You pay to receive text messages? What the hell is that all about then?
Kind of explains why consumer debt is so high eh?;)
I had the same reaction when I tried to get a US phone and they told me I'd pay for messages received. The worst part was they thought I was the crazy one for not thinking it was normal.
A close analogy is a book store. You walk in, pick a book and start reading. If after a few pages you discover that a hard sci-fi that you were after is, in reality, a pink romance that some other reader put onto the wrong shelf... you just put the book back on the shelf and walk away. The store won't charge you for the book or even for a part of it. The charge comes only if you decide to keep the book.
Your analogy sounds like a video game demo. Nobody is going to get mad at you for reading a few pages and walking out after deciding it's not for you (some theaters will refund in the first half hour as well) but if you were interested/entertained enough to read the whole book, watch the whole movie or play the whole game or a substantial portion of it why wouldn't you pay for it?
There is also a situation with games when you buy a game and it is unplayable for one reason or another. It may not work on your PC, or it may require dexterity of a 5 y/o child on the PS3, or (like some GTA games) it may require insanely complicated, one-shot-only sequences (everyone raise your hands who remember the RC helicopter with demolition charges) that take 30 minutes to play through with no save and with thousand ways to screw up. If the game was downloaded for free it can be justly tossed, and the developer shouldn't be entitled to any money for producing such a horrible episode without a way to skip it. The dance sequence in GTA San Andreas is another example; was Rockstar totally insane by insisting that only people with a kind of a musical talent should be allowed to proceed through the game?
There's a big difference between unplayable ("may not work on your PC") and hard/pointless/unfun ("may require insanely complicated, one-shot-only sequences"). Of course you shouldn't have to pay for a game that doesn't work, that includes game-breaking bugs, but does all the value of a game disappear because you disliked a part of it? Have the hours you were entertained suddenly evaporated because of one part that annoys you? If I could get a refund on every game that ever pissed me off I'd have a net cost near zero.
If you don't think the content is worth the money either wait for the price to drop till it is worth the money or skip it entirely (e.g. Assassin's Creed 2 sounds good but the DRM is something I'm not willing to put up with). If you don't know what might piss you off in a game go out and read some reviews. If you wait long enough you'll be able to hear from real people who run into the real issues and decide beforehand if the game is worth it to you. For how easy it is to find reviews before you read/watch/play something I think it's pretty hard to say it's fair for you to use the full product without paying for it. If you buy the game and want to crack it, by all means. Want to digitize your entire book collection? I'll lend you my camera. Want to rip all your movies? I'll show you how. But I can't get behind having a copy of something that hasn't been purchased; either it's worth the money to you and you have it or it isn't worth the money and you don't.
How about contextual sharing? I.e. being able to decide exactly who sees what, through a simple interface (See the tabs on the top in this screenshot) so that your coworkers and your drinking buddies see different things.
If that feature is enough of a reason for people to switch to Diaspora Facebook will probably just create its own implementation of it. Facebook is big enough that it doesn't really have to innovate to stay ahead anymore.
And then there's privacy. I know that I could scare a few people into Diaspora just by showing how much my (entirely unrelated) friends can see about them on Facebook. Most of my friends are actually pretty privacy concerned.
Most of the people I've spoken to aren't aware of the privacy issues with Facebook and out of that group, many "have nothing to hide" and making them care has so far been unsuccessful. Your average user, which is who you want using your product, doesn't care about their privacy as long as their email isn't hacked, their bank account isn't drained, and they can still play Farmville.
I will give Diaspora a fair chance but for how long the Facebook privacy fiasco has been going on it's hard not to be at least a little jaded about social networks.
Even better, DON'T USE GMAIL for your private and sensitive info....
Even better, don't store your private and sensitive info in plain text on the Internet.
If your email is more sensitive than a postcard use PGP/GPG to provide reasonable security. And if it's too sensitive to have a copy stored on someone else's servers either host it yourself or keep a physical copy in a safe instead.
And while it's hard to find cooking ingredients that are free...
If you don't mind learning to forage it's actually pretty easy to find free food. I mostly top pizzas with cooked nettles and put thinly sliced burdock root into stir fry but dandelion salad and wild raspberry tea are pretty good too. Apparently you can make good tea from pine needles (lots of vitamin C) but I've never tried it myself.
