I'm responding to this post and to another below...
First, it is untrue that using the Tivo without the service would only occur to the technically inclined. I think it has been made pretty obvious that the service entitles the user to program listings, and that the unit itself functions independently (or ought to).
Second, I think it's disingenuous to assert that the poster was somehow leeching off of Tivo's network because he was using it to set his clock. If I understood the post correctly, that is the only way to set the clock; it cannot be set manually. If the clock cannot be set, then the device is useless -- its use is to allow for the time-shifting of television viewing, and for this a clock is needed.
Finally, the 'lifetime' subscription ought to fill any consumer with skepticism. After paying that $200 for an already expensive consumer product, imagine the sting you will feel when Tivo invariably goes out of business, unable to sustain itself because it couldn't convince consumers to fork over $120 yearly for television listings.
Okay, like a lot of you folks are saying, there's nothing wrong with sex. But there's sex for grownups and there's sex for adolescents.
And E3 booth babes in butt babes is the latter kind of sex. The frat boy / pimply loser wet fantasy kind of sex. The juvenile, embarrassing, and oftentimes offensive kind of sex.
He also defeated a sitting vice-President during times of peace and prosperity,
He defeated the sitting vice-president by a narrow to possibly negative margin that everyone but Gen. Chalupa agrees is quite controversial. The sitting president's administration was marred by scandal and the left was split due to the presence of a compelling third-party candidate and the Democratic Party's inability to articulate its differences from the Republican Party.
unified a diversified "big tent" political party (which was hardly enamoured with his father)
Possibly due to his unthreatening dumb-hick-from-Texas persona and middle-of-the-road policy.
and became the chief proponent of a new branch of American conservatism.
A branch with little intellectual ground to stand on, but with a warm, feel-good label. See also "Deconstructing the Election" for further discussion.
He managed to achieve a 60%+ approval rating (despite election controversy)
And McDonald's serves billions and billions of people all over the world, right? This has little bearing on Bush's intelligence or his quality as a policymaker.
and pass a 1.35 trillion dollar tax cut (despite an opposition who wanted a ZERO dollar tax cut only 6 months ago.)
Barely, I might add, and with no mandate from the electorate. Unless you think 49% is a mandate.
He will likely succeed in getting a national missile defense shield built,
Which no sane person believes should be built. Which will further deteriorate our relations with the European Union and China. Treaty? What treaty?
and is on track for the most massive education reform package in American history
I'll wait and see. Maybe it will be like his energy plan, in which tax cut benefits trickle up to his friends and business partners in the energy industry.
Beyond all this, it's hard to believe that any tangible ideas coming out of the White House are not the products of Bush's handlers and cronies rather than Bush himself. Any time that the man is left alone with an interviewer, he utterly makes a fool of himself. He is the spoiled, visionless product of monied privilege. Perhaps it doesn't matter how smart or dumb he is; for all of his life, the world has been handed to him on a plate, and for most people, I guess that's just fine.
Re-read my post. Nowhere in it did I claim that people who have speech impediments or who cannot speak at all are unintelligent. There really is no need to deliberately misrepresent my point. I would daresay that Hawking is quite capable of composing a coherent thought without coaching. I would not say this about Bush, a president who is afraid of press conferences with the most uncritical Washington press corps in history.
... He can ramble on and on without making a point or clearly stating an opinion:
The FBI's Carnivore program has drawn a lot of criticism. One of the arguments is that the communications of innocent people could potentially be intercepted as well as those of terrorists and criminals. What's the administration's role in that?
There clearly is a role in that particular case because what you're talking about is to what length can the police or is the policing authority in a free society allowed to protect the citizenry. And that's always going to be a subject of debate in a free society.
...
In my way of thinking, it sure would have been nice, and I'm sure there's a lot of people that worked in the World Trade Center on that day (who would agree) that it would have been awfully nice, had somebody understood Arabic and had that intercept capability. But we don't want a police state. So I think Carnivore and similar things like that are going to be issues forever in a free society.
