MSN and Yahoo! behave much worse, from a do-no-evil POV. Consider this writeup in the Economist:
Google has not entirely capitulated in China. It has pared back the services it offers--no e-mail accounts, for example--so that it doesn't put itself in the position where it might have to violate users' privacy. It has also arranged to tell users when search results have been withheld--though the Chinese authorities could always reconsider the arrangement. At the same time, in America, Google has taken a healthy stand against the DoJ, refusing to give the government what it seeks.
Google's rivals have been more accommodating. Yahoo! last year revealed the identity of a Chinese e-mail account-holder, who is now in prison for exposing information the government wanted kept secret. Microsoft's MSN service prohibits words such as "democracy" from being used as headlines on Chinese blogs. In America, AOL, MSN and Yahoo! all handed their data over to the justice department.
Yet western firms faced with engagement or isolation are right to think that being in China leads to greater openness than if they stayed away. Indeed, the very controversies that have cropped up about censorship and suppression are symptomatic of the ways in which free speech is greater now than in the past, thanks to the internet. And, so long as the DoJ's data is anonymous, privacy is not strictly in question.
Now don't get me wrong. I dislike Google; I think their products and services are in poor taste. But certainly, the company deserves better than the slamming it's getting here on Slashdot, and I don't doubt they're at least partially motivated by the hope that they're working to improve things in China. If it was purely about profit, after all, they'd have opened Gmail to Chinese citizens (or have they already, contrary to the article?).
"...I think that if I meet you, and find out for no aparent reason that you are bisexual within 5 minutes of meeting you, then maybe you need to consider that you are going a bit far with this openness..."
The scene: Local church, Sunday morning. Sermon's over and everyone's milling around at the snacks table.
TheCarp: "Nice to meet you, Emily. I love your sweater!"
Emily: "Oh, this? Thanks. My husband gave it to me for Christmas."
TheCarp: "My wife would really like a sweater like that."
Emily: "Why don't you ask him where he got it? He's right over there." points
- vs. -
TheCarp: "Nice to meet you, Brad. Hey, that's a neat tie! I gotta get one of those for my son."
Brad: "Thank you! But you know, it's actually from my husband's wardrobe. Want me to ask him where he found it?"
TheCarp: "Oh... uh... don't you think you're going a bit too far with your openness?"
Brad: *walks away, disgusted*
"...I think that if I meet you, and find out for no aparent reason that you are bisexual within 5 minutes of meeting you, then maybe you need to consider that you are going a bit far with this openness and... making people feel like you are pushing acceptance of your lifestyle on them."
Jane Doe runs into the boardroom. "Sorry I'm late, everyone. My boyfriend got run over by a bus and I had to rush him to the hospital." Everyone gasps. "Oh no! Is he all right?"
John Doe runs into the boardroom. "Sorry I'm late, everyone. My boyfriend got run over by a bus and I had to rush him to the hospital." Everyone shuffles uncomfortably in their seats, and TheCarp says: "Please stop pushing your lifestyle upon us."
And if you were principal of a middle school, you'd ban LBGT student groups for the same reason--their existence invites harassment and denigration from the rest of the student body, causing more problems than there would otherwise be. Even though it'd all be the fault of other students, not the LGBTs.
I hope that's not actually what you would do as principal. And I hope that's not what you'd do as Blizzard's CEO, even though I can understand why you would.
I sincerely hope I live to see the day Uganda and Zimbabwe are full of hospitals, museums, and universities named in honor of William Gates, and that all these institutions will be using the latest and greatest Apple gear. Is that cognitively dissonant?
I don't know. I mean, there's a reason the story of Robin Hood is so nearly universally appealing. Steal from the rich (the developed world) and give to the poor (people in Africa and West Asia dying of tuberculosis and AIDS)--if you want to make the world a better place, do the ends justify the means? I tend to think history will look kindly on Gates.
