If it wasn't obvious, I was joking - it was supposed to be implied that this fictional call was placed by "MIBs" in order to stop his geek winning streak.
Anyway, my comment isn't even close to approaching Jim Bell levels, or that dude on Howard Stern who wouldn't back down in seriousness and got a visit from the NSA.
Besides, I don't think many people could argue that things are bad enough yet to warrant fixing corruption with murder. Voting still works... sortof.
(I think I've prolly set off more echelon red flags in this post than the previous:)
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Well, to be honest, most men and women will agree that the naked female body is much less "offensive" than the man's. I mean, you can have nice look'n tits, and nice ass, but who's ever heard of a "nice dick"?:)
I think women are more willing to accept seeing other women naked, than guys are in seeing other guys (and who has the power?). Guys are just too easily intimidated by bigger dicks... so it's kept offscreen.
Actually, in the fuuuuuture, those skin-tight suits would probably function as all-purpose, self-contained, "smartsuits" to protect you from vacuum, temperature, radiation, physical injury, etc. The suit could also amplify your strength, store compressed gases, compute, etc...
But, of course, on Star Trek it was just a tacky uniform on its own.:)
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Well, for one thing, a simple text input box wouldn't work anymore - you'd have to use Java or some other bloated (and buggy, and OS/browser dependent) method of getting the sliders to attach to your keywords in a seemless manner. And the dynamic update would chew up bandwidth.
Also, Google is much simpler and just as effective (IMO) without having to bother with weighting your keywords. There's niches for it though...
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In this fucked up society we're supposed to prize quantity of life above quality of life (because it the feeds the HMOs and our own selfishness).
When my grandmother died at 70-something years of age, I was happy for her. She was lucky enough to live a full life, without having anyone else wipe her ass for her.
Of course, my family didn't approve of my "celebration of life" point of view at the funeral... they were all mourning her loss... like selfish bastards.
You may now mod me down for being "insensitive" or whatever.
Thanks for jogging an area of my brain that has been dormant for years. I hadn't thought about that game in years.:)
Unfortunatly, most games teach that might = right...
Well, it's true, unless you want to pretend otherwise. Despite our 'civilized' pretense, us humans are still animals, and violent tendencies are a big part of why we've survived over time. The pacifist mutant who tries to reason with a tiger, or with an irrational racist, or with a starving thief, won't have many kids.
Things like the WWF and violent video games just feed our natural warrior needs, and it's perfectly healthy IMO... until such a point in the future where we've somehow eliminated all irrational thought, inequality, and human suffering...
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If it happened in LA, could ya imagine the traffic caused by everyone trying to get to the bloodbanks to 'do their part'? It'd be a carbon monoxide massacre! badabing...:)
Now its going to be another 250 years before we get to see...
In another 250 years we'll have probably already disassembled Pluto for its matter along with the rest of the non-gasgiant planets. And I'm sure by that point we'd be able to simulate those "fascinating seasonal changes" in minute detail...:)
One day someone in a lab will figure out how to grow the stuff, and the very "next day" we'll be building more efficient rockets to launch/find-and-tow carbon to geosync orbit where it can be strewn in both directions (since you can't build it like a beanstalk)...
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I stood on line to give blood that day behind some of New York's finest actors and actresses, standing in line to help just like every one else.
Reminds me of a scene in that stop-motion skit that was on Saturday Night Live last night, which went something like: "You need to give blood more they we need you to give it."
True.
I'm a New Yorker and am JUST as cynical as the original poster. Sure, ~3K good people died, and we lost an important phallic symbol, and people were jarred from their safe routine, etc., etc., but people lost all sense of proportion just because of the population/financial/political/news density of NYC. If the same hollywood-scale disaster had happened to just about any other city, it wouldn't have got the knee-jerk that it did. *shrug*.. that's a fact.
In fact, I view the exploitation of fear and patriotism as WORSE than the "exploitation" of women.
Anyway, comformist partyline time... rah-rah-rah-rah! Gimme a 1! Gimme a 2! Gimme a 3! Gimme a N-Y-C!
If you continue to refer to them as "viruses", people will never support this sort of thing.
Using bioengineered organisms is currently the best known bet for bootstrapping nanotechnology (out of the realm of bio). Viruses just happen to be smallest of these organisms, and there's no good reason for a name change.
Rather than Euphemizing (which I hate), would it be so hard for people to understand that there's a difference between good viruses and bad viruses? Just like there's a difference between good radiation and bad radiation? And just like there's a diff between high seas piracy and copyright infringment?... (Oh, wait...maybe you're right:)
But if I was an evil Cable Co (or PVR Co, I guess) who wanted to get at that sweet sweet market data, you know what I'd do?
I'd offer a huge discount to people who choose the Cool New PeopleMeter enabled CableBox(!) vs. the "Dumb Old Box." Then, over time, I'd jack up the base price of the old "outdated" tech in order to favor the "better" big brother version (that also gets a better economy of scale). At that point it's a take it or leave it proposition, where all the "privacy nuts" leave it.
