Granted he confesses to only reading the synopsis. Do I buy this creepy biopunk vision completely or even in large measure? Certainly not. It is hyperbole of hyperbole. Am I a Luddite who won't eat Fritos because they contain GMOs. In no way. Do I get that GM foods have helped world hunger? Yes.
But the novel is really imaginative and exceptionally well crafted. And in light of the continuing ascendancy of the corporations as the center of gravity of power worldwide it is provocative. The writer asked: "If the oil runs out and we can't solve the energy gap then which corporations will rule?" Answer: Biotech. This is a stretch, but he makes it work. Given the general nastiness surrounding patented food crops, which the original poster made clear, the author took it somewhere very dark.
Furthermore, the book resonated with me in particular as I once spent five years in Bangkok working for the Nong Su Pim Poojadkhan (Manager Newspaper Group). And let me tell you that behind the smiles Thailand is no paradise.
My feeling is social sites are like restaurants. They have a fashion clock. Players in the F&B biz sell a popular restaurant after 18 months. They know that it will come off the boil. The in crowd will move on. They have to... in order to stay in... Myspace anyone?
Facebook will be history in five years. It is a walled garden. Relief is just a click away... a click away. All it offers is a kind of critical mass. And the market knows it.
Here we are discussing her absurd ideas. This is a media troll plain and simple. Her agent is happy. Her publisher is happy.
How to media troll? One leads out a sacred cow and kills it. (In this case she has lead out the presumption of anonymity for innocents in a free society. We accept as sacred doctrine (and rightly IMHO) the idea that branding someone is an act society reserves for criminals. And, furthermore, that only a criminal society would brand everyone.) Preferably you kill your cow in the town square with a chain saw.
To slaughter effectively one has to have some kind of pulpit, some authority, albeit small. I saw a squib today about a preacher who proposed concentration camps for gays and lesbians. He did it on video. Some well-meaning people plan to protest outside his church. He'll get support and money from the haters. It was a classic media troll. The shock jocks and radio pundits are past masters of this. It is even a way to make a name for oneself in the sciences. With a weak degree one can attack some established tower of truth and get on Fox news and sell thousands books to the ignorant. So you won't get tenured, big deal, you can lick your wounds on your yacht. Well played Ms. Moon. You will sell more books. Go on TV and get some speaking fees.
I read an extensive piece in Time about fracking the Marcellus play. The piece seemed pretty balanced and authoritative. My take away was that if done using best practices fracking can be made relatively safe -- at least as extractive processes go. But there is a lot of room for damage if it is done irresponsibly. IMHO society and industry can both benefit from the positive dynamic of competent government regulation to make fracking -- or for that matter -- any large-scale mineral extraction work.
The root problem is not the technology. It is corruption. The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico proved that. It is a simple fact of life that fossil fuel really brings it when it comes to providing cost-effective, portable efficient energy. However, if we ruin our quality of life while extracting it we obviate its advantages. We have people watching these industries, but "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Why they did not pivot into guided computer system builds of various kinds and levels of complexity is beyond me? Or if they did try that play they just botched it. Certainly I never saw any Heathkit ads in CPU or Maximum PC. Hams and early computerists enjoyed a lot of overlap. (Still do. My Linux Users Group has a strong ham radio element). They could have marketed both. Sorry Heathkit. FAIL. Poor brand migration strategy.
The reason this is sad is that a well-positioned company banked on its past glory. Another case in point: Kodak. RIP.
Case modification and system building is huge. And (sarcasm notwithstanding) customers would end up with something that did "play MP3s and You Tube". And there is lots of ham to PC hybridization so they could have stayed with radio as well in some guise. They could have been a contender.
Motion sickness and other problems will go away in days for most people. The famous upside-down glasses experiment proves how actively the brain interacts with the senses. The process is called perceptual adaptation.
Public availability would be great if this tech matures. I would love to have better peripheral vision when I am behind the wheel. And a well-integrated HUD for GPS, and related apps, would enhance my personal reality. w00t!
Most people IMHO do prefer to live in prison. Only they call it their comfort zone. Perhaps you are one of the daring few who seek adventure, challenge and excitement? Oh, wait!. This is Slashdot. Prison or mom's basement? Is there a difference?
Hey, I support users at work and those in the early 30ties often need the most babysitting.
That is interesting. And really is what makes Google's Chrome OS play so good from their perspective. Perhaps I should have said, "People who grew up being interested in computers." And I'll concede that that number is probably pretty stable over the last two generations (as a percentage of the population.). Although maybe it is a bit larger these days due to the size of the industry and the general availability of computers. That is, people who would naturally be interested in the bits and bytes get the exposure. Forty odd years ago when I began my life-long relationship with computers they were only found in institutional settings. (Come join me on the porch. We'll sit in our rockers and yell at kids to get off our lawns.)
