So far there has been little innovative in these "new" environments except for the graphics.
Except their pay-to-play business models.
I suppose the other similarity, auctioning gear really isn't an enviromental innovation. It's just a refinement of the inevitable meta-game auctioning that went on. And while I don't remember any RL money changing hands on any of the Diku's I frequented, I admit that I never really cared enough to find out.
This'll probably get mod'ed down as OT, but I think the word you're looking for is technophiles.
Your use of technocrats implies that we actually control something other than our own limited sphere of influence. And while I don't deny there's a certain ammount of techno-muscle flexing going on, let's be honest: it's reach is rather limited in scope. The real power lies with those that have the real money.
3) I think I'll have to second an earlier statement of, "Not according to my IQ test."
4) While I have to cop to arrogant, (What's wrong with it, after all.) ignorant of other cultures in the US? I would have to say not. It's this point I will _have_ to take offense at. In my life, I've had about as multi-cultural an experience as it is possible to have had. We can first examine the varieties of European culture I've gathered into myself: Grandmother's parents owned a quarry and had lots of greek and italian employees. (Come to think of it, her family's the likely reason for such a relatively large greek population in the area I'm living in now.) Little greek and italian customs got incorperated into their holiday celebrations.
My step-father's family were born in (and spent their early life in) Germany. Came over before WWII and stayed here. They were my first exposure to real german cooking, customs, and culture. (Kind of like Jewish Grandmother TM, but without as much guilt)
My own life has been spent living near and having as close friends people from rather diverse backgrounds. The first time I had Vietnamese food was some good friends of my step-father coming by and cooking us an extensive meal. (I've been very glad of the rise in popularity of Vietnamese resaurants.) How many "whitey" guys know what uses you can put rice flour to? Hell, do you know what Pali Tao (Spelling?) is, much less, how to make it?
Hell, my friends taught me to swear in other languages almost before I learned to cuss in English.
Am I a racial melting-pot? Nope. I'm pretty much a European Alley-Cat. I'll admit that much. Am I devoid of cultural diversity? Hell no. Your own accusations are about as well-informed and narrow-minded as the statement, "It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand." I cry foul on all such separatism and self-serving arrogance. Damn right, there are things that I won't instinctively or immediately understand because of my racial and cultural identity. This does NOT excuse you from trying to explain, nor does it excuse me from trying to understand. I run into things like this fairly often (unfortunately) with my fiance. She will react in a certain, seemingly non-sensical way to a situation leaving me baffled. Generally, it will be a subtlty of the censored-American cultural phenominom that I've completely missed. However, I've gotten quite a bit better at understanding said subtlties, and these things come up less often as time goes by. We suspect that I'm on my way to understanding the censored-American experience better than anyone not born to it.
5) You say this like it's a bad thing. I've never been much on soul, so haven't really even sought out it's artists. Having heard his voice, I can respect it. Damn, but he's impressive vocally. Your accusation is rediculous though. It'd be like criticizing "whitey" for never having heard of James Earl Jones before they'd seen Star Wars. I'll admit to that: I was around 7-11 at the time... Too damned young for to pay any attention to actor credits, much less voice-actor credits!
I'll go ya one better: my high school German teacher was saying "Don't have a cow!" looooooooong before the Simpsons first aired...
Ah. And to think that I figured it was some sort of protest of the "bad editors and moderators" around here.
Not that I agree with this sentiment wrt ed. and mod., but I've seen enough obviously poor moderations I can certainly understand somone feeling that way.
Hell, I've lost count of the ammount of times I've completely disagreed with somone through metamod. In fact, metamod's the reason I read at -1 anymore. There are too many worthwhile comments that get modded down for differing from popular opinion.
To paraphrase, "I may disagree violently with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Of course, it's illegal to sell anything as a sex-toy in Japan. Which is why there's such a booming market for "battery-operated small-scale kinetic sculptures" as well as the usual "facial massagers".
One wonders about the Japanese sometimes. Then you take a look at some of the scary hentai out there, and you know for certain...
Go with Intel NIC's. I've had nothing but grief using 3Com NIC's under any OS other than Winblows. The problem really does lie with the fact that 3Com feels the need to use the same product name for very different ethernet chipsets.
Damned annoying from my point of view.
Like I said, go with Intel; they're universally supported, they're easy to find in stores, and they're damned near bullet-proof!
I don't mind paying the extra $20 for a NIC I can use for anything.
I have a friend with "connections" who was kind enough to bring his copy of the pilot to a party of mine a few months back.
