This very fact is instrumental to life on our little globe.
It kind of makes you wonder if the diamond substance is capable of being the building block for a fundamentally different life form eh? The universe is a strange and beautiful place...
Thanks for your opinion. Luckily I don't have to agree. Frankly I don't think there is a problem with using music as a ringtone. In fact, I rather enjoy folk who do that because, when their phone goes off, I get some insight into their taste of music and maybe their personality. If I am on a first date with a girl, and she is acting very nervous and/or respectable, and her phone goes off playing the 'Banana Phone' song, it tells me that, despite her first date nerves, she really does have a sense of humor and is proud enough about it to be silly in public.
I don't think having musical ringtones are a problem, I think the fact that everyone keeps their ring volume up to 11 is a problem. I think that people are oh so worried about missing that next call or message that they walk around with a vibrating loudspeaker in their trousers. I cannot claim to be absent of this mindset myself as I proudly keep my phone on high volume because I think it is funny as hell when the voices of Charlie the Unicorn and his friends announce themselves to the world. Of course, I make a point to turn my phone down or off in professional and/pr quiet settings. That, to me, is respectful ettiquette.
However, claiming that having music as a ringtone is inherently bad or annoying is just silly. If a person likes a particular guitar riff, a particular note sequence on the piano, a particular singer's voice, then why not let them brighten their day a bit every time their phone rings with something that pleases them? If they keep the volume low, it shouldn't be a problem for you or anyone else.
As for saying that a phone should sound like a phone, well I can tell you that the shrill rings of the various phones my parents have owned would jolt me out of bed like someone threw water in my face. It was unpleasant, painful, and downright hell when you had a hangover or a migraine. If that's what phones are supposed to sound like, I say, with all due respect, sir, "Fuck that."
Am I the only one who felt pride during that scene? I for one am proud to be called and/or likened to a virus. Viruses are tough little bastards that adapt quickly to survive everything, fear nothing, and completely claim domain over their local space. It may not seem like they are at the top of the food chain, being so small and what not, but they certainly don't live by any other organisms rules. So sure, maybe we humans are a virus, one big macro virus. Is that really a bad thing?
Hahahahaha! I love that this one got modded informative while the two jabs at creationism got modded funny. Well done mods. Today is a good day on slashdot =)
Depending on his salary and how much he wants to spend on living expenses, he can pay that off in a few years.
And if he didn't have to pay it off, he could, you know, spend the money on something that enriches society, like, say, purchasing a piece of real estate and thus maybe helping someone retire, purchasing a LOT of music legally and thus, compensating the artists justly, purchasing some new gizmos and gadgets that help sales rates and thus, help companies like Apple and Motorola and Google and so on continue to produce new, good products. In other words, he could spend that $54,000 on living and that money would get distributed throughout society. Now, instead, it will filter into the check books of record execs and lawyers and be spent in the brothels of hell, thus bringing nearer the inevitable hell on Earth apocalypse....or on hookers and coke.
1) It sets an example. Don't get caught
To which I respond:
Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all
...it was his province to determine only the maximum amount a jury could reasonably award.
If that language was used in the official decision then that means that the maximum allowable fine per song would be set to $2,250 = $54,000/24 right? Is that how legal precedence is established?
It still seems quite high. I wonder if another case could appeal to get it lowered even further to something like, say, $5.00 per song. I mean, when you think about it, $54,000 could buy someone a 4 year education, a really nice car, could be used for a downpayment on a decent home, or, for the philanthropic, would be a very sizeable charity donation. That money that Jamie Thomas has to pay, now, could be used for some very important things that could help progress society (as in, employing a home builder or auto manufacturer, helping Jamie grow educationally to become a more productive member of society, etc.) Instead, it is going to line the pockets of some already very rich folk who are probably going to spend it on blow and hookers, or maybe, at best, a very overpriced car that contributes to little more than an ego.
If this is the type of discussion that usually occurs at this particular web-sight, then I'm through here.
