... have you? I remember the first time my dad took me there. I was 11 or 12 years old. It was falling apart faster than they were building it. It was an interesting walk albeit risky due to the delapidated nature and lack of any kind of safety barriers. This was roughly 23 years ago.
All these years later not much has changed. The web site makes it look a lot nicer than it really is.
I don't play games really. I own a console but it is a Sega Genesis. I haven't pulled it out from under the t.v. in a long time.
All that to say I have really been enjoying this series. Thank god I got episode 5 before this got posted on/. The humor makes it fun for anybody. No need to be in on HALO or any of that.
O.k. - I never thought I'd find a forum where this story might even have the slightest relevance but here we are.
For a few years I worked for Safeway Food and Drug as a File Maintenance Clerk. I printed pricing labels and hung them on the shelves. I made price signs, applied the batches to change prices, etc.
Safeway has a system in place on the registers where certain activities require a manager with an override card. Checks of a certain amount, large voids, all kinds of stuff.
Since I worked on the computers all the time I was the one who changed the message on the bottom of receipt tapes- with the manager name- when we got a new manager. One day I'm moving around in the file that contained that information and I find all these long numbers in one location. They were all the managers override numbers.
Here's where the barcode part comes in. I wanted my own over ride card. I went into the software I used to print price labels and took a single record and changed the UPC of a product on the label to an override number. When I printed the label- the barcode in the corner for ordering now read the override number.
I cut the barcode part out, peeled the back and stuck it to a card I carried in my wallet. Now any time I needed an override I could just scan that card over the register scanner.
On a side note- I called company security and told them that all the manager codes were in plain text where anyone could see them in the machine. They told me it was o.k. because noone would ever look there. Kind of funny. It is probably still that way.
I can't all your questions but I can tell you unequivicolly that many UPCs in the U.S. are not unique. I worked for a while as a pricing analyst for Safeway food and drug. Dealing with duplicate UPCs was a problem.
As I understand it-- there is a newer standard with longer barcodes and europe has moved to it but the u.s. still uses the older UPCs.
I don't play games anymore and I'm not real into the whole thing like I was when I was a teenager in the 80's.
But it sounds like from what I've read here that the industry is tough and making money is not easy. Why spend big dollars on advertising if you don't have to?
Not to mention I would not think the indicators you mention above necessarily are good for measuring pop culture (t.v. ads and newspaper reviews). But I do see video game ads quite a bit. Also I see commercials where video games play a part - like the battery one w/the little handheld games.
Yes Mario Bros. was not high art- but I'm just saying video games were all over in pop culture in the 80's. Technology in general was huge. It was all out there. Everybody wanted to see all the gizmos.
Now we've come around full circle. People want the power and convenience of the technology but they do not want to see it. They want it to be like a good butler. Always there, always anticipating your every need, but never intruding.
So why haven't the arcade games so formative to geek youth (okay, geek 30somethings, young in the glory days of arcade play) gotten their due from the rest of popular culture?
Am I the only one who saw Tron? Last Starfighter? Mario Brothers?
Would an InSync ballad to Centipede be what you are looking for? Popular culture has been riddled with the games I loved to play. And vice versa. This whining is unseemly.
I recently spoke with a guy who sells on ebay for a living. He told me that city of phoenix auctions can be a good place to pick up cheap PCs by the pallet. He does pretty well turning them right around on ebay and selling them for a bit more than he bought them. I am planning to check that out myself.
This guy comes up with a system that imposes nothing on others. It is a tool for people who decide that they would like to use. But it gets slammed by so many here because so many slashdotters are not about freedom. They are about freedom that they agree with.
It is not invasion of privacy if you install it on purpose.
It is not religious judgement of others if people use tools that monitor their own activity.
This is an example of someone having an idea that ought to be welcome here. Rather than removing choices or limiting activity- people are given new choices to use if they so wish.
Those of you who think pornography cannot be destructive are unaware of the fact that it can ruin some peoples lives. If they want help with that- what is the harm?
They'll get the rest later using the SSN. That and a name are often all you need. Who cares about grades- when they know who you are and have your social you are screwed.
