I am not talking about just this project - dont be so small minded. I am talking about the state of design in general.
I am not saying thatthe area should be preserved for tourist reasons. I never even remotely allude to that - what I am saying is that there is a significant amount of personal history and culture that is being destroyed by this project. I am not opposed to the projects goal and requirements and benefits, I am opposed to the fact taht the people who are being uprooted are being moved to shitty concrete block ghettos that are totally disgusting - and given nothing for their land or even any consideration for the centuries of history that they have.
"Sadly, many westerners like our above poster come off as so elitist..."
This acurately describes you and your post - I was in no way trying to be elitist - i was pointing out how fucked up the situation is with this project, and I was also talking about the mentality of design in general these days.
You really should go do some more study on this project to see just how devestating it is to that region.
I just finished reading all the comments - and this one really strikes me.
I dont know if you saw that special on discovery about the project - or have read about it or maybe even talked to people about it, but here is my biased opinion that will offend many.
Fuck the chinese.
Not the chinese people - but its government and its corrupt power system (political not energy)
Fuck the chinese because they have no clue how valuable their culture really is. They have no respect forthe human accomplishments that they have made in the past - although almost all of them come at large human cost. (Ironic I know)
There is one town that is being destroyed by this project in particular that gets me. I cannot recall of find the name of the town - but it has been in place for many hundreds of years. Some of the people were crying because the houses that they live in (one family in particular) has been the family home for 450 years. That is some long tradition. Their temple was built ~700 years ago - and the place is BEAUTIFUL.
no matter how you justify any project today there is one thing that is not being even thought about or designed into any major building endevor currently - lasting beauty.
You may look at a skyscraper that going up - or recently built, or see a large structure that was designed - and it may SEEM to be beautiful, but generally they are not. We are currently confusing awe with beauty. We may be in awe over the size of a project or structure - and awe is a beautiful thing - but it is not beauty.
This is a seriously important aspect of design. If you look at all the buildings in your city as you drive around - find any that are beautiful works that will alst and be appreciated for their beauty alone for any length of time. It will be exceeedingly difficult to find any large number of structures that can actually be classified as beautiful and meaningful.
We are currently building a world of garbage. Architecture and design is sick with the cancer of modern technology.
My grandfather was a nuclear engineer - he designed hanford and many other nuclear facilites. I do technical architecture - I design networks to fit into large buildings - and design buildings to accomodate large networks. The process behind doing projects like this takes asthetics into account hardly at all... it continues to push the garbage of the modern world - and ruins the quality of our life.
You would be surprised at just how much an affect of a beautiful environment can actually have on your life.
The point with the Chinese and the dam is that this project is taking the trash designed life to the extreme expression. The largest piece of man made trash in the world - so big that real beauty and human creative effort is obliterated in its shadow, the real and true principles of the human creative spirit are ignored and killed in the name of progress.
not to mention the fact that silt will kill this dam very very quickly - making the whole "people need lights to read by, power to heat their pitiful little huts in the winter" moot as the warm little scholars are utterly destroyed by the fallacy of engineering that is this corrupt project.
Dont try to fool yourself with a "think of the children" type touchy-feely outlook. there is one thing for sure that this project is designed to do (if its structurally sound enough to last (hopefully)) - and that is REVENUE... who gives a shit if the little peasents are even literate, so long as they pay that bill!!
I dont think thats the issue. The issue that people have is - given Gators track record, how could you possibly trust them with any information - *ESPECIALLY YOUR PASSWORDS*
(regardless of what accounts those passwords are for)
Also - I dont understand why people need a password manager. I have many many passwords - but I ahve a system to creating them and I can easily determine the password I need - and keep all of them in my head.
Actually I've been thinking about this and talking about this for some time.
We now live in a society where we are so removed from the things that we are so close to;
take a look around - look at the things that you take for granted most. Paper, pens, any sort of utensil - and now more and more - electronic devices that we rely on to get stuff done.
The modern person is totally removed from the process of creating the things that make him and his life modern. We have no idea how a pen is made - or for many - even how the food we live on is grown, processed and cooked.
We live in a world of things where we dont understand the way they are made, but we do understand their reason for existing (all matrix references aside).
I too have a very strong desire to know how to make things. Leather work, carving, joinery, and most importantly martial arts.
