because us "old people" have more to do ...
on
E-mail Is For Old People
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I suspect this is largely true, mostly because we "older" folks have more responsibilities that preclude us from hanging out and IMing each other.
I use IM at work to talk with other folks about the crisis du-jour. With a million things clamoring for my attention all day, it's nice to have an asynchronous medium like email for things that don't need a response *right this instant*.
People did not start buying brands other than GM at the end of the 70s because they wanted cupholders.
They changed because they were tired of waiting in line for an hour or more to fill up at the gas station (OK, I'm old because I remember this), and they wanted cars that were more energy efficient.
If the barriers to using Windows (price, ease of use, bugs, etc.) are too difficult to surmount, then people will switch (not likely, given the current state of affairs).
OTOH, your analogy to auto buying trends away from gas guzzlers at the end of the 70s might apply to the SUV market now if gas prices keep rising...
From the parent:
"Writing a book report, and writing a technical proposal might both involve english words connected by proper grammatical constructs, but the similarity doesn't extend much past that."
This statement proves how much you need those writing classes.
Let me phrase it another way: if you write a patient tracking system for a doctor's office, do you think you've learned nothing that will apply to writing an inventory system for an auto parts store?
When I went to college in 1984, I had the fortunate realization that I was there to get an education, not just job training, and that it might be the last opportunity of my life to spend most of my time studying what I wanted just because I wanted to study it.
So I studied English Lit., a subject I truly enjoyed. It isn't, however, where I want to make my living.
After I graduated, I learned very quickly that employers value what you can actually do more than what degree you have, so I found work in IT based on the 10+ years of experience I had doing that kind of work (as a hobbyist).
As a result of layoffs, I've had a new job every year since 2001, felt the ever-mounting pressure to put in more hours on the job, etc. But I still like what I do, and I'm happy with the way I got here.
From the original post:
"Please enlighten me as to why learning about something that we cannot change and that already happened will benefit us"
OK, I can do that.
Do you think there could possibly be any benefit to knowing:
1. The history of Middle Eastern cultures and the involvement of Western countries in that part of the world?
2. The history of the founding of our country (USA), along with our Constitution and laws? (might this have been useful to know, say, during the recount of the 2000 presidential election?)
3. The history of other democracies and republics that existed before ours?
4. The rise of the Nazis in Europe (think about this in relation to the recent candidacy of Austrian Jorg Haider)?
I'll trust that you get my point without the need to further belabor it.
"I happen to be a history buff in general, and it's probably my favorite subject, but honest to god, there isn't a point in it, and I don't think we should require it if a student isn't interested in it."
So you think it's just fine to have citizens who have never been taught anything about World War II? What about the Vietnam?
I agree with the rest of your comments, but I really think ignorance of history is ignorance.
I went out and bought Harn and Cities of Harn for these very reasons: most of the work comes in writing a background story. Harn provides an excellent starting point for your own environment.
I'll echo many of the other comments here: the greatest part of D&D (and RPGs in general) is the encouragement for you to make up your own rules and your own settings, to pick and choose what you like, make up whatever you need, and throw out what you don't like.
This thread brings back a lot of great memories of fun times I had playing these games for hours on end with my friends.
This guy's extended whine sounds like an old argument I've been hearing since the 80s:
"We've given these Tools to the hands of the Unwashed Masses, and now they are using them to produce Shoddy Work in Great Quantities!"
This has been said about desktop publishing (remember that quaint little technology?), about the design of web pages, about all sorts of things.
I thought we've already come to grips with the effect of widely-distributed technology: more users = more dross and dreck to wade through before you get to the Good Stuff.
P.S. I *finally* got rid of that annoying hangnail! And I've decided to paint my house white! Read all about it at sabme.myblog.com ("the ONLY blog that matters!")
>I guess the big question is, what point am I missing here?
The point: Dominos (or any big chain pizzeria) makes lousy pizza, regardless of how easy it is to order.
... they can avoid completely changing it with every new release.
The one thing I like most about using the unix/linux cli is that the stuff I learned in 1995 (my first encounter with Solaris) is still useful today.
It may be a steep learning curve, but you don't have to throw out everything you know with each new release, the way a GUI often forces you to. If you stick with the command line for a few years, it's an investment that pays off in greater skill.
For example, most config files that were in/etc ten years ago are likely still there now, and they likely have the same names. You want to find a log file? First stop is/var/log.
