I was a little confused how they used the link between human brain activity on different wave lengths to extract opinion from written text, but Neuro-linguistic programming is apparently not the most popular term with NLP as an acronym.
This could be a double edge sword for the government. What if it falls in the wrong hands? People all over could use the technology on the news to extract the real information, and realize that things are not what they seem.
Of course, I suppose that what they would probably do at that point is turn back to Fox, because it is more entertaining news, that is the reason the news sucks now anyways.
Here I am, Jerking off to Microsoft hate/Linux love, and then you bust out with your Linux can crash too bullshit.
It is like I was just staring down Jenna Jamisons tits, as they delightfully flop back and forth, when, just at the moment of climax, the camera focus shifts to sweaty balls slapping her ass hole.
Except this was worse.
Who wants to live like that? It's a shame some people don't get the chance to say "If I ever am in a situation where I can't survive on my own for a day, please, kill me, unless they are comming out with a cure, then SAVE MY ASS!"
Flamey? Not really meant to be.
And to the parent, full blown cell phone? A little melodramatic, don't you think?
Something like a human-based form of OnStar, but with a heart/lung monitor and an accelerometer/impact sensor (to detect the speed and severity of a fall).
Steve: Hey man, look at this!
Wally: *Reads Monitor* He fell 400 feet at negative 80 meters per second?
Steve: What a way to go
Yeah, It is gonna be a long night, I am feeling flamey. Fuck you bones, and your "prone to dangerous falls" bullshit!
Actually, posting his info as an AC makes him much smarter.
Eye for an eye, I suppose.
Really, the problem with what he did was that it had no point. It was just an attempt to embarrass people, and give their identity out to others. There is nothing comming out of this other than hassles for him in his life. I don't know how he could not have seen that comming.
When reading your post, I really realized something. I started getting sad as I thought about the woman playing WoW every night, and when I say that, I mean, really sad.
After that I got sad about thinking of my mother, sitting at home watching "House" and "Oprah". Then I got sad thinking about my sister, cleaning her room. And people who make model planes, and people who write books, and people who go to college.
Think about people, sitting at home, alone in their houses, writing posts for slashdot...
But now, I want you to think of something else....
Imagine, this woman, at work all day, looking forward to getting home to talk to her friends online. She gets there, she puts on her head set, she starts to talk, and they are all laughing and having a good time. Meanwhile my mother is sitting in front of the TV loving the artistic creation of a shot. Think about my sister, and a feeling of accomplishment and happiness as she finishes cleaning.
Picture a big smile on the face of someone who has finished their model plane, or their book, or their unique and insightfull post to slashdot.
Now imagine Kurt Cobain, rich, successfull, with all the women and social interaction anyone could ever want, with a shotgun in the mouth.
The point here is that, the reason what these people do with their lives has no value to you, is because you have had your mind trained that there is this thing called productivity, and that you must be productive. But productive isn't a personal choice, it is what the people who have controlled society for hundreds of years say it is.
You don't see value in this womans life, because you seek to take that value away. You are thinking negatively, and you are focusing on the bad. That seems more like your problem than hers. If you sit their and try to make someone feel bad, who was feeling good, who is the one who is messed up?
We live in a very difficult society, and "success" is generally something to do with making things for other people, as opposed to looking inward and focusing on what you like to do.
If your friends mom didn't play WoW all the time, would she automatically be doing some other great service to human kind? Maybe it is time people stop focusing on negative shit, and start looking to bring value to other people lives, as opposed to taking it.
If I were to get married in WoW, I would do it in Stormwind, i'd bang the skank half dead somewhere in darnassus, very nice ambience... After I got sick of her, I would put her down with death coil... I'd probably hide the body somewhere in Un'Goro.
