"...rather than just failing to set things up for a couple of minutes and then giving up."
If one is a hobbyist or curious about how computers function, the experience you describe in this phrase might be satisying or even an enjoyable interlude. There are folks out there blessed with time, discipline and a curious disposition. The world is full of people who are not like this. The question is, what role can computers play in their lives?
Indeed, even though I have time, discipline and a curious disposition, I frequently am not in the mood to "mess around" with my boxes-- I want to play a game or write software, not think about my filesystem. That's the whole POINT of computers, to me, being able to manipulate data using motifs and simplifying respresentations. Not everyone is curious 100% of the time and technical details always distract from the task at hand (unless, of course, the details ARE the task).
The power and potential of computers, which you mention, obviously give rise to many applications-- they can function as telephones, televisions, cameras, recipe books, game consoles, etc. etc. I believe that when a computer fulfills the analogs of these functions, the user should not be aware of the computer or even the operating system, just the application. An application should present the user with a motif that is both essential and minimal to its current function.
When a computer first starts, it isn't really doing anything *I* care about, so I shouldn't have to know anything. No tinkering. No setting things up.
I take issue with your equating being bullied with a threat to one's existence. They are not the same thing. Harassment is not the same as attempted murder. A direct threat to one's existence is an extreme and unlikely scenario, one that stikes me as grandiose and impractically hypothetical to all but the most unfortunate.
Bullies are bullies because they are confident that any direct, immediate confrontation is likely to be in their favor and that in light of this obvious fact the victim is bound to save everyone the effort and just take it. In my own experience, bullies seldom act alone-- the ones I've known always had one or two hangers-on for backup muscle. Fighting back under what is clearly a deliberate, artificial circumstance controlled by your assailant is stupid. How's that for a counter-argument?
My own advice to anyone facing a bully is to use your brain, because you can rest assured that the bully is using his (or hers). Contrary to the stupid-bully stereotype, I've found bullies to be both motivated and calculating. Instead of physical confrontation, I've found it to be more effective to simply find a way to alter the situation so that the motivation either isn't there or the intention is redirected towards something else. If you think about it for an hour or so, you can usually come up with a list of things to try. This is self-reliance too, and it doesn't necessitate resorting to violence.
You may have to not carry a wallet for a cell phone for a while since you're running the risk of having it stripped off you, or you might have to actually talk (not argue, TALK) to someone you don't understand or like very much. Find ways of altering the situation so that the bully is no longer in control of it and making the prospect of dealing with you in the future distasteful or uninteresting.
It's not as dramatic as being a "man" or "defending my right to exist without help from others". All that just sounds like a infantile platitude from a cheesy Western (or Disney film). NO ONE exists without help from others, especially where real violence and mortal threat are realities (such as in the military). It appeals to our vanity to imagine that we can stand alone, but 99 times out of 100 that's a lie used to excuse bad behavior.
Committing violence always has consequences that reach beyond a specific altercation. How's that for a life lesson for your kids? To say nothing of the spiritual/emotional/psychological harm you risk to yourself in committing a violent act, consider, as you walk away from the prone bully you just beat the crap out of, how easy your address will be to find in a phone book 10 years from now, and how much damage $40 worth of gasoline can do to your life. Because the TRUTH is, we are NEVER alone, for better or worse.
I don't expect to change your mind, just offering an alternative to bad philosophy.
I think you have to give some latitude for folks who like a challenge. Your point is well taken-- item-wise WoW encourages livestock behavior: devote loads of time to joining a herd of 40 others and eventually you'll get a shiny item. Or set of items.
There are other ways to play the game, however. 5-man instance-running isn't so bad. It can be fun and even net you some rewards, though not the uber gear. Good tactics in PvE and PvP can pay off, though sadly much of the game design of WoW puts the game experience "on rails" so that farming becomes, as you say, the paradigm.
It's not a very hard game, but kinda nifty in its way. You can seek the challenge instead of the gear. I do and its pretty fun.
Some responders have posited that the Mormon Church is interested only in making money. If the cure is legit, and I doubt very seriously that it is on any number of levels, then what better publicity for the church itself than to give the cure away? Offer salvation in this life and the next!
Rake in the bucks from all the tithing from new members...
I don't think this is over the top at all, but rather speaks well to the point. World history is real and there are parts of it which *should* make you uncomforatble. Every deliberate action we take has a moral component to it and considering how much effort and time we spend in the workplace, the impact we have on the world is largely measured by our professional efforts.
I think a software company should say, "We don't provide content hosting to China, because our on-line services support freedom of expression. You can oppress your people, but you'll do it without our complicity. Go write your own software if it's that important to you." Thus the regime feels pain and is motived to change.
