I block ads because quite frankly they're a pain in the arse, insulting to my intelligence, and massively dishonest. On the web I find them highly offensive, as they tend to be flashing, beeping, or otherwise trying to divert my attention and give me ADD.
In magazines I just blank 'em out... skip right over them. Really, anyone who pays for ad space in a magazine just isn't getting through to me. I'm sure at some basic subconsious level it builds name or brand recognition in me, but I certainly couldn't tell you any specifics of what was being advertised, it's selling points, etc. It's just dead space to me. Also, no, I won't buy a magazine with too many adverts. I tend to find, for example, that American magazines have a shocking amount of adverts in them (I'm a Brit).. I seem to remember Electronic Gamer Monthly having what appeared to be 5 adverts for every 1 page of content (doubtless exaggeration, but it felt that way)
Also, with the TV.. whenever adverts come on, I mute the sound.. and usually take that time as an opportunity to check the TV listings on teletext, or go make a cup of tea or something. Basically, whatever they're trying to tell me, I don't want to hear it.
So you might be wondering, why am I so hostile to adverts and advertising in general? after all, isn't it possible I'm shooting myself in the foot here? The point of advertising generally speaking is to inform me of products and services which might benefit me in some way. Well, that would be all fine and good, if they were responsible and honest about it. But they aren't. The overwhelming majority of adverts are so completely full of crap as to be thoroughly insulting. Once in a while I'll watch one, just to remind myself why I don't. The last time I did this - and this was one picked totally at random, just the first ad I happened to see - it went something like this:
Boy playing football at what was obviously a school game.. scores the winning goal. Woman - obviously his mother - comes over to him and gives him a piece of brandname chocolate. Nothing is said, but a subtitle appears: "You're a great son, son." Boy then breaks off half of the piece he's been handed and gives it back to her. Subtitle: "You're a great dad, mum."
So there you have it. Single mum? Give your kid our chocolate and he'll love you more than that stinking ratbastard father of his. Plus, chocolate is a suitable substitute for conversation.
And don't even get me started on car insurance or home loans ads.....
Well, the page you linked to appear to be a pile of steaming woo-woo crap, but on the up side, we're sig buddies! Glad to see some other slashdotters have been Saved here. Praise spaghetti!
Looking for any information on how to get my Creative Audigy to not pop my speakers when I suspend or shutdown my PC
Sounds like a DC imbalance problem. Try placing a resistor in parallel of each speaker output (connect them between the output and the ground); anything from 100k to 470kOhm should work. Use 1W resistors if you want to be completely safe, but common 1/4W ones will do perfectly fine in most situations. Pardon the offtopic!
Sounds obvious, but you may also want to check what output levels you've got on. If you've got anything in the line in or mic turned up, that may be responsible. Disclaimer: IANAWhoever Would Actually Know About These Kinds Of Things.
Apologies for the interruption. We now return you to your irregularly programmed schedule.
I would love to hear how, exactly, the British cops explain this.
Well, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, explained it a bit like this:
Of course there's a perfectly good explanation.. we just can't tell you it.. because, uh.. well, national security and all that. Yeah, that's it. Any kind of investigation into this might give the terr'ists helpful information which they could use, and we wouldn't want that now, would we.. I mean, we'd LOVE to have a full investigation, really, we would, but our hands are tied. We'd best just sweep it all under the carpet.
It doesn't necessarily even need to be hacked, for sufficiently evil people. Obtain someone else's legitimate copy of the movie, copy, and distribute. They take the fall, you get a free movie and the kudos for releasing it to the warez outlets.
All it'd take is either obtaining the victim's account details (phising, most likely), or backdooring their machine somehow. Not so very different to a lot of identity theft stuff that already goes on these days.
Needless to say, I am not condoning any such actions. But I'm sure someone'll do it.
Re:This sort of thing...
on
RIAA Sues a Child
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
what exactly do I get when I spend the $15 for the CD?
A pretty plastic disc, and the limited right to enjoy the music contained on it subject to a hefty list of conditions, restrictions, and the random whim of the content owner.
Or, to put it another way, they get to have their cake AND anally rape you.
