Thanks for the insult. I know children aren't born vaccinated. Duh. Children are vaccinated the DAY they are born in the hospitals. Within hours of being born. For a disease they're not likely to get until at least teen years.
I'm not saying there are no valid diseases to vaccinate against -- and people can do whatever they want. I'm saying that buying the government's line [on herd immunity/the safety &/or necessity of vaccinations...] without questioning it is for fucking idiots.
Have you given birth? I have, twice. When you have a child, the assumption is you will vaccinate. If you don't stop them, they vaccinate your child within moments of birth. It starts with eye drops to prevent blindness from gonorrhea. If you know you don't have a VD, why are they putting drops in your kids' eyes? This is later followed up with Hep B vaccine -- same day as birth, before you're summarily dismissed from the hospital. Some of the diseases they're vaccinating your kids from are not the types that are spread by air or contact or drinking water... but they'll vaccinate your kid without full consent or full information.
Legally, vaccination is an invasive procedure (akin to surgery), requiring full disclosure by the doctor of potential side effects, the information packet included with the vaccine serum, etc. What happens IN the doctor's office? They reach in the cabinet "It's time for your vaccinations..." and they pull out a bottle & a syringe & get to work...
It's become so habitual that they're not even following their own industry regulations.
You probably don't have kids -- like most of the "fucking idiots" posting on this topic. If you do, you almost definitely didn't go through the labor to have them, didn't see what they did to the babies when they whisked them out of the delivery room, and probably didn't go with them to the doctor's office when they got their vaccines.... And you're probably ignorant of what the vaccine schedule actually is, and how many vaccines they routinely give to children nowadays...usually in violation of law. It's an assembly-line procedure now. But it's not supposed to be. But that doesn't worry anyone here.:)
I'm sorry, I fail to see the similarities between optional alternative "therapies" and a mandatory government-required system of vaccinations of which any and all profits roll into the same large companies. If the program was not profitable, the drug companies wouldn't produce the vaccines -- their boards of directors would shoot them (and they'd be legally fiscally accountable to their shareholders & boards for running a program at a deficit for decades...). So you have to assume that it brings in some type of profit -- or the companies wouldn't produce them.
Comparing this to homeopathic remedies, that are entirely voluntary, is ridiculous. Please stick to the problem at-hand. [Note: it's quite likely the same drug companies are making money on homeopathic remedies under subsidiary labels too -- because they'll sell whatever the public will buy to profit their board & shareholders -- just like they started taking an interest in herbal remedies during the big FDA-herb-banning fights in the early 1990s]
The vaccination program makes the drug companies money. Period. The more children are vaccinated, the more money. Period. This has nothing to do with what other companies are selling or with non-manditory medications/alternative therapies. This is an entirely different fact than whether we're benefitted by herd immunity, etc. If this program didn't make a profit, and the government thought it was of benefit to vaccinate regardless of whether a for-profit entity would supply the vaccines, the government would manufacture the vaccines or fund some small non-profit with grant money to do so. The fact is, there's profit being made here. The next question is what lobbying & what pressure is being put on legislators to insure these profits.
Well, then you want to catch every single child you can, to maximize the profit, right? After all, you invested in R&D, FDA approval & compliance with regulations. But once you have it on the assembly line, each vial of vaccine can't really cost much on top of those up-front costs.... so we'd better start immunizing all those stragglers too!
First Question: If vaccines really work, then how are unvaccinated children putting vaccinated children at risk? Study data about recent outbreaks of the vaccine-available illnesses for a clue on this one... Is herd immunity a myth?
Next: Is this issue one of those "Things the government & 'science' tell us are true but are actually only to benefit large corporate interests"? Every child from the day they are born has a "vaccine schedule" -- starting with Hep B vaccine which is a disease they must have unprotected sex or use injected dirty needles to get? Is this a case of over-vaccinated to go along with over-medicated children?
Correlation or causation? Increases of childhood developmental disabilities vs. being vaccinated... are they related? It's so hard to tell, since they're constantly giving children vaccines when they're growing. But there's plenty of parents whose children have problems within 72 hours of vaccines being administered to make at least the anecdotal cases seem compelling -- at least THAT child should not have had those vaccines. Would you rather your child had the mumps, or encephalitis resulting in autism?
Always! ask who benefits. Because I'd love to see the data that says that children benefit.
While I know some geeks that go to LAN parties, I don't know any diehard geeks who go to tournaments. Geeks don't show off, and they get paid just fine to code or support systems -- wasting hundreds of hours in tournaments for the golden carrot isn't a geek's style.
I respectfully agree about "jocks" -- or maybe they're donkeys lured by the carrots. Some are social parasites, wanting to climb on the backs of the downtrodden to get their moment of fame. You see that type in the business world all the time (I won't name names, but I can spell out some initials *cough* BG) -- some of whom *BG* were once something resembling geeks.
Most geeks can't be bothered. Most geeks don't have the social wherewithal to know that you CAN climb on the backs of the downtrodden. Besides, that would be too much like getting exercise!
I run my own company from a home office. I do web & print design, php/mysql coding, app installations and customizations for people's sites.
I've lost power -- 2 hours this week, one friday for 24 hrs into saturday, etc. on several occasions. Losing power is disasterous.
I have lost internet without losing power, but far less frequently. There's only so long the cable modem stays up on a UPS;)
Without power, my laptop battery goes from 2-4 hours. I can still usually code and design for a bit, wrap up to a good pause point, etc.
If the power is out, and I don't want to waste my laptop battery, or if all my projects are live web installs, I'm pretty screwed.
