I agree that there are other more imaginative ways to get people to turn off their cellphones in the movie theater. But nobody seems to have come up with one, do they?
Several companies have solutions to this problem: cell phone blockers. Unfortunately they are illegal in the States.
Imagine the scenario - you walk into the theater, see the sign "All cell use blocked in this esablishment," then rush outside to join your fellow phone addicts, smokers, and phone-addict smokers for a quick "fix" before the show starts!
If you can't talk to each other about this, then you are fools to even consider marriage
Whaa? Of course he'd want to pose this message to/. -- just think about the consequences if he tries to moderate his girlfriend as "-1, Troll" or "-1, Offtopic": he'd either get spanked by the "lameness" filter, or bitchslapped permanently when she $rtbls him!
If you don't like it, use a pay phone. No one is forcing you to use your platinum credit card. If you don't like it, use cash.
You don't really have that luxury of choice any more: already most of the pay phones around here are gone. The phone company says they aren't getting enough revenue to justify maintaining them, so they are ripping them out.
Some businesses do not accept cash anymore, or very reluctantly. Try renting a car or getting a hotel room with only cash. How about paying for a resaurant meal with a cheque?
Thank god the government hasn't figured out the elusive secrets of table joins.
Shh! Now they'll know about the secret (+) code!! Who knows what they will do with their newfound power?!
Re:How to take care of the situation you describe
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 2
You're right about the trouble of getting the bad laws off the books, but imagine getting 4,500+ Congresscritters to all agree that the US Patriot act, the DCMA, the Sonny Bono Copyright extention act, and anything Fritz Hollings proposes are all good and need to go through?
Not bloody likely...and that's the point!
Re:How to take care of the situation you describe
on
Copyright as Cudgel
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
make it illegal for any business to contribute a politician
I'll go one better, from Article 1, section 2 of the US Constitution:
The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand ~.
How about we require one representative for every 30k citizens? With the current population at 287,667,120, this gives us 9,588 representatives! Good luck trying to buy them off. The bonus with this plan is that it satisfies the original intent of the Framers: congress is supposed to do very little and take forever to get it done, so they won't mess things up.
Just because something is optioned doesn't mean that it will ever be made into a movie. It means that the company owns the rights to do so. It may very well make that movie, or it can sell the option to someone else, or it can sit on it forever.
For example, Men of Honor was optioned for something like nine years before they were given the green light, and then it took another four years for the movie to be completed.
Yes, I think the government can do it. They released the Terrorists' cell phone conversations after 9/11 (with nary a peep from the privacy advocates), which means they are recording.
However, you are correct -- the government is horribly inept and disorganized, so their chance of obtaining total oppression is low -- but I think it is dangerous to underestimate their ability to subvert our freedoms and rights over the long haul.
No, I'm not against IEEE regs and building regs. It is the fact that something "benign" is so often used for the dark side.
In Houston, they have cameras covering nearly every stretch of freeway -- for "safety" reasons, mind you. Yeah right. Imagine how little of a leap it takes to start tracking vehicles "to combat terrorism" or "reduce crime."
Airlines required ID in order to crush the secondary market for tickets. Now that the feds are involved, they are tracking citizens' travel ("Comrade, been going to Florida often lately? Show us your papers, please!") and investigating those who "fit the profile," so heaven help you if you have to fly at the last minute and want to pay cash.
What about the cell phones with positional tracking "for 911 safety" - they already record every conversation you make, why not just save the positional data while they're at it?
First you must understand that under no conditions will users read the manual. Ever. Save yourself the cost and don't even bother printing one.
Now go build your system so that someone can use it without knowing anything. Also, make it so that an advanced user can get to the functions she wants without going through some idiotic "wizard."
UI tests with actual users? What a interesting thought!!! Maybe someone should try that, too!
They do because everyone is just as bad, so now it is the norm. Kinda makes you wonder how we ever manage to actually advance without collapsing.
Maybe that's why we aren't "beaming" up, telecommuting on Mars, or any of the other cool futuristic stuff we should've done by now --- because we're dragged down by the Norms.
Yeah, along the same time as Boston Market (bankruped in 1999), Planet Hollywood (bankruped in 2000), and Enron.
My portfolio also includes US Airways (U), World Wrestling Entertainment(WWF), Infineon (IFX) - makers of biometric scanners, and Krispy Kreme Donuts, Inc (KKD).
Needless to say, these are all (except the Kreme) in the toilet. If only I'd shorted!:(
Usage Note: The traditional rule holds that fewer should be used for things that can be counted (fewer than four players), while less should be used with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper; less than a gallon of paint).
The geeky story goes that they couldn't find the original plans (if they ever existed), but some gleep supplied a replica chair (search for "relics") that he made.
You can look at a historical graph of their stock price and pinpoint almost the exact moment when people realized that Etoys.com was nothing more than some money-grubbing lawsuit-happy suits who would rather use the courts as a business case than the traditional way (e.g., have a plan on how to make a profit yourself without relying on government handouts).
