No, no, no, you don't understand. See, copyright infringement is not theft. When you steal a movie from the store, it's gone from the store! But when you download a movie from the Internet, that copy of the movie is still there in the store! So, you see, if you download a copy of a movie onto your HD and watch it instead of purchasing a copy, it's the same as if you had actually purchased it! So you see, no one loses money if you never actually pay for anything... um... something.
Er... that's the argument I hear all the time, anyway.
I pretty much felt that way about the first one. I never understood the people who thought the first Matrix was some kind of countercultural, culture-jamming revolutionary film. It was a sci-fi kung fu movie with a great surprise in the middle. Nothing more.
Yet somehow people started to morph it (no pun intended) into some kind of subversive underground masterpiece, thus paving the way for the inevitable disappointment when the sequel turns out to be more of the same (philosophical mumbo-jumbo punctuated by beating the crap out of some guys).
Don't get me wrong, I liked the Matrix, but I like it for what it is. The story, IMHO, is passable but doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
Re:What have you done to discuss gov. corruption?
on
TIA Project to End
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· Score: 1
The lack of intensity most likely comes from the fact that we have no evidence that they are lying, and are making an assumption -- quite possibly a paranoid assumption -- that they are.
The government has said it's shelved the TIA project, which is exactly what many Americans wanted. Many people will probably breathe a sigh of relief knowing it won't get funded and that Poindexter has been given his walking papers.
But what purpose does intensity serve in this instance?
"TIA is a threat to our civil liberties, you should can the project immediately."
"Okay, we've canned it."
"LIAR!!!!"
Then you just look like the guy with the tinfoil hat.
How about if they just ship a half-done game, like so many other developers out there do, and then patch the egregious truckload of bugs later? Would they earn your respect then?
Seriously, they didn't have to delay it. They could just fob off an incomplete piece of junk on the public and probably still make money.
Nice write-up, I like how you managed to make up the bit about the children's magician, slip a nice anti-Mac troll in the middle there, and still make the front page. That takes skill. Now if only you could have shoe-horned the phrase "M$" in there somewhere.
As for this being yet another PR disaster; the RIAA knows almost everything they do these days is going to be a PR disaster. They simply do not care:
Clearly, record companies and the RIAA had some concerns about backlash before going into this. Certainly the story about the 12-year-old in public housing who was sued hit the headlines fast and hard. Are you at all concerned about public relations backlash?
We knew that this was not going to be a good PR experience from the get-go. But the (record) companies were of the view that this was something we had to do without regard to the PR implications. If PR were the dominant consideration, we would not have taken these actions, and the problem would be continuing unabated, and people would not be thinking twice about the legality of what they're doing. If bad PR is the price, it's a relatively small one compared to the size of the problem.
Oh, the Command and Conquer team! So does this mean there will be tons of FMV in between every mission, including copious shots of Liv Tyler's cleavage, kind of like we had with Red Alert 2 and Tanya?
One can only hope, I suppose. That, and the inevitable "You have 1 hobbit and 30 seconds to destroy the massed armies of Mordor with a penknife" mission that C&C made so loveable.
Your point is valid. Personally, I have no problem with beginners, or people who have a lot to learn but are willing to learn it. I have problems with people who A) refuse to take in any information at all, because it "should work" or something equally ridiculous, and / or B) have had their computers for months or years and have never, ever learned how to do even the most basic tasks.
Consider the use of a computer as analagous to a motor vehicle. The way a lot of computer users behave would be tantamount to taking a car on the road without ever once consulting the manual or taking a driver's course, never using their signals, wipers, or stick-shift because they "shouldn't have to learn how, it should just work," driving it without regard to traffic lights or signs until it runs out of gas or otherwise breaks down, then indignantly taking it to the mechanic, screaming "It's been running fine forever; why does it break now?!"
Which is precisely the attitude I get from a lot of people who call support where I work.
I realize computers and cars are on differing levels of complexity, but the principle is the same: they are mechanical devices that operate by an unambiguous set of rules.
Most people learn these rules, either by isntruction or experimentation. A select few decide there aren't any rules, or that said rules don't apply to them, and so never learn anything about how the machine operates. I don't think every customer who calls me ought to know what SMTP is, or how to configure Apache, but I get people who have had their computer for years and don't know what a program is, are bamboozled by the term "browser" or "Internet Explorer" (after months or years of using IE!), and can make no differentiation at all between the web, email, the internet, and word processing. That's not just a touch of understandable naivete, that's rank incompetence. Computers are indeed a means to an end, but a certain level of understanding of the means is required to get to that end.
