I'm over 30 (just), and can remember almost every phone number i've ever had (>10) going back to when I was about 10 or so. I can also remember lots of other phone numbers that are now completely useless (eg the people who used to use them have moved on, or changed their number to avoid me:).
And all the stupid things I forget on a day to day basis make me wish I could erase some of that old useless information, and archive the rest onto electronic devices to make some clean storage area!
What the study doesn't seem to prove one way or another is if younger people are actually just remembering different information at the expense of phone numbers and important dates, or if they actually have a reduced capacity to actually catalogue and organise information in their brains.
I wonder how long it will be until we have personal devices that we can recite information into, and it catalogues and indexes it so we can just ask it a question (eg what was I doing 3 days ago?). Of course if you have ever been in an argument with a female SO, you'll know that women's brains already perfectly record every ill you've ever done them... maybe it's not such a good idea after all...
It's not really that amazing... I can only assume that Microsoft have figured out that there will be a lot of repercussions of _not_ doing it (class action?), and have crunched the numbers and have figured out this is the best way forward.
The same situation has happened quite a few times previously, and i've often thought to myself that if the company in question had done something like this at the start, rather than waiting for a whole lot of bad press and legal costs, they would have saved themselves a lot of trouble.
I believe there is no God... by your definition the terms atheism and agnostic wouldn't apply to that belief... so what name should be used? I'm not sure that "I believe there is no God" is the same as "I don't believe there is a God" (which would be atheism)... but I'm open to correction...
You know, the Martians living underground on Mars had exactly the same sort of conversation when our probes landed there... "Of course it's not true. It doesn't make sense that any civilization advanced enough to send a spaceship from one planet to another would crash it".
Assuming something extra terrestrial did actually land, it seems much more likely that it would have been an un-manned (un-aliened???) vehicle or something. They're probably still making fun at each other for using conflicting units of measure!
Otherwise (seeing as nobody else has said it yet)... I for one welcome our new egg shaped spaceship flying overlords (even if they can't fly them very well).
I'm not an EE guru, and I know next to nothing about the iPhone, but very standard chips exist for lots of things like 802.11abg, GSM, CDMA, 3G, USB, Bluetooth, LCD/TFT displays, audio, battery charging and monitoring etc. Also, some of these components might be region specific. It makes some sense to keep them separate rather than try and stick everything on the same die, unless you are really pushed for space. Once the thing leaves the factory it may not be repaired, but at the assembly level they may well swap out a bad Bluetooth chip and replace it if required...
It also allows for (eg) 802.11n ability to be added at a later date if a pin compatible 802.11abgn chip comes on the market, or for them to change display vendors (maybe requiring a different driver chip) if they need to.
This is one of the big problems with the application of the idea of the 'Autism Spectrum'. Someone will say to you "I know a guy who has autism, and he seems perfectly normal and is quite successful. Why would you want to cure autism?". What they are probably referring to is aspergers (also known as high functioning autism), and some people on the low end of that do just fine for the most part. But as you have found, a lot of people towards the higher end of the spectrum are desperately unhappy. I guess the whole thing comes down to the level of disability and the happiness of the individual.
I think the world is slowly coming around to the idea of 'better living through chemistry', and the possibility that a brain malfunction is not a lot different (from a biological point of view) to a liver, heart, pancreas, or kidney malfunction. If it is making you miserable you try and fix it. If that involves taking drugs to do so, then so be it.
Of course it all gets a bit more complicated when the condition isn't making you miserable, but is making those around you miserable, in which case the definition of 'malfunction' needs to be carefully considered.
To grossly simplify it, the idea is that ADHD, Aspergers, and Autism are different degrees of the same thing, they all involve different degrees of disability in terms of things like social interaction, and the ability to focus concentration.
The thing about 'syndromes' is that typically they are just a name for a bunch of symptoms which often occur together, and it's useful in some ways to treat it as a single condition even if the cause isn't well (or at all) understood. In this case, the 'Autism Spectrum' is a useful way of classifying cases in terms of the treatment and management that will best benefit the 'sufferer', but like all generalisations, you have to remember that it is a generalisation, or it can be misused.
