Once a year for a week I just force myself to unplug. I yank the network cards and modems out of my machines, unplug the controllers on my game systems, take my tv remote, monitor power cord, PDA and cel phone - put it all in a box and drop it off at a friend's house.
No radio, no news, no newspapers, no magazines, no tv, no nothing. I allow myself books, but only stuff that I've been planning to read for at least a year and putting off. The first few days are a little stressing, I start to get jittery and keep panicking that I'm missing something important. But by the end of the week I've got more perspective on life, more perspective on all those little electronic leashes that I impose on myself and generally a much much much lower tolerance for most of the info-garbage that I regularly consume.
Someone who's unironically posting a message seeking help on ways to more efficiently consume more media than he already does has to step back and think about that for a second. I don't mean to sound judgemental at all - really - but damn man, if your problem is that you can't figure out how to cram a little more media into your life then you need to step back for a minute and really give your life a good hard ponder.
I don't mean to sound all hippy zen on you, but when was the last time you felt grass on your bare feet? Best of luck, but no one ever said on their death bed, "If only I had listened to more talk radio..."
Excellent suggestion and I wish I'd included it in my post because I've done the same thing. As and added note though, there is a cat toy that is the busy geek's nirvana. In execution it is extremely simple - it is a piece of straight spring wire with little pieces of wood or cardboard at the ends. You hold one end and the other end bounces and waves very much the way an a flying insect will.
What makes this toy great is that in addition to cats loving it and going ballistic when they see it - is that you don't actually have to always actively wield it. I'll hold it absently in one hand when I'm reading or watching tv - letting it hang off the side of the couch, and the cats will do frantic run-bys every five minutes swatting it like crazy.
Bought mine for $5-7 Canadian and I've seen them in every pet store I've been in lately. It doesn't look like it would be hard to make one either.
Double sided tape is definitely a solution. I have some friends who had a cat that was in the bad habit of knocking stuff off of shelves. They had a couple of things they didn't want to have to put away, but at the same time couldn't risk the cat destroying. Double sided tape worked perfectly and the cat eventually learned to stay away.
However, other posters who have pointed out that your cat is bored and or otherwise upset are on the mark. Get some cat toys, including some catnip toys. Consider getting another cat, opposite gender and read pet advice sites for how to introduce a kitten to your adult cat.
One thing though - don't try to punish the cat. The cat is doing this because it's unhappy, bored, frustrated etc. If you punish it, you just add something for the cat to be upset about. Oh, and I personally had great luck with my bored indoor cats by installing a bird feeder outside and keeping it stocked. It was like the cat version of television - they sit there for hours watching the birds.
I never thought I would hear myself say this but there are other things to consider with a girl than freaky sex and willingness to give blow jobs. The girl was a doormat and although she was right pretty to look at she had the personality of a lamp post. She new that all she really had to offer was sex, and at the time I was perfectly happy to settle for that. But when you're actually embarrassed to be around her in public because your friend's nickname for her is "Bag of Hammers" (as in "Dumb as a...") it's time to find a new girl.
Current girl is amazing to talk to, be around, I've got rapport, a partner in crime and generally someone I respect and look forward to seeing clothed as well as naked. And like I said, she hasn't said "No" to BABJ Day, she's just luke warm to the idea.
I got an ex a nice lacy number two years ago. She liked it so much she informed me that since we celebrated Valentines for her, we'd celebrate "Beer and a Blow Job Day" on March 14th. Best holiday ever. Current gf doesn't think it's such a hot idea, but I told her I felt the same way about Valentines day so I've got a month to convince her.
Btw, you celebrate BABJ Day by her getting you a cold beer first thing in the morning, giving you a blow job while you drink it and then her letting you do whatever you want for the day. She's supposed to serve you steak for dinner and top the day off with another beer and a blow job. There are days when I miss my ex.
The company I work for, one of the big 4 accounting firms has a computer forensics group as part of their IT practice. They also work extensively with the forensic accounting teams. Most of the people on the computer forensics teams had related skills and then came in and learned most of what they know on the job.
Depending on what kind of work you're looking to eventually get into, consider trying to get a job at an outfit that already does computer forensics.
A couple of times during this whole SCO imbroglio I've heard people quite authoritatively say that even if you've got no case, shit for evidence etc you've still got a 1 in 10 (or 1 in 20) chance of coming away a winner in court.
First off... does anyone know where this stat comes from? Second... and perhaps more relevant to this article - Is that just an effect of a somewhat broken legal system in the US or is that a global stat? Do they have the same odds in Aus? Up here in Canada? Europe? Just curious really.
One silver lining to this who SCO thing is that I've been able to use the word "imbroglio" at least a couple of times a month. Thanks Daryl!
I mean seriously, you clean up a Max Paine like play style, throw it onto a good engine and it pretty much writes itself. Do it right and you'd have a pretty damn good game. And for multiplayer, there are dozens of stock Marvel characters that pretty much just run around toting firepower of some form or another. Give each one a different set of bonuses / abilities and throw people into the fray.
Also, if I were the Marvel guys, I'd be on the phone right now talking to the guys who did Prince of Persia, begging them to use the same game mechanics and whatsits for a Daredevil or Spiderman game. (Or better, any of those uber-vixens that Spiderman and/or Daredevil seem to hook up with. Electra, Silver Sable, Black Cat etc.) Prince of Persia was brilliant on pretty much every level, but you apply that kind of fluidity of movement, acrobatics, excellent fighting and it's almost already a Spiderman or Daredevil game.
