Recent Posts

5751

Living Room / Re: Arrested and Convicted for Tweeting in the UK!!!

« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2012, 05:47 AM »

The Daily Mail is very tabloid and very right wing biased (almost fascist in its attitudes) - you can't really take seriously any of their 'journalism'.

Think of it as a comic for people who can actually read, if you can't read then you probably just about cope with the Sun.

No comparison with the Guardian or BBC. Can't really comment on the US publications (though I gather Fox News doesn't have the greatest reputation for integrity).

-Carol Haynes (April 18, 2012, 04:17 AM)

I just about vomit any time I read the news now anyways. I've learned to basically reverse whatever they say, then that's probably closer to the truth. It's my "double-speak" filter.

I downloaded the Fox news app for my tablet... Oh god... It just about burned my eyes out. Did the same for CNN and suffered. The BBC is much better, but still stings.

To add to the dabate here is another Twitter Jail Sentence:

http://www.guardian....mp;CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

-Carol Haynes (April 18, 2012, 04:17 AM)

It... just... doesn't... stop...

I really don't care what people spout. They can spout all the trash they want. But making it criminal? I just can't get on board...

"I have no choice but to impose an immediate custodial sentence to reflect the public outrage at what you have done. "You committed this offence while you were drunk and it is clear you immediately regretted it. But you must learn how to handle your alcohol better."

I did find that a bit funny though~!

(Too bad the Guardian doesn't know how to use quote properly...)

, chief crown prosecutor for CPS Cymru-Wales, said: "Racist language is inappropriate in any setting and through any media. We hope this case will serve as a warning to anyone who may think that comments made online are somehow beyond the law."

(It's also too bad that they don't know how to start a sentence, or how to use commas properly... But enough of picking away at the inability of the press to write fluently in their own language... That... is another rant...)

While racism may be sickening, it is no less sickening that some neo-fascist, politically correct <insert vulgarity of choice here /> think that they can police people's thoughts and speech. "Serve as a warning to anyone..." Oh please. Self-righteous indignation is for feeble minds that can't articulate a coherent argument to prop up their religious <insert another vulgarity here />.

However:

Racist language is inappropriate in any setting and through any media.

Yes! Certainly! It *IS* disgusting, inappropriate, and feel free to insert as many vulgarities here as you will...

However, it isn't a crime.

Being an idiot isn't a crime.

Just because something is "immoral" or "naughty" doesn't mean that it must be "illegal" or punishable.

What's next? Throw 6-year olds in handcuffs and drag them down to the police station for throwing a temper tantrum? Ooops... We're already there...

Like seriously... Who are these pathetic cry babies that get so upset over some idiot spouting garbage?

The swiftness of the arrest demonstrates how seriously police are taking the posting of potentially criminal comments on social networking sites by so-called trolls.

Just got 2 words...

NSFW

Fucking lame.

5752

Living Room / Stop CISPA - Petition

« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2012, 05:10 AM »

Hello to all my lovely fellow DC'ers!

If you are interested, please sign this petition to help stop CISPA:

http://www.avaaz.org...orporate_global/?tta

CISPA is more draconian legislation to destroy the Internet as we know it. It will crush privacy, and eliminate free speech.

Even if you are not American, you can still sign. We need a strong and free America. If freedom and privacy are stamped out in the US, that will follow for all the rest of us, wherever we live.

Please take a moment to ask yourself if you support stopping CISPA, and if you do, please sign.

Thank you,

Ryan

5753

Living Room / Re: CISPA is the New SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/etc. etc. etc.

« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2012, 04:09 AM »

It's not an ad hominem. I didn't attack him. I only pointed out that there is a conflict of interest, and I questioned his motives. I then pointed out my cynicism and reluctance to believe that he's doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

-Renegade (April 18, 2012, 01:43 AM)

Oh, sorry, I thought you were probably unintentionally making an inference that his argument/statement may have been invalid.
I don't think you need to attack him for it to be an ad hominem.

-IainB (April 18, 2012, 02:36 AM)

Oh, no! Not in the least. I didn't comment on his argument at all. He's a smart fellow, so I'm quite certain that he can present a decent argument. (That was a pro hominem argument~! Well, kind of...)

Nah, if I go the ad hominem route, I'd do a much better job. (I have a degree in this stuff - literally. )

5754

Living Room / Re: Arrested and Convicted for Tweeting in the UK!!!

« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2012, 04:06 AM »

I simply see vulgarity where you see obscenity.

