I didn't read the actual review because I believe that one line sums it up best, "I left feeling a bit disappointed when looking back on the overall picture." That is exactly how I felt reading Angels and Deamons (another of his books). He writes his books like he has a movie in mind and he is thinking ahead to movie rights, which is highly likely. However, like too many big budget movies, there seems to be no real heart to the story, just one thrill to the next and once the ride stops you don't have much to reflect back on.
I neither understand why you'd need a screen of thumbnails to all your open apps, nor understand why this is on slashdot. Oh well.
That post must be ingeniously sublime flamebait. It paints a picture of man so stereotypical that in fact it must be false, too real to be real, the type of geek everyone loves to hate, like the arrogant tech support guys I saw spoofed on Mad TV. No one could actually believe, enough to post, that the only things in the world people could be interested are the only things he is interested nor could someone actually expect that every single person on slashdot has mapped all his applications to function keys to applications, or at least believes it is the obviously best way. Bravo! I am afraid however that like Andy Kaufman, you may not be fully appreciated in your time.
Since wearable computing and its surrounding technology is almost definately going to mature much faster than something as far off as optical implants that can do the same trick without glasses, I wonder if people will stop using lasers and contacts to fix their eyes because they will want to wear glasses as a utility. In fact people with perfect vision might even start wearing glasses.
This guy could be suffereing from the extra burden of ageism also. His resume shows that he has started working for Nasa in working since 1967. That means that he is probably about 57 years old and looking for work as a programmer.
but if he is 15 and overweight, when "Star Wars kid" is a big, big improvement over *any* nickname he originally had.
First of all, I don't know if they are calling him names or not. Whatever the actual name is, is only secondary. If a nickname is meant to belittle and alienate, as apposed to the more friendly kind of nick-names, then that is all that matters. I was called "slave" because I cleaned up the tennis courts and grounds at my public pool for some cash. I certainly didn't need the money, it was just something to do. I could have quite at anytime no problem, but it wasn't the name itself, it was the way I was being singled out for mockery that ate away at my confidence and ability to enjoy life every single day that happened.
Instead of collecting money to buy this kid an iPod or signing petitions to put him in the movie, we should be collecting money to buy him a therapist, some cool clothes, and a personal trainer. I suffered a lot from 6th grade to 8th grade. I always felt very awkward and unpopular, painfully afraid of girls, and never having more than 1 or 2 friends at a time. Some kids picked a nick-name for me I really hated. As stupid and silly and not really all that bad as it was, it still ate away at me, and I wasn't at the disadvantage of being overweight and the center of a world-wide joke. The kids in his school are probable calling him the Star Wars kid. As much as we empathies with this kid, I'm sure there is no way this joke is helping him. Getting in the movie isn't going to help either. It will just help reinforce the joke further. Hopefully Lucas will let the kid *privately* visit the set and meet the stars and get some value out of this phenomenon. But it is shortsighted to expect the kid to become fond of this attention anytime soon. Lets be honest, we don't want the kid in the movie to help him, we want him in it to further our own ejoyment.
I was really hoping that website was going to lead me to a candidate I could appreciate. I was just thinking a day or so ago that I'm ready to make my very first political donation to some geek if they show me they care about a.) reforming copyright and patent law, and b.) slowing the outsourcing trend. I was hoping I could pay my $50 buck donation online (can a VA resident contribute to a FL candidate???)... BUT unfortunately that guy is not it. I don't care what his area of expertise is, any "techie" (or anyone) who thinks that it is ok to make a webpage that looks like that doesn't have my sympathy regarding the loss of his job.
What is amazing about this game is the number of people playing. I didn't realize until I started asking around, but it seems that almost everyone I know is playing! I have found that some people are more satisfied with the game than others. Also the levels of violence and sexuality available in the game are quite controversial. However I think that the coolest feature about this game for the diehard gamers is the ability to play games within the game!
My point was, and I think that is was pretty clear, that there is very little loss of actual sales because if the magazine only had a few good pictures woth photographing, it wasn't worth the cost of the magazine to the person, and therefore the person wasn't going to buy in anyway, camera or no camera. I now continue by saying that taking these new high quality photographs is not free on these phones because often the only way to see the picture in a larger format is to email it to a computer. Emailing these photos to yourself or even just to a friends phone is not free. Every byte gets billed. And since the person was likely not going to buy the magazine anyway, this revenue is completely new. Of course that is just my opinion. I think it would take scientific unbiased surveys to determine if the camera's actually hurt sales or not.
