An alarm clock with a ping-pong ball launcher. While shooting at the sleeper might be a good idea, the inventor aimed it out his bedroom door. The catch? The alarm refuses to go off until the ball launcher is reloaded, meaning you have to get up and retrieve the ball from another room. You might even have to play hunt-under-the-desk/dresser, depending on aim and floor plan.
Getting a few hundred soldiers to position shields correctly would have been fairly trivial.
I think you're underestimating just how tricky that would be. Assuming you have X people aiming mirrors at a (moving?) boat, the side of the ship would look like a disco ball on crack. Not only would it be hard on the eyes, there's no way of figuring out which spot is yours. You'd be aiming blind. There's also the fact that movements are amplified; the further away you are from whatever you're aiming at, the more a small rotation of the mirror becomes a massive jump. No one has hands that steady.
I think you miss the point of an NC or very thin client. In your example, the only thing that would have to happen is that you would move to a different terminal and log in.
If the whole system is homogenous and of recent design, yes. Moving is as easy as logging onto a different box. But that requires a system entirely of thin clients, and that's impossible in most call centers. A call center needs to be able to handle the introduction of arbitrary third-party applications built on the Wintel standard, something thin clients can't do.
Maintaining a mix of thin and standard clients is a nightmare, for the reason I mentioned (I likely should've outlined the scenario a bit more). You're running two networks, constantly shuffling hardware, and losing more money than the thin machines theoretically saved.
The only option left is to buy a ton of IBM Aptivas or NetVistas or whatever they're calling them this year and use that. Contract X has all thin-client-friendly web apps? Well, we'll just increase their agent's security settings so there's less chance of them running something bad.
Thank you, you have given HP and other big companies more reasons to outsource.
I'm glad you stuck "other big companies" in there, because saying "you have given HP more reasons to outsource" is like saying "you have given the pyromaniac more reasons to set fires".
Now I am still trying to understand why the cashier at walmart needs a full fledged PC, just to sell me my stuff.
Or any call center agent....
As a former call center agent, all I can say is that we needed full-fledged PCs to keep sane. Believe me, even the most dedicated agent hunts down and fires up Freecell in hour 2 of a call that goes through a translator or one where you hear the phrase "And they told me I'd never be able to upgrade from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98! So what if it takes ten minutes to boot?" (Unless you're a hose-and-close master, then you keep Freecell open all the time.)
More serious answer: Some of the apps Big Companies use are positively ancient, and hip-deep in Wintel-specific cruft. (My favorite: A Win2K box running a "Made for Windows 95" app that called a DOS program during some parts of its operation.) Therefore, any call center that does outsourcing (i.e. not owned and run by whoever you're calling) HAS to have PCs.
In an outsourced call center, agents can walk in on Wednesday to find out that their section got re-zoned Tuesday night for political reasons and they now work on the other end of the building. Re-imaging 100 PCs isn't a pleasant task, but it's far easier than carting 100 thin clients to one of the building and dragging the 100 PCs they replaced back to where the thin clients used to be.
Related to this point is this: since Card is alive (and well) at this time, how much say does he get in these movies?
Well, Barry Longyear was alive and well when they made the film "Enemy Mine." While I've only seen bits of the film and barely remember what I did see, I have this worry that I'm going to see Ender brandishing laser rifles Rambo-style and shooting animatronic roaches for the big finale.
In a country where the federal government has been concentrating power in the capital, I can't see where she gets such bizarre ideas.
We're heading for a country where everyone is a potential suspect, eventually.
I think you're giving the federal government a bit too much credit here. As nutty as they can be, they're hardly the only player in these kinds of games. Local police aren't the federal government, yet we've seen occasions where departments are just drooling at the idea of getting DNA from everyone in the precinct (or every [insert ethnicity here] in the precinct) and cleaning out their unsolved crime files. No federal involvement, they just ask for 'suspicious' people's DNA and mention that refusal could be seen as very suspicious and in need of further investigation.
The media isn't the federal government either. Yet almost every time there's a kidnapping/murder of a child in the news (as there is now), I see an idiot talking head or pundit bemoaning how the police were unable to search nearby houses. Here you have people essentially asking for an America where, if a cute/photogenic kid is kidnapped within twenty miles of you, kiss your Fourth Amendment rights goodbye and let nice Mr. Policeman tear up your floorboards to check for secret crawlspaces. After all, a big media sensation is worth more than your privacy, right?
Power is in some ways like energy - for the most part it can't be created or destroyed, just converted from one form to another. People with substantial amounts of power often want more, which means taking it from someone else. Some take it by force, some by playing the system, some by whispering promises in your ear about protecting you from the Bad Men in the world. If you think it's only Washington who wants to deprive you of rights, you're dodging pebbles during an avalanche.
Starting 4-5 years after I became diabetic, most flu shots changed to much smaller needles similar to those used for insulin injections.
So I'm still a sissy, but the needles are smaller?:)
On the other hand, the flu shots tend to make your arm sore as hell starting an hour or so after the injection and continuing for a day or two.
