The main reason I keep my Blackberry is the Pin/Blackberry messaging feature. You can contact anyone else with a Blackberry for free, anywhere you are. I travel a lot for work, to multiple countries, and the messenger feature is essential for staying in touch with the people I work with, scheduling,sharing documents and calendars. Even when I can't get a decent enough signal to push email, I can send pins.
I think that's the one feature that makes it indispensable for some people.
You're right, I should have done that. I was running out the door, but thought the information might be useful. Apologies for wasting your time. Always Be Optimizing.
Here's a recently posted article that includes the government's side of the story. It seems to back up Watt's account that the border guards overreacted violently.
"A Canadian science fiction writer is facing a felony charge after police said he assaulted a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer and resisted arrest at the Blue Water Bridge.
But the writer, Peter Watts of Toronto, wrote on his blog that he was “punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, sh*t-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three (profanity deleted) hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.).”
Neither Watts nor U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials returned phone calls Friday seeking comment about the Tuesday incident. Port Huron police Capt. Jim Jones would not provide the Times Herald with a copy of a police report about the incident Friday. But, he read the police report to a reporter.
Jones said Watts was crossing into Michigan from Point Edward when he was selected at random for a secondary Customs inspection. Watts exited his vehicle “angrily” and border officers began checking the black sport utility vehicle he was driving, Jones said.
Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers “and became aggressive toward officers,” Jones said.
Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts “choked” an officer during the struggle. "
http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091211/NEWS01/91211010/1002/Science+fiction+writer+charged+after+bridge+struggle
Auction Houses like Christie's, Sotheby's and Swann operate completely differently than most other businesses, in part due to the fact they usually deal in one of a kind items, many of dubious provenance. If you ever have attended an auction, you'll know that buyer beware is the law of the land. The auctions houses may state that such and such a work is by Egon Schiele, or whomever, but that's just an attribution. Basically, they are saying it is the best guest they can make that a certain person produced that work. The attributions are not guarantees, or statements of authenticity. All people bidding in auctions, are assumed to experts, or acting on the advice of experts. Once the hammer is down, if you have the highest bid, it's yours, you are stuck with it. In some cases, a house may 'buy back' an item that 'isn't right', but this usually occurs quietly, and only if the buyer is a good customer. Once you run to the press you're done - the auction house won't do a thing for you. Basically, the moral here is that auctions aren't for the faint of heart, or the broke. I have no sympathy for this guy, and if he knew how the system worked, he would understand that the auction house is just the agent, and he's responsible for verification. This ain't Ebay cowboy.
I work in a pretty specialized architecture firm, and some of our clients are slightly paranoid to say the least (Ting foil hats? More like Tin Foil Ceremonial Headpieces...) and we are working on a project that has a room that is set up to ward off an EMP during the coming apocalypse. I'm not kidding. The 'Safe Room' in this building is totally shielded, you can't get any type of electronic signal in or out. Coatings like the paint mentioned in the article are becoming more and more and common,and I think we're going to see a lot more multi-use coatings like this in the future. At the moment, they are extremely expensive, but as the price drops, this will become a pretty standards feature in a lot of new constructions where buildings are put up in close proximity to each other and interference tends to be a big problem. Conversely, you can always just get a few rolls of Reynolds Wrap and poster your walls with that.
Yeah, everyone is confusing two incidents this jerk was involved in. It started a while back with those two kids who posted fake sex ads on Craigslist, then reposted the info and pictures of the people who responded. Then, this creep Michael Crook, copycatted them, posted fake casual Encounters ads, then posted them on a website called something like 'craigslistperverts.com'. He was interviewed about the whole CL debacle several times on various blogs and in print media. That's issue one.
Apprantly, although I find this VERY hard to believe, this guy was a soldier at some point. He was interviewed on Hannity and Colmes because he loves attention, and there is no faster way to get it than having an ex-soldier bad mouth the service people fighting in Iraq on a conservative talk show. That's where Hannity and Colmes come in. The picture in question was a video still from Hannity and Colmes. He sent the DMCA take down notices claiming that he owned the copyright to that photo, which he didn't. That's not the point though. What matters isn't who own the copyright to the photo, it's fair use. basically any blog/site/news outlet can use that photo of Michael Crook while reporting on any of his creepy projects because he made himself a public figure, and fair use covers reasonable use of photos, quotes etc. when covering a news story. That's the main pint here, fair use, not copyright.
