This article actually goes into the science and statistics of people who are like you - who are risk-averse and might actually end up worse because of it. It's an interesting read, even if you don't agree with it - sort of goes along the same vein that the only way to get the most out of life is to not do the things that you do;)
Define mainstream. Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band is considered to be one of the best drummers alive. As my father said, "What do you mean that's only one guy playing the drums?!"
Wellbutrin is a godsend. It attacks depression and I also hear goes after ADD symptoms. I fear to think of where I'd be right now if I hadn't drug my ass to a psychiatrist and had this prescribed.
Hell yes, stay off the web. This has to be my number one time waster. I sometimes just find myself mindlessely hitting refresh every 5 seconds or so on/. or some other news site before I realize that I'm zoned out. There's just too much information on the web out there, you can easily get lost in it. Found myself reading a factoid list of Earth info (wow, I didn't know the longest mountain chain was under the Atlantic!) for an hour the other day while I should have been doing other things. Only use the web if you really need to (or anything else that allows deviation, for that matter).
There seems to be a new breed of "popups" that are actually just flash animations that come up on the screen over whatever you're reading. A lot of the more respectable companies doing this usually have a pixel-wide "Close" button to stop it, but some come to the middle of the page and WILL NOT GO AWAY. They're designed to look like a "FUI" with the windows buttons and all, but since it's a flash ad, even clicking the 'x' or 'close window' that they usually put up there will bring up the website. The only way out of it is to just forget about the site or reload and hope it doesn't get generated again. Or turn off flash:) A lot of people don't or won't know how to, though.
Amen to that...umpires are so much more than just calling strikes. My father's an ump right now for the city until the tech world magically turns around. Remember Sammy Sosa's corked bat a couple of weeks ago? Think a machine's going to do that? Or throw out those responsible for a fight? Or watch base tags? Hell, it's the spirit of baseball to have these guys around. Their jobs aren't going to go anywhere.
But I don't think that at least for me it will ever replace it. Microsoft has the tendency to overload with information on a page...check out msn.com to see what I mean. While some might like that, I view it as a distraction. Everyone says on here that a major point of Google's appeal is that it's lean - very unobtrusive graphics and ads, and I agree. I don't think Microsoft will replicate that without looking like a ripoff.
I would definitely keep my eye on it, though. Microsoft can prove to be innovative sometimes...and competition is always a good thing. I'm rooting for Google in the meantime.
Sorry, haven't seen Reloaded. Considering the other replies, though, it looks like you're on the junior high train for how...elegantly you put your own reply.
There's a lot of truth to that...depression has a fun time in my family. I just take meds, but he does things like EverCrack...so you're right on that point. But I'm sure there are many others who have the potential to be more than sitting in front of the comp.
I think we may be headed towards a self-imposed matrix. I forget what game it is, maybe MOO2, that had virtual reality simulators for your citizens. Think Minority Report too, I think it was, where you can act out your every fantasy for a fee. What if technology like that becomes commonplace, where your every whim can be created and seem absolutely real? What kind of person would you be then? I can already see a kind of wilting away of life through my father, who just comes home from work and plays Everquest until it's time to go to bed. It truly is like he's leading a completely different life that he would much rather pay attention to than the real thing.
I'm not Luddite by any means; I fully welcome every new technology that comes around. But I wonder if our descendants will merely plug themselves into a fantasy world that for all purposes, is real...and what kind of person would be able to resist it and continue advancement in the real world.
No kidding. My father went from 90k/yr 16 months ago at Worldcom to working as an umpire for the city and using foodstamps, without a tech job. But that's the state of the tech industry. Take money where you can get it.
Young SAT takers...the only advice I have to give concerning this test is take it over and over and over and over. Dot it so much that you memorize the spoken instructions. Take the PSATs as often as you can. Then take the SAT as often as your budget will let you.
I went to a magnet high school that seemed to be little more than a college-entry factory and we prepped for the SAT from the first day of my freshman year. The more familiar you become with it, the better you'll be at it.
Also, from what I understand, your score is variable on how everyone else did as well (kind of like a curve in a class of many thousands). So depending on when you take it, your score could go up. My 4 PSAT/SAT scores were: 1240, 1260, 1340, 1420. Screw people who say you can't jump up like that - just keep taking the thing and you have a good chance of at least marginally increasing your score.
Oh, and get there on time too. Flying around town at 90mph to go back and get your ticket was^H^H^His not fun.
Will be modded offtopic, but it's a worthy sacrifice.
