The article (or at least the blog entry) never says that he was told by administration that it was a no-go. His venue was repeatedly cancelled or denied. At no time does he say that anyone told him not to give the lecture.
Re:Jumping in on the discussion early.
on
A Game of Thrones
·
· Score: 1
For another series with even more characters, but in a sci-fi setting, check out David Wingrove's "Chung Kuo" series.
I was in a situation like this a few years ago, only the company wasn't in financial problems at all. We were posting a strong profit and higher-ups were taking nice bonuses. Meanwhile our bonus plan got trashed, we were working 70-80 hour weeks including stat holidays, and getting nothing for it. Also management was accepting contracts with deadlines we could not make without working double-time. After they asked us for the estimates and we gave them the correct amount of work.
We were in a position where our group of 5 developers were working with custom-built software. There was a ramp-up time of several months to get new people to the point where they could be productive developers. And of course no docs:) So if we left they would have forfeited on some large contracts and they had no hope of bringing in replacements.
We did the extra work for about 6 months, including getting screwed two quarters in a row on bonuses, before we took action. Instead of all quitting we simply announced that since the company refused to acknowledge our extra efforts on their behalf they would no longer get extra effort. We worked hard for our regular hours but no late nights, no weekend work, no coming in on holidays. Our lives all got a lot better and we still had jobs.
Of course that was in a market where we all knew that we could walk out the door any morning and have several job offers by the afternoon:)
maybe it's a blessing in disguise that my new car stereo got ripped off on Sunday (from the church parking lot during service, nonetheless, bastards.....)
Pretty common actually. Think about it. You know everyone who parks there ain't coming out for at least an hour. It's not that uncommon to have a number of cars broken into all in a row in a church lot. (No I am not a stereo thief, just someone who's grown up going to lots of different churches.)
What causes problems is when someone tells me I can't do what I want with the media I've bought that I get a little upset.
As long as I dont' redistribute what I do, I can do whatever I want with what I've purchased.
it is not my responsibility to prove my innocence, it is your responsibility to prove my guilt
These assumptions are where your argument breaks down. Based on things like the DMCA and EULA on the software, YOU DON'T OWN THE SOFTWARE! You do not have the right to do whatever you want with it. As part of the EULA they can say that you have to produce evidence that you have legal license on demand. So in fact you are in violation of the license if you cannot prove that you paid for it.
(Not saying I agree with this at all, just that's how the BSA and their ilk are interpreting things. And that is how they count on the court interpreting it.)
True enough, but this article is not really thinking critically. The "summary" of LOTR and alot of the statements about Tolkien's writings are just plain wrong. His argument with respect to the LOTR only makes sense if you DO NOT think critically. He pursposesly takes an extremely simplistic view of LOTR and overlooks anything that doesn't agree with his argument. (See some other posts for examples). Some that I haven't seen mentioned yet are:
Silmarillion was written BEFORE the LOTR, not after (it was published after though)
Sauron's army certainly did not have "every race" represented - no Elves, Dwarves, hobbits, etc. (And so what if he did)
Sauron's appearance is specifically explained -- he did used to change his appearance until he lost the ability when he was almost destroyed in the destruction of Numenor
There is nothing to support Brin's claim that the ringwraiths were trying to overthrow elves
So, while Brin's end point about thinking critically might be a good one, this argument formulated throughout the article as an example is completely UNCRITICAL.
I would also like to point out that the US is in the 10th position as the other countries were tied for their spots.
No, the US IS in 17th position, just like Canada is in 5th even though there was a 4-way tie for first. There are 16 countries with better scores then the US, thus 17th position.
Regardless of whether the Morris-Thorne principle is real or not, the reviewers point is still valid. If you have a Morris-Thorne principle and go into the past at approx. the right time and introduce a character named Morris, the reader is probably going to assume that it is the same Morris. As an author you can pick any name. Why introduce a duplicate if it isn't necessary?
