Since you seem to like FPSs that require the player to actually think before pulling the trigger, I'd bet you'd love System Shock 2. I liked both Deus Ex and Half Life, but System Shock, which is a weird combo of FPS and RPG, puts them both to shame when it comes to the immersiveness of its enviroments. Also scary as hell. I can't recommend it enough.
...(well, actually, it's a whole series, but the first book is the best) is Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain". It's a very entertaining and thought-provoking story about what might happen when genetic modification for socially-desirable traits becomes more widespread (i.e., available to the wealthy).
While I myself would love the ability to survive without sleep (Kress's example) as well as perfect hearing and eyesight, genetic engineering to create more "desirable" children has the potential to make the current divide between the rich and poor seem microscopic in comparison to the gap that will emerge once the rich can create "ideal" children with a fair degree of accuracy.
Genetic tweaking of offspring will have to be made available to everyone, rich or poor, otherwise class warfare won't be just a matter of politics.
I was just about to say the same thing: why does Canada have it so good?
Is there some government subsidy for broadband rollout? Or is it the forces of market competition alone - no local DSL or cable monopolies?
My own situation: I'm in the D.C. area and I'm one of the unfortunate @Homers that just got bought by Comcast. In seven days my speeds will go down to 1.5M downstream (from ~2.5M right now). I'll also lose newsservers if the reports are right. And my cable modem rates were hiked (about 22%) two months ago - unlike my speed those won't be going down.
I'd switch to Verizon DSL but the price would go up another 10 bucks a month. On the other hand, they have newsservers so I might switch anyway.
I live in the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. and I'm still getting higher prices for less service - something is definitely wrong with this picture.
and it's mighty fine. Pop it into my Casio QV-4000 and get over a 1000 shots {:-D} at 1600x1200 with the "Fine" setting on. Then I can immediately eject the card and pop it into my iPAQ using the packaged PC Card adapter and hand the shots around for other people to enjoy.
Power consumption doesn't seem so bad - a little more than the normal CF cards.
Amazingly I dropped my iPAQ with the Microdrive inserted about 4 feet onto a hard floor - the PC card adapter with the drive inside ejected and skidded across the floor. I nearly died but everything is still working fine (knock on wood).
Prices are pretty good if you use pricegrabber or other similar things - picked mine up for less than US $300 at buy.com (long may it live).
A definite recommend if you need a lot of capacity in a small package and don't normally travel with a laptop
For another look at the ongoing console wars from someone who actually runs a gameshop for a living you should check out this commentary on the relative success of the Gamecube v. Xbox at the
Acts of Gord.
Well I'm using it to learn Kanji during my 1.5 hours stuck on the Metro and bus each workday. One PDA replaces a notebook and Kanji reference guide (the latter tend to be quite large and heavy). KingKanji for the IPAQ will even show me stroke order. A pad of paper can't do that. And since I have to stand most of the time, a PDA and stylus are a lot easier to juggle.
Check Pricegrabber.com. The SP250 is in stock at Outpost (as of this posting). Amazon and Circuit City have it in as well. The best place to get it is still probably Computers4Sure - sign up for their "in-stock" alert. Their stock delivery seems to be pretty rapid. They were out of stock this weekend. I placed an order for my siblings' units on Saturday, and by Monday C4S was back in stock and my SP250s had shipped. Of course now they're out of stock again;-), so YMMV.
The LCD screen on the SP250 is actually smaller than that on the SP100, but it seems bigger (i.e., there's more info available on the screen)because those bloody dancing icons have thankfully disappeared. I also have a review of the separately available SP250 LCD Remote at the Yahoo discussion group on the Rio (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/riovolt), posted under the handle "Betelbug". I definitely recommend getting the LCD remote if you get the SP250. It's great for when you're walking or exercising with the unit since you don't have to go into the CD-bag to mess with the player.
The SP250 is, IMO, the best CD-based MP3 player on the market today. The only thing better would be a harddrive jukebox in the 100GB range (I already have over 30 GB of ripped CDs so even the currently available jukeboxes aren't big enough). So I might as well burn my own mixes on CD-RWs for a fraction of the cost of the jukeboxes.
I compared both the RioVolt SP250 and the Mojo but went with the former since the Mojo:
-isn't firmware upgradable. (RioVolt is).
