"Some of the best people I've known would be categorised as 'chavs' based on their physical appearance (which is how people are classified as such)"
It's not that simple. Dress--of any kind--is a generally willingly put on uniform to communicate something to the world. It's like when some kid goes to great length to portray a rebellious image by getting lots of tattoos and piercings and then disingenuously shouting "Don't judge me by my looks, man!" While some people will judge based on how a person is dressed there are just as many who are dressing that way on purpose, to communicate something to society.
There is always going to be something used to discriminate. I do it. I'm sure you do it. I do it based on different criteria; mostly by the way a person acts. I've seen plenty of well-dressed people who behave crassly (e.g. swearing in public) and narcissisticly, and I've seen plenty of not-so-well-dressed people who have staggering amounts of empathy and decency.
"But the deal is, we humans are explorers, we want to GO places. Hard coded DNA."
I'd say the majority of human experience disproves this. Most people on the planet grow up and die within a few miles of where they were born. Most people actually avoid adventure. (Just note all the people who make "sage" comments about how stupid mountaineering or rock climbing is when someone dies doing it.) So I would argue that exploration is not all that hard coded into our DNA. There are some individuals for whom this appears to be true, but the majority of humanity is not sitting on the edge of its seat waiting to hear about the next adventurous opportunity. Most people are trying to see how comfortable they can make their lives.
Just look at the national conversation after the astronauts died in the space shuttle explosions. "Do we really need to be sending people into space?" "Why isn't travel into space safer?" "What can we do to eliminate the dangers of space travel?" Are these the comments of an adventurous species? Hardly.
I am all for adventure. I have sought a fair amount of it out in my life so far. I just disagree that humans in general are hard coded for exploration and adventure.
Except that's not how the human brain works. All they see are threats to their power and money-making operations. Thus you end up with disgustingly cowardly episodes where a gang of men will kidnap a woman who has been speaking out for human rights and shoot her full of bullets. Governments like Russia's aren't interested in thinking long term. They can't afford that. They're just trying to grab all the money they can and keep anyone else, like pesky human rights watchers, from spoiling their fun.
"The iPod doesn't have a permanent Internet connection like the kindle -so no"
Neither does the Kindle. There are two switches on the back (at least in the first model) and you can independently turn off both the Kindle reader power and the "cellphone" power that allows wireless purchases, etc. I have my wireless powered off about 99.5% of the time so a battery charge lasts for over a week.
That's what the "participating in government" part of my comment was about. It takes letter writing and peaceful agitation to keep a government honest and accountable. Politicians are going to interpret low voter turnout as a sign that they're doing a bad job. They'll likely take it as a sign that they're doing an OK job and that people are just apathetic.
I agree. We've used science to keep people alive that just should have died off a long time ago. People like Stephen Hawking, for instance. What a drag on the gene pool he's been.
When you skip voting and participating in government and then decide things are suddenly not to your liking and then protest violently that is not courage. That is failure. It never ceases to amaze me that people would rather do something violent than do something sane and boring like keeping a close watch on government to begin with.
Boring does not equal functional. I'd say that the improvements made in OS X were all worthwhile. Easier to use and easier on the eye. It's like having air conditioning in your car. It's not absolutely necessary but at the end of the day you feel so much less tired.
I'd say if you were trying to stay employed at some hip web design house or a game development company that may be true, but where I work there are lots and lots of older people still doing highly technical things.
I completely changed track and got a masters in CS last year at the age of 46 and managed to get a great job doing technical work at a very cool place, so don't tell me ageism is so pervasive that you can't do what you like.
On what do you base this? It sounds more like a jealous rant than anything else. iPhones work very, very well and have a terrific interface. I have purchased a few really great apps for it and the only marketing needed was me looking for something I needed on the App Store.
As for your blackberry users doing a "cost-benefit analysis before buying an app" I would say they'd better. The article mentions that most handheld apps that go on the Blackberry are around $30. The apps available for the iPhone are anywhere from 99 cents to a few dollars so it's inexpensive to try out a few of them. For instance, I have 2 ssh clients for less than half the price of a typical app that would run on a Blackberry. Add in the killer programmable calculator I got and it's all still below the price point of one Blackberry app.
No. If you've every paid any attention to someone named Marshall McLuhan you'd know that it is indeed technology that changes us. His famous quote would be "the medium is the message" and it speaks to how we are changed by the very medium that information is presented in. Do you really think human kind has not been changed by the advent of movable type? Television? The internet? Some basic psychological traits remain but we are in turn changed by the change we create.
Slashdot Mirror
I red yur book! Still have trouble with ent mane(ent argc, kar ** argv), however.
This is not the first time I've heard that you can't beat the reaper.
"Some of the best people I've known would be categorised as 'chavs' based on their physical appearance (which is how people are classified as such)"
It's not that simple. Dress--of any kind--is a generally willingly put on uniform to communicate something to the world. It's like when some kid goes to great length to portray a rebellious image by getting lots of tattoos and piercings and then disingenuously shouting "Don't judge me by my looks, man!" While some people will judge based on how a person is dressed there are just as many who are dressing that way on purpose, to communicate something to society.
