If you believe in censorship, and you are not already in a country which employs it openly, could you please move to one? You are holding the rest of us back.
No. This is my country, and I'd sooner blow your brains out than move to get away from the likes of you.
I don't think there is anything defensible about what is being done. I think this sort of thing is justification for censorship. I would put my political support behind punishing the people behind this. I think these guys are jerks, and I think the people here defending them are jerks, because by attempting to paint this as a free speech issue, they're confounding the issue, turning it into the rights of the infantile and irresponsible to cause disruption in peoples lives for the sake of their own ego, thus hindering people who actually have something important to say.
I understand the situation completely, and I think this is infantile and deserving of nothing better than scorn. Do you find that confusing?
I think the value of freedom of speech is that you have the chance to speak. As in, you haven't been shut up before the words got out of your mouth. But that doesn't mean that you can say anything you like. You should be judged on what you say after you've been given the chance to say it, and if you're causing harm without causing benefit and refuse to stop, then you should be reprimanded.
Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. I'd even go so far as to say that freedom is the ability to take responsibility, and not be estranged from that responsibility. If you don't want to take responsibility, you shouldn't have freedom.
If you kick in my door? Definitely stupid. I'm not in a position of authority over you so there's no power to subvert.
If you're not in a position of authority, why did you lock the door? Who told you you had the right to have a quiet uninterrupted evening without having offensive crap shoved in your face? I didn't... and I have the right to say any damned thing I want, any place I want. This is my freedom we're talking about, right?
You may have fun playing OpenArena, and you may (from a personal taste perspective) like the art in the game, but the fact is from a modern game development art standpoint (hell, even from a 10 years ago game development art standpoint), the game is amateur at best, shitty at worst, and completely lacks anything even resembling polish, cohesion, or direction. I've seen and worked on mods that had more polish in their artwork than OpenArena.
Yeah, but the fun is in the competition with the other players. Nothing else is relevant. At all. In the slightest. My deck of cards has worse art, and I still play with that too.
Which is illegal where they live, and thus subversive of the system of censorship and control.
Just because people usually are not punished for this kind of thing doesn't make doing it any less brave when people have been and will be forced into slave labor for less.
What's brave about this? If I kicked your door in and ran into your living room and screamed motherfucker in your face, that's illegal, and thus dangerous. Does that make it subversive and brave? Or just anti-social and stupid?
How exactly does "polish" in any way mean "flashy, pop-culture references and glitzy, trendy looking artwork"?
Yeah, I can't figure it out either. Guess that's why I'm not one of the guys making modern commercial games... I'm so stupid about these things, I just play games like Wesnoth and Teeworlds and OpenArena. I'm probably not nearly as efficient with my fun time as I could be...
The problem with this is that open source tends to excel at function and suck at polish. Despite excellent function, most OSS developers can't develop an interface or decent icon artwork to save their lives. It's just not where their strength lies. Now, for many applications - compressing video, burning a CD, etc, this is something that we can easily live with. Our goal in using the app is to complete a task and so long as the task gets completed then everyone is happy.
Games are the opposite though. The artwork, interface, and general polish are essentially the main component. The actual background engine is just a minor piece.
Not to mention that you necessarily MUST maintain variety in games.
Right. You don't want your game to end up irrelevant in a few months time, like Poker or Solitaire. It's the flashy, pop-culture references and glitzy, trendy looking artwork that give games replay value...
Funk isn't something you admire while you're sitting alone in front of a computer, it's something you groove to with a scotch on the rocks in your hand while surrounded by a bunch of classy ladies who like to shake what their momma gave them. The band isn't there to perform something they conceived in a dark room, they're there to play the crowd, to react and interact with the people as they get excited, antsy, tired, etc.
If this is the future of music, then the future is bleak indeed.
It's like a guy entering your house through an open windows, and standing there without stealing or ruining anything. Is it ok or it is more ok to tell him "Get The F*k Out"? You decide, sheep;D
I'd say it's more like you leaving your hunting rifles lying around on the front lawn and someone took them and used them for a drive-by.
Securing your machine is your responsibility. Failing to do so is negligence.
Why don't you go negotiate an agreement when you can borrow said resources, be productive with them, and produce more for both you and the owner, instead of being a disenfranchised, frightened, angry little clerk with delusions of grandeur?
Seriously, thought, we're suffering from massive unemployment, not lack of manpower.
You mean, the people who own all the resources that you could very easily go and do productive work with are comfortable and have no desire to allow you permission to work them. But you can go stand in front of their box of stuff and say "Cash or Credit, I'm sorry sir, you'll have to pay for that" all day, and they'll feed, water and house you like the animal you are...
It's not unemployment, its disenfranchisement. While the disenfranchisement continues, the employment or lack of it are rather irrelevant.
