"LISA Dad! The Second Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today!
HOMER You couldn't be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn't have this gun, the King of England could just walk in here any time he wants, and start shoving you around. (he starts pushing Lisa) Do you want that? Huh? Do you?"
"...laid them both off as they approached retirement"
This is _so_ not true. Jack had an office in the _KILBY BUILDING_ on TI's North Campus in Dallas. I have it on good authority that on the days when Jack was in the office young engineers were encouraged to just walk on in.
Sorry about your FIL, but Jack was coming into TI on a regular basis until fairly recently.
Because Apple hasn't been declared a monopoly. There are all sorts of things that are ok to do until you've earned enough bad will and hired a dumb enough legal team to be declared a monopoly.
After that your business practices (at least the ones that matter) get to be picked apart and second guessed by your competitors. Whee! Isn't anti-trust law fun?
Do you have what it takes to be the writer/director of a major science fiction movie? Take this quiz to find out:
1) During a breath-taking but pointless introductory space battle scene one of your film's protagonists' space ships is set upon by parasitic robots, do you:
a. Have the character use his mysterious "force" to throw the boarders from his ship?
b. Have the character's wing man, who also has mysterious "force" powers, throw the boarders from the ship?
c. Have the character's wing man crash their ships together in order to smash those robots real good?
2) Your film's protagonists have finally boarded the enemy space cruiser and are searching for a hostage to rescue. The cruiser is over-run with enemy battle robots (droids) with orders to shoot to kill. When your droids manage to completely surprise and "get the drop on" your protagonists do you:
a. Allow the droids to use their superior electronic reflexes to fill the protagonists full of laser holes thereby aborting a bad movie before it really starts?
b. Introduce a bit of "deus ex machine" and have the droids inexplicably reprogram themselves from shoot-on-sight mode to give-stupid-warning-and-then-stand-by-passively-an d-die mode?
3) Your leading man returns home from a hard day fighting droids to learn that his secret wife is pregnant, do you:
a. Use the opportunity to introduce conflict between the characters and present a weakness to the protagonist's foes thereby creating fertile ground for further character development?
b. Pretty much ignore the pregnancy itself as a significant plot device with major ramifications for your characters and never revisit the topic again until it's time for the birth?
4) You've managed to get one of your protagonists involved in a completely pointless sub-plot. After using the "force" to smash his opponents with some of the local scenery, the protagonist must fight the level "boss" who can simultaneously wield four deadly "light sabers." Do you have your protagonist:
a. Use the "force" to rip the arms off the "boss" and cut the boss to ribbons with his own light sabers?
b. Hold the "boss" in place with the "force" and use the "force" to pick up a near by space ship and smash the "boss" repeatedly with the improvised cudgel?
c. Use the "force" to bounce the "boss" around like a high tech basketball until he comes apart at the seams?
d. Use the "force" to rip the beating heart from the "boss" in a manner reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
e. Engage in a pointless light-saber duel that culminates in a fist fight and terminates with a simple shot from a blaster while totally ignoring the character's innate abilities.
5) At some point in your film you need to turn your protagonist from good to evil. Coincidently, the wife of your protagonist very badly needs to die before the next film. Do you:
a. Allow your ultimate bad guy to hatch an evil plot to kill the protagonist's wife and blame it on the "good guys" thereby simultaneously providing the perfect reason for the protagonist to turn on the "good guys" as well as necessarily eliminating a character to advance the plot.
b. Allow the protagonist to fail while trying to do the right thing and use his failure to do good as the impetus to commit an evil murderous killing spree including hacking up a bunch of seemingly defenseless children and then just have the wife, a central character in this film and two previous films, simply decide to quit living in the last few minutes of the film?
6) You've got a great segment of film that does a wonderful job of showcasing the wizardry of your computer animation department. Unfortunately it's also completely pointless and does nothing to adva
"Of the thousands of Wookies fighing with Yoda, the one who carries him to safety..."
