Funny, this was one of my first posts (ever, I mean, I don't collect fost prists, heh). I pointed out that life is really base 13, and I got a -1, Offtopic...
...but sadly, not today... *snif* we lost a very original and creative person today.
I bet still, though, that he would prefer that we laugh at his life's work rather than cry at the untimely end of it. He seems like that kind of guy. I expect he enjoyed himself and stayed amused at the absurdity of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
I forget the actual quote, but I'll never forget the cop who killed people and then agonized about it afterwards with his girlfriend...
Change brings uncertainty, uncertainty fear. Those in power fear a new way of doing business. I was once an advocate for a radical revolution in the marketplace, and I actually thought that the whole internet thing might do as a surrogate catalyst for that change. But those entrenched in the status quo are strong, and they resist the change. Besides, we cannot all gain consensus on what is good change. I might prefer a world without cars in which we stay at home and work miracles from our bedside terminals and then go take herbal baths in mountain rivers just outside of our verdant dwellings; a world where there are no roads; a world where information is free and the government truly is not a part of our everyday life, but a servant to man and not his jailer.
But that vision threatens the current economic model. In any case, hackers work way too many hours for me to want that vision of the future, because it involves us being enslaved by our machines. Don't get me wrong, I love hackers, who work tirelessly in their unceasing efforts to improve the world one app at a time. But we as a people, as a global village have not yet arrived at a consenual vision of what the future will bring.
But corporations do not see such a humanist vision as useful. Ever thirsting for instant profitability, they only see what is in their immediate best interests, this to the detriment of a truly long view. There is no better example of what is wrong with corporations and capitalist greed than, um, US Steel, no, wait, Standard Oil, um, no wait, it was on the tip of my tongue...
Until people with vision have some sort of advocate in a position of power (either the government, the church, or corporations - no wait, strike that last one), then visions will never rise above the next quarterly statement, and no True Utopia can form, even as it is almost now within our reach. It's kind of like Talk Show Hosts; do you think they ever Really mean to resolve anything, to arrive at any kind of consensus? No, because then people would stop calling in. Because they would be happy. Picture it: a world without Talk Show Hosts and Lawyers. That's what I'm talkin about!!! Kumbay-yah, babeeee!
Oh, man, is that ever true! In the late 80's, the Air Force (and perhaps DoD in general) decreed that all delivered documents were to be in WP format and we the engineers had to learn it as our first word processor. I can still remember "F7 Y Y" as the way to get out of a document, and then there were the little dots you had to put on the CTRL, ALT, and Shift keys, and the F-key template that had Identical commands in multiple places. I, in fact, was one of the ones who swore at it.
But to this day I hear sec'ys bemoaning the lack of er, 'reveal codes' for instance... yes, they may subconsciously deploring their loss of power.
But you wanna know what I Praised, and what hasn't to this day been rivalled? MacWord and MacDraw, the most obviously wonderful feature of which was the fact that Cut and Paste were the Same commands in both programs! Flower-C/Flower-V!
And although MacWord was swallowed up whole and belched out as MS Word, noone to this date has created a graphics program with near the usability and functionality of MacDraw. PP doesn't even come close.
About your comment on future trends... isn't it a completely different playing field today? I mean, MS is spreading their propaganda thick. But I do wholeheartedly agree about us not being able to see the forest for the trees, or as I like to say "does the fish know if it's wet?" The person who can read those tea-leaves is a true prophet, but individuals and small groups can of course create their own micro-cosmic universe...
It would seem that they are supporting techies who are in their camp, and seeking to provide a single career route for the average programmer: the MS way, where people can't rip off your stuff like the GPL lets you do. It would appear that they are investing in brainwashing techniques, where, if you repeat something long enough (GPL == Open Source == hackers == that evil guy who stole all those passwords) it becomes true.
Funny how the author of the article talks about how calm and reasoned spokespeople appear and yet there was no voice more shrill than Gates before the DoJ. In any event, I suspect that in the business world the average CEO doesn't avail himself of the choices before him. Maybe they remember having spent a bundle on Lotus and WordPerfect, and even though the secretaries swore by WP as a better product (not so sure Excel, the one app worth a damn, is worse than Lotus per se), they were forced to switch to the Word standard in oh, 1990 or so, as all their peers were perceived to have made that the standard.
In my business, engineers are free to establish their own platforms. But Windows and Office are offered as standard; you have to 'purchase' Red Hat. Hell, one guy still uses WordStar in OS2. But even he has buckled under the weight of all those PowerPoint attachments, and so he has learned to use alternative boot schemes.
But I digress. I believe that some of the best programming minds have settled on Linux/Unix, but whereas you have a bunch of tinkering programmers on one side of the fence playing with code to add features and constantly improve performance, on the other side you have a corporate Giant dedicated to the development of products that are targeted at each and every application niche in the business world, with a cadre of trained professionals hawking their product and publicly electrocuting elephants (so what was that time the BSOD showed up in a trade conference? Edison electrocuting himself with a battery?), spreading FUD.
I actually Do think it's time for Linux programmers to put on a tie for once, because, like it or not, it's about politics, it's about marketing, and it's about propaganda. And those dishes are best served with garnishes on the side; the businessman is used to being catered to, not lectured.
I called one a few years back and I could hear a teeny tiny pissed-off voice coming out of my modem speaker (after the dial tone and ring) saying "Hello? (shit) The BBS is gone, man! Hang up! "
To add to the list...
(909) area code The Enchanted Forest and The Keep.
I bet you are one of those people who think greed is also a virtue.
