Re:You don't have to burn wood -- people will do.
on
Archimedes Death Ray
·
· Score: 1
Hi, I'm a professor of philosophy. I've also felt that the victory was secured by knowing (A) the sails are indeed on fire, and (B) Archimedes did it. That would be enough to gain a tactical advantage and, on my view, doable given the conditions of the experiement. Why so? With this happening to but a few ships would be enough to have the forces withdrawl, and count as a victory (that day) for Archimedes.
Your point that DVD-John is showing the limitations of the short life of encryption is exactly why I think we should praise, not condem him (and others of his ilk). Good insight, and it's exactly what I would have posted if you hadn't.
someone mentioned books and their effects on people as opposed to mere advertising in video games. But here's one good reason why e-books will not end up being a good thing: advertisers can eventually "force" one to watch their mind-drooling capitalist banter before allowing someone to actually read the book. This is already annoying enough on children's DVD's that, unlike tapes, don't let you skip all the pre-show krap.
Excellent analysis of the contemporary professor's dilemma. We are handed students from the k-12 environment and expected to properly evaluate students that don't even understand basic standards of writing and thinking.
>>[snip] places the stories based on algorithmic results and hence only shows the "group bias" of the world's media [\snip]
Of course I don't think the fact that it's done with algorithm's eliminates bias. Somebody has decided to use algorithm_1 overr algorithm_2, which is the programmer's bias. It's objective, I'll give you that, since it is quantified and repeatable. But it's still bias.
I wish you hadn't said that. I finally had a position on this matter worth typing. And you stole my whole position from my mind. Er, brain. Whatever.
Maybe one thing I would add is this: Even if, per impossible, a single language happened to come about on Earth, as humans move into space (and thus cannot maintain a unified culture through media and culture), there will arise natural differentiations among language dialects. Wait long enough -- i.e., where humans are so spread out in space that there are months even years between interactive communication events -- and new vocabulary and grammar structures will appear. Thus, it would follow that computer science is still safe, as those new forms of languge (and subsequent creative pattern experiments) will be ever-present with us as we cast our DNA seed into the cosmos. (I love that kind of over-the-top space mush prose...)
brinticus
Montgomery's Axiom #2: Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most.
...why a human launch to Mars is not quite ready for prime time. This is very difficult to stomach, seeing how the scientists must be devistated. But it would be much worse if there were humans on the other end of the bad news. My hope now is that the US can get *both* of it's robots down on the surface to make up for this (probable) great loss to science.
-- "Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most." (Montgomery's axiom)
People! Think what you're advocating here! These are the same tribes that raided open-source coastlines and raped,robbed, and pilliaged propriety villages during pre-medieval times! THEY'LL DO IT AGAIN IF WE LET THEM!!!
Re:Changes to the Workplace from the Dot Com days
on
Dotcom Era Fads
·
· Score: 1
I like IT guys who are willing to put their job on the line for personal freedom of movement. Its just that attitude which keeps you free from being a dilbert prisoner.
I think the following quote is one of the most important: "Counterfeiters have forced the price of a fake CD down to about $4, which only makes CDs in the music shops look even pricier."
Some market theories hold that the most efficient pricing of an item is based not on some intrinsic value of manufacture, but upon what a buying constituency will pay for that item. On a common sense level, this seems correct, since Ebay pretty much uses this economic philosophy to great success.
Doesn't this $4 fact give a real baseline for what a CD is worth? And if so, with the average CD having, say, nine songs on it, doesn't this mean that the per-song base line is now 44 cents? It sure seems like a believable argument, and my own intuition is that, yes, I'd pay just those amounts w/o argument for downloadable music.
Certainly this inclination toward the web over TV is one reason that advertising will have to drastically change. As spam filters, and pop-up killers, and page-based context filters develop, it will get harder and harder to put the "sell" on younger people. (All people, for that matter.) I think the P2P vs. filtering evolutionary wars are a harbinger of things to come. Individuals do not like being manipulated by corporate imagery. My fear is that eventually a legal argument will be made that since an advertiser has paid for space on a page, it will be illegal for somebody to mess with that page, since the page is the property of some other corporation and not of the individual who views it.
