This weekend, I really wanted to buy a song I heard on the radio, an RIAA artist but not quite in the same vein as Britney et al. So I went online to try to find a download legally from one of these many stores popping up. I found the song, and was willing to maybe drop my RIAA boycott for just a moment to buy a song and maybe show them, "Hey, this is a model that works." But all the songs from various stores had some form of DRM, or were in WMA. I couldn't get my stomach around the fact that after buying it, I would not have basic rights over it, like number of computers I could have it on (I have a sizable network at home, I'm always shuffling files around and backing them up as insurance agaisnt my putzing), whether or not or how I can burn to CD (used for car or jogging). So, instead, I illegally downloaded it. (I've read tales of smartasses who have been in similar situations and sent a dollar to the artist, which I may do just on principle. Maybe the artists will eventually get the clue?). I haven't used P2P for music in ages, and even when I did before, it did increase my exposure to groups I never would have known about and many who I now own many CDs by. The next day after making that download, I bought a $60 stack of CDs of independent groups online (from CDBaby et al). I don't have a problem paying for my music, I have a problem having to give up my principles in order to do so.
When I came across this last year, it surprised the hell out of me (definitely merited a "WTF?"). I generally don't keep track of my online purchases (in as far as differentiating them from non-online purchases). And what about things I've bought from outside the country (import CDs et al)? Do those count? Seeing as how I didn't want to get in trouble, I made a rough estimation, but then again, how about the places I've bought from that ALREADY incorporated sales tax? I don't remember which they are, I don't keep records that closely on that stuff. Let's hope little graduate student me doesn't attract attention and get audited on my cute little minimum wage income. Because that would sickening if citizens are getting in trouble for this, while 60% of corporations didn't submit taxes 1996-2000 (was in the news this week). *sigh*
I'm not joking, I've seen this on many occasions, usually with WinXP despite it's ability to recognize anything short of a toaster plugged into it. I've seen this happen at research group meetings and while TAing for a class in which the last 10 days of class had term presentations. Several days out of those we had to swap laptops with other groups because another's wouldn't work, and in some cases, I'd even have to run to the next building to check out a departmental laptop for the presentations. This was after they tried the windows fix-all of rebooting repeatedly. No, I'm not BSing. Running in icy rain at 8am to get a spare laptop with the professor breathing fire about not getting started on time is something I wish my little lazy TA ass could BS about. I don't know exactly why it works smoothly for some laptops but not others, but it is something I've seen happen repeatedly.
I have been using linux and BSD at home for many of my own projects for years. I always kept a windows partition for school-related things. Finally, one day, I realized how completely sick of windows I was and wanted to drop it altogether. Mind you, I had all my school work and research under windows because that's what my advisors, professors and collaborators used too. I didn't really have a problem dropping Windows. Later versions of Open Office treated my old Word files rather kindly, even Impress has been wonderful, and all my data was just fine being opened and saved in Calc. I installed Matlab for Linux instead of for Windows, and my projects of course had no problem being moved over. I try to send most of my files to people at.pdf, but even in the instances I've saved files for Windows or Mac (I interact with people who use both), it hasn't been a problem at all. In fact, the formatting problems I've seen sending them files is no different than I've seen with Windows users swapping files. So, now I'm as productive as ever at work, and not feeling like a whore every time I turn on my laptop! (And if anything, everyone is rather amazed when I go to a group meeting and I have no problem connecting my laptop to the projector, while for everyone else, doing so is a 15 minute showstopper requiring about 10 reboots of windows). I don't know what your particular needs are, but as for myself and some of my friends who switched, it wasn't as painful as anticipated.
My boyfriend and I do not watch TV (we're in the early to mid-20's age bracket). In the evening if we want to kick back instead of working on the computers, we usually play a game together in front of the TV. However, I'd love to have Discovery, CNN, History, Comedy Central, but I'm not willing to pay $40 a month here for cable for all the crap when I just want that small set of channels. Therefore, it's no TV for us, which surprises many people. And I can't say we miss it all that much either. It's much more fun to play a game together, interacting and talking strategy rather than staring mindlessly at the screen.
I am a user on a university network. Due to some evil twist of fate (and issues involving pay and seniority), our machinist was actually a computer guy his whole prior career who also is skilled with machinist stuff. Our department sysadmin was a machinist prior to his current job. On one hand this is good... the machinist is a linux geek too and thus we get along great. He has pushed aside professor's "emergency" jobs to do minor-by-comparison lab jobs for me. Our sysadmin really shouldn't be behind a computer. And he is very abusive of his position of power over everyone's computers. Many grad students come to me for help instead of him because of his incompetence as well as attitude, and many a time I have correctly diagnosed a problem the first try that later he spends weeks trying to "fix" only to be wrong about three times. And during blaster, he threatened to remove me from the network until I proved I had installed the patch for it (I have my own personal laptop that is registered on our network). I had a hell of a time telling him that there was no patch against the blaster worm for Slackware. So, I guess my point is that I really wouldn't mind a strict sysadmin who actually knew what he was doing. He'd (or she?... there have got to be some out there) would make a great person to interact with and I'd have a lot of respect for them. But there are some out there that are worse than the user base that they are supposed to administer over... and those type are greatly resentful of those who know more than them (some people have suggested that perhaps some of his additional attitude towards me is gender-related, but I really would like to think the best of people). *sigh*
But hey, thumbs up to all you good sysadmins out there (we had a great one in my division when I worked in government). I know it's not an easy job.