Why is managing a business usefull? Joining the army? If you want to tell other people their interests are useless, you have to come up with a definition of usefull, and I don't think being in the army "leading men in combat" is it. There is no good, there is no bad, we are all just a collection of cells, looking to continue existing. There are plenty of very rich men, in empty suits, saving all their money for death. Useless? Maybe, maybe not. You know the meaning of life, shoot, but you will need a little more than an argument of "this is bad, it isn't this, which is good".
Ok, so why is playing a game and talking online meaningless?
Honestly, I have very few friends online, and have not met any friends through warcraft, but I beleive it happens, and there is no reason to think their friendship is any less meaningfull than any other friendship. There are several reasons for this...
1. If you meet someone through WoW, there is an astoundingly good chance that you happen to have something else in common, most likely many things. How is a bar, or a coffee shop, or a sporting event, or any other social thing different? It is a meeting place, it doesn't mean all you ever have to do is talk about the meeting place or related material, it is just one thing you can immediately talk about.
2. I have friends who have very few similar interests with me, but we are friends anyways because we have similar outlooks on life and can talk about that. Are you saying that all real friends must only speak of topical real interests?
3. Most importantly, you can not tell other people that their friendship is less valid. You don't know them, you don't see them interact, you have ZERO proof to back up your statement. If they like eachother, they have fun talking, who is to say that is the WRONG way to live? I'd say that pretty much everything in life is completely meaningless if you don't enjoy it, because it will inevitably be over, and all you have is the time that passed, i'd rather spend 100% playing WoW and being happy (if that were possible) than spend all my time being a cranky bastard (which is certainly possible:)
Also, I would like to say that in your statement "No one is who they pretend to be.", there is a very insightfull message... I am sure that you realize, however, that it does not just apply to rpgs.
I just cancelled my WoW account, and it will probably stay that way for awhile. I have other interests, hobbies, and games to play. Too long have I neglected the latest and greatest for WoW. But that game IS the most addictive game I have ever played, and it does so by adding a real human element, literally.
One of my favorite things to do with my LVL54 mage was to go back to the lower level areas, and just help the people asking for it. It was my way of giving back to the community. Plus, there is a real ego boost (yeah... I know I sound like a giant nerd) from laying waste to groups of elites by yourself.
There was also some girl I met (according to her... at least) that was really cool, she helped me learn the game for no real reason, other than she was being helpfull, she also had a cool handle, Nemesys. It is fun to play these games, because other people see your accomplishments, and the time doesn't feel wasted. Uhh... for the people who get married on WoW, I think that is kind of weird (I woudln't agree to meet any chick I talked to on WoW, for some strong stereotypical reasons) but it does go to show that this game has real life implications.
Any game that has direct influence on your life, other than the time played, is more than a game, it is a virtual reality of sorts.
Maybe he wouldn't have had children born from a hot chick if he wasn't famous for being a crazy crocodile hunter. Though I am sure that you already understand how to get hot chicks, and how important it is for your genes that you use them to pass on your genes, as opposed to ugly chicks.
There is a reason that we are attracted to better looking women, it is because it is hardwired into our brains that they will do a better job of producing attractive genes that will live on and be more successfull at survival and replication.
Steve Irwin did pretty well in the Darwin department.
Girl: WalnutMon, your penis is too small for me... Me: Shh... Be quiet! Girl: Why? Does it make you feel self conscious? Me: No, I don't give a shit, I just don't feel like having more penis enlargement advertisements sent to me via google's sound activated advertisement scheme Girl: I SURE NEED SOME VIBRATORS! Me: AND WIVES FROM RUSSIA!
This is a direct violation of my inalienable right as an inhabitant of this earth to have a right to life, and a right to privacy. I have never been so pissed off in my life. I can't even control my anger right now. Why can't these governments just let us live our lives the way that WE SEE FIT, without trying to monitor EVERYTHING WE DO! This is the last straw, I will RISE UP and fight this AT ALL COSTS. They will never take my FREEDOM.
