If you are playing a continuous-pitch instrument, beware of becoming too obsessed with always being on the "right" pitch at all times. (This is true to a lesser extent of tempered instruments as well, as long as they allow some pitch flexibility.)
The pitch indicated by a tuner is going to match the location of a note in 12-tone equal temperament (aka "12-TET"), and this is probably exactly what you want if you are playing bass, and it is almost certainly what you want if you are playing a fretted or keyboard instrument (unless you are playing music that specifically calls for something else). However, this is not always the best pitch for maximal sonority in a chord -- it is quite common for a skilled performer to vary as much as 20 to 25 cents (percent of a semitone) from the 12-TET pitch in order to blend better with the other musicians around them.
Also remember that frequency detection in the ear gets less defined as notes get shorter and lower. Fewer cycles mean a wider margin of error, to put it simply. So the faster you play, the more mistuning you can get away with. Most instruments have techniques for rapid passages that, if played slowly, would sound muffled and/or out of tune. But when they are played rapidly, they sound perfectly acceptable as the note in question is too short to nail down as "out of tune".
Finally consider the matter of vibrato. Unless you are playing "dead tone" (and some compositions do call for this), you are unlikely to play many sustained notes on a violin that do not have some amount of vibrato to them. This also widens your margin for error, as you will not be at any one specific pitch for very long.
All this is not to say that you shouldn't consider the matter of intonation -- it is every bit as critical as you imagine. Just don't put too much emphasis on pegging the tuner at 0 every time, as there are perfectly valid reasons you may want to be somewhere else. 12-TET is a compromise necessitated by fixed-pitch instruments. That does not mean you have to live within its confines at all times.
If it is felt that a customer (whether elderly, disabled, a complete n00b, whatever) will rack up more than their fair share in service costs, then the contracts should state in writing what the company IS willing to provide, and after that, it's on their dime. Many will choose to call in friends and relatives before turning to tech support once their free calls run out, and the company's problem is solved. Others will just pony up for the charges -- again, the company's problem is solved.
It is possible to accommodate the outliers in the distribution by setting the same policy for everyone, without fear of appearing discriminatory. I am not saying where that line should be drawn (though two standard deviations above the mean might be a good place to start) but it is possible to do this in a standard and impartial way. Insurance companies have neither the time nor the inclination to evaluate everyone's life history when they sign up, so they rate them on criteria they feel are relevant and quote them accordingly. I assume Talk Talk also does not have the time or resources to rate everyone individually, so they can lay out a policy that suits 95% of their customers just fine and cuts the losses on the other 5%.
You don't have to win 'em all, just win significantly more than you lose.
I too dislike the CapsLock key, although I occasionally have a need for it. My solution was very simple:
1. Pop the key off the keyboard 2. Wrap a small rubber band around the key stem 3. Put the key back on
Now it takes a considerable amount of pressure to toggle CapsLock, much more than I am likely to produce accidentally. This worked so well I also ended up doing this with the Windows and "right-click" buttons. They all still work, they are all still where they are expected to be (no remapping), but it takes several pounds of force to press the key down. If you decide you (or someone else) don't like the mod, pop the key off and remove the rubber band -- rather nice when doing this on an employer-provided keyboard.
I can't believe the GNAA trolls haven't jumped on this one yet. Erm, that didn't come out right...
I'm not supporting the trolls or what they do, but "Gayniggers from Outer Space" is a rather amusing short movie... once. After that, it's only good for making friends sit through, while promising them it gets better. Sort of like "Zardoz", only not so long.
I once tried to get favorable attention from a geeky gal by introducing her to "Gayniggers", as I have long known her to be a bad film aficionado. Unfortunately it didn't work, she just ended up retaliating by making me sit through "Dracula 3000". I thought it might actually have worked -- she's the only person *I* know who has ever worn a "Kuato Lives" T-shirt in public.
The best technology of the last 20 years doesn't NEED to be explained. For example, the man surely knew how to use a telephone before his coma -- he doesn't need to understand how a cellphone works to use one. He just has to learn to hit "send" after dialing the number. The technology behind the device is completely different, but the interface has changed little. Your grandparents may have trouble with computers, but I doubt they have much difficulty using a cell phone unless they are physically incapable (deaf, or dead).
Similarly, the powertrain of a modern car is far better than one 20 years old, but he would not need to understand any of that. Assuming he is physically capable of driving, today's cars just drive BETTER than most cars 20 years old (there are exceptions of course -- there were some very nice cars from 20 years ago that are still very nice cars). He may have to re-learn to drive because he hasn't done it in 20 years, or because of physical impairment, but not because the cars are fundamentally different.
Microwaves existed 20 years ago, but now (as then) you can just follow the directions on the box. The difference is in reliability and ease of use (digital timers, and they turn the food for you). Again he shouldn't have to re-learn how to use one. If he can't figure out how to set them up for multiple steps, neither can a lot of other people.
Televisions, even with cable or satellite, and with (or without) HDTV, pretty much operate the same way now as they did 20 years ago. You pick the channel you want and it just does it. DVRs are a great improvement on VCRs, but they too make an effort to use an interface that works for the VCR generation.
