WAY too expensive for the actual hardware. $400 USD for the low-end model? That's crazy.
A keyboard, LCD screen, standard electronics and no hard drive. . ?
It shouldn't cost more than $100. --And that's pushing it. And you can't comfortably read on the thing. (By comfortably, I mean, read while lying in bed.)
Other than the price, it's not a bad little design though. Still, I ended up getting a Psion 5 off Ebay for $75. Not the best design either, but good enough. And you can read it while lying down.
-FL
Re:Ugh. More morally ambiguous asshole characters.
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Primer
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· Score: 1
I must disagree with you, I thought the self-absorbed characters in waydowntown are a lot more realistic than most movies and thus their internal conflicts seem a more interesting to me.
Actually, I did think of one bad character who was fun to watch; --Daffy Duck. But I can't remember a time when he's not been cast in a way where the audience was meant to laugh at him and cheer when his arrogance sends him into yet another tailspin disaster.
It's when I am being asked to sympathize with a spineless, self-serving person that I gag.
If a character is stereotyped as a "good guy" you know they will eventually make the "right" decision... just another fairy tale, and how interesting is that for adults?
See. . , now that's interesting. Why is it that 'adults' cannot find people with moral integrity interesting? Why is it that non-self-serving people are considered fairy-tales?
I see a lot of self-serving fools walk around in everyday life. I don't find them interesting at all. They just piss me off and seem immature and very predictable. By contrast, I find people who seek to serve the world to be infinitely more fascinating and alluring as character concepts.
"Waydowntown" was actually one of the better examples, because the main character there did in fact learn from his errors and grow as a person; it seemed that he actually graduated into a morally aware and less selfish person. --Interestingly, "Waydowntown," of those four films I mentioned, was the least sickening to watch, exactly because there was some hope built into its structure.
The others were all without hope; integrity and non-selfish behavior was not presented or rewarded, (as they are in real life.)
The paradigm of the psychopath/selfish winning every time only works when massive control systems are in place preventing people from seeing what is really there, or from acting on what they see. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is wrong with today's society; such a massive control system is very much in place.
I find films where who's the "good guy" and who's the "bad guy" is unclear to generally be far better. Real life doesn't have good or bad guys, just guys doing whatever it is that they feel the need to do.
Speak for yourself.
Films where the protagonists are themselves "bad guys" are usually quite good as well. Any thief movie sort of falls into this category.
I suspect we're more or less on the same page, because I agree with this. Stereotypical 'good guys' usually aren't. I'm simply talking about people who are not factory set to, "self-serve".
"Office Space", as I said, was a film in which I consider the main character to be a 'good guy'. He wasn't a creep or a prick. He wasn't the sort of person where if I forgot my wallet at his house, I could expect to find cash missing, or who would hit on my girlfriend out of opportunity. --Or just generally use people. That's a good guy. Compare that to ALL of the characters in, "Being John Malkovich" --All of whom would sell you up the river given half a chance, not necessarily because they are evil, but because they are simply spineless and selfish.
I don't find those kinds of characters interesting at all. I see far too many examples of them creeping around in everyday life. I find such people to be predictable, boring and disgusting. I cannot relate to characters of that nature at all, nor do I want to, and yet that is exactly what the audience is being asked to do and when they are cast in starring roles.
-FL
Ugh. More morally ambiguous asshole characters.
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Primer
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The last few of low-budget, funky movies I've watched seemed to have this as a common element.
--I'm thinking of "Being John Malkovich", "Cube", "Memento" and that film shot in Edmonton about office workers living and working in a mall/office complex who bet they can stay indoors for 100 days, (and which I forget the name of.)
All very clever, but sheesh! Don't Good Guys get to be in funky films once in a while? Any film which makes me hate the main characters loses at least one and a half stars just because I can't stand assholes and creeps in real life. If a Bad Guy is in a film, then he'd better get punched, shot, blown up, or horribly embarrassed, and he'd most certainly better not be the main character!
Bad guys aren't any fun to watch. They make me feel ill, and that's not why I pay the price of admission.
"Office Space", had a Good Guy for a main character. I wonder if that had anything to do with its success.
This is a pretty obvious ploy, and it didn't even cross my mind until I saw it in action. Which, like any good magician's trick, makes it quite clever, (either that or merely demonstrates just how naive I can be.)
--Though, it can only really work if you're seriously snoozing while browsing; too many weird little quirks being off-kilter. (Pays to keep alert for those 'second cats' walking by!) --For instance. . . The first thing of several which went out the window immediately upon configuring my browser was that annoying, 'Google bar'. --My open source browser will not pay homage to a corporation which is selling IPO shares for over $100 each, and which has the power to destroy the world upon reaching step '2'. (That's what those question marks obscure in most cases, btw. --When everybody is dead, you get to keep all the money. Think about it! "Collect ten thousand computers and all the web addresses in existence," is hardly any less animated than, "Collect all the underpants.")
