Actually they are trained to watch for strange behavior as well. The problem with TFA is that he did things that aren't strange or illegal, like bringing Arabic reading materials and flags. Ripping up fake boarding passes in the bathroom? Uh, what does that prove? To me, it proves travelers are too busy getting on with their respective itineraries to care about some stupid person acting stupidly in a public place (happens all the time, why should this guy be considered special?).
Europeans do it better? The lines are twice as long, they have the same stupid restrictions on fluids (but hey, you don't have to take your shoes off!) and they let Non-EU folks pass right through with half the scrutiny of the EU line. I know this because I'm American and lived in the UK. The TSA is a joke, but the UK security is even worse...both in inconvenience and capability.
I will never understand why so many atheists dedicate so much of their lives to being pricks about peoples beliefs when it has precious little bearing on their own lives.
And vice-versa.
I'm not sure why you keep reading so hard into what I'm saying. If you want to go ahead and deny there is a culture of anti-intellectualism in America--especially in relgious circles--that is your perogative. That doesn't, however, make me a judgmental prick to state the obvious.
No, he said "although it's not Christianity", infering that would be the expected norm. It goes without saying that relious folks fall on the side of anti-intellectualism, so my leap in logic isn't that much of a reach. As far as the stereotype claim goes, there comes a point when a stereotype becomes a demographic.
You still miss my point, then turn around and make the same point. I'm not the one making stereoytypes...I am merely echoing the post above mine, using his language to point out that one specific stereo type simply cannot bring down the US, because we are too diverse. Now...if you want to argue about the merits of organized religion and its ability/inability to foster an environment of tolerance, that's a discussion for another day. You don't have to tell me about religion and intolerance since I was raised Mormon.
Maybe I'm pretending to be intelligent, but I haven't stooped to ridiculous online memes such as "asshat". How about supplying some substance to your counter-claim? Change it to stupid brainwashed religious zealot Southeasterners if you must... My point is still valid. The stereotype of bible-thumpin', Wal-mart shoppin' "middle America"...as seen by the REST OF THE WORLD... simply isn't always true, because we have so many people who DON'T fit this stereotype. That's my contention, and that's what makes America so great. So it seems you kind of missed my point entirely.
We are more diverse than the rest of the world thinks. Having lived several years in Germany and the UK, it is clear to me that the "middle" of America is ridiculously easy to stereotype, because they bring it on themselves. Fortunately for the US, there's more to us than the middle part.
The good thing about America is that we are big and diverse. For every stupid brainwashed religious zealot midwestern kid, there is an astute, articulate kid in some place like Portland, OR or Austin, TX. So although there are millions and millions of stupid brainwashed simpletons in this country, there are also millions of people actively engaged in changing the world for the better.
I consider myself to be fairly up-to-speed on technology and Education, given my masters degree is in Computer Education. I can tell you Steve Wozniak didn't come up one time in my two years of graduate school (2005-2007). So no, I don't think all his work in early childhood computing has had an impact. Maybe it has, but it isn't being taught in the School of Education. Besides, isn't "predicting the death of the iPod" right up there with predicting the death of Apple? I keep hearing it, but it never comes true. Granted, oversupply is a more legit reason than just not liking their product and wishing somebody would just disappear Apple.
Non-geeks don't care what XXX is running. They just want it to be able to do what they want. They want it to be as easy as possible to use and anything else is a bonus. Apple get this. In general Slashdot users and FOSS advocates don't.
Keeping in mind, there is nothing wrong with geeks not "getting it"--to each his own. It's just when they come on here and yell loudly as if they were some sort of moral majority that gets me worked up.
And for those of us non-cheap bastards, the extra $100 spent on a Nano are well worth the ease-of-use and integration with our home computers. You know, I can buy a Kia Rio for $6,999 and it goes forward, backward and turns, but I'm not declaring Toyota Corolla's dead just yet.
Normal people don't care about things like vendor-lock in and DRM. Geeks do. Based on the huge market share held by iPods, it appears that there are far more normal people in the world than geeks (not a good or bad thing, just is). And why do we keep posting opinion pieces from a guy who hasn't had any impact in the industry in the past 20 years? Maybe silly conclusions like this is the reason Woz hasn't been involved with Apple since the 1980s?
Now, if they'd be willing to take a pay cut so IT could afford a few more employees who would handle iTunes problems and such... say... $100 a month... each.
Nah. I'd rather just be given the appropriate access to fix that stuff myself and get rid of IT altogether.
...don't know what DRM is and they don't care. MOST people don't know how to get a cracked copy of a game or even how to install a no cd patch. MOST people pay $49 for a new game at a big box store, bring it home, install it on their computers, then play the game. All this uproar about DRM really isn't warranted for MOST people. So while it's fun and all to sit and preach from our tech-savvy high-horses, we aren't MOST people. Interestingly enough, the DRM employed by these companies keeps MOST people from making easy and illegal copies and giving them to their friends.
So what you're saying is that Sun, HP, Amiga, and all of the major hardware vendors at the time didn't make PCs, either?
