I appreciate people thinking like this, but you are being naive.
First of all, the U.S. economy is a $14T juggernaut. This is basically tied with the EU, which was designed to compete with the US, but is still in its infancy of actually doing so. As for China, that is either an $8T economy based on purchasing power, or a $4T economy raw. Their GDP per capita is $3000. That's retarded compared to the US, where the GDP per capita in Mississippi is $30,000.
Point being, if you're looking for economic competition, it is only just beginning.
Second, there is cultural competition, which I would argue is even more inertial than economics. In this area, the rest of the world is even further behind.
Around here, it's mostly gays, married, with children. People who say, "He can't be gay, he's married," I give a hearty laugh to that. Come stand in my driveway for an afternoon.
My town is a gay magnet disguised as a nice suburb. I've met plenty of gays who want to live here, besides the ones who already do. So if you are wondering who is the 0.1%, they tend to cluster.
And yet, some of the spiral tables organize by chemical properties, and intuitively show the progression of orbital shells. This 3D one is the most impressive.
It depends if you want a handy reference sheet or a pictoral that explains the workings of the universe. Personally, I never understood why the Lanthinides and Actinides were separate, and I took AP Chem. But one glance at the 3D chart (or any decent spiral) and it's clear what is going on.
I hope this was an attempt at humor, because you've conflated two different sayings, Picasso drawing on a napkin and engineers performing back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Also, b-o-t-e calculations are supposed to be good enough to get started, not some brainstorming session that results in a half-baked idea.
Wow is right. Read the "fractal" part of the superliminal link and then navigate to this 3D version that she mentions. The 3D version is sick. (also full-color and rotateable)
The spirals attempted since the 1950s are basically the 3D version as viewed from above. Mrs. superliminal apparently realized that it's a fractal (it is), and the 3D version really makes that apparent.
You're right in everything you said about touchpads. Now how about these technologies that people actually like?
First, trackball in a keyboard. I have bad memories of trackballs from the Centipede era, but lots of people here seem to think they're the shit. And most of them are only about an inch wide.
Second, Playstation-style analog stick on a keyboard. They seem to work well enough for millions of kids everyday. Personally, I wouldn't play Gran Turismo without it.
Finally, were the eraser nubs worse? Or did they just require lots more practice? If they were analog (and I don't really remember), then they were good enough.
The keyboard isn't going anywhere, but the mouse should. It's a drop-dead simple pointing device that happens to be accurate enough for action games. It's also bizarre behavior to constantly switch from two-handed computer operation to one-handed mode in order to move the cursor.
The pointer should have been integrated with the keyboard long ago.
In fact, probably the only reason the mouse exists is because it was invented after the keyboard. My first PC didn't have one. It didn't have a graphical OS, so it didn't need one. The mouse was considered an accessory, and apparently has survived because of that distinction.
I sort of agree - once you start gesturing, what the fuck is the mouse for? You can gesture anywhere - it doesn't need to be on top of a movable ball of plastic. If this research is camera based, put the goddamn camera in the keyboard so I can leave my hands where they are.
They had gesturing systems in the 1950's, it was called the Theremin. You don't touch anything.
>First, pianists press on their fingertips more often and much harder than you do.
If you read closely, the OP did not say that pressing too hard is what hurts his fingers. He said it's not having something to actually press. Piano keys are buttons that go down. They are extremely heavy and the effort of playing piano develops nice musculature.
What this video showed was people rapping their fingers against hard plastic. How fun.
Making an LCD panel with a quarter inch of glass would be like putting nicotine in a smokeless injector or designing an engine that doesn't feed on dinosaur sludge. How could you mess with our culture, man?
Yeah, I had assumed plasma displays were basically a direct improvement of CRTs in terms of the visual effect. Thus, the OP who enjoys the "look" of a CRT can simply buy a plasma.
