5 years??? the prius vs say the honda civic doesn't offer any savings if gas were 11 dollars per gallon... People see the price they pay weekly for gas but they fail to see the price they pay monthly for their car, insurance, gas, etc. Play around with the Edmunds True cost to own tool... it factors in gas for 75000 miles, payments for 5 years, insurance, scheduled maintenence, etc.
You will see that a civic costs $36,895 to own and operate for 5 years and a prius costs $41,051. Now take the 48mpg vs the 32mpg multiply it by a price hike per gallon, and you will see how much gas would need to cost per gallon before a prius did anything financial for you besides relocate your gas payment into your car payment.
At market plus 6 dollars per gallon, the prius costs about 500 dollars less to drive 75,000 miles in 5 years. So gas needs to be about 10 bucks a gallon before a prius makes financial sense over a civic... of course a civic isn't gonna help your green street cred like a prius will, and lets be honest a prius first and foremost a political statement. The numbers are much worse for a Camry hybrid vs a plane jane camry in case you wondered.
I was watching homestar runner on my 2001 pocket pc, but flash is still a pipedream for handhelds?? what the hell. many of the highly successful and even nerd oriented websites are flash required (yes I know iphone has a youtube client)... Why the hell am I still not watching zeropunctuation on the subway??
It is super annoying that the palm client for flash (which still functions btw, just not the latest greatest) and the Pocket PC client for flash both have been around for half a decade, yet somehow the mobile internets are still "well yeah everything except the second most prolific format for web content"
A capable movie does not need an 8 story tall movie screen to show us how large its penis is. A great movie is better on imax, but still good as a grainey cam in the lower right hand of your laptop screen while you do an instance raid.
It is funny that everyone bitches when a company holds back a release *Forever* while the developers Duke it out over new technology, features, etc... Rather than Nuke a fer features in favor of a quick release. Yet when they trash a few features to make a release date, they get the same kind of flack.
Of course everyoen mentions Blizzard... I would be willing to bet that the difference is the marketing, I mean, Blizzard doesn't announce games untill they are good and ready... they don't need years of buzz. I would be willing to bet that they always have a good bit of feature chopping in every blizz game (in fact when you open and look at MPQ files, you could find lost character classes, never activated items, etc etc, it just happens BEFORE the marketing, rather than after.
At first I was going to suggest The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and the Foundation series -- you know, the classics. Then I got to thinking a bit and the sad thing is that I'm not sure the kids today would appreciate those works as much as we did when we were their age. If they were to read those when they're slightly older or maybe even as adults, then maybe they might appreciate them more. But now? Probably not so much. I mean, we're talking about a generation that's grown up on a style of television and film different from that that we grew up with. Today, a camera angle rarely holds for more than 10 seconds before it cuts to another angle.
I think statements like this don't give kids enough credit. Who is more to blame, the television producers, or the parents that assume their children are broken due to a widely held but never proven stereotype that children somehow lose the ability to be intellectual with each subsequent generation.
Charles Eppes: Imagine you have an infinite number of plot holes, and you want to test how they compare to imaginary numbers. The Riemann Hypothesis states that I can use the zeros in this formula to predict how bullets will bounce off of concrete to a degree of statistical accuracy that it will actually give me the social security number of the guilty shooter.
Tell self:
1)you cannot speak very well because you lack oral stimulation, and since your parents yell at you and punnish you for chewing on your shirt, I suggest you find something such as gum or candy to get the oral stimulation you need
in order to properly organize your senses for speech.
2)Other people really don't see things the way you do, you have to remember that pattern recognition, and problem solving are your strength and the solution is not obvious to everyone else, so you need to present it.
3)You don't need to be self conscious, people think about you far less than you think about yourself, they probably don't even notice.
4)The goal of school has nothing to do with education. Try to realize early on it is about making the teachers feel like they are useful and fulfilled, learning facts and procedures is secondary, it is not nearly as important to other people as they say it is, or as important to them as it is to you.