I think about that every time I read a Heinlein novel where people are flying all over the universe in space ships and using slide rules to check their navigation.
That's a good point. And unions are the same way in my book- I'm not for them unless they are necessary. (I was a member of UFCW for many years because w/out the union my job wouldn't have been worth crap)
Others have put it better than I did- licenses are good when lives are at stake, they are also anti-competitive. I think that this is mostly what this kind of license would do.
Personally I'm against any kind of legal controls on business unless there is a huge case that those controls are necessary (not nice to have).
The things I see in the cases above are people who make bad choices and ignore the simplest of common sense when hiring someone to do any kind of work.
This would just add costs to those who want to do the work- which would get passed on to the customer and drive out the little guy who doesn't have the time or money to get a 'license' to fix computers.
Not to mention the possible legal hassles for helping someone out.
What I see disappearing are the median income jobs. It seems like things are becoming more and more polarized w/many many low pay jobs and a few very high paying jobs.
I don't think this is a good trend for our nation as a whole. In the long run it will hurt everyone.
I interview for a new job probably about once a month. The last one was for a single opening w/the USDA for slightly lower than average pay. It was to do development and database administration. There were over 100 applicants. They wanted a programmer that had been an accountant and got it. Being just a plain old programmer hasn't been helping me a lot lately.
All resistance in my workplace evaporated the day I told my CFO that he didn't have to pay licensing on Linux. They have had it up to here w/getting raped by MS.
I was in a hurry when I posted that last night- and at home so it was over a dial up.
I think the population density issue and sheer numbers of people has more to do w/our countries history in regards to 'native' peoples. I put that in quotes because the largest reservation in America is here and it is Navajo and they came here from asia. They just beat the whites to it.
Anyways- I think there is one main reason why white europeans made treaties and left land to native americans. That is because they did not have a choice.
Whenever whites had the numbers and the ability they took what they wanted. When that failed they made deals.
Up in the great white north there have never been the sheer numbers of people that there are in the U.S. but there has been much more room.
Hence less violence in the settling.
Europeans in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s did not share our views on diversity or plurality. That's just how it was.
And on a last note- when I was stationed at Miramar I spent some time working w/a Canadian F-18 squadron. Good guys- tough fighters. I'm glad you are our ally.
You can come up w/whatever hypothetical situation you want. I think the risk is worth the possibility of making a mistake.
If 2 people are shooting at eachother then no- I doubt I'd get involved. But if 1 person obviously has the upper hand- I will. There are many much more likelier situations where what is going on is very obvious. I've been in them and know people who have been in many more.
The majority of the state I live in is reservation. So I can imagine it. I was just joking about Canada (I love hockey- and that's pretty Canadian. I live in Phoenix- we stole Winnipeg's team).
I don't buy the deal about violent crime. My brother is a police officer here in Phoenix. He tells me about things that happen every day that don't make it on the news- and I am astounded that they don't.
I've made a ton of posts today- I can't even keep track of it all. But basically to sum it up one last time- I consider the right/privelege to carry one that I should use to be a positive influence where I am.
To put it in geek terms- like spiderman says (and I don't know the quote exactly) To whom much is given, much is required. (a Biblical concept taken and used in spiderman by the way). I have been given the freedom to be active in securing my safety and that of those around me. I do not squander that freedom but work hard to maintain it and make sure that it will be there for my children.
I would surmise that many of the differences between us and our neighbor to the north have more to do w/population density than superior morals. If as many people had been pushing into Canada as the U.S. your history would have been different. (Just one more opinion that cannot be proven- but I believe it)
This has been an interesting discussion and I'll keep looking to see if there are more replies tomorrow but as has been mentioned- it is one of those issues where it is difficult to find common ground.
No - I'm pretty sure I said that what weapons are not on my person are in the safe.
It is more than just a matter of sneaking up on my to take away my gun when I carry. Gun retention has been a concern of those who carry and so there are good solutions.
My first line of defense is that 99% of the people around me have no idea that I am armed. I don't normally carry my weapon in a manner that is not concealed.
At night my gun is in reach. But a person can't get to it w/out reaching over me.
A perfect burglar alarm would not alleviate the need to be armed.
