They (westerners) haven't the slightest hint of how to be happy. They're always unsatisfied. They need more and more, and they live for the future.
Good. It's called "drive." It fuels things like space exploration. Unlike our navel-contemplating planet co-squatters in the East, our "God" is outside us, above us, and we're forever (hopefully forever) building towers and spaceships to meet Him. Works for me, just fine.
It's the itchy, unsatisfied sacroliliac of some impotent balding outside-looking 40ish engineer today that will -- again, hopefully -- lead to my daughter finding herself working on Mars thirty years from now.
As far as locations are concerned, they didn't move to the West Coast - they were founded on the West Coast - San Francisco being only a short drive away from the headquarters of Yahoo, Google, Intel, Sun, Apple, eBay, Cisco, HP, Seagate, Western Digital - those companies who's technologies are the reason that the EFF needs to exist?
The EFF needs to exist because of the legislation being created in D.C. That's where all the serious lobbying outfits are based. But the EFF is not serious (it's a fact that none of the legislators take them seriously any more), so they *moved* from DC, to the West Coast, in the late '90s (Google it). It was regarded, by anyone with half a clue regarding how US government policy works, as their "Jump the Shark" moment.
Now, the EFF is about fresh-faced interns who genuinely believe they are "doing good," cocktail parties with high-level luminaries from the companies you iterated so the rank-and-file legal beagles can network their way into corporate gigs, flying business class, and drumming up new crises every quarter or so to coincide with their fundraising drives.
Sure, I know JPB's resume, EFF co-founder, the Well, all that. Gosh, I even had a subscription to Mondo 2000 and remember Wired when it was readable. But my point is, whether you're playing as if it's 1994, or 1969, you're still SOL in the 21st Century. The media companies just are not as clueless as the unwashed digerati like to believe they are.
But for the EFF, it's about making money, and Good Theatre keeps the donations rolling in. They've become a kind of "Digital Rights PETA."
dude, if I could purchase a 1-Hand Blunt weapon with a delay below 25 and damage above 30 for under 15K plats for my EQ Paladin, I would not care in the least that it resembled a Pepsi Can on a Stick. If that bothers your "gaming experience," you are free not to group with me.
And if Citgo wants to pay me to put their logo on my breastplate while I stand buffing the crowds in front of the Main Bank on the Plane of Knowledge on a Saturday Night, I am very much open to negotiations...
When the EFF selects as a spokesman the former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, you can just sort of expect the colorful, counter-culture (or is that counter-productive?) over-the-top stick-it-to-the-man metaphors and accusations to fly. The result is hardly what I would call "crossing sabres;" more like crossing Ohio State Daisys with National Guardsman sharpshooters.
And that always works out well, doesn't it?
But the folks to whom the EFF is pitching -- the college kids and twenty-somethings who are donating to them and actually paying for the EFF people to fly comfortably cross-country from SF to DC so frequently (I'll never figure that move to the West Coast out...), they'll probably think that "JPB RAWWKS, D00D!! KICK A$$!! FAWK, YEAH!!" and pony up some more dough for the EFF coffers, so in the end, it's probably a brilliant idea to keep tilting at those windmills with tie-dyed lances.
I so, so TOTALLY love the fact the little sub-title/blurb for this story is in a backwards-writing code, and that there is a misspelling.
Sometimes, it's all just so perfect.
Thanks again.
Re:"Quick Facts from Wikipedia" ???
on
Ask.com's Rising Star
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
You cannot make serious decisions about anything unless you do in depth research and take all sides into consideration.
Correct.
This is the same as trusting the newspapers, tv sound bytes and what celebrities say.
Incorrect. When a contributor to Wikipedia risks losing his principal source of income because what she has written in an article is wrong, then that contributor *begins* to approach equal standing with the professional journalists, writers, researchers, and editors of the "traditional" media and encyclopedias.
I am not saying that the Wikipedia Army and Pajama Nation do not have their useful place here in the early part of the 21st Century -- they surely do -- but being suppliers of "quick facts" ain't it.
How can they tell if what they are lifting are facts?
Seriously.
