I got a prepaid, reloadable MC thru my bank (BMO). Since it can only be reloaded thru online banking and my purchases happen right after loading they might not be looked at as suspicious. The only time it was 'suspended' was when someone in another country tried to charge $1200 with a balance of 58 cents.
In the early 80s the Commie 64 was targeted for kids. After you convinced your parents to spend $300-$400 on what they considered a toy, you then had to convince them to spend another $50-$60 for a piece of software.The best way to describe the result was 'fat chance'.
Hacking/copying was the only way most kids could get ANYTHING for the 64. I admit I was heavily into this. Not so much the hacking as the copying and distributing. This was the time when hackers were seen as the Robin Hoods of the early home computer age. Of course this has changed and hackers are seen in a different light now but where they came from hasn't: corporations want way too much money for the product they produce.
In the late 90s I worked a contract for Electronic Arts. During that time I could buy software that was going for $90 in the stores for $10 from the internal EA store. I know some of the $90 price is retail markup but not all.
At least EA puts out software that works unlike the MS business model of double-gouging: pay thru the nose for crap software then do it again when the 'upgrade' (corrections & fixes) are released.
It isn't a religiosity gene, it's more like a gullibility gene or a genetically caused weakness of the mind. I have found that those who devoutly believe in fairy stores and invisible people can be easily convinced of the most absurd things as long as you talk to them in that level, convincing tone that Obi-won pulled off so well in Star Wars.
Also, some people can be hypnotized, others can't. Difference: strength of mind.
I took COBOL in the Late 90s as a 'filler course'. Would love to help except for 2 things:
1. I kissed the computer industry good-bye when I realized a lot of people were being promoted because they went to church with the boss (or hung out with him) rather than actually having any talent (or competence)
2. I live in Van-sterdam and probably wouldn't be allowed into the US.
Someone FINALLY clues into what I have said to my peer group (and been sound berated for) It's about bloody time parents started taking responsibility for their offspring.
I have always maintained that kids blaming their anti-social behavior on video games, music, movies, etc was a cop-out, a way of deflecting blame and reducing their possible heavy sentence.
I grew up watching the Big Bunny & Roadrunner Show. The most violent cartoons of their time (not to mention Tom & Jerry) and I don't go around smacking people with a 2X4. I was also seriously seriously teased throughout my grade school life. I also thought about grabbing a gun and blowing away more than a few of my fellow students. I didn't because.......
MY PARENTS TOOK AN INTEREST IN RAISING ME!!!!!!!
Parenting is not just having offspring but also raising that offspring to be a productive member of society wether they be ditch-digger, philosopher, politician or scientist. It doesn't matter what they become as long as they contribute to society rather than interfering with it.
I know this is kind of a rant/lecture but I care about human-kind. (Plus I've have a couple of Canadian-strength beers)
I went to BCIT in 1990 and it sounds like the courses haven't changed, just the titles of them seem to have been visited by the 'goodspeak' guys of George Orwell's 1984.
I gave up on day-school programs that were taught by professonal teachers that had an interest in a specific field and went to night-school (also at BCIT) and learned from people who worked in a specific field for X number of years and who knew how to teach.
My degree took about 3 years and I had a 9-5 style job during this. I learned current used practices rather than history which is what most of your classes sound like.
I recieved a Programming Certification from BCIT. I also recieved a Network Specialist Diploma from CDI College.
I'm not sure if CDI is in the USA but they are throughout Canada. They don't have set time classes or lectures. You work through courses at your own pace with a combo of reading and hands on work. There are instructors around to help you and answer questions, some of these are previous students.
This was the ONLY school where I got a job in the field I was studying BEFORE I graduated.
PCs didn't have reset switches until MS Windows came along and if we're talking about multiple users I'd rather have an OS that was based on one rather than one 'fudged' from a single user system
This has been argued soooooooo many times that it is now a waste of time and energy.
