I once won a Celestron FirstScope as a door prize at an astronomy club meeting. Its size and shape might make it a nice instrument for a child to call their own. However, the view it provided was about what you'd expect for $49 retail -- not particularly good. When I donated it to a friend for his kids to use, I wondered afterward if I did him a disservice by giving it to him. His kids might take a look through the thing and think "that's it??" and lose interest in the hobby. Then again, maybe an inquisitive child wouldn't mind. I'm a jaded old geezer and my sense of wonder isn't what it used to be.
In my opinion, good steps are:
- Don't buy a cheap telescope. - Find a local astronomy club and go to one of their outings. Every club I've encountered has enthusiastically welcomed visitors and new members. I was hooked when I got my first view of M42 through an 18" Obsession. Clubs are a great way to see what the hobby offers and experience a lot of nice equipment without spending any of your hard-earned money first. A lot of clubs even offer free loaner scopes to members. - Buy "NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe" and/or "Turn Left at Orion" - Get a pair of decent binoculars. You'll have them forever and they have uses beyond astronomy if interest wanes. - The "Zero Gravity" folding lawn chairs that you can get at Walmart and other places are awesome for using binoculars. You can lay almost flat with them and they are very comfortable. It's much easier to hold heavy binoculars and avoid straining your neck when you're reclined that far. - Get several *red* LED flashlights. They'll preserve your night vision when you're in the field, and kids might think it's neat to have their own to use. You can find cheap plastic ones that have a dimmer built in and run off 9V batteries, with a lanyard to wear around your neck. They're great. - Warm clothes and boots. You'd be surprised how cold you can get when sitting motionless in an empty field at night.
After that I'd look at buying a basic 6" dobsonian. It's big enough to see some interesting things but still relatively easy to manage. The largest piece in an Orion XT6 weighs less than 21 pounds. Personally I would skip the fancy add ons like digital setting circles. Spend your money on good eyepieces instead. Hunting through the sky without assistance can be a lot of fun. With a 6" dob you might also want to get an "astronomy observing chair"; these specialty chairs can quickly adjust their height and make it easy to sit close to the eyepiece and observe comfortably.
Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?
^^ This a million times. If you don't like Comcast, TWC, etc., give them the middle finger and cancel your TV service. Put up a decent antenna, perhaps buy a TiVo if you want a turnkey DVR appliance with a good UI (and pay their outrageous one-time service fee), and enjoy your uncompressed HD content from all the major broadcast networks.
I'm *still* stuck paying into the local cable monopoly to get internet access, but I'm paying them a lot less than I was before. It didn't take me long to break even on my antenna/wiring/tivo/etc costs.
I'm seriously asking here, in what ways did the TJ or JK step backwards in terms of durability?
I drive a JKU (top off doors off == love) and I've noticed that the sheet metal is awfully thin, especially the door skins. It's disappointing, and I bet older models weren't like this. Gotta admit though, I do like my frou-frou steering wheel controls and bluetooth audio streaming.
While I'd love to see them resign in protest, I'm not surprised that they don't, because the monkeysphere is real (http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html).
Agreed. Random access on the e-readers I've used sucks compared to flipping a few pages on a paper book. I'd never want to read reference material on my Kindle
That said, for linear content (novels) I love my Kindle and haven't bought a paperback novel in years.
Nothing to add other than that I have a 2010 Genesis with the V8, owned it since new, and I love it. Great power and amenities for the money and the post-sale service has been good.
The geek in me would rather have a Tesla but I've never regretted buying "Jenny".
There is quite a huge market for frivolous items which make your character "look cool". It was a long time ago that I played World of Warcraft, but there was a certain % of people who paid vast sums of in-game money for basically cosmetic reasons. Similarly, Valve's Hat Fortress 2 has had great success in selling purely cosmetic items.
Yup, vanity is alive and well in these games.
In World of Warcraft there's now a "transmogrification" feature where you can apply the look of older gear to your current gear. It lets your character continue to look cool after a new expansion comes out and you're replacing your awesome looking epics with ugly vendor trash. The transmog feature costs some in-game gold to use but not much in the grand scheme of things. Some players spend a great deal of time running old dungeons to get gear for the purpose of acquiring a certain look.
