Look, my point was not about the climate change being the cause of utility bills going up.
Really? You earlier said
Because of this climate change hysteria my electricity bill more than doubled in just a few years
Which certainly indicates you believe that it was the direct cause. If you meant to write something else, that's fine just say what you meant to write.
I'm glad you took the time to research where your power comes from. Apparently you don't agree with the composition, and you are entitled to have that opinion. Can you provide a source to support the notion of nuclear being so terribly expensive though? Can you also provide justification to significantly increasing the consumption of a non-renewable resource (specifically natural gas) or any notion of how much of it remains in comparison to the amount that is already consumed in a given year?
I'm sorry you were so challenged by my question, let me quote myself:
Do you understand the difference between correlation and causation? It seems likely the answer is no.
The previous comment had absolutely zero evidence to support the claim of climate change anything being the sole cause of his utility bills going up. I stated all the factors that drive energy prices that he did not address in any way, shape, or form in his comment. Now you seem to be ignoring the difference between correlation and causation as well.
Why did you choose to quote me, when you didn't bother reading the statement that you quoted?
The mythology of making money from your own house is only that - mythology. We still have untold thousands (at least) of people who watch too much H&G TV and other cable programs that exist to bring customers to realtors, without concern for the fact that it is a pyramid scheme they (consumers) can never profit from.
If you want to buy a house for your own sake because you want to own a house for some reason, great. If you want to make improvements to said house for your own sake, great. But it is time to give up on the notion of "investing" in your house; you won't get the money back when you're old enough to stop working. You're just as well off putting the same money in a checking account (as savings accounts don't pay interest in this country any ways) and letting it sit there.
I note that the slashdot editor still doesn't understand that slashdot still doesn't accept unicode. No need to move this to the front page, however, as slashdot users have known this far longer than the editor in question has worked for slashdot.
Ah, "consumer" vs "business" computers. I wonder whether this even makes sense.
Clearly there is a market for them. No different from consumer vs business cars, or consumer vs enthusiast bicycles, really (to name but a couple examples). Although considering how little my ThinkPad cost this time, I can't really see an argument for buying a consumer laptop unless you are in love with the silly consumer bits (ie, touch screen monitors and similar stupidities).
I "lost" over 100,000 miles at one time when I thought there was no expiration, and the policy was changed so they expired after 18 months with no activity. I called customer service, and got them back for a limited time. I then bought a $40 item on the "Sky Mall" extending the miles for another 18 months.
They sent me a letter at one point telling me that my miles were going to expire and listing a few things I could do to prevent them that would only cost me some time (online surveys and similar crap). I did some of them, and my miles still expired. In my current situation though I fly about as much as a penguin so it didn't really matter that much. It was frustrating that after having flown quite a bit for several years, accruing a fair number of (admittedly worthless) miles, they all just went away.
All my points disappeared without notice a while back when I went over a year without flying. Thanks a lot, United Airlines. Glad my loyalty meant so much to you. Not that I could have done anything useful with 30,000 miles any ways...
What about the spyware for the Chinese government data collection?
Really not an issue. The people who are using the laptops that are used for collecting data for the Chinese government - notably the ThinkPads are not amongst those - are happily giving away all their data to facebook at the same time. Lenovo is just cutting out the middle man for the Chinese.
That may be true with the IdeaPad and other consumer level laptops from Lenovo. I challenge you to point out a better laptop on the market today than a ThinkPad. I just replaced my X201 with an X260 - only because I needed more RAM than my X201 could address, it still runs fine - and the X260 is faster, more reliable, lighter, and less expensive than the MacBook Pros that my colleagues opted for instead.
Because of this climate change hysteria my electricity bill more than doubled in just a few years (despite more than thousand dollars upgrades into the "green" appliances etc.) and my heating bills will go up at least 30% on January 1st.
Do you understand the difference between correlation and causation? It seems likely the answer is no.
