Sure, but let's just say that rats aren't exactly a fragile, endangered species. They'll probably survive the next world war despite how practically every other species won't.
Is it? Or are you just a bitter, closed-minded jerk? Just because what I propose doesn't apply to *you* because of the choices *you've* made, because you're not willing to think differently from the people around you... well, I guess that makes me really stupid, doesn't it?
1) Cars aren't hard to maintain, if you have a little mechanical knowledge.
I suppose that depends on how you mean "hard to maintain." When was the last time you had to make repairs that did not cost several hundred dollars? New tires? New brake shoes? Alignment (which I'm sure you do on your own)? I suppose the regular changing of oil and oil filter doesn't cost a lot, but that's about the only maintenance project I can think of on a car that doesn't cost stupid amounts of money. And then there's things like replacing your head gaskets (while not *technically* difficult, is a something that takes up much of your weekend) or your oil seals, or your headers or muffler, or... well, ask yourself something else. Do you maintain anything else around the house anywhere *near* as much as you maintain your car?
My dad relies on his car. He can't live without one. His nearest grocery store and bank is 60 miles away. He's a very good shade-tree mechanic and does all his own work. He even likes doing it. And *every* time I suggest to him that I might want to get a car, he has this to say: "Don't." Why? See reasons above.
And then you say something totally counter your own argument:
2) Cars aren't expensive if you buy used ones that are 5-10 years old.
Sure, okay. Do you have $5000 lying around in your bank account? No? How did you pay for that again? Oh yeah, you pay the bank 6% while you pay that off. If you need a loan from the bank for something, it's expensive. Oh, and don't forget that most of the cost of a used car is in maintenance. So on top of the $100 a month you pay the bank, you pay $100 a month in insurance, and then $300 every few months when you *least* expect it, because the repairs you've been putting off suddenly need to be done or the car doesn't work.
Because this is a total lie. 95% of my trips are more than a mile away. There's a nice mall that happens to be located about a mile away from me,
See, this is the crux of my argument that you are a bitter jerk. Instead of choosing to live somewhere even remotely close to that nice mall, you chose to live as far away from anything as possible. And because I come along and suggest maybe there might be another way, well, then my argument doesn't apply to anyone else in America, and therefore I'm a moron.
Well, I just bought a townhouse in the suburbs. You know what my criteria were? Close to transit, close to shopping, maybe close to school, and if I'm really lucky, close to work too. And what do you know, as I'm walking to work from the train one morning, I notice that there's these townhouses being built. A couple blocks from a grocery store and a dozen other shops. Heck, I even get a yard and a playground just outside our door for our kid in the deal. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe I planned it that way.
I can bet what your criteria were when you bought your house in the suburbs. "I have a car, so I can live anywhere. Just so long as the land is cheap, I don't care." So now, you're *dependant* on your car, and when some pot-smoking hippie dickhead comes along to suggest that you don't need your car, you get pissy with him and tell him that everyone else in the world is just like you. What about the people living in the hundreds of houses in the few blocks around *your* mall? Or the thousands of other malls in every city in America?
*You* need your car. Other people do not need their cars. Some people still have the opportunity to make the choice, like I did, so I plant the seed in their heads.
And your argument that it sucks to walk or bike in the rain? What did you think I meant when I said "If I need to, I'll call a cab"?
1) Rogue. The PC version, copyright 1984. Accept no substitutes. 2) Bubble Bobble, via MAME or the PS2 port named "Taito Classics" 3) I Katamari - that game just *cannot* be stressful. 4) Space Cadet Pinball. You know the one. 5) Freecell
The other games I play (these days, primarily Gran Turismo 4 and Day of Defeat) have a tendency towards stressing me out more than I already am. If I just want to calm down and play something to distract me before going to bed, the above are sure to do just that.
It tells the reader about how even if cars ran on pollution and planted flowers everywhere they went, they're still a big pain in the ass and really, not worth the trouble. They're hard to maintain, expensive, deadly, hard to find parking for (and when we build more roads and parking, traffic and parking problems just get worse), and expensive to society as a whole.
The book also tells of two possible solutions to the problem, that you can implement right away. There's the car-lite life, and the no-car life. Because I was young and living in a big city with good public transit (where I still currently live, but not for much longer), I chose the no-car life. Instead of buying a car, I found an apartment closer to rapid transit, which gives me a direct route to work. I get my groceries delivered to my door - I can do this over the internet or any one of the many local grocery stores. If the trip is short, I just walk or bike. And if I *need* a car, I call for a cab.
