What euphemism would you rather people use, milady?
(Remember the time when people didn't automatically assume they were qualified to speculate as to others' motivations, and found better things to do than bicker over semantics?)
It's within my "rights" to call you a simpering faggot with a Napolean complex, but that doesn't necessarily make doing so the right (and/or moral) thing to do.
Maybe you should quit jerking off over these purely semantic notions you seem to have acquired, pull your head out of your ass, take a good long look around you, and form a spontaneous conclusion or two, based not upon "given Deeply Held Value x and stimulus of situation y ergo z", but rather "situation y is bullshit, pure and simple, ergo it is wrong, and if Deeply Held Value x contradicts this basic notion, then Deeply Held Value x must itself be less than fully correct, full-stop, end of sentence, end of chapter".
When you steal something from a store, you are necessarily depriving some other person of that particular item. If I walk into Best Buy and walk out with a stolen eMachine, that's an eMachine that somebody else will never have. Granted, I'm sure there are those who would classify depriving somebody of an eMachine as "good Samitarianship" - but you get my basic point.
It should be needless to say, but by downloading the game through piratebay, I am not directly depriving anybody of that game*. So the two cases are different enough that you can't really take a "good for the goose, good for the gander" approach to this.
* - I suppose one could make the argument that by grabbing a working CD key and registering it online, I may be depriving somebody of that CD key. It'd be a technicality, but this is slashdot, after all. What remains, though, is that the eMachine in the above example is a limited resource by its very nature. The CD-key is an artificially limited construct, and while perhaps similar, I still do not feel the two situations really equate.
Twist it around. By not pirating the game, you're putting some trust in Rockstar to attribute the shitty sales of the game to the copy protection, rather than one of the myriad "'old Hollywood' style" excuses of the past ("they didn't like it because the lead character was from Eastern Europe / because the packaging contained too much muave / because they were confused by the "open world" / because it was released on an odd-numbered day"). By not pirating the game, you're trusting Rockstar to get over the perhaps-well-intentioned but certainly-shallow advice of the suits. By not pirating the game, you're trusting the little guys of Rockstar to strike a blow for common sense, rather than go all Milgram on our asses. By not pirating the game, you're trusting Rockstar to give a fuck.
Why should we, the potential consumer, trust Rockstar, if that's how the majority of large game companies act?
God bless the benevolent corporation. May They continue to shine Their light down upon us. Thou shalt not steal. Thieving infidels be cursed. Buy a product everyday. Peace®.
Yeah, peaceful, non-harmful, "honorable citizen" Democratic-approved non-threatening "protest" really gets results. After all, that's how President McGovern was able to end the Vietnam War...
The "mellowing and depth" of the aged mind which you cherish may well be a natural by-product of the aging process. Cells die, neurons don't fire in the quick staccato of youth, and in the ever-lengthening gaps, we find "wisdom".
Because the "anti-arthritis" gene may be a recessive trait. Alternatively, if you kill their entire families, eventually you'll either have to draw a line somewhere, or wipe out the entire planet. No, it'd be much more logical to have a harem of healthy thirty year old women ready to procreate with any 90 year old man not suffering from arthritis. Hopefully it's not an X-linked gene.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a scientist, or even particularly intelligent
Only a Fredrickian would consider the drive to Rockville anything other than a "schlep":)
I went there for the free 1GB SD card they offered when first opening, and upon arriving at the store the lack of registers was pretty much my first critical thought. I think they have maybe eight total possible checkout counters... compared to the fifty at Fry's.
What used to be really cool was a store in the same mall, near the Hobby Works... something-something Software Exchange. Basically a niche store filled with old software, in the box and everything. I remember picking up a copy of a Jeopardy game for $5 that ended up giving the computer a virus, and staring curiously at the copy of Earl Weaver Baseball 2 Deluxe. Them were the days...
Of course, this was right as internet access was hitting consumer-level, so their business model didn't last long... now they've changed their name and are little more than a service store with some random over-priced hardware here and there. A pity, but c'est la vie.
Ah, yes, Unencylopedia. A veritable melting pot of thirteen year olds and non-native English speakers desperately flailing around in the hopes that sooner or later somebody will say something funny.
