Would life be worse if they weren't around? Most likely, yes.
Are they doing everything in their power to make everyone's life the best possible? I highly doubt it. It is a business, and they are there to make money, not make your life better. Sorry to burst your bubble.
I think this is one of the cases where the government needs to step in and do some research on their own. But pharmas pay big, huge, gobs of money to political figures.... which makes that unlikely.
I don't have any facts to back it up, but I don't think we (as a race) needed any help creating the "class warfare" that exists today. As a race, it seems that a majority of the cycles in our brains are concerned with two things: what I have that somebody else doesn't (and how to keep it that way) and what I need that somebody else has (and how to take it). If you need an example, simply watch any playground for a few minutes.
Don't forget that government isn't some malevolent alien entity; it's run by humans and reflects how we function in soceity, whether it be a small one or a big one.
As a side (and slightly off-topic) note, I wonder how much of this is hardwired into our brains, and how much is programmed into us by our culture.
Well, I guess "reasonable people" is a hard term to nail down. Sure, if you asked an educated person like Aristotle, they would probably tell your the Earth was round. Ask a uneducated person the same question, and they would likely have said it was flat. While Aristotle reasoned it out with math, the uneducated person could be said to have reasoned it out with his or her senses. One is wrong, but in my opinion, both used reasoning in their answer.
Yes, you got my main point mostly right. I was just saying that you need knowledge to use reason... the problem is, it is difficult (if not impossible) to know if your knowledge is correct or not.
Reasoning, common sense, and (back then) faith all told us the earth was flat.
Reasoning requires knowledge of the subject. Pointing out the speaker's possible motives should only be used to prompt listeners to look between the lines, and do their own research instead of relying on what the speaker is saying... even if what the the speaker is saying might sound reasonable.
The difference is that you can actually try out e18 now. Sure it's buggy, and last I compiled it a few months ago, leaks memory like crazy, but it does work, and it does look good. E will likely be my choice over Novell's desktop in the future, but I'm reserving judgement until they are both past version 1.
But I also wouldn't be surprised if overclocking eats into the sales AMD's higher-margin models.
I don't really think it eats into it that much. The people that can afford the $1,000 FX chips either have money to burn and could care less about overclocking, or they are the type of person that seriously cares about getting that last 2 frames per second in their favorite FPS game... which means they will happily overclock it so they can get 3 instead of 2. The kind of person that thinks in terms of "best bang for the buck" won't be buying a FX chip either way, they'll buy the $200 cpu that is only 10% slower.
In Photoshop, for instance, all those keys actually are shortcuts right now, but since most people - even someone like my ex-girlfriend who is a photographer and has spent years in school and work using Photoshop - don't know a fraction of the shortcuts available, they bring the mouse and wander away in the menus.
I don't see how this will help. Have you ever watched somebody new to computing do the "hunt and peck" when they're looking for the 'J' key? Just think, if they can't even see the 'J' key, which is ALWAYS in the same place, what are they going to do when their keys are all glowing shortcut icons that may change from app to app? Either they push the mouse through menus looking for the right command in photoshop, or their eyes glaze over looking for the right button on their keyboard.
It *might* save time for people like your ex, who may be a power user, but just never took the time to learn the shortcuts... but I doubt it would be worth the price this keyboard is going to cost.
I think you're giving the public too much credit here. Shit, I can't even be sure what *I* would do. If I want high-speed internet, I can choose between Comcast or SBC- both of which make me uneasy. Sure, the small little local dial-up ISPs in my small town would likely be safe... but dial-up? I seriously don't know if I could stand that.
And that's just me... somebody who routinely saturates my 7MB cable connection. My parents? Clueless. Teenieboppers that just want to sign onto MSN and type in all smiley faces? More than clueless. They may notice their music downloads lagging, but who will they blame: their ISP or iTunes?
To me, this seems like the very thing regulation was meant to prevent- companies flinging poo at each other with consumers caught in between. Taking the 'superhighway' analogy, I liken this to Ford buying long streches of highway and charging GM cars extra to drive down them... or forcing them to stay in the slow lane... or banning them from using the road at all.
But now even Palm devices, like Treos, usually disregard the pen. I think it's not so much the lack of writing recognition (which is more than adequate, though it does have problems), as the lack of any unique pen advantages to compensate for having to use a separate pen rather than an integrated keyboard.
Actually, I would say it has more to do with one-handed operation than anything. Devices with side buttons and scroll wheels can be used one handed, where if you need to do everything with a pen, you need two hands. When you're on the go and need to look up a number in your contacts list, this can be quite a boon. Likewise, an intergrated keyboard is just faster than a soft-keyboard on the screen.