There's a caveat though -- when a nasty thunderstorm rolls through, we power everything down, unplug my laptop, unplug the cable line from the cable modem etc. I've seen a lightning strike on Long Island NY take out EVERY ethernet card on the lan -- and if it was on the motherboard, it took the motherboard with it (not to mention the damage it did to the phones and TV in the house). So when a storm rolls through, anything metal connected to outside (we have overhead power and cable) is unplugged...might as well have a power or cable outtage. I wish I were kidding about the LAN damage, but I helped replace every NIC card on that network and helped replace the fried computer...
When I took my loan, there was a list of things I could do with it. Investments was NOT an approved use of my loan. I'm sure putting it in a low yield savings that you have easy access to is ok...
Things I was allowed to do: food, shelter, utilities, childcare for my kids expressly so I could attend classes, school books, a computer a year...
That money is given explicitly to enable your schooling, not to help you make money. Check the terms of your loan lest you be caught with your pants down and get in a lot of trouble.
In 1994, I had RSI to the point that I couldn't turn a doorknob or zip my pants.
First off -- check your nutrition. For me, 100-200mg B6 a day helped A LOT. I'm now in remission, and on the computer all day, every dayWhenever my RSIs act up I pop some extra B6. (this is not a prescription, nor am I a doctor -- this is what worked FOR ME).
Second -- I stave off my RSI by swapping between various devices all day. I use my laptop a lot, with a trackpad, when doing 3D art, I'm using my dual processor desktop computer with a mouse, and when I'm doing Illustrator or Photoshop work, I'm on a pen tablet. It may be that some tasks are more suited for varying devices, and changing where the stress points are (and still taking frequent breaks, and popping my vitamins) helps a whole lot.
Third -- wrist braces. It's not the braces so much as the constant reminder to be careful:)
Swapping between various input devices -- trackball, trackpad, mouse, keypad/keyboard navigation, voice navigation, and maybe pen tablet -- would probably take a lot of the stress off the particular areas of problem without creating new areas of problems.
After 1994 I've never had so bad an RSI issue. I also no longer type people's term papers at rush rates at 80+ wpm;) I get to the point of some mild pain and twitching, and then I take preventive measures before I get to paralysis and numbness.
Being in the middle of a problem probably warrants agressive measures. If it's just at the point of "some pain" then it's probably much easier to treat. Don't let it get to the point of numbness and paralysis though!
It may be warranted to take anti inflammatories or (cortico)steroids -- talk to a doctor &/or a neurologist.
I don't understand where you're getting your KWH numbers.
I run a laptop 24/7 (put it to sleep when I sleep), and leave other gadgets and computers on overnight occasionally. I have an a/c, microwave, often forget to turn my monitor off so it just sleeps. I have 3 servers under my desk. My partner is also a geek, he has several computers, sometimes running multiple computers at a time as well. My kids both have computers. We have a dehumidifier in the basement running 24/7. Lights, microwave, cell phones, iPod, radios, clocks, fridge, gameboys, printer, router, modem, several switches, etc. In terms of conservation, we turn our lights and the printer off when not in use, use compact florescents wherever feasible, and make the kids shut down their computers when not in use (which I admit is hypocritical, but it's far more important to keep my work files open and accessible than their games). Oh, yeah, and the water pump -- we have well water.
My entire household used 765KWH last month. Not per-geek, but for an entire household. We rent the entire house and garage, the heat and hot water is gas.
So where do you get the 10,000KWH statistic? I don't know what your "successful geek" statistic is talking about -- people who cashed in from the dot-com era? Hot tub? VAX cluster? How is that a "traditional successful 'geek'"? If I were "successful" (read: filthy rich) I'd have a custom built home, partially submerged in the ground, with radiant floor heating, thermal exchange heat, facing south, with solar paneling and, oh yeah -- for extra fuel, I could burn some manuer. And fuck the hot tub.
My PPC PowerBook was getting hot. Hot enough to fry eggs. Eventually I got fed up. Something had to be wrong. I mean, it was nice in the winter when I kept the heat down to save $ but I had a cold -- just hug the laptop. Come Spring, I was afraid the fan would melt.
Turned out I had a plug-in in my Mail.app (a junk mail filter program I wasn't using anyway, but I installed and left there like a busy doofus) that was running the CPU AND making it take forever to mark email as junk, or to quit the program. Solved two problems by uninstalling the bugger... now my fans aren't running constantly, the CPU/disk temperatures are normal, and it takes at least 1/4 the time to deal with my email. I can put my laptop on my lap again without burning my thighs. I'll reinstall the plug-in in the winter;)
I didn't have problems with heat on my old iBook 600mhz, and I no longer have problems with the PowerBook. Check your 'top' and what's running your cpu constantly, and keep in mind that laptops aren't gaming machines!:) If you're running Neverwinter's Nights on a laptop, it's going to get hot. My fans get spinning if I have a lot of apps (over 15 or 20) open, or I'm running the Adobe suite and editing large photos. It heats up during huge (30GB) disk transfers, etc. That's to be expected. Make sure your dashboard apps are up-to-date also! They're supposed to sleep when the dashboard is shut.
Apple mainly makes laptops to be laptops.;) When you start up iDVD/iMovie, it's gonna crank up the heat. I know it's rather tempting to replace a desktop with one of these, but you can't squeeze as many fans in the case, and you only have about 1" height on the case for fan openings -- and it would be sucking in as much dust as it's letting hot air out.
I have both OSes set up with static IP on the lan. The static for Win98 is blocked at the router. It can't go to the net.