To make it personal, if you are an employee of Microsoft and it's your specific job to delete material which the Chinese government finds unacceptable, just don't do it. Quit, if necessary. Thus the company feels pain and is motivated to change.
I'm a 10-year veteran software developer and I am very selective in the work that I pursue. We all have to put food on the table, sure, but acknowledge your options honestly and completely is what I say.
Even though your handle was in clear violation of WoW naming rules, I can understand your disappointment. Let's be intellectually honest though, this isn't really about GMs or the way they handle in-game violations. Many people use WoW and policing the game is an intractable amount of work-- you want them to submit to 12 hours of arbitration with every infraction? Please. They could have been more explicit, sure, but you're not stupid. Read the agreement, figure it out for yourself. Don't make my monthly subscription rates pay for a babysitter to explain the rules to you.
It's just like the DMV, getting a passport, credit reports, 401k rollovers and traffic tickets. You're not special. Figure it out and take responsibility for the consequences of your actions. This is what it means to participate in an egalitarian community and belongs to the real-life world. This aspect of the game is not the "fun" part.
Now, for the real issue at hand: I think you've run into a dichotomy between your desire for an on-line identity and the WoW game concept. You want an ID which represents a general, online persona, WoW wants its participants to immerse themselves in their fantasy narrative. You want to express an externally consistent individualism at the price of breaking the game metaphor.
You can probably appreciate how I may be glad WoW made you change your name, and impatient with your pleading with them to tolerate it. WoW is an escapist construction. I play expecting to get away (at least as much as I can) from Chr1st_LUVZ_U and N8_IZ_GR8. I see some dude running around named Taco, a "Cmdr" no less, and I am suddenly in some stupid chat room all over again.
As a thought experiment, consider going to see a production of Othello. Halfway through some dude runs on the stage shouting "I am SlackArtist!!!" and runs off. I'm not saying that WoW is the same, but it is: a) something I pay for, b) escapist, c) depending for its effect on the suspension of disbelief, and d) an artistic expression.
One possible compromise may be for WoW to have an interface option which hides the names which violate the policy. This way, you can be CmdrTaco, but I don't have to look at you or know you're there. This would mean Bliz implementing another poster's suggestion: a database of violating names. Already, though, this technical solution is kinda creepy and suggests to me that if it's necessary, then maybe WoW isn't the place for you to blow off steam.
10 years as a software engineer has shown me: RSI is laying waste to a generation of bright, devoted workers. I recommend the following to everyone who uses a computer:
1. Get yourself a Kinesis keyboard, just the standard model is fine. Learning to use it will be annoying in the short run. Runs a few hundred bucks retail. A bargain at 10x the price. It saved my career and I swear by it. Microsoft "natural" keyboard is a waste of time and a danger to your health. As is the mouse. Speaking of which...
2. Ditch the mouse. Worst computer invention ever. The static tension in your bent wrist will tear your tendons and nerve sheaths to pieces. Velcro a trackball to the center space of your new Kinesis keyboard and use it ambidexterously to manipulate your pointer when keystrokes won't do.
3. Get an adjustable keyboard tray, one that you can tilt down and away from you (not towards you).
4. Get a clock, or run something on your box with a timer. Work only 50 min. out of every hour. Use that 10 min to walk around, relax your hands, etc.
5. Someone mentioned a Samsung 213T. I love mine.
6. Hardware is only as good as the human using it. Limit the number of contiguous hours you work and try to work in the very early morning hours when it's cool, quiet and no distractions. I've gotten more done from 4:30 to 9am than a whole month of 9-5.
7. Life is short. You're wasting it if you're not having fun, regardless of what you do.
If you fix all the bugs, you're wasting engineering resources.
As a lead software developer on a medium-sized suite of products (~100 engineers), I'd say that fixing all bugs on a product is infeasible. Don't get me wrong-- bugs are bad, but "good enough" makes economic sense, "perfect" does not.
Small, personal (~5 engineers), cottage software projects can and probably should aim for as-perfect-as-possible. I run projects like this at home in my spare time and it's rewarding and appeals to my inner perfectionist.
For a large effort, like a next-generation web browser, triage, risk-management and post-release planning are extremely important strategic concerns.
The consequences of Microsoft's bug triage are probably a lot more mundane than you're speculating. The defects will simply be release-noted or cataloged in their support database if they're discovered after the fact.
Less dramatic, I know. Conspiracies are a lot more fun, so I'll throw you a bone: somewhere there's a product manager who giving an engineering mandate which goes like this, "Make something flashy, don't worry about standards so much." Our frustrations arise as a consequence of this directive.
The alternative is a more compliant browser with fewer features and less flash (so to speak) and we are once again in the land of trade-offs and cost/benefit. Life is grim and boring, ain't it?