No! Anonymous Coward please don't go. Whatever will happen to this site without your inane and, often useless remarks. Where would we be without your constant trolling presence and incendiary flamebait one liners? Slashdot would surely fail without you whoring Karma away from logged in users since everyone's score would get so high that the mod level would have to approach 11!
When I posted, "a/s/l check?" to 'Fun Single's this morning I got: "45/m/Rp = 6714 km, i = 51.6419 degrees. Please chat with me, it's really lonely up here," as a response.
Also for reference: Spaceflightnow's actual article as opposed to the apparent soundbite linked to in the summary....I mean really, what was it? Three paragraphs?
I'd rather go with SpaceX. They do all of their development in-house. They are the new kids on the block with a lot to prove. Best of all, they are a bunch of cowboys, and I trust cowboys.
NASA is not the organization that came out in a statement against commercial spaceflight in this press release. The organization that made the criticisms of commercial space systems is an independent review board of 'experts and engineers' that has been advising and consulting NASA since 1968 if I recall correctly. The panel is known as ASAP. A description of its role can be found on NASA's site here: ASAP. While the agency appears to work very closely with, it was/is supposed to be an independent safety committee formed by Congress to inform Congress. You can take that to infer whatever levels of benevolence vs. evil intent that you wish.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are system integrators that, mostly, do similar things like NASA in the sense that they hire a lot of subcontractors to build parts and components and then they bolt it all together. That's an important role, to be sure, but they are not very big on subsystem design. If you want subsystem design, you should go further down the food chain to places like ATK, Honeywell, Honeybee, Aerojet, and so on.
Indeed. My mom works as an Administrative Assistant and has been doing so for more than 15 years now. She can write in shorthand faster than I can type (and I've written a novel and work on my computer extensively). She can't beat her own typing speed, that's like trying to break the sound barrier, but she certainly outdoes most other folk's typing speeds. Incidentally I can text a helluva lot faster than her. That's my one source of communication pride...well, that and smoke signals.
In the past, Americans have shown a tenacity and zealotry for fighting, in a very literal and physical manner, those other 'people' that have done harm to them or their way of life. The most direct manner of fighting another person is to do harm unto that person. There are various methods of doing harm unto other people. A person needs food, water, and oxygen. Depriving a person of these things can cause significant harm to the target eventually resulting in the death, or end of that person. An adversary may also cause a powerful, sudden shock to the body of a person. This shock, often involving damage so extensive, can lead to long term suffering and, eventually, death.
Now let's draw an analogy.
If we are going to consider corporations (or any large social interest group) to be people, how might we fight them if they do us considerable harm or threaten us? Corporations need income of money to survive. They also need willing individuals to power them. If we deprive a corporation of either its income, or the mindset necessary to power it, then we can cause damage to the corporation, eventually resulting in death. These come in the form of boycotts and strikes. However, in times of extremism, it's not long term deprivation that we use as a fighting tactic, rather, against people, we prefer the sudden irreparable shock and damage clause (a bullet, a bomb, a knife, whatever).
So if we are really fed up with the way social interests buy out our government. If we, as Americans, genuinely feel threatened, how do we pick a fight with social interest groups? How do we cause a powerful, sudden shock to the body of a corporation? To figure this out, perhaps we need to draw an appropriate analogue to the body of a person. The body of a person is the vehicle in which the mind or personality of a person travels. The means by which it physically interacts with the world. So how does a social interest group, like a corporation, navigate and interact with this world? If we can answer that question, then we have a target. If we have a target, then we can damage that target. If we can damage that target significantly, we can successfully combat the threat that corporations and similar large social entities may present to us.
Of course this all borders on the notion that folk want to fight this type of seemingly corrupt social motion. So, any ideas on how to attack the body of a corporation?
As an idea (and only an idea, not an answer) perhaps we could make the case that the body of a corporation is the goods which it peddles to people, as well as the feedback-advertising loop (PR) that it uses to interact with its customers. Perhaps the best way to combat social interests is to do sudden shock and harm to their products (or the production of said products) or their PR work. Smear campaigns work well enough for this, but they need a large, international, focused effort these days to work. Look at what smear campaigns did to Big Tobacco for instance. Finding a way to eliminate their goods from the market, in a sudden, coordinated manner, could be enough to drive a social interest or corporation six feet under as well. Again...not an answer, but some food for thought.
