My entire life is rather hypocritical, because a few years ago I was totally against dating online, now it's the only way I CAN date. It's great! I suggest everyone get themselves a copy of ICQ (or a clone) and jump right in! But there's only one problem...it's not physical. You may never meet the person, especally considering he lives in Utah and you live in New York...it's impossible to feel what it's like to touch them. If the guy I like (in real life) touches me, even slightly, I get this warm, orgasmic feeling. I'm not dating him; I probably never will. If I want to date, I date online. But I can't feel what I feel for that person, what I feel with this other guy in reality. And because of that element, that one drawback, online dating never works. It fills the void, yes, but you can never touch them, you can never have that tingley feeling inside, because they're not really touching you, they're only doing it, "hypothetically." Damn. Now all we need to do is think up a way to send human movement over fiber optic lines : )
Uh wow. My first comp (perhaps my family's first comp as well) was a PB Legend 730 486 SX/25. The damn thing's still going! We can't kill this thing. We've upgraded/rebuilt this thing so many times...my dad's upgrading it to a Pentium 166 for my grandmother... Anyway I'm really going to miss PB, in a way. Perhaps it's just nostalgia. I'm sorry to see so many people around here loathe Packard Bell, because without them (and perhaps Sears not having any IBM PS/2s at the time of purchase and giving this comp to us at a, "bargain!") I wouldn't really, well, um... We rarely had a problem with it, and when we did, naturally, PB's support was, "unavailable" or something. We've had more problems with the two Epson printers we've had, one we're about to get rid of. They're one company I'd REALLY like to see die a horrible death. Hmm... Anywho, I'm sure it was just a matter of time, because they really went downhill after we bought our puter all those many years ago (1993). Just thought I'd share...I've actually had a *positive* experience with PB.
miyax
P.S: I think someone mentioned this before...weren't they connected with AT&T somehow? Or Bell? One of those... P.P.S: BTW my dad broke the monitor. He was trying to fix it. lol. Other than that we still have the original everything to the computer, in working condition.
I had a dream like this!!! I swear to God, it was exactly like this window manager. I was using RedHat, and I was visiting Slashdot and all sorts of internet sites, and Netscape just sort of floated on the screen on a black backround. It was scary as hell, too. Not to mention THIS isn't scary. Whoa. I'll have to tell my shrink about this : )
They run their company out of a condo?::smirk:: Oh well, guess even Microsoft had to start somewhere...didn't they start in a barn or something? And I guess running your company out of a condo isn't as bad as running it out of a garage, eh, Steve? hehe If enough newbies buy this product, I'm sure they'll move. Although I'm still preaching Slackware on an extra hard drive/partition [to the beginners].
And I quote: This is exactly the attitude that is displayed in this article. How DARE any of us think that we are the only smart people out there? The fact is, geekdom is a very insular world, and we are not in much of a position to speculate on the woes of other industries, or the potential impact we would have upon said industries if we weren't so busy getting a woody from Quake3.
Huh? Where are you? That wasn't even implied. He was talking about his friend, not the geek populace. Yeah I'll admit geeks have a certain level of arrogance (me included), but we mustn't let that get the better of us. If we do, we'll seem like complete self-centered assholes to the world around us, the exact people we're against. Anyway, there is no shread of a, "Geeks are wonderful, blah blah blah, etc." tone, meaning, theme, ANYTHING along those lines in this article. And anyway, who cares?! That's not even the point Roblimo was trying to make. When, and if, the internet crashes, the ones who do know a hell of a lot about it will be left stranded, looking like idiots. He means that all that energy we concentrate into one thing could be used to better the world and stuff, and to make the future that authors of the '50s and such a reality. That would be cool. THAT'S the point. We're all geeks here. We can think what we want of ourselves around ourselves. That's why we're all here : ) Just like jocks do at football games, and shallow teenage girls do in the makeup aisle of CVS. For you to concentrate on something that wasn't even implied in this article saddens me. Maybe you should go back to the football field and cheer on the sidelines.
