Voting with your wallet is a good idea IMO, but only if they realize WHY you're voting with your wallet. Write a letter too explaining that you don't want crippled formats, and that's why you're no longer buying their products.
Just stopping your purchasing might not be enough for them to realize WHY people aren't buying their crap anymore.
Well that explains an awful lot. =\ Oh well, was fun trying again and again and again to make a baby so I suppose it wasn't a total loss anyway. Now, off to find someone with a uterus!
eh? Modern neuroscience is a fairly young field still, and there are plenty of things that are pretty accepted by the majority of researchers in the area.
I can't list hundreds of topics that are accepted by everyone as 100% for sure answered no debate no takebacks because science doesn't work that way.
"This is the best model we have at the present for this particular problem. Here are a list of problems with the theory(a, b, c...). Feel free to suggest refinements and contribute new analyses of it."
Besides, if you collected a thousand people together and asked them to pick what's for lunch they'd argue for hours.:P
Sure we can make human minds. All it takes are two people of fertile age, a bottle of wine and a CD from Barry White(or maybe Air if you want a more modern equivalent).
Stir and then let sit for ~9 months. Boom, there's your human mind.
I could make a list of 25 million of the richest Americans and despite it's large size it'd be fairly unrepresentative list.
The government too isn't a randomly chosen sample. They're obviously the most competent, smartest and generally rationally-minded amongst us. If they weren't they wouldn't get elected.
We should expect better behaviour from them than we expect from Joe six-pack. Hell, what does Joe have to worry about computer security for? To protect his game of solitaire from being hacked? The people in the government, even if only as competent as the Average Person should be doing better anyway. The data on their computers are much more important than that on most people's. Plus the fact that you get mandatory training in how to Not Be Stupid with your computers. And after that training if you perform poorly in a government job(risking the integrity of your computer through your stupidity) then you face serious consequences.
As I (vaguely) recall, the older version of adblock did indeed allow you to set this up.
You could tell it to download the ads, but not display them in the webpage. I don't remember it offering to silently click the advertisement though. To be honest, not sure how comfortable I'd be with that unless things were run in a very sandboxy way.
As for any ethical issues related to this sort of behaviour... *shrug* I'm pretty relaxed about it. It provides concrete help to those sites I like(revenue for them) while doing no harm to me. The harm to the ad company is fairly minimal, and I don't really like them that much anyway:P
What would be even MORE wonderful, would be combining this sort of functionality with NoScript or some other whitelisting method. There are sites I like and wouldn't mind wasting the bandwidth on(some of my webcomics for instance), but there are others(like computerworld) that I'd really rather not load ads from, even silently. I'd enjoy the ability to whitelist as site as being "silently-download-ads-worthy" and just leave the rest to rot.
To put it another way, I hope that the authors/editors of that computerworld story suffer from mild indigestion tonight.
Well, there's some justification for thinking that IMO. Loads of people fail to take regression to the mean into account when they're looking at a situation. If crime rates are at an all time high and I institute some random policy, odds are actually fairly decent that crime will go down over the next few years. Not because of my policy change necessarily, but just because many things are cyclical.
Of course, you and I could be totally wrong. The sun could be gradually getting ready to explode in 20 years.
*cough*
IF YOU TALK REALLY LOUDLY TO YOUR FRIEND IT'S ANNOYING TOO.
People *tend* to, on average, talk more loudly on their cells than they would to someone who's actually sitting next to them. I imagine that the reception in a plane wouldn't be any better than in a restaurant, so they'd have even more encouragement to talk really loudly.
And yes, there are some conversations I'd really rather not hear:P When I'm emperor of the universe I won't ban all talking, but I'll reserve the right to tell certain individuals to talk about something else please.
I'm curious about something though... I have absolutely no experience/knowledge of these laser targetters, but how much more expensive would it be to be able to use different wavelengths of light?
1. Try wavelength X: Oh darn, they're protecting against that with a shiny cloaking device, so... 2. Try wavelength Y: Profit!!!/explosions
The bomb or whathaveyou is searching for a very specific wavelength(X) right? But still doesn't seem like it should be impossible to program it to cycle through 2-3 wavelengths(X->Y->Z) until it finds your dot to lock onto.
Still, it's a neat toy they're working on. I wouldn't mind one once they build one that's less selective.
Indeed, and it's rather depressing to me that future generations will view that as a defining example of our tastes in music. Why couldn't we have gotten Beethoven?:(
Ugh, an even worse thought just occured to me. In 400 years maybe Beethoven will be viewed as a curiousity, and Britney's will be the sort of stuff played in professional concert halls as "classical" music.
While there have been women I'd rather forget(or have the memories of fade), there are SLIGHTLY more interesting applications to that sort of idea.
Namely the thousands and thousands of people out there with crippling post-traumatic stress disorder. The ability to alter those memories, or turn down the emotionality component of them, would be very welcome for some.