Yes they do. But more than that it is very customary for Japanese to browse magazines instead of purchasing them. My girlfriend often went to the bookstore to just look at magazines without purchasing, all part of the sport-window-shopping common there. You can often see 2 or 3 couples at a time standing together and just reading magazines in convenience stores, even late at night while they wait for rooms to open up in the love hotel nearby. This is probably part of the problem. They have been largely accustomed to enjoying magazines for free. Howeve I don't see the problem. If the magazine only has a few interesting pictures it it, it probably wasn't worth purchasing to the customer anyway. If the customer's are sending more photos through there phone, this generates more telecom revenue, and ultimately doesn't hurt the economy.
Why is this modded as flamebait? I agree. I hardly ever purchased music, that is because I rarely listen to music. The fact that I have some MP3's on my hard drive (that I barely listen too) just because they cost me nothing, is hardly the same as if I went out and stole the actual CD. The fact is that I would never buy the CD for they prices they charge so they didn't loose any money.
Of course all they would have to do is lower the price dramatically to get me to pay. For example, I am watching more movies in the theater now than ever before. Why? Because I live in the Philippines and it only cost me $1.20! Even here that is only about half the cost of a Big Mac combo from McDonalds. So I'm gonna pay to see every movie that comes out so long as I think it is worth my time. In Japan a movie costs almost $14, about 3 times the cost of a Big Mac Combo. There I was much more reluctant to go to the theater and watching much more of my friends DivX collection. Regardless, if the DivX existed or not, I would not have paid to watch nearly as many films in Japan. So in my viewpoing, pirating is closer to "theft-light". Because probably 80% of the time it is not actually denying real revenue. While it is definately NOT entirely moral, it is also clearly not as immoral as swiping physical goods that someone else would eventually pay for.
===
I just read Wired article about AT&T's charging customers for a voicemail exploit which allowed overseas "hackers" to make fraudulent collect calls.
I am appalled that AT&T would try to charge the customers for a mistake that is clearly AT&T's. It is AT&T's fault that the automated system accepted a long distance collect call without proper "real" authorization. AT&T was tricked into accepting a fraudulent call, not the customer. The customer did not choose to be involved in this automated system designed by AT&T. Therefore it is AT&Ts fault and it must not charge the customer! Expect a lot more comments on this subject if AT&T doesn't get a conscience soon.
===
P.S. I live in a Japan. To absolve myself of critisism for my terrible spelling above, below, and anywhere, I want to point out that I have learned very well that correct English, much less correct spelling, is not a requirement for communication.
Hi. I submitted the article. Wanted to point out that of course I know PC's could provide such a platform, but I specifically meant a game box that people are going to hook up to there TV simply and easilly and invite there buddies to join them in a game, or that they can flip on in between TV shows.
Definately sounds like a major scam to me! We send over shiploads of useless phones, say "here is a gift for my underpriveledged brother", and they throw them in their trash pile. Presto bango, no more disposal problem for us.
And just how many "Woman's Shelters" are there that we need this many phones? Seems that group would be saturated pretty darn fast. And what happens to the older models once those are useless even for the underpriveledged in our society? They get thrown away. So in the end there is no substitute for recycling.
Is this really an Easter Egg? It strikes me as more of a cheat code. Easter Eggs seem to be pretty but basically useless feature. They often times display the developer's names or give you some little extra bonus. But cheat codes are designed to unlock hidden potentials in the system, to circumvent rules, or basically... to cheat.
I know this if a bit off Topic, but please help if you can, and don't mod it Off Topic.
I live in Japan but I'm not so good at the language. I really want to set up a PDA so that I can write Kanji into it using the stylus and get the japanese pronounciations (both) and a definition. I have found some resources but it is confusing. The problem is I don't want to buy any PDA untill I am sure I can make it do what I want. I would really like to use a Zaurus 5500, but anything that gets the job done will do. I can purchase one from the USA or in Japan. Please contact me directly by following the link to my homepage if you have done this. I will greatly appreciate any help you can give me.
Congratulations! You are the first person to post the text of the article! Weclome to your free karma points! Good job also on disquising your whoreing with a witty comment.
Oh wait... but by the way, I do believe that probably 95%+ of the slashdot crowd doesn't read Finnish and are going to just look at the pretty pictures, just like the posting suggested.
Well. It is hard to say, for sure. I admit I don't really have that much exposer to UVA. But I had a choice between the schools and didn't get, as lame as it sounds, a good "vibe" from UVA during my 2 visits there, so I choose Tech. The greek system encourages, to a certain degree, conformity that I always felt was anti-geek. I mean geek means different things to different people. But just being a CS student does not make you a geek, IMHO. Of course the exception can be found in the ever classis Revenge of the Nerds.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't read the actual review because I believe that one line sums it up best, "I left feeling a bit disappointed when looking back on the overall picture." That is exactly how I felt reading Angels and Deamons (another of his books). He writes his books like he has a movie in mind and he is thinking ahead to movie rights, which is highly likely. However, like too many big budget movies, there seems to be no real heart to the story, just one thrill to the next and once the ride stops you don't have much to reflect back on.
