Actually most online games are designed to be playable at dialup speeds, aka 3,000 bytes per second absolute max sustained throughput.
I think Everquest peaks at about 1,000 bytes per second sustained most of the time, genererally running between 600 and 900cps combined in both directions.
The newer Quake type FPS games recommend 3,000 cps per client if you are hosting a server so if you had a 128 kilobit / set upstream cap the guidelines suggest 4 users connected would peg that... I guess that if you are a gamer online games are not much of a concern but if you wanted to host a server - that would pretty much saturate your uplink and if it was a popular server you could keep it saturated. And you are right, that isn't something your ISP would particularly appreciate.
Actually I think the client / server communications in Everquest are encrypted - the reason being of course to keep the 1337 crew from knowing where all the good lewt dropping mobs are popping... but if he is a good typist and has a decent laptop he could spend half his day in EQ doing his secret discussions.
Given how determined the 1337 crew is about getting their phat lewtz and how determined Sony is about not having that happen, four years in the making has made EQ a pretty secure communications (typing, not voice) environment. For non-classified information it ought to be PLENTY secure, and runs on a normal dial up connection.
"Be careful of the middle rail, it is pushing 600 volts." "It's not the volts that kills you, it's the amps." "Well how many amps are we talking?" "Enough to push a train..."
800 Watts? Jesus man, my microwave only does 700 watts and that is enough to cook a chicken. I can only envision 800 watts of microwave energy on a focused beam, on the end of a pointy stick. Look like something out of Ghostbusters.
I am just curious... is this something they (the Feds) really look for? I mean is it a real concern if someone is overbroadcasting, or is it something they use to trump up charges on someone they had planned on hassling anyways.
I have one of these and love it. One thing I forgot to mention in my description above was that it is very, very loud. As in keep the door closed so people in the next room can hear the television loud.
If you don't mind everybody knowing when you are typing a flurry of responses on the computer, then it is a great (!) keyboard.
The keyboard you want is IBM part number 1391401 - this is the original keyboard from the PS/2 era and is built like a Tonka Truck. Weighs about 6lbs, the connection where the cable plugs into the keyboard is an AMP connection (that connection cost more than an entire current day cheapo keyboard) and it doesn't have the goofy Windows key to mess you up by bringing up the Start menu during important Quake / Unreal battles.
Every part of this keyboard was overengineered (remember the case of the original IBM AT computers) and worth every penny of the original list price of $400 (in 1984/1985.)
Don't be afraid to get a used one, it may take some cleaning but it will still be rock solid. If you get one and decide you don't want it, maybe I will take it off your hands in exchange for one of my Logitech OEM ones in the closet.
Wait until you just can't bear to run whatever new program has come out that you need (want) to run. For a bunch of us that is going to be TFC2/HL2/DoomIII/DNF - whichever comes out first.
Suffer for a month longer on your system, try running it with all the settings turned down.
Whatever is the fastest machine out there, come down two steps (in this case the 3.2GHz-Xtreme is fastest, the 3.2GHz is next, dropping one more to the 3.0GHz with HT) and that is pretty much the sweetest spot on the curve. They charge a mega premium for the best. They charge a medium premium for the second best, but the third one is where that flattens out. Figure out how much RAM you think you need and buy twice as much, ditto drive space. If the SATA drives have gotten reasonable in pricing I recommend two of those in a RAID 0 array if performance is your thing, else just go with a bunch of IDE space. As for video card, however much you have left in your budget.
I am not even going to pretend to know what kind of read/write caching is available on the Linux developers platform, but on Win2000 machines I have found (particularly when doing massive C++ compiles) that adding a ton of memory to the system (ok not exactly a ton, but upgrading from 128M to 1152M) makes a WORLD of difference - Win2k uses the extra memory to cache (read/write, configurable in the settings under the device manager) writes back to the drive and then flush them all out at once. If 1G doesn't seem to be doing it, crank it up to 2G. If you have more than 2G of source code for a single compile... I will buy you a beer or something.
Granted a faster CPU doesn't hurt, but a 1.2GHz box with a Gig of RAM is going to outrun a 2.4GHz machine with 128M of RAM.
