I don't see the problem with this
on
Virtual War
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· Score: 1
As my Drill Instructor told us, "The idea is not to die for your country, but to make your enemy die for his".
Any technology that keeps friendly troops out of the battle field is good technology.
Although, if these weapons are as precise as they make them out to be, I don't see why enemy troops need to die either... just target the parties responsible. Of course, the US has a policy against assassination. Probably because the policymakers don't want reciprocation from enemy states.
I thought Lars' comments were pretty lucid and well researched, considering his admittedly weak knowledge of technology and the Internet. This interview really helped me to understand Metallica's viewpoint, and, judging from interviews I've read over the last ten years, it's pretty consistent with their ideology. They come off as the control freaks they've always proudly admitted to being, rather than the greedy corporation I'd feared they had become.
Two things: 1) I agree with Lars' statement that it this issue is about the scale, rather than the physical act of copying the CD. Making a tape for a friend is cool, disseminating it to everybody on the planet is wrong. I don't see the hypocrisy in this.
2) You grammar critics are idiots. These are not essay questions. It is a transcription of a phone interview. Have you ever actually *listened* to somebody talking? Grammar rules do not apply to speech. Read the Nixon tapes, or the transcription of any court session. Nobody sounds bright when their words are documented.
Funny that this topic came up the same time as the Big Ball Of Mud development model. Spoken languages typify the BBOM.
Non-native English speakers often complain about homonyms, the lack of properly descriptive pronouns, and the somewhat arbitrary spellings. EI? IE? What the hell difference does it make if it starts with "C" or sounds like "neighbor or way"?
I tried to learn French once, and was annoyed to find that pretty much every letter in the alphabet could be silent. And it all sounds like "Fweh! Fweh!" anyway.
Japanese is pretty cool in that the pronunciation is rigidly consistent, and even the contractions make sense. But the only consonant you can end a word with is 'n', and writing it is horrific - you got something like 9000 Kanji pictographs, a set of Hiragana for words not expressed by Kanji, and a set of Katakana for borrowed foreign words.
So, here are my specs for a universal language:
No silent letters. Ever.
One pronunciation per letter. If we need more vowels, create a new symbol.
All characters will be composed of straight lines or circles. No hooks, squiggleys, doodles or umlauts. Refer to #2.
All characters must represent an sound that can be easily generated by mouth. None of that adenoidal French "un" stuff, and no goddam clicks!
A standard library of swear/slang words should be developed which have no similarity to any other existing words. gay, ass, pussy... these are all perfectly good words that have been ruined by negative connotations.
No formal recognition of euphemisms. Choose a word that specifically means something and then *keep* it, even if what it represents is undesirable. People who are now "Mobility impaired" don't walk any better than they did when they were "handicapped".
And for RMS, we need two separate and distinct words for free (as in beer) and free (as in speech)
Actually, being a syllabic language rather than letter-based like English, Japanese tends to stretch words out to extremes. Consider the burger joint "McDonald's", which in Japanese is MAKUDONARUDOSU. My favorite Japanese (Okinawan slang?) word happens to be "homi". This is a pejorative for the female genitalia, akin to "pussy". Brings a whole new meaning to "What up, homi?" heh-heh. My name, Cory, is pronounced the same as the Japanese word for ice, KOO RI. My tour of duty in '91 coincided with the not-quite-brief-enough career of Vanilla Ice, and thus we found ourselves one night drinking with a group of nationals, who started singing Koori, Koori, Baby!
Hey, remember when Dungeons & Dragons was making our children violent? How about heavy metal? Funny that nobody ever condemns the more popular expressions of antisocial behavior, like foo'ball. This is a classic example of chicken/egg logic. Which came first, video games or violent behavior?
As a Marine computer programmer (no, really!), I was charged with the thankless task of teaching other jarheads to use MSDOS. I pity the foo that has to teach these dogs how to use these things. I hope it at least displays pictures. First Star Wars, now Jedi's. How long until DoD contemplates building a Death Star?