The ills and excesses of capitalism are well-documented and are hardly disputable. See Karl Marx, and as you point your reactionary finger at me screaming Commie! at the top of your lungs, recall that it is the excesses of capitalism that brought about the perceived need for communism.
Your arguments for capitalism fall faster than a lady garment worker on a hot New York sidewalk. My suggestion that capitalists have exploitive tendencies should not be denied by anyone.
As far as control of the schools, I opine that grants are conditional now, and that funding is mostly for a curricula in the corporate interest. Sorry, I dont have enough interest to go look that up, but I do believe it. And yes, I think that schools are a training ground for net slaves, and the liberal arts portion of a pupil's education is regarded as a time-wasting nuisance.
I'm not whining man... but I would think that at least some day we can realize more of the fruits of our labor and stop serving the machines and CEO's and start serving ourselves. Otherwise, what is my incentive to work other than to keep from being homeless? Yes, I would prefer a 20-hour workweek even if it would mean 30 percent less profit for the Man. Like I said, if you want to maintain the unenlightened work ethic of the 30's go ahead. I don't. Back then it might have been a consideration since it got us out of the Depression, but is it really necessary now?
Thoreau was right, a man can support his needs with eight hours of work a week. I guess the other 32 support someone else's needs (okay, I admit that maybe 20 of those support man's wants, but that still leaves a bunch that support only the profit-maker).
I have formed a value system that actually considers the impact on the quality of life and tries to balance it with the need to become a multi-millionaire by 30. It's hard to maintain these values in the face of dotcommers speeding by me on the freeway in their jags with bleach-blonde babes at their side, but I figure it all balances out in the karmic universe. I get to drive my Yugo home every night. The prevailing attitude of engineers around here that we are expected to put in our 42 hours (in fact, we were told that it is expected of us - hey, I only signed up for 40) each week, and it's some sort of badge of honor to say that you have already put in 60 hours by Wednesday infuriates me, frankly. What sort of mass self-hypnosis have you bought into? What a stupid, unenlightened, lemming mentality! Now, I have never said that you shouldn't be allowed to work however long you want, and I have been known to stay until 1am if I am enjoying myself (I love debugging my code, go figure), but this work ethic only serves the corporation, and not the individual.
In my business we analyze rocket trajectories. I asked my boss the other night, over beers after softball "How many trajectories could you analyze in a workday, twenty years ago?" He told me "We used to be able to do 3 kilofeet in a day (about 1/30th of a flight)!" So I told him "Well, I can do 200 trajectories in an hour, can I have the rest of the week off now?" hah, hah, hah...
Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.
So, please don't brag at how many hours you unwillingly have to slave over your keyboard. All I can think of is "what an idiot."
As a final note, I can only attribute this to the ills of capitalism that we should all understand by now. Remind yourself that the capitalists now have control of the schools, and that they are training you to be net slaves. If you don't fight the power today ("I'm a human being!" versus "If you don't work 80 hours, we'll find someone who will."), you have only yourself to blame, guys.
I have formed a value system that actually considers the impact on the quality of life and tries to balance it with the need to become a multi-millionaire by 30. It's hard to maintain these values in the face of dotcommers speeding by me on the freeway in their jags with bleach-blonde babes at their side, but I figure it all balances out in the karmic universe. I get to drive my Yugo home every night. The prevailing attitude of engineers around here that we are expected to put in our 42 hours (in fact, we were told that it is expected of us - hey, I only signed up for 40) each week, and it's some sort of badge of honor to say that you have already put in 60 hours by Wednesday infuriates me, frankly. What sort of mass self-hypnosis have you bought into? What a stupid, unenlightened, lemming mentality! Now, I have never said that you shouldn't be allowed to work however long you want, and I have been known to stay until 1am if I am enjoying myself (I love debugging my code, go figure), but this work ethic only serves the corporation, and not the individual.
In my business we analyze rocket trajectories. I asked my boss the other night, over beers after softball "How many trajectorites could you analyze in a workday, twenty years ago?" He told me "We used to be able to do 3 kilofeet in a day (about 1/30th of a flight)!" So I told him "Well, I can do 200 trajectories in an hour, can I have the rest of the week off now?" hah, hah, hah...
Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.
So, please don't brag at how many hours you unwillingly have to slave over your keyboard. All I can think of is "what an idiot."
As a final note, I can only attribute this to the ills of capitalism that we should all understand by now. Remind yourself that the capitalists now have control of the schools, and that they are training you to be net slaves. If you don't fight the power today ("I'm a human being!" versus "If you don't work 80 hours, we'll find someone who will."), you have only yourself to blame, guys.
...that was really funny! Too bad it's too involved for the normal cow-worker to 'get', or I'd nominate it for RHF...
I was (um, seriously!) thinking about learning MS VB but, man, if it can't do that - specifying file names and saving them via a window was just what I Thought I could get with VB - I'm not sure.
But, ain't it the truth about help? I think that their True Mission in life is to make you never want to call them again, and resign yourself to re-booting 4-5 x a day. The problem is, is that they are creating, or at least propagating, a model of customer interaction (brilliantly pointed out in the piece, btw) that is picked up by other companies. I recall the time when my phone actually ran out of juice during the course of a frantic plea for assistance (about and hour and a half). Yah, the problem was actually solved when I was on the phone with CheapTickets.com (oooo, can I say that??), tring to get my plane ticket for the Next Day, when the AirEx truck finally pulls up. "um, I think the problem's solved, now..."
I think the writer of that old movie "The President's Analyst" was right in one instance:
I thought we were all soo close when George Mitchell was trying to help them negotiate. I am sure there can be a lot of justified finger-pointing between the sides as to how it broke down, but I can't help but think that there was a solution, and we blew it. *sigh*
I know the bombings continue, but wasn't there a moment when the IRA agreed to give up their guns and the Brits were going to allow Home Rule? I don't really know here, but I do know it's fairly important.
