Yet another neurotoxin to which stupid people voluntarily subject themselves. Amazing. At least this one apparently does no real physical harm, it just feels like it does (and that being the point because it stimulates endorphins).
Me, I love the acidic flavor of good peppers, but I wish they'd engineer one WITHOUT the capsaicin.
Since you're clearly stating that opinion out of selfish interest, might I suggest you find a different application for you coding efforts, one that actually contributes something useful to the species?
"Entertainment" is vastly overvalued. Not many people still living even remember an era when all this media crap didn't exist, but exist that era certainly did, and people seemed to manage just fine in that era.
$50-60 for a game is absurd. For you to suggest that you must embed DRM or use other schemes to protect that absurdity from scrutiny is even more absurd.
As part of the collective that makes up the gaming marketplace, we really have no one else but ourselves to blame for the continuing existence of DRM. If we don't buy the games, Big Gaming makes no money and is forced back to the drawing board. Piracy is a response to TWO things: unreasonably high prices AND artificial tactics like DRM designed to protect those unreasonably high prices.
We don't need laws or lawyers or politicians to stop this greedy behavior. All we need are education of the market and effective boycotts. The "market" can't fix everything, but it - WE - can damned well fix this. I am not a Libertarian, so sorry if that sounds like a Libertarian refrain.
Being a geek is about values. Only one of the Two Steves is a geek. Steve Wozniak is a geek; Steve Jobs is not. Wozniak would be reveling in gadgets and tech whether it made him a pile of money or not; Jobs would head for the exit the moment it was clear to him the grass was greener elsewhere. Jobs would be perfectly happy doing anything, in the complete absence of anything geeky, if it made him filthy rich and popular.
That isn't the exact wisdom of the aphorism, but it would be a close corollary. The aphorism is a warning against putting your foot in your mouth, as the other Anonymous Coward person did.
You've misconstrued the specific wisdom and suggestion of the aphorism. It's apparent from your general overreaction that you enjoyed leveling the accusation in the final sentence, so it's disingenuous to apologize for making it. You weren't sorry at all.
Your remarks are a perfect example of what the plaque was advising against doing, precisely because you mentally shot from the hip and the example you used was not relevant. What you should be sorry - or at least embarrassed - about is being wrong altogether.
It didn't stop my ranting because that's only half the equation. Falling birthrates in "developed" countries are offset by birthrates in the rest of the not-so-lucky world, and also by new immigrants with strong cultural bias toward large families (now unnecessary in their new environment). When the United States was agrarian there was a strong cultural bias to large families; my great-great-grandparents attempted no less than 14 offspring. Fortunately not all of them lived, because the family didn't even remain in agriculture.
Seriously, though, Jessica seems to be living in a well-insulated bubble and doesn't seem to realize that competition is burgeoning everywhere, in every occupation; even janitors are miserable. This small planet is now crowded with SEVEN BILLION self-serving mouths with attached gonads... and thanks to said gonads this dynamic will only get worse (until the agriculture system implodes). Of course those who aren't at the pinnacle of the economic food chain would be less miserable if those at the top weren't quite so effective at concentrating natural resources and wealth. Part of the misery is because we're overdue for another revolt to kick the money-changers outta the temples and topple those dancing with their flags at the top of the hill. From a strictly Darwinian point of view, though, the competition serves a valuable purpose, thinning the herd and favoring those with the best sets of mutations.
So, do we choose to compete with each other in the best Darwinian tradition, and be miserable doing it, or do we cooperate Borg-like to benefit the whole species? We seem to be evolving slowly toward the latter, but not fast enough to stem the misery.
You're thinking of the rural Cossacks. The urban Cossacks are very polite and quite... urbane. They'll still pillage your house and rape your grandmother if ya piss 'em off, though, but their steeds have mag wheels now.
Command lines discriminate against those with poor memories. GUIs make it possible for people who can't remember detailed shit to be productive without having to constantly refer to some other resource(s).
I learned English well enough that I rarely require a dictionary, but I was never so lucky with programming languages and other syntaxes. I love my GUI... when it's implemented correctly. Paul Simon wanted his Kodachrome, and I want my GUI.
The can't be that awesome if he still has to endure tedious vendor meetings in spite of it. May I suggest a Gameboy and a pair of discrete earphones instead?
I've been blocking ads external to the browser and independent of it for many years: they're called local HTTP filtering proxies. Proxomitron and privoxy are the two most well known.
