One or two years ago, some Caltech students were displeased with budget cuts, so one night they broke into the administrative building. The next morning, when the president went to work, his office had disappeared. He found a chair and a filing cabinet next to the wall and a sign that read something like, "Gone due to budget cuts." But if MIT had already been doing this regularly, then I guess it wasn't really original. Anyway, I thought it was a good prank at the time because I didn't know about MIT's tradition. There were also some good Caltech pranks decades ago, such as hacking the Rose Bowl scoreboard and signs, flooding a McDonald's contest with entries, and moving traffic cones so that one of Caltech's parking lots filled up with confused drivers, including a cop, driving in circles.
The California Institute of Technology, usually known as Caltech, is a very small school. I went there as an undergrad and did not like it, so I would not recommend it to prospective undergrads. I probably wouldn't recommend MIT, either, because from what I've heard, it shares some of Caltech's problems and has additional problems of its own. But Caltech does have a reputation as a top-notch and very tough math and science university. Caltech is usually ranked within the top 10 colleges in the United States by the US News and World Report, which is the US's most famous college ranking list, and was number one some 6 years ago, beating out MIT.
As for the ACM World Finals, I think this year Caltech tied with MIT. Neither did particularly well. In previous years, sometimes Caltech beat MIT, and sometimes MIT beat Caltech. I don't recall the details.
Yes, they do, just mostly ugly or weird ones. I'm a girl who graduated from Caltech, and though I don't consider myself ugly, I certainly have an antisocial personality.
I only started making PB&J sandwiches recently because my mom never made them when I was a kid. I put PB on both slices because it didn't occur to me to only put it on 1 slice. (I mean, something should go on the other slice, right?) Well, no cease-and-desist letters for me!
A pill that makes people super-lazy could do the trick. An extremely lazy person would be too lazy to intentionally kill other human beings. But people would die of starvation because they would be too lazy to eat.
I don't buy gifts, and nobody buys me gifts, at least not through Amazon, so I guess this doesn't affect me that much. But from the recommendations I get based on the books or software that I buy or look at sporadically, Amazon probably thinks I'm an entrepreneurial computer programmer who likes to kill people. I'd say that's a pretty accurate guess.
No, you've entirely misunderstood my point. My point is not that someone can use gaming as a pleasant diversion for less than 8 hours a week. My point is that addiction to gaming or the Internet (using them for much more than 8 hours a week) is no worse than leading a normal life.
My point is that gaming and other solitary activities may be preferable to leading a normal work/social life. Many people seem to be addicted to socializing. They complain about going crazy if they're not in a relationship or if they don't spend the majority of almost every day in the company of other people. Addictions to video games and the Internet don't sound much worse, and at least they don't lead to flu epidemics or STDs. In fact, losing a job or a boy/girlfriend to gaming could be a good thing. From what I've experienced and seen of work and dating, I think I'll keep away from both. (Being a girl, I don't have or want a girlfriend.)
Anyway, I am somewhat sociopathic, but if your flatmate is a heavy gamer, then he's probably not in the exact same boat as me. I play between 2 to 8 hours a week in the weeks that I do any gaming at all. I prefer to spend most of my time walking or sitting around by myself or reading the news on the Internet (e.g. slashdot or Reuters), so I end up going for weeks or months without touching a game. At this rate I'll never finish Diablo 2.
On an interesting note, I've played one MMOG, and I basically stopped after a month or so because it was boring. I'm not too keen on the whole MMOG concept -- I prefer gaming by myself and without paying monthly fees.
I'm a woman who graduated with a degree in computer science. I decided to work for myself because I don't want to commute to an office, be around other people, sit in a cubicle, or work for more than 8 hours a day (and also because I have sufficiently wealthy parents). I was the only female programmer in the entire company where I was an intern one summer, and the guys mostly treated me as one of them.
My experience, however, has been that I am a very atypical woman, even for a techie. I'm not good at multitasking, and I am more antisocial than most men. I've also found that most people, both men and women, treat me as invisible. It probably is a matter of personality and vibes more than of looks because plenty of uglier people have friends and dates. But even in my college, a science/tech school with a high ratio of men to women, the men treated me as invisible while they followed around ("glommed") other women, many of whom weren't especially pretty.
