My understanding is too shallow to answer this question, but I believe that God is doing this for a globally optimal solution.
I credit you with admitting that you don't understand it either. But that's the problem, I think. I'm not saying I can understand everything, and I don't think that life is a net loss (i.e. I believe there is more good than evil). But it seems quite understandable that any all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God could allow the evil that has happened to have happened. And saying that it's okay because it's the next life that matters is a cop-out: if this life doesn't matter then why have it at all? If it's a test, it's not a fair one as we don't all get the same one. The whole system reeks of organic disorganization. Mysterious ways indeed.
Anyways, as someone who was raised Christian and eventually became an athiest because of the above line of thinking, I just thought I'd throw it out there since you're thinking about it too. In the end everyone believes what they want whether it makes sense or not.
I'm a high school dropout and I'm both an athiest and I subscribe to evolution. I know a lot of college graduates who are very sharp and intelligent and yet don't accept evolution and believe in god.
Really, I think that the choice on this matter is often dicated by emotion, which overrides any intellectual consideration or presentation of facts. Some people are afraid of there not being a god, or don't like the feeling of not knowing the purpose of life, or just like sharing beliefs with their friends and families, or don't like to admit they've been wrong for the past forty years, etc.
And these people are important: they make up more than half of the voting population in my estimation so they have a profound effect on you and I. So don't dismiss them. And don't bother trying to convert them. But find a way to live with them. You may even find some of them make good friends.
I've tried to write learning chatbots myself, so I realize how terrifically hard it is... but I was a little surprised how little progress has been made. The ones I looked at couldn't keep it together for more than one or two responses. Not much better than Eliza or Racter.
I'm not worried about AI taking over the world any time soon.
Cheers.
Re:PINE + PortaPuTTY + Thumb Drive
on
Gmail vs Pine
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Hell, I'm such a PINE evangalist I'll give out my URL:
Yes: actual people from the actual patent office are coming to my workplace to talk with me (among others) about patents and our thoughts on them. Now, my first instinct is to say "I think all patents suck and if you guys shut down we'd be better off" (note: my company has been under frivolous patent attack). However, I don't think that's the most effective way to go about it. I've been trying to think how I can have some positive effect without totally turning them off. Is there anything I could say in a couple hour meeting with patent office public relations that might have the tinyest positive effect on this mess?
If you don't have more than 50% legal control in the company, and the charisma to back it up, it will get fscked up on you. Relationships sour over time, and as money starts rolling in there will be tons of people with no vision and a lot of passion and power to drive things in the wrong direction. Don't get your hopes too high. It sounds like it's already out of your control. Enjoy the ride as much as you can.
That said, if you do have control and charisma, be humble about it and listen to both other people, your heart, and your mind.
Then don't read it? Are we really that uptight and/or addicted that Slashdot can't goof off one day a year? Maybe you should go someplace else for a day if your intelligence needs to be coddled instead of insulted?
Actually, I tend to find it works the other way for me. Most attempts at explanation in sci-fi seem to break my suspension of disbelief unless they're very good (like Ice 9 in Cat's Cradle). So I often prefer when they don't try. Lightsabers (as depicted) make no sense for a pile of reasons, but because he never tries to explain them I don't question it.
You can read my other reply to a similar comment, but to summarize, I'm certainly not attacking anyone or even complaining. It's just that I have a limited amount of time to invest in gaming, so I choose stuff that looks interesting to me at first glance. GTA doesn't, and it's mostly because I've been through that phase. The game (which I've never played) may be the best thing ever, but I'll never know. Perhaps my loss, but that's how we all deal with the overwhelming options, right?
Whether there's a large group of people like me is another question, and that's the theory I and the parent poster were proposing.
Dead on, my friend. Discussing this kind of thing with friends over the recent yearrs, everyone I know had access to copious pornography by age 16, and this was long before the internet. We all masturbated (seperately, heh heh) and yet somehow we all went on to date, respect women, have long term fulfilling relationships... and still dig the internet porn.
I've had moments where I feel I probably am viewing more porn than I probably should, using it as a distraction... but I could say the same thing about slashdot.
