Man: Morning. Waitress: Morning. M: Well, what you got? W: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and troll; egg, bacon and troll; egg, bacon, sausage and troll; troll, bacon, sausage and troll; troll, egg, troll, troll, bacon and troll; troll, sausage, troll, troll, troll, bacon, troll, tomato and troll; troll, troll, troll, egg and troll; (creationists start singing in background) troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, baked beans, troll, troll, troll and troll. Creationist: Troll, troll , troll, troll, lovely troll, wonderful troll. W (cont): or lobster thermador ecrovets with a bournaise sause, served in the purple salm manor with chalots and overshies, garnished with truffle pate, brandy, a fried egg on top and troll. Wife: Have you got anything without troll? Waitress: Well, there's troll, egg, sausage and troll. That's not got much troll in it. Wi: I don't want any troll! M: Why can't she have egg, bacon, troll and sausage? Wi: That's got troll in it. M: It hasn't got as much troll in it as troll, egg, sausage and troll has it? Wi: (over creationists starting again) Could you do me egg, bacon, troll and sausage without the troll then? Wa: Ech! Wi: What do you mean ech! I don't like troll! C: Lovely troll, wonderful troll....etc. Wa: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Bloody creationists. You can't have egg, bacon troll and sausage without the troll. Wi: I don't like troll! M: Sh dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your troll. I love it. I'm having troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, baked beans, troll, troll, troll and troll. (starts creationists off again) C: Lovely troll, wonderful troll...etc. Wa: Shut up! Baked beans are off. M: Well, can I have her troll instead of the baked beans? Wa: You mean troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, and troll? C: Lovely troll, wonderful troll...etc...troll, troll, troll! (in harmony).
I have access to and just recently finished the Neverwinter Nights game start to finish, about 99.9% of it playing on the NetBSD machine as server. There were only a very few problems I encountered:
0. I had to create the directories "currentgame.0" and "temp.0" before I could get gameplay out of the server running on NetBSD using Linux emulation with the Suse7 emu package.
1. The most difficult to deal with were module transitions--from chapter to chapter. These had to be saved before the transition, the saves had to be moved to the windows machine, the transition completed on a windows local server, then saved again, moved back, and restarted.
I'm certain there's something simple that I could be doing--have the script check regularly (every second?) for some kind of disk structure, or perhaps fixing something else, but I was too anxious to get to the next chapter to sit there and do a ktrace of what was happening. I have a pile of saved games I can monkey with though (about 100 of them) so I'll get to it eventually.
I did not try to move it to a Windows server to see if this would make a difference. I suspect it would've worked perfectly.
So, I'd recommend saving yourself a headache and just use the Windows version. I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.
P.S. If you must play on Linux/BSD, please know that saving the game in the middle of an area to area transition (not module to module--that just plain didn't work) caused a freeze and core-dump in the server.
When Data dies, he goes, calmly, logically, into the breach, to save his Captain and his friends. There is a story brewing in me about his last conversation with Geordi as they went to send him over to his ship - a conversation that would've added depth to the film, if someone had thought about it. But is he dead? Or does he live on in B4? The fanworld may debate this one for a while...
Some problems though: -- No mention of Spock. Would it have killed them? -- Brief glimpse of Wesley, but no explanations. -- Cameo of Guinan. Nice, short, and sweet. -- All the technobabble in the film made me realize that Enterprise has done fairly well at keeping it to a minimum. -- Romulans can now fire while cloaked. Oh, goody... -- Another Romulan we could've seen but didn't: Tomalok.
Personally, the only reason I watch Voyager is to get an eye-full of Jeri Ryan wearing that skin-tight catsuit, and to laugh at that snivelling idiot Berman because the only reason Jeri Ryan is shagging him is to make sure she gets a part on the forthcoming fifth installment of the Berman/Braga celebration of shit.
470 people have actually paid $5,000 apiece for a life-size replica of the villain Locutus.
I do not want to start a flame war here, but this is exactly the kind of nonsense that these Free/Open Source hypocrites don't like to talk about.
"Oh dear, no way would I use Microsoft products. Everything should be free! Free software, free tech support, free ISPs, etc."
Then they go out and spend several thousand dollars on Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings memoribilia each year. And these are probably families who are barely scraping by on, say, $30,000 or so each year, which doesn't go a long way with two kids, a house, a dog, utility bill, mortgage, car payments, insurance, schooling, etc.
I just wish folks would budget their money more wisely. Use that computer you claim to know so much about and buy Quicken or something. It will really save you dearly in the end, and perhaps save your family.
The US has been in an ecomonic pit for the past two years. Now's not the time to be spending money on whatever you damn well please. I realize it's Christmas, but ask yourself if you'd rather have three meals a day, or some new LOTR costume that you can prance around the woods in.
Don't mean to sound vicious or judgemental or anything, I just worry about our nation's families and whether people are budgeting money properly. (I'm an accountant!)
