Heck, even contemporary humans don't know what they're dealing with: see the case of the people handling the radioactive material that was found at a junkyard in Brazil a few years ago. Ooh, it looks shiny! They died terrible deaths shortly after that.
It was probably based on the VW Beetle chassis, as VW typically did (and does). The classic Beetle has a removable body as well. I saw it done once and it's pretty trippy. Disconnect it from the chassis and you can lift the whole body straight up. Probably why it was a popular car to convert to buggies.
Not human, but so close its scary, particularly when uneducated poachers are slaughtering gorillas for trinkets, their hands and feet and sometimes bush meat. In this sitatoin, who is the wild beast and who is the intelligent species indeed?
Don't forget that humans used to do these same things to other humans, not just other animals, until very recently. Perhaps they even still do, in some places.
Hmmm... there's a simpler explanation for why French uses many similar words as English: I've heard it said that English is about 60% derived from French. It's really remarkable how many same/similar words between the two languages. The roots of English would explain why there's so many similarities. Instead of the French using English words, it's much more likely that it's the other way around. While on the other hand, Icelandic has probably close to 0% French origins.
I've been thinking a lot about the unrealistic expectations of women recently. Any chance that you could point to those studies that you mentioned confirmed this? I would love to read them. Thanks!
In my view it's clear to see how this kind of thing has a stifling effect on innovation, business, and the economy of the US, but I suppose some do not share that view.
I just happened to know this example of exactly what the GP post mentioned because I frequent the CGSociety forum. I imagine from what GP said that there are probably many other examples.
Woo, I finally got a slashdot submission accepted! The eighth time is the charm!/happyoutburst
Ahem. Actually, I wanted to thank all of you very much for your answers. A lot of good examples, insights, and suggestions, just as I had expected from my fellow slashdotters. If I or anyone decides to go down this road, I'm sure that this information will be useful.
If you're curious, the specific game I had in mind was Richard Burns Rally, which is generally considered to be the best rally car (racing) simulation ever released. From what I've read in your replies, it seems like I (or anyone else) may have to wait a bit longer before it may be feasible to pull this off since it may still be too new and active, and still have valuable code for the publishers to consider it.
If I really decide to pursue this, I may start with some even older but still well-regarded rally sims such as some of the titles in the Rally Championship Series or Rally Trophy.
If all else fails, I suppose I can always learn proper game programming and join an existing open source rally game project like Trigger Rally.
maybe having a resume that has software jobs continuously from the 80's thru the present is considered a give-away of your age and its immediately circular-binned by HR and most hiring mgrs?
Yes. A couple of ACs already mentioned this to you, but I'll reiterate it: many good resume-writing books I've read recommend only including the last 10 years of experience. Not only does this keep your experience appearing "fresh", but it also keeps your resume short and sweet. Remember that the other rule of resume-writing is that it should (with few exceptions) never be longer than 2 pages, and I cannot imagine that you can do justice to your experience all the way back to the 80s in such short space, so you're either breaking this rule or shortchanging yourself in your descriptions.
This indicates to me that perhaps you need to retool your resume in general. Either hit the library (or Amazon) and the web and read all the most recent and best-reviewed relevant material available or pay a professional resume writer to rewrite it for you. There are a lot of things you can do to tweak your resume to emphasize your strengths and de-emphasize your weaknesses.
Good resume writing-techniques are not obvious, so you really need to do non-trivial research on the practice to be any good at it. Good luck.
It's fine to want good aesthetics (a good-looking laptop is nicer than a bad-looking one), but one should never give up functionality for the sole purpose of aesthetics.
Unfortunately Apple has been going down the path of form over function in design for a good while now, particularly with their laptops: aluminum bodies that look beautiful but dent if you hit them with anything, "chiclet" keyboards that look cute but are nowhere near as friendly to a human's hands as something like the classic Thinkpad keyboard, non-user replaceable batteries, glossy screens full of glare, etc. So these new moves are no surprise. What other useful things will be gone in the next generation?