As for computers, he may well be better off if he didn't use them 20 years ago, since just about everything but the typing has changed. Even now, there are people being forced to acclimate to computers for the first time, as adults. I think Windows would throw off someone who only knew "10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD":GOTO 10" more than someone who thinks the mouse is a foot pedal.
Though 20 years may seem like a long time to miss out on (and it is), most devices in common use are designed to be accessible to a larger "generation gap" than that. After all, there are far too many older people to just ignore as a target market. Even if they use e-mail in Korea.
There are those of us who play games that don't cost money, too -- like Kingdom of Loathing. I have contributed a fair amount of money to get my Mr. Accessorys, but you don't have to just to play. Even though it is turn-based, optimizing your use of buffbots, items, and consumables can get you enough turns to literally last all day. If that's not enough, there is no rule against having multiple accounts (though there is a rule against one being a farmer for the other, or any other parasitic deal).
You can't get cheaper than free, so I'd have to say this could put a real dent in subscription based games as well as purchase-cost-only games.
There is a term for at least steps 1, 1a, 2, and 5. It is called "white mutiny" and I have both seen it employed many times and employed it myself on a few occasions. In fact, I have reason to believe it is going on between two divisions of my own employer right now.
White munity involves doing exactly what you are told to do. Do not read between the lines, do not use proper discretion, and most importantly, do not ask questions. If you do not understand your instructions, you state that you do not understand your instructions. Behave as if you are allowed no autonomy at all. (The one exception is if you are told to do something you know to be unethical or illegal. Then just ask for your orders in writing, whether you decide to obey or not.)
No manager is capable of micromanaging their employees to the degree necessary to prevent errors when the employees willfully refuse to think. The shit will hit the fan sooner or later, and if you are doing this right, you will have adequate documentation to prove that you did nothing wrong.
The clueful among your cow-orkers will catch on soon enough, especially when you perform spectacularly stupid acts in response to direct orders while they are watching. Swing those clueful ones over to your side (and sometimes you don't even have to ask) and it doesn't matter what the clueless ones do -- they're already fucking up plenty.
If you ARE management and need to inflict pain on even higher management, you will have to ask questions. Once it becomes clear that they truly want you to implement the brain-dead policy, document it properly, then shut up and do it. How you choose to communicate this to those you manage is something you will have to decide yourself -- in the case of my employer, management is only thinly disguising the fact that they think the policy is exceptionally shortsighted. I asked a couple of pointed questions at the right time and got quite clear non-verbal confirmation that my suspicions were right on the mark (and not a small bit of surprise that I knew about the underlying situation that induced the policy change).
So the proper answer to a bad ordinance is to drop the "i" and open up with the ordnance?
This is why those in power boil the frog. In order for them to get what they desire, there must be no flash point, no single act so heinous that the populace says "hey wait a minute!".
The fact is that when the shit hits the fan, you won't be able to fend off a tank with your shotgun. Certainly you can fend off one cop, or fight a dozen to a standoff, but if you're wanted bad enough and your location is known, you won't be on the loose for very long. You may just be sieged until you have to come out or starve, or you may have the authorities go Waco on you. Or you could just be "disappeared" and declared an "enemy combatant".
Did you know David Koresh used to walk to Wal-Mart three or four times a week? If authorities had wanted to arrest him, they could have. Instead they wanted to set a loud example, knowing full well it could go to hell in a handbasket the way it did. The War on Terra is just a logical extension of this existing policy. Both parties are responsible for putting us frogs in the water and heating it up. It's just that one of them lately has been so blatant about it -- it may yet work, or they may get tossed out for the moment. As soon as the furor dies down, it's back to politics as usual, and power grabbing as always.
Of course there is a difference in which groups get scapegoated by those in power, and there is a small handful on both sides who truly believe they are doing what is best for all concerned, but ultimately, money talks and all else walks. We don't have a voice. The bankrupting of the middle class (have you checked debt loads lately?) and of the country itself mean that dissenting voices will be too busy scrounging up enough money to "put food on their children" and not have time to cause problems for government.
Face it, your gun is only going to help you fight off your equally starving neighbor. You won't be putting up any significant resistance to air strikes, commando raids, or even SWAT teams.
We already have "memory LCDs" of a sort that are quite ubiquitous -- non-illuminated displays, which just use reflected light and panels that are light on one side and dark on the other. Once flipped into position, they just stay there and consume no power. Some, like the signs for today's price of milk at the local grocery, or the latest "Mega Millions" prize pool, are operated manually. LCDs are also non-illuminative (though they are transmissive rather than reflective, which is more versatile) so the type of device you can imagine building with them is fairly similar -- ones where power concerns outweigh latency concerns.
But the real point is: why not use "memory LCDs" for the parts of the display that change slowly, like the face itself, hour/minute/second/AM-PM displays, and hands (if you go pseudo-analog), while retaining a traditional LCD section for those hundredths of a second? If they could be mixed on the same piece of glass, so much the better. Watches aren't exactly the sort of thing you have to recharge daily as it is -- I would want to see a display like this on my phone or mp3 player. (Then again the displays aren't the big power draw, the backlights are.)
