Shocking anecdotes do not routine behavior make, and the last thing the overwhelming number of bus drivers wants is a little kid left over at the end of the route who didn't get off at one of the stops.
Did your children sit in child restraint seats until they were 80lbs?
Ffft, I wasn't 80lbs for a really long time (small kid). Back seat of a 72 Torino didn't have shoulder straps, either (and it was LEADED gasoline!)
When you were a kid, were you photographed on closed circuit cameras from 235 different angles while you shopped?
Sadly, in the dark ages we had clerks that physically kept track of us while we wandered around in a store.
Does your employer have access to read every single keystroke you type on your work computer?
Previous to computers, everything was done on paper and usually filed. So, essentially, yes.
Does your town have traffic lights that mail red-light running tickets to every single offender, thanks to automated video monitoring?
Interestingly, back in the day the speed traps were personally manned. At least these days you know which intersections are the traps, if you're paying attention.
How old were your children when you quit using their crib monitors? Did you use audio or video with night vision?
And by "informed" you mean "scared out of their mind by a population that existed for all of the history of humanity and yet somehow is worth being paranoid over due to the profit potential available in exploiting frightened parents", right?
Generally the problem solves itself within the first couple days. This isn't a vast conspiracy of incompetence, it's a kink that gets worked out at the start of every new kindergarten class.
Getting on the wrong bus also makes the kid more aware of what bus he/she needs to be on to get home (did for me, i got on the wrong bus my first day in kindergarten... who wouldn't want to be on bus #1??)
I went to a very small class-sided kindergarten and on my first day still managed to get on the wrong bus (in around 1980-1981).
If we go by the hysteria of the day, I was likely to be abducted by satanists and likely to be sacrified (or at least forced to play D&D, which would cost me my eternal soul).
It's really not that big of a deal, routinely happens just about everywhere the first few days of class.
Mod parent up. While not "almost a myth", it's so statistically unlikely that a stranger is going to randomly abduct a child vs. them being abducted by someone they know, that "stranger danger" as a meme does little more than fuel tv ratings, product advertisements, and supply South Park episodes with plots.
Sad to say, the logical conclusion is that your internal network was compromised in some fashion (an infected host on the LAN that got your install), not the external connection to the internet.
If you're at home and only have 1-2 hosts behind a NAT, this isn't as much of a risk.
Maybe so, but there's a huge number of things in the world we can do little or nothing to change. Learning to cope with just about any situation is a survival skill.
Nah, I wouldn't want to play in a world of millions of people... I do that in real life and I certainly won't pay to do it in a fantasy. At least give my character the chance to be the hero instead of the fodder
This attitude isn't uncommon, but it is also an impediment to making an actual, compelling fantasy world. If there's 100 different shards out there, you're really not playing in an MMO world, you're just in one of a hundred small sandbox games that happens to be multiplayer. Achievements mean nothing even if they're unique to a server, because it's quite likely that 100 people have also done it.
I've encountered situations where an AP will seem to work fine except not resolve or route any packets until you load up a webpage. Apparently the AP seeing something go across in http wakes it up in some fashion.
While this is true to an extent, even in the US McD's can have wildly different menus and layouts.
i.e. Many midwestern McD's can have up to 15 things on their value menu, while the ones around here (metro area) have 9. The ones here also have flatscreens all over with cable news running, but no WiFi.
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently the groups you subscribe to are dead. Sucks for you, but (in spite of the indeed-omnipresent spam) it isn't quite dead yet. Just resting.
$9.99? Errrr, where did you get that idea? Giganews is great, but not cheap.
First you get da money...
Because every house occupant you don't know personally is highly likely to be a sexual predator. Didn't you know?
Most bus drivers are good, helpful people.
Shocking anecdotes do not routine behavior make, and the last thing the overwhelming number of bus drivers wants is a little kid left over at the end of the route who didn't get off at one of the stops.
Ffft, I wasn't 80lbs for a really long time (small kid). Back seat of a 72 Torino didn't have shoulder straps, either (and it was LEADED gasoline!)
When you were a kid, were you photographed on closed circuit cameras from 235 different angles while you shopped?
Sadly, in the dark ages we had clerks that physically kept track of us while we wandered around in a store.