It is so important to me (martial arts) to know how the body works and what I can do with my abilities and body.
I read someplace that the earth - on scale is more perfectly smooth than a machined steel ball bearing. If you were to scale the nicest ball bearing you could find to the size of the earth it would have pits and ridges, mountains and valleys far larger than anything on earth.
here are two examples of really well managed content and really badly managed content.
Intel's Intranet and Cisco's website.
Intels intranet is (or at least was when I worked there) extrememly well designed to help you find any corporate info that you were looking for.
Cisco's website (at least for me) is the ugliest thing I have ever used. although their searches seem to be rather relevant - there is no smooth navigation of the information on their site. IT SUCK ASS.
now - many of you might disagree - but I ask you, how long have you been using Cisco's site to look for info? probably a fair amount of time and you are used to it. But if you were to take someone there who had never been before and asked them to find something - or even just browse around to get an idea of the info they have there - it would be exceedingly difficult for them.
Managing content is one thing - putting it in a navigable format so that one can get familiar with your content is key for enterprise.
Ya, my wife is filipina - and she "texts" with her friends a lot.
Many of them actually hold full conversations in SMS, not just a single one or two messages.
I personally dont have a cell phone - and dont want one. I have managed to avoid requiring one - even when I was managing a 25 person IT staff. pager and terminal access only.
"One thing that is mission critical is tech support..."
I have this image of a WWII Medic running out to a downed soldier - only hes not a medic and its not a downed soldier.
Its a Tech Support engineer running out to fix some guys comm-palm or something... holding his helmet with one hand, running back and forth half hunched over carrying his little black computer toolkit in one hand. His battle worn glasses "field repaired" with 100-mile-an-hour tape, from the helicopter unit he flew in on.
As he makes his way to the downed uplink device - shots whiz by his head nearly hitting him as he managed to fall/duck behind whats left of a wall.
He can hear the screams from the soldier who is wearing the impaired device - screaming for information because he is now effectively blinded without the use of his comm-palm. His skills all too reliant on the technology of the modern military. His skills now a casuality of the ever progressive technological revolution.
Hopefully though, if a tech can get there in time - he'll be online quick enough to save his ass after the refresh of intel....
No, the real reason why blockbuster and any and all rental stores will not accept this - is that it doesnt fit AT ALL into their business process.
If all of a sudden the movies were disposable, what has to happen?
Blockbuster would have to re-stock all these movies. at every location.
This means that they would have to create a streamlined logistic process for getting all the right movies shipped to the right stores in the right time so more people can rent them.
This will be exceedingly expensive.
Sure - they currently have a method of sending videos to all their stores - but not high volume random titles.
Ever purchsed a beer or drink from an airport bar? Aside from being over priced they have actually found this to be the perfect way to "fix" tips into the drinks.
If you buy a beer - it will cost like $5.19 - or a mixed drink will be $x.12 - or some other random number.
What this does is make most people think "What the hell am I gunna do with 81 cents change?" and just leave it on the bar.
This way they get nearly a dollar tip from every drink they pour.
So I ALWAYS take the money - and I never tip at the airport. They are fucking ripping you off in the first place then attempting to screw you again with scummy financial psychology.
So I dont find your friend to be clever or witty or anything - just twsting that last nickel out with this same slimey tactic.
didnt read that part of the comment... but thats cuz i clicked on your link to fast...
but I will say that its still cool for anyone to put time and thought into making their own anything. regardless of the outcome - or conditions of the *ahem* lab.
I absolutely love the fact that people actually build shit - because they can. Creativity of the mind is the most facinating thing.
To keep it short, I think the idea with the Orgy/Dance scene is draw parallels between the sex of Neo and Trinity, and the overall Sexual (primal, hedonistic) nature of humans... and the fact that we are a product of this. In other words, evolution... a seething bastion of organic life living far underground, reproducing and fighting for existence. So in that respect it's a very important piece of the overall humans (organic life) against machines (in-organice life).
Other than that, yeah the acting was a bit cheesy... but ALL the acting is a bit cheesy in the movie.;)
there should be this exact type of service. actually what i was thinking of was a service that you would "bid" on an object - say only for items valued over 500 bux.
