I think you missed my original point. My point was that people's *perception* is that life was "simpler" and "better" than it is now.
A friend of mine is an electrical engineer who dabbles in the stock market. He does *ALL* of his stock market record keeping on an old IBM 086. Why? Cuz its "better."
Oh sure, he has a state of the art system decked out in the latest bells and whistles. But he prefers to transfer all of his stockmarket info onto his dinosaur of an IBM.
I don't think anybody could possibly argue that his old machine is "better" in any way, but its what he's used to, its what he learned on, and it gives him a bit of nostalgia to the "good old days."
That and in the 20 odd years he's owned the thing, it only ever crashed once (and that was when the date rolled back over to 1980 for some reason causing all sorts of problems.
So yeah, you missed my point. Life may or may not have been simpler. But I was talking "perceptions", not "reality."
While Apples aren't personally my thing, I'm willing to wager that a hefty portion is nostalgia. People like to remember a time when things were simpler and life was better than it is now.
Pretty much everybody has *something* that gives them that feeling of nostalgia. For some its old cars, or classic arcade games.
For me, its pinball. There is nothing better, in my opinion, than beating on an old Fireball or Gorgar machines from the late 70's.
Yeah I'm all for gender play. Remember when Tomb Raider first came out and you tried to get her backed into a corner so the camera would focus in on her wonderful coneshaped cleavage?
Recently, in an information security class, I gave a presentation based mainly on your 1970's exploits and how you (and other's who have the fortunate distinction of not being made scapegoats by the government) helped lead to a more secure POTS system and stronger security in general, which is what most hackers want anyway.
My professor later berated my choice of topics as (his words not mine) "he is an obvious lawless felon and is not worthy of this class's time". How do you respond to this unfair characterization by others?
Also, it would seem that no lessons have been learned over the years since we still insist on punishing the messengers (hackers) rather than the cause (insecure systems). Is there any way you think we can change these perceptions? Thank you.
First, they did not air the pilot episode, which right out of the gates, was a mistake. I have seen the pilot, entitled "Serenity" (thank you, Kazaa!) and let me tell you, it rocked. Who needs aliens when you have Reavers!!
Second, the episodes that *have* been aired have all been out of order. I think the order they have showed them in is three, four, seven, eight, nine or something like that. The reason? Fox didn't "get" some of the episodes so they aired them in the order they liked.
The terribly ironic part of this is that most people unanimously agree that the show got MUCH better as it went along. Lets face it, the first few episodes were mildly amusing at best, but the last 4 or so have kicked all sorts of ass.
Finally, as for why the show has been placed on hiatus. Fox really liked the last episode aired ("Ariel") and the decision was made to get it out of friday night hell. It was going to be moved to the wednesday 9pm/ET timeslot. The problem? WB announced earlier this week that Angel (another Joss Whedon show) was getting that timeslot.
Fox had no place to put it (Note: please please please make it monday at 9pm) for now so they have decided to place it on hiatus for now.
I don't think its necessarily cancelled. It certainly would be a small tradgedy. First family guy now this.
For the price of a high end PC setup (around $2,000US) you can have your self a kickass arcade machine, including the dedicated PC it takes to run MAME. I took the plunge last year and havn't regretted it for a minute.
It has far more features than the ArcadePC, is made of basically the same components, and cost me $1000 less.
Re:He's either a fruit that's a little nutty...
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 1
Time *is* a dimension, hence travelling in time would be "dimensional" travelLots of bad sci fi screws up this distinction horribly. They use "dimension" to mean something like "parallel universe".
But that's exactly what the theory of quantum mechanics teaches. Perhaps know it better as the concept of the "multiverse," that is, our universe is but one of many parallel multiverses, each operating in their own time frame and contexts.
So, in this sense, the only way to actually "time travel" is to travel to a different multiverse, say, one in which it is currently 1986. You could then do whatever you wanted in the past without actually affecting *this* universe.
Which also explains why we've never actually met time travellers.
