A car, TV, and cell phone are prerequsites if you don't WANT to be poor in America.[snip] The $800 TV's (bought on credit, not with cash) should most definitely be in our living rooms
The consumer culture that is thriving in the USA, as made example in your comment, are part of the reason the middle class in the USA have to work harder each year as they gradually sink in the economic order. They allow themselves to be fooled by advertising and popular culture into buying things that are not necessary. You _have_ to buy the car because you _have_ to have your McMansion in the suburbs. You _have_ to have the TV because you _have_ to watch your soaps(and advertising). You _have_ to have a credit card because you _can't_ wait to buy that shiny new whosiewhatsit.
I'll agree that a cell phone is a modern convenience that makes a big difference, but the car and tv, the big house in the 'burbs, and the other trappings of popular middle-class life in the USA are what you need to make yourself poor. America's middle class is being consumed by it's consumerism, and it is so distracted that it doesn't seem able to notice.
As many others have mentioned here already, ride your bike to work if you can... Many of us here in Amsterdam ride to work daily. There aren't any hills, but the wind can increase the effort significantly. Maybe you think you live too far away from your work, but if you are like most people, the distance is probably less than 30km (~19mi) and even more likely to be much closer than that. Make sure you dress for the ride and the weather so you'll be comfortable. You'll be a lot more likely to keep it up for the future. Watch out for cars on the way to work and get some really visible lights for the front and back.
Once you're at work maybe your options are limited by space, noise, or expense or all three. That's the case for me.
I use an exercise ball as a chair. It sounds odd and unproductive, but it keeps my core engaged all day long. I purchased the largest one I could find(60cm) and over-inflate it until it is pretty firm. At first my back 'hurt' since the muscles were tired, so I spent the first few weeks only part-time on the ball. I used to have back pain from slouching in a chair but I've been sitting on the ball for 3 years now and have been completely without back pain for the last 2,5 years.
For me, that would feel parasitic. I gave to the EFF anyhow, and directly instead of through the HIB. I don't want DRM on my computer, and wouldn't install these games even if they would work on my system (Linux only).
Maybe the best way to help the folks at HumbleBundle to find their way again is a nice email, instead of just sticking it to them.
Thank you so much for the wonderful bundles that you have released over the years! I've been introduced to some great developers and found some nifty toys that I would not likely have found on my own. I think that you've done GREAT THINGS for the indie game developers out there and to the EFF, a charity I can really get behind! You've helped bring relevance and momentum to a section of the industry that has really deserved it, and emboldened new developers to pursue projects and create awesome things never seen before.
In the past I've purchased several versions of the humble bundle and promoted it to others. I haven't played many of the games past the first few minutes, but I've really felt like the HIB was an awesome new development in the promotion of games the major industry generally lacks.
With the release of the latest THQ bundle, I feel like the brand that you've built has been compromised in a significant way, and it seems that you've sold out to a part of the industry that is failing due to the choices it has made. Those common industry choices are WHY I do not buy games from THQ and similar:
THQ games are NOT developed to work on Linux or even Mac.
THQ games include DRM which is a disgusting offense to the customer.
Additionally, this bundle is undesirable and departs from my expectations of the Humble Bundle brand due to the fact that THQ is not an indie developer, and significantly, is only available through Steam instead of a direct download.
I believe that the Humble Bundle brand can be saved if you don't publish bundles of this type in the future. However, if you choose to follow the major games industry down this road, you will be going that way without those many of us who believe that the games industry can be turned around. THQ and it's ilk choose to reward their paying customers with mistrust and DRM. They choose to falsely belief that the Windows platform is the only viable one. They choose irrelevance and failure, and they deserve to get it. There may be good people working at this company, but they need to have ethical standards in whom they choose to work with. When companies like THQ fail, their employees are thereby freed to pursue work in industries where they can make a positive mark on the world.
As soon as you return to what we used to believe were your core principles, we will support you again. Please never release a bundle of this type again.
Thanks for the memories, and I wish you good luck in finding your way back to the good path.
Exactly. It's just not a problem any longer.
I use Skype on 2 systems, Ubuntu 10.04 and Mint 12 all day long for business. I use the version from Skype's download page.