Was I the only one who, while watching Yoda climb into his escape capsule, heard Yoda say: "I'll get you next time Austin Powers!"
"... along with Jar-Jar Binks..."
So they're willing to almost show Ani slaughtering dozens of presumably defensless children at the temple but they can't give us ONE shot of Jar-Jar dying some slow horrible death. Something like having his legs cut off and then burning up near a lava flow? That would have been cool, but I guess you're right it would have been too violent.
"Since the Republicans are asking me to fund a war I'm firmly opposed to..."
Perhaps you'd better go check the Congressional record:
An act making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes:
Egg donation isn't necessarily a requirement. Emerging research suggests that umbilical cord blood stem cells may be able to be coaxed into developing into any type of cell.
Cord blood cell banks already exist, although the storage costs might be considered prohibitive by most.
There's a difference you're masking here. An individual sperm or egg, by itself, isn't going to develop into a person.
It's when they join that the moral problem begins. Now you do have the potential for development into a person and you have to ask the question: "At what point do I consider this a person?"
People who oppose embryonic stem cell research define that point at conception. So it's not really an issue of 'agendas' but one of definition; when does life begin?
Ok, I've seen variations on this quote a couple of times already: "This is why the line item veto was popular, despite being blatently unconstitutional."
Would anyone care to elaborate why a line-item veto is unconstitutional?
Exactly. The article was obviously written by someone who's never had to manange a mission critical application in their life. If it's not broken, don't fix it. I can assure you that the cumulative cost in downtime due to "fixing" even minor things in the system over the years would easily outpace the $20M they lost in the one big outage.
Hot shot wet-behind-the-ears noobs don't understand that the purpose of the software is to support the business process. Unless there's a business case (i.e. an ROI) for making a change to a system that's working, you don't change the system. (Even if the code is ugly, and 20 years old, and written in an unfashionable language.)
The risk analysis story here isn't: why didn't they spend a bunch of unnecessary money to replace a system that was working fine. The _real_ risk analysis story here is: why Comair didn't have a disaster recovery plan in place for a system that was critical to their line of business?
Be careful of claims the author was discredited. The groklaw following is getting quite cultish and divergent opinions are not suffered lightly.
The knee-jerk reaction to any post that might contradict the conventional wisdom is to scream that the poster is an M$ astroturfer, whether or not that accusation is well founded.
"People always have the choice to not work the position."
Isn't this the same argument that's already been given for NOT unionizing? (i.e. they don't have to work under these conditions , they could choose to work somewhere else.")
"Why should Unions be special in this way."
Because unions can legally force their members to pay dues and then some of those dues (in some cases the vast majority) are spent on non-collective bargaining political causes. The members don't practically have a choice to prevent their union from supporting a political cause they disagree with; they HAVE to pay.
The really sad part is that the situation I described above is actually illegal now in the US. While unions can still compel payment of dues they can't compel their members to pay dues for political activities they don't agree with. The problem is the Department of Labor refuses to enforce the rules and so it goes on anyway. (See the 1988 Supreme Court "Beck" decision.)
I'm sure most/. readers can relate: I'm the tech support guy for the entire family. I just helped my sister buy a Mac Mini because I just can't in good faith tell my family to buy Windows any more due to the rampant security issues. That, and I'm tired of cleaning spyware off of their computers everytime I visit.
In the interest of preventing useless flames:
Yes, I've heard of this Linux thing. I don't have time to listen to my family complain about not having MS Office for Linux. No, really, it's important to them. (Trust me, I'm working on it.)
Yes, I'm also familiar with OO.o and no, my family doesn't consider it the same thing.
It's my first foray into the Mac world, so we'll see how it goes.
Actually, I'm not sure that "None are powerful enough to survive if others turn against them..." is true. I think a well positioned Turkey is pretty much invulnerable if they choose to "turtle" up in their corner. Of course then the rest of the world just marches on by...;)
I highly second the vote for Sequence. It's a very fun game to play but it is a bit of a conversation killer as after first few turns everyone's staring suspiciously at the board instaed of talking.
