Your average 15 year old (heck, even most 17 year olds) will sill do stupid stuff on a dare.
And their friends aren't smart enough to realize that there are permenant consequences for some actions.
Now I'm not saying that this is the case here, but online it is impossible to really know someones age. I could tell you that I was 15 and if you were 15 you probably would not be equipped to know if I was telling the truth or not.
Sure, there are some people who are very Internet savvy who know better. Most of them are not 15 (or even 17)
2 things should have happened here. 1) Her parents should have known more about what she was doing, though that doesn't always stop a 15/17 year old from doing it anyway. 2) AOL should have caught the activity, which they did, and fired the offender (not sure if they did).
Seriously. Back in 1995 I had a website up on my schools computer that was for Connect Four. I got calls from Hasbro's lawyers. Of course, once they found out that I didn't make any money on it they stopped returning my calls.
1000 games played per day in 1995/1996 was pretty good web traffic. The site got its URL published in a kids magazine, complete with a sticker. Great fun.
Maybe the fact that in the car the other person is also aware of the fact that you are driving and naturally allows for pauses etc. ? I don't know, thats just the first thing I could think of.
There are many cases where person A does something good for person B, person B (or C) screws them over and person A gets mad and the world gets worse.
Here's the trick...
If you give someone $10 and they buy a brick and throw it through your car window and you get MAD, then you have validated their action.
If you don't get MAD, but instead you let it go, are passive, and you never help them out again, then you totally invalidate their action. They get no joy out of seeing you pissed off (the only reason they could have had for breaking your window) and they will learn that they can't get you to be mad by stupid shenanigans.
Of course, you don't help them again.
Recently there was a church who gathered presents for some kids. The church was broken in to and all the presents stolen. Word got out that a great evil had happened, and presents rolled in from all over the place. Good Deed, ruined by a Bad Deed, and the promptly UNRUINED by an even greater set of individually small deeds.
I try to avoid those kinds of a people as a general rule. After all, what makes them happy is being mean to other people. If you try to stop them from being mean then they just get angry. Angry people don't make the world a better place.
Bad stuff happens to good people all the time. Take the Tsunami for example.... out of 150,000+ people they couldn't have all been bad. In fact I bet most of them were generally good people.
I don't expect to be protected from bad because I try to be good. That isn't the point at all. My goal is to make the world a better place, one person at a time.
Its not a very easy philosophy to live by. I find the hardest part is when someone is mean to me. It is very difficult sometimes to let "thoughtless" meanness go. To realize that someone isn't being mean to me specifically, just ignorant of the fact that they are not the center of the universe.
Usually I can just let that kind of stuff go and not have it ruin my mood. But sometimes its impossible.
I believe that if you are nice to others, even in small ways, that the world gets better.
I believe that if you are mean to others, even in small ways, that the world gets worse.
I believe that I want the world to be a better place, and I live each day according to that.
Its true.... I've experienced it.
on
Life Interrupted
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I spent some time working in the support department for one of my previous companies. After a full day of answering phones, answering questions, problem solving, and tracking things down, I would come home and be absolutely exhausted. All of the constant context switching was very bad for my mental health. Sure, I was able to do the job, but it totally numbed my brain out and made me a tired, frustrated person.
Now as a software engineer I try to work on only one thing at a time. If I try to do more than that then all of my efforts fall behind. If I can focus on one task though, it gets done and done right.
I pay taxes in the US and that money of mine funds the Federal Government.
These people are wasting my money, because every complaint they file needs to be at least read by a government employee. They get paid to read them.
Wasting my money.
Lets pass a law to restrict a person to a certain number of complaints to the FCC per month. Then at least they would need to have 20,000 members to generate 240,000 complaints in a year.
If you are tired of the RIAA controlling what you listen to, then learn how to sing.
I get a lot more enjoyment out of listening to my friends sing (and singing with them) old songs, sad songs, happy songs, silly song, whatever, than out of my music CDs.
Its live, its free, its even good sometimes.
So drink a few beers, gather round a camp fire, close your eyes and sing. Or play a guitar, learn to drum, pick up a kazoo, banjo, or tamborine, or even how to clap in time.