I know... you've got the wolf by the ears, so to speak, and I sympathize. Apparently the decades of highly educated politicians and academics (whom you trust so well) have missed what a six-year-old child understands...
Can you even imagine why you are getting the crap bombed out of you? Has your Parliament no hand in all this? Do you not see that you are reaping what you have sown?
Me, I think that if I open my case the magic pixie dust that runs my computer will fly out, and my bad hardware karma will ruin my machine, but hey, maybe you'll have better luck then I.
Funny, my comp at home doesn't work with the case on! I swear! I think it has to do with the CD-ROM player, since I also removed the screws from it.
When I put the screws back in my CD-ROM and/or put the case back on, I get all kinds of trouble, but without them everythings fine. I suspect something to do with heat...
I agree, US citizens are not free anymore, since about the 60's revolutions, possibly before then. You will notice that I don't defend Carnivore, and I agree that the cops in this country are way too powerful, but I think you miss my point. My question had to do with why the Brits put up with all that, and actually seem to rationalize it as a service to their government.
As far as your last sentence, feel free to be offended. I will admit I got a little hot under the collar while typing the post, but it was in reaction to the parent post which was a little condescending. I maintain that I am not wittingly a racist, and I also struggle to be non-hypocritical. But ad hominem attacks are weak arguments in any case.
Oh, no, please don't get me wrong. I am not arbitrarily anti-British, and I suspect that we would tend to agree more than disagree about this.
I actually respect the English for many of their accomplishments, and, who knows but that the trust the citizens put into their govt isn't something to be applauded for the most part. But no one should defend internal spying as a general principle; it is too dangerous.
Yes, I suspect that my perspective comes from being in a country that recognized some of the excesses of power, as wielded by the British over its colonists, as an evil.
I do not extrapolate from the TV license issue, I rather interpolate from Echelon. The article in question is broader in scope than that, and I am asking you if Echelon sits as well with you as CCTV and other invasions of privacy.
Is it true or not that simply not having a TV is tantamount to allowing the police to search your premises, a search warrant being a mere formality, as was suggested in the article, and does That sit well with you?
I understand that CCTV makes You feel better, but do you have any empathy for those for whom it is a source of harrassment, or do you believe that it is not used to spy on 'suspected' criminals before they commit a crime?
Orwell painted a picture of the Englishman as someone for whom party loyalty superseded love, even. Do you think there was perhaps a basis in fact for this? I understand that fifty years ago there was a war going on, but now that there is no war, I find less of a need for the abrogation of social contracts between the government and its people. But you remain loyal.
I only visited Manchester (and Cumberton / Sellafield, beautiful country, by the way) once, but I didn't see much evidence of cultural diversity in the streets of elsewhere, i.e., I saw 95% white people.
I contend that you would feel much safer if your Parliament conceded to some of the Irish demands for Home Rule; there was a glimmer of hope there for a time, but that seems to have died. I suspect that many in law enforcement use the 'Irish Problem' as a rationale for bigger and better weapons, spy gadgets, and techniques. I understand it's a big problem, but suggest that there are other approaches; ones that respect universal human dignity and rights.
I must ask you, since you are obviously an apologist for the TLA system, and by linear extrapolation, an apologist for Echelon, CCTV, the loss of the ability to protect the citizen from governmental intrusion into their privacy.
Why do you think these policies are good? Do you really believe - as I assume such a highly-homogenetic society must of needs become xenophobic to a degree - that people who are not exactly like you are (British) Should be watched carefully?
Because, as you know, your elected officials use this system to spy on their people for no reason at all other than they are not proper British citizens, i.e., if they are Irish they are members of the IRA, so they get spied on, if they are of Middle Eastern descent they may be terrorists so they will get spied upon, if they have long hair or go-go boots they are likely drug dealers and so they get the Big Eye.
Orwell was a Brit. I would prefer that you folks just lionize the hell out of him for what he was: a man who ushered in the glorious world of today with all its wonderful spy gadgets that keep Mum and Dad safe at night, rather than a prophet of Doom, which you all should have taken him for. You Brits act like you all prefer it that way. You talk about how you can trust your government, unlike us Yanks, but I contend that that is only because your government hasn't come after you like ours goes after minorities, or Abbie Hoffman, etc.... And that is because you are all one race, and no other reason.
Don't you see that you are to become un-free? Already you are not free to do what you like, because it will leave you exposed and vulnerable to the long arm of the Bobbie. Oh yeah, but you don't carry guns so you are better than us Yanks.
Please try to see what the general implications of all this internal spying are, and then, do write back, old chum, and tell me why it is that all this sits easily on your mind.
M$ is playing into the idea that only corporations matter, and that people will mindlessly serve them as long as shiny trinkets continue to be hung in front of their eyes.
I suppose it's okay. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea. It's like in the Lord of the Rings trilogy when Gandalf 'dies'. I remember when my (at the time) four-year-old daughter was watching the cartoon with us. After Gandalf, clearly one of the main protagonists of the book, fell into the pit of Moria battling the Balrog(?) she said, "How come we can't have that guy anymore?" But we all knew *winkwink* that he wasn't gone for good.
Maybe I've just seen this sort of thing too many times from Hollywood and it gets predictable to the point where I am numb. Don't get me wrong: the Idea behind Matrix is classic; I'm just not satisfied with the Hollywood treatment of it. I put it into the same category as that scene where Arnold Scwartzenegger throws his parachute out of the plane, dives after it and puts it on in mid-flight, and then deploys and parachutes safely down to earth.
