Right on! When I was a kid I was stressed about friends. When I was in school I was stressed about tests. When I was working in retail I was stressed about making my quota. (I still have nightmares about that.) When I did graphics I was stressed about deadlines. When I started doing them on the computer, I was STILL stressed ahout deadlines. Now that I code for a living, I'm stressed about bugs. After the dot.com bust, I stress about my job going overseas. Since I'm getting older, I stress about retirement. Stress is part of life. Technology can be a source of stress, but so can anything else. You have to learn how to deal with it.
deeeeep breaths... deeeep breaths... feeeeeel the stress flow out...
I don't suppose that anyone cares that the reason this was enacted was the same reason that game arcades in some areas are required to have guards and cameras. It's because, in some areas, gang members like to hang out in CyberCafes where they beat people up and shoot at each other. It's not theoretical. Several people were shot in CyberCafes in Garden Grove. Do the the cafes cause crime? No, of course not. They just provide an attractive venue for it to take place. So don't shut them down, just make sure they're monitored so that people who just want to use the computers can do so without fear of harrassment or worse.
Actually, I was thinking that it looks like some of the rock outcroppings I've seen in Yosemite. Or at least how they would look after being plastered by a meteor and then sand blasted for a million years. Just because a rock has layers doesn't mean it's sedimentary. My money is on it being volcanic.
Mr. Stephenson states... "Personally, I am delighted to read extremely long books, or series of books, as long as they hold my interest."
And herein lies the rub. Cryptonomicon could have been 100 pages longer and it would still have held my interest. Quicksilver drones on and on about things that do little to support the story and which leave the reader (this reader anyway) exhausted. If I was reading a programming textbook I would expect to spend some time skimming over the dross. I don't expect to skim large sections of a work of fiction I'm reading for enjoyment. I'm not a fan of the "cult of brevity" as one look at my sagging bookshelf will attest. However, I think an author ought to move on once a point is made. Better editing would have made for a better book IMHO.
This is a very accurate review of Quicksilver. I understand that QS is meant to be a chronicle of these character's lives, and most lives are made up of a series of incidents - not neatly resolved stories. However, some indication of a resolution would be nice. What happened to Daniel on the ship? Why was Blackbeard after him? What happened to Jack? I expect that some or all of these issues will be addressed in the future volumes. The Question is: after 900+ pages, do I still care?
Also, how much detail is really necessary? The constant description of fashion and court intrigue were like being locked in a library containing nothing but "People" magazine.
At this point I'm glad (relieved?) to have finished QS and I'm ready to move on to something more entertaining. However, I know I have an obsesive need for completion and the next two volumes loom in my future like a prison sentence.
Re:You book you want to read...
on
Pirate Hunter
·
· Score: 1
Another book is "The Sweet Trade" by Elizabeth Garrett. This is a fictionalized account of the lives of Mary Read and Anne Bonny, two female pirates. While this is essentially a "bodice ripper" romance novel, it is based on real people and events and a lot of research went into it. It portrays pirates as dysfunctional sociopaths who seem much more like outlaw bikers than Errol Flynn (or Johnny Depp). The certainty of an early and violent death hangs over everything they do and drives both the "lust for life" and the cruelty that many of these people were known for.
One possible use might be to fool machine readers. I let Microsoft Word's spell checker have a go at the sample paragraph. It did much better than I expected with the shorter words, but not so well with the longer ones...
Occurring to a rscheearch at an Flings uinervtisy, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only pigment thing is that first and last letter is at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it outfit problem. This is busier we do not read every letter by it self but the word as a whole. coheir.
Hmph... When I was your age if we wanted some'em pierced we had ta use a safety pin! None of this "sterile technique" crap either - if you didn't get an infection, you weren't do'n it right! An we had to dye our hair with Kool-Aid too! (grr... durn beauty salon posers...) You think yer cool 'cause someone threatened to beat you up? I'll tell ya about getting beat up!!! (grumble... jes wait, they'll be middle aged and boring too someday...) Hey! You with the "Joy Division" t-shirt! Get away from my car!!!
I was starting to have problems with my wrists and I began to suspect that the "bouncy" feel of the keyboards I was using might be part of the problem. I remembered that KeyTronic used to make a really nice keyboard with switches for each key rather than a membrane. I went to their web site and ordered their "best" model and was really disappointed to find that it was a membrane keyboard and was just as bouncy as the ones I'd been using. I called up KeyTronic to complain and got to talking with the sales guy on the phone. I explained what I wanted and he said they didn't officially make the switched keyboards I wanted any more, but that they still had some in stock and he could could get one put together for me with the light touch key switches I wanted. I sent back the one I'd ordered and in about a week I received a new "KB101" with the best touch of any keyboard I've ever used. None of this "ergonomic" silliness, just a good old fashioned 101 key IBM style keyboard that doesn't kick back when you press the keys. My wrists never felt better!