5)Your strength is in being different, if everyone was a cheerleader, we would all starve. Your perspective is valuable simply because it is different. If you think the same way as everyone else you will make the same mistakes as everyone else... If you can learn from their mistakes and prevent some of your own, you will be ahead.
To parents:
1) Let me pick my own clothes - you would not believe how much higher functioning I became when I became able/allowed to pick the proper fit, style, texture, and color of clothing.
2)no I do not need lots of friends to be happy (forced socialization was among the most painful parts of growing up)... having countless shrinks tell me I was depressed because I did not have enough friends was another, Just becase YOU would be depressed with less human contact doesn't mean I would be happier with more
I have to say that I know it is hard, but maybe he does not need fixing. Maybe he is how he needs to be. I was not very functional as a kid, but I have a very high IQ and a high paying job, a loving wife, 2 kids, etc. I was never cured, I just learned how to be myself and how to make that work. Acceptance is very difficult, but there are more paths than just a "cure".
Autism speaks is a hate group, hell bent on curing people of their personality, and scaring parents into giving them and doctors associated with them millions and millions of dollars.
I am an Autistic Adult *gasp* with a $120,000/year salary (Senior Risk Analysis Software Development for major bank) and a wife and an autistic son, who also does not need curing.
That hate group is all about fearmongering and "Early intervention or lifelong disability" bullshit that is just not true and not well researched, just well-funded.
The truth is those of us with "big bad Autism" who have times where we are unable to speak, and times where we are less functional, usually hide it very well by the time we are adults. The "Autism Epidemic" is a result of "Autism Awareness" and does not really represent a specific unexpected change in personality types across the country. More a utilization of more information. Since GENETIC factors are proven to be significant in Autism, it shouldn't be suprised that we diagnose it more often now that children are seen in the context of a society, and not in the context of "what your mom taught you"... The strategy for raising children until VERY recently was grandmas teaching new mothers what to expect and how to deal with it. So differences in genetic-neurological profile would be seen in the context of 2 gene pools, rather than in the context of an entire society like today. I mean, I didn't speak till age 3, nor did my son, nor did my dad... In a "classical" society my family would just say "yeah, boys don't talk till age 3". In modern society, you have Autism speaks making unfounded claims that If your child doesn't speak by age 3, he is autistic and unless you start "early intervention" he will be in a group home at age 18. (of course this is an oversimplification, there are many other factors in diagnosing Autism)
Additionally other profiteering hate groups such as DAN! (Destroy Autism now) like to sell expensive dangerous suppliments and Chelation therapy because a few people showing autistic traits happened to be poisoned with mercury... So now they make big money starving the mercury out of children's systems (read about chelation) even if there is no evidence of mercury exposure/poisoning...
my big fear is that this immunosupression which is for treating a SPECIFIC condition (TSC) will be used by autism profiteers in a similar way, and they will sell $1000/month high risk poison as an "Autism Cure". After very carefully creating an atmosphere where Autism is feared, hated, and misunderstood.
The depths they go to in order to create then exploit fear and hope in parents is criminal. It is so sad that legitimate scientific advance has to come under such assault.
Idiotic Nostalgia
on
Terminal Chaos
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
If one looks at pictures of airline flights from the 1960s, you will see well-dressed passengers enjoying their flight.
In 1950 an airline ticket was $325... or about $2800 adjusted for today's dollars... So there was a slightly different class of people
additionally there were significantly LESS people per flight, per terminal, and per airline.
Maybe a better comparison would be modern Airlines to 1960s busses.
what the hell do people expect research to be in modern times? is he going to get the latest and greatest cutting edge tested but not well-known strategies from a fsking card catalog somewhere?
Research = asking the people who know
It just happens that now you don't have to wait for the privelaged few to publish a book, now you can just you know... talk to a few thousand people all at once.
honestly research luddites on SLASHDOT... What the fuck is the internet even for if it isn't for the (hopefully open) exchange of information.
