Well, I'm hardly going to say you're wrong, and I certainly hope you're right. Let's hope that we never have find out. Much as I enjoy the occasional end-of-the-World-as-we-know-it novel or motion picture, I can't say as I'd want to live in one.
Because the computer reference has relevance to the Slashdot crowd (I mean, they've actually seen this phenomenon happen with cables) but a woman's hair? How often does a basement dweller get close enough to a woman to notice that her hair is tangled or not?
What would you suggest we do with people who don't know the difference between "breath" and "breathe"?
Deprecate them.
Although "breath" instead of "breathe" is an easy typo to make. There are others that abound here ("rediculous", for example, and "interger") which are actual misspellings because I see the same posters use them consistently.
It would be interesting if Slashdot were to automatically spell-and-grammar check all incoming posts: screw up beyond a certain threshold and you get an automatic "-1 Failed English 101" mod. Of course, that means that our English-as-a-second-language peanut gallery would vanish overnight, as well as most of my fellow American programmers and IT people. Hm, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.
Besides, if the only people that would be able to post here can spell and write well, what would the Grammar Nazis do?
for years to get doctors to recognize my telekinesis as a real medical condition in need of treatment, but they all just mumble something about "ingrates" and "gifts" and send me away.
Speaking of which, there have been exclusive phones in the past, and there will be more in the future, why is the iPhone always singled out for this?
Because Apple has worked extremely hard to put themselves in the limelight, to maintain as high a profile as possible... the price you pay for that is that any perceived foibles are yours and yours alone.
Adobe has become a very arrogant and supply-side centric company over the past few years.
Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and the MathWorks people have a lot in common in that regard, and for much the same reason. They're not hungry enough, because they got enough people to invest in their complicated and proprietary ways of doing things. It takes time, but once you've reached that point, it's very hard for a competitor to unseat you because switching is perceived as risky and expensive. This is especially true with applications that generate or manipulate lots of data: after a while you look at your archives and realize that you're screwed. You'll never be able to change.
For God's sake, let us as Americans, do just one thing right before the year is out. This year has been dogged by negative news from A to Z. I certainly need a break.
What's interesting about Adobe is that they already have a Microsoft-style activation process (obnoxious as such things are) so they really have zero excuse for any additional monitoring. They also use that goofy FEAD recomposer to help protect against cracking (not that it appears to have helped.) In any event, I disagree with the GP that it is reasonable for Adobe (or any other company) to use customer resources to protect their intellectual property, to mitigate the effects of piracy with unauthorized communication between the customer's equipment and theirs.
Apparently Adobe is run by yet another bunch of monopolistic assholes that have no incentive (economic or otherwise) to look upon their customers with anything but contempt.
Yes, although it was worse a few decades before. But I'm not just talking about America. Anti-left-hand bias is not uncommon in some parts of the world, I mean, just because we got over it doesn't mean that other peoples have. My girlfriend, for example, is a left-handed North African, and during her early childhood there was an ongoing battle between her parents as to whether she should be allowed to use her left hand to write. Her mother felt that there was something "wrong" with left-handedness, and did her best to discourage it whenever her father wasn't around. She still has some problems from that treatment to this day.
P.S. for those of you who have not set up a LAN, 192.168.xxx.xxx is typically an IP address for an internal LAN, not something out on the Web.
More to the point, the 192.168.x.x address range is one of several that are specifically intended to be non-routable on the Internet. Many people know this, even those who aren't otherwise that network-savvy. This is a blatant attempt to make the address appear safe ("well, I dunno what it's doing, but at least it's only sending to address on my LAN!") Not what one should expect from a major software house, but unfortunately, it is what we are all coming to expect from everyone in the business. Doesn't much matter what they're actually sending to Omni-whatever... the fact that they're sending anything at all is very bad. Nothing on my system is their business, unless I say it is. Period.