Those claiming that a revolution in order might want to keep this kind of thinking in mind.
Launch costs are dropping and will continue to do so as SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and other commercial vendors start to compete in the industry. I don't know that the savings will be enough. But it is worth keeping in mind that space is going to become quite a bit more accessible in the next five to ten years. Also, if you took the time to assemble the orbital solar panels in a modular manner, the way it was done with the ISS (but using more robotic construction techniques in place of human ones), you could piggy back your component launch costs with other payloads thus further reducing launch costs. It may not be affordable right now, but again, never rule out the future.
Also, doing this type of thing at least once or twice would be interesting from an R&D and proof of concept standpoint alone. Perhaps the conclusion would be, "Right now it costs too much, we will need future technology to make something like this work." But, trying it out will give you much more hard data on what that future technology is and, possibly, how to develop it later. It will also force you to take those kinds of requirements into your mission design from the get go, thus providing valuable experience, knowledge, and science.
In short, the concept is not a total waste of time.
Really, what’s the point of turning the computer off when at home?
Peace and quiet.
That would mean no music, no movies, no quick search on wikipedia or something, no way of seeing if friends are at home.
So....time to work on your car? Time to take apart the toaster and figure out how it works? Time to read a book? Time to bake cookies? Time to play with Legos (if you don't have time for that, what's the point in living?).
If you do not prefer to be alone and bored, but don’t want or can’t to drive to your friends, then the choice is obvious.
Sex and/or cuddling on the couch with a spouse, girlfriend, or friend with benefits? Going for a walk?
They could spend their time crafting or building something. Things like that enrich a community. Its always nice having a neighbor that will knit you a cap or a pair of slippers if you agree to repair their broken cabinet door for them. Also, making explosives out of home chemicals and lighting things on fire (while generally a terrible and unsafe idea) is a hell of a lot of fun. It's much more of a rush than the virtual explosions found in movie theatres =D
Not that I am encouraging that kind of behavior....
I don't know that it's entirely a bad thing. Granted, it gets very annoying to stumble upon posts and jibber jabber that has half spelled words and garbled nonsense in it. But in some ways, pidgin speak is quite interesting. As another poster pointed out, it is quickly developing as a new form of shorthand. Another interesting take on it is that it forces folk to parse language with more critical thinking. If the communicator's message is unclear and a bit garbled, then people have to focus harder on trying to figure out what he or she is saying. As a result, they have to read a little more attentively. Furthermore, I've noticed that kids who communicate in this standard regularly (meaning some of my younger cousins and such) tend to look more for intention within a message than literal meaning. Now, sometimes that is good and sometimes it is bad. For instance, when it involves an emotional issue (love, relationships, passionate topics in general) it tends to be bad. However, it also helps the communicator sometimes if he or she has trouble putting into words (or half words) the message. In other words, intuition helps get points across sometimes.
Also, I wonder if pidgin speak could become a form of art one day, kind of like slam poetry. As it blends and becomes a part of our society (accepted or not) it could find a place as a subcultural form of expression. This would be similar to the way ebonics went from being something looked down upon to being a form of communication used to express identity and cultural messages within a niche culture (African Americans). Ebonics has, in essence, become both a joke that a lot of folk can shrug off, as well as a key component of popular arts such as rap and hip hop. I could see pidgin becoming the same. Just like rappers embraced ebonics, punk rockers embraced shock-and-appall language, some internet subcultures embrace pidgin. Hell, MC Lars has already rapped about emoticons in his song, 'iGeneration.' Perhaps we are seeing the early beginnings of a new form of expression. While it is certainly no iambic pentameter, dismissing it outright as dumb and naive seems shortsighted.
How is this news? In an average day, excluding the 7.5 hours I spend in front of a computer at work, I still manage to pack in a lot of "media"-time.