Then that service would scour the NET, ebay and every other normal avenue looking for the lowest possible price for the purchase you want to make. then buy it... and you would pay a service fee % based on the value of the item and the obscurity etc...
but all in all - attempting to make it as automated as possible so that you still really get a good deal on the item.
now, prices aside - even if I *could* throw the money into this - there is no way i could get it.
I have an entire room dedicated to computers for myself, my wife and our roomate. I have had this room setup in various ways - previously had a full 7' 19" smoked glass cabinet in the closet with various servers and hardware serving the little yet powerful lan in the room - right now I have a desk in the alcove that was the closet and another by the door and space for another desk / guest bed when need be...
so - there is no way i couldd spare the SPACE for something like this - regardless of cost.
I did and still do like them - however I have never had to spend any great deal of time in one...
Although I did manage to get one of these:X99's for $150.00 - and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.
I remember a while back some guy making an index of the likelihood that a company would survive based on the numebr of aeron chairs they owned. The more they owned the faster they should go out of business.
Recently I was doing a survey of a site that my company designed for a firm in downtown SF. It was a building of 8 stories - and on each floor they had several large conference rooms. The place had been unoccupied for some time - and we were surveying it to see if we could get the facility and the network infrastructure to meet the requirements of a possible tennant. I found that the conference rooms were STUFFED - I mean **STUFFED** with aeron chairs. ONE conference room had *57* aeron chairs in there...
And there were about 6 conference rooms all about nearly as full.
Ironically the company that we designed the space for was a VC firm - and they are now defunct. Sadly though - I saw an article about the founder - who was being praised for his founding of a new endeavor - even though all his previous firms are dead.
Slashdot Mirror
thank you for putting so well - what i was trying to say in so many words....
I totally agree.
um wrong. Re-read my post.
I am not talking about just this project - dont be so small minded. I am talking about the state of design in general.
I am not saying thatthe area should be preserved for tourist reasons. I never even remotely allude to that - what I am saying is that there is a significant amount of personal history and culture that is being destroyed by this project. I am not opposed to the projects goal and requirements and benefits, I am opposed to the fact taht the people who are being uprooted are being moved to shitty concrete block ghettos that are totally disgusting - and given nothing for their land or even any consideration for the centuries of history that they have.
"Sadly, many westerners like our above poster come off as so elitist..."
This acurately describes you and your post - I was in no way trying to be elitist - i was pointing out how fucked up the situation is with this project, and I was also talking about the mentality of design in general these days.
You really should go do some more study on this project to see just how devestating it is to that region.
I just finished reading all the comments - and this one really strikes me.
I dont know if you saw that special on discovery about the project - or have read about it or maybe even talked to people about it, but here is my biased opinion that will offend many.
Fuck the chinese.
Not the chinese people - but its government and its corrupt power system (political not energy)
Fuck the chinese because they have no clue how valuable their culture really is. They have no respect forthe human accomplishments that they have made in the past - although almost all of them come at large human cost. (Ironic I know)
There is one town that is being destroyed by this project in particular that gets me. I cannot recall of find the name of the town - but it has been in place for many hundreds of years. Some of the people were crying because the houses that they live in (one family in particular) has been the family home for 450 years. That is some long tradition. Their temple was built ~700 years ago - and the place is BEAUTIFUL.
no matter how you justify any project today there is one thing that is not being even thought about or designed into any major building endevor currently - lasting beauty.
You may look at a skyscraper that going up - or recently built, or see a large structure that was designed - and it may SEEM to be beautiful, but generally they are not. We are currently confusing awe with beauty. We may be in awe over the size of a project or structure - and awe is a beautiful thing - but it is not beauty.
This is a seriously important aspect of design. If you look at all the buildings in your city as you drive around - find any that are beautiful works that will alst and be appreciated for their beauty alone for any length of time. It will be exceeedingly difficult to find any large number of structures that can actually be classified as beautiful and meaningful.
We are currently building a world of garbage. Architecture and design is sick with the cancer of modern technology.
My grandfather was a nuclear engineer - he designed hanford and many other nuclear facilites. I do technical architecture - I design networks to fit into large buildings - and design buildings to accomodate large networks. The process behind doing projects like this takes asthetics into account hardly at all... it continues to push the garbage of the modern world - and ruins the quality of our life.
You would be surprised at just how much an affect of a beautiful environment can actually have on your life.