You know, this reminds of something that Jack Valenti once said (about the only thing that sociopath ever said that I agree with): "Just because technology lets us do something, it doesn't mean we should." Now, he was referring to the copying and downloading of DVDs, but his point is still valid. We're seeing too many companies set up to serve larger organizations (Omniture, MediaSentry) using the Internet in unethical if not outright illegal ways. Presumably, this is so the corporation hiring them (in this case, Adobe) has some plausible deniability.
True, but more and more of that knowledge is becoming enshrined in storage systems readable only to a technology at least equivalent to our own (and maybe not even then, as encryption becomes more and more prevalent.) I used to think that, well, even if a new Dark Age comes to pass, at least we'll have all the information in the thousands of libraries around the world to help us out of it. The problem is, less and less is being published in paper form every year, more and more is being distributed electronically. Worse, due to ridiculous IP laws much of our commercially-funded research and technology is being kept proprietary indefinitely.
Information is fragile, and as the very idea of a "book" becomes passé, we may find that everything we've worked so hard to learn these past two hundred years will be inaccessible. It's happened before. As societies collapse (or are sacked) much tends to be destroyed and lost forever. The only good news is that in the Internet Age information is being spread far and wide, so there's less dependence upon centralized stores (remember the great Library at Alexandria, and what ultimately happened to it.)
So far as the brain is concerned, handedness is pretty structural, I think. I mean, you are talking about the dominant hemisphere after all. That's not something you just switch back and forth.
Left-handedness runs in my family, has for generations. I am, my father was, my grandfather was (on both sides) although I'm the only lefty in my generation. It's not something you pick: it's intrinsic. As you correctly point out, attempts to "convert" left-handed people into righties not only do not work, but cause a host of social and psychological problems that last a lifetime. Fortunately I was born to a left-handed parent who point-blank refused any of that nonsense. Compared to some people I know whose parents felt that left-handedness carried too great a social stigma (for them, not their kids) and tried to force their children to be right-handers, I'm a hell of a lot better off.
I'll admit though, I had one English instructor in high school that insisted that we use fountain pens. He couldn't have cared less what had we used, but if you've ever tried to write with a fountain pen with your left hand you'll know what I mean.
No kidding... the great weakness of civilization (at least at our current stage of development) is its essential fragility. It would be hard to wipe out the human race entirely (short of nuclear winter or some engineered pathogen) but civilization can be destroyed very easily. And given that we've consumed most of the readily-available mineral resources, if there is a major worldwide collapse odds are we won't be climbing back.
The RIAA won't until they're told to. That's not their function. The big copyright holders are the ones that need to "get it", so they can order the RIAA to back off. Remember, hundreds of millions of dollars are funnelled into the RIAA every year by the studios. They're the ones that are funding this insanity.
I find it annoying that the Recording Industry Association of America is funded and controlled by largely foreign outfits. In effect, they've allowed foreign-owned corporations to pay to have our legal system modified to suit their needs, and have severely damaged thousands of American lives in the process.
People complain about the influence America has abroad... well, that works both ways.
the families described in the story may presage the formation of all sorts of 'communities of the genetically rare' in the general population
They may not fare so well in the Great Collapse of 2017 (mark my words... I pick a different year every time so I will be right.) In any post-Apocalyptic environment, everyone knows that those who are "different" are invariably put to death, unless they have some supra-normal power(s) that they can use to defend themselves and rule over the remaining survivors.
Huh? Nobody is questioning that Jack Thompson shouldn't have a right to his opinion, however misguided that may be. We simply object to his harassment of anyone that disagrees with him (much as we disagree with the TSA's harassment of, well, just about everyone.)
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I'm hardly going to say you're wrong, and I certainly hope you're right. Let's hope that we never have find out. Much as I enjoy the occasional end-of-the-World-as-we-know-it novel or motion picture, I can't say as I'd want to live in one.
Yeah ... MTV ran the video back in the 80's, I think.
No, that's knot the question.