LCD's are actually quite different, and the result is brighter, but decidedly inferior picture quality in other respects. LCD's seem to require the constant presence of a line doubler/smoother algorithm. And the pixels are blockier, due to the shutters. The first time I played classic video games on my LCD, I was horrified.
Yes. 480p plasma TV's were quite common circa 2004-05 when a market segment opened up for flatscreens under $2500. They were garbage, resolution-wise, compared to what we have now.
Of course, back then, I think there was only about 3 HD channels, and PBS was one of them.
You can put a quarter inch of glass on an LCD panel to protect it. They were going to do that, but an epidemic of angel dust hit Japan and it never happened.
The lack of glass on an LCD panel is probably the #1 product defect in the world today. Right up there with smoke in nicotine sticks, and cars that only run on liquid dinosaur.
I don't think he was complaining about widescreen. He was saying most web pages are constricted to 800x600. So regardless of the shape of the screen, you're going to get blank space on the sides.
What he was saying is that screens are getting even wider and web developers haven't noticed or changed their design habits.
I'm interested in transitioning biology from being sort of a craft....to an engineering discipline with standardized methods...
Good! Geneticists would benefit from getting smarter. Anybody taken a look at Monsanto's work? I don't think "train wreck" quite captures the epic fail quality they've managed to achieve.
It's just one example of how banks don't want the regulations that would protect their interests. And in this case, it's the customers who lose. If a bank is vulnerable, damn straight the customers should know about it. That's why mandatory disclosure/prosecution/whatever is the only way.
Yeah but you have to admit that the risk is tremendous. When I got my bank credit card, I asked the teller if he had my CC number. He said, yeah. I thought, wow.
This bank teller has everyone's credit card number. And what's worse, every bank teller has everyone's credit card number!
Granted, I guess there are certain social norms about privacy in the workplace. For example, I collect CC numbers all day at my job and nobody seems to think I'm amassing my own database. But there's something wicked about already having a database and hiring somebody new and a week later he/she has full access.
True. There is a disconnect. Techies don't have the personality to actively brand themselves, and clients don't have the technical skills to appreciate good help.
That's why the most successful techies have good personalities and only a moderate amount of skill.
Example, the last time I had the cable guy over the house, he had never seen Tivo and had no idea that high-def recording or live streaming existed. He didn't know that Windows XP 32 and 64-bit were different (his software failed on my platform), and it was futile to explain the difference. He had never seen a 40" TV used as a computer monitor, either.
But I'm sure he's supporting a family of four. He's mature, been doing it for a while and probably has a great resume.
Now, if you want to go into business as a cable tech, how do you differentiate yourself from this guy, who knows absolutely nothing, and has a better reputation than you do?
Actually, it is. When you sell a house to someone with no money, that's fraud. Especially when you know you're doing it.
Also something called "naked short-selling", which involves selling non-existent stock. It happens millions of times per day, everyone does it, and nobody complains. Bear and Lehman stock was counterfeited so rapidly, the stock plummeted to zero within days.
It's the thug life, right? No fraud in the hood. Drugs, guns, murder - that's just recklessness and stupidity.
>Preferably they should be contributing to the household somehow.
Depends if the household wants a contribution or not. You'd be surprised how upper-class suburbia raises kids. $20,000 birthday parties for elementary school kids. That's the extreme example. But many kids will have $100,000 college lined up for them, match that much for law school, as well as $30,000 bar mitzvah or Sweet 16. In many cases, new sports car or SUV, $20,000. Why not? It helps to have wheels.
When your parents are spending that kind of money on you, milking the cows (so to speak) ain't gonna contribute nothing.
Slashdot Mirror
I appreciate people thinking like this, but you are being naive.
First of all, the U.S. economy is a $14T juggernaut. This is basically tied with the EU, which was designed to compete with the US, but is still in its infancy of actually doing so. As for China, that is either an $8T economy based on purchasing power, or a $4T economy raw. Their GDP per capita is $3000. That's retarded compared to the US, where the GDP per capita in Mississippi is $30,000.