Because your claim of climate change driving up your electricity prices would be valid only if:
All the electricity generation costs were the same "a few years" ago as they are now (which they are not)
All the resources that are used in electricity generation are present in infinite quantities and obtaining those resources never gets more difficult or expensive (which they are not)
Demand for electricity was the same now as it was "a few years" ago (it is not)
There was zero need to maintain or upgrade the electricity grid (there is not)
You also said nothing about how your energy consumption (in KW/Hours most often) compares to "a few years" ago. Sure, you bought "green" appliances but how much are you using for other things? Is your computer running all the time? What about your cable or satellite box? How many battery operated gizmos are you charging all the time? The list goes on and on. Just because your refrigerator uses 30% less power doesn't mean you cut 30% off your consumption.
That would only be true if the same financial instruments were available to all. Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a full gold-plated dining set in his crib, and platinum-tinted shoes to fill out the package. He has always had options available to him that >>99% of all Americans will never have access to. No bank that will take someone like me (a mere "thousand-aire") is going to loan on the terms that he takes out loans on - even though my credit history suggests I am less of a loan default risk than he is.
Twitter is part of how Trump got elected. It was part of how he played the media for free propaganda. If he was mailing letters to the NYT editors at 3am instead of sending tweets at 3am nobody would have cared (as the mail wouldn't have made it to the mailroom any sooner than one sent at a normal time).
He can blow hundreds of millions... just to save a third of that in taxes?
You haven't paid much attention to how his finances work, then. Yeah, it would be hundreds of millions in, but it would mostly be in various weird loan mechanisms that are not available to normal members of the proletariat such as ourselves. It would look like his money, but only on paper. The loans would go into default, he would pay almost nothing on them, and then take a giant tax credit on top of it.
In other words his risk would be almost zero. Worst case scenario he goes several more years without paying taxes. Best case scenario Twitter turns around and becomes profitable (which of course he takes credit for).
Better airlines are only an option if they service the airports that I fly in and out of. I used to see commercials for Korean Air all the time on TV and they left me wondering why the hell they even bothered advertising as the closest airport they served relative to my home was hundreds of miles away, and their destinations from there were all distant international locations that I don't have any reason or opportunity to visit.
If there is only one airline that flies from the airport nearest where I live to the place I need / want to go to, guess which airline I'm going to fly? And if all the seats are steerage class, guess what kind of uncomfortable non-reclining seat I'm going to stuff myself into?
Well, the election results from our post-fact world did tell us that a non-silent minority of people much prefer to make up their own facts. Why bother with facts when it is only human lives on the line, right?
The majority of planes I fly on seldom even have electric outlets to plug in your laptop. I'm usually on the single-class (cattle-class / steerage-class) flights where nobody has anything. I'm not important enough to be on the long haul flights where people expect more than a bag of peanuts and half a can of soda.
Not saying that I like it that way, just that apparently I have less to worry about as a result.
In an interview with NBC News last November, Trump was asked: "is there going to be a database that tracks the Muslims here in this country?"
The remarks were made after a rally, and there was speculation by some on social media afterwards that Trump did not hear the entirety of the question, because he refers to the border in his answer.
"There should be a lot of systems, beyond database, we should have a lot of systems, and today you can do it," Trump responds. "But right now we have to have a border, we have to have strength, we have to have a wall. And we cannot let what's happening to this country happen."
"But that's something your White House would like to implement?" the reporter presses.
"Oh I would certainly implement that. Absolutely." Trump answers.
But Trump continues to talk about the logistics of implementing such a database at length.
"But for Muslims specifically, how do you actually get them registered in a database?" the reporter asks. Trump responds: "It would be just good management. What you have to do is good management procedures and we can do that."
He also responds to a question about going to mosques to "sign these people up." "Different places, you sign them up at different, but it's all about management, our country has no management," Trump says.
Here's a news flash for you - ABC News is not "just some news outlet". Just because they showed Trump saying something stupid doesn't mean they have an agenda, beyond reporting on actual events. They gave plenty of bad press to Hillary as well. Even more so, just like all the other news outlets in the country, they contributed to trillions of dollars of free media coverage for Trump.
Scott Pruitt seems to think that a lot of what led China to this problem is a good idea for the US. Being as they are opposed to expansion and modernization of the rail network, how will they get to their rallies if their planes can't take off?
He is, without a doubt, the most successful internet troll of all time. He may be a colossal failure at a number of other things, but he is the troll to which all other trolls will be left to aspire to be for the rest of existence.
