Having grown up near the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park in San Diego, I saw many movies filmed in IMAX...
Because of this I am absolutely positive that you could collect a full day's worth of complete "documentaries" that were not much more than a collection of helicopter/plane flights for no real reason other than to induce vertigo.
One documentary I know my whole family jumped at the chance to see was entitled "Speed". If I remember correctly, the first five minutes or so were computer generated tunnels which, of course, got faster and faster until people were practically passing out in their seats. They had cockpit footage in formula racers, jets, land-speed-record type vehicles, etc.
The most thrilling scene I ever saw in an IMAX documentary was the escape procedure taken by astronauts in case of a critical emergency on the launch pad. It involved strapping onto a line that's connected somewhere around the top of the shuttle and then zipping along into a net at ground level. It was completely unexpected in a fascinating documentary primarily dominated by shots of Earth from space.
Of course, none of this tops when I got a little older and started going to watch the midnight Led Zeppelin laser shows baked out of my mind, though. So I wouldn't worry about at least that theater allowing more adolescent activities. I mean... a midnight Led Zeppelin laser show, what do you expect?
They might get digitized and sent inside the computer where they have to find a way to escape that would probably involve hair-rising chases on light cycles and neat clothing.
Yeah, but the nice thing about subsidies is that those that can't even afford to buy a new car can be forced into helping those who can out whether they want to or not.
It would have been too bad if someone would have noticed that you were remarking that Aphex Twin encoded a FACE into the oscilloscope TRACING of one of his songs.
I have assloads of "electronica" that I would never-in-a-fucking-million-years trade to you because you're talking about "a good replacement hasn't really been decided on".
The MUSIC is in the FUCKING DANCE! It's not the distribution you FUCK!!!!
C'Mon! You're SO CLOSE!
*sigh* All, I'm trying to say... to the "general/. public" is, search, search, and search... move to the US. Go to a party in the desert. The new shit is happening RIGHT FUCKING NOW. If you want to do IT, then do it. Otherwise, just chill, listen, and peace.
Well, the first thing you do is buy a carpenter's hammer. A claw-hammer was very common where I worked as we put in and took out badly-put-in nails all the time. The main thing is that it's on the heavy side, around or over 20 oz, with a nice long handle, and, I have to agree with the guys that taught me, that the handle is made of wood.
I've never bothered buying other hammers for this kind of task because I not only already have a hammer (and I'm not going to wear it out anytime soon) but also because the "theory" I learned behind the wood handle is that it provides a little bit of flex behind the swing, allowing for a "straighter shot". Remember, these are not physicists or engineers, these are guys that pound nails in all day while walking around on the third floor in rafters. I just take what they say at face value and try and figure it out somewhere else. I think the wood handles are more important for the weight, and the fact that they've been using them forever, but whatever... I knew I sure as hell wasn't going to show up with something else and ask for their advice.
In any case, the main thing to keep in mind is that you want the hammer to do the work. If you drive a nail in straight with a heavy hammer it will require little more effort than just raising and dropping the hammer. Practice by putting a board down horizontal and holding a nail perfectly perpendicular. Drop the hammer and see how far the hammer's weight already takes you. You'll see that even with a 2 inch nail you don't need to do much else.
The next step is to get over the way that you've been taught to drive in nails, which is to tap, tap, tap, check for straightness, tap, tap, tap. Just make sure it's straight, add a little bit more speed to the hammerblow than the weight itself and don't worry so damn much. It's easier than you think. It's just that messing up sucks.
Eventually you'll want to be pounding things in on vertical walls. This means simply learning the proper flex to deliver the hammerhead STRAIGHT to the nail. It's a little like bowling, but much easier, ie the same thing every time, but still a little tricky nonetheless.
The last trick is what the REAL pros do, ie the ones who aren't into the machismo so much as getting the job done right. That's to give the nail a little, tiny set tap, and then haul off and whack it all the way in. This works much, much better than you might think. You just hold the nail in place and tap it lightly with the hammer so that it goes in just enough to stay perpendicular to the surface, then bring the hammer back and drive it all the way. You should see these guys, tick-WHAM tick-WHAM tick-WHAM, and before you know it a whole wall is put up. They'll usually grab a bunch of nails in their left hand, roll one out into place between the thumb and forefinger, set it, drive it in, then move 6 inches or whatever over and repeat.
It sounds silly to analyze it like this. It's much easier to show it in person. Also, it's not just hammering a nail in in one strike one time that's cool. It's doing it repeatedly, with confidence, and while scampering around in dangerous places, or in a harness off the side of a building.
I use Linux at work and at home for exactly the same reasons you use Windows at home. I'm a graduate student doing research in computational models of particular aspects of vision. I do not have time to "fiddle with little bits to make it work better" either. This is why I use Linux.
