I remember an e-mail I got from a grandmother last year lamenting all the TV ads showing AOL grandmas getting pictures of their grandchildren. "That's nonsense," she says. "My kids don't visit me nearly as much because they feel they can just e-mail me. I love digital pictures, but I rarely get to see my grandchildren in person."
Katz, I think this email you received needs a little more followup. Does grandma KNOW that this is the reason why her grandkids don't visit as often? Is it maybe because...
they moved away recently?
they are older now and have more of a life with friends from school?
they are now grown up and have a 40+ hour/week job?
Grandma is getting a little hostile in her old age?
Grandma never wants to visit their house, but they visit her as often as before (net loss of personal visits)?
Grandma spends too much time watching her "stories" and AOL ads on TV instead of visiting the grandchildren?
The grandchildren's parents had a drastic decrease in income due to the dot-com bust, Enron, etc., and can't afford the trip to Grandma's house?
Whatever the reason for the decrease in personal visits, I'm sure that the net is not the only one.
On a totally different topic related to this story, the causality of the internet affecting voting turnout is very suspect. After all, the world has changed since Kennedy/Nixon. The net can't be the cause of everything! [sarcasm]Oh, wait, if we make sure to include the words "internet" or "Dot-com" in our book, more people will buy it!"[/sarcasm]
Saying that it jumped the shark is being polite. Here's what actually happened:
It went up to the shark
Said hello
Fed it
Poked its nose with a stick
Then jumped it
Tossed a couple of grenades at it
Went around again for another jump
Jumped it in formation with another cast member on its back
Waved as it jumped over
Asked the shark if he was still interested in going for another season
Then, just drove the boat right through the shark area and chopped up the shark with the prop
Bought a new shark
Repeat all above steps once
And for its finale, blames the sharks demise on the lack of sensibility of its viewers and then decides to go have a burger at Arnold's and brood in front of a mirror.
We think alike. Thank you for saving me the time of writing out the exact same thing. I would add that Safeway and RadioShack and others that think personalization are a good thing are always going to say, "Of course our personalization is important. We're Safeway, by God!" The amount of negative customer feedback will not change the minds of the brainless HR department.
Oh, and does Blockbuster have to announce the name of every movie I rent in such a loud voice while I am checking out? It's bad enough that they scream "Hello!!!" every time I enter the store.
First of all, InterruptDescriptorT did include the emoticon for "wink, J/K" so you really can't get on him or her about that.
Second, the complaint is quite valid, but maybe not clear. I assume InterruptDescriptorT was referring to those who write checks and decide that the time to start getting out the checkbook is about ten seconds after the cashier announces the total - as if the person just realized that he or she had to actually pay for the groceries. These are the same people who don't know what day it is and instead of thinking, "Well it's around January 8 or so. I'll just write down January 8 or January 9," instead decide to dig through her (yes, I am referring to women only) purse and try to find a calendar. That's what takes all the time. Well, that and the fact that these people are in the "12 items or less" lane.
Sorry for the rant. This just happened to me last time I was at the market. And I am not a young punk.
Back on topic, I absolutely do not like CSR people calling me by my first name. I'll make an exception if I am always talking to the same person about the same problem. At least that way, I get the idea that they remember me and I don't have to explain everything all over again.
Sumo will never be broadcast live on American TV. (now watch me eat my words) The pace is w a y... t o o... s l o w for that. The ESPN broadcasts cut out all the non-fighting. I think they get a whole 15 day tournament into 1 hour (with commercials). Not that I've tried translating any of the announcer-commenting between the actual matches, but just imagine something even less exciting than Pat Summerall trying to think of a story about a NL pitcher with a 0.097 batting average while he's "scratching himself" after taking four or five trips out of the batter's box because he's so nervous that he's 0-2 on pitches from The Big Unit.
Sure, there are die-hard sumo fans, but a lot of people just can't handle the downtime. [putting on flame-resistant suit] Looking at the spectators, one wonders if the average sumo fan in Japan is anything less than 50.
