It’s never hard to tell which wannabe futurists work alone in a soundproof office.

So, then, text is not visual? Language is not learned, but instinctual?

Besides, DW is just saying animation and other non textual authoring and playing is in need of the same kind of object oriented upgrade as text got with digital outlines in the 80s and OT in the 90s.

Animation is going from Flash to Silverlight to html5 to animated GIFs ..... because they are the only ones that work almost everywhere (Opera mini... WTF!)

15 years on the Web Fonts 1.0 from Microsoft still are a solution.

v

>15 years on the Web Fonts 1.0 from Microsoft still are a solution.

Unfortunately, having "a solution" is not so good as "the solution".

There is no doubt however that people are increasingly discouraged from reading.
(This goes hand-in-hand with Democracy, and its totalitarian imposition.)

hhp

Really.

No, i think he meant hyper-capitalism.

Democracy is Capitalism's best weapon.

hhp

In many ways, I predict the wordless web will resemble the paperless office. :o)

Too bad there are no countries left in the World that have monarchies and hate democracy that a person could move to if they hated democracy and capitalism that much. It must be tough to be so imprisoned and not be able to leave.

People used to read more because it was once the only show in town. The current technology allows a constant feed of any means you could ask for. Funny thing is, the younger generation prefers texting to talking. I even saw a funny T-shirt which said: "Vinyl is going to ruin the MP3 business!". ;-)

Right now, I HATE Apple's new TextEdit 1.7 and want to get the damn thing to quit opening my text files! I can't even "Save as" with the stupid piece of crap!!

Does anybody know of a way to cripple the damn thing and keep it from opening text files that it did not create?

It used to be simple in versions past.

I couldn't go back - you're ruining it all, piece by piece. The ironic bit of "what goes around comes around" poetic justice however is that your capitalism has created a monster that will own you soon enough.

But anyway I've grown to love LA and wouldn't live anywhere else, certainly not anywhere else in the US. And if you believe that dissent equates to hatred, it is probably already too late for you.

hhp

Hrant: "There is no doubt however that people are increasingly discouraged from reading." Really, by whom? You love LA but you certainly don't like capitalism (me neither) but I live here. At least I have a socialist for a senator. Were you one of the Occupy Wall Street protestors? Do you do anything at all to complain about the system under which you live, other than vent here?

Yes Chris I hate TextEdit 1.7 too. Not being able to "save as" is a royal pain.

Oh, and I read books, the kind that come on paper, in between a binding, cloth or paper. And I never will stop reading them or buying them. So there!

As if capitalism and democracy have anything to do with each other.

People are not reading less.

Just not books.

Of course people are not explicitly discouraged from
reading; but the infernal drive towards the adoption
of music and video uses up all our "bandwidth". When
I read (and when I persist in not owning a cellphone)
it really feels like an act of dissent.

And I'm sorry, but reading txts isn't the same.

> Do you do anything at all to complain

Yes. Among other things, I refuse to vote; If you
think about it that's the only way to fix this mess.

Russell: The best way to make the 99% not complain about
being financially enslaved is to give them the illusion that
they have power, via voting.

Many of the supposedly glorious trappings of Western
society, such as free speech and public education are
in fact highly elegant tools of suppression.

hhp

"Where is the type?"

@dezcom:
Too bad there are no countries left in the World that have monarchies and hate democracy that a person could move to if they hated democracy and capitalism that much.

There's the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. And there's Cuba.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/for-some-kids-a-book-is-j...

I don't know whether to write off good old-fashioned passive text just yet.
Some of you may recall the CD-ROM craze that occurred 20 years ago when computers started incorporating CD drives.
This led to the production of interactive "books" made with Macromedia Director.
But it never caught on.
Well, the Newton didn't, either (except with Grant Hutchinson), but was resurrected as the iPad.

As an alternative to "interactive books", digital culture has developed gaming, which has very little running text.

**

I don't think text will become obsolete, until a better way than "writing" is found to excogitate, encode and communicate complex ideas. However, as a form of entertainment, gaming seems to surpassed books, radio, TV and movies.

the best way for the 99% to not be financially enslaved is not to buy so much shyte from the 1%. Rhetorical or material.

Many of the supposedly glorious trappings of Western
society, such as free speech and public education are
in fact highly elegant tools of suppression.

