Our university horror story involved 80kb/s download speeds in Aberystwyth for a household of 8. With at least 3 wanting to use torrents/rapidshare, another using VOIP willy nilly and the rest demanding YouTube to actually play smoothly 24/7. When that 80kb/s is hit, the rest of the Internet hits the dirt, all other subsequent connections are lucky to get 1kb/s.
Anyway, looking into this we found that BT own all of the major household infrastructure in the UK (aside from separate networks like JANET) and that most other broadband sellers are simply reselling their infrastructure.
So, despite exchanges in our area being completely overloaded (it was apparently the same for everyone), BT refused to do nothing. Fortunately they do have a plan: 21cn (that would be 21st Century Networks ~ took me a while) that is essentially upgrading everything to fast (can't remember how fast) while reducing maintenance costs etcetc. Sounds brilliant, except that it's due to finish in 2011 with Aberystwyth being one of the last places to upgrade iirc.
Somehow, our university can hand us 10mb (shared down/up -- it has a particular name that I can't remember) connections without seeing the speeds drop at all across the year.
Question: is the New Zealand government a good or bad one in your opinion?
I'm actually a bit lost as to what you're saying; are you suggesting all people in the government are bad? Or was it just a statement with nothing meant by it?
Surely, wouldn't it make more sense to become a politician if you're an activist then?
I see where you're coming from now. One thing I've noticed about these "addictions" is that I can survive happily without a pc when it's removed out of circumstance. e.g. no Internet immediately after moving into a house, not taking my pc to uni (I do Computer Science, go figure...). When these happened, I'd get along fine and won't even look back, however, put it back in it's place and old habits from a few months back will sit straight back into place.
So, would and could you just give up your smokes and pc willingly for an arbitrary length of time? Say, 30 days? 60? 365?
If yes, why do you smoke? It's ultimately bad for your health, sex could release more endorphins and what-not into your system (I'm assuming it's closer to basic function needs, long-term partner(s) etc).
As for me (what, is this self-help psychiatry?) I don't think I could give up my pc willingly as a conscious decision. I just wouldn't have a clue as to what to channel it into insteadand that gap will be there. On the other hand, it's not really detrimental to my life, it doesn't replace any friends I have in real-life, I continue to do activities with them.
The problem for me, comes when it replaces other activities and hobbies. As in, they all mostly have to be on a computer. However, I'm a student, I don't have the money to go out parachuting every other weekend (although I do hear you can pay for it by packing parachutes!). (Ooops, did I just try and justify that there?)
I think an important distinction made by your great grand parent's daughter's third cousin's post was:
Take the bottle away from a problem drinker, and the problem goes away; take the bottle away from an alcoholic and all hell breaks loose.
However, you seem to be labelling other things you frequently do as an addiction, possibly even as a defence for playing CS? Remember, you are a habitual animal!
Then again, I could probably agree with you on the food addiction, and I'm not just talking about fast food junkies. A few months ago I tried a raw food diet as a sort of experiment but my experience coming off of what I normally eat was not a pleasant one. I would describe my connection to other foods (e.g. meats, processed food) as an addiction. After a few days, the worst passed and my cravings were manageable but curiously, one of my biggest desires was for a big slab of rich beef.
I was surprised but I did consistently feel amazing cutting out a lot of the crap, even if it was possibly just a placebo. Then again, if a placebo works (and I'm not being exploited by another), is it really a problem?
I agree entirely, the law should be the boundary for companies to play within.
As a side thought on Yahoo's handing over of information. What would have happened to the individual employees of Yahoo China if they had denied access? Surely there would be more repercussions than a possible expulsion in this I-hear-the-corners-are-corrupt country?
Conservative to me means what my mother said "privatise everything, the bastards."
Right, as I have no clue on what your stance is on these topics, could you enlighten me? I'd hate to lump you into a decisive category where all conservatives all believe the same thing.
Perhaps another part of the problem is that you've categorised yourself and seem to have 'defaulted' to their views.
