I have and love two wonderful children (2 & 4). I am not about to get this watch - we just don't need it. But as to your assertion that we should not take personal vacations I think that pretty short sighted. I work at home (in a home office while the kids are watched by my wife), I see my kids several times a day. In the afternoons and on weekends we play, read and have great fun together.
But guess what? Mom and dad need some time together as a couple to stay in healthy relationship - this October will by our 10th Wedding anniversary, the little ones will be staying with grandma and grampa and we will be spending a week together - probably Hawaii - without the kids. And I don't think even for a moment that that makes us bad parents. Heck once every month or two we drop the kids off at grandma's and spend a Saturday night alone too. I guess you better call social services now...
I have to second this. I would happily pay some serious cash to have a full time robotic maid/butler. If it can clean toilets, take out my garbage, make the bed, do laundry. I would be more than willing to plunk down 40-60k.
I would have more time to spend with my kids, wife, reading and working out. I already pay out >4k a year for a small fraction of the services a really capable bot could handle. Ten/fifteen years from now, when I am facing midlife crisis - I hope I will have to decide between that new sports car and a just such a bot...
I agree people should get paid what the market dictates, but by the same token if Spielberg made 50 million last year (number pulled right out my ass), and with more reasonable copyright legislation he would only have made 20 million, I am guessing he would still be working on his next picture, and his life would not change in any substansive manner.
Computers extend our ability to handle tasks. I never used one of these TI's, but my trusty HP and a student copy of Mathematica took me far. I really have a hard time understanding why being able to integrate complex expressions is a useful skill when a computer/calulator can do it just as well (better).
I can calulate a square root by hand and do repetative arithmatic - but I don't. Same thing with calculus. The important part of a tool like these is to change the focus of the class. Don't spend three semesters learning the mechanics of calculus, spend more time _understanding_ what the math means and how to apply it to interesting problems (finding volumes, interest, control systems, etc.).
I agree it is the understanding that is important, but the calculator only handles the mechanics - it frees us to concentrate on the understanding.
You can also check out Worthington Distribution and Bass Home Electronics for a couple of places for interesting stuff. Their web sites are not as polished as Smart Home, but the prices tend to be better and if you call them the personal service is much bettr.
The point is this: for every extra freedom that person X has, there is one less freedom that person Y has. This is logically necessary: e.g. if I am given the freedom to pick my nose in public, it mean you (or someone else) has lost the freedom to stop me to picking my nose in public.
Coercion is not freedom. I would make a distinction between a freedom to do something and a "freedom" to force someone to not do something. Freedom of speech gives us the right to say things, if you disagree you can voice those opinons. This is very different from saying that my right to speech infringes on your right to gag me.
I am not saying all things should be provided for free (far from it); however, if a group of people devote personal resources for the good of everyone and provide a free (in any aspect) alternative to what was a commercial enterprise, this is yet another form of competition that will only improve the quality of both products (or possible replace one depending upon the market)
In other words, you will have to pay for content and the amount due is on a demand/supply basis (the most basic business model on earth).
But the supply is effectivly unlimited. Once the information is generated the cost of distribution is virtually nothing (or certainly decreases significantly with demand).
They have stopped. If you are an "old" foggy like myself, then you are vaccinated. However, my children were not. The US keeps approx. 12 million units of the vaccine in storage for response to an outbreak.
I am similarly wired, I also thought about the patio - I work at home and once it warms up a bit I want to be able to work out there:-), but I went wireless for the laptop and am _very_ happy, even though it took a lot of explaining to my wife on why I needed both a whole house wired setup and wireless so my laptop and I can work on patio and generally wander around the house.
As to X-10, I really looked into this, you have a number of choices if you want to upgrade. I went with PCS, switchs (checkout Bass Home, Future Standard or Worthington Distribution - each of these vendors has faults, but they have reasonably good prices). You can get the nice looking reliable switch, but it will set you back, quite a bit more than an X-10 brand switch. If you really want to do it right go with the OnQ/Ageis lighting system. I was going to do this; however, my builder made this prohibitively expensive from an installation perspecitive. I still might do it my self, when I have lots of time (or move again ).
pth My name is not spam, it's patrick
Re:Against Libertarianism! (Objectivism)
on
Geek Charities?
·
· Score: 1
Actually, charity need not be against Objectivism either. To be ethical, charity in an Objectivist sense, must be motivated through self-interest (rationally selfish) and not alturistic, but it can exist.
You can define gifts to a local library as very rational, as they improve the quality of life in your neighborhood (increasing your property values and quality of life). Donations to medical causes that effect your life, and many others.
