There is a difference between an activity that takes time and a "time vampire". The things I mentioned certainly take time, but they are things that are about enhancing or maintaining your quality of life, building stronger social ties, and growing personally, professionally, or creatively. They are things that can have positive benefits.
If you see enhancing or maintaining your health, social ties, skills, creativity, and knowledge as being nothing but "time vampires" that are equivalent to spending it on video games, I think you might need to reflect a little on your priorities.
I like video games, and I still play occasionally.. but instead of gaming being something I do several days a week (if not daily), it is something I might go weeks or a months without doing before I notice its absence. I'm not even going to say that gaming doesn't have any benefit, but I do suggest that the benefit is still very likely to be less than what you would derive from other activities; despite any benefits, there is still a significant opportunity cost, just like there is with too much TV, Facebook, pr0n, or posting on Slashdot.
In the last few years I've increased my fitness level, had improvements in my (previously non-existent) dating life, made more friends, improved my programming, learned to ride a motorcycle, and have even gotten involved in some performing arts. I still waste a lot of time on dumb shit,
there are people who might not consider that stuff you mentioned "dumb shit"
Sorry if I was unclear. That wasn't the list of stupid shit. I was just pointing out that I still manage to waste a lot of time, despite all those kinds of things.
Do all the things you want to do, but you keep putting off because you don't have time (chores, fixing that broken shower head, writing that novel/program, learn to play an instrument).
Get the recommended amount of sleep.
I enjoy video games too, but they are time vampires. I greatly appreciate the anti-consumer ass-hattery of Sony and Microsoft and the tech ineptitude of Nintendo, and the decline of Blizzard over the last several years. They are making it increasingly easy to break the habit.
In the last few years I've increased my fitness level, had improvements in my (previously non-existent) dating life, made more friends, improved my programming, learned to ride a motorcycle, and have even gotten involved in some performing arts. I still waste a lot of time on dumb shit, and I find myself wondering how much more I could accomplish if I wasn't so horrible with schedules and discipline.
Thank you video game industry for having your heads up alienating your customers!
There's only 1 requirement. Don't be unattractive.
I'm unattractive, a bit eccentric, a tiny bit awkward, but even I manage to strike up interesting conversations with women sometimes. The truth is, it's really as simple as not making them feel awkward or threatened, and coming off as confident.
You don't have to be an alpha male, follow a technique, a jerk, or any of the things people sometimes say you have to do to talk to women. You don't even be "normal". Many women will respond positively to you simply being comfortable with yourself, and not doing something to specifically make them uncomfortable.
In case it's not obvious... you not being comfortable is a good way to make others around you feel uncomfortable. Don't take things so seriously. Relax.
I'm not sure big Pharm is really a good example of an industry where patents are beneficial to society... There's a lot of patent abuse and absurdity in those industries too.
Is it that big of a difference between patenting something as new because it's "on a phone", vs "with a time release"?
I have to tell you that you are fucking naive. A single guy being able to destroy 100 million worth of airplane is an issue you cannot ignore
You are fucking naive if you think that someone who really wants to cause significant damage can't find a way to do it regardless of how far up my asshole a TSA agent is allowed to go. What we are doing is a cross between playing Whack-A-Mole and political theater.
Just tell your opinion to anyone who asks you, like you have done with this post. Some widespread protest would be nice, but to be fair it doesn't seem to happen in other countries either.
This, I do cheerfully. It's pretty easy these days to convince even non techies of the need for privacy. I send them to eff.org as a start then over to torproject.org
(posting anon due to my mod status)
I've been telling my opinion on things such as this for years, and most people have just always looked at me as extremist, paranoid, or unpatriotic when I point out government overstep on constitutional freedoms of its citizens...
Maybe the climate is changing so that people will be more susceptible to opinions, but the truth is that the average person can't be convinced that anything is true unless the talking heads tell them its true too.
