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[2010-07-16 16:17:22] - Paul: For the sake of avoiding being hypocritical, I am annoyed by Obama's vacation to Martha's Vineyard. Mostly because I never feel like I go on vacation, and my job is far less important than the President's. - Stephen
[2010-07-16 15:17:06] - It does seem a little ironic that he's vacationing up north "instead of vacationing in the Gulf, as he advised other Americans to do".
-Paul[2010-07-16 15:15:20] - But I'm surprised that people are supposedly upset because he is taking a vacation while the oil spill is going on (what do they want him to do, personally put the plug in?) and not because it's his third vacation in as many months when so many people are unemployed. -Paul
[2010-07-16 15:13:25] - http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/16/obama.vacation/index.html?hpt=T2 I agree with this quote: "I thought it was silly when people attacked Bush for going on vacation, so I'll be consistent and say it's silly when people attack President Obama for going on vacation"... -Paul
[2010-07-16 14:29:03] - a: I guess either my wireless or my internet connection? I could easily be wrong, but I feel like I spend more time waiting for stuff to be downloaded than I do waiting for my browser to render the screen. Just a guess, though. -Paul
[2010-07-16 14:13:22] - paul: "my bottleneck is not the browser" what is your bottleneck? ~a
[2010-07-16 14:07:41] - mig: yeah there was already a game named chromium (now called chromium-bsu) ~a
[2010-07-16 13:54:13] - anon: lucid or newer. ~a
[2010-07-16 13:53:55] - i just took a wild stab at the package name, the principle is the same. - mig
[2010-07-16 13:53:12] - anon: close: apt-get install chromium-browser ~a
[2010-07-16 13:49:31] - apt-get install chromium?
[2010-07-16 13:48:19] - Maybe I should look into Chrome for my netbook, though. Is it easy to replace Web Browser (rebranded FF) with Chrome in ubuntu? -Paul
[2010-07-16 13:47:27] - All I know is IE on my new desktop is much faster than FF is on my netbook.
More seriously, though, I'm not sure I would notice a difference in terms of speed between IE and Chrome on my desktop since I think my bottleneck is not the browser. -Paul[2010-07-16 13:47:26] - http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/07/apples-jobs-on-iphone-4-were-not-perfect/1 free bumper cases for iphone users. - mig
[2010-07-16 13:45:51] - a: Interesting. I just started looking into the speed issue and everything I've found so far (which admittedly is a small sample size) seems to indicate that FF and Chrome are battling for 1st, but IE is a very respectable 3rd and the difference is likely to not be noticed by most people. -Paul
[2010-07-16 13:36:51] - paul: regarding html5. also the canvas tag, the audio tag, and the video tag simplifies so much. without them we pretty much have to rewrite our code to use flash. ~a
[2010-07-16 13:34:37] - paul: regarding html5. maps.google.com loads much better if you have svg support. if you have svg support, all drawing is composed of svg objects instead of the sucky transparent png representation that google had to hack in for microsoft. ~a
[2010-07-16 13:32:34] - paul: browser speed (one benchmark among many). it's hard because i can't even find graphs that include ie. ie is so far behind, most people are focusing on the speed differences between the other four browsers. ~a
[2010-07-16 13:30:29] - I take that back, Cox's main page used to not work for me in Chrome, but it also wouldn't work in FF. I think it was just poorly designed
they've fixed it since then - vinnie[2010-07-16 13:29:09] - paul: I haven't had any sites outright not work. I've had problems with flash-heavy sites, like mig. the problems mainly happen when I leave my browser on a flash-heavy site for a long period of time, it can slow everything down. but then, it's easy to kill the tab and things go back to normal instantly - vinnie
[2010-07-16 13:04:50] - a: I used to notice a speed difference between FF and IE, but lately they seem pretty even to me. How does having support for HTML5 make your browsing experience better? -Paul
[2010-07-16 12:57:08] - paul: 3. security. need i say more? ~a
[2010-07-16 12:55:11] - paul: 2b. interoperability. website operators have to specifically write hacky code to get the microsoft web browser to work. (view the source for en.wikipedia.org some time). ~a
[2010-07-16 12:52:03] - paul: compelling reasons to download firefox: 1. speed. ff (3.6 or 4) is like 10 times as fast as ie. 2. interoperability. ff supports huge portions of html5 (ie8 does not). lots of websites have html5 features (none of them are exclusively html5 yet because of ms). regardless, if you have some support for html5, your browsing experience is much better. ~a
[2010-07-16 12:45:11] - paul: i have to date not seen any websites that don't work. - mig
[2010-07-16 12:40:30] - Have any of you chrome users noticed (with the most recent version, I guess) any websites which don't work ? To me, that's pretty much the #1 issue. Google already has all of my searching history, having my browsing history can't be much worse. -Paul
[2010-07-16 12:39:11] - the only real knock on Chrome I have is that it sometimes doesn't handle flash heavy websites very well. - mig