Objectivists are not really all that nutty, just misunderstood:-)
I was having a really hard time trying to understand what they might use this information for. Then at least one thought (this does not happen often, so I took notice) occured to me. One possible use would be to try and map IP to region with a reasonable granularity in a database that could be sold. With a reasonable amount of detective work and the existing location data in the DNS system this could probably be accomplished (with a high, but reasonable error level).
Many brick and motors like to know your zip code so they can target advertising. If a banner add company was able to get a quick (and generally, but certainly not always) correct zip/region lookup based upon your IP address. Then they could better match an add to your income/region/etc. A large number of (high bandwidth) users are now on (semi) static ip address, adding to value of this information. If this was their goal, it would not be the worst idea for an internet startup that I had heard:-)
If it takes a half-a-second to verify that an IP address is valid and traceroute it (very low, considering the time of a traceroute), that's 2^30 seconds==34 years of scanning!
I don't know their purpose or goals, but of course using your (optimistic) numbers. Then 34 machines could do it in one year. Add more machines (properly spread around the internet) and you can do this every month or two.
Of course I still do not "get" what a traceroute tells people about my personal likes/dislikes/preferences etc...
It would seem to me that unless the retailers made it a major issue, that as you say the marketing people will continue to see the benefit of using oversized packaging. Adding to the issue is that some packages deserve their big boxes (ClipArt collections with reference books, compilers and manuals, etc.) Because of the wide variation in "legitimate" package size there is no way for the retailers to reasonably force vendors to use a standard package size. And as long as the retailers are willing to stock it on their shelves the marketing people will play any game they can to increase sales (it is their job after all).
I guess I would request the specfics of the charge, and then get a letter from the county clerk in the district where the felony occured. Then show that to the employer, expressing the oppropriate degree of concern about their hiring practices. With a little luck they might even raise their opinon about your friend.
In all fairness you mentioned hanging over the fireplace which implies a portrait shot, so today's (and tomorrows) ink jets are not going to do the trick. Additionally, most people have portraits professionally done, while they still take a crap load of snap shots. While todays digital camera/ink jet setup is not the same as a pros it is plenty good for snapshots and home framing.
I have a (now dated Kodak DC260 and an HP PhotoSmart 1000) and while printing is not as cheap as developing, I only print the shots I want to frame, the rest I keep online. Unless you get within an inch you cannot tell that the 5x7 are not normal 35mm prints. As the technology advances the quality gap (and durability gap) will continue to close. As the prices drop this will narrow.
But I can say the pay off is now. I have two kids and we take hundreds of shots. I only print out a handful and save the rest to cd-r and online. Its not 35mm but for us it is better (not really cheaper - about the same), but better.
Hyping this as ready would surely be a mistake, but I am not sure you quite "get it". SlashDot is not a marketing forum. I don't expect my manager to come up to me later today and say, "Hey we really need to start using Berlin, I was reading about how it is no longer vapor on slashdot".
There may be a growing number of non-programmers on slashdot, but many of us code (and code and code). Interesting product announcements draw the interest of programmers, which in turn increases the speed of development (slashdot/freshmeat you decide:-). In a sence you are correct to say this is similar to trying to raise IPO capital, projects are trying to raise intellectual capital of programmers (and testers/documenters/etc) who can make a contribution.
I agree, but of course there is only one company out there with the clout to replace the current root servers. M$oft could create there own set of root servers and make it the default search for all Microsoft TCP/IP stacks. Wait five years for people to quit running the current batch of software (so they can exchange MSWord 2005 documents) and poof they are in charge of the majority of the internets naming.
Of course if we had a good distributed naming system integrated into ***BSD/linux/Unix that allowed for a distributed top level (no expensive redundent root servers required) and was auto-administrated and fell back to the conventional DNS system for current TLD's...
Ignoring for a moment that given the limited <grin - this is being generous> nature of control on a Windows box (even standart NT installations). This is still ignoring the real problem. There is no sand box. If I can pass in an executable and get even a small percent of people to execute it, then I have control.
The executable need not use COM. I can scan the hard drive, I can read the registry, I can open up ports and become a mail relay (keep those server loads down so the admins don't notice, quite so fast).
When the security model is machine and not user based, there is no safe solution, allowing foreign code to execute without a java esque type sandbox.
"So, no, you're not in violation. You would be in violation if you made your MP3 server available to your freind, even if you limit his/her access to files that you know he/she owns."
