So, let's see, Richard Feynman did it, Carl Sagan did it, Allen Ginsberg and his crowd did it and *so* much more, Edgar Allen Poe was alcoholic for a good deal of his life, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, the list goes on and on and on. Reminds me of an article The Onion did that the drug czar had to revise his "winners don't use drugs" propaganda; sometimes winners do use drugs. What's a teetotaling person to do? Sure, most people who use drugs might be losers who are trying to escape from their loser lives, but some are actually experimenting with altered states of being. (Click here for an interesting article on what it is to *experiment*, not recreate, with drugs.) So I make the choice not to use too many chemicals to alter my consciousness. But even chocolate, caffeine, a good meal can do that. Exposure to the sun, rain, Dickens, a boring lecture, a rousing makeout session, all these externals affect my mood and state of mind whether I intend it or not. Maybe a conscious user, one who's experimenting rather than recreating, asks the question in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "Do I dare disturb the universe?" Except, I say no, and he says yes. I dearly hope I'm not wrong.
Is it just me? Am I the only one who refuses to see drug use as part of a good time? Am I the only one who doesn't drink, at all, and doesn't want anything I ingest to alter my decision-making process?
Seriously, am I the only one? Or one of very few? I'm guessing I am, if the announcement "Get Sloshed" attracts almost universal glee.
The cDc apologized about a week ago for a virus that got on the BO2K CDs they passed out at Defcon. Anyone who installed it should check their systems for Chernobyl. Check out cDc news. Maybe this doesn't prove that open-source programs are more likely to have trojans in them. But a smaller, less formal operation would be more likely, I think, to have this sort of accident happen to it than a big software firm, e.g., M$.
One of the reasons TBWP "already had so much positive buzz" was *because* of the astroturfing. Then again, I stumbled on the official website months ago, and it made me vow to see the movie when it came out. I think I'm going tonight.
"Homesteading the Noosphere" was what really made me understand why a JQHacker might run into this kind of situation. Prestige *is* important, no matter how much a hacker might say that the code speaks for itself.
Yeah, I only received it for like 6 issues, but that first one was their 5th anniversary. There were some GREAT articles -- one each focusing on the 1st world (Silly Valley), 2nd World (cyberart in St. Petersburg), 3rd World (wiring Africa). Articles that got to run over 1000 words! Wow! As a writer for several publications, I've hated that steel wall that inherently reduces your meaning. These pieces and others -- the one on Danny Hillis -- the one on headhunting in the Valley -- actually got to convey some atmosphere. Great writing. And some eye candy. Sure, the mag got Forbes-y later, but it was invaluable, to me, a budding geekgirl, to introduce me to some of the hghly fragmented, exciting subcultures within geekdom.
Re:Mr. Popper's Penguin's
on
Penguin Pets
·
· Score: 1
>>Then at the end, they start putting some in the Artic circle.
>That might be kinda cruel, given that penguins live in the Southern hemisphere...
No, you see, the whole point was that the Arctic explorers were BORED with the North Pole, since they didn't have any cute animals to play with. (The polar bears weren't playful, for some reason.) So these penguins would be pioneers, extra-intelligent playthings for the humans up north. It now strikes me as kinda strange that: a) Mr. Popper rushes off to the North Pole for a year to help acclimate his penguins to the new environment, and his wife seems happy with it, and his kids get no say -- is he supposed to be a family man? 2) Um, sure, let's introduce those 'guins to a totally new environment, just so we can play with 'em, 'cause they're SO CUUUUTE. Can we say "ecology"? Sure, it's a kid's story, but those kids go on to make decisions that influence important shtuff, like...oh, never mind.
But still, it was a good book. I liked "Charlotte's Web" and "Trumpet of the Swan" better, though. E.B. White -- a real writer. "The Elements of Style" is still *the* handbook for budding quill-users.
Slashdot Mirror
So, let's see, Richard Feynman did it, Carl Sagan did it, Allen Ginsberg and his crowd did it and *so* much more, Edgar Allen Poe was alcoholic for a good deal of his life, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, the list goes on and on and on. Reminds me of an article The Onion did that the drug czar had to revise his "winners don't use drugs" propaganda; sometimes winners do use drugs.
What's a teetotaling person to do? Sure, most people who use drugs might be losers who are trying to escape from their loser lives, but some are actually experimenting with altered states of being. (Click here for an interesting article on what it is to *experiment*, not recreate, with drugs.) So I make the choice not to use too many chemicals to alter my consciousness. But even chocolate, caffeine, a good meal can do that. Exposure to the sun, rain, Dickens, a boring lecture, a rousing makeout session, all these externals affect my mood and state of mind whether I intend it or not.
Maybe a conscious user, one who's experimenting rather than recreating, asks the question in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "Do I dare disturb the universe?" Except, I say no, and he says yes.
I dearly hope I'm not wrong.
Is it just me? Am I the only one who refuses to see drug use as part of a good time? Am I the only one who doesn't drink, at all, and doesn't want anything I ingest to alter my decision-making process?
Seriously, am I the only one? Or one of very few? I'm guessing I am, if the announcement "Get Sloshed" attracts almost universal glee.
Whatever.
The cDc apologized about a week ago for a virus that got on the BO2K CDs they passed out at Defcon. Anyone who installed it should check their systems for Chernobyl. Check out cDc news. Maybe this doesn't prove that open-source programs are more likely to have trojans in them. But a smaller, less formal operation would be more likely, I think, to have this sort of accident happen to it than a big software firm, e.g., M$.
One of the reasons TBWP "already had so much positive buzz" was *because* of the astroturfing. Then again, I stumbled on the official website months ago, and it made me vow to see the movie when it came out. I think I'm going tonight.
"Homesteading the Noosphere" was what really made me understand why a JQHacker might run into this kind of situation. Prestige *is* important, no matter how much a hacker might say that the code speaks for itself.
Yeah, I only received it for like 6 issues, but that first one was their 5th anniversary. There were some GREAT articles -- one each focusing on the 1st world (Silly Valley), 2nd World (cyberart in St. Petersburg), 3rd World (wiring Africa). Articles that got to run over 1000 words! Wow! As a writer for several publications, I've hated that steel wall that inherently reduces your meaning. These pieces and others -- the one on Danny Hillis -- the one on headhunting in the Valley -- actually got to convey some atmosphere. Great writing. And some eye candy.
Sure, the mag got Forbes-y later, but it was invaluable, to me, a budding geekgirl, to introduce me to some of the hghly fragmented, exciting subcultures within geekdom.
>>Then at the end, they start putting some in the Artic circle.
>That might be kinda cruel, given that penguins live in the Southern hemisphere...
No, you see, the whole point was that the Arctic explorers were BORED with the North Pole, since they didn't have any cute animals to play with. (The polar bears weren't playful, for some reason.) So these penguins would be pioneers, extra-intelligent playthings for the humans up north.
It now strikes me as kinda strange that:
a) Mr. Popper rushes off to the North Pole for a year to help acclimate his penguins to the new environment, and his wife seems happy with it, and his kids get no say -- is he supposed to be a family man?
2) Um, sure, let's introduce those 'guins to a totally new environment, just so we can play with 'em, 'cause they're SO CUUUUTE. Can we say "ecology"? Sure, it's a kid's story, but those kids go on to make decisions that influence important shtuff, like...oh, never mind.
But still, it was a good book. I liked "Charlotte's Web" and "Trumpet of the Swan" better, though. E.B. White -- a real writer. "The Elements of Style" is still *the* handbook for budding quill-users.