I'm always amused by how the same geek crowd that will rip a film-maker or author to shreds over re-hashing some common plot device will support to the death a software developer demonstrating the same lack of unoriginality.
"Falling Blocks!" The guy made a Tetris clone and called it "Falling Blocks!"
I get dead-tree Wired for $10 a year; less than a buck an issue. So for the price of more than 5 such issues, I should buy a single issue with a glorified shovel-ware interface?
Hmmm, let me think about that for a second. OK, no.
Bad enough Wired never grew up out of its hipster typeface fetish, rendering many of the paper pages barely legible; I shudder to imagine what it looks like on an iPad.
I think you're right. I think Liberals do think for themselves.
Unfortunately, in the US at least, they are so afraid of appearing politically incorrect or being on record for having an opinion that Jon Stewart might mock that they will parrot whatever the mocha-decaf-latte-frappucino line of thought is on any particular subject. What they think, and what they will say about what they think in mixed company, are frequently at odds. I can't count how many self-professed liberals I have met who become pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and/or pro-Arizona after a few beers.
Conservatives, on the other hand, accustomed to being mocked, have come to wear it as a badge and pretty much say fuck-all exactly what they think, even it cuts against the grain of "established conservative" thought. It's probably stems from the fragmentation of the Republican party under the liberally-spending Bush.
When was the last time anyone heard of a TV Network going dark for an hour? A Hospital Emergency Room? IT guys always run around like self-important Star Trek Blue Shirts, but they never seem to take the proper steps to ensure -- really ensure -- their uptime.
I'm sure there are exceptions, but it just seems that they have a ways to go, compared to the real "critical systems" industries to which they are so fond of comparing themselves. Is it money, arrogance, or ignorance?
He meant that as information becomes decentralized, the government cannot control its distribution. The Users become the Producers and Creators, and also their own Network. Dissent can become viral, and that buffoon Robert Gibbs can barely stamp out a cockroach let alone an Internet meme. The best education also entertains, and the most effective dissent begins with satire.
"It's OK to enjoy your Bread and Circuses, Americans," Obama concluded his speech. "Just be sure that they are government issue. Thank You and Good Night."
It's like asking, "Hmmm, do we hate vampires because they feed on the living, or because of their ridiculous Goth fashion sense and their stench of formaldehyde?"
Who Cares?! Just drive a stake threw 'em, and the sooner the better...
It's taken on a kind of Urban Legend patina, so take it with a grain of salt, but here goes:
Seems that the Art Department and Properties guys -- the crew responsible for dressing the set -- for Star Trek IV were all HUGE Amiga fans. No real surprise there, given where Amiga was at the time the movie was shot. So... in the famous scene where Scotty, the ultimate fictional Uber Engineer, has traveled back in time and assumes all computers are voice-activated (as they are in his century), talks into a mouse, the Art guys wanted their Amiga to be the one featured in the scene. So they sent some reps just up the road apiece from where they were filming in San Francisco to meet with the Amiga honchos and get some hardware for the scene. As the story goes, the Amiga guys were initially annoyed, cuz it was all so unannounced and sudden, and then they agreed only if the crew paid for the gear. "No loaners."
"Um, but, it's the new Star Trek movie, and it's Chief Engineer Scott, and he's back in our century, and he could be using YOUR computer, and we all really love Amigas on the set, and..."
"Sorry. Sign this Purchase Order or get out."
So the crew called Apple, who "got it" in a heartbeat, sent in a Marketing SWAT team with free Macs for the scene, free Macs for everyone on the crew, and technical advisers to stand by during the filming to make sure everything went smoothly.
Amiga, the astute among you have by now noticed, is no longer with us. Apple, on the other hand...
When John Wayne fired a gun, at least two Indians dropped instantly. *At least* two. You can keep those computers, I want to better understand the technology behind The Duke's bullets...
Wisconsin is the state synonomous with cheese. Nothing else, really. Just cheese. Everything they do, seemingly, is cheese-related. Oh, yeah, they have a pretty good football team from their city Green Bay. The team's fans are called "cheese-heads," and attend games wearing giant wedges of cheese as hats.