I remember reading once in a Usenet thread - some guy was trolling and asked 'will my P90, overclocked to 100MHz, be enough to handle the flight combat simulators you guys are discussing?'
The first time I read it it was hilarious because he was either bragging or dreaming, the P90 chip was out in limited supply at the time and was easily 50% faster than the common P60 machine used by the sim-gamers, not to mention the overclocking it. Of course it was going to be fast enough.
The second time I saw it (a few years later) it was hilarious because the bare minimum system for any sim/game was a PII/300 with a 3D graphics card and his P90 was so pitifully underpowered it didn't have a chance.
So we get to enjoy the 'is this CPU enough' question twice, generally, for any given CPU. Just a matter of timing.
They outsourced the growing of enough medicinal herb to fill the needs of 50 people, paying $7.5M Canadian ($4.2M(?)USD) for the project. It would have been the perfect opportunity to kick some SERIOUS cash to someone's family or political supporters. I don't know a lot about drugs, but I do remember someone once saying to me 'the government is the only institution on the planet that could lose money selling drugs.' Not the Canadian government per se, but just any current 'good guy' government.
It would be funny if the government was spiking it with carbon tetracycline or something and after all the users got sick and died the government could point to it and say 'see we told you so : marijuana kills you!'
Ok not exactly funny haha, but funny in a 'CIA involvement in Cambodia during the late 60s' sort of way.
According to recent reports, Canada has a $7.5M contract to have the marijuana grown in secure underground facilities, the fruits of that labor serving that sweet government weed to an estimated 50 people.
That's $150,000 per person to grow something that will grow like a weed (hence the name) if some seeds are merely scattererd around (potting soil in styrofoam cups works well too, I have heard), and from all accounts the following is totally true - government weed : weed:: government cheeze : cheese.
The new Government Weed - it may cost a lot, but at least it tastes bad.
300 : sounds like static, no actual tones. 1200 : static followed by a single tone for about two seconds. 2400 : static followed by the same tone you heard at 1200, after about a second the pitch of that tone gets higher and lasts about a second.
There are no 4800 or 7200 connections under the most commonly used (that I am aware of) protocols, with the exception of a few off-color fax machine emulations.
Actually you could set up the number as a dialable contact in... oh crap, forgot the terminal software I used to use... anyways just tell it to connect and it will dial incessantly until a modem answers. If a person picks up you do get the 'voice' thing and it hangs up and tries again.
It would be as if a thousand modems dialed out and were then silenced. Obie Wan.
Identifying who is old (remembers using them) and who is young. Identifying who is really old (can identify connection speed by listening to it connect.) Holding down papers in a stack. Keeping books on the shelf from falling over. The blinkenlights are pretty in a dark room. Soliciting complaints from a spouse who thinks they need to be thrown away. Cursing new PC manufacturers for not putting serial ports on new computers. and less commonly : connecting to another computer at an unGodly slow speed, making it faster to travel across country by Greyhound bus to pick up three DVD's worth of data than to actually transmit them across that data connection.
In Soviet Russia, for example, all hot water is boiled downtown in big Three Mile Island looking heat exchangers. They shut those down for between a week and a month (generally July / August time frame) for repairs - homes don't generally have hot water heaters so when they turn it off downtown... you are pretty much correct.
When it works (which is most of the time) you get unlimited hot water for long showers. When there is down time (occasionally because a hot water main leaks and needs to be repaired, or during the scheduled down time) you need to get creative.
Additionally you learn to appreciate all the things we take for granted. There hasn't been a single day in the past decade that I wasn't absolutely thankful that hot water (and plenty of it) came out of the shower head when I crank the knob.
Fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh cuts of meat, blueberries, watermellon, refills for your Cross pen, batteries for your calculator, a strapless bra that is your size... these are all things we take for granted here in the US but are often difficult to get abroad. I will never pass up the chance to consume my fill of fresh milk, pop tarts, oreo cookies, or champagne when available - I have learned that just because I take them for granted doesn't guarantee they are always going to be there.