Hmm... maybe I misinterpreted you, but it sounds like you're agreeing that if there's a problem here, it's not with the folks who want to start an LGBT--it's the puerile kids who haven't yet learned how to function in society. So the question is: why is Blizzard supporting the latter instead of the former? I'm guessing because there's a lot more of the latter, and a lot more, to Blizzard, means a lot more money.
Because the crap flying from the left and the right about "mainstream media" is just that, crap? People have always had, and will always have, more sources of information than anyone can imagine or even be aware of. Even in today's China, you see the same phenomenon (like the discrepancy between their MSM's coverage of many news subjects, and common knowledge).
As for the jokes, I bet someone like MAD magazine printed them.
Pardon me for being forward, but I take it you're not a Mac user? I don't know that any of my Mac-using friends have ever used the modem on their laptops--it's all 802.11 or mobile network via Bluetooth phone. That port, and its related circuitry, are deadweight as far as any of us are concerned. Though it's true, people with Windows laptops always seem to be a few years out of date.
They're distributed as unencoded AAC (MPEG-4 audio) files. Certainly there's nothing stopping you from playing them on your Communist distro du jour. More to the point, however, perhaps people who are already familiar with getting their podcasts and music through iTunes would rather just use the same interface for their university lectures, instead of having to learn an entirely new web-based system. There's nothing wrong with accommodating your customers' wishes, is there? Though I do tend to agree--the more options, the merrier.
OK, I guess "platform" would be a better way to put it. But the point remains: Apple's hardware and software are as inseparable as most people believe are mind and body.
No. Apple doesn't consider itself a hardware company, nor does Apple consider itself a software company. Apple considers itself a Mac company. From this fact springs understanding of all that is Apple, its customers, and its market.
Using your analogy, the alternative would be for Poland Spring (Google) to stand by and do nothing while they die of thirst. Seems to me leaded water is better than none at all.
(I also wonder, as devil's advocate, whether the whole idea that censorship is an unqualified evil doesn't reek of Western moral absolutism via Mill--but I guess that's another discussion entirely.)
Slashdot Mirror
Cool. Finally, an article with which to illustrate Wikipedia's legendary impartiality.
MSN and Yahoo! behave much worse, from a do-no-evil POV. Consider this writeup in the Economist:
Now don't get me wrong. I dislike Google; I think their products and services are in poor taste. But certainly, the company deserves better than the slamming it's getting here on Slashdot, and I don't doubt they're at least partially motivated by the hope that they're working to improve things in China. If it was purely about profit, after all, they'd have opened Gmail to Chinese citizens (or have they already, contrary to the article?).
The scene: Local church, Sunday morning. Sermon's over and everyone's milling around at the snacks table.
TheCarp: "Nice to meet you, Emily. I love your sweater!"
Emily: "Oh, this? Thanks. My husband gave it to me for Christmas."
TheCarp: "My wife would really like a sweater like that."
Emily: "Why don't you ask him where he got it? He's right over there." points
TheCarp: "Nice to meet you, Brad. Hey, that's a neat tie! I gotta get one of those for my son."
Brad: "Thank you! But you know, it's actually from my husband's wardrobe. Want me to ask him where he found it?"
TheCarp: "Oh... uh... don't you think you're going a bit too far with your openness?"
Brad: *walks away, disgusted*
"...I think that if I meet you, and find out for no aparent reason that you are bisexual within 5 minutes of meeting you, then maybe you need to consider that you are going a bit far with this openness and ... making people feel like you are pushing acceptance of your lifestyle on them."
Jane Doe runs into the boardroom. "Sorry I'm late, everyone. My boyfriend got run over by a bus and I had to rush him to the hospital."
Everyone gasps. "Oh no! Is he all right?"
John Doe runs into the boardroom. "Sorry I'm late, everyone. My boyfriend got run over by a bus and I had to rush him to the hospital."
Everyone shuffles uncomfortably in their seats, and TheCarp says: "Please stop pushing your lifestyle upon us."
That describes my sleep schedule, but then, I do live in New York.
And if you were principal of a middle school, you'd ban LBGT student groups for the same reason--their existence invites harassment and denigration from the rest of the student body, causing more problems than there would otherwise be. Even though it'd all be the fault of other students, not the LGBTs.
