This is how I understand the situation, from what I've heard -- ArsDigita was profitable before they had a bunch of large VC companies come in. The decided to raise a lot of capital so that they would be able to hire much more staff and take on a lot more clients. The problem is that after they did this, after the dot-com slowdown, the new clients never materialized, and ArsDigita was left with having sold off part of their company and an overgrown staff that wasn't producing revenue, which is why they had to lay people off.
In addition, people have said that ArsDigita University (the free computer science school) had been established with money that the venture capitalists had given ArsDigita. Needless to say, they were probably a bit upset by this.
So, the question on my mind was this-- if ArsDigita was always profitable, why did they raise all that VC and over-expand? Were they getting greedy or what?
The beginning of FSM corresponded with the move to register blacks to vote in the south. People forget that what sparked FSM was the fact that UC Berkeley made a rule against _any_ political speech or activity on campus. A group of students was handing out flyers about supporting voting rights for blacks in the south, and the police tried to get rid of them, and this sparked a near riot.
People may whine about how some students might try to "stifle" speech on campus today, but that's nothing compared to how the UC Board of Regents prevented _any_ political speech at all on campus in bygone days.
Actually, it was the first Bush administration that sent Brent Scowcroft on a secret mission to China after the Tiananmen Square massacre to tell them "don't worry... we won't let that _really_ interfere with our relations."
Also, it was the Clinton administration that sent US aircraft carriers to Taiwan when Beijing's government was trying to intimidate Taiwan with missile tests during Taiwan's elections. If anything, we grew _closer_ to Taiwan during the Clinton administration because of acts of support like this, combined with Taiwan's further transition to democracy during that time.
The issue, though, is that you _can't_ be commiitted to a certain product... Products change. MtG will be gone, some day, and maybe D&D will be long gone, as well. You can build a sustainable company whose only purpose for existing is a single "product."
VIsionary companies that survive build themselves around a corporate culture such that no matter what the product the company is selling, the employees will buy into the overall culture and vision. After all, products come and go.
I don't understand the penchant for "artist envy" in society. Everyone wants to say how, in some way, they are an "artist." Even Subway, the sandwich chain, started calling its workers "sandwich artists."
Look, the point is, we program. We're good at it. It takes a lot of creativity to solve very difficult obscure programming problems. Accept it as a part of life, and accept it as part of the job of a lot of other people to... but be secure in your accomplishments as a programmer and don't feel you have to prove that you're "more artistic than thou."
Well, if you play simcity compulsively, you realize that the player simply does what governments to-- creates an environment which makes it possible for cities to thrive. The user zones the areas, builds roads, and provides for law enforcement. The cities thrive on their own, as long as the necessary infrastructure is in place.
You sound like you want to hire an "expert" to construct a work environment that will be just barely tolerable enough that people won't refuse to leave.
Well that sucks! Let's see... I'll take a job wher the commute irritates me just slightly less than the amount than would cause me to go elsewhere. The pay will be just barely tolerable for me to live on, and the company policies will make me unhappy, but not so unhappy that i'll actually get up and leave. What a way to live. Ugh.
Not exactly. Since you don't have a "right" to use Sprint's broadband service, anything goes. You still fall under the standard set of consumer protection and credit protection laws, however.
Similarly, many people with jobs have clauses in their contracts that restrict them from making statements about the company to the press. Since you have no "right" to a job, they can fire you for, technically, "exercising your right to free speech."
The biggest loophole seems to be that since the government (ie, "the people) regulate the airwaves, they could screw over Sprint for "not acting in the public interest".
Actually, contract law does not give carte blanche to companies to have whatever "terms of service" they wish. Examples:
(a) Your employer may not offer you a job for less than the minimum wage
(b) Your landlors may not rent you an apartment in the northeast without working heat
The example here may be an example of a "shrinkwrap" license that we all know and love. Shrinkwrap licenses may be determined to be unenforceable and invalid. That may end up being the case with PageCreators. We shall see.
