Hmmm... I really wonder where this "almost half" figure comes from. The reference presents the statistic, but doesn't explain the criteria for being a "gamer." Do people who play tetris count as gamers? If so, this statistic is totally irrelevant to the article.
No matter how much you twist the data, you're not going to convince me that females are anywhere near as interested in the *real* gaming industry as males. Before everyone jumps down my throat on this, let me say that I am female. I play starcraft. With men. I've tried a number of times to get some of my female friends interested without success. I have *never* encountered another female on BattleNet. I do, however, know tons of women who love to play tetris.
There's a reason why there aren't gaming magazines specifically targeted to women... no one wants to read a magazine about games like tetris. Very little strategy is involved in the games that most appeal to women. Those few women who do like gaming are generally the women who can handle seeing those ads without being offended.
Finally, I'd just like to day that I encounter things that are *way* more offensive every day. When I play on BattleNet and someone finds out I'm female, their next comment is usually "No way- what's your bra size?" If you're upset by those ads, you're better off not playing.
Although his candidacy has not been officially announced as far as I know, I plan on voting for Ralph Nader of the Green Party. He has written a number of anti-M$ pieces, including this one, co-authored with a known Linux advocate.
Most important to my decision is the knowledge that his stand on these issues isn't manufactured just for the sake of a campaign, but rooted in personal convictions.
In response to the "so this makes serial processers better" line of thought, it should be pointed out that it takes many parallel human braiin processors to get an accurate image descripion.
Think about trying to describe a thief you saw running down the street. You saw that he was tall and wearing a hat, someone else saw that he had a mustache, etc. Add more processors required to compensate for the uncertainty in the data from any single one, and you've got a system that doesn't look so serial anymore.
It's obvious that more than one human is required for an accurate description. They haven't proven anything in the serial vs. parallel debate!
So when you have meta moderator access, you're directed to a page like the one linked in the story? Or do you just moderate moderated comments in the regular pages?
does anyone else remember a Ray Bradbury short story on this? the guy in the story goes nuts due to the constant blabber of his "smart" appliances, with the exception (if I'm remembering this right) of the nice quiet in-sink-erator. I think I remember him stuffing the phone down the in-sink-erator and feeling a pang of guilt for his one silent appliance.
if you know what I'm talking about can you tell me the name? I think it's about time to read that one again.
As a product of a purely public education and a member of a family comprised largely of teachers, I feel qualified to comment on the state of our educational system.
The only thing that is lacking from our public schools is a motivation to learn. You can not make a pupil learn when they have no desire to. Conversely, nothing can stop a student who wants to learn.
I am a Chemical Engineer. I tested out of college calculus despite the fact that my high school calculus teacher was one of the worst I'd ever had. How? I sought help elsewhere. I got a tutor. I studied the book.
How many of us learned to program in a classroom? Not many I'd guess. Yet, I'd stake the farm on the fact that most of us learned to program faster than we ever learned anything in school. Why? Because we wanted to. It was our own project. We did it by trial-and-error, reading a book, following other people's examples.
It doesn't matter how you teach a child... the only thing that matters is whether or not they want to learn.
The strange and scary part of this kind of technology is the word mutations. Mutations are by definition unpredictable. Maybe I've read one too many science fiction novels, but the thought of a totally unpredictable, completely new life form scares me.
All of the life forms currently on this planet have had millions of years to evolove into a stable relationship of population dynamics. What happens when a brand new life form is thrown into the mix? Will our steady-state system be pushed into an unstable region? What then? If you reward a life form for one particular action without instilling a natural balance between risk and return, that life form could evolove into something frightening very rapidly.
Hey... I have an idea. Lets make a movie of this... it can star Keanu Reeves because he's such a talanted actor.:)
as a graduate student at a highly respected research institution i am entitled to my very own pastic desk set comple with two (yes, two!) permanently locked shelving units (no key), a roller-chair with one wheel slightly damaged, my very own copy-code number (restricted to regular business hours after which the office is locked), a 1/5 ownership of the only slightly stinky brown couch, and enough room in the fridge for my two mountain dews every day.
that has such obvious grammatical errors (unless it's slashdot!)
From the FAQ page: Q. Are you people for real?
A. Absolutely. Your welcome to see for yourself by watching us on the office webcam. You can even call us on the phone if you really want to or fax us or send us mail. All the information you need is on the contact page.
Okay, so if AirPort internet connection works a lot like a cordless phone, does that mean my neighbors can accidentally click on to my frequency? I'm always picking up the phone only to be totally confused by hearing the lady upstairs gabbing about her day.
