This is the exact reason I haven't picked one up. I can make and use a vacuum former. I can sculpt, and make castings. All of these things are easier for me than working with the current set of 3D printers. I'm sure I could learn to work the thing, and make the programs, but it's just not worth my time, when I can do it the old fashioned way faster. Not everyone is a programmer. If the interface was slick and easy, I'd cough up the cash in minutes. I've been watching the progression of these little things for ages, and would love to have one. However, even my most tech savvy buddies have to spend more time trouble shooting than making. Hell, even the Mojang guys were tweeting about a new 3D printer, and damn if they didn't have to trouble shoot, and replace a part straight off. So the article is right. It's not the $2000 that is holding me back from buying one. It's the learning curve, and the inhospitable user interface. I may be a techy artist, but I'm an artist, not a programmer.
Why can't the cell phone company just brick your phone? I have an iPhone, and it can brick if I jailbreak wrong, so why can't I just call the carrier, tell them it's stolen, and have it bricked. Or like someone else said, never have that phone allowed to register again? Don't they do that over in Europe.
I really want to use TOR. I grasp the theory. However, I am too tech stupid to be aware of all the ins and outs to a degree that will keep me safe. I can barely upload a video to youtube. Yet, I know how to BT. My biggest fear for TOR is that I will think I have it right, but have missed some key component a real tech savvy person would find obvious, and be back to square one. Unfortunately, I am a user that needs hand holding.
I have to agree with this. I'm in an accounting class right now. The instructor is using the pre packaged textbook website for our quizzes and homework. She is using a syllabus provided by the book company to teach her classes. She knows nothing outside of that. This is a woman that presumably was a teacher before this pre-packaged era, but often says, "I don't know, it's not in this chapter's package." There is literally nothing in this class, that could not have been done at home, and online because there is no teaching being done.
As other's have said, the two organizations are not remotely connected. The Boy Scouts don't allow athiests or LGBT folks. The Girl Scouts however, have been supporting transgirls in their troups, and doing some amazingly inclusive things. This is causing some conservative groups to boycott the Girl Scouts. I've actually just bought 20 boxes of cookies today to support the Girl Scouts. I never normally buy Girl Scout cookies, either.
Am I reading this right? 8) Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich?
I know it get's bandied about politically, but why censor it? I read it and didn't find it objectionable. Anyone know why?
This really bothers me. I am on G+, with my name, but only because I recently legally changed it. I couldn't have used it before because I have abusive family that were stalking me. They are terrible with "the internets" so a legal name change solved the basic google searches they were capable of, for finding me. However, if my legal name hadn't been changed, I couldn't use G+ and feel safe. I can't be the only one that has issues with putting their legal name out there.
For the first time ever I used my real name on G+. I have avoided my real name on the internet because I have some blood relations that could and would cause me serious harm if they could find me. Why did I suddenly reverse my entire internet habit? I just changed my name legally. Since they are not tech savvy beyond the basics of Google searches, I feel that being a half a continent away, and using a fully different name will protect me. Not everyone wants to change their legal name, though.
When I played counterstrike, we ran a server, so I felt cool playing there. I've moved to the more general xbox games in the last five years or so, and you can't really enforce behaving like a human being on there. Every once in a while I'll play with my friends, but I think it's just weird to only feel comfortable if I'm playing with friends because I know they won't start making homophobic, racist, or sexist (especially rape orientated) comments. For me, it's just not worth it much. I spend more time on minecraft anyways these days, and being able to control a server allows for more nice behavior, but I then again minecrafters don't seem to have that cultural bent anyways. I'm better off.
I honestly wouldn't mind if it was just more evened out, genderwise with both genders all sexed up. Hell, if I could just play a female character that looked older than 18, and wore real clothes every once in a while, I'd consider it a win. That is more of an age misperception, though, where game designers think all of us gamers are teens. You'd think they would want to focus on us old coots. We have money to burn on games.
I've worked with these on a smaller scale. The version that looks like a watch for small scale dementia/mental health/alzheimer's locked units. They work great, until you find the watch attacked to the cat's collar, on a different patient, or behind the toilet.