Basically WIPO is saying that you can not defend a domain name by asserting that a trademark has become a generic. If you wish to challenge a trademark, you must do it in
the jurisdiction where the trademark originates. As long as the trademark is considered valid in its original jurisdiction, it is accepted as valid in WIPO proceedings
This sounds perfectly ok to me (aside from the fact that the patent system sucks, etc. etc.). The part that really stood out to me was:
The inference from the above evidence is that the Respondent's planned and partially developed web site while it may include articles relating to the UNIX system is already designed to contain links to
commercial sites.
WTF? Because there is a link under "Resources" to a commercial site, that prevents claiming that unix.org is non-commercial? If it was a banner ad, or a site he owned, or he was receiving some kind of compensation for the link then it would be commercial. But a non-commercial site can't have any links to a site that sells a product??? That's ridiculous.
A number of people have already pointed out some of the flaws of using pop. stats for the cities involved. The whole point about which stories get covered is that the media conglomerates are playing to national audiences. Thus they are looking for stories that appeal to a wide national demographic.
In fact its even more complicated than that. The advertisers, who use the tv ratings to determine where and how much to advertise, are looking for very specific demographics. And it isn't by straight headcount. For example, luxury car dealers want high-income males. They will take a show that viewers in that market segment over another show that has 10 times the actual viewers.
Its a way to distinguish between something that is free of charge (as in free beer) and something that is liberated or unencumbered (as in free speech). A program that is distributed as binary only with licensing against reuse, reverse engineering, etc. but has no charge is free as in beer. Free Software, like GPLed code, protects the rights of others to use and modify the code and is thus free as in speech (and usually free as in beer too).
This is only going to get worse. I'm not talking about product-placement stuff that has gone on for decades, I'm talking about how our television will very quickly resemble a poorly-designed web page. Navigation banner on the top, news/stock/other update scroll on the bottom, advertisement on either side and less than 40% of the on-screen space used for content, right in the middle. This will be extra-great with the poor NTSC standard we have in the US.
This is already happening in some places, but without the ads. Have you seen some of the morning shows on cable or business channels. (I don't have cable anymore and can't think of specific examples.) They have news headlines running in one part, stock quotes in another, temperature, traffic cameras, etc. And then in the middle is a talking head in a tiny window rambling on about something.
It seemed to work for Andy Warhol with the soup cans and other copies of ordinary household products. It may not be super-duper, ivory tower elite art, but it qualifies as art.
Yes, but Andy didn't paint and exact replica of a soup can on a soup can label, affix it to the can of soup, and stick in a supermarket. The fact that he chose to use that subject in a painting is in itself a statement. Painting a purely functional sign to existing specs isn't the same thing.
So if I bought Win95 and then a Win98 upgrade, does MS expect me to wipe the machine, re-install Win95 and then give it to them? Or would it be OK as long as I provided them with both the original media and the 98 upgrade media? (I suppose in a sense the original OS is still there since upgraded).
And how exactly are they going to verify that the OS provided is the "original OS"? If I wipe the drive and install a full copy of 98 or Win2k how are you going to know that that wasn't the original?
But that's exactly what the corruption/honesty simulation is trying to argue against. It is saying that traditional social science modelling is fundamentally flawed because it assumes everyone in a particular group behaves the same and has unlimited knowledge.
A social model that viewed
individuals as multiple copies of the same fully informed person could
thus never "see" the social transformation that Hammond found, for
the simple reason that without diversity and limited knowledge, the
transformation never happens. Given that human beings are
invariably diverse and that the knowledge at their disposal is invariably
limited, it would seem to follow that even societies in which
unsophisticated people obey rudimentary rules will produce surprises
and discontinuities--events that cannot be foreseen either through
intuition or through the more conventional sorts of social science.
I don't think that's a very fair characterization of the article. I agree that the author obviously has problems with Campbell but he had alot to say about Lucas too. Mainly the fact that Lucas jumped all over Campbell's explanations to try and make himself look better. He talks about the shift in Lucas' statements about Star Wars before and after Campbell (~1980). The other thing he goes after Lucas for is failing to acknowledge the influence of pulp sci-fi.
