What Richard Egan did is very Japanese. He concluded that his life would be a burden on his family, his friends, and himself. So, he chose to die by his own sword. He died with honor.
I'm currently facing a similar situation in my family. My grandfather (about 90 years old) is coming off his 2nd major surgery in as many years, and he's quite depressed. I don't think his life is a burden, but I suspect he does think so:( . I'm trying to cheer him up, and I'll probably try to teach him to use a PC and/or videogame (I'm hindered a bit by not having much by way of economic resources - a Wii for example is out of the picture).
Wow, this is amazing. It looks much like what I'd expect from high school chemistry all those years ago:)
Watson and Crick wouldn't have had that much trouble with DNA if they had these tools... will the IBM scientists be able to do this for more complex molecules? As a complete layman in Chemistry, I think I recall that there are lots of work that involve the spatial geometry of molecules.
There's a reason why Mexican and Chinese factory workers are so much cheaper. And it's not just because those countries are overpopulated, and wages are driven down. It's because they don't have even the most basic of labor safety laws.
I live in Uruguay, and I'd be very surprised if Mexico didn't have labor safety laws. Whether they're applied or not is a different thing. I can't personally talk about China, but from what my uncle (who does business there) tells me, most of the stories are blown-out propaganda (not that he'd trade his livelihood with that of the workers, but the treatment is vastly overstated). In one factory, workers had ping-pong tables and a lounge to relax during work (not unlike what I hear Google does, only on a more modest scale).
luckily for you the rest of the world doesn't want cheap...
Erm... I'm in South America here, and yes, we do want cheap. So does Asia last I heard (excluding Japan and the "tigers" I guess), and probably Africa too. What was the "rest of the world" you were talking about?
I can't sign that. If someone offers to sell me MJ, I'll politely say no. If someone offers to sell my minor daughter MJ, that is a far different matter. Those are the dealers I would gladly see in prison for a long, long time.
How about educating your daughter? There are people offering her alcohol and cigarettes, too, and alcohol in particular can cause heavy damage (a relative is paralyzed for life, and his girlfriend was killed, because he was drunk, and caught a lamp-post at 150 km/h). Should we send the sellers to prision too?
I'm not in favor of drinking and smoking, but I will tolerate them. As it is often attributed to Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. "
Definitely not 'all', Quite a lot of SABRE Airline Solutions development crew is in Cracow/Poland.
And some kind of Customer Support / Callcenter is over here, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Pretty global I guess:)
Plus, I recall there were at least 3 continents with active SABRE development (I was involved with the XPlanner project for a little while, and Jacques Morel, the maintainer, works at Sabre).
It wasn't a Kindle though, it was a Palm m515 with some kind of ebook software on it.
Previously my book-reading had been somewhat limited simply due to the time/money/effort required to acquire new books. But with the Palm, I was able to download absolute craptons of free ebooks.
Life, at the time, wasn't what I wanted it to be. I had a crappy job, no friends, little social interaction, unhappy home... I'd get home from work and just bury my nose in a book for the rest of the night.
It's escapism, same as anything else. Some folks just read for fun...others read to escape their problems - just as some folks escape with alcohol, or TV, or gambling, or drugs, or whatever else.
I also have a Palm where I read a crapton of "light" novels (for instance Terry Pratchett atm). I also have a crappy job, few friends and little social interaction. My question is: how did you get out?.
The more I think about starting my own company, the more amazed I am at the talent required to run one.
Hmmm... I'm NOT amazed at the talent required to run one. I usually think I'd run one better than most.
However, there are two things stopping me:
1) finding the right niche (product or service) where you can make a difference
2) actually SELLING the damn product or service (that's where having friends helps:) - or, like it's usual here, contacts in the government:( )
The third obstacle would be getting enough capital, but I think I could manage that one, but only once... so it's not like I could try and then get off if it doesn't work.
It's an all or nothing bet, so I should be sure before doing that. And THAT's the difficult thing IMO, not the management part once it's there (not that the other is a piece of cake, but I hope I'm making my point).
"I used to work for the local branch of Equifax, and at least over here (Uruguay), there are at least two levels of checks before data is inserted (to avoid this kind of mistakes). AND we have a national ID, which is very useful to avoid this kind of mistakes. Of course, I don't know how they manage in the US without a national ID."
Don't worry....they're working on it over here.
:(
A national ID, by itself, is not a bad thing IMO.
Much better than having a document which was NOT designed as a national ID as a national ID (read: SSNs or driver's license).
