Agreed! I haven't personally owned a computer for about three years, but with Starcraft 2 coming and now Fallout 3... I think I'll cave in and get one.
Insightful comment. America probably isn't a Christian nation. Here's a quote from the Christian bible: "'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49) Everyone knows the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but few know why God destroyed them. Instead of reading the bible to find out, they make up stories about them being gay even coining words like 'sodomy.' Surprise world! Forgetting the poor and needy is sodomy!
#3 Them: "Promiscuous behavior is immoral because it creates unintentional babies."
We consider promiscuous behavior to be immoral because we believe it hurts people, not because of unintentional babies. "We" generally consider babies to be a good thing intentional or not and life in general to be a moral good. God commanded, "Be fruitful and multiply." That's one of the reasons why "we" generally don't support abortion. The ways in which promiscuous behavior hurts people can be debated, but birth control is definitely not justification for promiscuous behavior.
Maybe a ranking system would fix this. If users are attached to a name, credit card and/or billing address their identity can be fairly well tracked forcing their rank to be attached to their real identity. A couple of measures could be taken to ensure low skill players still have fun.
1. Players can only make money in games 'ranked' at their level or higher and can only lose money in games lower than their rank. They can join a low rank game just to make people suffer, but it will cost them in the end.
2. Likewise, players in the never-ending games which jump into games and start seriously '0wn1ng' everyone can be automatically shifted to higher ranking games the next time they re-spawn.
In my city(a moderately large city in the midwest) there are cameras at high crime intersections with blue strobe lights attached. It is within a 2 minute walk from my front door. These effectively say, "We're watching over you" without the nicety of "for your protection." These cameras are not for traffic regulation, but are for drug dealers, prostitutes and "The Terrorists." It's a little disconcerting, but I've already grown accustomed to it. Though, I think I might prefer the airship to the blue strobe.
Computer Science is NOT programming. Programming is a tool for computer scientists similar to how arithmetic is a tool for mathematicians. I have a B.S. in computer engineering and I am constantly confused for being a computer technician or computer programmer. I can fill both roles, but computer engineering is much broader than both. In the same way, mathematics and computer science are much broader than arithmetic or programming.
Somehow... I've never worked at a business where the IT department makes final decisions on hiring or firing. So... somehow... I doubt you've had anyone fired... but if you have it shouldn't have been for working around your proxy but rather what they were doing once around it.
Cellulose is pretty interesting substance. I've been brewing over the last few months and found the same thing, had the same idea. When my brew was exposed to air thick slimy circles grew on top. At first I expected them to be like gelatin, easily torn and smushed, but they proved remarkably strong. A sharp knife was even hardly useful. Very strange. Anyone who wants to try, get some yeast and boil up some super-saturated sugar water. Wait until the sugar water cools to room temperature(even a little warm to the touch might kill the yeast) and put yeast in. I found that too much exposure to air didn't produce much cellulose, but that a bottle with a small opening produced rather thick slabs(1/2" thick). If I were going to do it again I would try a 2-liter soda bottle filled just up until the top begins to curve with a paper towel rubber-banded over the opening. Then just wait. The cellulose will be the same diameter as the bottle itself, so larger containers will make larger pieces.
This article brings to mind one thought. Suppose the mechanism for global-warming is a natural(i.e. not caused by industrialization) and self stabilizing process. Currently, the process stabilizes at a point amiable to life on earth. Suppose then that we change the system(thousands of lenses, etc...) reducing the energy the earth absorbs from the sun by 1% or more. Where then would the process stabilize? It's hard to know. Maybe the whole earth will end up like Hawaii, but maybe it will end up like Antarctica. Then we wouldn't have enough energy(Mainly from food, since nearly all life on Earth is solar powered.) to reverse the changes we've made. I'm all for being cautious by reducing emissions, dependence on oil and such, but it seems just as irresponsible to take such aggressive and irreversible steps against a phenomenon we don't know exists for sure or if global-warming does exist, the details of how it works or un-works itself.
My fear is that the whole world seems to be in massive group-think mode regarding global-warming, which, in my opinion, has historically been a Bad Thing(tm).
If it does the opposite of 1st person shooters, and makes vision worse, we all may have no choice but to go home and game for a few hours to repair any damage done to our eyes throughout the day.