Another good video game concept is the Secret Wars. I didn't read the series - during the 80's I was a DC fan: Firestorm, Big Blue, Batman, the Justice League, Green Lantern, the Flash... Marvel didn't just didn't connect with me as much back then - and to be completely honest the whole idea sounded a little on the contrived side. But for a video game it has potential. Pick from a stock list of heroes; go up against villians on a battleground of some advanced alien world. Lots of potential for an interesting combined strategy / action game. Maybe hard to pull off - but if it was done right it could be a really great game.
As for DC, why they haven't done something with Deathstroke the Terminator is completely beyond me. Cool, underused character who lends perfectly to a video game concept.
My original Commodor 64 Monitor is still in great shape and runs in a bank of monitors my buddy has in his basement. They've got four working Commodore 64 monitors and a 27 inch tv with several game systems all hooked up. People will crowd in, bring over their XBoxes (XBoxen?) or Gamecubes and have ourselves a good old fashioned geek out. That same Commodore 64 monitor served as my tv in my residence room in University, was the screen I watched my first porno movie on in grade school and most important - was the screen that ran all those amazing Commodore 64 games. Space Taxi, Jump Man and Ghostbusters are still some of my all time favourites. The thing is coming up on 20 years old and still works like a charm.
Also, if you're in Canada - check out the occasional government surplus auctions. They're always selling these amazing old monitors for practically nothing. A couple of years back I picked up this behemoth 23 inch monitor that must have been a decade old. Still worked and was great for gaming. $45 bucks. When the brightness started to go, I managed to find a 21" Dell branded Trinitron knock off (or some kind of flatscreen) for $100.
Also, a buddy of mine ripped the monitor out of an old broken Mac Classic - one of those little black and white 9 inch monitors and incorporated it into some art project he did. It and 7 other monitors ripped free of their housings are arranged in some weird gothic metal looking statue thing. It's outfitted with cheap motion sensors and low quality video cameras and will display all kinds of weirdness based on what's going on around it.
None that I've done come to mind - I tend to make lots of little stupid mistakes rather than occasional huge cock-ups. But I had a client that had a CIO who was actively hostile to the idea of any kind of computer security what-so-ever. Waste of time and money for a made up threat he said.
They were running 13 servers at remote locations (and I mean remote, as in out in the boonies 4 hours from nowhere on back roads) and these servers were unpatched, had out of date or innactive anti-virus and were connected to the net via a combination of satellite and dedicated (always on) dialup. Their communications were secured with nothing more than Windows 2000's built in VPN.
Needless to say, my audit report told them that they had big beefy powerful angels on their side since they hadn't yet had a noticable intrusion. (They had no way of detecting one, but at least the servers weren't hosting porn sites.) I warned them that a virus or worm would come along though and knock the whole thing out. The CIO scoffed at my report, called me an alarmist and said that my opinions were right up there with the Y2K doomsayers.
When Slammer hit, I had described the vulnerabilities and outcome so accurately that this guy actually accused me of writing it myself. Took the whole corporate network down and they couldn't bring it back up until their techs visited each site. It took two teams seven days to get to all the sites. The company lost 6 business days, three customers and a months worth of transaction records.
Needless to say the CIO was demoted (they didn't fire him, which I consider itself a major tech mistake) and had me re-issue my audit report which they then followed to the letter taking every precaution I suggested.
Wait, now its all well and good if machines are better at some things than humans, but if they really did make a machine that was better at everything humans do, I'm not really so sure you'll have the luxury of going on with your day so cavalierly--exactly what are you planning to do all day to earn your bread if machines can do anything you can do more cheaply?
That is sooooo far away from being a concern to me that I'm not going to worry about it. I think I'll put that on my list of things to worry about somewhere after colliding with antimater or being attacked by a clown.
Seriously, though, eventually people may have to contend with this issue - but it's so far from reality now as to be trivial. Makes good science fiction, but that's it.
Now, if you want to discuss eventualities, possibilities and all that... well, maybe we'll be like house pets, live stock or just quaint invalids doing jobs too menial for the machines - but the whole thing is really up to us.
Not my point originally, but I forgot which author said it.
People used to foot-race early automobiles. People used to compare the productivity of a loom weaver to a steam powered automated loom. No one races cars any more but no one really questions if cars are superior to people. They are superior vehicles sure - because that's what they're designed to do.
A computer designed to play chess will eventually be able to beat any human player - but questions of superiority are superfluous. I'm not worried that Kasparov can beat me at chess because I'm not a chess player. He might be a superior chess player - hell, he's probably a superior person in many ways - so what? Does he win a cookie for that? Do I have to wear a scarlet letter? Is his superior chess ability mitigated because I could probably take him at one on one basketball? No.
The whole concept is basically stupid. Even when we build a true AI, put it in an andriod body and teach it to do everything better than we can do it - so what? If we managed to build Data from Star Trek - does that diminish us? If human ingenuity eventually allows us to build a superior human - that doesn't change anything really. Some people will feel the need to compete with it, some will ask if it has a soul and the rest of us will go on with our day.
The parent article talks about comparing man and machine - which is superior - the whole concept is superfluous. We don't compare man and tree or man and weather even though both can do things we can but better. Machines will always beat man in the end at something because otherwise why build them? If walking were in every way more efficient than taking a car, we wouldn't have cars. We build them to improve our ability to move. If the best chess-playing computer we could build would constantly get caught in the three move checkmate - there would be no freaking point. It is precisely because the machine will in some way, or even many ways, better that it exists.
Normally, I don't post angry on/. but some of the posts in this thread are pissing me off. People who post trash like "Damn Quebecers!" and trash all Quebecois for a stupid law are either assholes, trolls or just stupid.
