I think you make a good point though. For a lot of people this isn't just a game, but a way of life. I say this as someone who plays WoW pretty hardcore. It differs, however, from your cocaine analogy in that it's not a physical addiction; you're not going to have physical withdrawal symptoms (psychological, maybe) when you quit playing. For me, though, the game is still fun, and I have a lot of in-game friends that I enjoy hanging out with, but when it becomes boring to me, or too much like work, then I doubt I'll have much trouble pulling the plug. Your IT friends will have to face the realization that they've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours of their time doing absolutely nothing of any real value with their time. I think that's the main reason people end up feeling that "it's reached a point where they can't stop."
Well, I don't remember which comic gave Clinton a good roasting at the correspondents' dinner during his time in office. I certainly don't remember it being news on/. either. I think the significance here is that Colbert's "jokes" hit on a policy level with the administration. He did not lampoon, but attacked, for lack of a better term, GW's environmental policies, foreign military policy, etc... even ridiculing the joint chiefs(the "stand at a bank of computers and order men into battle" line got zero laughs as far as I could tell, and rightly so. It is sad, not funny). The final blow was a video application for the job of whitehouse correspondent, where he initially gets some laughs bashing on the reporters and mocking the deflect/dodge manner of whitehouse press conference Q&A. Then he hammered home his point with the question: Why did we go to war? But he did it in a comedian way, I suppose. Notice what W makes fun of himself for: the fact that he's a mumbler, and incessantly redundant ad nauseum, etc...? Yes, that certainly is shocking! Anyway, the point is, half the time Colbert wasn't making fun, he was pointing out serious issues that this administration needs to be accountable for, but never will. They can't. The president cannot, at this point, admit any mistakes were made, or that he was wrong at any given point. And Colbert had the balls to come out with real issues and put them right in the face of the president and his administration and the media. Yes, I found it shocking, but also very refreshing at the same time.
No, words do change their meaning over time. Or at least, sometimes new connotations are given to them. I mean, how did "gay" come to mean the same thing as "homosexual" in the first place? I'm asking, I seriously don't know. A better example of this phenomenon is how "nigger," a derogative racial term for a black person is now commonly used as a friendly greeting among white guys. You may still not like either word(gay or nigger), but you do have to admit that they have different connotations in some contexts. And yes, I understand that calling your white friend nigger as an expression of cameraderie is essentially a positive idea, while calling something gay to connotate "bad" or "ungood" is still essentially a negative one. My guess is that we wouldn't be having this discussion if people were saying gay to mean that something was good. (i.e. "that shirt looks soo gay" = "man, that shirt looks really good on you")
Actually, the video clip I saw of the mod does have partial nudity, but no genitalia. That's beside the point, however. The problem here is not the rules and regulations governing video game/move/music or whatever-other-media's content. The problem lies in parents who shirk their responsibility to determine for themselves what they will and will not allow their children to view. Just like this grandmother who admitted she bought the game for her 14 year old grandson. The fucking nerve she has now filing suit against the game makers! Parents who care what their kids see and hear have no excuses, thanks to the available tools. The content ratings(at least for movies, television and games) all list exactly what potentially objectionable content is contained in it, and music at least has an explicit lyrics label. Check up on what they do on the internet. Get informed and then get involved in your kid's lives, already!
In the video I saw, the main character was clothed while the girlfriend was naked. She gave the guy head (shown from the rear, no genitalia) and then they humped in missionary and doggie positions (again, no genitalia). The girls breasts and butt were visible. To me it was no worse than an "R" rated movie which is what the "M" classification seems the most similar to.
It's not stealing though. The term for what's going on is copyright infringement. AND IT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS THEFT!! How many times must it be said? Copyright violation != theft. They're two different crimes. The RIAA wants people to believe that pirates are directly stealing from them and the artists they supposedly represent. This is a false analogy, and frankly, one that the suits at the record labels would love for people like you to keep propagating.
By all means you should rape those whose opinions differ from yours, that is exactly what I was saying(sarcasm, btw). Seriously, you're the type of person I was talking about in my original post: the one who gets his panties bunched up over silly things like profanity. Why does it offend you so much? Your comment regarding tantrum throwing is irrelevant as while I may have been on a slight rant, my thoughts were otherwise well ordered and logical. I saw your post where you stated that you are a Mormon. I can only assume that your church taught you that the f-word is wrong, and that's why it bothers you so much. FYI, "fuck them" in the sense that I meant it could also be translated "go fuck yourself" or "fuck off" or even "why don't you shut the fuck up?" none of which mean, by the definitions of most reasonable people, to actually go and commit a felony sexual violation of a person. Sorry to throw another tantrum, but my propensity to do so flares up worse than normal when talking to idiots.