I confess, though, that most of my ad- and element-blocking is now done with WYSIWYG and GUI goodness via the browser extensions AdBlock Plus and AdBlock Plus Element Hiding Helper; the latter duplicates - in seconds - most of the custom filters I once had to laboriously craft in Proxomitron. (Other people swear by the Remove It Permanently extension, but they seem to be functionally identical.) When it comes to prettying-up pages for archiving or printing, I use the Aardvark extension to temporarily yank out irrelevant page elements. There are just a few filters I still use in Proxomitron, ones whose effect I can't easily duplicate with any existing browser extensions. The amazing thing is that it still works after all these years, in spite of significant evolution, the death of its author, and no patches or updates whatsoever.
I visit Slashdot daily for INFORMATION. I expect to find humor, if any and however feeble, in the DISCUSSION. This childish prank doesn't even qualify to be labeled as humorous, and it doesn't belong in the submissions.
Is Slashdot now catering exclusively to ComiCon tweenagers (twenty-something teenagers)? If so and this prank remains, I won't.
Petroleum was once (partly) fruits, too, eh? It's not a bad thing if we can sidestep the tens of millions of years in between and do it without massive energies or pressures. Same thing goes for fuel, of course, but I'm not holding my breath for biofuels, yet....
There was probably debate about it before the choice was made, though we can't know exactly why they chose the solution they did. I'd guess that predictability (like the difference between game design for a console versus a PC) won out over a larger sample size.
My former DGL-4300 doesn't even support 3rd-party firmware. The DD-WRT database describes it as "not possible". The WNR3500L is a different story. I'll find out first-hand in a few years....
Well, you might be right that it only phones home during idle periods. It may be gathering some stats all the time. Come to think of it, my online "dashboard" suggests that might be true.
I don't think the DGL-4300 can use any custom firmware, and it's only 802.11*g*, in any case (the WNR3500L is 802.11n, and I upgraded my laptop because of it).
Slashdot Mirror
Big Gaming would certainly like you to conclude that is the tragic case, wouldn't they? I doubt they are, but I can't quote statistics for you.
Oh, think of the media moguls and their starving families!
Yet another neurotoxin to which stupid people voluntarily subject themselves. Amazing. At least this one apparently does no real physical harm, it just feels like it does (and that being the point because it stimulates endorphins).
Me, I love the acidic flavor of good peppers, but I wish they'd engineer one WITHOUT the capsaicin.
Since you're clearly stating that opinion out of selfish interest, might I suggest you find a different application for you coding efforts, one that actually contributes something useful to the species?
"Entertainment" is vastly overvalued. Not many people still living even remember an era when all this media crap didn't exist, but exist that era certainly did, and people seemed to manage just fine in that era.
$50-60 for a game is absurd. For you to suggest that you must embed DRM or use other schemes to protect that absurdity from scrutiny is even more absurd.
As part of the collective that makes up the gaming marketplace, we really have no one else but ourselves to blame for the continuing existence of DRM. If we don't buy the games, Big Gaming makes no money and is forced back to the drawing board. Piracy is a response to TWO things: unreasonably high prices AND artificial tactics like DRM designed to protect those unreasonably high prices.
We don't need laws or lawyers or politicians to stop this greedy behavior. All we need are education of the market and effective boycotts. The "market" can't fix everything, but it - WE - can damned well fix this. I am not a Libertarian, so sorry if that sounds like a Libertarian refrain.
Being a geek is about values. Only one of the Two Steves is a geek. Steve Wozniak is a geek; Steve Jobs is not. Wozniak would be reveling in gadgets and tech whether it made him a pile of money or not; Jobs would head for the exit the moment it was clear to him the grass was greener elsewhere. Jobs would be perfectly happy doing anything, in the complete absence of anything geeky, if it made him filthy rich and popular.
Wozniak is a geek. Jobs is just a... salesman.
That isn't the exact wisdom of the aphorism, but it would be a close corollary. The aphorism is a warning against putting your foot in your mouth, as the other Anonymous Coward person did.
You've misconstrued the specific wisdom and suggestion of the aphorism. It's apparent from your general overreaction that you enjoyed leveling the accusation in the final sentence, so it's disingenuous to apologize for making it. You weren't sorry at all.
Your remarks are a perfect example of what the plaque was advising against doing, precisely because you mentally shot from the hip and the example you used was not relevant. What you should be sorry - or at least embarrassed - about is being wrong altogether.
This guy might have benefitted from a quip emblazoned on a plaque my grandpappy had on his wall:
Perhaps I'll send Norman the plaque to decorate his jail cell.