There are some incredibly stupid laws on the books in the US lately but it doesn't occur to anyone to blame the guy on the street./.ers should know that the DMCA, the Patriot Act etc does not necessarily reflect them or their opinion personally. Most Quebecois could care less about the language laws. Francophones usually just boycott products that are not geared to them or make due if there's no alternative; Anglos living in Quebec are used to the French packaging.
This is analogous to warning labels on games in the US. If some state passed a law saying that games rated T or higher were illegal - sure some/.ers would chime in saying people in that state were inbred arrogant moron loser hicks (regardless of what state it was) - and those/. would be either assholes, trolls or just stupid.
Lay off the Quebecois, or at least go there and get to know a few before you start mouthing off about them being arrogant, stupid or whatever.
Damn damn damn. You're right of course and as an older brother to three wonderful sisters I shouldn't let myself forget that sort of thing. I checked out the link you pointed out and it was a little strange to see.
I'm lucky as a guy and as someone who's always been oblivious to that sort of thing that I've never had to deal with panic attacks about my looks but you're right - media culture has taught us to expect nothing short of goddesses. I'll even confess that I've been a party to it - I was seeing a girl and I had to remind myself that she was beautiful every time I found myself noticing one of her physical flaws. People don't see the feet of clay for some of these media goddesses - I can't imagine what that does to an average girl's psyche. That said - I'll never have ripped abs again - that boat sailed in my late 20's - and I need to accept that...
Now I'm not so sure what I think of this whole thing... damn.
I think I'm going to donate a subscription to Ad Busters to some local high school or something to balance out my karma (I'm not being sarcastic here).
I know it sounds weird and there's already lots of comments about pimply-faced geeks who can't get dates with real women - but I think this is a good idea. It lets visual artists showcase their work, it draws mainstream recognition to video games, animated movies and related media and its harmless fun.
The show is going to be mostly a larf, there'll be some genuinely good art mixed in with some quadruple D-cupped Valkyrie farces and Jessica Rabbit-esque wannabes but all in all the really good art is the stuff that'll win. And as for the pimply faced geek who can't get a girl - what's wrong with a little harmless fantasy here and there? I had a girlfriend who was willing to dress up as Wonder Woman for me (hot damn, one of the best nights of my life) and would have done Supergirl if other factors had not intervened (I'll still get a girl to do that one day). Fantasies are harmless unless they start defining or overwhelming your sexuality.
If they televise this show, I'll watch it, if they don't, I'll download it - I'll have a few laughs, look at some beautiful artificial women and then wistfully wish for a holodeck. No harm done.
Oh, and I wouldn't mind seeing a slightly spruced up Kate Archer - rowr!
Just typical really. At the end of the day when we're analysing this - when SCO is loooooong gone and Linux is still alive and kicking - although probably hurt by this - we're not going to have to wonder who benefited from all this. The SCO execs are going to be chuckling into their martinis, the people who bought SCO stock and were smart enough to sell it high are going to feel smug and the lawyers are going to walk away rich.
The Linux community is hurt by this, the shareholders who hold on too long are hurt by this, the employees at SCO are hurt by this, Linux customers (and possibly IBM customers are hurt by this) and the people who are slinging the FUD get to walk away with guaranteed millions.
Is it legal to sue lawyers I wonder? Show that they had a vested material interest in damaging businesses by dragging this out as long as possible? Show that they used deliberately deceitful tactics and were complicit in outright lies, obfuscations and unfair practices and maybe tack on a suit for encouraging their customers to pursue illegal activities (violating the GPL and anything else SCO has done that turns out to be against the law).
Basically, is there a way to mire these guys in court for the rest of their lives to that their guaranteed millions dry up? IBM's got billions to throw at this... is there a business case to be made for making an example of the lawyers themselves? Maybe discourage other unethical lawyers from taking up similar cases and causes? Anyway, just my morning rant. Going to go get more coffee and I'm sure the day will be all smiles and sunshine afterwards.
True. As much as I'd like to think that the main article is right - the Popular Science article has me convinced. One thing that I've learned is that experts who say that it can't be done or that 'they' couldn't do it tend to be underestimating people. All it takes is one well educated engineer who feels he's got a valid grudge and well... zap I guess.
As for the whole argument about peace - you're right in a general sense. But the hope for peace - using your example, the Middle East - isn't giving the other side what they want since that's not going to happen. Its finding a middle ground that most of the people on both sides can live with. Even the most rabid Jihadist knows that the Israelis are not going to leave. Start convincing most of his friends of an alternative that they can live with and you demote him from freedom fighter to terrorist to common criminal. Real Peace will come when people start to have hope.
I used to have some pretty solid opinions about the whole peace protest, the Palestinians and the Infatada in general. Then I read this and saw these pictures. Rachel Corrie is a name that everyone should know - her death would have been enormous news if it had happened on any other day. As it was an Israeli bulldozer killed her on the first day of the Iraq invasion. I won't be so cliched as to say that it opened my eyes - but it made me realize that without hope there will never be peace. The Palestinians have no hope, no hope of a better life, no hope of a future - nothing. Give them a little hope and the idea of blowing themselves up just to hurt other people might seem less insane. Anyway, good thread.
Peace is all well and good until the people you are trying to make it with ask for something you aren't willing to give up.
Not going to disagree with you there except to say that making peace has never involved giving the other side everything they want or giving into their all of their demands (or even most). Peace has been reached at impasses before and even in the dire straights that America is in now - peace is possible. Not going to pretend I have a solution except to say that history has shown that higher principles tend to win out in the long run over gut reactions.
As for the other thing about reading the article that was me being unclear. I was referring to the article I linked to in my original post. I'm IANA Engineer but my brother is(doing his masters in Medical Imaging Research which involves lots of high energy whatsits and who-haws) and he's the one who pointed me to that article when I pointed out the original one. In that article it does talk about the relative simplicity of making a home-brew EMP.
