Meh, I've bought every TV I've ever owned from craigslist. Either that or I've had it handed down to me by friends and/or family. That being said, I could give less of a damn about whatever my state government does to regulate TVs (yes I live in California). The simple fact of the matter is that, unless you have some kind of techno-pene compensation obsession, you really don't need the latest and greatest and biggest anything. Mediums like craigslist and ebay have opened up the entire state (and for that matter, world) into one big tax-free bazaar. I can find a TV I want in Maryland, pay the dude to ship it, and have it in a couple of weeks. If I don't want to pay shipping, I can wait two weeks and find something comparable 2 hours away. So go ahead government, drive up consumer taxes. Drive up regulation. Try to micro manage everything. I have no incentive to listen to your BS or buy into your system anymore =P
For the record, I do realize that regulations and taxes do have a trickle down effect on everytihng, including things like online commerce and the sneakernet, but so far the effects seem to have been minimal and, for the most part, negligible.
If you were talking about the rich people in California who build mansions where they can slide off a cliff, or in a wooded area that was prone to wildfires you would be right.
As a native Californian I am curious, why is it the rest of the world's disasters can be excused as inevitable but, for some reason, we Californians should be held responsible? Now I am not saying that there aren't stupid people who build in stupid places in California, there are. Hell, I live next to a nuclear power plant on the coast line next to a fault line. Then again, I like living on the edge. However, there are parts of Kansas that have less tornado activity than others. So, if those Californians that build in the forest should be held responsible for their house burning down, why is it that the places in the higher-activity tornado spots of Kansas shouldn't be? I don't want to play victim here, but I just don't see why you singled out California as the only place where people should bear the blame for the natural disasters they go through. We can't control whether or not lightning is going to strike a dry field anymore than Japan can control its seismic tremors. Frankly, it sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder against us California folk.
I found that the cocky douchebag plugin also helps a lot for this type of function. In fact, if you combine the DirectErect Browser with the NoPersonality add on and the FeelingBlock privacy protection add on you can navigate almost all of the social intrawebs without guilt/remorse/ or a second thought attacks. Of course, for real protection it is a good idea to download a third party security application like RubberCover or TrojanPlus. If you couple these with the applications like UIDRing or ThePill you are almost 100% protected against unwanted/unexpected child-development attacks.
Really if you are going to encourage the poor young man to expose his virgin soul to the RealWorld2.0 you should give him some good security advice while you're at it. Of course, as we all know, security is a mindset not a product. And for the ultimate defense it is best to keep an air gap between your local Genital-Net and the general Social-Webz.;)
You know what's funny was that was the exact same sentiment held by the Brits before the Revolutionary War.
"The colonists? What threat could they pose? We have the entire British Army and Navy with mounted cavalry and well armed and supplied troops. The colonists have a few hunting rifles and tomahawks..."
Not saying we are going to start another war or anything, but never underestimate American inventiveness. Our society may be inflated with a lot of cruft, laziness, and uselessness now, but put our backs against the wall and quite a few of us yanks still know how to bring the raucous.
Last time I checked the majority of the U.S. landmass is below the launch path.
There are a couple of differences here. First and foremost, the Titans were solid rocket motors which use significantly different chemicals for fuel than liquid or hybrid rockets. That is why we can get away with having missile test ranges in landlocked states like Arizona. Solid rocket fuel produces (usually) less toxic crap.
Secondly, I can tell you with 100% certainty that the ground traces of the current EELV vehicles take them over water to the South and West of the California coast line. The flight path certainly does not take it over any US landmass (aside from maybe some radiated islands on the Pacific, but that's just a possibility because I cannot confirm that it doesn't happen). I was not working on launch ops during the Titan III days so I cannot say with any certainty one way or another whether those vehicles flew over US landmass or not. I would be surprised to learn that they flew trajectories which were radically different from the current EELVs as all three vehicles (Atlas, Delta, Titan) tend(ed) to deliver payloads to similar orbits. Thus, I would assume that similar azimuths were/are used for all three VAFB launch vehicles and that the Titan III's actually flew over water. I can also say that, in general, solid rocket fuel tends to burn less toxic (depending on the fuel, usually the less toxic fuels are chosen for handling purposes) and, thus, if the Titan III's did fly over landmass, there were probably quite a few safety checkouts and range requirements that prevented them from poisoning the general US population. I would also wager that IF the Titan III's indeed did fly over US landmass, there more than likely was a path requirement that no population centers be under the ground trace.
