MEGA Spoiler ahoy... shame there's no LJ-Cutalike.
There's one problem with this; you're assuming that after Shinji rejects the hive-mind one-critter one-soul aspect, that all the bodies will 'eventually reform'. We don't have any proof of that; if anything, we have proof to the contrary.
We see the 'sea' of LCL lapping at the shores... and Shinji. And Asuka, of all people. Remember, Rei warned Shinji that he had to be able to picture himself alone in order to get what he wanted, and he couldn't do that. And in those last two minutes he rolls over, strangles her, whines, and that's the end of the movie.
Looks to me like Shinji, as usual screwed up and pretty much doomed humanity in the process.
Boy, did I feel lousy after staying up all night to catch an early showing of the movie at Katsucon 2. Nothing like wandering around in an alienated daze in a dealer's room...
Anyway, I've got big philosophical contentions with the whole one-soul merging thing... I don't likes it, it denies us what really makes us human. Regardless of whether humanity is self destructive or not, we've got the right to live as we've always lived without some old guys in SOUND-ONLY monoliths deciding we're better off completely losing our sense of self because this will supposedly make things waiwai better... but that's another topic, I guess.
Future Crew reassembled, broke up, faded out, tried to get into the games biz, etc. Their site has been offline for awhile.
Fortunately the demo scene lives on; pouet hosts links to nearly every demo in existence across multiple platforms. And to keep us on topic, most demos nowadays are 3-D accelerated. It's become less a game of "What techie tricks can you do?" and more a game of "How artistically can you use the technology?". There's some visually striking demos being made nowadays, and not just because they have shadebobs or glenz cubes.
If the Internet is supposed to free musicians to produce without the middlemen of publishers with unfair contracts, just imagine what it can do to writers to avoid contracts like these.
I've been an online-only amateur author for the last ten years (here's my current project, in fact). I do all my work on the web, which gives me huge advantages in terms of reader feedback, online draft publishing to get comments and criticism, and as much graphical/multimedia extras as I feel are appropriate to each product. I haven't felt the need to seek out a publisher yet -- the Internet gives me a much richer experience as an author in every respect except for money and mass-audience exposure.
It makes good sense. Writing is a form of content that's perfect for a text based web medium, and it runs up lower bandwidth charges than indie musicians manage with MP3 libraries. There are no distribution costs whatsoever except for bandwidth; all you really need to spend major money on is promotional muscle. The cons are the typical "I want a real solid paper thing in my hands" attitudes, but print on demand services would take care of that.
I'll admit, right now, there is no economic model to make it happen. Gotta be practical about it; I couldn't start making the kind of money off my work that I could be by publishing traditionally. But I see the potential there, and once a good system is developed, this could be the way to free authors from the constraints of publishers once and for all.
I'm not sure about this -- not that I refuse to pay, since I understand the web won't survive on a free-for-all basis forever. What I don't like is the fact that you pay for a number of pageviews, not for a period of time or some other flat rate.
Flat rate pricing has two advantages: simplicity, and comfort. It's simple to say 'Okay, no ads for a year for $x.' No need to count the pages you visit, or wonder if reloads count, or if changing the threshold settings to go from 500 posts to 15 is going to count as an add-free counter item.
Comfort, because I hate nervously watching a meter deplete and trying to optimize my web viewing habits in order to make sure I don't run out. When you say 82% of folks are covered... don't forget that this site caters to the hardcore sorts that participate the most and are likely to fall into the 18% that have to worry. I've never counted my page views, so I can't even tell if I fit that 18%.
And all things considered, I'd rather browse with javascript off and image loading off than worry about depleting my ad-free views. It's less hassle. Which means less profit for you, but that's free market in action... maybe when you add those value-added feature you're thinking about we'll be getting somewhere.
Okay, so the idea here is that once PCs drop to a certain level of cost, the idea of paying Microsoft a huge sum goes out the window. Two problems. One, which has already been noted here, is that Microsoft can just lower their own prices.
But two, and most importantly: What ELSE are you going to install on that computer if not Windows? Linux? Then we get into the 'is Linux ready for the desktop' thing. It doesn't matter if Microsoft charges your first born son, if they're the only viable, usable OS available for Joe Q. User to check their e-mail and read the web with, they'll still get payment even with ultra-cheap computers.
Of course, if some OS steps up to the plate to replace them for free/cheap AND the PCs drop in cost, then we've got something. Perhaps OEMs will start developing their own user-friendly, stripped down blends of Linux to ship with new PCs?
This could be what we need to migrate linux newbies away from Windows... if it delivers on all the promises.
