Thank God, I'm not an American. I don't know anyone willing to sit through 4 hours of "Pre-Game", 3 hours of the game, then another 2 hours of "Post-Game Wrap-up".
Just consider it a really strange religious ritual. Sort of like the old Latin Roman Catholic mass. Merely sitting through it without falling asleep provided tons 'o grace
Catch me if you can....
on
Ask Kevin Mitnick
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Have you seen the movie "Catch Me If You Can"? If so, do you see any similarities between the main character of that movie and your own life? And what are the differences between the two stories (aside from the obvious of the era and the fact you did not actually steal $$$)?
Do you intend to go back to Ham Radio? If so, will you be using any digital modes, or just FM/SSB? And on which repeaters in the LA area will you be hanging out?
Home beverage making will satisfy most basic home lab needs. Making wine in particular requires a good deal of practical chem - balancing acidity, converting percent sugar into percent alcohol (my fave), recognizing the awful smelly compounds that result when the process goes bad (mmm... mercaptans).
U.C. Davis has some nice information on the subject. You get to play with pH meters, refractometers, measure specific gravity, titrate total acidity, figure out how much K2CO3 to counter high acidity, etc.
Suppose the following scenario: you are kidnapped, taken to a small room and tortured, then someone asks you for classified information, or to betray your country, or to do something that every fiber in your being resists. Then that person proceeds to enumerate the names, ages, addresses, and medical conditions of your family members. Perhaps they include a bit of data on where they go out to eat, or where they work, of if there's an alarm system on their house. They don't have to say where they got the data, the very fact that they have it at all could lead you to believe that they have much, much more of it.... Information is the most valuable tool an enemy can have.
So what you are saying is that if the art is any good at all, it will still impress outside of the context of its creation? Basically, if people are still in awe of a repetition many years after, then it is good?
So we can enjoy Bach, even though we do not live in early 18th century Germany?
Hence art designed to be destroyed is inherently bad art?
Renting an RV, for example, is a ridiculous way for most people to experience the event.
Well... There is plenty to experience at Burning Man, without also experiencing sleeping in the dust. Handling the RV was itself an experience. An RV should not be an excuse to isolate oneself, but creature comforts help a lot in making it bearable.
Just find something that you can offer as a gift, and don't just buy a box of 1000 glow sticks, there's plenty of that already.
Drat, and we thought this was such a great idea. No wonder we didn't make many friends there. Isn't there a Burning Man FAQ somewhere that talks about stuff like that?
They do get pretty close to the "leave no trace". Bureau of Land Management requires this as a condition of their continued use of the playa. BLM checks both immediately after the event and after the first strong rains in the winter (to catch items buried under the dust). Considering 25,000+ people, the playa is amazingly free of trash.
Been there twice. Book sounds right on as far as the art and attempt to build a community goes. Some amazingly well crafted art, some incredibly funny stuff (the parking meter in the middle of nowhere...). The temple is even better than the Man, IMHO.
Burning Man is not for the fastidious - you are in an alkaline desert with no public facilities. We took a rented RV (complete plumbing, etc.). These small comforts cost a bit. The rental places are hip to this event, and they require an entire week's rental. The Oakland El Monte RV rental place is very cool, the guy in charge knows the Burning Man head honcho, has Burning man posters all over, etc.
I get a sense though that all the talk about community really applies to the few hundred hard-core burners. Not much effort is made to integrate newbies into this community. You sort of have to wander around and find thing hit-or-miss. Maybe this is a flaw in other intentional communities, where insiders are tightly knit, and outsiders may feel unwelcome.
Lots of neat stuff there however a realistic portrayal would also show zero visibility dust storms, long lines at porta-potties, etc. There are also several notorious speed traps along the road - Nevada Highway Patrol must make a mint here. It was not always a comfortable experience. Knowing what to bring is very important. For example, lots of old terry cloth towels, to wipe off the dust. Oh, and bring some sort of beverage to share with your neighbors, and do so as soon as you get there. Helps break the ice and you get to know the folks in your vicinity.
If you go, stay over Sunday night for the Temple burn. Also, as it tends to be windy, maybe a large kite to pass the late afternoons
The dream of being a 'company man' that the baby-boomer generation had...
This was actually the dream of the boomer's parents, who went from WWII into lifetime jobs in corporate America.
The first wave of boomers got wacked in the 1972-75 recession. The second wave in the 1979-1983 one.
Your basic premise is correct though - the dream was shattered long ago.
If you learned some AS/400 (CL is good, RPG maybe, COBOL no) and also learned (or kept current on) more contemporary technology, you'd be in an excellent position job-wise. You see, most people under say 40 yrs won't touch a mainframe or an AS/400. You are, I'm afraid, correct in stating that many aging "big blue" techies are getting on in years and aren't very flexible about their technology of choice
Being able to straddle both worlds would allow you to fill in after the old geezers retire, makes you smart enough to know how to integrate these technologies, and gives you an advantage over your peers who could care less about IBM big systems.