Notice exhibit A: the condescending introduction, "How is this news?" It is as if the poster is saying, "I already know this, everyone else should know it too! I mean you all know as much as I know right? *wink wink*
Of course, my multitasking factor is probably higher than these lame kids'. Laptop is always on, always on the table in front of me so I can chat, surf, perhaps program a little.
Exhibit B: "I am so multifaceted that I can run three or four kinds of consumer electronics at once. I don't need to explain how much relevant attention I can give to any one said device because that is an irrelevant detail. But look at me, I can do four things. And, just to ensure that I don't sound like a consumer whore, I will put a plug in there that I sometimes program too so that it sounds like I do a lot more than consume shallow, vapid media culture."
The TV is for the most part on as well, except that part of the evening where the most interesting program is Oprah.
Exhibit C: Knocking a powerful, popular, cultural icon so as to induce in the reader a sense of independence and individuality.
News? Hardly.News to the Slashdot crowd..? Definitely not. Scaremongering for technophobic parents? Yes.
Exhibit D: Another show of condescension, this time with an appeal of brotherly interests. "See, I know all of this stuff already, so do the rest of us techno gurus on slashdot because we are all cool like that. Right guys? You're with me in feeling better than the 'normal reader' of this article. Right?"
General conclusion: This post seems to be an artful act of ego stroking and attention gathering with very little, if any, insight into anything (except perhaps your own ego and the need for attention).
Granted, I am being a troll and a complete asshat here. I do not claim to be benevolent or kind in this posting. But I really do have to ask (and I hope I get an answer). Why the hell would you waste your time posting this? I cannot say that I am not a hypocrit. I post personal anecdotes on here all the time, but usually I at least hope to convey some sort of lesson or theme or humor through the post. What was the point of this though plastbox? I am genuinely curious about why you would post this. Is there any other motivation than just waving around your shiny peacock feathers?
Yes, I expect to be downmodded. Yes, I expect to be mocked and scolded for a personal attack. But really, I want to know. Why did you spend the time posting this?
Agreed, and why the downmod for the AC? He has a point, referring to the Phoenix as, 'that lost lander' seems a bit disrespectful. The Phoenix Lander completed its mission successfully in August of 2008. It gathered the science and data it was designed to and transmitted it back to Earth successfully. Everything that happened with the lander post 08/2008 is actually a continuation of the mission. One could make the case that the lander outperformed its design goals just like the rovers both did as it didn't stop transmitting until November if I recall correctly. Perhaps the editor/author was trying to make a joke but it really just seemed like an odd statement made in ignorance. At first I thought it was a mistaken reference to the crashed Polar orbiter (the infamous Standard vs. Imperial units crash) until I clicked on the link to the story about the Lander. I suppose the editor could have referred to it as lost just because, well, it's not active anymore, but that just seems like a poor choice of words.
Whatever the reason or intent, the statement came off like a slight jab at a very complicated and successful mission. The AC that posted the protest to this had every right, in my opinion, to call to question the motives. Odd.
Maybe I'm being a bit too much of a pacifist here, but why are we constantly spending so much time developing newer ways to kill ourselves.. seems like we could better use those resources.
Because we absolutely love the phrase, "Watch this!"
I wonder what kind of incentive the average young X-Box owner has.
With the continual failure of hardware and the increasing progression towards the, 'we are going to milk you, your roomates, your wife, and your kids for every single dime they can manage,' business model, my wager is that the young Xbox owner is being increasingly incentivized to burn his beloved Microsoft product and fine something more open and less restrictive. I know that when Xbox Live started moving towards the trend of guest players not being allowed to be hosted by a single paid account, I immediately began begrudging Microsoft all over again.
Slashdot Mirror
This very fact is instrumental to life on our little globe.
It kind of makes you wonder if the diamond substance is capable of being the building block for a fundamentally different life form eh? The universe is a strange and beautiful place...
A phone should sound like a phone, not a disco.