Sorta like the "infinite monkeys on infinite type-writers" thought-experiment, only there's more Chuck Norris jokes and nobody ends up writing Hamlet.
0. Get involved in content dispute with paint-huffing retard.
1. Leave message on other editor's talk page. Get ignored / threatened / whined at / banned (choose one)
2. Leave message on article's talk page. Wait one week for someone besides yourself and the other guy to chime in. Get sucked into ridiculously pretentious, drawn-out argument.
3. Go to Requests for Comment. Get yelled at by some condescending beardo because you skipped a step, god what a newb you are.
4. Go to Peer Mediation section. Wait one month for the queue to drain. Get yelled at by some condescending beardo because you dumb fuck you should be posting in "Outside Opinions" not Peer Mediation god what a stupid little newblet you are.
5. Go to Outside Opinions. Wait a day or two. Realize that anybody and everybody who pays attention to this page is a fucking moron who offers only the most ineffectual, waffling advice possible. (note that one time in seven you'll find someone with half a brain, which basically unlocks a long ending cinematic where they do everything for you. Sorta like that one disc of Xenosaga, except more typos)
6. Realize that you've wasted weeks of your life to this useless Wikipedia shit.
7. Post "FUCK YOU NIGGER I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL YOU FAGGOT FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU" and/or long, rambling, shaggy-dog death threats on the talk pages of anybody and everybody. Post links to one of the "SlimVirgin is Linda Mack" tell-alls in highly visable places for style points.
8. Get banned.
9. Register new account, repeat step 6.
10. Once your entire neighborhood is banned from Wikipedia, sit back and congratulate yourself. You have resolved the dispute.
11. (New Game+) Go back to step 0. This time, you play the role of the paint-huffing retard. Make sure to be completely, willfully, flagrantly stupid, yet remain as cheerful and polite as possible. This keeps you safe from the banhammer, prolonging the game and making it more fun for everybody involved.
I'd still wager that the quality of the writing is still better than the average disjointed Wikipedia article, regardless of which contains more raw information.
You'd sound about 100% less irritating if you'd just call it a "running gag" or "inside joke" like those of us who don't live life inside a Douglas Copeland book.
(and it figures someone who spells "useful" with two L's would be fond of Wikipedia's, er, "style of prose":))
Oh, ninjas, that's pretty funny! hehehehehehe... the only thing that could make that any funnier would be like if you had some pirates in there maybe. SHIVER ME TIMBERS and ninjas hahahaha god they're so WACKY!
The local Comp*USA went out of business about six months ago. They were like the pricier, smaller, and less exciting version of Best Buy (which is the pricier, smaller, and less exciting version of Fry's - God, that's the one thing I miss most about living on the west coast). Anyway, long story short, the only good part about Comp*USA was not giving money to Best Buy when I needed something computer-related that day, right then. Fucking D.C.
The "final week clearance" finally had some okay deals. Nothing too great, but stuff like no-name PS/2 keyboards with the stupid "function" key for $3 a pop, 100-spindle DVD-Rs for around $40... I picked up a couple SD-cards as well. You know it's sad that when stuff's 70% off, it's still barely less pricey than ordering online.
They finally opened up a MicroCenter in the location where Comp*USA used to be. Sweet, sweet heaven... it's like Fry's, except, yeah, only about 1/3rd the size.
I think the big difference between Wikipedia and a textbook is that a textbook is professional-quality writing. Kids these days are struggling enough as it is with writing (take a quick trip around the web in case you forgot to agree with me there:)), they need all the "examples via osmosis" that they can get.
Slashdot Mirror
What euphemism would you rather people use, milady?
(Remember the time when people didn't automatically assume they were qualified to speculate as to others' motivations, and found better things to do than bicker over semantics?)
It's within my "rights" to call you a simpering faggot with a Napolean complex, but that doesn't necessarily make doing so the right (and/or moral) thing to do.
