Honestly, the beta protests annoy me far more than a fancy overhaul with the functionality put back in would. I wouldn't mind a classic portal or something for the retrocomputing enthusiasts to use, mind, but it could probably find a middle ground with the direction website interfaces seem to be going. I see where they're coming from, but I also understand the protests.
Slashdot at its best is a dialogue-rich site, not a competing tech news aggregator. People don't want to sacrifice that, I get it. On the other hand, the comments are pretty much unusable now as well.
"And beside, what really kills me, is how you Americans just care about the money. Man, quality of life is much more than the money. It's support when you need it. It's knowing that you are protected in case something goes wrong and it's not entirely your fault..."
Thank you for this. As an American, I have this argument *constantly* with some...
Agreed, for the most part. I *do* play doctor, however, in certain cases. The aforementioned "sniffles", which we don't have a cure for anyway and which my healthy young adult immune system appears to be taking care of for me at an appropriate rate, tend to give me cause to try various "home remedies" and other comfort measures. (The ones that don't sound dangerous, anyway - those old mustard plasters apparently give people chemical burns sometimes! Chicken soup and some frozen orange juice concentrate eaten like ice cream, however, or ginger ale for mild stomach bugs, are nice and make me feel like I'm doing something besides simply waiting it out.)
I suspect if I had something terminal and untreatable I would probably take any and all desperate measures I could, as well. But until modern medicine gives up on me, I'm not going to give up on it either.
The problem I run into for me and even more so for many people I am acquainted with is that (In the US) for the uninsured "working poor", ie people who can cover rent, bills, groceries and some small luxuries but are blindsided by any unexpected expense over ~$150, there are times when one simply can't drop by and consult a physician, or more likely can make it for the initial visit and get a diagnosis but can't afford to address anything that isn't a major and immediate threat to one's health or life. I know a bipolar who couldn't afford the specialist referral when his GP was no longer able to renew his prescription for mood stabilizers who for some time was having to purchase his mood stabilizers in Mexico and bring them back every few months. People with that condition are not usually known for working that hard to be med-compliant.
I also know someone who, against the advice of myself and everyone else, performed minor surgery on a dental abscess and was somehow successful, leaving only a small facial scar. Several people warned him that this was potentially extremely dangerous and a terrible idea (it was an abscess from a root canal that went septic), but he claimed lack of funds and refused to apply nearly as much effort to finding emergency medical assistance as he did to poking a semi-sterilized syringe into his face. Despite all this, he was (somehow) successful in what he was trying to do, and managed to avoid any obvious or immediate complications.
Anyway, my point is this: there are a growing number of people who are encountering serious (or imagined) barriers to consulting a professional about anything that doesn't leave them without a choice. I don't want to make this question political given that there's a lot of debate right now about health care in the US, but what does the medical community recommend people do in these situations? For example, I've had recurring pain in my left shoulder that is infrequent but getting worse for the last seven years, was told it is probably a pinched nerve somewhere and I should go see a specialist or two and get it taken care of. Since it doesn't happen too often and doesn't impair my ability to work or continue to live, the cost means it remains a luxury until I enter another income bracket. I know many similar stories. I suspect this is why so many people are trying to play doctor themselves lately, and I'm inclined to agree with the medical community that this is not a good thing. What do physicians suggest?
I know I'm just going to be throwing more armchair psychology into the mix, despite the fact that this is my field of study, but I'm inclined to agree. If anything, I would go a step further and say that the only possible working definition of sane that we've managed to come up with so far is equivalent to functional. (Cue the programming jokes) The definition of sane, if you try to pin it down any better than that, seems to become "I know its absence when I see it".
My current thinking is that there probably is some better version of sane than we're currently able to define or produce, but paradoxically it wouldn't last very long in current societies because it would be not at all functional in any of them.
