A telephone company pulling a bait and switch. Wow, that's never happened to me before. No, wait, it has.
A couple times in the past (Ass Tonguers & Ticklers, and My Cock Itches), companies have called me to offer me some really low rates. I'd say, Wow, No Shit? Sign Me Up! They'd sign me up, then a couple weeks later I'd get an envelope from them saying what the deal really was (not anything close, no shit). And of course, the company would oh so innocently claim that I must have misunderstood the terms of the deal when I signed up. So I cancelled their lying asses first thing.
Second offer I got, I wrote down in detail all the terms of the deal. Even had the guy repeat himself multiple times to verify. Two weeks later, same schlock. Then of course, cancelled their lying fucking asses.
Now, the SOP is, if I get an amazing long distance offer, I say fine, send it to me in writing first.
It's a 12-inch b/w tv, with lead acid battery, inverter, and little cart with wheels, like the kind used for luggage. And I have some velcro straps to lash the TV to your wrist.
Speaking of viruses, etc. It seems that in an incredibly noisome network environment of viruses, spyware, malicious toolbars, the prudent computer user/administrator has to load up his computer with antivirus programs, adware removers/blockers , firewall software, etc.
This serves to further complicate an already complicated system, and so strange side effects are more likely to pop-up (no pun intended). Such as between badly written printer drivers and firewall software, of all things.
Foolishly, a couple weeks ago I volunteered to help a friend out with his home computer. Of course, it was practically locked up with all the crap he had on there. I re-installed it (XP Home), put on the cr. updates, got him set up with Mozilla, AdAware, Spybot S&D, and ZoneAlarm.
I even talked him into getting his family members to use a limited account on the system, to hopefully keep the system as clean as possible for as long as possible. (However, I now realize that many games and other apps don't run properly under anything but an Admin account... so what's the use of that? Growl...)
Printer was working, everything. So I handed it over to him, and a couple days later he calls me to tell me that the printer stopped working. In his effort to be helpful, he clumsily re-installed the printer drivers, but with the old version, not the new. I got it straightened out again, and after some research, discovered that his printer driver (for an HP Photosmart 7350), has some kind of funky problem with the latest version of the free Zone Alarm. But I managed a workaround to this by having him restart his printer driver service. That was yesterday.
Now, something else has happened to the printer, the goddamned thing won't print at all, and re-installing the printer drivers makes not ONE fucking difference.
So what's my point (other than the one under my hat ha-ha)?
1) We have to try to protect ourselves from all the low-lifes trying to own our systems, and in so doing, make our systems even more complicated and difficult to get them to perform the tasks we have them for in the first goddamned place.
2) No matter how much you straighten out somebody's system for them, they can balls it right up again within a short span. Only this time, it's YOUR fault. (I thought of keeping the admin password only to myself for the trial period, but as I mentioned, in order to use it for games, they have to log in as Admin. So they can change anything, install anything, and then play innocent when it breaks.)
My first thought was, well, it's important for regularity, so by all means, Fiber To The Dorms!
Sometimes I make initial odd interpretations like that, such as when this guy remarked that some basketball player grew an extra foot in a year. So I said, in all seriousness, "Really? Where'd he grow it?"
Besides the astronomical cost, many would argue against development of starships as a waste of time due to lack of meaningful destinations for said starships.
Well, this is the first logical step. Find some practical, relatively close targets, then start planning a mission or two. Who knows, we may still be a century from such a mission, but every journey begins with just one step.
Unlike Columbus or Magellan, we can't just go bumbling around until we hit something, we gotta have a PLAN.
(And no offense to Columbus, but him discovering America, or the West Indies for you history Nazis, was a happy accident. In his defense, he didn't have funding to launch geographical surveying satellites first.)
...to study technology feasibility. Hmmm. More like, 3 years to quietly let this technology get stuffed into the same warehouse along with the 60 mpg carburator and the Ark of the Covenant.
What's to keep Microsoft, if they choose, from grabbing the IP addresses of pirates attempting the Windows Update, and going after them RIAA-style? It seems like that would be real tempting to their legal department...
was already doomed when they decided to change the set, and make it more polished and slick. That was the beginning. It wasn't the cause of the doom, but a symptom of the invasion of slick Hollywood "power-lunch" thinking.
