Very insightful indeed. I think you might touch on the essence of what I think 'geektitude' is, which is the ability to eschew the values of the social norm in entirety, and instead embrace the personal interests and values.
I think that an interest in science fiction and fantasy is just that, a personal interest in a particular topic. This interest is more commonly represented in the geek world due to a geek's ability to subvert their desire to assimilate with popular culture, and instead recognize and pursue their own inherent interests and values.
The crossover of mainstream interest into the domain of geekiness is coincidental, at best, and really need not be analyzed.
Geek has never been, is not, and will never be mainstream.
Considering that the TSA won't allow me to carry a miniscule pocket knife keychain along with me while traversing my country for the purpose of visiting relatives, I'd agree that yes, it is a bit like banning knives because they could be dangerous.
Heck, I've even just discovered that *lighters* are dangerous weapons, either that, or the anti-smoking lobby couldn't pass up the Richard Reid angle on keeping evil smokers from lighting up between flights
But hey, we're just a bunch of hunter-gatherers functioning in a completely alien environment, trying to protect ourselves from the non-linear behavior that results. Our solutions often appear as non-linear as the problems they attempt to solve, which is fairly unsurprising.
No, every second bloody poster seems to have observed that.
Thanks for your insight, Sherlock.
Why forgive me, holmes! Perhaps one day I'll gain the insight allowing me to provide the world with and endless stream of negative proofs of otherwise blatently rhetorical quesions.
Until said insight is gained, however, I suppose I'll need to settle with openly sharing my thoughts with the world.
Am I the only one who has noticed that Lego barely sells a kit (in stores) that require any effort or concentration to complete?
When I was younger (here we go....), toy stores always had a great selection of the classic Technics kits. The large, complicated kits seemed to be the hottest items, because they were *challenging* and *interesting*.
Today, most of the sets I see are low-piece count, over-simplifed, plug-the-head-into-the-pelvic-chassis Bionicle garbage, which seems only to make the statement that kids today aren't interested in anything unless it's presented as a completely non-cerebral AARRRGGGHHH-type of monster package.
This really is a shame. I'll never stop appreciating the endless hours I spent creating machines of every type imaginable, and can't help but to think that my exposure to Lego helped to form a little bit of who I am today.
I don't know what a childhood of building Bionicles might do to kid, expect possibly make them wish their parents were cool enough to buy them a toy that doesn't require assembly, like the kid next door.
I can't help but to counter this. As IT professionals, our primary task is to assist our customers and/or users in getting value from IT within the context of their business processes.
What business processes in the small to medium-sized business range have you seen change so drastically in the past 5 years that Windows2000+ provides solution(s) whereas NT does not?
If you looked at the situation objectively(read, no new toys for your pleasure), you might find that the truth of the matter is that user needs have DECREASED over the past 5 years. Fat, desktop-based apps are being replaced left and right with thin clients (read web-browser).
Hell, most of my users can't form a complete and communicative sentence, never mind actually make use of thouasand's of dollars of hi-tech equipment.
And of course, if you can't keep and NT box running without trouble or security risks, you can't administer.
I grant that there are applications our there that do benefit from w2k+ (adsi, etc.), but the vast majority of businesses (by count, not size..) will never come close to needing them.
Sorry for venting, but I hear this statement far too often.
Exactly, and this should work just like the active noise-canceling technology available in aviation headsets, as well as quite a few consumer-level headphones.
Here's a doc which seems to have a little more than one might ever want to know about the technology:
I've never had the opportunity to try a pair, but if you ask me, they should work on a pair that's effective with human voices and sell them as spouse-coping mechanisms implemented in the form of in-ear hearing aids.
Good question. No flamebait here, but unfortunately, I think the differences between various *nix distributions makes this a difficult, if not impossible task, indeed.
I know, OK, yes, indeed, mmmhmm, Windows rots. But the consistency of a closed architecture does have something going for it in this arena, indeed.
