I pretty much quit the Zynga games (and by extension, pretty much Facebook) cold turkey a few months ago, and savor that extra hour or two I have per day (to post to Slashdot, apparently:P ) But never looked back.
I reached level 200-something in Mafia Wars on two accounts (the only way to guarantee you always have energy and items) and also had a modest start with Starfleet Commander and Extreme, as well as a little bit of Yoville (which almost seemed like it could have been a legitimate visual chat platform if they didn't charge extra for creating "party rooms".
Anyway, it's a pretty nifty formula of rewarding people with bitmap "prizes" at *just* the right random intervals to keep them going, triggering the OCD collection/hoarding reflex, along with some requisite peer pressure from comparing their exp points and performance with that of their friends. Could do wonders to educational software if they could work that formula in just right...
Cool, so that means the current Department of Homeland Security alert level of yellow/orange actually means there's information out there regarding an actual threat, and not just a constant elevated paranoia to cover their asses if something bad actually goes down?
I seem to remember there was much more public outcry when they tried to do similar things to lock down control of PCs and laptops to software authorized by one manufacturer. Everyone just sort of laughed it off saying "that'll never fly".
But I guess mobile phones have always kinda locked down. Still, the difference a generation makes!
Meh, it's not like they're moving all the turtles. They're just spreading them around a bit. Most baby turtles get eaten anyway (survival rate from hatching is something like 1/100?), so at worst they're expanding the culinary variety of wildlife out on the panhandle. So we're really talking about ~700 turtles that might reach adulthood, which isn't really all that terribly many in the scheme of things.
Yeah, doing nothing means no one can hold you accountable for anything. There people who are perfectly happy to live their lives that way. But all the same, I'm glad there are some people who take the initiative and then stand behind their actions, for better or for worse; you could spin it either way.
Heh, really. How much of a problem will this pose anyway, with millions of people named "Lee This" and "Lee That" anyway. If this happened in the US, we could just all start naming our offspring John/Jill Smith.
In Thailand (and I think to some extent China) no one really even uses their official names anyway. Everyone has a nickname like "bird" or "smalley" or something like that which they use to address each other... friends, relatives, and strangers alike.
Interesting interview on NPR a few weeks back on a woman (who had been raped as a teen) who had studied middle eastern terrorists and came up with the thesis that many had been seriously sexually abused as children in the training camps. Pointing out that the common thread with terrorists and other people who went postal or Columbine was that they had been subjected to some form of grave humiliation and didn't really have a support group or other form of outlet.
Not excusing their means of retaliation, but it was interesting to draw the connection between humiliation and people who eventually snap violently. If the world had less humiliation going around and bystanders who are complicit with it, we'd all probably be better off, bullies and nerds alike.
Heh, I'd say having too good a computer keeps you from learning too much about it. I spent countless hours tweaking DOS drivers and emm386 settings and benchmarking the math co-processor to see if I could get my crappy games running faster.
In the same vein, my main "computer" as an adolescent was my TI-85 graphing calculator. I read through the entire manual front to back on the school bus and tried out every function and wrote some simple programs in their language, and admired the assembly programmers who could do much more interesting things with it.
I wouldn't even attempt doing something like that with the general-purpose computers or even the smartphones I use now:P .
Are there any good photo / video web albums that use HTML5 to good effect yet?
I'm kinda hooked on http://marginalhacks.com/Hacks/album/ , which has the simplest, most straightforward interface of all the other things I've tried. And it makes a good attempt at handling video. I have a simple shell script that imports pics from my Canon camera, converts the mjpegs to.mp4, and tosses it into my ~/public_html/pictures directory indexed by Album.
http://gallery.menalto.com/ is also one of my favorites, but it's a bit too labor intensive for a photo archive... I do try to load some of the nicest shots in it, though, for all the comments and other features..
Nice advice... I'll be sure to pass it on to my kids as well.
Teachers / professors are more of a guide to your independent studies.
If there's one thing I learned from the well-respected and actually somewhat decent teacher of my AP Chem class in HS, it was to learn everything from the book in advance, and use the classroom time to reaffirm / crosscheck my knowledge.
Prior to that, I had been squeaking by, figuring things out at the last possible moment (sometimes during the test!). And that worked great for me until I got to the college-level material.
Yeah. I even cheaped out a step further and just went with sorting everything into assorted sizes of Ziploc bags. Use a permanent marker to write down what's in them. You can use a hole punch and then hang them from a pegboard or in a filing cabinet or whatever. Also works great for Lego bricks or for that mess of pens/pencils and other junk in your drawers.
If you really must track how many of each resistance, etc. you have, go with a simple spreadsheet. I've never seen a more sophisticated system with barcodes and scanners actually save time for anyone, especially if there's only one person using it.
That said, I now wonder if the Google Goggles app for Android phones could automatically read resistor stripe codes... not that it will save any time, but I'll have to try it out when I get home:P
Meh, I'd just simply chalk it up to part of the cultural immersion, to experience the internet the same way the locals do. Ask the Chinese at internet cafes, they'll probably be more than happy to point you to the workarounds they use.