Kudos to KeyTronic for outstanding customer service!!!
It's been a while, but as I recall freshman english was supposed to drag "victims" of high school english up to a level of proficiency where they would have the reading comprehension and writing skills necessary to survive in a college environment. If this is still the case (maybe skills are better these days - or expectations are lower), I would be careful to avoid using the technology just because it's there. The last thing they need is another distraction. I can see how a weblog might be helpful. However, some of the worst writing I've ever read has been on the internet, and some of the worst of that has been on weblogs.
...Look back at the inventors of the really useful devices (like the steam engine, the airplane, electricity, lightbulb, etc.), and see how many of these were invented in the "won't it be cool to do this!" spirit, and how many were in the "if I invent this, it will change the future!" spirit.
With the exception of electricity, all of the inventions you mention were created to make money, not to change the future. (Electricity, was invented to be a part of physics and it's inventor had no need of money.) The only invention that I can think of that was specifically created to change the future was the atomic bomb and we all know how well that turned out.
When I was a kid we had a reprint of a 1903 Sears catalog. The most interesting thing about it was the vast number of gadgets that had nothing to do with feeding people or changing lives.
Sturgeon's Law has been true since the dawn of time. Why should now be any different?
I nominate the Mars Rover! Ok, it was technically a "remote operated vehicle" and not an autonomous robot, but I don't care. It was still the coolest thing I've seen in ages.
We get a very similar weather condition here that tends to cause very high winds, very low humidity, high temperatures, lighting strikes, and arson. Our thoughts go out to those who have lost their homes and jobs because of these fires.
There's a company called Vcom3D that has a text to sign technology that's pretty amazing. It would seem that if TTY wouldn't work for some reason, this would be a much better solution than lip reading.
The problem is that the programmers who write the application know too much about the app and how the app is *supposed* to be used to be good testers. I believe that they will subconcsiously test the wrong things. You need "typical users" (less than typical, actually) to really get useful results. If the only real testing that's being done is being done by the programmers, watch out.
Clueless newbies and kids will find the problems first. The problem is that they don't report very well. What I want is testing software that tests like a ten year old, but reports like a senior programmer!
Of all the topics that come up regularly on Slashdot, this is certainly the least productive. I doubt that anyone is interested in hearing anything other than their own comfortable beliefs. For those that don't mind being challenged, here is a discussion from a radio program called The White Horse Inn entitled "How Can I Believe in Creation when Evolution is a Scientific Fact?" I expect it should make everyone unhappy, but perhaps it will make some on this forum rethink their positions - at least about Christians if not on the evolution/creation debate.
For those who might be interested in the differences between the various creation theories in the Christian community, there is also part 1 and part 2 of a debate on the subject.
Our kitchen has very little storage, and since we live in an apartment we can't do too much about that. There's no way we have room for a hand mixer AND and a KitchenAid mixer AND a food processor AND a blender AND all the other gadgets that "W" reluctantly supplies you with. So in the spirit of Ron Popiel, can you recomend one or two "essential" gadgets that slice, dice, mix, puree, and julien?
A string could be attached to her hand by a velcro band. The other end of the string could be attached to a small contact switch. This switch could control an alarm directly, or a circuit could be designed to trigger the alarm after a specified number of tugs within a specified amount of time (to reduce false alarms).
The current (july/august 2002) issue of Latitudes & Attitudes magazine has an in-depth article (sorry, no direct link) on selecting desktop computers for use on boats. The author makes a pretty good case for using a desktop system instead of a laptop (easier to upgrade, easier to service, less expensive, etc.). His choice was a Shuttle SV 25 with a big LCD monitor for watching DVDs and a good sound card for listening to MP3s. This guy is cruising (as opposed to living at a dock) so power consumption and the availability of parts and service overseas were factors in his choices. The article is very detailed with lots of suggestions and well worth checking out if you are planing on installing a computer on a boat.
This issue also contains the news that you no longer need to go to all the way Caracas for LASIK surgery in Venezuela. I know I feel better knowing that!
Slashdot Mirror
Right on!
When I was a kid I was stressed about friends.
When I was in school I was stressed about tests.
When I was working in retail I was stressed about making my quota. (I still have nightmares about that.)