As to the comment: "...without any of the luck or the 'I know who's winning in the first five minutes' syndrome..."
Our group likes Settlers because the game isn't over until the fat lady sings. If all of your games are decided in 5 minutes then you're giving up too early.
Almost every game we play comes down to most players having 8 or 9 points including at least one person who looked doomed from the start.
I can't count how many successful comebacks I've made or seen that started with very depressing early games.
Well, I've never played the AH Advanced Civ but I've got the original and I'd say my review is 180 degrees off of yours.
In my opinion the game is very very poorly balanced and luck plays all too great a factor. It all depends on which catastrophe comes up on the deck next; you can go from winning to losing in less than one full turn (and then back again on the very next turn).
Generally (no pun intended for you AH fans) I like AH games and I've spent quite a bit of time playing Squad Leader, ASL, Diplomacy and the like, but the original Civ board game is just disappointing.
As to what games I _would_ recommend, if you like Crack-zone and Settlers you should check out Puerto Rico. It's got a steeper learning curve but it's a very fun game. I've also heard good things about Tigris and Euphrates but I've never played it myself.
Respectfully, I'd sumbit that the "cool" factor of the iPod is a contributor to its success but not the _defining_ factor in its success. The iPod is a success because it's so darn easy to use, the UI on the device is wonderful and the actual input interface is so well designed you wonder why it wasn't obvious to everyone else in the first place. Couple that with a very integrated iTunes and you've got the TiVo equivalent of the music world.
Actually that's one of my big wishes. I'm looking forward to the Netflix deal as well, but what I really wish is that my TiVo was powerful enough to be my interface to my iPod rather than having to rely on my PC.
Come to think of it, iPod and TiVo are both cut from the same cloth. Perhaps Apple should pickup TiVo, Inc. That would be interesting.
"You will find relatively few atheists or agnostics who do not believe in right and wrong..."
Likewise being religious doesn't exclude being scientific as well. Were you aware that the Catholic Church believes in the co-existence of creationism and evolution? Check out:
"They had a guy on who claimed that building basements weakened the tensil strength of the earths crust and caused earthquakes and hence the tsunmai."
Right now my evil engineers are preparing to add a new basement to my house that will destabilize the Earth's crust and cause massive earthquakes and tsunami, that is...unless you pay me the tidy sum of ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
(Ob Simpson's: "We can't take that chance." "You always say that, I want to take a chance.")
"...cost of living increases faster than inflation..."
A significant part of what we call inflation is the Consumer Price Index, i.e. the cost of living. It's not possible for the cost of living to increase faster than inflation!
See: http://www.investorwords.com/2452/inflation.html and
1. Walmart: How about some facts to back that up? Walmart provides health insurance (including dental) for it's employees as well as a 401(k) plan that they pay into even if you don't.
2. Inflation: You can't lay all of inflation at the door step of deficit spending. It's _a_ factor, not the only factor. Inflation only favors debt if you can incurr the debt on better terms than the expected rate of inflation. Practically speaking any lender prices expected inflation into their loan.
3. Investment: One word: Diversification.
4. Old Age: The current SS system doesn't fix this problem either; your benefits aren't related to your medical condition. Try Medicare.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/information/scripts/5f 01.shtml
"LISA
Dad! The Second Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today!
HOMER
You couldn't be more wrong, Lisa. If I didn't have this gun, the King of England could just walk in here any time he wants, and start shoving you around. (he starts pushing Lisa) Do you want that? Huh? Do you?"
"...laid them both off as they approached retirement"
This is _so_ not true. Jack had an office in the _KILBY BUILDING_ on TI's North Campus in Dallas. I have it on good authority that on the days when Jack was in the office young engineers were encouraged to just walk on in.