Or the few we have met get wrapped in straigh jackets and filed away in a nice cozy padded cell.;)
Re:He's either a fruit that's a little nutty...
on
Time Travel
·
· Score: 1
"Unless you subscribe to the theory that multiple parallel universes exist, in which case the time travelers wouldn't be traveling back to meet us, they would travel to a parallel universe. That way we wouldn't see them, and they couldn't affect their own past and cause nasty time paradoxes"
But it would be perfectly okay to go to alternate universes and completely alter their timelines and cause all sorts of nasty problems there?
Your logic is similar to the logic that wants to colonize Mars to either export people there or use it as an interplanetary junk yard. As if it wasn't enough we're screwing up our own planet (and universe/dimension) we now have to muck up other planets and parallel universes as well!
This is one of the most insightful comments i've read on slashdot in eons.
The problem isn't guns. The problem is stupid/careless people. If more people had your attitude (and I absolutely love your example about teaching the basics to your daughter...Americans need more of this attitude in every aspect of parenting)
Case in point: a few years ago I was at a party hosted by a self titled "gun nut." While I was in another room (bathroom, actually), somebody decided it would be fun to get one of his handguns out and pass it around.
If anybody in that room had been educated in a fashion similar to what you described as teaching to your daughter, that gun would have never have been taken out of the cabinet.
It was supposedly unloaded.
Nobody thought to check.
I won't go into horrible details, but one of the guys (who had never touched a gun in his entire life!!!!) got the spectacular idea of waving the gun around.
The stupidity quotient here is akin to never being in an airplane before and suddenly deciding to give it a whirl around the runway.
Eventually, the gun discharged. The guy waving it around managed to shoot himself in the face (went in above his left temple, exited above his right eyebrow).
His reflexes took over and his arm shot straight out and he proceeded to fire two shots into the crowd before he crumpled to the ground.
The two shots missed everybody (including myself who was still in the bathroom...the wall he fired into was the one protecting me from getting a lead sandwich).
The guy actually lived...doesn't have too much scarring and the only major effect was that he had a massive concussion and minor brain hemmorrhaging. But i think he was pretty damned lucky, considering that there were absolutely no long term effects. Other than being very anti-gun now. Too bad he still isn't anti-stupid.
The whole point of this story is that it wasn't the gun itself that caused the problem, it was the incredible amount of stupidity displayed by everyone in that room.
I'm lucky he didn't shoot my dick off.;)
Interesting post script--that same guy later blamed the gun manufacturer as well as the gun owner, threatening to sue both the former and the latter, even though he had historically been best friends with the latter.
I'm sorry, but he wasn't the one that held the gun up to your head, bub.
In case you're wondering, that whole story is entirely true. One of the weirdest "truth is stranger than fiction" moments i've ever personally experienced.
Actually, the earliest game i can think of that has advertising in it is the arcade version of Pole Position (1982) which featured roadside billboard signs advertising other video games (centipede, digdug) as well as Atari (who released the game) and Namco (the Japanese company that actually developed it).
It's sequel, Pole Position II (1983, natch) featured billboards for Champion sparkplugs, Pepsi, and Malboro.
"Were you expecting another Doctor Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia?"
Actually, the director of the film, Simon West, exclaimed triumphantly to the press last fall that the inspirations for this film were Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and the Conformist.
Don't believe me? Check <A HREF=http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=7302 >here</A> for Aint it cool's scoop from last october.
...used to be the most accurate place on the web to get phone and address information. They updated their database every month or so (compared to some online directories which still have me listed under my old phone number which expired two years ago) and even had snazzy features like reverse lookup.
I noticed a few days ago that their services now require a registered account that only includes a limited number of lookups per month.
It's a shame since I used to use them exclusively for distant relatives phone numbers and the like.
I guess now i'll have to use Ameritech's or Yahoo's online directories.
*sigh*
The main problem with this argument that "Joe Sixpack" simply doesn't seem to understand is the fact that privacy invasion is always a slippery slope, i.e. once privacy is surrendered it will most certainly never be recovered and will only open the door for further privacy invasions.
An excellent example of this is the way phone companies have come to treat our privacy. Thirty years ago, if one did not want to have his name, phone number and home address printed into the public domain for all the world to see (phonebook) all he had to do was request that his name be unlisted and old Ma' Bell was happy to oblige by providing an unlisted number as a courtesy.
Sometime in the mid seventies they began to charge for this courtesty as as "service."
