Re:The tale of Ray Diosack and Mike Rocenter
on
Canadian Privacy Act
·
· Score: 1
I bought something at Radio Shack (in Montreal) just before Christmas and they had a sign saying something like, "Why does Radio Shack ask for personal information?" followed by some marketingspeak.
"Oh, great, now I have to make up another fake name", I thought, but they didn't even ask. Could local outlets be rebelling? Or maybe they were anticipating the law?
One other, offtopic question I asked here before but didn't get a reply to - why is the "R" in the "R-in-a-circle" logo of the franchise off-centre? Conflict with some other, well-known "R-in-a-circle" symbol?
To publicly challenge the plan is a mistake though. This is not seen as constructive. It is seen as disruptive. Bring up the ideas in private with those who made the decision in the first place. If you're right you may get praise. If you're wrong, they'll likely point out why. Either way, you're better for it.
Great post. I've worked in engineering design (not computer-related) for over 20 years and the way to resolve problems is NOT to be antagonistic. Often, decisions are made in the early stages of a project that must be fine-tuned later on. Finger-pointing and CYA manoovers (sp) are not helpful at this point. Then again, a stupid original concept remains a stupid original concept. Nothing can save that.
Club Monaco (a Canadian clothing chain) already puts RFID tags in all of their higher-end merchandise.
A few years ago, a made up a bunch of T-shirts and sent them out free of charge to members of a website's (one you've probably heard of) email group. Jokingly, I said that the wearers "could all now be tracked" via the internet.
I can say "Bonjour" without knowing a lick of French, or even the literal meaning of that phrase.
Bad analogy, sort of, eh. If you speak a native language, you can tell aboot from where a speaker originates. Some interlopers can fake it for a little while, but further ecoutage always betrays them. Unless they are really good spies.
"Find brains, and save them. There is a large quantity of pickle jars in the room off the laboratory".
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?
Igor: And you won't be angry?
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby someone.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Abby Normal?
Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Do you mean to tell me that I put an abnormal brain into an, 8 foot tall, 300 pound, GORILLA?!!!
...imagine you're walking and you get mugged, now you'll be glad about the cameras who can now have an idea of what the mugger looks like and there's a much greater chance of them being caught.
You are assuming that the smarter crooks don't know where the cameras are and say "cheese" while looking at the lens. Fuzzy, 1FPS video cameras only deter crime where they're not pointed at (and catching muggers/attackers after the fact is a low priority for police). Or should there be cameras everywhere?
Sorry, I'm being flippant. I realize your post is somehow about conformity, but I just don't get what you're driving at.
Oh, no, MY apology is needed. It's just that 95% of all cell phone conversations most people overhear in public tend to be the type that illustrates that the speaker has nothing better to do than speak at it or use it as a security blanket.
My cell phone is now inactive, but when I used it I would move away from prying ears, not shout "I have a cell phone" to everyone within earshot, thus confirming my insecurities. Or worse, "Look at me! I'm important, I have a cellphone". Yeah, I had one of those original 10 pound Mitsubishi's and service back when cell phones were new and cool.
I'm a senior in high school at the moment, and I see a lot of kids who have become disgusted with misspellings and abbreviations.
He mentions that he also studies German. That's a good thing, as kids learn the differences and similarities with/between words and tend to become curious why that is. Learning is good, and an idiot in [insert language here] (just as an example, no culture-bashing) is just as stupid as an idiot in English.
I speak broken Francais, myself, but I've learned a lot about how people communicate in the process. Even speaking a "broken" form of a language to native speakers can teach you a lot about them (and why their words mean what they do) and they generally don't shit on you for trying. In fact, you tend to be welcomed. After they make fun of your accent first, eh. If your ego can make it past that stage, there are other cultures to explore.
It'll be Armageddon: dogs and cats living together, Detroit winning the World Series AND the Super Bowl, etc.
Hey, football is over (MTV pop-up video of pop-out titties notwithstanding), wake up! Shouldn't that be a reference to the Bambino Curse?? I mean, if a Canadian team can win the World Series twice in a row, surely the Sox can go all the way this year. Time to refocus the vicarious sports energy, gang.
The problem, of course, is not the glass; it's this pesky desire of ours to have transparent artificial barriers as part of our dwellings---something which will not go away.
[Advice for male birds] I think the solution is to not have sexy pictures of birds that can be easily seen from outside.
