Yes, refraining from actively acknowledging is a strong form of protest but that isn't the message that its being interpreted as. It get interpreted as acquiescence (sp?). There is a difference between non-participation and "going with the flow." By not voting, you are going with the flow of those that do vote. Now, writing in "None of the above" is a little different.
If you have two large populations of people. One is sitting at home ignoring the election because they don't agree with the choices while the other actively goes out and votes for "None of the above."
Which group has a better chance of getting their point of unsatisfaction across? One group can be claimed to not vote because they apparently didn't care. Who knows? They didn't say a damn thing, one way or the other.
This isn't the same as taking a vow of silence when you are encountering a cop. The voting booths do not actively go out and inquire from you the vote. You have the option to go there and participate on your own. A cop will actively seek you out (if they feel they have appropriate reason, ideally). Being silent to his/her inquiries is an active answer. You are actively choosing to not say anything. Just not voting is passive. There is a difference.
I will admit that not voting does send a message in some cases. One example is when a proposal need to pass on two things: majority *and* voter turnout. This means that even before the election takes place, supporters know how many votes are needed to win. All no shows count as "No" votes.
Presidential elections aren't like this. Not voting in a presidential election is like watching groups of people murder each other and claiming that you are voicing your disgust with what is going on by not saying anything. Do you want to condemn one side in lieu of the other? Of course not...they're both just as dirty. How would you try to get your opinion across to people about this? Being silent? They don't care about your silence or your passiveness. Unless of course, they knew one of the groups in the fighting happened to have a truly "just" cause(as opposed to their "good" reasons to kill-n-maim...then they wouldn't want you to voice an opinion for fear you'd choose wisely.
Ok...I'm going off on tangents now so I'll end it.
Point is: If you want to voice your disgust with the choices, do it in a manner that gets the point that you are disgusted across.
-Vel
P.S. Sorry for any typos...I'm skipping the preview.:)
---- Voting for the "lesser of two evils" still constitutes my endorsement of someone I don't trust or believe in. ---- True, and a decent philosophy.
Now, who the hell said there were only *2* people running? Take a look around. Inform yourself, pick a best match to yourself if you feel comfortable doing that. I did an on-line survey and based on various platforms, I came up with Ralph Nader. Only a 68% compatibility and he was my best choice based on that survey. The scary part was one of my friends had a 96 or 98% matchup with Gary Bauer. (No disrespect to my friend but just imagining loss of freedom we'd all have to give up under his administration is frightening.)
If you don't vote (for whatever reason/protest) you still get classified as one of the "they don't seem to care" crowd.
If you want to protest, take a little time to get your point across. Even writing in "Mr. None-Of-The-Above" sends the message (albeit very small, like any individual vote) that you are unsatisfied with the choices.
If you don't explain why you are doing something, you are giving room for someone else to come up with a reason, whether they have permission or not. I'd make some Katzian allusions to help along this argument but I'm not very flame retardant at the moment. >;)
The only real common times I had crashing Macs was when the "brand new" 1st generation PPCs came out (6100/7100s I think).
I think it was that they didn't have all the bug ironed out of their emulator for 68k programs. (The natives ran fine.)
Every once in a while, I'll get the bomb on the iMac. Usually its because I'm playing with beta software tho...
(Sorry about OT) I've managed to click my way through a Win98 upgrade only to have it freeze on bootup. Apparently, when it went through to find/install the drivers for my hardware, it reinstalled all the drivers so I had multiples of all my drivers on my system. Fixed that and no serious hang ups yet.
Nothing has frozen my Linux box yet and RH6.0 installed nicely with a win partition....even with a kernel recompile.
As far as I know, there are only two "closed" reservations in the US. One happens to be the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in Northern Minnesota.
Since you are in Illinois (and considering that is a Native American word, I believe), try refining your web search to the Great Lakes region. Usually, reservations are marked on state maps with a nice little orange-brown border.
But here are some sites (this first is in Illinois):
Hmmm, I dunno. Many people expect Martians to be really smart...perhaps they're just rednecks (pardon the pun) using them for skeet shooting practice. Kind of like using the heads on Easter Island for bowling in Mars Attacks....
:)
-Vel
Re:"Let him without sin..." = Conspiracy of Silenc
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China Banning Win2k
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I think Wah's intent on that "foolish" comment was that we shouldn't be so quick to condemn others from a higher moral ground when our hands are just as dirty. If we're to condemn someone for doing something we have also done, we should not ignore nor hide that fact. (Personal opinion here) Should we just keep silent? No. But we should not keep silent about our own misdeeds either. We should make it publicly known and we should make genuinely sincere reparations in accordance to (what is left of) the peoples we have wronged. But we do. Time and again, our elected leaders often stand upon the claims of higher moral authority to push their international agenda and quietly sweep the past under the rug. Sure, there is some admittance to it but nothing real. The US government still refuses to recognize the treaties they have signed. No one has to take my word for it. I admit I'm a little biased because some of my ancestors were at Wounded Knee. I encourage people stop by one of their local reservations for a tribal meeting and spend the evening learning something from one of the nearly vanquished cultures in this country.
