Philosophy

Great Post on Attitude

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Lette Ponnier has an article up on her blog that is way neat. You may have read her blog recently if you were keeping up with problems in the Firestorm Viewer. The new post, Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, departs from that theme and explains a part of life in Second Life™ that many have yet to figure out.

Lette Ponnier Blog
Lette Ponnier Blog

I encourage you to read this article and bookmark it to give to wackadoodles when you must endure their ignorant ranting… or find you have allowed yourself to be exposed to one and your patience runs out.

 

Privacy Lost

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I am an online type person, so I find this electronic privacy thing highly pertinent to my life style and freedom. Recent events have shown that we have serious challenges in the area of privacy. What Pres. Bush started Pres. Obama has put on steroids. The first 15 minutes of the video is an interesting interview with a mover and shaker in the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The video is non-political, but some may see it as politically biased. The last 15 minutes is about US Patents. If you are interested in Podcasting, the last 15 minutes will be of interest.

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If you want to get a sense of what is happening with privacy in your life, check out the Ghostery plugin, blog, Facebook, Huffington Post on Invisible Web by Ghostery, and Ghostery on Twitter. Ghostery runs on Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

Shortly after the Boston Bombing information came out that has started to disappear from the search engines. Just try and find the CNN story by Erin Burnett on Outfront about the phone call between the bomber and his mother. In a May 1st show a former FBI Counter Terrorism states everything electronic is being gathered by the government. (Clip 1 and Clip 2)

While I could find the clips easily a month ago I had to work to find them to get a link for this article. It appears this information is disappearing from search engines.

Since Second Life is international, I will assume that makes any American user… well ANY user of SL a target for NSA.

Consensus vs Scientific Method

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In the Anthropomorphic Global Warming (AGW) debate the word ‘consensus’ has become very important. Little thought is given the idea of the scientific method. AGW skeptics are charged with ignoring science. So, for the intellectually honest it would seem understanding ‘consensus verses the scientific method’ would be a core point in any debate of AWG. In researching that point I came across a funny and informative video. 9 minutes.

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Merriam-Webster defines CONSENSUS as:

a : general agreement : unanimity <the consensus of their opinion, based on reports … from the border — John Hersey>

b : the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned <the consensus was to go ahead>

Alternate: group solidarity in sentiment and belief

Notice that consensus is about opinion and belief. It may be informed opinion, even well informed opinion. But, it is still opinion.

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SL Philosophy by Gwyneth Llewelyn

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I enjoy Gwyneth’s writing. She has a new article out that inspires thought and examination of one’s thinking about Second Life™ with some interesting comparisons between human behavior in Facebook and SL.

It supports many of my perceptions of life and human nature, so I found really interesting.

I like how she has described the fallacies in the thinking of the interviewees. I enjoy rational examination of philosophy and human behavior, which is why I have a Philosophy Section in my blog.

Gwyneth is responding to interviews of by Aria E Appleford with SL Residents that have left SL. I think it is good reading. See: Second Life Has No Humans.

While you are there, check out the poll that Gwyneth has on her blog: What do you think about Philip Rosedale’s upcoming virtual world, High Fidelity? I am surprised how many have not heard of it… well… there are only 17 respondents when I voted. So, it’s too small a sample to provide much insight.

Wackadoodles

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These wackadoodle people show up in so many places… it gets infuriating. I see where Jessica Lyon responded to one in the Firestorm Viewer blog. I mention this because I am impressed by her statesman like response. Well done Jessica.

The blog article is announcing the re-opening of the Firestorm Viewer’s Preview Group. This is a group that will get Firestorm’s Beta version of their viewer. The team wants people that will help them test the viewer before it goes to main release.

Just as the Lab rolls server updates to 30% of the main grid for testing in a more diverse environment so too, the FS Team needs a larger selection of equipment and driver versions running their viewer before making a final release.

So, if you are interested in helping the team, check out: Feeling Brave? If you are NOT willing to file JIRA bug reports, please don’t bother.

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