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Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

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Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#71

Post by jonknee »

jacquesm wrote: post #68
jonknee wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a fear of being crawled, it's link tracking. It has been discussed a bunch of times (how they show the link in the status bar but then the internal link is what shows up in the clip board). The easiest way around this is to just click the link and copy it from your browser. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011...

That works with any link type except for pdfs which start 'okular' on my machine, and then I don't have access to the link.

Ah, that makes sense. PDFs render in the browser for me so it's no different than any other URL.

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#72

Post by BrokenPipe »

jonknee wrote: post #62
chernevik wrote: post #59

"Reading the book, I felt as if my mind was rocked by explosions." If you've only had this experience from _one_ book, you aren't reading enough. "Questions that had puzzled me for years suddenly began making sense in this new world." If, on reading a book, you don't know of at least one other set of alternative answers, you aren't reading enough. No doubt Chomsky is a powerful and persuasive writer. But there are ma…

> If you've only had this experience from _one_ book, you aren't reading enough. He was 17 years old when he read the book.

And later in the comments he said the same happened to him with other books. i.e. purely intellectual math. The more I read about Aaron he more I'm impressed and even though I didn't read enough about Chomsky I think he's right on far too many issues (the ones I encountered so far).

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#73

Post by BrokenPipe »

hackerblues wrote: post #55
Yaa101 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What never cease to amaze me and fascinates me is how people can rationalize away simple concept like: When the public pays for knowledge to be created, it should be that the public owns the knowledge it paid for, of all people Americans should live this truth. But no, the majority really thinks that a small elite has the right to usurp this knowledge not paid by them and let the public that paid for it, pay more and…

The public's taxes also fund the military. Extending your principle to this case implies that the public owns the countries nuclear arsenal. Can you advise what this ownership should practically entail? Should I get access to the weapons? Should I be able to use them? Or am I limited to indirectly benefitting from their existence?

You are not the first to make the mistake of comparing I.P. with physical property. They are not the same physically, in theory, in practice or in law.

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#74

Post by anigbrowl »

It’s undoubtedly the best documentary I’ve seen, weaving together all sorts of clever tricks to enlighten and entertain.

This is sadly ironic; since Chomsky is one of the most manipulative and dishonest writers I've had the displeasure of reading. I'm not going to engage in an exhaustive deconstruction of any of his work here, since I don't keep any of his books on my shelf. I'll just say that I think his mischaracterization of the source material that he refers to in the endless footnotes is beyond biased and falls into being outright dishonesty. There is no question but that he is smart enough to know better; as an academic linguist he would never accept such shoddy arguments if they were submitted to him for peer review.

He's the left wing's Ayn Rand, and I don't mean that as a compliment.

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#76

Post by baddox »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #47

Interesting thing about Noam Chomsky: he goes face to face with the US government on a lot of issues and is smart enough to not have ever got in serious trouble over it.

Or perhaps the government considers him radical enough (without advocating violence) to not be a threat.

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#77

Post by nik61 »

DigitalJack wrote: post #37

I found the following review of the book interesting. I always like to read the "negative" reviews of something because I find it easier to make a decision whether to read something or buy something (books, software, food, etc...) based on whether I can identify with the negative comments or not. If someone has recommended something to me, and the negative comments are inconsequential to me (or absurd, etc...), I'm m…

Oh, an "Israelite" is he? There's a weighted term for the partial concealment of an evil prejudice, I think.

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#78

Post by CR45H »

hackerblues wrote: post #55
Yaa101 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What never cease to amaze me and fascinates me is how people can rationalize away simple concept like: When the public pays for knowledge to be created, it should be that the public owns the knowledge it paid for, of all people Americans should live this truth. But no, the majority really thinks that a small elite has the right to usurp this knowledge not paid by them and let the public that paid for it, pay more and…

The public's taxes also fund the military. Extending your principle to this case implies that the public owns the countries nuclear arsenal. Can you advise what this ownership should practically entail? Should I get access to the weapons? Should I be able to use them? Or am I limited to indirectly benefitting from their existence?

The public does in fact own the country's nuclear arsenal. The nuclear arsenal is purely defensive and to be used only in the direst of circumstances in the defense of the nation (i.e. the public). No one individual or group of people has the right to use our nuclear arsenal to enrich themselves. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make, but you're not making a lot of sense. Perhaps you could try to explain yourself without the hyperbole.

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#79

Post by jackpirate »

jacquesm wrote: post #70
jackpirate wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be a nuclear submarine officer, but left the US Navy as a complete pacifist and conscientious objector. What the pacifist movement needs is books willing to engage nonviolent strategy in the same way that military tacticians do it. That's what Gene Sharp's books claim to be, but IMHO they fail. They paint nonviolence in a little bit too good of a light, without fully acknowledging its limitations.

From one conscientious objector to another (ages ago), thank you.

Would you mind sharing your experience? I like collecting other people's CO stories, and I've never heard of another computer nerd doing it. If you prefer privacy, my email is mike@izbicki.me.

The NY Times did a write up on my court case: (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23objector.html?p...), and I've written up some of the testimony from my hearing on my own blog (http://izbicki.me/blog/category/religion/my-co-discharge).

Re: Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life

#80

Post by nessus42 »

DigitalJack wrote: post #37

I found the following review of the book interesting. I always like to read the "negative" reviews of something because I find it easier to make a decision whether to read something or buy something (books, software, food, etc...) based on whether I can identify with the negative comments or not. If someone has recommended something to me, and the negative comments are inconsequential to me (or absurd, etc...), I'm m…

I've listened to and attended plenty of talks by Chomsky, and this "review" does not in the slightest represent Chomsky's actual thoughts on anything. This "review" is nothing but a caricature.

Furthermore, it is hypocritical; i.e., it is guilty of its own criticism by hating on atheists.

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