The doping problem exists because winning is too important. As Vince said "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." If the outcomes of contests didn't matter in the minds of players, coaches, sponsors, or spectators, there would be no doping or cheating of any kind. Of course, there wouldn't be much organized sport, either.
OS/2 was my last religious experience. When my faith in OS/2 became an obstacle to getting things done (like trying to get a publisher to accept a electronic manuscript in Describe format), I became completely secular in my technology tastes and choices. So I do use Windows for a limited range of tasks. Linux, OS X, and Solaris (though much less of late) also provide me with useful tools. If BeOS, Plan 9, or Coleco Adam offered me a convenient way to do something I need to do, then they'd be in my toolbox too.
I dislike Microsoft's sneaky, underhanded, arrogant business practices as much as anyone does (well, maybe not as much as their abused competitors), but I'm not zealous enough to let my distaste for Bill et al to over rule my pragmatic sense of what works for me. Sorry. (I'll bet if I'd known Jackson Pollack, I wouldn't have liked him much, but if I could afford some of his art, I'd be pleased to have it....Same sort of rationale, from my perspective.)
" 'Synchronization of our Internet bookmarks across all our computers' Now wouldn't THAT be nice?"
At the university where I used to work (actually, I still work there, but a different university pays me...maybe I'm like the old movie cliche, an unwitting instrument of sabotage), I piloted a service that was then rolled out in production that did exactly that. Not only bookmarks, but address books, java script preferences, mail and newsgroup settings, etc., available at home, office, lab, and even public kiosks. Then AOL bought Nutscape and *killed* LDAP support. Arrrrggghhh. Oh, well, just another day in academic IT.
"Why, exactly, is death a problem? Just pause a moment and really think about why death is a problem, for you. Life doesn't work without death. In the end, that fact should be very life-affirming and comforting to you."
Maybe to you. Death is a problem for me because I enjoy life so very much. Death will put a very definite and wholly unwelcomed end to the fun. So far, my life is working just great without death, and I'd like to keep it that way. Do I fear death? NO. I resent it.
I know full well that immortality is impossible, given entropy. That pisses me off. But if longevity is the best the universe has to offer, give me the maximum. I take first rate care of the equipment (at 51, I can still run a mile under 6 minutes, bench my body weight for reps, and cycle all day at 18 mph avg in rolling country), so I think it's perfectly reasonable for me to hold biomedical scientists responsible for doing their part to keep me alive and healthy at least long enough to get tired of it. "Accepting death" is a defeatist attitude that I just cannot abide.
(uh-oh...I seem to have gotten a little worked up)
Ken Brown was just writing fiction about code. He got the idea from his more successful brother Dan Brown, who made a fortune by taking entertaining liberties with history and sly references to obfuscation.I don't see why everybody's so upset by "Samizdat" when "DaVinci Code" is so popular. Maybe because there's no sexy heroine?
600 miles over what timespan? Chondromalacia is a pretty common overuse injury, and 600 miles in a week would be really likely to cause a beginner to suffer from it. Over a month and half, though, that same 600 miles should be OK, unless your bike is not correctly set up for you. If you want to heal up and give it another shot, try doing some weight work to stabilize the knee, and have a good bike shop fit your bike to your body and riding style.
Arthritis covers about a bazillion different problems, and a lot of them go away over time, particularly with appropriate treatment...I speak from alternately painful and not painful experience.
"And that's what a lot of us are worried about. Either looking more geeky than we already are, or looking like we need to ride our bikes to the nearest uptown shopping plaza to get more clothing accessories... cause, darnit they're just so CUUUUTE!"
Yup. Back in the 70s and early 80s, before lycra, we wore weird wool shorts that needed suspenders to keep them up. Now cyclists don't wear suspenders any more, but Unix gurus do. Also Wall Street types. I guess they want to look geeky like old school cyclists and Unix gurus.
"Knowing several runners over the past decades, they can be just as bad. Heart rate monitoring, high tech shoes. Diet, sports drinks, etc. The only difference appears to be one uses a machine and the other doesn't."
