I think a lot of people just don't get this. It's not possible to avoid breaking the law, and nearly impossible to even hold every law in a particular region in ones head. Our system is massivly broken in that respect.
Agreed. Scifi is, oddly, one of the most predictable genres out there on tv. I loved that I could actually be surprised by farscape, in almost the same way that a science fiction book would be surprising.
It's not like cable companies can say, "Our viewers are sick of the Sci-Fi channel, we're going to drop it in favor of..." For one thing, there isn't anything else that appeals to the same audience.
Then
Me, I don't care that much, because I've opted out of the whole cable TV ripoff. Which means waiting for shows to come out on DVD,
Sounds like you found what people can drop them in favor of. I did the same thing, and we're not even close to being alone in that. Which is one of the reasons I think they're going with wrestling, the VCR generation which grew up with it is one of the last which isn't going to jump ship from cable altogether.
Maybe the problem is they hired journalism majors with a bit of tech knowledge rather than tech guys who can write reasonably. That's the right strategy for the NYT tech section not cnet. I dunno.
It's not the right strategy for either. What they want is people who are both tech geeks 'and' journalism majors. I'd say it doesn't work at all for the new york times, at least in the science angle I'm familiar with. They usually have writeups by people who display an amazing ignorance of science, and it winds up not only being worthless to both parties, but I'd even argue decremental to society as a whole when it continues to degrade public opinion of science. 90% or more of the time their articles will just wind up with a laugh from the general public in a "Oh scientists tell us this food is bad now, they just don't understand the world in the way our family homeopath does." way. Bad science reporting, whether from ignorance of writing or science, is worse than nothing at all. The problem is that people who can both write well, and know what they're reporting on, cost more money than a journalism major who'll believe any story he's fed about perpetual motion machines.
There is one significant difference, in that you enjoy the death and possibly the suffering of mammals. The person buying shoes is more likely to view it as a regrettable necessity, or is totally unaware of it. I'm not saying ignorance is an excuse, just that you're presenting a strawman in equating benefit from something and direct participation in it. The issue is a lot more complex than the boolean situation you're trying to paint it as. A large amount of buddhist schools, for example, will eat a presented animal which has already been killed but will not either buy it, or kill it. They, for just one example, don't fall into the same us Vs. them argument that both yourself and the parent are trying to paint the issue into. It seems like you're both taking this a tad too personally.
If, and I hate to use this term, new media has taught me one thing it's that any press but a journal is horrible for science and technology. Time and time again some reporter is sent out to cover pseudoscience, or thinly disguised ads, as if it was actual technological or scientific news. I'm convinced that watered down reporting, writing to a level that should be insulting to a middle school student, is one of the main causes for the publics ignorance and rejection of science. The public isn't stupid, and they know that the watered down analogies to the library of congress are bullshit. I'm only hoping that the websites that also speak to the public at a five year olds level will follow after and people will will find themselves presented with the actual facts of the matter again.
I've bought more online than I ever did as well. First with p2p, heavily non-mainstream. Usually a fairly high percentage of off label stuff. Then, since pandora and lastfm I've bought even more. The thing is though, it's been 100% non-label. And I think that's what they're worried about.
Guest: And every human racial type is originally from another planet. Host: Hey! What about dogs! I bet animals might have all had a different home planet too. Guest: Uhhhhh....sure. Host: WOW!!!
Not to mention that one of the main points of a pill is that you're getting an exact dose. Lost a bit of the apples juice when taking a bite? Great, the patient's suddenly only had a partial dose of their medicine.
Re:more proof the RIAA/MPAA are insane
on
Death By DMCA
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· Score: 1
I really have to wonder why any company would WANT to force someone to watch their ad. If I don't want to see it, forcing me to watch it isn't going to make me want to buy your product any more. Rather the opposite, in fact.
We all think that about ourselves, much as we all assume that 'we' would be among those few that would disobey in Milgram's classic experiment. Sad thing is, most studies indicate that we're not. Advertisers use commercials because statistically they've been shown to be effective. Just as much with people who "ignore" them as background noise while doing something in the kitchen as those who're sitting glued in front of the TV. Even fast forwarding with a VCR is going to have some effect. The only way to really nullify an advertisements influence on our buying habits is by totally skipping them, which is why advertisers are so freaked out by these kinds of technologies.