Yeah, does it for me (though not this year's for some reason). I'm okay until the next morning, then my arm's darn near useless for the day. It's fine at my side, but if I move it, it hurts and sometimes just refuses to move more than half its standard range. But I suspect that's just my body raising hell with the dead viruses. Temporary arm use for flu defenses seems a fair trade-off.
You're right. I was fooled by a commercial intentionally designed to be misleading:)
Well, you're no doubt in good company.:) Took ages before I noticed, and even then only by luck.
Doesn't mean its still not false advertising. Our economic system is not supposed to work on the level of a 5 year old.
True enough, but "is not supposed to" and "doesn't" are sadly two very different concepts.:\ I just did some more looking. No idea how reliable the Cincinnati Enquirer is, but anyway... apparently the original ads had actual size increase promises. The article implies that they vanished after a few class-action suits got thrown at the company.
The greater 'success' of the Smilin' Bob ads leads me to believe that, blatantly dishonest and scummy as they are, they don't have any outright lies that a court or other ruling body can sieze upon. And that's a crying shame.
Here in the US they just recently started looking into the "Enzyte" (penis growth stuff) people, I knew it was a scam 4 years ago when I saw the first commercial.
Perhaps you're just not bothering to type out a long explanation, but it looks like you've fallen for one small part of the commercial. Technically, it's not a penis growth product. It's a "male enhancement" product. And that's part of why these people are so hard to nail to the wall.
(Side note for those not in the know: "Smilin' Bob" is the star of all their commercials; he's the supposed archetypical Enzyte customer, a guy whose ceaseless unholy grin sits in the gray area between smile and rictus.)
Not matter how often the Enzyte hucksters show you ads featuring people amazed at Bob's off-camera naked body, or women fingering tall, wet drinking glasses, they don't say it will make your penis longer. It's just for "male enhancement".
No matter how often they show the 'villain' of the ad holding a flaccid water hose, or with "LIMPS" emblazoned across his chest, they don't say it will make your erection harder. It's just for "male enhancement".
No matter how often they show lines of eager women desperately waiting to sit on "Santa Bob"'s lap, they don't say it will increase your stamina or reduce your refractory period. It's just for "male enhancement".
"Male enhancement" could just mean you burp louder or your nails grow faster - technically, that's an "enhancement". Or maybe your mouth muscles lock into a parody of Bob's grin, which perhaps is seen as an "enhancement" by Batman fans going to a costume party dressed as The Joker. They leave the target so nebulous that, if there's legal problems, the company could use ANY change to the person's health or even personal life as the "enhancement".
They also make Altovis, a nonsexual thing which is for giving you "more energy". Same deal there. Evidently they're just fancy caffeine pills. Sleeping less? It must be MORE ENERGY!
And even now, they're not in trouble for their ads. They're just being prodded a bit by the feds for stuff like sending you more and more of their crap (and charging you) after the "free trial" is up.
And rumor has it that once Enzyte took off, anyone who tried to take them to task over their other products, like Altovis, would have to do all their snail-mail and bank/credit card dealings with things proudly emblazoned "From the makers of Enzyte" or somesuch, in an attempt to shame people into silence, lest their bank tellers and mailmen see "Enzyte" and think they can't get it up.
I used to run my high-school's firewall, back in 1994... Students paid me top dollar to gain access to then blacklisted sites... What a sweet deal that was...:) Especially since I maintained the blacklist of sites..:)
Someone at my school tried something like that. Told me all about his plans to "hack Windows" and put a whole l33t pr0n program in, and charge for access. Of course, he didn't know I was the one student with sysadmin rights. I used a snooper-type thing to watch as he tried 'hacking' - which basically meant trying to turn off the "read only" attribute to LAN files he didn't have write access to.
Not that I'd have let him if he tried to cut me in, mind you. Being able to read the teachers' e-mails was quite the bribe in and of itself.:)
Just curious, What is the rationale behind getting flu-shots because you had cancer?
To quote Health Canada: "people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, anemia, cancer, immune suppression, HIV or kidney disease". Apparently no differentiation is made between someone with a current tumor and someone who, like me, is "under close surveillance".
Part of it - from what I gather - is how nervous they are about my lungs. (Another part of my checkups is a chest x-ray and usually the ol' stethoscope on the back.) One of the carcinomas I had (it was a mixed germ cell carcinoma, one lump with multiple kinds of cancer) is a fast mover and heads right for the lungs. If I come down with the flu and then that little bastard makes an appearance, I'm in trouble. Not only will the symptoms of it be masked by the flu, I wouldn't be able to start the immune-system-punishing chemo right away. It might sound like a longshot - getting the flu and a recurrence of cancer at the same time - but people have wound up dead from longshots before.
Did you get that weird taste in your mouth when they hit you with the radio contrast fluid?
Nope, though they always tell me I will. And that warm gotta-go-to-the-bathroom-right-now feeling doesn't hit me in the bladder like they say. It gets me right in the bowel. Believe me, the longest minute of my life was that first scan I did, where I was simultaneously:
Holding my breath,
gagging on Esophotrast (it'll put you off anything sweet for a day and vanilla for at least a week),
and feeling like my colon was about to explode.
