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GeekNights 20110912 - The Tech News that Wasn't

edited September 2011 in GeekNights

Tonight on GeekNights, we wonder what tech news really is, and what's really worth talking about. In the "tech" news, typosquatting is surprisingly powerful (and easy), and South Korea has draconian identity laws on the Internet forcing Google's hand. Don't forget the GeekNights Book Club choice: The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm. Also don't forget the GeekNights Worst Webcomic Contest.

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  • Wow. Massive props to Scott; ifttt looks killer.
  • A monday show. Wowsie. It has been over a month.
  • Heh, I have to admit to not knowing the nohup command, while at the same time knowing enough to understand everything that was said. I spend most of my time in windows due to gaming though, so I never encountered it as a problem.
  • Scott, practically every rap album is 90% about the rapper who made the album.
  • edited September 2011
    It actually kinda varies depending on the time, the artist and the tone of the album. Rap tends to go through dramatic but cyclical changes in tone and subject matter which includes greater or lesser focuses on the artist. It is true that rap does tend to center it's subject matter on the artist's experiences, either about how awesome they are or how hard they have/had it, depending on the era, but it's hardly exclusive and more a result of the narrative of rap being somewhat dependent on the first person perspective. Just because the song's story is told in first person perspective doesn't mean that it's actually about the artist; many artists have a sort of fictionalized self they use as a main character, and a peak at the liner notes often shows the perspectives songs are told from.
    Post edited by open_sketchbook on
  • Wow. Massive props to Scott; ifttt looks killer.
    I just signed up for it, and then couldn't think of a single use for it. Oh well.
  • edited September 2011
    Scott. Two years ago, when watching you unemployed on UStream, you didn't have a Monday show. I said "If you can't do 25 minutes on regular expressions, just do 5 minutes, and then other 5 minute slots on other topics. And that night you did that very thing. "Tech Bundle" isn't a new idea you had during the podcast last night, but it does confirm that you can't remember the shows you've done before.
    Post edited by Luke Burrage on
  • Scott. Two years ago, when watching you unemployed on UStream, you didn't have a Monday show. I said "If you can't do 25 minutes on regular expressions, just do 5 minutes, and then other 5 minute slots on other topics. And that night you did that very thing. "Tech Bundle" isn't a new idea you had during the podcast last night, but it does confirm that you can't remember the shows you've done before.
    Truth!
  • ...I use the Thief...
  • edited September 2011
    Wow. Massive props to Scott; ifttt looks killer.
    I just signed up for it, and then couldn't think of a single use for it. Oh well.
    Same here, there is a list of most popular recipes to give you some ideas.
    Post edited by Dr. Timo on
  • Wow. Massive props to Scott; ifttt looks killer.
    I just signed up for it, and then couldn't think of a single use for it. Oh well
    Same here.
  • I used it to scrape links from twitter until I realized that it was mostly crap that was tweeted.
  • edited September 2011
    First group I ever beat Final Fantasy with:

    Fighter
    Fighter
    Fighter
    Redmage

    Expensive, but overpowered when geared. Bane was death effects though. Also killed Warmech with this group on the first try.

    My typical group though was:

    Fighter
    Thief
    White Mage
    Black Mage
    Post edited by Anthony Heman on
  • Scott, practically every rap album is 90% about the rapper who made the album.
    While this may be true, Scott is not alone in disliking the new MC Frontalot album. There are still a few tracks that I love, but on the whole it is his weakest album. I think my biggest problem is that the actual music behind most of the songs isn't nearly as catchy. He's still a talented rapper, but the songs are not a complete package.
  • Scott, practically every rap album is 90% about the rapper who made the album.
    While this may be true, Scott is not alone in disliking the new MC Frontalot album. There are still a few tracks that I love, but on the whole it is his weakest album. I think my biggest problem is that the actual music behind most of the songs isn't nearly as catchy. He's still a talented rapper, but the songs are not a complete package.
    I didn't say I dislike it. I actually like it quite a bit. I'm just thinking that because it is meta, and at times meta-meta, it will only be listenable to people who are already familiar with him.
  • Scott, practically every rap album is 90% about the rapper who made the album.
    While this may be true, Scott is not alone in disliking the new MC Frontalot album. There are still a few tracks that I love, but on the whole it is his weakest album. I think my biggest problem is that the actual music behind most of the songs isn't nearly as catchy. He's still a talented rapper, but the songs are not a complete package.
    I didn't say I dislike it. I actually like it quite a bit. I'm just thinking that because it is meta, and at times meta-meta, it will only be listenable to people who are already familiar with him.
    Aha well apologies for putting words in your mouth. I on the other hand am not huge on the album.
  • edited September 2011
    Aha well apologies for putting words in your mouth. I on the other hand am not huge on the album.
    Like most of his albums, there are a handful of songs I would listen to many times, and others not. In other words, the hits and the not-hits. For example, Final Boss had I would say 5 good tracks. Wallflowers, Toung-Clucking Grammarian, Shame of the Otaku, Canadia, and Diseases of Yore. I would say Canadia was definitely my favorite of those. On the new album I also count Front the Least, Captains of Industry, Stoop Sale, I'll Form the Head, and Just Once as the good tracks. Also five, of which Captains of Industry is my favorite. Also, Victorian Space Prostitute has relevant lyrics being about cosplayers, but I don't really like the song.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • edited September 2011
    That's an accurate list of the good tracks, the only one I would add is Power User. I think my surprise was that 2/3 if not more of the tracks on his previous albums were songs I'd listen to many times. Still, only getting six good new songs that I'll listen to again and again is a.... first world problem?
    Post edited by Matt on
  • I decided to see how far back GeekNights went so I started listening to the very first one in the archives.

