Concentration is a skill which needs practice.
on
How Do You Get Work Done?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If you're worried about not getting work done, I'm betting that you're also thinking to yourself about not only this work, but asking yourself what if you don't finish this piece, and thinking about what else needs to get done as well.
I know, because I do it myself.
Concentration is a skill. It's not something that comes instantly to everyone, it's something that needs to be practiced. And it's not hard to practice it, either, but it does take some disipline.
First, learn to clear your thoughts of extraneous stuff. I do this by mostly telling myself that, first, if I worry about all the rest of the crap I have to do, I'm not only not going to get *this* done, I'm not going to get *any* of it done, and I'm no better off than when I started -- so, Part-of-me-that-worries, shut up and let me get some work done, so you can worry about something else. It's kind of a zen, clear-your-mind of all thoughts moment.
Second, try the following exercises::
Practice Sitting Quietly: Sit down for an half-an-hour a day, at your desk. No distractions, no extra stuff to work on, and just one project to finish. Take a quick, zen-cleansing breath, and don't think about everything else you have to do. (Don't panic, if what you have to get done takes more than that time, I'm just saying you have to *sit* for that time.)
Complete Something Every Day: do something that you can complete in one day, and do one of every day. If it's a book, slice it up into chapters or 10 pages or whatever. If it's one calculus set, use that. Do that every day, at the same time, once a day. It give some sense of accomplishment, gets you practiced at doing something on a regular basis.
(Note, I got these from Daniel Pinkwater's book Fishwhistle, but they seem to help.)
Finally, also do these:
Exercise: I know it's been said, but exercise exhausts the muscles, gets the blood flowing, can heighten concentration, and is generally good for you. It may seem like a waste of time, but it gives back in concentration what it takes in time; so if it's 4 hours of worrying over something, or 1 hour of exercise and 3 hours of working, which is more productive?
Sleep: Do it. Regularly. It helps with concentration, sleepy people can't concentrate.
Give it a shot. See if it works for you. If not, try the following things which have worked for friends of mine:
Earmuffs: Seriously. My brother cannot concentrate unless there's no noise about. You can find these for about $5-$10 at any hardware store; some even fold up for carrying. They block out sound like earplugs (not a bad idea either) and allow you to not hear any sounds around you.
Tai Chi and other Martial Arts: These heavily emphasize concentration, so it may be that they do you more good by both getting you exercise and by helping you practice concentration.
A) Right; but we have certian laws in place to deal with foreign nationals. Included in these are the rights to hearings, rights to counsel, and a right to hear the reason for being deported if the FN's visa is still valid. These are basic to even foreign nationals; and this nationwide registration included people here with green cards, who are afforded citizen's rights. Finally, american citizens are being denied these as well; note that the "20th hijacker" was an American citizen, and all of these were suspended for him. And note the following from the 6th amendment:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
That's public, informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, and can obtain witnesses & have counsel. All of which are denied anyone being called a terrorist by the government. Pretty easy to lose these rights, isn't it?
B) I care, because it's an invasion of privacy; I am not accused of a crime, I'm not a criminal. Yet if I was labeled a terrorist by someone who had the power to do so, for whatever reason, I could have my rights stripped of me, not have any recourse to object, nor have any way to disprove this terrorist label.
Also, the fourth amendment prohibits searches:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The PATRIOT Act suspends this right; no fake, if you're labeled a terrorist, they can and will search your house sans warrant.
If warrants are issued in secret, how can we be sure that there was probable cause? Or that there was a description of what was being found? But because of the PATRIOT Act, the government doesn't have to have probable cause for anyone who has been labeled a terrorist.
The point is, once you're labeled a terrorist, you lose a lot; and the barrier for being labeled a terrorist is very low. At this point, the power that is being given to the Justice department is much too great, and could easily be abused. There is no way to stop the Justice Department from abusing these powers, as the situation stands. If we are to prevent such abuses, we need to work now towards forming better legislation, not when the problems occur. Because we might not be able to speak when problems do occur -- note that most prisoners are not able to exercise their right to free speech once they're inside jail.
There's a bit of a fallacy in your argument, dear sir. Let me explain:
Take, for example, the new federal law that all foreign nationals from certian countries be required to register with the government: severalnewsartivles about how this process has revealed that many people have been detained. Not a problem... except they're being detained without the right to a lawyer; habeus corpus has been suspended for them (they do not know what evidence and what crimes they are being charged with -- something out of Kafka's "The Trial", I believe); and currently reporters can't find out who's being held, why they're being held, or even how many are being held.
This extension of the PATRIOT Act makes these things legal. Which means they could charge you, and not only could we not know why, or if, you are on trial -- you wouldn't even be able to get a lawyer.
Next, let me admit, you're right, I haven't had any civil liberties restricted directly that I know of. Let me stress that last point: you talk of wiretapping. I wouldn't know if someone was tapping my lines, because with the PATRIOT Act, if I was labeled a terrorist, it wouldn't be private or public knowledge; it would be completely unknown, as the request would go to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Again, I reference this Real Audio file from This American Life, it gives the details. This court meets in secret; it's documents are not published and not for review. So not only would you not know if you were being wiretapped; no one would.
