"If you've travelled half way around the world (or whatever distance) to another country then don't you at least owe it to yourself to absorb as much of their culture as possible?"
Don't you think you're trying a little too hard to punch a hole in my point? I never said anything that said or suggested that I didn't do what I could to be as adaptive as possible. I'd respond to the rest of your post, but it was written on a faulty assumption.
I have NFI why people think that bringing a translation device along completely obliterates this stereotype.
"The argument you give is such a cop-out, I don't care how much it costs for a ticket or how far you have to travel, as if us Americans are the only ones that have to travel far or pay for our trip."
How can one possibly learn a language if there isn't much use for it? I have some background in Spanish, but it's pretty much useless. Pretty pathetic considering I'm living in a town with lots of spanish speakers, isn't it? There just isn't a need for it. As such, there's little chance to show it off.
" Pocket dictionaries or even electronic translators are cheap, ESPECIALLY if you're an American who paid $1,200 for a ticket to Brazil TWICE."
Where in my post did I say I didn't have translation tools? If that's all it took to make the difference, do you really really really think the bitching would end? Please.
I'd like it on record, while I'm on the topic, that Brazil was VERY friendly towards me despite my low knowledge of portuguese. Very nice friendly place to visit. They pride themselves on their hospitality, and as far as I'm concerned, they get an A+ for it. I'd love to retire there.
"I'm an American who's tired of hearing from foreigners that one reason why Americans are not liked is because we travel abroad to other countries and EXPECT them to speak english, as if they're expected to know our language."
I'm sick of hearing this stereotype because all one has to do is look at a globe and it becomes obvious why we're not so fluent in other languages. It's not most of the USA can drive in a day and land in a country with a different national language. With the exception of Mexico (which gets so much tourism from us that English is relatively well understood) we have to hop on a plane at >$700 a ticket to visit a non-english speaking country. That's no small chore. I've been to Brazil twice, and each time it cost me $1,200 just for the ticket AND 24 hours transit time. All it takes is a little understanding, yeesh.
Being a little hard on yourself, that really isn't a bad idea. It does require a bit much from people trying to reach me, though. But.. if it ever got that bad, I'd seriously be considering it.
What I do today is encourage people to use ICQ instead of email. I get 0 spam on ICQ because it has a strict white list on it. The additional benefit is that it encourages people to keep it brief. I don't have everybody on board with that, but it has single handedly made me not so email dependent.
If you're just using it for personal email, I can't say there's a big reason to have a catch-all address. It's been nothing but a hassle for me. (One of these days I'm going to get around to fixing that.)
Figure I might as well share a little bit more with what I do with my email. I have two domains, one's a personal domain, the other is for a project I never got off the ground. I use the personal domain for my personal email etc. Unfortunately, I do have a catch all on that, and it's rather obnoxious. I do have spam filtering, but junk still gets through. Don't really have time to muck with it, ya know? All I need to do is crack down on the address again. Just haven't found the time.
On my other domain, I'm currently using it as a forums email box. It's locked down. It only has a few valid email addresses, the rest are trashed. I have one mail account with a ton of forwarders leading into it. If I register with NYTimes, then I set up a forwarder from nytimmes@thenameofmydomain.com to forumbox@thenameofmydomain.com. If I sign up for Slashdot, then Slashdot@thenameofmydomain.com is forwarded to forumbox@thenameofmydomain.com. So each place I sign up for has its own address. If I start recieving spam from a particular address, then I just turn off the forwarder. Result? I don't even need to be running Spam software.
My forums domain does a much better job of handling the spam/communication features than my personal domain with the catch all.
"Sony just sank a huge amount of cash in building a new LCD plant with Samsung. Why would they want to promote OLED? This was in the news all over the place in the last couple of days."
I'm not claiming to be an expert on this topic, but wasn't one of the big selling points of OLED technology that current LCD facilities could be upgraded to handle it relatively cheaply?
Not sure if I'm right on that or not, but Sony has demonstrated that they are interested in having a kick ass display. Go see their ultra-brite or whatever it is laptops they have at circuit city.
"I sure enjoy the OLED display on my mobile phone:)"
How noticable is the difference? I ask because I have a Motorola phone with a surprisingly bright and colorful screen. The only nitpick I have is that it's not a very wide angle screen. But since it's a cell phone..
Anyway, just curious what surprises you encountered with this screen.
Re:WTF? Un, hmm... NO!
on
Is Math A Sport?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
" Compete at math? Huh? What does competition add to the struggle?"
