RSI may be another case of Ritalin and ADHD hysteria. My grandmother had it and for her it was bad. Hardly surprising when you consider that she was a 70 year old woman trying to chisle out the staples holding the curtains to the chicken house windows.
What she had was a very inflamed carpul tunnel that had to have the pressure releived. They tried first with anti-inflam medicines, but in the end she had to go under the knife.
My on the other hand have been diagnosed with carpul and RSI, but all I was doing was bike riding. Yes I know that some handle bars are prone to cause RSI and carpul, but I didn't buy that type. I got a second opinion and I was put on Ibuprofen for a few weeks.
Funny, mine went away too. Guess it wasn't RSI after all.
Odds were it was a low-level sprain or strain that a brace and drugs helped
It would depend on how they word the patent when it finally passes whether or not we should get our collective knickers in a twist.
If they are getting a patent on thier unique way of using a hard drive and support electronics to allow you to record a show while watching another, then they are justified in getting a patent on it. It is after all, thier innovation that came up with the TiVO system in the forst place and there will be copycatters if they're not carefull
On the other hand if they are getting a patent on the concept of record/watch another, then they are asking to get thier arses sued off for the next three generations. Ever hear of PiP (Picture in Picture) TV's? After all they have been doing that since the mid 80's. In order to use that feature you had to have a seperate tuner for the other channel...that usually was a VCR of some flavor. and if you have that setup, you can watch one show, record and monitor the other show as well.
If it's the first case then TiVO is well in thier rights...if it's the other case then both TiVO and the Patent Office needs a good swift kick in the scroglies with a pair of steel-toed boots.
Phoenix
This movie was pretty good, but it was made even more fun because the local theater wanted us from the local SCA/Markland group to put on a demo on heavy weapons combat.
After we played for an hour we were led to out own, private showing of the movie where we were allowed to make as much noise as we wanted to. If I went to see it by myself, I'd have liked the movie but would have been wanting more.
This is a "Go see it as a group" flick or a "Friday night, hang around, drink beer and watch silly movies" flick
Will this new MP3 Format be playable on current technology MP3 Players? I'm not talking about the software players...those are always upgradable, but I'm asking about the stand alone portable players out there. Rio, Nomad, those are the ones I'm concerned about.
I just bought a SoundsGood Audio Player add on module for my Handspring Visor and basically has it just become a paperweight?
They use no gas or oil and so don't require me to buy any expensive Petroleum Products.
They are clean, there are no fumes to pollute the air...unless I've had Mexican for lunch.
They are very quiet. This means I can mow my grass as soon as it's light without wooring about annoying my neighbors.
The use of new materials makes it no more tough to use than any other mower...in some cases easier to manuver
Safty - No worries about launching a rock at your neighbor's cat/child/BMW. If I hit aomething that it can't handle, It just stops.
They are damn easy to start. I've usually had to pull at least twice on the cord of any (new or old) mower to get it to start. My reel mower? Starts up first time, every time.
I could go on, but the only mower I like better than the reel mower is my DR Electric mower. Battery operated and will mow a couple acres on a single charge. I use it when I've been too lazy to mow and the grass grows too long for the reel
When Maryland went to 10 digit dialing there was a lot of whining and moaning about how hard it would be to adapt to it, all the headaches involved all the devices that would have to be re-configured.
Funny, two months after the fact people didn't think about it anymore.
The equipment is able to handle dialing more than 7 numbers. Alarm systems are often configured to call a 1-800 number at a central routing office. Fax machines can dial large numbers to beam a fax to China if needed. Computers...well it took me 20 seconds to switch it to my ISP's new number.
Folks, it ain't that damn hard to do and you'll adjust to it in short order.
What annoys me are the people who complain about the least little change, but when you ask "Well this is our problem (short numbers) How do we fix it to YOUR satisfaction?" Most people say "It Ain't my problem...you figure it out"
Funny, they DID figure out a solution, but everyone pisses and moans about it...you can't win.
Phoenix
BTW: About the confusion about local vs long distance dialing...Ok, that CAN get a bit confising, but you dial a number and it goes through, GREAT, if a voice says dial a "1", then just hang up and dial a "1". It's not like you have to dial long distance in an emergency (if they're in another state, what good can they do anyway?
Sadly, this is just yet another example of the abuses commonly found in our society.
A good example: I don't condone the actions of Kevin Mitnic, I feel that he needed to be brought to justice. But I have to feel sorry for him the fact that he was held for HOW long before it went to trial. That wasn't justice, that was a knee-jerk reaction to the misnamed "Hacker Conspiracy" that the media and the rest of the world are afraid of. Jeffery Dhalmer was tried and convicted in short notice.
One million for a misdemeanor...that's just wrong!
Phoenix
Re:Actually nothing has changed...
on
Mir Lives
·
· Score: 1
Well, they say that great minds think a like...wonder what's my excuse then
Actually nothing has changed...
on
Mir Lives
·
· Score: 1
It's a little more detailed than the last "Mir is crashing" story, but it says the same thing so far.
