Date: 01/28/2005 08:10 AM
From: paul walters (paul@undernourished.com)
Subject: My IPod, My Self
This sounds like a load ("My IPod, My Self," Jan. 28, 2005). A guy is recognized by professional colleagues as an "expert" because he can create a scattershot of buzzwords in an attempt to brand a movement that has more than one player. While the iPod is a market leader, it is hardly alone. Did I miss the article about how other devices have caused "technotrancendence?" Do cell phones, which people have intimate relationships with, not create "cybernetic units?" I see lots of people walking or driving while talking to people that are nowhere to be seen. Add in the headset, and the cyborgs come to life, only barely interacting with the real world around them, regardless of the vehicles they may be driving or the people around them that do not want the annoyance.
A music player linked to a website is little more than marketing. Get over it.
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Date: 01/27/2005 03:01 PM
From: Mikael (mik.ael@comhem.se)
Subject: Congress Puts Spyware on Hit List
The problem is not spyware, or viruses, or worms, or Trojans ("Congress Puts Spyware on Hit List," Jan. 27, 2005). The problem is that almost all consumer computers in the world run on the same operating system. Microsoft is a monopoly. If this was not the case, other, safer OSes could be chosen by consumers, and competition and diversion would contain most of today's security problems.
In fact, today the government spends a lot of time and money to create legislation to counter the symptoms of a disease, the root of which is a homogenous, unsafe computer environment, created and maintained by the Microsoft monopoly. One could even go so far as to say that Microsoft is what is costing the taxpayers a lot of money, and the government a lot of time that could be spent on other, more pressing issues.
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Date: 01/28/2005 01:36 AM
From: Barry Adams (barry.adams@gmail.com)
Subject: Opera, the Forgotten Browser
Quote: "Von Tetzchner said he doesn't believe the ads in the free version have kept users from adopting Opera ("Opera, the Forgotten Browser," Jan. 26, 2005)." I think he's wrong there. I tried the free version of Opera, and the banner ad was a real annoyance. I can honestly say that despite all the advantages, the banner ad was what kept me from adopting Opera as my default browser.
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Date: 01/28/2005 09:49 AM
From: sebastian (ceabaird@hotmail.com)
Subject: My IPod, My Self
Seems like Giesler is really working overtime to get that tenure, or at least more research dollars ("My IPod, My Self," Jan. 28, 2005). "A revolutionary device that transforms listeners into 'cyborgs' through a process he calls 'technotranscendence.'" Please, I have to fight the gag reflex. It's a portable hard disk, not an implant, for chrissake. What next? "The iPod is a new paradigm," the assistant professor intoned in a stentorian voice, "a palimpsest of optic entertainment over the new," ad nauseum, ad infinitum?
Well, god (or bog) bless him. I guess we all need to work the "publish or perish" angle somehow.
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