And what of the old set do I miss most? The old fridge which doubled as a bookcase. Somehow the geekiest feature in the whole set.
Anyhow, I hope the whole executive staff responsible for these stupid decisions, as a group, fall down a stairwell. RIP TechTV.
Re:Can I smell something ?
on
Directed Sound
·
· Score: 3, Funny
see the reaction of people as they try and figure out if anyone else heard that voice
God: (standing on a chair behind Noah, he rings a bell once) NOAH.
Noah: (Looks up) Is someone calling me? (Shrugs and goes back to his work)
God: (Ding) NOAH!!
Noah: Who is that?
God: It's the Lord, Noah.
Noah: Right... Where are ya? What do ya want? I've been good.
God: I want you to build an ark.
Noah: Right... What's an ark?
God: Get some wood and build it 300 cubits by 80 cubits by 40 cubits.
Noah: Right... What's a cubit?
God: Well never mind. Don't worry about that right now. After you build the
ark, I want you to go out into the world and collect all the animals of the
world, two by two, male and female, and put them into the ark.
Noah: Right... Who is this really? What's going on? How come you want me to
do all these weird things?
God: I'm going to destroy the world.
Noah: Right... Am I on Candid Camera? How are you gonna do it?
God: I'm going to make it rain for a thousand days and drown them right out.
Noah: Right... Listen, do this and you'll save water. Let it rain for forty
days and forty nights and wait for the sewers to back up.
God: Right...
Narrator: So Noah began to build the ark. Of course his neighbors were not
too happy about it. Can you imagine leaving for the office at 7 AM and
seeing an ark?
Neighbor: (enters whistling, with brief case) Hey! You over there.
Noah: What do you want?
Neighbor: What is this thing?
Noah: It's an ark.
Neighbor: Uh huh, well you want to get it out of my driveway? I've gotta get
to work. Hey listen, what's this thing for anyway?
Noah: I can't tell you, ha ha ha.
Neighbor: Can't you even give me a little hint?
Noah: You want a hint?
Neighbor: Yes, please.
Noah: Well, how long can you tread water? Ha ha ha
Neighbor: There's one in every neighborhood. (Shakes head and leaves)
Narrator: Well Noah finally got the ark built. Then he had the task of
gathering all the animals two by two.
Noah: Hey, anybody know how to tell the difference between a male and a
female mosquito? (Looking in a box) I told your rabbits before, only two!
(He puts box in boat) Whew, finally the last two animals are on board. Let's
get this thing closed up before God asks me to do something else. I'm six
hundred years old. I am getting too old for this sort of thing.
God: Noah!
Noah: I knew it. What do you want now?
God: You're going to have to take one of those hippos off and get another
one.
Noah: Why?
God: 'Cause you got two males. You need a female.
Noah: I'm too tired to bring anything else on board. You change one of them.
God: Come on, you know I don't work like that.
Noah: But I'm sick and tired of this. I've been working all day everyday
like crazy for months now, dawn to dusk. I'm tired of this.
God: Noah
Noah: Yeah?
God: how long can you tread water? Ha ha ha
Noah: Yeah, well I got news for you. You keep talking about this flood and I
haven't seen a drop of rain. Meanwhile, the whole neighborhood is making fun
of me. I told one of my friends I'd been talking to the Lord and he laughed
so hard he wet his pants. Do you know I'm the only guy in town with an ark
in his yard? People are picketing and calling the heath department,
strangers walk up to me and say "How's it going, Tarzan?" I am sick and
tired of all of this, you let me get a pregnant elephant . . . Do you give
me an instruction book? . . . No!!! Here I am standing under the elephant
and brrrrrrrrump! Right on top of me! I'm telling you, I've had enough.
You're supposed to see all and know all, well have you seen the bottom of
that ark? Who's going to clean up that mess? Not me, I tell you. I quit. I'm
tired of this. I'm going to let the animals out and burn that ark down. I
can't believe you made me do all this . . .
(God takes a watering can and begins to pour w
And this is where technology ends and philosophy begins.
Consider the differences between electronic transmittal and physical movement. In electronic transmission (emails, file transfers, etc.) a copy is made at the destination, and the original is (optionally) destroyed. Physical movement involves an object moving in four dimensions, without copying or destruction being involved.
