Disqus - Latest Comments for BillV

Re: Sometime the conversation does need some rules – and respect

BillV — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:46:39 -0000

Semi-anonymous instant communication and social (snort) networking has de-evolved our social abilities. Many like to point out anecdotes that would seem to counter this, but I see the results every day. We're going backwards. There are new tools all the time giving the deviants among us the ability to *be* deviants with almost zero risk.

Re: CobWEBs Daily Edition podcast – Newspapers can’t be saved and shouldn’t be

BillV — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:00:55 -0000

While they're at it, they should bail out the steam engine and 8-track industries.

Re: Facebook is really beginning to worry me

BillV — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:41:55 -0000

Their ballistic growth may just be temporary, making all this moot. If they don't expand their server capacity soon, they're going to start shedding users like a mutt in the bathtub shedding fleas. Facebook and all it's applications have been growing buggier by the day, with some functions being totally down for hours at a time.

Re: Confusing Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Chart

BillV — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:12:00 -0000

Makes perfect sense to me, although I think there are still too many versions. Should be one tweaked for home users, one tweaked for business applications. Or better, ONE version, that prompts you for the modules you want, depending on whether you say you're a home user, or a business user. Any more than that just over-complicates things. I love it when I get a tech-sup call, and the first 5 minutes is trying to figure out what version of Vista they have so I know what route to take. I sincerely hope the next big OS release is module-based, even if you have to pay for them individually.

Re: So sick of seeing this

StevenHodson — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:19:52 -0000

I don't care if companies want to keep cutting their throats and pissing people off. What I would like to see is bloggers quit supporting this kind of behavior given that this is a global economy blah blah blah and the only reason geotarding exists in the first place is because of antiquated government polices (and not just the US) and protectionist business practices.

Re: So sick of seeing this

BillV — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:11:12 -0000

So what should they do? Stop doing business?

Re: Why is a company that geotards the world worth $35 million in funding

BillV — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:02:05 -0000

Well, keep in mind....other countries don't pay royalties to US artists for the most part. The game you're discussing is very complicated and convoluted. There are also pending lawsuits regarding terrestrial stations...the RIAA and the like are demanding that they, too, pay up huge fees...the 'free advertising' agreement which has worked for over 100 years is apparently no longer good enough..but if they get what they want it would shut down all but the corporate-backed stations. I know a DJ at a local station here...ANY fee would shut them down..they operate 'hand to mouth'..and many others do, too. "Greed" is the order of today.

Re: It’s no wonder people think Mac’s are elitists

Bill — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:28:17 -0000

This is the internet, so good luck with that.

Refer to John Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory.

Normal Person + Relative Anonymity + An Audience = Instant Dickwad.

Re: It’s no wonder people think Mac’s are elitists

StevenHodson — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:23:12 -0000

ya well I fixed it and made note of it in a post update ... now maybe people will actually make real points instead of being dickwads

Re: It’s no wonder people think Mac’s are elitists

Bill — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:09:48 -0000

Dang...I forgot to fun of the typos HE made in his complaint about yours.

Re: It’s no wonder people think Mac’s are elitists

Bill — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:08:59 -0000

Wow...all those interesting points he made, and all you can come up with is a missing apostrophe? I'm a bit of a grammar Nazi myself, and even I let that kind of thing slide. So I suppose now we're all supposed to bow to your obviously superior intellect, since nobody else could have possibly ferreted out that glaring error.

Tool.

Re: Furong Reservoir - Giant Man Eating Catfish Hoax

Billy — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:21:32 -0000

true that dude. and plus you don't hear about people whining and crying about the hamburgers people eat when the cow that made it had to be killed in order to make it.

Re: Twitter fallout after the Oprah Effect

pb — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:07:15 -0000

LOL, right on.

I don't use twitter because, well I simply don't use twitter. To stop using twitter just because everybody else is seems kinda, well, dumb.

To stop using it because it no longer meets your needs is one thing, but to stop using it just to prove how much of a staunch non-conformist trailblazer you are is just stupid.

Clearly tho the internet is just chock full of stupid people.

Some people even spend time, energy and their celebrity status using twitter to convince the world that a narrow minded dumb bimbo is indeed an, albeit pretty, narrow minded dumb bimbo, just because their vested interest du jour got the smack down at a beauty pageant.

Using twitter to convince the world at large that all states shoud legalise gay marriage is kinda like using a beauty pageant to feed the hungry and promote world peace.

Re: Twitter fallout after the Oprah Effect

Bill Vincent — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:19:50 -0000

I'm seeing something here....I'm reminded of the first time I saw it for what it was, and hate to use the word 'elitism' because that's not quite right. I was about 15 years old, and I was talking to a friend who I knew liked Green Day, and had for quite some time. Green Day had just released their first major album, so I asked him about it. "Pfft." he said, waving his hand at me. "Now everyone listens to them..they sold out, they're not cool anymore." I analyzed his comment for a while, because it was odd, the album was good...very good. Better than much of the stuff they'd done pre-label. They'd found 'their sound" and were doing what they wanted to do, and doing it well.
Now that Twitter is finally REALLY mainstream, the early-adopters are just going to have to do some soul-searching: Do I bail on it now that it's doing what some of us actually SAID we hoped it would do, or do I stick with it, and adapt to change?

Your call.

Re: We Want These: Crayon Rings You Can Wear and Color With -Refinery29 Pipeline-

Billy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:16:36 -0000

Also only size 7, far too small for the office meeting crowd.

Re: We Want These: Crayon Rings You Can Wear and Color With -Refinery29 Pipeline-

Billy — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:15:50 -0000

Very interesting, but WAY overpriced, considering how little work goes into making them. I've made various objects out of crayon wax, it's not a huge chore.

