It's true that the politcs of language are pretty distorted, but I disagree with your example. The use of the word "nigger" within african american urban culture is very rarely pejorative, it's a term that can be only used by those who could be targetted by it. If an average slashdot user (see: middle class white male) were to use it pejoratively in a public forum, it would be innapropriate and it wouldn't take an activist or someone who's overly political to be offended by it. The usage of terms reffering to homosexuality as pejorative terms is clearly not primarily happening within the gay culture here. If you're going to use the word fag, you can't expect there to not be political undertones, period.
The fact of the matter, and the root of my issue here is the idea that actions are only political when undertaken by activists or politicians. The use of language, the modes of commerce we engage in on a daily basis, the food we eat, practically every action we make has political reprocussions. To argue that people should shut up about politics is essentially to argue that you should be allowed to behave any way you want and that nobody should be able to dissent. This would work perfectly fine if it weren't for the fact that even our mundane actions, like the language we use, have effects on other people. The average slashdot user doesn't have to be aware of this, because we very rarely find ourselves in contact with a significant mainstream force within society that is prejudiced against us. We can imagine that how we behave is perfectly normal and acceptable and that anyone complaining is just being a spoil sport. I'm not a particularly P.C. person, I use offensive language sometimes, sometimes with the intention to offend. But I think people should be aware that it's not a defensible position to use language that is offensive to some and insist that there are no political reprocussions attatched to doing so.
The problem here is that when you bring politicized language into a public space, you're opening the door for political opinions. The word gay used in a pejorative fashion is as offensive to some as the "N word", it's necessarily politicized and if you would allow people to have free speech in that regard then you have to allow dissent. Would you advocate for a public space where people can say "nigger" all they want but complaining is strictly dissallowed?
It's really bizarre to wake up one morning and see your old community college mentioned on slashdot. Ironic though, that I paid a couple thousand a semester to go there, and then transferred here to NYU, where I am now paying out of my ass, only to have them open up a radical new program of sorts the year after I left. Oh well.
My parents influence certainly had an effect in raising me to appreciate life outside technology but what had a more drastic influence was economics. Be poor: your kid will have to learn to entertain themselves without technology.
Earlier today we heard about space tourism and this looks a lot like the beginnings of investigating the construction of a moon base. I don't know what this means really, but I am enjoying the slow march towards science fiction.
The content! the story! how has hollywood sustained after achiving photorealistic CGI?
Bad example really. Hollywood after photorealistic CGI has survived by making a ton of shitty movies with it, recycling storylines and constantly pandering to the lowest common denominator. The only really interesting movies out there right now are indie films.
Extended to the game industry, you'd imagine that the game industry would survive by churning out tons of shitty but pretty games, recycling gameplay elements, etc. It's a good thing we have a sizable indie game movement, so we can go to them to get original games. Oh wait. We don't.
That was actually a failed joke about how the first 90% of these posts were the same joke rehashed over and over, all modded up as funny, not a serious request.
Awesome.
The Honda robot, those exoskeletons from a couple months ago(for instance the "old people" walker, as if that's the real purpose), this, and the robot that does Tai Chi suggest to me these things:
1) The Japanese are rapidly advancing in bizarre robot technology, in both manned and unmanned forms
2) They may already be armed with strange weapons
3) They're definately already being trained in the martial arts
We had better be prepared.
I'm glad to hear it. Python is amazing, and I'd like to see it get the credit it deserves. Whenever I do a big project in it, I'd say I spend about %3 of the time I spend with other languages debugging. About half of that is time spent telling people about how much I love python, because I'm always blown away when every drastically complex feature I implement works perfectly on the first shot.
Regarding speed, I've never checked them out, but I'm told there are several ways to dramatically optimize normal python code. Psyco, for instance.
How good is text to speech these days? I haven't heard anything about it since the early 90s, and even then you could often reasonably interpret mispronounced words. I'd be interested in having my computer read various books to me, as I have quite the unread collection in pdf and plaintext on my hard drive.