In My Opinion, there should be difficult challenges for the super hero to overcome, serious ones. Of course, that's why there's Kryptonite, Red Kryptonite, and Yellow Kryptonite. And Superman gets Exposed to Green Kryptonite in issue #1234... but in #1235 he gets cured...
It gets so you can believe that your hero can do Anything and so Nothing becomes suspenseful. But it can be entertaining, just quasi-laughable. My Opinion.
...I don't want to arbitrarily offend true fans of the movie, but to me The Matrix was a good example of how Hollywood just has No Subtlety when it comes to handling Sci Fi. They seemed to just use it as a vehicle for their wacky CGI constructs of super aliens, more explosions, and darker-than-dark and mysterious 'Link Hayes' revival. I truly lost interest as soon as that chick ran down that hall, saw a window in the building across the street and jumped through the window in her building, across the street, and through that other one. As soon as I saw that, it immediately got tossed into the GMAFB ("give me a break") bin in my mind. The explanation - it's all a dream! - just reminded me of the Nightmare on Elm Street series: writers get all sorts of license when it's not real. People can die and be resurrected, can fly, dodge bullets, all sorts of crap. And the audience can get yoinked around until the concept of suspended disbelief becomes laughable.
I don't know, Hollywood just makes me feel used in general.
Well, I got about halfway down the page, there are about 400 posts, and so far there is not One post referring to what Rusty actually said. Um, this one included.
The difference between/. and K5... People are more responsible about what they post on K5. They seem more reluctant to crap in their own sandbox there. I think the biggest diff is that you can't post AC, and that limits the S/N ratio. Here it seems more about the ability to shout, coherence may or may not matter to a given poster.
But, of course, slashdot is still the place to be, isn't it? Or at least the place to be from.
I would have posted something About Rusty's piece - I didn't like it, I think the logical constructs were kind of sloppy - but I don't think it will matter now. No one will hear it...
I agree that there seems to be a market for the "Jerry Springer/Howard Stern/that sponge guy (wow!)" type stuff out there. It is the government's job to Reasonably protect the interests of all people, don't you agree? I would think we just disagree on what is reasonable, where we as a society draw the line. I draw the line on graphical depictions of sex and other excretory acts. I also draw the line on hanging the 10 Cmdts in the halls of the schools.
I have no religion. Gave that up years ago. What I think I already said is that I arrived at these ideas all on my own, starting with a few basic Truths (Axioms, but you can disagree with them): 1) there is a God (I had a Near Death Experience that toatlly convinced me of that); 2) trillions (+/-) of people have held these beliefs for thousands of years. When I asked the question "why do these ideas seem universal to humankind?", I arrived at the answer "because they work". The reasons why they seem to work are partly outlined in my above testament.
Do you really think that anarchy represents a Free Society? I'm afraid a whole truckload of civil rights would be violated in a society that calls itself free because it has no rules about such matters.
Your last sentence is all true (well, except for the sexual assault part), but what does that have to do with pornography on the airwaves?
I agree, Chris, there are other arenas to clean up: violence, corruption, drug glorification (or for that matter the condemnation and character assassination of an entire class of people who use drugs responsibly), etc etc etc, but I wasn't particularly talking about that. You say that for us to vilify shock jocks for the sex talk is disingenuous because we allow graphic depictions of violence on the airwaves. I'm sorry, but I don't 'see' much violence on radio. Anyway, let me hammer home the point I was making once more:
Raise children to understand that there is a Right and a Wrong wrspt relationships and that sex is ideally part of a relationship, teach them about sex, and then allow that in this society they will learn all the imporatant techniques of fellatio and cunningulus (hey, there are fine fine books and web pages that are really informative!), but put things in order. I can't really listen to KCAL FM with my kids in the car anymore.
Don't take yer son to the whorehouse to celebrate his 18th birthday. That's all I'm sayin here. A little common sense.
So, what's your point? Did you read the FCC report? Do you think I'm a blue nose? I'm not. The Bonny Black Hare is a far, far cry from what is on the airwaves. I am not against ribaldry, it has it's place, even in public if done tastefully. I don't think that public displays of graphic sexual acts is conducive to a healthy society. I have a very deep understanding of what a human being is, and I understand sex for the sake of sex. But I don't think it should be to the exclusion of all else.
Ya know, in America we are caught in this condition imposed on us by the Puritan ethics that founded this country. The suppression of all suggestion of sex has made it all the more alluring because - as Howard Stern says - "Oooohhh, it's TABOO!" and that makes it all the more titillating. There are those who would overthrow the yoke of sexual repression violently, with graphical depictions, in a 'come and stop me, I dare you' manner. How bold and refreshing! It had it's day, believe me, but I believe that cause has been co-opted by shock jocks and such. These people no longer have any cause greater than the greed for money, and so the message got lost. All they Really do is provoke the Moral Right into greater opposition and fear, further polarizing the debate and giving them more zeal and ammunition for their cause. I wouldn't mind the occasional bare breast on TV, as it is often done in Europe. No big deal. But what is the deal with this graphic depiction of oral, anal, and animal sex? I know it gets ratings.
What qualifies me to make suggestions is the fact that I live in this place just like you. I don't want a place where all suggestions are discounted just because someone doesn't want to hear them. I attempted to show a rationale for not having that stuff on the air. You can disagree with my reasoning, but ad hominem attacks fail to sway me in any case.
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Funny, this was one of my first posts (ever, I mean, I don't collect fost prists, heh). I pointed out that life is really base 13, and I got a -1, Offtopic...
...but sadly, not today... *snif* we lost a very original and creative person today.