Its not the same type of bomb as in the parent article you refer to, but an EMP is an EMP and what kind of bomb made it is sort of periferal.
As for the last thing you said
That's a political debate, not a technical one. It's also a little naive as there are other bullies on the playground (whether or not you think we are one of them) that will push us around regardless of what we happen to be doing.
I've got to pretty much heave a sad sigh and agree. But... (there's always a 'but' isn't there) I just feel that being the biggest or baddest bully isn't the answer. You're right though, a political debate - I mostly wanted to point out the link to the article I was mentioning.
Umm with that in mind what would our defense to this be? Would we start retaliating in kind on our foes shores? What if they don't have shores (terrorists)?
The problem is - I don't know what the defense is, and there may well not be one. Retaliating in kind will never hurt 'them' as much as they've hurt you. Either we figure out a way to make peace or - eventually - reap the whirlwind. Not that its easy, not that we're dealing with sane, centred, reasonable people - but the things worth doing are rarely the simple or easy ones.
I guess the only saving grace here is that terrorists probably won't be able to get their hands on an advanced enough device that could take out city-blocks and still be man-portable. We can only hope anyway. Nation-states would probably be deterred from doing it by the theory of mutually assured destruction, which we'd be all the more likely to carry out, since we wouldn't actually be killing people (assuming we responded in kind with EMP attacks).
Sorry again. Read the link. Cost of building a smallish EMP is around 400 and not that technically challenging.
The simple truth about security is that it is almost impossible to prevent an attack from enemies that are more interested in hurting you than living. Eventually, someone will get through. The world is too dangerous to go around playing bully boy and the other kids on the play ground will keep teaching us the lesson until they think we've got it.
Unfortunately most military equipment isn't shielded. The problem is that the shielding is expensive. And if you have n shielding that will protect you against a devise of n output, it is easier for the attackers to build an n+1 device than it is for you to upgrade all your shielding.
As a side note, this puts a different spin on the whole concept of the suicide attack. I don't care how many people you've got in your cause or how committed they are, it would be much easier to find people who would set these off than to find people who are willing to strap explosives to their chests. At least it seems that way to me.
If people start building these and then EMPing city blocks in say, Manhattan, the effects would be devastating but at the same time the psychological resolve required to do it seems to be me to be less. Its still an attack at your enemy but you're not actually killing anyone (or yourself). If articles like this are at all accurate - how long do you think it'll be before people start popping these suckers off?
Oh well, the stone age wasn't all bad... lots of time outside, fresh air and excersize, cave-babes in fur bikinis... I'd better practice up on my stone tool making.
Its true. We had a federal election here pretty close to when that whole Florida thing was going on down in the US. The whole thing went smooth as silk. Paper and pencil voting and stuffing the vote into a normal cardboard box. Pretty much anyone can send an observer down and everything is over in a matter of hours.
Adding complexity to a complex system rarely if ever creates reliability. I'm pretty sure that the voting system here will stay the way it is until someone can unambiguously show that their new voting system is simpler and more reliable. Mind you, the stakes are lower in Canada too. In ol' Jean's term of office he's had to personally wrestle a protester to the ground, personally defend his home from an intruder and when I saw him at a speaking engagement I was able to walk right up and say hi.
What continues to amaze me is how little most people actually care about the state of the elections in the US. There's a lively debate going on here and a few other sites, but most Americans could care less. I think the real issue is how to wake people up - a little outrage would do America a world of good right now. (Not that we Canucks should talk, if you want complacency, come up here and we'll teach you a thing or two.)
Where is Jumpman? Ghostbusters, Raid Over Moscow, Space Taxi? For re-playability these are some of the all time classics.
The problem with list like this is that they'll only include the games that that the person who made the list played. If he'd never heard of Ghostbusters then he'd never know it was an essential game in any gamer's cannon. More to the point, serious people know artistry in games and if they missed an "all time great" they still know games.
I'm all for game developers (or hardcore gamers) going out and trying to play as many games including classic games as possible - but any pretence to a game list being more than a "personal favourites" list is pure wankery. I've played probably more than half the games on either list, and would consider another 20 "essential" games but would I ever accept their list (or mine) as official? Hell no. (Official list of a self-aggrandizing wannabe, maybe.)
Literary cannons are based on hundreds of years of scholarship, debate from hundreds (probably thousands) of scholars, symposiums and more. If people want to seriously start studying games as literature in school then they can start aspiring to the pretences of literature. What makes games great is that they're ours, they're a product of our times and they're a form of pop culture (literally popular culture). If you want to start categorizing, canonizing and otherwise "scholar-izing" them - well go right ahead actually I don't care what people do. Just don't expect anyone to care.
I heard that they did. Some nonsense about the Japanese changing the "C" to a "K" after they took over before WWII so that Japan preceeded Korea in the alphabet. So during peace talks, N. and S. Korean diplomats threw it on the table as something that really wouldn't be a contentious issue. Everyone agreed and now they're pushing the English speaking world to spell it Corea again.
I heard about it when someone made a crack about "Chapan" saying to go ahead and change the name back, China sitting up to take notice.
This was one of the most purebred geeky things I ever did, but we've been role playing lately (V:tM and Warhammer Fantasy) and were short a player or two. A friend of ours in Korea (or is it actually Corea now?) heard about our dillemna and begged us to let him join the session over Skype.
We already had broadband on both ends, so we decided to try it out. (Normally I'm resistant to combine my geekdom tendencies - mixing computers and role playing was dodgy.)