Finally, if I had been hauled off to jail out of the blue, I probably wouldn't have access to a computer to check on Slashdot, and be able to read and/or post to your question; jails of this sort tend not to let people have access to computers.
I'm not worried that they're coming for me today; I'm worried that if, in the future, I expouse beliefs that are opposed to what the government believes, I will become labeled a "terrorist", and will have my rights unilaterally suspended. What happens to my neighbor this week can happen to me next week -- so I want what's fair for *everyone*.
Here's an article on Nolo. Here's the relevant portion:
Credit reports. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA (15 U.S.C. 1681), employers must get an employee's written consent before seeking that employee's credit report. Many employers routinely include a request for such consent in their employment applications. If you decide not to hire or promote someone based on information in the credit report, you must give the person a copy of the report and tell them of their right to challenge the report under the FCRA. Some states have more stringent rules limiting the use of credit reports.
I talked to Earthlink after I found out about DTDSL going under today, and found that they're having problems with doling out static IPs -- in certian areas, they've run out. I found out that I literally had to wait for someone else to lose their IP in order to get one. Plus, on top of all that, the static IP is an extra $15/month.
Not Steele's best book, but not as bad as this
on
ChronoSpace
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Whew. That was a pretty harsh rip.
I will say this; I was disappointed with this book when I read it. I've read most of Steele's other work, and this was not one of his best. But it definitely wasn't quite that bad. It had some interesting premises in it: and it didn't quite come through.
Having said that, I will say that this book is not reminiscent of his best work, by far. When he's off, he's off -- but when he's on, he's stellar.
If you're looking for his best work, check out Steele's short story work, Sex and Violence in Zero G, Rude Astronauts and All-American Alien Boy. The short stories in those books by far outstrip this book, and build an amazingly neat background for his "Near Space" series. Orbital Decay and Lunar Descent are great; I personally like The Jericho Iteration, because he writes about some of my old stomping grounds in St. Louis.
Also, check out the short story he was just put up for: Stealing Alabama. Very neat premise.
Check out Project Vote Smart, a non-partisan group which has the voting records on key votes and position information on a large (LARGE) number of candidates. It's definitely not complete on some of the internet issues, but it may be a good starting point.
I mean, even here, you can see people talking about inventions named for things/people in science fiction. Inventors & techies read SF. And technologies that inventors & techies make are usually the foundation for science fiction writers' ideas on how future technologies work. It's more of a self-feeding cycle - one person creates an idea based on a thing, another creates a thing based on the idea based on the thing.
Of course, that Connections marathon I went through might also be affecting me.
Just to point this out: it's censorship when there's no other choices to broadcast that medium - even if the government is not doing the censorship. Clear Channel's a monopoly in some areas (see this Salon.com article and this one as well.) This means that while it's not government censorship, these songs are de facto censored in those areas.
This has nothing to do with the ammount per se; I pay good money for a hard copy of a book, by people who's content is good enough for me to treasure reading it. This has to do with a few basic flaws of micropayments that everyone seems to have forgottent lately, including the discussion between Scott McCloud and a few other cartoonists.
Here's what everyone's forgotten:
We have no system aside from credit cards, checks & cash which is universally trusted to be acceptable for transactions. Few people trust systems like PayPal, and definitely not for miniscule payments when the charge for each is more than the payment itself.
cash is problematic to send to a content person
checks are similarly hard to transfer
so, we're currently stuck with credit cards, which have their own history and problems
Most people don't want and are trained not to have small purchases on their credit card. It's gone down in recent years, from a minimum of $20+ to $10+ to sometimes $5, but people are hesitant to do that.
And finally, and it's really the truth: most content sucks. Lots of people produce and sell stuff that probably shouldn't, so the quality is at best low to poor for the majority of work. We're not all Shakespeare or Picasso.
What we end up with is a point about half-way between what Scott McCloud is saying (Micropayments are the way to go) and what Jonathan Rosenberg is saying (Micropayments won't work): Micropayments have an inherent societal barrier that it has to overcome to work. And usually, those types of barriers are not overcome, and the technologies fall to the side. And free content is available everywhere. And often free content in the past has been of higher quality.
check out Anthro Carts. They've got upright racks up to 29U high, one that's as small as 37" high (probably about 15-20U), and a couple of slant racks made for home use, from 20" high to 41" high. Those would be great for smaller applications, and they're made specifically for home office use.
I think you're also thinking Alvin Fernald; That was another "boy genius" book, a kid who invented tons of stuff. Danny Dunn was the one who had the professor in the house, Alvin had little sister and did less science based stuff and more Rube-Goldbergian developments.
I think of the following items when I think of expressive code:
1) In *Understanding Comics*, Scott McCloud came up with the best explanation of artwork I've heard, which is, in essence: artwork is anything outside of what is absolutely necessary to get the job done. So, what parts of code are done because they're necessary, and what parts of code are done because they're expressive?
