For some reason Slashdoters go into full geek-on mode when someone brings up Orson Scott Card. Hero-worship etc. In my opinion, this is not a man worthy of admiration or a public forum to spread his opinions.
It's really the slashdot editors' fault for bringing whatever the hell they're advertising to the attention of the wider audience that is slashdot. This pissed me off enough that I felt the need to remind people that the man is a nutjob.
The man is a fucking lunatic. His stuff isn't that good (sorta like Anne Rice, he wrote one good book and now he's intent on pushing out crap that follows the same formula), and more than that he's intolerant of homosexuality (I suppose that would put him in the majority on slashdot) and seems fairly intent on proselytizing the Church of Latter-Day Saints to everyone who reads, oh, anything he writes.
From the article referenced in my link:
"Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be
indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught
violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message
that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual
behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens
within that society."
- OSC
Look, if this dude hadn't written "Ender's Game", he'd be a nobody, a candidate for kook status. Because he did, he continues to get a voice in popular media. I find many of his personal opinions highly disturbing and the fact that he is continually presented as part of some mainstream community even moreso.
I feel your pain. All the lines in my apartment complex pass through a MUX that limits modem connections to 14.4. Multilink gives me 28.8 but I can't have more than two lines ($45 a month for the telco service + 40 a month for two accounts with my ISP and dedicated connectivity = more than 90% of slashdotters with home broadband are paying to be online).
Broadband people sure are whiney: "My connection is only twice as fast as 56k! I'm gonna call my lawyer!"
ATI's upper-end All-in-Wonder cards have a component/HDTV add-on you can purchase for like $30. AFAIK, there is no other video card that supports component output. Maybe one of the high-end cards from Hauppauge?
All my stereo components have a matte black or champagne finish. Not only that but they all mount in a 19" rack, especially the HTPC.
I like the shoebox formfactor but if MSI is serious about it as a home theater component, they could at least go with a similar color scheme. Or maybe just less orange.
I teach classes for a training company, so I can suggest classes that are successful for us:
1. CD Burning. We teach using Nero, since it comes with the drives we buy, but the major topics are the different kinds of CDs (audio vs. data, CD-R vs. CD-RW). We just added ripping and burning DVDs (using DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink). VERY few people actually understand the filesystem; a substantial portion of the class is explaining that, say, "My Shared Folder" lives under the Program Files Folder on the C: drive. In real life, I've found most home users just don't do very much with files. Maybe that's another class?
2. Internet Security. The "anti-Spam class". We demonstrate pop-up blocking, programs like adaware, manipulating the hosts file, antivirus software, anti-spam techniques. All this is predicated on reasonably advanced internet users.
3. Troubleshooting. Break a bunch of computers in a thematically appropriate and easily fixable way (sound issues, network problems whatever). Let folks pound their heads against the display for awhile. A decent tech can have a lot of fun with this.
4. Internet Searching. Hard as it is to believe, many people click the search button in IE, that takes them to MSN search, which may very well be the worst search site on the internet. Teach google, refining searches, choosing keywords etc.
5. Shopping Online. Goes over magically in oh, October or November. Teach safety habits, finding product reviews and lowest prices (simpler now that there's froogle, but show differences between say mysimon and dealtime).
6. Digital photography. Many, many people buy a camera and never change the settings from the defaults. Showing things like color and white balance controls, basic photography (when to use a flash, whatever), and how to make things look good when you print 'em out.
Those are things that get decent numbers of sign-ups every time we offer them. Maybe you can do something similar.
Thank you, Mr. AC. I'd mod this post up, had I points to give.
After the 2000 election, I couldn't give a great goddamn what happens. 500 elderly jews in Florida + nine supreme court justices are apparently all it takes to decide a national election.
I've seen over a dozen therapist/psychiatrists/clinical social workers in the last three years. In general, these people are ill-equipped to handle someone like me, and even worse, after the fourth or fifth time you've run down the same path, you're able to predict (and diffuse, if you like) what the mental health worker is going to say.