Very rarely, if I have flashplayer running (e.g. Pandora in firefox) Skype will consume all available memory on the system before being killed off automatically.
Otherwise, I have zero problems with it, including voice quality, video, shared desktop, files, etc.
With ongoing excellent support and development of LibreOffice and Thunderbird, I'll never need to go back to window$ for my work environment.
If I am asked to use some pre-compiled MS binary, Wine is better than ever and in increasingly rare occasions I use an XP VM.
It's amusing that at our business it's the MS users that do the cursing at their machines, while the Linux users have it easy.
I'm glad you pointed out the definition of 'terrorism'. Those particular words were well thought out, I believe.
How much real fear in instilled in you, the Australian people, the Australian government, or the target site's admins as a result of this event? Any fear at all? Is this fear a reasonable response to this event? It's just computer systems and public websites, after all. Do you equate 'inconvenience' with 'danger'?
We're being conditioned to experience fear when we're told, on demand. We're told that an attack against a server is an attack on the people and therefore the expected response is fear, nee 'Terror'. As an individual, I ask you if you choose what you are afraid of? Do you hold in yourself the determination behind your actions, your beliefs, and your responses to external events? Do events out of your control cause you to fear them and their instigators because you believe that you are truly in danger, or because you have been conditioned to respond as if it were so by people who have a specific interest and benefit by your fearful response?
If you want to call these events 'Acts of Terrorism', if you want to be afraid, please do so on your own terms and not those handed to you along with the blindfold and handcuffs. You are a powerful individual, my friend, and you are capable of deciding for yourself what is right if you will only objectively view the events and effects that you experience. Keep that power to yourself, instead of simply handing it off to those who would manipulate you for their gain.
Dear Roger(k@ndpta.com),
we're feeling sorry for you that you gave up your credibility and any chance of adding value to the technology-interested community in exchange for money from Microsoft. We (technology professionals) know from much personal experience that the reason behind Mac system purchases is rarely based on "cool" in the business world. Instead, the reason is simply greater value through a much more stable operating system, hardware that is designed more robustly (longer MTBF), and considerably greater ease of technical support due to fewer OS related problems.
Don't forget about Linux either. With the capability of running on a larger range of hardware than Microsoft products and the clear security advantages due to available source code you can evaluate yourself, Linux is beginning to threaten Microsoft as it's deployment in the workplace gains greater popularity. Even now, worldwide many governments, schools, and workplaces are realizing the benefits of a stable and open platform.
My condolences go to you.
From TFA: "he denied that there is a widespread feeling that it is better to wait for Service Pack 1"
I'm not sure who might be saying that they are not waiting for a service pack before Vista deployment for their business. It's certainly none of the people I've been speaking with. Due to the number of problems with application compatibility, the problems with Vista itself, and the nearly non-existant benefit to my business that Vista would provide, I will be waiting for SP1. At the time that SP1 is released, more time will have passed so that our application vendors will have re-written or updated their code to match Vista's changes. We'll also have less of an expenditure for new equipment to meet Vista's hungry requirements since we're constantly retiring older computers and purchasing nearly top-level systems to replace them. We will _not_ be transitioning to gain access to any new "features" that Vista provides, rather, we will transition because we can no longer buy computers with XP installed. Even though Vista provides some positive enhancements to application/OS separation, we have found that user education is vastly superior to feel-good allow/deny prompts that an uneducated user will botch every time. It's more work, sure, and would be a significant effort with a company larger than our 90+users, but the savings come in time. The "trusted computing" and DRM features within Vista allow _much_ greater control of the computer to be given to the software vendor than any reasonable sysadmin would be comfortable with. Due to these concerns and others, my company has been exploring a move for all users to Linux and MacOS. I know of several other 100+ employee local companies that are doing the same.