Yes, you're right. In recent years, a lot of runners have tried to make running seem more like cycling by drinking the electrolyte drinks (as if they were going to go out for a four hour run), and wearing a heart monitor. But I agree that the difference is the machine. And what a difference.
Oh, yeah, there's also the shaving...that's pretty geeky too.
Though I can run, it just ain't as satisfying as cycling. Cycling has all the cool technology...exotic metals and materials, miniaturized electronics, biomedical monitoring stuff, aerodynamics, the list goes on and on. And the clothes are pretty geeky...it's the only way you can dress up in lycra without making your GF (in the unlikely event you have one) nervous. What do you get with running? It's like another poster said...shoes, shorts, and that's about it.
No, that article is a year old. The migration at MSDW beat their expectations, and got much of the credit for Morgan's very good year in very bad times. No spin, there; just an open source software and commodity hardware success worth millions. Birnbaum's vision was brilliant.
You're right. Social networking is to lousy personality as advertising is to lousy product; if it works, soon everybody knows about your, um, shortcomings.
From Business Week (3/3/03): Birnbaum (Morgan Stanley CTA)...busy replacing 4,000 high-powered servers running traditional software with much cheaper machines running Linux. Projected five-year savings: up to $100 million.
Look closely at the changed landscape in financial sector comms rooms. MAJOR success story.
Slashdot Mirror
The doping problem exists because winning is too important. As Vince said "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." If the outcomes of contests didn't matter in the minds of players, coaches, sponsors, or spectators, there would be no doping or cheating of any kind. Of course, there wouldn't be much organized sport, either.
"...just don't shoot the messenger."
Oh, great. Now it's "Go ahead and shoot me, I'm the message."
OS/2 was my last religious experience. When my faith in OS/2 became an obstacle to getting things done (like trying to get a publisher to accept a electronic manuscript in Describe format), I became completely secular in my technology tastes and choices. So I do use Windows for a limited range of tasks. Linux, OS X, and Solaris (though much less of late) also provide me with useful tools. If BeOS, Plan 9, or Coleco Adam offered me a convenient way to do something I need to do, then they'd be in my toolbox too.
I dislike Microsoft's sneaky, underhanded, arrogant business practices as much as anyone does (well, maybe not as much as their abused competitors), but I'm not zealous enough to let my distaste for Bill et al to over rule my pragmatic sense of what works for me. Sorry. (I'll bet if I'd known Jackson Pollack, I wouldn't have liked him much, but if I could afford some of his art, I'd be pleased to have it....Same sort of rationale, from my perspective.)
.
"90% of all statistics are invented."
This should have been moderated "Funny".
"Our school district uses OO, and we don't burn CD's. That's what network shares are for."
It is? Oh, yeah, that makes sense. All this time I thought network shares were for spreading worms. Thanks for clearing that up.
" 'Synchronization of our Internet bookmarks across all our computers'
Now wouldn't THAT be nice?"
At the university where I used to work (actually, I still work there, but a different university pays me...maybe I'm like the old movie cliche, an unwitting instrument of sabotage), I piloted a service that was then rolled out in production that did exactly that. Not only bookmarks, but address books, java script preferences, mail and newsgroup settings, etc., available at home, office, lab, and even public kiosks. Then AOL bought Nutscape and *killed* LDAP support. Arrrrggghhh. Oh, well, just another day in academic IT.
"The fear drips from your fingers as you type."
Easy for you to say, AC.
"Why, exactly, is death a problem? Just pause a moment and really think about why death is a problem, for you. Life doesn't work without death. In the end, that fact should be very life-affirming and comforting to you."
Maybe to you. Death is a problem for me because I enjoy life so very much. Death will put a very definite and wholly unwelcomed end to the fun. So far, my life is working just great without death, and I'd like to keep it that way. Do I fear death? NO. I resent it.
I know full well that immortality is impossible, given entropy. That pisses me off. But if longevity is the best the universe has to offer, give me the maximum. I take first rate care of the equipment (at 51, I can still run a mile under 6 minutes, bench my body weight for reps, and cycle all day at 18 mph avg in rolling country), so I think it's perfectly reasonable for me to hold biomedical scientists responsible for doing their part to keep me alive and healthy at least long enough to get tired of it. "Accepting death" is a defeatist attitude that I just cannot abide.