We have become a world that doesn't know how to entertain ourselves. If it isn't shiny, plastic, flashing, miniature, or if our neighbors (you know, those people on TV) don't have it then we don't want it.
Touchstream keyboards are incredible. Not only are they quite, but they cut down on carpel tunnel, are easy to clean (no keys to get crumbs between) and are a sure sign of geekdom. Plus most people will be freaked out by them and will want a standard keyboard to type on... so they tend to not mess around with your machine.
Gestures are also incredibly powerful. Four finger shift, mouse control, arrow key control, cut, paste, window switching, just amazing.
Get a touchstream, zero force keyboard from Fingerworks.
http://www.fingerworks.com/
I have one and when I type it is earily quiet.
Re:a real use for this kind of technology
on
The Face Detector
·
· Score: 1
Sorry.... Blind people know who they are talking to, because generally they don't need to know them by their face, just by their voice. Since they cannot see (and many have never seen ever) they develop a sense of what is going on around them with their other senses.
Now when the blind can listen to a speach imparied person by way of sign language recognition, that would be cool.
Presumably the blind person could talk to a hearing imparied person by way of voice recognition software printing out what is said.
More likely explanation, this is a small town, (article says about 4 digit population) and they don't want to send a kid to jail for being stupid. If he does it again though I'm sure that he'll be deported or maybe even defenistratred.
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Your average 15 year old (heck, even most 17 year olds) will sill do stupid stuff on a dare.
And their friends aren't smart enough to realize that there are permenant consequences for some actions.
Now I'm not saying that this is the case here, but online it is impossible to really know someones age. I could tell you that I was 15 and if you were 15 you probably would not be equipped to know if I was telling the truth or not.
Sure, there are some people who are very Internet savvy who know better. Most of them are not 15 (or even 17)
2 things should have happened here. 1) Her parents should have known more about what she was doing, though that doesn't always stop a 15/17 year old from doing it anyway. 2) AOL should have caught the activity, which they did, and fired the offender (not sure if they did).
6 times 9 = 42 ........ in base 13.
Douglas Adams seems to have not known this, but highly approves of the coincidence.
What is this Sig you refer to?
Which of the characters in the movie was the most difficult to find an actor for and why?
Seriously. Back in 1995 I had a website up on my schools computer that was for Connect Four. I got calls from Hasbro's lawyers. Of course, once they found out that I didn't make any money on it they stopped returning my calls.
1000 games played per day in 1995/1996 was pretty good web traffic. The site got its URL published in a kids magazine, complete with a sticker. Great fun.
Maybe the fact that in the car the other person is also aware of the fact that you are driving and naturally allows for pauses etc. ? I don't know, thats just the first thing I could think of.
Driving while talking on the cell I almost ran a red light.....
I'm usually a very good driver. On the cell phone though.... Ok... From now on, no more talking and driving.
Just learn to ignore the negative people. If you ignore them, they tend to go away. Their goal is to get a rise out of you.
Don't feed the trolls.
There are many cases where person A does something good for person B, person B (or C) screws them over and person A gets mad and the world gets worse.
Here's the trick...
If you give someone $10 and they buy a brick and throw it through your car window and you get MAD, then you have validated their action.
If you don't get MAD, but instead you let it go, are passive, and you never help them out again, then you totally invalidate their action. They get no joy out of seeing you pissed off (the only reason they could have had for breaking your window) and they will learn that they can't get you to be mad by stupid shenanigans.
Of course, you don't help them again.
Recently there was a church who gathered presents for some kids. The church was broken in to and all the presents stolen. Word got out that a great evil had happened, and presents rolled in from all over the place. Good Deed, ruined by a Bad Deed, and the promptly UNRUINED by an even greater set of individually small deeds.
To me that is Karma in action.
The real trick to getting moderated up is to post early.
If you post something thoughtful, but after the point in time where nobody is reading anymore then it doesn't matter.
If you post early enough then everyone reads it. If you are not a troll then you can get modded up.
Simple economics really.
How very true.
I try to avoid those kinds of a people as a general rule. After all, what makes them happy is being mean to other people. If you try to stop them from being mean then they just get angry. Angry people don't make the world a better place.