Operation Desert Storm. We were fighting for the freedom of the Kuwaiti people...oh wait, Kuwait is a strict monarchy with all the oil wells in the ownership of said monarchy (who likes to seel that oil to us). According to some news reports (yeah, I know...media...take it for what its worth), the "generic" Kuwaitis had more freedom under the Iraqi(sp?) occupation than under their own monarchy.
But Saddam is evil...he gas bombs the dissidents in his country and we call it genocide. (which, imo it is) The US just fire bombs its dissidents.
Of course the US would never carry out a mission of genocide against any group of people within its claimed borders. See Native Am.
Hey, if a guy looks like Mr. Universe, he doesn't have to know any slick lines to make chicks swoon. (But if he doesn't he should have the sense to keep his mouth shut lest he frighten them off.)
Of course, I doubt anyone could code a clean duplicate of Netscape version >1.1 from scratch within a 24 hour period. Bodybuilder or not.
>;)
Personally, I don't want a "relationship" with a chick that lets the hunk-factor dominate her decisions in where she's going to sleep that night.
A meaningful relationship with someone that that shares my common interests, even if she can code my pants off (pardon the pun...ok, don't;), is what I look for. I also want it to be with someone that is mutually attractive.
Of course, my failure on this quest falls primarily on my shoulders. I am incredibly shy around people. ESPECIALLY women I find physically attractive...this little quirk in my personality has and is my demise in this area.
Can I communicate? I like to think I can. I talk to Nz and Greyhaunt quite often and I've talked a little bit with Corrinne as well. What can I say? We share an interest in physics/mathematics/CS *and* Omaha steaks...oops, there I go again saying something dumb...*sigh* oh well... Catch is: its all been via e-mail. There is a level of comfort there, a mask that I can hide behind. Why do I find such an "unhealthy" comfort in that mask? I don't know. Perhaps its all the negative reinforcement while in grades K-12 of me being ugly, unattractive, not accepted. Perhaps growing up having been given the nicknames "Pee" and "P-land" by your peers didn't help. Could be partly genetic too. My mother is a fairly quiet person. Great speaker, but quiet. For some reason, my mother's claims that I was a beautiful person didn't seem to hold water compared to the old addage, "A face only a mother could love," and opinions of my peers. I can list my teacher's names from K-6th grade with ease. Why? They were the best friends I had each year.
Am I a geek? I don't know. I started programming on an Apple][ when I was 12. I graduated from college with degrees in Physics, Math, and Computer Science(emp. in Comp. Graphics) by the time I was 22 simply because I felt I had nothing better to do than to learn. College introduced me to role-playing, Star Trek, and TBS Bond Marathons. (Dad wouldn't allow tv at home.) The most important thing I got was a relatively close network of good friends. I even had a relationship with a girl! 4.5 years later I found myself disillusioned from my friends, my family and myself. We're still friends but we really didn't like each other for the right reasons. (She was the first real woman to seem to take an interest with me. No one's perfect, especially not me.)
Am I a jock? Hmm, nothing outstanding, IMO. I'm a little like Al Bundy in that respect. My athletic highlight was running a 5:00 mile when I was 13. By the time I turned 14 I gained about 2 inches and 20 pounds. That 20 turned into 40 by graduation and I put an additional 70 on top of that since. My chances of being exceptional at it are dead. I do it for fun/exercise now. Between the weight and the asthma I developed, it feels as if my lungs are getting ripped out if I push a pace any faster than 7 minutes...I push it sometimes but less and less as time passes.
Do I fit within the stereotypes of geekdom? Yes and no. I'm a relatively nonobvious person. I've found that I don't really stand out from any crowd but I don't fit in with any of them either. You could pass me on the street and not give me a second thought. I guess that's my hidden talent. I'm adept at blending in and going unnoticed. Or at least, that's how it seems.
Well, coming from one of the non-existant, I will sincerely request that you prove beyond any doubt that homo sapiens was singularily "created" in the Middle East. When actual events such as (this could all be a lie) Marco Polo's trip to China and back (I'm pretty sure he didn't take a plane.) and Thor Heyerdal's (sp?) trip to prove that it was possible to sail a balsa raft from Ecuador to the Polynesian islands have taken place, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to see the possibility of a group of people travelling large distances over x number of generations.
I would guess that since you haven't claimed that humans first existed in Africa (most likely locale, based on real science) you are probably referring to some speculation based upon some claims in the "Book of Stories"...I mean the Bible. I'm sorry but I am NOT satisfied. You have the burden of proof and you cannot use the speculative claims from that book to prove your case.
Fact cannot be built upon heresay. But stories and myth can...and they are.
Ok...so I've been a little slow on the response but I do have a few comments. (and no, I am not the AC that was asking you for a date...I'm not that brave >;)
As for the comment about goto usage, I remember one of my old professor's feelings on that matter. It usually involved him painstakingly write the goto statement on the board (and he did a very good job of making it look like it was causing him great pain) followed by a very quick erasure.