I have a '94 Accord with 203,000 miles on it, and the only damned thing wrong with it is the power antenna got stuck in the "up" position because my brother kept yanking on it. No mechanical problems whatsoever other than regular maintenance-related issues. Wonderful, wonderful car, and please don't compare it to an American automaker that couldn't make something that ran well over 100,000 miles if their industry depended on it (which it doesn't because people think a new car every 5 years is somehow necessary).
There seems to be a common agreement on having overrated the ability of machines to talk back to users
This is a strong point. Now I don't have to worry about getting yelled at by my girlfriend and my computer, which the two combined occupy 95% of my time.
I'm 17 right now, and basically my father has told me that he considers me an adult, with all the responsibilities that come with it. He'll finance my education, but it's up to me to make mature decisions about what to do with my life. He's been like this all through high school, and guess what...I've never gotten drunk, done drugs, or had sex (despite numerous opportunities). I think that treating a kid like a mature adult makes them a mature adult. Just my 2 cents.
Currently, I attend a Liberal Arts Magnet public school in Georgia. Ever since 9th grade english, we have been nailed with SAT prep analogies, vocab, all that jazz. I was encouraged to take Latin for the root words (not to mention in "Foundations," a mandatory class for freshman, covered Latin roots). Math classes drill on probable SAT problems. Heck, we even have Math and Verbal SAT prep CLASSES. By the time I graduate at the end of this year, I will have taken 5 AP courses (2 English, 2 history, 1 math).
What's the point of all this? To impress the hell out of colleges. Before I hit high school, I was in a rural area school system that, for lack of a better term, F-ing sucked. There were kids there that were incredibly bright, but trapped in a educational system that just wanted to pass their kids. Because I was drilled constantly in my new high school, I scored a 1420 on my SATs (not even in the top 25 of my school). From an old friend, I heard that the highest SAT score of my old school was 1250.
People, that kid with the 1250 was far above me in mental aptitude. I remember him as being quicker than myself in class. Due to my new elitist school, I was able to beat around the system a little better.
Maybe the SATs aren't biased, but there's something screwed up when kids with the same intelligence as others in another school system can be hindered by poor teachers. Maybe they should take this into consideration, as well.
I don't have the textbook anymore because it was last year, but in our psychology class, we learned that the optimal chunks of data in a series to memorize is 7. Now think about current phone number digits.
Looks like all of us will be messing with our Palm Pilots a little more often if this goes through.
Our teacher hasn't even TAKEN a C++ class. All she does is sit there and assign problems from the book -- no input whatsoever. She's the school keyboarding teacher.
A couple other students and I have been the main teachers of the class -- running around helping out people, explaining that yes, they have to declare a variable before they use it, and yes, they have to give it a value at some point.
I found it too much of a stretch to put in my original post, but to mention another matter like this...I'm in a C++ class at my high school. At the beginning of the semester, the teacher had us all give a speech on a career of our choice. Naturally, half the class chose computer programmer, and all of them liked to focus on the salary part of the presentation...$50K starting out! A Godsend!
Now, as the semester is almost over, I'd say more than three-quarters of those gave up that idea REAL quick. It just proved too much of a stretch for their AOLified computer minds to handle. The class of 30 only has 3 or 4 students that are still keeping up, with only 2 that are hard-core about it (myself included - coding a text battleship game as we speak...er, type;)
Anyway, I wish that every high school had a class like mine, where wannabe CS majors could cut their teeth, and realize that it's not all easy stuff before they decide on a path that will eventually lead them astray.
I can agree with the "hiring losers" part. I worked at a small ISP (600-700 customers) from 10th grade to this past summer, and I suppose I was good, because they didn't fire me at any point. Here recently, I had an @home cable modem installed (the other provider sucked, no flames;) at my house. The techs were great at doing what they were trained to do...they got up on the cable line, ran cable to my house, through my wall, set up my computer, and all.
Then it didn't work.
When I started to load up simple programs such as winipcfg and did a couple pings, not only were they "amazed" at "dis kid's typuhn" (50-60 wpm), but asked what I was doing. After a couple minutes, I had the problem fixed (a computer on the HUB didn't like the cable modem) by tweaking some drivers...something they were boggled by.
It makes me wonder how many people are entering the "computer industry" because of the lure of supposed fortune.
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the Singularity or similar arguments that delve into nanotechnology and how it can advance the human race and all that jazz. Take a look at this FAQ here for a little of the "are we in a dream" scenario stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
This article actually goes into the science and statistics of people who are like you - who are risk-averse and might actually end up worse because of it. It's an interesting read, even if you don't agree with it - sort of goes along the same vein that the only way to get the most out of life is to not do the things that you do ;)
Define mainstream. Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band is considered to be one of the best drummers alive. As my father said, "What do you mean that's only one guy playing the drums?!"