The life lessons you learn overseas will last you a lifetime. I highly recommend them.
All things considered I agree with your post, with the following tweak : the college you attended influences the first real job you ever get, after that the last job you had has quite a bit more bearing on your next job than where you went to college. Just as your high school experience is instrumental in getting you into college, after which it is (for all intents and purposes) useless and better left unmentioned.
Given the opportunity to study overseas I would say go for it, assuming it was a school of at least some reputation. The North African equiv of Arkansas St (to agree with your example) might not be something I would recommend, but if the university has a decent reputation I would say go for it. Everybody says they want experience : living in a foreign country is quite an experience (I spent a couple of months overseas many years ago.) Plus, foreign women fall all over themselves fighting to be with you...
-I said either don't post, or present a valid argument. You responded with threats.
Additionally you said
a) In case you haven't noticed, I don't take this shit seriously.
I was taking it seriously, and personally. You didn't seem to notice even after I asked nicely to stop with the personal stuff you kept up with the emotional slashes and barbs. But I will agree with you on this one too, lets not take this shit seriously.
b) This is my way of venting off steam, testing ideas and debate strategies.
Either it is ok to come here and vent off steam, or it isn't. I was proposing that it wasn't, you were pressing that it was, and after I vented a lot of steam we both seem to agree that maybe it isn't a good idea.
c) When it comes to people who just parrot what everybody else is saying without actually providing any new thought or innovation, I just flame them because it's easier than answering the same questions over and over again.
You wanted thought and innovation, not merely parroting what others had said. You justified making personal attacks against me by saying that you 'don't take this shit seriously' and that it was ok for you to bully me because 'This is my way of venting off steam'. I asked nicely to remain on topic and leave the personal stuff out of it and you refused, saying that 'this is Slashdot. A site on the internet, therefor flamewars are almost a necessity.'
You bullied me with the Star Wars Kid comment, you bullied me with the 'How do you get up in the morning?' bit, and you bullied me with the comments about my parents. You were being a bully, particularly after I asked you nicely to stop. I did present you with an example of how words can be emotionally hurtful and how it is completely uncalled for in this forum. I never said I was going to do any of those things, I merely described a particularly horrifying fictional event using what you call 'new thought or innovation' and you took it personally. Maybe the things you said about me or my parents were just as emotionally hurtful to me as what I said to you.
I did describe the following future actions on my part : I said that next time we cross paths I was going to reach my hand out in reconciliation, and offer to take you out for lunch or drinks.
You are an intelligent guy, I saw that in your code and your work, and you display an excellent mastery of the English language. I also said that your online bullying of me wasn't representitive of the person you are in real life - it is easy for things to get out of hand when we are online using flashy nicknames but it isn't representative of who we, you or I, really are.
I agree with you, I went a little overboard because I was, as you said was perfectly acceptable behavior in a flamewar on Slashdot, venting. I reached out to say that this forum doesn't have to be personal and I said I was sorry for the post mentioning the GAIM thing - and instead of de-escalating it you lashed out at me again and bullied me some more. If I could clean up the post a little I would; in retrospect I stooped to the level you were playing at, throwing around personal slashes instead of keeping it professional and I genuinely apologize. For the record I did look into getting the post cleaned up or deleted but per the FAQ that is an impossibility :/. has a moderation system that works well and the post was in fact Off Topic, Flaimbait, and a Troll. Much like the post talking about my parents. Per the FAQ, additional comments clarifying the discussion are the means to further add to a thread posting, or clarify aspects of it that were originally misunderstood.
You and I seem to agree now, personal slashes are really not welcome here in technical discussions. Personally, I am going to go forward with a new perspective here in Slashdot : I am here to discuss and glean from the discussions on things I do not know much about. You and I will disagree on the technical merits of some issues, but I can agree to
Be advised there is an all points bulletin for Jason Shirley, white male approximately 5'10, 165lbs with a clean complexion and blond hair, to be apprehended for thought crimes. Please send a fully outfitted team for apprehension as the perp is considered armed and dangerous.