(I know I'm ranting and I sound like Mr.-Perfect-I know-everything)
Here it is in simple terms: Microsoft and it's programmers are in it for the money. Linux programmers are in it for the prestige of having a quality piece of software out there with their name on it.
I've used Micosoft OSs since 1982. All I have seen is slip-shod software at an exorbitant price and the audacity of charging more for 'fixes' and 'upgrades' that should have been part of the original product.
Potential errors in adding 'leap seconds' is causing screw-ups in computer systems. The main cause is sloppy programming so eliminating them makes everything better. Don't have to worry about it for 500-600 years.
Ask yourself who benefits from this. The only answer I can come up with is software programmers, specifically OS programmers (programs usually read what time the OS is reporting). Which OS manufacturer has the most clout with the US gov.? Which company is reported to have the most liquid cash? To take a quote from Mr. Moore: Who your Daddy?
but they better come with an option to turn certain things off. I HATE auto-complete and auto-suggest wastes my time rather than conserve it. (Mainly because no one (or thing) has the remotest clue as to what I'm talking about!)
I can think of nothing else that would piss off a computer user more than a PC looking at what it's owner is doing then going off on a tangent of it's own choosing. May the powers that be help you if you visit a techstore's website! You may find you're constantly going to it or other websites offering cool computer hardware. I'm sure slashdotters who are parents are thinking about their 5-year-old dragging them to every toystore within 50 miles all the while yelling 'I want that! I want that!'
Conclusion:IMO an 'antisipation' computer would be falling all over itself and most likely using a lot of processor time computing what you're going to do next rather than doing what you want. Besides, why build computers along this line in the first place? I used the child-computer reference previously for a reason: a computer is a child. It does not know what to do until someone tells it. When you want a kid to do something you don't stand there and hope he/she understands what you mean based on previous behaviour. (For example: you delete some files you haven't accessed in a month on a certain date. According to the article you won't have to do that again because the computer will delete all the files you haven't accessed when the 'deletion' aniversary date comes around. So much for your archived files!) You give computers (and kids) instructions, you communicate! As soon as you start cutting back on the computer/user communication, the user becomes less in control. The computer is making the decisions for you. (You don't even have to think!)
Forget where you want to go today, I, the big box on your desk, will tell you where you where you're going. Not just today but for the rest of you life...
but Google was able to tell my city was in Canada. MSN figured I had misspelled my city and offered me a bunch of selections from the US. It wouldn't even recognize the province until I TOLD it it was in Canada.
(At least it was able to figure out I was talking about Earth without having to supply the spacial coordinates!)
Point(s) well taken but I think the main point is completely missed: It's only a game.
Someone (can't remember who) said 'I'd rather have my child watch two people having sex rather than two people trying to kill each other'.
Final point: If an individual cannot understand that video games are NOT a true representation of life and are DEFINATELY not a suggestion of appropriate behaviour, they have no business owning or playing this game. By giving it an Adults Only rating it is implied that everyone under the age of majority is socially immature to the point of not knowing how to interact and so mentally incompetent that they will take to heart ANY suggestion that comes along regardless of the source.
Everyone can see this for what it is: a bunch of freaking out over something that is really nothing more than using common sense. This however, didn't stop a woman from collecting a hefty settlement because her coffee was too hot...
First off, the game was originally GRAND THEFT AUTO. Stealing cars. That's it. Once guns, sex, predatory violence and outright gangland warfare came into it, the basic premise became more of an afterthought. The title doesn't really work anymore. (Kinda like if Half-Life was titled 'Scientific Discovery')
Second, all this so-called 'moral disgust' and the re-rating it to Adults Only instead of Mature leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. The same vile putridness that I haven't tasted since the legal ramblings that surrounded 2-Live Crew.
These ideas generally come from pathetic, simple-minded (and close-minded)individuals who are scared of their own bodies. Mature means just that: Mature. IMHO this means 14 years and above. I think this age because if you haven't learned that things you see/do in a video game are things you shouldn't necessarily do in real life by this time, then your parents have failed miserably raising you as a member of society.