I think that the main thing porn does for me at the moment is it frees me up to be single. I recently ended a long term relationship (for non-porn related reasons, heh heh) and I want some time alone. I want to focus on myself. I have plenty of good friends (male and female) for social interaction, but my being alone denies me sex. Thanks to porn I'm far less tempted to get into relationships just for sex.
Some people probably have real problems with porn. But overall I think porn is a good outlet and a net win for society. Same as most of the other things that get hammered on. Like violent movies and games. Imagine if every time someone was angry they had to take it out on a real person. Imagine if every time someone was horny they had to have sex with a real person. Fantasy outlets seem like a good thing to me.
I've been a nearly-full-time Apple user since ~2000. I love my PowerBook, I love OSX, I love my Apple apps, and I love my iPod. But I've never felt that Apple has "excellent customer service". I mean, I'm not sure exactly what to compare it to... maybe it's better than Dell or something?
I mean, the design and overall quality of products is a part of customer service, and they have that down. But actual interaction with the company we're talking about, right?
The floor staff at the Apple store are a mixed bag... I've encountered folks who were great and folks who were not. One mistake they make is to put far too much emphasis on upselling, which makes for a used-car-sales experience. They pride themselves on saying "we don't work on commission", but don't mention that their work performance is judged solely on their ability to attach items to the order (like.mac and AppleCare).
The Genius Bar people are always worn out and a bit testy. I've worked customer service, and in my experience this is more a function of a company who never lets customer service tell customers what they want to hear, rather than just the existence of annoying customers. Case in point: virtually any type of damage to a powerbook results in a repair cost very close to purchasing a refurb unit. If your screen is cracked or your case is dented, it's $1700 flat fee, I think. Kind of ridiculous, no? I did break a Powerbook screen once, and after steaming at their prices, I was lucky enough to find another company who would do it for $600. So I'm sure Apple could do it at a better cost.
I also remember calling support on iTunes. Back when the DRM only allowed 3 computers, i ran out because I sold a machine and forgot to de-authorize the music. They did clear my authorization list, but then they reprimanded me for my error and acted like I shouldn't expect them to do that for me. Good customers service wouldn't do that in any case.
Anyways, I love Apple products, but their customer service is average at best.
Cheers.
PS - of course I may be biased as I work at Zappos, where we really do have excellent customer service. I shit you not.
Actually, from what I hear GTA is a great all-around game, and is much more than just a violence fest. Having not played it I can't really say. But I think a lot of people get a distaste for violence after 25 or so. I know I did. I can still stomach it fine -- I enjoyed Kill Bill, and even Hostel, but I don't seek the stuff out like I used to. So while I might enjoy GTA if I got into it, it's just not what I'm attracted to. I have a limited amount of time for gaming, and I'm far more inclined to try something with a less overtly violent tone, like Darwinia.
You know, that's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of but it's obvious in hindsight. I'm a 32 year old Nintendo fan with disposable income. I'm a lot more interested in playing youthful games like Mario and Zelda that have great design than GTA and other "mature" games that are actually aimed at kids who are still thrilled by random violence and high polygon counts. No offense intended, I was one of those kids 16 years ago. In fact I even coded a couple ultra-violent games on my C64 back then. No polygons, though:)
But yeah, people like me are probably a better market. And I could care less what kind of horsepower it has. As long as it has good games I'm in. Nintendo must understand this at some level.
Cheers.
Re:What's with the "dump OSX" theme?
on
Apple Joins BAPCo
·
· Score: 1
heh:)
What's with the "dump OSX" theme?
on
Apple Joins BAPCo
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I've come across several comments that predict that Apple is planning to dump OSX in favor of Windows as their OS. I'm no Nostradamus, but this seems ludicrously unlikely while Steve Jobs is alive. And no, it's nothing like the switch to intel... processor flamewars were always foolishness: who really cares what processor architecture is underneath? Ask NetBSD... if it can run the OS that's what matters.
It's all about the user experience, and OSX is the experience Apple wants to deliver.
Big surprise... having used nearly every OS known to man, I can say that OSX is certainly one of the greatest ever. And it's already well past the bootsrapping stage that kills most young OSs. Ditching it now would be completely insane.
Microsoft doesn't sell hardware like Apple does! Maybe Dell could license OSX, but Microsft? I mean, they're somewhat diversified, but getting an OSX lisence would kill a key source of income! This plan really doesn't seem to make sense.