-Renegade (April 17, 2012, 11:31 PM)

Not quite, I don't see anything as either vulgar or obscene - I don't care enough to regard something as anything more than what it is.  I'll quite happily use four letter words all day long but as soon as I hit public spaces the curse gland automatically turns off due to self-preservation instinct

All I was doing was presenting a different spin on events, ie. trying to see things as though from a different point of view rather than the one presented.  Something that had little to do with supposed political skulduggery.

AFAIAC, he was just plain stupid to phrase a statement like that in a public arena.

-4wd (April 18, 2012, 03:03 AM)

Ah - sorry. I didn't mean to put words in your mouth. My mouth can be pretty filthy, so that would just be icky~!

P.S. please take any daily mail article with a nice pinch of salt!

-Redhat (April 17, 2012, 02:20 PM)

+1  (The Daily Mail is known to be written by whole load of lying c**ts and w***ers.)

-Carol Haynes (April 18, 2012, 03:12 AM)

I've seen some twisted stuff in the Daily Mail, but I never read it until the last few months, so I'm not really sure I can comment on it other than to ask questions.

Have they been caught in many lies? (I suppose that's a bit of a stupid question -- which ones haven't?) Or are they all that much worse than the others, e.g. Guardian, Huffington Post, BBC, NYT, Washington Post, CNN, Fox, etc.?

5755

Living Room / Re: CISPA is the New SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/etc. etc. etc.

« Last post by Renegade on April 18, 2012, 01:43 AM »

Well that's really an ad hominem - a logical fallacy.

-IainB (April 18, 2012, 01:28 AM)

It's not an ad hominem. I didn't attack him. I only pointed out that there is a conflict of interest, and I questioned his motives. I then pointed out my cynicism and reluctance to believe that he's doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

Here's a nice ad hominem:

Brin is selfish and greedy, so this must be financially motivated.

But as for Brin's rationality, I don't think that it's particularly relevant to his intentions. It's perfectly fine to be completely rational and utterly selfish at the same time, even while professing to be altruistic, which would only make you a liar about your motivations, and not necessarily about whatever you'd actually argued.

So, at the end of the day, whether what he's professing is good or not is one thing, and his motivations are another. It is certainly possible that his motivations are "pure", but given past decisions from the executive officers at Google, I have a bit of a hard time swallowing that. They've got a clear history. Ignoring that is being willfully blind.

I would hope that his motivations are to "treat people as an end". But like I said, that cynical part of me is screaming, "Don't be an idiot Ryan!" It's just too loud at the moment, and I can't ignore it.

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Living Room / Re: Top 10 Survival Tricks for When the Zombie Apocalypse Hits :: Lifehacker

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 11:51 PM »

In case of a Zombocalypse, my plan is to join the undead army.

It's best to be on the winning side.

-Deozaan (April 17, 2012, 11:40 PM)

Bwahahaha~!

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Living Room / Re: CISPA is the New SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/etc. etc. etc.

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 11:50 PM »

Not understanding US politics very much, I couldn't understand why the US Government seem so intent on shoving this difficult-to-digest invasive censorship and control legislation down the public's collective throat. Why mst it be done?
Well, now I think I understand, after reading this post: Revolving Door Between The MPAA And The Federal Government
The post uses this informative image:If this is true, then the Music/Media Industry apparently is the Government, and vice versa.
Good, at least that seems to be clear now.

Now though, what I don't understand is: How can this situation occur - apparently in full public view - without it being regarded as potentially corrupt practice, or at least brimful of rigging with conflict of interest?
I am genuinely mystified by this. Is it quite legal?

-IainB (April 17, 2012, 10:59 PM)

Washington D.C. seems to feed off of conflict of interest. It's simply appauling that it hasn't been made illegal.

Meanwhile, Google co-founder Brin is worried about internet freedoms
This is a public statement by Brin. I think he is probably genuinely concerned, and probably for good reason too.

-IainB (April 17, 2012, 11:25 PM)

Not so sure about that... If you dig a bit deeper there, Brin has some financial motives for all of that. He's just playing the, "Oh~! Think of the children," card there.

Perhaps I'm a tad cynical about his motives, but seriously... how can anyone not be? Google does what is good for Google. Playing the "nice boy" is one of the things that is good for them. After all, they're at least "not as evil as Apple" or whoever.

In short, there's a conflict of interest there for Brin. Yeah, sure it's somewhat not totally on the dark side, but still...

I would like to direct people to Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative:

http://en.wikipedia....tegorical_imperative

I think Kant is bang on, and that failure to understand it is failure to understand morality.