The car-lite life means using your car as little as possible. 90% of all trips are less than a mile anyway, so why not walk or bike them? And yes, you'd be amazed how many shops will deliver, but I'd bet you hadn't had the need to ask before, have you? If your city has rapid transit in one form or another, it more than likely lets you park at the nearest train station, so that you can keep the trip distance down. Or perhaps you can lock up your bike there. There's not always a need to bike the *whole* way to get where you're going.
Either option is also good for your health, by the way. Not only are you contributing less to smog, but you're getting more exercise. And no doubt, your doctor knows how that's a good thing.
Playing Day of Defeat has taught me that my life expectancy as an infantryman in combat is about three minutes. Which just so happens to coincide with real life. Generals use these life expectancy numbers to determine whether or not enough of their men will survive to hold the ground they expect to take.
And it's also taught me that everything you ever learned about combat in movies is bullshit. But then I kinda knew that already anyway.
Sometimes I find myself wondering: 10-15 years from now, am I going to be the old fogey freaking out about something new that I don't trust, but all the kids are into?
Not me man. I not only grew up with video games, I grew up with Slayer and King Diamond. Marilyn Manson came a little later on, but by then it was a schtick that had been done before. After that, *nothing* is shocking.
CNN has recently posted a story about a company (EEStor) that plans on offering UltraCapacitor storage products
Uh huh. And I plan on building flying brooms that will whisk us around by magic alone. No fuel or flying license needed! Who wants to lend me money to persue this goal?
When Gran Turismo HD is going to be a stupidly expensive pay-as-you-go experience? I'd much rather keep my PS2 and get all the stuff that comes with the game for free.
You know the scene in Hackers where Joey logs into that one computer, and rainbows of stars and other shit come streaming across the screen?
Somehow, I think the audience would have gotten the point if we just got a zoom-in of "Login successful. Welcome to Cyberdyne systems model 101." Especially if he started doing the victory dance.
I don't know about you, but if the "Login successful" screen did the stars shit every time *I* logged into a computer, I would drag the developer into a dark alley and beat him with a crowbar for a couple of hours.
Of course, that wouldn't excuse the other egregious hackery that comprised much of the dialog. You gotta love a line like "Run Antivirus!"
Is Valve turning into Microsoft by introducing features that are not needed or wanted by the community
No. Here's how it works.
Company A builds widget because it thinks the public wants it. Noone asked them to make it. Company A isn't entirely sure whether or not their widget will sell, until they try to sell it.
Successful companies make this gamble, and it works because the public actually needs or wants their widget. Unsuccessful companies make this gamble, and it fails. Companies that fail to try to innovate stagnate and fail, even if their first widget was successful. Companies that just go along with what their customers want will fail simply because some other company will come along and make something nobody thought to make before, and beat company A at their own game.
Did anyone ask for this feature in CS? No. Did anyone want this feature in CS? Apparently not. Was Valve wrong in putting it forward? No. At least they bothered to take the risk to make something they thought might sell.
non-wanker1 was killed by admin non-wanker2 was killed by admin decentplayer was killed by admin IHateGriefers was killed by admin IdontCheat was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin sumyunguy was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin
k3w1d00d: h4w h4w!
non-wanker1 was killed by admin non-wanker2 was killed by admin decentplayer was killed by admin IHateGriefers was killed by admin IdontCheat was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin sumyunguy was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin
k3w1d00d: You're all my bitches now!!
non-wanker1 was killed by admin non-wanker2 was killed by admin decentplayer was killed by admin IHateGriefers was killed by admin IdontCheat was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin sumyunguy was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin
IHateGriefers has left the game
non-wanker1 was killed by admin non-wanker2 was killed by admin decentplayer was killed by admin IdontCheat was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin sumyunguy was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin
IdontCheat has left the game decentplayer has left the game sumyunguy has left the game non-wanker2 has left the game non-wanker1 has left the game
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin absentadmin was killed by admin
The iPod is a product, not a market or a company. And every product goes through this sort of cycle where it is launched, gains popularity, peaks, and loses popularity. The market gets saturated eventually when *everyone* has your product. And the iPod isn't disposable, like say Saran Wrap, so it's not like people just keep buying it again and again. For a company to be successful, it has to keep coming up with good ideas.
At work for our servers, we have one computer that does nothing but backups and logging. Its 300 gig harddrive is far more than we need for all our backup needs. No disks need to be changed, no labour is needed. Backups happen automatically at off-peak times, and I hardly have to think about them at all. You could do your backups while you sleep and turn your computer off during the day when you're at work.
