Very interesting. Any guesses as to what could be the cause? I'm typically not around any loud sounds when it happens. Also, I should probably mention that hearing loss runs on my father's side of the family; though everyone I know of was diagnosed around puberty. My mother ensured that I had my hearing tested regularly as a child, and no problems ever showed up. Perhaps it's time for another checkup?
I'm fairly lucky, my tinnitus consists of an occasional (once a month?) ringing sound in the right ear that fades away after about ten seconds. Completely silent rooms do still sound odd, since I hear a white noise of sorts.
I too can detect that annoying buzz from televisions at about twenty feet away and am constantly turning them off at the office (people just leave them on at a completly black screen). My co-workers think I'm odd since they can't hear the noise.
I picked up a pair of that exact model of headphone several months ago and I absolutely love them. They seem to reduce ambient noise as much as the hearing protectors that I occassionally wear at work (28 decibels) and seem to deliver better bass. I use them for all of my portable systems, but do still use the old-style earmuff design at my desk since they are more comfortable for extended wear.
While I disagree with some of your points, I do agree with you that it was ridiculous for Microsoft to have been labelled an abusive monopolist due to the bundling of Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer. The fact that those pieces of software are installed by default on a person's Windows system does not preclude them from running similar software from a competitor. For example, I'm writing this from an XP system while using Mozilla.
That being said, I do believe that Microsoft abused their position in the market by using proprietary, binary file formats to exclude competitors.
The problem is that "national security" no longer means what most people assume it does, namely the security of the American people. Instead, I think it's more appropriate to think of "national security" as meaning the ability of the Executive branch to do whatever the hell it wants, unencumbered by the Constitution, the Congress or the Judiciary.
Bush has asked several Congressman to explain to their constituencies how they would be better protected by not renewing the Patriot Act. If you look back on history, I think you'll find that the United States Government has caused more harm to its citizens by denying them essential liberties than have been harmed by any terrorist groups.
If Bush is going to argue that it's okay to violate the Constitution and deny people their liberty so long as it means they are "safer", then I'd like to remind everyone that a cage can be pretty damn safe.
I don't think it's a 48% difference here. I think such extreme differences can't be explained by an X or Y chromosome - it's symptomatic of an overall negative CS attitude towards women as a whole that needs to be fixed anyway.
Perhaps women are avoiding degrees in computer science because of the associated stereotypes (long working hours, no social life, pasty skin)? Maybe they'd rather spend time with their family and/or children versus slaving away at a keyboard all day and night?
I can't remember the source at the moment, but I recall reading an article a few weeks ago that discussed how there were still proportionally few women in the upper echelons of business when compared to the number of women graduating with advanced business degrees. The cause? Good 'ol boys clubs? Nope. Glass ceilings? Wrong. Oppressive working environments? Nuh uh. It's very simple really, women were staying at home to raise their children.
Until staying at home to raise children is as valid and accepted a choice for men as it is for women, I wouldn't expect to see too many women in professions that require long working hours away from the home.
That said, programming for 7+ years has definately taken its toll on my arms/wrists/hands. Carpal tunnel or other RSIs, proper typing is a must.
I've been typing for about 25 years and I have not noticed any ill effects with regards to my arms, wrists or hands. I do use trackballs instead of mice, so maybe that makes a large difference? I also played piano when I was younger, and that did help with proper finger positioning on the keyboard.
I do experience serious problems when playing portable game systems as I find them too narrow for my adult hands. Thirty minutes of game time on the Gameboy Advance SP and my right hand is numb. GTA Liberty City stories on the PSP (which requires you to use that stupid little analog nub) also really hurts my hands and wrists.
If you're concerned about load times on the PS2, then I'd highly suggest that you buy one of those disc copier programs that let you rip games to the internal hard drive. Not only are load times nearly eliminated, but you can just turn your system on and have access to a hundred plus games. The only downside is that it can take an hour or so to rip a large DVD game. For the record, no I don't pirate games, I have a very large collection of video games that were amassed over the past twenty years.
Only the government can bring and prosecute a criminal case. And they aren't interested in damages, which is good, since they can't get any. Instead, they can get fines and jail time for the defendant.
Unless the defendant is a corporation. I was shocked that Napster was allowed to operate for so long considering they were blatently infringing copyrights (it was their entire raison d'etre). On the other hand, individuals can be shutdown based on a mere accusation of infringement.