Most westerners, and Americans in particular, are sleep deprived as the norm trying to get in some semblence of a life between work. The majority of us have also become stimulant addicts in an attempt to make this easier, which in turn makes the stress of the day even more severe. On top of all that, we live in a society where it's increasingly difficult to stay abreast of the latest changes in science, society, and the world and where most of us lack the time to comfortably allocate study time for the sake of pure learning. There's little time for quality family time, especially with those not in our own household. And there's precious little time to work on independant and alturistic projects which in theory could be of benefit to soceity. And if one finds any of that objectionable, he's instantly tagged as lazy.
But you can't expect laypeople to understand the difference, really
I think you're seriously underestimating the intelligence of the average person on the street. Yes, neurology is a pretty hefty subject. But getting enough of a base in it to at least understand the situtation a loved one is in isn't an impossible task by any means. There's popular science books aplenty that are written by people with actual working experience in the field, who can be counted on to supply quality material to any adult of average intelligence.
After a fair amount of travel, I've come to one conclusion about any country created by humans. Each and every single one will be filled with stupid, illogical, laws whose end effects almost nobody likes. Even in the netherlands you'll find some pretty harmless herbs are illegal that one can buy in a health food store in most other western countries. It's a symptom of having large groups of people whose entire job consists of creating new laws, even if there's too many as it is.
My reaction has been similar, but with one big difference. I thought the show was moving steadily downhill up until 2003-2004. At that point it went from walking downhill to running, then finding the bottom, and then proceeding to dig even farther. But I rather liked a lot of 2005, and I thought this season has actually been really good. Easily to the point where I watch it the same day as my dvr records it.
I have to agree, this is the first time that I've actually enjoyed reading slashdot on April 1st. What makes april fools day fun is an element of unpredictability, something slashdot's really not been able to get down in the past. I came in expecting lame predictable tech jokes, and instead got ponies. Not too bad...
It's hard to dispute empirical research... you dress for your audience or risk losing them.
I totally agree, but only while putting emphasis on the idea that there's more than a single audience on the planet. Go to a meeting without a suit in some states, and you'd get lynched. But the exact opposite would be true in some other states with a vested interest in their "good ol' boy" image. It's the usual tribal crap we primates love so much, and people who ignore that fact for fantasies about clothing having anything to do with individuality do so at their own peril.
No this stuff makes me sick. People like you in my eyes are worse then the open haters, I rather deal with ten neo-nazi's then with one person who says to not upset them.
I have little more to add other than a "me2!!!!". But, for what it's worth, I totally agree with you. My great-grandparents fled pre-WW2 germany, and it was the common person who just caved in to the nazis that received the majority of their scorn.
I was pretty disapointed with that as well. I'm on a guest computer right now, and firefox actually crashes X after extended use. And I'm 'still' using firefox instead of opera, just because it takes less time to log back into KDE than it did to manually do all the things the firefox extensions provide. Bookmarklets really aren't the full answer to the problem, and seeing the official position being that it is, I've lost a lot of hope for opera coming back as my main browser. Which really is a pity because I think it's the better browser, and really like the QT based interface.
I'm a recent grad with a BS in CS and about three years experience doing the usual helpdesk thing to help pay my way through school. I wasn't exactly expecting offers to be flying in every direction when I got out. But I was expecting that willingness to relocate anywhere would do the trick in nabbing something, anything, fairly quickly. But after three weeks with yahoo, dice and cybercoders I've had zilch as far as interviews.
Anyone have some tips for someone watching his bank account slowly dripping away while job searching?
I'm getting pretty sick of hearing this from the media as well. I'm getting even more annoyed that tech sites are covering it. It's such a weird subject in the first place. On the surface it makes nice little sounds of people worried about sexism. Once one reads a bit more though, these stories usually turn out to be the main souce of it. "We're a bunch of men who think we know better what any particular woman wants out of life than she does. So get on with that job you don't like, because we said so!"
Slashdot Mirror
I think a lot of people just don't get this. It's not possible to avoid breaking the law, and nearly impossible to even hold every law in a particular region in ones head. Our system is massivly broken in that respect.