Point being, if you're looking for economic competition, it is only just beginning.
Second, there is cultural competition, which I would argue is even more inertial than economics. In this area, the rest of the world is even further behind.
>Yes, but did they understand what the papers they signed meant, before they took the accounting classes?
Wait a sec, students sign loan papers??
I was a student. I don't remember signing anything. But I do remember having mega-loans.
Maybe the problem is treating teenagers like chattel.
Speaking of "fucktards" who "live near you"...
Around here, it's mostly gays, married, with children. People who say, "He can't be gay, he's married," I give a hearty laugh to that. Come stand in my driveway for an afternoon.
My town is a gay magnet disguised as a nice suburb. I've met plenty of gays who want to live here, besides the ones who already do. So if you are wondering who is the 0.1%, they tend to cluster.
Amazing that OP thinks electing Bush every 4 years is OK.
He should be introduced to "a man" and they should be asked to "get it on." At worst, hooking up with trannies is a neutral thing.
From Turbines and Straw, Danish Are Eating A Dick.COM
And yet, some of the spiral tables organize by chemical properties, and intuitively show the progression of orbital shells. This 3D one is the most impressive.
It depends if you want a handy reference sheet or a pictoral that explains the workings of the universe. Personally, I never understood why the Lanthinides and Actinides were separate, and I took AP Chem. But one glance at the 3D chart (or any decent spiral) and it's clear what is going on.
I hope this was an attempt at humor, because you've conflated two different sayings, Picasso drawing on a napkin and engineers performing back-of-the-envelope calculations.
Also, b-o-t-e calculations are supposed to be good enough to get started, not some brainstorming session that results in a half-baked idea.
Wow is right. Read the "fractal" part of the superliminal link and then navigate to this 3D version that she mentions. The 3D version is sick. (also full-color and rotateable)
The spirals attempted since the 1950s are basically the 3D version as viewed from above. Mrs. superliminal apparently realized that it's a fractal (it is), and the 3D version really makes that apparent.
You're right in everything you said about touchpads. Now how about these technologies that people actually like?
First, trackball in a keyboard. I have bad memories of trackballs from the Centipede era, but lots of people here seem to think they're the shit. And most of them are only about an inch wide.
Second, Playstation-style analog stick on a keyboard. They seem to work well enough for millions of kids everyday. Personally, I wouldn't play Gran Turismo without it.
Finally, were the eraser nubs worse? Or did they just require lots more practice? If they were analog (and I don't really remember), then they were good enough.
The keyboard isn't going anywhere, but the mouse should. It's a drop-dead simple pointing device that happens to be accurate enough for action games. It's also bizarre behavior to constantly switch from two-handed computer operation to one-handed mode in order to move the cursor.
The pointer should have been integrated with the keyboard long ago.
In fact, probably the only reason the mouse exists is because it was invented after the keyboard. My first PC didn't have one. It didn't have a graphical OS, so it didn't need one. The mouse was considered an accessory, and apparently has survived because of that distinction.
>what use is a multi touch mouse?
I sort of agree - once you start gesturing, what the fuck is the mouse for? You can gesture anywhere - it doesn't need to be on top of a movable ball of plastic. If this research is camera based, put the goddamn camera in the keyboard so I can leave my hands where they are.
They had gesturing systems in the 1950's, it was called the Theremin. You don't touch anything.
>First, pianists press on their fingertips more often and much harder than you do.
If you read closely, the OP did not say that pressing too hard is what hurts his fingers. He said it's not having something to actually press. Piano keys are buttons that go down. They are extremely heavy and the effort of playing piano develops nice musculature.
What this video showed was people rapping their fingers against hard plastic. How fun.
Making an LCD panel with a quarter inch of glass would be like putting nicotine in a smokeless injector or designing an engine that doesn't feed on dinosaur sludge. How could you mess with our culture, man?
Yeah, I had assumed plasma displays were basically a direct improvement of CRTs in terms of the visual effect. Thus, the OP who enjoys the "look" of a CRT can simply buy a plasma.
