Don't forget to add the "oyster" cards used on London transport to the sevalance net. All have a unique IDs in them and the data is retained for 5 years. Every time you get on a bus, train or on or off a tube the date and place is record, to make people use them the are increasing the price of single tickets relative to "Oyster" prepay and of course you need to give a name and address to get one of those cards.
You are forgetting one thing...oyster cards are transferrable if they are pre-pay only (and season tickets aren't transferrable for the usual reasons). See here:
Registered or unregistered, all Oyster cards with Pre Pay only are transferable and can be used by any other adult that you want to give the card to. Where you have both a valid season ticket and Pre Pay on the same card, you cannot lend the card to another person for their use.
At the moment I feel that I trust the British government enough that this is an acceptable situation, look at the impact the congestion charges (and enforcement cameras) have had on London traffic for example.
Is it the cameras or just the expense?
The cameras are the only way that the government can enforce the congestion charges. There are no toll gates or places where you are blocked until you pay - you may travel anywhere freely. Hoever, if you enter the congestion charge zone, then your number plate is recorded by the cameras and if you don't pay for that day (using any one of a number of methods), then you get fined.
I would welcome rather than fear more cameras on the streets in the UK. There is one thing that privacy advocates are forgetting, for there to be an impact on your privacy there needs to be either a person at the other end of the camera, or an automated consequence.
With so many cameras, I doubt there is the manpower or the interest for someone to look at them all, only the ones that are really relevent - where a crime or suspicious behaviour has already been reported. After this the cameras are simply pointing out the facts of the situation, and are we really that afraid of facts and consequences of our actions (if those actions are illegal or suspicious)?
At the moment I feel that I trust the British government enough that this is an acceptable situation, look at the impact the congestion charges (and enforcement cameras) have had on London traffic for example.
Automated voice dialing and a hands-free system. I don't have to take my eyes nor my hands off the wheel. It's no different than talking to a passenger in the car despite what your anti-cell-phone funded bullshit studies claim.
There is a difference - a passenger can also see the road conditions, and see your levels of concentration. I have yet to have a conversation with a passegner that didn't automatically get put on hold without me having to explicitly say so. When someone is talking on a cell phone, there is money behind the call, and people feel uncomfortable with prolonged silences, so they keep talking (and more importantly keep thinking about their conversation) - even when the road conditions get more intense.
It makes a big difference, and this why talking on a cellphone in a car is a bad idea.
Hmm, I thought about that before clicking on the assiciated link, and managed to come up with 6 degrees of freedom for my single (the link uses two devices to get 6 degrees of freedom) regular mouse in 3D space...wasn't easy though.
left/right
forward/backward
mouse wheel
up/down
pitch
roll
yaw
Damn - actually that's 7, just realised I had forotten to count up/down - thought I only had 5 and came up with yaw...:)
I still can't buy anything bigger than 128Mb unless I import, and it's the thick end of a thousand dollars for 512Mb (I've got a P800 = Memory Stick Duo)
Erm - I suggest you look elsewhere...maybe the sonystyle website? If you're paying the thick end of a thousand dollars, you're either not counting in US dollars or you're being badly ripped off!
Curious: How much did that cost you? I was under the impression that S-E phones were quite pricy.
Well it wasn't too bad - however I did have recurrent technical issues with it - SonyEricsson maybe a little expensive, but it was worth it for the service I received from them. I bought the T600 phone from a third party supplier, and when it stopped receiving network the third-party quoted several weeks to have it repaired, but suggested I drop by the local SonyEricsson shop to see if there was a firmware update that might fix it. SonyEricsson took it in for the afternoon, and 4 hours later when I returned just replaced it with a brand new one, no issue at all. Six months later when that also had the same problems I went back to the SonyEricsson shop, they offered to replace it with another new one, but after 2 identical failures I wanted something else so they gave me 200 euros credit towards any other phone. I now have a T610, it's a bit larger but I appreciate the bluetooth integration.
In fact I use two phones, I have dual sim cards (only one of the phones may be active at once, but I don't have to move a sim between them to keep the same number). My "work phone" is a Qtek2020, and when I'm out and about I just carry the T610. Just for reference, checking one supplier I see the Qtek2020 is retailing for around 800 euros, and the T610 is about 270 euros (from http://www.proximus.be/).