The last post said that MIR was scheduled for re-entry in late February. This post says that they have the funding to keep it up till February, after that the fate is undecided. So far it sounds like two news sources having two angles on the same story.
Typical of the news media in this country...left hand hasn't a clue what the right is doing.
My opinion, the damn thing is falling apart, it suffered major damage to its systems in the fire, mold is eating it from the inside out, it's systems are outdated, it's been up there far longer than it's designers ever planned...Let the poor bastard die and lets throw that 27 mil into some optional extras in the ISS.
Needs a entertainment system up there...DVD, Surround System, 50" TV, network to play Quake on...that sort of thing to keep the astronauts happy.
Phoenix
Oh...and a mini fridge filled with nothing but Guiness.
I have to say that I agree with K-Mart. I'm tired of these parents complaining about the games out there and saying that it's screwing up thier kids minds. This way, if the parents buy the game it's their own goddamn fault.
But in all seriousness, this is why these games are rated anyway, same as movies. As a parent, if you believe that your child has the maturity/grasp of reality not to play this game and then go postal, then by all meas buy it for your child. As a parent it is your responsibility to raise your children and not let them get raised by the Multimedia of today.
So flame me if you must (I have on my Nomex knickers) but I say More power to them and I hope that the other stores follow suit and start carrying games like they used to.
Phoenix
Does this mean that I can no longer put up my memorial to the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic? The ship that has it's keel laid three months before the Titanic's?
What the bloody hell are these people thinking? There are numerous concepts, names, places that use olympic or varations of it.
The more time passes and the more lawsuits that keep cropping up, the more the need becomes more urgent to have more suffexes for websites.
Examples: .per - Personal websites that are for untouchable by corporations. A good example of a need for this was the famous Veronica.org suit last year.
.xxx - Adult sites. Enforcement of this idea would make screening software so much more effective. And before anyone complains about the sites going along with this...the honest sites that I've talked to say that they would encourage this and would willingly go along with it
.spam - God would we love to add this to site blocker software in our E-Mail
.twp - Twp in the state of NJ is the abbriviation of township. This would be perfect for towns/cities to be able to post information. Olympia Wash. would be safe from the IOC then
And if we DID go with this plan, we would need strict enforcement of it. If you are Matel and own Barbie.com then you CAN NOT touch barbie.per or barbi.org or barbie.anything.
I'll admit that I'm at my job long past time to go home on quite a few nights. I'll even admit to coming in on my weekends to try the latest bit of technology. There's a reason for it though...I love my job. One thing that is often overlooked when people hear about how I can often put in 60 hour work weeks is the fact that my job is fun.
Working in a start-up Computer Sales and Support company often has us testing new things. A new kernel of Linux comes out and we'll order some chinese and stay till 10pm playing with it. A company asks us to build and install a client/server package and we'll stay from Friday 5pm althe way through to Saturday 10pm, stress testing it (playing Q3A...that's a good system test isn't it?). Later if someone brings in his TV and DVD player.
On the other hand, we do get tired, or just want to head to the beach, visit family, or even just say "Guys, have fun, but I'm crispy...I'm out of here." and the boss accepts that. He knows that if it were truely important, We'd be there. Either that or he knows that we've put in too many hours that week already and just are too burnt out to handle overtime and will let us go and get some decompression time and a straight 8 hours of sleep.
When we do take out time off, we totally cut off from work. Again out boss knows this and will ask if we took a pager. If we did he knows that we are available if really needed. If not he knows not to even trying to call us as we often are not anywhere near a phone (I often hike the Applachain Trail in mid spring.
It works well in small businesses, now if we can get the pointy haired managers in large corporations to do the same, it'll be a much better workforce
Granted this is easy to beat for those of us who actually take the time to learn how our software does what it does. Alas on the other hand there are far too many people whom just learn the limited functions of software that they use and ignore the rest. Many people I work with don't know about things like history lists or holding down the back button to get the last 15 sites. Three people I know don't even know that that the location box is for typing in URL's manually, they always go to where they have to go either from thier home pages from thier ISP's or by bookmarks that they created.
I think that these are the kind of people that these sites are trying to entrap and detain. It's a pretty sleazy trick that preys on the ignorance of functionaly computer illiterate.
It's one of the many tricks that they pull on the kind of people who can't even spell URL
Phoenix "The universe is a gun, and they're pointing it at me"
Actually a good point was made by my Mother who sent me this article. If intent can't be proven, it should be manslaughter. However Murder or Manslaughter, there ought to be a charge of treason. The person in New Jersey who wrote and released the Melissa virus should have been brought up on charges for the damage he did to the USMC's E-Mail servers...totally shut them down till the viruss could be cleared out. Admittidly E-Mail service isn't meant for secure information but the fact remains that the person performed a disruption in a US Government service.
