oldmanjay

This is especially important to keep in mind because there is no way to shun a person and change their mind on the opinion that led to their shunning. Only engagement does that.

I'm not sure if "obligated" means what you think it means. It certainly doesn't have definitions that cover the way you're using it.

You're getting old enough to mix the plots of the 1st and 4th movies together. V'ger was the early earth satellite that the enterprise chased down. The probe seeking humpback whales was of alien origin. According to what I remember of the novelization, the aliens had visited earth before recorded history.

I'm not happy I read the novelization of a Star Trek movie, but there we are.

No, they strongly desire that I make the requests, because that's as much as they can do. The legal fiction they attempt to impose is trivial to ignore, and so the obligation is also fictional.

I use it to chuckle over emails suggesting I endorse people I don't know for skills I'm not certain they have. I also enjoy when people who don't know me endorse me for skills they can't possibly know I have, and may not even possess. It's a cute game.

I'm under no obligation to allow network traffic someone wants me to allow, even if that's how they choose to make money.

That seems more like one tolerance.

Trivially, this is as impossible as not offending anybody.

I guess it's important for some people to keep flogging Microsoft hatred but what does Windows have to do with anything here?

It's just straight up bad writing. At least we weren't told to be horrified by anything.

That you haven't taken advantage of anything new in the last decade doesn't seem like an indictment of technology so much as a declaration that you are happy to ossify. I certainly do new things all the time that came about in the last decade.

Well the reason I asked is because you did explain how you see it, but the only use I can see is the emotional manipulation of connotation management. I guess I just have this particular viewpoint.

The major difference between trump and clinton is that she tells pretty lies and he tells ugly ones.

It's becoming very clear that no matter who wins, we all lose. I can't possibly express enough disappointment that the American political process has co-opted the tagline from Alien vs. Predator.

Is there a useful distinction between a viewpoint and a bias? It seems to be a matter of connotation management when choosing which to apply.

One of my favorite things is when people who would have been in tech but for the lack of ability then write articles using fuzzy emotional metrics to start arguments about things they wish they understood.

One thing that is certain is that the pool of people who opine they can be unbiased in areas where they have favorites is not the same as the set of people who can actually do it.

I could elaborate but won't. Political discussions aren't worth the energy, because people just harden their minds against new ideas

I'm not sure how to answer your second question. Yes, but so what?

I wasn't the OP, if it helps, and I didn't say anyone needs to be excused.

I imagine that there are very few companies worldwide that would refuse the sort of oblivion Steve Ballmer led Microsoft into

Fair enough

Decentralization of power is not about reducing the power of government, it's about bringing power closer to the governed and reducing the ability of people to misapply the power that there is. Your offhand dismissal shows you aren't looking at the problem from the same perspective.

Is the groupthink in this case laughing at the anachronistic usage of M$?

That's a heck of a sales pitch out of nowhere, extended warranty and everything!

A person I met a few years ago told me rather proudly that he refuses to use banks because the courts can use the money in his account to pay his child support when he doesn't want to.

The comments don't define the syntax, so your example doesn't provide much oomph. I don't consider it a strawman, I consider your argument to be based on a misapprehension.

Ah, that wasn't clear to me. Thank you

It's not like the FBI is institutionally clamoring to disqualify Clinton and ensure Trump's victory

You are peeved by US companies asking US-centric questions? It seems like a problem you give yourself

Laying the blame isn't a useful way to solve a problem.