I agree with you--just a couple points I'd like to make:
1. The cost. I grew up on consoles, simply because a decent gaming PC was a lot more expensive and we didn't have as much money to spare. Plus, they can't keep up with the top-of-the-line level games for long, so you have to upgrade, costing more money... The consoles are a bit pricier these days and computers are more ubiquitous, so NOW the situation is a bit different, but even now that I have a good PC that I can run games on, I still find myself on the consoles more often. I'm just more used to that interface, I suppose. (I do enjoy both, though.)
2. The last bit you mentioned, local multiplayer. That's a big one! Especially on things like Xbox Live, where you can even take a few friends online with you, hook up with some others, and play as a party against another team. THAT is loads of fun. I guess this point depends on if you play more games alone or with friends.
PC gaming is great, but don't discount consoles entirely!
All I know is what I've seen, I won't even mention the bloody thing until he does, and at this point I've even purposefully tried to trick him but he can always tell. The only thing worse than a "nutjob" believing a "crazy" story is someone who is so closed-minded from the other side that they refuse to admit the possibility they may be wrong.
So one nutjob discredits loads of other folks? Sorry, I believe my good friend over this guy, plus I've seen him call it correctly 100% of the time as to whether I've got my wireless on. It's a game at this point, I've tried to trick him but he's spot on every time. I imagine some folks in Venice may experience the same thing, and I can see many being unhappy about this. Pity since it's quite useful for many others.
Before anybody calls BS, I was skeptical of RF sensitivity too, but I've looked into it and it seems to be real for some folks. Plus, I can hide my wireless router somewhere where you can't see the lights, and my friend can tell me whether it's on or not just from being in the house for a few minutes. It's actually kind of cool, except for the part where he gets a headache after about an hour if I don't turn it off. Weird.
We can't really win, though. The current administration is doing the same thing, cutting off freedoms, just doing it in a different way.
Republicans, Democrats, it doesn't matter, they're all out to fuck us in the ass (just not to make a video of it) and control everyone, with the end result of fueling their own greed.
"If it makes you feel better than who is to say you don't need them?"
A lot of things make a person feel better temporarily, but are not good for the person.
Thanks for the advice:P but this *entire thread* was full of folks doing that to some degree. If you don't think meds are overprescribed and that far more people are taking them than should be, you are insane. (Oops, did that last bit count as another "diagnosis"?)
This sounds a lot like me, actually. I do not think I am manic depressive, though if I am it's a very mild case. I have amazing highs and then horrible lows where I can hardly stop thinking of suicide in great detail. However, I wouldn't give it up for *anything*. Most of my favourite art, and ALL the works (poems, pencil drawings, and paintings) I ever sold were created during the low state. I think most great artists had this "problem", as you hear about the crazy things they did, or the alcohol problems they had, and etc. It's like one of those super powers that comes with its own downside or consequence.
In other words, it's called "bullshit" or the lesser-known name, "a good way for us to make money selling our drugs to people who don't need them, with no concern for their long-term well-being".
... but if you were on an airplane and the pilot died, and a teenager volunteered to fly the plane with thousands of hours of Playstation time under his belt, would you take it seriously?
I realise I'm picking out the least important bit of the comment to reply to, but... Yeah, I would, at least a little more so than someone with even less 'experience'.
The home atmosphere has changed too, though. With both parents working, or often only one parent raising a kid in the first place, or possibly being shipped back and forth from Mom's to Dad's while each has their own respective new partner, etc etc... Kids need a stable environment with rules that don't change and a loving, but when necessary, firm hand to guide them. More kids than ever are growing up without this, and they are left troubled, unsure of the rules and/or the consequences of breaking them, and with a low sense of self-worth or the worth of others. That, more than any video game, is going to explain the increase in school-age violence. The bad news is, these kids are still growing up, so pretty soon they will be troubled adults only slightly less likely to lash out. But of course, suggesting that the traditional family model is best is soooo outdated and sexist, right?
