But is this limited to computer games, or does it extend to other activities? I would argue that any competitive activity will lead to increased aggression over my normal, fairly passive self.
While this seems reasonable, and competitive activities probably do lead to arousal of some sort, they may not lead to aggression. My psychology text for this semester mentions a relevant study on p. 362-363:
...repeated exposure to violence desensitizes observers to the implications of human suffering. The shock and upset that most people would otherwise associate with acts of extreme violence become extinguished by repeated presentations of violent stimuli...
Evidence that desensitization can occur comes from several sources... [In one study] subjects were attached to a machine that measured their emotional reactions, as "bumps" of arousal in their galvanic skin responses. The first watched a videotape of either an exciting volleyball championship or a violent program....the tapes were equally arousing. Later, subjects briefly viewed what they thought was a real confrontation resulting in physical violence and property damage....[T]hose who'd seen the violent TV show reacted less to this than did the other group. Watching the TV violence presumably made them less sensitive to "real life" violence.
So it appears that it may be not just the competition or excitement, but actual violence that is key in producing desensitation to violence.
That said, tjwhaynes made a good point in saying that not all aggression is necessarily bad. For example, perhaps shy individuals could use a little extra aggression to stick up for their own rights. But that doesn't make this study bad; it just helps us understand aggression better.
The fact that the UI is easy, intuitive, simple, and clean can make it powerful. It's not a learning-curve issue. I am an experienced user of both Unix and MacOS. I use Unix about 95% of the time, but when I do have my G4 booted into MacOS, I appreciate the fact that its GUI allows me to do some things faster and easier (and therefore more powerfully) than under Unix. But of course, it depends on the task; when in MacOS, I sometimes wish I had some of the services that a command-line interface provides. This is why I'll be installing Mac OS X as soon as it comes out. I could continue with a discussion of more UI issues and why I think the Unix world is lacking in that area compared to MacOS, but that would be getting a little off topic.
After this interview, it's only natural to introduce Alice to Jeeves. Here's how their conversation goes (yes this is also real):
Alice: What can I call you? Jeeves: You Can Call Me Willy A: OK I will call you Willy. J: Willy Porter A: "OK I will call you Willy"? willy porter? J: Where can I find a step-by-step guide to preparing a will? A: I would suggest a search. Would you like to know more? J: We'd like to know more about you! A: By "we" do you mean you and me? J: The Golden Mean A: Is that a fact. J: What is FACT? A: It is a good question. Have you tried www.whatis.com? I can ask someone about it. J: Who am I? A: You are Willy, seeker. J: The Seeker, Reuniting America! A: I have never heard about it. J: Have you heard the one about. ..? A: No. Tell me more. J: I Love to Tell the Story A: You love to tell the story. What do you like about it so much? J: Every life has a story to tell A: That is a generalization. J: What is generalization? A: The act or process of gerneralizing. J: Caught - In - The - Act A: I hope it is not contagious. Also I hope you get well soon. J: Smile! It's Contagious!
Yes, there is a web browser, as well as many other apps. An excellent OS X/OS X Server/Darwin resource is Stepwise, which has a database of software for those operating systems. There's a lot more software listed for OS X Server than for OS X right now, but I'm sure that will change soon.
As far as a web browser goes, you're looking for OmniWeb. Lynx is also available. Didn't OmniWeb come with OS X though? For Darwin, only Lynx is available.
Yes, there is a web browser, as well as many other apps. An excellent OS X/OS X Server/Darwin resource is Stepwise, which has a database of software for those operating systems. There's a lot more software listed for OS X Server than for OS X right now, but I'm sure that will change soon.
As far as a web browser goes, you're looking for OmniWeb. Lynx is also available. Didn't OmniWeb come with OS X though? For Darwin, only Lynx is available.
Here at Carnegie Mellon, the number of female CS majors has actually been increasing in recent years. As mentioned in a related Slashdot article from last August, this year's freshman class is about 37% women, up from 8% in 1995. However, Carnegie Mellon's increasing numbers may be due to more aggressive recruiting.
However, if CMU found what they deemed to be "dubious" computers, containing *passworded* shares with a name like "MP3", "MUSIC", they started running a password guesser on the computer until they got in.
Actually, no, they didn't run a password guesser. They looked at shares with trivial passwords like "MP3" or "MUSIC" or where passwords were freely available in readme files. Thus, in my opinion, the argument that Computing Services cracked into student's boxes isn't really valid. If you intend for an account to be private, you don't give it a password like "MP3". Such a password is, for all practical purposes, no password.
I agree that there is frequently a tradeoff between power and ease of use -- but in reality we are always making that tradeoff. The trick is finding the best balance between power and ease of use.
If I give you a pile of transistors and a power supply, you've got quite a bit of power, but doing useful things requires a large investment of time and knowledge. On the other hand I could give you a simple calculator, which is very easy to use, but is very limited.
