to the fact that most foreigners aren't.
Well, knowing BMWs, driving them usually is a sign that you want to appear rich, but probably never will be due to the cost of running that car...
And after all that, you're still fat and have a college degree that makes you unemployable.
Because it costs a metric ton of money to start a new ISP when you have to lay down cable as well. If you are allowed to at all, that depends on the local government, which curiously often thinks that one provider is enough and that they don't want many cables in their ground. The cynic in me would say that the campaign contributions of certain ISPs have something to do with it. You might have heard about communities that tried to establish a WiFi based alternative, only to have it shot down by the local government.
So, there's no need to get government involved. It already is.
But can you carry a gun in Finland? Or ... umm... well... I guess that's the one freedom left in the US, or did I miss something?
Please let this be a joke, it's bad enough that the morons have flooded the rest of the internet, but /. was at least so far an island of sanity in the sea of unspeakable bullshit.
Yes, I said it. THIS is the island of sanity. Even in the state it's in today, it still is. The rest is even more bananas.
A German comedian put it best: If you know who the enemy is, your day has structure.
This.
It's a convenience item. 60 bucks vs. tinkering and toying with emulators and roms 'til they work. Yes, that's part of the fun for some, for most it's just an inconvenient ordeal necessary to get to the fun. And if you spend more than 3 hours doing it, and if you have at least a halfway decent job, spending 60 bucks is actually cheaper for you since you could have worked those 3 hours and earned more than those 60 bucks if you don't get any joy out of tinkering with it anyway. Hell, depending on your job and how much you like it, you could get enjoyment out of working instead...
This is, by the way, also the reason people buy games instead of copying them. Copy protection, prosecution and whatever else you could field changes jack shit. Back in the days when I was poor, I copied games. Today, I buy them. Not because it's "the right thing to do" or some bullshit, but simply because I want to play the game and not toy with the game to make it work. Yes, that was fun when I was young (and I owe the skills I picked up back then that allows me to do my job today to copy protection, so... thank you, I guess?), but I don't have the time anymore. I want my stuff to work, preferably without having to jump a bunch of hoops first.
You see, the problem is that people don't tend to accept that. Before he's starving to death, someone would rather bash your head in for the 10 bucks in your wallet so he can eat again.
That's the main problem here.