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The priest talks with this lady of his congregation:
- I haven't seen you much in church lately, why is that?
- Well, you see ... my daughter has started playing the harp ...
- Is that true? But can her harp replace our wonderful church organ?
- Oh, that's not it. But I have been considering ... I am not sure that I will be able to handle harp music for an eternity...
For answering your question: I am happy to be as old as I am, as close to death as I am. The world changes, and as every aged person knows (and it has been that way for at least a hundred years in the Western world), it changes away from my own ideals, values and principles. When I was young, I expected to be allowed to live my life in my way, not the way my parents and grandparents would rather see it. Now, I grant young people the right to live their way, and shape the world and the society accordingly.
I feel like a stranger to a lot of the music being produced nowadays. To the books written. To movies. How people behave even out in the wilderness. Or at parties. The intense turf wars both in my own profession (SW development) and in social arenas. The way people communicate: When I want to ask or say something to another person, I cannot just say it. First I have to wave my hands before their face to make them look up from the smartphone screen, then wait for them to remove the earplugs before I start speaking. I get a brief answer while they impatiently hold the earplugs ready for plugging back in, with an attitude that clearly says: When are you done disturbing me? ... Not evrybody are that way, but quite a few. Noone will read any thorought and well thought out explanation - I can't tell how many times I have received a "tl;dr" in response (and I will for this post as well!). So always when I write something, I read it over to see if I can delete words, shorten sentences, remove marginal arguments... to make it accessible to more readers, by being short enough.
I do not relax until I am back in my own living room, with my own music, books, movies, and way of expressing myself. I am getting weary out in the real world. The day I retire, I guess I won't be leaving my house for anything but the food store. If there were anyone that might come to visit me - smartphone in hand - I would lock my door for them. I guess there will be noone. Then, when I have read all my books that today are sitting unread in my shelves, when I have watched all my movies enough times to start boring me, and heard my music so many times that none of it is exciting any more, then I have done my duty. Then I am satisfied, there will be nothing more for me to do.
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I still dream of having my own library at home - and the time to read every single book at my leisure.
The library is possible, the leisure time less so - unless I live a loooong time.
A physicist friend of mine set up a Faraday Cage around his den (aka basement) so that when his friends came around to talk and play cards or board games they wouldn't ever be interrupted by their cell phones going off. Eventually, as smartphones became ubiquitous they noticed that they couldn't check things with google, etc. and kept running upstairs to get a signal rather than just doing without the answer instantaneously. I was the only one apart from him that didn't do this so we ended up getting new, older friends instead. The young ones couldn't take it! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Forogar wrote: A physicist friend of mine set up a Faraday Cage around his den (aka basement) so that when his friends came around to talk and play cards or board games they wouldn't ever be interrupted by their cell phones going off.
I have been considering something similar, but never learned enough about signal propagation to know how to do it properly. How realistic is it to make a successful shield?
The elevator at my workplace has a steel ceiling, steel walls, steel door, and I assume there is steel in the floor as well. It is a closed box of steel. I am not sure how good the grounding of the steel is. Even without grounding, I would expect at least some weakening of the mobile signals, but the signal indicator is at top of the scale all the time, even with the elevator going down to the basement. So what does it take to make an effective shield against the signals?
Is an ungrounded shield completely worthless - is that why the steel box elevator does "nothing" to weaken the signals? Is a mesh better than solid steel plates? If it is: Should the mesh size be selected according to the frequency? Cellular phones use a good handful of frequency bands, so do you need different meshes for each band?
Maybe we are wasted in this country: We expect excellent mobile coverage everywhere, from deep sub-basements to wilderness mountain plains a hundred kilometers away from any signs of civilization. We expect capacity to be unlimited, and signal strength to be at top of the scale, everywhere.
Maybe successful shielding is possible at some desolate mountain farm in an area where no mountain hiker ever goes (i.e. noone needs to update their FB profile with their most recent mountain climbing achievements). But how realistic is it to shiels cellular signals in a rural area?
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yes, I would love to be immortal. Then when I smite my enemies down, I can rear my head back, and with hearty cry, I wold say "There can be only one!".
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Ok, Connor!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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No, thanks.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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There are already several billion too many people on this planet, and it's rapidly getting very much worse. It's bad enough with loads of people living to 100 or so, but the last thing the planet needs is extended lifespans. The only feasible way to allow some people to live for centuries would involve a major wiping-out initially, followed by an almost complete cessation of new births. They can be annoying little b****ers at times, but I think on balance I wouldn't want to live in a world without any kids. Who would you be able to say "ha! back in my day..." to?
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Only if I get to choose who else can join the club.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Depends on so many things... But given everything else remains the same, I'd wanna be alive as long as someone I love or care about is around. As soon as no one is, I'd rather stop being alive!
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I'd say, after 3 or so thousand years, you'd have seen all there is (new tech is fine & dandy but in the grand picture, everything develops in a spiral, not a straight line) so life would become rather boring.
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On one hand I would love to develop skills for hundreds of years and truly master them, and on the other hand after being around already 64 years I have lost pets to old age and those times hurt.
Motto: Ask for help when needed, give help when asked, and remember where you came from.
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Read Robert Heinlein's "Lazarus Long" series of books. They are a really great series on that topic.
I don't want to live forever. Just long enough to pay off all of my credit card debt.
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The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber, also gets into the effects of longevity.
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Apparently someone thinks a recommendation of a series on books that were first printed in the previous millennium is spam.
That person obviously likes following rules slavishly. 
Good books, by the way. I've read all of them.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Who really wants to live forever?
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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If we're limited to the Earth, no. I would think the old proverb 'familiarity breeds contempt' would hold true. Eventually you'd have seen everything and pretty much done everything to do, so why stick around? Heh, everyone would be a know it all, and you know how hard it to be around them!
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I'm already tired of being a responsible adult...
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It all depends on whether or not there is a purpose for continuing in this body. I am not my body.
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I am financially planning to reach 80 though I honestly doubt that I'll make 24 more years: overweight, inactive, diabetic, etc. I have already thanked my doctor for achieving the goal I requested of him many years ago: keep me alive until my kids are adults. I pointed out the rest is just gravy to me; however, he contends that, like most, I will become greedy for more life as I get older. Time will tell, but any way you look at it, there are a LOT more years in the rearview mirror than ahead through the windshield, and I am fine with that.
Tuesday, January 19, 2038, might be a concern for any 32-bit systems remaining. That's coming sooner than we might think, and heck, I might live to see it.
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What is it to live?
If loss starting not being painful.
Also at which point would your view of the world start leaning toward causing genocide for the ridiculous things humanity has done to the plant?
As a lover of computers, I also see my own contradiction in that one they have provided significant benefits but also the environmental cost has been hidden for a lack of another term.
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Is a C programmer's lunch an ampersandwich?
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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And a web programmer's breakfast is a full stack and bacon
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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true, and the hash defines and controls a lot of what they produce
Message Signature
(Click to edit ->)
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OK - brace yourself for this: If you look carefully, you'll semicolon this a silly TOD. Perhaps you need a few pointers ?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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