Like most everything, there is a good way and a bad way to use gotos/jumps/whatever. The idea is to write "good" and readable (as possible) code so that anyone that has to make mods/fixes to your code (which could be you at a later date) or anyone that has to perform a code review can do so without a lengthy time deciphering. [Job] Security through Obscurity just doesn't work. Well, sometimes it does. >;)
As far as development plans (I hope I'm talking about the right thing here...) in what works and what doesn't in various situations I can say from experience that I have been in a few different dev environments one namely being with Trilobyte's end days as a game development house. (how I miss those days...:(
One of the most important aspects of a development house that deals with cutting edge technology in a highly creative environment is the mental state of the programmers/artists (since in thise case, programming really is an artform as well). Sometimes the smallest things can have very serious change. Of these, the most noted that I recall is the effect of the publisher's behavior and actions. The game development I was part of wasn't "Here's the book, could you publish this?" It was more like, "Here's the gist of the story and a rough outline, can you pay us to write it for you?" The bad thing about this is that this puts the publisher in more control of what goes in the story. Instead of seeing a finished product, they interpret a finished product from the framework that can be quite different than the acutal authors. They can (and do) itemize the expense based upon features and this sets up a milestone type of development environment. Things like improper milestones can cause the dev team to insert "fluff" just to get that next paycheck, only to lose valuable time creating the "fluff" and removing it again just because the dev process doesn't match the milestones. Things like this can cause a chain reaction of stress and "catch-up" that can destroy a project and or the dev team.
Milestones can be a good thing though when a strict set of rules are already in place for the flow of the process. Personally, this is a financial view of the waterfall process where you assume that at each checkpoint, everything done beforehand is finalized and unchangeable. Any slight change in the specs (which the publisher want to reserve the right to!) can throw this process out of whack and force the development to backtrack, quite possibly to the very beginning! Funny thing is, no changes to the budget needs are made to reflect this. (or if they are, I haven't seen any.) If there is a good path/specs and the assumption that everything finished at each point is final and unchangeable, this is a viable process.
Personally, I like a more object-oriented or iterative path for this type of development with such a high level of creativity.
This process generally starts out with something small or simple, like the formation of the idea. Some of the artwork will be placeholder material and the the coding is not too complex. The basic building blocks of the project are designed and formed here. This is followed by a testing/evaluation phase which verifies that things are good (and which aren't) at this point. the next step is to look at the project and decide what things need revising and what features could be added. The project's features/fixes are divvied handled by the team in the next session. Now, some of the building blocks are more stable, more defined. Some new blocks have been added to the equation (but not too many!) and perhaps some of the art is a little more definitive to give a better impression of the path of the project's development. This is followed by the testing/evaluation and the process is repeated. This is a very good model (IMO) that allows changes to specs at any point in the process so that parts can be revised, removed, etc without serious (hopefully) damage to the project as a whole. It's kind of like Newton's Method for finding roots, etc. It can get closer and closer to the goal, provided some unexpected factors don't kick in and really shake the system, such as major staff changes.
Well, feel free to correct/disagree with anything I have said...flames aren't appreciated and generally ignored since I don't take too kindly to opinions about my personal life...I don't have much use for flame wars.
I'd write more but I'm not into writing novels yet. >;)
One would hope that the physicist or more likely, the group of physicists, the reveal this would make it open source.
Sure, he made claims to this and that and oh, by the way, he also figured out the GUT...and had it patented. (ok, maybe he hasn't patented it yet) I feel the reason there are so many skeptics (and rightly so) is that he is vague and hasn't subjected any of his findings to peer review....unless marketing personnel can be considered his peers. >;)
So what happens if he is everything he claims to be? He owns the exclusive rights to the evergy harnessed (as he claims)?
I know that my quantum is rusty and I can assure you that no matter how much your math may suck...yeah well, you know Einstein's comment >;) I leave the quantum theory to the TTB's these days anyway.
I would just think that these mutated hydrogen orbits would exist in nature, somehow. Notice no claims on the stability duration or natural occurrence.
Unfortunately, this professor is not one that could be considered open-source. He is more into p(hysics)-commerce than the more ideological pursuit of peer recognition and the betterment of physics. Notice how he's already going for the patents? The skepticism from other professors it primarily because he won't release his research for peer review (debugging). I think its a natural response to distrust claims made by closed-source groups by an open-source community. Especially when the "really cool product will soon come out!" Sound like marketing groups you know?
I'm not saying that this guy's claims are wrong or that he shouldn't be having his personal marketing team labelling all these alleged particles with catchy names. The fact is, physics is the best approximation to how the universe works, big and small. Its not exact. If this guys claims are correct, then we these particles should be ovservable in nature. Sure, the percentage may be 0.00001% but they should occur naturally. Are these particles stable? If they were, we should see a larger percentage of them...relatively common, even. The key words here are predictable and observable. (see Heisenberg) He passes out no real information about how to go about either of these.
So yeah, I will remain a skeptic until he open-sources some information to make his claims credible. Until then, his "theory" will remain a hypothesis(he is educated) until it can be released to peer review for the scientific method. If it passes that, then it can be labelled a theory.
As far as people throwing money at this guy...all investments are a gamble. This one may have a good pay-off but don't feel too left out that he is no longer accepting any private investments. The odds are heavily stacked against anyone brave (or foolish) enough to throw money at this. Either way, he gets what he wants....money. Win-win situation for him. Being called a charlatan doesn't mean a whole lot anymore...especially if you have a good marketing team. Sad, really.