NHK is not known for its flashy sports broadcasting or special effects. Now if FOX ever got license to carry the tournaments...
Offtopic from the article, but ontopic of the parent:
Did you ever see this as an animated movie form in Calc class? The one I saw was made in the 1970s, I think. It was meant to be kind of hokey. There aren't a lot of things I remember about Calc class. This one one of them. Well, that and the fact that we got to watch movies like "Blazing Saddles" for the remainder of the school year after the AP Math tests in May.
Oh, I just remembered the one about the painter who got hired to paint the outside of a geometrical structure that had infinite surface area because of an asymptote near y=0. I think he went broke at the end.
Email killed a lot of my incoming faxes from places that charge US$4/min to call the USA. Now these all come in by free Yahoo! accounts. Unfortunately, my local less-than-tech-savvy writers decide that they will email and fax something. Thanks a lot for the extra paper guys.
Now that I think about it, It's been a long time since I've received any faxes from "government officials" in Nigeria that have approximately US$35 million in a bank account. Can you believe that our secretaries actually used to make copies of those and stick them in a correspondence file under "N" for Nigeria before gleefully handing them to me?
Not to put down a witty comment (because I thought the same thing at first), but I can safely bet that the 8th graders will receive the laptops before the 2002-2003 school year is over (May or June 2003). In other words, the 7th graders get their iBooks for a full school year, and the 8th graders get them for only half a school year.
Now if only I could find a way to go back to school and pose as a junior high school student....
Although I will not be verifying your implementation, your post is well written and seems very informative. Why did you go and blow it at the end??
I constantly have to defend myself against being called part of a cult that is "drinking the Kool-Aid" and this type of attitude does not help. I am proud to be a geek/nerd, but the moment anyone thinks of me as arrogant or haughty, I feel bad.
Thanks Loligo, you may have just saved me from a massive brainache. I've got the exact same computer but with less RAM:-( (computer for work) and I just can't sit still waiting until March for the Mac version for my real computer. I usually discount your type of problem as "user error" or "Wintel hardware voodoo" were it not for the call from Infogrames. It really ticks me off when a vendor admits it doesn't support some video config that is so widespread that it creates havoc. Sure, they'll eventually fix it, but is it that hard to get things right the first time?
I didn't know what it was at the time either. Not so coincidentally, that morning same morning our email server started spewing spam and acting as an open relay even though the "don't allow open relay" box was checked. Applying the patch took care of the problem. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how we should fix that one. Something about a hole if a Subject or Name field contained empty quotes, IIRC.
No, I didn't expect them to decline to review the case. What was expected was Slashdot screwing up the headline (along with Yahoo tm and Slashdotters, aside from sheldon, claiming victory for the SC ruling correctly for once.
Count me as a troll or redundant. I don't care. At least I can read past the headline.
Well, let's see... I haven't yet read any newspapers today, but the most recent was taking credit (boasting) for giving Dubya the idea of a federal tax cut. [paraphrase] "Of course, President Bush won't admit that it was my idea, but it was! In Minnesota, the state refund checks are called 'Jesse checks.'"[/paraphrase]
It's always possible to beat the experts in the short-run (remember those little old ladies from Iowa or wherever?).
I assume you mean the Beardstown Ladies from Beardstown, Illinois. If not, the result was likely the same... It was a mistake. They screwed up the math. Those grannies actually lost out to the S&P 500.
On a side rant, what is the deal with investment clubs? Why would anyone pay a fee to get together to argue about what stocks to buy? If I want your advice, I'll ask and then buy them on my own. The same goes for people buying lottery tickets in a big group. "We'll have a better chance of winning that way!" D'oh! Both situations are asking for trouble.