Games shouldn't be solely about comparing relative skill wankerdom. They are games. They are meant for fun and enjoyment. Different people enjoy different things. If I want a challenge and apply skill, I am an engineer for 12 hours of my day. If I want to be able to sit back, relax and get pulled into a story in my free time, I play an RPG. And even in MMORPGs, I tend to derive great enjoyment from running around and exploring. I don't *care* if FPS players are more "skilled" as gamers, because gaming is *not* real life. I have played FPS's with friends, and I really don't enjoy them. They are not relaxing, I end up getting even more tense which defeats the point of leisure time for me. Also, I find them very jarring on my hands and wrists compared to other games (due to severe arthritis since I was 18). Different people enjoy different things, and it really bothers me when people impugn others' ideas of fun. Would you believe some people enjoy gardening? Or stamp collecting? Like, dude, how on earth can you demonstrate skill and 0wnz people when not behind a keyboard? I just think the overall topic is pointless. People should play the games they enjoy not to compare digital wankers but to have fun. And if fun is proving that you are "more skilled" than brainless RPGers, so be it. But leave the rest of us to our fun, please, without looking down on us.
Some doctors are idiots.
on
Cyberchondria
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· Score: 2, Interesting
A few years ago I was diagnosed with a particular autoimmune disease. I was fortunate in that it took a little over a year for me to be diagnosed, which is typical, but some people it even may take 5 years or longer. Doctors are notoriously horrible with diagnosing autoimmune diseases ("Maybe you're just depressed? Want some nice prozac? Maybe that's why you can't walk?"). In the course of that year, the "highly respected" doctors at the "prestigious" university medical center were extremely bumbling and applied their preconceived notions of what they thought I had to my case as opposed to paying attention to my test results and symptoms. I got all copies of my test results and researched heavily online. So when they said, "Test X and Y are high, but I don't think you have condition Z" I could retort, "According to Medical Journal A, high results in X and Y are seen in 96% of cases of condition Z, so WTF are you basing it on otherwise?!?!" I fought tooth and nail armed with what I had online just to get the medications I needed to continue my daily activities. You have to be a proponent of your own health because sadly enough, no one else will. I now have a different doctor who diagnosed me with condition Z, treated me, and loves the fact I care to read up on things online and DISCUSS them intelligently with her. "Why don't we try New Medication B? Study results have been fairly promising." She's not intimidated by the fact she has a patient who asks about new possible choices. So yes, doctors are necessary, but I think so is being an informed consumer and not afraid to ask questions and offer suggestions about your own health maintenance.
I am actually engaged in an issue with New Egg right now over a motherboard. I've used them for years, and I do trust them if anything happens, I've RMAed a few things that have arrived dead. I have a mobo right now which I had ordered from another vendor and was on death's door. Ordered the same one from New Egg, and it will not POST. Reading the comments on New Egg (after the fact), I saw that a LOT of people had similar problems, receiving 2-3 of these dud boards before receiving a working one. So.... that's supposed to be a positive review? "New Egg was GREAT!!! They sent me THREE of these dead boards before one worked!" Sure it's a great testiment to New Egg's SERVICE. But I have read MANY reviews on New Egg that were negative about the PRODUCT (which is not necessarily New Egg's fault, and that's what I'm interested in reading). So while their policy may be to play nice, I've read many "Don't go with this one, go with X instead because of Y" and they have been helpful and saved lots of headache.
You asked if anyone takes user reviews seriously... I will on occasion. Both on Amazon etc, as well as sites such as New Egg (about a particular hardware product). I am generally interested to see what others think. It's just another sliver of information to potentially support my decision for or against a purchase. If there's either a solitary (or a handful of) glowing or panning review(s), that usually doesn't tell me much. But if there is a large pool of comments, it can be helpful. I can discard the high and the low, and still get a general view of what others think. And I'd like to think I can pick out the intelligent responses from the useless. "i licked this bok b/c it was gud" versus "This was a very well-written book (inserts reason here and supports it well)" in addition to drawing comparisons to other books and related subjects or offering further recommendations. And come on, did we not think before that some of these could be faked? I leave comments on sites sometimes with the hope that perhaps someone may find them helpful, and I often find the comments of others to be interesting and informative. It's not a perfect system but can indeed be used to support the other research I've done about the product prior to purchase.
I've seen many parents in articles and on TV talking about violent video games and saying such things as "I never knew that game was violent" and then complain that stricter labeling or even removing them from some stores is needed (thus barring legitimate adults from easily purchasing them). While ironically Sam Goody now has a large DVD porn section with only cute opaque plastic slips with playboy bunnies on them in front of the first DVD to hide them.