Every time a new version of MacOS or Windows comes out, it seems there's always some little check box -- which you need checked to accomplish your task -- that's been moved to some obscure option in a dialog in a control panel that's *different* in every release. Or they've figured out a "better" (read: different) way to do what you need, which means a new control panel, or an entirely new model of doing the same task.
It's like Home Depot (a large warehouse-style hardware/home improvement chain in the US): it took me years to learn where everything was in one of their massive wareshouse stores. Once I learned the layout of the store, it simply wasn't worth my time to shop at a competitor (like Lowes).
Now, of course, Home Depot is remodeling all its stores to be more competitive with Lowes, and thus killing my whole rationale for going there in the first place!:-)
You are correct that this is standard business practice and in no way implies an SEC investigation into SCO.
The "impending SEC investigation" slant is merely one of slashdot's usual brain-dead misinterpretation.
Had you (or the originator of this thread) bothered to actually read PJ's comments on this topic, you would have learned that she was commenting on language in the new SCO prospectus that she didn't recall seeing before.
Open simply means that anyone is free to contribute.
Groklaw is an open forum, because anyone is free to post there. If it were a closed forum, only a certain select few individuals would be allowed to post there.
The "open-ness" of a forum has nothing to do with the general opinions of its members, and whether or not they agree or disagree with your opinions.
A similar analogy is open source software vs. closed-source software:
1. Open source: anyone can see the source code 2. Closed source: only those with special privileges can see the source code
Notice that what makes open source software open is not the opinions of the people who use or develop it (like open source forums).
Jar Jar Binks Says Focus Of Kazaa Should Be Looting Defenseless Villages
Posted by brian on Wed April 13, 03:06 PM from the have fun hitting reload page dept.
Monkey points us to an article over at The Register that has some pretty wicked quotes from Jar Jar Binks about Kazaa. He thinks that Kazaa should focus less on profits and more on looting defenseless villages. Jar Jar Binks says "Instead of pouring money into the black hole of developing homemade rockets, they should focus on looting defenseless villages and the profits will come thier way." There are many more interesting tidbits in the article, but I'll let you discover and discuss them.
The best part about these random slashdot entires are the gammar and spelling errors! Way to go!
Someone with mod points please mod this rude and off-topic post down please.
newbie question re: ease of management
on
Linux Clustering
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
A question for beowulf-savvy folks:
At the end of the article, the comment is made that one reason for setting up a cluster is ease of management (for updates, applications, etc.). Can anyone with experience comment on whether this is true or not, with the way clustering exists today? I have no experience at all with cluster, and I'm wondering if this is something I should look into to ease administrative burdens?
income(employed+salary cut) > income(unemployed)
I took a 6% cut in January of 2002 (after being out of work for the previous 9 months), and haven't had an increase since.
I'm grateful I'm employed! Making a lower salary is better than making no salary at all.
With all due respect to Armchair Dissident, this is the first time I'm aware that IBM has refuted all of SCO's assertions on a point-by-point basis, and called into question SCO's motives in bringing this case to trial. So it's hardly the case that SCO is "scuppered again." It's just that the wheels of justice turn slowly, in the interest of giving all parties a fair hearing.
According to Groklaw, this is nowhere near the end of the case, since SCO still has the opportunity to rebut IBM's motion, IBM then can refute the rebuttal, etc. etc. But it may be the beginning of the end.
The previous "scuppered again" reports from Groklaw (and other sources) are the results of developments in other trials as well as independent investigations (outside the courtroom) into the merits of SCO's claims. Based on the linux community's technical consensus (again, outside of any trial) that SCO's claims are meritless, I think we've known SCO's case was doomed all along. We're still waiting for it to play out in the courts, though, which is where it counts.
Simple answer: After divestiture (the 1984 breakup of the Bell System), the monopoly culture at AT&T was unable to adapt to a competitive marketplace. The fact that it's taken 20 years to get to this point illustrates just how large and wealthy AT&T was in its heyday.
My main observation as a former AT&T employee (I worked first in Bell Labs, then in AT&T Labs (after the split with Lucent)) is as follows:
In a regulated monopoly, you negotiate your profits, deadlines, and budget with the government. In this situation, it's to your advantage to give yourself *a lot of slack,* and do what you know is well within your capacity.