What I use it for is the copy of IE 6 I installed on it. I proof websites I create on my Mac, hosted by Apache on my Mac to the lan. When I need to check a site I'm designing, I just start up the ol IBM Intellistation dual boot and check in IE and Firefox on the PC.
I do wish I could get the latest stupo-patch for IE on my 98 box, just so I can tell when this embedded object problem might break a page, but M$ wants you to have a legit XP machine, and won't allow me to download the patch to the Mac. Thankfully I don't do Flash, so it's probably not a huge deal anyway.
OTOH, maybe M$ is doing people a favor who have older Windows OSes by not updating their IE -- they won't get that frustrating pop-up when watching their outdated porn sites.
I am sorry that you know someone who had a bad experience with home birth, but many more are uncomplicated and low risk than those that have problems.
I gave birth twice at home, without problems.
I come from an unbroken line of women who successfully vaginally delivered. Absolutely unbroken. I saw no hereditary reason that I should have any complications. I had a midwife, I had exams, and I was minutes from a hospital if one were needed.
There are risks at the hospital too. Immunizing my newborn for Hep-B being one of them -- a practice that I find patently ridiculous. Carting my kids away to mix them with other babies, give them drugs I don't think are responsible for a newborn's immune system, or cutting off parts of my baby, should it happen to be a boy, that they can't rectify after ignoring the "NO CIRCUMCISION" order on the hospital chart. Or, even worse, if my baby were a hermaphodite and the doctors cart my baby away and decide -- without my knowledge or approval -- to "assign" a gender to my child. I've heard more horror stories, and I didn't want to be one of them. When I was born, the regular practice was NOT to breastfeed and they had a pill to stop the milk from coming in. In spite of my mother's standing order they administered it, and she was unable to breastfeed me. (She was young and clueless for not asking what the pill was.)
Before giving birth at home, I read midwifery books. Signs of meconium inhalation would be apparent at and shortly after birth, after which a wise/educated/responsible/equipped midwife would suction the infant's trachea and recommend transport to a hospital. Risk factors are a late delivery, and complications during labor. The baby's heartbeat would be off in the womb. The amniotic fluid would show signs of meconium taint (if the water breaks and it's green, go to the hospital!), and the baby would have a low APGAR (alertness and reflex testing given immediately after birth). Full-term, on-time, vigorous babies with a high APGAR are at low-to-no risk.
As infant mortality rates go, the rate in the US is FAR from perfect...in spite of so-called medical advances. Hospital deliveries have a high rate of "you're here, so we might as well interfere" -- unneeded procedures like cutting the perineum, epidurals that affect a baby's awareness upon birth, etc. I firmly opt out.
The summer of code pays something (MUCH better than most internships!), and if I remember correctly some of it is paid out along the duration. It's not "Do this work and MAYBE we'll pay you something."
But I get the gist -- everyone's looking for cheap labor.
I'm not missing any point. $100,000 is peanuts for finding their "Killer app", they're wasting the "losers" time no matter how good the apps they develop are, and they stand to make a lot more for the developer's time than the developer. The developer is going to put hundreds -- if not thousands -- of manhours into the project with about as much chance of winning the lottery.
What point did I miss?
If Sun needs a hot new app, they can request proposals. That's as close to a contest as I want to get.
If I'm going to develop a "Hot app" I'm not going to hand it to Sun. I'd at least have the dignity and self-respect to go to IBM.;)
Also, exactly how is this project going to get anywhere if the person has to work long hard hours without pay in order to win? Paying for groceries on a credit card is a Bad Idea (TM). And there's still no guarantee you're going to get paid. This doesn't sound like a spare-time type of deal, and minors can't sign contracts and give their rights away, so that eliminates the 8-17 year old genius working over the summer category. The pay is small fry for most development firms who might be able to do this type of speculative work, and it would be an unsound business decision to develop a product you're not sure you're going to get paid for.
I see no irony. 1) NO!SPEC didn't dangle a $100 carrot saying "we want 20 people to come up with 5 posters, and we'll reward the winner by posting them" 2) NO!SPEC is not against volunteerism or pro-bono work. It's about companies who want to try before they buy. "Do the work MAYBE we'll pay you" or "Do the work, MAYBE we'll use it"
These companies are sucking up time.
Sun wants brilliant people to come up with ideas they don't want to pay a think tank to come up with. If 20 people submit something and they pay 1 person $100,000 for their work, then 19 people are screwed.
Does that make it clearer?
Put up an RFP, ask for proposals, then go with ONE person/company with a brilliant idea, foot half the cash up-front so they eat more than ramen noodles. That's the traditional way to do it. You don't ask for finished products and pay $100,000 to the one that you like best after-the-fact.
If anyone wants a lot of good reasons not to enter Sun's contest, I suggest reading the design site NO!SPEC. Just replace "Programming" for "Designing", "Designer" for "Programmer" etc. -- and realize the research, planning, time commitment, and post-project support for this "contest" is even worse than that for a logo or website design.
What a *#)#*#)@!{#*$)$(#)#&*#&^$&$)$) waste of time.
Looks like programmers can use to team up with the designers on this one. Start writing no-spec work rants and add them to the list at NO!SPEC.
They should find a person or team capable of this project, and get it done right, for the right money. What is the programmer going to live on during those hundreds of hours programming? Peanuts?
hybrid --> a matchmaking service for otherwise natural and viable crops that might meet in the "wild" or on the wind. This doesn't "ruin" organic crops to my knowledge -- only heritage. There's no reason organic corn can't be a hybrid.
genetically modified --> laboratory invented strains that would never (or probably never) occur in the "wild", that then spread their genetic roulette wheel through normal means, and may just still be cross-fertile with both natural, wild, hybridized, organic or heritage species.
