Life is meant to propagate and succeed (which is also a good basis for morality). People have built civilizations based on group effort. We all have jobs based on our strengths. The strong and brave protect, but rely on others to feed them. The strong and stupid do the feeding. The brave and stupid just frak everything up and we have to fix it before they populate the world and blow it up.
I think a lot of people here are mad at the parents for being bad parents who can't control their household. Punishing the parents by letting them screw up their kids isn't helping anybody. Have you ever met anyone successful who said "my parents let me get away with anything!" I sure as heck haven't. I've met a few ex-cons who said that though.
I think US censorship is screwed up anyway and needs a major overhaul. I'll save that rant for another time.
They probably figured by constantly improving the refresh rate and increasing dpi, they'd eventually run into the uncertainty principle. So if we have to stop then anyway, why not stop now? We're already beyond the ability of (most) human eyes. Heck, why are we confined to just using the visual color spectrum? I want my monitor to display infrared!
. . . Actually, seeing body heat would add a new insight into porn. Hmmmmmmmm
At times like this, I wish slashdot would get a few more troll labels. There should be term for a slightly entertaining troll, then there should be a term for this guy whose goal is to tick people off. Some of them make me laugh, and I'd miss them if they left, but this is just sad.
Oh right, stay on topic. Ummm they should fly the shuttle through the volcanic ash, just to show they can do it. It doesn't have any intakes to damage, right? Yeah I know it's stupid for a dozen other reasons. Oh well.
What about kids? Should a 12 year old be able to go rent a snuff film if he wants? Even if children are banned from getting it, they'll still have older friends check it out for them. Taking stuff off the shelves isn't meant to protect the adults. You can't just hit the whole idea of censorship with a wide stroke like that.
Usually when I try to take the "obviously enlightened view", I also try to look at the caveats.
"Professor, we would like for you to calculate if a nuclear weapon would ignite the oxygen in the atmosphere and destroy the planet. Take your time, we want to be --" "No, it's fine." "... What? Have you already done the calculation?!" "No. It's just that if I'm wrong, who'd know?"
Luckily, he guessed correctly. Gotta love that Konopinski.
Sorry about the sarcastic retort, I'm grumpy this morning. I'll try to make it somewhat entertaining. Here we go:
I'll admit, I'm using the data I have. I've seen several results from ice core measurements and don't trust those since they must infer the temperature (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about?), whereas a satellite can measure the whole planet looking at infrared (or whatever they do). If you can send your DeLorean back and put a satellite in orbit for me, I'll be happy to look at the timeline you suggest. Even so, we historically have amazingly massive die-offs in our history. I don't think that'd be something I'd want to let naturally happen.
"Help! My house has been burning for 5 minutes and I can't stop it! I need the firemen to come put it out!" "Sir? Have you considered that the house wasn't burning an hour ago?" "What?... No???" "Well sir, your house being on fire might be something that happens routinely. Do you have proof it has always survived being on fire before?" "Ummmm well it does have a chimney...." "Exactly, sir! It is built to emit smoke! Therefore, it can withstand this fire! Just wait it out!" "But... if you're wrong, my house will burn down." "TRUST ME! It won't burn down. Think of the money you'd save by doing nothing." "I think I'd rather play it safe." "Well, okay, if you insist. I'll send them out to put out the fire." "Don't bother. While you were talking, it burned down already."
He posted anonymously this time. It's a way to cheat the slashdot moderation system. Nice to know we have such scrupulous people here calling others trolls, yes? Watch closely, in a moment he'll post another anonymous message pretending to agree with himself;)
They're not just trolls, Comcast really is that bad in some places. I've been using a free ConnectionMonitor (from steelbytes) to log downtime. It went down 18 times yesterday. That was a typical day. We've called their techs about it half a dozen times, and none of them have a clue what's wrong. We still pay though because it's either unreliable, yet otherwise blazing fast connection or dialup. Comcast still wins.