I will tell you all now, that it _is_ different from both the comicbook original and the animated series. Both were fun in their day, and both stand on their own merits.
However this new series is off to a very amusing start. I got quite a few deep laughs out of the humour, and Patrick Warburton's (SP?) delivery of the patented Tick Monologues(Tm) are nothing short of sterling!
The plot was nothing spectacular, but was very enjoyable. Indeed, if the writers manage to keep this level of quality, it will be a series to watch faithfully!
On the subject of the new characters: They're different. Get over it. They work in their own way, and can hold their own as supporting characters. (Why does this bring to mind visions of sidekicks like Brazier Boy and Leather Lass?)
I seem to remember hearing rumours (From my friend with "connections"? I can't remember) that Ben Eglund is part of the creative team on this series. If this is true, it should put to rest any complaints of deviating from the source material.
I can only hope that this show doesn't get buried in the typical FOX time-slot shuffle.
Actually, I grew up in Sunnyvale and the Haunted Toys-R-Us was a thing of common knowledge/legend among anyone that had lived in the area for a while.
While I can't remember anyone of my aquaintance ever claiming to have seen said ghost, one or two of the "psychic/sensitive" types I knew claimed to have had "experiences". (Of course, IMNSHO these "experiences" are worth the paper this comment's printed on...)
However, enough people believed it to manage to get the "That's Incredible" camera crew out to run some footage of the "ghost".
Still, at the time I thought it was pretty keen to have one's town-of-residence featered on national TV.;-)
How can this program devalue an already worthless "career"? Let's see, Web Devoper;
Everybody and their monkey can hack together a HTML document, and anything with the brains of a lobotomized hamster can put Sitemill or Frontpage to use.
Hell, I dropped the idea of becoming a "Web Developer" 7 years ago when I realized the market was already badly glutted.
If you're _still_ in that market today, you're in for a rude awakening when your local PHB realizes he can get the "same" work out of a slack-jawed intern equipped with latest version of M$ Frontpage.
As other commenters have mentioned, aesthetics are really the key to getting and keeping a job as web-monkey these days.
IMNSHO, a better idea would be to train them in networking basics, give them a grounding in M$ OS's, and train them to be functional in a *nix enviroment.
"Sit in jail"? Obviously you don't have any idea how expensive it is to keep somone in prison. More than that, when released they're likely to fall into the same pattern of anti-social behaviour. The concept behind this and other programs like it is to break the cycle of dead-end prison-bound lifestyles. More gainfully employed taxpayers means fewer imprisoned felons. These programs are trying to take a long view of social repairs over vindictive eye-for-an-eye "justice".
>That article describes 5 stores out of THE ENTIRE COUNTRY that have technical problems.
Actually, the problem is more widespread than the article claims. I have personally seen and verified 2 defective/problem units in my county alone. (Nowhere near the reported units)
With any luck, these problems will mean the early adopters will either NOT buy the Xbox, or get badly burned enough to dump it quickly.
Either way will mean MS will fail in this round's attempt to dominate yet another market.
>Go down to the seashore and declare a war against the sea. Bill did that just as the tide began to recede, so it looked as though he was
>winning. But after a while, you realize that how matter how much you kick at the waves, it has no effect.
>It's a waiting game and we don't have that long to wait...
Very nice. I have to admit that I like your metaphores.
But,
you really don't get it, do you?
Applause for the form aside, you've missed a few key factors in your wishful thinking:
Windows works. We may not like it, we may despise their business practices, and we may yearn for the desktop revolution, but the fact remains that Windows serves the purposes of the masses.
Many of the more vocal Linux advocates are condecending and snotty. Not the majority, but by far, the all-to-yappy minority of Linux evangelists I've had to deal with did little more than alienate me.
Yes, there are plenty of security problems with MS OS's; but remember, no OS is perfect. A system is only as secure as it's allowed to be, and exploits pop up quicker than boils on a whore's bum. If you do think your OS has no flaws, you most likely need to patch like crazy. Nothing with an OS is perfectly secure.
Waiting game? What are you waiting for, exactly? Linux is not going to replace MS on the desktop ever. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind it happening (I'm as disgusted by MS's heavy-handed strategies as the next guy around here.) but given their proprietary file formats and universal hardware support, it ain't gonna happen without some major paradigm shifts.
Of course, these sentiments are going to get me modded down as "Troll", but I really don't care.