I've learned a couple of things about non-technical leadership of technical areas in my post-college years:
The organization does not view money like you view money. In many cases, $1,000 and $10,000 might as well be the same number as far as the organization is concerned. For example, when you're working on projects that are in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, the absolute dollar amounts start to matter less.
Non-technical managers will always choose the perceived safe choice instead of the most technologically appropriate choice. Why? Because they don't have the technical ability to make an informed decision, but they know that if it doesn't work and they have to tell the COO or CEO that it doesn't work, they're better off blaming a big name company.
I've learned to cope with these realities by giving appropriate technical advice as needed, not behaving like it's the end of the World if the boss makes a different decision, and insisting on control of the areas that I'm responsible for. The boss might not go for a build-it-yourself AMD64 running FreeBSD for the new webservers instead of the Sun V240 the consultant recommended, but he will cancel that pointless maintenance contract with the hardware reseller since you're the admin.
Young kids as well, although they learn new skills easier so this isn't as much of a barrier. (yes, lack of motor skills plays a role but there isn't too much a kid that age can do on a computer except play the newest edition of Blue's Clues).
You were a bit vague about what you mean by young kids, but I feel obligated to point out that (some) kids aged four or five can use computers to a greater degree than many adults can imagine.
For example, my school district was fortunate enough to have a special program for gifted children from first through fifth grade. This program was held each Monday at the town's junior high school, which also happened to be fortunate enough to have a computer lab which was provided by Apple Computer. At the age of five, I was initially typing simple (four or five line) programs into an Apple ][ and seeing them run and playing with Logo; eventually I was modifying these programs and beginning to read through some programming manuals that were developed by the school's faculty. At about the same time, my father brought home a TRS-80 (Color Computer) and I began playing with that: initially just the games on ROM cartridges, then my Dad got a monthly subscription to CoCo magazine which included a cassette tape with all of the programs on it and I started playing those and learning how to operate the tape drive. A few years later, I was writing my own text adventure games and messing around with early floppy drives and OS-9.
With proper support and age appropriate learning materials, even very young children can learn to operate and program sophisticated devices. It's really all about fostering a love of learning and discovery at a young age.
Nowadays it seems that everyone *needs* a computer at their desk, and they seem to have no problem misusing company resources. I don't mean things like checking email while on the clock, but rather installing their favorite IM program, or perhaps a fancy calendar doodad or toolbar (laced with an unhealthy dose of spyware, of course).
I think you're missing the psychological aspect of the desktop computer. Employees just want to decorate it and make it more personal like they do with the walls of their cubicle or office, their desk, etc.
For example an employee would find a screen saver on his favourite football team and install it; his friends would see it, copy it and it would work its way around the office, complete with whatever spyware/virus it was hiding. This was a regular occurrence.
I understand that this can be a huge problem, but I've never been a fan of the "lock everything down and have people sign a contract" policy. What's wrong with allowing employees to use their machines as they would like, but then coming down hard when they install something that screws it up and forces the help desk to get involved? I'm assuming it's just easier for management to deal with the problem by having people sign a contract instead of having to deal with employees one on one.
I know it's not feasible in all cases, but I'd much prefer it if each employee were responsible for managing their desktop workstation. If they aren't capable of managing it, then maybe they should have single use tools instead of a general purpose computer?
I manage and develop a large B2B sales site (my colleagues do the B2C sites) and I have to agree that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act makes my job easier. It really helps in getting buy-in from higher ups for those critical to the developer but management doesn't really get it items like formal testing, documentation, etc.
While I know about jury nullification and would not hesitate to vote however I felt about a case, the law be damned, I'm curious about the average juror. Do they not realize that they simply vote guilty or not-guilty and can do so for whatever reason they choose? Are they afraid of somehow "getting in trouble" for not voting the "right" way?
What are you, jealous? Who cares if he's getting a pagerank boost by getting stories posted on Slashdot? If he's able to make a little bit of extra cash by contributing to Slashdot, then good for him.
So what happens if an extrovert is denied the company of others, or if an introvert is denied time alone?