Please forward questions, complaints, and replies to:
ALAN M RALSKY 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322 Sale Date: 8/28/2002 Recorded Date: 9/12/2002 Sale Price: $ 740,000
Max Planck. Two words, one name. Leader of modern physics. Inventor. Courageous. Man of all worlds, man of all nations, lover of physics, worshipper of love and all that is good and worldly.
Planck was a genius, but didn't claim to be one. Yet, he invented something in his lab that parallels the importance of Einstein, Feynman, and Wright's findings -- quantum physics! The interactions of small little particles.
Here is some more information:
World>Deutsch>Wissenschaft>Forschungseinrichtungen
MaxPlanck Society ...MaxPlanck Research 3/2002 Cover, The new issue of the MaxPlanckResearch
magazine has been released.... Recommendations of the MaxPlanck Society.... Description: MaxPlanck Institutes carry on basic research in service to the general public in the areas of natural... Category: Science>Institutions>ResearchInstitutes www.mpg.de/english/ - 17k - Dec. 13, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages [ More results from www.mpg.de ]
MPIfM MAXPLANCK INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR MATHEMATIK
Vivatsgasse...MaxPlanck Society for the Advancement of Science Max... www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/static/home.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
Planck ...MaxPlanck came from an academic family, his father being professor of law at
Kiel and both his grandfather and great-grandfather had been professors of... www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/ Mathematicians/Planck.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
My personal experience with Spielberg films
on
Taken?
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· Score: 2
Let me guess, Steven, you picked out yet another (originally) interesting film with a "crank" that I'm expected to turn and turn until OOP! big shock, a jack pops out and you laugh and the audience laughs and the dog laughs and I die a little inside
?
Sick of reviewers, critics, skeptics, guides, etc.
on
Taken?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Movies serve one purpose -- to entertain. In fact, all entities can generally be classified into one category based on one primary function that they perform. For example, computers are designed to perform fast calculations. Movies are made to entertain. Actors and actresses appear in movies to pay for living expenses, whereas they appear on Broadway and live theatre productions to hone their acting skills. Writers' purpose is to organize a lot of information into coherent articles and papers. Constructions workers build things. Engineers design things. It's really that simple.
It's often been said that there are only two things that should be used to rate a movie on its entertainment merits.
1) Does the story take you somewhere? 2) Do you care about the outcome?
That's it. That is essentially what Spielberg and every other movie creator's goal is. They want to entertain and captivate audiences, but if that's going to happen they have to address those two crucial questions.
It's not that Spielberg isn't a master, it's just that he's forgetting the whole purpose. His movies have become too cold and outsider feeling; audiences are subsequently being turned off to his stories these days because, time and time again, they don't feel taken back or captivated, and they don't have an emotional tie-in to what happens in the plotline.
I think popular films of the current day can learn a lot from the anime sub-genre of filmography. It's about interesting characters that people care about, and stories they grow to love and understand. The basic simplicities of life.
Anime is not child pornography, it's not tentacle rape, it's not insert_whatever_typical_complaint_here -- it's just captivating, wonderful film. And it's new, it's fresh, it's fascinating, it's an art form.
Spielberg no longer is these things. He's old hat, washed up, boring, dull, tantric, mundane, and irrelevant any more. He turns great Kubrick, Dickens, and Shakespeare stories into a cold abbreviated plot with characters no one cares about and actors that aren't the most skilled craftsmen in their field.
I used to love Steve, I really did. But lately it's almost as though he's just doing movies to occupy his time. I no longer leave Spielberg movies at the theatre with my mouth open and dripping. I leave with a gritty taste in my mouth and thoughts of less-than-his-best wander throughout my head.
I miss the old Spielberg, and I'm sure you do too. Perhaps a petition is appropriate. Let's just say "Steve, get back to basics. We love you and respect you, but you're abondoning your true fans and are losing out on wonderful films as a result."
Well, that's just my two cents. Like I said, I'm not a critic, and I'm not putting him down.
Spielberg Over the Hill?
on
Taken?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I can't help but feel, along with many others, that Spielberg's time to shine has come and gone.
It seems each movie gets a bit more out far-fetched and unbelievable with the years. He's even using the latest "fad" actors in his films rather than tried and true classic screensmen.
Anyone else think his time is over? I mean, A.I. was supposed to be a masterpiece, but all it was was simply two or three hours of some annoying "Sixth Sense" ghost boy trying to find his mom.
Bioinformatics is really where it's out. Just glancing around at various newspapers, it's readily apparent where the future is heading.
Is it really what we want/need as humans? I'm not sure. But I for one won't wager a guess until there's more research done in the area, so I say let's explore it more before we defame it conclusively or support it as a technological breakthrough.
Some other recent news items: Nabda, Unesco Collaborate in Bioinformatics Training AllAfrica.com,Africa-05 Dec 2002 ... Development Agency (NABDA) and the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO), penultimate Tuesday held a two-day Bioinformatics...
