Looks like Firefox drank the coolaid and opted for the tab closing button on each tab, thus presenting a moving target for closing tabs. I hope they make single button an option a least.
I'm in the same boat as the GP but I'll be more specific -- it's comcast or dialup (which would be hard as I'm using VOIP for phone service). There really is not a choice when the only alternative is dialup.
For the windows guy who wants to do this, you should also suggest it be run from a live distro, like Damn Small Linux (for the quick boot) or Knopix or Ubuntu for the long boot.
I tried that one too last winter -- worked great in Cedega BTW... but after about a month or so, I lost interest. I don't think I'll play it much more in the future. The clever part about Civilization is that it has remained interesting for many many years, although as I mentioned before, I only play it once a year (it becomes too much of a time sink if I don't de-install -- the whole "have to reinstall windows to play it" is sufficiently painful that it keeps me from wasting my life on it completely).
Sadly, ME is the only windows disc I have and to be fair, when I'm done playing I de-install windows. I usually do this when I put together a new machine. After I'm done with my civ fix, it gets whatever linux distro I'm presently liking.
I used to play and buy a lot of games. I'm from the Sierra Games generation though and maybe I just got older, but I find it hard to really get into games anymore. Once a year I'll pull out my Windows ME CD and install Civilization Call to Power -- play it for a week then go back to living. When I was in my teens and 20s, I played Deathtrack or Wing Commander till my joysticks wore out - every Leisure Suit Larry - tons of others I can't even remember. Now however, if I play a shooter on my PS2 for 30 minutes, my wrist and forearm aches for two days. I've tried adventure puzzle games but mostly, they are only modertately good -- something to do if there is nothing else to do and it barely costs anything. It's hard to find really compelling games that a fogey like me can play.... well, I'm only 37 but I can't take the repetitive game pad pounding anymore. And at $30-50 a pop, it's hard to justify the risk of buying something you can't return.
Civilization is cool for me because it takes some thinking, is quite entertaining, but doesn't cause issues with hand overuse. It's a hard formula to match. Recently I tried Pirates of Carribean which seemed cool at first, but somehow just didn't capture my attention and hold it. Anyway, I imagine coming up with a game for people like me would be really hard to do successfully... and then we'd just buy that one game and play it for many years as I've done with Civ-CTP which makes it hard for game companys to justify the development expense.
I think he said it failed at -5 degrees and then they were told to stop testing. In other words, it stopped working even in modestly cold weather (where "modest" is measured by someone whose spent time in Maine and Vermont in winter).
Are your vents near the floor or the ceiling? If you can imagine, I once lived in a house that had electric heating elements embedded in the ceiling -- I bet the attic was warm! That ceiling system worked like crap because of an apparently little known fact: heat rises. It is better to put heating elements/vents/radiators down low than up high. If your lights are all located near the floor, they may work well as a heat source, but most people keep them higher up. That said, there is nothing in the world more lousy than forced air heat. I like my heat to be radiant rather than choking dry -- I feel sad for your misfortune.
Unfortunately nothing would really change, only the prices would go up to reflect the loss of revenue.
So what? Even if the cost of electricity remained constant, the fact is, there would be less electricity used, less generated, and less pollution overall. When you count reduced environmental degradation and the costs associated with cleanup (often taxpayer borne), one still realizes a cost savings (though yeah, politicians would probably find a way to spend the money on something else).
Djoymi Baker is a PhD candidate in Cinema and New Media at the University of Melbourne...
Be realistic, most jobs contribute in their way. If everyone researched cancer, we'd all starve to death and swim around in our sewage. If people didn't have a few moments to sit back and relax with a book or a show, we'd all be the poorer for it -- not just in quality of life but how often does it happen that a random thing seen or read, of no apparent value, will spark an important thought? Ms. Baker will be teaching people how to make movies or videos. That has value, just as the farmer growing food, or the plumber fixing toilets, or the researcher solving a cancer puzzle, each have value in their own way. Everything is inter-related and inter-dependant.
http://www.shatnerhasbeen.com (you can hear interviews and songs). I actually bought this album a year ago or so and I'm not ashamed to say I truly like it. Anyway, your post reminded me of the song "Has Been" from that album.
FYI, dude is already convicted. He's trying to get a new trial and it sounds like he has to get that from the US Supreme Court.
Steiger was convicted of sexual exploitation of children, possession of a computer containing child pornography, and receipt of child pornography. He was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. In January 2003, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction, saying that Congress had left a loophole open in federal privacy law that lets hackers like "1069" get away with turning information over to the government and having it used in court. (The 11th Circuit called it a "legislative hiatus in the current laws purporting to protect privacy in electronic communications.")