Granted, most of the people I work with are reasonable, sane people who know that computers are machines and not magical voodoo devices, who know how to apply a little bit of common sense, and who don't explode in an indignant rage if anyone even implies that they might consider learning how to use the machine they are apparently so dependent on.
But then there are the others who are precisely the opposite, and I will not smile and say "oh, we were all like that once," because that's simply not the case. Only so much infantile behavior can be chalked up to inexperience. There is being a newbie, and then there is being an idiot. And those people, I feel no compunction whatsoever in mocking at length.
I thought Halo was overrated, but still incredibly fun to play the first time around. It doesn't have a lot of replay value, but was still worth it. If Halo 2 is ANYTHING like the latest gameplay preview movie, I don't think it can be over-hyped. It simply looks incredible. I rarely get excited by game previews anymore, because of all the hype, but Halo 2 has been the exception to that rule so far.
This is rather redundant by this point, but I work for tech support and I never tell people to hit any "key", because I have this conversation nearly every day:
"Go ahead and go to your Start button." "Start?" "Start." "Star button?" "START button!" "I don't have one." "It should be on the lower left hand corner of your screen." "Nope... I have connect to the internet, my computer, Get AOL, ZoneAlarm, BonziBuddy... oh START button!" "Yes! Now go to settings..." "Huh?!"
Users have enough problems with the elements that are right there in front of them. So I just say hit the space bar. They can usually get that one the first time around. Usually.
It focuses on the science and technology that made the films possible - from computer-generated special effects to animatronics.
Separate areas of the exhibition will explain major technological aspects of the films.
It's not dedicated to the work of fiction itself, but to the science and technology that allowed the creation of said work of fiction.
The purpose to which the technology is put doesn't render it invalid as technology. Frankly, given the predominance of film and computer entertainment in modern day, I think this is very relevant from a cultural perspective.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but in trying to find out how much the "ultra-expensive" Office actually is, I went to Microsoft's FAQ page, which says "Find retail pricing and upgrade information for Microsoft Office System programs, servers, and services at Microsoft Office System Pricing Information."
And when you follow THAT link, you get a 404 error.
So, it's so expensive that even Microsoft doesn't know how much it is? Or don't want to say?
Long story short, Microsoft has far too much of an agenda to allow objective searches, and everyone knows it. There's no way I would ever depend on Microsoft's search engine to deliver reliable results about Linux, open source, the GPL, or anything else that MS is "competing" with. And neither would many of the millions of tech-savvy people who use Google every day.
That and the fact that a big part of Google's draw is its simplicity, in that you don't get 120K of "how would you like to buy some crap?" banners before you get to your search results. Microsoft doesn't have the restraint or the finesse to pull that off, either. They could -- but they won't. Not when the almighty dollar is at stake, which is all MS cares about.
So they might be able to sell it to the mom and pop users who have no clue, but replace Google? No. Anyone who knows anything about MS or Google won't go for it.
Any day now Bruce Sterling should be along to write a snarky editorial on how he predicted all this stuff years ago, and no one listened to his infinite wisdom...
As a tech support drone, I have to say that the second people have to have the slightest idea what the hell they're doing in order to get online, I am out of a job. So, no.
I'd be interested in seeing the same point-by-point comparison made between World of Darkness and the Anne Rice novels. I'd bet American money the list would be just about as long, if not longer. (Minus the werewolves, of course.) I can see several direct parallels just glancing at the list.
But White Wolf has conveniently forgotten their own role as rip-off artists. They've become so delusional they think they cut the entire vampire mythos from whole cloth. I never had much respect for White Wolf in the first place, but this move is truly pathetic.
Yes, Underworld is undoubtedly heavily inspired by World of Darkness, but if that's a sin, then White Wolf is equally guilty of it.
"...would require file sharers to admit in writing that they illegally traded music online and vow in a legally binding, notarized document, never to do it again."
Offenders must also confess to having been to the proletariat areas and consorted with the prostitutes, or they go to Room 101...
Yeah, nothing bolsters self-esteem like having the WHOLE WORLD come out and say, "Kid, you're so fat, we took up a collection to get you a personal trainer." He'll have so much confidence he won't know what to do with it.
And really, what does any young Star Wars geek dream of more... being in the Star Wars movie, or exercising regularly?
Slashdot Mirror
Because as SCO and Microsoft and countless video game lawsuits have proven, no idiot could possibly be a lawyer, or vice versa.
No, no, no, you don't understand. See, copyright infringement is not theft. When you steal a movie from the store, it's gone from the store! But when you download a movie from the Internet, that copy of the movie is still there in the store! So, you see, if you download a copy of a movie onto your HD and watch it instead of purchasing a copy, it's the same as if you had actually purchased it! So you see, no one loses money if you never actually pay for anything... um... something.