Maybe as an analogy, you can imagine some hot-shot electronics guy building a special jammer that only jams beer commercials and leaves all other content in place. Clearly beer companies would hate it, and no doubt the FCC already says they control all transmitting of public content and not just the non-advertising stuff (cmp. the small power FM station fiascoes). Since this is the rule in Wavelength Land, I can see nothing to stop it becoming the rule in Web Land.
Moreover, if congress is willing to introduce bills to make P2P software illegal, I have little reason to think their $$$ masters will hold back on anything else. I think getting something like a super-Freenet up and running with (effectively) unbreakable crypto is the only hope of keeping us from some weird oligarcic socialism.
brinticus
P.S. I don't mind clones, its me being like everybody else I hate.
Working for free is not as crazy as it sounds. Technically, the workers would get paid by the state, but this could function as a long term plan to bootstrap a developing tech economy. It is somewhat of a political analogy to "open source" software; but, in this case the I.T. is "open source" labor, whereby the dependence on a labor source becomes so important to a set of companies that they are willing to later phase in payment for services. Or, as an option, phase in payment for support services that would alone be worth the time (e.g. A T1 delivers the products to the company far faster than a 56K modem. How about an satellite upgrade for our free programers in Elbonia so you rich guys don't have to wait?)
Wouldn't it be possible for me to get some DNA off that chair and clone the various Trek characters and make them entertainment slaves? Granted they wouldn't have the "exact" same personalities, but given enough of them watching episodes, brainwashed day after day as children literally seeing themselves become physically indistinuishable from their Paramount counter-parts -- I mean, hey, their resitance would be futile.
Brinticus
P.S. Anybody got an extra 79.999K sitting around to help me jointly bid?
>>...the author does not present anything to take the place of music as a dominant cultural mover. There will be some cultural form to replace music if it truly falls by the wayside, but until something actually comes forward to replace it, music isn't really going anywhere..
Two words: computer games
brinticus
-----------
"When your entertainment becomes your reality, you're already dead" -- Montgomery's axiom #3
We've seen open source software, but now we have an open source semantic-base, where people fill in the meaning of the plot. No doubt, one could modularize this and keep adding new "winners" of these open source plot competitions. Hey, it beats paying writers to be creative; let the do-gooders work for free!
brinticus
--------- "Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most" -- Montgomery's axiom #2
I'll grant some complaints here that the "presence of McDonalds" = "fall of Russia" is overly simplistic, but this quip does seem to point towards a wider issue: awareness of pleasurable technology -- whether food technology, as in McDonalds; or, information technology, as in the 'Net -- has tempted people to change their lifestyle ever since primitives noted how efficiently the next tribe achieved their goals when they stuck sharp stones on the end of sticks.
Human beings naturally aquire and use technology, and part of this is a cultural issue, not just one of prudence. Maximizing survival and quality of life is of supreme importance, but it's exciting to try new things too. Making them forbidden, is EVEN MORE SO!
brinticus
---------
"People are always SLIGHTLY stupider than you think they are" - Montgomery's axiom #1
Someone writes, "How many times have we heard we are going to run out of oil? And guess what: it never happens."
I'm left thinking of the turkey who all of his life says, "how many times has that farmer fed us, and we always wake up the next morning." Then one morning, it's Thanksgiving.
The article noted that the guy "FTC nvestigators said Zuccarini makes from $800,000 to $1 million per year by charging advertisers whose ads appear on the browser windows." So he got banged for two years salary. If he's been at it for three years, then given the huge payoff, I'd say it was worth it. FTC needs to put more bite into its rulings.
