Why is everyone obsessed with the idea that Mother/Grandmother needs to be able to install Ubuntu? Seriously, my mother-in-law can't manage to navigate to a web page without help, I've had to put a link on the desktop to Google Mail. The one, only, big problem with Linux-based operating systems is commercial application and driver support. People want to be able to walk into a shop and buy something. They want to put the CD that came with their new digital camera into the drive and install the stuff that came with it because they think they got something free (even if it's rubbish). The early adopters of OS X had this problem, but now almost any device comes with OS X support and most of the important packages have OS X ports. Linux just isn't there yet in that department. One commercially-supported platform for developers to target, supported by a number of the bigger hardware companies, might just achieve that.
Yup, and that's the point. If a long waiting list is an issue for non-urgent surgery, then there's nothing stopping individuals from choosing to go to a private doctor. In the UK, most people (regardless of their income) will take NHS treatment, but pay for private treatment when they don't want to wait. I've even known people to have emergency surgery in the NHS but move to a private hospital to convalesce.
I wonder how many of those who are anti- socialised healthcare would feel if they lost their jobs? A socialised system is the best of both worlds: if your income is stable then pay to get the surgery quicker and have nicer meals and decor in a private room; pay to have the CT scan done at the nearest private facility then go back to the 'free' doctor to interpret the findings. When your income takes a downtime you've still go access to the care you need, but might have to queue a bit more.
incidentally, the largest contribution to the cost of health care is the cost of malpractice insurance premiums, which do not in any way correlate to the size of malpractice damage awards
It's interesting you should mention this. In the UK, it had been noticed that the amount of money the NHS was having to pay to defend litigation was growing really quickly, so there's moves towards a system where common and only moderately serious medical errors are dealt with internally and patients/relatives offered an immediate settlement. Many people are happy to go with this because they're usually just wanting the error formally recognised and a fair amount of compensation offered, and recognise that it's counter-productive to remove vast sums of money from the system.
You need to check out the spending per capita on healthcare. Look for the US. Now look for the UK and Canada... keep looking... yup, there they are, right there near the bottom of the Western Nations. It's not about magic, it's about having a healthcare system that's primarily focused on the patient rather than on the profit.
No system is perfect, but the UK system does work, it's not just Michael Moore propaganda. And, don't forget, many individuals in the UK have private health insurance either individually or via their employer, which is good for them and good for the country because it's one less patient for the NHS.
He didn't say it's a Turing Machine, he said it's Turing-complete, which means that (in theory) it can ran any conceivable program, with the obvious limits of RAM/Disk.
No, but giving what they want at a reasonable price is a viable business model. This is something that Apple have figured out (iTunes) but some of the big labels really haven't. When I was a teenager you could still get 7" singles for 99p (UK) for the first couple of weeks the record was out, then the price tended to go up. I DJed a bit for parties and would go and buy half a dozen records before each party. Since then it's been nearly impossible to buy singles at a decent price, on CD or otherwise, with shops usually wanting 2.99-3.99 for a single when the whole album of 15 songs is only 12.99-14.99.
I've recently got back into DJing a bit and decided to use my MacBook instead. It's great to be able to buy tracks for 79p and enjoy buying a selection of music when I've got a gig coming up. I really don't mind paying that because it's a reasonable fee and gives me exactly what I want without having to drive into town. Probably if I'd got back into it six-eight years ago I'd have been using Napster and convincing myself that I'd buy the physical CD at some point and that it's really OK to pirate it because there's no other choice.
The reality is that when something that has no physical existence is apparently available 'for free' then most people find it hard to grasp why they should pay for it. Commercial music download sites need to provide something that makes people happy to part with their cash. Firstly, prices need to be reasonable. Secondly the downloads need to be fast. Thirdly the facilities for searching for the required track need to be fast and accurate. Special offers and 'complete the album' features help sweeten the deal. iTunes is popular because of all of those things, and of course it works nearly seamlessly with the most popular AAC/mp3 player on the market.
It's just an oft-repeated myth. It can be easily proven: put your hands on your knees, close your eyes then touch your nose with one or both index fingers. Now explain which of the "five senses" (touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing) allowed you to do that with accuracy. Touch allowed you to know that you'd done it, but it was proprioception and to a lesser extent vestibular sense that allowed you to do it.
I actually had to go to the equivalent 'Web Design 101' class when I started an engineering degree 10 years ago. The lecturer insisted on referring to.bmp files as "Bump Files", which really, really drove me nuts. I would actually reply to questions and say "...well, I would convert the BITMAP file into a jpeg..." and she still didn't get it.
Well, because in many parts of the English speaking world (presumably excluding North America) "to twig" is widely understood to mean "to understand", and in fact generally implies a sudden realisation of something that other may have found obvious. It's not obscure and not elitist, it's just not American.
