Unless you were frozen in th 50s, that comment can only be explained as a joke... if there is something of which there is plenty, that's window managers...
I was very close to someone who, in all intents and purposes, had a "smart" house. Practically every key component of the house, including lighting, air conditioning, and heating, was controlled by a computer running some Microsoft product. (I forgot the name of it, but it runs great!) Considering that most of the family was blind, this network made their lives a lot easier.
However, I can see the benefits of "smart" houses being useful for everyone. Massive living room speakerphone connected to Skype and POTS could come in handy. Morever, appliances now a days are already "smart" to some capacity when compared with their predecessors. We see this on timers in air conditioners and refridgerators as well as cooking thermometers on ovens and stove-tops, for instance.
Adjustment might take a while, but if it serves a good use, people will appreciate it. Remember, ultimate convenience is the goal!
Most people know what they want from a partner. Unfortunately, that happens to (mostly) be sex. Worse, this need is blanketed with palisades like "finding their special someone" and such.
There's a reason why most online dating profiles are so incredibly generic.
I had a chat with someone I used to work with about arranged marriages. He was from India and was in one himself. According to him, making an arranged marriage work is, pretty much, the foundation of what makes any marriage work. Both partners have to give and take, and accept each other's faults as they are. The big difference is that while Western marriages have the option to divorce when that's no longer possible, arranged marriages are much more difficult to opt-out of. (Though one can still just knock up other women, though that makes the guy look pretty bad socially, so far as I know.)
I think Westernized marriages could learn a thing or two from arranged couples (that do it right, of course). Of course, they could benefit from lots of other things (like doing away with the notion that marriages NEED to happen), but that's a start.
Maybe people should just stop dating and learn how to experience life and just get out and do things. My friends that try the hardest to meet someone are the ones that are the least successful at it.
This is a very facile thing for someone in your position to say. For many of the rest of us "experiencing life" all by itself simply means interminable years of crushing loneliness.
At first, I kind of understood what you were saying. There are some paths in life that, unfortunately, require a LOT of time and commitment, and leave little space for friends and/or relationships. I was in the road bike racing scene for a while, and while I never got anything near being professional at it, I saw that those who were either elite at it or seriously trying were dedicating buckets of hours on the road or in races. Most of those whom were married were either struggling in their relationships (unless they had a wife who races as well) or had no time to engage in one. I even experienced the same effects happening, and I was just beginning!
However, I realized that when one sees their life heading down an undesirable road, that's the perfect moment to make a change...and quickly. To cut to the chase, I learned some PUA stuff back in July, which drastically changed my ability to talk to women (not necessarily get with them, as I prefer quality over quantity). While the price for PUA stuff, which is mostly truth blanketed over tons and tons of CRAP, makes Apple RDF pale in comparison, at its core, it shows the importance of having confidence and teaches you to get some. Though I can save you a couple grand and tell you the magic pill right here: if you want to date women, you HAVE to go up and talk to them.
I'm involved in much more stuff now than I ever was before, but I feel much more social now, since I go out a lot more (with or without my girlfriend, which I wouldn't have met had I not gained some confidence in myself), and much less dependent on a woman. I'm kind of an introvert and don't have a lot of close friends, but since I live in "The City," I check out stuff that happens around me and events which I'm invited to. Though I feel lonely sometimes, I certainly don't feel that way overall like I used to. I also feel much, much, MUCH less dependent on a woman than I was before. I can certainly do more to improve my life, but I'm happy where I am now, and SIGNIFICANTLY happier than I use to be.
But you won't find that if you don't change...and finding that motivation is a self-exercise...
I'll shamelessly admit it: I've used Craigslist Personals to help me find dates. Before the entire hullabaloo regarding "erotic services," it was actually possible to get a few good, quality dates off the service. In fact, I was doing better on CL than other highly-regarded dating services, often using the same techniques! Spam was prevalent, but was often easy to spot and avoid.
Recently, I had a brief falling out with my girlfriend and browsed through CL to see other people. I was upset, but not surprised, to find that not only were almost ALL of the postings spam, but the ones that looked strikingly legitimate (and I'm talking "real person," excellent grammar legitimate) were often spam bait as well! It comes to show that spammers are getting pretty crafty in their techniques, both technically and socially.
Kind of sucks that it's almost impossible to get dates through Craigslist now, though.
