In the U.S. I've seen new keyboards for as little as $10.00 (I think I've seen them for $5.00, but that might have been for a cheap mouse.)
I checked online (imagine that -- using Google instead of "Ask Slashdot"), and found this link to PCParts Leader for a list of keyboards, including a THREE DOLLAR keyboard. Even after paying shipping, you're still paying almost nothing.
Do you really think, by the time you pay for the PS2 connector (assuming it's that recent, or the older connector if it isn't), and any pieces that you'll spend less than $5-$10?
If you can't afford an el-cheapo keyboard, then how are you going to buy the connector and whatever else you need?
Sheesh. An "Ask Slashdot" to replace a $3 item with something else so you don't waste that $3 item? Now I see why so many people think it's become "Ask Slashgoogle."
I haven't tried the new installer, but I had not yet heard a lot comments on it. I've installed Knoppix, then done an "apt-get dist-upgrade" and had everything working perfectly. Then I've had other times where I've installed Knoppix and it was a nightmare from go. I'm sure, like all OSS in Linux (except the last version of Gnome) that it is getting easier and easier to use.
I didn't even bother to mention Mono. I figured, considering the timing of the post and that Mono has just reached 1.0 gold, that it was a given that this person was planning on using it. (If not, it'll be a REAL fun ride developing for Windows on Linux!)
I think the fact that I forgot this is pretty telling. It's been years (literally) since I've had problems with Mandrake recognizing ANY kind of hardware. So long, in fact, that I forgot to mention that Mandrake is just about the best in recognizing just about any kind of hardware you can throw at it and auto-installing it.
With Mandrake, I don't even think about hardware as a problem. With other distros, I find I still have to worry about it.
Knoppix is great, but if you don't know what you're doing, it can be difficult to transfer it to a hard drive. Sometimes it's an easy install, but if it isn't, it can be a real hell. I've seen it, and it's not a pretty sight.
You'll want to change. I'm sure, by the time I finsih this, someone will have jumped in and say, "Debian," since Debian-ites seem to think there is only one distro. (And, to be honest, I'd recommend it in part, but more later.)
I'd suggest Mandrake to start with, since it is actually easier to install than Windows XP. It's easy to use, and it has URPMI, so it is MUCH easier to upgrade on EVERY PACKAGE than Red Hat or Suse. Then I'd bear in mind that this is just your first use of any distro, and that you'll get a chance to find out the strengths and weaknesses of it, and you'll move on.
After you've had a chance to get used to Linux, and are looking for something more powerful, try Libranet. Libranet is based on Debian, but without the impossible install (Debian-ites will say the install is easier, but that's relative. It's easier than it was, which means it's easier than getting a root canal.) Since Libranet is about to publish a new version, you can get 2.8.1, which is what I've been using on a few boxen, for free at their site. When their next version (3.0) comes out, you can easily upgrade to that version with one or two commands.
I've made my recommendations based on what is easy to start with, and on the general principle that after you get used to Linux, you'll most likely want to try something different. Debian is easy to upgrade and maintain, but even Libranet can be hard to install for someone who hasn't been using Linux for a good while.
I know there are other easy to install distros (like Linspire and Lycoris), but Mandrake is the only easy-to-install-and-maintain distro that is "mainline" in terms of including all the goodies Linuxers want on their system.
And, to anticipate comments that Mandrake is too easy, made for beginners, or doesn't let you have fine control over settings, ANY distro lets you have as fine a control over settings as you want. Some have easy to use config panels (like Mandrake's "Mandrake Control Center"), but in ANY distro, you can bypass their control panel and edit all the config files by hand, if you want. -- So it's not going to take away control, it just makes it easier for someone who isn't already a full time Linuxer to install, setup, configure, and maintain.
Depending on the personality of the student, they may get a kick out of the 11 books that inspired Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan, and basically a whole generation of scientists and writers.
I'm talking about The Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs (starting with "A Princess of Mars"). While giving a set of 11 paperbacks is not special, if you found early printings, with the pulp style illustrated covers, it could be a gift with historical significance.
They're not, by any means, based on science, but the stories are fun and I know I got a thrill out of reading them and seeing what inspired those whom I consider to be masters of SF or Science itself.
But, as I said, some students might really appreciate this, while others would consider it a gag or an insult. It would depend on the personality of the student.
I wasn't going to respond to this post, because I know the first (and only, to this date) review of F911 I've heard on NPR was not favorable (to pick just one point), and so many other people responded.
Then I thought I really should respond for one reason:
To say "Thank you for proving my point."
When you use statements like, "These are not opinions, they are facts. Facts NOT reported by NPR. So, tell me again how NPR reports facts so well?", you are stating that NPR DOES NOT cover these stories or points of view, but a number of other people have proven you wrong. Now, let me ask you, did you, before you made such a broad, sweeping statement, go to npr.org and do a search to see if you were right? Did you verify what you thought to be true, or did you decide that since you've heard 1 or 2 reports, you know all the stories they've reported? You did TRY to back up your comments, but it was rather quickly shown that your "proof" was not there.