Definitely. Imagine the look on my Scottish boyfriend's face when I (an American from SC) told him that when I was younger, parents weren't afraid to spank their children... my mom always said she'd "wear my fanny out for doing that". Hahaha...
Moderation is key in everything. I am at a great weight... I have no idea what it is, as I do not use scales. But I eat well, generally lightly and varied, and I get a decent amount of physical activity. I look good and I feel well. I'm not rail-thin or bursting with rolls anywhere, and I don't do extremism in ANY area of my life. America is very much an extremist culture, it's all about the fad diet or the guy weighing 700 lbs... it boils down to an addiction to sensationalism, I think. Not sure, but I know that "everything in moderation" and "not worrying about things that don't really matter" keep me a lot more satisfied with life than most Americans--and I'm far from materially wealthy, before you ask, money =/= satisfaction.
This is the kind of thing that frustrates me on a regular basis. I am always asked to try and explain things to people who just do not have the capacity to "get it".
I'm not a programmer, but I do end up playing Unix admin for a particular customer of mine. I'm good at it because I understand how the system works as a whole, I understand what commands do and how to use them to perform the tasks I want to perform. I am surrounded by people who assure me that the documentation (shoddy at best, sporadic and dangerous at worse) is enough and they can "help" by following those directions. One guy who has been here for around five years still did not know what it meant when he typed 'su - user'; he just did it because it was in the documentation. Five years and he never once wondered what the hell he was doing when he typed things into the pretty command line. ("What's a command line?" "THE MONOCHROME SCREEN THINGER THERE WITH THE BLINKY CURSOR AND... OH YE GODS JUST FORGET IT")
The fact that the root password is out there in the documentation scares the living shit out of me, since guess who will get to fix it when they do something awful?
Sorry for the rant, I guess it was a bit off-topic, but it was supporting your point... because I am one of the few people in this office who doesn't have a degree in anything computer-related (yet) and I'm almost entirely self-taught.
I wanted to make one comment... two people can lose their sense of smell even in the same way and experience it differently. Unfortunately I really don't have time (I'm at work, been interrupted several times just while typing this) to go find sources now, but I have read fascinating studies on the other parts of the brain that receive signals from the olfactory nerves. Most of us think of the olfactory bulb, which is what mostly processes the smells that we perceive. But there is a lot more going on in the background. Pheromones, for example, are not detected, but go right to another part of the brain that controls sexual response. Another part of the brain that triggers memories associated with certain smells is also involved, and etc.
There are also differences in the way the male and female brains are wired and what parts of the brain receives signals from the different sensory nerves. I would be interested to know the gender of each person who has given an account of their hyponosmia or anosmia, as well as if it was from birth or if the sense was lost later in life. It's quite possible that these factors are influencing each person's individual experience more than we realise.
I have an unusually strong sense of smell, and am very close to someone who is anosmic. This has always been a subject of fascination for me for some reason, so I am really enjoying hearing the responses on this topic.
Not to make light of your scenario at all--I am very close to someone with anosmia--but I can't help but think of how this could be used as a weight loss tool. No seriously, bear with me... how many people say they just can't stop eating foods they love? Granted, I'm very much in favour of the "grow a pair, have some self-control" school of thought, but let's face it--if someone found and marketed a product that temporarily, completely turned off their sense of smell/taste... it might not be ethical but they'd make a hell of a lot of money.
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I agree with you--just a couple points I'd like to make:
1. The cost. I grew up on consoles, simply because a decent gaming PC was a lot more expensive and we didn't have as much money to spare. Plus, they can't keep up with the top-of-the-line level games for long, so you have to upgrade, costing more money... The consoles are a bit pricier these days and computers are more ubiquitous, so NOW the situation is a bit different, but even now that I have a good PC that I can run games on, I still find myself on the consoles more often. I'm just more used to that interface, I suppose. (I do enjoy both, though.)