I am depressed. I have to take four little light blue pills every day because of it. I don't think they do anything either.
I feel I've made every accomodation I can to be functional. I haven't found relief anywhere, and short of commitment to an institution there isn't much else I can do for myself; that's neither here nor there.
Anyway... I know that for health reasons I should, but like lots of other people, I don't. My original point in this sub-thread was that "doing what you like" is something of a pat answer, and in my experience it doesn't work for everyone.
My fiance woke up one morning and decided she was gay. She "married" another girl, eight months later. I have no social life, no friends, nor any interests that would lead to either (literally, I can go three or four days without speaking to anyone). I work 90 hours+ a week (not much else to do), and my jobs are generally located in excess of 25 miles of my home.
I am severely allergic to grass, dust and about twenty different molds. Outside is not a pleasant place to be for me (I keep surgical masks by my front door, in my car etc, just in case).
And no, I'm not kidding about any of this. It's all rather specific to my situation in life, but as I said before, there are probably thousands of folks in a place similar to mine.
So what the hell do you do when there's absolutely nothing you like to do?
You're approaching the issue from the standpoint of someone who found something that resembles an acceptable way to spend time while working out.
To me, lifelong overweight guy, there is no "exercise I will do", that I know of. I've biked. I've walked. I've jogged. I've done freeweights and machines at gyms. I've done swimming and dancing and aerobics and every other goddamn thing someone could drag me to. To me, all exercise seems like punishment. I've never found a way to shake that attitude. You can imagine the success I've had with workout routines of any sort.
I know I'm an extreme example, but a lot of other overweight geeks are in the same boat.
Don't just say "Do the thing you will do." If there was a thing I would do, I'd be doing it and there wouldn't be an issue.
I have a Phaser 850DP at home. These are heavy-duty color office printers. I got mine through a Xerox small business program.
They take forever to warm up. They're REALLY loud. The crayons are really expensive. Fortunately, I don't have to pay for the black bars, the ones *I* use the most, only the color ones.
But quality is at a great place between crappy color laser and very nice inkjet output. And just like Inkjets, the better the paper I put in, the nicer the output is.
They do need to have a certain level of use before they're really economical. I'd guess several dozen sheets a day.
That's not a problem.
I've made glossy fliers describing my services. I've bulk-printed digital photos for proud grandparents. I've done other people's xmas cards, graduation invitations and business cards.
Turns out that the level of quality I get scratches a lot of itches that aren't reached by blotchy color laser or slow and expensive inkjets.
FWIW, I've met my repair guy twice, and yes, I do pay the service contract, once for paper feed problems related to duplexing (I wasn't paying attention to how he fixed it) and another time for a complete swap of the lower tray module.
I lurk on rec.arts.movies.erotica and in the process of basically copying everything (i.e. not just porn) at my local video store, I've become well acquainted enough with the owner to learn some interesting stuff about the distribution end. I find porn interesting in an academic sense, for some reason. Talking about it is fun.
There's a pretty cool/funny web diary about being a clerk in a video store that rents a lot of porn at www.tinyurl.com/ypc
Really? 'Cause I've only met a couple of people under 40 who take the attitude that porn is bad. My theory is that the widespread availability of that smut online has pushed things much closer to mainstream.
[rant] The Porn Industry, on the other hand, is rife with stories of degradation, addiction and human tragedy. When we hear about these things, to the extent that we hear about them (e.g. stories about Linda Lovelace or Traci Lords or maybe Savannah), we think, "Oh. Porn. She knew what she was getting into."
When we hear about some other entertainment industry jerk-off (Kurt Cobain, the guy from INXS, Herve Villachez, Drew Barrymore) with a vastly similar story, we think "Oh. The pain of paying dues, the pressures of celebrity, the power of addiction." Bullshit. The guys in your favorite band and the starlet you're hoping will get naked in her next feature are under a lot of the same pressures, with basically the same creeps and hangers-on standing around encouraging/indulging the behavior. [OK, I'm done now]
The most common issue I see is people who are afraid or embarassed to talk about it. The unfortunate consequence of this is that people don't stand up and talk back when the people who really DO complain about smut start making noises.
