Martin Luther King comes to mind off the top of my head. On the other hand, I can't think of anyone who's achieved anything of any importance with shock.
"Have you read Thompson's "argument" with a 14 year old? He made the kid sound like Socrates, as someone else has said, by comparison."
So the appropriate, mature response is to lower yourself to his level?
"Thompson has continuously acted first, and cries when he's called on his actions or arguments."
Ahh yes, the classic playground "He started it!" defense. Thanks for answering my question. With that kind of debating technique, prepare yourself for a lot of disappointments in the future.
"The problem is that this "yellow dot" printing system links a deliberately anonymous document, possibly containing protected speech (such as an anonymous letter to the editor or a political flyer) to the legal name of the author"
No it doesn't, it links it to a printer's serial number. Are you suggesting that the govenrment maintains a database of inkjet printers and their owners? How would they even attain that kind of information?
"And I LOATHE anyone making any preconceived conclusions about me without any personal knowledge of who I am or anything else"
If people wearing "I hate Jack Thompson" t-shirts are worried about people drawing the wrong conclusions, perhaps they should try to communicate their message in a less childish manner.
If you want to act like a child, fine. But don't be surprised when you are treated in kind.
It's called "class", and it's something that is very much lacking in today's society in favor of "shock".
First off, nothing good is EVER accomplished through hatred. Rather, hatred is the cause of so many problems we face today. Glorifying hatered on a t-shirt is counterproductive, and reflects VERY poorly on the reasonable cause the shirt represents. Which leads to my second point...
It's hard to take people seriously when they make a public spectacle of themselves. Face it: the only point of such a t-shirt is to attract attention and elicit a response. Around here we call that "trolling" and such behavior is appropriately dismissed as irrelevant. It should come to no surprise that such behavior offline is similarly disregarded.
"The information that is recorded on the pages of these printers is sufficient to determine who purchased the printer, which is in turn sufficient to determine the social security number, bank records, etc of that person."
Someone can discover much more than that just by looking in my mailbox. Should I be foaming at the mouth that the USPS is actively compromising my privacy?
If someone wants to gather personal information to commit fraud, there are far easier ways to go about it. I'm not going to lose sleep worrying about what my printer might be telling the world about me.
I think most of the issues people have with Slashdot have nothing to do with the design, but rather the underlying mechanics that run it.
The CSS upgrade was a great idea, if long overdue. An upgrade to the professionalism of the site owners is also long overdue.
No this isn't a personal attack on the editors; rather it is a challenge to them to improve Slashdot by paying closer attention to the important details that the parent so thoroughly pointed out. Slashdot is good; but they can make it great with a little diligence and effort.
"The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters."
And you're worried that the information hidden in these dots will be abused how, exactly? And I'll need more details than "would-be facists".
"Makes you wonder what other identifying information..."
OK, so it's a little irritating that this is happening. But come on, this isn't the egregious violation of your personal privacy that you make it out to be. What is "personally identifying" about time, date, and printer serial number?
They aren't recording your social security number, your bank records, or your subscriptions to magazines of questionable taste. Set aside your indignant outrage, and loosen the tinfoil hat a little.
Another perfectly valid argument that goes against the groupthink modded down with cowardly and un-meta-moderation-able "overrated" mods. Who could have seen that one coming?
Are you suggesting that vulnerabilities in Firefox and other popular OSS software aren't newsworthy? Or are you saying that such news should be actively supressed for the sake of the 'movement'?
You advocate a government, then, that is chaotic and inherently inconsistent. A perfect example: "If a party campaigns on the right to bear arms and wins then so be it, everyone can carry a gun but it is also fair that the opposite result will also hold true."
Let's assume that we still have 4-year election cycles. One term, the "pro-gun" party wins, and people are allowed to own guns. Four years later, the "anti-gun" party wins, and people have to get rid of their guns. Then the "pro-gun" party wins again, and people who want to own a gun must buy one again. Four years later, the "anti-gun" party wins again, and once again people have to get rid of their guns.
This country was founded as a republic, with a constitutional foundation, for very good reasons, with consistency and stability being high up on that list.
Are these gun manufacturers simply selling a product and should not be concerned with how it is used or are they contributing to the problem of criminals?
"They don't have the parental/community support structures, and they've been raised to place little value on education."
Nothing to do with money/income.
"There was a study someone mentioned to me the other day, discussing parents who raised their kids saying "when you go to university" vs "if you go to university". The kids who heard "when" were far more likely to actually go."
Again, nothing to do with money/income.
"And if lower income kids are getting the message "you'll never go to university" or "education is worthless", how well do you think they'll do?"
