Re:It is still better than anything else....
on
The Simpsons Movie
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· Score: 1
I am adamantly anti-drug and I didn't find that episode pandering to stoners at all, except as humor. I thought it was a funny show, but let's face it, it painted pot users as complete dunderheads.
They call them fingers, but you never see them fing. Oh wait, there they go...
Well, from what you are describing, that album wouldn't even rate a parental warning sticker, so where does the censorship you were complaining about come in?
Funny, I don't have that problem. Maybe it's because the musicians I listen to actually have talent and can function without the need to offend or shock.
Of course, Wal-mart's selection is pathetically small, but since 99% of music buyers have an extremely narrow range of interest, it works well for them.
Aside of the huge Tower Records about 45 minutes from me (and not even the other Towers in the area), I don't even visit music stores any more. I can rarely find anything interesting, and never what I'm looking for. I do almost all of my music shopping on-line... there's no other decent way to actually explore new music, except through friends.
I was being facetious... but it's not too far off the mark. The Patriot Act and the Patriot Act II seem to allow for abandoning much of due process in the pursuit of "terrorism". While I am very supportive of much of what the President and his Administration have done, this aspect of it scares the crap out of me, because just like the whole child-abuse thing: One you are suspected, you are essentially convicted, regardless of what actually happens.
<rant>
I thought the lefties and their hate-crime laws were bad enough, but now we have Thoughtcrime laws coming from the right too. It's a scary world when the answer to every problem is more laws.
Gun laws don't work, so pass more. Tax laws are too complex, pass more. Wait, a citizen in West Virginia was suspected of having some free time... quick burden him down with more bureaucracy. Uh oh, there's a small business in Wyoming is on the verge of succeeding... hurry up and slap it down with some more meaningless Federal regulations.
Spam's a problem? Make it a Federal crime to falsify whois records... after all 99.9% of U.S. citizens have crossed a state line in their lives so the Federal government has unlimited powers. Q.E.D.
"Bill of Rights"? Forget it. We will just deconstruct langauge to make it mean whatever we want.
War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength. Slavery is Freedom.
Clearly your antenna wasn't aligned well because the only time I lose my satellite signal is during a serious thunderstorm... and even then it's seldom longer than a few minutes.
The so richly deserved backlash is starting to occur!
In addition to all the other complaints listed, my experience with Real has been that their software is the most consistently buggy stuff I've ever used. Once it works, it's fine, but I've had to install it several times (including several versions... they seem to change their naming conventions with every release... what's up with that?) to get it work on a number of machines.
I've finally just given up. If someone offers Real Media and it doesn't work with the version that came preinstalled on my laptop then I just go without. The only reason I don't uninstall it completely is because I have some files that my kids like to watch.
This company has managed to practice deception, greed, and incompetence that makes Microsoft look competent and virtuous by comparison. Good riddance, and a big thumbs up to NPR.
The few times I've listened to other links on NPR I've noticed that they offer both Real and WMP. I'm no big fan of Microsoft, but WMP always works for me, and you can get software to capture streaming WMP media to your disk. I have no problems giving Microsoft credit when they deserve it and WMP just works (stupid DRM issues aside). Of course, for 99% of my use, I actually use WinAmp.
I've gotten sick of trying to figure out all the features on electronic devices... or worse, helping my wife with hers. I've got a phone that has all kinds of cool stuff, some of which I actually use, 'cause it's there, but at the end of the day, I use the thing to call people, and if every other feature not related to making phone calls were taken away, I wouldn't care.
...you can never overestimate the stupidity of the buying public, but obviously you can.
First DIVX, now this. Just two incredibly stupid ways to deliver content that we'll all be streaming over broadband in a couple years, legally or not... if the media companies persist in their short-sightedness, stupidity, and pig-headed determination to cling to a 19th century distribution model then it will happen anyway... if the media execs can pull their heads out of their... out of the sand, then people will pay them a modest price for the privilege. I don't know about you, but modest beats nothing every day. Maybe some of the people will be forced to work for a living, instead of growing fat extorting artists and customers.
It also amazes me how innovative companies are in creating products that increase, not decrease waste. Given that we, as a society are more environmentally-conscious than ever, I bet typical product packaging generates more waste than it ever did (except for soda pop cans). Marketing these days seems to consist of coming up with ways to increase packaging while decreasing product. Look at "GoGurt" which comes in the absurdly small 4oz size, or "Lunchables" which manages to cram a ridiculously small about of food with astronomical amounts of sodium in bulky packaging and people pay something like $10 a pound for the privilege of buying it. Or look at just about any dry food... the packaging is usually half empty (sold by weight not volume, so if we make the box twice as big, it'll look like a better deal). At least, they've finally stopped selling detergent with 90% filler.
