You aren't differentiating between physical addiction and psychological addiction.
Physical addictive substances are much harder to quit. These include heroin, nicotine, caffine, etc.
Psychologically addictive things are just things that we like to do that can get out of hand. Another poster compared marijuana to juggling. Take it from someone with an advanced degree in experimental psychology who has studied the topic in depth: that's a very fair comparison. It is no harder to stop using marijuana than to stop any other activity you find fun and pleasurable. The key difference is that heroin addicts and smokers cannot quit even when their activity has ceased to be pleasurable.
In Soviet Russia the atheistic government lined people up against the wall and mowed them down if they disagreed. Not that they killed all christians just for being christian, but they were not very tolerant of those who disagreed with them (including Jews).
That said, some atheists are quite tolerant. I guess there is some variability there, just like there is among the christian community (i.e. some christians are more tolerant than others).
I'm a rabid Mac fan and have been since 1993 when I switched to Mac from the Atari platform. That said, I understand where you are coming from.
From your post, it sounds like you used a Mac circa 1988-1992. Am I correct?
So, I kind of agree with what you are saying. When I first looked at a Mac in 1984, I was not impressed at all. (Of course, I was equally unimpressed with the IBM PC I tried in 1981.)
The point being that I had an Atari 800 whicih was a decent computer for the time (arguably had the best graphics available). I looked at the Mac and couldn't understand why they had the fastest processor you could get at the time (the Motorola 6800) and then slowed the machine down to a crawl with the graphical OS. As far as getting things done, I could do more pratical things much faster on my Atari and the idea of a graphical OS seemed cool, but kind of unrealistic given the degree to which the machine was slowed down by it (at the time).
IMHO, the tipping point for the Mac to be more useful than command line interfaces did not happen until System 7.1 and the 68030 Macintoshes came out which would have been high end Mac hardware in 1993. So, if you do the math, that's 9 years where the Mac was probably the most approachable computer, but not the most practical for the experienced user unless you were doing desktop publishing.
The reason I ended up switching to the Mac was that it so happened in 1993 that I needed a new computer and the Mac PowerBooks were seriously the best thing going at the time. The MacOS easily had 10 years of maturity over Windows by that point. OK, a lot has changed since then (MacOS X, etc.), but I have never felt like there was a good reason for me to switch to PC. The only time I ever seriously considered the PC platform was when it first came out. Since then, I have not been able to approach it with an open mind.
I have a QuickTake 200 which is the last one they made. It does not work well at all with iPhoto. It required special software to access it - software that ran on the old MacOS, not Mac OS X. The proprietary cable that you use to plug in the quicktake also plugs into Macintosh serial port - a port not available on any Mac built since 1997.
The QuickTake 200 could take maybe 30 or so pictures before running out of space on its memory card. The memory cards it uses are similar in form factor to smart media cards, but they were a different voltage. So, the upshot is that it takes a special memory card that was very expensive to buy at the time and are hard to find now. You could preview the pictures and delete bad ones, though.
The other two problems with the QuickTake: it requires four high energy lithium AA batteries in order to operate it. These batteries (at least used to) cost about $25 and lasted long enough to take maybe 50 pictures. The last problem wiht it I will mention is that the pictures the QuickTake tends to take are blurry unless you are taking pictures of something that is not moving. Most of the pictures of my child I tried to take with it ended up being blurry because she was too young (then) to understand the need to stand still for the camera.
I'm not trying to rip on the QuickTake. It was a good camera for its time. I believe that the QuickTake was one of the first consumer level digital still cameras available. For certain applications (real estate agents) it was a god send.
That said, there was a point in time - around 1999/2000 when the cost and convienience of digital photography surpassed film cameras. Today, I have a Cannon digital Elf camera and a 128MB CF card. I can easily take >100 pictures at a time before having to import them into iPhoto. The camera has a nice optical zoom and a flash (the QuickTake had neither) and produces pictures that look as good as film pictures (to my untrained eye.) I can easily import my pictures into iPhoto directly from the camera (you can't do that with the QuickTake). My current camera is my "nicest camera so far" that I have owned. My QuickTake - even back in 1995 - was not.
Most companies currently prefer to start people out as contractors. You will probably be going through an agency. This is not a big deal. Some agencies provide benefits, some don't. I've worked through several different agencies and also worked as FTE. In my current position, I started with the company as a contractor and was switched over to FTE after a year.