The apprehension is to happen at or about the following location:
20345 NW Colonnade Drive Hillsboro, OR 97124
Authorized agents are hereby instructed to start a 24x7 wiretap on (503)531-1409 listening for more evidence of thought crimes.
Do not, understand do not, apprehend the perp if he is alone; he is to be apprehended with an oriental female, approx 5'5" 110 lbs, delicate facial features and slight of build.
Both are to be taken out to the stronghold outside of town where the perp is to be bound and repeatedly subjected to blunt trauma until he no longer responds to that sort of stimulus. He is then to be left alone and the female bound and brutally gang raped by the senior black officers while he is forced to watch and listen. After that please pour one liter of methanol over the perp and light him on fire - a liter ought to be enough to burn the fatty solids out from under the epidermis across 90+ percent of his body. Video tape this event and save it for use as a psychological torture for the female. If he survives, proceed with blunt trauna to the head and torso until dead.
Retain the female, keeping her prisoner and having her brutally gang raped by the black officers and beaten daily for four weeks, sever both of her achilles tendons and sever the tendons on the back of her hands rendering her phalanges inoperative and a complete invalid. During the nights of these four weeks replay the video tape of Jason being burned alive, volume turned up to insure his screames are forever imprinted in her nightmares. Once she is verifiably pregnant with the baby of her rapists wrap her up in a blanket and dump her in town where she will be found and receive medical attention - the intent is not to kill her, but to merely destroy her life after letting her know that if Jason had simply been nice when given the opportunity, it wouldn't have happened, and her mulatto baby will be a lifelong reminder of the event.
-:-
Just kidding Jason.
Jason, I understand your stance perfectly. You like to stir the bees nest and talk smack in forums. You admittedly take an unpopular stance merely for the sake of argument, "testing ideas and debate strategies." You lash out with personal attacks without really considering that there is a person on each end of this connection. I reached out, asked nicely - but you seem to get some sort of excitement that comes from going outside the digital realm, dragging real life into it. You are not Xerithane (13482), you are Jason Shirley - a real live person with feelings, a nice cushy consulting job in Oregon hacking on Unix machines (hacking = the original definition, not the media bastardized definition) and enjoy providing your girlfriend with the nicer things in life.
Insults and laughing at people is a perfectly valid "debate strategy" inasmuch as lighting a man on fire is a perfectly valid "debate strategy" - but neither is particularly appealing to me right now. You propose that copyright infringement can be interpreted as stealing, I suggest that both are explicitly described on the lawbooks and are two entirely different things. We can discuss that like two professionals in this industry without bringing my parents, the Star Wars Kid, or your girlfriend into the discussion - can't we?
I tell you what, next time I see you I am going to reach out as my way of reconciliation, shake your hand and invite you out to lunch or out for a drink. We don't have to discuss copyright laws because we already agree to disagree on the matter. I won't even bring it up. I will just be me in real life, not my/. persona, and you can just be you. I find it amazing how bad this conversation has turned given the way you act, and are perceived by the people that know you in real life. Don't be mean on/. Jason, it isn't necessary and it doesn't represent who you really are in real life. Just be you.
You know what, I'm gonna take back my last post. We may have differing opinions on a few of these topics, but I am a professional in this industry and I invite you do also be a professional representative of the industry.
I am going to make the first step and offer enough : enough with the personal attacks and enough with the disrespect. If you have opinions that do not match up with mine I encourage you to express yourself on the merits of your opinion without dragging personal slurs into the forum. I am going to ask you individually to be nice, and allow me the opportunity to do the same.
If you are the kind of guy that looks back and says '... if he had only asked me nicely...' then see this for exactly that : I am asking nicely : lets keep it professional, and check the personal 'tudes at the door.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually most online games are designed to be playable at dialup speeds, aka 3,000 bytes per second absolute max sustained throughput.
... I guess that if you are a gamer online games are not much of a concern but if you wanted to host a server - that would pretty much saturate your uplink and if it was a popular server you could keep it saturated. And you are right, that isn't something your ISP would particularly appreciate.
I think Everquest peaks at about 1,000 bytes per second sustained most of the time, genererally running between 600 and 900cps combined in both directions.