I've always used a@a.com and felt sorry for that poor soul. After years of never remembering to follow up, your post inspired me...
www.a.com
Administrative Contact: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) (IANA) Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 Marina del Rey, CA 92092 US Phone: 310-823-9358 Fax..: 310-823-8649 Email: res-dom@iana.org
Oh, nevermind. Cancel the guilt trip. It's ICANN. I don't feel so bad now.
Your timeline is not quite correct, but I agree about the irrationality of the stock market, and especially AAPL...
AAPL dropped 2.xx points overnight after the announcement that they barely beat their estimated earnings for the quarter, but still have a bleak sales outlook for the future (compared to past estimates).
The stock then dropped on the opening bell because of the drop overnight, not because of Jobs' keynote. That and the fact that all major averages were also down. The reason the stock stayed level throughout the day is because the news wasn't all that bad and you would expect the stock to level off eventually. The timing being close to the keynote was a coincidence. And the keynote started by 9:00 AM ET, if I am not mistaken.
The stock wouldn't drop during the keynote due to a lack of good news because everyone that watches the keynote knows that "One more thing..." appears at the end of the keynote. That's when the big surprises are let out of the bag. In this case there weren't any.
Steve stopped talking at about 11:00 ET, I think. I can guarantee it wasn't an hourlong keynote. It is impossible to expand the RDF to its full effect in that short a time.;)
All in all, it was an ok keynote, but I blame MOSR and other rumor sites for spreading false expectations of a flat panel iMac and Apple PDA. These rumor sites give the impression that this is what will happen, and the masses believe it. When the miracle doesn't happen, people become disappointed and take it out on Apple (which had no part in the rumor spreading). "Oh, Apple didn't release a G5 at 1.5 GHz this expo. That just shows they are not innovating anymore!!"
Actually, if you look I think you'll have difficulty locating an Alec Baldwin vehicle (or any Baldwin for that matter) up to high bar set by Armegeddon, Outbreak, and MI:2.
You're forgetting "The Hunt for Red October." Definitely his best work as CIA Jack Ryan. Oh wait, he was replaced by Harrison Ford in every Tom Clancy movie after that. Nevermind.
I'll be honest. I've never heard of digitimes.com. When I hit the link to the article, I immediately thought it was amateur-looking and the "we'll customize our news for you" blurb was a little strange. Maybe that's due to the english-speaking ability of the writer. (Insert/. editor joke here.)
The fact that it is a Taiwan web page made my suspicious mind wonder even more about propaganda. It may be true, but it could also could have been taken way out of context.
Your "according to our sources" explanation could be a good one too. Or maybe they want to generate hits a la ZDNet's often uninformative articles.
Looks like they don't have the common trolls. Looking at a couple articles, I didn't see any -1 or even a 0.
Correct, as far as I could tell too. Let's put it this way... The Apple Cube story had 36 posts and only 5 were scored as 0. All 5 of those were ACs (not modded down).
Don't forget the automated OpenSpel spell checker and myDegrammarizer (patent pending) to make sure a good number of the posts have misspellings and poor grammar.
I think those two products were already combined into a product called "GrammerSpeeler" because grammar has got to be the most misspelled word on/.
As far as the patent, it was issued long ago as "a micro-computer program to enable the user to alter electronic documents."
Slashdot Mirror
Katz, I think this email you received needs a little more followup. Does grandma KNOW that this is the reason why her grandkids don't visit as often? Is it maybe because...
they moved away recently?
they are older now and have more of a life with friends from school?
they are now grown up and have a 40+ hour/week job?
Grandma is getting a little hostile in her old age?
Grandma never wants to visit their house, but they visit her as often as before (net loss of personal visits)?
Grandma spends too much time watching her "stories" and AOL ads on TV instead of visiting the grandchildren?
The grandchildren's parents had a drastic decrease in income due to the dot-com bust, Enron, etc., and can't afford the trip to Grandma's house?
Whatever the reason for the decrease in personal visits, I'm sure that the net is not the only one.