I'm (was?) a strong introvert according to the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (taken back in '90, so I'm sure it's changed) and my girlfriend is a strong extrovert. This difference in personalities has been quite difficult to deal with in our relationship. Each one of us has a tendency to treat the other as we'd like to be treated in a given situation, which is not necessarily what the other person's looking for.
I've been using UNIX systems for about fifteen years and have been doing administration for about ten (NeXTSTEP, Solaris, Irix, OpenBSD and FreeBSD). I'm
sorry, but five years of experience on a single UNIX-like system does not make you highly experienced.
I understand that Linux was chosen because it's all the rage these days (Lord knows why considering the GPL is _more_ restrictive than a BSD license), but I have to wonder how things would have been different if a real UNIX system, like FreeBSD or Solaris, had been used instead of a Linux distribution.
Wouldn't a better solution be to not view pornography if it offends you? I know it's scandalous, but not everyone is offended by porn; some couples even enjoy viewing it together.
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Very interesting. Any guesses as to what could be the cause? I'm typically not around any loud sounds when it happens. Also, I should probably mention that hearing loss runs on my father's side of the family; though everyone I know of was diagnosed around puberty. My mother ensured that I had my hearing tested regularly as a child, and no problems ever showed up. Perhaps it's time for another checkup?
I too can detect that annoying buzz from televisions at about twenty feet away and am constantly turning them off at the office (people just leave them on at a completly black screen). My co-workers think I'm odd since they can't hear the noise.
I picked up a pair of that exact model of headphone several months ago and I absolutely love them. They seem to reduce ambient noise as much as the hearing protectors that I occassionally wear at work (28 decibels) and seem to deliver better bass. I use them for all of my portable systems, but do still use the old-style earmuff design at my desk since they are more comfortable for extended wear.
That being said, I do believe that Microsoft abused their position in the market by using proprietary, binary file formats to exclude competitors.
The problem is that "national security" no longer means what most people assume it does, namely the security of the American people. Instead, I think it's more appropriate to think of "national security" as meaning the ability of the Executive branch to do whatever the hell it wants, unencumbered by the Constitution, the Congress or the Judiciary.
Bush has asked several Congressman to explain to their constituencies how they would be better protected by not renewing the Patriot Act. If you look back on history, I think you'll find that the United States Government has caused more harm to its citizens by denying them essential liberties than have been harmed by any terrorist groups.
If Bush is going to argue that it's okay to violate the Constitution and deny people their liberty so long as it means they are "safer", then I'd like to remind everyone that a cage can be pretty damn safe.
Perhaps women are avoiding degrees in computer science because of the associated stereotypes (long working hours, no social life, pasty skin)? Maybe they'd rather spend time with their family and/or children versus slaving away at a keyboard all day and night?
I can't remember the source at the moment, but I recall reading an article a few weeks ago that discussed how there were still proportionally few women in the upper echelons of business when compared to the number of women graduating with advanced business degrees. The cause? Good 'ol boys clubs? Nope. Glass ceilings? Wrong. Oppressive working environments? Nuh uh. It's very simple really, women were staying at home to raise their children.
Until staying at home to raise children is as valid and accepted a choice for men as it is for women, I wouldn't expect to see too many women in professions that require long working hours away from the home.
I've been typing for about 25 years and I have not noticed any ill effects with regards to my arms, wrists or hands. I do use trackballs instead of mice, so maybe that makes a large difference? I also played piano when I was younger, and that did help with proper finger positioning on the keyboard.
I do experience serious problems when playing portable game systems as I find them too narrow for my adult hands. Thirty minutes of game time on the Gameboy Advance SP and my right hand is numb. GTA Liberty City stories on the PSP (which requires you to use that stupid little analog nub) also really hurts my hands and wrists.
If you're concerned about load times on the PS2, then I'd highly suggest that you buy one of those disc copier programs that let you rip games to the internal hard drive. Not only are load times nearly eliminated, but you can just turn your system on and have access to a hundred plus games. The only downside is that it can take an hour or so to rip a large DVD game. For the record, no I don't pirate games, I have a very large collection of video games that were amassed over the past twenty years.
Unless the defendant is a corporation. I was shocked that Napster was allowed to operate for so long considering they were blatently infringing copyrights (it was their entire raison d'etre). On the other hand, individuals can be shutdown based on a mere accusation of infringement.