Maybe the "best tool" is one that allows people to get work done without exporting millions of dollars or pirating software. It may be relatively easy to pirate now, but who knows what the political climate is like ten years from now. Or perhaps the best tool isn't the one that will saturate network infrastructure with spam from zombies -- helps keep the infrastructure costs in check.
USB card reader -- approx. $20 (that's at full retail with no special deals and no searching for a better price). Works great as long as the camera uses removable media.
Part of my "price tag" for getting Linux(s) up and running in a home network includes some kind of wireless bridge.
Maybe I hallucinated this, but there ARE cards that work properly under Linux, right? I'm thinking that they're probably cheaper than a bridge.
If the grandparent insists on a bridge, then the underlying OS on the computer is irrelevant. I used to use a wireless bridge -- it simply connected to my wireless router. The output side was just a plain old ethernet jack and wired ethernet support in linux rocks. Setting up a bridge shouldn't be hard even in linux.
What confused me when I first tried setting up the bridge, was the basic diference between a switch and a router -- obviously I'm no networking guru. My bridge basicly acted like a wireless switch so I got an address directly from the router, rather than from the bridge itself. Of course, the bridge also had a dedicated IP so you could get into the web based setup application. Once I finally understood the difference between a router and a switch, setting up the bridge became really simple. In any event, the underlying OS ought to be irrelevant to the bridge providing the OS can connect to a wired ethernet device and supports a web browser.
My point exactly. Disrespect the customers and lose them. Your attitude is exactly why ebay sellers are hurting. List something as mailed "priority" and expect customers to expect to have it in a week. If you plan to mail 30 days later, make that clear in the first place (and of course, lose all your customers). Anyway, good luck with your ebay scams.
You list two problems out of "several thousand" transactions. What burns me up about the seller comments I've seen is that many seem to treat all buyers like crooks. I'm not saying you are doing that, and the examples you give are obviously abusive buyers.
As mostly a buyer (I sold one or two items) since 2002, I've had 26 transactions. I got burned on 2 of them, and received a retaliatory feedback on a 3rd (seller waited two weeks before shipping an item "priority mail" -- I paid immediately, waited and waited, left a neutral and so she left me a negative). If our experiences are representative, buyers are about 100 times more likely to get screwed than sellers. I doubt my feelings are unique -- the high number of bad results I've had, coupled with a large percentage of sellers who seem to disrespect customers, makes me unlikely to use ebay as anything but an absolute last resort for something that is simply unavailable by any other method.
Your post and sentiments reflect why I have abandoned ebay. The quality of service is lousy. I don't shop at brick & mortar stores that treat me like a criminal (e.g., Best Buy with their bag searchers) and the type of attitude reflected in your post is part of why I quit considering ebay. For example, I once left a "neutral" feedback on a seller who didn't post an item for two weeks following my immediate payment. Shipping was noted as "priority mail" -- I expected to have it in a week -- a few days in shipping and a few days for packing and going to the PO. She didn't even take it to the PO till two weeks after the auction. After my neutral, seller left me a negative feedback. Is that fair? I paid within an hour of the close of the auction, was made to wait unreasonably long, lodged a "neutral" feedback about a factualy obvious matter (date of payment, postmark, priority mail listed as method (and to be fair, it was sent priority mail -- just two weeks late)), and was given a neg. Obvious retaliation.
Anyway, I shop where my money is appreciated -- quality customer service is worth a couple bucks to me and repeat customers often find themselves getting sweetheart deals just because of the relationship that develops. I'm sure sellers get hit with scams or whatever, but so what. If you treat all your paying customers like criminals, you won't have any paying customers. It's a cost of business -- plan for it and deal with it without alienating customers and you'll do fine.
I agree that the feedback system is horribly broken. I don't use ebay much after having been burned twice on relatively expensive items. At this point, I figure that if it costs more than $100, it's something I really want, and I'll pay a bit of a premium to buy it at a real store. If under $100, I'll consider ebay, but I try to avoid "powersellers" and such as the people making a second income off ebay seem pretty shady. I won't buy from ebay to save a mere $10 though. Typically, I feel more comfortable buying from people who have had an account for a several years but have more than 20 and less than 100 transactions of various items (not 23 pens). That's where I fall and I'm honest in my transactions. As for others, I don't trust them and if I buy from them, I feel amazingly relieved to see the product arrive. As time goes on, the thought of the impending uncertainty about receipt has made me more and more unlikely to buy from ebay.