My point was that one needs to protect one's own privacy, even though Robert S. Mueller and his boys at the FBI could roll over you darn quick, it is the punks and opportunists that we need to keep at bay...and there are so many of 'em.
Look at it this way: you lock your house every time you leave for the day, yet any good thief could break in without breaking a sweat and pick the place clean. If it is futile, why do you still lock your house every day?
Now think about applying this scenario to your "rights" and your "privacy." Why not protect them? Why, for the same reason you lock your house!
I will miss the amateur column in Sci Am though, I
got a lot of good ideas from there.
I submit that
it is not amateur scientists that are in decline, but Scientific
American.
With the loss of the Amateur Scientist column along
with Connections (my two favorites), I find little left in the
magazine (excluding the usual hand-waving fluff) to keep me coming
back. I let my subscription lapse 6 months ago; every once in a
while, I'll browse the monthly copy at the local B&N, but I have
yet to find a compelling reason to buy.
Meanwhile my home-built
gravimeter sits quietly on the shelf, recording local feline
Tachyon emissions...
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine the scenario - you walk into the theater, see the sign "All cell use blocked in this esablishment," then rush outside to join your fellow phone addicts, smokers, and phone-addict smokers for a quick "fix" before the show starts!
This rush to legislate morality is the same thing that brought us the DMCA, US PATRIOT, etc.
This is New York for crissakes. It will be upheld as much as the jay-walking laws.
It's not worth taking the risk.
Some businesses do not accept cash anymore, or very reluctantly. Try renting a car or getting a hotel room with only cash. How about paying for a resaurant meal with a cheque?
Excatly, and that means he knows better than to question the US Government [real player]
FROM blackbook, datebook
WHERE blackbook.id = datebook.ID (+)
ORDER BY datebook.lastspank;
Bill Clinton's find all the honeys that I haven't banged yet.
Not bloody likely...and that's the point!
Just because something is optioned doesn't mean that it will ever be made into a movie. It means that the company owns the rights to do so. It may very well make that movie, or it can sell the option to someone else, or it can sit on it forever.
For example, Men of Honor was optioned for something like nine years before they were given the green light, and then it took another four years for the movie to be completed.
So don't hold your breath.
However, you are correct -- the government is horribly inept and disorganized, so their chance of obtaining total oppression is low -- but I think it is dangerous to underestimate their ability to subvert our freedoms and rights over the long haul.
In Houston, they have cameras covering nearly every stretch of freeway -- for "safety" reasons, mind you. Yeah right. Imagine how little of a leap it takes to start tracking vehicles "to combat terrorism" or "reduce crime."
Airlines required ID in order to crush the secondary market for tickets. Now that the feds are involved, they are tracking citizens' travel ("Comrade, been going to Florida often lately? Show us your papers, please!") and investigating those who "fit the profile," so heaven help you if you have to fly at the last minute and want to pay cash.
What about the cell phones with positional tracking "for 911 safety" - they already record every conversation you make, why not just save the positional data while they're at it?
Thanks.
Now go build your system so that someone can use it without knowing anything. Also, make it so that an advanced user can get to the functions she wants without going through some idiotic "wizard."
UI tests with actual users? What a interesting thought!!! Maybe someone should try that, too!
Maybe that's why we aren't "beaming" up, telecommuting on Mars, or any of the other cool futuristic stuff we should've done by now --- because we're dragged down by the Norms.
My portfolio also includes US Airways (U), World Wrestling Entertainment(WWF), Infineon (IFX) - makers of biometric scanners, and Krispy Kreme Donuts, Inc (KKD).
Needless to say, these are all (except the Kreme) in the toilet. If only I'd shorted! :(
From Dictionary.com (with my emphasis):
Usage Note: The traditional rule holds that fewer should be used for things that can be counted (fewer than four players), while less should be used with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper; less than a gallon of paint).
The geeky story goes that they couldn't find the original plans (if they ever existed), but some gleep supplied a replica chair (search for "relics") that he made.
You can look at a historical graph of their stock price and pinpoint almost the exact moment when people realized that Etoys.com was nothing more than some money-grubbing lawsuit-happy suits who would rather use the courts as a business case than the traditional way (e.g., have a plan on how to make a profit yourself without relying on government handouts).
RIP Etoys; say Hi to Beelzebub for me.
My point was that one needs to protect one's own privacy, even though Robert S. Mueller and his boys at the FBI could roll over you darn quick, it is the punks and opportunists that we need to keep at bay...and there are so many of 'em.
Now think about applying this scenario to your "rights" and your "privacy." Why not protect them? Why, for the same reason you lock your house!
With the loss of the Amateur Scientist column along with Connections (my two favorites), I find little left in the magazine (excluding the usual hand-waving fluff) to keep me coming back. I let my subscription lapse 6 months ago; every once in a while, I'll browse the monthly copy at the local B&N, but I have yet to find a compelling reason to buy.
Meanwhile my home-built gravimeter sits quietly on the shelf, recording local feline Tachyon emissions...