MSNBC Web Jockey given too much control over content?
Me, You, here, "blogging" our opinions on an extremely popular web site?
Senile "anchor" person who looked sexy twenty years ago and hasn't written a news story in his/her life?
A perky Fox News Info-Babe?
An ex-SNL comedy writer hosting a radio show on an avowedly anti-right wing network?
The producer/writer for the ex-comedy writer's show?
Jon Stewart? Jon Stewart's producer?
Jayson Blair?
The guys who covered up for Jayson Blair?
Rush Limbaugh (currently billing himself as "America's Anchorman")?
The diligent, dutiful Editor-in-Chief of the local High School Newspaper?
Some guy from Al-Jazeera whose cousin is in Gitmo?
Armed Forces Radio?
It's 2005. "Journalism" means everything and everything. Define "journalist" for me and I'll tell ya whether his sources should be protected, laughed at, or locked up...
It's "Narrowcasting," actually. Fine, Comm-school distinction, perhaps, but worth noting in this case. You don't want this to be broadcasting, as that would assume a lot of very low and common denominators and all that attendant government scrutiny.
It just seemed to me that your comment was crying out between the lines, "I feel small, and I resent extroverts."
Golly.
I've been called so-o-o-o-o-o many names, most of them on this board, but never, ever has it been implied I was an "introvert."
Thank you.
But to the matter at hand... all those teens and 20-somethings with their web-logs, nattering on and on about their pets, their roommates, their laptop and its operating system, what music they like and in what mood they are in while the listen to it, why they hate Bush and MTV, and which Buffy character their girlfriend most resembles... these niblets are extroverts ?
Wow. I never would have guessed.
See, in the old days, extroverts were typically entertaining. People stayed extroverted cuz they got encouraging feedback from those around them. When they ceased being entertaining (it happens, I'm told...), they would become a bit more guarded, the stupid jokes around the watercooler would become fewer. The problem, as I see it, with all this Cheezewhiz in the "blog-O-sphere" is that it is predominantly boring as hell, and everybody is too polite to tell these people to go off and pop bubblewrap someplace, please, anything, just do it off-line.
Which is not to say that all blogs suck; some are really quite good. Of course, those are written typically by professional journalists and authors. Funny how that worked out, eh?
These interests are not often aligned with the interests of individuals.
And very often they are. Corporations being comprised of individuals, how could they not be?
organized NON-CORPORATE voting groups
Well, sure. Except most of the non-corporate voting groups I've encountered are rather disorganized. Their hearts and minds seem to be in the right place, but it's only when their wallet's on the line that they seem to get it together.
Lookit, I'm not debating the happy utopian value of a world without lobbyists, only that, at this moment in 2005, the Free Software Movement with a friendly corporate lobbying presence in DC is in vastly better shape than it was a month ago with the EFF spending member dollars to fly staff cross-country when it amused them to do so.
Corporations -- and Government -- are both made up of people.
Who do you think has lobbied longer, stronger, and more effectively against Federal obscenity laws, "grass roots" groups like the EFF, or Playboy?
The addition of a money-making real-people corporation like Red Hat opening an office on K Street is the single best, smartest, most effective move the Linux Community could have made to combat closed and proprietary systems.
It's "Fist in The Air/Head Up The Ass" attitudes like yours that reinforce the "smelly hippie" stereotypes and retard the spread and acceptance of free software.
Now, now. Slashdot has a long, proud and profitable history of Catholic-baiting. A "Shroud of Turin versus Science" story on an otherwise slow Sunday morning is a -- you should pardon the expression -- God-send. Taco can hardly be blamed.
"We?" What's this "we" stuff, AC? Who are you? My guess is you're the EFF paid intern/astroturfer sent to pump up this quarter's fund-raising drive at "key, major friendly sites/web communities."
What makes them an anachronism? How could they change to become relevant again? Be specific.
Wow! "Academic Background," much? Wait, lemme get out my Number Two Pencil here so I can answer.
OK.
Ummmm, hey, here's an idea:
Move the hell back to DC! You're a Lobbying Organization, ferchrissake!! Why in a hundred years would I give a donation to a lobbying organization based on the West Coast?
Here read this, consult with your bosses, and get back to us.
