Re:American Culture Not That Bad
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Sounds like you're all for tolerance, as long as it's something you're in favor of and anyone who disagrees can get the fuck out. Brilliant.
You think other so-called "tolerant" nations don't pull a lot of stupid stunts?
I have an American friend in France who is applying for a resident permit. Her name doesn't exist in the French language so they select the "next closest" name. Further, even though she has always used her maiden name, they are forcing her to use her married name.
In Austria, parents aren't allowed to invent names and must proved a name once belonged to a real person.
These may sound trivial and silly but they are still examples of stupid intolerance.
Re:American Culture Not That Bad
on
The Last Place
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· Score: 0
Really? Where do you hide all of this "diverse" music of yours, America? You should maybe tell someone about it all, because we're all pretty sick and fucking tired of hearing another Britney song!
Oh, you mean like how we are also tired of another S Club 7 (UK) or Daft Punk (France) song? Face it. Every country has groups that pump that shit out. Why? Because it sells!
Re:Thanks for making the point
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They must be socialists! Like you have any idea what Socialism is
I'm assuming you didn't understand my username. I am in Paris! I have a great idea what socialism is from the textbook description and I see how France is bleeding to death with socialistic programs. BTW, perhaps you don't keep up with politics either but in France, the socialist party shared control with Chirac until the last elections. In other words, they WERE SOCIALISTS!
I realize that English may not be your first language so I will refrain from bashing you for it but "introspection" is a good thing. Perhaps you meant ethnocentric?
I will agree that perhaps I am blinded by American views just as you are from yours (what ever country ACs come from). However, what you fail to see is that I don't have to make make you like me. You lap it up. You lap it up because you want it and it's addictive.
low grade meat ? oh, you mean without hormones and other chemical additives ?
No, I mean the tough-as-shit steak I seem to find everywhere I eat. I'm not saying American beef is the best. I've had good steak in Argentina, Germany, and Italy. I'm saying the majority of it in France sucks.
BTW, it's not the hormones and chemicals that makes Americans fat. It's the eating too damn much (simple nutrition should tell you that).
Lazy? Maybe we can discuss that over "le pont" next week or one of your upcoming RTT's? That is if you're not already on strike at the time or busy petitioning your employer for a bonus for returning from "la grève".
Maybe my rant has obscured the point but the point is this: no one forces you to buy into American culture. America isn't a force of God or nature. You have a say in your world. Governments do this all the time. Witness the EU tariffs regarding steel production in the US or France's taiffs with pineapple production. Don't sit and whine about "the Americans". Whether you like it or not, money talks. Bullshit walks.
Thank you for expressing my exact sentiments. I'm so sick of this BS the whole world gives America about their "culture". I'm tired of seeing "Yankee go home!" scrawled on American movie posters in the metro (as if the individual had any idea what he was talking about but says this because he thinks he is somehow "better"). Here are a couple of things to think about.
The last time I checked, most countries were sovereign and not controlled by the U.S. As far as I know, U.S. businesses do not hold a gun to the heads of foreign governments or their businesses to force them to accept American products/services. If you want to complain, do so to your local government and businesses for allowing U.S. interests in.
American businesses are in business for one reason - to make money! When America opens a business overseas it expects to make money. Who do you think is buying their products? That's right - you and your countrymen. So if you're looking for someone to blame, blame yourself and your friends. If you didn't support the business, it would dry up and blow away (cf. Burger King in France).
American business creates foreign business. A quick flip of the tv remote shows that about half of the things on in Paris are old (and some new) American shows that have been dubbed. Better still, the dubbing houses that are handling this are usually just a few miles down the road in Neuilly. Do you think they want to get rid of American products?
Anti-American sentiment is chic right now. You can be a slack-assed, don't wanna work, socialist but hey, don't be so down on yourself. You can blame the Americans! One of my favorite examples of this is the French farmer who was jailed for damaging a McDonald's with his tractor. He was protesting American Imperialism. Funny thing was that most of the product used there is from France (including the low-grade meat). That particular franchise was also owned in France. Moreover, who do you think gets jobs from that McDonald's? Local people!
If you don't like American business in your area, don't support it. Better yet, get off your ass, try working a real work week, do a good job for once, try to keep strikes to less than one a year, and BUILD A BETTER BUSINESS. "If you build it, they will come." American products fill a hole. If YOU can fill the hole better, you will drive them out. Until then, shut the hell up.
As I U.S. citizen, I don't like this idea either. Granted, the Internet may have been started by DARPA back in '69, but the Internet is now a global issue and should be treated as such. With the U.S. government in charge, I too am concerned that U.S. interests (government and corporate) will take precedence to what is truly best for all involved.