If you fear the government or the corporations will abuse it, well, do your best to cut down the government, and have some decent regulations to avoid abuse by corporations (which will happen, ID or no ID; the ID just means the mixups won't hurt you so often). Over here we have a pretty decent law (Uruguayan law 18.331) which limits what corporations can do with your personal data.
What does it matter if he does? Millions of people share the same names with a parent, sibling, or child. Even between complete strangers same names are very common. If they are inserting data into their databases based on a first/last name match, the system would be extremely flawed.
I used to work for the local branch of Equifax, and at least over here (Uruguay), there are at least two levels of checks before data is inserted (to avoid this kind of mistakes). AND we have a national ID, which is very useful to avoid this kind of mistakes. Of course, I don't know how they manage in the US without a national ID.
My friend's dad works in and out of Boston in some pretty rough neighborhoods, and after witnessing a crime and calling the police he had several DOCUMENTED threats made against his life (ie coming out to see WE ARE GOING TO F*CKING KILL YOU HONKY spraypainted on the side of his truck).
What convinced me against this kind of argument is: if you're going to carry a weapon with you, the act of drawing it means you HAVE to intend to use it if necessary. So, either your friend's dad is bluffing (and he probably won't be the first to pull the trigger) or he will be the one to shoot first and we'll have to believe he did it in self-defense. So, are you advocating that he pulls the trigger against those guys?
I was wondering if there was a nonlethal alternative that we could carry around, and actually use without said extreme consequence. Say, tasers (much maligned as they are).
I disagree with your first point. Without the welfare state, they would have to work, because the alternative would be worse for them. If they couldn't afford beer, Sky, fags and takeaway, they would do something about it. Feel the power of capitalism, the only effective system for redistribution of wealth:).
Over here (Uruguay), welfare hasn't gotten to the point where it can afford someone what you describe.
You know what happens? They do "work", in a sense, but not the kind of work we'd want them to have: families have chariots (litterally, with horses pulling them), and go scrounging around the trash cans. They are now supposedly authorized by the government (after some tense protests), there are an estimate of 50.000 of them (Image: http://www.180.com.uy/tmp/thumbs/a93c0188583eb74b25d3814529e88b28.jpg ), they live by classifying the refuse, trying to separate metals and cardboard and plastics.
And those are the ones that do work. There's also another kind, who send their children to board buses and ask for charity, or to ask for money at the street lights (basically every significant street light has its beggars). Children are beaten if they don't fill the "quota" set by their parents. And they do get enough money, more than what's usual for a day's works at minimum wage.
Other people "work" as "car minders" (?).. they stay at the block where you park, and ask for money in return for "caring" for your car (and god help you if you don't pay them..). Don't think that just by paying them they won't steal if they have the opportunity (I've personally seen the one in my block steal, and now I'm in a kind of cold war with him, and can't park in my block anymore), and they're no insurance against having your car stolen either.
In all, the "refuse classifiers" (the guys on chariots) at least try to do something. Though the municipal government complains that they make the trash cleaning job a lot worse, because they leave a mess behind after they go through the trash cans.
What other law today is broken so often yet carries such a large penalty for those whom are caught? Copyright infringement is in a class by itself as the singular most unjust law in the Unites States.
I really agree with your post. We all know it is illegal, yet many of us have infringed it. I think the penalty should be revised realistically.
Incorrect. There actually ARE correct answers to the inkblots - no quotes necessary around that 'correct'.
You DO know that things have meaning according to the culture, right?
One of my Computer Science teachers has taught in different cultures, and gave us a simple test: he scribbled a silhouette on the whiteboard, and asked us to write out what we thought it meant.
Everybody wrote the same thing (a "mate", if you must know)
He then showed us the results from a class in Europe, I think. None had written what the CS teacher intended.
He did that in a context where he was talking about usability and using icons you think are unequivocal, but the lesson can be applied here.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know, but I suspect he doesn't need a Wii, he needs you.
Thanks. I hope I'll be enough :)
What Richard Egan did is very Japanese. He concluded that his life would be a burden on his family, his friends, and himself. So, he chose to die by his own sword. He died with honor.
I'm currently facing a similar situation in my family. My grandfather (about 90 years old) is coming off his 2nd major surgery in as many years, and he's quite depressed. I don't think his life is a burden, but I suspect he does think so :( . I'm trying to cheer him up, and I'll probably try to teach him to use a PC and/or videogame (I'm hindered a bit by not having much by way of economic resources - a Wii for example is out of the picture).
Thanks for pointing that one out, I had forgotten about it (not that I have that many spare cycles to donate :) ).