This is a great example of what I was talking about - you're so sure NPR is liberal that you (apparently) assumed NPR DID NOT report the views you mentioned. Therefore, it was okay to jump the gun and make your final assumption ("Facts NOT reported by NPR.") All of these conclusions were reached with what seemed to be logic, but on one faulty thought after another.
You may not like what NPR reports. That doesn't mean they aren't reporting facts. They're just reporting facts you don't want to face.
I heard Bill O'Reilly (is it Bill? I can't remember) on Fresh Air. I only heard the last part of the interview. He shouted accusations at the host, didn't give her a chance to respond, and hung up.
And this is a conservative, who is supposed to support family values? If you ask me, the right wing (and I don't mean just Republicans -- although the party is being swallowed whole by extremists and people full of anger like Rush) has become extremely self-centered, pompous, rude, and disrespectful of anyone they disagree with.
All of these are contrary to the claimed "old fashhioned" values.
Or maybe they're just being honest, but you'd rather label anyone who says something about America as anti-American rather than listen to it as potentially solid criticism?
In my experience, NPR is better at reporting the facts in a story than almost any other news service (except maybe the BBC and the News Hour).
I can understand why some people don't like it. Those are the same people who label everything they don't like or don't want to hear as "liberal."
If there's a news story about a scandal in a Republican administration, even if all they report are facts, such people will call it liberal because they don't want to hear anything negative about anyone they like. Even if it's true.
Especially if it's true.
So they'd rather listen to Fox news, which has no hesitation about attacking, without mercy, anyone they disagree with, WITHOUT supporting what they say as facts.
I consider myself independent. I can understand why some call me liberal -- I disagree with them. In my experience, in the last 10 years, large parts of the right wing has turned into a pack vicious, rabid attack animals, ready to pounce on anyone or thing they disagree with and call it liberal. Once it's labeled as liberal, that gives them the right to use all kinds of nasty names and say all kinds of bad things, whether they're supported by facts or not. And this from the groups that support family values -- they show no hesitation to be rude, nasty, and vile to anyone they disagree with instead of using polite tolerance and discussion.
Over the past ten years or so I've seen the same group go from being able to debate based on facts to ignorning facts and operating only on opinion -- and often that opinion is not even based on facts, but on half-truths repeated over and over by entertainers who pretend to be reporting facts (like Rush and Coulter).
Re:Dangers of using ATA or SATA for Raid
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If you could get the brand name of the generator your friend has, I'd appreciate it. I checked on a number of generators and the sales people or the maker (yes -- I could call the companies, in spite of the mess, our phones were only out a day or 2 -- I don't know why, but I'm guessing they may have had more slack in their lines than the power company), and was repeatedly told NOT to run computers off them -- so if you could post the brand, it would be a help. My business doesn't really have to worry about it (with now power, many of our data services go offline anyway), but it may help my neighbor, and it'd be nice if I could work on my system at home in another blackout.
I'm not trying to obnoxious about how bad it was. If you didn't live through it, you wouldn't believe it. Since Isabel, I've sen disaster reports on the news, and there's no way a few shots on the news can convey what it's like when block after block has not just one, but several trees down over the road and on the power lines. My one link to the rest of the world was my battery powered radio. Listening to the reports was like living in the movie "The Day After" or (as I said earlier), the first Mad max movie. The news was focused exclusively on where you could get medical supplies, fresh food, or ice. If a restaraunt was open, it was on the news. If you didn't get in touch with someone to repair your house or remove the trees on it quickly, you could wait for weeks until they could fit you in.
For most of us, no matter how important our data was, it was one of the last thing on our minds -- after making sure we had medical attention, food, and shelter. It was an amazing and humbling experience -- one I hope to never repeat.
Re:Dangers of using ATA or SATA for Raid
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I'm just invising you standing there in the road with a tree down in front of you wondering where to go...
Actually, the closest wasn't in front of my house (but three fell into my yard from other yards), but there were something like 10 (I'm not exaggerating!) trees down across the road between me and the closest main road (as in not a neighborhood road).
First, you could go around the debris
Like I said in my first post, You obviously weren't in the middle of the East Coast after Isabel hit last fall. It was unlike anything I ever imagined I'd see in America. I felt like I was in a Mad Max movie. Trees weren't just bent, by down, I mean they were down across the road. You couldn't drive around, you couldn't get under them on a bike, you had to climb over or climb under. You could expect to have to go through several trees a block. I live in the suburbs. We have a lot of tree lined streets downtown, and it was worse there (the few trees near the streets didn't have the root systems enforcing them like the trees in large groups). Ice became a "hot" commidity. When transportation was possible, people waited in line for hours to get any amount of ice to keep any food they had from spoiling.
A simple statement like "you could go around the debris" is what I would have said, thinking it couldn't have been that bad. It was. Almost any store east of the Mississippi had no generators because they were all shipped to the disaster area. If you didn't have a generator ahead of time, then there was almost no chance of getting one later. (And, if you didn't know, a generator is not enough -- they do not produce power acceptable for computers with out more equipment.)
if your data is really important, you pay to have large banks of batterys and a backup powered generator
I was fortunate, since everyone in my business was ready. All we did was shutdown for the duration, since our data sources and Internet throughout the city was down, but there was someone in my neighborhood who was the situation I mentioned. He had just started his business (from his house), and was still making less than $10,000 per year. He was lucky to have a simple UPS to keep his boxen from going down during power flickers.