Example. I am a Win95 trained junkie. Certainly not a clueless one who just uses it to e-mail grandman, but my sumo was insufficent to deal with Linux. Last year, at the advice of a friend, I got a second hard drive and installed Debian onto it alongside my Windows disk. Configuration was a nightmare; it took multiple visits by my Linux guru uncle to get the networking going, THEN we had to try and get Xwindows to deal with my video card, and we never got sound to work properly. In the end, the wholly alien system and configuration woes (try as I might, I couldn't get package manager tamed) led me to disuse the Linux side of my computer, and eventually format over the disk so I could have more Win 9x storage.
But this... this could be what I want. Something that's simple without sacrificing power. It doesn't have to clone windows as long as it's not like herding cats trying to get the thing to work properly. Every feature I could want -- autodetecting of video and sound, installation of various key applications, graphical frontend for nearly everything you could need to do -- is here.
So what's the catch? Has anybody worked with this thing? A second opinion is always key. Does it have weaknesses, stumbling blocks that would leave a newbie floundering around in icy water without a life preserver? I might very well join the Linux hordes if this distro meets my needs in a fairly comfortable manner.
Five years ago, I'd have said no way, this is unfeasible, people would not contribute their storage space and CPU cycles to someone else.
But now, with server-obfuscated peer to peer systems like AudioGalaxy, it could be possible. Imagine selling people on the idea of a 'universal public hard drive', where all you do is search for a file, then copy it over locally without actually knowing where/who it came from. I doubt there'd be any objections, given how convenient and 'anonymous' it would be. Sacrificing a share of your own hard drive space for cacheing files you might not be interested in would be a small price to pay for that.
That's one resource down; do the same thing for CPU cycles (provided we have a killer app reason for people to need more cycles, given high speed processors of today) and other computing resources and the rest will fall in place.
I doubt it'll go as far as this proposal, at leastnot for a LONG time, but the unthinkable is already becoming the thinkable in some areas.
While I doubt all retail will die, I can see certain branches of it dying.
For instance, I used to be such a regular customer at EBX that the sales staff knew me by name. I do appreciate that personal relationship and the customer service... but why should I spend 40 minutes driving to and from the mall (which is now farther away thanks to moving a few miles to a new house) when I can go Click, Click, Boom and have the same game delivered to me two days later? The wait is worth the convenience. I haven't been to EBX in awhile, as a result. Amazon gets my buys.
Packaged goods, things that don't change in quality (CDs, books, movies, consumer items, and such) are simply easier to obtain over the web. No need to inspect the box; reviews and opinions are online and the item you buy is the same as the item anyone else would buy. The Yes/No buy decision doesn't need to be compounded by the hassles of real-world consumer retail.
Actually, don't avoid the movie. It's an interesting look at exactly the sort of hypochondria this guy has -- while the character in the movie SEEMS to have intense allergic reactions to everyday chemicals, near the end of the movie it's made... not CLEAR, exactly, but definitely implied as a theme of the film that it's more psychological. The chem-free camp she goes to feels awkwardly wrong, her new lifestyle is so sterile that she's barely alive, etc...
Not totally off topic. This movie is actually good footage to study the issue. Even if you feel the issue is crackpots and tinfoil hats, it illustrates what can lead to this sort of reaction.
That's the creedo I used whenever I explained things to my internet-newbie friends and family a few years ago. If it exists online, it exists in a free format and you shouldn't pay for it. Video game news? Plenty of fan sites. Web hosting? If you're just putting up photos of your dog there are free hosting sites. And now, search...
My concern is this: Is there going to be a time when it WON'T be available for free? Already free resources are buckling under the weight of their hosting fees and the popularity that drives their bandwidth through the roof. Free sites are no longer considered totally stable. Some have corporate allies -- IMDB, for instance. Some just buckle.
Whether the answer is subscriptions or micropayments or allies or whatever, the question is what will free sites do in order to stay afloat? Or will the future of the internet have a few stable commercial services and lots of hobby sites that yo-yo in and out of existence?
Internet cafe has now turned into a modern day, high tech arcade. They should not have to do anything different from a arcade owner.
Reasonable -- except arcade owners are subjected to the same kind of nonsense. Don't forget the Indiapolis case of trying to ban access to violent video games in arcades.
Every arcade in my hometown has only stayed open six months to a year before it was closed down due to 'gang violence' and 'community standards'. It's the standard knee jerk reaction to any popular teen hangout (other than The Mall, which is protected by tradition and capitalism). This is not something common to Internet Cafes.
It's so hard to find a good game of skeeball in the Washington area... this is why I'm glad we have places like Dave & Busters, which is an adult-oriented arcade designed for the business class sorts.
Which, IMHO, is one of the reasons gov't isn't looking to hire outta work.com folks. The gov't will invest heavily in the long term growth of its employees, and does not want to see that expensive training walk out the door the first time something glittery comes along. They are looking for stable team players, not mercenaries.