2) There is such a thing as mathmatical/coding beauty; the beauty of an algorithm that does what it should with simplicity, with elegance, using mathematics/code to come up with something elegant. What defines mathematical/coding beauty vs. mathematical/coding ugliness?
3) Is a bannister made by a poor woodworker any different from a bannister made by Norm Abremson (The Yankee Workshop on PBS)? If so, is the difference functional, or artistic? And doesn't the poor artist have as much right as the good artist?
This might help out; in most states, if there's a restriction on your movements & your behavior, you probably should be getting paid for each and every hour you're on duty.
Pointing out that whole "Its the mental condition that get kids teased in the first place" - that's bull. Kids get teased because they're there. They get teased for anything at all that makes them different; this, at least in my case, may have had depression as a contributing factor, but I never heard anyone coming up to me, saying "I'm teasing you because you're depressed."
What's more likely is that either a) the teasing leads to depression, mental or clinical (I wonder, can someone be depressed during puberty, and then the body thinks that the *standard*, thereby causing clinical depression?) or b) the depression leads to unusual habits/attitudes, leading to getting teased.
Finally, what I think few people tend to forget is that kids can't get out of these situations. They're stuck with the people at school for years, live in the same neighborhood, have a tight community that they can't get out of; and seeing ways to make the future brighter isn't exactly something people teach. Taking away their video games isn't going to fix the problem. Just may make them stop specifically *shooting* one another. The problem's still there.
Having worked with advertising/promotions/marketing companies, I can tell you this: they pay companies big bucks to find out what works & what doesn't in the way of ads. I don't like banners, but I hate companies being able to "target" me more accurately more.
Besides, there's only 3 results that can come from this: a) assuming Slashdot, et al. put in some sort of "approval-disapproval" system for free, ad agencies get for free what they'd normally pay viewers for, as well as pay a company to do the analysis for. b) assuming Slashdot puts in a system and charges for it, they get the cash, the ad agency gets the standard info, and we may/may not get better ads because people will randomly click on stuff like this without motivation. c) assuming Slashdot pays individuals somehow, whether through cash or karma or whatever, the customer probably won't get paid the standard rate for being a "guinea pig" - around $50 an hour, so they're giving their info/opinion up for cheap.
Don't help the advertisers; they get plenty of money for doing little or nothing anyway, so charge 'em plenty for the privlage of easy jobs.
Look, in my mind, the differences between the two are like the differences between "plumber" and "electrician"; there's different sets of knowledge that go into each, but the actual jobs are very similar: they both build. So do artists, so do programmers. I look at the whole of game building as "building games", which includes putting together the artwork, coding, etc.
Look, big picture overview: artists are people who create. Coders are people who create. they just create with different goals in mind, when they're seperate. But, when you're building something that includes both, the goal for both is the same, so the people working on it should be conversant in both. It's a good thing, and it's really nice to be able to stretch the brain in both creativity and logical thinking.
As it stands right now, Linux on the Mac is kind of an odd bird; most people don't have a lot of *spare* Macs of PPC level or higher hanging around, and it's currently cheaper to spend one's cash on a dreaded Wintel box to run Linux that it is to spend cash on a Mac to do the same thing.
On top of that, when Macs aren't in the hands of "make this as easy as possible" guys (neophytes or people who don't care about anything but running such-and-such a program), Macs are quite often found in the hands of "graphics guys" - where, despite the fact that GIMP is great and all, there's not a ton of fantastic programs available. In other words, the majority of the Mac crowd just ain't Linux types, really.
So: when it comes down to brass tacks - where's the advantage for the average MacOS power user to use LinuxPPC over MacOS? Contrawise, where's the advantage of a Linux user to have a Mac box?
Uno: When you say "building online communities is expensive", that's not exactly true. Building online communities *can* be expensive, and many, many companies have spent billions, possibly trillions altogether, to create communities. The problem is, a community really is a set of people with common interests, the dedication to commit to working together to share, enhance, and grow through those interests, and a "space", some common resource, that they can call their own.
All three of these are necessary: obviously, no people, no community. No dedication, no one will work on stuff, and it falls apart. No space, nothing people can identify with that community.
The first one's easy; people love comminities, always want to join them. The last is just a space. Contribituing code, money, time, energy is something people want to do, if it gives them a chance to belong, grow, etc. It's the dedication that usually isn't there - one person usually holds the bag for a while, then it collapses when he/she leaves. You need a large base of committed people to bring it together - the larger, the better. So that if one person cannot contribute, others can.
Money isn't necessary; look at where slashdot *started*. Not where it is now. Look at ain't-it-cool-news. Look at Yahoo. All started through dedication of a few individuals, common interest from lots of people who were willing to add/grow/develop, and then it started to grow.