Funny thing is I just switched from Firebird, like two days ago, so as to play with the new toys. (Ted Mielczarek, who wrote, "Nuke Anything," emailed me about his latest update. Now you can wipe whole selections. Excel-lent!)
Anyway. . . I expect that when Firefox 1.0 finally arrives, this sort of silliness will be null and void. But until then, spoofed browser fronts are the sort of thing which makes being a computer geek fun and interesting!
--Until, that is, the five-hundredth attempt sneaks past your radar and makes your life hell; "Can I change all my passwords before the evil-hacker destroys me? Damn! He's almost certainly written a script which does it automatically! Argh! Shoot me now! Note to self; YOU ARE AN IDIOT. STOP. YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO LIVE. STOP. YOUR LEFT MOUSE BUTTON PRIVILAGES HAVE BEEN REVOKED FOREVER. FULL STOP."
Over a million people marched through the streets of London to protest against the invasion of Iraq, a couple of months before the offensive began. The population did recognize that they were being lied to, and took massive action based on that recognition. Which is more than you can say for the USA and its 'free speech' zones.
What did you do to stop the war?
Please forgive me. This was one of those instances where I hit, the send button and an instant later thought, "Hmm. I could have worded that differently."
The British have bombs going off in subways, several thousand police cameras installed on lamp posts, people's televisions really are on constantly, and it's the gas company which takes the prize?
Heck, the Brits have a psychopath for a Prime Minister, and their lads are shooting civilians over in the land of Oceana's "Enemy" because of a bunch of paper-thin lies the populace was too brain-dead to recognize.
Please. Big Brother was installed a long time ago. It's just that now the rent is coming due.
If people were really free, then why does everybody live like a bunch of slaves?
Interestingly, one can choose to do something other than be a slave at any time. Misery is a choice which nearly everybody embraces with abandon. Why?
It is true that this world is run by those who wish to see you enslaved, and who have devised a system where if you play by the rules, you lose.
But that doesn't mean you have to play by them.
There are lots of ways out. If you have locked yourself into a certain set of parameters which you feel are impossible to break, then you are probably chumped. But if you have a working brain, a back, two legs and a set of hands, then you can pretty much do whatever you want. I'm an example, and I know of many others who have worked out the puzzle and live their light comfortably and without fear. --Little known secret; the economy is so big and complex that long ago it became a matter of belief; the health of the economy is based entirely on what people believe. This is true whether everybody agrees or not.
Anyway, just ask yourself, "What do you want to do?" Pick the creative endeavor which fascinates you and takes the least effort; (and by effort, I'm not talking about elbow grease, which you'll need; I'm talking about the get-up-and-go factor. That which you are supposed to be doing in this life will drive you and not the other way around. Once you find it, everything will run smoothly.)
Once you settle down and figure out which way your internal loadstone is pointing, go out and follow it. Couldn't be simpler.
The universe will provide you with the means. I see it work like this every day. You have to have faith, and you have to recognize that opportunity isn't just knocking, it's pounding at the door. Don Juan called it the, 'cubic centimeter of opportunity'. True; being able to jump at the moment is important, but Don Juan was always a little too morbid for me; it's also true that there are lots of cubic centimeters flying around all the time. And slow-moving cubic meters, too. The trick is believing that you are worthy, which the instant you move to get involved in your path, you are.
Intent and Faith are two of the most powerful and misunderstood tools humanity has ever had access to. Part of the control system has been to fool all the nerds into believing that such things don't exist. Once that was achieved, people instantly became cattle.
Are you a man or a burger? Make up your mind, because whether you want to hear it or not, somebody is going to want fries with that. And they'll get them too if you don't wake up and get the heck off the grill.
Oh, and the clue you have that I'm not full of shit is that I'm not asking for $29.95
Regarding the, 'Voting Machine Scandals', this is I suspect, a case of mis-direction.
Consider. ..
It doesn't matter which of the two Skull and Boners gets put into office as the same agenda will be adhered to. Kerry is just as big a war supporter as Bush.
But if the 'Voting machine scandal' is defeated by the people and JFK (ugh) is put into office on the cheering shoulders of the masses, then the populace will likely settle down and be less apt to complain when the next Middle Eastern country is invaded, (or whatever).
Conversely, part of the technique of controlling people is for the people to accept the control. --That is, as a fascist overlord, (read, 'psychological bully'), it is important to let the curtain up enough so that the people can see the dark machinations, but make it look so difficult to fight that they choose instead to submit. With that submission comes a submission to all other abuses occurring at the same level of 'hotness.'
So the set-up is almost air tight; If you fight the voting machines, you get Kerry and more of the same bullshit, and are apt to go back to sleep believing that you, 'took care of things'. If however, you don't fight the machines, you instead submit to more of the same bullshit under Bush. In both cases, the result is a population which has been calmed and subdued either through submission or daydreaming, but which hasn't prevented one iota the march toward totalitarianism.