Agreed. Scifi is, oddly, one of the most predictable genres out there on tv. I loved that I could actually be surprised by farscape, in almost the same way that a science fiction book would be surprising.
It's not like cable companies can say, "Our viewers are sick of the Sci-Fi channel, we're going to drop it in favor of ..." For one thing, there isn't anything else that appeals to the same audience.
Then
Me, I don't care that much, because I've opted out of the whole cable TV ripoff. Which means waiting for shows to come out on DVD,
Sounds like you found what people can drop them in favor of. I did the same thing, and we're not even close to being alone in that. Which is one of the reasons I think they're going with wrestling, the VCR generation which grew up with it is one of the last which isn't going to jump ship from cable altogether.
Maybe the problem is they hired journalism majors with a bit of tech knowledge rather than tech guys who can write reasonably. That's the right strategy for the NYT tech section not cnet. I dunno.
It's not the right strategy for either. What they want is people who are both tech geeks 'and' journalism majors. I'd say it doesn't work at all for the new york times, at least in the science angle I'm familiar with. They usually have writeups by people who display an amazing ignorance of science, and it winds up not only being worthless to both parties, but I'd even argue decremental to society as a whole when it continues to degrade public opinion of science. 90% or more of the time their articles will just wind up with a laugh from the general public in a "Oh scientists tell us this food is bad now, they just don't understand the world in the way our family homeopath does." way. Bad science reporting, whether from ignorance of writing or science, is worse than nothing at all. The problem is that people who can both write well, and know what they're reporting on, cost more money than a journalism major who'll believe any story he's fed about perpetual motion machines.
It's critical in the sense that I won't be able to sit outside McDonald's or in my lectures dicking around on slashdot,
Don't all western McDonald's offer free WiFi?
There is one significant difference, in that you enjoy the death and possibly the suffering of mammals. The person buying shoes is more likely to view it as a regrettable necessity, or is totally unaware of it. I'm not saying ignorance is an excuse, just that you're presenting a strawman in equating benefit from something and direct participation in it. The issue is a lot more complex than the boolean situation you're trying to paint it as. A large amount of buddhist schools, for example, will eat a presented animal which has already been killed but will not either buy it, or kill it. They, for just one example, don't fall into the same us Vs. them argument that both yourself and the parent are trying to paint the issue into. It seems like you're both taking this a tad too personally.
If, and I hate to use this term, new media has taught me one thing it's that any press but a journal is horrible for science and technology. Time and time again some reporter is sent out to cover pseudoscience, or thinly disguised ads, as if it was actual technological or scientific news. I'm convinced that watered down reporting, writing to a level that should be insulting to a middle school student, is one of the main causes for the publics ignorance and rejection of science. The public isn't stupid, and they know that the watered down analogies to the library of congress are bullshit. I'm only hoping that the websites that also speak to the public at a five year olds level will follow after and people will will find themselves presented with the actual facts of the matter again.
Amen. Primary source material or nothing when it comes to trying to actually get to the heart of anything.
I've bought more online than I ever did as well. First with p2p, heavily non-mainstream. Usually a fairly high percentage of off label stuff. Then, since pandora and lastfm I've bought even more. The thing is though, it's been 100% non-label. And I think that's what they're worried about.
Best Coast to Coast exchange I've ever heard.
Guest: And every human racial type is originally from another planet.
Host: Hey! What about dogs! I bet animals might have all had a different home planet too.
Guest: Uhhhhh....sure.
Host: WOW!!!
Not to mention that one of the main points of a pill is that you're getting an exact dose. Lost a bit of the apples juice when taking a bite? Great, the patient's suddenly only had a partial dose of their medicine.
I really have to wonder why any company would WANT to force someone to watch their ad. If I don't want to see it, forcing me to watch it isn't going to make me want to buy your product any more. Rather the opposite, in fact.
We all think that about ourselves, much as we all assume that 'we' would be among those few that would disobey in Milgram's classic experiment. Sad thing is, most studies indicate that we're not. Advertisers use commercials because statistically they've been shown to be effective. Just as much with people who "ignore" them as background noise while doing something in the kitchen as those who're sitting glued in front of the TV. Even fast forwarding with a VCR is going to have some effect. The only way to really nullify an advertisements influence on our buying habits is by totally skipping them, which is why advertisers are so freaked out by these kinds of technologies.
