it's funny, i just checked out 2nd life last night -- first time since a year or two ago -- and i was pretty amazed -- the place is one big car lot or sex club. really. i guess there are two kinds of people in 2nd life now -- the people selling "sex", and the people trying to sell their objects to buy the "sex".
This is why I started my web site http://www.secondseeker.com/. The parent poster is mostly right and completely wrong.
All that is easy to find is sex.
There is a lot more out there, it is just hard to find. I've spent a lot of time sailboat racing in SL. I no longer have access to a boat and I really missed it. It it the same? Certainly not. Is it better, than nothing. You bet! When I raced sailboats I was on a big boat with others, now I'm at the helm. I couldn't afford to do that in the real world.
I hate to sound like spam but if you think sex is all that there is to SecondLife, just check out my web site, you might find something to do there that interests you. (Note, the site is supported by AdSense ads, if that offends you, please don't visit, or at least don't click on the ads!)
It is little know that Robert Amman co-discovered one of Penroses aperiodic tiles. Amman was am amatuer mathematician in the United States. See his wiki page.
I knew Bob Amman. I shared an office with him in my first job out of college. He was doing minor programming work for a small network/modem company in the early 80s. His white board always had tiled diagrams on it. I graduated from MIT but he was probably the best example I knew of a prodigy.
The curious thing about Amman was how poorly he dealt with life. A man of his genius should not have ended up at the post office.
I never knew he was famous until years later when something must have happen to Penrose (quasicrystals?) and Amman was in the local paper. I couldn't believe the guy I worked with traveled in these circles. One of the scientists I worked with at Kodak had a book on tiles. I checked the index, Amman was all over it, using cited by other mathematicians "unpublished personal correspondence."
It makes one wonder what other geniuses are out there sorting mail.
Yes, that is a rehtorical question because if you read/. you know why.
The real question is, how would an average person know? Most look like they are made of plastic which is of course microwave safe. If you've immersed your phone, drying it out with heat can fix it. (I know, I baked a friend phone in my oven at 150 degrees to bring it back to life.)
So no, I don't think we need labels, there are so many they aren't read anyhow.
How can we make it obvious that this is a bad idea? Or better yet, how can we make it possible that no damage will occur to either device then this happens?
This is one of the challenges that engineers face. How do you make your products work well, be bulletproof, be easy to use, do what the customer needs doing, and yet not cost a fortune.
I am just not a social person... (Slashdot and other written forums excluded).
Why would you exclude/. and other forums?
You are social in your own way. There is nothing wrong with that. You can be social in your own way is Sl also. Yeah, there are an awful lot of "normal" people in Sl but trust me, your personal preference on how you express your socialability is nothing unusual.
That's the beauty of SL. If you can imagine it (and script it) it can exist.
SL is not all about netsex. If you that that is all it is about you are missing out on a lot.
Yes, netsex is undeniably a large part of SL, but there is much, much, more out there.
Sadly it is difficult to find the other parts. I run a review site for SL so clearly I am biased, but I started the review site because when I started on SL netsex was all that I found and I knew that there must be more.
You know, you don't have to play it. Nobody is forcing you to.
For many it is an enjoyable way to spend some time.
I personally enjoy "sailboat racing" in Second Life. I used to race real boats, I don't have the opportunity anymore. This isn't as good as the real thing but I get some of the same competitive thrill out it as I did racing real boats.
It doesn't have to be fair or original. This isn't about writing, it is about winning a writing award. The very fact that it has been around for years means that people like it. That's a decent, if not original, way to win an award.
I've done a bit of sailing on the Warren 35 that is based in Beverly. Quite a trick boat, 35 foot trimiran that is trailerable. Another awesome one is Tiny Dancer I and II, both proas (think two hulled trimaran...) We kidded him with Tiny Dancer II did make the weight goal of 100lbs.
Nice to see him in the news. Check out his web site, he's a good guy.
On Technology, made the Meeting Maker calendaring application. Massively crossplatform (even had DOS, OS2 and Windows 3.0 clients!) They spun it off, good product. Guess the rest of the company doesn't need the domain, hope my 401k is fine!
I was coming back from lunch in the 15 story building I worked at and before I could press the button, two elevators opened in front of us. We stepped in the nearest one and hit the button for our floor and waited... and waited... and waited.
Then we noticed that the elevator across from us, with its open doors, had the white up arrow lit and we could see in the shiny walls that ours didn't. We crossed the hallway, got in and pressed our floor. The door immediatly closed and away we went.
I grumbled and my co-worker Randy chided me, "You don't think they hire people like us to code elevators, do you?"