Actually, what Jon could have observed but refused to say was the following-- Virtual Communities, to be useful, must emulate real communities. In a "real" community, I can avoid the people I don't like... I can decide to gather with whom I wish. I don't have my conversation being interupted by a flamer or a pseudo-intellectual like Katz.
There's little difference between what you advocate (excluding) and providing "people a means to ignore those they do not wish to mingle with." The "subsetted reality" is simply another sort of virtual community.
I'm much more free to pick and choose with whom I wish to associate in the "real world." Virtual Communities will only be useful in so far as they allow me to do this. VC's are only better in so far as they allow me to hold discussions with people who are geographically spread apart and/or cannot all interact at the same time.
-Dean
Re:technological determinism? pt II
on
The Renaissance
·
· Score: 1
Well, one could argue that the conditions of history allowed people like Michelangelo to display his talents. How many Michelangelos are there in the slums of New Dehli or the getting killed in the Congo without any opportunity to present his contributions to the world? That's where technologies and wealth-creation play a role in helping foster a "renaissance".
-Dean
Re:The Lighter Side of Dark Ages
on
The Renaissance
·
· Score: 1
Good point... This is the way I heard it when I studied some medieval history:
476 AD (fall of the Roman Empire) to 800 AD (Crowning of Charlamagne) = "Dark Ages"
801 AD - 1400s AD - "Middle Ages" or "Medieval"
Post 1450 AD - "Renaissance"
Western Europe didn't go straight from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance... there was a lot in between. The truly "dark age" of europe was when the west was still sorting out the Gothic invasions that had destroyed the western roman empire. (though, given the history of violent strife in europe, especially in the 20th century, one could claim that they are still sorting all of that out:)
The Renaissance wasn't caused
by new technologies, new technologies sprouted because of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance was caused by a suddenly influx of knowledge and information. THe simultaneous Reconquista of Spain from the Muslims allowed muslim texts and knowledge to flow into Europe while the fall of Constantinople send fleeing intellectuals from the Byzantine Empire into the musch more intellectually backwards western europe.
In addition, the printing press, you must remember, was an innovation borrowed from the Persians (who got the idea from China). The printing press was a result of the Renaissance, not its cause.
However, keep in mind that the civil rights act of 1964 occured _before_ the big protests of the era. The baby boom started in 1946. That makes the oldest boomer in 1964 18 years old. Personalities like Mario Savio at UC Berkeley, who finally eliminated the anti-political "speech codes" at the university came of age in a much more conservative era... before Vietnam became a major concern.
The "baby boomers" are best associated with the anti-war protests of the late 60s and early 70s (which disappeared after Nixon ended the draft), as well as the "sexual revolution."
The boomers _benefited_ from things like civil rights, desegregation, and the birth control pill (all late 50s to early 60s developments), but they did not create those new freedoms.
Let me just say that I've never been so thankful that my father refused to buy my family a Nintendo. I enjoy being out of JonKatz's pop culture loop, here.:)
>I enjoy reading Katz's little
>phillipics even though I think he's usually full
>of it. On the other hand, he _always_ generates a
>good disucssion, and that's exactly what
>he's trying to do!
Doesn't it strike you that something is wrong when the discussion revolves around, "the author is full of crap"? Of course poor quality work generates discussion-- people are so naturally hostile to it that it gets their blood pumping.
It's bad enough if Katz is naive enough to actually believe the tripe he writes. It's even worse if he just makes up poor generalities and ignorant, ahistorical statements just to generate "discussion."
Well, Dec. 25th also was a convenient date because the main Christian "nativity" holiday in the 4th century was epiphany on January 6th. So they were able to just split those holidays in two, and have one that purposely conflicted with Invitus Sol.
Gift giving on Christmas became common because of its proximity both to the feast of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6th) and the spanish "three kings day" (Jan. 6th). Eventually, those gift-giving traditions just got conflated into Christmas, and you were able to get everything out of the way in one full swoop.
Do you know what the government actually _does_?