Bet you're feeling real good about driving that Prius designed to be oh-so-gentle on Mother Gaia, ain'tcha?
Meanwhile, the belch from one unpronounceable volcano wipes out the cumulative effort from all of mankind over the past hundred years to purify the water and soil, and dwarfs all of our species' feeble, amateurish efforts to pollute them in the first place.
Gimme a rainforest, a chainsaw, and a case of Red Bull. It's Payback Time!
I dunno. Why don't you check with a member of that famously rabid Lenovo fanbase...? Or those crazy young people who are always saying, "Once you go Compaq, you can't go back" ?? Why, I believe there's a whole community of bloggers who track every little thing that HP CEO Mark Hurd says or does. It'd be crazy of slashdot to ignore all these hardcore fanatics and tastemakers... wouldn't it? Heck, I think slashdot should send a camera crew out to the Dell Store in Manhattan to interview all those crazy kids sleeping on the sidewalk, wanting to be among the first to get that new model Inspiron.
If you're geek enough to be running a Linux distro in the first place, chances are you've always eyed the default settings -- particularly on something as critical as search -- very carefully, and made your adjustments promptly after your install. Ubuntu-using Google fans have no doubt been changing their default back to Google regularly, just as the Yahoo fans will now change their defaults.
Hopefully, Canonical got a lot of money from Google for this.
OK, so I just watched that Badger-Dance thing, and have decided that if the presence of the iPad in the world will conclusively cause fewer of those... toons, animations, jumpy-things, whatever it was... to be created, I'll buy two iPads and a couple of shares of Apple stock, just on principle.
Flash is the white powdered wig of the Internet. Don't ask, "But what will replace it?" Just stop using it altogether.
subsidizing those who already send their children to parochial schools.
The parents of the kids in parochial school pay twice: once for their own kids' tuition, once again for their neighbors' kids via the school and property taxes. The typical voucher plan doesn't "force a taxpayer to pay for religious education," it allows a taxpayer to pay for what he actually uses.
Meanwhile, if all the kids who were in parochial school were to leave parochial school and enter the public system (into which their parents had already paid their share) that public system would collapse. Even with the "extra money" coming in from the parents of the kids who are not educated publicly, the public system is on the verge of financial, educational, and architectural collapse. You should thank God (erm, sorry) every day that the "religious kids" are not in the public system; the public system couldn't handle it.
The cellphone thing I get. "I'm lost, bad man following me," understood. But an e-mail address? Doesn't fly. It's not like e-mail is some great technological novelty, the quicker a child is exposed to it, works with it, develops skills with it, the better s/he will do later on in school. Use of e-mail is monkey-hammer dead simple, is "mastered" in twenty minutes. And the only "social networks" the kid needs to be on is the one that ensures she gets a good seat on the school bus or cafeteria table.
The iPhone's refusal to adopt Flash, coupled with its huge popularity, is among the greatest forces driving development away from Flash and towards alternate platforms. This is a good thing.
We won't call you "conservative," we'll just call you short-sighted and ill-informed.
The "classics" for which you pine were once upon a time a previous generation's pop culture, in very many cases. And I wish I had a dollar for every kid who picked up a copy of Bullfinch or Hamilton after playing a game in the "God of War" series -- or watching a season of Xena, for that matter.
Culture is one long conversation, the present building upon the past, creating the shapers of its future. Guys like you who want to pick, choose, and control aren't enabling Art, you're obstructing her.
Slashdot Mirror
edit: *lack of originality
but you got my point
I'm always amused by how the same geek crowd that will rip a film-maker or author to shreds over re-hashing some common plot device will support to the death a software developer demonstrating the same lack of unoriginality.
"Falling Blocks!" The guy made a Tetris clone and called it "Falling Blocks!"
Where's the pride?
I get dead-tree Wired for $10 a year; less than a buck an issue. So for the price of more than 5 such issues, I should buy a single issue with a glorified shovel-ware interface?
Hmmm, let me think about that for a second. OK, no.