Same deal with "voluntary" National ID...at least potentially.
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I dig SomaFM's Drone Zone myself - nice background music to work to while at the same time reducing stress.:)
btw, a few weeks ago I asked somaFM (via email) if they had any plans to offer higher bitrates (up to 256VBR) - since I'd be interested in paying for that kind of quality - and here's the response I got back:
It's not feasible to do 256k feeds. The bandwidth costs alone would
amount to about $60 per user per month. If anything, we'll be
reducing the bandwidth and using OGG format streams...
I don't know if who I was talking to was authoritative or not... but anyway, here's to wish'n that bandwidth was cheaper and that content distribution was smarter.
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How does that work? I mean what business does our gov't have pushing these "helpful" products? No doubt the money these corps are paying the gov't (I would hope!) for the product placement privelage isn't offsetting any taxes...
I feel your pain... I'm waiting for the day I can buy a pair a augmented reality glasses that I can wear to tune out "banners" in real life. I can hardly wait to overlay every fuck'n ad with the ACME brand + whitespace.:)
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When (not if) we work out the kinks, I'd feel the point of cloning is almost moot.
You see, I'm one of those transhumanist "whackos" who thinks that our minds will evolve out of our frail bodies, and that the exponentional march of progress will allow us to do it by 2050. Cloning a mind is another topic...:)
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Also, you don't create a batch of babies (embryos), select a few, and kill the rest.
in vitro fertilization of genetically selected embryos already happens with current technology. What's so immoral about selecting healthy genes over diseased ones? In fact, I'd argue that it'd be immoral to knowingly allow a non-sentient-clump-of-diseased-cells to develop into a miserable human.
IMO, Human life begins with a conscience -- which a few cells certainly don't have the capacity for -- and not at conception, and not at Trimester 3, and not even at birth (*gasp*). A baby doesn't recognize itself in the mirror until about 18 months, but I wouldn't advocate "selecting" newborns because of the much much much stronger empathy factor for anothers life at this point. I'm not a psychopath ya know.:)
(btw, you should change your sig, the/. blackout is over.)
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Hey, Fox can troll because the general public WANTS to be trolled. For the most part people actually WANT their news sensationalized, since it's more "entertaining" to consume that way.
People who want just-the-facts-jack (like me) to interpret on their own are a niche now.
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The "wealth creators" are the guys who have enough capital to surround themselves with enough scummy lawyers in order to conduct the kind of "big business" where the bar has been raised 1500 meters by their pals in the gov't.:)
Why don't you just say outright that you wish you could read Steve Vai's diary like you can Wil Wheaton's? More people would understand that... rather than having to know that Wil Wheaton's site is a blog (aka: open diary), and that you want your favorite musician to open up like a chick for you too.
On the other hand, I guess it's a good thing your reference is somewhat obscure.:)
I think human society has to mature a bit to handle "free stuff for all"
I agree, but it won't take centuries. Our tech is evolving faster than our still primative brains can cope with... but we can probably fix that with tech too.
cannot make enough cash out of producing content, then he won't be able to produce anything at all.
I think his point was that he doesn't much care for the over-produced crap out there, and would rather swim in low-budget crap because it's keep'n it real, yo.:)
My opinion is that we're going to have a hellish few decades ahead of us until such time as nanotechnology effectively transforms matter into information too... at which point the cost of producing just about anything drops to zero and capitalism (and the need for a selfish copyright) pretty much goes out the window.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway, my comment isn't even close to approaching Jim Bell levels, or that dude on Howard Stern who wouldn't back down in seriousness and got a visit from the NSA.
Besides, I don't think many people could argue that things are bad enough yet to warrant fixing corruption with murder. Voting still works... sortof.
(I think I've prolly set off more echelon red flags in this post than the previous :)
--
I think women are more willing to accept seeing other women naked, than guys are in seeing other guys (and who has the power?). Guys are just too easily intimidated by bigger dicks... so it's kept offscreen.
--
"Mr. Boucher, if you don't play ball with us at least once in a while, you might have a fatal car accident." *CLICK*
--
But, of course, on Star Trek it was just a tacky uniform on its own. :)
--
Also, Google is much simpler and just as effective (IMO) without having to bother with weighting your keywords. There's niches for it though...
--
In this fucked up society we're supposed to prize quantity of life above quality of life (because it the feeds the HMOs and our own selfishness).
When my grandmother died at 70-something years of age, I was happy for her. She was lucky enough to live a full life, without having anyone else wipe her ass for her.
Of course, my family didn't approve of my "celebration of life" point of view at the funeral... they were all mourning her loss... like selfish bastards.
You may now mod me down for being "insensitive" or whatever.
--
Thanks for jogging an area of my brain that has been dormant for years. I hadn't thought about that game in years. :)
Unfortunatly, most games teach that might = right...
Well, it's true, unless you want to pretend otherwise. Despite our 'civilized' pretense, us humans are still animals, and violent tendencies are a big part of why we've survived over time. The pacifist mutant who tries to reason with a tiger, or with an irrational racist, or with a starving thief, won't have many kids.