Well, actually CPU is probably quite a good term. Back in the day, mainframe computers had lots of racks in the computer room with peripherals, tape storage etc., but usually only one Central Processing Unit. The "CPU" on the motherboard of a modern PC is a microprocessor that needs the rest of the motherboard in order to function, so it's not that ridiculous calling the motherboard / processor combination the "CPU", unfortunately CPU has changed meaning from its original usage to refer to the microprocessor itself rather than the whole functional unit.
Although the concept of an 'album' is dying as people tend to pick and choose which tracks to buy via iTunes / other online source of compressed music of their choice. I always make a point of buying an album rather than the individual track I've heard on the radio (unless I'm completely skint) because I usually find something I like. I've tried to explain this to friends who are a few years younger than me and they just don't get it - why would you want to pay for a track other than the specific one you've heard and liked? I've also tried to explain that lots of bands/artists try to make their albums a musical 'journey' so that ideas and moods flow from one song to another, but again this doesn't seem to be a common idea anymore.
Two friends of mine spent their first year of marriage in a student apartment in London. This apartment was even smaller - the dining area was raised by about 60cm, and the double bed was stored underneath the dining area on rollers. The end of the bed stuck out into the living area and formed a sofa. In the evening you pulled on the 'sofa' and the whole bed, linen and pillows etc., rolled out into the living area to sleep in.
Well, he explained it completely backwards, claiming that it's high carbon dioxide levels that keep certain people with COPD (chronic lung disease) alive when in fact it is low oxygen levels. He did simplify it, but also got it completely and utterly wrong. It would be a bit like a geek saying to a layperson "this is the hard disk drive, where all the data processing is done, and this is the CPU where all the information is stored": simple, but wrong, wrong, wrong.
Most people's respiration works on a hypercapnic drive, in other words, when you have a raised blood CO2, respiratory drive increases. Some people with COPD chronically retain CO2 and hence their chemoceptors adjust to the high CO2 level and can no longer drive respiration. They switch to a hypoxic drive whereby hypoxaemia drives respiration. This works, but is less effective than hypercapnic drive and gives rise to the possibility of iatrogenic apnoea when high-flow oxygen therapy is used.
Your statement "CO2-level is what keeps them breathing" is utterly wrong, and if you are an MD then you need to go back to the textbooks and do some reading before you go anywhere near an emergency room or respiratory ward.
The issue is you _have_ to update the whole system (all applications) and get used to any changes in the system just to update one single application.
That's utter nonsense. At least in apt-based distros (e.g. Ubuntu and Debian) it's perfectly possible to install any version of a package that you want. If you're using distribution-supplied packages then you make sure that the relevant repository is enabled (either via command-line or one of the many GUIs) and select which version you want. You can then set that package up to always be kept at that version if you wish. This is something that I've done with Cyrus on my mailserver because I haven't yet had time to learn the latest version.
The only time you can't do this is if the various libraries required are so out-of-date that you would need a different glibc; having said that if there's a good reason why you would want to use the newer packages on an older distro (or vice-versa) then it is usually possible to use a backport repository. These can be installed via the distribution's package manager, which will automatically track all dependencies, and usually offer to switch back to the official packages once the distribution has caught up. This is not hard to do, and most distributions that have a Long Term Support release will have a simple mechanism for installing newer versions of important packages via a backports repository.
On Windows, certain applications may require the OS to have a certain Service Pack installed, and this is a system-wide issue and very difficult to roll-back if you get it wrong, so I think Windows certainly doesn't do better in this respect. Talking about this not being "endorsed by the distribution" is silly - on Windows, Microsoft does nothing at all to help you install applications and relies totally on the third-party vendors, so it's hardly a limitation of Linux that this endorsement doesn't extend to every possible version of a package. Having said all of this, if you want to do things the windows-way, many well-know applications will have a zipped binary version that you can install in your home directory or/usr/local and manage outside of the package manager if you wish.
Buy a year-old Mac Pro. Seriously - have a look on eBay. In the UK, for a 1000 pounds (so I guess in the US about 1000 dollars) you can get a 2.66-3GHz Quad Xeon with anywhere from 4-8 gigs RAM. Upgrade the drives and RAM as you see fit (the case has four trays for SATA drives so you can have a striped array or whatever you want). That machine will wipe the floor with any iMac and just laugh at a Mac Mini.
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Why is everyone obsessed with the idea that Mother/Grandmother needs to be able to install Ubuntu? Seriously, my mother-in-law can't manage to navigate to a web page without help, I've had to put a link on the desktop to Google Mail. The one, only, big problem with Linux-based operating systems is commercial application and driver support. People want to be able to walk into a shop and buy something. They want to put the CD that came with their new digital camera into the drive and install the stuff that came with it because they think they got something free (even if it's rubbish). The early adopters of OS X had this problem, but now almost any device comes with OS X support and most of the important packages have OS X ports. Linux just isn't there yet in that department. One commercially-supported platform for developers to target, supported by a number of the bigger hardware companies, might just achieve that.