Bioinformatics ahead for Danville Danville Register and Bee,VA-30 Nov 2002 ... Developing these plants will involve both horticulture and bioinformatics and will
be one major focus of Danville's Institute for Advanced Learning and Research...
The race to computerise biology Economist (subscription),UK-12 Dec 2002 Welcome to the world of bioinformatics--a branch of computing concerned
with the acquisition, storage and analysis of biological data....
If I had to do it again, I'd definitely choose biology or bioengineering or something related.
It seems as most everything in computer has "been done", and biology/chemisty/biochemical engineering seems to be where all the fun & excitement is these days.
Linux needs standardization like America needs another war. Please. Give me a break. Learn the fucking facts before you go spewing off random data about standard kernel this, and secure app that.
What Linux needs is to win the damn desktop before Microsoft has a digital rights management utility and owns every instant message, email, song, and paper you ever create. Sound scary? It is, but watch it happen if we don't act now.
A standardized distribution is nearly in existence. It's called Red Hat. Corporately used, corporately sponsored, and standard. Hell, they even have stock shares.
You may be familiar with the movie entitled "What Women Really Want". Well, here's my own script. It's called "What Linux Really Needs".
- A help wizard for Netscape 7 and StarOffice. - Documentation on how to get cable/DSL modems working. Perhaps a desktop utility (program) too. - Swap files. They work. People don't have a lot of RAM (well, geeks do, but most home owners have 64 or 128 MB). But they like pictures and video, so let's swap out some of their 20GB hard drives. - Some blue screen type of application to let them know when their video drivers are corrupted or something bad happens. - 24 hour free tech support via phone or on-site service for $0.99/minute. People need to learn Linux. Most aren't born with command line powers gifted from God. - Record hardware configurations and errors that occur (ala "TalkBack" in Mozilla). Users can then call in to 1-800-LNX-HELP or whatever and get some assistance based on their computer's unique ID number.
This suit won't apply to me personally. Some people, yes. But those people are the same folks who eat fast-food once or twice a day, never exercise, don't have any spiritual beliefs or practices.
Jack La Lanne is nearly 100 years old, yet he looks 65 and still works out every day. I was born in the 1970s, and I plan on living well into my 120s and 130s. I'm not kidding.
- Eat healthy food. Pretend you're a car. Would you put sugar into your gas tank? Of course not. So don't eat junk food either. - Exercise. It keeps your mind clean and your body healthy. - Listen to music. It soothes the soul. Playing music is even better. - Smile a lot. Be happy. Happy people live longer. They like being alive! - Have sex/masturbate frequently. The chemicals released during sexual activity make you feel better and aid normal day-to-day activities. - Don't smoke. - Don't drink. - Have beliefs. There has to be some spiritual basis in your mind. You don't have to be Catholic or anything, but that doesn't mean you can't do yoga or pray to some higher power.
Quit your Coca-Cola + Frito Lay + Computer habit that dominates many of your lives. I eat pears, apple slices with peanut butter, celery & peanut butter, raisins, nuts, cereal, etc. while at the computer. Most of you probably don't. Ditch those M&Ms for some healthy trail mix!
Oh God, and please smile too! Life isn't that rough. It'll be better if you take things as they come. Just ENJOY being alive! Life is interesting if nothing else.
And keep games to moderation. This includes Slashdot. Too much of any one thing is bad. Life your life in moderation. Sleep well!
Good things will come, and you and I will still be roaming these hills for 100+ years to come!
One friend wanted a tip calculator, which took about 5 minutes after I figured out how everything worked. It is alittle different from standard Java and you're missing some important things such as floating point numbers (float and double are gone). So it does take some getting used to.
Why spend hours researching how to program applications on your cellphone? I stick to simple math, man.
Let's say your bill is $17.48 at a restaurant and you have to leave the tip.
If bad service: Move decimal one place left ($1.748, which you just round to a dollar and three quarters). This is a 10% tip.
If good service: Use the method above, only multiply the amount by two ($1.75 x 2 = $3.50). This is a 20% tip.
You use it to talk to other people. That's it. Anyone who spends several days researching the hardware inside, taking pictures of, writing about, and immersing themselves in their cell phone has serious issues.
First off, this guy is probably a developer for Sprint, Motorola, or Nokia and is getting paid to post this to Slashdot.
Secondly, he's showing how to put pornography on his phone, which I'm sure isn't something that would impress your girlfriend's parents or is something that your little sister should be looking at.
I do agree that some instances of "tweaking", "hacking", or whatever it's called these days are necessary. Let's face it -- if you're going out to the club, you should dress up nicely, smell nicely, and look good if you want to pick a guy or girl up and bring them home; "tweaking" yourself certainly has its advantages, like earning you better looking friends, earning you more friends, getting potential bedmates, girlfriends, wives, etc.