Ought to work in the case of 'accidently' killing an astronaut too.
Bloody well ought to be murder in my opinion...or at the very least(and I MEAN very least) it should be First Degree Manslaughter. Goddess forbid but can you imagine the hellstorm that would have spawned in the media if the Challenger disaster was discovered to have been caused by a script kiddie?
Personally if these jokers want to have fun cracking systems, why don't they get into teams and crack eachother's systems. Make it a contest. Is Billy's new firewall able to withstand Mollie's attacks? At least they'd learn a marketable skill of defending systems.
As for why the 'ell are these fscking morons are posting they mission critical systems on the 'net is simple...they are fscking morons. I'm half expecting to hear about the school that was nuked by some packet monkey not wanting to have to take that test.
I'm a member of the Angels Online program. A group that lurks in chatrooms and other areas where sex offenders like to hide and stalk women and children...anyone in fact. We usually keep an eye out for anyone who is having problems and then help them to use the many tools at their disposal and hunt these people back to the ISP.
In my online profile on ICQ I list myself as a 11 year old and as a result, got the same message.
I see no way Mirabillis can enforce this without major changes in thier practices, but it's nice to see them try...feeble as the attempt may by, but it's a start.
The real reason Lucas snubbed DVD is that DVD didn't use his precious THX standard and instead went to Dolby's new AC3 sound standard. He's had a hissy fit about that since day one of DVD. Lucas Films is currently one of the last (if not THE last) film companies to start producing DVD's. If this was just about the Star Wars movies and money making, then where's the Indiana Jones movies? After Last Crusade there were no more plans to make any more...so why not release them?
He's just being a baby about his sound standard now being obsolete.
Phoenix
BTW: Wasn't THX just Dolby Pro Logic with Lucas's stamp of aproval on everything...including the smegging cables?
We're not picturing that other person. We're picturing OURSELVES in this situation. Like a guy who's assmebled computers for a living for years having absoloutely no luck getting a computer to boot up, only to find out, after severe, agonizing troubleshooting, that he's forgotten to plug the power supply into the motherboard.
Amen! Goddess knows how many times that's happened to me, or (with the customer watching) hooking every cable up and tightning it down properly, push the button only to realize you forgot the power cable. It happens, it's dumb, and if we're at any level human, we laugh at it. Heck, the customer laughs at the situation with the realization that even the "Smart" guys can fsck it up too.
Good points here. There is a major difference between those that don't know and are willing to try, and those that don't know and don't wan't to know. Your 40 year old is the type of person I just love to deal with. They may not know the answers, but they try that which makes sense. It may be dead wrong to those of us who know how it works, but if you think about from a newbie POV, it makes sense to try the zoom feature to try to get bigger fonts. It's wrong, but a damn good guess.
You see, those are the people who TRY to learn. Those are the people who aren't afraid to try something out. Those are the people who are just like I used to be many years ago learning about computers. I'm sure that many of us out there has at some time tried to do something and totally fubar-ed up your OS of choice. Goddess knows I've screwed up Windows 3x, 9x, and Linux more times that I can count, but that never stopped me from re-installing it and looking up what I did and learning what the proper way to do it is.
On the other hand, there are those out there who are at best indefferent to learning technology, or at worse, just plain stupid. These are the people who fold up 5.25 floppies and jam them into 3.5 drives. People who buy a Sony Mavica Camers and ask if it's ok to take the disk out in daylight. People who sit there and say "I don't know who to make a machine do something it's not supposed to, and bitch out the person who tells me it can't do that." Case in point, a person who wants to be able to record to the 100 pack of CD-r's she bought, on her 40x CD-Rom and not have to buy a CD-R drive. I got reamed for that and she called my boss and bitched some more.
That's the type I have no qualms about laughing at.
While yes, laughing at the technologically impared, IS like laughing at a child learning how to read. But on the other hand, is there any form of humor that doesn't make fun of something? That's the nature of humor. Something out of the ordinary is poked fun at. Even the old joke "Why did the chicken cross the road...to get to the otherside" joke pokes fun at a person's attempt to find the 'funny' answer only to find that it's the obvious answer.
If you look deeply into any humor, you will find that there is now way that you can avoid ofending anyone. How many of you out there can remember your parents laughing at something you did as a child that hurt your feelings? How many of you have laughed at something your kids did later on in life?
The real issue here is the fact that we as a society, seem to have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves. I read userfriendly and I remember my growing pains in learning the PC. The reason I enjoy it is because I can remember the days when I was that clueless newbie. I can remember falling down off my bike as a child and scraping across 15 ft of gravel, looking up at my mom (whom I was racing) and saying "I won". It still hurt like hell, but I was STILL able to look on the bright side of it. If more of us could do that, then the world would be a better place.
We need to learn to laugh at ourselves again. It's as simple as that.
