Wii is a great name. It's all about ease, and identity. No one wil have troubles saying it in any English-speaking market. It is also easy to say in any Asian and Indo-European language market. Can you imagine how the Asian market would pronounce Revolution (engrish)? And in English, it has the connotation of I+I (i.e., we). Moreover, no other product sounds like it.
It's a brilliant name.
Cnet's article is rather flippant, and is certainly light-hearted. For these reasons alone, I would not put any stock into its judgement. I mean, they give a 'worst product' award to a phone that works well, but which they find too small?
The administration the other pointed out that the NYT was wrong to publish the SWIFT - Treasury - CIA story because the country was at war.
Clearly, that's the point of the "war" on terrorism - to silence critics. That's why the "war" will never be ended. That's why the gov't will never attempt to end it.
Your gov't has totally taken advantage of your collective love of martial metaphors (war on poverty, drugs, sports doping, whatever).
I use OOo as my main editor at home, and what I hate the most about it is that tracking changes does not work so well. On a decent-sized document, OOo almost grinds to a halt if the changes are hidden. I also miss Word's grammar checker, which I actually find quite helpful.
Great news! I live and work in Belgium, and am quite busy promoting OSS whenever possible. My university does not yet support OOo, or even FF/Thunderbird (although I use all three). Hopefully this decision of the Federal government will have a knock-down effect, and lead other sectors to a similar conversion. It is funny to see people put such value in installing copied versions of MS Office when OOo is so easy to obtain and use.
On a related note, I edit a well-established, peer-reviewed academic journal, and am presently putting together an issue on the ethics of open source software (to appear June, 2007). Anyone who may be interested in contributing is invited to email me, and I'll send the CFP.
look, i am against the direction of the american state. but i think it is more intelligent to present rational arguments based on real facts. presenting easily debunked paranoid myths helps nobody.
I agree with your thinking on the transparency (although not with the idea of 100% public surveillance), but the whole idea is kind of dumb, innit? Couldn't this invite crapflooding of sightings?
I could see smuggling rings using this to good advantage, really.
i too have a phd in philosophy, although i am of the continental persuasion (actually, 19th century german). i agree with your post entirely, even though you must be one of those analytic philosophers i keep hearing about. i don't get to meet many of your kind here in europe.
still, that must have been cool working with searle...
Heidegger famously eschewed ethics. His discussions on technology, for that matter, only have relation to his ontology.
I know that he wrote a lot about what he called cybernetics, but again, this was a discription of a certain kind of ontology.
He was no luddite, as some make him sound. Further, even though he sometimes rails against modern technology, these are slips that find no good theoretical basis in his philosophy as a whole.
I can see him adding precisely nothing to computer science. And to consider any possible contribution of his as normative - that's just crazy.
It may be ludicrous to connect these problems as cause and effect, but not ludicrous to connect these as having a common root.
I also did not say that we must choose: I suggest that the certain policy makers may see this as a dichotomy. As you suggest, it is a false dichotomy, but it does not mean that it is not at the basis of some policy. History has proven that ignorance is a good policy tool.
I also could not agree more that science and freedom are not related. The opposite might in fact be the case. But some also see a general decline in education (literacy, history, geography, etc.), and this is probably connected with the decline in science. I know that some of my generation were not taught spelling and grammar in primary school (I was not - and I grew up in affluent southern ontario).
You can point to some successes, but the need to do so points out that the system itself may be failing.
As for unquestioning - well, that's a matter of opinion.
No, that's what happens when your gov't realises it must decide between having an intelligent, capable population, and a population that is easily lead.
I am not sure that there is an actual correlation between decreasing scientific ability and the unquestioning surrender of civil rights, but since both are occuring simultaneously in the USA, well, perhaps this needs to be studied.
Having lived in SE Asia until quite recently, and having seen high quality copies of everything from the Incredibles to SW 3 weeks before they hit the cinema, I am certain that high quality boots are available of DvC.
Don't you think it is a little bit terrible that here you are, singing muted praises for such a lecherous, band-aid solution that aids only very few?
You've got to ask yourself: why do they have nothing? That's more important than acknowledging what little they receive from Nike etc.
You are doing missionary work. That's laudable. I've lived in SE Asia, so I know the score a bit too. And I don't see anything else in Nike's actions than their taking advantage of a horrible situation, and saying, in effect, well, we're less horrible. We do less evil.
And what a recruitment drive that is: work for us, or sell your daughter into prostitution. Any company dependent on the manual labour of such a labour pool is lucky indeed. It's almost like someone has created the perfect army of workers...
did you just read a book on patent history, or do a statistical analysis of what comments are most likely to get modded up on/.?
i am sick of patent stories generating responses about being sick of patent lawsuits, and i am sick of being given crash courses in the history of patents. let's take your opinions are read, ok, and move on from there.
patents do have a use, and there is nothing wrong per se with enforcing them. as i see it, there is a threefold choice: patents, trade secrets, or open source. since open source is not going to appeal to the large majority of the business world (although it does to me), the choice is largely between patents and trade secrets. but trade secrets can be stolen, and probably harm innovation. so given a choice between the two, patents seem more logical. but this is because they can be enforced, and enforced may mean lawsuits. thus, these are not necessarily frivolous.
it will be interesting to see the merits of this possible injunction.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a brilliant name.
