Posts by Amorous Cowherder

Sounds like a bad case of S.E.P. at work!

(S)omebody (E)lses (P)roblem...

Four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

"I often wondered how the delegates read the maps."

You wicked person!

Re: But...but...but....

They'll have to spin it the other way this time....

"We closed all those nasty torrent sites you naughty boys and girls were using and that's forced people to start paying up as they should have done in the first place!"

Then the figures will plateau at some point and it's back to...

"YOU THIEVING SCUM! WE'RE COMING FOR YOU!!!"

Re: going down

"When you were 16 (the crime was 18 months ago), did you possess the executive functions to properly assess the consequences of your actions?"

Nope and while I might have done some bloody stupid petty crimes and vandalism, I didn't try to nick a lorry and clog up the M1 motorway!! That's basically what this kid was doing, trying to take a piece of infrastructure offline. This little prat knew what he was doing, he knew that he was technically trying to bring down an organisations infrastructure or the public facing part of it. Even when I was vandalising stuff as a spotty little bastard 25 years ago, I knew it was wrong. I knew I'd get nicked by the Police if I got caught and I knew I'd most likely end up in court and fined. My parents would have gone fecking ape-shit if they knew some of the stupid stuff I did as a kid but I don't deny that I knew what I was doing and I knew it was against the law. I grew up after a while when I knew that sooner or later my luck would run out and I would screw up my chances of staying at college and certainly screw up getting a job afterwards.

If you have a purpose then they can be useful tools. I know photographers who have managed to use "Instagrab" as a way to generate interest from their mobile phone snapshots, to get their main photography businesses off the ground and stay running. However they are not "lifestyles" as some people seem to think, these places are tools used by "tools". You get used by these sites, your data gets crawled over and analyzed to death, but if you're a little smart you can use them for your own advantage and get something useful back.

Re: Somebody tell the police

I can imagine a lot of Coppers are probably torrent users and understand how it works, just like a lot of regular people do. The problem is they get told to kick the door at XYZ address and arrest everyone, 'cos the court order tells them to.

The stupidity of all this "whack-a-mole" is that everyone from the studio lawyers right down to the copper holding the battering ram and a copy of the warrant, all know it's pointless. They have to be seen to be doing the "right thing", even though the "right thing" is an utter load of pointless nonsense that just makes everyone feel better that they're doing their jobs properly.

Civilized society needs to be doing a lot of the "right thing" in order to give people work to do, so they can earn a wage and pay their taxes. If you sit and think for just 5 minutes there are so many jobs out there that could be easily replaced or done away with, but as humans we need to ensure we're all doing something even if it's pointless!

Re: Can't be too careful

Now try going out in public with a camera! Oh that's a lot of fun, you see kids anywhere near you have to make a big song and dance with

a) pointing the camera in the opposite direction

b) putting the lens cap on until children move away or you move away

c) if using a tripod simply step a foot or two away from it until the kids are gone

I realise this behaviour only perpetuates the media hysteria but I simply don't need the grief, it's that simple. I like my hobby of taking pictures but I also like my life, my family and my house that lot would be under serious threat if some psychotic, media stirred up nutty parent went ranting to the local Copper that they suspected I was taking pictures of little Johnny or Julie.

Sad little world we've created for ourselves.

Re: Talking of plain English

I've not worn a watch for almost 25 years now. I used to have a watch when I was a kid, every nerdy kid like me had a Casio calculator watch for Xmas. However I reached my late teens I found I hated covering my wrists, one of my odd little foibles., I always roll the cuffs up on my work shirts as I hate them covering my wrists. I obviously roll them down for important meetings but it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I can only guess it's some bizarre mental thing about showing my honesty, "nothing up my sleeve" so to speak. Strangely cuffs on coats don't bother me!

Yep, grab yourself a copy of NMAP and do a scan on the range of IPs just outside your own "frontdoor" from your home connection and you'll find a treasure trove of goodies sitting connected directly to the internet. A quick Google search for the default logins on these devices and you're in. Tragic state of affairs by lazy manufacturers.

Re: "Starring Adam Sandler"

Adam Sandler, the housewives choice. A quick straw poll of the half dozen or so "married with kids ladies" in my family ( including my beloved ) will show a unanimous support for him.

He's seen as cute, funny, non-threatening, malleable male that a studio sponsored poll would show women would most like to meet. He's the US answer to Hugh Grant. Every role see's Sandler as a bit of buffoon but with a heart of gold, he may start off with a unpleasant ideas but he's always calmed and brought under control by the women he meets and falls in love with. Exactly what a lot of middle-aged men in suits like to think a lot of middle-aged women sitting at home would like to watch!

Re: Not just IT

"However - peer group pressure accounts for much of a child's development."

So very true. A battle we're fighting right now with my own daughter. Our daughter had Barbie when she was young but was always way more interested in the cars you could get for them. The most played with toys while she was young was her garage and cars and her LEGO! She loved building houses and cars. Despite having messed about and worked with computers for close on 35 years ( since I was 7 years old! ) I tried to gently persuade our daughter to take up more technical subjects but she was never that interested. However she loves the more traditional science subjects over maths and english, and for the last 2 years she's talked of nothing else but desperately wanting to be a vet.

This is where it's starting to become harder. She's in 2nd year at Secondary and none of her school mates like biology, they can't stand the idea of cutting up fluffy animals and inspecting the insides ( be honest neither do I ) but my daughter loves biology and chemistry. She loves getting to understand the nitty gritty of what makes us all tick inside. All the kids in her class think she's weird wanting to be a vet, some have called her a freak for enjoying biology and the hard part is convincing my daughter to stay true to her dream of becoming a vet. We're always talking about the work, what she's been doing and even though she's only 12, already showing her the websites and requirements she'll need to get into the Royal Veterinary College. Taking her to zoo, behing-the-scene days, farm yards. Anything to keep that dream alive.

I don't want her dreams crushed by morons who can't see that some people do have dreams and want to pursue them. Peer pressure is a battle you have to fight by proxy, a hard fight.

Normally I'd happily upvote anyone for the Linux ref, but this time you've made a bit of plonker of yourself as this is a list of free Windows software!

Re: I miss

To a certain extent I agree but my reasons are that when I was spotty 17 year old I had way too much time and could memorise the keyboard layout to every Microprose sim. These days, kids, job, family, hobbies, yadda, yadda, I'm looking for quick to learn gaming thrills. I can't play Fallout or Skyrim when my kids are about, as they're quite violent games. So I play games with my kids that they like such as Minecraft for example.

So yes it's about age but not directly because you are "too old".

Re: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

"not a dinky thing where finding the Pipe Symbol is a major challenge"

Oh yes!

Exactly! I use their pages through a browser, no way I would ever install any native apps they make. They "want the moon on a stick" in terms of privs on your devices.