Besides, when he does IPO, the value of the stock will probably go like gangbusters even if he can't turn a profit. Remember how many "skeptics" said not to throw your money at all these web start-ups? I do.
-Vel
P.S. I really do wish I had some concrete evidence to back/discredit my claims but that's the beauty of it. He didn't provide any. Hype will make this guy rich, not fact.
Yeah, probably VHS, like was mentioned in a previous post but I've heard/read from numerous sources that we won't be seeing *any* of the Star Wars films on DVD until the whole collection (Eps: 1-6) are complete.
Now, that is assuming someone doesn't decide to swipe a roll of film and burn a few copies to DVD.
Ok...my bad. I got a few dates screwed up but here is an informed statement from an old prof:
"Nice to hear from you! Most of the biblical scholarship dates Mark as the earliest Gospel at about the year 70 in the Common Era (40 years after the death of Jesus). Matthew and Luke date to about 85 CE, and John dates about 90-100 CE, according to most scholars (though like everything else, all of this is debated). Most do not believe that original apostles authored the Gospels (several were killed prior to this, including Peter and James, as well as Paul -- who was not an apostle). Paul's letters were earlier than the Gospels, and most believe that most were written by him.
Hope that is helpful. I'd look at Marcus Borg's "Jesus at 2000" book if you want to examine the arguments and evidence more carefully.
Best, Dan Spencer"
*shrug* I guess its really no mare than a 2000 year old X-file.:)
-Vel
Re:What a load of psuedo intellectual BS
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Wow...its good to see that this isn't being taken too personally.
All this discussion about the middle class and the control/usage of power is pretty impressive.
Could someone tell me some of the demographics for people that actually vote in elections are?
How does the number of 18-25 (psuedo-intellectual highschool/college aged middle class) compare to other age groups?
What percentage of the "elites" go out and vote as compared to the percentage of this "highschool/college aged middle class?"
Ok, I'm probably going off on a tangent here but I'm going to talk about Mr. Ventura's run for MN governor. (No plug intended.) Fact is that he was not supposed to win. He was hyped in the media as a "professional wrestler," indicating in the context that being a member of that profession at one time utterly destroys one's credibility. His target crowd: "highschool/college aged middle class" He urged them to get out and vote for a change. He also urged another (somewhat overlapping) group to vote for him: those people in MN that were tired of either voting Dem or Rep only to really see it didn't seem to make a difference because both parties both pumped out career politians(sp?) out of the same cookie cutter but with different colored sprinkles.
When he did win, news media had a hey day with this clown who wasn't supposed to win. They interviewed a lot of different "analysts" asking what they thought on why Jesse won. The resounding answer I heard: "Well, uh...he's a professional wrestler! It's pretty obvious that the majority of people in Minnesota are idiots."
Or pseudo-intellectual, I guess.
After the election I did get a chance to look at the demographics of the voters based on age, income, race, etc.
A few things struck me as odd (as far as examining voting records)...Jesse captured a majority lot of the votes from highschool/college aged middle class. Perhaps it was due to his wrestling career, who knows? What he didn't capture a lot of was the affluent vote. Sure, he did get some but he didn't even come close to 1/3. He also captured a decent percentage of the older middle class voters (who also turned out in record numbers).
The thing is: Jesse didn't win by a landslide. He won by just enough. I think he got somewhere between 38-39% of the vote and the other two basically split what was left. If it wasn't for the people that normally ignore voting actually getting out to vote, he would have been merely a comic side note to the MN 1998 election.
Instead, he's the comic headline.... >;)
There is admittedly too many people that do a form of passive investigation on who to vote for. They let others do the investigating for them...others such as the media. They inherently trust what the media says to be fact. That is why mudslinging is such an effective tactic.
-Vel
P.S. For any political analysts out there that read/. (yeah, riiiight) Ventura wasn't voted in because MN wants an idiot for governor. He was voted in because we'd rather take a gamble on the unknown instead of picking one of the idiot alternatives. At least there was the chance that he'd be 'our' idiot...for the people, by the people and all that....
Actually, its been quite the opposite for me...the Line-ucks sounds better, IMO...but the counter reinforcement produces Lin-ucks... almost the the point where I refer to UNIX as Un-icks. But yeah, I guess it is one of those you say Po-tay-to, I say Po-tah-to but we both agree not to use Windows...or is that Windoze?
Slashdot Mirror
*evil grin*
I'll even shed my elusiveness(for a little bit) and show up for this one.
I'm not exactly a TTB but I am adept in the fields of contest and I am willing to offer my services as referee/official.
>;)
-Veldrane
Yes, refraining from actively acknowledging is a strong form of protest but that isn't the message that its being interpreted as. It get interpreted as acquiescence (sp?).
:)
There is a difference between non-participation and "going with the flow." By not voting, you are going with the flow of those that do vote. Now, writing in "None of the above" is a little different.
If you have two large populations of people.
One is sitting at home ignoring the election because they don't agree with the choices while the other actively goes out and votes for "None of the above."
Which group has a better chance of getting their point of unsatisfaction across? One group can be claimed to not vote because they apparently didn't care. Who knows? They didn't say a damn thing, one way or the other.
