I liked Objective-C (except the C parts). Such a breath of fresh air coming from C++ which was grown like a cancer with tons of features and you felt trapped by every one of them.
Objective-C in contrast was a very few additions thoughtfully added that composed cleanly and freed the programmer to actually get things done.
> > a uniformity that eliminated diversity and that chose homogenization over communion
> Unrelated to AI, but a wonderful support of the breadth of humanity in this anti-DEI time.
I mean.. DEI was in reality homogenization and eliminated diversity. Just because you agreed with the small amount of allowed opinions/people doesn't make it more diverse.
DEI was only ever meant to reflect the diversity of society in our institutions (which historically have been and continue to be homogeneous compared to society). Of course there are better and worse ways to create the outcome of increased diversity. But thr recent backlash is the antithesis of diversity, wrapped up in the propaganda of "reverse racism."
> DEI was only ever meant to reflect the diversity of society in our institutions
That sounds reasonable, but it's not really true. It was a tool to DISTORT the diversity of society by making minority groups front and center to a disproportionate degree. The more minority the better. This isn't reflecting the diversity of society, that's flipping it over.
I'm not saying the intentions weren't good. They were. But good intentions don't matter after a certain point. Communism for example is all about good intentions and every time we try it it leads to mass casualties. After a while you have to wise up.
Why wouldn't there be a period when more diverse groups are accepted at a higher than societally present amount until representation is more balanced? Because little Johnny feels entitled to get preferetial treatment when the system works for him, but insists everything be absolutely fair when he's not the recipient? After a while you have to wise up. Quotas aren't the best way, but they are certainly the most straightforward way. Best way would be to provide the social safety nets that dumpty-doge gutted. If the applications are more diverse the quotas are less important (but possibly still important if there is discrimination on things like names).
What you're describing is a straightforward violation of civil rights laws (assuming you're talking about the United States). Like it or not, "little Johnny" is just as protected from discrimination as these "more diverse groups".
But I'll give you credit for your candor. Few DEI advocates are as honest as you about the movement's discriminatory nature.
In fact, asians were as a "race" treated very badly historically with camps for japanese-americans during WW2 and before that quite a lot of discrimination. That DEI kept up that discrimination even at Harvard and lost under the guise of DEI shows that the DEI mission is not only illegal but stupid.
Note also that while DEI proponents scream that the US is racist, somehow people who arrive from Nigeria and are more black than most US blacks and know the language less, and have no connections, and start out with even less wealth do quite well on the whole. DEI isn't just bad, stupid, and illegal. It's also falsified as a scientific idea.
You seem to be misinformed about what protected class means: Race, gender, religion (including absence of religion), are all protected classes. It is irrelevant which race, gender, etc. is being favored or disfavored. The use of race as a factor in employment, in any way, is prohibited. It is not legal to discriminate against men any more than it is legal to discriminate against women. It is not legal to discriminate against whites and Asians any more than it is legal to discriminate against Black and Latin people. The idea that civil rights laws oly prohibit discrimination against some races and some genders while permitting discrimination against others is a very common piece of misinformation espoused by proponents of DEI.
But also, preferential treatment for underserved communities is legal and does not mean anyone is being discriminated against. I.e., "reverse discrimination" is bullshit. Sorry.
Repeating this doesn't make it true. Use of protected class as a factor in employment is illegal, regardless of which race or gender is being favored or disfavored. You're right, "reverse discrimination" is bullshit: it's just discrimination, regardless of who is being discriminated against. This was argued all the way up to the Supreme Court:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_v._Ohio_Department_of_You...
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to both the majority and the minority equally. And the Supreme Court's unanimous opinion was written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson no less! You're just wrong on the facts here.
The anti-DEI “movement,” especially what we see in the US, is mostly thinly veiled racism by another name.
All one has to see is how frequently people call any non-white/non-male hire or appointment a “DEI-hire” because they can’t possibly conceive that marginalized groups would see any success based on merit. They start from a position where they are all incompetent and being given an unfair advantage until proven otherwise. It’s also on you to guess whatever their arbitrary bar is.
> The anti-DEI “movement,” especially what we see in the US, is mostly thinly veiled racism by another name.
The one we see on the news yea. But sane voices have been trying to stop this madness for decades and it only got worse and worse. Then fascists could easily scoop up such a clean win because the weapon was just lying there being ignored by the Democratic party. It's an own goal.
Is interesting to me that I often see that kind of default response (“racial quotas”) as if that’s all DEI is when you get down to it. It’s really about creating a space that includes everybody and creates opportunities for all. There are many ways to approach that.
I know in my brief time being involved with a DEI initiative the discussion was never about how many of any particular demographic we hired. It was about asking if we had internal barriers that disproportionally impacted certain groups. I think that’s a very different mindset than “quotas.” But people arguing in bad faith generally aren’t looking for nuance so here we are.
Edit: to be clear, this is directed at the other commenter not you
How isn't it racism though? Separating people and counting them and giving them different treatment based on race is literally "discrimination" and "racism".
The woke movement has distanced themselves from the teachings of Martin Luther King even. Literally quoting MLK was what got Coleman Hughes into trouble with TED. It's quite absurd.
