I don't know much about biology. But can anyone explain why so few animals exhibit asexual reproduction? Has it "just not happened", or are there factors that make it unlikely for particular instances of it to be successful, or is it a suboptimal way of doing things in terms of continuation of a species?
A mac is a personal computer. PC stands for personal computer. Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive?
I can tell you are an old-school Mac fan from the 1980's - pre-Jobs '90s from the pedantry. Now please go tell Apple what you just told us since they just finished a years long "Mac vs. PC" ad campaign that flies in the face of what you just said. I'm not even going to bother with the YouTube links at this point.
LOL. Actually I'm 20 years old. And the only computers I've ever owned are a Dell laptop that has run a variety of different Windows and Linuxs, and a home built gaming machine that dual boots Linux and Widows. But nice try.
Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive?
No.
They're in the vernacular now. Can't speak for other languages, but in English, to say "My PC is busted" generally means "My windows PC is busted."
"My mac is busted" is straightforward. When further differentiation is required on the PC front we say "My Linux PC is busted" (although more than likely, we'd say "My Linux Box is busted.")
A parallel is saying "I'm American" - While not technically correct, this is understood in the vernacular to mean "I'm a citizen of the United States." Canadians like me have to say "I'm Canadian" even though I live in the Americas. It's the understood vernacular.
Yeah I know, you have a point. I guess I'm just stubborn and obsessed with semantics. If I was Canadian, I would happily say that I was from America, and let people interpret it however they like. But the term "American", when referring to people, is quite exclusively reserved for referring to people from the USA. At least that's my understanding of it."PC", on the other hand, is not used exclusively to refer to a personal computer running Microsoft Windows. It can just as easily refer to any personal computer. One of the meanings is logical and useful, the other one isn't. Not that I really mind. I sort of enjoy calling Macs PCs and then watching the inevitable rage or confusion that follows.
A mac is a personal computer. PC stands for personal computer. Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive? It makes you sound ignorant, and renders the term "personal computer" useless as a means of differentiating a computer for personal use from any other kind of computer. K thanks.
It's my 21st today. Bummer I'm so bogged down with programming assignments that I can't really celebrate. Maybe that is a hint about the meaning of my life: "Renee, you will spend the rest of your life in a windowless room, trying to meet project deadlines."
I've often wondered why we have compact portable atomic bombs, but no compact portable atomic generators. Perhaps now some will finally be developed! Besides, I can't imagine that solar panels would be a good idea at an FOB. I mean, big square shiny targets? Not good. And they really work poorly when disguised with that camo netting stuff.
No, I'm thinking that some portable nuke plants are in order here. Even something that has to be mounted on a semi flatbed is going to be more useful than a solar panel. At least the flatbed could be rolled into a large trench and covered with camo netting and guarded by dirt and sandbag berms.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't some radiation leak from such a device, making it just as easily detected as a pile of solar panels?
Eucalyptus oil works amazingly well and smells quite nice. Can you get it in the Northern Hemisphere? I'd be careful with it on piano gloss (I'm assuming piano gloss finish plastics are made of acrylics), but I think it would be ok.
Nail polish remover is not a good idea. I once got it on my aunties antique dining table. The table was coated with an acrylic resin. Needless to say, I felt pretty terrible.
Fire Fox Four, sounds like a cheesy name for a new Charlies-Angels-kinda-group... But seriously, the new browser looks good with some nice new technologies for web developers and hopefully some better speed for the users... For other waiting: we can expect the beta in June, and the RC in October with a release within a month, so FFF should land this fall.
And when Firefox VI comes out, we can surf the web with "For Fuck's Sake".
Mine's doing this too. I'm a FF fan through and through but I'm finding it hard to hang on these days. Chrome is faster, uses far less memory (as became clear when I ran Firefox, Chrome and Opera on my housemates laptop with 512MB of RAM - Opera won but it has a Facebook bug so Chrome took the cake) and doesn't CRASH all the time under light load. If Chrome or Opera gave me the customization options that FF does I'd swap in a heartbeat.
I know that most governments are corrupt and all that, but did Obama really say anything wrong this time? He was addressing a group of students when he said that information overload and quickly accessible information can be distracting. You know what? He's right. I'm a student. I find video games, TV shows, Slashdot, overclocking forums, Linux forums, email, telephone, new software, Facebook notifications, to be hugely distracting. I would go so far as to say that I am mildly addicted to new, bite-sized pieces of information. It doesn't help that I already have ADHD - but the Internet and other computer-based media go a long way in keeping me off-track.