Sorry, I think you're wrong. The only other post Rosyna made in this thread was an even more tongue-in-cheek reply to you. Historically Rosyna has seemed fairly mac/osx positive. And the idea of booting Windows on the mac by default could only be described as a joke:)
The thing to me that most sucks was that Stallman and the BSD folks basically made a bet on human nature. The optomists are losing badly.
Are you kidding? Anyone who has any real sense of how the computer landscape changed over the past decade knows that the optomists won big time. The vast majority of the internet is interoperable despite the best efforts of the pessimists. Free software, and the free exchange of ideas between developers has flourished and fostered this. Communication channels are open now that were never open before. There is a greater breadth of content at your fingertips than anyone could have imagined back then.
The original motivation of the free software movement was not to make money. It was to make the tech world a better place. This has happened, and it happened mostly because of free software.
I predict they'll do the same thing they did with copyright extention. They'll admit that it might be a bad law, but they'll uphold the law and tell us to go to Congress if we want it changed. I don't think they'll find the injunctions unconstitutional.
Which I can respect, but is really a shame, as congress is so in-the-pocket they're just about useless in promoting anything that's for the common good over the corporate good.
Obviously somebody was an idiot when they decided that exchange '555' could be located nearby exchange '555'.
Yeah, that was exactly what I thought. I mean, there's only like 25 area codes in all of California... probably only 10 of which that would be local to my area at the time. Couldn't they skip those when making exchanges? I hear that originally area codes always had a 0 or 1 as the middle digit, and exchanges never did. But they ran out of numbers that way and now they'll put any number anywhere. Clever original design to prevent this kind of problem, but not scalable, and certainly overlooked today as they grow the network.
Slashdot Mirror
My understanding is too shallow to answer this question, but I believe that God is doing this for a globally optimal solution.
I credit you with admitting that you don't understand it either. But that's the problem, I think. I'm not saying I can understand everything, and I don't think that life is a net loss (i.e. I believe there is more good than evil). But it seems quite understandable that any all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God could allow the evil that has happened to have happened. And saying that it's okay because it's the next life that matters is a cop-out: if this life doesn't matter then why have it at all? If it's a test, it's not a fair one as we don't all get the same one. The whole system reeks of organic disorganization. Mysterious ways indeed.
Anyways, as someone who was raised Christian and eventually became an athiest because of the above line of thinking, I just thought I'd throw it out there since you're thinking about it too. In the end everyone believes what they want whether it makes sense or not.
Cheers.
Speaking of sheltered lives...
I'm a high school dropout and I'm both an athiest and I subscribe to evolution. I know a lot of college graduates who are very sharp and intelligent and yet don't accept evolution and believe in god.
Really, I think that the choice on this matter is often dicated by emotion, which overrides any intellectual consideration or presentation of facts. Some people are afraid of there not being a god, or don't like the feeling of not knowing the purpose of life, or just like sharing beliefs with their friends and families, or don't like to admit they've been wrong for the past forty years, etc.
And these people are important: they make up more than half of the voting population in my estimation so they have a profound effect on you and I. So don't dismiss them. And don't bother trying to convert them. But find a way to live with them. You may even find some of them make good friends.
Cheers.
I've tried to write learning chatbots myself, so I realize how terrifically hard it is... but I was a little surprised how little progress has been made. The ones I looked at couldn't keep it together for more than one or two responses. Not much better than Eliza or Racter.
I'm not worried about AI taking over the world any time soon.
Cheers.
Hell, I'm such a PINE evangalist I'll give out my URL:
:)
java ssh client
Feel free to copy the HTML and Java to your own server. Then you can ssh/PINE from any web browser. It's like gmail but it's PINE!
Cheers
Yes: actual people from the actual patent office are coming to my workplace to talk with me (among others) about patents and our thoughts on them. Now, my first instinct is to say "I think all patents suck and if you guys shut down we'd be better off" (note: my company has been under frivolous patent attack). However, I don't think that's the most effective way to go about it. I've been trying to think how I can have some positive effect without totally turning them off. Is there anything I could say in a couple hour meeting with patent office public relations that might have the tinyest positive effect on this mess?
I'm at a loss.
