As for me, I'm pretty sure that the universe is deterministic and so I must simply try to enjoy my illusion of free will. Ah, but what does 'try' mean in a deterministic universe? You'll enjoy your illusory free will, or not, regardless of any effort you think you're making.:P
Here's an interesting third option - suppose the sum-of-all-universes that we live or could live in is a static, 'finished' if you like, multidimensional object, that can be read like a CD. Your point of view is simply like a read head that allows 'you' (assumed to exist separate from this universe) to inspect any given point in space/time/wherever, is constantly moving through time, and can (under the influence of aforementioned external consciousness) alter its direction to view whichever timeline it wishes, as they branch. That would allow free will while maintaining a deterministic universe.
He's not on crack. He just hasn't used Linux for years. Back in 2004, last time I tried Linux (it was Mandrake somethingorother) I couldn't even get it to recognize my video card. I gave up rapidly, went "life is too short", and installed XP. I kept that picture of Linux as "something that's good if you have a spare week to set it up in and don't mind eternally tinkering with files and reading newsgroups full of elitist pricks" until about three months ago when my dodgy onboard RAID cracked the shits, and I decided to try Ubuntu Feisty out.
And since then, I've found out just how much better Linux can be than XP - it recognized all my hardware out of the box (no f**king around installing a floppy drive so I can get the SATA drivers going), took like 30 minutes to install, 'just works' at everything I want it to (WoW, intarwebs, IM, movies/TV eps, some document editing/spreadsheeting) and has better eye candy than Vista (yay Beryl!). It also doesn't cost me $200+, it doesn't insist on phoning home, and I know that if Ubuntu Co. dies or decides they want me to upgrade to some PoS, I can just keep using it instead of needing activation codes or cracks.
Really, there isn't any way Vista could be better for my uses.
The real problem is that CPU speeds have nearly flatlined. I think the REAL problem is that with Windows XP, they created an OS that is 'good enough' that people don't need to upgrade from it. Windows 3.1 was OK for its time but on a scale of 1 to Awesome, it was shit. Windows 95 was better. Windows 98 SE was pretty damn good, people used that for ages, but it still required semi-regular reinstalls. *sweeps Windows ME under the rug where it belongs*
Windows XP will run for years+ without needing a reinstall, it has excellent hardware support and will run practically any software. It works fine on 5-year-old or ultra-cheap hardware. It has a familiar interface, good-enough network support for file sharing etc. Basically it does everything people need from it. So they have no motivation to go to Vista, which by all accounts provides an overall worse user experience than XP, while costing a lot more and requiring a fuckton more hardware power.
The solution I have found is to start some other video player and play a video in it. Doesn't matter what the player/video is, just that it's going. Now start up the video program you want to use, and the video you want to capture, and capture away with the Printscreen key. Interesting solution.:) I remember the coolest thing about this otherwise-annoying 'feature' when they started using overlays for WMP was that you could screenshot it, open Paint, paste the screenshot in - and in the rectangle where the pasted screenshot overlapped the real WMP screen, you could see the movie still playing behind Paint. It was fun.;)
The only problem with the private internets is that you can't access easily from internet cafes and such while traveling. Because I totally need to control my power plant from a net cafe in rural Thailand.:P
Well, if there is an established procedure for offsetting timings on any coil (as in chain of command), 'Terry' should call your supervisor, not you and then when you (technician) say it is dangerous, there should be a call back to 'Terry' and his supervisor. What you're describing is exactly analogous to the network security system that they would have in place for an automated system. The only difference is, it's easier to fool Rodney the Router into believing you're Maurice the Manager than it is to fool Eric the Engineer by mimicking Maurice's voice, even though both approaches are possible. Contrariwise, you can't very well make Rodney tell Sammy the Servo to flip the generator coil's polarity by yelling at him and pretending you're from upper management and that Maurice isn't answering his mobile phone, or that you've kidnapped his wife and are going to kill her if he doesn't.
I've never seriously tried at high speed, but I can certainly slot my manual-transmission car (1989, so it's not THAT old) into reverse at parking-lot forward speeds with no problems. At high speeds the gears don't mesh, but that's why the GP suggested putting the car in neutral then waiting a few seconds with the clutch in - the idler cog stops eventually due to friction, halving the speed of its teeth relative to the reverse gear and letting it mesh easier. It'll still be noisy and probably damaging though.:/
Regardless, if someone could put my car into reverse via the internet while I'm driving it (hell, at ANY time) I'd be, as Humperdink would put it, 'very put out'.
Nah, and I don't get Fox News (or any TV for that matter). And I'm sick of people insisting that I'm the one who needs to back up my statements - it's your turn, prove to me that the majority of terrorist acts aren't perpetrated by native Arabic speakers. Gogo!