Flash forward a few years to the advent of Caller ID.
Now, even for those of us who pay the phone company an average of $25 a year to have an unlisted number will have their number appear on anybody who has caller ID.
Sure, we can use *67 or have caller ID-block as a service (if you want to pay even more $$ in some areas) but the point is that our privacy rights continue to slide down that damned slippery slope.
As a medical student, I can verify that most medical dramas are highly inaccurate.
And while I am not a daytime tv watcher, soaps have by FAR the least accurate portrayals.
I have to laugh when they show cardiogram readouts of a healthy heartbeat one moment, then a second later--flatline! Bring the paddles!!
Of course, I'm usually the only one laughing. That's the main reason why Hollywood et. al. doesn't try to be accurate, because they realize that Joe Sixpack doesn't have sufficient knowledge to realize the difference.
I wish I knew more about technology to notice the same discrepancies in these movies that everyone else seems to care so much about.
However, to answer your question, there is one medical drama that is incredibly accurate: ER.
Other than being a little more dramatic than the real thing (real doctors and nurses would *never* be shouting over a trauma victim, for instance) its usually right on.
Yeah! Lets send ska into space.
Great bastions of culture such as the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones and No Doubt have already ensured that Ska will never succeed down here.
Maybe the greys will appreciate it more than we did.
= )
You know, I would really like to see some discussions from IAAL types on what can be done to change IP law so that situations like this do not arise again.
What's wrong with Internet protocol and why do you want to change it?
Slashdot Mirror
"After all, who do you think's in the burgers?
:P"
I don't know...
D'Eeeeeyyyyye heard that!
you forgot the "Van Damme." :)
" Especially after you've been married for a few years"
:)
A slashdotter. Married. You havn't been here long have you?
"Its not because life was better back then."
I think you missed my original point. My point was that people's *perception* is that life was "simpler" and "better" than it is now.
A friend of mine is an electrical engineer who dabbles in the stock market. He does *ALL* of his stock market record keeping on an old IBM 086. Why? Cuz its "better."
Oh sure, he has a state of the art system decked out in the latest bells and whistles. But he prefers to transfer all of his stockmarket info onto his dinosaur of an IBM.
I don't think anybody could possibly argue that his old machine is "better" in any way, but its what he's used to, its what he learned on, and it gives him a bit of nostalgia to the "good old days."
That and in the 20 odd years he's owned the thing, it only ever crashed once (and that was when the date rolled back over to 1980 for some reason causing all sorts of problems.
So yeah, you missed my point. Life may or may not have been simpler. But I was talking "perceptions", not "reality."
While Apples aren't personally my thing, I'm willing to wager that a hefty portion is nostalgia. People like to remember a time when things were simpler and life was better than it is now.
:)
Pretty much everybody has *something* that gives them that feeling of nostalgia. For some its old cars, or classic arcade games.
For me, its pinball. There is nothing better, in my opinion, than beating on an old Fireball or Gorgar machines from the late 70's.
But hey, to each their own.
Man, I *hate* it when the people I lay, blow the whistle on me. :)
Yeah I'm all for gender play. Remember when Tomb Raider first came out and you tried to get her backed into a corner so the camera would focus in on her wonderful coneshaped cleavage?
:)
Yeah, we need more gender play.
Mr. Draper,
It is an honor to "speak" with you.
Recently, in an information security class, I gave a presentation based mainly on your 1970's exploits and how you (and other's who have the fortunate distinction of not being made scapegoats by the government) helped lead to a more secure POTS system and stronger security in general, which is what most hackers want anyway.
My professor later berated my choice of topics as (his words not mine) "he is an obvious lawless felon and is not worthy of this class's time". How do you respond to this unfair characterization by others?
Also, it would seem that no lessons have been learned over the years since we still insist on punishing the messengers (hackers) rather than the cause (insecure systems). Is there any way you think we can change these perceptions?
Thank you.
Ok, enough with the clever charade. When are you gonna get on with your *real* career? You play a mean guitar.
:)
Any possibility that you'll be touring the Northern Illinois area anytime soon?
What's it like trying to keep that Stephen King kid in line?
The problem with fox is multi-layered.