I know about Coke and Surge, but Barq's is actually put out by, "Barq's Inc." I just a had a can for lunch (hehe ok I didn't eat the can I...you know what I mean : )
We've got a Coke bottle machine @ school, and not only is it cheaper to go across the street and buy a bottle of the same soda, but the machine doesn't take dollars. It's got a dollar slot, but it just refuses to take them. Besides, I prefer Pepsi. It doesn't make me as hyper and doesn't have that annoying extra taste thing that Coke has. If I need energy, three glasses of Coke, a Barq's root beer, or a few sips of Surge do the trick : ) Long live Pepsi! I hope Coke suffers from this, and Pepsi and Barq's and even Snapple come out ahead. Coke's not selling well in the U.S. anyway.
I think we females (all 7% of us hehe) need at least one female author on/., so we can get articles like this : ) I wonder if Mrs. Roblimo is interested...hmm...if not I'd be glad to take the job : )
Ok, well, I can't get any at all, but every guy who's ever attempted to flirt with me has been...err, average. Those guys, IMO, are boring, average, and not usually as smart and clever as a "guy with a pocket protector." Where are all the good pocket protector guys?! My friends think I have extremely weird taste in men, but I think they have rather dull and ordinary taste in men...give me a geek anytime : ) And I do do that nervous laugh thing...I do everything they described in the article naturally out of self-confidence...then again, it is the Weekly World News...
Emphasis on sounds like. When I first heard about Caldera, it sounded like a wet dream. I went out and bought 2.2 and realized it wasn't anywhere near a wet dream, not even an erotic fantasy. The installation and video detection were the only pluses. That, and the bundled RPMs (which were all corrupted to some extent). CALDERA'S SUPPORT IS A WASTE OF TIME. Pardon my shouting, but it's true. If you have a problem, so do they; they don't know how to help. My modem was detected during the installation but didn't work worth a damn. My sound card was ignored completely. The COAS was also a big plus but I'm not sure if the modules even loaded in right. Now, I'm relatively new to Linux, and I'll give all the beginners here the advice nice people on/. have given me: Slackware. If you want to learn Linux, Slackware is the way to go (except for the libc stuff and I still have no sound or internet connection). I've had more fun messing with Slackware than I did staring at the Caldera log on prompt in KDE (which was loads of fun, let me tell you : ) I'd love to try OpenLinux 2.3, but I'm just too happy having CONTROL over my operating system with Slackware. Oh yeah, and Mandrake sounds promissing, but again...
First off, do we really want Hollywood to glorify hacker/geek/computer culture? Why not leave an air of mystery to the whole thing, and dissalusion (sp?) the general public about the topic? That could actually be fun. But that goes without saying we still can't write movies along those lines. I love to write and most of my stories/poorly-written scripts involve computers/geek culture in a major (err, somewhat of a major) way. If we don't like the way things are going, why don't we all write a script? We could fund it early on by ourselves, or easily release it to an indie movie company or something (is that an oxymoron? INDIE movie COMPANY?). Don't mock my ideas. I can dream : )
Anyone else out here a control freak? I sure am. Because of my control-freak-ness, I'm a little beside myself when it comes to releasing a Linux program. I'm all for free software; but releasing the source to people I don't quite know worries me. It's the program I spent hours on...some things done intentionally to it, some not...if someone saw room for improvement, I'd rather they told me and I could do it, or we could work on it together, you know? For example, if you were a writer (like I am more than a hacker), would you release your novel to the entire world and say, "Make all the changes to it you want, and then tell me!" No way, man. Anyone seeing what I mean? Or have I just posted yet another stupid comment? ; )
miyax
Re:Why Must We Test On Animals?/Talk to My Cat
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The Cat Cam
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Ok, ok. So perhaps that Chinese thing was a bad example...I'm just saying that animals have no say in the world. Not like we should rush right out and try to give them speech...but I'm just saying. I eat meat, chicken, fish, etc. But for once I'd like to see the animal come out on top, and not be used for these sorts of experiments. You may think I'm contradicting myself, by saying I eat meat and that we shouldn't kill animals. I admit it's wrong. But the criminal thing you've got to understand. "Eye for an eye." Besides, criminals could speak out against scientific testing. Animals can't. Scientific research like this worries me anyway. We hear about these things, then that person/animal goes away from public view, then comes back a few years later and we found out it's died or what not. Yeah it's cool, it's a scientific achievement. I love posting things like that. I like making people think : )
miyax, who is scheduled to be removed from the gene pool at 5:45 eastern standard time (just kidding)
Why Must We Test On Animals?/Talk to My Cat
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The Cat Cam
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Why do people continually feel the need to test "scientific research" on animals? The animals have done nothing to us. For cripe's sake, let's use people. China's got 1 billion (no offense to the Chinese), or why can't we use criminals? I think this technology is pretty cool, but why try it out on a kitty? What makes them think the kitty doesn't object to this? What makes them think the kitty even wants this sort of technology implanted in him in the first place? Because people can object to this, and kitties and animals can't? Is that why we test on them? Gee, I can understand my black lab pretty well...