Every item in every category on the list features an appeal to "join the EFF" so that the evil, toy-snatching corporations can be vanquished for good yadda yadda. If the EFF's legal team was half as as adept as their Marketing and Promotion departments, they might actually amount to something more than a 90's-era anachronism...
Hey, but I've still held onto my old orange cyber-rights clenched-fist-on-a-field-of-lightning-bolts T-Shirt after all these years, so I guess I should give props to their Creative Services Department as well...
Oh, it was worse than that 'back in the day.' At least today they buy him dinner first. Lemme explain:
Circa 20 years ago I was a young Quality Control Guy working for a Major Pay TV Network. I had done some straight telecine before, for both Broadcast and Cable outlets, but that day I was approached to do my first pan-and-scan. Of course I understood the process, but I was amazed that I was being asked to do it for a particular film without any creative or studio supervision.
"But, I'm, like, just a Tech Guy!" I argued.
"Use your best judgement," the PHB shot back, adding (with a keen if accidental prescience), "Do you want to be 'just a Tech Guy' for the rest of your life?"
So I did the deed. Panned and scanned a classic flick, in some cases choosing which actors' faces appeared in certain shots, and which were disembodied off-screen voices. Of course, this was before the days of even home video, let alone DVD, so there was no danger of anyone ever buying the RobotRunAmok-Cut collaboration with an Oscar-winning director, but it did air on Pay Cable before millions of paying subscribers, most of whom had prolly never seen the theatrical version.
It was less than ten years later, and the pan-and scan process had become a Great Art. Cable Nets were flying Techs, Creatives, Lawyers, and Admin Assistants around the country for tens of thousands of dollars to do across a week's time what I did that afternoon after lunch.
I'm (reasonably) certain they're all doing a better job than I did...
Hey, Niblet: Re-read the post; I never claimed spelling or grammar superiority, only that./'s continued pandering to the script-kiddies' made-up vocabularies and the ridiculous justifications provided by their only-slightly-better-informed apologists remain an ongoing source of irritation to me and anyone with a passing interest in English.
Oh, and I meant to say "Ticks," as in "Affectation."
What do you mean "we," paleface? A "cracker" is either a thin salty wafer or slang for a bigoted white southerner. It's use to mean "malicious computer programmer" ranks up there with "virii" and "boxen" as Really Pointless Language Ticks Fourteen-Year-Olds Can't Grow Out Of Fast Enough.
Still and all, I look to the positive: Slashdot's continuing replacement of the word "hacker" with "cracker" in otherwise verbatim news article headlines while simultaneously proudly flaunting its lack of any grammer or spelling controls remains that rarest of commodities, a near constant source of "Bemused WTF?!?" on a World-Wide Web that's become otherwise staid and predictable. Gentlemen, I salute you, and tip my hat to those Chaos gods you so cleary serve.
(Oh, sure, g'ahead, cite some article in -- what's it called again? -- um, yeah, "Wikipedia" that "proves" me wrong. I'll be sure to sure to feel appropriately chastised, I promise...)
Wow. If this Fisher guy can net $322 with his human-sized forehead just walking around Nebraska, it would be like hitting the lottery for Paul Begala on nation-wide TV.
I feel the same way about most religions who take money from their parishioners and buy gold alters and the like while still claiming to be charitable organizations.
Yeah, but Dude, I'd still rather give my money to a church than actually pay for a HTML editor.
Slashdot Mirror
Pajamahadeen "working" for some obscure web site?
White House plant in the Press Corps?
Unemployed Columbia J-School graduate?
MSNBC Web Jockey given too much control over content?
Me, You, here, "blogging" our opinions on an extremely popular web site?
Senile "anchor" person who looked sexy twenty years ago and hasn't written a news story in his/her life?
A perky Fox News Info-Babe?
An ex-SNL comedy writer hosting a radio show on an avowedly anti-right wing network?
The producer/writer for the ex-comedy writer's show?
Jon Stewart? Jon Stewart's producer?
Jayson Blair?
The guys who covered up for Jayson Blair?
Rush Limbaugh (currently billing himself as "America's Anchorman")?
The diligent, dutiful Editor-in-Chief of the local High School Newspaper?
Some guy from Al-Jazeera whose cousin is in Gitmo?
Armed Forces Radio?
It's 2005. "Journalism" means everything and everything. Define "journalist" for me and I'll tell ya whether his sources should be protected, laughed at, or locked up...