So we're measuring intelligence with grades? I've been measuring Bush's intelligence by his ability to compose a coherent thought extemporaneously, and by my measure, he's failing....
... These guys are unemployed now. The last thing they want to hear is how much you hated their product.
And jeez, was it really that bad? I felt that Nautilus showed great potential. Maybe the releases leading up to 1.0 weren't so hot, but I felt as if Eazel had been making strides. And I feel that we'll have quite a nice desktop environment by the time we get to Gnome 3.0.
Maybe he "got" the movie, but maybe, like the first one, it was just a stupid movie. I just saw the first one a couple days ago, and I must say that I was quite disappointed. I like a good mindless swashbuckler action-adventure as much as anyone else--for God's sake, I loved The Fifth Element--but The Mummy was simply not fun. How do I hate The Mummy? Let me count the ways:
Unimaginative action in the age of Yuen Woo Ping - Every time a bad guy shows up, somebody shoots it. Huh.
Criminally unremarkable dialogue in a genre known for snappy one-liners - "I think we're in trouble." Next line: "I think we're in serious trouble." *Snore*
Awful acting - This wouldn't be so bad if there was something else in the movie to enjoy.
Offensive (not ironic) characterizations of people of color - I'll be damned if one of the Arabs in the movie didn't get directly compared to a hairy, stinky, spitting camel. Not to mention that all of the non-white people save one or two were either greedy simpering yes-men or bumbling idiots or both. Maybe this is a staple of the genre, but now that I'm not 10 years old, it pains me a bit more to see it.
Screw this. I think I'll go rent a Jackie Chan movie. His movies may be dumb, they may be shallow, and they're not so politically correct, but they sure as hell are always fun.
Along with the Camel, "Effective Perl Programming" (Addison/Wesley, don't remember author's name), and the "Perl Cookbook," this has been one of my favorite programming books. Mind you, I'm not a seasoned hacker, so YMMV. But for anyone who already understands the basics of Perl, this book is a great way to learn something practical.
Like Chromatic, though, I really wished that the section on Parse::RecDescent had been longer...
I also subscribed simply to get access to the online archives, so I hope the archives go back up. However, I'd be just as happy (if not happier) if the archives were open to non-subscribers as well.
With all due respect, I am wondering how this comment got modded up to 5 when it's obvious that the poster either failed to read Katz's article or failed to get its point.
In this postmodern|global|technocentric|connected|whatever age that we live in, there is a notion that changes in the manner in which people communicate as well as changes in commerce are eroding the traditional roles of nation-states. Katz is arguing the opposite: that states are becoming hyperreal. Take that word literally. Physical barriers to identity (borders, geography, sheer distance) are becoming irrelevant. The reaction to this is to boost the nation-state's role as the bounding entity of identity and ideology.
Katz thinks that the current crisis with China illustrates this. The idea is that the crux of the crisis are two conflicting cultural imperatives (China: You must apologize. U.S.: Never say sorry.) And, just like that, "real" (read: pragmatic) considerations are demoted.
Now, given that, 1) this is about apologies. Note that, depending on what point you're trying to make, what this is about will vary. "Political manoevering to use as a bargaining chip in any forthcoming negotiations?" Maybe. Without any supporting statements, it's not a very useful statement. 2) Right, the internet will not democratize China. It also won't revolutionize grassroots activism. It won't decentralize government. It won't create an enlightened, vibrant mass culture. It won't make shopping easier than ever before. It won't make me rich. But none of those points were Katz's point in this article.
hmph. it at least takes two hands. add to your list pilotwings, blast corps, waverace, mystical ninja, perfect dark, banjo-kazooie, mario 64
Re:Racists suits using percentages are tricky
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 1
Okay, let's think about this sensibly. I point out that Asians and Asian Americans can be the victims of racism, and by doing so that makes me a racist? Or I mention that some people perpetuate a myth of Asian Americans as a model minority so that they can trivialize other ethnic groups' experiences of racism, and that makes a racist?
