It shouldn't! It should get educated! Or move to shallower waters.
The sharks aren't there to cause harm, they're just getting more out of the system because they know how. The poor tuna are there for the SAME REASON, to get money they didn't "earn". They just didn't know enough to get in or out in time.
Outlawing the sharks wouldn't have the effect you want. The harm is caused by far bigger things like the fractional reserve system, the end of pensions, payment/charging interest and deferring problems to the future.
No, i forgot the rule that the OTHER person (me in this case) has to have citations and numbers. Sorry.
"My general impression of day traders is they are suckers"
That's the difference between someone who invests and someone who is an investor. They're not the same. If Joe tells me AAPL is hot at the water cooler, and i go buy it, i'm not an investor or a trader. i'm a gambler. Just because someone day trades doesn't mean they know what they are doing. If i tell you to take some aspirin, that doesn't make me a doctor. To be a doctor i'd have to go to med school, do internships, a residency and a bunch of other crap to get a license to practice medicine. The difference is education/knowledge/skill. i'm something of a pedant/grammar snob, so i would say day tradING doesn't make you a day tradER. i'd reserve that to people who know what they're doing.
If we open the term to anyone who THINKS they are a trader, then yeah maybe you'd be right. They would be the tuna.
"Let me put it another way, Warren Buffet is not a day trader."
He also recommends against mutual funds, which "conventional wisdom" says it the way to go.
i, personally, don't plan to be a day trader, i'm looking to be more of a swing/position trader. Day trading seems too time and thought consuming.
Methinks you're overstating the importance/effect/number of day traders. There are far more shares of stock in the hands of the mutual fund managers than in day traders, or swing, or position traders. If the fund managers turn a trickle into a deluge, that's on them.
Have you seen the movie Rounders? Imagine the main character in that movie sitting at your monthly penny ante game of poker. Is he gambling as he takes all your money? For a pro, the cards don't matter much, he can win with nothing but a high card of 8 even if you have two pair.
Do you take issue with gambling? Gambling (to me) implies a blind (ignorant) risk, or risking too much.
Should we require people to hold a stock for some minimum amount of time? How long would be enough? A day, a week, a month, a year? Or just long enough to make sure that *everyone* takes a bath?
Why should anyone be obliged to care about an amoral agent like a company? How much does AAPL or GOOG care about me?
If you want to be mad at someone, try Nixon or the banks who charge interest and are driving inflation, or the fractional reserve system that is printing money ex nihilo.
Professional traders (which i hope to be one day) are the lubrication of the gears of finance. They give companies the money to grow. The difference between traders and Joe Bob who bought a stock is financial education. If Joe knew what a pro knew, he'd do it too. Most people do not have the time or interest to seek a financial education. Which is terrible for them and the economy in general. ERISA and the baby boomers are going to fuck up the US economy in about 6 years or so*. i hope that won't happen, but there is a huge potential for disaster there.
It's like a wave powered generator. The waves are there and aren't going away. Traders siphon some of the energy that was swishing back and forth anyway. They just keep it, instead of losing it. Imagine a field of hovering platforms rising and falling above the water. An uneducated person would stay on it until they are sniffing saltwater. A pro would have sensed the downward trend and hopped off. Being smart enough to follow the rats off the sinking ship isn't evil or selfish or greedy, it's smart.
The company i'm trading doesn't care if i hold the stock for an hour or a year. The market doesn't either, really.
Day traders benefit the market as a whole by making the market exist and giving it life (movement). If a stock is (wrong)valued, the day traders smell the blood and start the correction.
i'll grant you that it's hard to see the benefit, but it's there.
Day traders are a tiny part of the whole trading ecosystem. They just happen to be the sharks, while most people are the tuna. In a very real way, my success depends on being smarter than the sucker i'm selling to or buying from. But that's true of all business! i'm smarter (at computers) than the users i support. They don't want to be computer smart, they want to be smart at something else. So they pay me to be smarter and do things they don't want (to learn how) to do. i don't want to go to chef school but i want to eat mushroom risotto. i give money to someone smarter than me to cook it for me. The chef isn't evil and i'm not a chump (just lazy). It's an exchange of want for have. i have money, he wants money. i want nummy risotto, he has cooking skill and morel mushrooms.