And THAT is how you control a nation.
Humans, when incited are very hard to keep locked down. They have two arms and two legs, and brains to make them move. If everybody, all at once decided to storm the halls of government and behead the criminals, there's not much which could stop them. And this is well understood by those who hold the tenuous threads of corrupt power. This is why everybody is drugged both chemically and electronically, locked into exhausting, soul-sucking jobs, and sold hundreds of self-defeating behavioral traits and lies from they day they are born. Sold the belief that they have no power.
But there is another way out which the controllers, blinded by their own selfish predisposition to wishful thinking, cannot see and which is taking power steadily and with geometric growth. . . What is it? Unless you know, you won't grasp it until it bites you on the nose. This decade is getting more interesting by the day!
The only way to sell lies on a regular basis is to tell a steady stream of 'truth', (or perhaps, that should be better put, 'stuff people have already been taught to accept as real'), and then bend it at key moments in ways advantageous to the controllers.
That, or leave out certain items. Creative editing.
In any case, with behavioral modification via television, it's not all about facts. It's just as much about flavors, biases and emotional manipulation. Television is far more powerful in selling non-overt lies than it is about the stuff it's actually talking about. Women shave their legs, why. . ? Look into how that started, how it developed and where it has led. All of it was very deliberate right from the get-go. Then consider what it has done to our world. --Just to mention one example of media control over human behavior.
In any case, re 'voting machine scandals', this is I suspect, a case of total mis-direction. It doesn't matter which of the two idiots gets put into office as the same agenda will be adhered to. Indeed, if the 'Voting machine scandal' is defeated and JFK (ugh) is put into office on the cheering shoulders of the masses, then the populace will likely settle down and be less apt to complain when the next Middle Eastern country is invaded, (or whatever). Conversely, part of controlling people is for them to accept the control. That is, as a fascist overlord, (or psychological bully) it is important to let the curtain up enough so that the people can see the dark machinations, but make it look so difficult to fight that they choose instead to submit. With that submission comes a submission to all other abuses occurring at the same level of 'hotness.' So the set-up is almost air tight; fight the voting machines, get Kerry and more of the same bullshit. Don't fight the machines, and submit to more of the same bullshit. And THAT is how you control a nation.
But beyond this. . , it's not about which problem is examined on television, or which news channel you watch. The fact of the matter is that when you step back, you see a couple hundred million Americans spending an hour or more every day staring at a flickering CRT with a zoned-out expression as the dark messages feed directly through any possible barriers and pour right into the core of their psyches.
And what is the message we should take from this state of affairs?
These clips will only be viewable at the comic show. Hence, almost nobody will ever see them, but the show will get great press and buzz.
I think the movies, good or bad, will be just movies. They'd have to be as amazing as Indiana Jones or Star Wars for me to prefer them over a solid television series, and with an ensemble cast of nine characters and Joss's skills all having been honed on long television story arcs? I'm not expecting the moon here. Firefly is not designed to work well in a movie theater. It's designed for slow development.
What I AM hoping for is that enough fuss will be kicked up and enough of a fan following generated through PR stunts like clips being shown at comic shows, that another shot at a television series will be granted.
On the other hand. ..
If Joss decides that he actually wants to make a great movie, then he's suddenly got this weird, round-about chance. What an interesting way to snag a shot at the big screen and a big screen budget! Not everybody, even well respected TV producers, are offered a chance to make a film every day!
If he totally re-thinks and re-works things, (that is, if he demonstrates adaptability, which he certainly has done in the past), then he could well put together something which could stand out brilliantly; something which could not have otherwise been done on a TV budget or a small screen.
After all. . . Including Darth Vader, Star Wars had eight central characters, and that film worked out okay. ..
90% of the populace are not computer geeks. My grandmother wouldn't know what a Mozilla is if it bit her. My office janitor prolly doesn't either. Most people don't follow computer stuff fanatically.
Labels like, "Computer Geek" are just labels. It's simply a matter of knowledge. Anybody can acquire the knowledge necessary to protect themselves. That's all it comes down to. It's a matter of free choice as to whether somebody seeks knowledge or does not.
I taught myself how to sew, make strawberry jam and roast a turkey. If your grandmother cares about using the internet, she would do well to learn about the people who want to attack her and how to avoid them. It's really not that hard.
I read an interesting study which demonstrated that people who actively use and push their brains are many times less likely to develop degenerative diseases of the nervous system such as Alzheimer's and similar.
No, of course you haven't. You haven't got the first idea what the hell you're talking about aside from some misinformed rubbish you've read in alt.ufos or in some twisted daily tabloid rag.
For somebody so ready to accuse another of not knowing what they are talking about, you're awfully quick to make groundless assumptions about the sources of my knowledge. Think about that for a second or two, and what it signifies. ..