If this thing supports multiple ocmputers and works up to 150 feet away, that means given my tiny apartment, can my neighbors with the right laptop hop on to my internet connection?
Please, I beg of you, do not encourage the loud typers.
There is nothing more annoying when you're sitting in the school computer lab at 3 am trying to puzzle out a particularly gruelling problem than someone who loves to hear themselves type. They pound away at the keys as loud and fast as possible, convincing themselves that they are cool due to their rapid button pushing skills- nevermind that a trained monkey could do the job just as efficiently.
These people are second on my list of annoyances only to people who like to hear themselves talk while in line for a club.
Do *not* give them a legitimate reason for this loud-typing behavior.
I generally like Katz's articles, but I have an issue today. This: I spent several hours going from one to another, returning late at night for several nights. I was trawling through one of the last around midnight one night, tired and not really focusing, and I came across a lengthy and impassioned essay accusing a writer of self-interest and other short-comings and arguing that he didn't belong on a particular website. The piece struck me as angry, almost bitter, and I didn't like the writer being described either. is off topic. It is a blatent attempt to slip a personal agenda into an otherwise interesting article.
Mr. Katz, you are a talented writer; whether or not they like your works most people will admit that. Please do not insult the intelligence of slashdot readers with such obvious use of this space to assuage your damaged ego.
Is there? What is the absolute smallest thing you can think of? Long ago it was likely a piece of dirt. Then maybe an amoeba, an atom, an electron. What is it now? A neutrino? Have you seen inside one to know that it's the smallest particle? Prove to me that there is a limit to how small something can be and I'll be perfectly happy to rescind my theory.
Combining Hubble's constant measurement with estimates for the density of the universe, the team determined that the universe is approximately 12 billion years old.
Obtaining a value for the density of the universe doesn't seem to be a very easy operation, yet they've glossed over it as an obvious point. How would you obtain such a number? It is clear, however, that the value is finite and non-zero. Finite because vacuums exist, non-zero because we exist.
Here's my issue: we have seen consistently that every natural shape is fractal. Consider the cosatilne, the leaves on a tree, broccoli, the shape of a starfish, I could go on forever. Wouldn't it then make sense that the universe is also a fractal?
One way to define a fractal is infinite in the nth dimension while finite in the (n+1)th dimension. Something like an infinitely long line contained in a finite area.
If the universe has a beginning and an end, then it is finite in time. To be fractal it should, therefore be infinite in space. An infinite voulme, given a non-zero density (which is proven very simply by our existence) implies an infinte mass of the universe. That means we can never find the end of the universe because there is no end to the universe!!
We need an option for amusing posts. I've seen some that deserved +'s just for making me laugh, surely we don't have to ALWAYS be a smarty-pants to get positive points.
(Am I going to get moderator status taken away for this post? Are all the smarty-pantses going to revoke my privledges?)
wireless keyboard + 64" monitor = coding from my couch for a lot less than $6300.
And let me tell you, my couch is a whole lot more comfortable than any desk chair I've seen. This could be bad for my resolution to get out more.
NOT an obsession, a girl with a hobby
on
Star Wars Widows
·
· Score: 2
We used to call them hobbies.
What is this obsession now with the word obsession? Otherwise normal people are now obsessed. I heard someone the other day referring to a guy as a stallker because he called her twice. Good word people, lighten up on us. We have interests. Should we all be ho-hum about everything in our lives just to avoid being called obsessed?
Well, if refusing to date anything less than a full Han-Solo clone is obsessed, I'm obsessed and proud of it!
is anyone else failing to see why this is a good idea? I mean, is the sacrifice of using a computer with whopper-juice all over the keyboard worth whatever you might gain in 15 minutes of internet time? Why exactly is the BK environment more appealing for computer use than a library? I for one feel nauseous at the thought of what that keyboard is going to look like after about a day. On the rare occasion that I do eat fast food, I get out of there as soon as possible.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't remember which episode this was, but I think Futurama summed up the election process pretty well...
Picture two identical twins, in identical suits, at identical debate podiums:
Jack Johnson: "I think your 3 cent titanium tax goes too far."
John Jackson: "Well, I think your 3 cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."
Hmmm... I really wonder where this "almost half" figure comes from. The reference presents the statistic, but doesn't explain the criteria for being a "gamer." Do people who play tetris count as gamers? If so, this statistic is totally irrelevant to the article.