Not only say I don't know, but also follow with an offer to help them research it for themselves. When I want to know the answer to a question, I google. When my kid (who is not quite to that reading level) wants to know something we google together. Curiosity and thirst for knowledge is the most valuable human characteristic, it is crucial that I foster it in my kids.
PS : I think there should me more parents like netsavior
I have had some success teaching my kids skepticism just by virtue of my parenting strategy. I don't ever really expect them to accept "Because I said so" I think that really hinders a person to be taught from a young age that if someone of authority says it, than it must be true.
Instead I approach every disagreement as an opportunity for a proof. "Why do I have to eat my broccli?" "Well I guess you don't, but it is pretty hard to find iron that is more easily digestable. You need iron levels in your blood to be high enough so it can process oxygen more efficiently or you will find yourself lacking energy, being tired, and even potentially becoming pale and sick. There are other ways to get the vitamins you need, but to me Broccli is worth it because it is actually pretty good, and convenient because it is right her on the table."
Sure he may still not eat the broccli, but at least I tried to appeal to his logical side and gave him a reasonable and easy to understand stance. Always honoring his questions, and answering with real logic and real science means that whenever someone CAN'T answer with something real, he will imediatly have red flags.
While "Because I said so" would probably make a lot of kids get their nutrition today, my approach will hopefully inspire him to THINK about his nutrition, and question risk/reward and give hom practice evaluating trade-offs.
A toxic micromanager will do so with or without IM. Imagine the result if every "brain barf" had to be delivered in person, requiring you to turn from your task, take your hands off the keyboard and engage in an eye-to-eye conversation... Alt-tab or whatever a million times a day is significantly more efficient and less disruptive than having a formal real life conversation a few times a day.
I work for a 50,000 employee company that uses IBM's "Me too" chat system "Sametime". Most of the executives run sametime on their crackberry as well as on their PC, so they can IM in meetings, and request up to the minute stats and analysis when in an important decision making mode.
Some things are on-demand, and when I am doing risk management analysis for the Ceo while he is in a closed door meeting with the FTC, it is significantly retarded to expect him to say "Wait! I need to walk 1/8 of a mile down the hall to confer with my data analysts to ensure that I have my story straight"
There are jackasses with every technology, just because Assholes cut you off in traffic in their car talking on their cellphone listening to the radio, doesn't mean we should automatically become luddites about radios, cellphones, and automobiles.
Instant message is half way between a phone call and an email, and it is nice to have a middle ground that I can use without taking off my headphones, or averting my eyes from the familiar glow of my LCD.
I still prefer the idea of an SUV than a minivan or station wagon to try and haul people/stuff around.
It is about fashion, pure and simple, and don't try to deny it.
Minivans cost 20% less, and haul more people and more stuff. Look at Chevy specs... It is cheaper to buy a brand new 1500 pickup truck AND a brand new Uplander (minivan) than to buy a tahoe... The Tahoe seats less people than the Van, has less cargo area than the van, and hell if you need to tow something, use your free 1500 pickup truck that you bought with the money you saved.
The truth is that if these assholes that pretend they need to drive a Tahoe to work in an office every day because 2 times a year they tow their jetski to the lake are the problem. I mean seriously it would be cheaper to buy and drive a reasonable car, then buy a different used pickup truck twice a year to tow your jetskis to the lake, than SET THE TRUCK ON FIRE.
There are like zero people who work in offices (I am assuming since you are posting on slashdot...) who "Need" an Suv. Especially if you have to haul people, kids, and stuff.
I would buy one today (even if just pre-ordering) if there was ANY link anywhere on where to freaking buy it... anyone? The slashdotting of 3doverclockedz0mgkfcbbq.com or whatever doesn't help matters either.