Oh, such altruistic scientists. Scientists most definitely are in it for the money. It's called publish or perish. It's just that they don't get to benefit directly from the money, their university does and in return they get to keep their job. But, don't kid yourself, they have bills to pay, kids to send to college and plain old greed, just like everybody else. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't need to be an XPrize to begin with.
I don't think you understand the difference between "being in it for the money", and "being able to survive while doing it"...
I think the assessment that they aren't in it for the money is completely accurate, but they doesn't negate the fact that they want to continue being in it, and not be in poverty.
Interestingly enough Republicans care a LOT about the economy and historically provide greater funding to the sciences than Democrats because of it. There are a few obvious exceptions like embryonic stem cell research that make headlines but by and large Republicans provide more funding to science. If you don't want to take my word for it youtube search for Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about it.
What he said was except for the issues that have strong opposition from fundamentalist Christians.
So, aside from the fact that Republicans dislike when Science supports Evolution, that homosexuality is not exclusive to humans and might not be a mental illness, that there might not be mental racial or sexual superiority, that global climate change may be occurring or that it is influenced by man, studying the universe and trying to answer questions about how the universe came to be or how to get off this rock we're on (rather than waiting for Jesus to come fix it), or exploring stem cell research, they are very pro Science.
It's not like they are against anything important, right? I'm sure they are very supportive in improving the displays on our next iThing or other diversion.
funny, I wish more republicans thought about science.
Democrats too, but they are only quasi-evil.
Conversely, one would think that thinking about religion and faith would trigger moral behavior, but, sadly, I haven't found that to (generally) be the case. [ I'm not trolling, just offering my (disappointing) observation. Perhaps I need to meet a different (but not necessarily better) class of people... ]
Personally, I think most politicians only think about money, power and getting re-elected (perhaps the first two are redundant) - for their own selfish desires.
/cynical
Depends on the religion.
For at least one major religion, you don't need morality if you have forgiveness...
Eh, after using it a while, it's kind of a toss up. Windows 8 actually does have a few nice features, and I am able to do some things far easier than I can do in Windows 7... However, there are some changes that were mindbogglingly stupid.
The thing is, the the much maligned Start screen isn't really as bad as people make it out to be. I believe people are just using it wrong. In their defense, I don't think Microsoft makes it clear to their users how it should be used, and how it works best if used differently than the old Start Menu worked.
I think many people just haven't figured out that it's ok to remove apps from their Start Screen and customize it just be their favorites. Unlike the Start Menu, the Start Screen still allows you to easily access lesser used programs through the search charm or through the All Apps button. There's no reason to have some huge cluttered mess of everything you have installed on the Start Screen like the average Start Menu has.
Though, most Windows 8 metro style apps are rubbish. Only a few seem to be worth using instead of a standard Windows version, and I find that metro apps don't handle multiple monitors in a way that really makes sense.
I don't care for it enough that I want to bother upgrading my home machine from Windows 7 to Windows 8, but I don't hate it enough that it would bother me if I picked up a laptop that had Windows 8 pre-installed.
On the other hand, over the last few years I've found the number of reasons for sticking with windows to be slowly dwindling, and I might consider using Linux for more than VMs and toy machines.
Administrator salaries are getting higher. Colleges are recruiting former corporate CEO's as presidents, and giving them big salaries (and trying to run colleges like a business, the mantra of the Right). College coaches tend to be paid a lot more than the educators. There is more reliance on tuition and less subsidies (also in line with the Right). Colleges are spending more to compete with other colleges on non-academic criteria, such as fancy athletic facilities, luxurious dorm rooms, etc.
But there is also not much incentive to conserve money. I have seen first hand how there are incentives for departments to spend exactly 100% of their budget. If they spend less than their budget, they are penalized the next year under the assumption that too much was being allocated in that department. Well, it was true for that year, but departments still don't want their budgets cut, just in case they end up needing the full budget the next year.
When departments get to the end of the year and realize that they have a budget surplus, they try to find ways to spend the rest of their budget. They will order new desks, new bookshelves, new computers, whether they really need them or not.
That is the problem with a lot of public funded institutions in general... they are encouraged to waste.