More than anything, Michael Crooks is the worst kind of human. He's a holocaust denier, a self admitted racist and homophobe, can't stand free speech, fair use and the open exchange of information. I think the EFF deserves a few beers for knocking this guy down a few pegs. I guess if I were as ugly as him I wouldn't want my picture all over the web either.
I have Sprint PCS for my 'personal' phone, and the company I work for gives us all Cingular Blackberries. Both carriers give me fantastic coverage, I travel quite a bit and I always seem to get good reception even when other people can't get a signal. The huge difference here is customer service. Sprint are absolutely horrible. Twice in the last 3 years I've had my phone shut off for 'non-payment', even though sprint has cashed my check. Each time I had to call up and go through a very long, annoying process to get them to fix this problem. Not good. I have also had terrible experiences in the Sprint stores, which are run by brainless morons. Sprint is possibly the worst run company I have had the displeasure of using. Sprint does offer a good deal money wise. I have unlimited calling and unlimited data for a fairly low price. Cingular is fantastic. There customer service people are decent and helpful, but there service is much more expensive for a comparable plan to Sprint.
When I was a kid, I was desperate for one of those '500 in 1 Kits', but instead my grandfather and a neighbor who an electrician, gave me a small 25 Watt soldering iron, an ac/dc train transformer for a power supply and a bunch of old parts they had lying around. Next to playing D and D, I probably spent more time messing about with stuff as a kid than anything. After a few months of mucking about, my grandfather also have a small multimeter. I definitely think those kits are good, but learning to solder is an integral part of building practically any electronic device. I also found soldering to be a lot of fun. On the surface handing an 11 year old a soldering iron may not seem like the safest thing in the world, but if you teach them how to use it safely, and they are reasonably responsible it should be fine. Plus, after you burn yourself the first time I guarantee it won't happen again. I had everyone of those Forst-Mims project books from Radio Shack, and I would say anything along those lines would be fantastic for a kid to start learning about electronics. You might also want to check out BEAM, which is a branch of very simple robotics, that uses cheap parts to make functional little bots.
I grew up in Manhattan, and I went to Stuyvesant, which gave me a few choices when it came to go to college. I got into two 'Ivy' schools, but in the end I chose a state engineering school, Rutgers. I had one huge reason for this - The Cost. It may be hard to fathom as a senior in high school, but the debts you will run up going to an Ivy League school will be nearly impossible to pay back, and will be hanging over your head for most of your adult life. It's not worth it. I did extremely well in the Engineering program at Rutgers, and I also managed to have a good time socially while I was there. I still keep in touch with quite a few friends from Stuyvesant, and many of them went to 'Ivy' schools. I've been out of college for 8 years at this point, and there is absolutely no difference in the type of job I have, and what my 'Ivy' attending friends do. We make the same amount of money, our jobs have the same prestige, and the types of companies we work for are very similar. After being in the 'Real' working world for a while now, I've noticed that there is no difference between people who've gone to a high prestige school, and those who haven't. It's all a worthless myth that attending an 'Ivy' brings success. Success comes from hard work, and what you are willing to bring to the table as a person. Save your money, go to a state school with a good engineering program, work hard and enjoy yourself. Your happiness is way more important than a gaudi class ring from a big name school.
I've actually had the (dis)pleasure of using the Hoboken garage with a friend of mine, and the time I was there, the whole system worked glitch free, and thought it was a pretty interesting concept because of the amount of space it saves. If you've ever tried to park in Hoboken, you can appreciate this, because it's even harder to park in Hoboken than anywhere in Manhattan. However, my friend was one of those people who had his car stuck in there for over 24 hours. That's ridiculous. Imagine your Bank all of a sudden saying, 'Sorry Pal, you can't get any cash or do any transactions with your money for the entire weekend'. Luckily for my friend, Hoboken is on the PATH (which is the NJ Transit public transport that goes to NYC), so he was able to go where he needed to go, but a total system failure is unacceptable. No matter how well designed and redundant a system is, there is always a chance for a total system failure,so unless you're prepared to deal with the fact that your car may become inaccessible at any point due to a power failure or computer glitch, you should stick with parking in a standard garage. Or use the subway like the rest of us.