For perspective, I'm a 40 year old female gamer. I like fps games on solo. I HATE playing online with the community for any reason. That part is the community. I can't use a mic because I sound young enough that I get propositioned by folks young enough to be my son. Just. . . Eww. Don't even get me started on the insults. Even if they are not directed at me, I just don't want to hear homophobic, racial, or gender slurs every two minutes. The prevalence of rape humor and insults makes me really uncomfortable. Therefore, I don't play online with my xbox on fps.
As for the games themselves? Can I even play a female character? Can she have generally reasonable clothing? Not stripper wear? Is there parts of the game where all the present female characters are there to kill, screw, or serve as eye candy? Is there male eye candy? Are females represented in the game as anything other than victims?
I have Graves Disease. I get nausea a lot. I have meds that suppress the disease, and the side effects are more nausea. Surprise!
On a good day, with little amounts of 3D, I'm fine. One a bad day, I can't even watch my Netflix queue on my xbox queue scroll sideways. I hate it when the only version of a movie that is available is in 3D. These days I'll wait until I can find a regular version, or not watch it.
Great. It's more efficient. Now they can charge even more, and your insurance won't cover it because it's experimental, but even if they do, you'll only get one hearing aid ever decade because your insurance deems that acceptable.
Sign me up as another voice that watched it, but would never spend money on it. My DL of it would never translate into a sale.
Not because I don't spend money on porn. More because if I am going to put my cash into a porn film, which I have many times, it has to be more female friendly in the sex scenes. Don't get me wrong, the Batman XXX film is great in all the costuming, and details, they put in to mirror the old series. I was a happy at all details put in.
However, being female, I really try to put my cash towards porn that acknowledges females get off, and are not just props that fake orgasms for the male actors in the film. That means, I would have never paid for this film. The movies that do achieve that get my cash. Even if I don't think they will be watched more than once because I want to support an industry that does things that way.
This means my download would not have been a sale. This also means I would never have paid for it at all, unless I got to see another owners copy for free. It's far easier to assume a porn film will not fit my standards than to put money towards endeavors that don't.
So much this! I hate boss battles. I hate getting locked into some dungeon scenario when I am working on something else. I'm nearing 40. I don't care about the boss battle. I have only a couple hours to play before life calls, and yanks me back. I never think it's fun to do boss fights several times in a row.
I am not sure liability is the sole issue, though.
That is a problem, but it seems that the word "medical" causes the cost to raise to ridiculous levels. I would routinely buy velcro for keeping wheelchair cushions from sliding from a wholesale craft site. The exact same product cost 5x as much from the medical catalogs at the facility where I was the head nurse. We managed to velcro everyone's wheelchair cushions (facility of about 43, most in wheelchairs) for the same cost as one.
I agree liability is an issue, but that only goes so far when the same wingnuts and bolts cost ridiculous amounts more just because they are "medical".
Have they addressed how accessible they plan these elegs to be? After a decade of fighting for basic prosthetics for patients, as a nurse, I have this horrible cynical vision. I worry that the insurance companies will call it all experimental, like the higher end prosthetics, and refuse to cover it at all, and slapping the word "medical" on the device will raise the price out of reach, even when the technology is more mass produced, and cheaper. Leading to it being totally out of reach financially for a lot of folks that would need it.
I've had that argument about wheelchairs, walkers, you name it. Hell, I even had to argue that dialysis was NOT an elective treatment to the phone zombie. Although, to the insurance companies credit, despite cutting off coverage for dialysis, I had it fixed in an hour+ when I finally clawed my way to a supervisor.
I'm talking about US healthcare practices. I don't have any experience with anywhere else.
I got one this week for my college classes. I am not short on money, but I do have a near 2 mile walk from the inter-city bus stop to campus. That means I'd prefer to buy an expensive toy and load my textbooks, which all require online access now anyways, on the tiny device, than carry my biz law, and accounting books.