The other day I was at a Gamestop (getting Gothic II), and there was a mother there with her two little boys. Her little boys kept looking at games and saying, "Mommy, get me that one, and that one." To which she was very acquiescent. She was there purchasing a few new memory cards for the Game Cube. When the clerk said, "Okay, here are two Game Cube memory cards," she said, "Game Cube? I need memory cards for the Nintendo." Meanwhile in the background, the two little kids were in fact discussing GTA... and acting it out against each other. It was.... disturbing. But more than anything, it made me rather angry. If this woman wasn't even too clear about what console she was buying memory cards for, you can be sure as hell she has no idea about the content of the games she buys for them, and didn't really seem to care either. I've seen similar sights before too. It seems people like her are using games as a proxy for parenting, keeping the kids quiet and out of their way. I admit, I was playing Doom with my dad as a middle schooler, but it wasn't a substitution for parenting. I may have played games like that with their knowledge, but I had the parents who demanded to know who I was with, where and why 24/7 and any applicable contact info. My parents called the shots.... nowadays it seems the kids themselves are.
I do have my own domain, and like some of my other friends who do as well, we use hosting services. Some of my friends' WHOIS entries have their address and full contact information. Mine has nothing at all like that. Under the agreement I have with my web hosting service, if I wanted to stop using them tomorrow and go to someone else, the domain name is mine, all mine, I can transfer it. However, my WHOIS entry has THEIR company contact information, NOT MINE. Therefore, I've gotten no spam or anything like that. My hosting service uses my email to only periodically send me heads-up if they are performing major updates or something, or to contact me to remind me to renew. Anyone who comes across my page and wants to contact me can use the information there to contact me. They've been a very good hosting service to me, and I never even thought about the issue with the WHOIS entry until I read this article and commentary today. I don't know if that was their intention when having the WHOIS info their their name, but it's a rather nice side effect I think.
I have to admit that I've played one tennis game, and it was a fun group-type game, but it really would not have been my first choice and it didn't really engage me personally. I've known just as many guys who feel that way about sports games too. Now, DDR is a game I've seen bring a lot of people together and get excited about.... AND get a good workout. I really feel a lot of the RPGs out there are becoming more and more female friendly (not that I care in the sense that you should play something because you like it and not because it's pitched towards you). For instance, back in Baldur's Gate, one the characters in your party has a crush/interest in your main character. You could make your character female... which kind of threw me at first when this female NPC was throwing come-ons towards my female main character. This would have made sense for the 99% of the players who were guys and would make their character male as well. In Neverwinter Nights, there were different dialogue options, and even different quests based on whether your character was female or not. This not only made it "female-friendly" but added a lot of replay value too... suddenly male gamers who I don't think would have played a female at any point all of a sudden wanted to play the game again as a female. Things are definitely improving, but I still don't think that games should be taylored towards one gender or the other. But you can never go wrong with more options for *everyone*... just makes it easier to find your niche.
And BTW, I'm a lady who looks at Halo and says "I want to play too"... and it's one of my girl-friends who's addicted to it more so than my guy friends!
Most of my female friends if you suggested they play tennis or golf games, they'd just as rather whack you over the head with a racket or club. Girls can be just as bloodthirsty in gaming as guys, and it really does boil down to personal preference. Tetris is great from time to time, but it gets old. MMORPGs can be good (I'm eagerly awaiting the release of World of Warcraft so my bf and I can play, and yes we signed up for the beta). I'm not as rabid a gamer as he, I'd rather just spend my computer time sometimes working on my personal programming/networking projects. But I adore the exploratory aspects of MMORPGs and games such as Morrowind (wide expansive landscapes), some killing or even a lot (I have a few female friends who are rapid GTAers, me, I do "GTA: Morrowind" at times to alleviate stress, working on my goal of strategically eradicating the 3k+ named NPCs in the game), and some people prefer to focus on the RP aspects of MMORPGs. Everyone looks for different things in a game, both guys and girls, and I think the guy who originally asked the question should probably get to know his girl better and her preferences and maybe suggest games she could play to occupy some of the time he won't be around. Not try to get her to play just to say they are doing something "together" and "communicating." Girls are people too, k?
I read a recent article on slashdot about how American companies (GE was one large one named) were building large research centers in India. Filled with PhDs (engineers, chemists, biologists, et al.).
Shall we say... "When they offshored the programmers, I did not speak out because I was not a programmer."
However, I am a MS/PhD student in (non-computer) engineering. And reading that on slashdot scared the hell out of me. So I have a few more years and several $k left in my education.... and by then it will be in India? What's the motivation for U.S. students to go for the higher education (which used to be equated with higher pay) when that in the very near future may not be the case? I think we *all* should be very very concerned. Not just the programmers/IT's.
