A statement like that can only prove one of two things: Either you either have a very limited imagination or you are rude jackass.
FWIW, the local ATMs used to have a screen with 4 physical buttons each at the left and right edge which would correspond to choices presented on the screen (also visualized as buttons). They recently switched to a design with a larger screen and a touchscreen running the exact same interface.
I vastly prefer the new design, to the point that sometimes I only realize that I'm standing in front of the old design after I've hid the glass a couple of times.
Spaces buys you nothing when many of your tasks use the same apps. I frequently use Eclipse, a shell, a browser and a MacVim window for many of my tasks. Sometimes I manually isolate windows onto one space per task, but it's cumbersome and doesn't really provide any task isolation.
The problem with the application metaphor is that it allows the developer to force his workflow onto the user instead of allowing the user to choose a workflow that fits his needs.
Making the desktop task-centric instead of application- or document-centric is such an obvious usability improvement that I can't understand why it hasn't been done already.
The idea that the president can't veto a law, and that the only checks against parliamentary power are the constitution itself kind of bugs me a little.
As others have said, the German president is mostly a figurehead and the real executive power lies with the chancellor.
In the German system, there are three checks against an overzealous parliament: First, the president can refuse to sign a law as has happened here, but only for a very limited set of reasons.
Secondly, many laws require to be passed by the Bundestag (upper chamber of the parliament, made up of elected members) AND the Bundesrat, the lower chamber that is made up of the executives of the German states. (Remember that Germany is a federation of states just like the US.) The Bundesrat just held up the EU-US SWIFT deal, so it appears to be working as a check.
Finally, there's the constitutional court which can be called upon by certain constitutional institutions directly or indirectly by anybody as a court of last appeal (not really, but it works that way in practice.) The court actually has a very favorable view in Germany, because it has reigned in some of the excesses of the parliament, however there is a growing concern that lawmakers just keep throwing shitty laws at the court that it will fold eventually.
The claim that the graph you linked to trends down after 2003 can only be supported by a very superficial reading of it. Note that there many local lows in the data stretching over 120 years, but so far the temperature has always rebounded and the next local peak was (usually) higher than the peak before it.
Nothing in this graph suggests that the trend is reversing. For the current downward slope there simply isn't enough data to evaluate it.
One more thing: The absolute temperature values oscillate within a single year. I believe this is caused by the seasons and vegetation patterns. The latest data point in the graph shows yearly lows for the northern and southern hemisphere. I bet the next yearly high will higher then the last peak and the downward trend you're seeing in the mean values will vanish.
In fact I think a space partnership with China would be disastrous for the United States.
And why would that be? Precedent says otherwise. The US-Soviet cooperation in space probably helped a bit to bring the cold war to an end--to the benefit of both sides.
Also:
They can try all they want. The real question is: do we want them to BE a "leader"?
With that attitude you shouldn't be surprised when you wake up one day and are not asked anymore.
So you say, but it is not possible to give everyone the same chance at success because we are not all possessed of equal talents, drive or ability.
Hence my caveat, as far as possible.
The best that can be achieved is for the government not to stand in anyone's way.
The current financial crisis directly contradicts your proposition. The governments removed regulation that was supposed to keep the big players honest. As a consequence, everybody and their mother speculated with money that wasn't theirs, investing in schemes they did not understand. When everything came crashing down like a house of cards they looked for the government to help them out. Hypocrisy at its worst.
And you're deluding yourself if you think Europe is any more corrupt than the US.
I don't think so.
The corruption index from Transparency International lists the US right in the middle of where European countries are found. Personally, I know enough incidents of blatant political corruption on either side of the Atlantic.
"Punishing the wealthy" is a strawman perpetraited by those born with a silver spoon in their mouth who never had to do any real work in their life.
Get a clue. It's about leveling the playing field. The goal isn't to make everybody equal, it's to give everybody a fair shot at success as far as this is possible.
And you're deluding yourself if you think Europe is any more corrupt than the US.
I have modpoints, but I've already commented in this thread.
It bears repeating: You don't have to accept the GPL to merely use GPL'd software. You can even modify it without accepting the GPL.