BTW: The rest of the UserFriendly comic posted in his rant was the customer saying "You don't know if I'm being stupid or being smart do you?"
I know that the quality is not photo grade, and I know that it is just for those "Suspected" people out there, but consider this... How long will it take before it is a standard feature to pass through everytime you fly? The quality is low...for now. How long will it take before the resolution gets better? What then? For the chap who thinks that there is nothing wrong with being naked, I respect and share your belief that the human body is a beautiful thing, but would you like pics posted to the porn channels without your permission? Or your childs pics sent to pedo sites? Also, I'd prefer to get to where I'm going safely as much as you would, but you must consider this, Cameras were used to watch stores to protect inventory, now they are watching the streets and in some areas (this is a documented issue) can tilt,pan, and zoom into windows. Metal detectors were used to protect airports, and now are in many schools (including the one I graduated from - and it's an upper class school). The government has (and won't admit to having) computers that scan our E-Mail to watch for key words. It has started...it will not end here unless WE make a stand against our diminishing right to privacy. Phoenix Speaking about that e-mail scanner out there, I must send out another E-Mail to my mom about the movies that I have seen reciently that bombed at the box office and my thoughts on the fate of the nuclear family, and about the new household chemicals that are really good at cleaning a microwave after a potato blew up after it got nuked for too long. That ought to get its attention eh?
I've heard some interesting points made on both sides of this debate. On one hand, It is a good thing that they are trying to take steps to make airports safer in this era of mad bombers and other psycho head cases. But is it a good to perform an electronic strip search on everyone who passes through an airport? I don't think so.
There are laws that prevent unlawful search and seazure, and I think this steps overthe line. I understand the need to scan my luggage, I don't mind. I understand the need to have me pass through a metal detector, that's cool also. But to have to (in effect) stand naked infront of someone I don't know and don't know his/her mental state creeps me out. And that is what you have to do...someone who may or may not have perverted intentions, will be staring at your naked body as you pass by. Think of the other issue...what if someone monitoring the system were to sneak in a camera, take a few shots, and posts the pics on the internet. LAWSUIT TIME!
The question is this...do you want to risk shots of your husband/wife being posted to a.b.p.e.voyeurism? Or your teenager to a.b.p.e.Teens? Or perhaps your child on the pedophile groups? Is that level of security (considering that today's is very good as it stands) worth your naked image set as a background for some spotty, zit-faced, fat, no-lifed, sexual retard's computer where he can wank off to it like monkeys at the zoo?
Didn't think so... Phoenix
"The universe is a gun, and they're pointing it at me"
Well, admittedly no one can truely replace Desmond as Q, but John Cleese will make a wonderful successor. He has the wit, and the sarcasm to deal with the childish antics of 007. Oh well, Desmond is up in heaven right now...I can almost hear him saying "Now pay attention God. this here is standard mark 4 universe complete with the usuall refinements. Stars, planets, pulsars...DON'T TOUCH THAT! That's a black hole creator"
Good = We'll be able to eliminate the need for transplant doners and the risk of rejection. Bad = We'll be able to clone and open a can of worms on the moral issue there. Good = We will find a way to treat/eliminate certain genetic disorders Bad = We'll be able to eliminate genetic mutation which is needed for evolution Good = We can cure mental disorders Bad = We can eliminate 'bad' traits There is no dark side to the Genome Project. It is simply Information. The good or evil will come from it's use/misuse. Yes, it may give us the ability to treat genetic disorders such as heridatary alcoholism, but on the other hand it can also be used to 'cure' traits considered 'bad'. Rebelion for example. Is it truely a bad thing? Rebelion could be as simple as deciding that the current ways of thinking are wrong and doing one's darndest to prove it (Eintein for example) to the more profound like those who decide that the government is screwed and needs to be replaced (us 200+ years ago)
All this bullmerde could be solved by adding more.suffixes to the addressing system and force people to stay within them. For example:.per/.fun - Personal websites that exist for no other reason than to be a fan page, a site to promote your creations (art, software, etc), or to just express yourself.com - Sites with the purpose to make money, or to promote a company.org - Not for Profit sites...and make damn sure that commercial companies can't even own the damn things unless they have NFP information.spam - Any site that exists to send out unsolicited E-Mail.I'd love to see sites like this to exist just so I can bloody set my E-Mail to filter it all..xxx - Any porn site. This would allow intelligent filtering by child protection software And any others as needed. If we could keep everyone in these domain suffixes, we could make life easier for everyone. As it stands, I have a website that I'm not registering for fear of conflicts out there. There are three choices I could use, My name (it's used already as a.com, but if I did it as.net would this person sue?), my content (Trademarked...it's a fan page), or the safe one of "[ISP name]].net/[username] Call me a ccoward, but I don't need the bloody headache a domain fight would cause me. Phoenix (I didn't post my site name because it isn't ready yet...I will post no HTML before it's ready...besides that damn dynamic HTML crap is giving me a bloody fit)
Slashdot Mirror
RSI may be another case of Ritalin and ADHD hysteria. My grandmother had it and for her it was bad. Hardly surprising when you consider that she was a 70 year old woman trying to chisle out the staples holding the curtains to the chicken house windows.