The extra sad part is, back before Comcast bought the local cable company, service was excellent. Our cable modem never dropped out. We also got better programming on tv. Somehow, these guys took the same hardware and ruined it.
I might still fall into the category of troll for saying this, but I'm really hoping that an antitrust hammer comes down on these guys.
"It's a much darker, much more character-based series, much more adult, and we're hoping that it will go on for up to 400 episodes," he said.
Is it just me, or does every new dark scifi show just look like another Battlestar Galactica ripoff? I (and I realize I'm in the minority) was extremely disappointed with Stargate Universe when it was obvious trying to just redo BSG. I got enough of that perpetually poorly lit episode of Jerry Springer after the first hour.
*Please* scifi writers, go back to the humorous fun of Firefly and original Stargate SG-1. Stop with the dark stuff. Star Trek Enterprise flopped amazingly fast because it was trying to be dark. I thought after seeing an amazing title like Star Trek go down so fast, people would get the hint that dark scifi isn't good. Sure, BSG was successful. Do you know why I watched it? It was because it was the only thing around. Dark scifi is like the lone ugly hooker across the street.
Seriously though, I agree with you for the most part. (I apologize now for grammar Nazis on this site who will attack you imminently.) I don't think shortening all words to their acronyms is the best way to go. If you run across a word you don't know, you can make a good guess at the pronunciation from the spelling. You're pretty much screwed with all the modern shortcuts though. Plus I'd hate to read a paper with emoticons at the front of a class and have to mimic all the little faces. Finally, typing speeds in the new generation have really dropped. They can text message in a blazing fury, but that's for the most part useless. Heck, I don't even like people who type slow on my MMO team.
So when these Auroch things are alive again, are the spellchecker overlords going to add them to the list? I see they get a red line for me today. Those guys read this site, right?
I remember back when speed limit signs in the US used to have mph and kph on them. I thought we'd be switched in the next few years. But then they all went away and people were again satisfied with using what they already knew.
What'll be fun is when they try building a space elevator to "reach the heavens" and it fails because the units don't match up. Didn't I hear this story before? From way back when Aurochs were still around?
Wake me up when they get to handheld 3d porn. I need a refresh rate of at least 120 Hz, right? Do OLEDs even have non-glowy refresh rates suitable for 3d? (Legitimate question, not sarcasm.)
Now I finally understand how an ensign with a couple years of starfleet training knows how to repair and operate everything! He's cheating his arse off! Sweet! I want one!
And of course, I'm looking forward to the kama sutra edition coming out next month! "Tickle here."
Back when women stayed in the kitchen, this kind of thing never happened!!
Seriously though, I'd like to see what type of lifestyle changes people think contributed to this. Is it the internet porn? Cell phone text messaging? Cell phone cameras in bathrooms? Air conditioning? What?
I haven't gotten any spam on hotmail past the filter. Ever. I'm using 5% of my storage space after using it for 10+ years. I use a mail program to log in so I don't see the ads. I'll grant you that the attachment size isn't so good though. I've never sent a file more than 10MB, so that doesn't really matter to me.
I use hotmail. When gmail came out, all my friends were very excited about it and immediately switched all their records to point toward their fancy new gmail account. Then I asked them what was so great about it. You know, it sounded a *lot* like hotmail. It's amazing that email addys are subject to fads just like the rest of the shallow world. Nerds are not immune, we just get hit by different fads.
AOL was never a nerd fad though. It's always been a ripoff. At least they have a nice messenger though (so long as you use an ad-free interface).
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree with you here. My opinion:
Life is meant to propagate and succeed (which is also a good basis for morality). People have built civilizations based on group effort. We all have jobs based on our strengths. The strong and brave protect, but rely on others to feed them. The strong and stupid do the feeding. The brave and stupid just frak everything up and we have to fix it before they populate the world and blow it up.
