Mac users are nice, polite. A bit dorky. They're the 'nice guys' who drive hybrids, have white guilt, and occasionally think a typeface is too agressive. Take these two sentences: I want to build a list of unique, elegant, can't-do-without apps, so all us new Boot-Camp babies can finally experience some of the great innovation happening over on the Windows platform. I roughed in a quick blogpage to collect the info, and to house any useful discussions.
My god, it's so sweet I'm almost gagging on my vegan soy latte.
A Windows user on the other hand, would say:
"gimme some warez. i need a proggie that'll hack an adult check id, so i can get pr0n. lolz"
(And, we won't even mention the Linux user, who starts off every explanation with: "Well, all you have to do is simply learn to program in C, then write twenty thousand lines of it")
Oh, I went out and bought Bitch's Brew (twice) and the White Album (thrice). If you make stuff worth money people will. ..buy it! Because it's worth it. But the above made me perfectly happy with Yummy, Yummy, Yummy the three times I actually listened to it. If you produce throw away fluff people will "steal" it at very low quality, listen to it a few times, and then throw it away, rather than throw away perfectly good money for the shit.
I agree 100% with this sentiment. That's why I still buy LPs (they even have them for new releases, everyone), because I like the feeling of getting something that not only is a tangible media, but offers qualities which surpass digital recordings. I don't see why more record companies don't realize that people with nice stereos don't want to 'steal' CDs, but only do it because the albums that are actually worth paying for and listening to are out of print.
Now, I actually design loudspeakers, and I'm not sure how they could pull this off. Do they want to put the DAC, the amp, and all the requisite power supplies into the speaker cabinet? At its most basic nature, a speaker element is just a piece of paper (or something similar), a coil, and a magnet. Are they planning on using some kind of macrovision-esque noise between the DAC and the amp? Even if they did, I could *still* take the speaker cabinet apart and rewire the speaker outputs from the amp, and record it that way. It'd be a pain in the ass, but I've still got a tape deck, and plenty of free time.
If you want to call it psychological because it's all internal interaction, fine, but that basically makes the distinction meaningless.
The distinction isn't meaningless, though. Look at it this way-- suppose that eating lollipops makes a person feel happy or calm, a positive reaction. If they stop eating them, they may feel sad or anxious. Their sadness and anxiety are not caused by a difficiency of a chemical delivered via their lollipops, but caused instead by a behavioral reaction to the removal of stimulus. They don't *need* the lollipops to feel happy, but they've convinced themselves they do based on prior behaviors. In short, it's all in their heads. By contrast, a herion addict, when removed from his or her drug, will suffer physical changes within their body chemistry, which manifest as a variety of actual symptoms, which can be objectively observed via blood tests, brain scans, and other medical technology.
Yes, people can become psychologically dependant on certain behaviors. That's why eating a good meal makes people happy. My point is that behavioral addiction is an entirely different animal than chemical addiction. I posit that one cannot be 'addicted' (in the current sense of the word) to a substance that their own body produces, but they can become psychologically dependant upon certain behaviors. Would you say that an obsessive-compulsive is "addicted" to semmetry, or that everyone on earth is "addicted" to happiness?
Y'know, with spokesmen like this, perhaps Extreme Terrifying Protestantism might end up going the way of of the Shakers. They didn't believe in sex before it was even cool not to! Now there are only four or five old ladies left.
Not to mention, have you ever noticed that people who say things like this are usually people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?
Bzzzt. Incorrect. Self mutiliation also releases endocrines, but it is defined as a psychological addiction, because the endocrine systems are part of human psychology. It could be argued that obsessive masturbation is a psychological addiction, but to call it a physical addiction reeks of Right-wing "Erototoxin" FUD. Heroin, and synthetic opioids cause physical addiction, due to their replacing existing endocrines within the body. You go off horse, you can't dull pain on your own for a long time, simple as that. You go off porn, you just have naughty dreams instead. The only withdrawl symptoms are psychological.