I bet still, though, that he would prefer that we laugh at his life's work rather than cry at the untimely end of it. He seems like that kind of guy. I expect he enjoyed himself and stayed amused at the absurdity of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
I forget the actual quote, but I'll never forget the cop who killed people and then agonized about it afterwards with his girlfriend...
{rant and ramble alert}
Change brings uncertainty, uncertainty fear. Those in power fear a new way of doing business. I was once an advocate for a radical revolution in the marketplace, and I actually thought that the whole internet thing might do as a surrogate catalyst for that change. But those entrenched in the status quo are strong, and they resist the change. Besides, we cannot all gain consensus on what is good change. I might prefer a world without cars in which we stay at home and work miracles from our bedside terminals and then go take herbal baths in mountain rivers just outside of our verdant dwellings; a world where there are no roads; a world where information is free and the government truly is not a part of our everyday life, but a servant to man and not his jailer.
But that vision threatens the current economic model. In any case, hackers work way too many hours for me to want that vision of the future, because it involves us being enslaved by our machines. Don't get me wrong, I love hackers, who work tirelessly in their unceasing efforts to improve the world one app at a time. But we as a people, as a global village have not yet arrived at a consenual vision of what the future will bring.
But corporations do not see such a humanist vision as useful. Ever thirsting for instant profitability, they only see what is in their immediate best interests, this to the detriment of a truly long view. There is no better example of what is wrong with corporations and capitalist greed than, um, US Steel, no, wait, Standard Oil, um, no wait, it was on the tip of my tongue...
Until people with vision have some sort of advocate in a position of power (either the government, the church, or corporations - no wait, strike that last one), then visions will never rise above the next quarterly statement, and no True Utopia can form, even as it is almost now within our reach. It's kind of like Talk Show Hosts; do you think they ever Really mean to resolve anything, to arrive at any kind of consensus? No, because then people would stop calling in. Because they would be happy. Picture it: a world without Talk Show Hosts and Lawyers. That's what I'm talkin about!!! Kumbay-yah, babeeee!
Oh, man, is that ever true! In the late 80's, the Air Force (and perhaps DoD in general) decreed that all delivered documents were to be in WP format and we the engineers had to learn it as our first word processor. I can still remember "F7 Y Y" as the way to get out of a document, and then there were the little dots you had to put on the CTRL, ALT, and Shift keys, and the F-key template that had Identical commands in multiple places. I, in fact, was one of the ones who swore at it.
But to this day I hear sec'ys bemoaning the lack of er, 'reveal codes' for instance... yes, they may subconsciously deploring their loss of power.
But you wanna know what I Praised, and what hasn't to this day been rivalled? MacWord and MacDraw, the most obviously wonderful feature of which was the fact that Cut and Paste were the Same commands in both programs! Flower-C/Flower-V!
And although MacWord was swallowed up whole and belched out as MS Word, noone to this date has created a graphics program with near the usability and functionality of MacDraw. PP doesn't even come close.
About your comment on future trends... isn't it a completely different playing field today? I mean, MS is spreading their propaganda thick. But I do wholeheartedly agree about us not being able to see the forest for the trees, or as I like to say "does the fish know if it's wet?" The person who can read those tea-leaves is a true prophet, but individuals and small groups can of course create their own micro-cosmic universe...
It would seem that they are supporting techies who are in their camp, and seeking to provide a single career route for the average programmer: the MS way, where people can't rip off your stuff like the GPL lets you do. It would appear that they are investing in brainwashing techniques, where, if you repeat something long enough (GPL == Open Source == hackers == that evil guy who stole all those passwords) it becomes true.
Funny how the author of the article talks about how calm and reasoned spokespeople appear and yet there was no voice more shrill than Gates before the DoJ. In any event, I suspect that in the business world the average CEO doesn't avail himself of the choices before him. Maybe they remember having spent a bundle on Lotus and WordPerfect, and even though the secretaries swore by WP as a better product (not so sure Excel, the one app worth a damn, is worse than Lotus per se), they were forced to switch to the Word standard in oh, 1990 or so, as all their peers were perceived to have made that the standard.
In my business, engineers are free to establish their own platforms. But Windows and Office are offered as standard; you have to 'purchase' Red Hat. Hell, one guy still uses WordStar in OS2. But even he has buckled under the weight of all those PowerPoint attachments, and so he has learned to use alternative boot schemes.
But I digress. I believe that some of the best programming minds have settled on Linux/Unix, but whereas you have a bunch of tinkering programmers on one side of the fence playing with code to add features and constantly improve performance, on the other side you have a corporate Giant dedicated to the development of products that are targeted at each and every application niche in the business world, with a cadre of trained professionals hawking their product and publicly electrocuting elephants (so what was that time the BSOD showed up in a trade conference? Edison electrocuting himself with a battery?), spreading FUD.
I actually Do think it's time for Linux programmers to put on a tie for once, because, like it or not, it's about politics, it's about marketing, and it's about propaganda. And those dishes are best served with garnishes on the side; the businessman is used to being catered to, not lectured.
I called one a few years back and I could hear a teeny tiny pissed-off voice coming out of my modem speaker (after the dial tone and ring) saying "Hello? (shit) The BBS is gone, man! Hang up! "
To add to the list...
(909) area code The Enchanted Forest and The Keep.
I miss Flash Attack, BTW...
I bet you are one of those people who think greed is also a virtue.
The ills and excesses of capitalism are well-documented and are hardly disputable. See Karl Marx, and as you point your reactionary finger at me screaming Commie! at the top of your lungs, recall that it is the excesses of capitalism that brought about the perceived need for communism.