I concur. Very interesting stuff, and I wish I had mod points to give as such. People's minds are so small when it comes to ideas like these. And so many people don't understand them that they write them of as bullshit using the argument of "I don't know what this means, so it's bullshit!" Thanks for the post. Do you have some links where I could do some further reading perhaps?
Jesus, man, get a sense of humor. Making a little fun is certainly a far cry from burning those who believe differently than you do. It's all this sensitivity bullshit that has gotten out of hand. You can't even make fun of someone who is white/black/christian/muslim/etc... for any reason without being labeled some type of racist or bigot. Political correctness is not the solution to the world's hatred problems. It only makes things worse, because you and the rest of the pussies expect to go through life completely unoffended by anything that anyone else says. Guess what? That's not going to happen; people are always going say things that you don't like or don't agree with. That's their opinion and they're entitled to it. If others can't take a joke, fuck them. If it makes me an intollerent(sic) moron then so be it.
Yeah, I remember going into a Cox expo some years back, when Napster was in its heyday, and seeing it installed on all of their demo computers. The saleswoman even said, "look how fast you can download music with our service."
It sounds like you know a lot about business, so I'm not going to argue there, but production companies INVEST in movies; it's what they do. Where else are they going to take their money? They're not going to let piracy stop them from making movies, so your argument about stuntmen and painters is invalid. They're going to throw money at the problem in the form of lawyers and Washington lobbyists in an effort to get rid of piracy, not stop making movies.
I know this was meant to be funny, but the RIAA itself does not create the content of any albums. They're just a bunch of lawyers who represent the financial "interests" of the big name record labels that belong to the organization. But yes, they are a bunch of greedy bastards.
I was running an ftp server out of my apartment when I was with cox. At one point, I was uploading over 2 gigs per day. I knew that servers were off limits, but they never said anything until the traffic got so heavy. They never sent a letter though, just an email telling me that since I was utilizing port 21, I must be running an ftp server, and to please cease such activities. So I went back to uploading to usenet, which they never said anything about, maybe because newsgroups weren't really covered in the tos.
Thank you! It's about time we hear from someone with some sense who has actually read LOTR. Narsil was never stored on some pretty table in Rivendell, and the sword was reforged after the council of Elrond in FOTR.
Re:Higher response rate is good for everyone
on
Building Better Spam
·
· Score: 1
"I do tolerate spam from reputable companies I have done business with in the past or am actively looking to buy those sorts of products"
Is it really spam then? I don't necessarily consider that unsolicted if you gave them your email address knowing that they would send you product updates, info, etc. Spam to me is all the "enlarge your penis/get rich/diet pills/stop snoring/pr0n" and everything else that shows up in my inbox about 30 times a day. Furthermore, the article is not even talking about spam, it IS talking about legitimate businesses such as you described, and ways that they can make their marketing more effective. But you're right, if spammers did try to apply the Taguchi method, then maybe we would suffer less, but they don't give a shit about that. Their business model of send as many emails as you can to as many addresses as you can seems to be making them some money, or otherwise they wouldn't be going to the trouble.
Its the record companies mistake to count their proverbial chickens before the eggs hatch. They assume that people who download mp3s for free were potential customers who would have bought the CD if there werent this cool compression format that lets people trade it online. What they fail to realize is that the whole "poor college kid with lots of bandwidth" idea may not be a myth. They along with many other people in the world probably really cannot afford the outrageous prices for CDs. Or maybe they really are too lazy to work a job and spend their cash for music. Who knows? You're right, the line is blurred, but the companies are claiming losses that they can't legitimately substantiate, no matter what the studies say.
Yeah, so when you file every year, your W2 or whatever can have little checkboxes for line-item veto kind of thing. You check what you want to fund. Maybe someone doesn't want to fund national defense but would rather fund medicare, or whatever. Something like that should definitely be in place for social security IMHO. But like you said, thats too democratic.
Yes, I was being sarcastic. IMHO, this bill will do nothing to actually promote TV or the internet. It will be more of a hampering effect than one of promotion.
Seems like if 'billions of movies are flying around the web a year...' then somebody would be say 'we think we can make money from that new market.'