Bottom line-- if you feel you're addicted to heroin, you'll need to be weaned off gradually, under the supervision of a medical doctor. If you're 'addicted' to porn, you have a psychological problem, and probably need therapy.
I've got a MythTV box myself, built from odds and ends that I had laying around. What are we MythTV users going to do for digital TV, though? I admit that I've not done much research, but I keep hearing scary things about encrypted signals, broadcast flags, and other Orweillian bullshit. I'm still using just plain old analog cable-- what kind of upgrades will be in my future when the big switch happens?
I hope you enjoy your new lifestyle of never moving more than 100 miles from the place you were born, extracting your water from a well, and hoping the pony express can deliver your next slashdot postings.
...I could just buy a used ping pong table at a garage sale, and play the real thing. Of course, my video game callouses might not be compatible with the controllers....
What I don't understand is why each generation seems to be so afraid of what the younger generation is into. All we're seeing is the same arguments that were made about rock and roll in the fifties, or violent films in the late 70s and early 80s.
Self preservation. When you're in a nursing home, waiting out the "golden years," do you really want your primary caregiver being somebody who plays those damn decapitation games/listens to that damn hippie music/watches that damn punk James Dean?;-)
Think of Super Mario jumped on mushrooms and they turned into happy angels instead of dead pancakes? Or in Unreal Tournament you fire paintballs, or tickle people at close range? Or in Mortal Kombat you have a tickle fight, and instead of ripping out a heart, you read the woozy opponent a bedside story. I think it would sell just as well. A game doesn't have to be violent, it can be funny and still be as fun.
At the risk of inciting the wrath of the bible belt, I think this idea might actually be counter intuitive. Even in a game, I don't think it's a good idea to portray death as a positive, because that really *could* influence dumb kids.
"Look ma, I used daddy's revolver to turn Mikey into an angel!"
I'm going to argue that playing violent video games decreases the chances of becoming infected with diptheria, then. I've never had it, but a bunch of people in countries with no electricity or public health have, so it *must* be the video games which have protected me all these years.
I'm an atheist. There is no God. To wit, allow me to illustrate reason:
If all life on earth was created by a diety, (s)he did a shitty job. 99.9 per cent of everything that has ever lived is now dead.
If humans are "made in the image of their creator" what does a diety need of an appendix, or adnoids, or reproductive organs, for that matter?
Finally, if you are skeptical of evolution, and unwilling to commit yourself to an alternative, what is the basis for your skepticism? "It seems too complicated" is seldom an acceptible reason for doubt of science, because, really, it's *all* complicated. To me, microprocessor design seems too complicated for me to understand, but I don't doubt that it is done.
I think Evolution is just too unbelievable. It is right up their with the Toothfairy and the Easter Bunny.
Okay, so you don't believe in the easter bunny or the tooth fairy, but you believe that there's an invisible man who lives in the clouds and watches everything you do every day of your life, so that he can either punish or reward you for all eternity?
Hate to pick nits, but all those commands you referenced are actually 32-bit executables as of Win2k. Though it has doslike capabilities, the NT cmd.exe console is just a DOS emulator, not actually DOS.
Actually, the Japanese electrical code is superior to the American one. Even though they haven't adopted three-prong outlets, they do indeed ground their outlets. For large 120V appliances, such as air conditioners, you can remove the cover plate of the outlet and wire a seperate ground to a screw connection inside the back box. Further, and surpassing American standards, the Japanese require all in-wall wiring to be UF type electrical cable. Which is really only sensible, given their humid climate. However, the superior insulation of the UF cable would prevent many of the most common types of electrical fires in American homes, which have no such requirement (in my state, at least).
"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade
unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I
didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to
speak up."
--Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945
Already, they are training bees (in minutes) to sense out things that takes months of training for dogs. This type of bio-sensor systems will hopefully make such work even easier to achieve. I can see that one day, a search and rescue helicopter can drop a truck load of independent water robots that seek out and locate humans in the middle of the ocean, saving lives by finding them faster than current methods, and bio-sensors may be the ticket to such advances.
Oh, great, just what I need. A pack of ravenous killer bees attacking my groin because I happened to spill bong water on my pants before going through the bio-sensing sniffer bee line at an airport....
Mod parent down. The vast, vast majority of Windows XP users are clueless. None of these things suggested come naturally to them. I can't fathom what would happen if I asked my mother to keep a CD of security patches handy, enable the software firewall, don't connect the cable until she's protected, etc... She can install the OS if need be, but that's about it.
I understand what you're saying, and I do agree. The vast majority of XP users do not know proper security procedure to keep from fucking things up. Much the same way that the vast majority of automobile owners don't know the proper procedures to keep their vehicals running correctly.
However, unlike computers, when a car owner encounters even a basic problem ("I need new oil/tires/shocks/headlamps") they don't just half-ass it themselves, they take their expensive machine to a qualified mechanic.
Just because your mother can install the OS doesn't mean that she knows how to do it correctly, any more than a novice would know how to change their own oil in their car.
It's long been obvious that there are two different types of computer users. Those who "just want it to work" and those who "want to know *how* it works." To continue my car analogy, those who just want it to work should open their wallets and hire a good mechanic. Those who want to know *how* it works will be willing to spend the time and effort to get it right.
If you don't want to know how it works, then you probably shouldn't be doing your own upkeep, modifications, and tinkering, regardless if the machine is a car, a computer, or an other technologically complex machine.
The real solution -- Microsoft should be sending free updates to all registered XP owners with updated CD's that contain pre-patched installations.
Now *that* is a good idea.
Slashdot Mirror
I remember those. They must've really worked, because I know that almost no one in America does drugs nowadays.... ;-)
Mac users are nice, polite. A bit dorky. They're the 'nice guys' who drive hybrids, have white guilt, and occasionally think a typeface is too agressive. Take these two sentences:
I want to build a list of unique, elegant, can't-do-without apps, so all us new Boot-Camp babies can finally experience some of the great innovation happening over on the Windows platform. I roughed in a quick blogpage to collect the info, and to house any useful discussions.
My god, it's so sweet I'm almost gagging on my vegan soy latte.
A Windows user on the other hand, would say:
"gimme some warez. i need a proggie that'll hack an adult check id, so i can get pr0n. lolz"
(And, we won't even mention the Linux user, who starts off every explanation with: "Well, all you have to do is simply learn to program in C, then write twenty thousand lines of it")
Oh, I went out and bought Bitch's Brew (twice) and the White Album (thrice). If you make stuff worth money people will. . .buy it! Because it's worth it. But the above made me perfectly happy with Yummy, Yummy, Yummy the three times I actually listened to it. If you produce throw away fluff people will "steal" it at very low quality, listen to it a few times, and then throw it away, rather than throw away perfectly good money for the shit.
I agree 100% with this sentiment. That's why I still buy LPs (they even have them for new releases, everyone), because I like the feeling of getting something that not only is a tangible media, but offers qualities which surpass digital recordings. I don't see why more record companies don't realize that people with nice stereos don't want to 'steal' CDs, but only do it because the albums that are actually worth paying for and listening to are out of print.
Now, I actually design loudspeakers, and I'm not sure how they could pull this off. Do they want to put the DAC, the amp, and all the requisite power supplies into the speaker cabinet? At its most basic nature, a speaker element is just a piece of paper (or something similar), a coil, and a magnet. Are they planning on using some kind of macrovision-esque noise between the DAC and the amp? Even if they did, I could *still* take the speaker cabinet apart and rewire the speaker outputs from the amp, and record it that way. It'd be a pain in the ass, but I've still got a tape deck, and plenty of free time.