But customizing a cellphone that probably has just as crappy reception as every other crappy cellphone out there is nearly pointless. I do appreciate the "geek factor" though, but still.
I mean, cellphones aren't even legal in New York State anymore when you're driving, so what's the point. I'm back to using payphones anyway (with a calling card) since that's what works. Go ahead and call someone you love when they're in the hospital via your staticky cellphone and see if they ever talk to you again.
Cellphones are rude, and developers cramming more "features" onto them is ridiculous when you consider how poorly they work to begin with. If it all weren't such a scam, they wouldn't have all those confusing plans to begin with. The phone would just work, and work well. You could call people whenever you wanted.
I tweak my appearance, I keep my house clean, I keep my German sports sedan clean and maintained properly, I "hack" my TV if I want to view pay-per-view channels, but that's about it. I throw dinner together too sometimes, but I don't publish Web pages on the subject.
Let's all snap back to reality and remember what's important. The T720 or Q480 or XL170 phones aren't going to stop war, or teach love, or cure hate, or stop cancer, or anything important. It's a frigging telephone -- talk ON it, but don't talk ABOUT it.
I feel there are some inherent problems with product criticism/reviews.
The problem is that most people who review things are the very people who seem to have the most hang-ups about that thing. This makes their reviews worthless to the rest of us who simply enjoy portable mp3 players or cool new cellphones.
So Mr. Device Reviewerman, you think the iBook had a "derivative, punch-the-keyboard action to it." You think Microsoft's TabletPC is "crude, but occasionally laugh-out-loud funny when using the scribbler utility, merely for its sheer ridiculousness."
You think that a lot of these products are just too far below your standards. Well I bet you twenty bucks you have a painting in your house that you bought because it matched your couch, how pedestrian.
Another major problem with research papers is the "dissappearance" of those who actually do properly cite their sources.
As many of you know, the Internet is a great research tool these days. But unfortunately, it's too dynamic for the research world. "Most URL references [stand] more than a 50 percent chance of not existing after only six months." (from a Cornell study at http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/00/12.14.00/ web_citations.html)
I don't care as much if some researcher only reads parts and pieces of papers that they cite, but when the entier papers dissappear, that's a much bigger problem.
"The study, using term papers between 1996 and 1999, found that after four years the URL reference cited in a term paper stood an 80 percent chance of no longer existing."
I had a long conversation with friends during a late-night study session back when I was doing my undergrad at CMU. Basically, we agreed that parents always were treated more leniently than people who didn't have any kids.
So, first thing out of college, I impregnated my girlfriend at the time. And guess what -- it was a good choice; my friends and I were right. Work life got much better. Lateness was tolerated ("Tyler threw up again and I had to clean it up"), absense was tolerated ("My girlfriend has morning sickness, and I had to stay up all night to feed the baby"), etc.
I don't mean this to sound cruel, but with all the leniency employers give parents, and all the tax breaks parents get, the question is why don't you have kids?!:-)
I always just "look" busy
on
The New IT Crisis
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Well then how do you get credit for the work you do, when all that's noticed is the downtime?
I feel that if I work hard (and smart enough), then I deserve free time every once in awhile. After all, I earned it.
But, managers don't understand this. So, I relax by reading The Onion or Freshmeat at work, but always make sure my hand can quickly hit ALT+TAB to get back into my work window (usually Emacs).
I try to work out a lot, but sometimes it gets hard after a long strenuous work day. The one thing that does get me there time and time again is a good CD mix of my favorite (new) songs. Good music is key to a good workout.
That being said, I do want to burn my CDs in less than 10 minutes. I have a 32X burner so that I can make them in 2 minutes after quickly deciding what to put onto my new personal greatest hits CD.
I guess I could even make the (stretching it, I know) claim that my 32X burner has saved my life (or at least cut a few years off) due to the rigorous exercise that it has encouraged.
Just when you think you couldn't burn those shared MP3s any faster...
I try to do everything ethically-sound. I'm not religious, and I've found that I'm generally a "better" person than most religious folks anyway.
But that being said, I run a Free operating system. All of the software I use is Free as well. I don't need Microsoft Office; my kids write their papers in plain text and I convert it into HTML and print those out.
My point is that not all of us burn "shared" (translation: stolen). The only CDs I'll ever burn are full of photos of family/friends, or backup copies of software/files, or audio CD mixes from CDs that I already own.
I'm sorry, I just take offense (and it's early and I haven't had coffee;) when people just assume that all burners of CDs are thieves. Because I'm not, and I don't want my kids to think so. I love them.
Slashdot Mirror
Man: Morning.
Waitress: Morning.
M: Well, what you got?
W: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and troll; egg,
bacon and troll; egg, bacon, sausage and troll; troll, bacon, sausage and
troll; troll, egg, troll, troll, bacon and troll; troll, sausage, troll,
troll, troll, bacon, troll, tomato and troll; troll, troll, troll, egg and
troll; (creationists start singing in background) troll, troll, troll,
troll, troll, troll, baked beans, troll, troll, troll and troll.