If I move from one side of the room to another, I am still me. If somebody transmits an exact copy of me from one side of the room to the other, and then destroys the original, I am not still me... a copy.
What's even more interesting, is that each living organism is constantly changing, bringing in and excreting matter on a constant basis. Over time, the matter composing your being is not the same matter which composed your being 20 years ago. And yet you are still "you." And yet you aren't. Do you like the same music? Do you act the same? Would your 20-year younger self even like you? The you of today shares an history with your younger self and thus originates your sense of self-continuity.
So, to conclude, downloading your brain to some electronic or otherwise existence is not going to make a bit of difference to your biological self. When your body dies, YOU are dead. Doesn't matter how many exact copies somebody made of you.
The poster seems to imply that somebody will be making the rounds (probably around 3am, in jack-boots) demanding all our encryption keys, whether we're under indictment or not, for breach of an American law, or not. Just to have them. Just in case they need them.
Well, they might as well round up all our guns at the same time, give us identity chips for our own "security," officially revoke the Bill of Rights, and set up a UN shrine with mandatory attendance, so there will be no more doubt to anyone what they're all about.
Then all the crazies can retreat to the hills with their shotguns and claymores, and finally have that Armageddon they've been waiting for.
I'm not saying that this WILL happen this way, since I think that the powers-that-be are way too subtle for that. They know all too well that a frog will jump out of boiling water, but will allow itself to be cooked if done so gradually.
Does that mean we have to turn over all the Americans who have been swindling their distinguished embassy officials in that well-known scam? Oh, wait, they were doing that to us... Never mind.
It seems that Disney's "Herbie the Love Bug" may have been the earliest movie to anthropomorphize (whew!) automobiles in this way, though I'm probably not correct. (Umm, "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang"?) Earlier?
In many 3rd world countries, voting locations are a favorite target of militants, terrorists, etc. But with electronic voting, combined with wireless networks, the voting process could become decentralized, and therefore less vulnerable to a sneak bomb attack.
Of course, the down sides are the expense of the technology, and the current issues with software security. But, just like with any new technology, it should eventually get better, and more secure, even if it is never 100% bullet-proof.
Slashdot Mirror
A telephone company pulling a bait and switch. Wow, that's never happened to me before. No, wait, it has.
A couple times in the past (Ass Tonguers & Ticklers, and My Cock Itches), companies have called me to offer me some really low rates. I'd say, Wow, No Shit? Sign Me Up! They'd sign me up, then a couple weeks later I'd get an envelope from them saying what the deal really was (not anything close, no shit). And of course, the company would oh so innocently claim that I must have misunderstood the terms of the deal when I signed up. So I cancelled their lying asses first thing.
Second offer I got, I wrote down in detail all the terms of the deal. Even had the guy repeat himself multiple times to verify. Two weeks later, same schlock. Then of course, cancelled their lying fucking asses.
Now, the SOP is, if I get an amazing long distance offer, I say fine, send it to me in writing first.
They never do.
Um, so you can call it a watch.
This serves to further complicate an already complicated system, and so strange side effects are more likely to pop-up (no pun intended). Such as between badly written printer drivers and firewall software, of all things.
Foolishly, a couple weeks ago I volunteered to help a friend out with his home computer. Of course, it was practically locked up with all the crap he had on there. I re-installed it (XP Home), put on the cr. updates, got him set up with Mozilla, AdAware, Spybot S&D, and ZoneAlarm.
I even talked him into getting his family members to use a limited account on the system, to hopefully keep the system as clean as possible for as long as possible. (However, I now realize that many games and other apps don't run properly under anything but an Admin account... so what's the use of that? Growl...)
Printer was working, everything. So I handed it over to him, and a couple days later he calls me to tell me that the printer stopped working. In his effort to be helpful, he clumsily re-installed the printer drivers, but with the old version, not the new. I got it straightened out again, and after some research, discovered that his printer driver (for an HP Photosmart 7350), has some kind of funky problem with the latest version of the free Zone Alarm. But I managed a workaround to this by having him restart his printer driver service. That was yesterday.
Now, something else has happened to the printer, the goddamned thing won't print at all, and re-installing the printer drivers makes not ONE fucking difference.