There's no pressure to compete with other companies, so, if you set your quotas right, you don't have to work so hard. Everyone rides along on the system. Projects don't have to profitable to be continued, and profitable projects can be killed for political reasons without affecting the bottom line.
AT&T continued to operate this way, even though they were no longer a regulated monopoly. It really isn't surprising: Imagine you're a manager who's spent your entire 20+ year career in this environment, without ever encountering business conditions elsewhere. How could you know anything otherwise?
I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of sharp, hardworking people at AT&T with decades of hard-core experience in every aspect of communications (there are). What I am saying is that, for the most part, they don't seem to be in strategic decision-making positions. Hence the current mess.
I always thought Campbell's analysis of this story rang true:
Before the temptation, humans existed in a state of bliss (Eden) because they had no knowledge of good or evil. They were innocent, and incapable of sin. They were naked and felt no shame, they lived in harmony with the beasts, etc.
Eve eats the fruit of the tree, gains a knowledge of good and evil. Now, humans are no longer innocent, since they know evil and they can choose to do evil as well as good. They are therefore cast out of Eden and enter the world of pairs of opposites: good and evil, life and death, male and female, man and nature, etc.
The story of the temptation, therefore, reminds us that the human condition is to exist in a world where we may choose to do wrong. Original sin is an acknowledgement that we all have the capacity to choose evil, because we know the difference between good and evil.
Not sure that adding elements of the supernatural is exactly a new trend in drama and literature... I'm thinking of the gods and goddesses in the Illiad, Dante's trip through the afterlife in The Divine Comedy, the ghost of Hamlet's dad in Hamlet, the witches in Macbeth, the various supernatural entities in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge, etc.
Supernatural elements have always been popular and are present in every literary period. Something about human nature, I suppose, makes us fascinated with the possibility that we might experience the transcendent.
Re:The flagship...
on
D&D Is 30
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The ones I remember playing were Melee and Wizard, which started out as "Microgames" by Metagaming and soon became "The Fantasy Trip," a more complete RPG system. The game mechanics featured only 3 attributes (STR, DEX, INT), skills, use of six-sided dice only, etc. Very simple system, very fast to play.
The other, more complex set of rules I remember playing was Chivarly and Sorcery. Setting and background were the main virtues of C&S.
Artistic forms achieve critical merit not just becuase of age, but becuase they retain their relevance over a long period of time. Expamples that spring to mind are The Odyssey, The Illiad, Dante's Inferno, etc. (there are many many others, from all cultures throughout history).
There's something to be said for a written work that people still find valuable a few hundred years after it was written. In fairness to the critics, I think it's very hard to predict which works will take hold of human imagination after a long period of time.
I also think critics fail to spot classics in the making because they suffer from a sort of professional nearsightedness.
Will people three hundred years from now still be reading and enjoying the Lord of the Rings (and other fantasy and science fiction classics)? Only time will tell (my vote is "yes").
Slashdot Mirror
I suspect this is largely true, mostly because we "older" folks have more responsibilities that preclude us from hanging out and IMing each other.
I use IM at work to talk with other folks about the crisis du-jour. With a million things clamoring for my attention all day, it's nice to have an asynchronous medium like email for things that don't need a response *right this instant*.
People did not start buying brands other than GM at the end of the 70s because they wanted cupholders.
...
They changed because they were tired of waiting in line for an hour or more to fill up at the gas station (OK, I'm old because I remember this), and they wanted cars that were more energy efficient.
If the barriers to using Windows (price, ease of use, bugs, etc.) are too difficult to surmount, then people will switch (not likely, given the current state of affairs).
OTOH, your analogy to auto buying trends away from gas guzzlers at the end of the 70s might apply to the SUV market now if gas prices keep rising
From the parent: "Writing a book report, and writing a technical proposal might both involve english words connected by proper grammatical constructs, but the similarity doesn't extend much past that." This statement proves how much you need those writing classes. Let me phrase it another way: if you write a patient tracking system for a doctor's office, do you think you've learned nothing that will apply to writing an inventory system for an auto parts store?
I took this approach: I started fooling around with computers when I was 10 with my dad's KIM-1 (http://oldcomputers.net/kim1.html), moved up to BASIC on an OSI Challenger 1P (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp? st=1&c=813), wrote some simple programs, a game, etc.
