Um, do you have any idea what Communism even means or have you attended an American school all your life? No one has ever applied Communism because Communism is literally a stateless and classless society. The Soviet Union was in no way Communist, it had a authoritarian state and a ruling class after all, but it served their interests (keeping power) to call themselves such and it served the interests of the US to call them that (to demonize anyone who would oppose the capitalist elite as sympathizing with the "enemy").
I'm an atheist, my entire family is atheist, almost all of my friends are atheist, but you don't have to be a theist in order to be a sexist idiot. We have tons of self-styled "anti-feminists" who are not religious here, not because they thought it through and decided not to believe in gods, but simply because being non-religious is the norm. (These are generally the same reactionaries who vote for the "Sweden Democrats", ironically they use Islams attitude towards women as a prime argument against immigration of Muslims whilst at the same time slagging every attempt to try to make the balance between the sexes even remotely equal)
Damn! Americans like to complain about taxes but it seems that health insurance take a much bigger cut than any taxes do... $1500/month would be about 40% of my income, I pay about 22% in income tax and about 6% of my income (paid by the employer through a payroll tax) covers health insurance whether I'm employed or not and would cover any eventual children as well...
There was one thing that stunk about the plan, though - if my wife got pregnant, the insurer would drop her coverage.
I'm in disbelief, it can't really be that bad? It's not like pregnancy is something uncommon, it happens all the time. How is that legal? The insurance sounds quite cheap though, perhaps that's why?
I have insurance regardless of employment or whatever but the part of the "arbetsgivaravgift" (a tax paid by employers, includes dedicated tax for health insurance, pension payments, etc) is 5.95% of my pretax income, at present about 220 USD. If I were to have a kid I would share 16 months (with 2 months reserved for each parent, the rest can be distributed among the parents and it's becoming more common for fathers to take about half the leave, I know I would want to spend as much time as possible with the kid at that age) of paid parental leave with the mother, this is financed by another part of the arbetsgivaravgift, 2.2% of the pretax income.
The hardware tested had an Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics, the Linux Intel drivers are known for being slow, but the Nvidia drivers are just as fast (or slightly faster in some cases) as the Windows-equivalent and presumably OSX as well. ATI I'm not sure, but they're at least closer to Windows performance than Intel is.
Not only non-techies, I find it very user-friendly simply because it gets out of my way. It's been a long time since I cared about customizing every little detail on my desktop, nowadays I just need to get shit done and for my workflow at least Gnome 3 works.
Unity is buggy and crashes all the time on my machine, Metro I've never used and don't really plan to (no Windows-machines), but Gnome 3 on Arch just works for me. The menu for things not in the favorites is a bit of a hassle but I always use the search so all I have to do is press super and type a few characters. I'm also not very fond of the new alt-tab (applications on alt-tab and windows within application on alt-key above tab) or the lack of a shutdown menu option, but those can be easily fixed with extensions.
Bullshit, you've obviously never used Gnome 3. Extensions are as simple to install as going to extensions.gnome.org with epiphany and clicking switching the "off"-button to "on" for the desired extension. It's by far the easiest extension install I've ever seen.
A single beer is enough to get you in trouble while driving in Sweden so we tend to stay away from driving after having had as little as one beer. Driving to the pub is very rare here because of it, and if you do you'll have to take the bus or a cab home.
IMO it's a good thing, it discourages people from driving to the drinking establishment thinking they will only have a single beer. One beer so easily turns into two, two turns into three and all of the sudden you really are completely unfit to drive, but you still have that car outside and your judgement is impaired. Better if everyone just takes the bus/subway/taxi to and from the pub.
Oh another question for those in the know about the area (sorry if this is becoming too much off-topic): I'm thinking of renting a car and go on a road-trip down to SF from Portland after the conference, which carrier would have the best coverage there? It seems from the maps I've seen that rural coverage is quite poor..
Sounds much better than buying a phone only to throw it away.. Do you have to be a US resident to activate or can I use a temporary address or something?
Sounds very strange, but I guess they like throwing phones away for nothing.. Is this only in Wal-Marts or are there other places? I won't have a car so getting to a Wal-Mart could be complicated. There's the further complication of my phone using Micro-SIM (Nokia N9), it's unlocked though. I suppose I could bring my old HTC Magic (also unlocked), it only has, it only has the 900, 1700 and 2100 MHz UMTS bands though...