Then there's a huge market for pets (critters that follow you around and do nothing useful), mounts (critters that you ride to travel more quickly, and some look better than others, but they almost all fly/travel the same speed), etc...
Sorry I was being trollish. My spouse actually likes the series quite a bit, much to my dismay. I have tried on several occasions and it is simply too childish for me. I can't understand how a college educated woman can read what is maybe a year further along than one fish two fish.
I tried to watch some of the movies and they were just as bad. I watched one quite drunk and that made it pretty manageable.
It's just plain fun!
Maybe she finds intellectual stimulation in other areas of her life. It's nice to be able to relax and read a story without putting a lot of thought into it. I've met people who only read "literature" and look down on works like Harry Potter, and I think those people are nuts.
For what it's worth, the Potter series did get darker as it went on, as if it was aging along with its initial audience. It didn't end happily ever after for all the characters.
Having people at work during those 8 hours per day means they're available to provide service all day whenever a customer comes calling, so there's certainly advantages to the 40 hour week. Not so sure how well it would work if my barber or grocer only worked 3 hours a day...
Still, you're right, certain types of work, especially creative / knowledge work where you need "think time", do not benefit from 8-9 hour days at the office. One can think just as well (or better) at home or on a fishing boat. I get some of my best ideas in the shower, and my traditional employer considers me "not working" during that time.
Indeed. On large software products like those Microsoft is famous for, is often necessary not to know how every component of product works at a detail level. There are abstractions in place to allow the work to be easily divided amongst a large number of developers, and you typically won't know the implementation details of modules that you didn't have a hand in creating. There's simply too much code for anyone to truly know how everything works. "I don't know" is often the right answer.
That is, unless you're actually responsible for the implementation detail in question. If you don't understand your own code then you are going to a special hell reserved for H1B sponsors and people who talk at the theater.
End consumer (commoners) always end up paying, one way or another, in all situations. Nothing new there.
Sometimes I think that instead of being a obedient sheep, waking up early, working 10 hours and generally being exploited while barely having enough for comfortable "life", I should turn to let's say.. victimless crime*.
(*) = As a programmer, that would be let's say hacking wordpress sites and selling them to someone or using them to make a profit.
If you're working a middle class job in western society and you are healthy, your greatest burden is probably deciding what you want to eat for dinner. The standard of living you enjoy is higher than what most people have endured since humans began walking the earth. Your life or the life of someone you love has probably been saved at least once by the pharmaceutical companies you rail against.
And on what planet is "hacking wordpress sites and selling them to someone or using them to make a profit" a victimless crime? That wordpress site belongs to somebody. Perhaps somebody whose life is not as good as yours.
I agree with your points about perpetual copyright. It pisses me off to no end. But free water?
Water is clean in the ground. Well water is often not treated at all before consumption. Go out to the country and talk to people who have wells.
The GP's point is still valid. Clean water is not free. I used to live in the country and paid to have a well put in when I built my house.
- Costs big bucks to drill the well, install the pump, plumbing, electrical service.
- Pump requires electricity when it operates.
- Pump must be maintained over time (they do fail)
- Typically there are in-line sediment filters that must be serviced on a regular basis.
So no, that shit ain't free.
Most of us do not live in the country and the water needs to be treated, monitored for quality, and pumped to our houses in the city or the 'burbs. That process -- the consumable materials, infrastructure, and people involved -- is expensive and must be paid for by someone. A reasonable approach is to make consumers pay in proportion to their usage, and that's how my current water bill works.
Look, I hate the local telco/cable monopoly as much as anyone. I live in the suburbs of Orlando, FL and only have one provider that can offer me truly high speed service at my house. My cable options are 20/1, 30/2, 60/5, and 90/10, all from Brighthouse Networks, and the 30/2 costs $70ish a month for just the internet connection. I wish I had more options because it would likely lead to lower prices. These guys have no real competition here. Unfortunately, Verizon stopped their FIOS buildout and have no plans to move east toward my area.
That said, I think the article is misleading. The United States is big. Some of the countries on this list are the size of some U.S. states. When you're pulling cable, size and density matter.
I'd like to see some better stats beyond a country-wide average. In areas of the US with population densities similar to those in the other countries on the list, how does the US fare? How does the service in our major cities and metro areas compare to theirs? How do our rural areas compare to theirs?