When I look to organic foods to guarantee that they are not genetically modified, and I'm willing to pay extra for that premium food crop, I don't want to be a victim of *cough* "winds of change". And the farmer, finding new strains of corn growing in the field (the ear is the fruit of the female plant parts pollenated by a different male plant!), often can't declare their food organic anymore.
re: high fructose corn syrup
Yes, companies (ab)use it, but some scientist created it and some greedy, brilliant, selfish or ignorant marketing "guru" decided they could make a mint marketing it to soda companies (bread companies, yogurt companies, cereal companies -- you wouldn't believe how pervasive it is until you try to get it out of your diet!)..."New Coke" and "Coke Classic" heralded the change from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup. You were probably too young to have noticed.
I didn't say a "natural life style" was easy, but I don't see why I can't comment on Slashdot in spite of me not being 100% pro science, genetic engineering, and population explosions via longer lifetimes and lowered infant mortality rates. So far life is 100% fatal, we're postponing the inevitable but increasing the rates of other diseases such as asthma, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes that aren't always fatal but are always expensive and erode our quality of life.
I pointed out that GE wind pollenated crops are a problem. Obviously you don't think so. But I won't tell you to shut up and go home. It's ok if this topic makes you uncomfortable -- none of us have any clue exactly what we're doing to our planet and it's really tough to balance between modern tech, convenience, and doing the "right thing" -- especially when there's no real one right thing. Even the organic "nuts" don't have it right. The only way to *really* reduce our impact on the planet would be to go back to swords, arrows and hand plows, kill at least half the people on the planet, bury them without chemicals directly into the ground and go back to tilling the soil they nurture in our own backyards we share with our clans and tribes. Even that might be too much. There's little left to hunt, the soil is tired of our abuse, there are holes in the ozone, it's possible that the melting ice caps will continue the erosion of the ozone layer regardless of what we do to reduce/reverse emissions, etc. I could go on, but it's pretty depressing.
I'm not sure what good living another 50 years will do me. How about you?
I have a big issue with genetically engineered grains. All grains are wind pollinated. Pollen can travel quite far before fertilizing the female of a compatible plant species. Organic corn growers are already having big issues with this. You can't have heritage grains and pure strains when people are mucking around with wind pollenated plants.
I don't know how far they have tested this, but medicine and science has had several disasters with medications given to one generation and the disastrous results showing up in subsequent generations. Why can't we stick with things that humans evolved on and eliminate the crud like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, genetically modified foods, olean, etc? Our bodies don't know what we're eating anymore.
I have children - one of whom is in the target age range and who is playing Zoo Tycoon as the LOWEST (age) level game he plays with any real interest, which includes long descriptions of animals, their group habits, constructing their habitats, and whether they're headed towards extinction or not. It also is pretty demanding on the budget level, which helps my child learn that everything has a price, and sometimes LOWERING the entrance fee is more profitable than raising it. He's learned some ancient mythology from Age of Mythology, and the names of several gods, which as an eclectic pagan I suppose I should be grateful for -- maybe. And I'm certain he's learning something, but I'm not sure WHAT, from DDR (yay, exercise during the winter! and something resembling coordination), the Sims (somewhat realistic scheduling and housekeeping maybe?), and Neverwinter's Nights (um -- I'm sure I can come up with something constructive....). He goes into the authoring/mapping environments in games that allow it and tinkers on the god/universe/dm side whenever possible as well.
The quality of the games for level 5 that NASA has is a game of concentration with about 20 cards. How would my child be engaged with that? A game of trivia to "help a comet get to the sun" -- why would a comet WANT to go to the sun? Duh!
NASA should fund a real gaming company to have an interesting factual space adventure game created. Something on the level of Masters of Orion in graphics and planetary maps -- a strategy or sim game involving astronauts, space exploration, and where the facts about each planet really MATTER to the exploration teams or scientists. Send little robots to explore the surface of the planets. What shielding do they need? How will they get their power recharged? Can you time it so your little robot is always on the sunny side of the planet for solar energy? How will the tiny guy deal with the wind? Can your project stay on schedule and within budget?
That would draw ME in much less my kids. We're suckers for a good strategy or sim game. If it involves currency of ANY type, my child is instantly facinated with overanalyzing the ways to deal with and exploit the local economy, even if it means selling every item in the Sim's house and making them live outside without toilets:P heh.
In essence: Don't give us facts, make us use them. That's a major law of learning.
If you use that space or those computers to do anything BUT run your business, the home office deduction is disqualified.
Fun Fun!
Everyone would need a separate computer to play (insert name of game, including Tetris or Solitaire), answer personal email, pay the household bills, look at pr0n, etc....
So -- start building that separate home office.:P
{Don't mind me, I'm just jealous that you own a house.}
... The Tribune has suddenly vanished without a trace. The offices are scrubbed clean, the files are empty, and there's a For Lease sign up by the building management company.
... Hundreds of families across Illinois have filed new missing persons reports this month, a drastic rise from the usual numbers. Oddly, a high percentage of the newly missing persons seem to have worked for the Chicago Tribune.
Slashdot Mirror
Makers of vaccines are legally protected from lawsuits.
See [new news]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/22/AR2011022206008.html
or [established decades ago]: http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
Drunk driving vs. flu deaths? Wow....
I wish people would stop comparing vaccines with things wildly unrelated.
Thanks for the insult. I know children aren't born vaccinated. Duh. Children are vaccinated the DAY they are born in the hospitals. Within hours of being born. For a disease they're not likely to get until at least teen years.