My job has me all over the place, and one thing I've learned over the years is that when you get where you're going, who knows what you're going to find on the ground. Because of this I've set myself up with a USB drive that has the basics, just in case my laptop dies, or there is some reason I need to work on a box when I get where I'm going. On my 2GB stick I have Firefox (with all my favorite extensions) and AbiWord. The whole setup takes around 200 MB if I remember correctly. It works like a charm, especially FF. One other nice thing about a setup like this, is you can pop in your drive, surf the web, check your mail and not have to worry about your privacy, because 'What's on the Stick, Stays on the Stick'. The portable FF is a fantastic little pieece of software. I have both a Mac and a PC version on there, and both have saved my ass a few times in emergencies. Now if I could just get AutoCad on there...
Whether in this specific instance, it turns out to be s new species or not, the textbooks need re-writing anyway. Out of all the hard sciences, people dealing with the human record tend to ignore reams of evidence that differ from the standard party line. There is plenty of evidence that suggests 'humanity' is older than most scientists actually say. This debate has been going on since at least the 1950's, but this branch of science is filled with so many old guard folks, that they have a hard time analyzing anything without severe prejudice. I suggest they act like the rest of us folks, and analyze the facts to draw real conclusions. The largest danger to science is thinking we know more than we actually do. Sure, there are many intelligent people working in biology, but they are often blinded by what they feel they know. I believe it was some dirty mohawked guys from the East Bay who once said, 'All I know is that I don't know nothing...'. Your mind is like a parachute - you're f##ked if it's shut.
As a native New Yawka, I know that security cameras are nothing new in NYC, so this isn't really news. I first remember a cop I know pointing out a camera to me on a pole in the summer of 1997. Cameras were placed in very high traffic open air drug spots. Within a few months most of these spots were totally gone, and the neighborhoods started to come back a tiny bit. Certainly the idea of being constantly watched gives me the willies, but what worries me more, is who at the dispatch center is going to interpret these pics that people are sending in? People all see something different looking at the same image. What may make one dispatcher call out the SWAT team, another may see as nothing more than a few people having a good time. This is a tough situation for me, a place where my theoretetical self and the reality I live in collide. I'm certainly very wary of a 'Who watches the Watchmen?' scenario that we are creeping up on every day. On the other side, I live in NYC, always have, I have a family, and of course I appreciate how safe NYC is compared to when I was a teenager here in the 80's and 90's. It's troublesome indeed.
About a year ago, on the NYC Craigslist, there was a help wanted ad for a job that was described as riding a bike around various East Coast cities, with a digital camera and a GPS Unit, and mapping streets. Out of curiosity I replied, and eventually got a stock email from a Microsoft Adress. Very,very curious.
Using prepaid cell phones seems like a fantastic way to gain anonymity, but at at least here in teh US, pre-paid phones are considered a 'red flag' for evil doing. Remember those poor guys in Minnesota a few months ago? They purchased a hundred or so pre-paid phones, for legitimate sale on Ebay, and were arrested. The logic was pre-paid phones are only used by terrorists and drug dealers. In a way, using a pre-paid phone may attract more attention than just using a standard phone. Very sad, but very true. The reality of the situation is there are only a few thousand bugs/line taps performed by intelligence services each year. They just don't have enough 'listeners' to do all the spying the like. Thankfully we haven't gotten to the point where there is an individual 'listener' for each man woman and child. It probably isn't far off. I'm glad teh article mentioned the 'buzzing speaker test', that was my first thought also, as I've noticed all my phones over the years have created that buzzing sound when they ring or transmit.
Yeah, I'm with you on this. For example, I still enjoy playing the original NES Contra, and Castlevania, even though I can more or less play through either game in in 90 minutes or so, depending on how coordinated I am today. I think you feel a (somewhat shallow albeit) sense of accomplishment from shorter games. At least it FEELS like something has been accomplished in video game terms. Game length is the reason I got bored with WOW after a few weeks. The firs two weeks that I played WOW, I loved it. I could sit down for 1-2 which is really all I can spare for a video game, and complete a small mission, or level up. As the game progressed however, I found myself never able to get anything done - it just took a few sessions. Now I understand that in essence, that is somewhat the point of 'leveling up, that game gets more difficult as you progress. It wasn't the difficulty per se, it wasn't the game was actually harder, it just more time to see a result. I have just come to realize that I actually enjoy 'simpler' games more than the ultra complicated ones. I thoroughly enjoy the Castlevania series on the DS also, for that reason. I can pop it on for 45 minutes, and something happens - you get a weapon, kill a boos,whatever. Maybe games have become too complicated for their own good? Or,maybe I'm just too old and don't have enough to 'properly' play anymore. Either way, I do think sessions length,not game length, is what matters to me specifically.
