Love the analysis of how impractical Star Trek is.
On the scarcity discussion: I think my problem is that I don't see an end to scarcity of some things, even in a Star Trek world. Two great examples:
* Planets. How would we give one to everyone who wanted to own their own planet? Or solar system, for that matter. A single individual's inability to consume an entire planet's resources doesn't really matter in this case. Enough people want their own planet now; many, many more would want it in an absence of scarcity of other things. We are greedy beyond our ability to consume. * People. Owning another person necessarily limits their resources to what you allow them to have. We've been doing that since the dawn of civilization.
Hopefully if we ever did get to that level of resources, our nature would have changed enough so we didn't get in our own way. I doubt it, though. I imagine we will always find something in limited quantities to fight and kill each other over.
Scarcity is a limiting factor, but human greed is even more of a limiting factor. We will never reach anything resembling a utopian society where everyone's basic needs are met, regardless of the means, because of human nature, not because of available resources.
I'll totally just go back to my job now, with no loss in enthusiasm or loyalty. It's like nothing happened! Everything is okay. I will continue working for Disney and we'll be best friends forever.
We did get a letter about the security breach, and the offer for 2 free years identity theft protection, so...thanks, I guess? Nothing horrible has happened yet, but as far as I can tell, we don't really have any recourse other than sitting and waiting for bad things to occur. No actionable information provided.
The notice they sent us went out months after they found out about it. Which I'm kind of grumpy about, but at least to some degree makes sense. They don't want to go public with the information until they've locked down as much as they can.
One last gripe: the letter was mostly worded in the "protect our own butts legally and limit our liability as much as possible" sense, not the "we're sorry this happened to your personal information and we want to make it right" sense. Which, I mean, come on. This is an insurance company. That's literally what they do for a living.
So far, Valve has become the biggest game distributor in the world by being greedy in ways that end up benefiting individual, common consumers. Their track record is far from perfect, but by and large that's why they have been so successful. It's disconcerting to see them poking their foot in the other greed pools, but if nothing else, they will keep doing The Right Thing (eventually) to try to preserve that image, not because they are glowing pillars of virtue.
It's been fun to watch them teeter about at the peak of their influence, making gradually larger political blunders. I'll be interested to see what monstrous misstep they make that finally wrecks their business. Anyone making bets on how many years out that is?
Well yeah. If you pick randomly from any genre or subculture of music, you're going to end up with unlistenable drek. If you choose something from the top 10% of game music, given an individual's preferences, you'll end up with something pretty good. Also just like any other genre or subculture.
If you've played the game the music is from, however, it might end up being distracting for different reasons. Music forms strong historical associations in our brains, second only to tastes and smells.
It's interesting to see how Valve his handling being the titan in the game distributors market for several years running. I know that not everything they do is best for the long term health of the industry or their consumers, but this deterring piracy on communication channels they sponsor seems pretty reasonable, and overall they've handled things quite well.
Maybe they can come up with a better way of dealing with it instead of just silently removing messages, though. Maybe wag a finger disapprovingly at the person sending the message and don't even make it look like the message got sent from their end.
I can't decide whether this says more about corporate greed or about the culture of alternative medicine, that these retailers can make such a flagrant mockery of herbal supplements, and apparently get away with it for quite a while.
Day 35 of insomnia. I only slept for 40 minutes today, with Thync turned up to maximum calming for 6 hours. I still managed to get a few hours of work in with alert enhancement on. Could barely focus. Need more sleep.
I know this got modded up as funny, and it is, but it's also 100% serious. Anytime I change physical locations: keys, wallet, phone? Get into the habit before you get older.
I suppose this is where I'm supposed to be indignant because the language I use got listed. But, I suppose it's fair. Ruby has always been one of the trendier languages, regardless of its utility.
Slashdot Mirror
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Obligatory SMBC: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id...
Thank you, thank you, thank you, good sir (or madam).
Love the analysis of how impractical Star Trek is.
On the scarcity discussion: I think my problem is that I don't see an end to scarcity of some things, even in a Star Trek world. Two great examples:
* Planets. How would we give one to everyone who wanted to own their own planet? Or solar system, for that matter. A single individual's inability to consume an entire planet's resources doesn't really matter in this case. Enough people want their own planet now; many, many more would want it in an absence of scarcity of other things. We are greedy beyond our ability to consume.
* People. Owning another person necessarily limits their resources to what you allow them to have. We've been doing that since the dawn of civilization.