I wondered what was going to happen when the first "Internet Generation" of kids who went through school believing everything they read on the Web finally got out into the workplace. Now, I suppose, I know.
Isn't it enough that I can't shut out the britney spears/MMPORG/Myspace/Friendster crew hyping a new fad at school and work? Must I see it on slashdot every week too?
Get over yourself, Sparky.
Oh, hey, almost forgot: The Dry Cleaners just called; your black trenchcoat is ready. They apologized that they were unable to completely remove the stench from the clove cigarettes, however...
Sounds like someone is an angry breeder stuck in the burbs with a minivan.
"Breeder?"
Breeder... breeder... Wait! I know!! That's, like, the meant-to-be-derogatory term gays call straight people when they're really, really so-o-o-o-o annoyed with us, right? RIGHT? I guessed it, didn't I? Tell me what I win! (I'm hoping it's a full tank of gas, but I'll settle for a new wardrobe, manicure, and having my house re-decorated...)
A gradual raising of gas taxes until pump prices are around $7/gallon, with the money raised being pumped into (free) public transport would achieve precisely that.
Right. Because the whole state-owned-rail-system-thing has such a glorious history of excellence.
Listen up, you urban childless wonder: Raise your own damn taxes, and stay away from gasoline. It fuels a whole lot more than those "e-e-e-e-e-vil" SUVs and Hummers, like interstate commerce for example.
But if we're going to play the game of frivolous agenda-forwarding wealth-redistribution, let's let everybody play, not just the sniffy erudites in the black turtlenecks. Here we go: I propose a $1,000 tax on every Mac puchase. I propose a $2 tax on every latte. I think the state should get a penny-a-ping for every SMS and IM sent. I suggest everyone who pays more than twelve dollars for a haircut should be taxed another eight dollars on that transaction: sort of a luxury/vanity/sin/stupidity tax, all rolled into one.
Gosh, that was exhilarating! Who knew angry socialism could be so much fun?
Even the justice league's pretty complicated. Their technobable is far more realistic and believable than 24's "Jack, I've opened you a socket through to the DOD computer I hacked"...
Thanks for that: my head just exploded.
If Jack shot laser beams out of his eyes and swung from building to building on a rope tied to a bauerang, would that make it more "realistic and believable" for you?
Just think of Chloe's computer skills as super powers, and enjoy the show.
Madison Avenue Created Trendoid Chef's get-rich-even-quicker scheme that targets Gadget-Fetishist too-cool-for-the-room Latte Drinkers results in blowing up of the latter and great embarrassment and monetary loss to the former?
I'll check, sure, but I don't think it gets any better than that...
I'd rather bash moss snakes in cloth armor than go through the twinkfest that EQ has become now.
I'm not sure I understand... what prevents you from bashing moss snakes in cloth armor in EQ now? G'head, g'head... It's not like the newbie garden outside Freeport is over-crowded and laggy or something. Play your game, there's no stopping you. Or tradeskill up and sell what you make, hiring out a small party of mercenaries to watch your cloth-covered back as you farm those rare furs or fish those rare catches in exotic zones. If you feel somehow threatened or intimidated by the twinks, the problem is not with the people playing the twinks...
Over at the Museum of Modern Art's website, they're asking their members to recommend a new back-end database architecture and help them do the math to optimize the content streaming on their edge servers. They're even giving a prize of six passes to the upcoming Edward Munch exhibition to whomever proposes the most creative Disaster Recovery plan for their server room. Some synchronicity, huh?
Legislation singling out cell phones does nothing to combat the real problem - a 8am - 8pm working world where you need to squeeze the most out of every second, and damn the consequences. - D00d, these addicts aren't squeezing anything except my patience. I overhear their conversations on the train all the time -- how can I not, as they scream above the train's own clamor to make themselves heard? Not to get all in-my-day-uphill-in-the-snow on you here, but the cell addicts don't *need* to be on the horn constantly to survive or even succeed. They are, for the most part, self-important popinjays blathering inanely because they fear the deep, cavernous echoing sound of being alone with their thoughts.