[2010-07-16 12:31:31] - the only firefox-exclusive functionality that i rely on now is the "profiles" functionality, so that you can have multiple profiles on the same machine. like i can have a profile at work for doing work, and a profile for time-waster sites that i browse during lunch. they have their own bookmarks and browsing history and don't overlap - aaron
[2010-07-16 12:28:34] - if anybody is still looking for good adblock in chrome, the app i use is "adthwart". it has an "experimental" option to block some ads before they load. i guess google didn't make it very easy to do that? most adblockers in chrome show the blocked ads for 5-6 seconds while the page loads which imho defeats the purpose of adblock - aaron
[2010-07-16 12:24:56] - i used to avoid chrome because of some weird UI glitches and lack of adblock. now i only avoid chrome because of lack of *good* adblock. but their adblock plugins have been getting better to where i can almost switch between ff and chrome freely. chrome is almost as good as firefox now. - aaron
[2010-07-16 11:41:39] - ff. i love chromium, but i'm seriously pissed that they automatically send so much data about my browsing habits to google. you can turn it off pretty easily, but why the hell is it the default? in other words, i have a love-hate-relationship with chromium: with ff, i just have a love relationship. ~a
[2010-07-16 11:36:28] - Paul: Chrome, never did like Firefox. My backups are Opera and IE. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-16 11:19:41] - vinnie: FF 3.x has not come close. FF4 seems to be a little quicker. - mig
[2010-07-16 11:12:07] - I use Chrome and love it. I've had a couple problems with pdfs and flash, but I love the speed and the minimal UI. that said, I haven't used any recent versions of firefox so I don't know if they closed the speed gap - vinnie
[2010-07-16 10:46:32] - I've been using Chrome for a very long while but I've been starting to use FF since the 4.0 beta came out. - mig
[2010-07-16 10:36:49] - Paul: FF, but as the least tech savvy person on this board, that probably means you should use Chrome. - Stephen
[2010-07-16 10:32:22] - FF -Daniel
[2010-07-16 10:28:22] - I'm using firefox on my ubuntu netbook, but I've been using IE on my new desktop since I haven't seen a compelling reason to bother downloading Firefox. What do you guys use? -Paul
[2010-07-16 10:27:20] - It's interesting, I'm listening to a technology podcast (random tangent: they mostly didn't have a problem with Blizzard's original RealID decision, although they weren't surprised there was outrage) and they said they all use Chrome instead of Firefox now. -Paul
[2010-07-16 09:29:57] - Sounds like I need to get me a deck scrubber. -Paul
[2010-07-16 08:38:19] - or, maybe it's always been there and i just never saw it - aaron
[2010-07-16 08:37:58] - hey cool google maps now has a "public transit" option... so you can be like "get me from here to here using public transit" and it lists costs and options - aaron
[2010-07-16 08:07:37] - lol, " It's best to drink out of a measuring cup (the big 2 cup ones are best) so you can track exactly how much you are drinking. Plus they are solid as hell, and when you get drunk you kind of feel like you're doing science." - aaron
[2010-07-15 19:28:27] - I already use old spice body wash. Does that make me ahead of the curve? Yeah I use a pouf just not a pink one. -Daniel
[2010-07-15 17:32:13] - the pouf is much better for exfoliating if your skin gets dry. - aba
[2010-07-15 17:03:42] - i use laundry detergent. ~a
[2010-07-15 16:48:49] - I still use bar soap, I like the way it feels - vinnie
[2010-07-15 16:47:45] - I don't remember what I said about it exactly - did I say there wasn't CG? I watched the making-of video for the first one and there is pretty minimal CG. the diamonds coming out of his hand are from a composite shot and they had to edit out some dolly when he's on the horse, but otherwise, all one shot. I wonder about the one we saw... - vinnie
[2010-07-15 16:29:39] - Aaron: I used bar soap until a month or two ago, because Gurkie thought I should try body wash. Bar soap is so much cheaper.
-Paul[2010-07-15 16:21:20] - aaron: I stand corrected, I didn't believe you either. - Stephen
[2010-07-15 16:17:40] - i trust this devin coldewey guy. i've read stuff of his before. if this is something that was in lots of other phones, then why would he have said "there are too many good options out there that aren’t locked down by nefarious means"? ~a
[2010-07-15 16:11:10] - do any guys use a pouf? i still use bar soap. have guys really "gotten over the pouf" as the article suggests? - aaron
[2010-07-15 16:07:27] - paul: yeah i told vinnie and amy that and they didn't believe me. they were like, "are you kidding me? he just FLOATED into a hot tub!" - aaron
[2010-07-15 16:07:01] - a: yeah i agree it's really shady. i've read elsewhere that there are similar mechanisms in several other droid phones and that this is being blown out of proportion. - aaron
[2010-07-15 15:58:44] - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/business/media/16adco.html?src=busln An article about the Old Spice Body Wash advertising campaign. I had no idea the commercials were created with "an ingeniously constructed set" and was made "in a single shot using minimal digital effects". Now I have to see the "making of" video. -Paul
[2010-07-15 14:28:19] - a: I thought it was "I am going to the building around 5-6 o'clock." Maybe someone hates -ing. - Stephen