It's the zeroth software freedom as defined by the FSF: In your own private home you should be able to do anything you want with software, including uses that were not originally intended by its authors.
That's complete bull. I have two Leopard DVDs at home. One I bought retail. It will install on any Mac including machines where the hard drive has been wiped clean. It says nothing about an upgrade, neither on the package nor during the install procedure.
The other came with a used MacBook I bought via E-Bay. It clearly says Upgrade on the disc and won't install unless there it finds an existing Tiger or Leopard installation on the target computer. Since the box also contains Tiger CDs (which BTW can be used to install Tiger on a wiped disk) I assume that the seller bought the MacBook when Leopard wasn't releases and took Apple up on their Leopard upgrade offer.
BTW, the current Snow Leopard retail version costs 29 € vs. the upgrade version you can get for 9 € if you bought your Mac less than $x months ago.
The short version: Apple does indeed sell OS X without any hardware.
On thing that's seriously broken with modern GUIs is their file- or application-oriented workflow. Everything-is-a-file is a great abstraction when writing code, but it's not how people think.
Things on my wishlist:
* a task-oriented desktop * easy adding of free-form metadata to files (think digital post-it notes attached to files) * the gold standard: a GUI that realizes when I'm repeating myself and automates these processes by itself
That's like an assload. 8 years ago, I installed a then-recent Debian on a 486 with 8 MB RAM and RAM was the limitting factor. Calculation of the apt-get dependency tree would take hours.
You might wanna try something like that: Install a server that serves up Debian boot images, boot via your PCMCIA network card, install a Debian base system on the hard drive and then simply pull software from the network.
Slashdot Mirror
A statement like that can only prove one of two things: Either you either have a very limited imagination or you are rude jackass.
FWIW, the local ATMs used to have a screen with 4 physical buttons each at the left and right edge which would correspond to choices presented on the screen (also visualized as buttons). They recently switched to a design with a larger screen and a touchscreen running the exact same interface.
I vastly prefer the new design, to the point that sometimes I only realize that I'm standing in front of the old design after I've hid the glass a couple of times.
But then, maybe I *am* insane.
Spaces buys you nothing when many of your tasks use the same apps. I frequently use Eclipse, a shell, a browser and a MacVim window for many of my tasks. Sometimes I manually isolate windows onto one space per task, but it's cumbersome and doesn't really provide any task isolation.
Full ack!
The problem with the application metaphor is that it allows the developer to force his workflow onto the user instead of allowing the user to choose a workflow that fits his needs.
Making the desktop task-centric instead of application- or document-centric is such an obvious usability improvement that I can't understand why it hasn't been done already.
Yours is the first post in the thread that shows that people are actually capable of an intelligent thought.
Congratulations.
As others have said, the German president is mostly a figurehead and the real executive power lies with the chancellor.
In the German system, there are three checks against an overzealous parliament: First, the president can refuse to sign a law as has happened here, but only for a very limited set of reasons.
Secondly, many laws require to be passed by the Bundestag (upper chamber of the parliament, made up of elected members) AND the Bundesrat, the lower chamber that is made up of the executives of the German states. (Remember that Germany is a federation of states just like the US.) The Bundesrat just held up the EU-US SWIFT deal, so it appears to be working as a check.
Finally, there's the constitutional court which can be called upon by certain constitutional institutions directly or indirectly by anybody as a court of last appeal (not really, but it works that way in practice.) The court actually has a very favorable view in Germany, because it has reigned in some of the excesses of the parliament, however there is a growing concern that lawmakers just keep throwing shitty laws at the court that it will fold eventually.
Which is why German speakers use the anglicism "handy" for cell phones (known as mobiles in the UK).
Language. You fail it.
The claim that the graph you linked to trends down after 2003 can only be supported by a very superficial reading of it. Note that there many local lows in the data stretching over 120 years, but so far the temperature has always rebounded and the next local peak was (usually) higher than the peak before it.
Nothing in this graph suggests that the trend is reversing. For the current downward slope there simply isn't enough data to evaluate it.
One more thing: The absolute temperature values oscillate within a single year. I believe this is caused by the seasons and vegetation patterns. The latest data point in the graph shows yearly lows for the northern and southern hemisphere. I bet the next yearly high will higher then the last peak and the downward trend you're seeing in the mean values will vanish.