Really good point. Although it would work both ways, right? In certain circles, like in the sciences, the survey score for atheism would likely be higher than it really is, while in others, like in the general non-scientific population, the score for religiosity would be higher than it really is.
Please. An unarmed man was shot to death by another man in an altercation. Regardless of any other circumstances, this needs to go to trial. Any prosecutor that doesn't take a case like this to trial should be fired.
A writer can sometimes use a comma in place of "and", even if not enumerating a series with more than two items. Newspapers do it all the time on their headlines, even though it's not a very common construct otherwise.
Eh, sorry, but I lost faith in the Bullshit show when I noticed just based on one episode (the Yoga one) that they commit the same error that other rabid skeptics do: they tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater. With a simple wave of their hand they pronounce something bullshit instead of pointing out that it has flaws but also some benefits. They also show the most outrageously sensationalistic examples of the flaws that they can find. In other words, the show is not much better than the bullshit they're claiming to expose.
Are you surprised? Look back at the Texas textbook controversy from a couple of years back. The most interesting bit of information to come out of that for me was that Texas somehow supposedly has in their laws that they are required to promote "free enterprise", among other conservative ideals. Now, I don't have a citation for any such law, but check this article for a quick review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history
The relevant quote:
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. [Emphasis mine] There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."
You must know that recycling and anthropogenic global warming are anti-god, anti-patriotic, and anti-free enterprise, right?
So, while you may have been indoctrinated in one direction in Minnesota, a direction motivated a real practical reason (we're quickly running out of resources), your friends in Texas were indoctrinated in the opposite direction, motivated by an ideology of "we don't wanna be no godless commies".
Yes, he was, in fact. The co-driver or navigator in stage rally reads the notes of what is coming up ahead on the road to the driver. For instance, severity of turns, what's after a crest, any surprises (like large rocks on the side of the road), usually a few steps ahead of where they actually are on the road. So they're reading that notebook to the driver during the entire competitive stage that they are racing. This allows the driver to "see" ahead so he can adjust his driving accordingly.
Depends on what you mean by mainstream. There is http://www.livestation.com/ with live streams of Al Jazeera, France 24, Russia Today, and the Wall Street Journal (who now have video news), all in English. Depending on what country you're watching from, they also stream CNN International and BBC World News as well.
"We" (we being the west) cannot fix Africa short of turning it into east Carolina. They need to come up with their own functional modes of government and funding, whatever those are, on their own. The people have no chance when their local tinpot dictators are being propped up by someone with 100x their power and economy.
Good points, but let's give them a chance. They're working on it, but it will take a while. Didn't most countries in Africa only break away from colonial rule in the last 60 years or so? Here's a NY Times article from a couple of days ago describing the slow progress they are making toward being stable democracies, which would be a first step toward making the improvements you mention: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/world/africa/africas-steady-steps-toward-democracy.html
So the "branding responsibility" game ends if other companies make similar ads? Looks like Samsung [youtube.com] has completely let Apple off the hook then - emo types and independent hipsters as far as the eye can see in their ads.
No. But the company that tries to make itself appear more socially and environmentally conscious than their competition opens itself up for more pressure to fulfill that image, which is exactly what has happened to Apple. Sorry, but that Samsung ad is nowhere near the level of "specialness" of any Apple ads.
Which translates to support for better working conditions....how, exactly? Makes as much sense as "Cool and Refreshing"/Global Warming.
Old, entrenched powers are associated with oppression and servitude, which are associated with unfair working conditions. Just look at their famous 1984 ad for a perfect example of how they portray themselves as a new thinking entity that left the old ways behind. Besides, I wasn't only referring to their ads, but also the fact that they do things like issue working conditions rules for their suppliers and then report annually on the violations of those rules. In short, it's a completely different chain of ideas than cool and refreshing vs. global warming.
