36.3 miles per gallon is the most economical mileage you got? And that's supposed to be especially economical? What kind of cars do you Americans drive?!
I get twenty kilometers per litre, that's about fifty miles per gallon, on average, and that's with a very ordinary turbodiesel, nothing fancy or especially fuel economic (and a pretty quick driving style).
You haven't used XP, have you? Both XP and 2k were great about restarting. And not needing to when you install things.
I just installed Windows XP Home edition, ran Windows Update (installing only the recommended security updates) and installed the drivers that came with the motherboard. Sounds simple, right? It took me SIX FUCKING HOURS (not least because the first time it insisted on calling the system drive H:, and you can't change the system drive letter without reinstalling Windows) and I had to reboot FIFTEEN FUCKING TIMES, so don't talk to me about XP "not needing reboots anymore"...
There are, however, perfectly valid reasons to use the metric system of measurement rather than English.
Take a simple measurement like 100 cm (which I had to use quite a bit the other day when I re-trimmed all my windows)
100cm = 39.37007874015748031496062992126inches
Now take a look at a tape measure and tell me exactly where the.37007874015748031496062992126 mark is. It isn't there!
The metric system is much more accurate than the English system is. It's also simpler (in most cases) to add in the metric system. Take the above example. To add the width of my sawblade (1 cm) you quickly come up with 101 centimeter. In English you would have to spend an extra 10 seconds doing the addition (.37007874015748031496062992126 +.125=.49507874015748031496062992126) and you're still left with the problem of not knowing exactly where to mark your lumber!
Along a similary line, why not always use decimal degrees? (wait that's a perversion of base 360. Get rid of it!) Why bother with radian measure? Base 2pi? I mean come on, I can't count to that on my fingers!
Oh yea, since we're abolishing the metric system, let's get rid of decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and binary. Clearly the world would be a simpler place if everything worked in base 12.
The fact is that sometimes (often) bases other than 12 make calculations and measurements much simpler.
To say that one system is absolutely better than the other shows an amazing ignorance of mathematics. (ed: nice contradiction of your own words there)
Just my EUR 2/100."
In other words: of course using one measurement system is inaccurate when working with tools and objects that are designed with a different measurement system in mind. That has nothing to do with whether one measurement system is better than the other, dumbass, it has more to do with the intelligence of the operator...
The definition goes the other way around: one inch equals exactly 2.54 centimeter. That's much easier to remember than the number of inches in a meter. And going from centimeters to meters is even easier: just move the decimal point two places to the left.
Google doesn't have to give anything back, at least not to me. It's enough for me that they are by far the best search engine; lightning fast, accurate, comprehensive, free and with no obtrusive advertising...
... you will find far less questioning of the reach and authority of government in Europeans circles than in America.
It's funny you should use Russia as an example, since it's (half) inside Europe... But anyway, you're only repeating what you said before, and it just ain't true. Being a European, and having lived in America for a year, I think I have some perspective on the matter (on the privacy issue as well)... There are plenty of places in Europe where central government is just barely in control (Spain or Northern Ireland come to mind), just like there are many Americans who accept the authority of the federal government without thinking. You can find examples of both ends of the spectrum on both continents, and there is no basis at all for your generalization.
I also don't agree that the various political variations inside the two big American political parties makes them comparable to the coalitions that routinely govern European countries. Coalitions are much looser with much more internal conflict, and more importantly, they are much more flexible, potentially changing with each election (or even in between). In my opinion, these properties make coalitions the best (or the least bad) way to govern a democracy, because the internal conflict keeps them balanced and prevents extremes and radically zig-zagging policies from one government to the next. They ensure that the government has a majority in parliament, and yet no one party is able to push through legislation without the consent of the other parties.
(My apologies if I don't make sense. It's late over here, I think I'll go to bed now...)
Europeans still have an essentially monarchistic view of government's relations to its citizens: citizens are subjects of the government, and all rights they enjoy, they do so at the government's pleasure.
Generalize much?
Speaking as one European, I don't think that at all. I think of my government as the guys we the people hired to do stuff that needs to be done centrally, such as build roads, keep order, etc. The government works for me, and if they don't do as I please, I can send them packing. Of course I have to get a few million other people to agree with me, but that's a relatively minor detail.