2. The last bit you mentioned, local multiplayer. That's a big one! Especially on things like Xbox Live, where you can even take a few friends online with you, hook up with some others, and play as a party against another team. THAT is loads of fun. I guess this point depends on if you play more games alone or with friends.
PC gaming is great, but don't discount consoles entirely!
Aha, finally someone else who gets this concept. I have tried (and failed, so far) to explain this to a few people.
All I know is what I've seen, I won't even mention the bloody thing until he does, and at this point I've even purposefully tried to trick him but he can always tell. The only thing worse than a "nutjob" believing a "crazy" story is someone who is so closed-minded from the other side that they refuse to admit the possibility they may be wrong.
So one nutjob discredits loads of other folks? Sorry, I believe my good friend over this guy, plus I've seen him call it correctly 100% of the time as to whether I've got my wireless on. It's a game at this point, I've tried to trick him but he's spot on every time. I imagine some folks in Venice may experience the same thing, and I can see many being unhappy about this. Pity since it's quite useful for many others.
Personally, I think it's pretty neat... But I know a few people with electrosensitivity that have problems if they are around an emitted signal like that for any length of time. Driving past Internet cafés or coming by my house for a few minutes is no big deal, but if it were there 24/7, some people may not even be able to live there.
I guess there should be some compromise--yes, people want there to be Internet everywhere, not just designated hot-spots, but there's this other side of the coin too.
Before anybody calls BS, I was skeptical of RF sensitivity too, but I've looked into it and it seems to be real for some folks. Plus, I can hide my wireless router somewhere where you can't see the lights, and my friend can tell me whether it's on or not just from being in the house for a few minutes. It's actually kind of cool, except for the part where he gets a headache after about an hour if I don't turn it off. Weird.
Only on Slashdot would you specifiy that it was an OO spreadsheet, not to be confused with evil Excel owned by evil Microsoft ;)
I love it!
I know! This story is a real Thriller.
We can't really win, though. The current administration is doing the same thing, cutting off freedoms, just doing it in a different way.
Republicans, Democrats, it doesn't matter, they're all out to fuck us in the ass (just not to make a video of it) and control everyone, with the end result of fueling their own greed.
"If it makes you feel better than who is to say you don't need them?"
A lot of things make a person feel better temporarily, but are not good for the person.
Thanks for the advice :P but this *entire thread* was full of folks doing that to some degree.
If you don't think meds are overprescribed and that far more people are taking them than should be, you are insane. (Oops, did that last bit count as another "diagnosis"?)
Thank you, thank you.
This sounds a lot like me, actually. I do not think I am manic depressive, though if I am it's a very mild case. I have amazing highs and then horrible lows where I can hardly stop thinking of suicide in great detail. However, I wouldn't give it up for *anything*. Most of my favourite art, and ALL the works (poems, pencil drawings, and paintings) I ever sold were created during the low state. I think most great artists had this "problem", as you hear about the crazy things they did, or the alcohol problems they had, and etc. It's like one of those super powers that comes with its own downside or consequence.
In other words, it's called "bullshit" or the lesser-known name, "a good way for us to make money selling our drugs to people who don't need them, with no concern for their long-term well-being".
Exactly. This is an example of living to work, not working to live... it's miserable, it doesn't make for a life worth living at all.
... but if you were on an airplane and the pilot died, and a teenager volunteered to fly the plane with thousands of hours of Playstation time under his belt, would you take it seriously?
I realise I'm picking out the least important bit of the comment to reply to, but... Yeah, I would, at least a little more so than someone with even less 'experience'.
The home atmosphere has changed too, though. With both parents working, or often only one parent raising a kid in the first place, or possibly being shipped back and forth from Mom's to Dad's while each has their own respective new partner, etc etc...
Kids need a stable environment with rules that don't change and a loving, but when necessary, firm hand to guide them. More kids than ever are growing up without this, and they are left troubled, unsure of the rules and/or the consequences of breaking them, and with a low sense of self-worth or the worth of others. That, more than any video game, is going to explain the increase in school-age violence. The bad news is, these kids are still growing up, so pretty soon they will be troubled adults only slightly less likely to lash out.