Slashdot Mirror
Hi, I'm a professor of philosophy. I've also felt that the victory was secured by knowing (A) the sails are indeed on fire, and (B) Archimedes did it. That would be enough to gain a tactical advantage and, on my view, doable given the conditions of the experiement. Why so? With this happening to but a few ships would be enough to have the forces withdrawl, and count as a victory (that day) for Archimedes.
Your point that DVD-John is showing the limitations of the short life of encryption is exactly why I think we should praise, not condem him (and others of his ilk). Good insight, and it's exactly what I would have posted if you hadn't.
~brinticus
someone mentioned books and their effects on people as opposed to mere advertising in video games. But here's one good reason why e-books will not end up being a good thing: advertisers can eventually "force" one to watch their mind-drooling capitalist banter before allowing someone to actually read the book. This is already annoying enough on children's DVD's that, unlike tapes, don't let you skip all the pre-show krap.
Excellent analysis of the contemporary professor's dilemma. We are handed students from the k-12 environment and expected to properly evaluate students that don't even understand basic standards of writing and thinking.
>>[snip] places the stories based on algorithmic results and hence only shows the "group bias" of the world's media [\snip]
Of course I don't think the fact that it's done with algorithm's eliminates bias. Somebody has decided to use algorithm_1 overr algorithm_2, which is the programmer's bias. It's objective, I'll give you that, since it is quantified and repeatable. But it's still bias.
~b
I wish you hadn't said that. I finally had a position on this matter worth typing. And you stole my whole position from my mind. Er, brain. Whatever.
Maybe one thing I would add is this: Even if, per impossible, a single language happened to come about on Earth, as humans move into space (and thus cannot maintain a unified culture through media and culture), there will arise natural differentiations among language dialects. Wait long enough -- i.e., where humans are so spread out in space that there are months even years between interactive communication events -- and new vocabulary and grammar structures will appear. Thus, it would follow that computer science is still safe, as those new forms of languge (and subsequent creative pattern experiments) will be ever-present with us as we cast our DNA seed into the cosmos. (I love that kind of over-the-top space mush prose...)
brinticus
Montgomery's Axiom #2: Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most.
...why a human launch to Mars is not quite ready for prime time. This is very difficult to stomach, seeing how the scientists must be devistated. But it would be much worse if there were humans on the other end of the bad news. My hope now is that the US can get *both* of it's robots down on the surface to make up for this (probable) great loss to science.
-- "Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most." (Montgomery's axiom)
People! Think what you're advocating here! These are the same tribes that raided open-source coastlines and raped,robbed, and pilliaged propriety villages during pre-medieval times! THEY'LL DO IT AGAIN IF WE LET THEM!!!
I like IT guys who are willing to put their job on the line for personal freedom of movement. Its just that attitude which keeps you free from being a dilbert prisoner.
That's a good analogy. Many of the same problems attach themselves to both issues.
I think the following quote is one of the most important: "Counterfeiters have forced the price of a fake CD down to about $4, which only makes CDs in the music shops look even pricier."
Some market theories hold that the most efficient pricing of an item is based not on some intrinsic value of manufacture, but upon what a buying constituency will pay for that item. On a common sense level, this seems correct, since Ebay pretty much uses this economic philosophy to great success.
Doesn't this $4 fact give a real baseline for what a CD is worth? And if so, with the average CD having, say, nine songs on it, doesn't this mean that the per-song base line is now 44 cents? It sure seems like a believable argument, and my own intuition is that, yes, I'd pay just those amounts w/o argument for downloadable music.
Brinticus
Certainly this inclination toward the web over TV is one reason that advertising will have to drastically change. As spam filters, and pop-up killers, and page-based context filters develop, it will get harder and harder to put the "sell" on younger people. (All people, for that matter.) I think the P2P vs. filtering evolutionary wars are a harbinger of things to come. Individuals do not like being manipulated by corporate imagery. My fear is that eventually a legal argument will be made that since an advertiser has paid for space on a page, it will be illegal for somebody to mess with that page, since the page is the property of some other corporation and not of the individual who views it.