Wellbutrin is a godsend. It attacks depression and I also hear goes after ADD symptoms. I fear to think of where I'd be right now if I hadn't drug my ass to a psychiatrist and had this prescribed.
Hell yes, stay off the web. This has to be my number one time waster. I sometimes just find myself mindlessely hitting refresh every 5 seconds or so on /. or some other news site before I realize that I'm zoned out. There's just too much information on the web out there, you can easily get lost in it. Found myself reading a factoid list of Earth info (wow, I didn't know the longest mountain chain was under the Atlantic!) for an hour the other day while I should have been doing other things. Only use the web if you really need to (or anything else that allows deviation, for that matter).
There seems to be a new breed of "popups" that are actually just flash animations that come up on the screen over whatever you're reading. A lot of the more respectable companies doing this usually have a pixel-wide "Close" button to stop it, but some come to the middle of the page and WILL NOT GO AWAY. They're designed to look like a "FUI" with the windows buttons and all, but since it's a flash ad, even clicking the 'x' or 'close window' that they usually put up there will bring up the website. The only way out of it is to just forget about the site or reload and hope it doesn't get generated again. Or turn off flash :) A lot of people don't or won't know how to, though.
Amen to that...umpires are so much more than just calling strikes. My father's an ump right now for the city until the tech world magically turns around. Remember Sammy Sosa's corked bat a couple of weeks ago? Think a machine's going to do that? Or throw out those responsible for a fight? Or watch base tags? Hell, it's the spirit of baseball to have these guys around. Their jobs aren't going to go anywhere.
But I don't think that at least for me it will ever replace it. Microsoft has the tendency to overload with information on a page...check out msn.com to see what I mean. While some might like that, I view it as a distraction. Everyone says on here that a major point of Google's appeal is that it's lean - very unobtrusive graphics and ads, and I agree. I don't think Microsoft will replicate that without looking like a ripoff.
I would definitely keep my eye on it, though. Microsoft can prove to be innovative sometimes...and competition is always a good thing. I'm rooting for Google in the meantime.
This is why I've always believed mutts make the best dogs - they aren't badly inbred.
Sorry, haven't seen Reloaded. Considering the other replies, though, it looks like you're on the junior high train for how...elegantly you put your own reply.
But thanks.
No, really.
There's a lot of truth to that...depression has a fun time in my family. I just take meds, but he does things like EverCrack...so you're right on that point. But I'm sure there are many others who have the potential to be more than sitting in front of the comp.
I think we may be headed towards a self-imposed matrix. I forget what game it is, maybe MOO2, that had virtual reality simulators for your citizens. Think Minority Report too, I think it was, where you can act out your every fantasy for a fee. What if technology like that becomes commonplace, where your every whim can be created and seem absolutely real? What kind of person would you be then? I can already see a kind of wilting away of life through my father, who just comes home from work and plays Everquest until it's time to go to bed. It truly is like he's leading a completely different life that he would much rather pay attention to than the real thing.
:)
I'm not Luddite by any means; I fully welcome every new technology that comes around. But I wonder if our descendants will merely plug themselves into a fantasy world that for all purposes, is real...and what kind of person would be able to resist it and continue advancement in the real world.
But maybe I'm just ranting
No kidding. My father went from 90k/yr 16 months ago at Worldcom to working as an umpire for the city and using foodstamps, without a tech job. But that's the state of the tech industry. Take money where you can get it.
Young SAT takers...the only advice I have to give concerning this test is take it over and over and over and over. Dot it so much that you memorize the spoken instructions. Take the PSATs as often as you can. Then take the SAT as often as your budget will let you.
I went to a magnet high school that seemed to be little more than a college-entry factory and we prepped for the SAT from the first day of my freshman year. The more familiar you become with it, the better you'll be at it.
Also, from what I understand, your score is variable on how everyone else did as well (kind of like a curve in a class of many thousands). So depending on when you take it, your score could go up. My 4 PSAT/SAT scores were: 1240, 1260, 1340, 1420. Screw people who say you can't jump up like that - just keep taking the thing and you have a good chance of at least marginally increasing your score.
Oh, and get there on time too. Flying around town at 90mph to go back and get your ticket was^H^H^His not fun.
Will be modded offtopic, but it's a worthy sacrifice.
I have a '94 Accord with 203,000 miles on it, and the only damned thing wrong with it is the power antenna got stuck in the "up" position because my brother kept yanking on it. No mechanical problems whatsoever other than regular maintenance-related issues. Wonderful, wonderful car, and please don't compare it to an American automaker that couldn't make something that ran well over 100,000 miles if their industry depended on it (which it doesn't because people think a new car every 5 years is somehow necessary).