First, they did not air the pilot episode, which right out of the gates, was a mistake. I have seen the pilot, entitled "Serenity" (thank you, Kazaa!) and let me tell you, it rocked. Who needs aliens when you have Reavers!!
Second, the episodes that *have* been aired have all been out of order. I think the order they have showed them in is three, four, seven, eight, nine or something like that.
The reason? Fox didn't "get" some of the episodes so they aired them in the order they liked.
The terribly ironic part of this is that most people unanimously agree that the show got MUCH better as it went along. Lets face it, the first few episodes were mildly amusing at best, but the last 4 or so have kicked all sorts of ass.
Finally, as for why the show has been placed on hiatus. Fox really liked the last episode aired ("Ariel") and the decision was made to get it out of friday night hell. It was going to be moved to the wednesday 9pm/ET timeslot. The problem? WB announced earlier this week that Angel (another Joss Whedon show) was getting that timeslot.
Fox had no place to put it (Note: please please please make it monday at 9pm) for now so they have decided to place it on hiatus for now.
I don't think its necessarily cancelled. It certainly would be a small tradgedy. First family guy now this.
...that has rolled their own cabinet.
There are also some really cool examples at the Build your own arcade controls FAQ.
For the price of a high end PC setup (around $2,000US) you can have your self a kickass arcade machine, including the dedicated PC it takes to run MAME. I took the plunge last year and havn't regretted it for a minute.
Wife hates it tho...:)
Yeah...i'd like to take her for a ride on the ol' bone rollercoaster.
:)
WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Could somebody post a mirror or post the text of the article?
I'm at work and unfortunately the censorware has blocked gamespot.
You can do what I did and build your own.
It has far more features than the ArcadePC, is made of basically the same components, and cost me $1000 less.
Time *is* a dimension, hence travelling in time would be "dimensional" travelLots of bad sci fi screws up this distinction horribly. They use "dimension" to mean something like "parallel universe".
;)
But that's exactly what the theory of quantum mechanics teaches. Perhaps know it better as the concept of the "multiverse," that is, our universe is but one of many parallel multiverses, each operating in their own time frame and contexts.
So, in this sense, the only way to actually "time travel" is to travel to a different multiverse, say, one in which it is currently 1986. You could then do whatever you wanted in the past without actually affecting *this* universe.
Which also explains why we've never actually met time travellers.
Or the few we have met get wrapped in straigh jackets and filed away in a nice cozy padded cell.
"Unless you subscribe to the theory that multiple parallel universes exist, in which case the time travelers wouldn't be traveling back to meet us, they would travel to a parallel universe. That way we wouldn't see them, and they couldn't affect their own past and cause nasty time paradoxes"
But it would be perfectly okay to go to alternate universes and completely alter their timelines and cause all sorts of nasty problems there?
Your logic is similar to the logic that wants to colonize Mars to either export people there or use it as an interplanetary junk yard. As if it wasn't enough we're screwing up our own planet (and universe/dimension) we now have to muck up other planets and parallel universes as well!
This is one of the most insightful comments i've read on slashdot in eons.
;)
The problem isn't guns. The problem is stupid/careless people. If more people had your attitude (and I absolutely love your example about teaching the basics to your daughter...Americans need more of this attitude in every aspect of parenting)
Case in point: a few years ago I was at a party hosted by a self titled "gun nut." While I was in another room (bathroom, actually), somebody decided it would be fun to get one of his handguns out and pass it around.
If anybody in that room had been educated in a fashion similar to what you described as teaching to your daughter, that gun would have never have been taken out of the cabinet.
It was supposedly unloaded.
Nobody thought to check.
I won't go into horrible details, but one of the guys (who had never touched a gun in his entire life!!!!) got the spectacular idea of waving the gun around.
The stupidity quotient here is akin to never being in an airplane before and suddenly deciding to give it a whirl around the runway.
Eventually, the gun discharged. The guy waving it around managed to shoot himself in the face (went in above his left temple, exited above his right eyebrow).
His reflexes took over and his arm shot straight out and he proceeded to fire two shots into the crowd before he crumpled to the ground.
The two shots missed everybody (including myself who was still in the bathroom...the wall he fired into was the one protecting me from getting a lead sandwich).