In any case, there are many more sources of data walking around out there than just the internet and print publications. You clearly need to do some better research, because I can assure you that I am not the one filled with erroneous notions.
Claiming that they have done bad things in the past doesn't prove that they did this thing; you need actual hard evidence linking them to this.
You are right. Crying, "Obvious!" certainly doesn't 'prove' that a psy-ops group is involved with the proliferation of spam and virus static on the web. But then I also certainly don't need hard evidence to be 90% convinced of it being the case. To not take past behavior into account and then make projections based on it is to deliberately ignore critical data.
What you are suggesting is that there is NO manipulative attempt being made on the part of one of the MANY well-funded covert groups whose sole purpose is to shape social behavior and force political situations advantageous to their employers. If the internet, one of the only remaining conduits of free communication in the world, were not being targeted by these groups, then they'd be seriously slacking off at the switch!
People who use Internet Explorer have chosen to expose themselves to bullshit like this. Everybody knows there are more 'disease resistant' browsers out there.
The mere concept of a website being able to give a browser an infection speaks volumes about the quality of the browser.
There is no need for sympathy or complaining or whatever. --The simple fact is that for some reason, 90% of the population has chosen to learn life lessons by placing themselves within harm's way; by working within extremely faulty paradigms built and maintained by corrupt, very rich megalomaniacs who DO NOT have the public's best interest at heart and who have time and again been demonstrated to manipulate and create deliberately faulty situations for their own benefit. --And then the 90% complain and claim ignorance when the shit comes down even though all the signs were there, and people on the side-lines were waving their arms and shouting about the alternatives the whole time.
This pattern, when it exists in a person, is apt to replicate itself in all areas of a person's life. And like I said; there is no need for sympathy or even judgement. These are deliberate choices people make, (perhaps on the subconscious level), which enable them to learn certain valuable lessons in life.
When you finally get fed up with it and decide to change your paradigm, then you know you've graduated from that particular class.
Does anybody really think the CIA or another alphabet soup agency isn't behind this? --That they didn't plant some agents whose job it is to raise distrust so as to facilitate public acceptance of a tidy lock-down of everything, including the internet, at some not-so-distant future date?
Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot; "They just wouldn't DO something like that!"
I've not really looked at a Mac since OS X came out. Perhaps after a decade and a half, they've finally figured out how to make a system which is simple enough to appeal to non-techies while offering transparency and control to those who are comfortable enough to get under the hood.
You'd think it would have been easy for somebody to achieve this balance ages ago! (Ahem. *Amiga*).
Some excellent points. Product design theory is a rich and fascinating area of study. But, as with anything, the directions one chooses to take it in can be debated.
I cringe, for instance, at the idea of designing for the lowest common denominator.
It's like saying, "The more knowledge you acquire, the more frustrated you can expect to become with consumer hardware." --Things like only having auto-focus and auto-rewind on cameras drives me nuts. Not having direct access to key functions on a device and having to work through a slow-witted on-board computer which is rarely designed to do what I want done drives me barmy.
This is why I find Mac so infuriating; I KNOW I can do what I want if the machine would only give me access to the parts I need and twice as many options. The level of frustration created by 'user friendly' design is only made worse by the various cute pictures and noises (which seem more designed to humor children than to provide functionality), --and have them happily smile and squeak at me while they prevent me from getting the job done.
There's nothing wrong with having to learn complicated features on a device in order to use it. I don't consider it a high water-mark of society that lazy people should be rewarded with condescending design efforts. If this kind of design philosophy had been in force when keyboards were being invented, nobody would be able to type today. Humans can learn all kinds of amazing things if you just require it of them. (Mac would have a two button keyboard if it could. One for each hand.)
That being said, however, I do also realize that some people simply have no interest in learning about computers, and that to expect everybody to learn how to use them is not realistic at all. This is why there will always be a Mac market as well as a make-it-yourself PC market.
-FL
If it doesn't make you hurt and sweat. . .
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Is Math A Sport?
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· Score: 1
The Greeks were all about spear-throwing, running around real fast and beating the shit out of each other. War and physical prowess. The contests were devised to give an outlet and increase the popularity of this kind of thing.
Meanwhile, the generals can sit back and point, "That one. Put him on my team. He'll probably kill a few before going down himself."
Thinkers don't put themselves in the line of fire because they know how to THINK.
--I won't shoot anybody for you, I won't put up with ego-impaired men with mustaches ordering me about, I won't eat food filled with chemicals just because that's "How Things Are". And I certainly won't pay for Elvis tunes unless they come packaged in a Bruce Campbell film.
The authorities can tell me I have to, and they can put it into law, but I'll just smile and nod and then do the right thing when they've finished spouting off. Gives me no stress, life is less expensive, and it makes men with ego issues spin in circles and turn red in the face. Bonus!
-FL
Oh, God, I WANT to see Olympic Hide-n-Seek!