A good point; I probably should have emphasized the 'IF' and the 'AND'. I don't see it being very likely that I'll find a sexy job that's as stable as my government job, so I'm probably not changing careers -- not unless the office seriously relocates or some other factor pushes me out.
There was a lot of concern when I was taking this job that I might want to move on rather quickly after getting the training, but I'm in it for at least the 'Medium Haul' if not the Long Haul. That's the kind of expectation you need to make going into a job like this; it looks bad on a resume to take a career-style job and then leave soon after, anyway.
Except that in the thrill of 'the gamble' you stand a chance at losing. And losing means going broke, losing your home, your savings, eating dog food, etc.
Given the amount of lives that crashed in the dot-com bust, something that balances out the thrill AND the stability is probably a better option. All thrill and all stability are not good things (Although all stability has the perk of not eating you in the end, just annoying you.) If not government, at least a job which has a commonly accepted chance of survival.
Any have any suggestions of tech-centered industries that aren't going to curl up and die once someone studies their zero-profit business process too hard? Alternatives are always useful.
I'd like to second this. I got VERY lucky... just coming out of college and looking for my first job, I NEEDED something in the area, stable, and with decent pay. I found a job as a webmonkey (with training opportunities for database programming and multimedia) for the FDA's Center For Devices and Radiological Health.
The practical upshot is that I got lots of great training via the Killing-- err, the Learning Tree, expanded my skills tremendously, started out with a fairly eeeh salary but am now living quite comfortably... and most importantly, I did all of right at the start of the.Com Crash.
If I had jumped in on the corporate entry level (not that there were many jobs for someone who previously thought Cold Fusion was a physics thing) I'd probably have bounced around a couple jobs, maybe had to move once or twice, and definitely not had the ability to save money and get nice and financially stable. While others were auctioning off their Aeron chairs to afford cold cans of beans, I was sittin' pretty on my cheapo Ikea office stool (with homemade padding).
There are drawbacks. One, you don't start out with the Hat Made Of Money. If you can live 'comfortably' and likely single without needing a ferrari, this is not a huge hurdle. Two, if you're young, a lot of government employees are not. I'm the youngest guy in my office by about ten years. Three, no, the work is not very sexy. I view work as a means to an end (end meaning "$$$" which I spend on things I WANT to do). If a sexier job with the same amount of stability pops up, I'll go for it, but until then make mine federal.
I mailed to send in my official complaint, and it bounced back with a bizarre routing error.
So much for that interview I read where they predicted they'd get a very small amount of complaints... of course, we did unleash a thundering herd of/.'ers on it, so it's to be expected.
I've been using My Yahoo for awhile now to get my news, but the corporate bias is pretty evident; stories always seem to have a twinge of flavor in favor of the dollar. Whenever I see 'evil cyberterrorist arrested' I typically hit slashdot to get the REAL story.
The popups Yahoo uses are even getting past my disabled Javascript lately. If I have to deal with headlines as ads on top of bias and popups, well... bye!
Does anybody know of a news portal type site which goes EASY on this sort of thing? Ads where they ought to be rather than ads all over the place, including in the news headlines themselves? Is there an acceptable 'mainstream' news outlet that's not as invasive as this?
.NET is dangerous. It's a security disaster waiting to happen. I don't want to use it if I can avoid it...
See last sentence. WILL we be able to avoid it, realistically? A lot of/.'ers might be able to, but folks who still have to live and work with Microsoft products in the workplace or even at home and want to get things done online might not have a choice. If online shopping services convert over to.NET or god forbid my bill payment services, it's going to be very difficult to avoid having to make that Passport account and start using.NET.
So, taking the hypothetical stance that one would need to eventually get registered to use.NET services they can't avoid using, what can be done to protect yourself and your data? Are there any.NET developers out there who can comment on how much risk is involved and how it can be minimized beyond 'Don't use it'?
The real danger here lies in how wiretapping is shifting from being an activity you need to actively monitor via an external resource, and is becoming a self-contained object you drop into the suspect's house and fetch later. The latter you only need a court order. The former you need a full warrant.
Until a judge figures out that loggers and tappers are basically the same thing with two different methods of planting and unplanting, this ruling will stick, unfortunately. And once voice recorders are small enough to be plantable devices without any active collection needed (or video recorders, or combination video and audio and keystroke and data packet sniffer and so on) then little black boxes can sneak into anyone's home on thin suspicion.
My best friend Josh has a home theatre setup driven by his computer. It easily surpasses any home theatre I've seen to date.