Maybe the problem with falling sales is that ebay sellers are often really crappy and customers just quit going there. See for example all the comments from sellers complaining about buyers. And to sellers, if you treat your customers with a "you are the enemy" attitude, you aren't going to make money whether online or in real life. People like good customer service and will pay more for it. People loathe lousy service and will pass the crappy shop even if it's cheaper. True in real life, true online. It's just that online sellers get a few free passes because the computer hides their personality.
You are quite correct, a subpoena is the ticket. But it's very easy to get this kind of info in the context of a court case, even a civil case. See Here.
If the cops won't help, see the tort of conversion. File a "john doe" civil suit. Once filed, your attorney would have subpoena power -- use it with Verizon to get the name, address, and phone number of the user associated with the IP. Verizon will have an entire department devoted to processing these types of requests -- you'll have no problem except figuring out what their number is. If you represent yourself, you may have to ask the court to issue the subpoena on your behalf. Once you have the identifier, amend your suit to name that party (probably keep the "john does" at least till you're certain you have all the people involved). Also check your states statutes, there may be something specifically related to your situation. The statutes are certainly available online free -- start at your state's homepage (somewhere burried of course).
Re:The science says it does.
on
The Expert Mind
·
· Score: 1
But you've missed my point which is that at the most elite level, it doesn't matter how effectively you train, how much dedication you have, whatever, most people simply cannot reach the top. Factors other than the quality and quantity of training, practice, experience will decide who gets to the top and who does not.
A very good point. However much people push the "you can acheive anything you want" line, I just don't see it. Success is talent, perserverence, and luck. Slashdot's favorite nemesis, Bill Gates, is a case in point. Certainly he's a smart guy, but it's also likely that someone else in the world was smarter the day MS and IBM inked their famous deal. He laid the groundwork for superstardome with his talents and knowledge beforehand, but scored big because of a lucky break and being equiped at that moment to take advantage of it.
Secondly, there are serious issues with psychological studies. I sometimes think that the way many people get their PhD's in psych, is by redifining terms for things we already know. What is "talent" in any pursuit? Here, it sounds like the researches think that "effortful training" with super teachers is the key (I haven't RTFA - I'm guessing from the comments). Perhaps what this study is missing, is that "talent" may simply be the ability to focus on X subject. For example, I finished college as a psych major because calculus knocked me out of chemistry. Now, I'm a reasonably smart guy, got a post-grad degree and all. I'm sure I could have handled the calc if I ever went to class, did the homework, and/or read the book. Fact is, I couldn't do any of the three. I'd read a page and get to the end only to realize that while my eyes dutifully followed the words, my mind was a million miles away. Start again at the top... same result. Stepping back, perhaps the people who can devote ten years of study to some topic, are "talented" where talent = the ability to focus on that subject.
If this researcher really wants to prove the point, he needs to take people who are actually repelled by subject X, train them, and see if they become experts. I know for myself, no amount of training will make me an expert at calculus because my mind wanders off instantly. There are other things I can focus on obsessively for extreme durations -- it isn't as if I can't focus in general. Also, I know my calc issue isn't motivation because honestly, I would have loved to understood calc so I could understand chemistry. Chemistry was a huge blast for me. I just didn't have the talent, i.e., ability to be trained, to focus on calculus in any meaningful manner.
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Looks like Firefox drank the coolaid and opted for the tab closing button on each tab, thus presenting a moving target for closing tabs. I hope they make single button an option a least.
I'm in the same boat as the GP but I'll be more specific -- it's comcast or dialup (which would be hard as I'm using VOIP for phone service). There really is not a choice when the only alternative is dialup.
For the windows guy who wants to do this, you should also suggest it be run from a live distro, like Damn Small Linux (for the quick boot) or Knopix or Ubuntu for the long boot.
I tried that one too last winter -- worked great in Cedega BTW ... but after about a month or so, I lost interest. I don't think I'll play it much more in the future. The clever part about Civilization is that it has remained interesting for many many years, although as I mentioned before, I only play it once a year (it becomes too much of a time sink if I don't de-install -- the whole "have to reinstall windows to play it" is sufficiently painful that it keeps me from wasting my life on it completely).
Sadly, ME is the only windows disc I have and to be fair, when I'm done playing I de-install windows. I usually do this when I put together a new machine. After I'm done with my civ fix, it gets whatever linux distro I'm presently liking.
