but this is bullshit, in almost all of the sciences we advanced because of someone who had more insight then anyone else, if any one of those stumbled we might not of gotten anywhere close to what we have today.
what if edison has succeded and we built a bunch of dc waystations across the entire country would we ever consider switching to AC? what if all the railway/trolley companies werent destroyed by the car/oil companies? what if we recounted bush vs gore would 9/11 still have happened? if Hitler's mom aborted would Germany still have turned out militant? what if einstein died in the holocaust and no one figured out general relativity till 50 years later? what if sony never broke with Nintendo and we ended up with a console monopoly by Nintendo?
historical determinism is bullshit spewed by people who cant create and try to bring down the accomplishments of others. just because you cant contribute shit doesn't mean other people wont.
edit: sorry, people that actually believe historical determinism piss me off
If Hitler hadn't been born, you would still have Mussolini and Stalin.
If Edison had succeeded, we could never have had anything like a national grid because DC transmission was too inefficient until long after the invention of the transistor.
Einstein was only one of several scientists working on theoretical physics near the turn of the 20th century; he didn't go from cave painting to special relativity all on his own.
The rest of your examples have nothing to do with scientific advancement.
You should read What Technology Wants. The first chapter or two contains a few leaps of logic, but the rest of the book makes a compelling case for emergent behavior leading to most of our scientific results.
but no holocaust and Mussolini/stalin were fuck ups, stalin only got power because of sheer population and being on the winning side.
EXACTLY we would of had a shitty inefficient grid because edison had a stranglehold at the time, this would of pushed back everything.
when einstein came up with special reliativity it was dubbed only 3 other people could understand it and no one else could of came up wit hit, he sped up the field by who knows ho many years.
so many of the world events were based on little things, and if we kept using electrical trolleys are knowledge of systems like that would of been much better.
did you just compare a game with a 15$ subscription and 40$ expansion packs for major updates and lvl bumps to a 10 dollar app? do you realize how asinine that is and how dumb you sound?
if i want to get to current content in WoW i would of had to get Vanilla(50$ at release) + burning crusade (40$ at release) + wrath of the lich king(40$ at release) + cataclysm(40$ at release) PLUS every month im paying 15$ on subscription
if i just buy vanila i would be limited to 1-60 content, not allowed full access to any of the later continents and cities, skills, talents, cant pvp properly, not allowed in arena, cant do any endgame, and am generally wasting my time. how is that at all conducive to what you are saying? for any real application that does work or major game that requires constant updates you cant expect support and update for 10$ that's completely unfeasible.
you sound like someone who never played world of warcraft in his life, and it baffles me how you came up with such a nonsensical rebuttal
>do you realize how asinine that is and how dumb you sound?
That was unnecessary and did not add to the conversation.
And I'm not sure that I understand your point. Parent comment is saying that apps can follow the WoW model to create a consistent revenue stream without paid version number upgrades. As you mention, "for any real application that does work or major game that requires constant updates you cant expect support and update for 10$ that's completely unfeasible."
you cant follow the wow model, the wow model requires constant fees every month, thats my whole point, when you play wow you pay blizzard constantly, and anytime there is a major update you pay another large chunk. you cant do that with a video editor, and its not like maps where you can segregate off chunks of content. like i said completely asinine, and unequatable in this circumstance, the fact that so many people agreed with such an obviously flawed argument speaks volumes.
pretty sure this is how ALL other software business view the consumer, what grooveshark does is no different then any of the other companies hiding behind giant eulas. except instead of screwing us the user with bait and switches and unreadable legal jargon they are protecting us behind it, if you upload something you don't own the rights to you can claim ignorance, if they get sued they can claim its against the eula everyone wins except the leeches. this is the least of any of our problems in tech right now go champion some other cause, but these content holders are the last people that needs championing
No matter how big a company or industry is it's still made up of people. No they don't need "championing" but they certainly don't deserve to be intentionally screwed by companies and then those companies supported.
Regardless of the law Grooveshark is taking another companies content without permission and making money from it. HN users go ape-shit when someone "steals" another startups website design, why does that sense of fairness and equality not extend to everyone?
what im saying is what grooveshark does is normal software business, and since the victims are people that are trying to destroy digital privacy for their own gain I dont give a shit and neither should you.
so lets put this together
1. this is the status quo to use eulas to protect your ass
2. the 'victims' are rolling in money and are shit people anyways
so given a limited amount of energy and political will why the hell would you ever champion this cause.
why would you make such a big deal out of this issue thats CLEARLY in a gray zone, especially when the people hurt are the idiots who are screwing you over
It bugs me when I see this. Neil deGrasse Tyson is asking to double NASAs, budget as if that would be the best place to have money spent on science research.
NASA was the answer to last century's space race. Throwing money at it is an old, simple solution. I'd love if people came out with more ideas like the x-prize. I can get behind those new ideas.
Edit: and it's not like the military doesn't spend a ton of money on scientific and space research
Europe is not like the USA, there is a significant cultural and language divide between states that stops people from hopping over the fence like that. if i were to pick up and move to california from New York, there would be almost 0 change (other then the stress of moving etc), not quite the same leap from spain to germany even if they are geographically closer
I do understand the language divide at least. But given a choice between unemployment and, say, working in a place where you don't speak the language, I know I'd pick work any day! At least you're picking up work skills and a second language, which is far better than sitting at home twiddling your thumbs.
But it's rarely as simple as a.) paycheck, different language or b.) no paycheck.
What about family, friends, hobbies, etc. There's plenty of people not willing to move to a different town/city/village in their own country for a job, yet alone to a different country.
That last sentence you write exposes your cultural bias towards work and skills. Its not quite the same in Spain. Just ask the architect next door, who with 2 years of unemployment is sitting around, waiting... Well, he is fixing his house up a bit...
That said, another out of work neighbor started a small business and my wife and I built him a small website and bootstrapped it a bit with an adwords 75 euro card. I wish more folks were like him...
I moved from Spain to the Netherlands with almost 0 change. Working on IT helps, of course, but it's still pretty easy. Jump on a plane, register on the city council, there you go.
I moved from the Netherlands to Spain (the south) with 0 change. Working in IT helps; I work remotely and do exactly the same as I did when I lived in the Netherlands. If you want to work you can, anywhere.
We actually were looking for IT people in Malaga, but it seems that people don't really want to work. I know enough companies from 'the north' looking for people in the south; people are just not applying and if they do they mostly ask for weird conditions... I know dev jobs for at least 100 people at different companies which cannot be filled in Malaga.
what? no one is blowing this out of proportion at all... no one has said some CEO knowingly went to Apple's Xcode website and stole the logo for profit. this however does illustrate perfectly how stupid the SOPA/ACTA brand of infringement enforcement is. no one was making any of the claims you said they were making, they just commented its hypocritical for NBC to be supporting strict enforcement with website takedowns and fines when they casually infringe themselves...
I really dislike posts like this that go all sanctimonious and apologetic when no one is making the outlandish attacks that you claim they are making
Flapping wings do not simply vibrate vertically. Wings are hinged so they can greatly reduce the amount of air they push back up on the up stroke and to generate significant amounts of lift it takes a really dramatic motion. You can see how bad the motion is by compare flapping motion 35 seconds in vs an actual bird.
Also, trying to generate the type of energy required for flight with your arms is significantly harder than your legs.