-doesn't come with a remote. (RioVolt comes with a standard non-LCD remote - you can also get an LCD remote that essentially mirrors the functions of the main cover LCD screen for $24 at the RioVolt website).
-doesn't come with FM (hey, I love NPR).
-can't fast-forward through MP3s.
The RioVolt is $149 at Computers4Sure.com.
Tig, who just picked up two more Rios for her siblings.
PDA as remote control? Since I don't wear my handheld at home I don't see myself whipping out the PDA to change the channel. But I imagine this could be a whole lotta fun at sports bars.
I think it really depends on the Member you're working for. I've interned up on the Hill twice (once on the Senate side for the now-retired Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), and once for a still-serving House Member (from my original home district in Ohio, also a Dem). Metzenbaum got a lot more mail than the Rep did, which only makes sense since he represented all of the State as opposed to a district of about 500,000 (a bit smaller then the average district size, I know).
Both treated issue mail the same way though. Mail was sorted and prioritized in the following order, from highest to lowest, in both offices (more or less).
1.) On-topic mail from constituents (for the Senator, from any Ohio resident, for the Rep, from district residents). "On-topic" mail translates to snail mail, either handwritten or typed, that clearly states the bill number (the official bill name is also helpful in routing the mail to the right staff member). "Constituents" also includes businesses and interest groups based in the district or State.
2.) On-topic e-mail from constituents (which was printed out) (though Metzenbaum retired before the full advent of e-mail contact with constituents, so this is based on the Rep's policy).
3.) On-topic mail from non-constituent interest groups (NRA, ACLU, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, etc.)
4.) "Non-specific" mail from constituents. "Non-specific" ranges from letters that refer to issues in general without a direct reference to a bill number or title, e.g., "current U.S. copyright law sucks", to general rants about issues or the Member, e.g., "you take away my right to carry a firearm and I'll bust your ass".
5.) Non-specific e-mail from constituents. We printed these out and made some attempt to categorize them. As with non-specific constituent snail mail, if it's too weird, e.g., "aliens are playing around with my cows at night", "immigrants are responsible for all ills in the country", it gets pitched.
6.) Non-Constituent on-topic mail re: a particular bill sponsored by the Member or being discussed in a committee that the Member belongs too. Forwarded directly on to the appropriate Member (i.e., to the Rep. or Senator that represents the writer - if you live in CA and write a letter to an OH Rep on the Appropriations Committee they don't see it).
7.) Non-Constituent on-topic e-mail - we printed it out and forwarded it to the appropriate Member. This was before e-mail really took off as a general communications medium for Congress (1997 in the Rep's office), so they may automatically forward it or discard it now, due to the sheer volume.
and a special category
8.) "Form" mail, from either constituents or non-constituents. "Form" mail consists of those little ripout cards you get sometimes in the mail from particular interest groups (NRA used to do a lot of these). Form mail from constituents would get logged (i.e., the number of cards on a particular issue would be recorded) and the constituent would get a form letter in response. Form mail from non-constituents is forwarded on to the appropriate member. There's a variation on this where people send in a letter on their own stationary or e-mail with the exact same text, obviously in response to an interest group call to do so. This type of mail, while accorded higher priority than the little cards, was still not taken as seriously as a letter from a constituent that doesn't spout back interest group boilerplate text. So if you get e-mail from EFF telling you to write in about a particular law it's probably a good idea to come up with your own way to phrase things - don't copy and paste.
Issue-related correspondence was never forwarded onto the Member without going through a staffer first. And by the way - even if a letter was marked "Personal" the interns still open it, at least in the offices I worked in. Usually the appointment secretary (equal in influence to the Legislative Director and the Chief of Staff, since they determine who gets facetime with the Member) will do a quick scan through the mail and pick out the really personal stuff (letters from family and close friends), though sometimes they would miss things and we'd get some interesting "background" on the Member.
