You're just angry because Bush's decisions are affecting you directly. If you were a multi-millionaire who'd received the tip about failing mortgage markets, you'd be praising our ex-President. It's not his fault you're poor.
I take it you've never taken I-95 from DC to Boston.
DC to NY: 3 hours (200 miles) Getting through NYC: 3 hours (15 miles) NY to Boston: 3 hours (200 miles)
Driving straight through is pretty damn boring. Long highways flanked by trees. No views. Doing it again, I'd take more time and drive up the Jersey Shore, spend the night in NYC, maybe swing by Newport for lunch the next day, then bounce up to Boston for dinner in the North End.
I'd rather see a personal flight suit a la Iron Man or Starship Troopers. Maybe a ballbearing surrounded cockpit whose external walls revolve around you. That would make landing less dicey. Make it engine-assisted pedal power if it's just a flying bicycle. If you want an Iron Man suit or something larger (the suit Jeff Bridges wore was more Starship Troopers sized), the problem right now is power supply. And even if you could somehow wirelessly provide power like Atlantis or Tesla, the weight of the propulsion systems would still be substantial.
What we really need is something that can repel gravity or make use of the Earth's magnetism or some zero-point energy insanity. I hate to keep thinking in the box, but very small, very powerful engines...not available yet.
While there's always going to be the chemically-imbalanced person who is almost impossible to help, it's fairly simple process raising a well-balanced child. You just need to give a shit. And giving a shit generally turns out to be a hell of a lot harder than most people ever dreamed it would be. There are so many demands on adult time, prices for living day-to-day are so high as to be difficult to manage on a single income, and in many areas a sense of community has been traded for fences and home schooling.
It truly takes someone amazing to raise a child and if you're doing it and it's going well, please include yourself in that category. If things aren't going well, consider asking for help from your neighbors, friends, and organizations designed to help. People aren't cones in the road for you to dodge. People are there to talk to and listen to. Mostly, though, it's up to you to decide when inconvenience needs to be trumped by caring.
The iPad had a great opening day. I'm skeptical about the longevity though without some major changes: lighter weight, for one. I found it too big to want to read without setting it down, but then it's flat against the table unless you're sitting with your knees up. Tricky.
I'm sure this has been explained before, but what's the justification for Sony doing this in the first place? It's a bit like buying a car (yes, I live in California so I use car analogies; and no, like most people who live here I wasn't born here) with a nice stereo. Then one day there's a note on your windshield saying the manufacturer stopped by and took your stereo away. I mean...is it like that? And if so, how is that legal at all?
This whole "we can remotely manipulate your purchases as we see fit" stuff worries me. Amazon made the biggest misstep by deleting the bad 1984 novels stating that because it's easier to take the books back now, they'll do it. They checked themselves after, but it makes me not want to use ebooks at all, lest my Kindle/iPad/etc has a newly banned book or something on it. Just think how easy Winston's job is going to be once all media is electronic.
So you're just looking for a piece of tablet hardware you can install random operating systems on? I guess that would be fine, as long as you use the OSes that have touchscreen controls. Maybe Android on the iPad?
As the GPP I'll tell you it's not an urban legend. Perhaps my friend didn't describe the situation well enough: "My wife's had recent hip surgery and the leg has popped out of the socket." Perhaps it went under the "dislocated" category rather than the "Huh...I wonder if something broke to cause that to happen..." category.
Either way, someone screaming on the floor because their femur slipped out of their hip socket...probably could use some help.
If you do something in-game that is immoral, and none of the NPCs are coded for a reaction, is it truly immoral?
If you steal from someone in real life, it may not matter either. Sure, some guy came in and stole my mom's jewelry while we were out. Did he care that we felt "violated" or that some of those were heirlooms? Did it matter to anyone but us? If the thief is the protagonist, what's to make him care unless something happens to him in game?
The catch is this: something needs to happen whether he acts morally or immorally. Sure, I can get auto-killed by a guard for PKing a n00b or whatever, but what if I NEVER kill a n00b. What if I NEVER steal? What if I obey the good laws as well as try to help others? Shouldn't that count for something? You might say, "Well, you're not in jail." But that's lame. I made a decision to resist temptation. To take the higher ground. I want people to notice. I want:
"Wow. The last noble hero who came to save us stole our grandmother. But you just walked in, asked us for information on the location of the evil warlord, and went on your way. How can we ever repay you?!"
Being a user and providing feedback is absolutely a contribution. Developers and designers cannot possibly create a great product without feedback from the people who will be using it.