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Is Math A Sport?
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· Score: 1
Yep. Everything is normal and sane with the world.
It's just that Chess Players Liberation Front might be plotting to take out the Statue of Liberty.
It could happen. ..
She looks sort of like a big chess piece, right. . ?
-FL
"You have been lied to since birth. The thing they are terrified you might learn is that it is possible for everybody to be happy and well provided for without misery, fear or ignorance."
I'm not sure if you heard or not, but you're not supposed to actually breath through the bong.
"Breathe" is spelled with an "e" at the end. --Though, I'm guessing your superior knowledge regarding drug paraphernalia came at a price, and as such, you should probably be forgiven.
the fact that I think the Stargate franchise is weird and lame and shot through some sort of grey filter, I kind of want to see what they have in mind for this new show.
Atlantis. . ! I mean, wow! What seeds are being planted? How broken or correct will the message be? Fascinating!
It always amazes me how the Slashdot crowd can be so incredibly resistant to real knowledge and yet will salivate when you slap a bright 'fiction' label on an idea. Such nervous and delicate constitutions!
The subconscious drives one to be fascinated with certain subjects for certain reasons. I wonder what those reasons could be. . ?
The training wheels have to come off eventually, so you better start growing a thicker skin. The sooner the better, because shit is crashing through these days with ever-increasing frequency.
Slashdot Mirror
A keyboard, LCD screen, standard electronics and no hard drive. . ?
It shouldn't cost more than $100. --And that's pushing it. And you can't comfortably read on the thing. (By comfortably, I mean, read while lying in bed.)
Other than the price, it's not a bad little design though. Still, I ended up getting a Psion 5 off Ebay for $75. Not the best design either, but good enough. And you can read it while lying down.
-FL
Actually, I did think of one bad character who was fun to watch; --Daffy Duck. But I can't remember a time when he's not been cast in a way where the audience was meant to laugh at him and cheer when his arrogance sends him into yet another tailspin disaster.
It's when I am being asked to sympathize with a spineless, self-serving person that I gag.
If a character is stereotyped as a "good guy" you know they will eventually make the "right" decision... just another fairy tale, and how interesting is that for adults?
See. . , now that's interesting. Why is it that 'adults' cannot find people with moral integrity interesting? Why is it that non-self-serving people are considered fairy-tales?
I see a lot of self-serving fools walk around in everyday life. I don't find them interesting at all. They just piss me off and seem immature and very predictable. By contrast, I find people who seek to serve the world to be infinitely more fascinating and alluring as character concepts.
"Waydowntown" was actually one of the better examples, because the main character there did in fact learn from his errors and grow as a person; it seemed that he actually graduated into a morally aware and less selfish person. --Interestingly, "Waydowntown," of those four films I mentioned, was the least sickening to watch, exactly because there was some hope built into its structure.
The others were all without hope; integrity and non-selfish behavior was not presented or rewarded, (as they are in real life.)
The paradigm of the psychopath/selfish winning every time only works when massive control systems are in place preventing people from seeing what is really there, or from acting on what they see. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is wrong with today's society; such a massive control system is very much in place.
-FL
Speak for yourself.
Films where the protagonists are themselves "bad guys" are usually quite good as well. Any thief movie sort of falls into this category.
I suspect we're more or less on the same page, because I agree with this. Stereotypical 'good guys' usually aren't. I'm simply talking about people who are not factory set to, "self-serve".
"Office Space", as I said, was a film in which I consider the main character to be a 'good guy'. He wasn't a creep or a prick. He wasn't the sort of person where if I forgot my wallet at his house, I could expect to find cash missing, or who would hit on my girlfriend out of opportunity. --Or just generally use people. That's a good guy. Compare that to ALL of the characters in, "Being John Malkovich" --All of whom would sell you up the river given half a chance, not necessarily because they are evil, but because they are simply spineless and selfish.
I don't find those kinds of characters interesting at all. I see far too many examples of them creeping around in everyday life. I find such people to be predictable, boring and disgusting. I cannot relate to characters of that nature at all, nor do I want to, and yet that is exactly what the audience is being asked to do and when they are cast in starring roles.
-FL
--I'm thinking of "Being John Malkovich", "Cube", "Memento" and that film shot in Edmonton about office workers living and working in a mall/office complex who bet they can stay indoors for 100 days, (and which I forget the name of.)
All very clever, but sheesh! Don't Good Guys get to be in funky films once in a while? Any film which makes me hate the main characters loses at least one and a half stars just because I can't stand assholes and creeps in real life. If a Bad Guy is in a film, then he'd better get punched, shot, blown up, or horribly embarrassed, and he'd most certainly better not be the main character!
Bad guys aren't any fun to watch. They make me feel ill, and that's not why I pay the price of admission.
"Office Space", had a Good Guy for a main character. I wonder if that had anything to do with its success.