The companies that are keeping OS/390 *NEED* technical staff that are familiar with these systems and know Java, TCP/IP, LDAP, PKI, and the various other new features these systems support.
IBM learned from its "near death" experience in the late 1980's that it needs to support open standards and must move with the market (rather than moving the market). The latest versions of OS/390 and OS/400 support some very interesting technologies borrowed from the open systems world. You classic grey-haired mainframe types may not be comfortable with these - but you are!
Also, it will expand your understanding of practical computer science to know that not everything is UNIX or Windows, that VM did not start with VMware, and that the AS/400 is able to run 64 bit code without recompiling (and how it does that).
And if you are worrying about these machines going away in 10 years because they are GUI-based - pundits have been saying the mainframe is going to vanish in 10 years for the last 20 years. The DEC VAX didn't kill them, PC LANs didn't, client/server didn't, and UNIX didn't. Seriously, look at old trade rags from the late 1980's full of predictions of the mainframe's immediate demise.
Don't worry too much. In another 30 years you will see aging 50+ year old C# programmers hanging on to their "dinosaur" technology with all their life, afraid to learn about anything new (which means anything that didn't exist when they were 25 years old).
I look at the younger programmers around me and think, yup, when that guy gets old he will be the Java/Linux/C# curmudgeon who refuses to change. Just gie him a few wrinkles and grey hairs.
"Has the balls," or in the more likely case, has the family/school connections to bum enough money off of banks or investors.
Yes, I've found it amazing what a $50,000 loan will do to make some recent college graduates into sucessful entrepeneurs. They all seem to believe it is only their own hard work and intelligence, though. What was the phrase, "born on third base, believes they hit a triple"
Hmm.. Most bosses I've met have risen to that height by dint of having gone to the right schools, joined the proper fraternities, playing golf with the right people, and being absolutely incompetent at actually doing technical work (and also quite incapable at project management, BTW).
Most manager and executives I've known are smart only at greasing up political connections in their organization, digging up dirt on people, pulling strings, and knowing who to brown nose at the right time.
I've worked a few years as a consultant and auditor, and have spoken with some of the "best". I have not been impressed. Most of the time their underlings are working frantically to compensate for idiotic decisions made at the top.
Oh, and I've found many of your "driven, determined" entrepeneurs to be absolute tyrants in practice. They care more for the condition of the copy machine than they do for their own employees. God help you if you come down with some extended medical condition - expect to lose your job (regardless of what the law says or not).
You can get any gun you want (legal or illegal) into this country, or any other, if you have a strong enough desire to. No law will prevent that. If you don't believe me, then why does Britain have problems with gun violence?
And you can get any sort of mind altering substance, legal or not, if you have a strong enough desire to do so. Even countries that execute dope users (PRC) cannot prevent this traffic
You are correct in noting that assault rifles are not practical weapons with which to commit crimes. Yet mind altering drugs and the paraphenalia used to consume them are even LESS likely to be used as adjuncts to violent crime. When was the last time some one held up a liquor store with a bong? Point proven!
Sounds like a good argument to legalize dope to me. Toke up!
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Just consider it a really strange religious ritual. Sort of like the old Latin Roman Catholic mass. Merely sitting through it without falling asleep provided tons 'o grace
Have you seen the movie "Catch Me If You Can"? If so, do you see any similarities between the main character of that movie and your own life? And what are the differences between the two stories (aside from the obvious of the era and the fact you did not actually steal $$$)?
Do you intend to go back to Ham Radio? If so, will you be using any digital modes, or just FM/SSB? And on which repeaters in the LA area will you be hanging out?
And they need women . Of course, they should have no problem, as earth girls are easy
U.C. Davis has some nice information on the subject. You get to play with pH meters, refractometers, measure specific gravity, titrate total acidity, figure out how much K2CO3 to counter high acidity, etc.
But the Germans who threw the phrase back at their government undoubtedly met with an untimely demise...
Hmm... Sounds a lot like Total Information Awareness at work
Yes there is. As far as medical data is concerned it is called HIPAA.
Put some sort of very bright blinky-flashy-colorful light in your vehicle!
If you don't you will NEVER find it after you get back from the burn!
(in the dark, all RVs look alike)
So we can enjoy Bach, even though we do not live in early 18th century Germany?
Hence art designed to be destroyed is inherently bad art?
This looks interesting. Have you a reference (URL preferably)?
Well... There is plenty to experience at Burning Man, without also experiencing sleeping in the dust. Handling the RV was itself an experience. An RV should not be an excuse to isolate oneself, but creature comforts help a lot in making it bearable.
Just find something that you can offer as a gift, and don't just buy a box of 1000 glow sticks, there's plenty of that already.
