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Glasshole

penny-arcade.com

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Re: Glasshole

#61

Post by halorhodopsin »

derefr wrote: post #22
enraged_camel wrote: post #16

I think there is good discussion to be had here, but holy shit , I have never been able to get over how utterly pretentious Jerry's writing is. The comics are usually fantastic and at strange odds with the accompanying news.

It has never occurred to me to call the way Jerry writes "pretentious." Most of the time I would call it "comedic" (specifically, containing great amounts of bathos )--he makes very creative, unexpected, and over-the-top use of the English language to convey relatively normal opinions on relatively boring subjects, in a way that makes me want to read his thoughts on things I couldn't otherwise care less about.

seriously. the guy just enjoys literature and words. anyone who writes a sentence with a structure like "this was always work that needed doing, and has value thereby" is not automatically pretentious...they are just probably a writer.

Re: Glasshole

#62

Post by JDGM »

Uhhrrr wrote: post #57
JDGM wrote: post #8

I was amazed to see this on the front page, assuming it was a link to today's comic, which would possibly have been the first time I witnessed a non-xkcd submitted to HN. That would've been cool, it's a good one. The fact that this is actually a link to the accompanying article from Tycho is great as his pieces are usually quite interesting but I miss out because they don't come up on the Penny Arcade website until a…

The Tycho essay is on the main URL and (almost?) always contains a link to the day's comic. So the essay can't come out ahead of time. I speculate that their "use model" is that you click refresh on the main site on MWF until the new essay comes up, then click through to the comic. Of course if you use an RSS feed or click refresh on the comic page, it makes less sense.

I think that's pretty much spot on.

What I would like to see is coordination between the two by delaying the release of the comic and/or Tycho submitting his piece sooner so they're released in unison.

This is going to sound extremely unreasonable but whenever I read the comic and click to the article only to see what Tycho wrote about the comic of two days ago, I find myself thinking "Gabe's done his part! This art didn't draw itself! Where's the accompanying essay then?!".

JD(GM) out.

♬ Like an angry English teacher getting in a strop at a student for not bringing his coursework to class on the day I made them all write in their planners weeks ago.

Re: Glasshole

#63

Post by grimman »

wisty wrote: post #39
enraged_camel wrote: post #16

I think there is good discussion to be had here, but holy shit , I have never been able to get over how utterly pretentious Jerry's writing is. The comics are usually fantastic and at strange odds with the accompanying news.

He probably writes the way he speaks. Bad idea. People are generally fantastic at parsing speech, and terrible at parsing writing. Or, as I'd say it: Well, if I had to guess, I'd say he probably writes in a similar way to the way he speaks; or at least; the way he would like to speak if he had three minutes to think up every sentence he had to utter. This may not be such a good idea as it sounds, unless you have a te…

He doesn't speak like that at all; you can find a ton of "behind the scenes" videos on PATV, and you'll see that these people are (portrayed to be) genuinely appreciative of their fans and where their comics have taken them and their associates. The way he writes does irk me though. As far as I'm concerned it definitely detracts from the message he's trying to convey.

Re: Glasshole

#64

Post by HCIdivision17 »

wonderzombie wrote: post #36
enraged_camel wrote: post #16

I think there is good discussion to be had here, but holy shit , I have never been able to get over how utterly pretentious Jerry's writing is. The comics are usually fantastic and at strange odds with the accompanying news.

The man loves words and writing and such. I don't think there's anything pretentious about it.

Exactly. My high school rhetoric teacher would do similar things, writing (or lecturing) in a way that is clearly impractical but for the live of the language. I can't see it as anything other than thrilling with the language. He's paid to write, dammit, so he'll darn well write!

Re: Glasshole

#65

Post by marshray »

Kylekramer wrote: post #56
marshray wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't see the difference between say, having a camera next to you on the seat of your car and driving the Google StreetView car everywhere you go?

Given how ubiquitous Androids, iOS, Kinect, OSX, and Windows devices are, no. Chances are if you are in any populated area, a camera (and perhaps more importantly, microphone, given that mics are omnidirectional) associated with one PRISM company being on you is extremely high. Glass would merely be a snowdrift on top of Everest. Of course, it is important to note I don't believe PRISM is anywhere near as effective a…

I agree with you that the ubiquity of microphones cameras without hard electrical 'off' switches is a real problem. Secret microphones have been used for eavesdropping for a century now, and malware has been found in the wild which uses the camera to take photos and make 3D reconstructions of the victim's home interior.

But wearing an internet connected 3rd party controlled camera on your forehead is categorically different than one that points at the inside of my pocket almost all the time. If it were the same as what we have now then Google Glass wouldn't be a very interesting product, would it?

Re: Glasshole

#66

Post by marshray »

lmkg wrote: post #41

So I just remembered that I actually have some personal experience with this issue. My girlfriend is getting her PhD in computer vision, and one of her labmates was working on summarization algorithms (imagine a program that could take 6 hours of continuous footage, and spit out a 1-minute highlight reel). She volunteered to wear a camera for a day to gather data for him, and she asked me permission to do so while we…

The labmate recorded 6 hours of audio on you without your prior knowledge? That sort of thing can be downright illegal. That lab should have had some adult supervision.

This illustrates why we can't let just let researchers and enthusiasts run wild with new (and old) privacy-impacting technology. Like nuclear and biomedical research, we need an ongoing public discussion about boundaries.

Re: Glasshole

#67

Post by aeontech »

lotsofcows wrote: post #48
alex_stoddard wrote: post #20

In Kim Stanley Robinson's 1993 sf novel "Red Mars" a member of the first Mars colonization mission also works for news agencies back on Earth and wears "camera glasses". I forget the exact arc of the subplot but as I recall they resign and refuse to wear the 'glasses' anymore because they were ostracized by the rest of the crew.

Snowcrash was 1992. People who are thoroughly wired are referred to disparagingly as "gargoyles".

Holy shit, you just made me realize Snow Crash is coming to reality (for certain parts of it) faster than expected :)

Re: Glasshole

#68

Post by lsc »

see, this is the thing about glass; There's a whole lot of useful stuff you can do with a HUD that doesn't involve a camera, and wearing a HUD would be a hell of a lot more socially acceptable if people didn't assume they always came with cameras.

Or hell, just a 'the camera is on' indicator. a red light, or a bit of plastic you can slide over the lens or something. (I mean, clearly, both of these things can be faked, but there are a thousand other ways to conceal a camera on your person, if you are being deceitful. The important bit is to make a clear way of setting the social expectation that the camera is on/off.) Personally, I'd favor some kind of physical lens block, as it guarantees my privacy (during the times I physically block the camera) even if the firmware is compromised.

Re: Glasshole

#69

Post by brk »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #55
doktrin wrote: post #29

It will take a while before I am comfortable with others wearing Glass around me. The thought of speaking to someone wearing the device makes me a little uncomfortable. I realize that may sound a little luddite-esque to certain members of this community, but there you have it. This is a resistance that I'm sure is shared by many in the general public. It's something we all may get used to eventually, but I honestly p…

It's not like CCTVs are pervasive already. Anyways, they'll eventually get Glass down to where it's unnoticeable, then the awkwardness will disappear even if...the problem still exists.

The average CCTV camera shot has no audio and very poor overall detail. And, unless you happen to stand in one perfect spot for a long time, anything they capture is a fleeting moment at best.

Glass is capturing full audio and video, in usable quality, of the person the wearer is interacting with.

Re: Glasshole

#70

Post by jessep »

I'm confused about the transition from Glass (Google product, no?) to discussion of Microsoft's messaging problems. Can someone explain the relationship?
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