Not that it's a bad thing in this case, but too often, getting advertisers to pull is the modern censorship.
I think you're misunderstanding the concept of censorship; Censorship is the government blocking certain kinds of speech from the public without any accountability; Organizing a boycott has nothing to do with that.
One of the best theories I've ever heard about the Bond movies is that it's not meant as a "reboot" when they switch actors: "James Bond" is actually a code name (like "M") and it's a different agent taking over each time. Of course, that still means it should have been Brosnan rather than Craig in Goldeneye.
Gotta love the creativity that goes into these names. Too bad they stopped with the previous naming pattern, I was waiting for the "Fucking Enormously Huge Array".
Just R'ed the FA, and my first reaction was "Bob's an idiot."
I think you might be overreacting a bit.
First, either he is using his home PC to make financial transactions for his employer, or he is taking a laptop home that can be used to access his employer's financial institution.
Fair point, but what if Bob is accessing his own, personal bank account from home?
Second, he's installing shareware/freeware on this machine, and he does it without scanning the downloaded files or researching the reliability of the publisher.
Read the article a little more closely; it specifies an infection via cross-site scripting, not a download. I don't think he can be considered an "idiot" for not researching every search engine listing for reliability before visiting the site.
Third, he uses a browser over an unsecured internet connection instead of via VPN to the company network, which should incorporate well maintained filters and firewalls.
See point 2
Fourth, he continues to use this browser after it exhibits strange behavior.
Again, I don't think it qualifies someone as an "idiot" if they don't do a complete system security review every time their browser crashes.
Fifth, he ignores red flags like unexplained 'Safety Pass' requests.
That's not necessarily a red flag, maybe his bank rechecks this periodically; I doubt, in that case, that most people would keep the schedule of these checks handy to sniff out any suspicious deviations.
If I discovered Bob did this when he worked for me, I'd fire Bob, no matter how much the boss on the temp agency radio commercials loves him.
Again see point 2; Companies aren't the only ones with bank accounts.
Couldn't agree more. Look at some of the concept screens for Braid, as compared with the final product. Without the incredible atmosphere that game would have been neat but not quite as magical.
Lots of people have pointed out that this kind of power would be more expensive that just getting plain old solar from a desert somewhere, but I think an important point has been overlooked. This kind of system might still function in the face of several different kind of "extinction level events": asteroid collision, supervolcano eruption, or even a "nuclear winter"; my understanding is that this would still provide power if the atmosphere suddenly became more opaque to sunlight.
When I was a kid, me and my friends would work on the family farm or in a coal mine. Sometimes we fell down, sometimes we got hurt, and once in a while we even learned something.
Now get off my lawn!
You had a farm? Luxury. We were so poor we had to live in a hole in the road! And every day, we'd get up at 4:30, clean the hole, and then work at the mill for 16 hours, and when we got home out father would beat us with a rusty spade.
I totally agree, but even the stuff you mentioned, which I also grew up with, pales in comparison to the children of yesteryear. My dad had a.22 rifle when he was in his early teens, as did many of his friends, which they used to take out and shoot cans with totally unsupervised.
Amen. The portable newspaper idea is nice and all, but the day I can buy a monitor that doesn't slowly burn out my retinas will be the happiest day of my life.
Nice post! But.. who modded this insightful? If that's so I've got a deep and meaningful anecdote about an Englishman, a Scotsman, and a Welshman to relate.;)
While I can't vouch for this personally my dad, who fought in the early stages of the Vietnam War, always firmly believed that the WWII model M1 rifle was a far superior weapon to the M16 that was standard at the time. The reason being, while the M16 had newer, shinier features on paper (automatic fire and all that) in combat it would jam up easily and its magazine was awkward to reload. The M1 could be half-choked with dirt and mud and keep firing.
While I appreciate and support the sentiment, I'm afraid I have to point out that in the situation you posit, your feisty aunt would likely kill everyone on the plane when her.44 blew a hole through the perp and into the fuselage, causing a violent decompression. Security from terrorists aside there are good reasons to disallow firearms on airplanes.
... and I hate it! Honestly, I can't stand having fluorescent lights in my house, it makes me feel like I'm living in a hospital. I'm perfectly fine with paying the extra electricity costs if it means I can have nice lamplight instead of those hideous, institutional overheads.
Really, sometimes I don't like the rhetoric about "wasting" energy... for me, it's not a "waste" it's a conscious decision to use (and pay) more to get the kind of lights I like. I think a better approach than mandating energy-saving bulbs is to price energy properly in the first place so people can make their own decision about what constitutes "waste".
Slashdot Mirror
Hope it works as well as the iPhone autocorrect!
I think you're misunderstanding the concept of censorship; Censorship is the government blocking certain kinds of speech from the public without any accountability; Organizing a boycott has nothing to do with that.
One of the best theories I've ever heard about the Bond movies is that it's not meant as a "reboot" when they switch actors: "James Bond" is actually a code name (like "M") and it's a different agent taking over each time. Of course, that still means it should have been Brosnan rather than Craig in Goldeneye.