No matter how much you twist the data, you're not going to convince me that females are anywhere near as interested in the *real* gaming industry as males. Before everyone jumps down my throat on this, let me say that I am female. I play starcraft. With men. I've tried a number of times to get some of my female friends interested without success. I have *never* encountered another female on BattleNet. I do, however, know tons of women who love to play tetris.
There's a reason why there aren't gaming magazines specifically targeted to women... no one wants to read a magazine about games like tetris. Very little strategy is involved in the games that most appeal to women. Those few women who do like gaming are generally the women who can handle seeing those ads without being offended.
Finally, I'd just like to day that I encounter things that are *way* more offensive every day. When I play on BattleNet and someone finds out I'm female, their next comment is usually "No way- what's your bra size?" If you're upset by those ads, you're better off not playing.
Although his candidacy has not been officially announced as far as I know, I plan on voting for Ralph Nader of the Green Party. He has written a number of anti-M$ pieces, including this one, co-authored with a known Linux advocate.
Most important to my decision is the knowledge that his stand on these issues isn't manufactured just for the sake of a campaign, but rooted in personal convictions.
In response to the "so this makes serial processers better" line of thought, it should be pointed out that it takes many parallel human braiin processors to get an accurate image descripion.
Think about trying to describe a thief you saw running down the street. You saw that he was tall and wearing a hat, someone else saw that he had a mustache, etc. Add more processors required to compensate for the uncertainty in the data from any single one, and you've got a system that doesn't look so serial anymore.
It's obvious that more than one human is required for an accurate description. They haven't proven anything in the serial vs. parallel debate!
So when you have meta moderator access, you're directed to a page like the one linked in the story? Or do you just moderate moderated comments in the regular pages?
does anyone else remember a Ray Bradbury short story on this? the guy in the story goes nuts due to the constant blabber of his "smart" appliances, with the exception (if I'm remembering this right) of the nice quiet in-sink-erator. I think I remember him stuffing the phone down the in-sink-erator and feeling a pang of guilt for his one silent appliance.
if you know what I'm talking about can you tell me the name? I think it's about time to read that one again.
As a product of a purely public education and a member of a family comprised largely of teachers, I feel qualified to comment on the state of our educational system.
The only thing that is lacking from our public schools is a motivation to learn. You can not make a pupil learn when they have no desire to. Conversely, nothing can stop a student who wants to learn.
I am a Chemical Engineer. I tested out of college calculus despite the fact that my high school calculus teacher was one of the worst I'd ever had. How? I sought help elsewhere. I got a tutor. I studied the book.
How many of us learned to program in a classroom? Not many I'd guess. Yet, I'd stake the farm on the fact that most of us learned to program faster than we ever learned anything in school. Why? Because we wanted to. It was our own project. We did it by trial-and-error, reading a book, following other people's examples.
It doesn't matter how you teach a child... the only thing that matters is whether or not they want to learn.
you assume i'm talking earth years. hah. inferior earth scum.
you know what happens when you assume!
so the guys get to ogle a cute little blonde girl and we get a guy who couldn't even shave this morning??
at the very least he should appear in his skivvys. come on... lets see how your computer skills improve when you're wearing leopard print briefs!
well, at least ours is free. *grin*
LOL... wish I'd thought of it first ;)
The strange and scary part of this kind of technology is the word mutations. Mutations are by definition unpredictable. Maybe I've read one too many science fiction novels, but the thought of a totally unpredictable, completely new life form scares me.
:)
All of the life forms currently on this planet have had millions of years to evolove into a stable relationship of population dynamics. What happens when a brand new life form is thrown into the mix? Will our steady-state system be pushed into an unstable region? What then? If you reward a life form for one particular action without instilling a natural balance between risk and return, that life form could evolove into something frightening very rapidly.
Hey... I have an idea. Lets make a movie of this... it can star Keanu Reeves because he's such a talanted actor.
--
Yeah, Rob... have us over.
Come on. We promise we'll behave. No really, I swear.
as a graduate student at a highly respected research institution i am entitled to my very own pastic desk set comple with two (yes, two!) permanently locked shelving units (no key), a roller-chair with one wheel slightly damaged, my very own copy-code number (restricted to regular business hours after which the office is locked), a 1/5 ownership of the only slightly stinky brown couch, and enough room in the fridge for my two mountain dews every day.
and you thought you had it nice!
--
that has such obvious grammatical errors (unless it's slashdot!)
From the FAQ page:
Q.
Are you people for real?
A.