But of course, suggesting that the traditional family model is best is soooo outdated and sexist, right?
Definitely. Imagine the look on my Scottish boyfriend's face when I (an American from SC) told him that when I was younger, parents weren't afraid to spank their children... my mom always said she'd "wear my fanny out for doing that". Hahaha...
You're all just making asses of yourselves...
But he lives longer than Kenny, who weighs far less than him. Therefore, the article is proven true. QED.
Mod. Parent. Up.
Moderation is key in everything. I am at a great weight... I have no idea what it is, as I do not use scales. But I eat well, generally lightly and varied, and I get a decent amount of physical activity. I look good and I feel well. I'm not rail-thin or bursting with rolls anywhere, and I don't do extremism in ANY area of my life. America is very much an extremist culture, it's all about the fad diet or the guy weighing 700 lbs... it boils down to an addiction to sensationalism, I think. Not sure, but I know that "everything in moderation" and "not worrying about things that don't really matter" keep me a lot more satisfied with life than most Americans--and I'm far from materially wealthy, before you ask, money =/= satisfaction.
This is the kind of thing that frustrates me on a regular basis. I am always asked to try and explain things to people who just do not have the capacity to "get it".
I'm not a programmer, but I do end up playing Unix admin for a particular customer of mine. I'm good at it because I understand how the system works as a whole, I understand what commands do and how to use them to perform the tasks I want to perform.
I am surrounded by people who assure me that the documentation (shoddy at best, sporadic and dangerous at worse) is enough and they can "help" by following those directions.
One guy who has been here for around five years still did not know what it meant when he typed 'su - user'; he just did it because it was in the documentation. Five years and he never once wondered what the hell he was doing when he typed things into the pretty command line. ("What's a command line?" "THE MONOCHROME SCREEN THINGER THERE WITH THE BLINKY CURSOR AND... OH YE GODS JUST FORGET IT")
The fact that the root password is out there in the documentation scares the living shit out of me, since guess who will get to fix it when they do something awful?
Sorry for the rant, I guess it was a bit off-topic, but it was supporting your point... because I am one of the few people in this office who doesn't have a degree in anything computer-related (yet) and I'm almost entirely self-taught.
But only if it will go from naught to 60 in less than 5 seconds.
I wanted to make one comment... two people can lose their sense of smell even in the same way and experience it differently. Unfortunately I really don't have time (I'm at work, been interrupted several times just while typing this) to go find sources now, but I have read fascinating studies on the other parts of the brain that receive signals from the olfactory nerves. Most of us think of the olfactory bulb, which is what mostly processes the smells that we perceive. But there is a lot more going on in the background. Pheromones, for example, are not detected, but go right to another part of the brain that controls sexual response. Another part of the brain that triggers memories associated with certain smells is also involved, and etc.
There are also differences in the way the male and female brains are wired and what parts of the brain receives signals from the different sensory nerves. I would be interested to know the gender of each person who has given an account of their hyponosmia or anosmia, as well as if it was from birth or if the sense was lost later in life. It's quite possible that these factors are influencing each person's individual experience more than we realise.
I have an unusually strong sense of smell, and am very close to someone who is anosmic. This has always been a subject of fascination for me for some reason, so I am really enjoying hearing the responses on this topic.
Oh, so *this* is why we're always told that drinking water is the healthiest thing you can do for your body...
Not to make light of your scenario at all--I am very close to someone with anosmia--but I can't help but think of how this could be used as a weight loss tool. No seriously, bear with me... how many people say they just can't stop eating foods they love? Granted, I'm very much in favour of the "grow a pair, have some self-control" school of thought, but let's face it--if someone found and marketed a product that temporarily, completely turned off their sense of smell/taste... it might not be ethical but they'd make a hell of a lot of money.