Besides the interns, Staff eyes are always the first pairs of eyes to see any correspondence on issues. For most issues, the letters were logged (i.e., this many people want you to vote against a bill, this many for the bill; these local businesses for, these local businesses against; these interest groups for, these interest groups against), and each constituent receives the same letter re: each bill or issue (tweaked to make it more on point if necessary if there was anything uniquely personal or important about the original letter or sender - i.e. letters from Boeing's president get a more tailored response then do those from John Q. Public in Seattle). My Members would never see issue-related correspondence unless they specifically asked to see it. In that case, staff would usually give them copies of mail falling within categories 1, 2, and 3. Letters that had personal anecdotes in them, e.g., "my business has had to lay off 20 workers due to the effects of the DMCA", were more likely to be seen by the Member than those that just talked about the issues in general. They're just more interesting to read and they make great fodder for speeches and talking points.
Several things that really impressed me (I had come to Congress under the impression that individual citizens really had little influence on their Member's opinions and votes):
1.) Your opinion DOES matter to them (particularly if you write it yourself, include a personal story about how the law or issue has or would affect you, live in their District or State, and send it via snail mail), even if you're just writing on behalf of yourself. Business letters, particularly from those businesses that employed a LOT of people in the Member's state and district, did get attention (though small businesses were not ignored). Even though it seems unfair, this really makes sense (to me at least), because though businesses often represent only their own interests that are counter to those of the public in general, they employ the people who vote and live in the Member's district or state. And the people who vote and live in the district or State are the people that really matter the most to the Member. (And yes, I know that the Congress represents all of us, even those that don't vote - I'm just telling you what the reality was in the offices I worked in).
2.) Staffers are REALLY important. Members are so busy that unless they have a particular interest or need, they don't have time to research the issues they vote on. Staffers in Congress, like those in the Executive branch, usually determine what the Member sees and what they know. If you really want to talk to the people that are going to put together the position paper the Member reads, call the D.C. office of the Member in question and ask to talk to the staffer in charge of the particular topic or bill. Follow up the call with a snail mail letter.
3.) Effort matters. One of the reasons that snail mail, fairly or not, is given more credence then e-mail is because it's seen as taking more of an effort to write, print out, and send to the Member. Effort, in the Congressional staffer's mind, translates to how much a constituent cares about an issue. If they care enough to send a personally composed letter via snail mail, they REALLY care. E-mail is just too easy to write and send.
4.) If you don't live in the Member's district or State, your opinion will probably have more weight if it's delivered via an interest group - i.e., give money to the interest groups that you support so that they can afford to send or hire lobbyists to make their case to the Member in person. Even though non-constituent correspondence is forwarded onto the appropriate Member, usually that Member will not have much of an impact on the bill in question in the all-important committee process (though this varies according to the Chamber, it's a lot harder for a House Member to get the views of his constituents considered in the drafting process if he's not on the committee that's working on the bill - Senators have a easier time of it - it's just a smaller, more personal, setting). Lobbyists that represent large interest groups with lots of money are really important - it's well worth your while to make sure that the groups who advocate positions that you support can compete with big business.
In closing, I do want to say that I was also impressed with the fact that the Members I worked for (and their staff for that matter) really had a sense of serving and representing the people of their district or State. They really cared about the opinions of the people they represented and worked for. I think their sense of service and responsibility is probably shared among most members of Congress. They're not all cynical power-hungry moneygrubbers up on the Hill.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge supporter of the UN and its various agencies, WHO in particular. The UN does a lot of good works (refugee relief, cultural/environmental preservation, food source development) and raises a lot of important issues (womens' rights; racism, environment) that would otherwise be ignored by most of the developed world.
But for goodness sakes -- why did the UN still have workers in Kabul? Like the aid agencies, the UN should have pulled out all its personnel (Afghan staff included) from the major cities and other target areas after the U.S. indicated it was preparing a military response. My sympathies to their families, but honestly, those deaths were totally unnecessary.
(And for those of you who see some hidden motive in the bombing of the building that the UN workers were in, the Afghan Technical Consultancy (they clear mines), I throw up in my hands in disgust).
Well Dvorak's article was good for a laugh. The one true thing about broadband was something he didn't even mention: the slow pace of DSL/cable rollout due to political maneuverings by the big telcos and cable providers (which has delayed DSL rollout where my parents live in Ohio for years now).
Having been a cable modem user for the past six months now (Comcast@home), I do know that I will never, ever go back to dialup. I pay about twice as much as dial-up users do in my area and it's worth every penny. I'm in the process of moving and the availability of broadband access is right up there with rental cost. I will simply not move to an apartment that doesn't have cable or DSL access.