The point with the Chinese and the dam is that this project is taking the trash designed life to the extreme expression. The largest piece of man made trash in the world - so big that real beauty and human creative effort is obliterated in its shadow, the real and true principles of the human creative spirit are ignored and killed in the name of progress.
not to mention the fact that silt will kill this dam very very quickly - making the whole "people need lights to read by, power to heat their pitiful little huts in the winter" moot as the warm little scholars are utterly destroyed by the fallacy of engineering that is this corrupt project.
Dont try to fool yourself with a "think of the children" type touchy-feely outlook. there is one thing for sure that this project is designed to do (if its structurally sound enough to last (hopefully)) - and that is REVENUE... who gives a shit if the little peasents are even literate, so long as they pay that bill!!
I dont think thats the issue. The issue that people have is - given Gators track record, how could you possibly trust them with any information - *ESPECIALLY YOUR PASSWORDS*
(regardless of what accounts those passwords are for)
Also - I dont understand why people need a password manager. I have many many passwords - but I ahve a system to creating them and I can easily determine the password I need - and keep all of them in my head.
Actually I've been thinking about this and talking about this for some time.
We now live in a society where we are so removed from the things that we are so close to;
take a look around - look at the things that you take for granted most. Paper, pens, any sort of utensil - and now more and more - electronic devices that we rely on to get stuff done.
The modern person is totally removed from the process of creating the things that make him and his life modern. We have no idea how a pen is made - or for many - even how the food we live on is grown, processed and cooked.
We live in a world of things where we dont understand the way they are made, but we do understand their reason for existing (all matrix references aside).
I too have a very strong desire to know how to make things. Leather work, carving, joinery, and most importantly martial arts.
It is so important to me (martial arts) to know how the body works and what I can do with my abilities and body.
time to go home...
ya but then all gaming would again return to side scrollers - with each element on a differnt layer moving at different speeds.
I read someplace that the earth - on scale is more perfectly smooth than a machined steel ball bearing. If you were to scale the nicest ball bearing you could find to the size of the earth it would have pits and ridges, mountains and valleys far larger than anything on earth.
Earth looks pretty smooth from these distances
here are two examples of really well managed content and really badly managed content.
Intel's Intranet and Cisco's website.
Intels intranet is (or at least was when I worked there) extrememly well designed to help you find any corporate info that you were looking for.
Cisco's website (at least for me) is the ugliest thing I have ever used. although their searches seem to be rather relevant - there is no smooth navigation of the information on their site. IT SUCK ASS.
now - many of you might disagree - but I ask you, how long have you been using Cisco's site to look for info? probably a fair amount of time and you are used to it. But if you were to take someone there who had never been before and asked them to find something - or even just browse around to get an idea of the info they have there - it would be exceedingly difficult for them.
Managing content is one thing - putting it in a navigable format so that one can get familiar with your content is key for enterprise.
Ya, my wife is filipina - and she "texts" with her friends a lot.
Many of them actually hold full conversations in SMS, not just a single one or two messages.
I personally dont have a cell phone - and dont want one. I have managed to avoid requiring one - even when I was managing a 25 person IT staff. pager and terminal access only.
"One thing that is mission critical is tech support..."
I have this image of a WWII Medic running out to a downed soldier - only hes not a medic and its not a downed soldier.
Its a Tech Support engineer running out to fix some guys comm-palm or something... holding his helmet with one hand, running back and forth half hunched over carrying his little black computer toolkit in one hand. His battle worn glasses "field repaired" with 100-mile-an-hour tape, from the helicopter unit he flew in on.
As he makes his way to the downed uplink device - shots whiz by his head nearly hitting him as he managed to fall/duck behind whats left of a wall.
He can hear the screams from the soldier who is wearing the impaired device - screaming for information because he is now effectively blinded without the use of his comm-palm. His skills all too reliant on the technology of the modern military. His skills now a casuality of the ever progressive technological revolution.
Hopefully though, if a tech can get there in time - he'll be online quick enough to save his ass after the refresh of intel....
No, the real reason why blockbuster and any and all rental stores will not accept this - is that it doesnt fit AT ALL into their business process.
If all of a sudden the movies were disposable, what has to happen?
Blockbuster would have to re-stock all these movies. at every location.
This means that they would have to create a streamlined logistic process for getting all the right movies shipped to the right stores in the right time so more people can rent them.
