I would only want to hear from a copyright lawyer on the issue. One thing that's undeniably true, the internet is filled with amateur videos by Star Trek and superhero fans, many of them quite authentic in terms of characters, costumes, etc. The unwritten rule for years has been that as long as the creators don't profit from it, no one will object. I don't know if there's legal precedence or not, but that's how it's been. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Windows was never about the look or design. It's about functionality, customization, and widespread adaptation. Somehow Gates communicated this without saying it. Windows may still be a success, but it seems to bounce around aimlessly in these ways now, satisfying no one.
If you want sumptuous design, go with Apple. If you want no frills nuts and bolts, go with Linux. If you want the most universally used OS on the planet, you go with Windows. Microsoft: stop trying to be Apple! Gamers don't care, Grandma doesn't care, the people on the assembly line don't care, the employee at the POS screen doesn't care. They aren't using Windows for its looks.
They have so many long games over there. I'll believe it when I see it. Just because Bing and Yahoo have scored some strategic alliances eating at some of their core business? Please. This is not another Atari, where phalanxes of clueless idiots are pissing away the business. A lot of Silicon Valley businesses, like Google and even Facebook (yes, I said Facebook) have a lot going on that most are completely unaware of. Big, smart things going on.
If you find yourself needing that ethernet cable when you're helping Grandma with her new computer, and you can't use Prime Fresh, or go to Best Buy, or wait for mail order, try the local PC repair shops, or maybe you'll even get lucky and find an old school mom-and-pops electronic store in the area. They often have everything you'd walk into Radio Shack for, minus the pitch for an extended warranty.
I got hooked on Macs and iPhones a while ago. I was never an iPad guy, but when the Air came around, it had the specs to appeal to me. I still resisted, then when the Air 2 came out, I had to treat myself. I love the fuck out of that thing. It's light and fast and lasts for ages and is glorious to look at. I actually have a Logitech bluetooth keyboard cover and there's very little I can't do with it, in terms of leisure and productivity. I'm hooked. Well played, Apple, well played.
Science celebrities (DeGrasse-Tyson, Sagan, etc) would be awesome proponents of science... if they would stop yapping politics. Seriously, scientific discovery and history are wonderful things. Enticing folks into wanting to know more about our world and universe is an awesome thing.
But... when you have some scientist-turned-celebrity yammering on and on and on about some purely political viewpoint (and worse, misrepresenting opposing ones and falling victim to even the most basic of logical fallacies), then it sucks.
A good example of a science celeb? Dr. Michio Kaku. Dude sticks to science for the most part, and doesn't try to recruit political acolytes to gain points, controversy, or notoriety.
But they don't exist in a vacuum. Politicians and religious leaders are shouting all this jargon, and both journalists and pseudo-journalists ask them questions about it, and someone has to respond to it. As the press has recently caught on about, the creationist movement cleverly gamed the system so that their pseudo-scientific views were on a par with mainstream scientific views-- "teach the controversy". There really isn't a controversy. If scientists somehow all refused to respond, then the public would be even more misled, I would think.
Right now TV is arguably in its greatest era, and there has been a glut of really mediocre films, so I'm not at all surprised. You can go to the theaters and pay a fortune for movies that can't crack 7.5 on IMDB, or you can sit at home with your gigantic TV screen and watch Walking Dead, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Hannibal, True Detective, Game of Thrones, and that's a fraction of what's available at home in the US, and I haven't even hinted at British and European television. Plus, if you get started on any TV show and it's not grabbing you, you can just switch to something else. The movie industry really has to step up its game.
But all the speculations in this thread, over race and genetics, are not addressing the claims in the book. This is a separate discussion. You're all presuming the author was merely stating unpleasant truths. The only question relevant to this book is: was the author quote-mining to bolster a racist agenda, or not?
Another, more accurate way to state it, IMO: "I accept the theory". It is not a belief system, it is not another religion, and it is not a debate to be won.
You have apparently never been to California, where some of the world's brightest minds believe the most irrational nonsense. That goes double for Silicon Valley, where the unfortunate phrase "drank the Kool-Aid" was coined.
Slashdot Mirror
How successful or unsuccessful were they?
Another example: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt04...
I would only want to hear from a copyright lawyer on the issue. One thing that's undeniably true, the internet is filled with amateur videos by Star Trek and superhero fans, many of them quite authentic in terms of characters, costumes, etc. The unwritten rule for years has been that as long as the creators don't profit from it, no one will object. I don't know if there's legal precedence or not, but that's how it's been. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://www.fandompost.com/wp-c...
I think it's pretty nice to look at, personally.