A lot of Europeans (more and more) think this way. Spain is a nice, recent example. "Go to war without our consent? Fuck off!"
I think it's even safe to say that more people think this way in Europe, which is why, for instance, the political playing field is much more diverse over here, with more political parties with much more widely differing views.
On the subject of the original post: I think the reason why a few (and they are very few) restrictions on speech are more accepted in Europe is a slightly more pragmatic outlook, a realization that it's no good to try to enforce some ideal 100% because it isn't possible anyway and usually has drawbacks.
Compare the difference between the US and the EU on matter of personal privacy, where the situation seems to be reversed. In the US there is virtually no legal protection against invasion of privacy by corporations, whereas the EU has strict laws regulating who can collect what information about whom, and what they are allowed to do with it (which is not much). Americans don't seem to care much at all about that, but for a lot of Europeans it's an important issue.
Windows ME is four years old. You don't use a Mandrake CD from four years ago to install with, do you?
Your point being that I should have used a current Windows ME install CD? Or that it's OK for a four year old operating system to crap out when you install the latest official updates using the official method? What exactly is your point?
They don't care, they don't want to "break" anything,...
And rightly so. Day before yesterday, I was reinstalling Windows Millennium on my mom's PC. It was running nicely, but then I had the bright idea of running Windows Update to make sure I had the latest stability and security patches. Bingo: Internet Explorer didn't start anymore (hung the computer, requiring a reboot), and neither did anything even remotely having to do with Internet Explorer (including, of course, Windows Update). Had to reinstall Windows, now it's chugging along in its default install configuration (but with Firefox as browser, Thunderbird for email and behind a Linux firewall!)
Just think about the probability of this happening twice to that same house. Although statistically, it isn't any smaller than the probability of a meteorite hitting it the first time,...
The chance of a meteorite hitting the same house twice is much smaller than one hitting the house once. What you mean is that the chance of a meteorite hitting the house again is the same as the first time...
Just tune your (older) TV between channels. The snow is partly caused by the cosmic background radiation. Newer TV's just show a blue screen when there's no signal (there's gotta be a Windows joke in there somewhere...)
Personally, I think our society could do with less sex (...) on TV
I've never understood why people say things like this. Would you care to explain why society would be better off with less sex on TV? What damage does it do to the delicate psyche of the average TV viewer? What disadvantage will the youth of America have later in live, having seen Janet Jacksons nipple on TV? I really don't get it.
<sigh>... No they don't! They have a metal strip, but nothing remotely as complex as an RFID tag, the tinfoil hat crowd's suspicions notwithstanding...
One more use, beside the many already mentioned, would be storing maps for satellite navigation devices such as the many Pocket PC / TomTom combo's, or my Garmin iQue. 2 GB would allow me store the whole of Europe (at street level, with points of interest) on it.
It's "Read The Fucking Manual". I know you probably know that and are just trying to be politically correct, but I (and I suspect quite a few other people around here as well) actually find it more offensive if you patronize me like that. If you don't like the acronym, just don't use it...
Specifically, a peregrine falcon, which is the fastest animal in the world. It can reach speeds of 440 kph (275 mph) when diving for its prey. This also accounts for the name of the fastest road bike in the world, the Suzuki Hayabusa. Impressive stuff...
Nothing but bitching and moaning in the replies so far. Come one people! First of all this rumour might not be true, god knows how reliable the British tabloids are (a certain picture "from Iraq" springs to mind).
Secondly, even if it is true, we don't know anything about the plot, the scene, the circumstances, how it plays out, etc. I know I and II weren't the best movies, but jezus, give it chance will ya!
Who the fuck modded this "insightful"? It's the best example of American arrogance and ignorance I've seen in a long, long time, not to mention that it has nothing to do with the subject of the article. Way to go, moderators...
Slashdot Mirror
I get twenty kilometers per litre, that's about fifty miles per gallon, on average, and that's with a very ordinary turbodiesel, nothing fancy or especially fuel economic (and a pretty quick driving style).