Yup, and that's the point. If a long waiting list is an issue for non-urgent surgery, then there's nothing stopping individuals from choosing to go to a private doctor. In the UK, most people (regardless of their income) will take NHS treatment, but pay for private treatment when they don't want to wait. I've even known people to have emergency surgery in the NHS but move to a private hospital to convalesce.
I wonder how many of those who are anti- socialised healthcare would feel if they lost their jobs? A socialised system is the best of both worlds: if your income is stable then pay to get the surgery quicker and have nicer meals and decor in a private room; pay to have the CT scan done at the nearest private facility then go back to the 'free' doctor to interpret the findings. When your income takes a downtime you've still go access to the care you need, but might have to queue a bit more.
incidentally, the largest contribution to the cost of health care is the cost of malpractice insurance premiums, which do not in any way correlate to the size of malpractice damage awards
It's interesting you should mention this. In the UK, it had been noticed that the amount of money the NHS was having to pay to defend litigation was growing really quickly, so there's moves towards a system where common and only moderately serious medical errors are dealt with internally and patients/relatives offered an immediate settlement. Many people are happy to go with this because they're usually just wanting the error formally recognised and a fair amount of compensation offered, and recognise that it's counter-productive to remove vast sums of money from the system.
Rubbish.
I thought your post deserved a reply with as much insight and evidence as you gave.
OK, I'll bite.
You need to check out the spending per capita on healthcare. Look for the US. Now look for the UK and Canada... keep looking... yup, there they are, right there near the bottom of the Western Nations. It's not about magic, it's about having a healthcare system that's primarily focused on the patient rather than on the profit.
No system is perfect, but the UK system does work, it's not just Michael Moore propaganda. And, don't forget, many individuals in the UK have private health insurance either individually or via their employer, which is good for them and good for the country because it's one less patient for the NHS.
Not in the UK, you pay for a Public Performance License appropriate to the venue and that's it.
They'll never forget next Christmas.
He didn't say it's a Turing Machine, he said it's Turing-complete, which means that (in theory) it can ran any conceivable program, with the obvious limits of RAM/Disk.
No, but giving what they want at a reasonable price is a viable business model. This is something that Apple have figured out (iTunes) but some of the big labels really haven't. When I was a teenager you could still get 7" singles for 99p (UK) for the first couple of weeks the record was out, then the price tended to go up. I DJed a bit for parties and would go and buy half a dozen records before each party. Since then it's been nearly impossible to buy singles at a decent price, on CD or otherwise, with shops usually wanting 2.99-3.99 for a single when the whole album of 15 songs is only 12.99-14.99.
I've recently got back into DJing a bit and decided to use my MacBook instead. It's great to be able to buy tracks for 79p and enjoy buying a selection of music when I've got a gig coming up. I really don't mind paying that because it's a reasonable fee and gives me exactly what I want without having to drive into town. Probably if I'd got back into it six-eight years ago I'd have been using Napster and convincing myself that I'd buy the physical CD at some point and that it's really OK to pirate it because there's no other choice.
The reality is that when something that has no physical existence is apparently available 'for free' then most people find it hard to grasp why they should pay for it. Commercial music download sites need to provide something that makes people happy to part with their cash. Firstly, prices need to be reasonable. Secondly the downloads need to be fast. Thirdly the facilities for searching for the required track need to be fast and accurate. Special offers and 'complete the album' features help sweeten the deal. iTunes is popular because of all of those things, and of course it works nearly seamlessly with the most popular AAC/mp3 player on the market.
It's just an oft-repeated myth. It can be easily proven: put your hands on your knees, close your eyes then touch your nose with one or both index fingers. Now explain which of the "five senses" (touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing) allowed you to do that with accuracy. Touch allowed you to know that you'd done it, but it was proprioception and to a lesser extent vestibular sense that allowed you to do it.
Spiffing!
I think when you're getting above 50 tabs, the feature that you're actually needing is called bookmarks. Give it a try ;).
I actually had to go to the equivalent 'Web Design 101' class when I started an engineering degree 10 years ago. The lecturer insisted on referring to .bmp files as "Bump Files", which really, really drove me nuts. I would actually reply to questions and say "...well, I would convert the BITMAP file into a jpeg..." and she still didn't get it.
Well, because in many parts of the English speaking world (presumably excluding North America) "to twig" is widely understood to mean "to understand", and in fact generally implies a sudden realisation of something that other may have found obvious. It's not obscure and not elitist, it's just not American.