When we grew up and went to school, There were certain teachers Who would hurt the children any way they could, By pouring their derision upon anything we did, Exposing every weakness, However carefully hidden by the kids.
But in the town it was well known When they got home at night, Their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them Within inches of their lives.
Sometimes it is enough to just say something and get it out there, even anonymously. Once you mention the white elephant in the room, maybe others will have the nerve to either see it for themselves or have the nerve to say so.
1. A silent track of known duration (one minute is fine) 2. The ability to make and replay playlists 3. A clip starting 17 seconds into Pink Floyd's "Time", the part where all the clocks go off within a few seconds of each other. Or find something else that's equally difficult to ignore.
Draw up the playlist to have 24 five-minute silent tracks followed by the alarm track. When you invoke the playlist, skip to whatever track you need to so the alarm goes off on time. If you need it to go off in 53 minutes, you skip to track 14 and fast-forward two minutes into that. For anything over two hours of delay, I'd recommend making longer tracks unless fast-forwarding really sucks on your player.
I actually use a looped track of "synthetic surf" made from brown noise to help cover external noise (I get to sleep faster that way), which does require at least 128kbps to not sound distractingly "swirly", but it is disk space well used. My particular player (Archos Gemini XS100, 4 GB) has a clock but not an alarm setting, so I at least know how far into my playlist to advance. It is enough to enable me to take lunchtime powernaps in the car, knowing I will wake up in time to go back to work. The cover noise helps considerably, I forgot the player at home yesterday and had a much more difficult time getting to sleep even though my car's clock also has an alarm. I didn't have cover noise, and I feared the weak "beep-beep" of the car's alarm would not suffice, so I never really got to sleep. With the player, I am not afraid to slip on the big Druish Princess headphones and zonk out.
If sleep isn't the goal, you can also slip an alarm track into your playlist to go off appropriately -- maybe with 30 seconds of silence up front just so you can't miss it. It takes a little bit of planning but it works on any device that will accept a playlist.
Once upon a time, when Usenet still ran wild, I helped send newgroup messages for several related alt.archery groups. I had no interest in particular, it's just that I could and the person asking me had done all the right prerequisites, so why not? Unbeknownst to me, a collection was taken up whereby each Scotch drinker in the group was asked to send a baby food jar or two with a sample of their favorite type(s). These were then labeled with numbers and sent to me as a care package. The catch was that I was not told what any of them were until I had reviewed them. It took a while to properly sample 12 baby food jars full of Scotch, though I certainly enjoyed it.
For those who have well-stocked liquor cabinets, you might bear this in mind as a gift idea, though they certainly don't all have to be single-malt Scotch. A handful of varieties each of rum, vodka and/or gin, and whiskey should do the trick. The recipient may find there is some cheap hooch that is palatable that he otherwise never would have tried -- or he may find out that the good booze is expensive for a reason.
If you feel too weird about using baby food jars, you can get a sampler set of those little one-shot "airplane size" bottles, though these are all likely to be similar in class and price range.
There are some people who just like throwing a wrench into the works whenever possible. The example I saw that made me laugh most of the day was when I happened to drive by West Coast Choppers (yes, the one on the Discovery Channel) and he had the front windows of the shop painted as follows:
(skull with Santa hat) SANTA IS FAKE!
I'm sure there were a lot of parents with a lot of 'splaining to do on that one.
My point is that there are going to be people who are unwilling to play along -- so the only way to make them play along is to either keep them completely in the dark, silence them, or fool them. It may be a very small minority, but it's enough to stir up shit at inopportune moments.
If a person were inclined to get a bunch of people sick with a dangerous, communicable disease, and knew where to catch it himself, this is all it would require:
1. Get a job at the concession stand at the local stadium, or at a food booth at the county fair, or anywhere else with a lot of customers doing a lot of other things (so authorities will have a much harder time figuring out the common thread -- though this doesn't much matter if the incubation period is long enough).
2. Get infected. If unsure, go on to step 3 anyhow. It won't hurt.
3. While hopefully incubating but not visibly sick, lick all the paper cups around the rim and put them back. Not only will this directly infect people he sell sto, but cow-orkers will be inadvertently doing it for him, and likely to themselves -- how many people in that position don't drink the soda? (If it's required that they bring their own cups, he just licks those too, directly or indirectly.)
4. If it turns out the self-appointed Typhoid Carny is not infected, GOTO 2.
5. He survives, or not.
The real downside (from the perp's perspective) it is that dying of Ebola is probably a lot more unpleasant than just blowing himself up in a crowd. It also doesn't raise the same type of fear as a suicide bomber or suicide hijacker or a bomb on a train. These cause immediate panic, like kicking an anthill, and better suit a lot of possible agendas.
There is explicit authorization (assignments) and there is implicit authorization (if it's not in assigned use and you provide the consumables, have fun, just don't break anything). The making of this tape could easily (and I would think probably did) fall within implicit authorization. I know in our high school animation department, you most certainly did not have to get explicit authorization to use the equipment. You had to sign it out so everyone knew where it was, and if you weren't using it for an assignment, you had to yield to someone who would. But outside of a couple weeks a year where everyone had to complete assignments (including you, unless you were already done), there was never an equipment shortage.