Of course Capitalism is a zero-sum game, if it looks like it isn't you just haven't accounted for everything and externalised some costs somewhere in the system.
I'm no expert in economics or zero-sum games, but doesn't the fact that money can be spent more than once support that it is not necessarily zero-sum game?
Of course I realize why, but I'm not about to defend it. Someone who has willingness and desire to break the law still isn't necessarily going to do it. Hell, I think many normally law-abiding citizens would break certain laws under the right circumstances when there is an opportunity seems to present itself in an appealing way.
I would hardly call it programming, more like re-configuring. You are not creating new lego bricks, you are just moving them around and coloring on them
Or like building a circuit using only existing components like resistors and capacitors and just moving them around.
Or like architecture. It's all just a bunch of well established pieces that you put together.
Click N' Play was great -- heavy on the GUI with some very light scripting to tie more complex events together, and you could create a pretty wide variety of games so long as they were 2D.
I recall making an Asteroids knockoff using Click N' Play... it was amusing.
if you've developed for android you'd know a "simple" fart app requires quite a bit of effort to ensure it works across all devices & flavors of android.
I'm sorry, but your statement does not pass the smell test.
here in the uk you can be prosecuted for buying legit gear if you believe it to be stolen. also for buying what you believe are drugs even if its sugar or flour.
Just another example of how fucked up English law is.
Hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure that is true in the U.S. I have heard people being prosecuted for thinking they are buying drugs when they aren't, just like you can be prosecuted for selling illegal drugs when you knowingly misrepresent that sugar or flour as drugs.
Or... you can be prosecuted for soliciting, when it's an undercover cop who obviously isn't really going to do anything with you.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't fool yourself. You simply grew up.
Perhaps... or at least began the process. I don't think I'm quite there yet.
There is a difference between an activity that takes time and a "time vampire". The things I mentioned certainly take time, but they are things that are about enhancing or maintaining your quality of life, building stronger social ties, and growing personally, professionally, or creatively. They are things that can have positive benefits.
If you see enhancing or maintaining your health, social ties, skills, creativity, and knowledge as being nothing but "time vampires" that are equivalent to spending it on video games, I think you might need to reflect a little on your priorities.
I like video games, and I still play occasionally.. but instead of gaming being something I do several days a week (if not daily), it is something I might go weeks or a months without doing before I notice its absence. I'm not even going to say that gaming doesn't have any benefit, but I do suggest that the benefit is still very likely to be less than what you would derive from other activities; despite any benefits, there is still a significant opportunity cost, just like there is with too much TV, Facebook, pr0n, or posting on Slashdot.
In the last few years I've increased my fitness level, had improvements in my (previously non-existent) dating life, made more friends, improved my programming, learned to ride a motorcycle, and have even gotten involved in some performing arts. I still waste a lot of time on dumb shit,
there are people who might not consider that stuff you mentioned "dumb shit"
Sorry if I was unclear. That wasn't the list of stupid shit. I was just pointing out that I still manage to waste a lot of time, despite all those kinds of things.
Read a mother fucking book.
Or...
I enjoy video games too, but they are time vampires. I greatly appreciate the anti-consumer ass-hattery of Sony and Microsoft and the tech ineptitude of Nintendo, and the decline of Blizzard over the last several years. They are making it increasingly easy to break the habit.
In the last few years I've increased my fitness level, had improvements in my (previously non-existent) dating life, made more friends, improved my programming, learned to ride a motorcycle, and have even gotten involved in some performing arts. I still waste a lot of time on dumb shit, and I find myself wondering how much more I could accomplish if I wasn't so horrible with schedules and discipline.
Thank you video game industry for having your heads up alienating your customers!
There's only 1 requirement.
Don't be unattractive.
I'm unattractive, a bit eccentric, a tiny bit awkward, but even I manage to strike up interesting conversations with women sometimes. The truth is, it's really as simple as not making them feel awkward or threatened, and coming off as confident.