Distribution is a 'Value-Subtracted Industry'
on
The Future of the CD
·
· Score: 1
A little off topic, but here goes:
Industry execs should realize, if they've not already, that they're merely pumping life into an already dead industry.
The need for third-party music distribution has clearly been supplanted by modern technology. With this being the case, any entity feeling that they have a viable market in the physical distribution of music media is chasing its tail; you're not needed anymore!
I would concede that back in the days of Elvis, the Beatles, et al, the music distribution industry did in fact play a viable, useful role. They sought, filtered, and disseminated information that we all wanted, and did so to rather successful degree
Today, however, this is no longer needed. A friend of a friend of a friend's friend can catch a show at any local establishment, pick up an artist-produced CD that same night, and have a copy of their favorite songs off to everyone they know by the next morning.
Do any of us think this really stands to hurt the only requirement for successful music distribution? (think artists) I sure don't think so.
The whole industry should take a close look at what their services really provide these days; nothing but feeding bland, over-popped garbage to gullible teenagers.
While that might be a satisfactory market for them, they should possibly start thinking like Philip Morris, and begin thinking about divesting into something we need. They have the resources, and would be wise in doing so ASAP.
I recently revived my love of model rocketry, building a couple of new rockets with my girlfriend.
Having recently relocated to an urban area from a sparsely populated suburban town, I relied on my girlfriend's suggestion of using a park located on the outskirts of town for our much-anticipated launching.
Launch date came, and we headed off to our planned site. Much to my surprise, the suggested park was located DIRECTLY at the base of our local international airport. This was made evident by the large, rumbling underbody of a 747 roaring off to faraway places only a couple of hundred feet above our heads.
Needless, to say, launch was scrubbed. The rockets work just fine as decorative objects, anyway.
Gosh, I don't know, but don't I see Google redisplaying site content of billions of pages day in and day out?
Sounds to me like the area's too grey to ascertain right and wrong (I may be, and probably am, ignorant).
However, these sites definately have every right to do whatever they wish in order to prevent such use, such as IP blocking, taking some creative evasive measures, OR... securing content they don't feel Joe Public should consume.
What would happen if say, General Motors suddenly decided that each and every time a GM vehicle shows up in media that it was an abuse of their intellectual property??
The QuickBase API evidently supports VB, Perl, and Java, so you have a platform independent option available.
While I can't definately state that this will help you, in my own experience, I've been able to get at/do everything I need to in QuickBooks using these products.
Seriously, TRUE voice recognition is only 99% accutate. It is bad enough trying to make corrections on a regular key board.. but on a PDA???? That would be rough!
Evidently, keyboards are only 98.775757575757575757575757575758% accurate:)
Flame away, but...
Isn't this quite indicative of the "me too!" attitude so often exhibited in the Open Source world, and the lack of focus, pragmatism and prioritization that goes along with it?
Seems to me that recipes are right up there with porn in terms of number of available resources.
Doesn't the internet itself qualify as the greatest [free] recipe book of all time?
Can you beat it?
A cell phone's signal is received by multiple antennas at distinct locations simultaneously, therefore, it's only a matter of using triangulation to determine a phone's location based upon signal strength.
Here's a sample of its applications, and if you do a quick search, you'll surely find more:
It's all about the feedback! Rotational sensors, particularly is stepped down via gearing, should provide a great amount of accuracy in determining positioning.
Also, by delineating the floor into a grid using high contrast tape (white tape on a black floor, for example), light sensors could be used as a method of providing error correction and realignment, much as (it appears) my HP DeskJet does.
Hmm. Must stop working, and go pull out the Legos.
Slashdot Mirror
Truth is stranger than fiction :)
Gillette unveils 5-bladed razor
Where?
thread. I'm gonna go check out Google News for the 50th time today. :)
Science is not about watching, it's about doing (and then watching).
Generally speaking.
Very insightful indeed. I think you might touch on the essence of what I think 'geektitude' is, which is the ability to eschew the values of the social norm in entirety, and instead embrace the personal interests and values.