So not only is it an April Fool's joke, but it's a dupe?
Punchlines are never as great the second time around.
-chris
Guess he hasn't played Deus Ex either. Hands-down one of the best storylines in a game, RPG, FPS, or otherwise.
-chris
There seems to be a common agreement on having overrated the ability of machines to talk back to users
This is a strong point. Now I don't have to worry about getting yelled at by my girlfriend and my computer, which the two combined occupy 95% of my time.
"You moron! Windows XP is SO not my look!"
I'm 17 right now, and basically my father has told me that he considers me an adult, with all the responsibilities that come with it. He'll finance my education, but it's up to me to make mature decisions about what to do with my life. He's been like this all through high school, and guess what...I've never gotten drunk, done drugs, or had sex (despite numerous opportunities). I think that treating a kid like a mature adult makes them a mature adult. Just my 2 cents.
Currently, I attend a Liberal Arts Magnet public school in Georgia. Ever since 9th grade english, we have been nailed with SAT prep analogies, vocab, all that jazz. I was encouraged to take Latin for the root words (not to mention in "Foundations," a mandatory class for freshman, covered Latin roots). Math classes drill on probable SAT problems. Heck, we even have Math and Verbal SAT prep CLASSES. By the time I graduate at the end of this year, I will have taken 5 AP courses (2 English, 2 history, 1 math).
What's the point of all this? To impress the hell out of colleges. Before I hit high school, I was in a rural area school system that, for lack of a better term, F-ing sucked. There were kids there that were incredibly bright, but trapped in a educational system that just wanted to pass their kids. Because I was drilled constantly in my new high school, I scored a 1420 on my SATs (not even in the top 25 of my school). From an old friend, I heard that the highest SAT score of my old school was 1250.
People, that kid with the 1250 was far above me in mental aptitude. I remember him as being quicker than myself in class. Due to my new elitist school, I was able to beat around the system a little better.
Maybe the SATs aren't biased, but there's something screwed up when kids with the same intelligence as others in another school system can be hindered by poor teachers. Maybe they should take this into consideration, as well.
From any of 26 zones in the house, Ellison can use color touch screens to activate his 350-disc CD jukebox...
High-tech, my butt. He doesn't even use MP3s.
I don't have the textbook anymore because it was last year, but in our psychology class, we learned that the optimal chunks of data in a series to memorize is 7. Now think about current phone number digits.
Looks like all of us will be messing with our Palm Pilots a little more often if this goes through.
Our teacher hasn't even TAKEN a C++ class. All she does is sit there and assign problems from the book -- no input whatsoever. She's the school keyboarding teacher.
A couple other students and I have been the main teachers of the class -- running around helping out people, explaining that yes, they have to declare a variable before they use it, and yes, they have to give it a value at some point.
Hoo boy.
I found it too much of a stretch to put in my original post, but to mention another matter like this...I'm in a C++ class at my high school. At the beginning of the semester, the teacher had us all give a speech on a career of our choice. Naturally, half the class chose computer programmer, and all of them liked to focus on the salary part of the presentation...$50K starting out! A Godsend!
;)
Now, as the semester is almost over, I'd say more than three-quarters of those gave up that idea REAL quick. It just proved too much of a stretch for their AOLified computer minds to handle. The class of 30 only has 3 or 4 students that are still keeping up, with only 2 that are hard-core about it (myself included - coding a text battleship game as we speak...er, type
Anyway, I wish that every high school had a class like mine, where wannabe CS majors could cut their teeth, and realize that it's not all easy stuff before they decide on a path that will eventually lead them astray.
I can agree with the "hiring losers" part. I worked at a small ISP (600-700 customers) from 10th grade to this past summer, and I suppose I was good, because they didn't fire me at any point. Here recently, I had an @home cable modem installed (the other provider sucked, no flames ;) at my house. The techs were great at doing what they were trained to do...they got up on the cable line, ran cable to my house, through my wall, set up my computer, and all.
Then it didn't work.
When I started to load up simple programs such as winipcfg and did a couple pings, not only were they "amazed" at "dis kid's typuhn" (50-60 wpm), but asked what I was doing. After a couple minutes, I had the problem fixed (a computer on the HUB didn't like the cable modem) by tweaking some drivers...something they were boggled by.
It makes me wonder how many people are entering the "computer industry" because of the lure of supposed fortune.
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the Singularity or similar arguments that delve into nanotechnology and how it can advance the human race and all that jazz. Take a look at this FAQ here for a little of the "are we in a dream" scenario stuff.