Granted, it's a small cheap car, but it's not too bad. My family is almost exclusively a Ford family. Growing up, we always had one (several different ones I recall from my childhood). The secret with the Escort is you trade it in before its "witching hour" which usually occurs between 50-60k. Though I couldn't drive back then, my parents had fond thoughts about those cars. When it came time for me to get my own car, I got an Escort too. It's eight years old now, and I've always found it to be a trustworthy car with excellent handling. I think the Ford Escort's legacy isn't that bad for what it was supposed to be (small cheap car). Still, I have plans to get rid of mine before that witching hour strikes on it soon. It will be missed though.
For a while now, I've not bought any RIAA CDs (actually almost 4 now). However, my CD spending is ridiculous (CDBaby addict, other independent CD sellers.... getting thank you notes from indie artists whose CDs you've purchased is kinda neat)... but they (==RIAA) will NEVER get a single penny from me again. I've even sold off all the 250+ CDs I purchased in my middle and high school heyday of insanity.
I am a Pepsi/Mountain Dew drinker over Coke. BUT... since the money I'd be paying for a soda is now going in part to RIAA artists through itunes... I will not be buying sodas from Pepsi at least for the duration of this promotion.
So it's a drop in the bucket, my moral adherence to this, and spreading the word. And some of you may laugh about it.... but I can't justify sponsoring their reign of terror, or any corporations who do (Pepsi paying for RIAA artist iTunes). Just a personal thing, mod me insane. *shrug* I don't know what my point even was... it just bothers me.
I require music to maintain any semblance of productivity. What is interesting is that people think "Wow, she has headphones on, so I can say whatever and she doesn't know." So, incidentally, people will hold relatively confidential/secret conversations within what would be earshot of me. When I installing and tweaking the ALSA sound drivers on me laptop (Slackware 9.1), I came across this idea and implemented it accordingly. So now I have my system volume set to an appropriate level.... AND have my laptop built-in microphone on too. So, I can listen to music at a good volume, and not be deaf to what people are saying around me (whether TO me, or in spite of me). And boy do I hear the most interesting things...
I definitely understand your point, but I've seen men take that same stubborn attitutde when dealing with other men. I love talking technology and computers with males, and in my entire life the amount of female friends I've had can be counted on one hand. Hence, I've never had a problem talking with males as equals and without an immediate inferiority complex. I shun *anyone* who has the "I'm a [fill in sex] and [fill in gender assumption]," attitude and I've seen that many times from men. I'm working on a advanced engineering degree, and the people I work with are predominantly men (I was very riled reading a recent article that suggested that the lack of women professors negatively impacts women students), and I am also forced to moonlight tech support in my department because the person we have is clueless. In the isolated academic environment I'm in, thankfully, people judge me more on the extent of my knowledge and capabilities than my chromosomal make-up, and I'm very content that most actually have a deep respect for me. Which is why it's so much more a slap in the face when I step outside of my closeted environment and find not all males in society are like that. Dealing with that attitude is indeed embittering... which is again why with the exception of replacing a cable modem that suddenly died, I do all my purchasing online (now I only get weird looks from the fedex man who makes too many deliveries) and my boyfriend wields the phone (but he is forbidden from rebooting my boxen with 100+ days uptime even if that's all the tech support person can tell him to do). It's simply not worth the stress, I don't *want* to become bitter and assuming. I just wish everyone would take the effort to view people as individuals instead of interacting with them based on preconceived notions.
I've been a long time (like over a year+) slashdot lurker, and this topic has so moved me to create an account and post.
I am a female, I have a network of four linux-loving computers, and comparatively, my boyfriend (bless his little lovely heart)... is largely computer illiterate. But I really need him at times to be taken seriously, both at stores and with phone tech support. I order all my computer parts online now. The one recent purchase I've made at a store, I became very hostile with the salesman at Best Buy who was treating me like a child, despite my repeated firm protestations of "I know exactly what I'm looking for, please back off already." He finally backed off only when my bf who had been in the game section turned the corner and asked, "Hon, have you found what you were looking for yet?" The attitude women reported in the article is very much obvious with tech support too. I've had harrowing experiences with tech support over a lemon laptop. Ironically, in all the months it took that to be straightened out, the only time I was taken seriously was by a woman tech support person (although a few years back I had a dead sound card, told the male tech support person exactly the problem and how I arrived at it, and he simply said, "I love people like you, we'll send the replacement out today"). Now, even when dealing with tech support I make my bf take the phone and he tells them what I say, because they tend to take him more seriously than me saying the exact same thing. Having me sitting next to him relaying my commentary rather than being on the phone myself makes that significant of a difference. And I resent it. I know as geeks we all hate dealing with tech support and pushy electronics store people... let me tell you, it's a thousand times worse and more insulting when you are a female and they treat you like a baby because of it. After dedicating so many years of my life to developing my computer skills, that treatment infuriates me. I seriously like to live by the philosophy that there is more difference within the sexes than between them. Unfortunately, that view is not held by most of the world... particularly men when it comes to women in technology.