[2010-07-15 14:08:41] - title? "go to" = "going to do"? it actually looked correct the first few times i read it. ~a
[2010-07-15 13:56:42] - aaron: "disabling my device because you don’t like what I’m doing with it falls under the category of sabotage" i couldn't agree more. ~a
[2010-07-15 12:09:43] - http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/07/14/droid-x-actually-self-destructs-if-you-try-to-mod-it/ droid x supposedly bricks itself if you try to root the phone? - aaron
[2010-07-14 12:33:25] - a: Similar in practice, and probably from a fundamental root, but a branch that goes off in a completely different direction, I think. Maybe the branch was split by Occam? -- Xpovos
[2010-07-14 12:04:04] - xpovos: assume good faith? ~a
[2010-07-14 11:59:10] - Stephen: I dunno. I might be putting words into his mouth, but since he generally thinks like I do, I'll take the chance. I'm *always* willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the conclusion that relies on human (stupidity, greed, pride) particularly over those that rely on an assumption of malice. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-14 11:49:44] - Xpovos: I'm not sure most people assumed it to be true. Why blame Americans for their habits/mistakes when you can blame a corporation? (Did that sound sufficiently like Paul?) - Stephen
[2010-07-14 10:28:11] - Stephen: Well, also, Toyota got into some trouble for insinuating that "drivers, you suck" remark, even though we (at least I) assumed it to be true at the time, and has been borne out with evidence. Human error is too easy an explanation. 57% of all accidents by itself and a factor in about 90%. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-14 10:22:10] - Disclaimer: My dad does legal work for Toyota (but nothing related to the recall). - Stephen
[2010-07-14 10:20:46] - Xpovos: Yeah, there were definite mechanical issues that Toyota inappropriately covered up. Everyone just seemed to assume that because Toyota had one or two mechanical mistakes, there must be dozens of undetected, inexplicable ones, rather than saying "drivers, you suck." - Stephen
[2010-07-14 10:11:12] - I wonder if we'll have an apology from all those grandstanding politicians who screamed at Toyota executives... - mig
[2010-07-14 09:32:13] - Stephen: The magnitude may have been undeserved, but the absolute was probably deserved. They did have mechanical issues that they did go to great lengths to cover up. Customers tend not to like that kind of activity, even if it's only in 0.001% of the cars. That said, my opinion of Toyota actually rose during the imbroglio. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-14 09:10:55] - a: Why am I not surprised. Sucks for Toyota to have gotten all the bad press they don't appear to have deserved. - Stephen
[2010-07-14 08:59:05] - some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes. morons. also why i buy toyota in the stock market. ~a
[2010-07-14 08:36:53] - Larry Wilmore. He isn't listed in most places. But he's in the trailers. Also mentioned here. -title
[2010-07-14 08:18:15] - title: I only see kristen schaal and steve carell listed. who else in the cast was a correspondent? - pierce
[2010-07-13 16:46:32] - "productivity slows up when everyone is dead." haha. ~a
[2010-07-13 16:37:10] - a: Cool. That looks like fun... even if I won't use it for this. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 16:28:15] - Nasa wants you to save astronauts from dying as an educational game! http://fidgit.com/archives/2010/07/nasas_moonbase_alpha_is_the_fi.php -Daniel
[2010-07-13 16:17:00] - xpovos: encrypt your private information.
~a[2010-07-13 14:19:11] - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/All-Star-photo-If-Angel-Stadium-were-a-giant-sa?urn=mlb,255478 sand model of angel's stadium created. - mig
[2010-07-13 13:57:24] - Especially not on an open message board that is searchable. -Daniel
[2010-07-13 13:47:03] - a: Your question is pretty open-ended. Even if I was inclined to share information that is private, I'm not just going to do a data dump of everything. Especially not with a character limit. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 13:39:39] - xpovos: what about the unpublic data? ~a
[2010-07-13 13:24:08] - Further data that is public, they've already got a trial date set (September) so this thing has moved very quickly, all things considered. Which either means the evidence is very good and strong, or they've had an eye on him for a while, or both. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 13:23:15] - But the judge could just think he's a flight risk, and I don't know if we have extradition with Kenya. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 13:22:32] - a: 1) Yes, but the gender breakdown for the past 50-years has been 60:40, so this is hardly uncommon. 2) Unknown, that's actually part of the crux of my jurisdictional issue, I have some data, but I'm not really in a position to talk. 3) If they've made an arrest, there's some evidence. The being held without bond adds weight to that. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 13:20:39] - Paul: Me personally, almost none. My office, only slightly more. It's jurisdictional. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 12:39:53] - Nina: Aren't you a part of the "mindless masses"?