Bad stuff happens to good people all the time. Take the Tsunami for example.... out of 150,000+ people they couldn't have all been bad. In fact I bet most of them were generally good people.
I don't expect to be protected from bad because I try to be good. That isn't the point at all. My goal is to make the world a better place, one person at a time.
Its not a very easy philosophy to live by. I find the hardest part is when someone is mean to me. It is very difficult sometimes to let "thoughtless" meanness go. To realize that someone isn't being mean to me specifically, just ignorant of the fact that they are not the center of the universe.
Usually I can just let that kind of stuff go and not have it ruin my mood. But sometimes its impossible.
So, hang in there.
It just makes sense when you think about it.
If I cut someone off on the road, they get pissed and are going to be angry at other people... it cascades.
If, however, I let them merge in nicely, they might let other people merge.... that also cascades.
I haven't read up on Siddhartha Guatamo, but I might have to now, this is what I came up with on my own.
and as you said, Peace!
I believe that if you are nice to others, even in small ways, that the world gets better.
I believe that if you are mean to others, even in small ways, that the world gets worse.
I believe that I want the world to be a better place, and I live each day according to that.
I spent some time working in the support department for one of my previous companies. After a full day of answering phones, answering questions, problem solving, and tracking things down, I would come home and be absolutely exhausted. All of the constant context switching was very bad for my mental health. Sure, I was able to do the job, but it totally numbed my brain out and made me a tired, frustrated person.
Now as a software engineer I try to work on only one thing at a time. If I try to do more than that then all of my efforts fall behind. If I can focus on one task though, it gets done and done right.
I pay taxes in the US and that money of mine funds the Federal Government.
These people are wasting my money, because every complaint they file needs to be at least read by a government employee. They get paid to read them.
Wasting my money.
Lets pass a law to restrict a person to a certain number of complaints to the FCC per month. Then at least they would need to have 20,000 members to generate 240,000 complaints in a year.
On the topic of listening to cell phone transmissions a friend of mine likes to say "If it passess through my body, I have a right to listen to it".
I would argue that the same is true for the broadcast flag. If you beam it to my house, I can do with it what I want.
I just finished listening to the episode.... I need to get the CDs of the original shows now.
Douglas Adams, we miss you dearly.
So if you are going to pick on programmers for bad code, at least make sure your algorithms are correct.
If you are tired of the RIAA controlling what you listen to, then learn how to sing.
I get a lot more enjoyment out of listening to my friends sing (and singing with them) old songs, sad songs, happy songs, silly song, whatever, than out of my music CDs.
Its live, its free, its even good sometimes.
So drink a few beers, gather round a camp fire, close your eyes and sing. Or play a guitar, learn to drum, pick up a kazoo, banjo, or tamborine, or even how to clap in time.
We have become a world that doesn't know how to entertain ourselves. If it isn't shiny, plastic, flashing, miniature, or if our neighbors (you know, those people on TV) don't have it then we don't want it.
Touchstream keyboards are incredible. Not only are they quite, but they cut down on carpel tunnel, are easy to clean (no keys to get crumbs between) and are a sure sign of geekdom. Plus most people will be freaked out by them and will want a standard keyboard to type on... so they tend to not mess around with your machine.
Gestures are also incredibly powerful. Four finger shift, mouse control, arrow key control, cut, paste, window switching, just amazing.
Worried about people listening in in your typing?
Get a touchstream, zero force keyboard from Fingerworks.
http://www.fingerworks.com/
I have one and when I type it is earily quiet.
Sorry.... Blind people know who they are talking to, because generally they don't need to know them by their face, just by their voice. Since they cannot see (and many have never seen ever) they develop a sense of what is going on around them with their other senses.
Now when the blind can listen to a speach imparied person by way of sign language recognition, that would be cool.
Presumably the blind person could talk to a hearing imparied person by way of voice recognition software printing out what is said.
More likely explanation, this is a small town, (article says about 4 digit population) and they don't want to send a kid to jail for being stupid. If he does it again though I'm sure that he'll be deported or maybe even defenistratred.