The video is being handled by a projector mounted on the back wall that takes the computer monitor's feed and projects that nine feet tall. This means we get extremely high resolution, stable video images using techie terms I can only begin to understand. The image is sharper and more defined than any TV based image I've seen including HDTV, and certainly larger; IMAX movies are a real treat.
The audio is routed optically to a DTS sound system with speakers all over the room. Theatre quality audio, not miniplugs converted to RCA jacks.
Lately I haven't been going to the movies very often, not when I get a better moviegoing experience a few months later when the DVD comes out and it's screened at Bijoux de Josh.
So it's not really about whether computers CAN be the central figure in a home theatre setup. They can. The question is, how far are you willing to go to supply quality components that work with that computer?
Here's my project for December: turning my Dreamcast into a sweet arcade cabinet. Build a wooden frame or buy an empty one and use your dreamcast + cheap TV for an excellent combo. I'm estimating the whole project will come in under $300 bucks.
I've seen MAME projects which use PCs and other gear, but this is the best value. You can burn a MAME emulator along with some roms on a bootable disc, you could buy Atari's Greatest Hits for 20... or if you like modern games, there are lots of arcade-straightforward titles like Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 that make great pickupandplay games for a few minutes.
Just because the system didn't make it in the market, don't write it off; the potential for hacking, modding, or simply playing quality games is high. And by the end of the year I'll have a standup version of Crazy Taxi to play...
The lack of ONE GAME will destroy the system? No. GTA3 is a good game, yes, but that doesn't mean all other games pale in comparison and X-Box's fare will never be able to cut the mustard.
And the 'Microsoft needs three tries' thing is just silly. Sometimes it's taken them four or five tries.:) But seriously, that's not a particularly strong arguement to make.
If you're going for low comedy with this declaration, good, but otherwise it's not enough to convince me X-box is fated for the scrap heap.
Salon's biased look at innovative games...
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XBox Released
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Salon is overlooking something very critical. They run down the list of X-Box titles and call them boring and pedestrian, then detail FUTURE Sony titles that will be innovative...
But they don't mention any future X-Box titles which will innovate, other than a dismissive mention of the 2002 lineup which claims to have 'nothing ambitious'.
Are they forgetting that Sega has close ties with Microsoft? Jet Set Radio Future, the first franchise to effectively work cel shading into the game's stylistic approach, is due out for X-Box. In addition, Shenmue, the series which redefined how adventure games and peristent worlds work on Dreamcast, will be an X-box franchise from now on. US gamers will be getting Shenmue 2 on X-box alone.
If you're going to hold one console above another, at least consider all aspects of both, rather than forgetting a key area. That's just good journalism, whatever your preference for gaming platforms or your like/dislike of Microsoft may be.
In a bit too much depth on that review?
on
The Difference Engine
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Considering the subject of the book is a complete overview of Babbage's life and the 'sequel' engine, and the review just compacted it all down, it feels more like Cliff's Notes than a book review...
I never really liked when book/movie reviews spend half the time just summarizing the plot. I'm more keen on how the reviewer felt the objective of the book was met or not met, what techniques were used in the book's structure, and so on.
Jeez, 400 posts in an hour? I hope you find this one in the swarm...
I was in the same situation: University of Maryland, College Park. Three years into a CS degree, hating the classes, withdrawing left and right to avoid getting D's. I love computers, I love creatively using them, I hate to program. I loathe my classes, am not having any fun at school and generally was completely and utterly miserable.
Then I found the Independent Studies (IVSP) department, and I was saved! (insert church organ sting here)
Seriously. Works like this: You design your own cirriculum on a focused concept, drawing from courses across multiple disciplines. Get sponsored, get approval, go through an application process... and if it's clear you're serious about this and what you want to study isn't just 'Like Such-and-Such Major, But Easier' then you're in.
In my case, I designed (I still don't like the name, but..) Computers and Interactive Media. Lots of art classes and writing classes combined with computer science. Since I was able to mix and match and apply my humanities to my inhumanities, so to speak, I could study topics I was keen on -- user interface design, new methods of interactivity, product design, etc. I even tossed in some film study and computer graphics to implement multimedia in my work.
Now I'm a web designer and database programmer for the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. I have a stable job and I do a smorgaboard of tasks for my division; I redesigned the homepage, I streamlined various user data entry applications, and I retouched the chairman's photo to make him look less bald. Work is (usually) an entertaining challenge with a variety of things to do, rather than pumping out code 24/7.
If the CS department is not ringing your bell, if they aren't providing what you really want in life, see if there's an interdisciplinary studies or independent studies department on your campus. It can be a lot harder than a normal major in a lot of respects -- I was writing a five page paper a week at one point and the application process was crazy -- but it also might be exactly what you wanted.
Slashdot Mirror
MEGA Spoiler ahoy... shame there's no LJ-Cutalike.