Quite a few of those I have spoken with in the last few years have complained that the U.S. is going to heck. They extoll the many virtues of peaceful, liberal, safe Canada, where the people are very respectful of others and industry does not have free reign to guide the "sheep" wherever they like. It would seem that after all, real humans live in Canada. Wait, wait, I love Canada, don't get me wrong. The U.S. leadership is bailing the ocean into the ship as fast as they can, so to speak. Despite the preconceptions around here, I don't find this kind of news surprising. Instead, I'm just a little more sad about what we're doing to ourselves. We do, after all, elect people just like this everywhere, and at every level. For example, the international good ol' boys business club didn't have trouble with The Pirate Bay shutdown. Not at first, anyway. There's the other side. We've got good folks everywhere also. Thanks to/., EFF and many others there will always be sharing of knowledge. This bragging politician was certainly underestimating the part of humanity that still believes in accountability and communication. I won't count on him learning from it though.
Cheers, I think.
I use CardExport2 from http://www.softick.com/. It cost roughly $15, and allows me to use my Palm Zire 71 as a portable USB drive, recognized as a generic, so no special drivers are required on Linux, Solaris9, *BSD, MacOS, or WinME>later.
Oh yeah, there's more. I also downloaded the RealOne player for PalmOS, and with a/AUDIO directory (FAT16) on my removeable SD card I can upload music and playlists without any of the DRM crap that bugs a lot of folks. Palm has their own upload system which won't let you download the music again, but with CardExport2 I can. I was able to find 512MB SD(I) cards on pricewatch for about $24 at one point, so I bought a pile of 'em. Now, my Palm is more of a necessity for me than ever. It's even possible to boot my laptop with knoppix fom my Palm using CardExport2 and this info:
http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/
There you have it.
-Dustin
Thanks Matthias!
I've not yet heard of a production car in which the brakes cannot overpower the engine. In fact, they are required to be able to do so in order to pass highway safety standards in any european country. This sounds much more like a joyride.
This also reminds me of the issue a number of years back when a number of folks had "unstoppable acceleration" in their Audi 5000 cars. They had been driving an automatic transmission and mashed the accelerator instead of the brake.
It would seem that people are so very willing to blame the equipment when they have made mistakes. Technology misunderstood by the vast majority of folks sure does make a great scapegoat.
Of course, I wasn't the one driving, so what do I know?
Slashdot Mirror
A car, TV, and cell phone are prerequsites if you don't WANT to be poor in America.[snip] The $800 TV's (bought on credit, not with cash) should most definitely be in our living rooms
The consumer culture that is thriving in the USA, as made example in your comment, are part of the reason the middle class in the USA have to work harder each year as they gradually sink in the economic order. They allow themselves to be fooled by advertising and popular culture into buying things that are not necessary. You _have_ to buy the car because you _have_ to have your McMansion in the suburbs. You _have_ to have the TV because you _have_ to watch your soaps(and advertising). You _have_ to have a credit card because you _can't_ wait to buy that shiny new whosiewhatsit.
I'll agree that a cell phone is a modern convenience that makes a big difference, but the car and tv, the big house in the 'burbs, and the other trappings of popular middle-class life in the USA are what you need to make yourself poor. America's middle class is being consumed by it's consumerism, and it is so distracted that it doesn't seem able to notice.
As many others have mentioned here already, ride your bike to work if you can... Many of us here in Amsterdam ride to work daily. There aren't any hills, but the wind can increase the effort significantly. Maybe you think you live too far away from your work, but if you are like most people, the distance is probably less than 30km (~19mi) and even more likely to be much closer than that. Make sure you dress for the ride and the weather so you'll be comfortable. You'll be a lot more likely to keep it up for the future. Watch out for cars on the way to work and get some really visible lights for the front and back. Once you're at work maybe your options are limited by space, noise, or expense or all three. That's the case for me. I use an exercise ball as a chair. It sounds odd and unproductive, but it keeps my core engaged all day long. I purchased the largest one I could find(60cm) and over-inflate it until it is pretty firm. At first my back 'hurt' since the muscles were tired, so I spent the first few weeks only part-time on the ball. I used to have back pain from slouching in a chair but I've been sitting on the ball for 3 years now and have been completely without back pain for the last 2,5 years.
For me, that would feel parasitic. I gave to the EFF anyhow, and directly instead of through the HIB. I don't want DRM on my computer, and wouldn't install these games even if they would work on my system (Linux only).