While his equipment was secure, and fsck fixed his problems, Isabel set him back months at a time when he couldn't afford it. He had to work 18 hour days from late September until May to catch up.
My main point is that it isn't as simple as you make it sound. Even with generators, how much fuel do you feel safe keeping on the premesis? A disaster like Isabel can make it almost impossible to keep up and running for almost all but the largest of companies.
Re:Dangers of using ATA or SATA for Raid
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If you can't find a power source for your server within 24 hours of a power failure, your data obviously isn't that important.
You obviously weren't in the middle of the East Coast after Isabel hit last fall and wiped out power throughout our entire area for over a week. I don't remember the numbers, but in our area, after something like 5 days there was still only a 60% restored rate for the area. For days travel in some areas was impossible, due to trees on the roads, etc.
I would have been willing to bike it to get to a power source, but that was virtually impossible, as well, due to the debris in the road.
And this is not in the boondocks, I live 10 minutes from the state capital.
You propose an abuse of software patents as a solution
And just where did you find me proposing a solution? My comment was that if they keep going, they might just go too far and, in doing so, prove why software patents are dangerous.
It's called irony -- that they go so far to protect themselves that their overreaching might work against them.
Nowhere did I propose this as a solution. Did you actually read the post?
Since Microsoft is going around patenting everything they can possibly think of, as long as Bush and his pro-monopoly group doesn't stay in office forever, they may help everyone else out.
If they patent enough simple and obvious ideas, that will make great fodder for the argument for abolishing software patents. They're going so far out of their way to stiffle competition that, at some point, the government will have to realize that software patents don't help competition, but hurt it.
(Yeah, I know it's the guv'ment we're talking about, but at some point congress will get enough complaints from everyone else that even they might wake up.)
Well, everything else was so caustic, sarcastic, and just plain rude and nasty, it was hard to tell, since there was no change in syle (this is not sarcasm).
Trying to make a point with semantics as in...
It's not semantics. It's a choice. I always work on the presumption that everyone can improve themselves -- it's their choice if they will make the effort or not. Maybe it won't help, but maybe, at some point, you'll actually understand that there's a world of difference between what I wrote and the way you interpret what I wrote. It's not about controlling feelings, it's about making a choice about your own self and your emotions, but, again, I doubt you want to see that, because acknowldging that is possible would mean you'd have to take responsibility for your feelings and behavior, and it's clear you'd rather blame your parents and everyone else for that.
Overall, your posts are full of anger and snake venom. There's no indication you show any understanding of the stronger and positive sides of human nature. Actually, you are more interested in trashing everything you can, rather than having a rational discussion. I always find it ironic that the people the most full of anger, hate, pain, and fear, are the very ones who think they are being clear and logical and are completely unable to ever question the idea that they might be wrong.
I'd make a few other points, such as what's going on behind your language (it says a LOT about you that it's clear you don't want to understand), but it's clear you have no interest in an actual discussion and would rather resort to calling names and insulting people. That's not what I'm interested in.
No offense, but you should ask yourself why you over-psychologize so much in this thread.
Let's see -- most of my adult life teaching and working with kids who grew up being rented out to a crackhead for sex so mommy can get her fix. A number of years where it is more commen to see kids recovering from drugs and sexual abuse than those who don't know what sexual abuse is.....Hmmm... I wonder why I look suspiciously on ANYTHING that could be a red flag.
I was glad to read your post. While the initial comment certainly sounds like a red flag, I'm glad to read that it is only a small part of the overal l story. While it is true there are parents who over nuture their kids, that's a small (very small) minority, compared to the parents that don't spend enough time with their kids. While my comments may make some parents spend more time with kids, or feel guilty for not spending more time, that will lead to far less harm than those who don't spend enough time (or any quality time) with their kids.
I think there's a lot more to it than the number of hours you're present.
Of course there is. But I really wanted to keep my comments within/. post length, as opposed to book lentgh.
Yes, plenty of stay home parents fail. I've worked with many home schooled kids. Some do great, some don't know the first thing about relating to non-family members.
But starting with the perception that your kid has a strong character and therefore doesn't need to have his/her parents around is not an attitude that leads to successful child-rearing.
As for me, I strongly agree with your comment about being around more than your father. I busted my rear to create a business that would give me the freedom to not only pursue my passion (writing and video production), but will also allow me to spend a lot of time with kids, when I have some.
There's way too much blather in the above to bother with most of it.
1) While the father is saying his son has a strong personality, that is the father's pov, and quite possibly distorted. Almost every parent of every kid I ever taught will tell you that their kid is smarter, wittier, or some extreme more than all the other kids.
2) Example: I know this is always a "discussion stopper" but I can tell you of a kid with a strong personality who had no male role model. That may not be the reason why he ran the Nazi party, but it's a good example.