That kinda fits with my experience of noticing tons of them on the road at one point a few years ago then hardly seeing any a year or two later...as opposed to my cars, the Honda Odyssey and Accord. You will always see tons of them.
Some fads are understandable like painting "YO" on the back of your Toyota pickup or those weird crown-shaped air fresheners, or those stupid wind-blade things on wipers... when the fad dies in 6 months it easy to switch, but seeing a car be a fad and disappear that quickly tells me it must have been a real dud.
I wonder how BIOSes with hard-wired Microsoft-based DRM would cooperate with this scheme.
By instanly sending a message to the Department of Homeland Security. Since you are violating Microsoft's Digital Rights, you must be doing something to subvert U.S. security.
And no, there are no network drops in the cells at Guantanamo.
It would probably do me good, too, but unfortunately, I have a lot of machines I use regularly and I'd either have to switch keyboards all the time or buy a whole bunch of them.
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THAT would do it.
Actually, I don't think it would...
I am adamantly anti-drug and I didn't find that episode pandering to stoners at all, except as humor. I thought it was a funny show, but let's face it, it painted pot users as complete dunderheads.
They call them fingers, but you never see them fing. Oh wait, there they go...
So first it was: Phoenix.
Then it became: Firebird.
Now, it's: Firefox.
So let's see. In a few weeks it will become: Starfox.
Then:
StarCastle, StarChild, StarTrek, StarWars, CoreWars, CoreDump, RageDump, SpeedBump, SpeedFreak, PhonePhreak,
PhoneCall, BootyCall, RollCall, RolePlay, DoublePlay, StrikeOut, StrikeForce, DeltaForce, DeltaVee, SpeedingTicket, RecklessDriving, DrunkAndDisorderly, AssaultAndBattery, AlkalineBattery, DoubleABattery, DCell,
FuelCell, JailCell, JailBreak, JailBird, StoolPigeon, SafeCracker, BankRobber, BankVault, PoleVault, PolePosition,
FishingPole, FlagPole, FlagStaff
and, ultimately, Phoenix.
Yep... lookin' real professional.
Well, from what you are describing, that album wouldn't even rate a parental warning sticker, so where does the censorship you were complaining about come in?
Funny, I don't have that problem. Maybe it's because the musicians I listen to actually have talent and can function without the need to offend or shock.
Of course, Wal-mart's selection is pathetically small, but since 99% of music buyers have an extremely narrow range of interest, it works well for them.
Aside of the huge Tower Records about 45 minutes from me (and not even the other Towers in the area), I don't even visit music stores any more. I can rarely find anything interesting, and never what I'm looking for. I do almost all of my music shopping on-line... there's no other decent way to actually explore new music, except through friends.
Yeah, that is crazy. If I were the teacher I would have tossed the kid out the window and kept the tamagotchi.
Or just stand outside naked for a couple minutes and you will get a great analog temperature readout from your skin*:
Red: Hot
Blue: Cold.
Brown: Get out of the mud.
Black: Nighttime
* Results may vary for people of color
I was being facetious... but it's not too far off the mark. The Patriot Act and the Patriot Act II seem to allow for abandoning much of due process in the pursuit of "terrorism". While I am very supportive of much of what the President and his Administration have done, this aspect of it scares the crap out of me, because just like the whole child-abuse thing: One you are suspected, you are essentially convicted, regardless of what actually happens.
<rant>
I thought the lefties and their hate-crime laws were bad enough, but now we have Thoughtcrime laws coming from the right too. It's a scary world when the answer to every problem is more laws.
Gun laws don't work, so pass more. Tax laws are too complex, pass more. Wait, a citizen in West Virginia was suspected of having some free time... quick burden him down with more bureaucracy. Uh oh, there's a small business in Wyoming is on the verge of succeeding... hurry up and slap it down with some more meaningless Federal regulations.
Spam's a problem? Make it a Federal crime to falsify whois records... after all 99.9% of U.S. citizens have crossed a state line in their lives so the Federal government has unlimited powers. Q.E.D.
"Bill of Rights"? Forget it. We will just deconstruct langauge to make it mean whatever we want.
War is Peace.
Ignorance is Strength.
Slavery is Freedom.
</rant>
Unfortunately, being suspected of having committed a crime is criminal under the Patriot Act.
Of course, who could forget to pointlessly elaborate joke about Dolly Parton that ended up with the result "55378008"?