On another, more pleasant note, does anyone remember the site, "Talk to My Cat?" This guy had this cat which always sat around his computer, possibly because it was warm or something. Anyway, this guy set up this machine that, when somebody typed something in a text box, the machine would transform that text into speech, and literally talk to the cat. For all I know it was a big hoax, but it was still a cool concept. This was quite a few years ago...anyone remember it? Guess that's quite OT, but this article kinda reminded me of the site : )
What was it that Woz once said? "Computers for every desktop"? "Computers for the home"? Something along those lines. Apple did just that : )
I could just spew out a big, long, history speach, but because you all know what I'd say (and some of you have said it already), I'll refrain. What I will say is this: Apple's dumbest (spelling? ah well) move EVER - and I don't remember who's responsible, the Pepsi guy? - was firing Steve Jobs. Think of what we could be doing with computers right now if Apple hadn't sat like a lump during the late '80s and most of the '90s! Steve Jobs is the driving force behind Apple, and without him, the company just hangs in ICU, and comes crying to frickin Microsoft. If it wasn't for Steve Jobs, the plans for the Apple ][ would have been passed out by Woz to computer folks in his home town. Don't get me wrong, I love Steve Wozniak, but he needed Jobs as a partner to get the thing off the ground. Apple needs Jobs. Plain and simple.
I agree with Mr. Jon Katz - we are in Apple's second "era," but if Apple doesn't do anything more than "sell colorful pieces of plastic," we're all going to be mightly dissapointed. Because we damn well know they can do more than that.
This actually reminds me of a great joke I once heard. Bill Gates is talking to the CEO of General Motors (donno who that is), and Bill says, "If GM had kept up with technology the way Microsoft has, we'd all be driving $25 cars that could get up to 1000mph." The rest isn't important, the GM dude says something like, "Would you really want your car to crash every 5 minutes?" But I hope you see my point. If Apple didn't let Jobs go...hmm...
I'm done : )
miyax
P.S: I don't use an Apple (hehe), but I've used them at school every chance I've gotten, from the Apple ][ up to the G3.
I hope it does go alright for these folks. I live about 30mi outside NYC, (not like that's really related, but anyway) and two years ago we switched from a very nice Mac network to a budget, confining WinTel NT network. I don't mind the PCs themselves (they're all Dells : ) but NT? From Mac? And now our school paper is forced to do desktop publishing on these things.
For cripes sake, could they try to ruin us anymore than they already have? The conputer "teachers" all had to be retrained, and they still don't know how to log in as admin and give us internet access. Yes, we still don't have internet access.
Anyway, I'd really love for my school district to get some reliable Sun boxes, because not only do I hate NT, but it would also give the under-exposed students (such as me)...err...exposure to a different OS. I miss the Macs (and the various Apple ][s strewn about) more than ever (mainly because we had *a lot* more privs, and teachers who could actually help us at the time). Even Unix/Linux/BSD would be great (although they probably wouldn't give us access to anything outside KDE, and would have even less of an idea of what they're doing. In that case, let the students help the students. Students welcome help from other students : )
At O-Town High School (here in O-Town, really) we're pretty lax about security; there's this stupid thing which permits us from entering the building before 7:30 (so we'll have to wait until after then to blow up the school), but other than that we don't have anything more than security guards. We also have school ID cards, but they're nothing more than that. We don't have to wear them on our person (pockets and wallets are usually where they stay) and I'm not even sure if half the school carries them anyway. We have student numbers, but we've always had student numbers. They're of no significance other than filing records, and they're used as passwords on our school-wide WinTel NT network (: P). The truth is, school bombings and school shooting rampages can't happen everywhere. If the state has control over these things, then it's not going to happen. There are way too many high schools in America for this to happen at every one. The schools are just paranoid. The students think this is a joke. What they ought to do, if they're worried, is check up on their local gun control laws, and if necessary whine and scream for better ones. The barcodes aren't needed. It's like they're treating kids like boxes of cerial or something. What the schools need to realize is that kids are people, too, and they need to be trusted the same way the teachers/principals/administration expects to be trusted. Without that trust...and without proper control over guns and bombs from the begining...