Re: Don’t judge a proggie by it’s UI

Billy — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:32:20 -0000

I also run Firefox, and had no trouble downloading whatsoever. I also found No-Script to be far more trouble than it's worth, for reasons just like this. Don't blame Super© for your choice of FF plugins.

Re: Don’t judge a proggie by it’s UI

Billy — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:43:38 -0000

Excellent point, Rassie. While most of the core code is borrowed via open-source and the like, they DiD put it all together into one powerful converter. I'd be very pleased to see more effort on their part to streamline the UI. It's intimidating at first, and they'd likely get more followers if this could be improved, who might then actually purchase some of their other non-free releases.

Re: Having a problem with all this Social Media crap

warzabidul — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:10:00 -0000

It depends where you live, in some cultures going down to the pub after a day of work is still very much part of the lifestyle. In England you do have the pub culture where you go out and you meet your friends, you network and you meet people in the real world.

All of these social media events are about just this thing, about meeting new people and making new friends that way. We've seen the pictures and the communications that take place after an event and we see how engaging it was. I say "was" because there has been a shift. As a lot of those I established good friendships with, in the real world, started to network more so they felt the need to follow more and more people, which is easy.

The moment when social media lose their value is when those you meet lose contact with you, are not willing to aknowledge that you've thought about what they're doing and reacted to that. It is quite evident on twitter for example. As more people join so the personal links are being diluted. Rather than retweet what people are saying why not converse about it instead.

Conversations are the way we used to follow up a blog post, a tweet and more. By conversing people were personally more engaged in the mediums they are using. It took both time and engagement. That engagement is what made it so interesting and pleasant to meet those people in person. It allowed a new friendship forming pattern. Of course that's still the case but the challenge is to find those people.

I don't disagree that it's a waste of time, but at the same time I'm fascinated by the idea that one day as more people use these tools so the ability to have more personal engagement will get better.

I find myself moving back to the long form today, through blogs, friendfeed and commenting to engage on a deeper level with people, to discuss ideas as much as anything. After all why not take a few minutes and discuss things through the written word? It's not a waste of time. It's a learning experience.

We are in the early days of all of these discussions and as a result the conversations are limited in scope, relevant only to a select few. That doesn't matter though. In three years time the landscape will be different. We will have conversations more relevant to our interests.

In summary it's a waste of time when people are part of a community, post something but never come back to see how the conversation has progressed. We don't need to do it instantly. With a blog post this conversation can afford to be discussed over a period of weeks and months, every few hours in some cases. We can go about our daily life.

Re: Having a problem with all this Social Media crap

StevenHodson — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:59:45 -0000

social media has turned the idea of friendship into even more of a commodity than the old boy's network from days gone by - or perhaps this is just the modern electronic version of the secret handshakes of secret societies.

Re: Having a problem with all this Social Media crap

Billy — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:32:02 -0000

The modern westerner is getting lazier and lazier, with no recollection or knowledge of the days when "networking" had to be done face to face, going to clubs, doing lunches, have a quick martini after work to keep in touch with former collegues. I know so many people with thousands of "friends" that have zero social skills because they spend all their time in front of the computer or hunched over the Blackberry. Social networking is a plague. It would be useful if not taken to extreme, but we all know, that taking things to extremes is something our civilization thrives on and encourages.

Re: Furong Reservoir - Giant Man Eating Catfish Hoax

a WELL educated HIPPY — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:50:13 -0000

For a type of fish that potentially lives to be over forty feet long and 100 years old, a 12 foot whale shark is still a VERY young specimen. Although I do agree with you that the animal is not being held down because it is definitly dead in the picture. I promise you it did not pass nicely, IF they did catch this animal live and brought it out of the water, its the equivilent of you being held under water until you are not alive. Even if they did catch it in a net, these animals need to CONSTANTLY be moving to have water flowing over thier gills for oxygen, so if they are under water they still can drown and it is still a painful death. Apperently you didnt read the above artical all the way through because this Furong Reservoir is a fresh water system and whale sharks are strictly open ocean (and in case your wondering, ocean means salt water) creatures and that these people found this animal washed up on a beach and dragged it into their town square to cut up for food is even more rediculous than your hair cut. What happened to this animal is horrendous and most certainly is not LIFE. They THOUGHT this animal was a man eater so they likely butchered it, didnt use any of it for food, and burned the carcass. These animals do not go through LIFE and run into naturally created nets and drowned. Illness maybe but it sounds as though they were hunting this creature becasue they were misinformed and the whale shark sufferd because of it. Yes, animals kill other animals for survival but people who kill animals for entertainment or FEAR is not survival or life. And as far as you wanting to see less whale sharks taken because they have been put in the Vulnerable list, the vulnerable status is one step away from being endangered. The commercial use of whale sharks has been banned for nearly ten years, so I'm thinking there should be no more taking of whale sharks EVER AGAIN.

Next time you do your "research," try using something other than wikipedia DUDE
SAVE THE WHALES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: So close yet so far away

Billy — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:25:01 -0000

I've never owned an ATI card, but I hear endless complaints about their drivers, and delays in releasing/fixing them. Don't hold your breath, brother. You might be sitting on that pretty little thing for a while.

Re: Police Comments

Bill Vincent — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:33:41 -0000

Some cops are jerks, just like some chefs are jerks, some firemen are jerks. Cops get nailed as jerks because they bite back when people treat them like shit, which most people do. Here's a tip jerks: Don't break the law, and be halfway decent to any cops you run into, and 95% of them will be decent right back. Really. They're just people, doing a damned hard job, and spending their days dealing people trying to bullshit their way out of things that both the suspect and the cop know damn well that they actually did.

Re: Furong Reservoir - Giant Man Eating Catfish Hoax

Cartman — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:46:30 -0000

Well put!! Bunch of hippies...