Then again that percentage might even be shrinking.The dumb-down trend seems to be accelerating. Smart phones, tablets and the hybrid platforms are to my mind "computing appliances." The systems in this consumer grade crippleware is pretty much inaccessible by design. Chrome OS with desktop is a natural stage in this devolution.
FYI I guy in my Linux users group was issued a Chrome book to review some months ago (before Aura) and the headaches he had trying to even install Linux were incredible. It took him a couple of days. The hardware was pretty much locked down. He managed to hack it, but it was PITA.
And increases satisfaction in some contexts. Look at the popularity of fast food.?. "Do you want a hamburger or a hamburger with cheese on it? Maybe you want some fish shaped like a hamburger on a hamburger bun?"
A lot of users I know are sort of afraid of their complex flexible machines. (Sad but true.) And, it seems to them, just when they get used to them MS or Apple upgrades. Yikes! Of course, as you pointed out, that is exciting for a good number users (people like you and me) but a lot of people don't want to know anything about how their computer works. Quite aggressively so in many cases. "My computerz is busted!!!!! HELP HALP! "They just want to do what they want to do. I confess that this is most true of older users. On the other hand, people who grew up with computers, of course, want to have more flexibility.
It is hard to know what percentage of the overall market is savvy or slow. My guess is that the slow crowd outnumbers the savvy. That said, for large numbers of older users, and less well-educated users, a piece of cripple ware is just what the doctor ordered. Google is betting that a large number of people would be very happy to offload their admin tasks to the cloud and simply surf and communicate and do simple tasks -- especially on the road. With the added benefit that all data created on the box is safe in the cloud so loss or theft poses little risk to a persons unique information.. They will want their mobile computer to be light weight, fast, secure, simple. and bullet proof. With a little effort I have made my EEEPC netbook meet those specs. Most people can't. And they sure are not interested in learning how. Anything but.
One last comment. My observation is that Google likes to hatch several chicks and see what shakes out. Android is very free form. Lots of flavors --too many some complain -- and lots of apps. Just the ticket for those comfortable with tech. Chrome will be stable and rigid with few choices and little chance of malfunctioning. Perfect for grandma. And, as was pointed out, also useful in an enterprise setting. Chrome phone homepage Google .
That is how George Will labeled this kind reporting. The bottom feeders have even gotten worse since he issued his indictment of this vile practice. Mr Will and I share few political ideas. But he was spot on with this characterization. I think of it every time I see one of these savage reports.
"So, your son died in a friendly fire incident in Kabul this morning. How does this make you feel, Mrs ________?"
This story is clearly not about censorship, which the gagged man would seem to indicate it is. As an earlier poster pointed out the second part of the headline is misleading. But in truth, there can be no controversy here. No free speech is being muzzled.
The story appears to me to be about trolling... with a for-profit twist. Is there a little troll logo? If not one might come in handy. These days a lot of trolling takes place... on the news, in politics. Pundits, politicians, authors, 'experts', preachers, bloggers, celebrities etc. etc. have all seemed to learn that if one says something outrageous one gets a precious minute or two of fame or shame (really it's all the same). All of these people profit from their trolls. Truth is often actually a liability in this case. Is this really nasty trend influenced by our increasingly internet-dominated culture? Bored? Start a flame war. Bored with being poor? Don a dog collar, buy an internet divinity degree, then claim that Jesus was not Jewish, but was instead a Gaul, adopted by a Jewish family. Blah blah blah. Wave some Armenian texts around you maintain were found in Yerevan. You'll make money defending the indefensible. And sell books read by people who want to prove it is rubbish.Or by those who would be really happy to learn that Jesus was not a Jew.
"Phew! We just knew it. "
"Hello America. Today we'll meet a preacher who says Jesus was not a Jew." By the time you are debunked you'll be in Costa Rica drinking a mohito..or two.
Crystal Cox rode this hyperbolic trend into criminal territory (or certainly into tort territory) when she said in effect, "I'll stop trolling you if you start paying me." But really, the shock jocks and pundits (both left and right) troll every day to grab eyeballs and eardrums to sell advertising and amp their seven-figure salaries.
Yup. If there isn't one already, I think we need a little troll.
