Read it again- he wants 5 years notice and a hefty paycheck for those years. See?
Re:You'd think the fake would be obvious ....
on
Spirit Rolls on Mars
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· Score: 1
That's funny - a radio guy this morning was going on about how they might find the real killer on Mars since they are never going to find him here on earth.
That is true. But in my experience (which has never included the U.K.) posted speed limits are usually reasonable and exceeding them is dangerous. In fact many posted speed limits are too fast for a large number of vehicles on the road - even at optimum driving conditions. Throw in some rain, dark, ice, etc. and they are much too fast.
I'm sure there are exceptions but I have found in the places I drive regularly A) the speed limits are what they ought to be and B) the majority of drivers exceed those limits and are dangerous.
I wont keep going back and forth on this- because I do think on general principles we agree- and just arrive at different conclusions. But for what it is worth- you are not likely to visit all those places in the peace corps. My wife was in the Peace Corps and what she saw and experienced was one country. Ghana, Africa. She did live there for an extended time and saw a lot more than I ever did. At the same time- that also had quite a few draw backs. They stuck her in a little village with no electricity or running water to live for 2 years- the only western person there. Once in a while she could travel for hours to get together with other peace corps people in the country. She does not recommend the experience.
But you are right- people should look at the reality of it and plan accordingly. That is what I did and that is why I view it as such a positive experience. I knew the negatives going in- there were no big surprises.
The hydraulics I worked on were arresting gear engines. Big- and very, very heavy duty but also very simple. So don't envy it as a technical experience. None of the equipment I worked on was classified- if you look up Mk 7 Mod 3 arresting gear engines you can probably find all the info on design, operation and maintenance. I did learn to enjoy the taste of polyethylene glycol- and I don't know that you'll handle that in the quantities I did anywhere else. But if you want to experience it at home you can always go buy a bottle of antifreeze and pour it all over yourself.
It's your choice of course but some of your statements are wrong.
#1 I will grant you that this is possible We were given so many shots in boot camp it was crazy- but I don't sweat it
#2 is true if you have a family to support. If you are single- you have to factor in full medical/dental and free room and board. When I was at sea my expenses were zero. Every bit of my net pay went in the bank. When I was in port I still lived on the ship and the only money I spent was on entertainment. The medical and dental is worth a lot alone- let alone a place to live and food to eat.
#3 - Like I said - my experience has been positive. School was paid for, I've bought 2 houses using a VA loan and it is great. I got college credit for some of my military experience- those have been the primary benefits I received after getting out.
#4 - if you don't want to fight don't join- this is correct.
#5 - You can get much, much more than 8k. I got over 20K and I signed my contract in 1987. I paid in 1200 for that 20K. Where else can you get that kind of return on an investment?
#6 is just plain wrong. You do have choice- and that is spelled out in your contract.
#7 - Here is where I got to visit: Mombasa, Kenya. Pusan (sp?), Korea. Bangkok, Thailand. 3 cities in the Philippines. Hong Kong. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Diego Garcia.
I think Hong Kong was my favorite. I spent a couple hours one afternoon playing video games with a group of teenagers in an arcade. It was a blast. They didn't speak english and I don't know Chinese but we still had a blast. I had a great lunch that day in an English pub. I never stayed anywhere very long- and I saw more water than anything else- but doing my job (arresting gear on a carrier) was a rush and quite an experience in and of itself.
You are right- don't just join the military for the money. And don't join if you are ethically opposed to what the military does (kill people to enforce political decisions). But it can be a great way to experience some awesome things- grow up- and get some cash for college. If I had gone right from high school to college I would have learned little and probably flunked out. I grew up quite a bit in the Navy. I learned discipline and to value going to school. I excelled in college and a lot of it had to do with those years of preparation. And I got to work on the flight deck of a carrier for a while- and work on hydraulic systems with operating pressures around 10,000 psi. I maintained and operated equipment for which there is nothing similar in civilian life. I wouldn't give up those experiences for anything.
I met a lot of people in the military that were pissed off because 'the recruiter lied'. I never understood them.
When you enlist you sign a contract. Pages and pages of terms. What is amazing is how few people read that contract. I had been at the Military Entrance and Processing Center all day- mostly waiting on them. It didn't bother me a bit to have them wait while I read my contract over thoroughly. Sure, there are caveats and they do own you. But on the same hand, you should know what you are getting into.
There were no big surprises in my enlistment. It worked out pretty much as I thought it would. The Navy got me for a little while to do some work that needed to be done (and I did a pretty good job of it) and I got college paid for along with some extra perks- one I mentioned above.
