Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:48 am

I mix Gibsons all the time. The cyberpunk writer and the crazy actor.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:49 pm

Dean Kamon is probably the best example.
He originally got rich designing/making insulin pumps. He got famous for the Segway (which is 1/2 of the actual project: a wheelchair that raises users to normal eye level and also climbs stairs). He spent a while building an actually decent prosthetic hand, but recently afaik has been making tiny amounts of money bringing electricity to Africa.
(I think that he's been funding that with the every-flavor soda machines that popped up in every fast food place recently, but that's based on my reading between the lines in a lot of places, and may be just wrong)

Of course, Edison and Ford have strong arguments for them as well, but that may involve more argument. I've also heard of e.g. someone who gives free utilities to poor households, and uses them as loads to sell wave-shaping to the power companies, but that's pretty arcane and obscure. Kamon's stuff is pretty unequivocally good, and people may have heard of him.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:12 pm

Edison and Ford have enough bullshit attached to them that you wouldn't want to use them. Edison fought the march of technology by electrocuting animals. Henry Ford fought unionization - literally. He had people on staff whose job was to harass, intimidate, and assault union leadership.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:59 pm

Ford also paid very high wages, and selling cheap cars enabled commuting, which does far more for labor than unions ever could. Edison has a similar argument.

Either way though, I agree that they're less viscerally appealing as examples.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:25 pm

Ford was also basically a Nazi. Before the Nazis.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:08 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford ... i-Semitism

In 1918, Ford's closest aide and private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, purchased an obscure weekly newspaper for Ford, The Dearborn Independent. The Independent ran for eight years, from 1920 until 1927, with Liebold as editor. Every Ford franchise nation-wide had to carry the paper and distribute it to its customers.

The newspaper published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was discredited by The Times of London as a forgery during the Independent's publishing run. The American Jewish Historical Society described the ideas presented in the magazine as "anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor, and anti-Semitic." In February 1921, the New York World published an interview with Ford, in which he said: "The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on." During this period, Ford emerged as "a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice," reaching around 700,000 readers through his newspaper.

The 2010 documentary film Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (written by Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow) states that Ford wrote on May 22, 1920: "If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew."

While Ford's articles were denounced by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the articles explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews (Volume 4, Chapter 80), but blamed the Jews for provoking incidents of mass violence. None of this work was written by Ford, but he allowed his name to be used as author.

Henry Ford got a shout-out in Mein Kampf for a reason.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:54 am

What the fuck is up with the whole Redneck pride thing? Do the people who say shit like "redneck and proud" not realize that all the things they praise about rednecks (typically ingenuity, strong work ethic, dedication, lack of aversion to getting dirty) both come in non-redneck varieties and are not in evidence in every single redneck?

...or am I just over thinking stereotypes and it's maybe time for me to go to bed?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:03 am

Didn't you use to have an "Anima" in your name or something?

Did you outsource it to India? Or did I imagine the whole thing?

edit: Never mind, saw the relevant post in the Name Changing thread. I really am unobservant at times, aren't I? (Don't answer that.)

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:40 pm

What do people use for their freeware word processing these days?

The ability to open MSWord documents is not a requirement, but "works with more things" is generally a plus if choosing between two otherwise-equal things. "Not being a Java tool" would be particularly awesome too. A huge plus would be the in-built option to print to .pdf files (bigger bonus: the ability to set bookmarks).

But mostly I just want it to be fairly stable, show it on the pages rather than just one massive white layout so I know how it will print (most have an option for this), and to be proper freeware (donation optional), not nagware or covered in ads or infinite-lasting shareware or pirated stuff.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:54 pm

OpenOffice is pretty good.

Microsoft Also has a "home use program," where they will sell you office for very cheap if you work somewhere with a volume license (US$10 for everything except project, IIRC) which may be worth looking into.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:57 pm

OpenOffice is great and it's what I've used for the past three years.

If you want to print out .pdfs, use Cute PDF. I've been using that for even longer, mainly to makef 4E D&D character sheets to put onto the web.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 2:57 pm

Foxit is a free, fast and light PDF reader that will let you print to PDF - you just select Foxit as your printer and go. I use it all the time. It's total cake.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 3:46 pm

Prak wrote:What the fuck is up with the whole Redneck pride thing? Do the people who say shit like "redneck and proud" not realize that all the things they praise about rednecks (typically ingenuity, strong work ethic, dedication, lack of aversion to getting dirty) both come in non-redneck varieties and are not in evidence in every single redneck?

...or am I just over thinking stereotypes and it's maybe time for me to go to bed?

Redneck pride is like gay pride. Its a reaction to being looked down upon and perhaps somewhat oppressed.

That is to say, Redneck started out as a slur against a deeply impoverished underclass. That underclass still exists and is still deeply impoverished.