Maybe you should quit jerking off over these purely semantic notions you seem to have acquired, pull your head out of your ass, take a good long look around you, and form a spontaneous conclusion or two, based not upon "given Deeply Held Value x and stimulus of situation y ergo z", but rather "situation y is bullshit, pure and simple, ergo it is wrong, and if Deeply Held Value x contradicts this basic notion, then Deeply Held Value x must itself be less than fully correct, full-stop, end of sentence, end of chapter".
When you steal something from a store, you are necessarily depriving some other person of that particular item. If I walk into Best Buy and walk out with a stolen eMachine, that's an eMachine that somebody else will never have. Granted, I'm sure there are those who would classify depriving somebody of an eMachine as "good Samitarianship" - but you get my basic point.
It should be needless to say, but by downloading the game through piratebay, I am not directly depriving anybody of that game*. So the two cases are different enough that you can't really take a "good for the goose, good for the gander" approach to this.
* - I suppose one could make the argument that by grabbing a working CD key and registering it online, I may be depriving somebody of that CD key. It'd be a technicality, but this is slashdot, after all. What remains, though, is that the eMachine in the above example is a limited resource by its very nature. The CD-key is an artificially limited construct, and while perhaps similar, I still do not feel the two situations really equate.
Twist it around. By not pirating the game, you're putting some trust in Rockstar to attribute the shitty sales of the game to the copy protection, rather than one of the myriad "'old Hollywood' style" excuses of the past ("they didn't like it because the lead character was from Eastern Europe / because the packaging contained too much muave / because they were confused by the "open world" / because it was released on an odd-numbered day"). By not pirating the game, you're trusting Rockstar to get over the perhaps-well-intentioned but certainly-shallow advice of the suits. By not pirating the game, you're trusting the little guys of Rockstar to strike a blow for common sense, rather than go all Milgram on our asses. By not pirating the game, you're trusting Rockstar to give a fuck.
Why should we, the potential consumer, trust Rockstar, if that's how the majority of large game companies act?
Yes, that is exactly it.
I am going to avoid SecuROM by downloading the game from the pirate bay. Even though I'll buy the game.
Awesome, so Rockstar has the chance to get your $50, then have a shot at busting you for piracy as well? BONUS!
One man's "intellectual honesty" is another man's "simple mindedness". Just look at the hard-hitting "intellectual honesty" of the far-Right.
God bless the benevolent corporation. May They continue to shine Their light down upon us. Thou shalt not steal. Thieving infidels be cursed. Buy a product everyday. Peace®.
Yeah, peaceful, non-harmful, "honorable citizen" Democratic-approved non-threatening "protest" really gets results. After all, that's how President McGovern was able to end the Vietnam War...
The "mellowing and depth" of the aged mind which you cherish may well be a natural by-product of the aging process. Cells die, neurons don't fire in the quick staccato of youth, and in the ever-lengthening gaps, we find "wisdom".
And, no, I am NOT an American.
No, but you have the rethorical skills of one. ;)
Because the "anti-arthritis" gene may be a recessive trait. Alternatively, if you kill their entire families, eventually you'll either have to draw a line somewhere, or wipe out the entire planet. No, it'd be much more logical to have a harem of healthy thirty year old women ready to procreate with any 90 year old man not suffering from arthritis. Hopefully it's not an X-linked gene.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a scientist, or even particularly intelligent
It's only ignorant if it's wrong. He happens to be correct.
Hi. I'm from the U.S. I have the same right.
You might want to brush up on those charming English libel laws of yours.
It's called "traffic shaping".
Canadians use the metric byte, you ignorant and inferior American clown. Thusly they have no need for our pathetic American-brand DVD-recordables.
Only a Fredrickian would consider the drive to Rockville anything other than a "schlep" :)
I went there for the free 1GB SD card they offered when first opening, and upon arriving at the store the lack of registers was pretty much my first critical thought. I think they have maybe eight total possible checkout counters... compared to the fifty at Fry's.
What used to be really cool was a store in the same mall, near the Hobby Works... something-something Software Exchange. Basically a niche store filled with old software, in the box and everything. I remember picking up a copy of a Jeopardy game for $5 that ended up giving the computer a virus, and staring curiously at the copy of Earl Weaver Baseball 2 Deluxe. Them were the days...