You are 100% correct, you stole the words right out of my mouth. At this point in time consumer electronics are dirt cheap, especially if you factor in the amount of design and engineering work it takes to bring something to market. You can buy a decent computer for $400 USD now, and if I remember correctly my first computer (a lighting quick 286 with DUAL floppies) cost somewhere around $2000 Used. That article is shoddy reporting, anyone of us engineers could have brought this major point home.
I'm glad that Blizzard reinstated these folks, because the whining was absolutely unbelievable. It was like an addict denied his methadone. Everyone was convinced that Blizzard was out to get them, and now we see that isn't the case. The acted reasonably, so all the Linux Professional Victims can drop it.
Buddy, I couldn't agree with you more. I spent 2.5 years (2000-02) working in Egypt on a Civil Engineering project. Basically showing Egyptian engineers how to maintain their water treatment/transfer gear, fix it and keep it working when us Fat Americans are gone. The truth is, and I know it's one of the most tired cliche's imaginable, is that information is worth much more than any physical 'feel good' aid people provide, like food drops. You know that other tired cliche, feed a man a fish blah blah blah, but teach him to fish himself and you feed him for life. That's the concept at work here. I think we all realize that the amount of information on the web is staggering. We take it for granted. The engineers in many countries are still using textbooks from the 70's - that's a fact. Places like CalTech put all their current classes on the web, and so do a million other universities. Giving people access to information raises the quality of life for entire societies. I see a $100 laptop as providing the skill of 'fishing' to whole societies in record time. Faster than we ever thought possible. These wags have never been on the ground anywhere but L.A. and New York. They are clueless. Myself, and anyone else who has been there realises the amazing benefits that connectivity will have in the developing world.
I imagine that the card was an unprinted blank, and this guy just programmed the mag strip with the correct info needed to withdrawal money. The actual printed info on the card has no bearing on how an ATM, or other reader,perceives it. That's only for cashiers. It's pretty difficult to imprint a blank with the raised numbers, colors and holograms. It's simple to program a mag strip. I'm suprised this doesn't happen much more frequently.
This is a really interesting topic. I'm going to have to go with the original, stand up arcade Gauntlet. When I got my first 'real' (ie a decent paycheck) job, one of the first things I did was fulfill my childhood fantasy of owning a Gauntlet arcade game. I think it's difficult to beat. It lets you and four buddies get down, more or less infinietly. Even though I had teh game in my living room for three years, and didn't have to pump quarters into it, I was still never able to finish the game. Sadly, I once blocked out a weekend, invited my brother and two other friends over with the express intention of beating Gauntlet. By late Saturday morning we were working in shifts so that we could take turns sleeping, but still keep the game going. The levels get somewhat repetitive eventually, but never wholly so. There is still quite a bit of difficulty to be overcome, and there's a lot of strategy involved in how to use the different characters and work as a group. For a pretty early video game, the graphics,,and the speed at which the sprites travel is fantastic.
I have to give runner up to Street Fighter Two in the Arcade, Contra for the NES, Double Dragon in the arcade and Sonic the Hedgehog, in split screen mode for Genesis.
The most underrated multi player game has to be Dungeon Explorer for Turbo GrafX 16. Granted, it is a Gauntlet clone in some ways, but it added quite a few questing and roleplaying elements to the hack and slash of Gauntlet. There was also a lot more flexibility in character creation, and at the time, The five player Turbo Tap was mind blowing.
It's all well and good to wait in line for a week,but the Best Buy employees are gtting those PS3's. We all know that this is the one time working at Best Buy will bring those employees any type of status or respect from their fellow man. The best buy Stock Monkeys may even get laid. I'm sure most of the units that initially ship will go out the back door to the manager's girl friend and the employees gaming buddies. If you can't get yourself an early release system as a perk, you may as well work at McDonalds.
The last time I checked, we all went to engineering school to find the simplest,most efficient solution to a complicated problem. Here we are taking the most complicated solution to a simple problem. No offense, but the lives of the pilots aren't worth the system to deliver them to safety. I don't want to see anyone get hurt or die, but it's part of the job. This is absurd. If a system this complicated is needed to save a life, the life isn't worth it. If peop;e think that safety is a 'Must Have', they shouldn't volunteer to become astronauts.