Slashdot Mirror
This weekend, I really wanted to buy a song I heard on the radio, an RIAA artist but not quite in the same vein as Britney et al. So I went online to try to find a download legally from one of these many stores popping up. I found the song, and was willing to maybe drop my RIAA boycott for just a moment to buy a song and maybe show them, "Hey, this is a model that works." But all the songs from various stores had some form of DRM, or were in WMA. I couldn't get my stomach around the fact that after buying it, I would not have basic rights over it, like number of computers I could have it on (I have a sizable network at home, I'm always shuffling files around and backing them up as insurance agaisnt my putzing), whether or not or how I can burn to CD (used for car or jogging). So, instead, I illegally downloaded it. (I've read tales of smartasses who have been in similar situations and sent a dollar to the artist, which I may do just on principle. Maybe the artists will eventually get the clue?). I haven't used P2P for music in ages, and even when I did before, it did increase my exposure to groups I never would have known about and many who I now own many CDs by. The next day after making that download, I bought a $60 stack of CDs of independent groups online (from CDBaby et al). I don't have a problem paying for my music, I have a problem having to give up my principles in order to do so.
Thank you very much for posting that link, and I'm sorry I was too lazy to search and post it instead. :/
When I came across this last year, it surprised the hell out of me (definitely merited a "WTF?"). I generally don't keep track of my online purchases (in as far as differentiating them from non-online purchases). And what about things I've bought from outside the country (import CDs et al)? Do those count? Seeing as how I didn't want to get in trouble, I made a rough estimation, but then again, how about the places I've bought from that ALREADY incorporated sales tax? I don't remember which they are, I don't keep records that closely on that stuff. Let's hope little graduate student me doesn't attract attention and get audited on my cute little minimum wage income. Because that would sickening if citizens are getting in trouble for this, while 60% of corporations didn't submit taxes 1996-2000 (was in the news this week). *sigh*
I'm not joking, I've seen this on many occasions, usually with WinXP despite it's ability to recognize anything short of a toaster plugged into it. I've seen this happen at research group meetings and while TAing for a class in which the last 10 days of class had term presentations. Several days out of those we had to swap laptops with other groups because another's wouldn't work, and in some cases, I'd even have to run to the next building to check out a departmental laptop for the presentations. This was after they tried the windows fix-all of rebooting repeatedly. No, I'm not BSing. Running in icy rain at 8am to get a spare laptop with the professor breathing fire about not getting started on time is something I wish my little lazy TA ass could BS about. I don't know exactly why it works smoothly for some laptops but not others, but it is something I've seen happen repeatedly.
I have been using linux and BSD at home for many of my own projects for years. I always kept a windows partition for school-related things. Finally, one day, I realized how completely sick of windows I was and wanted to drop it altogether. Mind you, I had all my school work and research under windows because that's what my advisors, professors and collaborators used too. I didn't really have a problem dropping Windows. Later versions of Open Office treated my old Word files rather kindly, even Impress has been wonderful, and all my data was just fine being opened and saved in Calc. I installed Matlab for Linux instead of for Windows, and my projects of course had no problem being moved over. I try to send most of my files to people at .pdf, but even in the instances I've saved files for Windows or Mac (I interact with people who use both), it hasn't been a problem at all. In fact, the formatting problems I've seen sending them files is no different than I've seen with Windows users swapping files. So, now I'm as productive as ever at work, and not feeling like a whore every time I turn on my laptop! (And if anything, everyone is rather amazed when I go to a group meeting and I have no problem connecting my laptop to the projector, while for everyone else, doing so is a 15 minute showstopper requiring about 10 reboots of windows). I don't know what your particular needs are, but as for myself and some of my friends who switched, it wasn't as painful as anticipated.
My boyfriend and I do not watch TV (we're in the early to mid-20's age bracket). In the evening if we want to kick back instead of working on the computers, we usually play a game together in front of the TV. However, I'd love to have Discovery, CNN, History, Comedy Central, but I'm not willing to pay $40 a month here for cable for all the crap when I just want that small set of channels. Therefore, it's no TV for us, which surprises many people. And I can't say we miss it all that much either. It's much more fun to play a game together, interacting and talking strategy rather than staring mindlessly at the screen.
I am a user on a university network. Due to some evil twist of fate (and issues involving pay and seniority), our machinist was actually a computer guy his whole prior career who also is skilled with machinist stuff. Our department sysadmin was a machinist prior to his current job. On one hand this is good... the machinist is a linux geek too and thus we get along great. He has pushed aside professor's "emergency" jobs to do minor-by-comparison lab jobs for me. Our sysadmin really shouldn't be behind a computer. And he is very abusive of his position of power over everyone's computers. Many grad students come to me for help instead of him because of his incompetence as well as attitude, and many a time I have correctly diagnosed a problem the first try that later he spends weeks trying to "fix" only to be wrong about three times. And during blaster, he threatened to remove me from the network until I proved I had installed the patch for it (I have my own personal laptop that is registered on our network). I had a hell of a time telling him that there was no patch against the blaster worm for Slackware. So, I guess my point is that I really wouldn't mind a strict sysadmin who actually knew what he was doing. He'd (or she?... there have got to be some out there) would make a great person to interact with and I'd have a lot of respect for them. But there are some out there that are worse than the user base that they are supposed to administer over... and those type are greatly resentful of those who know more than them (some people have suggested that perhaps some of his additional attitude towards me is gender-related, but I really would like to think the best of people). *sigh*
But hey, thumbs up to all you good sysadmins out there (we had a great one in my division when I worked in government). I know it's not an easy job.