If you want to call it psychological because it's all internal interaction, fine, but that basically makes the distinction meaningless.
The distinction isn't meaningless, though. Look at it this way-- suppose that eating lollipops makes a person feel happy or calm, a positive reaction. If they stop eating them, they may feel sad or anxious. Their sadness and anxiety are not caused by a difficiency of a chemical delivered via their lollipops, but caused instead by a behavioral reaction to the removal of stimulus. They don't *need* the lollipops to feel happy, but they've convinced themselves they do based on prior behaviors. In short, it's all in their heads. By contrast, a herion addict, when removed from his or her drug, will suffer physical changes within their body chemistry, which manifest as a variety of actual symptoms, which can be objectively observed via blood tests, brain scans, and other medical technology.
Yes, people can become psychologically dependant on certain behaviors. That's why eating a good meal makes people happy. My point is that behavioral addiction is an entirely different animal than chemical addiction. I posit that one cannot be 'addicted' (in the current sense of the word) to a substance that their own body produces, but they can become psychologically dependant upon certain behaviors. Would you say that an obsessive-compulsive is "addicted" to semmetry, or that everyone on earth is "addicted" to happiness?
Y'know, with spokesmen like this, perhaps Extreme Terrifying Protestantism might end up going the way of of the Shakers. They didn't believe in sex before it was even cool not to! Now there are only four or five old ladies left.
;-)
Not to mention, have you ever noticed that people who say things like this are usually people you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?
Thank you, I'll be here all week.
Bzzzt. Incorrect. Self mutiliation also releases endocrines, but it is defined as a psychological addiction, because the endocrine systems are part of human psychology. It could be argued that obsessive masturbation is a psychological addiction, but to call it a physical addiction reeks of Right-wing "Erototoxin" FUD. Heroin, and synthetic opioids cause physical addiction, due to their replacing existing endocrines within the body. You go off horse, you can't dull pain on your own for a long time, simple as that. You go off porn, you just have naughty dreams instead. The only withdrawl symptoms are psychological.
Bottom line-- if you feel you're addicted to heroin, you'll need to be weaned off gradually, under the supervision of a medical doctor. If you're 'addicted' to porn, you have a psychological problem, and probably need therapy.
If there wasn't a kernel of truth to it, people wouldn't repeat these ideas so much.
I did read TFA, and I presume you're correct. [old guy rant] Now, when I was a kid, BASIC, PASCAL, and COBOL were considered educational. Heh, heh.
Reader Rabbit says, "Syntax Error! Undeclared integer varible!" [/ogr]
Hey, I *like* fluxbox! It *really* screams on even my dated AthlonXP 2000+ machine. ;-)
Which countries? I've been thinking about fleeing.
I've got a MythTV box myself, built from odds and ends that I had laying around. What are we MythTV users going to do for digital TV, though? I admit that I've not done much research, but I keep hearing scary things about encrypted signals, broadcast flags, and other Orweillian bullshit. I'm still using just plain old analog cable-- what kind of upgrades will be in my future when the big switch happens?
I hope you enjoy your new lifestyle of never moving more than 100 miles from the place you were born, extracting your water from a well, and hoping the pony express can deliver your next slashdot postings.
...I could just buy a used ping pong table at a garage sale, and play the real thing. Of course, my video game callouses might not be compatible with the controllers....
What I don't understand is why each generation seems to be so afraid of what the younger generation is into. All we're seeing is the same arguments that were made about rock and roll in the fifties, or violent films in the late 70s and early 80s.
;-)
Self preservation. When you're in a nursing home, waiting out the "golden years," do you really want your primary caregiver being somebody who plays those damn decapitation games/listens to that damn hippie music/watches that damn punk James Dean?
Think of Super Mario jumped on mushrooms and they turned into happy angels instead of dead pancakes? Or in Unreal Tournament you fire paintballs, or tickle people at close range? Or in Mortal Kombat you have a tickle fight, and instead of ripping out a heart, you read the woozy opponent a bedside story. I think it would sell just as well. A game doesn't have to be violent, it can be funny and still be as fun.