-Paul[2010-07-13 12:34:43] - a: yeah, i saw the news about the Consumer Reports article. While that may be a blow to iPhone 4 sales, the mindless masses will continue to buy the iPhone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg -nina
[2010-07-13 12:20:20] - Xpovos: Do you work wih the catholic church? Or law enforcement? Or...? -Daniel
[2010-07-13 12:15:37] - a: It's funny, because my first thought after reading that article was that he might be innocent, if all they have is the accusation of a single child. -Paul
[2010-07-13 12:09:52] - this raises three questions: 1. don't priests usually go for the boys? 2. why does a wva priest live in fairfax? 3. is there any evidence? i guess there has to be some evidence if he was arrested and held without bond, but the article is quiet on the subject. ~a
[2010-07-13 12:04:55] - Xpovos: I read about that, actually. What involvement are you going to have? -Paul
[2010-07-13 11:51:06] - a: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/virginia/priest-held-on-sex-charge-in-f.html -- xpovos
[2010-07-13 11:32:48] - xpovos: why so complicated? ~a
[2010-07-13 11:19:41] - a: that would be amazing if someone did that. all-time classic diss ad if it happens - vinnie
[2010-07-13 11:05:47] - yeah it's amazing how far apple has come from that advertisement. they're the kings of censorship and mindless consumption. they've become the one company (relative to other tech companies) that the ad was written specifically against. google (or even microsoft!) should remake the ad and run it on the superbowl. ~a
[2010-07-13 11:01:32] - a: heh I love the reference to their "1984" ad. fitting - vinnie
[2010-07-13 10:31:58] - Oooohg, my day just got way more complicated. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-13 10:31:15] - RIP George Steinbrenner
[2010-07-13 10:28:42] - apple censors information about consumer reports on their own discussion forums. i didn't even know about the iphone4 recommendation by consumer reports (or lack thereof). that must have been a hard recommendation to write! ~a
[2010-07-12 19:00:48] - I pity Adrian - Mr T.
[2010-07-12 18:46:06] - gurkie: december 1999: "Adrian is a fool" signed "Dr. Disruption" ~a
[2010-07-12 17:26:08] - gurkie: Probably when they started talking about cybering. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-12 16:50:56] - paul: nope I heard it, video games are done... lalala ~gurkie
[2010-07-12 16:50:24] - when did it get uncool to sign your name? ~gurkie
[2010-07-12 15:10:25] - aight
[2010-07-12 14:59:52] - i put on my robe and wizard hat.
[2010-07-12 14:53:02] - just kidding. jeez.
[2010-07-12 14:49:49] -
[2010-07-12 14:46:33] - wow, ur old
[2010-07-12 14:44:54] - 29/m/VA. want2cyber?
[2010-07-12 14:29:45] - title: asl? ~a
[2010-07-12 10:34:31] - Gurkie: I was pointing out the silliness of the argument, not advocating it.
-Paul[2010-07-12 09:29:19] - paul: "Sure, the risk is small that a baby is going to die of neglect because of video games, by why take the chance at all? Just say no to video games! -Paul" FINALLY!!! Faith would be thrilled if you could convice Travis too... Thanks hun ~gurkie
[2010-07-09 20:19:02] - en pointe: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/7/9/grim-curriculum/ -- Xpovos
[2010-07-09 16:34:16] - Xpovos: toggle!
[2010-07-09 16:15:02] - The solution has to involve raising the level of discourse first, eliminating the harsh transition to an even higher level of discourse. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-09 16:14:37] - a: I think there's a more funamental issue at play. There are isolated bastions of reason on the internet. Places like that don't need RealID, but there's a place where it might be a welcome start. Imposing RealID on a place full of jerks is not going to make it less jerk-y. Over time it will, but the transition phase would be extremely ugly. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-09 16:05:59] - paul: i agree. a bunch of jerks would be annoying. and there would need to be a way of curbing the jerkiness. realid is one possible solution among many. ~a
[2010-07-09 15:07:41] - paul: okay. my point was that it was pointlessly invasive. i didn't think it would be massively harmful it was just pointlessly more harmful than it needed to be, given the goals blizzard wanted to accomplish - aaron
[2010-07-09 15:00:05] - a: In general, maybe, but I'm not sure it works on something like a forum. If I read a forum and half the people are jerks who are just yelling obscenities at each other, there is no way I am posting. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:58:55] - Aaron: It's entirely possible there is a better system. I feel like somehow I got forced into defending Blizzard's system as a good idea. Really, all I wanted to do is say that I don't think it was going to be as bad as a lot of people were saying. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:55:35] - "more people = more intelligent discourse" yes i believe this but it's hard to describe why. maybe it starts out with just "more people = more diverse discourse". do you at least agree with the second statement? ~a
[2010-07-09 14:53:29] - paul: yeah i think daniel's post summarizes a lot of my thoughts. there's a better solution anyways which doesn't invade peoples privacy nearly as much so what's the point anyway? it was just a bad idea - aaron
[2010-07-09 14:50:11] - a: Interesting that you assume that the discourse will be less intelligent since a lot of people will be scared off. More people = more intelligent discourse? Also, it's more accurately Blizzard's system. I'm just trying to say I don't think it would be as bad as everybody thinks. -paul
[2010-07-09 14:48:54] - mig: And it's fair that you don't see any benefits, although I think you have to admit that some people obviously see some benefit or else they wouldn't have considered the change. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:47:53] - mig: I'm not entirely sure I understand the purpose of your link. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:46:12] - and the compromise blizzard laid out that it wasn't even necessary to even use real names in the first place to accomplish what they think (although again, I see no real benefits to either change) they wanted without increasing the risk much. - mig
[2010-07-09 14:43:10] - "You (and aba) were arguing that since something bad could happen, they shouldn't implement this policy." that wasn't the entirity of the argument. It was the overall benefits (of which I saw none) did not outweigh the risks and other negatives. - mig
[2010-07-09 14:38:34] - paul: as i see it: benefits (more civil discourse?) vs risks (slightly increased levels of harassment; less intelligent discourse since a lot of people will be scared off by the realid system). a lot of people will just be disinterested with your system if you make them jump through hoops. ~a
[2010-07-09 14:36:09] - paul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident_%28fallacy%29 - mig
[2010-07-09 14:31:20] - mig: And in both cases, I think the original action is being unfairly blamed because of what "crazy" people might do with it. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:30:08] - mig: I like the comparison, because neither particular action is harmful by itself (playing video games, using real names), but it could be abused by people with other issues which can lead to problems. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:28:56] - mig: And I was saying that if you use that same logic in the same area (video games), then obviously we shouldn't have video games since parents might get addicted and neglect their child. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:27:53] - mig: Because they are both examples of how something could conceivably lead to something bad happening. You (and aba) were arguing that since something bad could happen, they shouldn't implement this policy. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:25:30] - Apparently it is a slow day in everyone's office today, not just mine. - Stephen
[2010-07-09 14:23:02] - aba: It's actually quite nice. Very quiet and serene.