In stock trading, i HAVE a stock that's been going up. Joe heard from Jeff that $stock is going up. i forecast, based on the dojis, P/E ratios and the M for murder that this stock has run up against resistance and is about to go down. i WANT to cash out and take my girlfriend to Restaurant Nora for that risotto. Joe WANTS that stock and HAS cash. We both get what we want. The stock moves. Joe might get what he wants too.
It's only gambling if you don't know what you're doing. The meteorologist doesn't pull a prediction out of his ass. He looks at historical trends. Good poker players don't gamble. They read your tells, calculate odds and decides the risk/reward ratio he wants. He KNOWS when to hold 'em. Yeah, there is risk involved. But a smart trader knows not to take stupid risks (or to let emotions or ego get in the way). Being someone in the know... i can make money on a stock regardless of the direction its moving.
* When the boomers are forced to start withdrawing from their 401s there will be more sellers than buyers, stock values will tank (unless we have an awesome president between now and then).
Well, i DID day "generally", not "never":) . In the case of this thread it seemed relevant.
And yeah, i don't do the preachy because i know how much it bothers me (i get the Preachy McPreachers about once a month or so). i'm not out to change anyone else, it's not my place. i get my share of people telling ME what i should be eating (just read some of the other responses to this thread). Basic Training was... interesting.
i'm sorry that some vegetarians/vegan/meatheads feel the need to get preachy. Folks like PETA distract from the issues by attention whoring. It's embarrassing. It's annoying to me to have to distance myself from them. Same can happen with any issue. Green Peace does some bad things in the name of their cause. Abortion clinic bombers do bad things in the name of their cause which makes it hard to people to talk about things with civility. 10% can give the other 90% a bad name. i just hope that individually, people can realize that the whole isn't represented by the fringe.
i always liked "dub dub dub". i suppose "sextuple-u" would do it too. __
Having a mark for which protocol to use is useful, but i think it might be time to review how we do it. Web browsers could safely assume port 80 (most already do). Webmasters should support that. If i need to use the ftp, i would know to type ftp.
i'd much rather dispose of TLDs that allow crap like WhiteHouse.com. If we are doing to have TLDs, can we at least put them in order? com.Hotmail/userName/page.html
i'd rather see people CapitalizeTheFirstLetterInAWebSAddress because itseasiertoread.
Indeed, there are myriad reasons for people choosing to be vegetarian. i wouldn't say you're quibbling. i just didn't feel like typing out pages of reasons.
You should read more of the responses before posting. You missed the bit about the difference between herbivore and vegetarian. Cows aren't vegetarian, they are herbivores. A dog that eats nothing but veggies is not a vegetarian, it's an omnivore. i'm an omnivore. Being vegetarian is a choice made by a non-herbivore. If a kid has no access to animals as food, he isn't vegetarian. He hasn't chosen to be so. Got it?
You're right about the "why", why isn't the issue with who is or isn't vegetarian.
"As an omnivore who knows what shape his teeth are"
Walk up to a cow and start biting. If you survive the kick we can talk about teeth and bite strength. However, if you can catch up to it, kill it without tools and eat it without cooking or seasoning it, more power to you.
"I find anyone who wants to talk about how Christian/Straight Edge/$other_Philosophy they are critically annoying"
FtfY
Fat people are annoyed by healthy people talking about how eat and exercise.
"desperately trying to attach a label to themselves that will make someone think they are cool"
Not all people to whom a label might apply are doing it for the label. Some are. i'm sorry some vegetarian broke your heart, cut you off in traffic or made you feel judged. But what is true of some is not necessarily true of the whole. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Christians are crusaders or abortion clinic bombers. Not all Scottsmen go commando. Not all potheads are glassy eyed thieves. With any human activity there are those who will take it too far. There will be those 10% who make the other 90% look bad.
Don't confuse your personal experiences/anecdotes with evidence. i've never once harassed anyone about eating animals. If someone attacked me first, i've occasional fired back, but haven't done so in about 10 years. But for you i'll make an exception.
"Repeatedly and publicly calling yourself a vegetarian is your right, but it's kind of like fraternity/sorority lite. Recognition without commitment."
Speaking only for myself again, i don't do it for the label. Shit i would MUCH rather not ever have to say the word again. i'm tired of saying it and tired of hearing it applied to me. i'd much rather be allowed to order dinner without the inane questions, jokes and such. As for commitment, i've got that in spades. If you read my post, you'd see that i'm attacking people who want the label without the work.... Those who claim to be straight edge while taking a bong hit.