3) You say you don't have (list of problems...), but you are not the best one to judge that. Every student or patient in any institution I've ever worked with will tell you -- they're okay, it's the rest of the world and their doctors that are screwed up. You show a lot of anger and some other problems. It seems you are not aware of the baggage you really do carry and how easily it surfaces in what you call rage. We are not the best subjective observers of whether or not we have problems.
4) It takes more than 5 minutes to instill values. Any number of studies or the experiences of any teacher or parent will tell you that 5 minutes is not enough. While this is an "ad hominem" comment, anyone saying something inane clearly has no first hand knowledge of what it takes to help mold the character of a growing youngster.
5) Your last line is the most interesting comment and shows an almost complete mis-understanding of human nature. Your parents were like that BEFORE they had kids. Their behavior, just like yours, is their choice. On the other hand, if you want to say it's what "the little fuckers did to my parents", then you are stating that you must have been such a rotten kid, or so hard to raise, that you caused your parents' problems. Not so. Their inability to raise you in a loving fashion is what results in the anger and baggage you carry with you that shows up in "rage" like your long rant.
6) About your long rant -- I didn't piss you off. I made a statement, you decided how to react to it. You made a choice to allow yourself to be mad, to rant, to not edit that rant, and to post it. (By the way, the rant reveals a lot about you that you probably don't see in yourself and likely would rather others not see if you were more self aware.) We are the ones who decide how to respond to stimuli. We are able to make our choices; it is not the stimuli that control us and "force" us to rant on the keyboard (or do you want to abdicate responsibility and say that you have no control over your reactions?). We are responsible for our reactions and our behavior.
7) As for Cat's Cradle -- you missed the point, as you seemed to with the whole post. Actually, your anger and need to use profanity and be so nasty proves my point -- without good role models, you have grown into someone who takes no responsibility for his reactions. You paint things in black and white, feel you and your siblings are responsible for your parents' problems, and have a distorted idea that raising children with strong values is easy.
Thank you for proving my point with your uncontrollable anger.
I don't want to be at home with my family because I think my son might be somehow "damaged" by me not being there. He'd be just fine, he's a strong personality.
I'm sorry you think that way.
As a former teacher, with years of experience working with learning disabled and emotionally disturbed (those are the actual names of the classifications of the students), I can tell you that he's already "damaged" in ways you can't see. It could be that it's something he doesn't show, or that you're just too busy. It's just a matter of whether you want to stay in denial over it, or whether you want to mitigate or heal the damage by changing the attitude and realizing your son needs to see his father, as a role model, as a guardian, and as a guide, as much as possible.
While it's only from "pop" culture, do an online search for the lyrics to the song "Cat's in the Cradle." It's about a man who is too busy working to spend time with his son. His son idolizes his father and keeps saying he's going to grow up like him. When the kid is grown and doesn't have time for his father, the father realizes his son is just like him.
Your son, strong character or not, needs you around -- perhaps even more so in order that his strong character is molded and shaped toward the positive, so he learns to try new positive experiences, rather than to explore activities that might lead him to negative choices. I saw many students who ended up in mental health institutions who had strong characters, but lacked role models who were constantly there to show them how to make positive choices instead of negative ones.
And my dealing with them is so long ago, I don't know if they may have used a different model back then. I do remember seeing my site logs showing a MUCH higher viewing rate than their logs showed (like on a factor of several hundred or so).
I have a site in a field totally unrelated to computers. It was ranked as an "Editor's Choice" (or something like that) on AOL at one point. From my server logs, I KNOW it gets a fair amount of traffic (I also have free downloads, logs show these files are downloaded -- and the pages linking to the files are viewed).
I wanted to see if I could make enough to at least pay for hosting, and looked around and settled on trying Connection Junction. I don't remember for sure, but I think I was supposed to get paid on click-throughs.
For the next few months, I was getting a good number of page views, but according to Connection Junction, their banners received 4-6 impressions per month, way off from what my server logs showed for page views. Maybe they're honest, but after that experience (seeing my logs showing hundreds of page views per month and CJ showing 4-6 impressions/banner views for the same month), I don't trust them.
Aside from questioning why anyone who cares about their video files would trust them to a system as unstable as Crash-o-Matic 98 (instead of at least working with Win2k), I do have to seriously question this person's knowledge of what their editing program actualy does.
Win98 DOES have the previously mentioned file limit, as well as a limit in partition size (at least when formatted by Windows).
On the other hand, if you look at a program like Adobe Premiere, the file sizes are rarely as big as you think they are -- the video is usually distributed over a number of files.
And it's a pain to install. If you've never installed it before, trying to get 10 boxen of Debian up when you have to hit the ground running is a nightmare for anyone but an experienced Debian Installer (note I didn't say Debian user -- we all know Debian users install once, then forget what a pain it was because they upgrade forever).
Debian would work well AFTER he's sure everything else is working and patched and secure (and up to date) and AFTER he's had time to practice installing it on a test box.