And remember, this is one of those things that for every researcher who holds one view you'll find another who holds an opposing view...
I imagine that autistic people will start to be able to automate the social functioning (picking up social cues, reading body language, etc) and other stuff that they have to do manually. So it would be a slow road to travel. I think that mice probably don't have anywhere near the social environment that humans do though...
Also think about what will happen when the drug companies realise that this would mean a reduced market for their existing cash cows...
Maybe it's a bit different where you are from, but I have often found that you can get a decent discount if you pay 'cash'. There is no free lunch - the money to pay the interest is coming from somewhere. Either the store is paying it by building it into their sale price, you are paying for it with an 'application fee', or the suckers who don't pay on time are paying it. Often it's a combination of those.
So it's never a black and white decision... ask how much cheaper you can get it if you pay cash now, and compare the saving against what you could usefully do with the money in the meantime. Also compare it against taking out a secured personal loan over the same period (often they have establishment fees high enough to erode any saving).
Or promote them.... why is everyone assuming that Dell didn't know what they were doing when they submitted the take-down notice???
I doubt this would have made it to Slashdot, or at least wouldn't have been nearly as interesting without the news of the take-down notice. This way Dell gets a whole load of people thinking that they now know how to screw Dell on their next purchase. It's even possible that the original blogger was astroturfing on behalf of Dell.
So... where do you draw the line? Which of the following would result in you gunning someone down? Why/Why not?
. While driving, someone pulls out in front of you causing you to have to brake hard . While driving, someone in front of you only turns on their indicator two seconds before the corner instead of the required three seconds . While sitting in a park, an adult drops some rubbish on the ground and walks away, thus spoiling the park for you and everyone else . As above, but a two year old child . As above, but a thirty year old person with downs syndrome (you fail to notice this before shooting them three times in the head) . A neighbor playing music above the legal level at 1am in the morning.
I'm noticing all the "it worked fine for me, i'd highly recommend it" postings. What everyone fails to realise is that everyone who's washed their keyboard and had it ruined is obviously unable to follow up with a "it didn't work for me" post.
Therefore this survey is going to be a bit one sided...
My laptop had an unfortunate incident with a bowl of golden syrup dumplings.
I took the keyboard out, washed it under the tap for a few minutes, sat it on the drainer for half an hour, and it was as good as new!
One of the mouse buttons (on the laptop) was a bit funny for a while, but as the syrup dried out it eventually crumbled away and hasn't been a problem since.
The rule saying that you can't kill other people is applied to you, not to them. Also, most societies also have strict rules about the "right to a fair trial". If you see someone walking away from your house with a television in their arms that looks like yours, and you shoot and kill them, then you have literally become judge, jury, and executioner. There is a (small) chance that the situation was not exactly what it seemed, and that no crime was being committed on their part... so... whoops!
Reading a bit further, and replying to my own post, wikipedia says this about duress in Contract Law (English Contract Law):
Economic duress
Although hard bargaining occurs legitimately in commercial situations, there is a point where it becomes economic duress. Putting aside issues of consideration, this often involves one party threatening to breach an existing contract between the two parties unless the innocent party agrees to enter into another contract. The contract is voidable if the innocent party can prove that it had no other practical choice (as opposed to legal choice) but to agree to the contract.
Which, to my non-lawyer mind, fits pretty well with at least Microsofts EULA's. Microsoft are forcing you to either sign the EULA or return the goods.
I wonder if you could claim duress? You've just traveled all way into the city to purchase your new computer, spent a whole day wandering around comparing what's available, arranged finance and made your purchase, come all the way back home again, unpacked it, realised it won't fit on your existing desk, travelled all the way back into the city, found a desk, loaded it into your car, come home again, assembled the desk, disassembled the desk because you'd assembled half of it back to front, re-assembled it, set up the computer on it, and NOW the computer is saying you have to agree to a whole bunch of crazy terms and conditions before you can use it?