I disagree. How does everyone know whether bad press is bad press? People will still conclude opinions from bad press, even if they know it's bad press.
No press, stops whatever the current idea of bad is being rammed down people's throats.
The worst thing you can do is force it out of him. My dad tried the same thing by pulling his own whatsamacallit-tiny-thing-with-no-nonvolatile-memory-and-16k-ram-or-something. I can sort of remember the word "variable" out of an hour long conversation where he tries to explain the basics. Granted, he did buy me a book and I was reading through it but... what I really needed at that point was just basic "programming" stuff, not methodologies, techniques and correctness tips.
It wasn't until a few years later that I really got into it, I picked it up myself, out of my own accord and I fuelled myself forward. OK, so I was trying to program in a Microsoft Word 97 vb macro utilities but I was young. So so young.
What your son really needs is to find a reason to do it himself. The project needs to be large. My first real program was in C, writing cheats for online games. It was a vast undertaking, including grabbing a http page, parsing it enough to find certain things, calculating the next thing along to do.
The most important thing was that I kept myself going on this part. At this point, if I asked my dad for help, he'd look over something and point out an obvious but anything specific he'd just mutter "I can't remember, I'd have to look it up, why don't you do that?" or something similar. This would be down to simple things such as, "how do I use function pointers" or something.
Well, fortunately I can now use libraries and their documentation and know how to look things up in a grown up "all by myself" way. Unfortunately I learnt through going through every online tutorial on C available. They like to gloss over the why and reasons for doing something but between about 5-10 (following one, looking up the topics in others), they'll kind of explain the topic between them. My desire to work out what's "good" and "bad" in programming seemed to naturally calculate things and work themselves out. Then I learnt the formal approach to patterns, consistency, etc.
If your son is in high school, this would be the perfect time and approach. After the whole affair, everything I ever learnt at all was turned upside down for the better.
I see your quotes but this whole idea of one being better than the other is asking for a fight.
I find it much easier if you're happy to easily switch between whatever people want (within reason). As a Computer Science student, seeing how difficult it is to read code not in a format I usually write, why would I want to make it harder for the person marking my work?
Ok...so I only see this as an issue for people trying to hide their identity for something nefarious.
Really? It sounds like you're saying "if you've got nothing to hide, then there shouldn't be a problem." Do you really mean this? It's a scary line of thought really...
There are two kinds of democracies. Representative and direct.
Is a democracy "what the people want, the people get?" Your assumption is yes however, consider how you put people into power; you vote for someone who is representative of your needs and in general takes the same stance as you on views. Unfortunately this politician won't be 100% agreeable upon and will have some fringe policies which you can't control.
This is the only level at which the people can really control, the further away you get through other assemblies the less direct control the people have. For instance, you won't vote in the EU bodies but your MP will vote on your behalf.
The real reason why being "under the [direct] will of the masses" is not necessarily a good thing is because, while voting for gay marriages a large portion will vote with regard to their religious inclination not whether it's needed or unfair to those unable for it. On the other hand I would personally probably vote for it but also purely out of my principles. Essentially we would both be disregarding the facts/real arguments at hand here. Is this really a good thing? Is this really what democracy is about? Shouldn't we be making more educated decisions?
You could probably write many many theses on this subject, however.
I'm not so sure if it is possible to be triggered by psychological conditions.
Cancer itself is a cell that has avoided programmed death from the body. In most cases the cells die and are replaced by newer ones once they have become irreparably damaged.
Even then these cells can be separated into malignant and benign tumours. The former spreads and is when you have a problem. The latter doesn't continue to grow and is often just a mole on the skin.
Slashdot Mirror
Hold on, hold on, when I was young (I'm 20) there was no such thing as "drm" or at least, not on my Robbie William's cd or computer copying it.
That's right, get off my lawn.
Awesome, thank-you a couple loaded from that list in the end.
Conspiracy theories at the ready. It's down.
This will bring the term "function creep" to a whole new level.