Whether you used film, videotape, celluloid, or any other medium, you were expected to provide or pay for it yourself. You were expected to take care of the equipment in your control at all times, and keep people informed where they could find you (and the gear). But you were NOT expected to report what you were doing with that equipment, you just did it. You would be wise to keep your shoots on your person or in your locker, however -- if only to keep someone else from inadvertently recording over it thinking it was an unused tape. There was a crate full of lightly-used videotapes that got bulk-erased from time to time which you could borrow to practice with, and any unmarked tape in this general vicinity was fair game. If you chose to keep one, you bought it.
So if his operation ran anything like ours, he was well within his rights to record it. If he left it lying around carelessly, the other students were well within their rights to watch it before presumably intending to erase it. They did not have the right to publish the contents of a tape they did not make without consulting the creator (who they obviously recognized), and that is where this became an actionable case.
Bootable Linux images could take a huge leap forward in popularity if they were equipped to deal with Windows malware. Give them away with every new PC purchase if you like -- it would just be one more good alternative before sending the hapless users to their restore disks. Even though you can't auto-update a CD or DVD, it could be smart enough to download data files that have the latest signatures or (if necessary) builds of the cleanup software. Every so often, release entire new images and offer the user the chance to burn a new "system cleanup disk". If it also offered the user basic functionality, such as Knoppix already does, so that people could connect to chartooms and use webmail and otherwise ask for assistance, so much the better. (Most people with home connectivity have webmail access whether they know it or not -- my boss got mailbombed and I just logged into her webmail and filed the offending messages away from the Inbox. She did not even know she HAD webmail access, but she sure does now.)
Basically all I'm advocating here is Knoppix + Windows malware remover shipped with every whitebox machine, and an update website. I'd sure keep one (or several, so I can just leave them with affected users) in MY toolkit. Brand new whiteboxes need not even have a physical disk, just a reserved partition -- though it is obviously much harder for any malware to destroy a CD-R that's not in the machine than it is to muck about with a hard drive partition.
This could even be turned into a legitimate money-making enterprise. Give away disks for free, but charge a small subscription fee to get a new image every month or so. If you only charge maybe $12 dollars a year, people won't bother chasing down new free disks, they'll just pay because it's not worth the time to save two bucks here and there. Minor updates (anything not necessitating a new image) would be free, and built into the next image. Anyone willing to contribute to the malware remover updates would of course not have to pay cash since they are paying in time and expertise.
Another thing I think would be a good idea would be to put image day halfway between Windows Update days, so that the lifetime of an unpatched exploit would effectively be cut in half, no matter when it is exploited.
Finally, there is no reason this would have to be done in Linux, it just seems to me that the capabilities are already almost there. Why reinvent the wheel unnecessarily?
Actually 9/11 was pretty damn cheap when you think about it. What's the cost of 5 or 6 plane tickets apiece (they did do dry runs after all) vs. the cost of purchasing a plane and rendering it non-suspicious four times over? Turning something your enemy owns into a weapon against him is a lot cheaper than buying one for yourself.
You can condemn the 9/11 attacks on many grounds, but bang for the buck isn't one of them.
"Nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, and some shmuck will buy it." He made this comment in reference to people's tastes in porn, but this isn't fundamentally much different.
Knowing everyone in the car is belted in is also a good way to prevent the use of the Mom Arm extended across the passenger seat, which usually contained a lit cigarette in past times. Another thing is that wearing a belt keeps you in a near-known position, which is going to be pretty important when those airbags fire -- they aren't looking for you first.
That said, I feel seat belt regulations for drivers should be in force only if it can be shown that driving without one endangers people OUTSIDE the car (including other drivers). Same for adult passengers. I have no problem with campaigns pointing out that it's stupid as all fuck NOT to wear one in all but the most exceptional of circumstances, but it shouldn't be mandatory.
The world would be far better off if everyone had rudimentary risk-management skills, instead of relying on Big Brother to do it for them. It (along with money management) should be taught in school in any system where there is more than "the three R's" going on. Don't just tell kids "do this because we say so" -- show them WHY you say so. Then they (like any rational people) will have an inclination to do as you asked, not because you said so, but because they agree with you. Sure you can't do this from the start, a baby just isn't going to understand statistics. It is also no substitute for having a locked cabinet or a gun safe. But it does reduce the need to watch over them 24/7... if they understand the WHY behind the rules.
Slashdot Mirror
If you are playing a continuous-pitch instrument, beware of becoming too obsessed with always being on the "right" pitch at all times. (This is true to a lesser extent of tempered instruments as well, as long as they allow some pitch flexibility.)
The pitch indicated by a tuner is going to match the location of a note in 12-tone equal temperament (aka "12-TET"), and this is probably exactly what you want if you are playing bass, and it is almost certainly what you want if you are playing a fretted or keyboard instrument (unless you are playing music that specifically calls for something else). However, this is not always the best pitch for maximal sonority in a chord -- it is quite common for a skilled performer to vary as much as 20 to 25 cents (percent of a semitone) from the 12-TET pitch in order to blend better with the other musicians around them.