This kind of reminds me of an article I read some time ago in the Wall Street Journal regarding how mental illness is treated in China. Parents that can't afford healthcare for their mentally-ill children lock them up in cages, while some that can have been duped to going to hospitals for treatment, only to scar (or nearly kill) their children even further and be completely, shit-out-of-luck broke. One of these operations involved removing parts of the patient's brain outright.
I wish I could find these articles; they were great reads (though a bit sensational).
Gates's assertion is that the ideology of a browser is being warped and abused because the technology driving it is being intermingled with the notion of being able to see and search for stuff. While this is somewhat critical with Google's approach of centralizing the browser in the OS, it's also kind of sidestepping the question.
See, in the beginning, when communication was simple and numbers were small, browsers were used to do just that --- browse the contents on the Web, and nothing else. Interaction with those contents was done behind the curtain, and changes magically appeared before you. As the complexity and usefulness of the Internet increased, people naturally felt that a one-way interaction with the Web would not be possible. Hence, the browser became more like a communicator of sorts (no, not Netscape Communicator), which is kind of what it is today.
Now, I don't think that Gates really answered the question; in fact, I think he purposefully diverted from it. The truth of the matter is that as the Internet assumes more and more responsibilities previously relegated to client-side applications, the "browser" (or whatever you want to call it) will increasingly gain central relevance. He knows (hopefully) that Microsoft will need to start investing more time in centralizing the Internet experience for its users in a way that stays consistent with their previous working model. However, they should get credit where it's due: they have been trying (albeit going in the wrong direction) since Windows 98 and the inception of Active Desktop. (Remember that? In digression, who actually makes a web page their desktop? Who ever did?)
This is one of the reasons why Google, if they actually decide to do it, can afford to essentially make the entire GUI contained in a browser (or something of sorts) and Microsoft cannot.
I think that it's great that Gates made Feynman's lectures available for free online. Now, I don't know a lot about physics, but I do know that his lectures were some of the best sources out there to learn it. In addition, there are several outlets available for people to expand their knowledge base, with MIT OpenCourseWare being one of the more popular ones. Heck, people could even use YouTube to gain a better understanding of any one topic. It could even be argued that a source like YouTube is better, since the educational videos I've seen were explained in very simple terms (which are always the best terms).
That all goes to show that the sources are there, and are very easy to access. You don't even need an account to access nearly the same material as MIT students do! However, Gates was absolutely right in that motivation is a really strong factor in wanting to find that stuff. I think that a source of that waning motivation comes from the desire to find a job, especially "in this economy."
So many people see school solely as a "means to an end," and many schools set themselves up to be precisely this. When one's goal is simply to graduate, there's "no time" to bother with learning the extra stuff; it's all about the grade in that paradigm.
I don't want to make this longer than it already is, but what I think would be awesome is to let students "create a major" at the college level. Some schools, like RPI and RIT, already practice this, but it should be practiced much more heavily, especially in the sciences and engineering. As a finishing Computer Engineering student, I'll be the first to say that it kind of sucks that I have to take a ton of classes that will have no practical OR educational use for me, just so that I can graduate under the guidelines of a program. However, that rant is for another time.
That's not what he meant. He was referring to web administrators implementing server-side scanning to prevent patches from being *spread* to the users.
Depends on the station. Mainstream pro-payola radio stations operate exactly like this, but less "visible" stations actually have variety that matches internet radio, and very few commercials (somehow).
It's not illegal, nor is it stalking (technically). The person being tracked did allow the tracker to find his or her location, whereas stalkers usually have to trespass or violate privacy to track their "targets."
It's even more expensive, considering the following caveats:
It has horrible uptime. When I had the service, it worked extremely well...until it didn't, which was very often. I pay a LOT less for Exchange via Activesync and got three nines.
Google Latitude is free, and works with ANY phone that supports Google Maps. This includes Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile. I just tested mine on my T-Mobile Dash, and it gives me my location on the screen.
Apart from that, each and every service offered by MobileMe can be replaced with something that's either free or inexpensive. It's a trap, though it looks good with your Macbook while sipping on a Choco Mint Frap and reading the New York Times!
How are these far-fetched predictions any different than the many that were made for the iPhone and iPod before it?
I hate to argue about the "slashdottedness" of a post, but I don't see how this belongs here. This kind of conversation is more appropriate in MacRumors or sites like it...
Slashdot Mirror
and I suck for posting that.
Unless you were frozen in th 50s, that comment can only be explained as a joke... if there is something of which there is plenty, that's window managers...