Second, on your final point: "They, on the other hand, are creating a revolution and don't seem to know it." That implies one thing: that we care about making a revolution. Hardly; I think most geeks care more about the standard things, being accepted, belonging to something bigger than themselves, enjoying themselves. These web pages, these online communities, dang near all of it - was created for our own interests, our own pleasure, because we wanted something and didn't see it existing.
We aren't creating a revolution, we're just tired of the old rules and have decided to make up new ones.
Why not place a patent for patenting the patent process itself. Creating a system by which people send in their ideas, give them numbers & dates on which Ithey're recieved, and then they can use those numbers in court to prove that they had the idea first...
As to employees not being responsible for the actions of their companies? Well, I believe the excuse "I was only following orders" went out of fashion in 1945.
Hardly. This statement's being used every day, in every business & military situation all around the world. Besides, I think you're taking the point too far as well. Microsoft isn't pure evil. Microsoft products are not killing anyone (outright, in of themselves. You don't pick up a Word box and get ebola.) Microsoft products are just poorly made, and their business tactics leave a lot to be desired, namely competition & innovation. Don't haul up your own, bigger straw man to kill some smaller ones - especially when the truth is with your opinion anyway.
I'm pretty sure I'd take you just a *tad* more seriously if you wern't making a knee-jerk rant about how little I know about the UCITA from a single mis-spelling.
And I know quite well how this "law" works; it's a recommedation, not a law; a few states have passed laws following these recommendations, Virginia being one of them. I also know that most law in the United States today is a bit of a sham, with the laws being written by an elite class of people who have little reguard for the rights of people outside of this class. I also believe that these UCITA-based laws give much more power to companies than anyone intends to.
Now, granted, this *was* a knee-jerk post. But truthfully - I don't think the idea behind it is all that completely incredible. Standing up and saying "no", using the tools we have in hand, is a legitimate political tool, as long as it's done with a goal in mind. It's worked in a number of situations, including "grey day" (as someone pointed out in another post), "A day without art", and many years of sit-down strikes.
And I would "make the law work for me" - but for the most part, laws aren't doing so, nor were they intended to do so. My frustration with the law stems not from a lack a willingness to work within the framework of the law, but a knowledge that the law, the government, and businesses don't want me to work within the law, and make it difficult if not impossible for common people to do so.
Y
ou speak of "childishly threatning to take your ball and go home". These laws allude to the government's unwillingness to allow things not under it's domain to exist. They've given corporations power beyond any reason, in my opinion.
The government and corporations want me & everyone else to accept the laws as written and sit down quietly. I choose to stand up and say "no" - no to sitting down, no to being quiet, and no, to use the metaphor, to play their game, with their ball, their rules, their ref.
So, if I turn off my servers and go home, I don't think it's a childish act; I do it with the full knowledge that the system will go on, that the situation will still exist, and that the problems won't go away. But, it also won't have me - a minor loss at best, but one which, if compounded hundred-fold or thousand-fold, could be problematic. Worse, IMHO, would be helping the situation expand, and worse still would be spending my time trying to fix a situation which was flawed from the beginning and wants me to change not the problems but the surface. I can't make a moose from something that looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, no matter how many antlers I have.
Finally, I never said, "turn off your servers and never come back". I said, "turn off your servers for a day". My poor reasoning at the time was, turn them off and that'll show them how powerful we are. Which is, of course, ludricous. What I want them to see now is, how many people feel strongly about this. I agree with Randy Rathburn and RomulusNR said - leaving a blank page up explaining what would happen is a great idea. I do think it's overdone, though, and too likely to be ignored. I don't have a good answer - but I do know that this suggestion is not without merits.
So, there you go. No "poor me" - and I apologize for the earlier tone even seeming like that. I don't think I'm unknowlegable about this - although I don't have a lawsuit or a state government who's building one of these. And I definitely don't think that a misspelling could have communicated all of this to you. If it did, you're quite the fellow. But I think it's a little much to read ignorance into the statement from one misspelling. From the rest of the statement itself, yeah, I could see you assuming that. The misspelling alone, nope.
I can see your point - but corporations are abusing their power, and have they seen any negative side to it? Ever?
The only other thing I can think to do is to put together a million geek march, and the first one wasn't exactly a sucess. Never came to pass at all (through no fault of the organizers!)
but I'm really sick of UTICA, I'm sick of being under fire from people who know little or nothing about what we do, and I'm very tired of having to justify my protests about giving up my rights. Personally - I think we should all just turn off our servers for a day and let the rest of the world see what happens.
Most SVGA monitors will work - I can say this from experience. There's nice sync adapters sold from most of the Mac catalogues and such which will allow you to sync your monitor, no matter what the card/model; but the new G3s and G4s are excellent at detecting & working with PC monitors, so you shouldn't have to even use those.
you can use IDEs, definitely - but if you're using graphics, get a SCSI. Photoshop uses the drive for "swap space", so the extra speed using a good SCSI card will be worth it. BUY RAM - Macs can speed up processes using more RAM, while PCs may or may not use it. Illustrator topped out on any RAM benefits at over 25-30, so don't add more for that; Painter I haven't tested.