I'm not saying there are no valid diseases to vaccinate against -- and people can do whatever they want. I'm saying that buying the government's line [on herd immunity/the safety &/or necessity of vaccinations...] without questioning it is for fucking idiots.
Have you given birth? I have, twice. When you have a child, the assumption is you will vaccinate. If you don't stop them, they vaccinate your child within moments of birth. It starts with eye drops to prevent blindness from gonorrhea. If you know you don't have a VD, why are they putting drops in your kids' eyes? This is later followed up with Hep B vaccine -- same day as birth, before you're summarily dismissed from the hospital. Some of the diseases they're vaccinating your kids from are not the types that are spread by air or contact or drinking water... but they'll vaccinate your kid without full consent or full information.
Legally, vaccination is an invasive procedure (akin to surgery), requiring full disclosure by the doctor of potential side effects, the information packet included with the vaccine serum, etc. What happens IN the doctor's office? They reach in the cabinet "It's time for your vaccinations..." and they pull out a bottle & a syringe & get to work...
It's become so habitual that they're not even following their own industry regulations.
You probably don't have kids -- like most of the "fucking idiots" posting on this topic. If you do, you almost definitely didn't go through the labor to have them, didn't see what they did to the babies when they whisked them out of the delivery room, and probably didn't go with them to the doctor's office when they got their vaccines.... And you're probably ignorant of what the vaccine schedule actually is, and how many vaccines they routinely give to children nowadays...usually in violation of law. It's an assembly-line procedure now. But it's not supposed to be. But that doesn't worry anyone here. :)
I'm sorry, I fail to see the similarities between optional alternative "therapies" and a mandatory government-required system of vaccinations of which any and all profits roll into the same large companies. If the program was not profitable, the drug companies wouldn't produce the vaccines -- their boards of directors would shoot them (and they'd be legally fiscally accountable to their shareholders & boards for running a program at a deficit for decades...). So you have to assume that it brings in some type of profit -- or the companies wouldn't produce them.
Comparing this to homeopathic remedies, that are entirely voluntary, is ridiculous. Please stick to the problem at-hand. [Note: it's quite likely the same drug companies are making money on homeopathic remedies under subsidiary labels too -- because they'll sell whatever the public will buy to profit their board & shareholders -- just like they started taking an interest in herbal remedies during the big FDA-herb-banning fights in the early 1990s]
The vaccination program makes the drug companies money. Period. The more children are vaccinated, the more money. Period. This has nothing to do with what other companies are selling or with non-manditory medications/alternative therapies. This is an entirely different fact than whether we're benefitted by herd immunity, etc. If this program didn't make a profit, and the government thought it was of benefit to vaccinate regardless of whether a for-profit entity would supply the vaccines, the government would manufacture the vaccines or fund some small non-profit with grant money to do so. The fact is, there's profit being made here. The next question is what lobbying & what pressure is being put on legislators to insure these profits.
Well, then you want to catch every single child you can, to maximize the profit, right? After all, you invested in R&D, FDA approval & compliance with regulations. But once you have it on the assembly line, each vial of vaccine can't really cost much on top of those up-front costs.... so we'd better start immunizing all those stragglers too!
First Question: If vaccines really work, then how are unvaccinated children putting vaccinated children at risk? Study data about recent outbreaks of the vaccine-available illnesses for a clue on this one... Is herd immunity a myth?
Next: Is this issue one of those "Things the government & 'science' tell us are true but are actually only to benefit large corporate interests"? Every child from the day they are born has a "vaccine schedule" -- starting with Hep B vaccine which is a disease they must have unprotected sex or use injected dirty needles to get? Is this a case of over-vaccinated to go along with over-medicated children?
Correlation or causation? Increases of childhood developmental disabilities vs. being vaccinated... are they related? It's so hard to tell, since they're constantly giving children vaccines when they're growing. But there's plenty of parents whose children have problems within 72 hours of vaccines being administered to make at least the anecdotal cases seem compelling -- at least THAT child should not have had those vaccines. Would you rather your child had the mumps, or encephalitis resulting in autism?
Always! ask who benefits. Because I'd love to see the data that says that children benefit.
While I know some geeks that go to LAN parties, I don't know any diehard geeks who go to tournaments. Geeks don't show off, and they get paid just fine to code or support systems -- wasting hundreds of hours in tournaments for the golden carrot isn't a geek's style.
I respectfully agree about "jocks" -- or maybe they're donkeys lured by the carrots. Some are social parasites, wanting to climb on the backs of the downtrodden to get their moment of fame. You see that type in the business world all the time (I won't name names, but I can spell out some initials *cough* BG) -- some of whom *BG* were once something resembling geeks.
Most geeks can't be bothered. Most geeks don't have the social wherewithal to know that you CAN climb on the backs of the downtrodden. Besides, that would be too much like getting exercise!
> So how do you watch Battleship Galactica and Stargate?
:)
;)
I downloaded the pilot of Firefly from iTunes and we have all the Star Trek originals on DVD. Computers and playstations play DVDs
Never having watched Stargate or Battlestar Galatica, I don't miss them
You mean that thing I use for the PlayStation?
What gods-honest self-respecting geek has cable? That would be a distraction from gaming and programming!
I actually have cable service, now that I think of it -- but only for my ISP.
I run my own company from a home office. I do web & print design, php/mysql coding, app installations and customizations for people's sites.
;)
I've lost power -- 2 hours this week, one friday for 24 hrs into saturday, etc. on several occasions. Losing power is disasterous.
I have lost internet without losing power, but far less frequently. There's only so long the cable modem stays up on a UPS
Without power, my laptop battery goes from 2-4 hours. I can still usually code and design for a bit, wrap up to a good pause point, etc.