* -- joke
OO
OOOOO -- the cloud
OO
o
\|/
| -- you
/ \
I was very close to someone who, in all intents and purposes, had a "smart" house. Practically every key component of the house, including lighting, air conditioning, and heating, was controlled by a computer running some Microsoft product. (I forgot the name of it, but it runs great!) Considering that most of the family was blind, this network made their lives a lot easier.
However, I can see the benefits of "smart" houses being useful for everyone. Massive living room speakerphone connected to Skype and POTS could come in handy. Morever, appliances now a days are already "smart" to some capacity when compared with their predecessors. We see this on timers in air conditioners and refridgerators as well as cooking thermometers on ovens and stove-tops, for instance.
Adjustment might take a while, but if it serves a good use, people will appreciate it. Remember, ultimate convenience is the goal!
Most people know what they want from a partner. Unfortunately, that happens to (mostly) be sex. Worse, this need is blanketed with palisades like "finding their special someone" and such.
There's a reason why most online dating profiles are so incredibly generic.
PoF's for nerds? All I've seen are a bunch of cheap, English-challenged women who kind of need a lift in other areas of life...
I had a chat with someone I used to work with about arranged marriages. He was from India and was in one himself. According to him, making an arranged marriage work is, pretty much, the foundation of what makes any marriage work. Both partners have to give and take, and accept each other's faults as they are. The big difference is that while Western marriages have the option to divorce when that's no longer possible, arranged marriages are much more difficult to opt-out of. (Though one can still just knock up other women, though that makes the guy look pretty bad socially, so far as I know.)
I think Westernized marriages could learn a thing or two from arranged couples (that do it right, of course). Of course, they could benefit from lots of other things (like doing away with the notion that marriages NEED to happen), but that's a start.
This is a very facile thing for someone in your position to say. For many of the rest of us "experiencing life" all by itself simply means interminable years of crushing loneliness.
At first, I kind of understood what you were saying. There are some paths in life that, unfortunately, require a LOT of time and commitment, and leave little space for friends and/or relationships. I was in the road bike racing scene for a while, and while I never got anything near being professional at it, I saw that those who were either elite at it or seriously trying were dedicating buckets of hours on the road or in races. Most of those whom were married were either struggling in their relationships (unless they had a wife who races as well) or had no time to engage in one. I even experienced the same effects happening, and I was just beginning!
However, I realized that when one sees their life heading down an undesirable road, that's the perfect moment to make a change...and quickly. To cut to the chase, I learned some PUA stuff back in July, which drastically changed my ability to talk to women (not necessarily get with them, as I prefer quality over quantity). While the price for PUA stuff, which is mostly truth blanketed over tons and tons of CRAP, makes Apple RDF pale in comparison, at its core, it shows the importance of having confidence and teaches you to get some. Though I can save you a couple grand and tell you the magic pill right here: if you want to date women, you HAVE to go up and talk to them.
I'm involved in much more stuff now than I ever was before, but I feel much more social now, since I go out a lot more (with or without my girlfriend, which I wouldn't have met had I not gained some confidence in myself), and much less dependent on a woman. I'm kind of an introvert and don't have a lot of close friends, but since I live in "The City," I check out stuff that happens around me and events which I'm invited to. Though I feel lonely sometimes, I certainly don't feel that way overall like I used to. I also feel much, much, MUCH less dependent on a woman than I was before. I can certainly do more to improve my life, but I'm happy where I am now, and SIGNIFICANTLY happier than I use to be.
But you won't find that if you don't change...and finding that motivation is a self-exercise...
Some places need to use WEP to support devices that cannot understand WPA.
*double facepalm*
This is quite informative! Thanks, Mr. Cowardon :)
I have, and it's worked okay for me. With services like that, I wonder why people continue to pay for Match and the like...
I'll shamelessly admit it: I've used Craigslist Personals to help me find dates. Before the entire hullabaloo regarding "erotic services," it was actually possible to get a few good, quality dates off the service. In fact, I was doing better on CL than other highly-regarded dating services, often using the same techniques! Spam was prevalent, but was often easy to spot and avoid.
Recently, I had a brief falling out with my girlfriend and browsed through CL to see other people. I was upset, but not surprised, to find that not only were almost ALL of the postings spam, but the ones that looked strikingly legitimate (and I'm talking "real person," excellent grammar legitimate) were often spam bait as well! It comes to show that spammers are getting pretty crafty in their techniques, both technically and socially.
Kind of sucks that it's almost impossible to get dates through Craigslist now, though.