-Paul[2010-07-09 14:22:02] - paul: what exactly does a baby dying of neglect have to do with blizzard forum posting policies? - mig
[2010-07-09 14:17:41] - Long comment read on the Blizz name thing (linked from PA) http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416 -Daniel
[2010-07-09 14:16:10] - paul: how does it feel to always be wrong? hahahha - aba
[2010-07-09 14:15:46] - mig: Because of the potential rewards? I go back to the Korean baby who died of neglect. Sure, the risk is small that a baby is going to die of neglect because of video games, by why take the chance at all? Just say no to video games! -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:14:42] - mig: Ok... and a LOT of people here voted for Obama. The majority doesn't always make the smartest decision.
-Paul[2010-07-09 14:14:36] - paul: even if the risk is small, why put it into play if you don't have to? - mig
[2010-07-09 14:13:31] - I'm not saying there would be no risk. I agree that harassment would probably go up slightly, just like chances of dying does up slightly with driving. I just think this is being blown a bit out of proportion by people who assume the only thing stopping everybody from stalking each other is not knowing how to find them. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:12:46] - paul: and a LOT of people disagree, to the point where blizzard decided to reverse its decision. - mig
[2010-07-09 14:12:15] - In the case of this Blizzard thing, I think that the benefits (more civil discourse) could very easily outweigh the risks (slightly increased levels of harassment). -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:11:03] - a: I'm saying you have to weight the benefits vs the risks. We risk driving and getting into an accident because the benefits of not having to walk miles every day outweighs it (for most of us). -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:10:10] - a: I was saying that driving a car is more dangerous than having your real name out in the internet. I did not say that everybody should have their real name out on the internet. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:06:37] - a: Well, it's all semantics. I haven't advocated banning anything. You could say people want to ban using real names. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:06:27] - paul: yea but that french guy was particularly crazy b/c he persisted for over 6 months to find the guy. imagine if all he had to do was log onto the official game website and he could have easily found his full name. that sets the crazy guy effort level much lower.
- aba[2010-07-09 14:05:46] - I never said blizzard did release it directly, though I'll admit my wording is poor. - mig
[2010-07-09 14:03:45] - mig: I hardly think it's fair to say Blizzard posted their employee's home address when all they did was post his name and somebody else found out the home address. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:03:02] - aba: I've been thinking of deleting mine too, because of the same reasons. It's way too complicated to figure out what is getting shared to who. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:02:24] - aba: Which I understand. It sure didn't stop it from happening to that French guy, though. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:01:19] - aba: fair enough. i understand that confusion, as i share it. it just didn't drive me to delete my account. ~a
[2010-07-09 14:01:00] - mig: So how quickly a company back-tracks on policies that are met with public outrage is a measure of how brain-dead it is? I don't know if I agree with that. -Paul
[2010-07-09 14:00:57] - paul: no. going back to the link i posted yesterday, an employee's home address was found out when his real name was revealed. - mig
[2010-07-09 14:00:26] - paul: wait you have it backwards. you're the one that wants to ban something: you want to ban the use of aliases. nobody but you has suggested banning anything. ~a
[2010-07-09 14:00:08] - a: i deleted my facebook profile because the privacy settings were turning into a labyrinth and i was no longer sure as to which information about me was being shared to the greater world wide web. - aba
[2010-07-09 14:00:06] - mig: Blizzard posted the home address of their employees? -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:59:06] - added to the fact they back tracked on this policy so quickly, I think brain-dead is a perfect way to describe it. - mig
[2010-07-09 13:58:54] - paul: yes, i think the issue is that you take mentally unstable people who interact in a combative (in-game) environment with perfectly okay people and then provide them with an easy way to identify those who they think have "wronged" them. my issue is not at all with the games but with the ease of access to personal information that's given to random crazies. - aba
[2010-07-09 13:58:06] - paul: releasing the home address of a blizzard employee to an internet community that delights in the arts of harrassment is IMO potentially dangerous. Perhaps I should have added the potentially qualifier before , but I don't believe I'm overstating things. And yeah, it's a fucking brain-dead policy for an employer to take if there's no really good reason for it. - mig
[2010-07-09 13:57:01] - aba: Ok, I could've sworn I had you as a friend on facebook, and I went to go check to see if your WoW character names might be on there, but I couldn't find you.