If the power is out, and I don't want to waste my laptop battery, or if all my projects are live web installs, I'm pretty screwed.
There's a caveat though -- when a nasty thunderstorm rolls through, we power everything down, unplug my laptop, unplug the cable line from the cable modem etc. I've seen a lightning strike on Long Island NY take out EVERY ethernet card on the lan -- and if it was on the motherboard, it took the motherboard with it (not to mention the damage it did to the phones and TV in the house). So when a storm rolls through, anything metal connected to outside (we have overhead power and cable) is unplugged...might as well have a power or cable outtage. I wish I were kidding about the LAN damage, but I helped replace every NIC card on that network and helped replace the fried computer...
When I took my loan, there was a list of things I could do with it. Investments was NOT an approved use of my loan. I'm sure putting it in a low yield savings that you have easy access to is ok...
Things I was allowed to do: food, shelter, utilities, childcare for my kids expressly so I could attend classes, school books, a computer a year...
That money is given explicitly to enable your schooling, not to help you make money. Check the terms of your loan lest you be caught with your pants down and get in a lot of trouble.
In 1994, I had RSI to the point that I couldn't turn a doorknob or zip my pants. First off -- check your nutrition. For me, 100-200mg B6 a day helped A LOT. I'm now in remission, and on the computer all day, every dayWhenever my RSIs act up I pop some extra B6. (this is not a prescription, nor am I a doctor -- this is what worked FOR ME). Second -- I stave off my RSI by swapping between various devices all day. I use my laptop a lot, with a trackpad, when doing 3D art, I'm using my dual processor desktop computer with a mouse, and when I'm doing Illustrator or Photoshop work, I'm on a pen tablet. It may be that some tasks are more suited for varying devices, and changing where the stress points are (and still taking frequent breaks, and popping my vitamins) helps a whole lot. Third -- wrist braces. It's not the braces so much as the constant reminder to be careful :)
Swapping between various input devices -- trackball, trackpad, mouse, keypad/keyboard navigation, voice navigation, and maybe pen tablet -- would probably take a lot of the stress off the particular areas of problem without creating new areas of problems.
After 1994 I've never had so bad an RSI issue. I also no longer type people's term papers at rush rates at 80+ wpm ;) I get to the point of some mild pain and twitching, and then I take preventive measures before I get to paralysis and numbness.
Being in the middle of a problem probably warrants agressive measures. If it's just at the point of "some pain" then it's probably much easier to treat. Don't let it get to the point of numbness and paralysis though!
It may be warranted to take anti inflammatories or (cortico)steroids -- talk to a doctor &/or a neurologist.
I don't understand where you're getting your KWH numbers.
I run a laptop 24/7 (put it to sleep when I sleep), and leave other gadgets and computers on overnight occasionally. I have an a/c, microwave, often forget to turn my monitor off so it just sleeps. I have 3 servers under my desk. My partner is also a geek, he has several computers, sometimes running multiple computers at a time as well. My kids both have computers. We have a dehumidifier in the basement running 24/7. Lights, microwave, cell phones, iPod, radios, clocks, fridge, gameboys, printer, router, modem, several switches, etc. In terms of conservation, we turn our lights and the printer off when not in use, use compact florescents wherever feasible, and make the kids shut down their computers when not in use (which I admit is hypocritical, but it's far more important to keep my work files open and accessible than their games). Oh, yeah, and the water pump -- we have well water.
My entire household used 765KWH last month. Not per-geek, but for an entire household. We rent the entire house and garage, the heat and hot water is gas.
So where do you get the 10,000KWH statistic? I don't know what your "successful geek" statistic is talking about -- people who cashed in from the dot-com era? Hot tub? VAX cluster? How is that a "traditional successful 'geek'"? If I were "successful" (read: filthy rich) I'd have a custom built home, partially submerged in the ground, with radiant floor heating, thermal exchange heat, facing south, with solar paneling and, oh yeah -- for extra fuel, I could burn some manuer. And fuck the hot tub.
Do you have some inherent need to demonstrate your superior knowledge of microwaves?
It wouldn't be slashdot if they didn't!
My PPC PowerBook was getting hot. Hot enough to fry eggs. Eventually I got fed up. Something had to be wrong. I mean, it was nice in the winter when I kept the heat down to save $ but I had a cold -- just hug the laptop. Come Spring, I was afraid the fan would melt.
;)
:) If you're running Neverwinter's Nights on a laptop, it's going to get hot. My fans get spinning if I have a lot of apps (over 15 or 20) open, or I'm running the Adobe suite and editing large photos. It heats up during huge (30GB) disk transfers, etc. That's to be expected. Make sure your dashboard apps are up-to-date also! They're supposed to sleep when the dashboard is shut.
;) When you start up iDVD/iMovie, it's gonna crank up the heat. I know it's rather tempting to replace a desktop with one of these, but you can't squeeze as many fans in the case, and you only have about 1" height on the case for fan openings -- and it would be sucking in as much dust as it's letting hot air out.
Turned out I had a plug-in in my Mail.app (a junk mail filter program I wasn't using anyway, but I installed and left there like a busy doofus) that was running the CPU AND making it take forever to mark email as junk, or to quit the program. Solved two problems by uninstalling the bugger... now my fans aren't running constantly, the CPU/disk temperatures are normal, and it takes at least 1/4 the time to deal with my email. I can put my laptop on my lap again without burning my thighs. I'll reinstall the plug-in in the winter
I didn't have problems with heat on my old iBook 600mhz, and I no longer have problems with the PowerBook. Check your 'top' and what's running your cpu constantly, and keep in mind that laptops aren't gaming machines!