Slashdot Mirror
In the U.S. I've seen new keyboards for as little as $10.00 (I think I've seen them for $5.00, but that might have been for a cheap mouse.)
I checked online (imagine that -- using Google instead of "Ask Slashdot"), and found this link to PCParts Leader for a list of keyboards, including a THREE DOLLAR keyboard. Even after paying shipping, you're still paying almost nothing.
Do you really think, by the time you pay for the PS2 connector (assuming it's that recent, or the older connector if it isn't), and any pieces that you'll spend less than $5-$10?
If you can't afford an el-cheapo keyboard, then how are you going to buy the connector and whatever else you need?
Sheesh. An "Ask Slashdot" to replace a $3 item with something else so you don't waste that $3 item? Now I see why so many people think it's become "Ask Slashgoogle."
I haven't tried the new installer, but I had not yet heard a lot comments on it. I've installed Knoppix, then done an "apt-get dist-upgrade" and had everything working perfectly. Then I've had other times where I've installed Knoppix and it was a nightmare from go. I'm sure, like all OSS in Linux (except the last version of Gnome) that it is getting easier and easier to use.
I didn't even bother to mention Mono. I figured, considering the timing of the post and that Mono has just reached 1.0 gold, that it was a given that this person was planning on using it. (If not, it'll be a REAL fun ride developing for Windows on Linux!)
I think the fact that I forgot this is pretty telling. It's been years (literally) since I've had problems with Mandrake recognizing ANY kind of hardware. So long, in fact, that I forgot to mention that Mandrake is just about the best in recognizing just about any kind of hardware you can throw at it and auto-installing it.
With Mandrake, I don't even think about hardware as a problem. With other distros, I find I still have to worry about it.
Knoppix is great, but if you don't know what you're doing, it can be difficult to transfer it to a hard drive. Sometimes it's an easy install, but if it isn't, it can be a real hell. I've seen it, and it's not a pretty sight.
You'll want to change. I'm sure, by the time I finsih this, someone will have jumped in and say, "Debian," since Debian-ites seem to think there is only one distro. (And, to be honest, I'd recommend it in part, but more later.)
I'd suggest Mandrake to start with, since it is actually easier to install than Windows XP. It's easy to use, and it has URPMI, so it is MUCH easier to upgrade on EVERY PACKAGE than Red Hat or Suse. Then I'd bear in mind that this is just your first use of any distro, and that you'll get a chance to find out the strengths and weaknesses of it, and you'll move on.
After you've had a chance to get used to Linux, and are looking for something more powerful, try Libranet. Libranet is based on Debian, but without the impossible install (Debian-ites will say the install is easier, but that's relative. It's easier than it was, which means it's easier than getting a root canal.) Since Libranet is about to publish a new version, you can get 2.8.1, which is what I've been using on a few boxen, for free at their site. When their next version (3.0) comes out, you can easily upgrade to that version with one or two commands.
I've made my recommendations based on what is easy to start with, and on the general principle that after you get used to Linux, you'll most likely want to try something different. Debian is easy to upgrade and maintain, but even Libranet can be hard to install for someone who hasn't been using Linux for a good while.
I know there are other easy to install distros (like Linspire and Lycoris), but Mandrake is the only easy-to-install-and-maintain distro that is "mainline" in terms of including all the goodies Linuxers want on their system.
And, to anticipate comments that Mandrake is too easy, made for beginners, or doesn't let you have fine control over settings, ANY distro lets you have as fine a control over settings as you want. Some have easy to use config panels (like Mandrake's "Mandrake Control Center"), but in ANY distro, you can bypass their control panel and edit all the config files by hand, if you want. -- So it's not going to take away control, it just makes it easier for someone who isn't already a full time Linuxer to install, setup, configure, and maintain.
Sorry. Thought he was only getting books for the few top students.
The paperbacks are still for sale, though, in many stores.
Depending on the personality of the student, they may get a kick out of the 11 books that inspired Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan, and basically a whole generation of scientists and writers.
I'm talking about The Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs (starting with "A Princess of Mars"). While giving a set of 11 paperbacks is not special, if you found early printings, with the pulp style illustrated covers, it could be a gift with historical significance.
They're not, by any means, based on science, but the stories are fun and I know I got a thrill out of reading them and seeing what inspired those whom I consider to be masters of SF or Science itself.
But, as I said, some students might really appreciate this, while others would consider it a gag or an insult. It would depend on the personality of the student.
I wasn't going to respond to this post, because I know the first (and only, to this date) review of F911 I've heard on NPR was not favorable (to pick just one point), and so many other people responded.
Then I thought I really should respond for one reason:
To say "Thank you for proving my point."
When you use statements like, "These are not opinions, they are facts. Facts NOT reported by NPR. So, tell me again how NPR reports facts so well?", you are stating that NPR DOES NOT cover these stories or points of view, but a number of other people have proven you wrong. Now, let me ask you, did you, before you made such a broad, sweeping statement, go to npr.org and do a search to see if you were right? Did you verify what you thought to be true, or did you decide that since you've heard 1 or 2 reports, you know all the stories they've reported? You did TRY to back up your comments, but it was rather quickly shown that your "proof" was not there.