-Paul[2010-07-09 13:55:31] - a: I completely don't follow your logic. Just because I don't think we should ban something doesn't mean I think everybody should do it. Do you think that? -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:54:41] - a: I might've gotten it (references to murder) from an outside source (the Blizzard forums) rather than the message board. -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:53:27] - mig: I didn't say anything about government regulation either, although I guess it was somewhat implied by my "ban" comment. -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:52:16] - aba: That guy would probably end up stabbing somebody else even if he never played counterstrike, just like that baby might've died of neglect if the parents didn't do online gaming (left in a car in 100 degree weather, etc). -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:51:32] - a: murder? harassment? murder is a subset of harassment. you're just harassing someone to death. with a knife - aaron
[2010-07-09 13:51:22] - paul: omg, apples and oranges. driving a car is more dangerous than unprotected sex. so we should all go out and have unprotected sex since it's less dangerous? ~a
[2010-07-09 13:51:18] - aba: We're both talking about people with mental issues whose actions led to somebody being stabbed or dying. They also both happened to be gamers. It seems to me like you are assigning more blame on the video game aspect whereas I think their mental states are more to blame. -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:50:05] - aba: I'm just following your logic to it's conclusion. Your point was that the loss of life, no matter how small, isn't worth worth it, right? How was my logic any different? -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:49:17] - aba: why? ~a
[2010-07-09 13:49:01] - Driving a car is putting yourself in a lot more danger than having your real name show up online, IMHO. -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:48:18] - Aamig: Sure, sure. I don't think I ever said that there would be no increase in harassment or anything. I mostly just took exception to the "intent on putting their employees in that much danger" and "brain-dead policy" comments because I feel like it was vastly overstating things. -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:47:36] - paul: you keep bringing up murder for some reason. did that come from somewhere? i thought we were always talking about harassment, but i'm not sure if one of the articles touched on murder. ~a
[2010-07-09 13:46:06] - paul: we're not talking about government policy (at least I'm not). Blizzard can make whatever dumb requirements it wants for posting on their forums. I still think the real name requirement was dumb and potentially dangerous. - mig
[2010-07-09 13:45:43] - paul: yes. - aba
[2010-07-09 13:45:35] - paul: well, the problem there is you are comparing having video games to banning them whereas i'm comparing using real names to using a unique anonymous identifier. you like to take things to the extreme.
- aba[2010-07-09 13:45:20] - aba: Did you delete your facebook profile? -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:43:41] - paul: so yeah murdering/injuring people is an unlikely extreme. but making it easier to harass people? yeah. more people will get harassed. no question in my mind. - aaron
[2010-07-09 13:42:42] - anyhow it's moot, as aba says. the customers have spoken, and blizzard has changed its ways due to their demands. go free market! - mig
[2010-07-09 13:40:49] - paul: and yeah sometimes it's not about just what's possible, but it's about what's easy. when someone cuts you off in traffic, you get their license plate. with enough effort, you can probably get an address or phone number from that. but nobody goes through the trouble because it's hard - aaron
[2010-07-09 13:40:40] - aba: That sounds good in theory, but I think that's a dangerous precedent to set. Remember the Korean child that died due to neglect because it's parents were playing an online game? Should we ban online games because the benefit is vastly outweighed by the loss of lives? -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:35:53] - it. - mig
[2010-07-09 13:35:46] - paul: I guess the thing is based on what I've seen on the wow forums over the years, I think the answer is yes. Is there going to be a rash of killings? Probably not. But I do believe there would be more instances of harrassing people on more personal levels outside the forums. Whatever benefits Blizz thought they'd get out of this real name thing, just wasn't worth
[2010-07-09 13:34:57] - paul: there may not be hundreds or thousands, but even if there are only five crazy murderers out there, doesn't it make sense to not reveal full names to them? the benefit of using those names is vastly outweighed by the loss of five lives, imo. - aba
[2010-07-09 13:32:02] - aba: Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imagine there are hundreds (thousands?) of people out there all ready to kill some WoW player over some perceived slight but are being stopped by not knowing their real name (and not being stopped by fear of going to jail, or anything else). -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:29:47] - aba: Sure, I'm not surprised at all that this happened. The key to me isn't that some people are crazy, but whether or not making it slightly easier to find people (I assume this person didn't have the real name of the guy he was looking for) is going to cause huge increases in these things happening. -Paul
[2010-07-09 13:28:09] - aba: woot. seems like a reasonable compromise. - mig
[2010-07-09 13:26:35] - the point is moot anyway, since blizzard has now back tracked and said they will use unique permanent account names instead of real names. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1 - aba
[2010-07-09 13:26:13] - Paul: It was definitely a fun game, but I have nothing to compare it with. - Stephen
[2010-07-09 13:23:24] - paul: i don't necessarily think people are being paranoid when this kind of violent crime has already occurred. the chance might be small, but it's still greater than zero. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/05/27/2010-05-27_video_gamer_hunts_down_stabs_man_who_killed_his_online_counterstrike_character.html - aba
[2010-07-09 13:05:35] - bad news for california - aaron
[2010-07-09 13:05:02] - Paul: I liked dragon age. It had one of the funniest conversations I've ever watched unfold in a video game. -Daniel
[2010-07-09 12:54:03] - paul: up to you. I'd recommend playing the 1st game though, because it's really good. - mig
