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OverlordXenu's comments

OverlordXenu | 10 years ago | on: Of kimono and cultural appropriation

There's a real difference between actually working with a Kimono and adapting it or remixing it or whatever, and just trying it on like a costume. The latter relegates it to the role of some weird prop, where the main draw is its outsiderness. Like, they're not trying on the Kimono to mix cultures and make something new. They're treating a garment with a long history as a prop. It leaves as bad a taste in my mouth as people who jokingly wear sombreros… like, they're just not treating it in a respectful manner. And I say this as someone who owns one of Naked and Famous's kimono shirts, but for me it's a real wardrobe item and not a joke costume to try on and look wacky in for social media.

OverlordXenu | 10 years ago | on: How Uber Takes Over a City

You're being intentionally obtuse and making a flawed analogy. There is a major difference between a community garden where someone has to go to Home Depot to buy supplies and Uber/AirBnb. In the Garden scenario, Home Depot does not act like Uber as they are not the gatekeepers to your community garden, but instead one (of many) sources for supplies. Home Depot is not rent seeking or deriving rent.

OverlordXenu | 11 years ago | on: HomeKit

Yeah, but many devices support both AirPlay and DLNA or whatever else. I bet we'll see devices that support both Google and Apple. Or someone will reverse-engineer the API, like they always do.

OverlordXenu | 12 years ago | on: Moto 360

A tweed jacket and polka dot chambray? Uniqlo and H&M got you.

OverlordXenu | 12 years ago | on: The Myth of the Non-Technical Startup Employee

It has very little to do with intent. Subconsciously thinking someone with a name usually thought to indicate blackness—like Tyrone—is different is racist. Subconsciously disbelieving that a woman can answer technical questions or is a fighter pilot is sexist. It may not necessarily be your fault, because society and your peers have taught you this, but that doesn't really matter. Especially because you have a responsibility to actively work against stereotypes and treat people as people.

Having intent behind it just makes it worse, really. And "intent" is difficult to define.

OverlordXenu | 12 years ago | on: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

>Regarding the strip-club comment, I don't know the best way to avoid it. I, as a male, try to avoid staring at another female because I fear someone like Horvath accuses me of sexism. Maybe the guy was just bored or thought that female worker was beautiful. Staring at someone shouldn't be counted as sexism. It's hard. Would a female staring at a beautiful male count as sexism?

The problem isn't sexism so much as objectification. It's just shitty to treat someone like meat. It's not going to help people feel like part of a team if they're gawked at. If it's men gawking at women, it's going to alienate the women. Like, seriously, can't people just control themselves and treat other people as people and not sexual objects?

As for the sexism part… historically, you know, men are allowed to stare at women and women aren't really allowed to (their traditional role is to be coy, y'know?). It's an action that is typically masculine, and it's an action that reminds women that they're different. That they don't quite belong. Etc. etc. It's just not positive, it's not helpful, it's just base instinct—and one that should probably be overpowered in the workplace.

It's one of those things that is going to be painfully obvious to someone who has experienced discrimination (eg. sexism, racism, homophobia, whatever) in their life, and not a big deal to those that haven't.

OverlordXenu | 12 years ago | on: Model Your Users: Algorithms Behind the Minuum Keyboard

There's been research done on Dvorak? I remember a few years ago, when I was trying to learn it, I ended up looking into it and finding nothing but "this person can type faster on Dvorak than QWERTY!", ie. no actual studies with controls and all that, so I wound up giving up.

Got any cites?

(I'm not doubting you, I'm genuinely curious.)

OverlordXenu | 12 years ago | on: TigerDirect.com Now Accepts Bitcoin Payments

Who says that? Most of the criticism is "Bitcoin is poorly designed, it fails at basic principles of Economics, it wastes tons of power, it continues to cause income inequality…"

Cryptocurrency is awesome. There just isn't a well-designed one yet that uses actual, sound economic principles instead of Austrian School ramblings.

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