Games shouldn't be solely about comparing relative skill wankerdom. They are games. They are meant for fun and enjoyment. Different people enjoy different things. If I want a challenge and apply skill, I am an engineer for 12 hours of my day. If I want to be able to sit back, relax and get pulled into a story in my free time, I play an RPG. And even in MMORPGs, I tend to derive great enjoyment from running around and exploring. I don't *care* if FPS players are more "skilled" as gamers, because gaming is *not* real life. I have played FPS's with friends, and I really don't enjoy them. They are not relaxing, I end up getting even more tense which defeats the point of leisure time for me. Also, I find them very jarring on my hands and wrists compared to other games (due to severe arthritis since I was 18). Different people enjoy different things, and it really bothers me when people impugn others' ideas of fun. Would you believe some people enjoy gardening? Or stamp collecting? Like, dude, how on earth can you demonstrate skill and 0wnz people when not behind a keyboard? I just think the overall topic is pointless. People should play the games they enjoy not to compare digital wankers but to have fun. And if fun is proving that you are "more skilled" than brainless RPGers, so be it. But leave the rest of us to our fun, please, without looking down on us.
A few years ago I was diagnosed with a particular autoimmune disease. I was fortunate in that it took a little over a year for me to be diagnosed, which is typical, but some people it even may take 5 years or longer. Doctors are notoriously horrible with diagnosing autoimmune diseases ("Maybe you're just depressed? Want some nice prozac? Maybe that's why you can't walk?"). In the course of that year, the "highly respected" doctors at the "prestigious" university medical center were extremely bumbling and applied their preconceived notions of what they thought I had to my case as opposed to paying attention to my test results and symptoms. I got all copies of my test results and researched heavily online. So when they said, "Test X and Y are high, but I don't think you have condition Z" I could retort, "According to Medical Journal A, high results in X and Y are seen in 96% of cases of condition Z, so WTF are you basing it on otherwise?!?!" I fought tooth and nail armed with what I had online just to get the medications I needed to continue my daily activities. You have to be a proponent of your own health because sadly enough, no one else will. I now have a different doctor who diagnosed me with condition Z, treated me, and loves the fact I care to read up on things online and DISCUSS them intelligently with her. "Why don't we try New Medication B? Study results have been fairly promising." She's not intimidated by the fact she has a patient who asks about new possible choices. So yes, doctors are necessary, but I think so is being an informed consumer and not afraid to ask questions and offer suggestions about your own health maintenance.
I am actually engaged in an issue with New Egg right now over a motherboard. I've used them for years, and I do trust them if anything happens, I've RMAed a few things that have arrived dead. I have a mobo right now which I had ordered from another vendor and was on death's door. Ordered the same one from New Egg, and it will not POST. Reading the comments on New Egg (after the fact), I saw that a LOT of people had similar problems, receiving 2-3 of these dud boards before receiving a working one. So.... that's supposed to be a positive review? "New Egg was GREAT!!! They sent me THREE of these dead boards before one worked!" Sure it's a great testiment to New Egg's SERVICE. But I have read MANY reviews on New Egg that were negative about the PRODUCT (which is not necessarily New Egg's fault, and that's what I'm interested in reading). So while their policy may be to play nice, I've read many "Don't go with this one, go with X instead because of Y" and they have been helpful and saved lots of headache.
You asked if anyone takes user reviews seriously... I will on occasion. Both on Amazon etc, as well as sites such as New Egg (about a particular hardware product). I am generally interested to see what others think. It's just another sliver of information to potentially support my decision for or against a purchase. If there's either a solitary (or a handful of) glowing or panning review(s), that usually doesn't tell me much. But if there is a large pool of comments, it can be helpful. I can discard the high and the low, and still get a general view of what others think. And I'd like to think I can pick out the intelligent responses from the useless. "i licked this bok b/c it was gud" versus "This was a very well-written book (inserts reason here and supports it well)" in addition to drawing comparisons to other books and related subjects or offering further recommendations. And come on, did we not think before that some of these could be faked? I leave comments on sites sometimes with the hope that perhaps someone may find them helpful, and I often find the comments of others to be interesting and informative. It's not a perfect system but can indeed be used to support the other research I've done about the product prior to purchase.
I've seen many parents in articles and on TV talking about violent video games and saying such things as "I never knew that game was violent" and then complain that stricter labeling or even removing them from some stores is needed (thus barring legitimate adults from easily purchasing them). While ironically Sam Goody now has a large DVD porn section with only cute opaque plastic slips with playboy bunnies on them in front of the first DVD to hide them.