On a totally different topic related to this story, the causality of the internet affecting voting turnout is very suspect. After all, the world has changed since Kennedy/Nixon. The net can't be the cause of everything! [sarcasm]Oh, wait, if we make sure to include the words "internet" or "Dot-com" in our book, more people will buy it!"[/sarcasm]
It went up to the shark
Said hello
Fed it
Poked its nose with a stick
Then jumped it
Tossed a couple of grenades at it
Went around again for another jump
Jumped it in formation with another cast member on its back
Waved as it jumped over
Asked the shark if he was still interested in going for another season
Then, just drove the boat right through the shark area and chopped up the shark with the prop
Bought a new shark
Repeat all above steps once
And for its finale, blames the sharks demise on the lack of sensibility of its viewers and then decides to go have a burger at Arnold's and brood in front of a mirror.
Tracking numbers scare me. I hope no one gives me a tracking number or else I'm in for it.
Oh, and does Blockbuster have to announce the name of every movie I rent in such a loud voice while I am checking out? It's bad enough that they scream "Hello!!!" every time I enter the store.
Second, the complaint is quite valid, but maybe not clear. I assume InterruptDescriptorT was referring to those who write checks and decide that the time to start getting out the checkbook is about ten seconds after the cashier announces the total - as if the person just realized that he or she had to actually pay for the groceries. These are the same people who don't know what day it is and instead of thinking, "Well it's around January 8 or so. I'll just write down January 8 or January 9," instead decide to dig through her (yes, I am referring to women only) purse and try to find a calendar. That's what takes all the time. Well, that and the fact that these people are in the "12 items or less" lane.
Sorry for the rant. This just happened to me last time I was at the market. And I am not a young punk.
Back on topic, I absolutely do not like CSR people calling me by my first name. I'll make an exception if I am always talking to the same person about the same problem. At least that way, I get the idea that they remember me and I don't have to explain everything all over again.
Sure, there are die-hard sumo fans, but a lot of people just can't handle the downtime. [putting on flame-resistant suit] Looking at the spectators, one wonders if the average sumo fan in Japan is anything less than 50.
NHK is not known for its flashy sports broadcasting or special effects. Now if FOX ever got license to carry the tournaments...
Did you ever see this as an animated movie form in Calc class? The one I saw was made in the 1970s, I think. It was meant to be kind of hokey. There aren't a lot of things I remember about Calc class. This one one of them. Well, that and the fact that we got to watch movies like "Blazing Saddles" for the remainder of the school year after the AP Math tests in May.
Oh, I just remembered the one about the painter who got hired to paint the outside of a geometrical structure that had infinite surface area because of an asymptote near y=0. I think he went broke at the end.
Email killed a lot of my incoming faxes from places that charge US$4/min to call the USA. Now these all come in by free Yahoo! accounts. Unfortunately, my local less-than-tech-savvy writers decide that they will email and fax something. Thanks a lot for the extra paper guys.
Now that I think about it, It's been a long time since I've received any faxes from "government officials" in Nigeria that have approximately US$35 million in a bank account. Can you believe that our secretaries actually used to make copies of those and stick them in a correspondence file under "N" for Nigeria before gleefully handing them to me?
Now if only I could find a way to go back to school and pose as a junior high school student....
...and ironically it also helps that I skip letters and have to reread my posts and that slow me down much more than normal.
All is forgiven. My knee jerks too, but my slow typing stops that from being too uch of a problem on message boards.
I constantly have to defend myself against being called part of a cult that is "drinking the Kool-Aid" and this type of attitude does not help. I am proud to be a geek/nerd, but the moment anyone thinks of me as arrogant or haughty, I feel bad.
Thanks Loligo, you may have just saved me from a massive brainache. I've got the exact same computer but with less RAM :-( (computer for work) and I just can't sit still waiting until March for the Mac version for my real computer. I usually discount your type of problem as "user error" or "Wintel hardware voodoo" were it not for the call from Infogrames. It really ticks me off when a vendor admits it doesn't support some video config that is so widespread that it creates havoc. Sure, they'll eventually fix it, but is it that hard to get things right the first time?