There's one problem with this; you're assuming that after Shinji rejects the hive-mind one-critter one-soul aspect, that all the bodies will 'eventually reform'. We don't have any proof of that; if anything, we have proof to the contrary.
We see the 'sea' of LCL lapping at the shores... and Shinji. And Asuka, of all people. Remember, Rei warned Shinji that he had to be able to picture himself alone in order to get what he wanted, and he couldn't do that. And in those last two minutes he rolls over, strangles her, whines, and that's the end of the movie.
Looks to me like Shinji, as usual screwed up and pretty much doomed humanity in the process.
Boy, did I feel lousy after staying up all night to catch an early showing of the movie at Katsucon 2. Nothing like wandering around in an alienated daze in a dealer's room...
Anyway, I've got big philosophical contentions with the whole one-soul merging thing... I don't likes it, it denies us what really makes us human. Regardless of whether humanity is self destructive or not, we've got the right to live as we've always lived without some old guys in SOUND-ONLY monoliths deciding we're better off completely losing our sense of self because this will supposedly make things waiwai better... but that's another topic, I guess.
Future Crew reassembled, broke up, faded out, tried to get into the games biz, etc. Their site has been offline for awhile.
Fortunately the demo scene lives on; pouet hosts links to nearly every demo in existence across multiple platforms. And to keep us on topic, most demos nowadays are 3-D accelerated. It's become less a game of "What techie tricks can you do?" and more a game of "How artistically can you use the technology?". There's some visually striking demos being made nowadays, and not just because they have shadebobs or glenz cubes.
If the Internet is supposed to free musicians to produce without the middlemen of publishers with unfair contracts, just imagine what it can do to writers to avoid contracts like these.
I've been an online-only amateur author for the last ten years (here's my current project, in fact). I do all my work on the web, which gives me huge advantages in terms of reader feedback, online draft publishing to get comments and criticism, and as much graphical/multimedia extras as I feel are appropriate to each product. I haven't felt the need to seek out a publisher yet -- the Internet gives me a much richer experience as an author in every respect except for money and mass-audience exposure.
It makes good sense. Writing is a form of content that's perfect for a text based web medium, and it runs up lower bandwidth charges than indie musicians manage with MP3 libraries. There are no distribution costs whatsoever except for bandwidth; all you really need to spend major money on is promotional muscle. The cons are the typical "I want a real solid paper thing in my hands" attitudes, but print on demand services would take care of that.
I'll admit, right now, there is no economic model to make it happen. Gotta be practical about it; I couldn't start making the kind of money off my work that I could be by publishing traditionally. But I see the potential there, and once a good system is developed, this could be the way to free authors from the constraints of publishers once and for all.
I'm not sure about this -- not that I refuse to pay, since I understand the web won't survive on a free-for-all basis forever. What I don't like is the fact that you pay for a number of pageviews, not for a period of time or some other flat rate.
Flat rate pricing has two advantages: simplicity, and comfort. It's simple to say 'Okay, no ads for a year for $x.' No need to count the pages you visit, or wonder if reloads count, or if changing the threshold settings to go from 500 posts to 15 is going to count as an add-free counter item.
Comfort, because I hate nervously watching a meter deplete and trying to optimize my web viewing habits in order to make sure I don't run out. When you say 82% of folks are covered... don't forget that this site caters to the hardcore sorts that participate the most and are likely to fall into the 18% that have to worry. I've never counted my page views, so I can't even tell if I fit that 18%.
And all things considered, I'd rather browse with javascript off and image loading off than worry about depleting my ad-free views. It's less hassle. Which means less profit for you, but that's free market in action... maybe when you add those value-added feature you're thinking about we'll be getting somewhere.
Okay, so the idea here is that once PCs drop to a certain level of cost, the idea of paying Microsoft a huge sum goes out the window. Two problems. One, which has already been noted here, is that Microsoft can just lower their own prices.
But two, and most importantly: What ELSE are you going to install on that computer if not Windows? Linux? Then we get into the 'is Linux ready for the desktop' thing. It doesn't matter if Microsoft charges your first born son, if they're the only viable, usable OS available for Joe Q. User to check their e-mail and read the web with, they'll still get payment even with ultra-cheap computers.
Of course, if some OS steps up to the plate to replace them for free/cheap AND the PCs drop in cost, then we've got something. Perhaps OEMs will start developing their own user-friendly, stripped down blends of Linux to ship with new PCs?
This could be what we need to migrate linux newbies away from Windows... if it delivers on all the promises.