Actually I was at a birthday party, and had already had enough to drink that I was past my 'do not ever be that guy and hit on girls once you get this drunk' limit, we got talking, she got my phone number... And that's the other thing, and I've seen it more than once - if a geek chick picks you, she probably won't have any problems with tracking *you* down. Just gotta get out there, have fun at a few parties, and wait for lightning to strike.;)
...and yet, the majority of terrorist acts in the current world climate are perpetrated by native Arabic speakers. Generalizations, while not politically correct, are the only things that let us deal with the unbelievable complexity of the world. It's the way the universe works.
Engaged, to one of the maybe three geek girls I've met in my *life* that were both single and not related to me.:P Better than winning lotto, in my opinion.:)
Ah, ahah! You see what he did there? He deliberately set up an ambi-guuu-ity so that you could either read what he wrote as a simple technical statement, or as a discussion of va-giii-nas! How clever! Oh, how I love double en-ten-dres!
In other news, if you cross "innuendo" and "doble entendre" you get "double nintendo" which is always good.
Maybe they should actually reach out to, and acknowledge, the geek women who already exist. At a going rate of 10 or more geek men to every geek woman? Be one of the lucky few, or learn to care for, feed and love a non-geek.
It's pretty clear there's a genetic factor involved. Think of the gender ratio in university classes studying Cognitive Science, Sociology etc, then compare them to Engineering, Computer Science et al. That's not just cultural - while geek women do exist, most women are just *not interested* in geeky stuff. You have to be in exactly the right place at the right time to find a girl who will actually say 'lol' instead of laughing...;)
Its true, I saw it in some movies. Hell, I saw it in real life when I met my now-fiancee. It's awesome when you meet a girl, are attracted to her personality, and find out later that when she takes off her glasses and lets her hair down she's one helluva hottie...:D
Noone thinks of the shy, flat, nerdy girl in the back row when they make such generalization. That's her problem in a nutshell: to 90% of the guys she's just short of invisible, or little more than a piece of decor. Trust me, that shy, flat, nerdy girl probably gets more than all of the skinny, awkward, nerdy guys around her put together. That was what really put me into a spin at university - not that the few hot chicks had offers coming left right and center, you'd expect that, but that the unattractive chubby wench next to her ALSO has a bunch to choose from. That's what you get for doing engineering, 10 girls in a class of 300.
Face it, guys probably shoot higher in their daydreams, but in terms of what they're prepared to actually get with, they have much lower standards than girls.
If he's not attractive it's cockiness, if he is its confidence. Kind of like the way that if you're hot, then it's flirting, if you're not, it's sexual harassment.
Which does kind of suck when you realise that by the time it's "your turn", (a) they've been with every guy on the football team, twice, and have all sorts of interesting diseases, and (b) you now have to pay for 20 years of school fees and lunches while they lose interest in sex (with you at least).
God I'm a pessimist.:P At least I'm safe from that situation.:) I thought for ages that I wouldn't be though.:(
...but every one of them that dies *helps* their cause, in terms of the bleeding hearts brigade in America, whereas every US soldier that dies both boosts the home team's morale, AND hurts said bleeding hearts. Also, all Iraqis look enough alike (when compared to the so-obviously-alien US troops) that they again have the advantage of a human shield of civilians around them that the US troops can't harm (but again, much of the violence is perpetrated against other Iraqi factions rather than the occupying troops, see point 1 about every Iraqi death working in the home team's favour).
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Here's an interesting third option - suppose the sum-of-all-universes that we live or could live in is a static, 'finished' if you like, multidimensional object, that can be read like a CD. Your point of view is simply like a read head that allows 'you' (assumed to exist separate from this universe) to inspect any given point in space/time/wherever, is constantly moving through time, and can (under the influence of aforementioned external consciousness) alter its direction to view whichever timeline it wishes, as they branch. That would allow free will while maintaining a deterministic universe.
He's not on crack. He just hasn't used Linux for years. Back in 2004, last time I tried Linux (it was Mandrake somethingorother) I couldn't even get it to recognize my video card. I gave up rapidly, went "life is too short", and installed XP. I kept that picture of Linux as "something that's good if you have a spare week to set it up in and don't mind eternally tinkering with files and reading newsgroups full of elitist pricks" until about three months ago when my dodgy onboard RAID cracked the shits, and I decided to try Ubuntu Feisty out.