As an IT worker that deals with both MS and *nix worksations and servers on a regular basis, I think my opinion counts for something.
crazy, an article you wrote that I actually didn't hate. although you're still way too heavy on the thesaurus (iconoclast? i have to use a
dictionary to read your articles sometimes, chill with the large vocabulary, it's annoying)
Personally, I've always found Katz's articles interesting. I don't often find myself agreeing, but that's hardly his point. His articles are written to provoke discussion. (Other than the rampant Katz-bashing that always ensues...;-)
More to the point though, I find his vocabulary a refreshing change from the simplified-for-public-consumption verbosity that has become the online norm. (Yes, I include myself and the well-read and educated/. readers in this.)
Unless one is a toady, an Eliza-esque reactionary, or a trend-lemming; I would think that stretching one's mind and vocabulary would be a welcome exercise.
After all, we read/. to think and be informed, don't we?
"Once open war is declared, our economy will boom. It'll be the answer to our recent economic downturn. Look at how WW2 pulled us out
of the Depression. And look at how much more expensive modern equipment is. More expenses mean more contribution to our economy
and our GDP. That means more funding for the military. It's a positive feedback loop."
You seem to have forgotten that FDR's "New Deal"
and his Federal Works Program played a very large part in revitalizing the economy.
The defense industry brought us to the post-war prosperity era of the late 40's and early 50's.
Without this shot in the arm, the economy would have recovered in time; just not as quickly.
After all, as our current recession illustrates,
consumer confidence drives the economy.
FDR's programs gave people what they wanted: jobs, income, food, and shelter.
People with their needs met buy more luxury goods and services, creating jobs in those industries, resulting in more people that can afford such luxuries. Etc, etc, etc.
Our current economic woes are largely due to a lack of investor/consumer confidence in the tech sector that has had it's impact on the rest of our economy.
Of course the feedback loop that we're ignoring is one I've just fallen prey to myself: somone makes jackass comments and 5 or more feel the need to point out flaws in same.
Sigh.
I really should know better.
Slashdot Mirror
Wasn't Pick-El Superman's father?
No, he was Pick-El, Last Kosher Gherkin of Krypton (Tm)!
Except their pay-to-play business models.
I suppose the other similarity, auctioning gear really isn't an enviromental innovation. It's just a refinement of the inevitable meta-game auctioning that went on. And while I don't remember any RL money changing hands on any of the Diku's I frequented, I admit that I never really cared enough to find out.
Sigh, I'm actually missing JediMud...
We're technocrats and want to know these thinkgs
This'll probably get mod'ed down as OT, but I think the word you're looking for is technophiles.
Your use of technocrats implies that we actually control something other than our own limited sphere of influence. And while I don't deny there's a certain ammount of techno-muscle flexing going on, let's be honest: it's reach is rather limited in scope. The real power lies with those that have the real money.
Sometimes it doesn't pay to hope.
But getting the petro-monkey off our collective backs would be a truly wonderful thing.
If only the oil companies would allow it...
Try Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary".
Very much ahead of his time, and not as dated as you might think, given it's publishing date.
My fortune app spews quotes from it rather frequently and is good for a malicious smirk whenever it does.
Okay, I have to say it since nobody else is: Krispy Kreme donuts suck ass!
I've only had the nasty glazed type, and I've been told they don't sell any other kind.
If I'm going to eat a pastry, give me a small-bakery's output rather than the instant crap cranked out by minimum-wage grease-monkies.
2) Enough older to make a difference
3) I think I'll have to second an earlier statement of, "Not according to my IQ test."
4) While I have to cop to arrogant, (What's wrong with it, after all.) ignorant of other cultures in the US? I would have to say not. It's this point I will _have_ to take offense at. In my life, I've had about as multi-cultural an experience as it is possible to have had. We can first examine the varieties of European culture I've gathered into myself: Grandmother's parents owned a quarry and had lots of greek and italian employees. (Come to think of it, her family's the likely reason for such a relatively large greek population in the area I'm living in now.) Little greek and italian customs got incorperated into their holiday celebrations.
My step-father's family were born in (and spent their early life in) Germany. Came over before WWII and stayed here. They were my first exposure to real german cooking, customs, and culture. (Kind of like Jewish Grandmother TM, but without as much guilt)
My own life has been spent living near and having as close friends people from rather diverse backgrounds. The first time I had Vietnamese food was some good friends of my step-father coming by and cooking us an extensive meal. (I've been very glad of the rise in popularity of Vietnamese resaurants.) How many "whitey" guys know what uses you can put rice flour to? Hell, do you know what Pali Tao (Spelling?) is, much less, how to make it?
Hell, my friends taught me to swear in other languages almost before I learned to cuss in English.
