Your classic error is assuming that any alarmist scenario is worthless. I'm sure there were once people like you telling the German Jews that things couldn't get any worse too!
The fact that the "slippery slope" is a cliche doesn't make it less worrisome. The end result may not be as far downslope as the previous poster stated, but since you can't prove that it won't be, why stifle conversation? How is it not a positive trait to anticipate the worst and design a solution to avoid it?
In CA, if you cannot produce identification you can be arrested and held until they figure out who you are.
Luckily I have left CA and I am screwing up WA now with my other Angelino refugees. I don't think that is the law here but I honestly don't know for sure.
There's a very good reason for doing combat EQ-style -- it's a lower barrier to participation.
For a game to really hit the mass market, as EQ has, it needs to appeal to geeky guys, less geeky guys and even un-geeky women. EQ does that and the fact that there are no rigorous action components to the game makes this possible.
If EQ had Quake-style combat I bet it would have far fewer participants. There's a place for that kind of product (Planetside), but it will always lag far behind a game that 30 year old geeks and 15 year old schoolgirls can enjoy equally.
Lately I have come to see customer service this way:
A company is like a stellar body. If it's big and the fires of enthusiasm run down, it collapses into a black hole from which nothing can escape, even (especially) customer service. In this state it may even consume smaller companies that come too close.
When a company gets to that point -- the point where no customer service agent actually knows the answer to a question, the point where no one that you can reach has the power to find anyone to fix that aggravating piece of disinformation on the web site -- when they get to that point I just do my best to do without them. Sometimes you can, and sometimes (*cough*PHONE COMPANY*cough) you have to suck it up.
Quality customer service has been dead for ages. I don't remember it being this bad 10 years ago but then again I have a rotten memory anyway.
Wow, you have been getting interviews? Even ones that are clearly shams? Here in Seattle HR people just don't bother to call back. I have compared notes with many job-hunting friends and we all agree that up here the HR culture is very strange. You never get a call back, email back, or any kind of contact at all unless you are a front-runner for a position -- they don't even say, "thanks, but no thanks." It's a total black hole.
I have gotten so few nibbles from my resume drops that I keep looking over my files, trying to make sure that I haven't accidentally put the word "penis" in somewhere.
It's so bad that I actually get a sinking feeling when I see a job opening that I am perfect for, because I know from a year of futile efforts that I won't hear anything in return. After a while this really plays hell with your self-confidence. Man... maybe I just SUCK! Maybe I am a SHAM!
Back on topic... Take the job. Take the money. Spam is low but it's not like killing someone. And you have a responsibility to your family and your creditors... those are critical to maintain. Take the job. I, at least, won't look down on you.
BTW: you can make a lowly package of ramen into a delicious treat! Buy cans of cooked chicken meat: you can get a pack of big cans at Costco. Add half a can of chicken, some sesame oil, sliced mushrooms, celery, hot oil or cayenne pepper (if you like heat), sesame seeds and black pepper to normal chicken ramen. Cheap and 100x better than ramen alone.
Re:Once more, for all the slow JBT's.
on
The Eyes Have It
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· Score: 1
My wife tries stuff like that on me. I always crack up if there is no lie, but she never believes me!
I'm not sure why anyone would think of a child as a sex object, but keep it to yourself.
Because, Chester, the Japanese did it first. If you knew more about the weird animation and comics the Japanese produce the parent post would have been offensive AND funny instead of just the former.
Cadmium is a cumulative poison (like lead but worse) which can cause lung and kidney damage.
Chemist #2 here. Cadmium can also cause your testicles to rot. Or so they taught me in that one class where we did heavy metal poisoning and chelation therapy and that kind of thing. Pretty peculiar, eh?
I have an artist friend who licks his paintbrushes... I keep telling him that's not such a good idea. Sadly the more IQ points he loses the less likely he is to listen!
That is exactly what "semi auto" means, and it is not possible to be "semi auto" and a "machine gun" at the same time. Machine guns are by definition full-auto, firing rifle caliber ammo. (as opposed to handgun ammo, which would be a submachine gun.)
There's surprisingly few situations where people need semi automatic machine guns.