"There are no indigenous vegetarians. None. You might reflect on that for a time."
You might reflect on people being lazy and selfish for a time. You might also reflect on slavery having been popular in the US. Did so before != should continue to do so.
"Plants have nervous systems and memories."
Think about it this way, you draw a line at cats and probably dolphins, i draw the line somewhere else. If it came down to eating fish or starving, i'll eat the fish. Since 17 Nov 93 i've not been in a life or death situation, so i've opted out eating other animals.
"I know a"
Again with the describing the whole as being like an individual.
Great, you know someone. So what? i know a kid who went fishing an was traumatized by seeing the fish gutted. So what? Does that mean YOU have to stop eating fish? No, it doesn't. What does that have to do with you being an ignorant, intolerant, bigoted dick who cares about what someone they've never met eats? i know at least a dozen homosexuals who own macs and are pretty insistent about the superiority of their macs. Therefore all mac owners are gay and smug about their hardware.
"former raw food vegan fascist"
Do you also use the term feminazi? "My parents made me come home by 10. What a buncha fascists!"
"and went back to feeding her body what it needed"
Look up the word "need", it doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. In the meantime there are some world class athletes who might might differ with you about what our bodies "need".
"a complete diet. Life feeds on life and we've evolved to eat meat."
And yet we have a choice. If you had actually read my post, instead of seeing a word that reminded you of someone who hurt your feelings which brought back of flood of butthurt memories which you've decided to take out on me and every other person who isn't JUST like you... you would have noticed that i acknowledged being an omnivore. My life feeds on life, yes. That's as true as it is irrel
Can someone call themselves abstinent because they only have sex doggy. style? Why do Christians balk when someone points out that Hitler was a Christian? The lacto-ovo-pesci-pollo crowd are meat eaters... who call themselves vegetarian BECAUSE they want the label. They want the label virgin because they do it every way except doggy style. It's a bit of a slap in the face to people who actually live up to it. i've played the video game SOCOM, does that make a special forces bad ass? i could say i was special forces IFF i was special forces. i was in the USAF, does that mean i should have a Semper Fi sticker on my car? Hell no, that would be a insult to those who endured the crucible.
i'm not interested in having the label. As i said, i avoid mentioning it. i mention it here because it is pertinent to the topic.
i'm interested in the label retaining meaning. For the same reason i object to file sharing being called piracy. Piracy is armed robbery at sea. Think of it as pedantry if it helps.
As a vegetarian, i find the term flexitarian annoying. It's like a saying "I'm a virgin because I only do it doggy style". i'm also annoyed by people who say they are lacto-ovo-pollo-pesci vegetarian. They just don't eat cows. No need to label that! Seems more like they are trying to have a trendy label of their own. i'm not looking for a label, i generally avoid mentioning it at all. i just order what i want.
There's no reason to call this spider vegetarian. It's a spider that eats mostly plants and the occasional bug. It would be more accurate to say omnivore. The term vegetarian couldn't apply to a non-sapient animal. A dog that eats nothing but veggies isn't vegetarian, it's just eating what is available. It's not making a *choice* to not eat animals. These spiders aren't making a choice either. They're following instinct to find an easier source of food. It's an evolutionary change in strategy. For me, it is a choice. i am an omnivore choosing to not eat other animals. These spiders aren't troubled over the treatment of factory farm animals, or worried about cholesterol or anything else. They're just avoiding a crowded field of competition for food.
Yeah, it's very novel to see a spider nomming on plant matter, but rushing to call it vegetarian is as inane as calling anyone wearing all black goth. They might just be wearing all black... or they might be a juggalo or Marylin Manson fan... or....
The other thing that bugs me is how much other people obsess about what i'm NOT eating.
Stross's hate might be more about envy. i've heard of Star Trek, but not this Stross guy. How many Stross movies have i seen? Do you own any DVD sets of TV series made about his work? HE'S talking about Star Trek, who is talking about him? Reminds me of fat women whining about beautiful women being slutty.