Take Windows XP versus Windows Vista or 7 as a classic example.
They wanted to make the Control Panel more accessible to less tech-savvy users, so they started simplifying and conglomerating the options until it no longer represented an index of possible choices - ie. Network Settings, Mouse Settings, Microphone Settings, etc - instead they turned it into a tree format where there are only ever 2-3 options at any given intersection, so you open Control Panel thinking "I want to change my Network Settings, I am looking for something involving the 'Network' and 'Settings'." And instead of being presented with a long and eye-burning list of every setting menu in the system, you are presented with three options which are completely oversimplified to the point of being utterly meaningless. You open Control Panel and you are asked to choose between "Heffalumps, Woozels, or Orange Juice", and not knowing what is what but wanting to find something to do with Network Settings you click 'Orange Juice' only to be presented with more meaningless text like "I see you would like some Orange Juice, would you prefer Toothpaste, Cheques, or Mints with your Orange Juice" and the right answer for Network Settings is that you want Mints with your Orange Juice.
Microsoft tried to make the Control Panel more accessible and more efficient, and instead made it so simplified it lost the meaning of the terms and now requires that I look up online how to open panels and follow the button presses like some archaic ritual at an alien console not understood but by the past reactions to button sequences attempted.
I can feel the "offtopic" coming but never mind. This drives me insane! In windows 7, you can make control panel display the full set of icons, but you have to ask it to do so every time. I downloaded a script to edit the registry that was meant to change this but it didn't work - so god knows what it did do. I wish there was some way to make it permanently show the full list, I'm not that keen on editing my registry by hand. Fail MS, fail.
Yes, I agree.
I watched my housemate play Mario Kart on Wii and wonder at how he didn't get bored. Then one day I got drunk enough to try it for myself and discovered that is is nowhere near as simple as it appears. The challenges are subtle. You don't get "stuck" on Mario Kart, but you need more than good hand-eye co-ordination to be great at it. That's why it remains fun, even after hours, without appearing to be complex.
Um, can't we have both?
Sometimes I enjoy the simplicity (flavored with a little subtle complexity) of Plants vs. Zombies. Sometimes I feel like an epic, convoluted, RTS campaign. Surely there is a market for more complex games and less complex ones. But a long and complex game calls for an investment of time; they have to make it worth it.
It occurs to me that, according to most accounts of the past, young people's attitudes towards new computers hasn't really changed at all. We begged our parents to upgrade our PCs all through the '00s to no avail; and were even less successful on the X-Box front. Now at 20, I've finally got the top-end gaming machine I've always wanted. But what will this computer seem like in another 30 years? Will my 3.7GHz quad core and dual Radeon HD5850 graphics cards seem slow? Will Windows 7 seem quaint? Probably. But at the moment it is my absolute pride and joy. I just laughed at myself as much as I laughed at these ads, when I realised that nothing has changed.
The MS DOS 5 Upgrade rap commercial makes me ashamed to be Caucasian. That guy was a Navin Johnson, tuna fish sandwich eating, with the crusts cut off, and a twinkie for dessert kind of Caucasian. I could actually visualize Bill Gates clapping his hands and stomping his foot, almost in rhythm with the video, just like Navin.
I don't feel so good now.
I'm fairly certain the MS DOS 5 one was meant to be a bit silly, a bit of a joke. And for that reason I think they pulled it off well. I thought it was one of the less dorky ones. You can tell that MS put a fair amount of money into it.
I am a Firefox girl through and through, but the last few days I've been helping a friend set up a new system and she wanted something more simple, so I showed her Opera and Chrome. Now I'm thinking maybe I should test all the browsers, including IE, so that I see for myself what is good and what's not.
You need Internet Download Manager (just be careful never to select "open with " for EXE files with this download manager. I once ended up with all my.exe files opening with Adobe Reader - fun times)
Of course. And the fact that I understand that is the reason I can go to my weekend fast-food job, at the end of a week studying science and engineering, and take peoples orders with a genuine smile on my face. But the truth is, there are very stupid people out there.
Slashdot Mirror
This is my bank. Hope I get paid next week. My accounts already overdrawn :/
I don't know much about biology. But can anyone explain why so few animals exhibit asexual reproduction? Has it "just not happened", or are there factors that make it unlikely for particular instances of it to be successful, or is it a suboptimal way of doing things in terms of continuation of a species?
A mac is a personal computer. PC stands for personal computer. Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive?