But don't listen to me, I'm completely crazy.:)
Fair enough, a massive sterilization of some kind, or something which managed to interfere with the sex drive to such an extent that it rendered a huge swath of the population sexually incapable (are we still using "frigid", or am I slinging around terms from 50's sitcoms without a license?) would have a similar effect, I suppose. Sterilization seems more likely - sex stuff tends to be wired in fairly well usually. I used to work with severely retarded and deformed individuals in a very up-close-and-personal job, changing diapers and doing cleanup and in general learning to ignore my gross-out threshold, and over the course of my time at that facility one thing I did notice was that no matter what the deformity and combination of genetic problems, they all had normal genitalia. People can be missing internal organs, proper bone and skin closure, higher brain funtions altogether, and entire regions(!) of the body, and still have perfectly normal and apparently functional genitalia. Those genes must be *super* redundant...poor guys don't know what to do with the equipment exactly, but they are obviously motivated to make an attempt.
Would you suggest that we call what child molesters, who might not be able to help themselves, do as "illegal children touching" instead of "child abuse"?
You're conflating different meanings of the word, or at least different ways to interpret similarly formed sentences. Child molesters are abusing children because they are harming the children. The abuse that is occurring is from the point of view of the child. Are you arguing that drug users are causing harm to the drugs? If not, then your analogy falls apart.
Well put. Is there a Godwin's-esque Law for equating things to child molesters/molestation yet? I suppose "Think of the children" kind of counts, but it lacks the zing.
I changed mine to an administrative key to all the rooms in the hotel back when I was a desk clerk at a cheap hotel. If they haven't changed the locks, it should still unlock any door in the place. Never used it, though.
Well, that was technically an attempt at communism, not socialism. *Limited* socialism seems to work well in some of the northern European nations, although you're right in pointing out the dangers of letting control over too much of the complex systems that govern our lives fall into the hands of a small group.
History doesn't change, its sort of written in stone
Whoever told you that wasn't a historian. The facts remain more or less set in stone as you said, but the interpretations change about once every ten years, as little details come to light. Overall I agree, however. For the most part primers shouldn't have to be changed out that often. Fundraising and all of the other monetary concerns were rampant, and yet the school spent 80,000 dollars of mysterious money to but a press box for the football team. (Oddly enough, a similar amount of the special education budget never got used for anything and kind of seemed to never exist. Hmmm...)
Textbooks aren't the real concern, anyway. The grandparent poster seemed to kind of go on a rant about how people equate education with money. While this is a primary concern of schools, they are still trying to provide some result. They haven't gotten *that* transparently greedy yet. The problem is exactly how they should go about educating the populace when the original design of our school system wasn't really to educate. The money thing is a side note to the whole affair, and really reflects a growing problem in American culture today - money has become more important. Than anything.
I had pancreatitis four years ago, and I didn't start drinking until about two years ago. It was due to gallstones blocking the bile duct of my pancreas. That's at least one additional cause of pancreatitis for the parent poster. Not that I know anything about the politics in it, but a political argument based on misinformation should be left to professional politicians, not slashtrolls.:)
Isn't this where someone should bring up entanglement and "action at a distance"? Honestly, though, while I agree that it's more similar to copying than the other terms applied to it, I think that if, at the end of my life, I have my brain destructively or non-destructively copied into a computer format, then "me" comes out on top. Not "me" per se, I'll grant you, but as an act of egotism, which for a large portion of humanity is the only reason they want immortality anyway, it is a grand monument for the me that governs my motions as we speak. It's more of a "take what you can get" philosophy to transhumanism, I think.
I agree that he chose a poor analogy, here, but his point is valid. Delivery mechanism makes a drug behave differently. In some cases, it can be quite different indeed. The freebase form of cocaine, when smoked, lasts a shorter period of time, builds up to a higher level in the brain, and wears off faster. Much faster. This causes a peaking effect. Fast, intense high and a fast, intense drop-off. That said, crack is not necessarily any more addictive than cocaine, it's just that if you're spending money on cocaine or crack, you're going to run out of crack first, and have to go buy more sooner. If you're doing coke, you may just run out right about the time you're tired of doing it or have to do something the next day, and decide to go to bed instead. Most of it is just spin, though. The effects seem different in the short time, the long term effects are the same.