It ran 2/9, Genius. 800+ comments as I recall.
Do a search on 'Fiorina' at the bottom of the page.
(BTW, if this site is moving too fast for you, maybe you should consider an older, slower medium, like newspapers.)
What's next, universal cable TV?
No, you have to convicted of a crime and sent to jail if you want free cable TV.
Question: *Geo*Physicists? Wouldn't that be Areophysicists?
Answer: Yes, if you want to be really, really annoying...
Now, back to Terra with you, before I go all John Carter on yer ass...
It's "Narrowcasting," actually. Fine, Comm-school distinction, perhaps, but worth noting in this case. You don't want this to be broadcasting, as that would assume a lot of very low and common denominators and all that attendant government scrutiny.
It just seemed to me that your comment was crying out between the lines, "I feel small, and I resent extroverts."
Golly.
I've been called so-o-o-o-o-o many names, most of them on this board, but never, ever has it been implied I was an "introvert."
Thank you.
But to the matter at hand... all those teens and 20-somethings with their web-logs, nattering on and on about their pets, their roommates, their laptop and its operating system, what music they like and in what mood they are in while the listen to it, why they hate Bush and MTV, and which Buffy character their girlfriend most resembles... these niblets are extroverts ?
Wow. I never would have guessed.
See, in the old days, extroverts were typically entertaining. People stayed extroverted cuz they got encouraging feedback from those around them. When they ceased being entertaining (it happens, I'm told...), they would become a bit more guarded, the stupid jokes around the watercooler would become fewer. The problem, as I see it, with all this Cheezewhiz in the "blog-O-sphere" is that it is predominantly boring as hell, and everybody is too polite to tell these people to go off and pop bubblewrap someplace, please, anything, just do it off-line.
Which is not to say that all blogs suck; some are really quite good. Of course, those are written typically by professional journalists and authors. Funny how that worked out, eh?
That's not my insecurity, but thanks for noticing.
People too stupid to use pseudonyms get what they deserve.
People who let their employers violate their civil liberties get what they deserve.
People who arrogantly deal out advice for other people get what they deserve.
Actually, it's much more fundamental than that:
People so full of themselves that they post their diaries on the Web get what they deserve.
These interests are not often aligned with the interests of individuals.
And very often they are. Corporations being comprised of individuals, how could they not be?
organized NON-CORPORATE voting groups
Well, sure. Except most of the non-corporate voting groups I've encountered are rather disorganized. Their hearts and minds seem to be in the right place, but it's only when their wallet's on the line that they seem to get it together.
Lookit, I'm not debating the happy utopian value of a world without lobbyists, only that, at this moment in 2005, the Free Software Movement with a friendly corporate lobbying presence in DC is in vastly better shape than it was a month ago with the EFF spending member dollars to fly staff cross-country when it amused them to do so.
If only you knew how ridiculous your stupid assumptions are...
So why don't you update me, smart guy? I educated you today, now it's your turn. My mind's open.
Your naivete is cute, but dangerous.
Corporations -- and Government -- are both made up of people.
Who do you think has lobbied longer, stronger, and more effectively against Federal obscenity laws, "grass roots" groups like the EFF, or Playboy?
The addition of a money-making real-people corporation like Red Hat opening an office on K Street is the single best, smartest, most effective move the Linux Community could have made to combat closed and proprietary systems.
It's "Fist in The Air/Head Up The Ass" attitudes like yours that reinforce the "smelly hippie" stereotypes and retard the spread and acceptance of free software.
And we should care why?
Now, now. Slashdot has a long, proud and profitable history of Catholic-baiting. A "Shroud of Turin versus Science" story on an otherwise slow Sunday morning is a -- you should pardon the expression -- God-send. Taco can hardly be blamed.
I forgive him.
United we stand, divided we fall.
"We?" What's this "we" stuff, AC? Who are you? My guess is you're the EFF paid intern/astroturfer sent to pump up this quarter's fund-raising drive at "key, major friendly sites/web communities."
What makes them an anachronism? How could they change to become relevant again? Be specific.
Wow! "Academic Background," much? Wait, lemme get out my Number Two Pencil here so I can answer.
OK.
Ummmm, hey, here's an idea:
Move the hell back to DC! You're a Lobbying Organization, ferchrissake!! Why in a hundred years would I give a donation to a lobbying organization based on the West Coast?