A demonstration of one's capabilities that some aspire to reach?
"With non-flip phones, you can leave the keyboard unlocked to take calls, but then you have to deal with accidently dialing people when the phone is in your pocket or bag."
Heh. I had a 10 minute voicemail of my drive home, once.
"Is it really worth it to have 35 new phone models?"
Considering the trouble I just had finding the cell phone with the right features at the right price, I'd say yes. If they were all just basic "dial and go" then I wouldn't have much need to keep buying a new phone every year and a half. That's how this market's been working.
"AFAIK, there's no large-scale robot uprising in any of the books, at all."
I wouldn't say this robot violated Asimov's rules here. I think there are a couple of mild continuity nitpicks, but none of them have to do with the robots.
"So why the hell commit suicide to attract attention of some cop in hopes that the cop would survive all the robot attacks? If the professor could build a robot that was not succeptible to the control of the super computer (Viki) why not just ask the robot to kill Viki and be done with it, why did he kill himself?"
Pretty obvious, I thought. He was under the watchful eye of a computer that knows all and sees all. If he stepped out of line, he'd be killed 'accidentally' while driving home, as it attempted with Detective Spooner. The only way he had to get a message out was to seriously seriously obscure it. For somebody to un-obscure it, he'd need to be a little too passionate and obsessive about it in order to draw conclusions from strange clues.
Actually, this part of the movie was put together pretty well. Surprised you missed it.
"There's a big problem with that from the RIAA's perspective. People would "buy" a few CDs, take them home and copy them, and then return them for full purchase price. Free music!"
That's a bigger problem than music downloading?
Even before music trading, I don't think consumers get enough credit. Copying CDs is just too much trouble. Who wants to make 2 trips to a store just to get one CD @~$15?
"Fortunately, my wife already knows this, which is one reason I married her."
I've had similar luck. My gf isn't bothered by porn. It's great for me because I can live without it being some sort of big secret. One thing she knows is if I'm home looking at porn, I'm not out shopping. Heh.
Part of this is I lucked out in the gf department. She's great and I wouldn't trade her for anybody. I think the other part of this, though, is that I don't think I'm abusing her patience. For example, I don't have a stack of magazines under the mattress. She's well aware of the gigs of porn I've accumulated over the years, but not because I'm constantly browsing it. It's private time, not 'blast her in the face' I'm looking at porn all the time. (Boy I can't wait for an AC to take off with that little quote.:P) I think being respectful about it is significant here. She isn't having to compete with porn. I imagine that's something that a lot of women do have to deal with.
I've thought about this since my previous post on this matter. I think it was a little short-sighted of me to say women need to understand, guys need to undertstand, too. Porn is a problem when porn is a problem. If money was spent on porn instead of toilet paper, you've done something wrong. If you go out to the nudie bar and blow a bunch of money and she's at home watching TV, then you owe her an evening of fun. Etc etc.
Sorry I've drifted off-topic here, I accept negative moderations if they're deemed necessary. No biggie. Just felt like sharing a bit here. It wasn't all that long ago I saw a relationship between two friends of mine disintegrate. She blamed the porn, but I think it had to do with lack of respect they were showing each other. She felt he wanted more, he felt she wasn't doing enough. *Sigh* They coulda worked it out if it didn't turn into a stand-your-ground battle.
"If this is true, then how do we explain the studies that show a very strong correlation between use of pornography and violent rape?"
Can you imagine a rapist not looking at porn?
I'm not convinced that porn would cause violent rape. How many rapists have been to jail, arguably a place where porn would be very hard to come by, and commited the crime again upon completion of their sentence? How many people with porn stashes out there have raped anybody?
I can't claim I'm any more correct than those studies. I can tell you that internet porn is so wide spread that it'd make one wonder why rape isn't more common place.
Slashdot Mirror
"If you've travelled half way around the world (or whatever distance) to another country then don't you at least owe it to yourself to absorb as much of their culture as possible?"
Don't you think you're trying a little too hard to punch a hole in my point? I never said anything that said or suggested that I didn't do what I could to be as adaptive as possible. I'd respond to the rest of your post, but it was written on a faulty assumption.
I have NFI why people think that bringing a translation device along completely obliterates this stereotype.
"The argument you give is such a cop-out, I don't care how much it costs for a ticket or how far you have to travel, as if us Americans are the only ones that have to travel far or pay for our trip."
How can one possibly learn a language if there isn't much use for it? I have some background in Spanish, but it's pretty much useless. Pretty pathetic considering I'm living in a town with lots of spanish speakers, isn't it? There just isn't a need for it. As such, there's little chance to show it off.
