(and if we did, they'd just erase all references to it anyway)
Aug 18, 2001
Human beings get some crazy ideas into their heads. The one about “If they don’t see it as children, it will never hurt them” is probably The Devil’s personal favourite. Childhood is the period where we learn how to tell right from wrong. We learn by seeing bad as well as good. Otherwise, you end up with a child with a lopsided impression of “what is good” — and the first time they run up against something truly insidious, they may not recognise it and it’ll suck them right in.
...but before I get off on a rant, visit the Banned Books Project. Participate. When Banned Books Week rolls around on 22-29 September, mark the occasion by reading a banned book to a child. Walk through the book with them. Help them get the lessons, the learning, and the enjoyment out of the book. And explain to them why banning books is no good thing.
Another good site to visit is the sardonic-but-serious L.A.C.K. for information about the latest book bannings and challenges going on in your area.
Permalink
It's all a part of the service we provide.
Aug 17, 2001
Why is it that speaking your mind is viewed with such social outrage? Part of it may be that because there is so much white noise that to be heard, people need to go to great lengths. They need to Attract Attention To Themselves. And the PTB, with their Tupperware parties and SUVs and 2.3 socially-correct children get all hivey.
But isn’t it worse that people have to use shock tactics to be heard? Isn’t this supposed to be a society where everyone’s opinion counts..?
Ooops, started living in my dream world again. You know, the one where things make sense.
Permalink
Grab a site and join the scrum...just leave the cleats in the bin.
Aug 09, 2001
The independent Internet community is an exercise in merry participatory anarchy. And unlike getting listed in the major search engines, all you have to do 
to be a part of the independent Internet is…have your own web site.
Create your site, and then bop over to the Ageless Project 
and submit your site — the webmaster will screenshot your site and add you to the list. Then go sign up for Independents Day, a group working to bring recognition to all independent content providers and webmasters. Stop by Aortal and pick up one of their buttons and link back — they’ll do the same.
Permalink
A pair of those ubiquitous personality quizzes.
Aug 08, 2001
I just took an online variant of the Myers-Briggs test. The test types me as an INFP (Introvert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver). Here’s some more of what the test had to say about lil’ ol’ moi:
People like you are generally nonconforming, deeply passionate, and highly dedicated to your personal values. You’re reserved, which covers a sensitive spirit easily hurt. You’re highly imaginative and creative. You’re curious and often study others quietly. You’re flexible in small matters. You don’t dance to other people’s tunes, but you can pretend you do. You get what you want by talking, not screaming.
You’re loving and dedicated to people you care about, but you do not compromise your principles for them. Your sense of what is right comes first, even before yourself. You respond best to people who respect your privacy until you let them in, then provide you with emotional intimacy.
You’re not the world’s most tidy person.
Your primary goal in life is to be true to your deeply held beliefs and to live in harmony with your values. Your reward is to have your ideas benefit others.
I’ll buy that. That’s pretty much me. I like getting paid well, but I never really did the Days of Whine and Raises - my salary was towards the median for my profession always, because I knew that this backlash would eventually hit (and now I don’t have to try and make myself re-learn how to live within my means, ‘cause my means aren’t changing.)
The test went on to state that good careers for me included human resources professional.
Now -=that=- part I disagree with. After what I’ve seen at this place in Burnaby, and what my family has dealt with (mom’s an HR director, and everybody cheer for her - she’s got less than 800 days until she retires!!), the -=last=- place I’d want to go career-wise is HR professional. I can’t wait to get out of the HR group at this place - and I’m just their overpaid underworked HTML jockey, not an HR consultant!
...all right, all right, all right. The test is the Star Trek Personality Test. (Quit laughing, you, or I’ll shoot you with my phaser.) I am compared to Kes and Garak. I could do without the Kes remark, but Garak was a pretty cool character.
And no, I don’t live in my parents’ basement. I haven’t even lived in my parents’ house for over a decade now.
Permalink
I should be allowed to replicate music for personal use once I've paid for it...without having to pay an additional fee for the "privilege".
Aug 07, 2001
The music industry has been working for quite some time on copy protection for music CDs. They contend — and quite rightly — that some people make copies of the CDs and either resell them or just plain redistribute them. This, contends the RIAA, cuts into the profits. (Ummm…it costs about .50 to make a CD that sells for $20. Where does the other $19.50 go?) So now all kinds of nifty things are rearing their heads. One of them is the U.S.’ Digital Millenium Act. Another is Microsoft’s rabid, forthcoming subscription-software-sales schema.
I have no objection to companies making a profit. I have no objection to companies becoming wealthy. I have an objection to paying for something and then still being told when and how to use it — including when it is “obsolete”. Now, shouldn’t I be the one to decide when I want to stop using a product for which I paid?
Permalink
Is there a pill for technological growing pains?
Aug 07, 2001
Web authoring is supposed to be simple. Seamless. Brainless. Painless. For example, I shouldn’t have to block Netscape 4 from accessing my site.
So what then are all these notices popping up all over about optimising your web site for this-and-that device?!?? AOLTV - I don’t particularly like AOL for its crappy customer service and shitcan integrity (though they do get high — though grudging — marks for top usability, almost wiped out by another slam for lack of accessibility.) So why do they think that I’ll make a version of my site just to accomodate that handful of users? Screw that. The W3C has published both standards and guidelines for web authoring and user device interpretation - use those!
And for the rest of you who are like me…who have had it up to here with all this platform specifity…enjoy.
Permalink
85 of 92 pages « First < 83 84 85 86 87 > Last »
