OK- I like Disinfo. Yes, it can be uneven, but at least it covers stuff that the 'mainstream' won't touch. Stuff like Magick, various subcultures, religion, philosophy- lots of brain food to pick through. And I like the links so generously placed within the texts. They have often led me to many wonderful discoveries and philosophies.
There are also other interesting, off the beaten path publishers, like AlterNet.org. They write about stuff that mainstreamers ignore, and have a stable of very interesting writers, like Michael Moore and Starhawk, for example.
I prefer not to imbibe the spoonfed pap the mainstream gives me- it is the news equivalent of fast food, full of empty thought, lots of 'filler', but not much brain food. Thinking for oneself is rapidly becoming a lost art, which suits the commercial interests just fine. "Hey," they tell us- "Relax, we'll think for you. Just buy this." And the sheep go along with it, straight to the shearer.
The internet is full of wonderful and stupid things- and it is up to us to discriminate between them. That takes an unfettered intelligence, not wooly thinking. Sadly, wooly, knee-jerk thinking is becoming the norm, rather than the exception.
Well, that's a relief. Divx was a rather poor concept from the start, and I am not sorry to see it go. What was funny was watching my colleagues who did get one snap up the remaining Divx disks now discounted at $1.99 each. Hey- they've got two whole years to look at the silly things, right? Sheesh. I like new tech, and CC is my toy store. But I don't like tech dreamed up by a pack of greedy lawyers. Serves them right. Maybe our stock will split now.
I came to this book from an interesting angle- as a technically trained Pagan. Usually I can breeze through books in an evening- but Techgnosis is so dense with ideas and memes that it has taken me weeks to chew through it, and I'll probably have to reread it to pick up bits I missed the first time.
Science and logic rule my thoughts and perceptions, and that was sharply brought to focus when I attended a 'psychic fair' this past weekend, and looked with pity upon all the 'lost souls' with their nebulous reliance on fickle 'spirit'. They, and their religiously shackled counterparts truly do live in a 'demon-haunted world'.
On the other hand, my training and study in various theologies and mystical systems (rosicrucian, kabalah, geomancy, among others) has had some uncanny parallels in the scientific and electronic world that I live in. I consider myself a 'lay' scientist; a generalist, rather than a specialist, and the 'big picture' is surprisingly 'magickal' if you step back and take a look at technology through a different filter. Look at what a lot of us do: we literally spin 'straw' (code) into gold- real capital. We command what our ancient alchemical 'hackers' would gawp at as 'daemons'- and even give them that name. At our sides sit humming boxes that do nothing that anyone ordinary can see- but we know what goes on inside them, most of the time!:-)
And remember what Arthur C. Clarke once said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Now, pass that remote control, please!
Yup- I see how ol Georgie-boy is going to sink the Titanic with this film- let the sharp- eyed fans catch all the Easter Eggs in the film on their fifth and sixth viewings... It's going to take a few more viewings for me- I saw the ETs (They looked like the Speilbergian species to me) the second time. Missed the Wookies, but caught a glimpse of Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok- he's in one one-second frame in the Pod Race. Looks like the crowd scenes are going to be real treasure troves! Doggone it, where's my movie theatre pause button? Aargh!
Slashdot Mirror
OK- I like Disinfo. Yes, it can be uneven, but at least it covers stuff that the 'mainstream' won't touch. Stuff like Magick, various subcultures, religion, philosophy- lots of brain food to pick through. And I like the links so generously placed within the texts. They have often led me to many wonderful discoveries and philosophies.
There are also other interesting, off the beaten path publishers, like AlterNet.org. They write about stuff that mainstreamers ignore, and have a stable of very interesting writers, like Michael Moore and Starhawk, for example.
I prefer not to imbibe the spoonfed pap the mainstream gives me- it is the news equivalent of fast food, full of empty thought, lots of 'filler', but not much brain food. Thinking for oneself is rapidly becoming a lost art, which suits the commercial interests just fine. "Hey," they tell us- "Relax, we'll think for you. Just buy this." And the sheep go along with it, straight to the shearer.
The internet is full of wonderful and stupid things- and it is up to us to discriminate between them. That takes an unfettered intelligence, not wooly thinking. Sadly, wooly, knee-jerk thinking is becoming the norm, rather than the exception.
Well, that's a relief. Divx was a rather poor concept from the start, and I am not sorry to see it go. What was funny was watching my colleagues who did get one snap up the remaining Divx disks now discounted at $1.99 each. Hey- they've got two whole years to look at the silly things, right? Sheesh. I like new tech, and CC is my toy store. But I don't like tech dreamed up by a pack of greedy lawyers. Serves them right. Maybe our stock will split now.
I came to this book from an interesting angle- as a technically trained Pagan. Usually I can breeze through books in an evening- but Techgnosis is so dense with ideas and memes that it has taken me weeks to chew through it, and I'll probably have to reread it to pick up bits I missed the first time.
:-)
Science and logic rule my thoughts and perceptions, and that was sharply brought to focus when I attended a 'psychic fair' this past weekend, and looked with pity upon all the 'lost souls' with their nebulous reliance on fickle 'spirit'. They, and their religiously shackled counterparts truly do live in a 'demon-haunted world'.
On the other hand, my training and study in various theologies and mystical systems (rosicrucian, kabalah, geomancy, among others) has had some uncanny parallels in the scientific and electronic world that I live in. I consider myself a 'lay' scientist; a generalist, rather than a specialist, and the 'big picture' is surprisingly 'magickal' if you step back and take a look at technology through a different filter. Look at what a lot of us do: we literally spin 'straw' (code) into gold- real capital. We command what our ancient alchemical 'hackers' would gawp at as 'daemons'- and even give them that name. At our sides sit humming boxes that do nothing that anyone ordinary can see- but we know what goes on inside them, most of the time!
And remember what Arthur C. Clarke once said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Now, pass that remote control, please!
Yup- I see how ol Georgie-boy is going to sink the Titanic with this film- let the sharp- eyed fans catch all the Easter Eggs in the film on their fifth and sixth viewings... It's going to take a few more viewings for me- I saw the ETs (They looked like the Speilbergian species to me) the second time. Missed the Wookies, but caught a glimpse of Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok- he's in one one-second frame in the Pod Race. Looks like the crowd scenes are going to be real treasure troves! Doggone it, where's my movie theatre pause button? Aargh!