-FL
--Though, it can only really work if you're seriously snoozing while browsing; too many weird little quirks being off-kilter. (Pays to keep alert for those 'second cats' walking by!) --For instance. . . The first thing of several which went out the window immediately upon configuring my browser was that annoying, 'Google bar'. --My open source browser will not pay homage to a corporation which is selling IPO shares for over $100 each, and which has the power to destroy the world upon reaching step '2'. (That's what those question marks obscure in most cases, btw. --When everybody is dead, you get to keep all the money. Think about it! "Collect ten thousand computers and all the web addresses in existence," is hardly any less animated than, "Collect all the underpants.")
Funny thing is I just switched from Firebird, like two days ago, so as to play with the new toys. (Ted Mielczarek, who wrote, "Nuke Anything," emailed me about his latest update. Now you can wipe whole selections. Excel-lent!)
Anyway. . . I expect that when Firefox 1.0 finally arrives, this sort of silliness will be null and void. But until then, spoofed browser fronts are the sort of thing which makes being a computer geek fun and interesting!
--Until, that is, the five-hundredth attempt sneaks past your radar and makes your life hell; "Can I change all my passwords before the evil-hacker destroys me? Damn! He's almost certainly written a script which does it automatically! Argh! Shoot me now! Note to self; YOU ARE AN IDIOT. STOP. YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO LIVE. STOP. YOUR LEFT MOUSE BUTTON PRIVILAGES HAVE BEEN REVOKED FOREVER. FULL STOP."
-FL
Over a million people marched through the streets of London to protest against the invasion of Iraq, a couple of months before the offensive began. The population did recognize that they were being lied to, and took massive action based on that recognition. Which is more than you can say for the USA and its 'free speech' zones.
What did you do to stop the war?
Please forgive me. This was one of those instances where I hit, the send button and an instant later thought, "Hmm. I could have worded that differently."
-FL
Heck, the Brits have a psychopath for a Prime Minister, and their lads are shooting civilians over in the land of Oceana's "Enemy" because of a bunch of paper-thin lies the populace was too brain-dead to recognize.
Please. Big Brother was installed a long time ago. It's just that now the rent is coming due.
If people were really free, then why does everybody live like a bunch of slaves?
Interestingly, one can choose to do something other than be a slave at any time. Misery is a choice which nearly everybody embraces with abandon. Why?
-FL
But that doesn't mean you have to play by them.
There are lots of ways out. If you have locked yourself into a certain set of parameters which you feel are impossible to break, then you are probably chumped. But if you have a working brain, a back, two legs and a set of hands, then you can pretty much do whatever you want. I'm an example, and I know of many others who have worked out the puzzle and live their light comfortably and without fear. --Little known secret; the economy is so big and complex that long ago it became a matter of belief; the health of the economy is based entirely on what people believe. This is true whether everybody agrees or not.
Anyway, just ask yourself, "What do you want to do?" Pick the creative endeavor which fascinates you and takes the least effort; (and by effort, I'm not talking about elbow grease, which you'll need; I'm talking about the get-up-and-go factor. That which you are supposed to be doing in this life will drive you and not the other way around. Once you find it, everything will run smoothly.)
Once you settle down and figure out which way your internal loadstone is pointing, go out and follow it. Couldn't be simpler.
The universe will provide you with the means. I see it work like this every day. You have to have faith, and you have to recognize that opportunity isn't just knocking, it's pounding at the door. Don Juan called it the, 'cubic centimeter of opportunity'. True; being able to jump at the moment is important, but Don Juan was always a little too morbid for me; it's also true that there are lots of cubic centimeters flying around all the time. And slow-moving cubic meters, too. The trick is believing that you are worthy, which the instant you move to get involved in your path, you are.
Intent and Faith are two of the most powerful and misunderstood tools humanity has ever had access to. Part of the control system has been to fool all the nerds into believing that such things don't exist. Once that was achieved, people instantly became cattle.
Are you a man or a burger? Make up your mind, because whether you want to hear it or not, somebody is going to want fries with that. And they'll get them too if you don't wake up and get the heck off the grill.
Oh, and the clue you have that I'm not full of shit is that I'm not asking for $29.95
I'd wish you good luck, but you don't need it.
-FL
Consider. .
It doesn't matter which of the two Skull and Boners gets put into office as the same agenda will be adhered to. Kerry is just as big a war supporter as Bush.
But if the 'Voting machine scandal' is defeated by the people and JFK (ugh) is put into office on the cheering shoulders of the masses, then the populace will likely settle down and be less apt to complain when the next Middle Eastern country is invaded, (or whatever).
Conversely, part of the technique of controlling people is for the people to accept the control. --That is, as a fascist overlord, (read, 'psychological bully'), it is important to let the curtain up enough so that the people can see the dark machinations, but make it look so difficult to fight that they choose instead to submit. With that submission comes a submission to all other abuses occurring at the same level of 'hotness.'