In other words, something like this....
You haven't used XP, have you? Both XP and 2k were great about restarting. And not needing to when you install things.
I just installed Windows XP Home edition, ran Windows Update (installing only the recommended security updates) and installed the drivers that came with the motherboard. Sounds simple, right? It took me SIX FUCKING HOURS (not least because the first time it insisted on calling the system drive H:, and you can't change the system drive letter without reinstalling Windows) and I had to reboot FIFTEEN FUCKING TIMES, so don't talk to me about XP "not needing reboots anymore"...
Ive seen bush standing next to the queen ...
Which queen? The queen of Europe?
"That was an idiotic thing to post on slashdot.
There are, however, perfectly valid reasons to use the metric system of measurement rather than English.
Take a simple measurement like 100 cm (which I had to use quite a bit the other day when I re-trimmed all my windows)
100cm = 39.37007874015748031496062992126inches
Now take a look at a tape measure and tell me exactly where the .37007874015748031496062992126 mark is. It isn't there!
The metric system is much more accurate than the English system is. It's also simpler (in most cases) to add in the metric system. Take the above example. To add the width of my sawblade (1 cm) you quickly come up with 101 centimeter. In English you would have to spend an extra 10 seconds doing the addition (.37007874015748031496062992126 + .125=.49507874015748031496062992126) and you're still left with the problem of not knowing exactly where to mark your lumber!
Along a similary line, why not always use decimal degrees? (wait that's a perversion of base 360. Get rid of it!) Why bother with radian measure? Base 2pi? I mean come on, I can't count to that on my fingers!
Oh yea, since we're abolishing the metric system, let's get rid of decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and binary. Clearly the world would be a simpler place if everything worked in base 12.
The fact is that sometimes (often) bases other than 12 make calculations and measurements much simpler.
To say that one system is absolutely better than the other shows an amazing ignorance of mathematics. (ed: nice contradiction of your own words there)
Just my EUR 2/100."
In other words: of course using one measurement system is inaccurate when working with tools and objects that are designed with a different measurement system in mind. That has nothing to do with whether one measurement system is better than the other, dumbass, it has more to do with the intelligence of the operator...
The definition goes the other way around: one inch equals exactly 2.54 centimeter. That's much easier to remember than the number of inches in a meter. And going from centimeters to meters is even easier: just move the decimal point two places to the left.
Or "only"?
Google doesn't have to give anything back, at least not to me. It's enough for me that they are by far the best search engine; lightning fast, accurate, comprehensive, free and with no obtrusive advertising...
It's funny you should use Russia as an example, since it's (half) inside Europe... But anyway, you're only repeating what you said before, and it just ain't true. Being a European, and having lived in America for a year, I think I have some perspective on the matter (on the privacy issue as well)... There are plenty of places in Europe where central government is just barely in control (Spain or Northern Ireland come to mind), just like there are many Americans who accept the authority of the federal government without thinking. You can find examples of both ends of the spectrum on both continents, and there is no basis at all for your generalization.
I also don't agree that the various political variations inside the two big American political parties makes them comparable to the coalitions that routinely govern European countries. Coalitions are much looser with much more internal conflict, and more importantly, they are much more flexible, potentially changing with each election (or even in between). In my opinion, these properties make coalitions the best (or the least bad) way to govern a democracy, because the internal conflict keeps them balanced and prevents extremes and radically zig-zagging policies from one government to the next. They ensure that the government has a majority in parliament, and yet no one party is able to push through legislation without the consent of the other parties.
(My apologies if I don't make sense. It's late over here, I think I'll go to bed now...)
Europeans still have an essentially monarchistic view of government's relations to its citizens: citizens are subjects of the government, and all rights they enjoy, they do so at the government's pleasure.
Generalize much?
Speaking as one European, I don't think that at all. I think of my government as the guys we the people hired to do stuff that needs to be done centrally, such as build roads, keep order, etc. The government works for me, and if they don't do as I please, I can send them packing. Of course I have to get a few million other people to agree with me, but that's a relatively minor detail.
A lot of Europeans (more and more) think this way. Spain is a nice, recent example. "Go to war without our consent? Fuck off!"