This kind of reminds me of an article I read some time ago in the Wall Street Journal regarding how mental illness is treated in China. Parents that can't afford healthcare for their mentally-ill children lock them up in cages, while some that can have been duped to going to hospitals for treatment, only to scar (or nearly kill) their children even further and be completely, shit-out-of-luck broke. One of these operations involved removing parts of the patient's brain outright.
I wish I could find these articles; they were great reads (though a bit sensational).
Though the fact that this is an embedded device with, most likely, a REALLY stripped down version of Linux is kind of cheating a bit.
You're not thinking on the same level.
Gates's assertion is that the ideology of a browser is being warped and abused because the technology driving it is being intermingled with the notion of being able to see and search for stuff. While this is somewhat critical with Google's approach of centralizing the browser in the OS, it's also kind of sidestepping the question.
See, in the beginning, when communication was simple and numbers were small, browsers were used to do just that --- browse the contents on the Web, and nothing else. Interaction with those contents was done behind the curtain, and changes magically appeared before you. As the complexity and usefulness of the Internet increased, people naturally felt that a one-way interaction with the Web would not be possible. Hence, the browser became more like a communicator of sorts (no, not Netscape Communicator), which is kind of what it is today.
Now, I don't think that Gates really answered the question; in fact, I think he purposefully diverted from it. The truth of the matter is that as the Internet assumes more and more responsibilities previously relegated to client-side applications, the "browser" (or whatever you want to call it) will increasingly gain central relevance. He knows (hopefully) that Microsoft will need to start investing more time in centralizing the Internet experience for its users in a way that stays consistent with their previous working model. However, they should get credit where it's due: they have been trying (albeit going in the wrong direction) since Windows 98 and the inception of Active Desktop. (Remember that? In digression, who actually makes a web page their desktop? Who ever did?)
This is one of the reasons why Google, if they actually decide to do it, can afford to essentially make the entire GUI contained in a browser (or something of sorts) and Microsoft cannot.
I think that it's great that Gates made Feynman's lectures available for free online. Now, I don't know a lot about physics, but I do know that his lectures were some of the best sources out there to learn it. In addition, there are several outlets available for people to expand their knowledge base, with MIT OpenCourseWare being one of the more popular ones. Heck, people could even use YouTube to gain a better understanding of any one topic. It could even be argued that a source like YouTube is better, since the educational videos I've seen were explained in very simple terms (which are always the best terms).
That all goes to show that the sources are there, and are very easy to access. You don't even need an account to access nearly the same material as MIT students do! However, Gates was absolutely right in that motivation is a really strong factor in wanting to find that stuff. I think that a source of that waning motivation comes from the desire to find a job, especially "in this economy."
So many people see school solely as a "means to an end," and many schools set themselves up to be precisely this. When one's goal is simply to graduate, there's "no time" to bother with learning the extra stuff; it's all about the grade in that paradigm.
I don't want to make this longer than it already is, but what I think would be awesome is to let students "create a major" at the college level. Some schools, like RPI and RIT, already practice this, but it should be practiced much more heavily, especially in the sciences and engineering. As a finishing Computer Engineering student, I'll be the first to say that it kind of sucks that I have to take a ton of classes that will have no practical OR educational use for me, just so that I can graduate under the guidelines of a program. However, that rant is for another time.
That's not what he meant. He was referring to web administrators implementing server-side scanning to prevent patches from being *spread* to the users.
Depends on the station. Mainstream pro-payola radio stations operate exactly like this, but less "visible" stations actually have variety that matches internet radio, and very few commercials (somehow).
I hope they become successful with this project, but not in the "Let's-create-PlaysForSure-just-to-lure-them-in" kind of way.
It's not illegal, nor is it stalking (technically). The person being tracked did allow the tracker to find his or her location, whereas stalkers usually have to trespass or violate privacy to track their "targets."
Apart from that, each and every service offered by MobileMe can be replaced with something that's either free or inexpensive. It's a trap, though it looks good with your Macbook while sipping on a Choco Mint Frap and reading the New York Times!
How are these far-fetched predictions any different than the many that were made for the iPhone and iPod before it?
I hate to argue about the "slashdottedness" of a post, but I don't see how this belongs here. This kind of conversation is more appropriate in MacRumors or sites like it...
Have you seen the movie "Reign Over Me?" Singing as an anger management device is shown pretty nicely there.
No, that's your CPU locking up from the Javascript and other stuff that's working while you scroll.
Like how my 2.13 GHz Pentium M is locking up as I type this message...
Thanks for the really good explanation, Josh.