Care to back up what you're saying, or are you just trolling? Frankly, I don't think you took the time to grasp any arguments I put forth; otherwise you wouldn't be making such nonsensical claims.
For the record, I'm half-European-American, half-Vietnamese. I identify as an Asian American. I think I know what I am talking about, but I welcome your opinion--whatever your background--if you are able to back it up.
Re:Racists suits using percentages are tricky
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 1
Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that I consider Asians as "honorary" whites. It's a problematic idea that I hear a lot of people saying.
asians not discriminated in tech industry???
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 1
Not to go off on a tangent, but I keep seeing references to Asians enjoying a discrimination-free environment in the tech industry, in contrast to African-Americans and Latinos. While one is likely to find more Asians and Asian Americans in the tech industry than African-Americans and Latinos, primarily due to economic reasons, it is absolutely untrue to claim that they don't face discrimination in the workplace.
Don't tell me you've never heard anyone make fun of an Indian or Pakistani programmer, at the very least. At my workplace, I've heard white programmers claim that the Indian programmers are lazy and unskilled, when there was clearly no evidence to support those assertions. I've heard people strain themselves to find excuses not to take Indian employees seriously--"They have poor communication skills"--sometimes true, but more likely, the critiquers have poor listening skills. When a big layoff occurred at my old job, the first people to get the axe where the Indian programmers, and they were some of the most talented employees. I could go on and on. And I bet most of you could also if you thought about it.
Re:"Reverse discrimination" a disingenuous phrase
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 1
Last time I checked, the US was founded by whites on land originally inhabited by non-white people, whom the whites later systematically exterminated or turned into refugees.
Don't be silly, of course I know that the US was founded by whites, and thus its power structure, literature, history, and culture primarily reflects the interests of whites. My point is that those systems no longer reflect the lives and interests of the people who live under them. Our understanding of the world needs to change for us to begin operating in it sanely and fairly.
And is the idea that racism as a meaningful concept makes sense in terms of power relations really such a copout? I think the man who hates and holds the whip is something altogether different from the man who hates because he is whipped. To me, to deny this is a copout.
And yes, mean people are dumb. Mod that one up for insight.
Re:Racists suits using percentages are tricky
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 2
"A variety of societal reasons" is right. Ultimately, we are going to continue to see instances of racism until society as a whole changes. And of course there's no simple answer because there's no single cause. Many women and many people of color don't make into the tech industry or the sciences because they are actively discouraged all their lives by peers as well as educators, they receive poor schooling, they simply can't afford college, etc.
And, look, to hold up Asians as some sort of model minority (Asians=honorary whites) is disingenuous at best, since it ignores a plethora of factors. Consider the fact that most (certainly not all, though) Asian Americans resident in the United States are 1st or 2nd generation residents. That makes a big difference for, again, a variety of reasons. Many Asian immigrants arrive as members of the middle class already and don't face as much of an uphill battle as, say, many African-Americans. On the other hand, consider the fact that many Asian Americans don't fall under these circumstances, and, like other people of color, don't have many economic opportunities and face (and have faced throughout history) withering discrimination at the cultural as well as personal level. I mention that because many folks like to hold up "the Asian example" as proof that racism no longer exists. Not true.
Okay, I wanted this to be more coherent and better supported, but it's time for lunch.
(Incidentally, I don't think anyone reasonable believes that MSFT has a corporate racist policy, but it's plausible to think that certain managers discriminate against African-Americans, whether out of consciously held racist beliefs or otherwise, and if it's true, guess what? Microsoft is responsible for its managers' actions.)
"Reverse discrimination" a disingenuous phrase
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 1
(this is a USA-centric post...)