This solution doesn't have to be expensive either. So long as the BIOS can support the hard drive, it can be an old, slow box that you were about to give away to your second cousin's daughter. And at home, it could just as easily double as your firewall.
Isn't it better for these weirdos to have safe outlet for these destructive fetishes?
I am one of those weirdos. I like getting beaten and brutally sodomized. This is a safe outlet for "those destructive fetishes". And the porn they propose banning is the sort of porn I like.
This same thing was done in Canada around 1984. The only thing it succeeded in doing was make porn bland and boring. Even vanilla porn was horribly affected because the restrictions on what could be written, photographed, or drawn were so fascist. But there was no corresponding drop in violent sex offences. Eventually the law just went away.
If an insomniac uses his bed (or bedroom, for that matter) for anything besides sleeping and sex, they train their subconscious brain to think "Hey, we're in bed now, and that means it's time to eat/read/work, not sleep." That's a surefire way to ensure that you don't get to sleep.
Long ago I learned it was a planet and I see no reason to unlearn it. Why should I?
How would you like to learn the names a dozen more planets? And that's just this year. You'll be learning a new planet every year from now on too, if you keep Pluto within the definition of a planet.
Unlearning something is easy. Way easier than learning a whole lotta new things.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, but let's just say that rats aren't exactly a fragile, endangered species. They'll probably survive the next world war despite how practically every other species won't.
This is really stupid.
Is it? Or are you just a bitter, closed-minded jerk? Just because what I propose doesn't apply to *you* because of the choices *you've* made, because you're not willing to think differently from the people around you... well, I guess that makes me really stupid, doesn't it?
1) Cars aren't hard to maintain, if you have a little mechanical knowledge.
I suppose that depends on how you mean "hard to maintain." When was the last time you had to make repairs that did not cost several hundred dollars? New tires? New brake shoes? Alignment (which I'm sure you do on your own)? I suppose the regular changing of oil and oil filter doesn't cost a lot, but that's about the only maintenance project I can think of on a car that doesn't cost stupid amounts of money. And then there's things like replacing your head gaskets (while not *technically* difficult, is a something that takes up much of your weekend) or your oil seals, or your headers or muffler, or... well, ask yourself something else. Do you maintain anything else around the house anywhere *near* as much as you maintain your car?
My dad relies on his car. He can't live without one. His nearest grocery store and bank is 60 miles away. He's a very good shade-tree mechanic and does all his own work. He even likes doing it. And *every* time I suggest to him that I might want to get a car, he has this to say: "Don't." Why? See reasons above.
And then you say something totally counter your own argument:
2) Cars aren't expensive if you buy used ones that are 5-10 years old.
Sure, okay. Do you have $5000 lying around in your bank account? No? How did you pay for that again? Oh yeah, you pay the bank 6% while you pay that off. If you need a loan from the bank for something, it's expensive. Oh, and don't forget that most of the cost of a used car is in maintenance. So on top of the $100 a month you pay the bank, you pay $100 a month in insurance, and then $300 every few months when you *least* expect it, because the repairs you've been putting off suddenly need to be done or the car doesn't work.
Because this is a total lie. 95% of my trips are more than a mile away. There's a nice mall that happens to be located about a mile away from me,
See, this is the crux of my argument that you are a bitter jerk. Instead of choosing to live somewhere even remotely close to that nice mall, you chose to live as far away from anything as possible. And because I come along and suggest maybe there might be another way, well, then my argument doesn't apply to anyone else in America, and therefore I'm a moron.
Well, I just bought a townhouse in the suburbs. You know what my criteria were? Close to transit, close to shopping, maybe close to school, and if I'm really lucky, close to work too. And what do you know, as I'm walking to work from the train one morning, I notice that there's these townhouses being built. A couple blocks from a grocery store and a dozen other shops. Heck, I even get a yard and a playground just outside our door for our kid in the deal. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe I planned it that way.
I can bet what your criteria were when you bought your house in the suburbs. "I have a car, so I can live anywhere. Just so long as the land is cheap, I don't care." So now, you're *dependant* on your car, and when some pot-smoking hippie dickhead comes along to suggest that you don't need your car, you get pissy with him and tell him that everyone else in the world is just like you. What about the people living in the hundreds of houses in the few blocks around *your* mall? Or the thousands of other malls in every city in America?
*You* need your car. Other people do not need their cars. Some people still have the opportunity to make the choice, like I did, so I plant the seed in their heads.
And your argument that it sucks to walk or bike in the rain? What did you think I meant when I said "If I need to, I'll call a cab"?