Star Trek wasn't really about science, imo, so much as about society. Most episodes were about taking some modern social issue and turning it on its head to illustrate a point.
i've the eye hand coordination of a blind snake, which makes FPSes very difficult for me. Some flavor of adaptive difficulty would be great for me because i wouldn't be as inclined to use cheat codes. Give me more health or help me with some aiming assistance.
i also like to think and read as i play games which makes RTSes very difficult for me. While i'm thinking, the guys who have played Star Craft for 1000 hours or so are madly clicking away. (i'm also a casual gamer, i get to play an hour or two a week, which makes it hard to keep up with guys who play two hours a day)
Adaptive difficulty might be tricky to implement in a multiplayer game. In single player games it would be great as an option for players like me. i'd prolly play more than i do if i could have a game that was challenging enough to be exciting by easy enough that it's not frustrating. __
Rubber-banding in my gaming circles refers to a side effect of lag. Sometimes someone will be moving and then suddenly snap back as the server decides that the avatar shouldn't be where it was.
Unless the software was stolen via armed robbery at sea, it wasn't piracy. It's just copyright infringement. Real world pirates kill people, or at least use the threat of deadly force to steal REAL things (as opposed to copying imaginary things). What they should say is 59% of software is over priced.
Eh. Democrats are our left, we'll call them left. Any further left that that and you're moving back to the right (down?). Much of what the rest of the world calls left leads to a different flavor of authoritarianism. Some authoritarian asshat dictators claim to represent the people, some are honest and don't. Left/right is only one axis of something more complicated. Chavez would likely paint himself as leftist, as might much of the world. But he's a jackbooted thug. That's not what "left" should mean, i think.
In my primary monitor i run PlanetSide, my secondary shows TeamSpeak. i can easily see who is talking, who is in what channel and so on without a distracting overlay or alt tabbing.
Works very nicely.
The next step up is to have TeamSpeak run on a second computer so i don't have to alt tab move people between channels and i can set up keybinds that would otherwise cause problems in the game i'm playing.
Slashdot Mirror
Not much.
It shouldn't! It should get educated! Or move to shallower waters.
The sharks aren't there to cause harm, they're just getting more out of the system because they know how. The poor tuna are there for the SAME REASON, to get money they didn't "earn". They just didn't know enough to get in or out in time.
Outlawing the sharks wouldn't have the effect you want. The harm is caused by far bigger things like the fractional reserve system, the end of pensions, payment/charging interest and deferring problems to the future.
"Wow, do you have numbers to support this?"
No, i forgot the rule that the OTHER person (me in this case) has to have citations and numbers. Sorry.
"My general impression of day traders is they are suckers"
That's the difference between someone who invests and someone who is an investor. They're not the same. If Joe tells me AAPL is hot at the water cooler, and i go buy it, i'm not an investor or a trader. i'm a gambler. Just because someone day trades doesn't mean they know what they are doing. If i tell you to take some aspirin, that doesn't make me a doctor. To be a doctor i'd have to go to med school, do internships, a residency and a bunch of other crap to get a license to practice medicine. The difference is education/knowledge/skill. i'm something of a pedant/grammar snob, so i would say day tradING doesn't make you a day tradER. i'd reserve that to people who know what they're doing.
If we open the term to anyone who THINKS they are a trader, then yeah maybe you'd be right. They would be the tuna.
"Let me put it another way, Warren Buffet is not a day trader."
He also recommends against mutual funds, which "conventional wisdom" says it the way to go.
i, personally, don't plan to be a day trader, i'm looking to be more of a swing/position trader. Day trading seems too time and thought consuming.
Methinks you're overstating the importance/effect/number of day traders. There are far more shares of stock in the hands of the mutual fund managers than in day traders, or swing, or position traders. If the fund managers turn a trickle into a deluge, that's on them.
Have you seen the movie Rounders? Imagine the main character in that movie sitting at your monthly penny ante game of poker. Is he gambling as he takes all your money? For a pro, the cards don't matter much, he can win with nothing but a high card of 8 even if you have two pair.
Do you take issue with gambling? Gambling (to me) implies a blind (ignorant) risk, or risking too much.
Should we require people to hold a stock for some minimum amount of time? How long would be enough? A day, a week, a month, a year? Or just long enough to make sure that *everyone* takes a bath?
Why should anyone be obliged to care about an amoral agent like a company? How much does AAPL or GOOG care about me?
If you want to be mad at someone, try Nixon or the banks who charge interest and are driving inflation, or the fractional reserve system that is printing money ex nihilo.