Working sucks, and therefore I hope the internet goes down. If it did, my company would be screwed until it came back up. I would have the day off, and I could go home and play games. If MY internet connection went down, THAT would be terrible.
Walk into the forest, and take some honey. Now place this honey on the ground, and place a golden coin in the honey. Now when the little munchkin runs out and tries to take the coin, he is stuck. NOW you can finally interact with the little bastard. How did you not figure that one out?
Just playing with you Sierra, you know I love you.
The Beatles, who were one of the last bands to embrace CDs, haven't allowed any online service to sell their music. Solo songs from John Lennon, for instance, are not on iTunes but available on MSN Music and other sites.
Nice sentence... Dumbass, basically he just stated... "This band doesn't sell anything online, at all! An example of this is a guy from the band that sells his stuff online."
I have heard this argument quite a lot in this thread, but you have to realize that isn't really a very good analogy to releasing their music in albums.
A live concert is for fans who have shelled out to come see them, in person, they are going to give a full performance for their fans. The songs are generally already known by fans, that is why they went to the concert. It would be more like the artist doing concerts, but a fan could simply pay 3 dollars to hear a couple of the songs, and they leave during the songs they were not interested in hearing.
Releasing music on the radio is also different, because if a band is going to get their idea out, which SOME portray through an album, some through individual songs, they need some method to do so. You can't just make a CD and expect it to sell, you need people to hear something. So they put their best (or at least most catchy) foot forward, and hope that people like them enough to hear what they have actually put together.
What they want to avoid, or at least the ones who put out full comprehensive albums, is that they produce an album that has a point that they want conveyed, release a single, people love the single, people don't buy albums anymore so they buy the single and noone ever hears the album. Believe it or not, some artists actually care what you see, call them crazy, many will agree. Salvatore Dali was crazy, I bet you would have had a difficult time getting him to agree to cut out your favorite peice of one of his paintings to put on your starter cap. However, don't you agree that this is what is needed from more artists, and not less?
Because they signed a contract. Basically if an unknown band wants to get big time exposure, they need to sign up for a label (at least right now, things are shifting though) and contract their next many years to them. If they are successfull they can't just start releasing their own stuff on iTunes, it would be illegal.
Sound pretty unfair? It is. But it is the way things work right now.
First, you are completely wrong, second... What makes them idiots?
If you listen to albums that are simply a collection of songs made in a certain time span for a certain end date, then those artist will likely not care if it is sold in bits and peices on the internet. However, the bands that will take exception are the more progressive ones that see music as more than easy money. Frank Zappa devoted a large portion of his songs to making fun of people like you.
I doubt very much that Radiohead really cares about the extra money they lose because a handfull of people like you will not give them your extra 10 cents to listen to Creep. There is a reason for that too. It is because they are the artists, and the really good ones who deliver consistantly good music don't really care about marginal increases in profits, they care about making something that they feel is worth producing. They actually had an idea, and if you only listen to a small portion of their idea, they would rather you not listen at all. May seem like strange reasoning, but I guarantee a large portion of the greatist creative minds throughout history would echo Radioheads sentiments.
They created the work for us to enjoy, not for themselves to tell us how to enjoy.
Actually, many good artist are pretty damn narcisistic. They probably would rather someone like you die than enjoy one of their songs, just due to the principle of someone who "doesn't understand art" shouldn't be dancing to their backbeat.
Basically, what it comes down to, is while I agree that it may be their loss in some ways, they probably don't care about it very much. And that is what makes them different, it doesn't make them idiots.
Slashdot Mirror
I was a little confused how they used the link between human brain activity on different wave lengths to extract opinion from written text, but Neuro-linguistic programming is apparently not the most popular term with NLP as an acronym.
This could be a double edge sword for the government. What if it falls in the wrong hands? People all over could use the technology on the news to extract the real information, and realize that things are not what they seem.
Of course, I suppose that what they would probably do at that point is turn back to Fox, because it is more entertaining news, that is the reason the news sucks now anyways.