Your arguments for capitalism fall faster than a lady garment worker on a hot New York sidewalk. My suggestion that capitalists have exploitive tendencies should not be denied by anyone.
As far as control of the schools, I opine that grants are conditional now, and that funding is mostly for a curricula in the corporate interest. Sorry, I dont have enough interest to go look that up, but I do believe it. And yes, I think that schools are a training ground for net slaves, and the liberal arts portion of a pupil's education is regarded as a time-wasting nuisance.
I'm not whining man... but I would think that at least some day we can realize more of the fruits of our labor and stop serving the machines and CEO's and start serving ourselves. Otherwise, what is my incentive to work other than to keep from being homeless? Yes, I would prefer a 20-hour workweek even if it would mean 30 percent less profit for the Man. Like I said, if you want to maintain the unenlightened work ethic of the 30's go ahead. I don't. Back then it might have been a consideration since it got us out of the Depression, but is it really necessary now?
Thoreau was right, a man can support his needs with eight hours of work a week. I guess the other 32 support someone else's needs (okay, I admit that maybe 20 of those support man's wants, but that still leaves a bunch that support only the profit-maker).
I have formed a value system that actually considers the impact on the quality of life and tries to balance it with the need to become a multi-millionaire by 30. It's hard to maintain these values in the face of dotcommers speeding by me on the freeway in their jags with bleach-blonde babes at their side, but I figure it all balances out in the karmic universe. I get to drive my Yugo home every night. The prevailing attitude of engineers around here that we are expected to put in our 42 hours (in fact, we were told that it is expected of us - hey, I only signed up for 40) each week, and it's some sort of badge of honor to say that you have already put in 60 hours by Wednesday infuriates me, frankly. What sort of mass self-hypnosis have you bought into? What a stupid, unenlightened, lemming mentality! Now, I have never said that you shouldn't be allowed to work however long you want, and I have been known to stay until 1am if I am enjoying myself (I love debugging my code, go figure), but this work ethic only serves the corporation, and not the individual.
In my business we analyze rocket trajectories. I asked my boss the other night, over beers after softball "How many trajectories could you analyze in a workday, twenty years ago?" He told me "We used to be able to do 3 kilofeet in a day (about 1/30th of a flight)!" So I told him "Well, I can do 200 trajectories in an hour, can I have the rest of the week off now?" hah, hah, hah...
Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.
So, please don't brag at how many hours you unwillingly have to slave over your keyboard. All I can think of is "what an idiot."
As a final note, I can only attribute this to the ills of capitalism that we should all understand by now. Remind yourself that the capitalists now have control of the schools, and that they are training you to be net slaves. If you don't fight the power today ("I'm a human being!" versus "If you don't work 80 hours, we'll find someone who will."), you have only yourself to blame, guys.
I have formed a value system that actually considers the impact on the quality of life and tries to balance it with the need to become a multi-millionaire by 30. It's hard to maintain these values in the face of dotcommers speeding by me on the freeway in their jags with bleach-blonde babes at their side, but I figure it all balances out in the karmic universe. I get to drive my Yugo home every night. The prevailing attitude of engineers around here that we are expected to put in our 42 hours (in fact, we were told that it is expected of us - hey, I only signed up for 40) each week, and it's some sort of badge of honor to say that you have already put in 60 hours by Wednesday infuriates me, frankly. What sort of mass self-hypnosis have you bought into? What a stupid, unenlightened, lemming mentality! Now, I have never said that you shouldn't be allowed to work however long you want, and I have been known to stay until 1am if I am enjoying myself (I love debugging my code, go figure), but this work ethic only serves the corporation, and not the individual.
In my business we analyze rocket trajectories. I asked my boss the other night, over beers after softball "How many trajectorites could you analyze in a workday, twenty years ago?" He told me "We used to be able to do 3 kilofeet in a day (about 1/30th of a flight)!" So I told him "Well, I can do 200 trajectories in an hour, can I have the rest of the week off now?" hah, hah, hah...
Seriously, though, I often marvel at the thought that all this automation, which presumably was supposed to free us all, has actually enslaved us, as we serve the machines we create, day in and day out.
So, please don't brag at how many hours you unwillingly have to slave over your keyboard. All I can think of is "what an idiot."
As a final note, I can only attribute this to the ills of capitalism that we should all understand by now. Remind yourself that the capitalists now have control of the schools, and that they are training you to be net slaves. If you don't fight the power today ("I'm a human being!" versus "If you don't work 80 hours, we'll find someone who will."), you have only yourself to blame, guys.
...that was really funny! Too bad it's too involved for the normal cow-worker to 'get', or I'd nominate it for RHF...
I was (um, seriously!) thinking about learning MS VB but, man, if it can't do that - specifying file names and saving them via a window was just what I Thought I could get with VB - I'm not sure.
But, ain't it the truth about help? I think that their True Mission in life is to make you never want to call them again, and resign yourself to re-booting 4-5 x a day. The problem is, is that they are creating, or at least propagating, a model of customer interaction (brilliantly pointed out in the piece, btw) that is picked up by other companies. I recall the time when my phone actually ran out of juice during the course of a frantic plea for assistance (about and hour and a half). Yah, the problem was actually solved when I was on the phone with CheapTickets.com (oooo, can I say that??), tring to get my plane ticket for the Next Day, when the AirEx truck finally pulls up. "um, I think the problem's solved, now..."
I think the writer of that old movie "The President's Analyst" was right in one instance:
We should all get a phone installed in our head.
I thought we were all soo close when George Mitchell was trying to help them negotiate. I am sure there can be a lot of justified finger-pointing between the sides as to how it broke down, but I can't help but think that there was a solution, and we blew it. *sigh*
I know the bombings continue, but wasn't there a moment when the IRA agreed to give up their guns and the Brits were going to allow Home Rule? I don't really know here, but I do know it's fairly important.