Sorry about your FIL, but Jack was coming into TI on a regular basis until fairly recently.
Because Apple hasn't been declared a monopoly. There are all sorts of things that are ok to do until you've earned enough bad will and hired a dumb enough legal team to be declared a monopoly.
After that your business practices (at least the ones that matter) get to be picked apart and second guessed by your competitors. Whee! Isn't anti-trust law fun?
Do you have what it takes to be the writer/director of a major science fiction movie? Take this quiz to find out:
1) During a breath-taking but pointless introductory space battle scene one of your film's protagonists' space ships is set upon by parasitic robots, do you:
a. Have the character use his mysterious "force" to throw the boarders from his ship?
b. Have the character's wing man, who also has mysterious "force" powers, throw the boarders from the ship?
c. Have the character's wing man crash their ships together in order to smash those robots real good?
2) Your film's protagonists have finally boarded the enemy space cruiser and are searching for a hostage to rescue. The cruiser is over-run with enemy battle robots (droids) with orders to shoot to kill. When your droids manage to completely surprise and "get the drop on" your protagonists do you:
a. Allow the droids to use their superior electronic reflexes to fill the protagonists full of laser holes thereby aborting a bad movie before it really starts?
b. Introduce a bit of "deus ex machine" and have the droids inexplicably reprogram themselves from shoot-on-sight mode to give-stupid-warning-and-then-stand-by-passively-an d-die mode?
3) Your leading man returns home from a hard day fighting droids to learn that his secret wife is pregnant, do you:
a. Use the opportunity to introduce conflict between the characters and present a weakness to the protagonist's foes thereby creating fertile ground for further character development?
b. Pretty much ignore the pregnancy itself as a significant plot device with major ramifications for your characters and never revisit the topic again until it's time for the birth?
4) You've managed to get one of your protagonists involved in a completely pointless sub-plot. After using the "force" to smash his opponents with some of the local scenery, the protagonist must fight the level "boss" who can simultaneously wield four deadly "light sabers." Do you have your protagonist:
a. Use the "force" to rip the arms off the "boss" and cut the boss to ribbons with his own light sabers?
b. Hold the "boss" in place with the "force" and use the "force" to pick up a near by space ship and smash the "boss" repeatedly with the improvised cudgel?
c. Use the "force" to bounce the "boss" around like a high tech basketball until he comes apart at the seams?
d. Use the "force" to rip the beating heart from the "boss" in a manner reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?
e. Engage in a pointless light-saber duel that culminates in a fist fight and terminates with a simple shot from a blaster while totally ignoring the character's innate abilities.
5) At some point in your film you need to turn your protagonist from good to evil. Coincidently, the wife of your protagonist very badly needs to die before the next film. Do you:
a. Allow your ultimate bad guy to hatch an evil plot to kill the protagonist's wife and blame it on the "good guys" thereby simultaneously providing the perfect reason for the protagonist to turn on the "good guys" as well as necessarily eliminating a character to advance the plot.
b. Allow the protagonist to fail while trying to do the right thing and use his failure to do good as the impetus to commit an evil murderous killing spree including hacking up a bunch of seemingly defenseless children and then just have the wife, a central character in this film and two previous films, simply decide to quit living in the last few minutes of the film?
6) You've got a great segment of film that does a wonderful job of showcasing the wizardry of your computer animation department. Unfortunately it's also completely pointless and does nothing to adva
"Of the thousands of Wookies fighing with Yoda, the one who carries him to safety..."
Was I the only one who, while watching Yoda climb into his escape capsule, heard Yoda say: "I'll get you next time Austin Powers!"
"... along with Jar-Jar Binks..."
So they're willing to almost show Ani slaughtering dozens of presumably defensless children at the temple but they can't give us ONE shot of Jar-Jar dying some slow horrible death. Something like having his legs cut off and then burning up near a lava flow? That would have been cool, but I guess you're right it would have been too violent.