Ahem. I'm going to recycle a (very bad) joke from the Challenger disaster.
Q: What were Christa McAuliffe's last words before the space shuttle blew up?
A: "What's this red button?"
Q: What were the pilot's last words before the space shuttle blew up?
A: "Don't touch that!"
Simply put - an inanimate piece of hardware doesn't have anything close to the trouble-making potential of a walking (well floating, I guess) breathing, living human being up in space.
Apparently Tito's trained for 700 hours or so in Russia. That's around four months of 8/hour a day training, five days a week. U.S. astronauts and, I would imagine, Russian cosmonauts, train for YEARS to go up in the space shuttle after being filtered through some extremely difficult training programs. They know what to do in an emergency because they've been trained ad nauseum on procedures and because they have the physical and mental aptitude to handle crisis situations.
There's just too many things that Tito could possibly screw up on or just not know about in an emergency. Just because he's been successful in making money doesn't mean he's qualified to go to the ISS.
I can see space tourism working. Just not space tourism to a functioning scientific facility.
I've been really tempted to invest in a Tivo, particularly after hearing all the raves about how easy it makes finding and watching what you're actually interested in. The one thing that's been stopping me isn't the privacy policy per se - it appears as though Tivo is upfront about what it's selling to other people and I really like the opt-out number.
What worries me is the potential FUTURE use of my subscriber/viewing data. What guarantees do I have that Tivo won't sell my personalized information in the future, a la Toysmart? I'm not a Tivo subscriber, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but is there any guarantee that Tivo won't sell my personal individualized data if it runs into a rough financial spot or if it gets purchased by another company? Does Tivo save its viewers individualized data?
If I could only make sure that my individualized data will NEVER be used without my permission I would sign up for Tivo in a heartbeat. I don't want to commit to them and then get the same treatment I did from Amazon.
Re:Overwrought violence - Series 7
on
15 Minutes
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· Score: 1
I'm responding a bit late because I just saw your reply. I know that Bean is more prominent than Peter. The original poster said that "bean [was] secondary to the Hegemon". But if you've read the book, Bean's not. Just because the title says that Bean is the Shadow of Peter the Hegemon doesn't mean that he plays a lesser role in the story, which is what the original poster was implying.
Here's a nifty little shareware program that records the sound stream to a.wav or.mp3 file. I use it to time shift and save streaming RealAudio feeds. I believe and hope that even MS's plans to scramble the digital output after it reaches the soundcard (I wonder how? watermarking?) could be circumvented by using this program because it records the feed generated by the soundcard itself. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a way to timeshift and record RealAudio files.
"Obviously from the earlier books Peter is much more important than Bean, but again we are seeing the story from Peter's shadow's perspective.(ie Bean)."
Agreed - I was just responding to the previous poster's inaccurate comment that "...in Shadow of the Hegemon bean is secondary to the Hegemon".
This isn't a flame, but anyone who has read the book, as I have, can tell you that the book is almost entirely (4/5) written from Bean's perspective. Peter, though a main character, gets a fraction of the pages that Bean and even Petra do.
My review: Not his best work and one that continues the trend of Card recycling books he wrote years ago. His earlier stuff when he was still young and "unknown" are much better.
"The non tech workers are not fired fired that way because its cold and too humiliating."
Maybe where you worked. But in EVERY job I've ever had, from mega-bookstore IT clerk to paralegal, EVERY fired employee, non-tech or tech, from store manager to copy guy to attorney to paralegal is escorted out. It's humiliating as hell, but in a country where access to firearms is cheap and easy, and where companies' vulnerability both to lawsuits and to technological sabotage is a fact of life, it just makes sense.
Doesn't mean it isn't a horrid practice. But I understand why it's done this way.
Slashdot Mirror
Since you seem to like FPSs that require the player to actually think before pulling the trigger, I'd bet you'd love System Shock 2. I liked both Deus Ex and Half Life, but System Shock, which is a weird combo of FPS and RPG, puts them both to shame when it comes to the immersiveness of its enviroments. Also scary as hell. I can't recommend it enough.