Creationist: Troll, troll , troll, troll, lovely troll, wonderful troll.
W (cont): or lobster thermador ecrovets with a bournaise sause, served in
the purple salm manor with chalots and overshies, garnished with truffle
pate, brandy, a fried egg on top and troll.
Wife: Have you got anything without troll?
Waitress: Well, there's troll, egg, sausage and troll. That's not got much
troll in it.
Wi: I don't want any troll!
M: Why can't she have egg, bacon, troll and sausage?
Wi: That's got troll in it.
M: It hasn't got as much troll in it as troll, egg, sausage and troll has
it?
Wi: (over creationists starting again) Could you do me egg, bacon, troll and
sausage without the troll then?
Wa: Ech!
Wi: What do you mean ech! I don't like troll!
C: Lovely troll, wonderful troll....etc.
Wa: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Bloody creationists. You can't have egg,
bacon troll and sausage without the troll.
Wi: I don't like troll!
M: Sh dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your troll. I love it. I'm having
troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, baked beans, troll, troll,
troll and troll. (starts creationists off again)
C: Lovely troll, wonderful troll...etc.
Wa: Shut up! Baked beans are off.
M: Well, can I have her troll instead of the baked beans?
Wa: You mean troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, troll,
troll, troll, and troll?
C: Lovely troll, wonderful troll...etc...troll, troll, troll! (in harmony).
I have access to and just recently finished the Neverwinter Nights game start to finish, about 99.9% of it playing on the NetBSD machine as server. There were only a very few problems I encountered:
0. I had to create the directories "currentgame.0" and "temp.0" before I could get gameplay out of the server running on NetBSD using Linux emulation with the Suse7 emu package.
1. The most difficult to deal with were module transitions--from chapter to chapter. These had to be saved before the transition, the saves had to be moved to the windows machine, the transition completed on a windows local server, then saved again, moved back, and restarted.
I'm certain there's something simple that I could be doing--have the script check regularly (every second?) for some kind of disk structure, or perhaps fixing something else, but I was too anxious to get to the next chapter to sit there and do a ktrace of what was happening. I have a pile of saved games I can monkey with though (about 100 of them) so I'll get to it eventually.
I did not try to move it to a Windows server to see if this would make a difference. I suspect it would've worked perfectly.
So, I'd recommend saving yourself a headache and just use the Windows version. I play games for entertainment, coolness, sex appeal, geek factor, etc., but I don't wish to spend an hour tweaking stuff just right so I can play on GNU/Linux.
P.S. If you must play on Linux/BSD, please know that saving the game in the middle of an area to area transition (not module to module--that just plain didn't work) caused a freeze and core-dump in the server.
I was watching TechTV the other night and they mentioned that only XP and XP Pro will support HyperThreading. True? Seems W2K would work too.
When Data dies, he goes, calmly, logically, into the breach, to save his Captain and his friends. There is a story brewing in me about his last conversation with Geordi as they went to send him over to his ship - a conversation that would've added depth to the film, if someone had thought about it. But is he dead? Or does he live on in B4? The fanworld may debate this one for a while...
Some problems though:
-- No mention of Spock. Would it have killed them?
-- Brief glimpse of Wesley, but no explanations.
-- Cameo of Guinan. Nice, short, and sweet.
-- All the technobabble in the film made me realize that Enterprise has done fairly well at keeping it to a minimum.
-- Romulans can now fire while cloaked. Oh, goody...
-- Another Romulan we could've seen but didn't: Tomalok.
It was an average film for average geeks. C+.
Personally, the only reason I watch Voyager is to get an eye-full of Jeri Ryan wearing that skin-tight catsuit, and to laugh at that snivelling idiot Berman because the only reason Jeri Ryan is shagging him is to make sure she gets a part on the forthcoming fifth installment of the Berman/Braga celebration of shit.
470 people have actually paid $5,000 apiece for a life-size replica of the villain Locutus.
I do not want to start a flame war here, but this is exactly the kind of nonsense that these Free/Open Source hypocrites don't like to talk about.
"Oh dear, no way would I use Microsoft products. Everything should be free! Free software, free tech support, free ISPs, etc."
Then they go out and spend several thousand dollars on Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings memoribilia each year. And these are probably families who are barely scraping by on, say, $30,000 or so each year, which doesn't go a long way with two kids, a house, a dog, utility bill, mortgage, car payments, insurance, schooling, etc.
I just wish folks would budget their money more wisely. Use that computer you claim to know so much about and buy Quicken or something. It will really save you dearly in the end, and perhaps save your family.
The US has been in an ecomonic pit for the past two years. Now's not the time to be spending money on whatever you damn well please. I realize it's Christmas, but ask yourself if you'd rather have three meals a day, or some new LOTR costume that you can prance around the woods in.