I didn't want a full color LCD (drains batteries) or a phone with useless background images or a million built in ring tones or any of that frilly stuff. Guess what, there ARENT any new phones that are "plain"
What's more, for all its frills, it doesn't have the functionality to do a simple thing like vibrate, THEN ring. My old motorola, which is at least four - five years old, can.
My last "it's just a phone phone" was a SonyEricsson T600. Such phones exist if you want them to. As for the vibrate before it rings, it had an editor built in for the ringtones, and that included the ability to set vibrate and lights on/off in the timing, so you could have it turn on the front light and start vibrating, then make a noise after a few seconds...
By overclocking your neurons, you might be changing your perception of time relative to everything around you. So while you may think faster to everyone around you, you may not notice anything different in terms of perceived intelligence.
Hmm - that's an idea actually - how do we know that people DON'T perceive time in different ways. After all - everything you perceive ever will be at the "speed" you are used to, so to you it's normal. Maybe other people are experiencing life at a faster or slower "speed" and not realising it?
How can you ever test for such a thing? Hmm - something to think about I guess.:)
I find it interesting to see the slight variations of Google...geeky although it might seem - when I type http://www.google.com/ I am thrown to http://www.google.be/, so when I really want http://www.google.com/ I type http://www.google.com./ instead of using the "Go to Google.com" button (which sends me to the google.com page with a "Go to Google Belgium" button.
The definitive address with the dot at the end introduces itself as Google English in the graphic, but still has a "Go to Google.com" button, whilst clearly being the genuine definitive http://www.google.com./...but this version doesn't have the link to Froogle...:)
The BBC has a similar story from a year ago...Peter Molyneux suggesting government help for up and coming game studios, similar to the way the film council helps the British movie industry.
Most universities in the UK only offer one of these, and the courses are almost identical in content. The main difference being if you end up with a BSc or a BEng, and to an employer this difference matters a lot less than the class of degree obtained.
Hmm - I would disagree - I graduated with a BEng(Hons) in Electronic Computer Systems in 1999, and we took some software courses with the BSc students. Their course was totally different to ours, and they had a very different mindset too.
My degree classification didn't seem to make much difference, but the fact that I had such a wide spectrum of knowledge in computer systems did. Yeah, I know the boom was on, but I still managed to get a good proportion of interviews (including a couple with government agencies who were far less impacted by the boom), and one company approached me without me contacting them or their recruitment agency (I still don't know how they got a copy of my CV).
Nowadays I am less focused on the technical aspects, as I manage IT processes - but I am not convinced I would have been as competent in my role without the background I have from studying an engineering degree rather than a science degree.
Hey - why are you asking slashdot - if you want professional advice you shouldn't be asking a load of geeks who barely know what they're talking about! Ask a lawyer who can tell you the real facts for your situation.
Ooops - wrong standard answer...I'll try again...
Why don't you just google for this type of stuff, instead of bothering all us slashdotters who have better things to do than gather information that you could have easily found yourself!!
Bugger - that doesn't fit either...wow - is this actually an Ask Slashdot where people can't bring out their old tired complaints?! What is the world coming to?!
Just how many different apps do you really use on a day to say basis?
Well I don't know about the original poster, but let me think...
IE (many web applications via this)
Outlook
Word
Excel
Powerpoint
Peregrine Service Centre
Textpad
Winamp
Windows media player
RealPlayer
SQL Navigator
IrfanView
Calculator
Acrobat
Various games
ICQ
Web server applications
Hmm - that's in a typical day, and I'm sure I'm missing a few (terminal programs for a start!). There are also other programs that I use less often.
People often keep links to often referred documents on the desktop (or other easy to reach places) as well, so these add to the clutter.
Yes - people can be more organised about their clutter - but some people are messy in a 3 dimensional way, someone would only have to look at my physical desktop to see an example. Maybe there's another way to arrange the PC environment that caters for such people, and that is what is being asked for here.
It's easy to say "tidy up", but I'd love to hear someone with a genuinely innovative idea that might adapt and assist with the way things are.
What worked with my girlfriend are two diametrically opposed games, IMHO...Grand Theft Auto III and Morrowind.
I wouldn't actually say that these games are so diametrically opposed. If you look at them both, they are both games with an underlying mission, but with the freedom to interact with the world however you like. Sure - the interaction is very different in the two games, but they both give you a lot of freedom to do your own thing, whilst still giving you a more focused objective which you can approach at your own pace.
On an old MUD I used to play the designers created quests that were insanely hard to crack.
