Looking forward to the industry that springs up when someone finds out that in the games, you can farm for other players' personal information along with weapons and magic-items.
"It sounds like you want to defend Wal-Mart with a hypothetical scenario that doesn't really happen."
There's no need to "defend" Wal-Mart. They're doing nothing wrong with they provide better service and prices than certain poorly-run businesses. They aren't to blame when these other businesses run themselves into the ground. However, I was thinking of the situations where many a downtown has dried up and blown away long before Wal-Mart was in the area. Or Target, or Best Buy. As for "mom-and-pop shops don't usually go out of business when there's no competition", well hey, of course you are the BEST option possible when you are the ONLY option.
They help the economy, and don't put anyone out of business. Other businesses, however, might choose to run themselves into the ground with bad customer service and high rip-off prices.
"That Wal-Mart's PR guy is nimed "Simley". I look at that and immediately think Smiley, and picture them interviewing that big flying smiley face. Gives me a chuckle.
Since he's in PR, I immediately thought of the other close anagram, "Slimey".
"it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a bouncer, but a traffic cop, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of cars to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out."
Since it is Godwin who came up with this, the traffic cop is dressed in a smart black SS uniform. And you don't want to be the one he sends away.
"How about watching one (good) movie, playing one (good) game, reading one (good) book all over again? After forgetting the plot and characters you'll get the same experience as reading/watching/playing for the first time."
Specifically, imagine the biggest get-a-life fan of the Bill Murray film "Groundhog Day" who re-sets his brain after watching it every day so he can watch it anew the next day.
"We might have to wait for Book Camp for that one..
Dilbert: "Why has Wally been barking, chewing the managers, and peeing on the flowcharts all day?"
Dogbert: "He rebooted his brain with Cujo using that new 'Book Camp' software."
This also brings us closer to the day when we can re-program our brains to a desired previous state. This is something you might want to do after (for example) learning Esperanto or how to speak very fluent Klingon, when you start to think that Jon Katz news items make perfect sense, having gone to see "Gigli" or "Star Trek 10", having seen the Goatse image one too many times (once is too much!) or getting infected with an embarassing Olivia Newton-John earworm: things you'd really not have in your wetware. Perhaps Symantec should roll out a new version of Norton Ghost. One that uses real ghosts, this time.
"Minnesota will FINE you if you're a minor and purchase a M/AO rated game. These are the type of people you see in the movie Footloose, just with a more modern cause."
You are both right. He's the visionary that started it. However, under his management it went downhill toward the end: a terrible unusable browser that crashed all the time and was garbaged up with useless non-browser features like email client, news, and other. The friendly browser turned into a beastly bowser even before AOL took it over. It the efforts of the Mozilla team to salvage the idea.
"Darth Vader gave lots of surplus Imperial cheese to orphans"
Mmmmm. surplus imperial cheese. mmmm... That must be the reason Homer turned to the dark side. But seriously, this kind of thing is done all the time. The fascist dictator of Venezuela has given free heating fuel to a few Americans. His apologists never hesitate to point this out: "Who cares if he blames Jews for all the evil of the last 2000 years and wants Iran to have nuclear bombs and have them soon? He gave poor people GAS!"
"Netscape was a great business (and had a great browser) when it was sold to AOL for $4.2 billion in 1999. Most of the issues with the browser started after that."
I'd already ditched it by then. The problem was that it was getting worse at a much faster rate than MSIE was at getting better. All those nasty script errors that caused pop-ups (because Netscape had no idea how to handle them). And then there was the browser being junked up by useless extras (news reader, email program, etc) that you had to plow through and do extra things in order to just browse.
"The patent application explains: "For example, the user, Clark Kent, may give a classic jazz music file a rating of '7' and include the user comment 'like cool man'. Also, instead of using his true identity ('Clark Kent'), Clark uses an alias, 'Superman.'" Clark may also choose to supply his email address."
Clark's not going to be too happy if Sony gets its way and attaches the p2p equivalent of kryptonite to each file.
"I think it only starts a new "conversation" when someone changes the subject. But that's pretty much an indication that the topic has changed, IMO. So I have no problem with that, either."
That reminds me of a related problem: gmail makes it a little harder to change the subject. That might be another example of it trying to enforce its morality (never mind the problem of subjects being less accurate). I often change mine in the middle of "conversations" so they accurately describe the message being sent.