[2010-07-09 12:48:06] - Dragon Age players: Any thoughts on whether or not I should play the first game or wait until the sequel and start there? -Paul
[2010-07-09 10:53:34] - aaron: that is insane. maybe programming on my phone isn't out of the question. i'll just have to program in a language that looks like the english language: add years to age (cobol) ~a
[2010-07-09 10:40:24] - aaron: I know... Brave new world. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-09 10:35:31] - the fact that people can do 60 WPM with one finger on a touch screen is absurd. - aaron
[2010-07-09 10:33:48] - paul: i'm really looking forward to swype on the droid x. If you haven't watched the videos at the official web site (http://swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html) they're crazy - aaron
[2010-07-09 10:03:50] - http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2010/07/hands-on-swype-keyboard-for-android-is-sweeptastic.ars This looks like the cool typing method from the commercials. -Paul
[2010-07-09 10:01:23] - paul: definitely takes balls, I'll give him that. I just wasn't impressed with his whinefest in comic sans font. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:56:04] - mig: Well, I figure Gilbert already looks like a total buffoon. I just loved how he guaranteed that they would win a championship before the Heat. That takes balls (and a certain detachment to reality). -Paul
[2010-07-09 09:48:53] - I think it's pretty ludicrous to demand loyalty from someone when all you've done for them is demand that person be your saviour. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:39:25] - If he's willing to take less to go to Miami, I don't think it's a stretch to say he would have been willing to take less for the Cavs to get some more players, yet Cleveland hasn't done jack shit this offseason. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:32:33] - I have no pity for Dan Gilbert at all. He seemed to think that being able to offer more money and Cleveland being his hometown was the only thing he needed to do to keep James. Not, you know ... go out and get more good players to win a championship. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:22:13] - paul: funny I feel the opposite, I want the Heat to win this year to make Dan Gilbert looks like a total bufoon. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:20:09] - mig: I loved the Cleveland owner's reaction. Makes me actually want to root for the Cavaliers to get a ring before LeBron now.
-Paul[2010-07-09 09:18:55] - aba: And you're perfectly entitled to feel that way. I just don't think this is going to cause a huge outbreak of stalking and assaults in the WoW community and it's mostly the people who are extremely concerned about privacy (like Adrian) who are going to care a lot. -Paul
[2010-07-09 09:13:37] - Mig: but happens... never before in the nba? -Daniel
[2010-07-09 09:13:03] - I don't think people think the decision to go to Miami was narcissitic it was the way they handled the process of deciding / telling everyone. -Daniel
[2010-07-09 09:12:26] - This happens all the time in college football were big name high school recruits have a big press conference on national TV to reveal which college they're going to choose to go to. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:09:22] - I'm not too bent out of shape about the decision show, it's not like any other athlete would love to do the same thing. The only difference was ESPN was very happy to do it for LeBron. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:06:34] - Oh I agree, his decision to go to Miami wasn't narcissistic at all (as opposed to his televised decision, which was). I'm just at a loss as to which Eastern Conference team to dislike more now, Boston or Miami. - Stephen
[2010-07-09 09:04:38] - though i suppose it's only cool to take less money to chase a ring if you're doing it for the spurs or patriots. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:03:21] - yes lebron is the most narcissitic man on the planet, that's why he's taking less money to be 1 of a "Big 3" /rollseyes. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:02:46] - the outrage is pretty hilarious. - mig
[2010-07-09 09:01:21] - Should be a good year for basketball in Florida this year. I'm still hoping the Magic kick the Heat's ass, though. - Stephen
[2010-07-08 23:03:31] - a: meh. it's just data. you big baby.
- aaron[2010-07-08 18:19:23] - i don't think it's likely that 1 of the 100 people who normally read my posts would end up hurting me, but i'm reluctant to post in the event that someone i interact with in-game in the future would look back on past posts and stalk me that way. - aba
[2010-07-08 18:18:45] - aaron: google latitude is entirely too scary. i turned it off. i seriously want a google latitude that is decentralized, because i love this feature. but it's telling google this information every second of every day is crossing a line. i'm working on an app with a friend that might do something like google latitude. ~a
[2010-07-08 18:16:36] - for example, http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1 is already above 43k responses, some of which may be from repeat posters but are more likely to be unique. - aba
[2010-07-08 18:14:58] - paul: no, not all subscribers are active, but i would posit that those who read differs from those who post by at least a factor or two of ten, especially when it comes to "blue posts" by official reps of blizzard. i'd also posit that the fringe players who actually get angry or violent over in-game encounters are much more likely to engage in stalkerish behavior. - aba
[2010-07-08 18:06:36] - aba: Are all subscribers active in the forums? Even if they are, what are the chances of one of those hundred people reading your post, deciding they don't like you, and then following through on those violent tendencies? I'll bet you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning. -Paul
[2010-07-08 18:02:42] - i think one of the key points that nobody has brought up here is that blizzard's wow community has something like 10 million+ subscribers. even if .001% of those players is prone to violent tendencies, that's still a fairly large number of people. your doctor or real estate agent doesn't have to worry about exposure on close to that scale. - aba
[2010-07-08 17:19:44] - a: I'm sad that apparently I only have a high school education, but I'm happy that my estimated home value is over a million dollars. -Paul
[2010-07-08 17:18:54] - Xpovos: Ah, I do remember that now that you mention it.
