You assume that child pornography is a market. You then base the rest of your argument off of this assumption.
Child pornography is not like regular pornography. It does not follow supply & demand. Child pornography will be made regardless of whether or not child pornography already exists. It is the byproduct of bad human nature.
Your argument makes as much sense as "Real video files of people being killed will cause more murders."
Child pornography is not like the tabacco industry or starbucks. Child pornographers won't "lose motivation" to exploit children just because they have no audience.
There are some linear games that have really good replay value.
Any Zelda game, Secret of Mana, Most Final Fantasies, Final Fight, and as you mentioned above, Pokemon
There is just something about all of these games (and the ones you mentioned) that have a certain individuality about them... They are things that address the gaming needs of everyone so well that we feel inclined to go back to them when we are feeling particularly "itchy" to play something good. It all just rings true to the statement "know your roots".
There is plenty of honest marketing to be had. There is nothing honest about spamming people via phone. Don't make the entire idea of marketing bad just because of how some stupid people implement it.
How "computer viruses" have broken countless systems, racked up unbelievable maintenance costs, and scared everybody into not trusting their machines, yet the easiest method of receiving one is praised and used by most end-users.
They are not "computer viruses", they are "windows diseases".
I agree, Give them a desktop with 4 or 5 icons on it (email, internet, office, files, shutdown) and they will be happy forever. Hide them from all the stuff under the hood. If they want to know more then they will go out and discover it on their own.
Hide them from the bells and whistles. The fact that my grandma can hit the start menu, poke around, and then call me an hour later telling me her computer won't start anymore scares me (it doesn't anymore though because I got her fixed up with the configuration I just mentioned above), and I'm sure for most of us who have done tech support that this is the case that is also the most likely to happen.
What do everyday people need to know about computers? Nothing. The idea of the "computer" needs to be transparent to them; they should only see a "familiar tool" . My mom doesn't need to know anything about computers other than I do similarly about cars. I get in it to go places and I put in gas to make it not die. THATS ALL. If anything goes wrong I take it to a friend or a repair shop and let them do the "magic" and then I happily go on my way none the wiser.
If you're really going to do this book then I suggest that you hide the bells and whistles (complex settings, geek speak, etc) from them because it will end up confusing them. You need only imagine yourself as doing tech support when you say to someone "Ok, use the mouse and click the 'X' in the upper right hand corner" to be shortly told "I am and nothings happening" and then you spend the next 3 minutes figuring out that they were right-clicking and not left-clicking. The layperson's reasoning for computers is different than what a geek's is, meaning you need to revert to the basics: short sentences and very few "new words".
Also, plan for the future. Think of the young people who live on modding their mySpace accounts and whatnot. My sister can work a computer just fine but she is no where NEAR a geek, infact she is quite the opposite. When doing tech support I always heard people saying "My 10 year old knows how to work this thing better than I do." The layperson of today is not the layperson of tomorrow. If you're going to explain things in a book then make sure that you do only the basics (and draw the line there). If people need to know more then they will naturally grow curious and go off and find things out on their own, otherwise why waste your breath?
For me personally, it's not rare at all to get a 3am phone call from a friend or family member; I have no problem waking up and picking up the phone.
Often times my friends or family members will call using someone else's phone or from a place that has caller ID blocked. This is ok too.
What's not ok is when some 14 year old jerk hides his/her caller ID and calls me at random times during the day (including 3AM) over the span of a week, just to get a laugh. This has happened to me a few times from different people. I want something that says "OK, this is a clear case of harrassment."
Maybe a slap on the hand is all the person is going to get, but the calls will more than likely stop. And I want to be able to avoid these calls without incurring burdens on myself (such as paying extra or changing my phone number).
What'd be neat though, is a cell phone that has two numbers (private, public), and you give only your friends and family (or a very small number of people) the private number. The other number is the one you give to Joe Shmoe you met at a really cool convention or Jane Doe you met at a friends party. If someone ever finds the private number and harasses you, changing it won't be much of a big deal because you would only have to notify a small group of people.
I was downloading stuff (porn, anime music videos, etc) on eDonkey once and accidentally started downloading a Paramount movie. Before I realized it and cancelled it, about 200kb had been uploaded back over the p2p network from my computer. The next week I got a phonecall from my ISP saying that Paramount was banging at their doors blabbing about getting a subpoena unless I delete the movie data.