Our university horror story involved 80kb/s download speeds in Aberystwyth for a household of 8. With at least 3 wanting to use torrents/rapidshare, another using VOIP willy nilly and the rest demanding YouTube to actually play smoothly 24/7. When that 80kb/s is hit, the rest of the Internet hits the dirt, all other subsequent connections are lucky to get 1kb/s.
Anyway, looking into this we found that BT own all of the major household infrastructure in the UK (aside from separate networks like JANET) and that most other broadband sellers are simply reselling their infrastructure.
So, despite exchanges in our area being completely overloaded (it was apparently the same for everyone), BT refused to do nothing. Fortunately they do have a plan: 21cn (that would be 21st Century Networks ~ took me a while) that is essentially upgrading everything to fast (can't remember how fast) while reducing maintenance costs etcetc. Sounds brilliant, except that it's due to finish in 2011 with Aberystwyth being one of the last places to upgrade iirc.
Somehow, our university can hand us 10mb (shared down/up -- it has a particular name that I can't remember) connections without seeing the speeds drop at all across the year.
Those numbers look brilliant however, why are they there, being all freely available? What does Level 3 get from it (if anything)?
Question: is the New Zealand government a good or bad one in your opinion?
I'm actually a bit lost as to what you're saying; are you suggesting all people in the government are bad? Or was it just a statement with nothing meant by it?
Surely, wouldn't it make more sense to become a politician if you're an activist then?
Anyway, direct democracy for the win!
I see where you're coming from now. One thing I've noticed about these "addictions" is that I can survive happily without a pc when it's removed out of circumstance. e.g. no Internet immediately after moving into a house, not taking my pc to uni (I do Computer Science, go figure...). When these happened, I'd get along fine and won't even look back, however, put it back in it's place and old habits from a few months back will sit straight back into place.
So, would and could you just give up your smokes and pc willingly for an arbitrary length of time? Say, 30 days? 60? 365?
If yes, why do you smoke? It's ultimately bad for your health, sex could release more endorphins and what-not into your system (I'm assuming it's closer to basic function needs, long-term partner(s) etc).
As for me (what, is this self-help psychiatry?) I don't think I could give up my pc willingly as a conscious decision. I just wouldn't have a clue as to what to channel it into insteadand that gap will be there. On the other hand, it's not really detrimental to my life, it doesn't replace any friends I have in real-life, I continue to do activities with them.
The problem for me, comes when it replaces other activities and hobbies. As in, they all mostly have to be on a computer. However, I'm a student, I don't have the money to go out parachuting every other weekend (although I do hear you can pay for it by packing parachutes!). (Ooops, did I just try and justify that there?)
I think an important distinction made by your great grand parent's daughter's third cousin's post was:
However, you seem to be labelling other things you frequently do as an addiction, possibly even as a defence for playing CS? Remember, you are a habitual animal!
Then again, I could probably agree with you on the food addiction, and I'm not just talking about fast food junkies. A few months ago I tried a raw food diet as a sort of experiment but my experience coming off of what I normally eat was not a pleasant one. I would describe my connection to other foods (e.g. meats, processed food) as an addiction. After a few days, the worst passed and my cravings were manageable but curiously, one of my biggest desires was for a big slab of rich beef.
I was surprised but I did consistently feel amazing cutting out a lot of the crap, even if it was possibly just a placebo. Then again, if a placebo works (and I'm not being exploited by another), is it really a problem?
Oooh, 64-bit Linux just isn't supported by Flash.
Not that anyone uses Linux anyway, let alone 64 bits!
I agree entirely, the law should be the boundary for companies to play within.
As a side thought on Yahoo's handing over of information. What would have happened to the individual employees of Yahoo China if they had denied access? Surely there would be more repercussions than a possible expulsion in this I-hear-the-corners-are-corrupt country?
Conservative to me means what my mother said "privatise everything, the bastards."
Right, as I have no clue on what your stance is on these topics, could you enlighten me? I'd hate to lump you into a decisive category where all conservatives all believe the same thing.
Perhaps another part of the problem is that you've categorised yourself and seem to have 'defaulted' to their views.