It's great to see new technology but I think I'll pass when it comes to Linksys - at least until they straighten up things inside their tech support. I've always heard their tech support was attrocious but never had any experience with it until now.
I live in a Hausmannian-building (read 100 year old, extremely thick walls). For over a year I've been running a Linksys network - 2 laptops running WPC11 wireless cards, 1 BEFW11S4 4-port wireless hub/router, 1 BEFSR81 8-port switch/router, and mixed hardware. The entire setup has worked flawlessly with WinMe, W2K, and linux on a cable modem.
My mother decided she wanted to network two workstations and a laptop so that they could share the 'net connection but wireless to avoid the hassle of pulling cable. As Linksys has worked great for me, I suggested she purchase a WPC11 for the laptop and 2 WMP11 cards for the workstations (in Ad Hoc mode). All installed well under Win98Se and Me but the network has never worked properly - packets dropped, connections up and down.
All products have problems at one time and will never work with all setups but the problem with the Linksys is the incredibly stupid tech support she has received. She has made several calls to them with poor results. At one time they suggested the problem was her Internet connection. At another time they suggested the problem was her proxy software. The problem with this is that none of the machines could ping each other which proved the problem lied lower in the network layers. Another technician told her that these cards are not designed for Ad Hoc operation although the software allows it, it is documented, and that it works occasionally.
I have to wonder, is tech support making these stupid suggestion simply to end the call and hope she doesn't call back or are they really ignorant enough to think these things will help? Stupid or lazy? Either way I can no longer support a company with this kind of support. When I upgrade from 802.11b, it will be Lucent or Cisco.
I think it's great if an ISP wants to save on bandwidth. However, breaking the RFC by using a transparent proxy is not the answer. For one thing, what do you do if you're a web designer and your ISP is caching dynamic pages (PHP)? Ever spent an hour debugging something you know you've fixed only to find that your ISP has cached the old page? More annoying than this is when the proxy crashes. I'm on Noos in France and frequently lose HTTP access while I still have SSH, POP, DNS, etc. If there was a way around this while waiting for the proxy to reboot, be restarted, etc, it wouldn't be a big deal but there isn't.
Symbol of liberty without the capitalist rhetoric? Please! France is a wannabe capitalist society that is bleeding to death from an overly socialized populace!
First, strikes! These happen so frequently that they've lost all meaning. It's the boy who cried wolf. It's nothing more than a vacation day for the workers. Worse than that, the companies then pay the workers for their missed day! Strikes cost the Louvre $1.4 million last year and why the hell was one of the reasons for striking? Because, they already worked a 35 hour week and the new French law giving it to everyone would (wait for it) make everyone just...like....them. Egalite? Please!
Second, workers rights. I think it's sad the way many American companies throw away workers like chattel. However, it's just as sad to think it's a company's duty (en France) to retrain a worker who didn't keep his skills current and then cries about it when the end comes.
Third, France is every bit as capitalistic as America. I recently spent a week in Warsaw (Varsovie) and you know what I saw? Carrefour, Geant, and Hypermarche!
Another reason France isn't considered as capitalistic as America is because they simply aren't any good at it. Why are there not any French fast food restaurants (Quick not withstanding)? It's not because fast food sucks (even though it does) but because fast food requires consistency and French process lacks that. I know I can get the same crappy Big Mac no matter where I go.
Finally, France is behind in capitalism because customer service and advertising have always been a second thought if non-existant altogether. Companies like Darty, Habitat (British), and JC Decaux have realized that and are now flourishing.
Oh yeah, and anti-French rhetoric from the US? It's from everywhere just as it is against the US. Last week I was looking for some quotes about the French to put on a website. I was hoping for something about the wine, culture, etc, perhaps from Voltaire, Baudelaire, or Shaw. However, what I found were anti-French quotes and most of them European! One of the URL's I found:
http://www.insults.net/html/world/france.html
This could go on all night but one last thing to think about when you wonder why people are down on France. The French schizophrenia regarding foreigners and their language! Half the population is angered if you don't speak French. The other half is insulted when you try and don't do it perfectly. Rome, Pisa, and Florence? No one spoke English but we all did our best without attitude. Belgium and Amsterdam everyone spoke English and gladly switched when they realized I couldn't speak their language. Why should there be such a stigma in France! Oh, and what's with the French law requiring a certain percentage of radio and advertising be in French (http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/engl ish.htm)? Isn't there something wrong when the goverment has to enact laws just to protect it's language? Where's the weakness?
Has anyone actually verified on their own player that the RCE system works? I'm in Paris with a dezoned Philips DVD761 (not listed as passing the RCE test) and last night watched a copy of Bedazzled that had been brought from the States just last week. It's entirely possible that this is just another failed attempt from the recording industry.
Crouching Tiger is being delivered in a few weeks so I'm curious to see how serious this article is...