So, in summation, scoff all you want, but I am much more prone to taking the word of someone who worked for Boeing satellite operations for 40+ years and my own experience in launch operations than minor quip of a fellow slashdotter. Of course, if you want to provide fuel composition data and ground trace data for the Titan III's I would be more than eager to review it for my own sanity.
One of my professors in college that used to work for Boeing explained to our spacecraft design class that Boeing stopped contracting launches with China because China launches their rockets over landmass rather than ocean. While this alone is a very dangerous practice, it important to note that a good amount of the crap pouring out of the back of some launch vehicles is poisonous....especially when hydrazine is added into the mix. As a result, the Chinese launch vehicles were dumping significant amounts of poisonous crap down on some of their towns, villages, and even farms. I hope that if NASA does start partnering with China, NASA can influence China to stop such inhumane practices. It would be sad to see bad habits adopted in the reverse order instead.
I am at work and I don't have a Bible to reference but, if memory serves me right, there is a passage somewhere in either Matthew or Revelations where Jesus or God himself makes mention of the fact that he is going to lift his hand from the world and leave mankind to his own endeavors or some such nonsense. I suppose I could google it, but I don't really follow the religion I grew up with anymore and don't really want to spend more time on it than I already have. However, in response to this:
Why? I don't recall any mention of this in the Bible. He never said, "oh hey, by the way, I'm going to be out golfing for the next couple thousand years. Try not to slaughter yourselves."
I am 99% certain that this is addressed somewhere in one of those two books. The Bible is a large text, I would suggest reading it thoroughly before making such broad claims about its contents friend.
This might be offtopic but seeing a legitimate R&D story on slashdot with a link to the actual (open) technical write up of the research made my day. I haven't read the whole paper yet (I will when I get home) but going through it and reading the first few sections I can see that the researchers included their (simulink?) processing models as well as some good data in the results section. This story finally gave me something worth breaking out my old signal processing and DAC notes from college out over and studying the raw math and theory behind the algorithm.
I have to say, I really wish we would see more papers like this posted and published openly. It's very inspiring when other folk in similar fields can access a paper's full contents and start playing with similar models themselves...
And there's not a damned thing you can do about it, because your talents are what they are and you can't change them.
I suppose I am supposed to remember this the next time I want to learn a new instrument? Or, perhaps I should tell my wrists and forearms to forget the muscle memory I instilled in them half way through high school, when I started playing the drums, so that my talents will never change because trying to do so was, in fact, hopeless.
I see where you are coming from for the majority of your post, but that last sentence needs to be lopped off maliciously my friend. You can change your talents your entire life. It's why we go to school. It's how we learn to deal with insurance companies. It's how we learn to parent our kids and date our girls. Saying that your talents are what they are and you can't change them is just a tired form of orneriness that is, frankly, ridiculous.
I had no idea that things have gotten so bad that hearts are being hacked.
Well the article talks about how the threats have been demonstrated in the lab by a fella named Kevin Fu, but it doesn't mention it being a major problem right now:
The potential risks of enabling radio communication in implantable medical devices were first highlighted by Kevin Fu, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Tadayoshi Kohno, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Washington. They showed how to glean personal information from such a device, how to drain its batteries remotely, and how to make it malfunction in dangerous ways. The two researchers stress that the threat is minimal now, but argue that it is vital to find ways to protect wireless medical devices before malicious users discover and exploit vulnerabilities.
So this defense seems primarily like foresight rather than a hindsight, "Shit fixitfixitfixtfixit!" moment...So in response to your pondering, I don't think too many hearts are being hacked right now, nor that things have gotten that bad. Rather, it just seems like two security researchers are doing their job to keep the defensive actions one step ahead of offensive actions...
A bit off topic but now I know why NoScript prevents Myspace form loading altogether...because I have analytics blocked and, looking at the HTML source code now, I can see why nothing else is loading afterwards...
And who says slashdot doesn't still have some useful/helpful comments on it?