Exactly. Just because someone says they understand something doesn't make it true. Maybe nor'easters have a more realistic understanding of their own knowledge. Not saying they do, just that it explains the results equally well.
Also notice this Though
fewer than half of Americans with computers say they fully understand how to
operate them and all their features, there are differences by region.
What the hell does it mean to "fully understand" how to use a computer and all of its features?
Slashdot Mirror
The article (or at least the blog entry) never says that he was told by administration that it was a no-go. His venue was repeatedly cancelled or denied. At no time does he say that anyone told him not to give the lecture.
For another series with even more characters, but in a sci-fi setting, check out David Wingrove's "Chung Kuo" series.
I was in a situation like this a few years ago, only the company wasn't in financial problems at all. We were posting a strong profit and higher-ups were taking nice bonuses. Meanwhile our bonus plan got trashed, we were working 70-80 hour weeks including stat holidays, and getting nothing for it. Also management was accepting contracts with deadlines we could not make without working double-time. After they asked us for the estimates and we gave them the correct amount of work.
We were in a position where our group of 5 developers were working with custom-built software. There was a ramp-up time of several months to get new people to the point where they could be productive developers. And of course no docs :) So if we left they would have forfeited on some large contracts and they had no hope of bringing in replacements.
We did the extra work for about 6 months, including getting screwed two quarters in a row on bonuses, before we took action. Instead of all quitting we simply announced that since the company refused to acknowledge our extra efforts on their behalf they would no longer get extra effort. We worked hard for our regular hours but no late nights, no weekend work, no coming in on holidays. Our lives all got a lot better and we still had jobs.
Of course that was in a market where we all knew that we could walk out the door any morning and have several job offers by the afternoon :)
And of course many of Shakespeare's plays were based on much older public domain material.
What makes you think I was a nerdy ... oh, never mind.
Pretty common actually. Think about it. You know everyone who parks there ain't coming out for at least an hour. It's not that uncommon to have a number of cars broken into all in a row in a church lot. (No I am not a stereo thief, just someone who's grown up going to lots of different churches.)
What causes problems is when someone tells me I can't do what I want with the media I've bought that I get a little upset.
As long as I dont' redistribute what I do, I can do whatever I want with what I've purchased.
it is not my responsibility to prove my innocence, it is your responsibility to prove my guilt
These assumptions are where your argument breaks down. Based on things like the DMCA and EULA on the software, YOU DON'T OWN THE SOFTWARE! You do not have the right to do whatever you want with it. As part of the EULA they can say that you have to produce evidence that you have legal license on demand. So in fact you are in violation of the license if you cannot prove that you paid for it.
(Not saying I agree with this at all, just that's how the BSA and their ilk are interpreting things. And that is how they count on the court interpreting it.)
- Silmarillion was written BEFORE the LOTR, not after (it was published after though)
- Sauron's army certainly did not have "every race" represented - no Elves, Dwarves, hobbits, etc. (And so what if he did)
- Sauron's appearance is specifically explained -- he did used to change his appearance until he lost the ability when he was almost destroyed in the destruction of Numenor
- There is nothing to support Brin's claim that the ringwraiths were trying to overthrow elves
So, while Brin's end point about thinking critically might be a good one, this argument formulated throughout the article as an example is completely UNCRITICAL.But at least v4 browser users have the option to upgrade their browser. Disabled users don't.
I would also like to point out that the US is in the 10th position as the other countries were tied for their spots.
No, the US IS in 17th position, just like Canada is in 5th even though there was a 4-way tie for first. There are 16 countries with better scores then the US, thus 17th position.
Regardless of whether the Morris-Thorne principle is real or not, the reviewers point is still valid. If you have a Morris-Thorne principle and go into the past at approx. the right time and introduce a character named Morris, the reader is probably going to assume that it is the same Morris. As an author you can pick any name. Why introduce a duplicate if it isn't necessary?
you have included a "reptile-like" character as well as a "monster-like" character, which you refer to as "GODZILLA"
There is a big difference between this and what Mozilla does. They never explicitly refer to Godzilla.