Not a problem. They just add another one of those warnings to cigarette packets "Surgeon General says 'Smoking may get your ass pwnz0r3d by robo-snipers, beeyotch'"
One feature of the micro which may seem trivial but, to me is a great idea, is the replacable faceplates.. it's not so much the customisation aspect, though that is pretty nifty, but the fact that the faceplates include a transparent screen cover. That means you can stick it in your pocket/bag/whatever, and not worry about screen scratches. When too many scratches accumulate simply change the faceplate for a new one.
This is probably the only portable gaming system I'd consider getting. All the others just seem too bulky for me.. and as an ex Atari Lynx owner (stop laughing!) I'd really rather not go through all that again. The micro looks truly "take anywhere", perfect for those 5-minutes-here, 10-minutes-there gaming sessions, especially if you put one of those backup card thingies in it and load it up with emulators.
Your post appears to be insightful, well written, and generally makes a very good point....
Welcome to Slashdot! You must be new here.. As this is your first offence we'll let you off this time, however, please be aware that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in the future and may result in suspension of your account. Please refrain from using insight, logic, or common sense in future posts.
All green of skin... 800 centuries ago, their bodily fluids include the birth of half-breeds. For the fundamental truth self-determination of the cosmos, for dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.
That's actually a really interesting question, given that the blurb on movies always says "not for public performance", etc... shouldn't showing it on a TV in a public space (such as a shop window) count as public performance? Why are the evil shops doing this? don't they care about the children of the poor starving set painters?!
Hmm... Maybe I'll start bringing a deckchair and a bucket of popcorn to my local Curries
As for our legal system... we at least have one that functions properly most of the time. You can decry its inadequacies and question our motivations all you want, but on balance the American legal and law enforcement systems are incredible compared to most of the rest of the world. If you don't care for it, go enjoy some tribal justice elsewhere for a while and then come back and let me know which system you prefer. Little communes full of happy natives sound great until you get your genitals chopped off in a public ritual for winking at another guy's wife.
Becuase of course the only two possible options are between living in the US and dealing with brutal and primitive tribal "justice" systems.
Does the term "False dichotomy" mean anything to you?
No way dude! it's totally true! My uncle's brother's friend's cousin's auntie's dog's hairdresser's sister got busted by the FBI for returning DVDs she copied! They totally flipped out and busted down her door and everything!
If you like that you might also want to check out the very cool QuadraSID VST. Basically, a SID emulator in a VST.
And for those who are a little more Atari leaning, there's also YMVST, which recreates those lovely ST sounds.. and it's free! Looks just like MusicMon2, too:)
Doesn't matter a damn bit. The US and UK invaded Iraq for one.. count 'em, that's one... here, I'll go over it again... one (1) single, sole, solitary, lonely, stand-alone reason.
Weapons of Mass Destruction.
It doesn't matter how many old ladies they helped across the road, how many kittens they rescued from trees, or how many evil dictators they overthrew. That's not why they went in there, and that's not what the legal case for war was based on. On the other hand, it does rather matter when they kill shitloads of civillians, get their own troops bogged down into an absolute mess of a campaign, and then discover* the WMD weren't even there in the first place.
Nobody (well, maybe SOME people, but almost nobody) is saying Saddam should have been left in power. But he could have been removed much more cleanly and easily. And there's still no WMD
*okay, it's not really 'discovering' when you knew in the first place anyway. See the downing street memos.
You -might- be able to make a case that Hiroshima saved lives by scaring the shit out of the Japanese, causing them to surrender, but visibly dropping an A-bomb on somewhere less inhabited may well have achieved the same thing with no loss of civillian life. Especially as the Japanese were teetering on the verge of winding things down anyways.
Nagasaki, on the other hand, there was no excuse for. It was 3 days later. Hiroshima had certainly done it's job, and the Japanese had all the fight taken out of them. I fail to see any possible justification for the bombing of Nagasaki.
Regardless of your position on religion, the Bible describes events that happened in history.
Some, yes. I never said it didn't. The Da Vinci Code describes some real places and events. It's still a fictional book of mostly fictional characters and events though.
