...it's showed us that howsoever tragic and monumental an event is, it doesn't stop lazy thinkers from using it as a cliche.
Here's a plea to people like the author: please, knock it off! You've just about wore out "Hitler" and "Holocaust" by invoking one or the other at every turn. If you can't put in the extra effort to come up with a reasonable metaphor, then shut the fuck up!
When radio first started out, manufacturers could sell you one, but there was little to do with it. So, the early radio shows were actually financed by the manufacturers (selling advertising came much later.) The idea was they'd give the shows away and make money selling you the hardware.
It's kind of funny now because manufacturers cut one another's throats in the low-end radio market, and radio (radio shows, that is) is big money.
Apple has an interesting angle on their iPod-ITMS venture; but it's not unprecedented.
All the Macs I've had, I've never had a hard drive fail. As far as I know, this is normal for Mac users.
A lot of it could have to do with the operating system, and how it accesses the hard drive. For example, OS X is known to access the drive more often than OS 9. Still, it's not all that noticeable. On the Windows side, a developer-engineer friend of mine told me once that Windows is notorious for thrashing about the hard drive.
Since most of Macintosh history has been pre-OS X, I think there could have been a huge difference in the wear and tear on the same hard drive when comparing it in a Windows system versus a Mac.
That could in part explain the experience of most Mac users. I swear, being sheilded from the PC world, I didn't even know that hard drive failure was the issue it is until I started reading Slashdot and other PC-centric sites.
You must first write up what it is you intend to study in 50-100 pages of arcane language -- I believe it's called "double-plus-good duck-speak," or something like that.
They sell courses that teach you how to do that. I would invest in a course if I were you, because the idea you propose sounds as legitimate as many, many other grants. You just need to learn how to package it appropriately.
But that half-assed "gimme please" plea you submitted to/. just won't do.
God forbids Mac users ever install the MacOS versions of Real One Player or Windows Media Player...
I have both on my iMac; and that's not my point.
I just thought that fellow Mac users would feel the same way. I like to see QuickTime being used, that's all. And for a story specifically about Apple hardware, I just sense a kind of irony.
Gee, I read on the KDE page that they currently have 3 developers and would welcome help. I say "thank you" and lending a hand, if possible, is more appropriate than criticizing their efforts as "not good enough" and demanding more.
It's open source. Be glad for what you get -- or go ahead and ask for your money back!
I agree that this kind of "creativity" is found more often in modern liberals (as opposed to 19th century liberals); but I see Ashcroft, et al., completely jumping aboard this bandwagon. It makes me sick.
I used to get all pissed off at Janet Reno and was happy to see the change in administration. I had high hopes for Ashcroft at the beginning.
You are very right in your comment; however, it is far more dangerous to have one government with such an outlook, than to have thousands of hackers and other assorted citizens.
The harrassment of this reporter points to a larger and more fundamental problem. In the US, law enforcement takes a "creative" approach to applying law to specific cases. (An abstract of the original NYT article, and the option to purchase is here.)
Law enforcement is charging manufacturers of illegal drugs, and others, under provisions in the Patriot Act -- stretching the law to appear "tough on crime."
When law can be interpreted "creatively" and made to apply in cases for which it was not designed, and for which there are already applicable laws, we are on the path to a government not of laws, but of men! It is anti-American, and moreover anti-liberal.
If the law can be made to mean anything, then it is worse than having no law; worse because the unthinking still give such a government the respect due a lawful society. It's a sham!
Everyone in government, law and society who supports this philosophy -- from ambitious proscecutors, to shyster lawyers, to every last office worker and housewife who couldn't care less as to how criminals are caught and convicted -- is guilty of destroying this country.
We need a push to get honesty back into law enforcement. The alternative is to have draconian laws on the books that can be used to oppress whoever is at the moment among the despised and unpopular.
I will stipulate that Apple went ahead and violated a convention in computing for the sake of marketing; but people criticizing the $129 price in the context of the upgrade being a "point" release are way off the mark.
Panther is OS XII -- but I guess Apple wants to stick with the mindshare that the big "X" has created.
I stuck with 10.1 until only last month. Know what? When I finally installed Jaguar on my machine, I was kicking myself for waiting so long.
Folks post "the Army uses games" argument like the Army sits recruits down in front of Quake and teaches them to kill and de-sensitize them.
The article only mentions that one simulator. That's the only one?