Both methods have their uses, I just wouldn't say one is always better than the other.
I started playing WoW when it first came out... and I would like to think I helped out Blizzard a lot by reporting numerous bugs and being as helpful as I could to the GMs that were trying to figure out what the cause was.
One such case, after reporting the bug and doing a few tests with the GM that were very annoying (deleting of WoW config files that forced me to redo my settings afterwards) the GM said "by the way, do you know your name violates our naming policy?" I knew I was in for it then, but I didn't know how bad.
The GM changed the name on my PC, from "TheCraiggers" to "Corona" or something like it. Also went through and changed the names of my other characters. He was quite rude in telling me to log out after his change. He told me all my friends and giuldmates would automagically convert to my new name... this was not the case... all my friends had to re-add me. He also said he would send an email with instructions on how to change my new name... this email never came.
A week went by, and I sent a letter of complaint to customer support asking where the email was. I was very tired of my new stupid name. I never got a reply.
A few more days went by, and I sent a letter of complaint to the customer support-support... the department that deals with complaints pertaining to GMs and Blizzard support explaining what happened and that I've been very disappointed in the service, and threatened to leave if I didn't get some resolution. Never got a reply to that, either.
So, I left the game, and sold my copy of WoW to somebody else (this was back when you couldn't find it in stores). I told them on the 'crying peon' page why I left and how cruddy their support was. I don't think I'll ever play WoW again.
I'm actually kinda happy Taco is posting this on a large public forum. I don't have enough clout to force blizzard to change their ways, but maybe he does.
Agreed. It gets rather annoying to ask a question in IRC or some other forum only to be met with a resounding "Google it!"
Perhaps I *did* google it, but didn't find anything helpful. Or, in a case like this, perhaps I'm looking for a more homemade solution than one of those cruddy fan-mats they sell at BestBuy. (Both the eraser and the glue-pad were novel ideas, and I might try one of those with my very-hot laptop.)
Perhaps I would just like some interactive help, just in case something pops up unexpectedly while doing a make.
Either way, I know that most geeks have a rather low tolerance for stupid questions... but can't we try to be just a little bit more social, especially when dealing with our own kind?
Slashdot Mirror
Would life be worse if they weren't around? Most likely, yes.
Are they doing everything in their power to make everyone's life the best possible? I highly doubt it. It is a business, and they are there to make money, not make your life better. Sorry to burst your bubble.
I think this is one of the cases where the government needs to step in and do some research on their own. But pharmas pay big, huge, gobs of money to political figures.... which makes that unlikely.
I don't have any facts to back it up, but I don't think we (as a race) needed any help creating the "class warfare" that exists today. As a race, it seems that a majority of the cycles in our brains are concerned with two things: what I have that somebody else doesn't (and how to keep it that way) and what I need that somebody else has (and how to take it). If you need an example, simply watch any playground for a few minutes.
Don't forget that government isn't some malevolent alien entity; it's run by humans and reflects how we function in soceity, whether it be a small one or a big one.
As a side (and slightly off-topic) note, I wonder how much of this is hardwired into our brains, and how much is programmed into us by our culture.
Well, I guess "reasonable people" is a hard term to nail down. Sure, if you asked an educated person like Aristotle, they would probably tell your the Earth was round. Ask a uneducated person the same question, and they would likely have said it was flat. While Aristotle reasoned it out with math, the uneducated person could be said to have reasoned it out with his or her senses. One is wrong, but in my opinion, both used reasoning in their answer.
Yes, you got my main point mostly right. I was just saying that you need knowledge to use reason... the problem is, it is difficult (if not impossible) to know if your knowledge is correct or not.
Reasoning, common sense, and (back then) faith all told us the earth was flat.
Reasoning requires knowledge of the subject. Pointing out the speaker's possible motives should only be used to prompt listeners to look between the lines, and do their own research instead of relying on what the speaker is saying... even if what the the speaker is saying might sound reasonable.
The difference is that you can actually try out e18 now. Sure it's buggy, and last I compiled it a few months ago, leaks memory like crazy, but it does work, and it does look good. E will likely be my choice over Novell's desktop in the future, but I'm reserving judgement until they are both past version 1.
But I also wouldn't be surprised if overclocking eats into the sales AMD's higher-margin models.
I don't really think it eats into it that much. The people that can afford the $1,000 FX chips either have money to burn and could care less about overclocking, or they are the type of person that seriously cares about getting that last 2 frames per second in their favorite FPS game... which means they will happily overclock it so they can get 3 instead of 2. The kind of person that thinks in terms of "best bang for the buck" won't be buying a FX chip either way, they'll buy the $200 cpu that is only 10% slower.