How exactly do they prevent tethering? Unless they control all the devices that use their networks they cannot ensure that phones do not have the ability to tether. User-agent detection perhaps?
On a related note, while I'm in the presence of Americans with knowledge of these things: I'm going to the US for a conference and vacation in two weeks, is there a decent pre-paid SIM-card that includes a few hundred MBs of data? My phone is pentaband so that shouldn't be a problem I assume..
I hate responding to AC's, but purchase of the OEM license has always been tied to some piece(s) of hardware purchased at the same time. I know there are lots of "workarounds" and these have been pretty liberally sold to home builders even without hardware, but the fact is it was/is a requirement for OEM Windows licenses.
At least in Sweden, the OEM version is for sale separately, as far as I can tell without any hardware requirements. It may be that the rules are different though. It's still quite expensive though, about the same price as the retail "upgrade" version.
The US requires any passengers going to the US to be scanned, the airports had to install these contraptions specifically for US flights. US-bound flights have their own "secure" area in which passengers can board. I would be curious to find out who pays for the scanners to be installed specifically for US-bound flights, my guess is not the US.. Admittedly I don't fly much, but I didn't see a single scanner on my trip from Stockholm to Tokyo via Helsinki last month, although I know they have them for US-bound flights.
I pay for Spotify, but I have yet to find anything that can even remotely compete with torrents for TV-shows and movies in terms of breadth of selection, quick delivery, zero ads and native Linux support without resorting to Flash or some such crap.
The minimum rate for doctorates in engineering in the UK is apparently 15090 GBP, not that bad if it's tax free. I'm also not sure how cost of living compares, the UK may be somewhat cheaper. The PhD salary in Sweden is like any other salary though, it's not a stipend so it's taxed. (and also provides all the benefits of being employed such as the ability to take parental leave with 80% salary if you get a kid, minimum vacation time, etc) The first year monthly salary for a PhD student is 25000 SEK, taxes on that is about 5500 SEK leaving about 19500 SEK, equivalent to about 22300 GBP/year, renegotiated by the union every year or two. The pay at my university is pretty high though, social sciences tend to get less.
I believe a number of other European countries have similar PhD salaries. I think it mainly depends on what a PhD position is considered to be administratively, in Sweden a PhD student is a full-time employee of the university (time-limited to a nominal four years towards the degree with up to 20% departmental duties making it five years) and is thus covered by collective bargaining agreements, social insurances and such. There are cases of PhD students financed by stipends though, this is seen as a problem because they're not covered by the same benefits that other employees are, such as minimum vacation and parental leave.
How exactly are you expected to survive your final year? Loans? I wouldn't do a PhD for the money, but really I expect to be able to at least be able to afford a place to live and some food on the table, otherwise I would find it hard to have the energy to actually get something done.
You don't go into a PhD program expecting to be better off financially because of it, you go for the PhD if you want to do research.
As an aside though, 20k USD? The entry salary for a PhD student at my university in Sweden is the equivalent of about 45k USD and it gradually climbs to about 54k USD for the last year of the PhD. Not private sector salaries, but certainly enough to live a good life without resorting to ramen noodles.
Actually, someone who is a part time resident who plans on going back to another place should be voting back at that other place and not where they relocated temporarily.
Surely, they should vote where they currently reside? Should the same apply to people who move frequently but are not students? Where should they vote?
In Sweden, you simply vote where you registered your primary residence, regardless of whether you're a student or not. Common practice is to register in the place of study, it's your place of residence for at least 9 months of the year after all. (no "voter registration", every citizen over 18 years of age gets a voter card in the mail)
* If you work on AI related field, calculus is very important.
It depends on what you mean by "AI". If by "AI" you mean machine learning, I would say statistics is much more important than calculus. If by "AI" you mean game AI, then I'm guessing you mostly just need a good understanding of search algorithms.
How is that in any way relevant to my statement? You stated that it's not on *any* desktops. It's on mine, hence it most certainly is on at least one desktop (and one laptop) and your statement is false. That does not mean it's the "year of Linux on the desktop", it simply means that GNU/Linux is on my desktop and on many others' desktops.