You do not correct other people's mistakes by publicly humiliating them. That's how you make enemies.
You're right, but to Linus's point in TFA: you don't have to like everyone, and everyone does not have to like you.
Linus doesn't live in a world where his boss will fire him if he doesn't play nice with others. If he makes a true "enemy" then the enemy will quit the project, and that's the end of it. There are few consequences for him.
And I think that's a good thing. Corporate politeness is a disease. It's not like the real emotions and motivations that people have evaporate under a veil of politeness. They're still there, waiting for an opportunity to strike. At least with Linus's style the recipient is aware that the attack is happening. In a corporate environment, it's knives in the dark.
Granted, it might be a little unprofessional to use crude language with people. CEOs and other muckety-mucks do it all the time, however. It's also a little different between using crude language and lashing out at people with crude language to insult them and put them down. But, again, that's just the way things are and it is just the way some people are.
Could be that people who like to speak this way rise to those positions.
More likely, I think, is that they're the few individuals in the organization who are free to behave that way without reprisal. Peons who acted that way would be fired.
For some people of both sexes never moving out from under the wing of their parents and not engaging with society is something they would want themselves.
It's easy to sneer and call them losers and say it's a societal issue, but at the end of the day who are they harming? I really don't see the problem.
They could be harming their parents. They might prefer to live out their golden years without their dependent adult children lurking down the hall.
Then again, if it's consensual, no big deal, I with them luck... but mom and dad will drop dead one day, and then who will pick up the tab?
Slashdot Mirror
I once won a Celestron FirstScope as a door prize at an astronomy club meeting. Its size and shape might make it a nice instrument for a child to call their own. However, the view it provided was about what you'd expect for $49 retail -- not particularly good. When I donated it to a friend for his kids to use, I wondered afterward if I did him a disservice by giving it to him. His kids might take a look through the thing and think "that's it??" and lose interest in the hobby. Then again, maybe an inquisitive child wouldn't mind. I'm a jaded old geezer and my sense of wonder isn't what it used to be.
In my opinion, good steps are:
- Don't buy a cheap telescope.
- Find a local astronomy club and go to one of their outings. Every club I've encountered has enthusiastically welcomed visitors and new members. I was hooked when I got my first view of M42 through an 18" Obsession. Clubs are a great way to see what the hobby offers and experience a lot of nice equipment without spending any of your hard-earned money first. A lot of clubs even offer free loaner scopes to members.
- Buy "NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe" and/or "Turn Left at Orion"
- Get a pair of decent binoculars. You'll have them forever and they have uses beyond astronomy if interest wanes.
- The "Zero Gravity" folding lawn chairs that you can get at Walmart and other places are awesome for using binoculars. You can lay almost flat with them and they are very comfortable. It's much easier to hold heavy binoculars and avoid straining your neck when you're reclined that far.
- Get several *red* LED flashlights. They'll preserve your night vision when you're in the field, and kids might think it's neat to have their own to use. You can find cheap plastic ones that have a dimmer built in and run off 9V batteries, with a lanyard to wear around your neck. They're great.
- Warm clothes and boots. You'd be surprised how cold you can get when sitting motionless in an empty field at night.
After that I'd look at buying a basic 6" dobsonian. It's big enough to see some interesting things but still relatively easy to manage. The largest piece in an Orion XT6 weighs less than 21 pounds. Personally I would skip the fancy add ons like digital setting circles. Spend your money on good eyepieces instead. Hunting through the sky without assistance can be a lot of fun. With a 6" dob you might also want to get an "astronomy observing chair"; these specialty chairs can quickly adjust their height and make it easy to sit close to the eyepiece and observe comfortably.
Until I bought an antenna. Boy, they must hate that, eh?
^^ This a million times. If you don't like Comcast, TWC, etc., give them the middle finger and cancel your TV service. Put up a decent antenna, perhaps buy a TiVo if you want a turnkey DVR appliance with a good UI (and pay their outrageous one-time service fee), and enjoy your uncompressed HD content from all the major broadcast networks.
I'm *still* stuck paying into the local cable monopoly to get internet access, but I'm paying them a lot less than I was before. It didn't take me long to break even on my antenna/wiring/tivo/etc costs.