-Paul[2010-07-08 17:13:34] - paul: my ethnicity = hispanic. sweet. ~a
[2010-07-08 17:12:13] - Paul: Yes. http://aporter.org/msg/?action=search&search=spokeo -- Xpovos
[2010-07-08 17:10:08] - paul: regarding audio/video formats: i couldn't agree more. i propose a format that could be implemented in various systems (ex. itunes, flip camera, windows). the only format that would allow these systems to easily implement it would be an open standard, right? i think google, adobe, firefox, etc are backing an open standard for aud/vid. aaron was talking it up? ~a
[2010-07-08 17:00:09] - Wow, has anybody here used spokeo before? It managed to find my address using my full name in addition to some other information about me. -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:49:08] - Aaron: Well, they could always quit their jobs with Blizzard. At my previous company, they put my full name along with a picture and short description (college, previous job) on their website and I had no problem with it. -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:35:29] - paul: well yeah but there's a difference between a company experimenting with something, and a company mandating something. it's like the difference between Google Wave and Google Buzz. blizzard is basically going the "Google Buzz" route except even worse, because you can't opt out - aaron
[2010-07-08 16:34:10] - It boggles my mind how much trouble I've had getting the videos (encoded as mp4) from my flip camera and songs downloaded from iTunes (encoded as m4a) to play nicely with other software. It seems like I always have to convert from one format to another. -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:32:43] - Aaron: There are two areas where I would desperately love there to be some kind of "standard" right now. One is contact information (Xbox Live, AIM, Gchat, Email, Twitter, Facebook, etc) and the other is video and audio formats. -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:31:09] - Blizzard has to deal with a lot of people who are playing in their universe, so why not have them experiment with this to see how it works before trying to impose it internet-wide? -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:30:01] - Aaron: I don't know if Blizzard is the wrong company to be pioneering here. Valve started off as a gaming company (and still is one) but now they are known almost as much for Steam and how they're changing how people buy and play games on the internet. -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:29:32] - oh and not having to have 30 distinct "buddy lists" for PSN, Xbox live, AIM, YIM, each cell phone, e-mail, Steam, that's another really cool use for this tech. i would love it for that! but I still think it crucially needs to be opt-in - aaron
[2010-07-08 16:20:22] - paul: a real practical use for this kind of technology? eliminating spam. preventing identity theft. this is really important technology! but it's not for gaming... - aaron
[2010-07-08 16:18:17] - paul: for the record though, i'm all in favor of a non-anonymous opt-in internet. or some kind of opt-in internet-wide verifyable ID system. i think it would simplify a lot of things. but i don't think it's a clear improvement. and i don't think it should be coming from blizzard of all people, that's silly. they're in gaming. this technology doesn't improve gaming. - aaron
[2010-07-08 16:17:59] - Aaron: I don't know if doctors can use aliases right now. I don't think I've ever heard of any doing so. I think the reason they are making them do it is because they are making everybody else use their real names. -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:14:20] - paul: i don't know. can't doctors use aliases right now? i don't think it's terrible for forum moderators to use their real names. i guess i'm just confused what the point is. it's just extra unnecessary information right? why is the change good? there are reasons why the change is bad but why is it good - aaron
[2010-07-08 16:11:18] - Aaron: Ok, that's nice, but if we are to follow the logic for why we can't let the Blizzard forum moderators use their real names, shouldn't we be letting all of those other professions use aliases as well (regardless of how they are compensated in terms of salary)? -Paul
[2010-07-08 16:08:34] - and it's been demonstrated that people have less empathy for people they don't meet face to face. knowing someone's name without meeting them, yeah, people are going to behave more irresponsibly than if they knew them in real life - aaron
[2010-07-08 16:06:44] - paul: people lash out at judges and policemen and lawyers and doctors all the time. those are very high stress high responsibility positions and they're compensated for it with higher salaries - aaron
[2010-07-08 15:47:52] - Hah! I'm finally getting paid to code! Someone is getting ripped off. -- Xpovos
[2010-07-08 15:46:53] - mig: Sure, but wouldn't it make sense for all cops to have aliases? If there is any profession in the entire country which is likely to have the most angry people after them, it's got to be cops. -Paul
[2010-07-08 15:46:12] - The entire world outside of the internet has gotten along for a long time with using their real names and tons of people voluntarily put their personal information out there for marketing or just plain social networking. I don't think we're going to see a huge spike in forum moderator deaths if they start using their real names. -Paul
[2010-07-08 15:44:47] - Look, I'm not saying it's impossible for this change to cause some trouble or for some nut-job to go out and kill somebody after finding out their real name. All I'm saying is that I think there's some over-reaction by some people who make it sound like Blizzard is sending their moderators into a warzone. -Paul
[2010-07-08 15:44:27] - well maybe not aliases, but the police depts do go to great lengths to make sure their real names are hidden. - mig
[2010-07-08 15:43:20] - paul: in some instances (those who work undercover) they do have aliases. - mig
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