Also remember that frequency detection in the ear gets less defined as notes get shorter and lower. Fewer cycles mean a wider margin of error, to put it simply. So the faster you play, the more mistuning you can get away with. Most instruments have techniques for rapid passages that, if played slowly, would sound muffled and/or out of tune. But when they are played rapidly, they sound perfectly acceptable as the note in question is too short to nail down as "out of tune".
Finally consider the matter of vibrato. Unless you are playing "dead tone" (and some compositions do call for this), you are unlikely to play many sustained notes on a violin that do not have some amount of vibrato to them. This also widens your margin for error, as you will not be at any one specific pitch for very long.
All this is not to say that you shouldn't consider the matter of intonation -- it is every bit as critical as you imagine. Just don't put too much emphasis on pegging the tuner at 0 every time, as there are perfectly valid reasons you may want to be somewhere else. 12-TET is a compromise necessitated by fixed-pitch instruments. That does not mean you have to live within its confines at all times.
Mal-2
If it is felt that a customer (whether elderly, disabled, a complete n00b, whatever) will rack up more than their fair share in service costs, then the contracts should state in writing what the company IS willing to provide, and after that, it's on their dime. Many will choose to call in friends and relatives before turning to tech support once their free calls run out, and the company's problem is solved. Others will just pony up for the charges -- again, the company's problem is solved.
It is possible to accommodate the outliers in the distribution by setting the same policy for everyone, without fear of appearing discriminatory. I am not saying where that line should be drawn (though two standard deviations above the mean might be a good place to start) but it is possible to do this in a standard and impartial way. Insurance companies have neither the time nor the inclination to evaluate everyone's life history when they sign up, so they rate them on criteria they feel are relevant and quote them accordingly. I assume Talk Talk also does not have the time or resources to rate everyone individually, so they can lay out a policy that suits 95% of their customers just fine and cuts the losses on the other 5%.
You don't have to win 'em all, just win significantly more than you lose.
Mal-2
I too dislike the CapsLock key, although I occasionally have a need for it. My solution was very simple:
1. Pop the key off the keyboard
2. Wrap a small rubber band around the key stem
3. Put the key back on
Now it takes a considerable amount of pressure to toggle CapsLock, much more than I am likely to produce accidentally. This worked so well I also ended up doing this with the Windows and "right-click" buttons. They all still work, they are all still where they are expected to be (no remapping), but it takes several pounds of force to press the key down. If you decide you (or someone else) don't like the mod, pop the key off and remove the rubber band -- rather nice when doing this on an employer-provided keyboard.
Mal-2
It's not just that shooting lawyers is illegal, it's that it doesn't work! Damn lawyers must be playing in God mode or something...
Mal-2
I can't believe the GNAA trolls haven't jumped on this one yet. Erm, that didn't come out right...
I'm not supporting the trolls or what they do, but "Gayniggers from Outer Space" is a rather amusing short movie... once. After that, it's only good for making friends sit through, while promising them it gets better. Sort of like "Zardoz", only not so long.
I once tried to get favorable attention from a geeky gal by introducing her to "Gayniggers", as I have long known her to be a bad film aficionado. Unfortunately it didn't work, she just ended up retaliating by making me sit through "Dracula 3000". I thought it might actually have worked -- she's the only person *I* know who has ever worn a "Kuato Lives" T-shirt in public.
Mal-2
The best technology of the last 20 years doesn't NEED to be explained. For example, the man surely knew how to use a telephone before his coma -- he doesn't need to understand how a cellphone works to use one. He just has to learn to hit "send" after dialing the number. The technology behind the device is completely different, but the interface has changed little. Your grandparents may have trouble with computers, but I doubt they have much difficulty using a cell phone unless they are physically incapable (deaf, or dead).
Similarly, the powertrain of a modern car is far better than one 20 years old, but he would not need to understand any of that. Assuming he is physically capable of driving, today's cars just drive BETTER than most cars 20 years old (there are exceptions of course -- there were some very nice cars from 20 years ago that are still very nice cars). He may have to re-learn to drive because he hasn't done it in 20 years, or because of physical impairment, but not because the cars are fundamentally different.
Microwaves existed 20 years ago, but now (as then) you can just follow the directions on the box. The difference is in reliability and ease of use (digital timers, and they turn the food for you). Again he shouldn't have to re-learn how to use one. If he can't figure out how to set them up for multiple steps, neither can a lot of other people.
Televisions, even with cable or satellite, and with (or without) HDTV, pretty much operate the same way now as they did 20 years ago. You pick the channel you want and it just does it. DVRs are a great improvement on VCRs, but they too make an effort to use an interface that works for the VCR generation.
As for computers, he may well be better off if he didn't use them 20 years ago, since just about everything but the typing has changed. Even now, there are people being forced to acclimate to computers for the first time, as adults. I think Windows would throw off someone who only knew "10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD":GOTO 10" more than someone who thinks the mouse is a foot pedal.