"So, instead of 10-15+ different links dispersed throughout, there's just the one, with all of the previous discussions conveniently attached to it."
Or more than one. Sometimes one thing you might consider to be a "conversation" might be in one clump, or in 4, or in 20+ clumps. I'd rather organize the emails my way, rather than have Gmail scramble them all over inbox hell. For one thing, it is not very good at grouping them by subject. For another, I'd like to choose to group them myself, the way I want.
"Google revolutionized email, IMO. I rarely used email before because it was too easy to lose something when everything was scattered all over the place"
I rarely use Gmail because, compared to other services, it is easier to lose something in Gmail as it "tries" to organize them according to its criteria and ends up jumbling them into clumps scattered all over the place so you can't find anything without using "search mail". The great spam filter and the high storage limit are great, however.
"The old way of vieing e-mail might be comfortable, it's what you know, it's the standard way, but there's no way it's more useful."
It all depends on preference. I find the standard way to be much more useful. The gmail way is not objectively superior. It is just an option you and many others like, just like others like the other way.
"If you don't like it, that's OK, there's people on this earth who don't like french fries or chocolate and that's fine too! But I am certain that if you did have to constantly peruse through old e-mails for info, you'd come to realize that gmail figured out a much much more useful, logical, way of organizing e-mail."
Your first half is contradicted by your second half. It is like you are saying that some people don't like french fries.....but if they constantly had to eat them they would learn to LOVE french fries. Actually, I do constantly peruse old emails for info, and find it easier to do this outside of Gmail. The statement that Gmail's way is much much more useful, logical is an assertion of your preference, not an objective evaluation.
Slashdot Mirror
Looking forward to the industry that springs up when someone finds out that in the games, you can farm for other players' personal information along with weapons and magic-items.
I figure it to be a biological dongle
"It sounds like you want to defend Wal-Mart with a hypothetical scenario that doesn't really happen."
There's no need to "defend" Wal-Mart. They're doing nothing wrong with they provide better service and prices than certain poorly-run businesses. They aren't to blame when these other businesses run themselves into the ground. However, I was thinking of the situations where many a downtown has dried up and blown away long before Wal-Mart was in the area. Or Target, or Best Buy. As for "mom-and-pop shops don't usually go out of business when there's no competition", well hey, of course you are the BEST option possible when you are the ONLY option.
In general usage, MP3 is unencumbered.
They help the economy, and don't put anyone out of business. Other businesses, however, might choose to run themselves into the ground with bad customer service and high rip-off prices.
"That Wal-Mart's PR guy is nimed "Simley". I look at that and immediately think Smiley, and picture them interviewing that big flying smiley face. Gives me a chuckle.
Since he's in PR, I immediately thought of the other close anagram, "Slimey".
"it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a bouncer, but a traffic cop, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of cars to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out."
Since it is Godwin who came up with this, the traffic cop is dressed in a smart black SS uniform. And you don't want to be the one he sends away.
"How about watching one (good) movie, playing one (good) game, reading one (good) book all over again? After forgetting the plot and characters you'll get the same experience as reading/watching/playing for the first time."
Specifically, imagine the biggest get-a-life fan of the Bill Murray film "Groundhog Day" who re-sets his brain after watching it every day so he can watch it anew the next day.
"We might have to wait for Book Camp for that one..
Dilbert: "Why has Wally been barking, chewing the managers, and peeing on the flowcharts all day?"
Dogbert: "He rebooted his brain with Cujo using that new 'Book Camp' software."
This also brings us closer to the day when we can re-program our brains to a desired previous state. This is something you might want to do after (for example) learning Esperanto or how to speak very fluent Klingon, when you start to think that Jon Katz news items make perfect sense, having gone to see "Gigli" or "Star Trek 10", having seen the Goatse image one too many times (once is too much!) or getting infected with an embarassing Olivia Newton-John earworm: things you'd really not have in your wetware. Perhaps Symantec should roll out a new version of Norton Ghost. One that uses real ghosts, this time.
"the thalamus is used by your brain to essentially boot your brain"
Which now raises hope for those of us who want dual-boot flexibility.
"I really couldn't care less what Wal-Mart does or does not sell. I refuse to shop there for anything anyway."