It's not that big of a deal. Contracting gives you a chance to see if you like the company before committing to work there as a full time employee. It gives them a chance to evaluate you without having to commit to either the position being around long term or you being the right person long term.
One place I was a contractor, I decided to leave after the contract was up because I didn't like working there (didn't care for the boss and didn't care for the project). Another place I did like, but they ended up canceling the program. In my current position, they decided to continue the program and I liked them and they liked me, so we made it permanent. Recently we hired three new people who are also all contractors. If they work out and we continue the program we are on, they will probably get switched over eventually.
I'm currently at a profitable, publicly traded technology company. At our company, the story about it being easier to get approval to hire contractors is 100% true. It is very hard to get our company to commit to bringing on permanent people. Contractors are much easier to get approval on.
When I was at startup companies during the boom (and even after the boom) it was far easier to hire FTE, but we also laid off lots of FTEs regularly. At other places (like where I am now and some other larger companies), I have not seen FTE layoffs.
Re:As long as they come with an off switch.
on
Spies Riding Shotgun
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Why not insist that I have video cameras installed in my home in case I should decide to commit date rape some evening?
Yes, and then you'll be arrested for rape if you cover the lense with your coat since obviously you wouldn't have covered the camera if you weren't going to commit a crime.
The reason why they do this is so that police have the ability to selectively enforce the law. Thus, we have phenomenon like "Driving While Black" which will result in a ticket and fine many places in the US.
I'll take your word for it and stand corrected. When I looked at the Prius, it was $28,000 and looked like an Echo. It seemed like an atrociously bad deal to me. If you are saying they improved it, then great.
Still, you cannot compare it to a Hummer. A Hummer is not exactly a vehicle you buy for value - it is more of an ego vehicle.
Thanks for the name calling. What I mean by steal is that the contracts for the oil go to western oil companies. The profits go to the US government to pay for the cost of "administrating" the country. Not a dime goes to the iraqi people.
If there's oil theft going on, it's not coming from the Americans. There aren't lines of Texaco supertankers sitting at port just greedily sucking the country dry all so Bush and Halliburton can make a buck. Iraqi oil is being sold to whoever wants it at market prices
With the profits going where?
The news reports I've heard say that the profits will go to the US to pay for the cost of occupying the country. Sounds like theft to me!
That's bullshit. A Prius is a tiny car. You can't compare it to a H2 or a Camary. You should compare it to a similar car in size and features - a $10K Toyota Echo.
The Prius is enormously expensive for what you get.
The vast majority of Iraqis would like us to just leave - even if it means that we don't spend another dime on reconstruction and there is no western investment in the country. Every single poll I've seen has more than 95% of iraqis wanting this.
Why should we be there fighting the desires of the Iraqi people? If our goal was to get rid of Sadam, we've already done that, so why stick around?
Oh, the real reason is so we can steal their oil. And I do mean steal.
Plus, most iraqis I've heard interviewed prefer Sadaam to the US. They say things like "at least Sadaam was an Iraqi."
I totally agree. Pretty much all the japanese cartoons I've seen are boring, hard to follow, and just really don't make any sense. And I agree that the animation looks stupid.
I can stand to watch Speed Racer, but still it is pretty weak animation and pretty poor stories.
Yes, all Pixar movies have the same story. It is also a story that psychological research has shown that all children relate to really well and will listen to over and over.
So, in other words, they picked a winning horse and going to ride it as far as it will go. I'm sure "cars" will have the same story but it will be some car that gets lost instead of a toy, ant, child, or superhero.
You're comment is great and all, but the question wasn't about how to become a professional artist. It was about how to make an icon that doesn't suck when you are a programmer and not an artist.
I had iTunes installed long before I had an iPod. In fact, before the iPod was even announced. I had a Rio 500 and was using Cassidy & Greene's SoundJam when iTunes came out and I switched. For those who don't know, iTunes was based on the SoundJam source which Apple purchased from C&G.
Just by itself, iTunes is a nice program for managing MP3s. Once you have it installed, the iTMS beats the hell out of driving all over town to different record stores looking for something.
The stores you are talking about in VA/MD are still considered part of the DC "metro area". If you really lived in a rural area (like rural Oklahoma), those resources wouldn't be available at all.