Though 20 years may seem like a long time to miss out on (and it is), most devices in common use are designed to be accessible to a larger "generation gap" than that. After all, there are far too many older people to just ignore as a target market. Even if they use e-mail in Korea.
Mal-2
There are those of us who play games that don't cost money, too -- like Kingdom of Loathing. I have contributed a fair amount of money to get my Mr. Accessorys, but you don't have to just to play. Even though it is turn-based, optimizing your use of buffbots, items, and consumables can get you enough turns to literally last all day. If that's not enough, there is no rule against having multiple accounts (though there is a rule against one being a farmer for the other, or any other parasitic deal).
You can't get cheaper than free, so I'd have to say this could put a real dent in subscription based games as well as purchase-cost-only games.
Mal-2
There is a term for at least steps 1, 1a, 2, and 5. It is called "white mutiny" and I have both seen it employed many times and employed it myself on a few occasions. In fact, I have reason to believe it is going on between two divisions of my own employer right now.
White munity involves doing exactly what you are told to do. Do not read between the lines, do not use proper discretion, and most importantly, do not ask questions. If you do not understand your instructions, you state that you do not understand your instructions. Behave as if you are allowed no autonomy at all. (The one exception is if you are told to do something you know to be unethical or illegal. Then just ask for your orders in writing, whether you decide to obey or not.)
No manager is capable of micromanaging their employees to the degree necessary to prevent errors when the employees willfully refuse to think. The shit will hit the fan sooner or later, and if you are doing this right, you will have adequate documentation to prove that you did nothing wrong.
The clueful among your cow-orkers will catch on soon enough, especially when you perform spectacularly stupid acts in response to direct orders while they are watching. Swing those clueful ones over to your side (and sometimes you don't even have to ask) and it doesn't matter what the clueless ones do -- they're already fucking up plenty.
If you ARE management and need to inflict pain on even higher management, you will have to ask questions. Once it becomes clear that they truly want you to implement the brain-dead policy, document it properly, then shut up and do it. How you choose to communicate this to those you manage is something you will have to decide yourself -- in the case of my employer, management is only thinly disguising the fact that they think the policy is exceptionally shortsighted. I asked a couple of pointed questions at the right time and got quite clear non-verbal confirmation that my suspicions were right on the mark (and not a small bit of surprise that I knew about the underlying situation that induced the policy change).
So the proper answer to a bad ordinance is to drop the "i" and open up with the ordnance?
This is why those in power boil the frog. In order for them to get what they desire, there must be no flash point, no single act so heinous that the populace says "hey wait a minute!".
The fact is that when the shit hits the fan, you won't be able to fend off a tank with your shotgun. Certainly you can fend off one cop, or fight a dozen to a standoff, but if you're wanted bad enough and your location is known, you won't be on the loose for very long. You may just be sieged until you have to come out or starve, or you may have the authorities go Waco on you. Or you could just be "disappeared" and declared an "enemy combatant".
Did you know David Koresh used to walk to Wal-Mart three or four times a week? If authorities had wanted to arrest him, they could have. Instead they wanted to set a loud example, knowing full well it could go to hell in a handbasket the way it did. The War on Terra is just a logical extension of this existing policy. Both parties are responsible for putting us frogs in the water and heating it up. It's just that one of them lately has been so blatant about it -- it may yet work, or they may get tossed out for the moment. As soon as the furor dies down, it's back to politics as usual, and power grabbing as always.
Of course there is a difference in which groups get scapegoated by those in power, and there is a small handful on both sides who truly believe they are doing what is best for all concerned, but ultimately, money talks and all else walks. We don't have a voice. The bankrupting of the middle class (have you checked debt loads lately?) and of the country itself mean that dissenting voices will be too busy scrounging up enough money to "put food on their children" and not have time to cause problems for government.
Face it, your gun is only going to help you fight off your equally starving neighbor. You won't be putting up any significant resistance to air strikes, commando raids, or even SWAT teams.
Mal-2
We already have "memory LCDs" of a sort that are quite ubiquitous -- non-illuminated displays, which just use reflected light and panels that are light on one side and dark on the other. Once flipped into position, they just stay there and consume no power. Some, like the signs for today's price of milk at the local grocery, or the latest "Mega Millions" prize pool, are operated manually. LCDs are also non-illuminative (though they are transmissive rather than reflective, which is more versatile) so the type of device you can imagine building with them is fairly similar -- ones where power concerns outweigh latency concerns.
But the real point is: why not use "memory LCDs" for the parts of the display that change slowly, like the face itself, hour/minute/second/AM-PM displays, and hands (if you go pseudo-analog), while retaining a traditional LCD section for those hundredths of a second? If they could be mixed on the same piece of glass, so much the better. Watches aren't exactly the sort of thing you have to recharge daily as it is -- I would want to see a display like this on my phone or mp3 player. (Then again the displays aren't the big power draw, the backlights are.)
Mal-2
When we grew up and went to school,
There were certain teachers
Who would hurt the children any way they could,
By pouring their derision upon anything we did,
Exposing every weakness,
However carefully hidden by the kids.