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As my Drill Instructor told us, "The idea is not to die for your country, but to make your enemy die for his".
Any technology that keeps friendly troops out of the battle field is good technology.
Although, if these weapons are as precise as they make them out to be, I don't see why enemy troops need to die either... just target the parties responsible. Of course, the US has a policy against assassination. Probably because the policymakers don't want reciprocation from enemy states.
Who's technology did they steal to make it?
I thought Lars' comments were pretty lucid and well researched, considering his admittedly weak knowledge of technology and the Internet. This interview really helped me to understand Metallica's viewpoint, and, judging from interviews I've read over the last ten years, it's pretty consistent with their ideology. They come off as the control freaks they've always proudly admitted to being, rather than the greedy corporation I'd feared they had become.
Two things:
1) I agree with Lars' statement that it this issue is about the scale, rather than the physical act of copying the CD. Making a tape for a friend is cool, disseminating it to everybody on the planet is wrong. I don't see the hypocrisy in this.
2) You grammar critics are idiots. These are not essay questions. It is a transcription of a phone interview. Have you ever actually *listened* to somebody talking? Grammar rules do not apply to speech. Read the Nixon tapes, or the transcription of any court session. Nobody sounds bright when their words are documented.
Funny that this topic came up the same time as the Big Ball Of Mud development model. Spoken languages typify the BBOM.
Non-native English speakers often complain about homonyms, the lack of properly descriptive pronouns, and the somewhat arbitrary spellings. EI? IE? What the hell difference does it make if it starts with "C" or sounds like "neighbor or way"?
I tried to learn French once, and was annoyed to find that pretty much every letter in the alphabet could be silent. And it all sounds like "Fweh! Fweh!" anyway.
Japanese is pretty cool in that the pronunciation is rigidly consistent, and even the contractions make sense. But the only consonant you can end a word with is 'n', and writing it is horrific - you got something like 9000 Kanji pictographs, a set of Hiragana for words not expressed by Kanji, and a set of Katakana for borrowed foreign words.
So, here are my specs for a universal language:
No silent letters. Ever.
One pronunciation per letter. If we need more vowels, create a new symbol.
All characters will be composed of straight lines or circles. No hooks, squiggleys, doodles or umlauts. Refer to #2.
All characters must represent an sound that can be easily generated by mouth. None of that adenoidal French "un" stuff, and no goddam clicks!
A standard library of swear/slang words should be developed which have no similarity to any other existing words. gay, ass, pussy... these are all perfectly good words that have been ruined by negative connotations.
No formal recognition of euphemisms. Choose a word that specifically means something and then *keep* it, even if what it represents is undesirable. People who are now "Mobility impaired" don't walk any better than they did when they were "handicapped".
And for RMS, we need two separate and distinct words for free (as in beer) and free (as in speech)
Actually, being a syllabic language rather than letter-based like English, Japanese tends to stretch words out to extremes. Consider the burger joint "McDonald's", which in Japanese is MAKUDONARUDOSU. My favorite Japanese (Okinawan slang?) word happens to be "homi". This is a pejorative for the female genitalia, akin to "pussy". Brings a whole new meaning to "What up, homi?" heh-heh. My name, Cory, is pronounced the same as the Japanese word for ice, KOO RI. My tour of duty in '91 coincided with the not-quite-brief-enough career of Vanilla Ice, and thus we found ourselves one night drinking with a group of nationals, who started singing Koori, Koori, Baby!
Hey, remember when Dungeons & Dragons was making our children violent? How about heavy metal? Funny that nobody ever condemns the more popular expressions of antisocial behavior, like foo'ball. This is a classic example of chicken/egg logic. Which came first, video games or violent behavior?
As a Marine computer programmer (no, really!), I was charged with the thankless task of teaching other jarheads to use MSDOS. I pity the foo that has to teach these dogs how to use these things. I hope it at least displays pictures. First Star Wars, now Jedi's. How long until DoD contemplates building a Death Star?