Thanks for your opinion. Luckily I don't have to agree. Frankly I don't think there is a problem with using music as a ringtone. In fact, I rather enjoy folk who do that because, when their phone goes off, I get some insight into their taste of music and maybe their personality. If I am on a first date with a girl, and she is acting very nervous and/or respectable, and her phone goes off playing the 'Banana Phone' song, it tells me that, despite her first date nerves, she really does have a sense of humor and is proud enough about it to be silly in public.
I don't think having musical ringtones are a problem, I think the fact that everyone keeps their ring volume up to 11 is a problem. I think that people are oh so worried about missing that next call or message that they walk around with a vibrating loudspeaker in their trousers. I cannot claim to be absent of this mindset myself as I proudly keep my phone on high volume because I think it is funny as hell when the voices of Charlie the Unicorn and his friends announce themselves to the world. Of course, I make a point to turn my phone down or off in professional and/pr quiet settings. That, to me, is respectful ettiquette.
However, claiming that having music as a ringtone is inherently bad or annoying is just silly. If a person likes a particular guitar riff, a particular note sequence on the piano, a particular singer's voice, then why not let them brighten their day a bit every time their phone rings with something that pleases them? If they keep the volume low, it shouldn't be a problem for you or anyone else.
As for saying that a phone should sound like a phone, well I can tell you that the shrill rings of the various phones my parents have owned would jolt me out of bed like someone threw water in my face. It was unpleasant, painful, and downright hell when you had a hangover or a migraine. If that's what phones are supposed to sound like, I say, with all due respect, sir, "Fuck that."
Cheers.
Everything from not chewing on other people's pencils to not touching someone else's monitor screen.
Am I the only one that read this with one of my coworker's pens hanging out of my mouth?
Am I the only one who felt pride during that scene? I for one am proud to be called and/or likened to a virus. Viruses are tough little bastards that adapt quickly to survive everything, fear nothing, and completely claim domain over their local space. It may not seem like they are at the top of the food chain, being so small and what not, but they certainly don't live by any other organisms rules. So sure, maybe we humans are a virus, one big macro virus. Is that really a bad thing?
Hahahahaha! I love that this one got modded informative while the two jabs at creationism got modded funny. Well done mods. Today is a good day on slashdot =)
Depending on his salary and how much he wants to spend on living expenses, he can pay that off in a few years.
And if he didn't have to pay it off, he could, you know, spend the money on something that enriches society, like, say, purchasing a piece of real estate and thus maybe helping someone retire, purchasing a LOT of music legally and thus, compensating the artists justly, purchasing some new gizmos and gadgets that help sales rates and thus, help companies like Apple and Motorola and Google and so on continue to produce new, good products. In other words, he could spend that $54,000 on living and that money would get distributed throughout society. Now, instead, it will filter into the check books of record execs and lawyers and be spent in the brothels of hell, thus bringing nearer the inevitable hell on Earth apocalypse....or on hookers and coke.
1) It sets an example. Don't get caught
To which I respond:
Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all
-Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity.
...it was his province to determine only the maximum amount a jury could reasonably award.
If that language was used in the official decision then that means that the maximum allowable fine per song would be set to $2,250 = $54,000/24 right? Is that how legal precedence is established?
It still seems quite high. I wonder if another case could appeal to get it lowered even further to something like, say, $5.00 per song. I mean, when you think about it, $54,000 could buy someone a 4 year education, a really nice car, could be used for a downpayment on a decent home, or, for the philanthropic, would be a very sizeable charity donation. That money that Jamie Thomas has to pay, now, could be used for some very important things that could help progress society (as in, employing a home builder or auto manufacturer, helping Jamie grow educationally to become a more productive member of society, etc.) Instead, it is going to line the pockets of some already very rich folk who are probably going to spend it on blow and hookers, or maybe, at best, a very overpriced car that contributes to little more than an ego.
Lame.
In the house tonight,
Because of Frank Lloyd Wright.
The bass goes boom like dynamite!
Yo' Wright was a Modernist!
Yeah, I know that all right?
But you can't rhyme Bob Venturi with Dynamite.
What?