Hey thats what the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) is for. Promotion of "new" and "better" content especially for the web! Sounds good to me!:)
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I think you make a good point though. For a lot of people this isn't just a game, but a way of life. I say this as someone who plays WoW pretty hardcore. It differs, however, from your cocaine analogy in that it's not a physical addiction; you're not going to have physical withdrawal symptoms (psychological, maybe) when you quit playing. For me, though, the game is still fun, and I have a lot of in-game friends that I enjoy hanging out with, but when it becomes boring to me, or too much like work, then I doubt I'll have much trouble pulling the plug. Your IT friends will have to face the realization that they've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours of their time doing absolutely nothing of any real value with their time. I think that's the main reason people end up feeling that "it's reached a point where they can't stop."
Hell, it was probably his own character! He just put the clothes in his inventory, /dance and sat back and enjoyed!
Well, I don't remember which comic gave Clinton a good roasting at the correspondents' dinner during his time in office. I certainly don't remember it being news on /. either. I think the significance here is that Colbert's "jokes" hit on a policy level with the administration. He did not lampoon, but attacked, for lack of a better term, GW's environmental policies, foreign military policy, etc... even ridiculing the joint chiefs(the "stand at a bank of computers and order men into battle" line got zero laughs as far as I could tell, and rightly so. It is sad, not funny). The final blow was a video application for the job of whitehouse correspondent, where he initially gets some laughs bashing on the reporters and mocking the deflect/dodge manner of whitehouse press conference Q&A. Then he hammered home his point with the question: Why did we go to war? But he did it in a comedian way, I suppose. Notice what W makes fun of himself for: the fact that he's a mumbler, and incessantly redundant ad nauseum, etc...? Yes, that certainly is shocking! Anyway, the point is, half the time Colbert wasn't making fun, he was pointing out serious issues that this administration needs to be accountable for, but never will. They can't. The president cannot, at this point, admit any mistakes were made, or that he was wrong at any given point. And Colbert had the balls to come out with real issues and put them right in the face of the president and his administration and the media. Yes, I found it shocking, but also very refreshing at the same time.
"I'm recruiting for my GLBT-friendly guild"
And I'd be all like "WTF is GLBT? I'm LFG UBRS"
No, words do change their meaning over time. Or at least, sometimes new connotations are given to them. I mean, how did "gay" come to mean the same thing as "homosexual" in the first place? I'm asking, I seriously don't know. A better example of this phenomenon is how "nigger," a derogative racial term for a black person is now commonly used as a friendly greeting among white guys. You may still not like either word(gay or nigger), but you do have to admit that they have different connotations in some contexts. And yes, I understand that calling your white friend nigger as an expression of cameraderie is essentially a positive idea, while calling something gay to connotate "bad" or "ungood" is still essentially a negative one. My guess is that we wouldn't be having this discussion if people were saying gay to mean that something was good. (i.e. "that shirt looks soo gay" = "man, that shirt looks really good on you")
Or a male gnome, for that matter. Sheesh.
you always have a date waiting for you at home! Ready to complain that you didn't take out the trash!
Uh, so how is this better than not having a date?
Actually, the video clip I saw of the mod does have partial nudity, but no genitalia. That's beside the point, however. The problem here is not the rules and regulations governing video game/move/music or whatever-other-media's content. The problem lies in parents who shirk their responsibility to determine for themselves what they will and will not allow their children to view. Just like this grandmother who admitted she bought the game for her 14 year old grandson. The fucking nerve she has now filing suit against the game makers! Parents who care what their kids see and hear have no excuses, thanks to the available tools. The content ratings(at least for movies, television and games) all list exactly what potentially objectionable content is contained in it, and music at least has an explicit lyrics label. Check up on what they do on the internet. Get informed and then get involved in your kid's lives, already!
Learn how to use commas dude.
In the video I saw, the main character was clothed while the girlfriend was naked. She gave the guy head (shown from the rear, no genitalia) and then they humped in missionary and doggie positions (again, no genitalia). The girls breasts and butt were visible. To me it was no worse than an "R" rated movie which is what the "M" classification seems the most similar to.
It's not stealing though. The term for what's going on is copyright infringement. AND IT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS THEFT!! How many times must it be said? Copyright violation != theft. They're two different crimes. The RIAA wants people to believe that pirates are directly stealing from them and the artists they supposedly represent. This is a false analogy, and frankly, one that the suits at the record labels would love for people like you to keep propagating.
By all means you should rape those whose opinions differ from yours, that is exactly what I was saying(sarcasm, btw). Seriously, you're the type of person I was talking about in my original post: the one who gets his panties bunched up over silly things like profanity. Why does it offend you so much? Your comment regarding tantrum throwing is irrelevant as while I may have been on a slight rant, my thoughts were otherwise well ordered and logical. I saw your post where you stated that you are a Mormon. I can only assume that your church taught you that the f-word is wrong, and that's why it bothers you so much. FYI, "fuck them" in the sense that I meant it could also be translated "go fuck yourself" or "fuck off" or even "why don't you shut the fuck up?" none of which mean, by the definitions of most reasonable people, to actually go and commit a felony sexual violation of a person. Sorry to throw another tantrum, but my propensity to do so flares up worse than normal when talking to idiots.