Just the same, porn is consistently mistreated in the marketplace. I'll give you that. This is in part the fault of the industry, just as is the case with RIAA. Typical "feature" porn titles (e.g. "Brianna Loves Jenna", "Carribean Undercover") are priced for purchase by video stores. These titles, when new, list for in excess of $30. Prices may fall, slowly (e.g. five to seven year old Vivid/Wave titles are pretty much all under $10 now, in places where new movies can be purchased). Given the mentality of both raincoaters and casual viewers this price point is fairly outrageous. Casual viewers may find a scene or a performer they like, but probably not enough to justify purchase. Raincoaters frequently use terms like "used up" to describe stuff they've seen. Either way, you've got a product that isn't worth the price, except to a video store, that'll make its purchase pay for itself a hundred times over.
These are the same market forces that drive people to MP3s and P2P networks.
What third-world country do you live in? Every video store I go to that rents porn, has a section of "previously viewed" stuff that's in the "under $7" category. High turnover is encouraged to make room for the new stuff, which keeps the regular renters and pirates (like myself) happy.
If pr0n is copyrighted, how come they don't put copy protection on the tapes/DVDs?:P
While I'm at it, given the distribution systems and marketing that exsit for porn in the USA (i.e. largely aimed at video stores or serious junkies), do you think they care if someone steals some rather than buying a tape for $5 at the local video store?
OK, that aside, bittorrent seems to work great for high-demand files. I've followed torrent links of/. for things like the halflife 2 trailer and been amazed at the speed and ease of transfer. Bittorrent, like everything else, is what you make of it. I wasn't particularly aware of torrent sites that offered porn or warez (too bad for me) and in fact, had someone asked me a week ago, I would've said that bittorrent was a P2P system specifically designed to scale to "slashdot-effect" type traffic, not a system for grabbing porn.
So, um, in the interests of science, where's bittorrent-porn?
Soak it up, pay the money, and get an IBM T-series notebook. They're both sturdy and reasonably light, and have the best mix of horsepower and battery life I've found, given their class. At one point I was responsible for several hundred of them, and they were much better, reliability-wise than Compaq and Toshiba models that were also inflicted on me.
Dell is OK if you don't have money, but frankly, there's nothing in their lineup that matches the "lightweight desktop replacement" that is the T-series, and the most compelling thing about their products to me is that there's quite a bit more parts interchange than is possible with most brands; that's hardly compelling for an individual (dell goes for higher-end graphics chips than the likes of IBM, too. For a business machine, I doubt that's a good thing).
The truth is, you'll never be able to match ALL the things that Apple is good at with one x86 machine. Most particularly, battery life on the iBooks I'm familiar with seems to be much better than even brand-new units from the land of the Pentium. I just know if I had to blow a huge wad of cash on a notebook PC, it'd be an IBM T-series. From my experience, I'd have to say they're worth the cash.
Off-topic, sorta, but...
I know a laptop repair guy who spits every time someone says "Toshiba". Ususually into a cup, sometimes a handkerchief. At first I thought he chewed tobacco but when I asked him about it, he told me it's a matter of principle. Oddly enough, I understood completely.
By the time electromigration becomes an issue, you probably don't need that chip any more, either. But just in case, my mom's Celeron 333@605MHz has been running more-or-less 24/7 since, oh, 1999. Overclocking nowadays usually isn't worth the time, but when a Tbred XP1700 manages 66% overclocks on its stock HSF, it's worth looking in to.
Slashdot Mirror
For some reason Slashdoters go into full geek-on mode when someone brings up Orson Scott Card. Hero-worship etc. In my opinion, this is not a man worthy of admiration or a public forum to spread his opinions.
It's really the slashdot editors' fault for bringing whatever the hell they're advertising to the attention of the wider audience that is slashdot. This pissed me off enough that I felt the need to remind people that the man is a nutjob.
