Most of the newcasters broadcasting the news and deciding its content are only slightly less stupid than the general populace (when I was in the news businesses, there was a surpising dearth of History and Physics Ph.D.'s floatng around the office, making the decisions). So would their decisions about what constitutes "important news" really be so much better than Joe-Sixpack determining for himself what's important and what isn't?
One of these days Steve Jobs is going to stand up on stage and literally offer up a big turd with a button on it. He's going to call it the "iFece," and make vague promises about it bringing "synergy," changing the world, and revolutionizing the way we think of turds. And on the day it goes on sale, a million Macheads will stand in line in the rain outside Apple stores across America to pay $1000 for one.
Welcome to/. sir. You'll quickly learn that anything that's not open source or that is associated with Microsoft in any way is the demon spawn of Satan, here to rape your daughter and piss in your drink. By contrast, anything that is open source, or associated with Linux of Apple, is manna from heaven--sent here by Jesus to save us all and to preclude a golden age where horny Natalie Portmans rain from the sky wanting to sleep with us all and to give us free grits.
If other countries want to waste money on the pissing contest, then let them. China/India/etc. can waste all the money they want sending a bunch of dudes to bounce around in sterile moon dust (or sterile Mars dust, for that matter). I just hope the U.S. can one day move beyond it and realize that most of the space program is just an endless money sink. Probably not.
Maybe it's time to realize that manned spaceflight (and even most probe exploration) is just a gigantic money sink with no payoff aside from PR and bragging rights.
The original draft of the JFK speech read "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because it is difficult...and also because the commies just showed us up and we need to save face by finally being first at something."
The last guy whose computer I worked on must have had 5 or 6 toolbars in his browser, countless viruses, and he had been phished so many times that his browser had all but stopped working under the load (it loaded up about ten different phishing sites and at least a dozen porn pop-ups at every boot). This idiot basically clicked on any link or attachment he got, and had no doubt caused his credit card company no end of grief. I took one look at his system and told him he needed to take it to Best Buy and have them do a fresh install of Windows. Much as I hate to send the business to those shyster monkeys at BB, this is now the advice I give to ANYONE who asks me to fix their computer ("fix" usually being synoymous with "I've got a bunch of viruses/crapware/malware/etc., and I will get it all again days after you reinstall Windows").
I just wish we could institute a licensing process for accessing the information superhighway, much like we have for accessing our real highways.
That's more the way I remember 1999. Everyone seems to remember all the underqualified e-holes out in SIlicon Valley getting $50,000 signing bonuses and new Mercedes for signing on to the latest Web startup. But I remember a lot of programmers who had trouble getting even decent jobs around that time. I think the legend of Web 1.0 got blown out of proportion after the collapse in 2000. The crazy salaries and excess were way more the exception than the rule.
Or that, even if we do both use the same tech, our species will have evolved in such a closely coincidental way that we both happen to hit each other's windows for using said tech (i.e. radio waves). Earthlings have only been using them for the last 100 years or so. If a species "scanned" us for such broadcasting in the 19th century or earlier, they wouldn't have seen us. And in a hundred years in the future, we might not be using them anymore for communication. If our species were even slightly off in our concurrent technological evolution, we would completely miss one another.
You'll note that I restricted my argument to the most hardcore fanboys. I have nothing against people who use Apple products, just the hardcore types who treat Apple as an ideology and think it makes them somehow uniquely free-thinking or original.
Do you mean that in real life Kate Hudson will end up with the vacuous, handsome, rich guy instead of the scruffy, honest, smart, kind guy? I'm so disillusioned.
You just now figured THAT out. Actually, its more accurate to say "NASA isn't going to Mars." One day a man *will* set foot on Mars, but there won't be a NASA logo on their spacesuit.
I think humans are more resilient than we appreciate. I think it would take more than a nuclear war to completely wipe out a species as adaptive as we are. I suspect that nothing short of an earth-destroying asteroid or some sort of weapon far more destructive than nuclear missles would completely wipe us out (and I don't mean a Yucatan asteroid, I mean one that rips the planet to pieces). We're not a passive species like the dinosaur, we can adapt to *much* more hostile environs. And, short on the earth-killing asteroid, earth remains by far the most habitable ball within reach. Surviving anywhere else in a solar system (not to mention the problem just getting there) would be way tougher than surviving on a nuclear war devastated earth.
I would argue that most Apple fanboys (the real hardcore ones anyway) only THINK they're "free-thinking." They're original and free-thinking in the same way that hippies thought they were original and free-thinking in the 60's--by acting, dressing, and thinking like every other hippie. Real free-thinkers don't start out with an set ideology, and they certainly don't have a cult leader or product line that they worship.
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Most of the newcasters broadcasting the news and deciding its content are only slightly less stupid than the general populace (when I was in the news businesses, there was a surpising dearth of History and Physics Ph.D.'s floatng around the office, making the decisions). So would their decisions about what constitutes "important news" really be so much better than Joe-Sixpack determining for himself what's important and what isn't?
If a newcast airs with nothing but meaningful content--completely ignoring the audience, and no one is there to here it, does it make a sound?