Slashdot Mirror
It's true that the politcs of language are pretty distorted, but I disagree with your example. The use of the word "nigger" within african american urban culture is very rarely pejorative, it's a term that can be only used by those who could be targetted by it. If an average slashdot user (see: middle class white male) were to use it pejoratively in a public forum, it would be innapropriate and it wouldn't take an activist or someone who's overly political to be offended by it. The usage of terms reffering to homosexuality as pejorative terms is clearly not primarily happening within the gay culture here. If you're going to use the word fag, you can't expect there to not be political undertones, period. The fact of the matter, and the root of my issue here is the idea that actions are only political when undertaken by activists or politicians. The use of language, the modes of commerce we engage in on a daily basis, the food we eat, practically every action we make has political reprocussions. To argue that people should shut up about politics is essentially to argue that you should be allowed to behave any way you want and that nobody should be able to dissent. This would work perfectly fine if it weren't for the fact that even our mundane actions, like the language we use, have effects on other people. The average slashdot user doesn't have to be aware of this, because we very rarely find ourselves in contact with a significant mainstream force within society that is prejudiced against us. We can imagine that how we behave is perfectly normal and acceptable and that anyone complaining is just being a spoil sport. I'm not a particularly P.C. person, I use offensive language sometimes, sometimes with the intention to offend. But I think people should be aware that it's not a defensible position to use language that is offensive to some and insist that there are no political reprocussions attatched to doing so.
The problem here is that when you bring politicized language into a public space, you're opening the door for political opinions. The word gay used in a pejorative fashion is as offensive to some as the "N word", it's necessarily politicized and if you would allow people to have free speech in that regard then you have to allow dissent. Would you advocate for a public space where people can say "nigger" all they want but complaining is strictly dissallowed?
Thermodynamics, man. I would be pretty interested in seeing basically anything that didn't emit heat while it's emitting a lot of light.
It's really bizarre to wake up one morning and see your old community college mentioned on slashdot. Ironic though, that I paid a couple thousand a semester to go there, and then transferred here to NYU, where I am now paying out of my ass, only to have them open up a radical new program of sorts the year after I left. Oh well.
What if it stays exactly the same?
My parents influence certainly had an effect in raising me to appreciate life outside technology but what had a more drastic influence was economics. Be poor: your kid will have to learn to entertain themselves without technology.
I'm sure some bored hackers will just figure out how to put windows on it. *rimshot*
Earlier today we heard about space tourism and this looks a lot like the beginnings of investigating the construction of a moon base. I don't know what this means really, but I am enjoying the slow march towards science fiction.
Which is it?
Seriously. I am all for arresting people who try to sell you something you can easily download for free on any filesharing network.
The content! the story! how has hollywood sustained after achiving photorealistic CGI? Bad example really. Hollywood after photorealistic CGI has survived by making a ton of shitty movies with it, recycling storylines and constantly pandering to the lowest common denominator. The only really interesting movies out there right now are indie films. Extended to the game industry, you'd imagine that the game industry would survive by churning out tons of shitty but pretty games, recycling gameplay elements, etc. It's a good thing we have a sizable indie game movement, so we can go to them to get original games. Oh wait. We don't.
Nope but I read four other books with the same storyline published way before it.
That was actually a failed joke about how the first 90% of these posts were the same joke rehashed over and over, all modded up as funny, not a serious request.
Insert joke about bird brain/baby babbling/level of intellegence of average adult or slashdot user here.
Somethingawful has been saying it for years: The internet makes you stupid.
Awesome. The Honda robot, those exoskeletons from a couple months ago(for instance the "old people" walker, as if that's the real purpose), this, and the robot that does Tai Chi suggest to me these things: 1) The Japanese are rapidly advancing in bizarre robot technology, in both manned and unmanned forms 2) They may already be armed with strange weapons 3) They're definately already being trained in the martial arts We had better be prepared.
I'm glad to hear it. Python is amazing, and I'd like to see it get the credit it deserves. Whenever I do a big project in it, I'd say I spend about %3 of the time I spend with other languages debugging. About half of that is time spent telling people about how much I love python, because I'm always blown away when every drastically complex feature I implement works perfectly on the first shot. Regarding speed, I've never checked them out, but I'm told there are several ways to dramatically optimize normal python code. Psyco, for instance.
How good is text to speech these days? I haven't heard anything about it since the early 90s, and even then you could often reasonably interpret mispronounced words. I'd be interested in having my computer read various books to me, as I have quite the unread collection in pdf and plaintext on my hard drive.