Example. I am a Win95 trained junkie. Certainly not a clueless one who just uses it to e-mail grandman, but my sumo was insufficent to deal with Linux. Last year, at the advice of a friend, I got a second hard drive and installed Debian onto it alongside my Windows disk. Configuration was a nightmare; it took multiple visits by my Linux guru uncle to get the networking going, THEN we had to try and get Xwindows to deal with my video card, and we never got sound to work properly. In the end, the wholly alien system and configuration woes (try as I might, I couldn't get package manager tamed) led me to disuse the Linux side of my computer, and eventually format over the disk so I could have more Win 9x storage.
But this... this could be what I want. Something that's simple without sacrificing power. It doesn't have to clone windows as long as it's not like herding cats trying to get the thing to work properly. Every feature I could want -- autodetecting of video and sound, installation of various key applications, graphical frontend for nearly everything you could need to do -- is here.
So what's the catch? Has anybody worked with this thing? A second opinion is always key. Does it have weaknesses, stumbling blocks that would leave a newbie floundering around in icy water without a life preserver? I might very well join the Linux hordes if this distro meets my needs in a fairly comfortable manner.
What will the moderation on her response be? (+5, Insightful), (+5, Informative), (+5, Funny) or (-1, Troll)?
Wuv is in the air on Slashdot. It's a beautiful thing. And I don't mean that sarcastically. Go Taco!
Five years ago, I'd have said no way, this is unfeasible, people would not contribute their storage space and CPU cycles to someone else.
But now, with server-obfuscated peer to peer systems like AudioGalaxy, it could be possible. Imagine selling people on the idea of a 'universal public hard drive', where all you do is search for a file, then copy it over locally without actually knowing where/who it came from. I doubt there'd be any objections, given how convenient and 'anonymous' it would be. Sacrificing a share of your own hard drive space for cacheing files you might not be interested in would be a small price to pay for that. That's one resource down; do the same thing for CPU cycles (provided we have a killer app reason for people to need more cycles, given high speed processors of today) and other computing resources and the rest will fall in place.
I doubt it'll go as far as this proposal, at leastnot for a LONG time, but the unthinkable is already becoming the thinkable in some areas.
While I doubt all retail will die, I can see certain branches of it dying.
For instance, I used to be such a regular customer at EBX that the sales staff knew me by name. I do appreciate that personal relationship and the customer service... but why should I spend 40 minutes driving to and from the mall (which is now farther away thanks to moving a few miles to a new house) when I can go Click, Click, Boom and have the same game delivered to me two days later? The wait is worth the convenience. I haven't been to EBX in awhile, as a result. Amazon gets my buys.
Packaged goods, things that don't change in quality (CDs, books, movies, consumer items, and such) are simply easier to obtain over the web. No need to inspect the box; reviews and opinions are online and the item you buy is the same as the item anyone else would buy. The Yes/No buy decision doesn't need to be compounded by the hassles of real-world consumer retail.
Actually, don't avoid the movie. It's an interesting look at exactly the sort of hypochondria this guy has -- while the character in the movie SEEMS to have intense allergic reactions to everyday chemicals, near the end of the movie it's made... not CLEAR, exactly, but definitely implied as a theme of the film that it's more psychological. The chem-free camp she goes to feels awkwardly wrong, her new lifestyle is so sterile that she's barely alive, etc...
Not totally off topic. This movie is actually good footage to study the issue. Even if you feel the issue is crackpots and tinfoil hats, it illustrates what can lead to this sort of reaction.
That's the creedo I used whenever I explained things to my internet-newbie friends and family a few years ago. If it exists online, it exists in a free format and you shouldn't pay for it. Video game news? Plenty of fan sites. Web hosting? If you're just putting up photos of your dog there are free hosting sites. And now, search...
My concern is this: Is there going to be a time when it WON'T be available for free? Already free resources are buckling under the weight of their hosting fees and the popularity that drives their bandwidth through the roof. Free sites are no longer considered totally stable. Some have corporate allies -- IMDB, for instance. Some just buckle.
Whether the answer is subscriptions or micropayments or allies or whatever, the question is what will free sites do in order to stay afloat? Or will the future of the internet have a few stable commercial services and lots of hobby sites that yo-yo in and out of existence?
Internet cafe has now turned into a modern day, high tech arcade. They should not have to do anything different from a arcade owner.
Reasonable -- except arcade owners are subjected to the same kind of nonsense. Don't forget the Indiapolis case of trying to ban access to violent video games in arcades.
Every arcade in my hometown has only stayed open six months to a year before it was closed down due to 'gang violence' and 'community standards'. It's the standard knee jerk reaction to any popular teen hangout (other than The Mall, which is protected by tradition and capitalism). This is not something common to Internet Cafes.
It's so hard to find a good game of skeeball in the Washington area... this is why I'm glad we have places like Dave & Busters, which is an adult-oriented arcade designed for the business class sorts.