Professional traders (which i hope to be one day) are the lubrication of the gears of finance. They give companies the money to grow. The difference between traders and Joe Bob who bought a stock is financial education. If Joe knew what a pro knew, he'd do it too. Most people do not have the time or interest to seek a financial education. Which is terrible for them and the economy in general. ERISA and the baby boomers are going to fuck up the US economy in about 6 years or so*. i hope that won't happen, but there is a huge potential for disaster there.
It's like a wave powered generator. The waves are there and aren't going away. Traders siphon some of the energy that was swishing back and forth anyway. They just keep it, instead of losing it. Imagine a field of hovering platforms rising and falling above the water. An uneducated person would stay on it until they are sniffing saltwater. A pro would have sensed the downward trend and hopped off. Being smart enough to follow the rats off the sinking ship isn't evil or selfish or greedy, it's smart.
The company i'm trading doesn't care if i hold the stock for an hour or a year. The market doesn't either, really.
Day traders benefit the market as a whole by making the market exist and giving it life (movement). If a stock is (wrong)valued, the day traders smell the blood and start the correction.
i'll grant you that it's hard to see the benefit, but it's there.
Day traders are a tiny part of the whole trading ecosystem. They just happen to be the sharks, while most people are the tuna. In a very real way, my success depends on being smarter than the sucker i'm selling to or buying from. But that's true of all business! i'm smarter (at computers) than the users i support. They don't want to be computer smart, they want to be smart at something else. So they pay me to be smarter and do things they don't want (to learn how) to do. i don't want to go to chef school but i want to eat mushroom risotto. i give money to someone smarter than me to cook it for me. The chef isn't evil and i'm not a chump (just lazy). It's an exchange of want for have. i have money, he wants money. i want nummy risotto, he has cooking skill and morel mushrooms.
In stock trading, i HAVE a stock that's been going up. Joe heard from Jeff that $stock is going up. i forecast, based on the dojis, P/E ratios and the M for murder that this stock has run up against resistance and is about to go down. i WANT to cash out and take my girlfriend to Restaurant Nora for that risotto. Joe WANTS that stock and HAS cash. We both get what we want. The stock moves. Joe might get what he wants too.
It's only gambling if you don't know what you're doing. The meteorologist doesn't pull a prediction out of his ass. He looks at historical trends. Good poker players don't gamble. They read your tells, calculate odds and decides the risk/reward ratio he wants. He KNOWS when to hold 'em. Yeah, there is risk involved. But a smart trader knows not to take stupid risks (or to let emotions or ego get in the way). Being someone in the know... i can make money on a stock regardless of the direction its moving.
* When the boomers are forced to start withdrawing from their 401s there will be more sellers than buyers, stock values will tank (unless we have an awesome president between now and then).
Well, i DID day "generally", not "never" :) . In the case of this thread it seemed relevant.
And yeah, i don't do the preachy because i know how much it bothers me (i get the Preachy McPreachers about once a month or so). i'm not out to change anyone else, it's not my place. i get my share of people telling ME what i should be eating (just read some of the other responses to this thread). Basic Training was... interesting.
i'm sorry that some vegetarians/vegan/meatheads feel the need to get preachy. Folks like PETA distract from the issues by attention whoring. It's embarrassing. It's annoying to me to have to distance myself from them. Same can happen with any issue. Green Peace does some bad things in the name of their cause. Abortion clinic bombers do bad things in the name of their cause which makes it hard to people to talk about things with civility. 10% can give the other 90% a bad name. i just hope that individually, people can realize that the whole isn't represented by the fringe.
Dude, you should 've just nicked it from BitTorrent.
Have I taught you nuffin?
No. Nothing to ponder here. You're a snob who doesn't know the difference between his opinions and facts.
Grow up.
i always liked "dub dub dub". i suppose "sextuple-u" would do it too.
__
Having a mark for which protocol to use is useful, but i think it might be time to review how we do it. Web browsers could safely assume port 80 (most already do). Webmasters should support that. If i need to use the ftp, i would know to type ftp.
i'd much rather dispose of TLDs that allow crap like WhiteHouse.com. If we are doing to have TLDs, can we at least put them in order? com.Hotmail/userName/page.html
i'd rather see people CapitalizeTheFirstLetterInAWebSAddress because itseasiertoread.
Indeed, there are myriad reasons for people choosing to be vegetarian. i wouldn't say you're quibbling. i just didn't feel like typing out pages of reasons.