And the counter-suits, as well. Okay, cool. Despite the person who modded me as overrated it was a serious question, there are enough lawsuits now that I'm not sure of the exact count anymore.:)
I saw a picture of one that was in use or going to be used on a satellite. It looked a bit like a deer antler or something, and was very asymmetrical. I remember that the caption for the photo said it had been developed using genetic algorithms. I don't think it was actually in a story from here, but it was linked to from another story about GA antenna design, possibly the one listed in the post above this one. I could find the link again, though.
How does it compare against that bizarre antenna developed by genetic algorithms that we saw a story on a few months ago? Or am I comparing apples and oranges here?
I've seen paintings that look intensely lifelike, so why should such representations be beyond the capabilities of future computers?
Because paintings don't move. The stills tend to look perfectly realistic, or at least close enough to suspend disbelief most of the time. The problem is, the motion doesn't look natural. That's what the subconscious recoils against.
Something massage school has taught me is not to underestimate the importance of knowing the relevant anatomy. Do they do models of all the facial muscles and their attachments, and recreate motion using those ranges? It strikes me that the easiest way to simulate facial expressions is to learn what underlying tensions and structures create them, and simulate that first. There are so many tiny little muscles in the face, and most of the faces that I have seen in CG don't utilize but about 20-30 percent of the actual motion that people's faces go through. I've seen them get one or two expressions right, but they're always the extreme emotions, ones that use gross motor control rather than fine.
Yeah, I've noticed they have commercials for salads. Is anyone going to McDonald's for salads? I don't think it's going to be a strong selling point. Of course, I don't pretend to have my finger on the pulse of the consumer mindset, so I could well be wrong. Still, when I think McDonald's, I don't think salad. Or healthy. (or food, for that matter)
Slashdot Mirror
Honestly, the beta protests annoy me far more than a fancy overhaul with the functionality put back in would. I wouldn't mind a classic portal or something for the retrocomputing enthusiasts to use, mind, but it could probably find a middle ground with the direction website interfaces seem to be going. I see where they're coming from, but I also understand the protests. Slashdot at its best is a dialogue-rich site, not a competing tech news aggregator. People don't want to sacrifice that, I get it. On the other hand, the comments are pretty much unusable now as well.
"And beside, what really kills me, is how you Americans just care about the money. Man, quality of life is much more than the money. It's support when you need it. It's knowing that you are protected in case something goes wrong and it's not entirely your fault..." Thank you for this. As an American, I have this argument *constantly* with some...
Agreed, for the most part. I *do* play doctor, however, in certain cases. The aforementioned "sniffles", which we don't have a cure for anyway and which my healthy young adult immune system appears to be taking care of for me at an appropriate rate, tend to give me cause to try various "home remedies" and other comfort measures. (The ones that don't sound dangerous, anyway - those old mustard plasters apparently give people chemical burns sometimes! Chicken soup and some frozen orange juice concentrate eaten like ice cream, however, or ginger ale for mild stomach bugs, are nice and make me feel like I'm doing something besides simply waiting it out.) I suspect if I had something terminal and untreatable I would probably take any and all desperate measures I could, as well. But until modern medicine gives up on me, I'm not going to give up on it either. The problem I run into for me and even more so for many people I am acquainted with is that (In the US) for the uninsured "working poor", ie people who can cover rent, bills, groceries and some small luxuries but are blindsided by any unexpected expense over ~$150, there are times when one simply can't drop by and consult a physician, or more likely can make it for the initial visit and get a diagnosis but can't afford to address anything that isn't a major and immediate threat to one's health or life. I know a bipolar who couldn't afford the specialist referral when his GP was no longer able to renew his prescription for mood stabilizers who for some time was having to purchase his mood stabilizers in Mexico and bring them back every few months. People with that condition are not usually known for working that hard to be med-compliant. I also know someone who, against the advice of myself and everyone else, performed minor surgery on a dental abscess and was somehow successful, leaving only a small facial scar. Several people warned him that this was potentially extremely dangerous and a terrible idea (it was an abscess from a root canal that went septic), but he claimed lack of funds and refused to apply nearly as much effort to finding emergency medical assistance as he did to poking a semi-sterilized syringe into his face. Despite all this, he was (somehow) successful in what he was trying to do, and managed to avoid any obvious or immediate complications. Anyway, my point is this: there are a growing number of people who are encountering serious (or imagined) barriers to consulting a professional about anything that doesn't leave them without a choice. I don't want to make this question political given that there's a lot of debate right now about health care in the US, but what does the medical community recommend people do in these situations? For example, I've had recurring pain in my left shoulder that is infrequent but getting worse for the last seven years, was told it is probably a pinched nerve somewhere and I should go see a specialist or two and get it taken care of. Since it doesn't happen too often and doesn't impair my ability to work or continue to live, the cost means it remains a luxury until I enter another income bracket. I know many similar stories. I suspect this is why so many people are trying to play doctor themselves lately, and I'm inclined to agree with the medical community that this is not a good thing. What do physicians suggest?