I concur. Very interesting stuff, and I wish I had mod points to give as such. People's minds are so small when it comes to ideas like these. And so many people don't understand them that they write them of as bullshit using the argument of "I don't know what this means, so it's bullshit!" Thanks for the post. Do you have some links where I could do some further reading perhaps?
Jesus, man, get a sense of humor. Making a little fun is certainly a far cry from burning those who believe differently than you do. It's all this sensitivity bullshit that has gotten out of hand. You can't even make fun of someone who is white/black/christian/muslim/etc... for any reason without being labeled some type of racist or bigot. Political correctness is not the solution to the world's hatred problems. It only makes things worse, because you and the rest of the pussies expect to go through life completely unoffended by anything that anyone else says. Guess what? That's not going to happen; people are always going say things that you don't like or don't agree with. That's their opinion and they're entitled to it. If others can't take a joke, fuck them. If it makes me an intollerent(sic) moron then so be it.
Yeah, I remember going into a Cox expo some years back, when Napster was in its heyday, and seeing it installed on all of their demo computers. The saleswoman even said, "look how fast you can download music with our service."
It sounds like you know a lot about business, so I'm not going to argue there, but production companies INVEST in movies; it's what they do. Where else are they going to take their money? They're not going to let piracy stop them from making movies, so your argument about stuntmen and painters is invalid. They're going to throw money at the problem in the form of lawyers and Washington lobbyists in an effort to get rid of piracy, not stop making movies.
I know this was meant to be funny, but the RIAA itself does not create the content of any albums. They're just a bunch of lawyers who represent the financial "interests" of the big name record labels that belong to the organization. But yes, they are a bunch of greedy bastards.
I was running an ftp server out of my apartment when I was with cox. At one point, I was uploading over 2 gigs per day. I knew that servers were off limits, but they never said anything until the traffic got so heavy. They never sent a letter though, just an email telling me that since I was utilizing port 21, I must be running an ftp server, and to please cease such activities. So I went back to uploading to usenet, which they never said anything about, maybe because newsgroups weren't really covered in the tos.
Thank you! It's about time we hear from someone with some sense who has actually read LOTR. Narsil was never stored on some pretty table in Rivendell, and the sword was reforged after the council of Elrond in FOTR.
"I do tolerate spam from reputable companies I have done business with in the past or am actively looking to buy those sorts of products"
Is it really spam then? I don't necessarily consider that unsolicted if you gave them your email address knowing that they would send you product updates, info, etc. Spam to me is all the "enlarge your penis/get rich/diet pills/stop snoring/pr0n" and everything else that shows up in my inbox about 30 times a day. Furthermore, the article is not even talking about spam, it IS talking about legitimate businesses such as you described, and ways that they can make their marketing more effective. But you're right, if spammers did try to apply the Taguchi method, then maybe we would suffer less, but they don't give a shit about that. Their business model of send as many emails as you can to as many addresses as you can seems to be making them some money, or otherwise they wouldn't be going to the trouble.
Its the record companies mistake to count their proverbial chickens before the eggs hatch. They assume that people who download mp3s for free were potential customers who would have bought the CD if there werent this cool compression format that lets people trade it online. What they fail to realize is that the whole "poor college kid with lots of bandwidth" idea may not be a myth. They along with many other people in the world probably really cannot afford the outrageous prices for CDs. Or maybe they really are too lazy to work a job and spend their cash for music. Who knows? You're right, the line is blurred, but the companies are claiming losses that they can't legitimately substantiate, no matter what the studies say.
Yeah, so when you file every year, your W2 or whatever can have little checkboxes for line-item veto kind of thing. You check what you want to fund. Maybe someone doesn't want to fund national defense but would rather fund medicare, or whatever. Something like that should definitely be in place for social security IMHO. But like you said, thats too democratic.
Your real name is Bernie Schifman, right?
Yes, I was being sarcastic. IMHO, this bill will do nothing to actually promote TV or the internet. It will be more of a hampering effect than one of promotion.
Seems like if 'billions of movies are flying around the web a year...' then somebody would be say 'we think we can make money from that new market.'
:)
Hey thats what the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) is for. Promotion of "new" and "better" content especially for the web! Sounds good to me!