I didn't know what it was at the time either. Not so coincidentally, that morning same morning our email server started spewing spam and acting as an open relay even though the "don't allow open relay" box was checked. Applying the patch took care of the problem. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how we should fix that one. Something about a hole if a Subject or Name field contained empty quotes, IIRC.
I'd hate to think what else was vulnerable.
No, I didn't expect them to decline to review the case. What was expected was Slashdot screwing up the headline (along with Yahoo tm and Slashdotters, aside from sheldon, claiming victory for the SC ruling correctly for once.
Count me as a troll or redundant. I don't care. At least I can read past the headline.
What an ego!
I assume you mean the Beardstown Ladies from Beardstown, Illinois. If not, the result was likely the same... It was a mistake. They screwed up the math. Those grannies actually lost out to the S&P 500.
On a side rant, what is the deal with investment clubs? Why would anyone pay a fee to get together to argue about what stocks to buy? If I want your advice, I'll ask and then buy them on my own. The same goes for people buying lottery tickets in a big group. "We'll have a better chance of winning that way!" D'oh! Both situations are asking for trouble.
www.a.com
Administrative Contact:
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
(IANA) Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 92092
US
Phone: 310-823-9358
Fax..: 310-823-8649
Email: res-dom@iana.org
Oh, nevermind. Cancel the guilt trip. It's ICANN. I don't feel so bad now.
--
dman123 forever!
AAPL dropped 2.xx points overnight after the announcement that they barely beat their estimated earnings for the quarter, but still have a bleak sales outlook for the future (compared to past estimates).
The stock then dropped on the opening bell because of the drop overnight, not because of Jobs' keynote. That and the fact that all major averages were also down. The reason the stock stayed level throughout the day is because the news wasn't all that bad and you would expect the stock to level off eventually. The timing being close to the keynote was a coincidence. And the keynote started by 9:00 AM ET, if I am not mistaken.
The stock wouldn't drop during the keynote due to a lack of good news because everyone that watches the keynote knows that "One more thing..." appears at the end of the keynote. That's when the big surprises are let out of the bag. In this case there weren't any.
Steve stopped talking at about 11:00 ET, I think. I can guarantee it wasn't an hourlong keynote. It is impossible to expand the RDF to its full effect in that short a time. ;)
All in all, it was an ok keynote, but I blame MOSR and other rumor sites for spreading false expectations of a flat panel iMac and Apple PDA. These rumor sites give the impression that this is what will happen, and the masses believe it. When the miracle doesn't happen, people become disappointed and take it out on Apple (which had no part in the rumor spreading). "Oh, Apple didn't release a G5 at 1.5 GHz this expo. That just shows they are not innovating anymore!!"
--
dman123 forever!
You're forgetting "The Hunt for Red October." Definitely his best work as CIA Jack Ryan. Oh wait, he was replaced by Harrison Ford in every Tom Clancy movie after that. Nevermind.
--
dman123 forever!
What made me laugh the most is that Alec Baldwin apparently has no acting credits.
--
dman123 forever!
The fact that it is a Taiwan web page made my suspicious mind wonder even more about propaganda. It may be true, but it could also could have been taken way out of context.
Your "according to our sources" explanation could be a good one too. Or maybe they want to generate hits a la ZDNet's often uninformative articles.
--
dman123 forever!
Correct, as far as I could tell too. Let's put it this way... The Apple Cube story had 36 posts and only 5 were scored as 0. All 5 of those were ACs (not modded down).
--
dman123 forever!
Well, their average IQ just dropped a notch. I'm new user 3794.
Japanese /. User ID >3794? Beware.
--
dman123 forever!
I think those two products were already combined into a product called "GrammerSpeeler" because grammar has got to be the most misspelled word on /.
As far as the patent, it was issued long ago as "a micro-computer program to enable the user to alter electronic documents."
--
dman123 forever!