I mean.. it's not like it's Alberta that produces the oil. Oil is concentrated in smaller places than that, so why shouldn't those places then separate from Alberta?
I meant that the oil fields themselves could just as well declare that they wanted out of Alberta after Alberta splits. Splitting goes all the way down.
This is kind of ridiculous. The fields are geographical areas, not political or cultural entities, and most of the pople living within a certain field don't have the slightest idea what or if any field they live in.
And yet, somehow the people of Alberta suddenly are aware aren't they? Even though they previously were just "Canadians"? Why would the people now living close to all the money but getting bad representation in Edmonton be happier than if they got bad representation in Ottowa? Splitting goes all the way down.
From this article it sounds like it's the people of Alberta that want to vote on succession. Including the ones that don't literally live on an oil field.
Speaking as an Albertan, it's only a very loud and vocal minority. The UCP government has seen that the premier only stays in power if they cowtow to the fringe crazies in the party, and that's what she's doing.
i think its mostly people that live pretty far from any oil fields that are the big proponents?
kinda red deer ish? west of the queen e?
the actual oil industry and workers are either in the cities, or from out of province, and work seasonally-ish on the oil fields. dunno if its true anymore, but there used to be a joke that it was all newfies, who'd work just long enough to get unemployment, then head back home til it runs out, then around again.
Neither group has any particular incentive to have alberta be independent, nor a US state. The businesses might want to replace the newfies and albertans with more predictable undocumented latino labour, but they dont have experience in how to do that or hide say, injuries, from the government.
that said, a vote still isnt a bad thing - itll shower alberta with federal attention to get things alberta wants, like pipelines east, west, and north, and Id love to have the alberta grid connected to newfie hydro, rather than having quebec sell newfie power to americans
This goes for humans just as well. Humans get stuck. That waymo paused their op to avoid bad press and then get bad press BECAUSE they were being careful is enormously stupid for everyone involved.
Trademarks only apply if the thing isn't generic. I can legally copy the recipe for coca cola (if I can figure it out) and sell that as 'bluGill cola', but I can't sell it as coca cola even though it would be identical. There is ample evidence that the shape is generic - it has been copied by far too many to claim it isn't generic.
I doubt they can show a properly registered copyright, which would have been required before 1978. I doubt the copyright laws back then would have even allowed copyrighting the shape like that (but I'm not a lawyer). If they can show they registered the copyright correctly under the old laws they would have a copyright case since copyright applies even if they are generic.
Also, since the shape has functional aspects (see others), patents would be the correct protection, but the important patents (if any) have expired long ago. You can still patent something today if you make a variation of the shape - but it would be trivial for anyone to work around that patent since the main design is free of patents and a very specific minor change from the common shape it patentable.
> I doubt they can show a properly registered copyright, which would have been required before 1978. I doubt the copyright laws back then would have even allowed copyrighting the shape like that (but I'm not a lawyer).
None of that matters to Fender's case here, though. They benefit regardless of the outcome in court. If someone fights them and Fender wins, or no one fights them, then they cause an enormous, permanent headache to almost every single one of their competitors. If someone fights them and Fender loses, they cause an enormous, temporary headache to almost every single one of their competitors and otherwise there's no change in the market. The worst case for Fender is the status quo, there's no reason for them not to pursue this.
The only way Fender loses here is if they piss off enough customers to cause a drop in sales. But that seems unlikely to me, even extremely pissed off customers forget about these things pretty quick, as Reddit and Elon Musk's white supremacist social network demonstrated after shitting all over their own users and seeing no terribly significant drop in usage.
Fender loses lawyer costs which will be high if this goes to court. And my prediction is they get sued for legal costs after they lose. Though I reasonable odds a judge will toss this out before trial and so legal costs are not high.
Trademarks are a fundamentally different kind of IP.
With copyright and patent, the creator of the work is being protected. But with trademark law, it's not about protecting the content of the IP as such. It's about protecting the consumer from being misled into thinking they're getting the real thing.
And given the guitar market at large, with about ten thousand different guitars in the general shape of a Strat, it's pretty much universally known that the name on the headstock is what you have to look at to differentiate. So long as that name isn't misleading, I have a hard time imagining how they could make a case of it.
I mean, if the headstock says "Fernando Stratoblaster" or something, then MAYBE it's a little confusing. But my guitar, a Kramer Focus 6000 looked very nearly identical to a Strat (the edges are less beveled, the headstock is pointier, but at a quick glance...), but it quite clearly says that it's NOT a strat. Nobody's going to be fooled despite the striking similarity in shape.
Design rights[1] are a thing. However they need to be continuously defended. You can't let competitors make your designs (without license) for decades and then suddenly turn around and try to enforce the right, as seems to be the case here. Plus in the EU there are overall limits, apparently 25 years.
This is why I'm asking what the legal basis is for this case. It seems unlikely to be legally sound. Probably the German court made a mistake, and the company being sued should ignore Fender. (Not legal advice!)
Edit: Someone else just posted that Fender is now owned by private equity, so it's the usual PE playbook. A sad end to a famous brand.
Edit#2: Seems like the German court ruling was a default judgement because the other party failed to show up. So nothing to see here. Fender has no realistic case.
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