Apple mainly makes laptops to be laptops.
I have a x86 dual-boot. Win98 and Debian.
I have both OSes set up with static IP on the lan. The static for Win98 is blocked at the router. It can't go to the net.
What I use it for is the copy of IE 6 I installed on it. I proof websites I create on my Mac, hosted by Apache on my Mac to the lan. When I need to check a site I'm designing, I just start up the ol IBM Intellistation dual boot and check in IE and Firefox on the PC.
I do wish I could get the latest stupo-patch for IE on my 98 box, just so I can tell when this embedded object problem might break a page, but M$ wants you to have a legit XP machine, and won't allow me to download the patch to the Mac. Thankfully I don't do Flash, so it's probably not a huge deal anyway.
OTOH, maybe M$ is doing people a favor who have older Windows OSes by not updating their IE -- they won't get that frustrating pop-up when watching their outdated porn sites.
I am sorry that you know someone who had a bad experience with home birth, but many more are uncomplicated and low risk than those that have problems.
I gave birth twice at home, without problems.
I come from an unbroken line of women who successfully vaginally delivered. Absolutely unbroken. I saw no hereditary reason that I should have any complications. I had a midwife, I had exams, and I was minutes from a hospital if one were needed.
There are risks at the hospital too. Immunizing my newborn for Hep-B being one of them -- a practice that I find patently ridiculous. Carting my kids away to mix them with other babies, give them drugs I don't think are responsible for a newborn's immune system, or cutting off parts of my baby, should it happen to be a boy, that they can't rectify after ignoring the "NO CIRCUMCISION" order on the hospital chart. Or, even worse, if my baby were a hermaphodite and the doctors cart my baby away and decide -- without my knowledge or approval -- to "assign" a gender to my child. I've heard more horror stories, and I didn't want to be one of them. When I was born, the regular practice was NOT to breastfeed and they had a pill to stop the milk from coming in. In spite of my mother's standing order they administered it, and she was unable to breastfeed me. (She was young and clueless for not asking what the pill was.)
Before giving birth at home, I read midwifery books. Signs of meconium inhalation would be apparent at and shortly after birth, after which a wise/educated/responsible/equipped midwife would suction the infant's trachea and recommend transport to a hospital. Risk factors are a late delivery, and complications during labor. The baby's heartbeat would be off in the womb. The amniotic fluid would show signs of meconium taint (if the water breaks and it's green, go to the hospital!), and the baby would have a low APGAR (alertness and reflex testing given immediately after birth). Full-term, on-time, vigorous babies with a high APGAR are at low-to-no risk.
As infant mortality rates go, the rate in the US is FAR from perfect...in spite of so-called medical advances. Hospital deliveries have a high rate of "you're here, so we might as well interfere" -- unneeded procedures like cutting the perineum, epidurals that affect a baby's awareness upon birth, etc. I firmly opt out.
The summer of code pays something (MUCH better than most internships!), and if I remember correctly some of it is paid out along the duration. It's not "Do this work and MAYBE we'll pay you something."
But I get the gist -- everyone's looking for cheap labor.
I'm not missing any point. $100,000 is peanuts for finding their "Killer app", they're wasting the "losers" time no matter how good the apps they develop are, and they stand to make a lot more for the developer's time than the developer. The developer is going to put hundreds -- if not thousands -- of manhours into the project with about as much chance of winning the lottery.
;)
What point did I miss?
If Sun needs a hot new app, they can request proposals. That's as close to a contest as I want to get.
If I'm going to develop a "Hot app" I'm not going to hand it to Sun. I'd at least have the dignity and self-respect to go to IBM.
Also, exactly how is this project going to get anywhere if the person has to work long hard hours without pay in order to win? Paying for groceries on a credit card is a Bad Idea (TM). And there's still no guarantee you're going to get paid. This doesn't sound like a spare-time type of deal, and minors can't sign contracts and give their rights away, so that eliminates the 8-17 year old genius working over the summer category. The pay is small fry for most development firms who might be able to do this type of speculative work, and it would be an unsound business decision to develop a product you're not sure you're going to get paid for.
Absolutely!
I see no irony.
1) NO!SPEC didn't dangle a $100 carrot saying "we want 20 people to come up with 5 posters, and we'll reward the winner by posting them"
2) NO!SPEC is not against volunteerism or pro-bono work. It's about companies who want to try before they buy. "Do the work MAYBE we'll pay you" or "Do the work, MAYBE we'll use it"
These companies are sucking up time.
Sun wants brilliant people to come up with ideas they don't want to pay a think tank to come up with. If 20 people submit something and they pay 1 person $100,000 for their work, then 19 people are screwed.
Does that make it clearer?
Put up an RFP, ask for proposals, then go with ONE person/company with a brilliant idea, foot half the cash up-front so they eat more than ramen noodles. That's the traditional way to do it. You don't ask for finished products and pay $100,000 to the one that you like best after-the-fact.
This is as bad as all the design contests.
If anyone wants a lot of good reasons not to enter Sun's contest, I suggest reading the design site NO!SPEC. Just replace "Programming" for "Designing", "Designer" for "Programmer" etc. -- and realize the research, planning, time commitment, and post-project support for this "contest" is even worse than that for a logo or website design.
What a *#)#*#)@!{#*$)$(#)#&*#&^$&$)$) waste of time.
Looks like programmers can use to team up with the designers on this one. Start writing no-spec work rants and add them to the list at NO!SPEC.