How do well-intentioned people paint themselves into such ridiculous corners? It really beats me. Unpleasant emotions are part of life. Tests are supposed to be pleasant? Since when? And since when do people need to be insulated from customs in which they don't take part? A JW kids knows he does not get a birthday party. He is probably proud of the fact that he doesn't; that is, if he has bought into his religion and is proud of that. But he should know that other kids do celebrate birthdays and then be taught to be glad for them. No mention of Hanukkah because some celebrate only Christmas or vice versa? Please. And some other kids celebrate Ramadan and Kwanzaa etc etc. It is called diversity and reasonable people think it is a good thing.
Dinosaurs in the fossil record are established scientific fact. Kids love dinosaurs. There is no controversy concerning them. Especially in a public school setting. Has NYC suddenly gone creationist? If this were in Kansas I might not be surprised. But NYC? Whoa. Come on. No school trips to the natural history museum, kids. They teach "science" there. WTF! If somebody's kid freaks because evolution is invoked he should be counseled. Or, if his parents are also freaked, then they can send him to a religious school that provides a spiritual non-scientific view of the universe. Public schools should try to teach facts.
Most kids celebrate Halloween, which has pagan roots. So? So do many religious customs. Candle lighting echoes Zoroastrian fire worship. No one should make a kid participate in Halloween fun, of course. But he should know that some people do like to do so. If a kid feels bad because his parents won't let him. Tough. Kids feel bad all the time because their parents restrict their behavior for religious and other family centric reasons.
Lastly. I do agree about the space aliens. They have no place on a test about the real world because there is no evidence to date that they exist. I will concede that it stands to reason that they are out there (Thanks, Dr Sagan.). But no one has delivered up any credible proof to date. So no aliens for the children. No aliens whatsoever. And that is final.
PS If this is a pre-April Fools joke by Rupe and his no-ethics thugs at News Corp to make us liberals look bad, then I have been punked into a rant. But screw them. Fake news is not funny when it has an ulterior political motive. Hmmm. The more I think about this the more likely I think it is that this nasty story is a News Corp send up. But what the heck. I'll post and be punked.
Slashdot Mirror
Use away. Confucius says: "Imitation is sincerest form of flattery."
treaty that matters in friendly PDF.
treaty.
But the novel is really imaginative and exceptionally well crafted. And in light of the continuing ascendancy of the corporations as the center of gravity of power worldwide it is provocative. The writer asked: "If the oil runs out and we can't solve the energy gap then which corporations will rule?" Answer: Biotech. This is a stretch, but he makes it work. Given the general nastiness surrounding patented food crops, which the original poster made clear, the author took it somewhere very dark.
Furthermore, the book resonated with me in particular as I once spent five years in Bangkok working for the Nong Su Pim Poojadkhan (Manager Newspaper Group). And let me tell you that behind the smiles Thailand is no paradise.
but it could get worse: See The Windup Girl
My feeling is social sites are like restaurants. They have a fashion clock. Players in the F&B biz sell a popular restaurant after 18 months. They know that it will come off the boil. The in crowd will move on. They have to... in order to stay in... Myspace anyone?
Facebook will be history in five years. It is a walled garden. Relief is just a click away... a click away. All it offers is a kind of critical mass. And the market knows it.
And shows it.
Here we are discussing her absurd ideas. This is a media troll plain and simple. Her agent is happy. Her publisher is happy.
How to media troll? One leads out a sacred cow and kills it. (In this case she has lead out the presumption of anonymity for innocents in a free society. We accept as sacred doctrine (and rightly IMHO) the idea that branding someone is an act society reserves for criminals. And, furthermore, that only a criminal society would brand everyone.) Preferably you kill your cow in the town square with a chain saw.
To slaughter effectively one has to have some kind of pulpit, some authority, albeit small. I saw a squib today about a preacher who proposed concentration camps for gays and lesbians. He did it on video. Some well-meaning people plan to protest outside his church. He'll get support and money from the haters. It was a classic media troll. The shock jocks and radio pundits are past masters of this. It is even a way to make a name for oneself in the sciences. With a weak degree one can attack some established tower of truth and get on Fox news and sell thousands books to the ignorant. So you won't get tenured, big deal, you can lick your wounds on your yacht. Well played Ms. Moon. You will sell more books. Go on TV and get some speaking fees.
I read an extensive piece in Time about fracking the Marcellus play. The piece seemed pretty balanced and authoritative. My take away was that if done using best practices fracking can be made relatively safe -- at least as extractive processes go. But there is a lot of room for damage if it is done irresponsibly. IMHO society and industry can both benefit from the positive dynamic of competent government regulation to make fracking -- or for that matter -- any large-scale mineral extraction work.
