alexqgb

129 ms·

961.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Really? Seemed like he was simply pointing out an error on my part. Don't see where Taiwan enters that at all. More to the point, there's a big difference between distorting scale in a way that's mathematically consistent throughout the pro
962.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Indeed, Sniffnoy - thanks for sorting out my terminology. Great circles is exactly what I meant.
963.
by alexqgb 15y ago
The Mercator projection isn't a good example of a map in which visual distortion and a lack of navigational utility go hand in hand. Indeed, the hole point of the projection was to make navigation easier by allowing rhumb lines (the shortes
964.
by alexqgb 15y ago
The 'relatively small' entertainment industry is part of the hugely influential media business, upon which our 'representatives' are especially dependent.
965.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Indeed. After all, a "big studio picture" is a fairly well-defined genre. That is to say, a tremendous number of choices have been made before any given project even begins. Even a director given "full control" can be relied on not to paint
966.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Thank you for making this point so vividly. Nothing is more infuriating that attempting to discuss ethics with people who are congenitally dishonest in their choice of language. It's like trying to discuss good-grooming with a person who's
967.
by alexqgb 15y ago
I believe you're an idiot. Seriously, go back to the part where I said "I'll be the first to agree that we need a new system" and work out which of your conclusions - if any - square with that.
968.
by alexqgb 15y ago
I didn't say "don't actually" in the general sense with which you used "consume". I said - very specifically - that copying doesn't consume resources in the way people consume physical resources (e.g. ham sandwiches). Only by removing the c
969.
by alexqgb 15y ago
"Consume" is an interesting word choice, @twainer. Unlike making a ham sandwich for lunch, you don't actually consume anything when you copy a file (except a bit of electricity, of course). Any chance you could come up with more appropriate
970.
by alexqgb 15y ago
<slow clap>
971.
by alexqgb 15y ago
"...which means you can marshall resources to solve problems." That's the critical condition. It's also the best job description I've ever seen for "Manager."
972.
by alexqgb 15y ago
I love GPS. I really do. But I'm realizing that my sense of place would be so much more vivid if I were constantly thinking along these lines. I suspect I'd have a sense of my own presence in direct relation to the natural (as opposed to th
973.
by alexqgb 15y ago
This difference, I suppose, is between someone bending your will to theirs, reducing you terribly in the process, and someone who sees you failing to deliver everything you're capable of, and pushing you (hard) to do what he thinks what you
974.
by alexqgb 15y ago
At some point I stopped clicking on the links in HN altogether. Instead, I go straight to the comments with an 'open link in new tab' command. If the article is worth reading, I go deeper from there. But the filter comes first.
975.
by alexqgb 15y ago
You've missed the point completely. This was never about "I want stuff for free". It was about the avoidance of a hyper-invasive police state. For what it's worth, I actually work as a producer. I'm on the sell side, not the take side. And
976.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Sorry - I though you were responding to the nice story about the bear trap, and wondering why all that story stuff was necessary, and whether the conclusion wouldn't stand on its own.
977.
by alexqgb 15y ago
If you dislike good stories, why don't you just say so?
978.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Kudos for identifying dilution as a way to take value from another while leaving their actual holdings untouched. It's a subtle point that most anti-copyright types miss. And you're absolutely correct to observe that hard drives are materia
979.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Turns out that the cooler, evidence-based heads are in no danger of prevailing. For now, we're stuck with the mindless fundamentalists who view the number of patents issued each year as a clear measure of progress. In a earlier age, these w
980.
by alexqgb 15y ago
"Artists" would get a lot more respect from society if they didn't display such (deliberate?) ignorance of the basic conventions that make society function in the first place. Those wanting the crash-course could start with the very real di
981.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Operative word: 'fully'. Down-voted for replying without reading.
982.
by alexqgb 15y ago
People like Mr. Flores are a hazard. Seriously, they have no problem defining piracy as wrong, but make no mention of what would actually be required in terms of surveillance and policing for that moral convention to be reliably maintained.
983.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Um, things don't just "make their way" into contracts. Yes, they suddenly appear in drafts, but finals? Sorry, no. Finals require approvals and signatures from the people who are going to be on the hook. (The e-Bay lawyers who approved the
984.
by alexqgb 15y ago
It comes down to the not-so-subtle difference between "customer" and "user". Reminds me of the joke about there being two kinds of people in the world; those who have lost data, and those who will.
985.
by alexqgb 15y ago
From the (very pissed) comment thread on getsatisfaction.com/spotify/topics/can_you_sign_up_for_spotify_without_facebook? "In the 90's we had to deal with Windows-only software. Now we have Facebook-only software. Great."
986.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Have you ever suffered a Google outage? I don't mean the kind of system-wide failure that gets all Googleplex hands on deck. I mean the kind of random, individual catastrophe that comes with a crash-course in just how astonishingly unreacha
987.
by alexqgb 15y ago
@Bud - upvoted.
988.
by alexqgb 15y ago
It's because the actual terms of the exchange are so infuriatingly unclear. Also, because efforts to fix this are met with an endless stream of deflections and evasions, all of which signal an intrinsically untrustworthy character in the or
989.
by alexqgb 15y ago
Wow, vintage rhetoric. I'm guessing 1954.
990.
by alexqgb 15y ago
As a creature of the board - as opposed to an internal hire with a built-in power base - he's actually the last person you'd expect to go rogue. Indeed, the big criticism of high-level external hires is that they're insufficiently independe

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