I just kind of wanted to hazard a partially thought out response to this:
Lack of valuation of the self over valuation of the 'better'
In other words, greed, by definition, is inherently self-serving. I would not postulate that ambition is inherently self-serving. I can be ambitious in wanting to invent a new launch system that makes space access cheap and affordable for mankind. While this does benefit me, it also benefits my peers as well as the pursuit of exploration and science in general. Thus, ambition can drive me to do something for values that serve many, not only the individual. Also, my ambition may be to make society better by making it freer. Again, it does benefit me, but it also benefits the advancement of the species and, for that matter, philosophy in general (see John Locke). Greed, however, places the value of the individual first and foremost. What helps me? Not, what is 'best?'
Now of course there will be some objectivists here who want to smack me for use of the 'subjective' term 'better' in my explanation, but I would postulate that 'better' is not a subjective entity. In fact, I would go further to say that the idea of 'better,' the idea of good, of quality, if you will, is actually outside the idea of both objectivity and subjectivity. I could type all day about this subject but will save everyone that eyesore of a post. Instead, if you want to discuss the philosophical implications of the idea of 'best' being the ultimate source of reality (and no, this is neither orthodoxy nor God-theory) I will leave it to the reader to e-mail or contact me by some other means (BJ_Covert_Action@hotmail.com).
To pick an example: who did the Trojan War benefit, exactly?
A particularly useful company that used the image of the Trojan state and its reputation for good protection to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies worldwide =)
Also, Homer comes to mind...it kind of made his writing famous...
... when people feel they need to get rich.... but some start with a real _need_ for money and power,
And this type of thing happens when values that are social in nature (money, fame) are placed above values which are intellectual in nature (freedom, privacy, etc.). Robert Pirsig, in his second book Lilah, expounds upon an idea (and yes, it is that, an idea, not a creed or a fact) that much of the world around us can be explained by observing the hierarchy of values that exist in the world. If we consider human beings, individuals, biological creatures, one level of the hierarchy, society and social regimes (governments, countries, cities, corporations, interest groups) another level, and intellectual regimes (ideas, freedom, love, privacy, justice) one more level, then we can start to see some patterns in the reason why morally corrupt behavior exists the way it does today.
It seems as if we, as a society and as individuals, have run rampant with the ideas of placing the society as the most important thing to value (hence the nearly unlimited power of social interest groups and corporations). Now this is often done under the creed that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one (yeah, Star Trek quote, I snuck it in there), which makes sense. However, that creed only makes sense when the needs of the ideological, the intellectual values, outweigh the needs of the society. In other words, if we would stop worshiping social level entities such governments and lobbyist groups, and started valuing intellectual entities (knowledge, justice, freedom, etc.) then those ideologies could and would and should be used to reign in the power of social entities.
Unfortunately, in the world today, society is so worshiped that people fail to look to the next level, the intellectual. Thus, there is no limiting factor on the social entities and corruption runs rampant. The modus operandi of social entities (money and fame) therefore runs through individuals and organizations alike as an addiction. We believe, due to a biased mythos from which we create our perception of reality, that if we get a little more money or a little more fame, then we will be happy, because we will be on top of society. This is a form of existence which lacks pure Quality. By ascribing our existence to such superficial values, we tenaciously race towards a vapid existence with little peace of mind (which also conveniently explains the build-up of social angst and fussiness in society today). So the point is, we, as a species, need to evolve and rebuild our mythos (foundation) to not place social regimes at the ultimate top of the value pyramid. We need to reign in valuation of societies with appropriate valuation of intellectual entities as well....
Of course, none of this is a peer-reviewed scientific theory or anything, but it certainly is an idea, and a good idea at that. At the very least its something for us to think about.
Think of it as the razor, they will get you on the blades (games)
....That's why I stopped shaving....well that and because I wanted to have a formidable defense (beard) against the unearthly mind control powers granted upon the fairer sex by the malicious hell spat concentration of evil between their legs (vagina)....Seriously, the super powers that women wield through their vaginas will be the world's undoing. Do your part to protect humanity...grow a beard...
... coming in at around £50 when sold separately from the console. The idea being that it’s low enough that people will purchase on impulse.
Maybe I am just a cheapskate...but isn't 50 pounds a little above the 'impulse buy' margin? Usually impulse buys for me run in the arena of $20.00 or less. 50 pounds converts to, according to google, $83.27. That's approaching that dreaded $100.00 limit. When I am walking through wal-mart stocking up on whatever I need, I rarely, if ever, see an $80.00 item and say, "Ooooh I need that!" and throw it in the cart. That's a week and a half's worth of groceries... I don't know, maybe I am the exception to the rule, but I think 50 pounds is a little on the high side to term it an 'impulse buy.'