No, I'm not saying that (you forgot the more consumer-known computers like Commodore and Atari), but I am saying, to most people at that time there were two choices--an IBM compatible that ran Windows or an Apple that ran Macintosh OS.
Admit it, Apple is not some sort of godly do-everything-wll company.
I never said they were in the first place, so what's your point?
Quit sucking Steve Jobs' dick.
Now there's another quality slashdot contribution.
They saw the opportunity to differentiate themselves based on the ignorance of the average consumer and they took advantage of it.
Seems we have nothing to debate then? Keeping in mind that it was fortunate for Apple to fall into this side benefit of differentiation and not an overt tactic they made themselves (well, not until the mid/late 90s with the "Think Different" campaign).
Heck, they're still making profit on the ignorance of consumers, apparently enough.
Simple...the cost of living is atrocious there. I'm a tech writer and make 65k a year in Texas. My salary would be about 80k in silicon valley, which wouldn't be enough to afford a 3500 sq. foot house like I do now.
More proof that checking the block feature sets are an outdated business model. I bought a phone to talk to friends and family, not to take horrible quality pictures.
You are forgetting history. APPLE isn't the one who made the term PC apply to non macs--the INDUSTRY did. I believe this stems from the fact that Apple not only made the hardware (the PC part), but they had a unique operating system (Macintosh OS) that separated them from the others. It has only recently become a nice side benefit for Apple to be "different" than all the others. Dell and Gateway are the same thing to most people, and Apple is something different. It used to be a "bad thing" that Apple was "different", and it has taken many years for advocates to really show people that Macs really aren't that much different (still, most of my older relatives have no idea that a Mac is an intel-based PC), and indeed can do all the stuff you want it to do, despite the FUD of Microsoft cronies everywhere that "there is no software for Macs".
Nice revisionist history. IBM-compatible PCs and Macintosh PCs were prevalent in the mid 80s. Once other companies started making a lot of IBM-compatible PCs, it made sense to drop IBM, as IBM was no longer the main producer. Mac is just an abbreviation of Macintosh Personal Computer. Besides, since Mac OS was distinctly different than Windows OS, why WOULDN'T Apple want to differentiate themselves from the hoards of otherwise boring clones?
Slashdot Mirror
So you've never seen an external hard drive at Worst Buy/Circuit City/Fry's, never seen an old iPod, never seen a digital video camera at Wal-mart?
Actually they are trained to watch for strange behavior as well. The problem with TFA is that he did things that aren't strange or illegal, like bringing Arabic reading materials and flags. Ripping up fake boarding passes in the bathroom? Uh, what does that prove? To me, it proves travelers are too busy getting on with their respective itineraries to care about some stupid person acting stupidly in a public place (happens all the time, why should this guy be considered special?).
Europeans do it better? The lines are twice as long, they have the same stupid restrictions on fluids (but hey, you don't have to take your shoes off!) and they let Non-EU folks pass right through with half the scrutiny of the EU line. I know this because I'm American and lived in the UK. The TSA is a joke, but the UK security is even worse...both in inconvenience and capability.
At least they didn't copy something from Apple for once.
I will never understand why so many atheists dedicate so much of their lives to being pricks about peoples beliefs when it has precious little bearing on their own lives.
And vice-versa.
I'm not sure why you keep reading so hard into what I'm saying. If you want to go ahead and deny there is a culture of anti-intellectualism in America--especially in relgious circles--that is your perogative. That doesn't, however, make me a judgmental prick to state the obvious.
No, he said "although it's not Christianity", infering that would be the expected norm. It goes without saying that relious folks fall on the side of anti-intellectualism, so my leap in logic isn't that much of a reach. As far as the stereotype claim goes, there comes a point when a stereotype becomes a demographic.
You still miss my point, then turn around and make the same point. I'm not the one making stereoytypes...I am merely echoing the post above mine, using his language to point out that one specific stereo type simply cannot bring down the US, because we are too diverse. Now...if you want to argue about the merits of organized religion and its ability/inability to foster an environment of tolerance, that's a discussion for another day. You don't have to tell me about religion and intolerance since I was raised Mormon.
Maybe I'm pretending to be intelligent, but I haven't stooped to ridiculous online memes such as "asshat". How about supplying some substance to your counter-claim? Change it to stupid brainwashed religious zealot Southeasterners if you must... My point is still valid. The stereotype of bible-thumpin', Wal-mart shoppin' "middle America"...as seen by the REST OF THE WORLD... simply isn't always true, because we have so many people who DON'T fit this stereotype. That's my contention, and that's what makes America so great. So it seems you kind of missed my point entirely.
We are more diverse than the rest of the world thinks. Having lived several years in Germany and the UK, it is clear to me that the "middle" of America is ridiculously easy to stereotype, because they bring it on themselves. Fortunately for the US, there's more to us than the middle part.
It is fashionable in general to be anti-intellectual these days.
You betcha!
