Taken at face value, it's a very simple statement of how paternalistic and condescending their perspective is. Yes, we do want people to protect us from bad guys - we have police, and we have security agencies - and we give them some slack on how much control they can have, but we don't want them to BECOME bad guys. Why should that be hard to understand? (Assuming, of course, that they're not lying about that too.)
Today's example, fortunately non-fatal: A former tennis star (and former US Olympian) was arrested in a case of mistaken identity. Should be a non-story, except the arresting plainclothes officer chose to make a flying tackle and knock the guy to a concrete sidewalk, when there was no hint of resistance or even awareness on his part (and this happened in front of a big hotel with very clear security video). These "intelligence" people have exactly the same mindset - there's no such thing as overkill.
Done right, this sounds like the person in HR who organizes events and looks for group-discount packages on tickets and stuff. Problem is (and this applies to the military Morale Officer position too), while your anecdote sounds like a successful fitness-for-purpose between the person and the position, recognized because the person grew into the position, all too often this is an assigned or created position dumped on someone as an extra task that they don't want to do and aren't suited for. OTOOH what does one call the people that Google hires to handle mundane things like dry cleaning, or many firms hire to do in-house catering?
You can't mandate "fun". I can't stand the sort of people who try to whip up fake enthusiasm at a resort or on a cruise. But you CAN try to create a nice environment that encourages people to be comfortable.
Books: See also Diane Duane, "Omnitopia", about people creating an immersive game, and the server AI becoming a bit more independent than intended (a la Mycroft in Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress").
The first one, a college film-student production, was fun and silly. The second, "Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising" (recently revived through crowdfunding support), was a bit better as a real movie that might appeal to non-players. The third, "Gamers 3: Hands of Fate", shifts focus to collectible card gaming (CCG) (though suggesting that roleplaying improves the CCG experience) and the craziness of conventions (cosplay, competitive gaming, etc.); this disappointed a portion of the crowdfunding audience that expected more continuation of the RPG-focus characters and story. The same folks have also produced a webseries "Natural 1" in a similar vein.
The presentation jumps between the real world of players around a table, and the imagined world of characters in the story world, sometimes mixing the story world with voice-over narration from the real world.
Similar style may be seen in the webcomic "Table Titans" by Scott Kurtz (already known for "PVP"). Of course, in a drawn comic, it is possible to make a more dynamic and fluid transition between elements of "real" and "story" worlds; sometimes the imagined snow-covered forest looms over the "real" table and players, and sometimes the casually-clad DM walks through the imagined location, and occasionally the players around the table are shown in costume as if they had forgotten which world they are in.
The hardest question is: Is this a movie about a D&D adventure, or is this a movie about playing D&D? If an adventure, then forget the game, you can't do it, just do LOTR instead. If it's about moving from the real world into an imaginary one, then you're making "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", whether it's a piece of furniture, or a mystic portal opened by "magic"/"science", or a tabletop game gone wrong. What I enjoy about "The Gamers" movies (and especially "Natural 1") is that they are, to some extent, about the people, not the game; the people for whom this regular gathering is an important part of their social circle, and the ways in which the in-game interactions reflect who they are, or who they wish they were.
I [do x,y,and z] without Windows or Mac. We have different definitions of "to need".
Congratulations. Did you have any installed base? any investment in peripherals? any need to be compatible with someone else (required whether or not you LIKE what they use)? If not, you're fine. But don't ignore the real issue of vendor lock-in (or standards lock-in) that people have already been forced to accommodate. As a similar example, consider changing away from the standard light bulb sockets and see how far you get.
1. Calling someone effing stupid does not improve your argument; quite the reverse. Your point was very well taken until the last two words.
2. It's not effing stupid, it's unthinking or unaware. I appreciate your point because my parents grew up worrying about the cost of each pencil or postage stamp, and reminded us of it regularly.
3. Wanting writing assignments typed is reasonable if you have to read 120 of them, like when I was trying to get my high school teaching license (during an underemployed period). (Giving individuals an exemption as needed is also reasonable.)
Today's Slashdot: Boston tracks vehicles, after having claimed that they STOPPED doing it, and also left the files unsecured.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
You're missing the point. Yes, they know what my MAC was, but they don't know where I am right now; as opposed to police cars wardriving 24/7, and maybe scanners sitting by the doors of malls and stores and such, looking for the MAC in my cellphone 24/7. Instead of complicated Stingray trackers that spoof the IMEI wireless-phone side, it must be a lot easier to spoof the wifi side. Of course, one can turn off one's wifi, and even keep one's phone in airplane mode - or off! - except as needed . . . but then more or less of the instant comm stuff doesn't quite work.