[Advice for female birds] I have to wonder if the birds that impact airplanes are all female. After all, don't they all look like giant penises as they come towards you?
When it is all said and done, all this did was prove once again why we should limit nudity, most people look much better with their clothes on, include Janet.
Are you sure that was really Janet? Looking at the face, it looked quite like her brother.
Imagine what the majority of users watch. It ain't the good stuff you know. It's whether Daisy is sleeping with Brad behind Eric's back whilst Jake is having difficulty running his business and Karen is deciding whether to give up her job and become an alternative therapist.
Isn't the male 18-45 demographic down in network TV viewership over the past few years?
Gee, I wonder why that is...
Advertisers "discovered" that typical females (in some marketing test group somewhere) are the most easily-influenced, superficial market when it comes to commodity products like personal care items, and they love emotional tugs in commercials, especially those that portray the target group as witty, worldly, "godesses", smarter than males and prone to orgasms when hair-washing.
So, naturally, Bingo!, an onslaught of stupid programming like Survivor, various will-s/he-marry-me, who-is-more-popular-or-best-looking, etc. type programs.
Couldn't my cable company do the same thing with my digital cable box?
I think yes. During a tech support call to my digital cable service provider, he knew what channel I was tuned-to. Why couldn't this info be dumped to a file somewhere? If it results in more rebroadcasts of Fawlty Towers and UFO, should I mind?
Then again, since I'm always late paying my cable bill, do they care?
One of the (non-computer) engineering types on my mailing list sent this in:
SPAM as an energy source? Somebody hasn't thought this one out - Spam takes some amount of energy to create, so the reaction is basically endothermic. But, on the receiving end, we all know that it frequently takes considerable time and energy (expressable as watts) to get rid of it. So, at that point, it is again endothermic. So, this is following the rules of thermo, there is an unavoidable energy loss in the process. If we want to quantify the power input of a PC, divided by the amount of spam generated per unit time, we could get the energy input (input of energy in terms of creativity and potential information is taken as approaching zero). And on the output end, while it may cause increase in blood pressure and temperature, at best it is a catalyst, contributing nothing to the reaction.
Conclusion, spam is adding to the entropy of the universe - WE HAVE FOUND ANOTHER SOURCE OF GLOBAL WARMING!
Currently a person can buy a coat to keep their core nice and toasty, but extremeties (hands, feet, ears) are much more sucessptible to the elements. In this case the device is pulling heat away from an area that is easily insulated, to heat an area that is difficult to insulate.
As a Montrealer I agree with that. At -40C or F (much worse with wind chill) you can layer the torso (undershirt+shirt+sweater+sub-jacket+a nice wind-proof, insulated, knee-length coat) and keep relatively warm, but the hands and forearms tend to get numb after only a few minutes even with good gloves on.
And it freezes your boogers, too. Snotcicles.
(Now I suppose some Alaskan or Inuit is going to try and top this with spit freezing in mid air or their tongues being literally pulled out of their mouths and onto a metal pole)
So, aren't these gloves self defeating? And possibly dangerous because they will lower your core temp while simultaneously reducing the options your body has to naturally fight that drop.
No, silly, these gloves were obviously invented for boozehounds in Montreal that already wear warm jackets but need warm fingers in order to be able to hold a cold beer while staggering down Ste. Catherines in minus 30C temps during February.
I'm watching the intro now, and it would seem to be a bunch of hulking millionaires (how many games/year do NFLers play vs. team players in other sports? 10 to 1 ratio?) glaring at each other menacingly, bonking teammates' heads and generally overacting for the cameras.
Is this type of hype, silliness and posing prominent in hockey, baseball or basketball? Crap, I think wrestling is on tonight on another channel - probably more interesting and just as staged for the cameras.
When was the last time you heard, "Yahoo for it", "AltaVista for it" or "AllTheWeb for it"?
Google has entered cultures everywhere (hell, even lame-brained journalists are referring to it on a regular basis) and that will be tough to supplant.
Slashdot Mirror
I bought something at Radio Shack (in Montreal) just before Christmas and they had a sign saying something like, "Why does Radio Shack ask for personal information?" followed by some marketingspeak.
"Oh, great, now I have to make up another fake name", I thought, but they didn't even ask. Could local outlets be rebelling? Or maybe they were anticipating the law?