First, let me say that my landlord has more of an impact on my life than the federal gov't. Second, where do you think your money goes? It goes here:
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Defense, and interest on the national debt.
Now you can whine all you want about how the Strategic Helium Reserve or spending on public television is a waste of your money, but the fact is that they have very little effect on the level of your taxes.
So if you're against "government buracracy, what the heck are you arguing against?
College application have a section that says, "have you ever been suspended or expelled from a school?" That information will also appear on a person's high school transcript that will get submitted to colleges.
Sure, right now, anything that happened in high school doesn't matter a bit. But at the age of 17, it did matter.
>you have to pay the price for actions. If the
>price is a two day suspension, then so be it.
Fair enough, but a two day suspension is way above and beyond what was warranted. Heck, for fighting you _might_ get suspended for a day, and this was much less than fighting.
_Maybe_ he deserved a detension. But the punishment has to fit the crime. This doesn't rise to the level of fighting or petty stealing in school, so it shouldn't be punished like it.
>All those teachers fighting for more money
>inevitably goes back to the administration. Thats
>the problem with addiction to federal money.
FYI, individual schools receive very little federal money, if any. A school district is supported with funds from local property taxes.
That's why schools in poor neighborhoods and schools in rich neighborhoods are so disparate-- money is raised directly from the neighborhood itself.
The prior art on this one is where we downloading GIFs off of BBS's or just used ftp to download GIFs (compressed data), and then viewed them (decompressed them) on the machines. Pretty funny.
But in this case, the DMCA metaphorically prevents you from opening the lock on _your own car_.
If I take a piece of software or a movie home, and I figure out how to encode it differently or break through any of their "protections"-- why should they go after me? I bought the software or the movie, after all.
Slashdot Mirror
This is how I understand the situation, from what I've heard -- ArsDigita was profitable before they had a bunch of large VC companies come in. The decided to raise a lot of capital so that they would be able to hire much more staff and take on a lot more clients. The problem is that after they did this, after the dot-com slowdown, the new clients never materialized, and ArsDigita was left with having sold off part of their company and an overgrown staff that wasn't producing revenue, which is why they had to lay people off.
In addition, people have said that ArsDigita University (the free computer science school) had been established with money that the venture capitalists had given ArsDigita. Needless to say, they were probably a bit upset by this.
So, the question on my mind was this-- if ArsDigita was always profitable, why did they raise all that VC and over-expand? Were they getting greedy or what?
-Dean
The beginning of FSM corresponded with the move to register blacks to vote in the south. People forget that what sparked FSM was the fact that UC Berkeley made a rule against _any_ political speech or activity on campus. A group of students was handing out flyers about supporting voting rights for blacks in the south, and the police tried to get rid of them, and this sparked a near riot.
People may whine about how some students might try to "stifle" speech on campus today, but that's nothing compared to how the UC Board of Regents prevented _any_ political speech at all on campus in bygone days.
-Dean
Actually, it was the first Bush administration that sent Brent Scowcroft on a secret mission to China after the Tiananmen Square massacre to tell them "don't worry... we won't let that _really_ interfere with our relations."
Also, it was the Clinton administration that sent US aircraft carriers to Taiwan when Beijing's government was trying to intimidate Taiwan with missile tests during Taiwan's elections. If anything, we grew _closer_ to Taiwan during the Clinton administration because of acts of support like this, combined with Taiwan's further transition to democracy during that time.
I'm surprised you've forgotten all of this.
-Dean
The issue, though, is that you _can't_ be commiitted to a certain product... Products change. MtG will be gone, some day, and maybe D&D will be long gone, as well. You can build a sustainable company whose only purpose for existing is a single "product."
VIsionary companies that survive build themselves around a corporate culture such that no matter what the product the company is selling, the employees will buy into the overall culture and vision. After all, products come and go.
-Dean
I don't understand the penchant for "artist envy" in society. Everyone wants to say how, in some way, they are an "artist." Even Subway, the sandwich chain, started calling its workers "sandwich artists."