And why would that be? Precedent says otherwise. The US-Soviet cooperation in space probably helped a bit to bring the cold war to an end--to the benefit of both sides.
Also:
With that attitude you shouldn't be surprised when you wake up one day and are not asked anymore.
Are you trying to argue with me? I can't really tell, because I explicitly said that it's not about making everything equal.
Hence my caveat, as far as possible.
The current financial crisis directly contradicts your proposition. The governments removed regulation that was supposed to keep the big players honest. As a consequence, everybody and their mother speculated with money that wasn't theirs, investing in schemes they did not understand. When everything came crashing down like a house of cards they looked for the government to help them out. Hypocrisy at its worst.
The corruption index from Transparency International lists the US right in the middle of where European countries are found. Personally, I know enough incidents of blatant political corruption on either side of the Atlantic.
"Punishing the wealthy" is a strawman perpetraited by those born with a silver spoon in their mouth who never had to do any real work in their life.
Get a clue. It's about leveling the playing field. The goal isn't to make everybody equal, it's to give everybody a fair shot at success as far as this is possible.
And you're deluding yourself if you think Europe is any more corrupt than the US.
Does the Snow Leopard upgrade really sell for $129 in the US?
Because it's just 9 € in Germany. Full retail costs 29 €.
Mod parent up!
I have modpoints, but I've already commented in this thread.
It bears repeating: You don't have to accept the GPL to merely use GPL'd software. You can even modify it without accepting the GPL.
It's the zeroth software freedom as defined by the FSF: In your own private home you should be able to do anything you want with software, including uses that were not originally intended by its authors.
That's complete bull. I have two Leopard DVDs at home. One I bought retail. It will install on any Mac including machines where the hard drive has been wiped clean. It says nothing about an upgrade, neither on the package nor during the install procedure.
The other came with a used MacBook I bought via E-Bay. It clearly says Upgrade on the disc and won't install unless there it finds an existing Tiger or Leopard installation on the target computer. Since the box also contains Tiger CDs (which BTW can be used to install Tiger on a wiped disk) I assume that the seller bought the MacBook when Leopard wasn't releases and took Apple up on their Leopard upgrade offer.
BTW, the current Snow Leopard retail version costs 29 € vs. the upgrade version you can get for 9 € if you bought your Mac less than $x months ago.
The short version: Apple does indeed sell OS X without any hardware.
Talking to yourself, aren't you? ;-)
I have to disagree.
On thing that's seriously broken with modern GUIs is their file- or application-oriented workflow. Everything-is-a-file is a great abstraction when writing code, but it's not how people think.
Things on my wishlist:
* a task-oriented desktop
* easy adding of free-form metadata to files (think digital post-it notes attached to files)
* the gold standard: a GUI that realizes when I'm repeating myself and automates these processes by itself
That's like an assload. 8 years ago, I installed a then-recent Debian on a 486 with 8 MB RAM and RAM was the limitting factor. Calculation of the apt-get dependency tree would take hours.
You might wanna try something like that: Install a server that serves up Debian boot images, boot via your PCMCIA network card, install a Debian base system on the hard drive and then simply pull software from the network.
Or you could toss it. That's what I'd do.
Then what's in the file ubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso I'm torrenting right now?
During my Debian days I never had to do a complete reinstall.
Of course, Debian didn't have Ubuntu's release schedule.
But then I always followed unstable.
How much traffic is generated by Bittorent again? E-Mail spam?
And they say, that telecommuting will bring down the internet?
Yeah, right.
Indeed.
Then why are you posting here?
How do you turn off the internet? You can't. People would just link up again with each other. The genie is out of the bottle
Unless you've wiped most of humanity or brainwashed them into anti-technical belief systems, people will network.
So your last three phones weren't Sony Ericcson models, I gather.
Good for vou!
"Worry about the content, not the presentation" is probably the reason why most programs (FOSS and commercial) suck donkey ass.
Ome of the most important thing about any tool is the workflow it supports and encourages. Presentation is a critical part of the picture.