Eh? When I cut and paste
+link:samizdat.com -site:samizdat.com
at Google, I only get 4 results.
Damn - was looking foward to that game on the PC. Did they say anything about porting FFX to PC?
Tig
...(well, actually, it's a whole series, but the first book is the best) is Nancy Kress's "Beggars in Spain". It's a very entertaining and thought-provoking story about what might happen when genetic modification for socially-desirable traits becomes more widespread (i.e., available to the wealthy).
While I myself would love the ability to survive without sleep (Kress's example) as well as perfect hearing and eyesight, genetic engineering to create more "desirable" children has the potential to make the current divide between the rich and poor seem microscopic in comparison to the gap that will emerge once the rich can create "ideal" children with a fair degree of accuracy.
Genetic tweaking of offspring will have to be made available to everyone, rich or poor, otherwise class warfare won't be just a matter of politics.
Tig
"Why is the US in such a weird situation?"
I was just about to say the same thing: why does Canada have it so good?
Is there some government subsidy for broadband rollout? Or is it the forces of market competition alone - no local DSL or cable monopolies?
My own situation: I'm in the D.C. area and I'm one of the unfortunate @Homers that just got bought by Comcast. In seven days my speeds will go down to 1.5M downstream (from ~2.5M right now). I'll also lose newsservers if the reports are right. And my cable modem rates were hiked (about 22%) two months ago - unlike my speed those won't be going down.
I'd switch to Verizon DSL but the price would go up another 10 bucks a month. On the other hand, they have newsservers so I might switch anyway.
I live in the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. and I'm still getting higher prices for less service - something is definitely wrong with this picture.
Tig
and it's mighty fine. Pop it into my Casio QV-4000 and get over a 1000 shots {:-D} at 1600x1200 with the "Fine" setting on. Then I can immediately eject the card and pop it into my iPAQ using the packaged PC Card adapter and hand the shots around for other people to enjoy.
Power consumption doesn't seem so bad - a little more than the normal CF cards.
Amazingly I dropped my iPAQ with the Microdrive inserted about 4 feet onto a hard floor - the PC card adapter with the drive inside ejected and skidded across the floor. I nearly died but everything is still working fine (knock on wood).
Prices are pretty good if you use pricegrabber or other similar things - picked mine up for less than US $300 at buy.com (long may it live).
A definite recommend if you need a lot of capacity in a small package and don't normally travel with a laptop
Tig
For another look at the ongoing console wars from someone who actually runs a gameshop for a living you should check out this commentary on the relative success of the Gamecube v. Xbox at the Acts of Gord.
Well I'm using it to learn Kanji during my 1.5 hours stuck on the Metro and bus each workday. One PDA replaces a notebook and Kanji reference guide (the latter tend to be quite large and heavy). KingKanji for the IPAQ will even show me stroke order. A pad of paper can't do that. And since I have to stand most of the time, a PDA and stylus are a lot easier to juggle.
Tig
Check Pricegrabber.com. The SP250 is in stock at Outpost (as of this posting). Amazon and Circuit City have it in as well. The best place to get it is still probably Computers4Sure - sign up for their "in-stock" alert. Their stock delivery seems to be pretty rapid. They were out of stock this weekend. I placed an order for my siblings' units on Saturday, and by Monday C4S was back in stock and my SP250s had shipped. Of course now they're out of stock again ;-), so YMMV.
The LCD screen on the SP250 is actually smaller than that on the SP100, but it seems bigger (i.e., there's more info available on the screen)because those bloody dancing icons have thankfully disappeared. I also have a review of the separately available SP250 LCD Remote at the Yahoo discussion group on the Rio (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/riovolt), posted under the handle "Betelbug". I definitely recommend getting the LCD remote if you get the SP250. It's great for when you're walking or exercising with the unit since you don't have to go into the CD-bag to mess with the player.
The SP250 is, IMO, the best CD-based MP3 player on the market today. The only thing better would be a harddrive jukebox in the 100GB range (I already have over 30 GB of ripped CDs so even the currently available jukeboxes aren't big enough). So I might as well burn my own mixes on CD-RWs for a fraction of the cost of the jukeboxes.
Tig, a.k.a. Betelbug
I compared both the RioVolt SP250 and the Mojo but went with the former since the Mojo:
-isn't firmware upgradable. (RioVolt is).