Where I lived, it was multiple hours drive just to get to any store that sold shirts that weren't T-shirts or western shirts (an example). There was *no* store in town that sold electronics more complicated than a flashlight. My parents still live there. They do not have broadband internet available at all. Cable TV is not available. There is no cell phone coverage there. There is only 1 ISP that is not a long distance call which is over 50$ per month. It is owned by an indian tribe and is very unreliable. You can only view 2 TV stations via over the air broadcasting. There is no PBS station and no NPR station. So, if you're living there you'd better like right wing talk radio and country music because that is the only programming available except for religious programming.
You are completely wrong. I grew up in rural Oklahoma. The second I turned 18, I got the heck out of there. I now live in an urban area on the west coast. The people in my town were not "real, hard working honest people". They were mostly stupid idiots with no ambition and no imagination. And yes, they were all a bunch of bigoted idiots.
Having endured these people for many years, I have earned the right to mock them.
And yes, I am a liberal (especially on social issues) democrat who visits star bucks most every day, an atheist, have an advanced degree, earns a six figure salary as a senior software architect at a high tech company, and I drive a Saab. And I'm a Mac user (and a snob about OS X.)
Not to mention the fact that you get to drive a million fucking miles every time you need to go to the store. Plus, the stores in rural places don't carry anything, so you have to do all your shopping by catalog. Oh, and if you want that Ferrari there is no dealer to buy it from or get it serviced at. Hey, you'd be doing good to even find a place to get a volkwagen serviced in most rural areas.
And you get to have uneducated bumkins for neighbors who leave non-running cars on blocks in the front lawn.
Typically downtown areas are centrally located which means that if your main concern is to attract "talent" from across a metro region, you have a good chance to make it possible for everyone to get to you.
Second, I think there is a certain amount of cachet from being located downtown.
Third, there are lots of good places to eat lunch.
I used to work for a company in downtown Seattle that was pretty much like what you are describing. Management got the good window view of Elliot Bay and everyone else got cubes. Plus, I had to drive 30 minutes and then take a boat to work which took another 30 minutes. That said, I loved working downtown.
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You aren't differentiating between physical addiction and psychological addiction.
Physical addictive substances are much harder to quit. These include heroin, nicotine, caffine, etc.
Psychologically addictive things are just things that we like to do that can get out of hand. Another poster compared marijuana to juggling. Take it from someone with an advanced degree in experimental psychology who has studied the topic in depth: that's a very fair comparison. It is no harder to stop using marijuana than to stop any other activity you find fun and pleasurable. The key difference is that heroin addicts and smokers cannot quit even when their activity has ceased to be pleasurable.
Why do you assume atheists should be tolerant?
In Soviet Russia the atheistic government lined people up against the wall and mowed them down if they disagreed. Not that they killed all christians just for being christian, but they were not very tolerant of those who disagreed with them (including Jews).
That said, some atheists are quite tolerant. I guess there is some variability there, just like there is among the christian community (i.e. some christians are more tolerant than others).
I'm sorry that someone modded you down so far.
I'm a rabid Mac fan and have been since 1993 when I switched to Mac from the Atari platform. That said, I understand where you are coming from.
From your post, it sounds like you used a Mac circa 1988-1992. Am I correct?
So, I kind of agree with what you are saying. When I first looked at a Mac in 1984, I was not impressed at all. (Of course, I was equally unimpressed with the IBM PC I tried in 1981.)
The point being that I had an Atari 800 whicih was a decent computer for the time (arguably had the best graphics available). I looked at the Mac and couldn't understand why they had the fastest processor you could get at the time (the Motorola 6800) and then slowed the machine down to a crawl with the graphical OS. As far as getting things done, I could do more pratical things much faster on my Atari and the idea of a graphical OS seemed cool, but kind of unrealistic given the degree to which the machine was slowed down by it (at the time).
IMHO, the tipping point for the Mac to be more useful than command line interfaces did not happen until System 7.1 and the 68030 Macintoshes came out which would have been high end Mac hardware in 1993. So, if you do the math, that's 9 years where the Mac was probably the most approachable computer, but not the most practical for the experienced user unless you were doing desktop publishing.
The reason I ended up switching to the Mac was that it so happened in 1993 that I needed a new computer and the Mac PowerBooks were seriously the best thing going at the time. The MacOS easily had 10 years of maturity over Windows by that point. OK, a lot has changed since then (MacOS X, etc.), but I have never felt like there was a good reason for me to switch to PC. The only time I ever seriously considered the PC platform was when it first came out. Since then, I have not been able to approach it with an open mind.