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Um, do you have any idea what Communism even means or have you attended an American school all your life? No one has ever applied Communism because Communism is literally a stateless and classless society. The Soviet Union was in no way Communist, it had a authoritarian state and a ruling class after all, but it served their interests (keeping power) to call themselves such and it served the interests of the US to call them that (to demonize anyone who would oppose the capitalist elite as sympathizing with the "enemy").
And in some parts of the world, it still is. It's not the religion that changed but the society around it, the religion simply had to adapt.
I'm an atheist, my entire family is atheist, almost all of my friends are atheist, but you don't have to be a theist in order to be a sexist idiot. We have tons of self-styled "anti-feminists" who are not religious here, not because they thought it through and decided not to believe in gods, but simply because being non-religious is the norm. (These are generally the same reactionaries who vote for the "Sweden Democrats", ironically they use Islams attitude towards women as a prime argument against immigration of Muslims whilst at the same time slagging every attempt to try to make the balance between the sexes even remotely equal)
Damn! Americans like to complain about taxes but it seems that health insurance take a much bigger cut than any taxes do... $1500/month would be about 40% of my income, I pay about 22% in income tax and about 6% of my income (paid by the employer through a payroll tax) covers health insurance whether I'm employed or not and would cover any eventual children as well...
There was one thing that stunk about the plan, though - if my wife got pregnant, the insurer would drop her coverage.
I'm in disbelief, it can't really be that bad? It's not like pregnancy is something uncommon, it happens all the time. How is that legal? The insurance sounds quite cheap though, perhaps that's why?
I have insurance regardless of employment or whatever but the part of the "arbetsgivaravgift" (a tax paid by employers, includes dedicated tax for health insurance, pension payments, etc) is 5.95% of my pretax income, at present about 220 USD.
If I were to have a kid I would share 16 months (with 2 months reserved for each parent, the rest can be distributed among the parents and it's becoming more common for fathers to take about half the leave, I know I would want to spend as much time as possible with the kid at that age) of paid parental leave with the mother, this is financed by another part of the arbetsgivaravgift, 2.2% of the pretax income.
The hardware tested had an Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics, the Linux Intel drivers are known for being slow, but the Nvidia drivers are just as fast (or slightly faster in some cases) as the Windows-equivalent and presumably OSX as well. ATI I'm not sure, but they're at least closer to Windows performance than Intel is.
Not only non-techies, I find it very user-friendly simply because it gets out of my way. It's been a long time since I cared about customizing every little detail on my desktop, nowadays I just need to get shit done and for my workflow at least Gnome 3 works.
Unity is buggy and crashes all the time on my machine, Metro I've never used and don't really plan to (no Windows-machines), but Gnome 3 on Arch just works for me. The menu for things not in the favorites is a bit of a hassle but I always use the search so all I have to do is press super and type a few characters. I'm also not very fond of the new alt-tab (applications on alt-tab and windows within application on alt-key above tab) or the lack of a shutdown menu option, but those can be easily fixed with extensions.
Bullshit, you've obviously never used Gnome 3. Extensions are as simple to install as going to extensions.gnome.org with epiphany and clicking switching the "off"-button to "on" for the desired extension. It's by far the easiest extension install I've ever seen.
A single beer is enough to get you in trouble while driving in Sweden so we tend to stay away from driving after having had as little as one beer. Driving to the pub is very rare here because of it, and if you do you'll have to take the bus or a cab home.
IMO it's a good thing, it discourages people from driving to the drinking establishment thinking they will only have a single beer. One beer so easily turns into two, two turns into three and all of the sudden you really are completely unfit to drive, but you still have that car outside and your judgement is impaired. Better if everyone just takes the bus/subway/taxi to and from the pub.
Oh another question for those in the know about the area (sorry if this is becoming too much off-topic): I'm thinking of renting a car and go on a road-trip down to SF from Portland after the conference, which carrier would have the best coverage there? It seems from the maps I've seen that rural coverage is quite poor..
Sounds much better than buying a phone only to throw it away.. Do you have to be a US resident to activate or can I use a temporary address or something?
Sounds very strange, but I guess they like throwing phones away for nothing.. Is this only in Wal-Marts or are there other places? I won't have a car so getting to a Wal-Mart could be complicated.
There's the further complication of my phone using Micro-SIM (Nokia N9), it's unlocked though. I suppose I could bring my old HTC Magic (also unlocked), it only has, it only has the 900, 1700 and 2100 MHz UMTS bands though...