Y'know that norse mythology stuff you denounced as being a load of meaningless fiction? Guess what. There are real events and places mentioned in some of that, too.
Egypt and Israel being mentioned in the Bible doesn't make it true any more than the North Pole being mentioned in Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer makes that true.
To drive the point right into the ground, and restate the blindingly obvious yet again: Just because a work is fictional doesn't mean it cannot reference real places, people, or events. And just because a work references real people, places, or events does not mean it isn't fictional.
Now, if you'd care to provide any extra-biblical evidence (preferably not involving drdino.com) to suggest that Jesus not only was a real person, but was also either God or the son of God (either will do), and that the virgin birth and resurrection really happened, then you might have a point. Less critically, you may also want to provide some evidence for the 6 day creation, divine authorship of the bible, Noah's flood, and Joshua's long day, however I accept that you may view some of these as allegory.
Given that you have stated that "Naturally, many of the stories are allegorical", I wonder if you would care to state where you place the dividing line - which are allegory, and which are historical fact?
The bible IS mythology. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that most of the important events in it ever happened (the supernatural ones, for example), and the fact that it references a few real places and events doesn't change that.
Your post basically boils down to two elements. The first is the accusation that I have said that because the bible overall is a mythological work there must be absolutely no real life elements contained within. This is obviously false. The only reason I didn't state that specifically in my earlier post was because it seemed so obvious.
The second element reduces your post to an ad hominem, which says much about your ability to make a case for yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
I block ads because quite frankly they're a pain in the arse, insulting to my intelligence, and massively dishonest. On the web I find them highly offensive, as they tend to be flashing, beeping, or otherwise trying to divert my attention and give me ADD.
In magazines I just blank 'em out... skip right over them. Really, anyone who pays for ad space in a magazine just isn't getting through to me. I'm sure at some basic subconsious level it builds name or brand recognition in me, but I certainly couldn't tell you any specifics of what was being advertised, it's selling points, etc. It's just dead space to me. Also, no, I won't buy a magazine with too many adverts.
I tend to find, for example, that American magazines have a shocking amount of adverts in them (I'm a Brit).. I seem to remember Electronic Gamer Monthly having what appeared to be 5 adverts for every 1 page of content (doubtless exaggeration, but it felt that way)
Also, with the TV.. whenever adverts come on, I mute the sound.. and usually take that time as an opportunity to check the TV listings on teletext, or go make a cup of tea or something. Basically, whatever they're trying to tell me, I don't want to hear it.
So you might be wondering, why am I so hostile to adverts and advertising in general? after all, isn't it possible I'm shooting myself in the foot here? The point of advertising generally speaking is to inform me of products and services which might benefit me in some way.
Well, that would be all fine and good, if they were responsible and honest about it. But they aren't. The overwhelming majority of adverts are so completely full of crap as to be thoroughly insulting. Once in a while I'll watch one, just to remind myself why I don't.
The last time I did this - and this was one picked totally at random, just the first ad I happened to see - it went something like this:
Boy playing football at what was obviously a school game.. scores the winning goal. Woman - obviously his mother - comes over to him and gives him a piece of brandname chocolate. Nothing is said, but a subtitle appears: "You're a great son, son."
Boy then breaks off half of the piece he's been handed and gives it back to her. Subtitle: "You're a great dad, mum."
So there you have it. Single mum? Give your kid our chocolate and he'll love you more than that stinking ratbastard father of his. Plus, chocolate is a suitable substitute for conversation.
And don't even get me started on car insurance or home loans ads.....
Well, the page you linked to appear to be a pile of steaming woo-woo crap, but on the up side, we're sig buddies!
Glad to see some other slashdotters have been Saved here. Praise spaghetti!
Looking for any information on how to get my Creative Audigy to not pop my speakers when I suspend or shutdown my PC
Sounds like a DC imbalance problem. Try placing a resistor in parallel of each speaker output (connect them between the output and the ground); anything from 100k to 470kOhm should work. Use 1W resistors if you want to be completely safe, but common 1/4W ones will do perfectly fine in most situations. Pardon the offtopic!