I have a QuickTake 200 which is the last one they made. It does not work well at all with iPhoto. It required special software to access it - software that ran on the old MacOS, not Mac OS X. The proprietary cable that you use to plug in the quicktake also plugs into Macintosh serial port - a port not available on any Mac built since 1997.
The QuickTake 200 could take maybe 30 or so pictures before running out of space on its memory card. The memory cards it uses are similar in form factor to smart media cards, but they were a different voltage. So, the upshot is that it takes a special memory card that was very expensive to buy at the time and are hard to find now. You could preview the pictures and delete bad ones, though.
The other two problems with the QuickTake: it requires four high energy lithium AA batteries in order to operate it. These batteries (at least used to) cost about $25 and lasted long enough to take maybe 50 pictures. The last problem wiht it I will mention is that the pictures the QuickTake tends to take are blurry unless you are taking pictures of something that is not moving. Most of the pictures of my child I tried to take with it ended up being blurry because she was too young (then) to understand the need to stand still for the camera.
I'm not trying to rip on the QuickTake. It was a good camera for its time. I believe that the QuickTake was one of the first consumer level digital still cameras available. For certain applications (real estate agents) it was a god send.
That said, there was a point in time - around 1999/2000 when the cost and convienience of digital photography surpassed film cameras. Today, I have a Cannon digital Elf camera and a 128MB CF card. I can easily take >100 pictures at a time before having to import them into iPhoto. The camera has a nice optical zoom and a flash (the QuickTake had neither) and produces pictures that look as good as film pictures (to my untrained eye.) I can easily import my pictures into iPhoto directly from the camera (you can't do that with the QuickTake). My current camera is my "nicest camera so far" that I have owned. My QuickTake - even back in 1995 - was not.
Most companies currently prefer to start people out as contractors. You will probably be going through an agency. This is not a big deal. Some agencies provide benefits, some don't. I've worked through several different agencies and also worked as FTE. In my current position, I started with the company as a contractor and was switched over to FTE after a year.
It's not that big of a deal. Contracting gives you a chance to see if you like the company before committing to work there as a full time employee. It gives them a chance to evaluate you without having to commit to either the position being around long term or you being the right person long term.
One place I was a contractor, I decided to leave after the contract was up because I didn't like working there (didn't care for the boss and didn't care for the project). Another place I did like, but they ended up canceling the program. In my current position, they decided to continue the program and I liked them and they liked me, so we made it permanent. Recently we hired three new people who are also all contractors. If they work out and we continue the program we are on, they will probably get switched over eventually.
I'm currently at a profitable, publicly traded technology company. At our company, the story about it being easier to get approval to hire contractors is 100% true. It is very hard to get our company to commit to bringing on permanent people. Contractors are much easier to get approval on.
When I was at startup companies during the boom (and even after the boom) it was far easier to hire FTE, but we also laid off lots of FTEs regularly. At other places (like where I am now and some other larger companies), I have not seen FTE layoffs.
Good one!
What about a game where you can be Hinckley and the goal is to do the job right?
AFAIK most WWII games do not center on specific named individuals either.
Hitler?
Tojo?
Patton?
Montgomery?
Romel?
Macarthur?
Churchill?
I've seen WW2 games that refer to all of these people.
It was a Ferrari, not a Porche.
Bueller?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Why not insist that I have video cameras installed in my home in case I should decide to commit date rape some evening?
Yes, and then you'll be arrested for rape if you cover the lense with your coat since obviously you wouldn't have covered the camera if you weren't going to commit a crime.
The reason why they do this is so that police have the ability to selectively enforce the law. Thus, we have phenomenon like "Driving While Black" which will result in a ticket and fine many places in the US.
Considering the features, price, and what you are saving on gas, it seems like it probably meets my criteria of being a "practical" vehicle.
(I don't own any "practical" vehicles, myself - a Saab, a Vespa, and a Ford 150.)
I'll take your word for it and stand corrected. When I looked at the Prius, it was $28,000 and looked like an Echo. It seemed like an atrociously bad deal to me. If you are saying they improved it, then great.
Still, you cannot compare it to a Hummer. A Hummer is not exactly a vehicle you buy for value - it is more of an ego vehicle.
Thanks for the name calling. What I mean by steal is that the contracts for the oil go to western oil companies. The profits go to the US government to pay for the cost of "administrating" the country. Not a dime goes to the iraqi people.