For my part, I'd simply run ssh back to my box and run "links" to do searches from home.
With a little more effort, you could do SSH+TightVNC or TigerVNC to extend your home desktop... performance is actually pretty decent even with modem-like uplinks.
With a bit more effort, you could create an ssh tunnel to your home squid proxy server. But then you start leaving traces on your client machine in China... unless you boot it from a LiveCD or LiveUSB something. Try Knoppix or Linux-Mint, though you might need to remaster them to make sure you have all the apps you want.
Also, if ssh is blocked for some reason but you still have web proxy access, you can try installing ajaxterm to get a shell on your machine via https.
Ha, oh yeah... I forgot they've been trying to make devices too:P
I've actually been thinking of getting a ZuneHD, if only because it looks like the cheapest way to get HD radio in my car.
It would also be pretty neat if it could sync music and movies over wifi from my samba server... then I wouldn't even need to bring it inside. But they seem to want to force you to use their crappy desktop software to do anything as simple as copying files.
Heh, I agree. But I think you're looking at the wrong problem.
Yeah, this won't help fix stupid people. But hopefully it will slightly reduce the number of times stupid people call you up and ask them to fix their mouse / flashlight / TV remote.
Sure, they'll just come up with other things to bug you about. Buy those people tasers;-)
Slashdot Mirror
I pretty much quit the Zynga games (and by extension, pretty much Facebook) cold turkey a few months ago, and savor that extra hour or two I have per day (to post to Slashdot, apparently :P ) But never looked back.
I reached level 200-something in Mafia Wars on two accounts (the only way to guarantee you always have energy and items) and also had a modest start with Starfleet Commander and Extreme, as well as a little bit of Yoville (which almost seemed like it could have been a legitimate visual chat platform if they didn't charge extra for creating "party rooms".
Anyway, it's a pretty nifty formula of rewarding people with bitmap "prizes" at *just* the right random intervals to keep them going, triggering the OCD collection/hoarding reflex, along with some requisite peer pressure from comparing their exp points and performance with that of their friends. Could do wonders to educational software if they could work that formula in just right...
Hmm, well, maybe Google will have better luck fighting the neo-Nazi and hate speech censorship filters in Germany... ;-P
Cool, so that means the current Department of Homeland Security alert level of yellow/orange actually means there's information out there regarding an actual threat, and not just a constant elevated paranoia to cover their asses if something bad actually goes down?
http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm
When the threat is mitigated, do we finally get to reduce the threat level to blue or green? What are the criteria for actually reaching that? :P
I seem to remember there was much more public outcry when they tried to do similar things to lock down control of PCs and laptops to software authorized by one manufacturer. Everyone just sort of laughed it off saying "that'll never fly".
But I guess mobile phones have always kinda locked down. Still, the difference a generation makes!
Meh, it's not like they're moving all the turtles. They're just spreading them around a bit. Most baby turtles get eaten anyway (survival rate from hatching is something like 1/100?), so at worst they're expanding the culinary variety of wildlife out on the panhandle. So we're really talking about ~700 turtles that might reach adulthood, which isn't really all that terribly many in the scheme of things.
Yeah, doing nothing means no one can hold you accountable for anything. There people who are perfectly happy to live their lives that way. But all the same, I'm glad there are some people who take the initiative and then stand behind their actions, for better or for worse; you could spin it either way.
Well, you could post a comment, thus negating your mods to this thread. Why don't you do that?
Yes, I know, whooosh, and all that. I'm on the east coast and could use a little circulation.
Heh, really. How much of a problem will this pose anyway, with millions of people named "Lee This" and "Lee That" anyway. If this happened in the US, we could just all start naming our offspring John/Jill Smith.
In Thailand (and I think to some extent China) no one really even uses their official names anyway. Everyone has a nickname like "bird" or "smalley" or something like that which they use to address each other... friends, relatives, and strangers alike.
Why yes, yes I am... and proud of it! (our high school support group was called "Nerds by Choice")
Anyway, this looks like a link to the article:
http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/07/jessica-stern-denial
Interesting interview on NPR a few weeks back on a woman (who had been raped as a teen) who had studied middle eastern terrorists and came up with the thesis that many had been seriously sexually abused as children in the training camps. Pointing out that the common thread with terrorists and other people who went postal or Columbine was that they had been subjected to some form of grave humiliation and didn't really have a support group or other form of outlet.
Not excusing their means of retaliation, but it was interesting to draw the connection between humiliation and people who eventually snap violently. If the world had less humiliation going around and bystanders who are complicit with it, we'd all probably be better off, bullies and nerds alike.
Heh, I'd say having too good a computer keeps you from learning too much about it. I spent countless hours tweaking DOS drivers and emm386 settings and benchmarking the math co-processor to see if I could get my crappy games running faster.
In the same vein, my main "computer" as an adolescent was my TI-85 graphing calculator. I read through the entire manual front to back on the school bus and tried out every function and wrote some simple programs in their language, and admired the assembly programmers who could do much more interesting things with it.