*grin* I learned that to make a decent quest on AnotherMUD I had to make it exceptionally tough - and I learned the hard way. Nothing like seeing the players swarm over hours of preparation in no time at all, and having it go to waste.
I only managed to make one quest that was tougher than the players, and I recompensated everyone who tried it - I thought getting to the final creature was insanely difficult and the final creature itself was virtually impossible, I had to log off for a bit... When I came back all the surrounding creatures had been slaughtered, but the final creature had a big chest full of corpses and equipment from all the players who tried and failed.
The important thing any game designer should remember is to NEVER underestimate the players. Some people will go to incredible lengths to achive the impossible and go that extra mile. For an example see the Lytha way for Thief: The Dark Project.
According to my dutch friend, they give you at least 1 months wages.
Hmm - it might be the same as things are in Belgium though. Here we get paid a 13 month year, and the 13th month is at the end of November. It's not a bonus, it's part of our salary...
(Actually it's about 13.9 months a year, because we get a similar "holiday pay" in the summer - effectively we get paid double for holiday time, with half of the double pay being paid as if you're working during your holiday, and half in a lump sum in May or June...)
Bonuses are seperate to that...and at least for me are not paid around Christmas as we already have the boost from the 13th month. Do a web search for more info.
A good example of this is in the MUD called Threshold.
...
It may not be since the creator gave enhancements to those who donated money to him, which is a clear violation of just about every MUD codebase license (definitely his too, which I think was MUDOS).
*nods* I remember this MUD - I played it for a while, and quite enjoyed it, but I stopped once the creator started giving in-game benefits for donations. I remember that he claimed to have developed the entire game by himself though (including areas), so I thought he could do whatever he liked regarding donations etc - I just didn't like the idea personally. I could have been wrong though, and it could have been built on the MUDOS base as you say...
One nasty drawback to the social structure though that I remember, is that if you died for any reason, you 'forgot' everyone you previously knew and had to start building up your contacts again. Also I think you didn't know someone's name until you officially introduced yourselves which was a nice touch, but a real pain after you died, and thus didn't know who anyone was any more.
If you want a game where you can have strategy learn to play blackjack well, REALLY well. The only game where you can statistically beat the house over a LONG period of time - it just requires a graduate level degree in mathematics and statistics to do it in your head
Mmm - blackjack. It all depends on the exact house rules, but the only casino I've ever visited has quite generous rules.
Blackjack is the only game I play, and I really enjoy it when the rules are fair - also I've been quite lucky, and walked out almost every time with double (or more) of my self set limit of cash I was prepared to lose. The other occasions I kept my losses low by quitting once I lost that same amount.
Some people have said that only fools use casinos, but it can be a valid form of entertainment, and I'll never forget the buzz I felt as I took my place at the busy blackjack table for the first time! (And promptly made a mistake by trying to double when it wasn't allowed - Doh!)
Then again I don't really have an addictive nature, and I can see how it could be a really bad idea for some people to visit casinos...
Slashdot Mirror
You are forgetting one thing...oyster cards are transferrable if they are pre-pay only (and season tickets aren't transferrable for the usual reasons). See here:
-- Pete.
The cameras are the only way that the government can enforce the congestion charges. There are no toll gates or places where you are blocked until you pay - you may travel anywhere freely. Hoever, if you enter the congestion charge zone, then your number plate is recorded by the cameras and if you don't pay for that day (using any one of a number of methods), then you get fined.
-- Pete.
I would welcome rather than fear more cameras on the streets in the UK. There is one thing that privacy advocates are forgetting, for there to be an impact on your privacy there needs to be either a person at the other end of the camera, or an automated consequence.
With so many cameras, I doubt there is the manpower or the interest for someone to look at them all, only the ones that are really relevent - where a crime or suspicious behaviour has already been reported. After this the cameras are simply pointing out the facts of the situation, and are we really that afraid of facts and consequences of our actions (if those actions are illegal or suspicious)?
At the moment I feel that I trust the British government enough that this is an acceptable situation, look at the impact the congestion charges (and enforcement cameras) have had on London traffic for example.
-- Pete.
s/deflect/get mushed by/g
HTH, HAND.
-- Pete.
There is a difference - a passenger can also see the road conditions, and see your levels of concentration. I have yet to have a conversation with a passegner that didn't automatically get put on hold without me having to explicitly say so. When someone is talking on a cell phone, there is money behind the call, and people feel uncomfortable with prolonged silences, so they keep talking (and more importantly keep thinking about their conversation) - even when the road conditions get more intense.