The man is a fucking lunatic. His stuff isn't that good (sorta like Anne Rice, he wrote one good book and now he's intent on pushing out crap that follows the same formula), and more than that he's intolerant of homosexuality (I suppose that would put him in the majority on slashdot) and seems fairly intent on proselytizing the Church of Latter-Day Saints to everyone who reads, oh, anything he writes.
From the article referenced in my link:
"Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be
indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught
violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message
that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual
behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens
within that society."
- OSC
Look, if this dude hadn't written "Ender's Game", he'd be a nobody, a candidate for kook status. Because he did, he continues to get a voice in popular media. I find many of his personal opinions highly disturbing and the fact that he is continually presented as part of some mainstream community even moreso.
I feel your pain. All the lines in my apartment complex pass through a MUX that limits modem connections to 14.4. Multilink gives me 28.8 but I can't have more than two lines ($45 a month for the telco service + 40 a month for two accounts with my ISP and dedicated connectivity = more than 90% of slashdotters with home broadband are paying to be online).
Broadband people sure are whiney: "My connection is only twice as fast as 56k! I'm gonna call my lawyer!"
Or Windows Service packs, Linux ISOs, a decent newsfeed...
Mirriam-Webster are the same republican wankers who say that Nuke-u-ler is an acceptable pronunciation of nu-klee-ar.
If you're going to go looking up things in dictionaries, at least take the time to find an unabridged OED.
ATI's upper-end All-in-Wonder cards have a component/HDTV add-on you can purchase for like $30. AFAIK, there is no other video card that supports component output. Maybe one of the high-end cards from Hauppauge?
All my stereo components have a matte black or champagne finish. Not only that but they all mount in a 19" rack, especially the HTPC.
I like the shoebox formfactor but if MSI is serious about it as a home theater component, they could at least go with a similar color scheme. Or maybe just less orange.
I teach classes for a training company, so I can suggest classes that are successful for us:
1. CD Burning. We teach using Nero, since it comes with the drives we buy, but the major topics are the different kinds of CDs (audio vs. data, CD-R vs. CD-RW). We just added ripping and burning DVDs (using DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink). VERY few people actually understand the filesystem; a substantial portion of the class is explaining that, say, "My Shared Folder" lives under the Program Files Folder on the C: drive. In real life, I've found most home users just don't do very much with files. Maybe that's another class?
2. Internet Security. The "anti-Spam class". We demonstrate pop-up blocking, programs like adaware, manipulating the hosts file, antivirus software, anti-spam techniques. All this is predicated on reasonably advanced internet users.
3. Troubleshooting. Break a bunch of computers in a thematically appropriate and easily fixable way (sound issues, network problems whatever). Let folks pound their heads against the display for awhile. A decent tech can have a lot of fun with this.
4. Internet Searching. Hard as it is to believe, many people click the search button in IE, that takes them to MSN search, which may very well be the worst search site on the internet. Teach google, refining searches, choosing keywords etc.
5. Shopping Online. Goes over magically in oh, October or November. Teach safety habits, finding product reviews and lowest prices (simpler now that there's froogle, but show differences between say mysimon and dealtime).
6. Digital photography. Many, many people buy a camera and never change the settings from the defaults. Showing things like color and white balance controls, basic photography (when to use a flash, whatever), and how to make things look good when you print 'em out.
Those are things that get decent numbers of sign-ups every time we offer them. Maybe you can do something similar.
Isn't Call of Cthulhu still a Chaosium product?
Thank you, Mr. AC. I'd mod this post up, had I points to give.
After the 2000 election, I couldn't give a great goddamn what happens. 500 elderly jews in Florida + nine supreme court justices are apparently all it takes to decide a national election.
I've seen over a dozen therapist/psychiatrists/clinical social workers in the last three years. In general, these people are ill-equipped to handle someone like me, and even worse, after the fourth or fifth time you've run down the same path, you're able to predict (and diffuse, if you like) what the mental health worker is going to say.
I am depressed. I have to take four little light blue pills every day because of it. I don't think they do anything either.