In order of freqency:
1) Rogue. The PC version, copyright 1984. Accept no substitutes.
2) Bubble Bobble, via MAME or the PS2 port named "Taito Classics"
3) I Katamari - that game just *cannot* be stressful.
4) Space Cadet Pinball. You know the one.
5) Freecell
The other games I play (these days, primarily Gran Turismo 4 and Day of Defeat) have a tendency towards stressing me out more than I already am. If I just want to calm down and play something to distract me before going to bed, the above are sure to do just that.
Bubble Bobble: The most saccarine game you can imagine that paradoxically produces the most obscenities from the players.
Years ago, I read the book Divorce Your Car!
It tells the reader about how even if cars ran on pollution and planted flowers everywhere they went, they're still a big pain in the ass and really, not worth the trouble. They're hard to maintain, expensive, deadly, hard to find parking for (and when we build more roads and parking, traffic and parking problems just get worse), and expensive to society as a whole.
The book also tells of two possible solutions to the problem, that you can implement right away. There's the car-lite life, and the no-car life. Because I was young and living in a big city with good public transit (where I still currently live, but not for much longer), I chose the no-car life. Instead of buying a car, I found an apartment closer to rapid transit, which gives me a direct route to work. I get my groceries delivered to my door - I can do this over the internet or any one of the many local grocery stores. If the trip is short, I just walk or bike. And if I *need* a car, I call for a cab.
The car-lite life means using your car as little as possible. 90% of all trips are less than a mile anyway, so why not walk or bike them? And yes, you'd be amazed how many shops will deliver, but I'd bet you hadn't had the need to ask before, have you? If your city has rapid transit in one form or another, it more than likely lets you park at the nearest train station, so that you can keep the trip distance down. Or perhaps you can lock up your bike there. There's not always a need to bike the *whole* way to get where you're going.
Either option is also good for your health, by the way. Not only are you contributing less to smog, but you're getting more exercise. And no doubt, your doctor knows how that's a good thing.
Playing Day of Defeat has taught me that my life expectancy as an infantryman in combat is about three minutes. Which just so happens to coincide with real life. Generals use these life expectancy numbers to determine whether or not enough of their men will survive to hold the ground they expect to take.
And it's also taught me that everything you ever learned about combat in movies is bullshit. But then I kinda knew that already anyway.
Sometimes I find myself wondering: 10-15 years from now, am I going to be the old fogey freaking out about something new that I don't trust, but all the kids are into?
Not me man. I not only grew up with video games, I grew up with Slayer and King Diamond. Marilyn Manson came a little later on, but by then it was a schtick that had been done before. After that, *nothing* is shocking.
My kids are worshipping satan? Hell man, giv'er!
CNN has recently posted a story about a company (EEStor) that plans on offering UltraCapacitor storage products
Uh huh. And I plan on building flying brooms that will whisk us around by magic alone. No fuel or flying license needed! Who wants to lend me money to persue this goal?
Who said I was going for the kill?
When Gran Turismo HD is going to be a stupidly expensive pay-as-you-go experience? I'd much rather keep my PS2 and get all the stuff that comes with the game for free.
Accessories not included, my ass.
You know the scene in Hackers where Joey logs into that one computer, and rainbows of stars and other shit come streaming across the screen?
Somehow, I think the audience would have gotten the point if we just got a zoom-in of "Login successful. Welcome to Cyberdyne systems model 101." Especially if he started doing the victory dance.
I don't know about you, but if the "Login successful" screen did the stars shit every time *I* logged into a computer, I would drag the developer into a dark alley and beat him with a crowbar for a couple of hours.
Of course, that wouldn't excuse the other egregious hackery that comprised much of the dialog. You gotta love a line like "Run Antivirus!"
Heh. And to think that I completely forgot about that.
Is Valve turning into Microsoft by introducing features that are not needed or wanted by the community
No. Here's how it works.
Company A builds widget because it thinks the public wants it. Noone asked them to make it. Company A isn't entirely sure whether or not their widget will sell, until they try to sell it.
Successful companies make this gamble, and it works because the public actually needs or wants their widget. Unsuccessful companies make this gamble, and it fails. Companies that fail to try to innovate stagnate and fail, even if their first widget was successful. Companies that just go along with what their customers want will fail simply because some other company will come along and make something nobody thought to make before, and beat company A at their own game.
Did anyone ask for this feature in CS? No. Did anyone want this feature in CS? Apparently not. Was Valve wrong in putting it forward? No. At least they bothered to take the risk to make something they thought might sell.