One other, offtopic question I asked here before but didn't get a reply to - why is the "R" in the "R-in-a-circle" logo of the franchise off-centre? Conflict with some other, well-known "R-in-a-circle" symbol?
It's also really cool using a desktop while in the john.
While taking a core dump?
To publicly challenge the plan is a mistake though. This is not seen as constructive. It is seen as disruptive. Bring up the ideas in private with those who made the decision in the first place. If you're right you may get praise. If you're wrong, they'll likely point out why. Either way, you're better for it.
Great post. I've worked in engineering design (not computer-related) for over 20 years and the way to resolve problems is NOT to be antagonistic. Often, decisions are made in the early stages of a project that must be fine-tuned later on. Finger-pointing and CYA manoovers (sp) are not helpful at this point. Then again, a stupid original concept remains a stupid original concept. Nothing can save that.
Club Monaco (a Canadian clothing chain) already puts RFID tags in all of their higher-end merchandise.
A few years ago, a made up a bunch of T-shirts and sent them out free of charge to members of a website's (one you've probably heard of) email group. Jokingly, I said that the wearers "could all now be tracked" via the internet.
I can say "Bonjour" without knowing a lick of French, or even the literal meaning of that phrase.
Bad analogy, sort of, eh. If you speak a native language, you can tell aboot from where a speaker originates. Some interlopers can fake it for a little while, but further ecoutage always betrays them. Unless they are really good spies.
What is it with Canada and these big animation software companies? Main/head offices:
SoftImage - Montreal
Alias Wavefront - Toronto
Discreet - Montreal
Someone more immediately familiar with them them than I am will surely (hint, hint) provide you with some useful URLs.
Browser Cam is one. US$39/month for unlimited use or US$10/hr.
"Find brains, and save them. There is a large quantity of pickle jars in the room off the laboratory".
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?
Igor: And you won't be angry?
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby someone.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Abby Normal?
Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: Do you mean to tell me that I put an abnormal brain into an, 8 foot tall, 300 pound, GORILLA?!!!
How much do bunny suit wearers earn, anyway? Is a Ph.D required?
...imagine you're walking and you get mugged, now you'll be glad about the cameras who can now have an idea of what the mugger looks like and there's a much greater chance of them being caught.
You are assuming that the smarter crooks don't know where the cameras are and say "cheese" while looking at the lens. Fuzzy, 1FPS video cameras only deter crime where they're not pointed at (and catching muggers/attackers after the fact is a low priority for police). Or should there be cameras everywhere?
Sorry, I'm being flippant. I realize your post is somehow about conformity, but I just don't get what you're driving at.
Oh, no, MY apology is needed. It's just that 95% of all cell phone conversations most people overhear in public tend to be the type that illustrates that the speaker has nothing better to do than speak at it or use it as a security blanket.
My cell phone is now inactive, but when I used it I would move away from prying ears, not shout "I have a cell phone" to everyone within earshot, thus confirming my insecurities. Or worse, "Look at me! I'm important, I have a cellphone". Yeah, I had one of those original 10 pound Mitsubishi's and service back when cell phones were new and cool.
Why not? If it causes more consumers to buy Samsung products, where's the problem?
Oh yeah, the sheep issue...
More and more, we are seeing that those who are not on a leash from their masters eschew (sorry, but that was the best word) ever-connectivity.
Please don't disassemble me!
I'm a senior in high school at the moment, and I see a lot of kids who have become disgusted with misspellings and abbreviations.
He mentions that he also studies German. That's a good thing, as kids learn the differences and similarities with/between words and tend to become curious why that is. Learning is good, and an idiot in [insert language here] (just as an example, no culture-bashing) is just as stupid as an idiot in English. I speak broken Francais, myself, but I've learned a lot about how people communicate in the process. Even speaking a "broken" form of a language to native speakers can teach you a lot about them (and why their words mean what they do) and they generally don't shit on you for trying. In fact, you tend to be welcomed. After they make fun of your accent first, eh. If your ego can make it past that stage, there are other cultures to explore.
It'll be Armageddon: dogs and cats living together, Detroit winning the World Series AND the Super Bowl, etc.
Hey, football is over (MTV pop-up video of pop-out titties notwithstanding), wake up! Shouldn't that be a reference to the Bambino Curse?? I mean, if a Canadian team can win the World Series twice in a row, surely the Sox can go all the way this year. Time to refocus the vicarious sports energy, gang.