So far, I use pen and paper to take notes, but have had no problems using the device to look up pages in my textbooks, or even take online quizzes. It also entertains me in my downtime between classes. For me, it works well.
I just finished up changing my name last week in court. My estranged family have a stalking problem, which combined with the fact that I can't erase who I am on the internet created a situation where it was impossible to get away from an emotionally abusive situation. It was just far easier to just change my name so that they could not accidentally google me up.
It wasn't that I was leaving my name on the internet, but my school had an instructor that used a forum that was required for a class, with our real names. An employer had some photos online with employee names. As head nurse, I was named. I had acquaintances that called me by name on things like Livejournal.
It was just far easier to change my name to something they don't know. That way even if other things in my life use my name, a casual google search won't show anything useful. Luckily for me, my stalkers only know how to use "the google" and not anything more useful. It's the perfect time, too. I changed schools recently, moved to another state, and have so few ties to the old town I lived in, that I feel reasonably safe now. The internet just doesn't forget, so it's easier to just change your name.
You're not the only one. I got banned for a conversation in which a separate poster discussed the fact that I am female and have boobs. I go to bannination.com now. It's a cesspit of crazy, but at least the guy running it listens to folks, and actually cares that we go there.
I was just over at the consumerist article about Diaspora. A significant proportion of the commenters thought the name was a) made up, b) some weird open source acronym, or c) hard to pronounce.
I don't think they are associating the word diaspora with anything.
I don't normally reply on this site, but I just had to say I love you for your series of posts here. Very well thought out, and well said. It's nice to see some of these ridiculous ill informed opinions put down.
Don't be afraid to blow stuff up. Hell, in all the best books/articles I've read about the very first thing the authors have you do is blow up an LED. Get used to it.
I have to second this. I just bought that book from the Maker Shed, and it is more comprehensible to someone with absolutely no helpful electronic background. I've been doing the experiments, and it's been great.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought this was kind of common knowledge. Penn and Teller's Bullshit even showed how they beat the polygraph.
This is the exact reason I haven't picked one up. I can make and use a vacuum former. I can sculpt, and make castings. All of these things are easier for me than working with the current set of 3D printers. I'm sure I could learn to work the thing, and make the programs, but it's just not worth my time, when I can do it the old fashioned way faster. Not everyone is a programmer. If the interface was slick and easy, I'd cough up the cash in minutes. I've been watching the progression of these little things for ages, and would love to have one. However, even my most tech savvy buddies have to spend more time trouble shooting than making. Hell, even the Mojang guys were tweeting about a new 3D printer, and damn if they didn't have to trouble shoot, and replace a part straight off. So the article is right. It's not the $2000 that is holding me back from buying one. It's the learning curve, and the inhospitable user interface. I may be a techy artist, but I'm an artist, not a programmer.
Just when you start relying on it, Amazon won't shut it down.
Why can't the cell phone company just brick your phone? I have an iPhone, and it can brick if I jailbreak wrong, so why can't I just call the carrier, tell them it's stolen, and have it bricked. Or like someone else said, never have that phone allowed to register again? Don't they do that over in Europe.
I really want to use TOR. I grasp the theory. However, I am too tech stupid to be aware of all the ins and outs to a degree that will keep me safe. I can barely upload a video to youtube. Yet, I know how to BT. My biggest fear for TOR is that I will think I have it right, but have missed some key component a real tech savvy person would find obvious, and be back to square one. Unfortunately, I am a user that needs hand holding.
I have to agree with this. I'm in an accounting class right now. The instructor is using the pre packaged textbook website for our quizzes and homework. She is using a syllabus provided by the book company to teach her classes. She knows nothing outside of that. This is a woman that presumably was a teacher before this pre-packaged era, but often says, "I don't know, it's not in this chapter's package." There is literally nothing in this class, that could not have been done at home, and online because there is no teaching being done.
As other's have said, the two organizations are not remotely connected. The Boy Scouts don't allow athiests or LGBT folks. The Girl Scouts however, have been supporting transgirls in their troups, and doing some amazingly inclusive things. This is causing some conservative groups to boycott the Girl Scouts. I've actually just bought 20 boxes of cookies today to support the Girl Scouts. I never normally buy Girl Scout cookies, either.