    That very first one is pretty much science new that wasn't.

    My first FF1 party was:
    Monk
    Monk
    White Mage
    Black Mage

    Although the red mage suffers in the end game you never actually need that much power to win. There was one time I decided to race a lone Red Mage against a lone Monk to see who would win the day. I remember it being close. The red mage edged victory.
  • edited September 2011
    Or Australia, where if you look at the laws regarding the internet, is essentially a fascist state...
    Yer fuckin' what? I suspect you have not actually looked at the laws you claim. Considering that said laws never made it past the Senate - sure, the first line of the Wikipedia article implies a facist state, but if you actually look at the laws in question, the only thing they can do is act against content that explicitly breaks the law - and even then, they don't stop you from getting to it, they just shut down the site. If it's on Australian soil, anyway - it's practically never enforced, and in at least one case I remember, it was trivially foiled by complying with the hazy, kinda grey enforcement of the law...but hosting the content overseas so rapidly that nobody using the site ever noticed the difference. The government complained, but there was literally nothing they could do.

    And while we're at it, Let's have a little talk about your own nation. I recall they had a little problem with a site called wikileaks, and have taken some quite interesting steps to try and kill it. But failing that, we have the US government forcing Twitter to hand over information on users, or that your nation is trying to enact laws not only on your own soil, but which actually effect the entire world.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • And while we're at it, Let's have a little talk about your own nation.
    I don't think any of us are defending the shitty US. We're just pointing out that others are just as bad, if not worse, than we are. Every country is better in its own way and every country is worst in its own way. If anyone knows a country that has no major flaws, I'm packing my bags.
  • edited September 2011
    I don't think any of us are defending the shitty US. We're just pointing out that others are just as bad, if not worse, than we are. Every country is better in its own way and every country is worst in its own way. If anyone knows a country that has no major flaws, I'm packing my bags.
    I'm listening to that show literally as I type this - side note, as I typed this, you just said "Rym is doing a great job of insulting all the listeners", which is nothing more than coincidence, but amusing - And I can tell you that the way you portrayed it then pointed in a different direction to your words just now.

    In fact, Rym's EXACT WORDS -
    "It's interesting that, the US, despite all the bullshit we go through, is pretty much the only country I trust with any internet anything, with free speech of any kind."
    Which clearly isn't a great idea. And you said...
    "If it's a straight up free speech issue, you'll straight up win every time in the US..."
    Which the Wikileaks example shows isn't quite true.

    But anyway, none of that changes the fact that what Rym said is either wrong, or he's got a Ron Paul Libertarian kind of view on exactly what a fascist state is, considering that he trusts the US.

    Though, you made - at around the same point - a very good statement that applies to COICA - "The rest of the world is suffering because of one country's shitty law affecting the rest of the world."
    Post edited by Churba on
  • a very good statement that applies to COICA
    Except COICA didn't pass. But Protect IP is moving forwards. We must stop it!
  • Except COICA didn't pass. But Protect IP is moving forwards. We must stop it!
    Please do, we'd probably appreciate if you did that. The US has an large amount of power when it comes to the internet, so we'd really like if you didn't dick the rest of the world over.
  • Which the Wikileaks example shows isn't quite true.
    Had the wikileaks stuff gone to US court, they likely would have won against whatever charges were brought against them. Our courts have a long history of upholding free speech despite almost all objections. The exception is copyright.

    Britain's defamation/slander/libel laws are a dangerous joke, and I would hesitate to run GeekNights as we do now were I a citizen. France and Germany have dangerous restrictions on speech that would make me hesitate to speak freely in a public capacity in either nation. Australia's content censorship law, even if enforcement is lax, frighten me.

    The US goes apeshit against intellectual property violations, but all other forms of speech are so protected it's almost crazy. First amendment is best amendment.
  • edited September 2011
    Australia's content censorship law, even if enforcement is lax, frighten me.
    The problem is, There really isn't any beyond what you have. You can't host certain types of sites with illegal content here - For example, bestiality pornography is against the law here, so you can't host it here - because that would constitute possession of illegal pornography. The same with the US, if you were hosting illegal pornography, such as Bestiality in some states, or snuff films.