Anyway, we tried it and the biggest problem we had was occasional snap-crackle-pop from cheap microphones. It worked, worked well and the quality was WAY better than phone. With a laptop and a high speed connection it was almost as good as the conference call rigs at work. Next weekend we're going to hook our webcams up to the whole thing and see how well that works. As sadly geeky as this is, I lamented the break up of a good role playing group when we all moved but might manage to overcome geography with technology.
As an add on, our friend's voice sounded beautifully rich over the speakers and sub-woofer. Adds a real element to roleplaying if one of the players is able to speak with the voice of god!
All in all, I was pretty impressed with Skype recommend people who already have broadband on both ends to try it.
Skype - Actually not bad. They've got a nice "NO SPYWARE" logo on their download screen which actually set off alarm bells initially. But we started using it a couple of days ago to teleconference with a friend in Korea (or is that Corea now?) and I haven't noticed any new spyware on my system (and I went looking).
Ad Aware doesn't seem to find anything either. Don't count on that being there forever, but my suspicion is that they won't bother with the spyware while the product is still in Beta. They need nerds like us to test the stuff and the last thing they need is SkypeLite coming out while Skype is still a Beta product.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously. You need some perspective.
Once a year for a week I just force myself to unplug. I yank the network cards and modems out of my machines, unplug the controllers on my game systems, take my tv remote, monitor power cord, PDA and cel phone - put it all in a box and drop it off at a friend's house.
No radio, no news, no newspapers, no magazines, no tv, no nothing. I allow myself books, but only stuff that I've been planning to read for at least a year and putting off. The first few days are a little stressing, I start to get jittery and keep panicking that I'm missing something important. But by the end of the week I've got more perspective on life, more perspective on all those little electronic leashes that I impose on myself and generally a much much much lower tolerance for most of the info-garbage that I regularly consume.
Someone who's unironically posting a message seeking help on ways to more efficiently consume more media than he already does has to step back and think about that for a second. I don't mean to sound judgemental at all - really - but damn man, if your problem is that you can't figure out how to cram a little more media into your life then you need to step back for a minute and really give your life a good hard ponder.
I don't mean to sound all hippy zen on you, but when was the last time you felt grass on your bare feet? Best of luck, but no one ever said on their death bed, "If only I had listened to more talk radio..."
Excellent suggestion and I wish I'd included it in my post because I've done the same thing. As and added note though, there is a cat toy that is the busy geek's nirvana. In execution it is extremely simple - it is a piece of straight spring wire with little pieces of wood or cardboard at the ends. You hold one end and the other end bounces and waves very much the way an a flying insect will.
What makes this toy great is that in addition to cats loving it and going ballistic when they see it - is that you don't actually have to always actively wield it. I'll hold it absently in one hand when I'm reading or watching tv - letting it hang off the side of the couch, and the cats will do frantic run-bys every five minutes swatting it like crazy.
Bought mine for $5-7 Canadian and I've seen them in every pet store I've been in lately. It doesn't look like it would be hard to make one either.
Double sided tape is definitely a solution. I have some friends who had a cat that was in the bad habit of knocking stuff off of shelves. They had a couple of things they didn't want to have to put away, but at the same time couldn't risk the cat destroying. Double sided tape worked perfectly and the cat eventually learned to stay away.
However, other posters who have pointed out that your cat is bored and or otherwise upset are on the mark. Get some cat toys, including some catnip toys. Consider getting another cat, opposite gender and read pet advice sites for how to introduce a kitten to your adult cat.
One thing though - don't try to punish the cat. The cat is doing this because it's unhappy, bored, frustrated etc. If you punish it, you just add something for the cat to be upset about. Oh, and I personally had great luck with my bored indoor cats by installing a bird feeder outside and keeping it stocked. It was like the cat version of television - they sit there for hours watching the birds.
Sigh. No, trust me I haven't.
I never thought I would hear myself say this but there are other things to consider with a girl than freaky sex and willingness to give blow jobs. The girl was a doormat and although she was right pretty to look at she had the personality of a lamp post. She new that all she really had to offer was sex, and at the time I was perfectly happy to settle for that. But when you're actually embarrassed to be around her in public because your friend's nickname for her is "Bag of Hammers" (as in "Dumb as a...") it's time to find a new girl.
Current girl is amazing to talk to, be around, I've got rapport, a partner in crime and generally someone I respect and look forward to seeing clothed as well as naked. And like I said, she hasn't said "No" to BABJ Day, she's just luke warm to the idea.
I got an ex a nice lacy number two years ago. She liked it so much she informed me that since we celebrated Valentines for her, we'd celebrate "Beer and a Blow Job Day" on March 14th. Best holiday ever. Current gf doesn't think it's such a hot idea, but I told her I felt the same way about Valentines day so I've got a month to convince her.
Btw, you celebrate BABJ Day by her getting you a cold beer first thing in the morning, giving you a blow job while you drink it and then her letting you do whatever you want for the day. She's supposed to serve you steak for dinner and top the day off with another beer and a blow job. There are days when I miss my ex.
The company I work for, one of the big 4 accounting firms has a computer forensics group as part of their IT practice. They also work extensively with the forensic accounting teams. Most of the people on the computer forensics teams had related skills and then came in and learned most of what they know on the job.
Depending on what kind of work you're looking to eventually get into, consider trying to get a job at an outfit that already does computer forensics.
A couple of times during this whole SCO imbroglio I've heard people quite authoritatively say that even if you've got no case, shit for evidence etc you've still got a 1 in 10 (or 1 in 20) chance of coming away a winner in court.
First off... does anyone know where this stat comes from? Second... and perhaps more relevant to this article - Is that just an effect of a somewhat broken legal system in the US or is that a global stat? Do they have the same odds in Aus? Up here in Canada? Europe? Just curious really.
