Around here (Memphis), there's some arcane law that prohibits you from drinking alcoholic beverages in theaters (which would be a must for any proper Super Bowl party). I'm not much of a football fan, but I am a fan of beer and salty snacks, so this does concern me.:)
Case in point: we just had a new "arthouse" theater open up in the trendy Midtown section of the city. There's a nice lounge area where you can buy beer and wine. However, you can't take it in the theater with you. I'm curious why it becomes "wrong" once you cross the magical threshold of the theater door. (This is some sort of city ordinance, not the fault of the owners of the establishment.)
I've heard stories of a place in Chicago called "The Brew and View", anyone out there have more information?
A few years back on NPR there was an interview with some scientist who was trying to put together a gripping TV drama about research scientists. Sort of like ER but in a research lab. The interview was pretty funny, because the interviewer kept saying things like "scientists aren't traditionally your most... attractive people" and "do scientists have sex often enough to keep viewers interested?" The interviewee tried to defend the members of the scientific community, but obviously nothing solid ever came from it.
Fax machines have been around a bit longer, and the basic idea goes back to the turn of the century Quick story:
My barber was an encrypter stationed in Germany during the Korean War. (Lots of great stories, and I've discussed Cryptonomicon with him.) Anyway, his unit got a prototype fax machine back in the early fifties. It was slow as molasses in January, but did work. The brass decided not to use it, though, as it was determined to be too slow and imprecise. So the guys at different bases that had these machines would fax Playboy magazine photographs back and forth.
> You make it sound as if we're dropping our kids off at
> "Less's Crack House/Daycare Centre"
That's occasionally the case here in Memphis. We've had a rash of incidents involving children dying/funds being embezzled, and my favorite case, a counterfeiting operation being run out of the back of one of the centers. And several of the offending institutions have connections to prominent citizens or politicians, so things get even more messed up...
The above statements are not meant to be indicative of all day care centers in Memphis or elsewhere, just that there have been a lot of problems here recently.
Go for the zero-cost solution... I've used idrive (www.idrive.com) a few times for shuttling files. You can upload and download from any computer with an internet connection and a web browser. I'm not affiliated with the site, but I remember that they did a big push when the iMac came out, as it was a way to move files around without floppies.
Not to mention that the site has online help and information, resulting in fewer questions and help desk support than introducing a new media.
Re:Why hasn't Mir gone to the pr0n industry?
on
Mir Lives
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· Score: 1
I dunno... Between space sickness and the typical kinetic energy involved in these sorts of things, your typical stars/starlets would probably have a rough time. Except for the only former NASA Shuttle Engineer currently working in pr0n, Scott Styles.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the use of English in air traffic control systems worldwide... Pilots must speak English when approaching any airport. While many people don't like this (particularly the French, from what I heard), it does simplify matters on a global scale to have a common denominator.
I wonder how this topic will be discussed at the Spanish Slashdot, http://barrapunto.org?
We saw Shoemaker-Levy break apart and hit Jupiter, and there's a LOT of comets out there--in fact, the SOHO spacecraft studying the sun has discovered over a hundred (most shortly before they plunged into the sun). Point being: anything that helps us understand how comets act and especially what happens when they break up (as is happening with Comet LINEAR) and how those comets and fragments interact with other celestial bodies will be extremely helpful to those of us living on this little blue-green marble.
It's a pretty in-depth review of the Harry Potter books by Stephen King. He's generally impressed by them, although he has two main complaints:
1. The latest book is too long (700+ pages)
2. The first book is being adapted for the big screen
Pause, digest, pause. An obvious case of the blood-stained crucible calling the witch's cauldron black. Now I realize that King is writing from the lofty peaks of successful writer Olympus, but c'mon now...
There's no great way around this, but I was wondering if any other Slashdotters have this problem:
Every time I leave town to attend a family event (reunion, wedding, funeral, etc.), I end up performing tech support for every relative in the area. "Oh, I installed Windows 2000 and my scanner doesn't work any more. Can you look at it?", "My ink jet printer doesn't print as well as the laser printer at work!", etc. The worst is when they begin carrying laptops to me, like sick children to a religious shrine...
While I really don't enjoy doing these things, I feel obligated to (and have the guilt/pressure of parents and other relatives bearing down). Any suggestions or similar horror stories out there?
By the way, at one reunion I was shocked and amazed to meet a very distant relative who, in addition to being an 80 year old minister in Texas, is also a UNIX programmer from way back when and has been building his own computers since the late seventies.
I am concerned about the preoccupation with computers in the education system, especially in elementary schools. While I do think that the students can benefit from computers, I don't think that they're going to learn math any better from a program than from proper instruction. When computers are being used as a replacement for the blackboard, then there's been no great gain. You're using the computer for a very low tech purpose, but because it's a computer, it looks glamorous and exciting on the budget proposals.