At that specific moment I didn't even remember the movie (nearly) passed through my belonging, so I did whatever any normal person would do when they feel they're wrongfully accused, I got pissed and denied the whole thing. I didn't hear back from them.
Just goes to show you that eDonkey is a terrible and policed network. Don't use eDonkey/Kazaa. Use torrents for your needs.
Just a quick comment on the ethics of Paramount doing this shit: if your movie has been out of theatres for a long time, and nobody is buying it on video or dvd anymore, you need to be fucking THANKFUL someone is trying to download it for free. I'd say more than 75% of the time I download a movie off the net (and like it), I go out and buy a copy the next week. If it weren't for people doing this, then movies like Se7en and Fight Club and The Matrix would have been that much less of a post box-office success. The same goes double for music.
Yeah their products suck, but they know how to sell them. People will buy and drink old motor oil if you make it look healthy and useful and call it something completely different. Marketing convinces people they need products, and in this case, people are being convinced they need expensive bullshit. But that's capitalism for ya; nobody wants to own a bag of dog poo, but if you take that same bag of poo, slap a $2,000 dollar price tag on it and get some paid advertising that guarentees people will see it everywhere they go, everybody will assume it's worth what theyre told it is. Simply by owning the dog of poo, people will think they have raised their social status, improved their health, fixed their relationships, and found meaning in their life. And before you know it everybody will want one.
Linux is free and worth every dime, and just so happens to do all of the above;-)
i'm actually a californian, and i agree that arnold is really really stupid. but hey, can ya blame us? we thought by voting for him we'd all get a bazooka and he'd use a new style of politics involving kicking people in the teeth to get stuff done. what'd we get? just another bad governor.
there's talk going around about holding another special election just to recall him. well, i voted to put him in, and i'm gonna seize that opportunity to get him out. hmm. try before you buy i guess. maybe governors and presidents need a "probation" period where if they screw up big-time in the first year then an election is automatically held to decide whether or not to keep them for the long haul.
please please please, i hope gary coleman runs for governor again.
Great. Just great. Wait until those boys figure out the cheats; we're gonna have tanks dropping out of the sky and law enforcement losing interest in finding them.
Telemarketing is a nuisance. An opt-in list would be much better. If you want to be called, sign up.
Think about how inefficient opt-out lists are for dealing with nuisances. "Opt out of getting spam email." "Opt out of having your computer infested with spyware." "Opt out of being lit on fire."
A single opt-in list would be enough. Yknow why? Cause it would be empty.
I would just like to say, that as a Californian who voted for Arnold, I am sorry. I thought having him as governor would bring nothing but bazookas and women and cuban cigars to us all. Well I guess I was wrong. I'm not a minor, but out of memory I can totally relate to minors who this will effect. Crappy crappy governor.
Is it just me, or is goatse actually riddled across that news story. I had to adblock the image.. nsfw.
The stem cells were taken from an umbillacle cord? Right-extremists have no "right to life" argument here. If the stem cells were taken from birth-biproduct then what's the big deal?
The bible didnt seem to bother condemning the daughters of Lot for screwing their own dad. Come to think of it, the bible condones incest and murder more than it condemns homosexuality.
Whats the point of putting such protection on your music CDs when all you're going to do is turn around and post a link on your site about how to bypass it.
Copy protection on CDs is retarded, at least for people like me, because if I hear a song on the radio or via MP3, and I like it, and the album it's on isn't outweighed by crappy songs, I'll go out and buy the album.
Artists have their panties in a bunch because nobody wants to pay for a disc full of shitty songs and only one good one. That's like $14 a song. I say p2p sharing is incentive for artists to make good songs, not just 1 or 2 good songs that they have on the radio to get people to buy their shitty CDs.
CDs need to be replaced with MP3 minidisc, in which case the artist can say "Ok, buy the minidisc with our GOOD songs on it, rip it all you want, but just remember to tell your friends that if they like it then to please support us by buying the $5 minidisc for themselves."
Slashdot Mirror
You assume that child pornography is a market. You then base the rest of your argument off of this assumption.
Child pornography is not like regular pornography. It does not follow supply & demand.
Child pornography will be made regardless of whether or not child pornography already exists. It is the byproduct of bad human nature.
Your argument makes as much sense as "Real video files of people being killed will cause more murders."
Child pornography is not like the tabacco industry or starbucks. Child pornographers won't "lose motivation" to exploit children just because they have no audience.