When I went to college in 1984, I had the fortunate realization that I was there to get an education, not just job training, and that it might be the last opportunity of my life to spend most of my time studying what I wanted just because I wanted to study it.
So I studied English Lit., a subject I truly enjoyed. It isn't, however, where I want to make my living.
After I graduated, I learned very quickly that employers value what you can actually do more than what degree you have, so I found work in IT based on the 10+ years of experience I had doing that kind of work (as a hobbyist).
As a result of layoffs, I've had a new job every year since 2001, felt the ever-mounting pressure to put in more hours on the job, etc. But I still like what I do, and I'm happy with the way I got here.
From the original post: "Please enlighten me as to why learning about something that we cannot change and that already happened will benefit us" OK, I can do that. Do you think there could possibly be any benefit to knowing: 1. The history of Middle Eastern cultures and the involvement of Western countries in that part of the world? 2. The history of the founding of our country (USA), along with our Constitution and laws? (might this have been useful to know, say, during the recount of the 2000 presidential election?) 3. The history of other democracies and republics that existed before ours? 4. The rise of the Nazis in Europe (think about this in relation to the recent candidacy of Austrian Jorg Haider)? I'll trust that you get my point without the need to further belabor it. "I happen to be a history buff in general, and it's probably my favorite subject, but honest to god, there isn't a point in it, and I don't think we should require it if a student isn't interested in it." So you think it's just fine to have citizens who have never been taught anything about World War II? What about the Vietnam? I agree with the rest of your comments, but I really think ignorance of history is ignorance.
Yes, kids in the US really go hungry without their parents being total crack-heads.
And yes, the average standard of living in the US is absurdly high compared to most of the world.
Hey, another Harn fan from the olden days!
I went out and bought Harn and Cities of Harn for these very reasons: most of the work comes in writing a background story. Harn provides an excellent starting point for your own environment.
I'll echo many of the other comments here: the greatest part of D&D (and RPGs in general) is the encouragement for you to make up your own rules and your own settings, to pick and choose what you like, make up whatever you need, and throw out what you don't like.
This thread brings back a lot of great memories of fun times I had playing these games for hours on end with my friends.
All Gibson SGs are Les Pauls. He designed it to be a more modern looking guitar for the 60s.
Most guitarists simply refer to them as SGs, and leave the appellation "Les Paul" for the single cutaway model.
This guy's extended whine sounds like an old argument I've been hearing since the 80s:
"We've given these Tools to the hands of the Unwashed Masses, and now they are using them to produce Shoddy Work in Great Quantities!"
This has been said about desktop publishing (remember that quaint little technology?), about the design of web pages, about all sorts of things.
I thought we've already come to grips with the effect of widely-distributed technology: more users = more dross and dreck to wade through before you get to the Good Stuff.
P.S.
I *finally* got rid of that annoying hangnail! And I've decided to paint my house white! Read all about it at sabme.myblog.com ("the ONLY blog that matters!")
>I guess the big question is, what point am I missing here? The point: Dominos (or any big chain pizzeria) makes lousy pizza, regardless of how easy it is to order.
... they can avoid completely changing it with every new release.
/etc ten years ago are likely still there now, and they likely have the same names. You want to find a log file? First stop is /var/log.
:-)
The one thing I like most about using the unix/linux cli is that the stuff I learned in 1995 (my first encounter with Solaris) is still useful today.
It may be a steep learning curve, but you don't have to throw out everything you know with each new release, the way a GUI often forces you to. If you stick with the command line for a few years, it's an investment that pays off in greater skill.
For example, most config files that were in
Every time a new version of MacOS or Windows comes out, it seems there's always some little check box -- which you need checked to accomplish your task -- that's been moved to some obscure option in a dialog in a control panel that's *different* in every release. Or they've figured out a "better" (read: different) way to do what you need, which means a new control panel, or an entirely new model of doing the same task.
It's like Home Depot (a large warehouse-style hardware/home improvement chain in the US): it took me years to learn where everything was in one of their massive wareshouse stores. Once I learned the layout of the store, it simply wasn't worth my time to shop at a competitor (like Lowes).
Now, of course, Home Depot is remodeling all its stores to be more competitive with Lowes, and thus killing my whole rationale for going there in the first place!
You are correct that this is standard business practice and in no way implies an SEC investigation into SCO.