So what's my point (other than the one under my hat ha-ha)?
1) We have to try to protect ourselves from all the low-lifes trying to own our systems, and in so doing, make our systems even more complicated and difficult to get them to perform the tasks we have them for in the first goddamned place.
2) No matter how much you straighten out somebody's system for them, they can balls it right up again within a short span. Only this time, it's YOUR fault. (I thought of keeping the admin password only to myself for the trial period, but as I mentioned, in order to use it for games, they have to log in as Admin. So they can change anything, install anything, and then play innocent when it breaks.)
Sometimes I make initial odd interpretations like that, such as when this guy remarked that some basketball player grew an extra foot in a year. So I said, in all seriousness, "Really? Where'd he grow it?"
(Only those with the most woefully deprived childhood would see this comment as Offtopic...)
Don't forget that it causes those, too. Your Friend, Bill.
Besides the astronomical cost, many would argue against development of starships as a waste of time due to lack of meaningful destinations for said starships.
Well, this is the first logical step. Find some practical, relatively close targets, then start planning a mission or two. Who knows, we may still be a century from such a mission, but every journey begins with just one step.
Unlike Columbus or Magellan, we can't just go bumbling around until we hit something, we gotta have a PLAN.
(And no offense to Columbus, but him discovering America, or the West Indies for you history Nazis, was a happy accident. In his defense, he didn't have funding to launch geographical surveying satellites first.)
then somebody blows it up with an RPG...
WHEEE!
Really, somebody oughtta put together a top ten list of people geeks love to hate. Guess who I nominate.
"You got a pretty mouth, griz. Come on, squeal like a pig!"
Must be the special Ozarks model.
Lindows should have tried changing to Swindles. Still sounds like Windows, but in such a way that MS would never dare complain...
MS: "Hey, Swindles sounds too much like... oh, never mind..."
...to study technology feasibility. Hmmm. More like, 3 years to quietly let this technology get stuffed into the same warehouse along with the 60 mpg carburator and the Ark of the Covenant.
What's to keep Microsoft, if they choose, from grabbing the IP addresses of pirates attempting the Windows Update, and going after them RIAA-style? It seems like that would be real tempting to their legal department...
...the witch is (almost) dead, the evil witch is (almost) dead. Heh.
And what of the old set do I miss most? The old fridge which doubled as a bookcase. Somehow the geekiest feature in the whole set.
Anyhow, I hope the whole executive staff responsible for these stupid decisions, as a group, fall down a stairwell. RIP TechTV.
God: (standing on a chair behind Noah, he rings a bell once) NOAH. ... Where are ya? What do ya want? I've been good. ... What's an ark? ... What's a cubit? ... Who is this really? What's going on? How come you want me to
do all these weird things? ... Am I on Candid Camera? How are you gonna do it? ... Listen, do this and you'll save water. Let it rain for forty
days and forty nights and wait for the sewers to back up.
Noah: (Looks up) Is someone calling me? (Shrugs and goes back to his work)
God: (Ding) NOAH!!
Noah: Who is that?
God: It's the Lord, Noah.
Noah: Right
God: I want you to build an ark.
Noah: Right
God: Get some wood and build it 300 cubits by 80 cubits by 40 cubits.
Noah: Right
God: Well never mind. Don't worry about that right now. After you build the ark, I want you to go out into the world and collect all the animals of the world, two by two, male and female, and put them into the ark.
Noah: Right
God: I'm going to destroy the world.
Noah: Right
God: I'm going to make it rain for a thousand days and drown them right out.
Noah: Right
God: Right...
Narrator: So Noah began to build the ark. Of course his neighbors were not too happy about it. Can you imagine leaving for the office at 7 AM and seeing an ark?
Neighbor: (enters whistling, with brief case) Hey! You over there.
Noah: What do you want?
Neighbor: What is this thing?
Noah: It's an ark.
Neighbor: Uh huh, well you want to get it out of my driveway? I've gotta get to work. Hey listen, what's this thing for anyway?
Noah: I can't tell you, ha ha ha.
Neighbor: Can't you even give me a little hint?
Noah: You want a hint?
Neighbor: Yes, please.