" Pocket dictionaries or even electronic translators are cheap, ESPECIALLY if you're an American who paid $1,200 for a ticket to Brazil TWICE."
Where in my post did I say I didn't have translation tools? If that's all it took to make the difference, do you really really really think the bitching would end? Please.
I'd like it on record, while I'm on the topic, that Brazil was VERY friendly towards me despite my low knowledge of portuguese. Very nice friendly place to visit. They pride themselves on their hospitality, and as far as I'm concerned, they get an A+ for it. I'd love to retire there.
"I'm an American who's tired of hearing from foreigners that one reason why Americans are not liked is because we travel abroad to other countries and EXPECT them to speak english, as if they're expected to know our language."
I'm sick of hearing this stereotype because all one has to do is look at a globe and it becomes obvious why we're not so fluent in other languages. It's not most of the USA can drive in a day and land in a country with a different national language. With the exception of Mexico (which gets so much tourism from us that English is relatively well understood) we have to hop on a plane at >$700 a ticket to visit a non-english speaking country. That's no small chore. I've been to Brazil twice, and each time it cost me $1,200 just for the ticket AND 24 hours transit time.
All it takes is a little understanding, yeesh.
"Who gives a shit?"
The english speaking people trying to use the site? RTFA.
"In the spirit of NBC's 'get the news out through redundancy' campaign, Slashdot will dupe every article they post about the Olympics!"
In the spirit of NBC's 'get the news out through redundancy' campaign, Slashdot will dupe every article they post about the Olympics!
(I'm gonna earn that redundant mod, dammit!)
"Perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about "
Being a little hard on yourself, that really isn't a bad idea. It does require a bit much from people trying to reach me, though. But.. if it ever got that bad, I'd seriously be considering it.
What I do today is encourage people to use ICQ instead of email. I get 0 spam on ICQ because it has a strict white list on it. The additional benefit is that it encourages people to keep it brief. I don't have everybody on board with that, but it has single handedly made me not so email dependent.
"In a word... No"
Thank you for being as insightful as a flip of the coin.
If you're just using it for personal email, I can't say there's a big reason to have a catch-all address. It's been nothing but a hassle for me. (One of these days I'm going to get around to fixing that.)
Figure I might as well share a little bit more with what I do with my email. I have two domains, one's a personal domain, the other is for a project I never got off the ground. I use the personal domain for my personal email etc. Unfortunately, I do have a catch all on that, and it's rather obnoxious. I do have spam filtering, but junk still gets through. Don't really have time to muck with it, ya know? All I need to do is crack down on the address again. Just haven't found the time.
On my other domain, I'm currently using it as a forums email box. It's locked down. It only has a few valid email addresses, the rest are trashed. I have one mail account with a ton of forwarders leading into it. If I register with NYTimes, then I set up a forwarder from nytimmes@thenameofmydomain.com to forumbox@thenameofmydomain.com. If I sign up for Slashdot, then Slashdot@thenameofmydomain.com is forwarded to forumbox@thenameofmydomain.com. So each place I sign up for has its own address. If I start recieving spam from a particular address, then I just turn off the forwarder. Result? I don't even need to be running Spam software.
My forums domain does a much better job of handling the spam/communication features than my personal domain with the catch all.
"Sony just sank a huge amount of cash in building a new LCD plant with Samsung. Why would they want to promote OLED? This was in the news all over the place in the last couple of days."
I'm not claiming to be an expert on this topic, but wasn't one of the big selling points of OLED technology that current LCD facilities could be upgraded to handle it relatively cheaply?
Not sure if I'm right on that or not, but Sony has demonstrated that they are interested in having a kick ass display. Go see their ultra-brite or whatever it is laptops they have at circuit city.
"I sure enjoy the OLED display on my mobile phone :)"
How noticable is the difference? I ask because I have a Motorola phone with a surprisingly bright and colorful screen. The only nitpick I have is that it's not a very wide angle screen. But since it's a cell phone..
Anyway, just curious what surprises you encountered with this screen.
" Compete at math? Huh? What does competition add to the struggle?"
A demonstration of one's capabilities that some aspire to reach?
In the spirit of NBC's 'get the news out through redundancy' campaign, Slashdot will dupe every article they post about the Olympics!
"For MS it's possibly easier to take just to take legal action when abuses do occur."
At $8 bucks a domain, MS would have been ahead to register those domains compared to the cost of one court case.