Right off the bat, there's some serious overgeneralizing in that statement. However, if it is the case, then the solution is simple in concept but difficult in execution.
Show young people that the system can work for them. That involves thousands of hours of education in basic finance, civics, and law.
Show young people that the system can work against them. That involves an effective police force and appropriate punishments.
Question for you:
If the majority of the population are retired, and they vote for the young minority to work double shifts to support them, and the police enforce the will of the majority vote, is that freedom, or is it slavery?
No, people (you, for example) like to pretend that it's a simple problem because they're terrified by the knowledge that the world is complicated. They tell themselves the comforting lie that if they pick a scapegoat and attack it, everything will magically get better.
Ahh, the "It's too complex for you to know that, how dare you hold me responsible" argument. I've never heard "THAT" one before...
Wow, ANOTHER genius who determined the single factor in a complex problem. Simply amazing.
It's not a complex problem. People like to pretend that it's a complex problem because they like to "bargain", they like to "negotiate" with reality. "I don't want to take this responsibility, but I want the outcome, so how about I just do lots of this other thing instead.", they say.
But it's all smoke, mirrors and bullshit. The problem is based on simple, fundamental principles, and the lack of attention that has been paid to them.
They should get this guy working on the economy so he can tell us the one thing we need to do to get out of the recession.
Stop institutionalizing and disenfranchising your youth. Stop encouraging your children to sterilize themselves. Wait a generation or two. Problem solved.
Oh, you want to actually enjoy life while you're young?
Exterminate the dependent elderly until they only represent a small portion of the population. Continue to sterilize yourselves so the dependent young never represent more than a small portion of the population.
Then you too can be totally self-centered and enjoy the Boomer Dream.
Better plan on committing suicide the moment you no longer are able to work, because there will be no care forthcoming from the next generation.
Honestly? I agree that the Tibet - China issue is a lot more complicated than evil communist takes over peaceful buddhist community, but I think saying China was the best thing that could have happened to Tibet is going a bit far don't you think?
At the same time, while China is the evil empire persecuting Tibetans, Israel is "just defending itself".
The Chinese liberated the Tibetan people from barbaric serfdom. The Tibetan people lived in the stone ages, and were brutally oppressed by the Dali Lama, who was raised from childhood to feel he has what basically amounts to the divine right of kings. Now he goes around the world preaching nihilism while the Chinese bring eduction and social development to the people he used to oppress.
China was the best thing that could have happened to Tibet.
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/mol.htm ) was canceled for good reasons. Primarily that all the functions could be automated and/or ground controlled, without the extra mass, complexity and vulnerability of a manned station.
And what happens when a) you get hacked or b) someone from the manned station next door comes over for a visit and unplugs a few things.
The USS Liberty was a spy ship. Israel was doing some things they didn't want anyone else to know. They tried to sink the ship and destroy all lifeboats. They wanted no witnesses. There are suggestions that they feared the USS Liberty had intercepted info that could have exposed Israel to war crime charges. The whole story will come out someday.
When it does, will we critically re-examine who the heroes and villains of the last world war were? Seems like it's about time for that....
I don't think that's the only hurdle to overcome. In a lot of cases, I just don't think voice control is very useful beyond a novelty. I played with it a number of years ago. After a bit of training, it was recognizing my commands pretty well. Thing is, it was tedious as hell to do things with voice control. I spent 10x longer doing things simply for the novelty to doing it using voice commands.
I feel the same way about it. But my brother swears by it... he can have his hands full of scientific equipment and still issue commands to his computer which is interfacing with the tools he's using.
I could see this sort of tech being really useful for those who wish to access reference materials while their hands are full too... be it doctors who have their hands covered in blood switching to a different monitor or mechanics who have their hands covered in grease switching to a different schematic.
Personally, some days I'd give my left nut for a good heads up display and a glove with an integrated chording keyboard and touch pad. If I could do my work lying on my back instead of sitting in this chair, I probably wouldn't have to go to the chiropractor.
I'm also wondering where your bizarre black and white world view comes from. Is there no middle ground between merely wishing to share an artistic vision as the ultimate expression of one's soul and creating "art" for the mere purpose of generating revenue?
The house you live in doesn't appear because people are systematically denied the right to share. The food, the goods, none of them appear because of copyright. The copyright is only a mechanism for sorting common goods among the population. Therefore, there is no reason why we can't support the same number of creators we already do without copyright.
That's my position. I don't support expending extra social resources on cops and robbers to keep the children of that poor family down the street from having access to culture because you're too comfortable to want the boat rocked on what amounts to nothing more than an administrative process.
Slashdot Mirror
If you believe in censorship, and you are not already in a country which employs it openly, could you please move to one? You are holding the rest of us back.
No. This is my country, and I'd sooner blow your brains out than move to get away from the likes of you.