Plus Fucking Plus!
I'm seriously asking here, in what ways did the TJ or JK step backwards in terms of durability?
I drive a JKU (top off doors off == love) and I've noticed that the sheet metal is awfully thin, especially the door skins. It's disappointing, and I bet older models weren't like this. Gotta admit though, I do like my frou-frou steering wheel controls and bluetooth audio streaming.
While I'd love to see them resign in protest, I'm not surprised that they don't, because the monkeysphere is real (http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html).
Agreed. Random access on the e-readers I've used sucks compared to flipping a few pages on a paper book. I'd never want to read reference material on my Kindle
That said, for linear content (novels) I love my Kindle and haven't bought a paperback novel in years.
If only they'd do the same for BigResource...
Sigh. The Tasmanians had all this figured out years ago. Haven't these guys watched Young Einstein?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Einstein
All you need is a chisel!
I'd like to see Google make an effort to build GPG into their product and make it easy for people to use.
If anyone can do it, it's Google, but they won't. It's hard to deliver targeted advertising when you can't read your users' email.
Nothing to add other than that I have a 2010 Genesis with the V8, owned it since new, and I love it. Great power and amenities for the money and the post-sale service has been good.
The geek in me would rather have a Tesla but I've never regretted buying "Jenny".
There is quite a huge market for frivolous items which make your character "look cool". It was a long time ago that I played World of Warcraft, but there was a certain % of people who paid vast sums of in-game money for basically cosmetic reasons. Similarly, Valve's Hat Fortress 2 has had great success in selling purely cosmetic items.
Yup, vanity is alive and well in these games.
In World of Warcraft there's now a "transmogrification" feature where you can apply the look of older gear to your current gear. It lets your character continue to look cool after a new expansion comes out and you're replacing your awesome looking epics with ugly vendor trash. The transmog feature costs some in-game gold to use but not much in the grand scheme of things. Some players spend a great deal of time running old dungeons to get gear for the purpose of acquiring a certain look.
Then there's a huge market for pets (critters that follow you around and do nothing useful), mounts (critters that you ride to travel more quickly, and some look better than others, but they almost all fly/travel the same speed), etc...
Apple has different UI frameworks for OS X and iOS. One will not run on the other and vice versa. Thank God!
This migration article is useful:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/miscellaneous/conceptual/iphoneostechoverview/PortingfromCocoa/PortingfromCocoa.html
As is this stackoverflow accepted answer for a higher level overview:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2297841/cocoa-versus-cocoa-touch-what-is-the-difference
Sorry I was being trollish. My spouse actually likes the series quite a bit, much to my dismay. I have tried on several occasions and it is simply too childish for me. I can't understand how a college educated woman can read what is maybe a year further along than one fish two fish.
I tried to watch some of the movies and they were just as bad. I watched one quite drunk and that made it pretty manageable.
It's just plain fun!
Maybe she finds intellectual stimulation in other areas of her life. It's nice to be able to relax and read a story without putting a lot of thought into it. I've met people who only read "literature" and look down on works like Harry Potter, and I think those people are nuts.
For what it's worth, the Potter series did get darker as it went on, as if it was aging along with its initial audience. It didn't end happily ever after for all the characters.
Having people at work during those 8 hours per day means they're available to provide service all day whenever a customer comes calling, so there's certainly advantages to the 40 hour week. Not so sure how well it would work if my barber or grocer only worked 3 hours a day...
Still, you're right, certain types of work, especially creative / knowledge work where you need "think time", do not benefit from 8-9 hour days at the office. One can think just as well (or better) at home or on a fishing boat. I get some of my best ideas in the shower, and my traditional employer considers me "not working" during that time.
Everybody knows that the value of a life depends on your monkeysphere: http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html
Indeed. On large software products like those Microsoft is famous for, is often necessary not to know how every component of product works at a detail level. There are abstractions in place to allow the work to be easily divided amongst a large number of developers, and you typically won't know the implementation details of modules that you didn't have a hand in creating. There's simply too much code for anyone to truly know how everything works. "I don't know" is often the right answer.
That is, unless you're actually responsible for the implementation detail in question. If you don't understand your own code then you are going to a special hell reserved for H1B sponsors and people who talk at the theater.