I saw my first computer back in 1983 in my first grade classroom, an Apple II. The school had two or three of them, and each class got to see it for a day or so on a rotational basis. Consequently, they were not used very often except for the teachers to play Lemonade while students were taking tests. The Apple II we got at home a year later was much more beneficial in my personal computer education, but it didn't impact other fields of study very much.
I think that well-run computer labs would be much preferable to computers in every classroom or computers at every desk. And use the time for teaching computer skills, not other subjects. In a high school environment, I'd love to see a training lab set up with boxed computers and piles of equipment, and the students have to set up the computers, plug everything into the network and get the things started before they begin using them. And after they've succeeded, take it all apart and teach another group the next week.
My main concern with the hype surrounding computers in public education is the cost involved. Teachers aren't paid especially well, existing supplies (books, math and science equipment, etc.) are outdated or in poor shape, and here in Memphis, there are schools that aren't air conditioned and end up closing early during hot summer days. With those problems as well as the fact that students seem tobe having a hard time just getting basic subjects right, I think it's a bit premature to begin pushing for completely wired classrooms.
That being said, if private institutions or donors wish to provide schools with said equipment as well as the training and manpower to keep it running, then go for it. But please use the time and tools for computer-directed learning, not traditional subjects placed in a shiny wrapper.
I've got 20/15 and 20/17 (left and right eye, respectively). However, I don't think that it offers that much of an advantage over "normal" vision, as most important things are less than a room's length away in the course of a day. I suppose it makes for safer driving, but again, it's the stuff up close that requires the most attention.
Back in Boy Scouts, I did enjoy being able to identify trees from a distance, because I could see individual leaf shapes before the other guys, but that's of pretty limited usefulness. ("Good Lord! I sure am glad I knew that was a basswood or else I would have been toast!");)
Now, my wish list for vision improvements in the future:
Extension of vision into the near infrared or near ultraviolet range
Addition of rods for better low-light vision (so I won't be jealous of my dog anymore!)
Ability to "manually" focus the eye a bit better for precision focusing or looking at very small things up close
A bitchin' set of compound eyes mounted on the sides of my skull for a truly psychadelic experience...;)
Gas Price in Tennessee
on
Napster Wars
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· Score: 1
Here in Memphis the price is around $1.45-1.65 per gallon (unleaded-premium). Perhaps why more people complain around here as opposed to Chicago or New York is that Memphis doesn't have a good, reliable mass transit system, and since everything is spread out so far walking really isn't an option either. (There is a bus system, MATA, but it works on obscure routes and isn't convenient--much of the fault lies on the layout of the city, though...)
The game was a fantastic RPG for the Mac called Exile II, written by Jeff Vogel of SpiderWeb Software. There was a sort of teleportation system you used later in the game which required nine-character codes to reach different places. Naturally, eas-ter-egg was worth trying out, and it took you to a special dungeon occupied by the programmer's fellow SCA members, who would then battle each other and leave you loads of treasure.
Many of the recent virus/internet security alerts have had fairly innocuous names thus far... "Melissa", "I Love You", or have been given technical names like "AutoStart Worm" or "DDOS"...
I wonder what the news media would do with a really foul-named virus... Wouldn't you just love to hear Tom Brokaw reporting on the "**** You In The *** With A ******** and a ****" Virus? (Use your imagination!)
Or if something used language that was not particularly vulgar but had a bad connotation when put together. "The Angry Shaved Gerbil" Virus... Hee hee...
> (I wonder if those little cassette-adaptor things work for mp3
> players, too?)
A friend of mine uses one of those adaptors in his car to link up his Diamond Rio mp3 player. Works like a charm, and the Rio is small enough to slip in your shirt pocket when you leave the vehicle (for those of us who own cars that are often worth far less than the contents within).
Re:Not the sharpest tack in the corkboard, are ya?
on
'Battling Censorware'
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· Score: 1
Speaking of hacking Cryptonomicon...
I was lucky enough to grab a copy of it from the local library for the whopping sum of fifty cents. Someone had damaged the book (about 200 pages out of the center are detached from the spine, but all the pages are there), so they were nearly giving it away. Now I've got to figure out how to hold it together... I've got access to a drill press, wire binding, and a lot of rubber cement, any suggestions?
I reported Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and for good measure, Stephen Hawking.
There's also a section of the form where you can enter in what concerns prompted your report--why not fill it up with reasons why you don't like them? Or just paste in a bunch of text to fill up the database.
Some ideas for fighting this... The first two are questionable, but I think the remainder are legitimate.