[disclaimer: I maintain one of the sites]
If we guess which one do we get a free pair of shoelaces?
Because the computer reference has relevance to the Slashdot crowd (I mean, they've actually seen this phenomenon happen with cables) but a woman's hair? How often does a basement dweller get close enough to a woman to notice that her hair is tangled or not?
What would you suggest we do with people who don't know the difference between "breath" and "breathe"?
Deprecate them.
Although "breath" instead of "breathe" is an easy typo to make. There are others that abound here ("rediculous", for example, and "interger") which are actual misspellings because I see the same posters use them consistently.
It would be interesting if Slashdot were to automatically spell-and-grammar check all incoming posts: screw up beyond a certain threshold and you get an automatic "-1 Failed English 101" mod. Of course, that means that our English-as-a-second-language peanut gallery would vanish overnight, as well as most of my fellow American programmers and IT people. Hm, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.
Besides, if the only people that would be able to post here can spell and write well, what would the Grammar Nazis do?
Yes, but there's a LOT of music in them there video games.
for years to get doctors to recognize my telekinesis as a real medical condition in need of treatment, but they all just mumble something about "ingrates" and "gifts" and send me away.
Speaking of which, there have been exclusive phones in the past, and there will be more in the future, why is the iPhone always singled out for this?
... the price you pay for that is that any perceived foibles are yours and yours alone.
Because Apple has worked extremely hard to put themselves in the limelight, to maintain as high a profile as possible
Adobe has become a very arrogant and supply-side centric company over the past few years.
Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and the MathWorks people have a lot in common in that regard, and for much the same reason. They're not hungry enough, because they got enough people to invest in their complicated and proprietary ways of doing things. It takes time, but once you've reached that point, it's very hard for a competitor to unseat you because switching is perceived as risky and expensive. This is especially true with applications that generate or manipulate lots of data: after a while you look at your archives and realize that you're screwed. You'll never be able to change.
For God's sake, let us as Americans, do just one thing right before the year is out. This year has been dogged by negative news from A to Z. I certainly need a break.
I got laid last week. Does that (ahem) count?
the powers-that-be (corporate or governmental, take your pick) don't trust us, We the People, to count our votes inaccurately enough for them.
What's interesting about Adobe is that they already have a Microsoft-style activation process (obnoxious as such things are) so they really have zero excuse for any additional monitoring. They also use that goofy FEAD recomposer to help protect against cracking (not that it appears to have helped.) In any event, I disagree with the GP that it is reasonable for Adobe (or any other company) to use customer resources to protect their intellectual property, to mitigate the effects of piracy with unauthorized communication between the customer's equipment and theirs.
Apparently Adobe is run by yet another bunch of monopolistic assholes that have no incentive (economic or otherwise) to look upon their customers with anything but contempt.
Scott James Remnant
I guess there's not much of this guy left.
Yes, although it was worse a few decades before. But I'm not just talking about America. Anti-left-hand bias is not uncommon in some parts of the world, I mean, just because we got over it doesn't mean that other peoples have. My girlfriend, for example, is a left-handed North African, and during her early childhood there was an ongoing battle between her parents as to whether she should be allowed to use her left hand to write. Her mother felt that there was something "wrong" with left-handedness, and did her best to discourage it whenever her father wasn't around. She still has some problems from that treatment to this day.
Bugger off.
P.S. for those of you who have not set up a LAN, 192.168.xxx.xxx is typically an IP address for an internal LAN, not something out on the Web.
... the fact that they're sending anything at all is very bad. Nothing on my system is their business, unless I say it is. Period.