LCD's are actually quite different, and the result is brighter, but decidedly inferior picture quality in other respects. LCD's seem to require the constant presence of a line doubler/smoother algorithm. And the pixels are blockier, due to the shutters. The first time I played classic video games on my LCD, I was horrified.
Yes. 480p plasma TV's were quite common circa 2004-05 when a market segment opened up for flatscreens under $2500. They were garbage, resolution-wise, compared to what we have now.
Of course, back then, I think there was only about 3 HD channels, and PBS was one of them.
You can put a quarter inch of glass on an LCD panel to protect it. They were going to do that, but an epidemic of angel dust hit Japan and it never happened.
The lack of glass on an LCD panel is probably the #1 product defect in the world today. Right up there with smoke in nicotine sticks, and cars that only run on liquid dinosaur.
Is President Obama a mainstream politician?
Damn, that's a clever put down.
I don't think he was complaining about widescreen. He was saying most web pages are constricted to 800x600. So regardless of the shape of the screen, you're going to get blank space on the sides.
What he was saying is that screens are getting even wider and web developers haven't noticed or changed their design habits.
TFA:
I'm interested in transitioning biology from being sort of a craft....to an engineering discipline with standardized methods...
Good! Geneticists would benefit from getting smarter. Anybody taken a look at Monsanto's work? I don't think "train wreck" quite captures the epic fail quality they've managed to achieve.
It's just one example of how banks don't want the regulations that would protect their interests. And in this case, it's the customers who lose. If a bank is vulnerable, damn straight the customers should know about it. That's why mandatory disclosure/prosecution/whatever is the only way.
Yeah but you have to admit that the risk is tremendous. When I got my bank credit card, I asked the teller if he had my CC number. He said, yeah. I thought, wow.
This bank teller has everyone's credit card number. And what's worse, every bank teller has everyone's credit card number!
Granted, I guess there are certain social norms about privacy in the workplace. For example, I collect CC numbers all day at my job and nobody seems to think I'm amassing my own database. But there's something wicked about already having a database and hiring somebody new and a week later he/she has full access.
True. There is a disconnect. Techies don't have the personality to actively brand themselves, and clients don't have the technical skills to appreciate good help.
That's why the most successful techies have good personalities and only a moderate amount of skill.
Example, the last time I had the cable guy over the house, he had never seen Tivo and had no idea that high-def recording or live streaming existed. He didn't know that Windows XP 32 and 64-bit were different (his software failed on my platform), and it was futile to explain the difference. He had never seen a 40" TV used as a computer monitor, either.
But I'm sure he's supporting a family of four. He's mature, been doing it for a while and probably has a great resume.
Now, if you want to go into business as a cable tech, how do you differentiate yourself from this guy, who knows absolutely nothing, and has a better reputation than you do?
Actually, it is. When you sell a house to someone with no money, that's fraud. Especially when you know you're doing it.
Also something called "naked short-selling", which involves selling non-existent stock. It happens millions of times per day, everyone does it, and nobody complains. Bear and Lehman stock was counterfeited so rapidly, the stock plummeted to zero within days.
It's the thug life, right? No fraud in the hood. Drugs, guns, murder - that's just recklessness and stupidity.
My special need was to play Civilization until 4am, then get 2hrs sleep, and spend half an hour in the shower waking up.
But honestly, if you shifted forward the school day, I just would have played more Civ.
>Preferably they should be contributing to the household somehow.
Depends if the household wants a contribution or not. You'd be surprised how upper-class suburbia raises kids. $20,000 birthday parties for elementary school kids. That's the extreme example. But many kids will have $100,000 college lined up for them, match that much for law school, as well as $30,000 bar mitzvah or Sweet 16. In many cases, new sports car or SUV, $20,000. Why not? It helps to have wheels.
When your parents are spending that kind of money on you, milking the cows (so to speak) ain't gonna contribute nothing.