Gotta love the creativity that goes into these names. Too bad they stopped with the previous naming pattern, I was waiting for the "Fucking Enormously Huge Array".
How do they project statistics like that? I'm trying to imagine what kind of sample size you'd need to represent, well, everything in the universe.
"To recharge, stare directly into sun."
Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Just R'ed the FA, and my first reaction was "Bob's an idiot."
I think you might be overreacting a bit.
First, either he is using his home PC to make financial transactions for his employer, or he is taking a laptop home that can be used to access his employer's financial institution.
Fair point, but what if Bob is accessing his own, personal bank account from home?
Second, he's installing shareware/freeware on this machine, and he does it without scanning the downloaded files or researching the reliability of the publisher.
Read the article a little more closely; it specifies an infection via cross-site scripting, not a download. I don't think he can be considered an "idiot" for not researching every search engine listing for reliability before visiting the site.
Third, he uses a browser over an unsecured internet connection instead of via VPN to the company network, which should incorporate well maintained filters and firewalls.
See point 2
Fourth, he continues to use this browser after it exhibits strange behavior.
Again, I don't think it qualifies someone as an "idiot" if they don't do a complete system security review every time their browser crashes.
Fifth, he ignores red flags like unexplained 'Safety Pass' requests.
That's not necessarily a red flag, maybe his bank rechecks this periodically; I doubt, in that case, that most people would keep the schedule of these checks handy to sniff out any suspicious deviations.
If I discovered Bob did this when he worked for me, I'd fire Bob, no matter how much the boss on the temp agency radio commercials loves him.
Again see point 2; Companies aren't the only ones with bank accounts.
I'm reminded of the old example: "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse." No spellchecker is going to catch it if you forget to capitalize...
Like, why can't a black or asian guy play the lead in MacBeth? Are greedy kings somehow relevant only to white people?
Ummm... why not indeed?
Couldn't agree more. Look at some of the concept screens for Braid, as compared with the final product. Without the incredible atmosphere that game would have been neat but not quite as magical.
Lots of people have pointed out that this kind of power would be more expensive that just getting plain old solar from a desert somewhere, but I think an important point has been overlooked. This kind of system might still function in the face of several different kind of "extinction level events": asteroid collision, supervolcano eruption, or even a "nuclear winter"; my understanding is that this would still provide power if the atmosphere suddenly became more opaque to sunlight.
When I was a kid, me and my friends would work on the family farm or in a coal mine. Sometimes we fell down, sometimes we got hurt, and once in a while we even learned something.
Now get off my lawn!
You had a farm? Luxury. We were so poor we had to live in a hole in the road! And every day, we'd get up at 4:30, clean the hole, and then work at the mill for 16 hours, and when we got home out father would beat us with a rusty spade.
"Hello, My name is Kit."
Ironic that you would use that example, considering that the voice of KIT was not only done by a human but was, in fact, the best actor on the show.
(Runs from angry crowd of Hasselhoff fans)
What do you mean? Windows already is freeware! It came for free on my new computer! [/total cluelessness]
I totally agree, but even the stuff you mentioned, which I also grew up with, pales in comparison to the children of yesteryear. My dad had a .22 rifle when he was in his early teens, as did many of his friends, which they used to take out and shoot cans with totally unsupervised.
Amen. The portable newspaper idea is nice and all, but the day I can buy a monitor that doesn't slowly burn out my retinas will be the happiest day of my life.
Nice post! But.. who modded this insightful? If that's so I've got a deep and meaningful anecdote about an Englishman, a Scotsman, and a Welshman to relate. ;)
Bah, crucifixion is much better than being stabbed. Gets you out in the open air!
While I can't vouch for this personally my dad, who fought in the early stages of the Vietnam War, always firmly believed that the WWII model M1 rifle was a far superior weapon to the M16 that was standard at the time. The reason being, while the M16 had newer, shinier features on paper (automatic fire and all that) in combat it would jam up easily and its magazine was awkward to reload. The M1 could be half-choked with dirt and mud and keep firing.
No matter how much speed they create, they will still be subject to the Law of Diminishing Porn Returns, which states:
For download rate n, my demand for new porn will require me to download at a rate of n+1.
While I appreciate and support the sentiment, I'm afraid I have to point out that in the situation you posit, your feisty aunt would likely kill everyone on the plane when her .44 blew a hole through the perp and into the fuselage, causing a violent decompression. Security from terrorists aside there are good reasons to disallow firearms on airplanes.
Dude, you don't need some fancy device, just move to Japan. The future is now over here ;)
A Japanese mathematician has been found dead in his laboratory. Police say they suspect the killers to be jewelry-wearing silhouettes.
... and I hate it! Honestly, I can't stand having fluorescent lights in my house, it makes me feel like I'm living in a hospital. I'm perfectly fine with paying the extra electricity costs if it means I can have nice lamplight instead of those hideous, institutional overheads.
Really, sometimes I don't like the rhetoric about "wasting" energy... for me, it's not a "waste" it's a conscious decision to use (and pay) more to get the kind of lights I like. I think a better approach than mandating energy-saving bulbs is to price energy properly in the first place so people can make their own decision about what constitutes "waste".