-doesn't come with a remote. (RioVolt comes with a standard non-LCD remote - you can also get an LCD remote that essentially mirrors the functions of the main cover LCD screen for $24 at the RioVolt website).
-doesn't come with FM (hey, I love NPR).
-can't fast-forward through MP3s.
The RioVolt is $149 at Computers4Sure.com.
Tig, who just picked up two more Rios for her siblings.
Just took a look at your site - those are some really beautiful pictures you've taken. Great work.
PDA as remote control? Since I don't wear my handheld at home I don't see myself whipping out the PDA to change the channel. But I imagine this could be a whole lotta fun at sports bars.
Tig
I think it really depends on the Member you're working for. I've interned up on the Hill twice (once on the Senate side for the now-retired Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), and once for a still-serving House Member (from my original home district in Ohio, also a Dem). Metzenbaum got a lot more mail than the Rep did, which only makes sense since he represented all of the State as opposed to a district of about 500,000 (a bit smaller then the average district size, I know).
Both treated issue mail the same way though. Mail was sorted and prioritized in the following order, from highest to lowest, in both offices (more or less).
1.) On-topic mail from constituents (for the Senator, from any Ohio resident, for the Rep, from district residents). "On-topic" mail translates to snail mail, either handwritten or typed, that clearly states the bill number (the official bill name is also helpful in routing the mail to the right staff member). "Constituents" also includes businesses and interest groups based in the district or State.
2.) On-topic e-mail from constituents (which was printed out) (though Metzenbaum retired before the full advent of e-mail contact with constituents, so this is based on the Rep's policy).
3.) On-topic mail from non-constituent interest groups (NRA, ACLU, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, etc.)
4.) "Non-specific" mail from constituents. "Non-specific" ranges from letters that refer to issues in general without a direct reference to a bill number or title, e.g., "current U.S. copyright law sucks", to general rants about issues or the Member, e.g., "you take away my right to carry a firearm and I'll bust your ass".
5.) Non-specific e-mail from constituents. We printed these out and made some attempt to categorize them. As with non-specific constituent snail mail, if it's too weird, e.g., "aliens are playing around with my cows at night", "immigrants are responsible for all ills in the country", it gets pitched.
6.) Non-Constituent on-topic mail re: a particular bill sponsored by the Member or being discussed in a committee that the Member belongs too. Forwarded directly on to the appropriate Member (i.e., to the Rep. or Senator that represents the writer - if you live in CA and write a letter to an OH Rep on the Appropriations Committee they don't see it).
7.) Non-Constituent on-topic e-mail - we printed it out and forwarded it to the appropriate Member. This was before e-mail really took off as a general communications medium for Congress (1997 in the Rep's office), so they may automatically forward it or discard it now, due to the sheer volume.
and a special category
8.) "Form" mail, from either constituents or non-constituents. "Form" mail consists of those little ripout cards you get sometimes in the mail from particular interest groups (NRA used to do a lot of these). Form mail from constituents would get logged (i.e., the number of cards on a particular issue would be recorded) and the constituent would get a form letter in response. Form mail from non-constituents is forwarded on to the appropriate member. There's a variation on this where people send in a letter on their own stationary or e-mail with the exact same text, obviously in response to an interest group call to do so. This type of mail, while accorded higher priority than the little cards, was still not taken as seriously as a letter from a constituent that doesn't spout back interest group boilerplate text. So if you get e-mail from EFF telling you to write in about a particular law it's probably a good idea to come up with your own way to phrase things - don't copy and paste.
Issue-related correspondence was never forwarded onto the Member without going through a staffer first. And by the way - even if a letter was marked "Personal" the interns still open it, at least in the offices I worked in. Usually the appointment secretary (equal in influence to the Legislative Director and the Chief of Staff, since they determine who gets facetime with the Member) will do a quick scan through the mail and pick out the really personal stuff (letters from family and close friends), though sometimes they would miss things and we'd get some interesting "background" on the Member.