Now how long do we have to wait before he uses Open Source for his own good, and profits from it? Sure is cheap enough...oh damnit, now I'm starting to think like him. Esh. Hopefully he won't see this and get any ideas...heh heh.
miyax
My, If I had that kind of confidence...
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Nitrozac Answers
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I don't know, call it desperation, call it teenage hormones, but I would gladly date any nice guy with a Star Trek figurine collection. >And when you do get together with that attractive het geek girl, it will be >because she seduces you, not because you seduce her (though she may >let you think you seduced her). True. Sorry, guys, but it is. Seems like all the guys I go for out there never want to...what's the word I'm looking for...move? Budge? Talk to me?! It's as almost as though we girls have to throw outselves out in the middle of the frickin road to get a decient geek dude out there. And the girls who do, constantly (for any guy, not just geeks/not including geeks) always get them. Oh why am I talking about this again? Getting back to the subject! Yes, Truffle, I admire your confidence and your boldness (and your half-assed anonymous posting : ) and if I had your confidence I wouldn't be here discussing my sad love life on/. I disagree, however, that *most* geek girls are bi. Although I've had "sex" with both guys and girls, I'd prefer someone with a penis in the long run (possibly because I don't know any gay/bi geek chicks). Geek girls have better things on their mind than men. I would say men are towards the bottom of my priorities list, because I just don't think it's necessary. Sure, I'd love to go out with a guy (not over the internet) for once, etc...but I'm not going to let men run my life. Not now, not never. Does all this pertain to any of the subjects being discussed here? I doubt it : )
miyax
Re:People who are new to Orson Scott Card's Books
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Ender's Shadow
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Yup, it can happen. I am proof : ) Ender's Game was on my summer reading list for this past summer, and after hearing about it on/. I decided to give it a go. Very glad I read it, otherwise I would have read Jurassic Park... Not to mention the other book I read was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both of these books were (are) awesome. And if I buy Ender's Shadow before the 30th, I can send in both recipts and get $4 back! Wow, a whole $4...
Hey now. All I'm lacking is a good set of conversation skills and the ability to tell people what exactly I want ("You know, one of those things."). I used to rock back and forth but not anymore. Then again, we're all different... And yet...I can honestly say I've never met any "nerd" who was mildly autistic (or however you spell it). I've met people who rock back and forth, can't look directly into someone's eyes, etc, but never anyone with ALL the symptoms. Good article, though. Got me thinking.
miyax
Re:For all the wrong reasons.
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Linux Lite?
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Yeah you know, I'm a Linux newbie and I agree with you. Although the author of the article makes a good point, it's just as easy to install Linux without all the "complicated sysadmin" stuff, and all that stuff's fun to mess with anyway : ) Besides, Linux folks are very nice and helpful when newbies like me have a question. There's lots of support out there...nothing's all that difficult.
Yeah it was my first online experience too. My first computing experience, also. My parents and I (I was 9) went to Sears--of all places--to buy an IBM and came home with a Packard Bell 486 with Prodigy and a 2400 modem built-in. Sadly, I couldn't stand the damn thing even if it was "fast" for the times. Anywho, for the next 4 years Prodigy was my life. No kidding. The games were sweet. And I'd learned the art of flame at an early age...Then when I was fed up with Prodigy refusing to upgrade their software in 2 years I started using Prodigy Internet. But enough about me, eh? Anyone remember their tech support? Nice people. And anyone remember the chat rooms? Heh. They're all dead (not to mention clean) now...
If they can do this to Hotmail that means, just as easily, they can do this to any web-based e-mail service. While I think this is funny, that's only because I don't use Hotmail! But I do use web-based e-mail (not telling which one so you don't get any ideas : ) and this scares the shit out of me... miyax
Slashdot Mirror
My entire life is rather hypocritical, because a few years ago I was totally against dating online, now it's the only way I CAN date. It's great! I suggest everyone get themselves a copy of ICQ (or a clone) and jump right in!