-MC Lars, Hurricane Fresh
Sorry, I couldn't resist getting my postmodern laptop rap on.
If this is the type of discussion that usually occurs at this particular web-sight, then I'm through here.
No! Anonymous Coward please don't go. Whatever will happen to this site without your inane and, often useless remarks. Where would we be without your constant trolling presence and incendiary flamebait one liners? Slashdot would surely fail without you whoring Karma away from logged in users since everyone's score would get so high that the mod level would have to approach 11!
/endsarcasm
Help us Anonymous Coward! You're our only hope!
When I posted, "a/s/l check?" to 'Fun Single's this morning I got: "45/m/Rp = 6714 km, i = 51.6419 degrees. Please chat with me, it's really lonely up here," as a response.
Also for reference: Spaceflightnow's actual article as opposed to the apparent soundbite linked to in the summary....I mean really, what was it? Three paragraphs?
I'd rather go with SpaceX. They do all of their development in-house. They are the new kids on the block with a lot to prove. Best of all, they are a bunch of cowboys, and I trust cowboys.
NASA is not the organization that came out in a statement against commercial spaceflight in this press release. The organization that made the criticisms of commercial space systems is an independent review board of 'experts and engineers' that has been advising and consulting NASA since 1968 if I recall correctly. The panel is known as ASAP. A description of its role can be found on NASA's site here: ASAP. While the agency appears to work very closely with, it was/is supposed to be an independent safety committee formed by Congress to inform Congress. You can take that to infer whatever levels of benevolence vs. evil intent that you wish.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing are system integrators that, mostly, do similar things like NASA in the sense that they hire a lot of subcontractors to build parts and components and then they bolt it all together. That's an important role, to be sure, but they are not very big on subsystem design. If you want subsystem design, you should go further down the food chain to places like ATK, Honeywell, Honeybee, Aerojet, and so on.
Indeed. My mom works as an Administrative Assistant and has been doing so for more than 15 years now. She can write in shorthand faster than I can type (and I've written a novel and work on my computer extensively). She can't beat her own typing speed, that's like trying to break the sound barrier, but she certainly outdoes most other folk's typing speeds. Incidentally I can text a helluva lot faster than her. That's my one source of communication pride...well, that and smoke signals.
In the past, Americans have shown a tenacity and zealotry for fighting, in a very literal and physical manner, those other 'people' that have done harm to them or their way of life. The most direct manner of fighting another person is to do harm unto that person. There are various methods of doing harm unto other people. A person needs food, water, and oxygen. Depriving a person of these things can cause significant harm to the target eventually resulting in the death, or end of that person. An adversary may also cause a powerful, sudden shock to the body of a person. This shock, often involving damage so extensive, can lead to long term suffering and, eventually, death.
Now let's draw an analogy.
If we are going to consider corporations (or any large social interest group) to be people, how might we fight them if they do us considerable harm or threaten us? Corporations need income of money to survive. They also need willing individuals to power them. If we deprive a corporation of either its income, or the mindset necessary to power it, then we can cause damage to the corporation, eventually resulting in death. These come in the form of boycotts and strikes. However, in times of extremism, it's not long term deprivation that we use as a fighting tactic, rather, against people, we prefer the sudden irreparable shock and damage clause (a bullet, a bomb, a knife, whatever).
So if we are really fed up with the way social interests buy out our government. If we, as Americans, genuinely feel threatened, how do we pick a fight with social interest groups? How do we cause a powerful, sudden shock to the body of a corporation? To figure this out, perhaps we need to draw an appropriate analogue to the body of a person. The body of a person is the vehicle in which the mind or personality of a person travels. The means by which it physically interacts with the world. So how does a social interest group, like a corporation, navigate and interact with this world? If we can answer that question, then we have a target. If we have a target, then we can damage that target. If we can damage that target significantly, we can successfully combat the threat that corporations and similar large social entities may present to us.
Of course this all borders on the notion that folk want to fight this type of seemingly corrupt social motion. So, any ideas on how to attack the body of a corporation?
