My ISP is Mediacom, which (being one of the old @Home companies) routes all of its traffic through AT&T. One thing that used to happen fairly frequently is the AT&T routers in Chicago would go wonky, dropping packets for days at a time. Then they would work for a bit, then go nuts again. Mediacom said its hands were tied because the problem was with AT&T... now I wonder if AT&T was changing their routes to forward stuff to the Bad Guys...
Yeah, the biggest problem I have with the $100 laptop idea is that unless you give these to -everyone- in that Remote Village (TM), they'll quickly be sold and/or stolen for food, drugs or women. And even -if- they give them to everyone, what use is a wind-up toy laptop when you're barely able to eat?
Maybe someone with some EE knowledge could answer a more serious version of the same question... if the chip is really "disabled", could one install a short from input to output to bypass the chip entirely? Would this work? Would this do something horrible to the board?
Funny, I think that changing the focus settings in TweakUI does something useful because.. uhm.. it DOES. Since I set it up months ago, I have not had an inactive app wrest the focus away from the active one. Not even once. Instead, the app that wants attention just blinks in the taskbar.
If it is not working for you, then you have either not configured it right, or there is something more seriously wrong with your OS.
Reminds me of the time an older gentleman came into the computer shop where I worked, asking if we had a way of detecting radiation. We eventually got the story out of him that his UPS was "shooting rays" at him. He knew it "had to have radiation in it" that was making him sick. Nothing we said or did could convince him otherwise. We eventually told him to call the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with his story and see if he could get them out there with a geiger counter. He mumbled something about them not caring, left, and we never saw him again.
Best we could figure was he was a paranoid delusional schitzophrenic.
"It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries." --Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1788.
Jefferson would be ashamed. Even -with- the bill of rights, these freedoms are being chipped away at by government in only half the time he predicted...
This reminds of the Death of Rats' device for testing the animosity of the universe. It was an automatic toast-butterer with a square of carpet attached. It determined what percentage of the time the toast landed butter-side down.
Of course, an easier method consists of simply tossing a hose into a corner of the room and observing how tangled it becomes.
I'm going to geek out here and post my own personal theory...
Geordi was, I think, blind from birth. This wasn't fixed early on, and so his visual cortex therefore never developed to process input. Even if they had fixed his eyes, he still would not have been able to "see" images like the rest of us (this really happens). His air filter (okay, fine, VISOR) was designed to interface with the central sensory processing center of his brain (I forget what this region is called), providing additional input which his brain -could- learn to use. The representation of GeordiVision (TM) on the show was just a way of showing his perception in a way that we sighted people could understand. What Geordi actually experienced was not "sight" as we know it, but an awareness of his surrounding perhaps similar to what bats experience through their sonar.
Mind you, this theory is shot to hell by the final episode of TNG, where he has to remove his VISOR because his "visual cortex is falling out of alignment" or something. But other than that it seems pretty solid to me.
You're right. I misread your post; the attitude I was ranting against is, sadly, so common that I was too quick to attribute your post to it. My apologies.
Ritalin's been used as a behavior-altering drug since 1961, and as a narcolepsy treatment before that. It is one of the most heavily tested psychoactive drugs on the market today. It was certainly not "just coming out" in 1987; its effects, dosages and indications were well understood. There's no excuse for your doctor prescribing what could easily have been a lethal dose, and no excuse for the pharmacist filling it. If you really have a bottle with a 300 mg/day prescription for Ritalin/methylphenidate, then go make yourself rich.
I can tell you exactly what happens when an ADD kid is disciplined for exhibiting ADD behavior.
Nothing.
Oh the kid will cry, the parents will cry, promises will be made, incentives will be set, and for about a week things might seem to improve. Maybe. But then the truth will out about homework being forgotten, a test not studied for (though probably passed anyway) and nothing will change at all. And at the next report card, there will be more crying.
Disciplining a child for something that they cannot control themselves amounts to child abuse. I guess if you beat a dyslexic kid hard enough you think they'll stop writing stuff backwards too, huh?
Your pot-smoking is likely self-medication for ADD, not a result of your earlier prescriptions.
If your doctor was really prescribing you that much ritalin, though, then you need to find him and sue him out of existance because he was prescribing you 5 times the maximum allowed adult dosage. If your dosage had really been that high, you would have had convulsions, seizures, hallucinations, and other fun things. It is, frankly, amazing that you're alive.
Not only that, but apparently the search engine results aren't "real" links; middle-clicking them won't open them in a new tab (though, strangely, right-click->Open in New Tab does). And the mousewheel works for me IF I click somewhere on the results page to set the focus on it.
If I were born with 6 -functional- fingers on each hand and someone amputated the extras, I think I would, as an adult, find some way to sue the doctor that removed two healthy, functioning digits.
What about -using- software/hardware that doesn't support the flag? For example, what if the software was written in, to pick a country at random... Norway? I guess using it here would violate the DMCA and result in imprisonment or something.
Strip out the curses and send this to the RIAA and the congresscritters involved with the bill. Posting it here doesn't do any good. Sending it to them probably won't, either, but at least you'll have voiced your opinion at the right people.
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My ISP is Mediacom, which (being one of the old @Home companies) routes all of its traffic through AT&T. One thing that used to happen fairly frequently is the AT&T routers in Chicago would go wonky, dropping packets for days at a time. Then they would work for a bit, then go nuts again. Mediacom said its hands were tied because the problem was with AT&T... now I wonder if AT&T was changing their routes to forward stuff to the Bad Guys...