I would ask guys- 'how did you pick the Navy, and this job in the navy?' I was amazed at how many guys who had voluntarily given up years of their life said things like "I don't know- I just took whatever" and so on. Crazy. Then to top it off - they blame the military because they didn't do their homework.
I got over 20 grand for school and was able to finish my first degree without any debt. All thanks to my uncle sam.
If getting blown up / shot worries you - I say go Navy or Air Force. Not to mention if you are smart and test well you could get into some very interesting technical work- say with UAVs or something else cool. There are other benefits as well- like being able to buy a house with no money down using a V.A. home loan. I had more out of pocket costs on my first car than I did on my first house.
I just went over and scoped it out. It is attractive on some levels - but say it catches on- how do you filter all the gunk for the good?
For example - check out the database administration 'books'. There aren't any books there- just a bunch of $105.00 cd rom tutorials on running SQL Server and Oracle. There are a couple $30.00 cd roms on Access and all of them were 'written' by some company- there is no author listed. There was 4 or 5 pages of it. No biggie. But what about when there are 100 pages of that crud? I love the idea but I can see a lot of pit falls.
From the FAQ at Monolith: Are you currently accepting unsolicited submissions? Not at this time.
As long as I have been aware of Monolith this has been the case. I have always assumed that Wil Wheaton created Monolith purely as a vehicle for publishing his own work (maybe allowing for it to become something bigger down the road if that worked out) - and I am curious to see what he does with it now that O'Reilly has picked him up.
On a side note- I've been meaning to email him for some time and ask how he went about getting those initial copies of Dancing Barefoot printed - what methods mentioned above that he may have used. (are ya readin' this wil? can ya save me the typing? -- I know it's a long shot but hey- can't hurt to ask)
as much as he was greedy - as many have said. I think the greed made him act in a stupid manner. But if you sat down with the guy - unaware of all this- you would probably think he was pretty normal.
I could be wrong about that- but the point you bring up makes me think he is probably somebody of decent intelligence, able to have accumulated some nice things in his life that enabled him to come up with all this cash.
I read about this yesterday and I think the story doesn't have a ton of value beyond it being a freak show type thing. The size of his losses and his inability to recognize what happened are like a traffic wreck- you can't help but look and say 'WOW'.
Re:The Story Of My First Computer
on
First Computers
·
· Score: 1
Awesome
A Vic 20 was my first computer- but I honestly don't remember buying it. Maybe my dad just picked it up and brought it home. I was 12 or 13 years old when we got it. (Around '81 or '82). We initially had the tape drive and that was about it. Before it was retired to the attic I had a few different game cartridges, the 16K memory cartridge, a graphics cartridge, a modem and a very decent joy stick. The joy stick was the best one I have ever owned since. It was just like a joystick off an arcade machine. Chrome shaft, red ball on top. Button in the ball and on the base.
I don't remember all the games except for 2- a pac man rip off where you ate planets and stuff- and Omega Race. It was not vector graphics like the arcade game (obviously). But it was addicting. I put a lot of hours in on that game. So here is my Vic 20 story.
It started acting flaky. I think that something was loose inside. We took it to a computer store near where we lived. It was a little business owned and run by a couple guys who new all about these new home computers. They opened the case and a cricket was hopping around in there. The guy says, "There's a bug in your commodore." Cue laughter. He fixed the real problem and we headed home. I think there is an eyeglass place where that shop used to be.
My dad was a clerk for a grocery chain. He did not know squat about computers. He still doesn't. But he doled out hard cash to feed that obsession of mine that ultimately became my career. I think I'll call him tonite and tell him thanks.
The first computer that I owned was a Vic 20. But the first computer that I ever used and wrote code for was a TRS-80 at my junior high. I was in 7th grade- and it all just clicked. I rapidly left behind the class and just dove in. Our teacher had sheets of graph paper that matched the screen size for planning graphics. What fun. I have never lost the passion for working with computers that was ignited in that class.
I remember buying my 16K memory cartridge for my Vic 20. I was stoked at the thought of unlimited memory.
I used to get very frustrated trying to load programs from tape.
I talked my dad into getting me a modem and dialed into a local BBS for the first time with that little machine. I wore all the chrome off the joystick playing Omega Race on it.
The whole set up is in a box up in my dad's attic. I need to drive over there and get it some time. Just to dig it up and take a look at it again.
I was so jealous when my best friend got a commodore 64. Sprite graphics, all that memory AND a floppy drive!!!