This quotation is one that comes to my mind a lot, too, and I think it strikes a chord with a lot of guys. I wonder if women ever think this way. Somehow, I doubt it.
Nevertheless, people always underestimate what they can achieve should they set aside pointless anxieties and, worst of all, laziness in pursuit of ideals. You've admitted to being a pussy, ok, that honesty is essential, but you are already poised on the cusp of metamorphosis.
Maybe you can't be a superhero, but you could be a hero with some work. Think of the rush you'd feel getting out of bed every morning.
Slashdot Mirror
"...rather than just failing to set things up for a couple of minutes and then giving up."
:)
If one is a hobbyist or curious about how computers function, the experience you describe in this phrase might be satisying or even an enjoyable interlude. There are folks out there blessed with time, discipline and a curious disposition. The world is full of people who are not like this. The question is, what role can computers play in their lives?
Indeed, even though I have time, discipline and a curious disposition, I frequently am not in the mood to "mess around" with my boxes-- I want to play a game or write software, not think about my filesystem. That's the whole POINT of computers, to me, being able to manipulate data using motifs and simplifying respresentations. Not everyone is curious 100% of the time and technical details always distract from the task at hand (unless, of course, the details ARE the task).
The power and potential of computers, which you mention, obviously give rise to many applications-- they can function as telephones, televisions, cameras, recipe books, game consoles, etc. etc. I believe that when a computer fulfills the analogs of these functions, the user should not be aware of the computer or even the operating system, just the application. An application should present the user with a motif that is both essential and minimal to its current function.
When a computer first starts, it isn't really doing anything *I* care about, so I shouldn't have to know anything. No tinkering. No setting things up.
Anyway, you asked for opinions-- that's mine.
I take issue with your equating being bullied with a threat to one's existence. They are not the same thing. Harassment is not the same as attempted murder. A direct threat to one's existence is an extreme and unlikely scenario, one that stikes me as grandiose and impractically hypothetical to all but the most unfortunate.
Bullies are bullies because they are confident that any direct, immediate confrontation is likely to be in their favor and that in light of this obvious fact the victim is bound to save everyone the effort and just take it. In my own experience, bullies seldom act alone-- the ones I've known always had one or two hangers-on for backup muscle. Fighting back under what is clearly a deliberate, artificial circumstance controlled by your assailant is stupid. How's that for a counter-argument?
My own advice to anyone facing a bully is to use your brain, because you can rest assured that the bully is using his (or hers). Contrary to the stupid-bully stereotype, I've found bullies to be both motivated and calculating. Instead of physical confrontation, I've found it to be more effective to simply find a way to alter the situation so that the motivation either isn't there or the intention is redirected towards something else. If you think about it for an hour or so, you can usually come up with a list of things to try. This is self-reliance too, and it doesn't necessitate resorting to violence.
You may have to not carry a wallet for a cell phone for a while since you're running the risk of having it stripped off you, or you might have to actually talk (not argue, TALK) to someone you don't understand or like very much. Find ways of altering the situation so that the bully is no longer in control of it and making the prospect of dealing with you in the future distasteful or uninteresting.
It's not as dramatic as being a "man" or "defending my right to exist without help from others". All that just sounds like a infantile platitude from a cheesy Western (or Disney film). NO ONE exists without help from others, especially where real violence and mortal threat are realities (such as in the military). It appeals to our vanity to imagine that we can stand alone, but 99 times out of 100 that's a lie used to excuse bad behavior.
Committing violence always has consequences that reach beyond a specific altercation. How's that for a life lesson for your kids? To say nothing of the spiritual/emotional/psychological harm you risk to yourself in committing a violent act, consider, as you walk away from the prone bully you just beat the crap out of, how easy your address will be to find in a phone book 10 years from now, and how much damage $40 worth of gasoline can do to your life. Because the TRUTH is, we are NEVER alone, for better or worse.
I don't expect to change your mind, just offering an alternative to bad philosophy.
There are other ways to play the game, however. 5-man instance-running isn't so bad. It can be fun and even net you some rewards, though not the uber gear. Good tactics in PvE and PvP can pay off, though sadly much of the game design of WoW puts the game experience "on rails" so that farming becomes, as you say, the paradigm.
It's not a very hard game, but kinda nifty in its way. You can seek the challenge instead of the gear. I do and its pretty fun.
Some responders have posited that the Mormon Church is interested only in making money. If the cure is legit, and I doubt very seriously that it is on any number of levels, then what better publicity for the church itself than to give the cure away? Offer salvation in this life and the next! Rake in the bucks from all the tithing from new members...
Excellent. I had come to the same conclusion.
I don't think this is over the top at all, but rather speaks well to the point. World history is real and there are parts of it which *should* make you uncomforatble. Every deliberate action we take has a moral component to it and considering how much effort and time we spend in the workplace, the impact we have on the world is largely measured by our professional efforts.
