There is no way to create a bank in SL that would work like a US Bank. Real banks work by loaning out up to 10 dollars for each dollar someone puts in. You can't do that in SL. You can't just create your own Lindens out of thin air like the federal reserve can.
Until the SL owners decide they want to give someone this power, banks will never make it, or will have to charge insane interest rates on loans. (Plus there will always be a chance for a run on the bank)
My parents tried this with our C-BAND satellite way back in the day. They put an access code restriction on certain channels like MTV to block them permanently. They slept well at night knowing that my siblings would never turn into the hideous demon people shown on that channel. They never checked to make sure it worked.
One night I went looking for the manual and found the master override code. Now the access control feature was entirely useless. They didn't find out about that until they happened to catch my sister watching MTV much later on.
There is no substitute for parenting. You cannot rely on your little programs and your v-chips to do what you want done. If you're too lazy to be a parent, then don't blame anyone else when they turn out like shit. Kids always have more time to figure out ways around your little techno-blocker-gizmos, and with the widespread use of the Internet now, you haven't got a chance in hell of keeping up.
The best solution to this issue that I've seen in practice is to actually instill a sense of right and wrong in the kids, and actually have a relationship with them, so that when you tell them something is not good for them, they understand instead of rebel. You can't beat that with a stick.
No references to Gattaca. Remember the scene that showed every single person who worked had to stick their thumb on and automatic pricking machine so it could verify their dna and identity?
All in all I'm going to stick to Windows until: A) I can run my main programs and games on Linux or B) Windows will cost me an arm and a leg with no way around it and/or C) MS really implements their Paladin idea of old (which it appears they're still working towards).
A) is hardly a Linux issue is it ? Complain to the manufacturers of your software over lack of support for Linux. B) it does, you just can't see it on paper (its hidden by the OEM system). C) they will if they can get away with it
It would seem your reply was very unnecessary.
A) I don't need to complain. I'm not advocating switching to linux. It doesn't do what I need? Screw it. B) It doesn't and I won't elaborate. C) We agree on this.
Let me start off by saying I'm not a complete stranger to Linux or BSD. I have used them at work quite frequently and also at home years ago.
About 10 years ago I installed linux for the first time at home and dual booted between it and windows. I was in love with the text interface (nostalgia from dos) but I found it incredibly difficult to get even basic components on my PC to work properly. I never did get my soundblaster card to play sounds. I didn't have every flipping specification for my monitor, so when setting up XFree86 and being prompted for the vertical refresh rate and horizontal refresh rates and all that garbage just about stopped me in my tracks. It took many hours of man hunting and asking friends familiar with linux to get my ethernet card to work. My video card was not supported so I had to use ugly 256 color 800x600 display mode. I was pretty disgusted with the whole ordeal and just went back to windows98se.
A couple years later I tried a few different distros to see how far Linux had come. It was a whole new experience. I popped a CD in and booted from it, partitioned my drive, selected what programs I wanted to install from a graphical menu with pretty colors and let it fly. Then booted it up and got on the web. All without configuring squat. I was amazed. But after a few hours the novelty wore off. The interface did not feel right, and trying to make adjustments in the control panel produced nothing but frustration and headaches.
The tools that come with it always seem to be cheaper knock-offs of mainstream programs. After hearing GIMP's praises I decided to give it a try, since I was working a photography retouch artist, I thought the more experience I have with different tools the better I'll be at my job. I was wrong. GIMP was a complete piece of disorganized window vomit. It was touted as Photoshop for Linux but it doesn't do half the things Photoshop can do, and it's confusing as hell trying to manage the different windows for any/every action you want to perform. So I gave up on that and thanked god for photoshop.
I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, but I do enjoy playing them quite often. I decided to see what Linux could do for me in that respect and was very disappointed. There were 'emulators' that could pretend to be windows so you _might_ be able to play an old game or two, but the performance hit that came with it was horrid and there always seemed to be glitches in the graphics, or the games would just suddenly crash out of nowhere. Not to mention just trying to get them running in the first place took nearly all my patience.
In the past year I've again installed Linux just to see where it's at and where it looks like it's going and it's fun to play with, but I can't use it for anything serious. I've become so accustomed to the little things in Windows such as uniform keyboard shortcuts from program to program that Linux becomes a pain in my neck after long. And still most of what I want to do, I can't do in Linux, or at least not with the same efficiency and speed.