Well, actually CPU is probably quite a good term. Back in the day, mainframe computers had lots of racks in the computer room with peripherals, tape storage etc., but usually only one Central Processing Unit. The "CPU" on the motherboard of a modern PC is a microprocessor that needs the rest of the motherboard in order to function, so it's not that ridiculous calling the motherboard / processor combination the "CPU", unfortunately CPU has changed meaning from its original usage to refer to the microprocessor itself rather than the whole functional unit.
Although the concept of an 'album' is dying as people tend to pick and choose which tracks to buy via iTunes / other online source of compressed music of their choice. I always make a point of buying an album rather than the individual track I've heard on the radio (unless I'm completely skint) because I usually find something I like. I've tried to explain this to friends who are a few years younger than me and they just don't get it - why would you want to pay for a track other than the specific one you've heard and liked? I've also tried to explain that lots of bands/artists try to make their albums a musical 'journey' so that ideas and moods flow from one song to another, but again this doesn't seem to be a common idea anymore.
Two friends of mine spent their first year of marriage in a student apartment in London. This apartment was even smaller - the dining area was raised by about 60cm, and the double bed was stored underneath the dining area on rollers. The end of the bed stuck out into the living area and formed a sofa. In the evening you pulled on the 'sofa' and the whole bed, linen and pillows etc., rolled out into the living area to sleep in.
Good post.
But, seriously, you 'need' to 'stop' putting 'single quotes' around every other 'word'.
Well, he explained it completely backwards, claiming that it's high carbon dioxide levels that keep certain people with COPD (chronic lung disease) alive when in fact it is low oxygen levels. He did simplify it, but also got it completely and utterly wrong. It would be a bit like a geek saying to a layperson "this is the hard disk drive, where all the data processing is done, and this is the CPU where all the information is stored": simple, but wrong, wrong, wrong.
Wow, if you're an MD then I'm scared.
Most people's respiration works on a hypercapnic drive, in other words, when you have a raised blood CO2, respiratory drive increases. Some people with COPD chronically retain CO2 and hence their chemoceptors adjust to the high CO2 level and can no longer drive respiration. They switch to a hypoxic drive whereby hypoxaemia drives respiration. This works, but is less effective than hypercapnic drive and gives rise to the possibility of iatrogenic apnoea when high-flow oxygen therapy is used.
Your statement "CO2-level is what keeps them breathing" is utterly wrong, and if you are an MD then you need to go back to the textbooks and do some reading before you go anywhere near an emergency room or respiratory ward.
An information leaflet might help you understand a bit better.
The issue is you _have_ to update the whole system (all applications) and get used to any changes in the system just to update one single application.
That's utter nonsense. At least in apt-based distros (e.g. Ubuntu and Debian) it's perfectly possible to install any version of a package that you want. If you're using distribution-supplied packages then you make sure that the relevant repository is enabled (either via command-line or one of the many GUIs) and select which version you want. You can then set that package up to always be kept at that version if you wish. This is something that I've done with Cyrus on my mailserver because I haven't yet had time to learn the latest version.
The only time you can't do this is if the various libraries required are so out-of-date that you would need a different glibc; having said that if there's a good reason why you would want to use the newer packages on an older distro (or vice-versa) then it is usually possible to use a backport repository. These can be installed via the distribution's package manager, which will automatically track all dependencies, and usually offer to switch back to the official packages once the distribution has caught up. This is not hard to do, and most distributions that have a Long Term Support release will have a simple mechanism for installing newer versions of important packages via a backports repository.
On Windows, certain applications may require the OS to have a certain Service Pack installed, and this is a system-wide issue and very difficult to roll-back if you get it wrong, so I think Windows certainly doesn't do better in this respect. Talking about this not being "endorsed by the distribution" is silly - on Windows, Microsoft does nothing at all to help you install applications and relies totally on the third-party vendors, so it's hardly a limitation of Linux that this endorsement doesn't extend to every possible version of a package. Having said all of this, if you want to do things the windows-way, many well-know applications will have a zipped binary version that you can install in your home directory or /usr/local and manage outside of the package manager if you wish.
This article reminds me of the robot who could almost detect cheese.
If you want a mid-range tower, buy an 18-month old Mac Pro second hand.
Buy a year-old Mac Pro. Seriously - have a look on eBay. In the UK, for a 1000 pounds (so I guess in the US about 1000 dollars) you can get a 2.66-3GHz Quad Xeon with anywhere from 4-8 gigs RAM. Upgrade the drives and RAM as you see fit (the case has four trays for SATA drives so you can have a striped array or whatever you want). That machine will wipe the floor with any iMac and just laugh at a Mac Mini.
just a typo, but thanks for the vocabulary lesson