TV Personality: And how many people have you treated so far? Dr. Alice Krippin: Well, we've had ten thousand and nine clinical trials in humans so far. TV Personality: And how many are cancer-free? Dr. Alice Krippin: Ten thousand and nine. TV Personality: So you have actually cured cancer. Dr. Alice Krippin: Yes, yes... yes, we have.
We have friends in England and one of them had her hip replaced. A couple weeks after she was able to walk on it, she was doing the dishes and the replacement broke -- basically either the hip or femur end broke and was completely out of socket. Her husband called 999 and the ambulance at first refused to come because it wasn't a life-threatening emergency. "Can she just walk to the car?" "Can you carry her to the car?" You can probably imagine your wife screaming in pain, you not knowing if some vein or artery has been sliced, and any movement at all just makes her scream more. "Yah, it's cool. I just duct taped her mouth and threw her over my shoulder. I think she's passed out from the pain so tossing her in the back seat should work a treat. We'll be at the hospital in no time!"
I realize a line needs to be drawn somewhere. Some people will call for an ambulance when they've cut themselves shaving. But you know, when you can hear the screams in the background...you should probably get off your asses and help out.
Just stop attacking people both of you groups and learn to let people have this own thoughts without pressing them towards you own.
Not that I don't agree with this in principle, it would be nice if everyone just had their walled gardens and only had to talk through the fence. But a belief system is just that: you believe it. And when that belief is relevant or challenged, you feel the need to express or defend it, because to you it's a truth. And if you don't express or challenge, than it's probably not really a belief for you, merely a pastime.
I've got a 4 year old gaming machine that ran Half-Life 2 at the highest graphics, Doom 3 maxed out, even had no problem with FEAR at almost max settings -- Athlon 3700+ and a GeForce 6800GS were the stars of the show. You'd think it would run an RPG like Dragon Age just fine, but it can't. I play on medium settings and during busy fights I've had to 3 times now turn graphics to low to make it playable. DA has a lot of particle effects and a lot of detailed textures. Playing it maxed out is probably beautiful, but it's way beyond my system to do that.
My next rig has the Core I5 and a splurge on the nVidia GX260. Right now the rig is about $800 to the door from NewEgg with Corsair PSU and 6 GB of memory. Still, err, saving up honestly. Too many trips last year:-)
then perhaps the artists could have a very interesting discussion as to the use of their music...
"Look here, inspector. We've got another copyright takedown notice, this one for the trolley at Kensington. I reckon we'll need to change the song."
"Reckon again, leftenent. You up the volume and let those songsters see wot it means to tackle the long arm of the law. They'll soon see they aren't in Kansas anymore, they're not."
Our University uses the Microsoft Consolidated Campus Agreement. We pay around $2 per client for a Windows upgrade OS and Office. It doesn't have to be total buy-in throughout the university either...departments can sign up or not. Apple has something similar, but at this point your whole university has to sign up or you don't get the deal. This is a nod to the size of Apple vs Microsoft I think.
As far as a hospital standardizing on a single OS and software infrastructure, people often forget that there's a benefit to standardization. Even if you can save money by using open source this or that, you're essentially throwing a wrench in the works if you don't do it in the right place. IE, Windows -- all centrally updateable and manageable with MS tools. Firefox has an msi made by a third party to play nice with AD group policy software distribution, but as far as I know, centrally managing it (specifying options, bookmarks, etc) isn't possible (please correct me if I'm wrong).
You can be a Microsoft desktop shop, but have your application and database servers run UNIX or Linux and you probably won't have too many interoperability issues. We're one of the universities that is trying out the Google Apps system for students, faculty, and staff, even though we have a growing population of centralized Exchange users (email, calendaring, IM, VOIP, etc). We're working on interoperability now, but it would likely be easier if we went one way or the other.
"Thag! We finally managed to climb to the great bird nest in level 3 peak. There was a mini-game! Look at the writing on this egg!"
"Let me see that..."
[You are in a clearing. A small cabin sits to the east. A dark forest is to the north. Impenetrable bushes are to the south and west. Choose the blue egg to go east. Choose the red egg to go north.]
"Oooh...Dark forest sounds cool. Open the red egg!"
[It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.]
Both cavemen frown.
"Not very original. This just happened to Grok yesterday."
By the way, I'm DEFINITELY against the city on this issue.