Sure, people putting on make-up or eating while driving represent -- qualitatively -- a bigger threat than the addicts getting their cell fix while driving, but quantitatively the addicts are way more dangerous. Relatively few bozos put on their Max Factor behind the wheel, but a startlingly huge number of bozos drive-under-the-influence of their cell's siren call. Most people have a general innate perception that putting on one's make-up while driving is dopey, but the use of a cellphone while driving lacks that same doofus-esque coloration. As a society, we need to work on that...
I've been toting around the Haliburton for quite a while, and it's worth every penny. Not only does it get the job done (being lighter even than many leather and fabric cases I've used), but nothing sez "Here comes the Pro from Dover" quite like tossing that gunmetal bad boy up on to a table in a conference room filled with new clients and snapping 'er open. Tough to gauge, of course, but in the long run it may even have put more money back in my pocket than it took out in the first case.
Whassa matter, don't they teach "Dress for Success" in school anymore...?
And how is this any different than showing monsters being shot in the face area by our manly hero's giant gun?
Of course I can't speak for what it's like where you are from, but here on Earth, "monsters"=="teh Bad," and beautiful women are entities to be nurtured and protected. I'm no socio-anthropologist, but I seem to recall it having to do with primal instincts and survival of the species. And the whole evil monster thing has got legs deep into heroic mythology and race memories and such; I'd say that you and the rest of your "People for the Ethical Treatment of Monsters" troupe have your work cut out for you if you're really intent on having the image of a slain frost dragon register with the same impact as the depiction of a beautiful woman with a bullet in her head.
But, hey, good luck with that, let us know how it works out...
It's called a 'diary.' You get a 'pen,' you write in 'ink' in it. It can be secured with a tiny metal 'key,' or shared with your 'friends.' You can even clutch it to your 'breast' after you write your deepest, most personal 'thoughts' in it.
Slashdot Mirror
They (westerners) haven't the slightest hint of how to be happy. They're always unsatisfied. They need more and more, and they live for the future.
Good. It's called "drive." It fuels things like space exploration. Unlike our navel-contemplating planet co-squatters in the East, our "God" is outside us, above us, and we're forever (hopefully forever) building towers and spaceships to meet Him. Works for me, just fine.
It's the itchy, unsatisfied sacroliliac of some impotent balding outside-looking 40ish engineer today that will -- again, hopefully -- lead to my daughter finding herself working on Mars thirty years from now.
"Woot!" to Professor Hawking, sez I.
"Woot!" to his nurse, too...
uhhhh, yeahhhh, So? Your point being...?
As far as locations are concerned, they didn't move to the West Coast - they were founded on the West Coast - San Francisco being only a short drive away from the headquarters of Yahoo, Google, Intel, Sun, Apple, eBay, Cisco, HP, Seagate, Western Digital - those companies who's technologies are the reason that the EFF needs to exist?
The EFF needs to exist because of the legislation being created in D.C. That's where all the serious lobbying outfits are based. But the EFF is not serious (it's a fact that none of the legislators take them seriously any more), so they *moved* from DC, to the West Coast, in the late '90s (Google it). It was regarded, by anyone with half a clue regarding how US government policy works, as their "Jump the Shark" moment.
Now, the EFF is about fresh-faced interns who genuinely believe they are "doing good," cocktail parties with high-level luminaries from the companies you iterated so the rank-and-file legal beagles can network their way into corporate gigs, flying business class, and drumming up new crises every quarter or so to coincide with their fundraising drives.
Hey, so it goes. It's how the world works...
Sure, I know JPB's resume, EFF co-founder, the Well, all that. Gosh, I even had a subscription to Mondo 2000 and remember Wired when it was readable. But my point is, whether you're playing as if it's 1994, or 1969, you're still SOL in the 21st Century. The media companies just are not as clueless as the unwashed digerati like to believe they are.
But for the EFF, it's about making money, and Good Theatre keeps the donations rolling in. They've become a kind of "Digital Rights PETA."
Summary: Fantasy ads bad, so they won't happen
dude, if I could purchase a 1-Hand Blunt weapon with a delay below 25 and damage above 30 for under 15K plats for my EQ Paladin, I would not care in the least that it resembled a Pepsi Can on a Stick. If that bothers your "gaming experience," you are free not to group with me.
