wow, I can't even remember the last time I was on dA. I lurked for a really long time but I don't think I've signed-in in months. I should probably go close it down until I actually feel like using it again.

there are so many different sites now. I miss the old slashdot. maybe I'll catch ya someplace else. take care to you too.

you guys and your peer pressure. ;-P

Well, they could hardly have worse privacy controls than here...

I am considering Multiply. Probably should have just gone over there in the first place.

It's not so much that I mind if it is known, as that I really don't want a few certain people to know a few certain things, if I can help it.

Thanks. :-) you take care and be well.

Thanks!

If they had any sort of journal security settings, I most likely would not be going. (heck, would anyone have left if they had journal security?) I need to be in a more private place for the foreseeable future.

The journal always seemed like kind of an afterthought here.

Thanks, you keep well too. Take care of the place, I'm going to miss it.

omg, John, make me cry why don't ya? that poem was very sweet, thank you. I always enjoyed your poetry posts. I hope you are (and will be) well. I don't like goodbye so I'll say see you later instead. (I do hope to return eventually, but for the foreseeable future, I will be away, sorting things out more privately.)

Thanks, you too.

I wouldn't necessarily say things are going any better than they were, but I'm finally learning how to cope with life. At least 20 years late...

But thanks!

This is not at all new. Go listen to the radio ads of the 1930s and 1940s, or watch some of the sponsored programs of the 1950s. Look at newspaper ads from before those eras.

Advertising has been about manipulating people into buying things for much longer than you seem to think. Why else do you think breakfast cereals have had mascots for so long? Manipulate the kids into begging for it enough, and a lot of parents are going to break down and buy it.

No, it's more like when the first SSL offload chip was introduced into the network card market, said company did not have a "monopoly" on secure communications. If your computer doesn't have the power to run uber realistic physics models in real time without PhysX then you don't have any reason to belly ache about anti trust.

To make people aware of what they don't necessarily know about or necessarily need/want

Actually, I'd wager at least half, if not most advertising is really all about brand recognition. After all, when you're in the grocery store looking at a wall of paper towel, you're far more likely to pick brand X if you saw it on TV recently.

Java is not the best of any world.