Wow, this is amazing. It looks much like what I'd expect from high school chemistry all those years ago :)
Watson and Crick wouldn't have had that much trouble with DNA if they had these tools... will the IBM scientists be able to do this for more complex molecules? As a complete layman in Chemistry, I think I recall that there are lots of work that involve the spatial geometry of molecules.
There's a reason why Mexican and Chinese factory workers are so much cheaper. And it's not just because those countries are overpopulated, and wages are driven down. It's because they don't have even the most basic of labor safety laws.
I live in Uruguay, and I'd be very surprised if Mexico didn't have labor safety laws. Whether they're applied or not is a different thing. I can't personally talk about China, but from what my uncle (who does business there) tells me, most of the stories are blown-out propaganda (not that he'd trade his livelihood with that of the workers, but the treatment is vastly overstated). In one factory, workers had ping-pong tables and a lounge to relax during work (not unlike what I hear Google does, only on a more modest scale).
Minimum wages are set locally. Large cities frequently have higher minimum wage than the Federal minimum wage.
Ahhh.... but there IS a Federal minimum wage. I think the GP was talking about LOWERING it, not increasing it.
luckily for you the rest of the world doesn't want cheap...
Erm... I'm in South America here, and yes, we do want cheap. So does Asia last I heard (excluding Japan and the "tigers" I guess), and probably Africa too. What was the "rest of the world" you were talking about?
I can't sign that. If someone offers to sell me MJ, I'll politely say no. If someone offers to sell my minor daughter MJ, that is a far different matter. Those are the dealers I would gladly see in prison for a long, long time.
How about educating your daughter? There are people offering her alcohol and cigarettes, too, and alcohol in particular can cause heavy damage (a relative is paralyzed for life, and his girlfriend was killed, because he was drunk, and caught a lamp-post at 150 km/h). Should we send the sellers to prision too?
I'm not in favor of drinking and smoking, but I will tolerate them. As it is often attributed to Voltaire: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. "
All this in Tulsa, OK.
Definitely not 'all', Quite a lot of SABRE Airline Solutions development crew is in Cracow/Poland.
And some kind of Customer Support / Callcenter is over here, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Pretty global I guess :)
Plus, I recall there were at least 3 continents with active SABRE development (I was involved with the XPlanner project for a little while, and Jacques Morel, the maintainer, works at Sabre).
Thanks for the answer. It is a very real world answer, too - no easy outs I guess :)
Been there, done that.
It wasn't a Kindle though, it was a Palm m515 with some kind of ebook software on it.
Previously my book-reading had been somewhat limited simply due to the time/money/effort required to acquire new books. But with the Palm, I was able to download absolute craptons of free ebooks.
Life, at the time, wasn't what I wanted it to be. I had a crappy job, no friends, little social interaction, unhappy home... I'd get home from work and just bury my nose in a book for the rest of the night.
It's escapism, same as anything else. Some folks just read for fun...others read to escape their problems - just as some folks escape with alcohol, or TV, or gambling, or drugs, or whatever else.
I also have a Palm where I read a crapton of "light" novels (for instance Terry Pratchett atm). I also have a crappy job, few friends and little social interaction. My question is: how did you get out?.
34, fat and bummed?
28, fat and bummed. I got you beat :P
The more I think about starting my own company, the more amazed I am at the talent required to run one.
Hmmm... I'm NOT amazed at the talent required to run one. I usually think I'd run one better than most.
:) - or, like it's usual here, contacts in the government :( )
However, there are two things stopping me:
1) finding the right niche (product or service) where you can make a difference
2) actually SELLING the damn product or service (that's where having friends helps
The third obstacle would be getting enough capital, but I think I could manage that one, but only once... so it's not like I could try and then get off if it doesn't work.
It's an all or nothing bet, so I should be sure before doing that. And THAT's the difficult thing IMO, not the management part once it's there (not that the other is a piece of cake, but I hope I'm making my point).
I understood about 50% of that. The rest was either terminology I just plain don't know, or things I could kinda guess.
I understood only half, too, but I googled around a bit and found that CATIA and PATRAN are (CAE) software packages for aerospace engineering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CATIA
http://www.mscsoftware.com/products/patran.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_engineering
No way, there are so many changes to Roman History all the time it definitely takes a full time publishing staff to keep up.
"A student who changes the course of history is probably taking an exam."
:)
Thanks to http://www.csbruce.com/~csbruce/quotes/general.html , a nice way to waste some time
"I used to work for the local branch of Equifax, and at least over here (Uruguay), there are at least two levels of checks before data is inserted (to avoid this kind of mistakes). AND we have a national ID, which is very useful to avoid this kind of mistakes. Of course, I don't know how they manage in the US without a national ID."