In Photoshop, for instance, all those keys actually are shortcuts right now, but since most people - even someone like my ex-girlfriend who is a photographer and has spent years in school and work using Photoshop - don't know a fraction of the shortcuts available, they bring the mouse and wander away in the menus.
I don't see how this will help. Have you ever watched somebody new to computing do the "hunt and peck" when they're looking for the 'J' key? Just think, if they can't even see the 'J' key, which is ALWAYS in the same place, what are they going to do when their keys are all glowing shortcut icons that may change from app to app? Either they push the mouse through menus looking for the right command in photoshop, or their eyes glaze over looking for the right button on their keyboard.
It *might* save time for people like your ex, who may be a power user, but just never took the time to learn the shortcuts... but I doubt it would be worth the price this keyboard is going to cost.
We've observed very powerful magnets for years they have never ever slipped into alternate dimensions...
;-)
How do you know?
Argh! I always forget about needing to insert the HTML page breaks manually here. Sorry about the huge blob of text.
I think you're giving the public too much credit here. Shit, I can't even be sure what *I* would do. If I want high-speed internet, I can choose between Comcast or SBC- both of which make me uneasy. Sure, the small little local dial-up ISPs in my small town would likely be safe... but dial-up? I seriously don't know if I could stand that. And that's just me... somebody who routinely saturates my 7MB cable connection. My parents? Clueless. Teenieboppers that just want to sign onto MSN and type in all smiley faces? More than clueless. They may notice their music downloads lagging, but who will they blame: their ISP or iTunes? To me, this seems like the very thing regulation was meant to prevent- companies flinging poo at each other with consumers caught in between. Taking the 'superhighway' analogy, I liken this to Ford buying long streches of highway and charging GM cars extra to drive down them... or forcing them to stay in the slow lane... or banning them from using the road at all.
But now even Palm devices, like Treos, usually disregard the pen. I think it's not so much the lack of writing recognition (which is more than adequate, though it does have problems), as the lack of any unique pen advantages to compensate for having to use a separate pen rather than an integrated keyboard.
Actually, I would say it has more to do with one-handed operation than anything. Devices with side buttons and scroll wheels can be used one handed, where if you need to do everything with a pen, you need two hands. When you're on the go and need to look up a number in your contacts list, this can be quite a boon. Likewise, an intergrated keyboard is just faster than a soft-keyboard on the screen.
Both methods have their uses, I just wouldn't say one is always better than the other.
I started playing WoW when it first came out... and I would like to think I helped out Blizzard a lot by reporting numerous bugs and being as helpful as I could to the GMs that were trying to figure out what the cause was.
One such case, after reporting the bug and doing a few tests with the GM that were very annoying (deleting of WoW config files that forced me to redo my settings afterwards) the GM said "by the way, do you know your name violates our naming policy?" I knew I was in for it then, but I didn't know how bad.
The GM changed the name on my PC, from "TheCraiggers" to "Corona" or something like it. Also went through and changed the names of my other characters. He was quite rude in telling me to log out after his change. He told me all my friends and giuldmates would automagically convert to my new name... this was not the case... all my friends had to re-add me. He also said he would send an email with instructions on how to change my new name... this email never came.
A week went by, and I sent a letter of complaint to customer support asking where the email was. I was very tired of my new stupid name. I never got a reply.
A few more days went by, and I sent a letter of complaint to the customer support-support... the department that deals with complaints pertaining to GMs and Blizzard support explaining what happened and that I've been very disappointed in the service, and threatened to leave if I didn't get some resolution. Never got a reply to that, either.
So, I left the game, and sold my copy of WoW to somebody else (this was back when you couldn't find it in stores). I told them on the 'crying peon' page why I left and how cruddy their support was. I don't think I'll ever play WoW again.
I'm actually kinda happy Taco is posting this on a large public forum. I don't have enough clout to force blizzard to change their ways, but maybe he does.
Agreed. It gets rather annoying to ask a question in IRC or some other forum only to be met with a resounding "Google it!"
Perhaps I *did* google it, but didn't find anything helpful. Or, in a case like this, perhaps I'm looking for a more homemade solution than one of those cruddy fan-mats they sell at BestBuy. (Both the eraser and the glue-pad were novel ideas, and I might try one of those with my very-hot laptop.)
Perhaps I would just like some interactive help, just in case something pops up unexpectedly while doing a make.
Either way, I know that most geeks have a rather low tolerance for stupid questions... but can't we try to be just a little bit more social, especially when dealing with our own kind?
That's because most of the people on Slashdot are in the same category as the 9 grandchildren.