Arguing on the Internet.

Maybe it was a brush-with-mortality that gave me the perspective to see more clearly something that had been lurking around on the edge of my consciousness. Here it is, do with it what you want.

So much of the debate on the Internet seems aimed to so thoroughly discredit (or humiliate?) someone so that everyone will instantly stop listening to that person. I saw it in a new way when I saw Scott Rosenberg confronted by one of his detractors. Sheez, don't they know how hard it is being Scott? He does it cheerfully and honestly, oozing integrity, holding up far more of the Internet than he probably ever bargained for.

Such a position leaves no room for subtlety or complexity.

No one is so devoid of intelligence or soul. Not even a serial murderer, convicted and sentenced to death, has as little grace as the fools who argue this way say.

Greg Hranek explained this to me in an email last night when he raised the issue of honor, in re discourse on the Internet.

Aha! How come I never viewed it that way. A good retort to a flamer.

You have no honor.

Heh.

[Scripting News]

I've kept three things in mind while discussing things on the internet,

1. Imagine the person is sitting next to you as you're talking to them. Phrase accordingly.
2. Imagine they know where you live.
3. What you way will be recorded for the ages, and a quick check of IP adresses shows who you really are. I had a friend who was a third generation hacker, and he specialized in pinpointing people and sending them emails with satellite photos of their house telling them to knock it off. Never threatening them, just usually replying to the "You'll never find me!" trolls.

This "no honor" thing works as well, and makes for a good fourth rule.

11:47:24 AM    

WSJ.   Guerilla marketing for a new phone/camera product from SonyEricsson.  >>>In one initiative, dubbed Fake Tourist, 60 trained actors and actresses will haunt tourist attractions such as the Empire State Building in New York and the Space Needle in Seattle. Working in teams of two or three and behaving as if they were actual tourists, the actors and actresses will ask unsuspecting passersby to take their pictures.<<< [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Whenever I'm in public taking photos with my PEG-NR70V, people always come over and ask me "Hey, what's that?" I explain the camera, the MP3 player, the movie player, the memory sticks etc, and people really seem to dig it. The point is, this campaign will probably help, right up until the subject of price comes up, much like with my Clie.

9:11:07 AM    

Hey Bruce - Want To Play??!!. A New Use for the PS2

"It requires the ethernet adapter due out at the end of the month, but the BroadQ - QCast Tuner looks very slick. It will play mp3s and divx videos off of your computer over your PS2. I'm seriously considering picking this up so I can watch DiVX files on my TV. How very cool." [life - listed chronologically]

Hurry and order one today before the company is sent to court and shut down! This may actually spur me to upgrade to the PS2, especially since I already have a wireless network in place.

[The Shifted Librarian]

Pretty cool, too bad they don't have something similar for my Dreamcast, I bought the ehternet modem kit for it, and that little system would be great for this. Hmmm, it is CE  based, I wonder if anyone has done anything along these lines...

9:06:55 AM    

Could Music Someday Stream From The Windows In Your House?....

Panasonic Unveils Flat-Panel Speakers

"Matsushita Electronic Industrial and its subsidiary Matsushita Electronic Components will start shipping samples of transparent flat-panel speakers for mobile phones and PDAs next month, they announced Monday.

The products, the Acoustic Panel and the Acoustic Touch-Panel, use Sound Window technology jointly developed by Matsushita, better known for its Panasonic brand name, and its subsidiary.

Sound Window consists of a transparent panel mounted in front of a device's display and a separate driver to vibrate the air between the panel and the display to create sound.

The panels are thin and flexible, so they do not affect the sound quality when they are touched. Because the panel is placed over the LCD, the mobile device does not require speaker holes....

The Acoustic Panel is aimed mainly at mobile phones and compact music players, and the Acoustic Touch-Panel, which has a touch-screen panel function, at PDAs and car navigation systems.

The Osaka companies plan to start mass production in March next year, when they expect to manufacture 1 million Acoustic Panel units and 500,000 Acoustic Touch-Panel units a month." [PC World]

So now the touchscreen on the OQO mini-computer could also be a speaker, and you could truly access The Heavenly Jukebox from anywhere with embedded Wi-Fi in chips in cell phones. PDAs and smartphones could let you listen to an audio ebook in your car or in bed.

Now if it just doubled as a microphone for processing voice commands....

[The Shifted Librarian]

Man, If I could retrofit my Dual LCDs I bet I'd have some sweet stereo coming out of them!

12:16:13 AM