I hate to rain on your parade, but it's awfully arrogant to think that a short attention span means you're smart.
Wouldn't you agree that the smarter child will learn to beat the system rather than face it head-to-head? Life's not fair, and school's a good place to learn that, cause it usually doesn't get any better once you get a job.
So, you were bullied because you were disruptive. I had a friend with ADD or ADHD or whatever the hell, and he had the same problem.
I got through high school just fine by not bringing attention to myself. You go, you put in your hours, and you leave. The people who usually get picked on most are the ones who make it easy and ask for the attention. The smaller your school is, the harder it is to fly under the radar, but it's not impossible.
You're the type of nerd who takes his date to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then mutters, "Guys, it's not that funny," when my group can't stop laughing at how Splinter looks like Chester the Cheetah and talks in a horrible Chinese accent.
Define "intelligent patterns" and "unique phenomena".
So now that I've dismissed 2/3 of your definition because of its vague terminology, let's talk about self-replication. Well, clouds can pick up more moisture and then split apart, is that self-replication? And what about viruses?
Humans are only interested in "life" as it is identifiable to humans. Having to travel to the center of the sun to view some alternate version of life is... not something we're interested in. Identifying certain characteristics of a planet (like climate, chemical properties, etc) as is the best way to pare down habitats.
I'd mod you up if I could. Instead, I will answer.
We are looking for life like ourselves, so that we can affirm that: 1. We aren't completely accidents. 2. We aren't completely alone. 3. We have a place in the grand scheme of things. We can compare ourselves to something comparable. 4. More emotional needy psychological things.
There are nuts everywhere. Most don't become too nutty until you start pointing out things that are wrong and differences that nobody noticed before.
The Texas constitution was made a long time ago by the people of the time. So were the original designs for US currency, and protocol for swearing on a bible before testifying in court. Do people look at currency and think, "Gee golly, it's right! In God I trust!"? Do they swear on the bible and actually feel compelled to tell the truth more so than otherwise? No.
Most nonsense that people complain about is left over tradition. Yes, sometimes tradition has to go. Other times, it doesn't, as it really means nothing to the people anymore. The moment someone complains about something like the Texas constitution, it starts a shoving battle between people who feel like their culture is being attacked and people who feel the need to fix something that isn't broken. IMO, in some cases it's better to let tradition and culture, remnants of the past, fade out silently than to attack them and renew interest in them.
Exactly. I'd gladly pay less for a computer preloaded with crap and then format it! At least you get Windows in case you really need it for whatever reason. I'm not quite sure why people are pining for Linux pre-loaded, since it will most likely cost as much or more than a Windows system.
The only advantage I can see is guaranteed hardware support, and maybe a greater adoption rate (but probably not if there's no price advantage). I mean, the pre-loaded Linux will probably be out of date by the time any consumer buys the machine - which is fine for some people, but I like the bleeding edge packages.
So instead of playing these little games, how about the OEMs just make sure their machines work with Linux, and give it a little "Linux compatible" logo? They can still package Windows and spyware to keep the price of the machine down, and then we can just format them and install whatever Linux we want.
It's pretty easy to determine that your navigation equipment may be unreliable when it's lightning out. Not so much when someone is fiddling with their electronic device.
Actually, I was setting up Windows like a Unix system before I switched to Linux... so it took quite a long time to get Documents and Settings, Program Files, and Windows to point to different partitions. And then to get the command shell working decently... whew.
Firstly, Microsoft makes most of its money off support. Maybe they benefit from secure software, but definitely not "good" software. They want their software to be "just good enough" so that support is necessary and paid upgrades are necessary.
Secondly, there are so many different versions, alternatives, and forks of open source software that it's harder to target a large audience. It's the monoculture that requires Microsoft to be more secure.
Right, as long as the majority of licensing profits go back into research, then what's the problem here? Reward the universities that come up with useful things. Give them a goal to strive toward. If all they got was government money, they wouldn't have nearly as much ambition except that from modesty and the goodness of their hearts.
1. I don't see why anyone who knows how to play these instruments would want to play fake instruments. That was my main point. 2. I can only understand playing fake instrument games if you are the type who wouldn't want to learn the real thing. Inferred from #1. 3. I explicitly pointed out the difference between other games and instrument games.
That was my original post in a nutshell.
If you're going to sit indoors moving your hands on a fake guitar, why not do the real thing? To play paintball or do kung fu you need physical stamina, you need to get off your fat ass, and you need to find people (aka friends) to partake in the activity with you. You need absolutely none of that to learn an instrument.
To further illustrate what I'm saying, pretend there is a video game for virtual masturbation. Now, virtual sex makes sense, because you'd need to find a partner and get all sweaty. For virtual masturbation, you need to do pretty much the same amount of work as real masturbation.
I read something very interesting last night about how the human genome doesn't contain enough information to possibly make all of the neural connections in the body, and that a good percentage of a "body" is bacteria and viruses.
