Archive for January 18th, 2007
Some of you have asked me why their comments didn’t show up right away, so I just want to make a quick update so I have something to point to later. I probably don’t need this, and it’s most likely overkill… but here goes.
ALL comments come to me first (that is, if they’re not killed off by the akismet spam filter. It stops that refinance guy about 20 times / day so far). Once I approve one of your comments, then it’ll let you post the rest to the main page (you have to use the same name that I approved… a good way to send me a private message is to use a new name and tell me not to approve it)
In addition to that, any comment that has a hyperlink in it gets held for me to approve too. I’m usually very quick to approve comments (within an hour unless I’m sleeping or playing hockey)
Also… all comment links will get a rel=nofollow added (along with any links to your homepage that you enter)
Here’s some other guidelines to ensure that I approve your comment:
1.) Please keep it on-topic. I’ll pretty much approve anything unless you’re just ranting about something unrelated or shamelessly promoting your own crap. Only I can shamelessly promote crap on dotCULT.
2.) Please don’t post incriminating or identifying information about other people. As long as what you type is legal and doesn’t infringe on somebody else’s rights, I’ll probably approve it. I’m not here to censor your opinions.
Hopefully, the combination of these policies will result in no more spam. We can only dream right?
January 18th, 2007
I just booked a trip to Texas for the first week of February, and I don’t have any good books to read. I was hoping you guys could reccomend some good books for me. I can usually get through 2 smaller books, or 1 decent sized book in the 6 -8 hours of reading involved in waiting for the plane, on the plane, waiting for my ride, etc.
To help you out, here’s a list of books I’ve read recently:
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The NightTime
The Alchemest
The Stranger
Freakonomics
Blink
Mensa Guide to Blackjack
Henderson The Rain King
Tuesdays With Morrie
Programming Pearls
I’ve picked up The Chocolate War (to re-read.. haven’t read it since 8th grade), and also a copy of Mitch Albom’s new book. I forget what it’s called.
What else is good??
Also… I have a couple DVD’s I’d like to watch, but I don’t have a portable DVD player. Does anybody know of some free* software available for ripping a DVD to my iPod?
* People who know me know that I don’t pirate software, or even download movies or music. Please keep that in mind when reccomending software. I only want to copy a DVD that I own onto my iPod so that I can view it on the plane.
January 18th, 2007
Wired Reports that four families are suing MySpace after their underage daughters met up with men who sexually abused them. I’m not an advocate of abusing underage (or normal aged) girls, but is MySpace really to blame?
In one of the cases, the girl was 14 or 15, and the boy was only 19. The MySpace suit is based on the fact that his profile said he was a senior in high school and he wasn’t.
Is it the responsibility of a website to monitor what it’s users do in real life? In all of these cases the accused had no past criminal records, weren’t on the sex offender list, and didn’t have suspicious profiles (like a 40 year old who has a million 15 year old friends.) How is MySpace responsible for this?
The communications decency act of 1994 basically rules that content providers aren’t responsible for their users content – the users are. I think this holds true here. Sure they may have met on MySpace, but does that make MySpace liable for what they do afterwards?
In all of these cases, the girls voluntarily met up with their attackers. In many of them, the attackers didn’t lie about their ages. That’s right: these girls knew they were meeting up with older men. Seems to me that’s the root of the problem right there.
If these cases succeed, shouldn’t gun companies be liable for all gun related deaths? Do we hold websites responsible if somebody steals your credit card and uses it there? Is Toyota responsible for not preventing your auto accident? How about holding mothers responsible for letting their underage daughters on the internet unsupervised to arrange meetings with older men? I think that’d be a good law too.
January 18th, 2007