More to the point, the 192.168.x.x address range is one of several that are specifically intended to be non-routable on the Internet. Many people know this, even those who aren't otherwise that network-savvy. This is a blatant attempt to make the address appear safe ("well, I dunno what it's doing, but at least it's only sending to address on my LAN!") Not what one should expect from a major software house, but unfortunately, it is what we are all coming to expect from everyone in the business. Doesn't much matter what they're actually sending to Omni-whatever
You know, this reminds of something that Jack Valenti once said (about the only thing that sociopath ever said that I agree with): "Just because technology lets us do something, it doesn't mean we should." Now, he was referring to the copying and downloading of DVDs, but his point is still valid. We're seeing too many companies set up to serve larger organizations (Omniture, MediaSentry) using the Internet in unethical if not outright illegal ways. Presumably, this is so the corporation hiring them (in this case, Adobe) has some plausible deniability.
True, but more and more of that knowledge is becoming enshrined in storage systems readable only to a technology at least equivalent to our own (and maybe not even then, as encryption becomes more and more prevalent.) I used to think that, well, even if a new Dark Age comes to pass, at least we'll have all the information in the thousands of libraries around the world to help us out of it. The problem is, less and less is being published in paper form every year, more and more is being distributed electronically. Worse, due to ridiculous IP laws much of our commercially-funded research and technology is being kept proprietary indefinitely.
Information is fragile, and as the very idea of a "book" becomes passé, we may find that everything we've worked so hard to learn these past two hundred years will be inaccessible. It's happened before. As societies collapse (or are sacked) much tends to be destroyed and lost forever. The only good news is that in the Internet Age information is being spread far and wide, so there's less dependence upon centralized stores (remember the great Library at Alexandria, and what ultimately happened to it.)
So far as the brain is concerned, handedness is pretty structural, I think. I mean, you are talking about the dominant hemisphere after all. That's not something you just switch back and forth.
Left-handedness runs in my family, has for generations. I am, my father was, my grandfather was (on both sides) although I'm the only lefty in my generation. It's not something you pick: it's intrinsic. As you correctly point out, attempts to "convert" left-handed people into righties not only do not work, but cause a host of social and psychological problems that last a lifetime. Fortunately I was born to a left-handed parent who point-blank refused any of that nonsense. Compared to some people I know whose parents felt that left-handedness carried too great a social stigma (for them, not their kids) and tried to force their children to be right-handers, I'm a hell of a lot better off.
I'll admit though, I had one English instructor in high school that insisted that we use fountain pens. He couldn't have cared less what had we used, but if you've ever tried to write with a fountain pen with your left hand you'll know what I mean.
No kidding ... the great weakness of civilization (at least at our current stage of development) is its essential fragility. It would be hard to wipe out the human race entirely (short of nuclear winter or some engineered pathogen) but civilization can be destroyed very easily. And given that we've consumed most of the readily-available mineral resources, if there is a major worldwide collapse odds are we won't be climbing back.
The RIAA won't until they're told to. That's not their function. The big copyright holders are the ones that need to "get it", so they can order the RIAA to back off. Remember, hundreds of millions of dollars are funnelled into the RIAA every year by the studios. They're the ones that are funding this insanity.
... well, that works both ways.
I find it annoying that the Recording Industry Association of America is funded and controlled by largely foreign outfits. In effect, they've allowed foreign-owned corporations to pay to have our legal system modified to suit their needs, and have severely damaged thousands of American lives in the process.
People complain about the influence America has abroad
the families described in the story may presage the formation of all sorts of 'communities of the genetically rare' in the general population
... I pick a different year every time so I will be right.) In any post-Apocalyptic environment, everyone knows that those who are "different" are invariably put to death, unless they have some supra-normal power(s) that they can use to defend themselves and rule over the remaining survivors.
They may not fare so well in the Great Collapse of 2017 (mark my words
Nope. Besides, I've always liked Stephen McHattie, the actor who played Vreenak (not that you can tell under all that latex.)
No, but when you put it in front of your eyes it will make you blind like Geordi.
Huh? Nobody is questioning that Jack Thompson shouldn't have a right to his opinion, however misguided that may be. We simply object to his harassment of anyone that disagrees with him (much as we disagree with the TSA's harassment of, well, just about everyone.)