The "impending SEC investigation" slant is merely one of slashdot's usual brain-dead misinterpretation.
Had you (or the originator of this thread) bothered to actually read PJ's comments on this topic, you would have learned that she was commenting on language in the new SCO prospectus that she didn't recall seeing before.
Open simply means that anyone is free to contribute.
Groklaw is an open forum, because anyone is free to post there. If it were a closed forum, only a certain select few individuals would be allowed to post there.
The "open-ness" of a forum has nothing to do with the general opinions of its members, and whether or not they agree or disagree with your opinions.
A similar analogy is open source software vs. closed-source software:
1. Open source: anyone can see the source code
2. Closed source: only those with special privileges can see the source code
Notice that what makes open source software open is not the opinions of the people who use or develop it (like open source forums).
Jar Jar Binks Says Focus Of Kazaa Should Be Looting Defenseless Villages
Posted by brian on Wed April 13, 03:06 PM
from the have fun hitting reload page dept.
Monkey points us to an article over at The Register that has some pretty wicked quotes from Jar Jar Binks about Kazaa. He thinks that Kazaa should focus less on profits and more on looting defenseless villages. Jar Jar Binks says "Instead of pouring money into the black hole of developing homemade rockets, they should focus on looting defenseless villages and the profits will come thier way." There are many more interesting tidbits in the article, but I'll let you discover and discuss them.
The best part about these random slashdot entires are the gammar and spelling errors! Way to go!
Never mind my request; the offensive post is already deleted. Thanks slashdot!
Someone with mod points please mod this rude and off-topic post down please.
At the end of the article, the comment is made that one reason for setting up a cluster is ease of management (for updates, applications, etc.). Can anyone with experience comment on whether this is true or not, with the way clustering exists today? I have no experience at all with cluster, and I'm wondering if this is something I should look into to ease administrative burdens?
income(employed+salary cut) > income(unemployed) I took a 6% cut in January of 2002 (after being out of work for the previous 9 months), and haven't had an increase since. I'm grateful I'm employed! Making a lower salary is better than making no salary at all.
According to Groklaw, this is nowhere near the end of the case, since SCO still has the opportunity to rebut IBM's motion, IBM then can refute the rebuttal, etc. etc. But it may be the beginning of the end.
The previous "scuppered again" reports from Groklaw (and other sources) are the results of developments in other trials as well as independent investigations (outside the courtroom) into the merits of SCO's claims. Based on the linux community's technical consensus (again, outside of any trial) that SCO's claims are meritless, I think we've known SCO's case was doomed all along. We're still waiting for it to play out in the courts, though, which is where it counts.
My main observation as a former AT&T employee (I worked first in Bell Labs, then in AT&T Labs (after the split with Lucent)) is as follows:
In a regulated monopoly, you negotiate your profits, deadlines, and budget with the government. In this situation, it's to your advantage to give yourself *a lot of slack,* and do what you know is well within your capacity.
There's no pressure to compete with other companies, so, if you set your quotas right, you don't have to work so hard. Everyone rides along on the system. Projects don't have to profitable to be continued, and profitable projects can be killed for political reasons without affecting the bottom line.
AT&T continued to operate this way, even though they were no longer a regulated monopoly. It really isn't surprising: Imagine you're a manager who's spent your entire 20+ year career in this environment, without ever encountering business conditions elsewhere. How could you know anything otherwise?
I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of sharp, hardworking people at AT&T with decades of hard-core experience in every aspect of communications (there are). What I am saying is that, for the most part, they don't seem to be in strategic decision-making positions. Hence the current mess.
Time to abandon all hope ... I'm deleriously happy at the prospect of *finally* making the first post on a slashdot topic.
Supernatural elements have always been popular and are present in every literary period. Something about human nature, I suppose, makes us fascinated with the possibility that we might experience the transcendent.
The other, more complex set of rules I remember playing was Chivarly and Sorcery. Setting and background were the main virtues of C&S.
Fun times!
There's something to be said for a written work that people still find valuable a few hundred years after it was written. In fairness to the critics, I think it's very hard to predict which works will take hold of human imagination after a long period of time.
I also think critics fail to spot classics in the making because they suffer from a sort of professional nearsightedness.
Will people three hundred years from now still be reading and enjoying the Lord of the Rings (and other fantasy and science fiction classics)? Only time will tell (my vote is "yes").