This isn't the same as taking a vow of silence when you are encountering a cop. The voting booths do not actively go out and inquire from you the vote. You have the option to go there and participate on your own. A cop will actively seek you out (if they feel they have appropriate reason, ideally). Being silent to his/her inquiries is an active answer. You are actively choosing to not say anything.
Just not voting is passive. There is a difference.
I will admit that not voting does send a message in some cases. One example is when a proposal need to pass on two things: majority *and* voter turnout. This means that even before the election takes place, supporters know how many votes are needed to win. All no shows count as "No" votes.
Presidential elections aren't like this.
Not voting in a presidential election is like watching groups of people murder each other and claiming that you are voicing your disgust with what is going on by not saying anything. Do you want to condemn one side in lieu of the other? Of course not...they're both just as dirty.
How would you try to get your opinion across to people about this? Being silent? They don't care about your silence or your passiveness. Unless of course, they knew one of the groups in the fighting happened to have a truly "just" cause(as opposed to their "good" reasons to kill-n-maim...then they wouldn't want you to voice an opinion for fear you'd choose wisely.
Ok...I'm going off on tangents now so I'll end it.
Point is: If you want to voice your disgust with the choices, do it in a manner that gets the point that you are disgusted across.
-Vel
P.S. Sorry for any typos...I'm skipping the preview.
----
Voting for the "lesser of two evils" still constitutes my endorsement of someone I don't trust or believe in.
----
True, and a decent philosophy.
Now, who the hell said there were only *2* people running? Take a look around. Inform yourself, pick a best match to yourself if you feel comfortable doing that.
I did an on-line survey and based on various platforms, I came up with Ralph Nader. Only a 68% compatibility and he was my best choice based on that survey. The scary part was one of my friends had a 96 or 98% matchup with Gary Bauer.
(No disrespect to my friend but just imagining loss of freedom we'd all have to give up under his administration is frightening.)
If you don't vote (for whatever reason/protest) you still get classified as one of the "they don't seem to care" crowd.
If you want to protest, take a little time to get your point across. Even writing in "Mr. None-Of-The-Above" sends the message (albeit very small, like any individual vote) that you are unsatisfied with the choices.
If you don't explain why you are doing something, you are giving room for someone else to come up with a reason, whether they have permission or not. I'd make some Katzian allusions to help along this argument but I'm not very flame retardant at the moment. >;)
-Vel
It also runs on herring.
>;)
The only real common times I had crashing Macs was when the "brand new" 1st generation PPCs came out (6100/7100s I think).
I think it was that they didn't have all the bug ironed out of their emulator for 68k programs.
(The natives ran fine.)
Every once in a while, I'll get the bomb on the iMac. Usually its because I'm playing with beta software tho...
(Sorry about OT)
I've managed to click my way through a Win98 upgrade only to have it freeze on bootup. Apparently, when it went through to find/install the drivers for my hardware, it reinstalled all the drivers so I had multiples of all my drivers on my system. Fixed that and no serious hang ups yet.
Nothing has frozen my Linux box yet and RH6.0 installed nicely with a win partition....even with a kernel recompile.
-Vel
As far as I know, there are only two "closed" reservations in the US. One happens to be the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in Northern Minnesota.
v eAmericans/Huron.html
l
Since you are in Illinois (and considering that is a Native American word, I believe), try refining your web search to the Great Lakes region. Usually, reservations are marked on state maps with a nice little orange-brown border.
But here are some sites (this first is in Illinois):
http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Nati
This one has bias potential:
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/medals.htm
Nice one for maps to locate nearby tribes:
http://www.doi.gov/bia/mapslst.html
I'll admit though, I'm not 100% Lakota. Very few are...
-Vel
Hmmm, I dunno. Many people expect Martians to be really smart...perhaps they're just rednecks (pardon the pun) using them for skeet shooting practice. Kind of like using the heads on Easter Island for bowling in Mars Attacks....
:)
-Vel
I think Wah's intent on that "foolish" comment was that we shouldn't be so quick to condemn others from a higher moral ground when our hands are just as dirty. If we're to condemn someone for doing something we have also done, we should not ignore nor hide that fact.
(Personal opinion here)
Should we just keep silent? No.
But we should not keep silent about our own misdeeds either. We should make it publicly known and we should make genuinely sincere reparations in accordance to (what is left of) the peoples we have wronged.
But we do. Time and again, our elected leaders often stand upon the claims of higher moral authority to push their international agenda and quietly sweep the past under the rug.
Sure, there is some admittance to it but nothing real. The US government still refuses to recognize the treaties they have signed.
No one has to take my word for it. I admit I'm a little biased because some of my ancestors were at Wounded Knee. I encourage people stop by one of their local reservations for a tribal meeting and spend the evening learning something from one of the nearly vanquished cultures in this country.
-Vel
...and they're probably wishing Santa send them a set of Lego Mindstorm instead.
Operation Desert Storm. We were fighting for the freedom of the Kuwaiti people...oh wait, Kuwait is a strict monarchy with all the oil wells in the ownership of said monarchy (who likes to seel that oil to us).
According to some news reports (yeah, I know...media...take it for what its worth), the "generic" Kuwaitis had more freedom under the Iraqi(sp?) occupation than under their own monarchy.
But Saddam is evil...he gas bombs the dissidents in his country and we call it genocide. (which, imo it is)
The US just fire bombs its dissidents.
Of course the US would never carry out a mission of genocide against any group of people within its claimed borders. See Native Am.
Hey, if a guy looks like Mr. Universe, he doesn't have to know any slick lines to make chicks swoon.
;), is what I look for. I also want it to be with someone that is mutually attractive.
(But if he doesn't he should have the sense to keep his mouth shut lest he frighten them off.)
Of course, I doubt anyone could code a clean duplicate of Netscape version >1.1 from scratch within a 24 hour period. Bodybuilder or not.
>;)
Personally, I don't want a "relationship" with a chick that lets the hunk-factor dominate her decisions in where she's going to sleep that night.
A meaningful relationship with someone that that shares my common interests, even if she can code my pants off (pardon the pun...ok, don't
Of course, my failure on this quest falls primarily on my shoulders. I am incredibly shy around people. ESPECIALLY women I find physically attractive...this little quirk in my personality has and is my demise in this area.
Can I communicate? I like to think I can. I talk to Nz and Greyhaunt quite often and I've talked a little bit with Corrinne as well. What can I say? We share an interest in physics/mathematics/CS *and* Omaha steaks...oops, there I go again saying something dumb...*sigh* oh well...
Catch is: its all been via e-mail. There is a level of comfort there, a mask that I can hide behind.
Why do I find such an "unhealthy" comfort in that mask? I don't know. Perhaps its all the negative reinforcement while in grades K-12 of me being ugly, unattractive, not accepted. Perhaps growing up having been given the nicknames "Pee" and "P-land" by your peers didn't help. Could be partly genetic too. My mother is a fairly quiet person. Great speaker, but quiet. For some reason, my mother's claims that I was a beautiful person didn't seem to hold water compared to the old addage, "A face only a mother could love," and opinions of my peers. I can list my teacher's names from K-6th grade with ease. Why? They were the best friends I had each year.
Am I a geek? I don't know. I started programming on an Apple][ when I was 12. I graduated from college with degrees in Physics, Math, and Computer Science(emp. in Comp. Graphics) by the time I was 22 simply because I felt I had nothing better to do than to learn. College introduced me to role-playing, Star Trek, and TBS Bond Marathons. (Dad wouldn't allow tv at home.) The most important thing I got was a relatively close network of good friends. I even had a relationship with a girl! 4.5 years later I found myself disillusioned from my friends, my family and myself. We're still friends but we really didn't like each other for the right reasons. (She was the first real woman to seem to take an interest with me. No one's perfect, especially not me.)
Am I a jock? Hmm, nothing outstanding, IMO. I'm a little like Al Bundy in that respect. My athletic highlight was running a 5:00 mile when I was 13. By the time I turned 14 I gained about 2 inches and 20 pounds. That 20 turned into 40 by graduation and I put an additional 70 on top of that since. My chances of being exceptional at it are dead. I do it for fun/exercise now. Between the weight and the asthma I developed, it feels as if my lungs are getting ripped out if I push a pace any faster than 7 minutes...I push it sometimes but less and less as time passes.
Do I fit within the stereotypes of geekdom? Yes and no. I'm a relatively nonobvious person. I've found that I don't really stand out from any crowd but I don't fit in with any of them either. You could pass me on the street and not give me a second thought. I guess that's my hidden talent. I'm adept at blending in and going unnoticed. Or at least, that's how it seems.
>;)
-Vel
How about a release of the tech. specs so we can write our own driver and make it GPL?
-Vel
Do you even know what "Natural Law" is?
Perhaps your "Natural Law" is spewed out of some propaganda pamphlets.
Your biggest enemy is "Natural selection."
>;)
Well, coming from one of the non-existant, I will sincerely request that you prove beyond any doubt that homo sapiens was singularily "created" in the Middle East.
When actual events such as (this could all be a lie) Marco Polo's trip to China and back (I'm pretty sure he didn't take a plane.) and Thor Heyerdal's (sp?) trip to prove that it was possible to sail a balsa raft from Ecuador to the Polynesian islands have taken place, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to see the possibility of a group of people travelling large distances over x number of generations.
I would guess that since you haven't claimed that humans first existed in Africa (most likely locale, based on real science) you are probably referring to some speculation based upon some claims in the "Book of Stories"...I mean the Bible.
I'm sorry but I am NOT satisfied. You have the burden of proof and you cannot use the speculative claims from that book to prove your case.
Fact cannot be built upon heresay. But stories and myth can...and they are.
-Vel
It was Dilbert's creator. (Scott Adams?)
Or at least he was the one I heard quote it.
-Vel
I say po-tay-to, you say po-ta-to.
I wonder if Dan Quayle was referring to female tubers?
-Vel
Even though no security is 100% it couldn't hurt to have the box surrounded by tanks like that Apple in that Macintosh commercial.
>;)
-Vel
Ok...so I've been a little slow on the response but I do have a few comments.
:(
(and no, I am not the AC that was asking you for a date...I'm not that brave >;)
As for the comment about goto usage, I remember one of my old professor's feelings on that matter. It usually involved him painstakingly write the goto statement on the board (and he did a very good job of making it look like it was causing him great pain) followed by a very quick erasure.
Like most everything, there is a good way and a bad way to use gotos/jumps/whatever. The idea is to write "good" and readable (as possible) code so that anyone that has to make mods/fixes to your code (which could be you at a later date) or anyone that has to perform a code review can do so without a lengthy time deciphering. [Job] Security through Obscurity just doesn't work. Well, sometimes it does. >;)
As far as development plans (I hope I'm talking about the right thing here...) in what works and what doesn't in various situations I can say from experience that I have been in a few different dev environments one namely being with Trilobyte's end days as a game development house.
(how I miss those days...
One of the most important aspects of a development house that deals with cutting edge technology in a highly creative environment is the mental state of the programmers/artists (since in thise case, programming really is an artform as well). Sometimes the smallest things can have very serious change. Of these, the most noted that I recall is the effect of the publisher's behavior and actions. The game development I was part of wasn't "Here's the book, could you publish this?" It was more like, "Here's the gist of the story and a rough outline, can you pay us to write it for you?"
The bad thing about this is that this puts the publisher in more control of what goes in the story. Instead of seeing a finished product, they interpret a finished product from the framework that can be quite different than the acutal authors. They can (and do) itemize the expense based upon features and this sets up a milestone type of development environment. Things like improper milestones can cause the dev team to insert "fluff" just to get that next paycheck, only to lose valuable time creating the "fluff" and removing it again just because the dev process doesn't match the milestones. Things like this can cause a chain reaction of stress and "catch-up" that can destroy a project and or the dev team.
Milestones can be a good thing though when a strict set of rules are already in place for the flow of the process. Personally, this is a financial view of the waterfall process where you assume that at each checkpoint, everything done beforehand is finalized and unchangeable. Any slight change in the specs (which the publisher want to reserve the right to!) can throw this process out of whack and force the development to backtrack, quite possibly to the very beginning! Funny thing is, no changes to the budget needs are made to reflect this. (or if they are, I haven't seen any.)
If there is a good path/specs and the assumption that everything finished at each point is final and unchangeable, this is a viable process.
Personally, I like a more object-oriented or iterative path for this type of development with such a high level of creativity.
This process generally starts out with something small or simple, like the formation of the idea. Some of the artwork will be placeholder material and the the coding is not too complex. The basic building blocks of the project are designed and formed here. This is followed by a testing/evaluation phase which verifies that things are good (and which aren't) at this point.
the next step is to look at the project and decide what things need revising and what features could be added. The project's features/fixes are divvied handled by the team in the next session. Now, some of the building blocks are more stable, more defined. Some new blocks have been added to the equation (but not too many!) and perhaps some of the art is a little more definitive to give a better impression of the path of the project's development. This is followed by the testing/evaluation and the process is repeated.
This is a very good model (IMO) that allows changes to specs at any point in the process so that parts can be revised, removed, etc without serious (hopefully) damage to the project as a whole. It's kind of like Newton's Method for finding roots, etc. It can get closer and closer to the goal, provided some unexpected factors don't kick in and really shake the system, such as major staff changes.
Well, feel free to correct/disagree with anything I have said...flames aren't appreciated and generally ignored since I don't take too kindly to opinions about my personal life...I don't have much use for flame wars.
I'd write more but I'm not into writing novels yet. >;)
-Vel
Hehe...closed source physics, you gotta love it!
One would hope that the physicist or more likely, the group of physicists, the reveal this would make it open source.
Sure, he made claims to this and that and oh, by the way, he also figured out the GUT...and had it patented. (ok, maybe he hasn't patented it yet) I feel the reason there are so many skeptics (and rightly so) is that he is vague and hasn't subjected any of his findings to peer review....unless marketing personnel can be considered his peers. >;)
So what happens if he is everything he claims to be? He owns the exclusive rights to the evergy harnessed (as he claims)?
I know that my quantum is rusty and I can assure you that no matter how much your math may suck...yeah well, you know Einstein's comment >;)
I leave the quantum theory to the TTB's these days anyway.
I would just think that these mutated hydrogen orbits would exist in nature, somehow. Notice no claims on the stability duration or natural occurrence.
Oh well, back to coding!
-Vel
Unfortunately, this professor is not one that
could be considered open-source. He is more into
p(hysics)-commerce than the more ideological pursuit of peer recognition and the betterment of physics.
Notice how he's already going for the patents? The skepticism from other professors it primarily because he won't release his research for peer review (debugging).
I think its a natural response to distrust claims made by closed-source groups by an open-source community. Especially when the "really cool product will soon come out!" Sound like marketing groups you know?
I'm not saying that this guy's claims are wrong or that he shouldn't be having his personal marketing team labelling all these alleged particles with catchy names. The fact is, physics is the best approximation to how the universe works, big and small. Its not exact. If this guys claims are correct, then we these particles should be ovservable in nature. Sure, the percentage may be 0.00001% but they should occur naturally.
Are these particles stable? If they were, we should see a larger percentage of them...relatively common, even.