I can't even comprehend how it is that most people can hear the term "bad guy" and not feel as if they were being spoken down to.
Most westerners, and Americans in particular, are sleep deprived as the norm trying to get in some semblence of a life between work. The majority of us have also become stimulant addicts in an attempt to make this easier, which in turn makes the stress of the day even more severe. On top of all that, we live in a society where it's increasingly difficult to stay abreast of the latest changes in science, society, and the world and where most of us lack the time to comfortably allocate study time for the sake of pure learning. There's little time for quality family time, especially with those not in our own household. And there's precious little time to work on independant and alturistic projects which in theory could be of benefit to soceity. And if one finds any of that objectionable, he's instantly tagged as lazy.
The world is one messed up place sometimes.
But you can't expect laypeople to understand the difference, really
I think you're seriously underestimating the intelligence of the average person on the street. Yes, neurology is a pretty hefty subject. But getting enough of a base in it to at least understand the situtation a loved one is in isn't an impossible task by any means. There's popular science books aplenty that are written by people with actual working experience in the field, who can be counted on to supply quality material to any adult of average intelligence.
The urge, yes. But the history of the war on drugs has shown the legal system to not find those kind of pranks as funny as we do.
After a fair amount of travel, I've come to one conclusion about any country created by humans. Each and every single one will be filled with stupid, illogical, laws whose end effects almost nobody likes. Even in the netherlands you'll find some pretty harmless herbs are illegal that one can buy in a health food store in most other western countries. It's a symptom of having large groups of people whose entire job consists of creating new laws, even if there's too many as it is.
My reaction has been similar, but with one big difference. I thought the show was moving steadily downhill up until 2003-2004. At that point it went from walking downhill to running, then finding the bottom, and then proceeding to dig even farther. But I rather liked a lot of 2005, and I thought this season has actually been really good. Easily to the point where I watch it the same day as my dvr records it.
I have to agree, this is the first time that I've actually enjoyed reading slashdot on April 1st. What makes april fools day fun is an element of unpredictability, something slashdot's really not been able to get down in the past. I came in expecting lame predictable tech jokes, and instead got ponies. Not too bad...
It's hard to dispute empirical research... you dress for your audience or risk losing them.
I totally agree, but only while putting emphasis on the idea that there's more than a single audience on the planet. Go to a meeting without a suit in some states, and you'd get lynched. But the exact opposite would be true in some other states with a vested interest in their "good ol' boy" image. It's the usual tribal crap we primates love so much, and people who ignore that fact for fantasies about clothing having anything to do with individuality do so at their own peril.
No this stuff makes me sick. People like you in my eyes are worse then the open haters, I rather deal with ten neo-nazi's then with one person who says to not upset them.
I have little more to add other than a "me2!!!!". But, for what it's worth, I totally agree with you. My great-grandparents fled pre-WW2 germany, and it was the common person who just caved in to the nazis that received the majority of their scorn.
With the latest classpath build it should be able to run on 100% OS platforms.
I was pretty disapointed with that as well. I'm on a guest computer right now, and firefox actually crashes X after extended use. And I'm 'still' using firefox instead of opera, just because it takes less time to log back into KDE than it did to manually do all the things the firefox extensions provide. Bookmarklets really aren't the full answer to the problem, and seeing the official position being that it is, I've lost a lot of hope for opera coming back as my main browser. Which really is a pity because I think it's the better browser, and really like the QT based interface.
I'm a recent grad with a BS in CS and about three years experience doing the usual helpdesk thing to help pay my way through school. I wasn't exactly expecting offers to be flying in every direction when I got out. But I was expecting that willingness to relocate anywhere would do the trick in nabbing something, anything, fairly quickly. But after three weeks with yahoo, dice and cybercoders I've had zilch as far as interviews. Anyone have some tips for someone watching his bank account slowly dripping away while job searching?
I'm getting pretty sick of hearing this from the media as well. I'm getting even more annoyed that tech sites are covering it. It's such a weird subject in the first place. On the surface it makes nice little sounds of people worried about sexism. Once one reads a bit more though, these stories usually turn out to be the main souce of it. "We're a bunch of men who think we know better what any particular woman wants out of life than she does. So get on with that job you don't like, because we said so!"