I think it's even safe to say that more people think this way in Europe, which is why, for instance, the political playing field is much more diverse over here, with more political parties with much more widely differing views.
On the subject of the original post: I think the reason why a few (and they are very few) restrictions on speech are more accepted in Europe is a slightly more pragmatic outlook, a realization that it's no good to try to enforce some ideal 100% because it isn't possible anyway and usually has drawbacks.
Compare the difference between the US and the EU on matter of personal privacy, where the situation seems to be reversed. In the US there is virtually no legal protection against invasion of privacy by corporations, whereas the EU has strict laws regulating who can collect what information about whom, and what they are allowed to do with it (which is not much). Americans don't seem to care much at all about that, but for a lot of Europeans it's an important issue.
Wow. That's pretty far from what "NP hard" actually means.
Well then, what does it mean?
Obviously, you'd use it from the inside.
Windows ME is four years old. You don't use a Mandrake CD from four years ago to install with, do you?
Your point being that I should have used a current Windows ME install CD? Or that it's OK for a four year old operating system to crap out when you install the latest official updates using the official method? What exactly is your point?
They don't care, they don't want to "break" anything, ...
And rightly so. Day before yesterday, I was reinstalling Windows Millennium on my mom's PC. It was running nicely, but then I had the bright idea of running Windows Update to make sure I had the latest stability and security patches. Bingo: Internet Explorer didn't start anymore (hung the computer, requiring a reboot), and neither did anything even remotely having to do with Internet Explorer (including, of course, Windows Update). Had to reinstall Windows, now it's chugging along in its default install configuration (but with Firefox as browser, Thunderbird for email and behind a Linux firewall!)
Just think about the probability of this happening twice to that same house. Although statistically, it isn't any smaller than the probability of a meteorite hitting it the first time,...
The chance of a meteorite hitting the same house twice is much smaller than one hitting the house once. What you mean is that the chance of a meteorite hitting the house again is the same as the first time...
Don't you mean that know the real answer but have no room to write it down here?
Just tune your (older) TV between channels. The snow is partly caused by the cosmic background radiation. Newer TV's just show a blue screen when there's no signal (there's gotta be a Windows joke in there somewhere...)
Personally, I think our society could do with less sex (...) on TV
I've never understood why people say things like this. Would you care to explain why society would be better off with less sex on TV? What damage does it do to the delicate psyche of the average TV viewer? What disadvantage will the youth of America have later in live, having seen Janet Jacksons nipple on TV? I really don't get it.
I'd use the tired old "there is stuff way worse than that on European commercials" example too, ...
No shit, take a look at this official TV spot for the upcoming european elections.
<sigh>... No they don't! They have a metal strip, but nothing remotely as complex as an RFID tag, the tinfoil hat crowd's suspicions notwithstanding...
One more use, beside the many already mentioned, would be storing maps for satellite navigation devices such as the many Pocket PC / TomTom combo's, or my Garmin iQue. 2 GB would allow me store the whole of Europe (at street level, with points of interest) on it.
Read The Free Manual
It's "Read The Fucking Manual". I know you probably know that and are just trying to be politically correct, but I (and I suspect quite a few other people around here as well) actually find it more offensive if you patronize me like that. If you don't like the acronym, just don't use it...
Hayabusa, which is Japanese for "falcon",...
Specifically, a peregrine falcon, which is the fastest animal in the world. It can reach speeds of 440 kph (275 mph) when diving for its prey. This also accounts for the name of the fastest road bike in the world, the Suzuki Hayabusa. Impressive stuff...
Nothing but bitching and moaning in the replies so far. Come one people! First of all this rumour might not be true, god knows how reliable the British tabloids are (a certain picture "from Iraq" springs to mind).
Secondly, even if it is true, we don't know anything about the plot, the scene, the circumstances, how it plays out, etc. I know I and II weren't the best movies, but jezus, give it chance will ya!
Who the fuck modded this "insightful"? It's the best example of American arrogance and ignorance I've seen in a long, long time, not to mention that it has nothing to do with the subject of the article. Way to go, moderators...