This is a great example of what I was talking about - you're so sure NPR is liberal that you (apparently) assumed NPR DID NOT report the views you mentioned. Therefore, it was okay to jump the gun and make your final assumption ("Facts NOT reported by NPR.") All of these conclusions were reached with what seemed to be logic, but on one faulty thought after another.
You may not like what NPR reports. That doesn't mean they aren't reporting facts. They're just reporting facts you don't want to face.
Thank you, again, for proving my point.
I heard Bill O'Reilly (is it Bill? I can't remember) on Fresh Air. I only heard the last part of the interview. He shouted accusations at the host, didn't give her a chance to respond, and hung up.
And this is a conservative, who is supposed to support family values? If you ask me, the right wing (and I don't mean just Republicans -- although the party is being swallowed whole by extremists and people full of anger like Rush) has become extremely self-centered, pompous, rude, and disrespectful of anyone they disagree with.
All of these are contrary to the claimed "old fashhioned" values.
Well, the BBC is hideously anti american
Or maybe they're just being honest, but you'd rather label anyone who says something about America as anti-American rather than listen to it as potentially solid criticism?
In my experience, NPR is better at reporting the facts in a story than almost any other news service (except maybe the BBC and the News Hour).
I can understand why some people don't like it. Those are the same people who label everything they don't like or don't want to hear as "liberal."
If there's a news story about a scandal in a Republican administration, even if all they report are facts, such people will call it liberal because they don't want to hear anything negative about anyone they like. Even if it's true.
Especially if it's true.
So they'd rather listen to Fox news, which has no hesitation about attacking, without mercy, anyone they disagree with, WITHOUT supporting what they say as facts.
I consider myself independent. I can understand why some call me liberal -- I disagree with them. In my experience, in the last 10 years, large parts of the right wing has turned into a pack vicious, rabid attack animals, ready to pounce on anyone or thing they disagree with and call it liberal. Once it's labeled as liberal, that gives them the right to use all kinds of nasty names and say all kinds of bad things, whether they're supported by facts or not. And this from the groups that support family values -- they show no hesitation to be rude, nasty, and vile to anyone they disagree with instead of using polite tolerance and discussion.
Over the past ten years or so I've seen the same group go from being able to debate based on facts to ignorning facts and operating only on opinion -- and often that opinion is not even based on facts, but on half-truths repeated over and over by entertainers who pretend to be reporting facts (like Rush and Coulter).
If you could get the brand name of the generator your friend has, I'd appreciate it. I checked on a number of generators and the sales people or the maker (yes -- I could call the companies, in spite of the mess, our phones were only out a day or 2 -- I don't know why, but I'm guessing they may have had more slack in their lines than the power company), and was repeatedly told NOT to run computers off them -- so if you could post the brand, it would be a help. My business doesn't really have to worry about it (with now power, many of our data services go offline anyway), but it may help my neighbor, and it'd be nice if I could work on my system at home in another blackout.
I'm not trying to obnoxious about how bad it was. If you didn't live through it, you wouldn't believe it. Since Isabel, I've sen disaster reports on the news, and there's no way a few shots on the news can convey what it's like when block after block has not just one, but several trees down over the road and on the power lines. My one link to the rest of the world was my battery powered radio. Listening to the reports was like living in the movie "The Day After" or (as I said earlier), the first Mad max movie. The news was focused exclusively on where you could get medical supplies, fresh food, or ice. If a restaraunt was open, it was on the news. If you didn't get in touch with someone to repair your house or remove the trees on it quickly, you could wait for weeks until they could fit you in.
For most of us, no matter how important our data was, it was one of the last thing on our minds -- after making sure we had medical attention, food, and shelter. It was an amazing and humbling experience -- one I hope to never repeat.
I'm just invising you standing there in the road with a tree down in front of you wondering where to go...
Actually, the closest wasn't in front of my house (but three fell into my yard from other yards), but there were something like 10 (I'm not exaggerating!) trees down across the road between me and the closest main road (as in not a neighborhood road).
First, you could go around the debris
Like I said in my first post, You obviously weren't in the middle of the East Coast after Isabel hit last fall. It was unlike anything I ever imagined I'd see in America. I felt like I was in a Mad Max movie. Trees weren't just bent, by down, I mean they were down across the road. You couldn't drive around, you couldn't get under them on a bike, you had to climb over or climb under. You could expect to have to go through several trees a block. I live in the suburbs. We have a lot of tree lined streets downtown, and it was worse there (the few trees near the streets didn't have the root systems enforcing them like the trees in large groups). Ice became a "hot" commidity. When transportation was possible, people waited in line for hours to get any amount of ice to keep any food they had from spoiling.