And if Citgo wants to pay me to put their logo on my breastplate while I stand buffing the crowds in front of the Main Bank on the Plane of Knowledge on a Saturday Night, I am very much open to negotiations...
When the EFF selects as a spokesman the former lyricist for the Grateful Dead, you can just sort of expect the colorful, counter-culture (or is that counter-productive?) over-the-top stick-it-to-the-man metaphors and accusations to fly. The result is hardly what I would call "crossing sabres;" more like crossing Ohio State Daisys with National Guardsman sharpshooters.
And that always works out well, doesn't it?
But the folks to whom the EFF is pitching -- the college kids and twenty-somethings who are donating to them and actually paying for the EFF people to fly comfortably cross-country from SF to DC so frequently (I'll never figure that move to the West Coast out...), they'll probably think that "JPB RAWWKS, D00D!! KICK A$$!! FAWK, YEAH!!" and pony up some more dough for the EFF coffers, so in the end, it's probably a brilliant idea to keep tilting at those windmills with tie-dyed lances.
I so, so TOTALLY love the fact the little sub-title/blurb for this story is in a backwards-writing code, and that there is a misspelling.
Sometimes, it's all just so perfect.
Thanks again.
You cannot make serious decisions about anything unless you do in depth research and take all sides into consideration.
Correct.
This is the same as trusting the newspapers, tv sound bytes and what celebrities say.
Incorrect. When a contributor to Wikipedia risks losing his principal source of income because what she has written in an article is wrong, then that contributor *begins* to approach equal standing with the professional journalists, writers, researchers, and editors of the "traditional" media and encyclopedias.
I am not saying that the Wikipedia Army and Pajama Nation do not have their useful place here in the early part of the 21st Century -- they surely do -- but being suppliers of "quick facts" ain't it.
How can they tell if what they are lifting are facts?
Seriously.
I wondered what was going to happen when the first "Internet Generation" of kids who went through school believing everything they read on the Web finally got out into the workplace. Now, I suppose, I know.
And I am very, very afraid...
Get over yourself, Sparky.
Oh, hey, almost forgot: The Dry Cleaners just called; your black trenchcoat is ready. They apologized that they were unable to completely remove the stench from the clove cigarettes, however...
Sounds like someone is an angry breeder stuck in the burbs with a minivan.
"Breeder?"
Breeder... breeder... Wait! I know!! That's, like, the meant-to-be-derogatory term gays call straight people when they're really, really so-o-o-o-o annoyed with us, right? RIGHT? I guessed it, didn't I? Tell me what I win! (I'm hoping it's a full tank of gas, but I'll settle for a new wardrobe, manicure, and having my house re-decorated...)
A gradual raising of gas taxes until pump prices are around $7/gallon, with the money raised being pumped into (free) public transport would achieve precisely that.
Right. Because the whole state-owned-rail-system-thing has such a glorious history of excellence.
Listen up, you urban childless wonder: Raise your own damn taxes, and stay away from gasoline. It fuels a whole lot more than those "e-e-e-e-e-vil" SUVs and Hummers, like interstate commerce for example.
But if we're going to play the game of frivolous agenda-forwarding wealth-redistribution, let's let everybody play, not just the sniffy erudites in the black turtlenecks. Here we go: I propose a $1,000 tax on every Mac puchase. I propose a $2 tax on every latte. I think the state should get a penny-a-ping for every SMS and IM sent. I suggest everyone who pays more than twelve dollars for a haircut should be taxed another eight dollars on that transaction: sort of a luxury/vanity/sin/stupidity tax, all rolled into one.
Gosh, that was exhilarating! Who knew angry socialism could be so much fun?
Based on how Americans support sports teams, I'd imagine they'd flip the switch depending on who was winning at the time.
Who said anything about America? He was talking about New York.
Even the justice league's pretty complicated. Their technobable is far more realistic and believable than 24's "Jack, I've opened you a socket through to the DOD computer I hacked"...
Thanks for that: my head just exploded.
If Jack shot laser beams out of his eyes and swung from building to building on a rope tied to a bauerang, would that make it more "realistic and believable" for you?