Am I a racial melting-pot? Nope. I'm pretty much a European Alley-Cat. I'll admit that much. Am I devoid of cultural diversity? Hell no. Your own accusations are about as well-informed and narrow-minded as the statement, "It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand." I cry foul on all such separatism and self-serving arrogance. Damn right, there are things that I won't instinctively or immediately understand because of my racial and cultural identity. This does NOT excuse you from trying to explain, nor does it excuse me from trying to understand. I run into things like this fairly often (unfortunately) with my fiance. She will react in a certain, seemingly non-sensical way to a situation leaving me baffled. Generally, it will be a subtlty of the censored-American cultural phenominom that I've completely missed. However, I've gotten quite a bit better at understanding said subtlties, and these things come up less often as time goes by. We suspect that I'm on my way to understanding the censored-American experience better than anyone not born to it.
5) You say this like it's a bad thing. I've never been much on soul, so haven't really even sought out it's artists. Having heard his voice, I can respect it. Damn, but he's impressive vocally. Your accusation is rediculous though. It'd be like criticizing "whitey" for never having heard of James Earl Jones before they'd seen Star Wars. I'll admit to that: I was around 7-11 at the time... Too damned young for to pay any attention to actor credits, much less voice-actor credits!
I'll go ya one better: my high school German teacher was saying "Don't have a cow!" looooooooong before the Simpsons first aired...
Actually, I did check out the site and wasn't impressed.
I think it's been about 10 years or so since Baen published anything worth reading. Recommended authors included.
I just have to...
Now if Baen published books that didn't suck, it might mean something.
Ah. And to think that I figured it was some sort of protest of the "bad editors and moderators" around here.
Not that I agree with this sentiment wrt ed. and mod., but I've seen enough obviously poor moderations I can certainly understand somone feeling that way.
Hell, I've lost count of the ammount of times I've completely disagreed with somone through metamod. In fact, metamod's the reason I read at -1 anymore. There are too many worthwhile comments that get modded down for differing from popular opinion.
To paraphrase, "I may disagree violently with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
I have to ask: why do you want to commit Karma-suicide?
I just don't see any reason for it, myself.
Nope. It is indeed a licenced product.
Of course, it's illegal to sell anything as a sex-toy in Japan. Which is why there's such a booming market for "battery-operated small-scale kinetic sculptures" as well as the usual "facial massagers".
One wonders about the Japanese sometimes. Then you take a look at some of the scary hentai out there, and you know for certain...
Go with Intel NIC's. I've had nothing but grief using 3Com NIC's under any OS other than Winblows. The problem really does lie with the fact that 3Com feels the need to use the same product name for very different ethernet chipsets.
Damned annoying from my point of view.
Like I said, go with Intel; they're universally supported, they're easy to find in stores, and they're damned near bullet-proof!
I don't mind paying the extra $20 for a NIC I can use for anything.
I have a friend with "connections" who was kind enough to bring his copy of the pilot to a party of mine a few months back.
I will tell you all now, that it _is_ different from both the comicbook original and the animated series. Both were fun in their day, and both stand on their own merits.
However this new series is off to a very amusing start. I got quite a few deep laughs out of the humour, and Patrick Warburton's (SP?) delivery of the patented Tick Monologues(Tm) are nothing short of sterling!
The plot was nothing spectacular, but was very enjoyable. Indeed, if the writers manage to keep this level of quality, it will be a series to watch faithfully!
On the subject of the new characters: They're different. Get over it. They work in their own way, and can hold their own as supporting characters. (Why does this bring to mind visions of sidekicks like Brazier Boy and Leather Lass?)
I seem to remember hearing rumours (From my friend with "connections"? I can't remember) that Ben Eglund is part of the creative team on this series. If this is true, it should put to rest any complaints of deviating from the source material.
I can only hope that this show doesn't get buried in the typical FOX time-slot shuffle.
Actually, I grew up in Sunnyvale and the Haunted Toys-R-Us was a thing of common knowledge/legend among anyone that had lived in the area for a while.
;-)
While I can't remember anyone of my aquaintance ever claiming to have seen said ghost, one or two of the "psychic/sensitive" types I knew claimed to have had "experiences". (Of course, IMNSHO these "experiences" are worth the paper this comment's printed on...)
However, enough people believed it to manage to get the "That's Incredible" camera crew out to run some footage of the "ghost".
Still, at the time I thought it was pretty keen to have one's town-of-residence featered on national TV.