What she had was a very inflamed carpul tunnel that had to have the pressure releived. They tried first with anti-inflam medicines, but in the end she had to go under the knife.
My on the other hand have been diagnosed with carpul and RSI, but all I was doing was bike riding. Yes I know that some handle bars are prone to cause RSI and carpul, but I didn't buy that type. I got a second opinion and I was put on Ibuprofen for a few weeks.
Funny, mine went away too. Guess it wasn't RSI after all.
Odds were it was a low-level sprain or strain that a brace and drugs helped
My two centi-cred
Phoenix
It would depend on how they word the patent when it finally passes whether or not we should get our collective knickers in a twist. If they are getting a patent on thier unique way of using a hard drive and support electronics to allow you to record a show while watching another, then they are justified in getting a patent on it. It is after all, thier innovation that came up with the TiVO system in the forst place and there will be copycatters if they're not carefull On the other hand if they are getting a patent on the concept of record/watch another, then they are asking to get thier arses sued off for the next three generations. Ever hear of PiP (Picture in Picture) TV's? After all they have been doing that since the mid 80's. In order to use that feature you had to have a seperate tuner for the other channel...that usually was a VCR of some flavor. and if you have that setup, you can watch one show, record and monitor the other show as well. If it's the first case then TiVO is well in thier rights...if it's the other case then both TiVO and the Patent Office needs a good swift kick in the scroglies with a pair of steel-toed boots. Phoenix
This movie was pretty good, but it was made even more fun because the local theater wanted us from the local SCA/Markland group to put on a demo on heavy weapons combat.
After we played for an hour we were led to out own, private showing of the movie where we were allowed to make as much noise as we wanted to. If I went to see it by myself, I'd have liked the movie but would have been wanting more.
This is a "Go see it as a group" flick or a "Friday night, hang around, drink beer and watch silly movies" flick
Phoenix
Will this new MP3 Format be playable on current technology MP3 Players? I'm not talking about the software players...those are always upgradable, but I'm asking about the stand alone portable players out there. Rio, Nomad, those are the ones I'm concerned about.
I just bought a SoundsGood Audio Player add on module for my Handspring Visor and basically has it just become a paperweight?
I don't think so.
They use no gas or oil and so don't require me to buy any expensive Petroleum Products.
They are clean, there are no fumes to pollute the air...unless I've had Mexican for lunch.
They are very quiet. This means I can mow my grass as soon as it's light without wooring about annoying my neighbors.
The use of new materials makes it no more tough to use than any other mower...in some cases easier to manuver
Safty - No worries about launching a rock at your neighbor's cat/child/BMW. If I hit aomething that it can't handle, It just stops.
They are damn easy to start. I've usually had to pull at least twice on the cord of any (new or old) mower to get it to start. My reel mower? Starts up first time, every time.
I could go on, but the only mower I like better than the reel mower is my DR Electric mower. Battery operated and will mow a couple acres on a single charge. I use it when I've been too lazy to mow and the grass grows too long for the reel
Just my 2 centi-cred
Phoenix
When Maryland went to 10 digit dialing there was a lot of whining and moaning about how hard it would be to adapt to it, all the headaches involved all the devices that would have to be re-configured.
Funny, two months after the fact people didn't think about it anymore.
The equipment is able to handle dialing more than 7 numbers. Alarm systems are often configured to call a 1-800 number at a central routing office. Fax machines can dial large numbers to beam a fax to China if needed. Computers...well it took me 20 seconds to switch it to my ISP's new number.
Folks, it ain't that damn hard to do and you'll adjust to it in short order.
What annoys me are the people who complain about the least little change, but when you ask "Well this is our problem (short numbers) How do we fix it to YOUR satisfaction?" Most people say "It Ain't my problem...you figure it out"
Funny, they DID figure out a solution, but everyone pisses and moans about it...you can't win.
Phoenix
BTW: About the confusion about local vs long distance dialing...Ok, that CAN get a bit confising, but you dial a number and it goes through, GREAT, if a voice says dial a "1", then just hang up and dial a "1". It's not like you have to dial long distance in an emergency (if they're in another state, what good can they do anyway?
Sadly, this is just yet another example of the abuses commonly found in our society.
A good example: I don't condone the actions of Kevin Mitnic, I feel that he needed to be brought to justice. But I have to feel sorry for him the fact that he was held for HOW long before it went to trial. That wasn't justice, that was a knee-jerk reaction to the misnamed "Hacker Conspiracy" that the media and the rest of the world are afraid of. Jeffery Dhalmer was tried and convicted in short notice.
One million for a misdemeanor...that's just wrong!