Obviously, the Army uses far more sophisticated video "games" than Quake (good game, by the way!). But, my point is still valid.
Video games allow a person to rehearse, to build skills, and to gain confidence. Though the vast majority of people who play understand the difference between fantasy and reality, the mentally unstable do not.
It is said by psychologists and self-styled motivational speakers that to accomplish something you first need to be able to visualize it. In fact, they encourage people to practice visualizing what they want to accomplish in vivid detail.
Video games can contribute to this kind of visualization.
I don't think video games cause anyone to "go postal," but I do think it can excite those who are already predisposed to violence and encourage them.
The U.S. Army uses video games for training its soldiers. This kind of training allows a person to rehearse certain situations. Through rehearsing, a person sharpens the skills needed for such situations, and gains confidence in his sense of efficacy.
I think if you're already somewhat "bent" on destruction, a fear of not being able to pull it off may be significant in holding you back. Training on video games -- though you may not realize that that's in fact what you're doing -- will make the unfamiliar (for example, shooting into a crowd) less so.
The most important part of any training is training the mind. Video games teach you to acquire a target, shoot instantly, instantly acquire another target -- on and on and on. It becomes second nature. The 3-D games even train the mind to navigate hallways or open fields and so forth.
Again, I want to stress: video games don't cause violence. I do think, however, that they provide encouragement for those prone to it.
And just for the record, we should lock up the crazies, and leave the sane to enjoy their video games in peace.
And aside from the command line, there just aren't any software products, just as you say. Basically, with Macintosh, you get a word process, e-mail client, browser, and that's it!
And there's really no hope of that ever changing, what with the crappy, hard-to-use development enviroment Apple has released for their platform, and the total indiffernce from the developer community regarding the platform.
It's a wonder more people don't share the "insight" you do.
I see. That's fairly good news, though I see that it costs anywhere from 250 to 2500 dollars to buy a scanner, with upgradeable ones starting at around $500.
Speaking with my brother, a mechanic, on this subject just recently, I learned the following. It is getting close to impossible to work on cars these days without first using computer diagnostics. Each of these systems is specific to the automobile's make. Moreover, diagnostic systems are proprietary.
Gone are the days when you could work on your own car. A friend of my brother -- who my brother says is an excellent amateur mechanic -- tried to fix his own car and ended up making it worse. The reason? He lacked the diagnostic equipment, and there is just no way to begin without first using it.
Even independent shops are being hurt by this, since they must purchase the equipment for each manufacturer whose cars they wish to service, and the manufacturers change their systems every few years. Obviously, the "authorized" repair shops at the individual dealers have an advantage.
It's well known that the profit margin on automobiles is growing more narrow. Companies are looking to make money by offering financing and through parts and repairs. They have an incentive to get you to deal with them exclusively.
They haven't gotten to prohibiting "unauthorized" repairs directly; but they are getting more and more successful at a de facto prohibition.
I wonder how much of this has to do with lobbying from the telcom industry. No doubt politicians are salivating at the prospect of more taxes, but aren't the traditional telephone companies worried over the "unfair" competition?
Sadly, there are two ways of doing business in the American economy: out do the competition, or bury them through political pull. VoIP threatens the status quo in the industry, and I'm guessing somebody from the telcoms is whispering in the ear of the politicians and greasing their palms to shackle VoIP with the same regulations they work under -- even though the rationale for those regulations applies even less to VoIP.
Okay, I'm offering no hard evidence, other than history and how this has played out time and time again in other industries. I say that's enough that we should all be on the lookout dirty pool.
(Make all the foil hats and X-Files jokes you want!)
How many great artists in history have spent many afternoons and evenings copying great paintings, sculptures and so forth? I don't know what goes on in our "modern" world, but for the longest time copying the works of the masters was the way to train and develop as an artist. Isn't this something like what's going on here?
Maybe these guys aren't interested in story writing and are only trying to hone their skills in cinematography. What's wrong with reworking the material of others to accomplish that end?
What they do isn't a career; it's the beginnings of one. I think your criticism is a little misplaced.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's a plea to people like the author: please, knock it off! You've just about wore out "Hitler" and "Holocaust" by invoking one or the other at every turn. If you can't put in the extra effort to come up with a reasonable metaphor, then shut the fuck up!
When radio first started out, manufacturers could sell you one, but there was little to do with it. So, the early radio shows were actually financed by the manufacturers (selling advertising came much later.) The idea was they'd give the shows away and make money selling you the hardware.