I don't see a problem with an activity having a negative effect on work or social life. I, for one, find being around people oppressive and unpleasant because I can't say the things I really want to say or do the things I really want to do when other people are present. Playing games, especially solo games, is much more enjoyable. I spend relatively little time playing games, probably no more 7 or 8 hours a week, and don't meet the criteria for any addiction, either, but I choose not to have a work or social life.
If I had a job, I would rather quit it than than commute to work. I like spending all day alone, and telecommuting also reduces the risk of getting into a car accident or other transportation mishap. I don't get much work done at home, but I wouldn't get much work done at an office, either. Instead, I would just end up too miserable to eat properly or do anything other than drag myself in and out the door.
Better idea: Don't work for someone else. Why bother spending 8+ hours a day working for a boss and stuck with other people if you're only going to die in the end? You'll be lucky if you even remember who you are when you die. It's about time that violent felons and robots were put to work while law-abiding citizens take a perpetual vacation.
Sure, spam is annoying, and it eats up lots of bandwidth, but I don't mind it that much. I used to give out my Yahoo email address everywhere, and I received tons of spam in that as well as some of my other accounts. But now it's not too bad, and Thunderbird's spam filters take care of most of it.
I have wasted lots of time on spam, especially as I used to read every one that wasn't porn and had fun tracing the servers. Most of my time is spent surfing the Internet anyway. My only regret is not figuring out how to get into the spam business back before the CAN-SPAM Act.
I think desensitization to violence and training to kill might be good things. Everyone should have some training in violence to make them stronger and more capable of defending themselves. Martial arts and real firearms experience would be more effective than video games, but video games are better than nothing. Otherwise, the kids would just play outside, beat each other up, and use real violence against the weaker kids.
How is fighting for country, home, and family not pathetic? It's pathetic that places to live need to be fought for, and the way 99.9% of people look and behave, they really shouldn't be starting families. Sensible people wouldn't want to start families anyway. You might as well fight for a TV show if you want to fight.
In my case, I decided not to even bother looking for a real job for seemingly more trivial reasons.
I've never quit a job before because I've only held two summer jobs. In 2002 I turned down two summer internships that would have been better for a programming career than the oncampus computer job that I took. They weren't offered to me until I had committed to the campus job, and I didn't feel like relocating.
In senior year of college I half-heartedly looked for a job. My technical skills are only mediocre despite a high GPA and a fairly impressive resume. I have no connections, and my social skills are probably below average. Needless to say, with the tech bubble burst, I didn't receive any offers. I graduated and got involved in a startup, then left and am now going solo. While working on the first startup, I went through a phone interview with Google. I turned down the opportunity for an onsite interview because I wanted to continue with the startup. After I left, Google interviewed me again over the phone, but I didn't do well.
I now make zero income and live off savings and my parents. I don't live with them, though. They pay my rent, health insurance, and broadband fee. If they continue to pay my rent at the current rate but don't give me any more money, I would have enough savings to live for a few years. I'm not looking for a real job because I don't want to relocate, commute, spend 8+ hours a day with people, answer to a boss, or do work. I like having the time and energy to pursue my own interests. But I am hoping to take advantage of the potential money-making opportunities on the Internet.
Funny, the things that you find fulfilling and directly related to social significance happen to be the things that I find least fulfilling. I get my feeling of fulfillment when I walk around my room talking to myself, saying the things I want to say, not when I commute to an office at my usual bedtime and spend 8+ hours in the presence of other people. Yuck!
I'll take it a step further and say that just about everyone has undesirable genes. As a result, no one should breed, though sterilizion for all may be a bit drastic. (Celibate people and those who always use birth control shouldn't be forced to go through the operation unless they want to.)
All the anti-eugenicists can go ahead and insist that they have the right to procreate, but what gives them the right to force children to live with their genes? It's better to not exist at all than to live with lousy genes, and when everyone ends up dead anyway, the end results of nonexistence and living are not too different.
By the way, I'm also wondering why people make such a big deal about the right to procreate. Why in the world do people want to live in family units and take care of children? It seems to me that humanity's natural state is to be alone. Raising a family requires you to exert an awful lot of effort and give up much of your solitude (i.e. your freedom).