(uh-oh...I seem to have gotten a little worked up)
Ken Brown was just writing fiction about code. He got the idea from his more successful brother Dan Brown, who made a fortune by taking entertaining liberties with history and sly references to obfuscation.I don't see why everybody's so upset by "Samizdat" when "DaVinci Code" is so popular. Maybe because there's no sexy heroine?
We don't care what you believe.
Boycott the major labels.
Buy indie music, and skip "strictly commercial" till the members of RIAA hire smarter and more ethical execs.
"It's like at the bar -- the later in the night you attempt to pick up chicks, the fewer of them are still available."
Yeah, but by closing time the ones remaining are incredibly beautiful and erudite.
600 miles over what timespan? Chondromalacia is a pretty common overuse injury, and 600 miles in a week would be really likely to cause a beginner to suffer from it. Over a month and half, though, that same 600 miles should be OK, unless your bike is not correctly set up for you. If you want to heal up and give it another shot, try doing some weight work to stabilize the knee, and have a good bike shop fit your bike to your body and riding style.
Arthritis covers about a bazillion different problems, and a lot of them go away over time, particularly with appropriate treatment...I speak from alternately painful and not painful experience.
"And that's what a lot of us are worried about. Either looking more geeky than we already are, or looking like we need to ride our bikes to the nearest uptown shopping plaza to get more clothing accessories... cause, darnit they're just so CUUUUTE!"
Yup. Back in the 70s and early 80s, before lycra, we wore weird wool shorts that needed suspenders to keep them up. Now cyclists don't wear suspenders any more, but Unix gurus do. Also Wall Street types. I guess they want to look geeky like old school cyclists and Unix gurus.
"Knowing several runners over the past decades, they can be just as bad. Heart rate monitoring, high tech shoes. Diet, sports drinks, etc. The only difference appears to be one uses a machine and the other doesn't."
Yes, you're right. In recent years, a lot of runners have tried to make running seem more like cycling by drinking the electrolyte drinks (as if they were going to go out for a four hour run), and wearing a heart monitor. But I agree that the difference is the machine. And what a difference.
Oh, yeah, there's also the shaving...that's pretty geeky too.
Though I can run, it just ain't as satisfying as cycling. Cycling has all the cool technology...exotic metals and materials, miniaturized electronics, biomedical monitoring stuff, aerodynamics, the list goes on and on. And the clothes are pretty geeky...it's the only way you can dress up in lycra without making your GF (in the unlikely event you have one) nervous. What do you get with running? It's like another poster said...shoes, shorts, and that's about it.
"I'm not saying Tasers don't work, I'm saying that they work only in the right context - self-defence by an individual is not that context."
Traveling to the Pacific Northwest for a casual tasing...THAT'S the right context.
"he demands instant gratification, so he got his first, because I had to wait - I got the bigger one"
Yeah, but did you have multiple iPods?
"I've met and known many female geeks. The reason most don't know they are there is because a lot of male geeks LOOK like the stereotypical geek."
And a lot of the stereotypical female geeks look like males.
"How did I crucify Jesus?"
In Soviet Russia, Jesus crucifies YOU!
(Yeah, I know, but heck, it'll be below most thresholds anyway.)
What does it say about myself if I post as me, but you think I posted as AC? Sheesh, I feel like Roxie Hart's husband.
No, that article is a year old. The migration at MSDW beat their expectations, and got much of the credit for Morgan's very good year in very bad times. No spin, there; just an open source software and commodity hardware success worth millions. Birnbaum's vision was brilliant.
You're right. Social networking is to lousy personality as advertising is to lousy product; if it works, soon everybody knows about your, um, shortcomings.
Success stories?
From Business Week (3/3/03):
Birnbaum (Morgan Stanley CTA)...busy replacing 4,000 high-powered servers running traditional software with much cheaper machines running Linux. Projected five-year savings: up to $100 million.
Look closely at the changed landscape in financial sector comms rooms. MAJOR success story.
>Wow, that's a lot.That's equivalent to every single person on the planet receiving over 3 trillion spams per second.
It's a relief to know I'm not the only one.