I don't know if it's what the gp was saying, but it's certainly true in many cases.
Yeah, the biggest problem I have with the $100 laptop idea is that unless you give these to -everyone- in that Remote Village (TM), they'll quickly be sold and/or stolen for food, drugs or women. And even -if- they give them to everyone, what use is a wind-up toy laptop when you're barely able to eat?
Maybe someone with some EE knowledge could answer a more serious version of the same question... if the chip is really "disabled", could one install a short from input to output to bypass the chip entirely? Would this work? Would this do something horrible to the board?
Funny, I think that changing the focus settings in TweakUI does something useful because.. uhm.. it DOES. Since I set it up months ago, I have not had an inactive app wrest the focus away from the active one. Not even once. Instead, the app that wants attention just blinks in the taskbar.
If it is not working for you, then you have either not configured it right, or there is something more seriously wrong with your OS.
Reminds me of the time an older gentleman came into the computer shop where I worked, asking if we had a way of detecting radiation. We eventually got the story out of him that his UPS was "shooting rays" at him. He knew it "had to have radiation in it" that was making him sick. Nothing we said or did could convince him otherwise. We eventually told him to call the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with his story and see if he could get them out there with a geiger counter. He mumbled something about them not caring, left, and we never saw him again.
Best we could figure was he was a paranoid delusional schitzophrenic.
Thank you for mentioning this. I thought Google was going nuts, but I never saw it again, so I thought I was going nuts.
At least if I'm going nuts, it's going to manifest itself in some other, more interesting (or at least entertaining) way.
Your name isn't Helmut Bakaitis is it? Nah, can't be, I don't see one single "ergo" in there...
You fool! You can't use nukes on the Moon! You'll blow it to smithereens!
Had.
"It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries." --Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1788.
Jefferson would be ashamed. Even -with- the bill of rights, these freedoms are being chipped away at by government in only half the time he predicted...
This reminds of the Death of Rats' device for testing the animosity of the universe. It was an automatic toast-butterer with a square of carpet attached. It determined what percentage of the time the toast landed butter-side down.
Of course, an easier method consists of simply tossing a hose into a corner of the room and observing how tangled it becomes.
I'm going to geek out here and post my own personal theory...
Geordi was, I think, blind from birth. This wasn't fixed early on, and so his visual cortex therefore never developed to process input. Even if they had fixed his eyes, he still would not have been able to "see" images like the rest of us (this really happens). His air filter (okay, fine, VISOR) was designed to interface with the central sensory processing center of his brain (I forget what this region is called), providing additional input which his brain -could- learn to use. The representation of GeordiVision (TM) on the show was just a way of showing his perception in a way that we sighted people could understand. What Geordi actually experienced was not "sight" as we know it, but an awareness of his surrounding perhaps similar to what bats experience through their sonar.
Mind you, this theory is shot to hell by the final episode of TNG, where he has to remove his VISOR because his "visual cortex is falling out of alignment" or something. But other than that it seems pretty solid to me.
You're right. I misread your post; the attitude I was ranting against is, sadly, so common that I was too quick to attribute your post to it. My apologies.
Ritalin's been used as a behavior-altering drug since 1961, and as a narcolepsy treatment before that. It is one of the most heavily tested psychoactive drugs on the market today. It was certainly not "just coming out" in 1987; its effects, dosages and indications were well understood. There's no excuse for your doctor prescribing what could easily have been a lethal dose, and no excuse for the pharmacist filling it. If you really have a bottle with a 300 mg/day prescription for Ritalin/methylphenidate, then go make yourself rich.
I can tell you exactly what happens when an ADD kid is disciplined for exhibiting ADD behavior.
Nothing.
Oh the kid will cry, the parents will cry, promises will be made, incentives will be set, and for about a week things might seem to improve. Maybe. But then the truth will out about homework being forgotten, a test not studied for (though probably passed anyway) and nothing will change at all. And at the next report card, there will be more crying.
Disciplining a child for something that they cannot control themselves amounts to child abuse. I guess if you beat a dyslexic kid hard enough you think they'll stop writing stuff backwards too, huh?
Your pot-smoking is likely self-medication for ADD, not a result of your earlier prescriptions.
If your doctor was really prescribing you that much ritalin, though, then you need to find him and sue him out of existance because he was prescribing you 5 times the maximum allowed adult dosage. If your dosage had really been that high, you would have had convulsions, seizures, hallucinations, and other fun things. It is, frankly, amazing that you're alive.
Not only that, but apparently the search engine results aren't "real" links; middle-clicking them won't open them in a new tab (though, strangely, right-click->Open in New Tab does). And the mousewheel works for me IF I click somewhere on the results page to set the focus on it.
If I were born with 6 -functional- fingers on each hand and someone amputated the extras, I think I would, as an adult, find some way to sue the doctor that removed two healthy, functioning digits.
Even if most geeks had kids, there's still c) Catholics breed faster.
So when do the volcanoes under the ice erupt and slough the whole icecap off into the sea so that the Martians can revolt?
Wow. You lived through having your phone service disconnected by Ma Bell didn't you?
What about -using- software/hardware that doesn't support the flag? For example, what if the software was written in, to pick a country at random... Norway? I guess using it here would violate the DMCA and result in imprisonment or something.
This country needs a reboot.
Strip out the curses and send this to the RIAA and the congresscritters involved with the bill. Posting it here doesn't do any good. Sending it to them probably won't, either, but at least you'll have voiced your opinion at the right people.
Holy hell I hadn't thought of that book in... decades. Thanks for the laugh.