Please watch TFV. This is Fripp. These aren't rockin' "riffs." It's very ambient, very ethereal, very atmospheric.
Fripp can certainly play a rockin' riff. Check out the guitar solo on Baby's on Fire.
(And yes, I'm familiar with this ethereal work also. I've seen Fripp live 3 times and one of the biggest regrets of my life was not studying with him when he was taking students in West Virginia... oh well...)
Paul
You certainly have a chip on your shoulder, don't you? Call Yale, ask. You might be surprised. I'm certainly ok with it, you seem to have a problem with it. Oh well...
Let me talk some about an experience that I had with the Mona Lisa some years ago. The Boston Museum of Science had a DaVinci exhibit. One of the paintings shown was the reproduction of the Mono Lisa that hung in the Louvre in the early 1900s (1912?) when the Mona Lisa was stolen. The reproduction was considered good enough to hang in her spot.
At the time I was a volunteer at the museum (the Museum of Science, not the Louvre!) and every day I worked there I would get there about a half hour early and just sit with her. I was alone in the room with her and I just shared the space with her. Computationally this makes no sense but I know experientially that this time was profoundly important to me. I wasn't creating art, but I was responding to great art. DaVinci captured something in that painting. I certainly don't know what it was.
I almost feel sorry for the tourists that are crammed together and see her only briefly (presumably) behind bullet proof glass.
You can't. That's why you can't make any assumptions so you shouldn't set anything. In your example, IBM should not be concerned that their style guide is followed as much as they are concerned that the user gets the textual content that the user wants.
The user often doesn't know that they can change fonts. My wife occasionally does web design for her clients. It isn't her main line of work but sometimes a client wants that as part of the package. Invariably they want pretty fonts. Usually "pretty" is defined as what they personally like. It takes a fair bit of education to convince the client that they should not be specifying fonts, that the viewer should do that. And then it takes a bit of education to show the client how to set the font preference on their browser.
o if I own a lot of LP records, and want to listen to them in the car (car turntables are not very stable unless you drive really carefully) they cry "No Fair!" and get a tax put on casset tapes.
Chrysler had the http://www.imperialclub.com.nyud.net:8090/Repair/A ccessories/HiWay/invent.htm Highway Hi-Fi in 1956. The link implies that it even played on bumpy roads! It was a commercial failure not because it skipped, but because of a poorly marketed format change! The article is a good read, good geek late night mods...
Back in the mid 80s a co-worker of mine had told his boss at a previous job that the unix machines needed to rebooted when the PIDs got too high! Great bit of fun at the PHB expense.
(This is also the guy who submitted an purchase request for some close parenthesis... got it signed also!)
Slashdot Mirror
This is the kind of SecondLife positive message that needs to get out. It is so often true and so often unsaid.
Paul
All that is easy to find is sex.
There is a lot more out there, it is just hard to find. I've spent a lot of time sailboat racing in SL. I no longer have access to a boat and I really missed it. It it the same? Certainly not. Is it better, than nothing. You bet! When I raced sailboats I was on a big boat with others, now I'm at the helm. I couldn't afford to do that in the real world.
I hate to sound like spam but if you think sex is all that there is to SecondLife, just check out my web site, you might find something to do there that interests you. (Note, the site is supported by AdSense ads, if that offends you, please don't visit, or at least don't click on the ads!)
Paul aka Seeker Gray
It is little know that Robert Amman co-discovered one of Penroses aperiodic tiles. Amman was am amatuer mathematician in the United States. See his wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ammann
I knew Bob Amman. I shared an office with him in my first job out of college. He was doing minor programming work for a small network/modem company in the early 80s. His white board always had tiled diagrams on it. I graduated from MIT but he was probably the best example I knew of a prodigy.
The curious thing about Amman was how poorly he dealt with life. A man of his genius should not have ended up at the post office.
I never knew he was famous until years later when something must have happen to Penrose (quasicrystals?) and Amman was in the local paper. I couldn't believe the guy I worked with traveled in these circles. One of the scientists I worked with at Kodak had a book on tiles. I checked the index, Amman was all over it, using cited by other mathematicians "unpublished personal correspondence."
It makes one wonder what other geniuses are out there sorting mail.
Paul
So you can drop it.
You are coming to a sad realization. Cancel or allow?
Of course it isn't possible. That isn't the point.
How do we make my Mom for example, know that that this isn't safe?
A label won't cut it.
Yes, that is a rehtorical question because if you read /. you know why.