So, who in their right mind declared you god? What right do you have to create life and force that life to live with your genes or the genes of your partner?
I also disagree with driving being a privilege -- everyone should have the right to convenient private transportation. Public transportation is good and important, but people should be able to go where they want without having to share a vehicle with other people, putting themselves at risk for disease, or having to give away their identity.
But, you do have a choice when it comes to your job. You can just lose or quit your job and default on the mortgage. It certainly doesn't seem like a very economically wise decision to buy a house when you can't afford to easily pay the mortgage.
What you say is very true. I have downloaded torrents of TV shows I missed, just not from LokiTorrent. A few times I used another subscription-only torrent site that is still around, possibly because it doesn't distribute feature movies. I've also used sites that don't require registration.
Slashdot Mirror
Caltech students have long been making dorm rooms disappear.
One or two years ago, some Caltech students were displeased with budget cuts, so one night they broke into the administrative building. The next morning, when the president went to work, his office had disappeared. He found a chair and a filing cabinet next to the wall and a sign that read something like, "Gone due to budget cuts." But if MIT had already been doing this regularly, then I guess it wasn't really original. Anyway, I thought it was a good prank at the time because I didn't know about MIT's tradition. There were also some good Caltech pranks decades ago, such as hacking the Rose Bowl scoreboard and signs, flooding a McDonald's contest with entries, and moving traffic cones so that one of Caltech's parking lots filled up with confused drivers, including a cop, driving in circles.
As for the ACM World Finals, I think this year Caltech tied with MIT. Neither did particularly well. In previous years, sometimes Caltech beat MIT, and sometimes MIT beat Caltech. I don't recall the details.
Yes, they do, just mostly ugly or weird ones. I'm a girl who graduated from Caltech, and though I don't consider myself ugly, I certainly have an antisocial personality.
I only started making PB&J sandwiches recently because my mom never made them when I was a kid. I put PB on both slices because it didn't occur to me to only put it on 1 slice. (I mean, something should go on the other slice, right?) Well, no cease-and-desist letters for me!
A pill that makes people super-lazy could do the trick. An extremely lazy person would be too lazy to intentionally kill other human beings. But people would die of starvation because they would be too lazy to eat.
You mean men don't sneak away for naptime out of sheer laziness? Or spend all day getting paid for reading Slashdot instead of doing work?
I don't buy gifts, and nobody buys me gifts, at least not through Amazon, so I guess this doesn't affect me that much. But from the recommendations I get based on the books or software that I buy or look at sporadically, Amazon probably thinks I'm an entrepreneurial computer programmer who likes to kill people. I'd say that's a pretty accurate guess.
No, you've entirely misunderstood my point. My point is not that someone can use gaming as a pleasant diversion for less than 8 hours a week. My point is that addiction to gaming or the Internet (using them for much more than 8 hours a week) is no worse than leading a normal life.
Anyway, I am somewhat sociopathic, but if your flatmate is a heavy gamer, then he's probably not in the exact same boat as me. I play between 2 to 8 hours a week in the weeks that I do any gaming at all. I prefer to spend most of my time walking or sitting around by myself or reading the news on the Internet (e.g. slashdot or Reuters), so I end up going for weeks or months without touching a game. At this rate I'll never finish Diablo 2.
On an interesting note, I've played one MMOG, and I basically stopped after a month or so because it was boring. I'm not too keen on the whole MMOG concept -- I prefer gaming by myself and without paying monthly fees.
My experience, however, has been that I am a very atypical woman, even for a techie. I'm not good at multitasking, and I am more antisocial than most men. I've also found that most people, both men and women, treat me as invisible. It probably is a matter of personality and vibes more than of looks because plenty of uglier people have friends and dates. But even in my college, a science/tech school with a high ratio of men to women, the men treated me as invisible while they followed around ("glommed") other women, many of whom weren't especially pretty.
Well, my PC's 17" monitor is bigger than my TV, so yes, I would.