There is always going to be something used to discriminate. I do it. I'm sure you do it. I do it based on different criteria; mostly by the way a person acts. I've seen plenty of well-dressed people who behave crassly (e.g. swearing in public) and narcissisticly, and I've seen plenty of not-so-well-dressed people who have staggering amounts of empathy and decency.
"But the deal is, we humans are explorers, we want to GO places. Hard coded DNA."
I'd say the majority of human experience disproves this. Most people on the planet grow up and die within a few miles of where they were born. Most people actually avoid adventure. (Just note all the people who make "sage" comments about how stupid mountaineering or rock climbing is when someone dies doing it.) So I would argue that exploration is not all that hard coded into our DNA. There are some individuals for whom this appears to be true, but the majority of humanity is not sitting on the edge of its seat waiting to hear about the next adventurous opportunity. Most people are trying to see how comfortable they can make their lives.
Just look at the national conversation after the astronauts died in the space shuttle explosions. "Do we really need to be sending people into space?" "Why isn't travel into space safer?" "What can we do to eliminate the dangers of space travel?" Are these the comments of an adventurous species? Hardly.
I am all for adventure. I have sought a fair amount of it out in my life so far. I just disagree that humans in general are hard coded for exploration and adventure.
Except that's not how the human brain works. All they see are threats to their power and money-making operations. Thus you end up with disgustingly cowardly episodes where a gang of men will kidnap a woman who has been speaking out for human rights and shoot her full of bullets. Governments like Russia's aren't interested in thinking long term. They can't afford that. They're just trying to grab all the money they can and keep anyone else, like pesky human rights watchers, from spoiling their fun.
"I am sure you believe Briney Spears is one of the best singers ever! "
Yes, she is a bit of a salty lass, isn't she?
Someone mod him up, for crying out loud.
Really, now. There was no reason to call him a faggot. Dickhead.
"Someday I hope that we as a species will go back."
Back to the ocean?
Maybe. But if you look at pictures taken towards all four directions from the landing site it doesn't appear to have landed all that close to the edge of the crater.
"The iPod doesn't have a permanent Internet connection like the kindle -so no"
Neither does the Kindle. There are two switches on the back (at least in the first model) and you can independently turn off both the Kindle reader power and the "cellphone" power that allows wireless purchases, etc. I have my wireless powered off about 99.5% of the time so a battery charge lasts for over a week.
Nevermind.
That's what the "participating in government" part of my comment was about. It takes letter writing and peaceful agitation to keep a government honest and accountable. Politicians are going to interpret low voter turnout as a sign that they're doing a bad job. They'll likely take it as a sign that they're doing an OK job and that people are just apathetic.
I agree. We've used science to keep people alive that just should have died off a long time ago. People like Stephen Hawking, for instance. What a drag on the gene pool he's been.
When you skip voting and participating in government and then decide things are suddenly not to your liking and then protest violently that is not courage. That is failure. It never ceases to amaze me that people would rather do something violent than do something sane and boring like keeping a close watch on government to begin with.
Perhaps it is not the Europeans who are more civilized after all.
Boring does not equal functional. I'd say that the improvements made in OS X were all worthwhile. Easier to use and easier on the eye. It's like having air conditioning in your car. It's not absolutely necessary but at the end of the day you feel so much less tired.
I'd say if you were trying to stay employed at some hip web design house or a game development company that may be true, but where I work there are lots and lots of older people still doing highly technical things.
I completely changed track and got a masters in CS last year at the age of 46 and managed to get a great job doing technical work at a very cool place, so don't tell me ageism is so pervasive that you can't do what you like.
What an odd comment. Going from "it's still the best stuff out there" to "don't like em" in the space of three sentences.
I'm not sure why people like to whine about the iPhone. Just go get an Android phone and be done with it.
Shoot. I wish I'd know that before I wrote my dissertation on it.
I guess if you consider producing and keeping alive someone like Hawking "devolving" then you have a point.
Indeed. What is little known is that the reaction he got from the first colleague he mentioned it to was, "horse feathers!"
On what do you base this? It sounds more like a jealous rant than anything else. iPhones work very, very well and have a terrific interface. I have purchased a few really great apps for it and the only marketing needed was me looking for something I needed on the App Store.
As for your blackberry users doing a "cost-benefit analysis before buying an app" I would say they'd better. The article mentions that most handheld apps that go on the Blackberry are around $30. The apps available for the iPhone are anywhere from 99 cents to a few dollars so it's inexpensive to try out a few of them. For instance, I have 2 ssh clients for less than half the price of a typical app that would run on a Blackberry. Add in the killer programmable calculator I got and it's all still below the price point of one Blackberry app.
No, it's Bill Clinton's. Sheesh.
No. If you've every paid any attention to someone named Marshall McLuhan you'd know that it is indeed technology that changes us. His famous quote would be "the medium is the message" and it speaks to how we are changed by the very medium that information is presented in. Do you really think human kind has not been changed by the advent of movable type? Television? The internet? Some basic psychological traits remain but we are in turn changed by the change we create.