I'll bet your GF will want a different/not hockey-puck-shaped mouse, so be prepared for that. Frankly, I hate that little piece of crap.
ATAPI is the model for the new G4's DVD, to note.
Also - just to ask - has anyone seen if OS X will actually work with G3s? I didn't think so, but I've been working on other stuff and not paying attention.
A couple of words of caution about this sort of thing: 1) don't use a KVM switch on your Mac and PC unless you're careful about using a KVM which can support Macs - otherwise the monitor can take severe damage doing this. It's something to do with, I believe, Apple's power saving options. 2) a lot more stuff is Mac compatable than most people think - and because it's a PC-dominated world, sometimes you have to explain to people that, for example, a modem isn't really PC or Mac specific, but the cable is (or was - USB's solved a lot of that).
Slashdot Mirror
If you're worried about not getting work done, I'm betting that you're also thinking to yourself about not only this work, but asking yourself what if you don't finish this piece, and thinking about what else needs to get done as well.
I know, because I do it myself.
Concentration is a skill. It's not something that comes instantly to everyone, it's something that needs to be practiced. And it's not hard to practice it, either, but it does take some disipline.
First, learn to clear your thoughts of extraneous stuff. I do this by mostly telling myself that, first, if I worry about all the rest of the crap I have to do, I'm not only not going to get *this* done, I'm not going to get *any* of it done, and I'm no better off than when I started -- so, Part-of-me-that-worries, shut up and let me get some work done, so you can worry about something else. It's kind of a zen, clear-your-mind of all thoughts moment.
Second, try the following exercises::
Practice Sitting Quietly: Sit down for an half-an-hour a day, at your desk. No distractions, no extra stuff to work on, and just one project to finish. Take a quick, zen-cleansing breath, and don't think about everything else you have to do. (Don't panic, if what you have to get done takes more than that time, I'm just saying you have to *sit* for that time.)
Complete Something Every Day: do something that you can complete in one day, and do one of every day. If it's a book, slice it up into chapters or 10 pages or whatever. If it's one calculus set, use that. Do that every day, at the same time, once a day. It give some sense of accomplishment, gets you practiced at doing something on a regular basis.
(Note, I got these from Daniel Pinkwater's book Fishwhistle, but they seem to help.)
Finally, also do these:
Exercise: I know it's been said, but exercise exhausts the muscles, gets the blood flowing, can heighten concentration, and is generally good for you. It may seem like a waste of time, but it gives back in concentration what it takes in time; so if it's 4 hours of worrying over something, or 1 hour of exercise and 3 hours of working, which is more productive?
Sleep: Do it. Regularly. It helps with concentration, sleepy people can't concentrate.
Give it a shot. See if it works for you. If not, try the following things which have worked for friends of mine:
Earmuffs: Seriously. My brother cannot concentrate unless there's no noise about. You can find these for about $5-$10 at any hardware store; some even fold up for carrying. They block out sound like earplugs (not a bad idea either) and allow you to not hear any sounds around you.
Tai Chi and other Martial Arts: These heavily emphasize concentration, so it may be that they do you more good by both getting you exercise and by helping you practice concentration.
Good luck!
That's public, informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, and can obtain witnesses & have counsel. All of which are denied anyone being called a terrorist by the government. Pretty easy to lose these rights, isn't it?
B) I care, because it's an invasion of privacy; I am not accused of a crime, I'm not a criminal. Yet if I was labeled a terrorist by someone who had the power to do so, for whatever reason, I could have my rights stripped of me, not have any recourse to object, nor have any way to disprove this terrorist label.
Also, the fourth amendment prohibits searches:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The PATRIOT Act suspends this right; no fake, if you're labeled a terrorist, they can and will search your house sans warrant.
If warrants are issued in secret, how can we be sure that there was probable cause? Or that there was a description of what was being found? But because of the PATRIOT Act, the government doesn't have to have probable cause for anyone who has been labeled a terrorist.
The point is, once you're labeled a terrorist, you lose a lot; and the barrier for being labeled a terrorist is very low. At this point, the power that is being given to the Justice department is much too great, and could easily be abused. There is no way to stop the Justice Department from abusing these powers, as the situation stands. If we are to prevent such abuses, we need to work now towards forming better legislation, not when the problems occur. Because we might not be able to speak when problems do occur -- note that most prisoners are not able to exercise their right to free speech once they're inside jail.
There's a bit of a fallacy in your argument, dear sir. Let me explain:
Take, for example, the new federal law that all foreign nationals from certian countries be required to register with the government: several news artivles about how this process has revealed that many people have been detained. Not a problem... except they're being detained without the right to a lawyer; habeus corpus has been suspended for them (they do not know what evidence and what crimes they are being charged with -- something out of Kafka's "The Trial", I believe); and currently reporters can't find out who's being held, why they're being held, or even how many are being held.
This extension of the PATRIOT Act makes these things legal. Which means they could charge you, and not only could we not know why, or if, you are on trial -- you wouldn't even be able to get a lawyer.