So the set-up is almost air tight; If you fight the voting machines, you get Kerry and more of the same bullshit, and are apt to go back to sleep believing that you, 'took care of things'. If however, you don't fight the machines, you instead submit to more of the same bullshit under Bush. In both cases, the result is a population which has been calmed and subdued either through submission or daydreaming, but which hasn't prevented one iota the march toward totalitarianism.
And THAT is how you control a nation.
Humans, when incited are very hard to keep locked down. They have two arms and two legs, and brains to make them move. If everybody, all at once decided to storm the halls of government and behead the criminals, there's not much which could stop them. And this is well understood by those who hold the tenuous threads of corrupt power. This is why everybody is drugged both chemically and electronically, locked into exhausting, soul-sucking jobs, and sold hundreds of self-defeating behavioral traits and lies from they day they are born. Sold the belief that they have no power.
But there is another way out which the controllers, blinded by their own selfish predisposition to wishful thinking, cannot see and which is taking power steadily and with geometric growth. . . What is it? Unless you know, you won't grasp it until it bites you on the nose. This decade is getting more interesting by the day!
-FL
That, or leave out certain items. Creative editing.
In any case, with behavioral modification via television, it's not all about facts. It's just as much about flavors, biases and emotional manipulation. Television is far more powerful in selling non-overt lies than it is about the stuff it's actually talking about. Women shave their legs, why. . ? Look into how that started, how it developed and where it has led. All of it was very deliberate right from the get-go. Then consider what it has done to our world. --Just to mention one example of media control over human behavior.
In any case, re 'voting machine scandals', this is I suspect, a case of total mis-direction. It doesn't matter which of the two idiots gets put into office as the same agenda will be adhered to. Indeed, if the 'Voting machine scandal' is defeated and JFK (ugh) is put into office on the cheering shoulders of the masses, then the populace will likely settle down and be less apt to complain when the next Middle Eastern country is invaded, (or whatever). Conversely, part of controlling people is for them to accept the control. That is, as a fascist overlord, (or psychological bully) it is important to let the curtain up enough so that the people can see the dark machinations, but make it look so difficult to fight that they choose instead to submit. With that submission comes a submission to all other abuses occurring at the same level of 'hotness.' So the set-up is almost air tight; fight the voting machines, get Kerry and more of the same bullshit. Don't fight the machines, and submit to more of the same bullshit. And THAT is how you control a nation.
But beyond this. . , it's not about which problem is examined on television, or which news channel you watch. The fact of the matter is that when you step back, you see a couple hundred million Americans spending an hour or more every day staring at a flickering CRT with a zoned-out expression as the dark messages feed directly through any possible barriers and pour right into the core of their psyches.
And what is the message we should take from this state of affairs?
As McLuhan put it: "The Medium IS the Message".
-FL
I think the movies, good or bad, will be just movies. They'd have to be as amazing as Indiana Jones or Star Wars for me to prefer them over a solid television series, and with an ensemble cast of nine characters and Joss's skills all having been honed on long television story arcs? I'm not expecting the moon here. Firefly is not designed to work well in a movie theater. It's designed for slow development.
What I AM hoping for is that enough fuss will be kicked up and enough of a fan following generated through PR stunts like clips being shown at comic shows, that another shot at a television series will be granted.
On the other hand. .
If Joss decides that he actually wants to make a great movie, then he's suddenly got this weird, round-about chance. What an interesting way to snag a shot at the big screen and a big screen budget! Not everybody, even well respected TV producers, are offered a chance to make a film every day!
If he totally re-thinks and re-works things, (that is, if he demonstrates adaptability, which he certainly has done in the past), then he could well put together something which could stand out brilliantly; something which could not have otherwise been done on a TV budget or a small screen.
After all. . . Including Darth Vader, Star Wars had eight central characters, and that film worked out okay. .
-FL
And then I realized I'd totally mis-read the word, "Anarchist".
-FL
Labels like, "Computer Geek" are just labels. It's simply a matter of knowledge. Anybody can acquire the knowledge necessary to protect themselves. That's all it comes down to. It's a matter of free choice as to whether somebody seeks knowledge or does not.
I taught myself how to sew, make strawberry jam and roast a turkey. If your grandmother cares about using the internet, she would do well to learn about the people who want to attack her and how to avoid them. It's really not that hard.
I read an interesting study which demonstrated that people who actively use and push their brains are many times less likely to develop degenerative diseases of the nervous system such as Alzheimer's and similar.
-FL
For somebody so ready to accuse another of not knowing what they are talking about, you're awfully quick to make groundless assumptions about the sources of my knowledge. Think about that for a second or two, and what it signifies. .
In any case, there are many more sources of data walking around out there than just the internet and print publications. You clearly need to do some better research, because I can assure you that I am not the one filled with erroneous notions.