Well, a large number of American's don't believe in that newfangled "evolution" thing. Don't see why you'd expect them to want the Constitution to evolve when they don't subscribe to the concept in other areas.:P
Indeed, you can't please everyone by selling FLAC stuff, but you can please more people by offering multiple options. When I choose to download a song ask me what format I want it in, and bitrate. If I just want a crappy 128 kbps mp3 with DRM give me that:P If I want highish bitrate Ogg Vorbis file I'd choose that.
But yes, I'd also like a shoulder massage and maybe make the songs cheaper? Oh, and I want a unicorn!
Eh, this is definitely a step in a better direction though.
For me at least, I'd rather transcode my AAC files into mp3s than burn to CDs and then re-rip. For the reason of cost(financial/environmental) if nothing else. Less hassle having to buy spindles of CDrs this way too.
Still not perfectly idea, Ogg vorbis anyone?:P In my perfect world there'd be the option of picking what format you want the song in. I want it in AAC, you want it in Ogg vorbis and he wants it in plain old mp3. Still, I suppose that'd confuse some people, and there'd be people complaining that the.whatever wouldn't play in their <obscure digital player>
That's why I upload my data to eMule in an encrypted.rar, and named as some specific exotic type of porn. I just let the rest of the world archive my data.
Sure, my HDD might die someday, or the DVDs rot, or whatever... But then I just go re-download all my critical files.
Looks like I have about 300 backups distributed around the globe of this one chunk of stuff! =D
Nah, the Japanese have already made a whole bunch of really good (abd some being very creepy) dating sim games. They're more experienced and better at making those games than Blizzard would be IMO.
Well despite Linux and BSD having a higher prevalence amongst slashdotters, there are still quite a few of us who have a Windows box for gaming, or a Mac for... looking sexy? They'll get clicks from a fairly significant number of people.
Slashdot Mirror
Voting with your wallet is a good idea IMO, but only if they realize WHY you're voting with your wallet. Write a letter too explaining that you don't want crippled formats, and that's why you're no longer buying their products.
Just stopping your purchasing might not be enough for them to realize WHY people aren't buying their crap anymore.
This special place in hell you speak of... Is it right next to the level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theate?
Huh.
:D
Well that explains an awful lot. =\ Oh well, was fun trying again and again and again to make a baby so I suppose it wasn't a total loss anyway. Now, off to find someone with a uterus!
And thanks for your help!
eh? Modern neuroscience is a fairly young field still, and there are plenty of things that are pretty accepted by the majority of researchers in the area. I can't list hundreds of topics that are accepted by everyone as 100% for sure answered no debate no takebacks because science doesn't work that way.
:P
"This is the best model we have at the present for this particular problem. Here are a list of problems with the theory(a, b, c...). Feel free to suggest refinements and contribute new analyses of it."
Besides, if you collected a thousand people together and asked them to pick what's for lunch they'd argue for hours.
Sure we can make human minds. All it takes are two people of fertile age, a bottle of wine and a CD from Barry White(or maybe Air if you want a more modern equivalent).
Stir and then let sit for ~9 months. Boom, there's your human mind.
Size != representativeness.
:\ Should be.
I could make a list of 25 million of the richest Americans and despite it's large size it'd be fairly unrepresentative list.
The government too isn't a randomly chosen sample. They're obviously the most competent, smartest and generally rationally-minded amongst us. If they weren't they wouldn't get elected.
We should expect better behaviour from them than we expect from Joe six-pack. Hell, what does Joe have to worry about computer security for? To protect his game of solitaire from being hacked? The people in the government, even if only as competent as the Average Person should be doing better anyway. The data on their computers are much more important than that on most people's.
Plus the fact that you get mandatory training in how to Not Be Stupid with your computers. And after that training if you perform poorly in a government job(risking the integrity of your computer through your stupidity) then you face serious consequences.
Wait? That's not how it works?
Dunno, ask all those webcomic authors who make a living off of their freely-viewable comics?
The popularity can lead to merchandising opportunities, or just straight donations of money as thanks.
Already told family what I want for my next birthday, some Questionable Content and Order of the Stick merch is on that list.
If I had to pay to view their comics? Almost certainly wouldn't have become a fan in the first place.
As I (vaguely) recall, the older version of adblock did indeed allow you to set this up.
:P
You could tell it to download the ads, but not display them in the webpage. I don't remember it offering to silently click the advertisement though. To be honest, not sure how comfortable I'd be with that unless things were run in a very sandboxy way.
As for any ethical issues related to this sort of behaviour... *shrug* I'm pretty relaxed about it. It provides concrete help to those sites I like(revenue for them) while doing no harm to me. The harm to the ad company is fairly minimal, and I don't really like them that much anyway
What would be even MORE wonderful, would be combining this sort of functionality with NoScript or some other whitelisting method. There are sites I like and wouldn't mind wasting the bandwidth on(some of my webcomics for instance), but there are others(like computerworld) that I'd really rather not load ads from, even silently. I'd enjoy the ability to whitelist as site as being "silently-download-ads-worthy" and just leave the rest to rot.