Here I am, Jerking off to Microsoft hate/Linux love, and then you bust out with your Linux can crash too bullshit. It is like I was just staring down Jenna Jamisons tits, as they delightfully flop back and forth, when, just at the moment of climax, the camera focus shifts to sweaty balls slapping her ass hole. Except this was worse.
Can't live for more than an hour?
Who wants to live like that? It's a shame some people don't get the chance to say "If I ever am in a situation where I can't survive on my own for a day, please, kill me, unless they are comming out with a cure, then SAVE MY ASS!"
Flamey? Not really meant to be.
And to the parent, full blown cell phone? A little melodramatic, don't you think?
Something like a human-based form of OnStar, but with a heart/lung monitor and an accelerometer/impact sensor (to detect the speed and severity of a fall).
Steve: Hey man, look at this!
Wally: *Reads Monitor* He fell 400 feet at negative 80 meters per second?
Steve: What a way to go
Yeah, It is gonna be a long night, I am feeling flamey. Fuck you bones, and your "prone to dangerous falls" bullshit!
Poets Are Shitty
A Haiku by Walnut mon
Poets are shitty,
Pretentious and retarded,
Poets are so gay,
Actually, posting his info as an AC makes him much smarter.
Eye for an eye, I suppose.
Really, the problem with what he did was that it had no point. It was just an attempt to embarrass people, and give their identity out to others. There is nothing comming out of this other than hassles for him in his life. I don't know how he could not have seen that comming.
When reading your post, I really realized something. I started getting sad as I thought about the woman playing WoW every night, and when I say that, I mean, really sad.
After that I got sad about thinking of my mother, sitting at home watching "House" and "Oprah". Then I got sad thinking about my sister, cleaning her room. And people who make model planes, and people who write books, and people who go to college.
Think about people, sitting at home, alone in their houses, writing posts for slashdot...
But now, I want you to think of something else....
Imagine, this woman, at work all day, looking forward to getting home to talk to her friends online. She gets there, she puts on her head set, she starts to talk, and they are all laughing and having a good time. Meanwhile my mother is sitting in front of the TV loving the artistic creation of a shot. Think about my sister, and a feeling of accomplishment and happiness as she finishes cleaning.
Picture a big smile on the face of someone who has finished their model plane, or their book, or their unique and insightfull post to slashdot.
Now imagine Kurt Cobain, rich, successfull, with all the women and social interaction anyone could ever want, with a shotgun in the mouth.
The point here is that, the reason what these people do with their lives has no value to you, is because you have had your mind trained that there is this thing called productivity, and that you must be productive. But productive isn't a personal choice, it is what the people who have controlled society for hundreds of years say it is.
You don't see value in this womans life, because you seek to take that value away. You are thinking negatively, and you are focusing on the bad. That seems more like your problem than hers. If you sit their and try to make someone feel bad, who was feeling good, who is the one who is messed up?
We live in a very difficult society, and "success" is generally something to do with making things for other people, as opposed to looking inward and focusing on what you like to do.
If your friends mom didn't play WoW all the time, would she automatically be doing some other great service to human kind? Maybe it is time people stop focusing on negative shit, and start looking to bring value to other people lives, as opposed to taking it.
If I were to get married in WoW, I would do it in Stormwind, i'd bang the skank half dead somewhere in darnassus, very nice ambience... After I got sick of her, I would put her down with death coil... I'd probably hide the body somewhere in Un'Goro.
Why is managing a business usefull? Joining the army? If you want to tell other people their interests are useless, you have to come up with a definition of usefull, and I don't think being in the army "leading men in combat" is it. There is no good, there is no bad, we are all just a collection of cells, looking to continue existing. There are plenty of very rich men, in empty suits, saving all their money for death. Useless? Maybe, maybe not. You know the meaning of life, shoot, but you will need a little more than an argument of "this is bad, it isn't this, which is good".