But there's only one problem...it's not physical. You may never meet the person, especally considering he lives in Utah and you live in New York...it's impossible to feel what it's like to touch them. If the guy I like (in real life) touches me, even slightly, I get this warm, orgasmic feeling. I'm not dating him; I probably never will. If I want to date, I date online. But I can't feel what I feel for that person, what I feel with this other guy in reality.
And because of that element, that one drawback, online dating never works. It fills the void, yes, but you can never touch them, you can never have that tingley feeling inside, because they're not really touching you, they're only doing it, "hypothetically."
Damn. Now all we need to do is think up a way to send human movement over fiber optic lines : )
miyax
Uh wow. My first comp (perhaps my family's first comp as well) was a PB Legend 730 486 SX/25. The damn thing's still going! We can't kill this thing. We've upgraded/rebuilt this thing so many times...my dad's upgrading it to a Pentium 166 for my grandmother...
Anyway I'm really going to miss PB, in a way. Perhaps it's just nostalgia. I'm sorry to see so many people around here loathe Packard Bell, because without them (and perhaps Sears not having any IBM PS/2s at the time of purchase and giving this comp to us at a, "bargain!") I wouldn't really, well, um...
We rarely had a problem with it, and when we did, naturally, PB's support was, "unavailable" or something. We've had more problems with the two Epson printers we've had, one we're about to get rid of. They're one company I'd REALLY like to see die a horrible death. Hmm...
Anywho, I'm sure it was just a matter of time, because they really went downhill after we bought our puter all those many years ago (1993).
Just thought I'd share...I've actually had a *positive* experience with PB.
miyax
P.S: I think someone mentioned this before...weren't they connected with AT&T somehow? Or Bell? One of those...
P.P.S: BTW my dad broke the monitor. He was trying to fix it. lol. Other than that we still have the original everything to the computer, in working condition.
I had a dream like this!!! I swear to God, it was exactly like this window manager. I was using RedHat, and I was visiting Slashdot and all sorts of internet sites, and Netscape just sort of floated on the screen on a black backround. It was scary as hell, too.
Not to mention THIS isn't scary. Whoa. I'll have to tell my shrink about this : )
miyax
They run their company out of a condo? ::smirk:: Oh well, guess even Microsoft had to start somewhere...didn't they start in a barn or something? And I guess running your company out of a condo isn't as bad as running it out of a garage, eh, Steve? hehe
If enough newbies buy this product, I'm sure they'll move. Although I'm still preaching Slackware on an extra hard drive/partition [to the beginners].
miyax
And I quote:
This is exactly the attitude that is displayed in this article. How DARE any of us think that we are the only smart people out there? The fact is, geekdom is a very insular world, and we are not in much of a position to speculate on the woes of other industries, or the potential impact we would have upon said industries if we weren't so busy getting a woody from Quake3.
Huh? Where are you? That wasn't even implied. He was talking about his friend, not the geek populace. Yeah I'll admit geeks have a certain level of arrogance (me included), but we mustn't let that get the better of us. If we do, we'll seem like complete self-centered assholes to the world around us, the exact people we're against.
Anyway, there is no shread of a, "Geeks are wonderful, blah blah blah, etc." tone, meaning, theme, ANYTHING along those lines in this article.
And anyway, who cares?! That's not even the point Roblimo was trying to make. When, and if, the internet crashes, the ones who do know a hell of a lot about it will be left stranded, looking like idiots. He means that all that energy we concentrate into one thing could be used to better the world and stuff, and to make the future that authors of the '50s and such a reality. That would be cool.
THAT'S the point. We're all geeks here. We can think what we want of ourselves around ourselves. That's why we're all here : ) Just like jocks do at football games, and shallow teenage girls do in the makeup aisle of CVS. For you to concentrate on something that wasn't even implied in this article saddens me. Maybe you should go back to the football field and cheer on the sidelines.
miyax
I know about Coke and Surge, but Barq's is actually put out by, "Barq's Inc." I just a had a can for lunch (hehe ok I didn't eat the can I...you know what I mean : )
miyax
We've got a Coke bottle machine @ school, and not only is it cheaper to go across the street and buy a bottle of the same soda, but the machine doesn't take dollars. It's got a dollar slot, but it just refuses to take them.