I've learned to cope with these realities by giving appropriate technical advice as needed, not behaving like it's the end of the World if the boss makes a different decision, and insisting on control of the areas that I'm responsible for. The boss might not go for a build-it-yourself AMD64 running FreeBSD for the new webservers instead of the Sun V240 the consultant recommended, but he will cancel that pointless maintenance contract with the hardware reseller since you're the admin.
Why give two weeks notice when you resign? The company doesn't give you two weeks notice before you're fired or laid off.
You were a bit vague about what you mean by young kids, but I feel obligated to point out that (some) kids aged four or five can use computers to a greater degree than many adults can imagine.
For example, my school district was fortunate enough to have a special program for gifted children from first through fifth grade. This program was held each Monday at the town's junior high school, which also happened to be fortunate enough to have a computer lab which was provided by Apple Computer. At the age of five, I was initially typing simple (four or five line) programs into an Apple ][ and seeing them run and playing with Logo; eventually I was modifying these programs and beginning to read through some programming manuals that were developed by the school's faculty. At about the same time, my father brought home a TRS-80 (Color Computer) and I began playing with that: initially just the games on ROM cartridges, then my Dad got a monthly subscription to CoCo magazine which included a cassette tape with all of the programs on it and I started playing those and learning how to operate the tape drive. A few years later, I was writing my own text adventure games and messing around with early floppy drives and OS-9.
With proper support and age appropriate learning materials, even very young children can learn to operate and program sophisticated devices. It's really all about fostering a love of learning and discovery at a young age.
Okay, I'm wrong; I could have sworn it was mplayer.
I think you're missing the psychological aspect of the desktop computer. Employees just want to decorate it and make it more personal like they do with the walls of their cubicle or office, their desk, etc.
I understand that this can be a huge problem, but I've never been a fan of the "lock everything down and have people sign a contract" policy. What's wrong with allowing employees to use their machines as they would like, but then coming down hard when they install something that screws it up and forces the help desk to get involved? I'm assuming it's just easier for management to deal with the problem by having people sign a contract instead of having to deal with employees one on one.
I know it's not feasible in all cases, but I'd much prefer it if each employee were responsible for managing their desktop workstation. If they aren't capable of managing it, then maybe they should have single use tools instead of a general purpose computer?
I manage and develop a large B2B sales site (my colleagues do the B2C sites) and I have to agree that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act makes my job easier. It really helps in getting buy-in from higher ups for those critical to the developer but management doesn't really get it items like formal testing, documentation, etc.
Well, someone needs to fix the FreeBSD and OpenBSD ports. mplayer and others will complain that the port is x86 only and refuse to build.
While I know about jury nullification and would not hesitate to vote however I felt about a case, the law be damned, I'm curious about the average juror. Do they not realize that they simply vote guilty or not-guilty and can do so for whatever reason they choose? Are they afraid of somehow "getting in trouble" for not voting the "right" way?
It's simple really, people are more concerned about money than maintaining a democracy (okay, a republic).
What are you, jealous? Who cares if he's getting a pagerank boost by getting stories posted on Slashdot? If he's able to make a little bit of extra cash by contributing to Slashdot, then good for him.
So what happens if an extrovert is denied the company of others, or if an introvert is denied time alone?
I'm (was?) a strong introvert according to the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (taken back in '90, so I'm sure it's changed) and my girlfriend is a strong extrovert. This difference in personalities has been quite difficult to deal with in our relationship. Each one of us has a tendency to treat the other as we'd like to be treated in a given situation, which is not necessarily what the other person's looking for.
I've been using UNIX systems for about fifteen years and have been doing administration for about ten (NeXTSTEP, Solaris, Irix, OpenBSD and FreeBSD). I'm sorry, but five years of experience on a single UNIX-like system does not make you highly experienced.
I understand that Linux was chosen because it's all the rage these days (Lord knows why considering the GPL is _more_ restrictive than a BSD license), but I have to wonder how things would have been different if a real UNIX system, like FreeBSD or Solaris, had been used instead of a Linux distribution.
Wouldn't a better solution be to not view pornography if it offends you? I know it's scandalous, but not everyone is offended by porn; some couples even enjoy viewing it together.
True, but the USPTO has been granting quite a few patents for "inventions" that don't exist. For example, Sony's brain controller.