Ok, so why is playing a game and talking online meaningless?
:)
Honestly, I have very few friends online, and have not met any friends through warcraft, but I beleive it happens, and there is no reason to think their friendship is any less meaningfull than any other friendship. There are several reasons for this...
1. If you meet someone through WoW, there is an astoundingly good chance that you happen to have something else in common, most likely many things. How is a bar, or a coffee shop, or a sporting event, or any other social thing different? It is a meeting place, it doesn't mean all you ever have to do is talk about the meeting place or related material, it is just one thing you can immediately talk about.
2. I have friends who have very few similar interests with me, but we are friends anyways because we have similar outlooks on life and can talk about that. Are you saying that all real friends must only speak of topical real interests?
3. Most importantly, you can not tell other people that their friendship is less valid. You don't know them, you don't see them interact, you have ZERO proof to back up your statement. If they like eachother, they have fun talking, who is to say that is the WRONG way to live? I'd say that pretty much everything in life is completely meaningless if you don't enjoy it, because it will inevitably be over, and all you have is the time that passed, i'd rather spend 100% playing WoW and being happy (if that were possible) than spend all my time being a cranky bastard (which is certainly possible
Also, I would like to say that in your statement "No one is who they pretend to be.", there is a very insightfull message... I am sure that you realize, however, that it does not just apply to rpgs.
It's unspeakably annoying to be at a party with a critical mass of these people
Critical Mass... My Mage fire spec has 5 talent points in critical mass... mmm... nerdly...
Is that the kind of thing you are trying to keep out of your party?
I just cancelled my WoW account, and it will probably stay that way for awhile. I have other interests, hobbies, and games to play. Too long have I neglected the latest and greatest for WoW. But that game IS the most addictive game I have ever played, and it does so by adding a real human element, literally.
One of my favorite things to do with my LVL54 mage was to go back to the lower level areas, and just help the people asking for it. It was my way of giving back to the community. Plus, there is a real ego boost (yeah... I know I sound like a giant nerd) from laying waste to groups of elites by yourself.
There was also some girl I met (according to her... at least) that was really cool, she helped me learn the game for no real reason, other than she was being helpfull, she also had a cool handle, Nemesys. It is fun to play these games, because other people see your accomplishments, and the time doesn't feel wasted. Uhh... for the people who get married on WoW, I think that is kind of weird (I woudln't agree to meet any chick I talked to on WoW, for some strong stereotypical reasons) but it does go to show that this game has real life implications.
Any game that has direct influence on your life, other than the time played, is more than a game, it is a virtual reality of sorts.
it is because the walnutmon, as I invented him in high school IS jamaican, he is the jamaican walnut mon, mon, get it :)
Maybe he wouldn't have had children born from a hot chick if he wasn't famous for being a crazy crocodile hunter. Though I am sure that you already understand how to get hot chicks, and how important it is for your genes that you use them to pass on your genes, as opposed to ugly chicks. There is a reason that we are attracted to better looking women, it is because it is hardwired into our brains that they will do a better job of producing attractive genes that will live on and be more successfull at survival and replication. Steve Irwin did pretty well in the Darwin department.
Girl: WalnutMon, your penis is too small for me...
Me: Shh... Be quiet!
Girl: Why? Does it make you feel self conscious?
Me: No, I don't give a shit, I just don't feel like having more penis enlargement advertisements sent to me via google's sound activated advertisement scheme
Girl: I SURE NEED SOME VIBRATORS!
Me: AND WIVES FROM RUSSIA!
This is a direct violation of my inalienable right as an inhabitant of this earth to have a right to life, and a right to privacy. I have never been so pissed off in my life. I can't even control my anger right now. Why can't these governments just let us live our lives the way that WE SEE FIT, without trying to monitor EVERYTHING WE DO! This is the last straw, I will RISE UP and fight this AT ALL COSTS. They will never take my FREEDOM.