The other day I was at a Gamestop (getting Gothic II), and there was a mother there with her two little boys. Her little boys kept looking at games and saying, "Mommy, get me that one, and that one." To which she was very acquiescent. She was there purchasing a few new memory cards for the Game Cube. When the clerk said, "Okay, here are two Game Cube memory cards," she said, "Game Cube? I need memory cards for the Nintendo." Meanwhile in the background, the two little kids were in fact discussing GTA... and acting it out against each other. It was.... disturbing. But more than anything, it made me rather angry. If this woman wasn't even too clear about what console she was buying memory cards for, you can be sure as hell she has no idea about the content of the games she buys for them, and didn't really seem to care either. I've seen similar sights before too. It seems people like her are using games as a proxy for parenting, keeping the kids quiet and out of their way. I admit, I was playing Doom with my dad as a middle schooler, but it wasn't a substitution for parenting. I may have played games like that with their knowledge, but I had the parents who demanded to know who I was with, where and why 24/7 and any applicable contact info. My parents called the shots.... nowadays it seems the kids themselves are.
I do have my own domain, and like some of my other friends who do as well, we use hosting services. Some of my friends' WHOIS entries have their address and full contact information. Mine has nothing at all like that. Under the agreement I have with my web hosting service, if I wanted to stop using them tomorrow and go to someone else, the domain name is mine, all mine, I can transfer it. However, my WHOIS entry has THEIR company contact information, NOT MINE. Therefore, I've gotten no spam or anything like that. My hosting service uses my email to only periodically send me heads-up if they are performing major updates or something, or to contact me to remind me to renew. Anyone who comes across my page and wants to contact me can use the information there to contact me. They've been a very good hosting service to me, and I never even thought about the issue with the WHOIS entry until I read this article and commentary today. I don't know if that was their intention when having the WHOIS info their their name, but it's a rather nice side effect I think.
I have to admit that I've played one tennis game, and it was a fun group-type game, but it really would not have been my first choice and it didn't really engage me personally. I've known just as many guys who feel that way about sports games too. Now, DDR is a game I've seen bring a lot of people together and get excited about.... AND get a good workout. I really feel a lot of the RPGs out there are becoming more and more female friendly (not that I care in the sense that you should play something because you like it and not because it's pitched towards you). For instance, back in Baldur's Gate, one the characters in your party has a crush/interest in your main character. You could make your character female... which kind of threw me at first when this female NPC was throwing come-ons towards my female main character. This would have made sense for the 99% of the players who were guys and would make their character male as well. In Neverwinter Nights, there were different dialogue options, and even different quests based on whether your character was female or not. This not only made it "female-friendly" but added a lot of replay value too... suddenly male gamers who I don't think would have played a female at any point all of a sudden wanted to play the game again as a female. Things are definitely improving, but I still don't think that games should be taylored towards one gender or the other. But you can never go wrong with more options for *everyone*... just makes it easier to find your niche.
And BTW, I'm a lady who looks at Halo and says "I want to play too"... and it's one of my girl-friends who's addicted to it more so than my guy friends!
Most of my female friends if you suggested they play tennis or golf games, they'd just as rather whack you over the head with a racket or club. Girls can be just as bloodthirsty in gaming as guys, and it really does boil down to personal preference. Tetris is great from time to time, but it gets old. MMORPGs can be good (I'm eagerly awaiting the release of World of Warcraft so my bf and I can play, and yes we signed up for the beta). I'm not as rabid a gamer as he, I'd rather just spend my computer time sometimes working on my personal programming/networking projects. But I adore the exploratory aspects of MMORPGs and games such as Morrowind (wide expansive landscapes), some killing or even a lot (I have a few female friends who are rapid GTAers, me, I do "GTA: Morrowind" at times to alleviate stress, working on my goal of strategically eradicating the 3k+ named NPCs in the game), and some people prefer to focus on the RP aspects of MMORPGs. Everyone looks for different things in a game, both guys and girls, and I think the guy who originally asked the question should probably get to know his girl better and her preferences and maybe suggest games she could play to occupy some of the time he won't be around. Not try to get her to play just to say they are doing something "together" and "communicating." Girls are people too, k?
I read a recent article on slashdot about how American companies (GE was one large one named) were building large research centers in India. Filled with PhDs (engineers, chemists, biologists, et al.).
Shall we say... "When they offshored the programmers, I did not speak out because I was not a programmer."
However, I am a MS/PhD student in (non-computer) engineering. And reading that on slashdot scared the hell out of me. So I have a few more years and several $k left in my education.... and by then it will be in India? What's the motivation for U.S. students to go for the higher education (which used to be equated with higher pay) when that in the very near future may not be the case? I think we *all* should be very very concerned. Not just the programmers/IT's.