However, if I were to ever run servers for ANYTHING Linux or BSD would definitely be my first choice. I managed DNS, pop3 and smtp on a couple BSD servers at my last job and found it simply amazing what you can do with shell scripting. Windows has some sort of scripting language of its own, but it's not something you can just read a few man pages on and pick up like the shell scripting in Linux/BSD.
All in all I'm going to stick to Windows until: A) I can run my main programs and games on Linux or B) Windows will cost me an arm and a leg with no way around it and/or C) MS really implements their Paladin idea of old (which it appears they're still working towards).
Sadly, in the past 10 or so jobs that I've applied for in the past 3 years this has been a part of each one. Even for a grocery bagging job at Kroger's or a desk guy at Blockbuster. It was nearly impossible for me to get a job when I lived in Houston and I believe it had to do with those background checks.
Yes I was in a DUI accident 4 years ago. Yes I still have outstanding debts related to it. No I did not lie on my application about it. For some reason I never received so much as a single call back. Luckily I moved to Des Moines and though I was still required to sign my rights away to even be considered for a job, it doesn't appear that many businesses here actually DO the check.
Or maybe no one wanted to hire a whitey knowing very little Spanish in Houston - I can't say for sure.
I see Ron Paul as a beacon of hope. The mere fact that this man has been in Congress for a number of years is amazing. He represents EVERYTHING I would expect from a leader of the free world. His voting record is nearly impeccable. He is what I would consider a true republican conservative, unlike our current administration. He has morals, he is completely for the constitution, and every time he speaks there is an earnest want to restore the country back to the constitution that we've strayed so far from.
I've never been so impressed with a candidate for presidency in my life, though I am only 23 years old, when I compare his debates and his press coverage, I can't recall any other candidate or politician for that matter, that has ever seemed so American.
I have the greatest hope that this man will lead this nation to restore some of it's former glory and morals. Realistically however, as I watch the media tear into him like rabid dogs, I can't see a majority of America forgoing the comfort of having the mass media tell them which candidate they need to pick. In fact, most people that I talk to on a day-to-day basis about politics would rather not even discuss the subject. On the rare occasion that someone seems to care, they only want to throw out lines from O'Reilly or CNN, and not debate it.
I don't know what is going to happen in my lifetime, but with guys like Ron Paul out there, it gives me a glimmer of hope that things can be turned around.
I agree, and more so as we venture further into the 21st century. The more we absolutely rely on our networks and databases, the worse off we will be when something catastrophic like an all-out cyber-war takes place and destroys much of that information.
If we can't have methods in place to deal with things in the real world, without NEEDING to rely on cyberspace, we're only going to last as long as our networks and databases. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if someone nefarious managed to get into some large systems housing credit information, criminal histories, or even DMV records, and destroyed or corrupted the data beyond repair?
I'm sure all of that data is backed up constantly to off-site locations, but what if so many different databases that were intertwined were destroyed at the same time, that restoring it all was next to impossible? Imagine no one being able to get money out of the bank because that information was tied into some vital systems for verification that were no longer accessible.
I know this is a totally doomsday scenario, but it could be possible. The more we rely on automated systems for everything the more likely something enormously catastrophic could happen and leave us with no recourse. There should always be a paper trail in my opinion. It not only provides a backup in case of any system failures, but it can also help track down criminals with something goes awry.
The war on terror is every bit as much bullshit as the war on drugs. You cannot win a war against an idea. Ideas do not die, they merely fade from consciousness if given the opportunity. When you drag it out into a public war, you keep that idea alive and give it many more followers. This defeats the purpose of having the war, assuming the purpose was to disperse the idea and get rid of it.
All I see are wagons circling these days. War on guns, war on terror, war on drugs, war on immigration, war on this and that. Every last one of these "wars" has restricted personal freedoms and brought massive powers to the federal government over state governments. If these trends continue, which I foresee no slowing down, but only a quickening of the pace, our country and government will no longer even be recognizable, much less as the last bastion of freedom in the world.
We, the citizens, will become the state's slaves and we will be assigned our life-duties and carry them out or be disposed of. Progress in the robotics field will only serve to complete this future reality. When people are no longer needed to do menial tasks and even some of the more elevated tasks, they will become a friction to the economy rather than the grease. The scales of wealth will tip immensely.