My final point (IMO) is the biggest: they're freaking out about a simulated sex scene but not about the violence, criminal content and (the biggie) buildings being blown up!
Isn't terrorism supposed to be the plague of the 20th/21st century?
I installed the toolbar from Google Toolbar homepage and all it did was cause Firefox to run reallly really slow. It wouldn't even open until I killed a script that was running.
It's the poverty line and the amount of people living under it.
The movies released to DVD also goto VHS. Plus all the tapes being sold for around $1 coupled with the fact that anyone can buy a player for 50 cents from a pawn shop (just ask if they have any to get rid of. When DVD players became affordable to the lower middle class these pawn shops were stuck with thousands of VHS players)
True, with VHS you don't get the special behind-the-scenes videos and the bloopers and such but, for 90% of the movies out there the 'special stuff' isn't really that important
I haven't read the entire proposal but if this levy is for iPods purchased in the Netherlands, what's to stop an individual from going to another country to get one and bringing it back? I don't know if there are declaration taxes (such as the ones in place at the US-Canada border) but if there are, it'll probably be less than paying this levy.
'The Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of the time they call The Coming of The Great White Handkerchief, are small blue creatures with more than fifty ARMS each, who are therefore unique in being the only race in history to have invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel. '
Slashdot Mirror
I got a prepaid, reloadable MC thru my bank (BMO). Since it can only be reloaded thru online banking and my purchases happen right after loading they might not be looked at as suspicious. The only time it was 'suspended' was when someone in another country tried to charge $1200 with a balance of 58 cents.
In the early 80s the Commie 64 was targeted for kids. After you convinced your parents to spend $300-$400 on what they considered a toy, you then had to convince them to spend another $50-$60 for a piece of software.The best way to describe the result was 'fat chance'.
Hacking/copying was the only way most kids could get ANYTHING for the 64. I admit I was heavily into this. Not so much the hacking as the copying and distributing. This was the time when hackers were seen as the Robin Hoods of the early home computer age. Of course this has changed and hackers are seen in a different light now but where they came from hasn't: corporations want way too much money for the product they produce.
In the late 90s I worked a contract for Electronic Arts. During that time I could buy software that was going for $90 in the stores for $10 from the internal EA store. I know some of the $90 price is retail markup but not all.
At least EA puts out software that works unlike the MS business model of double-gouging: pay thru the nose for crap software then do it again when the 'upgrade' (corrections & fixes) are released.
It isn't a religiosity gene, it's more like a gullibility gene or a genetically caused weakness of the mind. I have found that those who devoutly believe in fairy stores and invisible people can be easily convinced of the most absurd things as long as you talk to them in that level, convincing tone that Obi-won pulled off so well in Star Wars.
Also, some people can be hypnotized, others can't. Difference: strength of mind.
but couldn't tuition and student fees be considered payment for renting university equipment/resources?
Never really got into NetHack. Played more Moria. I originally encountered it on a mainframe (to give you an idea of it's age!)
I took COBOL in the Late 90s as a 'filler course'. Would love to help except for 2 things:
1. I kissed the computer industry good-bye when I realized a lot of people were being promoted because they went to church with the boss (or hung out with him) rather than actually having any talent (or competence)
2. I live in Van-sterdam and probably wouldn't be allowed into the US.
Someone FINALLY clues into what I have said to my peer group (and been sound berated for) It's about bloody time parents started taking responsibility for their offspring.
I have always maintained that kids blaming their anti-social behavior on video games, music, movies, etc was a cop-out, a way of deflecting blame and reducing their possible heavy sentence.
I grew up watching the Big Bunny & Roadrunner Show. The most violent cartoons of their time (not to mention Tom & Jerry) and I don't go around smacking people with a 2X4. I was also seriously seriously teased throughout my grade school life. I also thought about grabbing a gun and blowing away more than a few of my fellow students. I didn't because.......