Besides, I prefer Pepsi. It doesn't make me as hyper and doesn't have that annoying extra taste thing that Coke has. If I need energy, three glasses of Coke, a Barq's root beer, or a few sips of Surge do the trick : )
Long live Pepsi! I hope Coke suffers from this, and Pepsi and Barq's and even Snapple come out ahead. Coke's not selling well in the U.S. anyway.
miyax
I think we females (all 7% of us hehe) need at least one female author on /., so we can get articles like this : )
I wonder if Mrs. Roblimo is interested...hmm...if not I'd be glad to take the job : )
miyax
Ok, well, I can't get any at all, but every guy who's ever attempted to flirt with me has been...err, average.
Those guys, IMO, are boring, average, and not usually as smart and clever as a "guy with a pocket protector." Where are all the good pocket protector guys?!
My friends think I have extremely weird taste in men, but I think they have rather dull and ordinary taste in men...give me a geek anytime : )
And I do do that nervous laugh thing...I do everything they described in the article naturally out of self-confidence...then again, it is the Weekly World News...
miyax
Emphasis on sounds like. /. have given me: Slackware. If you want to learn Linux, Slackware is the way to go (except for the libc stuff and I still have no sound or internet connection). I've had more fun messing with Slackware than I did staring at the Caldera log on prompt in KDE (which was loads of fun, let me tell you : )
When I first heard about Caldera, it sounded like a wet dream. I went out and bought 2.2 and realized it wasn't anywhere near a wet dream, not even an erotic fantasy.
The installation and video detection were the only pluses. That, and the bundled RPMs (which were all corrupted to some extent).
CALDERA'S SUPPORT IS A WASTE OF TIME. Pardon my shouting, but it's true. If you have a problem, so do they; they don't know how to help. My modem was detected during the installation but didn't work worth a damn. My sound card was ignored completely. The COAS was also a big plus but I'm not sure if the modules even loaded in right.
Now, I'm relatively new to Linux, and I'll give all the beginners here the advice nice people on
I'd love to try OpenLinux 2.3, but I'm just too happy having CONTROL over my operating system with Slackware.
Oh yeah, and Mandrake sounds promissing, but again...
miyax
First off, do we really want Hollywood to glorify hacker/geek/computer culture? Why not leave an air of mystery to the whole thing, and dissalusion (sp?) the general public about the topic? That could actually be fun.
But that goes without saying we still can't write movies along those lines. I love to write and most of my stories/poorly-written scripts involve computers/geek culture in a major (err, somewhat of a major) way. If we don't like the way things are going, why don't we all write a script? We could fund it early on by ourselves, or easily release it to an indie movie company or something (is that an oxymoron? INDIE movie COMPANY?).
Don't mock my ideas. I can dream : )
miyax
Anyone else out here a control freak? I sure am. Because of my control-freak-ness, I'm a little beside myself when it comes to releasing a Linux program. I'm all for free software; but releasing the source to people I don't quite know worries me. It's the program I spent hours on...some things done intentionally to it, some not...if someone saw room for improvement, I'd rather they told me and I could do it, or we could work on it together, you know?
For example, if you were a writer (like I am more than a hacker), would you release your novel to the entire world and say, "Make all the changes to it you want, and then tell me!" No way, man.
Anyone seeing what I mean? Or have I just posted yet another stupid comment? ; )
miyax
Ok, ok. So perhaps that Chinese thing was a bad example...I'm just saying that animals have no say in the world. Not like we should rush right out and try to give them speech...but I'm just saying. I eat meat, chicken, fish, etc. But for once I'd like to see the animal come out on top, and not be used for these sorts of experiments. You may think I'm contradicting myself, by saying I eat meat and that we shouldn't kill animals. I admit it's wrong.
But the criminal thing you've got to understand. "Eye for an eye." Besides, criminals could speak out against scientific testing. Animals can't.
Scientific research like this worries me anyway. We hear about these things, then that person/animal goes away from public view, then comes back a few years later and we found out it's died or what not. Yeah it's cool, it's a scientific achievement.