I used to play and buy a lot of games. I'm from the Sierra Games generation though and maybe I just got older, but I find it hard to really get into games anymore. Once a year I'll pull out my Windows ME CD and install Civilization Call to Power -- play it for a week then go back to living. When I was in my teens and 20s, I played Deathtrack or Wing Commander till my joysticks wore out - every Leisure Suit Larry - tons of others I can't even remember. Now however, if I play a shooter on my PS2 for 30 minutes, my wrist and forearm aches for two days. I've tried adventure puzzle games but mostly, they are only modertately good -- something to do if there is nothing else to do and it barely costs anything. It's hard to find really compelling games that a fogey like me can play .... well, I'm only 37 but I can't take the repetitive game pad pounding anymore. And at $30-50 a pop, it's hard to justify the risk of buying something you can't return.
... and then we'd just buy that one game and play it for many years as I've done with Civ-CTP which makes it hard for game companys to justify the development expense.
Civilization is cool for me because it takes some thinking, is quite entertaining, but doesn't cause issues with hand overuse. It's a hard formula to match. Recently I tried Pirates of Carribean which seemed cool at first, but somehow just didn't capture my attention and hold it. Anyway, I imagine coming up with a game for people like me would be really hard to do successfully
I think he said it failed at -5 degrees and then they were told to stop testing. In other words, it stopped working even in modestly cold weather (where "modest" is measured by someone whose spent time in Maine and Vermont in winter).
Spelling error. Should be "Taco Hell".
Are your vents near the floor or the ceiling? If you can imagine, I once lived in a house that had electric heating elements embedded in the ceiling -- I bet the attic was warm! That ceiling system worked like crap because of an apparently little known fact: heat rises. It is better to put heating elements/vents/radiators down low than up high. If your lights are all located near the floor, they may work well as a heat source, but most people keep them higher up. That said, there is nothing in the world more lousy than forced air heat. I like my heat to be radiant rather than choking dry -- I feel sad for your misfortune.
So what? Even if the cost of electricity remained constant, the fact is, there would be less electricity used, less generated, and less pollution overall. When you count reduced environmental degradation and the costs associated with cleanup (often taxpayer borne), one still realizes a cost savings (though yeah, politicians would probably find a way to spend the money on something else).
Be realistic, most jobs contribute in their way. If everyone researched cancer, we'd all starve to death and swim around in our sewage. If people didn't have a few moments to sit back and relax with a book or a show, we'd all be the poorer for it -- not just in quality of life but how often does it happen that a random thing seen or read, of no apparent value, will spark an important thought? Ms. Baker will be teaching people how to make movies or videos. That has value, just as the farmer growing food, or the plumber fixing toilets, or the researcher solving a cancer puzzle, each have value in their own way. Everything is inter-related and inter-dependant.
http://www.shatnerhasbeen.com (you can hear interviews and songs). I actually bought this album a year ago or so and I'm not ashamed to say I truly like it. Anyway, your post reminded me of the song "Has Been" from that album.
And think of the dividends till things settle down. I love my canroys -- Canada is politically stable and Alberta doesn't get hit by hurricanes.
Maybe the "best tool" is one that allows people to get work done without exporting millions of dollars or pirating software. It may be relatively easy to pirate now, but who knows what the political climate is like ten years from now. Or perhaps the best tool isn't the one that will saturate network infrastructure with spam from zombies -- helps keep the infrastructure costs in check.
USB card reader -- approx. $20 (that's at full retail with no special deals and no searching for a better price). Works great as long as the camera uses removable media.
What confused me when I first tried setting up the bridge, was the basic diference between a switch and a router -- obviously I'm no networking guru. My bridge basicly acted like a wireless switch so I got an address directly from the router, rather than from the bridge itself. Of course, the bridge also had a dedicated IP so you could get into the web based setup application. Once I finally understood the difference between a router and a switch, setting up the bridge became really simple. In any event, the underlying OS ought to be irrelevant to the bridge providing the OS can connect to a wired ethernet device and supports a web browser.
My point exactly. Disrespect the customers and lose them. Your attitude is exactly why ebay sellers are hurting. List something as mailed "priority" and expect customers to expect to have it in a week. If you plan to mail 30 days later, make that clear in the first place (and of course, lose all your customers). Anyway, good luck with your ebay scams.
You list two problems out of "several thousand" transactions. What burns me up about the seller comments I've seen is that many seem to treat all buyers like crooks. I'm not saying you are doing that, and the examples you give are obviously abusive buyers.
As mostly a buyer (I sold one or two items) since 2002, I've had 26 transactions. I got burned on 2 of them, and received a retaliatory feedback on a 3rd (seller waited two weeks before shipping an item "priority mail" -- I paid immediately, waited and waited, left a neutral and so she left me a negative). If our experiences are representative, buyers are about 100 times more likely to get screwed than sellers. I doubt my feelings are unique -- the high number of bad results I've had, coupled with a large percentage of sellers who seem to disrespect customers, makes me unlikely to use ebay as anything but an absolute last resort for something that is simply unavailable by any other method.
