Skeptical

When a writer whose works you enjoy offers book recommendations that aren't up to scratch. Case in point: Cory Doctorow - I've now read 5 of his recommendations, and liked none of them.

TIF has the best OT I've ever posted in, period.

Not enough demand, and there's already a few threads where you can discuss/rant about your life.

That's indie/hipsterism for you. I despise it: popular bands are popular because they're crap, not crap because they're popular. [hide][/hide]

Yes, that doesn't sound elitist at all. - Aside from that, there are already a lot of communities out there: you'd really have to do something interesting to make it worthwhile.

I have a Kindle, and love it. The biggest problem for me is durability: I can't (or shouldn't) take it out into a Canadian winter like I do with a hardcopy, and I can't just drop it on the couch like I would with a beaten-up paperback. I've got my textbooks on it, although you have to change it to landscape mode to easily read larger (or poorly formatted) PDFs. When I have the choice, though, I still would take a hardcopy any day, and I refuse to pay more than a couple bucks for an ebook, which raises interesting moral issues.

The Saboteur (not far in, but pretty good so far). Battlefield: Bad Company (yes, I'm pretty far behind, but I refuse to pay $60 for a game when it comes out, unless it's Uncharted).

http://codebox.org.uk/pages/bitmeterOs Hands down the best tool I've ever used.

Out of 4 Dell laptops, they were all garbage after a year of heavy use. Out of 1 HP desktop and 4 laptops we've yet to have a hardware problem. (Vista, and to a lesser extent, 7, is complete crap, but that's a different story.) I know two people with Toshibas, and they're together after quite a few years, but they sound like jet engines, are ugly as hell, and weigh twice as much as my HP G60. They cost half, maybe a third, of the equivalent Apple product, so really, if they're inferior, I don't care.

1 million troops isnt nearly enough to quell a well motivated and armed civilian population, especially after fighting S koreas military of 500k and since SK has more aircrafts you can assume they would win the air war and make a land invasion of SK very costly on NK and if given proper weapons they could decimate the civilian populations of NK and/or attack the leadership of NK. Or otherwise devote their airforce to bombing the NK invasion force. If either side uses Nuclear weapons the aftermath would affect all of asia, likely China would attack either side that used the weapons. That's an awful lot of extrapolation from very little evidence, and there's really not much in the way of precedent to draw on. As long as the US stands behind the South, they will not be invaded. As long as they intimidate and isolate NK, we will have a state keeping the world on the precipice of disaster.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9199003/Amazon_pulls_WikiLeaks_plug Crap: now I don't want to purchase stuff on Amazon.

I have never watched a single episode of Stargate: would Universe be a bad place to start?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yee464ciIs

I've got one of the new Kindles, and I would very highly recommend it. Only thing that's annoying is its temperature range (a real factor if you want to use it outdoors in Canada), and the fact that you can't really just drop it on the couch or counter like you can with a book. I've got the wifi-only model: free Wikipedia and Amazon access was cool, but not for the extra cost. The battery life is awesome: I only charge mine every coupe weeks with really heavy use (when I use it for school, I'm constantly flipping through my texts), but if you use it lightly, it can last well over a month, no problem.

If only people didn't need the right to sit at the front of the bus to prove their equality.

I hate the establishment as much as the next guy, but I can't recall the US shutting down any media outlets.

Congratulations guys. It's earned!

I hate Gamestop. At least in Canada, their prices are crap: they must make a killing.

I'm eagerly awaiting, and considering donating. You can do it by post, which is great for me, although I do have to say I would appreciate a bit more transparency about the process (which is ironic, even though censorship has forced them into it), and a way to confirm that your money actually reached them. EDIT: Bonkers, what the heck? They're not leaking plans for the next insertion of US troops. And how can I miss my own post?

Wizards in Winter, by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I only listen to Xmas music in December.

When people exercise their right to free speech to criticize free speech... [hide][/hide] I don't think most posters have any idea of exactly what is on WL: this is a good way to get a handle on it. If you plan to post, please read it. The government serves the people. We are not served by secrecy about crimes commited in our names, and then the information being withheld from us by our own media's incompetence. Assange said in the TEDtalk that I posted previously that he thought it wasn't that WikiLeaks was amazing at releasing classified information, but that our own media is so bad it looks wonderfully effective by comparison.

Ah. I now understand your position is based on a lack of information: It isn't plans being leaked: we aren't creating a system of spies to provide information to the enemy. It's documents that have already been created, concerning events that have already transpired. No one will have their life placed at risk by the cables: people's political careers may be damaged, and relations between countries may be changed, but no one stands to be directly harmed, so far as anyone is aware. As to your belief that I did not express myself clearly, forgive me for being skeptical: I am generally a very carefully worded individual, and I say what I mean. Clumsy wording and contorted structure, ill-formed thoughts and illogical opinions beset the best of us, but a third party has now explicitly stated what I was trying to communicate, and you have agreed with his interpretation. I'm quite intending to make you uncomfortable here: the creation of the last page of posts has been due to your mis-interpretation, and I am content to leave it at that, having stated it for the record. EDIT: Sounds quite reasonable and useful to me, although I do profess interest in how it is that you disagree.

I'll try again as well: And once again, expanding on what I said previously: I'm a pragmatist: I'm not sure that I'd have the guts to shove someone in front of a trolley to save a dozen construction workers, but if one person has to die to prevent torture, genocide, illegal wars, the deaths of millions and violations of people's personal rights, then so be it. We trade over a million lives each year for the convenience of travel by vehicle, why is it unreasonable to trade one for the absence of the above? I would also like to point out, that as of yet, not a single death has resulted from this transparency, nor does any seem likely. Seems like a knee-jerk reaction from people who really don't want to be held accountable. EDIT: Thanks Skull: I was starting to wonder if my linguistic skills had abandoned me entirely - normally people understand my position, even if they don't agree with it.

We are excellent at manipulating our environment, but all evidence is now pointing towards us not having recognized the limits that our biosphere imposes on us. Sure, humanity as a species has resembled a Ferrari in terms of advancement over the past few hundred years, but when we hit the wall, we're going to be even worse off than we were before.

I did. I also chucked in an explanation of why I felt that way, completely free of charge.