But in the town it was well known
When they got home at night,
Their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives.
-- Pink Floyd, "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"
Sometimes it is enough to just say something and get it out there, even anonymously. Once you mention the white elephant in the room, maybe others will have the nerve to either see it for themselves or have the nerve to say so.
Mal-2
To do this, you need three things:
1. A silent track of known duration (one minute is fine)
2. The ability to make and replay playlists
3. A clip starting 17 seconds into Pink Floyd's "Time", the part where all the clocks go off within a few seconds of each other. Or find something else that's equally difficult to ignore.
Draw up the playlist to have 24 five-minute silent tracks followed by the alarm track. When you invoke the playlist, skip to whatever track you need to so the alarm goes off on time. If you need it to go off in 53 minutes, you skip to track 14 and fast-forward two minutes into that. For anything over two hours of delay, I'd recommend making longer tracks unless fast-forwarding really sucks on your player.
I actually use a looped track of "synthetic surf" made from brown noise to help cover external noise (I get to sleep faster that way), which does require at least 128kbps to not sound distractingly "swirly", but it is disk space well used. My particular player (Archos Gemini XS100, 4 GB) has a clock but not an alarm setting, so I at least know how far into my playlist to advance. It is enough to enable me to take lunchtime powernaps in the car, knowing I will wake up in time to go back to work. The cover noise helps considerably, I forgot the player at home yesterday and had a much more difficult time getting to sleep even though my car's clock also has an alarm. I didn't have cover noise, and I feared the weak "beep-beep" of the car's alarm would not suffice, so I never really got to sleep. With the player, I am not afraid to slip on the big Druish Princess headphones and zonk out.
If sleep isn't the goal, you can also slip an alarm track into your playlist to go off appropriately -- maybe with 30 seconds of silence up front just so you can't miss it. It takes a little bit of planning but it works on any device that will accept a playlist.
Mal-2
Once upon a time, when Usenet still ran wild, I helped send newgroup messages for several related alt.archery groups. I had no interest in particular, it's just that I could and the person asking me had done all the right prerequisites, so why not? Unbeknownst to me, a collection was taken up whereby each Scotch drinker in the group was asked to send a baby food jar or two with a sample of their favorite type(s). These were then labeled with numbers and sent to me as a care package. The catch was that I was not told what any of them were until I had reviewed them. It took a while to properly sample 12 baby food jars full of Scotch, though I certainly enjoyed it.
For those who have well-stocked liquor cabinets, you might bear this in mind as a gift idea, though they certainly don't all have to be single-malt Scotch. A handful of varieties each of rum, vodka and/or gin, and whiskey should do the trick. The recipient may find there is some cheap hooch that is palatable that he otherwise never would have tried -- or he may find out that the good booze is expensive for a reason.
If you feel too weird about using baby food jars, you can get a sampler set of those little one-shot "airplane size" bottles, though these are all likely to be similar in class and price range.
Mal-2
There are some people who just like throwing a wrench into the works whenever possible. The example I saw that made me laugh most of the day was when I happened to drive by West Coast Choppers (yes, the one on the Discovery Channel) and he had the front windows of the shop painted as follows:
(skull with Santa hat) SANTA IS FAKE!
I'm sure there were a lot of parents with a lot of 'splaining to do on that one.
My point is that there are going to be people who are unwilling to play along -- so the only way to make them play along is to either keep them completely in the dark, silence them, or fool them. It may be a very small minority, but it's enough to stir up shit at inopportune moments.
Mal-2
If a person were inclined to get a bunch of people sick with a dangerous, communicable disease, and knew where to catch it himself, this is all it would require:
1. Get a job at the concession stand at the local stadium, or at a food booth at the county fair, or anywhere else with a lot of customers doing a lot of other things (so authorities will have a much harder time figuring out the common thread -- though this doesn't much matter if the incubation period is long enough).
2. Get infected. If unsure, go on to step 3 anyhow. It won't hurt.
3. While hopefully incubating but not visibly sick, lick all the paper cups around the rim and put them back. Not only will this directly infect people he sell sto, but cow-orkers will be inadvertently doing it for him, and likely to themselves -- how many people in that position don't drink the soda? (If it's required that they bring their own cups, he just licks those too, directly or indirectly.)
4. If it turns out the self-appointed Typhoid Carny is not infected, GOTO 2.
5. He survives, or not.
The real downside (from the perp's perspective) it is that dying of Ebola is probably a lot more unpleasant than just blowing himself up in a crowd. It also doesn't raise the same type of fear as a suicide bomber or suicide hijacker or a bomb on a train. These cause immediate panic, like kicking an anthill, and better suit a lot of possible agendas.
Mal-2
Looks like we found Gene Ray's day job.
Mal-2
There is explicit authorization (assignments) and there is implicit authorization (if it's not in assigned use and you provide the consumables, have fun, just don't break anything). The making of this tape could easily (and I would think probably did) fall within implicit authorization. I know in our high school animation department, you most certainly did not have to get explicit authorization to use the equipment. You had to sign it out so everyone knew where it was, and if you weren't using it for an assignment, you had to yield to someone who would. But outside of a couple weeks a year where everyone had to complete assignments (including you, unless you were already done), there was never an equipment shortage.