It makes a big difference, and this why talking on a cellphone in a car is a bad idea.
-- Pete.
Hmm, I thought about that before clicking on the assiciated link, and managed to come up with 6 degrees of freedom for my single (the link uses two devices to get 6 degrees of freedom) regular mouse in 3D space...wasn't easy though.
Damn - actually that's 7, just realised I had forotten to count up/down - thought I only had 5 and came up with yaw... :)
-- Pete.
Erm - I suggest you look elsewhere...maybe the sonystyle website? If you're paying the thick end of a thousand dollars, you're either not counting in US dollars or you're being badly ripped off!
512Mb Memory Stick Pro Duo for $299 (US)
-- Pete.
Well it wasn't too bad - however I did have recurrent technical issues with it - SonyEricsson maybe a little expensive, but it was worth it for the service I received from them. I bought the T600 phone from a third party supplier, and when it stopped receiving network the third-party quoted several weeks to have it repaired, but suggested I drop by the local SonyEricsson shop to see if there was a firmware update that might fix it. SonyEricsson took it in for the afternoon, and 4 hours later when I returned just replaced it with a brand new one, no issue at all. Six months later when that also had the same problems I went back to the SonyEricsson shop, they offered to replace it with another new one, but after 2 identical failures I wanted something else so they gave me 200 euros credit towards any other phone. I now have a T610, it's a bit larger but I appreciate the bluetooth integration.
In fact I use two phones, I have dual sim cards (only one of the phones may be active at once, but I don't have to move a sim between them to keep the same number). My "work phone" is a Qtek2020, and when I'm out and about I just carry the T610. Just for reference, checking one supplier I see the Qtek2020 is retailing for around 800 euros, and the T610 is about 270 euros (from http://www.proximus.be/).
-- Pete.
Ahh - I knew the source was available for both, but I had forgotten the limitations on distribution for TeraTerm.
Thanks!
-- Pete.
I used to use TeraTerm, but a couple of years ago I switched to PuTTY and haven't looked back. Great application (and just as free as TeraTerm!).
-- Pete.
My last "it's just a phone phone" was a SonyEricsson T600. Such phones exist if you want them to. As for the vibrate before it rings, it had an editor built in for the ringtones, and that included the ability to set vibrate and lights on/off in the timing, so you could have it turn on the front light and start vibrating, then make a noise after a few seconds...
Seek and ye shall find.
-- Pete.
Hmm - that's an idea actually - how do we know that people DON'T perceive time in different ways. After all - everything you perceive ever will be at the "speed" you are used to, so to you it's normal. Maybe other people are experiencing life at a faster or slower "speed" and not realising it?
How can you ever test for such a thing? Hmm - something to think about I guess. :)
-- Pete.
I find it interesting to see the slight variations of Google...geeky although it might seem - when I type http://www.google.com/ I am thrown to http://www.google.be/, so when I really want http://www.google.com/ I type http://www.google.com./ instead of using the "Go to Google.com" button (which sends me to the google.com page with a "Go to Google Belgium" button.
The definitive address with the dot at the end introduces itself as Google English in the graphic, but still has a "Go to Google.com" button, whilst clearly being the genuine definitive http://www.google.com./...but this version doesn't have the link to Froogle... :)
Phew - that's enough links to Google for one day!
-- Pete.
The BBC has a similar story from a year ago...Peter Molyneux suggesting government help for up and coming game studios, similar to the way the film council helps the British movie industry.
-- Pete.
Yeah - I wrote my 16-digit number on the back of the card, so it's easy to find...
-- Pete.
Hmm - I would disagree - I graduated with a BEng(Hons) in Electronic Computer Systems in 1999, and we took some software courses with the BSc students. Their course was totally different to ours, and they had a very different mindset too.
My degree classification didn't seem to make much difference, but the fact that I had such a wide spectrum of knowledge in computer systems did. Yeah, I know the boom was on, but I still managed to get a good proportion of interviews (including a couple with government agencies who were far less impacted by the boom), and one company approached me without me contacting them or their recruitment agency (I still don't know how they got a copy of my CV).
Nowadays I am less focused on the technical aspects, as I manage IT processes - but I am not convinced I would have been as competent in my role without the background I have from studying an engineering degree rather than a science degree.
-- Pete.
Ooops - wrong standard answer...I'll try again...
Bugger - that doesn't fit either...wow - is this actually an Ask Slashdot where people can't bring out their old tired complaints?! What is the world coming to?!