I feel I've made every accomodation I can to be functional. I haven't found relief anywhere, and short of commitment to an institution there isn't much else I can do for myself; that's neither here nor there.
Anyway... I know that for health reasons I should, but like lots of other people, I don't. My original point in this sub-thread was that "doing what you like" is something of a pat answer, and in my experience it doesn't work for everyone.
My fiance woke up one morning and decided she was gay. She "married" another girl, eight months later. I have no social life, no friends, nor any interests that would lead to either (literally, I can go three or four days without speaking to anyone). I work 90 hours+ a week (not much else to do), and my jobs are generally located in excess of 25 miles of my home.
I am severely allergic to grass, dust and about twenty different molds. Outside is not a pleasant place to be for me (I keep surgical masks by my front door, in my car etc, just in case).
And no, I'm not kidding about any of this. It's all rather specific to my situation in life, but as I said before, there are probably thousands of folks in a place similar to mine.
So what the hell do you do when there's absolutely nothing you like to do?
You're approaching the issue from the standpoint of someone who found something that resembles an acceptable way to spend time while working out.
To me, lifelong overweight guy, there is no "exercise I will do", that I know of. I've biked. I've walked. I've jogged. I've done freeweights and machines at gyms. I've done swimming and dancing and aerobics and every other goddamn thing someone could drag me to. To me, all exercise seems like punishment. I've never found a way to shake that attitude. You can imagine the success I've had with workout routines of any sort.
I know I'm an extreme example, but a lot of other overweight geeks are in the same boat.
Don't just say "Do the thing you will do." If there was a thing I would do, I'd be doing it and there wouldn't be an issue.
I have a Phaser 850DP at home. These are heavy-duty color office printers. I got mine through a Xerox small business program.
They take forever to warm up. They're REALLY loud. The crayons are really expensive. Fortunately, I don't have to pay for the black bars, the ones *I* use the most, only the color ones.
But quality is at a great place between crappy color laser and very nice inkjet output. And just like Inkjets, the better the paper I put in, the nicer the output is.
They do need to have a certain level of use before they're really economical. I'd guess several dozen sheets a day.
That's not a problem.
I've made glossy fliers describing my services.
I've bulk-printed digital photos for proud grandparents. I've done other people's xmas cards, graduation invitations and business cards.
Turns out that the level of quality I get scratches a lot of itches that aren't reached by blotchy color laser or slow and expensive inkjets.
FWIW, I've met my repair guy twice, and yes, I do pay the service contract, once for paper feed problems related to duplexing (I wasn't paying attention to how he fixed it) and another time for a complete swap of the lower tray module.
I'd be extraordinarily happy to have 56k.
Yes, I live in the US, 1/2 hour outside Chicago, and no, I have absolutely no high-speed options.
Broadband is not universal. I don't care how long you've had it.
Never seen it. Don't have TV reception.
I lurk on rec.arts.movies.erotica and in the process of basically copying everything (i.e. not just porn) at my local video store, I've become well acquainted enough with the owner to learn some interesting stuff about the distribution end. I find porn interesting in an academic sense, for some reason. Talking about it is fun.
There's a pretty cool/funny web diary about being a clerk in a video store that rents a lot of porn at www.tinyurl.com/ypc
Really? 'Cause I've only met a couple of people under 40 who take the attitude that porn is bad. My theory is that the widespread availability of that smut online has pushed things much closer to mainstream.
[rant]
The Porn Industry, on the other hand, is rife with stories of degradation, addiction and human tragedy. When we hear about these things, to the extent that we hear about them (e.g. stories about Linda Lovelace or Traci Lords or maybe Savannah), we think, "Oh. Porn. She knew what she was getting into."
When we hear about some other entertainment industry jerk-off (Kurt Cobain, the guy from INXS, Herve Villachez, Drew Barrymore) with a vastly similar story, we think "Oh. The pain of paying dues, the pressures of celebrity, the power of addiction." Bullshit. The guys in your favorite band and the starlet you're hoping will get naked in her next feature are under a lot of the same pressures, with basically the same creeps and hangers-on standing around encouraging/indulging the behavior.