As an idea (and only an idea, not an answer) perhaps we could make the case that the body of a corporation is the goods which it peddles to people, as well as the feedback-advertising loop (PR) that it uses to interact with its customers. Perhaps the best way to combat social interests is to do sudden shock and harm to their products (or the production of said products) or their PR work. Smear campaigns work well enough for this, but they need a large, international, focused effort these days to work. Look at what smear campaigns did to Big Tobacco for instance. Finding a way to eliminate their goods from the market, in a sudden, coordinated manner, could be enough to drive a social interest or corporation six feet under as well. Again...not an answer, but some food for thought.
Those claiming that a revolution in order might want to keep this kind of thinking in mind.
Launch costs are dropping and will continue to do so as SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and other commercial vendors start to compete in the industry. I don't know that the savings will be enough. But it is worth keeping in mind that space is going to become quite a bit more accessible in the next five to ten years. Also, if you took the time to assemble the orbital solar panels in a modular manner, the way it was done with the ISS (but using more robotic construction techniques in place of human ones), you could piggy back your component launch costs with other payloads thus further reducing launch costs. It may not be affordable right now, but again, never rule out the future.
Also, doing this type of thing at least once or twice would be interesting from an R&D and proof of concept standpoint alone. Perhaps the conclusion would be, "Right now it costs too much, we will need future technology to make something like this work." But, trying it out will give you much more hard data on what that future technology is and, possibly, how to develop it later. It will also force you to take those kinds of requirements into your mission design from the get go, thus providing valuable experience, knowledge, and science.
In short, the concept is not a total waste of time.
Really, what’s the point of turning the computer off when at home?
Peace and quiet.
That would mean no music, no movies, no quick search on wikipedia or something, no way of seeing if friends are at home.
So....time to work on your car? Time to take apart the toaster and figure out how it works? Time to read a book? Time to bake cookies? Time to play with Legos (if you don't have time for that, what's the point in living?).
If you do not prefer to be alone and bored, but don’t want or can’t to drive to your friends, then the choice is obvious.
Sex and/or cuddling on the couch with a spouse, girlfriend, or friend with benefits? Going for a walk?
;)
They could spend their time crafting or building something. Things like that enrich a community. Its always nice having a neighbor that will knit you a cap or a pair of slippers if you agree to repair their broken cabinet door for them. Also, making explosives out of home chemicals and lighting things on fire (while generally a terrible and unsafe idea) is a hell of a lot of fun. It's much more of a rush than the virtual explosions found in movie theatres =D
Not that I am encouraging that kind of behavior....
I don't know that it's entirely a bad thing. Granted, it gets very annoying to stumble upon posts and jibber jabber that has half spelled words and garbled nonsense in it. But in some ways, pidgin speak is quite interesting. As another poster pointed out, it is quickly developing as a new form of shorthand. Another interesting take on it is that it forces folk to parse language with more critical thinking. If the communicator's message is unclear and a bit garbled, then people have to focus harder on trying to figure out what he or she is saying. As a result, they have to read a little more attentively. Furthermore, I've noticed that kids who communicate in this standard regularly (meaning some of my younger cousins and such) tend to look more for intention within a message than literal meaning. Now, sometimes that is good and sometimes it is bad. For instance, when it involves an emotional issue (love, relationships, passionate topics in general) it tends to be bad. However, it also helps the communicator sometimes if he or she has trouble putting into words (or half words) the message. In other words, intuition helps get points across sometimes.
Also, I wonder if pidgin speak could become a form of art one day, kind of like slam poetry. As it blends and becomes a part of our society (accepted or not) it could find a place as a subcultural form of expression. This would be similar to the way ebonics went from being something looked down upon to being a form of communication used to express identity and cultural messages within a niche culture (African Americans). Ebonics has, in essence, become both a joke that a lot of folk can shrug off, as well as a key component of popular arts such as rap and hip hop. I could see pidgin becoming the same. Just like rappers embraced ebonics, punk rockers embraced shock-and-appall language, some internet subcultures embrace pidgin. Hell, MC Lars has already rapped about emoticons in his song, 'iGeneration.' Perhaps we are seeing the early beginnings of a new form of expression. While it is certainly no iambic pentameter, dismissing it outright as dumb and naive seems shortsighted.