The guy actually lived...doesn't have too much scarring and the only major effect was that he had a massive concussion and minor brain hemmorrhaging. But i think he was pretty damned lucky, considering that there were absolutely no long term effects. Other than being very anti-gun now. Too bad he still isn't anti-stupid.
The whole point of this story is that it wasn't the gun itself that caused the problem, it was the incredible amount of stupidity displayed by everyone in that room.
I'm lucky he didn't shoot my dick off.
Interesting post script--that same guy later blamed the gun manufacturer as well as the gun owner, threatening to sue both the former and the latter, even though he had historically been best friends with the latter.
I'm sorry, but he wasn't the one that held the gun up to your head, bub.
In case you're wondering, that whole story is entirely true. One of the weirdest "truth is stranger than fiction" moments i've ever personally experienced.
--snake
Actually, the earliest game i can think of that has advertising in it is the arcade version of Pole Position (1982) which featured roadside billboard signs advertising other video games (centipede, digdug) as well as Atari (who released the game) and Namco (the Japanese company that actually developed it).
It's sequel, Pole Position II (1983, natch) featured billboards for Champion sparkplugs, Pepsi, and Malboro.
--Snake
"Were you expecting another Doctor Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia?"
2 >here</A> for Aint it cool's scoop from last october.
Actually, the director of the film, Simon West, exclaimed triumphantly to the press last fall that the inspirations for this film were Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and the Conformist.
Don't believe me? Check <A HREF=http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=730
And I've gone even one step further than this. I have named my stylesheets "decss.css" and actually include the DECSS code as a comment.
Now, anyone who sees my pages will have downloaded the code *automatically*.
Damn I love anarchism.
...used to be the most accurate place on the web to get phone and address information. They updated their database every month or so (compared to some online directories which still have me listed under my old phone number which expired two years ago) and even had snazzy features like reverse lookup.
I noticed a few days ago that their services now require a registered account that only includes a limited number of lookups per month.
It's a shame since I used to use them exclusively for distant relatives phone numbers and the like.
I guess now i'll have to use Ameritech's or Yahoo's online directories.
*sigh*
The main problem with this argument that "Joe Sixpack" simply doesn't seem to understand is the fact that privacy invasion is always a slippery slope, i.e. once privacy is surrendered it will most certainly never be recovered and will only open the door for further privacy invasions.
An excellent example of this is the way phone companies have come to treat our privacy. Thirty years ago, if one did not want to have his name, phone number and home address printed into the public domain for all the world to see (phonebook) all he had to do was request that his name be unlisted and old Ma' Bell was happy to oblige by providing an unlisted number as a courtesy.
Sometime in the mid seventies they began to charge for this courtesty as as "service."
Flash forward a few years to the advent of Caller ID.
Now, even for those of us who pay the phone company an average of $25 a year to have an unlisted number will have their number appear on anybody who has caller ID.
Sure, we can use *67 or have caller ID-block as a service (if you want to pay even more $$ in some areas) but the point is that our privacy rights continue to slide down that damned slippery slope.
As a medical student, I can verify that most medical dramas are highly inaccurate.
And while I am not a daytime tv watcher, soaps have by FAR the least accurate portrayals.
I have to laugh when they show cardiogram readouts of a healthy heartbeat one moment, then a second later--flatline! Bring the paddles!!
Of course, I'm usually the only one laughing. That's the main reason why Hollywood et. al. doesn't try to be accurate, because they realize that Joe Sixpack doesn't have sufficient knowledge to realize the difference.
I wish I knew more about technology to notice the same discrepancies in these movies that everyone else seems to care so much about.
However, to answer your question, there is one medical drama that is incredibly accurate: ER.
Other than being a little more dramatic than the real thing (real doctors and nurses would *never* be shouting over a trauma victim, for instance) its usually right on.
Yeah! Lets send ska into space.
Great bastions of culture such as the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones and No Doubt have already ensured that Ska will never succeed down here.
Maybe the greys will appreciate it more than we did.
= )
You know, I would really like to see some discussions from IAAL types on what can be done to change IP law so that situations like this do not arise again.
What's wrong with Internet protocol and why do you want to change it?