Er... that's the argument I hear all the time, anyway.
I pretty much felt that way about the first one. I never understood the people who thought the first Matrix was some kind of countercultural, culture-jamming revolutionary film. It was a sci-fi kung fu movie with a great surprise in the middle. Nothing more.
Yet somehow people started to morph it (no pun intended) into some kind of subversive underground masterpiece, thus paving the way for the inevitable disappointment when the sequel turns out to be more of the same (philosophical mumbo-jumbo punctuated by beating the crap out of some guys).
Don't get me wrong, I liked the Matrix, but I like it for what it is. The story, IMHO, is passable but doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
The lack of intensity most likely comes from the fact that we have no evidence that they are lying, and are making an assumption -- quite possibly a paranoid assumption -- that they are.
The government has said it's shelved the TIA project, which is exactly what many Americans wanted. Many people will probably breathe a sigh of relief knowing it won't get funded and that Poindexter has been given his walking papers.
But what purpose does intensity serve in this instance?
"TIA is a threat to our civil liberties, you should can the project immediately."
"Okay, we've canned it."
"LIAR!!!!"
Then you just look like the guy with the tinfoil hat.
Sounds like a reality show in the making.
How about if they just ship a half-done game, like so many other developers out there do, and then patch the egregious truckload of bugs later? Would they earn your respect then?
Seriously, they didn't have to delay it. They could just fob off an incomplete piece of junk on the public and probably still make money.
Please. You're being so unfair....
They spell it "fagot."
Nice write-up, I like how you managed to make up the bit about the children's magician, slip a nice anti-Mac troll in the middle there, and still make the front page. That takes skill. Now if only you could have shoe-horned the phrase "M$" in there somewhere.
As for this being yet another PR disaster; the RIAA knows almost everything they do these days is going to be a PR disaster. They simply do not care:
Clearly, record companies and the RIAA had some concerns about backlash before going into this. Certainly the story about the 12-year-old in public housing who was sued hit the headlines fast and hard. Are you at all concerned about public relations backlash?
We knew that this was not going to be a good PR experience from the get-go. But the (record) companies were of the view that this was something we had to do without regard to the PR implications. If PR were the dominant consideration, we would not have taken these actions, and the problem would be continuing unabated, and people would not be thinking twice about the legality of what they're doing. If bad PR is the price, it's a relatively small one compared to the size of the problem.
...but the good news is, you pay the same low price for involuntarily downgraded service! Thanks for using Comcast! Have a nice day!
Oh, the Command and Conquer team! So does this mean there will be tons of FMV in between every mission, including copious shots of Liv Tyler's cleavage, kind of like we had with Red Alert 2 and Tanya?
One can only hope, I suppose. That, and the inevitable "You have 1 hobbit and 30 seconds to destroy the massed armies of Mordor with a penknife" mission that C&C made so loveable.
Your point is valid. Personally, I have no problem with beginners, or people who have a lot to learn but are willing to learn it. I have problems with people who A) refuse to take in any information at all, because it "should work" or something equally ridiculous, and / or B) have had their computers for months or years and have never, ever learned how to do even the most basic tasks.
Consider the use of a computer as analagous to a motor vehicle. The way a lot of computer users behave would be tantamount to taking a car on the road without ever once consulting the manual or taking a driver's course, never using their signals, wipers, or stick-shift because they "shouldn't have to learn how, it should just work," driving it without regard to traffic lights or signs until it runs out of gas or otherwise breaks down, then indignantly taking it to the mechanic, screaming "It's been running fine forever; why does it break now?!"
Which is precisely the attitude I get from a lot of people who call support where I work.
I realize computers and cars are on differing levels of complexity, but the principle is the same: they are mechanical devices that operate by an unambiguous set of rules.
Most people learn these rules, either by isntruction or experimentation. A select few decide there aren't any rules, or that said rules don't apply to them, and so never learn anything about how the machine operates. I don't think every customer who calls me ought to know what SMTP is, or how to configure Apache, but I get people who have had their computer for years and don't know what a program is, are bamboozled by the term "browser" or "Internet Explorer" (after months or years of using IE!), and can make no differentiation at all between the web, email, the internet, and word processing. That's not just a touch of understandable naivete, that's rank incompetence. Computers are indeed a means to an end, but a certain level of understanding of the means is required to get to that end.
Granted, most of the people I work with are reasonable, sane people who know that computers are machines and not magical voodoo devices, who know how to apply a little bit of common sense, and who don't explode in an indignant rage if anyone even implies that they might consider learning how to use the machine they are apparently so dependent on.
