This will help kill some of the controversy if it actually works, but many in America still have an irrational fear of sciences that they do not, and can not, understand. People can understand that taking a pill makes you better even if they do not understand the "how" of the pill. They can understand that cutting into your leg to repair a bone with metal rods makes sense. Very few people, however, understand how stem cells may help medical science. Without helping them understand (politicians included), we still have a long way to go before the public openly accepts stem cell research and is comfortable in pumping large amounts of tax money into the research system.
That's why I suggested cake containers instead of binders. Binders are great for when you use CDs or DVDs frequently, e.g., music or movies that you would like quick access to and when reading the face of a CD/DVD is useful. However, if you simply label CDs sequentially and never (rarely) need access, you can stack them a few hundred to a case. Label them in series chronologically. When you need to make space on your shelves, simply follow FIFO -- reduce from the lowest sequence up.
Binders waste a lot of space when you don't care what the CD face says.
The only thing to be careful of is a labeling system for the CDs. Sharpee is probably best. Sticky labels can off-balance the CD and make it hard to read in picky readers.
Buy a few crates of cake containers from a CD or DVD distributor. Then hire an intern. Label each CD with a sequential number and label the cake containers with their sequence number. A simple Excel sheet or simple database can handle mapping a CD with who it came from and the date to a cake container/CD number. The intern then fetches said CD.
Remember, interns are cheaper than actual solutions.
I don't expect success. I realize that a lot of success in science comes from failure. Failure itself is unavoidable in that which is research. It's expected. But that doesn't mean that the information shouldn't be published, does it? If I'm researching or studying cell division under extremely toxic conditions and I notice that the radioactive particles from my experiment are causing my test cultures to suddenly multiply in an unknown way, why shouldn't I be able to easily -- and freely -- see that other "failed" research has seen the same thing?
Unfortunately, training the public-at-large that failed research != bad research would be near impossible. On the flip side, though, there is a lot of frivilous research that I'm sure we don't know about that "fails" and never makes it into peer-reviewed journals.
To really fix the research system to be what I would consider fair, it shouldn't be restricted to peer-reviewed journals. If it is truly financed solely with tax money, it should be open and completely public -- without restriction. I want to know and read what failed research is out there, who did it, why, and how much it cost. I want to know that $600 thousand was wasted on tiger and big cat research because some idiot left the cage unlocked and the tigers escaped. I want the data. Yes, of course being in a peer-reviewed journal helps ensure the research is correct -- but not all Americans want to read the "good" research.
This is a start, though. Does anyone think it will actually pass?
The limitations with the HD protection aren't solely with the media player -- they are part of the graphics card and display processes themselves. It's not just a software codec or display filter.
Because the spirit of TV and the spirit of the Internet are completely different. On the Internet, anyone can publish content. I can pay the same as my neighbor and play an online game of chess, read Slashdot, and check my investments. My neighbor can swap school photos with their family, get scrapbooking tips from an online community, and participate in chain letters of impending religious doom.
It is commonly accepted that TV is a very difficult market to enter. My neighbor wouldn't have the capital to create a scrapbooking TV channel, but she could certainly start a scrapbooking Yahoo group.
Tiered Internet does make sense -- but only if you tier based on application and not by content. In my opinion, VoIP should go quicker than HTTP. However, I don't want my ISP limiting my HTTP traffic by allowing google.com to come through unmetered, but at the same time limit money.cnn.com because Google decided to pay my ISP more.
Just because the behavior isn't there now doesn't mean that we should put off neutrality legislation until it becomes a problem. The easiest solution to any problem is to fix it now before it becomes a problem.
I welcome any MP3 player for Windows that doesn't (a) hijack my file associations (b) install at least two services that launch on startup (c) freeze my entire system if the device is unexpectedly unplugged (d) try to re-invent my GUI to look like another OS using non-accessible controls (e) allow me to easily access the device itself without crazy hacks and (f) uninstall cleanly.
Ok, it can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure, but can it withstand being dropped? Sheer casing strength doesn't necessarily mean that it can withstand the shock forces involved in being dropped or kicked.