Oh, come on. Quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing the phrase "reverse discrimination" being bandied about as if it were meaningful. Take some time and think about what racism is. It's a system of oppression that works all the way up and down the social structure, systematically and non-systematically, formally and informally, consciously and unconsciously. And the key factor that gives various modes of racism their bite is power relations. "Reverse discrimination" is not equivalent to white discrimination against blacks, Latinos, Asians, native Americans, etc. The world we live in would have to be utterly different.
Let's be straight. This society is dominated by white people at every level. We have a white government, a white literature, a white history, white entertainment. Things have been changing tentatively and slowly for the better (where better means equal access and equal time for all people, not some sort of dimly imagined anti-white backlash, so calm down), but unless the configurations of power are completely reversed, charges of "reverse discrimination" really don't hold that much relative weight, and it's frankly insulting to compare it to the virulent racism that this country has known and still knows.
White people need to come off the defensive. Calm down. The world is still yours.
so as not to slight jon orwant and the other perl journal editors and contributors who have worked so hard over the last few years on a truly superb publication, i want to amend my above post with the comment that, though i'm annoyed at the prospect of a wasted subscription fee, i'm especially annoyed at the prospect of the termination of my favorite technical journal. thanks guys for the great magazine, and i hope it finds a new home.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm responding to this post and to another below...
First, it is untrue that using the Tivo without the service would only occur to the technically inclined. I think it has been made pretty obvious that the service entitles the user to program listings, and that the unit itself functions independently (or ought to).
Second, I think it's disingenuous to assert that the poster was somehow leeching off of Tivo's network because he was using it to set his clock. If I understood the post correctly, that is the only way to set the clock; it cannot be set manually. If the clock cannot be set, then the device is useless -- its use is to allow for the time-shifting of television viewing, and for this a clock is needed.
Finally, the 'lifetime' subscription ought to fill any consumer with skepticism. After paying that $200 for an already expensive consumer product, imagine the sting you will feel when Tivo invariably goes out of business, unable to sustain itself because it couldn't convince consumers to fork over $120 yearly for television listings.
-jacob
Okay, like a lot of you folks are saying, there's nothing wrong with sex. But there's sex for grownups and there's sex for adolescents.
And E3 booth babes in butt babes is the latter kind of sex. The frat boy / pimply loser wet fantasy kind of sex. The juvenile, embarrassing, and oftentimes offensive kind of sex.
So let's grow up, already.
Beyond all this, it's hard to believe that any tangible ideas coming out of the White House are not the products of Bush's handlers and cronies rather than Bush himself. Any time that the man is left alone with an interviewer, he utterly makes a fool of himself. He is the spoiled, visionless product of monied privilege. Perhaps it doesn't matter how smart or dumb he is; for all of his life, the world has been handed to him on a plate, and for most people, I guess that's just fine.
Re-read my post. Nowhere in it did I claim that people who have speech impediments or who cannot speak at all are unintelligent. There really is no need to deliberately misrepresent my point. I would daresay that Hawking is quite capable of composing a coherent thought without coaching. I would not say this about Bush, a president who is afraid of press conferences with the most uncritical Washington press corps in history.
So we're measuring intelligence with grades? I've been measuring Bush's intelligence by his ability to compose a coherent thought extemporaneously, and by my measure, he's failing....
Oh, you mean that one the two wealthy oilmen have been talking about? Please.
... These guys are unemployed now. The last thing they want to hear is how much you hated their product.
:-)
And jeez, was it really that bad? I felt that Nautilus showed great potential. Maybe the releases leading up to 1.0 weren't so hot, but I felt as if Eazel had been making strides. And I feel that we'll have quite a nice desktop environment by the time we get to Gnome 3.0.
Anyway, try to be nice... Some "community."
Maybe he "got" the movie, but maybe, like the first one, it was just a stupid movie. I just saw the first one a couple days ago, and I must say that I was quite disappointed. I like a good mindless swashbuckler action-adventure as much as anyone else--for God's sake, I loved The Fifth Element--but The Mummy was simply not fun. How do I hate The Mummy? Let me count the ways:
- Unimaginative action in the age of Yuen Woo Ping - Every time a bad guy shows up, somebody shoots it. Huh.