Maybe the best way to help the folks at HumbleBundle to find their way again is a nice email, instead of just sticking it to them.
mailto::contact@humblebundle.com
To whom it may concern:
Thank you so much for the wonderful bundles that you have released over the years! I've been introduced to some great developers and found some nifty toys that I would not likely have found on my own. I think that you've done GREAT THINGS for the indie game developers out there and to the EFF, a charity I can really get behind! You've helped bring relevance and momentum to a section of the industry that has really deserved it, and emboldened new developers to pursue projects and create awesome things never seen before.
In the past I've purchased several versions of the humble bundle and promoted it to others. I haven't played many of the games past the first few minutes, but I've really felt like the HIB was an awesome new development in the promotion of games the major industry generally lacks.
With the release of the latest THQ bundle, I feel like the brand that you've built has been compromised in a significant way, and it seems that you've sold out to a part of the industry that is failing due to the choices it has made. Those common industry choices are WHY I do not buy games from THQ and similar:
THQ games are NOT developed to work on Linux or even Mac.
THQ games include DRM which is a disgusting offense to the customer.
Additionally, this bundle is undesirable and departs from my expectations of the Humble Bundle brand due to the fact that THQ is not an indie developer, and significantly, is only available through Steam instead of a direct download.
I believe that the Humble Bundle brand can be saved if you don't publish bundles of this type in the future. However, if you choose to follow the major games industry down this road, you will be going that way without those many of us who believe that the games industry can be turned around. THQ and it's ilk choose to reward their paying customers with mistrust and DRM. They choose to falsely belief that the Windows platform is the only viable one. They choose irrelevance and failure, and they deserve to get it. There may be good people working at this company, but they need to have ethical standards in whom they choose to work with. When companies like THQ fail, their employees are thereby freed to pursue work in industries where they can make a positive mark on the world.
As soon as you return to what we used to believe were your core principles, we will support you again. Please never release a bundle of this type again.
Thanks for the memories, and I wish you good luck in finding your way back to the good path.
Exactly. It's just not a problem any longer. I use Skype on 2 systems, Ubuntu 10.04 and Mint 12 all day long for business. I use the version from Skype's download page. Very rarely, if I have flashplayer running (e.g. Pandora in firefox) Skype will consume all available memory on the system before being killed off automatically. Otherwise, I have zero problems with it, including voice quality, video, shared desktop, files, etc. With ongoing excellent support and development of LibreOffice and Thunderbird, I'll never need to go back to window$ for my work environment. If I am asked to use some pre-compiled MS binary, Wine is better than ever and in increasingly rare occasions I use an XP VM. It's amusing that at our business it's the MS users that do the cursing at their machines, while the Linux users have it easy.
I'm glad you pointed out the definition of 'terrorism'. Those particular words were well thought out, I believe.
How much real fear in instilled in you, the Australian people, the Australian government, or the target site's admins as a result of this event? Any fear at all? Is this fear a reasonable response to this event? It's just computer systems and public websites, after all. Do you equate 'inconvenience' with 'danger'?
We're being conditioned to experience fear when we're told, on demand. We're told that an attack against a server is an attack on the people and therefore the expected response is fear, nee 'Terror'. As an individual, I ask you if you choose what you are afraid of? Do you hold in yourself the determination behind your actions, your beliefs, and your responses to external events? Do events out of your control cause you to fear them and their instigators because you believe that you are truly in danger, or because you have been conditioned to respond as if it were so by people who have a specific interest and benefit by your fearful response?
If you want to call these events 'Acts of Terrorism', if you want to be afraid, please do so on your own terms and not those handed to you along with the blindfold and handcuffs. You are a powerful individual, my friend, and you are capable of deciding for yourself what is right if you will only objectively view the events and effects that you experience. Keep that power to yourself, instead of simply handing it off to those who would manipulate you for their gain.
Please don't do that.
It's not funny when you cause mischief for no good purpose.
Thank you.