How can this program devalue an already worthless "career"? Let's see, Web Devoper;
Everybody and their monkey can hack together a HTML document, and anything with the brains of a lobotomized hamster can put Sitemill or Frontpage to use.
Hell, I dropped the idea of becoming a "Web Developer" 7 years ago when I realized the market was already badly glutted.
If you're _still_ in that market today, you're in for a rude awakening when your local PHB realizes he can get the "same" work out of a slack-jawed intern equipped with latest version of M$ Frontpage.
As other commenters have mentioned, aesthetics are really the key to getting and keeping a job as web-monkey these days.
IMNSHO, a better idea would be to train them in networking basics, give them a grounding in M$ OS's, and train them to be functional in a *nix enviroment.
"Sit in jail"? Obviously you don't have any idea how expensive it is to keep somone in prison. More than that, when released they're likely to fall into the same pattern of anti-social behaviour. The concept behind this and other programs like it is to break the cycle of dead-end prison-bound lifestyles. More gainfully employed taxpayers means fewer imprisoned felons. These programs are trying to take a long view of social repairs over vindictive eye-for-an-eye "justice".
>That article describes 5 stores out of THE ENTIRE COUNTRY that have technical problems.
Actually, the problem is more widespread than the article claims. I have personally seen and verified 2 defective/problem units in my county alone. (Nowhere near the reported units)
With any luck, these problems will mean the early adopters will either NOT buy the Xbox, or get badly burned enough to dump it quickly.
Either way will mean MS will fail in this round's attempt to dominate yet another market.
Me? I'm holding out for the Gamecube.
>Go down to the seashore and declare a war against the sea. Bill did that just as the tide began to recede, so it looked as though he was
>winning. But after a while, you realize that how matter how much you kick at the waves, it has no effect.
>It's a waiting game and we don't have that long to wait...
Very nice. I have to admit that I like your metaphores.
But,
you really don't get it, do you?
Applause for the form aside, you've missed a few key factors in your wishful thinking:
Windows works. We may not like it, we may despise their business practices, and we may yearn for the desktop revolution, but the fact remains that Windows serves the purposes of the masses.
Many of the more vocal Linux advocates are condecending and snotty. Not the majority, but by far, the all-to-yappy minority of Linux evangelists I've had to deal with did little more than alienate me.
Yes, there are plenty of security problems with MS OS's; but remember, no OS is perfect. A system is only as secure as it's allowed to be, and exploits pop up quicker than boils on a whore's bum. If you do think your OS has no flaws, you most likely need to patch like crazy. Nothing with an OS is perfectly secure.
Waiting game? What are you waiting for, exactly? Linux is not going to replace MS on the desktop ever. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind it happening (I'm as disgusted by MS's heavy-handed strategies as the next guy around here.) but given their proprietary file formats and universal hardware support, it ain't gonna happen without some major paradigm shifts.
Of course, these sentiments are going to get me modded down as "Troll", but I really don't care.
As an IT worker that deals with both MS and *nix worksations and servers on a regular basis, I think my opinion counts for something.
Personally, I've always found Katz's articles interesting. I don't often find myself agreeing, but that's hardly his point. His articles are written to provoke discussion. (Other than the rampant Katz-bashing that always ensues... ;-)
More to the point though, I find his vocabulary a refreshing change from the simplified-for-public-consumption verbosity that has become the online norm. (Yes, I include myself and the well-read and educated /. readers in this.)
Unless one is a toady, an Eliza-esque reactionary, or a trend-lemming; I would think that stretching one's mind and vocabulary would be a welcome exercise. /. to think and be informed, don't we?
After all, we read
You seem to have forgotten that FDR's "New Deal" and his Federal Works Program played a very large part in revitalizing the economy.
The defense industry brought us to the post-war prosperity era of the late 40's and early 50's. Without this shot in the arm, the economy would have recovered in time; just not as quickly.
After all, as our current recession illustrates, consumer confidence drives the economy. FDR's programs gave people what they wanted: jobs, income, food, and shelter.
People with their needs met buy more luxury goods and services, creating jobs in those industries, resulting in more people that can afford such luxuries. Etc, etc, etc.
Our current economic woes are largely due to a lack of investor/consumer confidence in the tech sector that has had it's impact on the rest of our economy.
Of course the feedback loop that we're ignoring is one I've just fallen prey to myself: somone makes jackass comments and 5 or more feel the need to point out flaws in same.
Sigh. I really should know better.
I have to agree. I managed to get a steady 174.6K/sec through my dual T-1's!
Thanks much Jbardin!