Is the Oculus Rift doomed?

[Klumpen]

Fact: they are both using your data to sell you stuff. Period.

Not entirely true.

Steam does that, but Facebook sells data about you so other companys can try to sell you stuff. That's the important difference.

 

[WizardStan]

Addendum Fact: they are both using your data to advertise stuff to you.

 

[Granitehead]

I wasn't specifically arguing against anyone and I don't feel like looking up the post which prompted me to write my initial post on the subject.

Most of my points were later (and possibly better) mentioned by other people.

Valve doesn't share any of their data with third parties, they display ads only to sell me games.

Facebook shares my data with third parties (though in a limited way to keep "their" data secret) to display ads for third parties. Facebook doesn't try to sell me anything, third parties might do. Those third parties might also be trying to find people who are atheists, or gay, or are political enemies, etc.

The difference isn't technology or data mining, it's the type and extent of data versus what you signed up for. People sign up to Steam to buy games. Steam tries selling them games. People sign up to Facebook to socialize. Facebook tries to do lots of not strictly related stuff (ads) to make money. They do anything which gets them money.

And there is no reason to suggest I don't know what an ad supported website is or why people chose to make such websites. It's just that I'd rather pay for a website than letting it know everything about me and then letting it make as much money with that knowledge as is possible legally without getting punished seriously.

 

[_wb_]

I only read through the last couple of pages quickly, but I do want to note that it's not because there is no technical difference (e.g. same algorithm, "just" a different data set) that there is no ethical difference. Dropping a nuclear bomb on a big city or on a desert is technically exactly the same thing (both use nuclear chain reactions to create a powerful explosion), but there is a quite significant ethical difference.

Sorry for interrupting to point out the obvious

 

[Klumpen]

Those third parties might also be trying to find people who are atheists, or gay, or are political enemies, etc.

Actually, there was a list of gay people in Germany from the beginning of the 20th century, but although it was illegal, they were not really punished (thanks to common sense).

Later on, the Nazis got their hands on that list...

 

[Letalis Sonus]

That can be topped: The Dutch used to maintain a list with everyone's religion, resulting in the by far most "efficient" persecution of jews when Hitler invaded the Netherlands.

Bottom line: saved information will always be misused, it is just a matter of time.

 

[bzar]

We need a Cult of Deletarianism with the agenda of deleting all and any saved information so it can't be misused.

(such cult would be hard to manage)

 

[God Ginrai]

We need a Cult of Deletarianism with the agenda of deleting all and any saved information so it can't be misused.

(such cult would be hard to manage)

Wasn't Farenheit 451 written to prevent ideas like this from developing?

-God Ginrai

 

[spud42]

We need a Cult of Deletarianism with the agenda of deleting all and any saved information so it can't be misused.

(such cult would be hard to manage)

but wouldnt the membership list be deleted too????

 

[ssokolow]

We need a Cult of Deletarianism with the agenda of deleting all and any saved information so it can't be misused.


(such cult would be hard to manage)

Wasn't Farenheit 451 written to prevent ideas like this from developing?

-God Ginrai

Interesting factoid: Farenheit 451 wasn't written about censorship in general but, rather, about Ray Bradbury's paranoid fear that electronics will kill the printed book.

His books only became available in eBook form a few years ago when his publisher refused to renew without an eBook option and, last I checked, he still thinks the 'net is just a passing fad.

 

[God Ginrai]

Interesting factoid: Farenheit 451 wasn't written about censorship in general but, rather, about Ray Bradbury's paranoid fear that electronics will kill the printed book.

Interesting factoid: That's false.

"I am a preventor of futures, not a predictor of them. I wrote Fahrenheit 451 to prevent book-burnings, not to induce that future into happening, or even to say that it was inevitable." -- Aggelis, Steven L., ed. (2004). Conversations with Ray Bradbury. Interview by Shel Dorf. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 99. ISBN 1-57806-640-9.