As opposed to...every other commercial company on the planet, no matter what the product? Making your product seem different from everyone else is pretty much Branding 101.
Understand that I'm not arguing that Apple does something that no other company in their market does, only that they try much harder to make that impression of environmental and social consciousness, and that is what the bulk of their customers has come to expect from them, more so than from any other company in their market. Combine that with being the richest company in the world, and you have a recipe for extra public pressure. It's the old idea that the first one to stand taller than the rest is the first one to get chopped down.
Any more reasons why 100% of the blame should be focused on 10% of the problem?
I never said that, so you're twisting my words. I said that one of the reasons why they are more pressured about these things is the image of themselves that they have built in the public's eye.
No. Pepsi's and Budweiser's marketing is par for the course within their market segments ("our products are cold and refreshing, and you will be happy if you drink them").
In contrast, think of the image that Apple presents of itself in its marketing. They portray and call themselves "different" from any other computer/electronics company. They sell themselves as a symbol of freedom and breaking away from the old establishment. Furthermore, they actually do make some effort to try to fulfill the expectations of those people that buy that image from them: they list all the environmental features of their products, issue reports on the working conditions at their factories, etc.
In short, Apple tries really hard to show themselves as different (specifically better in terms that would appeal to environmentally and socially conscious consumers) from any other company in their market segments.
Slashdot Mirror
Heck, even contemporary humans don't know what they're dealing with: see the case of the people handling the radioactive material that was found at a junkyard in Brazil a few years ago. Ooh, it looks shiny! They died terrible deaths shortly after that.
It was probably based on the VW Beetle chassis, as VW typically did (and does). The classic Beetle has a removable body as well. I saw it done once and it's pretty trippy. Disconnect it from the chassis and you can lift the whole body straight up. Probably why it was a popular car to convert to buggies.
Not human, but so close its scary, particularly when uneducated poachers are slaughtering gorillas for trinkets, their hands and feet and sometimes bush meat. In this sitatoin, who is the wild beast and who is the intelligent species indeed?
Don't forget that humans used to do these same things to other humans, not just other animals, until very recently. Perhaps they even still do, in some places.
Hmmm... there's a simpler explanation for why French uses many similar words as English: I've heard it said that English is about 60% derived from French. It's really remarkable how many same/similar words between the two languages. The roots of English would explain why there's so many similarities. Instead of the French using English words, it's much more likely that it's the other way around. While on the other hand, Icelandic has probably close to 0% French origins.
I've been thinking a lot about the unrealistic expectations of women recently. Any chance that you could point to those studies that you mentioned confirmed this? I would love to read them. Thanks!
Reposting this at a higher level, since I posted as a response to an AC below you.
It's a very recent example of exactly what you mention:
http://peregrinelabs.com/2012/04/to-our-us-customers/ and here is a long forum thread discussing it, including posts by the patent holder: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=59&t=1048283&page=1&pp=15
In my view it's clear to see how this kind of thing has a stifling effect on innovation, business, and the economy of the US, but I suppose some do not share that view.
Here's one that just happened a couple of months ago: http://peregrinelabs.com/2012/04/to-our-us-customers/ - it's an European 3d hair and fur program that is no longer going to be sold in the US because of a patent dispute. You can also read a whole 140+ posts long forum thread about this situation including the patent holder defending himself, here: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=59&t=1048283&page=1&pp=15
I just happened to know this example of exactly what the GP post mentioned because I frequent the CGSociety forum. I imagine from what GP said that there are probably many other examples.
Woo, I finally got a slashdot submission accepted! The eighth time is the charm! /happyoutburst
Ahem. Actually, I wanted to thank all of you very much for your answers. A lot of good examples, insights, and suggestions, just as I had expected from my fellow slashdotters. If I or anyone decides to go down this road, I'm sure that this information will be useful.