You can only find MAC addresses to check against the "stolen/missing" list if you gather EVERYTHING all the time. So now, just like tracking all of our phone calls and vehicle movements, it's a "safety" idea to track every single wifi device. It sounds so helpful . . . and if only there were some way to add "think of the children!" it would be perfect . . .
The problem is that a fourteen year old is NOT a child, yet still not at all mature intellectually or emotionally. A fourteen year old boy, namely me, was already taller than my mother, and big and strong enough to pick her up bodily after she tripped down our front steps. I was also being recruited by the high school football coach, but I wanted to take AP classes instead of getting concussed.
We had a babysitter when our son was small who told us, after having stopped by a real estate open house down the street, that based on the price they were asking, we could sell our house and buy the fanciest house in the little town in North Dakota where she grew up, and have enough left to not work for ten years. And we pointed out, Yes, but then we'd be in the little town in North Dakota that YOU LEFT TO COME HERE.:-)
You're a family of one. You didn't mention much about school, or the future, or a companion, or kid(s), or even a pet. You're doing just fine by yourself, and maybe don't have any school loans to pay off either, and I tip my hat to you. BTW you also don't mention a car, which is one of the expenses mentioned in the post you replied to (but of course I agree in NYC you don't need a car . . . unless you want to drive out of the city now and then . . ) Point is I don't think I'm 100% out of touch if you add on some very realistic expenses, and especially if you want to be able to quit your job and do other things that cost any money, like travel. We WERE talking about "being suddenly wealthy", right? not just getting by comfortably? (BTW I grew up in Manhattan, live a few miles from the GW Bridge, and my son lives in a Manhattan co-op now. I know what NYC costs.)
ps - I'm not including taking care of an older generation, as many others have mentioned, because my older generation is gone; I *am* the older generation.
Renting an apartment within a few blocks of the Royal Mile, of course. Plus a second or third apartment to invite friends and family for their vacation times; I'm assuming there's enough wealth to share generously here. Then on to other events and activities around the calendar and the world, with exceptions for special events (weddings, birthdays, whatever) as they come up. In more practical terms, all of the young generation in that friends-and-family category will get all the education they can get admitted to. Experiences can have a longer-lasting impact than things.
I disagree; the book DID feel sensationalist and BDSM. The 10-page descriptions of torture even overshadow the 5-page descriptions of meals. I never started watching the show precisely because I figured the shock moments would disturb me more than the awe moments would please me - and besides, I can see the dragons on youtube.:-)
As a computer science professional who remembers when "pipes" were introduced as terminology in Unix (and IBM mainframe people scoffed), and worked in telephony where logically "nailing up timeslots" hearkened to physically nailing up a copper wire, I accept your rebuke for a cheap shot. But he deserves it.
She was Secretary of State for 4 years, and before that a Senator for 8 years, and in all that time NOBODY noticed that emails came from (and went to) a non-government address? And nobody said anything about it? Even assuming that most of the elected officials have less of a clue than the average citizen ("It's a series of tubes!"), they know about handling classified material, because they get lectured about it every year. And nobody seemed to think there was a problem all that time.
Umm . . . they DID withstand plane collisions. Both of them. No toppling whatever. And when they collapsed from the heat of a Jet-A fueled fire (give the bad guys credit for picking the right strategic planes - fully fueled for long flights), they collapsed straight down rather than taking out multiple blocks in all directions. Sorry, I think your rating of "subpar" is incorrect.
I'm in the older crowd, and yes he wrote some good songs, but please don't give him a lot of credit for harmonies in CSNY. He always had the weakest voice of the four.
That's assuming that the transportation mechanisms work. Bridges come down; roads and rails get damaged. I recall photos after quakes of what used to be a road separated by a dozen feet both horizontally and vertically. That's even assuming that people are willing to ship food rather than hoarding it for their own region.
Hyperbole? If the matching to history is true - that is, if the Indian oral history of a disaster, and the Japanese written history of an unexpected tsunami, indicate that *something* happened in January of 1700 - it's still a valid warning for the Pacific coastline. Even if the situation were only one-tenth as bad, just from back-of-the-envelope rough estimates, that still sounds pretty bad to me.
Slashdot Mirror
Taken at face value, it's a very simple statement of how paternalistic and condescending their perspective is. Yes, we do want people to protect us from bad guys - we have police, and we have security agencies - and we give them some slack on how much control they can have, but we don't want them to BECOME bad guys. Why should that be hard to understand? (Assuming, of course, that they're not lying about that too.)