There is no such thing as a "semi automatic machine gun." Don't get all, er, fired up on gun politics until you have done your homework. Details matter.
The flipside of that is that with such a small peripheral/hardware pool, Thing Just Work (TM) on Macs. It's a beautiful thing, my friend.
Huzzah. I wish more people would understand that. The lack of hardware options is, in the Mac context, a good thing... actually, a VITAL thing.
I have 4 "beige boxes" at home and I have a great time fiddling around with cheap add-in cards and other components. It's great. I wouldn't change the flexibility of the X86 world for anything. $30 TV-in card? Sign me up! $50 CPU? I'm there! My $200 BSD box is one of the best computing investments I have ever made... once I learned, the hard way, how cheap is TOO cheap when you are shopping for parts!
At the same time, I would not trade the Apple-led, carefully engineered, exactingly sculpted Mac *experience* for anything. I have a 400MHz Mac next to my overclocked Wintel Frankenputer, and the Mac is where all the real work gets done. Photoshop. HTML. Graphic design. DTP.
The "Frankenputer" of the Wintel world and the "walled garden" of Apple are 2 different philosophies which are largely incompatible. Macs "just work" only because there are no crappy Trident video cards to support... no $10 Fry's IDE cards... no weirdass sound cards... etc.
Not that you can't expand Macs. Of course you can. But I am the first to admit that you have fewer and more expensive choices most of the time. But if that is the price of keeping things "just working," I'll gladly pay it. When I want to have fun wrestling with a computer problem, or building a $200 BSD box, I have several other machines that fill that need.
Macs are a different kind of product. And having variety in the market is good, even if you don't personally want to purchase such a product. Would the world really be better off if Apple was gone and it was down to MS, Linux, Intel and AMD? Of course not. Is your computer room better off without Apple? Maybe. But that's a personal decision, and people who wish ill on Apple are short-sighted.
If that ever became possible the cultural implications would be staggering. For one, higher education would be abandoned by most of society, and with it college-set comedy films like Road Trip and Animal House.
MS bought $150M of non-voting Apple stock. WHich isn't a lot when you consider the overall value of Apple. Apple is worth billions and they have about $4B in cash reserves.
When you say "broadcasts" do you mean actually over the ether or are you getting this programming on cable or satllite?
From other posts I get the impression that in many (most?) places you need an actual antenna to get HDTV programming. Which sounds crazy to me -- I have never been able to get a good analog picture with an antenna.
Currently I get all my programming from Dish Network. I have been with them for years and I don't look forward to the idea of a future where I get some programming off the dish, some programming via an antenna, and maybe some other via cable (with its own bill). What a hassle!
I guess it's moot until there's an HDTV capable ReplayTV/Tivo anyway.:)
I can see why -- convenience. DVD is easier to use -- random access. No tape to wear either. So if you have VHS content that is important to you, why not transfer it instead of relying on a spinning head tape-spooling nightmare contraption?
Although broadcasters will be broadcasting HDTV by 2006, there is a catch. HDTV can be broken up in to several different, lower quality channels. Its much cheaper for networks to do it this way, so what do you think will happen?
I believe that is exactly what has been happening. IIRC, this is how it went.
FCC: Here, TV stations, take this huge chunk of spectrum.
TV: Thanks. What do we owe you?
FCC: Nothing right now, but you better PROMISE to be broadcasting in HDTV by 20XX.
TV: (crossing fingers) Uh, sure. OK. Deal.
(time passes)
FCC: How's it going over there?
TV: We just realized that we can either broadcast 1 channel in super high res, OR we can use the same chunk of spectrum to create 10 PPV channels and 2 free channels, each with the image quality of current annalog TV. We reckon this will make us more money, so that's what we're doing in the long run.
FCC: That's against the spirit of our agreement.
TV: I'm sorry, were you saying something?
If anyone has a better summary I would be interested to hear it. Are we actually getting widespread HDTV (at high resolutions), well, ever?
Why the hell are you allowing your ferret to drink near the computer? I banned my cats from drinking their martinis near the iMac, so I'm sure you can do the same with your ferret.
You think cats are willful pets? Ferrets are like a cross between cats and MONKEYS. Turn your back for 1 sec and they're into something bad!