If you don't have more than 50% legal control in the company, and the charisma to back it up, it will get fscked up on you. Relationships sour over time, and as money starts rolling in there will be tons of people with no vision and a lot of passion and power to drive things in the wrong direction. Don't get your hopes too high. It sounds like it's already out of your control. Enjoy the ride as much as you can.
That said, if you do have control and charisma, be humble about it and listen to both other people, your heart, and your mind.
Good luck.
Back atcha bro, with nothing but love :)
Then don't read it? Are we really that uptight and/or addicted that Slashdot can't goof off one day a year? Maybe you should go someplace else for a day if your intelligence needs to be coddled instead of insulted?
Geesh. When did geeks get so friggin' uptight?
Cheers.
Lighten up, bro :)
Actually, I tend to find it works the other way for me. Most attempts at explanation in sci-fi seem to break my suspension of disbelief unless they're very good (like Ice 9 in Cat's Cradle). So I often prefer when they don't try. Lightsabers (as depicted) make no sense for a pile of reasons, but because he never tries to explain them I don't question it.
Cheers.
You can read my other reply to a similar comment, but to summarize, I'm certainly not attacking anyone or even complaining. It's just that I have a limited amount of time to invest in gaming, so I choose stuff that looks interesting to me at first glance. GTA doesn't, and it's mostly because I've been through that phase. The game (which I've never played) may be the best thing ever, but I'll never know. Perhaps my loss, but that's how we all deal with the overwhelming options, right?
Whether there's a large group of people like me is another question, and that's the theory I and the parent poster were proposing.
Cheers.
Dead on, my friend. Discussing this kind of thing with friends over the recent yearrs, everyone I know had access to copious pornography by age 16, and this was long before the internet. We all masturbated (seperately, heh heh) and yet somehow we all went on to date, respect women, have long term fulfilling relationships ... and still dig the internet porn.
I've had moments where I feel I probably am viewing more porn than I probably should, using it as a distraction... but I could say the same thing about slashdot.
I think that the main thing porn does for me at the moment is it frees me up to be single. I recently ended a long term relationship (for non-porn related reasons, heh heh) and I want some time alone. I want to focus on myself. I have plenty of good friends (male and female) for social interaction, but my being alone denies me sex. Thanks to porn I'm far less tempted to get into relationships just for sex.
Some people probably have real problems with porn. But overall I think porn is a good outlet and a net win for society. Same as most of the other things that get hammered on. Like violent movies and games. Imagine if every time someone was angry they had to take it out on a real person. Imagine if every time someone was horny they had to have sex with a real person. Fantasy outlets seem like a good thing to me.
Cheers.
I've been a nearly-full-time Apple user since ~2000. I love my PowerBook, I love OSX, I love my Apple apps, and I love my iPod. But I've never felt that Apple has "excellent customer service". I mean, I'm not sure exactly what to compare it to... maybe it's better than Dell or something?
.mac and AppleCare).
I mean, the design and overall quality of products is a part of customer service, and they have that down. But actual interaction with the company we're talking about, right?
The floor staff at the Apple store are a mixed bag... I've encountered folks who were great and folks who were not. One mistake they make is to put far too much emphasis on upselling, which makes for a used-car-sales experience. They pride themselves on saying "we don't work on commission", but don't mention that their work performance is judged solely on their ability to attach items to the order (like
The Genius Bar people are always worn out and a bit testy. I've worked customer service, and in my experience this is more a function of a company who never lets customer service tell customers what they want to hear, rather than just the existence of annoying customers. Case in point: virtually any type of damage to a powerbook results in a repair cost very close to purchasing a refurb unit. If your screen is cracked or your case is dented, it's $1700 flat fee, I think. Kind of ridiculous, no? I did break a Powerbook screen once, and after steaming at their prices, I was lucky enough to find another company who would do it for $600. So I'm sure Apple could do it at a better cost.
I also remember calling support on iTunes. Back when the DRM only allowed 3 computers, i ran out because I sold a machine and forgot to de-authorize the music. They did clear my authorization list, but then they reprimanded me for my error and acted like I shouldn't expect them to do that for me. Good customers service wouldn't do that in any case.
Anyways, I love Apple products, but their customer service is average at best.
Cheers.