One silver lining to this who SCO thing is that I've been able to use the word "imbroglio" at least a couple of times a month. Thanks Daryl!
A Punisher FPS.
I mean seriously, you clean up a Max Paine like play style, throw it onto a good engine and it pretty much writes itself. Do it right and you'd have a pretty damn good game. And for multiplayer, there are dozens of stock Marvel characters that pretty much just run around toting firepower of some form or another. Give each one a different set of bonuses / abilities and throw people into the fray.
Also, if I were the Marvel guys, I'd be on the phone right now talking to the guys who did Prince of Persia, begging them to use the same game mechanics and whatsits for a Daredevil or Spiderman game. (Or better, any of those uber-vixens that Spiderman and/or Daredevil seem to hook up with. Electra, Silver Sable, Black Cat etc.) Prince of Persia was brilliant on pretty much every level, but you apply that kind of fluidity of movement, acrobatics, excellent fighting and it's almost already a Spiderman or Daredevil game.
Another good video game concept is the Secret Wars. I didn't read the series - during the 80's I was a DC fan: Firestorm, Big Blue, Batman, the Justice League, Green Lantern, the Flash... Marvel didn't just didn't connect with me as much back then - and to be completely honest the whole idea sounded a little on the contrived side. But for a video game it has potential. Pick from a stock list of heroes; go up against villians on a battleground of some advanced alien world. Lots of potential for an interesting combined strategy / action game. Maybe hard to pull off - but if it was done right it could be a really great game.
As for DC, why they haven't done something with Deathstroke the Terminator is completely beyond me. Cool, underused character who lends perfectly to a video game concept.
My original Commodor 64 Monitor is still in great shape and runs in a bank of monitors my buddy has in his basement. They've got four working Commodore 64 monitors and a 27 inch tv with several game systems all hooked up. People will crowd in, bring over their XBoxes (XBoxen?) or Gamecubes and have ourselves a good old fashioned geek out. That same Commodore 64 monitor served as my tv in my residence room in University, was the screen I watched my first porno movie on in grade school and most important - was the screen that ran all those amazing Commodore 64 games. Space Taxi, Jump Man and Ghostbusters are still some of my all time favourites. The thing is coming up on 20 years old and still works like a charm.
Also, if you're in Canada - check out the occasional government surplus auctions. They're always selling these amazing old monitors for practically nothing. A couple of years back I picked up this behemoth 23 inch monitor that must have been a decade old. Still worked and was great for gaming. $45 bucks. When the brightness started to go, I managed to find a 21" Dell branded Trinitron knock off (or some kind of flatscreen) for $100.
Also, a buddy of mine ripped the monitor out of an old broken Mac Classic - one of those little black and white 9 inch monitors and incorporated it into some art project he did. It and 7 other monitors ripped free of their housings are arranged in some weird gothic metal looking statue thing. It's outfitted with cheap motion sensors and low quality video cameras and will display all kinds of weirdness based on what's going on around it.
None that I've done come to mind - I tend to make lots of little stupid mistakes rather than occasional huge cock-ups. But I had a client that had a CIO who was actively hostile to the idea of any kind of computer security what-so-ever. Waste of time and money for a made up threat he said.
They were running 13 servers at remote locations (and I mean remote, as in out in the boonies 4 hours from nowhere on back roads) and these servers were unpatched, had out of date or innactive anti-virus and were connected to the net via a combination of satellite and dedicated (always on) dialup. Their communications were secured with nothing more than Windows 2000's built in VPN.
Needless to say, my audit report told them that they had big beefy powerful angels on their side since they hadn't yet had a noticable intrusion. (They had no way of detecting one, but at least the servers weren't hosting porn sites.) I warned them that a virus or worm would come along though and knock the whole thing out. The CIO scoffed at my report, called me an alarmist and said that my opinions were right up there with the Y2K doomsayers.
When Slammer hit, I had described the vulnerabilities and outcome so accurately that this guy actually accused me of writing it myself. Took the whole corporate network down and they couldn't bring it back up until their techs visited each site. It took two teams seven days to get to all the sites. The company lost 6 business days, three customers and a months worth of transaction records.
Needless to say the CIO was demoted (they didn't fire him, which I consider itself a major tech mistake) and had me re-issue my audit report which they then followed to the letter taking every precaution I suggested.
Seriously, though, eventually people may have to contend with this issue - but it's so far from reality now as to be trivial. Makes good science fiction, but that's it.
Now, if you want to discuss eventualities, possibilities and all that... well, maybe we'll be like house pets, live stock or just quaint invalids doing jobs too menial for the machines - but the whole thing is really up to us.
Not my point originally, but I forgot which author said it.
People used to foot-race early automobiles. People used to compare the productivity of a loom weaver to a steam powered automated loom. No one races cars any more but no one really questions if cars are superior to people. They are superior vehicles sure - because that's what they're designed to do.
A computer designed to play chess will eventually be able to beat any human player - but questions of superiority are superfluous. I'm not worried that Kasparov can beat me at chess because I'm not a chess player. He might be a superior chess player - hell, he's probably a superior person in many ways - so what? Does he win a cookie for that? Do I have to wear a scarlet letter? Is his superior chess ability mitigated because I could probably take him at one on one basketball? No.
The whole concept is basically stupid. Even when we build a true AI, put it in an andriod body and teach it to do everything better than we can do it - so what? If we managed to build Data from Star Trek - does that diminish us? If human ingenuity eventually allows us to build a superior human - that doesn't change anything really. Some people will feel the need to compete with it, some will ask if it has a soul and the rest of us will go on with our day.