Granted, it's a small cheap car, but it's not too bad. My family is almost exclusively a Ford family. Growing up, we always had one (several different ones I recall from my childhood). The secret with the Escort is you trade it in before its "witching hour" which usually occurs between 50-60k. Though I couldn't drive back then, my parents had fond thoughts about those cars. When it came time for me to get my own car, I got an Escort too. It's eight years old now, and I've always found it to be a trustworthy car with excellent handling. I think the Ford Escort's legacy isn't that bad for what it was supposed to be (small cheap car). Still, I have plans to get rid of mine before that witching hour strikes on it soon. It will be missed though.
>_ Excuse my caffeine withdrawl symptoms.... 4 years now.
For a while now, I've not bought any RIAA CDs (actually almost 4 now). However, my CD spending is ridiculous (CDBaby addict, other independent CD sellers.... getting thank you notes from indie artists whose CDs you've purchased is kinda neat)... but they (==RIAA) will NEVER get a single penny from me again. I've even sold off all the 250+ CDs I purchased in my middle and high school heyday of insanity. I am a Pepsi/Mountain Dew drinker over Coke. BUT... since the money I'd be paying for a soda is now going in part to RIAA artists through itunes... I will not be buying sodas from Pepsi at least for the duration of this promotion. So it's a drop in the bucket, my moral adherence to this, and spreading the word. And some of you may laugh about it.... but I can't justify sponsoring their reign of terror, or any corporations who do (Pepsi paying for RIAA artist iTunes). Just a personal thing, mod me insane. *shrug* I don't know what my point even was... it just bothers me.
I require music to maintain any semblance of productivity. What is interesting is that people think "Wow, she has headphones on, so I can say whatever and she doesn't know." So, incidentally, people will hold relatively confidential/secret conversations within what would be earshot of me. When I installing and tweaking the ALSA sound drivers on me laptop (Slackware 9.1), I came across this idea and implemented it accordingly. So now I have my system volume set to an appropriate level.... AND have my laptop built-in microphone on too. So, I can listen to music at a good volume, and not be deaf to what people are saying around me (whether TO me, or in spite of me). And boy do I hear the most interesting things...
I definitely understand your point, but I've seen men take that same stubborn attitutde when dealing with other men. I love talking technology and computers with males, and in my entire life the amount of female friends I've had can be counted on one hand. Hence, I've never had a problem talking with males as equals and without an immediate inferiority complex. I shun *anyone* who has the "I'm a [fill in sex] and [fill in gender assumption]," attitude and I've seen that many times from men. I'm working on a advanced engineering degree, and the people I work with are predominantly men (I was very riled reading a recent article that suggested that the lack of women professors negatively impacts women students), and I am also forced to moonlight tech support in my department because the person we have is clueless. In the isolated academic environment I'm in, thankfully, people judge me more on the extent of my knowledge and capabilities than my chromosomal make-up, and I'm very content that most actually have a deep respect for me. Which is why it's so much more a slap in the face when I step outside of my closeted environment and find not all males in society are like that. Dealing with that attitude is indeed embittering... which is again why with the exception of replacing a cable modem that suddenly died, I do all my purchasing online (now I only get weird looks from the fedex man who makes too many deliveries) and my boyfriend wields the phone (but he is forbidden from rebooting my boxen with 100+ days uptime even if that's all the tech support person can tell him to do). It's simply not worth the stress, I don't *want* to become bitter and assuming. I just wish everyone would take the effort to view people as individuals instead of interacting with them based on preconceived notions.
I've been a long time (like over a year+) slashdot lurker, and this topic has so moved me to create an account and post.
I am a female, I have a network of four linux-loving computers, and comparatively, my boyfriend (bless his little lovely heart)... is largely computer illiterate. But I really need him at times to be taken seriously, both at stores and with phone tech support. I order all my computer parts online now. The one recent purchase I've made at a store, I became very hostile with the salesman at Best Buy who was treating me like a child, despite my repeated firm protestations of "I know exactly what I'm looking for, please back off already." He finally backed off only when my bf who had been in the game section turned the corner and asked, "Hon, have you found what you were looking for yet?" The attitude women reported in the article is very much obvious with tech support too. I've had harrowing experiences with tech support over a lemon laptop. Ironically, in all the months it took that to be straightened out, the only time I was taken seriously was by a woman tech support person (although a few years back I had a dead sound card, told the male tech support person exactly the problem and how I arrived at it, and he simply said, "I love people like you, we'll send the replacement out today"). Now, even when dealing with tech support I make my bf take the phone and he tells them what I say, because they tend to take him more seriously than me saying the exact same thing. Having me sitting next to him relaying my commentary rather than being on the phone myself makes that significant of a difference. And I resent it. I know as geeks we all hate dealing with tech support and pushy electronics store people... let me tell you, it's a thousand times worse and more insulting when you are a female and they treat you like a baby because of it. After dedicating so many years of my life to developing my computer skills, that treatment infuriates me. I seriously like to live by the philosophy that there is more difference within the sexes than between them. Unfortunately, that view is not held by most of the world... particularly men when it comes to women in technology.