Sure, you can pack it back up and return it if you don't agree, but what about the desk? what about the finance? what about the whole day you've wasted?
Sounds like duress to me.
They should make you sign the EULA _before_ purchasing the goods.
I think the 'out' for the manufacturer in this case is that they include a "if you don't agree to these conditions, please return the product to the place of purchase for a refund" clause. It could be argued that the customer could have refused to accept the EULA at any point, nobody was twisting their arm.
But you are right, if the contract is already complete they shouldn't be able to impose additional terms on you. At least you should be able to charge them a re-packaging fee for having to return the thing to the shop again. (Of course I'm say "shouldn't" from a moral and not a legal point of view). I wonder if things would be different if the store made you sign the EULA before handing over your money...
What I'd love to see is my new HP computer ask me if I agree to the EULA, where clicking on the 'Accept' button installs Windows, while the 'Decline' button installs Debian:)
Many young children have a fear of falling into the toilet. I guess it depends on how long you want to change nappies for... do you still want to be changing nappies when your kids are 3?
I tried this for a bit (it means less airborne aerosol crap when the toilet flushes (pun intended:)), and I don't think my wife had a problem with it but the kids would struggle with raising the seat.
Once you add into the equation a half asleep daughter (~3yo) taking herself to the toilet in the middle of the night, you'll leave the toilet seat down regardless. Girls get very used to the toilet seat being down and can be surprisingly fearful of forgetting to check one day and 'falling in'.
If the toilet seat is the only battle you fight in your relationship, then I don't really think you have a problem. Get over it. I think people are allowed one or two pet peeves.
If it is, as you say, just the tip of the iceberg then I mostly agree with what you are saying, but if you are judging her purely on her preference or insistence that the seat stay down when not in use, then I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself. If it's really a control thing there will be other (and much more unreasonable) examples.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm over 30 (just), and can remember almost every phone number i've ever had (>10) going back to when I was about 10 or so. I can also remember lots of other phone numbers that are now completely useless (eg the people who used to use them have moved on, or changed their number to avoid me :).
And all the stupid things I forget on a day to day basis make me wish I could erase some of that old useless information, and archive the rest onto electronic devices to make some clean storage area!
What the study doesn't seem to prove one way or another is if younger people are actually just remembering different information at the expense of phone numbers and important dates, or if they actually have a reduced capacity to actually catalogue and organise information in their brains.
I wonder how long it will be until we have personal devices that we can recite information into, and it catalogues and indexes it so we can just ask it a question (eg what was I doing 3 days ago?). Of course if you have ever been in an argument with a female SO, you'll know that women's brains already perfectly record every ill you've ever done them... maybe it's not such a good idea after all...
Dammit... you beat me to it.
Of course, the McMammoth would only come in a supersized variety, topped with a poached condor egg.
It's not really that amazing... I can only assume that Microsoft have figured out that there will be a lot of repercussions of _not_ doing it (class action?), and have crunched the numbers and have figured out this is the best way forward.
The same situation has happened quite a few times previously, and i've often thought to myself that if the company in question had done something like this at the start, rather than waiting for a whole lot of bad press and legal costs, they would have saved themselves a lot of trouble.
I believe there is no God... by your definition the terms atheism and agnostic wouldn't apply to that belief... so what name should be used? I'm not sure that "I believe there is no God" is the same as "I don't believe there is a God" (which would be atheism)... but I'm open to correction...
You know, the Martians living underground on Mars had exactly the same sort of conversation when our probes landed there... "Of course it's not true. It doesn't make sense that any civilization advanced enough to send a spaceship from one planet to another would crash it".
Assuming something extra terrestrial did actually land, it seems much more likely that it would have been an un-manned (un-aliened???) vehicle or something. They're probably still making fun at each other for using conflicting units of measure!