Whether you used film, videotape, celluloid, or any other medium, you were expected to provide or pay for it yourself. You were expected to take care of the equipment in your control at all times, and keep people informed where they could find you (and the gear). But you were NOT expected to report what you were doing with that equipment, you just did it. You would be wise to keep your shoots on your person or in your locker, however -- if only to keep someone else from inadvertently recording over it thinking it was an unused tape. There was a crate full of lightly-used videotapes that got bulk-erased from time to time which you could borrow to practice with, and any unmarked tape in this general vicinity was fair game. If you chose to keep one, you bought it.
So if his operation ran anything like ours, he was well within his rights to record it. If he left it lying around carelessly, the other students were well within their rights to watch it before presumably intending to erase it. They did not have the right to publish the contents of a tape they did not make without consulting the creator (who they obviously recognized), and that is where this became an actionable case.
Mal-2
Bootable Linux images could take a huge leap forward in popularity if they were equipped to deal with Windows malware. Give them away with every new PC purchase if you like -- it would just be one more good alternative before sending the hapless users to their restore disks. Even though you can't auto-update a CD or DVD, it could be smart enough to download data files that have the latest signatures or (if necessary) builds of the cleanup software. Every so often, release entire new images and offer the user the chance to burn a new "system cleanup disk". If it also offered the user basic functionality, such as Knoppix already does, so that people could connect to chartooms and use webmail and otherwise ask for assistance, so much the better. (Most people with home connectivity have webmail access whether they know it or not -- my boss got mailbombed and I just logged into her webmail and filed the offending messages away from the Inbox. She did not even know she HAD webmail access, but she sure does now.)
Basically all I'm advocating here is Knoppix + Windows malware remover shipped with every whitebox machine, and an update website. I'd sure keep one (or several, so I can just leave them with affected users) in MY toolkit. Brand new whiteboxes need not even have a physical disk, just a reserved partition -- though it is obviously much harder for any malware to destroy a CD-R that's not in the machine than it is to muck about with a hard drive partition.
This could even be turned into a legitimate money-making enterprise. Give away disks for free, but charge a small subscription fee to get a new image every month or so. If you only charge maybe $12 dollars a year, people won't bother chasing down new free disks, they'll just pay because it's not worth the time to save two bucks here and there. Minor updates (anything not necessitating a new image) would be free, and built into the next image. Anyone willing to contribute to the malware remover updates would of course not have to pay cash since they are paying in time and expertise.
Another thing I think would be a good idea would be to put image day halfway between Windows Update days, so that the lifetime of an unpatched exploit would effectively be cut in half, no matter when it is exploited.
Finally, there is no reason this would have to be done in Linux, it just seems to me that the capabilities are already almost there. Why reinvent the wheel unnecessarily?
Mal-2
Oh great. Now when I tell someone to get screwed, they can do it by remote control.
Mal-2
> Think of keyloggers and the like as your new Girlfriend (beta 0.2, results may vary)
I'm worried about the child processes that will be spawned...
Mal-2
Now maybe bacon truly is a vegetable... or at least as good for you. Good news for baco-vegetarians, and vegisexual swine are abuzz.
Mal-2
Actually 9/11 was pretty damn cheap when you think about it. What's the cost of 5 or 6 plane tickets apiece (they did do dry runs after all) vs. the cost of purchasing a plane and rendering it non-suspicious four times over? Turning something your enemy owns into a weapon against him is a lot cheaper than buying one for yourself.
You can condemn the 9/11 attacks on many grounds, but bang for the buck isn't one of them.
Mal-2
As the comic philosopher George Carlin noted:
"Nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, and some shmuck will buy it." He made this comment in reference to people's tastes in porn, but this isn't fundamentally much different.
Mal-2
Knowing everyone in the car is belted in is also a good way to prevent the use of the Mom Arm extended across the passenger seat, which usually contained a lit cigarette in past times. Another thing is that wearing a belt keeps you in a near-known position, which is going to be pretty important when those airbags fire -- they aren't looking for you first.
That said, I feel seat belt regulations for drivers should be in force only if it can be shown that driving without one endangers people OUTSIDE the car (including other drivers). Same for adult passengers. I have no problem with campaigns pointing out that it's stupid as all fuck NOT to wear one in all but the most exceptional of circumstances, but it shouldn't be mandatory.
The world would be far better off if everyone had rudimentary risk-management skills, instead of relying on Big Brother to do it for them. It (along with money management) should be taught in school in any system where there is more than "the three R's" going on. Don't just tell kids "do this because we say so" -- show them WHY you say so. Then they (like any rational people) will have an inclination to do as you asked, not because you said so, but because they agree with you. Sure you can't do this from the start, a baby just isn't going to understand statistics. It is also no substitute for having a locked cabinet or a gun safe. But it does reduce the need to watch over them 24/7... if they understand the WHY behind the rules.
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