Absolutely. Your welcome to see for yourself by watching us on the office webcam. You can even call us on the phone if you really want to or fax us or send us mail. All
the information you need is on the contact page.
Okay, so if AirPort internet connection works a lot like a cordless phone, does that mean my neighbors can accidentally click on to my frequency? I'm always picking up the phone only to be totally confused by hearing the lady upstairs gabbing about her day.
If this thing supports multiple ocmputers and works up to 150 feet away, that means given my tiny apartment, can my neighbors with the right laptop hop on to my internet connection?
And I'm worse than Mike Meyers.
this must be modesty. i don't think it's *possible* to be worse than mike meyers.
rob, does this mean you'll go on to one day have a mini-me?
Please, I beg of you, do not encourage the loud typers.
There is nothing more annoying when you're sitting in the school computer lab at 3 am trying to puzzle out a particularly gruelling problem than someone who loves to hear themselves type. They pound away at the keys as loud and fast as possible, convincing themselves that they are cool due to their rapid button pushing skills- nevermind that a trained monkey could do the job just as efficiently.
These people are second on my list of annoyances only to people who like to hear themselves talk while in line for a club.
Do *not* give them a legitimate reason for this loud-typing behavior.
--
Grouchy and loving it.
And you and hemos are going to form the interview board for the "Hot Chick Going into CompSci" scholarship, eh rob?
I generally like Katz's articles, but I have an issue today. This:
I spent several hours going from one to another, returning late at night for several nights. I was trawling
through one of the last around midnight one night, tired and not really focusing, and I came across a lengthy
and impassioned essay accusing a writer of self-interest and other short-comings and arguing that he didn't
belong on a particular website. The piece struck me as angry, almost bitter, and I didn't like the writer being
described either.
is off topic. It is a blatent attempt to slip a personal agenda into an otherwise interesting article.
Mr. Katz, you are a talented writer; whether or not they like your works most people will admit that. Please do not insult the intelligence of slashdot readers with such obvious use of this space to assuage your damaged ego.
I want to read your writing, not your diary.
Is there? What is the absolute smallest thing you can think of? Long ago it was likely a piece of dirt. Then maybe an amoeba, an atom, an electron. What is it now? A neutrino? Have you seen inside one to know that it's the smallest particle? Prove to me that there is a limit to how small something can be and I'll be perfectly happy to rescind my theory.
Combining Hubble's constant measurement with estimates for the density of the universe, the team determined that the universe is approximately 12 billion years old.
Obtaining a value for the density of the universe doesn't seem to be a very easy operation, yet they've glossed over it as an obvious point. How would you obtain such a number? It is clear, however, that the value is finite and non-zero. Finite because vacuums exist, non-zero because we exist.
Here's my issue: we have seen consistently that every natural shape is fractal. Consider the cosatilne, the leaves on a tree, broccoli, the shape of a starfish, I could go on forever. Wouldn't it then make sense that the universe is also a fractal?
One way to define a fractal is infinite in the nth dimension while finite in the (n+1)th dimension. Something like an infinitely long line contained in a finite area.
If the universe has a beginning and an end, then it is finite in time. To be fractal it should, therefore be infinite in space. An infinite voulme, given a non-zero density (which is proven very simply by our existence) implies an infinte mass of the universe. That means we can never find the end of the universe because there is no end to the universe!!
We need an option for amusing posts. I've seen some that deserved +'s just for making me laugh, surely we don't have to ALWAYS be a smarty-pants to get positive points.
(Am I going to get moderator status taken away for this post? Are all the smarty-pantses going to revoke my privledges?)
my fantasy:
wireless keyboard + 64" monitor = coding from my couch for a lot less than $6300.
And let me tell you, my couch is a whole lot more comfortable than any desk chair I've seen.
This could be bad for my resolution to get out more.
We used to call them hobbies.
What is this obsession now with the word obsession? Otherwise normal people are now obsessed. I heard someone the other day referring to a guy as a stallker because he called her twice. Good word people, lighten up on us. We have interests. Should we all be ho-hum about everything in our lives just to avoid being called obsessed?
Well, if refusing to date anything less than a full Han-Solo clone is obsessed, I'm obsessed and proud of it!
is anyone else failing to see why this is a good idea? I mean, is the sacrifice of using a computer with whopper-juice all over the keyboard worth whatever you might gain in 15 minutes of internet time? Why exactly is the BK environment more appealing for computer use than a library? I for one feel nauseous at the thought of what that keyboard is going to look like after about a day. On the rare occasion that I do eat fast food, I get out of there as soon as possible.