MY PARENTS TOOK AN INTEREST IN RAISING ME!!!!!!!
Parenting is not just having offspring but also raising that offspring to be a productive member of society wether they be ditch-digger, philosopher, politician or scientist. It doesn't matter what they become as long as they contribute to society rather than interfering with it.
I know this is kind of a rant/lecture but I care about human-kind. (Plus I've have a couple of Canadian-strength beers)
I went to BCIT in 1990 and it sounds like the courses haven't changed, just the titles of them seem to have been visited by the 'goodspeak' guys of George Orwell's 1984.
I gave up on day-school programs that were taught by professonal teachers that had an interest in a specific field and went to night-school (also at BCIT) and learned from people who worked in a specific field for X number of years and who knew how to teach.
My degree took about 3 years and I had a 9-5 style job during this. I learned current used practices rather than history which is what most of your classes sound like.
I recieved a Programming Certification from BCIT. I also recieved a Network Specialist Diploma from CDI College.
I'm not sure if CDI is in the USA but they are throughout Canada. They don't have set time classes or lectures. You work through courses at your own pace with a combo of reading and hands on work. There are instructors around to help you and answer questions, some of these are previous students.
This was the ONLY school where I got a job in the field I was studying BEFORE I graduated.
PCs didn't have reset switches until MS Windows came along and if we're talking about multiple users I'd rather have an OS that was based on one rather than one 'fudged' from a single user system
This has been argued soooooooo many times that it is now a waste of time and energy.
(I know I'm ranting and I sound like Mr.-Perfect-I know-everything)
Here it is in simple terms: Microsoft and it's programmers are in it for the money. Linux programmers are in it for the prestige of having a quality piece of software out there with their name on it.
I've used Micosoft OSs since 1982. All I have seen is slip-shod software at an exorbitant price and the audacity of charging more for 'fixes' and 'upgrades' that should have been part of the original product.
Potential errors in adding 'leap seconds' is causing screw-ups in computer systems. The main cause is sloppy programming so eliminating them makes everything better. Don't have to worry about it for 500-600 years.
Ask yourself who benefits from this. The only answer I can come up with is software programmers, specifically OS programmers (programs usually read what time the OS is reporting). Which OS manufacturer has the most clout with the US gov.? Which company is reported to have the most liquid cash? To take a quote from Mr. Moore: Who your Daddy?
Was originally an Astronomy Picture Of the Day. (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050720.html) This is a good site or backgrounds!
P.S. For other good/neat pics goto http://epod.usra.edu/archive.php3 (Earth Science Picture Of the Day)
but they better come with an option to turn certain things off. I HATE auto-complete and auto-suggest wastes my time rather than conserve it. (Mainly because no one (or thing) has the remotest clue as to what I'm talking about!)
I can think of nothing else that would piss off a computer user more than a PC looking at what it's owner is doing then going off on a tangent of it's own choosing. May the powers that be help you if you visit a techstore's website! You may find you're constantly going to it or other websites offering cool computer hardware. I'm sure slashdotters who are parents are thinking about their 5-year-old dragging them to every toystore within 50 miles all the while yelling 'I want that! I want that!'
Conclusion:IMO an 'antisipation' computer would be falling all over itself and most likely using a lot of processor time computing what you're going to do next rather than doing what you want. Besides, why build computers along this line in the first place? I used the child-computer reference previously for a reason: a computer is a child. It does not know what to do until someone tells it. When you want a kid to do something you don't stand there and hope he/she understands what you mean based on previous behaviour. (For example: you delete some files you haven't accessed in a month on a certain date. According to the article you won't have to do that again because the computer will delete all the files you haven't accessed when the 'deletion' aniversary date comes around. So much for your archived files!) You give computers (and kids) instructions, you communicate! As soon as you start cutting back on the computer/user communication, the user becomes less in control. The computer is making the decisions for you. (You don't even have to think!)