Windows was never about the look or design. It's about functionality, customization, and widespread adaptation. Somehow Gates communicated this without saying it. Windows may still be a success, but it seems to bounce around aimlessly in these ways now, satisfying no one. If you want sumptuous design, go with Apple. If you want no frills nuts and bolts, go with Linux. If you want the most universally used OS on the planet, you go with Windows. Microsoft: stop trying to be Apple! Gamers don't care, Grandma doesn't care, the people on the assembly line don't care, the employee at the POS screen doesn't care. They aren't using Windows for its looks.
They have so many long games over there. I'll believe it when I see it. Just because Bing and Yahoo have scored some strategic alliances eating at some of their core business? Please. This is not another Atari, where phalanxes of clueless idiots are pissing away the business. A lot of Silicon Valley businesses, like Google and even Facebook (yes, I said Facebook) have a lot going on that most are completely unaware of. Big, smart things going on.
If you find yourself needing that ethernet cable when you're helping Grandma with her new computer, and you can't use Prime Fresh, or go to Best Buy, or wait for mail order, try the local PC repair shops, or maybe you'll even get lucky and find an old school mom-and-pops electronic store in the area. They often have everything you'd walk into Radio Shack for, minus the pitch for an extended warranty.
I got hooked on Macs and iPhones a while ago. I was never an iPad guy, but when the Air came around, it had the specs to appeal to me. I still resisted, then when the Air 2 came out, I had to treat myself. I love the fuck out of that thing. It's light and fast and lasts for ages and is glorious to look at. I actually have a Logitech bluetooth keyboard cover and there's very little I can't do with it, in terms of leisure and productivity. I'm hooked. Well played, Apple, well played.
Theories aside, you have a solid point.
Science celebrities (DeGrasse-Tyson, Sagan, etc) would be awesome proponents of science... if they would stop yapping politics. Seriously, scientific discovery and history are wonderful things. Enticing folks into wanting to know more about our world and universe is an awesome thing.
But... when you have some scientist-turned-celebrity yammering on and on and on about some purely political viewpoint (and worse, misrepresenting opposing ones and falling victim to even the most basic of logical fallacies), then it sucks.
A good example of a science celeb? Dr. Michio Kaku. Dude sticks to science for the most part, and doesn't try to recruit political acolytes to gain points, controversy, or notoriety.
But they don't exist in a vacuum. Politicians and religious leaders are shouting all this jargon, and both journalists and pseudo-journalists ask them questions about it, and someone has to respond to it. As the press has recently caught on about, the creationist movement cleverly gamed the system so that their pseudo-scientific views were on a par with mainstream scientific views-- "teach the controversy". There really isn't a controversy. If scientists somehow all refused to respond, then the public would be even more misled, I would think.
Infamous porn copyright troll, using humiliation of public exposure as a tactic.
Right now TV is arguably in its greatest era, and there has been a glut of really mediocre films, so I'm not at all surprised. You can go to the theaters and pay a fortune for movies that can't crack 7.5 on IMDB, or you can sit at home with your gigantic TV screen and watch Walking Dead, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Hannibal, True Detective, Game of Thrones, and that's a fraction of what's available at home in the US, and I haven't even hinted at British and European television. Plus, if you get started on any TV show and it's not grabbing you, you can just switch to something else. The movie industry really has to step up its game.
Great stuff in the rest of this conversation.It's rare to scroll down and feel like it was worth my time. Thank you.
We're going to need a bigger basement.
sporty?
But all the speculations in this thread, over race and genetics, are not addressing the claims in the book. This is a separate discussion. You're all presuming the author was merely stating unpleasant truths. The only question relevant to this book is: was the author quote-mining to bolster a racist agenda, or not?
But if the study is flawed, including arbitrary numbers, further discussion is fairly pointless.
Another, more accurate way to state it, IMO: "I accept the theory". It is not a belief system, it is not another religion, and it is not a debate to be won.
The firing pin?
Won't nearly everyone in this thread fail because they forgot to type sudo ? :p
Somebody should give him William Lane Craig's address.
This guy must have been mentored by some prick who puts the average American through this kind of a crap on your standard American reality show.
TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!
You have apparently never been to California, where some of the world's brightest minds believe the most irrational nonsense. That goes double for Silicon Valley, where the unfortunate phrase "drank the Kool-Aid" was coined.
Radioshack is the place where grandma goes when her landline phone stops working.
There is not one single USB 3 device in Radio Shack: neither cables nor flash drives nor anything USB3.
The staff doesn't understand half of what they have in the back, where nerds go for an obscure item for a project.
They will try to sell you an extended warranty on a 5-dollar audio cable.
The coffin has a lot more nails, but I think four is enough to point out.