The parent article talks about comparing man and machine - which is superior - the whole concept is superfluous. We don't compare man and tree or man and weather even though both can do things we can but better. Machines will always beat man in the end at something because otherwise why build them? If walking were in every way more efficient than taking a car, we wouldn't have cars. We build them to improve our ability to move. If the best chess-playing computer we could build would constantly get caught in the three move checkmate - there would be no freaking point. It is precisely because the machine will in some way, or even many ways, better that it exists.
Normally, I don't post angry on /. but some of the posts in this thread are pissing me off. People who post trash like "Damn Quebecers!" and trash all Quebecois for a stupid law are either assholes, trolls or just stupid.
/.ers should know that the DMCA, the Patriot Act etc does not necessarily reflect them or their opinion personally. Most Quebecois could care less about the language laws. Francophones usually just boycott products that are not geared to them or make due if there's no alternative; Anglos living in Quebec are used to the French packaging.
/.ers would chime in saying people in that state were inbred arrogant moron loser hicks (regardless of what state it was) - and those /. would be either assholes, trolls or just stupid.
There are some incredibly stupid laws on the books in the US lately but it doesn't occur to anyone to blame the guy on the street.
This is analogous to warning labels on games in the US. If some state passed a law saying that games rated T or higher were illegal - sure some
Lay off the Quebecois, or at least go there and get to know a few before you start mouthing off about them being arrogant, stupid or whatever.
Damn damn damn. You're right of course and as an older brother to three wonderful sisters I shouldn't let myself forget that sort of thing. I checked out the link you pointed out and it was a little strange to see.
I'm lucky as a guy and as someone who's always been oblivious to that sort of thing that I've never had to deal with panic attacks about my looks but you're right - media culture has taught us to expect nothing short of goddesses. I'll even confess that I've been a party to it - I was seeing a girl and I had to remind myself that she was beautiful every time I found myself noticing one of her physical flaws. People don't see the feet of clay for some of these media goddesses - I can't imagine what that does to an average girl's psyche. That said - I'll never have ripped abs again - that boat sailed in my late 20's - and I need to accept that...
Now I'm not so sure what I think of this whole thing... damn.
I think I'm going to donate a subscription to Ad Busters to some local high school or something to balance out my karma (I'm not being sarcastic here).
I know it sounds weird and there's already lots of comments about pimply-faced geeks who can't get dates with real women - but I think this is a good idea. It lets visual artists showcase their work, it draws mainstream recognition to video games, animated movies and related media and its harmless fun.
The show is going to be mostly a larf, there'll be some genuinely good art mixed in with some quadruple D-cupped Valkyrie farces and Jessica Rabbit-esque wannabes but all in all the really good art is the stuff that'll win. And as for the pimply faced geek who can't get a girl - what's wrong with a little harmless fantasy here and there? I had a girlfriend who was willing to dress up as Wonder Woman for me (hot damn, one of the best nights of my life) and would have done Supergirl if other factors had not intervened (I'll still get a girl to do that one day). Fantasies are harmless unless they start defining or overwhelming your sexuality.
If they televise this show, I'll watch it, if they don't, I'll download it - I'll have a few laughs, look at some beautiful artificial women and then wistfully wish for a holodeck. No harm done.
Oh, and I wouldn't mind seeing a slightly spruced up Kate Archer - rowr!
Qui bono.
Just typical really. At the end of the day when we're analysing this - when SCO is loooooong gone and Linux is still alive and kicking - although probably hurt by this - we're not going to have to wonder who benefited from all this. The SCO execs are going to be chuckling into their martinis, the people who bought SCO stock and were smart enough to sell it high are going to feel smug and the lawyers are going to walk away rich.
The Linux community is hurt by this, the shareholders who hold on too long are hurt by this, the employees at SCO are hurt by this, Linux customers (and possibly IBM customers are hurt by this) and the people who are slinging the FUD get to walk away with guaranteed millions.
Is it legal to sue lawyers I wonder? Show that they had a vested material interest in damaging businesses by dragging this out as long as possible? Show that they used deliberately deceitful tactics and were complicit in outright lies, obfuscations and unfair practices and maybe tack on a suit for encouraging their customers to pursue illegal activities (violating the GPL and anything else SCO has done that turns out to be against the law).
Basically, is there a way to mire these guys in court for the rest of their lives to that their guaranteed millions dry up? IBM's got billions to throw at this... is there a business case to be made for making an example of the lawyers themselves? Maybe discourage other unethical lawyers from taking up similar cases and causes? Anyway, just my morning rant. Going to go get more coffee and I'm sure the day will be all smiles and sunshine afterwards.
As for the whole argument about peace - you're right in a general sense. But the hope for peace - using your example, the Middle East - isn't giving the other side what they want since that's not going to happen. Its finding a middle ground that most of the people on both sides can live with. Even the most rabid Jihadist knows that the Israelis are not going to leave. Start convincing most of his friends of an alternative that they can live with and you demote him from freedom fighter to terrorist to common criminal. Real Peace will come when people start to have hope.
I used to have some pretty solid opinions about the whole peace protest, the Palestinians and the Infatada in general. Then I read this and saw these pictures. Rachel Corrie is a name that everyone should know - her death would have been enormous news if it had happened on any other day. As it was an Israeli bulldozer killed her on the first day of the Iraq invasion. I won't be so cliched as to say that it opened my eyes - but it made me realize that without hope there will never be peace. The Palestinians have no hope, no hope of a better life, no hope of a future - nothing. Give them a little hope and the idea of blowing themselves up just to hurt other people might seem less insane. Anyway, good thread.
As for the other thing about reading the article that was me being unclear. I was referring to the article I linked to in my original post. I'm IANA Engineer but my brother is(doing his masters in Medical Imaging Research which involves lots of high energy whatsits and who-haws) and he's the one who pointed me to that article when I pointed out the original one. In that article it does talk about the relative simplicity of making a home-brew EMP.