The root problem is not the technology. It is corruption. The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico proved that. It is a simple fact of life that fossil fuel really brings it when it comes to providing cost-effective, portable efficient energy. However, if we ruin our quality of life while extracting it we obviate its advantages. We have people watching these industries, but "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Why they did not pivot into guided computer system builds of various kinds and levels of complexity is beyond me? Or if they did try that play they just botched it. Certainly I never saw any Heathkit ads in CPU or Maximum PC. Hams and early computerists enjoyed a lot of overlap. (Still do. My Linux Users Group has a strong ham radio element). They could have marketed both. Sorry Heathkit. FAIL. Poor brand migration strategy.
The reason this is sad is that a well-positioned company banked on its past glory. Another case in point: Kodak. RIP.
Case modification and system building is huge. And (sarcasm notwithstanding) customers would end up with something that did "play MP3s and You Tube". And there is lots of ham to PC hybridization so they could have stayed with radio as well in some guise. They could have been a contender.
Perhaps I'll flip the fan around on the side of the case to blow outwards. Then I'll have the breeze.
I've been trying to fry that P4 for nearly a decade. But. It. Just. Won't. Die.
welcome our inchlord overworms.
I partially heat my home office with my Pentium 4.
Really. Sometimes I boot my old box just because the room is chilly.
CorpseBook.
Busted! Is that you Larry.... Jerry?
We could name it the Splash/Pot.
Whooooosh. = *Sound of toilet flushing...*
The surface sounds perfect to line the inside of a commode. Opaque better than transparent for this application, however. At least IMHO.
Remember: You saw it on Slashdot before you saw it at the rest stop. w00t
Then we'll have the money to go to mars. Oh, wait! I forgot. I'm freaking elderly!
Keep yer filthy Govmnt hands off'n my Medicare!
Motion sickness and other problems will go away in days for most people. The famous upside-down glasses experiment proves how actively the brain interacts with the senses. The process is called perceptual adaptation.
Public availability would be great if this tech matures. I would love to have better peripheral vision when I am behind the wheel. And a well-integrated HUD for GPS, and related apps, would enhance my personal reality. w00t!
Most people IMHO do prefer to live in prison. Only they call it their comfort zone. Perhaps you are one of the daring few who seek adventure, challenge and excitement? Oh, wait!. This is Slashdot. Prison or mom's basement? Is there a difference?
Hey, I support users at work and those in the early 30ties often need the most babysitting.
That is interesting. And really is what makes Google's Chrome OS play so good from their perspective. Perhaps I should have said, "People who grew up being interested in computers." And I'll concede that that number is probably pretty stable over the last two generations (as a percentage of the population.). Although maybe it is a bit larger these days due to the size of the industry and the general availability of computers. That is, people who would naturally be interested in the bits and bytes get the exposure. Forty odd years ago when I began my life-long relationship with computers they were only found in institutional settings. (Come join me on the porch. We'll sit in our rockers and yell at kids to get off our lawns.)
Then again that percentage might even be shrinking.The dumb-down trend seems to be accelerating. Smart phones, tablets and the hybrid platforms are to my mind "computing appliances." The systems in this consumer grade crippleware is pretty much inaccessible by design. Chrome OS with desktop is a natural stage in this devolution.
FYI I guy in my Linux users group was issued a Chrome book to review some months ago (before Aura) and the headaches he had trying to even install Linux were incredible. It took him a couple of days. The hardware was pretty much locked down. He managed to hack it, but it was PITA.
And increases satisfaction in some contexts. Look at the popularity of fast food.?. "Do you want a hamburger or a hamburger with cheese on it? Maybe you want some fish shaped like a hamburger on a hamburger bun?"
A lot of users I know are sort of afraid of their complex flexible machines. (Sad but true.) And, it seems to them, just when they get used to them MS or Apple upgrades. Yikes! Of course, as you pointed out, that is exciting for a good number users (people like you and me) but a lot of people don't want to know anything about how their computer works. Quite aggressively so in many cases. "My computerz is busted!!!!! HELP HALP! "They just want to do what they want to do. I confess that this is most true of older users. On the other hand, people who grew up with computers, of course, want to have more flexibility.
It is hard to know what percentage of the overall market is savvy or slow. My guess is that the slow crowd outnumbers the savvy. That said, for large numbers of older users, and less well-educated users, a piece of cripple ware is just what the doctor ordered. Google is betting that a large number of people would be very happy to offload their admin tasks to the cloud and simply surf and communicate and do simple tasks -- especially on the road. With the added benefit that all data created on the box is safe in the cloud so loss or theft poses little risk to a persons unique information.. They will want their mobile computer to be light weight, fast, secure, simple. and bullet proof. With a little effort I have made my EEEPC netbook meet those specs. Most people can't. And they sure are not interested in learning how. Anything but.