And yes, people can fill in all the snarky responses about, "Oh, well, since YOU wouldn't spend the money I guess NOONE would...its not like anyone else has DIFFERENT buying habits..." and so on. I am not trying to say that nobody will fork over eighty bucks for the Natal, but it just seems a little high to be deemed an impulse buy type item...I mean hell, I won't even impulse buy new release games that I am excited about and they retail for $60.00.
One thing I started doing was using passwords from languages that were not my native tongue, and then L337 encrypting them mentally. That is, there are a few particular phrases I find in latin to be absolutely wonderful to say. Same thing goes for a few sayings I know in Navajo, Roman, Spanish, and Greek. I don't know the full languages by any means, just some cool sayings and phrases I picked up from literature and poems and the like over the years. By ensuring that I use non-native language (read non English) passwords, I ensure that there are only so many options that I could have used for the password. Since the words come from less than common-place languages, they are very rarely found in any dictionary files. All I have to do is transcribe some of the common letter, mentally, like a = @ or S = 5 and before I know it I have all sorts of permutations on a very small set of base words that are not common enough for most people to try to guess.
I know it's not a password tracking system like to asked per say. But by knowing that there are only a few base words that I use (from a few dead languages and a few live languages) I can easily track that base set and go from there. It's also a fine mental exercise....
To account for those you just make sure the password is something that will either gross them out or they are too scared to type it and see what happens. Some potential candidates are:
....etc. You get the idea. Using passwords like these also has the added advantage that anyone who does see the post-its won't ask you what they are about because, well, really no one wants to be heard saying the words GenitalMutilation and ExplosiveDiarrhea in the same breath at work or at home...
I am interested in your unit and measurement system and would like to adopt it for my country. Could you please calculate the conversion factor from chihuahua heads to Sydharbs and Elephants
Slashdot Mirror
Should Microsoft worry?"
No...they will just hire Johnny Cochran and use the Chewbacca defense....nothing to see here folks.
Meh, I've bought every TV I've ever owned from craigslist. Either that or I've had it handed down to me by friends and/or family. That being said, I could give less of a damn about whatever my state government does to regulate TVs (yes I live in California). The simple fact of the matter is that, unless you have some kind of techno-pene compensation obsession, you really don't need the latest and greatest and biggest anything. Mediums like craigslist and ebay have opened up the entire state (and for that matter, world) into one big tax-free bazaar. I can find a TV I want in Maryland, pay the dude to ship it, and have it in a couple of weeks. If I don't want to pay shipping, I can wait two weeks and find something comparable 2 hours away. So go ahead government, drive up consumer taxes. Drive up regulation. Try to micro manage everything. I have no incentive to listen to your BS or buy into your system anymore =P
For the record, I do realize that regulations and taxes do have a trickle down effect on everytihng, including things like online commerce and the sneakernet, but so far the effects seem to have been minimal and, for the most part, negligible.
If you were talking about the rich people in California who build mansions where they can slide off a cliff, or in a wooded area that was prone to wildfires you would be right.
As a native Californian I am curious, why is it the rest of the world's disasters can be excused as inevitable but, for some reason, we Californians should be held responsible? Now I am not saying that there aren't stupid people who build in stupid places in California, there are. Hell, I live next to a nuclear power plant on the coast line next to a fault line. Then again, I like living on the edge. However, there are parts of Kansas that have less tornado activity than others. So, if those Californians that build in the forest should be held responsible for their house burning down, why is it that the places in the higher-activity tornado spots of Kansas shouldn't be? I don't want to play victim here, but I just don't see why you singled out California as the only place where people should bear the blame for the natural disasters they go through. We can't control whether or not lightning is going to strike a dry field anymore than Japan can control its seismic tremors. Frankly, it sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder against us California folk.
Probably because enough people at Intel know that 'surf the web' is quite often a euphemism for 'find porn or some other form of online sex.'
You will eventually sit in a zoo throwing dung at tourists
Hold on, I am failing to see how that is a bad situation to be in....
Please God no!
....
I already have nightmares about Snuggies and ShamWows carrying me off into the night. The last thing I want is more product presence on my mind!