Just think of Chloe's computer skills as super powers, and enjoy the show.
Madison Avenue Created Trendoid Chef's get-rich-even-quicker scheme that targets Gadget-Fetishist too-cool-for-the-room Latte Drinkers results in blowing up of the latter and great embarrassment and monetary loss to the former?
I'll check, sure, but I don't think it gets any better than that...
All very good, but enlightening a generation far too young to do anything.
Uh huh. And what would you say is the target demographic -- and the average age -- of today's comic book reader?
(Hint: Your first guess is wrong.)
I'd rather bash moss snakes in cloth armor than go through the twinkfest that EQ has become now.
I'm not sure I understand... what prevents you from bashing moss snakes in cloth armor in EQ now? G'head, g'head... It's not like the newbie garden outside Freeport is over-crowded and laggy or something. Play your game, there's no stopping you. Or tradeskill up and sell what you make, hiring out a small party of mercenaries to watch your cloth-covered back as you farm those rare furs or fish those rare catches in exotic zones. If you feel somehow threatened or intimidated by the twinks, the problem is not with the people playing the twinks...
Over at the Museum of Modern Art's website, they're asking their members to recommend a new back-end database architecture and help them do the math to optimize the content streaming on their edge servers. They're even giving a prize of six passes to the upcoming Edward Munch exhibition to whomever proposes the most creative Disaster Recovery plan for their server room. Some synchronicity, huh?
Wait... they're NOT?
sorry... never mind...
Please tell me I'm not the only one who stopped reading the summary at that point.
Legislation singling out cell phones does nothing to combat the real problem - a 8am - 8pm working world where you need to squeeze the most out of every second, and damn the consequences.
-
D00d, these addicts aren't squeezing anything except my patience. I overhear their conversations on the train all the time -- how can I not, as they scream above the train's own clamor to make themselves heard? Not to get all in-my-day-uphill-in-the-snow on you here, but the cell addicts don't *need* to be on the horn constantly to survive or even succeed. They are, for the most part, self-important popinjays blathering inanely because they fear the deep, cavernous echoing sound of being alone with their thoughts.
Sure, people putting on make-up or eating while driving represent -- qualitatively -- a bigger threat than the addicts getting their cell fix while driving, but quantitatively the addicts are way more dangerous. Relatively few bozos put on their Max Factor behind the wheel, but a startlingly huge number of bozos drive-under-the-influence of their cell's siren call. Most people have a general innate perception that putting on one's make-up while driving is dopey, but the use of a cellphone while driving lacks that same doofus-esque coloration. As a society, we need to work on that...
Been around since the early 90's. Back then it was called "fan fiction."
I've been toting around the Haliburton for quite a while, and it's worth every penny. Not only does it get the job done (being lighter even than many leather and fabric cases I've used), but nothing sez "Here comes the Pro from Dover" quite like tossing that gunmetal bad boy up on to a table in a conference room filled with new clients and snapping 'er open. Tough to gauge, of course, but in the long run it may even have put more money back in my pocket than it took out in the first case.
Whassa matter, don't they teach "Dress for Success" in school anymore...?
And how is this any different than showing monsters being shot in the face area by our manly hero's giant gun?
Of course I can't speak for what it's like where you are from, but here on Earth, "monsters"=="teh Bad," and beautiful women are entities to be nurtured and protected. I'm no socio-anthropologist, but I seem to recall it having to do with primal instincts and survival of the species. And the whole evil monster thing has got legs deep into heroic mythology and race memories and such; I'd say that you and the rest of your "People for the Ethical Treatment of Monsters" troupe have your work cut out for you if you're really intent on having the image of a slain frost dragon register with the same impact as the depiction of a beautiful woman with a bullet in her head.
But, hey, good luck with that, let us know how it works out...
I find it is eating into my TV time.
they're called 'folders'. you put 'paper' in them.
they can be 'boxed' or put in 'filing cabinets'.
Regarding your "blog:"
It's called a 'diary.' You get a 'pen,' you write in 'ink' in it. It can be secured with a tiny metal 'key,' or shared with your 'friends.' You can even clutch it to your 'breast' after you write your deepest, most personal 'thoughts' in it.