I'm waiting for the day when I can create my own little life forms and have the computer model it in real-world scenarios. Imagine being able to watch evolution happen right before your very eyes! It would be like playing spore but more realistic!
Good information there, but I'd like to add that it would also be beneficial if you weren't looking at them but perhaps off to the side in case they happen to notice you. You would not be perceived as an imminent threat to the magnitude you would if you were glaring directly at them with a menacing look on your face, and thus their reaction would be lessened.
Yeah, you're basically wrong there. Digg was banning users and dropping stories left and right without saying a word. The only reason Kevin fessed up to it is because he lost complete control over it. We were submitting so many stories per minute and adding so many comments with the number to even unrelated articles, that he finally hung his head in shame and fessed up.
Slashdot may censor as well, but nothing on the scale that was going on with Digg and all the while they were trying to be sneaky about it.
The "you'll get over it" wasn't Drew's attitude at all. It was Jeff's. Drew apologized for Jeff and said they would take any suggestions and try to be as accommodating as possible with setting the new layout.
My guess is it had more to do with the amount of advertising space than anything else.
However posting hex codes cannot be considered circumvention if there's no direction on how to use them, right? Otherwise any program that contains those particular hex codes, regardless of what the operation of the program is, would be in violation and would be trafficking the circumvention device. And I'm sure with all the people we know with spare time on their hands we could come up with a very large list of violators to sway a ruling.
Anyone else find it ridiculous that we're seeing all the reports of how oppressive Iran is to it's people? WHO CARES? Honestly. If the people there didn't like it, and were fed up, they'd fix it. I'm seeing this as a preamble to invasion/attack.
Get everyone talking about how horribly oppressive the government is so they don't feel so bad about blitzing them.
Imagine: The service worked virtually flawlessly for years, and just a week before the announcement that they will be integrating Windows devices, it all goes crashing down.
Slashdot Mirror
There is no way to create a bank in SL that would work like a US Bank. Real banks work by loaning out up to 10 dollars for each dollar someone puts in. You can't do that in SL. You can't just create your own Lindens out of thin air like the federal reserve can.
Until the SL owners decide they want to give someone this power, banks will never make it, or will have to charge insane interest rates on loans. (Plus there will always be a chance for a run on the bank)
My parents tried this with our C-BAND satellite way back in the day. They put an access code restriction on certain channels like MTV to block them permanently. They slept well at night knowing that my siblings would never turn into the hideous demon people shown on that channel. They never checked to make sure it worked.
One night I went looking for the manual and found the master override code. Now the access control feature was entirely useless. They didn't find out about that until they happened to catch my sister watching MTV much later on.
There is no substitute for parenting. You cannot rely on your little programs and your v-chips to do what you want done. If you're too lazy to be a parent, then don't blame anyone else when they turn out like shit. Kids always have more time to figure out ways around your little techno-blocker-gizmos, and with the widespread use of the Internet now, you haven't got a chance in hell of keeping up.
The best solution to this issue that I've seen in practice is to actually instill a sense of right and wrong in the kids, and actually have a relationship with them, so that when you tell them something is not good for them, they understand instead of rebel. You can't beat that with a stick.
Especially when you give everyone Ecstasy at the door...
I think many here have and will continue to live without women.
No references to Gattaca. Remember the scene that showed every single person who worked had to stick their thumb on and automatic pricking machine so it could verify their dna and identity?
It would seem your reply was very unnecessary.
A) I don't need to complain. I'm not advocating switching to linux. It doesn't do what I need? Screw it.
B) It doesn't and I won't elaborate.
C) We agree on this.
Let me start off by saying I'm not a complete stranger to Linux or BSD. I have used them at work quite frequently and also at home years ago.
About 10 years ago I installed linux for the first time at home and dual booted between it and windows. I was in love with the text interface (nostalgia from dos) but I found it incredibly difficult to get even basic components on my PC to work properly. I never did get my soundblaster card to play sounds. I didn't have every flipping specification for my monitor, so when setting up XFree86 and being prompted for the vertical refresh rate and horizontal refresh rates and all that garbage just about stopped me in my tracks. It took many hours of man hunting and asking friends familiar with linux to get my ethernet card to work. My video card was not supported so I had to use ugly 256 color 800x600 display mode. I was pretty disgusted with the whole ordeal and just went back to windows98se.