This will be exceedingly expensive.
Sure - they currently have a method of sending videos to all their stores - but not high volume random titles.
Ya that sort of stuff pisses me off.
Take the airports for example.
Ever purchsed a beer or drink from an airport bar? Aside from being over priced they have actually found this to be the perfect way to "fix" tips into the drinks.
If you buy a beer - it will cost like $5.19 - or a mixed drink will be $x.12 - or some other random number.
What this does is make most people think "What the hell am I gunna do with 81 cents change?" and just leave it on the bar.
This way they get nearly a dollar tip from every drink they pour.
So I ALWAYS take the money - and I never tip at the airport. They are fucking ripping you off in the first place then attempting to screw you again with scummy financial psychology.
So I dont find your friend to be clever or witty or anything - just twsting that last nickel out with this same slimey tactic.
Also known as "Stiffing The Boss"
Ya, especially so I can sit in peace, enjoy my hot grits with my girlfriend, Natalie Portman!
PROFIT!
uh, talking about masterbation or avoiding work?
DOH! My bad....
didnt read that part of the comment... but thats cuz i clicked on your link to fast...
but I will say that its still cool for anyone to put time and thought into making their own anything. regardless of the outcome - or conditions of the *ahem* lab.
I absolutely love the fact that people actually build shit - because they can. Creativity of the mind is the most facinating thing.
I'm not obsessed with T&A
;P
"If I want porn, I rent a porn or go to one of my bookmarks"
not obsessed - yet renting and bookmarking it? maybe its D&A then rather than T&A????
Check out my new case modded rice cooker!!
To keep it short, I think the idea with the Orgy/Dance scene is draw parallels between the sex of Neo and Trinity, and the overall Sexual (primal, hedonistic) nature of humans... and the fact that we are a product of this. In other words, evolution... a seething bastion of organic life living far underground, reproducing and fighting for existence. So in that respect it's a very important piece of the overall humans (organic life) against machines (in-organice life).
;)
Other than that, yeah the acting was a bit cheesy... but ALL the acting is a bit cheesy in the movie.
EXACTLY what I have been saying for a time...
there should be this exact type of service. actually what i was thinking of was a service that you would "bid" on an object - say only for items valued over 500 bux.
Then that service would scour the NET, ebay and every other normal avenue looking for the lowest possible price for the purchase you want to make. then buy it... and you would pay a service fee % based on the value of the item and the obscurity etc...
but all in all - attempting to make it as automated as possible so that you still really get a good deal on the item.
hello USPTO.
Thats cool - how much did it cost you?
I have a suggestion - next time take that money and effort and build one of these or at least hire on of these
You know I was thinking of the same thing...
now, prices aside - even if I *could* throw the money into this - there is no way i could get it.
I have an entire room dedicated to computers for myself, my wife and our roomate. I have had this room setup in various ways - previously had a full 7' 19" smoked glass cabinet in the closet with various servers and hardware serving the little yet powerful lan in the room - right now I have a desk in the alcove that was the closet and another by the door and space for another desk / guest bed when need be...
so - there is no way i couldd spare the SPACE for something like this - regardless of cost.
Where do you set books? Where do you put paper?
Ever heard of the Paperless Office?
No, neither have I.....
I did and still do like them - however I have never had to spend any great deal of time in one...
Although I did manage to get one of these:X99's for $150.00 - and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.
I remember a while back some guy making an index of the likelihood that a company would survive based on the numebr of aeron chairs they owned. The more they owned the faster they should go out of business.
Recently I was doing a survey of a site that my company designed for a firm in downtown SF. It was a building of 8 stories - and on each floor they had several large conference rooms. The place had been unoccupied for some time - and we were surveying it to see if we could get the facility and the network infrastructure to meet the requirements of a possible tennant. I found that the conference rooms were STUFFED - I mean **STUFFED** with aeron chairs. ONE conference room had *57* aeron chairs in there...
And there were about 6 conference rooms all about nearly as full.
Ironically the company that we designed the space for was a VC firm - and they are now defunct. Sadly though - I saw an article about the founder - who was being praised for his founding of a new endeavor - even though all his previous firms are dead.
and call it a mesh network. then put up a website and make APs that will attach to the mesh - and sell them
call it Http://www.locustworld.com