When I did graphics I was stressed about deadlines.
When I started doing them on the computer, I was STILL stressed ahout deadlines.
Now that I code for a living, I'm stressed about bugs.
After the dot.com bust, I stress about my job going overseas.
Since I'm getting older, I stress about retirement.
Stress is part of life. Technology can be a source of stress, but so can anything else. You have to learn how to deal with it.
deeeeep breaths... deeeep breaths... feeeeeel the stress flow out...
"Hollywood's been predicting that the world will rot for decades. Instead, it slowly gets better and better."
...please?
Can I come and live in your world?
I'm not sure about ILM, but Pixar (Ed Catmull in particular) has won at least one of these awards for Renderman. (2001)
I don't suppose that anyone cares that the reason this was enacted was the same reason that game arcades in some areas are required to have guards and cameras. It's because, in some areas, gang members like to hang out in CyberCafes where they beat people up and shoot at each other. It's not theoretical. Several people were shot in CyberCafes in Garden Grove. Do the the cafes cause crime? No, of course not. They just provide an attractive venue for it to take place. So don't shut them down, just make sure they're monitored so that people who just want to use the computers can do so without fear of harrassment or worse.
Actually, I was thinking that it looks like some of the rock outcroppings I've seen in Yosemite. Or at least how they would look after being plastered by a meteor and then sand blasted for a million years. Just because a rock has layers doesn't mean it's sedimentary. My money is on it being volcanic.
Ah, the ignorance of youth...
Kodak had the "snapshot" market pretty much to itself for almost a century.
Mr. Stephenson states... "Personally, I am delighted to read extremely long books, or series of books, as long as they hold my interest."
And herein lies the rub. Cryptonomicon could have been 100 pages longer and it would still have held my interest. Quicksilver drones on and on about things that do little to support the story and which leave the reader (this reader anyway) exhausted. If I was reading a programming textbook I would expect to spend some time skimming over the dross. I don't expect to skim large sections of a work of fiction I'm reading for enjoyment. I'm not a fan of the "cult of brevity" as one look at my sagging bookshelf will attest. However, I think an author ought to move on once a point is made. Better editing would have made for a better book IMHO.
This is a very accurate review of Quicksilver. I understand that QS is meant to be a chronicle of these character's lives, and most lives are made up of a series of incidents - not neatly resolved stories. However, some indication of a resolution would be nice. What happened to Daniel on the ship? Why was Blackbeard after him? What happened to Jack? I expect that some or all of these issues will be addressed in the future volumes. The Question is: after 900+ pages, do I still care?
Also, how much detail is really necessary? The constant description of fashion and court intrigue were like being locked in a library containing nothing but "People" magazine.
At this point I'm glad (relieved?) to have finished QS and I'm ready to move on to something more entertaining. However, I know I have an obsesive need for completion and the next two volumes loom in my future like a prison sentence.
Another book is "The Sweet Trade" by Elizabeth Garrett. This is a fictionalized account of the lives of Mary Read and Anne Bonny, two female pirates. While this is essentially a "bodice ripper" romance novel, it is based on real people and events and a lot of research went into it. It portrays pirates as dysfunctional sociopaths who seem much more like outlaw bikers than Errol Flynn (or Johnny Depp). The certainty of an early and violent death hangs over everything they do and drives both the "lust for life" and the cruelty that many of these people were known for.
One possible use might be to fool machine readers. I let Microsoft Word's spell checker have a go at the sample paragraph. It did much better than I expected with the shorter words, but not so well with the longer ones...
Occurring to a rscheearch at an Flings uinervtisy, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only pigment thing is that first and last letter is at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it outfit problem. This is busier we do not read every letter by it self but the word as a whole. coheir.
just a coincidence?
Hmph... When I was your age if we wanted some'em pierced we had ta use a safety pin! None of this "sterile technique" crap either - if you didn't get an infection, you weren't do'n it right! An we had to dye our hair with Kool-Aid too! (grr... durn beauty salon posers...) You think yer cool 'cause someone threatened to beat you up? I'll tell ya about getting beat up!!! (grumble... jes wait, they'll be middle aged and boring too someday...) Hey! You with the "Joy Division" t-shirt! Get away from my car!!!