Don't worry....they're working on it over here.
A national ID, by itself, is not a bad thing IMO.
Much better than having a document which was NOT designed as a national ID as a national ID (read: SSNs or driver's license).
If you fear the government or the corporations will abuse it, well, do your best to cut down the government, and have some decent regulations to avoid abuse by corporations (which will happen, ID or no ID; the ID just means the mixups won't hurt you so often). Over here we have a pretty decent law (Uruguayan law 18.331) which limits what corporations can do with your personal data.
What does it matter if he does? Millions of people share the same names with a parent, sibling, or child. Even between complete strangers same names are very common. If they are inserting data into their databases based on a first/last name match, the system would be extremely flawed.
I used to work for the local branch of Equifax, and at least over here (Uruguay), there are at least two levels of checks before data is inserted (to avoid this kind of mistakes). AND we have a national ID, which is very useful to avoid this kind of mistakes. Of course, I don't know how they manage in the US without a national ID.
I did something similar to that tutorial once. No, I did not like my users either.
My friend's dad works in and out of Boston in some pretty rough neighborhoods, and after witnessing a crime and calling the police he had several DOCUMENTED threats made against his life (ie coming out to see WE ARE GOING TO F*CKING KILL YOU HONKY spraypainted on the side of his truck).
What convinced me against this kind of argument is: if you're going to carry a weapon with you, the act of drawing it means you HAVE to intend to use it if necessary. So, either your friend's dad is bluffing (and he probably won't be the first to pull the trigger) or he will be the one to shoot first and we'll have to believe he did it in self-defense. So, are you advocating that he pulls the trigger against those guys?
I was wondering if there was a nonlethal alternative that we could carry around, and actually use without said extreme consequence. Say, tasers (much maligned as they are).
I disagree with your first point. Without the welfare state, they would have to work, because the alternative would be worse for them. If they couldn't afford beer, Sky, fags and takeaway, they would do something about it. Feel the power of capitalism, the only effective system for redistribution of wealth :).
Over here (Uruguay), welfare hasn't gotten to the point where it can afford someone what you describe.
You know what happens? They do "work", in a sense, but not the kind of work we'd want them to have: families have chariots (litterally, with horses pulling them), and go scrounging around the trash cans. They are now supposedly authorized by the government (after some tense protests), there are an estimate of 50.000 of them (Image: http://www.180.com.uy/tmp/thumbs/a93c0188583eb74b25d3814529e88b28.jpg ), they live by classifying the refuse, trying to separate metals and cardboard and plastics.
And those are the ones that do work. There's also another kind, who send their children to board buses and ask for charity, or to ask for money at the street lights (basically every significant street light has its beggars). Children are beaten if they don't fill the "quota" set by their parents. And they do get enough money, more than what's usual for a day's works at minimum wage.
Other people "work" as "car minders" (?).. they stay at the block where you park, and ask for money in return for "caring" for your car (and god help you if you don't pay them..). Don't think that just by paying them they won't steal if they have the opportunity (I've personally seen the one in my block steal, and now I'm in a kind of cold war with him, and can't park in my block anymore), and they're no insurance against having your car stolen either.
In all, the "refuse classifiers" (the guys on chariots) at least try to do something. Though the municipal government complains that they make the trash cleaning job a lot worse, because they leave a mess behind after they go through the trash cans.
Is it better for cities to rely on such stupid pieces of low-bidder refuse for tools like parking meters and US passports?
Erm... one is not like the other... I don't think that parking meters require the highest level of protection possible. Passports, OTOH...
What other law today is broken so often yet carries such a large penalty for those whom are caught? Copyright infringement is in a class by itself as the singular most unjust law in the Unites States.
I really agree with your post. We all know it is illegal, yet many of us have infringed it. I think the penalty should be revised realistically.
Once again, life imitating art: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_(Discworld)
Incorrect. There actually ARE correct answers to the inkblots - no quotes necessary around that 'correct'.
You DO know that things have meaning according to the culture, right?
One of my Computer Science teachers has taught in different cultures, and gave us a simple test: he scribbled a silhouette on the whiteboard, and asked us to write out what we thought it meant.
Everybody wrote the same thing (a "mate", if you must know)
He then showed us the results from a class in Europe, I think. None had written what the CS teacher intended.
He did that in a context where he was talking about usability and using icons you think are unequivocal, but the lesson can be applied here.
Thanks, it's probably the same one. And pretty cool, too.