I think that an interest in science fiction and fantasy is just that, a personal interest in a particular topic. This interest is more commonly represented in the geek world due to a geek's ability to subvert their desire to assimilate with popular culture, and instead recognize and pursue their own inherent interests and values.
The crossover of mainstream interest into the domain of geekiness is coincidental, at best, and really need not be analyzed.
Geek has never been, is not, and will never be mainstream.
What utterly unconsuming and vacuous drivel.
In this issue of Slasheteen:
Bah, what's the use.
I have better things to do, like maybe go wash the feet of some putz with an X. in his name or something along those lines.
Right on the money :)
Considering that the TSA won't allow me to carry a miniscule pocket knife keychain along with me while traversing my country for the purpose of visiting relatives, I'd agree that yes, it is a bit like banning knives because they could be dangerous.
Heck, I've even just discovered that *lighters* are dangerous weapons, either that, or the anti-smoking lobby couldn't pass up the Richard Reid angle on keeping evil smokers from lighting up between flights
But hey, we're just a bunch of hunter-gatherers functioning in a completely alien environment, trying to protect ourselves from the non-linear behavior that results. Our solutions often appear as non-linear as the problems they attempt to solve, which is fairly unsurprising.
Sigh, humanity.
Why forgive me, holmes! Perhaps one day I'll gain the insight allowing me to provide the world with and endless stream of negative proofs of otherwise blatently rhetorical quesions.
Until said insight is gained, however, I suppose I'll need to settle with openly sharing my thoughts with the world.
Woe is me!
Am I the only one who has noticed that Lego barely sells a kit (in stores) that require any effort or concentration to complete?
When I was younger (here we go....), toy stores always had a great selection of the classic Technics kits. The large, complicated kits seemed to be the hottest items, because they were *challenging* and *interesting*.
Today, most of the sets I see are low-piece count, over-simplifed, plug-the-head-into-the-pelvic-chassis Bionicle garbage, which seems only to make the statement that kids today aren't interested in anything unless it's presented as a completely non-cerebral AARRRGGGHHH-type of monster package.
This really is a shame. I'll never stop appreciating the endless hours I spent creating machines of every type imaginable, and can't help but to think that my exposure to Lego helped to form a little bit of who I am today.
I don't know what a childhood of building Bionicles might do to kid, expect possibly make them wish their parents were cool enough to buy them a toy that doesn't require assembly, like the kid next door.
And that's a sad thing
I can't help but to counter this. As IT professionals, our primary task is to assist our customers and/or users in getting value from IT within the context of their business processes.
What business processes in the small to medium-sized business range have you seen change so drastically in the past 5 years that Windows2000+ provides solution(s) whereas NT does not?
If you looked at the situation objectively(read, no new toys for your pleasure), you might find that the truth of the matter is that user needs have DECREASED over the past 5 years. Fat, desktop-based apps are being replaced left and right with thin clients (read web-browser).
Hell, most of my users can't form a complete and communicative sentence, never mind actually make use of thouasand's of dollars of hi-tech equipment.
And of course, if you can't keep and NT box running without trouble or security risks, you can't administer.
I grant that there are applications our there that do benefit from w2k+ (adsi, etc.), but the vast majority of businesses (by count, not size..) will never come close to needing them.
Sorry for venting, but I hear this statement far too often.
Exactly, and this should work just like the active noise-canceling technology available in aviation headsets, as well as quite a few consumer-level headphones.
Here's a doc which seems to have a little more than one might ever want to know about the technology:
http://www.actel.com/documents/s06_07.pdf
I've never had the opportunity to try a pair, but if you ask me, they should work on a pair that's effective with human voices and sell them as spouse-coping mechanisms implemented in the form of in-ear hearing aids.
They sell like friggen' hotcakes!
Marilyn.... Manson.....?
You ever notice that with the exception of hardware, most people only use Microsoft products as they are forced to?
Sounds like somebody has an XBox...
Good question. No flamebait here, but unfortunately, I think the differences between various *nix distributions makes this a difficult, if not impossible task, indeed.