Besides the interns, Staff eyes are always the first pairs of eyes to see any correspondence on issues. For most issues, the letters were logged (i.e., this many people want you to vote against a bill, this many for the bill; these local businesses for, these local businesses against; these interest groups for, these interest groups against), and each constituent receives the same letter re: each bill or issue (tweaked to make it more on point if necessary if there was anything uniquely personal or important about the original letter or sender - i.e. letters from Boeing's president get a more tailored response then do those from John Q. Public in Seattle). My Members would never see issue-related correspondence unless they specifically asked to see it. In that case, staff would usually give them copies of mail falling within categories 1, 2, and 3. Letters that had personal anecdotes in them, e.g., "my business has had to lay off 20 workers due to the effects of the DMCA", were more likely to be seen by the Member than those that just talked about the issues in general. They're just more interesting to read and they make great fodder for speeches and talking points.
Several things that really impressed me (I had come to Congress under the impression that individual citizens really had little influence on their Member's opinions and votes):
1.) Your opinion DOES matter to them (particularly if you write it yourself, include a personal story about how the law or issue has or would affect you, live in their District or State, and send it via snail mail), even if you're just writing on behalf of yourself. Business letters, particularly from those businesses that employed a LOT of people in the Member's state and district, did get attention (though small businesses were not ignored). Even though it seems unfair, this really makes sense (to me at least), because though businesses often represent only their own interests that are counter to those of the public in general, they employ the people who vote and live in the Member's district or state. And the people who vote and live in the district or State are the people that really matter the most to the Member. (And yes, I know that the Congress represents all of us, even those that don't vote - I'm just telling you what the reality was in the offices I worked in).
2.) Staffers are REALLY important. Members are so busy that unless they have a particular interest or need, they don't have time to research the issues they vote on. Staffers in Congress, like those in the Executive branch, usually determine what the Member sees and what they know. If you really want to talk to the people that are going to put together the position paper the Member reads, call the D.C. office of the Member in question and ask to talk to the staffer in charge of the particular topic or bill. Follow up the call with a snail mail letter.
3.) Effort matters. One of the reasons that snail mail, fairly or not, is given more credence then e-mail is because it's seen as taking more of an effort to write, print out, and send to the Member. Effort, in the Congressional staffer's mind, translates to how much a constituent cares about an issue. If they care enough to send a personally composed letter via snail mail, they REALLY care. E-mail is just too easy to write and send.
4.) If you don't live in the Member's district or State, your opinion will probably have more weight if it's delivered via an interest group - i.e., give money to the interest groups that you support so that they can afford to send or hire lobbyists to make their case to the Member in person. Even though non-constituent correspondence is forwarded onto the appropriate Member, usually that Member will not have much of an impact on the bill in question in the all-important committee process (though this varies according to the Chamber, it's a lot harder for a House Member to get the views of his constituents considered in the drafting process if he's not on the committee that's working on the bill - Senators have a easier time of it - it's just a smaller, more personal, setting). Lobbyists that represent large interest groups with lots of money are really important - it's well worth your while to make sure that the groups who advocate positions that you support can compete with big business.
In closing, I do want to say that I was also impressed with the fact that the Members I worked for (and their staff for that matter) really had a sense of serving and representing the people of their district or State. They really cared about the opinions of the people they represented and worked for. I think their sense of service and responsibility is probably shared among most members of Congress. They're not all cynical power-hungry moneygrubbers up on the Hill.
Tig
Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge supporter of the UN and its various agencies, WHO in particular. The UN does a lot of good works (refugee relief, cultural/environmental preservation, food source development) and raises a lot of important issues (womens' rights; racism, environment) that would otherwise be ignored by most of the developed world.
But for goodness sakes -- why did the UN still have workers in Kabul? Like the aid agencies, the UN should have pulled out all its personnel (Afghan staff included) from the major cities and other target areas after the U.S. indicated it was preparing a military response. My sympathies to their families, but honestly, those deaths were totally unnecessary.
(And for those of you who see some hidden motive in the bombing of the building that the UN workers were in, the Afghan Technical Consultancy (they clear mines), I throw up in my hands in disgust).
Tig
The Evil Overlord List
I'd bet the jobs that caused the carpel tunnel syndrome have mysteriously "gone away" as well.
Well Dvorak's article was good for a laugh. The one true thing about broadband was something he didn't even mention: the slow pace of DSL/cable rollout due to political maneuverings by the big telcos and cable providers (which has delayed DSL rollout where my parents live in Ohio for years now).