If there's oil theft going on, it's not coming from the Americans. There aren't lines of Texaco supertankers sitting at port just greedily sucking the country dry all so Bush and Halliburton can make a buck. Iraqi oil is being sold to whoever wants it at market prices
With the profits going where?
The news reports I've heard say that the profits will go to the US to pay for the cost of occupying the country. Sounds like theft to me!
Can someone provide a link to his target practice page?
That's bullshit. A Prius is a tiny car. You can't compare it to a H2 or a Camary. You should compare it to a similar car in size and features - a $10K Toyota Echo.
The Prius is enormously expensive for what you get.
The vast majority of Iraqis would like us to just leave - even if it means that we don't spend another dime on reconstruction and there is no western investment in the country. Every single poll I've seen has more than 95% of iraqis wanting this.
Why should we be there fighting the desires of the Iraqi people? If our goal was to get rid of Sadam, we've already done that, so why stick around?
Oh, the real reason is so we can steal their oil. And I do mean steal.
Plus, most iraqis I've heard interviewed prefer Sadaam to the US. They say things like "at least Sadaam was an Iraqi."
I totally agree. Pretty much all the japanese cartoons I've seen are boring, hard to follow, and just really don't make any sense. And I agree that the animation looks stupid.
I can stand to watch Speed Racer, but still it is pretty weak animation and pretty poor stories.
Yes, all Pixar movies have the same story. It is also a story that psychological research has shown that all children relate to really well and will listen to over and over.
So, in other words, they picked a winning horse and going to ride it as far as it will go. I'm sure "cars" will have the same story but it will be some car that gets lost instead of a toy, ant, child, or superhero.
You're comment is great and all, but the question wasn't about how to become a professional artist. It was about how to make an icon that doesn't suck when you are a programmer and not an artist.
I had iTunes installed long before I had an iPod. In fact, before the iPod was even announced. I had a Rio 500 and was using Cassidy & Greene's SoundJam when iTunes came out and I switched. For those who don't know, iTunes was based on the SoundJam source which Apple purchased from C&G.
Just by itself, iTunes is a nice program for managing MP3s. Once you have it installed, the iTMS beats the hell out of driving all over town to different record stores looking for something.
The stores you are talking about in VA/MD are still considered part of the DC "metro area". If you really lived in a rural area (like rural Oklahoma), those resources wouldn't be available at all.
Where I lived, it was multiple hours drive just to get to any store that sold shirts that weren't T-shirts or western shirts (an example). There was *no* store in town that sold electronics more complicated than a flashlight. My parents still live there. They do not have broadband internet available at all. Cable TV is not available. There is no cell phone coverage there. There is only 1 ISP that is not a long distance call which is over 50$ per month. It is owned by an indian tribe and is very unreliable. You can only view 2 TV stations via over the air broadcasting. There is no PBS station and no NPR station. So, if you're living there you'd better like right wing talk radio and country music because that is the only programming available except for religious programming.
You are completely wrong. I grew up in rural Oklahoma. The second I turned 18, I got the heck out of there. I now live in an urban area on the west coast. The people in my town were not "real, hard working honest people". They were mostly stupid idiots with no ambition and no imagination. And yes, they were all a bunch of bigoted idiots.
Having endured these people for many years, I have earned the right to mock them.
And yes, I am a liberal (especially on social issues) democrat who visits star bucks most every day, an atheist, have an advanced degree, earns a six figure salary as a senior software architect at a high tech company, and I drive a Saab. And I'm a Mac user (and a snob about OS X.)
Not to mention the fact that you get to drive a million fucking miles every time you need to go to the store. Plus, the stores in rural places don't carry anything, so you have to do all your shopping by catalog. Oh, and if you want that Ferrari there is no dealer to buy it from or get it serviced at. Hey, you'd be doing good to even find a place to get a volkwagen serviced in most rural areas.
And you get to have uneducated bumkins for neighbors who leave non-running cars on blocks in the front lawn.
Where can I sign up? (Not!)
Typically downtown areas are centrally located which means that if your main concern is to attract "talent" from across a metro region, you have a good chance to make it possible for everyone to get to you.
Second, I think there is a certain amount of cachet from being located downtown.
Third, there are lots of good places to eat lunch.
I used to work for a company in downtown Seattle that was pretty much like what you are describing. Management got the good window view of Elliot Bay and everyone else got cubes. Plus, I had to drive 30 minutes and then take a boat to work which took another 30 minutes. That said, I loved working downtown.