If you're going to harvest nettles make sure you wear gloves. They won't sting after you've cooked or dried them but up to that point they can be pretty unpleasant.
Well said. I am a geek and a fabulous cook at the same time. I enjoy being in the kitchen as much as I enjoy at being in front of one of my Linux boxes !!
Why not do both?
I have an old laptop on my kitchen counter. It makes a handy recipe database and being able to try new recipes from online without having to print them is a treat. It's not a bad idea to cover the keyboard with plastic wrap though.
To echo Hatta's sentiment, some of us like to extend our attention to detail beyond the geek cave. The engine that is your brain is only as good as the fuel you give it so knowing how to cook properly is an important skill.
Slashdot Mirror
That's why I run emacs instead!
Are you thinking what i'm thinking?
I doubt it, seeing as the line is "are you pondering what I'm pondering?". ;)
It's FORTY-FUCKING-TWO
One after another or all at the same time?
Probably one after another since there don't appear to be enough orifices shared between two for forty.
What?!?!?!?!?
You pay to receive text messages? What the hell is that all about then?
Kind of explains why consumer debt is so high eh? ;)
I had the same reaction when I tried to get a US phone and they told me I'd pay for messages received. The worst part was they thought I was the crazy one for not thinking it was normal.
A close analogy is a book store. You walk in, pick a book and start reading. If after a few pages you discover that a hard sci-fi that you were after is, in reality, a pink romance that some other reader put onto the wrong shelf ... you just put the book back on the shelf and walk away. The store won't charge you for the book or even for a part of it. The charge comes only if you decide to keep the book.
Your analogy sounds like a video game demo. Nobody is going to get mad at you for reading a few pages and walking out after deciding it's not for you (some theaters will refund in the first half hour as well) but if you were interested/entertained enough to read the whole book, watch the whole movie or play the whole game or a substantial portion of it why wouldn't you pay for it?
There is also a situation with games when you buy a game and it is unplayable for one reason or another. It may not work on your PC, or it may require dexterity of a 5 y/o child on the PS3, or (like some GTA games) it may require insanely complicated, one-shot-only sequences (everyone raise your hands who remember the RC helicopter with demolition charges) that take 30 minutes to play through with no save and with thousand ways to screw up. If the game was downloaded for free it can be justly tossed, and the developer shouldn't be entitled to any money for producing such a horrible episode without a way to skip it. The dance sequence in GTA San Andreas is another example; was Rockstar totally insane by insisting that only people with a kind of a musical talent should be allowed to proceed through the game?
There's a big difference between unplayable ("may not work on your PC") and hard/pointless/unfun ("may require insanely complicated, one-shot-only sequences"). Of course you shouldn't have to pay for a game that doesn't work, that includes game-breaking bugs, but does all the value of a game disappear because you disliked a part of it? Have the hours you were entertained suddenly evaporated because of one part that annoys you? If I could get a refund on every game that ever pissed me off I'd have a net cost near zero.
If you don't think the content is worth the money either wait for the price to drop till it is worth the money or skip it entirely (e.g. Assassin's Creed 2 sounds good but the DRM is something I'm not willing to put up with). If you don't know what might piss you off in a game go out and read some reviews. If you wait long enough you'll be able to hear from real people who run into the real issues and decide beforehand if the game is worth it to you. For how easy it is to find reviews before you read/watch/play something I think it's pretty hard to say it's fair for you to use the full product without paying for it. If you buy the game and want to crack it, by all means. Want to digitize your entire book collection? I'll lend you my camera. Want to rip all your movies? I'll show you how. But I can't get behind having a copy of something that hasn't been purchased; either it's worth the money to you and you have it or it isn't worth the money and you don't.
Haha, I actually read the title as "Honda's Exoskeletons Help You Walk Like Asian" and thought it was wildly inappropriate.
If anime has taught me anything most Asians use mechs for transport so I think it's a very accurate title!
Why the in hell does it look like that? For the love of God make one of these cars look like a damn car.
I bet a lot of people said the same thing when they stopped putting fins on cars.
Personally, I think it looks pretty neat and would love to take one for a spin.
How about contextual sharing? I.e. being able to decide exactly who sees what, through a simple interface (See the tabs on the top in this screenshot) so that your coworkers and your drinking buddies see different things.
