Morality is based around enlightened self-interest and a sense of connection with ones fellows. It changes with circumstance. Genetics is circumstance.
If I record to an analogue medium, I could come along later with more sophisticated technology and pull increasing amounts of data out of the original recording.
Twenty years from now, there will be technology to pull a more accurate digital reproduction of the original sonic environment out of an analogue source than can be done today.
If I record to a digital medium, that is it. Fin. I will never get a closer reproduction of the original sound than that.
When they change all the digital standards to a format that holds more high end frequency response than the current standards, which suck for reasons that have nothing to do with technological limitations, older stuff that was recorded on analogue media will be recoverable.
Anything recorded digitally, on the other hand, will not sound any better than it did the first time you played it back.
All of which indicates that digital is not a preferable mechanism for recording, but only for working copies and transmission. The very process of converting from analog to digital automatically results in tremendous data loss the moment you do it when you get right down to it.
It is harsh and evil. But it's not going to stay that way with my money.
I'm not being a whiner. I'm saying that advertising is evil, and if you go in for that sort of thing, you can't have any of my money. Ever. Not whining at all.
Do you think I'm obligated to ignore it and give em my money anyways?
Or are you in the industry and take offense at my judgment?
If it's the latter... I hope you choke and die on a chicken bone.
The fact that they are still bombing rubble doesn't change the fact that they have already blown the hell out of the place. The fact that they are still beating it doesn't mean the horse is any less dead.
The US tax base paid for the bombs that blew the hell out of the middle east, now they're paying billions of dollars to a big company to fix the middle east, and people are complaining that the taxes on the profits being made by the big company are going to the middle east instead of remaining in the US.
Democracies aren't about picking the best idea. Unless you're having a referendum. They're not about picking the most popular idea either.
They're about picking the best leader. The best leader is the one that is respected and trusted by the people they lead.
Once they're elected, democratic leaders don't have any less power in-the-moment than totalitarian leaders, although they do have less capacity to make long term plans.
Modern democracies are a failure according to the objective view.
They've been hopelessly corrupted and have scaled badly.
People no one trusts are elected, and when they betray every value they were elected on, there's no timely and effective process to get them out.
Modern democracies just keep pushing more and more wealth into private hands where the administrators of that wealth don't even have the pretense of responsibility to society. Year after year, same old shit. Confronted with the corrupting power of Capitalism, they just plain fail.
That's what business analysis is, going around asking people and writing it all up in a report. You think the executives that are signing the contracts and paying the bills know what the people on the ground need? They're salesmen, they don't.
A good business analyst will answer the question "What is it that we (the client) need." They help make sure that the excellent code you write, when it's doing as you were hired to write it to do, solves problems instead of making them.
A good architect will help establish clear separation of authority, giving team members more autonomy to go do what they're good at without having other peoples fingers in their pies or needing to leave their area of scope.
There are a lot of people with pieces of paper from a school that are terrible at these things, and they muddle along leaving wreckage behind them. But that doesn't dismiss the value of having someone competent in those roles when you can find them.
You have 5 people at a board meeting with an advertising company.
They're applying the latest research into the "Nag Factor" and how certain techniques will increase childrens tendency to nag their parents in an attempt to introduce discord into a family so parents will buy their children crap that gets forgotten in the closet.
What makes this not a conspiracy? They are conspiring according to most definitions of the word.
What makes it good? It might not be as evil as murder, but it's an anti-social act that pits children against their parents so they can take advantage of them both.
So tell me how this instance fails to meet the "Evil Conspiracy" test?
Andi Mann, senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates, an IT consultancy based in Boulder, Colo., says that virtualization's problems can include cost accounting (measurement, allocation, license compliance); human issues (politics, skills, training); vendor support (lack of license flexibility); management complexity; security (new threats and penetrations, lack of controls); and image and license proliferation.
I haven't been to the movies in quite a long time. When I do go to the movies, I go see IMAX features.
I allow my daughter to watch commercial free childrens television, for which I pay. She is getting a bit old for the programming, so I'll probably disconnect the cable soon. She has her own computer, and I encourage her to make movies and music of her own with her webcam and microphone. She's too active to sit around mindlessly watching a screen.
I haven't bought a music cd in over 5 years. Instead, I have a collection of instruments and simple recording gear, and I have bi-weekly jams with my friends. My girlfriend listens to underground techno she gets from creative commons sources, which I also enjoy.
I do not buy magazines, and have not in over 5 years.
I do not like commercial sports, I find them boring. Instead, I practice Capoeira with my friends and go rock climbing.
Advertisements are designed by the most skilled psychologists in the world to make you unhappy with your life as it is so you will go buy something that won't improve it.
Let me say that again.
They are designed by the most talented psychologists in the world specifically to make you unhappy with your life as it is.
It is NOT subjective. Ads make people sad.
That is what they were engineered to do.
And it is effective, just like sound engineers can evoke emotions in you via music entirely against your will.
The fact that you are unable to perceive it doesn't mean it's not happening.
So yeah.