Forget where you want to go today, I, the big box on your desk, will tell you where you where you're going. Not just today but for the rest of you life...
but Google was able to tell my city was in Canada. MSN figured I had misspelled my city and offered me a bunch of selections from the US. It wouldn't even recognize the province until I TOLD it it was in Canada.
(At least it was able to figure out I was talking about Earth without having to supply the spacial coordinates!)
Point(s) well taken but I think the main point is completely missed: It's only a game.
Someone (can't remember who) said 'I'd rather have my child watch two people having sex rather than two people trying to kill each other'.
Final point: If an individual cannot understand that video games are NOT a true representation of life and are DEFINATELY not a suggestion of appropriate behaviour, they have no business owning or playing this game. By giving it an Adults Only rating it is implied that everyone under the age of majority is socially immature to the point of not knowing how to interact and so mentally incompetent that they will take to heart ANY suggestion that comes along regardless of the source.
Everyone can see this for what it is: a bunch of freaking out over something that is really nothing more than using common sense. This however, didn't stop a woman from collecting a hefty settlement because her coffee was too hot...
First off, the game was originally GRAND THEFT AUTO. Stealing cars. That's it. Once guns, sex, predatory violence and outright gangland warfare came into it, the basic premise became more of an afterthought. The title doesn't really work anymore. (Kinda like if Half-Life was titled 'Scientific Discovery')
Second, all this so-called 'moral disgust' and the re-rating it to Adults Only instead of Mature leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. The same vile putridness that I haven't tasted since the legal ramblings that surrounded 2-Live Crew.
These ideas generally come from pathetic, simple-minded (and close-minded)individuals who are scared of their own bodies. Mature means just that: Mature. IMHO this means 14 years and above. I think this age because if you haven't learned that things you see/do in a video game are things you shouldn't necessarily do in real life by this time, then your parents have failed miserably raising you as a member of society.
My final point (IMO) is the biggest: they're freaking out about a simulated sex scene but not about the violence, criminal content and (the biggie) buildings being blown up!
Isn't terrorism supposed to be the plague of the 20th/21st century?
I've installed it, tried Google News articles, my local online whitepages and a few travel sites: nothing
No frame, no map, not even a script error. Any ideas?
I installed the toolbar from Google Toolbar homepage and all it did was cause Firefox to run reallly really slow. It wouldn't even open until I killed a script that was running.
Conversly, I installed the Google Toolbar from http://googlebar.mozdev.org/ and absolutly no problems at all...
It's the poverty line and the amount of people living under it.
The movies released to DVD also goto VHS. Plus all the tapes being sold for around $1 coupled with the fact that anyone can buy a player for 50 cents from a pawn shop (just ask if they have any to get rid of. When DVD players became affordable to the lower middle class these pawn shops were stuck with thousands of VHS players)
True, with VHS you don't get the special behind-the-scenes videos and the bloopers and such but, for 90% of the movies out there the 'special stuff' isn't really that important
(Sorry if that shocked anyone)
I haven't read the entire proposal but if this levy is for iPods purchased in the Netherlands, what's to stop an individual from going to another country to get one and bringing it back? I don't know if there are declaration taxes (such as the ones in place at the US-Canada border) but if there are, it'll probably be less than paying this levy.
Who says it has to be a cheek swab sample?
(squats over an envelope)
As big as a dimple on a pimple on a fly's left nut.
'The Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of the time they call
The Coming of The Great White Handkerchief, are small blue creatures
with more than fifty ARMS each, who are therefore unique in being the
only race in history to have invented the aerosol deodorant before
the wheel. '
to see what grade of 'gold' this is...
http://www.tvtome.com/list/all.html
Very extensive site for tv shows animated or otherwise includes episode lists & guides as well as all people accociated with them.
It's not my site but one I consult regularly.