Hopefully if we ever did get to that level of resources, our nature would have changed enough so we didn't get in our own way. I doubt it, though. I imagine we will always find something in limited quantities to fight and kill each other over.
Scarcity is a limiting factor, but human greed is even more of a limiting factor. We will never reach anything resembling a utopian society where everyone's basic needs are met, regardless of the means, because of human nature, not because of available resources.
I'll totally just go back to my job now, with no loss in enthusiasm or loyalty. It's like nothing happened! Everything is okay. I will continue working for Disney and we'll be best friends forever.
We did get a letter about the security breach, and the offer for 2 free years identity theft protection, so...thanks, I guess? Nothing horrible has happened yet, but as far as I can tell, we don't really have any recourse other than sitting and waiting for bad things to occur. No actionable information provided.
The notice they sent us went out months after they found out about it. Which I'm kind of grumpy about, but at least to some degree makes sense. They don't want to go public with the information until they've locked down as much as they can.
One last gripe: the letter was mostly worded in the "protect our own butts legally and limit our liability as much as possible" sense, not the "we're sorry this happened to your personal information and we want to make it right" sense. Which, I mean, come on. This is an insurance company. That's literally what they do for a living.
The advisory focuses on hardware brands - doesn't mention anything about aftermarket software. Anyone know?
That's an easy fix. Just turn on non-physics time warp for a moment and turn it back off. Bam, no more rotation. Easy as pie.
So far, Valve has become the biggest game distributor in the world by being greedy in ways that end up benefiting individual, common consumers. Their track record is far from perfect, but by and large that's why they have been so successful. It's disconcerting to see them poking their foot in the other greed pools, but if nothing else, they will keep doing The Right Thing (eventually) to try to preserve that image, not because they are glowing pillars of virtue.
It's been fun to watch them teeter about at the peak of their influence, making gradually larger political blunders. I'll be interested to see what monstrous misstep they make that finally wrecks their business. Anyone making bets on how many years out that is?
Magnificent comment. Would that I could mod you up past +5.
10/10 would shed a tear of burning hot wistful nostalgia again.
Well yeah. If you pick randomly from any genre or subculture of music, you're going to end up with unlistenable drek. If you choose something from the top 10% of game music, given an individual's preferences, you'll end up with something pretty good. Also just like any other genre or subculture.
If you've played the game the music is from, however, it might end up being distracting for different reasons. Music forms strong historical associations in our brains, second only to tastes and smells.
"Honey, do you know where we put the city?"
"Pretty sure it's with the keys!"
"It's not with the keys!"
"Did you leave it in the desk drawer?"
"No, it's not there, either! You didn't leave it out in the Honduran jungle again, did you?"
"Try calling it!"
"I can't call it, it's an ancient abandoned city!"
Followed by half an hour of heated argument.
It's interesting to see how Valve his handling being the titan in the game distributors market for several years running. I know that not everything they do is best for the long term health of the industry or their consumers, but this deterring piracy on communication channels they sponsor seems pretty reasonable, and overall they've handled things quite well.
Maybe they can come up with a better way of dealing with it instead of just silently removing messages, though. Maybe wag a finger disapprovingly at the person sending the message and don't even make it look like the message got sent from their end.
I can't decide whether this says more about corporate greed or about the culture of alternative medicine, that these retailers can make such a flagrant mockery of herbal supplements, and apparently get away with it for quite a while.
5 stars, would get caught in time shenanigans again.
Day 35 of insomnia. I only slept for 40 minutes today, with Thync turned up to maximum calming for 6 hours. I still managed to get a few hours of work in with alert enhancement on. Could barely focus. Need more sleep.
I have some guesses about how they're doing their research.
http://xkcd.com/1244/
YesIKnowIt'sSuborbitalGoAway.
One of my favorite quotes from Alpha Centauri. Glad there are other people out there who like to use it.
I know this got modded up as funny, and it is, but it's also 100% serious. Anytime I change physical locations: keys, wallet, phone? Get into the habit before you get older.
I cannot tell you how pleased I am that this is the first post here. Thank you, kind sir or ma'am, whoever you are.
The comments to this post are hilarious.
I suppose this is where I'm supposed to be indignant because the language I use got listed. But, I suppose it's fair. Ruby has always been one of the trendier languages, regardless of its utility.
Really struggling to avoid defending it, though.
It's true. Ting is rad, but if you don't get good Sprint coverage in your area, you may be better off with one of the other options listed here.