The newer Quake type FPS games recommend 3,000 cps per client if you are hosting a server so if you had a 128 kilobit / set upstream cap the guidelines suggest 4 users connected would peg that
Actually I think the client / server communications in Everquest are encrypted - the reason being of course to keep the 1337 crew from knowing where all the good lewt dropping mobs are popping ... but if he is a good typist and has a decent laptop he could spend half his day in EQ doing his secret discussions.
Given how determined the 1337 crew is about getting their phat lewtz and how determined Sony is about not having that happen, four years in the making has made EQ a pretty secure communications (typing, not voice) environment. For non-classified information it ought to be PLENTY secure, and runs on a normal dial up connection.
"Be careful of the middle rail, it is pushing 600 volts." ..."
"It's not the volts that kills you, it's the amps."
"Well how many amps are we talking?"
"Enough to push a train
800 Watts? Jesus man, my microwave only does 700 watts and that is enough to cook a chicken. I can only envision 800 watts of microwave energy on a focused beam, on the end of a pointy stick. Look like something out of Ghostbusters.
I am just curious ... is this something they (the Feds) really look for? I mean is it a real concern if someone is overbroadcasting, or is it something they use to trump up charges on someone they had planned on hassling anyways.
I have one of these and love it. One thing I forgot to mention in my description above was that it is very, very loud. As in keep the door closed so people in the next room can hear the television loud.
If you don't mind everybody knowing when you are typing a flurry of responses on the computer, then it is a great (!) keyboard.
The keyboard you want is IBM part number 1391401 - this is the original keyboard from the PS/2 era and is built like a Tonka Truck. Weighs about 6lbs, the connection where the cable plugs into the keyboard is an AMP connection (that connection cost more than an entire current day cheapo keyboard) and it doesn't have the goofy Windows key to mess you up by bringing up the Start menu during important Quake / Unreal battles.
Every part of this keyboard was overengineered (remember the case of the original IBM AT computers) and worth every penny of the original list price of $400 (in 1984/1985.)
Don't be afraid to get a used one, it may take some cleaning but it will still be rock solid. If you get one and decide you don't want it, maybe I will take it off your hands in exchange for one of my Logitech OEM ones in the closet.
A faster CPU would not be nearly as beneficial in your case as a dual CPU setup (or potentially a hyperthreading setup.)
None of the programs individually are going to go any faster, but the system as a whole is going to go a lot faster, and feel more responsive also.
The sweet spot I have found :
Wait until you just can't bear to run whatever new program has come out that you need (want) to run. For a bunch of us that is going to be TFC2/HL2/DoomIII/DNF - whichever comes out first.
Suffer for a month longer on your system, try running it with all the settings turned down.
Whatever is the fastest machine out there, come down two steps (in this case the 3.2GHz-Xtreme is fastest, the 3.2GHz is next, dropping one more to the 3.0GHz with HT) and that is pretty much the sweetest spot on the curve. They charge a mega premium for the best. They charge a medium premium for the second best, but the third one is where that flattens out. Figure out how much RAM you think you need and buy twice as much, ditto drive space. If the SATA drives have gotten reasonable in pricing I recommend two of those in a RAID 0 array if performance is your thing, else just go with a bunch of IDE space. As for video card, however much you have left in your budget.
I am not even going to pretend to know what kind of read/write caching is available on the Linux developers platform, but on Win2000 machines I have found (particularly when doing massive C++ compiles) that adding a ton of memory to the system (ok not exactly a ton, but upgrading from 128M to 1152M) makes a WORLD of difference - Win2k uses the extra memory to cache (read/write, configurable in the settings under the device manager) writes back to the drive and then flush them all out at once. If 1G doesn't seem to be doing it, crank it up to 2G. If you have more than 2G of source code for a single compile ... I will buy you a beer or something.
Granted a faster CPU doesn't hurt, but a 1.2GHz box with a Gig of RAM is going to outrun a 2.4GHz machine with 128M of RAM.
All a matter of time.