Although oddly enough the languages for which I speak are things like C#
Have you seen the new 3.0 libraries?? MS Application blocks look a lot like J2EE when it first came out + the best of Jakarta that we have all been using for almost a decade. Don't get me wrong C# does a lot of "good" stuff... but a lot of its most "innovative" stuff is just finally bringing it up to snuff with the way we have all been using J2EE since the dot com bust.
it would be more cost efficient to buy 10 of each item you keep losing. I keep a hairbrush chained to the bathroom counter with one of those bank pen-chain things (double length), I was sick of every single brush ending up not in the bathroom where I try to brush my hair. I wanted to do the same with the remote for the TV (chained to the couch), but have not yet.
As for tools, I buy cheap wrench sets whenever they are on sale, and I only break out the good wrenches after I have broken one of my cheapies. They are all stuck to the wall of the garage on kitchen knife magnet strips, so they are out of the reach of little fingers.
For the love of science do not give them access to your production database, they WILL screw it up, even with just read access.
Here is the psudocode from their SQL:
Select * from everything join everything where non-indexed column like '%'
you need to make them a COPY of the data that they are allowed to access on a seperate database (preferably a seperate server). Most reasonable replication suites allow you to do things like this.
Autoconfig, extended range wireless adaptors, bittorrent 24x7 from every network you can get connected to; you know, for the children.
on a more serious note, I used to work at a place where we were required to take "retired" laptops to the dumpster, somehow they ended up in the trunk of my car more often than not... NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) runs a laptop loaner program, where people without regular access to a computer can borrow one for a month for free in order to write a novel. It isn't exactly charity, but self-motivated intellectual persuits need all the support they can muster in our society. Most of the laptop loaners work fine but the batteries are shot (aka most used laptops).
I have "fixed up" (clean install with no bricking garbage on it) several and given them to family members at various times.
I have installed one with win2k+remote desktop client and NOTHING else so I could VPN + Remote in to our wintel machines at work without having to worry about work's big brother software locking me out because I have skype installed...
Finally, you could work on some decorative case mods, such as a Steampunk Laptop
Slashdot Mirror
5 years??? the prius vs say the honda civic doesn't offer any savings if gas were 11 dollars per gallon... People see the price they pay weekly for gas but they fail to see the price they pay monthly for their car, insurance, gas, etc. Play around with the Edmunds True cost to own tool... it factors in gas for 75000 miles, payments for 5 years, insurance, scheduled maintenence, etc.
You will see that a civic costs $36,895 to own and operate for 5 years and a prius costs $41,051. Now take the 48mpg vs the 32mpg multiply it by a price hike per gallon, and you will see how much gas would need to cost per gallon before a prius did anything financial for you besides relocate your gas payment into your car payment.
At market plus 6 dollars per gallon, the prius costs about 500 dollars less to drive 75,000 miles in 5 years. So gas needs to be about 10 bucks a gallon before a prius makes financial sense over a civic... of course a civic isn't gonna help your green street cred like a prius will, and lets be honest a prius first and foremost a political statement. The numbers are much worse for a Camry hybrid vs a plane jane camry in case you wondered.
I was watching homestar runner on my 2001 pocket pc, but flash is still a pipedream for handhelds?? what the hell. many of the highly successful and even nerd oriented websites are flash required (yes I know iphone has a youtube client)... Why the hell am I still not watching zeropunctuation on the subway??
It is super annoying that the palm client for flash (which still functions btw, just not the latest greatest) and the Pocket PC client for flash both have been around for half a decade, yet somehow the mobile internets are still "well yeah everything except the second most prolific format for web content"
A capable movie does not need an 8 story tall movie screen to show us how large its penis is. A great movie is better on imax, but still good as a grainey cam in the lower right hand of your laptop screen while you do an instance raid.
It is funny that everyone bitches when a company holds back a release *Forever* while the developers Duke it out over new technology, features, etc... Rather than Nuke a fer features in favor of a quick release. Yet when they trash a few features to make a release date, they get the same kind of flack.