I neither understand why you'd need a screen of thumbnails to all your open apps, nor understand why this is on slashdot. Oh well.
That post must be ingeniously sublime flamebait. It paints a picture of man so stereotypical that in fact it must be false, too real to be real, the type of geek everyone loves to hate, like the arrogant tech support guys I saw spoofed on Mad TV. No one could actually believe, enough to post, that the only things in the world people could be interested are the only things he is interested nor could someone actually expect that every single person on slashdot has mapped all his applications to function keys to applications, or at least believes it is the obviously best way. Bravo! I am afraid however that like Andy Kaufman, you may not be fully appreciated in your time.
Since wearable computing and its surrounding technology is almost definately going to mature much faster than something as far off as optical implants that can do the same trick without glasses, I wonder if people will stop using lasers and contacts to fix their eyes because they will want to wear glasses as a utility. In fact people with perfect vision might even start wearing glasses.
This guy could be suffereing from the extra burden of ageism also. His resume shows that he has started working for Nasa in working since 1967. That means that he is probably about 57 years old and looking for work as a programmer.
but if he is 15 and overweight, when "Star Wars kid" is a big, big improvement over *any* nickname he originally had.
First of all, I don't know if they are calling him names or not. Whatever the actual name is, is only secondary. If a nickname is meant to belittle and alienate, as apposed to the more friendly kind of nick-names, then that is all that matters. I was called "slave" because I cleaned up the tennis courts and grounds at my public pool for some cash. I certainly didn't need the money, it was just something to do. I could have quite at anytime no problem, but it wasn't the name itself, it was the way I was being singled out for mockery that ate away at my confidence and ability to enjoy life every single day that happened.
Instead of collecting money to buy this kid an iPod or signing petitions to put him in the movie, we should be collecting money to buy him a therapist, some cool clothes, and a personal trainer. I suffered a lot from 6th grade to 8th grade. I always felt very awkward and unpopular, painfully afraid of girls, and never having more than 1 or 2 friends at a time. Some kids picked a nick-name for me I really hated. As stupid and silly and not really all that bad as it was, it still ate away at me, and I wasn't at the disadvantage of being overweight and the center of a world-wide joke. The kids in his school are probable calling him the Star Wars kid. As much as we empathies with this kid, I'm sure there is no way this joke is helping him. Getting in the movie isn't going to help either. It will just help reinforce the joke further. Hopefully Lucas will let the kid *privately* visit the set and meet the stars and get some value out of this phenomenon. But it is shortsighted to expect the kid to become fond of this attention anytime soon. Lets be honest, we don't want the kid in the movie to help him, we want him in it to further our own ejoyment.
The remixes
I know! Isn't it great! Something never get old!
Microsoft Patents Ones and Zeros
I was really hoping that website was going to lead me to a candidate I could appreciate. I was just thinking a day or so ago that I'm ready to make my very first political donation to some geek if they show me they care about a.) reforming copyright and patent law, and b.) slowing the outsourcing trend. I was hoping I could pay my $50 buck donation online (can a VA resident contribute to a FL candidate???)... BUT unfortunately that guy is not it. I don't care what his area of expertise is, any "techie" (or anyone) who thinks that it is ok to make a webpage that looks like that doesn't have my sympathy regarding the loss of his job.
What is amazing about this game is the number of people playing. I didn't realize until I started asking around, but it seems that almost everyone I know is playing! I have found that some people are more satisfied with the game than others. Also the levels of violence and sexuality available in the game are quite controversial. However I think that the coolest feature about this game for the diehard gamers is the ability to play games within the game!
My point was, and I think that is was pretty clear, that there is very little loss of actual sales because if the magazine only had a few good pictures woth photographing, it wasn't worth the cost of the magazine to the person, and therefore the person wasn't going to buy in anyway, camera or no camera. I now continue by saying that taking these new high quality photographs is not free on these phones because often the only way to see the picture in a larger format is to email it to a computer. Emailing these photos to yourself or even just to a friends phone is not free. Every byte gets billed. And since the person was likely not going to buy the magazine anyway, this revenue is completely new. Of course that is just my opinion. I think it would take scientific unbiased surveys to determine if the camera's actually hurt sales or not.
Yes they do. But more than that it is very customary for Japanese to browse magazines instead of purchasing them. My girlfriend often went to the bookstore to just look at magazines without purchasing, all part of the sport-window-shopping common there. You can often see 2 or 3 couples at a time standing together and just reading magazines in convenience stores, even late at night while they wait for rooms to open up in the love hotel nearby. This is probably part of the problem. They have been largely accustomed to enjoying magazines for free. Howeve I don't see the problem. If the magazine only has a few interesting pictures it it, it probably wasn't worth purchasing to the customer anyway. If the customer's are sending more photos through there phone, this generates more telecom revenue, and ultimately doesn't hurt the economy.