There is a bacteria that over 50% of the world's population has, and it causes people to be neurotic and women to give birth to a higher percentage of males.
I've never slept better than during a PowerPoint presentation. Especially the ones by computer science teachers.
Actually, I appreciate it when they put them online. I pretty much skipped an entire semester of AI classes and then read the slides online the night before the exam and got a B+. What a bunch of idiots.
I think this has to be said, and I don't have a better place to say it - Mandriva is the best distro I have used. It may possibly be the only distribution of Linux that a power user can install and enjoy without worrying about low-level details and configuration.
I used Mandrake 7.0 - 9.0 on an old server at home for various Linux hackery. When I saw Mandrake 9.0, I said to myself, "I am switching my desktop to Linux at 10.0," and that's what I did, and I haven't looked back.
Mandriva lets you run Gnome or KDE right out of the box. Its configuration utilities let you do almost anything with ease. It may have stability issues once in awhile if you run out of their development 'cooker' branch, but it's gotten a ton better in the past few years.
With the PLF repository, you get all of the 'banned' functionality that's not packaged with Mandriva (windows codecs, etc).
Some user-friendly distributions are severely limited when you want to go beyond the basics. They don't have up-to-date development RPMs or don't have utilities that support advanced configuration.
If only Mandriva weren't so expensive I might actually get the commercial version. Honestly, the improvements from version to version have been astounding.
I had that problem even with my NVidia card. The original release worked OKAY but somewhere in the cooker things got majorly screwed up. I don't so much think it's Mandriva's problem as it is just all the projects coordinating and things being relatively new.
It's not even that. San Andreas was just SO expansive that it got boring. It was just too open-ended and lacked focus.
Exercising in the gym to look better, buying sunglasses to raise 'charisma', picking up your girlfriend(s) for dates,... it wanted to be an RPG or the Sims.
Shit, I just want to kill someone and steal their car.
Slashdot Mirror
I hate to rain on your parade, but it's awfully arrogant to think that a short attention span means you're smart.
Wouldn't you agree that the smarter child will learn to beat the system rather than face it head-to-head? Life's not fair, and school's a good place to learn that, cause it usually doesn't get any better once you get a job.
So, you were bullied because you were disruptive. I had a friend with ADD or ADHD or whatever the hell, and he had the same problem.
I got through high school just fine by not bringing attention to myself. You go, you put in your hours, and you leave. The people who usually get picked on most are the ones who make it easy and ask for the attention. The smaller your school is, the harder it is to fly under the radar, but it's not impossible.
You're the type of nerd who takes his date to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then mutters, "Guys, it's not that funny," when my group can't stop laughing at how Splinter looks like Chester the Cheetah and talks in a horrible Chinese accent.
Define "intelligent patterns" and "unique phenomena".
So now that I've dismissed 2/3 of your definition because of its vague terminology, let's talk about self-replication. Well, clouds can pick up more moisture and then split apart, is that self-replication? And what about viruses?
Humans are only interested in "life" as it is identifiable to humans. Having to travel to the center of the sun to view some alternate version of life is... not something we're interested in. Identifying certain characteristics of a planet (like climate, chemical properties, etc) as is the best way to pare down habitats.
I'd mod you up if I could. Instead, I will answer.
We are looking for life like ourselves, so that we can affirm that:
1. We aren't completely accidents.
2. We aren't completely alone.
3. We have a place in the grand scheme of things. We can compare ourselves to something comparable.
4. More emotional needy psychological things.
There are nuts everywhere. Most don't become too nutty until you start pointing out things that are wrong and differences that nobody noticed before.
The Texas constitution was made a long time ago by the people of the time. So were the original designs for US currency, and protocol for swearing on a bible before testifying in court. Do people look at currency and think, "Gee golly, it's right! In God I trust!"? Do they swear on the bible and actually feel compelled to tell the truth more so than otherwise? No.
Most nonsense that people complain about is left over tradition. Yes, sometimes tradition has to go. Other times, it doesn't, as it really means nothing to the people anymore. The moment someone complains about something like the Texas constitution, it starts a shoving battle between people who feel like their culture is being attacked and people who feel the need to fix something that isn't broken. IMO, in some cases it's better to let tradition and culture, remnants of the past, fade out silently than to attack them and renew interest in them.
Exactly. I'd gladly pay less for a computer preloaded with crap and then format it! At least you get Windows in case you really need it for whatever reason. I'm not quite sure why people are pining for Linux pre-loaded, since it will most likely cost as much or more than a Windows system.
The only advantage I can see is guaranteed hardware support, and maybe a greater adoption rate (but probably not if there's no price advantage). I mean, the pre-loaded Linux will probably be out of date by the time any consumer buys the machine - which is fine for some people, but I like the bleeding edge packages.
So instead of playing these little games, how about the OEMs just make sure their machines work with Linux, and give it a little "Linux compatible" logo? They can still package Windows and spyware to keep the price of the machine down, and then we can just format them and install whatever Linux we want.