You don't have to be an alpha male, follow a technique, a jerk, or any of the things people sometimes say you have to do to talk to women. You don't even be "normal". Many women will respond positively to you simply being comfortable with yourself, and not doing something to specifically make them uncomfortable.
In case it's not obvious... you not being comfortable is a good way to make others around you feel uncomfortable. Don't take things so seriously. Relax.
I'm not sure big Pharm is really a good example of an industry where patents are beneficial to society... There's a lot of patent abuse and absurdity in those industries too.
Is it that big of a difference between patenting something as new because it's "on a phone", vs "with a time release"?
I have to tell you that you are fucking naive. A single guy being able to destroy 100 million worth of airplane is an issue you cannot ignore
You are fucking naive if you think that someone who really wants to cause significant damage can't find a way to do it regardless of how far up my asshole a TSA agent is allowed to go. What we are doing is a cross between playing Whack-A-Mole and political theater.
Well done sir.
Amazing that in 2013, HTML still cannot perform even half the functions a PDF can do. This includes, for example, non-flow oriented precise layout.
It's amazing that in 2013, hammers still aren't good at screwing and unscrewing screws.
And that's exactly why people like Ghandi and MLK were such dismal failures, they weren't willing to use force.
Just tell your opinion to anyone who asks you, like you have done with this post. Some widespread protest would be nice, but to be fair it doesn't seem to happen in other countries either.
This, I do cheerfully. It's pretty easy these days to convince even non techies of the need for privacy. I send them to eff.org as a start then over to torproject.org
(posting anon due to my mod status)
I've been telling my opinion on things such as this for years, and most people have just always looked at me as extremist, paranoid, or unpatriotic when I point out government overstep on constitutional freedoms of its citizens...
Maybe the climate is changing so that people will be more susceptible to opinions, but the truth is that the average person can't be convinced that anything is true unless the talking heads tell them its true too.
Oh, such altruistic scientists. Scientists most definitely are in it for the money. It's called publish or perish. It's just that they don't get to benefit directly from the money, their university does and in return they get to keep their job. But, don't kid yourself, they have bills to pay, kids to send to college and plain old greed, just like everybody else. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't need to be an XPrize to begin with.
I don't think you understand the difference between "being in it for the money", and "being able to survive while doing it"...
I think the assessment that they aren't in it for the money is completely accurate, but they doesn't negate the fact that they want to continue being in it, and not be in poverty.
Well said, though I personally find patent trolls to be even more despicable than even you describe.
Interestingly enough Republicans care a LOT about the economy and historically provide greater funding to the sciences than Democrats because of it. There are a few obvious exceptions like embryonic stem cell research that make headlines but by and large Republicans provide more funding to science. If you don't want to take my word for it youtube search for Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about it.
What he said was except for the issues that have strong opposition from fundamentalist Christians.
So, aside from the fact that Republicans dislike when Science supports Evolution, that homosexuality is not exclusive to humans and might not be a mental illness, that there might not be mental racial or sexual superiority, that global climate change may be occurring or that it is influenced by man, studying the universe and trying to answer questions about how the universe came to be or how to get off this rock we're on (rather than waiting for Jesus to come fix it), or exploring stem cell research, they are very pro Science.
It's not like they are against anything important, right? I'm sure they are very supportive in improving the displays on our next iThing or other diversion.
funny, I wish more republicans thought about science.
Democrats too, but they are only quasi-evil.
Conversely, one would think that thinking about religion and faith would trigger moral behavior, but, sadly, I haven't found that to (generally) be the case. [ I'm not trolling, just offering my (disappointing) observation. Perhaps I need to meet a different (but not necessarily better) class of people... ]
Personally, I think most politicians only think about money, power and getting re-elected (perhaps the first two are redundant) - for their own selfish desires.
Depends on the religion.
For at least one major religion, you don't need morality if you have forgiveness...
You forgot Step 1, sit on your hand long enough that it falls asleep and feels like someone else's...
Then when it's controlled by someone else, it's even more convincing.
Eh, after using it a while, it's kind of a toss up. Windows 8 actually does have a few nice features, and I am able to do some things far easier than I can do in Windows 7... However, there are some changes that were mindbogglingly stupid.