Otherwise (seeing as nobody else has said it yet)... I for one welcome our new egg shaped spaceship flying overlords (even if they can't fly them very well).
I'm not an EE guru, and I know next to nothing about the iPhone, but very standard chips exist for lots of things like 802.11abg, GSM, CDMA, 3G, USB, Bluetooth, LCD/TFT displays, audio, battery charging and monitoring etc. Also, some of these components might be region specific. It makes some sense to keep them separate rather than try and stick everything on the same die, unless you are really pushed for space. Once the thing leaves the factory it may not be repaired, but at the assembly level they may well swap out a bad Bluetooth chip and replace it if required...
It also allows for (eg) 802.11n ability to be added at a later date if a pin compatible 802.11abgn chip comes on the market, or for them to change display vendors (maybe requiring a different driver chip) if they need to.
If it's anything like the computer hardware i've purchased recently, the packaging alone will probably fuel it for a year!
This is one of the big problems with the application of the idea of the 'Autism Spectrum'. Someone will say to you "I know a guy who has autism, and he seems perfectly normal and is quite successful. Why would you want to cure autism?". What they are probably referring to is aspergers (also known as high functioning autism), and some people on the low end of that do just fine for the most part. But as you have found, a lot of people towards the higher end of the spectrum are desperately unhappy. I guess the whole thing comes down to the level of disability and the happiness of the individual.
I think the world is slowly coming around to the idea of 'better living through chemistry', and the possibility that a brain malfunction is not a lot different (from a biological point of view) to a liver, heart, pancreas, or kidney malfunction. If it is making you miserable you try and fix it. If that involves taking drugs to do so, then so be it.
Of course it all gets a bit more complicated when the condition isn't making you miserable, but is making those around you miserable, in which case the definition of 'malfunction' needs to be carefully considered.
To grossly simplify it, the idea is that ADHD, Aspergers, and Autism are different degrees of the same thing, they all involve different degrees of disability in terms of things like social interaction, and the ability to focus concentration.
The thing about 'syndromes' is that typically they are just a name for a bunch of symptoms which often occur together, and it's useful in some ways to treat it as a single condition even if the cause isn't well (or at all) understood. In this case, the 'Autism Spectrum' is a useful way of classifying cases in terms of the treatment and management that will best benefit the 'sufferer', but like all generalisations, you have to remember that it is a generalisation, or it can be misused.
And remember, this is one of those things that for every researcher who holds one view you'll find another who holds an opposing view...
I imagine that autistic people will start to be able to automate the social functioning (picking up social cues, reading body language, etc) and other stuff that they have to do manually. So it would be a slow road to travel. I think that mice probably don't have anywhere near the social environment that humans do though...
Also think about what will happen when the drug companies realise that this would mean a reduced market for their existing cash cows...
That one, and '667 - mark of the pentium' (or 666.666667 etc) were my favourites.
Maybe it's a bit different where you are from, but I have often found that you can get a decent discount if you pay 'cash'. There is no free lunch - the money to pay the interest is coming from somewhere. Either the store is paying it by building it into their sale price, you are paying for it with an 'application fee', or the suckers who don't pay on time are paying it. Often it's a combination of those.
So it's never a black and white decision... ask how much cheaper you can get it if you pay cash now, and compare the saving against what you could usefully do with the money in the meantime. Also compare it against taking out a secured personal loan over the same period (often they have establishment fees high enough to erode any saving).
Or promote them.... why is everyone assuming that Dell didn't know what they were doing when they submitted the take-down notice???
I doubt this would have made it to Slashdot, or at least wouldn't have been nearly as interesting without the news of the take-down notice. This way Dell gets a whole load of people thinking that they now know how to screw Dell on their next purchase. It's even possible that the original blogger was astroturfing on behalf of Dell.
So... where do you draw the line? Which of the following would result in you gunning someone down? Why/Why not?
