Published 2012-03-26 23:20 by Abscissa in General
Is there some some federal regulation that all toasters sold in the US must be 50's retro? Or are you just not permitted to design a toaster unless you're a die-hard 50's fan?
Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome you can go buy a toaster that looks like it belongs on the set of Grease. But it would be even more awesome if you could get a quality toaster that didn't.
Published 2012-02-13 12:42 by Abscissa in General
Consider things like Partridge Family, Brady Bunch, or The Sound of Music. Now, somebody refers to one of those with "That's really gay!" I bet you're jerking your knee right now over some notion of sexual discrimination.
Anyone who isn't a complete moron is aware the word "gay" has two meanings:
As an exercise to those of you who read "That's really gay!" as referring to homosexuality: Point out the homosexuality in Partridge Family, Brady Bunch, and The Sound of Music. (I'll give you a cookie when you find it.)
Obviously there is none. But they are extremely well-known for depicting "happy, happy, happy!" to a freakish degree.
Therefore, when someone uses "That's gay" to refer to those or other such shows, music, etc., there are two possibilities:
Bottom line:
Published 2012-02-04 14:25 by Abscissa in General
Normal people are already well aware of this, but those big in computers apparently need to be told:
"Ancient: Of or in time long past, especially before the end of the Western Roman Empire"
The important thing to be aware of here is that "two years", or even "two decades", fails to qualify as "ancient" by a wide margin.
Published 2012-01-18 01:14 by Abscissa in General
SOPA/PIPA is obviously Orwellian idiocy. In fact, it's so moronic, that even most of its former supporters ended up abandoning it. It's dying, it's been dying, and chances are it'll be dead by the end of the month.
And yet, we're having a big internet blackout day to stop it. But, let's take a moment to fully appreciate how this is supposed to work: Today, all the sites that are opposed to this fleeting carcass of a bill are supposed to shut down thereby forcing their users towards...the sites of those few companies who would embrace the Orwellian SOPA/PIPA? Umm...ok?
Alright, suppose I'm wrong and these fascist bills do manage to pass - just as the corrupt douchebag politicians passed the DMCA years ago. Am I really supposed to believe that's immutably "Game Over: They Win"? Well it will be if Americans repeat their reaction to the DMCA; that is, to roll over and say "Oh, ok, a bunch of out-of-touch politicians said this is so, so that's just how it is and we'd all better comply."
Jesus fuck, has nobody learned anything from Henry David Thoreau?
When an unjust law is passed, especially by corrupt out-of-touch lawmakers, you have a moral obligation to disregard it, if not flagrantly break it.
(I seem to remember the Germans rolling over for unjust leaders about, oh, 70-some years ago. Look how wonderfully their subservience turned out. Gee, heaven forbid anyone should have enough of a moral compass to rock the boat.)
If people (especially those in justice or law enforcement) aren't demonstrably willing to stand up and take a big steaming piss on unjust already-passed laws, then crap like SOPA/PIPA/DMCA/etc. are only going to keep popping up. Eventually, some of that shit flung against the wall is going to stick. And no "awareness day" stunt, no matter how big or small, is ever going to do a damn thing to stop that pattern.
This is still supposed to be a country run by the people, not by "the corporate entities" or even the lawmakers. So don't go pulling another DMCA: No matter what happens with SOPA/PIPA, have the balls - and the basic integrity - to exercise the power that you are constitutionally entitled to.
And as far as the ill-conceived SOPA blackout day: Fuck, I have better things to do today than deal with self-crippled sites and play "follow the leader".
Published 2012-01-14 04:29 by Abscissa in General
Alright, I'm more than fed up with this. It's long past time to get this straight:
Really.
Hollywood is wrong (gee, how could that be?!), and your friends are wrong. Tourette's is not swearing. Involuntary swearing is an entirely different thing known (by those few people who actually have a slight clue what they're talking about) as Coprolalia.
Even the most basic Internet research would have made that blatantly clear:
And yes, while it does say that a small percentage of people with Tourette's also have Coprolalia, it also makes it clear that Coprolalia isn't even limited to Tourette's patients at all. Tourette's is not swearing.
If you don't trust WebMD or Wikipedia, then go check a formal medical book. Really. Do it. Now. Prove me wrong.
So can we as a society finally grow up and move on now?
Published 2012-01-07 22:01 by Abscissa in General
Random thought of the day:
Communism sounds great on paper (Well, except maybe the whole "bloody revolution" thing...) Apparently though, it turned out not to work.
Open source, on the other hand, is much like communism, at least in general philosophy, but it actually does seem to work. And quite well, too.
I've heard that the currently prevalent archaeological belief is that the Egyptian pyramids were built by volunteers as a community project, not by slave labor as previously thought (and as apparently still thought by Hollywood). Kind of makes sense, actually, since intrinsic motivators are well known to be far more effective than extrinsic ones, and that would have been important since it was an enormous physical, logistical and...engineerical(?) undertaking. 'Course that does still leave open the possibility of mass brainwashing into submission by the Goa'uld or the Ori...
And those pyramids (minus the Stargate tangent) actually sound similar to another story I've heard about a community-built Soviet project (a bridge, IIRC?) that was apparently the exception to the rule and actually did manage to work out. (Yea, I'm a real global expert, aren't I?)
Maybe the problem (or "a" problem?) with communism was that it was too large-scale. Or maybe people just weren't ready for it. Perhaps the key is to use it in certain individual projects rather than as a fundamental base - much like OOP or functional programming. Or maybe I just don't actually know a fucking thing about what the term "communism" really means...Which is entirely possible...