Look, the point is, we program. We're good at it. It takes a lot of creativity to solve very difficult obscure programming problems. Accept it as a part of life, and accept it as part of the job of a lot of other people to... but be secure in your accomplishments as a programmer and don't feel you have to prove that you're "more artistic than thou."
-Dean
Well, if you play simcity compulsively, you realize that the player simply does what governments to-- creates an environment which makes it possible for cities to thrive. The user zones the areas, builds roads, and provides for law enforcement. The cities thrive on their own, as long as the necessary infrastructure is in place.
-Dean
That's no way to live...
You sound like you want to hire an "expert" to construct a work environment that will be just barely tolerable enough that people won't refuse to leave.
Well that sucks! Let's see... I'll take a job wher the commute irritates me just slightly less than the amount than would cause me to go elsewhere. The pay will be just barely tolerable for me to live on, and the company policies will make me unhappy, but not so unhappy that i'll actually get up and leave. What a way to live. Ugh.
-Dean
Not exactly. Since you don't have a "right" to use Sprint's broadband service, anything goes. You still fall under the standard set of consumer protection and credit protection laws, however.
Similarly, many people with jobs have clauses in their contracts that restrict them from making statements about the company to the press. Since you have no "right" to a job, they can fire you for, technically, "exercising your right to free speech."
The biggest loophole seems to be that since the government (ie, "the people) regulate the airwaves, they could screw over Sprint for "not acting in the public interest".
-Dean
Actually, contract law does not give carte blanche to companies to have whatever "terms of service" they wish. Examples:
(a) Your employer may not offer you a job for less than the minimum wage
(b) Your landlors may not rent you an apartment in the northeast without working heat
The example here may be an example of a "shrinkwrap" license that we all know and love. Shrinkwrap licenses may be determined to be unenforceable and invalid. That may end up being the case with PageCreators. We shall see.
-Dean
Actually, what Jon could have observed but refused to say was the following-- Virtual Communities, to be useful, must emulate real communities. In a "real" community, I can avoid the people I don't like... I can decide to gather with whom I wish. I don't have my conversation being interupted by a flamer or a pseudo-intellectual like Katz.
There's little difference between what you advocate (excluding) and providing "people a means to ignore those they do not wish to mingle with." The "subsetted reality" is simply another sort of virtual community.
I'm much more free to pick and choose with whom I wish to associate in the "real world." Virtual Communities will only be useful in so far as they allow me to do this. VC's are only better in so far as they allow me to hold discussions with people who are geographically spread apart and/or cannot all interact at the same time.
-Dean
Well, one could argue that the conditions of history allowed people like Michelangelo to display his talents. How many Michelangelos are there in the slums of New Dehli or the getting killed in the Congo without any opportunity to present his contributions to the world? That's where technologies and wealth-creation play a role in helping foster a "renaissance".
-Dean
Good point... This is the way I heard it when I studied some medieval history:
:)
476 AD (fall of the Roman Empire) to 800 AD (Crowning of Charlamagne) = "Dark Ages"
801 AD - 1400s AD - "Middle Ages" or "Medieval"
Post 1450 AD - "Renaissance"
Western Europe didn't go straight from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance... there was a lot in between. The truly "dark age" of europe was when the west was still sorting out the Gothic invasions that had destroyed the western roman empire. (though, given the history of violent strife in europe, especially in the 20th century, one could claim that they are still sorting all of that out
-Dean
The Renaissance wasn't caused by new technologies, new technologies sprouted because of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance was caused by a suddenly influx of knowledge and information. THe simultaneous Reconquista of Spain from the Muslims allowed muslim texts and knowledge to flow into Europe while the fall of Constantinople send fleeing intellectuals from the Byzantine Empire into the musch more intellectually backwards western europe.
In addition, the printing press, you must remember, was an innovation borrowed from the Persians (who got the idea from China). The printing press was a result of the Renaissance, not its cause.