To put it another way, I hope that the authors/editors of that computerworld story suffer from mild indigestion tonight.
Well, there's some justification for thinking that IMO. Loads of people fail to take regression to the mean into account when they're looking at a situation. If crime rates are at an all time high and I institute some random policy, odds are actually fairly decent that crime will go down over the next few years. Not because of my policy change necessarily, but just because many things are cyclical.
Of course, you and I could be totally wrong. The sun could be gradually getting ready to explode in 20 years.
*cough*
IF YOU TALK REALLY LOUDLY TO YOUR FRIEND IT'S ANNOYING TOO.
:P When I'm emperor of the universe I won't ban all talking, but I'll reserve the right to tell certain individuals to talk about something else please.
People *tend* to, on average, talk more loudly on their cells than they would to someone who's actually sitting next to them. I imagine that the reception in a plane wouldn't be any better than in a restaurant, so they'd have even more encouragement to talk really loudly.
And yes, there are some conversations I'd really rather not hear
I'm curious about something though...
I have absolutely no experience/knowledge of these laser targetters, but how much more expensive would it be to be able to use different wavelengths of light?
1. Try wavelength X: Oh darn, they're protecting against that with a shiny cloaking device, so...
2. Try wavelength Y: Profit!!!/explosions
The bomb or whathaveyou is searching for a very specific wavelength(X) right? But still doesn't seem like it should be impossible to program it to cycle through 2-3 wavelengths(X->Y->Z) until it finds your dot to lock onto.
Still, it's a neat toy they're working on. I wouldn't mind one once they build one that's less selective.
Indeed, and it's rather depressing to me that future generations will view that as a defining example of our tastes in music. Why couldn't we have gotten Beethoven? :(
Ugh, an even worse thought just occured to me. In 400 years maybe Beethoven will be viewed as a curiousity, and Britney's will be the sort of stuff played in professional concert halls as "classical" music.
The thought of some doctoral student in 200 years studying the collected works of Britney Spears is... disheartening.
hmm, got hacked eh? Maybe he should have been running OpenBSD instead? :P
While there have been women I'd rather forget(or have the memories of fade), there are SLIGHTLY more interesting applications to that sort of idea.
Namely the thousands and thousands of people out there with crippling post-traumatic stress disorder. The ability to alter those memories, or turn down the emotionality component of them, would be very welcome for some.
Indeed, it's disturbing and scary how apathetic people are over here about the political system. I for one propose that we immediately
Oh, crap! The newest episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" is airing!
bbl
Well, a large number of American's don't believe in that newfangled "evolution" thing. Don't see why you'd expect them to want the Constitution to evolve when they don't subscribe to the concept in other areas. :P
Indeed, you can't please everyone by selling FLAC stuff, but you can please more people by offering multiple options. When I choose to download a song ask me what format I want it in, and bitrate. If I just want a crappy 128 kbps mp3 with DRM give me that :P If I want highish bitrate Ogg Vorbis file I'd choose that.
But yes, I'd also like a shoulder massage and maybe make the songs cheaper?
Oh, and I want a unicorn!
Eh, this is definitely a step in a better direction though.
:P In my perfect world there'd be the option of picking what format you want the song in. I want it in AAC, you want it in Ogg vorbis and he wants it in plain old mp3. Still, I suppose that'd confuse some people, and there'd be people complaining that the .whatever wouldn't play in their <obscure digital player>
For me at least, I'd rather transcode my AAC files into mp3s than burn to CDs and then re-rip. For the reason of cost(financial/environmental) if nothing else. Less hassle having to buy spindles of CDrs this way too.
Still not perfectly idea, Ogg vorbis anyone?
Eh, well considering that the content of the article isn't really "new"...
Perhaps it's a joke to see if people will be excited at a theory that's been bandied about for a long time now?
Besides, I thought that we'd stop getting April Fools stories now that it's April 2nd GMT.
That's why I upload my data to eMule in an encrypted .rar, and named as some specific exotic type of porn. I just let the rest of the world archive my data.
Sure, my HDD might die someday, or the DVDs rot, or whatever... But then I just go re-download all my critical files.
Looks like I have about 300 backups distributed around the globe of this one chunk of stuff! =D
Bi actually =P But close enough.
And yes, I have several female friends.
Nah, the Japanese have already made a whole bunch of really good (abd some being very creepy) dating sim games. They're more experienced and better at making those games than Blizzard would be IMO.
Well despite Linux and BSD having a higher prevalence amongst slashdotters, there are still quite a few of us who have a Windows box for gaming, or a Mac for ... looking sexy? They'll get clicks from a fairly significant number of people.
So, how long before Planetes becomes a reality?
wikipedia's page
Animenfo's link
Using the Kessler syndrome seems to be a popular enough thing in fiction, I wonder if it'll ever get to be a problem in reality.