But then there are the others who are precisely the opposite, and I will not smile and say "oh, we were all like that once," because that's simply not the case. Only so much infantile behavior can be chalked up to inexperience. There is being a newbie, and then there is being an idiot. And those people, I feel no compunction whatsoever in mocking at length.
I thought Halo was overrated, but still incredibly fun to play the first time around. It doesn't have a lot of replay value, but was still worth it. If Halo 2 is ANYTHING like the latest gameplay preview movie, I don't think it can be over-hyped. It simply looks incredible. I rarely get excited by game previews anymore, because of all the hype, but Halo 2 has been the exception to that rule so far.
Here's hoping.
This is rather redundant by this point, but I work for tech support and I never tell people to hit any "key", because I have this conversation nearly every day:
"Go ahead and go to your Start button."
"Start?"
"Start."
"Star button?"
"START button!"
"I don't have one."
"It should be on the lower left hand corner of your screen."
"Nope... I have connect to the internet, my computer, Get AOL, ZoneAlarm, BonziBuddy... oh START button!"
"Yes! Now go to settings..."
"Huh?!"
Users have enough problems with the elements that are right there in front of them. So I just say hit the space bar. They can usually get that one the first time around. Usually.
RTFA.
It focuses on the science and technology that made the films possible - from computer-generated
special effects to animatronics.
Separate areas of the exhibition will explain major technological aspects of the films.
It's not dedicated to the work of fiction itself, but to the science and technology that allowed the creation of said work of fiction.
The purpose to which the technology is put doesn't render it invalid as technology. Frankly, given the predominance of film and computer entertainment in modern day, I think this is very relevant from a cultural perspective.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but in trying to find out how much the "ultra-expensive" Office actually is, I went to Microsoft's FAQ page, which says "Find retail pricing and upgrade information for Microsoft Office System programs, servers, and services at Microsoft Office System Pricing Information."
And when you follow THAT link, you get a 404 error.
So, it's so expensive that even Microsoft doesn't know how much it is? Or don't want to say?
Either way, doesn't bode well.
Long story short, Microsoft has far too much of an agenda to allow objective searches, and everyone knows it. There's no way I would ever depend on Microsoft's search engine to deliver reliable results about Linux, open source, the GPL, or anything else that MS is "competing" with. And neither would many of the millions of tech-savvy people who use Google every day.
That and the fact that a big part of Google's draw is its simplicity, in that you don't get 120K of "how would you like to buy some crap?" banners before you get to your search results. Microsoft doesn't have the restraint or the finesse to pull that off, either. They could -- but they won't. Not when the almighty dollar is at stake, which is all MS cares about.
So they might be able to sell it to the mom and pop users who have no clue, but replace Google? No. Anyone who knows anything about MS or Google won't go for it.
Any day now Bruce Sterling should be along to write a snarky editorial on how he predicted all this stuff years ago, and no one listened to his infinite wisdom...
As a tech support drone, I have to say that the second people have to have the slightest idea what the hell they're doing in order to get online, I am out of a job. So, no.
It drew you into the story even further by making you project your own dialog into it.
Oh, you mean like when I'd say "no witnesses" or "you did this to me!" before gunning down those nerdy scientists.
The American public will be OUTRAGED at the RIAA...
Well, at least until "Temptation Island" comes on. Then they'll forget all about it.
It's from George Orwell's 1984.
A staple for paranoid pessimists.
I'd be interested in seeing the same point-by-point comparison made between World of Darkness and the Anne Rice novels. I'd bet American money the list would be just about as long, if not longer. (Minus the werewolves, of course.) I can see several direct parallels just glancing at the list.
But White Wolf has conveniently forgotten their own role as rip-off artists. They've become so delusional they think they cut the entire vampire mythos from whole cloth. I never had much respect for White Wolf in the first place, but this move is truly pathetic.
Yes, Underworld is undoubtedly heavily inspired by World of Darkness, but if that's a sin, then White Wolf is equally guilty of it.
"...would require file sharers to admit in writing that they illegally traded music online and vow in a legally binding, notarized document, never to do it again."
Offenders must also confess to having been to the proletariat areas and consorted with the prostitutes, or they go to Room 101...
Well, look on the bright side, he can do nothing but improve the role.
Yeah, nothing bolsters self-esteem like having the WHOLE WORLD come out and say, "Kid, you're so fat, we took up a collection to get you a personal trainer." He'll have so much confidence he won't know what to do with it.
And really, what does any young Star Wars geek dream of more... being in the Star Wars movie, or exercising regularly?