Here read this, consult with your bosses, and get back to us.
Or not.
Every item in every category on the list features an appeal to "join the EFF" so that the evil, toy-snatching corporations can be vanquished for good yadda yadda. If the EFF's legal team was half as as adept as their Marketing and Promotion departments, they might actually amount to something more than a 90's-era anachronism...
Hey, but I've still held onto my old orange cyber-rights clenched-fist-on-a-field-of-lightning-bolts T-Shirt after all these years, so I guess I should give props to their Creative Services Department as well...
pan & scan is like raping the director
Oh, it was worse than that 'back in the day.' At least today they buy him dinner first. Lemme explain:
Circa 20 years ago I was a young Quality Control Guy working for a Major Pay TV Network. I had done some straight telecine before, for both Broadcast and Cable outlets, but that day I was approached to do my first pan-and-scan. Of course I understood the process, but I was amazed that I was being asked to do it for a particular film without any creative or studio supervision.
"But, I'm, like, just a Tech Guy!" I argued.
"Use your best judgement," the PHB shot back, adding (with a keen if accidental prescience), "Do you want to be 'just a Tech Guy' for the rest of your life?"
So I did the deed. Panned and scanned a classic flick, in some cases choosing which actors' faces appeared in certain shots, and which were disembodied off-screen voices. Of course, this was before the days of even home video, let alone DVD, so there was no danger of anyone ever buying the RobotRunAmok-Cut collaboration with an Oscar-winning director, but it did air on Pay Cable before millions of paying subscribers, most of whom had prolly never seen the theatrical version.
It was less than ten years later, and the pan-and scan process had become a Great Art. Cable Nets were flying Techs, Creatives, Lawyers, and Admin Assistants around the country for tens of thousands of dollars to do across a week's time what I did that afternoon after lunch.
I'm (reasonably) certain they're all doing a better job than I did...
Display * where SS# is Null ...
Oh, you mean this isn't an Immigration Service project?
Never mind, then...
I thought America was founded by *scientists*, non?
I was right there with you until you started speaking French. Then you began ticking me off...
Uh Huh.
And in a related story, the National Hockey League just announced a new expansion team in Hell.
Man, the best fiction I've ever produced is some of the project plans created using SubEtha.
The greatest lasagne recipe I ever wrote was crafted in MS Word 6.0.
OK, OK, Courier 12 point, if you must know.
I believe you have been, if my understanding of the teen script-kiddie slang is correct, "0wned."
Thanks, as they say, for playing.
Hey, Niblet: Re-read the post; I never claimed spelling or grammar superiority, only that ./'s continued pandering to the script-kiddies' made-up vocabularies and the ridiculous justifications provided by their only-slightly-better-informed apologists remain an ongoing source of irritation to me and anyone with a passing interest in English.
Oh, and I meant to say "Ticks," as in "Affectation."
The rest are typos.
Looser...
What do you mean "we," paleface? A "cracker" is either a thin salty wafer or slang for a bigoted white southerner. It's use to mean "malicious computer programmer" ranks up there with "virii" and "boxen" as Really Pointless Language Ticks Fourteen-Year-Olds Can't Grow Out Of Fast Enough.
Still and all, I look to the positive: Slashdot's continuing replacement of the word "hacker" with "cracker" in otherwise verbatim news article headlines while simultaneously proudly flaunting its lack of any grammer or spelling controls remains that rarest of commodities, a near constant source of "Bemused WTF?!?" on a World-Wide Web that's become otherwise staid and predictable. Gentlemen, I salute you, and tip my hat to those Chaos gods you so cleary serve.
(Oh, sure, g'ahead, cite some article in -- what's it called again? -- um, yeah, "Wikipedia" that "proves" me wrong. I'll be sure to sure to feel appropriately chastised, I promise...)
Wow. If this Fisher guy can net $322 with his human-sized forehead just walking around Nebraska, it would be like hitting the lottery for Paul Begala on nation-wide TV.
Right?
I feel the same way about most religions who take money from their parishioners and buy gold alters and the like while still claiming to be charitable organizations.
Yeah, but Dude, I'd still rather give my money to a church than actually pay for a HTML editor.
Thanks, Bud. I got more karma than the friggin' Buddha, and if I can't burn it in reality-checks like this, then it ain't worth having.