Noah: Well, how long can you tread water? Ha ha ha
Neighbor: There's one in every neighborhood. (Shakes head and leaves)
Narrator: Well Noah finally got the ark built. Then he had the task of gathering all the animals two by two.
Noah: Hey, anybody know how to tell the difference between a male and a female mosquito? (Looking in a box) I told your rabbits before, only two! (He puts box in boat) Whew, finally the last two animals are on board. Let's get this thing closed up before God asks me to do something else. I'm six hundred years old. I am getting too old for this sort of thing.
God: Noah!
Noah: I knew it. What do you want now?
God: You're going to have to take one of those hippos off and get another one.
Noah: Why?
God: 'Cause you got two males. You need a female.
Noah: I'm too tired to bring anything else on board. You change one of them.
God: Come on, you know I don't work like that.
Noah: But I'm sick and tired of this. I've been working all day everyday like crazy for months now, dawn to dusk. I'm tired of this.
God: Noah
Noah: Yeah?
God: how long can you tread water? Ha ha ha
Noah: Yeah, well I got news for you. You keep talking about this flood and I haven't seen a drop of rain. Meanwhile, the whole neighborhood is making fun of me. I told one of my friends I'd been talking to the Lord and he laughed so hard he wet his pants. Do you know I'm the only guy in town with an ark in his yard? People are picketing and calling the heath department, strangers walk up to me and say "How's it going, Tarzan?" I am sick and tired of all of this, you let me get a pregnant elephant . . . Do you give me an instruction book? . . . No!!! Here I am standing under the elephant and brrrrrrrrump! Right on top of me! I'm telling you, I've had enough. You're supposed to see all and know all, well have you seen the bottom of that ark? Who's going to clean up that mess? Not me, I tell you. I quit. I'm tired of this. I'm going to let the animals out and burn that ark down. I can't believe you made me do all this . . . (God takes a watering can and begins to pour w
And don't even ask me about the "real life" Missile Command. Not pretty.
Somebody needs to tell China that the Patriot Act does not actually apply to them, so they may carry on as normal.
Yeah, it'll look great in your garage right next to your atomic powered flying pig.
And this is where technology ends and philosophy begins.
Consider the differences between electronic transmittal and physical movement. In electronic transmission (emails, file transfers, etc.) a copy is made at the destination, and the original is (optionally) destroyed. Physical movement involves an object moving in four dimensions, without copying or destruction being involved.
If I move from one side of the room to another, I am still me. If somebody transmits an exact copy of me from one side of the room to the other, and then destroys the original, I am not still me... a copy.
What's even more interesting, is that each living organism is constantly changing, bringing in and excreting matter on a constant basis. Over time, the matter composing your being is not the same matter which composed your being 20 years ago. And yet you are still "you." And yet you aren't. Do you like the same music? Do you act the same? Would your 20-year younger self even like you? The you of today shares an history with your younger self and thus originates your sense of self-continuity.
So, to conclude, downloading your brain to some electronic or otherwise existence is not going to make a bit of difference to your biological self. When your body dies, YOU are dead. Doesn't matter how many exact copies somebody made of you.
Well, they might as well round up all our guns at the same time, give us identity chips for our own "security," officially revoke the Bill of Rights, and set up a UN shrine with mandatory attendance, so there will be no more doubt to anyone what they're all about.
Then all the crazies can retreat to the hills with their shotguns and claymores, and finally have that Armageddon they've been waiting for.
I'm not saying that this WILL happen this way, since I think that the powers-that-be are way too subtle for that. They know all too well that a frog will jump out of boiling water, but will allow itself to be cooked if done so gradually.
Does that mean we have to turn over all the Americans who have been swindling their distinguished embassy officials in that well-known scam? Oh, wait, they were doing that to us... Never mind.
Would pay money for all of those.
It seems that Disney's "Herbie the Love Bug" may have been the earliest movie to anthropomorphize (whew!) automobiles in this way, though I'm probably not correct. (Umm, "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang"?) Earlier?
Of course, the down sides are the expense of the technology, and the current issues with software security. But, just like with any new technology, it should eventually get better, and more secure, even if it is never 100% bullet-proof.
Is this instantaneous? Wouldn't that violate the whole speed-o-light thing?