I predict "Al Amrikee's" picture, name, and address will be all over the internet by the end of the week. Then a whole lot of people can call for the same kind of protests against him that he's urging against Matt and Trey. And I'm sure they won't ACTUALLY encourage violence against him either, anymore than he's calling for it. It's all just fair civil discourse, right buddy?
I was thinking that too. The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. should back them up with their own Mohammad episodes. I think Family Guy already did such an episode before, in fact, and Fox pansied out just like Comedy Central and wouldn't let them show Mohammad, so maybe they could re-air it unedited.
As they have said many times, if they were to cave and fail to mock any one group, it truly does make them guilty of being the racists/anti-semites/anti-Christians/etc. that everyone has ever accused them of being. The whole point is that they make fun of EVERYONE. No ethnic group/religion/celebrity/cause/movement/political figure is above being mocked on South Park (they've even made fun of themselves on many occasions). If they held any one group above being mocked, they would be going against everything they've been doing since they made their first movie in college (the great "Cannibal the Musical;" which mocked Mormons, Wyoming, Colorado, and many others along the way). They have scrupples that they've stood by for a long time, and put themselves up and legal and physical risk many times to stand up for them.
Oh, but we must only use tolerant language when referring to these intolerant, medieval, koran-thumping hicks. It would be totally politically-incorrect to make the observation that their oil wealth is about the only thing keeping them from reverting to their former status as smelly nomadic tribesmen roaming the desert and wiping their asses with their left hands.
Actually, it's more appropriate to say that it can WITHSTAND those temperature extremes. While your kids may not be in the car when it's 120+F, those players still are. Try leaving a iPad out on the seat for about a year in Arizona and see if it still works (direct sunlight at the height of summer here can melt most common plastics outright). That "ridiculously expensive" DVD system is so priced because it's built to last and survive over the long-term in an environment with extreme temperature variations and to handle daily jarring movement/vibration.
Your silly moral absolutism aside, most people make a serious moral distinction between someone committing a crime for personal gain or for malicious purposes and someone committing a crime for more benign reasons. A kid breaking into my house to steal my TV and a kid breaking into my house because he wants to play with my dog are two very different criminals. That's not to say that breaking into computer systems is okay, but if you think that a Chinese hacker breaking into a system to steal intelligence for his government and a teenager breaking into a system just because he likes a challenge are morally equivalent, you're nuts.
The word hacker entered the popular lexicon, although its meaning has changed: In the mid-'80s, following a rash of computer break-ins by teenagers with personal computers, true hackers stood by in horror as the general public began to equate the word -- their word -- with people who used computers not as instruments of innovation and creation but as tools of thievery and surveillance. The kind of hacker I wrote about was motivated by the desire to learn and build, not steal and destroy.
Based on my humble experience, most of the hackers doing black and grey hat stuff like phreaking/cracking/etc. weren't doing it to "steal and destroy" (even the phreakers stealing phone service were often only motivated by the desire to be able to dial long distance BBS's that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford). In their own way, they too were motivated by a desire to learn and with the thrill of accomplishment (over defeating a security system, finding a way to make a system behave in a way it wasn't intended, etc.). They were as much a part of the hacker culture as the guy sitting down and figuring out a new sorting algorithm or the guy finding a way to make a mainframe do something it was never designed for (like playing a videogame). And many of these crackers and phreakers were quite talented and actually went on with successful programming careers (especially if they were lucky/good enough not to have been caught).
The problem with VR was hardware *power*, it was the *amount* of physical hardware needed. Even a basic VR setup requires a headset with two small widescreen monitors (and the price of those never really scales down, since resolutions are ever increasing) and headphones. And don't even THINK about what it would cost to build a walking rig if you wanted to go that far. VR started out expensive and it would still be just as expensive today. It just never really came down in price enough for anyone to try to market it for consumers.
I wouldn't personally want one if they gave it to me for free. If it's anything like the iPhone, to even turn it on you have to enter into an expensive 2-year data plan. I guess I could use it as a paperweight or sell it on ebay.
And, of course, let's not forget the greatest example of Jobs' clever vision, the Apple Lisa. And, lest we forget, more modern successes like the revolutionary AppleTV. I don't begrudge the author his respect for Jobs and his successes, but you're right, this guy seriously whitewashes over the many times where Jobs' smug "vision" has failed miserably.
The iPad has everything that any other computer has...
You mean like USB ports, the ability to create and run your own software, the ability to chose your own OS, the freedom to download software from anywhere you chose, Flash support, the ability to export and import files at will, etc.?
This isn't about privacy, it's about Google's proprietary source code (i.e., their real money-maker and most protected trade secrets). That's the REAL story behind Google's spat with China. Google wanted to portray themselves as standing up to an oppressive regime, as striking a blow for human rights, etc. But the truth is that it's really about China threatening their bottom line by stealing a hunk of their valuable source code. Google was more than happy to cooperate with China on censorship and handing over information until Chinese hackers crossed the line and actually stole Google source code. It was only then that Google suddenly decided they were going to be crusaders for human rights. Of course early reports out of Google only mentioned the attempted break-in to gmail accounts, it was only later that we learned that the *real* target of the attacks was source code, not information about dissedents.
Had a friend from India who told me once that his house had caught on fire when he was a kid and his dad had to bribe the firefighters to fight the fire.
Slashdot Mirror
I predict "Al Amrikee's" picture, name, and address will be all over the internet by the end of the week. Then a whole lot of people can call for the same kind of protests against him that he's urging against Matt and Trey. And I'm sure they won't ACTUALLY encourage violence against him either, anymore than he's calling for it. It's all just fair civil discourse, right buddy?