Its basically a reaction to being perceived as inferior by Northerners and wealthy Southerners.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 6:21 pm

Lots of people manifestly do not believe rednecks actually have any redeeming qualities, so it doesn't hit me as particularly weird that rednecks would insist otherwise.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 9:45 pm

Fair enough, I will admit to deep seated prejudice against the south for my part.

Count Arioch the 28th · Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:30 pm

I used to be biased against rednecks, but I've met a couple that are cool as fuck and that changed my perspective.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 12:36 am

I deal with that shit all the time, Prak. It's gotten to the point that it's one of the few flaws in my otherwise amiable and tolerant character.

That sort of prejudice is something I deal with almost every time I open my mouth on Xbox live or answer to my state of residence.

Never mind that I have a stock rant on the nonsensicality of imposing Latin grammar on English, read a ton (in a ton of areas), play D&D and video games, have the Internet and try to keep up with science news; I live in the South so to a lot of people in the US I'm automatically some sort of sub-human inbred who lives in a trailer and wants to marry his sister-mother-cousin who I'll beat every day.

Some people are so ignorant they're genuinely shocked that I have electricity and indoor plumbing, much less the Internet. And that shit's gotten old.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 2:52 am

Just remember the standard response to "So do you have sex with your [mother/sister]?"

Which is "No, but I had a go with yours."

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I used to have OO on my old laptop, and the Write option worked fine (Database is a giant pile of shit), I just couldn't remember if people typically used some different one due to X problems or whatever.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 3:14 am

Yeah, it's a terrible, horrible, mostly baseless prejudice. Though I am at least aware that there are areas of the south with electricity and internet....

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 3:50 am

If it helps you break yourself of the habit any faster I'd advise reflecting on the many ways such forms of classism just reinforces (and is damn near indistinguishable from) systemic racism. After all, even after you've bullshitted yourself into thinking you don't see color it's still entirely possible for you to buy into the idea that every person with bad teeth is just a lazy fuck who wouldn't have made good use of an education or health insurance anyway.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:25 am

I have been wondering if the British "Stereotypes we have for people from two miles away" is indeed racist or if there's some other term for it. (See: Yotkshire people like pies, cloth caps and whippets and are very stingy! People from Manchester are football hooligans and chavs, conceived in alleyways!)

Because for a country where people really seem to be convinced they're not racist, well...

(I know, I'm hardly one to talk, being Australian. And also making a sweeping generalisation about all of Britain.)

Post by **fbmf** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:02 am

Prak wrote:Yeah, it's a terrible, horrible, mostly baseless prejudice. Though I am at least aware that there are areas of the south with electricity and internet....

In the interest of full disclosure, this message board is owned and moderated by a Southerner. You might use that as you're out when you're accused of being prejudiced.

Game On,
fbmf

violence in the media · Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:39 pm

fbmf wrote:
Prak wrote:Yeah, it's a terrible, horrible, mostly baseless prejudice. Though I am at least aware that there are areas of the south with electricity and internet....
In the interest of full disclosure, this message board is owned and moderated by a Southerner. You might use that as you're out when you're accused of being prejudiced.

Game On,
fbmf

Aren't you from Texas? I thought that was it's whole own thing. The South (at least to me) has always been everything below the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi, with Louisiana and Arkansas as kind of toss-ups.

edit: Excluding Florida. Because Florida.

Post by **fbmf** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:46 pm

violence in the media wrote:
fbmf wrote:
Prak wrote:Yeah, it's a terrible, horrible, mostly baseless prejudice. Though I am at least aware that there are areas of the south with electricity and internet....
In the interest of full disclosure, this message board is owned and moderated by a Southerner. You might use that as you're out when you're accused of being prejudiced.

Game On,
fbmf
Aren't you from Texas? I thought that was it's whole own thing. The South (at least to me) has always been everything below the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi, with Louisiana and Arkansas as kind of toss-ups.

edit: Excluding Florida. Because Florida.

I am from Texas. We consider ourselves apart from the South, but Northerners usually lump us all together.

Game On,
fbmf

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:11 pm

violence in the media wrote:
fbmf wrote:
Prak wrote:Yeah, it's a terrible, horrible, mostly baseless prejudice. Though I am at least aware that there are areas of the south with electricity and internet....
In the interest of full disclosure, this message board is owned and moderated by a Southerner. You might use that as you're out when you're accused of being prejudiced.

Game On,
fbmf
Aren't you from Texas? I thought that was it's whole own thing. The South (at least to me) has always been everything below the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi, with Louisiana and Arkansas as kind of toss-ups.

edit: Excluding Florida. Because Florida.

Texas and Arkansas are Southwestern, which is like the South but with more cowboys and Mexicans. Louisiana is Louisiana. It's unique.