I found it depends entirely on the router that you're connecting to.
Not that I've ever done highly dubious and probably illegal activity of jumping onto someone else's network.
Hold on, hold on. I agree entirely about communism except that it only works on a small scale because nobody can cheat.
We're talking village small scale here, where everyone knows each other type thing.
I disagree. How does everyone know whether bad press is bad press? People will still conclude opinions from bad press, even if they know it's bad press.
No press, stops whatever the current idea of bad is being rammed down people's throats.
I can't quite make out whether your post is supposed to be funny or not.
I guess that makes it perfect satire.
The worst thing you can do is force it out of him. My dad tried the same thing by pulling his own whatsamacallit-tiny-thing-with-no-nonvolatile-memory-and-16k-ram-or-something. I can sort of remember the word "variable" out of an hour long conversation where he tries to explain the basics. Granted, he did buy me a book and I was reading through it but... what I really needed at that point was just basic "programming" stuff, not methodologies, techniques and correctness tips.
It wasn't until a few years later that I really got into it, I picked it up myself, out of my own accord and I fuelled myself forward. OK, so I was trying to program in a Microsoft Word 97 vb macro utilities but I was young. So so young.
What your son really needs is to find a reason to do it himself. The project needs to be large. My first real program was in C, writing cheats for online games. It was a vast undertaking, including grabbing a http page, parsing it enough to find certain things, calculating the next thing along to do.
The most important thing was that I kept myself going on this part. At this point, if I asked my dad for help, he'd look over something and point out an obvious but anything specific he'd just mutter "I can't remember, I'd have to look it up, why don't you do that?" or something similar. This would be down to simple things such as, "how do I use function pointers" or something.
Well, fortunately I can now use libraries and their documentation and know how to look things up in a grown up "all by myself" way. Unfortunately I learnt through going through every online tutorial on C available. They like to gloss over the why and reasons for doing something but between about 5-10 (following one, looking up the topics in others), they'll kind of explain the topic between them. My desire to work out what's "good" and "bad" in programming seemed to naturally calculate things and work themselves out. Then I learnt the formal approach to patterns, consistency, etc.
If your son is in high school, this would be the perfect time and approach. After the whole affair, everything I ever learnt at all was turned upside down for the better.
Anyway, to your son: good luck and have fun!
I see your quotes but this whole idea of one being better than the other is asking for a fight.
I find it much easier if you're happy to easily switch between whatever people want (within reason). As a Computer Science student, seeing how difficult it is to read code not in a format I usually write, why would I want to make it harder for the person marking my work?
...but you're the Jerry Coffin!
Really? It sounds like you're saying "if you've got nothing to hide, then there shouldn't be a problem." Do you really mean this? It's a scary line of thought really...
Did you just get paid to write that?
Privacy freaks. ow.
Is a democracy "what the people want, the people get?" Your assumption is yes however, consider how you put people into power; you vote for someone who is representative of your needs and in general takes the same stance as you on views. Unfortunately this politician won't be 100% agreeable upon and will have some fringe policies which you can't control.
This is the only level at which the people can really control, the further away you get through other assemblies the less direct control the people have. For instance, you won't vote in the EU bodies but your MP will vote on your behalf.
The real reason why being "under the [direct] will of the masses" is not necessarily a good thing is because, while voting for gay marriages a large portion will vote with regard to their religious inclination not whether it's needed or unfair to those unable for it. On the other hand I would personally probably vote for it but also purely out of my principles. Essentially we would both be disregarding the facts/real arguments at hand here. Is this really a good thing? Is this really what democracy is about? Shouldn't we be making more educated decisions?
You could probably write many many theses on this subject, however.
I'm not so sure if it is possible to be triggered by psychological conditions.
Cancer itself is a cell that has avoided programmed death from the body. In most cases the cells die and are replaced by newer ones once they have become irreparably damaged.
Even then these cells can be separated into malignant and benign tumours. The former spreads and is when you have a problem. The latter doesn't continue to grow and is often just a mole on the skin.
I'd say about 25 years!