    You can't host Adult rated content without some sort of verification in place, and any actor in pornography specifically must be able to be verified as over 18(which is the same as the US's 2257 laws) - but it doesn't have to be more than a link that says "Are you over 18, and it is legal to view this content where you are? Come on in!". The US had similar laws regarding age verification - COPA, anyone? - but these were defeated in the supreme court. And don't forget that there are a number of situations where Free speech does not apply in the US, such as Obscenity and 'Fighting words', to name two, which do not necessarily apply here in the same situations if at all.

    The major differences are really that the discussion of suicide can be a little tricky - for example, if you made a How-to guide for committing suicide, that's not on, legally, if you're caught - and that we've got some fucked up copyright laws that we were bullied into as part of a trade agreement, that we later extended to maintain said agreement. Which agreement? Well, The Australian-US free trade agreement, of course.

    Our Content censorship laws are hardly different from your own in reality, once you get past the hype, and we have areas where we are in fact better - After all, we can swear on TV and the radio for the most part(christ, SBS, one of our two government funded networks, is famous for showing astoundingly explicit foreign and arthouse films late at night, without even a hint of censorship, the kind of thing that you'd have trouble getting anywhere but pay-per-view channels in the US), without copping hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines, and "Nipplegate" wouldn't have caused a raised eyebrow here, let alone public outrage, fines, creating an industry standard 10 second delay, and the censorship and tightened regulation that followed for the next few months, all over a breast that was in TV for less than a second, literally blink and you miss it. They're not ideal, sure - For example, Scott bought up Video game censorship here, which is improving(we're currently in the process of enacting an R18+ rating for video games, but we've not actually enacted it yet - and you were only saved from the same sort of thing yourselves, because your government allowed the industry to self regulate), but not yet perfect. And we're fighting against it - the Labor party has, until recently, distanced itself from the filter because it knows that if they enact it seriously, they're absolutely fucked - well, more than they are at the moment anyway. But we're working on it, what is the US doing? Besides forcing your own laws onto other nations, that is.
    Had the wikileaks stuff gone to US court, they likely would have won against whatever charges were brought against them.
    Of course, that's possible. They're still investigating, however, last I heard, and still will likely attempt extradition Via Sweden. And of course, the US did ask other countries to bring criminal charges against Assange in particular, and restrict his international travel. And they were leaning on private corporations to end all business dealings with wikileaks, which is certainly unethical, but apparently legal. Oh, and how the state department leaned on paypal and lied to them, to get them to suspend donations to wikileaks, and who are rumored to have also leaned on Mastercard and Visa, though nothing I can outright confirm at this time. Certainly, their free speech is legally protected, but the US government has shown itself willing to go to some lengths to attempt to silence them, if it cannot outright gag them due to it's own laws.
    Post edited by Churba on
  • The US had similar laws regarding age verification - COPA, anyone? - but these were defeated in the supreme court.
    situations where Free speech does not apply in the US, such as Obscenity and 'Fighting words'
    Obscenity restrictions rarely survive the courts, and Internet "fighting words" almost always persevere as well. It's very difficult to stop any online speech that is not itself illegal specifically, and the lack of immediacy removes most possible ilegalities.
  • After all, we can swear on TV and the radio
    But I was talking about the Internet, which isn't party to really any of the restrictions we see in old person media.
  • edited September 2011
    But I was talking about the Internet, which isn't party to really any of the restrictions we see in old person media.
    Well, unfortunately, you used the words "Content Restriction", which opened it up to a much broader field than just "The internet". Just because you are not in and do not care about other forms of media besides the internet does not mean they do not matter, nor that they should not ideally be as free as the internet.

    As a side note, the term Old people Media gives me gentle, warming thoughts of a crisp backhander - It's a smarmy, arrogant, bullshit term thrown around far too indiscriminately, most often by (not including yourself) elitist, arrogant people who want to feel justified in putting themselves on a pedestal, just because they've had a few less birthdays than someone else, because they've got a chip on their shoulder about being dismissed in the past for being young.
    The US had similar laws regarding age verification - COPA, anyone? - but these were defeated in the supreme court.
    Your point? The US is also trying to reintroduce a modified version of these laws so that they are compliant with the initial complaints brought about by the defeated laws, just as COPA did with the initial laws - you know, kind of like how law is refined over time. And don't fool yourself - US sites will ask you to confirm that the materiel you're going to view is legal for you to view in your jurisdiction for a good reason, state laws regarding these things still apply regardless of what the Supreme court decided about a single bit of legislation. More places exist than your tiny slice of New York and they generally have different laws, man, come on, you know this.
    Post edited by Churba on
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