This is what happens when you buy locked down products
And this is what happens when you don't:
k3w1d00d: H3y b1tch3s! l00k1t wh4t 1 c4n d0!
k3w1d00d: H3y b1tch3s! l00k1t wh4t 1 c4n d0!
k3w1d00d: H3y b1tch3s! l00k1t wh4t 1 c4n d0!
k3w1d00d: H3y b1tch3s! l00k1t wh4t 1 c4n d0!
k3w1d00d: H3y b1tch3s! l00k1t wh4t 1 c4n d0!
k3w1d00d: H3y b1tch3s! l00k1t wh4t 1 c4n d0!
non-wanker1 was killed by admin
non-wanker2 was killed by admin
decentplayer was killed by admin
IHateGriefers was killed by admin
IdontCheat was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
sumyunguy was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
k3w1d00d: h4w h4w!
non-wanker1 was killed by admin
non-wanker2 was killed by admin
decentplayer was killed by admin
IHateGriefers was killed by admin
IdontCheat was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
sumyunguy was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
k3w1d00d: You're all my bitches now!!
non-wanker1 was killed by admin
non-wanker2 was killed by admin
decentplayer was killed by admin
IHateGriefers was killed by admin
IdontCheat was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
sumyunguy was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
IHateGriefers has left the game
non-wanker1 was killed by admin
non-wanker2 was killed by admin
decentplayer was killed by admin
IdontCheat was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
sumyunguy was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
IdontCheat has left the game
decentplayer has left the game
sumyunguy has left the game
non-wanker2 has left the game
non-wanker1 has left the game
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
DontKillMeImOnly8 was killed by admin
absentadmin was killed by admin
k3w1d00d: W3ll, th15 15 14m3 n0w. Y0u guy5 5uck.
k3w1d00d has left the game.
I thought they called that "Xbox".
I don't think I'm alone when I say, 'Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!'"
:)
No, you're not. In fact, you probably aren't the first either. Slashdot isn't the *only* place that geeks hang out, you know.
So, if I'm carrying a bluetooth thumbdrive full of porn, it will start showing wildly inappropriate ads on the big screen? Cool!
The iPod is a product, not a market or a company. And every product goes through this sort of cycle where it is launched, gains popularity, peaks, and loses popularity. The market gets saturated eventually when *everyone* has your product. And the iPod isn't disposable, like say Saran Wrap, so it's not like people just keep buying it again and again. For a company to be successful, it has to keep coming up with good ideas.
Sell your soul! Hell, sell someone else's soul! We don't care! We at evilpeople.com, we will buy souls wholseale!
At work for our servers, we have one computer that does nothing but backups and logging. Its 300 gig harddrive is far more than we need for all our backup needs. No disks need to be changed, no labour is needed. Backups happen automatically at off-peak times, and I hardly have to think about them at all. You could do your backups while you sleep and turn your computer off during the day when you're at work.
This solution doesn't have to be expensive either. So long as the BIOS can support the hard drive, it can be an old, slow box that you were about to give away to your second cousin's daughter. And at home, it could just as easily double as your firewall.
Isn't it better for these weirdos to have safe outlet for these destructive fetishes?
I am one of those weirdos. I like getting beaten and brutally sodomized. This is a safe outlet for "those destructive fetishes". And the porn they propose banning is the sort of porn I like.
This same thing was done in Canada around 1984. The only thing it succeeded in doing was make porn bland and boring. Even vanilla porn was horribly affected because the restrictions on what could be written, photographed, or drawn were so fascist. But there was no corresponding drop in violent sex offences. Eventually the law just went away.
Are they going to also change That Fight Music?
I am an insomniac, and this *is* insightful.
If an insomniac uses his bed (or bedroom, for that matter) for anything besides sleeping and sex, they train their subconscious brain to think "Hey, we're in bed now, and that means it's time to eat/read/work, not sleep." That's a surefire way to ensure that you don't get to sleep.
Long ago I learned it was a planet and I see no reason to unlearn it. Why should I?
How would you like to learn the names a dozen more planets? And that's just this year. You'll be learning a new planet every year from now on too, if you keep Pluto within the definition of a planet.
Unlearning something is easy. Way easier than learning a whole lotta new things.
Oh my god. It just occurred to me that I'm a nerd.
It's okay. Everything will be fine. Now take a deep breath, and let it out. Now repeat after me:
There's nothing wrong with being a nerd. I'm a nerd and I'm proud of it. I can be a nerd and still function socially.
You may or may not need to work pretty hard to make that last one a reality though.