Bad enough Wired never grew up out of its hipster typeface fetish, rendering many of the paper pages barely legible; I shudder to imagine what it looks like on an iPad.
I think you're right. I think Liberals do think for themselves.
Unfortunately, in the US at least, they are so afraid of appearing politically incorrect or being on record for having an opinion that Jon Stewart might mock that they will parrot whatever the mocha-decaf-latte-frappucino line of thought is on any particular subject. What they think, and what they will say about what they think in mixed company, are frequently at odds. I can't count how many self-professed liberals I have met who become pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and/or pro-Arizona after a few beers.
Conservatives, on the other hand, accustomed to being mocked, have come to wear it as a badge and pretty much say fuck-all exactly what they think, even it cuts against the grain of "established conservative" thought. It's probably stems from the fragmentation of the Republican party under the liberally-spending Bush.
Who said the web needs to be "family safe"?
The Web is just following the Golden Rule: Those with the Gold, make the Rules.
And Moms and Dads with small children have more money to spend on ads and media than teens and 20-something hipsters.
I wrote it in Open Office, atop Linux, with a stuffed penguin on my desk.
What's it about? you ask.
Does it matter? I said, "It's an Open Source Book!" Aren't you paying attention?
Hey, I know, I'll license it under Creative Commons, how's that? Now it'll be really good!
When was the last time anyone heard of a TV Network going dark for an hour? A Hospital Emergency Room? IT guys always run around like self-important Star Trek Blue Shirts, but they never seem to take the proper steps to ensure -- really ensure -- their uptime.
I'm sure there are exceptions, but it just seems that they have a ways to go, compared to the real "critical systems" industries to which they are so fond of comparing themselves. Is it money, arrogance, or ignorance?
...or does InfoWorld now employ an entire department to astroturf here?
He meant that as information becomes decentralized, the government cannot control its distribution. The Users become the Producers and Creators, and also their own Network. Dissent can become viral, and that buffoon Robert Gibbs can barely stamp out a cockroach let alone an Internet meme. The best education also entertains, and the most effective dissent begins with satire.
"It's OK to enjoy your Bread and Circuses, Americans," Obama concluded his speech. "Just be sure that they are government issue. Thank You and Good Night."
It's like asking, "Hmmm, do we hate vampires because they feed on the living, or because of their ridiculous Goth fashion sense and their stench of formaldehyde?"
Who Cares?! Just drive a stake threw 'em, and the sooner the better...
It's taken on a kind of Urban Legend patina, so take it with a grain of salt, but here goes:
Seems that the Art Department and Properties guys -- the crew responsible for dressing the set -- for Star Trek IV were all HUGE Amiga fans. No real surprise there, given where Amiga was at the time the movie was shot. So... in the famous scene where Scotty, the ultimate fictional Uber Engineer, has traveled back in time and assumes all computers are voice-activated (as they are in his century), talks into a mouse, the Art guys wanted their Amiga to be the one featured in the scene. So they sent some reps just up the road apiece from where they were filming in San Francisco to meet with the Amiga honchos and get some hardware for the scene. As the story goes, the Amiga guys were initially annoyed, cuz it was all so unannounced and sudden, and then they agreed only if the crew paid for the gear. "No loaners."
"Um, but, it's the new Star Trek movie, and it's Chief Engineer Scott, and he's back in our century, and he could be using YOUR computer, and we all really love Amigas on the set, and..."
"Sorry. Sign this Purchase Order or get out."
So the crew called Apple, who "got it" in a heartbeat, sent in a Marketing SWAT team with free Macs for the scene, free Macs for everyone on the crew, and technical advisers to stand by during the filming to make sure everything went smoothly.
Amiga, the astute among you have by now noticed, is no longer with us. Apple, on the other hand...
When John Wayne fired a gun, at least two Indians dropped instantly. *At least* two. You can keep those computers, I want to better understand the technology behind The Duke's bullets...
Those guys started a religion.
Hey, come to think of it, so did Jobs...