How exactly do they prevent tethering? Unless they control all the devices that use their networks they cannot ensure that phones do not have the ability to tether. User-agent detection perhaps?
On a related note, while I'm in the presence of Americans with knowledge of these things: I'm going to the US for a conference and vacation in two weeks, is there a decent pre-paid SIM-card that includes a few hundred MBs of data? My phone is pentaband so that shouldn't be a problem I assume..
I hate responding to AC's, but purchase of the OEM license has always been tied to some piece(s) of hardware purchased at the same time. I know there are lots of "workarounds" and these have been pretty liberally sold to home builders even without hardware, but the fact is it was/is a requirement for OEM Windows licenses.
At least in Sweden, the OEM version is for sale separately, as far as I can tell without any hardware requirements. It may be that the rules are different though. It's still quite expensive though, about the same price as the retail "upgrade" version.
The US requires any passengers going to the US to be scanned, the airports had to install these contraptions specifically for US flights. US-bound flights have their own "secure" area in which passengers can board. I would be curious to find out who pays for the scanners to be installed specifically for US-bound flights, my guess is not the US..
Admittedly I don't fly much, but I didn't see a single scanner on my trip from Stockholm to Tokyo via Helsinki last month, although I know they have them for US-bound flights.
I pay for Spotify, but I have yet to find anything that can even remotely compete with torrents for TV-shows and movies in terms of breadth of selection, quick delivery, zero ads and native Linux support without resorting to Flash or some such crap.
The minimum rate for doctorates in engineering in the UK is apparently 15090 GBP, not that bad if it's tax free. I'm also not sure how cost of living compares, the UK may be somewhat cheaper. The PhD salary in Sweden is like any other salary though, it's not a stipend so it's taxed. (and also provides all the benefits of being employed such as the ability to take parental leave with 80% salary if you get a kid, minimum vacation time, etc)
The first year monthly salary for a PhD student is 25000 SEK, taxes on that is about 5500 SEK leaving about 19500 SEK, equivalent to about 22300 GBP/year, renegotiated by the union every year or two.
The pay at my university is pretty high though, social sciences tend to get less.
I believe a number of other European countries have similar PhD salaries. I think it mainly depends on what a PhD position is considered to be administratively, in Sweden a PhD student is a full-time employee of the university (time-limited to a nominal four years towards the degree with up to 20% departmental duties making it five years) and is thus covered by collective bargaining agreements, social insurances and such. There are cases of PhD students financed by stipends though, this is seen as a problem because they're not covered by the same benefits that other employees are, such as minimum vacation and parental leave.
How exactly are you expected to survive your final year? Loans? I wouldn't do a PhD for the money, but really I expect to be able to at least be able to afford a place to live and some food on the table, otherwise I would find it hard to have the energy to actually get something done.
You don't go into a PhD program expecting to be better off financially because of it, you go for the PhD if you want to do research.
As an aside though, 20k USD? The entry salary for a PhD student at my university in Sweden is the equivalent of about 45k USD and it gradually climbs to about 54k USD for the last year of the PhD. Not private sector salaries, but certainly enough to live a good life without resorting to ramen noodles.
Actually, someone who is a part time resident who plans on going back to another place should be voting back at that other place and not where they relocated temporarily.
Surely, they should vote where they currently reside? Should the same apply to people who move frequently but are not students? Where should they vote?
In Sweden, you simply vote where you registered your primary residence, regardless of whether you're a student or not. Common practice is to register in the place of study, it's your place of residence for at least 9 months of the year after all. (no "voter registration", every citizen over 18 years of age gets a voter card in the mail)
* If you work on AI related field, calculus is very important.
It depends on what you mean by "AI". If by "AI" you mean machine learning, I would say statistics is much more important than calculus. If by "AI" you mean game AI, then I'm guessing you mostly just need a good understanding of search algorithms.
How is that in any way relevant to my statement? You stated that it's not on *any* desktops. It's on mine, hence it most certainly is on at least one desktop (and one laptop) and your statement is false. That does not mean it's the "year of Linux on the desktop", it simply means that GNU/Linux is on my desktop and on many others' desktops.
It's on mine and an absolute minimum of a million others, hardly "not on any"...