I know I'm just going to be throwing more armchair psychology into the mix, despite the fact that this is my field of study, but I'm inclined to agree. If anything, I would go a step further and say that the only possible working definition of sane that we've managed to come up with so far is equivalent to functional. (Cue the programming jokes) The definition of sane, if you try to pin it down any better than that, seems to become "I know its absence when I see it". My current thinking is that there probably is some better version of sane than we're currently able to define or produce, but paradoxically it wouldn't last very long in current societies because it would be not at all functional in any of them. But don't listen to me, I'm completely crazy. :)
Fair enough, a massive sterilization of some kind, or something which managed to interfere with the sex drive to such an extent that it rendered a huge swath of the population sexually incapable (are we still using "frigid", or am I slinging around terms from 50's sitcoms without a license?) would have a similar effect, I suppose. Sterilization seems more likely - sex stuff tends to be wired in fairly well usually. I used to work with severely retarded and deformed individuals in a very up-close-and-personal job, changing diapers and doing cleanup and in general learning to ignore my gross-out threshold, and over the course of my time at that facility one thing I did notice was that no matter what the deformity and combination of genetic problems, they all had normal genitalia. People can be missing internal organs, proper bone and skin closure, higher brain funtions altogether, and entire regions(!) of the body, and still have perfectly normal and apparently functional genitalia. Those genes must be *super* redundant...poor guys don't know what to do with the equipment exactly, but they are obviously motivated to make an attempt.
Well put. Is there a Godwin's-esque Law for equating things to child molesters/molestation yet? I suppose "Think of the children" kind of counts, but it lacks the zing.
I changed mine to an administrative key to all the rooms in the hotel back when I was a desk clerk at a cheap hotel. If they haven't changed the locks, it should still unlock any door in the place. Never used it, though.
Well, that was technically an attempt at communism, not socialism. *Limited* socialism seems to work well in some of the northern European nations, although you're right in pointing out the dangers of letting control over too much of the complex systems that govern our lives fall into the hands of a small group.
Yes, we Yanks do use "twat", but rarely. It's a fairly dirty word here, and not common.
I don't know about the energy programs in Oregon, but alternative architecture is alive and well there.
We're beginning to reach a point where it's just plain silly to describe Saturn's amazing collection of debris as 'moons'.
History doesn't change, its sort of written in stone
Whoever told you that wasn't a historian. The facts remain more or less set in stone as you said, but the interpretations change about once every ten years, as little details come to light. Overall I agree, however. For the most part primers shouldn't have to be changed out that often. Fundraising and all of the other monetary concerns were rampant, and yet the school spent 80,000 dollars of mysterious money to but a press box for the football team. (Oddly enough, a similar amount of the special education budget never got used for anything and kind of seemed to never exist. Hmmm...)