Though, on second thought, the dreams with Erin Esurance aren't all that bad
I found that the cocky douchebag plugin also helps a lot for this type of function. In fact, if you combine the DirectErect Browser with the NoPersonality add on and the FeelingBlock privacy protection add on you can navigate almost all of the social intrawebs without guilt/remorse/ or a second thought attacks. Of course, for real protection it is a good idea to download a third party security application like RubberCover or TrojanPlus. If you couple these with the applications like UIDRing or ThePill you are almost 100% protected against unwanted/unexpected child-development attacks.
;)
Really if you are going to encourage the poor young man to expose his virgin soul to the RealWorld2.0 you should give him some good security advice while you're at it. Of course, as we all know, security is a mindset not a product. And for the ultimate defense it is best to keep an air gap between your local Genital-Net and the general Social-Webz.
You know what's funny was that was the exact same sentiment held by the Brits before the Revolutionary War.
"The colonists? What threat could they pose? We have the entire British Army and Navy with mounted cavalry and well armed and supplied troops. The colonists have a few hunting rifles and tomahawks..."
Not saying we are going to start another war or anything, but never underestimate American inventiveness. Our society may be inflated with a lot of cruft, laziness, and uselessness now, but put our backs against the wall and quite a few of us yanks still know how to bring the raucous.
Last time I checked the majority of the U.S. landmass is below the launch path.
There are a couple of differences here. First and foremost, the Titans were solid rocket motors which use significantly different chemicals for fuel than liquid or hybrid rockets. That is why we can get away with having missile test ranges in landlocked states like Arizona. Solid rocket fuel produces (usually) less toxic crap.
Secondly, I can tell you with 100% certainty that the ground traces of the current EELV vehicles take them over water to the South and West of the California coast line. The flight path certainly does not take it over any US landmass (aside from maybe some radiated islands on the Pacific, but that's just a possibility because I cannot confirm that it doesn't happen). I was not working on launch ops during the Titan III days so I cannot say with any certainty one way or another whether those vehicles flew over US landmass or not. I would be surprised to learn that they flew trajectories which were radically different from the current EELVs as all three vehicles (Atlas, Delta, Titan) tend(ed) to deliver payloads to similar orbits. Thus, I would assume that similar azimuths were/are used for all three VAFB launch vehicles and that the Titan III's actually flew over water. I can also say that, in general, solid rocket fuel tends to burn less toxic (depending on the fuel, usually the less toxic fuels are chosen for handling purposes) and, thus, if the Titan III's did fly over landmass, there were probably quite a few safety checkouts and range requirements that prevented them from poisoning the general US population. I would also wager that IF the Titan III's indeed did fly over US landmass, there more than likely was a path requirement that no population centers be under the ground trace.
So, in summation, scoff all you want, but I am much more prone to taking the word of someone who worked for Boeing satellite operations for 40+ years and my own experience in launch operations than minor quip of a fellow slashdotter. Of course, if you want to provide fuel composition data and ground trace data for the Titan III's I would be more than eager to review it for my own sanity.
Cheers.
One of my professors in college that used to work for Boeing explained to our spacecraft design class that Boeing stopped contracting launches with China because China launches their rockets over landmass rather than ocean. While this alone is a very dangerous practice, it important to note that a good amount of the crap pouring out of the back of some launch vehicles is poisonous....especially when hydrazine is added into the mix. As a result, the Chinese launch vehicles were dumping significant amounts of poisonous crap down on some of their towns, villages, and even farms. I hope that if NASA does start partnering with China, NASA can influence China to stop such inhumane practices. It would be sad to see bad habits adopted in the reverse order instead.
Just a thought...
Why? I don't recall any mention of this in the Bible. He never said, "oh hey, by the way, I'm going to be out golfing for the next couple thousand years. Try not to slaughter yourselves."
I am 99% certain that this is addressed somewhere in one of those two books. The Bible is a large text, I would suggest reading it thoroughly before making such broad claims about its contents friend.
Cheers.
Andorra:
After reading your post I was inspired to wikipedia Andorra. I am a US citizen. Now I want to move to Andorra. Thank you =)
...of various local markets for everything from cattle to hay to everything in between....
I didn't realize there was a market for bovine stomachs and intestines....then again I don't really eat at McDonald's....