Don't mean to sound vicious or judgemental or anything, I just worry about our nation's families and whether people are budgeting money properly. (I'm an accountant!)
Please forward questions, complaints, and replies to:
ALAN M RALSKY
6747 MINNOW POND DR,
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Seller: BING CONSTRUCTION CO
Property Address: 6747 MINNOW POND DR, WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322
Sale Date: 8/28/2002
Recorded Date: 9/12/2002
Sale Price: $ 740,000
This man's ailment is clearly a lack of empathy.
Truly a common human deficiency.
He will not be missed when the agents of karma take him out.
Sorry to sound crass, but I really dislike spammers, trolls, and other annoyances.
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft - [ Translate this page ] ...
n
Max-Planck-Institute betreiben Grundlagenforschung in den Natur-, Bio-
und Geisteswissenschaften im Dienste der Allgemeinheit. Insbesondere
Description: Übersicht aller Institute in Deutschland.
Category: World>Deutsch>Wissenschaft>Forschungseinrichtunge
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MPIfM ... Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science Max ...
MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR MATHEMATIK
Vivatsgasse
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Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik: Home Page
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g en
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Category: World>Deutsch>...>Informatik>Forschungseinrichtun
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Description: Prominent research institution in astrophysics.
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... Max Planck came from an academic family, his father being professor of law at ...
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German Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften eV Currently
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Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung - Homepage - [ Translate this page ]
... The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies is an institute ...
for advanced research in the social sciences. It builds a bridge
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Das Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik untersucht die physikalischen Grundlagen
für ein Fusionskraftwerk, das - ähnlich wie die Sonne - Energie aus der
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[english]. Aktuell, Das Institut. Forschung, Mitarbeiter.
Öffentlichkeit, Intranet. webmaster@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de.
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Let me guess, Steven, you picked out yet another (originally) interesting film with a "crank" that I'm expected to turn and turn until OOP! big shock, a jack pops out and you laugh and the audience laughs and the dog laughs and I die a little inside
?
Movies serve one purpose -- to entertain. In fact, all entities can generally be classified into one category based on one primary function that they perform. For example, computers are designed to perform fast calculations. Movies are made to entertain. Actors and actresses appear in movies to pay for living expenses, whereas they appear on Broadway and live theatre productions to hone their acting skills. Writers' purpose is to organize a lot of information into coherent articles and papers. Constructions workers build things. Engineers design things. It's really that simple.
It's often been said that there are only two things that should be used to rate a movie on its entertainment merits.
1) Does the story take you somewhere?
2) Do you care about the outcome?
That's it. That is essentially what Spielberg and every other movie creator's goal is. They want to entertain and captivate audiences, but if that's going to happen they have to address those two crucial questions.
It's not that Spielberg isn't a master, it's just that he's forgetting the whole purpose. His movies have become too cold and outsider feeling; audiences are subsequently being turned off to his stories these days because, time and time again, they don't feel taken back or captivated, and they don't have an emotional tie-in to what happens in the plotline.
I think popular films of the current day can learn a lot from the anime sub-genre of filmography. It's about interesting characters that people care about, and stories they grow to love and understand. The basic simplicities of life.
Anime is not child pornography, it's not tentacle rape, it's not insert_whatever_typical_complaint_here -- it's just captivating, wonderful film. And it's new, it's fresh, it's fascinating, it's an art form.
Spielberg no longer is these things. He's old hat, washed up, boring, dull, tantric, mundane, and irrelevant any more. He turns great Kubrick, Dickens, and Shakespeare stories into a cold abbreviated plot with characters no one cares about and actors that aren't the most skilled craftsmen in their field.
I used to love Steve, I really did. But lately it's almost as though he's just doing movies to occupy his time. I no longer leave Spielberg movies at the theatre with my mouth open and dripping. I leave with a gritty taste in my mouth and thoughts of less-than-his-best wander throughout my head.
I miss the old Spielberg, and I'm sure you do too. Perhaps a petition is appropriate. Let's just say "Steve, get back to basics. We love you and respect you, but you're abondoning your true fans and are losing out on wonderful films as a result."
Well, that's just my two cents. Like I said, I'm not a critic, and I'm not putting him down.
I can't help but feel, along with many others, that Spielberg's time to shine has come and gone.
It seems each movie gets a bit more out far-fetched and unbelievable with the years. He's even using the latest "fad" actors in his films rather than tried and true classic screensmen.
Anyone else think his time is over? I mean, A.I. was supposed to be a masterpiece, but all it was was simply two or three hours of some annoying "Sixth Sense" ghost boy trying to find his mom.
Is it really what we want/need as humans? I'm not sure. But I for one won't wager a guess until there's more research done in the area, so I say let's explore it more before we defame it conclusively or support it as a technological breakthrough.
Some other recent news items:
... Development Agency (NABDA) and the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural ...