When we recognize this, we ought to wonder if the Muslim Registry is just presented as just another act of trolling. Sure, he has championed a great number of Really Bad Ideas, but this one would be beyond the pale for the overwhelming majority of all people. At least his proposed wall doesn't blatantly fly in the face of any enumerated constitutional rights, but this Muslim Registry inarguably does.
It's hard to really imagine that he actually wants to do this. He must be trolling us, right?
There are some popular games that Nintendo will never be allowed to license - Battletoads is a great example (as Microsoft now holds the license by having bought out Rare some time ago) - making it impossible to put every popular game on a console legally.
future plans
That is one big question a lot of people are asking. There does not seem to be any expansion plan for it, though I haven't seen a dissection yet.
avoiding having to test 300 games on this machine
That is somewhat important and leads to a tangential point. Remember the light gun games? Hogan's Alley, Duck Hunt, Bayou Billy, etc? They're out of the question for the vast majority of TV sets out there as they won't work with LCD, LED, or Plasma sets. No way around that.
If the business is Twitter or Facebook, they can ban users for whatever obscure and selectively enforced rules they want. We can't appeal to free speech in those cases because they're both private businesses.
Correct. Twitter and Facebook have the right to regulate the content that passes through or is displayed by their network. If you find yourself banned from either (or both) you are not having your free speech impeded as you can still speak in other places - including public ones - so there is no free speech argument there.
But posting a negative review would seem to be free speech and should be protected over the wishes of the business involved.
Actually, this doesn't say that Yelp and others have to host the comment. If you post a bad Yelp review about ABCD company, and ABCD company sues Yelp instead of you, they could potentially pressure Yelp to drop the review.
This actually isn't a free speech issue, it is a consumer protection issue. It is supposed to allow customers to speak their minds without fear of retaliation. It doesn't mean that what the customer says has to be heard, though. The place where the review is posted can still be silenced in other ways.
So which is it?
Well, neither really. You can't appeal to "free speech" in either case.
Apple makes more money off their customers when said customers have facebook open than not. Letting them realize the impact it has on battery life is therefore detrimental to profit.
Slashdot Mirror
Look, my point was not about the climate change being the cause of utility bills going up.
Really? You earlier said
Because of this climate change hysteria my electricity bill more than doubled in just a few years
Which certainly indicates you believe that it was the direct cause. If you meant to write something else, that's fine just say what you meant to write.
I'm glad you took the time to research where your power comes from. Apparently you don't agree with the composition, and you are entitled to have that opinion. Can you provide a source to support the notion of nuclear being so terribly expensive though? Can you also provide justification to significantly increasing the consumption of a non-renewable resource (specifically natural gas) or any notion of how much of it remains in comparison to the amount that is already consumed in a given year?
Do you understand the difference between correlation and causation? It seems likely the answer is no.
The previous comment had absolutely zero evidence to support the claim of climate change anything being the sole cause of his utility bills going up. I stated all the factors that drive energy prices that he did not address in any way, shape, or form in his comment. Now you seem to be ignoring the difference between correlation and causation as well.
Why did you choose to quote me, when you didn't bother reading the statement that you quoted?
The mythology of making money from your own house is only that - mythology. We still have untold thousands (at least) of people who watch too much H&G TV and other cable programs that exist to bring customers to realtors, without concern for the fact that it is a pyramid scheme they (consumers) can never profit from.
If you want to buy a house for your own sake because you want to own a house for some reason, great. If you want to make improvements to said house for your own sake, great. But it is time to give up on the notion of "investing" in your house; you won't get the money back when you're old enough to stop working. You're just as well off putting the same money in a checking account (as savings accounts don't pay interest in this country any ways) and letting it sit there.
I note that the slashdot editor still doesn't understand that slashdot still doesn't accept unicode. No need to move this to the front page, however, as slashdot users have known this far longer than the editor in question has worked for slashdot.
Ah, "consumer" vs "business" computers. I wonder whether this even makes sense.
Clearly there is a market for them. No different from consumer vs business cars, or consumer vs enthusiast bicycles, really (to name but a couple examples). Although considering how little my ThinkPad cost this time, I can't really see an argument for buying a consumer laptop unless you are in love with the silly consumer bits (ie, touch screen monitors and similar stupidities).