Of course everyoen mentions Blizzard... I would be willing to bet that the difference is the marketing, I mean, Blizzard doesn't announce games untill they are good and ready... they don't need years of buzz. I would be willing to bet that they always have a good bit of feature chopping in every blizz game (in fact when you open and look at MPQ files, you could find lost character classes, never activated items, etc etc, it just happens BEFORE the marketing, rather than after.
they have had adverts in the lobby portion of battle.net for something like 8 years... I don't see why they would stop that program.
I think statements like this don't give kids enough credit. Who is more to blame, the television producers, or the parents that assume their children are broken due to a widely held but never proven stereotype that children somehow lose the ability to be intellectual with each subsequent generation.
Charles Eppes: Imagine you have an infinite number of plot holes, and you want to test how they compare to imaginary numbers. The Riemann Hypothesis states that I can use the zeros in this formula to predict how bullets will bounce off of concrete to a degree of statistical accuracy that it will actually give me the social security number of the guilty shooter.
I am really glad to hear that.
Tell self:
1)you cannot speak very well because you lack oral stimulation, and since your parents yell at you and punnish you for chewing on your shirt, I suggest you find something such as gum or candy to get the oral stimulation you need in order to properly organize your senses for speech.
2)Other people really don't see things the way you do, you have to remember that pattern recognition, and problem solving are your strength and the solution is not obvious to everyone else, so you need to present it.
3)You don't need to be self conscious, people think about you far less than you think about yourself, they probably don't even notice.
4)The goal of school has nothing to do with education. Try to realize early on it is about making the teachers feel like they are useful and fulfilled, learning facts and procedures is secondary, it is not nearly as important to other people as they say it is, or as important to them as it is to you.
5)Your strength is in being different, if everyone was a cheerleader, we would all starve. Your perspective is valuable simply because it is different. If you think the same way as everyone else you will make the same mistakes as everyone else... If you can learn from their mistakes and prevent some of your own, you will be ahead.
To parents:
1) Let me pick my own clothes - you would not believe how much higher functioning I became when I became able/allowed to pick the proper fit, style, texture, and color of clothing.
2)no I do not need lots of friends to be happy (forced socialization was among the most painful parts of growing up)... having countless shrinks tell me I was depressed because I did not have enough friends was another, Just becase YOU would be depressed with less human contact doesn't mean I would be happier with more
I have to say that I know it is hard, but maybe he does not need fixing. Maybe he is how he needs to be. I was not very functional as a kid, but I have a very high IQ and a high paying job, a loving wife, 2 kids, etc. I was never cured, I just learned how to be myself and how to make that work. Acceptance is very difficult, but there are more paths than just a "cure".
There are people who believe Neuro Diversity is acceptable and necessary
Autism speaks is a hate group, hell bent on curing people of their personality, and scaring parents into giving them and doctors associated with them millions and millions of dollars.
I am an Autistic Adult *gasp* with a $120,000/year salary (Senior Risk Analysis Software Development for major bank) and a wife and an autistic son, who also does not need curing.
That hate group is all about fearmongering and "Early intervention or lifelong disability" bullshit that is just not true and not well researched, just well-funded.
The truth is those of us with "big bad Autism" who have times where we are unable to speak, and times where we are less functional, usually hide it very well by the time we are adults. The "Autism Epidemic" is a result of "Autism Awareness" and does not really represent a specific unexpected change in personality types across the country. More a utilization of more information. Since GENETIC factors are proven to be significant in Autism, it shouldn't be suprised that we diagnose it more often now that children are seen in the context of a society, and not in the context of "what your mom taught you"... The strategy for raising children until VERY recently was grandmas teaching new mothers what to expect and how to deal with it. So differences in genetic-neurological profile would be seen in the context of 2 gene pools, rather than in the context of an entire society like today. I mean, I didn't speak till age 3, nor did my son, nor did my dad... In a "classical" society my family would just say "yeah, boys don't talk till age 3". In modern society, you have Autism speaks making unfounded claims that If your child doesn't speak by age 3, he is autistic and unless you start "early intervention" he will be in a group home at age 18. (of course this is an oversimplification, there are many other factors in diagnosing Autism)
Additionally other profiteering hate groups such as DAN! (Destroy Autism now) like to sell expensive dangerous suppliments and Chelation therapy because a few people showing autistic traits happened to be poisoned with mercury... So now they make big money starving the mercury out of children's systems (read about chelation) even if there is no evidence of mercury exposure/poisoning...