I don't think there is anything defensible about what is being done. I think this sort of thing is justification for censorship. I would put my political support behind punishing the people behind this. I think these guys are jerks, and I think the people here defending them are jerks, because by attempting to paint this as a free speech issue, they're confounding the issue, turning it into the rights of the infantile and irresponsible to cause disruption in peoples lives for the sake of their own ego, thus hindering people who actually have something important to say.
I understand the situation completely, and I think this is infantile and deserving of nothing better than scorn. Do you find that confusing?
I think the value of freedom of speech is that you have the chance to speak. As in, you haven't been shut up before the words got out of your mouth. But that doesn't mean that you can say anything you like. You should be judged on what you say after you've been given the chance to say it, and if you're causing harm without causing benefit and refuse to stop, then you should be reprimanded.
Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. I'd even go so far as to say that freedom is the ability to take responsibility, and not be estranged from that responsibility. If you don't want to take responsibility, you shouldn't have freedom.
Wonder if you can you play battleship with it...
If you kick in my door? Definitely stupid. I'm not in a position of authority over you so there's no power to subvert.
If you're not in a position of authority, why did you lock the door? Who told you you had the right to have a quiet uninterrupted evening without having offensive crap shoved in your face? I didn't... and I have the right to say any damned thing I want, any place I want. This is my freedom we're talking about, right?
You may have fun playing OpenArena, and you may (from a personal taste perspective) like the art in the game, but the fact is from a modern game development art standpoint (hell, even from a 10 years ago game development art standpoint), the game is amateur at best, shitty at worst, and completely lacks anything even resembling polish, cohesion, or direction. I've seen and worked on mods that had more polish in their artwork than OpenArena.
Yeah, but the fun is in the competition with the other players. Nothing else is relevant. At all. In the slightest. My deck of cards has worse art, and I still play with that too.
Which is illegal where they live, and thus subversive of the system of censorship and control.
Just because people usually are not punished for this kind of thing doesn't make doing it any less brave when people have been and will be forced into slave labor for less.
What's brave about this? If I kicked your door in and ran into your living room and screamed motherfucker in your face, that's illegal, and thus dangerous. Does that make it subversive and brave? Or just anti-social and stupid?
How exactly does "polish" in any way mean "flashy, pop-culture references and glitzy, trendy looking artwork"?
Yeah, I can't figure it out either. Guess that's why I'm not one of the guys making modern commercial games... I'm so stupid about these things, I just play games like Wesnoth and Teeworlds and OpenArena. I'm probably not nearly as efficient with my fun time as I could be...
The problem with this is that open source tends to excel at function and suck at polish. Despite excellent function, most OSS developers can't develop an interface or decent icon artwork to save their lives. It's just not where their strength lies. Now, for many applications - compressing video, burning a CD, etc, this is something that we can easily live with. Our goal in using the app is to complete a task and so long as the task gets completed then everyone is happy. Games are the opposite though. The artwork, interface, and general polish are essentially the main component. The actual background engine is just a minor piece. Not to mention that you necessarily MUST maintain variety in games.
Right. You don't want your game to end up irrelevant in a few months time, like Poker or Solitaire. It's the flashy, pop-culture references and glitzy, trendy looking artwork that give games replay value...
Where can I buy tickets to their live show?
Funk isn't something you admire while you're sitting alone in front of a computer, it's something you groove to with a scotch on the rocks in your hand while surrounded by a bunch of classy ladies who like to shake what their momma gave them. The band isn't there to perform something they conceived in a dark room, they're there to play the crowd, to react and interact with the people as they get excited, antsy, tired, etc.
If this is the future of music, then the future is bleak indeed.
It's like a guy entering your house through an open windows, and standing there without stealing or ruining anything. Is it ok or it is more ok to tell him "Get The F*k Out"? You decide, sheep ;D
I'd say it's more like you leaving your hunting rifles lying around on the front lawn and someone took them and used them for a drive-by.
Securing your machine is your responsibility. Failing to do so is negligence.
Why don't you go negotiate an agreement when you can borrow said resources, be productive with them, and produce more for both you and the owner, instead of being a disenfranchised, frightened, angry little clerk with delusions of grandeur?
Kneel before the King, baby...
Seriously, thought, we're suffering from massive unemployment, not lack of manpower.
You mean, the people who own all the resources that you could very easily go and do productive work with are comfortable and have no desire to allow you permission to work them. But you can go stand in front of their box of stuff and say "Cash or Credit, I'm sorry sir, you'll have to pay for that" all day, and they'll feed, water and house you like the animal you are...
It's not unemployment, its disenfranchisement. While the disenfranchisement continues, the employment or lack of it are rather irrelevant.
Right off the bat, there's some serious overgeneralizing in that statement. However, if it is the case, then the solution is simple in concept but difficult in execution. Show young people that the system can work for them. That involves thousands of hours of education in basic finance, civics, and law. Show young people that the system can work against them. That involves an effective police force and appropriate punishments.