I don't see a problem with an activity having a negative effect on work or social life. I, for one, find being around people oppressive and unpleasant because I can't say the things I really want to say or do the things I really want to do when other people are present. Playing games, especially solo games, is much more enjoyable. I spend relatively little time playing games, probably no more 7 or 8 hours a week, and don't meet the criteria for any addiction, either, but I choose not to have a work or social life.
If I had a job, I would rather quit it than than commute to work. I like spending all day alone, and telecommuting also reduces the risk of getting into a car accident or other transportation mishap. I don't get much work done at home, but I wouldn't get much work done at an office, either. Instead, I would just end up too miserable to eat properly or do anything other than drag myself in and out the door.
Better idea: Don't work for someone else. Why bother spending 8+ hours a day working for a boss and stuck with other people if you're only going to die in the end? You'll be lucky if you even remember who you are when you die. It's about time that violent felons and robots were put to work while law-abiding citizens take a perpetual vacation.
I have wasted lots of time on spam, especially as I used to read every one that wasn't porn and had fun tracing the servers. Most of my time is spent surfing the Internet anyway. My only regret is not figuring out how to get into the spam business back before the CAN-SPAM Act.
I think desensitization to violence and training to kill might be good things. Everyone should have some training in violence to make them stronger and more capable of defending themselves. Martial arts and real firearms experience would be more effective than video games, but video games are better than nothing. Otherwise, the kids would just play outside, beat each other up, and use real violence against the weaker kids.
How is fighting for country, home, and family not pathetic? It's pathetic that places to live need to be fought for, and the way 99.9% of people look and behave, they really shouldn't be starting families. Sensible people wouldn't want to start families anyway. You might as well fight for a TV show if you want to fight.
In my case, I decided not to even bother looking for a real job for seemingly more trivial reasons.
I've never quit a job before because I've only held two summer jobs. In 2002 I turned down two summer internships that would have been better for a programming career than the oncampus computer job that I took. They weren't offered to me until I had committed to the campus job, and I didn't feel like relocating.
In senior year of college I half-heartedly looked for a job. My technical skills are only mediocre despite a high GPA and a fairly impressive resume. I have no connections, and my social skills are probably below average. Needless to say, with the tech bubble burst, I didn't receive any offers. I graduated and got involved in a startup, then left and am now going solo. While working on the first startup, I went through a phone interview with Google. I turned down the opportunity for an onsite interview because I wanted to continue with the startup. After I left, Google interviewed me again over the phone, but I didn't do well.
I now make zero income and live off savings and my parents. I don't live with them, though. They pay my rent, health insurance, and broadband fee. If they continue to pay my rent at the current rate but don't give me any more money, I would have enough savings to live for a few years. I'm not looking for a real job because I don't want to relocate, commute, spend 8+ hours a day with people, answer to a boss, or do work. I like having the time and energy to pursue my own interests. But I am hoping to take advantage of the potential money-making opportunities on the Internet.
Funny, the things that you find fulfilling and directly related to social significance happen to be the things that I find least fulfilling. I get my feeling of fulfillment when I walk around my room talking to myself, saying the things I want to say, not when I commute to an office at my usual bedtime and spend 8+ hours in the presence of other people. Yuck!
All the anti-eugenicists can go ahead and insist that they have the right to procreate, but what gives them the right to force children to live with their genes? It's better to not exist at all than to live with lousy genes, and when everyone ends up dead anyway, the end results of nonexistence and living are not too different.
By the way, I'm also wondering why people make such a big deal about the right to procreate. Why in the world do people want to live in family units and take care of children? It seems to me that humanity's natural state is to be alone. Raising a family requires you to exert an awful lot of effort and give up much of your solitude (i.e. your freedom).
So, who in their right mind declared you god? What right do you have to create life and force that life to live with your genes or the genes of your partner?
But, you do have a choice when it comes to your job. You can just lose or quit your job and default on the mortgage. It certainly doesn't seem like a very economically wise decision to buy a house when you can't afford to easily pay the mortgage.
What you say is very true. I have downloaded torrents of TV shows I missed, just not from LokiTorrent. A few times I used another subscription-only torrent site that is still around, possibly because it doesn't distribute feature movies. I've also used sites that don't require registration.
Good thing I never signed up for lokitorrent.