- Criminally unremarkable dialogue in a genre known for snappy one-liners - "I think we're in trouble." Next line: "I think we're in serious trouble." *Snore*
- Awful acting - This wouldn't be so bad if there was something else in the movie to enjoy.
- Offensive (not ironic) characterizations of people of color - I'll be damned if one of the Arabs in the movie didn't get directly compared to a hairy, stinky, spitting camel. Not to mention that all of the non-white people save one or two were either greedy simpering yes-men or bumbling idiots or both. Maybe this is a staple of the genre, but now that I'm not 10 years old, it pains me a bit more to see it.
Screw this. I think I'll go rent a Jackie Chan movie. His movies may be dumb, they may be shallow, and they're not so politically correct, but they sure as hell are always fun.Along with the Camel, "Effective Perl Programming" (Addison/Wesley, don't remember author's name), and the "Perl Cookbook," this has been one of my favorite programming books. Mind you, I'm not a seasoned hacker, so YMMV. But for anyone who already understands the basics of Perl, this book is a great way to learn something practical.
Like Chromatic, though, I really wished that the section on Parse::RecDescent had been longer...
god, that wasn't even funny -- just offensive. why does crap like this get modded up?
son of paperclip
in praise of Bayes
I also subscribed simply to get access to the online archives, so I hope the archives go back up. However, I'd be just as happy (if not happier) if the archives were open to non-subscribers as well.
Whatever happens, this is fantastic news...
In this postmodern|global|technocentric|connected|whatever age that we live in, there is a notion that changes in the manner in which people communicate as well as changes in commerce are eroding the traditional roles of nation-states. Katz is arguing the opposite: that states are becoming hyperreal. Take that word literally. Physical barriers to identity (borders, geography, sheer distance) are becoming irrelevant. The reaction to this is to boost the nation-state's role as the bounding entity of identity and ideology.
Katz thinks that the current crisis with China illustrates this. The idea is that the crux of the crisis are two conflicting cultural imperatives (China: You must apologize. U.S.: Never say sorry.) And, just like that, "real" (read: pragmatic) considerations are demoted.
Now, given that, 1) this is about apologies. Note that, depending on what point you're trying to make, what this is about will vary. "Political manoevering to use as a bargaining chip in any forthcoming negotiations?" Maybe. Without any supporting statements, it's not a very useful statement. 2) Right, the internet will not democratize China. It also won't revolutionize grassroots activism. It won't decentralize government. It won't create an enlightened, vibrant mass culture. It won't make shopping easier than ever before. It won't make me rich. But none of those points were Katz's point in this article.
it took me all of 10 seconds to find this page from the link given:
http://www.rcp.net.pe/ild/hernandodesoto.htm
hmph. it at least takes two hands. add to your list pilotwings, blast corps, waverace, mystical ninja, perfect dark, banjo-kazooie, mario 64
Okay, let's think about this sensibly. I point out that Asians and Asian Americans can be the victims of racism, and by doing so that makes me a racist? Or I mention that some people perpetuate a myth of Asian Americans as a model minority so that they can trivialize other ethnic groups' experiences of racism, and that makes a racist?
Care to back up what you're saying, or are you just trolling? Frankly, I don't think you took the time to grasp any arguments I put forth; otherwise you wouldn't be making such nonsensical claims.
For the record, I'm half-European-American, half-Vietnamese. I identify as an Asian American. I think I know what I am talking about, but I welcome your opinion--whatever your background--if you are able to back it up.
Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that I consider Asians as "honorary" whites. It's a problematic idea that I hear a lot of people saying.
Not to go off on a tangent, but I keep seeing references to Asians enjoying a discrimination-free environment in the tech industry, in contrast to African-Americans and Latinos. While one is likely to find more Asians and Asian Americans in the tech industry than African-Americans and Latinos, primarily due to economic reasons, it is absolutely untrue to claim that they don't face discrimination in the workplace.