A couple months ago I was reading the local paper and they had a story about a woman who was afraid of her estranged boyfriend. She got a restraining order. When he showed up at her apartment she immediately called 911.
The 911 operator got to listen to her boyfriend break into her apartment and shoot her. Knowing someone is coming does not mean you are safe.
My family has a plan for a home invasion. We practice. It revolves around taking cover in my bedroom - calling the police and watching the bedroom door. If the intruders rob the house of everything in it but never walk through that door- that's fine with me. but the guy who does come throught that door will be met by a hail of gunfire. I consider that to be appropriate action.
We could play what if all day. The bottom line is that nothing is sure- but you take the actions that you feel are necessary- when the outcome is important to you.
That's why I run tape backups on my database every 2 hours even though its on what I consider a very stable raid system. Cause you just never know.
I don't completely disagree with you but I would say something to clarify the extent of my agreement.
You can't know just what you will do in a situation until that situation arrives. That is true. But what you can do is prepare and train for possibilities and do all that you can to get as close as possible to the real thing. Practice like you play- is how one of my instructors put it.
When I was in the military we did the same thing. And if you practice enough- you would be surprised to see what you can do calmly and by the book even in extremely adverse conditions.
Thinking on the whole thing- if this guy had to stop to reload or anything I'd use the nearest weapon that is just as dangerous as any gun - my car.(This is a whole different can of worms in my book- if you want to save lives- ban cars not guns. Which one kills many more people?)
The false sense of security may be the case with some. There are those who buy a gun and never practice, never educate themselves, etc. And you're right- they don't help the situation. But those people are not the majority of legal gun owners in the U.S.
Slashdot Mirror
... have you?
I remember the first time my dad took me there. I was 11 or 12 years old. It was falling apart faster than they were building it. It was an interesting walk albeit risky due to the delapidated nature and lack of any kind of safety barriers. This was roughly 23 years ago.
All these years later not much has changed. The web site makes it look a lot nicer than it really is.
Troll? I don't think so. That's an excellent point and as NASA is a political entity a valid question.
I don't play games really. I own a console but it is a Sega Genesis. I haven't pulled it out from under the t.v. in a long time.
/. The humor makes it fun for anybody. No need to be in on HALO or any of that.
All that to say I have really been enjoying this series. Thank god I got episode 5 before this got posted on
This is even better than the Matrix (Halo Remix).
.
O.k. - I never thought I'd find a forum where this story might even have the slightest relevance but here we are.
For a few years I worked for Safeway Food and Drug as a File Maintenance Clerk. I printed pricing labels and hung them on the shelves. I made price signs, applied the batches to change prices, etc.
Safeway has a system in place on the registers where certain activities require a manager with an override card. Checks of a certain amount, large voids, all kinds of stuff.
Since I worked on the computers all the time I was the one who changed the message on the bottom of receipt tapes- with the manager name- when we got a new manager. One day I'm moving around in the file that contained that information and I find all these long numbers in one location. They were all the managers override numbers.
Here's where the barcode part comes in. I wanted my own over ride card. I went into the software I used to print price labels and took a single record and changed the UPC of a product on the label to an override number. When I printed the label- the barcode in the corner for ordering now read the override number.
I cut the barcode part out, peeled the back and stuck it to a card I carried in my wallet. Now any time I needed an override I could just scan that card over the register scanner.
On a side note- I called company security and told them that all the manager codes were in plain text where anyone could see them in the machine. They told me it was o.k. because noone would ever look there. Kind of funny. It is probably still that way.
I can't all your questions but I can tell you unequivicolly that many UPCs in the U.S. are not unique. I worked for a while as a pricing analyst for Safeway food and drug. Dealing with duplicate UPCs was a problem.
As I understand it-- there is a newer standard with longer barcodes and europe has moved to it but the u.s. still uses the older UPCs.
I don't play games anymore and I'm not real into the whole thing like I was when I was a teenager in the 80's.
But it sounds like from what I've read here that the industry is tough and making money is not easy. Why spend big dollars on advertising if you don't have to?