1. Use a Demon/War Dialer. Keep the phone lines busy during school and evening hours.
2. "Hacktivism". These people are just begging for it...
3. Call once a day to report Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Linus Torvalds, Bill Gates,...
4. On a similar vein, start a print/web/tv ad campaign featuring important people in the computer and business worlds who would have been branded by W.A.V.E. in high school.
5. Operation Spartacus. Students turn themselves in, whether they fit the profile or not. In addition, organize groups of adult computer professionals, research scientists (NC has plenty of those!), and members of the software industry to turn themselves in.
6. Grab the symbol of W.A.V.E. or Pinkerton Security and turn it into a badge of honor. Use it for web pages like the blue ribbon campaign. "W.A.V.E. decided I was a threat to myself and others because of my computer knowledge!" Hell, gays did it with the pink triangle. Or the Mögen David: in Nazi Germany, it was used to mark the Jews and connoted weakness and subhumanity. Now it flies on the Israeli flag and on one of the most impressive (if not largest) military forces in the world. (OK, so that symbol has been around forever and has many meanings, but you get the drift.)
I've been using the Kensington USB 2-button mouse (with scroll wheel) for several months now. It's a great improvement over both the new hockey puck Apple mouse and the older ADB mice. I would highly recommend this to any Mac user who's frustrated with the hockey puck. (It's also programmable for different applications, which is helpful with games.) It comes with a USB/PS2 adapter, which I haven't used, but would be helpful if you wanted to carry it with you to a non-USB PC. The speed control is a vast improvement over Apple's, meaning that small twitches of the wrist can send your cursor all the way across the screen if you want--great for big monitors. And at only $25 or so, it's not a major investment. No, I don't work for Kensington, I'm just in love with this piece of hardware.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Case in point: we just had a new "arthouse" theater open up in the trendy Midtown section of the city. There's a nice lounge area where you can buy beer and wine. However, you can't take it in the theater with you. I'm curious why it becomes "wrong" once you cross the magical threshold of the theater door. (This is some sort of city ordinance, not the fault of the owners of the establishment.)
I've heard stories of a place in Chicago called "The Brew and View", anyone out there have more information?
A few years back on NPR there was an interview with some scientist who was trying to put together a gripping TV drama about research scientists. Sort of like ER but in a research lab. The interview was pretty funny, because the interviewer kept saying things like "scientists aren't traditionally your most... attractive people" and "do scientists have sex often enough to keep viewers interested?" The interviewee tried to defend the members of the scientific community, but obviously nothing solid ever came from it.
My barber was an encrypter stationed in Germany during the Korean War. (Lots of great stories, and I've discussed Cryptonomicon with him.) Anyway, his unit got a prototype fax machine back in the early fifties. It was slow as molasses in January, but did work. The brass decided not to use it, though, as it was determined to be too slow and imprecise. So the guys at different bases that had these machines would fax Playboy magazine photographs back and forth.
Glad to see that things haven't changed a bit. :)
> "Less's Crack House/Daycare Centre"
That's occasionally the case here in Memphis. We've had a rash of incidents involving children dying/funds being embezzled, and my favorite case, a counterfeiting operation being run out of the back of one of the centers. And several of the offending institutions have connections to prominent citizens or politicians, so things get even more messed up...
The above statements are not meant to be indicative of all day care centers in Memphis or elsewhere, just that there have been a lot of problems here recently.
"If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve. For a hundred bucks, I'll do anything." :)
Not to mention that the site has online help and information, resulting in fewer questions and help desk support than introducing a new media.
No, this is not a joke.
http://www.scottstyles.com/bio.htm
I wonder how this topic will be discussed at the Spanish Slashdot, http://barrapunto.org?
http://www10.nyt imes.com/books/00/07/23/reviews/000723.23kinglt.ht ml
It's a pretty in-depth review of the Harry Potter books by Stephen King. He's generally impressed by them, although he has two main complaints:
1. The latest book is too long (700+ pages)
2. The first book is being adapted for the big screen
Pause, digest, pause. An obvious case of the blood-stained crucible calling the witch's cauldron black. Now I realize that King is writing from the lofty peaks of successful writer Olympus, but c'mon now...
Every time I leave town to attend a family event (reunion, wedding, funeral, etc.), I end up performing tech support for every relative in the area. "Oh, I installed Windows 2000 and my scanner doesn't work any more. Can you look at it?", "My ink jet printer doesn't print as well as the laser printer at work!", etc. The worst is when they begin carrying laptops to me, like sick children to a religious shrine...
While I really don't enjoy doing these things, I feel obligated to (and have the guilt/pressure of parents and other relatives bearing down). Any suggestions or similar horror stories out there?