One of these days Steve Jobs is going to stand up on stage and literally offer up a big turd with a button on it. He's going to call it the "iFece," and make vague promises about it bringing "synergy," changing the world, and revolutionizing the way we think of turds. And on the day it goes on sale, a million Macheads will stand in line in the rain outside Apple stores across America to pay $1000 for one.
Welcome to /. sir. You'll quickly learn that anything that's not open source or that is associated with Microsoft in any way is the demon spawn of Satan, here to rape your daughter and piss in your drink. By contrast, anything that is open source, or associated with Linux of Apple, is manna from heaven--sent here by Jesus to save us all and to preclude a golden age where horny Natalie Portmans rain from the sky wanting to sleep with us all and to give us free grits.
No, we watch FILMS! "Movies" are for the unwashed masses.
Fin
Either that or they've build a turd with no reason to exist (too big and expensive to be an iPhone/iTouch, too weak to be an actual netbook).
Because people will actually have to use it in the real world?
If other countries want to waste money on the pissing contest, then let them. China/India/etc. can waste all the money they want sending a bunch of dudes to bounce around in sterile moon dust (or sterile Mars dust, for that matter). I just hope the U.S. can one day move beyond it and realize that most of the space program is just an endless money sink. Probably not.
Yeah, what's with all these countries speaking different languages? Can't we just agree on one?
Maybe it's time to realize that manned spaceflight (and even most probe exploration) is just a gigantic money sink with no payoff aside from PR and bragging rights.
The original draft of the JFK speech read "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because it is difficult...and also because the commies just showed us up and we need to save face by finally being first at something."
If he's an American, he's a liberal. Only rich Republicans drive foreign cars--and they would drive something more expensive than a Jetta.
And also, the guy who's actually drinking a beer during the photo shoot--probably a hick.
The last guy whose computer I worked on must have had 5 or 6 toolbars in his browser, countless viruses, and he had been phished so many times that his browser had all but stopped working under the load (it loaded up about ten different phishing sites and at least a dozen porn pop-ups at every boot). This idiot basically clicked on any link or attachment he got, and had no doubt caused his credit card company no end of grief. I took one look at his system and told him he needed to take it to Best Buy and have them do a fresh install of Windows. Much as I hate to send the business to those shyster monkeys at BB, this is now the advice I give to ANYONE who asks me to fix their computer ("fix" usually being synoymous with "I've got a bunch of viruses/crapware/malware/etc., and I will get it all again days after you reinstall Windows"). I just wish we could institute a licensing process for accessing the information superhighway, much like we have for accessing our real highways.
Joining the circus means starting out shoveling the elephant shit. In other words, it's still better than most programming jobs.
That's more the way I remember 1999. Everyone seems to remember all the underqualified e-holes out in SIlicon Valley getting $50,000 signing bonuses and new Mercedes for signing on to the latest Web startup. But I remember a lot of programmers who had trouble getting even decent jobs around that time. I think the legend of Web 1.0 got blown out of proportion after the collapse in 2000. The crazy salaries and excess were way more the exception than the rule.
I think it would be a lot funnier if we made the huge investment, made contact, and sent them a message--only to get back the reply "Leave us alone."
And an exponential increase within 20 years. ;-)
Or that, even if we do both use the same tech, our species will have evolved in such a closely coincidental way that we both happen to hit each other's windows for using said tech (i.e. radio waves). Earthlings have only been using them for the last 100 years or so. If a species "scanned" us for such broadcasting in the 19th century or earlier, they wouldn't have seen us. And in a hundred years in the future, we might not be using them anymore for communication. If our species were even slightly off in our concurrent technological evolution, we would completely miss one another.
You'll note that I restricted my argument to the most hardcore fanboys. I have nothing against people who use Apple products, just the hardcore types who treat Apple as an ideology and think it makes them somehow uniquely free-thinking or original.
Do you mean that in real life Kate Hudson will end up with the vacuous, handsome, rich guy instead of the scruffy, honest, smart, kind guy? I'm so disillusioned.
You just now figured THAT out. Actually, its more accurate to say "NASA isn't going to Mars." One day a man *will* set foot on Mars, but there won't be a NASA logo on their spacesuit.
I think humans are more resilient than we appreciate. I think it would take more than a nuclear war to completely wipe out a species as adaptive as we are. I suspect that nothing short of an earth-destroying asteroid or some sort of weapon far more destructive than nuclear missles would completely wipe us out (and I don't mean a Yucatan asteroid, I mean one that rips the planet to pieces). We're not a passive species like the dinosaur, we can adapt to *much* more hostile environs. And, short on the earth-killing asteroid, earth remains by far the most habitable ball within reach. Surviving anywhere else in a solar system (not to mention the problem just getting there) would be way tougher than surviving on a nuclear war devastated earth.
I would argue that most Apple fanboys (the real hardcore ones anyway) only THINK they're "free-thinking." They're original and free-thinking in the same way that hippies thought they were original and free-thinking in the 60's--by acting, dressing, and thinking like every other hippie. Real free-thinkers don't start out with an set ideology, and they certainly don't have a cult leader or product line that they worship.
RTFM?!?!? No way. This is /. sir!