I think a lot of people here are mad at the parents for being bad parents who can't control their household. Punishing the parents by letting them screw up their kids isn't helping anybody. Have you ever met anyone successful who said "my parents let me get away with anything!" I sure as heck haven't. I've met a few ex-cons who said that though.
I think US censorship is screwed up anyway and needs a major overhaul. I'll save that rant for another time.
They probably figured by constantly improving the refresh rate and increasing dpi, they'd eventually run into the uncertainty principle. So if we have to stop then anyway, why not stop now? We're already beyond the ability of (most) human eyes. Heck, why are we confined to just using the visual color spectrum? I want my monitor to display infrared!
. . . Actually, seeing body heat would add a new insight into porn. Hmmmmmmmm
At times like this, I wish slashdot would get a few more troll labels. There should be term for a slightly entertaining troll, then there should be a term for this guy whose goal is to tick people off. Some of them make me laugh, and I'd miss them if they left, but this is just sad.
Oh right, stay on topic. Ummm they should fly the shuttle through the volcanic ash, just to show they can do it. It doesn't have any intakes to damage, right? Yeah I know it's stupid for a dozen other reasons. Oh well.
Time to invest in those solar tubes to get the sunlight down into the basement for us then.
"Offtopic"? I should've known /. would be full of Gargamel fans.
I've known about Papa Smurf for a long time.
http://bluebuddies.com/gallery/Panini_Smurf_Stickers/jpg/Smurfs_Panini_Stickers_Sticker_24_Orchestra_Topps.jpg
So does this mean I can switch back to SETI@Home? What has the next priority?
What about kids? Should a 12 year old be able to go rent a snuff film if he wants? Even if children are banned from getting it, they'll still have older friends check it out for them. Taking stuff off the shelves isn't meant to protect the adults. You can't just hit the whole idea of censorship with a wide stroke like that.
Usually when I try to take the "obviously enlightened view", I also try to look at the caveats.
"Professor, we would like for you to calculate if a nuclear weapon would ignite the oxygen in the atmosphere and destroy the planet. Take your time, we want to be --"
"No, it's fine."
"... What? Have you already done the calculation?!"
"No. It's just that if I'm wrong, who'd know?"
Luckily, he guessed correctly. Gotta love that Konopinski.
The Blind Shall See Again, But When?
Hopefully after you know who isn't on tv anymore!
Sorry about the sarcastic retort, I'm grumpy this morning. I'll try to make it somewhat entertaining. Here we go:
I'll admit, I'm using the data I have. I've seen several results from ice core measurements and don't trust those since they must infer the temperature (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about?), whereas a satellite can measure the whole planet looking at infrared (or whatever they do). If you can send your DeLorean back and put a satellite in orbit for me, I'll be happy to look at the timeline you suggest. Even so, we historically have amazingly massive die-offs in our history. I don't think that'd be something I'd want to let naturally happen.
"Help! My house has been burning for 5 minutes and I can't stop it! I need the firemen to come put it out!" ... No???"
"Sir? Have you considered that the house wasn't burning an hour ago?"
"What?
"Well sir, your house being on fire might be something that happens routinely. Do you have proof it has always survived being on fire before?"
"Ummmm well it does have a chimney...."
"Exactly, sir! It is built to emit smoke! Therefore, it can withstand this fire! Just wait it out!"
"But... if you're wrong, my house will burn down."
"TRUST ME! It won't burn down. Think of the money you'd save by doing nothing."
"I think I'd rather play it safe."
"Well, okay, if you insist. I'll send them out to put out the fire."
"Don't bother. While you were talking, it burned down already."
why didn't they just let Skynet handle it?
I will be convinced global warming is false when charts like these show the global temperature *drop*:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/
Any questions?
Correct, but you don't have to be logged in to post anonymously, right? You can even use a different computer to make sure your IP isn't the same.