I'm not, though I fear I may die painfully soon enough for that opinion. Low-water landscaping is a great idea and I'd rather see developments in drought areas enforce that instead of lawns. At the same time, as I stated in another post on this topic, we're all in this together -- if you think you can live your life in solitude, you're really going to have to live waaaay out of the way. It's called community. If you don't want to be part of the community, and I'm not saying you have to talk to your neighbors, don't move into one.
They did the right thing by tearing up their lawn. They did the wrong thing by not beautifying it in some way -- boulders, brick, low-water shrubs, recycled water feature. They're basically hurting their cause by doing it poorly. Like a person who wants a more bike-friendly town, so they get their friends to ride in the middle of the street, through red lights, etc to prove their point. Right idea, wrong technique.
I see your point -- in order for a law to be changed, someone has to challenge it. But just challenging it because you think it's unjust, doesn't mean the outcome is set. These folks are doing the right thing by choosing a low water landscaping technique and the city should applaud them. But turning your yard into a dirt lot is an eyesore and yes, what your neighbors think DOES matter. If you want to go live in a bubble, by all means do so -- I believe there's some space on the Moon, though I think supplies are limited.
It's a multi-player game, people. Accept that fact, and life will make a heap more sense. All they need to do is use some proper desert landscaping -- shrubs, rocks, brick...hell even add a water feature that recycles water. But making your yard a dustbowl in the summer and a pool of mud in the winter isn't acceptable by anyone's standards.
Taking a photo of it and using it on facebook or flicker is fine. Using it to sell stuff, in this case stamps, is not. They should have contacted the sculptor about waiving royalties.
What if he's modded out the car -- body kit, $5,000 rims, playstation monitors on the window blinds, booming stereo and sub bolted to the trunk. I mean, it's a Camry, and if a car is meant to be tricked out, it's that perennial family sedan.:-)
It happens all the time in closed source projects too, you just never hear about them
If a tree falls in the woods and I don't hear it, do I care? No. Open source is generally publicly known, especially if it is a large project, so I do feel a bit of remorse when I know a project has been abandoned by its lead.
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You're just angry because Bush's decisions are affecting you directly. If you were a multi-millionaire who'd received the tip about failing mortgage markets, you'd be praising our ex-President. It's not his fault you're poor.
(I am, of course, totally kidding.)
I take it you've never taken I-95 from DC to Boston.
DC to NY: 3 hours (200 miles)
Getting through NYC: 3 hours (15 miles)
NY to Boston: 3 hours (200 miles)
Driving straight through is pretty damn boring. Long highways flanked by trees. No views. Doing it again, I'd take more time and drive up the Jersey Shore, spend the night in NYC, maybe swing by Newport for lunch the next day, then bounce up to Boston for dinner in the North End.
I'd rather see a personal flight suit a la Iron Man or Starship Troopers. Maybe a ballbearing surrounded cockpit whose external walls revolve around you. That would make landing less dicey. Make it engine-assisted pedal power if it's just a flying bicycle. If you want an Iron Man suit or something larger (the suit Jeff Bridges wore was more Starship Troopers sized), the problem right now is power supply. And even if you could somehow wirelessly provide power like Atlantis or Tesla, the weight of the propulsion systems would still be substantial.
What we really need is something that can repel gravity or make use of the Earth's magnetism or some zero-point energy insanity. I hate to keep thinking in the box, but very small, very powerful engines...not available yet.
Gosh, it's Google. You don't think they'd have swimming pools, ping pong tables, oxygen bars...
While there's always going to be the chemically-imbalanced person who is almost impossible to help, it's fairly simple process raising a well-balanced child. You just need to give a shit. And giving a shit generally turns out to be a hell of a lot harder than most people ever dreamed it would be. There are so many demands on adult time, prices for living day-to-day are so high as to be difficult to manage on a single income, and in many areas a sense of community has been traded for fences and home schooling.
It truly takes someone amazing to raise a child and if you're doing it and it's going well, please include yourself in that category. If things aren't going well, consider asking for help from your neighbors, friends, and organizations designed to help. People aren't cones in the road for you to dodge. People are there to talk to and listen to. Mostly, though, it's up to you to decide when inconvenience needs to be trumped by caring.
The iPad had a great opening day. I'm skeptical about the longevity though without some major changes: lighter weight, for one. I found it too big to want to read without setting it down, but then it's flat against the table unless you're sitting with your knees up. Tricky.
I'm sure this has been explained before, but what's the justification for Sony doing this in the first place? It's a bit like buying a car (yes, I live in California so I use car analogies; and no, like most people who live here I wasn't born here) with a nice stereo. Then one day there's a note on your windshield saying the manufacturer stopped by and took your stereo away. I mean...is it like that? And if so, how is that legal at all?