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The main reason I keep my Blackberry is the Pin/Blackberry messaging feature. You can contact anyone else with a Blackberry for free, anywhere you are. I travel a lot for work, to multiple countries, and the messenger feature is essential for staying in touch with the people I work with, scheduling,sharing documents and calendars. Even when I can't get a decent enough signal to push email, I can send pins. I think that's the one feature that makes it indispensable for some people.
I didn't pick that up, nice catch, but the article seems to back that up. Very strange.
You're right, I should have done that. I was running out the door, but thought the information might be useful. Apologies for wasting your time. Always Be Optimizing.
Here's a recently posted article that includes the government's side of the story. It seems to back up Watt's account that the border guards overreacted violently. "A Canadian science fiction writer is facing a felony charge after police said he assaulted a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer and resisted arrest at the Blue Water Bridge. But the writer, Peter Watts of Toronto, wrote on his blog that he was “punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, sh*t-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three (profanity deleted) hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.).” Neither Watts nor U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials returned phone calls Friday seeking comment about the Tuesday incident. Port Huron police Capt. Jim Jones would not provide the Times Herald with a copy of a police report about the incident Friday. But, he read the police report to a reporter. Jones said Watts was crossing into Michigan from Point Edward when he was selected at random for a secondary Customs inspection. Watts exited his vehicle “angrily” and border officers began checking the black sport utility vehicle he was driving, Jones said. Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers “and became aggressive toward officers,” Jones said. Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts “choked” an officer during the struggle. " http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091211/NEWS01/91211010/1002/Science+fiction+writer+charged+after+bridge+struggle
Auction Houses like Christie's, Sotheby's and Swann operate completely differently than most other businesses, in part due to the fact they usually deal in one of a kind items, many of dubious provenance. If you ever have attended an auction, you'll know that buyer beware is the law of the land. The auctions houses may state that such and such a work is by Egon Schiele, or whomever, but that's just an attribution. Basically, they are saying it is the best guest they can make that a certain person produced that work. The attributions are not guarantees, or statements of authenticity. All people bidding in auctions, are assumed to experts, or acting on the advice of experts. Once the hammer is down, if you have the highest bid, it's yours, you are stuck with it. In some cases, a house may 'buy back' an item that 'isn't right', but this usually occurs quietly, and only if the buyer is a good customer. Once you run to the press you're done - the auction house won't do a thing for you. Basically, the moral here is that auctions aren't for the faint of heart, or the broke. I have no sympathy for this guy, and if he knew how the system worked, he would understand that the auction house is just the agent, and he's responsible for verification. This ain't Ebay cowboy.
I work in a pretty specialized architecture firm, and some of our clients are slightly paranoid to say the least (Ting foil hats? More like Tin Foil Ceremonial Headpieces...) and we are working on a project that has a room that is set up to ward off an EMP during the coming apocalypse. I'm not kidding. The 'Safe Room' in this building is totally shielded, you can't get any type of electronic signal in or out. Coatings like the paint mentioned in the article are becoming more and more and common,and I think we're going to see a lot more multi-use coatings like this in the future. At the moment, they are extremely expensive, but as the price drops, this will become a pretty standards feature in a lot of new constructions where buildings are put up in close proximity to each other and interference tends to be a big problem. Conversely, you can always just get a few rolls of Reynolds Wrap and poster your walls with that.
Yeah, everyone is confusing two incidents this jerk was involved in. It started a while back with those two kids who posted fake sex ads on Craigslist, then reposted the info and pictures of the people who responded. Then, this creep Michael Crook, copycatted them, posted fake casual Encounters ads, then posted them on a website called something like 'craigslistperverts.com'. He was interviewed about the whole CL debacle several times on various blogs and in print media. That's issue one. Apprantly, although I find this VERY hard to believe, this guy was a soldier at some point. He was interviewed on Hannity and Colmes because he loves attention, and there is no faster way to get it than having an ex-soldier bad mouth the service people fighting in Iraq on a conservative talk show. That's where Hannity and Colmes come in. The picture in question was a video still from Hannity and Colmes. He sent the DMCA take down notices claiming that he owned the copyright to that photo, which he didn't. That's not the point though. What matters isn't who own the copyright to the photo, it's fair use. basically any blog/site/news outlet can use that photo of Michael Crook while reporting on any of his creepy projects because he made himself a public figure, and fair use covers reasonable use of photos, quotes etc. when covering a news story. That's the main pint here, fair use, not copyright. More than anything, Michael Crooks is the worst kind of human. He's a holocaust denier, a self admitted racist and homophobe, can't stand free speech, fair use and the open exchange of information. I think the EFF deserves a few beers for knocking this guy down a few pegs. I guess if I were as ugly as him I wouldn't want my picture all over the web either.