Oscar
Working sucks, and therefore I hope the internet goes down. If it did, my company would be screwed until it came back up. I would have the day off, and I could go home and play games. If MY internet connection went down, THAT would be terrible.
I bought the oblivion strategy guide just because of the beautiful look to the guide. I never cracked it open.
A well informed finacial decision.
Walk into the forest, and take some honey. Now place this honey on the ground, and place a golden coin in the honey. Now when the little munchkin runs out and tries to take the coin, he is stuck. NOW you can finally interact with the little bastard. How did you not figure that one out?
Just playing with you Sierra, you know I love you.
The sight of burly installers in dainty slip-ons might induce snickers.
Um... What was this writer thinking the cable companies were going to do to attract business?
Slashdot's new "Discussion System"
I am a computer engineer who has worked for 2 years in the field... and I didn't know that.
The Beatles, who were one of the last bands to embrace CDs, haven't allowed any online service to sell their music. Solo songs from John Lennon, for instance, are not on iTunes but available on MSN Music and other sites.
Nice sentence... Dumbass, basically he just stated... "This band doesn't sell anything online, at all! An example of this is a guy from the band that sells his stuff online."
I have heard this argument quite a lot in this thread, but you have to realize that isn't really a very good analogy to releasing their music in albums.
A live concert is for fans who have shelled out to come see them, in person, they are going to give a full performance for their fans. The songs are generally already known by fans, that is why they went to the concert. It would be more like the artist doing concerts, but a fan could simply pay 3 dollars to hear a couple of the songs, and they leave during the songs they were not interested in hearing.
Releasing music on the radio is also different, because if a band is going to get their idea out, which SOME portray through an album, some through individual songs, they need some method to do so. You can't just make a CD and expect it to sell, you need people to hear something. So they put their best (or at least most catchy) foot forward, and hope that people like them enough to hear what they have actually put together.
What they want to avoid, or at least the ones who put out full comprehensive albums, is that they produce an album that has a point that they want conveyed, release a single, people love the single, people don't buy albums anymore so they buy the single and noone ever hears the album. Believe it or not, some artists actually care what you see, call them crazy, many will agree. Salvatore Dali was crazy, I bet you would have had a difficult time getting him to agree to cut out your favorite peice of one of his paintings to put on your starter cap. However, don't you agree that this is what is needed from more artists, and not less?
Because they signed a contract. Basically if an unknown band wants to get big time exposure, they need to sign up for a label (at least right now, things are shifting though) and contract their next many years to them. If they are successfull they can't just start releasing their own stuff on iTunes, it would be illegal.
Sound pretty unfair? It is. But it is the way things work right now.
First, you are completely wrong, second... What makes them idiots?
If you listen to albums that are simply a collection of songs made in a certain time span for a certain end date, then those artist will likely not care if it is sold in bits and peices on the internet. However, the bands that will take exception are the more progressive ones that see music as more than easy money. Frank Zappa devoted a large portion of his songs to making fun of people like you.
I doubt very much that Radiohead really cares about the extra money they lose because a handfull of people like you will not give them your extra 10 cents to listen to Creep. There is a reason for that too. It is because they are the artists, and the really good ones who deliver consistantly good music don't really care about marginal increases in profits, they care about making something that they feel is worth producing. They actually had an idea, and if you only listen to a small portion of their idea, they would rather you not listen at all. May seem like strange reasoning, but I guarantee a large portion of the greatist creative minds throughout history would echo Radioheads sentiments.
They created the work for us to enjoy, not for themselves to tell us how to enjoy.
Actually, many good artist are pretty damn narcisistic. They probably would rather someone like you die than enjoy one of their songs, just due to the principle of someone who "doesn't understand art" shouldn't be dancing to their backbeat.
Basically, what it comes down to, is while I agree that it may be their loss in some ways, they probably don't care about it very much. And that is what makes them different, it doesn't make them idiots.