This whole "we can remotely manipulate your purchases as we see fit" stuff worries me. Amazon made the biggest misstep by deleting the bad 1984 novels stating that because it's easier to take the books back now, they'll do it. They checked themselves after, but it makes me not want to use ebooks at all, lest my Kindle/iPad/etc has a newly banned book or something on it. Just think how easy Winston's job is going to be once all media is electronic.
So...just what do all those corporate lawyers your businesses have on staff do all day if not respond to litigation requests?
Or are you saying that...oh...oooooh! That must be nice.
So you're just looking for a piece of tablet hardware you can install random operating systems on? I guess that would be fine, as long as you use the OSes that have touchscreen controls. Maybe Android on the iPad?
As the GPP I'll tell you it's not an urban legend. Perhaps my friend didn't describe the situation well enough: "My wife's had recent hip surgery and the leg has popped out of the socket." Perhaps it went under the "dislocated" category rather than the "Huh...I wonder if something broke to cause that to happen..." category.
Either way, someone screaming on the floor because their femur slipped out of their hip socket...probably could use some help.
If you do something in-game that is immoral, and none of the NPCs are coded for a reaction, is it truly immoral?
If you steal from someone in real life, it may not matter either. Sure, some guy came in and stole my mom's jewelry while we were out. Did he care that we felt "violated" or that some of those were heirlooms? Did it matter to anyone but us? If the thief is the protagonist, what's to make him care unless something happens to him in game?
The catch is this: something needs to happen whether he acts morally or immorally. Sure, I can get auto-killed by a guard for PKing a n00b or whatever, but what if I NEVER kill a n00b. What if I NEVER steal? What if I obey the good laws as well as try to help others? Shouldn't that count for something? You might say, "Well, you're not in jail." But that's lame. I made a decision to resist temptation. To take the higher ground. I want people to notice. I want:
"Wow. The last noble hero who came to save us stole our grandmother. But you just walked in, asked us for information on the location of the evil warlord, and went on your way. How can we ever repay you?!"
Being a user and providing feedback is absolutely a contribution. Developers and designers cannot possibly create a great product without feedback from the people who will be using it.
TV Personality: And how many people have you treated so far?
Dr. Alice Krippin: Well, we've had ten thousand and nine clinical trials in humans so far.
TV Personality: And how many are cancer-free?
Dr. Alice Krippin: Ten thousand and nine.
TV Personality: So you have actually cured cancer.
Dr. Alice Krippin: Yes, yes... yes, we have.
Cue destruction of humanity by albino gymnasts.
We have friends in England and one of them had her hip replaced. A couple weeks after she was able to walk on it, she was doing the dishes and the replacement broke -- basically either the hip or femur end broke and was completely out of socket. Her husband called 999 and the ambulance at first refused to come because it wasn't a life-threatening emergency. "Can she just walk to the car?" "Can you carry her to the car?" You can probably imagine your wife screaming in pain, you not knowing if some vein or artery has been sliced, and any movement at all just makes her scream more. "Yah, it's cool. I just duct taped her mouth and threw her over my shoulder. I think she's passed out from the pain so tossing her in the back seat should work a treat. We'll be at the hospital in no time!"
I realize a line needs to be drawn somewhere. Some people will call for an ambulance when they've cut themselves shaving. But you know, when you can hear the screams in the background...you should probably get off your asses and help out.
Just stop attacking people both of you groups and learn to let people have this own thoughts without pressing them towards you own.
Not that I don't agree with this in principle, it would be nice if everyone just had their walled gardens and only had to talk through the fence. But a belief system is just that: you believe it. And when that belief is relevant or challenged, you feel the need to express or defend it, because to you it's a truth. And if you don't express or challenge, than it's probably not really a belief for you, merely a pastime.
I've got a 4 year old gaming machine that ran Half-Life 2 at the highest graphics, Doom 3 maxed out, even had no problem with FEAR at almost max settings -- Athlon 3700+ and a GeForce 6800GS were the stars of the show. You'd think it would run an RPG like Dragon Age just fine, but it can't. I play on medium settings and during busy fights I've had to 3 times now turn graphics to low to make it playable. DA has a lot of particle effects and a lot of detailed textures. Playing it maxed out is probably beautiful, but it's way beyond my system to do that.
My next rig has the Core I5 and a splurge on the nVidia GX260. Right now the rig is about $800 to the door from NewEgg with Corsair PSU and 6 GB of memory. Still, err, saving up honestly. Too many trips last year :-)
then perhaps the artists could have a very interesting discussion as to the use of their music...