Fortunately, I'm going to a different place now and they don't use the Esophotrast. I'm also used to the minute of sphincter-clenching joy.:)
When I was a kid/teenager, I hated flu/booster shots. Og no like pain, pain bad, no pain.
Then, at the age of 23, I found a lump. It was cancer. While I didn't need chemo, I did get a lot of CT scans requiring an IV with a radiopaque substance (6 in my first year post-surgery) and bloodwork (12 in that same year).
After that, my GP strongly recommended I get a flu shot, as is suggested to anyone who's had cancer. I was a bit nervous (it had been years since I'd had one, partly because I was generally healthy, partly because I didn't like getting jabbed), but I got it anyway. And it didn't hurt. Let me tell you - after a few IVs and bloodwork needles, I can barely feel those flu shot needles anymore! I can't believe I used to be nervous about those damn things.
This year, I got a flu shot as well. And it didn't hurt.
>As far as I can see, now the only definitions >ever linked are for individual words.
Not quite. To extend my previous example: http://www.google.com/search?q=crown+of+ thorns
or... http://www.google.com/search?q=jus+soli It seems that if it's a multiword phrase that has a (dead tree) dictionary entry, it's still linked as a phrase. Google seems to be using a standard dictionary as its Wikipedia/Answers.com filter.
You might wish to amend that to "geeky". It was a good while before the Jewish meaning of "phylactery" was listed above the Dungeons and Dragons meaning (though it finally was changed last year). Somehow, I doubt most people looking in a Real Encyclopedia for "phylactery" are checking on the biological (necrological?) functions of an undead wizard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phylac te ry (Check the history list.)
Another odd one was Crown of Horns, a nasty piece of magical hardware, also from D&D. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Horns
When Google first moved from dictionary.com to answers.com (which uses Wikipedia articles), if you typoed "Crown of Thorns" by dropping the T, you'd be offered a definition for the D&D artifact. Basically, typing ANY wikipedia article title (by accident or not) into Google would give you a definition for that, rather than the individual words or likely typos.
At almost 500K articles, there must have been a few real gems in there. And since I see a lot of Wikipedia names just redirect to other articles, that might've bumped the number of apparent articles up to well over 500K, increasing the likelihood of an incorrect definition if you typed just the right/wrong words in.
Now, I'll admit that the thought of some myopic old grandma-type looking for an article on Christianity or houseplants landing at an article about dark gods and soul-sucking artifacts is amusing, though it's not exactly how one wants to market oneself to the populace. (Wikipedia - give your granny a heart attack!)
Evidently oddities like that must have caused someone at Google to alter whatever pattern-matching search of answers.com the definition link uses, because now a lot more searches default to definitions of the individual words. So, in a way, Wikipedia's already proven that it can't be a Google information supplier without a filter in the way to chop out the worst/most technical/most geekly of articles.
I actually asked a girl at a club how she would rate me on a scale of 3 to 18. She said 17 so I pulled out a 20 sider and rolled. Then I said I passed my charisma check so you have to dance with me. It actually worked!
Back in the days of Windows 3.1 and (for me, anyway) high school, a classmate ran up to me insisting our computer teacher was gay. Since we were in class with his daughter (oldest of 5 or 6 kids) I doubted it, to say the least.
"No, I've got proof!"
I shuddered to think what this proof was, but asked anyway. "What is it?"
"On his computer! Porn programs! GAY porn!"
I was sceptical. "And you SAW the porn?"
"No! Well, not porn, but gay programs! He's not in the lab, come and see!"
"Er.... Okay...." Somehow I doubted the guy would keep gay porn on his class PC and then leave it running, but anyway....
In the lab, I was dragged over to his machine. The classmate insisted, "It's hidden in the 'Internet' group! Next to the groundhog program!"
"Gopher."
"Whatever! Look! Look!"
And sitting on the screen was the Internet program group. FTP, Usenet, Gopher, that newfangled Mosaic.... "I don't see it."
"RIGHT THERE! That icon of the guy in the hat! It even says 'FAG NET'!"
I looked closer. It was an icon of a shady-seeming character, face obscured by hat brim. And the 8.3 name said, quiet clearly, "FAGENT". Free Agent.
Interestingly, I was reading a research guide published by my library here at McGill University where, under "Internet Content," it strongly advised against trusting Wikipedia as a source of viable research content. Makes sense for now, but how long before it becomes recognized and accepted as just as valid as today's peer-review academic publishing?
Unless it installs some mechanisms to protect against trolling and edit wars and even plain old human error, hopefully never. The idea of "popularity = peer review" scares me. The thought of it entrenching itself with the next generation of scientists (who'd be most likely to use something like a McGill research guide, I'd suspect) is terrifying.
>Or Geek my Pimp. Imagine Xzibit with a pocket >protector and glasses.:)
This the same Xzibit who did "Paparazzi" about 10 years ago? If that's the case, I'd pay to see it. I'd like to see him try the "rappers are all posers, but I'm a real thug" schtick (backed by a string section, no less) in a pocket protector and glasses!