I can tell you are an old-school Mac fan from the 1980's - pre-Jobs '90s from the pedantry. Now please go tell Apple what you just told us since they just finished a years long "Mac vs. PC" ad campaign that flies in the face of what you just said. I'm not even going to bother with the YouTube links at this point.
LOL. Actually I'm 20 years old. And the only computers I've ever owned are a Dell laptop that has run a variety of different Windows and Linuxs, and a home built gaming machine that dual boots Linux and Widows. But nice try.
Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive?
No. They're in the vernacular now. Can't speak for other languages, but in English, to say "My PC is busted" generally means "My windows PC is busted." "My mac is busted" is straightforward. When further differentiation is required on the PC front we say "My Linux PC is busted" (although more than likely, we'd say "My Linux Box is busted.") A parallel is saying "I'm American" - While not technically correct, this is understood in the vernacular to mean "I'm a citizen of the United States." Canadians like me have to say "I'm Canadian" even though I live in the Americas. It's the understood vernacular.
Yeah I know, you have a point. I guess I'm just stubborn and obsessed with semantics. If I was Canadian, I would happily say that I was from America, and let people interpret it however they like. But the term "American", when referring to people, is quite exclusively reserved for referring to people from the USA. At least that's my understanding of it."PC", on the other hand, is not used exclusively to refer to a personal computer running Microsoft Windows. It can just as easily refer to any personal computer. One of the meanings is logical and useful, the other one isn't. Not that I really mind. I sort of enjoy calling Macs PCs and then watching the inevitable rage or confusion that follows.
A mac is a personal computer. PC stands for personal computer. Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive? It makes you sound ignorant, and renders the term "personal computer" useless as a means of differentiating a computer for personal use from any other kind of computer. K thanks.
It's my 21st today. Bummer I'm so bogged down with programming assignments that I can't really celebrate. Maybe that is a hint about the meaning of my life: "Renee, you will spend the rest of your life in a windowless room, trying to meet project deadlines."
I've often wondered why we have compact portable atomic bombs, but no compact portable atomic generators. Perhaps now some will finally be developed! Besides, I can't imagine that solar panels would be a good idea at an FOB. I mean, big square shiny targets? Not good. And they really work poorly when disguised with that camo netting stuff.
No, I'm thinking that some portable nuke plants are in order here. Even something that has to be mounted on a semi flatbed is going to be more useful than a solar panel. At least the flatbed could be rolled into a large trench and covered with camo netting and guarded by dirt and sandbag berms.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't some radiation leak from such a device, making it just as easily detected as a pile of solar panels?
Eucalyptus oil works amazingly well and smells quite nice. Can you get it in the Northern Hemisphere? I'd be careful with it on piano gloss (I'm assuming piano gloss finish plastics are made of acrylics), but I think it would be ok.
Nail polish remover is not a good idea. I once got it on my aunties antique dining table. The table was coated with an acrylic resin. Needless to say, I felt pretty terrible.
Doesn't it seem more likely that the original discoverer worked in a different professional lab, rather than having that sort of equipment at home?
Fire Fox Four, sounds like a cheesy name for a new Charlies-Angels-kinda-group... But seriously, the new browser looks good with some nice new technologies for web developers and hopefully some better speed for the users... For other waiting: we can expect the beta in June, and the RC in October with a release within a month, so FFF should land this fall.
And when Firefox VI comes out, we can surf the web with "For Fuck's Sake".
Mine's doing this too. I'm a FF fan through and through but I'm finding it hard to hang on these days. Chrome is faster, uses far less memory (as became clear when I ran Firefox, Chrome and Opera on my housemates laptop with 512MB of RAM - Opera won but it has a Facebook bug so Chrome took the cake) and doesn't CRASH all the time under light load. If Chrome or Opera gave me the customization options that FF does I'd swap in a heartbeat.
I know that most governments are corrupt and all that, but did Obama really say anything wrong this time? He was addressing a group of students when he said that information overload and quickly accessible information can be distracting. You know what? He's right. I'm a student. I find video games, TV shows, Slashdot, overclocking forums, Linux forums, email, telephone, new software, Facebook notifications, to be hugely distracting. I would go so far as to say that I am mildly addicted to new, bite-sized pieces of information. It doesn't help that I already have ADHD - but the Internet and other computer-based media go a long way in keeping me off-track.
Google "windows 7 god mode." You will be well-pleased.
I. Love. You. X
This. Exactly.
Take Windows XP versus Windows Vista or 7 as a classic example.