I have Sprint PCS for my 'personal' phone, and the company I work for gives us all Cingular Blackberries. Both carriers give me fantastic coverage, I travel quite a bit and I always seem to get good reception even when other people can't get a signal. The huge difference here is customer service. Sprint are absolutely horrible. Twice in the last 3 years I've had my phone shut off for 'non-payment', even though sprint has cashed my check. Each time I had to call up and go through a very long, annoying process to get them to fix this problem. Not good. I have also had terrible experiences in the Sprint stores, which are run by brainless morons. Sprint is possibly the worst run company I have had the displeasure of using. Sprint does offer a good deal money wise. I have unlimited calling and unlimited data for a fairly low price. Cingular is fantastic. There customer service people are decent and helpful, but there service is much more expensive for a comparable plan to Sprint.
When I was a kid, I was desperate for one of those '500 in 1 Kits', but instead my grandfather and a neighbor who an electrician, gave me a small 25 Watt soldering iron, an ac/dc train transformer for a power supply and a bunch of old parts they had lying around. Next to playing D and D, I probably spent more time messing about with stuff as a kid than anything. After a few months of mucking about, my grandfather also have a small multimeter. I definitely think those kits are good, but learning to solder is an integral part of building practically any electronic device. I also found soldering to be a lot of fun. On the surface handing an 11 year old a soldering iron may not seem like the safest thing in the world, but if you teach them how to use it safely, and they are reasonably responsible it should be fine. Plus, after you burn yourself the first time I guarantee it won't happen again. I had everyone of those Forst-Mims project books from Radio Shack, and I would say anything along those lines would be fantastic for a kid to start learning about electronics. You might also want to check out BEAM, which is a branch of very simple robotics, that uses cheap parts to make functional little bots.
I grew up in Manhattan, and I went to Stuyvesant, which gave me a few choices when it came to go to college. I got into two 'Ivy' schools, but in the end I chose a state engineering school, Rutgers. I had one huge reason for this - The Cost. It may be hard to fathom as a senior in high school, but the debts you will run up going to an Ivy League school will be nearly impossible to pay back, and will be hanging over your head for most of your adult life. It's not worth it. I did extremely well in the Engineering program at Rutgers, and I also managed to have a good time socially while I was there. I still keep in touch with quite a few friends from Stuyvesant, and many of them went to 'Ivy' schools. I've been out of college for 8 years at this point, and there is absolutely no difference in the type of job I have, and what my 'Ivy' attending friends do. We make the same amount of money, our jobs have the same prestige, and the types of companies we work for are very similar. After being in the 'Real' working world for a while now, I've noticed that there is no difference between people who've gone to a high prestige school, and those who haven't. It's all a worthless myth that attending an 'Ivy' brings success. Success comes from hard work, and what you are willing to bring to the table as a person. Save your money, go to a state school with a good engineering program, work hard and enjoy yourself. Your happiness is way more important than a gaudi class ring from a big name school.
Well, with all the lag on Second Life, people voting for Edwards now may see their votes effect the outcome of the 2012 elections.
I've actually had the (dis)pleasure of using the Hoboken garage with a friend of mine, and the time I was there, the whole system worked glitch free, and thought it was a pretty interesting concept because of the amount of space it saves. If you've ever tried to park in Hoboken, you can appreciate this, because it's even harder to park in Hoboken than anywhere in Manhattan. However, my friend was one of those people who had his car stuck in there for over 24 hours. That's ridiculous. Imagine your Bank all of a sudden saying, 'Sorry Pal, you can't get any cash or do any transactions with your money for the entire weekend'. Luckily for my friend, Hoboken is on the PATH (which is the NJ Transit public transport that goes to NYC), so he was able to go where he needed to go, but a total system failure is unacceptable. No matter how well designed and redundant a system is, there is always a chance for a total system failure,so unless you're prepared to deal with the fact that your car may become inaccessible at any point due to a power failure or computer glitch, you should stick with parking in a standard garage. Or use the subway like the rest of us.