my big fear is that this immunosupression which is for treating a SPECIFIC condition (TSC) will be used by autism profiteers in a similar way, and they will sell $1000/month high risk poison as an "Autism Cure". After very carefully creating an atmosphere where Autism is feared, hated, and misunderstood.
The depths they go to in order to create then exploit fear and hope in parents is criminal. It is so sad that legitimate scientific advance has to come under such assault.
In 1950 an airline ticket was $325... or about $2800 adjusted for today's dollars... So there was a slightly different class of people
additionally there were significantly LESS people per flight, per terminal, and per airline.
Maybe a better comparison would be modern Airlines to 1960s busses.
Even if it is a REALLY big flash in a REALLY big pan, how can they not realize it is just that.
what the hell do people expect research to be in modern times? is he going to get the latest and greatest cutting edge tested but not well-known strategies from a fsking card catalog somewhere?
Research = asking the people who know
It just happens that now you don't have to wait for the privelaged few to publish a book, now you can just you know... talk to a few thousand people all at once.
honestly research luddites on SLASHDOT... What the fuck is the internet even for if it isn't for the (hopefully open) exchange of information.
Not only say I don't know, but also follow with an offer to help them research it for themselves. When I want to know the answer to a question, I google. When my kid (who is not quite to that reading level) wants to know something we google together. Curiosity and thirst for knowledge is the most valuable human characteristic, it is crucial that I foster it in my kids.
Thanks
I have had some success teaching my kids skepticism just by virtue of my parenting strategy. I don't ever really expect them to accept "Because I said so" I think that really hinders a person to be taught from a young age that if someone of authority says it, than it must be true.
Instead I approach every disagreement as an opportunity for a proof. "Why do I have to eat my broccli?" "Well I guess you don't, but it is pretty hard to find iron that is more easily digestable. You need iron levels in your blood to be high enough so it can process oxygen more efficiently or you will find yourself lacking energy, being tired, and even potentially becoming pale and sick. There are other ways to get the vitamins you need, but to me Broccli is worth it because it is actually pretty good, and convenient because it is right her on the table."
Sure he may still not eat the broccli, but at least I tried to appeal to his logical side and gave him a reasonable and easy to understand stance. Always honoring his questions, and answering with real logic and real science means that whenever someone CAN'T answer with something real, he will imediatly have red flags.
While "Because I said so" would probably make a lot of kids get their nutrition today, my approach will hopefully inspire him to THINK about his nutrition, and question risk/reward and give hom practice evaluating trade-offs.
A toxic micromanager will do so with or without IM. Imagine the result if every "brain barf" had to be delivered in person, requiring you to turn from your task, take your hands off the keyboard and engage in an eye-to-eye conversation... Alt-tab or whatever a million times a day is significantly more efficient and less disruptive than having a formal real life conversation a few times a day.
I work for a 50,000 employee company that uses IBM's "Me too" chat system "Sametime". Most of the executives run sametime on their crackberry as well as on their PC, so they can IM in meetings, and request up to the minute stats and analysis when in an important decision making mode.
Some things are on-demand, and when I am doing risk management analysis for the Ceo while he is in a closed door meeting with the FTC, it is significantly retarded to expect him to say "Wait! I need to walk 1/8 of a mile down the hall to confer with my data analysts to ensure that I have my story straight"
There are jackasses with every technology, just because Assholes cut you off in traffic in their car talking on their cellphone listening to the radio, doesn't mean we should automatically become luddites about radios, cellphones, and automobiles.