This might be offtopic but seeing a legitimate R&D story on slashdot with a link to the actual (open) technical write up of the research made my day. I haven't read the whole paper yet (I will when I get home) but going through it and reading the first few sections I can see that the researchers included their (simulink?) processing models as well as some good data in the results section. This story finally gave me something worth breaking out my old signal processing and DAC notes from college out over and studying the raw math and theory behind the algorithm.
I have to say, I really wish we would see more papers like this posted and published openly. It's very inspiring when other folk in similar fields can access a paper's full contents and start playing with similar models themselves...
And there's not a damned thing you can do about it, because your talents are what they are and you can't change them.
I suppose I am supposed to remember this the next time I want to learn a new instrument? Or, perhaps I should tell my wrists and forearms to forget the muscle memory I instilled in them half way through high school, when I started playing the drums, so that my talents will never change because trying to do so was, in fact, hopeless.
I see where you are coming from for the majority of your post, but that last sentence needs to be lopped off maliciously my friend. You can change your talents your entire life. It's why we go to school. It's how we learn to deal with insurance companies. It's how we learn to parent our kids and date our girls. Saying that your talents are what they are and you can't change them is just a tired form of orneriness that is, frankly, ridiculous.
I had no idea that things have gotten so bad that hearts are being hacked.
Well the article talks about how the threats have been demonstrated in the lab by a fella named Kevin Fu, but it doesn't mention it being a major problem right now:
The potential risks of enabling radio communication in implantable medical devices were first highlighted by Kevin Fu, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Tadayoshi Kohno, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Washington. They showed how to glean personal information from such a device, how to drain its batteries remotely, and how to make it malfunction in dangerous ways. The two researchers stress that the threat is minimal now, but argue that it is vital to find ways to protect wireless medical devices before malicious users discover and exploit vulnerabilities.
So this defense seems primarily like foresight rather than a hindsight, "Shit fixitfixitfixtfixit!" moment...So in response to your pondering, I don't think too many hearts are being hacked right now, nor that things have gotten that bad. Rather, it just seems like two security researchers are doing their job to keep the defensive actions one step ahead of offensive actions...
A bit off topic but now I know why NoScript prevents Myspace form loading altogether...because I have analytics blocked and, looking at the HTML source code now, I can see why nothing else is loading afterwards...
And who says slashdot doesn't still have some useful/helpful comments on it?
What's the difference between greed and ambition?
I just kind of wanted to hazard a partially thought out response to this:
Lack of valuation of the self over valuation of the 'better'
In other words, greed, by definition, is inherently self-serving. I would not postulate that ambition is inherently self-serving. I can be ambitious in wanting to invent a new launch system that makes space access cheap and affordable for mankind. While this does benefit me, it also benefits my peers as well as the pursuit of exploration and science in general. Thus, ambition can drive me to do something for values that serve many, not only the individual. Also, my ambition may be to make society better by making it freer. Again, it does benefit me, but it also benefits the advancement of the species and, for that matter, philosophy in general (see John Locke). Greed, however, places the value of the individual first and foremost. What helps me? Not, what is 'best?'
Now of course there will be some objectivists here who want to smack me for use of the 'subjective' term 'better' in my explanation, but I would postulate that 'better' is not a subjective entity. In fact, I would go further to say that the idea of 'better,' the idea of good, of quality, if you will, is actually outside the idea of both objectivity and subjectivity. I could type all day about this subject but will save everyone that eyesore of a post. Instead, if you want to discuss the philosophical implications of the idea of 'best' being the ultimate source of reality (and no, this is neither orthodoxy nor God-theory) I will leave it to the reader to e-mail or contact me by some other means (BJ_Covert_Action@hotmail.com).
To pick an example: who did the Trojan War benefit, exactly?
A particularly useful company that used the image of the Trojan state and its reputation for good protection to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies worldwide =)
Also, Homer comes to mind...it kind of made his writing famous...
... when people feel they need to get rich. ... but some start with a real _need_ for money and power,
And this type of thing happens when values that are social in nature (money, fame) are placed above values which are intellectual in nature (freedom, privacy, etc.). Robert Pirsig, in his second book Lilah, expounds upon an idea (and yes, it is that, an idea, not a creed or a fact) that much of the world around us can be explained by observing the hierarchy of values that exist in the world. If we consider human beings, individuals, biological creatures, one level of the hierarchy, society and social regimes (governments, countries, cities, corporations, interest groups) another level, and intellectual regimes (ideas, freedom, love, privacy, justice) one more level, then we can start to see some patterns in the reason why morally corrupt behavior exists the way it does today.