[OK, I'm done now]
The most common issue I see is people who are afraid or embarassed to talk about it. The unfortunate consequence of this is that people don't stand up and talk back when the people who really DO complain about smut start making noises.
For the humor impaired, you missed the ":P"
Just the same, porn is consistently mistreated in the marketplace. I'll give you that. This is in part the fault of the industry, just as is the case with RIAA. Typical "feature" porn titles (e.g. "Brianna Loves Jenna", "Carribean Undercover") are priced for purchase by video stores. These titles, when new, list for in excess of $30. Prices may fall, slowly (e.g. five to seven year old Vivid/Wave titles are pretty much all under $10 now, in places where new movies can be purchased). Given the mentality of both raincoaters and casual viewers this price point is fairly outrageous. Casual viewers may find a scene or a performer they like, but probably not enough to justify purchase. Raincoaters frequently use terms like "used up" to describe stuff they've seen. Either way, you've got a product that isn't worth the price, except to a video store, that'll make its purchase pay for itself a hundred times over.
These are the same market forces that drive people to MP3s and P2P networks.
What third-world country do you live in? Every video store I go to that rents porn, has a section of "previously viewed" stuff that's in the "under $7" category. High turnover is encouraged to make room for the new stuff, which keeps the regular renters and pirates (like myself) happy.
Also, ebay is incredibly good for cheap porn.
If pr0n is copyrighted, how come they don't put copy protection on the tapes/DVDs? :P
/. for things like the halflife 2 trailer and been amazed at the speed and ease of transfer. Bittorrent, like everything else, is what you make of it. I wasn't particularly aware of torrent sites that offered porn or warez (too bad for me) and in fact, had someone asked me a week ago, I would've said that bittorrent was a P2P system specifically designed to scale to "slashdot-effect" type traffic, not a system for grabbing porn.
While I'm at it, given the distribution systems and marketing that exsit for porn in the USA (i.e. largely aimed at video stores or serious junkies), do you think they care if someone steals some rather than buying a tape for $5 at the local video store?
OK, that aside, bittorrent seems to work great for high-demand files. I've followed torrent links of
So, um, in the interests of science, where's bittorrent-porn?
Speaking as a person on a 28.8kbps connection with well over 3TB of local storage, I could only *wish* that wasn't the case.
Soak it up, pay the money, and get an IBM T-series notebook. They're both sturdy and reasonably light, and have the best mix of horsepower and battery life I've found, given their class. At one point I was responsible for several hundred of them, and they were much better, reliability-wise than Compaq and Toshiba models that were also inflicted on me.
Dell is OK if you don't have money, but frankly, there's nothing in their lineup that matches the "lightweight desktop replacement" that is the T-series, and the most compelling thing about their products to me is that there's quite a bit more parts interchange than is possible with most brands; that's hardly compelling for an individual (dell goes for higher-end graphics chips than the likes of IBM, too. For a business machine, I doubt that's a good thing).
The truth is, you'll never be able to match ALL the things that Apple is good at with one x86 machine. Most particularly, battery life on the iBooks I'm familiar with seems to be much better than even brand-new units from the land of the Pentium. I just know if I had to blow a huge wad of cash on a notebook PC, it'd be an IBM T-series. From my experience, I'd have to say they're worth the cash.
Off-topic, sorta, but...
I know a laptop repair guy who spits every time someone says "Toshiba". Ususually into a cup, sometimes a handkerchief. At first I thought he chewed tobacco but when I asked him about it, he told me it's a matter of principle. Oddly enough, I understood completely.
I mean that there are an awful lot of germans that don't always remember whether "the Rooster" is masculine or feminine.
It's my observation that the majority of native german speakers mutter and slur their noun genders anyway.
By the time electromigration becomes an issue, you probably don't need that chip any more, either. But just in case, my mom's Celeron 333@605MHz has been running more-or-less 24/7 since, oh, 1999. Overclocking nowadays usually isn't worth the time, but when a Tbred XP1700 manages 66% overclocks on its stock HSF, it's worth looking in to.