Ah yes, I forgot about that one -- and there's one nit-picky keyboard criteria I have that excluded it for me. It has no L-shaped return key. None of the MS keyboards do. Now, I could adapt to a small return key and I would in preference to getting carpal tunnel, but the Memorex had all the right shapes (and was available locally) so I chose it even though the key feel isn't quite as satisfying. After 15 minutes I didn't even notice anymore anyway.
No matter what happens though, IBM keyboards are the best ever made.:)
A friend of mine has an IBM keyboard and the feel is very nice. But until they start making ergo keyboards, count me out.
Recently my ferret spilled a drink into my keyboard. It was a $30 computer show special, ergo shaped with touchpad, no-name... but man, it was comfortable.
In the 2 weeks it took me to find a replacement I developed borderline carpal tunnel. Which means I am on the edge all the time I guess, but it didn't take much to push me over. My backup keyboard is ergo-shaped, but slightly concave instead of slightly convex. That small difference was enough to send me to the doctor.
FWIW I eventually did find a keyboard with the shape I needed: a Memorex MX 3000. Anyone who has wrist pain -- I recommend trying this keyboard out. Very comfortable.
(There were a number of Microsoft keyboards available but they all had serious deficiencies like +-shaped arrow key groups or weirdly placed and small pg up/pg down group keys. I couldn't find one that had the convex ergo shape AND a normal set of pg up & arrow keys. I think one may have come out since my Memorex purchase.)
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Gee, I'm sorry I offended your delicate sensibilities!
Your classic error is assuming that any alarmist scenario is worthless. I'm sure there were once people like you telling the German Jews that things couldn't get any worse too!
The fact that the "slippery slope" is a cliche doesn't make it less worrisome. The end result may not be as far downslope as the previous poster stated, but since you can't prove that it won't be, why stifle conversation? How is it not a positive trait to anticipate the worst and design a solution to avoid it?
In CA, if you cannot produce identification you can be arrested and held until they figure out who you are.
Luckily I have left CA and I am screwing up WA now with my other Angelino refugees. I don't think that is the law here but I honestly don't know for sure.
There's a very good reason for doing combat EQ-style -- it's a lower barrier to participation.
For a game to really hit the mass market, as EQ has, it needs to appeal to geeky guys, less geeky guys and even un-geeky women. EQ does that and the fact that there are no rigorous action components to the game makes this possible.
If EQ had Quake-style combat I bet it would have far fewer participants. There's a place for that kind of product (Planetside), but it will always lag far behind a game that 30 year old geeks and 15 year old schoolgirls can enjoy equally.
Lately I have come to see customer service this way:
A company is like a stellar body. If it's big and the fires of enthusiasm run down, it collapses into a black hole from which nothing can escape, even (especially) customer service. In this state it may even consume smaller companies that come too close.
When a company gets to that point -- the point where no customer service agent actually knows the answer to a question, the point where no one that you can reach has the power to find anyone to fix that aggravating piece of disinformation on the web site -- when they get to that point I just do my best to do without them. Sometimes you can, and sometimes (*cough*PHONE COMPANY*cough) you have to suck it up.
Quality customer service has been dead for ages. I don't remember it being this bad 10 years ago but then again I have a rotten memory anyway.
I can't get over the ridiculously long loadtimes for an fmv! After 3 seconds (5 minutes in "gametime"), the mood has been lost...
Holy cow, I thought I had a short attention span but you take the cheese!
A bit OT, indulge me while I ramble...
Wow, you have been getting interviews? Even ones that are clearly shams? Here in Seattle HR people just don't bother to call back. I have compared notes with many job-hunting friends and we all agree that up here the HR culture is very strange. You never get a call back, email back, or any kind of contact at all unless you are a front-runner for a position -- they don't even say, "thanks, but no thanks." It's a total black hole.
I have gotten so few nibbles from my resume drops that I keep looking over my files, trying to make sure that I haven't accidentally put the word "penis" in somewhere.
It's so bad that I actually get a sinking feeling when I see a job opening that I am perfect for, because I know from a year of futile efforts that I won't hear anything in return. After a while this really plays hell with your self-confidence. Man... maybe I just SUCK! Maybe I am a SHAM!