Probably about as poorly as a higher income kid who is told that they don't need to go to university because he/she is already set for life.
All of these situations you described are cultural, not financial. Children whose parents instill a high value of education in them will always perform better than those of parents who don't, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
And no, school vouchers might not be the answer. But locking students into crappy schools through taxation certainly isn't either.
"Also, they're more likely to be in a culture that does not value education"
Well now I think you're on to something. That doesn't have anything to do with being rich or poor, hence why I don't believe that "socioeconomic class" is an appropriate term here.
If you can "fix" a culture that doesn't value education, many of their "disadvantages" will evaporate.
Of course, if that happens, the Sharptons and Jacksons won't have the race card to play anymore, so they fight tooth and nail against REAL education reform.
"Attendees of private school achieve more because they come from a higher socioeconomic level, not just because their status allows them to afford better schools."
Willing to expand on that? What besides money is keeping these students from excelling in private shcools? If money isn't the problem, then what is keeping them from excelling in public schools?
You can't just throw out a scholarly, obfuscating term like "socioeconomic class" as a blanket explanation for the problems with our education system. You need to explain HOW it is the cause of the problems.
I read your post last week, and let me tell ya, it got my gears turning!
I wanted to use the setup as a gaming system in addition to handling all my home theatre needs, but one question remained. Isn't there some length threshold for the DVI cable beyond which the picture starts to degrade? Perhaps that only is an issue with current analog cables, but I was wondering what you would do if you kept the PC fairly far away from the TV.
Otherwise, an inspiring article. I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on some of the XPS systems (such as the Kloss KL-i915A) in your Synergystic PC design.
Yes, that's really what kids in third world countries need.
Why teach kids about trivial subject like agriculture, medicine, birth control, and the basic rules of civilization when they can learn how to compile their own kernel and develop the next big P2P network?
Re:Originality
on
Ask Sid Meier
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
"When is the gaming industry going to start introducing original games and not producing sequels just for the sake of production and/or profit? Take Doom 3 for example..."
Slashdot Mirror
Martin Luther King comes to mind off the top of my head. On the other hand, I can't think of anyone who's achieved anything of any importance with shock.
"Have you read Thompson's "argument" with a 14 year old? He made the kid sound like Socrates, as someone else has said, by comparison."
So the appropriate, mature response is to lower yourself to his level?
"Thompson has continuously acted first, and cries when he's called on his actions or arguments."
Ahh yes, the classic playground "He started it!" defense. Thanks for answering my question. With that kind of debating technique, prepare yourself for a lot of disappointments in the future.
"The problem is that this "yellow dot" printing system links a deliberately anonymous document, possibly containing protected speech (such as an anonymous letter to the editor or a political flyer) to the legal name of the author"
No it doesn't, it links it to a printer's serial number. Are you suggesting that the govenrment maintains a database of inkjet printers and their owners? How would they even attain that kind of information?
"And I LOATHE anyone making any preconceived conclusions about me without any personal knowledge of who I am or anything else"
If people wearing "I hate Jack Thompson" t-shirts are worried about people drawing the wrong conclusions, perhaps they should try to communicate their message in a less childish manner.
If you want to act like a child, fine. But don't be surprised when you are treated in kind.
This isn't lunch we're talking about, it's INFORMATION! Information wants to be... aww hell, I can't do it!
It's called "class", and it's something that is very much lacking in today's society in favor of "shock".
First off, nothing good is EVER accomplished through hatred. Rather, hatred is the cause of so many problems we face today. Glorifying hatered on a t-shirt is counterproductive, and reflects VERY poorly on the reasonable cause the shirt represents. Which leads to my second point...
It's hard to take people seriously when they make a public spectacle of themselves. Face it: the only point of such a t-shirt is to attract attention and elicit a response. Around here we call that "trolling" and such behavior is appropriately dismissed as irrelevant. It should come to no surprise that such behavior offline is similarly disregarded.
"The information that is recorded on the pages of these printers is sufficient to determine who purchased the printer, which is in turn sufficient to determine the social security number, bank records, etc of that person."
Someone can discover much more than that just by looking in my mailbox. Should I be foaming at the mouth that the USPS is actively compromising my privacy?
If someone wants to gather personal information to commit fraud, there are far easier ways to go about it. I'm not going to lose sleep worrying about what my printer might be telling the world about me.
I think the (non-metamoderate-able) overrated mod the parent post got proves his point quite well?
Great post, first rate!
I think most of the issues people have with Slashdot have nothing to do with the design, but rather the underlying mechanics that run it.
The CSS upgrade was a great idea, if long overdue. An upgrade to the professionalism of the site owners is also long overdue.