Why is this modded as flamebait? I agree. I hardly ever purchased music, that is because I rarely listen to music. The fact that I have some MP3's on my hard drive (that I barely listen too) just because they cost me nothing, is hardly the same as if I went out and stole the actual CD. The fact is that I would never buy the CD for they prices they charge so they didn't loose any money.
Of course all they would have to do is lower the price dramatically to get me to pay. For example, I am watching more movies in the theater now than ever before. Why? Because I live in the Philippines and it only cost me $1.20! Even here that is only about half the cost of a Big Mac combo from McDonalds. So I'm gonna pay to see every movie that comes out so long as I think it is worth my time. In Japan a movie costs almost $14, about 3 times the cost of a Big Mac Combo. There I was much more reluctant to go to the theater and watching much more of my friends DivX collection. Regardless, if the DivX existed or not, I would not have paid to watch nearly as many films in Japan. So in my viewpoing, pirating is closer to "theft-light". Because probably 80% of the time it is not actually denying real revenue. While it is definately NOT entirely moral, it is also clearly not as immoral as swiping physical goods that someone else would eventually pay for.
Sticking with the heat and bird motif. I also suggest:
BakedChicken and RoastTurkey
My favorite though, since Phoenix was a women in X-Men, Ozzies/Kiwis call their women "birds", and American's call women "chicks", is is..
SmokinChick
http://www.consumer.att.com/contact/
===
I just read Wired article about AT&T's charging customers for a voicemail exploit which allowed overseas "hackers" to make fraudulent collect calls.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,585 17,00.html
I am appalled that AT&T would try to charge the customers for a mistake that is clearly AT&T's. It is AT&T's fault that the automated system accepted a long distance collect call without proper "real" authorization. AT&T was tricked into accepting a fraudulent call, not the customer. The customer did not choose to be involved in this automated system designed by AT&T. Therefore it is AT&Ts fault and it must not charge the customer! Expect a lot more comments on this subject if AT&T doesn't get a conscience soon.
===
P.S. I live in a Japan. To absolve myself of critisism for my terrible spelling above, below, and anywhere, I want to point out that I have learned very well that correct English, much less correct spelling, is not a requirement for communication.
Hi. I submitted the article. Wanted to point out that of course I know PC's could provide such a platform, but I specifically meant a game box that people are going to hook up to there TV simply and easilly and invite there buddies to join them in a game, or that they can flip on in between TV shows.
So use the C++, Java, or whatever to interpret, compile, or whatever, the Lisp, Scheme, or whatever language you want to write it in.
Definately sounds like a major scam to me! We send over shiploads of useless phones, say "here is a gift for my underpriveledged brother", and they throw them in their trash pile. Presto bango, no more disposal problem for us.
And just how many "Woman's Shelters" are there that we need this many phones? Seems that group would be saturated pretty darn fast. And what happens to the older models once those are useless even for the underpriveledged in our society? They get thrown away. So in the end there is no substitute for recycling.
Is this really an Easter Egg? It strikes me as more of a cheat code. Easter Eggs seem to be pretty but basically useless feature. They often times display the developer's names or give you some little extra bonus. But cheat codes are designed to unlock hidden potentials in the system, to circumvent rules, or basically... to cheat.
I know this if a bit off Topic, but please help if you can, and don't mod it Off Topic.
I live in Japan but I'm not so good at the language. I really want to set up a PDA so that I can write Kanji into it using the stylus and get the japanese pronounciations (both) and a definition. I have found some resources but it is confusing. The problem is I don't want to buy any PDA untill I am sure I can make it do what I want. I would really like to use a Zaurus 5500, but anything that gets the job done will do. I can purchase one from the USA or in Japan. Please contact me directly by following the link to my homepage if you have done this. I will greatly appreciate any help you can give me.
Congratulations! You are the first person to post the text of the article! Weclome to your free karma points! Good job also on disquising your whoreing with a witty comment.
Oh wait... but by the way, I do believe that probably 95%+ of the slashdot crowd doesn't read Finnish and are going to just look at the pretty pictures, just like the posting suggested.
Wow... just look at this guy. Strongly indicates someone trying to be outside the box.
Expanded picture from the article.
Another pictures is on his homepage that even has some information on "running Unix on IBM PC110 palmtop computer" and "a Casio E-105 Palm-sized PC"
Well. It is hard to say, for sure. I admit I don't really have that much exposer to UVA. But I had a choice between the schools and didn't get, as lame as it sounds, a good "vibe" from UVA during my 2 visits there, so I choose Tech. The greek system encourages, to a certain degree, conformity that I always felt was anti-geek. I mean geek means different things to different people. But just being a CS student does not make you a geek, IMHO. Of course the exception can be found in the ever classis Revenge of the Nerds.