So here comes the rub:-) What if my friend did not have a cable modem and ripped her own cd's and put them on my server (and it was secured such that I could not access them), were do we stand? Now take it a step further, lets say my friend had trouble ripping his cd's and I helped her?
Last step, while ripping her copy of Aqua Barbie Girl the ripper kept crapping out because the disk was scratched and I (ashamedly) took out my copy and let helped her rip it. Is it this last step that makes it illegal? Because I would think fair use would include "repairing" a damaged copy etc. To think that there is some magic between otherwise identicle copies of some digital resource is to throw reason out and replace it with law.
Slashdot Mirror
But guess what? Mom and dad need some time together as a couple to stay in healthy relationship - this October will by our 10th Wedding anniversary, the little ones will be staying with grandma and grampa and we will be spending a week together - probably Hawaii - without the kids. And I don't think even for a moment that that makes us bad parents. Heck once every month or two we drop the kids off at grandma's and spend a Saturday night alone too. I guess you better call social services now...
I have to second this. I would happily pay some serious cash to have a full time robotic maid/butler. If it can clean toilets, take out my garbage, make the bed, do laundry. I would be more than willing to plunk down 40-60k.
I would have more time to spend with my kids, wife, reading and working out. I already pay out >4k a year for a small fraction of the services a really capable bot could handle. Ten/fifteen years from now, when I am facing midlife crisis - I hope I will have to decide between that new sports car and a just such a bot...
Of course you don't mean the quantum state of your media right?
Computers extend our ability to handle tasks. I never used one of these TI's, but my trusty HP and a student copy of Mathematica took me far. I really have a hard time understanding why being able to integrate complex expressions is a useful skill when a computer/calulator can do it just as well (better).
I can calulate a square root by hand and do repetative arithmatic - but I don't. Same thing with calculus. The important part of a tool like these is to change the focus of the class. Don't spend three semesters learning the mechanics of calculus, spend more time _understanding_ what the math means and how to apply it to interesting problems (finding volumes, interest, control systems, etc.).
I agree it is the understanding that is important, but the calculator only handles the mechanics - it frees us to concentrate on the understanding.
pth
Ahh and since science doesn't know (or pretend to), you will?
You can also check out Worthington Distribution and Bass Home Electronics for a couple of places for interesting stuff. Their web sites are not as polished as Smart Home, but the prices tend to be better and if you call them the personal service is much bettr.
My name is not spam, it's patrick
I am not saying all things should be provided for free (far from it); however, if a group of people devote personal resources for the good of everyone and provide a free (in any aspect) alternative to what was a commercial enterprise, this is yet another form of competition that will only improve the quality of both products (or possible replace one depending upon the market)
My name is not spam, it's patrick
My name is not spam, it's patrick
They have stopped. If you are an "old" foggy like myself, then you are vaccinated. However, my children were not. The US keeps approx. 12 million units of the vaccine in storage for response to an outbreak.
My name is not spam, it's patrick
My name is not spam, it's patrick
pth
My name is not spam, it's patrick
As to X-10, I really looked into this, you have a number of choices if you want to upgrade. I went with PCS, switchs (checkout Bass Home, Future Standard or Worthington Distribution - each of these vendors has faults, but they have reasonably good prices). You can get the nice looking reliable switch, but it will set you back, quite a bit more than an X-10 brand switch. If you really want to do it right go with the OnQ/Ageis lighting system. I was going to do this; however, my builder made this prohibitively expensive from an installation perspecitive. I still might do it my self, when I have lots of time (or move again ).
pth
My name is not spam, it's patrick
Actually, charity need not be against Objectivism either. To be ethical, charity in an Objectivist sense, must be motivated through self-interest (rationally selfish) and not alturistic, but it can exist.
You can define gifts to a local library as very rational, as they improve the quality of life in your neighborhood (increasing your property values and quality of life). Donations to medical causes that effect your life, and many others.
Objectivists are not really all that nutty, just misunderstood :-)
My name is not spam, it's patrick
I was having a really hard time trying to understand what they might use this information for. Then at least one thought (this does not happen often, so I took notice) occured to me. One possible use would be to try and map IP to region with a reasonable granularity in a database that could be sold. With a reasonable amount of detective work and the existing location data in the DNS system this could probably be accomplished (with a high, but reasonable error level).