Even though it looks pretty bad, just remember that the service is so popular that the chances any conversation would acutally be used in any meaningful way by a third party would be about as small as they are now.
True enough, but security through obscurity has a way of biting you in the ass just when you least expect it....
Re:As a female undergrad computer science student.
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Women Leaving I.T.
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· Score: 2, Informative
>I'm a second year student at Dalhousie >University (that's in Halifax, if anyone >cares),
Good to see someone in the same province as me posting. This place doesn't seem to be very "knowledge economy" right now unless you count call centers - I've about given up on sysadminning and am looking for a receptionist job (seems to be all I'm qualified for). Good luck with the CompSci.
>I've noticed that while my first year Java >course has quite a number of girls in it, >most of them are from other faculties and, >quite frankly, wouldn't cut it in any >IT-related field.
"Java - that's about coffee, right?" I'd be tempted to blame some of it on morons with more money (correction, parents with more money) than brains who follow a boyfriend/girlfriend to college and then just take whatever 'looks good'. I knew a guy who did that. He wanted to play in a band for a living and wound up in a marine biology track. Why? He liked to fish in his spare time, so he figured he'd get to know what bait was best for the fish he liked.
>My question then becomes, how do we get >more intelligent girls in computer science?
How do we get more intelligent girls? Not to say that boys are more intelligent, but school (and life) seems to select against geek girls. Geek guys don't do so well, and are often bullied, but some of us were fortunate enough to get a fairly large and imposing type build (Thank you puberty!) that scares most bullies away. Girls don't have even that refuge from the more emotional bullying of their peers. They also don't necessarily have refuge with the geek guys, who sadly can get into "EEEE! COOTIES!" mode. Isolation, depression, or forcing onself to conform. Not pretty options for a geek girl to face. (Of course, being a geek guy, I could be completely wrong. I didn't much pay attention to social dynamics of females. Or males, even, I just knew enough that when I got tall and broad, guys didn't tease me or pick fights as much.)
The media isn't kind either: There's even a minor geek guy hero archetype (the guy who stays at base typing on a PC or giving info via radio to the Manly Men who go on the dangerous mission), but geek girls? Unpossible! Sandra Bullock vehicles notwithstanding, all you see is that villainess who can do kung fu and fly planes and use computers, but that person's almost always the "villainess who can do everything", not a specific geek type. And always a villain. (Grrr! Og says smart woman evil! Evil woman witch! Burn witch! Arrrrg!)
>For example, when I see a job ad that says >"We encourage minorities like blacks, Native >Americans and women to apply!" I'm sitting >there thinking to myself, "Uh... OVER 50% OF >THE FREAKIN' POPULATION HERE! How the HELL >are a minority?"
Less in the workforce. Also, you've been legislated a minority; therefore, you are a minority. Besides, it's cheaper for the Big Boss to say "We hire minorities, like women!" and junk all male-named resumes for the occasional job than it is for him to pay their women employees identical wages to men. Sexism is alive and well in the workforce. Isn't the difference between female and male wages (on the same job) increasing again? People got so focused on "chairman" vs. "chairperson" and other "political correctness" that they forgot that a lot of women were still only making 80 cents to a man's dollar.
>Doesn't it occur to anyone that we might >not like that treatment?
Not really. You're supposed to be the downtrodden masses who only get anywhere because the White Male Empire is nice enough to throw you a line every now and then. Merit? Skill? Oh, womenfolk don't have that!
It's part of the reason I don't like affirmative action. It's supposed to be a defense against sexism/racism - force Bad White Men to hire fairly - but can be twisted into sexism/racism easily. The implication is that non-whites/non-males need lower standards. As you've said, any female or non
Tap into the gamer instinct for heroism? Whaaa...?
on
Got Game
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Gamers "have a hero's appetite for a challenge that requires full attention.
I'm sorry, but that doesn't even make sense, particularly when it goes on to say that gamers like multitasking, which I'd think flies in the face "requires full attention". (Maybe gamers have a task-switching brain, rather than a true multitasking one?)
I'm a gamer, but I don't go out of my way to do "hard" stuff in Real Life. I'm not out climbing mountains because they're there or because they popped up in the machine room or anything. I play games to blow off steam, not because I have some desire to spend every waking instant crushing all opposition under my armor-clad heels. I actually like to help people for a living, even if it's with stuff I find easy. Trying to claw my way ahead leaves me cold.
Meeting these needs, giving the potential heroes who work for you a challenge that will inspire extreme efforts - can unleash enormous commitment."
I can see how the few suits who grab this book are going to read that. Gamers like "extreme efforts" - as in, putting in tons of overtime or otherwise running themselves ragged - as long as you invoke the word "hero" and maybe a few gaming metaphors you picked up from the kids.