One of the great things about having different operating systems and distros is that they allow us to choose the balance between power and ease of use to best fit our personal needs. If a simplified Linux distro enables me to use Unix instead of Windows or MacOS, where I otherwise wouldn't have been able to, that's hardly destroying the entire point of switching to a more powerful OS! On the other hand, you're welcome to use a more powerful distro if think you need the extra power more than the ease of use.
It's just like programming languages -- choose the right tool for the job, or in this case, the right tool for the person.
Also, while I agree that better documentation would be excellent, that doesn't make everything easier. It still takes an investment of time to find, read, and understand the documentation, as opposed to being led through the steps in a task or being able to do something because it is obvious how to do it.
Linux does already run on the 400 MHz G4s, which use the motherboard of the Power Mac G3. The 450+ MHz G4s are a different architecture, so as you say LinuxPPC isn't there yet, but it will be soon. See LinuxPPC's notes on the G4 and Yellow Dog Linux's G4 press release.
Slashdot Mirror
While this seems reasonable, and competitive activities probably do lead to arousal of some sort, they may not lead to aggression. My psychology text for this semester mentions a relevant study on p. 362-363:
So it appears that it may be not just the competition or excitement, but actual violence that is key in producing desensitation to violence.
That said, tjwhaynes made a good point in saying that not all aggression is necessarily bad. For example, perhaps shy individuals could use a little extra aggression to stick up for their own rights. But that doesn't make this study bad; it just helps us understand aggression better.
The fact that the UI is easy, intuitive, simple, and clean can make it powerful. It's not a learning-curve issue. I am an experienced user of both Unix and MacOS. I use Unix about 95% of the time, but when I do have my G4 booted into MacOS, I appreciate the fact that its GUI allows me to do some things faster and easier (and therefore more powerfully) than under Unix. But of course, it depends on the task; when in MacOS, I sometimes wish I had some of the services that a command-line interface provides. This is why I'll be installing Mac OS X as soon as it comes out. I could continue with a discussion of more UI issues and why I think the Unix world is lacking in that area compared to MacOS, but that would be getting a little off topic.
Alice: What can I call you? .?
Jeeves: You Can Call Me Willy
A: OK I will call you Willy.
J: Willy Porter
A: "OK I will call you Willy"? willy porter?
J: Where can I find a step-by-step guide to preparing a will?
A: I would suggest a search. Would you like to know more?
J: We'd like to know more about you!
A: By "we" do you mean you and me?
J: The Golden Mean
A: Is that a fact.
J: What is FACT?
A: It is a good question. Have you tried www.whatis.com? I can ask someone about it.
J: Who am I?
A: You are Willy, seeker.
J: The Seeker, Reuniting America!
A: I have never heard about it.
J: Have you heard the one about. .
A: No. Tell me more.
J: I Love to Tell the Story
A: You love to tell the story. What do you like about it so much?
J: Every life has a story to tell
A: That is a generalization.
J: What is generalization?
A: The act or process of gerneralizing.
J: Caught - In - The - Act
A: I hope it is not contagious. Also I hope you get well soon.
J: Smile! It's Contagious!
As far as a web browser goes, you're looking for OmniWeb. Lynx is also available. Didn't OmniWeb come with OS X though? For Darwin, only Lynx is available.
As far as a web browser goes, you're looking for OmniWeb. Lynx is also available. Didn't OmniWeb come with OS X though? For Darwin, only Lynx is available.
Here at Carnegie Mellon, the number of female CS majors has actually been increasing in recent years. As mentioned in a related Slashdot article from last August, this year's freshman class is about 37% women, up from 8% in 1995. However, Carnegie Mellon's increasing numbers may be due to more aggressive recruiting.
Actually, no, they didn't run a password guesser. They looked at shares with trivial passwords like "MP3" or "MUSIC" or where passwords were freely available in readme files. Thus, in my opinion, the argument that Computing Services cracked into student's boxes isn't really valid. If you intend for an account to be private, you don't give it a password like "MP3". Such a password is, for all practical purposes, no password.
If I give you a pile of transistors and a power supply, you've got quite a bit of power, but doing useful things requires a large investment of time and knowledge. On the other hand I could give you a simple calculator, which is very easy to use, but is very limited.
One of the great things about having different operating systems and distros is that they allow us to choose the balance between power and ease of use to best fit our personal needs. If a simplified Linux distro enables me to use Unix instead of Windows or MacOS, where I otherwise wouldn't have been able to, that's hardly destroying the entire point of switching to a more powerful OS! On the other hand, you're welcome to use a more powerful distro if think you need the extra power more than the ease of use.
It's just like programming languages -- choose the right tool for the job, or in this case, the right tool for the person.
Also, while I agree that better documentation would be excellent, that doesn't make everything easier. It still takes an investment of time to find, read, and understand the documentation, as opposed to being led through the steps in a task or being able to do something because it is obvious how to do it.
~Brighten
Linux does already run on the 400 MHz G4s, which use the motherboard of the Power Mac G3. The 450+ MHz G4s are a different architecture, so as you say LinuxPPC isn't there yet, but it will be soon. See LinuxPPC's notes on the G4 and Yellow Dog Linux's G4 press release.