Our culture celebrates violence and those who commit it, and fetishizes the implements of violence. We find it in every medium, in every form of entertainment. Naturally it's in our games. I do think it's worth asking whether the unprecedented degree to which video games revel in gore and the act of killing is a good thing. To reduce this question to the shallow variant 'do video games cause massacres' is childish.
This post is coherent, makes an actual point, is not abusive. I can't agree with keeping the gov't from pressuring corporations: if the gov't didn't pressure corporations we'd still be driving around without seat belts in our cars. Still, I'm damned if I can understand the problem other TD's have with the post. Maybe ootb has trained them so well that opposing him has become a reflex.
This post is coherent, makes an actual point, is not abusive. I can't agree with keeping the gov't from pressuring corporations: if the gov't didn't pressure corporations we'd still be driving around without seat belts in our cars. Still, I'm damned if I can understand the problem other TD's have with the post. Maybe ootb has trained them so well that opposing him has become a reflex.
2/10: your contempt for the people you satirize shouldn't be so glaring, it should just seep through around the edges like peanut butter squished between slices of bread.
What's this "car" you speak of? All my relatives are in the cloud; I just download whatever grandma I want. I've got more grandmas than I could possibly visit in a lifetime on my hard drive. How come no one ever celebrates that? Tired of this dusty old grandma? Push a button, boom! brand new shiny grandma!
You're modulating the message of the graphic and Mike's article. I don't in the main disagree with your last paragraph. But it isn't what the graphic conveys, and it isn't what Mike says.
>> especially when you ignore some direct questions
I thought they were rhetorical, but here goes:
>> Maybe you need to take better care of yours, or at least invest in a protective case?
Good for you that you've never broken the screen of your phone. Here are some of the people who haven't been so fortunate: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=shattered%20iphone I bet if they had all carried their phones around in a box full of styrofoam, the screens would not have broken.
>> When was the last time you honestly bought a calculator? ... But whose experience is closest to the average person? Are the daily needs of the average person better met by the iPhone or by carrying around a TI83?
For the record, all of the calculators I bought were bought honestly. It's self-apparent that the average person doesn't need a TI-83 on a daily basis. But when a person needs a TI-83 -- in my case it was for college math courses -- then a TI-83 is what they need.
>> You are aware that there's more than one calculator app available, right? Including ones that seek to emulate the TI83 directly?
This would not have been permitted in any of the classes I attended. And I would not take a class where my fellow students are allowed to whip out their phones during an exam. I trust an explanation of this stance is unnecessary.
>> How is the graphic creepy, by the way?
The graphic is creepy because it's manipulative, deliberately presenting its chosen items in the most quaintly antiquated forms it can plausibly get away with (the telephone is a model that was already passing out of style when I was a boy), breezily suggesting that the existence of all those things (gosh! there's so many!) was somehow a problem that the iPhone's existence solves, breezily ignoring that for many of those devices, their form factor is inseparable from their utility, breezily implying that the output of the iPhone app is in each case equivalent to the output of the "antiquated" device, that the choice between the iPhone app and the device is a choice between equivalent things. It's creepy in the same way the question "have you stopped beating your wife" is creepy.
>> for example, you said "iTunes is not a replacement for a stereo" - then apparently ignored me when I noted that, for many people, that's exactly what it is.
You wrote: "A docked iPod is perfectly sufficient". This doesn't illustrate how iTunes is a replacement for a stereo. It illustrates how iTunes + iPod + a dock is a replacement for a stereo. Or rather, more accurately, iTunes + iPod + a dock IS a stereo.
On the post: NRA's Plan: If We Blame Video Games & Movies For Sandy Hook Massacre, Perhaps People Will Stop Blaming Guns
it's the culture
On the post: Quick List Of Successes In Which Copyright Didn't Matter
Re: Just a few exceptions
On the post: Prenda Law Accused Of Trying To Start Over Again Under A New Name
Re: Re:
On the post: Another Politician Boards The Bandwagon: Sen. Rockefeller Blames Violent Games And Television For Newtown Tragedy
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On the post: Swedish Pirate Party Sues Banks For 'Discriminating' Against Wikileaks
Re: Ever notice what Mike avoids?