Does your employer have access to read every single keystroke you type on your work computer?
Previous to computers, everything was done on paper and usually filed. So, essentially, yes.
Does your town have traffic lights that mail red-light running tickets to every single offender, thanks to automated video monitoring?
Interestingly, back in the day the speed traps were personally manned. At least these days you know which intersections are the traps, if you're paying attention.
How old were your children when you quit using their crib monitors? Did you use audio or video with night vision?
A crib what?
Not sure what my point in this is.
She will gladly accept a red balloon or chocolate from you or any other total and friendly stranger, as would probably 95% of all five year olds.
Which is fine, because over 99.99 percent of adults they will encounter are perfectly safe to accept such things from.
The other .01% of adults are: 1) people who you already know, and 2) people who won't take no for an answer.
Since you can't control population #2 to any realistic degree, you better spend your time protecting your offspring from people you already know.
And by "informed" you mean "scared out of their mind by a population that existed for all of the history of humanity and yet somehow is worth being paranoid over due to the profit potential available in exploiting frightened parents", right?
Generally the problem solves itself within the first couple days. This isn't a vast conspiracy of incompetence, it's a kink that gets worked out at the start of every new kindergarten class.
Getting on the wrong bus also makes the kid more aware of what bus he/she needs to be on to get home (did for me, i got on the wrong bus my first day in kindergarten... who wouldn't want to be on bus #1??)
You had a very sheltered youth and spend a lot of time watching prime-time news shows alongside Law and Order shows, don't ya.
I went to a very small class-sided kindergarten and on my first day still managed to get on the wrong bus (in around 1980-1981).
If we go by the hysteria of the day, I was likely to be abducted by satanists and likely to be sacrified (or at least forced to play D&D, which would cost me my eternal soul).
It's really not that big of a deal, routinely happens just about everywhere the first few days of class.
I'm sure Stone Philips is on the case, though.
Mod parent up. While not "almost a myth", it's so statistically unlikely that a stranger is going to randomly abduct a child vs. them being abducted by someone they know, that "stranger danger" as a meme does little more than fuel tv ratings, product advertisements, and supply South Park episodes with plots.
Sad to say, the logical conclusion is that your internal network was compromised in some fashion (an infected host on the LAN that got your install), not the external connection to the internet.
If you're at home and only have 1-2 hosts behind a NAT, this isn't as much of a risk.
Also, ever heard of OS images? :P
What? Sorry, American Idol was on and I got distracted.
Maybe so, but there's a huge number of things in the world we can do little or nothing to change. Learning to cope with just about any situation is a survival skill.
XP had horrid hibernation, but after SP1 Vista hibernates just fine for me.
Windows 7 isn't even released yet. Something not working on unreleased software doesn't bother me.
Shirow mostly does that because he enjoys drawing hot women much more than men.
Generalize much?
Acronis Universal Restore is cheap and fixes that that problem. Seriously.
And hell, with all that extra big hair she has, she doesn't even need a pillow.
hahahahaha
I think you're wanted over at Ars Technica by the folks who tsk tsk at the "journalistic standards" that they perceive are slipping at Ars.
Lighten up, Sparky.
Nah, I wouldn't want to play in a world of millions of people... I do that in real life and I certainly won't pay to do it in a fantasy. At least give my character the chance to be the hero instead of the fodder
This attitude isn't uncommon, but it is also an impediment to making an actual, compelling fantasy world. If there's 100 different shards out there, you're really not playing in an MMO world, you're just in one of a hundred small sandbox games that happens to be multiplayer. Achievements mean nothing even if they're unique to a server, because it's quite likely that 100 people have also done it.
I've encountered situations where an AP will seem to work fine except not resolve or route any packets until you load up a webpage. Apparently the AP seeing something go across in http wakes it up in some fashion.
Ffft. McDonald's is one of the most consistently profitable corporations in history. They're the last company that would need a bailout.
While this is true to an extent, even in the US McD's can have wildly different menus and layouts.
i.e. Many midwestern McD's can have up to 15 things on their value menu, while the ones around here (metro area) have 9. The ones here also have flatscreens all over with cable news running, but no WiFi.