One last comment. My observation is that Google likes to hatch several chicks and see what shakes out. Android is very free form. Lots of flavors --too many some complain -- and lots of apps. Just the ticket for those comfortable with tech. Chrome will be stable and rigid with few choices and little chance of malfunctioning. Perfect for grandma. And, as was pointed out, also useful in an enterprise setting. Chrome phone homepage Google .
That is how George Will labeled this kind reporting. The bottom feeders have even gotten worse since he issued his indictment of this vile practice. Mr Will and I share few political ideas. But he was spot on with this characterization. I think of it every time I see one of these savage reports.
"So, your son died in a friendly fire incident in Kabul this morning. How does this make you feel, Mrs ________?"
This story is clearly not about censorship, which the gagged man would seem to indicate it is. As an earlier poster pointed out the second part of the headline is misleading. But in truth, there can be no controversy here. No free speech is being muzzled.
The story appears to me to be about trolling... with a for-profit twist. Is there a little troll logo? If not one might come in handy. These days a lot of trolling takes place... on the news, in politics. Pundits, politicians, authors, 'experts', preachers, bloggers, celebrities etc. etc. have all seemed to learn that if one says something outrageous one gets a precious minute or two of fame or shame (really it's all the same). All of these people profit from their trolls. Truth is often actually a liability in this case. Is this really nasty trend influenced by our increasingly internet-dominated culture? Bored? Start a flame war. Bored with being poor? Don a dog collar, buy an internet divinity degree, then claim that Jesus was not Jewish, but was instead a Gaul, adopted by a Jewish family. Blah blah blah. Wave some Armenian texts around you maintain were found in Yerevan. You'll make money defending the indefensible. And sell books read by people who want to prove it is rubbish.Or by those who would be really happy to learn that Jesus was not a Jew.
"Phew! We just knew it. "
"Hello America. Today we'll meet a preacher who says Jesus was not a Jew." By the time you are debunked you'll be in Costa Rica drinking a mohito..or two.
Crystal Cox rode this hyperbolic trend into criminal territory (or certainly into tort territory) when she said in effect, "I'll stop trolling you if you start paying me." But really, the shock jocks and pundits (both left and right) troll every day to grab eyeballs and eardrums to sell advertising and amp their seven-figure salaries.
Yup. If there isn't one already, I think we need a little troll.
How do well-intentioned people paint themselves into such ridiculous corners? It really beats me. Unpleasant emotions are part of life. Tests are supposed to be pleasant? Since when? And since when do people need to be insulated from customs in which they don't take part? A JW kids knows he does not get a birthday party. He is probably proud of the fact that he doesn't; that is, if he has bought into his religion and is proud of that. But he should know that other kids do celebrate birthdays and then be taught to be glad for them. No mention of Hanukkah because some celebrate only Christmas or vice versa? Please. And some other kids celebrate Ramadan and Kwanzaa etc etc. It is called diversity and reasonable people think it is a good thing.
Dinosaurs in the fossil record are established scientific fact. Kids love dinosaurs. There is no controversy concerning them. Especially in a public school setting. Has NYC suddenly gone creationist? If this were in Kansas I might not be surprised. But NYC? Whoa. Come on. No school trips to the natural history museum, kids. They teach "science" there. WTF! If somebody's kid freaks because evolution is invoked he should be counseled. Or, if his parents are also freaked, then they can send him to a religious school that provides a spiritual non-scientific view of the universe. Public schools should try to teach facts.
Most kids celebrate Halloween, which has pagan roots. So? So do many religious customs. Candle lighting echoes Zoroastrian fire worship. No one should make a kid participate in Halloween fun, of course. But he should know that some people do like to do so. If a kid feels bad because his parents won't let him. Tough. Kids feel bad all the time because their parents restrict their behavior for religious and other family centric reasons.
Lastly. I do agree about the space aliens. They have no place on a test about the real world because there is no evidence to date that they exist. I will concede that it stands to reason that they are out there (Thanks, Dr Sagan.). But no one has delivered up any credible proof to date. So no aliens for the children. No aliens whatsoever. And that is final.
PS If this is a pre-April Fools joke by Rupe and his no-ethics thugs at News Corp to make us liberals look bad, then I have been punked into a rant. But screw them. Fake news is not funny when it has an ulterior political motive. Hmmm. The more I think about this the more likely I think it is that this nasty story is a News Corp send up. But what the heck. I'll post and be punked.
The Habit.