Here's a very short summary:

Do what you could will to be a univeral law.
Doing good things because they benefit you isn't morally praise-worthy.
Doing good things for no other reason than because they are good is praise-worthy.
Treat people as an end.

That is by no means complete, but it's close enough to "get the jist".

When I see that Brin (or whoever) actually does anything simply because it's "right" (inline with the categorical imperative), then I'll have a bit more faith. For now, I just don't see any of that happening out there in the corporate/business/political/finance world.
 
One of the biggest problem that I see is that "treat people as an end" has been perverted to "treat money as THE end".

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Living Room / Re: Arrested and Convicted for Tweeting in the UK!!!

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 11:31 PM »

We'll probably never see eye-to-eye on this. Oh well. To each his own.

-Renegade (April 17, 2012, 08:49 PM)

You're right of course  

-4wd (April 17, 2012, 10:56 PM)

Hahahaha~! Pretty much. Explanation below...

The point I was making, (in my roundabout fashion), is that the word c*** is still considered an obscenity in quite a few countries and publicly inferring someone is one is likely to get you in trouble.

The correct non-obscene way would have been: 'Which vulva lives in a house like this. Answers on a postcard to #bexleycouncil.'

But, of course, probably close to half the population wouldn't know what that meant and the other half would have thought they read 'volvo'  

-4wd (April 17, 2012, 10:56 PM)

I see now what you mean.

We have fundamentally different ideas about what "obscenity" is.

Very often people interpret the commandment:

"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

To mean:

NSFW due to VULGARITY

Saying any of:

Fuck, damn, shit, piss, cunt, etc.

(God's name isn't "fuck" or "shit". That just kind of seems obvious to me. )

Or using "Jesus Christ" or "God" in an ejaculation (it's a technical linguistic term), as in, "Oh, Jesus Christ!" or "Oh God!", do not violate the above commandment.

I don't take it that way. I take it that praying "in the name of the LORD thy God" for something vain, e.g. some trinket that you really don't need or cursing your neighbour to die, violates the commandment.

Consequently, I don't find, "F*** you!" to be violating that commandment, while I would find, "I hope that God strikes you dead," to violate it.

THE SHORT POINT

That's a round about way of saying that I do not find VULGAR language to be obscene.


What I *DO* find obscene is telling other people what they can and cannot believe or think or say.

So in this particular case, I don't find the tweet obscene, but find that his being punished/censored is the part that is obscene.

At the end of the day, we simply have very different ideas about what constitutes obscenity. I simply see vulgarity where you see obscenity.

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Living Room / Re: Arrested and Convicted for Tweeting in the UK!!!

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 08:49 PM »

We'll probably never see eye-to-eye on this. Oh well. To each his own.

That may be so but the method used in this case of standing on a platform and shouting out, "That person is a c***!", really isn't the way to do it, (unless, of course, they deserved it and you're willing to accept the consequences of doing it that way).

-4wd (April 17, 2012, 08:10 PM)

If that isn't the way to do it, then what is? Not a good road to go down. Who am I or who are you (or anyone else) to tell someone what they can and cannot say?

It's a derogatory metaphor. That's all. Given that it was directed at a politician, it's difficult to imagine that it wasn't very well deserved at an absolute minimum.

What can I say, he got his 15 minutes of fame - why is he so unhappy.

-4wd (April 17, 2012, 08:10 PM)

Well, being arrested for speech perhaps?

40hz is very articulate and well spoken. I, on the other hand, and from time to time, tend to just puke out venom. Quite often we end up saying more or less the same things.

Now, should I be arrested because I didn't say things "the right way"? This, to me, seems somewhat ridiculous.

5760

Living Room / Re: I'm Comic Sans, A**hole

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 08:40 PM »

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA~!

Hard to pick just one laugh out of there, but I did like this:

While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I’m shredding “Reign In Blood” on my double-necked Stratocaster.

Also, it's one of the ONLY sentences that isn't NSFW~!

5761

Living Room / Re: Top 10 Survival Tricks for When the Zombie Apocalypse Hits :: Lifehacker

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 07:57 PM »

http://www.mapofthedead.com/

-rgdot (April 17, 2012, 04:31 PM)

That's excellent!

http://www.mapofthedead.com/

-rgdot (April 17, 2012, 04:31 PM)

Cool!  Good to know I'll get some shooting practice in where I'm living 

They seem to have missed listing a gunsmith in my area though.......oh well, the less people who know about him, the more ammo for me!