Phoenix
Well, they say that great minds think a like...wonder what's my excuse then
It's a little more detailed than the last "Mir is crashing" story, but it says the same thing so far. The last post said that MIR was scheduled for re-entry in late February. This post says that they have the funding to keep it up till February, after that the fate is undecided. So far it sounds like two news sources having two angles on the same story. Typical of the news media in this country...left hand hasn't a clue what the right is doing. My opinion, the damn thing is falling apart, it suffered major damage to its systems in the fire, mold is eating it from the inside out, it's systems are outdated, it's been up there far longer than it's designers ever planned...Let the poor bastard die and lets throw that 27 mil into some optional extras in the ISS. Needs a entertainment system up there...DVD, Surround System, 50" TV, network to play Quake on...that sort of thing to keep the astronauts happy. Phoenix Oh...and a mini fridge filled with nothing but Guiness.
I have to say that I agree with K-Mart. I'm tired of these parents complaining about the games out there and saying that it's screwing up thier kids minds. This way, if the parents buy the game it's their own goddamn fault. But in all seriousness, this is why these games are rated anyway, same as movies. As a parent, if you believe that your child has the maturity/grasp of reality not to play this game and then go postal, then by all meas buy it for your child. As a parent it is your responsibility to raise your children and not let them get raised by the Multimedia of today. So flame me if you must (I have on my Nomex knickers) but I say More power to them and I hope that the other stores follow suit and start carrying games like they used to. Phoenix
Does this mean that I can no longer put up my memorial to the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic? The ship that has it's keel laid three months before the Titanic's?
What the bloody hell are these people thinking? There are numerous concepts, names, places that use olympic or varations of it.
The more time passes and the more lawsuits that keep cropping up, the more the need becomes more urgent to have more suffexes for websites.
Examples:
.per - Personal websites that are for untouchable by corporations. A good example of a need for this was the famous Veronica.org suit last year.
.xxx - Adult sites. Enforcement of this idea would make screening software so much more effective. And before anyone complains about the sites going along with this...the honest sites that I've talked to say that they would encourage this and would willingly go along with it
.spam - God would we love to add this to site blocker software in our E-Mail
.twp - Twp in the state of NJ is the abbriviation of township. This would be perfect for towns/cities to be able to post information. Olympia Wash. would be safe from the IOC then
And if we DID go with this plan, we would need strict enforcement of it. If you are Matel and own Barbie.com then you CAN NOT touch barbie.per or barbi.org or barbie.anything.
Just my 2 centicred.
I'll admit that I'm at my job long past time to go home on quite a few nights. I'll even admit to coming in on my weekends to try the latest bit of technology. There's a reason for it though...I love my job. One thing that is often overlooked when people hear about how I can often put in 60 hour work weeks is the fact that my job is fun.
Working in a start-up Computer Sales and Support company often has us testing new things. A new kernel of Linux comes out and we'll order some chinese and stay till 10pm playing with it. A company asks us to build and install a client/server package and we'll stay from Friday 5pm althe way through to Saturday 10pm, stress testing it (playing Q3A...that's a good system test isn't it?). Later if someone brings in his TV and DVD player.
On the other hand, we do get tired, or just want to head to the beach, visit family, or even just say "Guys, have fun, but I'm crispy...I'm out of here." and the boss accepts that. He knows that if it were truely important, We'd be there. Either that or he knows that we've put in too many hours that week already and just are too burnt out to handle overtime and will let us go and get some decompression time and a straight 8 hours of sleep.
When we do take out time off, we totally cut off from work. Again out boss knows this and will ask if we took a pager. If we did he knows that we are available if really needed. If not he knows not to even trying to call us as we often are not anywhere near a phone (I often hike the Applachain Trail in mid spring.
It works well in small businesses, now if we can get the pointy haired managers in large corporations to do the same, it'll be a much better workforce
Granted this is easy to beat for those of us who actually take the time to learn how our software does what it does. Alas on the other hand there are far too many people whom just learn the limited functions of software that they use and ignore the rest. Many people I work with don't know about things like history lists or holding down the back button to get the last 15 sites. Three people I know don't even know that that the location box is for typing in URL's manually, they always go to where they have to go either from thier home pages from thier ISP's or by bookmarks that they created.
I think that these are the kind of people that these sites are trying to entrap and detain. It's a pretty sleazy trick that preys on the ignorance of functionaly computer illiterate.
It's one of the many tricks that they pull on the kind of people who can't even spell URL
Phoenix
"The universe is a gun, and they're pointing it at me"
Actually a good point was made by my Mother who sent me this article. If intent can't be proven, it should be manslaughter. However Murder or Manslaughter, there ought to be a charge of treason. The person in New Jersey who wrote and released the Melissa virus should have been brought up on charges for the damage he did to the USMC's E-Mail servers...totally shut them down till the viruss could be cleared out. Admittidly E-Mail service isn't meant for secure information but the fact remains that the person performed a disruption in a US Government service.