The thing is, the the much maligned Start screen isn't really as bad as people make it out to be. I believe people are just using it wrong. In their defense, I don't think Microsoft makes it clear to their users how it should be used, and how it works best if used differently than the old Start Menu worked.
I think many people just haven't figured out that it's ok to remove apps from their Start Screen and customize it just be their favorites. Unlike the Start Menu, the Start Screen still allows you to easily access lesser used programs through the search charm or through the All Apps button. There's no reason to have some huge cluttered mess of everything you have installed on the Start Screen like the average Start Menu has.
Though, most Windows 8 metro style apps are rubbish. Only a few seem to be worth using instead of a standard Windows version, and I find that metro apps don't handle multiple monitors in a way that really makes sense.
I don't care for it enough that I want to bother upgrading my home machine from Windows 7 to Windows 8, but I don't hate it enough that it would bother me if I picked up a laptop that had Windows 8 pre-installed.
On the other hand, over the last few years I've found the number of reasons for sticking with windows to be slowly dwindling, and I might consider using Linux for more than VMs and toy machines.
There are many factors at work here.
Administrator salaries are getting higher. Colleges are recruiting former corporate CEO's as presidents, and giving them big salaries (and trying to run colleges like a business, the mantra of the Right). College coaches tend to be paid a lot more than the educators. There is more reliance on tuition and less subsidies (also in line with the Right). Colleges are spending more to compete with other colleges on non-academic criteria, such as fancy athletic facilities, luxurious dorm rooms, etc.
But there is also not much incentive to conserve money. I have seen first hand how there are incentives for departments to spend exactly 100% of their budget. If they spend less than their budget, they are penalized the next year under the assumption that too much was being allocated in that department. Well, it was true for that year, but departments still don't want their budgets cut, just in case they end up needing the full budget the next year.
When departments get to the end of the year and realize that they have a budget surplus, they try to find ways to spend the rest of their budget. They will order new desks, new bookshelves, new computers, whether they really need them or not.
That is the problem with a lot of public funded institutions in general... they are encouraged to waste.
Of course Capitalism is a zero-sum game, if it looks like it isn't you just haven't accounted for everything and externalised some costs somewhere in the system.
I'm no expert in economics or zero-sum games, but doesn't the fact that money can be spent more than once support that it is not necessarily zero-sum game?
Hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure that is true in the U.S.
Hate to break it to you, but no, you can't be busted for buying baking soda, no matter what you think it is.
Possession of Counterfeit Controlled Substance
its that whole "intent to break the law" thing.
Of course I realize why, but I'm not about to defend it. Someone who has willingness and desire to break the law still isn't necessarily going to do it. Hell, I think many normally law-abiding citizens would break certain laws under the right circumstances when there is an opportunity seems to present itself in an appealing way.
I would hardly call it programming, more like re-configuring. You are not creating new lego bricks, you are just moving them around and coloring on them
Or like building a circuit using only existing components like resistors and capacitors and just moving them around.
Or like architecture. It's all just a bunch of well established pieces that you put together.
Click N' Play was great -- heavy on the GUI with some very light scripting to tie more complex events together, and you could create a pretty wide variety of games so long as they were 2D.
I recall making an Asteroids knockoff using Click N' Play... it was amusing.
if you've developed for android you'd know a "simple" fart app requires quite a bit of effort to ensure it works across all devices & flavors of android.
I'm sorry, but your statement does not pass the smell test.
here in the uk you can be prosecuted for buying legit gear if you believe it to be stolen. also for buying what you believe are drugs even if its sugar or flour.
Just another example of how fucked up English law is.
Hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure that is true in the U.S. I have heard people being prosecuted for thinking they are buying drugs when they aren't, just like you can be prosecuted for selling illegal drugs when you knowingly misrepresent that sugar or flour as drugs.
Or... you can be prosecuted for soliciting, when it's an undercover cop who obviously isn't really going to do anything with you.