-4wd (April 17, 2012, 07:33 PM)

I'm counting about 5 gun shops in Melbourne on that map.

Except CH where you can own a gun without special magic

-fenixproductions (August 08, 2011, 12:36 PM)

A little off the topic of the undead, but I was under the impression that in Switzerland you had to get a special exemption to *not* own a gun.

-mwb1100 (April 17, 2012, 07:23 PM)

Hahahahah~!

When I was a kid, you could buy guns at the local K-Mart.

5762

General Software Discussion / Re: can any explorer alternative do this?

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 07:44 PM »

Look at Agent Ransack.  It does not continually index files, it searches on request, so if you would rather have something that eats cpu cycles and memory and disk space continuously then this may not be for you.

-x16wda (April 17, 2012, 07:23 PM)

I've used that in the past. It was very good.

5763

Living Room / Re: Arrested and Convicted for Tweeting in the UK!!!

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 07:40 PM »

Not taking sides here, (because, quite frankly, I don't give a s**t), but how is this different from:

While standing in a street you point to a house and ask the person next to you, "Which c*** lives in a house like this.  Write the answer on a piece of paper and put it in his letterbox.", oblivious to the fact that both the owner of the property and a policeman are within earshot.

By inference you have called the owner of the property a c*** which could be marginally considered as slander.

-4wd (April 17, 2012, 07:26 PM)

It's very different.

First, tweeting is not analogous to putting a letter in someone's mailbox. A tweet isn't sent to a specific person - it is posted to your own account. A letter that is put in someone's mailbox is directed at them.

Second, the tweet was directed at a politician, who is a public figure. We have different standards there. Public figures are open to scrutiny in ways that private people are not.

I will leave this country once the net is monitored heavily.

-Redhat (April 17, 2012, 02:20 PM)

As an expat, I'm getting sick of being a second-class human, and can't wait to get back to Canada. Yeah, Canada has problems, but at least there I can DO something. Where I am now there is no human rights bill, and people have even fought against getting one. I was shocked to find that out. Here, you have no right to free speech.

I've been pulled into my bosses office because one (or two) of my staff visited some banned political sites, and he got a visit from the national intelligence agency.

I've had guards and police tell me that I can't film or record audio.

I just really want to get back to a place where it isn't illegal to say what you think, or to read what you want.

I'm not sure that leaving is the key or will help. I think you may be better off trying to change things where you are. Once you're in a country where you aren't a citizen, the rules change. You're a guest. You don't have the same kind of power that you do at home.

5764

Living Room / Re: Spoons

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 09:09 AM »

Who gets to lick the spoon?

5765

Living Room / Arrested and Convicted for Tweeting in the UK!!!

« Last post by Renegade on April 17, 2012, 12:08 AM »

I can't help but laugh at this stuff now. It's soooo out of control...

Some poor fellow has been ARRESTED and CONVICTED for blasting a politician on Twitter! 

http://www.dailymail...offensive-tweet.html

Clips below are selected to give you the quick version fast:

'Which c*** lives in a house like this. Answers on a postcard to #bexleycouncil.'

'It’s silly posting a picture of a house on Twitter without an address, that will come later. Please feel free to post actual s**t.'

John Graham Kerlan who blogs under the name Olly Cromwell, faces jail after Councillor Melvyn Seymour complained.

But last week he was convicted of making a grossly offensive and menacing comment on Twitter, thought to be towards Mr Seymour.

He has been handed a restraining order that ordered him:

• Not to own, operate or write on a website or social media any criticisms of Bexley Council
• Not to contact the victim directly or indirectly
• Not to write directly or indirectly about Bexley Councillors on any site
• Not to refer to the victim directly or indirectly on any site

Mr Kerlen, from Millwards, Essex, has been granted conditional bail until his sentencing on May 9. He could receive a custodial sentence of up to six months in jail.

A spokesman for Bexley Council said: 'The council is totally supportive of freedom of expression and political debate.

'The council is of the view that Kerlen's actions went beyond the limits of what is both acceptable and reasonable in terms of freedom of expression.'

That last part there is just hysterical!

"We support freedom of expression, just so long as you say things we like!"

I think the part of "freedom of expression/speech" that they didn't quite understand is that it's speech that you DO NOT LIKE that needs to be protected. This stuff isn't that difficult to understand.

NSFW and "illegal"

The "spokesman for Bexley Council" is obviously a retarded cunt.

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Living Room / Re: Spoons

« Last post by Renegade on April 16, 2012, 10:24 PM »

Hmmm... This isn't about silver spooning, is it? I think that's just for rich people...