Your post and sentiments reflect why I have abandoned ebay. The quality of service is lousy. I don't shop at brick & mortar stores that treat me like a criminal (e.g., Best Buy with their bag searchers) and the type of attitude reflected in your post is part of why I quit considering ebay. For example, I once left a "neutral" feedback on a seller who didn't post an item for two weeks following my immediate payment. Shipping was noted as "priority mail" -- I expected to have it in a week -- a few days in shipping and a few days for packing and going to the PO. She didn't even take it to the PO till two weeks after the auction. After my neutral, seller left me a negative feedback. Is that fair? I paid within an hour of the close of the auction, was made to wait unreasonably long, lodged a "neutral" feedback about a factualy obvious matter (date of payment, postmark, priority mail listed as method (and to be fair, it was sent priority mail -- just two weeks late)), and was given a neg. Obvious retaliation.
Anyway, I shop where my money is appreciated -- quality customer service is worth a couple bucks to me and repeat customers often find themselves getting sweetheart deals just because of the relationship that develops. I'm sure sellers get hit with scams or whatever, but so what. If you treat all your paying customers like criminals, you won't have any paying customers. It's a cost of business -- plan for it and deal with it without alienating customers and you'll do fine.
I agree that the feedback system is horribly broken. I don't use ebay much after having been burned twice on relatively expensive items. At this point, I figure that if it costs more than $100, it's something I really want, and I'll pay a bit of a premium to buy it at a real store. If under $100, I'll consider ebay, but I try to avoid "powersellers" and such as the people making a second income off ebay seem pretty shady. I won't buy from ebay to save a mere $10 though. Typically, I feel more comfortable buying from people who have had an account for a several years but have more than 20 and less than 100 transactions of various items (not 23 pens). That's where I fall and I'm honest in my transactions. As for others, I don't trust them and if I buy from them, I feel amazingly relieved to see the product arrive. As time goes on, the thought of the impending uncertainty about receipt has made me more and more unlikely to buy from ebay.
Maybe the problem with falling sales is that ebay sellers are often really crappy and customers just quit going there. See for example all the comments from sellers complaining about buyers. And to sellers, if you treat your customers with a "you are the enemy" attitude, you aren't going to make money whether online or in real life. People like good customer service and will pay more for it. People loathe lousy service and will pass the crappy shop even if it's cheaper. True in real life, true online. It's just that online sellers get a few free passes because the computer hides their personality.
You are quite correct, a subpoena is the ticket. But it's very easy to get this kind of info in the context of a court case, even a civil case. See Here.
If the cops won't help, see the tort of conversion. File a "john doe" civil suit. Once filed, your attorney would have subpoena power -- use it with Verizon to get the name, address, and phone number of the user associated with the IP. Verizon will have an entire department devoted to processing these types of requests -- you'll have no problem except figuring out what their number is. If you represent yourself, you may have to ask the court to issue the subpoena on your behalf. Once you have the identifier, amend your suit to name that party (probably keep the "john does" at least till you're certain you have all the people involved). Also check your states statutes, there may be something specifically related to your situation. The statutes are certainly available online free -- start at your state's homepage (somewhere burried of course).
Secondly, there are serious issues with psychological studies. I sometimes think that the way many people get their PhD's in psych, is by redifining terms for things we already know. What is "talent" in any pursuit? Here, it sounds like the researches think that "effortful training" with super teachers is the key (I haven't RTFA - I'm guessing from the comments). Perhaps what this study is missing, is that "talent" may simply be the ability to focus on X subject. For example, I finished college as a psych major because calculus knocked me out of chemistry. Now, I'm a reasonably smart guy, got a post-grad degree and all. I'm sure I could have handled the calc if I ever went to class, did the homework, and/or read the book. Fact is, I couldn't do any of the three. I'd read a page and get to the end only to realize that while my eyes dutifully followed the words, my mind was a million miles away. Start again at the top
If this researcher really wants to prove the point, he needs to take people who are actually repelled by subject X, train them, and see if they become experts. I know for myself, no amount of training will make me an expert at calculus because my mind wanders off instantly. There are other things I can focus on obsessively for extreme durations -- it isn't as if I can't focus in general. Also, I know my calc issue isn't motivation because honestly, I would have loved to understood calc so I could understand chemistry. Chemistry was a huge blast for me. I just didn't have the talent, i.e., ability to be trained, to focus on calculus in any meaningful manner.
thanks to you both -- I'll definitely take your hints.