-God Ginrai

 

[ssokolow]

Interesting factoid: Farenheit 451 wasn't written about censorship in general but, rather, about Ray Bradbury's paranoid fear that electronics will kill the printed book.

Interesting factoid: That's false.


"I am a preventor of futures, not a predictor of them. I wrote Fahrenheit 451 to prevent book-burnings, not to induce that future into happening, or even to say that it was inevitable." -- Aggelis, Steven L., ed. (2004). Conversations with Ray Bradbury. Interview by Shel Dorf. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 99. ISBN 1-57806-640-9.

-God Ginrai

I fail to see how the phrasing I used implies that he thought it was inevitable.

 

[God Ginrai]

I fail to see how the phrasing I used implies that he thought it was inevitable.

It doesn't. The phrasing you used implies that he wrote Farenheit 451 because he was paranoid about technology replacing books, when he clearly states it was written to prevent book burnings from happening.

-God Ginrai

 

[Granitehead]

I fail to see how the phrasing I used implies that he thought it was inevitable.

It doesn't. The phrasing you used implies that he wrote Farenheit 451 because he was paranoid about technology replacing books, when he clearly states it was written to prevent book burnings from happening.

-God Ginrai

Both of you would need more evidence.
One can write a book for a lot of reasons at once.

 

[ssokolow]

I fail to see how the phrasing I used implies that he thought it was inevitable.

It doesn't. The phrasing you used implies that he wrote Farenheit 451 because he was paranoid about technology replacing books, when he clearly states it was written to prevent book burnings from happening.

-God Ginrai

Both of you would need more evidence.

One can write a book for a lot of reasons at once.

Google is being unhelpful for what I originally read but here's a link that references some of its sources for various supporting claims.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/books/47297/how-anti-ebook-ray-bradbury-finally-succumbed-digital-age

For years, Bradbury tried to prevent the publication of his books in electronic form. He said that electronic books "smell like burned fuel" and in 2009 he told The New York Times that the internet was "a big distraction".

Whether Bradbury ever really changed his mind about the virtues of ebooks, or simply succumbed to economic reality, is unclear. The Guardian reported late last year that the publishers had made it clear that the seven-figure contract for all US English language print and digital formats of Fahrenheit 451 along with Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, "wouldn't be possible without ebook rights".  

Bradbury long maintained that Fahrenheit 451 had less to do with censorship than the dangers of new media, specifically television, which would make people lose interest in physical books.

 

[God Ginrai]

This does support your point. However, they cite no sources for their claim that Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 for that reason. Just because he was opposed to said technology does not make it the driving factor behind his writing that book.

I do appreciate you looking up a source. However, unless you have evidence more solid than the interview I quoted, you won't have me convinced.

-God Ginrai

 

[ssokolow]

This does support your point. However, they cite no sources for their claim that Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 for that reason. Just because he was opposed to said technology does not make it the driving factor behind his writing that book.


I do appreciate you looking up a source. However, unless you have evidence more solid than the interview I quoted, you won't have me convinced.

-God Ginrai

Unfortunately, I have very little time right now any many things more important than this, so we'll have to stop here since Google isn't being helpful within the time I can spare.

 

[Asmo]

Apparently after the initial backlash, sales of the DK2 have now outpaced the DK1 -


http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/oculus-rift-shares-developer-hardware-sales-data/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000591


So is it just two of us on the waiting list?

 

[FaeMinx]

I am so amped for vr... but I'm going to be patient and wait for the consumer version.

... also can't wait untill...

Gloves...

Then untethered...

Then full body suit suspended in a web for complete freedom of movement.

Then direct nerve stimulation to simulate authentic physical sensations (possibly with a top of the range body suit that can generate targeted rapidly oscillating magnetic fields).

Then... ???

Neural tap!

I shouldn't be tooo old before this all comes to pass...

 

[WizardStan]

Then... ???

Neural tap!

Then one higher, SPINAL TAP!