"Since the Republicans are asking me to fund a war I'm firmly opposed to..."
2 68:@@@R
i sts/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1& vote=00117#position
1 14:@@@R i sts/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2& vote=00237#position
i ?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ243.107
Perhaps you'd better go check the Congressional record:
An act making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR01
Not that it's necessary since it passed 100-0, but here's the actual record of votes:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_l
Likewise the original Congressional authorization for war was similarly bi-partisan:
To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HJ00
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_l
Text of the law:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cg
Blaming the war on the Republicans is convenient, but unfortuately ungrounded in fact.
Egg donation isn't necessarily a requirement. Emerging research suggests that umbilical cord blood stem cells may be able to be coaxed into developing into any type of cell.
Cord blood cell banks already exist, although the storage costs might be considered prohibitive by most.
There's a difference you're masking here. An individual sperm or egg, by itself, isn't going to develop into a person.
It's when they join that the moral problem begins. Now you do have the potential for development into a person and you have to ask the question: "At what point do I consider this a person?"
People who oppose embryonic stem cell research define that point at conception. So it's not really an issue of 'agendas' but one of definition; when does life begin?
Ok, I've seen variations on this quote a couple of times already: "This is why the line item veto was popular, despite being blatently unconstitutional."
Would anyone care to elaborate why a line-item veto is unconstitutional?
Exactly. The article was obviously written by someone who's never had to manange a mission critical application in their life. If it's not broken, don't fix it. I can assure you that the cumulative cost in downtime due to "fixing" even minor things in the system over the years would easily outpace the $20M they lost in the one big outage.
Hot shot wet-behind-the-ears noobs don't understand that the purpose of the software is to support the business process. Unless there's a business case (i.e. an ROI) for making a change to a system that's working, you don't change the system. (Even if the code is ugly, and 20 years old, and written in an unfashionable language.)
The risk analysis story here isn't: why didn't they spend a bunch of unnecessary money to replace a system that was working fine. The _real_ risk analysis story here is: why Comair didn't have a disaster recovery plan in place for a system that was critical to their line of business?
Be careful of claims the author was discredited. The groklaw following is getting quite cultish and divergent opinions are not suffered lightly.
The knee-jerk reaction to any post that might contradict the conventional wisdom is to scream that the poster is an M$ astroturfer, whether or not that accusation is well founded.
1988 Beck Decision
"People always have the choice to not work the position."
Isn't this the same argument that's already been given for NOT unionizing? (i.e. they don't have to work under these conditions , they could choose to work somewhere else.")
"Why should Unions be special in this way."
Because unions can legally force their members to pay dues and then some of those dues (in some cases the vast majority) are spent on non-collective bargaining political causes. The members don't practically have a choice to prevent their union from supporting a political cause they disagree with; they HAVE to pay.
The really sad part is that the situation I described above is actually illegal now in the US. While unions can still compel payment of dues they can't compel their members to pay dues for political activities they don't agree with. The problem is the Department of Labor refuses to enforce the rules and so it goes on anyway. (See the 1988 Supreme Court "Beck" decision.)
I'm sure most /. readers can relate: I'm the tech support guy for the entire family. I just helped my sister buy a Mac Mini because I just can't in good faith tell my family to buy Windows any more due to the rampant security issues. That, and I'm tired of cleaning spyware off of their computers everytime I visit.
In the interest of preventing useless flames:It's my first foray into the Mac world, so we'll see how it goes.
Actually, I'm not sure that "None are powerful enough to survive if others turn against them..." is true. I think a well positioned Turkey is pretty much invulnerable if they choose to "turtle" up in their corner. Of course then the rest of the world just marches on by... ;)
I highly second the vote for Sequence. It's a very fun game to play but it is a bit of a conversation killer as after first few turns everyone's staring suspiciously at the board instaed of talking.
As to the comment: "...without any of the luck or the 'I know who's winning in the first five minutes' syndrome..."