I hope that's not actually what you would do as principal. And I hope that's not what you'd do as Blizzard's CEO, even though I can understand why you would.
I guess it comes down to whether you value charity or you value good taste. Personally, I hesitate to say I favor either.
I sincerely hope I live to see the day Uganda and Zimbabwe are full of hospitals, museums, and universities named in honor of William Gates, and that all these institutions will be using the latest and greatest Apple gear. Is that cognitively dissonant?
I don't know. I mean, there's a reason the story of Robin Hood is so nearly universally appealing. Steal from the rich (the developed world) and give to the poor (people in Africa and West Asia dying of tuberculosis and AIDS)--if you want to make the world a better place, do the ends justify the means? I tend to think history will look kindly on Gates.
Hmm... maybe I misinterpreted you, but it sounds like you're agreeing that if there's a problem here, it's not with the folks who want to start an LGBT--it's the puerile kids who haven't yet learned how to function in society. So the question is: why is Blizzard supporting the latter instead of the former? I'm guessing because there's a lot more of the latter, and a lot more, to Blizzard, means a lot more money.
"you'd know that calling people "gay" or any derivative can result in suspension (rather than a warning)"
Which only serves to further stigmatize homosexuality by reinforcing the notion that "gay" could only be an insult. Good job, Blizzard.
Because the crap flying from the left and the right about "mainstream media" is just that, crap? People have always had, and will always have, more sources of information than anyone can imagine or even be aware of. Even in today's China, you see the same phenomenon (like the discrepancy between their MSM's coverage of many news subjects, and common knowledge).
As for the jokes, I bet someone like MAD magazine printed them.
I'm fairly liberal and I don't have a problem with it. Cheap shot, a little cliché, but whatever.
Pardon me for being forward, but I take it you're not a Mac user? I don't know that any of my Mac-using friends have ever used the modem on their laptops--it's all 802.11 or mobile network via Bluetooth phone. That port, and its related circuitry, are deadweight as far as any of us are concerned. Though it's true, people with Windows laptops always seem to be a few years out of date.
That's not a gnu. That's actually a quite faithful portrait of Stallman himself.
They're distributed as unencoded AAC (MPEG-4 audio) files. Certainly there's nothing stopping you from playing them on your Communist distro du jour. More to the point, however, perhaps people who are already familiar with getting their podcasts and music through iTunes would rather just use the same interface for their university lectures, instead of having to learn an entirely new web-based system. There's nothing wrong with accommodating your customers' wishes, is there? Though I do tend to agree--the more options, the merrier.
OK, I guess "platform" would be a better way to put it. But the point remains: Apple's hardware and software are as inseparable as most people believe are mind and body.
"Also in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan"
Yeah, maybe if you're Carrie Bradshaw. Most New Yorkers in the real world, happily, have better taste than that.
No. Apple doesn't consider itself a hardware company, nor does Apple consider itself a software company. Apple considers itself a Mac company. From this fact springs understanding of all that is Apple, its customers, and its market.
Using your analogy, the alternative would be for Poland Spring (Google) to stand by and do nothing while they die of thirst. Seems to me leaded water is better than none at all.
(I also wonder, as devil's advocate, whether the whole idea that censorship is an unqualified evil doesn't reek of Western moral absolutism via Mill--but I guess that's another discussion entirely.)
For anyone out there with a Mac, you can do the same with SafariStand. Of course, it only works in Safari.
If you're going to be an asshole, at least make the effort to be right. Otherwise, you're not an asshole; you're just a fucking douchebag.
The Egyptians thought the same thing.
Mods, parent is not flamebait, but rather a paraphrase of Malda's own defense of Slashdot a few days back. Search the comments for "CmdrTaco (1)" (particularly this mind-boggler).
Nobody can pass muster? But as you said yourself, Safari passes the test. KHTML too, after the changes were backported from WebKit.
But then, we Mac users have always had high standards. Sorry you don't demand as much from your work environment.