I know... you've got the wolf by the ears, so to speak, and I sympathize. Apparently the decades of highly educated politicians and academics (whom you trust so well) have missed what a six-year-old child understands...
...it's wrong to steal.
Can you even imagine why you are getting the crap bombed out of you? Has your Parliament no hand in all this? Do you not see that you are reaping what you have sown?
Me, I think that if I open my case the magic pixie dust that runs my computer will fly out, and my bad hardware karma will ruin my machine, but hey, maybe you'll have better luck then I.
Funny, my comp at home doesn't work with the case on! I swear! I think it has to do with the CD-ROM player, since I also removed the screws from it.
When I put the screws back in my CD-ROM and/or put the case back on, I get all kinds of trouble, but without them everythings fine. I suspect something to do with heat...
I agree, US citizens are not free anymore, since about the 60's revolutions, possibly before then. You will notice that I don't defend Carnivore, and I agree that the cops in this country are way too powerful, but I think you miss my point. My question had to do with why the Brits put up with all that, and actually seem to rationalize it as a service to their government.
As far as your last sentence, feel free to be offended. I will admit I got a little hot under the collar while typing the post, but it was in reaction to the parent post which was a little condescending. I maintain that I am not wittingly a racist, and I also struggle to be non-hypocritical. But ad hominem attacks are weak arguments in any case.
Oh, no, please don't get me wrong. I am not arbitrarily anti-British, and I suspect that we would tend to agree more than disagree about this.
I actually respect the English for many of their accomplishments, and, who knows but that the trust the citizens put into their govt isn't something to be applauded for the most part. But no one should defend internal spying as a general principle; it is too dangerous.
Yes, I suspect that my perspective comes from being in a country that recognized some of the excesses of power, as wielded by the British over its colonists, as an evil.
I do not extrapolate from the TV license issue, I rather interpolate from Echelon. The article in question is broader in scope than that, and I am asking you if Echelon sits as well with you as CCTV and other invasions of privacy.
Is it true or not that simply not having a TV is tantamount to allowing the police to search your premises, a search warrant being a mere formality, as was suggested in the article, and does That sit well with you?
I understand that CCTV makes You feel better, but do you have any empathy for those for whom it is a source of harrassment, or do you believe that it is not used to spy on 'suspected' criminals before they commit a crime?
Orwell painted a picture of the Englishman as someone for whom party loyalty superseded love, even. Do you think there was perhaps a basis in fact for this? I understand that fifty years ago there was a war going on, but now that there is no war, I find less of a need for the abrogation of social contracts between the government and its people. But you remain loyal.
I only visited Manchester (and Cumberton / Sellafield, beautiful country, by the way) once, but I didn't see much evidence of cultural diversity in the streets of elsewhere, i.e., I saw 95% white people.
I contend that you would feel much safer if your Parliament conceded to some of the Irish demands for Home Rule; there was a glimmer of hope there for a time, but that seems to have died. I suspect that many in law enforcement use the 'Irish Problem' as a rationale for bigger and better weapons, spy gadgets, and techniques. I understand it's a big problem, but suggest that there are other approaches; ones that respect universal human dignity and rights.
I must ask you, since you are obviously an apologist for the TLA system, and by linear extrapolation, an apologist for Echelon, CCTV, the loss of the ability to protect the citizen from governmental intrusion into their privacy.
Why do you think these policies are good? Do you really believe - as I assume such a highly-homogenetic society must of needs become xenophobic to a degree - that people who are not exactly like you are (British) Should be watched carefully?
Because, as you know, your elected officials use this system to spy on their people for no reason at all other than they are not proper British citizens, i.e., if they are Irish they are members of the IRA, so they get spied on, if they are of Middle Eastern descent they may be terrorists so they will get spied upon, if they have long hair or go-go boots they are likely drug dealers and so they get the Big Eye.
Orwell was a Brit. I would prefer that you folks just lionize the hell out of him for what he was: a man who ushered in the glorious world of today with all its wonderful spy gadgets that keep Mum and Dad safe at night, rather than a prophet of Doom, which you all should have taken him for. You Brits act like you all prefer it that way. You talk about how you can trust your government, unlike us Yanks, but I contend that that is only because your government hasn't come after you like ours goes after minorities, or Abbie Hoffman, etc.... And that is because you are all one race, and no other reason.
Don't you see that you are to become un-free? Already you are not free to do what you like, because it will leave you exposed and vulnerable to the long arm of the Bobbie. Oh yeah, but you don't carry guns so you are better than us Yanks.
Please try to see what the general implications of all this internal spying are, and then, do write back, old chum, and tell me why it is that all this sits easily on your mind.
M$ is playing into the idea that only corporations matter, and that people will mindlessly serve them as long as shiny trinkets continue to be hung in front of their eyes.
Welcome to the Future.
I suppose it's okay. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea. It's like in the Lord of the Rings trilogy when Gandalf 'dies'. I remember when my (at the time) four-year-old daughter was watching the cartoon with us. After Gandalf, clearly one of the main protagonists of the book, fell into the pit of Moria battling the Balrog(?) she said, "How come we can't have that guy anymore?" But we all knew *winkwink* that he wasn't gone for good.
Maybe I've just seen this sort of thing too many times from Hollywood and it gets predictable to the point where I am numb. Don't get me wrong: the Idea behind Matrix is classic; I'm just not satisfied with the Hollywood treatment of it. I put it into the same category as that scene where Arnold Scwartzenegger throws his parachute out of the plane, dives after it and puts it on in mid-flight, and then deploys and parachutes safely down to earth.