"Bobby, the deadline's been moved up three weeks and we have to cut your budget in half. Think of it as the final level of Doom, Bobby! We need you to take your chainsaw of cost-cutting and chop up that Saber-Demon! Save us from the zombies at TheCompetitionCorp! You can do it!"
Re:cum hoc ergo propter hoc?
on
Got Game
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· Score: 1
>I can't wait for it to be my turn >to smack down the "naughty oughties".
I've often wondered what the awful oughts will be dubbed, as "ought" isn't a word you hear much. I suspect the media will be as dull-witted as always and, following Gen X and Y precedents, call them Generation Zero or GenZee or something. And then laugh quietly at how 'clever' they are, while the the sane people just call them "spoiled brats" and the like.
Slashdot Mirror
An alarm clock with a ping-pong ball launcher. While shooting at the sleeper might be a good idea, the inventor aimed it out his bedroom door. The catch? The alarm refuses to go off until the ball launcher is reloaded, meaning you have to get up and retrieve the ball from another room. You might even have to play hunt-under-the-desk/dresser, depending on aim and floor plan.
I think you're underestimating just how tricky that would be. Assuming you have X people aiming mirrors at a (moving?) boat, the side of the ship would look like a disco ball on crack. Not only would it be hard on the eyes, there's no way of figuring out which spot is yours. You'd be aiming blind. There's also the fact that movements are amplified; the further away you are from whatever you're aiming at, the more a small rotation of the mirror becomes a massive jump. No one has hands that steady.
If the whole system is homogenous and of recent design, yes. Moving is as easy as logging onto a different box. But that requires a system entirely of thin clients, and that's impossible in most call centers. A call center needs to be able to handle the introduction of arbitrary third-party applications built on the Wintel standard, something thin clients can't do.
Maintaining a mix of thin and standard clients is a nightmare, for the reason I mentioned (I likely should've outlined the scenario a bit more). You're running two networks, constantly shuffling hardware, and losing more money than the thin machines theoretically saved.
The only option left is to buy a ton of IBM Aptivas or NetVistas or whatever they're calling them this year and use that. Contract X has all thin-client-friendly web apps? Well, we'll just increase their agent's security settings so there's less chance of them running something bad.
I'm glad you stuck "other big companies" in there, because saying "you have given HP more reasons to outsource" is like saying "you have given the pyromaniac more reasons to set fires".
Or any call center agent....
As a former call center agent, all I can say is that we needed full-fledged PCs to keep sane. Believe me, even the most dedicated agent hunts down and fires up Freecell in hour 2 of a call that goes through a translator or one where you hear the phrase "And they told me I'd never be able to upgrade from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98! So what if it takes ten minutes to boot?" (Unless you're a hose-and-close master, then you keep Freecell open all the time.)
More serious answer: Some of the apps Big Companies use are positively ancient, and hip-deep in Wintel-specific cruft. (My favorite: A Win2K box running a "Made for Windows 95" app that called a DOS program during some parts of its operation.) Therefore, any call center that does outsourcing (i.e. not owned and run by whoever you're calling) HAS to have PCs.
In an outsourced call center, agents can walk in on Wednesday to find out that their section got re-zoned Tuesday night for political reasons and they now work on the other end of the building. Re-imaging 100 PCs isn't a pleasant task, but it's far easier than carting 100 thin clients to one of the building and dragging the 100 PCs they replaced back to where the thin clients used to be.
Well, Barry Longyear was alive and well when they made the film "Enemy Mine." While I've only seen bits of the film and barely remember what I did see, I have this worry that I'm going to see Ender brandishing laser rifles Rambo-style and shooting animatronic roaches for the big finale.
We're heading for a country where everyone is a potential suspect, eventually.
I think you're giving the federal government a bit too much credit here. As nutty as they can be, they're hardly the only player in these kinds of games. Local police aren't the federal government, yet we've seen occasions where departments are just drooling at the idea of getting DNA from everyone in the precinct (or every [insert ethnicity here] in the precinct) and cleaning out their unsolved crime files. No federal involvement, they just ask for 'suspicious' people's DNA and mention that refusal could be seen as very suspicious and in need of further investigation.
The media isn't the federal government either. Yet almost every time there's a kidnapping/murder of a child in the news (as there is now), I see an idiot talking head or pundit bemoaning how the police were unable to search nearby houses. Here you have people essentially asking for an America where, if a cute/photogenic kid is kidnapped within twenty miles of you, kiss your Fourth Amendment rights goodbye and let nice Mr. Policeman tear up your floorboards to check for secret crawlspaces. After all, a big media sensation is worth more than your privacy, right?
Power is in some ways like energy - for the most part it can't be created or destroyed, just converted from one form to another. People with substantial amounts of power often want more, which means taking it from someone else. Some take it by force, some by playing the system, some by whispering promises in your ear about protecting you from the Bad Men in the world. If you think it's only Washington who wants to deprive you of rights, you're dodging pebbles during an avalanche.
So I'm still a sissy, but the needles are smaller?:)
On the other hand, the flu shots tend to make your arm sore as hell starting an hour or so after the injection and continuing for a day or two.