Its not the same type of bomb as in the parent article you refer to, but an EMP is an EMP and what kind of bomb made it is sort of periferal.
As for the last thing you saidI've got to pretty much heave a sad sigh and agree. But... (there's always a 'but' isn't there) I just feel that being the biggest or baddest bully isn't the answer. You're right though, a political debate - I mostly wanted to point out the link to the article I was mentioning.
The simple truth about security is that it is almost impossible to prevent an attack from enemies that are more interested in hurting you than living. Eventually, someone will get through. The world is too dangerous to go around playing bully boy and the other kids on the play ground will keep teaching us the lesson until they think we've got it.
Unfortunately most military equipment isn't shielded. The problem is that the shielding is expensive. And if you have n shielding that will protect you against a devise of n output, it is easier for the attackers to build an n+1 device than it is for you to upgrade all your shielding.
As a side note, this puts a different spin on the whole concept of the suicide attack. I don't care how many people you've got in your cause or how committed they are, it would be much easier to find people who would set these off than to find people who are willing to strap explosives to their chests. At least it seems that way to me.
If people start building these and then EMPing city blocks in say, Manhattan, the effects would be devastating but at the same time the psychological resolve required to do it seems to be me to be less. Its still an attack at your enemy but you're not actually killing anyone (or yourself). If articles like this are at all accurate - how long do you think it'll be before people start popping these suckers off?
Oh well, the stone age wasn't all bad... lots of time outside, fresh air and excersize, cave-babes in fur bikinis... I'd better practice up on my stone tool making.
Its true. We had a federal election here pretty close to when that whole Florida thing was going on down in the US. The whole thing went smooth as silk. Paper and pencil voting and stuffing the vote into a normal cardboard box. Pretty much anyone can send an observer down and everything is over in a matter of hours.
Adding complexity to a complex system rarely if ever creates reliability. I'm pretty sure that the voting system here will stay the way it is until someone can unambiguously show that their new voting system is simpler and more reliable. Mind you, the stakes are lower in Canada too. In ol' Jean's term of office he's had to personally wrestle a protester to the ground, personally defend his home from an intruder and when I saw him at a speaking engagement I was able to walk right up and say hi.
What continues to amaze me is how little most people actually care about the state of the elections in the US. There's a lively debate going on here and a few other sites, but most Americans could care less. I think the real issue is how to wake people up - a little outrage would do America a world of good right now. (Not that we Canucks should talk, if you want complacency, come up here and we'll teach you a thing or two.)
Where is Jumpman? Ghostbusters, Raid Over Moscow, Space Taxi? For re-playability these are some of the all time classics.
The problem with list like this is that they'll only include the games that that the person who made the list played. If he'd never heard of Ghostbusters then he'd never know it was an essential game in any gamer's cannon. More to the point, serious people know artistry in games and if they missed an "all time great" they still know games.
I'm all for game developers (or hardcore gamers) going out and trying to play as many games including classic games as possible - but any pretence to a game list being more than a "personal favourites" list is pure wankery. I've played probably more than half the games on either list, and would consider another 20 "essential" games but would I ever accept their list (or mine) as official? Hell no. (Official list of a self-aggrandizing wannabe, maybe.)
Literary cannons are based on hundreds of years of scholarship, debate from hundreds (probably thousands) of scholars, symposiums and more. If people want to seriously start studying games as literature in school then they can start aspiring to the pretences of literature. What makes games great is that they're ours, they're a product of our times and they're a form of pop culture (literally popular culture). If you want to start categorizing, canonizing and otherwise "scholar-izing" them - well go right ahead actually I don't care what people do. Just don't expect anyone to care.
I heard that they did. Some nonsense about the Japanese changing the "C" to a "K" after they took over before WWII so that Japan preceeded Korea in the alphabet. So during peace talks, N. and S. Korean diplomats threw it on the table as something that really wouldn't be a contentious issue. Everyone agreed and now they're pushing the English speaking world to spell it Corea again.
I heard about it when someone made a crack about "Chapan" saying to go ahead and change the name back, China sitting up to take notice.
This was one of the most purebred geeky things I ever did, but we've been role playing lately (V:tM and Warhammer Fantasy) and were short a player or two. A friend of ours in Korea (or is it actually Corea now?) heard about our dillemna and begged us to let him join the session over Skype.
We already had broadband on both ends, so we decided to try it out. (Normally I'm resistant to combine my geekdom tendencies - mixing computers and role playing was dodgy.)
Anyway, we tried it and the biggest problem we had was occasional snap-crackle-pop from cheap microphones. It worked, worked well and the quality was WAY better than phone. With a laptop and a high speed connection it was almost as good as the conference call rigs at work. Next weekend we're going to hook our webcams up to the whole thing and see how well that works. As sadly geeky as this is, I lamented the break up of a good role playing group when we all moved but might manage to overcome geography with technology.
As an add on, our friend's voice sounded beautifully rich over the speakers and sub-woofer. Adds a real element to roleplaying if one of the players is able to speak with the voice of god!
All in all, I was pretty impressed with Skype recommend people who already have broadband on both ends to try it.
Skype - Actually not bad. They've got a nice "NO SPYWARE" logo on their download screen which actually set off alarm bells initially. But we started using it a couple of days ago to teleconference with a friend in Korea (or is that Corea now?) and I haven't noticed any new spyware on my system (and I went looking).
Ad Aware doesn't seem to find anything either. Don't count on that being there forever, but my suspicion is that they won't bother with the spyware while the product is still in Beta. They need nerds like us to test the stuff and the last thing they need is SkypeLite coming out while Skype is still a Beta product.