There are some linear games that have really good replay value.
Any Zelda game,
Secret of Mana,
Most Final Fantasies,
Final Fight,
and as you mentioned above, Pokemon
There is just something about all of these games (and the ones you mentioned) that have a certain individuality about them... They are things that address the gaming needs of everyone so well that we feel inclined to go back to them when we are feeling particularly "itchy" to play something good. It all just rings true to the statement "know your roots".
There is plenty of honest marketing to be had. There is nothing honest about spamming people via phone. Don't make the entire idea of marketing bad just because of how some stupid people implement it.
If it weren't for geeks like us then people like you wouldn't have an internet to troll on.
How "computer viruses" have broken countless systems, racked up unbelievable maintenance costs, and scared everybody into not trusting their machines, yet the easiest method of receiving one is praised and used by most end-users.
They are not "computer viruses", they are "windows diseases".
That goes more into the disease of stupidity, really.
Crap crap, Google isnt on the front page anymore!
QUICKLY! REPOST BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES!
I agree,
Give them a desktop with 4 or 5 icons on it (email, internet, office, files, shutdown) and they will be happy forever. Hide them from all the stuff under the hood. If they want to know more then they will go out and discover it on their own.
Hide them from the bells and whistles. The fact that my grandma can hit the start menu, poke around, and then call me an hour later telling me her computer won't start anymore scares me (it doesn't anymore though because I got her fixed up with the configuration I just mentioned above), and I'm sure for most of us who have done tech support that this is the case that is also the most likely to happen.
What do everyday people need to know about computers? Nothing. The idea of the "computer" needs to be transparent to them; they should only see a "familiar tool" . My mom doesn't need to know anything about computers other than I do similarly about cars. I get in it to go places and I put in gas to make it not die. THATS ALL. If anything goes wrong I take it to a friend or a repair shop and let them do the "magic" and then I happily go on my way none the wiser.
If you're really going to do this book then I suggest that you hide the bells and whistles (complex settings, geek speak, etc) from them because it will end up confusing them. You need only imagine yourself as doing tech support when you say to someone "Ok, use the mouse and click the 'X' in the upper right hand corner" to be shortly told "I am and nothings happening" and then you spend the next 3 minutes figuring out that they were right-clicking and not left-clicking. The layperson's reasoning for computers is different than what a geek's is, meaning you need to revert to the basics: short sentences and very few "new words".
Also, plan for the future. Think of the young people who live on modding their mySpace accounts and whatnot. My sister can work a computer just fine but she is no where NEAR a geek, infact she is quite the opposite. When doing tech support I always heard people saying "My 10 year old knows how to work this thing better than I do." The layperson of today is not the layperson of tomorrow. If you're going to explain things in a book then make sure that you do only the basics (and draw the line there). If people need to know more then they will naturally grow curious and go off and find things out on their own, otherwise why waste your breath?
For me personally, it's not rare at all to get a 3am phone call from a friend or family member; I have no problem waking up and picking up the phone.
Often times my friends or family members will call using someone else's phone or from a place that has caller ID blocked. This is ok too.
What's not ok is when some 14 year old jerk hides his/her caller ID and calls me at random times during the day (including 3AM) over the span of a week, just to get a laugh. This has happened to me a few times from different people. I want something that says "OK, this is a clear case of harrassment."
Maybe a slap on the hand is all the person is going to get, but the calls will more than likely stop. And I want to be able to avoid these calls without incurring burdens on myself (such as paying extra or changing my phone number).
What'd be neat though, is a cell phone that has two numbers (private, public), and you give only your friends and family (or a very small number of people) the private number. The other number is the one you give to Joe Shmoe you met at a really cool convention or Jane Doe you met at a friends party. If someone ever finds the private number and harasses you, changing it won't be much of a big deal because you would only have to notify a small group of people.
i second that.
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."
Benjamin Franklin
I was downloading stuff (porn, anime music videos, etc) on eDonkey once and accidentally started downloading a Paramount movie. Before I realized it and cancelled it, about 200kb had been uploaded back over the p2p network from my computer. The next week I got a phonecall from my ISP saying that Paramount was banging at their doors blabbing about getting a subpoena unless I delete the movie data.
At that specific moment I didn't even remember the movie (nearly) passed through my belonging, so I did whatever any normal person would do when they feel they're wrongfully accused, I got pissed and denied the whole thing. I didn't hear back from them.