I remember reading once in a Usenet thread - some guy was trolling and asked 'will my P90, overclocked to 100MHz, be enough to handle the flight combat simulators you guys are discussing?'
The first time I read it it was hilarious because he was either bragging or dreaming, the P90 chip was out in limited supply at the time and was easily 50% faster than the common P60 machine used by the sim-gamers, not to mention the overclocking it. Of course it was going to be fast enough.
The second time I saw it (a few years later) it was hilarious because the bare minimum system for any sim/game was a PII/300 with a 3D graphics card and his P90 was so pitifully underpowered it didn't have a chance.
So we get to enjoy the 'is this CPU enough' question twice, generally, for any given CPU. Just a matter of timing.
They outsourced the growing of enough medicinal herb to fill the needs of 50 people, paying $7.5M Canadian ($4.2M(?)USD) for the project. It would have been the perfect opportunity to kick some SERIOUS cash to someone's family or political supporters. I don't know a lot about drugs, but I do remember someone once saying to me 'the government is the only institution on the planet that could lose money selling drugs.' Not the Canadian government per se, but just any current 'good guy' government.
:-)
I didn't believe it. Now I do
It would be funny if the government was spiking it with carbon tetracycline or something and after all the users got sick and died the government could point to it and say 'see we told you so : marijuana kills you!'
Ok not exactly funny haha, but funny in a 'CIA involvement in Cambodia during the late 60s' sort of way.
According to recent reports, Canada has a $7.5M contract to have the marijuana grown in secure underground facilities, the fruits of that labor serving that sweet government weed to an estimated 50 people.
:: government cheeze : cheese.
That's $150,000 per person to grow something that will grow like a weed (hence the name) if some seeds are merely scattererd around (potting soil in styrofoam cups works well too, I have heard), and from all accounts the following is totally true - government weed : weed
The new Government Weed - it may cost a lot, but at least it tastes bad.
300 : sounds like static, no actual tones.
1200 : static followed by a single tone for about two seconds.
2400 : static followed by the same tone you heard at 1200, after about a second the pitch of that tone gets higher and lasts about a second.
There are no 4800 or 7200 connections under the most commonly used (that I am aware of) protocols, with the exception of a few off-color fax machine emulations.
Actually you could set up the number as a dialable contact in ... oh crap, forgot the terminal software I used to use ... anyways just tell it to connect and it will dial incessantly until a modem answers. If a person picks up you do get the 'voice' thing and it hangs up and tries again.
It would be as if a thousand modems dialed out and were then silenced. Obie Wan.
I have a few. They are used for :
Identifying who is old (remembers using them) and who is young.
Identifying who is really old (can identify connection speed by listening to it connect.)
Holding down papers in a stack.
Keeping books on the shelf from falling over.
The blinkenlights are pretty in a dark room.
Soliciting complaints from a spouse who thinks they need to be thrown away.
Cursing new PC manufacturers for not putting serial ports on new computers.
and less commonly : connecting to another computer at an unGodly slow speed, making it faster to travel across country by Greyhound bus to pick up three DVD's worth of data than to actually transmit them across that data connection.
Oh man, that was an awesome flick. If you are going to sign up for CRS (aka 'The Game') be sure you have on clean underwear at all times.
I don't remember from the movie : did he get his watch back or not when it was all said and done?
Dear IRS,
I would like to cancel my subscription.
Please remove me from your mailing list.
In Soviet Russia, for example, all hot water is boiled downtown in big Three Mile Island looking heat exchangers. They shut those down for between a week and a month (generally July / August time frame) for repairs - homes don't generally have hot water heaters so when they turn it off downtown ... you are pretty much correct.
When it works (which is most of the time) you get unlimited hot water for long showers. When there is down time (occasionally because a hot water main leaks and needs to be repaired, or during the scheduled down time) you need to get creative.
Additionally you learn to appreciate all the things we take for granted. There hasn't been a single day in the past decade that I wasn't absolutely thankful that hot water (and plenty of it) came out of the shower head when I crank the knob.