Next, let me admit, you're right, I haven't had any civil liberties restricted directly that I know of. Let me stress that last point: you talk of wiretapping. I wouldn't know if someone was tapping my lines, because with the PATRIOT Act, if I was labeled a terrorist, it wouldn't be private or public knowledge; it would be completely unknown, as the request would go to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Again, I reference this Real Audio file from This American Life, it gives the details. This court meets in secret; it's documents are not published and not for review. So not only would you not know if you were being wiretapped; no one would.
Finally, if I had been hauled off to jail out of the blue, I probably wouldn't have access to a computer to check on Slashdot, and be able to read and/or post to your question; jails of this sort tend not to let people have access to computers.
I'm not worried that they're coming for me today; I'm worried that if, in the future, I expouse beliefs that are opposed to what the government believes, I will become labeled a "terrorist", and will have my rights unilaterally suspended. What happens to my neighbor this week can happen to me next week -- so I want what's fair for *everyone*.
Here's an article on Nolo. Here's the relevant portion:
Credit reports. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA (15 U.S.C. 1681), employers must get an employee's written consent before seeking that employee's credit report. Many employers routinely include a request for such consent in their employment applications. If you decide not to hire or promote someone based on information in the credit report, you must give the person a copy of the report and tell them of their right to challenge the report under the FCRA. Some states have more stringent rules limiting the use of credit reports.
I talked to Earthlink after I found out about DTDSL going under today, and found that they're having problems with doling out static IPs -- in certian areas, they've run out. I found out that I literally had to wait for someone else to lose their IP in order to get one. Plus, on top of all that, the static IP is an extra $15/month.
Whew. That was a pretty harsh rip.
I will say this; I was disappointed with this book when I read it. I've read most of Steele's other work, and this was not one of his best. But it definitely wasn't quite that bad. It had some interesting premises in it: and it didn't quite come through.
Having said that, I will say that this book is not reminiscent of his best work, by far. When he's off, he's off -- but when he's on, he's stellar.
If you're looking for his best work, check out Steele's short story work, Sex and Violence in Zero G, Rude Astronauts and All-American Alien Boy. The short stories in those books by far outstrip this book, and build an amazingly neat background for his "Near Space" series. Orbital Decay and Lunar Descent are great; I personally like The Jericho Iteration, because he writes about some of my old stomping grounds in St. Louis.
Also, check out the short story he was just put up for: Stealing Alabama. Very neat premise.
Check out Project Vote Smart, a non-partisan group which has the voting records on key votes and position information on a large (LARGE) number of candidates. It's definitely not complete on some of the internet issues, but it may be a good starting point.
I mean, even here, you can see people talking about inventions named for things/people in science fiction. Inventors & techies read SF. And technologies that inventors & techies make are usually the foundation for science fiction writers' ideas on how future technologies work. It's more of a self-feeding cycle - one person creates an idea based on a thing, another creates a thing based on the idea based on the thing.
Of course, that Connections marathon I went through might also be affecting me.
doones
Just to point this out: it's censorship when there's no other choices to broadcast that medium - even if the government is not doing the censorship. Clear Channel's a monopoly in some areas (see this Salon.com article and this one as well.) This means that while it's not government censorship, these songs are de facto censored in those areas.
Here's what everyone's forgotten:
What we end up with is a point about half-way between what Scott McCloud is saying (Micropayments are the way to go) and what Jonathan Rosenberg is saying (Micropayments won't work): Micropayments have an inherent societal barrier that it has to overcome to work. And usually, those types of barriers are not overcome, and the technologies fall to the side. And free content is available everywhere. And often free content in the past has been of higher quality.
Ted
check out Anthro Carts. They've got upright racks up to 29U high, one that's as small as 37" high (probably about 15-20U), and a couple of slant racks made for home use, from 20" high to 41" high. Those would be great for smaller applications, and they're made specifically for home office use.
I think you're also thinking Alvin Fernald; That was another "boy genius" book, a kid who invented tons of stuff. Danny Dunn was the one who had the professor in the house, Alvin had little sister and did less science based stuff and more Rube-Goldbergian developments.
You can find more on Alvin Fernald here.
I think of the following items when I think of expressive code:
1) In *Understanding Comics*, Scott McCloud came up with the best explanation of artwork I've heard, which is, in essence: artwork is anything outside of what is absolutely necessary to get the job done. So, what parts of code are done because they're necessary, and what parts of code are done because they're expressive?
2) There is such a thing as mathmatical/coding beauty; the beauty of an algorithm that does what it should with simplicity, with elegance, using mathematics/code to come up with something elegant. What defines mathematical/coding beauty vs. mathematical/coding ugliness?
3) Is a bannister made by a poor woodworker any different from a bannister made by Norm Abremson (The Yankee Workshop on PBS)? If so, is the difference functional, or artistic? And doesn't the poor artist have as much right as the good artist?