1. Design a computer that thinks "like a woman"
2. Have computer lock itself in the bathroom, crying.
3. ???
4. End of civilization?
Pedantic correction:
Caffeine is not energy, it is a stimulant.
You're my hero. Wish I had mod points.
That's a good idea. Let's totally do it.
1. Film explosions in Iraq.
2. Film rest of movie in Arizona with Native Americans pretending to be terrorists.
3. Edit scenes together.
4. Profit!
Wherever there's an abundance of a resource, an industry should arise taking advantage of it. Why not?!
Even better, let's dispose of radioactive waste by putting it in remote-controlled Humvees with US Marine-looking mannequins in the front seat.
But by now I'm probably way off the topic of AACS being cracked.
Well, not that I care one way or another, but...
It's pretty easy to determine that your navigation equipment may be unreliable when it's lightning out. Not so much when someone is fiddling with their electronic device.
Harhar :)
Actually, I was setting up Windows like a Unix system before I switched to Linux... so it took quite a long time to get Documents and Settings, Program Files, and Windows to point to different partitions. And then to get the command shell working decently... whew.
Firstly, Microsoft makes most of its money off support. Maybe they benefit from secure software, but definitely not "good" software. They want their software to be "just good enough" so that support is necessary and paid upgrades are necessary.
Secondly, there are so many different versions, alternatives, and forks of open source software that it's harder to target a large audience. It's the monoculture that requires Microsoft to be more secure.
Right, as long as the majority of licensing profits go back into research, then what's the problem here? Reward the universities that come up with useful things. Give them a goal to strive toward. If all they got was government money, they wouldn't have nearly as much ambition except that from modesty and the goodness of their hearts.
Nothing Records and the studio in New Orleans are defunct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Records
1. I don't see why anyone who knows how to play these instruments would want to play fake instruments. That was my main point.
2. I can only understand playing fake instrument games if you are the type who wouldn't want to learn the real thing. Inferred from #1.
3. I explicitly pointed out the difference between other games and instrument games.
That was my original post in a nutshell.
If you're going to sit indoors moving your hands on a fake guitar, why not do the real thing? To play paintball or do kung fu you need physical stamina, you need to get off your fat ass, and you need to find people (aka friends) to partake in the activity with you. You need absolutely none of that to learn an instrument.
To further illustrate what I'm saying, pretend there is a video game for virtual masturbation. Now, virtual sex makes sense, because you'd need to find a partner and get all sweaty. For virtual masturbation, you need to do pretty much the same amount of work as real masturbation.
That's not what I said at all, and I even addressed the point you make, but nice flame AC! Keep up the good work!
I play drums and guitar, and I cannot imagine why anyone who can do so would want to do so "fake" in front of the TV.
Sure, these games are good for the market of people who would normally buy a $50 guitar and never learn... but really...
They're even more pointless than sports games. At least there are physical, social, and weather barriers stopping you from playing real basketball...
I read something very interesting last night about how the human genome doesn't contain enough information to possibly make all of the neural connections in the body, and that a good percentage of a "body" is bacteria and viruses.
There is a bacteria that over 50% of the world's population has, and it causes people to be neurotic and women to give birth to a higher percentage of males.
Scary stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma
I've never slept better than during a PowerPoint presentation. Especially the ones by computer science teachers.
Actually, I appreciate it when they put them online. I pretty much skipped an entire semester of AI classes and then read the slides online the night before the exam and got a B+. What a bunch of idiots.
I think this has to be said, and I don't have a better place to say it - Mandriva is the best distro I have used. It may possibly be the only distribution of Linux that a power user can install and enjoy without worrying about low-level details and configuration.
I used Mandrake 7.0 - 9.0 on an old server at home for various Linux hackery. When I saw Mandrake 9.0, I said to myself, "I am switching my desktop to Linux at 10.0," and that's what I did, and I haven't looked back.
Mandriva lets you run Gnome or KDE right out of the box. Its configuration utilities let you do almost anything with ease. It may have stability issues once in awhile if you run out of their development 'cooker' branch, but it's gotten a ton better in the past few years.
With the PLF repository, you get all of the 'banned' functionality that's not packaged with Mandriva (windows codecs, etc).
Some user-friendly distributions are severely limited when you want to go beyond the basics. They don't have up-to-date development RPMs or don't have utilities that support advanced configuration.
If only Mandriva weren't so expensive I might actually get the commercial version. Honestly, the improvements from version to version have been astounding.
I had that problem even with my NVidia card. The original release worked OKAY but somewhere in the cooker things got majorly screwed up. I don't so much think it's Mandriva's problem as it is just all the projects coordinating and things being relatively new.
But I want to beat the game 100% without doing all the hundreds of minigames. :(
It's not even that. San Andreas was just SO expansive that it got boring. It was just too open-ended and lacked focus.
... it wanted to be an RPG or the Sims.
Exercising in the gym to look better, buying sunglasses to raise 'charisma', picking up your girlfriend(s) for dates,
Shit, I just want to kill someone and steal their car.