Not to mention I would not think the indicators you mention above necessarily are good for measuring pop culture (t.v. ads and newspaper reviews). But I do see video game ads quite a bit. Also I see commercials where video games play a part - like the battery one w/the little handheld games.
Yes Mario Bros. was not high art- but I'm just saying video games were all over in pop culture in the 80's. Technology in general was huge. It was all out there. Everybody wanted to see all the gizmos.
Now we've come around full circle. People want the power and convenience of the technology but they do not want to see it. They want it to be like a good butler. Always there, always anticipating your every need, but never intruding.
.
So why haven't the arcade games so formative to geek youth (okay, geek 30somethings, young in the glory days of arcade play) gotten their due from the rest of popular culture?
Am I the only one who saw Tron? Last Starfighter? Mario Brothers?
Would an InSync ballad to Centipede be what you are looking for? Popular culture has been riddled with the games I loved to play. And vice versa. This whining is unseemly.
Thanks- appreciate the info.
I recently spoke with a guy who sells on ebay for a living. He told me that city of phoenix auctions can be a good place to pick up cheap PCs by the pallet. He does pretty well turning them right around on ebay and selling them for a bit more than he bought them. I am planning to check that out myself.
.
This guy comes up with a system that imposes nothing on others. It is a tool for people who decide that they would like to use. But it gets slammed by so many here because so many slashdotters are not about freedom. They are about freedom that they agree with.
It is not invasion of privacy if you install it on purpose.
It is not religious judgement of others if people use tools that monitor their own activity.
This is an example of someone having an idea that ought to be welcome here. Rather than removing choices or limiting activity- people are given new choices to use if they so wish.
Those of you who think pornography cannot be destructive are unaware of the fact that it can ruin some peoples lives. If they want help with that- what is the harm?
They'll get the rest later using the SSN. That and a name are often all you need. Who cares about grades- when they know who you are and have your social you are screwed.
I think about that every time I read a Heinlein novel where people are flying all over the universe in space ships and using slide rules to check their navigation.
.
It doesn't matter right now anyway - as there are no jobs available for when you graduate.
I would look somewhere other than programming to spend your education dollars.
.
Wasn't that the guy Captain Kirk condemned to live w/a bunch of robot replicas of his wife?
.
That's a good point. And unions are the same way in my book- I'm not for them unless they are necessary. (I was a member of UFCW for many years because w/out the union my job wouldn't have been worth crap)
Others have put it better than I did- licenses are good when lives are at stake, they are also anti-competitive. I think that this is mostly what this kind of license would do.
.
Personally I'm against any kind of legal controls on business unless there is a huge case that those controls are necessary (not nice to have).
The things I see in the cases above are people who make bad choices and ignore the simplest of common sense when hiring someone to do any kind of work.
This would just add costs to those who want to do the work- which would get passed on to the customer and drive out the little guy who doesn't have the time or money to get a 'license' to fix computers.
Not to mention the possible legal hassles for helping someone out.
Nope.
have arrived-- but no one is allowed to fly in them!
.
That is who I work for- that's why I said it. I'm not kidding. Clearance required jobs are something to look for.
May be the only place left for American citizens. Can't outsource those jobs over seas or hire visa holders.
Go War On Terrorism!
.
What I see disappearing are the median income jobs. It seems like things are becoming more and more polarized w/many many low pay jobs and a few very high paying jobs.
I don't think this is a good trend for our nation as a whole. In the long run it will hurt everyone.
I interview for a new job probably about once a month. The last one was for a single opening w/the USDA for slightly lower than average pay. It was to do development and database administration. There were over 100 applicants. They wanted a programmer that had been an accountant and got it. Being just a plain old programmer hasn't been helping me a lot lately.
.
All resistance in my workplace evaporated the day I told my CFO that he didn't have to pay licensing on Linux. They have had it up to here w/getting raped by MS.
I've enjoyed the discussion as well.
I was in a hurry when I posted that last night- and at home so it was over a dial up.
I think the population density issue and sheer numbers of people has more to do w/our countries history in regards to 'native' peoples. I put that in quotes because the largest reservation in America is here and it is Navajo and they came here from asia. They just beat the whites to it.