I was starting to have problems with my wrists and I began to suspect that the "bouncy" feel of the keyboards I was using might be part of the problem. I remembered that KeyTronic used to make a really nice keyboard with switches for each key rather than a membrane. I went to their web site and ordered their "best" model and was really disappointed to find that it was a membrane keyboard and was just as bouncy as the ones I'd been using. I called up KeyTronic to complain and got to talking with the sales guy on the phone. I explained what I wanted and he said they didn't officially make the switched keyboards I wanted any more, but that they still had some in stock and he could could get one put together for me with the light touch key switches I wanted. I sent back the one I'd ordered and in about a week I received a new "KB101" with the best touch of any keyboard I've ever used. None of this "ergonomic" silliness, just a good old fashioned 101 key IBM style keyboard that doesn't kick back when you press the keys. My wrists never felt better!
Kudos to KeyTronic for outstanding customer service!!!
It's been a while, but as I recall freshman english was supposed to drag "victims" of high school english up to a level of proficiency where they would have the reading comprehension and writing skills necessary to survive in a college environment. If this is still the case (maybe skills are better these days - or expectations are lower), I would be careful to avoid using the technology just because it's there. The last thing they need is another distraction. I can see how a weblog might be helpful. However, some of the worst writing I've ever read has been on the internet, and some of the worst of that has been on weblogs.
With the exception of electricity, all of the inventions you mention were created to make money, not to change the future. (Electricity, was invented to be a part of physics and it's inventor had no need of money.) The only invention that I can think of that was specifically created to change the future was the atomic bomb and we all know how well that turned out.
When I was a kid we had a reprint of a 1903 Sears catalog. The most interesting thing about it was the vast number of gadgets that had nothing to do with feeding people or changing lives.
Sturgeon's Law has been true since the dawn of time. Why should now be any different?
I nominate the Mars Rover! Ok, it was technically a "remote operated vehicle" and not an autonomous robot, but I don't care. It was still the coolest thing I've seen in ages.
I actually grew up near Ceres and I can say with some authority that it's a very strange planet indeed. Whether or not it has life is open to debate.
We get a very similar weather condition here that tends to cause very high winds, very low humidity, high temperatures, lighting strikes, and arson. Our thoughts go out to those who have lost their homes and jobs because of these fires.
There's a company called Vcom3D that has a text to sign technology that's pretty amazing. It would seem that if TTY wouldn't work for some reason, this would be a much better solution than lip reading.
The problem is that the programmers who write the application know too much about the app and how the app is *supposed* to be used to be good testers. I believe that they will subconcsiously test the wrong things. You need "typical users" (less than typical, actually) to really get useful results. If the only real testing that's being done is being done by the programmers, watch out.
Clueless newbies and kids will find the problems first. The problem is that they don't report very well. What I want is testing software that tests like a ten year old, but reports like a senior programmer!
Of all the topics that come up regularly on Slashdot, this is certainly the least productive. I doubt that anyone is interested in hearing anything other than their own comfortable beliefs. For those that don't mind being challenged, here is a discussion from a radio program called The White Horse Inn entitled "How Can I Believe in Creation when Evolution is a Scientific Fact?" I expect it should make everyone unhappy, but perhaps it will make some on this forum rethink their positions - at least about Christians if not on the evolution/creation debate.
For those who might be interested in the differences between the various creation theories in the Christian community, there is also part 1 and part 2 of a debate on the subject.
All three are RealAudio, about 25 minutes long.
Our kitchen has very little storage, and since we live in an apartment we can't do too much about that. There's no way we have room for a hand mixer AND and a KitchenAid mixer AND a food processor AND a blender AND all the other gadgets that "W" reluctantly supplies you with. So in the spirit of Ron Popiel, can you recomend one or two "essential" gadgets that slice, dice, mix, puree, and julien?
A string could be attached to her hand by a velcro band. The other end of the string could be attached to a small contact switch. This switch could control an alarm directly, or a circuit could be designed to trigger the alarm after a specified number of tugs within a specified amount of time (to reduce false alarms).
Best of luck. ALS is a very cruel disease.
The current (july/august 2002) issue of Latitudes & Attitudes magazine has an in-depth article (sorry, no direct link) on selecting desktop computers for use on boats. The author makes a pretty good case for using a desktop system instead of a laptop (easier to upgrade, easier to service, less expensive, etc.). His choice was a Shuttle SV 25 with a big LCD monitor for watching DVDs and a good sound card for listening to MP3s. This guy is cruising (as opposed to living at a dock) so power consumption and the availability of parts and service overseas were factors in his choices. The article is very detailed with lots of suggestions and well worth checking out if you are planing on installing a computer on a boat.
This issue also contains the news that you no longer need to go to all the way Caracas for LASIK surgery in Venezuela. I know I feel better knowing that!