It didn't stop my ranting because that's only half the equation. Falling birthrates in "developed" countries are offset by birthrates in the rest of the not-so-lucky world, and also by new immigrants with strong cultural bias toward large families (now unnecessary in their new environment). When the United States was agrarian there was a strong cultural bias to large families; my great-great-grandparents attempted no less than 14 offspring. Fortunately not all of them lived, because the family didn't even remain in agriculture.
Seriously, though, Jessica seems to be living in a well-insulated bubble and doesn't seem to realize that competition is burgeoning everywhere, in every occupation; even janitors are miserable. This small planet is now crowded with SEVEN BILLION self-serving mouths with attached gonads... and thanks to said gonads this dynamic will only get worse (until the agriculture system implodes). Of course those who aren't at the pinnacle of the economic food chain would be less miserable if those at the top weren't quite so effective at concentrating natural resources and wealth. Part of the misery is because we're overdue for another revolt to kick the money-changers outta the temples and topple those dancing with their flags at the top of the hill. From a strictly Darwinian point of view, though, the competition serves a valuable purpose, thinning the herd and favoring those with the best sets of mutations.
So, do we choose to compete with each other in the best Darwinian tradition, and be miserable doing it, or do we cooperate Borg-like to benefit the whole species? We seem to be evolving slowly toward the latter, but not fast enough to stem the misery.
Q:
A: Probably the ones who post questions to Ask Slashdot?
Do the outside sales reps wear their birthday suits on sales calls, too?
If so, I want them to hire Keeley Hazell and assign her to my region....
You're thinking of the rural Cossacks. The urban Cossacks are very polite and quite... urbane. They'll still pillage your house and rape your grandmother if ya piss 'em off, though, but their steeds have mag wheels now.
Oh, look: more commentary from an unbiased non-partisan academician.... /sarcasm
Command lines discriminate against those with poor memories. GUIs make it possible for people who can't remember detailed shit to be productive without having to constantly refer to some other resource(s).
I learned English well enough that I rarely require a dictionary, but I was never so lucky with programming languages and other syntaxes. I love my GUI... when it's implemented correctly. Paul Simon wanted his Kodachrome, and I want my GUI.
Block ads in complete-saved Web pages? Sure it does, unless you configure it to ignore anything from local files.
The book can't be that awesome....
The can't be that awesome if he still has to endure tedious vendor meetings in spite of it. May I suggest a Gameboy and a pair of discrete earphones instead?
I've been blocking ads external to the browser and independent of it for many years: they're called local HTTP filtering proxies. Proxomitron and privoxy are the two most well known.
I confess, though, that most of my ad- and element-blocking is now done with WYSIWYG and GUI goodness via the browser extensions AdBlock Plus and AdBlock Plus Element Hiding Helper; the latter duplicates - in seconds - most of the custom filters I once had to laboriously craft in Proxomitron. (Other people swear by the Remove It Permanently extension, but they seem to be functionally identical.) When it comes to prettying-up pages for archiving or printing, I use the Aardvark extension to temporarily yank out irrelevant page elements. There are just a few filters I still use in Proxomitron, ones whose effect I can't easily duplicate with any existing browser extensions. The amazing thing is that it still works after all these years, in spite of significant evolution, the death of its author, and no patches or updates whatsoever.
I visit Slashdot daily for INFORMATION. I expect to find humor, if any and however feeble, in the DISCUSSION. This childish prank doesn't even qualify to be labeled as humorous, and it doesn't belong in the submissions.
Is Slashdot now catering exclusively to ComiCon tweenagers (twenty-something teenagers)? If so and this prank remains, I won't.
Petroleum was once (partly) fruits, too, eh? It's not a bad thing if we can sidestep the tens of millions of years in between and do it without massive energies or pressures. Same thing goes for fuel, of course, but I'm not holding my breath for biofuels, yet....
There was probably debate about it before the choice was made, though we can't know exactly why they chose the solution they did. I'd guess that predictability (like the difference between game design for a console versus a PC) won out over a larger sample size.
I don't think that was precisely his point. :-|
My former DGL-4300 doesn't even support 3rd-party firmware. The DD-WRT database describes it as "not possible". The WNR3500L is a different story. I'll find out first-hand in a few years....
Well, you might be right that it only phones home during idle periods. It may be gathering some stats all the time. Come to think of it, my online "dashboard" suggests that might be true.
I don't think the DGL-4300 can use any custom firmware, and it's only 802.11*g*, in any case (the WNR3500L is 802.11n, and I upgraded my laptop because of it).