I "lost" over 100,000 miles at one time when I thought there was no expiration, and the policy was changed so they expired after 18 months with no activity. I called customer service, and got them back for a limited time. I then bought a $40 item on the "Sky Mall" extending the miles for another 18 months.
They sent me a letter at one point telling me that my miles were going to expire and listing a few things I could do to prevent them that would only cost me some time (online surveys and similar crap). I did some of them, and my miles still expired. In my current situation though I fly about as much as a penguin so it didn't really matter that much. It was frustrating that after having flown quite a bit for several years, accruing a fair number of (admittedly worthless) miles, they all just went away.
The way people drive down there I'm not convinced permits / licenses are required for human drivers, either.
All my points disappeared without notice a while back when I went over a year without flying. Thanks a lot, United Airlines. Glad my loyalty meant so much to you. Not that I could have done anything useful with 30,000 miles any ways...
What about the spyware for the Chinese government data collection?
Really not an issue. The people who are using the laptops that are used for collecting data for the Chinese government - notably the ThinkPads are not amongst those - are happily giving away all their data to facebook at the same time. Lenovo is just cutting out the middle man for the Chinese.
That may be true with the IdeaPad and other consumer level laptops from Lenovo. I challenge you to point out a better laptop on the market today than a ThinkPad. I just replaced my X201 with an X260 - only because I needed more RAM than my X201 could address, it still runs fine - and the X260 is faster, more reliable, lighter, and less expensive than the MacBook Pros that my colleagues opted for instead.
Because of this climate change hysteria my electricity bill more than doubled in just a few years (despite more than thousand dollars upgrades into the "green" appliances etc.) and my heating bills will go up at least 30% on January 1st.
Do you understand the difference between correlation and causation? It seems likely the answer is no.
Because your claim of climate change driving up your electricity prices would be valid only if:
You also said nothing about how your energy consumption (in KW/Hours most often) compares to "a few years" ago. Sure, you bought "green" appliances but how much are you using for other things? Is your computer running all the time? What about your cable or satellite box? How many battery operated gizmos are you charging all the time? The list goes on and on. Just because your refrigerator uses 30% less power doesn't mean you cut 30% off your consumption.
Just keep partying like it's 1859. It'll be the best reality ever.
That would only be true if the same financial instruments were available to all. Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a full gold-plated dining set in his crib, and platinum-tinted shoes to fill out the package. He has always had options available to him that >>99% of all Americans will never have access to. No bank that will take someone like me (a mere "thousand-aire") is going to loan on the terms that he takes out loans on - even though my credit history suggests I am less of a loan default risk than he is.
Twitter is part of how Trump got elected. It was part of how he played the media for free propaganda. If he was mailing letters to the NYT editors at 3am instead of sending tweets at 3am nobody would have cared (as the mail wouldn't have made it to the mailroom any sooner than one sent at a normal time).
He can blow hundreds of millions... just to save a third of that in taxes?
You haven't paid much attention to how his finances work, then. Yeah, it would be hundreds of millions in, but it would mostly be in various weird loan mechanisms that are not available to normal members of the proletariat such as ourselves. It would look like his money, but only on paper. The loans would go into default, he would pay almost nothing on them, and then take a giant tax credit on top of it.
In other words his risk would be almost zero. Worst case scenario he goes several more years without paying taxes. Best case scenario Twitter turns around and becomes profitable (which of course he takes credit for).
I think you need to start flying better airlines.
Better airlines are only an option if they service the airports that I fly in and out of. I used to see commercials for Korean Air all the time on TV and they left me wondering why the hell they even bothered advertising as the closest airport they served relative to my home was hundreds of miles away, and their destinations from there were all distant international locations that I don't have any reason or opportunity to visit.
If there is only one airline that flies from the airport nearest where I live to the place I need / want to go to, guess which airline I'm going to fly? And if all the seats are steerage class, guess what kind of uncomfortable non-reclining seat I'm going to stuff myself into?
Well, the election results from our post-fact world did tell us that a non-silent minority of people much prefer to make up their own facts. Why bother with facts when it is only human lives on the line, right?