End consumer (commoners) always end up paying, one way or another, in all situations. Nothing new there.
Sometimes I think that instead of being a obedient sheep, waking up early, working 10 hours and generally being exploited while barely having enough for comfortable "life", I should turn to let's say.. victimless crime*.
(*) = As a programmer, that would be let's say hacking wordpress sites and selling them to someone or using them to make a profit.
If you're working a middle class job in western society and you are healthy, your greatest burden is probably deciding what you want to eat for dinner. The standard of living you enjoy is higher than what most people have endured since humans began walking the earth. Your life or the life of someone you love has probably been saved at least once by the pharmaceutical companies you rail against.
And on what planet is "hacking wordpress sites and selling them to someone or using them to make a profit" a victimless crime? That wordpress site belongs to somebody. Perhaps somebody whose life is not as good as yours.
All this study proves is that all rats go to heaven!
I agree with your points about perpetual copyright. It pisses me off to no end. But free water?
Water is clean in the ground. Well water is often not treated at all before consumption. Go out to the country and talk to people who have wells.
The GP's point is still valid. Clean water is not free. I used to live in the country and paid to have a well put in when I built my house.
- Costs big bucks to drill the well, install the pump, plumbing, electrical service.
- Pump requires electricity when it operates.
- Pump must be maintained over time (they do fail)
- Typically there are in-line sediment filters that must be serviced on a regular basis.
So no, that shit ain't free.
Most of us do not live in the country and the water needs to be treated, monitored for quality, and pumped to our houses in the city or the 'burbs. That process -- the consumable materials, infrastructure, and people involved -- is expensive and must be paid for by someone. A reasonable approach is to make consumers pay in proportion to their usage, and that's how my current water bill works.
Look, I hate the local telco/cable monopoly as much as anyone. I live in the suburbs of Orlando, FL and only have one provider that can offer me truly high speed service at my house. My cable options are 20/1, 30/2, 60/5, and 90/10, all from Brighthouse Networks, and the 30/2 costs $70ish a month for just the internet connection. I wish I had more options because it would likely lead to lower prices. These guys have no real competition here. Unfortunately, Verizon stopped their FIOS buildout and have no plans to move east toward my area.
That said, I think the article is misleading. The United States is big. Some of the countries on this list are the size of some U.S. states. When you're pulling cable, size and density matter.
I'd like to see some better stats beyond a country-wide average. In areas of the US with population densities similar to those in the other countries on the list, how does the US fare? How does the service in our major cities and metro areas compare to theirs? How do our rural areas compare to theirs?
You do not correct other people's mistakes by publicly humiliating them. That's how you make enemies.
You're right, but to Linus's point in TFA: you don't have to like everyone, and everyone does not have to like you.
Linus doesn't live in a world where his boss will fire him if he doesn't play nice with others. If he makes a true "enemy" then the enemy will quit the project, and that's the end of it. There are few consequences for him.
And I think that's a good thing. Corporate politeness is a disease. It's not like the real emotions and motivations that people have evaporate under a veil of politeness. They're still there, waiting for an opportunity to strike. At least with Linus's style the recipient is aware that the attack is happening. In a corporate environment, it's knives in the dark.
Granted, it might be a little unprofessional to use crude language with people. CEOs and other muckety-mucks do it all the time, however. It's also a little different between using crude language and lashing out at people with crude language to insult them and put them down. But, again, that's just the way things are and it is just the way some people are.
Could be that people who like to speak this way rise to those positions.
More likely, I think, is that they're the few individuals in the organization who are free to behave that way without reprisal. Peons who acted that way would be fired.
Second, they are willing to work for less, so they can push down salaries; just look the consulting rates these days..
What rates are you observing these days?
A space cowboy once told me "you got the right same as anyone to... live and try to kill people." Words to live by.
For some people of both sexes never moving out from under the wing of their parents and not engaging with society is something they would want themselves.
It's easy to sneer and call them losers and say it's a societal issue, but at the end of the day who are they harming? I really don't see the problem.
They could be harming their parents. They might prefer to live out their golden years without their dependent adult children lurking down the hall.
Then again, if it's consensual, no big deal, I with them luck... but mom and dad will drop dead one day, and then who will pick up the tab?