This is also why the 22 other machines in our lab run Linux. This is also why half of the department runs Linux or Solaris.
They are all "desktop" machines. We use these machines over 10 hours a day sitting in front of them or from home. Since every minute I spend dorking around with the OS is a minute of delay in my graduation I have great incentive to settle on the OS that just gets the job done.
I use vim, latex, g++, matlab, feh, and mozilla every single day. All of our machines have uptimes of months. There are automated backup systems for the entire lab. I rarely need to do administrative work, and let me tell you, no one else does.:( Everything is free and this is critical to a lab. I set everything up years ago and haven't touched it (significantly) since.
So, to me, this story comes across as written by a guy who liked to change systems. You see this all the time with people who are interested in trying out Linux in the first place. It's part of the nature of things. I got the impression that he would be trying something else in 3 years, whether its OS XII, Linux SuperSlink, Microsoft XP++ or whatever. He's going to be trying something new. This overrides any sort of comments he has over "getting work done".
He, to me, sounds like someone who likes to tinker with his computer more than I do. I mess around with it, when necessary. This is what brought me to Linux in the first place. Set it up right and it doesn't break. With Windows I would set it up and then it would break after a few months (95,98). I'm still running Win98 for games and Joy of Cooking and my Palm Pilot but I got SICK AND TIRED of watching it degrade around me.
Maybe it's just that I have both systems and use Linux 98% of the time that I get defensive. It just sounded like, to me, that he's spent WAY more time than I would have imagined buying distros, installing them, searching around, blah blah blah, as opposed to just setting the thing up right and getting on with it.
I was thinking the same thing while reading the article. It seemed to me like this guy is more of a hunter than a user.
He'll find out the limitations of his new system soon enough and then he'll probably be switching around again. He just happens to be making a switch to Microsoft after playing with Linux for a while, because of this he feels he has to write about it. Were he to switch back to Mac after using Windows for three years he would be writing a similar article for other Windows users.
He gave Linux distros a try for three years, he'll probably try again in three years. Things will be "different" then and he will be justified. It's the same story, again, and again, and again.
The funny thing about what you are pointing out here is that it is in my experience VERY RARE for the "average user" to recognize that this ability to shell script would _help_them_too_.
The typical response I get is either, "Oh, why would I ever need that?" and then they run off and open all of their website files and change "../" to "http://blahblah" by hand, or fumble through all of their Outlook emails doing something retarded that their boss asked them to do.
Sometimes the more experienced computer users will say something like, "Well, I'll know when I need to script so I'll learn how to do it then," and then continue to use the machine just like they always have. They usually are wrong, they cannot recognize when it would be useful, but how do you explain this politely?
I've found that most people just don't get it unless they've done something the hard way and then been shown _right_in_the_middle_of_it_, an easier way. Just like a dog or a cat, you have to catch them in the act. Otherwise they get defensive when you say, "I'm just trying to help, so next time, try this." Because they'll say, "Well, I'll never have to do THAT again."
Sometimes I crack and say something like, "Do you think I LIKE computers? I HATE THEM! That's why I use Linux! I like scripting because it makes life easier, not harder! Everyone, and I'm a part of that group, wants things to be EASY! Sometimes you just have to learn one more thing before it all makes sense."
That usually doesn't help.
When I was an undergraduate I worked construction during a couple summertimes. There were a few carpenters around, as expected, and they had the ability to drive in nails with one blow. I also needed to drive in a lot of nails, every once in a while, and I thought to myself, "Hmm, I'm not going to be pounding nails for the rest of my life, but I wonder just how hard it would be to drive them in in one shot like those guys." It's hard to do it right if you don't know a little technique, AND HAVE THE RIGHT FUCKING HAMMER. It's silly how much easier it is with the right tools, and it took all of about a day and a half to learn how to strike nails correctly. I haven't had to pound in many nails recently but it's a skill that I know now, and it helped me then.
Has this kind of thing not happened to many people? I always wonder.
Slashdot Mirror
Touche.
Having grown up near the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater in Balboa Park in San Diego, I saw many movies filmed in IMAX ...
... a midnight Led Zeppelin laser show, what do you expect?
Because of this I am absolutely positive that you could collect a full day's worth of complete "documentaries" that were not much more than a collection of helicopter/plane flights for no real reason other than to induce vertigo.
One documentary I know my whole family jumped at the chance to see was entitled "Speed". If I remember correctly, the first five minutes or so were computer generated tunnels which, of course, got faster and faster until people were practically passing out in their seats. They had cockpit footage in formula racers, jets, land-speed-record type vehicles, etc.