Wisconsin is the state synonomous with cheese. Nothing else, really. Just cheese. Everything they do, seemingly, is cheese-related. Oh, yeah, they have a pretty good football team from their city Green Bay. The team's fans are called "cheese-heads," and attend games wearing giant wedges of cheese as hats.
Seriously.
How 'bout you?
Bet you're feeling real good about driving that Prius designed to be oh-so-gentle on Mother Gaia, ain'tcha?
Meanwhile, the belch from one unpronounceable volcano wipes out the cumulative effort from all of mankind over the past hundred years to purify the water and soil, and dwarfs all of our species' feeble, amateurish efforts to pollute them in the first place.
Gimme a rainforest, a chainsaw, and a case of Red Bull. It's Payback Time!
Why do we care about a non-PC game on a Microsoft gaming console on /.?
Because slashdot caters to an area of interest wider than is found around your particular cafeteria table?
I dunno. Why don't you check with a member of that famously rabid Lenovo fanbase...? Or those crazy young people who are always saying, "Once you go Compaq, you can't go back" ?? Why, I believe there's a whole community of bloggers who track every little thing that HP CEO Mark Hurd says or does. It'd be crazy of slashdot to ignore all these hardcore fanatics and tastemakers... wouldn't it? Heck, I think slashdot should send a camera crew out to the Dell Store in Manhattan to interview all those crazy kids sleeping on the sidewalk, wanting to be among the first to get that new model Inspiron.
If you're geek enough to be running a Linux distro in the first place, chances are you've always eyed the default settings -- particularly on something as critical as search -- very carefully, and made your adjustments promptly after your install. Ubuntu-using Google fans have no doubt been changing their default back to Google regularly, just as the Yahoo fans will now change their defaults.
Hopefully, Canonical got a lot of money from Google for this.
Hopefully, they've already cashed the check...
A year ago "Global Warming" would have been on their "Sim Apocalypse" list. Now, notable only through its omission...
Not that much is legislated federally
From your lips to Washington's ears...
OK, so I just watched that Badger-Dance thing, and have decided that if the presence of the iPad in the world will conclusively cause fewer of those... toons, animations, jumpy-things, whatever it was... to be created, I'll buy two iPads and a couple of shares of Apple stock, just on principle.
Flash is the white powdered wig of the Internet. Don't ask, "But what will replace it?" Just stop using it altogether.
subsidizing those who already send their children to parochial schools.
The parents of the kids in parochial school pay twice: once for their own kids' tuition, once again for their neighbors' kids via the school and property taxes. The typical voucher plan doesn't "force a taxpayer to pay for religious education," it allows a taxpayer to pay for what he actually uses.
Meanwhile, if all the kids who were in parochial school were to leave parochial school and enter the public system (into which their parents had already paid their share) that public system would collapse. Even with the "extra money" coming in from the parents of the kids who are not educated publicly, the public system is on the verge of financial, educational, and architectural collapse. You should thank God (erm, sorry) every day that the "religious kids" are not in the public system; the public system couldn't handle it.
The cellphone thing I get. "I'm lost, bad man following me," understood. But an e-mail address? Doesn't fly. It's not like e-mail is some great technological novelty, the quicker a child is exposed to it, works with it, develops skills with it, the better s/he will do later on in school. Use of e-mail is monkey-hammer dead simple, is "mastered" in twenty minutes. And the only "social networks" the kid needs to be on is the one that ensures she gets a good seat on the school bus or cafeteria table.
The iPhone's refusal to adopt Flash, coupled with its huge popularity, is among the greatest forces driving development away from Flash and towards alternate platforms. This is a good thing.
We won't call you "conservative," we'll just call you short-sighted and ill-informed.
The "classics" for which you pine were once upon a time a previous generation's pop culture, in very many cases. And I wish I had a dollar for every kid who picked up a copy of Bullfinch or Hamilton after playing a game in the "God of War" series -- or watching a season of Xena, for that matter.
Culture is one long conversation, the present building upon the past, creating the shapers of its future. Guys like you who want to pick, choose, and control aren't enabling Art, you're obstructing her.