Am I reading this right? 8) Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich? I know it get's bandied about politically, but why censor it? I read it and didn't find it objectionable. Anyone know why?
This really bothers me. I am on G+, with my name, but only because I recently legally changed it. I couldn't have used it before because I have abusive family that were stalking me. They are terrible with "the internets" so a legal name change solved the basic google searches they were capable of, for finding me. However, if my legal name hadn't been changed, I couldn't use G+ and feel safe. I can't be the only one that has issues with putting their legal name out there.
For the first time ever I used my real name on G+. I have avoided my real name on the internet because I have some blood relations that could and would cause me serious harm if they could find me. Why did I suddenly reverse my entire internet habit? I just changed my name legally. Since they are not tech savvy beyond the basics of Google searches, I feel that being a half a continent away, and using a fully different name will protect me. Not everyone wants to change their legal name, though.
When I played counterstrike, we ran a server, so I felt cool playing there. I've moved to the more general xbox games in the last five years or so, and you can't really enforce behaving like a human being on there. Every once in a while I'll play with my friends, but I think it's just weird to only feel comfortable if I'm playing with friends because I know they won't start making homophobic, racist, or sexist (especially rape orientated) comments. For me, it's just not worth it much. I spend more time on minecraft anyways these days, and being able to control a server allows for more nice behavior, but I then again minecrafters don't seem to have that cultural bent anyways. I'm better off. I honestly wouldn't mind if it was just more evened out, genderwise with both genders all sexed up. Hell, if I could just play a female character that looked older than 18, and wore real clothes every once in a while, I'd consider it a win. That is more of an age misperception, though, where game designers think all of us gamers are teens. You'd think they would want to focus on us old coots. We have money to burn on games.
I've worked with these on a smaller scale. The version that looks like a watch for small scale dementia/mental health/alzheimer's locked units. They work great, until you find the watch attacked to the cat's collar, on a different patient, or behind the toilet.
For perspective, I'm a 40 year old female gamer. I like fps games on solo. I HATE playing online with the community for any reason. That part is the community. I can't use a mic because I sound young enough that I get propositioned by folks young enough to be my son. Just. . . Eww. Don't even get me started on the insults. Even if they are not directed at me, I just don't want to hear homophobic, racial, or gender slurs every two minutes. The prevalence of rape humor and insults makes me really uncomfortable. Therefore, I don't play online with my xbox on fps.
As for the games themselves? Can I even play a female character? Can she have generally reasonable clothing? Not stripper wear? Is there parts of the game where all the present female characters are there to kill, screw, or serve as eye candy? Is there male eye candy? Are females represented in the game as anything other than victims?
I don't think any of this is rocket science.
I have Graves Disease. I get nausea a lot. I have meds that suppress the disease, and the side effects are more nausea. Surprise!
On a good day, with little amounts of 3D, I'm fine. One a bad day, I can't even watch my Netflix queue on my xbox queue scroll sideways. I hate it when the only version of a movie that is available is in 3D. These days I'll wait until I can find a regular version, or not watch it.
I won't even attempt the Nintendo 3DS.
Great. It's more efficient. Now they can charge even more, and your insurance won't cover it because it's experimental, but even if they do, you'll only get one hearing aid ever decade because your insurance deems that acceptable.
Sign me up as another voice that watched it, but would never spend money on it. My DL of it would never translate into a sale.
Not because I don't spend money on porn. More because if I am going to put my cash into a porn film, which I have many times, it has to be more female friendly in the sex scenes. Don't get me wrong, the Batman XXX film is great in all the costuming, and details, they put in to mirror the old series. I was a happy at all details put in.
However, being female, I really try to put my cash towards porn that acknowledges females get off, and are not just props that fake orgasms for the male actors in the film. That means, I would have never paid for this film. The movies that do achieve that get my cash. Even if I don't think they will be watched more than once because I want to support an industry that does things that way.