Instant message is half way between a phone call and an email, and it is nice to have a middle ground that I can use without taking off my headphones, or averting my eyes from the familiar glow of my LCD.
It is about fashion, pure and simple, and don't try to deny it.
Minivans cost 20% less, and haul more people and more stuff. Look at Chevy specs... It is cheaper to buy a brand new 1500 pickup truck AND a brand new Uplander (minivan) than to buy a tahoe... The Tahoe seats less people than the Van, has less cargo area than the van, and hell if you need to tow something, use your free 1500 pickup truck that you bought with the money you saved.
The truth is that if these assholes that pretend they need to drive a Tahoe to work in an office every day because 2 times a year they tow their jetski to the lake are the problem. I mean seriously it would be cheaper to buy and drive a reasonable car, then buy a different used pickup truck twice a year to tow your jetskis to the lake, than SET THE TRUCK ON FIRE.
There are like zero people who work in offices (I am assuming since you are posting on slashdot...) who "Need" an Suv. Especially if you have to haul people, kids, and stuff.
I would buy one today (even if just pre-ordering) if there was ANY link anywhere on where to freaking buy it... anyone? The slashdotting of 3doverclockedz0mgkfcbbq.com or whatever doesn't help matters either.
Have you seen the new 3.0 libraries?? MS Application blocks look a lot like J2EE when it first came out + the best of Jakarta that we have all been using for almost a decade. Don't get me wrong C# does a lot of "good" stuff... but a lot of its most "innovative" stuff is just finally bringing it up to snuff with the way we have all been using J2EE since the dot com bust.
Top 10 sales for April 4/10 (1.958m) are Wii, 2/10(1.991m) are 360, 2/10(1.224m) are PS3
1. GTA IV - Xbox 360 - 1.85 million*
2. Mario Kart Wii - Wii - 1.12 million
3. GTA IV - PS3 - 1.00 million*
4. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii - 360K
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Wii - 326K
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue - PS3 - 224K
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness - DS - 202K
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time - DS - 202K
9. Guitar Hero III - Wii - 152K
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Xbox 360 - 141K*
Joystiq Source
The differences in game sales are just not as vast as people seem to imply.
it would be more cost efficient to buy 10 of each item you keep losing. I keep a hairbrush chained to the bathroom counter with one of those bank pen-chain things (double length), I was sick of every single brush ending up not in the bathroom where I try to brush my hair. I wanted to do the same with the remote for the TV (chained to the couch), but have not yet.
As for tools, I buy cheap wrench sets whenever they are on sale, and I only break out the good wrenches after I have broken one of my cheapies. They are all stuck to the wall of the garage on kitchen knife magnet strips, so they are out of the reach of little fingers.
Be sure to refactor the tablenames. The customer will catch-on when the "Moron" flag in your users table is set to 1 for their login.
For the love of science do not give them access to your production database, they WILL screw it up, even with just read access.
Here is the psudocode from their SQL:
Select * from everything join everything where non-indexed column like '%'
you need to make them a COPY of the data that they are allowed to access on a seperate database (preferably a seperate server). Most reasonable replication suites allow you to do things like this.
Autoconfig, extended range wireless adaptors, bittorrent 24x7 from every network you can get connected to; you know, for the children.
on a more serious note, I used to work at a place where we were required to take "retired" laptops to the dumpster, somehow they ended up in the trunk of my car more often than not...
NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) runs a laptop loaner program, where people without regular access to a computer can borrow one for a month for free in order to write a novel. It isn't exactly charity, but self-motivated intellectual persuits need all the support they can muster in our society. Most of the laptop loaners work fine but the batteries are shot (aka most used laptops).
I have "fixed up" (clean install with no bricking garbage on it) several and given them to family members at various times.
I have installed one with win2k+remote desktop client and NOTHING else so I could VPN + Remote in to our wintel machines at work without having to worry about work's big brother software locking me out because I have skype installed...
Finally, you could work on some decorative case mods, such as a Steampunk Laptop