Textbooks aren't the real concern, anyway. The grandparent poster seemed to kind of go on a rant about how people equate education with money. While this is a primary concern of schools, they are still trying to provide some result. They haven't gotten *that* transparently greedy yet. The problem is exactly how they should go about educating the populace when the original design of our school system wasn't really to educate. The money thing is a side note to the whole affair, and really reflects a growing problem in American culture today - money has become more important. Than anything.
I had pancreatitis four years ago, and I didn't start drinking until about two years ago. It was due to gallstones blocking the bile duct of my pancreas. That's at least one additional cause of pancreatitis for the parent poster. Not that I know anything about the politics in it, but a political argument based on misinformation should be left to professional politicians, not slashtrolls. :)
Isn't this where someone should bring up entanglement and "action at a distance"? Honestly, though, while I agree that it's more similar to copying than the other terms applied to it, I think that if, at the end of my life, I have my brain destructively or non-destructively copied into a computer format, then "me" comes out on top. Not "me" per se, I'll grant you, but as an act of egotism, which for a large portion of humanity is the only reason they want immortality anyway, it is a grand monument for the me that governs my motions as we speak. It's more of a "take what you can get" philosophy to transhumanism, I think.
I agree that he chose a poor analogy, here, but his point is valid. Delivery mechanism makes a drug behave differently. In some cases, it can be quite different indeed. The freebase form of cocaine, when smoked, lasts a shorter period of time, builds up to a higher level in the brain, and wears off faster. Much faster. This causes a peaking effect. Fast, intense high and a fast, intense drop-off. That said, crack is not necessarily any more addictive than cocaine, it's just that if you're spending money on cocaine or crack, you're going to run out of crack first, and have to go buy more sooner. If you're doing coke, you may just run out right about the time you're tired of doing it or have to do something the next day, and decide to go to bed instead. Most of it is just spin, though. The effects seem different in the short time, the long term effects are the same.
And the counter-suits, as well. Okay, cool. Despite the person who modded me as overrated it was a serious question, there are enough lawsuits now that I'm not sure of the exact count anymore. :)
How many more cases to go?
I saw a picture of one that was in use or going to be used on a satellite. It looked a bit like a deer antler or something, and was very asymmetrical. I remember that the caption for the photo said it had been developed using genetic algorithms. I don't think it was actually in a story from here, but it was linked to from another story about GA antenna design, possibly the one listed in the post above this one. I could find the link again, though.
How does it compare against that bizarre antenna developed by genetic algorithms that we saw a story on a few months ago? Or am I comparing apples and oranges here?
I've seen paintings that look intensely lifelike, so why should such representations be beyond the capabilities of future computers?
Because paintings don't move. The stills tend to look perfectly realistic, or at least close enough to suspend disbelief most of the time. The problem is, the motion doesn't look natural. That's what the subconscious recoils against.
Something massage school has taught me is not to underestimate the importance of knowing the relevant anatomy. Do they do models of all the facial muscles and their attachments, and recreate motion using those ranges? It strikes me that the easiest way to simulate facial expressions is to learn what underlying tensions and structures create them, and simulate that first. There are so many tiny little muscles in the face, and most of the faces that I have seen in CG don't utilize but about 20-30 percent of the actual motion that people's faces go through. I've seen them get one or two expressions right, but they're always the extreme emotions, ones that use gross motor control rather than fine.
I don't know, and I think that is rather indicative of the problem in the first place, but I'm fairly sure that they're appointed.
Yeah, I've noticed they have commercials for salads. Is anyone going to McDonald's for salads? I don't think it's going to be a strong selling point. Of course, I don't pretend to have my finger on the pulse of the consumer mindset, so I could well be wrong. Still, when I think McDonald's, I don't think salad. Or healthy. (or food, for that matter)
Hey, good point! My hotmail account dates back to the pre-microsoft days! Hmmm....
Hell, I'm getting e-mails to enlarge my tentacles and re-grow my third eye through Hotmail...
I think I've seen you in some Japanese cartoons before...