Hey Rotsky,
You should read more of the responses before posting. You missed the bit about the difference between herbivore and vegetarian. Cows aren't vegetarian, they are herbivores. A dog that eats nothing but veggies is not a vegetarian, it's an omnivore. i'm an omnivore. Being vegetarian is a choice made by a non-herbivore. If a kid has no access to animals as food, he isn't vegetarian. He hasn't chosen to be so. Got it?
You're right about the "why", why isn't the issue with who is or isn't vegetarian.
"As an omnivore who knows what shape his teeth are"
Walk up to a cow and start biting. If you survive the kick we can talk about teeth and bite strength. However, if you can catch up to it, kill it without tools and eat it without cooking or seasoning it, more power to you.
"I find anyone who wants to talk about how Christian/Straight Edge/$other_Philosophy they are critically annoying"
FtfY
Fat people are annoyed by healthy people talking about how eat and exercise.
"desperately trying to attach a label to themselves that will make someone think they are cool"
Not all people to whom a label might apply are doing it for the label. Some are. i'm sorry some vegetarian broke your heart, cut you off in traffic or made you feel judged. But what is true of some is not necessarily true of the whole. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Christians are crusaders or abortion clinic bombers. Not all Scottsmen go commando. Not all potheads are glassy eyed thieves. With any human activity there are those who will take it too far. There will be those 10% who make the other 90% look bad.
Don't confuse your personal experiences/anecdotes with evidence. i've never once harassed anyone about eating animals. If someone attacked me first, i've occasional fired back, but haven't done so in about 10 years. But for you i'll make an exception.
"Repeatedly and publicly calling yourself a vegetarian is your right, but it's kind of like fraternity/sorority lite. Recognition without commitment."
Speaking only for myself again, i don't do it for the label. Shit i would MUCH rather not ever have to say the word again. i'm tired of saying it and tired of hearing it applied to me. i'd much rather be allowed to order dinner without the inane questions, jokes and such. As for commitment, i've got that in spades. If you read my post, you'd see that i'm attacking people who want the label without the work.... Those who claim to be straight edge while taking a bong hit.
"There are no indigenous vegetarians. None. You might reflect on that for a time."
You might reflect on people being lazy and selfish for a time. You might also reflect on slavery having been popular in the US. Did so before != should continue to do so.
"Plants have nervous systems and memories."
Think about it this way, you draw a line at cats and probably dolphins, i draw the line somewhere else. If it came down to eating fish or starving, i'll eat the fish. Since 17 Nov 93 i've not been in a life or death situation, so i've opted out eating other animals.
"I know a"
Again with the describing the whole as being like an individual.
Great, you know someone. So what? i know a kid who went fishing an was traumatized by seeing the fish gutted. So what? Does that mean YOU have to stop eating fish? No, it doesn't. What does that have to do with you being an ignorant, intolerant, bigoted dick who cares about what someone they've never met eats? i know at least a dozen homosexuals who own macs and are pretty insistent about the superiority of their macs. Therefore all mac owners are gay and smug about their hardware.
"former raw food vegan fascist"
Do you also use the term feminazi? "My parents made me come home by 10. What a buncha fascists!"
"and went back to feeding her body what it needed"
Look up the word "need", it doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. In the meantime there are some world class athletes who might might differ with you about what our bodies "need".
"a complete diet. Life feeds on life and we've evolved to eat meat."
And yet we have a choice. If you had actually read my post, instead of seeing a word that reminded you of someone who hurt your feelings which brought back of flood of butthurt memories which you've decided to take out on me and every other person who isn't JUST like you... you would have noticed that i acknowledged being an omnivore. My life feeds on life, yes. That's as true as it is irrel
Can someone call themselves abstinent because they only have sex doggy. style? Why do Christians balk when someone points out that Hitler was a Christian? The lacto-ovo-pesci-pollo crowd are meat eaters... who call themselves vegetarian BECAUSE they want the label. They want the label virgin because they do it every way except doggy style. It's a bit of a slap in the face to people who actually live up to it. i've played the video game SOCOM, does that make a special forces bad ass? i could say i was special forces IFF i was special forces. i was in the USAF, does that mean i should have a Semper Fi sticker on my car? Hell no, that would be a insult to those who endured the crucible.
i'm not interested in having the label. As i said, i avoid mentioning it. i mention it here because it is pertinent to the topic.
i'm interested in the label retaining meaning. For the same reason i object to file sharing being called piracy. Piracy is armed robbery at sea. Think of it as pedantry if it helps.