My job has me all over the place, and one thing I've learned over the years is that when you get where you're going, who knows what you're going to find on the ground. Because of this I've set myself up with a USB drive that has the basics, just in case my laptop dies, or there is some reason I need to work on a box when I get where I'm going. On my 2GB stick I have Firefox (with all my favorite extensions) and AbiWord. The whole setup takes around 200 MB if I remember correctly. It works like a charm, especially FF. One other nice thing about a setup like this, is you can pop in your drive, surf the web, check your mail and not have to worry about your privacy, because 'What's on the Stick, Stays on the Stick'. The portable FF is a fantastic little pieece of software. I have both a Mac and a PC version on there, and both have saved my ass a few times in emergencies. Now if I could just get AutoCad on there...
Whether in this specific instance, it turns out to be s new species or not, the textbooks need re-writing anyway. Out of all the hard sciences, people dealing with the human record tend to ignore reams of evidence that differ from the standard party line. There is plenty of evidence that suggests 'humanity' is older than most scientists actually say. This debate has been going on since at least the 1950's, but this branch of science is filled with so many old guard folks, that they have a hard time analyzing anything without severe prejudice. I suggest they act like the rest of us folks, and analyze the facts to draw real conclusions. The largest danger to science is thinking we know more than we actually do. Sure, there are many intelligent people working in biology, but they are often blinded by what they feel they know. I believe it was some dirty mohawked guys from the East Bay who once said, 'All I know is that I don't know nothing...'. Your mind is like a parachute - you're f##ked if it's shut.
As a native New Yawka, I know that security cameras are nothing new in NYC, so this isn't really news. I first remember a cop I know pointing out a camera to me on a pole in the summer of 1997. Cameras were placed in very high traffic open air drug spots. Within a few months most of these spots were totally gone, and the neighborhoods started to come back a tiny bit. Certainly the idea of being constantly watched gives me the willies, but what worries me more, is who at the dispatch center is going to interpret these pics that people are sending in? People all see something different looking at the same image. What may make one dispatcher call out the SWAT team, another may see as nothing more than a few people having a good time. This is a tough situation for me, a place where my theoretetical self and the reality I live in collide. I'm certainly very wary of a 'Who watches the Watchmen?' scenario that we are creeping up on every day. On the other side, I live in NYC, always have, I have a family, and of course I appreciate how safe NYC is compared to when I was a teenager here in the 80's and 90's. It's troublesome indeed.
About a year ago, on the NYC Craigslist, there was a help wanted ad for a job that was described as riding a bike around various East Coast cities, with a digital camera and a GPS Unit, and mapping streets. Out of curiosity I replied, and eventually got a stock email from a Microsoft Adress. Very,very curious.
Using prepaid cell phones seems like a fantastic way to gain anonymity, but at at least here in teh US, pre-paid phones are considered a 'red flag' for evil doing. Remember those poor guys in Minnesota a few months ago? They purchased a hundred or so pre-paid phones, for legitimate sale on Ebay, and were arrested. The logic was pre-paid phones are only used by terrorists and drug dealers. In a way, using a pre-paid phone may attract more attention than just using a standard phone. Very sad, but very true. The reality of the situation is there are only a few thousand bugs/line taps performed by intelligence services each year. They just don't have enough 'listeners' to do all the spying the like. Thankfully we haven't gotten to the point where there is an individual 'listener' for each man woman and child. It probably isn't far off. I'm glad teh article mentioned the 'buzzing speaker test', that was my first thought also, as I've noticed all my phones over the years have created that buzzing sound when they ring or transmit.
Yeah, I'm with you on this. For example, I still enjoy playing the original NES Contra, and Castlevania, even though I can more or less play through either game in in 90 minutes or so, depending on how coordinated I am today. I think you feel a (somewhat shallow albeit) sense of accomplishment from shorter games. At least it FEELS like something has been accomplished in video game terms. Game length is the reason I got bored with WOW after a few weeks. The firs two weeks that I played WOW, I loved it. I could sit down for 1-2 which is really all I can spare for a video game, and complete a small mission, or level up. As the game progressed however, I found myself never able to get anything done - it just took a few sessions. Now I understand that in essence, that is somewhat the point of 'leveling up, that game gets more difficult as you progress. It wasn't the difficulty per se, it wasn't the game was actually harder, it just more time to see a result. I have just come to realize that I actually enjoy 'simpler' games more than the ultra complicated ones. I thoroughly enjoy the Castlevania series on the DS also, for that reason. I can pop it on for 45 minutes, and something happens - you get a weapon, kill a boos,whatever. Maybe games have become too complicated for their own good? Or,maybe I'm just too old and don't have enough to 'properly' play anymore. Either way, I do think sessions length,not game length, is what matters to me specifically.