... these are all things we take for granted here in the US but are often difficult to get abroad. I will never pass up the chance to consume my fill of fresh milk, pop tarts, oreo cookies, or champagne when available - I have learned that just because I take them for granted doesn't guarantee they are always going to be there.
Fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh cuts of meat, blueberries, watermellon, refills for your Cross pen, batteries for your calculator, a strapless bra that is your size
The life lessons you learn overseas will last you a lifetime. I highly recommend them.
Unless of course you attended Arkansas State.
...
All things considered I agree with your post, with the following tweak : the college you attended influences the first real job you ever get, after that the last job you had has quite a bit more bearing on your next job than where you went to college. Just as your high school experience is instrumental in getting you into college, after which it is (for all intents and purposes) useless and better left unmentioned.
Given the opportunity to study overseas I would say go for it, assuming it was a school of at least some reputation. The North African equiv of Arkansas St (to agree with your example) might not be something I would recommend, but if the university has a decent reputation I would say go for it. Everybody says they want experience : living in a foreign country is quite an experience (I spent a couple of months overseas many years ago.) Plus, foreign women fall all over themselves fighting to be with you
-I said either don't post, or present a valid argument. You responded with threats.
/. has a moderation system that works well and the post was in fact Off Topic, Flaimbait, and a Troll. Much like the post talking about my parents. Per the FAQ, additional comments clarifying the discussion are the means to further add to a thread posting, or clarify aspects of it that were originally misunderstood.
Additionally you said
a) In case you haven't noticed, I don't take this shit seriously.
I was taking it seriously, and personally. You didn't seem to notice even after I asked nicely to stop with the personal stuff you kept up with the emotional slashes and barbs. But I will agree with you on this one too, lets not take this shit seriously.
b) This is my way of venting off steam, testing ideas and debate strategies.
Either it is ok to come here and vent off steam, or it isn't. I was proposing that it wasn't, you were pressing that it was, and after I vented a lot of steam we both seem to agree that maybe it isn't a good idea.
c) When it comes to people who just parrot what everybody else is saying without actually providing any new thought or innovation, I just flame them because it's easier than answering the same questions over and over again.
You wanted thought and innovation, not merely parroting what others had said. You justified making personal attacks against me by saying that you 'don't take this shit seriously' and that it was ok for you to bully me because 'This is my way of venting off steam'. I asked nicely to remain on topic and leave the personal stuff out of it and you refused, saying that 'this is Slashdot. A site on the internet, therefor flamewars are almost a necessity.'
You bullied me with the Star Wars Kid comment, you bullied me with the 'How do you get up in the morning?' bit, and you bullied me with the comments about my parents. You were being a bully, particularly after I asked you nicely to stop. I did present you with an example of how words can be emotionally hurtful and how it is completely uncalled for in this forum. I never said I was going to do any of those things, I merely described a particularly horrifying fictional event using what you call 'new thought or innovation' and you took it personally. Maybe the things you said about me or my parents were just as emotionally hurtful to me as what I said to you.
I did describe the following future actions on my part : I said that next time we cross paths I was going to reach my hand out in reconciliation, and offer to take you out for lunch or drinks.
You are an intelligent guy, I saw that in your code and your work, and you display an excellent mastery of the English language. I also said that your online bullying of me wasn't representitive of the person you are in real life - it is easy for things to get out of hand when we are online using flashy nicknames but it isn't representative of who we, you or I, really are.
I agree with you, I went a little overboard because I was, as you said was perfectly acceptable behavior in a flamewar on Slashdot, venting. I reached out to say that this forum doesn't have to be personal and I said I was sorry for the post mentioning the GAIM thing - and instead of de-escalating it you lashed out at me again and bullied me some more. If I could clean up the post a little I would; in retrospect I stooped to the level you were playing at, throwing around personal slashes instead of keeping it professional and I genuinely apologize. For the record I did look into getting the post cleaned up or deleted but per the FAQ that is an impossibility :
You and I seem to agree now, personal slashes are really not welcome here in technical discussions. Personally, I am going to go forward with a new perspective here in Slashdot : I am here to discuss and glean from the discussions on things I do not know much about. You and I will disagree on the technical merits of some issues, but I can agree to
A) I didn't make any threats, and
B) I asked nicely to knock it off.