I love posting things like that. I like making people think : )
miyax, who is scheduled to be removed from the gene pool at 5:45 eastern standard time (just kidding)
Why do people continually feel the need to test "scientific research" on animals? The animals have done nothing to us. For cripe's sake, let's use people. China's got 1 billion (no offense to the Chinese), or why can't we use criminals?
I think this technology is pretty cool, but why try it out on a kitty? What makes them think the kitty doesn't object to this? What makes them think the kitty even wants this sort of technology implanted in him in the first place? Because people can object to this, and kitties and animals can't? Is that why we test on them? Gee, I can understand my black lab pretty well...
On another, more pleasant note, does anyone remember the site, "Talk to My Cat?" This guy had this cat which always sat around his computer, possibly because it was warm or something. Anyway, this guy set up this machine that, when somebody typed something in a text box, the machine would transform that text into speech, and literally talk to the cat. For all I know it was a big hoax, but it was still a cool concept. This was quite a few years ago...anyone remember it?
Guess that's quite OT, but this article kinda reminded me of the site : )
miyax
What was it that Woz once said? "Computers for every desktop"? "Computers for the home"? Something along those lines. Apple did just that : )
I could just spew out a big, long, history speach, but because you all know what I'd say (and some of you have said it already), I'll refrain. What I will say is this: Apple's dumbest (spelling? ah well) move EVER - and I don't remember who's responsible, the Pepsi guy? - was firing Steve Jobs. Think of what we could be doing with computers right now if Apple hadn't sat like a lump during the late '80s and most of the '90s! Steve Jobs is the driving force behind Apple, and without him, the company just hangs in ICU, and comes crying to frickin Microsoft. If it wasn't for Steve Jobs, the plans for the Apple ][ would have been passed out by Woz to computer folks in his home town. Don't get me wrong, I love Steve Wozniak, but he needed Jobs as a partner to get the thing off the ground. Apple needs Jobs. Plain and simple.
I agree with Mr. Jon Katz - we are in Apple's second "era," but if Apple doesn't do anything more than "sell colorful pieces of plastic," we're all going to be mightly dissapointed. Because we damn well know they can do more than that.
This actually reminds me of a great joke I once heard. Bill Gates is talking to the CEO of General Motors (donno who that is), and Bill says, "If GM had kept up with technology the way Microsoft has, we'd all be driving $25 cars that could get up to 1000mph." The rest isn't important, the GM dude says something like, "Would you really want your car to crash every 5 minutes?" But I hope you see my point. If Apple didn't let Jobs go...hmm...
I'm done : )
miyax
P.S: I don't use an Apple (hehe), but I've used them at school every chance I've gotten, from the Apple ][ up to the G3.
I hope it does go alright for these folks. I live about 30mi outside NYC, (not like that's really related, but anyway) and two years ago we switched from a very nice Mac network to a budget, confining WinTel NT network. I don't mind the PCs themselves (they're all Dells : ) but NT? From Mac? And now our school paper is forced to do desktop publishing on these things.
For cripes sake, could they try to ruin us anymore than they already have? The conputer "teachers" all had to be retrained, and they still don't know how to log in as admin and give us internet access. Yes, we still don't have internet access.
Anyway, I'd really love for my school district to get some reliable Sun boxes, because not only do I hate NT, but it would also give the under-exposed students (such as me)...err...exposure to a different OS. I miss the Macs (and the various Apple ][s strewn about) more than ever (mainly because we had *a lot* more privs, and teachers who could actually help us at the time). Even Unix/Linux/BSD would be great (although they probably wouldn't give us access to anything outside KDE, and would have even less of an idea of what they're doing. In that case, let the students help the students. Students welcome help from other students : )
Hats off to NYC. Best of luck to them.
miyax
At O-Town High School (here in O-Town, really) we're pretty lax about security; there's this stupid thing which permits us from entering the building before 7:30 (so we'll have to wait until after then to blow up the school), but other than that we don't have anything more than security guards.
We also have school ID cards, but they're nothing more than that. We don't have to wear them on our person (pockets and wallets are usually where they stay) and I'm not even sure if half the school carries them anyway. We have student numbers, but we've always had student numbers. They're of no significance other than filing records, and they're used as passwords on our school-wide WinTel NT network (: P).
