You know, I actually wouldn't mind having a national ID card. With a few caveats: first, we'd need a Constitutional Amendment barring the government from practicing Prohibition (or the War on Drugs, or any another name for Prohibition); second, a citizen should never be required by law enforcement to provide the ID unless a crime was being committed; and of course they would need to find better ways to safeguard them against ID theft (biometrics or something with heavy encryption on any queries to the national database).
My thought was always that Sarah Conner's motto "No fate but what you make" was incomplete. It should read "There is no fate but what you make -- until time travel is involved."
Once someone travels through time in order to change the past, it will always be inevitable that someone will travel back in time. It's a closed loop, everything else is course-correction a la Lost.
I think we expect people to be able to find this information for themselves. The civil engineer example is a good one, but prescription drug interactions (like solutions to most computer problems) can be easily found(at least for we geeks) with a well-formed google query.
Of course, we don't expect them to be able to replace their CPU, just as we don't expect anyone but a surgeon to be able to remove an appendix.
Also, my blackberry will voice dial numbers from my address book (or just numbers) without any training. Even for my friends whose names don't sound like they're spelled. Yes, sometimes it gets them hilariously wrong -- but it always doublechecks with me when it's not sure. Pretty useful when driving!
Should have mentioned that my graphics card was an NVIDIA 7200gs. Best AGP NVIDIA card around:P, since then I have put an ATI hd3450 in there -- just had to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers then run the restricted drivers dialog again. No sweat.
Interesting. I installed Hardy on my desktop (now a triple-boot Ubuntu/Hackintosh/XP) last month and had no trouble getting the restricted drivers to work as explained by the GP.
Then Jaunty came out, I used synaptic to upgrade in-place. No problems. Kernel upgrades have automatically called DKMS to rebuild the restricted modules.
I don't write code, but I'm comfortable on the CLI. It wasn't always this way, I had to learn it -- but after a few years of cutting and pasting I do just fine.
Also, I'm confused: Your friend is a non-techie, but uses Dvorak? None of my non-techie friends even know that Dvorak exists.
Let me second this analysis. I've been a linux user since redhat 5.2 and stopped using windows on a regular basis something like five years ago. Last year I got a refurbished Macbook Pro and was blown away.
Time Machine (not timespace) is really useful as noted by the parent -- it's streamlined my entry into the hackintosh world greatly. That's how much I like OSX. It's no lie that Macs "Just Work", unlike XP. In fact, every time I have to help my dad out with his XP box I want to fucking shoot myself, luckily I convinced everybody in the family to switch to mac:) Including Dad, but he doesn't use his desktop often enough to justify replacing it, but when it was time to get a new laptop he went for a macbook. His support calls to me have decreased dramatically.
The reason I switched to OSX was because I am in the music biz, in which it is de rigeur to use it. But I stayed with it because it interfaces so nicely with my existing linux infrastructure. And since I started using Quicksilver I never want to leave.
Not to mention how pretty they make their computers.:-D
That would be cool, but I wonder about the response curve of the built-in microphone. Surely that would color the spectrum analyzer? I don't own an iPhone, so I'm genuinely curious... I imagine it would be more useful as an RTA if you could plug a nice flat reference mic in. A dB meter, however, would probably work just fine!
Just to be clear, I agree with your points... I was pointing out that the sentence I quoted doesn't quite parse:) Also, there is a superfluous apostrophe and you used the wrong "their". Maybe it's time to review your notes from your linguistics class?
For the record, I only allow my inner grammar nazi loose when I think it'll be funny. My apologies that it's at your expense. And you totally don't deserve all the negative karma from this thread!
Most people on Slashdot often refer to specific formal definitions while being "grammar Nazi's", often without realizing that the professionals get there definitions from the places like Slashdot by people who actually use the words in contemporary and cultural context.
I think I speak for all the grammar nazis here when I say my head just asploded.
The OP is probably British or learned English in the British mode. They refer to groups by speaking about the members of the group, while American English refers to the group as one unit.
I don't think Star Wars was internally inconsistent. Remember that the only people who called the Force a religion or mystical were characters who didn't believe in it. Admiral Motti, Solo when he first encounters it. This is probably exactly what Palpatine wanted when he wiped out the Jedi: no one believes that the immense power he wields is real.
It all depends on the style of the music. If you're recording something which was composed in a sequencer then if you're going to have acoustic drums on the recording then you'll need to record to a click track. The process you describe is great for garage rock, but just won't work for heavily-sequenced styles.
Personally, I prefer to listen to music which was obviously performed by humans -- even though my current project is based upon sequenced beats which would be very difficult (if not impossible, unless you know a drummer with four arms) to play on an acoustic drum kit without overdubs. To that end I tend to leave out the pitch-correction and leave in a couple of subtle mistakes for character.