Scientists and science reporters shouldn't speak figuratively. It's an incorrect and misleading use of the word.
"Pi is exactly 3. Figuratively speaking."
i make a bad ass veggie chili that my cannibal friends love.
Stereotypes are easier than thinking/self analysis *shrugs*.
As a vegetarian, i find the term flexitarian annoying. It's like a saying "I'm a virgin because I only do it doggy style". i'm also annoyed by people who say they are lacto-ovo-pollo-pesci vegetarian. They just don't eat cows. No need to label that! Seems more like they are trying to have a trendy label of their own. i'm not looking for a label, i generally avoid mentioning it at all. i just order what i want.
There's no reason to call this spider vegetarian. It's a spider that eats mostly plants and the occasional bug. It would be more accurate to say omnivore. The term vegetarian couldn't apply to a non-sapient animal. A dog that eats nothing but veggies isn't vegetarian, it's just eating what is available. It's not making a *choice* to not eat animals. These spiders aren't making a choice either. They're following instinct to find an easier source of food. It's an evolutionary change in strategy. For me, it is a choice. i am an omnivore choosing to not eat other animals. These spiders aren't troubled over the treatment of factory farm animals, or worried about cholesterol or anything else. They're just avoiding a crowded field of competition for food.
Yeah, it's very novel to see a spider nomming on plant matter, but rushing to call it vegetarian is as inane as calling anyone wearing all black goth. They might just be wearing all black... or they might be a juggalo or Marylin Manson fan... or....
The other thing that bugs me is how much other people obsess about what i'm NOT eating.
Stross's hate might be more about envy. i've heard of Star Trek, but not this Stross guy. How many Stross movies have i seen? Do you own any DVD sets of TV series made about his work? HE'S talking about Star Trek, who is talking about him? Reminds me of fat women whining about beautiful women being slutty.
Outdo, v. to make an enemy
Star Trek wasn't really about science, imo, so much as about society. Most episodes were about taking some modern social issue and turning it on its head to illustrate a point.
Ohh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. "I'm My Own Grandfather"!
The second M and the O are redundant.
Let's just call them MRPG, MFPS and MRTS.
Excellent post. i wish i had karma for you.
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i've the eye hand coordination of a blind snake, which makes FPSes very difficult for me. Some flavor of adaptive difficulty would be great for me because i wouldn't be as inclined to use cheat codes. Give me more health or help me with some aiming assistance.
i also like to think and read as i play games which makes RTSes very difficult for me. While i'm thinking, the guys who have played Star Craft for 1000 hours or so are madly clicking away. (i'm also a casual gamer, i get to play an hour or two a week, which makes it hard to keep up with guys who play two hours a day)
Adaptive difficulty might be tricky to implement in a multiplayer game. In single player games it would be great as an option for players like me. i'd prolly play more than i do if i could have a game that was challenging enough to be exciting by easy enough that it's not frustrating.
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Rubber-banding in my gaming circles refers to a side effect of lag. Sometimes someone will be moving and then suddenly snap back as the server decides that the avatar shouldn't be where it was.
You sound fat.
That tickles!
Unless the software was stolen via armed robbery at sea, it wasn't piracy. It's just copyright infringement. Real world pirates kill people, or at least use the threat of deadly force to steal REAL things (as opposed to copying imaginary things). What they should say is 59% of software is over priced.
Re: BSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnLB8wysMbY
Eh. Democrats are our left, we'll call them left. Any further left that that and you're moving back to the right (down?). Much of what the rest of the world calls left leads to a different flavor of authoritarianism. Some authoritarian asshat dictators claim to represent the people, some are honest and don't. Left/right is only one axis of something more complicated. Chavez would likely paint himself as leftist, as might much of the world. But he's a jackbooted thug. That's not what "left" should mean, i think.
Hrm.
In my primary monitor i run PlanetSide, my secondary shows TeamSpeak. i can easily see who is talking, who is in what channel and so on without a distracting overlay or alt tabbing.
Works very nicely.
The next step up is to have TeamSpeak run on a second computer so i don't have to alt tab move people between channels and i can set up keybinds that would otherwise cause problems in the game i'm playing.