geg3

I don't know about American journalists, but here's a thread worth unraveling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulelah_Haider_Shaye

With the War on Terror coming home, should Americans expect special treatment?

Is this majority you conjecture educated in (or even vaguely aware of) the subject matter? Why should their cynical assumptions be viewed as what-should-be?

I get that importance is subjective. That being the case, why would you choose to support your own opinions by appealing to the cloudy ignorance of the majority?

My opinion: some tides suck and should be swam against. Sometimes it takes an uncomfortable amount of effort to avoid drowning.

You speak as if 50 years is a significant period of time. Tribalism, violence, and distrust are still very real forces in the world and there is nothing "simple" about granting historically unprecedented powers to a central authority.

This resonates with me deeply. The idea that representations of active things should be active themselves, in pursuit of building intuition and understanding, is a central motivation for my current project. I feel like some of my own thoughts were just expanded upon, clarified, and handed back to me. Real inspiration. Thanks for posting.

It is always delightful when a word seems to take on fresh meaning when deployed literally.

> As a musician when I purchase a synthesizer, I am buying the circuit. The enclosure/build quality/etc is secondary, though obviously an important consideration.

As both a musician and synth designer, I've always put the sound and user interface above all else. If you ever get the chance to play around with an amateur reproduction of a classic circuit you'll know that factors other than the circuit diagram contribute heavily to the final sound.

> If someone tells me I am buying a "handmade synthesizer" in addition to it being largely assembled by hand I would assume it contains a novel circuit design (as in, not an exact copy of someone else's design) unless I was explicitly told otherwise.

This is an unfair assumption. Unless you're buying "handmade" synth modules direct from Ken Stone, Dave Smith, Bob Moog, or one of maybe a baker's dozen others, you're buying an outright copy or hack of multiple circuits. Maybe I'd feel kinda ripped off if Dave Smith sold me a "handmade" AX-60 clone (not his design after all)... or, no wait, that would be a dream come true.

The level of originality being demanded here is unreasonable. Imagine describing to a lay-person how a new library fit like a glove and saved you a couple thousand lines of code, only to have that person balk at your unoriginal, potentially dishonest work. That's what this thread reads like.