Of course, this was right as internet access was hitting consumer-level, so their business model didn't last long... now they've changed their name and are little more than a service store with some random over-priced hardware here and there. A pity, but c'est la vie.
Ah, yes, Unencylopedia. A veritable melting pot of thirteen year olds and non-native English speakers desperately flailing around in the hopes that sooner or later somebody will say something funny.
Sorta like the "infinite monkeys on infinite type-writers" thought-experiment, only there's more Chuck Norris jokes and nobody ends up writing Hamlet.
0. Get involved in content dispute with paint-huffing retard.
1. Leave message on other editor's talk page. Get ignored / threatened / whined at / banned (choose one)
2. Leave message on article's talk page. Wait one week for someone besides yourself and the other guy to chime in. Get sucked into ridiculously pretentious, drawn-out argument.
3. Go to Requests for Comment. Get yelled at by some condescending beardo because you skipped a step, god what a newb you are.
4. Go to Peer Mediation section. Wait one month for the queue to drain. Get yelled at by some condescending beardo because you dumb fuck you should be posting in "Outside Opinions" not Peer Mediation god what a stupid little newblet you are.
5. Go to Outside Opinions. Wait a day or two. Realize that anybody and everybody who pays attention to this page is a fucking moron who offers only the most ineffectual, waffling advice possible. (note that one time in seven you'll find someone with half a brain, which basically unlocks a long ending cinematic where they do everything for you. Sorta like that one disc of Xenosaga, except more typos)
6. Realize that you've wasted weeks of your life to this useless Wikipedia shit.
7. Post "FUCK YOU NIGGER I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL YOU FAGGOT FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU" and/or long, rambling, shaggy-dog death threats on the talk pages of anybody and everybody. Post links to one of the "SlimVirgin is Linda Mack" tell-alls in highly visable places for style points.
8. Get banned.
9. Register new account, repeat step 6.
10. Once your entire neighborhood is banned from Wikipedia, sit back and congratulate yourself. You have resolved the dispute.
11. (New Game+) Go back to step 0. This time, you play the role of the paint-huffing retard. Make sure to be completely, willfully, flagrantly stupid, yet remain as cheerful and polite as possible. This keeps you safe from the banhammer, prolonging the game and making it more fun for everybody involved.
I'd still wager that the quality of the writing is still better than the average disjointed Wikipedia article, regardless of which contains more raw information.
You'd sound about 100% less irritating if you'd just call it a "running gag" or "inside joke" like those of us who don't live life inside a Douglas Copeland book.
(and it figures someone who spells "useful" with two L's would be fond of Wikipedia's, er, "style of prose"
Hmm... if you love Wikipedia so much, why don't you fuck it?
Oh, ninjas, that's pretty funny! hehehehehehe... the only thing that could make that any funnier would be like if you had some pirates in there maybe. SHIVER ME TIMBERS and ninjas hahahaha god they're so WACKY!
He's using economic vocabulary, but something can be "profitable to society" without making anyone money.
Read a book, you literalist cretin.
The local Comp*USA went out of business about six months ago. They were like the pricier, smaller, and less exciting version of Best Buy (which is the pricier, smaller, and less exciting version of Fry's - God, that's the one thing I miss most about living on the west coast). Anyway, long story short, the only good part about Comp*USA was not giving money to Best Buy when I needed something computer-related that day, right then. Fucking D.C.
The "final week clearance" finally had some okay deals. Nothing too great, but stuff like no-name PS/2 keyboards with the stupid "function" key for $3 a pop, 100-spindle DVD-Rs for around $40... I picked up a couple SD-cards as well. You know it's sad that when stuff's 70% off, it's still barely less pricey than ordering online.
They finally opened up a MicroCenter in the location where Comp*USA used to be. Sweet, sweet heaven... it's like Fry's, except, yeah, only about 1/3rd the size.
I think the big difference between Wikipedia and a textbook is that a textbook is professional-quality writing. Kids these days are struggling enough as it is with writing (take a quick trip around the web in case you forgot to agree with me there :)), they need all the "examples via osmosis" that they can get.