Nabda, Unesco Collaborate in Bioinformatics Training
AllAfrica.com,Africa-05 Dec 2002
Organisation (UNESCO), penultimate Tuesday held a two-day Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics ahead for Danville
... Developing these plants will involve both horticulture and bioinformatics and will ...
Danville Register and Bee,VA-30 Nov 2002
be one major focus of Danville's Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
The race to computerise biology ...
Economist (subscription),UK-12 Dec 2002
Welcome to the world of bioinformatics--a branch of computing concerned
with the acquisition, storage and analysis of biological data.
Observing Proteins And Cells In The Wild: Quantum Dots May ...
... Today it is internationally renowned for research and graduate education ...
Science Daily-13 Dec 2002
in the biomedical sciences, chemistry, bioinformatics and physics.
If I had to do it again, I'd definitely choose biology or bioengineering or something related.
It seems as most everything in computer has "been done", and biology/chemisty/biochemical engineering seems to be where all the fun & excitement is these days.
Anyone else agree? Just curious.
Linux needs standardization like America needs another war. Please. Give me a break. Learn the fucking facts before you go spewing off random data about standard kernel this, and secure app that.
What Linux needs is to win the damn desktop before Microsoft has a digital rights management utility and owns every instant message, email, song, and paper you ever create. Sound scary? It is, but watch it happen if we don't act now.
A standardized distribution is nearly in existence. It's called Red Hat. Corporately used, corporately sponsored, and standard. Hell, they even have stock shares.
You may be familiar with the movie entitled "What Women Really Want". Well, here's my own script. It's called "What Linux Really Needs".
- A help wizard for Netscape 7 and StarOffice.
- Documentation on how to get cable/DSL modems working. Perhaps a desktop utility (program) too.
- Swap files. They work. People don't have a lot of RAM (well, geeks do, but most home owners have 64 or 128 MB). But they like pictures and video, so let's swap out some of their 20GB hard drives.
- Some blue screen type of application to let them know when their video drivers are corrupted or something bad happens.
- 24 hour free tech support via phone or on-site service for $0.99/minute. People need to learn Linux. Most aren't born with command line powers gifted from God.
- Record hardware configurations and errors that occur (ala "TalkBack" in Mozilla). Users can then call in to 1-800-LNX-HELP or whatever and get some assistance based on their computer's unique ID number.
I plan on living a long, healthy life.
This suit won't apply to me personally. Some people, yes. But those people are the same folks who eat fast-food once or twice a day, never exercise, don't have any spiritual beliefs or practices.
Jack La Lanne is nearly 100 years old, yet he looks 65 and still works out every day. I was born in the 1970s, and I plan on living well into my 120s and 130s. I'm not kidding.
- Eat healthy food. Pretend you're a car. Would you put sugar into your gas tank? Of course not. So don't eat junk food either.
- Exercise. It keeps your mind clean and your body healthy.
- Listen to music. It soothes the soul. Playing music is even better.
- Smile a lot. Be happy. Happy people live longer. They like being alive!
- Have sex/masturbate frequently. The chemicals released during sexual activity make you feel better and aid normal day-to-day activities.
- Don't smoke.
- Don't drink.
- Have beliefs. There has to be some spiritual basis in your mind. You don't have to be Catholic or anything, but that doesn't mean you can't do yoga or pray to some higher power.
Quit your Coca-Cola + Frito Lay + Computer habit that dominates many of your lives. I eat pears, apple slices with peanut butter, celery & peanut butter, raisins, nuts, cereal, etc. while at the computer. Most of you probably don't. Ditch those M&Ms for some healthy trail mix!
Oh God, and please smile too! Life isn't that rough. It'll be better if you take things as they come. Just ENJOY being alive! Life is interesting if nothing else.
And keep games to moderation. This includes Slashdot. Too much of any one thing is bad. Life your life in moderation. Sleep well!
Good things will come, and you and I will still be roaming these hills for 100+ years to come!
One friend wanted a tip calculator, which took about 5 minutes after I figured out how everything worked. It is alittle different from standard Java and you're missing some important things such as floating point numbers (float and double are gone). So it does take some getting used to.
Why spend hours researching how to program applications on your cellphone? I stick to simple math, man.
Let's say your bill is $17.48 at a restaurant and you have to leave the tip.
If bad service: Move decimal one place left ($1.748, which you just round to a dollar and three quarters). This is a 10% tip.
If good service: Use the method above, only multiply the amount by two ($1.75 x 2 = $3.50). This is a 20% tip.
You use it to talk to other people. That's it. Anyone who spends several days researching the hardware inside, taking pictures of, writing about, and immersing themselves in their cell phone has serious issues.
First off, this guy is probably a developer for Sprint, Motorola, or Nokia and is getting paid to post this to Slashdot.
Secondly, he's showing how to put pornography on his phone, which I'm sure isn't something that would impress your girlfriend's parents or is something that your little sister should be looking at.