Yeah, does it for me (though not this year's for some reason). I'm okay until the next morning, then my arm's darn near useless for the day. It's fine at my side, but if I move it, it hurts and sometimes just refuses to move more than half its standard range. But I suspect that's just my body raising hell with the dead viruses. Temporary arm use for flu defenses seems a fair trade-off.
Well, you're no doubt in good company.:) Took ages before I noticed, and even then only by luck.
Doesn't mean its still not false advertising. Our economic system is not supposed to work on the level of a 5 year old.
True enough, but "is not supposed to" and "doesn't" are sadly two very different concepts.:\ I just did some more looking. No idea how reliable the Cincinnati Enquirer is, but anyway... apparently the original ads had actual size increase promises. The article implies that they vanished after a few class-action suits got thrown at the company.
The greater 'success' of the Smilin' Bob ads leads me to believe that, blatantly dishonest and scummy as they are, they don't have any outright lies that a court or other ruling body can sieze upon. And that's a crying shame.
Perhaps you're just not bothering to type out a long explanation, but it looks like you've fallen for one small part of the commercial. Technically, it's not a penis growth product. It's a "male enhancement" product. And that's part of why these people are so hard to nail to the wall.
(Side note for those not in the know: "Smilin' Bob" is the star of all their commercials; he's the supposed archetypical Enzyte customer, a guy whose ceaseless unholy grin sits in the gray area between smile and rictus.)
Not matter how often the Enzyte hucksters show you ads featuring people amazed at Bob's off-camera naked body, or women fingering tall, wet drinking glasses, they don't say it will make your penis longer. It's just for "male enhancement".
No matter how often they show the 'villain' of the ad holding a flaccid water hose, or with "LIMPS" emblazoned across his chest, they don't say it will make your erection harder. It's just for "male enhancement".
No matter how often they show lines of eager women desperately waiting to sit on "Santa Bob"'s lap, they don't say it will increase your stamina or reduce your refractory period. It's just for "male enhancement".
"Male enhancement" could just mean you burp louder or your nails grow faster - technically, that's an "enhancement". Or maybe your mouth muscles lock into a parody of Bob's grin, which perhaps is seen as an "enhancement" by Batman fans going to a costume party dressed as The Joker. They leave the target so nebulous that, if there's legal problems, the company could use ANY change to the person's health or even personal life as the "enhancement".
They also make Altovis, a nonsexual thing which is for giving you "more energy". Same deal there. Evidently they're just fancy caffeine pills. Sleeping less? It must be MORE ENERGY!
And even now, they're not in trouble for their ads. They're just being prodded a bit by the feds for stuff like sending you more and more of their crap (and charging you) after the "free trial" is up.
And rumor has it that once Enzyte took off, anyone who tried to take them to task over their other products, like Altovis, would have to do all their snail-mail and bank/credit card dealings with things proudly emblazoned "From the makers of Enzyte" or somesuch, in an attempt to shame people into silence, lest their bank tellers and mailmen see "Enzyte" and think they can't get it up.
Someone at my school tried something like that. Told me all about his plans to "hack Windows" and put a whole l33t pr0n program in, and charge for access. Of course, he didn't know I was the one student with sysadmin rights. I used a snooper-type thing to watch as he tried 'hacking' - which basically meant trying to turn off the "read only" attribute to LAN files he didn't have write access to.
Not that I'd have let him if he tried to cut me in, mind you. Being able to read the teachers' e-mails was quite the bribe in and of itself.:)
To quote Health Canada: "people with chronic conditions such as diabetes, anemia, cancer, immune suppression, HIV or kidney disease". Apparently no differentiation is made between someone with a current tumor and someone who, like me, is "under close surveillance".
Part of it - from what I gather - is how nervous they are about my lungs. (Another part of my checkups is a chest x-ray and usually the ol' stethoscope on the back.) One of the carcinomas I had (it was a mixed germ cell carcinoma, one lump with multiple kinds of cancer) is a fast mover and heads right for the lungs. If I come down with the flu and then that little bastard makes an appearance, I'm in trouble. Not only will the symptoms of it be masked by the flu, I wouldn't be able to start the immune-system-punishing chemo right away. It might sound like a longshot - getting the flu and a recurrence of cancer at the same time - but people have wound up dead from longshots before.
Did you get that weird taste in your mouth when they hit you with the radio contrast fluid?
Nope, though they always tell me I will. And that warm gotta-go-to-the-bathroom-right-now feeling doesn't hit me in the bladder like they say. It gets me right in the bowel. Believe me, the longest minute of my life was that first scan I did, where I was simultaneously:
Holding my breath,
gagging on Esophotrast (it'll put you off anything sweet for a day and vanilla for at least a week),
and feeling like my colon was about to explode.
Fortunately, I'm going to a different place now and they don't use the Esophotrast. I'm also used to the minute of sphincter-clenching joy.:)
When I was a kid/teenager, I hated flu/booster shots. Og no like pain, pain bad, no pain.