A simple statement like "you could go around the debris" is what I would have said, thinking it couldn't have been that bad. It was. Almost any store east of the Mississippi had no generators because they were all shipped to the disaster area. If you didn't have a generator ahead of time, then there was almost no chance of getting one later. (And, if you didn't know, a generator is not enough -- they do not produce power acceptable for computers with out more equipment.)
if your data is really important, you pay to have large banks of batterys and a backup powered generator
I was fortunate, since everyone in my business was ready. All we did was shutdown for the duration, since our data sources and Internet throughout the city was down, but there was someone in my neighborhood who was the situation I mentioned. He had just started his business (from his house), and was still making less than $10,000 per year. He was lucky to have a simple UPS to keep his boxen from going down during power flickers.
While his equipment was secure, and fsck fixed his problems, Isabel set him back months at a time when he couldn't afford it. He had to work 18 hour days from late September until May to catch up.
My main point is that it isn't as simple as you make it sound. Even with generators, how much fuel do you feel safe keeping on the premesis? A disaster like Isabel can make it almost impossible to keep up and running for almost all but the largest of companies.
If you can't find a power source for your server within 24 hours of a power failure, your data obviously isn't that important.
You obviously weren't in the middle of the East Coast after Isabel hit last fall and wiped out power throughout our entire area for over a week. I don't remember the numbers, but in our area, after something like 5 days there was still only a 60% restored rate for the area. For days travel in some areas was impossible, due to trees on the roads, etc.
I would have been willing to bike it to get to a power source, but that was virtually impossible, as well, due to the debris in the road.
And this is not in the boondocks, I live 10 minutes from the state capital.
You propose an abuse of software patents as a solution
And just where did you find me proposing a solution? My comment was that if they keep going, they might just go too far and, in doing so, prove why software patents are dangerous.
It's called irony -- that they go so far to protect themselves that their overreaching might work against them.
Nowhere did I propose this as a solution. Did you actually read the post?
Since Microsoft is going around patenting everything they can possibly think of, as long as Bush and his pro-monopoly group doesn't stay in office forever, they may help everyone else out.
If they patent enough simple and obvious ideas, that will make great fodder for the argument for abolishing software patents. They're going so far out of their way to stiffle competition that, at some point, the government will have to realize that software patents don't help competition, but hurt it.
(Yeah, I know it's the guv'ment we're talking about, but at some point congress will get enough complaints from everyone else that even they might wake up.)
My last line was a joke, dumbass.
Well, everything else was so caustic, sarcastic, and just plain rude and nasty, it was hard to tell, since there was no change in syle (this is not sarcasm).
Trying to make a point with semantics as in...
It's not semantics. It's a choice. I always work on the presumption that everyone can improve themselves -- it's their choice if they will make the effort or not. Maybe it won't help, but maybe, at some point, you'll actually understand that there's a world of difference between what I wrote and the way you interpret what I wrote. It's not about controlling feelings, it's about making a choice about your own self and your emotions, but, again, I doubt you want to see that, because acknowldging that is possible would mean you'd have to take responsibility for your feelings and behavior, and it's clear you'd rather blame your parents and everyone else for that.
Overall, your posts are full of anger and snake venom. There's no indication you show any understanding of the stronger and positive sides of human nature. Actually, you are more interested in trashing everything you can, rather than having a rational discussion. I always find it ironic that the people the most full of anger, hate, pain, and fear, are the very ones who think they are being clear and logical and are completely unable to ever question the idea that they might be wrong.
I'd make a few other points, such as what's going on behind your language (it says a LOT about you that it's clear you don't want to understand), but it's clear you have no interest in an actual discussion and would rather resort to calling names and insulting people. That's not what I'm interested in.
No offense, but you should ask yourself why you over-psychologize so much in this thread.
Let's see -- most of my adult life teaching and working with kids who grew up being rented out to a crackhead for sex so mommy can get her fix. A number of years where it is more commen to see kids recovering from drugs and sexual abuse than those who don't know what sexual abuse is.....Hmmm... I wonder why I look suspiciously on ANYTHING that could be a red flag.
I was glad to read your post. While the initial comment certainly sounds like a red flag, I'm glad to read that it is only a small part of the overal l story. While it is true there are parents who over nuture their kids, that's a small (very small) minority, compared to the parents that don't spend enough time with their kids. While my comments may make some parents spend more time with kids, or feel guilty for not spending more time, that will lead to far less harm than those who don't spend enough time (or any quality time) with their kids.
I think there's a lot more to it than the number of hours you're
/. post length, as opposed to book lentgh.
present.
Of course there is. But I really wanted to keep my comments within
Yes, plenty of stay home parents fail. I've worked with many home schooled kids. Some do great, some don't know the first thing about relating to non-family members.
But starting with the perception that your kid has a strong character and therefore doesn't need to have his/her parents around is not an attitude that leads to successful child-rearing.
As for me, I strongly agree with your comment about being around more than your father. I busted my rear to create a business that would give me the freedom to not only pursue my passion (writing and video production), but will also allow me to spend a lot of time with kids, when I have some.
There's way too much blather in the above to bother with most of it.
1) While the father is saying his son has a strong personality, that is the father's pov, and quite possibly distorted. Almost every parent of every kid I ever taught will tell you that their kid is smarter, wittier, or some extreme more than all the other kids.