They should find a person or team capable of this project, and get it done right, for the right money. What is the programmer going to live on during those hundreds of hours programming? Peanuts?
re: hybrids vs. genetically modified crops
hybrid --> a matchmaking service for otherwise natural and viable crops that might meet in the "wild" or on the wind. This doesn't "ruin" organic crops to my knowledge -- only heritage. There's no reason organic corn can't be a hybrid.
genetically modified --> laboratory invented strains that would never (or probably never) occur in the "wild", that then spread their genetic roulette wheel through normal means, and may just still be cross-fertile with both natural, wild, hybridized, organic or heritage species.
When I look to organic foods to guarantee that they are not genetically modified, and I'm willing to pay extra for that premium food crop, I don't want to be a victim of *cough* "winds of change". And the farmer, finding new strains of corn growing in the field (the ear is the fruit of the female plant parts pollenated by a different male plant!), often can't declare their food organic anymore.
re: high fructose corn syrup
Yes, companies (ab)use it, but some scientist created it and some greedy, brilliant, selfish or ignorant marketing "guru" decided they could make a mint marketing it to soda companies (bread companies, yogurt companies, cereal companies -- you wouldn't believe how pervasive it is until you try to get it out of your diet!)..."New Coke" and "Coke Classic" heralded the change from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup. You were probably too young to have noticed.
I didn't say a "natural life style" was easy, but I don't see why I can't comment on Slashdot in spite of me not being 100% pro science, genetic engineering, and population explosions via longer lifetimes and lowered infant mortality rates. So far life is 100% fatal, we're postponing the inevitable but increasing the rates of other diseases such as asthma, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes that aren't always fatal but are always expensive and erode our quality of life.
I pointed out that GE wind pollenated crops are a problem. Obviously you don't think so. But I won't tell you to shut up and go home. It's ok if this topic makes you uncomfortable -- none of us have any clue exactly what we're doing to our planet and it's really tough to balance between modern tech, convenience, and doing the "right thing" -- especially when there's no real one right thing. Even the organic "nuts" don't have it right. The only way to *really* reduce our impact on the planet would be to go back to swords, arrows and hand plows, kill at least half the people on the planet, bury them without chemicals directly into the ground and go back to tilling the soil they nurture in our own backyards we share with our clans and tribes. Even that might be too much. There's little left to hunt, the soil is tired of our abuse, there are holes in the ozone, it's possible that the melting ice caps will continue the erosion of the ozone layer regardless of what we do to reduce/reverse emissions, etc. I could go on, but it's pretty depressing.
I'm not sure what good living another 50 years will do me. How about you?
I have a big issue with genetically engineered grains. All grains are wind pollinated. Pollen can travel quite far before fertilizing the female of a compatible plant species. Organic corn growers are already having big issues with this. You can't have heritage grains and pure strains when people are mucking around with wind pollenated plants.
I don't know how far they have tested this, but medicine and science has had several disasters with medications given to one generation and the disastrous results showing up in subsequent generations. Why can't we stick with things that humans evolved on and eliminate the crud like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, genetically modified foods, olean, etc? Our bodies don't know what we're eating anymore.
I have children - one of whom is in the target age range and who is playing Zoo Tycoon as the LOWEST (age) level game he plays with any real interest, which includes long descriptions of animals, their group habits, constructing their habitats, and whether they're headed towards extinction or not. It also is pretty demanding on the budget level, which helps my child learn that everything has a price, and sometimes LOWERING the entrance fee is more profitable than raising it. He's learned some ancient mythology from Age of Mythology, and the names of several gods, which as an eclectic pagan I suppose I should be grateful for -- maybe. And I'm certain he's learning something, but I'm not sure WHAT, from DDR (yay, exercise during the winter! and something resembling coordination), the Sims (somewhat realistic scheduling and housekeeping maybe?), and Neverwinter's Nights (um -- I'm sure I can come up with something constructive....). He goes into the authoring/mapping environments in games that allow it and tinkers on the god/universe/dm side whenever possible as well.
The quality of the games for level 5 that NASA has is a game of concentration with about 20 cards. How would my child be engaged with that? A game of trivia to "help a comet get to the sun" -- why would a comet WANT to go to the sun? Duh!
NASA should fund a real gaming company to have an interesting factual space adventure game created. Something on the level of Masters of Orion in graphics and planetary maps -- a strategy or sim game involving astronauts, space exploration, and where the facts about each planet really MATTER to the exploration teams or scientists. Send little robots to explore the surface of the planets. What shielding do they need? How will they get their power recharged? Can you time it so your little robot is always on the sunny side of the planet for solar energy? How will the tiny guy deal with the wind? Can your project stay on schedule and within budget?
That would draw ME in much less my kids. We're suckers for a good strategy or sim game. If it involves currency of ANY type, my child is instantly facinated with overanalyzing the ways to deal with and exploit the local economy, even if it means selling every item in the Sim's house and making them live outside without toilets :P heh.
In essence: Don't give us facts, make us use them. That's a major law of learning.
If you use that space or those computers to do anything BUT run your business, the home office deduction is disqualified.
Fun Fun!
Everyone would need a separate computer to play (insert name of game, including Tetris or Solitaire), answer personal email, pay the household bills, look at pr0n, etc....
So -- start building that separate home office. :P
{Don't mind me, I'm just jealous that you own a house.}... The Tribune has suddenly vanished without a trace. The offices are scrubbed clean, the files are empty, and there's a For Lease sign up by the building management company.
... Hundreds of families across Illinois have filed new missing persons reports this month, a drastic rise from the usual numbers. Oddly, a high percentage of the newly missing persons seem to have worked for the Chicago Tribune.