Then, at the age of 23, I found a lump. It was cancer. While I didn't need chemo, I did get a lot of CT scans requiring an IV with a radiopaque substance (6 in my first year post-surgery) and bloodwork (12 in that same year).
After that, my GP strongly recommended I get a flu shot, as is suggested to anyone who's had cancer. I was a bit nervous (it had been years since I'd had one, partly because I was generally healthy, partly because I didn't like getting jabbed), but I got it anyway. And it didn't hurt. Let me tell you - after a few IVs and bloodwork needles, I can barely feel those flu shot needles anymore! I can't believe I used to be nervous about those damn things.
This year, I got a flu shot as well. And it didn't hurt.
>As far as I can see, now the only definitions
>ever linked are for individual words.
Not quite. To extend my previous example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=crown+of
or...
http://www.google.com/search?q=jus+soli
It seems that if it's a multiword phrase that has a (dead tree) dictionary entry, it's still linked as a phrase. Google seems to be using a standard dictionary as its Wikipedia/Answers.com filter.
You might wish to amend that to "geeky". It was a good while before the Jewish meaning of "phylactery" was listed above the Dungeons and Dragons meaning (though it finally was changed last year). Somehow, I doubt most people looking in a Real Encyclopedia for "phylactery" are checking on the biological (necrological?) functions of an undead wizard.
c te ry
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phyla
(Check the history list.)
Another odd one was Crown of Horns, a nasty piece of magical hardware, also from D&D.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Horns
When Google first moved from dictionary.com to answers.com (which uses Wikipedia articles), if you typoed "Crown of Thorns" by dropping the T, you'd be offered a definition for the D&D artifact. Basically, typing ANY wikipedia article title (by accident or not) into Google would give you a definition for that, rather than the individual words or likely typos.
At almost 500K articles, there must have been a few real gems in there. And since I see a lot of Wikipedia names just redirect to other articles, that might've bumped the number of apparent articles up to well over 500K, increasing the likelihood of an incorrect definition if you typed just the right/wrong words in.
Now, I'll admit that the thought of some myopic old grandma-type looking for an article on Christianity or houseplants landing at an article about dark gods and soul-sucking artifacts is amusing, though it's not exactly how one wants to market oneself to the populace. (Wikipedia - give your granny a heart attack!)
Evidently oddities like that must have caused someone at Google to alter whatever pattern-matching search of answers.com the definition link uses, because now a lot more searches default to definitions of the individual words. So, in a way, Wikipedia's already proven that it can't be a Google information supplier without a filter in the way to chop out the worst/most technical/most geekly of articles.
Dear Penthouse^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Slashdot Forum....
That's what happens when you start the night with drinking and D&D before going to the club.
Yep. You played all the D&D, and she did all the drinking.
(Just funnin' ya. But if you packed a d20 specifically for this, it means you had put way too much thought behind this idea.:)
Back in the days of Windows 3.1 and (for me, anyway) high school, a classmate ran up to me insisting our computer teacher was gay. Since we were in class with his daughter (oldest of 5 or 6 kids) I doubted it, to say the least.
"No, I've got proof!"
I shuddered to think what this proof was, but asked anyway. "What is it?"
"On his computer! Porn programs! GAY porn!"
I was sceptical. "And you SAW the porn?"
"No! Well, not porn, but gay programs! He's not in the lab, come and see!"
"Er.... Okay...." Somehow I doubted the guy would keep gay porn on his class PC and then leave it running, but anyway....
In the lab, I was dragged over to his machine. The classmate insisted, "It's hidden in the 'Internet' group! Next to the groundhog program!"
"Gopher."
"Whatever! Look! Look!"
And sitting on the screen was the Internet program group. FTP, Usenet, Gopher, that newfangled Mosaic.... "I don't see it."
"RIGHT THERE! That icon of the guy in the hat! It even says 'FAG NET'!"
I looked closer. It was an icon of a shady-seeming character, face obscured by hat brim. And the 8.3 name said, quiet clearly, "FAGENT". Free Agent.
Unless it installs some mechanisms to protect against trolling and edit wars and even plain old human error, hopefully never. The idea of "popularity = peer review" scares me. The thought of it entrenching itself with the next generation of scientists (who'd be most likely to use something like a McGill research guide, I'd suspect) is terrifying.
>Or Geek my Pimp. Imagine Xzibit with a pocket :)
>protector and glasses.
This the same Xzibit who did "Paparazzi" about 10 years ago? If that's the case, I'd pay to see it. I'd like to see him try the "rappers are all posers, but I'm a real thug" schtick (backed by a string section, no less) in a pocket protector and glasses!
> >Slashdot meets Pimp My Ride...
>It should be called Geek My Ride!
Whatever, as long as it isn't Pimp my Geek.
>You're thinking of the evil that is the
>F*C*C. No relation, other than both being
>government agencies.
Yeah. The FCC is currently controlled by the Servants of Cthulhu, while the FTC is run by the Bavarian Illuminati. Completely different.
(Note to self: Stop visiting sjgames.com just before posting to Slashdot....)
True enough, but security through obscurity has a way of biting you in the ass just when you least expect it....