Which, IMHO, is one of the reasons gov't isn't looking to hire outta work .com folks. The gov't will invest heavily in the long term growth of its employees, and does not want to see that expensive training walk out the door the first time something glittery comes along. They are looking for stable team players, not mercenaries.
A good point; I probably should have emphasized the 'IF' and the 'AND'. I don't see it being very likely that I'll find a sexy job that's as stable as my government job, so I'm probably not changing careers -- not unless the office seriously relocates or some other factor pushes me out.
There was a lot of concern when I was taking this job that I might want to move on rather quickly after getting the training, but I'm in it for at least the 'Medium Haul' if not the Long Haul. That's the kind of expectation you need to make going into a job like this; it looks bad on a resume to take a career-style job and then leave soon after, anyway.
Except that in the thrill of 'the gamble' you stand a chance at losing. And losing means going broke, losing your home, your savings, eating dog food, etc.
Given the amount of lives that crashed in the dot-com bust, something that balances out the thrill AND the stability is probably a better option. All thrill and all stability are not good things (Although all stability has the perk of not eating you in the end, just annoying you.) If not government, at least a job which has a commonly accepted chance of survival.
Any have any suggestions of tech-centered industries that aren't going to curl up and die once someone studies their zero-profit business process too hard? Alternatives are always useful.
I'd like to second this. I got VERY lucky... just coming out of college and looking for my first job, I NEEDED something in the area, stable, and with decent pay. I found a job as a webmonkey (with training opportunities for database programming and multimedia) for the FDA's Center For Devices and Radiological Health.
The practical upshot is that I got lots of great training via the Killing-- err, the Learning Tree, expanded my skills tremendously, started out with a fairly eeeh salary but am now living quite comfortably... and most importantly, I did all of right at the start of the .Com Crash.
If I had jumped in on the corporate entry level (not that there were many jobs for someone who previously thought Cold Fusion was a physics thing) I'd probably have bounced around a couple jobs, maybe had to move once or twice, and definitely not had the ability to save money and get nice and financially stable. While others were auctioning off their Aeron chairs to afford cold cans of beans, I was sittin' pretty on my cheapo Ikea office stool (with homemade padding).
There are drawbacks. One, you don't start out with the Hat Made Of Money. If you can live 'comfortably' and likely single without needing a ferrari, this is not a huge hurdle. Two, if you're young, a lot of government employees are not. I'm the youngest guy in my office by about ten years. Three, no, the work is not very sexy. I view work as a means to an end (end meaning "$$$" which I spend on things I WANT to do). If a sexier job with the same amount of stability pops up, I'll go for it, but until then make mine federal.
But the e-mail link is as well.
I mailed to send in my official complaint, and it bounced back with a bizarre routing error.
So much for that interview I read where they predicted they'd get a very small amount of complaints... of course, we did unleash a thundering herd of /.'ers on it, so it's to be expected.
I've been using My Yahoo for awhile now to get my news, but the corporate bias is pretty evident; stories always seem to have a twinge of flavor in favor of the dollar. Whenever I see 'evil cyberterrorist arrested' I typically hit slashdot to get the REAL story.
The popups Yahoo uses are even getting past my disabled Javascript lately. If I have to deal with headlines as ads on top of bias and popups, well... bye!
Does anybody know of a news portal type site which goes EASY on this sort of thing? Ads where they ought to be rather than ads all over the place, including in the news headlines themselves? Is there an acceptable 'mainstream' news outlet that's not as invasive as this?
.NET is dangerous. It's a security disaster waiting to happen. I don't want to use it if I can avoid it...
See last sentence. WILL we be able to avoid it, realistically? A lot of /.'ers might be able to, but folks who still have to live and work with Microsoft products in the workplace or even at home and want to get things done online might not have a choice. If online shopping services convert over to .NET or god forbid my bill payment services, it's going to be very difficult to avoid having to make that Passport account and start using .NET.
So, taking the hypothetical stance that one would need to eventually get registered to use .NET services they can't avoid using, what can be done to protect yourself and your data? Are there any .NET developers out there who can comment on how much risk is involved and how it can be minimized beyond 'Don't use it'?
The real danger here lies in how wiretapping is shifting from being an activity you need to actively monitor via an external resource, and is becoming a self-contained object you drop into the suspect's house and fetch later. The latter you only need a court order. The former you need a full warrant.
Until a judge figures out that loggers and tappers are basically the same thing with two different methods of planting and unplanting, this ruling will stick, unfortunately. And once voice recorders are small enough to be plantable devices without any active collection needed (or video recorders, or combination video and audio and keystroke and data packet sniffer and so on) then little black boxes can sneak into anyone's home on thin suspicion.
My best friend Josh has a home theatre setup driven by his computer. It easily surpasses any home theatre I've seen to date.