I was thinking that too. The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. should back them up with their own Mohammad episodes. I think Family Guy already did such an episode before, in fact, and Fox pansied out just like Comedy Central and wouldn't let them show Mohammad, so maybe they could re-air it unedited.
As they have said many times, if they were to cave and fail to mock any one group, it truly does make them guilty of being the racists/anti-semites/anti-Christians/etc. that everyone has ever accused them of being. The whole point is that they make fun of EVERYONE. No ethnic group/religion/celebrity/cause/movement/political figure is above being mocked on South Park (they've even made fun of themselves on many occasions). If they held any one group above being mocked, they would be going against everything they've been doing since they made their first movie in college (the great "Cannibal the Musical;" which mocked Mormons, Wyoming, Colorado, and many others along the way). They have scrupples that they've stood by for a long time, and put themselves up and legal and physical risk many times to stand up for them.
Oh, and I'm sorry if I offended anyone by using the term "nomadic" instead of "the n word."
Oh, but we must only use tolerant language when referring to these intolerant, medieval, koran-thumping hicks. It would be totally politically-incorrect to make the observation that their oil wealth is about the only thing keeping them from reverting to their former status as smelly nomadic tribesmen roaming the desert and wiping their asses with their left hands.
A.Jolie > N.Portman
Oh, you'll smoke a turd in Hell, naked and petrified, for saying that!
Actually, it's more appropriate to say that it can WITHSTAND those temperature extremes. While your kids may not be in the car when it's 120+F, those players still are. Try leaving a iPad out on the seat for about a year in Arizona and see if it still works (direct sunlight at the height of summer here can melt most common plastics outright). That "ridiculously expensive" DVD system is so priced because it's built to last and survive over the long-term in an environment with extreme temperature variations and to handle daily jarring movement/vibration.
Well if Tom Cruise believes in it, it must be right.
And 52 cents isn't so bad, that's like a brand new Coca Cola every spirit-crushing hour.
Come on now, that's not fair. Even the Nazi's don't deserve to be compared to Wall Street bankers.
Your silly moral absolutism aside, most people make a serious moral distinction between someone committing a crime for personal gain or for malicious purposes and someone committing a crime for more benign reasons. A kid breaking into my house to steal my TV and a kid breaking into my house because he wants to play with my dog are two very different criminals. That's not to say that breaking into computer systems is okay, but if you think that a Chinese hacker breaking into a system to steal intelligence for his government and a teenager breaking into a system just because he likes a challenge are morally equivalent, you're nuts.
She is easily mistaken for an anorexic elf, so the confusion is understandable.
Based on my humble experience, most of the hackers doing black and grey hat stuff like phreaking/cracking/etc. weren't doing it to "steal and destroy" (even the phreakers stealing phone service were often only motivated by the desire to be able to dial long distance BBS's that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford). In their own way, they too were motivated by a desire to learn and with the thrill of accomplishment (over defeating a security system, finding a way to make a system behave in a way it wasn't intended, etc.). They were as much a part of the hacker culture as the guy sitting down and figuring out a new sorting algorithm or the guy finding a way to make a mainframe do something it was never designed for (like playing a videogame). And many of these crackers and phreakers were quite talented and actually went on with successful programming careers (especially if they were lucky/good enough not to have been caught).
Apple employees are *expected* to be willing to kill when asked, they are *not* expected to reveal company secrets.
The problem with VR was hardware *power*, it was the *amount* of physical hardware needed. Even a basic VR setup requires a headset with two small widescreen monitors (and the price of those never really scales down, since resolutions are ever increasing) and headphones. And don't even THINK about what it would cost to build a walking rig if you wanted to go that far. VR started out expensive and it would still be just as expensive today. It just never really came down in price enough for anyone to try to market it for consumers.
I wouldn't personally want one if they gave it to me for free. If it's anything like the iPhone, to even turn it on you have to enter into an expensive 2-year data plan. I guess I could use it as a paperweight or sell it on ebay.
And, of course, let's not forget the greatest example of Jobs' clever vision, the Apple Lisa. And, lest we forget, more modern successes like the revolutionary AppleTV. I don't begrudge the author his respect for Jobs and his successes, but you're right, this guy seriously whitewashes over the many times where Jobs' smug "vision" has failed miserably.
You mean like USB ports, the ability to create and run your own software, the ability to chose your own OS, the freedom to download software from anywhere you chose, Flash support, the ability to export and import files at will, etc.?
This isn't about privacy, it's about Google's proprietary source code (i.e., their real money-maker and most protected trade secrets). That's the REAL story behind Google's spat with China. Google wanted to portray themselves as standing up to an oppressive regime, as striking a blow for human rights, etc. But the truth is that it's really about China threatening their bottom line by stealing a hunk of their valuable source code. Google was more than happy to cooperate with China on censorship and handing over information until Chinese hackers crossed the line and actually stole Google source code. It was only then that Google suddenly decided they were going to be crusaders for human rights. Of course early reports out of Google only mentioned the attempted break-in to gmail accounts, it was only later that we learned that the *real* target of the attacks was source code, not information about dissedents.
You mean like a cult?
And the library still demanded some ID before they would accept payment.
It was marketing for the bars.
And, worst of all, a land surveyor.
Had a friend from India who told me once that his house had caught on fire when he was a kid and his dad had to bribe the firefighters to fight the fire.
In all fairness, we don't care for most other Europeans either.