I do agree that some instances of "tweaking", "hacking", or whatever it's called these days are necessary. Let's face it -- if you're going out to the club, you should dress up nicely, smell nicely, and look good if you want to pick a guy or girl up and bring them home; "tweaking" yourself certainly has its advantages, like earning you better looking friends, earning you more friends, getting potential bedmates, girlfriends, wives, etc.
But customizing a cellphone that probably has just as crappy reception as every other crappy cellphone out there is nearly pointless. I do appreciate the "geek factor" though, but still.
I mean, cellphones aren't even legal in New York State anymore when you're driving, so what's the point. I'm back to using payphones anyway (with a calling card) since that's what works. Go ahead and call someone you love when they're in the hospital via your staticky cellphone and see if they ever talk to you again.
Cellphones are rude, and developers cramming more "features" onto them is ridiculous when you consider how poorly they work to begin with. If it all weren't such a scam, they wouldn't have all those confusing plans to begin with. The phone would just work, and work well. You could call people whenever you wanted.
I tweak my appearance, I keep my house clean, I keep my German sports sedan clean and maintained properly, I "hack" my TV if I want to view pay-per-view channels, but that's about it. I throw dinner together too sometimes, but I don't publish Web pages on the subject.
Let's all snap back to reality and remember what's important. The T720 or Q480 or XL170 phones aren't going to stop war, or teach love, or cure hate, or stop cancer, or anything important. It's a frigging telephone -- talk ON it, but don't talk ABOUT it.
I feel there are some inherent problems with product criticism/reviews.
The problem is that most people who review things are the very people who seem to have the most hang-ups about that thing. This makes their reviews worthless to the rest of us who simply enjoy portable mp3 players or cool new cellphones.
So Mr. Device Reviewerman, you think the iBook had a "derivative, punch-the-keyboard action to it." You think Microsoft's TabletPC is "crude, but occasionally laugh-out-loud funny when using the scribbler utility, merely for its sheer ridiculousness."
You think that a lot of these products are just too far below your standards. Well I bet you twenty bucks you have a painting in your house that you bought because it matched your couch, how pedestrian.
Another major problem with research papers is the "dissappearance" of those who actually do properly cite their sources.
/ web_citations.html)
As many of you know, the Internet is a great research tool these days. But unfortunately, it's too dynamic for the research world. "Most URL references [stand] more than a 50 percent chance of not existing after only six months." (from a Cornell study at http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/00/12.14.00
I don't care as much if some researcher only reads parts and pieces of papers that they cite, but when the entier papers dissappear, that's a much bigger problem.
"The study, using term papers between 1996 and 1999, found that after four years the URL reference cited in a term paper stood an 80 percent chance of no longer existing."
I wouldn't either -- those things are boring! ;-)
I had a long conversation with friends during a late-night study session back when I was doing my undergrad at CMU. Basically, we agreed that parents always were treated more leniently than people who didn't have any kids.
:-)
So, first thing out of college, I impregnated my girlfriend at the time. And guess what -- it was a good choice; my friends and I were right. Work life got much better. Lateness was tolerated ("Tyler threw up again and I had to clean it up"), absense was tolerated ("My girlfriend has morning sickness, and I had to stay up all night to feed the baby"), etc.
I don't mean this to sound cruel, but with all the leniency employers give parents, and all the tax breaks parents get, the question is why don't you have kids?!
Well then how do you get credit for the work you do, when all that's noticed is the downtime?
I feel that if I work hard (and smart enough), then I deserve free time every once in awhile. After all, I earned it.
But, managers don't understand this. So, I relax by reading The Onion or Freshmeat at work, but always make sure my hand can quickly hit ALT+TAB to get back into my work window (usually Emacs).
I try to work out a lot, but sometimes it gets hard after a long strenuous work day. The one thing that does get me there time and time again is a good CD mix of my favorite (new) songs. Good music is key to a good workout.
That being said, I do want to burn my CDs in less than 10 minutes. I have a 32X burner so that I can make them in 2 minutes after quickly deciding what to put onto my new personal greatest hits CD.
I guess I could even make the (stretching it, I know) claim that my 32X burner has saved my life (or at least cut a few years off) due to the rigorous exercise that it has encouraged.
Just when you think you couldn't burn those shared MP3s any faster...
;) when people just assume that all burners of CDs are thieves. Because I'm not, and I don't want my kids to think so. I love them.
I try to do everything ethically-sound. I'm not religious, and I've found that I'm generally a "better" person than most religious folks anyway.
But that being said, I run a Free operating system. All of the software I use is Free as well. I don't need Microsoft Office; my kids write their papers in plain text and I convert it into HTML and print those out.
My point is that not all of us burn "shared" (translation: stolen). The only CDs I'll ever burn are full of photos of family/friends, or backup copies of software/files, or audio CD mixes from CDs that I already own.
I'm sorry, I just take offense (and it's early and I haven't had coffee