I know, OK, yes, indeed, mmmhmm, Windows rots. But the consistency of a closed architecture does have something going for it in this arena, indeed.
A little off topic, but here goes:
Industry execs should realize, if they've not already, that they're merely pumping life into an already dead industry.
The need for third-party music distribution has clearly been supplanted by modern technology. With this being the case, any entity feeling that they have a viable market in the physical distribution of music media is chasing its tail; you're not needed anymore!
I would concede that back in the days of Elvis, the Beatles, et al, the music distribution industry did in fact play a viable, useful role. They sought, filtered, and disseminated information that we all wanted, and did so to rather successful degree
Today, however, this is no longer needed. A friend of a friend of a friend's friend can catch a show at any local establishment, pick up an artist-produced CD that same night, and have a copy of their favorite songs off to everyone they know by the next morning.
Do any of us think this really stands to hurt the only requirement for successful music distribution? (think artists) I sure don't think so.
The whole industry should take a close look at what their services really provide these days; nothing but feeding bland, over-popped garbage to gullible teenagers.
While that might be a satisfactory market for them, they should possibly start thinking like Philip Morris, and begin thinking about divesting into something we need. They have the resources, and would be wise in doing so ASAP.
Just my two cents...
I recently revived my love of model rocketry, building a couple of new rockets with my girlfriend.
Having recently relocated to an urban area from a sparsely populated suburban town, I relied on my girlfriend's suggestion of using a park located on the outskirts of town for our much-anticipated launching.
Launch date came, and we headed off to our planned site. Much to my surprise, the suggested park was located DIRECTLY at the base of our local international airport. This was made evident by the large, rumbling underbody of a 747 roaring off to faraway places only a couple of hundred feet above our heads.
Needless, to say, launch was scrubbed. The rockets work just fine as decorative objects, anyway.
Gosh, I don't know, but don't I see Google redisplaying site content of billions of pages day in and day out?
Sounds to me like the area's too grey to ascertain right and wrong (I may be, and probably am, ignorant).
However, these sites definately have every right to do whatever they wish in order to prevent such use, such as IP blocking, taking some creative evasive measures, OR... securing content they don't feel Joe Public should consume.
What would happen if say, General Motors suddenly decided that each and every time a GM vehicle shows up in media that it was an abuse of their intellectual property??
Ptttth!
Intuity's Developer Network let's you download both the QuickBooks SDK, as well as their QuickBase API. Here it is:
http://developer.intuit.com/
The QuickBase API evidently supports VB, Perl, and Java, so you have a platform independent option available.
While I can't definately state that this will help you, in my own experience, I've been able to get at/do everything I need to in QuickBooks using these products.
Good luck!
Not a bad idea! Surround hulls with a multi-chamber, rapidly deployable, self-inflating 'life-ring'.
Sitting at my keyboard, I can't see why this wouldn't be feasible or cost-effective :)
Fishing boats? Pleasure yachts?
Flame away, but... Isn't this quite indicative of the "me too!" attitude so often exhibited in the Open Source world, and the lack of focus, pragmatism and prioritization that goes along with it? Seems to me that recipes are right up there with porn in terms of number of available resources. Doesn't the internet itself qualify as the greatest [free] recipe book of all time? Can you beat it?
No, I believe he meant 'is'.
One would not want to infringe upon Him by using derivitives, now would they?
Who needs to worry about GPS enabled phones?
A cell phone's signal is received by multiple antennas at distinct locations simultaneously, therefore, it's only a matter of using triangulation to determine a phone's location based upon signal strength.
Here's a sample of its applications, and if you do a quick search, you'll surely find more:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/3223847.See my other posting regarding E-Bay, or just do a search for 'Mindstorms' or 'Technic'.
It's all about the feedback! Rotational sensors, particularly is stepped down via gearing, should provide a great amount of accuracy in determining positioning. Also, by delineating the floor into a grid using high contrast tape (white tape on a black floor, for example), light sensors could be used as a method of providing error correction and realignment, much as (it appears) my HP DeskJet does. Hmm. Must stop working, and go pull out the Legos.