Maybe as an analogy, you can imagine some hot-shot electronics guy building a special jammer that only jams beer commercials and leaves all other content in place. Clearly beer companies would hate it, and no doubt the FCC already says they control all transmitting of public content and not just the non-advertising stuff (cmp. the small power FM station fiascoes). Since this is the rule in Wavelength Land, I can see nothing to stop it becoming the rule in Web Land.
Moreover, if congress is willing to introduce bills to make P2P software illegal, I have little reason to think their $$$ masters will hold back on anything else. I think getting something like a super-Freenet up and running with (effectively) unbreakable crypto is the only hope of keeping us from some weird oligarcic socialism.
brinticus
P.S. I don't mind clones, its me being like everybody else I hate.
Working for free is not as crazy as it sounds. Technically, the workers would get paid by the state, but this could function as a long term plan to bootstrap a developing tech economy. It is somewhat of a political analogy to "open source" software; but, in this case the I.T. is "open source" labor, whereby the dependence on a labor source becomes so important to a set of companies that they are willing to later phase in payment for services. Or, as an option, phase in payment for support services that would alone be worth the time (e.g. A T1 delivers the products to the company far faster than a 56K modem. How about an satellite upgrade for our free programers in Elbonia so you rich guys don't have to wait?)
of this article is enough to make me think it's a hoax. However, the essay sure does have fancy pictures.
oh that was just too funny. Buzz is a true American. Insults = immediate punch to face!
A nice picture and run down of the blackwidow craft here:
www.nasm.si.edu/nasm/aero/ aircraft/northrop_p61.htm
Wouldn't it be possible for me to get some DNA off that chair and clone the various Trek characters and make them entertainment slaves? Granted they wouldn't have the "exact" same personalities, but given enough of them watching episodes, brainwashed day after day as children literally seeing themselves become physically indistinuishable from their Paramount counter-parts -- I mean, hey, their resitance would be futile.
Brinticus
P.S. Anybody got an extra 79.999K sitting around to help me jointly bid?
>>...the author does not present anything to take the place of music as a dominant cultural mover. There will be some cultural form to replace music if it truly falls by the wayside, but until something actually comes forward to replace it, music isn't really going anywhere..
Two words: computer games
brinticus
-----------
"When your entertainment becomes your reality, you're already dead" -- Montgomery's axiom #3
We've seen open source software, but now we have an open source semantic-base, where people fill in the meaning of the plot. No doubt, one could modularize this and keep adding new "winners" of these open source plot competitions. Hey, it beats paying writers to be creative; let the do-gooders work for free!
brinticus
---------
"Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most" -- Montgomery's axiom #2
I'll grant some complaints here that the "presence of McDonalds" = "fall of Russia" is overly simplistic, but this quip does seem to point towards a wider issue: awareness of pleasurable technology -- whether food technology, as in McDonalds; or, information technology, as in the 'Net -- has tempted people to change their lifestyle ever since primitives noted how efficiently the next tribe achieved their goals when they stuck sharp stones on the end of sticks.
Human beings naturally aquire and use technology, and part of this is a cultural issue, not just one of prudence. Maximizing survival and quality of life is of supreme importance, but it's exciting to try new things too. Making them forbidden, is EVEN MORE SO!
brinticus
---------
"People are always SLIGHTLY stupider than you think they are" - Montgomery's axiom #1
Someone writes, "How many times have we heard we are going to run out of oil? And guess what: it never happens."
I'm left thinking of the turkey who all of his life says, "how many times has that farmer fed us, and we always wake up the next morning." Then one morning, it's Thanksgiving.
The article noted that the guy "FTC nvestigators said Zuccarini makes from $800,000 to $1 million per year by charging advertisers whose ads appear on the browser windows." So he got banged for two years salary. If he's been at it for three years, then given the huge payoff, I'd say it was worth it. FTC needs to put more bite into its rulings.