5767

Living Room / Re: Mari0 - very nice game :)

« Last post by Renegade on April 16, 2012, 06:33 PM »

Heh luv the domain name more : )

-TaoPhoenix (April 16, 2012, 05:45 PM)

+1

Game looks interesting too.

5768

Living Room / Ron Paul VIDEO GAME~!

« Last post by Renegade on April 16, 2012, 06:07 AM »

I couldn't believe it when I saw it... A fellow in Texas is launching a video game dedicated to Ron Paul!

For those unfamiliar with Ron Paul...

He's about the only politician that supports the US Constitution and opposes criminality in government. e.g. He's against things like torture, kidnapping, and murdering people.

The game has a kickstarter project going on to help raise funds to pay for development:

http://www.kickstart...l-road-to-revolution

Here's the video promo:

The graphics in the video there are for testing and are planned for upgrades.

Here's a quick feature list:

Features:

• 50+ levels designed around each of the 50 united States
• 13 Boss Fights - representing each of the 13 branches of the Federal Reserve
• Soundtrack by Between Cathedrals
• Lots of easter eggs and fun stuff for Libertarians
• Handpainted backgrounds that represent the history and essence of each of the United States
• Challenging, puzzle-driven side scrolling action

One of the monsters is George W. Bush~! BWAHAHAHAHA~!

I kind of wonder who the bosses will be though... Current heads like Bernanke? Maybe some historical heads, like Greenspan?

I've NEVER heard of a video game based on a politician! Well, Hitler and Stalin maybe, but not based on a politician that's not a historical figure involved in wars.

Anyways, this game just seems SOOOOOOOO far out of the norm that I had to post it.

I suppose that we'll see more games like this in the future though - games with political/social/moral/religious motivations/backgrounds. (Yeah, there have been a few, like that game where you kill Jews, but not many.)

5769

Living Room / Re: New iPad owner. Please suggest Apps.

« Last post by Renegade on April 15, 2012, 05:04 PM »

- Strategery - http://strategerygame.com/ - Very fun short game.

5770

Site/Forum Features / Re: Site crash Apr 15 1am-2am

« Last post by Renegade on April 15, 2012, 07:31 AM »

Ah. I was wondering if it was me or what went on there. Had another glitch with another site that is still ongoing, and didn't know if there was some worm or DNS issue or what.

Thanks for the heads up. And good to have DC back online~! 

5771

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by Renegade on April 14, 2012, 09:02 PM »

AOL had a couple killer ideas. They got washed out by the forces of time. I don't recall a screen ever like that, I was as loyal as they came.

-TaoPhoenix (April 14, 2012, 07:51 PM)

if you look closely at the screenshot, it says Kids only -
I dont know what exactly it was, but that's maybe why you missed it.

-tomos (April 14, 2012, 08:27 PM)

So MS is just going to treat everyone like children then, I suppose.

(Considering the pathetic state of education, I'm not surprised.)

Speaking of pathetic education...

And a bit funnier:

"You can lead a horse to water... But you can't drown it."

I remember one where Jay was asking, "In what year was the war of 1812?" Nobody got it right.

5772

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by Renegade on April 14, 2012, 07:41 PM »

This is not a joke. This is real. I just noticed it on my iMac:

5773

Living Room / Re: Relics from a Different Time - as opposed to the new Big Brother Lockdown

« Last post by Renegade on April 14, 2012, 07:31 PM »

Vaguely I hear that happens a lot to shut down subversive ideas in movies. Aka turn them into false Straw Man objects of ridicule.

-TaoPhoenix (April 14, 2012, 03:44 PM)

Reminds me of "Law Abiding Citizen".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1197624/

It was good until the end when it totally chokes and the good guy loses. (I can't stand the self-righteous blatherings/sermons in movies/TV shows that you get in shows like this.) 

This scene was great (NSFW):

Great movie. Horrible ending.

5774

Living Room / Re: Cute jokes' thread

« Last post by Renegade on April 14, 2012, 03:00 AM »

-wow, rgdot, that picture literally says more than words 

-Curt (April 14, 2012, 01:49 AM)

AOL was ahead of it's time?

5775

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: RoboForm Everywhere for only $7.95-This Weekend Only

« Last post by Renegade on April 14, 2012, 01:31 AM »

I don't mind paying for an upgrade, but I don't want to be FORCED to upgrade, and I am simply not interested in subscriptions, especially for what should only run locally. Subscriptions are ok for some things that MUST run on a remote server, but not that many things need to.