By the way, at one reunion I was shocked and amazed to meet a very distant relative who, in addition to being an 80 year old minister in Texas, is also a UNIX programmer from way back when and has been building his own computers since the late seventies.
I saw my first computer back in 1983 in my first grade classroom, an Apple II. The school had two or three of them, and each class got to see it for a day or so on a rotational basis. Consequently, they were not used very often except for the teachers to play Lemonade while students were taking tests. The Apple II we got at home a year later was much more beneficial in my personal computer education, but it didn't impact other fields of study very much.
I think that well-run computer labs would be much preferable to computers in every classroom or computers at every desk. And use the time for teaching computer skills, not other subjects. In a high school environment, I'd love to see a training lab set up with boxed computers and piles of equipment, and the students have to set up the computers, plug everything into the network and get the things started before they begin using them. And after they've succeeded, take it all apart and teach another group the next week.
My main concern with the hype surrounding computers in public education is the cost involved. Teachers aren't paid especially well, existing supplies (books, math and science equipment, etc.) are outdated or in poor shape, and here in Memphis, there are schools that aren't air conditioned and end up closing early during hot summer days. With those problems as well as the fact that students seem tobe having a hard time just getting basic subjects right, I think it's a bit premature to begin pushing for completely wired classrooms.
That being said, if private institutions or donors wish to provide schools with said equipment as well as the training and manpower to keep it running, then go for it. But please use the time and tools for computer-directed learning, not traditional subjects placed in a shiny wrapper.
Back in Boy Scouts, I did enjoy being able to identify trees from a distance, because I could see individual leaf shapes before the other guys, but that's of pretty limited usefulness. ("Good Lord! I sure am glad I knew that was a basswood or else I would have been toast!") ;)
Now, my wish list for vision improvements in the future:
I wonder what the news media would do with a really foul-named virus... Wouldn't you just love to hear Tom Brokaw reporting on the "**** You In The *** With A ******** and a ****" Virus? (Use your imagination!)
Or if something used language that was not particularly vulgar but had a bad connotation when put together. "The Angry Shaved Gerbil" Virus... Hee hee...
In The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett, there was a funny little quote about two pages in...
"Every tribal myth is true for a given value of true."
How long before we have the "Slashdance" online film festival...?
> players, too?)
A friend of mine uses one of those adaptors in his car to link up his Diamond Rio mp3 player. Works like a charm, and the Rio is small enough to slip in your shirt pocket when you leave the vehicle (for those of us who own cars that are often worth far less than the contents within).
I was lucky enough to grab a copy of it from the local library for the whopping sum of fifty cents. Someone had damaged the book (about 200 pages out of the center are detached from the spine, but all the pages are there), so they were nearly giving it away. Now I've got to figure out how to hold it together... I've got access to a drill press, wire binding, and a lot of rubber cement, any suggestions?
I reported Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and for good measure, Stephen Hawking.
There's also a section of the form where you can enter in what concerns prompted your report--why not fill it up with reasons why you don't like them? Or just paste in a bunch of text to fill up the database.
Vive la resistance!
1. Use a Demon/War Dialer. Keep the phone lines busy during school and evening hours.
2. "Hacktivism". These people are just begging for it...
3. Call once a day to report Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Linus Torvalds, Bill Gates,...
4. On a similar vein, start a print/web/tv ad campaign featuring important people in the computer and business worlds who would have been branded by W.A.V.E. in high school.
5. Operation Spartacus. Students turn themselves in, whether they fit the profile or not. In addition, organize groups of adult computer professionals, research scientists (NC has plenty of those!), and members of the software industry to turn themselves in.
6. Grab the symbol of W.A.V.E. or Pinkerton Security and turn it into a badge of honor. Use it for web pages like the blue ribbon campaign. "W.A.V.E. decided I was a threat to myself and others because of my computer knowledge!" Hell, gays did it with the pink triangle. Or the Mögen David: in Nazi Germany, it was used to mark the Jews and connoted weakness and subhumanity. Now it flies on the Israeli flag and on one of the most impressive (if not largest) military forces in the world. (OK, so that symbol has been around forever and has many meanings, but you get the drift.)
I've been using the Kensington USB 2-button mouse (with scroll wheel) for several months now. It's a great improvement over both the new hockey puck Apple mouse and the older ADB mice. I would highly recommend this to any Mac user who's frustrated with the hockey puck. (It's also programmable for different applications, which is helpful with games.) It comes with a USB/PS2 adapter, which I haven't used, but would be helpful if you wanted to carry it with you to a non-USB PC. The speed control is a vast improvement over Apple's, meaning that small twitches of the wrist can send your cursor all the way across the screen if you want--great for big monitors. And at only $25 or so, it's not a major investment. No, I don't work for Kensington, I'm just in love with this piece of hardware. :)