My Linux experience so far has been primarily Suse and RH. I've been using RH for about a year now at work and at home a bit. I'm no guru but I'm learning bit by bit.
I always hear about Debian and apt-get but I've never really payed too much attention, because if I understand correctly, they go out and download the packages and install them. I have a dial up at home so that doesn't really work for me.
Are there other advantages to Debian package management that have nothing to do with how you get the package to the machine? I have tried upgrading packages on a Red Hat box and quickly become frustrated with my inability to do so easily. In one way this is good- I had to learn to install from source. But on the other hand I would be all over something that made it easier.
Oh - and what I mean by not being able to do so easily is I'll want to upgrade package A but then I find out to do that I've got to upgrade package B and C and each of those need 3 other packages upgraded first and so on ad nauseum.
are not interested enough in real politics - that impact their real lives - to go out and do something as simple as voting.
I have a feeling that the pool of people that would be interested is very small and of those, many would be too busy doing real political things.
I guess if it was simple enough and you could become ruler of the world or something people might dig it. I remember when I first played SimFarm. I lost interest because I kept going bankrupt. It modeled reality too closely. I finally found one scenario where it was pretty easy to get rich, eventually buy the crop duster, and I had fun flying around the map.
I see your point. I just was confused and wanted to understand the whole thing better and this seemed like a good opportunity. Having my question modded up is a bit embarassing. The question itself just displays what I didn't know. The correct answers have some value for anyone who misunderstood the situation like I did.
Well - I never expected my question to get modded up. For what it is worth- if I could give you the points I would. Along with those who explained the situation.
Thanks for the link. Obviously I did not look hard enough.
But with the responses I've gotten, my misconception about the GPL has been cleared up and I'm just a tad less dense than I was before. While to misquote a great man - you are still a complete ass.
I'm not trying to troll or be a pain - just trying to understand
I was under the impression that if you created stuff with GPL software you have to make the source available.
I looked at the site- they explain that some parts of xandros are GPL and some are not. But I could not find anywhere that explained what you need to do to get copies of the code for the parts that are under the GPL.
It took me about ten minutes after I read the review to realize that he did not mean it literally. I've never read the series he is talking about and well.... I just thought it meant just what it said.
Slashdot Mirror
.. there is something in my eye. That's all.
Read it again- he wants 5 years notice and a hefty paycheck for those years. See?
That's funny - a radio guy this morning was going on about how they might find the real killer on Mars since they are never going to find him here on earth.
That is true. But in my experience (which has never included the U.K.) posted speed limits are usually reasonable and exceeding them is dangerous. In fact many posted speed limits are too fast for a large number of vehicles on the road - even at optimum driving conditions. Throw in some rain, dark, ice, etc. and they are much too fast.
I'm sure there are exceptions but I have found in the places I drive regularly A) the speed limits are what they ought to be and B) the majority of drivers exceed those limits and are dangerous.
I wont keep going back and forth on this- because I do think on general principles we agree- and just arrive at different conclusions. But for what it is worth- you are not likely to visit all those places in the peace corps. My wife was in the Peace Corps and what she saw and experienced was one country. Ghana, Africa. She did live there for an extended time and saw a lot more than I ever did. At the same time- that also had quite a few draw backs. They stuck her in a little village with no electricity or running water to live for 2 years- the only western person there. Once in a while she could travel for hours to get together with other peace corps people in the country. She does not recommend the experience.
But you are right- people should look at the reality of it and plan accordingly. That is what I did and that is why I view it as such a positive experience. I knew the negatives going in- there were no big surprises.
The hydraulics I worked on were arresting gear engines. Big- and very, very heavy duty but also very simple. So don't envy it as a technical experience. None of the equipment I worked on was classified- if you look up Mk 7 Mod 3 arresting gear engines you can probably find all the info on design, operation and maintenance. I did learn to enjoy the taste of polyethylene glycol- and I don't know that you'll handle that in the quantities I did anywhere else. But if you want to experience it at home you can always go buy a bottle of antifreeze and pour it all over yourself.
It's your choice of course but some of your statements are wrong.
#1 I will grant you that this is possible We were given so many shots in boot camp it was crazy- but I don't sweat it
#2 is true if you have a family to support. If you are single- you have to factor in full medical/dental and free room and board. When I was at sea my expenses were zero. Every bit of my net pay went in the bank. When I was in port I still lived on the ship and the only money I spent was on entertainment. The medical and dental is worth a lot alone- let alone a place to live and food to eat.
#3 - Like I said - my experience has been positive. School was paid for, I've bought 2 houses using a VA loan and it is great. I got college credit for some of my military experience- those have been the primary benefits I received after getting out.