Anyways- I think there is one main reason why white europeans made treaties and left land to native americans. That is because they did not have a choice.
Whenever whites had the numbers and the ability they took what they wanted. When that failed they made deals.
Up in the great white north there have never been the sheer numbers of people that there are in the U.S. but there has been much more room.
Hence less violence in the settling.
Europeans in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s did not share our views on diversity or plurality. That's just how it was.
And on a last note- when I was stationed at Miramar I spent some time working w/a Canadian F-18 squadron. Good guys- tough fighters. I'm glad you are our ally.
.
Am I ready to choose?
Yes.
You can come up w/whatever hypothetical situation you want. I think the risk is worth the possibility of making a mistake.
If 2 people are shooting at eachother then no- I doubt I'd get involved. But if 1 person obviously has the upper hand- I will. There are many much more likelier situations where what is going on is very obvious. I've been in them and know people who have been in many more.
.
The majority of the state I live in is reservation. So I can imagine it. I was just joking about Canada (I love hockey- and that's pretty Canadian. I live in Phoenix- we stole Winnipeg's team).
I don't buy the deal about violent crime. My brother is a police officer here in Phoenix. He tells me about things that happen every day that don't make it on the news- and I am astounded that they don't.
I've made a ton of posts today- I can't even keep track of it all. But basically to sum it up one last time- I consider the right/privelege to carry one that I should use to be a positive influence where I am.
To put it in geek terms- like spiderman says (and I don't know the quote exactly) To whom much is given, much is required. (a Biblical concept taken and used in spiderman by the way). I have been given the freedom to be active in securing my safety and that of those around me. I do not squander that freedom but work hard to maintain it and make sure that it will be there for my children.
I would surmise that many of the differences between us and our neighbor to the north have more to do w/population density than superior morals. If as many people had been pushing into Canada as the U.S. your history would have been different. (Just one more opinion that cannot be proven- but I believe it)
This has been an interesting discussion and I'll keep looking to see if there are more replies tomorrow but as has been mentioned- it is one of those issues where it is difficult to find common ground.
.
No - I'm pretty sure I said that what weapons are not on my person are in the safe.
It is more than just a matter of sneaking up on my to take away my gun when I carry. Gun retention has been a concern of those who carry and so there are good solutions.
My first line of defense is that 99% of the people around me have no idea that I am armed. I don't normally carry my weapon in a manner that is not concealed.
At night my gun is in reach. But a person can't get to it w/out reaching over me.
A perfect burglar alarm would not alleviate the need to be armed.
A couple months ago I was reading the local paper and they had a story about a woman who was afraid of her estranged boyfriend. She got a restraining order. When he showed up at her apartment she immediately called 911.
The 911 operator got to listen to her boyfriend break into her apartment and shoot her. Knowing someone is coming does not mean you are safe.
My family has a plan for a home invasion. We practice. It revolves around taking cover in my bedroom - calling the police and watching the bedroom door. If the intruders rob the house of everything in it but never walk through that door- that's fine with me. but the guy who does come throught that door will be met by a hail of gunfire. I consider that to be appropriate action.
We could play what if all day. The bottom line is that nothing is sure- but you take the actions that you feel are necessary- when the outcome is important to you.
That's why I run tape backups on my database every 2 hours even though its on what I consider a very stable raid system. Cause you just never know.
.
I don't completely disagree with you but I would say something to clarify the extent of my agreement.
You can't know just what you will do in a situation until that situation arrives. That is true. But what you can do is prepare and train for possibilities and do all that you can to get as close as possible to the real thing. Practice like you play- is how one of my instructors put it.
When I was in the military we did the same thing. And if you practice enough- you would be surprised to see what you can do calmly and by the book even in extremely adverse conditions.
Thinking on the whole thing- if this guy had to stop to reload or anything I'd use the nearest weapon that is just as dangerous as any gun - my car.(This is a whole different can of worms in my book- if you want to save lives- ban cars not guns. Which one kills many more people?)
The false sense of security may be the case with some. There are those who buy a gun and never practice, never educate themselves, etc. And you're right- they don't help the situation. But those people are not the majority of legal gun owners in the U.S.
.