I've all but lost hope for the Internet but now my faith has been renewed! Yes, provide any cartoonist with hosting! I enjoy looking at badly written, unfunny, and largely idiotic cartoons! While you're at it, can you please duplicate LiveJournal? I am seriously lacking in my daily need to read higschool Emo-kid drama. A duplicate of MySpace would protect my prowling habits when MySpace.com goes down. Help me, Warren Ellis, you're my only hope.
In all seriousness, though, it seems like a duplication of existing services with a fancy name attached to it. I would have rather seen him do something for the web comic community by aggregating existing comics and posting reviews and commentaries on them blog-style.
Don't forget that many large companies are pulling back advertising to older generations. Pepsi, for instance, realizes no matter how much promotion they do, they will not convert the older generation away from "Coke". So instead, Pepsi's newer advertisements target very young demographics when individuals can learn brand loyalty. Coke will likely face the same problem as Pepsi in about 20-25 years, at least in the US.
And back to the topic: crap is easier and cheaper to produce. The younger generations have taught Hollywood and every other organization that quantity is greater than quality.
And in response to other replies, I'm not concerned about virus "problems" on Macs, of course. I'm more concerned that I wouldn't be able to walk my Grandmother through changing her e-mail password, or won't be able to help her make her family history page her home page in Safari.
Since from what I know of liberal arts majors, you likely have better writing skills than true computer science graduates. While jumping from pyschology to comp sci would be rough, but your writing ability is a gem. Use it.
I don't know about you guys, but I am the unfortunately "go to guy" for computers in my family. Until my family buys a Mac for me, I can't help them with their Mac problems. Thus, they won't get Macs. Sorry, family.
From what I've seen with beta drivers in Vista, it tells you explicitly what driver caused it. "nVidia Display Driver has attempted to alter and possibly destabilize your system" and then the driver is (somewhat glitched) stopped. Definitely more friendly than old school BSODs. We shall see how the final Vista plays out.
Mashups are not "hot". My mother has no idea wha ta "mashup" is. Nor will she ever. Just because you have a circle jerk of blogging buddies that look at your Craigslist Google Map that shows you where the most Male4Male posts come from doesn't make it useful or remotely usable to the general population.
I will never trust a mashup as much as I would trust the originating websites. How do I know you aren't altering the data from the Sexual Predators Database to include your ex-husband? How do I know that you aren't filtering eBay auctions to remove auctions that don't fit your political beliefs? Sure, I can go look for the data, but with API license restrictions, I may not be able to access the information myself.
Luckily electricity is a monitored and classified as a utility. If we could elect some decent politicians that didn't have pockets full of energy cash, we would see a price drop. Applies to both parties, by the way.
Well, it depends. I can see paladins taking away Shaman slots as well as priest. Going on numbers alone, two paladins and a shaman could make a few priests (and themselves) almost never go OOM and never draw agro (totem with blessing would give 36% agro reduction and something like 48mana/5 sec (assuming 1MT/5min during bosses). That's pretty powerful.
Of course, we'll have to see what kind of content the expansion gives us. Maybe the content there will require both shaman and paladins.
What pisses me off more is that until the paladins and shaman get to 60+, 40-man raids are probably going to get tons of wasted pally or shaman loot.
Gamers play games to get away from real life. Real life sucks. You get cancer, you don't get a do-over. Dropped out of school? Sure you can go back but not as easily as some dork out of highschool can. Knocked up your mistress? Good luck with that one. Whereas video games... you don't down Onyxia, you can try again. And again. And again (more dots! more dots! throw more dots!! fifty DKP minus!!).
Besides, what good will a 2nd level burger flipper do to stop a bomb? Does this guy even know the primary market for video games? It isn't people that would be a 22nd level Chemist. A few, sure, but enough to make a game?