-- Pete.
Mmmmm - coffee!
Well I don't know about the original poster, but let me think...
IE (many web applications via this)
Outlook
Word
Excel
Powerpoint
Peregrine Service Centre
Textpad
Winamp
Windows media player
RealPlayer
SQL Navigator
IrfanView
Calculator
Acrobat
Various games
ICQ
Web server applications
Hmm - that's in a typical day, and I'm sure I'm missing a few (terminal programs for a start!). There are also other programs that I use less often.
People often keep links to often referred documents on the desktop (or other easy to reach places) as well, so these add to the clutter.
Yes - people can be more organised about their clutter - but some people are messy in a 3 dimensional way, someone would only have to look at my physical desktop to see an example. Maybe there's another way to arrange the PC environment that caters for such people, and that is what is being asked for here.
It's easy to say "tidy up", but I'd love to hear someone with a genuinely innovative idea that might adapt and assist with the way things are.
-- Pete.
I wouldn't actually say that these games are so diametrically opposed. If you look at them both, they are both games with an underlying mission, but with the freedom to interact with the world however you like. Sure - the interaction is very different in the two games, but they both give you a lot of freedom to do your own thing, whilst still giving you a more focused objective which you can approach at your own pace.
-- Pete.
Despite what a lot of people seem to think, a wine is not corked by having bits of cork floating in the wine.
A "corked wine" is one that has been ruined by a cork containing TCA (Trichloranisole) - this will give the wine a nasty taste and a mouldy smell.
If you have bits of cork floating in the wine, just pick them out - the worst they'll do is give you something to chew on... ;)
-- Pete.
mantera's reply to "You can't forget "Crimson Tide"":
I guess he was just thinking ahead...it'll help to sell the edit again later if he has "extras" to include...
-- Pete.
*grin* I learned that to make a decent quest on AnotherMUD I had to make it exceptionally tough - and I learned the hard way. Nothing like seeing the players swarm over hours of preparation in no time at all, and having it go to waste.
I only managed to make one quest that was tougher than the players, and I recompensated everyone who tried it - I thought getting to the final creature was insanely difficult and the final creature itself was virtually impossible, I had to log off for a bit... When I came back all the surrounding creatures had been slaughtered, but the final creature had a big chest full of corpses and equipment from all the players who tried and failed.
The important thing any game designer should remember is to NEVER underestimate the players. Some people will go to incredible lengths to achive the impossible and go that extra mile. For an example see the Lytha way for Thief: The Dark Project.
People are crazy. ;)
-- Pete.
Hmm - it might be the same as things are in Belgium though. Here we get paid a 13 month year, and the 13th month is at the end of November. It's not a bonus, it's part of our salary...
(Actually it's about 13.9 months a year, because we get a similar "holiday pay" in the summer - effectively we get paid double for holiday time, with half of the double pay being paid as if you're working during your holiday, and half in a lump sum in May or June...)
Bonuses are seperate to that...and at least for me are not paid around Christmas as we already have the boost from the 13th month. Do a web search for more info.
-- Pete.
*nods* I remember this MUD - I played it for a while, and quite enjoyed it, but I stopped once the creator started giving in-game benefits for donations. I remember that he claimed to have developed the entire game by himself though (including areas), so I thought he could do whatever he liked regarding donations etc - I just didn't like the idea personally. I could have been wrong though, and it could have been built on the MUDOS base as you say...
One nasty drawback to the social structure though that I remember, is that if you died for any reason, you 'forgot' everyone you previously knew and had to start building up your contacts again. Also I think you didn't know someone's name until you officially introduced yourselves which was a nice touch, but a real pain after you died, and thus didn't know who anyone was any more.
Ahh - memories of mudding... :)
-- Pete.
Mmm - blackjack. It all depends on the exact house rules, but the only casino I've ever visited has quite generous rules.
Blackjack is the only game I play, and I really enjoy it when the rules are fair - also I've been quite lucky, and walked out almost every time with double (or more) of my self set limit of cash I was prepared to lose. The other occasions I kept my losses low by quitting once I lost that same amount.
Some people have said that only fools use casinos, but it can be a valid form of entertainment, and I'll never forget the buzz I felt as I took my place at the busy blackjack table for the first time! (And promptly made a mistake by trying to double when it wasn't allowed - Doh!)
Then again I don't really have an addictive nature, and I can see how it could be a really bad idea for some people to visit casinos...
-- Pete.