Don't tell me you've never heard anyone make fun of an Indian or Pakistani programmer, at the very least. At my workplace, I've heard white programmers claim that the Indian programmers are lazy and unskilled, when there was clearly no evidence to support those assertions. I've heard people strain themselves to find excuses not to take Indian employees seriously--"They have poor communication skills"--sometimes true, but more likely, the critiquers have poor listening skills. When a big layoff occurred at my old job, the first people to get the axe where the Indian programmers, and they were some of the most talented employees. I could go on and on. And I bet most of you could also if you thought about it.
Last time I checked, the US was founded by whites on land originally inhabited by non-white people, whom the whites later systematically exterminated or turned into refugees.
Don't be silly, of course I know that the US was founded by whites, and thus its power structure, literature, history, and culture primarily reflects the interests of whites. My point is that those systems no longer reflect the lives and interests of the people who live under them. Our understanding of the world needs to change for us to begin operating in it sanely and fairly.
And is the idea that racism as a meaningful concept makes sense in terms of power relations really such a copout? I think the man who hates and holds the whip is something altogether different from the man who hates because he is whipped. To me, to deny this is a copout.
And yes, mean people are dumb. Mod that one up for insight.
"A variety of societal reasons" is right. Ultimately, we are going to continue to see instances of racism until society as a whole changes. And of course there's no simple answer because there's no single cause. Many women and many people of color don't make into the tech industry or the sciences because they are actively discouraged all their lives by peers as well as educators, they receive poor schooling, they simply can't afford college, etc.
And, look, to hold up Asians as some sort of model minority (Asians=honorary whites) is disingenuous at best, since it ignores a plethora of factors. Consider the fact that most (certainly not all, though) Asian Americans resident in the United States are 1st or 2nd generation residents. That makes a big difference for, again, a variety of reasons. Many Asian immigrants arrive as members of the middle class already and don't face as much of an uphill battle as, say, many African-Americans. On the other hand, consider the fact that many Asian Americans don't fall under these circumstances, and, like other people of color, don't have many economic opportunities and face (and have faced throughout history) withering discrimination at the cultural as well as personal level. I mention that because many folks like to hold up "the Asian example" as proof that racism no longer exists. Not true.
Okay, I wanted this to be more coherent and better supported, but it's time for lunch.
(Incidentally, I don't think anyone reasonable believes that MSFT has a corporate racist policy, but it's plausible to think that certain managers discriminate against African-Americans, whether out of consciously held racist beliefs or otherwise, and if it's true, guess what? Microsoft is responsible for its managers' actions.)
Oh, come on. Quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing the phrase "reverse discrimination" being bandied about as if it were meaningful. Take some time and think about what racism is. It's a system of oppression that works all the way up and down the social structure, systematically and non-systematically, formally and informally, consciously and unconsciously. And the key factor that gives various modes of racism their bite is power relations. "Reverse discrimination" is not equivalent to white discrimination against blacks, Latinos, Asians, native Americans, etc. The world we live in would have to be utterly different.
Let's be straight. This society is dominated by white people at every level. We have a white government, a white literature, a white history, white entertainment. Things have been changing tentatively and slowly for the better (where better means equal access and equal time for all people, not some sort of dimly imagined anti-white backlash, so calm down), but unless the configurations of power are completely reversed, charges of "reverse discrimination" really don't hold that much relative weight, and it's frankly insulting to compare it to the virulent racism that this country has known and still knows.
White people need to come off the defensive. Calm down. The world is still yours.
so as not to slight jon orwant and the other perl journal editors and contributors who have worked so hard over the last few years on a truly superb publication, i want to amend my above post with the comment that, though i'm annoyed at the prospect of a wasted subscription fee, i'm especially annoyed at the prospect of the termination of my favorite technical journal. thanks guys for the great magazine, and i hope it finds a new home.
aarrgh. what about us who just subscribed?