Just goes to show you that eDonkey is a terrible and policed network. Don't use eDonkey/Kazaa. Use torrents for your needs.
Just a quick comment on the ethics of Paramount doing this shit: if your movie has been out of theatres for a long time, and nobody is buying it on video or dvd anymore, you need to be fucking THANKFUL someone is trying to download it for free. I'd say more than 75% of the time I download a movie off the net (and like it), I go out and buy a copy the next week. If it weren't for people doing this, then movies like Se7en and Fight Club and The Matrix would have been that much less of a post box-office success. The same goes double for music.
Yeah their products suck, but they know how to sell them. People will buy and drink old motor oil if you make it look healthy and useful and call it something completely different. Marketing convinces people they need products, and in this case, people are being convinced they need expensive bullshit. But that's capitalism for ya; nobody wants to own a bag of dog poo, but if you take that same bag of poo, slap a $2,000 dollar price tag on it and get some paid advertising that guarentees people will see it everywhere they go, everybody will assume it's worth what theyre told it is. Simply by owning the dog of poo, people will think they have raised their social status, improved their health, fixed their relationships, and found meaning in their life. And before you know it everybody will want one.
;-)
Linux is free and worth every dime, and just so happens to do all of the above
is that you have to dress like a mountie.
i'm actually a californian, and i agree that arnold is really really stupid.
but hey, can ya blame us? we thought by voting for him we'd all get a bazooka and he'd use a new style of politics involving kicking people in the teeth to get stuff done. what'd we get? just another bad governor.
there's talk going around about holding another special election just to recall him.
well, i voted to put him in, and i'm gonna seize that opportunity to get him out.
hmm. try before you buy i guess. maybe governors and presidents need a "probation" period where if they screw up big-time in the first year then an election is automatically held to decide whether or not to keep them for the long haul.
please please please, i hope gary coleman runs for governor again.
The uneducated midwest/south screams "Help! We need protection in our big cities from terrorism!"
Our coasts and big cities scream "Help! We need protection from the midwest/south who think they know what's best for us!"
Great. Just great. Wait until those boys figure out the cheats; we're gonna have tanks dropping out of the sky and law enforcement losing interest in finding them.
It doesn't mean they don't try breeding every night, it's just that he does not get pregnant...
LOL nice
i dont think it's "his" or anyone's worldview.
it is the worldview that has been proven by scientific method.
i think the general message was "dont tell me 2+2=5, nor try to teach it in school."
the same message does not work for "2+2=4", because 2+2=4.
Telemarketing is a nuisance.
An opt-in list would be much better. If you want to be called, sign up.
Think about how inefficient opt-out lists are for dealing with nuisances.
"Opt out of getting spam email."
"Opt out of having your computer infested with spyware."
"Opt out of being lit on fire."
A single opt-in list would be enough.
Yknow why?
Cause it would be empty.
I would just like to say, that as a Californian who voted for Arnold, I am sorry.
I thought having him as governor would bring nothing but bazookas and women and cuban cigars to us all.
Well I guess I was wrong. I'm not a minor, but out of memory I can totally relate to minors who this will effect.
Crappy crappy governor.
Is it just me, or is goatse actually riddled across that news story.
I had to adblock the image..
nsfw.
The stem cells were taken from an umbillacle cord?
Right-extremists have no "right to life" argument here.
If the stem cells were taken from birth-biproduct then what's the big deal?
The bible didnt seem to bother condemning the daughters of Lot for screwing their own dad.
Come to think of it, the bible condones incest and murder more than it condemns homosexuality.
Whats the point of putting such protection on your music CDs when all you're going to do is turn around and post a link on your site about how to bypass it.
Copy protection on CDs is retarded, at least for people like me, because if I hear a song on the radio or via MP3, and I like it, and the album it's on isn't outweighed by crappy songs, I'll go out and buy the album.
Artists have their panties in a bunch because nobody wants to pay for a disc full of shitty songs and only one good one. That's like $14 a song. I say p2p sharing is incentive for artists to make good songs, not just 1 or 2 good songs that they have on the radio to get people to buy their shitty CDs.
CDs need to be replaced with MP3 minidisc, in which case the artist can say "Ok, buy the minidisc with our GOOD songs on it, rip it all you want, but just remember to tell your friends that if they like it then to please support us by buying the $5 minidisc for themselves."