Indeed. When I first had a few machines around I didn't bother with a theme. Then, once I finally built a box solely for audio recording I named it blackbox (a triple-entendre: the case was black, it's purpose was recording, and I'm no electrical engineer so I don't know anything about how the thing works below the component level). After that I decided to name the rest of my boxen after other parts of an airplane: file server/DNS is 'gps', login server will eventually be 'tsa', desktop/media box is 'cabin'. Lately I have been naming them after aircraft models: my macbook pro is 'lj60xr' after the newest, sweetest, lear jet; 21" iMac is b757 after the boeing jetliner.
The only Fallout game which was team combat was Fallout Tactics, which Bethesda stated is not considered canon. And I for one find the new FPS/RPG genre to be a lot more exciting than straight RPGs. As for the turn-based combat, I like the new VATS system... A nice compromise, I think.
I did a quick search of the macfuse wiki, but it seems they haven't implemented support for XFS... It would be so nice to be able to format my firewire drive with xfs and use it between my 64studio box and my macbook.. Owell, guess I'll have to wait some more. No coder, I.
Last year we spent about $10 billion locking up nearly 900,000 people for cannabis-related crimes.
Instead of enriching criminal enterprises and failing to keep drugs away from children, why don't we abolish the Federal Controlled Substances Act? It would (at least) halve the murder rate, and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue -- not to mention alleviating the most racist policy failure since slavery.
I used to vote for democrats exclusively, true. In 2000 I voted for Nader for the reasons stated above. I went back to the dems in 2004 out of fear of Bush, fat lot of good that did. In 2006 I was able to vote Green for the Senate. I will probably vote for the Green Party candidate for president this year, but I'm also considering Bob Barr with the Libertarians. No, I have never voted for a Republican -- and I doubt I ever will. Maybe if they get rid of that 'abolish Roe v. Wade' plank I might.
I'm totally done with the Democrats now. The party should have used its muscle to convince three more Senators to filibuster. Anything other than blocking that bill was a violation of their oath of office to defend the Constitution. Then there's the fact that the Speaker of the House broke her vow by taking Impeachment "off the table."
Also, I do hold some positions which the right tends to claim as its own. It seems that there should be more people like myself in that respect. I can't be the only one who wants to legalize drugs *and* stay in Iraq until the place is stabilized (I didn't agree with the invasion itself, but we broke it -- so we bought it. Also my brother the Iraq War vet and Poli Sci with Middle Eastern studies graduate convinced me).
So I'm not sure what those 50th percentile positions would be, or if it's even possible to find out what they are. But that sounds a lot more like the political center than the midpoint between the parties;)..
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You know, I actually wouldn't mind having a national ID card. With a few caveats: first, we'd need a Constitutional Amendment barring the government from practicing Prohibition (or the War on Drugs, or any another name for Prohibition); second, a citizen should never be required by law enforcement to provide the ID unless a crime was being committed; and of course they would need to find better ways to safeguard them against ID theft (biometrics or something with heavy encryption on any queries to the national database).
My thought was always that Sarah Conner's motto "No fate but what you make" was incomplete. It should read "There is no fate but what you make -- until time travel is involved."
Once someone travels through time in order to change the past, it will always be inevitable that someone will travel back in time. It's a closed loop, everything else is course-correction a la Lost.
I think we expect people to be able to find this information for themselves. The civil engineer example is a good one, but prescription drug interactions (like solutions to most computer problems) can be easily found(at least for we geeks) with a well-formed google query.
Of course, we don't expect them to be able to replace their CPU, just as we don't expect anyone but a surgeon to be able to remove an appendix.
Why the hell would they name a processor after Tukwila? It's the asshole of Seattle.
Also, my blackberry will voice dial numbers from my address book (or just numbers) without any training. Even for my friends whose names don't sound like they're spelled. Yes, sometimes it gets them hilariously wrong -- but it always doublechecks with me when it's not sure. Pretty useful when driving!
Should have mentioned that my graphics card was an NVIDIA 7200gs. Best AGP NVIDIA card around :P, since then I have put an ATI hd3450 in there -- just had to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers then run the restricted drivers dialog again. No sweat.
Interesting. I installed Hardy on my desktop (now a triple-boot Ubuntu/Hackintosh/XP) last month and had no trouble getting the restricted drivers to work as explained by the GP.
Then Jaunty came out, I used synaptic to upgrade in-place. No problems. Kernel upgrades have automatically called DKMS to rebuild the restricted modules.
I don't write code, but I'm comfortable on the CLI. It wasn't always this way, I had to learn it -- but after a few years of cutting and pasting I do just fine.
Also, I'm confused: Your friend is a non-techie, but uses Dvorak? None of my non-techie friends even know that Dvorak exists.
Let me second this analysis. I've been a linux user since redhat 5.2 and stopped using windows on a regular basis something like five years ago. Last year I got a refurbished Macbook Pro and was blown away.
Time Machine (not timespace) is really useful as noted by the parent -- it's streamlined my entry into the hackintosh world greatly. That's how much I like OSX. It's no lie that Macs "Just Work", unlike XP. In fact, every time I have to help my dad out with his XP box I want to fucking shoot myself, luckily I convinced everybody in the family to switch to mac :) Including Dad, but he doesn't use his desktop often enough to justify replacing it, but when it was time to get a new laptop he went for a macbook. His support calls to me have decreased dramatically.