In My Opinion, there should be difficult challenges for the super hero to overcome, serious ones. Of course, that's why there's Kryptonite, Red Kryptonite, and Yellow Kryptonite. And Superman gets Exposed to Green Kryptonite in issue #1234... but in #1235 he gets cured...
It gets so you can believe that your hero can do Anything and so Nothing becomes suspenseful. But it can be entertaining, just quasi-laughable. My Opinion.
...I don't want to arbitrarily offend true fans of the movie, but to me The Matrix was a good example of how Hollywood just has No Subtlety when it comes to handling Sci Fi. They seemed to just use it as a vehicle for their wacky CGI constructs of super aliens, more explosions, and darker-than-dark and mysterious 'Link Hayes' revival. I truly lost interest as soon as that chick ran down that hall, saw a window in the building across the street and jumped through the window in her building, across the street, and through that other one. As soon as I saw that, it immediately got tossed into the GMAFB ("give me a break") bin in my mind. The explanation - it's all a dream! - just reminded me of the Nightmare on Elm Street series: writers get all sorts of license when it's not real. People can die and be resurrected, can fly, dodge bullets, all sorts of crap. And the audience can get yoinked around until the concept of suspended disbelief becomes laughable.
I don't know, Hollywood just makes me feel used in general.
I can't wait for the 'bring back Clippy' campaign to start, swamping the media and further brainwashing all the toads.
Well, I got about halfway down the page, there are about 400 posts, and so far there is not One post referring to what Rusty actually said. Um, this one included.
/. and K5... People are more responsible about what they post on K5. They seem more reluctant to crap in their own sandbox there. I think the biggest diff is that you can't post AC, and that limits the S/N ratio. Here it seems more about the ability to shout, coherence may or may not matter to a given poster.
The difference between
But, of course, slashdot is still the place to be, isn't it? Or at least the place to be from.
I would have posted something About Rusty's piece - I didn't like it, I think the logical constructs were kind of sloppy - but I don't think it will matter now. No one will hear it...
Oh, you got me wrong! AC's posting ideas is fine.
I agree that there seems to be a market for the "Jerry Springer/Howard Stern/that sponge guy (wow!)" type stuff out there. It is the government's job to Reasonably protect the interests of all people, don't you agree? I would think we just disagree on what is reasonable, where we as a society draw the line. I draw the line on graphical depictions of sex and other excretory acts. I also draw the line on hanging the 10 Cmdts in the halls of the schools.
I have no religion. Gave that up years ago. What I think I already said is that I arrived at these ideas all on my own, starting with a few basic Truths (Axioms, but you can disagree with them): 1) there is a God (I had a Near Death Experience that toatlly convinced me of that); 2) trillions (+/-) of people have held these beliefs for thousands of years. When I asked the question "why do these ideas seem universal to humankind?", I arrived at the answer "because they work". The reasons why they seem to work are partly outlined in my above testament.
Do you really think that anarchy represents a Free Society? I'm afraid a whole truckload of civil rights would be violated in a society that calls itself free because it has no rules about such matters.
Your last sentence is all true (well, except for the sexual assault part), but what does that have to do with pornography on the airwaves?
I agree, Chris, there are other arenas to clean up: violence, corruption, drug glorification (or for that matter the condemnation and character assassination of an entire class of people who use drugs responsibly), etc etc etc, but I wasn't particularly talking about that. You say that for us to vilify shock jocks for the sex talk is disingenuous because we allow graphic depictions of violence on the airwaves. I'm sorry, but I don't 'see' much violence on radio. Anyway, let me hammer home the point I was making once more:
Raise children to understand that there is a Right and a Wrong wrspt relationships and that sex is ideally part of a relationship, teach them about sex, and then allow that in this society they will learn all the imporatant techniques of fellatio and cunningulus (hey, there are fine fine books and web pages that are really informative!), but put things in order. I can't really listen to KCAL FM with my kids in the car anymore.
Don't take yer son to the whorehouse to celebrate his 18th birthday. That's all I'm sayin here. A little common sense.
So, what's your point? Did you read the FCC report? Do you think I'm a blue nose? I'm not. The Bonny Black Hare is a far, far cry from what is on the airwaves. I am not against ribaldry, it has it's place, even in public if done tastefully. I don't think that public displays of graphic sexual acts is conducive to a healthy society. I have a very deep understanding of what a human being is, and I understand sex for the sake of sex. But I don't think it should be to the exclusion of all else.
Ya know, in America we are caught in this condition imposed on us by the Puritan ethics that founded this country. The suppression of all suggestion of sex has made it all the more alluring because - as Howard Stern says - "Oooohhh, it's TABOO!" and that makes it all the more titillating. There are those who would overthrow the yoke of sexual repression violently, with graphical depictions, in a 'come and stop me, I dare you' manner. How bold and refreshing! It had it's day, believe me, but I believe that cause has been co-opted by shock jocks and such. These people no longer have any cause greater than the greed for money, and so the message got lost. All they Really do is provoke the Moral Right into greater opposition and fear, further polarizing the debate and giving them more zeal and ammunition for their cause. I wouldn't mind the occasional bare breast on TV, as it is often done in Europe. No big deal. But what is the deal with this graphic depiction of oral, anal, and animal sex? I know it gets ratings.
What qualifies me to make suggestions is the fact that I live in this place just like you. I don't want a place where all suggestions are discounted just because someone doesn't want to hear them. I attempted to show a rationale for not having that stuff on the air. You can disagree with my reasoning, but ad hominem attacks fail to sway me in any case.