A couple years later I tried a few different distros to see how far Linux had come. It was a whole new experience. I popped a CD in and booted from it, partitioned my drive, selected what programs I wanted to install from a graphical menu with pretty colors and let it fly. Then booted it up and got on the web. All without configuring squat. I was amazed. But after a few hours the novelty wore off. The interface did not feel right, and trying to make adjustments in the control panel produced nothing but frustration and headaches.
The tools that come with it always seem to be cheaper knock-offs of mainstream programs. After hearing GIMP's praises I decided to give it a try, since I was working a photography retouch artist, I thought the more experience I have with different tools the better I'll be at my job. I was wrong. GIMP was a complete piece of disorganized window vomit. It was touted as Photoshop for Linux but it doesn't do half the things Photoshop can do, and it's confusing as hell trying to manage the different windows for any/every action you want to perform. So I gave up on that and thanked god for photoshop.
I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, but I do enjoy playing them quite often. I decided to see what Linux could do for me in that respect and was very disappointed. There were 'emulators' that could pretend to be windows so you _might_ be able to play an old game or two, but the performance hit that came with it was horrid and there always seemed to be glitches in the graphics, or the games would just suddenly crash out of nowhere. Not to mention just trying to get them running in the first place took nearly all my patience.
In the past year I've again installed Linux just to see where it's at and where it looks like it's going and it's fun to play with, but I can't use it for anything serious. I've become so accustomed to the little things in Windows such as uniform keyboard shortcuts from program to program that Linux becomes a pain in my neck after long. And still most of what I want to do, I can't do in Linux, or at least not with the same efficiency and speed.
However, if I were to ever run servers for ANYTHING Linux or BSD would definitely be my first choice. I managed DNS, pop3 and smtp on a couple BSD servers at my last job and found it simply amazing what you can do with shell scripting. Windows has some sort of scripting language of its own, but it's not something you can just read a few man pages on and pick up like the shell scripting in Linux/BSD.
All in all I'm going to stick to Windows until: A) I can run my main programs and games on Linux or B) Windows will cost me an arm and a leg with no way around it and/or C) MS really implements their Paladin idea of old (which it appears they're still working towards).
Sadly, in the past 10 or so jobs that I've applied for in the past 3 years this has been a part of each one. Even for a grocery bagging job at Kroger's or a desk guy at Blockbuster. It was nearly impossible for me to get a job when I lived in Houston and I believe it had to do with those background checks.
Yes I was in a DUI accident 4 years ago. Yes I still have outstanding debts related to it. No I did not lie on my application about it. For some reason I never received so much as a single call back. Luckily I moved to Des Moines and though I was still required to sign my rights away to even be considered for a job, it doesn't appear that many businesses here actually DO the check.
Or maybe no one wanted to hire a whitey knowing very little Spanish in Houston - I can't say for sure.
And then when you see news like this it starts to make you wonder just how close we really are.
I see Ron Paul as a beacon of hope. The mere fact that this man has been in Congress for a number of years is amazing. He represents EVERYTHING I would expect from a leader of the free world. His voting record is nearly impeccable. He is what I would consider a true republican conservative, unlike our current administration. He has morals, he is completely for the constitution, and every time he speaks there is an earnest want to restore the country back to the constitution that we've strayed so far from.
I've never been so impressed with a candidate for presidency in my life, though I am only 23 years old, when I compare his debates and his press coverage, I can't recall any other candidate or politician for that matter, that has ever seemed so American.
I have the greatest hope that this man will lead this nation to restore some of it's former glory and morals. Realistically however, as I watch the media tear into him like rabid dogs, I can't see a majority of America forgoing the comfort of having the mass media tell them which candidate they need to pick. In fact, most people that I talk to on a day-to-day basis about politics would rather not even discuss the subject. On the rare occasion that someone seems to care, they only want to throw out lines from O'Reilly or CNN, and not debate it.
I don't know what is going to happen in my lifetime, but with guys like Ron Paul out there, it gives me a glimmer of hope that things can be turned around.
I agree, and more so as we venture further into the 21st century. The more we absolutely rely on our networks and databases, the worse off we will be when something catastrophic like an all-out cyber-war takes place and destroys much of that information.