The reason I switched to OSX was because I am in the music biz, in which it is de rigeur to use it. But I stayed with it because it interfaces so nicely with my existing linux infrastructure. And since I started using Quicksilver I never want to leave.
Not to mention how pretty they make their computers. :-D
That would be cool, but I wonder about the response curve of the built-in microphone. Surely that would color the spectrum analyzer? I don't own an iPhone, so I'm genuinely curious... I imagine it would be more useful as an RTA if you could plug a nice flat reference mic in. A dB meter, however, would probably work just fine!
Just to be clear, I agree with your points... I was pointing out that the sentence I quoted doesn't quite parse :) Also, there is a superfluous apostrophe and you used the wrong "their". Maybe it's time to review your notes from your linguistics class?
For the record, I only allow my inner grammar nazi loose when I think it'll be funny. My apologies that it's at your expense. And you totally don't deserve all the negative karma from this thread!
Most people on Slashdot often refer to specific formal definitions while being "grammar Nazi's", often without realizing that the professionals get there definitions from the places like Slashdot by people who actually use the words in contemporary and cultural context.
I think I speak for all the grammar nazis here when I say my head just asploded.
British English: "The team are winning the game."
American English: "The team is winning the game."
I don't think Star Wars was internally inconsistent. Remember that the only people who called the Force a religion or mystical were characters who didn't believe in it. Admiral Motti, Solo when he first encounters it. This is probably exactly what Palpatine wanted when he wiped out the Jedi: no one believes that the immense power he wields is real.
now you just sound like a pendant that'll never ever get any... why does this suddenly make me want to cry?
Because you knew that someone would come along and pedantically point out that you meant "pedant" instead of "pendant".
A. The drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth!
Personally, I prefer to listen to music which was obviously performed by humans -- even though my current project is based upon sequenced beats which would be very difficult (if not impossible, unless you know a drummer with four arms) to play on an acoustic drum kit without overdubs. To that end I tend to leave out the pitch-correction and leave in a couple of subtle mistakes for character.
Wow, and we are just talking some stupid seat belt law to raise money. Imagine what could be done if we really wanted to f&^k with everybody!
What, like outlawing cannabis?
Indeed. When I first had a few machines around I didn't bother with a theme. Then, once I finally built a box solely for audio recording I named it blackbox (a triple-entendre: the case was black, it's purpose was recording, and I'm no electrical engineer so I don't know anything about how the thing works below the component level). After that I decided to name the rest of my boxen after other parts of an airplane: file server/DNS is 'gps', login server will eventually be 'tsa', desktop/media box is 'cabin'. Lately I have been naming them after aircraft models: my macbook pro is 'lj60xr' after the newest, sweetest, lear jet; 21" iMac is b757 after the boeing jetliner.
The only Fallout game which was team combat was Fallout Tactics, which Bethesda stated is not considered canon. And I for one find the new FPS/RPG genre to be a lot more exciting than straight RPGs. As for the turn-based combat, I like the new VATS system... A nice compromise, I think.
I did a quick search of the macfuse wiki, but it seems they haven't implemented support for XFS... It would be so nice to be able to format my firewire drive with xfs and use it between my 64studio box and my macbook.. Owell, guess I'll have to wait some more. No coder, I.
Instead of enriching criminal enterprises and failing to keep drugs away from children, why don't we abolish the Federal Controlled Substances Act? It would (at least) halve the murder rate, and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue -- not to mention alleviating the most racist policy failure since slavery.
Tax and regulate drugs -- for the children!
Not exactly what you're asking for, but there's this.
Of course, after having read something, one must also comprehend.
I used to vote for democrats exclusively, true. In 2000 I voted for Nader for the reasons stated above. I went back to the dems in 2004 out of fear of Bush, fat lot of good that did. In 2006 I was able to vote Green for the Senate. I will probably vote for the Green Party candidate for president this year, but I'm also considering Bob Barr with the Libertarians. No, I have never voted for a Republican -- and I doubt I ever will. Maybe if they get rid of that 'abolish Roe v. Wade' plank I might.
I'm totally done with the Democrats now. The party should have used its muscle to convince three more Senators to filibuster. Anything other than blocking that bill was a violation of their oath of office to defend the Constitution. Then there's the fact that the Speaker of the House broke her vow by taking Impeachment "off the table."
Also, I do hold some positions which the right tends to claim as its own. It seems that there should be more people like myself in that respect. I can't be the only one who wants to legalize drugs *and* stay in Iraq until the place is stabilized (I didn't agree with the invasion itself, but we broke it -- so we bought it. Also my brother the Iraq War vet and Poli Sci with Middle Eastern studies graduate convinced me).
So I'm not sure what those 50th percentile positions would be, or if it's even possible to find out what they are. But that sounds a lot more like the political center than the midpoint between the parties ;) ..