Question for you:
If the majority of the population are retired, and they vote for the young minority to work double shifts to support them, and the police enforce the will of the majority vote, is that freedom, or is it slavery?
No, people (you, for example) like to pretend that it's a simple problem because they're terrified by the knowledge that the world is complicated. They tell themselves the comforting lie that if they pick a scapegoat and attack it, everything will magically get better.
Ahh, the "It's too complex for you to know that, how dare you hold me responsible" argument. I've never heard "THAT" one before...
Wow, ANOTHER genius who determined the single factor in a complex problem. Simply amazing.
It's not a complex problem. People like to pretend that it's a complex problem because they like to "bargain", they like to "negotiate" with reality. "I don't want to take this responsibility, but I want the outcome, so how about I just do lots of this other thing instead.", they say.
But it's all smoke, mirrors and bullshit. The problem is based on simple, fundamental principles, and the lack of attention that has been paid to them.
They should get this guy working on the economy so he can tell us the one thing we need to do to get out of the recession.
Stop institutionalizing and disenfranchising your youth. Stop encouraging your children to sterilize themselves. Wait a generation or two. Problem solved.
Oh, you want to actually enjoy life while you're young?
Exterminate the dependent elderly until they only represent a small portion of the population. Continue to sterilize yourselves so the dependent young never represent more than a small portion of the population.
Then you too can be totally self-centered and enjoy the Boomer Dream.
Better plan on committing suicide the moment you no longer are able to work, because there will be no care forthcoming from the next generation.
OMG - a citation for your pro-China stance from the official newspaper of the CCP! Profound.
So, any positive explanation by the Chinese is not worthy of listening to because it comes from the Chinese?
Honestly? I agree that the Tibet - China issue is a lot more complicated than evil communist takes over peaceful buddhist community, but I think saying China was the best thing that could have happened to Tibet is going a bit far don't you think?
Not really.
At the same time, while China is the evil empire persecuting Tibetans, Israel is "just defending itself".
The Chinese liberated the Tibetan people from barbaric serfdom. The Tibetan people lived in the stone ages, and were brutally oppressed by the Dali Lama, who was raised from childhood to feel he has what basically amounts to the divine right of kings. Now he goes around the world preaching nihilism while the Chinese bring eduction and social development to the people he used to oppress.
China was the best thing that could have happened to Tibet.
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (http://www.astronautix.com/craft/mol.htm ) was canceled for good reasons. Primarily that all the functions could be automated and/or ground controlled, without the extra mass, complexity and vulnerability of a manned station.
And what happens when a) you get hacked or b) someone from the manned station next door comes over for a visit and unplugs a few things.
I knew a motive for crashing those US and Russian satellites together and filling the skies with junk would emerge quickly. This is probably it.
It will be a nice change to have the Chinese strong enough to rein in the Allies of Evil...
The USS Liberty was a spy ship. Israel was doing some things they didn't want anyone else to know. They tried to sink the ship and destroy all lifeboats. They wanted no witnesses. There are suggestions that they feared the USS Liberty had intercepted info that could have exposed Israel to war crime charges. The whole story will come out someday.
When it does, will we critically re-examine who the heroes and villains of the last world war were? Seems like it's about time for that....
I don't think that's the only hurdle to overcome. In a lot of cases, I just don't think voice control is very useful beyond a novelty. I played with it a number of years ago. After a bit of training, it was recognizing my commands pretty well. Thing is, it was tedious as hell to do things with voice control. I spent 10x longer doing things simply for the novelty to doing it using voice commands.
I feel the same way about it. But my brother swears by it... he can have his hands full of scientific equipment and still issue commands to his computer which is interfacing with the tools he's using.
I could see this sort of tech being really useful for those who wish to access reference materials while their hands are full too... be it doctors who have their hands covered in blood switching to a different monitor or mechanics who have their hands covered in grease switching to a different schematic.
Personally, some days I'd give my left nut for a good heads up display and a glove with an integrated chording keyboard and touch pad. If I could do my work lying on my back instead of sitting in this chair, I probably wouldn't have to go to the chiropractor.
I'm also wondering where your bizarre black and white world view comes from. Is there no middle ground between merely wishing to share an artistic vision as the ultimate expression of one's soul and creating "art" for the mere purpose of generating revenue?
The house you live in doesn't appear because people are systematically denied the right to share. The food, the goods, none of them appear because of copyright. The copyright is only a mechanism for sorting common goods among the population. Therefore, there is no reason why we can't support the same number of creators we already do without copyright.
That's my position. I don't support expending extra social resources on cops and robbers to keep the children of that poor family down the street from having access to culture because you're too comfortable to want the boat rocked on what amounts to nothing more than an administrative process.