Slashdot Mirror
You think other so-called "tolerant" nations don't pull a lot of stupid stunts?
I have an American friend in France who is applying for a resident permit. Her name doesn't exist in the French language so they select the "next closest" name. Further, even though she has always used her maiden name, they are forcing her to use her married name.
In Austria, parents aren't allowed to invent names and must proved a name once belonged to a real person.
These may sound trivial and silly but they are still examples of stupid intolerance.
Oh, you mean like how we are also tired of another S Club 7 (UK) or Daft Punk (France) song? Face it. Every country has groups that pump that shit out. Why? Because it sells!
I'm assuming you didn't understand my username. I am in Paris! I have a great idea what socialism is from the textbook description and I see how France is bleeding to death with socialistic programs. BTW, perhaps you don't keep up with politics either but in France, the socialist party shared control with Chirac until the last elections. In other words, they WERE SOCIALISTS!
I realize that English may not be your first language so I will refrain from bashing you for it but "introspection" is a good thing. Perhaps you meant ethnocentric?
I will agree that perhaps I am blinded by American views just as you are from yours (what ever country ACs come from). However, what you fail to see is that I don't have to make make you like me. You lap it up. You lap it up because you want it and it's addictive.
Gee, I'm sorry I don't really have anything to add but, "you're right". Very cogently said.
No, I mean the tough-as-shit steak I seem to find everywhere I eat. I'm not saying American beef is the best. I've had good steak in Argentina, Germany, and Italy. I'm saying the majority of it in France sucks.
BTW, it's not the hormones and chemicals that makes Americans fat. It's the eating too damn much (simple nutrition should tell you that).
Lazy? Maybe we can discuss that over "le pont" next week or one of your upcoming RTT's? That is if you're not already on strike at the time or busy petitioning your employer for a bonus for returning from "la grève".
Maybe my rant has obscured the point but the point is this: no one forces you to buy into American culture. America isn't a force of God or nature. You have a say in your world. Governments do this all the time. Witness the EU tariffs regarding steel production in the US or France's taiffs with pineapple production. Don't sit and whine about "the Americans". Whether you like it or not, money talks. Bullshit walks.
Oh, lest I forget.... Jackass :)
Thank you for expressing my exact sentiments. I'm so sick of this BS the whole world gives America about their "culture". I'm tired of seeing "Yankee go home!" scrawled on American movie posters in the metro (as if the individual had any idea what he was talking about but says this because he thinks he is somehow "better"). Here are a couple of things to think about.
The last time I checked, most countries were sovereign and not controlled by the U.S. As far as I know, U.S. businesses do not hold a gun to the heads of foreign governments or their businesses to force them to accept American products/services. If you want to complain, do so to your local government and businesses for allowing U.S. interests in.
American businesses are in business for one reason - to make money! When America opens a business overseas it expects to make money. Who do you think is buying their products? That's right - you and your countrymen. So if you're looking for someone to blame, blame yourself and your friends. If you didn't support the business, it would dry up and blow away (cf. Burger King in France).
American business creates foreign business. A quick flip of the tv remote shows that about half of the things on in Paris are old (and some new) American shows that have been dubbed. Better still, the dubbing houses that are handling this are usually just a few miles down the road in Neuilly. Do you think they want to get rid of American products?
Anti-American sentiment is chic right now. You can be a slack-assed, don't wanna work, socialist but hey, don't be so down on yourself. You can blame the Americans! One of my favorite examples of this is the French farmer who was jailed for damaging a McDonald's with his tractor. He was protesting American Imperialism. Funny thing was that most of the product used there is from France (including the low-grade meat). That particular franchise was also owned in France. Moreover, who do you think gets jobs from that McDonald's? Local people!
If you don't like American business in your area, don't support it. Better yet, get off your ass, try working a real work week, do a good job for once, try to keep strikes to less than one a year, and BUILD A BETTER BUSINESS. "If you build it, they will come." American products fill a hole. If YOU can fill the hole better, you will drive them out. Until then, shut the hell up.
Edit the article. The URL is bad and points to Slashdot.
As I U.S. citizen, I don't like this idea either. Granted, the Internet may have been started by DARPA back in '69, but the Internet is now a global issue and should be treated as such. With the U.S. government in charge, I too am concerned that U.S. interests (government and corporate) will take precedence to what is truly best for all involved.
It's great to see new technology but I think I'll pass when it comes to Linksys - at least until they straighten up things inside their tech support. I've always heard their tech support was attrocious but never had any experience with it until now.
I live in a Hausmannian-building (read 100 year old, extremely thick walls). For over a year I've been running a Linksys network - 2 laptops running WPC11 wireless cards, 1 BEFW11S4 4-port wireless hub/router, 1 BEFSR81 8-port switch/router, and mixed hardware. The entire setup has worked flawlessly with WinMe, W2K, and linux on a cable modem.