It seems as if we, as a society and as individuals, have run rampant with the ideas of placing the society as the most important thing to value (hence the nearly unlimited power of social interest groups and corporations). Now this is often done under the creed that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one (yeah, Star Trek quote, I snuck it in there), which makes sense. However, that creed only makes sense when the needs of the ideological, the intellectual values, outweigh the needs of the society. In other words, if we would stop worshiping social level entities such governments and lobbyist groups, and started valuing intellectual entities (knowledge, justice, freedom, etc.) then those ideologies could and would and should be used to reign in the power of social entities.
Unfortunately, in the world today, society is so worshiped that people fail to look to the next level, the intellectual. Thus, there is no limiting factor on the social entities and corruption runs rampant. The modus operandi of social entities (money and fame) therefore runs through individuals and organizations alike as an addiction. We believe, due to a biased mythos from which we create our perception of reality, that if we get a little more money or a little more fame, then we will be happy, because we will be on top of society. This is a form of existence which lacks pure Quality. By ascribing our existence to such superficial values, we tenaciously race towards a vapid existence with little peace of mind (which also conveniently explains the build-up of social angst and fussiness in society today). So the point is, we, as a species, need to evolve and rebuild our mythos (foundation) to not place social regimes at the ultimate top of the value pyramid. We need to reign in valuation of societies with appropriate valuation of intellectual entities as well....
Of course, none of this is a peer-reviewed scientific theory or anything, but it certainly is an idea, and a good idea at that. At the very least its something for us to think about.
Think of it as the razor, they will get you on the blades (games)
... coming in at around £50 when sold separately from the console. The idea being that it’s low enough that people will purchase on impulse.
Maybe I am just a cheapskate...but isn't 50 pounds a little above the 'impulse buy' margin? Usually impulse buys for me run in the arena of $20.00 or less. 50 pounds converts to, according to google, $83.27. That's approaching that dreaded $100.00 limit. When I am walking through wal-mart stocking up on whatever I need, I rarely, if ever, see an $80.00 item and say, "Ooooh I need that!" and throw it in the cart. That's a week and a half's worth of groceries... I don't know, maybe I am the exception to the rule, but I think 50 pounds is a little on the high side to term it an 'impulse buy.'
And yes, people can fill in all the snarky responses about, "Oh, well, since YOU wouldn't spend the money I guess NOONE would...its not like anyone else has DIFFERENT buying habits..." and so on. I am not trying to say that nobody will fork over eighty bucks for the Natal, but it just seems a little high to be deemed an impulse buy type item...I mean hell, I won't even impulse buy new release games that I am excited about and they retail for $60.00.
But like I said, maybe I am just a cheapskate.
One thing I started doing was using passwords from languages that were not my native tongue, and then L337 encrypting them mentally. That is, there are a few particular phrases I find in latin to be absolutely wonderful to say. Same thing goes for a few sayings I know in Navajo, Roman, Spanish, and Greek. I don't know the full languages by any means, just some cool sayings and phrases I picked up from literature and poems and the like over the years. By ensuring that I use non-native language (read non English) passwords, I ensure that there are only so many options that I could have used for the password. Since the words come from less than common-place languages, they are very rarely found in any dictionary files. All I have to do is transcribe some of the common letter, mentally, like a = @ or S = 5 and before I know it I have all sorts of permutations on a very small set of base words that are not common enough for most people to try to guess.
I know it's not a password tracking system like to asked per say. But by knowing that there are only a few base words that I use (from a few dead languages and a few live languages) I can easily track that base set and go from there. It's also a fine mental exercise....
To account for those you just make sure the password is something that will either gross them out or they are too scared to type it and see what happens. Some potential candidates are:
....etc. You get the idea. Using passwords like these also has the added advantage that anyone who does see the post-its won't ask you what they are about because, well, really no one wants to be heard saying the words GenitalMutilation and ExplosiveDiarrhea in the same breath at work or at home...
HorsePornHentai
GenitalMutilation
ExplosiveDiarrhea
RainbowFacials
....no bigger than a chihuahua's head.
I am interested in your unit and measurement system and would like to adopt it for my country. Could you please calculate the conversion factor from chihuahua heads to Sydharbs and Elephants