If you're curious, the specific game I had in mind was Richard Burns Rally, which is generally considered to be the best rally car (racing) simulation ever released. From what I've read in your replies, it seems like I (or anyone else) may have to wait a bit longer before it may be feasible to pull this off since it may still be too new and active, and still have valuable code for the publishers to consider it.
If I really decide to pursue this, I may start with some even older but still well-regarded rally sims such as some of the titles in the Rally Championship Series or Rally Trophy.
If all else fails, I suppose I can always learn proper game programming and join an existing open source rally game project like Trigger Rally.
Thank you all again!
maybe having a resume that has software jobs continuously from the 80's thru the present is considered a give-away of your age and its immediately circular-binned by HR and most hiring mgrs?
Yes. A couple of ACs already mentioned this to you, but I'll reiterate it: many good resume-writing books I've read recommend only including the last 10 years of experience. Not only does this keep your experience appearing "fresh", but it also keeps your resume short and sweet. Remember that the other rule of resume-writing is that it should (with few exceptions) never be longer than 2 pages, and I cannot imagine that you can do justice to your experience all the way back to the 80s in such short space, so you're either breaking this rule or shortchanging yourself in your descriptions.
This indicates to me that perhaps you need to retool your resume in general. Either hit the library (or Amazon) and the web and read all the most recent and best-reviewed relevant material available or pay a professional resume writer to rewrite it for you. There are a lot of things you can do to tweak your resume to emphasize your strengths and de-emphasize your weaknesses.
Good resume writing-techniques are not obvious, so you really need to do non-trivial research on the practice to be any good at it. Good luck.
It's fine to want good aesthetics (a good-looking laptop is nicer than a bad-looking one), but one should never give up functionality for the sole purpose of aesthetics.
Unfortunately Apple has been going down the path of form over function in design for a good while now, particularly with their laptops: aluminum bodies that look beautiful but dent if you hit them with anything, "chiclet" keyboards that look cute but are nowhere near as friendly to a human's hands as something like the classic Thinkpad keyboard, non-user replaceable batteries, glossy screens full of glare, etc. So these new moves are no surprise. What other useful things will be gone in the next generation?
Really good point. Although it would work both ways, right? In certain circles, like in the sciences, the survey score for atheism would likely be higher than it really is, while in others, like in the general non-scientific population, the score for religiosity would be higher than it really is.
Please. An unarmed man was shot to death by another man in an altercation. Regardless of any other circumstances, this needs to go to trial. Any prosecutor that doesn't take a case like this to trial should be fired.
A writer can sometimes use a comma in place of "and", even if not enumerating a series with more than two items. Newspapers do it all the time on their headlines, even though it's not a very common construct otherwise.
Some links for reference:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1295845
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asyndeton
I would imagine that they would be saying something like:
Butthead: "Whoa, uhh... huh, huh, huh... he said coronal hole... huh, huh, huh."
Beavis: "Yeah, yeah... I'm Coronal Holio, and I need TP for my burn hole!"
PS: I hope my karma can withstand the solar flares that will probably result from this post.
Should have previewed first. That was meant to be Touche'.
Touché, AC!
Eh, sorry, but I lost faith in the Bullshit show when I noticed just based on one episode (the Yoga one) that they commit the same error that other rabid skeptics do: they tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater. With a simple wave of their hand they pronounce something bullshit instead of pointing out that it has flaws but also some benefits. They also show the most outrageously sensationalistic examples of the flaws that they can find. In other words, the show is not much better than the bullshit they're claiming to expose.
Are you surprised? Look back at the Texas textbook controversy from a couple of years back. The most interesting bit of information to come out of that for me was that Texas somehow supposedly has in their laws that they are required to promote "free enterprise", among other conservative ideals. Now, I don't have a citation for any such law, but check this article for a quick review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history
The relevant quote:
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. [Emphasis mine] There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."
You must know that recycling and anthropogenic global warming are anti-god, anti-patriotic, and anti-free enterprise, right?