My mother decided she wanted to network two workstations and a laptop so that they could share the 'net connection but wireless to avoid the hassle of pulling cable. As Linksys has worked great for me, I suggested she purchase a WPC11 for the laptop and 2 WMP11 cards for the workstations (in Ad Hoc mode). All installed well under Win98Se and Me but the network has never worked properly - packets dropped, connections up and down.
All products have problems at one time and will never work with all setups but the problem with the Linksys is the incredibly stupid tech support she has received. She has made several calls to them with poor results. At one time they suggested the problem was her Internet connection. At another time they suggested the problem was her proxy software. The problem with this is that none of the machines could ping each other which proved the problem lied lower in the network layers. Another technician told her that these cards are not designed for Ad Hoc operation although the software allows it, it is documented, and that it works occasionally.
I have to wonder, is tech support making these stupid suggestion simply to end the call and hope she doesn't call back or are they really ignorant enough to think these things will help? Stupid or lazy? Either way I can no longer support a company with this kind of support. When I upgrade from 802.11b, it will be Lucent or Cisco.
I think it's great if an ISP wants to save on bandwidth. However, breaking the RFC by using a transparent proxy is not the answer. For one thing, what do you do if you're a web designer and your ISP is caching dynamic pages (PHP)? Ever spent an hour debugging something you know you've fixed only to find that your ISP has cached the old page? More annoying than this is when the proxy crashes. I'm on Noos in France and frequently lose HTTP access while I still have SSH, POP, DNS, etc. If there was a way around this while waiting for the proxy to reboot, be restarted, etc, it wouldn't be a big deal but there isn't.
Symbol of liberty without the capitalist rhetoric? Please! France is a wannabe capitalist society that is bleeding to death from an overly socialized populace!
First, strikes! These happen so frequently that they've lost all meaning. It's the boy who cried wolf. It's nothing more than a vacation day for the workers. Worse than that, the companies then pay the workers for their missed day! Strikes cost the Louvre $1.4 million last year and why the hell was one of the reasons for striking? Because, they already worked a 35 hour week and the new French law giving it to everyone would (wait for it) make everyone just...like....them. Egalite? Please!
Second, workers rights. I think it's sad the way many American companies throw away workers like chattel. However, it's just as sad to think it's a company's duty (en France) to retrain a worker who didn't keep his skills current and then cries about it when the end comes.
Third, France is every bit as capitalistic as America. I recently spent a week in Warsaw (Varsovie) and you know what I saw? Carrefour, Geant, and Hypermarche!
Another reason France isn't considered as capitalistic as America is because they simply aren't any good at it. Why are there not any French fast food restaurants (Quick not withstanding)? It's not because fast food sucks (even though it does) but because fast food requires consistency and French process lacks that. I know I can get the same crappy Big Mac no matter where I go.
Finally, France is behind in capitalism because customer service and advertising have always been a second thought if non-existant altogether. Companies like Darty, Habitat (British), and JC Decaux have realized that and are now flourishing.
Oh yeah, and anti-French rhetoric from the US? It's from everywhere just as it is against the US. Last week I was looking for some quotes about the French to put on a website. I was hoping for something about the wine, culture, etc, perhaps from Voltaire, Baudelaire, or Shaw. However, what I found were anti-French quotes and most of them European! One of the URL's I found: http://www.insults.net/html/world/france.html
This could go on all night but one last thing to think about when you wonder why people are down on France. The French schizophrenia regarding foreigners and their language! Half the population is angered if you don't speak French. The other half is insulted when you try and don't do it perfectly. Rome, Pisa, and Florence? No one spoke English but we all did our best without attitude. Belgium and Amsterdam everyone spoke English and gladly switched when they realized I couldn't speak their language. Why should there be such a stigma in France! Oh, and what's with the French law requiring a certain percentage of radio and advertising be in French (http://www.american.edu/projects/mandala/TED/engl ish.htm)? Isn't there something wrong when the goverment has to enact laws just to protect it's language? Where's the weakness?
I think they are just kidding. You know sort of like the Canadian jokes? (French Canadians being just as bad as the real thing)
Of course, it could just be in response to the poor treatment of foreigners in general (not just Americans) when visiting "la hex".
Americans in ParisHas anyone actually verified on their own player that the RCE system works? I'm in Paris with a dezoned Philips DVD761 (not listed as passing the RCE test) and last night watched a copy of Bedazzled that had been brought from the States just last week. It's entirely possible that this is just another failed attempt from the recording industry.
Crouching Tiger is being delivered in a few weeks so I'm curious to see how serious this article is...