On the other hand, though, they did send a message to other domain squatters out there. Like or hate MS, that was a good move.
"With non-flip phones, you can leave the keyboard unlocked to take calls, but then you have to deal with accidently dialing people when the phone is in your pocket or bag."
Heh. I had a 10 minute voicemail of my drive home, once.
"Is it really worth it to have 35 new phone models?"
Considering the trouble I just had finding the cell phone with the right features at the right price, I'd say yes. If they were all just basic "dial and go" then I wouldn't have much need to keep buying a new phone every year and a half. That's how this market's been working.
"Surprised everyone missed it."
Surprised you missed the bit where Spooner was surprised they didn't have the video of his death.
"Someone already changed the password."
Some anonymous nerd out there late on a Friday night is sitting there saying "Ha ha!"
"AFAIK, there's no large-scale robot uprising in any of the books, at all."
I wouldn't say this robot violated Asimov's rules here. I think there are a couple of mild continuity nitpicks, but none of them have to do with the robots.
"So why the hell commit suicide to attract attention of some cop in hopes that the cop would survive all the robot attacks? If the professor could build a robot that was not succeptible to the control of the super computer (Viki) why not just ask the robot to kill Viki and be done with it, why did he kill himself?"
Pretty obvious, I thought. He was under the watchful eye of a computer that knows all and sees all. If he stepped out of line, he'd be killed 'accidentally' while driving home, as it attempted with Detective Spooner. The only way he had to get a message out was to seriously seriously obscure it. For somebody to un-obscure it, he'd need to be a little too passionate and obsessive about it in order to draw conclusions from strange clues.
Actually, this part of the movie was put together pretty well. Surprised you missed it.
"I, Robot: Liked it better when it was called Terminator."
I, Robot isn't a "robots turn on their masters" movie. The teasers a little misleading.
"Looks like typical mallrat drivel loosely based on a popular scifi title (see: Starship Troopers)"
:P
Pff, the movie was much better than the book.
I Robot was actually pretty decent. It was good to see an action flick that had some thinking man's candy as well.
"Puff Daddy has posted a comment in reply to your comment. Re:Bad music?"
Heh. That was the email notification I recieved from your comment, I found it amusing.
"There's a big problem with that from the RIAA's perspective. People would "buy" a few CDs, take them home and copy them, and then return them for full purchase price. Free music!"
That's a bigger problem than music downloading?
Even before music trading, I don't think consumers get enough credit. Copying CDs is just too much trouble. Who wants to make 2 trips to a store just to get one CD @~$15?
"Fortunately, my wife already knows this, which is one reason I married her."
:P) I think being respectful about it is significant here. She isn't having to compete with porn. I imagine that's something that a lot of women do have to deal with.
I've had similar luck. My gf isn't bothered by porn. It's great for me because I can live without it being some sort of big secret. One thing she knows is if I'm home looking at porn, I'm not out shopping. Heh.
Part of this is I lucked out in the gf department. She's great and I wouldn't trade her for anybody. I think the other part of this, though, is that I don't think I'm abusing her patience. For example, I don't have a stack of magazines under the mattress. She's well aware of the gigs of porn I've accumulated over the years, but not because I'm constantly browsing it. It's private time, not 'blast her in the face' I'm looking at porn all the time. (Boy I can't wait for an AC to take off with that little quote.
I've thought about this since my previous post on this matter. I think it was a little short-sighted of me to say women need to understand, guys need to undertstand, too. Porn is a problem when porn is a problem. If money was spent on porn instead of toilet paper, you've done something wrong. If you go out to the nudie bar and blow a bunch of money and she's at home watching TV, then you owe her an evening of fun. Etc etc.
Sorry I've drifted off-topic here, I accept negative moderations if they're deemed necessary. No biggie. Just felt like sharing a bit here. It wasn't all that long ago I saw a relationship between two friends of mine disintegrate. She blamed the porn, but I think it had to do with lack of respect they were showing each other. She felt he wanted more, he felt she wasn't doing enough. *Sigh* They coulda worked it out if it didn't turn into a stand-your-ground battle.
"If this is true, then how do we explain the studies that show a very strong correlation between use of pornography and violent rape?"
Can you imagine a rapist not looking at porn?
I'm not convinced that porn would cause violent rape. How many rapists have been to jail, arguably a place where porn would be very hard to come by, and commited the crime again upon completion of their sentence? How many people with porn stashes out there have raped anybody?
I can't claim I'm any more correct than those studies. I can tell you that internet porn is so wide spread that it'd make one wonder why rape isn't more common place.