The event takes place in Vikingskipet (The Viking ship) which was used under the Winter olympics at Lillehammer in 1994, so yeah, it's big :)
Will there be Vikings singing the spam song? I've got to know.
The problem, of course, is not the glass; it's this pesky desire of ours to have transparent artificial barriers as part of our dwellings---something which will not go away.
[Advice for male birds] I think the solution is to not have sexy pictures of birds that can be easily seen from outside.
[Advice for female birds] I have to wonder if the birds that impact airplanes are all female. After all, don't they all look like giant penises as they come towards you?
When it is all said and done, all this did was prove once again why we should limit nudity, most people look much better with their clothes on, include Janet.
Are you sure that was really Janet? Looking at the face, it looked quite like her brother.
Imagine what the majority of users watch. It ain't the good stuff you know. It's whether Daisy is sleeping with Brad behind Eric's back whilst Jake is having difficulty running his business and Karen is deciding whether to give up her job and become an alternative therapist.
Isn't the male 18-45 demographic down in network TV viewership over the past few years?
Gee, I wonder why that is...
Advertisers "discovered" that typical females (in some marketing test group somewhere) are the most easily-influenced, superficial market when it comes to commodity products like personal care items, and they love emotional tugs in commercials, especially those that portray the target group as witty, worldly, "godesses", smarter than males and prone to orgasms when hair-washing.
So, naturally, Bingo!, an onslaught of stupid programming like Survivor, various will-s/he-marry-me, who-is-more-popular-or-best-looking, etc. type programs.
Couldn't my cable company do the same thing with my digital cable box?
I think yes. During a tech support call to my digital cable service provider, he knew what channel I was tuned-to. Why couldn't this info be dumped to a file somewhere? If it results in more rebroadcasts of Fawlty Towers and UFO, should I mind?
Then again, since I'm always late paying my cable bill, do they care?
One of the (non-computer) engineering types on my mailing list sent this in:
SPAM as an energy source? Somebody hasn't thought this one out - Spam takes some amount of energy to create, so the reaction is basically endothermic. But, on the receiving end, we all know that it frequently takes considerable time and energy (expressable as watts) to get rid of it. So, at that point, it is again endothermic. So, this is following the rules of thermo, there is an unavoidable energy loss in the process. If we want to quantify the power input of a PC, divided by the amount of spam generated per unit time, we could get the energy input (input of energy in terms of creativity and potential information is taken as approaching zero). And on the output end, while it may cause increase in blood pressure and temperature, at best it is a catalyst, contributing nothing to the reaction.
Conclusion, spam is adding to the entropy of the universe - WE HAVE FOUND ANOTHER SOURCE OF GLOBAL WARMING!
Currently a person can buy a coat to keep their core nice and toasty, but extremeties (hands, feet, ears) are much more sucessptible to the elements. In this case the device is pulling heat away from an area that is easily insulated, to heat an area that is difficult to insulate.
As a Montrealer I agree with that. At -40C or F (much worse with wind chill) you can layer the torso (undershirt+shirt+sweater+sub-jacket+a nice wind-proof, insulated, knee-length coat) and keep relatively warm, but the hands and forearms tend to get numb after only a few minutes even with good gloves on.
And it freezes your boogers, too. Snotcicles.
(Now I suppose some Alaskan or Inuit is going to try and top this with spit freezing in mid air or their tongues being literally pulled out of their mouths and onto a metal pole)
So, aren't these gloves self defeating? And possibly dangerous because they will lower your core temp while simultaneously reducing the options your body has to naturally fight that drop.
No, silly, these gloves were obviously invented for boozehounds in Montreal that already wear warm jackets but need warm fingers in order to be able to hold a cold beer while staggering down Ste. Catherines in minus 30C temps during February.
Sheesh!
I'm watching the intro now, and it would seem to be a bunch of hulking millionaires (how many games/year do NFLers play vs. team players in other sports? 10 to 1 ratio?) glaring at each other menacingly, bonking teammates' heads and generally overacting for the cameras.
Is this type of hype, silliness and posing prominent in hockey, baseball or basketball? Crap, I think wrestling is on tonight on another channel - probably more interesting and just as staged for the cameras.
When was the last time you heard, "Yahoo for it", "AltaVista for it" or "AllTheWeb for it"?
Google has entered cultures everywhere (hell, even lame-brained journalists are referring to it on a regular basis) and that will be tough to supplant.