-FL
You are right. Crying, "Obvious!" certainly doesn't 'prove' that a psy-ops group is involved with the proliferation of spam and virus static on the web. But then I also certainly don't need hard evidence to be 90% convinced of it being the case. To not take past behavior into account and then make projections based on it is to deliberately ignore critical data.
What you are suggesting is that there is NO manipulative attempt being made on the part of one of the MANY well-funded covert groups whose sole purpose is to shape social behavior and force political situations advantageous to their employers. If the internet, one of the only remaining conduits of free communication in the world, were not being targeted by these groups, then they'd be seriously slacking off at the switch!
-FL
The mere concept of a website being able to give a browser an infection speaks volumes about the quality of the browser.
There is no need for sympathy or complaining or whatever. --The simple fact is that for some reason, 90% of the population has chosen to learn life lessons by placing themselves within harm's way; by working within extremely faulty paradigms built and maintained by corrupt, very rich megalomaniacs who DO NOT have the public's best interest at heart and who have time and again been demonstrated to manipulate and create deliberately faulty situations for their own benefit. --And then the 90% complain and claim ignorance when the shit comes down even though all the signs were there, and people on the side-lines were waving their arms and shouting about the alternatives the whole time.
This pattern, when it exists in a person, is apt to replicate itself in all areas of a person's life. And like I said; there is no need for sympathy or even judgement. These are deliberate choices people make, (perhaps on the subconscious level), which enable them to learn certain valuable lessons in life.
When you finally get fed up with it and decide to change your paradigm, then you know you've graduated from that particular class.
-F
Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot; "They just wouldn't DO something like that!"
-FL
I've not really looked at a Mac since OS X came out. Perhaps after a decade and a half, they've finally figured out how to make a system which is simple enough to appeal to non-techies while offering transparency and control to those who are comfortable enough to get under the hood.
You'd think it would have been easy for somebody to achieve this balance ages ago! (Ahem. *Amiga*).
-FL
I cringe, for instance, at the idea of designing for the lowest common denominator.
It's like saying, "The more knowledge you acquire, the more frustrated you can expect to become with consumer hardware." --Things like only having auto-focus and auto-rewind on cameras drives me nuts. Not having direct access to key functions on a device and having to work through a slow-witted on-board computer which is rarely designed to do what I want done drives me barmy.
This is why I find Mac so infuriating; I KNOW I can do what I want if the machine would only give me access to the parts I need and twice as many options. The level of frustration created by 'user friendly' design is only made worse by the various cute pictures and noises (which seem more designed to humor children than to provide functionality), --and have them happily smile and squeak at me while they prevent me from getting the job done.
There's nothing wrong with having to learn complicated features on a device in order to use it. I don't consider it a high water-mark of society that lazy people should be rewarded with condescending design efforts. If this kind of design philosophy had been in force when keyboards were being invented, nobody would be able to type today. Humans can learn all kinds of amazing things if you just require it of them. (Mac would have a two button keyboard if it could. One for each hand.)
That being said, however, I do also realize that some people simply have no interest in learning about computers, and that to expect everybody to learn how to use them is not realistic at all. This is why there will always be a Mac market as well as a make-it-yourself PC market.
-FL
Meanwhile, the generals can sit back and point, "That one. Put him on my team. He'll probably kill a few before going down himself."
Thinkers don't put themselves in the line of fire because they know how to THINK.
-FL
The ideal is that of the Noble Thief.
--I won't shoot anybody for you, I won't put up with ego-impaired men with mustaches ordering me about, I won't eat food filled with chemicals just because that's "How Things Are". And I certainly won't pay for Elvis tunes unless they come packaged in a Bruce Campbell film.
The authorities can tell me I have to, and they can put it into law, but I'll just smile and nod and then do the right thing when they've finished spouting off. Gives me no stress, life is less expensive, and it makes men with ego issues spin in circles and turn red in the face. Bonus!
-FL
No, really. Imagine it!
-FL
It's just that Chess Players Liberation Front might be plotting to take out the Statue of Liberty.
It could happen. .
She looks sort of like a big chess piece, right. . ?
-FL
"You have been lied to since birth. The thing they are terrified you might learn is that it is possible for everybody to be happy and well provided for without misery, fear or ignorance."
"Breathe" is spelled with an "e" at the end. --Though, I'm guessing your superior knowledge regarding drug paraphernalia came at a price, and as such, you should probably be forgiven.
-FL
Atlantis. . ! I mean, wow! What seeds are being planted? How broken or correct will the message be? Fascinating!
It always amazes me how the Slashdot crowd can be so incredibly resistant to real knowledge and yet will salivate when you slap a bright 'fiction' label on an idea. Such nervous and delicate constitutions!
The subconscious drives one to be fascinated with certain subjects for certain reasons. I wonder what those reasons could be. . ?
The training wheels have to come off eventually, so you better start growing a thicker skin. The sooner the better, because shit is crashing through these days with ever-increasing frequency.
-FL