Drat, and we thought this was such a great idea. No wonder we didn't make many friends there. Isn't there a Burning Man FAQ somewhere that talks about stuff like that?
True. Some people just aren't fortunate enough to mature into the "cynical curmudgeon" phase of life. Pity them.
They do get pretty close to the "leave no trace". Bureau of Land Management requires this as a condition of their continued use of the playa. BLM checks both immediately after the event and after the first strong rains in the winter (to catch items buried under the dust). Considering 25,000+ people, the playa is amazingly free of trash.
So you find jazz improvisation apalling as well?
Burning Man is not for the fastidious - you are in an alkaline desert with no public facilities. We took a rented RV (complete plumbing, etc.). These small comforts cost a bit. The rental places are hip to this event, and they require an entire week's rental. The Oakland El Monte RV rental place is very cool, the guy in charge knows the Burning Man head honcho, has Burning man posters all over, etc.
I get a sense though that all the talk about community really applies to the few hundred hard-core burners. Not much effort is made to integrate newbies into this community. You sort of have to wander around and find thing hit-or-miss. Maybe this is a flaw in other intentional communities, where insiders are tightly knit, and outsiders may feel unwelcome.
Lots of neat stuff there however a realistic portrayal would also show zero visibility dust storms, long lines at porta-potties, etc. There are also several notorious speed traps along the road - Nevada Highway Patrol must make a mint here. It was not always a comfortable experience. Knowing what to bring is very important. For example, lots of old terry cloth towels, to wipe off the dust. Oh, and bring some sort of beverage to share with your neighbors, and do so as soon as you get there. Helps break the ice and you get to know the folks in your vicinity.
If you go, stay over Sunday night for the Temple burn. Also, as it tends to be windy, maybe a large kite to pass the late afternoons
This was actually the dream of the boomer's parents, who went from WWII into lifetime jobs in corporate America.
The first wave of boomers got wacked in the 1972-75 recession. The second wave in the 1979-1983 one.
Your basic premise is correct though - the dream was shattered long ago.
Try Frank Soltis' Book for the absolute best techie discussion of the AS/400, by one of its original developers.
Being able to straddle both worlds would allow you to fill in after the old geezers retire, makes you smart enough to know how to integrate these technologies, and gives you an advantage over your peers who could care less about IBM big systems.
The companies that are keeping OS/390 *NEED* technical staff that are familiar with these systems and know Java, TCP/IP, LDAP, PKI, and the various other new features these systems support.
IBM learned from its "near death" experience in the late 1980's that it needs to support open standards and must move with the market (rather than moving the market). The latest versions of OS/390 and OS/400 support some very interesting technologies borrowed from the open systems world. You classic grey-haired mainframe types may not be comfortable with these - but you are!
Also, it will expand your understanding of practical computer science to know that not everything is UNIX or Windows, that VM did not start with VMware, and that the AS/400 is able to run 64 bit code without recompiling (and how it does that).
And if you are worrying about these machines going away in 10 years because they are GUI-based - pundits have been saying the mainframe is going to vanish in 10 years for the last 20 years. The DEC VAX didn't kill them, PC LANs didn't, client/server didn't, and UNIX didn't. Seriously, look at old trade rags from the late 1980's full of predictions of the mainframe's immediate demise.
I look at the younger programmers around me and think, yup, when that guy gets old he will be the Java/Linux/C# curmudgeon who refuses to change. Just gie him a few wrinkles and grey hairs.
Who knows, you might even end up there......
Yes, I've found it amazing what a $50,000 loan will do to make some recent college graduates into sucessful entrepeneurs. They all seem to believe it is only their own hard work and intelligence, though. What was the phrase, "born on third base, believes they hit a triple"
Most manager and executives I've known are smart only at greasing up political connections in their organization, digging up dirt on people, pulling strings, and knowing who to brown nose at the right time.
I've worked a few years as a consultant and auditor, and have spoken with some of the "best". I have not been impressed. Most of the time their underlings are working frantically to compensate for idiotic decisions made at the top.
Oh, and I've found many of your "driven, determined" entrepeneurs to be absolute tyrants in practice. They care more for the condition of the copy machine than they do for their own employees. God help you if you come down with some extended medical condition - expect to lose your job (regardless of what the law says or not).
OK here is the link I meant to include in the prior post. Will remeber to always preview before posting...
A home nuclear reactor kit complete with Boy Scout merit badge.
And you can get any sort of mind altering substance, legal or not, if you have a strong enough desire to do so. Even countries that execute dope users (PRC) cannot prevent this traffic
You are correct in noting that assault rifles are not practical weapons with which to commit crimes. Yet mind altering drugs and the paraphenalia used to consume them are even LESS likely to be used as adjuncts to violent crime. When was the last time some one held up a liquor store with a bong? Point proven!
Sounds like a good argument to legalize dope to me. Toke up!