The majority of planes I fly on seldom even have electric outlets to plug in your laptop. I'm usually on the single-class (cattle-class / steerage-class) flights where nobody has anything. I'm not important enough to be on the long haul flights where people expect more than a bag of peanuts and half a can of soda.
Not saying that I like it that way, just that apparently I have less to worry about as a result.
In an interview with NBC News last November, Trump was asked: "is there going to be a database that tracks the Muslims here in this country?"
The remarks were made after a rally, and there was speculation by some on social media afterwards that Trump did not hear the entirety of the question, because he refers to the border in his answer.
"There should be a lot of systems, beyond database, we should have a lot of systems, and today you can do it," Trump responds. "But right now we have to have a border, we have to have strength, we have to have a wall. And we cannot let what's happening to this country happen."
"But that's something your White House would like to implement?" the reporter presses.
"Oh I would certainly implement that. Absolutely." Trump answers.
But Trump continues to talk about the logistics of implementing such a database at length.
"But for Muslims specifically, how do you actually get them registered in a database?" the reporter asks. Trump responds: "It would be just good management. What you have to do is good management procedures and we can do that."
He also responds to a question about going to mosques to "sign these people up." "Different places, you sign them up at different, but it's all about management, our country has no management," Trump says.
Here's a news flash for you - ABC News is not "just some news outlet". Just because they showed Trump saying something stupid doesn't mean they have an agenda, beyond reporting on actual events. They gave plenty of bad press to Hillary as well. Even more so, just like all the other news outlets in the country, they contributed to trillions of dollars of free media coverage for Trump.
Scott Pruitt seems to think that a lot of what led China to this problem is a good idea for the US. Being as they are opposed to expansion and modernization of the rail network, how will they get to their rallies if their planes can't take off?
He is, without a doubt, the most successful internet troll of all time. He may be a colossal failure at a number of other things, but he is the troll to which all other trolls will be left to aspire to be for the rest of existence.
When we recognize this, we ought to wonder if the Muslim Registry is just presented as just another act of trolling. Sure, he has championed a great number of Really Bad Ideas, but this one would be beyond the pale for the overwhelming majority of all people. At least his proposed wall doesn't blatantly fly in the face of any enumerated constitutional rights, but this Muslim Registry inarguably does.
It's hard to really imagine that he actually wants to do this. He must be trolling us, right?
licensing
There are some popular games that Nintendo will never be allowed to license - Battletoads is a great example (as Microsoft now holds the license by having bought out Rare some time ago) - making it impossible to put every popular game on a console legally.
future plans
That is one big question a lot of people are asking. There does not seem to be any expansion plan for it, though I haven't seen a dissection yet.
avoiding having to test 300 games on this machine
That is somewhat important and leads to a tangential point. Remember the light gun games? Hogan's Alley, Duck Hunt, Bayou Billy, etc? They're out of the question for the vast majority of TV sets out there as they won't work with LCD, LED, or Plasma sets. No way around that.
If the business is Twitter or Facebook, they can ban users for whatever obscure and selectively enforced rules they want. We can't appeal to free speech in those cases because they're both private businesses.
Correct. Twitter and Facebook have the right to regulate the content that passes through or is displayed by their network. If you find yourself banned from either (or both) you are not having your free speech impeded as you can still speak in other places - including public ones - so there is no free speech argument there.
But posting a negative review would seem to be free speech and should be protected over the wishes of the business involved.
Actually, this doesn't say that Yelp and others have to host the comment. If you post a bad Yelp review about ABCD company, and ABCD company sues Yelp instead of you, they could potentially pressure Yelp to drop the review.
This actually isn't a free speech issue, it is a consumer protection issue. It is supposed to allow customers to speak their minds without fear of retaliation. It doesn't mean that what the customer says has to be heard, though. The place where the review is posted can still be silenced in other ways.
So which is it?
Well, neither really. You can't appeal to "free speech" in either case.
... we will see a lawsuit filed to challenge the constitutionality of this law in hopes of having it overturned ASAP.
Apple makes more money off their customers when said customers have facebook open than not. Letting them realize the impact it has on battery life is therefore detrimental to profit.