They wanted to make the Control Panel more accessible to less tech-savvy users, so they started simplifying and conglomerating the options until it no longer represented an index of possible choices - ie. Network Settings, Mouse Settings, Microphone Settings, etc - instead they turned it into a tree format where there are only ever 2-3 options at any given intersection, so you open Control Panel thinking "I want to change my Network Settings, I am looking for something involving the 'Network' and 'Settings'." And instead of being presented with a long and eye-burning list of every setting menu in the system, you are presented with three options which are completely oversimplified to the point of being utterly meaningless. You open Control Panel and you are asked to choose between "Heffalumps, Woozels, or Orange Juice", and not knowing what is what but wanting to find something to do with Network Settings you click 'Orange Juice' only to be presented with more meaningless text like "I see you would like some Orange Juice, would you prefer Toothpaste, Cheques, or Mints with your Orange Juice" and the right answer for Network Settings is that you want Mints with your Orange Juice.
Microsoft tried to make the Control Panel more accessible and more efficient, and instead made it so simplified it lost the meaning of the terms and now requires that I look up online how to open panels and follow the button presses like some archaic ritual at an alien console not understood but by the past reactions to button sequences attempted.
I can feel the "offtopic" coming but never mind. This drives me insane! In windows 7, you can make control panel display the full set of icons, but you have to ask it to do so every time. I downloaded a script to edit the registry that was meant to change this but it didn't work - so god knows what it did do. I wish there was some way to make it permanently show the full list, I'm not that keen on editing my registry by hand. Fail MS, fail.
Yes, I agree. I watched my housemate play Mario Kart on Wii and wonder at how he didn't get bored. Then one day I got drunk enough to try it for myself and discovered that is is nowhere near as simple as it appears. The challenges are subtle. You don't get "stuck" on Mario Kart, but you need more than good hand-eye co-ordination to be great at it. That's why it remains fun, even after hours, without appearing to be complex.
Um, can't we have both?
Sometimes I enjoy the simplicity (flavored with a little subtle complexity) of Plants vs. Zombies. Sometimes I feel like an epic, convoluted, RTS campaign. Surely there is a market for more complex games and less complex ones. But a long and complex game calls for an investment of time; they have to make it worth it.
We? '00? WE aren't all THAT young. '00. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
I was talking about my brother and sister and I. Sorry, I though the context would have made it obvious.
Of course, things aren't exactly the same as they were. But I know that one day I will laugh at how amazing I think my PC is now.
Yeah. This makes me sad. I feel like I've missed the golden era of computing. I wish I had been there.
It occurs to me that, according to most accounts of the past, young people's attitudes towards new computers hasn't really changed at all. We begged our parents to upgrade our PCs all through the '00s to no avail; and were even less successful on the X-Box front.
Now at 20, I've finally got the top-end gaming machine I've always wanted. But what will this computer seem like in another 30 years? Will my 3.7GHz quad core and dual Radeon HD5850 graphics cards seem slow? Will Windows 7 seem quaint? Probably. But at the moment it is my absolute pride and joy. I just laughed at myself as much as I laughed at these ads, when I realised that nothing has changed.
The MS DOS 5 Upgrade rap commercial makes me ashamed to be Caucasian. That guy was a Navin Johnson, tuna fish sandwich eating, with the crusts cut off, and a twinkie for dessert kind of Caucasian. I could actually visualize Bill Gates clapping his hands and stomping his foot, almost in rhythm with the video, just like Navin.
I don't feel so good now.
I'm fairly certain the MS DOS 5 one was meant to be a bit silly, a bit of a joke. And for that reason I think they pulled it off well. I thought it was one of the less dorky ones. You can tell that MS put a fair amount of money into it.
I am a Firefox girl through and through, but the last few days I've been helping a friend set up a new system and she wanted something more simple, so I showed her Opera and Chrome. Now I'm thinking maybe I should test all the browsers, including IE, so that I see for myself what is good and what's not.
You need Internet Download Manager (just be careful never to select "open with " for EXE files with this download manager. I once ended up with all my .exe files opening with Adobe Reader - fun times)
Because it makes good conversation. Slashdot is as much a forum as it is a news site. This is a fun thing to discuss.
Sometimes I do it just to be a dick.
I had mod points for 9 days running, ending two days ago, and now you show up.
Of course. And the fact that I understand that is the reason I can go to my weekend fast-food job, at the end of a week studying science and engineering, and take peoples orders with a genuine smile on my face. But the truth is, there are very stupid people out there.