I'll put up with a buggy game. I have lots of buggy games that I'm willing to work around because I enjoy them.
But I will NEVER give one thin dime to any company that puts adverts in their product.
I personally agree with Bill Hicks. Everyone in advertising should be shot in the head.
If you've got better ideas of how the US should handle foreign policy then immigrate here, vote, perhaps run for public office. We have no shortage of people spouting what we should and shouldn't do. What we have a shortage of is people that do more than just talk.
Yeah, right.
Rome is falling, our frigid bitches didn't breed enough to sustain the population, everyone in the society is a moron and everyone outside our society seems to hate us. Come to our nation so we can put you to work and go retire. We need to prop this clusterfuck up for one more generation if we're going to be safely in the grave when it all comes crashing down.
We offer a second-class status that you shouldn't realistically expect to end, because we can't risk having you leave us to our fate when your demographic is larger than ours and you wonder why you're slaving so hard to keep these old bastards who don't contribute anything and most likely never will.
That's one hell of an offer. I'll have to think about it.
I told them I don't want them selling oil or energy or natural gas to war criminals anymore, and that I think we need a trade embargo on the US
This whole topic is flamebait if you ask me.
I want an Energy Control Act in the US. It should stipulate what you can and cannot do with the oil and energy and gas we sell you, and if you violate the terms, say by pouring it into tanks and helicopters and attacking people, your country self-destructs.
In return, we'll get right on that Hollywood thing. How's that sound?
No shit. I couldn't tell you how many of my friends lost jobs every time they decided to spend an extra billion dollars to move ship construction and maintenance jobs from the east coast up to Montreal, only to have them fuck it up and send it back.
Quebec is like the sexy girlfriend that you keep because she's so much fun and makes you look good, but she's always acting like a bitch and threatening to leave you so you'll keep giving her presents, basically.
Slashdot Mirror
I understand game theory. I disagree with the conclusion.
Morality is based around enlightened self-interest and a sense of connection with ones fellows. It changes with circumstance. Genetics is circumstance.
Enlightened self interest.
No, I would say a forced co-operation mechanism from a democratically elected government would be ideal, actually.
If I record to an analogue medium, I could come along later with more sophisticated technology and pull increasing amounts of data out of the original recording.
Twenty years from now, there will be technology to pull a more accurate digital reproduction of the original sonic environment out of an analogue source than can be done today.
If I record to a digital medium, that is it. Fin. I will never get a closer reproduction of the original sound than that.
When they change all the digital standards to a format that holds more high end frequency response than the current standards, which suck for reasons that have nothing to do with technological limitations, older stuff that was recorded on analogue media will be recoverable.
Anything recorded digitally, on the other hand, will not sound any better than it did the first time you played it back.
Get what I'm saying here?
No, the problem is capitalism, and the incentive it creates to screw people over for profit rather than co-operate for the common good.
Technology isn't going to overcome that problem. We need a new economic system.
All of which indicates that digital is not a preferable mechanism for recording, but only for working copies and transmission. The very process of converting from analog to digital automatically results in tremendous data loss the moment you do it when you get right down to it.
Just give up. Otherwise, this will eventually end with them complaining that it doesn't run on the VIC-20.
Can I order a copy of the code on cassette tape?
Not multiple meanings. Multiple attempts to explain what "free" means without saying "Dude, it's like, free man!"
One meaning. Multiple relevant uses. One meaning.
And it doesn't exclusively mean without restriction either.
Yes, that's what it means. Without restrictions. Precisely what it means. If there are restrictions, it's not free.
Free means that I can come and acquire it and then it is MINE. Mine means my decisions, no restrictions.
If you tell me something is free, but try to claim that it remains yours when I come to get some, you are a liar.
It is harsh and evil. But it's not going to stay that way with my money.
I'm not being a whiner. I'm saying that advertising is evil, and if you go in for that sort of thing, you can't have any of my money. Ever. Not whining at all.
Do you think I'm obligated to ignore it and give em my money anyways?
Or are you in the industry and take offense at my judgment?
If it's the latter... I hope you choke and die on a chicken bone.
Otherwise, go flame somewhere else.
Totally irrelevant to the subject at hand.
The fact that they are still bombing rubble doesn't change the fact that they have already blown the hell out of the place. The fact that they are still beating it doesn't mean the horse is any less dead.
The US tax base paid for the bombs that blew the hell out of the middle east, now they're paying billions of dollars to a big company to fix the middle east, and people are complaining that the taxes on the profits being made by the big company are going to the middle east instead of remaining in the US.
Words fail me.
Democracies aren't about picking the best idea. Unless you're having a referendum. They're not about picking the most popular idea either.
They're about picking the best leader. The best leader is the one that is respected and trusted by the people they lead.
Once they're elected, democratic leaders don't have any less power in-the-moment than totalitarian leaders, although they do have less capacity to make long term plans.
Modern democracies are a failure according to the objective view.
They've been hopelessly corrupted and have scaled badly.
People no one trusts are elected, and when they betray every value they were elected on, there's no timely and effective process to get them out.