Dear Roger(k@ndpta.com), we're feeling sorry for you that you gave up your credibility and any chance of adding value to the technology-interested community in exchange for money from Microsoft. We (technology professionals) know from much personal experience that the reason behind Mac system purchases is rarely based on "cool" in the business world. Instead, the reason is simply greater value through a much more stable operating system, hardware that is designed more robustly (longer MTBF), and considerably greater ease of technical support due to fewer OS related problems. Don't forget about Linux either. With the capability of running on a larger range of hardware than Microsoft products and the clear security advantages due to available source code you can evaluate yourself, Linux is beginning to threaten Microsoft as it's deployment in the workplace gains greater popularity. Even now, worldwide many governments, schools, and workplaces are realizing the benefits of a stable and open platform. My condolences go to you.
From TFA: "he denied that there is a widespread feeling that it is better to wait for Service Pack 1"
I'm not sure who might be saying that they are not waiting for a service pack before Vista deployment for their business. It's certainly none of the people I've been speaking with. Due to the number of problems with application compatibility, the problems with Vista itself, and the nearly non-existant benefit to my business that Vista would provide, I will be waiting for SP1. At the time that SP1 is released, more time will have passed so that our application vendors will have re-written or updated their code to match Vista's changes. We'll also have less of an expenditure for new equipment to meet Vista's hungry requirements since we're constantly retiring older computers and purchasing nearly top-level systems to replace them. We will _not_ be transitioning to gain access to any new "features" that Vista provides, rather, we will transition because we can no longer buy computers with XP installed. Even though Vista provides some positive enhancements to application/OS separation, we have found that user education is vastly superior to feel-good allow/deny prompts that an uneducated user will botch every time. It's more work, sure, and would be a significant effort with a company larger than our 90+users, but the savings come in time. The "trusted computing" and DRM features within Vista allow _much_ greater control of the computer to be given to the software vendor than any reasonable sysadmin would be comfortable with. Due to these concerns and others, my company has been exploring a move for all users to Linux and MacOS. I know of several other 100+ employee local companies that are doing the same.
Quite a few of those I have spoken with in the last few years have complained that the U.S. is going to heck. They extoll the many virtues of peaceful, liberal, safe Canada, where the people are very respectful of others and industry does not have free reign to guide the "sheep" wherever they like. It would seem that after all, real humans live in Canada. Wait, wait, I love Canada, don't get me wrong. The U.S. leadership is bailing the ocean into the ship as fast as they can, so to speak. Despite the preconceptions around here, I don't find this kind of news surprising. Instead, I'm just a little more sad about what we're doing to ourselves. We do, after all, elect people just like this everywhere, and at every level. For example, the international good ol' boys business club didn't have trouble with The Pirate Bay shutdown. Not at first, anyway. There's the other side. We've got good folks everywhere also. Thanks to /., EFF and many others there will always be sharing of knowledge. This bragging politician was certainly underestimating the part of humanity that still believes in accountability and communication. I won't count on him learning from it though.
Cheers, I think.
I use CardExport2 from http://www.softick.com/. It cost roughly $15, and allows me to use my Palm Zire 71 as a portable USB drive, recognized as a generic, so no special drivers are required on Linux, Solaris9, *BSD, MacOS, or WinME>later. Oh yeah, there's more. I also downloaded the RealOne player for PalmOS, and with a /AUDIO directory (FAT16) on my removeable SD card I can upload music and playlists without any of the DRM crap that bugs a lot of folks. Palm has their own upload system which won't let you download the music again, but with CardExport2 I can. I was able to find 512MB SD(I) cards on pricewatch for about $24 at one point, so I bought a pile of 'em. Now, my Palm is more of a necessity for me than ever. It's even possible to boot my laptop with knoppix fom my Palm using CardExport2 and this info:
http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/
There you have it.
-Dustin
Thanks Matthias!
I don't think that's the truth of what happened.
I've not yet heard of a production car in which the brakes cannot overpower the engine. In fact, they are required to be able to do so in order to pass highway safety standards in any european country. This sounds much more like a joyride.
This also reminds me of the issue a number of years back when a number of folks had "unstoppable acceleration" in their Audi 5000 cars. They had been driving an automatic transmission and mashed the accelerator instead of the brake.
It would seem that people are so very willing to blame the equipment when they have made mistakes. Technology misunderstood by the vast majority of folks sure does make a great scapegoat.
Of course, I wasn't the one driving, so what do I know?