What if that employee fills a role that no one in the office has skills to fill? It seems you can treat low-skill uncritical employees that way, but for highly skilled highly specialized employees I think it's a bad policy to treat them so poorly. If they are professionals they will do their job and help you transition in a replacement. I'd like to know what your business does where you can afford to treat professionals in such a manner.
This might have a slightly better ring to it:
"What are we doing tonight, Brain?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky... no-longer-necessary surgery on your central nervous system!"
Just a thought.
I looked through some of his past posts, but only one that I looked at seemed to provide a link to his website. Maybe I didn't look well enough, but the accusation is not immediately and obviously true(even if it is true). The thing I did notice is that he is notorious. For good or for bad, he doesn't seem to mind much. If he is trying to generate revenue, he's certainly low-key enough that he seems to be a legitimate./ user to the editors and admins. His website didn't seem to terrible ad-infested either. I can't blame him for shamelessly seeking a little bit of publicity on Slashdot in order to make some money with his blog. If I were I blogger I might try the same thing. Anyway, I suspect his question might have been legitimate, even if redundant.
It seems he's continued to think about it(Some/.ers do that from time to time). Also, he wasn't complaining, but rather asking a question. Perhaps he posted the question hoping someone more knowledgeable than himself would have answers or that the mass of people reason/. would come up with reasonable answers. That's a heck of a reason to post a story on a discussion board, for discussion.
I imagine it can be burned off or simply ruined with a higher powered radio frequency burst of the same frequency used to read it. The question is, how high power and what damage would that do to the vict...*cough* I mean person?
Always? I think not. Recall the awesome world of "Lawnmower Man," SO REALISTIC! 3D graphics had serious limitations in the past and for some time required quite a large sum of money and time to render moderately complex models.
It also assumes that devaluing the American dollar is always bad thing. For Americans who have saved, it is trouble, but it increases exports at the same time providing jobs.
One would imagine that eventually any particular product would essentially be the same price anywhere in the world. So essentially, all currency should come to be equal value. For the American dollar apparently it means it must be devalued a bit.
It's interesting the attitude Slashdotters take on various video games. In every other case, video games don't have an effect on children, but in this case the game is influencing hatred and intolerance. GTA includes violence towards prostitutes and innocent bystanders, but that couldn't possibly have an effect on children... It's the parents responsibility right? Why is this game different? By the way, I am a fundamentalist Christian. I find both the book series and the game to be offensive, but is it really _worse_ than GTA or Bully or any of the other potentially offensive games that have come out? Is it really better to depict people being killed for no reason whatsoever than to depict them being killed for having some philosophical or theological difference from the protagonist?
When did poetry and, I add, philosophy become irrational? Not all rational humans are atheistic and amoral. Simply because science isn't able to understand a clear distinction between humankind and the rest of nature does not mean it's nonexistent in reality, just perhaps physically undefinable. Man seems to be within nature and yet somehow outside of nature as well. His intellect has enabled him to do things which he himself recognizes as "unnatural." Those things span all realm of thought and action, from writing poetry, modifying genetics to building skyscrapers and airplanes. Men for one reason or another do not tend to accept the idea that they are merely an interesting chemical phenomenon, but that they are that(physical, chemical) plus something else. It is clear that both by his ability to reflect upon himself and reject degrading himself within his mind to meaninglessness, that he has set himself apart from nature. This is not irrational, but it is perhaps unexplainable.
But then even before $FOO date comes he comes and tells you he needs (X, Y, Z, 1, 2, 3) by $BAR date and then you're $FOO$BARed, because you're now in "goto hell." Sometimes project managers need to be told "no," or if they won't accept it tell them "yes" and let the schedule run over. The advantage of the latter is that by that time(scheduled end of project) they have invested enough money that they usually aren't willing to scrap the whole project and it ends up being done correctly the first time. A second advantage is that the manager gains a realistic view of how long a project takes which he can use in the next scheduling phase.
The whole point of the quote is that often times what we call "facts" are really assumptions. Assumptions are necessary for survival, they're our best guess at what's going on when we don't have all the facts. However, we need to be prepared to modify our assumptions(make a better guess) as we learn new facts. The quote is an insightful statement on a common flaw of reasoning. I for one like it and will use it.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed! I haven't personally owned a computer for about three years, but with Starcraft 2 coming and now Fallout 3... I think I'll cave in and get one.