This might help out; in most states, if there's a restriction on your movements & your behavior, you probably should be getting paid for each and every hour you're on duty.
http://www.nolo.com/encyclopedia/articles/emp/onca ll.html
Pointing out that whole "Its the mental condition that get kids teased in the first place" - that's bull. Kids get teased because they're there. They get teased for anything at all that makes them different; this, at least in my case, may have had depression as a contributing factor, but I never heard anyone coming up to me, saying "I'm teasing you because you're depressed."
What's more likely is that either a) the teasing leads to depression, mental or clinical (I wonder, can someone be depressed during puberty, and then the body thinks that the *standard*, thereby causing clinical depression?) or b) the depression leads to unusual habits/attitudes, leading to getting teased.
Finally, what I think few people tend to forget is that kids can't get out of these situations. They're stuck with the people at school for years, live in the same neighborhood, have a tight community that they can't get out of; and seeing ways to make the future brighter isn't exactly something people teach. Taking away their video games isn't going to fix the problem. Just may make them stop specifically *shooting* one another. The problem's still there.
Besides, there's only 3 results that can come from this: a) assuming Slashdot, et al. put in some sort of "approval-disapproval" system for free, ad agencies get for free what they'd normally pay viewers for, as well as pay a company to do the analysis for. b) assuming Slashdot puts in a system and charges for it, they get the cash, the ad agency gets the standard info, and we may/may not get better ads because people will randomly click on stuff like this without motivation. c) assuming Slashdot pays individuals somehow, whether through cash or karma or whatever, the customer probably won't get paid the standard rate for being a "guinea pig" - around $50 an hour, so they're giving their info/opinion up for cheap.
Don't help the advertisers; they get plenty of money for doing little or nothing anyway, so charge 'em plenty for the privlage of easy jobs.
Look, in my mind, the differences between the two are like the differences between "plumber" and "electrician"; there's different sets of knowledge that go into each, but the actual jobs are very similar: they both build. So do artists, so do programmers. I look at the whole of game building as "building games", which includes putting together the artwork, coding, etc.
Look, big picture overview: artists are people who create. Coders are people who create. they just create with different goals in mind, when they're seperate. But, when you're building something that includes both, the goal for both is the same, so the people working on it should be conversant in both. It's a good thing, and it's really nice to be able to stretch the brain in both creativity and logical thinking.
As it stands right now, Linux on the Mac is kind of an odd bird; most people don't have a lot of *spare* Macs of PPC level or higher hanging around, and it's currently cheaper to spend one's cash on a dreaded Wintel box to run Linux that it is to spend cash on a Mac to do the same thing.
On top of that, when Macs aren't in the hands of "make this as easy as possible" guys (neophytes or people who don't care about anything but running such-and-such a program), Macs are quite often found in the hands of "graphics guys" - where, despite the fact that GIMP is great and all, there's not a ton of fantastic programs available. In other words, the majority of the Mac crowd just ain't Linux types, really.
So: when it comes down to brass tacks - where's the advantage for the average MacOS power user to use LinuxPPC over MacOS? Contrawise, where's the advantage of a Linux user to have a Mac box?
Uno: When you say "building online communities is expensive", that's not exactly true. Building online communities *can* be expensive, and many, many companies have spent billions, possibly trillions altogether, to create communities. The problem is, a community really is a set of people with common interests, the dedication to commit to working together to share, enhance, and grow through those interests, and a "space", some common resource, that they can call their own.
All three of these are necessary: obviously, no people, no community. No dedication, no one will work on stuff, and it falls apart. No space, nothing people can identify with that community.
The first one's easy; people love comminities, always want to join them. The last is just a space. Contribituing code, money, time, energy is something people want to do, if it gives them a chance to belong, grow, etc. It's the dedication that usually isn't there - one person usually holds the bag for a while, then it collapses when he/she leaves. You need a large base of committed people to bring it together - the larger, the better. So that if one person cannot contribute, others can.
Money isn't necessary; look at where slashdot *started*. Not where it is now. Look at ain't-it-cool-news. Look at Yahoo. All started through dedication of a few individuals, common interest from lots of people who were willing to add/grow/develop, and then it started to grow.
Second, on your final point: "They, on the other hand, are creating a revolution and don't seem to know it." That implies one thing: that we care about making a revolution. Hardly; I think most geeks care more about the standard things, being accepted, belonging to something bigger than themselves, enjoying themselves. These web pages, these online communities, dang near all of it - was created for our own interests, our own pleasure, because we wanted something and didn't see it existing.
We aren't creating a revolution, we're just tired of the old rules and have decided to make up new ones.
Why not place a patent for patenting the patent process itself. Creating a system by which people send in their ideas, give them numbers & dates on which Ithey're recieved, and then they can use those numbers in court to prove that they had the idea first...
As to employees not being responsible for the actions of their companies? Well, I believe the excuse "I was only following orders" went out of fashion in 1945.