Back on topic... Take the job. Take the money. Spam is low but it's not like killing someone. And you have a responsibility to your family and your creditors... those are critical to maintain. Take the job. I, at least, won't look down on you.
BTW: you can make a lowly package of ramen into a delicious treat! Buy cans of cooked chicken meat: you can get a pack of big cans at Costco. Add half a can of chicken, some sesame oil, sliced mushrooms, celery, hot oil or cayenne pepper (if you like heat), sesame seeds and black pepper to normal chicken ramen. Cheap and 100x better than ramen alone.
My wife tries stuff like that on me. I always crack up if there is no lie, but she never believes me!
I'm not sure why anyone would think of a child as a sex object, but keep it to yourself.
Because, Chester, the Japanese did it first. If you knew more about the weird animation and comics the Japanese produce the parent post would have been offensive AND funny instead of just the former.
Cadmium is a cumulative poison (like lead but worse) which can cause lung and kidney damage.
Chemist #2 here. Cadmium can also cause your testicles to rot. Or so they taught me in that one class where we did heavy metal poisoning and chelation therapy and that kind of thing. Pretty peculiar, eh?
I have an artist friend who licks his paintbrushes... I keep telling him that's not such a good idea. Sadly the more IQ points he loses the less likely he is to listen!
That is exactly what "semi auto" means, and it is not possible to be "semi auto" and a "machine gun" at the same time. Machine guns are by definition full-auto, firing rifle caliber ammo. (as opposed to handgun ammo, which would be a submachine gun.)
don't think shooting /anyone/ is good.
Maybe it is never "good," but if I had to shoot someone to defend self/family I would certainly see the outcome as "less bad."
The problem with that is that no one really gets porn from the web anymore, unless they REALLY don't know what they're doing.
So what you are saying is that most people who want porn online "know what they are doing" with a computer?
I doubt it. Most people are chumps. Hell, it wasn't that long ago that 1/2 the people online in America were on AOL.
Your point is valid but I believe you are way overestimating the competence of the average computer user.
There's surprisingly few situations where people need semi automatic machine guns.
There is no such thing as a "semi automatic machine gun." Don't get all, er, fired up on gun politics until you have done your homework. Details matter.
Your goal may be ubiquity. For others it is simply utility.
The flipside of that is that with such a small peripheral/hardware pool, Thing Just Work (TM) on Macs. It's a beautiful thing, my friend.
Huzzah. I wish more people would understand that. The lack of hardware options is, in the Mac context, a good thing... actually, a VITAL thing.
I have 4 "beige boxes" at home and I have a great time fiddling around with cheap add-in cards and other components. It's great. I wouldn't change the flexibility of the X86 world for anything. $30 TV-in card? Sign me up! $50 CPU? I'm there! My $200 BSD box is one of the best computing investments I have ever made... once I learned, the hard way, how cheap is TOO cheap when you are shopping for parts!
At the same time, I would not trade the Apple-led, carefully engineered, exactingly sculpted Mac *experience* for anything. I have a 400MHz Mac next to my overclocked Wintel Frankenputer, and the Mac is where all the real work gets done. Photoshop. HTML. Graphic design. DTP.
The "Frankenputer" of the Wintel world and the "walled garden" of Apple are 2 different philosophies which are largely incompatible. Macs "just work" only because there are no crappy Trident video cards to support... no $10 Fry's IDE cards... no weirdass sound cards... etc.
Not that you can't expand Macs. Of course you can. But I am the first to admit that you have fewer and more expensive choices most of the time. But if that is the price of keeping things "just working," I'll gladly pay it. When I want to have fun wrestling with a computer problem, or building a $200 BSD box, I have several other machines that fill that need.
Macs are a different kind of product. And having variety in the market is good, even if you don't personally want to purchase such a product. Would the world really be better off if Apple was gone and it was down to MS, Linux, Intel and AMD? Of course not. Is your computer room better off without Apple? Maybe. But that's a personal decision, and people who wish ill on Apple are short-sighted.
If that ever became possible the cultural implications would be staggering. For one, higher education would be abandoned by most of society, and with it college-set comedy films like Road Trip and Animal House.
"This bra bomb better work, Nerdlinger!"