"Look here, inspector. We've got another copyright takedown notice, this one for the trolley at Kensington. I reckon we'll need to change the song."
"Reckon again, leftenent. You up the volume and let those songsters see wot it means to tackle the long arm of the law. They'll soon see they aren't in Kansas anymore, they're not."
Our University uses the Microsoft Consolidated Campus Agreement. We pay around $2 per client for a Windows upgrade OS and Office. It doesn't have to be total buy-in throughout the university either...departments can sign up or not. Apple has something similar, but at this point your whole university has to sign up or you don't get the deal. This is a nod to the size of Apple vs Microsoft I think.
As far as a hospital standardizing on a single OS and software infrastructure, people often forget that there's a benefit to standardization. Even if you can save money by using open source this or that, you're essentially throwing a wrench in the works if you don't do it in the right place. IE, Windows -- all centrally updateable and manageable with MS tools. Firefox has an msi made by a third party to play nice with AD group policy software distribution, but as far as I know, centrally managing it (specifying options, bookmarks, etc) isn't possible (please correct me if I'm wrong).
You can be a Microsoft desktop shop, but have your application and database servers run UNIX or Linux and you probably won't have too many interoperability issues. We're one of the universities that is trying out the Google Apps system for students, faculty, and staff, even though we have a growing population of centralized Exchange users (email, calendaring, IM, VOIP, etc). We're working on interoperability now, but it would likely be easier if we went one way or the other.
"Thag! We finally managed to climb to the great bird nest in level 3 peak. There was a mini-game! Look at the writing on this egg!"
"Let me see that..."
[You are in a clearing. A small cabin sits to the east. A dark forest is to the north. Impenetrable bushes are to the south and west. Choose the blue egg to go east. Choose the red egg to go north.]
"Oooh...Dark forest sounds cool. Open the red egg!"
[It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.]
Both cavemen frown.
"Not very original. This just happened to Grok yesterday."
By the way, I'm DEFINITELY against the city on this issue.
I'm not, though I fear I may die painfully soon enough for that opinion. Low-water landscaping is a great idea and I'd rather see developments in drought areas enforce that instead of lawns. At the same time, as I stated in another post on this topic, we're all in this together -- if you think you can live your life in solitude, you're really going to have to live waaaay out of the way. It's called community. If you don't want to be part of the community, and I'm not saying you have to talk to your neighbors, don't move into one.
They did the right thing by tearing up their lawn. They did the wrong thing by not beautifying it in some way -- boulders, brick, low-water shrubs, recycled water feature. They're basically hurting their cause by doing it poorly. Like a person who wants a more bike-friendly town, so they get their friends to ride in the middle of the street, through red lights, etc to prove their point. Right idea, wrong technique.
The correct outcome is for the law to be changed.
I see your point -- in order for a law to be changed, someone has to challenge it. But just challenging it because you think it's unjust, doesn't mean the outcome is set. These folks are doing the right thing by choosing a low water landscaping technique and the city should applaud them. But turning your yard into a dirt lot is an eyesore and yes, what your neighbors think DOES matter. If you want to go live in a bubble, by all means do so -- I believe there's some space on the Moon, though I think supplies are limited.
It's a multi-player game, people. Accept that fact, and life will make a heap more sense. All they need to do is use some proper desert landscaping -- shrubs, rocks, brick...hell even add a water feature that recycles water. But making your yard a dustbowl in the summer and a pool of mud in the winter isn't acceptable by anyone's standards.
These areas are very cold and water ice is stable there essentially indefinitely.
Just give us a few years. I can see the ads:
"Experience our jetted tubs in just 1/6th Earth's gravity -- like lying on a table of water."
"Engineers needed to build ice-melting machines to cool Lunar Fission Reactor."
"Don't forget to flush!"
Taking a photo of it and using it on facebook or flicker is fine. Using it to sell stuff, in this case stamps, is not. They should have contacted the sculptor about waiving royalties.
What if he's modded out the car -- body kit, $5,000 rims, playstation monitors on the window blinds, booming stereo and sub bolted to the trunk. I mean, it's a Camry, and if a car is meant to be tricked out, it's that perennial family sedan. :-)
It happens all the time in closed source projects too, you just never hear about them
If a tree falls in the woods and I don't hear it, do I care? No. Open source is generally publicly known, especially if it is a large project, so I do feel a bit of remorse when I know a project has been abandoned by its lead.