Our group likes Settlers because the game isn't over until the fat lady sings. If all of your games are decided in 5 minutes then you're giving up too early.
Almost every game we play comes down to most players having 8 or 9 points including at least one person who looked doomed from the start.
I can't count how many successful comebacks I've made or seen that started with very depressing early games.
Well, I've never played the AH Advanced Civ but I've got the original and I'd say my review is 180 degrees off of yours.
In my opinion the game is very very poorly balanced and luck plays all too great a factor. It all depends on which catastrophe comes up on the deck next; you can go from winning to losing in less than one full turn (and then back again on the very next turn).
Generally (no pun intended for you AH fans) I like AH games and I've spent quite a bit of time playing Squad Leader, ASL, Diplomacy and the like, but the original Civ board game is just disappointing.
As to what games I _would_ recommend, if you like Crack-zone and Settlers you should check out Puerto Rico. It's got a steeper learning curve but it's a very fun game. I've also heard good things about Tigris and Euphrates but I've never played it myself.
Respectfully, I'd sumbit that the "cool" factor of the iPod is a contributor to its success but not the _defining_ factor in its success. The iPod is a success because it's so darn easy to use, the UI on the device is wonderful and the actual input interface is so well designed you wonder why it wasn't obvious to everyone else in the first place. Couple that with a very integrated iTunes and you've got the TiVo equivalent of the music world.
Actually that's one of my big wishes. I'm looking forward to the Netflix deal as well, but what I really wish is that my TiVo was powerful enough to be my interface to my iPod rather than having to rely on my PC.
Come to think of it, iPod and TiVo are both cut from the same cloth. Perhaps Apple should pickup TiVo, Inc. That would be interesting.
"You will find relatively few atheists or agnostics who do not believe in right and wrong..."
Likewise being religious doesn't exclude being scientific as well. Were you aware that the Catholic Church believes in the co-existence of creationism and evolution? Check out:
Church needs better evolution education, says bishops' official
A favorite quote from the article:
"Denying that humans evolved seems by this point a waste of time"
Jared"They had a guy on who claimed that building basements weakened the tensil strength of the earths crust and caused earthquakes and hence the tsunmai."
Right now my evil engineers are preparing to add a new basement to my house that will destabilize the Earth's crust and cause massive earthquakes and tsunami, that is...unless you pay me the tidy sum of ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
(Ob Simpson's: "We can't take that chance." "You always say that, I want to take a chance.")
"The real reason gas prices are so high is because of investors taking advantage of the gullible in a speculative market."
Or could it be that American's demands for gasoline are relatively in-elastic and the war just makes a good excuse for raising prices.
++++
To: 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (813746)
From: The Computer
Subj: The Computer is your friend
Body:
The Computer (your friend) has identified you as one of:
o Communist
o Mutant
o Unhappy
o Some combination of communist, mutant, and/or unhappy
Failure to be non-communist, non-muntant, and/or happy is treasonous. Treason is punishable by death.
Please report to your nearest Red for termination. A clone will be dispatched to your family.
Love,
The Computer
"...cost of living increases faster than inflation..."
e _I ndex.html
A significant part of what we call inflation is the Consumer Price Index, i.e. the cost of living. It's not possible for the cost of living to increase faster than inflation!
See: http://www.investorwords.com/2452/inflation.html
and
http://www.investorwords.com/1062/Consumer_Pric
1. Walmart: How about some facts to back that up? Walmart provides health insurance (including dental) for it's employees as well as a 401(k) plan that they pay into even if you don't.
2. Inflation: You can't lay all of inflation at the door step of deficit spending. It's _a_ factor, not the only factor. Inflation only favors debt if you can incurr the debt on better terms than the expected rate of inflation. Practically speaking any lender prices expected inflation into their loan.
3. Investment: One word: Diversification.
4. Old Age: The current SS system doesn't fix this problem either; your benefits aren't related to your medical condition. Try Medicare.