2) Example: I know this is always a "discussion stopper" but I can tell you of a kid with a strong personality who had no male role model. That may not be the reason why he ran the Nazi party, but it's a good example.
3) You say you don't have (list of problems...), but you are not the best one to judge that. Every student or patient in any institution I've ever worked with will tell you -- they're okay, it's the rest of the world and their doctors that are screwed up. You show a lot of anger and some other problems. It seems you are not aware of the baggage you really do carry and how easily it surfaces in what you call rage. We are not the best subjective observers of whether or not we have problems.
4) It takes more than 5 minutes to instill values. Any number of studies or the experiences of any teacher or parent will tell you that 5 minutes is not enough. While this is an "ad hominem" comment, anyone saying something inane clearly has no first hand knowledge of what it takes to help mold the character of a growing youngster.
5) Your last line is the most interesting comment and shows an almost complete mis-understanding of human nature. Your parents were like that BEFORE they had kids. Their behavior, just like yours, is their choice. On the other hand, if you want to say it's what "the little fuckers did to my parents", then you are stating that you must have been such a rotten kid, or so hard to raise, that you caused your parents' problems. Not so. Their inability to raise you in a loving fashion is what results in the anger and baggage you carry with you that shows up in "rage" like your long rant.
6) About your long rant -- I didn't piss you off. I made a statement, you decided how to react to it. You made a choice to allow yourself to be mad, to rant, to not edit that rant, and to post it. (By the way, the rant reveals a lot about you that you probably don't see in yourself and likely would rather others not see if you were more self aware.) We are the ones who decide how to respond to stimuli. We are able to make our choices; it is not the stimuli that control us and "force" us to rant on the keyboard (or do you want to abdicate responsibility and say that you have no control over your reactions?). We are responsible for our reactions and our behavior.
7) As for Cat's Cradle -- you missed the point, as you seemed to with the whole post. Actually, your anger and need to use profanity and be so nasty proves my point -- without good role models, you have grown into someone who takes no responsibility for his reactions. You paint things in black and white, feel you and your siblings are responsible for your parents' problems, and have a distorted idea that raising children with strong values is easy.
Thank you for proving my point with your uncontrollable anger.
I don't want to be at home with my family because I think my son might be somehow "damaged" by me not being there. He'd be just fine, he's a strong personality.
I'm sorry you think that way.
As a former teacher, with years of experience working with learning disabled and emotionally disturbed (those are the actual names of the classifications of the students), I can tell you that he's already "damaged" in ways you can't see. It could be that it's something he doesn't show, or that you're just too busy. It's just a matter of whether you want to stay in denial over it, or whether you want to mitigate or heal the damage by changing the attitude and realizing your son needs to see his father, as a role model, as a guardian, and as a guide, as much as possible.
While it's only from "pop" culture, do an online search for the lyrics to the song "Cat's in the Cradle." It's about a man who is too busy working to spend time with his son. His son idolizes his father and keeps saying he's going to grow up like him. When the kid is grown and doesn't have time for his father, the father realizes his son is just like him.
Your son, strong character or not, needs you around -- perhaps even more so in order that his strong character is molded and shaped toward the positive, so he learns to try new positive experiences, rather than to explore activities that might lead him to negative choices. I saw many students who ended up in mental health institutions who had strong characters, but lacked role models who were constantly there to show them how to make positive choices instead of negative ones.
And my dealing with them is so long ago, I don't know if they may have used a different model back then. I do remember seeing my site logs showing a MUCH higher viewing rate than their logs showed (like on a factor of several hundred or so).
I have a site in a field totally unrelated to computers. It was ranked as an "Editor's Choice" (or something like that) on AOL at one point. From my server logs, I KNOW it gets a fair amount of traffic (I also have free downloads, logs show these files are downloaded -- and the pages linking to the files are viewed).
I wanted to see if I could make enough to at least pay for hosting, and looked around and settled on trying Connection Junction. I don't remember for sure, but I think I was supposed to get paid on click-throughs.
For the next few months, I was getting a good number of page views, but according to Connection Junction, their banners received 4-6 impressions per month, way off from what my server logs showed for page views. Maybe they're honest, but after that experience (seeing my logs showing hundreds of page views per month and CJ showing 4-6 impressions/banner views for the same month), I don't trust them.
Aside from questioning why anyone who cares about their video files would trust them to a system as unstable as Crash-o-Matic 98 (instead of at least working with Win2k), I do have to seriously question this person's knowledge of what their editing program actualy does.
Win98 DOES have the previously mentioned file limit, as well as a limit in partition size (at least when formatted by Windows).
On the other hand, if you look at a program like Adobe Premiere, the file sizes are rarely as big as you think they are -- the video is usually distributed over a number of files.
And it's a pain to install. If you've never installed it before, trying to get 10 boxen of Debian up when you have to hit the ground running is a nightmare for anyone but an experienced Debian Installer (note I didn't say Debian user -- we all know Debian users install once, then forget what a pain it was because they upgrade forever).
Debian would work well AFTER he's sure everything else is working and patched and secure (and up to date) and AFTER he's had time to practice installing it on a test box.