And since then, I've found out just how much better Linux can be than XP - it recognized all my hardware out of the box (no f**king around installing a floppy drive so I can get the SATA drivers going), took like 30 minutes to install, 'just works' at everything I want it to (WoW, intarwebs, IM, movies/TV eps, some document editing/spreadsheeting) and has better eye candy than Vista (yay Beryl!). It also doesn't cost me $200+, it doesn't insist on phoning home, and I know that if Ubuntu Co. dies or decides they want me to upgrade to some PoS, I can just keep using it instead of needing activation codes or cracks.
Really, there isn't any way Vista could be better for my uses.
Linux folks attack windows folks too, you MS shill! <--- teh irony, si heer!
Windows XP will run for years+ without needing a reinstall, it has excellent hardware support and will run practically any software. It works fine on 5-year-old or ultra-cheap hardware. It has a familiar interface, good-enough network support for file sharing etc. Basically it does everything people need from it. So they have no motivation to go to Vista, which by all accounts provides an overall worse user experience than XP, while costing a lot more and requiring a fuckton more hardware power.
Well, it WAS a nuclear power station, was it not? I guess some newbie sysadmin went apt-get install *nuke*
I've never seriously tried at high speed, but I can certainly slot my manual-transmission car (1989, so it's not THAT old) into reverse at parking-lot forward speeds with no problems. At high speeds the gears don't mesh, but that's why the GP suggested putting the car in neutral then waiting a few seconds with the clutch in - the idler cog stops eventually due to friction, halving the speed of its teeth relative to the reverse gear and letting it mesh easier. It'll still be noisy and probably damaging though. :/
Regardless, if someone could put my car into reverse via the internet while I'm driving it (hell, at ANY time) I'd be, as Humperdink would put it, 'very put out'.
Yes. Although of course, regular sex can lead to you becoming even more sleep starved... ;) It's hella worth it though. :D
Oh, I'm sorry, I think you've mistaken a /. discussion for a rational debate. I don't see any backup for your post either, feel free to provide some. :)
Nah, and I don't get Fox News (or any TV for that matter). And I'm sick of people insisting that I'm the one who needs to back up my statements - it's your turn, prove to me that the majority of terrorist acts aren't perpetrated by native Arabic speakers. Gogo!
Actually I was at a birthday party, and had already had enough to drink that I was past my 'do not ever be that guy and hit on girls once you get this drunk' limit, we got talking, she got my phone number... And that's the other thing, and I've seen it more than once - if a geek chick picks you, she probably won't have any problems with tracking *you* down. Just gotta get out there, have fun at a few parties, and wait for lightning to strike. ;)
OMG JELLO SHOTS! YAY!!!
I must not shout. I must not shout. I must not shout. I must not... JELLO YAY!
...and yet, the majority of terrorist acts in the current world climate are perpetrated by native Arabic speakers. Generalizations, while not politically correct, are the only things that let us deal with the unbelievable complexity of the world. It's the way the universe works.
Engaged, to one of the maybe three geek girls I've met in my *life* that were both single and not related to me. :P Better than winning lotto, in my opinion. :)
Ah, ahah! You see what he did there? He deliberately set up an ambi-guuu-ity so that you could either read what he wrote as a simple technical statement, or as a discussion of va-giii-nas! How clever! Oh, how I love double en-ten-dres!
In other news, if you cross "innuendo" and "doble entendre" you get "double nintendo" which is always good.
You're far too humble. If you had higher self esteem chicks would dig you even more.
It's pretty clear there's a genetic factor involved. Think of the gender ratio in university classes studying Cognitive Science, Sociology etc, then compare them to Engineering, Computer Science et al. That's not just cultural - while geek women do exist, most women are just *not interested* in geeky stuff. You have to be in exactly the right place at the right time to find a girl who will actually say 'lol' instead of laughing...
You fail at being a geek. Lego is automatically cool. Please leave your calculator and soldering iron on the desk to your left as you exit the club. :P
;) ...
...just another lego fanboy here
Face it, guys probably shoot higher in their daydreams, but in terms of what they're prepared to actually get with, they have much lower standards than girls.
Which does kind of suck when you realise that by the time it's "your turn", (a) they've been with every guy on the football team, twice, and have all sorts of interesting diseases, and (b) you now have to pay for 20 years of school fees and lunches while they lose interest in sex (with you at least).
:P At least I'm safe from that situation. :) I thought for ages that I wouldn't be though. :(
God I'm a pessimist.
...but every one of them that dies *helps* their cause, in terms of the bleeding hearts brigade in America, whereas every US soldier that dies both boosts the home team's morale, AND hurts said bleeding hearts. Also, all Iraqis look enough alike (when compared to the so-obviously-alien US troops) that they again have the advantage of a human shield of civilians around them that the US troops can't harm (but again, much of the violence is perpetrated against other Iraqi factions rather than the occupying troops, see point 1 about every Iraqi death working in the home team's favour).