Ought to work in the case of 'accidently' killing an astronaut too.
Bloody well ought to be murder in my opinion...or at the very least(and I MEAN very least) it should be First Degree Manslaughter. Goddess forbid but can you imagine the hellstorm that would have spawned in the media if the Challenger disaster was discovered to have been caused by a script kiddie?
Personally if these jokers want to have fun cracking systems, why don't they get into teams and crack eachother's systems. Make it a contest. Is Billy's new firewall able to withstand Mollie's attacks? At least they'd learn a marketable skill of defending systems.
As for why the 'ell are these fscking morons are posting they mission critical systems on the 'net is simple...they are fscking morons. I'm half expecting to hear about the school that was nuked by some packet monkey not wanting to have to take that test.
I'm a member of the Angels Online program. A group that lurks in chatrooms and other areas where sex offenders like to hide and stalk women and children...anyone in fact. We usually keep an eye out for anyone who is having problems and then help them to use the many tools at their disposal and hunt these people back to the ISP.
In my online profile on ICQ I list myself as a 11 year old and as a result, got the same message.
I see no way Mirabillis can enforce this without major changes in thier practices, but it's nice to see them try...feeble as the attempt may by, but it's a start.
The real reason Lucas snubbed DVD is that DVD didn't use his precious THX standard and instead went to Dolby's new AC3 sound standard. He's had a hissy fit about that since day one of DVD. Lucas Films is currently one of the last (if not THE last) film companies to start producing DVD's. If this was just about the Star Wars movies and money making, then where's the Indiana Jones movies? After Last Crusade there were no more plans to make any more...so why not release them?
He's just being a baby about his sound standard now being obsolete.
Phoenix
BTW: Wasn't THX just Dolby Pro Logic with Lucas's stamp of aproval on everything...including the smegging cables?
We're not picturing that other person. We're picturing OURSELVES in this situation. Like a guy who's assmebled computers for a living for years having absoloutely no luck getting a computer to boot up, only to find out, after severe, agonizing troubleshooting, that he's forgotten to plug the power supply into the motherboard.
Amen! Goddess knows how many times that's happened to me, or (with the customer watching) hooking every cable up and tightning it down properly, push the button only to realize you forgot the power cable. It happens, it's dumb, and if we're at any level human, we laugh at it. Heck, the customer laughs at the situation with the realization that even the "Smart" guys can fsck it up too.
Good points here. There is a major difference between those that don't know and are willing to try, and those that don't know and don't wan't to know. Your 40 year old is the type of person I just love to deal with. They may not know the answers, but they try that which makes sense. It may be dead wrong to those of us who know how it works, but if you think about from a newbie POV, it makes sense to try the zoom feature to try to get bigger fonts. It's wrong, but a damn good guess.
You see, those are the people who TRY to learn. Those are the people who aren't afraid to try something out. Those are the people who are just like I used to be many years ago learning about computers. I'm sure that many of us out there has at some time tried to do something and totally fubar-ed up your OS of choice. Goddess knows I've screwed up Windows 3x, 9x, and Linux more times that I can count, but that never stopped me from re-installing it and looking up what I did and learning what the proper way to do it is.
On the other hand, there are those out there who are at best indefferent to learning technology, or at worse, just plain stupid. These are the people who fold up 5.25 floppies and jam them into 3.5 drives. People who buy a Sony Mavica Camers and ask if it's ok to take the disk out in daylight. People who sit there and say "I don't know who to make a machine do something it's not supposed to, and bitch out the person who tells me it can't do that." Case in point, a person who wants to be able to record to the 100 pack of CD-r's she bought, on her 40x CD-Rom and not have to buy a CD-R drive. I got reamed for that and she called my boss and bitched some more.
That's the type I have no qualms about laughing at.
While yes, laughing at the technologically impared, IS like laughing at a child learning how to read. But on the other hand, is there any form of humor that doesn't make fun of something? That's the nature of humor. Something out of the ordinary is poked fun at. Even the old joke "Why did the chicken cross the road...to get to the otherside" joke pokes fun at a person's attempt to find the 'funny' answer only to find that it's the obvious answer.
If you look deeply into any humor, you will find that there is now way that you can avoid ofending anyone. How many of you out there can remember your parents laughing at something you did as a child that hurt your feelings? How many of you have laughed at something your kids did later on in life?
The real issue here is the fact that we as a society, seem to have lost the ability to laugh at ourselves. I read userfriendly and I remember my growing pains in learning the PC. The reason I enjoy it is because I can remember the days when I was that clueless newbie. I can remember falling down off my bike as a child and scraping across 15 ft of gravel, looking up at my mom (whom I was racing) and saying "I won". It still hurt like hell, but I was STILL able to look on the bright side of it. If more of us could do that, then the world would be a better place.
We need to learn to laugh at ourselves again. It's as simple as that.
