SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the if-manuals-are-for-sissies,-who-are-automatics-for? dept.
Lancelot Braithwaite cannot get through my visit without bursting forth a mantra that once served him and thousands of consumers well: “Read the frickin’ instruction manual!” he bellows. “And don’t throw it out unless you’re pretty good at memorizing it!” Never mind that products—from iPhones to Facebook—have made manuals into curious artifacts of a distant era. That era is alive if not well in Braithwaite’s smokey, cramped one-bedroom on West 14th Street.
Before tech product reviewers were brand names, there was Braithwaite, thundering his wisdom and geekery from publications that now exist only in yellowing copies. It was a time when the best critics were so familiar with technical specifications that their knowledge rivaled the engineers who built the products. And none were as omnipresent or as savvy as Braithwaite, who even served on industry standards committees.
Manuals are for sissies.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:21PM (8 children)
And if there is some sort of brain reset that causes people to forget such things, then just subject the defendant to that without the inefficiency of a trial that no one cares about. We're already down to a judge and prosecutor supposedly with no other witnesses to the trial. What's the point of such theater without an audience? Just have the computer automatically assign punishment and everyone's good.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:50PM (5 children)
It is a gradual process. You don't get rid of all freedom overnight. It really does take decades. Some steps require waiting for an event to take place that can rationalize or justify the removal of rights. 9/11 was the government's wet dream come true resulting in atrocities such as the PATRIOT act; and the TSA theater of pretend security. Fingernail clippers not allowed, but cigarettes and lighters are allowed, just to give one crazy example.
As people come to accept this, you gradually take away more and more freedoms. Constitution free zones. Law enforcement at the local level that becomes totally unconcerned about rights and the constitution. They feel they have total freedom to ignore rights and the constitution. What was probable cause can be determined later in a private meeting between officers. Stingray, which is so secret that the defendant cannot be allowed to examine it. (Theory: because it reveals known weaknesses in the very protocol design that cannot be changed easily nor quickly. If the trick in Stingray were known -- everyone would have one.) DUI checkpoints that stop everyone, even if they are showing no signs of impaired driving. (Theory: DUI checkpoints have nothing to do with DUI but rather a fishing expedition.)
Cryptography books are classified as munitions.
Certain books must be banned! (Maybe you can get in actual trouble for having The Anarchist's Cookbook?)
Fake News. At some point a fraction of the population doesn't know what to believe. (We have always been at war with Eastasia.)
The word for it is a "show trial". Show Trials were done decades ago in the Eastern bloc countries to pretend that there was justice.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 07 2017, @05:04PM
And as the name indicates, they had an audience. When nobody is watching, you can do whatever you want without even the slightest need for theater.
(Score: 2) by schad on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:09PM (3 children)
No they aren't, or at least they weren't when I was still a smoker.
It's just that none of the equipment they use is sensitive enough to detect them, so it's easy to sneak them through in your carryon or even in your pockets.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:55PM
Iirc they're allowed as long as they don't have anything combustible in them (ie - the lighter is allowed but the lighter fluid in it isn't)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 07 2017, @10:33PM (1 child)
I never was a smoker, so I can't be sure. But I seem to recall a documentary "Farenheight 9/11" that pointed out that cigarettes, and I think lighters, were allowed. At least at first. Of course, all domestic flights became non-smoking and thus it was a non issue at some point. But I could be mistaken about the lighters.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @02:41PM
They were allowed at some point. A flight I had about 5 years ago I forgot I had my lighter in my pocket, made it through security with the lighter in the bin, and when putting things back in my pocket realized I had it. I told the TSA agent nearby just in case so I wouldn't be accused of trying to sneak it through and was told it was allowed, so I took it with me.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday November 07 2017, @07:35PM
Once reading becomes unpopular and nobody does it anymore then society will be rescued by hipsters. They'll write EcmaScript++ by day and read/write books by night : P
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @10:13PM
Show trials are a real thing. They work best when the 'trial' is known to happen and *in theory* the public could go watch even if in practice, it never quite manages to work out. That theoretical possibility is part of the show.
Don't get hung up on exact dates. 1984, for example, was an arbitrary year in the future, not a scientifically calculated date.
But it really is amazing how fast things change. Few now can even imagine that the idea of needing a licence to drive was truly offensive to many people in the early 20th century. It was about as popular as gun control at an NRA event. Click it or ticket wouldn't have stood a chance in the '50s. In the '80s, you actually could run through the airport like OJ and get on your flight, no ID required, boarding pass = flight.