Sounds obvious, but you may also want to check what output levels you've got on. If you've got anything in the line in or mic turned up, that may be responsible.
Disclaimer: IANAWhoever Would Actually Know About These Kinds Of Things.
Apologies for the interruption. We now return you to your irregularly programmed schedule.
I would love to hear how, exactly, the British cops explain this.
Well, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, explained it a bit like this:
Of course there's a perfectly good explanation.. we just can't tell you it.. because, uh.. well, national security and all that. Yeah, that's it. Any kind of investigation into this might give the terr'ists helpful information which they could use, and we wouldn't want that now, would we.. I mean, we'd LOVE to have a full investigation, really, we would, but our hands are tied. We'd best just sweep it all under the carpet.
It doesn't necessarily even need to be hacked, for sufficiently evil people.
Obtain someone else's legitimate copy of the movie, copy, and distribute.
They take the fall, you get a free movie and the kudos for releasing it to the warez outlets.
All it'd take is either obtaining the victim's account details (phising, most likely), or backdooring their machine somehow. Not so very different to a lot of identity theft stuff that already goes on these days.
Needless to say, I am not condoning any such actions. But I'm sure someone'll do it.
what exactly do I get when I spend the $15 for the CD?
A pretty plastic disc, and the limited right to enjoy the music contained on it subject to a hefty list of conditions, restrictions, and the random whim of the content owner.
Or, to put it another way, they get to have their cake AND anally rape you.
Not a problem. They just add another one of those warnings to cigarette packets
"Surgeon General says 'Smoking may get your ass pwnz0r3d by robo-snipers, beeyotch'"
How long till people port Linux to it?
About... this long
One feature of the micro which may seem trivial but, to me is a great idea, is the replacable faceplates.. it's not so much the customisation aspect, though that is pretty nifty, but the fact that the faceplates include a transparent screen cover.
That means you can stick it in your pocket/bag/whatever, and not worry about screen scratches. When too many scratches accumulate simply change the faceplate for a new one.
This is probably the only portable gaming system I'd consider getting. All the others just seem too bulky for me.. and as an ex Atari Lynx owner (stop laughing!) I'd really rather not go through all that again. The micro looks truly "take anywhere", perfect for those 5-minutes-here, 10-minutes-there gaming sessions, especially if you put one of those backup card thingies in it and load it up with emulators.
Your post appears to be insightful, well written, and generally makes a very good point....
Welcome to Slashdot! You must be new here..
As this is your first offence we'll let you off this time, however, please be aware that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in the future and may result in suspension of your account. Please refrain from using insight, logic, or common sense in future posts.
To check whether your household is capable of getting this service, please use the following test.
1. Open your window.
2. Lean out.
3. Stick out your tongue.
If you can lick the wall of your telephone exchange, then you qualify for this service. Otherwise you are unfortunately too far away.
Have a nice day
-- Customer Service Dept.
All green of skin... 800 centuries ago, their bodily fluids include the birth of half-breeds. For the fundamental truth self-determination of the cosmos, for dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.
That's actually a really interesting question, given that the blurb on movies always says "not for public performance", etc...
shouldn't showing it on a TV in a public space (such as a shop window) count as public performance?
Why are the evil shops doing this? don't they care about the children of the poor starving set painters?!
Hmm... Maybe I'll start bringing a deckchair and a bucket of popcorn to my local Curries
Hell yeah! didn't you hear? home taping is killing music, man.
As for our legal system ... we at least have one that functions properly most of the time. You can decry its inadequacies and question our motivations all you want, but on balance the American legal and law enforcement systems are incredible compared to most of the rest of the world. If you don't care for it, go enjoy some tribal justice elsewhere for a while and then come back and let me know which system you prefer. Little communes full of happy natives sound great until you get your genitals chopped off in a public ritual for winking at another guy's wife.
Becuase of course the only two possible options are between living in the US and dealing with brutal and primitive tribal "justice" systems.
Does the term "False dichotomy" mean anything to you?
I have seen irefutable evidence that proves the landing was shot in a government sound studio located in NASA's secret moon base.
Oh man. I walked RIGHT into that one, didn't I?
Bravo!