On the post: Swedish Pirate Party Sues Banks For 'Discriminating' Against Wikileaks
Re: Ever notice what Mike avoids?
On the post: The Inevitable Post-Tragedy Witch Hunt: 'Mass Effect' Facebook Page Attacked Because Of Link To Misidentified Shooting Suspect
Re: The Motive
On the post: SimCity Developers' Reddit AMA Swiftly Turns Into WTF With The Online-Only DRM?
On the post: The Complex Joys Of Music In The Age Of Digital Abundance
Re: Re:
On the post: The Complex Joys Of Music In The Age Of Digital Abundance
Re: There I was...
On the post: The Complex Joys Of Music In The Age Of Digital Abundance
Re:
On the post: The Complex Joys Of Music In The Age Of Digital Abundance
Re:
Not so very long before you were born, little man.
On the post: The Complex Joys Of Music In The Age Of Digital Abundance
Re:
On the post: Disruptive Innovation: Bad For Some Old Businesses, Good For Everyone Else
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Patently absurd
Not a bit of it. That's like saying a guy who owns a cooler doesn't need a refrigerator.
On the post: My Little Pony Fan Game Shut Down By Hasbro Over Trademark
Re:
On the post: Disruptive Innovation: Bad For Some Old Businesses, Good For Everyone Else
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Patently absurd
>> especially when you ignore some direct questions
I thought they were rhetorical, but here goes:
>> Maybe you need to take better care of yours, or at least invest in a protective case?
Good for you that you've never broken the screen of your phone. Here are some of the people who haven't been so fortunate: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=shattered%20iphone I bet if they had all carried their phones around in a box full of styrofoam, the screens would not have broken.
>> When was the last time you honestly bought a calculator? ... But whose experience is closest to the average person? Are the daily needs of the average person better met by the iPhone or by carrying around a TI83?
For the record, all of the calculators I bought were bought honestly. It's self-apparent that the average person doesn't need a TI-83 on a daily basis. But when a person needs a TI-83 -- in my case it was for college math courses -- then a TI-83 is what they need.
>> You are aware that there's more than one calculator app available, right? Including ones that seek to emulate the TI83 directly?
This would not have been permitted in any of the classes I attended. And I would not take a class where my fellow students are allowed to whip out their phones during an exam. I trust an explanation of this stance is unnecessary.
>> How is the graphic creepy, by the way?
The graphic is creepy because it's manipulative, deliberately presenting its chosen items in the most quaintly antiquated forms it can plausibly get away with (the telephone is a model that was already passing out of style when I was a boy), breezily suggesting that the existence of all those things (gosh! there's so many!) was somehow a problem that the iPhone's existence solves, breezily ignoring that for many of those devices, their form factor is inseparable from their utility, breezily implying that the output of the iPhone app is in each case equivalent to the output of the "antiquated" device, that the choice between the iPhone app and the device is a choice between equivalent things. It's creepy in the same way the question "have you stopped beating your wife" is creepy.
>> for example, you said "iTunes is not a replacement for a stereo" - then apparently ignored me when I noted that, for many people, that's exactly what it is.
You wrote: "A docked iPod is perfectly sufficient". This doesn't illustrate how iTunes is a replacement for a stereo. It illustrates how iTunes + iPod + a dock is a replacement for a stereo. Or rather, more accurately, iTunes + iPod + a dock IS a stereo.
On the post: My Little Pony Fan Game Shut Down By Hasbro Over Trademark
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Musician Mike Doughty Offers Unique Copy Of His New Song, Personalized To Each Buyer, For $543.09
This smells like those awful photo T-Shirts from the 80's
On the post: Disruptive Innovation: Bad For Some Old Businesses, Good For Everyone Else
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Patently absurd
On the post: Disruptive Innovation: Bad For Some Old Businesses, Good For Everyone Else
Re: Re: Re: Patently absurd
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