mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Many, Many Happy Returns of the Day, Dave!
I'm supposed to move tomorrow's evening, but I still haven't rent the truck. I was supposed to pack all my stuff today, but I've only packed about half of it. I hate packing. I hate washing walls, floors, removing dust and about anything else related to cleaning and during a move, you have to clean plenty. I simply hate moving.
What will happen is that I'll still rent the truck tomorrow, but I won't have the time to pack everything so I'll leave stuff behind, but too much to fit in my car when I'll come back next week to take it back. So I'll have to do two 300Km trips, back and forth and it will ruin my next week-end too. Oh the joy of moving.
Hopefully, this will only be a bad memory in two weeks.
And there's been plenty of that. About three wheeled-garbage containers worth and I'd still have another one to fill. I have internet at home since ~11am, but I still haven't plug a single computer. The house is full of boxes and it might be a few days before I'm fully operational again. What's important for me this evening, much more than plugging computers, is to get as much rest as possible because I didn't have much these past three days.I try to think of the good part of moving, getting rid of stuff that you don't need anymore.
Fits in with this article, except for adults:
Kids Can't Use Computers... And This Is Why It Should Worry You
Yup. Those are my users. I'm fairly certain that there will be (already is?) a massive divide in the success of individuals who can "use a computer" (by his definition) vs. those who can't.
I, like many here, pride myself in knowing how to do stuff. Some skills are over-valued and some not. Driving, computers, and general literacy are probably the least-appreciated skills out there.
Sigh.
I've written about this elsewhere. Right now, society is on the verge of facing a huge problem which hardly anyone acknowledges even exists. Automation is poised to drastically decrease the number of manhours needed for society to function. It's also poised to make many people totally unemployable unless we set aside make-work projects for them like cleaning parks (and those are amenable to being replaced by machines as well). The bottom line is a large segment of society will have nothing worthwhile to contribute economically. There won't be enough work to keep most of the rest employed full-time.I occasionally think about automation and the replacement of jobs with computers/robots/tech. If I look into the jobs around me, there aren't many that won't be able to be automated sooner or later. The only job I see as secure is managing the automated systems. And of course as the automation becomes better even those last workers will be chased further and further up the management ladder as these systems gain the ability to maintain and program themselves.
This is one of the reasons why I am scrambling up the management side while maintaining experience with niche design/implementation challenges.
I've written about this elsewhere. Right now, society is on the verge of facing a huge problem which hardly anyone acknowledges even exists. Automation is poised to drastically decrease the number of manhours needed for society to function. It's also poised to make many people totally unemployable unless we set aside make-work projects for them like cleaning parks (and those are amenable to being replaced by machines as well). The bottom line is a large segment of society will have nothing worthwhile to contribute economically. There won't be enough work to keep most of the rest employed full-time.
I'm not sigh'ing. Sure, outwardly it's frustrating to see these things happen and socially people become comfortable in using devices like basic appliances. The easier they are to use the more they're accepted (and purchased) by the masses (aka lowest common denominator problem once again). This may help us to stay employed for the longer-term by helping the other "95%" of people who own a computer or device that don't know how to use it (by his definition). Mercutio's current situation is yet another example of staying employed. He's hopefully employed (or being payed) to help those who can't help themselves.
That's exactly the problem. What you say is nice in theory if there really is a place for everyone to secure their own future. The hard fact is there won't be. Indeed, many of the jobs lost to the recession just aren't coming back. They were either outsourced or eliminated by automation. Riots are what usually happens when people can't eat. In the end the haves are probably going to face two choices-either part with some of the productivity of their factories via a system similar to what I described, or have it forcibly taken in riots (and possibly have much of society's infrastructure destroyed in the process). That's the short term solution. The long term solution might be better education so most people will have something to contribute to society (or at least so they can make productive use of their ample leisure time), albeit via increasingly shorter work weeks due to increasing productivity. We also may need to just keep people who are hopelessly inept from reproducing so the problem will largely go away within a few generations. Then again, we may find ways to enhance intelligence.What I suspect will happen is not much. The people making decisions are content with the way things work now, and it is up to the rest of us individually to find a place for ourselves. The biggest problem is how many sheep there are out there doing the same job they've always done assuming that it will feed them and their family forever. Each person needs to be proactive to secure their own future. Of course, since so many aren't, when large enough numbers find themselves unemployable there will be riots. This will suck.
It depends upon your description of thrive. Most people go to jobs they hate doing something they could do with a grade school education. That's the reality of it. I'm not sure I consider this fulfilling their human potential. It's very American to be repulsed by a society largely based on leisure, but I suspect it's exactly that, coupled with a well-rounded education, which enables the human spirit to grow. Most people nowadays don't seem happy to me. They lack fulfillment, they lack the time to really be all they can be. They're basically carbon-based androids fulfilling very narrowly defined roles in a big economic machine whose purpose is largely to extract as much as possible from raw materials and human capital for the benefit of the few who own the means of production. Capitalism at its heart only works when the people under it have well-rounded educations. Without that, everyone becomes mindless automatons pursuing wealth for its own sake, without acknowledging that in the end this is harmful for everyone. Or put more colloquially, raw capitalism is a virus which in the end destroys everything around it solely for the sake of reproducing more capitalist entities.This I agree with, the rest I find unlikely and a bit distasteful. I do believe in more of a raw capitalist system, because I believe humans need scarcity to thrive. I have no idea what this looks like.
There's really no way to get around this conundrum other than to selectively breed a more intelligent populace. If you think about it, throughout history there have always been specialists. The average person went to the blacksmith when his horse needed shoes, to the candlestick maker to get candles, to the baker to get bread. Some people had several of these skills, but few had all of them. In the end, exactly how much about computers can the average person realistically be expected to learn? Certainly simple things like printing to a different printer are within reason. Does the average person really need to be able to work with a command line interface? I agree we should be teaching more of the nuts and bolts of computing to everyone, but only those skills which most people have the capability to reasonably become competent at. It's sort of like teaching math. Just about everyone can learn basic arithmetic, most people can learn algebra and geometry. Beyond that you start running into issues where people just don't have the innate ability to comprehend the concepts. A large subset can learn basic calculus. You start losing a lot of people when you get into multivariable calculus, tensors, etc. It's much the same with computer skills. Some of them are just too arcane and difficult for most people to learn.I'm not sigh'ing. Sure, outwardly it's frustrating to see these things happen and socially people become comfortable in using devices like basic appliances. The easier they are to use the more they're accepted (and purchased) by the masses (aka lowest common denominator problem once again).
Fits in with this article, except for adults:
Kids Can't Use Computers... And This Is Why It Should Worry You
But can they go faster than the wind downwind? :-DThey regularly sail at three times the speed of the wind.
But can they go faster than the wind downwind? :-D
I see you caught my reference.
From the feedback I've heard, the frosting they have put on the dog droppings is quite tasty.
The Windows8 UI was a turd. 8.1 does not change that, but adds some bling that would be neat, were it not on a turd.