There is nothing elegant about public schools. Now I can't believe anything you say.

:o)

r

Indeed, since 70% of the US economy is consumer spending,
not buying junk would bring down the system in 5 minutes.
Frugality has certainly become a most inconvenient virtue.

However it's hard to disbelieve one's own education,
and mandatory public education helps capitalism by:
- Telling everybody what to think.
- Getting the moms into the workforce.
It's basically a combination babysitting/brainwashing service.

hhp

debt binds. just buy less & pay cash.

Mandatory public education helps capitalism [and any other 'ism' you choose] by:...

Seriously?

Public education where I came from taught me some critical thinking skills. I am pretty certain that would hold truer for most of those much despised Western Schools than for most any in, oh I don't know... Syria? Or any other non-democratic countries.

I don't have a lot of respect for school systems in general, but only because they are not taken seriously enough by the folks who run and fund them.

- Getting the moms into the workforce.

Seriously?

Debt: The social pressures are too great for most to say
no to it. People make fun of you when you rent, or if you
drive a jalopy. And when people make fun of you, you don't
get the best job, wife, etc.

Mandatory public education: it is a fact that when it was
first proposed as law (in England... no surprise) the main
argument was that it would help the economy. And really,
it makes a lot of sense.

BTW, the thing with education in a non-democratic (or rather,
a non-free-speech) society is that everybody knows it's bogus;
over here people think their system is the best, which makes
it much harder to change. Revolution is easier in Egypt for
example not because there is more injustice there, but because
people there are more aware that they are peons. In the West
people think they're respected - a convenient illusion.

To paraphrase the Roman Senate: give them pizza and
give them the Superbowl, and they will not revolt.

hhp

n e v e r m i n d

In the future, all communication will be done through emoticons.
The revolution has already begun. :-)

F*ck the rain

(Aw, c'mon, can't even put the f-word in a hidden URL?!)

F-ckin' ain't right.

What? The swear filter mangles hrefs? 'Kin 'ell!

Rephrased blog headline: "Dreamworks CEO smoking strange weed in ivory tower".

Mandatory public education: it is a fact that when it was
first proposed as law (in England... no surprise) the main
argument was that it would help the economy. And really,
it makes a lot of sense.

Of course! And what is wrong with that. YOU say it like it was a bad thing. The economy isn't the property of capitalists. The "economy" is what we are all a part of regardless of our isms. Being less ignorant makes up more valuable to our selves, our families and the rest of society.

Revolution is easier in Egypt for
example not because there is more injustice there, but because
people there are more aware that they are peons. In the West
people think they're respected - a convenient illusion.

Revolutions seldom have good outcomes - Why would any rational person in the West seriously contemplate one. Evolutions are better.

Revolution in Egypt was not easier than in the 'West", as the cost in human lives will attest, except that tin-pot dictatorships are not sustainable any more. Sooner or later, they will all fall. In a place where you can be thrown in prison, held indefinitely and tortured or killed for saying the wrong thing in public. I'd think it would not be difficult to get behind the idea of risking everything for change, on the off chance things will improve.

... I don't know, but I think if I were an Egyptian, a Syrian or a Libyan right now I'd find the comparison of the occupy movement (which I support) to what has been going on in those countries less than an obvious one.

now, Where's the type, man? :o)

In many ways, I predict the wordless web will resemble the paperless office.

(I can quote myself, right?)
There is a lot of paper in my office.
Much more than before, when it was the per-paperless office.

R

There are many things wrong with forcing everybody to go to school
from age 5 to 18 simply for the sake of the economy. Don't pretend
you can't think of any of them.

> Why would any rational person in the West seriously contemplate one.

To liberate their children from the covert enslavement.

> tin-pot dictatorships are not sustainable any more

Indeed, the only thing that works now is letting people:
- Vote for one of two nearly-identical "choices".
- Complain so much that their desire for action subsides.
You tell them what to believe from childhood, gorge them with food,
music and video, and they will die not knowing what really happened.

But politics is subject to fashion just like anything else, and
eventually the 90% who can't think for themselves will find some
other system cooler than Democracy. And the rich will again find
a way to work with that and stay on top, just like they've done
since the dawn of time.

hhp

How deep the rabbit hole goes: http://johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm