The type of person you typically find on Slashdot is probably more introverted than the norm. I am borderline autistic and I really find maintaining relationships with people to be extremely trying. I orchestrate all my human interactions to make them as BRIEF and superficial as possible. I have a super-hot girlfriend, but I only really enjoy her company for the physical aspect. If she never said a word, I'd like her better.
That said, I especially don't see any value in a virtual girl. If you can't touch her, then what's the point? To have a conversation?
Maybe the point of our existence is to learn to get along with each other. If that's the case, the only foolproof method I've learned is to avoid people altogether.
Some of us thrive on reclusion. I'd argue that because we are not dependent on the emotional support of others that we are in a way superior, not defective.
Speed of election results? That's about the only plus-side. And for that you're willing to risk the integrity of the election?
What I don't trust is anybody who still supports this B.S. after even a cursory review of the facts.
Anyone who supports Diebold machines obviously does so precisely because they can be hacked.
BTW, where is the media hubbub for Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who admitted to taking bribes for defense contracts? What national story could possibly be more important? The ability of the U.S. government to stifle the mainstream press even in the face of the Internet simply astounds me.
Want to know which news sources are "owned"? Google News the Cunningham story and see which ones ran the "Cunningham admits taking bribes" headline and which ones tried to obfuscate with the headline "Cunningham guilty of tax evasion."
...there are lots of people who speed on the roads, and yet not all of them are pulled over and given tickets.
Indeed, U.S. speeding laws are enforced unfairly. Certain genders, races, and car colors are systematically ticketed more than others. The fact is that police officers are willing to merely warn pretty young blond women in green minivans for the same violations for which they would routinely ticket a Hispanic man driving a Mustang. The punishment for speeding must be too harsh if cops are occasionally willing to forgive violators.
Traffic fines are just a hidden tax on the minority working man. Why aren't fines a percentage of income, to make the disincentive equitable?
Blizzard does not have the excuse that cops do: they can catch every violator if they make their rules clear. If the rule is so important to the integrity of the game, then they must expend the resources to enforce it fairly and thoroughly.
With today's technology, cops have lost their excuse, too. We could easily identify speeders by EasyPass records, or by tracking cell phones and OnStar by GPS. Automatic cameras can ticket violators with no human intervention. Privacy concern is not the reason why we don't use these methods: it is because everybody knows how ridiculous most posted speed limits are and nobody thinks it would be a good idea to actually punish every violator.
I also dislike the yellowish light from low-pressure sodium lamps. As I approach an intersection on a street lined with them, I cannot see the traffic signal once it turns yellow: it disappears into the mass of other yellow lights.
These yellow lights also compromise safety, as they hinder you from seeing pedestrians in your periphery at night. The bright blue headlights that everyone complains about glare from are actually great for nighttime peripheral vision. See this article by my colleagues.
Energy is obviously a big concern for lights operated by municipalities, and you can't beat the efficacy of low-pressure sodium. But remember they use this energy off-peak, when it is cheaper. With its long lamp life, an LED solution can reduce maintenance costs enough to offset incremental energy costs, saving taxpayers money.
The other argument against white light streetlights is light pollution. This is better addressed by managing the light distribution, cutting off light that needlessly aims into the sky. Also, using a 3-LED combination to produce white light yields a white that can still be filtered. A graduate student here at the Rensselaer Lighting Research Center just designed an "umbrella" LED outdoor fixture that employs this thinking.
In theory, 3-LED streetlights could also be used for signaling purposes. For example, the city could turn all the streetlights red when there is no parking allowed. Since they don't have a 5-minute warm-up time like low-pressure sodium lamps, they could also flash on and off, in unison or in sequence, perhaps to warn about emergency vehicles or a dangerous chase in progress. You get the idea.
I have cable TV service, but aside from the kids watching cartoons, it is on at most 4 hrs. per week. (one football game and maybe a Daily Show).
Otherwise, all my TV viewing comes via newsgroups and re-writeable CDs and DVDs. I can wait a day for the new Lost or Galactica episode, so I can watch it without commercials. Plus, I can watch new movies, too. On occasion, if the newsgroups fail me I will resort to BitTorrent, but I use it strictly for TV shows.
Okay, maybe it's a bit more manually intensive than TiVo, but all my stuff's already burned to disc for archiving and portable watching.
If only alt.binaries.kidstuff was a little more active, I could do away with real-time TV altogether.
I used to be the worst kind of TV-aholic. I knew the network schedules by heart. I watched all the new shows to see which ones I would follow. I would plop down after work and flip channels all freakin' night. Once I got separated, though, I realized I had time for fun anti-social things (like gaming and reading/.), and TV quickly became unimportant.
Don't read this if you're a hypersensitive Bush supporter. I mean it. Stop reading. I don't want to force my views on you.
I've been complaining about our government since I was 10 years old. Before I knew the difference between Republican and Democrat (it turns out the only thing that matters is which you were born into, just like your religion), I could see corruption everywhere, and worse, widespread obliviousness to this corruption.
I was smart enough to vote against Bush and Cheney twice (not FOR anybody) and I merely held Bush supporters in disdain as fools.
BUT, NOW I'M PISSED OFF! You gullible Bush voters screwed up my country. Every time I see one of your bumper stickers I just want to ram you. Take a look around! Gas prices? Iraq? New Orleans? Bin Laden capture? Plamegate? Look what you've done!
-----------
"Mod me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
I also eschew wall decorations, save the ones that friends have given me, which I only put up to be nice. Honestly, I get a much better aesthetic "high" from a clean, bare wall than I do from anything I could hang on it.
Except for my toy collection, which is mostly in the basement, I try not to let anything into my place that doesn't serve a useful function. No artwork, no fancy window dressings, no twig wreaths or baskets, no decorative lamps, no decorative anything.
And I don't replace something that still works just because there are more expensive versions out there. I'm using an old sheet as a curtain in one room. Hell if I'm going to spend money on "real" curtains that won't even keep out the light as well.
My place has been described as looking like a dorm room, which pleases me. I'm quite proud to be one of the few Americans who hasn't been brainwashed into mindless consumerism.
The movie theater experience gives married couples a chance to spend time together without having to interact and possibly annoy each other.
And Hollywood stories are awash with wish-fulfilling fantasy relationships (When Harry Met Sally, etc.) that encourage couples to idealize their togetherness.
Groups that fear societal collapse due to a lack of "family values" should subsidize movie nights for married parents. It would help couples to keep their sanity and stick it out when parenthood gets rough.
Women do, that's who. They are programmed to trap someone who will stay with them and help raise their kids. Men, on the other hand, are programmed to disseminate their genes in the widest possible manner. Both strategies support human survival in their own way.
But now we live longer and healthier than we were meant to. Women are bearing children, on average, much later in life. And men can keep siring into their 70's and beyond. The counteracting agendas of the genders used to balance out, but this recent development of longer lifespans results in couples whose needs diverge as they get older.
Thus, as a 41-year-old husband and father, I am currently separated and dating a much younger girl. And I'm pretty happy about that.
Finally, some hard evidence of spyware being used for identity theft. I hope the major news outlets pick this up. Spyware is not just an annoyance, like spam. Hopefully people will wake up and realize the threat to their privacy and financial security that spyware poses.
Probably not though, unless some gray-hat releases a variant that steals your info and then mails it all back to you. When folks start getting spam that contains their bank account password, then maybe they'll consider taking some action.
"...you were once a little bit of tissue and goo. Lucky for you, though, your parents didn't see it that way."
Another tired anti-abortion cliche. Live my tortured life first, then try calling me lucky. If I had been aborted, then by your rules I could have gone straight to heaven without all the intervening irony and agony. If only my parents had had good reason to abort me!
Shouldn't everyone who cares about the eternal soul of their unborn child make the ultimate sacrifice and send their untainted little fetus straight to God before they face the temptation to sin?
[This faux opinion brought to you by someone who: was born to a single mother; never met their father; was baptized Catholic; is against the death penalty.]
Thanks Mr.2001 for your cogent argument against intellectual property rights. Not only are your points well-backed, but you argue without resorting to the snideness that tends to pervade Slashdot (I've been guilty, too).
Gee, you don't think the victim mentality that pervades nowadays has anything to do with the fact that wealth has been increasingly consolidated in the past few decades, do you?
Our society is set up to reinforce consumerism. After years of being marketed to, sooner or later, the poor will feel that they, too, are entitled to all the great shiny things that cost money. I'm not saying they are right to feel entitled. Hell, none of us should want any of this crap. But, yes, we made them that way.
If you tease an animal, don't be surpised when it bites.
Yup. Bram's blog makes it clear that MS's approach to P2P is to reverse engineer an outdated version of his protocol. The result will probably be similar to MS's effort to reverse engineer the Macintosh: Windows 3.1 -- meaning that it will be buggy, slower and vastly more popular.
Keep reading Bram's blog. How far do you get before it starts going over your head? The dude has skillz that dust 98% of the wannabes here on Slashdot.
And as for motives, in my experience with autistics, it's common for those with Asperger's Syndrome to be quite guileless. They speak and act without consideration for other's "feelings". As a result they are more frank and honest than most people are comfortable with. Sorta like if Mr. Spock insults your work. He's not doing it to hurt you, or out of jealousy, he's saying it because it is the most logical observation.
If you have an indefeatable defensive technology -- say a big force field around your border, then you can go ahead and be a pacifist. At the rate technology is advancing, I would be surprised if a similarly effective solution does not come to pass in our lifetimes.
This situation allows you to separate some sticky issues. Now how do you justify invading Iraq? They can't physically hurt you. It must be because you let yourself become addicted to their oil. (Actually, the physical threat Iraq posed has always been non-existent, so yup, we're there for the oil.)
What if everybody had personal defense shields, making guns obsolete? It would be the opposite of the Old West, where everyone carried guns and asshole behaviour could easily get you perforated. How would our behaviour change? Would we revel in the peace we had afforded, or would we all become obnoxious jerks who act without fear of reprisal?
In the prequels, it's cool to be a Jedi and you can bust out your lightsaber whenever it's handy. In 4-6, it's illegal to be a Jedi and using a lightsaber in public will put the Emperor on your trail.
Frankly, the lightsabers and the spaceships are the only reason I am into Star Wars. In 1977, seeing these impossibly cool things in such realistic detail, my inner gadget-loving geek found Nirvana.
I frickin' love it anytime they ignite a lightsaber. Phantom Menace's climactic saber-battle is far and away the best part of the movie, and maybe the whole prequel trilogy. I really was disappointed by the lightsaber battles in AOTC; I expected them to top TPM, not back away. And in ROTS, I expected Obi-Wan vs. Anakin to top them all, but no, Maul vs. Qui-gon and Obi-Wan remains supreme. (Although you should watch Neeson in "Rob Roy" if you want to see the best-ever on-screen swordfight.)
MY TOP 5 COMPLAINTS ABOUT LIGHTSABERS:
5. In Attack of the Clones, the camera goes for Christopher Lee close-ups in Dooku's duel with Anakin, and we can't see a damn thing.
4. They all look cool, but try dueling with one of them. The hilts are so un-ergonomic it's ridiculous.
3. In ESB, Yoda doesn't give Luke a single lightsaber lesson. Great way to get him ready to fight Vader.
2. Sometimes there's blood (Wampa), sometimes not (Dooku).
1. In Return of the Jedi, Luke whacks a dozen bad guys on the skiff with his green saber, and not one suffers visible damage, not even to their clothes. WTF?
Slashdot Mirror
The type of person you typically find on Slashdot is probably more introverted than the norm. I am borderline autistic and I really find maintaining relationships with people to be extremely trying. I orchestrate all my human interactions to make them as BRIEF and superficial as possible. I have a super-hot girlfriend, but I only really enjoy her company for the physical aspect. If she never said a word, I'd like her better.
That said, I especially don't see any value in a virtual girl. If you can't touch her, then what's the point? To have a conversation?
Maybe the point of our existence is to learn to get along with each other. If that's the case, the only foolproof method I've learned is to avoid people altogether.
Some of us thrive on reclusion. I'd argue that because we are not dependent on the emotional support of others that we are in a way superior, not defective.
Speed of election results? That's about the only plus-side. And for that you're willing to risk the integrity of the election? What I don't trust is anybody who still supports this B.S. after even a cursory review of the facts.
Anyone who supports Diebold machines obviously does so precisely because they can be hacked.
BTW, where is the media hubbub for Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who admitted to taking bribes for defense contracts? What national story could possibly be more important? The ability of the U.S. government to stifle the mainstream press even in the face of the Internet simply astounds me.
Want to know which news sources are "owned"? Google News the Cunningham story and see which ones ran the "Cunningham admits taking bribes" headline and which ones tried to obfuscate with the headline "Cunningham guilty of tax evasion."
The LOST Dharma Hatch Experience: Complete with vintage tape drives adjacent to a powerful magnetic anomoly.
...there are lots of people who speed on the roads, and yet not all of them are pulled over and given tickets.
Indeed, U.S. speeding laws are enforced unfairly. Certain genders, races, and car colors are systematically ticketed more than others. The fact is that police officers are willing to merely warn pretty young blond women in green minivans for the same violations for which they would routinely ticket a Hispanic man driving a Mustang. The punishment for speeding must be too harsh if cops are occasionally willing to forgive violators.
Traffic fines are just a hidden tax on the minority working man. Why aren't fines a percentage of income, to make the disincentive equitable?
Blizzard does not have the excuse that cops do: they can catch every violator if they make their rules clear. If the rule is so important to the integrity of the game, then they must expend the resources to enforce it fairly and thoroughly.
With today's technology, cops have lost their excuse, too. We could easily identify speeders by EasyPass records, or by tracking cell phones and OnStar by GPS. Automatic cameras can ticket violators with no human intervention. Privacy concern is not the reason why we don't use these methods: it is because everybody knows how ridiculous most posted speed limits are and nobody thinks it would be a good idea to actually punish every violator.
I also dislike the yellowish light from low-pressure sodium lamps. As I approach an intersection on a street lined with them, I cannot see the traffic signal once it turns yellow: it disappears into the mass of other yellow lights.
These yellow lights also compromise safety, as they hinder you from seeing pedestrians in your periphery at night. The bright blue headlights that everyone complains about glare from are actually great for nighttime peripheral vision. See this article by my colleagues.
Energy is obviously a big concern for lights operated by municipalities, and you can't beat the efficacy of low-pressure sodium. But remember they use this energy off-peak, when it is cheaper. With its long lamp life, an LED solution can reduce maintenance costs enough to offset incremental energy costs, saving taxpayers money.
The other argument against white light streetlights is light pollution. This is better addressed by managing the light distribution, cutting off light that needlessly aims into the sky. Also, using a 3-LED combination to produce white light yields a white that can still be filtered. A graduate student here at the Rensselaer Lighting Research Center just designed an "umbrella" LED outdoor fixture that employs this thinking.
In theory, 3-LED streetlights could also be used for signaling purposes. For example, the city could turn all the streetlights red when there is no parking allowed. Since they don't have a 5-minute warm-up time like low-pressure sodium lamps, they could also flash on and off, in unison or in sequence, perhaps to warn about emergency vehicles or a dangerous chase in progress. You get the idea.
So it's like a railgun afterburner? Sweet. Oscillation overthruster, indeed.
"It's not my damn planet. Understand, monkey boy?" - John Bigbootay
I have cable TV service, but aside from the kids watching cartoons, it is on at most 4 hrs. per week. (one football game and maybe a Daily Show). Otherwise, all my TV viewing comes via newsgroups and re-writeable CDs and DVDs. I can wait a day for the new Lost or Galactica episode, so I can watch it without commercials. Plus, I can watch new movies, too. On occasion, if the newsgroups fail me I will resort to BitTorrent, but I use it strictly for TV shows. Okay, maybe it's a bit more manually intensive than TiVo, but all my stuff's already burned to disc for archiving and portable watching. If only alt.binaries.kidstuff was a little more active, I could do away with real-time TV altogether. I used to be the worst kind of TV-aholic. I knew the network schedules by heart. I watched all the new shows to see which ones I would follow. I would plop down after work and flip channels all freakin' night. Once I got separated, though, I realized I had time for fun anti-social things (like gaming and reading /.), and TV quickly became unimportant.
Don't read this if you're a hypersensitive Bush supporter. I mean it. Stop reading. I don't want to force my views on you.
I've been complaining about our government since I was 10 years old. Before I knew the difference between Republican and Democrat (it turns out the only thing that matters is which you were born into, just like your religion), I could see corruption everywhere, and worse, widespread obliviousness to this corruption.
I was smart enough to vote against Bush and Cheney twice (not FOR anybody) and I merely held Bush supporters in disdain as fools.
BUT, NOW I'M PISSED OFF! You gullible Bush voters screwed up my country. Every time I see one of your bumper stickers I just want to ram you. Take a look around! Gas prices? Iraq? New Orleans? Bin Laden capture? Plamegate? Look what you've done!
-----------
"Mod me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
Holding them on Tuesday only prevents the working class from voting. Who would want that? ;)
I also eschew wall decorations, save the ones that friends have given me, which I only put up to be nice. Honestly, I get a much better aesthetic "high" from a clean, bare wall than I do from anything I could hang on it.
Except for my toy collection, which is mostly in the basement, I try not to let anything into my place that doesn't serve a useful function. No artwork, no fancy window dressings, no twig wreaths or baskets, no decorative lamps, no decorative anything.
And I don't replace something that still works just because there are more expensive versions out there. I'm using an old sheet as a curtain in one room. Hell if I'm going to spend money on "real" curtains that won't even keep out the light as well.
My place has been described as looking like a dorm room, which pleases me. I'm quite proud to be one of the few Americans who hasn't been brainwashed into mindless consumerism.
Put the word 'naked' in a story with thousands of pictures and post it first thing Monday morning. Sounds like a DDOS attack.
...AKA Barney Miller, the former race car driver (not the cop.) "It's wild, Steve! It's wild!"
Damn that was funny. You totally threw the Trek in there when I wasn't expecting it. Nice.
The movie theater experience gives married couples a chance to spend time together without having to interact and possibly annoy each other.
And Hollywood stories are awash with wish-fulfilling fantasy relationships (When Harry Met Sally, etc.) that encourage couples to idealize their togetherness.
Groups that fear societal collapse due to a lack of "family values" should subsidize movie nights for married parents. It would help couples to keep their sanity and stick it out when parenthood gets rough.
Who needs a 'partner'?
Women do, that's who. They are programmed to trap someone who will stay with them and help raise their kids. Men, on the other hand, are programmed to disseminate their genes in the widest possible manner. Both strategies support human survival in their own way.
But now we live longer and healthier than we were meant to. Women are bearing children, on average, much later in life. And men can keep siring into their 70's and beyond. The counteracting agendas of the genders used to balance out, but this recent development of longer lifespans results in couples whose needs diverge as they get older.
Thus, as a 41-year-old husband and father, I am currently separated and dating a much younger girl. And I'm pretty happy about that.
Finally, some hard evidence of spyware being used for identity theft. I hope the major news outlets pick this up. Spyware is not just an annoyance, like spam. Hopefully people will wake up and realize the threat to their privacy and financial security that spyware poses.
Probably not though, unless some gray-hat releases a variant that steals your info and then mails it all back to you. When folks start getting spam that contains their bank account password, then maybe they'll consider taking some action.
the 5 non-fakable signs
Unfortunately:
1. "Curves Ahead"
2. "Yield"
3. "Slippery When Wet"
4. "Do Not Enter"
5. "Stop"
"...you were once a little bit of tissue and goo. Lucky for you, though, your parents didn't see it that way."
Another tired anti-abortion cliche. Live my tortured life first, then try calling me lucky. If I had been aborted, then by your rules I could have gone straight to heaven without all the intervening irony and agony. If only my parents had had good reason to abort me!
Shouldn't everyone who cares about the eternal soul of their unborn child make the ultimate sacrifice and send their untainted little fetus straight to God before they face the temptation to sin?
[This faux opinion brought to you by someone who: was born to a single mother; never met their father; was baptized Catholic; is against the death penalty.]
I laughed at the parent, I must admit.
But remember, robots are everywhere, and they eat old peoples' medicine for fuel..
Thanks Mr.2001 for your cogent argument against intellectual property rights. Not only are your points well-backed, but you argue without resorting to the snideness that tends to pervade Slashdot (I've been guilty, too).
Read the parent post, y'all.
Gee, you don't think the victim mentality that pervades nowadays has anything to do with the fact that wealth has been increasingly consolidated in the past few decades, do you?
Our society is set up to reinforce consumerism. After years of being marketed to, sooner or later, the poor will feel that they, too, are entitled to all the great shiny things that cost money. I'm not saying they are right to feel entitled. Hell, none of us should want any of this crap. But, yes, we made them that way.
If you tease an animal, don't be surpised when it bites.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Seda-give??? Seda-give???!!!
Actually, this sounds more like Re-Animator.
Yup. Bram's blog makes it clear that MS's approach to P2P is to reverse engineer an outdated version of his protocol. The result will probably be similar to MS's effort to reverse engineer the Macintosh: Windows 3.1 -- meaning that it will be buggy, slower and vastly more popular.
Keep reading Bram's blog. How far do you get before it starts going over your head? The dude has skillz that dust 98% of the wannabes here on Slashdot.
And as for motives, in my experience with autistics, it's common for those with Asperger's Syndrome to be quite guileless. They speak and act without consideration for other's "feelings". As a result they are more frank and honest than most people are comfortable with. Sorta like if Mr. Spock insults your work. He's not doing it to hurt you, or out of jealousy, he's saying it because it is the most logical observation.
If you have an indefeatable defensive technology -- say a big force field around your border, then you can go ahead and be a pacifist. At the rate technology is advancing, I would be surprised if a similarly effective solution does not come to pass in our lifetimes.
This situation allows you to separate some sticky issues. Now how do you justify invading Iraq? They can't physically hurt you. It must be because you let yourself become addicted to their oil. (Actually, the physical threat Iraq posed has always been non-existent, so yup, we're there for the oil.)
What if everybody had personal defense shields, making guns obsolete? It would be the opposite of the Old West, where everyone carried guns and asshole behaviour could easily get you perforated. How would our behaviour change? Would we revel in the peace we had afforded, or would we all become obnoxious jerks who act without fear of reprisal?
In the prequels, it's cool to be a Jedi and you can bust out your lightsaber whenever it's handy. In 4-6, it's illegal to be a Jedi and using a lightsaber in public will put the Emperor on your trail.
Frankly, the lightsabers and the spaceships are the only reason I am into Star Wars. In 1977, seeing these impossibly cool things in such realistic detail, my inner gadget-loving geek found Nirvana.
I frickin' love it anytime they ignite a lightsaber. Phantom Menace's climactic saber-battle is far and away the best part of the movie, and maybe the whole prequel trilogy. I really was disappointed by the lightsaber battles in AOTC; I expected them to top TPM, not back away. And in ROTS, I expected Obi-Wan vs. Anakin to top them all, but no, Maul vs. Qui-gon and Obi-Wan remains supreme. (Although you should watch Neeson in "Rob Roy" if you want to see the best-ever on-screen swordfight.)
MY TOP 5 COMPLAINTS ABOUT LIGHTSABERS:
5. In Attack of the Clones, the camera goes for Christopher Lee close-ups in Dooku's duel with Anakin, and we can't see a damn thing.
4. They all look cool, but try dueling with one of them. The hilts are so un-ergonomic it's ridiculous.
3. In ESB, Yoda doesn't give Luke a single lightsaber lesson. Great way to get him ready to fight Vader.
2. Sometimes there's blood (Wampa), sometimes not (Dooku).
1. In Return of the Jedi, Luke whacks a dozen bad guys on the skiff with his green saber, and not one suffers visible damage, not even to their clothes. WTF?