The most thrilling scene I ever saw in an IMAX documentary was the escape procedure taken by astronauts in case of a critical emergency on the launch pad. It involved strapping onto a line that's connected somewhere around the top of the shuttle and then zipping along into a net at ground level. It was completely unexpected in a fascinating documentary primarily dominated by shots of Earth from space.
Of course, none of this tops when I got a little older and started going to watch the midnight Led Zeppelin laser shows baked out of my mind, though. So I wouldn't worry about at least that theater allowing more adolescent activities. I mean
Wow, that was a stretch.
-1: Troll
Slashdot: News for Nerds, Preferably Humor Impaired
They might get digitized and sent inside the computer where they have to find a way to escape that would probably involve hair-rising chases on light cycles and neat clothing.
No, but we'll gladly mod you offtopic.
Yeah, but the nice thing about subsidies is that those that can't even afford to buy a new car can be forced into helping those who can out whether they want to or not.
U r0K!
i Know physicists! That was SPOT on!!!
I;m so FURNK!!
You're too cool for disco.
... "rocks" i spushingit.
"Sasha & Digweed"
I'm glad you got modded down.
It would have been too bad if someone would have noticed that you were remarking that Aphex Twin encoded a FACE into the oscilloscope TRACING of one of his songs.
Yeah, THAT'S FUCKING OFFTOPIC/TROLL/FUCKYOU!!!
Atari Teenage Riot
ITYM, atARI, TEEEEnage riOOOOT!!
Are you fucking serious?
... to the "general /. public" is, search, search, and search ... move to the US. Go to a party in the desert. The new shit is happening RIGHT FUCKING NOW. If you want to do IT, then do it. Otherwise, just chill, listen, and peace.
I have assloads of "electronica" that I would never-in-a-fucking-million-years trade to you because you're talking about "a good replacement hasn't really been decided on".
The MUSIC is in the FUCKING DANCE! It's not the distribution you FUCK!!!!
C'Mon! You're SO CLOSE!
*sigh* All, I'm trying to say
heheh
/. is going to hell ... think what you want. I'll be sad nonetheless.
whatever
I still think
It was pretty relevant to the response posts. How about yours?
If things were equitable you should lose two points like me.
3 out of 3 responses to this post have been modded down. Will I be the fourth?
Now THAT's +1 Informative!
Now THAT'S +1 Informative!
Who wants a ska band? I sure don't!
Ha, ha, you're offtopic.
neener neener
Wahhh. You're just pissed off because you didn't think of it first.
ITYM,
Wahhh. You're just pissed off because you didn't think of it fist.
Well, the first thing you do is buy a carpenter's hammer. A claw-hammer was very common where I worked as we put in and took out badly-put-in nails all the time. The main thing is that it's on the heavy side, around or over 20 oz, with a nice long handle, and, I have to agree with the guys that taught me, that the handle is made of wood.
... I knew I sure as hell wasn't going to show up with something else and ask for their advice.
I've never bothered buying other hammers for this kind of task because I not only already have a hammer (and I'm not going to wear it out anytime soon) but also because the "theory" I learned behind the wood handle is that it provides a little bit of flex behind the swing, allowing for a "straighter shot". Remember, these are not physicists or engineers, these are guys that pound nails in all day while walking around on the third floor in rafters. I just take what they say at face value and try and figure it out somewhere else. I think the wood handles are more important for the weight, and the fact that they've been using them forever, but whatever
In any case, the main thing to keep in mind is that you want the hammer to do the work. If you drive a nail in straight with a heavy hammer it will require little more effort than just raising and dropping the hammer. Practice by putting a board down horizontal and holding a nail perfectly perpendicular. Drop the hammer and see how far the hammer's weight already takes you. You'll see that even with a 2 inch nail you don't need to do much else.
The next step is to get over the way that you've been taught to drive in nails, which is to tap, tap, tap, check for straightness, tap, tap, tap. Just make sure it's straight, add a little bit more speed to the hammerblow than the weight itself and don't worry so damn much. It's easier than you think. It's just that messing up sucks.
Eventually you'll want to be pounding things in on vertical walls. This means simply learning the proper flex to deliver the hammerhead STRAIGHT to the nail. It's a little like bowling, but much easier, ie the same thing every time, but still a little tricky nonetheless.
The last trick is what the REAL pros do, ie the ones who aren't into the machismo so much as getting the job done right. That's to give the nail a little, tiny set tap, and then haul off and whack it all the way in. This works much, much better than you might think. You just hold the nail in place and tap it lightly with the hammer so that it goes in just enough to stay perpendicular to the surface, then bring the hammer back and drive it all the way. You should see these guys, tick-WHAM tick-WHAM tick-WHAM, and before you know it a whole wall is put up. They'll usually grab a bunch of nails in their left hand, roll one out into place between the thumb and forefinger, set it, drive it in, then move 6 inches or whatever over and repeat.