BTW: The rest of the UserFriendly comic posted in his rant was the customer saying "You don't know if I'm being stupid or being smart do you?"
I know that the quality is not photo grade, and I know that it is just for those "Suspected" people out there, but consider this... How long will it take before it is a standard feature to pass through everytime you fly? The quality is low...for now. How long will it take before the resolution gets better? What then? For the chap who thinks that there is nothing wrong with being naked, I respect and share your belief that the human body is a beautiful thing, but would you like pics posted to the porn channels without your permission? Or your childs pics sent to pedo sites? Also, I'd prefer to get to where I'm going safely as much as you would, but you must consider this, Cameras were used to watch stores to protect inventory, now they are watching the streets and in some areas (this is a documented issue) can tilt,pan, and zoom into windows. Metal detectors were used to protect airports, and now are in many schools (including the one I graduated from - and it's an upper class school). The government has (and won't admit to having) computers that scan our E-Mail to watch for key words. It has started...it will not end here unless WE make a stand against our diminishing right to privacy. Phoenix Speaking about that e-mail scanner out there, I must send out another E-Mail to my mom about the movies that I have seen reciently that bombed at the box office and my thoughts on the fate of the nuclear family, and about the new household chemicals that are really good at cleaning a microwave after a potato blew up after it got nuked for too long. That ought to get its attention eh?
I've heard some interesting points made on both sides of this debate. On one hand, It is a good thing that they are trying to take steps to make airports safer in this era of mad bombers and other psycho head cases. But is it a good to perform an electronic strip search on everyone who passes through an airport? I don't think so.
There are laws that prevent unlawful search and seazure, and I think this steps overthe line. I understand the need to scan my luggage, I don't mind. I understand the need to have me pass through a metal detector, that's cool also. But to have to (in effect) stand naked infront of someone I don't know and don't know his/her mental state creeps me out. And that is what you have to do...someone who may or may not have perverted intentions, will be staring at your naked body as you pass by. Think of the other issue...what if someone monitoring the system were to sneak in a camera, take a few shots, and posts the pics on the internet. LAWSUIT TIME!
The question is this...do you want to risk shots of your husband/wife being posted to a.b.p.e.voyeurism? Or your teenager to a.b.p.e.Teens? Or perhaps your child on the pedophile groups? Is that level of security (considering that today's is very good as it stands) worth your naked image set as a background for some spotty, zit-faced, fat, no-lifed, sexual retard's computer where he can wank off to it like monkeys at the zoo?
Didn't think so...
Phoenix
"The universe is a gun, and they're pointing it at me"
Well, admittedly no one can truely replace Desmond as Q, but John Cleese will make a wonderful successor. He has the wit, and the sarcasm to deal with the childish antics of 007. Oh well, Desmond is up in heaven right now...I can almost hear him saying "Now pay attention God. this here is standard mark 4 universe complete with the usuall refinements. Stars, planets, pulsars...DON'T TOUCH THAT! That's a black hole creator"
Good = We'll be able to eliminate the need for transplant doners and the risk of rejection. Bad = We'll be able to clone and open a can of worms on the moral issue there. Good = We will find a way to treat/eliminate certain genetic disorders Bad = We'll be able to eliminate genetic mutation which is needed for evolution Good = We can cure mental disorders Bad = We can eliminate 'bad' traits There is no dark side to the Genome Project. It is simply Information. The good or evil will come from it's use/misuse. Yes, it may give us the ability to treat genetic disorders such as heridatary alcoholism, but on the other hand it can also be used to 'cure' traits considered 'bad'. Rebelion for example. Is it truely a bad thing? Rebelion could be as simple as deciding that the current ways of thinking are wrong and doing one's darndest to prove it (Eintein for example) to the more profound like those who decide that the government is screwed and needs to be replaced (us 200+ years ago)
All this bullmerde could be solved by adding more .suffixes to the addressing system and force people to stay within them. For example: .per/.fun - Personal websites that exist for no other reason than to be a fan page, a site to promote your creations (art, software, etc), or to just express yourself .com - Sites with the purpose to make money, or to promote a company .org - Not for Profit sites...and make damn sure that commercial companies can't even own the damn things unless they have NFP information .spam - Any site that exists to send out unsolicited E-Mail.I'd love to see sites like this to exist just so I can bloody set my E-Mail to filter it all. .xxx - Any porn site. This would allow intelligent filtering by child protection software And any others as needed. If we could keep everyone in these domain suffixes, we could make life easier for everyone. As it stands, I have a website that I'm not registering for fear of conflicts out there. There are three choices I could use, My name (it's used already as a .com, but if I did it as .net would this person sue?), my content (Trademarked...it's a fan page), or the safe one of "[ISP name]].net/[username] Call me a ccoward, but I don't need the bloody headache a domain fight would cause me. Phoenix (I didn't post my site name because it isn't ready yet...I will post no HTML before it's ready...besides that damn dynamic HTML crap is giving me a bloody fit)