Cnet's article is rather flippant, and is certainly light-hearted. For these reasons alone, I would not put any stock into its judgement. I mean, they give a 'worst product' award to a phone that works well, but which they find too small?
America is tearing itself apart.
that was precisely my thought too. they're not aiming at being an ISP, but a carrier.
Clearly, that's the point of the "war" on terrorism - to silence critics. That's why the "war" will never be ended. That's why the gov't will never attempt to end it.
Your gov't has totally taken advantage of your collective love of martial metaphors (war on poverty, drugs, sports doping, whatever).
I use OOo as my main editor at home, and what I hate the most about it is that tracking changes does not work so well. On a decent-sized document, OOo almost grinds to a halt if the changes are hidden. I also miss Word's grammar checker, which I actually find quite helpful.
On a related note, I edit a well-established, peer-reviewed academic journal, and am presently putting together an issue on the ethics of open source software (to appear June, 2007). Anyone who may be interested in contributing is invited to email me, and I'll send the CFP.
Skype is pretty secure - I usually find that my skype calls end up pretty scrambled on their own.
thanks. now i know that the announcement of this "hack" on /. is even more pathetic than i feared possible ...
look, i am against the direction of the american state. but i think it is more intelligent to present rational arguments based on real facts. presenting easily debunked paranoid myths helps nobody.
scissors are now allowed in american airspace.
immigrants are not tagged
dna and thumb prints are not taken of every citizen
I could see smuggling rings using this to good advantage, really.
Well, I'll be - distributed boarder guarding. Good thing it's not open source, I guess.
still, that must have been cool working with searle...
I know that he wrote a lot about what he called cybernetics, but again, this was a discription of a certain kind of ontology.
He was no luddite, as some make him sound. Further, even though he sometimes rails against modern technology, these are slips that find no good theoretical basis in his philosophy as a whole.
I can see him adding precisely nothing to computer science. And to consider any possible contribution of his as normative - that's just crazy.
and when necessary, i can always take my generic mp3 player with me, and run it off AAAs. i don't see this as a good argument for not liking ipods.
you know, the right tool for the right purpose.
I also did not say that we must choose: I suggest that the certain policy makers may see this as a dichotomy. As you suggest, it is a false dichotomy, but it does not mean that it is not at the basis of some policy. History has proven that ignorance is a good policy tool.
I also could not agree more that science and freedom are not related. The opposite might in fact be the case. But some also see a general decline in education (literacy, history, geography, etc.), and this is probably connected with the decline in science. I know that some of my generation were not taught spelling and grammar in primary school (I was not - and I grew up in affluent southern ontario).
You can point to some successes, but the need to do so points out that the system itself may be failing.
As for unquestioning - well, that's a matter of opinion.
I am not sure that there is an actual correlation between decreasing scientific ability and the unquestioning surrender of civil rights, but since both are occuring simultaneously in the USA, well, perhaps this needs to be studied.
When will gov't realise this?
Better to charge the masses peanuts than reign in their own expences.
I know, an old complaint.
Having lived in SE Asia until quite recently, and having seen high quality copies of everything from the Incredibles to SW 3 weeks before they hit the cinema, I am certain that high quality boots are available of DvC.
My guess is that he choose the wrong vendor.
but it does seem that you wish to canonise the system that brings them down. i predict with that attitude, you'll be begging for a long time.
You've got to ask yourself: why do they have nothing? That's more important than acknowledging what little they receive from Nike etc.
You are doing missionary work. That's laudable. I've lived in SE Asia, so I know the score a bit too. And I don't see anything else in Nike's actions than their taking advantage of a horrible situation, and saying, in effect, well, we're less horrible. We do less evil.
And what a recruitment drive that is: work for us, or sell your daughter into prostitution. Any company dependent on the manual labour of such a labour pool is lucky indeed. It's almost like someone has created the perfect army of workers ...
Perhaps Dell lobbied in favour of the sale of IBM's Personal Computing Division?
i am sick of patent stories generating responses about being sick of patent lawsuits, and i am sick of being given crash courses in the history of patents. let's take your opinions are read, ok, and move on from there.
patents do have a use, and there is nothing wrong per se with enforcing them. as i see it, there is a threefold choice: patents, trade secrets, or open source. since open source is not going to appeal to the large majority of the business world (although it does to me), the choice is largely between patents and trade secrets. but trade secrets can be stolen, and probably harm innovation. so given a choice between the two, patents seem more logical. but this is because they can be enforced, and enforced may mean lawsuits. thus, these are not necessarily frivolous.
it will be interesting to see the merits of this possible injunction.
i actually received the nigeria 419 scam as a fax in or about 1997. i had no idea what to make of it.