PS - of course I may be biased as I work at Zappos, where we really do have excellent customer service. I shit you not.
Heh, thanks. I should bring a lawsuit against them or something ;)
That screenshot is probably the most offensive pedestrian to kill... the wheelcharir guy. But you get to run over kids, dogs and old folks too.
Cheers.
Actually, from what I hear GTA is a great all-around game, and is much more than just a violence fest. Having not played it I can't really say. But I think a lot of people get a distaste for violence after 25 or so. I know I did. I can still stomach it fine -- I enjoyed Kill Bill, and even Hostel, but I don't seek the stuff out like I used to. So while I might enjoy GTA if I got into it, it's just not what I'm attracted to. I have a limited amount of time for gaming, and I'm far more inclined to try something with a less overtly violent tone, like Darwinia.
:)
But to each their own. Enjoy what you like
Cheers.
Still the case? I admit I threw up the screenshots _after_ I made the post (I've been meaning to for a while). Maybe you caught it in-progress?
You know, that's an interesting point that I hadn't thought of but it's obvious in hindsight. I'm a 32 year old Nintendo fan with disposable income. I'm a lot more interested in playing youthful games like Mario and Zelda that have great design than GTA and other "mature" games that are actually aimed at kids who are still thrilled by random violence and high polygon counts. No offense intended, I was one of those kids 16 years ago. In fact I even coded a couple ultra-violent games on my C64 back then. No polygons, though :)
But yeah, people like me are probably a better market. And I could care less what kind of horsepower it has. As long as it has good games I'm in. Nintendo must understand this at some level.
Cheers.
heh :)
I've come across several comments that predict that Apple is planning to dump OSX in favor of Windows as their OS. I'm no Nostradamus, but this seems ludicrously unlikely while Steve Jobs is alive. And no, it's nothing like the switch to intel... processor flamewars were always foolishness: who really cares what processor architecture is underneath? Ask NetBSD... if it can run the OS that's what matters.
It's all about the user experience, and OSX is the experience Apple wants to deliver.
Big surprise... having used nearly every OS known to man, I can say that OSX is certainly one of the greatest ever. And it's already well past the bootsrapping stage that kills most young OSs. Ditching it now would be completely insane.
Cheers.
Microsoft doesn't sell hardware like Apple does! Maybe Dell could license OSX, but Microsft? I mean, they're somewhat diversified, but getting an OSX lisence would kill a key source of income! This plan really doesn't seem to make sense.
Cheers.
Sorry, I think you're wrong. The only other post Rosyna made in this thread was an even more tongue-in-cheek reply to you. Historically Rosyna has seemed fairly mac/osx positive. And the idea of booting Windows on the mac by default could only be described as a joke :)
Cheers.
The thing to me that most sucks was that Stallman and the BSD folks basically made a bet on human nature. The optomists are losing badly.
Are you kidding? Anyone who has any real sense of how the computer landscape changed over the past decade knows that the optomists won big time. The vast majority of the internet is interoperable despite the best efforts of the pessimists. Free software, and the free exchange of ideas between developers has flourished and fostered this. Communication channels are open now that were never open before. There is a greater breadth of content at your fingertips than anyone could have imagined back then.
The original motivation of the free software movement was not to make money. It was to make the tech world a better place. This has happened, and it happened mostly because of free software.
Pessimist indeed.
Cheers.
I predict they'll do the same thing they did with copyright extention. They'll admit that it might be a bad law, but they'll uphold the law and tell us to go to Congress if we want it changed. I don't think they'll find the injunctions unconstitutional.
Which I can respect, but is really a shame, as congress is so in-the-pocket they're just about useless in promoting anything that's for the common good over the corporate good.
Hope I'm wrong!
Good points, thanks.
Obviously somebody was an idiot when they decided that exchange '555' could be located nearby exchange '555'.
Yeah, that was exactly what I thought. I mean, there's only like 25 area codes in all of California... probably only 10 of which that would be local to my area at the time. Couldn't they skip those when making exchanges? I hear that originally area codes always had a 0 or 1 as the middle digit, and exchanges never did. But they ran out of numbers that way and now they'll put any number anywhere. Clever original design to prevent this kind of problem, but not scalable, and certainly overlooked today as they grow the network.
Cheers.