I think it's more like:
We don't even know what the dependencies are any more so we need to replace everything.
Clearly your antenna wasn't aligned well because the only time I lose my satellite signal is during a serious thunderstorm... and even then it's seldom longer than a few minutes.
Basically, then they smash them together and hope they stick.
Eventually some do, and presto! a new element.
IIRC, I read recently that none of the Bismuth isotopes are stable... apparently the one they thought was stable instead has a REALLY long half-life.
Haven't these guys ever played DOOM? Or watched Event Horizon?
So you're saying life might be a boring, repetitous video game or a boring, pointless movie?
Now what would really scare me is if life was "Night of the Lepus".
The so richly deserved backlash is starting to occur!
In addition to all the other complaints listed, my experience with Real has been that their software is the most consistently buggy stuff I've ever used. Once it works, it's fine, but I've had to install it several times (including several versions... they seem to change their naming conventions with every release... what's up with that?) to get it work on a number of machines.
I've finally just given up. If someone offers Real Media and it doesn't work with the version that came preinstalled on my laptop then I just go without. The only reason I don't uninstall it completely is because I have some files that my kids like to watch.
This company has managed to practice deception, greed, and incompetence that makes Microsoft look competent and virtuous by comparison. Good riddance, and a big thumbs up to NPR.
The few times I've listened to other links on NPR I've noticed that they offer both Real and WMP. I'm no big fan of Microsoft, but WMP always works for me, and you can get software to capture streaming WMP media to your disk. I have no problems giving Microsoft credit when they deserve it and WMP just works (stupid DRM issues aside). Of course, for 99% of my use, I actually use WinAmp.
Maybe now people will actually develop good games instead of their own graphical egos.
But what then are the guys from id going to do for money?
Yes, but they didn't require one.
I've gotten sick of trying to figure out all the features on electronic devices... or worse, helping my wife with hers. I've got a phone that has all kinds of cool stuff, some of which I actually use, 'cause it's there, but at the end of the day, I use the thing to call people, and if every other feature not related to making phone calls were taken away, I wouldn't care.
...you can never overestimate the stupidity of the buying public, but obviously you can.
First DIVX, now this. Just two incredibly stupid ways to deliver content that we'll all be streaming over broadband in a couple years, legally or not... if the media companies persist in their short-sightedness, stupidity, and pig-headed determination to cling to a 19th century distribution model then it will happen anyway... if the media execs can pull their heads out of their... out of the sand, then people will pay them a modest price for the privilege. I don't know about you, but modest beats nothing every day. Maybe some of the people will be forced to work for a living, instead of growing fat extorting artists and customers.
It also amazes me how innovative companies are in creating products that increase, not decrease waste. Given that we, as a society are more environmentally-conscious than ever, I bet typical product packaging generates more waste than it ever did (except for soda pop cans). Marketing these days seems to consist of coming up with ways to increase packaging while decreasing product. Look at "GoGurt" which comes in the absurdly small 4oz size, or "Lunchables" which manages to cram a ridiculously small about of food with astronomical amounts of sodium in bulky packaging and people pay something like $10 a pound for the privilege of buying it. Or look at just about any dry food... the packaging is usually half empty (sold by weight not volume, so if we make the box twice as big, it'll look like a better deal). At least, they've finally stopped selling detergent with 90% filler.
Oh well, I've ranted enough.
That kinda fits with my experience of noticing tons of them on the road at one point a few years ago then hardly seeing any a year or two later. ..as opposed to my cars, the Honda Odyssey and Accord. You will always see tons of them.
Some fads are understandable like painting "YO" on the back of your Toyota pickup or those weird crown-shaped air fresheners, or those stupid wind-blade things on wipers... when the fad dies in 6 months it easy to switch, but seeing a car be a fad and disappear that quickly tells me it must have been a real dud.
Or from MST3K:
"The official car of 'Peaked-in-High-School'!"
Although to be honest, I think the car in question was a Trans-Am.
"Calogne" is a new scent invented by a company in L.A. which is a mixture of the scents of skin bronzer, peroxide and silicone.
I wonder how BIOSes with hard-wired Microsoft-based DRM would cooperate with this scheme.
By instanly sending a message to the Department of Homeland Security. Since you are violating Microsoft's Digital Rights, you must be doing something to subvert U.S. security.
And no, there are no network drops in the cells at Guantanamo.
It would probably do me good, too, but unfortunately, I have a lot of machines I use regularly and I'd either have to switch keyboards all the time or buy a whole bunch of them.