Slashdot Mirror
This will help kill some of the controversy if it actually works, but many in America still have an irrational fear of sciences that they do not, and can not, understand. People can understand that taking a pill makes you better even if they do not understand the "how" of the pill. They can understand that cutting into your leg to repair a bone with metal rods makes sense. Very few people, however, understand how stem cells may help medical science. Without helping them understand (politicians included), we still have a long way to go before the public openly accepts stem cell research and is comfortable in pumping large amounts of tax money into the research system.
That's why I suggested cake containers instead of binders. Binders are great for when you use CDs or DVDs frequently, e.g., music or movies that you would like quick access to and when reading the face of a CD/DVD is useful. However, if you simply label CDs sequentially and never (rarely) need access, you can stack them a few hundred to a case. Label them in series chronologically. When you need to make space on your shelves, simply follow FIFO -- reduce from the lowest sequence up.
Binders waste a lot of space when you don't care what the CD face says.
The only thing to be careful of is a labeling system for the CDs. Sharpee is probably best. Sticky labels can off-balance the CD and make it hard to read in picky readers.
Buy a few crates of cake containers from a CD or DVD distributor. Then hire an intern. Label each CD with a sequential number and label the cake containers with their sequence number. A simple Excel sheet or simple database can handle mapping a CD with who it came from and the date to a cake container/CD number. The intern then fetches said CD.
Remember, interns are cheaper than actual solutions.
I don't expect success. I realize that a lot of success in science comes from failure. Failure itself is unavoidable in that which is research. It's expected. But that doesn't mean that the information shouldn't be published, does it? If I'm researching or studying cell division under extremely toxic conditions and I notice that the radioactive particles from my experiment are causing my test cultures to suddenly multiply in an unknown way, why shouldn't I be able to easily -- and freely -- see that other "failed" research has seen the same thing?
Unfortunately, training the public-at-large that failed research != bad research would be near impossible. On the flip side, though, there is a lot of frivilous research that I'm sure we don't know about that "fails" and never makes it into peer-reviewed journals.
To really fix the research system to be what I would consider fair, it shouldn't be restricted to peer-reviewed journals. If it is truly financed solely with tax money, it should be open and completely public -- without restriction. I want to know and read what failed research is out there, who did it, why, and how much it cost. I want to know that $600 thousand was wasted on tiger and big cat research because some idiot left the cage unlocked and the tigers escaped. I want the data. Yes, of course being in a peer-reviewed journal helps ensure the research is correct -- but not all Americans want to read the "good" research.
This is a start, though. Does anyone think it will actually pass?
The limitations with the HD protection aren't solely with the media player -- they are part of the graphics card and display processes themselves. It's not just a software codec or display filter.
Because the spirit of TV and the spirit of the Internet are completely different. On the Internet, anyone can publish content. I can pay the same as my neighbor and play an online game of chess, read Slashdot, and check my investments. My neighbor can swap school photos with their family, get scrapbooking tips from an online community, and participate in chain letters of impending religious doom.
It is commonly accepted that TV is a very difficult market to enter. My neighbor wouldn't have the capital to create a scrapbooking TV channel, but she could certainly start a scrapbooking Yahoo group.
Tiered Internet does make sense -- but only if you tier based on application and not by content. In my opinion, VoIP should go quicker than HTTP. However, I don't want my ISP limiting my HTTP traffic by allowing google.com to come through unmetered, but at the same time limit money.cnn.com because Google decided to pay my ISP more.
Just because the behavior isn't there now doesn't mean that we should put off neutrality legislation until it becomes a problem. The easiest solution to any problem is to fix it now before it becomes a problem.
I welcome any MP3 player for Windows that doesn't (a) hijack my file associations (b) install at least two services that launch on startup (c) freeze my entire system if the device is unexpectedly unplugged (d) try to re-invent my GUI to look like another OS using non-accessible controls (e) allow me to easily access the device itself without crazy hacks and (f) uninstall cleanly.
:-)
Works better on Mac, I know
Or the elderly community. 27% of those in the US living with HIV are over 50 and they are the fastest growing group of new HIV cases [ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/18/eveningn ews/main1913646.shtml ]
Ok, it can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure, but can it withstand being dropped? Sheer casing strength doesn't necessarily mean that it can withstand the shock forces involved in being dropped or kicked.