I have seen irefutable evidence that proves the landing was shot in a government sound studio located in NASA's secret moon base.
Are you sure about that?
You might want to have a good look around this site. The Wikipedia page on the subject is quite good too.
Also, if you can, check out the episode of Penn & Teller's show "Bullshit" on conspiracy theories.
No way dude! it's totally true!
My uncle's brother's friend's cousin's auntie's dog's hairdresser's sister got busted by the FBI for returning DVDs she copied! They totally flipped out and busted down her door and everything!
And she's not even American - she lives in Wales
Free DVD Gwendolyn!
Well, you may not have got much in the way of replies, but you just make my friends list.
:)
Okay, so it's hardly the Nobel Prize, but still.. just wanted to let you know I was really impressed by both your initial post and this reply
..they want their article back.
Maybe John Titor can help.
If you like that you might also want to check out the very cool QuadraSID VST. Basically, a SID emulator in a VST.
:)
And for those who are a little more Atari leaning, there's also YMVST, which recreates those lovely ST sounds.. and it's free! Looks just like MusicMon2, too
Doesn't matter a damn bit.
The US and UK invaded Iraq for one.. count 'em, that's one... here, I'll go over it again... one (1) single, sole, solitary, lonely, stand-alone reason.
Weapons of Mass Destruction.
It doesn't matter how many old ladies they helped across the road, how many kittens they rescued from trees, or how many evil dictators they overthrew. That's not why they went in there, and that's not what the legal case for war was based on. On the other hand, it does rather matter when they kill shitloads of civillians, get their own troops bogged down into an absolute mess of a campaign, and then discover* the WMD weren't even there in the first place.
Nobody (well, maybe SOME people, but almost nobody) is saying Saddam should have been left in power. But he could have been removed much more cleanly and easily. And there's still no WMD
*okay, it's not really 'discovering' when you knew in the first place anyway. See the downing street memos.
You -might- be able to make a case that Hiroshima saved lives by scaring the shit out of the Japanese, causing them to surrender, but visibly dropping an A-bomb on somewhere less inhabited may well have achieved the same thing with no loss of civillian life. Especially as the Japanese were teetering on the verge of winding things down anyways.
Nagasaki, on the other hand, there was no excuse for. It was 3 days later. Hiroshima had certainly done it's job, and the Japanese had all the fight taken out of them. I fail to see any possible justification for the bombing of Nagasaki.
I'm sorry, Dave, I cannot allow you to do that.
Sincerely,
The Internet.
Regardless of your position on religion, the Bible describes events that happened in history.
Some, yes.
I never said it didn't.
The Da Vinci Code describes some real places and events. It's still a fictional book of mostly fictional characters and events though.
Y'know that norse mythology stuff you denounced as being a load of meaningless fiction?
Guess what. There are real events and places mentioned in some of that, too.
Egypt and Israel being mentioned in the Bible doesn't make it true any more than the North Pole being mentioned in Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer makes that true.
To drive the point right into the ground, and restate the blindingly obvious yet again: Just because a work is fictional doesn't mean it cannot reference real places, people, or events. And just because a work references real people, places, or events does not mean it isn't fictional.
Now, if you'd care to provide any extra-biblical evidence (preferably not involving drdino.com) to suggest that Jesus not only was a real person, but was also either God or the son of God (either will do), and that the virgin birth and resurrection really happened, then you might have a point.
Less critically, you may also want to provide some evidence for the 6 day creation, divine authorship of the bible, Noah's flood, and Joshua's long day, however I accept that you may view some of these as allegory.
Given that you have stated that "Naturally, many of the stories are allegorical", I wonder if you would care to state where you place the dividing line - which are allegory, and which are historical fact?
The bible IS mythology. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that most of the important events in it ever happened (the supernatural ones, for example), and the fact that it references a few real places and events doesn't change that.
Your post basically boils down to two elements. The first is the accusation that I have said that because the bible overall is a mythological work there must be absolutely no real life elements contained within. This is obviously false. The only reason I didn't state that specifically in my earlier post was because it seemed so obvious.
The second element reduces your post to an ad hominem, which says much about your ability to make a case for yourself.