. While driving, someone pulls out in front of you causing you to have to brake hard
. While driving, someone in front of you only turns on their indicator two seconds before the corner instead of the required three seconds
. While sitting in a park, an adult drops some rubbish on the ground and walks away, thus spoiling the park for you and everyone else
. As above, but a two year old child
. As above, but a thirty year old person with downs syndrome (you fail to notice this before shooting them three times in the head)
. A neighbor playing music above the legal level at 1am in the morning.
My point is that there are laws against you taking the law into your own hands, and that those laws are there for a reason.
I'm noticing all the "it worked fine for me, i'd highly recommend it" postings. What everyone fails to realise is that everyone who's washed their keyboard and had it ruined is obviously unable to follow up with a "it didn't work for me" post.
Therefore this survey is going to be a bit one sided...
My laptop had an unfortunate incident with a bowl of golden syrup dumplings.
I took the keyboard out, washed it under the tap for a few minutes, sat it on the drainer for half an hour, and it was as good as new!
One of the mouse buttons (on the laptop) was a bit funny for a while, but as the syrup dried out it eventually crumbled away and hasn't been a problem since.
Message intercepted. Cover blown. Please return to base for debriefing.
I'll bite.
The rule saying that you can't kill other people is applied to you, not to them. Also, most societies also have strict rules about the "right to a fair trial". If you see someone walking away from your house with a television in their arms that looks like yours, and you shoot and kill them, then you have literally become judge, jury, and executioner. There is a (small) chance that the situation was not exactly what it seemed, and that no crime was being committed on their part... so... whoops!
Which, to my non-lawyer mind, fits pretty well with at least Microsofts EULA's. Microsoft are forcing you to either sign the EULA or return the goods.
I wonder if you could claim duress? You've just traveled all way into the city to purchase your new computer, spent a whole day wandering around comparing what's available, arranged finance and made your purchase, come all the way back home again, unpacked it, realised it won't fit on your existing desk, travelled all the way back into the city, found a desk, loaded it into your car, come home again, assembled the desk, disassembled the desk because you'd assembled half of it back to front, re-assembled it, set up the computer on it, and NOW the computer is saying you have to agree to a whole bunch of crazy terms and conditions before you can use it?
Sure, you can pack it back up and return it if you don't agree, but what about the desk? what about the finance? what about the whole day you've wasted?
Sounds like duress to me.
They should make you sign the EULA _before_ purchasing the goods.
I think the 'out' for the manufacturer in this case is that they include a "if you don't agree to these conditions, please return the product to the place of purchase for a refund" clause. It could be argued that the customer could have refused to accept the EULA at any point, nobody was twisting their arm.
:)
But you are right, if the contract is already complete they shouldn't be able to impose additional terms on you. At least you should be able to charge them a re-packaging fee for having to return the thing to the shop again. (Of course I'm say "shouldn't" from a moral and not a legal point of view). I wonder if things would be different if the store made you sign the EULA before handing over your money...
What I'd love to see is my new HP computer ask me if I agree to the EULA, where clicking on the 'Accept' button installs Windows, while the 'Decline' button installs Debian
Many young children have a fear of falling into the toilet. I guess it depends on how long you want to change nappies for... do you still want to be changing nappies when your kids are 3?
I tried this for a bit (it means less airborne aerosol crap when the toilet flushes (pun intended :)), and I don't think my wife had a problem with it but the kids would struggle with raising the seat.
My next house will have a urinal.
Once you add into the equation a half asleep daughter (~3yo) taking herself to the toilet in the middle of the night, you'll leave the toilet seat down regardless. Girls get very used to the toilet seat being down and can be surprisingly fearful of forgetting to check one day and 'falling in'.
If the toilet seat is the only battle you fight in your relationship, then I don't really think you have a problem. Get over it. I think people are allowed one or two pet peeves.
If it is, as you say, just the tip of the iceberg then I mostly agree with what you are saying, but if you are judging her purely on her preference or insistence that the seat stay down when not in use, then I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself. If it's really a control thing there will be other (and much more unreasonable) examples.