Modern democracies just keep pushing more and more wealth into private hands where the administrators of that wealth don't even have the pretense of responsibility to society. Year after year, same old shit. Confronted with the corrupting power of Capitalism, they just plain fail.
That's what business analysis is, going around asking people and writing it all up in a report. You think the executives that are signing the contracts and paying the bills know what the people on the ground need? They're salesmen, they don't.
A good business analyst will answer the question "What is it that we (the client) need." They help make sure that the excellent code you write, when it's doing as you were hired to write it to do, solves problems instead of making them.
A good architect will help establish clear separation of authority, giving team members more autonomy to go do what they're good at without having other peoples fingers in their pies or needing to leave their area of scope.
There are a lot of people with pieces of paper from a school that are terrible at these things, and they muddle along leaving wreckage behind them. But that doesn't dismiss the value of having someone competent in those roles when you can find them.
Ok.
You have 5 people at a board meeting with an advertising company.
They're applying the latest research into the "Nag Factor" and how certain techniques will increase childrens tendency to nag their parents in an attempt to introduce discord into a family so parents will buy their children crap that gets forgotten in the closet.
What makes this not a conspiracy? They are conspiring according to most definitions of the word.
What makes it good? It might not be as evil as murder, but it's an anti-social act that pits children against their parents so they can take advantage of them both.
So tell me how this instance fails to meet the "Evil Conspiracy" test?
I thought this was really funny.
Andi Mann, senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates, an IT consultancy based in Boulder, Colo., says that virtualization's problems can include cost accounting (measurement, allocation, license compliance); human issues (politics, skills, training); vendor support (lack of license flexibility); management complexity; security (new threats and penetrations, lack of controls); and image and license proliferation.
How many times is the word "License" in here?
I haven't been to the movies in quite a long time. When I do go to the movies, I go see IMAX features.
I allow my daughter to watch commercial free childrens television, for which I pay. She is getting a bit old for the programming, so I'll probably disconnect the cable soon. She has her own computer, and I encourage her to make movies and music of her own with her webcam and microphone. She's too active to sit around mindlessly watching a screen.
I haven't bought a music cd in over 5 years. Instead, I have a collection of instruments and simple recording gear, and I have bi-weekly jams with my friends. My girlfriend listens to underground techno she gets from creative commons sources, which I also enjoy.
I do not buy magazines, and have not in over 5 years.
I do not like commercial sports, I find them boring. Instead, I practice Capoeira with my friends and go rock climbing.
I do confess, I take cabs quite a bit.
Satisfied?
Advertisements are designed by the most skilled psychologists in the world to make you unhappy with your life as it is so you will go buy something that won't improve it.
Let me say that again.
They are designed by the most talented psychologists in the world specifically to make you unhappy with your life as it is.
It is NOT subjective. Ads make people sad.
That is what they were engineered to do.
And it is effective, just like sound engineers can evoke emotions in you via music entirely against your will.
The fact that you are unable to perceive it doesn't mean it's not happening.
So yeah.
I'll put up with a buggy game. I have lots of buggy games that I'm willing to work around because I enjoy them.
But I will NEVER give one thin dime to any company that puts adverts in their product.
I personally agree with Bill Hicks. Everyone in advertising should be shot in the head.
If you've got better ideas of how the US should handle foreign policy then immigrate here, vote, perhaps run for public office. We have no shortage of people spouting what we should and shouldn't do. What we have a shortage of is people that do more than just talk.
Yeah, right.
Rome is falling, our frigid bitches didn't breed enough to sustain the population, everyone in the society is a moron and everyone outside our society seems to hate us. Come to our nation so we can put you to work and go retire. We need to prop this clusterfuck up for one more generation if we're going to be safely in the grave when it all comes crashing down.
We offer a second-class status that you shouldn't realistically expect to end, because we can't risk having you leave us to our fate when your demographic is larger than ours and you wonder why you're slaving so hard to keep these old bastards who don't contribute anything and most likely never will.
That's one hell of an offer. I'll have to think about it.
We're still in NAFTA because Canadians aren't angry enough yet to force the issue. That is the ONLY reason we're in NAFTA.
I wrote a letter to the Canadian Government too.
I told them I don't want them selling oil or energy or natural gas to war criminals anymore, and that I think we need a trade embargo on the US
This whole topic is flamebait if you ask me.
I want an Energy Control Act in the US. It should stipulate what you can and cannot do with the oil and energy and gas we sell you, and if you violate the terms, say by pouring it into tanks and helicopters and attacking people, your country self-destructs.
In return, we'll get right on that Hollywood thing. How's that sound?
No shit. I couldn't tell you how many of my friends lost jobs every time they decided to spend an extra billion dollars to move ship construction and maintenance jobs from the east coast up to Montreal, only to have them fuck it up and send it back.
Quebec is like the sexy girlfriend that you keep because she's so much fun and makes you look good, but she's always acting like a bitch and threatening to leave you so you'll keep giving her presents, basically.