The truth is, school bombings and school shooting rampages can't happen everywhere. If the state has control over these things, then it's not going to happen. There are way too many high schools in America for this to happen at every one. The schools are just paranoid. The students think this is a joke.
What they ought to do, if they're worried, is check up on their local gun control laws, and if necessary whine and scream for better ones.
The barcodes aren't needed. It's like they're treating kids like boxes of cerial or something.
What the schools need to realize is that kids are people, too, and they need to be trusted the same way the teachers/principals/administration expects to be trusted. Without that trust...and without proper control over guns and bombs from the begining...
miyax
Now how long do we have to wait before he uses Open Source for his own good, and profits from it? Sure is cheap enough...oh damnit, now I'm starting to think like him. Esh.
Hopefully he won't see this and get any ideas...heh heh.
miyax
I don't know, call it desperation, call it teenage hormones, but I would gladly date any nice guy with a Star Trek figurine collection. /. I disagree, however, that *most* geek girls are bi. Although I've had "sex" with both guys and girls, I'd prefer someone with a penis in the long run (possibly because I don't know any gay/bi geek chicks).
>And when you do get together with that attractive het geek girl, it will be >because she seduces you, not because you seduce her (though she may >let you think you seduced her).
True. Sorry, guys, but it is. Seems like all the guys I go for out there never want to...what's the word I'm looking for...move? Budge? Talk to me?! It's as almost as though we girls have to throw outselves out in the middle of the frickin road to get a decient geek dude out there. And the girls who do, constantly (for any guy, not just geeks/not including geeks) always get them. Oh why am I talking about this again?
Getting back to the subject! Yes, Truffle, I admire your confidence and your boldness (and your half-assed anonymous posting : ) and if I had your confidence I wouldn't be here discussing my sad love life on
Geek girls have better things on their mind than men. I would say men are towards the bottom of my priorities list, because I just don't think it's necessary. Sure, I'd love to go out with a guy (not over the internet) for once, etc...but I'm not going to let men run my life. Not now, not never.
Does all this pertain to any of the subjects being discussed here? I doubt it : )
miyax
Yup, it can happen. I am proof : ) /. I decided to give it a go.
Ender's Game was on my summer reading list for this past summer, and after hearing about it on
Very glad I read it, otherwise I would have read Jurassic Park...
Not to mention the other book I read was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both of these books were (are) awesome.
And if I buy Ender's Shadow before the 30th, I can send in both recipts and get $4 back! Wow, a whole $4...
miyax
Hey now. All I'm lacking is a good set of conversation skills and the ability to tell people what exactly I want ("You know, one of those things."). I used to rock back and forth but not anymore.
Then again, we're all different...
And yet...I can honestly say I've never met any "nerd" who was mildly autistic (or however you spell it). I've met people who rock back and forth, can't look directly into someone's eyes, etc, but never anyone with ALL the symptoms.
Good article, though. Got me thinking.
miyax
Yeah you know, I'm a Linux newbie and I agree with you. Although the author of the article makes a good point, it's just as easy to install Linux without all the "complicated sysadmin" stuff, and all that stuff's fun to mess with anyway : )
Besides, Linux folks are very nice and helpful when newbies like me have a question. There's lots of support out there...nothing's all that difficult.
miyax
Yeah it was my first online experience too. My first computing experience, also. My parents and I (I was 9) went to Sears--of all places--to buy an IBM and came home with a Packard Bell 486 with Prodigy and a 2400 modem built-in. Sadly, I couldn't stand the damn thing even if it was "fast" for the times.
Anywho, for the next 4 years Prodigy was my life. No kidding. The games were sweet. And I'd learned the art of flame at an early age...Then when I was fed up with Prodigy refusing to upgrade their software in 2 years I started using Prodigy Internet.
But enough about me, eh? Anyone remember their tech support? Nice people. And anyone remember the chat rooms? Heh. They're all dead (not to mention clean) now...
miyax, who's going down with the sinking ship
If they can do this to Hotmail that means, just as easily, they can do this to any web-based e-mail service. While I think this is funny, that's only because I don't use Hotmail! But I do use web-based e-mail (not telling which one so you don't get any ideas : ) and this scares the shit out of me...
miyax
So that's why my website isn't getting any hits : )
miyax