Things like the WWF and violent video games just feed our natural warrior needs, and it's perfectly healthy IMO... until such a point in the future where we've somehow eliminated all irrational thought, inequality, and human suffering...
--
--
--
In another 250 years we'll have probably already disassembled Pluto for its matter along with the rest of the non-gasgiant planets. And I'm sure by that point we'd be able to simulate those "fascinating seasonal changes" in minute detail... :)
--
We're waiting for diamondoid remember?
One day someone in a lab will figure out how to grow the stuff, and the very "next day" we'll be building more efficient rockets to launch/find-and-tow carbon to geosync orbit where it can be strewn in both directions (since you can't build it like a beanstalk)...
--
Reminds me of a scene in that stop-motion skit that was on Saturday Night Live last night, which went something like: "You need to give blood more they we need you to give it."
True.
I'm a New Yorker and am JUST as cynical as the original poster. Sure, ~3K good people died, and we lost an important phallic symbol, and people were jarred from their safe routine, etc., etc., but people lost all sense of proportion just because of the population/financial/political/news density of NYC. If the same hollywood-scale disaster had happened to just about any other city, it wouldn't have got the knee-jerk that it did. *shrug* .. that's a fact.
In fact, I view the exploitation of fear and patriotism as WORSE than the "exploitation" of women.
Anyway, comformist partyline time... rah-rah-rah-rah! Gimme a 1! Gimme a 2! Gimme a 3! Gimme a N-Y-C!
--
Using bioengineered organisms is currently the best known bet for bootstrapping nanotechnology (out of the realm of bio). Viruses just happen to be smallest of these organisms, and there's no good reason for a name change.
Rather than Euphemizing (which I hate), would it be so hard for people to understand that there's a difference between good viruses and bad viruses? Just like there's a difference between good radiation and bad radiation? And just like there's a diff between high seas piracy and copyright infringment? ... (Oh, wait...maybe you're right :)
--
But if I was an evil Cable Co (or PVR Co, I guess) who wanted to get at that sweet sweet market data, you know what I'd do?
I'd offer a huge discount to people who choose the Cool New PeopleMeter enabled CableBox(!) vs. the "Dumb Old Box." Then, over time, I'd jack up the base price of the old "outdated" tech in order to favor the "better" big brother version (that also gets a better economy of scale). At that point it's a take it or leave it proposition, where all the "privacy nuts" leave it.
Same deal with "voluntary" National ID...at least potentially.
--
btw, a few weeks ago I asked somaFM (via email) if they had any plans to offer higher bitrates (up to 256VBR) - since I'd be interested in paying for that kind of quality - and here's the response I got back:
I don't know if who I was talking to was authoritative or not... but anyway, here's to wish'n that bandwidth was cheaper and that content distribution was smarter.
--
I feel your pain... I'm waiting for the day I can buy a pair a augmented reality glasses that I can wear to tune out "banners" in real life. I can hardly wait to overlay every fuck'n ad with the ACME brand + whitespace. :)
--
You see, I'm one of those transhumanist "whackos" who thinks that our minds will evolve out of our frail bodies, and that the exponentional march of progress will allow us to do it by 2050. Cloning a mind is another topic... :)
--
in vitro fertilization of genetically selected embryos already happens with current technology. What's so immoral about selecting healthy genes over diseased ones? In fact, I'd argue that it'd be immoral to knowingly allow a non-sentient-clump-of-diseased-cells to develop into a miserable human.
IMO, Human life begins with a conscience -- which a few cells certainly don't have the capacity for -- and not at conception, and not at Trimester 3, and not even at birth (*gasp*). A baby doesn't recognize itself in the mirror until about 18 months, but I wouldn't advocate "selecting" newborns because of the much much much stronger empathy factor for anothers life at this point. I'm not a psychopath ya know. :)
(btw, you should change your sig, the /. blackout is over.)
--
People who want just-the-facts-jack (like me) to interpret on their own are a niche now.
--
The "wealth creators" are the guys who have enough capital to surround themselves with enough scummy lawyers in order to conduct the kind of "big business" where the bar has been raised 1500 meters by their pals in the gov't. :)
--
On the other hand, I guess it's a good thing your reference is somewhat obscure. :)
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Microsoft VS Connectix.
Coming to a DMCA-friendly court near you.
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Then why'd you post Anon before?
I think human society has to mature a bit to handle "free stuff for all"
I agree, but it won't take centuries. Our tech is evolving faster than our still primative brains can cope with... but we can probably fix that with tech too.
--
--
cannot make enough cash out of producing content, then he won't be able to produce anything at all.
I think his point was that he doesn't much care for the over-produced crap out there, and would rather swim in low-budget crap because it's keep'n it real, yo. :)
My opinion is that we're going to have a hellish few decades ahead of us until such time as nanotechnology effectively transforms matter into information too... at which point the cost of producing just about anything drops to zero and capitalism (and the need for a selfish copyright) pretty much goes out the window.
--