I've all but lost hope for the Internet but now my faith has been renewed! Yes, provide any cartoonist with hosting! I enjoy looking at badly written, unfunny, and largely idiotic cartoons! While you're at it, can you please duplicate LiveJournal? I am seriously lacking in my daily need to read higschool Emo-kid drama. A duplicate of MySpace would protect my prowling habits when MySpace.com goes down. Help me, Warren Ellis, you're my only hope.
In all seriousness, though, it seems like a duplication of existing services with a fancy name attached to it. I would have rather seen him do something for the web comic community by aggregating existing comics and posting reviews and commentaries on them blog-style.
Don't forget that many large companies are pulling back advertising to older generations. Pepsi, for instance, realizes no matter how much promotion they do, they will not convert the older generation away from "Coke". So instead, Pepsi's newer advertisements target very young demographics when individuals can learn brand loyalty. Coke will likely face the same problem as Pepsi in about 20-25 years, at least in the US.
And back to the topic: crap is easier and cheaper to produce. The younger generations have taught Hollywood and every other organization that quantity is greater than quality.
That helps calm my fears, thanks.
And in response to other replies, I'm not concerned about virus "problems" on Macs, of course. I'm more concerned that I wouldn't be able to walk my Grandmother through changing her e-mail password, or won't be able to help her make her family history page her home page in Safari.
Since from what I know of liberal arts majors, you likely have better writing skills than true computer science graduates. While jumping from pyschology to comp sci would be rough, but your writing ability is a gem. Use it.
I don't know about you guys, but I am the unfortunately "go to guy" for computers in my family. Until my family buys a Mac for me, I can't help them with their Mac problems. Thus, they won't get Macs. Sorry, family.
From what I've seen with beta drivers in Vista, it tells you explicitly what driver caused it. "nVidia Display Driver has attempted to alter and possibly destabilize your system" and then the driver is (somewhat glitched) stopped. Definitely more friendly than old school BSODs. We shall see how the final Vista plays out.
Mashups are not "hot". My mother has no idea wha ta "mashup" is. Nor will she ever. Just because you have a circle jerk of blogging buddies that look at your Craigslist Google Map that shows you where the most Male4Male posts come from doesn't make it useful or remotely usable to the general population.
I will never trust a mashup as much as I would trust the originating websites. How do I know you aren't altering the data from the Sexual Predators Database to include your ex-husband? How do I know that you aren't filtering eBay auctions to remove auctions that don't fit your political beliefs? Sure, I can go look for the data, but with API license restrictions, I may not be able to access the information myself.
It's the dude's AIM icon.
Luckily electricity is a monitored and classified as a utility. If we could elect some decent politicians that didn't have pockets full of energy cash, we would see a price drop. Applies to both parties, by the way.
Well, it depends. I can see paladins taking away Shaman slots as well as priest. Going on numbers alone, two paladins and a shaman could make a few priests (and themselves) almost never go OOM and never draw agro (totem with blessing would give 36% agro reduction and something like 48mana/5 sec (assuming 1MT/5min during bosses). That's pretty powerful. Of course, we'll have to see what kind of content the expansion gives us. Maybe the content there will require both shaman and paladins. What pisses me off more is that until the paladins and shaman get to 60+, 40-man raids are probably going to get tons of wasted pally or shaman loot.
Won't be useless if totems stack with auras...
Gamers play games to get away from real life. Real life sucks. You get cancer, you don't get a do-over. Dropped out of school? Sure you can go back but not as easily as some dork out of highschool can. Knocked up your mistress? Good luck with that one. Whereas video games... you don't down Onyxia, you can try again. And again. And again (more dots! more dots! throw more dots!! fifty DKP minus!!).
Besides, what good will a 2nd level burger flipper do to stop a bomb? Does this guy even know the primary market for video games? It isn't people that would be a 22nd level Chemist. A few, sure, but enough to make a game?
Look at it this way: the more time your peers waste on unproductive activities, the easier it will be to advance your own career.