Today's example, fortunately non-fatal: A former tennis star (and former US Olympian) was arrested in a case of mistaken identity. Should be a non-story, except the arresting plainclothes officer chose to make a flying tackle and knock the guy to a concrete sidewalk, when there was no hint of resistance or even awareness on his part (and this happened in front of a big hotel with very clear security video). These "intelligence" people have exactly the same mindset - there's no such thing as overkill.
Yet we allow kitchen knives. And we allow people to use fire, and carry fire-starters.
Done right, this sounds like the person in HR who organizes events and looks for group-discount packages on tickets and stuff. Problem is (and this applies to the military Morale Officer position too), while your anecdote sounds like a successful fitness-for-purpose between the person and the position, recognized because the person grew into the position, all too often this is an assigned or created position dumped on someone as an extra task that they don't want to do and aren't suited for. OTOOH what does one call the people that Google hires to handle mundane things like dry cleaning, or many firms hire to do in-house catering?
You can't mandate "fun". I can't stand the sort of people who try to whip up fake enthusiasm at a resort or on a cruise. But you CAN try to create a nice environment that encourages people to be comfortable.
Books: See also Diane Duane, "Omnitopia", about people creating an immersive game, and the server AI becoming a bit more independent than intended (a la Mycroft in Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress").
Sorry, cut off: Zombie Orpheus Entertainment.
The first one, a college film-student production, was fun and silly. The second, "Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising" (recently revived through crowdfunding support), was a bit better as a real movie that might appeal to non-players. The third, "Gamers 3: Hands of Fate", shifts focus to collectible card gaming (CCG) (though suggesting that roleplaying improves the CCG experience) and the craziness of conventions (cosplay, competitive gaming, etc.); this disappointed a portion of the crowdfunding audience that expected more continuation of the RPG-focus characters and story. The same folks have also produced a webseries "Natural 1" in a similar vein. The presentation jumps between the real world of players around a table, and the imagined world of characters in the story world, sometimes mixing the story world with voice-over narration from the real world.
Similar style may be seen in the webcomic "Table Titans" by Scott Kurtz (already known for "PVP"). Of course, in a drawn comic, it is possible to make a more dynamic and fluid transition between elements of "real" and "story" worlds; sometimes the imagined snow-covered forest looms over the "real" table and players, and sometimes the casually-clad DM walks through the imagined location, and occasionally the players around the table are shown in costume as if they had forgotten which world they are in.
The hardest question is: Is this a movie about a D&D adventure, or is this a movie about playing D&D? If an adventure, then forget the game, you can't do it, just do LOTR instead. If it's about moving from the real world into an imaginary one, then you're making "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", whether it's a piece of furniture, or a mystic portal opened by "magic"/"science", or a tabletop game gone wrong. What I enjoy about "The Gamers" movies (and especially "Natural 1") is that they are, to some extent, about the people, not the game; the people for whom this regular gathering is an important part of their social circle, and the ways in which the in-game interactions reflect who they are, or who they wish they were.
I [do x,y,and z] without Windows or Mac. We have different definitions of "to need".
Congratulations. Did you have any installed base? any investment in peripherals? any need to be compatible with someone else (required whether or not you LIKE what they use)? If not, you're fine. But don't ignore the real issue of vendor lock-in (or standards lock-in) that people have already been forced to accommodate. As a similar example, consider changing away from the standard light bulb sockets and see how far you get.
1. Calling someone effing stupid does not improve your argument; quite the reverse. Your point was very well taken until the last two words.
2. It's not effing stupid, it's unthinking or unaware. I appreciate your point because my parents grew up worrying about the cost of each pencil or postage stamp, and reminded us of it regularly.
3. Wanting writing assignments typed is reasonable if you have to read 120 of them, like when I was trying to get my high school teaching license (during an underemployed period). (Giving individuals an exemption as needed is also reasonable.)
Today's Slashdot: Boston tracks vehicles, after having claimed that they STOPPED doing it, and also left the files unsecured. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
You're missing the point. Yes, they know what my MAC was, but they don't know where I am right now; as opposed to police cars wardriving 24/7, and maybe scanners sitting by the doors of malls and stores and such, looking for the MAC in my cellphone 24/7. Instead of complicated Stingray trackers that spoof the IMEI wireless-phone side, it must be a lot easier to spoof the wifi side. Of course, one can turn off one's wifi, and even keep one's phone in airplane mode - or off! - except as needed . . . but then more or less of the instant comm stuff doesn't quite work.