The key words here are predictable and observable. (see Heisenberg)
He passes out no real information about how to go about either of these.
So yeah, I will remain a skeptic until he open-sources some information to make his claims credible. Until then, his "theory" will remain a hypothesis(he is educated) until it can be released to peer review for the scientific method. If it passes that, then it can be labelled a theory.
As far as people throwing money at this guy...all investments are a gamble. This one may have a good pay-off but don't feel too left out that he is no longer accepting any private investments. The odds are heavily stacked against anyone brave (or foolish) enough to throw money at this. Either way, he gets what he wants....money. Win-win situation for him. Being called a charlatan doesn't mean a whole lot anymore...especially if you have a good marketing team. Sad, really.
Besides, when he does IPO, the value of the stock will probably go like gangbusters even if he can't turn a profit. Remember how many "skeptics" said not to throw your money at all these web start-ups? I do.
-Vel
P.S. I really do wish I had some concrete evidence to back/discredit my claims but that's the beauty of it. He didn't provide any. Hype will make this guy rich, not fact.
Yeah, probably VHS, like was mentioned in a previous post but I've heard/read from numerous sources that we won't be seeing *any* of the Star Wars films on DVD until the whole collection (Eps: 1-6) are complete.
Now, that is assuming someone doesn't decide to swipe a roll of film and burn a few copies to DVD.
Marketing, ya gotta love it!
-Vel
Ok...my bad. I got a few dates screwed up but here is an informed statement from an old prof:
:)
"Nice to hear from you! Most of the biblical scholarship dates Mark as the earliest Gospel at about the year 70 in the Common Era (40 years after the death of Jesus). Matthew and Luke date to about 85 CE, and John dates about 90-100 CE, according to most scholars (though like everything else, all of this is debated). Most do not believe that original apostles authored the Gospels (several were killed prior to this, including Peter and James, as well as Paul -- who was not an apostle). Paul's letters were earlier than the Gospels, and most believe that most were written by him.
Hope that is helpful. I'd look at Marcus Borg's "Jesus at 2000" book if you want to examine the arguments and evidence more carefully.
Best, Dan Spencer"
*shrug* I guess its really no mare than a 2000 year old X-file.
-Vel
Wow...its good to see that this isn't being taken too personally.
/. (yeah, riiiight) Ventura wasn't voted in because MN wants an idiot for governor. He was voted in because we'd rather take a gamble on the unknown instead of picking one of the idiot alternatives. At least there was the chance that he'd be 'our' idiot...for the people, by the people and all that....
All this discussion about the middle class and the control/usage of power is pretty impressive.
Could someone tell me some of the demographics for people that actually vote in elections are?
How does the number of 18-25 (psuedo-intellectual highschool/college aged middle class) compare to other age groups?
What percentage of the "elites" go out and vote as compared to the percentage of this "highschool/college aged middle class?"
Ok, I'm probably going off on a tangent here but I'm going to talk about Mr. Ventura's run for MN governor. (No plug intended.)
Fact is that he was not supposed to win. He was hyped in the media as a "professional wrestler," indicating in the context that being a member of that profession at one time utterly destroys one's credibility.
His target crowd: "highschool/college aged middle class"
He urged them to get out and vote for a change. He also urged another (somewhat overlapping) group to vote for him: those people in MN that were tired of either voting Dem or Rep only to really see it didn't seem to make a difference because both parties both pumped out career politians(sp?) out of the same cookie cutter but with different colored sprinkles.
When he did win, news media had a hey day with this clown who wasn't supposed to win. They interviewed a lot of different "analysts" asking what they thought on why Jesse won.
The resounding answer I heard: "Well, uh...he's a professional wrestler! It's pretty obvious that the majority of people in Minnesota are idiots."
Or pseudo-intellectual, I guess.
After the election I did get a chance to look at the demographics of the voters based on age, income, race, etc.
A few things struck me as odd (as far as examining voting records)...Jesse captured a majority lot of the votes from highschool/college aged middle class. Perhaps it was due to his wrestling career, who knows?
What he didn't capture a lot of was the affluent vote. Sure, he did get some but he didn't even come close to 1/3.
He also captured a decent percentage of the older middle class voters (who also turned out in record numbers).
The thing is: Jesse didn't win by a landslide. He won by just enough. I think he got somewhere between 38-39% of the vote and the other two basically split what was left.
If it wasn't for the people that normally ignore voting actually getting out to vote, he would have been merely a comic side note to the MN 1998 election.
Instead, he's the comic headline.... >;)
There is admittedly too many people that do a form of passive investigation on who to vote for. They let others do the investigating for them...others such as the media. They inherently trust what the media says to be fact. That is why mudslinging is such an effective tactic.
-Vel
P.S. For any political analysts out there that read
Cool! Perhaps we could refer to is as Linn-ooks.
and the more of a Scandinavian accent, the better...
-Vel
>;)
Actually, its been quite the opposite for me...the Line-ucks sounds better, IMO...but the counter reinforcement produces Lin-ucks...
almost the the point where I refer to UNIX as Un-icks.
But yeah, I guess it is one of those you say Po-tay-to, I say Po-tah-to but we both agree not to use Windows...or is that Windoze?
>;)