So, while you may have been indoctrinated in one direction in Minnesota, a direction motivated a real practical reason (we're quickly running out of resources), your friends in Texas were indoctrinated in the opposite direction, motivated by an ideology of "we don't wanna be no godless commies".
Yes, he was, in fact. The co-driver or navigator in stage rally reads the notes of what is coming up ahead on the road to the driver. For instance, severity of turns, what's after a crest, any surprises (like large rocks on the side of the road), usually a few steps ahead of where they actually are on the road. So they're reading that notebook to the driver during the entire competitive stage that they are racing. This allows the driver to "see" ahead so he can adjust his driving accordingly.
Depends on what you mean by mainstream. There is http://www.livestation.com/ with live streams of Al Jazeera, France 24, Russia Today, and the Wall Street Journal (who now have video news), all in English. Depending on what country you're watching from, they also stream CNN International and BBC World News as well.
"We" (we being the west) cannot fix Africa short of turning it into east Carolina. They need to come up with their own functional modes of government and funding, whatever those are, on their own. The people have no chance when their local tinpot dictators are being propped up by someone with 100x their power and economy.
Good points, but let's give them a chance. They're working on it, but it will take a while. Didn't most countries in Africa only break away from colonial rule in the last 60 years or so? Here's a NY Times article from a couple of days ago describing the slow progress they are making toward being stable democracies, which would be a first step toward making the improvements you mention: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/world/africa/africas-steady-steps-toward-democracy.html
Look into the Netflix streaming "Just for Kids" option. UI designed for kids, using icons of the characters in the movies/tv shows. No ads.
So the "branding responsibility" game ends if other companies make similar ads? Looks like Samsung [youtube.com] has completely let Apple off the hook then - emo types and independent hipsters as far as the eye can see in their ads.
No. But the company that tries to make itself appear more socially and environmentally conscious than their competition opens itself up for more pressure to fulfill that image, which is exactly what has happened to Apple. Sorry, but that Samsung ad is nowhere near the level of "specialness" of any Apple ads.
Which translates to support for better working conditions....how, exactly? Makes as much sense as "Cool and Refreshing"/Global Warming.
Old, entrenched powers are associated with oppression and servitude, which are associated with unfair working conditions. Just look at their famous 1984 ad for a perfect example of how they portray themselves as a new thinking entity that left the old ways behind. Besides, I wasn't only referring to their ads, but also the fact that they do things like issue working conditions rules for their suppliers and then report annually on the violations of those rules. In short, it's a completely different chain of ideas than cool and refreshing vs. global warming.
As opposed to...every other commercial company on the planet, no matter what the product? Making your product seem different from everyone else is pretty much Branding 101.
Understand that I'm not arguing that Apple does something that no other company in their market does, only that they try much harder to make that impression of environmental and social consciousness, and that is what the bulk of their customers has come to expect from them, more so than from any other company in their market. Combine that with being the richest company in the world, and you have a recipe for extra public pressure. It's the old idea that the first one to stand taller than the rest is the first one to get chopped down.
Any more reasons why 100% of the blame should be focused on 10% of the problem?
I never said that, so you're twisting my words. I said that one of the reasons why they are more pressured about these things is the image of themselves that they have built in the public's eye.
No. Pepsi's and Budweiser's marketing is par for the course within their market segments ("our products are cold and refreshing, and you will be happy if you drink them").
In contrast, think of the image that Apple presents of itself in its marketing. They portray and call themselves "different" from any other computer/electronics company. They sell themselves as a symbol of freedom and breaking away from the old establishment. Furthermore, they actually do make some effort to try to fulfill the expectations of those people that buy that image from them: they list all the environmental features of their products, issue reports on the working conditions at their factories, etc.
In short, Apple tries really hard to show themselves as different (specifically better in terms that would appeal to environmentally and socially conscious consumers) from any other company in their market segments.
No problem, I had to run off as well. Thanks too!