Insightful comment. America probably isn't a Christian nation. Here's a quote from the Christian bible: "'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49) Everyone knows the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but few know why God destroyed them. Instead of reading the bible to find out, they make up stories about them being gay even coining words like 'sodomy.' Surprise world! Forgetting the poor and needy is sodomy!
I'm probably one of "them" from point 3:
#3 Them: "Promiscuous behavior is immoral because it creates unintentional babies."
We consider promiscuous behavior to be immoral because we believe it hurts people, not because of unintentional babies. "We" generally consider babies to be a good thing intentional or not and life in general to be a moral good. God commanded, "Be fruitful and multiply." That's one of the reasons why "we" generally don't support abortion. The ways in which promiscuous behavior hurts people can be debated, but birth control is definitely not justification for promiscuous behavior.
Maybe a ranking system would fix this. If users are attached to a name, credit card and/or billing address their identity can be fairly well tracked forcing their rank to be attached to their real identity. A couple of measures could be taken to ensure low skill players still have fun.
1. Players can only make money in games 'ranked' at their level or higher and can only lose money in games lower than their rank. They can join a low rank game just to make people suffer, but it will cost them in the end.
2. Likewise, players in the never-ending games which jump into games and start seriously '0wn1ng' everyone can be automatically shifted to higher ranking games the next time they re-spawn.
3. Profit & fun!
In my city(a moderately large city in the midwest) there are cameras at high crime intersections with blue strobe lights attached. It is within a 2 minute walk from my front door. These effectively say, "We're watching over you" without the nicety of "for your protection." These cameras are not for traffic regulation, but are for drug dealers, prostitutes and "The Terrorists." It's a little disconcerting, but I've already grown accustomed to it. Though, I think I might prefer the airship to the blue strobe.
Computer Science is NOT programming. Programming is a tool for computer scientists similar to how arithmetic is a tool for mathematicians. I have a B.S. in computer engineering and I am constantly confused for being a computer technician or computer programmer. I can fill both roles, but computer engineering is much broader than both. In the same way, mathematics and computer science are much broader than arithmetic or programming.
Somehow... I've never worked at a business where the IT department makes final decisions on hiring or firing. So... somehow... I doubt you've had anyone fired... but if you have it shouldn't have been for working around your proxy but rather what they were doing once around it.
Cellulose is pretty interesting substance. I've been brewing over the last few months and found the same thing, had the same idea. When my brew was exposed to air thick slimy circles grew on top. At first I expected them to be like gelatin, easily torn and smushed, but they proved remarkably strong. A sharp knife was even hardly useful. Very strange. Anyone who wants to try, get some yeast and boil up some super-saturated sugar water. Wait until the sugar water cools to room temperature(even a little warm to the touch might kill the yeast) and put yeast in. I found that too much exposure to air didn't produce much cellulose, but that a bottle with a small opening produced rather thick slabs(1/2" thick). If I were going to do it again I would try a 2-liter soda bottle filled just up until the top begins to curve with a paper towel rubber-banded over the opening. Then just wait. The cellulose will be the same diameter as the bottle itself, so larger containers will make larger pieces.
This article brings to mind one thought. Suppose the mechanism for global-warming is a natural(i.e. not caused by industrialization) and self stabilizing process. Currently, the process stabilizes at a point amiable to life on earth. Suppose then that we change the system(thousands of lenses, etc...) reducing the energy the earth absorbs from the sun by 1% or more. Where then would the process stabilize? It's hard to know. Maybe the whole earth will end up like Hawaii, but maybe it will end up like Antarctica. Then we wouldn't have enough energy(Mainly from food, since nearly all life on Earth is solar powered.) to reverse the changes we've made. I'm all for being cautious by reducing emissions, dependence on oil and such, but it seems just as irresponsible to take such aggressive and irreversible steps against a phenomenon we don't know exists for sure or if global-warming does exist, the details of how it works or un-works itself.
My fear is that the whole world seems to be in massive group-think mode regarding global-warming, which, in my opinion, has historically been a Bad Thing(tm).
If it does the opposite of 1st person shooters, and makes vision worse, we all may have no choice but to go home and game for a few hours to repair any damage done to our eyes throughout the day.
/. at home.
/. at work.