-Dean
However, keep in mind that the civil rights act of 1964 occured _before_ the big protests of the era. The baby boom started in 1946. That makes the oldest boomer in 1964 18 years old. Personalities like Mario Savio at UC Berkeley, who finally eliminated the anti-political "speech codes" at the university came of age in a much more conservative era... before Vietnam became a major concern.
The "baby boomers" are best associated with the anti-war protests of the late 60s and early 70s (which disappeared after Nixon ended the draft), as well as the "sexual revolution."
The boomers _benefited_ from things like civil rights, desegregation, and the birth control pill (all late 50s to early 60s developments), but they did not create those new freedoms.
-Dean
Let me just say that I've never been so thankful that my father refused to buy my family a Nintendo. I enjoy being out of JonKatz's pop culture loop, here. :)
-Dean
>I enjoy reading Katz's little
>phillipics even though I think he's usually full
>of it. On the other hand, he _always_ generates a
>good disucssion, and that's exactly what
>he's trying to do!
Doesn't it strike you that something is wrong when the discussion revolves around, "the author is full of crap"? Of course poor quality work generates discussion-- people are so naturally hostile to it that it gets their blood pumping.
It's bad enough if Katz is naive enough to actually believe the tripe he writes. It's even worse if he just makes up poor generalities and ignorant, ahistorical statements just to generate "discussion."
-Dean
Well, Dec. 25th also was a convenient date because the main Christian "nativity" holiday in the 4th century was epiphany on January 6th. So they were able to just split those holidays in two, and have one that purposely conflicted with Invitus Sol.
Gift giving on Christmas became common because of its proximity both to the feast of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6th) and the spanish "three kings day" (Jan. 6th). Eventually, those gift-giving traditions just got conflated into Christmas, and you were able to get everything out of the way in one full swoop.
-Dean
Do you know what the government actually _does_?
First, let me say that my landlord has more of an impact on my life than the federal gov't. Second, where do you think your money goes? It goes here:
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Defense, and interest on the national debt.
Now you can whine all you want about how the Strategic Helium Reserve or spending on public television is a waste of your money, but the fact is that they have very little effect on the level of your taxes.
So if you're against "government buracracy, what the heck are you arguing against?
-Dean
To paraphrase "The Prisoner":
"I am not a consumer! I am a free man!"
Granted, this person is not to be placed in the same category as St. George, St. Stephen, Thomas Moore, or the other great "martyrs".
But the Greek root, "martyria", means, literally, "witness." This person was a witness to his views. Thus, he marginally qualifies.
-Dean
College application have a section that says, "have you ever been suspended or expelled from a school?" That information will also appear on a person's high school transcript that will get submitted to colleges.
Sure, right now, anything that happened in high school doesn't matter a bit. But at the age of 17, it did matter.
-Dean
>you have to pay the price for actions. If the
>price is a two day suspension, then so be it.
Fair enough, but a two day suspension is way above and beyond what was warranted. Heck, for fighting you _might_ get suspended for a day, and this was much less than fighting.
_Maybe_ he deserved a detension. But the punishment has to fit the crime. This doesn't rise to the level of fighting or petty stealing in school, so it shouldn't be punished like it.
-Dean
>All those teachers fighting for more money
>inevitably goes back to the administration. Thats
>the problem with addiction to federal money.
FYI, individual schools receive very little federal money, if any. A school district is supported with funds from local property taxes.
That's why schools in poor neighborhoods and schools in rich neighborhoods are so disparate-- money is raised directly from the neighborhood itself.
-Dean
The prior art on this one is where we downloading GIFs off of BBS's or just used ftp to download GIFs (compressed data), and then viewed them (decompressed them) on the machines. Pretty funny.
-Dean
But in this case, the DMCA metaphorically prevents you from opening the lock on _your own car_.
If I take a piece of software or a movie home, and I figure out how to encode it differently or break through any of their "protections"-- why should they go after me? I bought the software or the movie, after all.
-Dean