#4 - if you don't want to fight don't join- this is correct.
#5 - You can get much, much more than 8k. I got over 20K and I signed my contract in 1987. I paid in 1200 for that 20K. Where else can you get that kind of return on an investment?
#6 is just plain wrong. You do have choice- and that is spelled out in your contract.
#7 - Here is where I got to visit: Mombasa, Kenya. Pusan (sp?), Korea. Bangkok, Thailand. 3 cities in the Philippines. Hong Kong. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Diego Garcia.
I think Hong Kong was my favorite. I spent a couple hours one afternoon playing video games with a group of teenagers in an arcade. It was a blast. They didn't speak english and I don't know Chinese but we still had a blast. I had a great lunch that day in an English pub. I never stayed anywhere very long- and I saw more water than anything else- but doing my job (arresting gear on a carrier) was a rush and quite an experience in and of itself.
You are right- don't just join the military for the money. And don't join if you are ethically opposed to what the military does (kill people to enforce political decisions). But it can be a great way to experience some awesome things- grow up- and get some cash for college. If I had gone right from high school to college I would have learned little and probably flunked out. I grew up quite a bit in the Navy. I learned discipline and to value going to school. I excelled in college and a lot of it had to do with those years of preparation. And I got to work on the flight deck of a carrier for a while- and work on hydraulic systems with operating pressures around 10,000 psi. I maintained and operated equipment for which there is nothing similar in civilian life. I wouldn't give up those experiences for anything.
I met a lot of people in the military that were pissed off because 'the recruiter lied'. I never understood them.
When you enlist you sign a contract. Pages and pages of terms. What is amazing is how few people read that contract. I had been at the Military Entrance and Processing Center all day- mostly waiting on them. It didn't bother me a bit to have them wait while I read my contract over thoroughly. Sure, there are caveats and they do own you. But on the same hand, you should know what you are getting into.
There were no big surprises in my enlistment. It worked out pretty much as I thought it would. The Navy got me for a little while to do some work that needed to be done (and I did a pretty good job of it) and I got college paid for along with some extra perks- one I mentioned above.
I would ask guys- 'how did you pick the Navy, and this job in the navy?' I was amazed at how many guys who had voluntarily given up years of their life said things like "I don't know- I just took whatever" and so on. Crazy. Then to top it off - they blame the military because they didn't do their homework.
I got over 20 grand for school and was able to finish my first degree without any debt. All thanks to my uncle sam.
If getting blown up / shot worries you - I say go Navy or Air Force. Not to mention if you are smart and test well you could get into some very interesting technical work- say with UAVs or something else cool. There are other benefits as well- like being able to buy a house with no money down using a V.A. home loan. I had more out of pocket costs on my first car than I did on my first house.
I just went over and scoped it out. It is attractive on some levels - but say it catches on- how do you filter all the gunk for the good?
For example - check out the database administration 'books'. There aren't any books there- just a bunch of $105.00 cd rom tutorials on running SQL Server and Oracle. There are a couple $30.00 cd roms on Access and all of them were 'written' by some company- there is no author listed. There was 4 or 5 pages of it. No biggie. But what about when there are 100 pages of that crud? I love the idea but I can see a lot of pit falls.
From the FAQ at Monolith:
Are you currently accepting unsolicited submissions?
Not at this time.
As long as I have been aware of Monolith this has been the case. I have always assumed that Wil Wheaton created Monolith purely as a vehicle for publishing his own work (maybe allowing for it to become something bigger down the road if that worked out) - and I am curious to see what he does with it now that O'Reilly has picked him up.
On a side note- I've been meaning to email him for some time and ask how he went about getting those initial copies of Dancing Barefoot printed - what methods mentioned above that he may have used. (are ya readin' this wil? can ya save me the typing? -- I know it's a long shot but hey- can't hurt to ask)
surfing all day pays off.
(Another hour and I can leave this empty building)
as much as he was greedy - as many have said. I think the greed made him act in a stupid manner. But if you sat down with the guy - unaware of all this- you would probably think he was pretty normal.
I could be wrong about that- but the point you bring up makes me think he is probably somebody of decent intelligence, able to have accumulated some nice things in his life that enabled him to come up with all this cash.
I read about this yesterday and I think the story doesn't have a ton of value beyond it being a freak show type thing. The size of his losses and his inability to recognize what happened are like a traffic wreck- you can't help but look and say 'WOW'.