Plato said the same thing about Philosophers....minus the nightmares I think.
How is this news? In an average day, excluding the 7.5 hours I spend in front of a computer at work, I still manage to pack in a lot of "media"-time.
Notice exhibit A: the condescending introduction, "How is this news?" It is as if the poster is saying, "I already know this, everyone else should know it too! I mean you all know as much as I know right? *wink wink*
Of course, my multitasking factor is probably higher than these lame kids'. Laptop is always on, always on the table in front of me so I can chat, surf, perhaps program a little.
Exhibit B: "I am so multifaceted that I can run three or four kinds of consumer electronics at once. I don't need to explain how much relevant attention I can give to any one said device because that is an irrelevant detail. But look at me, I can do four things. And, just to ensure that I don't sound like a consumer whore, I will put a plug in there that I sometimes program too so that it sounds like I do a lot more than consume shallow, vapid media culture."
The TV is for the most part on as well, except that part of the evening where the most interesting program is Oprah.
Exhibit C: Knocking a powerful, popular, cultural icon so as to induce in the reader a sense of independence and individuality.
News? Hardly.News to the Slashdot crowd..? Definitely not. Scaremongering for technophobic parents? Yes.
Exhibit D: Another show of condescension, this time with an appeal of brotherly interests. "See, I know all of this stuff already, so do the rest of us techno gurus on slashdot because we are all cool like that. Right guys? You're with me in feeling better than the 'normal reader' of this article. Right?"
General conclusion: This post seems to be an artful act of ego stroking and attention gathering with very little, if any, insight into anything (except perhaps your own ego and the need for attention).
Granted, I am being a troll and a complete asshat here. I do not claim to be benevolent or kind in this posting. But I really do have to ask (and I hope I get an answer). Why the hell would you waste your time posting this? I cannot say that I am not a hypocrit. I post personal anecdotes on here all the time, but usually I at least hope to convey some sort of lesson or theme or humor through the post. What was the point of this though plastbox? I am genuinely curious about why you would post this. Is there any other motivation than just waving around your shiny peacock feathers?
Yes, I expect to be downmodded. Yes, I expect to be mocked and scolded for a personal attack. But really, I want to know. Why did you spend the time posting this?
Agreed, and why the downmod for the AC? He has a point, referring to the Phoenix as, 'that lost lander' seems a bit disrespectful. The Phoenix Lander completed its mission successfully in August of 2008. It gathered the science and data it was designed to and transmitted it back to Earth successfully. Everything that happened with the lander post 08/2008 is actually a continuation of the mission. One could make the case that the lander outperformed its design goals just like the rovers both did as it didn't stop transmitting until November if I recall correctly. Perhaps the editor/author was trying to make a joke but it really just seemed like an odd statement made in ignorance. At first I thought it was a mistaken reference to the crashed Polar orbiter (the infamous Standard vs. Imperial units crash) until I clicked on the link to the story about the Lander. I suppose the editor could have referred to it as lost just because, well, it's not active anymore, but that just seems like a poor choice of words.
Whatever the reason or intent, the statement came off like a slight jab at a very complicated and successful mission. The AC that posted the protest to this had every right, in my opinion, to call to question the motives. Odd.
Maybe I'm being a bit too much of a pacifist here, but why are we constantly spending so much time developing newer ways to kill ourselves.. seems like we could better use those resources.
Because we absolutely love the phrase, "Watch this!"
I wonder what kind of incentive the average young X-Box owner has.
With the continual failure of hardware and the increasing progression towards the, 'we are going to milk you, your roomates, your wife, and your kids for every single dime they can manage,' business model, my wager is that the young Xbox owner is being increasingly incentivized to burn his beloved Microsoft product and fine something more open and less restrictive. I know that when Xbox Live started moving towards the trend of guest players not being allowed to be hosted by a single paid account, I immediately began begrudging Microsoft all over again.