No this isn't a personal attack on the editors; rather it is a challenge to them to improve Slashdot by paying closer attention to the important details that the parent so thoroughly pointed out. Slashdot is good; but they can make it great with a little diligence and effort.
"The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters."
And you're worried that the information hidden in these dots will be abused how, exactly? And I'll need more details than "would-be facists".
The EFF != The Government
In fact, you may be surprised to learn that the two are usually at odds with one another.
"Makes you wonder what other identifying information..."
OK, so it's a little irritating that this is happening. But come on, this isn't the egregious violation of your personal privacy that you make it out to be. What is "personally identifying" about time, date, and printer serial number?
They aren't recording your social security number, your bank records, or your subscriptions to magazines of questionable taste. Set aside your indignant outrage, and loosen the tinfoil hat a little.
As opposed to editing a variety of obscure .conf files? Thanks, but no thanks, I'll take the registry. At least it's all in one place.
Another perfectly valid argument that goes against the groupthink modded down with cowardly and un-meta-moderation-able "overrated" mods. Who could have seen that one coming?
Are you suggesting that vulnerabilities in Firefox and other popular OSS software aren't newsworthy? Or are you saying that such news should be actively supressed for the sake of the 'movement'?
You advocate a government, then, that is chaotic and inherently inconsistent. A perfect example: "If a party campaigns on the right to bear arms and wins then so be it, everyone can carry a gun but it is also fair that the opposite result will also hold true."
Let's assume that we still have 4-year election cycles. One term, the "pro-gun" party wins, and people are allowed to own guns. Four years later, the "anti-gun" party wins, and people have to get rid of their guns. Then the "pro-gun" party wins again, and people who want to own a gun must buy one again. Four years later, the "anti-gun" party wins again, and once again people have to get rid of their guns.
This country was founded as a republic, with a constitutional foundation, for very good reasons, with consistency and stability being high up on that list.
...and allow me to fan it with an analogy:
Are these gun manufacturers simply selling a product and should not be concerned with how it is used or are they contributing to the problem of criminals?
Flame on!
"They don't have the parental/community support structures, and they've been raised to place little value on education."
Nothing to do with money/income.
"There was a study someone mentioned to me the other day, discussing parents who raised their kids saying "when you go to university" vs "if you go to university". The kids who heard "when" were far more likely to actually go."
Again, nothing to do with money/income.
"And if lower income kids are getting the message "you'll never go to university" or "education is worthless", how well do you think they'll do?"
Probably about as poorly as a higher income kid who is told that they don't need to go to university because he/she is already set for life.
All of these situations you described are cultural, not financial. Children whose parents instill a high value of education in them will always perform better than those of parents who don't, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
And no, school vouchers might not be the answer. But locking students into crappy schools through taxation certainly isn't either.
"Also, they're more likely to be in a culture that does not value education"
Well now I think you're on to something. That doesn't have anything to do with being rich or poor, hence why I don't believe that "socioeconomic class" is an appropriate term here.
If you can "fix" a culture that doesn't value education, many of their "disadvantages" will evaporate.
Of course, if that happens, the Sharptons and Jacksons won't have the race card to play anymore, so they fight tooth and nail against REAL education reform.
"Attendees of private school achieve more because they come from a higher socioeconomic level, not just because their status allows them to afford better schools."
Willing to expand on that? What besides money is keeping these students from excelling in private shcools? If money isn't the problem, then what is keeping them from excelling in public schools?
You can't just throw out a scholarly, obfuscating term like "socioeconomic class" as a blanket explanation for the problems with our education system. You need to explain HOW it is the cause of the problems.
Right, because the best way to recover credibility from one ignorant, biased editorial is to follow it up with another.
No wonder Slashdot enjoys so much popularity.
I read your post last week, and let me tell ya, it got my gears turning!
I wanted to use the setup as a gaming system in addition to handling all my home theatre needs, but one question remained. Isn't there some length threshold for the DVI cable beyond which the picture starts to degrade? Perhaps that only is an issue with current analog cables, but I was wondering what you would do if you kept the PC fairly far away from the TV.
Otherwise, an inspiring article. I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on some of the XPS systems (such as the Kloss KL-i915A) in your Synergystic PC design.
Yes, that's really what kids in third world countries need.
Why teach kids about trivial subject like agriculture, medicine, birth control, and the basic rules of civilization when they can learn how to compile their own kernel and develop the next big P2P network?
Or take, perhaps, Civilization IV?
"There's no incentive, at this point in time, for anyone other than MPAA/RIAA/BSA type organizations to launch a campaign to undermine BitTorrent."
Because we all know that people aren't asshats just for the sake of being asshats.