I think a software company should say, "We don't provide content hosting to China, because our on-line services support freedom of expression. You can oppress your people, but you'll do it without our complicity. Go write your own software if it's that important to you." Thus the regime feels pain and is motived to change.
To make it personal, if you are an employee of Microsoft and it's your specific job to delete material which the Chinese government finds unacceptable, just don't do it. Quit, if necessary. Thus the company feels pain and is motivated to change.
I'm a 10-year veteran software developer and I am very selective in the work that I pursue. We all have to put food on the table, sure, but acknowledge your options honestly and completely is what I say.
It's just like the DMV, getting a passport, credit reports, 401k rollovers and traffic tickets. You're not special. Figure it out and take responsibility for the consequences of your actions. This is what it means to participate in an egalitarian community and belongs to the real-life world. This aspect of the game is not the "fun" part.
Now, for the real issue at hand: I think you've run into a dichotomy between your desire for an on-line identity and the WoW game concept. You want an ID which represents a general, online persona, WoW wants its participants to immerse themselves in their fantasy narrative. You want to express an externally consistent individualism at the price of breaking the game metaphor.
You can probably appreciate how I may be glad WoW made you change your name, and impatient with your pleading with them to tolerate it. WoW is an escapist construction. I play expecting to get away (at least as much as I can) from Chr1st_LUVZ_U and N8_IZ_GR8. I see some dude running around named Taco, a "Cmdr" no less, and I am suddenly in some stupid chat room all over again.
As a thought experiment, consider going to see a production of Othello. Halfway through some dude runs on the stage shouting "I am SlackArtist!!!" and runs off. I'm not saying that WoW is the same, but it is: a) something I pay for, b) escapist, c) depending for its effect on the suspension of disbelief, and d) an artistic expression.
One possible compromise may be for WoW to have an interface option which hides the names which violate the policy. This way, you can be CmdrTaco, but I don't have to look at you or know you're there. This would mean Bliz implementing another poster's suggestion: a database of violating names. Already, though, this technical solution is kinda creepy and suggests to me that if it's necessary, then maybe WoW isn't the place for you to blow off steam.
1. Get yourself a Kinesis keyboard, just the standard model is fine. Learning to use it will be annoying in the short run. Runs a few hundred bucks retail. A bargain at 10x the price. It saved my career and I swear by it. Microsoft "natural" keyboard is a waste of time and a danger to your health. As is the mouse. Speaking of which...
2. Ditch the mouse. Worst computer invention ever. The static tension in your bent wrist will tear your tendons and nerve sheaths to pieces. Velcro a trackball to the center space of your new Kinesis keyboard and use it ambidexterously to manipulate your pointer when keystrokes won't do.
3. Get an adjustable keyboard tray, one that you can tilt down and away from you (not towards you).
4. Get a clock, or run something on your box with a timer. Work only 50 min. out of every hour. Use that 10 min to walk around, relax your hands, etc.
5. Someone mentioned a Samsung 213T. I love mine.
6. Hardware is only as good as the human using it. Limit the number of contiguous hours you work and try to work in the very early morning hours when it's cool, quiet and no distractions. I've gotten more done from 4:30 to 9am than a whole month of 9-5.
7. Life is short. You're wasting it if you're not having fun, regardless of what you do.
As a lead software developer on a medium-sized suite of products (~100 engineers), I'd say that fixing all bugs on a product is infeasible. Don't get me wrong-- bugs are bad, but "good enough" makes economic sense, "perfect" does not.
Small, personal (~5 engineers), cottage software projects can and probably should aim for as-perfect-as-possible. I run projects like this at home in my spare time and it's rewarding and appeals to my inner perfectionist.
For a large effort, like a next-generation web browser, triage, risk-management and post-release planning are extremely important strategic concerns.
The consequences of Microsoft's bug triage are probably a lot more mundane than you're speculating. The defects will simply be release-noted or cataloged in their support database if they're discovered after the fact.
Less dramatic, I know. Conspiracies are a lot more fun, so I'll throw you a bone: somewhere there's a product manager who giving an engineering mandate which goes like this, "Make something flashy, don't worry about standards so much." Our frustrations arise as a consequence of this directive.
The alternative is a more compliant browser with fewer features and less flash (so to speak) and we are once again in the land of trade-offs and cost/benefit. Life is grim and boring, ain't it?
Nevertheless, people always underestimate what they can achieve should they set aside pointless anxieties and, worst of all, laziness in pursuit of ideals. You've admitted to being a pussy, ok, that honesty is essential, but you are already poised on the cusp of metamorphosis.
Maybe you can't be a superhero, but you could be a hero with some work. Think of the rush you'd feel getting out of bed every morning.