It's kind of funny now because manufacturers cut one another's throats in the low-end radio market, and radio (radio shows, that is) is big money.
Apple has an interesting angle on their iPod-ITMS venture; but it's not unprecedented.
All the Macs I've had, I've never had a hard drive fail. As far as I know, this is normal for Mac users.
A lot of it could have to do with the operating system, and how it accesses the hard drive. For example, OS X is known to access the drive more often than OS 9. Still, it's not all that noticeable. On the Windows side, a developer-engineer friend of mine told me once that Windows is notorious for thrashing about the hard drive.
Since most of Macintosh history has been pre-OS X, I think there could have been a huge difference in the wear and tear on the same hard drive when comparing it in a Windows system versus a Mac.
That could in part explain the experience of most Mac users. I swear, being sheilded from the PC world, I didn't even know that hard drive failure was the issue it is until I started reading Slashdot and other PC-centric sites.
Not to mention 4 out of 5 dentists!
Can you "have a grant now"? No!
You must first write up what it is you intend to study in 50-100 pages of arcane language -- I believe it's called "double-plus-good duck-speak," or something like that.
They sell courses that teach you how to do that. I would invest in a course if I were you, because the idea you propose sounds as legitimate as many, many other grants. You just need to learn how to package it appropriately.
But that half-assed "gimme please" plea you submitted to /. just won't do.
Get to work, and good luck to you!
I'm running an app from 1992 on Jaguar (via Classic). It still runs beautifully. (That's Microsoft Word 5.1a, the best word processor ever.)
The parent is absolutely right. A lot of developers use unpublished, private API's.
Only in the best schools.
I have both on my iMac; and that's not my point.
I just thought that fellow Mac users would feel the same way. I like to see QuickTime being used, that's all. And for a story specifically about Apple hardware, I just sense a kind of irony.
The video is available for either Windows Media Player or RealOne Player -- but not QuickTime!
Ouch!!!
Gee, I read on the KDE page that they currently have 3 developers and would welcome help. I say "thank you" and lending a hand, if possible, is more appropriate than criticizing their efforts as "not good enough" and demanding more.
It's open source. Be glad for what you get -- or go ahead and ask for your money back!
I agree that this kind of "creativity" is found more often in modern liberals (as opposed to 19th century liberals); but I see Ashcroft, et al., completely jumping aboard this bandwagon. It makes me sick.
I used to get all pissed off at Janet Reno and was happy to see the change in administration. I had high hopes for Ashcroft at the beginning.
I do no longer.
Yeah -- I "just got that"!
You are very right in your comment; however, it is far more dangerous to have one government with such an outlook, than to have thousands of hackers and other assorted citizens.
The harrassment of this reporter points to a larger and more fundamental problem. In the US, law enforcement takes a "creative" approach to applying law to specific cases. (An abstract of the original NYT article, and the option to purchase is here.)
Law enforcement is charging manufacturers of illegal drugs, and others, under provisions in the Patriot Act -- stretching the law to appear "tough on crime."
When law can be interpreted "creatively" and made to apply in cases for which it was not designed, and for which there are already applicable laws, we are on the path to a government not of laws, but of men! It is anti-American, and moreover anti-liberal.
If the law can be made to mean anything, then it is worse than having no law; worse because the unthinking still give such a government the respect due a lawful society. It's a sham!
Everyone in government, law and society who supports this philosophy -- from ambitious proscecutors, to shyster lawyers, to every last office worker and housewife who couldn't care less as to how criminals are caught and convicted -- is guilty of destroying this country.
We need a push to get honesty back into law enforcement. The alternative is to have draconian laws on the books that can be used to oppress whoever is at the moment among the despised and unpopular.
I will stipulate that Apple went ahead and violated a convention in computing for the sake of marketing; but people criticizing the $129 price in the context of the upgrade being a "point" release are way off the mark.
Panther is OS XII -- but I guess Apple wants to stick with the mindshare that the big "X" has created.
I stuck with 10.1 until only last month. Know what? When I finally installed Jaguar on my machine, I was kicking myself for waiting so long.
These are major upgrades.
The article only mentions that one simulator. That's the only one?
Obviously, the Army uses far more sophisticated video "games" than Quake (good game, by the way!). But, my point is still valid.
Video games allow a person to rehearse, to build skills, and to gain confidence. Though the vast majority of people who play understand the difference between fantasy and reality, the mentally unstable do not.