It sounds silly to analyze it like this. It's much easier to show it in person. Also, it's not just hammering a nail in in one strike one time that's cool. It's doing it repeatedly, with confidence, and while scampering around in dangerous places, or in a harness off the side of a building.
I use Linux at work and at home for exactly the same reasons you use Windows at home. I'm a graduate student doing research in computational models of particular aspects of vision. I do not have time to "fiddle with little bits to make it work better" either. This is why I use Linux.
:( Everything is free and this is critical to a lab. I set everything up years ago and haven't touched it (significantly) since.
This is also why the 22 other machines in our lab run Linux. This is also why half of the department runs Linux or Solaris.
They are all "desktop" machines. We use these machines over 10 hours a day sitting in front of them or from home. Since every minute I spend dorking around with the OS is a minute of delay in my graduation I have great incentive to settle on the OS that just gets the job done.
I use vim, latex, g++, matlab, feh, and mozilla every single day. All of our machines have uptimes of months. There are automated backup systems for the entire lab. I rarely need to do administrative work, and let me tell you, no one else does.
So, to me, this story comes across as written by a guy who liked to change systems. You see this all the time with people who are interested in trying out Linux in the first place. It's part of the nature of things. I got the impression that he would be trying something else in 3 years, whether its OS XII, Linux SuperSlink, Microsoft XP++ or whatever. He's going to be trying something new. This overrides any sort of comments he has over "getting work done".
He, to me, sounds like someone who likes to tinker with his computer more than I do. I mess around with it, when necessary. This is what brought me to Linux in the first place. Set it up right and it doesn't break. With Windows I would set it up and then it would break after a few months (95,98). I'm still running Win98 for games and Joy of Cooking and my Palm Pilot but I got SICK AND TIRED of watching it degrade around me.
Maybe it's just that I have both systems and use Linux 98% of the time that I get defensive. It just sounded like, to me, that he's spent WAY more time than I would have imagined buying distros, installing them, searching around, blah blah blah, as opposed to just setting the thing up right and getting on with it.
If that's in his nature, he'll do it again.
This is NOT a troll, this is my honest opinion. Discuss, don't mod down.
Why should you get special treatment?
I was thinking the same thing while reading the article. It seemed to me like this guy is more of a hunter than a user.
He'll find out the limitations of his new system soon enough and then he'll probably be switching around again. He just happens to be making a switch to Microsoft after playing with Linux for a while, because of this he feels he has to write about it. Were he to switch back to Mac after using Windows for three years he would be writing a similar article for other Windows users.
He gave Linux distros a try for three years, he'll probably try again in three years. Things will be "different" then and he will be justified. It's the same story, again, and again, and again.
The funny thing about what you are pointing out here is that it is in my experience VERY RARE for the "average user" to recognize that this ability to shell script would _help_them_too_.
The typical response I get is either, "Oh, why would I ever need that?" and then they run off and open all of their website files and change "../" to "http://blahblah" by hand, or fumble through all of their Outlook emails doing something retarded that their boss asked them to do.
Sometimes the more experienced computer users will say something like, "Well, I'll know when I need to script so I'll learn how to do it then," and then continue to use the machine just like they always have. They usually are wrong, they cannot recognize when it would be useful, but how do you explain this politely?
I've found that most people just don't get it unless they've done something the hard way and then been shown _right_in_the_middle_of_it_, an easier way. Just like a dog or a cat, you have to catch them in the act. Otherwise they get defensive when you say, "I'm just trying to help, so next time, try this." Because they'll say, "Well, I'll never have to do THAT again."
Sometimes I crack and say something like, "Do you think I LIKE computers? I HATE THEM! That's why I use Linux! I like scripting because it makes life easier, not harder! Everyone, and I'm a part of that group, wants things to be EASY! Sometimes you just have to learn one more thing before it all makes sense."
That usually doesn't help.
When I was an undergraduate I worked construction during a couple summertimes. There were a few carpenters around, as expected, and they had the ability to drive in nails with one blow. I also needed to drive in a lot of nails, every once in a while, and I thought to myself, "Hmm, I'm not going to be pounding nails for the rest of my life, but I wonder just how hard it would be to drive them in in one shot like those guys." It's hard to do it right if you don't know a little technique, AND HAVE THE RIGHT FUCKING HAMMER. It's silly how much easier it is with the right tools, and it took all of about a day and a half to learn how to strike nails correctly. I haven't had to pound in many nails recently but it's a skill that I know now, and it helped me then.
Has this kind of thing not happened to many people? I always wonder.