At the risk of inciting the wrath of the bible belt, I think this idea might actually be counter intuitive. Even in a game, I don't think it's a good idea to portray death as a positive, because that really *could* influence dumb kids.
"Look ma, I used daddy's revolver to turn Mikey into an angel!"
Or somesuch.
Holography and smellovision are leading America's children down a moral sewer!
I'm going to argue that playing violent video games decreases the chances of becoming infected with diptheria, then. I've never had it, but a bunch of people in countries with no electricity or public health have, so it *must* be the video games which have protected me all these years.
Finally, if you are skeptical of evolution, and unwilling to commit yourself to an alternative, what is the basis for your skepticism? "It seems too complicated" is seldom an acceptible reason for doubt of science, because, really, it's *all* complicated. To me, microprocessor design seems too complicated for me to understand, but I don't doubt that it is done.
I think Evolution is just too unbelievable. It is right up their with the Toothfairy and the Easter Bunny.
..........
Okay, so you don't believe in the easter bunny or the tooth fairy, but you believe that there's an invisible man who lives in the clouds and watches everything you do every day of your life, so that he can either punish or reward you for all eternity?
Hate to pick nits, but all those commands you referenced are actually 32-bit executables as of Win2k. Though it has doslike capabilities, the NT cmd.exe console is just a DOS emulator, not actually DOS.
Actually, the Japanese electrical code is superior to the American one. Even though they haven't adopted three-prong outlets, they do indeed ground their outlets. For large 120V appliances, such as air conditioners, you can remove the cover plate of the outlet and wire a seperate ground to a screw connection inside the back box. Further, and surpassing American standards, the Japanese require all in-wall wiring to be UF type electrical cable. Which is really only sensible, given their humid climate. However, the superior insulation of the UF cable would prevent many of the most common types of electrical fires in American homes, which have no such requirement (in my state, at least).
"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." --Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945
Already, they are training bees (in minutes) to sense out things that takes months of training for dogs. This type of bio-sensor systems will hopefully make such work even easier to achieve. I can see that one day, a search and rescue helicopter can drop a truck load of independent water robots that seek out and locate humans in the middle of the ocean, saving lives by finding them faster than current methods, and bio-sensors may be the ticket to such advances.
Oh, great, just what I need. A pack of ravenous killer bees attacking my groin because I happened to spill bong water on my pants before going through the bio-sensing sniffer bee line at an airport....
Mod parent down. The vast, vast majority of Windows XP users are clueless. None of these things suggested come naturally to them. I can't fathom what would happen if I asked my mother to keep a CD of security patches handy, enable the software firewall, don't connect the cable until she's protected, etc... She can install the OS if need be, but that's about it. I understand what you're saying, and I do agree. The vast majority of XP users do not know proper security procedure to keep from fucking things up. Much the same way that the vast majority of automobile owners don't know the proper procedures to keep their vehicals running correctly.
However, unlike computers, when a car owner encounters even a basic problem ("I need new oil/tires/shocks/headlamps") they don't just half-ass it themselves, they take their expensive machine to a qualified mechanic.
Just because your mother can install the OS doesn't mean that she knows how to do it correctly, any more than a novice would know how to change their own oil in their car.
It's long been obvious that there are two different types of computer users. Those who "just want it to work" and those who "want to know *how* it works." To continue my car analogy, those who just want it to work should open their wallets and hire a good mechanic. Those who want to know *how* it works will be willing to spend the time and effort to get it right.
If you don't want to know how it works, then you probably shouldn't be doing your own upkeep, modifications, and tinkering, regardless if the machine is a car, a computer, or an other technologically complex machine. The real solution -- Microsoft should be sending free updates to all registered XP owners with updated CD's that contain pre-patched installations. Now *that* is a good idea.