We all know no one would read
I admit it, I only read
What if that employee fills a role that no one in the office has skills to fill? It seems you can treat low-skill uncritical employees that way, but for highly skilled highly specialized employees I think it's a bad policy to treat them so poorly. If they are professionals they will do their job and help you transition in a replacement. I'd like to know what your business does where you can afford to treat professionals in such a manner.
Maybe the other option would involve nearly hitting & exploding or energy weapons such as a laser.
This might have a slightly better ring to it: "What are we doing tonight, Brain?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky... no-longer-necessary surgery on your central nervous system!" Just a thought.
I looked through some of his past posts, but only one that I looked at seemed to provide a link to his website. Maybe I didn't look well enough, but the accusation is not immediately and obviously true(even if it is true). The thing I did notice is that he is notorious. For good or for bad, he doesn't seem to mind much. If he is trying to generate revenue, he's certainly low-key enough that he seems to be a legitimate ./ user to the editors and admins. His website didn't seem to terrible ad-infested either. I can't blame him for shamelessly seeking a little bit of publicity on Slashdot in order to make some money with his blog. If I were I blogger I might try the same thing. Anyway, I suspect his question might have been legitimate, even if redundant.
It seems he's continued to think about it(Some /.ers do that from time to time). Also, he wasn't complaining, but rather asking a question. Perhaps he posted the question hoping someone more knowledgeable than himself would have answers or that the mass of people reason /. would come up with reasonable answers. That's a heck of a reason to post a story on a discussion board, for discussion.
No, I'm still new here...
I imagine it can be burned off or simply ruined with a higher powered radio frequency burst of the same frequency used to read it. The question is, how high power and what damage would that do to the vict...*cough* I mean person?
I wouldn't mind also creating such a game. Perhaps there are other ./ers who are interested.
Always? I think not. Recall the awesome world of "Lawnmower Man," SO REALISTIC! 3D graphics had serious limitations in the past and for some time required quite a large sum of money and time to render moderately complex models.
It also assumes that devaluing the American dollar is always bad thing. For Americans who have saved, it is trouble, but it increases exports at the same time providing jobs. One would imagine that eventually any particular product would essentially be the same price anywhere in the world. So essentially, all currency should come to be equal value. For the American dollar apparently it means it must be devalued a bit.
It's interesting the attitude Slashdotters take on various video games. In every other case, video games don't have an effect on children, but in this case the game is influencing hatred and intolerance. GTA includes violence towards prostitutes and innocent bystanders, but that couldn't possibly have an effect on children... It's the parents responsibility right? Why is this game different? By the way, I am a fundamentalist Christian. I find both the book series and the game to be offensive, but is it really _worse_ than GTA or Bully or any of the other potentially offensive games that have come out? Is it really better to depict people being killed for no reason whatsoever than to depict them being killed for having some philosophical or theological difference from the protagonist?
When did poetry and, I add, philosophy become irrational? Not all rational humans are atheistic and amoral. Simply because science isn't able to understand a clear distinction between humankind and the rest of nature does not mean it's nonexistent in reality, just perhaps physically undefinable. Man seems to be within nature and yet somehow outside of nature as well. His intellect has enabled him to do things which he himself recognizes as "unnatural." Those things span all realm of thought and action, from writing poetry, modifying genetics to building skyscrapers and airplanes. Men for one reason or another do not tend to accept the idea that they are merely an interesting chemical phenomenon, but that they are that(physical, chemical) plus something else. It is clear that both by his ability to reflect upon himself and reject degrading himself within his mind to meaninglessness, that he has set himself apart from nature. This is not irrational, but it is perhaps unexplainable.
It's most likely a defense mechanism for the snail.
But then even before $FOO date comes he comes and tells you he needs (X, Y, Z, 1, 2, 3) by $BAR date and then you're $FOO$BARed, because you're now in "goto hell." Sometimes project managers need to be told "no," or if they won't accept it tell them "yes" and let the schedule run over. The advantage of the latter is that by that time(scheduled end of project) they have invested enough money that they usually aren't willing to scrap the whole project and it ends up being done correctly the first time. A second advantage is that the manager gains a realistic view of how long a project takes which he can use in the next scheduling phase.
The whole point of the quote is that often times what we call "facts" are really assumptions. Assumptions are necessary for survival, they're our best guess at what's going on when we don't have all the facts. However, we need to be prepared to modify our assumptions(make a better guess) as we learn new facts. The quote is an insightful statement on a common flaw of reasoning. I for one like it and will use it.