The good thing about America is that we are big and diverse. For every stupid brainwashed religious zealot midwestern kid, there is an astute, articulate kid in some place like Portland, OR or Austin, TX. So although there are millions and millions of stupid brainwashed simpletons in this country, there are also millions of people actively engaged in changing the world for the better.
I play Warhammer on my iMac too...just booted in XP mode.
I consider myself to be fairly up-to-speed on technology and Education, given my masters degree is in Computer Education. I can tell you Steve Wozniak didn't come up one time in my two years of graduate school (2005-2007). So no, I don't think all his work in early childhood computing has had an impact. Maybe it has, but it isn't being taught in the School of Education. Besides, isn't "predicting the death of the iPod" right up there with predicting the death of Apple? I keep hearing it, but it never comes true. Granted, oversupply is a more legit reason than just not liking their product and wishing somebody would just disappear Apple.
Non-geeks don't care what XXX is running. They just want it to be able to do what they want. They want it to be as easy as possible to use and anything else is a bonus. Apple get this. In general Slashdot users and FOSS advocates don't.
Keeping in mind, there is nothing wrong with geeks not "getting it"--to each his own. It's just when they come on here and yell loudly as if they were some sort of moral majority that gets me worked up.
And for those of us non-cheap bastards, the extra $100 spent on a Nano are well worth the ease-of-use and integration with our home computers. You know, I can buy a Kia Rio for $6,999 and it goes forward, backward and turns, but I'm not declaring Toyota Corolla's dead just yet.
Normal people don't care about things like vendor-lock in and DRM. Geeks do. Based on the huge market share held by iPods, it appears that there are far more normal people in the world than geeks (not a good or bad thing, just is). And why do we keep posting opinion pieces from a guy who hasn't had any impact in the industry in the past 20 years? Maybe silly conclusions like this is the reason Woz hasn't been involved with Apple since the 1980s?
You do realize that you can port your Adobe Mac licenses over to PC (or vice-versa) for practically nothing, right?
Here's a simple case: What happens to "your songs" when you die?
My wife continues to listen to them on any one of our three computers and/or five or so iPods?
Now, if they'd be willing to take a pay cut so IT could afford a few more employees who would handle iTunes problems and such ... say ... $100 a month ... each.
Nah. I'd rather just be given the appropriate access to fix that stuff myself and get rid of IT altogether.
...don't know what DRM is and they don't care. MOST people don't know how to get a cracked copy of a game or even how to install a no cd patch. MOST people pay $49 for a new game at a big box store, bring it home, install it on their computers, then play the game. All this uproar about DRM really isn't warranted for MOST people. So while it's fun and all to sit and preach from our tech-savvy high-horses, we aren't MOST people. Interestingly enough, the DRM employed by these companies keeps MOST people from making easy and illegal copies and giving them to their friends.
So what you're saying is that Sun, HP, Amiga, and all of the major hardware vendors at the time didn't make PCs, either?
No, I'm not saying that (you forgot the more consumer-known computers like Commodore and Atari), but I am saying, to most people at that time there were two choices--an IBM compatible that ran Windows or an Apple that ran Macintosh OS.
Admit it, Apple is not some sort of godly do-everything-wll company.
I never said they were in the first place, so what's your point?
Quit sucking Steve Jobs' dick.
Now there's another quality slashdot contribution.
They saw the opportunity to differentiate themselves based on the ignorance of the average consumer and they took advantage of it.
Seems we have nothing to debate then? Keeping in mind that it was fortunate for Apple to fall into this side benefit of differentiation and not an overt tactic they made themselves (well, not until the mid/late 90s with the "Think Different" campaign).
Heck, they're still making profit on the ignorance of consumers, apparently enough.
Again, thanks for contributing nothing.
Simple...the cost of living is atrocious there. I'm a tech writer and make 65k a year in Texas. My salary would be about 80k in silicon valley, which wouldn't be enough to afford a 3500 sq. foot house like I do now.
...shows how insecure geek culture is...
More proof that checking the block feature sets are an outdated business model. I bought a phone to talk to friends and family, not to take horrible quality pictures.
You are forgetting history. APPLE isn't the one who made the term PC apply to non macs--the INDUSTRY did. I believe this stems from the fact that Apple not only made the hardware (the PC part), but they had a unique operating system (Macintosh OS) that separated them from the others. It has only recently become a nice side benefit for Apple to be "different" than all the others. Dell and Gateway are the same thing to most people, and Apple is something different. It used to be a "bad thing" that Apple was "different", and it has taken many years for advocates to really show people that Macs really aren't that much different (still, most of my older relatives have no idea that a Mac is an intel-based PC), and indeed can do all the stuff you want it to do, despite the FUD of Microsoft cronies everywhere that "there is no software for Macs".
Nice revisionist history. IBM-compatible PCs and Macintosh PCs were prevalent in the mid 80s. Once other companies started making a lot of IBM-compatible PCs, it made sense to drop IBM, as IBM was no longer the main producer. Mac is just an abbreviation of Macintosh Personal Computer. Besides, since Mac OS was distinctly different than Windows OS, why WOULDN'T Apple want to differentiate themselves from the hoards of otherwise boring clones?