Awesome
A Vic 20 was my first computer- but I honestly don't remember buying it. Maybe my dad just picked it up and brought it home. I was 12 or 13 years old when we got it. (Around '81 or '82). We initially had the tape drive and that was about it. Before it was retired to the attic I had a few different game cartridges, the 16K memory cartridge, a graphics cartridge, a modem and a very decent joy stick. The joy stick was the best one I have ever owned since. It was just like a joystick off an arcade machine. Chrome shaft, red ball on top. Button in the ball and on the base.
I don't remember all the games except for 2- a pac man rip off where you ate planets and stuff- and Omega Race. It was not vector graphics like the arcade game (obviously). But it was addicting. I put a lot of hours in on that game. So here is my Vic 20 story.
It started acting flaky. I think that something was loose inside. We took it to a computer store near where we lived. It was a little business owned and run by a couple guys who new all about these new home computers. They opened the case and a cricket was hopping around in there. The guy says, "There's a bug in your commodore." Cue laughter. He fixed the real problem and we headed home. I think there is an eyeglass place where that shop used to be.
My dad was a clerk for a grocery chain. He did not know squat about computers. He still doesn't. But he doled out hard cash to feed that obsession of mine that ultimately became my career. I think I'll call him tonite and tell him thanks.
The first computer that I owned was a Vic 20. But the first computer that I ever used and wrote code for was a TRS-80 at my junior high. I was in 7th grade- and it all just clicked. I rapidly left behind the class and just dove in. Our teacher had sheets of graph paper that matched the screen size for planning graphics. What fun. I have never lost the passion for working with computers that was ignited in that class.
I remember buying my 16K memory cartridge for my Vic 20. I was stoked at the thought of unlimited memory.
I used to get very frustrated trying to load programs from tape.
I talked my dad into getting me a modem and dialed into a local BBS for the first time with that little machine. I wore all the chrome off the joystick playing Omega Race on it.
The whole set up is in a box up in my dad's attic. I need to drive over there and get it some time. Just to dig it up and take a look at it again.
I was so jealous when my best friend got a commodore 64. Sprite graphics, all that memory AND a floppy drive!!!
what the other part of the deal was that Clinton made with the Chinese for campaign funds. I knew it had to be more than just ICBM tech.
My Linux experience so far has been primarily Suse and RH. I've been using RH for about a year now at work and at home a bit. I'm no guru but I'm learning bit by bit.
I always hear about Debian and apt-get but I've never really payed too much attention, because if I understand correctly, they go out and download the packages and install them. I have a dial up at home so that doesn't really work for me.
Are there other advantages to Debian package management that have nothing to do with how you get the package to the machine? I have tried upgrading packages on a Red Hat box and quickly become frustrated with my inability to do so easily. In one way this is good- I had to learn to install from source. But on the other hand I would be all over something that made it easier.
Oh - and what I mean by not being able to do so easily is I'll want to upgrade package A but then I find out to do that I've got to upgrade package B and C and each of those need 3 other packages upgraded first and so on ad nauseum.
are not interested enough in real politics - that impact their real lives - to go out and do something as simple as voting.
I have a feeling that the pool of people that would be interested is very small and of those, many would be too busy doing real political things.
I guess if it was simple enough and you could become ruler of the world or something people might dig it. I remember when I first played SimFarm. I lost interest because I kept going bankrupt. It modeled reality too closely. I finally found one scenario where it was pretty easy to get rich, eventually buy the crop duster, and I had fun flying around the map.
I see your point. I just was confused and wanted to understand the whole thing better and this seemed like a good opportunity. Having my question modded up is a bit embarassing. The question itself just displays what I didn't know. The correct answers have some value for anyone who misunderstood the situation like I did.
Well - I never expected my question to get modded up. For what it is worth- if I could give you the points I would. Along with those who explained the situation.
Thanks for the link. Obviously I did not look hard enough.
Am I dense?
Probably.
But with the responses I've gotten, my misconception about the GPL has been cleared up and I'm just a tad less dense than I was before. While to misquote a great man - you are still a complete ass.
So if someone buys this - they have a right to the source. And they can redistribute the GPL code without restrictions (other than the GPL)?
I'm not trying to troll or be a pain - just trying to understand
I was under the impression that if you created stuff with GPL software you have to make the source available.
I looked at the site- they explain that some parts of xandros are GPL and some are not. But I could not find anywhere that explained what you need to do to get copies of the code for the parts that are under the GPL.
Am I wrong in thinking that this is required?
Got that right.
It took me about ten minutes after I read the review to realize that he did not mean it literally. I've never read the series he is talking about and well.... I just thought it meant just what it said.
So you are not alone.