Re: [BLUG] Did ATT mess up your cell phone, too?

2009/7/30 Mark Krenz <mark@slugbug.org>:
> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 03:26:19PM GMT, Barry Schatz [sorbetninja@gmail.com] said the following:
>>
>> And now, my obligatory rant about timezones. It's (mostly) a joke.
>> If we did away with timezones, this wouldn't be an issue. No time
>> changes, no wondering what time it is in another part of the world, and
>> greatly reduced jetlag would all be benefits. The weather reports
>> already have sunrise and sunset times, so it can't be that hard to add
>> in local high noon and midnight times as well. The workday in the
>> "Eastern" timezone would go from 12:00 through 20:00. Best of all, we
>> wouldn't have the nasty uptick in driving accidents and fatalities every
>> Spring when daylight savings time steals an hour.
>>
>
>  Something I've learned over the years is that in a debate of stupidity
> vs. intelligence, stupidity usually wins for quite intelligent reasons.
>
>      XXX
>    XXXXXXX
>   XXXXXXXXX
>  XXXXXXXXXX X
> XXXXXXXXXXXX XXX
>  Everyone    You
>   else
>
>  Being a Linux list, I think its safe to say that everyone on the list
> falls into the right side of the graph or at least in the right half of
> the graph.  Unfortunately, what happens is that the left side of the
> graph is full of complainers and people who don't want to
> learn/work/care. But strangely enough they also represent a large amount
> of money and a lot of voting power that is mostly controlled by the
> person on the TV who can wave a magic wand.  So it winds up being a
> stupid PR problem.  In order to appease the left part of the graph and
> keep the money and votes flowing, the right part has to "settle" and
> then we get stuck with crap.
>
> Many things have benefited from this property including:
>
>  VHS
>  Microsoft
>  AOL
>  Reality TV shows
>  George W. Bush
>  Florida
>
>  If you want to succeed in this world, you have to be able to leverage
> stupidity and try to avoid being part of a two-way decision.
> Unfortunately the tech industry is riddled with those.

This isn't necessarily a "world"-wide problem. I think it goes back
to the way America's democracy is set up: a system for the majority.
It's fair, in that most people get what they want most of the time,
but the problem is, in such a system, someone always looses. The
economy is structured this way too.

In an ideal America (or probably anywhere), both the economy and the
government would be structured so that everyone always gets enough—but
then, the people who currently get everything would have to be willing
to compromise (and not always get everything). One can always
dream...

Anyway, I agree with your statement, but I'd probably reword it to say
"If you want to succeed in this *America*, ..." ;)

--
Jonathan
http://jnw.name/

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