If that feature is enough of a reason for people to switch to Diaspora Facebook will probably just create its own implementation of it. Facebook is big enough that it doesn't really have to innovate to stay ahead anymore.
And then there's privacy. I know that I could scare a few people into Diaspora just by showing how much my (entirely unrelated) friends can see about them on Facebook. Most of my friends are actually pretty privacy concerned.
Most of the people I've spoken to aren't aware of the privacy issues with Facebook and out of that group, many "have nothing to hide" and making them care has so far been unsuccessful. Your average user, which is who you want using your product, doesn't care about their privacy as long as their email isn't hacked, their bank account isn't drained, and they can still play Farmville.
I will give Diaspora a fair chance but for how long the Facebook privacy fiasco has been going on it's hard not to be at least a little jaded about social networks.
These guys? Did you look at the photo? I count one (very lucky) guy.
"Guys: A form of address for a group of male persons or a group of mixed male and female persons."
I'd consider myself lucky simply to be surrounded by capable individuals. However, them being cute females certainly would be a bonus.
Now I can get back to work.
Yes, I must also get back to work.~
I wish I could mod you funny. ;)
All good points. I was only thinking of end users when I made my original comment.
As for making people use Firefox: set the icon to IE, half your users won't even notice.
What part is not a good move? Not supporting XP anymore or not releasing software for an unsupported version of Windows?
"Want the latest and greatest IE? Upgrade Windows!" I'd say it's a good move.
is clearly the year of the linux desktop commercial success
and this post was brought for you to test your sarcasm-meter!
My sarcasm detector is still smoking...
So new that Slashdot hasn't had time to assign them a user ID.
Anonymous Coward's UID is 666, you can't go much lower.
Even better, DON'T USE GMAIL for your private and sensitive info....
Even better, don't store your private and sensitive info in plain text on the Internet.
If your email is more sensitive than a postcard use PGP/GPG to provide reasonable security. And if it's too sensitive to have a copy stored on someone else's servers either host it yourself or keep a physical copy in a safe instead.
And while it's hard to find cooking ingredients that are free...
If you don't mind learning to forage it's actually pretty easy to find free food. I mostly top pizzas with cooked nettles and put thinly sliced burdock root into stir fry but dandelion salad and wild raspberry tea are pretty good too. Apparently you can make good tea from pine needles (lots of vitamin C) but I've never tried it myself.
If you're going to harvest nettles make sure you wear gloves. They won't sting after you've cooked or dried them but up to that point they can be pretty unpleasant.
Searching for vagrants or penal colonies is definitely not recommended at work.
I can see the issue with searching for "vagrants" but I never got any bad results for "Australia".
Well said. I am a geek and a fabulous cook at the same time. I enjoy being in the kitchen as much as I enjoy at being in front of one of my Linux boxes !!
Why not do both?
I have an old laptop on my kitchen counter. It makes a handy recipe database and being able to try new recipes from online without having to print them is a treat. It's not a bad idea to cover the keyboard with plastic wrap though.
That's just gay. Not Geek.
Yes, cooking really is joyful.
To echo Hatta's sentiment, some of us like to extend our attention to detail beyond the geek cave. The engine that is your brain is only as good as the fuel you give it so knowing how to cook properly is an important skill.
Well, given that it is a course numbered '333', it's really on half as evil as possible.....
Given that zombies are only half as dead as we'd like them to be this makes perfect sense!
Ever see a can of compressed air move things? Same basic principle of pressure changes to move things.
Fascinating, thanks for the explanation. You win this round, AC.
If somebody makes a beam that can move something bigger than a bacterium around I'll be impressed whether it works in space or not.
As for your cheerios, perhaps you should label your liquids better.
Until the bacterium reroute the main power conduits through the deflector beam to create an inverse tachyon pulse. Then what?
I think you meant deflector array. Otherwise there's no way such a silly thing could happen. :p
How many more journalist will you get killed by putting links to these stories on /.?
FTFY. If your concern is this information getting out in the wild you probably shouldn't focus on the second-hand portion of it.
The guy says in TFA that he quite explicitly explained what the effect of him posting something on Twitter would be:
"They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, 'try it'."
So then, where's the trick, again?
Making reaching many journalists seem like a good idea to his captors without shitting himself or getting shot?