This means my download would not have been a sale. This also means I would never have paid for it at all, unless I got to see another owners copy for free. It's far easier to assume a porn film will not fit my standards than to put money towards endeavors that don't.
So much this! I hate boss battles. I hate getting locked into some dungeon scenario when I am working on something else. I'm nearing 40. I don't care about the boss battle. I have only a couple hours to play before life calls, and yanks me back. I never think it's fun to do boss fights several times in a row.
I am not sure liability is the sole issue, though.
That is a problem, but it seems that the word "medical" causes the cost to raise to ridiculous levels. I would routinely buy velcro for keeping wheelchair cushions from sliding from a wholesale craft site. The exact same product cost 5x as much from the medical catalogs at the facility where I was the head nurse. We managed to velcro everyone's wheelchair cushions (facility of about 43, most in wheelchairs) for the same cost as one.
I agree liability is an issue, but that only goes so far when the same wingnuts and bolts cost ridiculous amounts more just because they are "medical".
Have they addressed how accessible they plan these elegs to be? After a decade of fighting for basic prosthetics for patients, as a nurse, I have this horrible cynical vision. I worry that the insurance companies will call it all experimental, like the higher end prosthetics, and refuse to cover it at all, and slapping the word "medical" on the device will raise the price out of reach, even when the technology is more mass produced, and cheaper. Leading to it being totally out of reach financially for a lot of folks that would need it.
I've had that argument about wheelchairs, walkers, you name it. Hell, I even had to argue that dialysis was NOT an elective treatment to the phone zombie. Although, to the insurance companies credit, despite cutting off coverage for dialysis, I had it fixed in an hour+ when I finally clawed my way to a supervisor.
I'm talking about US healthcare practices. I don't have any experience with anywhere else.
I got one this week for my college classes. I am not short on money, but I do have a near 2 mile walk from the inter-city bus stop to campus. That means I'd prefer to buy an expensive toy and load my textbooks, which all require online access now anyways, on the tiny device, than carry my biz law, and accounting books.
So far, I use pen and paper to take notes, but have had no problems using the device to look up pages in my textbooks, or even take online quizzes. It also entertains me in my downtime between classes. For me, it works well.
I just finished up changing my name last week in court. My estranged family have a stalking problem, which combined with the fact that I can't erase who I am on the internet created a situation where it was impossible to get away from an emotionally abusive situation. It was just far easier to just change my name so that they could not accidentally google me up.
It wasn't that I was leaving my name on the internet, but my school had an instructor that used a forum that was required for a class, with our real names. An employer had some photos online with employee names. As head nurse, I was named. I had acquaintances that called me by name on things like Livejournal.
It was just far easier to change my name to something they don't know. That way even if other things in my life use my name, a casual google search won't show anything useful. Luckily for me, my stalkers only know how to use "the google" and not anything more useful. It's the perfect time, too. I changed schools recently, moved to another state, and have so few ties to the old town I lived in, that I feel reasonably safe now. The internet just doesn't forget, so it's easier to just change your name.
You're not the only one. I got banned for a conversation in which a separate poster discussed the fact that I am female and have boobs. I go to bannination.com now. It's a cesspit of crazy, but at least the guy running it listens to folks, and actually cares that we go there.
I was just over at the consumerist article about Diaspora. A significant proportion of the commenters thought the name was a) made up, b) some weird open source acronym, or c) hard to pronounce. I don't think they are associating the word diaspora with anything.
I don't normally reply on this site, but I just had to say I love you for your series of posts here. Very well thought out, and well said. It's nice to see some of these ridiculous ill informed opinions put down.
Start here : http://www.ladyada.net/library/equipt/kits.html
Probably the lowest cost, best-value combination of tools and supplies.
Start with this book : http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9780596153748
Don't be afraid to blow stuff up. Hell, in all the best books/articles I've read about the very first thing the authors have you do is blow up an LED. Get used to it.
I have to second this. I just bought that book from the Maker Shed, and it is more comprehensible to someone with absolutely no helpful electronic background. I've been doing the experiments, and it's been great.