You are 100% correct, you stole the words right out of my mouth. At this point in time consumer electronics are dirt cheap, especially if you factor in the amount of design and engineering work it takes to bring something to market. You can buy a decent computer for $400 USD now, and if I remember correctly my first computer (a lighting quick 286 with DUAL floppies) cost somewhere around $2000 Used. That article is shoddy reporting, anyone of us engineers could have brought this major point home.
I'm glad that Blizzard reinstated these folks, because the whining was absolutely unbelievable. It was like an addict denied his methadone. Everyone was convinced that Blizzard was out to get them, and now we see that isn't the case. The acted reasonably, so all the Linux Professional Victims can drop it.
Buddy, I couldn't agree with you more. I spent 2.5 years (2000-02) working in Egypt on a Civil Engineering project. Basically showing Egyptian engineers how to maintain their water treatment/transfer gear, fix it and keep it working when us Fat Americans are gone. The truth is, and I know it's one of the most tired cliche's imaginable, is that information is worth much more than any physical 'feel good' aid people provide, like food drops. You know that other tired cliche, feed a man a fish blah blah blah, but teach him to fish himself and you feed him for life. That's the concept at work here. I think we all realize that the amount of information on the web is staggering. We take it for granted. The engineers in many countries are still using textbooks from the 70's - that's a fact. Places like CalTech put all their current classes on the web, and so do a million other universities. Giving people access to information raises the quality of life for entire societies. I see a $100 laptop as providing the skill of 'fishing' to whole societies in record time. Faster than we ever thought possible. These wags have never been on the ground anywhere but L.A. and New York. They are clueless. Myself, and anyone else who has been there realises the amazing benefits that connectivity will have in the developing world.
I imagine that the card was an unprinted blank, and this guy just programmed the mag strip with the correct info needed to withdrawal money. The actual printed info on the card has no bearing on how an ATM, or other reader,perceives it. That's only for cashiers. It's pretty difficult to imprint a blank with the raised numbers, colors and holograms. It's simple to program a mag strip. I'm suprised this doesn't happen much more frequently.
This is a really interesting topic. I'm going to have to go with the original, stand up arcade Gauntlet. When I got my first 'real' (ie a decent paycheck) job, one of the first things I did was fulfill my childhood fantasy of owning a Gauntlet arcade game. I think it's difficult to beat. It lets you and four buddies get down, more or less infinietly. Even though I had teh game in my living room for three years, and didn't have to pump quarters into it, I was still never able to finish the game. Sadly, I once blocked out a weekend, invited my brother and two other friends over with the express intention of beating Gauntlet. By late Saturday morning we were working in shifts so that we could take turns sleeping, but still keep the game going. The levels get somewhat repetitive eventually, but never wholly so. There is still quite a bit of difficulty to be overcome, and there's a lot of strategy involved in how to use the different characters and work as a group. For a pretty early video game, the graphics, ,and the speed at which the sprites travel is fantastic.
I have to give runner up to Street Fighter Two in the Arcade, Contra for the NES, Double Dragon in the arcade and Sonic the Hedgehog, in split screen mode for Genesis.
The most underrated multi player game has to be Dungeon Explorer for Turbo GrafX 16. Granted, it is a Gauntlet clone in some ways, but it added quite a few questing and roleplaying elements to the hack and slash of Gauntlet. There was also a lot more flexibility in character creation, and at the time, The five player Turbo Tap was mind blowing.
It's all well and good to wait in line for a week,but the Best Buy employees are gtting those PS3's. We all know that this is the one time working at Best Buy will bring those employees any type of status or respect from their fellow man. The best buy Stock Monkeys may even get laid. I'm sure most of the units that initially ship will go out the back door to the manager's girl friend and the employees gaming buddies. If you can't get yourself an early release system as a perk, you may as well work at McDonalds.
The last time I checked, we all went to engineering school to find the simplest,most efficient solution to a complicated problem. Here we are taking the most complicated solution to a simple problem. No offense, but the lives of the pilots aren't worth the system to deliver them to safety. I don't want to see anyone get hurt or die, but it's part of the job. This is absurd. If a system this complicated is needed to save a life, the life isn't worth it. If peop;e think that safety is a 'Must Have', they shouldn't volunteer to become astronauts.