Many brick and motors like to know your zip code so they can target advertising. If a banner add company was able to get a quick (and generally, but certainly not always) correct zip/region lookup based upon your IP address. Then they could better match an add to your income/region/etc. A large number of (high bandwidth) users are now on (semi) static ip address, adding to value of this information. If this was their goal, it would not be the worst idea for an internet startup that I had heard :-)
My name is not spam, it's patrick
I don't know their purpose or goals, but of course using your (optimistic) numbers. Then 34 machines could do it in one year. Add more machines (properly spread around the internet) and you can do this every month or two.
Of course I still do not "get" what a traceroute tells people about my personal likes/dislikes/preferences etc...
My name is not spam, it's patrick
It would seem to me that unless the retailers made it a major issue, that as you say the marketing people will continue to see the benefit of using oversized packaging. Adding to the issue is that some packages deserve their big boxes (ClipArt collections with reference books, compilers and manuals, etc.) Because of the wide variation in "legitimate" package size there is no way for the retailers to reasonably force vendors to use a standard package size. And as long as the retailers are willing to stock it on their shelves the marketing people will play any game they can to increase sales (it is their job after all).
My name is not spam, it's patrick
I guess I would request the specfics of the charge, and then get a letter from the county clerk in the district where the felony occured. Then show that to the employer, expressing the oppropriate degree of concern about their hiring practices. With a little luck they might even raise their opinon about your friend.
My name is not spam, it's patrick
In all fairness you mentioned hanging over the fireplace which implies a portrait shot, so today's (and tomorrows) ink jets are not going to do the trick. Additionally, most people have portraits professionally done, while they still take a crap load of snap shots. While todays digital camera/ink jet setup is not the same as a pros it is plenty good for snapshots and home framing.
I have a (now dated Kodak DC260 and an HP PhotoSmart 1000) and while printing is not as cheap as developing, I only print the shots I want to frame, the rest I keep online. Unless you get within an inch you cannot tell that the 5x7 are not normal 35mm prints. As the technology advances the quality gap (and durability gap) will continue to close. As the prices drop this will narrow.
But I can say the pay off is now. I have two kids and we take hundreds of shots. I only print out a handful and save the rest to cd-r and online. Its not 35mm but for us it is better (not really cheaper - about the same), but better.
My name is not spam, it's patrick
Yeah I want to know too. Don't tell my wife but I might have to register as a Democrate (apologies to Harry Brown).
My name is not spam, it's patrick
Hyping this as ready would surely be a mistake, but I am not sure you quite "get it". SlashDot is not a marketing forum. I don't expect my manager to come up to me later today and say, "Hey we really need to start using Berlin, I was reading about how it is no longer vapor on slashdot".
There may be a growing number of non-programmers on slashdot, but many of us code (and code and code). Interesting product announcements draw the interest of programmers, which in turn increases the speed of development (slashdot/freshmeat you decide :-). In a sence you are correct to say this is similar to trying to raise IPO capital, projects are trying to raise intellectual capital of programmers (and testers/documenters/etc) who can make a contribution.
My name is not spam, it's patrick
I agree, but of course there is only one company out there with the clout to replace the current root servers. M$oft could create there own set of root servers and make it the default search for all Microsoft TCP/IP stacks. Wait five years for people to quit running the current batch of software (so they can exchange MSWord 2005 documents) and poof they are in charge of the majority of the internets naming.
Of course if we had a good distributed naming system integrated into ***BSD/linux/Unix that allowed for a distributed top level (no expensive redundent root servers required) and was auto-administrated and fell back to the conventional DNS system for current TLD's...
My name is not spam, it's patrick
Ignoring for a moment that given the limited <grin - this is being generous> nature of control on a Windows box (even standart NT installations). This is still ignoring the real problem. There is no sand box. If I can pass in an executable and get even a small percent of people to execute it, then I have control.
The executable need not use COM. I can scan the hard drive, I can read the registry, I can open up ports and become a mail relay (keep those server loads down so the admins don't notice, quite so fast).
When the security model is machine and not user based, there is no safe solution, allowing foreign code to execute without a java esque type sandbox.
pth
My name is not spam, it's patrick
So here comes the rub :-) What if my friend did not have a cable modem and ripped her own cd's and put them on my server (and it was secured such that I could not access them), were do we stand? Now take it a step further, lets say my friend had trouble ripping his cd's and I helped her?
Last step, while ripping her copy of Aqua Barbie Girl the ripper kept crapping out because the disk was scratched and I (ashamedly) took out my copy and let helped her rip it. Is it this last step that makes it illegal? Because I would think fair use would include "repairing" a damaged copy etc. To think that there is some magic between otherwise identicle copies of some digital resource is to throw reason out and replace it with law.
My name is not spam, it's patrick