Some lucky web developer just scored $20k to scour Facebook out of Neil Young’s website Ageing and angry rock icon Neil Young will scour Facebook and Google from his online archive. And not before time: in 2018 The Register reported that Young had taken aim at Google, Facebook and Amazon for distributing of music without paying artists. But as we noted at the time, to read his objections readers had to sign in to …
Some anti-GMO folks are anti-science, and are unreasonable. Others are "anti-GMO" because of a very specific modification: the one that makes a crop resistant to Round-Up. They object for a couple of reasons. Some consider Round-Up (based on some evidence) to be a fairly nasty pesticide that has ill effects for humans. Others object to an economic model that forces farmers to buy seed annually rather than using a portion of their crop (in poorer areas of the world, anything that increases the base costs of food production threatens food production). Others object to the use of Round-Up (and other pesticides), because they don't remain tightly confined, so one farmer using Round-Up forces neighbors to buy Round-Up resistant seed to preserve crop yield. And if you end up being forced to buy the resistant seed, you might as well use the pesticide as well to increase yield.
So he isn't necessarily a hypocrite or unreasonable for being anti-GMO. As for being tech savvy -- dweebs who can devise audio compression algorithms and implement devices are a dime a dozen. Even tech folks who can insert a USB-A plug correctly on the first shot every time are numerous.
There is exactly one guy in the universe who wrote "Cinnamon Girl," "Down by the River," "The Needle and the Damage Done," and "After the Gold Rush."
With that kind of genius, who cares if he can identify the next hot portable music player?
I cannot upvote this enough. I am generally anti-GMO on ethical and moral reasons. They make farmers in first and third worlds absolutely dependent upon them and the GMO companies have gone so far are to try to destroy seed 'museums' and farmer-support in India (Scientific American article of a year or so back).
My partner is coelic (a real one) and uses GMO products to make life a little more bearable, as but as discovers something non GMO that works just as well, she drops the GMO product (e.g. uses chia seeds for thickening, not Xanthan gum), again on ethical grounds. Her background is science (chemistry, physics) and math. We are neither of us woo-woo followers.
I'm anti-GMO when it's used (for example) to enable massive Roundup use. I'm pro-GMO when it's used (for example) in Bt-corn to enable _less_ pesticide use.
As with most technology, you gotta look carefully at specific uses. Computers enable me to read El Reg. But they also enable F__ebook.
So against Roundup resistance and suicide gene modification (seeds not fertile, so they have to be re purchased each year).
Not against all GMO here though.
Also Young is a god performer.
However, he did sign a public performers license for his music - so he out of luck with the trump rallies. Taking a case is just showboating.
Personally, I'm anti-GMO when it implies that seeds are licensed and farmers are not allowed to use the seeds they produce for the next planting. I'm also anti-GMO when it is sold as a solution to get rid of weed by throwing a lot of herbicide in the nature, and when in fact it helps to create "superweed"..
Patenting living organisms should not be allowed IMNSHO.
Facebook and Google are both a total 'Blot on the Landscape' and the sooner that they are consigned to history the better.
Disclaimer: Any information held by Google and Facebook on me is fake. I do not use and have never used and never will use social media. IMHO Facebook and pals are responsible for more addictive behaviour than all the hard drugs combined.
"But as we noted at the time, to read his objections readers had to sign in to Young’s site with either Google or Facebook, meaning he was feeding the beasts he derided."
Sounds like the rantings of the perpetually unhappy. Trumps election has provided a considerable amount of amusement of those who should probably be pitied. But it has drawn them into the light to expose some of the extreme reactions some people can have when they look at the real world with incomprehension.
I once saw Neil Young invited on to stage at JavaOne (back when Sun Microsystems existed) to talk about how Java technology (embedded in every Blu-ray player) had enabled him to go from letting people listen to his music to being able to experience it via interactive content. He spent the whole 20-minute segment saying how amazing it was that Playstation had enabled him to deliver interactive content, while Jonathan Schwartz looked on with a pained expression.
It was a lot more entertaining than I think they had planned.
What did he spend $20,000 on, exactly? Just for repacking one authentication mechanism with another one? I am genuinely puzzled
On another note, I’ve never understood why anyone outside of G/FB use their respective logins as a login for their own website. How does some random login (with associated fake names and email addresses) have any bearing on your own web site? Bizarre
Seems to be attempting to "screw with the election" - haven't seen any exceptions. Actually, all media, period. Even tech sites have writers with obvious agendas who put spin on things.
Too bad we let schools do to much of raising kids, and that schools don't teach critical thinking - it's not part of making the easily manipulated citizens they want.
Now it's backfiring, depending on your view.
And that's the thing - I'd bet Neil thinks some other platform is fine, since it tickles his own biases. I see this all around - if they agree with out, they're telling truth, otherwise they're evil purveyors of propaganda.
Common sense isn't. Projection rules the day these days - and it's really obvious to anyone not caught up in it themselves. Seems so easy to notice and accuse "the other side" of whatever you're most familiar with - because you do it.
As if that whole 2 sides thing wasn't an utterly false dichotomy.
"Would you rather we controlled your very thoughts? The other guys just want all your money so you live in poverty".
Surely there are other possible choices, maybe not readily available - the big club is rigged, but those are unacceptable.
What I find odd is that those of us without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram accounts are still fed their regurgitations in so-called news articles.
If they must, it Seems like they could just summarize in the same way every day: "Once again, the feeble minded had nothing worth while to say and did it in a fit of pique."
I have to agree.
We can blame the schools...
Or rather the teachers.
I could go on a rant, but I'd rather focus on something that most are forgetting.
Facebook did a social experiment where they played with people's news feeds in order to elicit a response. In other words, they would filter your data stream to get you to think or feel a certain way.
But now, its more than FB, but Google , MSM etc... all do the same thing to a varying degree as a way to promote an agenda.
So who do you blame?
Hmm. Maybe at 128kbit/s, very possibly at 192kbit/s, but I would put a large amount of money on him (and indeed the vast majority of people, especially over the age of 20) not being able to do better than chance at telling between 320kbit/s and the original CD/WAV, regardless of his equipment.
I can tell the difference between bit-rates. That's why when I tape-record a song off Dial-a-Disc or long-wave radio, I always encode it to MP3 at 320Kbps or higher. Just sounds awful at anything less.
The only problem I still have is that for the longer songs, my arm gets tired holding the cassette player's speaker next to my laptop's microphone for the duration.
My ears are ruined, years of gigs, both playing on stage standing in front of 12” celestions, and attending, plus always having my music maxed out has left my ears a bit unresponsive are some frequencies. This means all music sound quality sounds shite at any bitrate. However, I still enjoy a decent track just as much as I ever did, it’s not all about the pure audio reproduction.
Same goes for video. A decent film is a great watch on worn out VHS tape played through an ancient CRT set. A shit film on the best OLED screen is still a shit film,
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