The video is being handled by a projector mounted on the back wall that takes the computer monitor's feed and projects that nine feet tall. This means we get extremely high resolution, stable video images using techie terms I can only begin to understand. The image is sharper and more defined than any TV based image I've seen including HDTV, and certainly larger; IMAX movies are a real treat.
The audio is routed optically to a DTS sound system with speakers all over the room. Theatre quality audio, not miniplugs converted to RCA jacks.
Lately I haven't been going to the movies very often, not when I get a better moviegoing experience a few months later when the DVD comes out and it's screened at Bijoux de Josh.
So it's not really about whether computers CAN be the central figure in a home theatre setup. They can. The question is, how far are you willing to go to supply quality components that work with that computer?
Here's my project for December: turning my Dreamcast into a sweet arcade cabinet. Build a wooden frame or buy an empty one and use your dreamcast + cheap TV for an excellent combo. I'm estimating the whole project will come in under $300 bucks.
I've seen MAME projects which use PCs and other gear, but this is the best value. You can burn a MAME emulator along with some roms on a bootable disc, you could buy Atari's Greatest Hits for 20... or if you like modern games, there are lots of arcade-straightforward titles like Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 that make great pickupandplay games for a few minutes.
Just because the system didn't make it in the market, don't write it off; the potential for hacking, modding, or simply playing quality games is high. And by the end of the year I'll have a standup version of Crazy Taxi to play...
That's a pretty unimpressive blanket statement.
The lack of ONE GAME will destroy the system? No. GTA3 is a good game, yes, but that doesn't mean all other games pale in comparison and X-Box's fare will never be able to cut the mustard.
And the 'Microsoft needs three tries' thing is just silly. Sometimes it's taken them four or five tries. :) But seriously, that's not a particularly strong arguement to make.
If you're going for low comedy with this declaration, good, but otherwise it's not enough to convince me X-box is fated for the scrap heap.
Salon is overlooking something very critical. They run down the list of X-Box titles and call them boring and pedestrian, then detail FUTURE Sony titles that will be innovative...
But they don't mention any future X-Box titles which will innovate, other than a dismissive mention of the 2002 lineup which claims to have 'nothing ambitious'.
Are they forgetting that Sega has close ties with Microsoft? Jet Set Radio Future, the first franchise to effectively work cel shading into the game's stylistic approach, is due out for X-Box. In addition, Shenmue, the series which redefined how adventure games and peristent worlds work on Dreamcast, will be an X-box franchise from now on. US gamers will be getting Shenmue 2 on X-box alone.
If you're going to hold one console above another, at least consider all aspects of both, rather than forgetting a key area. That's just good journalism, whatever your preference for gaming platforms or your like/dislike of Microsoft may be.
Considering the subject of the book is a complete overview of Babbage's life and the 'sequel' engine, and the review just compacted it all down, it feels more like Cliff's Notes than a book review...
I never really liked when book/movie reviews spend half the time just summarizing the plot. I'm more keen on how the reviewer felt the objective of the book was met or not met, what techniques were used in the book's structure, and so on.
Jeez, 400 posts in an hour? I hope you find this one in the swarm...
I was in the same situation: University of Maryland, College Park. Three years into a CS degree, hating the classes, withdrawing left and right to avoid getting D's. I love computers, I love creatively using them, I hate to program. I loathe my classes, am not having any fun at school and generally was completely and utterly miserable.
Then I found the Independent Studies (IVSP) department, and I was saved! (insert church organ sting here)
Seriously. Works like this: You design your own cirriculum on a focused concept, drawing from courses across multiple disciplines. Get sponsored, get approval, go through an application process... and if it's clear you're serious about this and what you want to study isn't just 'Like Such-and-Such Major, But Easier' then you're in.
In my case, I designed (I still don't like the name, but..) Computers and Interactive Media. Lots of art classes and writing classes combined with computer science. Since I was able to mix and match and apply my humanities to my inhumanities, so to speak, I could study topics I was keen on -- user interface design, new methods of interactivity, product design, etc. I even tossed in some film study and computer graphics to implement multimedia in my work.
Now I'm a web designer and database programmer for the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. I have a stable job and I do a smorgaboard of tasks for my division; I redesigned the homepage, I streamlined various user data entry applications, and I retouched the chairman's photo to make him look less bald. Work is (usually) an entertaining challenge with a variety of things to do, rather than pumping out code 24/7.
If the CS department is not ringing your bell, if they aren't providing what you really want in life, see if there's an interdisciplinary studies or independent studies department on your campus. It can be a lot harder than a normal major in a lot of respects -- I was writing a five page paper a week at one point and the application process was crazy -- but it also might be exactly what you wanted.