He posted anonymously this time. It's a way to cheat the slashdot moderation system. Nice to know we have such scrupulous people here calling others trolls, yes? Watch closely, in a moment he'll post another anonymous message pretending to agree with himself ;)
They're not just trolls, Comcast really is that bad in some places. I've been using a free ConnectionMonitor (from steelbytes) to log downtime. It went down 18 times yesterday. That was a typical day. We've called their techs about it half a dozen times, and none of them have a clue what's wrong. We still pay though because it's either unreliable, yet otherwise blazing fast connection or dialup. Comcast still wins.
The extra sad part is, back before Comcast bought the local cable company, service was excellent. Our cable modem never dropped out. We also got better programming on tv. Somehow, these guys took the same hardware and ruined it.
I might still fall into the category of troll for saying this, but I'm really hoping that an antitrust hammer comes down on these guys.
"It's a much darker, much more character-based series, much more adult, and we're hoping that it will go on for up to 400 episodes," he said.
Is it just me, or does every new dark scifi show just look like another Battlestar Galactica ripoff? I (and I realize I'm in the minority) was extremely disappointed with Stargate Universe when it was obvious trying to just redo BSG. I got enough of that perpetually poorly lit episode of Jerry Springer after the first hour.
*Please* scifi writers, go back to the humorous fun of Firefly and original Stargate SG-1. Stop with the dark stuff. Star Trek Enterprise flopped amazingly fast because it was trying to be dark. I thought after seeing an amazing title like Star Trek go down so fast, people would get the hint that dark scifi isn't good. Sure, BSG was successful. Do you know why I watched it? It was because it was the only thing around. Dark scifi is like the lone ugly hooker across the street.
tl;dr
Seriously though, I agree with you for the most part. (I apologize now for grammar Nazis on this site who will attack you imminently.) I don't think shortening all words to their acronyms is the best way to go. If you run across a word you don't know, you can make a good guess at the pronunciation from the spelling. You're pretty much screwed with all the modern shortcuts though. Plus I'd hate to read a paper with emoticons at the front of a class and have to mimic all the little faces. Finally, typing speeds in the new generation have really dropped. They can text message in a blazing fury, but that's for the most part useless. Heck, I don't even like people who type slow on my MMO team.
So when these Auroch things are alive again, are the spellchecker overlords going to add them to the list? I see they get a red line for me today. Those guys read this site, right?
I remember back when speed limit signs in the US used to have mph and kph on them. I thought we'd be switched in the next few years. But then they all went away and people were again satisfied with using what they already knew.
What'll be fun is when they try building a space elevator to "reach the heavens" and it fails because the units don't match up. Didn't I hear this story before? From way back when Aurochs were still around?
Wake me up when they get to handheld 3d porn. I need a refresh rate of at least 120 Hz, right? Do OLEDs even have non-glowy refresh rates suitable for 3d? (Legitimate question, not sarcasm.)
Now I finally understand how an ensign with a couple years of starfleet training knows how to repair and operate everything! He's cheating his arse off! Sweet! I want one!
And of course, I'm looking forward to the kama sutra edition coming out next month! "Tickle here."
Back when women stayed in the kitchen, this kind of thing never happened!!
Seriously though, I'd like to see what type of lifestyle changes people think contributed to this. Is it the internet porn? Cell phone text messaging? Cell phone cameras in bathrooms? Air conditioning? What?
I haven't gotten any spam on hotmail past the filter. Ever. I'm using 5% of my storage space after using it for 10+ years. I use a mail program to log in so I don't see the ads. I'll grant you that the attachment size isn't so good though. I've never sent a file more than 10MB, so that doesn't really matter to me.
I use hotmail. When gmail came out, all my friends were very excited about it and immediately switched all their records to point toward their fancy new gmail account. Then I asked them what was so great about it. You know, it sounded a *lot* like hotmail. It's amazing that email addys are subject to fads just like the rest of the shallow world. Nerds are not immune, we just get hit by different fads.
AOL was never a nerd fad though. It's always been a ripoff. At least they have a nice messenger though (so long as you use an ad-free interface).