Having been a cable modem user for the past six months now (Comcast@home), I do know that I will never, ever go back to dialup. I pay about twice as much as dial-up users do in my area and it's worth every penny. I'm in the process of moving and the availability of broadband access is right up there with rental cost. I will simply not move to an apartment that doesn't have cable or DSL access.
Ahem. I'm going to recycle a (very bad) joke from the Challenger disaster.
Q: What were Christa McAuliffe's last words before the space shuttle blew up?
A: "What's this red button?"
Q: What were the pilot's last words before the space shuttle blew up?
A: "Don't touch that!"
Simply put - an inanimate piece of hardware doesn't have anything close to the trouble-making potential of a walking (well floating, I guess) breathing, living human being up in space.
Apparently Tito's trained for 700 hours or so in Russia. That's around four months of 8/hour a day training, five days a week. U.S. astronauts and, I would imagine, Russian cosmonauts, train for YEARS to go up in the space shuttle after being filtered through some extremely difficult training programs. They know what to do in an emergency because they've been trained ad nauseum on procedures and because they have the physical and mental aptitude to handle crisis situations.
There's just too many things that Tito could possibly screw up on or just not know about in an emergency. Just because he's been successful in making money doesn't mean he's qualified to go to the ISS.
I can see space tourism working. Just not space tourism to a functioning scientific facility.
Tigris
I've been really tempted to invest in a Tivo, particularly after hearing all the raves about how easy it makes finding and watching what you're actually interested in. The one thing that's been stopping me isn't the privacy policy per se - it appears as though Tivo is upfront about what it's selling to other people and I really like the opt-out number.
What worries me is the potential FUTURE use of my subscriber/viewing data. What guarantees do I have that Tivo won't sell my personalized information in the future, a la Toysmart? I'm not a Tivo subscriber, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but is there any guarantee that Tivo won't sell my personal individualized data if it runs into a rough financial spot or if it gets purchased by another company? Does Tivo save its viewers individualized data?
If I could only make sure that my individualized data will NEVER be used without my permission I would sign up for Tivo in a heartbeat. I don't want to commit to them and then get the same treatment I did from Amazon.
Another movie along similar lines is Battle Royale.
Unfortunately, because it's
- Japanese, and
- shows schoolkids killing other schoolkids
it'll never show in this country. Great movie though.I'm responding a bit late because I just saw your reply. I know that Bean is more prominent than Peter. The original poster said that "bean [was] secondary to the Hegemon". But if you've read the book, Bean's not. Just because the title says that Bean is the Shadow of Peter the Hegemon doesn't mean that he plays a lesser role in the story, which is what the original poster was implying.
Here's a nifty little shareware program that records the sound stream to a .wav or .mp3 file. I use it to time shift and save streaming RealAudio feeds. I believe and hope that even MS's plans to scramble the digital output after it reaches the soundcard (I wonder how? watermarking?) could be circumvented by using this program because it records the feed generated by the soundcard itself. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a way to timeshift and record RealAudio files.
http://www.highcriteria.com/faq_tr.htm
"Obviously from the earlier books Peter is much more important than Bean, but again we are seeing the story from Peter's shadow's perspective.(ie Bean)."
Agreed - I was just responding to the previous poster's inaccurate comment that "...in Shadow of the Hegemon bean is secondary to the Hegemon".
This isn't a flame, but anyone who has read the book, as I have, can tell you that the book is almost entirely (4/5) written from Bean's perspective. Peter, though a main character, gets a fraction of the pages that Bean and even Petra do.
My review: Not his best work and one that continues the trend of Card recycling books he wrote years ago. His earlier stuff when he was still young and "unknown" are much better.
"The non tech workers are not fired fired that way because its cold and too humiliating."
Maybe where you worked. But in EVERY job I've ever had, from mega-bookstore IT clerk to paralegal, EVERY fired employee, non-tech or tech, from store manager to copy guy to attorney to paralegal is escorted out. It's humiliating as hell, but in a country where access to firearms is cheap and easy, and where companies' vulnerability both to lawsuits and to technological sabotage is a fact of life, it just makes sense.
Doesn't mean it isn't a horrid practice. But I understand why it's done this way.
Tigris