It is said by psychologists and self-styled motivational speakers that to accomplish something you first need to be able to visualize it. In fact, they encourage people to practice visualizing what they want to accomplish in vivid detail.
Video games can contribute to this kind of visualization.
I don't think video games cause anyone to "go postal," but I do think it can excite those who are already predisposed to violence and encourage them.
The U.S. Army uses video games for training its soldiers. This kind of training allows a person to rehearse certain situations. Through rehearsing, a person sharpens the skills needed for such situations, and gains confidence in his sense of efficacy.
I think if you're already somewhat "bent" on destruction, a fear of not being able to pull it off may be significant in holding you back. Training on video games -- though you may not realize that that's in fact what you're doing -- will make the unfamiliar (for example, shooting into a crowd) less so.
The most important part of any training is training the mind. Video games teach you to acquire a target, shoot instantly, instantly acquire another target -- on and on and on. It becomes second nature. The 3-D games even train the mind to navigate hallways or open fields and so forth.
Again, I want to stress: video games don't cause violence. I do think, however, that they provide encouragement for those prone to it.
And just for the record, we should lock up the crazies, and leave the sane to enjoy their video games in peace.
You're so right, because there's just no way for you to download thousands of UNIX utilities and run configure, make, and make install, and have it run on OS X.
And aside from the command line, there just aren't any software products, just as you say. Basically, with Macintosh, you get a word process, e-mail client, browser, and that's it!
And there's really no hope of that ever changing, what with the crappy, hard-to-use development enviroment Apple has released for their platform, and the total indiffernce from the developer community regarding the platform.
It's a wonder more people don't share the "insight" you do.
Thanks for the enlightenment!
I see. That's fairly good news, though I see that it costs anywhere from 250 to 2500 dollars to buy a scanner, with upgradeable ones starting at around $500.
Speaking with my brother, a mechanic, on this subject just recently, I learned the following. It is getting close to impossible to work on cars these days without first using computer diagnostics. Each of these systems is specific to the automobile's make. Moreover, diagnostic systems are proprietary.
Gone are the days when you could work on your own car. A friend of my brother -- who my brother says is an excellent amateur mechanic -- tried to fix his own car and ended up making it worse. The reason? He lacked the diagnostic equipment, and there is just no way to begin without first using it.
Even independent shops are being hurt by this, since they must purchase the equipment for each manufacturer whose cars they wish to service, and the manufacturers change their systems every few years. Obviously, the "authorized" repair shops at the individual dealers have an advantage.
It's well known that the profit margin on automobiles is growing more narrow. Companies are looking to make money by offering financing and through parts and repairs. They have an incentive to get you to deal with them exclusively.
They haven't gotten to prohibiting "unauthorized" repairs directly; but they are getting more and more successful at a de facto prohibition.
If only Linus would go into car manufacturing!
And I promise to proofread more carefully next time!
I wonder how much of this has to do with lobbying from the telcom industry. No doubt politicians are salivating at the prospect of more taxes, but aren't the traditional telephone companies worried over the "unfair" competition?
Sadly, there are two ways of doing business in the American economy: out do the competition, or bury them through political pull. VoIP threatens the status quo in the industry, and I'm guessing somebody from the telcoms is whispering in the ear of the politicians and greasing their palms to shackle VoIP with the same regulations they work under -- even though the rationale for those regulations applies even less to VoIP.
Okay, I'm offering no hard evidence, other than history and how this has played out time and time again in other industries. I say that's enough that we should all be on the lookout dirty pool.
(Make all the foil hats and X-Files jokes you want!)
How many great artists in history have spent many afternoons and evenings copying great paintings, sculptures and so forth? I don't know what goes on in our "modern" world, but for the longest time copying the works of the masters was the way to train and develop as an artist. Isn't this something like what's going on here?
Maybe these guys aren't interested in story writing and are only trying to hone their skills in cinematography. What's wrong with reworking the material of others to accomplish that end?
What they do isn't a career; it's the beginnings of one. I think your criticism is a little misplaced.
Perhaps I'll give it a read. Thanks!
An excellent book on the subject is The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleased the Lawsuit by Walter K. Olson, in case anyone is interested.
I read it many years ago and thought it an excellent analysis on the the underlying causes of litigiouness in the American legal system.
It's no longer in print, apparently, but you can get it used or pick it up at your local library.