You can only find MAC addresses to check against the "stolen/missing" list if you gather EVERYTHING all the time. So now, just like tracking all of our phone calls and vehicle movements, it's a "safety" idea to track every single wifi device. It sounds so helpful . . . and if only there were some way to add "think of the children!" it would be perfect . . .
The problem is that a fourteen year old is NOT a child, yet still not at all mature intellectually or emotionally. A fourteen year old boy, namely me, was already taller than my mother, and big and strong enough to pick her up bodily after she tripped down our front steps. I was also being recruited by the high school football coach, but I wanted to take AP classes instead of getting concussed.
We had a babysitter when our son was small who told us, after having stopped by a real estate open house down the street, that based on the price they were asking, we could sell our house and buy the fanciest house in the little town in North Dakota where she grew up, and have enough left to not work for ten years. And we pointed out, Yes, but then we'd be in the little town in North Dakota that YOU LEFT TO COME HERE. :-)
You're a family of one. You didn't mention much about school, or the future, or a companion, or kid(s), or even a pet. You're doing just fine by yourself, and maybe don't have any school loans to pay off either, and I tip my hat to you. BTW you also don't mention a car, which is one of the expenses mentioned in the post you replied to (but of course I agree in NYC you don't need a car . . . unless you want to drive out of the city now and then . . ) Point is I don't think I'm 100% out of touch if you add on some very realistic expenses, and especially if you want to be able to quit your job and do other things that cost any money, like travel. We WERE talking about "being suddenly wealthy", right? not just getting by comfortably? (BTW I grew up in Manhattan, live a few miles from the GW Bridge, and my son lives in a Manhattan co-op now. I know what NYC costs.)
ps - I'm not including taking care of an older generation, as many others have mentioned, because my older generation is gone; I *am* the older generation.
Renting an apartment within a few blocks of the Royal Mile, of course. Plus a second or third apartment to invite friends and family for their vacation times; I'm assuming there's enough wealth to share generously here. Then on to other events and activities around the calendar and the world, with exceptions for special events (weddings, birthdays, whatever) as they come up. In more practical terms, all of the young generation in that friends-and-family category will get all the education they can get admitted to. Experiences can have a longer-lasting impact than things.
NYC: $100k isn't even close to enough. The sentiment, moderation in all things, is nice; but if you want to have real free time, you need extra.
I disagree; the book DID feel sensationalist and BDSM. The 10-page descriptions of torture even overshadow the 5-page descriptions of meals. I never started watching the show precisely because I figured the shock moments would disturb me more than the awe moments would please me - and besides, I can see the dragons on youtube. :-)
except there's a difference between "people can see me" and "people are WATCHING ME ALL THE TIME!!!!"
As a computer science professional who remembers when "pipes" were introduced as terminology in Unix (and IBM mainframe people scoffed), and worked in telephony where logically "nailing up timeslots" hearkened to physically nailing up a copper wire, I accept your rebuke for a cheap shot. But he deserves it.
She was Secretary of State for 4 years, and before that a Senator for 8 years, and in all that time NOBODY noticed that emails came from (and went to) a non-government address? And nobody said anything about it? Even assuming that most of the elected officials have less of a clue than the average citizen ("It's a series of tubes!"), they know about handling classified material, because they get lectured about it every year. And nobody seemed to think there was a problem all that time.
Umm . . . they DID withstand plane collisions. Both of them. No toppling whatever. And when they collapsed from the heat of a Jet-A fueled fire (give the bad guys credit for picking the right strategic planes - fully fueled for long flights), they collapsed straight down rather than taking out multiple blocks in all directions. Sorry, I think your rating of "subpar" is incorrect.
I'm in the older crowd, and yes he wrote some good songs, but please don't give him a lot of credit for harmonies in CSNY. He always had the weakest voice of the four.
That's assuming that the transportation mechanisms work. Bridges come down; roads and rails get damaged. I recall photos after quakes of what used to be a road separated by a dozen feet both horizontally and vertically. That's even assuming that people are willing to ship food rather than hoarding it for their own region.
I disagree. We won't spend billions paying for it, because we'll have to completely abandon the area like Pompeii or Chernobyl.
Hyperbole? If the matching to history is true - that is, if the Indian oral history of a disaster, and the Japanese written history of an unexpected tsunami, indicate that *something* happened in January of 1700 - it's still a valid warning for the Pacific coastline. Even if the situation were only one-tenth as bad, just from back-of-the-envelope rough estimates, that still sounds pretty bad to me.