Be advised there is an all points bulletin for Jason Shirley, white male approximately 5'10, 165lbs with a clean complexion and blond hair, to be apprehended for thought crimes. Please send a fully outfitted team for apprehension as the perp is considered armed and dangerous.
:
/. persona, and you can just be you. I find it amazing how bad this conversation has turned given the way you act, and are perceived by the people that know you in real life. Don't be mean on /. Jason, it isn't necessary and it doesn't represent who you really are in real life. Just be you.
The apprehension is to happen at or about the following location
20345 NW Colonnade Drive
Hillsboro, OR 97124
Authorized agents are hereby instructed to start a 24x7 wiretap on (503)531-1409 listening for more evidence of thought crimes.
Do not, understand do not, apprehend the perp if he is alone; he is to be apprehended with an oriental female, approx 5'5" 110 lbs, delicate facial features and slight of build.
Both are to be taken out to the stronghold outside of town where the perp is to be bound and repeatedly subjected to blunt trauma until he no longer responds to that sort of stimulus. He is then to be left alone and the female bound and brutally gang raped by the senior black officers while he is forced to watch and listen. After that please pour one liter of methanol over the perp and light him on fire - a liter ought to be enough to burn the fatty solids out from under the epidermis across 90+ percent of his body. Video tape this event and save it for use as a psychological torture for the female. If he survives, proceed with blunt trauna to the head and torso until dead.
Retain the female, keeping her prisoner and having her brutally gang raped by the black officers and beaten daily for four weeks, sever both of her achilles tendons and sever the tendons on the back of her hands rendering her phalanges inoperative and a complete invalid. During the nights of these four weeks replay the video tape of Jason being burned alive, volume turned up to insure his screames are forever imprinted in her nightmares. Once she is verifiably pregnant with the baby of her rapists wrap her up in a blanket and dump her in town where she will be found and receive medical attention - the intent is not to kill her, but to merely destroy her life after letting her know that if Jason had simply been nice when given the opportunity, it wouldn't have happened, and her mulatto baby will be a lifelong reminder of the event.
-:-
Just kidding Jason.
Jason, I understand your stance perfectly. You like to stir the bees nest and talk smack in forums. You admittedly take an unpopular stance merely for the sake of argument, "testing ideas and debate strategies." You lash out with personal attacks without really considering that there is a person on each end of this connection. I reached out, asked nicely - but you seem to get some sort of excitement that comes from going outside the digital realm, dragging real life into it. You are not Xerithane (13482), you are Jason Shirley - a real live person with feelings, a nice cushy consulting job in Oregon hacking on Unix machines (hacking = the original definition, not the media bastardized definition) and enjoy providing your girlfriend with the nicer things in life.
Insults and laughing at people is a perfectly valid "debate strategy" inasmuch as lighting a man on fire is a perfectly valid "debate strategy" - but neither is particularly appealing to me right now. You propose that copyright infringement can be interpreted as stealing, I suggest that both are explicitly described on the lawbooks and are two entirely different things. We can discuss that like two professionals in this industry without bringing my parents, the Star Wars Kid, or your girlfriend into the discussion - can't we?
I tell you what, next time I see you I am going to reach out as my way of reconciliation, shake your hand and invite you out to lunch or out for a drink. We don't have to discuss copyright laws because we already agree to disagree on the matter. I won't even bring it up. I will just be me in real life, not my
You know what, I'm gonna take back my last post. We may have differing opinions on a few of these topics, but I am a professional in this industry and I invite you do also be a professional representative of the industry.
...' then see this for exactly that : I am asking nicely : lets keep it professional, and check the personal 'tudes at the door.
I am going to make the first step and offer enough : enough with the personal attacks and enough with the disrespect. If you have opinions that do not match up with mine I encourage you to express yourself on the merits of your opinion without dragging personal slurs into the forum. I am going to ask you individually to be nice, and allow me the opportunity to do the same.
If you are the kind of guy that looks back and says '... if he had only asked me nicely