This sounds perfectly ok to me (aside from the fact that the patent system sucks, etc. etc.). The part that really stood out to me was:
WTF? Because there is a link under "Resources" to a commercial site, that prevents claiming that unix.org is non-commercial? If it was a banner ad, or a site he owned, or he was receiving some kind of compensation for the link then it would be commercial. But a non-commercial site can't have any links to a site that sells a product??? That's ridiculous.So what? She wasn't in any Kevin Smith movies before Dogma either. Why should she be in the one Kevin Smith movie that has come out since Dogma?
A number of people have already pointed out some of the flaws of using pop. stats for the cities involved. The whole point about which stories get covered is that the media conglomerates are playing to national audiences. Thus they are looking for stories that appeal to a wide national demographic.
In fact its even more complicated than that. The advertisers, who use the tv ratings to determine where and how much to advertise, are looking for very specific demographics. And it isn't by straight headcount. For example, luxury car dealers want high-income males. They will take a show that viewers in that market segment over another show that has 10 times the actual viewers.
Its a way to distinguish between something that is free of charge (as in free beer) and something that is liberated or unencumbered (as in free speech). A program that is distributed as binary only with licensing against reuse, reverse engineering, etc. but has no charge is free as in beer. Free Software, like GPLed code, protects the rights of others to use and modify the code and is thus free as in speech (and usually free as in beer too).
This is only going to get worse. I'm not talking about product-placement stuff that has gone on for decades, I'm talking about how our television will very quickly resemble a poorly-designed web page. Navigation banner on the top, news/stock/other update scroll on the bottom, advertisement on either side and less than 40% of the on-screen space used for content, right in the middle. This will be extra-great with the poor NTSC standard we have in the US.
This is already happening in some places, but without the ads. Have you seen some of the morning shows on cable or business channels. (I don't have cable anymore and can't think of specific examples.) They have news headlines running in one part, stock quotes in another, temperature, traffic cameras, etc. And then in the middle is a talking head in a tiny window rambling on about something.
Except that according to the BIG GIANT NOTICE on top of the linux.ca website they are closed. And the website is frozen as of March 2000.
So if I bought Win95 and then a Win98 upgrade, does MS expect me to wipe the machine, re-install Win95 and then give it to them? Or would it be OK as long as I provided them with both the original media and the 98 upgrade media? (I suppose in a sense the original OS is still there since upgraded).
And how exactly are they going to verify that the OS provided is the "original OS"? If I wipe the drive and install a full copy of 98 or Win2k how are you going to know that that wasn't the original?
Unfortunately it seems that more and more record companies are preventing bands from selling cds at their shows because of this.
But that's exactly what the corruption/honesty simulation is trying to argue against. It is saying that traditional social science modelling is fundamentally flawed because it assumes everyone in a particular group behaves the same and has unlimited knowledge.
A social model that viewed individuals as multiple copies of the same fully informed person could thus never "see" the social transformation that Hammond found, for the simple reason that without diversity and limited knowledge, the transformation never happens. Given that human beings are invariably diverse and that the knowledge at their disposal is invariably limited, it would seem to follow that even societies in which unsophisticated people obey rudimentary rules will produce surprises and discontinuities--events that cannot be foreseen either through intuition or through the more conventional sorts of social science.
I don't think that's a very fair characterization of the article. I agree that the author obviously has problems with Campbell but he had alot to say about Lucas too. Mainly the fact that Lucas jumped all over Campbell's explanations to try and make himself look better. He talks about the shift in Lucas' statements about Star Wars before and after Campbell (~1980). The other thing he goes after Lucas for is failing to acknowledge the influence of pulp sci-fi.
If they aren't going to develop it anymore and they have already been giving it away for free, why not let us have the source and keep it alive?
Also notice this
Though fewer than half of Americans with computers say they fully understand how to operate them and all their features, there are differences by region.
What the hell does it mean to "fully understand" how to use a computer and all of its features?