I wouldn't even attempt doing something like that with the general-purpose computers or even the smartphones I use now :P .
Um, just go to http://starfall.com/
I like GCompris because it's all open-sourcey and stuff. But I find it pretty annoying when my kids actually sit down and play with it :-/
As noted in other articles, the project was previously named HALE (high altitude long endurance) and is a rapid prototype for a larger craft.
The new dorky name is probably a nod to "Phantom Works", Boeing's "Skunkworks", and hopefully not as much due to stealthy / nefarious connotations.
Cheaper than launching a bunch of satellites, and hopefully competitive with a fleet of airships.
Are there any good photo / video web albums that use HTML5 to good effect yet?
I'm kinda hooked on http://marginalhacks.com/Hacks/album/ , which has the simplest, most straightforward interface of all the other things I've tried. And it makes a good attempt at handling video. I have a simple shell script that imports pics from my Canon camera, converts the mjpegs to .mp4, and tosses it into my ~/public_html/pictures directory indexed by Album.
http://gallery.menalto.com/ is also one of my favorites, but it's a bit too labor intensive for a photo archive... I do try to load some of the nicest shots in it, though, for all the comments and other features..
Aw, they get little popup critters under their search bar... I want some of those!
Nice advice... I'll be sure to pass it on to my kids as well.
Teachers / professors are more of a guide to your independent studies.
If there's one thing I learned from the well-respected and actually somewhat decent teacher of my AP Chem class in HS, it was to learn everything from the book in advance, and use the classroom time to reaffirm / crosscheck my knowledge.
Prior to that, I had been squeaking by, figuring things out at the last possible moment (sometimes during the test!). And that worked great for me until I got to the college-level material.
Sarcasm modded Troll?
I lol'd
sznupi must not be on a roll.
Airports have plenty of moving walkways. They're also starting to put in stuff like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit
I want to get around the city on a roller coaster.
What, like a mobile home?
This is actually some good inspiration: http://www.designlaunches.com/furniture/mobile_homeless_shelter_by_paul_elkins.php
Here's a yuppie version: http://www.microcompacthome.com/
I'm sure there's plenty of room in the marketspace for something in-between.
People have done some nifty things with trailer and container houses...
http://www.greendiary.com/entry/20-amazing-homes-made-from-shipping-containers/ :P )
http://26.media.tumblr.com/9cyPFQbgCnxj7a2aELgniTn8o1_500.jpg
http://renaissanceronin.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/shipping-container-treehouse.jpg (OK, OK, it's just a CGI
I've been leaning more toward things like FlatPack houses, since the shipping effort is much lower per sq ft.
Yeah. I even cheaped out a step further and just went with sorting everything into assorted sizes of Ziploc bags. Use a permanent marker to write down what's in them. You can use a hole punch and then hang them from a pegboard or in a filing cabinet or whatever. Also works great for Lego bricks or for that mess of pens/pencils and other junk in your drawers.
If you really must track how many of each resistance, etc. you have, go with a simple spreadsheet. I've never seen a more sophisticated system with barcodes and scanners actually save time for anyone, especially if there's only one person using it.
That said, I now wonder if the Google Goggles app for Android phones could automatically read resistor stripe codes... not that it will save any time, but I'll have to try it out when I get home :P
Meh, I'd just simply chalk it up to part of the cultural immersion, to experience the internet the same way the locals do. Ask the Chinese at internet cafes, they'll probably be more than happy to point you to the workarounds they use.
For my part, I'd simply run ssh back to my box and run "links" to do searches from home.
With a little more effort, you could do SSH+TightVNC or TigerVNC to extend your home desktop... performance is actually pretty decent even with modem-like uplinks.
With a bit more effort, you could create an ssh tunnel to your home squid proxy server. But then you start leaving traces on your client machine in China... unless you boot it from a LiveCD or LiveUSB something. Try Knoppix or Linux-Mint, though you might need to remaster them to make sure you have all the apps you want.
Also, if ssh is blocked for some reason but you still have web proxy access, you can try installing ajaxterm to get a shell on your machine via https.
Have fun!
Ha, oh yeah... I forgot they've been trying to make devices too :P
I've actually been thinking of getting a ZuneHD, if only because it looks like the cheapest way to get HD radio in my car.
It would also be pretty neat if it could sync music and movies over wifi from my samba server... then I wouldn't even need to bring it inside. But they seem to want to force you to use their crappy desktop software to do anything as simple as copying files.
Say what you will about MS software, but I've only heard good things about MS hardware - mice and keyboards and all that.
Doesn't keep me from wanting to file off the MS logo on my gear, but whatever.
Heh, I agree. But I think you're looking at the wrong problem.
Yeah, this won't help fix stupid people. But hopefully it will slightly reduce the number of times stupid people call you up and ask them to fix their mouse / flashlight / TV remote.
Sure, they'll just come up with other things to bug you about. Buy those people tasers ;-)