>I'm a second year student at Dalhousie
>University (that's in Halifax, if anyone
>cares),
Good to see someone in the same province as me posting. This place doesn't seem to be very "knowledge economy" right now unless you count call centers - I've about given up on sysadminning and am looking for a receptionist job (seems to be all I'm qualified for). Good luck with the CompSci.
>I've noticed that while my first year Java
>course has quite a number of girls in it,
>most of them are from other faculties and,
>quite frankly, wouldn't cut it in any
>IT-related field.
"Java - that's about coffee, right?" I'd be tempted to blame some of it on morons with more money (correction, parents with more money) than brains who follow a boyfriend/girlfriend to college and then just take whatever 'looks good'. I knew a guy who did that. He wanted to play in a band for a living and wound up in a marine biology track. Why? He liked to fish in his spare time, so he figured he'd get to know what bait was best for the fish he liked.
>My question then becomes, how do we get
>more intelligent girls in computer science?
How do we get more intelligent girls? Not to say that boys are more intelligent, but school (and life) seems to select against geek girls. Geek guys don't do so well, and are often bullied, but some of us were fortunate enough to get a fairly large and imposing type build (Thank you puberty!) that scares most bullies away. Girls don't have even that refuge from the more emotional bullying of their peers. They also don't necessarily have refuge with the geek guys, who sadly can get into "EEEE! COOTIES!" mode. Isolation, depression, or forcing onself to conform. Not pretty options for a geek girl to face. (Of course, being a geek guy, I could be completely wrong. I didn't much pay attention to social dynamics of females. Or males, even, I just knew enough that when I got tall and broad, guys didn't tease me or pick fights as much.)
The media isn't kind either: There's even a minor geek guy hero archetype (the guy who stays at base typing on a PC or giving info via radio to the Manly Men who go on the dangerous mission), but geek girls? Unpossible! Sandra Bullock vehicles notwithstanding, all you see is that villainess who can do kung fu and fly planes and use computers, but that person's almost always the "villainess who can do everything", not a specific geek type. And always a villain. (Grrr! Og says smart woman evil! Evil woman witch! Burn witch! Arrrrg!)
>For example, when I see a job ad that says
>"We encourage minorities like blacks, Native
>Americans and women to apply!" I'm sitting
>there thinking to myself, "Uh... OVER 50% OF
>THE FREAKIN' POPULATION HERE! How the HELL
>are a minority?"
Less in the workforce. Also, you've been legislated a minority; therefore, you are a minority. Besides, it's cheaper for the Big Boss to say "We hire minorities, like women!" and junk all male-named resumes for the occasional job than it is for him to pay their women employees identical wages to men. Sexism is alive and well in the workforce. Isn't the difference between female and male wages (on the same job) increasing again? People got so focused on "chairman" vs. "chairperson" and other "political correctness" that they forgot that a lot of women were still only making 80 cents to a man's dollar.
>Doesn't it occur to anyone that we might
>not like that treatment?
Not really. You're supposed to be the downtrodden masses who only get anywhere because the White Male Empire is nice enough to throw you a line every now and then. Merit? Skill? Oh, womenfolk don't have that!
It's part of the reason I don't like affirmative action. It's supposed to be a defense against sexism/racism - force Bad White Men to hire fairly - but can be twisted into sexism/racism easily. The implication is that non-whites/non-males need lower standards. As you've said, any female or non
I'm sorry, but that doesn't even make sense, particularly when it goes on to say that gamers like multitasking, which I'd think flies in the face "requires full attention". (Maybe gamers have a task-switching brain, rather than a true multitasking one?)
I'm a gamer, but I don't go out of my way to do "hard" stuff in Real Life. I'm not out climbing mountains because they're there or because they popped up in the machine room or anything. I play games to blow off steam, not because I have some desire to spend every waking instant crushing all opposition under my armor-clad heels. I actually like to help people for a living, even if it's with stuff I find easy. Trying to claw my way ahead leaves me cold.
Meeting these needs, giving the potential heroes who work for you a challenge that will inspire extreme efforts - can unleash enormous commitment."
I can see how the few suits who grab this book are going to read that. Gamers like "extreme efforts" - as in, putting in tons of overtime or otherwise running themselves ragged - as long as you invoke the word "hero" and maybe a few gaming metaphors you picked up from the kids.
"Bobby, the deadline's been moved up three weeks and we have to cut your budget in half. Think of it as the final level of Doom, Bobby! We need you to take your chainsaw of cost-cutting and chop up that Saber-Demon! Save us from the zombies at TheCompetitionCorp! You can do it!"
>I can't wait for it to be my turn
>to smack down the "naughty oughties".
I've often wondered what the awful oughts will be dubbed, as "ought" isn't a word you hear much. I suspect the media will be as dull-witted as always and, following Gen X and Y precedents, call them Generation Zero or GenZee or something. And then laugh quietly at how 'clever' they are, while the the sane people just call them "spoiled brats" and the like.
Er, sorry, rambling. Woobie woobie wooo.