Hardly. This statement's being used every day, in every business & military situation all around the world. Besides, I think you're taking the point too far as well. Microsoft isn't pure evil. Microsoft products are not killing anyone (outright, in of themselves. You don't pick up a Word box and get ebola.) Microsoft products are just poorly made, and their business tactics leave a lot to be desired, namely competition & innovation. Don't haul up your own, bigger straw man to kill some smaller ones - especially when the truth is with your opinion anyway.
I'm pretty sure I'd take you just a *tad* more seriously if you wern't making a knee-jerk rant about how little I know about the UCITA from a single mis-spelling.
And I know quite well how this "law" works; it's a recommedation, not a law; a few states have passed laws following these recommendations, Virginia being one of them. I also know that most law in the United States today is a bit of a sham, with the laws being written by an elite class of people who have little reguard for the rights of people outside of this class. I also believe that these UCITA-based laws give much more power to companies than anyone intends to.
Now, granted, this *was* a knee-jerk post. But truthfully - I don't think the idea behind it is all that completely incredible. Standing up and saying "no", using the tools we have in hand, is a legitimate political tool, as long as it's done with a goal in mind. It's worked in a number of situations, including "grey day" (as someone pointed out in another post), "A day without art", and many years of sit-down strikes.
And I would "make the law work for me" - but for the most part, laws aren't doing so, nor were they intended to do so. My frustration with the law stems not from a lack a willingness to work within the framework of the law, but a knowledge that the law, the government, and businesses don't want me to work within the law, and make it difficult if not impossible for common people to do so.
Y
ou speak of "childishly threatning to take your ball and go home". These laws allude to the government's unwillingness to allow things not under it's domain to exist. They've given corporations power beyond any reason, in my opinion.
The government and corporations want me & everyone else to accept the laws as written and sit down quietly. I choose to stand up and say "no" - no to sitting down, no to being quiet, and no, to use the metaphor, to play their game, with their ball, their rules, their ref.
So, if I turn off my servers and go home, I don't think it's a childish act; I do it with the full knowledge that the system will go on, that the situation will still exist, and that the problems won't go away. But, it also won't have me - a minor loss at best, but one which, if compounded hundred-fold or thousand-fold, could be problematic. Worse, IMHO, would be helping the situation expand, and worse still would be spending my time trying to fix a situation which was flawed from the beginning and wants me to change not the problems but the surface. I can't make a moose from something that looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, no matter how many antlers I have.
Finally, I never said, "turn off your servers and never come back". I said, "turn off your servers for a day". My poor reasoning at the time was, turn them off and that'll show them how powerful we are. Which is, of course, ludricous. What I want them to see now is, how many people feel strongly about this. I agree with Randy Rathburn and RomulusNR said - leaving a blank page up explaining what would happen is a great idea. I do think it's overdone, though, and too likely to be ignored. I don't have a good answer - but I do know that this suggestion is not without merits.
So, there you go. No "poor me" - and I apologize for the earlier tone even seeming like that. I don't think I'm unknowlegable about this - although I don't have a lawsuit or a state government who's building one of these. And I definitely don't think that a misspelling could have communicated all of this to you. If it did, you're quite the fellow. But I think it's a little much to read ignorance into the statement from one misspelling. From the rest of the statement itself, yeah, I could see you assuming that. The misspelling alone, nope.
I can see your point - but corporations are abusing their power, and have they seen any negative side to it? Ever?
The only other thing I can think to do is to put together a million geek march, and the first one wasn't exactly a sucess. Never came to pass at all (through no fault of the organizers!)
but I'm really sick of UTICA, I'm sick of being under fire from people who know little or nothing about what we do, and I'm very tired of having to justify my protests about giving up my rights. Personally - I think we should all just turn off our servers for a day and let the rest of the world see what happens.
Most SVGA monitors will work - I can say this from experience. There's nice sync adapters sold from most of the Mac catalogues and such which will allow you to sync your monitor, no matter what the card/model; but the new G3s and G4s are excellent at detecting & working with PC monitors, so you shouldn't have to even use those.
you can use IDEs, definitely - but if you're using graphics, get a SCSI. Photoshop uses the drive for "swap space", so the extra speed using a good SCSI card will be worth it. BUY RAM - Macs can speed up processes using more RAM, while PCs may or may not use it. Illustrator topped out on any RAM benefits at over 25-30, so don't add more for that; Painter I haven't tested.
I'll bet your GF will want a different/not hockey-puck-shaped mouse, so be prepared for that. Frankly, I hate that little piece of crap.
ATAPI is the model for the new G4's DVD, to note.
Also - just to ask - has anyone seen if OS X will actually work with G3s? I didn't think so, but I've been working on other stuff and not paying attention.
A couple of words of caution about this sort of thing: 1) don't use a KVM switch on your Mac and PC unless you're careful about using a KVM which can support Macs - otherwise the monitor can take severe damage doing this. It's something to do with, I believe, Apple's power saving options. 2) a lot more stuff is Mac compatable than most people think - and because it's a PC-dominated world, sometimes you have to explain to people that, for example, a modem isn't really PC or Mac specific, but the cable is (or was - USB's solved a lot of that).