If we can't have methods in place to deal with things in the real world, without NEEDING to rely on cyberspace, we're only going to last as long as our networks and databases. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if someone nefarious managed to get into some large systems housing credit information, criminal histories, or even DMV records, and destroyed or corrupted the data beyond repair?
I'm sure all of that data is backed up constantly to off-site locations, but what if so many different databases that were intertwined were destroyed at the same time, that restoring it all was next to impossible? Imagine no one being able to get money out of the bank because that information was tied into some vital systems for verification that were no longer accessible.
I know this is a totally doomsday scenario, but it could be possible. The more we rely on automated systems for everything the more likely something enormously catastrophic could happen and leave us with no recourse. There should always be a paper trail in my opinion. It not only provides a backup in case of any system failures, but it can also help track down criminals with something goes awry.
There are 303 people in the U.S. named Brad Harris. Well shoot, that's almost enough of us to create a small well-regulated militia. HowManyOfMe.com
The war on terror is every bit as much bullshit as the war on drugs. You cannot win a war against an idea. Ideas do not die, they merely fade from consciousness if given the opportunity. When you drag it out into a public war, you keep that idea alive and give it many more followers. This defeats the purpose of having the war, assuming the purpose was to disperse the idea and get rid of it.
All I see are wagons circling these days. War on guns, war on terror, war on drugs, war on immigration, war on this and that. Every last one of these "wars" has restricted personal freedoms and brought massive powers to the federal government over state governments. If these trends continue, which I foresee no slowing down, but only a quickening of the pace, our country and government will no longer even be recognizable, much less as the last bastion of freedom in the world.
We, the citizens, will become the state's slaves and we will be assigned our life-duties and carry them out or be disposed of. Progress in the robotics field will only serve to complete this future reality. When people are no longer needed to do menial tasks and even some of the more elevated tasks, they will become a friction to the economy rather than the grease. The scales of wealth will tip immensely.
I'm waiting for the day when I can create my own little life forms and have the computer model it in real-world scenarios. Imagine being able to watch evolution happen right before your very eyes! It would be like playing spore but more realistic!
I'll feed em and pet em and take real good care of em george, honest!
Good information there, but I'd like to add that it would also be beneficial if you weren't looking at them but perhaps off to the side in case they happen to notice you. You would not be perceived as an imminent threat to the magnitude you would if you were glaring directly at them with a menacing look on your face, and thus their reaction would be lessened.
..and don't forget to brush up on your algebra skills because you've got a lot of variables to solve for right there!
I find that I get mod points right after any comment I post gets modded up, unless I *just* had some.
I do not post comments too frequently, maybe a couple times a week, but I do meta-moderate every chance I get (just about every day).
My karma too is always at excellent, and I have up-modded probably 99% of all my mods.
If you just follow the rules and guidelines you seem to do pretty well with the mod points.
Yeah, you're basically wrong there. Digg was banning users and dropping stories left and right without saying a word. The only reason Kevin fessed up to it is because he lost complete control over it. We were submitting so many stories per minute and adding so many comments with the number to even unrelated articles, that he finally hung his head in shame and fessed up.
Slashdot may censor as well, but nothing on the scale that was going on with Digg and all the while they were trying to be sneaky about it.
Al Gore invented the Internets and he can take them away.
The "you'll get over it" wasn't Drew's attitude at all. It was Jeff's. Drew apologized for Jeff and said they would take any suggestions and try to be as accommodating as possible with setting the new layout.
My guess is it had more to do with the amount of advertising space than anything else.
However posting hex codes cannot be considered circumvention if there's no direction on how to use them, right? Otherwise any program that contains those particular hex codes, regardless of what the operation of the program is, would be in violation and would be trafficking the circumvention device. And I'm sure with all the people we know with spare time on their hands we could come up with a very large list of violators to sway a ruling.
No?
Well then, why don't we go "liberate" them? Because that works SO much better.
Anyone else find it ridiculous that we're seeing all the reports of how oppressive Iran is to it's people? WHO CARES? Honestly. If the people there didn't like it, and were fed up, they'd fix it. I'm seeing this as a preamble to invasion/attack.
Get everyone talking about how horribly oppressive the government is so they don't feel so bad about blitzing them.
Not happening here.
Imagine: The service worked virtually flawlessly for years, and just a week before the announcement that they will be integrating Windows devices, it all goes crashing down.
RIP RIM.