The real question is, how would an average person know? Most look like they are made of plastic which is of course microwave safe. If you've immersed your phone, drying it out with heat can fix it. (I know, I baked a friend phone in my oven at 150 degrees to bring it back to life.)
So no, I don't think we need labels, there are so many they aren't read anyhow.
How can we make it obvious that this is a bad idea? Or better yet, how can we make it possible that no damage will occur to either device then this happens?
This is one of the challenges that engineers face. How do you make your products work well, be bulletproof, be easy to use, do what the customer needs doing, and yet not cost a fortune.
S.W.A.T. vans aren't my concern, what about the poor children swimming?
It was what I found first. You click on "Search" then you click on "Popular Places" and there you have it. Two clicks and you are there.
SL's search function is pretty awful and I found it difficult to find good places to visit.
Why would you exclude /. and other forums?
You are social in your own way. There is nothing wrong with that. You can be social in your own way is Sl also. Yeah, there are an awful lot of "normal" people in Sl but trust me, your personal preference on how you express your socialability is nothing unusual.
That's the beauty of SL. If you can imagine it (and script it) it can exist.
SL is not all about netsex. If you that that is all it is about you are missing out on a lot.
Yes, netsex is undeniably a large part of SL, but there is much, much, more out there.
Sadly it is difficult to find the other parts. I run a review site for SL so clearly I am biased, but I started the review site because when I started on SL netsex was all that I found and I knew that there must be more.
You know, you don't have to play it. Nobody is forcing you to.
For many it is an enjoyable way to spend some time.
I personally enjoy "sailboat racing" in Second Life. I used to race real boats, I don't have the opportunity anymore. This isn't as good as the real thing but I get some of the same competitive thrill out it as I did racing real boats.
If it doesn't work for you, that's fine.
I happen to enjoy it.
It doesn't have to be fair or original. This isn't about writing, it is about winning a writing award. The very fact that it has been around for years means that people like it. That's a decent, if not original, way to win an award.
I've done a bit of sailing on the Warren 35 that is based in Beverly. Quite a trick boat, 35 foot trimiran that is trailerable. Another awesome one is Tiny Dancer I and II, both proas (think two hulled trimaran...) We kidded him with Tiny Dancer II did make the weight goal of 100lbs.
Nice to see him in the news. Check out his web site, he's a good guy.
Paul
On Technology, made the Meeting Maker calendaring application. Massively crossplatform (even had DOS, OS2 and Windows 3.0 clients!) They spun it off, good product. Guess the rest of the company doesn't need the domain, hope my 401k is fine!
I just loved that domain as an email address...
Paul
Apple is so hoping the music student wants to go to Yale or Curtis....
I was coming back from lunch in the 15 story building I worked at and before I could press the button, two elevators opened in front of us. We stepped in the nearest one and hit the button for our floor and waited... and waited... and waited.
Then we noticed that the elevator across from us, with its open doors, had the white up arrow lit and we could see in the shiny walls that ours didn't. We crossed the hallway, got in and pressed our floor. The door immediatly closed and away we went.
I grumbled and my co-worker Randy chided me, "You don't think they hire people like us to code elevators, do you?"
Years later, I hope he is proved wrong!
You certainly have a chip on your shoulder, don't you? Call Yale, ask. You might be surprised. I'm certainly ok with it, you seem to have a problem with it. Oh well...
At the time I was a volunteer at the museum (the Museum of Science, not the Louvre!) and every day I worked there I would get there about a half hour early and just sit with her. I was alone in the room with her and I just shared the space with her. Computationally this makes no sense but I know experientially that this time was profoundly important to me. I wasn't creating art, but I was responding to great art. DaVinci captured something in that painting. I certainly don't know what it was.
I almost feel sorry for the tourists that are crammed together and see her only briefly (presumably) behind bullet proof glass.
You can't. That's why you can't make any assumptions so you shouldn't set anything. In your example, IBM should not be concerned that their style guide is followed as much as they are concerned that the user gets the textual content that the user wants.
The user often doesn't know that they can change fonts. My wife occasionally does web design for her clients. It isn't her main line of work but sometimes a client wants that as part of the package. Invariably they want pretty fonts. Usually "pretty" is defined as what they personally like. It takes a fair bit of education to convince the client that they should not be specifying fonts, that the viewer should do that. And then it takes a bit of education to show the client how to set the font preference on their browser.
Back in the mid 80s a co-worker of mine had told his boss at a previous job that the unix machines needed to rebooted when the PIDs got too high! Great bit of fun at the PHB expense. (This is also the guy who submitted an purchase request for some close parenthesis... got it signed also!)