This is very cool for lazy schlubs like me who have trouble trekking to the polling place, but on a more serious note, I think this would be good in "wide release" IF we also started implementing "None of The Above" options on ballots. I have trouble mustering motivation to vote with the dearth of good candidates and the prevalence of bipartisan crap, so I stay home and don't vote. I get the feeling I'm not alone in this. Imagine the collective weight of all the folks like myself having the power to vote NOTA suddenly doing so. Maybe then we'd get something done. Or maybe we'd get stuck in an endless cycle of NOTA voting and the country would collapse. Oh well.
While I agree that he should be allowed in, it seems somewhat obvious to me that the already-mentioned solution of simply lying to get the magic badge would do just fine for him. This leads me to believe that these folks are just parlaying the whole damn mess into a huge publicity grab. And hey, it worked.
If the kid's smart enough to turn a fat profit doing what he does, the odds of him not concocting the obvious social hack here are pretty damn low. It's a decently shrewd move, all in all, and frankly I'm surprised how uptight everyone's getting about the ageism issue. The Man is playin' ya!
If you were to staple a pro-[candidate] flier to a telephone pole, would you then have to register as a PAC? Surely, telephone poles cost easily over $1000 apiece...
I think it's just as naive to jump all over the poor author for saying it was hard to install as it was for him to try installing it without knowing what he was doing. I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but to those of you that are part of the development process, it would behoove you to not dismiss people like this guy out of hand. Yeah, yeah, I know, elitism this and we don't want the morons that, but if you plan on World Domination, you have to learn to convince the unwashed masses. And sometimes even smart people aren't adept at computer use. Imagine that! Different kinds of intelligence! Anyway, just think twice before you jump down some Linux newbie's throat. We all had to begin somewhere. Let the moderation as 'Redundant' begin!
I think one of my personal favorite aspects of DA was the caricaturing of the various cultural groups and sub-groups. He, much as I also felt he did in Snow Crash, manages to craftily mix out-and-out sillyness with cultural stereotypes while still conveying a sense of respect for many of the groups about whom he writes. His sense of humor is, for me, one of the main reasons for reading his novels and it's used to great effect in this book.
I have to agree about the ending, though. It was like eating those Snackwells cookies - it just left me feeling a little unsatisfied.
The Music Business, at least in the context of the major labels, has always been centered around the idea that what really matters, what really rakes in the cash for them, is the single. Because of the lack of focus on artist development and the marginal attention that things like musicianship and quality songwriting get, "artists" keep cranking out albums with only one or two songs of note. Is it any wonder then that the masses who are sick and tired of paying $18 in the jaded hope that they might get more music of value than what they hear on the radio would then utilize a medium like MP3 that affords them the opportunity to have the one song they love and leave the rest of the dreck behind?... Especially among an increasingly monetary- and technology-savvy youth?
I can't help but think that in some sense the labels have helped dig their own grave on this one. And I for one am more than happy to watch them jump in.
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This is very cool for lazy schlubs like me who have trouble trekking to the polling place, but on a more serious note, I think this would be good in "wide release" IF we also started implementing "None of The Above" options on ballots. I have trouble mustering motivation to vote with the dearth of good candidates and the prevalence of bipartisan crap, so I stay home and don't vote. I get the feeling I'm not alone in this. Imagine the collective weight of all the folks like myself having the power to vote NOTA suddenly doing so. Maybe then we'd get something done. Or maybe we'd get stuck in an endless cycle of NOTA voting and the country would collapse. Oh well.
While I agree that he should be allowed in, it seems somewhat obvious to me that the already-mentioned solution of simply lying to get the magic badge would do just fine for him. This leads me to believe that these folks are just parlaying the whole damn mess into a huge publicity grab. And hey, it worked.
If the kid's smart enough to turn a fat profit doing what he does, the odds of him not concocting the obvious social hack here are pretty damn low. It's a decently shrewd move, all in all, and frankly I'm surprised how uptight everyone's getting about the ageism issue. The Man is playin' ya!
If you were to staple a pro-[candidate] flier to a telephone pole, would you then have to register as a PAC? Surely, telephone poles cost easily over $1000 apiece...
I think it's just as naive to jump all over the
poor author for saying it was hard to install as
it was for him to try installing it without
knowing what he was doing. I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but to those of you that are
part of the development process, it would behoove
you to not dismiss people like this guy out of hand. Yeah, yeah, I know, elitism this and we
don't want the morons that, but if you plan on
World Domination, you have to learn to convince
the unwashed masses. And sometimes even smart people aren't adept at computer use. Imagine that!
Different kinds of intelligence! Anyway, just think twice before you jump down some Linux
newbie's throat. We all had to begin somewhere. Let the moderation as 'Redundant' begin!
I have to agree about the ending, though. It was like eating those Snackwells cookies - it just left me feeling a little unsatisfied.
The Music Business, at least in the context of the major labels, has always been centered around the idea that what really matters, what really rakes in the cash for them, is the single. Because of the lack of focus on artist development and the marginal attention that things like musicianship and quality songwriting get, "artists" keep cranking out albums with only one or two songs of note. Is it any wonder then that the masses who are sick and tired of paying $18 in the jaded hope that they might get more music of value than what they hear on the radio would then utilize a medium like MP3 that affords them the opportunity to have the one song they love and leave the rest of the dreck behind?... Especially among an increasingly monetary- and technology-savvy youth?
I can't help but think that in some sense the labels have helped dig their own grave on this one. And I for one am more than happy to watch them jump in.