And I'd have to think twice before buying an X-10 module after those damned camera ads.
X-10 the company has nothing to do with X-10 the home automation protocol. Even IBM makes X-10 equipment.
For a non-obnoxious place to get X-10 gear, try Smarthome.
MS bought $150M of non-voting Apple stock. WHich isn't a lot when you consider the overall value of Apple. Apple is worth billions and they have about $4B in cash reserves.
MS has since sold the shares anyway.
Good post, thanks.
When you say "broadcasts" do you mean actually over the ether or are you getting this programming on cable or satllite?
From other posts I get the impression that in many (most?) places you need an actual antenna to get HDTV programming. Which sounds crazy to me -- I have never been able to get a good analog picture with an antenna.
Currently I get all my programming from Dish Network. I have been with them for years and I don't look forward to the idea of a future where I get some programming off the dish, some programming via an antenna, and maybe some other via cable (with its own bill). What a hassle!
I guess it's moot until there's an HDTV capable ReplayTV/Tivo anyway.
I can see why -- convenience. DVD is easier to use -- random access. No tape to wear either. So if you have VHS content that is important to you, why not transfer it instead of relying on a spinning head tape-spooling nightmare contraption?
Although broadcasters will be broadcasting HDTV by 2006, there is a catch. HDTV can be broken up in to several different, lower quality channels. Its much cheaper for networks to do it this way, so what do you think will happen?
I believe that is exactly what has been happening. IIRC, this is how it went.
FCC: Here, TV stations, take this huge chunk of spectrum.
TV: Thanks. What do we owe you?
FCC: Nothing right now, but you better PROMISE to be broadcasting in HDTV by 20XX.
TV: (crossing fingers) Uh, sure. OK. Deal.
(time passes)
FCC: How's it going over there?
TV: We just realized that we can either broadcast 1 channel in super high res, OR we can use the same chunk of spectrum to create 10 PPV channels and 2 free channels, each with the image quality of current annalog TV. We reckon this will make us more money, so that's what we're doing in the long run.
FCC: That's against the spirit of our agreement.
TV: I'm sorry, were you saying something?
If anyone has a better summary I would be interested to hear it. Are we actually getting widespread HDTV (at high resolutions), well, ever?
Why the hell are you allowing your ferret to drink near the computer? I banned my cats from drinking their martinis near the iMac, so I'm sure you can do the same with your ferret.
You think cats are willful pets? Ferrets are like a cross between cats and MONKEYS. Turn your back for 1 sec and they're into something bad!
Ah yes, I forgot about that one -- and there's one nit-picky keyboard criteria I have that excluded it for me. It has no L-shaped return key. None of the MS keyboards do. Now, I could adapt to a small return key and I would in preference to getting carpal tunnel, but the Memorex had all the right shapes (and was available locally) so I chose it even though the key feel isn't quite as satisfying. After 15 minutes I didn't even notice anymore anyway.
Oversized Return key
Ergonomic layout
Convex shape
Nice key feel
"T" arrow keys
Full-sized Insert/Delete group
Can't get all of them at once, and I spent hours and hours shopping. In the end I sacrificed a bit from key feel.
No matter what happens though, IBM keyboards are the best ever made. :)
A friend of mine has an IBM keyboard and the feel is very nice. But until they start making ergo keyboards, count me out.
Recently my ferret spilled a drink into my keyboard. It was a $30 computer show special, ergo shaped with touchpad, no-name... but man, it was comfortable.
In the 2 weeks it took me to find a replacement I developed borderline carpal tunnel. Which means I am on the edge all the time I guess, but it didn't take much to push me over. My backup keyboard is ergo-shaped, but slightly concave instead of slightly convex. That small difference was enough to send me to the doctor.
FWIW I eventually did find a keyboard with the shape I needed: a Memorex MX 3000. Anyone who has wrist pain -- I recommend trying this keyboard out. Very comfortable.
(There were a number of Microsoft keyboards available but they all had serious deficiencies like +-shaped arrow key groups or weirdly placed and small pg up/pg down group keys. I couldn't find one that had the convex ergo shape AND a normal set of pg up & arrow keys. I think one may have come out since my Memorex purchase.)