I try to get as much stuff as I can there. Games are a big exception, however.
"The mom and pop shops were driven out a long time ago"
Who do you blame when the mom-and-pop shops are gone and there is no Wal-Mart anywhere near?
"Minnesota will FINE you if you're a minor and purchase a M/AO rated game. These are the type of people you see in the movie Footloose, just with a more modern cause."
Except they speak in slow, folksy and sonorous tones, and have a head like a rumpled bag of flour.
You are both right. He's the visionary that started it. However, under his management it went downhill toward the end: a terrible unusable browser that crashed all the time and was garbaged up with useless non-browser features like email client, news, and other. The friendly browser turned into a beastly bowser even before AOL took it over. It the efforts of the Mozilla team to salvage the idea.
"Test the efficacy of the 'morning after' pill by creating unwanted pregnancies"
Hey, there has to be something out there that security penetration testers can moonlight in, right?
"Darth Vader gave lots of surplus Imperial cheese to orphans"
Mmmmm. surplus imperial cheese. mmmm... That must be the reason Homer turned to the dark side. But seriously, this kind of thing is done all the time. The fascist dictator of Venezuela has given free heating fuel to a few Americans. His apologists never hesitate to point this out: "Who cares if he blames Jews for all the evil of the last 2000 years and wants Iran to have nuclear bombs and have them soon? He gave poor people GAS!"
"Netscape was a great business (and had a great browser) when it was sold to AOL for $4.2 billion in 1999. Most of the issues with the browser started after that."
I'd already ditched it by then. The problem was that it was getting worse at a much faster rate than MSIE was at getting better. All those nasty script errors that caused pop-ups (because Netscape had no idea how to handle them). And then there was the browser being junked up by useless extras (news reader, email program, etc) that you had to plow through and do extra things in order to just browse.
"The patent application explains: "For example, the user, Clark Kent, may give a classic jazz music file a rating of '7' and include the user comment 'like cool man'. Also, instead of using his true identity ('Clark Kent'), Clark uses an alias, 'Superman.'" Clark may also choose to supply his email address."
Clark's not going to be too happy if Sony gets its way and attaches the p2p equivalent of kryptonite to each file.
Look up your favorite picture of Garfield. Then look up your favorite picture of Bill the Cat.
The comment/review sections would quickly fill up with spams attached to the typically long-gone junk IP/etc addresses typically used by spammers.
"I think it only starts a new "conversation" when someone changes the subject. But that's pretty much an indication that the topic has changed, IMO. So I have no problem with that, either."
That reminds me of a related problem: gmail makes it a little harder to change the subject. That might be another example of it trying to enforce its morality (never mind the problem of subjects being less accurate). I often change mine in the middle of "conversations" so they accurately describe the message being sent.
Or more than one. Sometimes one thing you might consider to be a "conversation" might be in one clump, or in 4, or in 20+ clumps. I'd rather organize the emails my way, rather than have Gmail scramble them all over inbox hell. For one thing, it is not very good at grouping them by subject. For another, I'd like to choose to group them myself, the way I want.
"Google revolutionized email, IMO. I rarely used email before because it was too easy to lose something when everything was scattered all over the place"
I rarely use Gmail because, compared to other services, it is easier to lose something in Gmail as it "tries" to organize them according to its criteria and ends up jumbling them into clumps scattered all over the place so you can't find anything without using "search mail". The great spam filter and the high storage limit are great, however.
"The old way of vieing e-mail might be comfortable, it's what you know, it's the standard way, but there's no way it's more useful."
It all depends on preference. I find the standard way to be much more useful. The gmail way is not objectively superior. It is just an option you and many others like, just like others like the other way.
"If you don't like it, that's OK, there's people on this earth who don't like french fries or chocolate and that's fine too! But I am certain that if you did have to constantly peruse through old e-mails for info, you'd come to realize that gmail figured out a much much more useful, logical, way of organizing e-mail."
Your first half is contradicted by your second half. It is like you are saying that some people don't like french fries.....but if they constantly had to eat them they would learn to LOVE french fries. Actually, I do constantly peruse old emails for info, and find it easier to do this outside of Gmail. The statement that Gmail's way is much much more useful, logical is an assertion of your preference, not an objective evaluation.